Hi, I am still somewhat new and a casual player, but have spent some money on the game and bought a Tactical Escort T6, which I am enjoying using. Just after a few question.
The Quantum Warhead Module, these really do seem to do anything when fired if even put a dent on a ships? Is this normal or would I be doing something wrong? I do take out the ships shields first.
Can I get a cloak on this, and would it be a battle cloak? If so how would I do this?
Also keep getting invite to join feel what is this about? How does it work?
Also the shields were at 5,773.4 Maximum Shield Capacity but I put this equipment on a shuttle for Gamma Operation and now the Maximum Shield Capacity us 4,500 ish, why would this be?
Here is a look at the Build so far.
Do not know is it makes any difference but I use Xbox one.
https://ibb.co/eBBap9https://ibb.co/iWAh2Uhttps://ibb.co/c64gwphttps://ibb.co/evZaNUhttps://ibb.co/nC5FNU
Comments
Yes, you can, but you need additional C-Store purchases, since it is a set bonus dependent on consoles. In addition to the Quantum Warhead Module, you need the following items:
- Federation Cloaking Device, which is available via two different ships (pick one):
- Federation Dreadnought Cruiser (Tier 5 Variant, also known as Galaxy-X)
- Tier 5 Tactical Escort Retrofit. (Note: I think you could also theoretically get this if you have the Veteran or Level 61 Tier 5 Ship Token, but I am not certain)
- Quad Phaser Cannon. This requires the Tier 4 Tactical Escort Refit, which will also give you the Sao Paulo ship costume for all your Tactical Escort, which is a pretty neat looking skin.
You mean you get invites to fleets? A fleet is something that in other MMOs might be called Guild. It's basically a group of players joining together. Members in a fleet have a rank in that fleet, and that rank can affect what you can do in the fleet (like invite others to the fleet, change player ranks, change rank names). Joining a fleet gives you an additional costume slot that you could use to have a custom using the fleet's uniform, and on many ships, you can also replace the United Federation Planet logo with the Fleet Logo. A Fleet offers access to a fleet bank (where players can put stuff in and share with each other).This however is all peanuts to the Fleet Holdings. These holdings are things like a Starbase, a Research Lab or a Colony Holding. You can actually visit the places and see how far they have been developed. These holdings also offer (once unlocked by the fleet) also offer vendors where you can buy certain endgame gear, additional custom options, and also "fleet" versions of starships that are slightly better than the regular version of the ship. (More HP and shields, and an extra console slot.)
IF you help build up these fleet holdings by contributing to fleet projetcts (similar to Reputations), you earn Fleet Credits. You need mostly Fleet Marks, Dilithium, Energy Credits and Common Duty Officers to contribute. The Fleet Credits in turn are used as currency to buy the fleet gear. If you leave the fleet, you keep your fleet credits, so if you feel you picked poorly, you don't have to worry too much. My recommendation would be to find a fleet that either already advanced considerably in building up its fleet holdings, or is at least large enough so that progress is visible, otherwise it will likely be frustrating. Of course, if you actually find a few good and stable online friends, it might be fun to advance your fleet together.
The effective shield capacity of your ship depends on the shield itself, and the ship's shield modifier (a multiplier). Shuttles have a much smaller multiplier. That's basically representing that some ships might have more power systems devoted to their shield grid, and one the balancing mechanics.
I would probably try to bring 3 Dual Heavy Phaser Cannons (or 2 Dual Heavy Cannons and the Quad Phaser Cannon, if you choose to pursue the Battle Cloak) in the front, the Quantum Phase Torpedo in the front, and 3 Phaser Turrets in the back.
Tactical Consoles should boost Phasers. (Long Term goal should be to get the fleet tactical consoles from the Fleet Spire).
The Quantum Phase Console is also a must if you use the Quantum Phase Torpedo.
