Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[Lord Revan]

tbh if you got the bigger "wallet" unlocked I'd suspect that buying the Narcine will be easier and cheaper then trying to get it via lockbox.

[RogueIce]

Lock box event.

Stocking up cheap (both from dilithium store and the exchange) with xindi-amphibian and xindi-terrestrial. The amphibian because I want to see if I eventually get a narcine carrier because it looks like a beautiful ship, and the terrestrial because I am eventually going to sell it on the exchange for lots of EC once this event passes. The kemocite laced weaponry manuals would hopefully drive people to purchase it.

I got a Narcine, but then I sold it on the Exchange.

TBH had I known you wanted one, I would've happily gouged the shit out your pay-to-win self.

[Lord Revan]

I'd love to get Narcine or the Terrestial lockbox equilevant but they're way too expensive in the Exachange (when you're limited to 10 mil EC ships that cost 130 mil EC min are a tad above your budget). well I got some lock boxes but the keys are also quite expensive (not really too much but I I need to think if I want to get a master key or something else as keys are generally 1-2 mil EC in the exchange).

I got some lock boxes gathering dust in my bank if people want make a trade, say for example a stack of unopened boxes for a ship.

[Agent Sorchus]

I'd love to get Narcine or the Terrestial lockbox equilevant but they're way too expensive in the Exachange (when you're limited to 10 mil EC ships that cost 130 mil EC min are a tad above your budget). well I got some lock boxes but the keys are also quite expensive (not really too much but I I need to think if I want to get a master key or something else as keys are generally 1-2 mil EC in the exchange).

I got some lock boxes gathering dust in my bank if people want make a trade, say for example a stack of unopened boxes for a ship.

You don't atually need to pay to get the EC cap lifted in this case, you can play the key market to buy keys and offer them in trade for a lockbox ship in the correct channels (though I do not know what would be the correct channels all I know is that they exist.) Dirrect trading like that is one of the few ways around the EC cap, though I suggest just trading dillithium for Zen and buying the cap lifter.

Oh and the sale of old lockboxes can be profitable if they are desirable enough and it has been quite a while since a lockbox rerun. Unfortunately the rerun is upon us so that isn't easy.

[Lord Revan]

Problem with Getting Zen is that transfer rate is really bad something like 130 dil per zen at best, so it's gonna take ages to get enough Dil and I don't know what right channels are nor do I know anyone who I'd trust and might know those channels.

That was mainly for the people here.

[RogueIce]

Problem with Getting Zen is that transfer rate is really bad something like 130 dil per zen at best, so it's gonna take ages to get enough Dil and I don't know what right channels are nor do I know anyone who I'd trust and might know those channels.

That was mainly for the people here.

At current prices, it's 113,000 dilithium for 500 zen. It seems like a lot, but that's like 15 days of getting the refinement cap. And there are tons of guides out there on how to farm dilithium. It's really not an unachievable goal. And $5 isn't a whole lot of money, in all honesty, unless you are that dead set on never spending a penny on this game.

Sure, trying to buy one of those 9-ship T6 Megapacks purely on dilithium-to-zen is utterly insane, but this one isn't.

[Lord Revan]

Problem with Getting Zen is that transfer rate is really bad something like 130 dil per zen at best, so it's gonna take ages to get enough Dil and I don't know what right channels are nor do I know anyone who I'd trust and might know those channels.

That was mainly for the people here.

At current prices, it's 113,000 dilithium for 500 zen. It seems like a lot, but that's like 15 days of getting the refinement cap. And there are tons of guides out there on how to farm dilithium. It's really not an unachievable goal. And $5 isn't a whole lot of money, in all honesty, unless you are that dead set on never spending a penny on this game.

Sure, trying to buy one of those 9-ship T6 Megapacks purely on dilithium-to-zen is utterly insane, but this one isn't.

those prices must have dropped like rock from the time I checked them last and to tbh for me it's more the case of getting the refined Dil then getting Dil in general (I got about 140k unrefinied Dil on the char I play the most atm).

as for using real cash my income atm is practically non-existant so I'd rather not spend a single (euro)cent more then I absolutely must if I can help it.

[mr friendly guy]

tbh if you got the bigger "wallet" unlocked I'd suspect that buying the Narcine will be easier and cheaper then trying to get it via lockbox.

You're most probably right. I remember playing the lockbox lottery with the Xindi terrestrial and I had a few nice things like a few subspace vortex (essential now for my gravity well builds) and structural integrity collapse, but I could not get the kemocite laced weaponry, and had to purchase that on the open market.

But I do love playing the lockbox lottery.

I got a Narcine, but then I sold it on the Exchange.

