Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[Elheru Aran]

Turrets kinda suck compared to beams though don't they?

I wonder how beam banks compare to just beams...

From what I understand beams are still the killer (heh) app for DPS these days, particularly antiproton. But once you have all the same color of beams and the proper consoles to amplify them, it's not going to make a HUGE amount of difference, am I right?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Turrets kinda suck compared to beams though don't they?

I wonder how beam banks compare to just beams...

From what I understand beams are still the killer (heh) app for DPS these days, particularly antiproton. But once you have all the same color of beams and the proper consoles to amplify them, it's not going to make a HUGE amount of difference, am I right?

That's the tradeoff between yield and damage, with wider firing arcs corresponding to less damage output. The downside to the omnibeams is that you're restricted in what modifiers you can have (all have arc due to their nature), and have to be made at mark XII level- meaning they're far more expensive to make than other weapons. Also, that you can only mount one such crafted weapon per ship. The game does allow you to mount other omnis, but disruptor and plasma don't (yet) have such weapons so if you're running either type you're SOL.

The biggest difference between dual beam banks and beam arrays is their firing arcs, with that from arrays being wide enough that fore and aft beams overlap, making broadsides possible. Also, DBBs can only be mounted up front, which combined with their greater damage potential favours ships with 5 forward guns- thus the ship you fly has a considerable impact on whether to go with cannons or beams.

The two biggest aspects are the manoeuvrability of the ships in question and the Tactical BOFF slots, because each cannon ability requires a higher rank than its beam counterpart. Scatter Volley vs Fire at Will, Rapid Fire vs Beam Overload. So more tactically focused ships would benefit cannons, eng and sci are better off with beams.

EDIT: and I have a Jupiter carrier as well. I'm enjoying flying it far more than I thought I would

[Lord Revan]

basically what (party) makes beams so deadly is that you can hit the enemy more often while still having the full set of modfiers avaible to you due the wider base firing arcs. Omnis have in practice 1 fewer mods avaible to you and turrets just don't have the DPS (there's only 1 unique equipt "heavy" turret). With beams you generally have at least 2 beams on the target, while with cannons you might end in a situation where none of your main guns are pointed at the enemy (same with dual banks as they have the same arcs as cannons).

[EnterpriseSovereign]

basically what (party) makes beams so deadly is that you can hit the enemy more often while still having the full set of modfiers avaible to you due the wider base firing arcs. Omnis have in practice 1 fewer mods avaible to you and turrets just don't have the DPS (there's only 1 unique equipt "heavy" turret). With beams you generally have at least 2 beams on the target, while with cannons you might end in a situation where none of your main guns are pointed at the enemy (same with dual banks as they have the same arcs as cannons).

Actually, DBBs have 90°, while DHCs have to make do with 45°. What's kinda neat is that at the end of Borg sector missions, the Borg command ships are large enough that if you're prepared to take the aggro you can position your ship in such a way that you can fire cannons and still hit them with aft beams. Most of the time, the Borg ship doesn't last long under such a barrage- and when the ship goes boom, brace for impact keeps your ship from being taken with them

[mr friendly guy]

Now that I am on tier 2 temporal reputation I can have a look at their deflector. It seems weaker in particle generation than the Solanae gear, so not going to get any new gear at the moment.

[FaxModem1]

This is my current loadout for my ship: link

Go ahead and offer critiques and suggestions.

And here is a gloryshot of my ship protecting some Genki: link

I really like the Jupiter class.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

While I cannot tell from the pics what weapons you have up front, I do know that there's no reason to equip any that are merely blue. That's the bad news- the good news is you made the same connection with the Quantum Phase set I did, since it was released the same time as the ship and was tailor-made for it. I strapped in an enhanced RCS accelerator to give it a much-needed turn rate boost, and dual plasma beam banks up front, and 2 squadrons of Elite Scorpion Fighters

[FaxModem1]

Okay, I'll type it out:

Fore Weapons:
Temporal Chroniton Beam Array Mk XIV, Hargh'Peng Torpedo Launcher Mk XIV, Temporal Chroniton Beam Array Mk XIV

Aft Weapons:
Ancient Omni-Directional Beam Array Mk XIV, Kinetic Cutting Beam Mk XII, Omni-Directional Beam Array Mk XIV

So, aside from the Kinetic Cutting beam and the Hargh'Peng, all my weapons deal in anti-proton energy.

