Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)
- Thread starter daedalus5
- Start date
- Status
I'm new to the game just started a couple days ago and have a some questions. How long does it take to rank up to the next tier? How far can a free player get without spending any money? How does one go about obtaining enough currency (dilithium I think?) to buy the next tier of starship?
You can get the next tier os ship when you get promoted, which doesn't take that long to get to LTCDR from LT. There's a progress bar along the top of the screen that shows how much you have to get before getting to the next grade. There are 10 grades per rank.
Not much. If you play an hour or two every day, you should easily hit level 50 in under a month by playing all the Featured Episode missions.
Pretty much what the others have said, you get 1 ship token at levels 10, 20, 30 and 40 that you can exchange for a free ship. You also get 1 shuttle token that lets you get a shuttle for free the first time you encounter a shuttle-only mission. These ships and shuttle are more than sufficient for anything the game throws at you (except PvP) if you choose your ship carefully.
Hi all, I've a newbie question since I just joined the game. I'm a tactical officer who just bought a Constitution class, and I have two spots for Engineering bridge officers, one for ensign, one for LT. I've filled the LT Engineering bridge officer spot, so I have one spot for an Ensign engineer. I have said-officer ready (rank and career), but I can't seem to assign them the spot. Did I miss something in the tutorial?
Press 'U' to open up the officer/ship interface thingy (the one where you assign where your skill points are spent, what weapons your ship is mounting etc.) and select your ship on the left hand side, and click the 'Stations' tab at the top, there it should have the options to assign bridge officers to your ship's specific stations.
Levelling is fast and easy, but don't be in a rush.Leroy said:
Take your time, learn the game, don't rush any decision, especially those concerning valuable assets you might (or might not) obtain.
One of those is Efficient Bridge Officers (some Saurians for the Feds,some Letheans for the Klingons), many new players underestimate how valuable those are.
Well, like many f2p games: you can, in theory, do everything and get everything as a free player.
In practice, there are 2 types of ships: free ones and c-store ones.
The free ones you get one at each rankup, at no cost at all. If you want more of those, you'll need 120k dilithium (minimum 15 days of grinding, quite manageable).
The c-store ones, you'll never have. You can convert dilithium into c-points (current rate 305 dil=1 c-point), but there are so many things to buy before thinking of getting new ships:
- A retrain token (400 c-points). By the time you hit max level, chances are you'll want to skill differently.
- Extra BOFF slots (2 for 200 c-points). The standard 6 don't give you any flexibilty and lock you into a single ship. 8 to 10 is more manageable.
- EC cap increase (400 c-points). Might not seem like a big deal when you first start, you can't even imagine getting 10M EC at that point but high-end gear (and DOFFs) sells for more than the cap, so if you want to equip your ship well, you'll have to increase the EC cap.
After that, you can start thinking of amassing 2000-4000 c-points for a c-store ship, but by the time you have the points a new, better batch will be released.
In PvE, it's not too bad, a free ship can handle itself well in Elite STFs; in PvP you have to accept you'll never beat some people.
Someone with an Impulse Capacitance Cell console, for instance: they'll activate it when low on health and bam, you can't catch up and finish them, even with full power to Engines (&Hyper-Impulse Engines), Evasive Manoeuvers, APO and a Deuterium Burst.
No, my problem is (and apologies for not clarifying), is that I can assign officers to the other stations except for one. That last station is an Ensign Engineering station. I have a bridge officer candidate that is an Ensign Engineer, but I can't assign her despite the open spot. I have all other spots filled.
To note, it looks like this:
Ensign Tactical - filled
Lt. Engineering - filled
Ensign Science - filled
Ensign Engineering - open
Despite that I have two Ensign engineers ready. They say there are no bridge spots open, but as you can see from the list, I have a spot open.
Sounds like a bug. Can you assign your Lieutenant Engineer there?
By the way: rank doesn't matter. You can assign a commander BOFF in an Ensign slot or vice versa. In the latter case, you'll only have 1 ability instead of 4, but the game will let you do it nonetheless.
In light of that, you should rank your officers up as soon as you spent enoughpoints on them, it'll make Ground easier.
By the way: rank doesn't matter. You can assign a commander BOFF in an Ensign slot or vice versa. In the latter case, you'll only have 1 ability instead of 4, but the game will let you do it nonetheless.
In light of that, you should rank your officers up as soon as you spent enoughpoints on them, it'll make Ground easier.
Spend your time doing missions, but you can also let your downtime work for you with Duty Officer Assignments. the DOff assignments give items, experience and dilithium while you are asleep or at work.
I set up the max assignments before I go to bed at night, and again before I go to work in the morning. I think about a third of my experience has come from doff assignments.
When you say your ensign engineering officer is a candidate, do you mean he is on the list of officers on the left, along with your own self/captain and the ship, or is he on the list to the right?
