1. You will probably be happier than the Tre... kkers? kkies? I don't know. At best the game takes great liberties with the material. At worst it ambushes the material on a dark alley with eyes full of wild lust. And the developers are at their best when they just handwave the material and go in a more comic book direction. It should be enough to say the highpoints of the campaign, for good or ill, are dinosaurs with lazor beams, trench warfare, WWII battleships in space, and dogfighting escorts.
2. Starfleet for the population. KDF for the newbie friendliness. But the main faction is Starfleet, for all intents and purposes.
3. All the careers can tank on space, it comes down to your ship. And the design favors DPS. So for a new player I would recommend a tactical captain on a cruiser. It's hard to mess that one up, and it can become very powerful. But if you are going to have a single character and no alts go instead with a science captain in a science ship. It requires a lot of research and it's easy to mess up, but no career is more fun.
5. STO makes many of the mistakes Champions made, such as leaving half finished systems and mechanics all over the place, without much of the bizarre charm and the quirky stories - There is nothing nearly as memorable as the Kings of Edom storyline or the paralel universe arc, nor anything as gloriously silly as going into an alert to find the custom villain is martial arts Jesus and your allies are a hobo with a shotgun and a mech piloted by Adolf Hitler's brain in a jar, nor anything nearly as rage worthy as Gravitard. If you are not into Star Trek you mostly play this because it has STARSHIPS, and for the very fun, if simple and kind of broken, space combat, and for the oddness that seeps in from time to time, and that seems to be seeping in more and more ever since the Dyson arc.
Don't start playing it right now. With the current state of the game especially beyond level 50, it's a complete mess, lagfest mixed with bugs every now and then.
Ps. there's no PvP, it's shooting-NPCs-with-cool-lights-and-FXs lagfest as well.
I need to get to him. I can't just leave him out there alone. - Sometimes you've got to makes sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone. - I know about sacrifices. - No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make. Loss is a choice made for you. - I can't choose to let him die, Roth.
The game is eminently soloable; I have odd times I can play, and sometimes have to jump away at a moment's notice, so I tend not to team for fear of having to let the team down. And the only reason my main isn't 60 yet is because I have a near-crippling case of altitis - I can't resist the urge to keep making new characters. (It's not quite as bad as the case of altitis I've displayed in CO, but...)
In ground combat, there's one thing in CO that I sometimes miss in STO - there's no active blocking. If you see an attack coming, you can get out of the way (watch especially for glowing circles on the ground - that's a grenade or mortar attack), but in hand-to-hand combat, you can't block.
You can think of your starship as a sort of massive, customizable Become device; in space, you become your ship, with ship capabilities that can be swapped out (weapons, shields, consoles that can change your ship's abilities, that sort of thing). Try to make sure your weapons match your consoles - that is, if you have the Tactical console Phaser Relay, that will boost your phaser damage, but won't help with, say, a Plasma Beam Array, so if you have two kinds of Arrays of the same level, there's no very good reason to swap out the Phaser.
Speaking of consoles, one of the more confusing ship stats has to do with the turn rate. Generally, the higher the number, the faster the ship can turn; there's generally a tradeoff between turn rate and defense, such that escorts can fly around almost like fighter craft but tend toward being glass cannons, while cruisers can take a pounding but generally maneuver like a cow on skates. However, if you equip something called an RCS Accelerator in your Engineering Console slot(s), you'll find your turn speed greatly increasing. (I've got three of them in my main toon's Odyssey-class star cruiser; it whips around pretty well.)
I do have to echo something said by others here - you'll have three character slots, and you should roll one toon from each faction. If you decide later that you don't enjoy one faction, you can always delete that one.
Two other key things to know. Usually, selection of a new ship goes by level, such that once every ten levels (up to 40, anyway) you get a new, more powerful ship; however, in both the KDF and Romulan factions, your first upgrade doesn't come automatically at level 10, but is in fact dependent on running certain missions. I started a Rom once during a Bonus XP event; it was a little disappointing that I was stuck with the T'liss until level 12, because I hadn't gotten the mission yet.
The other thing to know is that the Romulan Republic is still in its infancy, and Proconsul D'Tan is still concerned that one of his bigger neighbors might try to take over, so he's trying to play the two sides off each other by having each captain choose one side to ally with. (This usually happens at level 10.) If you choose Fed-Rom (Federation-allied Romulan), you have access to Starfleet bases up to and including Earth Spacedock (ESD), as well as any free Starfleet ships you might have picked up (the level-20 mission Temporal Ambassador awards an Ambassador-class cruiser to the Feds and allies), and lets you purchase other Starfleet ships for large sums of Dilithium (Dil), which serves the same function as Questionite in CO. KDF-Roms can go to the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS, as well as other Klingon bases, and have access to the Klingon Marauding missions, which typically yield between one and three Contraband per success. (Contraband can be exchanged for Dil at the Security Officer; there's one on ESD, one in the main hall on Qo'noS, and one for each faction at Deep Space Nine.) There's also a Klingon battle cruiser that KDF and their allies get from Temporal Ambassador.
Other than that, have fun, and remember that while Zone Chat in Beta Quadrant space might make Zone Chat in RenCen look like a tea party, it's still not as bad as WoW's Barrens Chat...
