Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

They manifest as inventory items, five pairs of them. I just need to decide which Fed characters get them (out of 7). Half the ships I already had, the rest were lobi/lockbox that I'd never bothered shelling out for due to those not being account-unlocks. The new ships will go to the back of the ever-growing line of ships I've yet to master such as the fugly Fed/KDF hybrid that I've just unlocked.

They have 3 different Constitutions (TOS, Kelvin and DIS) but no Excelsior, which has proven controvertial. Still no sign of the Nova that players have been after, but balancing it against the Intrepid is probably why it hasn't happened yet.

[Lord Revan]

Well it was the "hero" ships of each series, so Connie, GCS, Defiant (since DS9 isn't a ship), Intrepid, NX and Crossfield. While the DSC connie isn't technically a hero ship I think it got thru due to Grandfather clause (aka being a variant of the TOS hero ship) the Excelsior or Nova were never hero ships in their respective series.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well it was the "hero" ships of each series, so Connie, GCS, Defiant (since DS9 isn't a ship), Intrepid, NX and Crossfield. While the DSC connie isn't technically a hero ship I think it got thru due to Grandfather clause (aka being a variant of the TOS hero ship) the Excelsior or Nova were never hero ships in their respective series.

Well it's the Enterprise, that's probably why it gets a pass! Though just being an Enterprise doesn't necessarily qualify as the Ambassador and Excelsior-classes have shown, though the latter was far more successful than the former as a class. That and the small matter of one of them being commanded by Sulu.

Despite having fewer appearances than the Nova, the Prometheus-class got a T6 version years ago but not the Nova, which speaks volumes about the popularity of escorts and cruisers compared to science vessels. Even the Klingon Vor'cha eventually got a T6 version after much player demand.

[Lord Revan]

Well it was the "hero" ships of each series, so Connie, GCS, Defiant (since DS9 isn't a ship), Intrepid, NX and Crossfield. While the DSC connie isn't technically a hero ship I think it got thru due to Grandfather clause (aka being a variant of the TOS hero ship) the Excelsior or Nova were never hero ships in their respective series.

Well it's the Enterprise, that's probably why it gets a pass! Though just being an Enterprise doesn't necessarily qualify as the Ambassador and Excelsior-classes have shown, though the latter was far more successful than the former as a class. That and the small matter of one of them being commanded by Sulu.

Despite having fewer appearances than the Nova, the Prometheus-class got a T6 version years ago but not the Nova, which speaks volumes about the popularity of escorts and cruisers compared to science vessels. Even the Klingon Vor'cha eventually got a T6 version after much player demand.

I also suspect that it's easier to balance escorts and cruisers as there's less potential for "wierd and unexpected" interactions with skills with those.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I was under the distinct impression that this weekend was a double-XP event, only instead it's a boost to commendation-XP. Great for the couple of characters I hadn't really bothered maxing all the categories but not for getting those ship masteries. Seems like a classic bait-and-switch situation as double XP would be far more useful right now.

I think I've managed to work out which ships should go where to get the account-wide mastery most efficiently, dividing 10 ships between 7 characters has its challenges, even though ultimately they'll all have to take a turn in each. Honestly I'm still working this even as I'm writing this!

The Crossfield and 2256 Constitution will naturally go to my Discovery character, while the 2265 Connie will go to my Agents Of Yesterday toon. Those are the easy decisions since those characters would naturally gravitate towards that which is most familiar.

My main toon will get the NX and Defiant as one of only two fed tacs she can get the best out of them.

The Intrepid will be flown by my Vulcan sci simply because it's her best option.

My Fed eng toon already has a fleet Galaxy and Sovereign so there's no point in doubling up, she'll get the Odyssey instead since the latter ship is the current Fed flagship.