If he's on the right list, you'll need to get that officer to join your crew before you can assign him. If he's on the left, sounds like a bug.
He was on the left, but thanks for pointing that out, Xhiandra and SilentP. I've reported the issue.
That's one of the hard things about being a newbie in an MMO -- sometimes you can't tell if something's a bug or not
I have a couple Elite requisitions burning a hole in my inventory, short only the shield requisition, and am curious as to whether the veteran players feel the MACO space set or Omega Force space set is the more effective? Tactical captain in a fleet escort.
I've been trying not to mix the equipment sets up, if for no other reason than you get some bonus effects by using multiple items.
I've flown both the Breen and Jem'Hadar sets, and found each useful in it's own way (though my tactical captain doesn't benefit too much by the abilities either of those sets provide) but have been using the Borg set for its defensive benefits. And the tractor beam comes in handy in STFs. Had to turn off the visuals, though. Made my fleet escort even uglier.
On a side note, I seem to be noticing a lot of really immature players lately. Lots of name calling and childish behavior, particularly around DS9. It's really annoying, and I felt bad for a player who was singled out in an STF by 2 others after he blew something up prematurely. They spent more time whining on the chat than they did trying to deal with the borg ships.
I've been trying not to mix the equipment sets up, if for no other reason than you get some bonus effects by using multiple items.
I've flown both the Breen and Jem'Hadar sets, and found each useful in it's own way (though my tactical captain doesn't benefit too much by the abilities either of those sets provide) but have been using the Borg set for its defensive benefits. And the tractor beam comes in handy in STFs. Had to turn off the visuals, though. Made my fleet escort even uglier.
On a side note, I seem to be noticing a lot of really immature players lately. Lots of name calling and childish behavior, particularly around DS9. It's really annoying, and I felt bad for a player who was singled out in an STF by 2 others after he blew something up prematurely. They spent more time whining on the chat than they did trying to deal with the borg ships.
Picking the right equipment for your ship at level 50 is a huge topic, and often it doesn't just involve picking the equipment but also involves what bridge officer skills you use in space combat. Before I go into the deep end, lets start with something simple:
The Beginner's Set
The set consists of 4 items that are relatively easy to obtain and is one of the most defensive setup in the game:
The MACO shield is one of the best in the game (and much, much, MUCH better than the Borg shield). The 3-piece Borg set unlocks the Borg set's additional powers. It grants a 2% chance to repair your hull and a 20% chance to restore your shields every time your ship is damaged.
Bridge Officer (BOff) Abilities
As you get more experienced with ship combat you should start relying more on your BOff abilities to keep your ship from exploding and rely less on your ship's gear. The good defensive BOff abilities include Emergency Power to Shields, Tactical/Engineering/Science Teams, Hazard Emitters, Transfer Shield Strength and Polarize Hull. Make sure you have at least 3 (I typically have 5-6) or more of these abilities and use them regularly to keep your ship in good condition.
Expert Players
When you have a good grasp of your BOff abilities and can reliably use them to keep your ship in good condition, that is when you can start weaning off from the Borg & MACO set.
The other equipment sets tend to offer less defense but in exchange gives your ship more offensive capabilities. For example my current favorite is the Omega Set. When used with high rate of fire weapons such as cannons and turrets, the Omega Set's Tetryon Glider and Gravitic Anchor powers allow you to quickly remove an opponent's shields and cause a lot more hull damage.
The Beginner's Set
The set consists of 4 items that are relatively easy to obtain and is one of the most defensive setup in the game:
- Assimilated Deflector Array
- Assimilated Subtranswarp Engine
- M.A.C.O. Resilient Shield Array
- Console - Universal - Assimilated Module
The MACO shield is one of the best in the game (and much, much, MUCH better than the Borg shield). The 3-piece Borg set unlocks the Borg set's additional powers. It grants a 2% chance to repair your hull and a 20% chance to restore your shields every time your ship is damaged.
Bridge Officer (BOff) Abilities
As you get more experienced with ship combat you should start relying more on your BOff abilities to keep your ship from exploding and rely less on your ship's gear. The good defensive BOff abilities include Emergency Power to Shields, Tactical/Engineering/Science Teams, Hazard Emitters, Transfer Shield Strength and Polarize Hull. Make sure you have at least 3 (I typically have 5-6) or more of these abilities and use them regularly to keep your ship in good condition.
Expert Players
When you have a good grasp of your BOff abilities and can reliably use them to keep your ship in good condition, that is when you can start weaning off from the Borg & MACO set.
The other equipment sets tend to offer less defense but in exchange gives your ship more offensive capabilities. For example my current favorite is the Omega Set. When used with high rate of fire weapons such as cannons and turrets, the Omega Set's Tetryon Glider and Gravitic Anchor powers allow you to quickly remove an opponent's shields and cause a lot more hull damage.
