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[Amaris]

Neat! I'll have to run through it again with my Vulcan and see what happens.

After a day or so of tweaking, I think I have my ship right where I want it. I'm not uberpowered, and I'm not invincible, but I took on 2 BortaS, a BoP, and another KDF ship I couldn't recognize, all at the same time. They were using some kind of ability that generated dozens of BoPs, attack fighters, you name it. It was a swarm of ships from all directions, and even with all of that firepower coming down on top of me, I survived for 8 full minutes, and did a hell of a lot of damage myself, destroying at least 3 of them before they came back to rejoin the fight (and destroying dozens of fighters and BoPs in the process). I'd never been able to withstand more than 1 or 2 ships at most, at a time, for more than a minute or two, and while each ship is different and each commander differently skilled, I still feel proud.

 

[intrinsical]

My tactical toon Gilmore on the got very different dialogue at the start with the Vorta, something about "behaving better than your previous clone". I think this was because the Vorta NPC died on the previous FE(He fell from a bridge, I think).

I can't remember the mission name, but in the Cardassian FE there was a mission to rescue a ship stuck inside the wormhole. That's when we killed that Vorta's predessor.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Neat! I'll have to run through it again with my Vulcan and see what happens.

After a day or so of tweaking, I think I have my ship right where I want it. I'm not uberpowered, and I'm not invincible, but I took on 2 BortaS, a BoP, and another KDF ship I couldn't recognize, all at the same time. They were using some kind of ability that generated dozens of BoPs, attack fighters, you name it. It was a swarm of ships from all directions, and even with all of that firepower coming down on top of me, I survived for 8 full minutes, and did a hell of a lot of damage myself, destroying at least 3 of them before they came back to rejoin the fight (and destroying dozens of fighters and BoPs in the process). I'd never been able to withstand more than 1 or 2 ships at most, at a time, for more than a minute or two, and while each ship is different and each commander differently skilled, I still feel proud.

Was that in PvP?

 

[Amaris]

Neat! I'll have to run through it again with my Vulcan and see what happens.

After a day or so of tweaking, I think I have my ship right where I want it. I'm not uberpowered, and I'm not invincible, but I took on 2 BortaS, a BoP, and another KDF ship I couldn't recognize, all at the same time. They were using some kind of ability that generated dozens of BoPs, attack fighters, you name it. It was a swarm of ships from all directions, and even with all of that firepower coming down on top of me, I survived for 8 full minutes, and did a hell of a lot of damage myself, destroying at least 3 of them before they came back to rejoin the fight (and destroying dozens of fighters and BoPs in the process). I'd never been able to withstand more than 1 or 2 ships at most, at a time, for more than a minute or two, and while each ship is different and each commander differently skilled, I still feel proud.

Was that in PvP?

Yep. Ker'rat, to be exact.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Neat! I'll have to run through it again with my Vulcan and see what happens.

After a day or so of tweaking, I think I have my ship right where I want it. I'm not uberpowered, and I'm not invincible, but I took on 2 BortaS, a BoP, and another KDF ship I couldn't recognize, all at the same time. They were using some kind of ability that generated dozens of BoPs, attack fighters, you name it. It was a swarm of ships from all directions, and even with all of that firepower coming down on top of me, I survived for 8 full minutes, and did a hell of a lot of damage myself, destroying at least 3 of them before they came back to rejoin the fight (and destroying dozens of fighters and BoPs in the process). I'd never been able to withstand more than 1 or 2 ships at most, at a time, for more than a minute or two, and while each ship is different and each commander differently skilled, I still feel proud.

Was that in PvP?

Yep. Ker'rat, to be exact.

Then you were up against some kind of carrier among them. They mostly generate their DPS (or heals) through pets like the fighters and BoPs, sometimes heal drones.
Their BOFF layout is similar bit not the same as science vessels.
So they usually run high AUX settings to be effective (this also affects their pet launch rate).
AoE attacks and power drains ruin their day.

