Seems like I see a fair number of posts that are not real favorable concerning Oddys. I have the Odyssey set and lately have been using the science oddy the most. All mk12 and it is a pretty tough ship. Anyway, I like to think i can carry my weight on a mission and a little more.
The main reason for the bad publicity is because all ships, however pretty or shinny, have to be set up properly to take advantage of their potential. The Instant Admiral is more the problem than the ship regardless of the ship they fly. AND the Instant Admirals tend to look for pretty or shinny ships and the Oddy fits that bill.'
All of the ships involved in STO have some merit, some more than others. But I've seen time and time again poorly set up ships. And more often than not, if you mention to the captain that they should go check out the forums on how to set their ship up, or why Technicolor Rainbow beams are a bad idea, you will become the bad guy and be ragged on over your suggestions.
I've suggested reading the forums many many times on anything from 'How to do an STF' to 'How to set up a ship' and more often than you may think the responce will be 'I don't need no stinking forums.' :mad:
Pretty sure you can use keybinds for that, but I haven't messed with them in a while.
Funny you should say that. I've been studying keybinds all day trying to set up an xbox controller. From what I read the xbox controller is the cats meow for Space once you get it set up and get used to it.
Seems like I see a fair number of posts that are not real favorable concerning Oddys. I have the Odyssey set and lately have been using the science oddy the most. All mk12 and it is a pretty tough ship. Anyway, I like to think i can carry my weight on a mission and a little more.
On the elite I typically focus most of my attention on protecting the kang and 9 times out of 10 other players come to help when i get over run. the 1 out of 10 they don't of course we lose the mission. And if you are really unlucky the flaming and finger pointing begins; a good time to exit.
What really bothers me is the fact that anyone would intentionally fail a mission. i have often wondered about that on ground missions since people just leave when there is really no reason too. I would say on grould that happens half the time for me. Space not so often, but it does happen.
To be fair, it's not always Odyssey's and I have posted occurences (in this very thread) where I have encountered similar problems with a variety of players in various ship-types.
And whilst the Cure mission I last referred to involved an Odyssey, I have played plenty of STF's where the Odyssey's involved were absolute tanks!
I guess it's the case that newer players, with little experience, hurry through the story content and reach Admiral, still inexperienced. To be honest, I was like this myself initially - at least until I reached Lt-Commander and decided to join/read the forums. Console dropped? I stuck in on my ship, completely unaware that a Phaser relay is useless when your primary beams are disruptors. Sadly, it seems that a health number of participants of the game are unwilling to take the time to read up about what they're playing. And these same people end up flying Odyssey's with rainbow beams and consoles that don't do anything due to their unbalanced weapon loadout. We'll probably see the same with the Kitty carrier, although that does seem a little more forgiving of a bad weapon setup since you have fighters as fallback.
We'll probably see the same with the Kitty carrier, although that does seem a little more forgiving of a bad weapon setup since you have fighters as fallback.
It seems to me I only saw one Kitty in the STF's so far, I'm dreading the first time I see 4.
Joke;
What does a 2000 pound canary say?
'Here Kitty Kitty Kitty.'
There I was.... :eek:
Just entered an cure normal space in progress.
I didn't select a mission in progress but that's what I got.
The first thing I saw was the optional had failed.
The second thing I saw was 2 oddys duking it out in chat about how to do the mission.
Both were setting at the spawn point yelling at each other and calling each other noobes.
The other two were setting at the Kang doing what they could.
I "always" enjoy the Ground STFs (both Normal and Elite) where someone is running around, trying their hardest to kll Borg, and then asking "Why am I causing no damage?" We then either politely or impolitely refer to the need for a remodulator, which then gets us either "What's a remodulator?" or "Why do I need a remodulator", whcih then causes us to remind the player that The Borg adapt to energy weapons, which then of course gets us the response "Who's stupid idea was that?", which of course leads us to ask the player if he's seen any Star Trek past the TOS era? that's when said player starts swearing and calling us noobs.
Had an experience the other day which was laughable...
It was KA Elite...
2 Feds (Me, Intrepid Class & a Tactical in a MVAM) & 3 KDF -- all tac in (1 raptor & 2 Carriers)
So we split up 3 KDF on left and myself and the MVAM on the right.
As a Science Officer -- I took probes and helped knock out the cubes and transformers as I could
So we get our gate down to 5% and stop firing. MVAM PMs me and says he'll take the probes, go ahead and help the other side...I say sure thing.
At this point one of the carrier pilots says "You two feds don't do any damage, just go ahead and quit"
We ignored his comment and finished the mission.
After the STF I challenged him to prove his point in 1 v 1. Beat him 15/15 times. Didn't lose my ship once.
This elitism really gives the KDF a bad name you know...because I know that all of them are not like this. And I know that there is elitism on the FED side too, but this is just crazy. Its a game...We play this to "waste time" and "relax". It's enough to make you want to quit playing STFs
Carmenara said earlier "Failure is what separates the keyboard warriors from the true gentlemen and leaders out there." and I just wanted to pipe in and say what an awesome quote that is.
When I am an STF Vet (a loooong way off - I haven't even played one yet), I hope to maintain that as my motto. I often forget that every single ship in sector space (cargo ships and so forth notwithstanding) is another person who has their own dreams, plans, desires, tastes and all that stuff.
And when I do start, you can be (cuss word) sure that I will be looking for a mentor group and paying them good coin (uh - EC?) or trading some top-end gear to train me. Just because I can. Frankly, I'd like to see that become 'a thing', like how back in the heyday of Guild Wars you could hire a random commmunity veteran to show you how to get from A to B.
I love to PUG, i love to meet knew people add the friends list so i can team up with good players and always have someone to team with and i like meeting the Klingons, they are pretty cool. I drive a Intrepid Class VA sci ship even though i'm a engineer and its a great combo btw. In a perfect world id be in Nova VA ship but that won't happen so Voyager (my fav ship in Star Trek and my fav series) is my ride.