3 - In MMO games in general, I tend to solo. Is this game soloable through max level realistically? Also, I generally play as tanks, so I'm thinking Engineer is best. Is that class good for newbies?
5 - I have played Champions Online and enjoyed its gameplay. Is STO similar in that regard?
3: the classes work differently, but each is good on it's own. Tanking is probably easiest as science on ground and engineer in space.
5: ground combat is pretty similar, but not space.
3 - In MMO games in general, I tend to solo. Is this game soloable through max level realistically? Also, I generally play as tanks, so I'm thinking Engineer is best. Is that class good for newbies?
If tanking is what you naturally have a mindset for, tanking can be done in STO. Many folks will tell you to go straight for tactical, because things must blow up and tactical captains have some of the best enhancements to blow stuff up. It's up to each player to decide if they have a particular play style that they naturally understand better and whether to pursue that or to learn something different.
At the highest levels of player ability, tanks aren't needed much in most circumstances as tacticals blow stuff up before it can do much damage to players.
All of that said, I have 6 characters, 3 are tank/ engineers. You can tank, but it isn't exactly the same as WoW. Tanking is about threat generation and shooting at multiple enemies to get the return fire coming to the tank. DPS is part of threat generation, but only part of a tank's way of doing things. You have to build with a balance of DPS, healing, and resists to do well. Get one wildly out of proportion, and the tank tends to become less useful. Target getting a cruiser as your tier 4/ lvl 40 free ship if you want a standard space tank. Up until that point, it's all a learning thing.
At lvl 40, the free ship is a assault cruiser, Vor'Cha, or Ha'Apax. All three have similar layouts with minor variations primarily in hull, shield and turn rate.
Use beam arrays for weapons, add 1 or 2 torpedoes if you want that feel from the shows/ movies.
Learn to shoot from the side, broadsiding, to keep all beams on target.
With regard to soloing and pets, quite a few ground missions in the leveling game will see several of your ship's crew accompanying you to a planet's surface. You'll essentially have a full party, but most of then are friendly NPCs. There are mechanisms in-game that will allow you to select who conea with you, which abilities they have access to, and which abilities they use in their loadout, with tutorials on how to use it.
These same officers serve as your bridge crew while you're on your ship, and the same flexible training system allows you to customize your loadout for space combat. The first few ships you command are very simple to operate, and get more complex as you level up and get promoted. This should help turn the learning curve into something that can be taken in easy-to-digest chunks.
Dont listen to him/her,not everyone is laggin,game is not infested with bugs and it is not a complete mess.
laferrari just has a big chip over his/her shoulder and likes to bad mouth the game...how about you let HIM make the decision if either he wants to play or not? last time i looked your title in these here forums is the rank of doomsayer and that is about it,got no power over anything or anyone so if you hate the game so much and/or if its that unplayable what are you still doing here?
Door is that way>>>>>Have some self respect and dont make a scene,day after day after day the same ol' rant against the game...is it really worth it?
Do you think your pathetic little tantrums will magically have an impact on the devs?
Just take a break if you dont like the current state of the game,people do it all the time although some of them show some class (cant learn it,you either are born with it or not) and just leave,no post,no rants and no offending the devs or the company,they logout and leave because they dont feel the need for attention like *cough cough* other posters do.
P.S: Try and learn from this guy:
He took the time to post a very welll written informative post and try to help a new player as oppposed to you and your venom spewing,as i said class...some have it and some dont,guess you are the latter.
Pointing out the issues the game has is... what? Dude do you even know when I go to the bathroom? All you keep doing is like tracking what I write in order to write something that makes even less sense than a human being can do. Are you going to tell me the game is actually fluid, the grind bearable and bug-free? I dare you to say that.
Your pathetic wall of texts made for attacking me are simply amusing, keep them coming. Even my fleetmates are enjoying your stupidity up here on TS.
I need to get to him. I can't just leave him out there alone. - Sometimes you've got to makes sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone. - I know about sacrifices. - No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make. Loss is a choice made for you. - I can't choose to let him die, Roth.
Yeah, so my best advice for the OP and anyone considering trying this game or any other is...make up your own mind. No matter what game forum you go to, there are some people who think it is the best game ever made, and there are some people who think it sucks. But the only opinion that actually matters is your own, because no one else knows whether you will enjoy it or not.
Dont listen to him/her,not everyone is laggin,game is not infested with bugs and it is not a complete mess.
laferrari just has a big chip over his/her shoulder and likes to bad mouth the game...how about you let HIM make the decision if either he wants to play or not? last time i looked your title in these here forums is the rank of doomsayer and that is about it,got no power over anything or anyone so if you hate the game so much and/or if its that unplayable what are you still doing here?
Door is that way>>>>>Have some self respect and dont make a scene,day after day after day the same ol' rant against the game...is it really worth it?
Do you think your pathetic little tantrums will magically have an impact on the devs?
Just take a break if you dont like the current state of the game,people do it all the time although some of them show some class (cant learn it,you either are born with it or not) and just leave,no post,no rants and no offending the devs or the company,they logout and leave because they dont feel the need for attention like *cough cough* other posters do.
there are people that cant even boot the game, the lag hits them that hard since the last season or 2. if there are game breaking problems, you are actually justified in complaining as if there are game breaking problems.
but that must be their imagination, if its not happening to you, how can it happen to anyone else? having different hardware, and living in different parts of the world, COULDN'T have any effect at all!
game is free, so if op can so much as log in, and so much as not ruberband across a map, then its worth playing through the story content at least. but there's nothing to look forward to in the competitive, high end pvp scene now. that's been totally destroyed by power creep, and is behind like a $500 pay wall now. there is just a dps parse TRIBBLE from doing the same qued mission over and over again, and an inflated ego club for the best harmless npc killers.
