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

[intrinsical]

I just had a quick look at the new crafting system on Tribble. Ugh.

1) Big icons, but small fonts for assignment names. Its made duty officer assignments much harder to find. Also, all special duty officer assignment rewards are just listed as "Special Duty Officer", even though the reward could be a warp core, shield. Very. Non. Intuitive.

2) All star cluster maps have been removed and replaced by one button that opens up a duty officer assignments that used to be in star clusters. Meaning we've lost all personal and departmental duty officer assignments at star clusters.

3) Old one step crafting recipes have been replaced by multi-step crafting. I could not do any crafting as I have no idea where to find the new crafting materials. But from the UI it looks like first, you have to craft sub-components, then have a final crafting step that makes an item. The quality is random, controlled by crafting level so a high level crafter has more chance of creating very rare items. I am not sure I like the idea that I put in x amount of dilithium but because of random factor, I may not craft a very rare item.

 

[Ruaidhri]

Yes, the official forums are full of talk about this. The random part seems like it will really discourage people from using the new system. Unless you are dilithium rich, it makes more sense to spend a little more for a guarantee. If the new crafted gear has unique (and useful) mods, I can see that tempting some to go with it. Also, will crafted items be bound, or can they be posted to the exchange in the new system?

And now doffs will be necessary for crafting as well, which appears to use assignment slots. Seems like a lot of negative change with little apparent benefit so far.

 

[intrinsical]

Yes, the official forums are full of talk about this. The random part seems like it will really discourage people from using the new system. Unless you are dilithium rich, it makes more sense to spend a little more for a guarantee. If the new crafted gear has unique (and useful) mods, I can see that tempting some to go with it.

The devs have mentioned in the past that they had considered making crafting a personal reputation faction. Which implies the items coming out of crafting will be roughly as powerful as personal reputation items. The dilithium costs is a further confirmation as they are in line with dil store costs and presonal reputation item costs. Unless Cryptic breaks its own design rules, there is no way the majority of crafted items will be as or more powerful than T5 fleet items.

The best Cryptic can do is have (A) unique mods that players find useful at the expense of less power elsewhere; and/or (B) have a tiny small handful of items that are more powerful than T5 fleet items. The third possibility is if the crafted item costs 300,000 dilithium, then yes it may be more powerful than a T5 fleet item.

Also, will crafted items be bound, or can they be posted to the exchange in the new system?

Afaik, they can be given to other players or sold on the exchange.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

So, taking intrinsical's advice, I'm becoming used to my ship controls as well as my controls on ground missions. (As a ship commander advances, this is really important).

For space missions and combat:
I've noticed that some Heavy Romulan Warbirds love to use those annoying cloaked tractor beams, so my science officer (Vulcan, of course) has learned a nifty tractor beam inhibitor which I use frequently when I come up against those buggers.

I also have equipped (thanks to my science officer's skill) a nifty sensor scrambler....among certain other scramblers or 'debuffs' that my own character has learned and is added to the ship's stats.

Right now, I'm trying out an aft mine launcher, which was used on me a few missions back by the Hirogen (?)

After going through all the ships I have, it seems like the long range science vessal suits me. It turns and moves fluidly, and it's quick thanks to my new warp core, character and console additions.

I'd decided to change up to my Ambassador-class - the U.S.S. Nyota Uhura - for a mission, but then I noticed something wasn't quite right. So, I returned to my soon-to-be modified Intrepid-class vessel, the U.S.S. Bessie Coleman.

It just puts one of my engineering officers out of a station because - since it's a science vessel - it adds one more science station in lieu of an engineering or tactical station. Hence, when I get my next ship during my next promotion, I'll be looking at: Number of stations, number of consoles, and slots for weapons.

Note: My heavy cruiser was a close second in the decision between it and my science vessel, but it only has a science station up to Lieutenant rank, and the learned abilities for my science officer - my bridge officer, not my actual character - is ranked around Lt. Cmdr.

(I'm still debating on whether or not I should discharge one of my engineering officers, but both of them are cool on ground missions: One is able to create a turret gun and the other creates a nice shield for when I come up against a group of enemies).

And that brings me to...

Ground Missions:
Since my character is science based she (yes, I'm playing a 'she') has a science kit. This new kit, based on my rank of Captain, allows me to have three (?) research additions and 1 medical addition for ground missions.

I have cool personal attacks like scrambling sensors, 'caging' certain foes, or creating a perimeter of fire (which sends a group of enemies running like crazy while my officers take them down. It was awesome seeing the Hirogen - the great hunters - being taken down so easily.

