Star Trek: Online

[Excelsior]

TOS bundle is out...

And, if you buy it today, you get the new TOS uniforms for free...

Got them - bit of a mixed bag, IMO.

Variant phaser is cool, though - same stats as the levelling one from the Devidian series, but with a black body and white handle. I've taken to using both, just 'cos they look cool.

But yeah - as for the rest, the Dress Uniforms look neat, the medical/command ones not so much, the interior's got cool things like useable Jefferies tubes and most of the decent canon locations, but spoilt by things like the 'opening windows', the contemporary-style trophy shelves, etc. And the shuttle is very approximate - no matching TOS material, wrong pennants, model geometry is totally off, etc.

Again, it's like the open jacket uniforms - a cool idea, but spoilt by the fact that what we ended up with wasn't what we were expecting (in that example, the 'TNG-era' uniforms were just a 'mashup' of DS9 and TNG styles that never appeared on screen, which IMO feels like a waste of money).


On a similar note, I realised recently that the so-called 'TOS Uniforms' are actually the former 'Trek '09' uniforms that got pulled from the game before launch. They've still got the same cut and all the visible seams, but just without the texture (with the little arrowheads) and TOS assignment patches added. That's a bit annoying, but hopefully they'll receive the same love the DS9 ones did.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Did the patch that was discussed take place? Because I've been trying to find out how to do that daily mission for Naomi Wildman, and so far no luck.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

You have to have at least a little crafting experience to unlock it. The game unfortunately doesn't tell you that or even how much points are necessary.
However some players told me around 180-200 points should do the trick.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

That would have been nice to know

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I just checked, and you need 180 RD, plus the Delta flyer schematic and other stuff...I'm 70 away.

 

[Bird of Prey]

The Foundry is now live !! Any user can now create their own missions !!

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Great news.
First fleet member publishing a mission gets an Aegis set for free!

Edit: And no. A simple "Go, kill 5 guys mission" doesn't count.

Edit2: Ok, Thought ab it more about it. Actually we make it a themed contest. Make an introductory mission for the TrekBBS Armada. When we have enough entrys, we will vote on the winner who gets the Aegis set!
Aynthing goes, a long as makes the player familiar with the fleet.

 

[Bird of Prey]

Great news.
First fleet member publishing a mission gets an Aegis set for free!

Edit: And no. A simple "Go, kill 5 guys mission" doesn't count.

Edit2: Ok, Thought ab it more about it. Actually we make it a themed contest. Make an introductory mission for the TrekBBS Armada. When we have enough entrys, we will vote on the winner who gets the Aegis set!
Aynthing goes, a long as makes the player familiar with the fleet.

I'm all for that, but I still need to learn how to use it. I played around with it a little last night, and I think I need more time before I can create anything of value. I'll probably make my own test mission to learn the tool before I enter any entries.

 

[backstept]

do you guys have any advice for a noob?
particularly how to advance at a reasonable pace
I've been playing for a few weeks and I'm still only a Lieutenant (8)
most other MMOs don't have such a steep leveling curve

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Best advice I can give you is look out for other players and fleetmates and team up for higher level missions. They give more XP and you have still fun playing. If you really want to level at breakneck pace you should talk to blamo aka @Alendiak (in-game). He can give you a few pointers. He levels his character up to VA in about 2 weeks time.

 

[Igard]

The slower, the better, I say. But, then I'm kinda weird.

Now that I'm a Captain, I don't want a promotion, so I'm just gathering research samples and hoping that they change the levelling system.

I like the idea someone had on the STO forums to set your rank as the same as your title.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I just pretty much powered through STO. Any chance I got to play, I did. I'd spend hours doing the missions and leveling up.

 

[Excelsior]

The slower, the better, I say. But, then I'm kinda weird.

Now that I'm a Captain, I don't want a promotion, so I'm just gathering research samples and hoping that they change the levelling system.

I like the idea someone had on the STO forums to set your rank as the same as your title.

Heh - that would be me.

Trouble is, the Devs pretty much wrote off the idea of making ANY changes to the rank/level system about 8 months ago (apart from adding additional ranks with future levels, of course...), and seem committed to ignoring any mention of the subject, so it's pretty much set in stone that 'all players MUST end up as Admirals'. Yet another case of the game taking an element from canon Trek, and saying in as many words "this is how ____ works in Star Trek, so let's NOT do that..."

That was the last straw that finished me off, to be honest - after two months back in the game, the novelty of some of the new content wore off, and I was reminded why I quit the first time. Between the generic gameplay and un-Trek original content, and the sloppy, inaccurate attempts at including 'canon' content (the new 'TOS' pack being a case in point - I can't see why people are so excited about it, since there's so much wrong with it all, and needlessly so ), and it's clear that STO ultimately won't ever be the Trek experience it claims to be.