Do not listen to laferrari1 or to plasmanugget.. they're extreme opposite ends of the spectrum.
laferrari1 claims that everyone has lag..
plasmanugget claims that the lag is a myth and doesn't exist at all.
They're both wrong.
The game has some occasional lag problems as most MMO's do. Unfortunately, for some players the problem is more severe to the degree of making the game unplayable. For other users, the Lag is so minor it's almost not noticeable.
The problem is real, it's acknowledged by the development team, and each of the last 2 weekly updates have included updates to help alleviate the problem. For many players (like me) the fixes have had a clear positive effect and the game has gotten significantly more playable. For others, they still have problems and the team continues to work on fixes for those players.
Your best bet is to install the game and see how it plays for you. The game is 100% completely free to download and install, you lose nothing by trying. Your only 'cost' is the time it takes you to download it.
there are people that cant even boot the game, the lag hits them that hard since the last season or 2. if there are game breaking problems, you are actually justified in complaining as if there are game breaking problems.
but that must be their imagination, if its not happening to you, how can it happen to anyone else? having different hardware, and living in different parts of the world, COULDN'T have any effect at all!
game is free, so if op can so much as log in, and so much as not ruberband across a map, then its worth playing through the story content at least. but there's nothing to look forward to in the competitive, high end pvp scene now. that's been totally destroyed by power creep, and is behind like a $500 pay wall now. there is just a dps parse TRIBBLE from doing the same qued mission over and over again, and an inflated ego club for the best harmless npc killers.
Truth has been spoken, agree completely with that. Something that should be printed and highlighted for everyone at Cryptic. But not before I give DDIS a FedEx plane full of medals.
I need to get to him. I can't just leave him out there alone. - Sometimes you've got to makes sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone. - I know about sacrifices. - No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make. Loss is a choice made for you. - I can't choose to let him die, Roth.
Laferrari, your issues seem to have primarily to do with PvP. However, as the OP is coming to us from CO, he's used to not having any meaningful PvP, and it's obviously not a problem for him.
Perhaps if you tried answering the questions he asked, rather than seizing the chance for yet another rant about your particular hobbyhorse...
Laferrari, your issues seem to have primarily to do with PvP. However, as the OP is coming to us from CO, he's used to not having any meaningful PvP, and it's obviously not a problem for him.
Perhaps if you tried answering the questions he asked, rather than seizing the chance for yet another rant about your particular hobbyhorse...
Eh, PvP is one of the many. It's supposed to be endgame or integral part of every game nowadays, reason why I believe the OP will literally get bored by the XP curve next to level 50.
NPCs do not have AI, they're scripted which is quite different. Once you repeat the same old patrols and queues again, and again, and again it gets tedious. Tonight elite iconian PvE queues stayed 0/0/0 for a good while. I'm not having a hard time figuring out why.
So yeah, my advice is to not even bother to start playing. One or two years ago I'd have shouted "make your way to level 50 and join OPVP". Now I don't. I don't care of what people think about me in here, I limit myself to saying the truth from my point of view, and sometimes some are annoyed to see proof that destroys their microcosm in this game.
I need to get to him. I can't just leave him out there alone. - Sometimes you've got to makes sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone. - I know about sacrifices. - No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make. Loss is a choice made for you. - I can't choose to let him die, Roth.
Eh, PvP is one of the many. It's supposed to be endgame or integral part of every game nowadays, reason why I believe the OP will literally get bored by the XP curve next to level 50.
NPCs do not have AI, they're scripted which is quite different. Once you repeat the same old patrols and queues again, and again, and again it gets tedious. Tonight elite iconian PvE queues stayed 0/0/0 for a good while. I'm not having a hard time figuring out why.
So yeah, my advice is to not even bother to start playing.
There must be something enjoyable in the game that keeps you playing.
There must be something enjoyable in the game that keeps you playing.
"playing". Call that hanging out with friends. Throughout the years I met many people in PvP: one of them lives in my same city and now he's one of my best friends in real life, while I still talk to some others.
The difference I see between now and one or two years ago is staggering. I'm not saying the game is horrific because I want to call doom, but because I know how good it used to be, and how heavily it has fallen.
I need to get to him. I can't just leave him out there alone. - Sometimes you've got to makes sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone. - I know about sacrifices. - No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make. Loss is a choice made for you. - I can't choose to let him die, Roth.
So yeah, my advice is to not even bother to start playing.
My advice is never to listen to anyone who says 'don't play' and yet will still be found here a month from now saying the game sucks and then the month after that and the month after that.
My advice is to take Sea o' Sorrows and The Grand Nagus's advice.
Hello everyone. I just found out about this game and will try it after it's downloaded over night. I just have some questions, as all the threads I can find relating to them are around a year old.
1 - I have never once seen absolutely any Star Trek episode, movie, or anything. Due to other things referencing it though, I can recognize certain well know Star Trek terms and characters. Spock, Federation, Klingon, etc. Obviously I still won't know pretty much anything Star Trek related. How much will this effect my appreciation of the game? Is it fun even for people that don't know Star Trek?
