Star Trek Online

[Stark]

I dunno, having seen a bit of the Lasers Overhead The Reckoning store, its full of game-changing, shortcuting, huge-benefit shit (as well as 'subscription replacement' shit like unlocks etc). LOTRO is free, but the store is clearly designed for sustained use (ie, you can pretty cheaply always be getting +50% xp, you can blow infinite money on outfits, etc). It surprises me a full subscription game has this.

[PREDATOR490]

Having recently picked up LOTR since it went F2P, I actually enjoyed it and am paying a subscription to THAT game because I find it FAR more rewarding. The game captures the scale of LOTR and visuals far better than STO ever can.

STO is instanced to hell and back to the point the largest instances if 20 - 50 in social zones. Outside of that your maximum team amount is 5, your maximum amount in a fleet action is 20 but since Fleets are all but dead due to the game focusing on 99% solo-play, there really is no need to group.

Originally the STF raids were introduced because folks wanted raid content that encourage group play, instead Cryptic have turned around and decided the whining from folks who complain at being excluded from group play because they want to play it ALONE... are going to be catered too.
Thus the group encouragement goes out the window and even if they left it alone. Cryptic have stated they do not intend to make anymore STFs / FAs for awhile in favour of their one-shot-episode-a-week solo missions.

We also have the constant shilling being done by Cryptic by putting requests in the C-store or simply slapping every addition into it they can. Whats really sad is Cryptic run a decent store on Champions where the majority of the stuff IS just cosmetic costumes, emblems and a few small services like Renames.

STO comes around and Cryptic decide to offer uniforms, CANON ships I.E Nebula, Excelsior, Galaxy-X, Borg Bridge officers etc.
The list continues to grow all the while the patch notes for STO make it abundantly clear they have an abundance of artists to make the game look pretty but the actual BUG FIXES or new content being added is woefully small.

The big hope on the horizon is the UGC system which in theory will allow players to make their own missions / stories. However, I know more than a few folks that are extremely hesitant in trusting Cryptic after this long AND the simple fact a UGC system can end up being a massive mistake.
From simple things like fanboys writting their own fanfiction involving canon assets or writting stories that will result in IP infringements.

The other major sticking point is how the UGC will affect Cryptic's attitude to development, if people can make their own missions then Cryptic can throw up their hands from making such content and free-ride off their own fanbase. All the while gouging wallets via C-Store offers for 'EXCLUSIVE' items.

Unfortnatly, a lot of the folks I played with in STO are seeing it failing within the year and by next year getting slammed by the new MMOs. The most obvious being KOTOR and Cryptic's inability to satisfy their current playerbase or fix bugs that have been around since Open Beta does not bode well for the longevity of the game.

[Molyneux]

I dunno, having seen a bit of the Lasers Overhead The Reckoning store, its full of game-changing, shortcuting, huge-benefit shit (as well as 'subscription replacement' shit like unlocks etc). LOTRO is free, but the store is clearly designed for sustained use (ie, you can pretty cheaply always be getting +50% xp, you can blow infinite money on outfits, etc). It surprises me a full subscription game has this.

What seems interesting to me is that Champions Online will soon be going free-to-play - and both CO and STO share a C-store (as well as cross-game chat, something that was a bit of a surprise to me). We may be seeing STO go free as well, in the near future.

If so...I'm really hoping that the lifetime subscription I got doesn't wind up worthless. Even if it's just kudos, something to show for it would be nice.

[Steve]

Slight necro, I've recently gotten into STO thanks to it being dirt cheap to buy on Amazon due to their new year's sale. User name is @stgjr. Currently leveling a Tactical Officer, at LC5, and have an Engineer at LT2 (from when I was trying the demo). Also have a Klingon side character I might play much later to see what Klingon-side PvE missions there are (I know they have some).

[Stark]

Oh man, who buys a lifetime sub to an MMO that just came out

If STO goes F2P subscribers will get premium benefits like every other F2P in the world, so don't worry about that money you wasted.

[Edward Yee]

Might level the Tactical (just cleared the tutorial) and make that my main, but I've a CMDR Engineer at this point, been wanting to try out an Escort.

[Steve]

Might level the Tactical (just cleared the tutorial) and make that my main, but I've a CMDR Engineer at this point, been wanting to try out an Escort.

