Whats the point of buying more than 1 ship?

iceeaglex

Based on captain skills, it is pointless to get more than one ship.

So for example, my main guy is a science captain. He flies a Vesta. I have no torps on the ship, so i specced my captain skill points with 0 skills into projectile weapons.

Now, i would love to splash out, spend some $$$, buy some c-store or lockbox ships, and give them a whirl.

So at the moment, my 2 options are;
a) Buy a ship, and play it EXACTLY the same as i play my vesta. Nothing changed, no torps.
So, whats the point of even getting another ship that will be exactly the same?
There isn't, which is why i haven't bought anymore ships.

b) Respec my captains skills, every single time, i want to play with the new ship. Or change back to my old ship. Which is 500 zen a go.
Seems pretty crazy. After playing for a week i would spend more zen changing ships that the ship cost!!!

Now that option is obviously Cryptics preferred method, wanting me to spend lots of zen respeccing.
Instead i just wont spend 5k zen on a new ship. Meaning cryptic LOSE money, instead of making it.
Doesn't make sense to me. It really doesn't.


My suggestion is this;
Have captain skills PER ship. So if you change ship, your skills change as well.
That way, I, personally, would buy a LOT more ships, if i could actually use them.

aloishammer

iceeaglex wrote: »

My suggestion is this;
Have captain skills PER ship. So if you change ship, your skills change as well.

Given the way Loadouts and BOffs work now, I can't see this idea doing anything except causing widespread nightmares and nerd rage as people start having to basically respec on the fly every other time they change ships when (not if) the system borks their skills up.

That way, I, personally, would buy a LOT more ships, if i could actually use them.

So the tradeoff is nightmarish glitches and bugs for many players, and Cryptic gets a few bucks from you.

Yeah, my lobes say to pass on that deal.

annemarie30

If you want to min max

My skills are a bit more generic very few if any skills are beyond 6 ranks. And she can fly anything we'll enough for pve

alex284

Or you could just have a captain per ship (or per playing style). My main is an engi in the fleet tempest, but I'm building a few other toons, including a joined trill sci captain who'll fly a b'rel refit as a torp boat and a tac cat who's focused on ground.

It's a bit of work, but then you can choose the race, faction and career that maximizes a certain playing style. Otherwise, I don't see the point of having multiple captains except to go through the episodes for each faction.

That said, if I ran this show then traits would be as hard to change as skills, but the respec token would cover both and cost a lot less (like 50 zen seems fair). It seems weird that a captain would be switching skills constantly, unlearning things they knew 5 minutes ago and learning new tricks in a matter of seconds. The traits switching is even harder to explain in-universe.

tmassx

Any skillpoints loadout could be good , but I am affraid of another more than month traypowers dissapering like it was with boff and doff loadouts.

macronius

I don't change ships often but it can be fun to swap out ships / builds from time to time. I have a number of toons with various builds and ships too. Having one 1 ship -> 1 build makes for an extremely dull game. STO is lacking in the content department.

vetteguy904

My main, Drummond does equally well in the Recluse, the Defiant and the Odyssey.

dragonsbrethren

Answering the title alone: Fun

thunderfoot

My Captains are all generalists. Flying a different ship can be challenging as well as fun. A Sci toon conning a Tacscort adds a whole new meaning to the phrase, "glass cannon".

hypl

People play the game differently and don't need to respec to use different ships.

dracounguis

annemarie30 wrote: »

My skills are a bit more generic very few if any skills are beyond 6 ranks. And she can fly anything we'll enough for pve

Yeah, I'm not one of the min/max freaks either. I get 3 or 6 levels into most of the skills I can and that I know I might want to use. There are plenty of 'useless' skills in the tree that everyone can ignore w/ no real loss in ability. If I want to go nuts on a skill type... well that's what consoles are for.

doffingcomrade

iceeaglex wrote: »

So at the moment, my 2 options are;
a) Buy a ship, and play it EXACTLY the same as i play my vesta. Nothing changed, no torps.
So, whats the point of even getting another ship that will be exactly the same?
There isn't, which is why i haven't bought anymore ships.

Well, you're still qualified to fly any energy-armed Science-centric ship supporting your choice of Science skills. There's a reasonable selection to choose from.

