Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[The Romulan Republic]

I have no use for my lockboxes whatsoever. I can't open them, never use them. They just take up space in my inventory.

I'd trade every one (I probably have hundreds by now) for a few Mk XII Phaser Beam Arrays.

Edit: Seriously, if anyone wants all my lockboxes for some Mk XII Phasers, you know where to find me.

[RogueIce]

Lockboxes are pretty much useless as far as I'm concerned. I've tried selling them, but I typically end up just dumping them into my character bank on the off chance that I can get rid of them somehow.

It depends, really. If you have some of the older ones, they can be worth a pretty penny. Theoretically, if a given Lockbox has stuff that players really want, you can hang on to some for whenever the next Lockbox comes out and the price goes up as they become rarer. Obviously, current Lockboxes won't sell for shit since basically everyone is getting a ton anyway through gameplay.

[The Romulan Republic]

So basically my lockboxes are big useless waste that I can't even get rid of for anything worthwhile? Wonderful.

Also, I just realized that in terms of number of posts/pages, this may have just become the longest thread I've ever made on this forum.

[RogueIce]

So basically my lockboxes are big useless waste that I can't even get rid of for anything worthwhile? Wonderful.

They might have a decent EC value down the road. And of course if you're the type willing to spend money on Master Keys to open the things they're handy. I don't think you have really lose by opening a Lockbox. Sure you may not get the shiny new starship but it's not like there's a case where you open it and get absolutely nothing. But it all depends on how you value things, and whether you think stuff like XP boosts or extra Doffs or the various included weapons, shields, kit modules, traits and so on are worthwhile compared to other avenues to acquire similar items (like Rep gear and such).

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't want to spend money. I'm not nearly rich enough to justify spending money on a game where I can do this much for free. If I experience a sudden boost in income, maybe then.

Anyway, I'm still bogged down in the siege of the Kobali home world. There's a real trench warfare vibe, only with energy shields and such.

I still haven't gotten over how fucking creepy Kobali "reproduction" is. Ugg. I feel like I should be arresting their government on billions of counts of grave robbing.

Edit: The Kobali siege actually reminds me of the fall of Gallifrey stuff from Doctor Who a little bit. I wish their was a Doctor Who game like this.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I typically only hang onto about ten or so of any given lockbox, in the interests of selling them down the line. Any more than that is pointless since I don't have the disposable income to play the master key lottery really.

[Coaan]

Honestly, given how often they drop and how irritating they are, I usually just delete them as soon as humanly possible as my inventory is more precious than the possibility that I might get something that I could possibly theoretically use if the stars align.

If master keys were cheaper on the exchange, maybe.

[Simon_Jester]

I keep a stack of them in inventory because it's less work than deleting them every time one appears. That's usually about it.

[mr friendly guy]

If I were to join ST online say in the next 2 months, will I get to pay the old missions, or do I start on the current missions?

[RogueIce]

If I were to join ST online say in the next 2 months, will I get to pay the old missions, or do I start on the current missions?

The story missions, absolutely. Except maybe the Cardassian Front ones, if they get around to a revamp in that time. But trust me, you won't be missing much.

But yeah, the story missions stay there basically forever. Some of the endgame queues might wind up disappearing every now and again, though.

[Lord Revan]

yeah the story missions stay for good and bad as some of the earlier missions (in terms of when they were published not where they are in the story), the first part of Cardassian struggle are not so great, jumping about the Alpha Quadrant randomly switching the faction that's opposed to you with no clear story consistency.

In other news I like the look of the new summer event ship, but then I liked the look of the D'Kora as well and this one isn't that much different.

[Simon_Jester]

The biggest problem with Cardassian Struggle (at least, prior to Second Wave, which is a good mission and is followed by a logical plotline) is the incoherence. It's... about as episodic as most of Star Trek, come to think of it.

They could greatly improve it just by rearranging the missions, into something like...

Suspect -> Tribble with Klingons -> War Games -> Shutdown
[get all the miscellaneous random stuff out of the way, then...]

Tear of the Prophets -> Crack in the Mirror -> The Other Side
[it is OBVIOUS that The Other Side should go directly after Crack in the Mirror, not after two or three random episodes so you forget the whole 'mirror universe is a threat' schtick]

Rapier -> Seeds of Dissent -> Badlands -> Forging Bonds -> The New Link -> The Long Night
[Rapier serves as your first introduction to the Jem'Hadar. Then you introduce the True Way as an annoying guerilla threat, Then go "wow, these guys must have been eating their Wheaties, and holy shit did they just ally with the Dominion again?" after Badlands. Then you learn that they've actually aligned with the Alpha Jem'Hadar, deal with this threat in The New Link, and then proceed to roll up their organization on Terok Nor. ]

Then have Cage of Fire, which is a good standalone and belongs right where it is, bringing you back to the idea of Bajoran culture that turns out so important during the time when Starfleet bases out of Bajor after Second Wave.

Then the events after Second Wave go as normal.

EDIT: Actually, Suspect would go great AFTER War Games and Shutdown, because in those episodes you deal with a real and very unsubtle Undine infiltration attempt, and then to have an (alleged) Undine infiltration going on in the next episode with the infamous "find the shapeshifter, who do you trust" schtick at the end would help. Although the episode could still use some improvement in general, also those spatial anomalies should be made less butt-ugly.

