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

[J. Allen]

ProwlAlpha wrote:

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That's why I hate doing the Cure. Apparently no one knows have to use their abilities, especially cruisers and science ships, who don't heal. Lately, I have only got the optional once in six times trying the Cure. The Cure used to be the fast and quick one, but now its populated by morons, who don't pay attention to the time. The last time I played the Cure, two cruisers, a science ship, and an escort failed to protect the Kang, with me fighting against the Cubes, and they blamed me. Before the massive fail rate, I don't die on the Cure nor normal Infected.

I only go on Infected Elite, and generally I get good PUGs. KA, I get too annoyed with the non-team work. I played with this one guy who let in four probes because it wasn't his job to destroy them. Apparently his job was to fight the spheres, self appointed.

Yeah, it gets frustrating. No one pays attention. I ran one more STF about half an hour ago, and they just kept getting slaughtered. There was a BoP, a BortaS, an Odyssey, a Defiant Refit, and myself. The BoP kept getting blown up every couple of seconds. The BortaS just couldn't keep up with anything, and kept getting blown up every few minutes. The Odyssey kept getting blown up because the guy kept going at the Borg cubes at the far end of the map without waiting for anyone else. The Defiant and myself were the only ones using actual teamwork to get the job done, and it was the two of us who bore the brunt of the workload. We still didn't get the optional, but the poor guy in the Defiant kept saying "hey! we don't need 3 ships defending the Kang! Get the cubes!" Other than myself, no one listened. Ah well, at least I managed to get the last EDC required to get my Retro STF borg gear. Yay!

[DarkHorizon]

TBH, I don't do the Elite STFs unless it's with the fleet, simply because I know I don't have the skill necessary - plus, my combat settings don't seem to play well with the tactics required (I keep autofiring on the targets even when I point the camera away). I've always played on the standard difficulty for missions, and found that challenging enough.

In other news, I am glad I sacrificed 5 EDC's for the Borg engine - just did two laps on Tour the Galaxy in 42 minutes...

[intrinsical]

I've discovered that doing elite STFs on weekends is just asking for trouble. If you want to successfully run elite STFs, do them on wednesday or thursday nights. I have constantly failed runs on weekends and constantly successful runs on wed/thurs. Go figure.

[sbk1234]

Noob here. if this has already been discussed, sorry. But I wasn't going to read through 1218 posts. Anyway, I just started playing. My question is, Is this all there is? So far, it's just been battle after battle. I really thought there would be some exploring and discovering. I'd love an opportunity to really check out the Star Trek universe. So far, it's only been battle after battle, either on the surface, or in space.
I know that I'm still at the very beginning, but wondering if I should stick at it.

[Timelord_Victorious]

sbk1234 wrote:

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Noob here. if this has already been discussed, sorry. But I wasn't going to read through 1218 posts. Anyway, I just started playing. My question is, Is this all there is? So far, it's just been battle after battle. I really thought there would be some exploring and discovering. I'd love an opportunity to really check out the Star Trek universe. So far, it's only been battle after battle, either on the surface, or in space.
I know that I'm still at the very beginning, but wondering if I should stick at it.

STO is an MMO and that means heavy combat focus.
However unlike other MMOs this game still offers alternatives.

There are exploration areas in the star clusters bordering on the known sector blocks whch may end in combat or in discovering a new planet, aiding a new civilization or finding scientific anomalies.
These features are rudimentary and quickly repetitive, but that is a trope of MMOs again.

STO has a diplomacy system.
Completing non combat missions in the star clusters or sector patrols gain you diplomacy experience which will ultimately rank you up to 4 different diplo levels.
Those diplomacy commendation ranks will open up diplomacy options in some story missions at least to avoid a portion of combat.

You can also gain diplomacy experience by heaviliy using the DOFF system, a minigame system that you can use to get regular experience and lots of different commendation experience as well.

Some people use this system exclusively to level up their characters.
Finding the most interesting DOFF assignments could be called exploration as well as every sector and cluster and some system and base maps have different doff mission which change every few hours.

With the doff system you dont actively steer your ship or shuttle yourself. You delegate the task at hand to lower deck personell which is represented by trading card like Duty Officer profiles.
Each Duty officer has his own department, specialty, traits and quality which influence the outcome and rewards of the assignment.
Those duty officers can also be assigned to active duty on your ship or away team to enhance your stats for active play.

And then there is the Foundry. This is the tool for user generated content which offers many story driven and combat light missions created by other players.
Some are quite epic and long and some even come entirely without combat.
Some of those missions are not on the technical level of Cryptic's best missions like the Feature Episodes but are leaps and bounds more creative then any official mission in the game.
It is worth checking out if you are in for the Trek experience.
Just be warned that for every mission there are ten so called missions which are utter garbage as well.
So it can be a bitdifficult to find the gems.
To avoid the bad ones read the reviews from players who have played them already and read up on forums like StarbaseUGC which is a community dedicated to the Foundry.