STF: Cure Elite
Players: a Galaxy class, Atrox carrier, a classic Bird of Prey (refer to ST Generations (BG), and a Prometheus (non MVAM).
Scene| I started out by telling out the basic stuff of Cure Elite and the fact the name of the game is speed and guns and crowd control which in a VA Intrepid is my specialty as Obi-wan would say. So being one of the more nimble ships i weaved in and out of the initial parking lot. Took out a few Borg Bird of Preys (BBOPs). As with any Cure noob they ALL protect the Kang, so image an Intrepid up against all three cubes while a Atrox Class and a Galaxy class sit there trying to protect the Kang thinking if they can outlast the clock they will get the optional......oi all of them were on a team and where freaking Newbies! Luckily i managed to improvise, i switched my primary projectile and respective console to a TCM Tricobalt warhead then i fired my beam weapons for another cycle and my antiproton burst from my Jem set. I took down the shield facing, activated my Ablative Armor and Fired a HYT 2 charged Hvy Tricobalt Warhead 2 purple mark XI and destroyed the Cube by myself. While the nimrods are protecting the Kang. I chewed there butts out stating that if you take the source out i.e the Cube drydocks you will win. Finally they did there jobs after i was almost dirt tired doing a Cure Elite all by my lonesome. In the boss fight the guys mostly targeted the BBOPS and enjoyed Dogfighting while again i picked up the slack with my armor and my trics took out the carrier.
The Worst Team EVER! I had to go absolute Rambo and i was in a Sci ship!!!!!!!!!
I guess it's the case that newer players, with little experience, hurry through the story content and reach Admiral, still inexperienced. To be honest, I was like this myself initially - at least until I reached Lt-Commander and decided to join/read the forums. Console dropped? I stuck in on my ship, completely unaware that a Phaser relay is useless when your primary beams are disruptors. Sadly, it seems that a health number of participants of the game are unwilling to take the time to read up about what they're playing. And these same people end up flying Odyssey's with rainbow beams and consoles that don't do anything due to their unbalanced weapon loadout. We'll probably see the same with the Kitty carrier, although that does seem a little more forgiving of a bad weapon setup since you have fighters as fallback.
I wanted to try the game and I'm not a gamer at all. Got hooked instantly and rushed to make Admiral. Made every mistake in the book.....several times. Hey I'm a smart guy right? Then I read the forums and felt like Jar Jar Binks.....mesa so stupid. Changed weapons, consoles, training, etc. My survival rate in space and ground 100 times better than it was before. I hope everyone will eventually do a STO search or come to the forums.
At one time I wanted dual heavy cannons on my cruisers so bad. :rolleyes:
I love to PUG, i love to meet knew people add the friends list so i can team up with good players and always have someone to team with and i like meeting the Klingons, they are pretty cool. I drive a Intrepid Class VA sci ship even though i'm a engineer and its a great combo btw. In a perfect world id be in Nova VA ship but that won't happen so Voyager (my fav ship in Star Trek and my fav series) is my ride.
STF: Cure Elite
Players: a Galaxy class, Atrox carrier, a classic Bird of Prey (refer to ST Generations (BG), and a Prometheus (non MVAM).
Scene| I started out by telling out the basic stuff of Cure Elite and the fact the name of the game is speed and guns and crowd control which in a VA Intrepid is my specialty as Obi-wan would say. So being one of the more nimble ships i weaved in and out of the initial parking lot. Took out a few Borg Bird of Preys (BBOPs). As with any Cure noob they ALL protect the Kang, so image an Intrepid up against all three cubes while a Atrox Class and a Galaxy class sit there trying to protect the Kang thinking if they can outlast the clock they will get the optional......oi all of them were on a team and where freaking Newbies! Luckily i managed to improvise, i switched my primary projectile and respective console to a TCM Tricobalt warhead then i fired my beam weapons for another cycle and my antiproton burst from my Jem set. I took down the shield facing, activated my Ablative Armor and Fired a HYT 2 charged Hvy Tricobalt Warhead 2 purple mark XI and destroyed the Cube by myself. While the nimrods are protecting the Kang. I chewed there butts out stating that if you take the source out i.e the Cube drydocks you will win. Finally they did there jobs after i was almost dirt tired doing a Cure Elite all by my lonesome. In the boss fight the guys mostly targeted the BBOPS and enjoyed Dogfighting while again i picked up the slack with my armor and my trics took out the carrier.
The Worst Team EVER! I had to go absolute Rambo and i was in a Sci ship!!!!!!!!!
This happens all too often in Cure. One escort can protect the Kang against BOP's easy. As far as I'm concerned if you're rolling with any kind of cruiser you should be attacking the probes under the cubes then calling out to the team once a raptor or warship shows up. Carriers.. unless you really know what you are doing should not be used for this mission. Then again none of this matters. The best thing to do for elite STF's is to not play them on weekends. I find that playing later in the evening on weekdays works best.
So what do you expect my one KDF char (who is using a carrier) to do? Just ignore cure elite space despite that I want the accolades/tech?
edit: I suppose the predicted response would be *grind dilithium for a BoP.* Eh. Cure elite's last on my list. Tried it once... Elite's far more interesting then normal I'll say :P.
So what do you expect my one KDF char (who is using a carrier) to do? Just ignore cure elite space despite that I want the accolades/tech?
edit: I suppose the predicted response would be *grind dilithium for a BoP.* Eh. Cure elite's last on my list. Tried it once... Elite's far more interesting then normal I'll say :P.
i have successfully completed cure elite many times with all kinds of ships and situations. imho it boils down to how well players use their ships. i have seen carriers that do great and in my case when i tried to use a carrier in cure elite i looked like an idiot and immeadiately went back to my oddy for elite missions.
Tac in a cookie-cutter Fleet Escort running CSE, in a group picked up from the EliteSTF channel. I figured it would be better than a PUG right?
