Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[The Romulan Republic]

Finally got the damn thing running again, after having to jump through a bunch of hoops (they wanted a confirmation code for my account, I guess because I've been away so long or I'm on a different system or something?).

My account appears to be just as I left it, but I'm wondering if anyone could answer a question for me: have they increased the cap on the max. number of characters you can have without paying since I left? Because I distinctly recall having been maxed out at four, but its telling me I have three unrestricted character slots available. Which is a really nice, but really unexpected, perk.

[montypython]

Finally got the damn thing running again, after having to jump through a bunch of hoops (they wanted a confirmation code for my account, I guess because I've been away so long or I'm on a different system or something?).

My account appears to be just as I left it, but I'm wondering if anyone could answer a question for me: have they increased the cap on the max. number of characters you can have without paying since I left? Because I distinctly recall having been maxed out at four, but its telling me I have three unrestricted character slots available. Which is a really nice, but really unexpected, perk.

There have been a number of updates including new character options such as Jem hadar and Cardassians added among others (though Cardassians need Zen for player character option), so that's why you have extra character slots for those new options. Discovery was the latest material added just a few months ago and has more stuff coming in.

[The Romulan Republic]

Cool.

Went back to my old Federation character (by far my most played and leveled), made some modifications to my main ship at space dock, now off to rescue a missing Vulcan research team. But I'd forgotten how much fun just flying around the space map could be. That's what Trek is really about- flying around in a fancy spaceship, exploring the wonders of space.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

My newest character is doing that, touring the exploration clusters Duty Officer Assignment Nodes with the intention of completing the missions. What's slowing the process down is the latest mission out of the chain isn't always available, so more often than not I reach a node only to find there's nothing there and I have to move on to the next.

Having slipstream available eases travel time somewhat, so-called Miracle Worker cruisers actually do have several advantages in that area, in terms of slipstream speed, duration and cooldown.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah, most of the big story/game updates usually come with an option to add a new free character. On the flipside, if you have a old character sitting around, odds are you'll have to grind through a buttload of missions before you get to the new episodes because they'll start at a certain level and you'll have to make sure you're at that level to play through.

Max is still 60 right? I guess if your old character is at that level you can just select the new episode and go straight to it.

[Lord Revan]

Yeah, most of the big story/game updates usually come with an option to add a new free character. On the flipside, if you have a old character sitting around, odds are you'll have to grind through a buttload of missions before you get to the new episodes because they'll start at a certain level and you'll have to make sure you're at that level to play through.

Max is still 60 right? I guess if your old character is at that level you can just select the new episode and go straight to it.

Max level is 65

[The Romulan Republic]

Looks like Mirror Universe Klingons have a bit of a glass jaw. Guess that makes sense.

[Lord Revan]

Looks like Mirror Universe Klingons have a bit of a glass jaw. Guess that makes sense.

when did we might mirror verse klinks? The klinks attacking ISS Discovery were prime timeline not mirror.

[The Romulan Republic]

Looks like Mirror Universe Klingons have a bit of a glass jaw. Guess that makes sense.

when did we might mirror verse klinks? The klinks attacking ISS Discovery were prime timeline not mirror.

They were? I assumed they were Mirror Universe as well.

Still, the point reg. glass jaws stands. Whatever happened to honourable death in battle?

[Lord Revan]

Looks like Mirror Universe Klingons have a bit of a glass jaw. Guess that makes sense.

when did we might mirror verse klinks? The klinks attacking ISS Discovery were prime timeline not mirror.

They were? I assumed they were Mirror Universe as well.

Still, the point reg. glass jaws stands. Whatever happened to honourable death in battle?

Yeah it's more or less stated that those were members of the klingon fleet sent to investigate Pahvo after the battle in season 1. That said I wouldn't judge them too harshly they're after all from the 2250s engaging ships from 2410.

EDIT:Mirror verse klinks are less aggressive and more willing to talk (due having been beated quite badly by the Terran Empire), while these klinks only taunt us and are highly aggressive.

[mr friendly guy]

Phoenix prize packs time.

1.3 million dilithium for 549 phoenix tech upgrades. Hope its worth it for next time.

