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Common Misconceptions
originpi
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Lets start a helpful thread clearing up some of the misconceptions many new players and forum posters get hung up on!
I think this way we can remove some of the surprise and possible disappointment that many players may run into if they fall prey to these common mistakes.
I'll start with a couple I notice often:
1. There are 5 Tiers of play, and thus of ship "Level", as follows:
T1 - Capt. Lvl 1 - 9
T2 - Capt. Lvl 10 - 19
T3 - Capt. Lvl 20 - 29
T4 - Capt. Lvl 30 - 39
T5 - Capt. Lvl 40 - 50
Some ships can be defined as T5+ or T5.5, they have 10 consoles and ~ 10% more hull and shields over the regular T5 ships, these ships are as follows:
>Any ship purchased from a Fleet Shipyard using fleet ship modules.
>Any ship purchased from the C-Store that is part of a set of 3 These include the Bortasqu', the Odyssey, Andorian Escorts, and Vesta Science Vessels. (Scimitar Romulan Dreads will fit here when released.) **
>Any ship obtained from the Purple reward packs obtainable from the 'jackpot' from a Lockbox or the Lobi Crystal store. This does NOT include mirror ships, which are just flip turned version of T5 ships.
** Please keep in mind that not all C-store ships are T5.5. Any C-store ship that is not part of a 3 pack is simply T5. Many (but not all) of these ships DO have fleet versions available which are T5.5!
2. Romulans, upon choosing an ally, get access to all ships available to that ally from T1 to T4. They do NOT get access to anything T5 or higher. If you are upset by this, understand that you missed the argument, it happened before LoR was released. This was a compromise.
3. The 2.5% proc on your space weapons matters. Personally I have extensively tested this, and after 30+ hours of parsed game play I have found that the 2.5% proc on weapons will activate roughly once every 6 seconds for a relatively standard escort build (3 DHC, 2 Turrets and a Kinetic Cutting Beam). This will likely activate even more often on a beam array ship, because more weapons are within firing arcs more often.
I'll add one other things to this: The 2.5% proc activates only on the first shot of a volley. So there is no difference between the proc rate of DHC and DC.
*** It is important to note that the 2.5% proc on the Valdore console activates approximately 2-3x more often than this, because it has a chance to activate on every hit, rather than just the first per volley.
4. Weapon Power drain has many misconceptions around it. Here are the two most common.
First, weapon power drain happens regardless of energy type or weapon type. (Of course different weapon types may have different amounts). The power drain happens any time you fire other weapons, no matter the type (so 8 phaser beam arrays will drain power exactly the same as 1 disruptor + 1 ap + 1 polaron etc rainbow boat)
Second, since changes that happened a long time ago, weapons return their drained weapons power immediately at the end of the firing sequence. This means that EPS flow regulators DO NOTHING to help weapon power drain. (This is not true of weapon power recovery after a Beam Overload, when EPS consoles do help). This change also makes dual heavy cannons the most energy efficient weapon in the game, because they refund their energy at the end of their 1 second firing cycle, compared to Dual Cannons that hold onto (admittedly slightly less) weapon power drained for 2 seconds.
Anyone have anything else to add?
I think this way we can remove some of the surprise and possible disappointment that many players may run into if they fall prey to these common mistakes.
I'll start with a couple I notice often:
1. There are 5 Tiers of play, and thus of ship "Level", as follows:
T1 - Capt. Lvl 1 - 9
T2 - Capt. Lvl 10 - 19
T3 - Capt. Lvl 20 - 29
T4 - Capt. Lvl 30 - 39
T5 - Capt. Lvl 40 - 50
Some ships can be defined as T5+ or T5.5, they have 10 consoles and ~ 10% more hull and shields over the regular T5 ships, these ships are as follows:
>Any ship purchased from a Fleet Shipyard using fleet ship modules.
>Any ship purchased from the C-Store that is part of a set of 3 These include the Bortasqu', the Odyssey, Andorian Escorts, and Vesta Science Vessels. (Scimitar Romulan Dreads will fit here when released.) **
>Any ship obtained from the Purple reward packs obtainable from the 'jackpot' from a Lockbox or the Lobi Crystal store. This does NOT include mirror ships, which are just flip turned version of T5 ships.
** Please keep in mind that not all C-store ships are T5.5. Any C-store ship that is not part of a 3 pack is simply T5. Many (but not all) of these ships DO have fleet versions available which are T5.5!
