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

[Ruaidhri]

The MU ships have been cheap as dirt because they're so common. They'll probably go up in price a little after the boxes go out, but I can't imagine by much.

So, I've ground out enough Zen for a new ship for my Tactical captain, and have been trying to decide which one. My fleet patrol escort will probably continue to be my main vessel because of it's superior stats and the extra console slot, but I want to give myself a few different offense-minded play styles as time goes on. MVAE, Heavy Escort Carrier or Assault Cruiser Refit.

I have the run-of-the-mill assault cruiser but could NOT make it work. I think I'd do better with it now just because I've gotten the hang of the Negh'Var on the KDF side, and that wide angle torp launcher looks nice. And of course, it's a cruiser rather than another escort. MVAE would let me play with some science skills that haven't been in my repertoire yet and also experience the separated version. HEC looks like a similar (identical?) BOff layout to the patrol escort that I'm very comfortable in, but gives the hangar in addition.

I'm finding it surprisingly hard to make a decision. Of course, I could also get myself a new KDF ship, like the Guramba, but I think I want to stick with cruisers on that toon.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

What I like about the original Sovereign is that it is brilliantly balanced. It can be a formidable tank, nearly impossible to kill, maybe even more so than starcruisers and exploration cruisers thanks to that extra tac team you can slot only outtanked by the Odyssey.
It still has some teeth if not really a top damage dealer, but thanks to its 3 tac consoles it can provide some real pressure over Time.

What did you try to do with it, that wouldn't work?

If you want to go a strict damage route, the refit might be indeed the best cruiser for that. You compromise your survivability a bit and probably won't tank more than one enemy (player ships) without support.
Only competitors here are the Excelsior and Galor who turn better and trade ab ensign tac for an engineer.

 

[Ruaidhri]

I was getting blown up very easily in the assault cruiser, far more so than in the base-model patrol escort, which just seemed wrong. It was more a case of having the right BOff skills I think, and struggling with the loss of turn rate. Doing less damage AND dying faster didn't make for a fun experience. Now I must admit that I didn't stick with it for very long. It also probably didn't help that my Tac captain is specced out with an escort in mind.

I have some cruiser oriented BOffs just waiting for a ship to fly, but they probably still need some adjustment. I've got the hang of escorts--if I chose another one I don't think it would be much of a challenge. The cruiser, though, would present some effort to master, and I'm leaning towards it for that reason.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Yeah, if you build with an escort in mind the regent is the better choice.

If you want to tank well in the Sovereign, your entire skill tree needs to be reworked away from being damage dealer and an engineer does it better of course., but a tac can do it, too.

Make sure you max shield and armor over weapons, get skill points in hull and shield repair, damage resistance, etc and use gear accordingly. Then take a look at skills.
At some point you will be able to get chased by the entire KDF and not get killed (unless they power drain you to oblivion).

 

[intrinsical]

I just bought the Regent and I got to say I like it a lot more than the Galor.

Not that the Galor is bad. Almost nothing could penetrate its shields and it often takes the combined beating of 5+ ships to bring the Galor down. Which kinda makes the ship very boring to play since all I was doing was mashing the same sequence of buttons again and again.

The Regent on the other hand, is crewed by 2 Engineers, 3 Tactical officers and NO science officers. All it has is a single Aux2SIF hull heal but in exchange the ship deals a lot more damage than the Galor ever could. It is a riskier config which makes the ship a lot more fun to command.

 

[The Castellan]

Still wondering if weather to be an engineer or science. How should the Miranda be fitted out, since I'll probably be using this one for awhile once I get things going.

 

[intrinsical]

Still wondering if weather to be an engineer or science.

I'm assuming this is your first character? Engineer or Tactical Officer are equally good choices. I wouldn't recommend your first character to be a Science Officer as their ships and skills are somewhat... complicated to configure properly. Most new science officers I've seen simply give up on science vessels and either switch to escorts or cruisers.

How should the Miranda be fitted out, since I'll probably be using this one for awhile once I get things going.

It doesn't really matter as you will grow in levels very quickly and will be awarded new ships very soon.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I just bought the Regent and I got to say I like it a lot more than the Galor.

Not that the Galor is bad. Almost nothing could penetrate its shields and it often takes the combined beating of 5+ ships to bring the Galor down. Which kinda makes the ship very boring to play since all I was doing was mashing the same sequence of buttons again and again.

The Regent on the other hand, is crewed by 2 Engineers, 3 Tactical officers and NO science officers. All it has is a single Aux2SIF hull heal but in exchange the ship deals a lot more damage than the Galor ever could. It is a riskier config which makes the ship a lot more fun to command.

You realize, the Regent has a Lieutenant Universal Station, you can use science officers there.

Still wondering if weather to be an engineer or science. How should the Miranda be fitted out, since I'll probably be using this one for awhile once I get things going.

Actually, you probably spend just a few hours in the Miranda. Just use gear from loot drops and you will be fine. No need to invest energy credits, which you won't have enough of in the beginning.

 

[intrinsical]

I just bought the Regent and I got to say I like it a lot more than the Galor.

Not that the Galor is bad. Almost nothing could penetrate its shields and it often takes the combined beating of 5+ ships to bring the Galor down. Which kinda makes the ship very boring to play since all I was doing was mashing the same sequence of buttons again and again.

The Regent on the other hand, is crewed by 2 Engineers, 3 Tactical officers and NO science officers. All it has is a single Aux2SIF hull heal but in exchange the ship deals a lot more damage than the Galor ever could. It is a riskier config which makes the ship a lot more fun to command.

You realize, the Regent has a Lieutenant Universal Station, you can use science officers there.

I know. It was an intentional choice not to have a science officer.