[mr friendly guy]

The personal endeavour system which benefits all toons has got me interested in playing a bit more than usual. For some of those endeavours which involve doing x damage with a certain energy type in ground and defeat x number of a specific type of foe, its easy enough to benefit from these by just using foundry farming missions.

Now I might just start building up my UFP engineer, but its going to take forever to get all the reputation rewards up to full scratch which kind of makes me hesitant to do so. They should do like Neverwinter, allow someone to just pay to get them up to a certain level.

Any tips on how to build an engineer ship?

[montypython]

The personal endeavour system which benefits all toons has got me interested in playing a bit more than usual. For some of those endeavours which involve doing x damage with a certain energy type in ground and defeat x number of a specific type of foe, its easy enough to benefit from these by just using foundry farming missions.

Now I might just start building up my UFP engineer, but its going to take forever to get all the reputation rewards up to full scratch which kind of makes me hesitant to do so. They should do like Neverwinter, allow someone to just pay to get them up to a certain level.

Any tips on how to build an engineer ship?

My main is a UFP engineer; with my build it's oriented to focus on maximizing DPS since I'm using a T6 Odyssey tac cruiser with him and that combination is very tanky with good firepower (though any decent cruiser would be tanky especially with an engineer). My approach would be to focus on building up a specific energy/torp combo that you like (my main runs AP w/Quantums for example) and use whatever ship systems and modules that synergize well together for your desired ship, with a good focus on improving damage resistance/dodging attributes from any combination of traits and ship modules then improving damage output. Any ship module combo with a resilient shield is a good starting point, the specific one to choose depends on your desired performance preferences (Iconian resilient shield is the one I'm using right now from when subsystem shutdown was a big headache).

Grace under fire is a must have skill for any engineer, and the best engineer specializations are Miracle Worker, Intelligence Officer and/or Strategist for space action (from my own usage).

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I would have replied sooner had my PC not needed Windows reinstalling but better late than never!

I 'only' bought a single lot of a hundred packs this Phoenix event, considering that I'd crafted 85 Omega upgrades during the event I didn't actually need any of them (yet), though my newest toons could use some next upgrade event. (FYI I did get my Discovery toon to max level through DOFF assignments instead of playing through everything yet again). Although the exchange price didn't drop as much as I hoped it would I still repeated what I did last time around, instead of having each of my toons buy a hundred packs I had them buy the equivalent amount of Zen. Since I have eleven of them I ended up pulling in 15,000 Zen, more than offsetting what I paid for the latest pack and setting things up nicely for the next mega bundle, assuming Cryptic continues the annual tradition of releasing them in the spring.

The Endeavour System is interesting indeed, it has got me doing some things I don't normally do. Which is the point I guess, having multiple toons sporting different energy types is great for particular ones since I would never actually buy gear for the job. The last one I did before today actually let me combine the two biggest- half a million plasma damage and destroying Tholian ships, which I managed by having my main toon (who has always used plasma weaponry) complete the Azure Nebula rescue. Sadly most of the time I don't get that lucky. The only problem is that to get one perk point takes 20,000 endeavour XP, but per day there's only 12,250 up for grabs.

According to the Wiki, there's a total of 450(!) points required to max everything. I'm putting what points I earn into space stats, I suspect that's what everyone else is doing too.

As for building an engineer ship, the most important things are that just because some of them can mount dual cannons it doesn't mean that they should, because they lack the agility to use them effectively and cannon abilities are one BOFF rank higher than either beams or torpedoes. And high-ranked tac BOFF slots are in short supply on an eng ship. Depending on whether the ship has a 4/4 or 5/3 loadout will determine whether you want DBBs or BA's fore, with omni-beams aft.

Did you have a specific ship in mind? I lean towards those cruisers that have a balanced BOFF loadout of 2 eng, 2 tac and 1 sci, provided that sci is at least lieutenant so as to have both Science Team and Hazard Emitters, and lt. cdr tac. Many (but by no means all) cruisers have this so it's worth checking out beforehand. Attack Pattern Omega and/or Polarise Hull are must-haves since they're the only counters to tractor beams.

[bilateralrope]

Star Trek Online and Neverwinter are losing player-created missions

By Fraser Brown 2 days ago
R.I.P. The Foundry.