Escorts are fun. I'm at LC8 right now, almost LC9, and I've kitted out the Glaive with some awesome weaponry. Two blue dual cannons and a blue q-torp launcher in the bow arc, a green quality turret for the aft weapon, plus my tactical officers each have High Yield and the Lt. has Rapid Fire for the cannons. When I shoot at things, they tend to die quite efficiently.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

What's the point of taking High Yield twice? Did they change how it works? Why not take the torpedo spread AoE instead of a redundant High Yield?

[TheFeniX]

What's the point of taking High Yield twice? Did they change how it works? Why not take the torpedo spread AoE instead of a redundant High Yield?

Just before I quit, they had reduced the effectiveness of double stacking High Yield by having them share a cooldown, same as with Reverse Shield Polarity. But the cooldown started as soon as you activated the ability. So if you waited ~15 seconds, fired your first volley, your second volley should be up immediately afterward while you waited the other 15 seconds for the first volley to come back up.

Spread is almost worthless in PVP as no one sits still long enough for it to be useful at range and at knife-fighting distance a high yield is usually a better bet as it's harder for them to react in time if you fire a HY as soon as a shield facing goes down or is close to going down. If you run plasma torps, it has dubious usefulness as you should close the distance and fire a high yield which gives them limited time to target the massive torp and shoot it down.

Spread is a great aggro grabber in PvE. And can be devastating if your opponents cluster up, even in PVP. Mostly during cap and hold scenarios. But the real reason people take two copies of HY is because most of the low-level abilities are worthless. And your chosen ship is going to have two bridge officers with open tier 1 slots. And since the "Teams" abilities share a cooldown (like 45 seconds, the ability itself is on a 1 minute cooldown if fully upgraded), Tactical Team is almost worthless except as a first strike ability. You should ditch it immediately in favor of Science Team.

[Edward Yee]

I'll second Science Team, it's been a lifesaver for my Cruiser (as my original only self-heal) to the point that I think maxed it out for minimal cooldown or something...

[ShadowDragon8685]

What's the point of taking High Yield twice? Did they change how it works? Why not take the torpedo spread AoE instead of a redundant High Yield?

I have never seen Torpedo Spread be worth it, even against a cluster of weak Borg Probes. Doubling up on High Yield, however, is very worth it.

If, for instance, you have HYT 3 and HYT 2 (the way I run my escort,) you can trigger off HYT3, which gets a 30-second cool-down and gives HYT2 a 15-second cooldown. Fire off the HYT3, which if you're using (say) Quantums, fires four torpedoes in one salvo, then when the torpedo launcher itself is cooled down, trigger off HYT2. If HYT3 is at or greater than 15 seconds cooldown, it does nothing, if it's at less than 15 seconds it goes back to 15.

Fire off the torpedoes (in this case three of them, with HYT2,) and trigger off HYT3 again when it's cooled down. Basically you can alternate between 4 and 3 torpedoes, or if you're not in an escort and you're using HYT2 and HYT1, you can alternate between 3 and 2.

Plasmas, of course, just launch one big slow, targetable torpedo with HYT skills, so you pretty much have to launch it like a dive-bomber to have any assurance of hitting. Don't even bother with the skills as regards Tricobalts or the Breen cluster tranphasic weapon, HYT doesn't do anything to them.

[TheFeniX]

I'll second Science Team, it's been a lifesaver for my Cruiser (as my original only self-heal) to the point that I think maxed it out for minimal cooldown or something...

A well done cruiser build was almost unkillable in 1 vs 1 PvP. Even more so after the nerf to extend shields and the buff to Transfer shields strength I (Science ability). Spread comes in handy later when you get Chroniton Torpedos as you fire a spread out the back to slow escorts and BoPs and possibly force them to burn abilities to get back on the move. Up until that level though, I just run High Yield on both slots. I DID however keep an officer with Tac Team on the off-hand someone was being particularly annoying with boarding parties. I rarely used him though.

But a lot of players wasted higher tier slots on Emergency power to shields II and III, when all you need to do is stack EPS I twice or run Power to engines for the speed damage resistance (+turning) because you're interested in the damage resistance buff more than the (stupidly high) shield heal, Engineer Team 2 (or III if you're Engineer or if the "training transfers" ever went into effect). Your Science abilities was Science Team 2 on two bridge officers, one who had Hazard Emitters and one who had Polarize Hull. You switched based upon how the battle was going. I avoided TSS on my cruiser as I didn't run any power to aux since turning was moved to engine power.