Right off the bat I should have bailed, when the person forming the group announced the tactics: they would handle the Kang, and everyone else kill everything right to left, cubes included. I asked if they were sure, if they had the skill to take on the raptor waves by themselves. "Oh yeah," she replied. "We've got lots of DPS," chimed in another. Okay maybe they're much more skilled than myself (not at all inconceivable) and in a fleet together and well coordinated. Well whatever, if it goes wrong it isn't my fault.
Drop into the match, the team is the ringleader in a Karfi, 2 Raptors, and 2 Fleet Escorts. Okay maybe they know what they're talking about after all. Karfi starts deploying drones and heads for the Kang, everyone else cuts right. Under the concentrated fire of 3 cannon builds, the probes and cube melt.. Wait 3? Where'd the other Raptor go? Don't know but now the team is only 4 ships instead of 5. Just in time for the Borg Raptors.
Hurry to the middle, stack on APA, APB, and CSV and open up on Borg Raptors, already under fire from the Karfi. Friendly Raptor likewise starts shooting Borg, but of course those Raptors have a lot of HP to chew through so it takes a few seconds. Could have gone faster if the other Escort helped, but he went and parked under the shipyard to start shooting at probes from a cube-safe distance and ignore the rest of the team. Ugh. While killing Raptors, it dawns on me that if Karfi is here in the middle, who's on the left? Pan my camera over, and see that the answer is nobody.
I see that the nearby Borg are all in bad shape and dead in the next second or two, so I Evasive over to try and slow the other raptor wave down. I don't have the firepower to solo 3 Elite Borg Raptors before they can get to the Kang, but I'm hoping I can at least slow them down long enough by distracting and messing with their formation, though they'll probably kill me in the process. I arrive, shoot one till it changes targets to me, then switch and start shooting the next, then the third. I'm not a very good tank, and with 3 EBRs angry at me I explode quickly. But I pulled them off their Kang attack run and bought enough time for Karfi to show up and GW them. I question her tactics but at least her build is decent. Friendly Raptor backs her up, and I respawn and get back into the fight, and we kill this wave. Then back to the middle for that newly-spawned wave, then back to the left, then.....you can see where this is going.
After a couple minutes we've managed to get things un-chaosed enough that Karfi calls out for FR to stay with her on the Raptors and for me to go reinforce the middle escort, still parked under the shipyard. Timer is practically gone but I figured we weren't getting the optional as soon as Pilot #5 left, and we can still get the dil, EDC, and maybe tech, so I'm not really paying attention to the clock at this point. Escort 2 has been grinding away on the probes, slow but methodically, and then we turn to the cube. It blows me up once, but it goes boom, so I look back to my Klingon associates and see they have 4 borg raptors shooting at the Kang.
This is getting old. Myself and the other escort charge over, i throw every heal and defensive boost I have on the Kang (down to 21%), and start shooting birdies. By now the first Negh'var wave is almost in range, and I guess the GW was on cooldown. Still we get them in time and cut left to start alternating between killing probes and Negh'vars.
At that point it goes pretty normally, cube goes boom, Kang limps out of the system, carrier appears and explodes, rewards are junk (though Karfi gets proto engine tech). So happy to be out of there, ugh.
The lesson I take from all of this: whenever anyone says they're good enough to not worry about tactics in the pregame chat, leave immediately. Nobody is ever as good as they say they are, and tactics matter. Boring and effective > heroic failure.
whenever anyone says they're good enough to not worry about tactics in the pregame chat, leave immediately. Nobody is ever as good as they say they are, and tactics matter.
That's the first paragraph of the STF 101 lesson book. LOL
Nothing is worse when people accuse you of things you didn't do. I have had it happen to me and it drives me crazy.
The line, "The Kang doesn't need you to protect it" is hilarious. Usually if the Kang get's in any kind of trouble it's already to late. That player needs to have those words burned into his character bio so others know his level of ineptitude.
Most of these missions I have run over 50 times and people still impart their knowledge on me showing me how little I know. Than there are people like the one mentioned above who have run it a couple of times and think they are an expert.
At least someone manned up and apologized. I can't say I have ever seen that type of behavior in STOl.
i have been burned so many times that i always protect kang. if i don't i lose everytime.
The lesson I take from all of this: whenever anyone says they're good enough to not worry about tactics in the pregame chat, leave immediately. Nobody is ever as good as they say they are, and tactics matter. Boring and effective > heroic failure.
I typically just go "I'm good for whatever tactic you wanna try, just tell me what it is." :P.
but yeah, those guys and the ones who outright are rude I try to avoid. (like the one in my match I got my prototype PSG. A friend who prefers space to ground joined me.)
She accidently triggered the first one (again, doesn't care for ground STFs or in general) and he just went "I hope you know the trigger lines, it would be a shame if you didn't." And in final bosss room he went "spread out" Me and her got killed by respawns (A hard thing to avoid when half the room has borg respawned right?) and he just went "You two HAD to be killed by respawns."
After Manus died, everybody went "Good/decent run, thanks. good game, etc." He went "It wasn't a good run."
Khitomer Ground:
Get off to a decent start. Have to stand around for about 2 minutes while our 5th tries to get past the load screen. Which was fine, gave us time to meet and greet. 3 Klings (all in the same vent, which is how we knew he was waiting for load screen) a Fed, and myself.
I let them know it was only my 4th time doing that particular STF (used to always lag out on that one,but no longer an issue )
So we discuss some of the basics. Our 5th finally loads in, and we get started.
Everything is going great, no one is dying, borg are dropping like flies.
About half way thru, we're standing waiting for our Cool-downs to finish up, so I take the time to ask a question that I forgot to ask at the beginning. Just a simple, harmless question or so I thought.
"So, where's this accolade I keep hearing about?" That was my question. Simple, Nothing more. The response? "oh god a damn noob" and everyone bails, except the other Fed player. I was shocked to say the least seeing as I did mention at the beginning that it was only my 4th time thru.
