Star Trek: Online

I created a 2nd Starfleet character last night and gave it a go. The game ran so much more smoothly since I was already familiar with some of the elements especially in the tutorial.

I still DON'T know where or how to get Energy Points to spend on costume or ship design. Can anyone help on that? The so-called shipyard was actually easy to find; how could I have missed it the first time? The contact person is Dirz Raxx, but I ended up going to a different place before.

 

You get energy credits as reward for missions and for selling loot. Loot can either be sold to a vendor, or in the replicator. When your in your ship press (I) and click replicator.

 

queue position 133 of 133. Ugh. Back to Mass Effect I guess.

 

Costume design and ship design are free the first time you do it. After that just sell a weapon drop or two and you will have plenty of cash. The biggie is never buy any weapons or equipment.

 

Not saying you didn't - but a LOT of those questions are answered by READING the text the NPC dialogs give you - but many people are either too excited and just click happy, or lazy to bother to read the text of the NPCs.

WoW has become sooo simplifued, that no one bothers to read anything because there are VOLUMES on lline explaining the particulars of WoW - STO doesn't have that much online yet because a lot of players (myself inclused) are playing and trying to understand how the game mechanics work (and FYI I close betaed CoH and the start of that game was similar too - with players not understanding the mechanics, but once they did, site sprung up all over with detailed data) - but I can guarentee in a few months, there will be sites with the minute details of STO mechanics.

FYI - For STO Research/Crafting:
Once you upgrade (buy) any combination of 6 phaser or phonton orp launchers from Lt. Romaine - the next tier of crafter NPCS witll 'unlock' four you (3 more - one that does MkIII and IV ship weapons; One that does MkIII and IV ship's consoles; and one that does MKIII and IV ship items like Impulse Engines, Deflector Dishes, etc.) So it seems the crafting system is tiered; and moving up just one tier opens up a lot of upgrades.

 

You get Energy Credits by selling items to vendors, your ship replicator, or on the Exchange.

You get Starfleet Merits by completing the missions.

You get Badges of Exploration (there are 3 tiers of exploration badges) by doing the Star Cluster exploration missions - and these badges can be turned into NPCs for ship gear.

You get Medals of Achievement by participating in PVP (This can also be traded to various NPCs for ship's gear).

And FYI - a lot of this is UMNLIKE WoW and other MMOs in that there is many different forms of currency. I didn't automatically assume this from my previous MMO experiences, I READ the NPC text, and by doiing so, found out how it all works. So, again, if players are too lazy to READ, then no, they'll never understand the mechanics of the game; but the inability to read the info isn't the fault of the STO dev team.

 

While I find it a little frustrating, I do like the idea that there are different forms of currency. It feels more authentic that way. I figure in six months to a year, this game is going to be rocking in a big way. It has so much potential, I'd love to see it become a boon for Trek fans and for Cryptic for working so hard to make it great. Although I am working very hard to deprogram myself from my WoW mindset.

 

LOL, WoW has:

gold,
honor points,
shards,
rep,
6 different kinds of badges,
scrips,
tokens (jewelry, cooking)

um, what did I forget?

 

Yeah, WoW has all that, but the method by which they do it is quite different. I actually prefer STO's way.

 

Yea, I was commenting on the "unlike WoW" part. Have to disagree on preferring STO's. STO dumps all the different currencies on you at one time. It makes for a steeper learning curve. Unlike WoW which starts you with just gold and the others come along later.

 

Trust me, I can read NPC dialogue just fine. But part of the problem is not initially knowing where to find such NPCs, where they are on the station, or what they sell. CoH uses different currencies, too, like Influence, Prestige, and Merits, and guess what? The map shows you within the zone where the Trainer, merit vendors, field analysts, enhancement stores, conasignment centers are so you don't have to second-guess yourself.

From what I hear, Cryptic rushed to get this game out, ergo, leading me to the conclusion that they already assumed everyone who was going to get this game to be at least an intermediate or advanced-level MMO player. They couldn't be bothered to publish a decent manual. Fend for yourself, sink or swim!

 

I played my Tactical Officer (Lvl 2 Lieutenant) and was able to actually advance one level and receive a Bridge Officer.

A lot of "newbies" are still asking questions, and that's to be expected. I imagine many Trek fans (who may or may not have prior MMO experience) will want to buy this game and are eager to get started. The "Where's Sulu?" question gets old after a while. I don't like the spam mail I get, and the power-leveling spammers and recruitment groups are just as bad. Some people can be a bunch of idiots and douchebags, and I'm not referring to the newbies, but the people who berate them for asking simple, valid questions. The server continues to crash intermittently, and logging in during peak hours takes a long time.

I just realized something new tonight: The learning curve is one thing, but what's starting to bother me is the major grindage. I'm not talking about "rinse, lather, repeat" missions, but it takes a lot of work, a lot of GRIND, a lot of time (at least for me anyway) to level up and earn the points to buy the costume parts, ship components, weapons, technology you need for your captain/starship. In City of Heroes on a good night, I could create a character and quickly level up to the 20s in a matter of hours. It took me 6 - 7 hours of gameplay to get to where I'm at right now, a Level 3 Lieutenant.

I'm still not committed to playing this game long-term. It could be and could have been so much better. My prediction is that STO will appeal to a niche of players, but it will never be as successful as WoW in scope.

 

There is definitly a grind, because this early on there are already repeatable missions...

 

Agreed. I like it though. This is the kind of grind I actually enjoy. Starship tactics and switching out better weapons. My ground game is getting better too. I did the Starbase 24 away team mission and won this time. The last three times I failed miserably, but this time I got better gear and tried new tactics. Lots of fun. Now if only they'll fix that rally point!

Oh, and I just hit Lieutenant L9 before the server maintenance.

 

Which has been Cryptic's goal from the start. Noone ever said anything about competing with WoW.

 

Well, today i bred some tribbles...
And i hit Lieutenant level 9...

 

Can I just say that since hitting Lt Commander I'm finding that this game has started to totally blow me away! Loving it! Hoping it gets better still! Maybe I'm easily impressed but once you get past all the Klingon/Orion/Nausicaan rubbish it really picks up story wise!

 

I'm about halfway through Lieutenant 9. Can't wait to make Lt. Commander! Hope to get some playing in today, but apparently there's some sort of football exhibition on the television.

 

Foot what?

 

Well, after the downtime i could log in some playtime, but the last couple of hours are a bit wonky...
First i get disconnected, now i'm in a queue...

Oooh, handy site:

http://sto-intel.org/wiki/Main_Page