Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)

[Timelord_Victorious]

Rocketeer wrote:

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I'm not really sure about the terms they are using but, I assume that there is a server farm that is clustered into one server (shard). That server is then virtualized into several virtual servers (instances). I use clusters and virtual servers but I'm not familiar with the terms shard and instance. Someone smarter than me may know.

That is exactly it.
An instance though is a copy of a specific map, say spacedock, where players will be automatically routed to as long as there is room. It can go up to 75 players atm I believe.
When the instance is full another copy of that map is created and more players will be routed there.this is an open instance where players can interact doing different things.
A prome example is the mythical Deferi invasion map where different objects appear interactible to players depending on their mission status.
The majority of missions happens on closed instances that is specifically created for one player. You can join another players instance if you are teamed with him. On sone missions you have to be on the same mission steps or level to join him.

Bur at all times you can interact with every player in the game at least per chat.

[Bird of Prey]

I had started a Sci character before the release of the Doff system and with the exception of the Klingon episodes, I was able to level him up to VA solely on the Doff missions. Now I'm going through all the levels for the first time with this toon at a VA level. Makes it a little quicker and interesting as I'm getting MK XI gear for every mission I turn in.

Speaking of the Doff system, I'm now focusing on getting as many purple Doffs as I can for my main Eng toon. The way I see it, the purples give better bonuses and reward more dilithium for their critical successes. If I have a number of purple Doffs running missions, theoretically I should be getting significantly more than 5 dilithium per successful mission.

[syberghost]

One more thing about instances; an instance runs on a single server, not a cluster of them. Some games set aside specific servers in a cluster as being for certain kinds of instances; I don't know if STO does that or just treats them all like one big list of generic servers.

The term "shard" is sometimes used in other games as "server" or "realm". When you play a game with multiple shards, such as WoW or TOR, when you pick which 'server" to put your character on, that's a shard. Examples would be Mal'ganis or Moon Guard in WoW, or Helm of Graush or Jekk'Jekk Tarr in TOR.

In STO, there's only one live production shard, Holodeck. There are two publicly-accessible Test shards, Tribble and Red Shirt.

Games that do many shards rarely need to do any instancing, although it does happen, and tends to be really annoying when it does because they don't think about providing tools to manage groups and conversations across instances.

Cryptic's had plenty of practice; they implemented City of Heroes as a small number of shards with a lot more instancing than some other games. That's why they had to do things like global chat, and also they made it not too difficult to change to your buddy's instance, although you have to ask him what instance that is. (unless they'e changed that).

In STO they did one shard, so there are a lot of instances, but there are great tools for talking across them (zone chat goes to all instances of the zone, which has become the industry norm for this) and for joining up with your buddies.

This happens in TOR too, and it's incredibly annoying when it does because changing instances blows the cooldown on your quick travel, so you can't do it again for 30 minutes.

I prefer one or few shards with instancing to many shards with almost no instancing. The latter is just lazy; you're making me do the instancing at character creation, instead of handling it on the fly programmatically. Many times I've been talking to someone outside of a game and wanted to meet up with them in game, only to learn they're on a different server. I hate that.

[Hartzilla2007]

Bird of Prey wrote:

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I had started a Sci character before the release of the Doff system and with the exception of the Klingon episodes, I was able to level him up to VA solely on the Doff missions. Now I'm going through all the levels for the first time with this toon at a VA level. Makes it a little quicker and interesting as I'm getting MK XI gear for every mission I turn in.

I know and since your at level cap you don't have to toss it unless you find something you like better and you get some decent ECs for stuff.

Speaking of the Doff system, I'm now focusing on getting as many purple Doffs as I can for my main Eng toon. The way I see it, the purples give better bonuses and reward more dilithium for their critical successes. If I have a number of purple Doffs running missions, theoretically I should be getting significantly more than 5 dilithium per successful mission.

Good point.


Oh and on an unrelated note is it just me or do devidians go down easier when you use antiproton weapons on them?

[Bird of Prey]

I haven't tried using antiproton weapons on devidians yet - I'll have to try that out.

I'm trying out the purple DOFF idea on one toon (grinding dilithium as one purple doff costs 12,000 dilithium), and collecting dilithium on my other 3 toons (through doff missions and dailies) to buy c-store points. My plan is that eventually I will have a large number of purple doffs on all 4 toons, making lots of dilithium without me having to do any more grinding missions. That's the long term plan as it will take awhile to get there. Then I will be able to focus on getting the elite STF gear and hopefully doing the new content when it becomes available.

[Hartzilla2007]

Bird of Prey wrote:

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I haven't tried using antiproton weapons on devidians yet - I'll have to try that out.

I'm trying out the purple DOFF idea on one toon (grinding dilithium as one purple doff costs 12,000 dilithium), and collecting dilithium on my other 3 toons (through doff missions and dailies) to buy c-store points. My plan is that eventually I will have a large number of purple doffs on all 4 toons, making lots of dilithium without me having to do any more grinding missions. That's the long term plan as it will take awhile to get there. Then I will be able to focus on getting the elite STF gear and hopefully doing the new content when it becomes available.

One of the reasons I like the free C-store points I get each month is if I don't see anything I want in the store I just sell it for dilithium.

You can also use left over C-points from buying something that way if you don't see anything else you want.

[Scout101]

My main annoyance with the instances issue is when trying to team up for things like the Defera Invasion. You manage to find a team through zone chat, and you're all in different instances. Most of which are full, so you can't actually get together. And when people try to change to yours, it's full and not presented. You all then try to change to empty ones, which take a minute and sometimes fill up as you try.

Or you lose a team member, and you can't get anyone to join your (full) instance to replace them.

Been a pain in busy events trying to team up...

[Bird of Prey]

Speaking of the Defera ground invasion missions - beyond the 3 second remodulator and the green XI gear, are there any other rewards for doing these missions? I have yet to be on a team that successfully completes a hard mission, so I don't know what those rewards are.

[Scout101]

purple guns, and Borg arms, which are usually just versions of the minigun. With a halfway decent team, the temple, powerplant, and probe ones were all pretty quick/easy. City hard one has been bugged/unbeatable most of the times I've tried it.

Need to see if I can do the event and just run city easy missions for a while, to get enough gear for the remodulator. seems that's the best drop for the data samples needed, lots of spam killing, so lots of chances.

they just run it so rarely that i've only gotten the chance to play Defera twice.

[Timelord_Victorious]

MAJOR NEWS!

Make sure to play during the 2 Year Anniversary, as it will be the ONLY chance for the foreseeable future to get an Odyssey Class ship or the new klingon flag ship Bortas cruiser.

The good news: it will be free... just complete a shakedown cruise with it and it`s yours.

Every player can do the mission.
The ship itself is a VA ship, so you might not get to play it until you reach max level.
Until then it will stay an item in your inventory.

In other news: Q is back and up to no good! I foresee many transmorphings!

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2838

[Hartzilla2007]

Looks like we get some very nice goodies for the anniversary.

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2838

sweet free cool ships.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Ninja'd!

[J. Allen]

Either way, huzzah!

[CorporalClegg]

TNG HD and now this. Big week for the Trek.

[Methos]

ohhh sweet...

can't wait to see what they're doing with this

M