On a separate note, I'm trying to figure out which duty officers to put on active duty to give my ship more boost. And, I'm still trying to figure out the best ship console additions.

(*sigh* Such an addictive game).

 

[intrinsical]

Do you know you can change your bridge officer's skills to whatever (almost) you want? So if you want an engineering officer that can create a turret AND shield, you can. Just look for the skill trainer in Earth Space Dock. Granted, he is a little hard to find since his office is tucked away under Admiral Quinn's office.

On the ground, science kits are either focused on healing or buffs and offensive. For an offensive science kit, try slotting Electro-Gravitic Field and Exothermic Induction Field. The first roots and slows all opponents in an area, the second sets them on fire. They'll try to run but becuase they are rooted and slowed, they can't easily escape. Its a nasty combo.

In space, the staple skill that just about everyone uses is Tactical Team (TT). I usually keep two copies of TT running. Be sure to have some shield heals (Science Team, Emergency Power to Shields and Transfer Shield Strength) as well as some hull heals (Engineering Team, Auxiliary to SIF and Hazard Emitters). And as you approach level 50, you will find that you are often facing multiple opponents at once. That is when area attacks like Beam Fire At Will, Torpedo Spread and Cannon Scatter Volley become very useful.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Do you know you can change your bridge officer's skills to whatever (almost) you want? So if you want an engineering officer that can create a turret AND shield, you can. Just look for the skill trainer in Earth Space Dock. Granted, he is a little hard to find since his office is tucked away under Admiral Quinn's office.

On the ground, science kits are either focused on healing or buffs and offensive. For an offensive science kit, try slotting Electro-Gravitic Field and Exothermic Induction Field. The first roots and slows all opponents in an area, the second sets them on fire. They'll try to run but becuase they are rooted and slowed, they can't easily escape. Its a nasty combo.

In space, the staple skill that just about everyone uses is Tactical Team (TT). I usually keep two copies of TT running. Be sure to have some shield heals (Science Team, Emergency Power to Shields and Transfer Shield Strength) as well as some hull heals (Engineering Team, Auxiliary to SIF and Hazard Emitters). And as you approach level 50, you will find that you are often facing multiple opponents at once. That is when area attacks like Beam Fire At Will, Torpedo Spread and Cannon Scatter Volley become very useful.

Yeah, I think I retrained one of my bridge officers (for shipboard duties) for hull repair and emergency shields, since I lost one of the engineering stations after settling on the Intrepid-class vessel. I'll see if I can do that for my away team as well.

I've just now been promoted to Rear-Admiral, so I'm looking at the Sovereign-class and Luna-class. And, judging from the needs of the science station - one more shield heal in addition to my engineering shield heal and shield batteries, as well as my tractor beam suppressant and sensor scramble - I may just go with the Luna-class.

I'm going to try out some of your suggestions, specifically the Tactical Team. (And, now that I think about it, I've rarely used tactical skills in space up until now - the only ones I have used infrequently are 'Beam Overload' and 'High Yield Torpedo').

As probably aforementioned, I have the Nimbus III frigate add-on that I use every now and then. I've also recently got some scorpion fighters which helped somewhat in space battles; the Remans or Hirogen I used them on stopped them with cloaked tractor beams. However, I also have another addition I really like using: Photonic Starships. (Which is interesting since they're 'holograms' and they do actual damage, but as long as they're on my side I'm going with it! )

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Excellent Dev Blog on the new Uniform code with the free release of the Odyssey uniforms and the updates to the fleet unlocks.

http://community.arcgames.com/en/news/star-trek-online/detail/6003273

 

[Aeolusdallas]

Excellent Dev Blog on the new Uniform code with the free release of the Odyssey uniforms and the updates to the fleet unlocks.

http://community.arcgames.com/en/news/star-trek-online/detail/6003273

Those look really nice

 

[Joel_Kirk]

So, my first character - Mei Ling - has reached Admiral. It was interesting going back to the cruiser, and finding the turn rate sooooo slow. (Especially in the PvE with the Klingons; it took me the entire length of the match to get just 'two' Klingon ships....even with my attack power set to 100 and using antiproton beam and transphasic torpedo!) Hence, I am now back in my Recon Science Vessel, and I'm considering going back to my Long Range Sci Vessel.

I just created another character - Tactical - Lt. Jeremiah Curtis. And, it's interesting dealing with the turn rate and slow speed (for now) with the Lt. Cruiser. (Note: I didn't realize at the start one was able to select either Tactical, Science, or Engineering!)

