I know if I tried to answer the theory of how it all works my answer would be less than satisfactory, and I've been around for a while now.
Quit being a cop out.
You CAN bring clarity. Pass along what works for you. But then tell them WHY it works. HOW it works. And, instead of getting rants on how horribly difficult things are....they get an idea of what to ask.
You know how things go together on a more advanced level than a new player. You know how the core mechanics work. New players need THAT explained to them. So, they can figure out how they can use it. What to look for.
Don't pawn it all off to players who "know more than me" and have "done all the math".
It is not really fair to heap all this at the feet of the "worthy" and shovel it on top of the Devs.
Especially, the basics. That is on everyone.
Even if it is just passing along the pertinent Wiki page, or article written in STO Builds, or a You Tube video. No one is expecting you to have it memorized and recite it off the top of your head.
IOW...it is something we can all do to make things better.
This is exactly the wrong response to my post, but your solution is the exact same as mine.
Who wrote those Wiki pages? Who posted those YouTube videos? Why, those 'worthy' upon whom you don't want me to dump this. The guys who went out and did the experiments many of us don't know how or don't want to spend the time figuring out how to do.
I am more than happy to share what I do know, and what works for me. But I started playing back when the game was just a few weeks past going live and I have to admit I still don't know core mechanics. I haven't needed to do the math or the experiments because there were a bunch of guys ahead of me who already did it and I chose to copy them.
I am reminded of when I was teaching my middle-school kids about algebra. "How does it all work?" they wanted to know. I had to confess I didn't know the answers, and it was very unlikely their teachers knew the answers either. But then I asked, "Can you make a zipper?" You know, that handy device used to close hoodies and gym bags? I bet you can't.
But someone can. Someone invented them, someone makes them, and I use them with no problem, just like I use mathematics and STO builds. So when someone asks me how it all works, the only honest answer is, "I don't know." But then I say ,"I know how to use it and this is where I learned."
I think the vast majority of players don't actually know how it all works together. We learn from others what works, and if it doesn't or if it stops being effective in a given situation we go find out what does work there and use that.
There is a small core of players who actually grind the numbers and work out how everything integrates, and they lead the DPS leagues or (formerly) the PvP leagues. Then they pass down their hard won knowledge and the rest of us copy them.
So when someone asks how everything works together and gets build advice, that's probably the best the answerer can do. I know if I tried to answer the theory of how it all works my answer would be less than satisfactory, and I've been around for a while now.
Well. There are players in these forums. Players in the DPS league. Players who merely wish to have fun and ... not suck at normal content. Players who wish to at least be good at normal or advanced or perhaps even elite content, TFOs or PvP, and players who want to be on the bleeding edge of what the meta can do.
If a player asks for help, their respondent is going to somewhat randomly be someone who plays at the normal, advanced or elite level and their advice is going to be biased around that.
I have been playing the game for a while. I got it pre-release off steam but quit for a while because, well, it sucked in the beginning.
I can manage a decent 20k dps in some or other borg queue using a cruiser with AP beams. But the dps value fluctuates wildly depending on which queue I do so I literally don't know what the dps log analysers are reporting.
All this time, I still don't know what power levels to use (are we even supposed to change them on the fly?
Whether aux2bat is a thing.
Every science ship i've ever made has been total fail: Do I use torps or beams. wtf do I do while all the science abilities are cooling down. Are threre doffs or boffs I'm supposed to have to make this easier?
Is it actually worth getting all fleet gear? What kind of dps boost are we looking at there?
I don't know if I should be looking at weapons with critH or critD or Dmg or what the H or D even mean. When I ask, I get advice one way or aother but no one has ever linked me to a base theory so I literally don't know if they apply to me or not or if I'm on this or that side of a threshold that would prefer one over the other.
Dilithium is expensive so crafting experimental setups is a waste so I can't even really experiment with different setups to see what works. My only choice is to commit to a build I don't even know works.
Do I need control? what does that even mean?