So that was a failed STF, just because of a harmless question. Talk about priorities
But on a side note, if anyone wouldn't mind going on an accolade jaunt one of these days let me know (if its still available)
A while ago I had a couple beam boats and shuttles on Cure Elite... on top of that, one of the beam boats ran and hid. Later he called me a noob. I hate it when 11 year olds think they're up for Cure Elite in their new Ody's that Mommy bought them.
But on a side note, if anyone wouldn't mind going on an accolade jaunt one of these days let me know (if its still available)
After you clear the three level node room you go to the top platform and run into that generator thing. It kills you and you unlock the assimilated accolade. After you finish the mission visit Battle Group Omega and talk to Four of Ten and you will receive a Borg science boff.
Khitomer Ground:
Get off to a decent start. Have to stand around for about 2 minutes while our 5th tries to get past the load screen. Which was fine, gave us time to meet and greet. 3 Klings (all in the same vent, which is how we knew he was waiting for load screen) a Fed, and myself.
I let them know it was only my 4th time doing that particular STF (used to always lag out on that one,but no longer an issue )
So we discuss some of the basics. Our 5th finally loads in, and we get started.
Everything is going great, no one is dying, borg are dropping like flies. About half way thru, we're standing waiting for our Cool-downs to finish up, so I take the time to ask a question that I forgot to ask at the beginning. Just a simple, harmless question or so I thought.
"So, where's this accolade I keep hearing about?" That was my question. Simple, Nothing more. The response? "oh god a damn noob" and everyone bails, except the other Fed player. I was shocked to say the least seeing as I did mention at the beginning that it was only my 4th time thru.
So that was a failed STF, just because of a harmless question. Talk about priorities
But on a side note, if anyone wouldn't mind going on an accolade jaunt one of these days let me know (if its still available)
Unfortunately there's plenty to go around. I'd say it's a recent thing but it's really not, it's just more obvious now that the STFs are so easy to get into.
We once had a guy in the old KA in an Sovereign that was so bad we named him Spork; he was really bad yet had the worst attitude we'd seen so we decided he was so dumb that he wasn't allowed an actual fork in case he hurt himself. The funny part was we started calling him Spork and he responded but he ignored you if you used his character name, almost like he was used to it.
A tac VA in a tier 3 science rainbow beam disaster, that would charge under the cube, explode immediately, repeat....The whole game. Just before it failed as I was trying to defend and heal the kang in my escort while a cat carrier was being DPS I think he had been dead for 2+ minutes.
It was pretty awesome. I wont dare queue random cure space elite again.
A tac VA in a tier 3 science rainbow beam disaster, that would charge under the cube, explode immediately, repeat....The whole game. Just before it failed as I was trying to defend and heal the kang in my escort while a cat carrier was being DPS I think he had been dead for 2+ minutes.
It was pretty awesome. I wont dare queue random cure space elite again.
One has to wonder why such players don't try a different tactic or, at the very least, learn from their mistake.
I have a Rhode-Island (Nova class) in mothballs. It is, however, fitted with OMEGA shields and engine, Ageis deflector and [Borg] MkXI everything weapons-wise.
I don't use it for STF's, although did briefly, on a few occasions in the past, take it into a Cure Normal STF. And I won't pretend that I didn't explode; but I didn't explode very often, and I am/was perfectly aware of the barely existent DPS - but that's half the point. I KNEW - and I therefore made a nuisance of myself to enemy ships by throwing crowd control measures, using sub-system targeting and/or BOFF powers to weaken enemy shieds/weapons/engines, and healing team-mates so that their DPS could do what mine could not.
So far as I am concerned there isn't really any reason that at T3 ship couldn't stay alive for a fair amount of time if set-up and flown right.
This happens all too often in Cure. One escort can protect the Kang against BOP's easy. As far as I'm concerned if you're rolling with any kind of cruiser you should be attacking the probes under the cubes then calling out to the team once a raptor or warship shows up. Carriers.. unless you really know what you are doing should not be used for this mission. Then again none of this matters. The best thing to do for elite STF's is to not play them on weekends. I find that playing later in the evening on weekdays works best.
Yeah but i don't i run with an Intrepid VA, a highly robust Science ship and its served me well at least until they get a VA Nova out from the drydock
CGE:
A MACO/OMEGA (I'm more concerned about the benefits of gear than its appearence) geared individual using a whip in Cure Ground Elite. There went the optional (it was not entirely his fault to be honest but I had to wonder how that weapon slowed us down). Seeing him charge the Borg with the whip raised above his head was funny though. This actually happened in two CGE's. Please test your gear outside of STF's.
The quickest foreshadowing:
CSE:
The mission started and literally it seemed like seconds later that optional failure popped up. It was the quickest optional failure I've ever experienced. The first two center BOP's hit the Kang, no one covered them. Kind of funny looking back on it but communicate with your team.
Worst moments to date:
IGE:
The jumping.
CGE:
While trying to get through the first set of turrets in CGE with a newer group of PUGGERS, they were confused about what to do, I notice our Squad Leader has disaapeared. I looked around trying to find him and finally looked up...to see him perched on an elevated curving pipe just watching the team try and fail. Even if I get dumpped in a team I'm not happy with I want to win. If we cannot get the optional then we can always try to get the overall win.
Eventually people start beaming out due to frusteration and lack of direction from SL. I outwaited him beaming out. He was a Squad Leader who gave no direction, sat around and should have taken a penalty in my opinion. It's unfortunate because I do not type quickly, much less type and fight and the same time so I can be of limited help while people are trying to fight.
Another earlier CGE: Being raged on and insulted by a player while trying to take out a turret. I aggro'ed the turrets so I'd get interrupted while setting charges. Spend that energy trying to get the mission done, or even better, helping out. I did look funny getting pushed away by the turret's shield.
Raging, degrading and namecalling on other players. If they did something wrong let them know or tell them to read the Wiki before joining, but no need to insult people in my opinion.
