But if I could get away with using the tier 2 Constitution, or Constitution Refit, I would, because it's my favourite of all the Star Trek ships, but it seems the game is designed to push you to use newer and newer ships.
The game pushes you to use newer and newer ships because as technology advances things generally tends provide better performance and / or become more powerful. For example, the F-4 Phantom was pretty good fighter back in the day especially after they installed guns on it instead of relying just on missiles. However, technology has advances since the time of the F-4 and it eventually was replaced by the F-15 Eagle which was a more advanced and capable fighter. But the F-15 too is to be slowly replaced by the F-22 Raptor which represents the latest technology for the US Air Force.
My toons are currently either level 54 or 55. I am still playing the main story missions since i stopped playing them awhile ago. So far I have found that my free T5 ships and mirror universe ship can handle the missions just fine including normal PvE queue missions like Borg Infected: Conduit. I do not feel the need to upgrade to T6 starships just yet even though I have enough Zen to purchase the Delta Rising ship pack (about 67% came from grinding and 33% from using real money during Zen sales).
I will be buying T6 ships soon enough though because I want to play the advanced queued PvE missions like Borg Infected: Conduit since sometimes I literally fly in circles with auto fire on and close my eyes. I really miss playing the "old elite" missions.
If you are a causal player that really has no interest in long term grinding, then there is no reason to get anything better than the free T5 ship or mirror universe ships... unless you really want one. However, sooner rather than later you are going to hit a wall because there is only so much content in the game before you need to repeat playing older missions or play the queued PvE missions / adventure zones over and over again. And there are only so many Foundry missions to play. End game is about grinding for better gear so that you can take on more challenging missions like the new Advanced and new Elite queued PvE missions.
Probably the next new content will be the Winter Event (it will be my 1st) which will likely give you an opportunity to grind for a ship of some sort. I will assume it will be equivalent to a T5U ship. The grind should not be too bad, but it is a grind where you need to do a short daily mission (5 - 10 minutes) for each toon for probably 25 days out of 35 days (or however long the event lasts). During the 2014 Risan Summer Event you basically got choice to select a free Risan Cruiser or Risan Escort, or both. They are T5 ships with 10 consoles as opposed to the free T5 ships (like the Sovereign) which only has 9 consoles. Additionally, with the release of Delta Rising, the Risan ship get a free upgrade to T5U ships which is why I stated you should be able to get a free ship that is equivalent to a T5U ship during the Winter Event.
After the Winter Event, the next new content will be Season 10 and that should happen in February 2015 to coincide with the 5th Anniversay of STO. At which point players are likely to be given another opportunity to get a free starship (I assume equivalent to T5U) if you grind for it during the event. So... you do not need to grind dilithium to exchange to Zen if you want a ship that's better than the free T5 or mirror ships. You will have opportunities each year (Anniversary, Summer, Winter) to get a ship for free. The catch is it may not be a ship that you like. For example, during this year's 4th Anniversary Event my Fed toon grinded for the free Science Destroyer... you know what? I ended up not flying it at all since I did not like the ship. I still have it should I decide to take it out for a spin.
Regarding the Exchange, yes prices can be pretty high since players can whatever price they want for things they want to sell on the Exchange. But there are "bargains" that do pop up from time to time. For example, while purusing the Exchange for a Field Generator Mk X (it increases your shield capacity), I found a very rare one for about 50k EC when all other very rare Mk X were selling for at least 400k EC. Additionally I have seen prices of some (not all) Mk XI uncommon and rare weapons come down in price due to the mark level increase to XIV. These weapons are fine for normal difficult missions so you generally do not need too much ECs to get good enough weapons or other gear. Of course if "good enough" is not good enough for you when you either need to spend more EC or grind up your crafting skills to make your own gear. But that also means you need the material as well which can also be expensive. You will need luck as well.
If you do not really want to spend ECs to buy weapons or other gear from the Exchange, then consider playing missions to get MK XI gear. For example, "Everything Old is New" a great mission to get rare Phaser Beam Array MK XI once you have reached at least level 50. The mission is pretty quick and easy; it takes about 10 minutes to complete. You can also choose to sell it on the Exchange if you wish to generate some EC; I am guessing they are listed for around 150k to 200k ECs on the low end. "Boldly They Rode" rewards you with a Dominion Polaron weapon and "Fluid Dynamics" gives you a choice of Antiproton weapons.
Lastly, it is always a good idea to take a short break from time to time so that you do not burn yourself out. STO is basically the only game I have been playing this year when time permits. I will soon be taking a short break from it though because I just got Alien Isolation and you know what they say...
Holy sh!te you can turn in prisoners for dilithium? I honestly had no idea, I've been dumping them on the exchange just to clear room in my brig. Thank you for this information, I will begin putting it to good use immediately!
