should I replace my original bridge officers

lyran2

So, my bridge officers that I have currently have been the ones that I was awarded as I leveled up. i believe they were (and still are) all "white" quality officers. I've dumped a lot of xp into those BOFFs to train them up and I've been pretty happy with them so far.

All of that being said, as I've done DOFF missions, I've acquired 5 bridge officer candidates through recruitment missions, four "blue" and one "purple".

Here's the question: should I dismiss my original high ranking "white" BOFFs and replace them with the 5 that I just mentioned? I haven't spent any more xp so I'm assuming that, as a Vice Admiral, I've got a ton of xp to spend on these new BOFFs.

Thanks.

redsoniavrel

I'm glad somebody has posted about this. I have been wondering, asking and trying to look up what the differences are. I just assumed that the purple ones are better than the blue ones, and so replaced the older ones, but if they are better, I'm not sure why.

psycoticvulcan

I don't think it makes much difference. Purple boffs are rarer than whites, and sometimes have abilities that can't be trained into regular boffs.

deyvad

As mentioned, some may have particular skills, but mostly the difference lies in their passive skills, purple boff have 2 superior traits, so on and so forth.

http://www.stowiki.org/Bridge_officer#Rarity

deyvad

More info regarding Boff's traits

www.stowiki.org/Trait/boff

rodentmaster

No need to replace them. They were "white" when you got them -- meaning very basic skills were pre-trained on them. The color quality just means increasingly rarer pre-trained skills on those boffs. If you've already got them retrained many times over to help you set up your ship at the VA level then you are all set.

The only other issue would be to change the sex of the boff, or the species. Say you want all Andorian away teams, or whatnot. Then you could get any boff of that type and re-train them to be identical to the one they are replacing.


Other than that, there is no inherrent "better" quality of a boff's performance based on the color of the boff quality.

orondis

If you've got the spare cash and XP, it certainly couldn't hurt and can only be beneficial. Purple boffs will have better traits, generally better powers (some only trainable by boffs). Also there are boffs with space specific traits, like the efficient trait (a very very VERY small boost to the ships power depending on your power levels) you sometimes find with Saurians and the Leadership trait you find on humans (which supposedly increases your hull regen, but this doesn't seem to work)

My preference for my away team is to have a very rare science boff with the superior peak health trait (higher HP) and superior resilient (higher resistance to damage) so they'll survive long enough to heal everyone up. My Tacs have superior lucky (greater crit chance) and superior resilient.

Luckily enough these are pretty cheap on the exchange because most people don't even know these traits exist.

khayuung

One thing I noticed about the Tac boff is that she has 4 standard traits, which means the only complete upgrade from her is a purple. A rare has 1 basic, 2 standard and 1 excellent trait so ends up about the same.

amlross

Since starting sto I have added many new boffs. Mainly the rare Reman, Jemhadar, Borg and Breen Boffs.
I have also kept some of my originals and just added more boff slots so I can hold boffs with different abilities.

I have boff layouts for cruisers (beam abilities) and escorts (cannon abilities)

I have also trained and retrained many boffs, many times.

I still use my older boffs for some ship layouts. Just depends on who goes well with what ship.

I would love to get the lobi store holo boff too if possible. But at 300....

maelwy5

lyran2 wrote: »

Here's the question: should I dismiss my original high ranking "white" BOFFs and replace them with the 5 that I just mentioned? I haven't spent any more xp so I'm assuming that, as a Vice Admiral, I've got a ton of xp to spend on these new BOFFs.

Thanks.

1. You'll have more than enough "XP" to skill up dozens of BOFFs at VA.

2. If you use the BOFFs for space combat, only a few traits matter, basically the "Efficient" one. And Leadership, if it ever gets properly bugfixed. But white BOFFs will be very very nearly as good as the "best" purple setup.

3. If you use the BOFFs for ground combat, then yes, replace them. Ground traits matter a LOT. The only reason to go purple is because the traits they get access to tend to be more powerful versions. BOFF *POWERS* don't matter - you can retrain them. You can't retrain traits. The first thing I do upon starting a new character is pickup four purple BOFFs with an optimum setup of ground traits for that character.

darkjeff

There are only two reasons to change BOffs:

1. Better traits:
Efficient for Space, situational for Ground. I have two sets of BOffs, one for ground and one for space.

