Star Trek Online is free

[Aaron MkII]

I just laugh my ass off every time my Cheyanne deploys warp plasma, it looks like it's farting its way across the solar system.

[Edward Yee]

For anyone using the C-Store:

Until 11:55 pm Pacific of Sunday, April 8 -- aka 2:55 am US Eastern of Monday, April 9 -- you get 15% more Cryptic Points when you buy them through the C-Store (they specified PayPal, Moneybookers, ClickandBuy, Google Checkout in the US-but-no-bonus-300-CP-for-large-purchases, or Steam, but someone else said that it's a long way of saying "not through the Dilithium Exchange").

Also, until 11:59 am Pacific -- that's 2:59 pm US Eastern -- of Wednesday, April 11, everything else except the Odyssey/Bortasqu', Master Keys and their respective bundles is at 20% discount, i.e. only 1440 points ($18) for the Deep Space Nine Bundle instead of 1800 ($22.50).

Have to say, yesterday was the first day in weeks where I didn't take any of my characters through at least the Foundry daily, my dilz were all sunk into C-Points by now.

[charlemagne]

Well while the sale is nice, I still won't buy the DS9 bundle because it sucks overall. I'd be interested in the Defiant bridge and the DOFFs, but I sure as hell don't need the shuttle, and Vedek costumes - wtf? My toons are enlightened post-religious Starfleet officers, why the hell would they play dress up as priests

[Aaron MkII]

Maybe they have terrible fashion sense.

[Aaron MkII]

So I'm almost to Captain, is there any actual difference in the explorer subtypes or is it just appearance?

[charlemagne]

Go here: http://www.stowiki.org/Federation_Cruiser#Overview to compare BOFF layout., hull values etc. are the same. The Exploration Cruiser Refit gets an extra sci ensign station.

The different skins for the same ship don't make a difference though.

[RogueIce]

Go here: http://www.stowiki.org/Federation_Cruiser#Overview to compare BOFF layout., hull values etc. are the same. The Exploration Cruiser Refit gets an extra sci ensign station.

The different skins for the same ship don't make a difference though.

You also get an extra Science Console, which is handy with Field Generator (increases max shield capacity) and Shield Emitter Amplifier (increased shield regeneration rate). There's also the Antimatter Spread Universal Console which you may or may not find handy. And you can cart it around to any other ship you please.

[Aaron MkII]

Well I just got the Celestial, not up for paying. So the USS Lightning Lake is a go.

[Stofsk]

I really wish I could buy the Tactical retrofit now, while it's on sale, rather than later when my tac is up to VA - when the sale will be over.

Same goes for getting some doff packs for my alts who I have just started. But I think I can buy them with my current character and transfer them to my alts at a later date.

Some of the ships that you can buy don't really impress me all that much. I've bought the Sao Paulo for the quad cannons, and as my principle ship until VA if I decide to get the retrofit, and the Oberth for the console it comes with (plus it's sorta nice as a Lieutenant-level ship). The Nova-refit does look stupid, from what I've heard the mirror image console thingy is useless. The Cruiser-refit (Exeter-class) has a gas-seeking-torpedo console which I admit sounds really cool, but I just don't see it being really useful. The Nebula-class ships sound useful, but I don't know if it's more for PvP or not (and also I never really liked the Nebula-class design anyway). About the only other ship I am tempted to get is the Excelsior retrofit, because it seems to be better than the Sovvie (slightly better turn rate, identical HP but better shields, more engineering boffs, one less tactical boff but the one it does get is a Lt Commdr, which is actually better than the Sovvie who is limited to Lieutenant, and to top it off it has transwarp capability off the bat).

Also I wish we didn't have admiral ranks in this game. It breaks immersion for me, when people start calling me Rear Admiral, Lower Half instead of captain. For one thing, just call me Admiral for fuck's sake, and for another I feel like they forgot the one good scene in Generations ('Don't let them promote you!'). I've decided to keep all my characters at cap rank in terms of their title and the pips on their uniform, but that doesn't stop everyone from calling me an admiral.

[charlemagne]

Can't you just buy whatever you want through the C-Store without having a character with the right level? Never tried it, but I'm curious. The T5 Excelsior is really nice, it tanks like a beast, is relatively nimble (for a cruiser) and can dish out serious DPS. From the lower tier C-Store ships, the one thing I find really useful is the point-defense console that comes with the Thunderchild class.

You're so right about the Adminal rank. I don't understand why they did that either. You could just leave out Admiral and start all characters at Ensign instead of Lt., put in an Lt. Junior Grade and bam, Captain at Level 50.

[Vanas]

Speaking as a tactical cruiser captain, the Refit Excelsior is one of my favourite ships in the game. It's tough, has a good selection of slots and officers and is all around good. Going back to a Sovereign after it, I felt that I'd massively downgraded. The only thing I'd suggest over it is whichever of the specialised Oddessys (Odessies?) that suits you.

[Broken]

If they keep the Admiral ranks, they should expand the doff and boff system tremendously. Make you the Admiral of a small task force made up of the ships in your hangar, promote boffs (3?) to captain them and head departments, and sent a limited number of doffs (10? per ship) to crew your old ships. Now give them doff-like missions that take much longer with the chance for much greater rewards. And, of course, a massive cool-down (24 hours?) Call in Reinforcements skill that brings them all charging in to save your ass. But I imagine that's too much work for them to consider, gotta push out the Romulan faction first.

As for C-store ships, yes the T5 Advanced Cruiser Retrofit is awesome. The MVAE is also grand for STF's due to the fact you can put grav well on it for those hordes of small borg ships running somewhere you have to keep them out of.

