Have you tried the new weekly episode missions?
Star Trek: Online
- Thread starter tranya
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Have you tried the new weekly episode missions?
In my experience of power leveling, the best ways are through "Deep Space Encounters" and PVP.
Contact the mission provider and select the defend sector mission. However, don't do it straight away, leave it for 30 minutes while you go and do something else (say a patrol mission, which are generally short, but reward not so bad skill points).
Due to the way the game works, the timer starts as soon as you accept the mission. The defend sector timer seems to be around 30 mins per mission, so if you complete that mission after the 30 mins, you can immediatly select the mission again.
Another piece of advice, is that when you've done one DSE, you change instance and do another.
The new daily Defera missions are also a decent amount of experience.
Contact the mission provider and select the defend sector mission. However, don't do it straight away, leave it for 30 minutes while you go and do something else (say a patrol mission, which are generally short, but reward not so bad skill points).
Due to the way the game works, the timer starts as soon as you accept the mission. The defend sector timer seems to be around 30 mins per mission, so if you complete that mission after the 30 mins, you can immediatly select the mission again.
Another piece of advice, is that when you've done one DSE, you change instance and do another.
The new daily Defera missions are also a decent amount of experience.
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Yeah, you can raise yourself an entire rank in a handful of hours (and by that I mean Lt to Lt. Cmdr) if you PvP and do the DSEs.
There is a new sector block. If you open the galaxy map you should notice it right away. It's northern of the Cardassian sector and you can also access it from K7's sector block.
the easiest way i found to level up quickly was
first a misson then a defend misson then a patrol. got up to ra pretty quick
first a misson then a defend misson then a patrol. got up to ra pretty quick
Yes; my suggestion for leveling faster is "don't". This game's number one flaw is there's not enough content. If you blow through it, you'll find yourself bored as new content comes at a rate of about 1-2 hours worth a week. You want to take your time getting there, until they can build up a base of more content.
Of course, that's easy to say when I'm not grinding through Lt. Commander content, drooling over the upcoming Commander ships, and having the limited options that come from only having a third of your powers yet.
BTW, that's almost word-for-word what several STO devs and community reps, such as Gozer and Stormshade, have said. Gozer in particular said the content was built around the idea you'd do that, and trying to do just episodes leaves you with quite a grind at the end of a level band.
Small correction here: That's $15 US.
The story missions will level you up the quickest. When you run out of those before getting promoted, I'd suggest the Sector Block Defense missions since those are repeatable. Don't forget that the Orellius Sector Block has the daily Aid the Deferi 3-part mission, with two of those missions having a daily side mission as well. My LtC alt is earning around 300 or so skill points per daily Aid there.
Orellius Sector Block is accessible via Beta Ursae Sector Block (near the Badlands and Cardassia) or via the Eta Eridani Sector Block. New weekly tomorrow!
Amen to that. My first character hit VA1 way too quick. Of course, part of that is my fault since I became unemployed a few days after buying the game and currently have a lot of free time on my hands...
No how does one find those?
^ The post above you will tell you how to find them. There is a guy near the door to Admiral Quinn's office who tells you (that's all he does I think, he didn't offer me any missions when I spoke to him) that his people in the Orellius Sector and they need help.
No? On all of my characters, he gave me a generic "Aid the Deferi" mission pointing me towards the Orellius Sector Block. Upon arriving, I received a small amount of the normal rewards: skill points, BO skill points, and merits. It's essentially the same as any of the "To Boldly Go" missions (i.e., go here to get new orders) but I thought it was worth repeating on my other 2 characters (when the first weekly came out, I was in ESD, so talked to the guy despite already knowing where I needed to go) since it gave some reward.
I had a marathon session yesterday, bringing my scientist Benzite character "Nevrin" of the U.S.S. Rhiannon to LT9 by the time I realized it was 1am. Some thoughts about my experience of the game so far:
- it's a graphic delight on the HD 5770 with a 24" panel. No crashes, everything maxed, 1920x1080, 2xAA, 8xAF. Nice. Quite a change from having a rig that struggled to run Oblivion @ 800x600. Not that I'm a gamer. No, it's strictly a workstation machine.