TBH had I known you wanted one, I would've happily gouged the shit out your pay-to-win self.

The Narcine is purely because I find its got a good look to add to my collection. I can't imagine myself playing it very often. Its less important to me than a ship, say where I want to get a starship trait. However, I can't really think of a ship where I particularly want its starship trait that I haven't already acquired, so the Narcine is most probably the next ship along with the Dominion Dreadnought I want to acquire.

A quick search shows the Narcine is going at $75 USD on the market, and even I am not willing to pay that much for a ship I am rarely going to play with.

[Lord Revan]

from what I've seen the Narcine is decent enough Tac focused Carrier (something that's quite rare to begin with as most big ships are ENG focused) and there's ofc the Insectoid and Primate carriers as well.

[Simon_Jester]

I have a few questions about the implications for the timeline involving use of the Krenim weapon in Butterfly. Would anyone like to discuss that? And does anyone have any opinion on whether I should spoiler my remarks about that?

[RogueIce]

I have a few questions about the implications for the timeline involving use of the Krenim weapon in Butterfly. Would anyone like to discuss that? And does anyone have any opinion on whether I should spoiler my remarks about that?

Might as well, to be on the safe side.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Ok, I have to ask since this is bugging me...

Why the hell can't I access anything beyond one segment of the dilith store? All I can get to from the mini-map portal is special items and boxes. This wouldn't be an issue, but with Cryptic removing the ESD officer during my first hiatus, I have no idea how to get to the weapons.

Considering I'm trying to get rid of the rainbow ship in favor of antiproton, this is rather frustrating since I'm fairly certain I can only get those weapons with dilithium...

(well, that and missions/drops)

[Simon_Jester]

Craft your own antiproton weapons? They won't be great unless you put in one or more forms of grindy effort, but they'll be adequate.

[Lord Revan]

Ok, I have to ask since this is bugging me...

Why the hell can't I access anything beyond one segment of the dilith store? All I can get to from the mini-map portal is special items and boxes. This wouldn't be an issue, but with Cryptic removing the ESD officer during my first hiatus, I have no idea how to get to the weapons.

Considering I'm trying to get rid of the rainbow ship in favor of antiproton, this is rather frustrating since I'm fairly certain I can only get those weapons with dilithium...

(well, that and missions/drops)

there's 3 ways that I'd say are efficient way of getting AP weapons there's some missions in DR and Iconian war that award AP weapons, then you get Radiant AP weapons from the Iconian rep and last but not least you make an low mark AP weapon with the mods you want and upgrade that to the mark you use.

[RogueIce]

Ok, I have to ask since this is bugging me...

Why the hell can't I access anything beyond one segment of the dilith store? All I can get to from the mini-map portal is special items and boxes. This wouldn't be an issue, but with Cryptic removing the ESD officer during my first hiatus, I have no idea how to get to the weapons.

Considering I'm trying to get rid of the rainbow ship in favor of antiproton, this is rather frustrating since I'm fairly certain I can only get those weapons with dilithium...

(well, that and missions/drops)

Because they removed the dilithium general equipment store. Ages ago.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well that explains things.

This is what happens when I stop playing for protracted periods.

[Alferd Packer]

You can also get Radiant Antiproton weapons from the Iconian reputation store. I think you need to grind it up to Tier IV, or something like that.

[Simon_Jester]

Though by the time you've done this you'll probably have enough antiproton weapons to equip a ship twice over, although not necessarily with the weapons you actually want.

The ground combat missions on Kobali Prime, particularly the next-to-last two ("Breaking the Wall" and "With our Last Breath," I believe) are a great way to do a gradual grind for either Delta or Iconian reputation equipment. You can select which reputation to get points for, and you get one of the 'elite mark' for the appropriate reputation too, in case you decide to get the Iconian or Delta equipment sets.

[Lord Revan]

Btw there's a free promotion week in Z-store until the 27th (I think) so you might want to grab as many free gooddies as you can, so far it's not really been anything too special just some doffs and back to the future themed powerboard but they're saying there will be new rewards as well, who knows you might get something nice, last time there free promos I got my current "off-duty" outfit for my Fed Engi officer.

[mr friendly guy]

Ok, I have to ask since this is bugging me...

Why the hell can't I access anything beyond one segment of the dilith store? All I can get to from the mini-map portal is special items and boxes. This wouldn't be an issue, but with Cryptic removing the ESD officer during my first hiatus, I have no idea how to get to the weapons.

Considering I'm trying to get rid of the rainbow ship in favor of antiproton, this is rather frustrating since I'm fairly certain I can only get those weapons with dilithium...

