It has been a long time since I posted here but I thought I'd give an observation I noticed about the last few screenshots we had.  In the three starship pictures showing off the starship customization I noticed a certain similarity in the components.  Or at least their placement.  And so using this revelation, I formed a possible method they may be using for their starship creator.  Below is a chart displaying the possible method they will be using.

It would probably work quite a lot like Spore.  At least the character created anyway.  When you start the game you'll start with a tier 1 class ship.  It will be a small ship consisting of only three components.  The main body, the nacelle pylons, and of course the nacelles.  Each component will have the ability to be switched out for many different selections.  Body styles, pylons styles, and nacelles styles.  Once you get a high enough rank you'll upgrade to a tier 2 ship.  It will consist of a body, disk, nacelle pylons, and nacelles.  And of course more components will be added the hired tier you go.  As far as I can estimate there will probably only be three tiers, With the third one adding a neck component.  But cryptic is full of surprises even their name is cryptic. lol

You might be on to something here.   This is something that I hope will be covered by Cryptic Soon,

Well one of the Galaxy-class variants in the trailer had a vastly different neck to the standard one so I guess we can add that as a possible "fourth" changeable component on some starship classes.

Actually I would probably classify the Galaxy-class as a tier 3 therefore that new neck scene in the trailer would've just been a replacement for the existing neck on a Galaxy-class.  In fact if I had been able to get a good enough picture of it I probably could have pointed out the components.  And really when you think about it with the technology their using to make their game you don't have to worry about adding more component pieces four more pieces you just change the mesh you stick in that component.  Like say a  class for instance, if you were to look at it You would see 4 components.If cryptic were to look at it They would see 3 components. what they would do is add the massive sensor ray on the top to the body component.

yup, this also goes with what i belive about the game really being "level" and "Gear" driven. I know they've stated no levels but then said "when you level up", which means hidden or obvious level system.

I just don't undertsand why they're doing this with the ships, my bet is we'll see some truely fugly ship designs from players. ah well I knew better than to hope for a real ST MMO.

I wasn't trying to indicate a level system, but more or less a ranking system. You would gain prestige points from Starfleet for completing missions they would move you toward a new rink, and they would also gave you points for better component pieces .  Then when you get a better rank Starfleet gives you a higher tier ship with more component slots.  I don’t know what rank you’ll be given the hire tier ship but then that’s up to them isn’t it.  And then not only that scents they’ll be giving us all of the component pieces to play with, that eliminates the possibility of obscene and disgusting looking ship’s. I don’t know how they’re going to do the decals and painting. They may provide you with decals.  But then who knows we may still end up with naked ladies painted on the side of ships.

The answer here is yes and no. You’ll start with a Tier 1 ship and you can certainly upgrade it and trick it out so that it’s comparable to a mid-level Tier 2 ship. However, a top of the line Tier 2 ship is going to be much better than even the most tricked out Tier 1. It has to do with growth capacity. There’s just more room for growth built into the higher tier ships. Of course, your skills and the skills of your bridge crew also affect how much you can do with your ship.
However, you do get to keep your ships. So, if you find yourself in a situation where an earlier ship would be more useful, you can switch back to it for that encounter. For example, you might want to shift back to a smaller and more maneuverable ship for running a blockade.

Well my suspicions have been confirmed.  Become a times they use that word tier in that paragraph.  I mean tier 1 men tear 2.

Zach, I'm guessing they probably will do that. However, I'm also guessing those 7 you just listed may be too much and they haven't decided how to name each tier and therefore went with the generic term untill they know exactly how the tiers will be named.