- I do seem to have game balance problems. Overall it's too easy, but occasionally I get completely owned by a cluster of enemies. I think I'm ready to increase the difficulty setting though, as most space battles are no contest. The ground game - I haven't mastered giving orders to my crew yet. So far it's just a chaotic mess, also with usually no challenge. I had a few respawns on a mission with some of those Klingon Swordmasters & Friends....need to figure out how to get my group to concentrate fire.
- no surprise that the game is a lot more fun with other players. I got into some of the DSE's which I found to be suicidal solo'd, and even with just one other Reliant/Centaur-class it was a lot of fun. Several of those encounters I'd also have an Excelsior, or other heavy ship show up. In those cases I'd be lucky to get in a few shots before it was over. Cool, but not much fun. There's just nothing like being in a heavy battle with another ship near your own level, and each of you letting loose those last torpedoes. Classic "yes!" Star Trek moment.
- speaking of the DSE's, there is a weird bug there. When I enter them, one of my officers gives a message as if we'd just completed the area. Minor but odd.
- a somewhat bigger gripe: there is no option to hail a planet. This resulted in big confusion (and no not because of my screename) on an exploration mission where a planet needed 10 shield generators. I wanted to contact the planet again, and there's no option to orbit - that sucks, and no option to hail that I could find. Knowing computer game weirdness, I replicated a shield generator and re-approached the planet. Still no communcation, but I noticed the generator automatically counted in the mission's tally. So I replicated 9 more, and then the planet calls me and the mission is completed. This is the kind of interface/mechanics awkwardness that could drive one nuts.
- this brings me to some physical universe gripes: almost all the nice graphics are pure window dressing. You can't (can you?) scan that pretty planet below and see all the classic info a Star Trek planetary scan would provide. If they were to add this information, it could add dimension and solidity to the exploration aspects of the game.
- I'd much rather have had a lot less asteroids, and have the ones that are there be more than semi-interphasic decoration. I'm crossing my fingers that the difficulty slider will cause slamming into asteroids to put a hit on your shields and do a little structural damage, even a serious amount if at full impulse. And then there's the shooting straight through them. The space battles would be a hell of a lot more interesting if phasers and torpedoes didn't pass through asteroids. This would also give a little game balance back to the smaller, more nimble ships. Also, ship collisions don't seem to do much.
Overall, I'm finding this game pretty good. Much more varied than LOTRO. It's a good template, and Cryptic has been working and adding to the game since release. I do wish the universe were more solid and interactive, making the solo experience more immersive. But I realize an MMO is by definition geared towards multiplayer, and is not meant to be a deeply immersive RPG.
One interface question: anyone know how to zoom the camera if you don't have a mousewheel? I've tried every key it seems.
- it's a graphic delight on the HD 5770 with a 24" panel. No crashes, everything maxed, 1920x1080, 2xAA, 8xAF. Nice. Quite a change from having a rig that struggled to run Oblivion @ 800x600. Not that I'm a gamer. No, it's strictly a workstation machine.
- I do seem to have game balance problems. Overall it's too easy, but occasionally I get completely owned by a cluster of enemies. I think I'm ready to increase the difficulty setting though, as most space battles are no contest. The ground game - I haven't mastered giving orders to my crew yet. So far it's just a chaotic mess, also with usually no challenge. I had a few respawns on a mission with some of those Klingon Swordmasters & Friends....need to figure out how to get my group to concentrate fire.
- no surprise that the game is a lot more fun with other players. I got into some of the DSE's which I found to be suicidal solo'd, and even with just one other Reliant/Centaur-class it was a lot of fun. Several of those encounters I'd also have an Excelsior, or other heavy ship show up. In those cases I'd be lucky to get in a few shots before it was over.
Cool, but not much fun. There's just nothing like being in a heavy battle with another ship near your own level, and each of you letting loose those last torpedoes. Classic "yes!" Star Trek moment. - speaking of the DSE's, there is a weird bug there. When I enter them, one of my officers gives a message as if we'd just completed the area. Minor but odd.