Sounds like you were up against lower level players (or noobs).

Not to diminish your accomplishment, in sufficient numbers even lower level ships can be very dangerous.

If they were equal level they were noobs who didn't understand their ships very well.

It's outright impossible to withstand a full group without backup even as the best tank...

STill, congratulations on majorly annoying them.

 

[Amaris]

Was that in PvP?

Yep. Ker'rat, to be exact.

Then you were up against some kind of carrier among them. They mostly generate their DPS (or heals) through pets like the fighters and BoPs, sometimes heal drones.
Their BOFF layout is similar bit not the same as science vessels.
So they usually run high AUX settings to be effective (this also affects their pet launch rate).
AoE attacks and power drains ruin their day.

Sounds like you were up against lower level players (or noobs).

Not to diminish your accomplishment, in sufficient numbers even lower level ships can be very dangerous.

If they were equal level they were noobs who didn't understand their ships very well.

It's outright impossible to withstand a full group without backup even as the best tank...

STill, congratulations on majorly annoying them.

Thanks.

In all fairness, I did die eventually.
You're right, it had to be a carrier. I mean, one moment it was 4 KDF ships, next thing you know immediate space is filled with fighters and BoPs. It was like I shot a pregnant tribble or something.

 

[Noname Given]

STO just went P2W.


I'm done.

LOL, I had to look up "P2W". (It means Pay-2-Win for anyone as naive as me.)

Yep, what happened to the promise that Cryptic made that C-store purchases would just be cosmetic and would not affect game play?

.

^^^
That died with going to the F2P model. In an F2P model the lions share of income generation comes from theior C-Store; period. Therefore you need to put really attractive items that people with more money then time are willing to buy.

Also given you can indeed farm dilithium ore, refine it, and use it to 'buy' C-Points from the Dilithium Exchange, technically you CAN get anything from the C-Store for 'free' (IE never spend a reall cent); BUT that will take A LOT of time and considerable effort to do so, and you can easily be out spent by someone who finds it easier to blow $10 - $20 of reeal cash buying a ship/item they want up front without spending hours 'farming' content that provides Dilithium.

 

[sbk1234]

It turns out I'm stupid. It was in my assets and not my inventory.


Stop laughing.

 

[Blamo]

While we're here, I've been looking at my skills tree and I'm wondering if I'm putting everything into my ship. It has decent DPS, and I'm pretty good under fire, but I want you guys to take a look at it, since you're more into the minutiae than I am. I created my build and posted it here:

http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=johnstoskills3912_0

Here's how I have it geared out:

Let me know what you think!

Okay dokies

1. For starters, get rid of the biofunction console, it's next to useless since crew doesn't do very much. Yes, that crew stat you see at the bottom of the hud is next to worthless.

Back when the game came out, there was a good reason for having it, since engineering team effectiveness was based on amount of crew. They got rid of this though. Passive healing in combat is nigh non existant and outside of it you'll be back to full health rather quickly no matter your crew.

Same goes for any other crew preserving console.

2. Get a field generator Mk XI console, it'll boost your shield capacity by 35%. Doesn't stack though so only get one.

3. Drop the Borg shield, the thing has a really low capacity so doesn't deal well with high damage. Try to get a covariant shield (with a cap x 2) or better yet a MACO shield Mk XI.

4. Best not to mix and match energy weapons. Instead focus on one particular type and get the consoles that just boost that type (since generic energy weapon consoles don't boost as much).

5. If you decide to do PvP, I'd recommend taking off the torps and replacing them with energy weapons.

The reason for this is that it's very easy to shield tank and it just needs a slither of shield to nigh totally negate a hit from a torp. Meanwhile a cruiser with 8 beams can do constant sustained damage.

 

[Amaris]

Okay dokies

1. For starters, get rid of the biofunction console, it's next to useless since crew doesn't do very much. Yes, that crew stat you see at the bottom of the hud is next to worthless.