My last two toons are Romulan Republic, a sci & eng Romulan & Reman, respectively. It would be poetic if it's the Romulan who gets the Kelvin Connie given the events of ST XI. By the same token the same applies to the Reman getting the Sovereign, as unlike the Romulans the Remans don't have the history with the Galaxy-class that the Romulans do. Of course the Romulans have some history with the Defiant too but as allies not enemies by installing a cloaking device, that just muddies the waters.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

GHETTO EDIT: *Working this OUT

I also really need to further develop my BOFFs on my newer characters. I'll be better placed to once the anniversary event has run its course, each day I'm collecting 30 of each colour so enough for 2 generic upgrades. Technically I only need 27 but one toon can combine a maximum of 30 using all 6 R&D slots. This year they've added other Omega upgrades for one fewer trace (either more upgrade points or greater quality improvement chance) but those cost 3,000 and 5,500 dilithium to craft, respectively whereas the vanilla ones don't.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well Cryptic has nerfed the rewards from both the Klingon and Ferengi admiralty chains. The Klingon one is gone entirely, in its place is a fleet dilithium voucher, which has all but removed the incentive to do that chain. The Ferengi one has been downgraded, where instead of getting the ore directly it has taken the form of a voucher which is only earned via other sources of dilithium at a 50% rate up to the value it was before. As you might imagine, the player base is up in arms about this.

Double XP weekend is almost at an end which I used to collect starship masteries across my 12 characters. The event means that any starship can be done in just two Argala runs. Most of my toons are either on the Fek'lhri carrier or Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser.

[Lord Revan]

There was a double XP weekend? Well that explains how I got the xp for starships from the 10th anniversity pack so easily (at the classic connie atm, I've not the Glenn, disco connie and Defiant so far).

[EnterpriseSovereign]

There was a double XP weekend? Well that explains how I got the xp for starships from the 10th anniversity pack so easily (at the classic connie atm, I've not the Glenn, disco connie and Defiant so far).

Yep, they're doing it again this weekend too. Time to crack on with what I outlined earlier

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Dilithium weekend is almost at an end, I used my rich dilithium vein claims which I'd been saving. I had enough for most of my characters to have three each, a couple had to make do with two, but then none of them had been struggling to begin with even with the admiralty being nerfed.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Three-week double XP event has come and gone, which I made full use of- I managed to get almost all of the available masteries (excluding the Dominion starships) for most of my characters save for my two newest. Not an easy undertaking since the exchange between the Romulans and the other two resulted in each having access to the other's ships, though it was simplified somewhat by ignoring ships that offered duplicate starship traits. It has meant that non-Romulan captains can fly the Scimitar, something my Klingon toons will love.

Not long after the double-XP event ends there's a new release in the form of Mudd's stealing time choice pack where you can pick 3 of the 6 options. Of course there's only one choice and it's the three ships, instead of the two T6 ship coupons (already have two), one epic Phoenix token (have four of those) or 10 Ultimate tech upgrades (have two of those). So now I have another 3 ships to master and could certainly use another XP-weekend.

Defense of Pahvo is running again (can either play the ground or space portions), completing past the 14-day mark once again giving dilithium ore, though they have reworked the rewards by increasing the initial reward but reducing the gain day-by-day. Running the numbers it does work out as more overall except for days 9-12, so if you finish on those days you'd get less than before.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I got my wish, double XP weekend is here so I'm cycling my characters through Argala with the aforementioned ships. Most ships can be mastered in a couple of runs with double so if I do one per character per day I can master at least two ships during this event.

Also managed to max out space critical severity on the endeavor system which is nice, the probability of getting 3 ground options to choose from now has increased slightly but there are still plenty of space perks to be had.

[montypython]

The Mo'kai patrol missions have been great for credit generation, plus short and simple so it really helped for getting more master keys for lobi.

[Lord Revan]

The Mo'kai patrol missions have been great for credit generation, plus short and simple so it really helped for getting more master keys for lobi.

I love doing those on my AoY science toon, since the Mo'kai warp in clustered together and stay that way for fairly long time, things like Grav well or Timeline collapse works wonders on them.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Summer event has started which means that once again we're all heading to Risa with the chance for my newest toon to get some sun for the first time. I went with the retro bikini for her, none of my other toons have it. The Risa event is good not just for the ship but for earning marks via monkeys and birds. Normally there would be a new season out shortly before with accompanying new rep marks, the latter only becoming a claimable option towards the end of the event when unwary players have already traded in the majority of their creatures. The artifact scavenging event is a real pain in the ass, especially for such a small reward. The Hor'gahn Hunt on the other hand is the complete opposite. With a fourth-generation jetpack floater it's possible to collect 10 in about 3 minutes, with the duration of the event you can easily run it with 4-5 characters back-to-back.