Why is this deflector better than that?
What are the core set of abilities my BOFFs should have to finish simple episode content on normal without dying all the time?
It is damn frustrating playing this game for so long and getting no real traction on any of this.
And, as I literally work IN an industry making desktop and mobile games, I am somewhat sensitive to the damage 'difficulty' can inflict on the player funnel.
I can read forums. Understand maths and so on. But I have a Job. And kids. So I have a few hours every other day to spend playing this game and literally every time Ive tried to improve my ship I've spent the entire few hours not playing STO but reading and more reading. So I give up and just go back to playing my tr***le ship.
But the game isn't doing well. And I want it to do better. I have a LTS after all so I'd like the game to survive. But literally every person I've gotten to play has given up in the face of the unrelenting complexity of making a ship that is both capable and a joy to fly. And the other factors that punish new players contribute a lot to their permanent departure.
Also Cryptic steals from players. Friends join and seem keen. I spend a few mil to buy them an exchange ship. Maybe they're keen enough to buy Zen or I use some of mine. They see a nice ship on the exchange and buy that. Then they learn that Romulan Aliens are a bit more meta - or decide to try Klingon or something. They delete their toon and start over. Where is their ship they ask? Gone. As is the friend. Thanks Cryptic for making it easy to dismiss lobi ships. Nice move. It's also an easy way to dismiss new players.
The ones that stick around get to 60 and start with the admiralty system. Why don't they have their levelling ships at least? Pull them out of Dry Dock I say. They dismissed them. *facepalm*. Sorry you need to rebuy them now for the admiralty cards, or reroll your toon. Oh, you've unpacked a lockbox or lobi ship on this toon? Sorry.
This game is an utterly horrible experience to casual players. I know because I've introduced them to the game. And if the assessment of the community is we don't need casual players or to cater to casual players then I might as well stop logging in myself because the casuals - while they might not spend a lot - they make the game feel alive enough to keep the pros interested.
I have been playing the game for a while. I got it pre-release off steam but quit for a while because, well, it sucked in the beginning.
I can manage a decent 20k dps in some or other borg queue using a cruiser with AP beams. But the dps value fluctuates wildly depending on which queue I do so I literally don't know what the dps log analysers are reporting.
All this time, I still don't know what power levels to use (are we even supposed to change them on the fly?
Whether aux2bat is a thing.
Every science ship i've ever made has been total fail: Do I use torps or beams. wtf do I do while all the science abilities are cooling down. Are threre doffs or boffs I'm supposed to have to make this easier?
Is it actually worth getting all fleet gear? What kind of dps boost are we looking at there?
I don't know if I should be looking at weapons with critH or critD or Dmg or what the H or D even mean. When I ask, I get advice one way or aother but no one has ever linked me to a base theory so I literally don't know if they apply to me or not or if I'm on this or that side of a threshold that would prefer one over the other.
Dilithium is expensive so crafting experimental setups is a waste so I can't even really experiment with different setups to see what works. My only choice is to commit to a build I don't even know works.
Do I need control? what does that even mean?
Why is this deflector better than that?
What are the core set of abilities my BOFFs should have to finish simple episode content on normal without dying all the time?
It is damn frustrating playing this game for so long and getting no real traction on any of this.
Do you bother reading item/ability tooltips, like ever? Most of these questions can actually be answered by reading in-game information.
Circumventing previous thread closures to spam forum by disguising thread to continue rant. /Thread
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
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Comments
This is exactly the wrong response to my post, but your solution is the exact same as mine.
Who wrote those Wiki pages? Who posted those YouTube videos? Why, those 'worthy' upon whom you don't want me to dump this. The guys who went out and did the experiments many of us don't know how or don't want to spend the time figuring out how to do.
I am more than happy to share what I do know, and what works for me. But I started playing back when the game was just a few weeks past going live and I have to admit I still don't know core mechanics. I haven't needed to do the math or the experiments because there were a bunch of guys ahead of me who already did it and I chose to copy them.