Thanks for the response, intrinsical.
I've been rejigging my bridge officer abilities a bit lately, and I just re-spec'd my toon to get rid of some point allocations that I didn't fully understand when I originally assigned them and place them in better areas. I really didn't need all those points in Flow Capacitors.
Here's my BOff layout:
Commander Tactical:
Tac Team 1 / Cannon Sc. Vol. 1 / Attack Pat. Beta 2 / Attack Pat.Omega 2
Lt. Commander Tactical:
Beam Overload 1 / Tac Team 2 / Torp. Spread 3
Lt. Engineering:
Emerg. Power to Shields 1 / Rev. Shield Polarity 1
Ens. Engineering:
Eng. Team 1
Lt. Science:
Sci Team 1 / Hazard Emitters 2
I've gone all Mark XI [Borg] Anti-Proton energy weapons and purple Mark XII [Borg] quantum torpedoes. Buffed up on my attack run to remove the shields with the AP weapons, then a torpedo spread to the hull. I've been thinking about getting rid of BO1 and replacing it with another CSV or maybe Cannon Rapid Fire. I feel like I have a decent assortment of healing abilities, and I tend to make looping hit and run attacks.
I've been rejigging my bridge officer abilities a bit lately, and I just re-spec'd my toon to get rid of some point allocations that I didn't fully understand when I originally assigned them and place them in better areas. I really didn't need all those points in Flow Capacitors.
Here's my BOff layout:
Commander Tactical:
Tac Team 1 / Cannon Sc. Vol. 1 / Attack Pat. Beta 2 / Attack Pat.Omega 2
Lt. Commander Tactical:
Beam Overload 1 / Tac Team 2 / Torp. Spread 3
Lt. Engineering:
Emerg. Power to Shields 1 / Rev. Shield Polarity 1
Ens. Engineering:
Eng. Team 1
Lt. Science:
Sci Team 1 / Hazard Emitters 2
I've gone all Mark XI [Borg] Anti-Proton energy weapons and purple Mark XII [Borg] quantum torpedoes. Buffed up on my attack run to remove the shields with the AP weapons, then a torpedo spread to the hull. I've been thinking about getting rid of BO1 and replacing it with another CSV or maybe Cannon Rapid Fire. I feel like I have a decent assortment of healing abilities, and I tend to make looping hit and run attacks.
I've noticed that the main Federation hubs, DS9 in particular, seem to attract some rather...vocal individuals, especially in the Zone chat. I don't know if it's particularly worse than before though.
When it comes to the STFs there seems to be a snobbish expectation from some players for everyone to know everything, and whine when things don't go perfectly. I was playing KA Ground a couple of days ago where one player was spewing things on the Team speak like "LEARN PROCESS!!" and "ON ELITE, NO ONE WILL WAIT FOR YOU!!" I was very tempted to tell him to stow it.
ETA: Also, I've just tried using the standard Klingon carrier and it doesn't seem to give the kind of punch along with it's fighters when compared to my Vor'cha Retrofit. What kind of playstyle I should expect to adopt when using carriers when compared to cruisers and science vessels?
Its just a personal preference, but I prefer to use dual heavy cannons and turrets on my escort ships for that extra punch.
Note that Tactical Team, Engineering Team and Science Team all share the same cooldown timer. Which means if you use any one of the three abilities, the you can't use the others for quite some time. For that reason, I tend to stick with only 2 Tactical teams and no science/engineering teams. I also like to have two Emergency Power to Shields as they not only provide shield regeneration, but also reduces damage for 30 seconds.
As for KDF carriers, I have never played them so I can only provide general tips. Rare blue fighters from the dilithium store performs better than the uncommon green fighters. Also, not all fighters are designed for causing damage. Some are designed to drain energy, others disable subsystems so choose your fighters wisely.
Note that Tactical Team, Engineering Team and Science Team all share the same cooldown timer. Which means if you use any one of the three abilities, the you can't use the others for quite some time. For that reason, I tend to stick with only 2 Tactical teams and no science/engineering teams. I also like to have two Emergency Power to Shields as they not only provide shield regeneration, but also reduces damage for 30 seconds.
As for KDF carriers, I have never played them so I can only provide general tips. Rare blue fighters from the dilithium store performs better than the uncommon green fighters. Also, not all fighters are designed for causing damage. Some are designed to drain energy, others disable subsystems so choose your fighters wisely.
It's more of a support role. You could try going for a drain build. Use powerdraining Boff abilities and support with powerdraining drones.
I think it's the Dacoit Flight Deck cruiser that has the best powerdraining pets, but simple Power Siphon Drones work well too.
In an elite STF, a good drain carrier can leave an elite tac cube nothing more than a helpless heap of metal in space.
- Status
Similar threads