2 - Since I am new to this game and Star Trek in general, I am wanting to join the best newcomer faction in both population and newbie friendliness. I am assuming that would be Starfleet/Federation since that is the "main" faction from the little I know about Star Trek, but is that correct?
3 - In MMO games in general, I tend to solo. Is this game soloable through max level realistically? Also, I generally play as tanks, so I'm thinking Engineer is best. Is that class good for newbies?
4 - Is there any active guild/fleet that is willing to help a newcomer? I do NOT mean free hand outs, I just mean a guild/fleet that can answer my general Star Trek questions when needed, be willing to assist me with low level dungeons when needed, etc.
5 - I have played Champions Online and enjoyed its gameplay. Is STO similar in that regard?
Thank you everyone
Ok, firstly, Welcome to STO.
Secondly, I'd recommend leaving the forums immediately, they are full of spoilers and a rather touchy community of gamers. lol
#1 - prior knowledge of Star Trek, it's not necessary but much of the content ties into the various movies and shows. Knowing nothing of Star Trek before playing might actually prove to be a slight advantage, as many facts and figures in Star Trek canon tend to contradict each other and make for a rather confusing mess.
#2 - Starfleet/Federation would likely be the best faction for the beginner, Romulan coming in second mainly because of the detailed early missions and Tutorials.
For the beginner I'd recommend Starfleet Tactical officer, they are fairly straight forward and simple enough to get right the first time out.
Engineer is also pretty good, as they can drop turrets, mortars, attack drones, or repair personal shields and debuff enemy's weapons in ground combat.
I wouldn't recommend a Science officer first time out, while very useful throughout the game, they have a rather steep learning curve and could prove to dissuade you from sticking around to figure it out.
Also, ship classes aren't specific to each class, yes an engineer in a cruiser would make one heck of a tank, but a Tactical officer in that same cruiser works nearly as well. Often times I find myself switching between various ship types just to mix things up.
#3 - There are newb friendly fleets out there, speaking of the leader of one I can definately say they exist, I'm not entirely sure of how many fleets are newb-friendly, though...
#4 - Definately doable solo, in fact many of the missions in STO are designed with a single player in mind, with the exception of STF (Special Task Force) missions, which are simmilar to multi-player dungeons in other games, but those are irrelevant to character progression and generally only peripherally connect to the main story.
#5 - Sorry, I've never played Champions, I have no Idea if STO is simmilar or in which aspects it would have in common.
1 - I have never once seen absolutely any Star Trek episode, movie, or anything. Due to other things referencing it though, I can recognize certain well know Star Trek terms and characters. Spock, Federation, Klingon, etc. Obviously I still won't know pretty much anything Star Trek related. How much will this effect my appreciation of the game? Is it fun even for people that don't know Star Trek?
You'll miss more than a few references and in-jokes. If you like flying around in space blowing stuff up and shooting up stuff on the ground with lasers and big honkin' sword-things, however, you'll like it here!
2 - Since I am new to this game and Star Trek in general, I am wanting to join the best newcomer faction in both population and newbie friendliness. I am assuming that would be Starfleet/Federation since that is the "main" faction from the little I know about Star Trek, but is that correct?
The Federation's the biggest, so you'll have an easier time finding teams and PvE queues. That said, every faction is really friendly and each one comes with its own benefits. Klingons come with some kickass stories, deliciously rewarding deck officer missions, and a lot of melee combo combat, for example.
3 - In MMO games in general, I tend to solo. Is this game soloable through max level realistically? Also, I generally play as tanks, so I'm thinking Engineer is best. Is that class good for newbies?
If you stick to story missions and season your skill points with deck officer missions, you can get to 50 easily. And I am definitely prejudiced, but I recommend rolling engineer for start. Nothing quite as entertaining as watching your enemy trip over your minefields or having a steady supply of 'oh TRIBBLE' buttons handy when you're just starting out.
4 - Is there any active guild/fleet that is willing to help a newcomer? I do NOT mean free hand outs, I just mean a guild/fleet that can answer my general Star Trek questions when needed, be willing to assist me with low level dungeons when needed, etc.
I'll leave that recommendation to others, though there's plenty of channels out there willing to help newcomers such as Star Trek Battles and the basic DPS channel.
5 - I have played Champions Online and enjoyed its gameplay. Is STO similar in that regard?
If you liked soldiers, power armors, and gadgeteers, you'll like it here. And you won't have to worry about stamina, either!
The game is eminently soloable; I have odd times I can play, and sometimes have to jump away at a moment's notice, so I tend not to team for fear of having to let the team down.
<snip other useful info>
This and everything else he said.
Edit: Oh yeah, one more thing: remember that the most visible people are the ones who feel strongly about a subject, and people rarely feel as strongly about a subject as when they're complaining about it.
Cryptic's development team makes some questionable decisions, and there's no denying that the game has an "incomplete" feel to it at times. But there are quite frankly a lot of people on the forums and in Zone chat who really don't like the game or its developers very much, and they are very vocal.
So my advice is: turn off Zone and Local chat, and avoid the forums for the first month that you're here--at least, no more than is necessary to find essential info. Form your own opinions before wading in here too deeply. You'll be glad you did.