[Stofsk]

Can't you just buy whatever you want through the C-Store without having a character with the right level? Never tried it, but I'm curious.

Nope. Otherwise I'd have bought the Tactical retrofit by now. At least one character has to be at the level in which the ship can be used.

You're so right about the Adminal rank. I don't understand why they did that either. You could just leave out Admiral and start all characters at Ensign instead of Lt., put in an Lt. Junior Grade and bam, Captain at Level 50.

I'd rather they keep the Ensign at tutorial, Lieutenant>Lieutenant Commander>Commander>Captain progression unchanged, and then do something like Fleet Captain (ceremonial title? Both Pike and Garth had this rank) at 40, and Commodore at 50. A Commodore would be well at home in the kind of small squadron style ship arrangements that we usually see (like 5 guys in a team) and on the plus side has a precedent in TOS. And it sounds better than hearing Rear Admiral, Lower Half (now Upper Half, woo) all the damn time.

Man if I had just done the main plot line solely I would be VA by now. I'm 45 and only now have I just completed the Doomsday Device mission.

[Anacronian]

Speaking as a tactical cruiser captain, the Refit Excelsior is one of my favourite ships in the game. It's tough, has a good selection of slots and officers and is all around good. Going back to a Sovereign after it, I felt that I'd massively downgraded. The only thing I'd suggest over it is whichever of the specialised Oddessys (Odessies?) that suits you.

Personally i like the refit Excelsior way more than the Oddy, The Excelsior turns really nice and has a Lt.c Tac Boff which allow Beam Overload III or Beam fire at will III - Granted a Oddy got a universal Lt.c slot but if you want to survive for more than 2 min(in STF or the like) it should be used for a Eng or Sci boff leaving a Oddy with only a Lt. Tac boff.

Also the Oddy's special consoles are fun but all in all pretty useless in heated combat and not really worth the slot they take up.

Only cruiser that really trumps the refit Excelsior is the Cardassian Galor class.

[Stofsk]

I'd take any endgame cruiser over the Odyssey because the Odyssey looks like ass.

[Alferd Packer]

All I want is an friendly Engineering or Science captain to keep me alive while I dakka everything to death in my Defiant. Really, it's win-win. When I run my Sovereign I make it a point to spread around as many heals as I can spare.

[Vanas]

Personally i like the refit Excelsior way more than the Oddy, The Excelsior turns really nice and has a Lt.c Tac Boff which allow Beam Overload III or Beam fire at will III - Granted a Oddy got a universal Lt.c slot but if you want to survive for more than 2 min(in STF or the like) it should be used for a Eng or Sci boff leaving a Oddy with only a Lt. Tac boff.

Also the Oddy's special consoles are fun but all in all pretty useless in heated combat and not really worth the slot they take up.

Only cruiser that really trumps the refit Excelsior is the Cardassian Galor class.

Oh, I have the universal slot with a Tactical officer in it. I've pretty much got FaW up as much as possible. I've... never used a science officer for anything, really, while the engies do their job nicely. Admittedly, some of the slack is taken up by the self-repairing Borg kit. That stuff is really handy.

[RogueIce]

All I want is an friendly Engineering or Science captain to keep me alive while I dakka everything to death in my Defiant. Really, it's win-win. When I run my Sovereign I make it a point to spread around as many heals as I can spare.

I'll admit I'm no good at this, because I suck at whipping the mouse around to target peeps. That and I play with a gamepad which does 90% of what I need to do WRT shooting stuff (helps when I load up on beams and can just leave them on autofire). So getting to a mouse is an extra hurdle.

But I play a Tac mostly so I guess I have less stuff I need to manually target for when it comes to team buffs.

[charlemagne]

You can target your team members with F1 - F5, or by klicking their portrait, no mouse whipping required

And seriously, even I in my escort can spare my heals most of the time when I don't have aggro. When I see the cruiser next to me being bashed they get TSS and HE. Sure, anyone should be able to keep himself alive, and in normal mode STFs this usually isn't a problem. But if there's one thing I hate then it's sitting next to another ship with full hull and shields and almost dying to all the spheres I pound to not lose the optional

That's almost as bad as no one reading team chat. I ragequit a KA yesterday for the first time: I was guarding the right gate, and after I killed their own side's probes two times and only made it thanks to GW on my MVAE I told them to watch their own fucking probes at least three times, and they still let one through.

[White Haven]

In all fairness, team chat is (I believe) still bugged to high heaven, such that in many cases it actually DOES NOT appear to other team members.

[charlemagne]

Ok, yeah that's true, often you get "Channel not found" when you're typing in there. But Zone chat works all the time

[White Haven]

That while irritating, isn't the real problem. The real problem is when one person sends team chat text fine, and some or all of the party fails to receive it. I've noticed that in partial pickup groups with people on skype.

[Edward Yee]

As of this post, you've got just under 3 hours to go (more like 2 hours 50 mins) til the 20% discount sale expires...

[KhorneFlakes]

Hey guise, since I've started playing STO, I've noticed that sometimes when I get EXP there is a set limit to how much exp I can use on my guy before it doesn't let me put in any more. I'm a Lieutenant Commander 14, by the way.

I'm really not sure how it works. Could someone explain?

[White Haven]

Direct your eyes to the bottom of the skill window. There, you will find a breakdown of how much exp you have and are allowed to spend in ground and space skills, respectively. This is so you'll actually spend points in ground combat areas, so you're not totally worthless there.