STO questions

[Lord Revan]

btw what's the difference between photon and quantum torps, just the DPS or is there something else as well?

as for the Borg in general in space they're not so though, most dangerous of their abilities being their shield drain and the "insta-kill torp of hell" some cubes have but those can be dealt with easily.

on the ground it really depends on your group, if you got bunch of noobs who forgot their remodulators(or just forget to use them) and don't melee (as in canon Borg can't adapt to physical damage) you got the classical TNG borgs (or more accurately the First Contact Borg as these will assimilate) with but now with ranged weapons granted only on tactical drones(including the heavy and Elite variants) or if you get someone rushing and pulling too much at once, but with a good team the borg aren't that much of a threat even on ground. Though if you go the "melee the drones" route you must remember that some drones can assimilate you forcing your team to kill you, and that can snowball in bad group where assimilated members go and kill others causing a total wipe.

[Vanas]

IIRC Quants have the better burst damage, while photons offer better sustained damage. Cruisers will want quants given they're not likely to have launchers facing the enemy all that often. Escorts work nicely with the faster firing photons. As for Scientists, go with whatever you like.

[RogueIce]

So, in STO, how to they treat the Borg? Are they portrayed like they were in TNG/FC, where it takes a fleet to (hopefully) bring a cube down, and that smaller ships are very heavily armed for their size? Or did they take the Voyager approach, where you and ur plucky lil' ship will be more than a match once ur reach the higher levels?

Except for the Fed Tutorial (which says there's "something off" about those Borg anyway): Probes aren't too bad, Spheres can be a bit of a challenge and good luck with the Cubes, especially Tactical Cubes.

At least, if you're 'new' to Endgame and only have blue Mk XI space gear. Which is probably about what they're set for. They can still be quite dangerous at that level. But as StarSword said with the power creep, between the Fleet, Reputation and Lockbox Mk XII space gear people are running these days, they're much less dangerous. It wouldn't surprise me if some DPS to the MAX Escort builds could alpha strike even a Tac Cube to death by now.

But then if they rebalanced the Borg to be a threat to the OP* Fleet/Rep/Lockbox crowd, all those new 50s trying to do Elite STFs with the "inferior" blue Mk XIs they've got would be utterly screwed. So whatever.

*For the record, I don't even care about the power creep as it pertains to PvE, because really it doesn't matter too much. The PvPers whine and complain endlessly of course, but fuck 'em they're PvPers and will whine about anything anyway, so who cares?

[Lord Revan]

tbh it helps that you're not suppose to be a frigate built in an era of relative peace as a light explorer craft stranded in the ass end of nowhere with closest way of support decades away being able to take on a Tactical Cube and win (or at least not get blown up assimilated right of the bat) at end game (like Voyager), rather you're top of the line Warship built by UFP or KDF that's been at war since the Hobus incident 25 years before and with full support of the alpha quadrant at your back.

and tbh Probes were never an issue to me, now when I first encountered a Cube in my POS Miranda my first though was "you got to be fucking kidding me, I'm supposed to beat that?!" and yeah it was suitably hard, I had really had to fight it solo, well you need only look at the DS9 pilot to see what happens when a Miranda does solo against a cube (and yes I know the Saratoga wasn't the only ship there but still).

[Vendetta]

3. Ground is not liked by the majority of players for no good reason. You can get any ground queue to pop at end game but it takes ages or you use the publiceliteSTF channel to get a team. That or a fleet.

Having investigated the game, I suspect ground combat is less popular because it's less unique. It's not mechanically interesting, and although it has TPS controls available which make it a bit more playable, it gets a bit tied down by the requirements of MMO combat which make it less fluid than an actual shooter, and played as a normal MMO it's just, well, a bit normal (and with relatively few abilities as far as I've been able to tell).

I mean I rolled a Romulan* character and the first thing I did (well, after discovering that I needed a console command to invert the Y axis because reasons) was exactly the same as the starter quest in basically every other MMO ever. So the mission designs aren't really anything special either. Go to person X, get told to go to place Y and kill some of monster Z. Repeat until checkbox fills in.

So, y'know, the ground combat is just the same as you can get everywhere else, and done better elsewhere as well.

Which is why people focus on the spaceship pew pew because that's reasonably fun.


* also what is this shit, I did not want to be some kind of goody two shoes rebellious teenage phase Romulan, I wanted to be Captain Devious McBackstabby.

[Elheru Aran]

Aha. I found out the Ambassador I had sitting around was a beautiful compromise between the Galaxy and the tissue-paper Akira. I might stick with this one for a while. Speaking of which, which ship would be best once I hit level 40, for a tac captain who likes mines and warp plasma?

[Vanas]

I'm quite fond of the Patrol Escorts, although the Sovereign is also a nice choice. The good news is that the Sovvie can at least turn slightly faster.

'Mines and Plasma' is a fairly wide category that I've not used much, but I found dumping the warp plasma more useful on the cruisers I was playing.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah, it happens that I rather delight in using full impulse to zoom right past the enemy, dumping plasma as I go by... Although if I'm going up against a D'deridex I really should remember to hold on to my plasma for when the beast grabs me with the tractors and tries to torpedo-salvo me. Better than shields.

