Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[Lord Revan]

When you get to level 50, the random battle encounters with Klingons in Sirius Sector are just silly. We are talking a salvo of torpedoes taking out 3 Birds of Prey *and* a Vor'cha...

there's a pat mission in Tau Dewa Sector group I used to do to get romulan marks (well I still use it but not as much) and the first wave is a Vor'cha and a Negh'var fighting some frigate level rommies and the renegade klinks are not so badly damaged unless you are being slow on purpose and with 1 scatter volley/torp spread I could take out both of those klinks on my Andorian (my Orion and Romulan character didn't have the gear to do it) generally failing only if they were too far apart for both to be hit with the scatter volley.

it's btw a the same mission that I talked about before though it might have been a Vor'cha and not a Negh'var with the BoPs but still.

[RogueIce]

btw if it's the mission I think it is
Spoiler

If you redo it at lvl 50 you get a decent tier 4 ship (or it might even be a tier 5) from it for your later missions (ambassabor refit)

Not anymore, you don't. The Retrofit was a limited time only deal, though you'll still get the Commander level version (as the mission is slotted for when you reach Level 20).

[Lord Revan]

btw if it's the mission I think it is
Spoiler

If you redo it at lvl 50 you get a decent tier 4 ship (or it might even be a tier 5) from it for your later missions (ambassabor refit)

Not anymore, you don't. The Retrofit was a limited time only deal, though you'll still get the Commander level version (as the mission is slotted for when you reach Level 20).

pity though the Ambassor is still a nice ship for that level range and it's essentially free.

[Skywalker_T-65]

As previously noted, the Retrofit Ambassador is the ship I used the most, back when I was still playing. Had a lot of fun with it.

[White Haven]

...GOD the Ambassador is hideously ugly. It's one of the few canon ships I like even less than the Galaxy.

[The Romulan Republic]

In terms of looks my favourite ship is the Intrepid class.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Oh, I wasn't saying I used it because it was attractive. I just found it to have a nice balance in combat.

In terms of looks, the Excelsior wins out by far. Which is why it's mildly frustrating that it's a ship you have to outright buy.

[RogueIce]

In terms of looks, the Excelsior wins out by far. Which is why it's mildly frustrating that it's a ship you have to outright buy.

The Commander version used to only cost EC. It's how I got my Transwarp Computer console.

[Elheru Aran]

If you're playing Klink-Rom or Klingon, you get a Kamarag class rather than an Ambassador at the end of the mission. Frankly I liked the Ambassador better, it gives you your first taste of the warp-plasma attack... IIRC the Kamarag doesn't have that, though I could be wrong (it might depend on what training your bridge officers have).

[Lord Revan]

If you're playing Klink-Rom or Klingon, you get a Kamarag class rather than an Ambassador at the end of the mission. Frankly I liked the Ambassador better, it gives you your first taste of the warp-plasma attack... IIRC the Kamarag doesn't have that, though I could be wrong (it might depend on what training your bridge officers have).

I think that's a bridge officer skill not 100% on that though.

oh and Rommie did you get those items I sent you, they're not great but should give you bit of an edge at lvl 50+ until you get enough rep/wealth to get better gear.

[Elheru Aran]

I started up Delta Rising. Burned through the intro mission (Mindscape) and the shitty Neelix mission, but I'm not getting anything else? Just a prompt to do mission replays or PvEs? Are they trying to make me level up to get to the next mission or what? Because I'm still on level 50 right now, actually...

[Lord Revan]

I started up Delta Rising. Burned through the intro mission (Mindscape) and the shitty Neelix mission, but I'm not getting anything else? Just a prompt to do mission replays or PvEs? Are they trying to make me level up to get to the next mission or what? Because I'm still on level 50 right now, actually...

yeah there's some times where you can't get the next story mission until you grind a bit, I suggest you do the patrol at the Argala system it gives decent amount of XP for the effort , oh and there's some missions that essentially just show you where the patrols are in DQ.

it's not that bad though and it's an excuse to redo some old favorites or foundry missions, though STFs don't really give you a good xp for the effort.

[Elheru Aran]

Bollocks. Maybe I should just scratch it and get some things done in real life... ah who am I kidding.

[Lord Revan]

Bollocks. Maybe I should just scratch it and get some things done in real life... ah who am I kidding.

the story is pretty good but the grind can get to you.

[RogueIce]

Bollocks. Maybe I should just scratch it and get some things done in real life... ah who am I kidding.

