Star Trek Online is free

[Dartzap]

They only got through the one time on each nanitethingy, so it wasnt *that* bad Me and another AC then took up blockading the transwarp gate, so all was well after that.

[Molyneux]

So who else loves the idea of the (spoiled for anyone who hasn't started the episode yet)
Spoiler

Dominion ambushing the diplomatic conference to ruin the Alpha Quadrant's collective shit on DS9?

[charlemagne]

Spoiler

Dominion ambushing the diplomatic conference to ruin the Alpha Quadrant's collective shit on DS9?

Spoiler

If you're talking 2800, well that's not what happened, it's pure coincidence that the fleet shows up during the conference.

[wautd]

Spoiler

Dominion ambushing the diplomatic conference to ruin the Alpha Quadrant's collective shit on DS9?

Spoiler

If you're talking 2800, well that's not what happened, it's pure coincidence that the fleet shows up during the conference.

Spoiler

voice acting in the cutscenes was hilariously bad

[charlemagne]

Yeah, and it also sucks that you can't skip those cutscenes when replaying missions.

[Steve]

What makes STO cutscenes worse usually is that most of the poses/animations are from Champions Online. The exaggerated poses and finger pointing and such works for a Silver Agey comic book setting, but Star Trek? Not really.

That and most of the VAs are really bad. The only good VA-acted character was Obisek in last year's series.

[charlemagne]

I did a couple STFs on normal recently and got my first Borg set piece yesterday.

I'm not sure about the direction to go with my Engineer, though. Beam cruiser setup is nice and relaxed, but the DPS with 6x beams isn't that great, and the Odyssey would be a nightmare to bring a full beam bank setup to bear in. So I'm seriously thinking about getting the Excelsior refit... downside is that it doesn't feel very Trek to put beam banks and turrets on a Cruiser.

So maybe I'll go tank route until I have enough dilithium to buy 1600 cp with, but I have 0 skill points in threat - so, does anybody know if I could generate enough aggro with burst damage from a beam cruiser?

[Alferd Packer]

Here's a question for ya'll. I'm about to hit 30 with my Tactical Captain and thus get a new ship. Until now, I've stuck with and been very happy with the Escorts. As I faff about the Galaxy, however, I notice that I'm not seeing, well, really any Captain-level escorts. In fact, I can honestly recall seeing exactly one in all my faffing about. So I'm wondering: does everyone just get a Cruiser when they hit Captain? Are the Tactical Escorts a viable option?

[charlemagne]

What? No, there's cruisers, escorts and science ships for all tiers. Captain escort would be http://www.stowiki.org/Tactical_Escort and http://www.stowiki.org/Tactical_Escort_Refit

[RogueIce]

What? No, there's cruisers, escorts and science ships for all tiers. Captain escort would be http://www.stowiki.org/Tactical_Escort and http://www.stowiki.org/Tactical_Escort_Refit

Yeah, but he's not seeing people use them so is wondering if they're useful.

I can't judge though: my Tac uses Cruisers but that was a beginning game choice, because I just like the 'classic' Trek ships more. I do see quite a few Defiant class ships around, so people are using them.

That and most of the VAs are really bad. The only good VA-acted character was Obisek in last year's series.

I liked most of the VAs from Second Wave. Especially that sassy Commander Andrews. Such a shame what happened to her...

Also, if you're at all familiar with STOked, making Chris Fisher's guest spot be a Bajoran was a hilarious and awesome move on the part of the devs.

[Alferd Packer]

What? No, there's cruisers, escorts and science ships for all tiers. Captain escort would be http://www.stowiki.org/Tactical_Escort and http://www.stowiki.org/Tactical_Escort_Refit

Yeah, but he's not seeing people use them so is wondering if they're useful.

I can't judge though: my Tac uses Cruisers but that was a beginning game choice, because I just like the 'classic' Trek ships more. I do see quite a few Defiant class ships around, so people are using them.

Hmm, OK. Because I happened to get some rather sick Dual Heavy Plasma Cannons for my Akira, so I swapped my phaser banks out for them and trained up some cannon-specific abilities on my Tactical BOff, and it's been quite successful. Since I see most people around me just beamspamming, I'm just wondering if I'm doing things wrong.

[Coaan]

I liked most of the VAs from Second Wave. Especially that sassy Commander Andrews. Such a shame what happened to her...

I'm going to pretend I didn't read that you think Commander-Fake-Scot was a good voice over.

As voice acting goes, she had the most appalling scottish accent I have *ever* had the displeasure of listening to, with the rest of the voice acting not being much better. Seriously, compare the original featured episodes, then compare this fail-sode and you will notice a milky-way sized gap in quality of gameplay and actors.

Whoever decided on this round of voice-acting needs to be shot repeatedly.

WRT Escorts ;

I fly a Defiant Refit, which is basically just the captain Defiant with a cloak console and let me tell you, the ship is a death wagon. It's not as efficient as the Attack ship, or some of the other pay to win ships, but it can throw down a seriously respectable amount of fire whether you're using a dual beam bank setup, or cannons.

If you're looking for a slightly more tanky Defiant? The Sao Paulo refit is right up your alley. It has an extra Engineering Boff slot instead of the third Tactical slot, allowing you to get a bit more tank without sacrificing any gank from the Defiant itself.

