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

[sonn]

Need some advice.

Recently made it to VA(tactical) and I'm thinking about splurging on a Tier 5 ship. Should I go with the Tactical Escort Retrofit or the Excelsior retrofit?

 

[Amaris]

Depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for DPS, you can't go wrong with the Excelsior Retrofit. It is still one of the most powerfully capable ships in the game.

 

[Trek]

Last night I achieved a new personal best - over 15,000 dilithium across two toons in three hours.

Need some advice.

Recently made it to VA(tactical) and I'm thinking about splurging on a Tier 5 ship. Should I go with the Tactical Escort Retrofit or the Excelsior retrofit?

My Tac uses the Defiant Refit and I love it, but as J. Allen said, it really depends on your setup and what you want to do.

 

[Amaris]

Last night I achieved a new personal best - over 15,000 dilithium across two toons in three hours.

Need some advice.

Recently made it to VA(tactical) and I'm thinking about splurging on a Tier 5 ship. Should I go with the Tactical Escort Retrofit or the Excelsior retrofit?

My Tac uses the Defiant Refit and I love it, but as J. Allen said, it really depends on your setup and what you want to do.

Yep. I'm a TAC myself, and I love the Excelsior Retrofit (though I also have a Defiant refit and it is fun!). My Excelsior retrofit lays down a lot of damage, and is great as a support ship, but can hold it's own when it has to take on an enemy by itself.

 

[Rocketeer]

In case any of you guys are interested in doing PvP ever, a few skills you should and should not take into PvP.

Should:-
Tactical team - quickly auto redistributes your shields, so it's a bit like a mini RSP except it lasts for 15 seconds and reacts to projectile weapons. Great against alpha strikes and sustained attacks alike. A good portion of players take two of these.

Hazard emitters - Needed for clearing a whole host of debuffs, from simple plasma fire to the Hargh'Peng debuff.

Should not:-
Boarding party - It's countered by tactical team, which pretty much everyone has (especially escorts).

Jam sensors - It's a fragile placate, meaning if cast on a target and you continue you firing at it, jam sensors will clear. It's really a waste of a sci power, when something better can be used instead.

Attack pattern beta - A bit like boarding party, in that it's cured by tactical team which virtually everyone has. Great in STFs though.

Acteon field - This is a bit of waste of an engineer slot. It's debuff doesn't do much and it's clearable by hazard emitters. Something more useful, like Aux2SIF3, eject warp plasma or extend shields should be used in its place.

I tend to stay away from PvP, but appreciate the info. Most of it I follow already.

All my chars use at least Tac I. It's a great skill that applys shield power where it's needed.

Instead of Jam Sensors, I use the ones that affect an area.

I stopped using Boarding Party a long, long time ago. It's just a waste of your crew and slot.

Acteon is the default CMDR power for Engineering BOs. I usually try to replace it with Eject Warp Plasma II or III.

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[Rocketeer]

I use the LCDR Tac slot for Dispersal Pattern B. Eject Warp Plasma III followed by a Dispersal Pattern B of Purple Plasma Mines ruins the enemy's day.

It can be used defensively against someone on your tail or can be used offensively on a flyover.

As mentioned by others, the Excelsior Refit turns a little faster. Perhaps due to being smaller than the newer cruisers. In it's day the Excelsior was sometimes considered a battleship. Now it looks small, so a lot of the younger crowd avoid it.

.

 

[Rocketeer]

Part of the FE series reveals appears to be a new tribble - there are reports that feeding Ketracel White (the refined stuff from drops, rather than the commodity) gets you a Gamma Quadrant Tribble.

Oh, and the DS9 bundle is now on the C-store. I would really go for the DS9 Admiral's uniform if it were separate...

ETA: Just re-ran "The New Link" to get some White - new Jem'hadar enemy types, and a special death animation for Laas!

I'd like to have the tribble just to complete my collection, but it's not a high priority. Feed the Ketracel to which type of tribble produces the Gamma Quadrant variety?

Don't see my self spending the money on the DS9 bundle. All my characters have the regular DS9 uniform. Not interested in the shuttle or other items. The only thing of interest is the ship interior. That would be cool for the chars that have the Defiant ship.

.

 

[Scout101]

Did I miss a downtime announcement, or is this a bonus one? Website is down as well, so can't even go there to check.

They just took it down yesterday for a couple hours for maintenance and patching, how's it down again already (and since it's 3am in CA, doubt this was 'scheduled') Are they rushing things through without testing them enough? Maybe we could do patching once a week, and test it more beforehand? Or is the code really just getting that unwieldly and out of control, that they can't handle things without reboots every 15-20 hours, and can't do simple patches without it interfering with other unrelated systems?