Just fire off as many Doff missions as you can and come back to it. That's what I've been doing and it nicely took me from 52 - 55, and then from 57 to damn near 59 (probably the next couple of days). And I'm not even trying to be efficient about it, just doing whatever shows up when I'm standing around Starfleet Academy. If I parked myself in the Delta Quadrant or the Dyson Sphere I could probably do better.

[Elheru Aran]

Bollocks. Maybe I should just scratch it and get some things done in real life... ah who am I kidding.

Just fire off as many Doff missions as you can and come back to it. That's what I've been doing and it nicely took me from 52 - 55, and then from 57 to damn near 59 (probably the next couple of days). And I'm not even trying to be efficient about it, just doing whatever shows up when I'm standing around Starfleet Academy. If I parked myself in the Delta Quadrant or the Dyson Sphere I could probably do better.

Huh. I'll have to give that a go. I'm weak on some rankings and stuff anyway. Thanks for the reminder...

[FaxModem1]

I know the Diplomacy rank gives you better conversation options, as well as opening up new slipstream destinations, what do the other categories do? Science , Medical, Espionage, etc.

[Iroscato]

I recently got back into STO, mostly thanks to this thread. Is it just me that takes fucking ages to kill ships in my Odyssey? I'm rank 52, equipped almost entirely in mark XII weapons and equipment. I see some people of a similiar rank to me absolutely destroying ships, whereas I'm taking a fair while at best. Am I missing a trick here?

[Skywalker_T-65]

I think it has to do with types of weapons, types of officers, powers used, and so on. A build dedicated to DPS in other words.

I wouldn't know for sure. I never went for a really specific build myself, beyond getting anti-proton weaponry. I tended to play more of a support role, when I did play.

[RogueIce]

Bollocks. Maybe I should just scratch it and get some things done in real life... ah who am I kidding.

Just fire off as many Doff missions as you can and come back to it. That's what I've been doing and it nicely took me from 52 - 55, and then from 57 to damn near 59 (probably the next couple of days). And I'm not even trying to be efficient about it, just doing whatever shows up when I'm standing around Starfleet Academy. If I parked myself in the Delta Quadrant or the Dyson Sphere I could probably do better.

Huh. I'll have to give that a go. I'm weak on some rankings and stuff anyway. Thanks for the reminder...

Just for reference, I filled up 20 of them yesterday, and 19 of them completed, with 1 failure. So out of 18 Doff jobs, I got ~15,000 XP. And that was just standing around Starfleet Academy and taking those missions - not even beaming up to ESD or Sirius Sector Space (which would give me more options, than ESD is generally pretty similar to the Academy); there are far better mission spots out there for Doffing.

And of course that was just me letting the game run pretty much for 20 hours until I got back to it. If I bothered to do a PvE Queue or some Delta Quadrant patrols or run around a Battlezone or whatever as well, I probably could have made far more. And, as mentioned, likely been in locations with way more lucrative Doff jobs than whatever's available from the Starfleet Academy map alone.

I know the Diplomacy rank gives you better conversation options, as well as opening up new slipstream destinations, what do the other categories do? Science , Medical, Espionage, etc.

Diplomacy also lets you fly into the other faction's home sector (Sirius or Omega Leonis) if you're high enough. Useful if you want those Borg Red Alert accolades, as well as various Doff jobs. Federation players also get the Diplomat uniform, which is basically the TNG Film dress uniform, though the customization is extremely limited. And the rank insignia are not the proper TNG pips but the angles squares of the Antares/Sierra line. And they kinda suck. But it's there. And who knows, they may revamp it some day; they overhauled the TWoK uniform out of nowhere awhile back, after all. You can also get a Bridge Officer from the other faction (one time deal, so choose wisely!); so if you want a sexy Orion chick on your Starfleet crew, you can make it happen.

The others I think are mostly just some titles and you get to pick up a few extra Doffs. I don't think they give you anything terribly special beyond that. I think there's something you can do when you "max out" the CXP (Level 4 rank is 100,000, but there's a cap at 150,000) and has something to do with Fleet Marks or something, but I can't remember what all that entails.

It's easier than it looks sometimes, if you're in the right place. I got to Rank 4 Development a couple days ago without even trying, and actually surprised myself that I did it. This was largely because during the Winter Event, I did the various Q-related Doff jobs for the ornaments so I could buy stuff from the Event Store. Well, a bunch of those were considered Development jobs so I picked up the XP that way. And since I cycled between the Winter Wonderland, ESD and Starfleet Academy maps to pick up the winter jobs, I also ended up with a majority of other Development missions as well when I filled out my mission limit - ESD and especially Starfleet Academy seems to really favor the Development track.