Fleet Admiral L'Yern - Screenshot and doffing addict
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Wow, I did not expect this many answers. I'm getting the idea that the community here is very nice Unfortunately I was not able to play today due to internet problems, and only just now was able to get back on these forums. I'll probably start Monday at this rate. At least it'll give me plenty of time to read all your replies and research the game a little more.
One thing I can't find a clear answer for though: If I pick Romulan and then side with Klingon, I know that I will be able to enter any Klingon area, but will I get any of the Klingon story? I like the idea of having access to all of the Klingon cities while also having a Romulan-only city, but I'm wanting to do the Klingon story overall since the majority of players claim it to be the best story and friendliest faction.
One thing I can't find a clear answer for though: If I pick Romulan and then side with Klingon, I know that I will be able to enter any Klingon area, but will I get any of the Klingon story? I like the idea of having access to all of the Klingon cities while also having a Romulan-only city, but I'm wanting to do the Klingon story overall since the majority of players claim it to be the best story and friendliest faction.
Best story is a highly subjective statement you may or may not find yourself agreeing with it. Frankly if it were so great, there would be more than 16% of players rolling KDF. I'm a little ambivalent about the three faction-stories myself until you get up to the 2800.
To you're KDF aligned Romulan question, you will have your own story as a Romulan. However you will eventually hit a point where you are basically treated like a Klingon by NPCs. You will not access any of the KDF specific story unless a KDF player teams with you and drags you along. (At least it used to work that way, not so sure any more.)
If you have zero experience or attachment to Star Trek, why play Star Trek Online?
There's a guy in my fleet (guild) who has seen Into Darkness, and 15 seconds of an actual episode, and he said Into Darkness was better than the entirety of any of the episodes because the torpedo special effects were better. Don't be that guy.
Wow, I did not expect this many answers. I'm getting the idea that the community here is very nice Unfortunately I was not able to play today due to internet problems, and only just now was able to get back on these forums. I'll probably start Monday at this rate. At least it'll give me plenty of time to read all your replies and research the game a little more.
One thing I can't find a clear answer for though: If I pick Romulan and then side with Klingon, I know that I will be able to enter any Klingon area, but will I get any of the Klingon story? I like the idea of having access to all of the Klingon cities while also having a Romulan-only city, but I'm wanting to do the Klingon story overall since the majority of players claim it to be the best story and friendliest faction.
You can play the Klingon content as a Romulan when you team up with a Klingon after you completed the expanded tutorial for your Romulan.
That might sound confusing but that's because the Romulan faction is not a faction, it's a cross-faction character choice (like a Deathknight on W.o.W. if you ever played that). As a Romulan character you get to play some Romulan exclusive single-player story - as long as you do that you are effectively locked out from the rest of the game, though (you cannot move out of a limited fraction of space for the time being). Once you complete a certain story mission you are fully integrated into the game but you have to choose one of the major factions to "align" to. From that moment on you are in-game recognized as a "blue" or "red" player. But you don't get the faction exclusive mission choices to select for yourself - however you can team up with someone to (re)play those missions (you can replay each and every story mission at every point in the game, they will also scale to your level). You still have some Romulan exclusive assets (there are ships and mechanics only for Romulans as there is a social map).
The story thing, I have said it as well, comes primarily from heaving lore knowledge, though. See, in Star Trek, the UFP and with extension Starfleet is meant to represent a peaceful federation of hundreds of worlds. Starfleet is supposed their space faring exploratory and defensive service which is also made up of all the member worlds of that federation to replace individual militaries. In the franchise, Starfleet is generally meant to be a defensive service and is portrayed of normally asking questions first before a shot is fired. When you play a "red" character you join the Klingon Defense Force which is the joined military of a feudal, warrior caste dominated society. Klingons are not orcs, but they thrive on combat, they are like a hybrid of Samurai and Viking culture. The gameplay in STO is 95% combat - when you play Klingon it makes sense to find yourself in a constant state of fighting and thrive for personal glory. As a Starfleet officer, constantly killing adveraries in the thousands does feel a bit strange for people that are familiar with the lore of Star Trek (which, as stated before, is only very loosely used in STO - the Klingons aren't portrayed int he best fashion either XD). So the Klingon story makes "more sense" - opinions of course vary on that, but that's my opinion on it
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
well that was the longest, most moronic, autistic, childish meltdown i ever read, about something not even real, and i thought i took this too seriously.
DDIS gave me a hint, should have listened to him. Keep on basing your life arguing like an idiot who has zero reading skills or IQ. Think I'm done even trying to reason with someone who can't understand: communicating with my cat is easier.
You know I give zero importance on what you or someone else writes. Thing is you don't, just look at the pile of BS you wrote, and that's a serious problem I'd look into. Oh but why care, that guy can't read.
I need to get to him. I can't just leave him out there alone. - Sometimes you've got to makes sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone. - I know about sacrifices. - No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make. Loss is a choice made for you. - I can't choose to let him die, Roth.
Engineers don't necessarily play as pet classes, it is just one quite effective way to use them on the ground.
You can also play a tank as a tactical captain, just choose the appropriate gear and ship (a cruiser in that case).
You can reconfigure your character's appereance at any in-game tailor, both the clothes and things like the length of its nose.
That said, creating Alien race characters will give you the most flexibility.