Annoying, this is my 30-40 min every morning that i get to rotate the DOFF assignments on all my toons, maybe play a quick mission if it gets done quickly. Almost always see the maintenance announcements in the morning, but they are usually for around 9-10 am ET, so don't affect me as I'm working. Per the DOFFJOBS page, looked like there was finally a MIlitary Base mission in the colonial chain I'd been waiting a couple weeks to find...

 

[Scout101]

Naturally, it came up about 10 min after I posted...

 

[CmdrAJD]

Two more newbie questions:
1) Is there any point in keeping the ships you get early in the game?
2) Are shuttles ever used for anything, or are they just something to buy for fun?

Thanks!

 

[Amaris]

Did I miss a downtime announcement, or is this a bonus one? Website is down as well, so can't even go there to check.

They just took it down yesterday for a couple hours for maintenance and patching, how's it down again already (and since it's 3am in CA, doubt this was 'scheduled') Are they rushing things through without testing them enough? Maybe we could do patching once a week, and test it more beforehand? Or is the code really just getting that unwieldly and out of control, that they can't handle things without reboots every 15-20 hours, and can't do simple patches without it interfering with other unrelated systems?

Annoying, this is my 30-40 min every morning that i get to rotate the DOFF assignments on all my toons, maybe play a quick mission if it gets done quickly. Almost always see the maintenance announcements in the morning, but they are usually for around 9-10 am ET, so don't affect me as I'm working. Per the DOFFJOBS page, looked like there was finally a MIlitary Base mission in the colonial chain I'd been waiting a couple weeks to find...

Yeah, they announced a maintenance patch and update around 7 PM PST, that would last from 12 AM to 2 AM PST. It was a patch update, too, though I don't know what it updated.

Two more newbie questions:
1) Is there any point in keeping the ships you get early in the game?

I didn't keep my Miranda, but I kept my Constitution class, my Galaxy class, and my Sovereign. Then I bought other ships. It's a personal preference. You can keep up to 8 ships. More if you pay for extra slots.

2) Are shuttles ever used for anything, or are they just something to buy for fun?

Thanks!

There are shuttle missions in the game, but after that, yeah, they're just fun to have.

 

[Rocketeer]

Two more newbie questions:
1) Is there any point in keeping the ships you get early in the game?
2) Are shuttles ever used for anything, or are they just something to buy for fun?

Thanks!

There is no *requirement* to use the older starships, but some are fun to keep. The higher tiered ships usually have better hulls, weapon slots, bridge officer slots, etc... so they are better equiped to handle missions. I would say that if you have a *ship* refit, it doesn't make sense to keep the original. I bought the Excelsior Refit so I dismissed the Excelsior. When my science officer bought the Nova Refit, he dismissed the Nova.

** Before you dismiss a ship, remove all the equipment. **

My Engineer sometimes takes the TOS Constitution for a spin and my Science Officer occasionally takes out the Miranda.

I've been on two missions that required shuttle sized ships. One was the 3rd Featured Episode, The Vault. I don't remember the other mission. I like the Delta Flyer. It's a tough little ship. I also have the Type 8 which was part of the TOS package. I like the look of the Danube runabout but only used it once. Got spanked, so I just put it on the shelf. My Engineer has used the Delta Flyer against the Borg a couple of times with success. However, he's a VA with decent offensive and defensive powers.
.

As far as patching, they finally gave a weapon to the intruder that beams in at the end. However, many of my skills are still grayed out and the mission is still buggy in several areas. I think that most players have completed episode 1, so I think the devs should focus on debugging episode 2 before Saturday.

Okay, I think I'm up to speed on what's transpiring now. I read the Memory Alpha entries and dev blogs and watched a few clips on Youtube. Appreciate the suggestions.

.

 

[Trek]

Did some maths earlier today and discovered that I can raise 2500 dilithium (sometimes more) just by doing DOFF missions on all my toons. Add to that the 75 dilithium you get from dismissing a white doff (I do this several times a day as I don't want to buy more slots) and you can raise quite a large amount just from the Doff system alone.

Also been mulling over wether to renew my sub next month, go f2p or LTS. Can't afford the LTS yet, so I might do a monthly sub for a couple of months or just f2p it for a little while.

 

[Rocketeer]

It's an Excelsior-class Heavy Cruiser that I bought with C points once I hit Commander. And thanks for the help. I currently have two tactical/security officers, an engineering, and a science officer. I honestly haven't paid too much attention to them other than upgrading their equipment and using their skill points on their abilities.

