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

For me it was. If I'd star now peobably not. There are some perks I would miss, if i had to go silver now, but as a new player you will find, that you can do pretty much everything of consequence without a subscription. Every upgrade you may need later can be purchased via microtransactions on a per character basis at least.

 

There was someone on the STO forums who estimated the value of a new subscription in free 2 play over 1000 days was about $400. (http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3863443&postcount=5)

Taking this into account I'd say a lifetime sub was worth it.

 

Maybe, but that only works if you were going to actually BUY all those things. If yes, then you'd get a slight deal. But he's giving you credit for buying the FED and the KDF version of things, and if you don't play KDF, that's a hit right there. If you don't care about emotes, or extra costumes, etc.

The ship purchases, some of the bank and character slots, that's stuff I'd miss.

Even with the numbers he used, you had to play for almost 2 years (let's call it an even 2, if you drop a few things you'd never buy yourself) to break even. If you're in it for the long haul, might still be worth it, though. otherwise, they didn't take much away from the Silver members, so could probably skate by with the free level, and just plan on having to kick in occasionally to get a cool ship, or extra slots, or whatnot. Mentally count that purchase as the sub fee, and you're good to go.

 

It could get a bit expensive if you are an altaholic and want to buy all slot extensions for every single character.

If you want a nice star into the game you could get the current steam deal with a 50% discount and start as a goldmember.
Keep in mind already though, that your characters will convert to silver if you don't keep subscribing.

 

There's still a sale on for lifetime subscriptions, right? I'd say it's worth it with the discount, and arguably still worth it without, if only because I don't see STO closing down any time soon so long as CBS still cares at all about their IP. So that monthly stipend will add up to a lot sooner or later.

Otherwise, it's quality of life stuff that would make the difference for me. Losing all those inventory/bank slots would really suck. YMMV, of course.

 

Then go for it.

 

more like as long as CBS still likes sucking all the fun out of it to keep the canon nuts happy.

 

Well, CBS did block the Enterprise-J's appearance in STO. They ain't likely to allow Tier 5 variants of 23rd century ships either for basically the same reasons. But other than that... really? Any five minute trip to ESD will blast your screen with TOS-era Connies flying shotgun to Sovereigns and every player character gets Wrath of Khan uniforms for free. If they're catering to canon nuts, they're doing a pretty lousy job of it.

I think the few publicly disclosed veto actions CBS has made so far are perfectly understandable and the game is better for it. More than that, no one here works at Cryptic Studios, so we're not privy to the developer/rights-holder relationship going on. All we can do is speculate about what the suits are up to and, frankly, I'd rather spend that energy elsewhere. Such as playing the game.

 

which are totally useless after the first 10 levels.

You do realise that the Jem hadar ship is gone after the winter event and which is the only way to get it, right?

 

My daughter was trying to get the ingredients for the frosty boots. I ran the race twice and got a green and blue box. I was able to give the green to her, but the blue was bound. I opened the blue and of course it had what she needed but everything from the package was bound to my character. Fortunately the green box has the same contents and she was able to get her boots. So the question is what is the difference between the green and blue boxes other than the blue being bound to your character?

 

I don't see any Defari Invasions on the schedule. The easy and medium city missions are do-able solo (if you're prepared to fight borg). Perhaps we should schedule a fleet event when the borg return.

 

There seems to be a big difference between the DOFF system on Tribble and Holodeck. My main character on TTS had approximately 60 Blue and 40 Purple DOFFs. (That's right, no white or green.) I had two additional characters and their ratios were close to this also. Every assignment ended with critical success. On Holodeck, I have 8 characters and none have Purple (except for the TTS bonus items). Only a few characters have one or two Blue. My VA on Holodeck has mainly white DOFFs with a handful of greens. I had a couple of blues but transferred them to another character. From my perspective though, rare is a lot more rare on Holodeck.

I mean I'm okay with that. Just pointing out the difference. The positive side of this is that my TTS bonus items are a lot more valuable to me. It also has me running the Colonization chains for those DOFF rewards. (I'm halfway through on Delta Volanis and Azlesa Expanse)

If you have a question about the DOFF system, post a note or send me an in-game message to @Rocketeer_7 I'll leave you with one tip: Don't waste your colonists on the Relocate Colonists To Federation Borders assignment. Save them for the Colonial chain assignments.
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Considering the amount of work necessary to make a player ship, you should probably insert the word "now" between "right" and the question mark, because there will almost certainly be future opportunities to obtain this ship.

 

The equipment in blue boxes is either blue or purple as opposed to green items in green boxes.

 

Blue Box has possibly more items and included gear is usually of at least one grade better(at least blue) quality. Green boxes though also have a lesser chance for blue gear, so it might appear the same. (that's what I think I observed anyway).

 

Appreciate the info. I didn't pay attention. I know it had the Terran Ornament she was looking for plus some other Christmas items. If it had a blue or purple item that was below VA level, I would have dropped it into a fleet bank or rebicycled it by now. (Hat's off to Polar Express)

 

I was surprised that many players were not aware of the bat'leths and lirpas. I felt obligated to traumatize a few characters in ESD and Qo'noS with a whirling light show. (hitting the strike keys rapidly can produce some spectacular weapon flourishes)

People that expect free stuff all the time are rarely happy. I predict that you'll see the climate change considerably on STO when it goes F2P.
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The Green Box has a chance to give you a piece of Green (Uncommon) ship or ground gear; the Blue Box has a chance to give you a piece of Blue (Rare) ship or ground gear in addition to all the 'holiday' items.

If you get a Red Box, it has a chance for a Jem Hadar ship, a Photonic Boff, various in game vanity pets, a Green Box, or a Blue Box.

 

One thing many players who rountinely frequest the STO web site and Forums for info don't realize is:

Beyond creating their account and registering; the MAJORITY of players don't check back with the Web site or the official forums - and often don't even read the posted patch notes after a patch. They just log in and play the game, and take any changes as they come because most don't wprry about the best gear or min/max character bulds; they just log in to play/chat with friends and play.

This is true for most MMOs, as studies done by MMO developers show only about 10% of the actual playerbase ever really visit/read official forums in general; and a very small subset of that 10% account for most of the posting activity on MMO forums.

 

I make a habit to visit the STO forum as often as possible. If you can get around all the constant whining and complaining (some of which is quite justified), there are lots of good tips and frequent updates.