Patrol Escorts, eh? I'll give it a go...

Is the Bridge Officer Trainer the only way to switch around your Boff's abilities?

[Lord Revan]

also what is this shit, I did not want to be some kind of goody two shoes rebellious teenage phase Romulan, I wanted to be Captain Devious McBackstabby.

I actually liked the Romulan Republic cause they're not the Romulans of old, that said I play my Romulan more as hybrid of the old romulans and the more idealistic members of the Republic like D'tan. In fact my backstory for her is that she was member of the military or Tal Shiar who discovered evidence about the Hobus Incident before it happened thought at the time she didn't know the importance of what she had discovered until after a message from her husband and child was cut to static when the Hobus Supernova destroyed Romulus and didn't get the whole picture until after the relevant mission (like why a supernova 500 LY from Romulus was able to reach it in a matter of hours) and after the incident she decided to hide, forget and try to start new life, eventually ending up in Virenat and after the romulan tutorial, deciding that if the Star Empire doesn't want to leave her in peace she might as well have to fight for that peace, but that doesn't mean she isn't a Romulan.

[Vanas]

Yeah, it happens that I rather delight in using full impulse to zoom right past the enemy, dumping plasma as I go by... Although if I'm going up against a D'deridex I really should remember to hold on to my plasma for when the beast grabs me with the tractors and tries to torpedo-salvo me. Better than shields.

Patrol Escorts, eh? I'll give it a go...

Is the Bridge Officer Trainer the only way to switch around your Boff's abilities?

I always tend to drop out of full impulse about 17km away, to give my guns time to recharge. The idea of flying *into* the enemy like that is heresy. My current ship at VA is the Tactical Aventine science ship. It's a wonderful bit of everything.

AFAIK, the trainer's the only way to swap abilities, unless you cultivate a big crop of BOffs to deal with every situation.

If you need anything, give me a shout @Seffs and I'm sure I can buzz by for fire support or Other.

[Vendetta]

also what is this shit, I did not want to be some kind of goody two shoes rebellious teenage phase Romulan, I wanted to be Captain Devious McBackstabby.

I actually liked the Romulan Republic cause they're not the Romulans of old.

It's just so much playing it safe though, it's all Blizzard's fault I think, the way they've persistently written the Horde in WoW. Can't have players feeling like they're a bad guy even if they're playing the side that's always been the bad guys.

It would be way more interesting to be playing a rookie Tal Shiar agent, doing questionable and desperate things with the conviction that they are required in order to preserve the fragile Romulan Star Empire after the loss of its homeworlds. (Y'know, like the Tal Shiar appear to be doing in the game, except with more insight into their objective and less moustache twirling for the sake of making the player want to shoot them).

[TheFeniX]

Speaking of storytelling: what advancements have been done in the STO story. I hear people talking about Undine, Romulans, and all that jazz. But when I quit, Starfleet had the only "fleshed-out" storylines and Klinks levelled solely through PvP or a few PvE dailies.

With the addition of new factions, did they retool existing zones? Did they add new areas? Is there any new story progression for the feds or is it "X is invading, do these dailies over and over to help win the war?"

[Elheru Aran]

STO story, hmm?

The main thing there is that all the factions have their own stories, but the Romulans and Klingons kind of taper off after a while and merge in with the general storyline. Rather disappointing, honestly. I give that they have their own perspective on it, but it doesn't really make much difference since you're still executing the same objectives and have broadly similar goals.

My understanding is that the main areas that have been added are the Dyson Sphere zones. I could be wrong, though.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Insofar as ships go, I tend to use my Ambassador (the high-level one) or a Sov for most of my tooling around in space. Both are reasonably fun to me, though I'll grant I haven't used escorts yet. The former is probably my favorite ship so far, though what I really want is an Excelsior (I just don't have the money or time to grind enough to get one).

[PREDATOR490]

Story in STO is a non-starter.

They might have had an idea of a story when the game was first made but for the most part it ends up being a paper thin justification for the wacky state of affairs in the game. Now that STO is a cash shop lotto box garbage game. You have people flying ships from alien races which just cheapens a lot of the experience and story just ends up being gimmicks. That said, I did acquire the full Dominion ship set at considerable expense which was the first and last time I will ever try it again.

If you want stories then the player made missions will have you sit for hours with dialogue heavy text reading but the mechanics just do not allow that much flexibility. Go here, talk to X, Go there Talk to Y and kill shit. Repeat until you die of boredom. It does not help the endgame is really stale with Cryptic only knowing how to make endless grinds.

[RogueIce]

Patrol Escorts, eh? I'll give it a go...

If you like the Patrol Escort and how it flies, consider investing in a Mirror Patrol Escort from the Exchange. Stat-wise it's identical, but it looks like the Prometheus which, IMO, is one of the best looking ships in Trek.

Is the Bridge Officer Trainer the only way to switch around your Boff's abilities?

They are the primary method, but not the only one. If you invest enough skill points in certain abilities, your Captain can train some of the higher-end Boff powers specific to your career. Additionally you can have a Boff candidate 'Train Up' one of your crew when you select them; that's the only way to get some of the better CDR-level abilities for your Boffs.