It's actually kind of funny because I've really been wanting to max out the Diplomacy track. And ironic, because I carried over Diplomacy Rank 2 from before Doffing was introduced, so I had a head start compared to every other track. Yet I still ended up getting Development to Rank 4 first. To be fair, had I decided to hang around the Cardassian sectors, I probably would be a Federation Ambassador by now - those three sectors around DS9 seem to be the best spot for Diplomacy jobs. But I hang around ESD/Starfleet Academy instead and thus, leveled up Development.

[Lord Revan]

the 8472-counter command gear with phaser/disruptor build can work decently, I've not noticed a huge DPS loss in my gear and I'm still most using what I've used in lvl 50 (my andorian is lvl 60 now) and I still use MACO set (space) but the ordanance set for the counter-command (the tac console from fluid tensition, a special universal console, heavy phaser turret (works with disruptor too) and bio-mol photon torp)

[RogueIce]

I recently got back into STO, mostly thanks to this thread. Is it just me that takes fucking ages to kill ships in my Odyssey? I'm rank 52, equipped almost entirely in mark XII weapons and equipment. I see some people of a similiar rank to me absolutely destroying ships, whereas I'm taking a fair while at best. Am I missing a trick here?

Are you a Tac/Eng/Sci Captain? Which version of the Odyssey do you fly? What types of weapons do you have? Consoles? Boff powers?

We need way more details before we can diagnose. Heck, it even matters what enemies you're facing, what content you're playing, etc.

[White Haven]

You are quite likely missing a lot of tricks, but many of those tricks are some variation of obscure. While STO's complex ship fitting/boff/doff/trait/rep trait interactions can lend amazing depth to builds, they also produce a much steeper learning curve than in the earlier days of the game. That said, there are still some simple potato-level mistakes that are easily fixable, and a whole host of other less-easily-addressed-but-not-insurmountable elements that can be looked at. In many cases, this would be easiest talked about in-game where items can be linked directly, so if you're around, PM me and I can log in and we can see where things stand.

[Iroscato]

It seeks I've stepped into a minefield of complexity
I'm an engineer, using an engineer Odyssey.
My current weapons:
Ancient omni-directional beam array.
Phased biomatter cannon mk xii.
2x photon torpedo launchers mk xii.
Rear:
Adaptive transphasic torpedo mk xii.
Photon mine launcher mk xii.
Phaser turret mk xi.
Vaadwaur cluster torpedo mk xiii.

Consoles:
Engineering:
Aquarius escort.
Eps flow regulator mk xi.
Field emitter mk xii.
Ablative hull armour mk xi.
Science:
Emitter array mk xii.
Flow capacitor mk xii.
Power insulator mk x.
Tactical:
Warhead yield chamber mk xiii and mk xii.
Photon detonation assembly mk x.
No idea what boff powers are, I'm afraid. I am a man of simple pleasures, most of which can be satisfied simply with explosions. Thanks for the advice

[White Haven]

Oh dear. Oh dear dear. You, ah...you have...ah. Okay, I'll just be direct. There are very few things in that built that are not a problem.

Okay, I'll leave the advanced-class stuff for later, because frankly there's enough to address as it is. Energy weapons: Pick a type and stick to it. For a cruiser, I strongly recommend beam arrays, because frankly you turn like a whale and tight-arc weapons are just a recipe for not accomplishing much. Additionally, you definitely don't want to mix beams and cannons, because your Tactical powers are going to be specifying one or the other (Beam: Fire At Will, Cannon: Rapid Fire, etcetera). Turrets count as cannons. Torpedos: Dear god, why so many? If you must use any at all, one, MAYBE one per arc, tops. Mines: Just honestly not very good at all, because they're going to spend way too much time not firing and not on cooldown because you're not in a position to drop them effectively. Tactical consoles: Match them up with whatever you choose as your energy weapon type once you settle on one. Engineering and science consoles: For now, just focus on staying alive. System power boosting consoles aren't generally worth it, they just don't give enough. I'd recommend primarily resistance consoles for engineering (kinetic is resistance to torpedoes, which is never a bad bet), possibly maintaining a small stable to swap out depending on who's giving you trouble at any given time. That's less crucial given that you're an engineer in a cruiser; you've got toughness to go around. Science consoles...the good shield consoles are silly-expensive, or were last I looked, for a newer player. That power insulator, however, is generally not doing you much, because few NPCs do power-drain attacks, and when they do it's rarely all that threatening. That flow capacitor is..potentially a wash as well, depending on if you're using any science powers that take advantage of it.