 

[Ruaidhri]

I also just got the Assault cruiser refit, and I've been considering putting a tactical officer on that spot just to see how it would perform, but it seems like it would drastically impact survivability. Might be fun for giggles.

So, a few weeks ago I was very disappointed with my slow progress on diplomatic cxp, as I was plodding along making very little progress. I made a conscious decision to focus on diplomacy DOff missions first, and yesterday hit level 4 diplomacy. Boy did that feel like an accomplishment!

 

[intrinsical]

I have played several STFs in my Regent class USS Eaves (Named after John Eaves, the person who designed the Sovereign). So far the only time I've been killed is when I had to simultaneously tank the Cube, Negh'var and Raptor for a long time as no one else was attacking them.

I think that's pretty good for a ship with a single hull heal. Here's my BOFF layout:
Tac #1: TT I, FaW II
Tac #2: FaW I, APB I, TS III
Tac #3: TT I
Eng #1: EP2W I, DEM I, EP2S III, A2SIF III
Eng #2: EP2S I, RSP I

 

[syberghost]

ugh, another 2 weeks of the dropbox crap...

M

You do realize, they are never, ever going away, right? They are the primary income stream for the game, and only something that did remotely as well as them could possibly replace them.

 

[intrinsical]

ugh, another 2 weeks of the dropbox crap...

M

You do realize, they are never, ever going away, right? They are the primary income stream for the game, and only something that did remotely as well as them could possibly replace them.

Well, I hope Cryptic will be able to think up an alternative because more and more governments are viewing lockboxes as gambling that is accessible to children. I foresee more and more countries and states introducing some form of legislation to restrict such gaming mechanics or even outright banning such games in the coming years.

 

[syberghost]

Well, I hope Cryptic will be able to think up an alternative because more and more governments are viewing lockboxes as gambling that is accessible to children. I foresee more and more countries and states introducing some form of legislation to restrict such gaming mechanics or even outright banning such games in the coming years.

It'd be far more economical to just prohibit those under 18 than to replace such a lucrative revenue stream, and better for us, because the alternative is nickle and diming EVERYTHING or going back to subs. They won't do the latter; STO could have stayed on subs and lived, but going back would kill it, and most of the rest of PWE's games couldn't exist in the US with subs. CO would be gone if not for F2P; now it's making a healthy profit, and should grow even more with CoH out of the picture.

(Which, despite some ridiculous internet rumors, didn't have a thing to do with Cryptic.)

 

[Scout101]

Anyone know a good place to camp out and pick up recruiting DOFF missions, or find ones with bigger payoffs? I've hit max level on my main toon in every DOFF category except that one (well, colonization is ALMOST done, but easy to find), and it just seems like SLOW going there. Any good spots to rack these points up? Or missions to burn through?

And out of curiosity, is there any sort of bonus reward for actually maxing out ALL the categories?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

You realize, the Regent has a Lieutenant Universal Station, you can use science officers there.

My one annoyance here is that for some reason conversations don't recognize my Science Officer in the universal slot so I'm getting science officery information from my chief engineer.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

ugh, another 2 weeks of the dropbox crap...

M

You do realize, they are never, ever going away, right? They are the primary income stream for the game, and only something that did remotely as well as them could possibly replace them.

Well, I hope Cryptic will be able to think up an alternative because more and more governments are viewing lockboxes as gambling that is accessible to children. I foresee more and more countries and states introducing some form of legislation to restrict such gaming mechanics or even outright banning such games in the coming years.

I'd be more interested in why parents are letting their children spend money on an MMO without supervision, because the problem has a way easier solution if parents pay attention to what their kids are doing there. Its called DON'T BUY THE MASTER KEY.

 

[matthunter]

Aren't the recruitment missions at the Academy/Qo'nos (Officer Exchange Program) part of it?

Hee, just bought a model of the Luna Class since I like the design so much - no models via the usual sources but managed to find a template for a 3D printer and order from an online service! Needs painting but very happy with it.

If I join one of the TBBS fleets, am I expected to get heavily involved in PvE or PvP? I don't usually have time to be around for lengthy fleet missions and haven't actually done any STFs or FAs, but am willing to put in time running starbase missions and the like. Not sure it's worth it but I want a VA version of my Luna and the only options are Fleet ships... also the only Tier 5 Science vessel options which have 2 Tac, 1 Eng and 2 Sci slots are all Fleet.

 

[syberghost]

My one annoyance here is that for some reason conversations don't recognize my Science Officer in the universal slot so I'm getting science officery information from my chief engineer.

That system needs to be hooked up to the DOFF thing where you select department heads, and be done with it.

While they're at it, they could put the other couple of options that would give us into the Foundry.

 

[Scout101]

Aren't the recruitment missions at the Academy/Qo'nos (Officer Exchange Program) part of it?

probably, just wanted to know if there were any other locations to camp at where high-value DOFF missions would pop more. Hard to get Recruitment missions, and while the rest of mine are done, I'm just finishing Level 3, so need another 50k points there. Tough to get 50 points at a time...

If I join one of the TBBS fleets, am I expected to get heavily involved in PvE or PvP? I don't usually have time to be around for lengthy fleet missions and haven't actually done any STFs or FAs, but am willing to put in time running starbase missions and the like. Not sure it's worth it but I want a VA version of my Luna and the only options are Fleet ships... also the only Tier 5 Science vessel options which have 2 Tac, 1 Eng and 2 Sci slots are all Fleet.

No expectations. Run PvE to help other Fleet guys, run anything that gets Fleet Marks to donate, gather supplies to donate to the Starbase build, anything you like. We're not overly strict, pretty much do what you can to help, and don't be a leech. That's about it...