Yes... Thank you for selling your prisoners on the Exchange. That is my primary source of prisoners. Do not turn in prisoners to the security officer because the reward is not that good and there is a high chance of failure. I only use the security officer for the contraband and tribble bounty missions.
Instead, fly to sector blocks that are not controlled by the KDF or Romulan and where the Fed has a presence. You want to look for "Forced Labor..." missions that appears under Military and each requires 4 prisoners. The reward is 500 dil for normal success and 1,500 dil for critical success. With a full brig you can line up 5 of these missions if you can find that many. There is also a small chance of failure.
Holy sh!te you can turn in prisoners for dilithium? I honestly had no idea, I've been dumping them on the exchange just to clear room in my brig. Thank you for this information, I will begin putting it to good use immediately!
For KDF (aligned Roms also included), I always wait at Eta Eridani, Pi Canis or Regulus Sector Block for the doff missions "Forced Labor Requisition to XXXX". It requires 4 prisoners, with fairly high chances of success, and rewards 500 dilithium. However, it is not always available.
Alternatively, the Security Officer at the First City provides a doff mission "Consign Prisoners to Labor Battalion" is always available. However, it requires 10 prisoners but only grants 1000 dilithium, with higher failure rate than the aforementioned doff missions.
I always cycle between the 2 to clear my brig, if only we can build larger brigs on our starships...
I am not a big ground fan, but some advice:
Don't forget to equip your BO team properly. It's also a bit of a challenge figuring out what powers are good (same as in space, really). I recommend using Science or Engineers for heals and drones or turrets. You don't need high rarity gear, but level-appropriate is a goodidea. Since your BOs also tend to deal less damage then you, it seems advisable to equip them with expose weapons so you can do the exploits.
And finally - The Dyson Ground Battle Zone is pretty good for ground. You can only bring 2 BOs, but you can earn a lot of Dilithium, Dyson Marks and Voth Cybernetic Implants. But you'll need to be level 50 to go there. (And fight Dinos.)
I can't really help you with the ship acquisition. I can just tell you - once you first gave in to spend money on any "F2P" game, it becomes even more tempting to do it again. So really, be careful.
Good news might be - the Winter and Summer Events also tend to allow you "grind" new ships with a special daily mission. This can also be a good source for a Tier 5 Upgradeable ship that doesn't cost you Zen. But it will cost you time each day. The next winter event is coming soon.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Sovvie refit and fleet are still better, as is basic sovvie, excelsior, ambassador, and oddy.
Galaxy is absurdly tanky but you need to be REALLY good and specialized to HOLD the aggro.
Plus the gal-dread is better than the gal-r. It has that extra weapon (phaser lance) and a shuttlebay.
You're correct, however I'm going off of what he's got, not what he should look at getting.
Just because I've got Jay Leno's Stardock doesn't mean everyone else has the same sort of tools... so when asked to help, I work with what they have to try to optimize their capabilities with the resources they currently have access to.
Comments
The game pushes you to use newer and newer ships because as technology advances things generally tends provide better performance and / or become more powerful. For example, the F-4 Phantom was pretty good fighter back in the day especially after they installed guns on it instead of relying just on missiles. However, technology has advances since the time of the F-4 and it eventually was replaced by the F-15 Eagle which was a more advanced and capable fighter. But the F-15 too is to be slowly replaced by the F-22 Raptor which represents the latest technology for the US Air Force.
My toons are currently either level 54 or 55. I am still playing the main story missions since i stopped playing them awhile ago. So far I have found that my free T5 ships and mirror universe ship can handle the missions just fine including normal PvE queue missions like Borg Infected: Conduit. I do not feel the need to upgrade to T6 starships just yet even though I have enough Zen to purchase the Delta Rising ship pack (about 67% came from grinding and 33% from using real money during Zen sales).
I will be buying T6 ships soon enough though because I want to play the advanced queued PvE missions like Borg Infected: Conduit since sometimes I literally fly in circles with auto fire on and close my eyes. I really miss playing the "old elite" missions.
If you are a causal player that really has no interest in long term grinding, then there is no reason to get anything better than the free T5 ship or mirror universe ships... unless you really want one. However, sooner rather than later you are going to hit a wall because there is only so much content in the game before you need to repeat playing older missions or play the queued PvE missions / adventure zones over and over again. And there are only so many Foundry missions to play. End game is about grinding for better gear so that you can take on more challenging missions like the new Advanced and new Elite queued PvE missions.
Probably the next new content will be the Winter Event (it will be my 1st) which will likely give you an opportunity to grind for a ship of some sort. I will assume it will be equivalent to a T5U ship. The grind should not be too bad, but it is a grind where you need to do a short daily mission (5 - 10 minutes) for each toon for probably 25 days out of 35 days (or however long the event lasts). During the 2014 Risan Summer Event you basically got choice to select a free Risan Cruiser or Risan Escort, or both. They are T5 ships with 10 consoles as opposed to the free T5 ships (like the Sovereign) which only has 9 consoles. Additionally, with the release of Delta Rising, the Risan ship get a free upgrade to T5U ships which is why I stated you should be able to get a free ship that is equivalent to a T5U ship during the Winter Event.