The only direct target ability I had was Aceton Field in the tier 4 slot because every other ability was either shit or too situational.

Not only is your survivability fucking endless enough to wear down any other build except another cruiser built like yours, most all of yours heals can also target allies. An engineer in this build can just run full power to shields and AUX and be a massive target/healer for his team. Then just wait for the perfect time for RAMMING SPEEEEED!

[Edward Yee]

I am SO going to have a hard time getting used to playing "tactical" (that is, in an Escort) if that's the case...

[ShadowDragon8685]

I am SO going to have a hard time getting used to playing "tactical" (that is, in an Escort) if that's the case...

You know you can put any commander in any ship, right?

My main is a Science officer, but I'm flying the Defiant retrofit because cloaking device, that's why.

Also, STO is very forgiving of "not having the right set-up" or "not having the right team." Last night I did Khitomer Accords in a team that consisted of three tacticals, an engineer and myself - every last one of us in escorts, and the space part didn't give us much problem. It was hair-raising at times, but five escorts was like a fighter squadron - there was many a "lock S-foils in attack position" joke when we hit a formation of Borg an all opened up with Cannon Rapid Fire Three.

Doing it the "right" way, that sounds like suicide - sure we have incredible DPS, but we're flying five glass cannons, yet we did it! So go ahead, experiment, fuck around, have some fun. Fly an escort with six turrets if you want, STO is forgiving of experimentation and faffing around.

[Molyneux]

I am SO going to have a hard time getting used to playing "tactical" (that is, in an Escort) if that's the case...

You know you can put any commander in any ship, right?

My main is a Science officer, but I'm flying the Defiant retrofit because cloaking device, that's why.

Also, STO is very forgiving of "not having the right set-up" or "not having the right team." Last night I did Khitomer Accords in a team that consisted of three tacticals, an engineer and myself - every last one of us in escorts, and the space part didn't give us much problem. It was hair-raising at times, but five escorts was like a fighter squadron - there was many a "lock S-foils in attack position" joke when we hit a formation of Borg an all opened up with Cannon Rapid Fire Three.

Doing it the "right" way, that sounds like suicide - sure we have incredible DPS, but we're flying five glass cannons, yet we did it! So go ahead, experiment, fuck around, have some fun. Fly an escort with six turrets if you want, STO is forgiving of experimentation and faffing around.

That...sounds incredibly fun.
I've been sticking to the "right" ships on my various toons, and just got my tac up to Commander, so she's flying around in a beautiful, shiny new Akira - and it's hell on wheels. I've gotta get into some parties like that and really blow up some poor unsuspecting Romulans.

[TheFeniX]

I am SO going to have a hard time getting used to playing "tactical" (that is, in an Escort) if that's the case...

All the stuff I've been ranting about is PvP related. Good escorts can decimate poorly built cruisers in PvP and you'll find a lot of Feds have very sub-optimal builds (unless something has changed drastically), wasting slots on abilities like Boarding Party or even Viral Matrix (since the nerf). They sacrifice a lot of survivability for a minor jump in DPS. I see this same shit in WoW (the only other analog I have knowledge in) when it comes to certain tanks and healers. Everyone wants to be the fucking hero, but a cruiser is about slowly grinding down one (or more) opponents, buying your time for a torpedo volley, Directed Energy Modulation, or Ramming Speed (oh how I love that, even after the nerf). All the damage they've done is immediately removed by the time your science team or Hazard Emitters comes up.

The problem is Klingons had nothing but PvP for a large part of the release and would get called out by other klinks for running sub-par builds. But there's still enough BoPs out there that make excellent space debris. Why run a Raptor and be useful for your team when you can just do an alpha-strike, kill nothing, then BC, run, and be useless? They also never redistribute shield power unlike the raptors and cruisers I fought. I wouldn't heal them because TSS heals facings, not overall.

A good cruiser build is excruciating to fight against and I used that to my advantage in Cap and Hold Scenarios, slowly drawing Feds (or klinks) away from the points, leaving my team to cap, while they desperately tried to take me down. On the off-chance they started to whittle me down, an engine battery + Evasive Manuvers bought me all the time I needed to recover. And they'd usually chase me even further, towards our home base where the turrets would ruin their shit. Oh Zone Chat would explode. Good Times......