Sadly the way the Exchange search works means it's a pain in the ass to find a particular Boff with the particular skill you want.

Speaking of storytelling: what advancements have been done in the STO story. I hear people talking about Undine, Romulans, and all that jazz. But when I quit, Starfleet had the only "fleshed-out" storylines and Klinks levelled solely through PvP or a few PvE dailies.

They added the Featured Episodes, which provided some new story. Mostly the Romulan FE which nicely ties in with the new Romulan Faction storyline.

Klingons get full 1 - 50 story progression, though at around level 35 or so it's the same Cardassian/Borg/Undine Front as the Federation, pretty much.

Romulans also get their own storyline, though you have to ally with either Feds or Klingons at Level 10. Doesn't change much story-wise, you just get to pick from some of their lower-tier ships and it determines which fleets you can join. But the actual Romulan story is pretty good, IMO, and some of the best work STO has done on that front. That doesn't mean it's especially amazing storytelling, but overall I feel it's rather solid. Alas, like the KDF, you'll end up in the same C/B/U story track as the Feds.

Also the Wasteland storyline they added is an odd case. It's definitely geared toward the Romulan storyline, even though Fed and KDF will run it as well. They even had the Romulan First Officer Boff's VO and portrait pop up regardless of faction in one of the missions, though I don't know whether or not they eventually fixed that.

Federation got itself a "revamped" tutorial and they changed up the Klingon Front missions. The new tutorial is fun and has a great design for the now default Fed bridge. The revamped episodes, story-wise, are still basically the same but they made them flow much better, and added in some new art assets. "Researcher Rescue" especially benefitted from this and has a gorgeous ground map now.

As far as the Undine are concerned, they are the focus of two new FEs, with a third set to continue on when Season 9 launches sometime this month. I think it's pretty good, and made good use of the mini-story we get from the Dyson Sphere reputation project, IMO. So they are progressing the storyline, bit by bit.

With the addition of new factions, did they retool existing zones? Did they add new areas? Is there any new story progression for the feds or is it "X is invading, do these dailies over and over to help win the war?"

As I mentioned, Feds got a new tutorial, and there's a revamp of Earth Space Dock also coming in Season 9. Klingons also have a new tutorial, which is a pretty fun one as you chase around a Federation Operative. There's also the story being forwarded along with the new Dyson Sphere and involving the Undine and Iconians. So they're increasing it as they add on new zones to grind in, which is nice.

Of course it being F2P means all you've got to lose is time, so I think what they've added is at least worth checking out. The mechanics are mostly the same, although shooter mode makes ground combat at least a little less boring. I'd recommend rolling a new Klingon Romulan toon if you're coming back, as Federation story hasn't changed that much and the Featured Episodes can be played by all factions anyway. You could do a disposable Feddie just to see the new tutorial if you want, though.

[Lord Revan]

I think they've fixed the bug that said Romulan BOFF pop up in the Wasteland cause I don't remember getting anyone but my regular BOFF for my Fed or KDF characters. main gripe unless they've fixed it is that the game sort assumes you're standard UFP (and presumably KDF) officer when doing certain missions as a Romulan, like assuming you're familiar with DS9, now that can rationalized by assuming your Romulan was a Dominion War vet as thus has been to DS9 before Vulcans can live for 200+ and there's no reason to assume Romulans have shorter natural lives and IIRC T'Pol was in her 60s during most of ENT but looked as old as the actress, but still it's kind of distracting.

[Marko Dash]

haven't played in a few months, might re install it for a bit. I've got an antiproton beam spam sovereign and one of those carriers they gave out as a mission reward a while back.

[Elheru Aran]

OK, my Gryphon/Hermes cross is a dream compared to the Galaxy and Ambassador. No warp-plasma, which is pretty annoying, but I can live with that, given she turns fast enough that the cannons are pretty useful. Scored a nice level... IX? polaron beam in the Badlands.

The only thing I really don't like is that the level X Reman shield gives you that ridiculous purple look to your ship when you've spent 15 minutes getting the skins and bits just the way you want them. Oh well.

[Luke Starkiller]

You can turn off the special item visuals, click the eyeball in the ship equipment screen.

[Elheru Aran]

You can turn off the special item visuals, click the eyeball in the ship equipment screen.

That sorted it out. Thanks!

[Mr. Coffee]

I got a lvl 50 Fed tactical and a lvl 30 Rom tactical (Fed friendly) if anyone feels like blowing stuff up. Give me a yell @Mr.Coffee1976, either Angus McAWESOME or Mansechs von Fistin respectively.

[Lord Revan]

while I do like blowing stuff up atm by PC is broken (again) so I can't play atm (which is sad as I kind of had plans on what I wanted to do next).

[Elheru Aran]

So it looks like we may have enough people for a casual fleet... or are you only allowed to be with one of those at a time?

[Skywalker_T-65]

One fleet per character I believe. Only one of mine is actually in a fleet (or was at any rate, with how long its been since I've played who knows if I still am).