After the Winter Event, the next new content will be Season 10 and that should happen in February 2015 to coincide with the 5th Anniversay of STO. At which point players are likely to be given another opportunity to get a free starship (I assume equivalent to T5U) if you grind for it during the event. So... you do not need to grind dilithium to exchange to Zen if you want a ship that's better than the free T5 or mirror ships. You will have opportunities each year (Anniversary, Summer, Winter) to get a ship for free. The catch is it may not be a ship that you like. For example, during this year's 4th Anniversary Event my Fed toon grinded for the free Science Destroyer... you know what? I ended up not flying it at all since I did not like the ship. I still have it should I decide to take it out for a spin.
=================================================================================
=================================================================================
Regarding the Exchange, yes prices can be pretty high since players can whatever price they want for things they want to sell on the Exchange. But there are "bargains" that do pop up from time to time. For example, while purusing the Exchange for a Field Generator Mk X (it increases your shield capacity), I found a very rare one for about 50k EC when all other very rare Mk X were selling for at least 400k EC. Additionally I have seen prices of some (not all) Mk XI uncommon and rare weapons come down in price due to the mark level increase to XIV. These weapons are fine for normal difficult missions so you generally do not need too much ECs to get good enough weapons or other gear. Of course if "good enough" is not good enough for you when you either need to spend more EC or grind up your crafting skills to make your own gear. But that also means you need the material as well which can also be expensive. You will need luck as well.
If you do not really want to spend ECs to buy weapons or other gear from the Exchange, then consider playing missions to get MK XI gear. For example, "Everything Old is New" a great mission to get rare Phaser Beam Array MK XI once you have reached at least level 50. The mission is pretty quick and easy; it takes about 10 minutes to complete. You can also choose to sell it on the Exchange if you wish to generate some EC; I am guessing they are listed for around 150k to 200k ECs on the low end. "Boldly They Rode" rewards you with a Dominion Polaron weapon and "Fluid Dynamics" gives you a choice of Antiproton weapons.
Lastly, it is always a good idea to take a short break from time to time so that you do not burn yourself out. STO is basically the only game I have been playing this year when time permits. I will soon be taking a short break from it though because I just got Alien Isolation and you know what they say...
"No one can hear you scream in space."
Yes... Thank you for selling your prisoners on the Exchange. That is my primary source of prisoners. Do not turn in prisoners to the security officer because the reward is not that good and there is a high chance of failure. I only use the security officer for the contraband and tribble bounty missions.
Instead, fly to sector blocks that are not controlled by the KDF or Romulan and where the Fed has a presence. You want to look for "Forced Labor..." missions that appears under Military and each requires 4 prisoners. The reward is 500 dil for normal success and 1,500 dil for critical success. With a full brig you can line up 5 of these missions if you can find that many. There is also a small chance of failure.
For KDF (aligned Roms also included), I always wait at Eta Eridani, Pi Canis or Regulus Sector Block for the doff missions "Forced Labor Requisition to XXXX". It requires 4 prisoners, with fairly high chances of success, and rewards 500 dilithium. However, it is not always available.
Alternatively, the Security Officer at the First City provides a doff mission "Consign Prisoners to Labor Battalion" is always available. However, it requires 10 prisoners but only grants 1000 dilithium, with higher failure rate than the aforementioned doff missions.
I always cycle between the 2 to clear my brig, if only we can build larger brigs on our starships...
Don't forget to equip your BO team properly. It's also a bit of a challenge figuring out what powers are good (same as in space, really). I recommend using Science or Engineers for heals and drones or turrets. You don't need high rarity gear, but level-appropriate is a goodidea. Since your BOs also tend to deal less damage then you, it seems advisable to equip them with expose weapons so you can do the exploits.
And finally - The Dyson Ground Battle Zone is pretty good for ground. You can only bring 2 BOs, but you can earn a lot of Dilithium, Dyson Marks and Voth Cybernetic Implants. But you'll need to be level 50 to go there. (And fight Dinos.)
I can't really help you with the ship acquisition. I can just tell you - once you first gave in to spend money on any "F2P" game, it becomes even more tempting to do it again. So really, be careful.
Good news might be - the Winter and Summer Events also tend to allow you "grind" new ships with a special daily mission. This can also be a good source for a Tier 5 Upgradeable ship that doesn't cost you Zen. But it will cost you time each day. The next winter event is coming soon.
You're correct, however I'm going off of what he's got, not what he should look at getting.
Just because I've got Jay Leno's Stardock doesn't mean everyone else has the same sort of tools... so when asked to help, I work with what they have to try to optimize their capabilities with the resources they currently have access to.