>>1) Never play science ships. Science was nerfed hard just after launch
>>and while it's somewhat recovered, the benefits of a Commander Sci
>>station don't outweigh the disadvantage of only being able to run six
>>weapons. Apparently a Science revamp is being mooted for Season 9?
>>Watch this space.
>
> If they fix that I might start playing again. Or I might anyway; if
>I stop throwing trashcans at the horizon in KSP.

There's already some steps in that direction. Among the C-Store ships, the Multi-Mission Surveillance, Strategic, and Reconnaissance Explorers are some of the most brokenly good ships in the game, and the Catbox is pretty badass, too. (Or so I'm told by fleet members who have them -- I don't own any of them personally. My big splurge was for the Kar'Fi for my KDF captain and the Odyssey 3-pack for my Feddie main, back during the Zen + Ship sale last November. Most of my other C-Store ships are giveaway items, or a couple of the low-tier ships I bought on a lark.)

Also, the latest anniversary event (that just ended -- great timing on my post here, I know) introduced Science Destroyers; the event let you earn one through a Feature Episode and some dailies (I got one each for my level-capped Feddie, KDF, and Rommie, but my Rommie science captain is the one who'll actually be using hers regularly), and repeating the Feature Episode a couple of times would net you a 4-piece set for it. They're very nifty ships -- they can shift between playing like a science ship (subsystem targeting, bonus to systems power, all of that) to playing like an escort (higher turn rate, higher speed, weapon power bonus, opens up a fourth forward weapon slot which has a set of ship-specific cannons, and does some other things, including changing boff seats). After the event, they introduced C-Store variants, a set of three versions for each faction (so nine total), each with a slightly different focus and a different universal console. (The C-Store versions, of course, have higher hull strength and shields than the free one, and the free one's Lt Science boff station becomes a universal Lt station.) If you're feeling sufficiently expansive, you can buy a 9-pack of the ships for 10K Zen (as opposed to 2500 Zen for one ship, or 5K Zen for a single-faction's three-pack), even.

The only issue I've had with my Rommie's sci-dest? I had to open up two more trays to have enough space for all the abilities I want to either hotkey or have easily clickable.

"Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."
- Kenneth Boulding