Today's endeavours were plasma, polaron and antiproton damage for easy, medium and hard respectively- cue some Argala time with Federation, Dominion and Klingon characters, the three bringing me to within 50 points of another level. I didn't particularly feel like bringing down the Voth furiadon to get the 400 points that came with getting the ultimate endeavour.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I think I need to hit the forums and do some research so I can put together some more effective builds for each character, all twelve of them. I've been playing this game ever since it went FtP and have bought every unlockable ship in the store, maxed all the reps, unlocked all the specialization points and the fleets I'm a member of are well supplied and advanced and have each combination of faction and branch. I would hope I have all the ingredients I need to create some kickass builds, otherwise what's the point?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Claimed the new summer ship, as with earlier events continuing past the 20 needed for the ship yields dilithium ore, something that's become harder to get hold of since nerfing the admiralty system. Had to convert some to Zen as I didn't have enough for the new support carriers after the last 3-ship bundle, which means I now have another five ships to make room for, let alone master. A double XP event would be very welcome right now.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well I got my wish, and it's a week-long (as opposed to weekend) event too! Combined with a concurrent Red Alert this is going to be a very busy few days.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

A lot has changed in the last six months, not least they completed the process started with allowing Romulan characters access to their chosen faction's tier-6 ships and vice-versa by allowing Fed and KDF characters to fly each other's ships. This is certainly going to result in some weird and wonderful builds since it means new console and starship trait combinations- it's a bit overwhelming!

A new Discovery Klingon recruitment event. While this has meant me creating a thirteenth character, the lack of special/unique rewards has meant the development of said character has stalled, though she does provide opportunity to offload excess ground gear/DOFFS that my other toons no longer need.

The endeavour system has been expanded, increasing the number of perk points per area by five because some players had maxed out all 400 levels. Most of the time I focus on the "hard" personal endeavours, only expending the re-rolls on those.

New packs offered by Mudd, still with a choice of 3 items out of 6 including an upcoming on meaning converting more dil to Zen, exchange rate is terrible as 490:1. Buying the ships each time has meant that while managing ship slots has become all but impossible it has resulted in completing the Temporal Fragmentation System Set, which I'm sure my science characters can make use of.

Well it's the Enterprise, that's probably why it gets a pass! Though just being an Enterprise doesn't necessarily qualify as the Ambassador and Excelsior-classes have shown, though the latter was far more successful than the former as a class. That and the small matter of one of them being commanded by Sulu.

Well it took a year, but the 11th anniversary legendary bundle arrived and for the Federation side they indeed went with the Ambassador and Excelsior classes, so now all the Enterprises has been represented with legendary versions. Nova fans aren't very happy about being passed-over again, but then you can't please everyone.

On the Klingon side there's the legendary Vor'cha. The class had been neglected for years but it's seen a lot more attention lately. The other is the B'rel, which has been given another agility boost and the inclusion of an intel BOFF seat. I've been avoiding raiders for the most part, now I'm going to have to see what I can do.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Double post edit.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Several new ships have arrived, courtesy of the latest Mudd pack some formerly lockbox/lobi ships have been made available. The contentious part is that you have the choice of either buying 3 of the 8 items available or all of them with no chance of getting 4. Since the ships are the most if not the only desirable items that means choosing which ship you don't want, either the Kelvin or the Spockmobile.

Also we have the Genesis pack, a couple of new Federation ships based on the Miranda and Oberth designs making for a busy time getting new starship masteries. Also a dilithium weekend has just commenced. Just the thing to replenish depleted dilithium ore reserves, especially as the zen exchange rate has reached the all-time high of 500:1.

[Lord Revan]

Did the summer even start at July 1st, I seem to recall it starting then but I'm not 100% sure.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Did the summer even start at July 1st, I seem to recall it starting then but I'm not 100% sure.

Yep, next Thursday the 1st for the month. Means getting a swimsuit and jetpack for my newest character, hopefully they have some new designs.

[montypython]

Been aggroed over not being able to buy zen with dil given the current circumstances, so I'll be using the stockpiles of saved dil for phoenix upgrades and rep equipment where needed for now.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Although it's almost a year old this is quite informative when it comes to consoles, I'm putting off actually going through this because I have a dozen characters that between them represent every energy type in the game which is handy whenever the 'Hard' endeavour is a type of space damage. I've learned that getting endeavour XP on the newest Klingon character is best because it unlocks account-wide rewards which include more endeavour XP and therefore points. Other rewards including those for ambush and melee kills (especially the former) are harder to come by because of the difficulty of kitting out a starship from scratch.