I am reminded of when I was teaching my middle-school kids about algebra. "How does it all work?" they wanted to know. I had to confess I didn't know the answers, and it was very unlikely their teachers knew the answers either. But then I asked, "Can you make a zipper?" You know, that handy device used to close hoodies and gym bags? I bet you can't.
But someone can. Someone invented them, someone makes them, and I use them with no problem, just like I use mathematics and STO builds. So when someone asks me how it all works, the only honest answer is, "I don't know." But then I say ,"I know how to use it and this is where I learned."
Well. There are players in these forums. Players in the DPS league. Players who merely wish to have fun and ... not suck at normal content. Players who wish to at least be good at normal or advanced or perhaps even elite content, TFOs or PvP, and players who want to be on the bleeding edge of what the meta can do.
If a player asks for help, their respondent is going to somewhat randomly be someone who plays at the normal, advanced or elite level and their advice is going to be biased around that.
I have been playing the game for a while. I got it pre-release off steam but quit for a while because, well, it sucked in the beginning.
I can manage a decent 20k dps in some or other borg queue using a cruiser with AP beams. But the dps value fluctuates wildly depending on which queue I do so I literally don't know what the dps log analysers are reporting.
All this time, I still don't know what power levels to use (are we even supposed to change them on the fly?
Whether aux2bat is a thing.
Every science ship i've ever made has been total fail: Do I use torps or beams. wtf do I do while all the science abilities are cooling down. Are threre doffs or boffs I'm supposed to have to make this easier?
Is it actually worth getting all fleet gear? What kind of dps boost are we looking at there?
I don't know if I should be looking at weapons with critH or critD or Dmg or what the H or D even mean. When I ask, I get advice one way or aother but no one has ever linked me to a base theory so I literally don't know if they apply to me or not or if I'm on this or that side of a threshold that would prefer one over the other.
Dilithium is expensive so crafting experimental setups is a waste so I can't even really experiment with different setups to see what works. My only choice is to commit to a build I don't even know works.
Do I need control? what does that even mean?
Why is this deflector better than that?
What are the core set of abilities my BOFFs should have to finish simple episode content on normal without dying all the time?
It is damn frustrating playing this game for so long and getting no real traction on any of this.
And, as I literally work IN an industry making desktop and mobile games, I am somewhat sensitive to the damage 'difficulty' can inflict on the player funnel.
I can read forums. Understand maths and so on. But I have a Job. And kids. So I have a few hours every other day to spend playing this game and literally every time Ive tried to improve my ship I've spent the entire few hours not playing STO but reading and more reading. So I give up and just go back to playing my tr***le ship.
But the game isn't doing well. And I want it to do better. I have a LTS after all so I'd like the game to survive. But literally every person I've gotten to play has given up in the face of the unrelenting complexity of making a ship that is both capable and a joy to fly. And the other factors that punish new players contribute a lot to their permanent departure.
Also Cryptic steals from players. Friends join and seem keen. I spend a few mil to buy them an exchange ship. Maybe they're keen enough to buy Zen or I use some of mine. They see a nice ship on the exchange and buy that. Then they learn that Romulan Aliens are a bit more meta - or decide to try Klingon or something. They delete their toon and start over. Where is their ship they ask? Gone. As is the friend. Thanks Cryptic for making it easy to dismiss lobi ships. Nice move. It's also an easy way to dismiss new players.
The ones that stick around get to 60 and start with the admiralty system. Why don't they have their levelling ships at least? Pull them out of Dry Dock I say. They dismissed them. *facepalm*. Sorry you need to rebuy them now for the admiralty cards, or reroll your toon. Oh, you've unpacked a lockbox or lobi ship on this toon? Sorry.
This game is an utterly horrible experience to casual players. I know because I've introduced them to the game. And if the assessment of the community is we don't need casual players or to cater to casual players then I might as well stop logging in myself because the casuals - while they might not spend a lot - they make the game feel alive enough to keep the pros interested.
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