While I've been PUGGING I've learned that there are a few ways to do things (I've eaten some crow about blowing up cubes before all nanities), often based on the abilities of the group. That said, I'll always advocate the consevative approach when group abilities are unknown. When PUGGING I offer advice, and hope it's taken.
All this said I've met some great players and people in PUG's, and I'll continue to do them.
One thing I can not stand is when people start getting bossy and assume everyone else was wrong. It's like that scene in indiana jones and the last crusade where he comes running out of the cave and says "everyone is lost but me." But in this case everyone is noob but them.
Case in point:
IGE, get to the final room and Captain jerk starts telling everyone what to do. OK RLC fine, we all know the drill. Everything is going fine, except one person is in the center agroing the other borg, and throwing off the respawn times. First time fail.
well this CJ person looks at me and yells for me to cover middle since I can't jump. Which threw me off since I was right there jumping along with them, and to "take center." 2nd try fail. see first time for reason, other person "on center" starts hitting any borg and spamming pets.
3rd try and Rebecca actually gets loose. This person tells the team to take out all respawns and ignore becky. Which for the LIFE of me I don't understand. I never saw this tactic before. IMO take out becky with all fire power you get muster, then if you want deal with spawn deal with them, but they don't matter for the outcome. but don't tick off the spawn and let her fly around with full power. Well that one failed too.
next try people focused on her and done. Then this person yells at the group not to do Elite if we don't know what we are doing, then beams out before anyone can say anything.
The level of noob in tonight's ISE run is off the chart.
First thing I notice is that everyone is in either an odyssey or kitty carrier. No worries I think, low dps group, I don't really care to much if we aren't fast enough to get the option.
Charge in to kill the initial cube and 2 spheres. Takes a little longer than normal, still no worries.
Rush over to the left to take on the next cube. I am blasting away at point blank range and after some time notice I am the only one firing at the cube. Where are the others? I look around and three are sitting idle by the gate. I look down and one is blasting away at the generator. Just as I type, "Cube First", he blows it up. I then notice everyone has rainbow beams, I die just a little bit inside. Luckily the three at the gate are holding off the spheres with gravity wells. Me and the premature generlator proceed to take down the remaining gens. A few spheres get through and the option disappears. We are able to deal with it and we eventually blow the transformer. Even after all of this I still think the mission is winnable.
We go to the right side, well me and the generlator do, the other three stick by the gate and continue to get blown up by it. I tell them to get over to the cube, but they either ignore me or possibly don't even have a chat window. I notice everyone has ship damage, some of them have 5 or more damage indicators under their icons. Again, I die a little bit inside.
At this point it looks like it will be a mirror run of what happened on the left side, so I just roll with it. I take on the cube and again a generator is blown before the cube is even dead.
Next things really fall apart. Someone holding back the spheres leaves the game. I kill the cube. the spheres are getting to the transformer now. One player finally moves away from the gate. The other decides to stay and fight the gate and ignore the spheres.
Now the player that moved away from the gate joins me and my premature friend. He decides to ignore the spheres too and just fire at the generator with his amazing technicolor beam boat. Again I type, "Spheres First". No one responds. With two players we are unable to bring down the generator before a new wave of spheres heal it. Ugh..
I am a very determined player and I don't even recall ever quiting a PUG match. Eventually after about eight minutes of this endless cycle it dawns on me I have to leave. This really upsets me because I wanted to run multiple STF's on this particular character over the next hour and am now stuck with a penalty.
It's amazing to me that two players would sit for over eight minutes and just fire at objects with no results, while at the same time ignore team chat. I don't think I ever ran with a group that was more determined to fail. My noob meter has blown up, nothing surprises me anymore
Comments
The main reason for the bad publicity is because all ships, however pretty or shinny, have to be set up properly to take advantage of their potential. The Instant Admiral is more the problem than the ship regardless of the ship they fly. AND the Instant Admirals tend to look for pretty or shinny ships and the Oddy fits that bill.'
All of the ships involved in STO have some merit, some more than others. But I've seen time and time again poorly set up ships. And more often than not, if you mention to the captain that they should go check out the forums on how to set their ship up, or why Technicolor Rainbow beams are a bad idea, you will become the bad guy and be ragged on over your suggestions.
I've suggested reading the forums many many times on anything from 'How to do an STF' to 'How to set up a ship' and more often than you may think the responce will be 'I don't need no stinking forums.' :mad:
That's the way I see it.
Funny you should say that. I've been studying keybinds all day trying to set up an xbox controller. From what I read the xbox controller is the cats meow for Space once you get it set up and get used to it.
To be fair, it's not always Odyssey's and I have posted occurences (in this very thread) where I have encountered similar problems with a variety of players in various ship-types.
And whilst the Cure mission I last referred to involved an Odyssey, I have played plenty of STF's where the Odyssey's involved were absolute tanks!
I guess it's the case that newer players, with little experience, hurry through the story content and reach Admiral, still inexperienced. To be honest, I was like this myself initially - at least until I reached Lt-Commander and decided to join/read the forums. Console dropped? I stuck in on my ship, completely unaware that a Phaser relay is useless when your primary beams are disruptors. Sadly, it seems that a health number of participants of the game are unwilling to take the time to read up about what they're playing. And these same people end up flying Odyssey's with rainbow beams and consoles that don't do anything due to their unbalanced weapon loadout. We'll probably see the same with the Kitty carrier, although that does seem a little more forgiving of a bad weapon setup since you have fighters as fallback.
It seems to me I only saw one Kitty in the STF's so far, I'm dreading the first time I see 4.
Joke;
What does a 2000 pound canary say?
'Here Kitty Kitty Kitty.'
There I was.... :eek:
Just entered an cure normal space in progress.
I didn't select a mission in progress but that's what I got.
The first thing I saw was the optional had failed.
The second thing I saw was 2 oddys duking it out in chat about how to do the mission.
Both were setting at the spawn point yelling at each other and calling each other noobes.
The other two were setting at the Kang doing what they could.
I put my ship in high gear and raced to the Kang.
Boom.
Too late.
I just typed...