This offers you a certain amount of nerf resistance, but yes, you probably wouldn't want to own more than one ship unless you're dissatisfied with your present ship, given that none of these points changes the fact that you can only fly one at a time.

z3ndor99

I cant stay in one ship, it would be so boring. Putting pvp aside, most content can be done with white or green gear and, with no points in torps you can still effectively use them ( torp tac consoles is one way ). Its fun to try different ships once in a while.

phoenicius

just roll a hybrid build, then you can fly pretty much anything you want.

unless you do "hardcore pvp" of course, in that case expect the high costs associated with it.

erei1

I like to change what I'm playing. My sci equally use the wells and the vesta, my rom switch from cannon-scimi to ar'kif and t'varo bomber, while my KDF use several carrier (fleet corsair, vo'quv, jem'hadar dread...).
They are not played the same way, and between the nimble torp based T'varo and the slow but hard hitting energy based cannon scimi, there is a lot of differences, yet it's the same character.

virusdancer

Pretty much every week that I tuned in while watching any of the shows...they were always in the same ship. If it was a different ship, it was because it was a different crew in a different show. Tada...multiple toons, each flying a single ship.

bhthephoenix

alex284 wrote: »

Or you could just have a captain per ship (or per playing style). My main is an engi in the fleet tempest, but I'm building a few other toons, including a joined trill sci captain who'll fly a b'rel refit as a torp boat and a tac cat who's focused on ground.

It's a bit of work, but then you can choose the race, faction and career that maximizes a certain playing style. Otherwise, I don't see the point of having multiple captains except to go through the episodes for each faction.

That said, if I ran this show then traits would be as hard to change as skills, but the respec token would cover both and cost a lot less (like 50 zen seems fair). It seems weird that a captain would be switching skills constantly, unlearning things they knew 5 minutes ago and learning new tricks in a matter of seconds. The traits switching is even harder to explain in-universe.

I think the only reason the game allows quick trait changes is that if you continue to add reputations and traits from them you would have some players with 100 traits after a few years whiles other players have like 5.

captainpirko

want to try other ships but dont want to use a respec to get the most out of said ship? use like-styled builds, on different classes.

for example it sounds like you have an all energy vesta, probably using the aux cannons to get the most out of the little beasty, which means you are most likely used to cannons only being 45 degrees.
this means if you switch to something like an oddy, an avenger, or some other cruiser, you can use a full 8 beams setup to get the max kick out of the ship, and be a different build. not to mention a difference in Boff layouts can really change up what you can do.

i fly alot of escorts, all of them are x3 DHC + 1 torp. however flying a multivector i know i have a good bit of science, enough that i can use gravity well. on the other hand if i switch to the steamrunner, suddenly i have more engineering then i know what to do with, so i can stay alive for ages. unfortunately, flying the steamrunner i dont have gravity well, so AoE is less fun. and flying the multivector, i have to be careful not to accidentally start tanking ALL THE THINGS!!!!!!

this is just an example. of course, there is also always the option to role another character and use a different ship on that character, which also allows you to have a different, and fun second ship/character to use for grinding more dil. (you know, if you're interested in that.)

anyway, No to switching respecs. when my loadouts glitch and i have to reequip my ship from scratch, i usually have to spend the first 3 minutes getting the Doffs, Boffs, and gear back in place. i dont want to spent the entirety of the match either disabled trying to get just the right number of points in the right areas to get the skills i want, or being alot less effective then i'd normally be. that's not fair to me, as a player with limited game time, and it's not fair to my team.

coupaholic

Variety pretty much.

I level in STO a lot, since that is the meat of the game so I'm always deleting and rolling new characters. And in this time I've developed a single go to skillpoint plan so my guy/gal can comfortably fly all sorts of cruisers and escorts.

I'd not say it was fully min-max since I'm not concentrating on a single ship, but I use 9 points in quite a few categories.

flash525

I've found, for the most part, it depends on the type of Captain you wish to be.

Lets take my FED Engineer for example; he's more Tactical-orientated than he is Science, and as such I can use his skills (without the need to change them) on the Assault Cruiser (Sovereign), Dreadnought Cruiser (Galaxy X) or Advanced Cruiser (Excelsior). That's at least three ships that I get to play with nicely.

I would think that is a benefit held only be Engineers though. I've yet to piece together a good Tactical-focused Science setup, or a Science-focused Tactical setup. Engineers (for the most part) seem to have the best of both worlds where that is concerned.

Still, regardless of setup, the point I've made above is as good a point as any as to what the point to buying more than one ship is. I don't yet have an Excelsior, but I have a Sovereign set up with Anti Proton Beam Arrays, and have the Galaxy Dreadnought set up with Plasma Dual Beam Banks (and Arrays at the aft) - though I could have easily gone for a cannon/turret build.

pwstolemyname

As others have said, just use a more general build, you wont notice the difference between a skill at 6 investments and a skill at 9 investments.

Going from 6 investments to 9 gets you an additional 15 skill points. The effect of skill points varies from skill to skill and with different abilities, but typically you need between 30 to 80 points of difference in something to be able to tell the tell that any difference has been made, without parsing.