Bridge Officers, I would start with
Commander Tac: Cannon Scatter Volley III, Torpedo Spread III, Attack Pattern Beta I and Tactical Team. (Optionally, drop the level by one for Cannon Scatter Volley and Torpedo Spread and take Attack Pattern Beta III)
Lt.Cmdr Tac|Pilot: Tactical Team, Hold it Together, Attack Pattern Beta II
Lt. Science: Science Team I, Hazard Emitters II (or vice versa)
Lt. Engineer: Emergency Power to Shields, Emergency Power to Weapons
Lt. Universal: Engineering Team I, Auxiliary to Structural Integrity Field
As soon as possible, get 3 Damage Control Duty Officers on active duty that reduce the cooldown of your emergency powers.
That would still leave much room to improvement, though, but that requires further investments.
You might want to research into options in how to reduce cooldowns on your ship as well, so you don't need to double up on any powers anymore. Some Starship Mastery Traits (which require other ships) or some Duty Officers can help (for example, Auxiliary to Batteries with Technician Doffs is popular.)
wow, thank you for the detailed response really do appreciate it. got a few question but just Rereading all again. Question to follow (if that is ok.)
Yes I know I got more to do to make the ship Better and stronger It was not until I found out only recently having a Set (eg Quantum Phase Applications) Had to replay the same mission 3 time haha) works better than mix and match, Weapons, I like phaser which is what I am sticking too. Have tried other brands but all seem to be about the same, just different colour, (please don’t give me a hard time for saying that)
But know I know I maybe able to get Mark XIV got to work on that then. But again this could be me being silly, but where from? When I go to a station to get equipment it only goes up to mark X. I think you will also answer as to where I would get fleet tactical consoles as well.
Bridge office Abilities, I crafted High Yield III as felt that the spread to be effective would have to take out shield on all ships acting. Might be wrong though. But I am also working on getting them upgraded in Rank and ability that I use.
Ok so duty offier, I am just starting to understand this, but I give them loads of Mission and get all sorts back in rewards, (don’t really know what they do) so how would I get 3 damage control office.
(told you I was a casual player) bet you wish you had not answer now lol)
Thank you once again
In the rear 3 agony phaser turrets. Trick is hold your fire on the mini quantum torpedo till the shields go down on your target and have all 6 loaded. I've spiked for 80k dmg before and 1 shot mirror universe big cruisers with it. But you gotta take the shields down first.
Once you do that the quantum module is your battering ram.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
Also, the Academy forum might contain more build advice, as well as the stobuilds reddit.
There are differences, and if you ever become a DPS chaser that tries to get the last tiny bits of extra damage, you might pick something different, but it does not matter that much in regular play. And the "best" pick can change at any time, when a new subtype for a damage type is released that as a new special rider effect, or if a new console is released that either gives either an outright higher bonus, or just another one that stack with all the previous ones. So I would not obsess to much about it, and focus more on look and feel and otherwise make sure your equipment choices match your chosen damage type.
I believe there is practically no way to get Mark XIV or Mark XV equipment directly. The only way is through the upgrade mechanic. And for that, you need upgrade kits. When applying an upgrade, an item gets technology and research XP. If you finish the technology bar, the item will upgrade one tier (for example, from Mark XI to Mark XI). Depending on how high the research XP bar got, you will have a chance that the item also increases in rarity (for example, from very rare to ultra-rare). Both bars reset when the Mark increases. Once an item gets to Mark XV, the research XP do not reset anymore, but you still need to fill the tech bar. Not all items need the same amount of XP to level up - consoles for example are cheaper then ship weapons.
Some upgrade kits can be crafted. The crafted ones can also be sold respectively bought on the Exchange. It is highly recommend to use only Superior Upgrade Kits. Applying this type of upgrade kits costs Dilithium, and Superior Kits give the most upgrade XP per kit and per Dilithium. These upgrade kits must be crafted for specific equipment type (like for cannons and tactical consoles).
Another source are Omega Upgrade Kits. These can only be crafted with a resource from a mini-game that happens basically once a year. You might find some on the exchange. The Omega Kits do not cost Dilithium to apply, and they grant more research XP, so you have a better chance of upgrading the rarity of your gear.
