Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[Highlord Laan]

Well, I'm jumping in with STO. WoW is dragging, WoT is grinding, and I want something nice and sci-fi to counter the samey aftertaste of fantasy and rage induced cursing sprees of whole teams of %40ers. Downloading now, actually. So I'll be jumping in to play after I get back from seeing the Averngers.

From what I've read, I'm really leaning towards Federation escorts. Dash in, raise hell, dash out. I'm an aggressive player by inclination, so it sounds right up my alley.

[Lord Revan]

should be noted that Escorts (especially the Starfleet ones) are quite flimsy so until you get high end shields you might end up with "go in, get noticed, suffer a warpcore breach" if you're not careful. hull armor (engi console) does help though at least at the start.

[The Romulan Republic]

I appreciate a tough ship, but I still find that speed is useful for dealing with the tougher opponents. Being able to retreat quickly when something is too tough to slug it out with can be very helpful.

Edit: Frankly, I've often found myself doing quick attack runs and running like help.

[Highlord Laan]

I'm only just starting, and I'm already enjoying myself. The controls seem clunky as all hell, but I'm getting used to them. I'm also enjoying my tough little light cruiser, the USS Cannae. The deceptively outdated thing is a perfect fit for my deceptively small fireball of a Lt, a Bajoran thats actually a ground pounder by trade and inclination. But hey, Starfleet really does take all comers.

Though I did find Vega to be amusing. A lone, outdated Shi'kar Miranda fending off a Borg invasion until a Cube showed up, then tossing caution aside and going balls deep and photons blazing.

One quick question: Is it worth it to stay around mission areas and scour them for resources? Does exploration pay off?

[Lord Revan]

I'm only just starting, and I'm already enjoying myself. The controls seem clunky as all hell, but I'm getting used to them. I'm also enjoying my tough little light cruiser, the USS Cannae. The deceptively outdated thing is a perfect fit for my deceptively small fireball of a Lt, a Bajoran thats actually a ground pounder by trade and inclination. But hey, Starfleet really does take all comers.

Though I did find Vega to be amusing. A lone, outdated Shi'kar Miranda fending off a Borg invasion until a Cube showed up, then tossing caution aside and going balls deep and photons blazing.

One quick question: Is it worth it to stay around mission areas and scour them for resources? Does exploration pay off?

Depends on whether you're intrested on the crafting system or not, you get a decent amount of basic crafting materials from scanning the research nodes but if you're not intrested in R&D it's not really worth it and any consistent high level materials come from STFs (at level 50 or higher).

As far as my characters go I got an Andorian Security officer, Human Medic/doctor, 2 former RSE assassins/spec force soldiers (a romulan and a reman), 1 Orion matriarch (my only KDF atm and engineer by trade) and an subspace specialist engineer from a minor UFP species.

oh btw since this is your first char I'd recomend going kind of a mix between ground and space skills so that you don't get totally wrecked in either same with traits until level 50 at the very least and probably 60 to be safe, after that you change the traits to fit your needs (and if you got the spare cash skills as well).

oh and just a quick word about the specialization system that opens at level 51 there's 3 primary specializations and 1 secondary (though any primary one can be selected as secondary as well) they as follow Intelligence, Command, Pilot for primary and commando for secondary (commando and pilot are more or less what you think they are) with the remaining 2 command focuses on exploit damage, while intel is more about flanking or flanking protection.

[Coaan]

oh btw since this is your first char I'd recomend going kind of a mix between ground and space skills so that you don't get totally wrecked in either same with traits until level 50 at the very least and probably 60 to be safe, after that you change the traits to fit your needs (and if you got the spare cash skills as well).

Due to skill respecs costing their real money currency, this is actually terrible advice.

You do not need more than a maximum of 66,000 skillpoints sunk into ground combat to be competitive in all but the elite-of-the-elite ground STFs and that leaves 300k free to put into the actual, fun part of the game - Space.

I am going to assume you went with a tactical captain? If so, the vast majority of your points will want to go into 'tactical systems' and 'engineering systems', with only the first three skills in science and operation systems even really mattering.

If you need a hand deciding which skills to pick/invest in, feel free to ask here and I'll lend a hand.

[Lord Revan]

oh btw since this is your first char I'd recomend going kind of a mix between ground and space skills so that you don't get totally wrecked in either same with traits until level 50 at the very least and probably 60 to be safe, after that you change the traits to fit your needs (and if you got the spare cash skills as well).

Due to skill respecs costing their real money currency, this is actually terrible advice.

You do not need more than a maximum of 66,000 skillpoints sunk into ground combat to be competitive in all but the elite-of-the-elite ground STFs and that leaves 300k free to put into the actual, fun part of the game - Space.

I am going to assume you went with a tactical captain? If so, the vast majority of your points will want to go into 'tactical systems' and 'engineering systems', with only the first three skills in science and operation systems even really mattering.

If you need a hand deciding which skills to pick/invest in, feel free to ask here and I'll lend a hand.

I think you misinterpted what I meant to say, what I meant is that you shouldn't totally ignore ground or space skill with your first character that said I agree that you don't really need more then 60k-70k sp on ground skills to be good enough for pretty all elite STF if your gear and traits are properly set (those matter more anyway).

though I would disagree about ground not being fun, I've been playing ground STFs with my fleet (mostly Brotherhood of the Sword but others as well) and I didn't feel bored at all.

[Coaan]

Given the game is hard coded so you can only ever put a max of 300k in space skills, it's a bit of a moot point anyway as those left over points will only be going to one place.

As for ground combat itself, the changes they made in season 8?9? have made it better, but it is still an exercise in frustration compared to space combat, which is leaps and bounds ahead of ground in terms of quality, enjoyment and sheer prettiness.