Oh, and regarding 4: Any fleet will be happy to help you, with very few exceptions. Usually, you can just ask in zone chat and get a meaningful answer eventually.
eventually meaning sometime within the next 2 hours. fleets are the best way to go for help.
Comments
2. Starfleet for the population. KDF for the newbie friendliness. But the main faction is Starfleet, for all intents and purposes.
3. All the careers can tank on space, it comes down to your ship. And the design favors DPS. So for a new player I would recommend a tactical captain on a cruiser. It's hard to mess that one up, and it can become very powerful. But if you are going to have a single character and no alts go instead with a science captain in a science ship. It requires a lot of research and it's easy to mess up, but no career is more fun.
5. STO makes many of the mistakes Champions made, such as leaving half finished systems and mechanics all over the place, without much of the bizarre charm and the quirky stories - There is nothing nearly as memorable as the Kings of Edom storyline or the paralel universe arc, nor anything as gloriously silly as going into an alert to find the custom villain is martial arts Jesus and your allies are a hobo with a shotgun and a mech piloted by Adolf Hitler's brain in a jar, nor anything nearly as rage worthy as Gravitard. If you are not into Star Trek you mostly play this because it has STARSHIPS, and for the very fun, if simple and kind of broken, space combat, and for the oddness that seeps in from time to time, and that seems to be seeping in more and more ever since the Dyson arc.
Ps. there's no PvP, it's shooting-NPCs-with-cool-lights-and-FXs lagfest as well.
In ground combat, there's one thing in CO that I sometimes miss in STO - there's no active blocking. If you see an attack coming, you can get out of the way (watch especially for glowing circles on the ground - that's a grenade or mortar attack), but in hand-to-hand combat, you can't block.
You can think of your starship as a sort of massive, customizable Become device; in space, you become your ship, with ship capabilities that can be swapped out (weapons, shields, consoles that can change your ship's abilities, that sort of thing). Try to make sure your weapons match your consoles - that is, if you have the Tactical console Phaser Relay, that will boost your phaser damage, but won't help with, say, a Plasma Beam Array, so if you have two kinds of Arrays of the same level, there's no very good reason to swap out the Phaser.
Speaking of consoles, one of the more confusing ship stats has to do with the turn rate. Generally, the higher the number, the faster the ship can turn; there's generally a tradeoff between turn rate and defense, such that escorts can fly around almost like fighter craft but tend toward being glass cannons, while cruisers can take a pounding but generally maneuver like a cow on skates. However, if you equip something called an RCS Accelerator in your Engineering Console slot(s), you'll find your turn speed greatly increasing. (I've got three of them in my main toon's Odyssey-class star cruiser; it whips around pretty well.)
I do have to echo something said by others here - you'll have three character slots, and you should roll one toon from each faction. If you decide later that you don't enjoy one faction, you can always delete that one.
Two other key things to know. Usually, selection of a new ship goes by level, such that once every ten levels (up to 40, anyway) you get a new, more powerful ship; however, in both the KDF and Romulan factions, your first upgrade doesn't come automatically at level 10, but is in fact dependent on running certain missions. I started a Rom once during a Bonus XP event; it was a little disappointing that I was stuck with the T'liss until level 12, because I hadn't gotten the mission yet.
The other thing to know is that the Romulan Republic is still in its infancy, and Proconsul D'Tan is still concerned that one of his bigger neighbors might try to take over, so he's trying to play the two sides off each other by having each captain choose one side to ally with. (This usually happens at level 10.) If you choose Fed-Rom (Federation-allied Romulan), you have access to Starfleet bases up to and including Earth Spacedock (ESD), as well as any free Starfleet ships you might have picked up (the level-20 mission Temporal Ambassador awards an Ambassador-class cruiser to the Feds and allies), and lets you purchase other Starfleet ships for large sums of Dilithium (Dil), which serves the same function as Questionite in CO. KDF-Roms can go to the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS, as well as other Klingon bases, and have access to the Klingon Marauding missions, which typically yield between one and three Contraband per success. (Contraband can be exchanged for Dil at the Security Officer; there's one on ESD, one in the main hall on Qo'noS, and one for each faction at Deep Space Nine.) There's also a Klingon battle cruiser that KDF and their allies get from Temporal Ambassador.
Other than that, have fun, and remember that while Zone Chat in Beta Quadrant space might make Zone Chat in RenCen look like a tea party, it's still not as bad as WoW's Barrens Chat...
5: ground combat is pretty similar, but not space.
My character Tsin'xing
If tanking is what you naturally have a mindset for, tanking can be done in STO. Many folks will tell you to go straight for tactical, because things must blow up and tactical captains have some of the best enhancements to blow stuff up. It's up to each player to decide if they have a particular play style that they naturally understand better and whether to pursue that or to learn something different.
At the highest levels of player ability, tanks aren't needed much in most circumstances as tacticals blow stuff up before it can do much damage to players.
All of that said, I have 6 characters, 3 are tank/ engineers. You can tank, but it isn't exactly the same as WoW. Tanking is about threat generation and shooting at multiple enemies to get the return fire coming to the tank. DPS is part of threat generation, but only part of a tank's way of doing things. You have to build with a balance of DPS, healing, and resists to do well. Get one wildly out of proportion, and the tank tends to become less useful. Target getting a cruiser as your tier 4/ lvl 40 free ship if you want a standard space tank. Up until that point, it's all a learning thing.