PvE: run what you want up until the end-game Raids (and I use the term loosely). The only thing that really makes the space parts of those raids any easier is Scramble Sensors. I kept two bridge officers in my science ship solely for PvE so I could run it twice (III and II). Because then the borg cluster just tears itself apart while we focus down whatever.

[Molyneux]

I am SO going to have a hard time getting used to playing "tactical" (that is, in an Escort) if that's the case...

All the stuff I've been ranting about is PvP related. Good escorts can decimate poorly built cruisers in PvP and you'll find a lot of Feds have very sub-optimal builds (unless something has changed drastically), wasting slots on abilities like Boarding Party or even Viral Matrix (since the nerf). They sacrifice a lot of survivability for a minor jump in DPS. I see this same shit in WoW (the only other analog I have knowledge in) when it comes to certain tanks and healers. Everyone wants to be the fucking hero, but a cruiser is about slowly grinding down one (or more) opponents, buying your time for a torpedo volley, Directed Energy Modulation, or Ramming Speed (oh how I love that, even after the nerf). All the damage they've done is immediately removed by the time your science team or Hazard Emitters comes up.

The problem is Klingons had nothing but PvP for a large part of the release and would get called out by other klinks for running sub-par builds. But there's still enough BoPs out there that make excellent space debris. Why run a Raptor and be useful for your team when you can just do an alpha-strike, kill nothing, then BC, run, and be useless? They also never redistribute shield power unlike the raptors and cruisers I fought. I wouldn't heal them because TSS heals facings, not overall.

A good cruiser build is excruciating to fight against and I used that to my advantage in Cap and Hold Scenarios, slowly drawing Feds (or klinks) away from the points, leaving my team to cap, while they desperately tried to take me down. On the off-chance they started to whittle me down, an engine battery + Evasive Manuvers bought me all the time I needed to recover. And they'd usually chase me even further, towards our home base where the turrets would ruin their shit. Oh Zone Chat would explode. Good Times......

PvE: run what you want up until the end-game Raids (and I use the term loosely). The only thing that really makes the space parts of those raids any easier is Scramble Sensors. I kept two bridge officers in my science ship solely for PvE so I could run it twice (III and II). Because then the borg cluster just tears itself apart while we focus down whatever.

Wait a second, what is wrong with Boarding Party? Granted, I don't play PVP, but it's pretty useful. I just use it dive-bomber-style so they don't get a chance to shoot down the shuttles.

[TheFeniX]

Wait a second, what is wrong with Boarding Party? Granted, I don't play PVP, but it's pretty useful. I just use it dive-bomber-style so they don't get a chance to shoot down the shuttles.

It's an annoyance more than anything. Tactical Team (which almost any escort or Raptor will have because they have so many slots) will remove it immediately. If it happens to shutdown a sub-system, a battery will immediately restore that sub-system. Likewise with Emergency Power to X.

If you're dive-bombing with them at full impulse, you're starting a fight with no weapon power. So you're either doing close to 0 DPS for the first few seconds of combat, or staying there for a while depending on how much weapon power you use with your beams/cannons. Or you burn a weapon battery immediately and leave yourself open for a "Target X subsystem" attack (this is why all the badass escorts run beams, at least when I quit).

You'd be much better off in PVP with engineering abilities such as this. RSP is a must in PVP. Emergency Power to Aux followed by Aux to Structural or Transfer Shield Str is going to give you a great HoT. The amount of crew in a cruiser will have Engineering Team hitting you for about 1/3 or more of your Hull. You could swap DET II for Boarding Party, but there is no counter to DET and boarding parties are counter able and are hit or miss (they may only disable AUX on a Raptor, which would be useless in the long run). And DET is a great way to make Escorts and Science Ships burn even more abilities after they hit RSP. For even higher survivability, you could run Emergency Power to Shield III (which I was unable to do as a science officer) and swap EPS I for weapons or engines.