- a somewhat bigger gripe: there is no option to hail a planet. This resulted in big confusion (and no not because of my screename) on an exploration mission where a planet needed 10 shield generators. I wanted to contact the planet again, and there's no option to orbit - that sucks, and no option to hail that I could find. Knowing computer game weirdness, I replicated a shield generator and re-approached the planet. Still no communcation, but I noticed the generator automatically counted in the mission's tally. So I replicated 9 more, and then the planet calls me and the mission is completed. This is the kind of interface/mechanics awkwardness that could drive one nuts.
- this brings me to some physical universe gripes: almost all the nice graphics are pure window dressing. You can't (can you?) scan that pretty planet below and see all the classic info a Star Trek planetary scan would provide. If they were to add this information, it could add dimension and solidity to the exploration aspects of the game.
- I'd much rather have had a lot less asteroids, and have the ones that are there be more than semi-interphasic decoration. I'm crossing my fingers that the difficulty slider will cause slamming into asteroids to put a hit on your shields and do a little structural damage, even a serious amount if at full impulse. And then there's the shooting straight through them. The space battles would be a hell of a lot more interesting if phasers and torpedoes didn't pass through asteroids. This would also give a little game balance back to the smaller, more nimble ships. Also, ship collisions don't seem to do much.
Overall, I'm finding this game pretty good. Much more varied than LOTRO. It's a good template, and Cryptic has been working and adding to the game since release. I do wish the universe were more solid and interactive, making the solo experience more immersive. But I realize an MMO is by definition geared towards multiplayer, and is not meant to be a deeply immersive RPG.
One interface question: anyone know how to zoom the camera if you don't have a mousewheel? I've tried every key it seems.
Different enemies have different weapons mixes, and depending on your powers you may be able to handle more or fewer of them. You'll learn to pull one group out of two close ones, or some enemies out of a group. You'll also learn how to differ your tactics, and change your rotation of your boff powers to deal with different enemy powers. Most importantly, you'll learn how to adjust your power allocation. Most solo fights, having nearly max power on weapons is best, but sometimes it's better to have nearly max on shields and take longer to destroy them. When grouped, you may find having a lot of Aux lets you support your group better. No matter what else, speed makes you harder to hit, so more Engines means less hits.
If you select a target, you can hit the button over the team list that looks like a crosshair, and it will tell all boffs to shoot at your target. Also, if your boffs are misusing a power you'd like to save for special occasions, you can tell them not to use it. I can't remember if this is right-click or ctrl-click, try it out with a power next time and find out.
That means you entered the DSE right after the people already in it completed it. It'll reset in a few minutes, and you'll start the cycle of NPC conversation over again.
The asteroid thing has been a big topic of discussion since early betas. They tried early on having more space without objects in it, and they found that a certain percentage of players get disoriented and even physically ill without referents. So the asteroids are there to give you visual referents.
Hmm, I wonder if that's not some weird graphics glitch you're experiencing. In my experience you can't shoot through asteroids, if one crosses your line of sight your beams cut off, and while you retain your existing target you can't target somebody who's behind an asteroid.
The one I see, although not as often as I used to, is where the enemy ship gets itself stuck in the asteroid. Now it can shoot you, but you can't shoot it... Rather annoying, especially if it happens to be the last enemy you need to destroy.
Now I'm not sure about the asteroid thing in regard to weapons. I thought I was shooting through them but maybe the beams were stopping at the asteroid.
Enemy-stuck-in-asteroid I fortunately have not experienced.
If I do get beams going through I'll see if I can get a screenshot of it happening.
Overall though this game is a lot of fun, with a lot to do, and it seems quite active - lots of players about.
Yeah; with those, if you move to the other side of the asteroid where they can't shoot you, they'll eventually back up out of it.
The worst place for this is the Borg vs battle near K7. Spheres get embedded in structures you have to scan. They can shoot you from anywhere, but there's no angle from which you can shoot them.
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