The Foundry is one of the neatest feature in Cryptic's MMOs, Star Trek Online and Neverwinter. It allows players to use game assets and tools to create their own scripted quests to share with fellow captains and adventurers. Inside these MMOs, an unlikely community of modders sprang up. Unfortunately, Cryptic has announced that the Foundry will be closing its doors for good next month.

While the Foundry has been kept alive by player imagination, it still requires resources and maintenance from Cryptic, and sadly the developer has decided that it can't give the Foundry the attention it deserves while still creating new features.

Star Trek Online and Neverwinter continue to receive regular, meaningful updates, with the former currently taking advantage of finally running concurrently with a show through the free Age of Discovery expansion. There's clearly plenty of life left in them, then, but they've both been around for a long time, and MMOs don't seem to draw in the sort of crowds they used to, so it looks like some cuts have to be made to keep the new stuff flowing.

I'll miss the Foundry, but I confess I can't remember the last time I used it. It's got nothing to do with the quality of the custom missions, but Star Trek Online, which I still pop back into, has so many missions and activities that I never have any time to look for more. But it was nice to know it was around if I wanted to mix things up.

You could hunt down some story-rich diversions, solving murder mysteries in country mansions outside Neverwinter, or you could just blow off some steam by shooting the crap out of 1,000 terrans. In Neverwinter especially, the Foundry was evocative of the brilliant modding community that sprouted around BioWare's Neverwinter Nights, which had the best modding support of any BioWare game then or since.

Players will receive some rewards for participating in the Foundry. In Star Trek Online, everyone who has played a Foundry mission will get a badge, authors will get a Botany Bay space pet and anyone who created a spotlit mission will earn a Genesis Torpedo ground device. Things are a bit more stingy over in Neverwinter, though. You'll get a title of you've played at least ten missions, while creating at least ten will net you a cape.

The good news is that if, like me, you've not browsed the Foundry for a long time, you still have time to play a whole bunch of missions. The lights will stay on until April 11.

It's always sad when a game loses user generated content.

[mr friendly guy]

My main is a UFP engineer; with my build it's oriented to focus on maximizing DPS since I'm using a T6 Odyssey tac cruiser with him and that combination is very tanky with good firepower (though any decent cruiser would be tanky especially with an engineer). My approach would be to focus on building up a specific energy/torp combo that you like (my main runs AP w/Quantums for example) and use whatever ship systems and modules that synergize well together for your desired ship, with a good focus on improving damage resistance/dodging attributes from any combination of traits and ship modules then improving damage output. Any ship module combo with a resilient shield is a good starting point, the specific one to choose depends on your desired performance preferences (Iconian resilient shield is the one I'm using right now from when subsystem shutdown was a big headache).

Grace under fire is a must have skill for any engineer, and the best engineer specializations are Miracle Worker, Intelligence Officer and/or Strategist for space action (from my own usage).

Thanks. I will keep this in mind when I work on my engineer toon.

Did you have a specific ship in mind? I lean towards those cruisers that have a balanced BOFF loadout of 2 eng, 2 tac and 1 sci, provided that sci is at least lieutenant so as to have both Science Team and Hazard Emitters, and lt. cdr tac. Many (but by no means all) cruisers have this so it's worth checking out beforehand. Attack Pattern Omega and/or Polarise Hull are must-haves since they're the only counters to tractor beams.

Most probably a UFP ship (I have quite a lot from other toons so I should be able to unlock for my engineering toon). I don't want to spend more money on a new ship at this point in time. Most probably work on a beam boat with a cruiser of some sort, most probably tac or engineering orientated cruiser.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Did you have a specific ship in mind? I lean towards those cruisers that have a balanced BOFF loadout of 2 eng, 2 tac and 1 sci, provided that sci is at least lieutenant so as to have both Science Team and Hazard Emitters, and lt. cdr tac. Many (but by no means all) cruisers have this so it's worth checking out beforehand. Attack Pattern Omega and/or Polarise Hull are must-haves since they're the only counters to tractor beams.

Most probably a UFP ship (I have quite a lot from other toons so I should be able to unlock for my engineering toon). I don't want to spend more money on a new ship at this point in time. Most probably work on a beam boat with a cruiser of some sort, most probably tac or engineering orientated cruiser.