If I had noticed the Sao Paulo refit when I picked up my refit, I'd have got that instead (and it's only 1200 cryptic points instead of 1600). I'm currently a Vice Admiral and have done multiple Elite STF's in the defiant, so yes it's very viable at endgame.

[Alferd Packer]

Defiant and cannons it shall be, then! So, next question: is there a shortcut or a command that I can map that will automagically center and lock the camera behind my ship? It's kinda difficult to line up firing arcs on the smaller targets, especially when they're close, so I figure this will make it easier to do so.

[Nephtys]

I personally dislike cannons. They only have a slight DPS advantage over dual beam banks, but have a far, far more restricted field of fire, particularly in the Z-axis, as you can't control that as well. I find that I do more 'over-battle' DPS using beams, as targets that can withstand one strafing run will take a bit of dogfighting to take out.

[Vanas]

The 'traditional' way to use cannons it just to hang in space and shred things without moving. That's pretty much the reason I drive cruisers and/or beam escorts. It's the difference between lolDPS and actually having fun playing the game.

[White Haven]

There's a hidden advantage to cannons that the main DPS numbers don't show. They spend more time in a 'cooling down' state not firing between salvos, which means that any given mount's power-drain subsides and stays off for a longer period of time. That means that your weapons, on average, will start firing at a higher weapon power level than would otherwise be the case. Given that they already do more damage to begin with, the difference between cannons and even dual beams is pretty dramatic when you're running very high numbers of weapons.

[Nephtys]

Here's a question: The DPS and Fire Arcs of cannons and heavy cannons is identical. Why bother with either? Not sure what the effective difference is, since refire isn't THAT much different.

[White Haven]

Two key differences. One, DHCs have higher alpha at equivalent listed DPS. Two, DHCs spend even more time outside of firing, making them even more power-efficient, despite their higher power drain when actually firing.

[DarkSilver]

Took out my first Unimatrix ship yesterday while in my Galaxy Beam Cruiser, it was.....nice to be able to finally take one of those bastards down.


I got myself a Sao Paulo class today (I wanted the Quad Cannons), and I'm trying to figure out a good weapons spread...for the longest time I was fighting Cruisers like I suppose a escort is supposed to fight... Now I've lined the forward firing arc of the escort with nothing but cannons (a tetryon dual cannons, and the rest being phaser cannons) , and put a beam array and a transphasic mine launcher on the rear...

I'm still wondering if I have the best weapons layout on the front or not.....meh, it's fun though.

[charlemagne]

I tried cannons but they just feel weird on a cruiser. I last used an escort back in open beta and they're fine there, but a cruiser just can't just sit still, you gotta broadside them mobs

[Agent Sorchus]

Note my experience with Cannons is with a bird of prey, and there the heavy burst damage is nice since the ship is so fragile. Dual beams are rather weak for their arc, being much worse than another torpedo launcher (which as far as I can see top the chart for DPS and alpha) and single cannons have almost the same DPS and a 180 instead of 90 degree arc. I would have only gone with dual beams if and only if I could never find a Boff with cannons rapid fire only beams fire at will.

[White Haven]

Dual heavy cannons forward, possibly a torpedo, turrets aft, possibly a torpedo. Match weapon types so you can stack tactical consoles for your damage type for maximum damage bonus. There's your escort loadout.

[charlemagne]

I'm thinking about replacing my forward quantum torpedo with a beam bank. Same firing arc and probably more consistent DPS, especially if I go with antiproton like the rest of my beam array layout. Would profit from DEM3, too, while I'm running without any torpedo modifiers (FAW 1 and 2 instead of High Yield). 7 arrays and 1 bank would be even more weapons power drain, but I'm cycling two copies of EpTW1 in between EpTS1/EpTS3 and weapons power is never dropping low.

[White Haven]

Why the bank, instead of another array? Your DPS is vaaaastly higher in your broadside arc than it is in your forward arc with only half your weapons firing. The increase in DPS is going to be somewhat disappointing for you, again due to the weapon power drain effect. An eight-beam setup...that's a LOT of power drain. My old setup was 7-beam, 1 Tricobalt, and that worked well for me, because I didn't have to swing out of broadside too often to deliver a nuthammre from the trico tube. If you decide to try that route, I highly recommend Spread instead of High Yield for Tricobalts.

[Alferd Packer]

Well, I got my Defiant last night. I loaded it up with my Mark VI HDCs (Plasma and Plasma/Disruptor Hyrbrid), my Hargh'Peng launcher, and a Tetryon beam bank in the front. For rear weapons I have a Tetryon turret and a Plasma Torpedo launcher. I even got a nice engineering console drop that increases my turn rate by 28%. From my limited combat experience with it, I can say with reasonable confidence that this thing is a fucking beast.

And everyone seems to love helping out the plucky little Defiant; I was getting my ass handed to me over in the Ker'rat War Zone by a Cube and a couple Spheres. Two Galaxies drop whatever it was they were doing and charge in, beamspamming like crazy, totally demolishing one of the Spheres within a few seconds and putting a major hurting on the other Borg ships. They even kept using their extend shields buff on me so that I could hang in the fight and continue my cannon spam. While it's quite nice when you happen not to be teamed up with jerks, I never got that kind of attention in my Akira.