So yeah - sub cancelled, and I'm not expecting a miracle to get me back. Besides, I've just found a cheap, brand new copy of Klingon Academy online (IMO the greatest Trek game ever), so that'll go a long way towards filling the 'Star Trek game'-shaped hole in my free time.


It's a shame, because a proper Trek online game, with proper bridge crews, ships, missions and the like would be such an amazing experience. However, STO isn't that game, and I really don't see any sign of it ever becoming such a game, either.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Sorry to hear that it doesn't work out for you.
Well, it can't be for everybody it seems.
Well I'm still having lots of fun even after more than a year.

 

[Igard]

I thought Dan Stahl only took over a few months ago and was more committed to making the game canon?

Ah well, eventually I'll level up to Rear Admiral. I'll keep my 4 pips and my title as Captain, but I'll just have to ignore the NPC's. Surely they'll have to change that. They can't keep calling people, 'Rear Admiral, Lower Half'. That's a bit of bad design there.

Anyway, still enjoying. I've just created a new 23rd century character for use with the new TOS pack. Good times.

 

[backstept]

I made Lieutenant Commander yesterday
I picked a cruiser, but since I had 2 tactical bridge officers I have an empty engineering spot . . . so I should have picked an escort

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Congrats!

I prefer the cruisers over the escorts (the science vessels are hit or miss with me).

What missions have you enjoyed so far, and which ones do you think suck?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I made Lieutenant Commander yesterday
I picked a cruiser, but since I had 2 tactical bridge officers I have an empty engineering spot . . . so I should have picked an escort

It's alright, you will get an engineer soon. You will find that the engineering abilities rock. They are great for keeping you alive during a fight, which the cruiser is all about really, and at the same time provide healing for team mates.

Focusing only on tactical Bridge officers would be a mistake. You need all three careers for them.
Science officers are a great help with healing or debuffing enemies.

Some advice on how to best fly a cruiser. Try to broadside enemy ships , that way you can fire all front and rear beams at the same time. If you like to use torpedos go for Quantum Torpedoes, they have a greater punch than photons and the slower firing rate doesnt affect you in a cruiser.
If you have to deal with several smaller, faster vessels and cant broadside them try to sweep through your targets front and rear to keep all phasers in the fight.

An invaluable tactical ability on a cruiser is Tactical Team, it automatically rerouts power to attacked shield sides.
Second tac ability on later ships should be High Yield Torp, which you should use when enemy's shield drops, or (which I just love) Fire at Will. That one shoots randomly at all targets in range with short high power phaser bursts. Fly into a squad of fighters with that and see them go kaboom in 3 seconds. That power tends to draw aggro, keep that in mind if you dont have healing powers ready.

 

[backstept]

What missions have you enjoyed so far, and which ones do you think suck?

The Patrol and Defend type missions are boring . . . go here go there scan this blow up this many bad guys etc
my favorites are the missions that take place on the ground and in space.

It's alright, you will get an engineer soon. You will find that the engineering abilities rock. They are great for keeping you alive during a fight, which the cruiser is all about really, and at the same time provide healing for team mates.

Focusing only on tactical Bridge officers would be a mistake. You need all three careers for them.
Science officers are a great help with healing or debuffing enemies.

Some advice on how to best fly a cruiser. Try to broadside enemy ships , that way you can fire all front and rear beams at the same time. If you like to use torpedos go for Quantum Torpedoes, they have a greater punch than photons and the slower firing rate doesnt affect you in a cruiser.
If you have to deal with several smaller, faster vessels and cant broadside them try to sweep through your targets front and rear to keep all phasers in the fight.

An invaluable tactical ability on a cruiser is Tactical Team, it automatically rerouts power to attacked shield sides.
Second tac ability on later ships should be High Yield Torp, which you should use when enemy's shield drops, or (which I just love) Fire at Will. That one shoots randomly at all targets in range with short high power phaser bursts. Fly into a squad of fighters with that and see them go kaboom in 3 seconds. That power tends to draw aggro, keep that in mind if you dont have healing powers ready.

I forget exactly which ones I have but I have a torpedo skill and a beam skill on my tac officers, and power to weapons and a jamming skill on my eng and sci officers

a combo I liked for my starter ship was to have a phaser turret(360* arc FTW ) in the rear with a phaser and torp in the front
then I could have at least some DPS on my target at all times taking the shields down slow until I could turn around and put my torpedoes on 'em
now on my cruiser I have a disruptor and quantum in front and two phasers in back

on a random note . . . I've gotta see what I can R'n'D since I've been collecting every anomaly I come across

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I don't like turrets that much. A Beam still has 240° coverage and more DPS. That's a wide enough arc for broadsiding in a cruiser with more damage than a turret.
I only use turrets on a fast escort like the Defiant or Prometheus class or Bird of Prey on KDF side. to put ALL the damage into the front.