The Star Trek Online team has posted a ton of information on ships, including the crew and bridge officers. The ships overview is the article that ties everything together and discusses the three types of ships: Science vessels, Escorts and Cruisers. You can find out more about the roles each ship fills after the jump.

As far as Bridge Officers are concerned, "the player can assign his Officers to specific stations on a given ship." The stations are ranked, which means the Bridge Officers will only be able to access certain skills at each station. The way you configure your bridge can dramatically affect gameplay.

The crew is comprised of red shirts that "take care of the litany of tasks captains and Bridge Officers don’t have time or will to do." Members of the crew can be injured or killed, and the size of the crew is dependent on the ship.

Ships in Star Trek Online are as much a part of your avatar as your captain or Bridge Officers. They’re highly customizable, both cosmetically and functionally. Visiting a ship “tailor” will allow you to change the color of your ship, the nacelles, the neck and/or nacelle pylons, its saucer, its name, its registry number and so on. And since ships have paperdolls and Bridge Officer stations, the decisions you make in how you outfit the ship’s weaponry, impulse engines, shields, deflector dish and mods guarantee your gameplay experience will be unique to other players, but at the same time still feel like Star Trek.

Players are awarded ships by Starfleet as they progress in rank and invest skill points in piloting the ships they’d like to fly.

Once players reach the rank of Lieutenant Commander, they’re able to begin choosing from three separate types of ship: Science vessels, Escorts and Cruisers. These ships differ from each other in a number of ways:

• Bridge Officer station arrangement. Science vessels favor Science Officer stations, Escorts favor Tactical Officer stations and Cruisers favor Engineering Officer stations.
• Utility. Science vessels are innately able to detect cloaked ships and are specialized in subsystem targeting. Cruisers have lots of crew, repair very quickly and lots of power to distribute across their subsystems. Escorts are the gunboats of the Federation fleet; they maneuver quickly and can equip cannons.
• Size. Cruisers tend to be larger and less maneuverable than other ships. Escorts are smaller but nimble and feature a lot of firepower for their size. Science vessels typically fall in the middle.
• Weapons capabilities. Cruisers, since they’re larger ships, have more gun bays. Escort ships can outfit high-damage cannon weapons, which other ships cannot. Science vessels are less weapon-focused but offer other capabilities and bonuses such as more powerful deflector beams, tractor beams and sensors.
• Crew complement. Larger ships have larger crews, which affects hull and subsystem repair rate, as well as the effectiveness of boarding parties, the engineering team and crew-based skills your captain may have.
• Modification slots. Similar to Bridge Officer stations, the different ships have varying room for special modifications that can be added to the ship to increase its effectiveness. Similar to slotted gems in other games, mods provide small passive bonuses that affect gameplay and can be interchanged at will.

The differentiation isn’t just between the Escort/Cruiser/Science categories, but each individual configuration within those offers disparate settings for players to choose between.

Ship Categories

Escort Ships

These heavily-armed warships are built with the firepower to defend the Federation. Escort vessels are armed to the teeth, fast and maneuverable, which makes them a hard target to hit when they’re moving evasively.

They are ill equipped to deal with advanced science or engineering tasks. Their lack of adequate medical facilities will hinder their ability to maintain their crew's health. Fortunately, they are so well armed and armored that their crew's health is seldom threatened.

Primary Role: Heavy damage ship, boasting incredible firepower for its size.
Special: Bonus to damage, speed and maneuverability; can load cannons; bonus to weapon power; extra forward weapon slot.

Science Ships

Although Science ships lack the massive firepower of other classes, their technology grants them distinct advantages in combat. Their advanced deflector and sensors can easily identify and exploit weaknesses in enemy ships and target their subsystems, or even detect cloaked ships. Their deflectors can also be used to aid and repair ally ships, as well as control the pace of battle.

These abilities allow them to provide superior fleet support, yet they are more than capable to complete missions on their own.

Primary Role: Fleet support, ally aid, battle control. Specializes in buffs, debuffs and control.
Special: Advanced shields, innate subsystem targeting, innate cloak detection; bonus to Auxiliary power.

Cruiser Ships

Cruisers are generally the largest ships in Starfleet. Their size grants them access to advanced warp cores, which allows them to distribute a large amount of power across their subsystems; a large crew complement, which improves a ship’s repair rate, engineering bay, boarding party effectiveness, and so on; and a large inventory, which makes them great for long distance missions.

Cruisers have a large warp core and crew complement. Their abundant resources allow them to adapt well to most situations and get damaged systems back online quickly. Cruisers can also support other ships with their massive power supply and crew.

Out of combat, these ships' massive cargo holds and crew make them invaluable when it comes to transporting cargo or colonists, and re-supplying planets, space stations or other ships.

Primary Role: Lots of power; large crew complement provides quick repairs and boarding party tactics.
Special: Large Warp Core (power bonus); large cargo space (inventory); bonus to power in all systems; more weapon slots than Science vessels or Escorts.