Just a few suggestions: (Assuming that you are using a Tac officer)

Put single cannons on the front, turrets on the rear.

Run the Defari FEs that will give you the frosty set.

LCDR Engr - Engr Team I / Rvrs Shd Pol I / Aux to Batt II
ENS Engr - Emer Pwr to Wpns

Hope this helps.

.

 

[Rocketeer]

Did some maths earlier today and discovered that I can raise 2500 dilithium (sometimes more) just by doing DOFF missions on all my toons. Add to that the 75 dilithium you get from dismissing a white doff (I do this several times a day as I don't want to buy more slots) and you can raise quite a large amount just from the Doff system alone.

Also been mulling over wether to renew my sub next month, go f2p or LTS. Can't afford the LTS yet, so I might do a monthly sub for a couple of months or just f2p it for a little while.

I'm a monthly subscriber. It's a difficult decision. I've been reviewing the F2P matrix and doesn't look like I would lose much by dropping my subscription. I already own almost everything I want for my characters already and Cryptic said they wouldn't take away what was already purchased.

The one thing that most of my chars would miss is the VA ship token, so may need to keep the subscription until the 600 day Veteran reward.

.

 

[intrinsical]

Just a couple of things to note if you're going for f2p.

1) F2P players will *never* get any of the veteran status and rewards regardless of how long they play the game.
2) F2P players start with fewer inventory and bank slots (I have no idea if they will reduce your inventory and bank slot if you go from subscriber to f2p)
3) No free skill respec unless you pay for them with c-points.

 

[Trek]

I'm a monthly subscriber. It's a difficult decision. I've been reviewing the F2P matrix and doesn't look like I would lose much by dropping my subscription. I already own almost everything I want for my characters already and Cryptic said they wouldn't take away what was already purchased.

The one thing that most of my chars would miss is the VA ship token, so may need to keep the subscription until the 600 day Veteran reward.

.

Just a couple of things to note if you're going for f2p.

1) F2P players will *never* get any of the veteran status and rewards regardless of how long they play the game.
2) F2P players start with fewer inventory and bank slots (I have no idea if they will reduce your inventory and bank slot if you go from subscriber to f2p)
3) No free skill respec unless you pay for them with c-points.

I've been looking over the F2P matrix trying to work out if it's better to keep subscribing or just go free. What's stopping me really is the veteran rewards (particularly the loss of the Veteran ship token, although both toons that would need it so have an unused Bortas each).

The inventory and bank slots are an issue too (it would cost several monthly's subs to replace them on all my toons), but the respec isn't really an issue as I don't use them that much.

 

[Rocketeer]

Just a couple of things to note if you're going for f2p.

1) F2P players will *never* get any of the veteran status and rewards regardless of how long they play the game.
2) F2P players start with fewer inventory and bank slots (I have no idea if they will reduce your inventory and bank slot if you go from subscriber to f2p)
3) No free skill respec unless you pay for them with c-points.

Yep, that's why I'm considering switching at the 600 day mark. The cost of buying VA ships for the remaining characters is more than the cost of subscription.

I'm not a starting F2P player, so if Cryptic remains true to their word about not taking away anything I've purchased, I should be okay. And to be honest, I've practiced good housekeeping so don't really need a lot of bank or inventory slots.

I don't usually use skill respecs unless they force me to. So not a problem there.

***

Like I said, just weighing the advantage/disadvantages. Right now, it looks like Cryptic is giving F2P players 95% of everything. Seems overly generous to me.
.

 

[Rocketeer]

I've been looking over the F2P matrix trying to work out if it's better to keep subscribing or just go free. What's stopping me really is the veteran rewards (particularly the loss of the Veteran ship token, although both toons that would need it so have an unused Bortas each).

The inventory and bank slots are an issue too (it would cost several monthly's subs to replace them on all my toons), but the respec isn't really an issue as I don't use them that much.

Yeah, most of my chars have the Odyssey or Bortas, but not everyone is an Engineer.

Does anyone know if you actually lose bank/inventory slots? Based on what I've read on the F2P FAQ, it doesn't look like they would be taken away. I'd like to talk with someone that has converted from active subscriber to f2p to see how it affected them.

.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Just a couple of things to note if you're going for f2p.

1) F2P players will *never* get any of the veteran status and rewards regardless of how long they play the game.
2) F2P players start with fewer inventory and bank slots (I have no idea if they will reduce your inventory and bank slot if you go from subscriber to f2p)
3) No free skill respec unless you pay for them with c-points.

Existing toons won't lose anything but won't gain anything unless through the store, and new characters will never get any gold perks.