[bilateralrope]

I'm thinking of giving STO a go, mainly for the storylines. I've got some questions:

When I get an item drop that I don't want, what steps do I go through to sell it to another player at a decent price ?

How far can I get through the game without touching the crafting system ?
A while ago I read an article titled Crafting Mechanics Are Unfit For Purpose and found that I fully agree with it. Crafting systems, especially in MMOs, feel like asshole vendors instead of the player actually making something. Not something I want to use, but often something I'm forced to use because it's the only way to get better gear.

Where are the servers located ?
Where are the playtesting teams located ?

I ask these questions because on of the reasons I quit GW2 was when ANET changed a mechanic that had been in-game for several months to make it work better for people in Aus/NZ. Which told me that they never tested it in the latency conditions I face all the time and made me really worried about what else they would add that would be unplayable.

How playable is STO for people located some distance from the servers ?

I live in New Zealand. Server distance has been a bit of a problem for me in some MMOs (eg, GW2 where the closest servers are in the US), while other MMOs work well with servers further away (Eve Online, with servers in London).

How grindy is STO for a player who never spends real money and is only interested in the storylines ?

I'm not saying that I won't pay any money. Just that I judge f2p games by their free experience.

What dailies exist and what stuff requires me to do them ?

[Feil]

When I get an item drop that I don't want, what steps do I go through to sell it to another player at a decent price ?
Check the Exchange to determine its value, then post it on the Exchange for about that much (or ten percent less to increase the odds of a sale). Posting items on the Exchange is free.

How far can I get through the game without touching the crafting system ?
There's no point in crafting anything until max level, at which point there's no need to craft anything unless you want to compete for DPS values or race for the best times on end-game missions. PVP is dead, buried, and forgotten, and PVE is pretty easy if you have a decent build and a little bit of gear. STO is currently on its fourth (iirc) completely useless and largely ignored crafting system.

Where are the servers located ?
Where are the playtesting teams located ?
California.

How grindy is STO for a player who never spends real money and is only interested in the storylines ?
You can level most to max using story missions for 95% of your xp. If you don't want to grind at all, you can get the other 5% out of Foundry Missions (player-created content). Absolutely none of STO's playable content is paygated.

If you're playing on normal, you'll never need more than a Tier 4 ship, which you can get for free. Elite space content will become very difficult unless you grind for, or buy, a tier 5 or 6 ship, but a good build played well in a skilled team can do just fine with a tier 4 even on max level elite raid content. The bad guys have only gotten a little bit tougher since several years ago when Tier 4 was the best there was.

What dailies exist and what stuff requires me to do them ?
STO's dailies are little bonuses attached to other missions. Nothing requires them.

[bilateralrope]

There's no point in crafting anything until max level, at which point there's no need to craft anything unless you want to compete for DPS values or race for the best times on end-game missions.

Can the top end crafted gear be traded or is it bound to the person who crafted it ?

If it can be traded, then I'll never touch crafting. I'll just buy stuff from someone else who crafted it, paying more than if I had crafted it myself. Not that paying more is guaranteed.

Googling tells me that the exhange has a maximum price limit on sales. How often are items worth more than the limit ?

Check the Exchange to determine its value, then post it on the Exchange for about that much (or ten percent less to increase the odds of a sale). Posting items on the Exchange is free.

The link further up in my post mentions auctions. Are auctions an option ?

Sure, they are probably going to get you less money than setting a good buy now price. But I'm curious.

[Feil]

STO has no bidding mechanic. The Exchange may be referred to as an "auction house" but it's not, you set a price and that's how much it costs.

The most expensive I've seen anything be is about 500 million EC.

I'll leave the crafting question to someone more familiar with the new mechanics.