[Elheru Aran]

To answer MFG:

Yes, you get to play all the story missions. Be careful that you play them in order though. Some of the special event missions are kinda out-of-order, in that sometimes you're temporarily buffed up above your power level. Back when I was starting out I got to play the Dyson Sphere event mission... a level 50ish mission, when I was level 3 or 4. Kind of a mind-blow. I mean, totally do it if you can get bennies out of it like a free starship or something, but it's a bit ridiculous.

Also, new episodes will typically have some special rewards that expire after the next episode comes up. So if there's anything particularly juicy, you'll need to level up quickly in order to get to those missions.

[Elheru Aran]

The overall stories do need some revamping though. Like, the early Federation missions are slightly dated-- you don't really feel much connection to the rest of the galaxy. You do that Borg encounter in the tutorial, then you fight a random Klingon, and knock off a few other random missions here and there, mostly against Klinks. Nothing terribly prepossessing.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, the early missions are dated in that they involve the idea of the Federation and the Klingons being actively at war.

Whereas it's strongly implied by the mid-game (say, Cardassian Struggle) that for all intents and purposes, the Federation and Klingons have effectively declared a cease-fire in order to concentrate on larger threats (like the Borg and Undine). There's plenty of friction in play going into the late game with the Dyson Sphere and Delta Quadrant storylines, but even before the Iconians show up it's clear that the Federation and the

Which when you think about it makes sense, since the original reason the two sides went to war had a lot to do with competing territorial ambitions. Over issues like Klingons claiming space the Federation thought of as its own, the Federation trying to stop the Klingons from consolidating political power over polities like the Gorn, and so on.

By the time the late-game starts (say, after Cardassian Advance)... well.

With the Borg and the Undine dogpiling the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, plus all the weird crap happening in Romulan space, it's got to be pretty obvious to both sides that they're not going to be able to actively expand and gain territory while defending themselves against such sophisticated, powerful threats. The Klingons have bigger enemies to fight; the Federation has more worries than just Klingons snipping off a couple of star systems here and there on the frontier.

So basically what's happening is that early-game and mid-game and late-game are all part of a fairly coherent story arc, but at low levels you're playing in the early-game part of the story arc, and at high levels in the late-game. Despite the fact that it all takes place on the same galactic map.

[Lord Revan]

this could be though easily solved by simply saying that the war is at an effective stalemate at early game with both sides "bug in" in a galactic equilevant of WWI trench warfare, with early missions being about trying to break that stalemate until you get cardassian struggle where there's for all intents and purposes a unannounced ceasefire due to all the new threats that have risen in the mean time.

[Imperial Overlord]

There is an actual cease fire and truce in the later storyline missions. Basically it goes like this: the Klingons jack the Gorn before the game starts because their leaders have been replaced by Undine shapeshifters. Hostilities occur between the Klingons and the Feds because of the Klingons' aggressive moves, with the Feds disregarding the shapeshifters as fabrication to justify Klingon aggression. Things progress and it becomes clear that the Undine are up to some nasty bullshit and they aren't the only ones or the scariest motherfuckers out there. The war, which is up to this point a nasty series of border skirmishes, is settled in favor of a united front.

[Simon_Jester]

To be fair to the Federation, the Klingons were run by a bunch of half-crazy hardliners and were claiming quite a few territories other than the Gorn empire. The Klingons did not act like people who were really out to convince the galaxy of the Undine threat, more like people who were going to singlehandedly beat up everyone in the universe who had already fallen prey to it.

I mean hell, it wouldn't have been that hard for a bunch of Undine to take over the Klingon Empire and then pretend to be on a massively violent anti-Undine crusade that was in fact the opposite...

[Coaan]

The factional gameplay element hasn't caught up yet though, as you still can't team up with Klinks if you are Feddie and vice versa. It's not played Surface Tension yet.

[FaxModem1]

So, who else is enjoying Risa? I admit, it's nice to just do missions where you fool around building sand castles, going on treasure hunts, and just goofing off, it doesn't go with the whole Iconian galactic scale war image, but I do find it fun.

[The Romulan Republic]

Hey, even during a war, the troops need some time off.

I haven't played Star Trek Online for a while, so I haven't done the new Risa stuff. I'm glad to hear that its good. I have an audition tomorrow, but then I'm going to take a day off to catch up on this game, I think.

[Highlord Laan]

I just picked up an Avenger Battlecruiser, and it's goddamed insane. With an RCS console, it's almost as nimble as my Nova and packs an absurd amount of firepower. I love it already.

[The Romulan Republic]

Sounds like a good ship. I suppose its one you have to pay for?

Anyway, I've gone back to this game after a fairly lengthy hiatus. Still mired in the Kobali siege, so I never did check out the new Risa stuff, and I have to say I'm finding it slow and tedious going. Any suggestions for fighting Vaadwaur on the ground would be appreciated. As it stands, my usual tactic for groups of them is to shoot at one from the edge of being in range, then run away and try to get them to follow me into a group of Kobali. It actually works fairly well.

[White Haven]

Shoot them until they all die? Seriously, there are two Vaadwaur special cases, their shield drones (shoot the drone) and their crazy melee punchers (rare and dangerous). Otherwise, though, they're bog-standard. If you're having a hard time, look to your gear and rectify weaknesses there.

[The Romulan Republic]

Don't think I've encountered either of the special types lately. Not sure I've encountered them at all yet.

The individual soldiers aren't always that tough though. But their are large groups of them and the mission in question only allows me to bring two guys down with me instead of the standards four man team. I'm honestly not sure why they'd do that for what's one of the biggest ground combat situations I've encountered yet in the game.

Edit: I guess that means I should focus on better shields/armour/equipment that will make my men more durable.