Cryptic has come out with more information about the
Admiralty system set to launch with Season 11 (October some time). More information can be found on
this Reddit thread where one of the devs participated.
Here's the short version:
-The admiralty system is like doffing but with ships.
-You get an admiralty ship card (like a doff) for each ship you own. You do not lose that card even if you dismiss the corresponding ship.
-You can only have one card of a kind, so you can't dismiss and then reclaim a ship a bunch of times to get a bunch of cards.
-But fleet, retrofit, refit, and mirror versions of ships are counted separately. So you can have cards for the Patrol Escort, Patrol Escort Refit, Fleet Patrol Escort Refit, and Mirror Patrol Escort at the same time. (I can't find anything about t5 vs. t5u counting as separate.) [Edit: Actually, Bort says no, they don't count separately, right in that Reddit thread I linked.]
-Also, ship packs with 3 similar ships (like the pilot ships) count separately. But you will need to claim each ship to get a card, just like you'll need to claim each event ship to get a card for that toon.
-If you have dismissed a ship before the admiralty system launches, you will not get a card for it. So don't dismiss any more ships that you can't reclaim, at least for the next month!
-Small craft will not be part of this system at launch, but Borticus says there are plans. Take that with a grain of salt.
-There will be two assignment chains (campaigns) at launch, one KDF and one Fed (although everyone can do both). There will be a unique card for completing them.
-You have an unlimited number of slots for cards (unlike the DOFF system) and 3 assignment slots that can be expanded to 8 by completing assignments.
-Rewards for admiralty assignments are more generous with specialization XP than DOFF assignments, at least in the screenshots that have been released.
So those of us who dismissed the ships we got while leveling can all grumble, but we're going to have to pay dilithium to get them back. It costs 6800 dil for a t1 ship (Miranda class for feds), 12,750 for t2, 34,000 for t3, 68,000 for t4, and 102,000 for t5.
I also remember that we all have access to a T3 ship from the Temporal Ambassador episode, and we can get it back with replay according to STO wiki. [Edit: Just went back and did it on my mains and I got the ship for all of them. It sits in a box that I won't even open until the Admiralty system launches. Also, why did they age Tasha Yar like they did Sela?]
Now I'm glad I finished the grind for the Risian Luxury Cruiser this summer even though I haven't flown it once.