Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[White Haven]

Well, what DO you have on?

[The Romulan Republic]

Shields range from Mk IX to Mk XI. Nearly all my people have Mk XI armour (one has Mk X but I'm not using them right now). I don't see much in the way of other items, at least not defensive ones. Some food and a medium Cordriazine Hypo. And I've got a couple small shield charges available as well.

Edits: And yes, I know that's pathetic. I simply haven't been keeping on top of it because I usually haven't needed to.

And it doesn't help that my inventory is crammed with useless crap I can't get rid of (fucking lockboxes).

[White Haven]

The mark matters a lot less than the what. Be specific: are these random green whatnots you had lying around, or are you packing Jem'Hadar/Romulan whatsits from levelling through the missions? Have you been working on any of your reps yet now that you've crossed 50?

[RogueIce]

Don't feel too bad, TRR. I've been playing (off and on) since the 1st year anniversary and my main's Away Team still has a hodgepodge of random shields and armor, mostly from loot drops (My PC, at least, rocks MACO Mk XII). My weapons have been standardized as TR-116Bs, though, so there's that. Thank God for the new R&D.

[Imperial Overlord]

You can discard those lock boxes. Right click on a stack and pull open the item menu.

Ground combat is far from my top priority and I manage it all right. Decent gear isn't hard to get and as has been mentioned, what it does matters more than its mark. Good kit and ground powers, use of the Exose/Exploit mechanic, and flanking will mostly take care of it as long as your ground team set up is mutually supporting.

[Lord Revan]

other's might disagree but I wouldn't use Boffs that are the same career as you on the ground team (with the possible exception of a second sci for healing or specialists (aka cmd or int officers)) this is probably most important on tactical officer and your main was not that IIRC.

Generally you should have boffs with skills that support your team the best, oh and once you get to max level get the eng/cmd officer you get from "Dust to Dust" if she's still avaible the command abilities are really good.

[RogueIce]

Nog is just as awesome as I remember him being from DS9. That is all.

[Lord Revan]

Nog is just as awesome as I remember him being from DS9. That is all.

it's nice to see a ferengi that's both smart and not slimy, while still seeming "ferengi", alot of the ferengi you meet are the "TNG version".

[Zwinmar]

I tried to get back on it, however, the game keeps saying my graphics driver drops it. In other words; I can't play.

[mr friendly guy]

Ok so I am giving it a try now. Give a warm applause to Starfleet's latest recruit, Sheldon Cooper of the USS Bazinga.

[mr friendly guy]

This is a silly question, but I could I pay to buy zen and then purchase the T6 cross faction battlecruisers and then get high end ships right away. It seems like I can only purchase Tier one ships otherwise. I mean what's the point of pay to win, if you can't just buy the right gear?

[Elheru Aran]

You can't use that stuff till you level up, though. That is what keeps nubs in their place...

[The Romulan Republic]

That said, it doesn't take that long to level up to better ships.

[FaxModem1]

You're also not the first Sheldon Cooper, I've seen a few of them running around. It seems he has quite a few clones/descendants in Starfleet.

[The Romulan Republic]

The mark matters a lot less than the what. Be specific: are these random green whatnots you had lying around, or are you packing Jem'Hadar/Romulan whatsits from levelling through the missions? Have you been working on any of your reps yet now that you've crossed 50?

My current away team have the following armour and shields:

Captain: Physical Augmentation Armor Mk XI and Personal Shield Mk XI.

Science officer: Polyalloy Weave Armor Mk XI and Personal Shield Mk XI.

Tactical officer: Polyalloy Weave Armor Mk XI and Personal Shield Mk XI.

[mr friendly guy]

That said, it doesn't take that long to level up to better ships.

It seems like I need at least level 10 before I get the next batch of ships. After that its level 20. Is it worthwhile to try and tough it out until I get to level 20, then get a new ship. I imagine so that I can preserve ZEN points if I don't need to buy tier 2 ships.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, every ten levels you get access to more ships.

As for skipping level 20 ships, maybe. You might find some of the battles rather difficult, but as I recall I was able to do okay for a while with a substandard ship, and I've hardly mastered this game.

[The Romulan Republic]

You know, difficulty aside, from a purely narrative point of view, it makes no sense that I'm only allowed to bring two guys with me in to a futuristic counterpart of the World War I's trenches.

[White Haven]

I swear, it's like pulling fucking teeth. And what rarity are these items, and what do you have in your hands? And, if the answer isn't 'a sword' for your captain, why in the almighty paisley hell are you running around in melee-boosting armour?

[The Romulan Republic]

I swear, it's like pulling fucking teeth. And what rarity are these items, and what do you have in your hands? And, if the answer isn't 'a sword' for your captain, why in the almighty paisley hell are you running around in melee-boosting armour?

Touchy.

Captain has a Tetryon Assault Minigun Mk XI (uncommon) and a Worn Tsunkatse Falchion Mk VIII (common). I alternate between them depending on the situation.

As for the rarity of the shields and armour, my captain's armour is rare and his shield is common. My science officer's armour is uncommon and his shield is common. And my tactical officer's armour is uncommon and his shield is common.

Does that help?