Back when the game came out, there was a good reason for having it, since engineering team effectiveness was based on amount of crew. They got rid of this though. Passive healing in combat is nigh non existant and outside of it you'll be back to full health rather quickly no matter your crew.

Same goes for any other crew preserving console.

Really? I didn't know that! I did get rid of the biofunction console the other day, but I didn't know the whole crew thing was now worthless. They probably put it in a report I didn't read somewhere. There was a couple of months there last year where I was totally out of the game, and that would explain it.

2. Get a field generator Mk XI console, it'll boost your shield capacity by 35%. Doesn't stack though so only get one.

Good idea.

3. Drop the Borg shield, the thing has a really low capacity so doesn't deal well with high damage. Try to get a covariant shield (with a cap x 2) or better yet a MACO shield Mk XI.

I have a MK XII purple Covariant in my bank. I should probably use that one.

4. Best not to mix and match energy weapons. Instead focus on one particular type and get the consoles that just boost that type (since generic energy weapon consoles don't boost as much).

Yep. As much as I love my phaser/polaron combo, I'm going to try out just phasers and see how they perform. I have a phaser relay (Mk XI) in my bank, so I'll toss that in there.

5. If you decide to do PvP, I'd recommend taking off the torps and replacing them with energy weapons.

The reason for this is that it's very easy to shield tank and it just needs a slither of shield to nigh totally negate a hit from a torp. Meanwhile a cruiser with 8 beams can do constant sustained damage.

I've been asking myself whether that would work. I love the huge power a torpedo can cause, but half the time, they just bounce off shields. I'll give it a shot. Thanks Blamo!

 

[Emher]

I had no idea about the Crew Console either, will have find something better for that slot then.

Phaser Relay is great. I have three of them since they stack and do massive damage with my Heavy Dual Phaser Cannons. My cannons do more damage than my torpedoes at the moment.

 

[Amaris]

Ooh, they stack? /runs to K7.


Also, is anyone using the Jem'Hadar shield? It's supposed to be damn near invincible. I tested it out myself and that seems to be the case. It wasn't the PvP I took on yesterday or the day before, it was with people who knew I had the shield. 5 KDF ships did their best to destroy my ship, and no one succeeded. We ran it for 15 minutes, until my fingers just couldn't keep clicking and tapping the keys anymore, and the shields didn't budge. The patch for this is in the pipeline, so any day now they should be reduced to their actual abilities.

What's funny is that after that, a couple of KDFs started attacking me and one of them got mad and said "You have to cheat by using the JEM shield do you?", and yet when I fired at him, his shield gave off the exact same telltale glow that the JEM shield gives off when it's being hit.

Eventually he got mad, and he and his friends flew off. What a douche.

 

[Rocketeer]

It's an interesting idea, but I think even more complicated than it has to be.

Simply make it so that you ship stats are determined by captain class, ship class, and rank and then make all BO slots universal in the cmdr, ltc, lt, lt, ens layout.

They could even through in the XO mechanic they've been talking about forever to add a little variety. You'd then have four variables that determine ship's "stats" with a lot of different skins flying around.

I also think they should make the special consoles class specific, but whatever.

I like the idea of all BO ship slots being universal. Let the player decide how he wants to run his ship. However, consoles would be dependent on a relative BO being present. You could not equip a Sci console unless you had a least one Sci BO on the bridge. (You could put a universal console there though.) Would make for some interesting builds...

.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

It's an interesting idea, but I think even more complicated than it has to be.

Simply make it so that you ship stats are determined by captain class, ship class, and rank and then make all BO slots universal in the cmdr, ltc, lt, lt, ens layout.

They could even through in the XO mechanic they've been talking about forever to add a little variety. You'd then have four variables that determine ship's "stats" with a lot of different skins flying around.

I also think they should make the special consoles class specific, but whatever.

I like the idea of all BO ship slots being universal. Let the player decide how he wants to run his ship. However, consoles would be dependent on a relative BO being present. You could not equip a Sci console unless you had a least one Sci BO on the bridge. (You could put a universal console there though.) Would make for some interesting builds...

