Hi all,
Getting bored with the constant pain of doing STFs to get the Mk XII kit for my Fed characters, I rolled a pair of KDF characters.
First impressions;
- Melee is sooo much better 'feeling' than doing the same with any of my Feds. And a lot more fun.
- The UI makes my eyes hurt after a couple of hours, particularly in the grim darkness that is deep space. Red? Really? I know it's in keeping with lore, but could we perhaps scale it to orange instead? There's a reason NV kit in the army's green and not red...
- First City is initially confusing to navigate, but feels better than ESD.
- Love the story, though it is kind of amusing to see the NPCs refer to my wee Orion lady engie as a great warrior. It feels so much more lore-based than the bland Fed story.
- Not liking the character creation lockouts for female characters. My male tac (Liberated Borg Klingon naturally) can wear normal combat boots, but my female Orion engie is stuck between sandals and massive KDF boots? Whatever happened to sensible sizing?
However, I intend to get both characters to lvl 50 and start working on the STFs with them!

A couple of questions, if I may;
- What missions are best to do for lore? I noticed quite a lot of copy/paste from the Fed story and having done most of them 3 times so far (1 for each Fed character), so I am fed up of them. So, out of all available, which would the KDF community recommend?
- Could someone find the developers and beat them with sticks for the Cloak-dialogue 'feature'? :mad:
- As an engineer, who mainly does DPS/support Fed-side, would you recommend working towards a Raptor or something else?
Tim
Comments
Beating of dead horse re decloaking because someone raised their voice above a whisper has been tried and will doubtless continue. Beating developers for the same is very tempting...and unfortunately very illegal.
- Ship type..well, whatever floats your boat really. Raptors are the equivalent of escorts but I recommend giving the Birds of Prey a chance at least. Battle cloak and full universal stations can make for fun times. Tissue paper hull can make for short fun times.
Since you are interested in lore stories, let me direct you to the blog I author for Priority One, called, "Warrior's Way." (or see my signature below). For the next 1-1.5 months, I will be going through all the episodes while I level a KDF engineer (alien) and will be asking the question: "What is the story anyway?" In terms of lore, a very interesting episode (i.e., multi-mission sequence) is the "Fek'Ihri Return." You are required to speak wtith the lore singers at a few points.
As an engineer who does PvP healing, I enjoy the Negh'Var (the fleet version will be even better!). It has higher survivability than a raptor or BOP and is built for an engineer. The Vorcha is also quite good if you want a more maneuverable cruiser with some tactical teeth.
I would suggest the Battle Cruisers, especially the Fleet Vor'cha.
R.I.P
Annoyingly, despite being a Cmdr 28 from doing Mirror and DOffing, I seem to be unable to skip any of the storyline missions. I am somewhat irked, as I'd like to skip the Devidian repeat and head straight to the Fek'Ihri missions.
Edit; I also noticed some very confusing things within the Federation War arc, including the fact that the level requirement for the later missions seemed to be lower than the requirement for earlier missions...
Tim
You can always go back and so them later if you choose to.
And yes, First City is initially confusing but I prefer it to ESD now (even it it is less populated) - it's nice that you can craft there without having to go to Memory Alpha the way the Feds do. The atmosphere is very cool too - Klingon Academy looks great as well but there's a lack of things to do there...
Making it a dark, rusty brown/orange might work though - can't see this as being on anyone's priority list though.
I managed to skip the missions by doing Mirror repeatedly until I was lvl 31, which allowed me to jump right over it and onto the better, proper Empire, missions.
Tim
- The Kek'Ihri arc of episodes is amazing (despite the fact that I feel the dialogue was written for a Klingon, and not my wee Orion lady). Why can't there be more of this sort of stuff for the KDF?
- Alpha is wonderful. Lots of Predator references aside (though they were hilarious to see, and also worked wonders for giving the idea that the Hirogen are the Trek equivalent), it was a much better way of portraying the Hirogen as deadly hunters compared to the Federation equivalent episodes.
- However, having seen what's coming up, I am kinda saddened that I go back to the standard marathon of Romulans, Dominion, Breen, Borg, and Undine.
But, the KDF is definitely growing on me massively! A personal, if somewhat sad, achievement was being able to do 4hours straight without squinting against the red. Now I just need to work out how to do PvP... Oh, and of course continue the levelling up! At some point the HG Mk XII sets will be mine... Oh yes...
Tim
P.S. Bring back the Tailor 'bug' that will allow me to mix Omega Force/Honour Guard with my regular KDF/Orion kit. I stopped by the Fleet Starbase and the Orion Guards look awesome! I just want to be able to recreate it.
Though personally, I actually prefer the red UI over the Fed's (in fact, when I look at the blue UI, my eyes start burning)
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
With 4 fore and 3 aft weapons, it brings the same level of firepower to a fight on its own. Plus I run with 12 quantum torpedo-spraying Advanced To'duj fighters which are great against all the unprotected Borg structures. (I recommend using multi-function key binds/macros to continually launch replacements)
And because it's stationed like a science vessel you also get all the CC/utility of Tychen's Rift, Tractor Beam Repulsors, Gravity Well, etc.
The only cost is maneuverability and, well... it's not the prettiest of ships.
But I've been able to easily defend Kang in well-run CSEs and--my claim to fame--I picked up from a bad KASE PUG, solo'ing 2 Cubes while also stopping probes.
Yeah, you can probably call me a Kar'fi fanboi...
P.S. On my 4th toon (a tac officer) I run the Fleet Torkaht. It's maneuverability can be brought up to near-Raptor levels, it sports an additional rear weapon, and has far superior survivability. But to be honest I still end up missing having fighters on it... =P
And though I won't argue the To'duj fighter's effectiveness in your case, the Fer'Jai Frigates are worth a try imo
Plus they frequently use CRF and THY to augment their weapons: I see Transphasic rifts on a semi-regular basis (awesome)
And also, when they're near an exploding enemy ship, they won't go down with one hit. I personally like that about them
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
I do too. It gives me a more space-like feeling to the game. I also prefer the reddish/misty interiors in the KDF ships