All in all there is quite a bit of non combat content and it's just a matter of finding it.

Also: Welcome to the game and if you are looking for a fleet, feel yourself invited to join the TrekBBS Armada. With an exception or two all of us are TrekBB members and playmore or less regularly together.
We share playtime, fun and resources for an overall better gaming experience.
Just give us a hail here or in game for a formal invite.

[JRS]

sbk1234 wrote:

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Noob here. if this has already been discussed, sorry. But I wasn't going to read through 1218 posts. Anyway, I just started playing. My question is, Is this all there is? So far, it's just been battle after battle. I really thought there would be some exploring and discovering. I'd love an opportunity to really check out the Star Trek universe. So far, it's only been battle after battle, either on the surface, or in space.
I know that I'm still at the very beginning, but wondering if I should stick at it.

There are some exploration mission you can do, they range from battles to collecting samples of rare flowers from planets surface. There are some diplomatic missions also, where you have to actually do some problem solving(of sorts).
There are some missions also among the storyline missions, where you heal the sick or search something, that are more adventure oriented though they do also evolve some action parts sometimes, too.
I know that the game is action heavy and that is not something we saw constantly on Trek shows but I think it is much more difficult to make game without action.
Naturally it would be nice if there would be more adventure and plot driven missions(though I do not mind the action myself), maybe we get those in the future.
Maybe you should still play the game further. It gets more fun when you get new ships and I think many of the story lines are quite good.

[sbk1234]

Thanks. I don't mind a mix of action with everything else. Just not to the exclusion of all else. I'll keep at it. It is frustrating to learn a new game, especially at my advanced 40-somthing years. My 13 year old son - who is not even a Trek fan - started playing it, as well, and he's been giving me pointers on how to control the game, and stuff. I hope playing for freeI won't be excluded from too much of the game.

[Scout101]

Think I'm gonna skip the rush for this FE. Server couldn't handle it last time, maybe playing it later tonight will be more enjoyable. Plus I'll let you guys beta test it first...

[Hartzilla2007]

Nice to have a hopefully new social area with a Bajor ground map.

That being said I think this FE is kind of slow going as all your really doing this week is setting up for the Gama Quadrant run next week by getting the Starfleet base up and running, keeping the Bajorans happy and hopefully keep them and the Klingon from killing each other as well as finding out where the fleet came from and why the Prophets felt letting them go was such a good idea, and setting up the need to get in touch with the Dominion.

I mean at least last week they were dealing with the over all story of STO as it was at that point i.e. the Borg invading everywhere.

Hopefully the plot picks up next week.

[Darth Thanatos]

sbk1234 wrote:

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Thanks. I don't mind a mix of action with everything else. Just not to the exclusion of all else. I'll keep at it. It is frustrating to learn a new game, especially at my advanced 40-somthing years. My 13 year old son - who is not even a Trek fan - started playing it, as well, and he's been giving me pointers on how to control the game, and stuff. I hope playing for freeI won't be excluded from too much of the game.

I'm 46, and I'm a meh player with a silver account.

The doff system adds in a small part, that trek feeling that just battle after battle doesn't capture.

Some of the Featured Episodes, while combat intensive, also include small parts of non-combat.

And the nebula exploration missions include scan five X (space anomalies in space and assorted scan five artifacts on ground) missions, aid the planet (though rewards have been nerfed) and a couple more of missions that don't include shooting anyone .

[intrinsical]

sbk1234 wrote:

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Noob here. if this has already been discussed, sorry. But I wasn't going to read through 1218 posts. Anyway, I just started playing. My question is, Is this all there is? So far, it's just been battle after battle. I really thought there would be some exploring and discovering. I'd love an opportunity to really check out the Star Trek universe. So far, it's only been battle after battle, either on the surface, or in space.
I know that I'm still at the very beginning, but wondering if I should stick at it.

The main Featured Episode missions are always going to have lots of combat. Personally, most of the interesting stuff I have discovered so far laid off the beaten track. Go visit the Wolf 359 memorial, have a walk on Vulcan, go to Bajor just to see what's there, have a short vacation on Risa. And when I get really bored, I just pick a random star and see what's there. So far, I have been pleased with what I have discovered.

The Foundry is another good place to find interesting stuff to do with the caveat that you stick with the top-rated missions.

[Rocketeer]

Yea, got first character through the second episode without encountering any bugs.

Seemed really long, but Bajor was fun to explore.



Don't forget to take a dip in the fountain. :-)

.

[J. Allen]

You got to see the golden sunset! I missed it. Still, a beautiful place! I swear, if they add in weather patterns (I'm talking rain, snow, etc), I'm going to squee like the fanboy I am.

[intrinsical]

I don't know why but I particularly enjoyed that brief chat with the Prophets.

[Trek]

Sounds to me like I should get my two Klingon align toons up to LG and then cancel my sub. If I want a new char then i just restart it (or go LTS when I can afford it).