Well they're all eng oriented, so it comes down to which is strongest tactically. There are quite a few Fed cruisers that qualify:
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Tucker_Tactic ... er_Cruiser
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Presidio_Comm ... tlecruiser
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Tactical_Star_Cruiser_(T6)
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Intel_Assault_Cruiser
That last one sucks as an Intel ship because its BOFF layout forces you to choose between Sci and Intel abilities, but all of them have a bonus to weapon power.

There are these two as well:
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Advanced_Light_Cruiser
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Dreadno ... uiser_(T6)
Less weapon power but more of it overall.

From the battlecruisers there are these options:
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Arbiter_Battlecruiser
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Eclipse_Intel_Cruiser
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Paladin ... tlecruiser
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Shepard ... tlecruiser
The BOFF layout spoils that last one a bit due to the ensign sci slot forcing a choice between sci and eng powers.

[mr friendly guy]

I have the Tucker tactical cruiser and the T6 tactical star cruiser, and these seem like something to structure my engineering toon on. My first toon has all energy damage types, the second toon is plasma (she is a romulan) and polaron (some of the sci damage boosting sets use polaron), and the third toon deals with AP and tetryons. I think the engineering toon should focus on phasers and disruptors, since some of those sets boost both. The miracle worker ship gives an extra console slot.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I think they call it a rainbow build when you use multiple types. The advice I've always followed was to use one energy type as the damage boosts you get from spire consoles is greater for a specific type than for beams/cannons in general.

I have a bunch of excess disruptor/antiproton weaponry left over in my account bank- some of them I can equip on my discovery toon. I had intended to send some of them the way of my Dominion toon, but they were geared more towards the polaron weaponry they start with anyway.

[mr friendly guy]

Well trying to level up my engineering toon. Good thing about having 3 other toons at level 65, I can spread the resources. So now the engineering toon has pretty much got a lot of purple and blue doffs to help her level up. Once she gets quite high, she would hopefully get the bonuses from the personal endeavour tasks. I am only on level 8 endeavour, and I am going to slow down when the foundry comes down. Its quite easy to do the endeavour space and ground tasks when the Foundry allows you to play against the relevant challenges from the comfort of the Earth Spacedock.

On another note, I am growing quite fond of the Discovery uniforms. I am just arranging my BOFFs to give them numerous colours. What can I say. I love the colourful uniforms.

[Lord Revan]

Well trying to level up my engineering toon. Good thing about having 3 other toons at level 65, I can spread the resources. So now the engineering toon has pretty much got a lot of purple and blue doffs to help her level up. Once she gets quite high, she would hopefully get the bonuses from the personal endeavour tasks. I am only on level 8 endeavour, and I am going to slow down when the foundry comes down. Its quite easy to do the endeavour space and ground tasks when the Foundry allows you to play against the relevant challenges from the comfort of the Earth Spacedock.

On another note, I am growing quite fond of the Discovery uniforms. I am just arranging my BOFFs to give them numerous colours. What can I say. I love the colourful uniforms.

My only gripe with the Discovery uniforms is that you can't get pure white on them just really light grey.

[mr friendly guy]

Anyone have good feedback about the DS9 holographic BOFFs. I am getting BOFFs for my fourth toon's away team, and so far using my Android science and adding a photonic Jem'Hadar for ground crew. The downside is I can't adjust the hologram's costume. However any good feedback for the DS9 BOFFs?

[FaxModem1]

They joke, but I'd enjoy a Gorn expansion.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well, for the first time in almost 20 endeavour points, all 3 choices I got for earning the last one were for ground. Perhaps an alternate use for re-roll tokens should be for the list of areas the points can be spent in, as well as for endeavours.

I've nearly got enough tokens for my two newest characters to claim the latest event prize- I still need to complete some missions that can't be skipped so I can progress far enough to claim reward consoles- at the moment my Discovery toon only has the ones tied to store ships, so her gear sucks.

[mr friendly guy]

I am going to miss the foundry with helping with endeavours. Only on level 20 LOL. I pretty much give all the reputation mark bonuses to my fourth toon since she still hasn't maxed out her reputation levels.