Based on time, I am considering a third....maybe fourth character. I am considering an Andorian Engineering officer (male or female)....a Trill (definitely female, based on my fandom for Jadzia Dax) or a Romulan (male or female).

So, far....my favorite sequence is the 'taking back of DS9' as you're walking outside the station....and taking out the Jem'Hadar who have overtook said station. And, the eventually space battle when you're fighting with other ships.

 

[intrinsical]

Congratulations on the promotion to Admiral. Have you been going around yelling at everyone, "That's a stupid question!" then watch with glee as they squirm and flee in terror?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

If you enjoy Cruisers, but are annoyed by their turnrate you should try to get some Elite Fleet Engineering consoles.

Those come with with basically 2 traints instead of just one.

So you can get RCS (turnrate) consoles that enhance your armor as a secondary effect or armor consoles with extra turnrate. And on a cruiser you can usually install 4-5 of these babies.
You won't quite get the turnrate of an escort but you can push it to science ship levels easily.

Firepower will depend on which cruiser you pick, but some of the more tactical oriented deal DPS with the best of them, if you spend your skill points right and take a look on how to manage your power levels most effeciently.

With the correct skill point allocation, the right gear and doffs it should be doable to keep your weapon power level at around 100-125 nearly at all times.

The biggest bonus cruisers have weapons wise, 8 weapons slots and broadside ability, can also be their greatest weakness.
When you equip 6-8 beams and unleash all of them in a broadside attack simultaneously you get a steep penalty in powerlevels. Each beam will have less power available then the one before and thus less damage until the next firing cycle.

So what you want to do is have way more power in weapons than 100 available.

There is a power cap at 125, so technically you can't have a higher output then that. Think of this as the maximum wattage a weapon can channel.
But there is an invisible power pool above 125 other weapons can draw from if you exceed the 125. Instead of reducing your active powerlevel weapons will draw from this pool until that is drained and only then reduce your the rest.

A cruiser that can hold it's weapons at 100+ power is quite deadly.

A common build to achieve this is the so called Aux2Batt build where you divert auxilliary power to weapons/shield/engines.

Aux2Batt is a a boff engineering power.

The Aux power levels get completely drained by doing this, which leaves most of your science based powers completely ineffective until aux slowly recharges, so it takes a bit of practice when to use which power.

As an engineer you don't necessarily need aux2bat because you have additional powers for better power management, combine that with a few well used batteries and you could have all 4 power levels at 100+ nearly at all times.

If you mastered this you will free up additiona boff slots for better defense (shield hardening, heals, etc) or offensive powers (warp plasma, tractor beam, shield penetration, etc)

 

[Joel_Kirk]

If you enjoy Cruisers, but are annoyed by their turnrate you should try to get some Elite Fleet Engineering consoles.

Those come with with basically 2 traints instead of just one.

So you can get RCS (turnrate) consoles that enhance your armor as a secondary effect or armor consoles with extra turnrate. And on a cruiser you can usually install 4-5 of these babies.
You won't quite get the turnrate of an escort but you can push it to science ship levels easily.

Firepower will depend on which cruiser you pick, but some of the more tactical oriented deal DPS with the best of them, if you spend your skill points right and take a look on how to manage your power levels most effeciently.

With the correct skill point allocation, the right gear and doffs it should be doable to keep your weapon power level at around 100-125 nearly at all times.

The biggest bonus cruisers have weapons wise, 8 weapons slots and broadside ability, can also be their greatest weakness.
When you equip 6-8 beams and unleash all of them in a broadside attack simultaneously you get a steep penalty in powerlevels. Each beam will have less power available then the one before and thus less damage until the next firing cycle.

So what you want to do is have way more power in weapons than 100 available.

There is a power cap at 125, so technically you can't have a higher output then that. Think of this as the maximum wattage a weapon can channel.
But there is an invisible power pool above 125 other weapons can draw from if you exceed the 125. Instead of reducing your active powerlevel weapons will draw from this pool until that is drained and only then reduce your the rest.

A cruiser that can hold it's weapons at 100+ power is quite deadly.

A common build to achieve this is the so called Aux2Batt build where you divert auxilliary power to weapons/shield/engines.

Aux2Batt is a a boff engineering power.

The Aux power levels get completely drained by doing this, which leaves most of your science based powers completely ineffective until aux slowly recharges, so it takes a bit of practice when to use which power.

As an engineer you don't necessarily need aux2bat because you have additional powers for better power management, combine that with a few well used batteries and you could have all 4 power levels at 100+ nearly at all times.

If you mastered this you will free up additiona boff slots for better defense (shield hardening, heals, etc) or offensive powers (warp plasma, tractor beam, shield penetration, etc)

Thanks, Timelord...