[Iroscato]

Maximum cost for any item on the exchange is 750 million EC - there's plenty of items on there for that much, my guess is it's being used as a place to store excess items by players, and if on the off-chance it gets sold...hey, they're 750 million credits richer

Currently saving up EC for a Vengeance-class dreadnought, the cheapest of which on the exchange is around 300 million.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Can the top end crafted gear be traded or is it bound to the person who crafted it ?

It's only if you equip it on your character/ship that it becomes bound to account. The stuff on the reputation system that you buy on the other hand, binds to character on pickup.

[RogueIce]

There's no point in crafting anything until max level, at which point there's no need to craft anything unless you want to compete for DPS values or race for the best times on end-game missions.

Can the top end crafted gear be traded or is it bound to the person who crafted it ?

It can be traded. Hell, if you get me the purple crafting materials I can craft whatever you want, since I'm max level in all the crafting schools. Such an accommodation is not all that rare, TBH, though being in a Fleet (aka guild) makes it easier to find somebody willing to do it.

If it can be traded, then I'll never touch crafting. I'll just buy stuff from someone else who crafted it, paying more than if I had crafted it myself. Not that paying more is guaranteed.

If you find somebody - like me - willing to do it in exchange for just the relevant purple materials (the other crafting mats are easy to get) it'll likely be a good deal cheaper than what you'd find on the Exchange. Although with the proviso that you get whatever rarity and item mods the RNG grants me, unless you pay for another.

Googling tells me that the exhange has a maximum price limit on sales. How often are items worth more than the limit ?

Rarely. As mentioned, some items do get up there but they're either EC transfers between accounts or people using the Exchange as an extra bank. The only items that are 'legit' that expensive tend to be the super rare T6 ships given out during certain promotions through the RNG.

Nothing really necessary, in other words.

[bilateralrope]

I see that the race options have different stats that directly affect gameplay. Something I have somehow avoided in previous MMOs I played.

As is standard for RPGs, the information they give isn't enough for me to decide which race I want. Mainly because I won't know enough about STO until I've played it. I've seen RPGs where the extra freedom offered by alien characters getting an extra trait slot is powerful, others where it's weak. Depending on the usefulness of the racial traits.

Looking in game and in the Steam guides, I think what I'd like to run is an engineer in a cruiser. Slow, hard to kill, and a wide firing arc for weapons. Turrets are something that I often find fun to use. Some questions:
- Are turrets usable if I'm facing a series of quick mook fights separated by short walks ?
I've run into a lot of games where they aren't because the cooldown is too long.
- Is there anything in this that might cause me problems getting into groups for end game content, assuming I optimise my build ?
- Does my race choice affect the storyline I'll experience ?
- Which races will work well for me ?
- Which races should I avoid ?

I'll be making a Starfleet character unless someone gives me a good reason to make something else.

[Lord Revan]

Tbh as with WoW your race selection doesn't really matter by the time you hit max level if you not in the top 1% for the DPS charts, basically the stats you gain from gear/skills/universal traits/specilizations matter more then what race you pick as the racial traits aren't good enough to be really signifigant.

-With Turrets it depends are your enemies within range or close enough that you can kite them to the turrets without backtracking too much, generally the engineering class isn't all that mobile.
-STO pugs are pugs to so things like phases of the moon or whether the people within the pug got laid can cause problems getting into or staying in a group but in general there's no major issues finding groups and even a suboptimal build generally is OK
-none what so ever, only the faction matters (UFP, Klingons, Romulans or 23c) beyond that the game doesn't take race into account.
-Any you like, though "best" for story are humans for UFP/23c, Klingons for KDF and romulans for romulan faction as the game kind of assumes you're those races but not heavily so it shouldn't be 100% game breaking to play for example a Orion KDF officer and my main Starfleet officer is from a species I invented.
-the ones you dislike there's not "bad" races it's really just down to personal preference.

[RogueIce]

I see that the race options have different stats that directly affect gameplay. Something I have somehow avoided in previous MMOs I played.

As is standard for RPGs, the information they give isn't enough for me to decide which race I want. Mainly because I won't know enough about STO until I've played it. I've seen RPGs where the extra freedom offered by alien characters getting an extra trait slot is powerful, others where it's weak. Depending on the usefulness of the racial traits.