'Your Kidding Right?'
And left. :mad:
It was KA Elite...
2 Feds (Me, Intrepid Class & a Tactical in a MVAM) & 3 KDF -- all tac in (1 raptor & 2 Carriers)
So we split up 3 KDF on left and myself and the MVAM on the right.
As a Science Officer -- I took probes and helped knock out the cubes and transformers as I could
So we get our gate down to 5% and stop firing. MVAM PMs me and says he'll take the probes, go ahead and help the other side...I say sure thing.
At this point one of the carrier pilots says "You two feds don't do any damage, just go ahead and quit"
We ignored his comment and finished the mission.
After the STF I challenged him to prove his point in 1 v 1. Beat him 15/15 times. Didn't lose my ship once.
This elitism really gives the KDF a bad name you know...because I know that all of them are not like this. And I know that there is elitism on the FED side too, but this is just crazy. Its a game...We play this to "waste time" and "relax". It's enough to make you want to quit playing STFs
And thats every time i go in :P
There I was.......
Started a CSN. 2 oddys, me, another escort and a KDF clown.
I say 'Hi' as usual.
Someone says 'I'll take the Kang.' It was the escort so I figure we're somewhat safe.
The two oddys and me head off to the right.
The KDF clown heads to center.
Oh Goody.
Nobody says anything.
I see the KDF clown die once so I figure he's having a go of it.
The two oddys and me kill the right cube and head to center.
ALL the nodes are intact and the KDF clown is SHOOTING THE CUBE! :eek:
I say 'Shoot the nodes first'
He says the usual 'I know what I'm doing I've done hundreds of these.'
I say 'Yea Right'
I check his accolade, 2200 and something.
We kill the nodes, then the cube and head off to the third cube.
Same thing. He's shooting the cube. Technicolor Rainbow beams just blazing away.
Somebody else says 'Shoot the nodes you noobe'
No responce.
Anyhow we won the whole thing dispite the KDF clown and the guy in the escort did a great job defending the Kang.
When I am an STF Vet (a loooong way off - I haven't even played one yet), I hope to maintain that as my motto. I often forget that every single ship in sector space (cargo ships and so forth notwithstanding) is another person who has their own dreams, plans, desires, tastes and all that stuff.
And when I do start, you can be (cuss word) sure that I will be looking for a mentor group and paying them good coin (uh - EC?) or trading some top-end gear to train me. Just because I can. Frankly, I'd like to see that become 'a thing', like how back in the heyday of Guild Wars you could hire a random commmunity veteran to show you how to get from A to B.
(Anyway, I'm getting back in my box now.)
STF: Cure Elite
Players: a Galaxy class, Atrox carrier, a classic Bird of Prey (refer to ST Generations (BG), and a Prometheus (non MVAM).
Scene| I started out by telling out the basic stuff of Cure Elite and the fact the name of the game is speed and guns and crowd control which in a VA Intrepid is my specialty as Obi-wan would say. So being one of the more nimble ships i weaved in and out of the initial parking lot. Took out a few Borg Bird of Preys (BBOPs). As with any Cure noob they ALL protect the Kang, so image an Intrepid up against all three cubes while a Atrox Class and a Galaxy class sit there trying to protect the Kang thinking if they can outlast the clock they will get the optional......oi all of them were on a team and where freaking Newbies! Luckily i managed to improvise, i switched my primary projectile and respective console to a TCM Tricobalt warhead then i fired my beam weapons for another cycle and my antiproton burst from my Jem set. I took down the shield facing, activated my Ablative Armor and Fired a HYT 2 charged Hvy Tricobalt Warhead 2 purple mark XI and destroyed the Cube by myself. While the nimrods are protecting the Kang. I chewed there butts out stating that if you take the source out i.e the Cube drydocks you will win. Finally they did there jobs after i was almost dirt tired doing a Cure Elite all by my lonesome. In the boss fight the guys mostly targeted the BBOPS and enjoyed Dogfighting while again i picked up the slack with my armor and my trics took out the carrier.
The Worst Team EVER! I had to go absolute Rambo and i was in a Sci ship!!!!!!!!!
I wanted to try the game and I'm not a gamer at all. Got hooked instantly and rushed to make Admiral. Made every mistake in the book.....several times. Hey I'm a smart guy right? Then I read the forums and felt like Jar Jar Binks.....mesa so stupid. Changed weapons, consoles, training, etc. My survival rate in space and ground 100 times better than it was before. I hope everyone will eventually do a STO search or come to the forums.
At one time I wanted dual heavy cannons on my cruisers so bad. :rolleyes:
This happens all too often in Cure. One escort can protect the Kang against BOP's easy. As far as I'm concerned if you're rolling with any kind of cruiser you should be attacking the probes under the cubes then calling out to the team once a raptor or warship shows up. Carriers.. unless you really know what you are doing should not be used for this mission. Then again none of this matters. The best thing to do for elite STF's is to not play them on weekends. I find that playing later in the evening on weekdays works best.
edit: I suppose the predicted response would be *grind dilithium for a BoP.* Eh. Cure elite's last on my list. Tried it once... Elite's far more interesting then normal I'll say :P.
i have successfully completed cure elite many times with all kinds of ships and situations. imho it boils down to how well players use their ships. i have seen carriers that do great and in my case when i tried to use a carrier in cure elite i looked like an idiot and immeadiately went back to my oddy for elite missions.
Right off the bat I should have bailed, when the person forming the group announced the tactics: they would handle the Kang, and everyone else kill everything right to left, cubes included. I asked if they were sure, if they had the skill to take on the raptor waves by themselves. "Oh yeah," she replied. "We've got lots of DPS," chimed in another. Okay maybe they're much more skilled than myself (not at all inconceivable) and in a fleet together and well coordinated. Well whatever, if it goes wrong it isn't my fault.