[White Haven]

It helps confuse me greatly. Missions hand you far, far better stuff for free quite often as rewards, as does the Exchange, as do the various rep systems. You're over 50 if you're dealing with the Vaadwaur, so you have easy access to all of these things. So, to be blunt, why is your equipment so titanically, earthshakingly bad? The rep gear, okay, that's time-consuming to get into higher tiers of, but there's plenty of worthwhile stuff on the Exchange for cheap and as for mission rewards, missions pay YOU to take them.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, I'm fairly casual/half-assed about this game a lot of the time. And I haven't really used the Exchange. Not sure why. But I do the missions and collect the loot. I suppose its possible that I recycled/sold some stuff I shouldn't have by mistake, particularly if my inventory was full, but by and large I use the missions to collect valuable stuff like anyone else.

In any case, I suspect I'm getting the hang of the Vaadwaur on the Kobali's world. Its tedious, but not unwinnable. I attack them and run toward the nearest Kobali group, thereby luring them from behind their fortifications and into a massacre. They pop up again eventually, but if they're in my way I can clear them out that way.

Edit: Still, I'll be glad to be done with this phase of the game. Fortunately Kim just called me with what sounds like urgent news so it looks like the plot is picking up speed.

Once this is done, I think I'm going to give my crew some shore leave on Risa and maybe swing by Earth again to see if anything's new.

[Simon_Jester]

The mark matters a lot less than the what. Be specific: are these random green whatnots you had lying around, or are you packing Jem'Hadar/Romulan whatsits from levelling through the missions? Have you been working on any of your reps yet now that you've crossed 50?

My current away team have the following armour and shields:

Captain: Physical Augmentation Armor Mk XI and Personal Shield Mk XI.

Science officer: Polyalloy Weave Armor Mk XI and Personal Shield Mk XI.

Tactical officer: Polyalloy Weave Armor Mk XI and Personal Shield Mk XI.

OK. As a rather more casual player than White Haven...

It's not entirely surprising that you're wearing Mk XI equipment, since random drops of Mk XII and XIII equipment are not that common even at high level. You should be able to score SOME Mk XII equipment, though. But:

1) As he says, what rarity? You're using Common Mk XI shields. Those are quite a bit weaker than Rare ones. By your level you should have picked up enough equipment that any Mk XI gear you're still using would be Rare, I think. Several missions award such shields routinely. Go find them and replay them. Get better armor and shields.

2) As he says, pay attention to the bonuses you get. Those numbers that appear as mouseover text when you select items? They matter. Physical Augmentation Armor's main selling point is that it increases your damage from hand to hand weapons. It is actively inferior at protecting you against weapons, so if you are getting shot at while wearing this armor, you will get hurt more.

Polyalloy armor is good against physical and kinetic damage- grenades, wild beasts trying to eat you, angry Klingons with knives. It is okay against energy damage (i.e. the vast majority of attacks that hit you in the entire game).

The best armor against energy weapons is "energy dampening" armor. You will definitely have seen some of this kind of armor in drops, and as misison rewards. Start wearing it. Jeez. Look up missions that reward you with this kind of armor, and replay them, to get some armor that doesn't stink.

Consider poking around the Exchange and looking for "energy dampening armor mk xii" or whatever, to see if you can find some for a reasonable price.

3) If your character is a Delta Recruit, then you got a considerable amount of Reputation marks for free. Cashing in those marks with the various groups (Romulan Republic, Dyson Sphere, etc.) will pay off in a bit of dilithium (sorta worth it) and very cheap ground weapons. The weapons in question may be optimized for things you don't do (Task Force Omega is all about killing Borg, so they give you guns that hurt the Borg unusually well)... but they're still Rare and Ultra Rare Mk XI and XII weapons, so they're probably nastier than anything you're carrying unless your personal weapons are a LOT more effective than your defensive equipment.

So basically... just check to see if you have any spare Romulan Republic reputation points. If you do, cash them in. If you don't, just show up to a few Tholian Red Alert missions in the Alpha Quadrant, and you can get them almost for free (enough modern Tier 6 ships will chew through the Alert quickly, so even if you personally aren't a badass your team will probably win).

Cash in the RR points for big honking plasma guns. These guns will probably hurt your enemies more than anything you're currently using. You don't even have to get up to high level, you may not even have to DO anything, because (if you're a Delta Recruit) your free Reputation marks alone will get you about eight of those plasma guns, one daily contribution at a time.

[Simon_Jester]

That said, it doesn't take that long to level up to better ships.

It seems like I need at least level 10 before I get the next batch of ships. After that its level 20. Is it worthwhile to try and tough it out until I get to level 20, then get a new ship. I imagine so that I can preserve ZEN points if I don't need to buy tier 2 ships.

The ships you're awarded at levels 10, 20, 30, and 40 don't cost anything- they are literally free except for the time it takes to make sure you've equipped them properly with whatever weapons, consoles, and so on you want to carry over from the last ship.

While there ARE low-level (that is, usable below Level 50) ships that cost ZEN, there is no good reason to purchase them unless you really, really want to.

[Soontir C'boath]

Argh blurgh, this game is starting to feel like work. R&D assignments, reputation/fleet marks, etc are taking up time I could use going on missions.