(well, that and missions/drops)

For 19125 dilithium you can get some good radiant antiproton beam arrays/banks, cannons etc from the Iconian reputation store. That's like 3 days of saving dilithium, but I suspect if you've been playing for a while, you would easily have much more. I personally use a mixture of the radiant antiproton and crafted antiproton weapons to achieve nice colours when I fire. Because lets face it, what's the point of kicking arse if you don't look cool doing it.

[Alferd Packer]

Yeah, Radiant Antiprotons are kinda shitty, unless you're going for some weird tank build. But they are the cheapest antiproton weapons, bar none. Antiproton weapons on the Exchange probably start somewhere in the million mark range. With the right modifiers, you can easily get 50 million for a purple MK II antiproton beam array.

[mr friendly guy]

Really? I kind of liked radiant antiprotons myself for most of my builds. It helps my Command battlecruisers tank better and its useful in some Escorts, because they don't have the hull points to survive when attacked by multiple ships. If I want to switch to more offensive builds for my Escorts, I would however use thoron infused polaron weapons, to allow a radiation proc and also to get the isokinetic cannon for that extra punch when the enemy is near death's door.

[Lord Revan]

Really? I kind of liked radiant antiprotons myself for most of my builds. It helps my Command battlecruisers tank better and its useful in some Escorts, because they don't have the hull points to survive when attacked by multiple ships. If I want to switch to more offensive builds for my Escorts, I would however use thoron infused polaron weapons, to allow a radiation proc and also to get the isokinetic cannon for that extra punch when the enemy is near death's door.

I'd say the Isokinectic Cannon is better used to give you a bit more punch during battle as the damage isn't that great and it has 2 min CD but it also has a 100% shield penetration.

my Fed Engineer has Polaron build on her ship with the set that gives the cannon.

[Simon_Jester]

I'm thinking, in hindsight, that on my science vessel which has so few weapon slots, the opportunity cost from the polaron beam isn't really worth it. Which makes it convenient they're offering a new equipment set that favors actual phasers... and has a console that improves science vessel stats.

Also, looking at the new Cardassian Front storyline... I'm going to miss some of the random shit that they had in the Federation storyline. I get why they totally removed the Mirror Universe content from it, and apparently also knocked out the Undine missions now that we've "established" that the Undine aren't really the bad guys, just 'misunderstood' and manipulated by the Iconians.

[rolls eyes]

But I thought it was kind of fun how you got to just sort of screw around occasionally with some of the missions and how they WEREN'T all this singleminded focus on building up to overcome the threat of a single enemy. Sort of like the good old days of the Klingon War storyline, from a Federation point of view.

[Simon_Jester]

Hm. My thoughts on Butterfly...
Spoiler

Okay. So we use the Krenim weapon to prevent the USS Yamato from ever discovering the Iconians. Then we use it again because the second-order consequences of this result in the Hobus supernova never occurring, the Romulan Empire remaining intact... and the Borg charging into Beta Quadrant space even faster as a side effect, such that by 2410 Romulus itself is completely assimilated and has become a Borg forward base. Oops.

Then, in an attempt to restore the previous timeline, we use the Krenim weapon again to blow up, specifically, the Borg transwarp network. This prevents the Borg from assimilating Romulus... but somehow restores the Hobus supernova and the debilitation of the Romulan Empire! How did that happen? What does the timeline even look like now?

For one, depending on how far-reaching the effects of the timeline change on Borg long range transportation are, the whole Borg invasion of the Beta Quadrant might never have occurred... in which case a lot of the core events of the storyline are retconned out. Such as...

-The origin story of Federation characters
-The formation of Task Force Omega which was the beginnings of Federation-Klingon cooperation in the face of larger intergalactic threats.
-The 'bridging' series of missions involving the Borg-Undine conflict- while the Borg might well still end up crossing swords with the Undine, this war would be fought out entirely in the Delta Quadrant and would not affect us.

To make matters worse, our getting the attention of the Iconians hasn't been directly retconned back IN by blowing up the Borg transwarp network, at least not in any obvious way. So the Undine don't show up either, because it was supposedly the Iconians who provoked them into attacking in the first place. And there's no obvious reason why Hobus would occur, or why the Iconians would subvert the Tal Shiar.

So what gives? We can still play the STFs that feature Borg transwarp gates, Undine attacks, and so on. The canonical events of missions like Surface Tension have still occurred; if they hadn't, the Federation and Klingons would presumably still be at war!

So what happened? How do we explain that crippling the Borg's long range transportation options AND preventing the USS Yamato from discovering the location of Iconia somehow cancel each other out, or at least come close enough to canceling out that the basic plotline of Star Trek: Online isn't totally changed?