Drop into the match, the team is the ringleader in a Karfi, 2 Raptors, and 2 Fleet Escorts. Okay maybe they know what they're talking about after all. Karfi starts deploying drones and heads for the Kang, everyone else cuts right. Under the concentrated fire of 3 cannon builds, the probes and cube melt.. Wait 3? Where'd the other Raptor go? Don't know but now the team is only 4 ships instead of 5. Just in time for the Borg Raptors.
Hurry to the middle, stack on APA, APB, and CSV and open up on Borg Raptors, already under fire from the Karfi. Friendly Raptor likewise starts shooting Borg, but of course those Raptors have a lot of HP to chew through so it takes a few seconds. Could have gone faster if the other Escort helped, but he went and parked under the shipyard to start shooting at probes from a cube-safe distance and ignore the rest of the team. Ugh. While killing Raptors, it dawns on me that if Karfi is here in the middle, who's on the left? Pan my camera over, and see that the answer is nobody.
I see that the nearby Borg are all in bad shape and dead in the next second or two, so I Evasive over to try and slow the other raptor wave down. I don't have the firepower to solo 3 Elite Borg Raptors before they can get to the Kang, but I'm hoping I can at least slow them down long enough by distracting and messing with their formation, though they'll probably kill me in the process. I arrive, shoot one till it changes targets to me, then switch and start shooting the next, then the third. I'm not a very good tank, and with 3 EBRs angry at me I explode quickly. But I pulled them off their Kang attack run and bought enough time for Karfi to show up and GW them. I question her tactics but at least her build is decent. Friendly Raptor backs her up, and I respawn and get back into the fight, and we kill this wave. Then back to the middle for that newly-spawned wave, then back to the left, then.....you can see where this is going.
After a couple minutes we've managed to get things un-chaosed enough that Karfi calls out for FR to stay with her on the Raptors and for me to go reinforce the middle escort, still parked under the shipyard. Timer is practically gone but I figured we weren't getting the optional as soon as Pilot #5 left, and we can still get the dil, EDC, and maybe tech, so I'm not really paying attention to the clock at this point. Escort 2 has been grinding away on the probes, slow but methodically, and then we turn to the cube. It blows me up once, but it goes boom, so I look back to my Klingon associates and see they have 4 borg raptors shooting at the Kang.
This is getting old. Myself and the other escort charge over, i throw every heal and defensive boost I have on the Kang (down to 21%), and start shooting birdies. By now the first Negh'var wave is almost in range, and I guess the GW was on cooldown. Still we get them in time and cut left to start alternating between killing probes and Negh'vars.
At that point it goes pretty normally, cube goes boom, Kang limps out of the system, carrier appears and explodes, rewards are junk (though Karfi gets proto engine tech). So happy to be out of there, ugh.
The lesson I take from all of this: whenever anyone says they're good enough to not worry about tactics in the pregame chat, leave immediately. Nobody is ever as good as they say they are, and tactics matter. Boring and effective > heroic failure.
That's the first paragraph of the STF 101 lesson book. LOL
i have been burned so many times that i always protect kang. if i don't i lose everytime.
I typically just go "I'm good for whatever tactic you wanna try, just tell me what it is." :P.
but yeah, those guys and the ones who outright are rude I try to avoid. (like the one in my match I got my prototype PSG. A friend who prefers space to ground joined me.)
She accidently triggered the first one (again, doesn't care for ground STFs or in general) and he just went "I hope you know the trigger lines, it would be a shame if you didn't." And in final bosss room he went "spread out" Me and her got killed by respawns (A hard thing to avoid when half the room has borg respawned right?) and he just went "You two HAD to be killed by respawns."
After Manus died, everybody went "Good/decent run, thanks. good game, etc." He went "It wasn't a good run."
Get off to a decent start. Have to stand around for about 2 minutes while our 5th tries to get past the load screen. Which was fine, gave us time to meet and greet. 3 Klings (all in the same vent, which is how we knew he was waiting for load screen) a Fed, and myself.
I let them know it was only my 4th time doing that particular STF (used to always lag out on that one,but no longer an issue
So we discuss some of the basics. Our 5th finally loads in, and we get started.
Everything is going great, no one is dying, borg are dropping like flies.
About half way thru, we're standing waiting for our Cool-downs to finish up, so I take the time to ask a question that I forgot to ask at the beginning. Just a simple, harmless question or so I thought.
"So, where's this accolade I keep hearing about?" That was my question. Simple, Nothing more. The response? "oh god a damn noob" and everyone bails, except the other Fed player. I was shocked to say the least seeing as I did mention at the beginning that it was only my 4th time thru.
So that was a failed STF, just because of a harmless question. Talk about priorities
But on a side note, if anyone wouldn't mind going on an accolade jaunt one of these days let me know (if its still available)
After you clear the three level node room you go to the top platform and run into that generator thing. It kills you and you unlock the assimilated accolade. After you finish the mission visit Battle Group Omega and talk to Four of Ten and you will receive a Borg science boff.
That's just TRIBBLE.
Unfortunately there's plenty to go around. I'd say it's a recent thing but it's really not, it's just more obvious now that the STFs are so easy to get into.
We once had a guy in the old KA in an Sovereign that was so bad we named him Spork; he was really bad yet had the worst attitude we'd seen so we decided he was so dumb that he wasn't allowed an actual fork in case he hurt himself. The funny part was we started calling him Spork and he responded but he ignored you if you used his character name, almost like he was used to it.
Ahhh Haaaa!!!! :eek:
You just solved the mystery of why nobody ever responds in chat!
We're all calling them by the wrong name!
Here Spork, Come on boy, Whistle Whistle Whistle. :rolleyes:
A tac VA in a tier 3 science rainbow beam disaster, that would charge under the cube, explode immediately, repeat....The whole game. Just before it failed as I was trying to defend and heal the kang in my escort while a cat carrier was being DPS I think he had been dead for 2+ minutes.
It was pretty awesome. I wont dare queue random cure space elite again.
One has to wonder why such players don't try a different tactic or, at the very least, learn from their mistake.