My current layout on my Recon Sci Vessal (U.S.S. Benjamin Sisko) - since my last post - is an Antiproton omnidirectional beam, as well as a single beam. One transphasic torp in the front, one in the back. And, one cluster transphasic torp in the aft, as well as a quantum torp in the aft.

I'm going to check out the RCS consoles and the Aux 2 Battery you brought out and experiment on the cruisers I want to use...

 

[intrinsical]

Engineer with a cruiser is one of the most powerful combo in this game. As an engineer, you will have little difficulty overcapping weapons power at 125+. This allows you to sustain consistent 2-4k damage shots using beam arrays. Coupled with the cruiser's innate strong hull, good shields and excellent heals, an Engineer's cruiser is deadly and resilient.

My approach for cruisers is slightly different from Timelord's. My strategy with cruisers is to arm 8 beam arrays, stay at 10km range away from my target(s) and fire all 8 arrays. At this long range, it is easy to keep all 8 weapons on my targets despite the slow turn rate. And in the rare occasion that I need quick turns, I just use Evasive Maneuvers.

Be careful with using Aux to Batt (I call it a2b), as there are downsides. When a2b is active, all your auxiliary power is transferred to other subsystems. Leaving auxiliary power at zero. And since all science bridge officer abilities depend on auxiliary power, they only apply absolutely minimum effect when a2b is active. That means critical abilities such as hull and shield heals, buffs and debuffs will be near useless. This can be very bad for ships that depend heavily on science abilities, such as most science vessels.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Engineer with a cruiser is one of the most powerful combo in this game. As an engineer, you will have little difficulty overcapping weapons power at 125+. This allows you to sustain consistent 2-4k damage shots using beam arrays. Coupled with the cruiser's innate strong hull, good shields and excellent heals, an Engineer's cruiser is deadly and resilient.

My approach for cruisers is slightly different from Timelord's. My strategy with cruisers is to arm 8 beam arrays, stay at 10km range away from my target(s) and fire all 8 arrays. At this long range, it is easy to keep all 8 weapons on my targets despite the slow turn rate. And in the rare occasion that I need quick turns, I just use Evasive Maneuvers.

Be careful with using Aux to Batt (I call it a2b), as there are downsides. When a2b is active, all your auxiliary power is transferred to other subsystems. Leaving auxiliary power at zero. And since all science bridge officer abilities depend on auxiliary power, they only apply absolutely minimum effect when a2b is active. That means critical abilities such as hull and shield heals, buffs and debuffs will be near useless. This can be very bad for ships that depend heavily on science abilities, such as most science vessels.

It seems like Engineers have it good on the ground as well. They can create cover shields, medical generators, and turrets...

Yeah, I was thinking about taking my support cruiser out, but my science officer was promoted....and was able to utilize the gravity well skill....which I've seen another player - on the PvP Capture and Hold - use. I'm assuming s/he got their gravity well from the Fleet because the one used was taking in more than one ship; it seemed to be more powerful than the one I currently have.

So, for now my layout of consoles is as follows:
*2 RCS Accelerators (Engineering)
2 Emitter Arrays, 1 Power Insulator, and 1 Biofunction Monitor - I did some experimenting by removing this monitor before the arena battle to found out that repairs are extremely slow if it isn't in place (Science)
*2 Antiproton Mag Regulators, and 1 Warhead Yield Chamber (Tactical)

I was even looking into the Mirror Universe Assault Cruiser for sale in the exchange since the game's wiki said that cruiser is geared more towards science. Alas, the science area only goes up to Lt. or Lt. Cmdr., I think.

I think - at least for this character - get the ship to where it has strong shields. And, of course, where it can turn a bit quicker than previous missions.

 

[intrinsical]

I was even looking into the Mirror Universe Assault Cruiser for sale in the exchange since the game's wiki said that cruiser is geared more towards science. Alas, the science area only goes up to Lt. or Lt. Cmdr., I think.

Just fyi, you will never find a Cmdr Science cruiser, nor a Cmdr Eng science vessel - these break Cryptic's ship design rules. When someone says a cruiser is science or tac oriented, they are almost always referring to the Lt. Cmdr bridge officer slot.

You may find it interesting to know Cryptic's ship design rules. It may help you pick a ship you would like.