2. Romulans, upon choosing an ally, get access to all ships available to that ally from T1 to T4. They do NOT get access to anything T5 or higher. If you are upset by this, understand that you missed the argument, it happened before LoR was released. This was a compromise.
3. The 2.5% proc on your space weapons matters. Personally I have extensively tested this, and after 30+ hours of parsed game play I have found that the 2.5% proc on weapons will activate roughly once every 6 seconds for a relatively standard escort build (3 DHC, 2 Turrets and a Kinetic Cutting Beam). This will likely activate even more often on a beam array ship, because more weapons are within firing arcs more often.
I'll add one other things to this: The 2.5% proc activates only on the first shot of a volley. So there is no difference between the proc rate of DHC and DC.
*** It is important to note that the 2.5% proc on the Valdore console activates approximately 2-3x more often than this, because it has a chance to activate on every hit, rather than just the first per volley.
4. Weapon Power drain has many misconceptions around it. Here are the two most common.
First, weapon power drain happens regardless of energy type or weapon type. (Of course different weapon types may have different amounts). The power drain happens any time you fire other weapons, no matter the type (so 8 phaser beam arrays will drain power exactly the same as 1 disruptor + 1 ap + 1 polaron etc rainbow boat)
Second, since changes that happened a long time ago, weapons return their drained weapons power immediately at the end of the firing sequence. This means that EPS flow regulators DO NOTHING to help weapon power drain. (This is not true of weapon power recovery after a Beam Overload, when EPS consoles do help). This change also makes dual heavy cannons the most energy efficient weapon in the game, because they refund their energy at the end of their 1 second firing cycle, compared to Dual Cannons that hold onto (admittedly slightly less) weapon power drained for 2 seconds.
Anyone have anything else to add?
Post edited by originpi on
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Comments
You did a great job of setting things down, but you made one small mistake.. Levels 1 - 10 are the tutorial levels, to whit T0. You get your first ship ( the one from the tutorial ) to keep at level 10 and become T1. T5 on the other hand is Vice Admiral which you get at level 50. The tier 5 and tier 5+ ships are all cash shop or lobi or fleet ships. You get no new free ships after T4. T4 is composed of two rank titles one at level 40 and the next at level 45, but they are name only and really give no playable benefits..
Mine Trap Supporter
level 40 ships are t4..
level 30 ships are t3
level 20 ships are t2
c-store and fleet ships are t5.
not all lockbox ships are t5.. the mirror ones are t4
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Do people realize that you DO get a new ship at lvl 10. Thus that is a new tier of ship.
Lets go with the free fed escort line as examples:
T1 = Miranda/Light Cruiser 1-9
T2 = Saber/Escort 10-19
T3 = Akira/Heavy Escort 20-29
T4 = Defiant/Tactical Escort 30-39
T5 = Prometheus/Advanced Escort or Hermes/Patrol Escort 40-50.
LVL 50 ships are NOT a new teir, and are of exactly the same power level as the T5 ships you get at lvl 40. This is why they are not free, because they are completely optional and not a step up.
When I said lockbox ships, I meant the lockbox main prize ships are T5.5. I apologize. All the mirror ships are T5. Editted.
I also need to reiterate that its not all c-store ships. Many of those are T5 as well, like the Armitage (which is why there is a fleet Armitage).
MK XI and MK XII can only be used by the upper admiral rank, level 45+. So there is a difference between the two ranks. What surprises me is they didn't do a rank 50 mark level.
My KDF captain started piloting his Galor at lvl 40, for instance.
When the game first launched, the level cap was level 40 RA. The Assault/Star cruisers, Patrol/Fleet escorts, and the RSV/DSSV sci ships were the first T5s introduced at the level cap. Later on the cap was increased to 45. At that point people started asking if Cryptic was going to introduce T6 ships. They opted to not go to T6 and went for the current T5.5 setting that we have now after the cap was raised for a second time up to 50.
When they went back to fill in the lower tiers, that spawned people questioning their decision to make those ships come with more advantages and spawned the whole "TX.5" and the "P2W" discussions that took place. One of the ships that was under fire at the time was the new Exeter class. This one was where I first saw mention of "T2.5". For the record the wiki page has the Exeter (a Lt. Commander ship) as a T2 ship.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Exeter_class
Therefore,
Levels 1-9 = T1
Levels 10-19 = T2
Levels 20-29 = T3
Levels 30-39 = T4
Levels 40-50 = T5
And as stated earlier, the Fleet ships and certain C-store ships are T5.5. Based on the few responses in this thread, this is still a common misconception.