They're really not that big of a deal. Even with a lot of the high-end builds I've seen, they never specify the race of the Captain. It's just not that important.

- Are turrets usable if I'm facing a series of quick mook fights separated by short walks ?
I've run into a lot of games where they aren't because the cooldown is too long.

Your weapon CDs for beams/cannons (turrets classify as the latter) are mostly dependent on your power levels, which as an Engineer should not be a major issue.

- Is there anything in this that might cause me problems getting into groups for end game content, assuming I optimise my build ?

As a general rule, damage output goes down the wider the arc of your weapons. Which means an all turret build is going to be pretty weak. Unless you're rocking Mk XIV Epics and other high end gear, you'll probably have issues with the story missions and tougher ships, never mind queues. Not that it affects your ability to get in one, but your teammates won't be happy.

Honestly, run beam arrays. They're effective at broadsiding and if you use the Bridge Officer power "Beam: Fire at Will" you'll hit everything around you anyway. And at endgame you can get up to three Omni-Arrays that are like turrets but have the stronger damage output of beam arrays.

- Does my race choice affect the storyline I'll experience ?

Not really, no. There might be a couple lines of dialogue or other minor things here and there but for the most part it won't matter.

- Which races will work well for me ?
- Which races should I avoid ?

Whatever catches your fancy, dude.

I'll be making a Starfleet character unless someone gives me a good reason to make something else.

If you're going Starfleet, might as well do 23rd century. You'll have the same missions but with the added bonus of the TOS missions. Plus if you do it now you'll be a Temporal Agent which will give you some nice bonuses as you progress.

The only drawback is if you really, really want an AlienGen (ie: custom race) Captain or one of the non-TOS races. But if you're cool with Human, Vulcan, Andorian or Tellarite roll a 23c Captain.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It's worth checking out here and look up each factions' playable starships and their stats, as that's where you're going to be spending the majority of your time.

[Elheru Aran]

The wiki is a *huge* help. There are a lot of walkthroughs as well for the more grindy missions so you can establish pretty quickly where you want to go and what you want to do to get through the mission. There are a couple of bits you want to just ram through-- Drozana Station and the Devidians for one, Nimbus III for another.

[bilateralrope]

Tbh as with WoW your race selection doesn't really matter by the time you hit max level if you not in the top 1% for the DPS charts, basically the stats you gain from gear/skills/universal traits/specilizations matter more then what race you pick as the racial traits aren't good enough to be really signifigant.

Sounds like the alien would be best then, as they have extra trait slots, and I can build a lot of the other races with them.

If you're going Starfleet, might as well do 23rd century. You'll have the same missions but with the added bonus of the TOS missions. Plus if you do it now you'll be a Temporal Agent which will give you some nice bonuses as you progress.

The traits look tempting. But if those traits are any use, they will remain available later. Because if they become desired and unavailable to new accounts, that will stop people making new accounts.

[Lord Revan]

Tbh as with WoW your race selection doesn't really matter by the time you hit max level if you not in the top 1% for the DPS charts, basically the stats you gain from gear/skills/universal traits/specilizations matter more then what race you pick as the racial traits aren't good enough to be really signifigant.

Sounds like the alien would be best then, as they have extra trait slots, and I can build a lot of the other races with them.

not really as I stated before my current main is "alien" race having that extra trait slot is counter-acted by not havin access to racial traits (both built in and selectble), there's no "best" race from a gameplay standpoint unless you're in the top 1% of players, it's all about personal preference.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah... player race is mostly a wash. The traits and other improvements are only going to be marginal, if anything... we're talking like points of a percent or something. If you stack cumulative benefits, like taking a lot of energy weapon or projectile weapon or shield boosts, then they might put you a notch better than other players in that area, but that's about it.

[bilateralrope]

I understand that the differences are marginal*, but I'm still interested in understanding which is the absolute best for what situations and why.

Whatever the case, I'll be playing an alien character because they have more flexibility in build and appearance choice.

*Which makes me wonder why they bother having them at all.

[Elheru Aran]

Flavor mostly, I guess. Honestly I couldn't say.