Another source are Ultimate Upgrade Kits. These only become available occasionally during special C-Store deals. For example, the Key Ring Bundle is currently available. You get 20 Master Keys and one Ultimate Upgrade Kit. The Ultimate Kit boosts any item to Mark XV Epic. Obviously, they are expensive to get and rare, and if you got your hands on one, you best use it on something you really want to upgrade, and is the most expensive to upgrade in any other way.
Another form of Upgrade Kits are the Phoenix Upgrade Kits. You get them by buying Phoenix Boxes for Dilithium and Opening then. This gives you a Phoenix Pack Prize Token, which you can buy stuff for in the Phoenix Shop. You can use a high quality prize token to buy 2 tokens one quality lower, and the lowest (and most common) token can be used to buy the Phoenix Upgrade. Applying the token itself costs no Dilithium, and the amount of technology points the tokens give and the Dilithium they cost even in the worst case (you only got the lowest prize token) is lower than if you'd use Superior Upgrade Kits. They are kinda the consolation prize, of the Phoenix Prize Pack (since many are probably buying it in the hope of getting some prize tokens to get some old event ships or prizes that are otherwise impossible to get if you weren't there for the event), but they are a really good consolation prize.
There are several more upgrade types, some are harder to get or only available during specific events.
The specific Fleet Tactical Consoles that I mentioned require you to be part of a fleet that has a sufficiently developed Fleet Spire in the Dyson Sphere. IIRC, the Fleet Starbase also has tactical consoles, but they are not as interesting.
The Quantum Phase Torpedo has an interesting property - when using with Torpedo Spread, your primary target will receive a volley of torpedoes that causes a much more signifcant shield drain in an area around it. I generally think that is better than the HYT effect Quantum Phase Torpedoes receive. (IIRC, it's something healing allies?) However, my preference for Torpedo Spread might also be colored by me often running science ships that also use gravity well, which means that my enemies all get sucked in by the gravity well and are in close proximity. So your mileage may vary. Try it out.
There are different ways to get Duty Officers. The most basic way is to visit your (allied) faction's Academy. There is a duty officer contact there with recruitment missions, and also some contacts that let you recruit Duty Officers specific to a member species of your faction. These missions require no input, but have some wait time and relatively long cooldowns. What you get is mostly random and mostly white.
The contact also allows you to exchange a higher quality duty officer to get multiple lower quality duty officers ("DOFF grinding"), or vice versa.
In addition, around sector space you can also find other missions that award duty officers on success or critical success. All Exploration Nebulae on the map (look for names like Delta Voltanis or B'Tran) have a chain of duty officer missions that at the end rewards one duty officer, while also unlocking repeatable missions that can grant you Duty Officers or other rewards.
As you advance your rank in the different Duty Officer categories, you also unlock a few select duty officers from another contact at your Academy. Advancing a rank gives you one for free, and unlocks a few additional that you must buy with Dilithium.
One recommendation to get a good set of duty officers is to "grind" any duty officer that is not of very rare or higher quality down to common duty officers, and sell them on the Exchange. Common Duty Officers are always in demand for Fleet Projects, so they never really lose value (but the value is fluctuating, so non-casual Exchange users can probably also make a profit, as always in these matters). You can then use the EC from your sales to buy yourself Very Rare Duty Officers on the Exchange.
I'm on PC, not X-box so I don't know how zone chat works there, or if you even have a zone chat but (again generally) the better Fleets will post in Zone chat, giving a bit of info and inviting people to message them if interested. The really good Fleets will utilize the Fleet recruitment section of the Forums, providing information about the Fleet and directions on how to apply to join.
Apply to join ? Yes, in my experience, the best Fleets I personally have seen actually have an application process and will not send a Fleet invite until you have completed the application process.
To avoid the flaming, although I am putting on my EV suit just in case. What I have said about Fleets is based strictly on my personal experience and in no way implies that all Fleets match my observations, or that my observations in any way, shape, or form reflect anything close to reality.
Activates EV suit.