Oops, sorry. I knew exactly what you meant. I just worded it poorly, my bad. :P
Mine Trap Supporter
note: A WHITE Mk XI. blue green and purples deal a little more base damage before mods are added in.
Its also interesting historically to recall that T5.5 did not start with the level cap at 50. The first ships that would be in that category were the Odyssey pack and the Bortasqu' pack.
These were the first 10 console ships, with more hull and shields than any of their contemporaries.
It was only later, after the fleet system was added that other ships got a 10th console.
Sometime after that, Cryptic did a balance pass on the lockbox ships, increasing their power to the fleet level. This is when the Galor got its outstanding shield mod (it was originally 1.0 I think) and the JHAS got its 5th tac console.
In the end it doesn't really matter, since the only real confusion comes between the lvl 40 and lvl 50 ships being the same tier.
EDIT: I can count I swear. Ignore what used to be here.
Truth man. I just hope this mistake didn't scare away potential new friends.
that was back during beta. since then they changed their minds to make things less confusing. as to them it was T0-T4, to the Players it was T1-T5. so cryptic went with the players on the Tier naming.
It may have been that way at one time, but the F2P dev blog had a chart of Fed and KDF ships that listed these ships as tier 1, and they repeated that pattern with this chart in the LOR dev blogs.
So if they did start at tier 0 at some point, it was a very long time ago.
Nope, totally wrong. The Zen/Dil exchange rate is set like that of any other market, it's where the Bid and the Ask meet. No formulas involved.
*puts nerd glasses on*
aaaactually the game was only going to level 45 (Rear Admiral) when it launched and you got a free Tier 5 ship at level 45, then another one at 50 and both were considered Tier 5
SO lvl 40 was Tier 4 and 45+ was Tier 5
( IIRC )
I don't ever remember being at level 40 with anything other than a tier 5 ship
We got a t5 ship at 40, and another one at 45, and then when VA came out we got a Retrofit.
40 was Rear admiral lower half,. and 45 was upper half.
Edit: but if we want to really be picky, in those days before the display change it was 41, and 46, and VA started at 51.
To paraphrase Hevach if it ever was that way it isn't now and hasn't been for a while. The official from the Devs LOR ranking is here:
http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=883911
From the Dev Blog #16
TIER 1 Lieutenant Rank
TIER 5 Subadmiral I Rank
T5 Retrofits and Fleet Vessels Vice Admiral Rank
So again, if it ever was different, it is not anymore and anyone calling the level 1-9 ships tier 0 is WRONG, anyone calling the level 40 ships T4 is WRONG.
Devs have spoken, in writing. Level 40 Subadmiral rank 1 is TIER 5.
There's your link.
T5 is Lieutenant General (lockbox and c-store ships you cant use until you hit 50)
T4 is Brigadier General (level 40 free ships and mirror ships and some c-store ships)
T3 is Captain (level 30 free ships and some c-store ships)
T2 is Commander (level 20 free ships and some c-store ships)
T1 is Warrior (the ship you start with and some c-store ships)
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Mine Trap Supporter
No. There is no T6. The level 40 ships and the level 50 ships are all T5.
Dude, you are totally wrong. Look in the posts above yours, even the devs talk about 1-5 with everything 40+ as tier 5.
The lvl 50 ships are just different options and many are no stronger than T5 ships.
You realize also that you COMPLETELY skipped the real tier 2, which is called Lieutenant Commander by Fed/KDF, Centurion by Romulan. Yunno, levels 11-20.
Also as I said, at least some lockbox ships can be used at 40, but are of the T5+ (Fleet/Premium) level of strength.
Just because you have to wait till lvl 50 to use some ships does NOT make them a new tier, the tier of a ship determines a modifier for its hull and shields as well as the number of consoles it gets (and weapons, as long as you compare within a class).
For instance, compare the level 40 Patrol Escort (http://sto.gamepedia.com/Patrol_Escort) with the level 50 Tactical Escort Retrofit (http://sto.gamepedia.com/Tactical_Escort_Retrofit). These ships are of the same general power level. The latter sacrificing some hull strength and crew to get more maneuverability and the ability to equip a cloak.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the TER has the extra downside of switching a boffseat from engineering to a potentially useless third tac ensign.
I realize that. I was pointing out that under the system he proposed that the level 50 ships would have to be bumped up to T6 and not that we have a T6 right now.
Mine Trap Supporter
But they don't need to be, (and the devs don't either) because they are the same strength.