The Defiant does not have a small/low powered reactor.  Quite the contrary, it's massively powered, and it's been explicitly stated in the show.  They specifically said that she has the power of a ship several times larger.  In fact, that massive level of over-powering was the ships original problem, until they managed to find a way to work with it ("The class-7 warp drive was extremely powerful for a ship of this size, and as such, Defiant-class vessels put out a warp signature equivalent to much larger starships. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "One Little Ship"))

The Defiant doesn't have advanced sensor pods and diplomatic capabilities because it's designed for one single purpose, combat.  While classified as an Escort, that's only the "official" word.  She's a warship, plain and simple.  The abilities and stats should reflect this.  She has more defenses than most ships (ablative hull armor, and "The most durable of its kind in all of Starfleet's shield systems' arsenal")

If going for canon, the Defiant should be the Federation's top warship, but I understand that balancing has to be considered too

Just an extra note about science, the Defiant has performed science missions, despite science not being its role.  Don't forget it was the first ship to ever open an artificial wormhole.  The DS9 technical manual gives the Defiant's sensors at 80% of standard Starfleet sensors, which reflects its dedicated combat design

Improvements to crew efficiency would be done through stat upgrades.

Oh look, they're right here!

weaponCooldownDecreasePerc
    StartValue 0.000000
    ValueIncreasePerLevel 0.030000
weaponDamageIncreasePerc
    StartValue 0.000000
    ValueIncreasePerLevel 0.050000

Abilities make perfect sense in the Star Trek universe.  There are the tactical breakthroughs like split second warp jumps to confuse sensors, modified torpedoes that track engine trails or do more damage.  Experience based abilities like these would be good for capital ship upgrades.  They'd be less likely for a Defiant though, because the Defiant does not have a crew of 400 with a sizable percentage of those being scientists.

There are however the standard fare, built around power in a fairly logical fashion.  Shields can be restored to full strength in a matter of minutes when not active.  While active, that power output to maintain them is massive.  Recharging them at that point requires diverting power from other sources, weapons or engines for instance.  Every ship could have a shields down ability that restores them either to full, or the same level the hull remains at in a minute or two.  During combat, when one would obviously want them to stay up, you could make a trade off.  Completely canon.  These wouldn't be the kinds of things you'd want to award a capital ship with though.  It's not relevant to experience.

Oh, just so people understand where I am coming from on that Defiant issue.  I love the ship.  It is cool and I like the barebones weapon platform philosophy. I am just trying to figure out a balanced way it can fit into this mod AND stick to canon.  I am trying to get away from the 'Hero-i-tis' that the Defiant suffers from....of course it can take on all commers in the show, because otherwise all the main characters would be dead!  Hehe, the same can be said for Voyager, but do we want to see the Intrepid become an uber powerful Capital Ship?

Right now, it takes forever to research (as it should, since it was developed at about the same time as the Sovereign) = nobody will ever use the Defiant because it takes up precious capital ship slots, AND is much weaker than the Sovereign (also as it should be).  Just costing less isn't enough.  It could cost NOTHING, and I still wouldn't take it over a Sovereign simply because of value of capital ship slots.

So, I was thinking one way of fixing this would be to simply turn it into a Heavy Cruiser that is useful for escorting your Capital Ships...the Defiant is even listed as an 'escort' hehe.  Players would actually use this ship now AND  it wouldn't steal experience away from your other ability based capital ships.

The Defiant can even keep it's high combat power (strong weapons, engines and armor) as long as it's fleet supply stays somewhere between an Ambassador and a Galaxy.

The die hards who want this ship to gain power with experience can be placated with a research tier that gives 'Defiant Prototype advanced training' techniques for the Defiant Class.  Maybe give the ship a chance to evade attacks or something like that.

This has been discussed and the answer was NO. Its a capital to prevent spamming!! Abilities and research is what will make capital ships stand out . I would take 3 defiants with kick a@@ abilities over two sovies without any abilities any day!![e digicons](\(\[/e]

Hey, that might not be a bad idea for a passive Defiant ability!
"Special Hull Plating"

Paradoxnt   you oviously have no idea on the premis of the defiant class.

In space  just as a heads up, Life support(food heat and breathable air) would take up more energy then weapons hands down..  to break it down for ya,    Galaxys had 1100+ people on board at any time sometimes as many as 1700  defiant has 100 at max(usualy 80 or less)   thats around 15X  the energy used on just Life support alone.

Navigational Shields and inertial stabalisers  would also use significantly more energy due to the mass of the galaxy vs the defiant.

add on the extensive sensor, steller cartography and science facilitys, also dont forget the lighting and more.

Hands down the galaxy would use a crazy amount more energy to remain running.. your looking at more then 10 times the energy use  just off basic ship funtions not counting defences

Secondly  based on simple reality(and stated in star trek) the amount of energy used to project a forcefield  is determined by the size and strength of the shield..    The Defiant is 1/8th the size of the galaxy..  to have shields as strong as the galaxys it would need 1/8th of the power ..  in the case of the sov..  it would need 1/6th of the power.. if not less  given the volume the shield would hold within.

Your argument for power vs ship Core size.. is totaly off base. The larger ships need a larger core just to run standard.

Im sure the defiant puts out less power thru its warp core..  indeed it must.. however given that it would have extreamly significantly less power usage.. im sure its still way overpowered.  It is designed for war..  hands down any system not directly related to combat and survival im sure is disabled during battle.

For the person who stated that The Defiant was the only one with hull plating...  its Standard with the ships design. The design was Classified till the Dominion war..  hardly expect a Captain of a none combat ship to have access to the detailed specs for a classified ship that wasn't expected to show

 Personaly  mod wise, id like to see a bit more survival related abilitys added to the defiant, with a perhaps 20% boost to hull and shields..  or at least shields..    and a significant boost to cost, the ship should cost similar to other cap ships

All good points Namoge!  In fact, everyone here has put forward valid points.  Together, they make me more able to swallow the Defiant as capital ship worthy.  So I withdraw my 'vote' for the Defiant as a Heavy Cruiser.

As for abilities, I suppose if they are totally combat based (ie, speed, manuevering (chance to dodge), weapon power, and so on), I can even go with that.

Hehe, not that I have any say in any decisions to start with!

You might want to send those ideas to the email address listed in the topic header.

As for those +5 armor boosts, they'll actually do less than you think....but still, it would fit the canon quite well.

here's my 2 cents about the whole argument. A lot of what makes a large warship powerful is it's size. Larger powerplants and the ability to house bigger cannons. Defiants should be more maneuverable but have "higher firing rate/lower damage" weapons.

why not wait until the mod is finished before all of you redesign everything???

They're looking for more in the way of actual contributions than just ideas.  Read the part of the post mentioning contributions.

How about someone make some abilities and send them into

SoA2Contributions@hotmail.com

You all should see the new abilities we have cooking in the kitchen. It speeds things up drastically if someone not only thinks about it but also makes them!!  The armor on the defiant is a  good ability "also is cannon".
I would like to have a new ability for every capital ship before the next release. this can only happen with help from you. Keep in mind new abilities not just stock. You can use a stock ability for reference, but tweek it. to make it more trek like. On a side note the Romulans are coming along nicely. I would like to request from the community a working tractor beam ability for the galaxy class. thnx

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER

For those wishing to build abitiities buffs etc.   The following page is of great assistance with q & a.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/306405