Cruiser design rules:

• Cmdr Engineer bridge officer slot
• Access to Cruiser Command abilities
• 4 Forward weapons
• 4 Aft weapons
• 4-5 Engineering console slots
• +5 weapon, shield, engine and auxiliary power (usually)
• +10% more hull hitpoints (usually)
• 1.0 shield multiplier for standard ships, 1.1 shield multiplier for fleet grade ships
• 4 device slots
• Low turn rates

Science Vessel design rules:

• Cmdr Science bridge officer slot
• Secondary Deflector slot (to be released soon)
• 3 Forward weapons
• 3 Aft weapons
• 4-5 Science consoles
• +15 aux power (some have +10 aux and +5 to another subsystem)
• Average hull hitpoints (usually)
• 1.3 shield multiplier standard ships, 1.45 shield multiplier for fleet grade ships
• 3 device slots
• Average turn rates

Escort design rules:

• Cmdr Tactical bridge officer slot
• Can use Dual Cannons and Dual Heavy Cannons
• 4 Forward weapons
• 3 Aft weapons
• 4-5 Tactical consoles
• +15 weapon power (some have +10 weapon and +5 to another subsystem)
• -10% hull hitpoints (usually)
• 0.9 shield multiplier for standard ships, 0.99 shield multplier for fleet grade ships
• 2 device slots
• High turn rates

These are the 3 standard Federation ship types. Recently, Cryptic have started introducing carriers and hybrids such as Destroyers and Dreadnaughts. I have no idea what Dreadnaught's design rules are since there is only 1 Fed Dreadnaught.

Destroyer (Cruiser/Escort hybrid, mix of cruiser and escort bonuses and penalities) design rules:

• Cmdr Tactical bridge officer slot
• Can use Dual Cannons and Dual Heavy Cannons
• Access to 2 Cruiser Command abilities
• 4 Forward weapons
• 3 Aft weapons
• 4 Tactical console
• +10 weapon power, +5 engine power
• Average hull hitpoints (usually)
• 0.9 shield multiplier for standard ships, 0.99 shield multplier for fleet grade ships
• 3 device slots
• Average turn rates

And then there are Science Destroyers. I haven't really looked at them in detail, but I presume they are a Science Vessel/Escort hybrid. Klingon and Romulan ships have their own ship types and associated design rules too. For example, all Klingon ships have universal bridge officer slots and all Romulan ships use a Singularity Core rather than a Warp Core, which gives them additional abilities at the expense of lower subsystem power levels.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Well written summary.

Some corrections, though.

Science vessels have an extra ability with sensor analysis and innate subsystem targeting abilities.


Not all Klingon ships have universal bridge officer stations, just the Bird of Prey Raiders.
All Klingon(not all KDF) have a cloaking device, with Bird of Prey raiders using battlecloaks which enable cloak under red alert.

Klingon cruisers are all battle cruisers, which don't have all cruiser commands and have slightly lower hull, but can mount dual cannons and have a higher turnrate.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Timelord Victorious and Intrinsical,

Thanks again.

With my new additions, I was able to hold my own in the Fleet

I'm now going through my character (and her crew) to find out what ground weapons work and what I can train in.

I saw some interesting 'powers' or abilities during the Colony Invasion PvE map - a map that seems to be pretty popular. One player had his (or her) character 'levitate' the Hirogen baddies, either crushing them while taking away their life. Another called - what I think - a strike (?) from above.

I'm assuming those skills are either for Tac or Engineering officers, but what are they?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Timelord Victorious and Intrinsical,

Thanks again.

With my new additions, I was able to hold my own in the Fleet

I'm now going through my character (and her crew) to find out what ground weapons work and what I can train in.

I saw some interesting 'powers' or abilities during the Colony Invasion PvE map - a map that seems to be pretty popular. One player had his (or her) character 'levitate' the Hirogen baddies, either crushing them while taking away their life.

thats from an item you can only get from the last Devidian mission during the featured episode event.

Another called - what I think - a strike (?) from above.

I'm assuming those skills are either for Tac or Engineering officers, but what are they?

Its an engineering ability.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Timelord Victorious and Intrinsical,
One player had his (or her) character 'levitate' the Hirogen baddies, either crushing them while taking away their life.

The Devidian Cane - an item available when they do a rerun of Feature Episodes, for playing The Night of the Comet.

Another called - what I think - a strike (?) from above.

Orbital Strike - an Engineering Player Character-only ability. I forget what level it's available at. Essentially your ship sends a phaser volley at the location of your enemy.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Captain (rank) abilities Ground:
Tactical: 2 Security Guards (with the right doffs up to 6 guards)
Engineering: Orbital Strike (not sure what doff affects this ability)
Science: Medical Nanite Cloud captain or friendly target get a 3 charges heal triggered when HP fall below 30% or something like that. (there is also a doff enhancement, making this an AoE ability)