I have a Rhode-Island (Nova class) in mothballs. It is, however, fitted with OMEGA shields and engine, Ageis deflector and [Borg] MkXI everything weapons-wise.
I don't use it for STF's, although did briefly, on a few occasions in the past, take it into a Cure Normal STF. And I won't pretend that I didn't explode; but I didn't explode very often, and I am/was perfectly aware of the barely existent DPS - but that's half the point. I KNEW - and I therefore made a nuisance of myself to enemy ships by throwing crowd control measures, using sub-system targeting and/or BOFF powers to weaken enemy shieds/weapons/engines, and healing team-mates so that their DPS could do what mine could not.
So far as I am concerned there isn't really any reason that at T3 ship couldn't stay alive for a fair amount of time if set-up and flown right.
Yeah but i don't i run with an Intrepid VA, a highly robust Science ship and its served me well at least until they get a VA Nova out from the drydock
CGE:
A MACO/OMEGA (I'm more concerned about the benefits of gear than its appearence) geared individual using a whip in Cure Ground Elite. There went the optional (it was not entirely his fault to be honest but I had to wonder how that weapon slowed us down). Seeing him charge the Borg with the whip raised above his head was funny though. This actually happened in two CGE's. Please test your gear outside of STF's.
The quickest foreshadowing:
CSE:
The mission started and literally it seemed like seconds later that optional failure popped up. It was the quickest optional failure I've ever experienced. The first two center BOP's hit the Kang, no one covered them. Kind of funny looking back on it but communicate with your team.
Worst moments to date:
IGE:
The jumping.
CGE:
While trying to get through the first set of turrets in CGE with a newer group of PUGGERS, they were confused about what to do, I notice our Squad Leader has disaapeared. I looked around trying to find him and finally looked up...to see him perched on an elevated curving pipe just watching the team try and fail. Even if I get dumpped in a team I'm not happy with I want to win. If we cannot get the optional then we can always try to get the overall win.
Eventually people start beaming out due to frusteration and lack of direction from SL. I outwaited him beaming out. He was a Squad Leader who gave no direction, sat around and should have taken a penalty in my opinion. It's unfortunate because I do not type quickly, much less type and fight and the same time so I can be of limited help while people are trying to fight.
Another earlier CGE: Being raged on and insulted by a player while trying to take out a turret. I aggro'ed the turrets so I'd get interrupted while setting charges. Spend that energy trying to get the mission done, or even better, helping out. I did look funny getting pushed away by the turret's shield.
Raging, degrading and namecalling on other players. If they did something wrong let them know or tell them to read the Wiki before joining, but no need to insult people in my opinion.
While I've been PUGGING I've learned that there are a few ways to do things (I've eaten some crow about blowing up cubes before all nanities), often based on the abilities of the group. That said, I'll always advocate the consevative approach when group abilities are unknown. When PUGGING I offer advice, and hope it's taken.
All this said I've met some great players and people in PUG's, and I'll continue to do them.
Case in point:
IGE, get to the final room and Captain jerk starts telling everyone what to do. OK RLC fine, we all know the drill. Everything is going fine, except one person is in the center agroing the other borg, and throwing off the respawn times. First time fail.
well this CJ person looks at me and yells for me to cover middle since I can't jump. Which threw me off since I was right there jumping along with them, and to "take center." 2nd try fail. see first time for reason, other person "on center" starts hitting any borg and spamming pets.
3rd try and Rebecca actually gets loose. This person tells the team to take out all respawns and ignore becky. Which for the LIFE of me I don't understand. I never saw this tactic before. IMO take out becky with all fire power you get muster, then if you want deal with spawn deal with them, but they don't matter for the outcome. but don't tick off the spawn and let her fly around with full power. Well that one failed too.
next try people focused on her and done. Then this person yells at the group not to do Elite if we don't know what we are doing, then beams out before anyone can say anything.
First thing I notice is that everyone is in either an odyssey or kitty carrier. No worries I think, low dps group, I don't really care to much if we aren't fast enough to get the option.
Charge in to kill the initial cube and 2 spheres. Takes a little longer than normal, still no worries.
Rush over to the left to take on the next cube. I am blasting away at point blank range and after some time notice I am the only one firing at the cube. Where are the others? I look around and three are sitting idle by the gate. I look down and one is blasting away at the generator. Just as I type, "Cube First", he blows it up. I then notice everyone has rainbow beams, I die just a little bit inside. Luckily the three at the gate are holding off the spheres with gravity wells. Me and the premature generlator proceed to take down the remaining gens. A few spheres get through and the option disappears. We are able to deal with it and we eventually blow the transformer. Even after all of this I still think the mission is winnable.
We go to the right side, well me and the generlator do, the other three stick by the gate and continue to get blown up by it. I tell them to get over to the cube, but they either ignore me or possibly don't even have a chat window. I notice everyone has ship damage, some of them have 5 or more damage indicators under their icons. Again, I die a little bit inside.
At this point it looks like it will be a mirror run of what happened on the left side, so I just roll with it. I take on the cube and again a generator is blown before the cube is even dead.
Next things really fall apart. Someone holding back the spheres leaves the game. I kill the cube. the spheres are getting to the transformer now. One player finally moves away from the gate. The other decides to stay and fight the gate and ignore the spheres.
Now the player that moved away from the gate joins me and my premature friend. He decides to ignore the spheres too and just fire at the generator with his amazing technicolor beam boat. Again I type, "Spheres First". No one responds. With two players we are unable to bring down the generator before a new wave of spheres heal it. Ugh..
I am a very determined player and I don't even recall ever quiting a PUG match. Eventually after about eight minutes of this endless cycle it dawns on me I have to leave. This really upsets me because I wanted to run multiple STF's on this particular character over the next hour and am now stuck with a penalty.
It's amazing to me that two players would sit for over eight minutes and just fire at objects with no results, while at the same time ignore team chat. I don't think I ever ran with a group that was more determined to fail. My noob meter has blown up, nothing surprises me anymore