I also can't get past the artificial lock they put on ground combat and ship ratings. When I have a ship carrying literally thousands of crewmen, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to just deploy bravo company that day and sit on the bridge relaxing/sipping tea.

Space combat doesn't generally have these problems.

[Lord Revan]

Tbh with the exception of the human (who's a medical officer) all my characters are either from a species that are aggressive enough that being "left out" of the action is not an option to them (my Andorian and Alien characters), part of an organization where delegation is not seen favorbly (my Orion character) or have massive degree of survivor's guilt so just sending others to die while you stay out of harms way is unthinkble to them (my RRN characters) and that's without getting to the fact that your character goes from cadet to vice admiral in 18 months not enough time to really earn the respect of most people, oh and you do send send junior officers into missions that's what the duty officer missions are, think of the ground missions as something important enough that you want to do it yourself to make sure it's done "right" and that problem solves itself.

and remember you're a Fleet Admiral at level 60, not someone who should be commanding a single ship no matter how big into combat.

[Coaan]

It is an oversight with ground combat that bugs me. If I am an admiral, and I have up to several thousand people under my command, who are presumably all trained to the same level I was, then I should be able to delegate ground combat to them if I just can't be bothered showing up that day.

It's an issue with ground and RP nonsense doesn't change/fix that.

[Highlord Laan]

The idea of not getting her boots dirtside and cracking skulls with a rifle stock is a horrible one to my current character. The uniform is matte black and green for a reason.

[Highlord Laan]

And now T've hit a bit of a snag. I'd ask in zone chat, but since my account is new, I can't (how long does that last, anyway?)

I've got a new ship, a Constitution refit. It was my freebie for level 10. Problems are, first: I've got an open Engineering slot I'd like to fill, have two candidates, but I get told "I have no more room for officers." I've got two engi consoles, so what the hell?

Second: where do I go from here? I went back to the admiral after claiming my ship and moving my crew over, but nothing. The only "quest" I've got is the Delta thing.

[RogueIce]

A common misconception.

Look at this picture (in your game, press 'U')

See the tabs on the left that say No Officer? These are what matter WRT whether you can bring on a new Boff. If you don't have any empty spaces in there, it doesn't matter what your ship slots are. Your Boffs are not based on what your ship says, but that. You'll likely need to dismiss whatever Boff doesn't 'fit' your ship's station and then commission the new ones.

[Lord Revan]

what I've noticed is that you sometimes get new ships are have more boff stations then you got slots for during low levels, for example there's 5 stations in the ship but you only have 4 slots for boffs open at that point, if that happens just play until you get more free slots, that stops happening at about level 30 or so for good as you start to have more slots for boffs on your character then there's stations on ships (max number of stations I've seen is 6 IIRC and that's on the high end zen ships).

and the new account restrictions last for 10 days or until you've paid for something IIRC.

[Simon_Jester]

What I find frustrating is that lately, certain animated things haven't been displaying on my screen.

This includes the visual indicator that a target has been Exposed, and the beam from a sensor sweep that tells me which way to find an anomaly.

It may just be my el cheapo laptop, but I never had this problem before and the implications for gameplay are obvious.

[Highlord Laan]

So after mucking around a bit, I've fallen in love with the Romulans. The Feds are fun in an unfailing white-knight sort of way, but that gets old after a while. The klinks bore me, worse, I detest bullies, and thats pretty much what they are 100% of the time. "I have more honor than you!" ect.

Then I made a Romulan, and was pulled in by the into alone. By the time I was fighting Tal'Shiar six to one and winning, I was sold. I stumbled across a couple fairly big spoilers by accident while looking for game info on the STO forums, but they only made me hate Sela and her goons even more. I'l eventually make a second Romulan character and even take the time to think up a backstory, but that'll be later. I'll still enjoying just stomping around like a kid in a puddle.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Federation gets pretty dark at some points.

Have you done any of the Section 31 missions yet?

Edit: Wait until you meet Drake, aka "He who I want to throw in my brig."

[Elheru Aran]

And you have to deal with him every day if you want to farm the Traelus satellite mission for dilithium. That's a bucket of laughs right there.

Not only do you encounter him during... what was it, the Romulan Mystery series? No, Klingons, I think. Anyway, you get him there, and then you have to deal with him again on DS9. Grrr.

[The Romulan Republic]

He's a bloody wanker. Its not just that he's a ruthless bastard who violates the Federation's principles and tells my character to do the same, then deceives you. Its that, as I recall, he actually has the nerve to act holier than thou about it.

[Soontir C'boath]

Given the frequent updates in this thread and I am bored, I thought I try this game again, but apparently ARC doesn't immediately acknowledge the new password I just reset it to and now I am banned for 10 minutes. Fucking hell.

[Elheru Aran]

Given the frequent updates in this thread and I am bored, I thought I try this game again, but apparently ARC doesn't immediately acknowledge the new password I just reset it to and now I am banned for 10 minutes. Fucking hell.

Have fun with the wads of updates coming your way!

[Steve]

.....I have way too many alts. I need an intervention.

[Elheru Aran]

How many of them are already maxed out? Which ones did you enjoy the most? Consider dumping your excess Dil for Zen, which is shared between characters IIRC, and just kill off a few. I've been thinking about doing that myself as well.

[The Romulan Republic]

I have five characters, apparently can get no more without spending actual money, and am quite content with that.

[Elheru Aran]

Five? Huh. I only have four. Although I *might* be able to snaffle another Delta Recruit if I tried, but I won't bother too much. I don't have a whole lot of time to play so I'm not sure what the point is, you know?