Some of the numbers on this are a little out of date, but its still a good point of reference for most things:

http://home.comcast.net/~amicus/Skill%20Point%20Effects.htm

As you can see, 15 more skill points in something typically amounts to between 1% and 2% of performance.

If you plan your build to only take skills to 6 or 3 then there isn't anything you actually have to lock yourself out of using, and because the performance difference is so slight, your performance potential will still be far more limited by your player sill and ping then by your captain build. It certainly wont be the deciding factor of wether you place first at something.

wildweasal

Whats the point of buying more than 1 ship?




thats kinda like asking why dont we all buy the same cars and wear the same clothes ???...i dont have to answer that right ??? ...you do know the answer?

flash525

wildweasal wrote: »

Whats the point of buying more than 1 ship?

thats kinda like asking why dont we all buy the same cars and wear the same clothes ???...i dont have to answer that right ??? ...you do know the answer?

Aren't those two different questions/answers?

He isn't asking what the point of us all buying more than one ship is, he's asking what the point for a single person buying more than one ship is. We all wear different clothes, and own various amounts because they become dirty or start to smell. Starships don't get dirty or smell, they only get damaged, but then if you hang around long enough after a battle, your ship will become brand new again. :P

Unknown

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flash525

repetitiveepic wrote: »

More is better, in general.

Unless you're already full. I've found if I'm rather bloated and someone puts more food in front of me, I generally don't thank them for it.

farmallm

I usually try to have around 3 ships per character. Take my Fed Eng for example. He mainly uses cruisers only. However each cruiser is either more Tac, Eng, or Sci based. So this helps out on different missions and play style. However if a carrier comes around I usually add that as well for a 4th ship to play with.

I like different ships to use and rotate them kinda often. Same reason why I have different weapons I rotate as well for my ground team. It makes the game fun.

mustrumridcully0

Luxury. Show-Off. Need for experimentation.
For the sticker on your Miranda that says "My other space vessel is an an Undine Bio-Cruiser" .

grayfoxjames

Since getting my science Oddy it's been my single home ever since.

snoggymack22

iceeaglex wrote: »

Based on captain skills, it is pointless to get more than one ship.

So for example, my main guy is a science captain. He flies a Vesta. I have no torps on the ship, so i specced my captain skill points with 0 skills into projectile weapons.

Now, i would love to splash out, spend some $$$, buy some c-store or lockbox ships, and give them a whirl.

So at the moment, my 2 options are;
a) Buy a ship, and play it EXACTLY the same as i play my vesta. Nothing changed, no torps.
So, whats the point of even getting another ship that will be exactly the same?
There isn't, which is why i haven't bought anymore ships.

b) Respec my captains skills, every single time, i want to play with the new ship. Or change back to my old ship. Which is 500 zen a go.
Seems pretty crazy. After playing for a week i would spend more zen changing ships that the ship cost!!!

Now that option is obviously Cryptics preferred method, wanting me to spend lots of zen respeccing.
Instead i just wont spend 5k zen on a new ship. Meaning cryptic LOSE money, instead of making it.
Doesn't make sense to me. It really doesn't.


My suggestion is this;
Have captain skills PER ship. So if you change ship, your skills change as well.
That way, I, personally, would buy a LOT more ships, if i could actually use them.

You left out Option C: Create a new character. Level him up to work on that ship with that other build that you like. Let's use an example. You want a torp build, on your Vesta. Well, Vesta are opened up account wide. Start a new dooder, and make a Torpy Vesta guy.

Levelling is super easy. Rep grinding got quicker and more casual. You'll be up to speed in no time and not have to switch ships.

I don't know if this appeals to you. But it is an option. Maybe someone else reading the thread will consider it if they are having the same issue? I really don't know.

jagdhippies

My builds are not 'general builds' and my toons do quite well in different ships. There is no need to respec just to switch from cannon escort to a beam cruiser, the same skills apply. My sci does equally well in the vesta and the nebula. My engineer does equally well in a cruiser and a eng heavy escort.

This game is setup such that all of my players can tank in any of their ships without the need to respec. Because of this I see no reason to fly only one ship.

Now I will admit that my sci barely ever flies anything other than the vesta. The vesta is so flexible there is no need to switch ships to change styles. I can run cannons with CRF and beams with BFAW both very well in the vesta. I just collected a few extra BOFFs.

stark2k

My fun comes from the many characters I "DO" have, each is assigned a specific ship with a different purpose in mind. I select one each day, like the flavor of the day, and work one each one. So in a way I "DO" have 1 ship, but only one ship per character. That solves my issue with respecs etc...