At lvl 40, the free ship is a assault cruiser, Vor'Cha, or Ha'Apax. All three have similar layouts with minor variations primarily in hull, shield and turn rate.
Use beam arrays for weapons, add 1 or 2 torpedoes if you want that feel from the shows/ movies.
Learn to shoot from the side, broadsiding, to keep all beams on target.
These same officers serve as your bridge crew while you're on your ship, and the same flexible training system allows you to customize your loadout for space combat. The first few ships you command are very simple to operate, and get more complex as you level up and get promoted. This should help turn the learning curve into something that can be taken in easy-to-digest chunks.
Pointing out the issues the game has is... what? Dude do you even know when I go to the bathroom? All you keep doing is like tracking what I write in order to write something that makes even less sense than a human being can do. Are you going to tell me the game is actually fluid, the grind bearable and bug-free? I dare you to say that.
Your pathetic wall of texts made for attacking me are simply amusing, keep them coming. Even my fleetmates are enjoying your stupidity up here on TS.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
there are people that cant even boot the game, the lag hits them that hard since the last season or 2. if there are game breaking problems, you are actually justified in complaining as if there are game breaking problems.
but that must be their imagination, if its not happening to you, how can it happen to anyone else? having different hardware, and living in different parts of the world, COULDN'T have any effect at all!
game is free, so if op can so much as log in, and so much as not ruberband across a map, then its worth playing through the story content at least. but there's nothing to look forward to in the competitive, high end pvp scene now. that's been totally destroyed by power creep, and is behind like a $500 pay wall now. there is just a dps parse TRIBBLE from doing the same qued mission over and over again, and an inflated ego club for the best harmless npc killers.
laferrari1 claims that everyone has lag..
plasmanugget claims that the lag is a myth and doesn't exist at all.
They're both wrong.
The game has some occasional lag problems as most MMO's do. Unfortunately, for some players the problem is more severe to the degree of making the game unplayable. For other users, the Lag is so minor it's almost not noticeable.
The problem is real, it's acknowledged by the development team, and each of the last 2 weekly updates have included updates to help alleviate the problem. For many players (like me) the fixes have had a clear positive effect and the game has gotten significantly more playable. For others, they still have problems and the team continues to work on fixes for those players.
Your best bet is to install the game and see how it plays for you. The game is 100% completely free to download and install, you lose nothing by trying. Your only 'cost' is the time it takes you to download it.
Truth has been spoken, agree completely with that. Something that should be printed and highlighted for everyone at Cryptic. But not before I give DDIS a FedEx plane full of medals.
Perhaps if you tried answering the questions he asked, rather than seizing the chance for yet another rant about your particular hobbyhorse...
Eh, PvP is one of the many. It's supposed to be endgame or integral part of every game nowadays, reason why I believe the OP will literally get bored by the XP curve next to level 50.
NPCs do not have AI, they're scripted which is quite different. Once you repeat the same old patrols and queues again, and again, and again it gets tedious. Tonight elite iconian PvE queues stayed 0/0/0 for a good while. I'm not having a hard time figuring out why.
So yeah, my advice is to not even bother to start playing. One or two years ago I'd have shouted "make your way to level 50 and join OPVP". Now I don't. I don't care of what people think about me in here, I limit myself to saying the truth from my point of view, and sometimes some are annoyed to see proof that destroys their microcosm in this game.
There must be something enjoyable in the game that keeps you playing.
"playing". Call that hanging out with friends. Throughout the years I met many people in PvP: one of them lives in my same city and now he's one of my best friends in real life, while I still talk to some others.
The difference I see between now and one or two years ago is staggering. I'm not saying the game is horrific because I want to call doom, but because I know how good it used to be, and how heavily it has fallen.
My advice is never to listen to anyone who says 'don't play' and yet will still be found here a month from now saying the game sucks and then the month after that and the month after that.
My advice is to take Sea o' Sorrows and The Grand Nagus's advice.
Ok, firstly, Welcome to STO.
Secondly, I'd recommend leaving the forums immediately, they are full of spoilers and a rather touchy community of gamers. lol
#1 - prior knowledge of Star Trek, it's not necessary but much of the content ties into the various movies and shows. Knowing nothing of Star Trek before playing might actually prove to be a slight advantage, as many facts and figures in Star Trek canon tend to contradict each other and make for a rather confusing mess.
#2 - Starfleet/Federation would likely be the best faction for the beginner, Romulan coming in second mainly because of the detailed early missions and Tutorials.
For the beginner I'd recommend Starfleet Tactical officer, they are fairly straight forward and simple enough to get right the first time out.
Engineer is also pretty good, as they can drop turrets, mortars, attack drones, or repair personal shields and debuff enemy's weapons in ground combat.
I wouldn't recommend a Science officer first time out, while very useful throughout the game, they have a rather steep learning curve and could prove to dissuade you from sticking around to figure it out.
Also, ship classes aren't specific to each class, yes an engineer in a cruiser would make one heck of a tank, but a Tactical officer in that same cruiser works nearly as well. Often times I find myself switching between various ship types just to mix things up.
#3 - There are newb friendly fleets out there, speaking of the leader of one I can definately say they exist, I'm not entirely sure of how many fleets are newb-friendly, though...