2. Exclusive skills:
There are abilities that cannot be trained, and must be obtained from Uncommon or higher quality BOffs, such as Aux to Structural Integrity 3. Note that you can always use a candidate to train your already commissioned BOffs, though.

What ranks those skills are at is irrelevant - you'll accrue more than enough Expertise to max BOffs in one go, while spending it on DOff assignments and Fleet projects.

redricky

rodentmaster wrote: »

No need to replace them. They were "white" when you got them -- meaning very basic skills were pre-trained on them. The color quality just means increasingly rarer pre-trained skills on those boffs. If you've already got them retrained many times over to help you set up your ship at the VA level then you are all set.

The only other issue would be to change the sex of the boff, or the species. Say you want all Andorian away teams, or whatnot. Then you could get any boff of that type and re-train them to be identical to the one they are replacing.


Other than that, there is no inherrent "better" quality of a boff's performance based on the color of the boff quality.

This is incorrect.

maelwy5 wrote: »

1. You'll have more than enough "XP" to skill up dozens of BOFFs at VA.

2. If you use the BOFFs for space combat, only a few traits matter, basically the "Efficient" one. And Leadership, if it ever gets properly bugfixed. But white BOFFs will be very very nearly as good as the "best" purple setup.

3. If you use the BOFFs for ground combat, then yes, replace them. Ground traits matter a LOT. The only reason to go purple is because the traits they get access to tend to be more powerful versions. BOFF *POWERS* don't matter - you can retrain them. You can't retrain traits. The first thing I do upon starting a new character is pickup four purple BOFFs with an optimum setup of ground traits for that character.

This is correct.

IMO Superior Lucky on a Sci boff set up with multiple AoE exposes will make a noticeable difference keeping your exploit on cooldown. Telekinetic is a nice second trait for the Sci exposer since it applies to most of the abilities they'll be using anyway. Superior Creative is what I try to get for a healer.

http://www.stowiki.org/Trait/boff

selek1701

Like the OP, I have white Boffs and a purple Boff as a candidate, but I'm only level 17, and I don't have a ton of Prestige to spare right now. Can I just hang on to the purple Boff for a while until I have a big pool of spare Prestige, then swap it in? Is there any time limit to holding on to a Boff?

captmack001

see i have had the same 5 white Bo's since headstart and its not about what extras they come with its about how you function as a team all my white BO's would wipe most purple teams inseconds because they are synced and harmonised find a blance YOU like not whats best to win

ladydragonfury

Personally, I just went on the Exchange and bought blue and purple Bridge Officers with the same gender as the ones I started out with, then just renamed them, made them look like the old ones and trained them in the skills I wanted them to have. Mostly did this for ground though, but the space skills I trained. Ground with blues and purples really made a difference. I didn't even realise they had passive abilities until I read this thread though. I got two Andorians, a Saurian, a Klingon, a Reman and a Breen officer with my Fed avatar, and a Nausicaan, Lethean, and four Gorn with my KDF avatar.

That way I still keep the 'feel' of my original team,. You could try that.

crusty8mac

Generally speaking, the rarity of a BOff (white, green, blue, purple) is determined by the superiority of their inherent traits. These are almost always ground traits. BOff traits cannot be trained or changed. BOff traits should not be confused with trainable BOff abilities.

Therefore, rarity of the BOff is unimportant for space combat (there are a couple of notable exceptions to this), and somewhat important for your away team.

jkstocbr

I replaced mine with Purples for the superior traits when I ran out of things to do.

Just save the costume, discard the white, enlist the Purple, update the costume and rename them to the original Boff.

cmdrscarlet

Thank you for asking!

It looks like I have a little work to do at the Tailor ...

naevius

All BOffs are ultimately equal in space except:

Efficient ones will gain you about 1 power in each system (Wpn/Shld/Eng/Aux).

Humans will help your hull recovery slightly.