.

Sounds good in theory, but players would abuse it to no end I fear.
A player, regardless of PvP or PvE, will always want to have the single most overpowered build possible.
And at the moment that would mean, go, pack as much DPS as possible.
Nearly Every ship would run Commander and LC tac slots, at least one Lt tac, and the rest be engis for survivability.
Some players would build zombie tanks like never seen before.
And don't let me start on the monster sci ships this would make possible. (although only the min/maxers wouldrealize this).
Spell casting inflation would go through the roof... And the game would stop being fun.
WIth all those +1 consoles it already has stopped being fun to some degree.
I have stopped dabbling in PvP for a reason...

To have such one sided builds is bad game design.
The challenge is to overcome the limitations your ship has and utilize the perceived disadvantages.

 

[Blamo]

Ooh, they stack? /runs to K7.


Also, is anyone using the Jem'Hadar shield? It's supposed to be damn near invincible.

Yeah, the Jem'hadar shield is currently bugged. One of the shields special abilities is that each hit is supposed to activate a special "brace for impact" skill. The problem is that if you have any shield distribution officers equipped, there's a chance they proc each time the Jem'hadars special skill is activated.

Basically, with each hit on the shields, the shield distribution doffs treat it like you've just hit brace for impact. This of course sends the procs crazily high (I'm sure I've seen one with a stack of over 600). It even causes the map to start lagging.

I had a little laugh with it in a shuttle in C&H. Even under focused fire I didn't die. On top of that, the heal score (which includes shield heals) at the end of the match added up to 60,000,000.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Ooh, they stack? /runs to K7.


Also, is anyone using the Jem'Hadar shield? It's supposed to be damn near invincible.

Yeah, the Jem'hadar shield is currently bugged. One of the shields special abilities is that each hit is supposed to activate a special "brace for impact" skill. The problem is that if you have any shield distribution officers equipped, there's a chance they proc each time the Jem'hadars special skill is activated.

Basically, with each hit on the shields, the shield distribution doffs treat it like you've just hit brace for impact. This of course sends the procs crazily high (I'm sure I've seen one with a stack of over 600). It even causes the map to start lagging.

I had a little laugh with it in a shuttle in C&H. Even under focused fire I didn't die. On top of that, the heal score (which includes shield heals) at the end of the match added up to 60,000,000.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Ooh, they stack? /runs to K7.


Also, is anyone using the Jem'Hadar shield? It's supposed to be damn near invincible.

Yeah, the Jem'hadar shield is currently bugged. One of the shields special abilities is that each hit is supposed to activate a special "brace for impact" skill. The problem is that if you have any shield distribution officers equipped, there's a chance they proc each time the Jem'hadars special skill is activated.

Basically, with each hit on the shields, the shield distribution doffs treat it like you've just hit brace for impact. This of course sends the procs crazily high (I'm sure I've seen one with a stack of over 600). It even causes the map to start lagging.

I had a little laugh with it in a shuttle in C&H. Even under focused fire I didn't die. On top of that, the heal score (which includes shield heals) at the end of the match added up to 60,000,000.

Meh, so they inconvienced a lot of people till they fix it. Its not like they screwed up on the level of another gaming company.

I'M LOOKING AT YOU EA and BIOWARE!

 

[Amaris]

Ooh, they stack? /runs to K7.


Also, is anyone using the Jem'Hadar shield? It's supposed to be damn near invincible.

Yeah, the Jem'hadar shield is currently bugged. One of the shields special abilities is that each hit is supposed to activate a special "brace for impact" skill. The problem is that if you have any shield distribution officers equipped, there's a chance they proc each time the Jem'hadars special skill is activated.

Basically, with each hit on the shields, the shield distribution doffs treat it like you've just hit brace for impact. This of course sends the procs crazily high (I'm sure I've seen one with a stack of over 600). It even causes the map to start lagging.