#4 - Definately doable solo, in fact many of the missions in STO are designed with a single player in mind, with the exception of STF (Special Task Force) missions, which are simmilar to multi-player dungeons in other games, but those are irrelevant to character progression and generally only peripherally connect to the main story.
#5 - Sorry, I've never played Champions, I have no Idea if STO is simmilar or in which aspects it would have in common.
You'll miss more than a few references and in-jokes. If you like flying around in space blowing stuff up and shooting up stuff on the ground with lasers and big honkin' sword-things, however, you'll like it here!
The Federation's the biggest, so you'll have an easier time finding teams and PvE queues. That said, every faction is really friendly and each one comes with its own benefits. Klingons come with some kickass stories, deliciously rewarding deck officer missions, and a lot of melee combo combat, for example.
If you stick to story missions and season your skill points with deck officer missions, you can get to 50 easily. And I am definitely prejudiced, but I recommend rolling engineer for start. Nothing quite as entertaining as watching your enemy trip over your minefields or having a steady supply of 'oh TRIBBLE' buttons handy when you're just starting out.
I'll leave that recommendation to others, though there's plenty of channels out there willing to help newcomers such as Star Trek Battles and the basic DPS channel.
If you liked soldiers, power armors, and gadgeteers, you'll like it here. And you won't have to worry about stamina, either!
Edit: Oh yeah, one more thing: remember that the most visible people are the ones who feel strongly about a subject, and people rarely feel as strongly about a subject as when they're complaining about it.
Cryptic's development team makes some questionable decisions, and there's no denying that the game has an "incomplete" feel to it at times. But there are quite frankly a lot of people on the forums and in Zone chat who really don't like the game or its developers very much, and they are very vocal.
So my advice is: turn off Zone and Local chat, and avoid the forums for the first month that you're here--at least, no more than is necessary to find essential info. Form your own opinions before wading in here too deeply. You'll be glad you did.
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
One thing I can't find a clear answer for though: If I pick Romulan and then side with Klingon, I know that I will be able to enter any Klingon area, but will I get any of the Klingon story? I like the idea of having access to all of the Klingon cities while also having a Romulan-only city, but I'm wanting to do the Klingon story overall since the majority of players claim it to be the best story and friendliest faction.
Best story is a highly subjective statement you may or may not find yourself agreeing with it. Frankly if it were so great, there would be more than 16% of players rolling KDF. I'm a little ambivalent about the three faction-stories myself until you get up to the 2800.
To you're KDF aligned Romulan question, you will have your own story as a Romulan. However you will eventually hit a point where you are basically treated like a Klingon by NPCs. You will not access any of the KDF specific story unless a KDF player teams with you and drags you along. (At least it used to work that way, not so sure any more.)
There's a guy in my fleet (guild) who has seen Into Darkness, and 15 seconds of an actual episode, and he said Into Darkness was better than the entirety of any of the episodes because the torpedo special effects were better. Don't be that guy.
You can play the Klingon content as a Romulan when you team up with a Klingon after you completed the expanded tutorial for your Romulan.
That might sound confusing but that's because the Romulan faction is not a faction, it's a cross-faction character choice (like a Deathknight on W.o.W. if you ever played that). As a Romulan character you get to play some Romulan exclusive single-player story - as long as you do that you are effectively locked out from the rest of the game, though (you cannot move out of a limited fraction of space for the time being). Once you complete a certain story mission you are fully integrated into the game but you have to choose one of the major factions to "align" to. From that moment on you are in-game recognized as a "blue" or "red" player. But you don't get the faction exclusive mission choices to select for yourself - however you can team up with someone to (re)play those missions (you can replay each and every story mission at every point in the game, they will also scale to your level). You still have some Romulan exclusive assets (there are ships and mechanics only for Romulans as there is a social map).
The story thing, I have said it as well, comes primarily from heaving lore knowledge, though. See, in Star Trek, the UFP and with extension Starfleet is meant to represent a peaceful federation of hundreds of worlds. Starfleet is supposed their space faring exploratory and defensive service which is also made up of all the member worlds of that federation to replace individual militaries. In the franchise, Starfleet is generally meant to be a defensive service and is portrayed of normally asking questions first before a shot is fired. When you play a "red" character you join the Klingon Defense Force which is the joined military of a feudal, warrior caste dominated society. Klingons are not orcs, but they thrive on combat, they are like a hybrid of Samurai and Viking culture. The gameplay in STO is 95% combat - when you play Klingon it makes sense to find yourself in a constant state of fighting and thrive for personal glory. As a Starfleet officer, constantly killing adveraries in the thousands does feel a bit strange for people that are familiar with the lore of Star Trek (which, as stated before, is only very loosely used in STO - the Klingons aren't portrayed int he best fashion either XD). So the Klingon story makes "more sense" - opinions of course vary on that, but that's my opinion on it
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DDIS gave me a hint, should have listened to him. Keep on basing your life arguing like an idiot who has zero reading skills or IQ. Think I'm done even trying to reason with someone who can't understand: communicating with my cat is easier.
You know I give zero importance on what you or someone else writes. Thing is you don't, just look at the pile of BS you wrote, and that's a serious problem I'd look into. Oh but why care, that guy can't read.
eventually meaning sometime within the next 2 hours. fleets are the best way to go for help.