At lower levels of PVP: your first Tier 2 level ability is RSP, no questions. Once you open up the tier 3 at the next level, you swap for RSP II in tier 3, then swap RSP I for Engineering Team II. Unless you're engineer (or the skill training swap went off), then you can run engineering team III. You have to waste a chunk of merit swapping abilities around (or just know where your going and have other officers ready to go). Raptors and escorts follow behind you and eat the torpedos you shoot out of your ass. Then they die horribly as you switch to the next target. Mock them in zone chat, so they keep attacking you and not your teammates. "Talking Shit" is the PVP equivalent of "Fire at will" when it comes to grabbing aggro.

The moral of the story is that Boarding Party should have been a tactical ability. Also, my experience is likely out of date (I quit in August 2010), but from what I've read, STO hasn't made much ground in changing up PVP all that much.

[Edward Yee]

You know you can put any commander in any ship, right?

That's what I was referring to, but like Molyneux I've been mainly playing with "the right ship" (read: Cruisers), and the Tactical character I have is pretty much in case the Engineer-in-an-Escort experiment doesn't work out.

[Vanas]

Engineers in escorts can apparently work quite well. I've also heard of Engies flying the Intrepids at Captain levels to get a cruiser-esque ship that can actually turn.

I'm ingame now and then as @Seffs, usually with a VA tactical. I don't mind providing some fire support if anyone needs it.

[Molyneux]

I just realized that I put my Klingon science officer into the wrong ship - a Bird of Prey, while what I think I need to work him towards is carriers (via cruisers).

Wish there was a "Trade in" option on a ship, rather than having to buy a new expensive one.

[TheFeniX]

I just realized that I put my Klingon science officer into the wrong ship - a Bird of Prey, while what I think I need to work him towards is carriers (via cruisers).

It really depends on how you want to play your science officer.
Carriers lack a Tier 4 (Commander) BO slot completely, which isn't a huge deal, but you're also losing a second Tier 3 BO slot.

The universal BO slots in a BoP will allow for a quick swap of officers depending on how combat it going. You can even completely forgo any tactical officers and focus completely on self/ally heals in the Engineer and Science area. When things get too hot, you can throw whatever heals you have left, then battle cloak to recover. You can also use this down time to swap officers in and out. I had a BoP all decked out for this specific purpose (almost no damage output), but I never needed it as my Battle cruiser could heal almost as well as my Federation Science Vessel. This is also why I decked out a Carrier, but never used it. It doesn't do anything all that great. It's more a jack of all trades with one huge hull rating. But it lacks the versatility of the BoP.

[Vanas]

Just did a quick mission and gained my first pieces of Glowy Borg Shit. The stats are quite nice, and it's a universal module so you can dump it wherever you like. Tempted to do a TF for more Glowy Borg Shit. That first bit's just from a stand-alone mission though. Discovery of the day: Punching Tactical Drones to death really is the way forwards.

[ShadowDragon8685]

If you're planning to do the Special Task Forces, get ready and dig in for a slog.

Infected isn't so bad. If your team half-way knows what its down and is listening to somebody who knows the mission (and not only listening but obeying their instructions,) you can get it down with only a few deaths and maybe one wipe or two.

The Cure is a goddamned nightmare. Clear a day, you will be spending about five hours in that beast unless you have an insanely good team who knows exactly what to do. To run The Cure is to experience Bij. I call it the Longest Kilometer in STO.

Of course, once you've successfully done The Cure, Khitomer Accords is, by comparison, a piece of cake. Deaths, sure, a few wipes, but nowhere near The Cure, even with bugged out sprinting Borg. Yes, you heard me: sprinting Borg.

Terradome? Just fucking forget it. Until Craptic fixes that mission it's virtually unwinnable, and that's for lack of being able to keep trying: screw up once and that's it, you have to drop it and wait a day to try again. And it's an escort mission that's there to be screwed up: ten friendly NPCs against raid-tier Undine (Species 8472) enemies, and if even one croaks you're fried.

[Steve]

I've got a Heavy Escort now, the Fearless. I combined the Akira "Hull" and struts with the Oslo saucer and nacelles. Bow arc is two blue-quality dual heavy phaser cannons and one blue q-torp launcher, all mark VI, with the "Levels with you" beam array I got from the Devidian/Section 31 mission chain and a blue-quality Mark VI turret on the aft. I've been making Hirogen, Remans, and Romulans my bitches.

Was totally worth spending all night farming level three samples at the Afehirr Nebula the other night.