I had a little laugh with it in a shuttle in C&H. Even under focused fire I didn't die. On top of that, the heal score (which includes shield heals) at the end of the match added up to 60,000,000.

Sweet Jebus! I have two SDO's slotted. Those guys could have fired at me all day without scratching the paint on the hull.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Well I did a quick test of the new Odyssey 2.0 and it looks like you can't use saucer separation and the escort at the same time.

What does the set bonus do anyway?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Well I did a quick test of the new Odyssey 2.0 and it looks like you can't use saucer separation and the escort at the same time.

What does the set bonus do anyway?

Offset the console slots that are occupied by the special abilities...

you cant use them together but one after another, they dont share a cooldown...
individual cooldowns are 5 minutes.

I checked out how to best copy and enhance my sovereign build.

I noticed right away, that there is NO reason at all to pick the tactical version.

Since I use the borg console on a tac slot, I just moved that over to science on the odyssey, where I still have a spare slot now. I put the chevron seperation console there asd i figured the sauce is a support pet that actually puts a shield extend on you or an allied target. So it benefits my tank build the best.
What I really need to compare is the hull points and shield power.

The shield should be better then the sovereign, weapons a bit weaker, turnrate a bit better in sperated mode and sci powers a good bit more effective.

havent found any challenging action yet.

Odyssey (sci): Sovereign:

Hull points (non seperated): 58k Hull: 54k
Hull points (seperated): 50k

Turnrate at 63/50 engine power (unseperated): 8.2 Turnrate at 64/45 engine power: 10.3
Turnrate at 63/50 engine power (seperated): 16.2

Shield strength (unseperated): 13k per facing Shield strength: 11k
Shield strength (seperated): 12k per facing

Main Phaser array (unseperated): 673 DPS Main Phaser array: 673 DPS
Main Phaser array (seperated): 732 DPS

My favorite combination is the Sci hull with saucer seperation. It has extra strong shields and turns like an excelsior when seperated.
So if I decide to get it, it will have to be 2 of them.

The tac version seems absolutely useless to me. A Tac captain might be able to squeeze out that extra bit of damage to make Tac interesting, but if a tac goes for damage, it wont be in a extra heavy cruiser... perhaps seperated tac version...

Edit: tested in a 1v1, 1v2 and 2v2.

Things I noticed:

Aquarius escort pet is useless. It didn't survive for ten seconds under FAW fire. Saucer survives longer but does no damage whatsoever. Worker bees can be launched once per minute but explode immediately under FAW.
The sauce is supposed to use extend shield, I heard, which it doesn't... so if it is supposed to be an acual support pet it's bugged.

Saucer seperation is still the best ability of the lot simply because it sheds weight and turns this ship into one comparable to an Excelsior.

Interestingly enough my old Sovereign is the exact middle ground in stats between an unseperated and a seperated Odyssey.

So I can hardly call the Odyssey OP.

The big draw is definitely the huuuge versatility and the ability to emulate any other cruiser and be at least as efficient.

It allows one to switch builds like no other without completely changing ships.

There is almost no difference in class versions. The Boff layout is the same for all and the different console layout is irrelevant.
In practice i would assume everysingle one of us is at least using one universal console, most likely the Borg one, so it doesn't matter if you put it into an extra sci, engi or tac slot.
The second surplus slot compared to other cruisers most likely goes to one of the universal Odyssey consoles (I recommend Chevron Seperation).

That leaves the power management. For a cruiser the extra strong shields of the sci version seems the most beneficial to me even though the difference in the end must be pretty small.
And that leaves Sensor Analysis as the deciding factor which is a huge asset in a prolonged fight that can only be rendered useless by breaking target lock somehow.

If I should decide to buy it, it will most likely when the hype is over and not EVERYONE is flying one anymore and when it goes on a sale.

It doesn't require me to replace my Sovereign just yet as i will most likely be abe to perform on the same average level in both ships.