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cam72
Member Posts: 20 Arc User
in The Academy
hello to all!
This is my first foray into online gaming. Up until now all my gaming has been single player PS3 or PC (love all the Lego games!). My gaming style is the classic "mash the buttons until everything dies!" style.
What are everybody's top tips for STO, what ships/weapons to use, etc?
Should I join a fleet/start my own fleet? What's involved in that? I'm a very casual player, so not online that often and when I am it's 99% of the time late evenings/early hours of the morning (insomnia!) .... so wife will be in bed, which means talking on a headset is out of the question.
Also a "totally poor" player, so not really able to do all this buying extras rubbish (I have collected hundreds of the free lockboxes, but will never be able to buy the keys to open them - so what's the point of that!?).
Looking forward to reading everyone's replies and exploring the universe with you all.
LL&P,
Ross
This is my first foray into online gaming. Up until now all my gaming has been single player PS3 or PC (love all the Lego games!). My gaming style is the classic "mash the buttons until everything dies!" style.
What are everybody's top tips for STO, what ships/weapons to use, etc?
Should I join a fleet/start my own fleet? What's involved in that? I'm a very casual player, so not online that often and when I am it's 99% of the time late evenings/early hours of the morning (insomnia!) .... so wife will be in bed, which means talking on a headset is out of the question.
Also a "totally poor" player, so not really able to do all this buying extras rubbish (I have collected hundreds of the free lockboxes, but will never be able to buy the keys to open them - so what's the point of that!?).
Looking forward to reading everyone's replies and exploring the universe with you all.
LL&P,
Ross
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Comments
1. Sell items to get energy credits (ec)
2. Weapons choice is up to you. each have advantages and disadvantages. Also some do not work properly so best to look in STO wiki or ask someone in the game.
3. Keep items you collect before selling when leveling up, they could be useful later.
4. Many ways to level up fast. patrol missions, pve missions, red alerts, doff missions
5. Doff missions, admirality missions, pve and re-doing episode missions are good for getting dilithium and higher level mark items.
6. As for fleets, it is not impossible but it is difficult to start one. You are more than welcome to join the fleet I am in. I will need you game name and I will send an invite to you, if you are interested. In fleets, you are working together completing holdings, which is where you do fleet projects to level up the fleet and your rank. This will unlock endgame things. Also you help othe fleets members as they will help you. This does not always work like this.
7. Star Trek Online wiki is helpful. Most pages are up-to-date but not all. The dates of the pages are at the bottom. Here is the link, http://sto.gamepedia.com/Main_Page.
8. Remember it is a game so enjoy Star Trek Online.
My character Tsin'xing
- The most important piece of gear for your ship and your Away Team is a Competent Player.
Without a Competent Player, your ship and your Away Team will not accomplish anything.
- You WILL make mistakes in this game. They are not fatal although they can be fustrating.
Mistakes are part of becoming a Competent Player. But only if you allow yourself to learn from them.
- The Star Trek Online Wiki is your friend. Use it to answer as many questions as you can.
Every day, there is at least one thread started here which could have been avoided if the thread starter had read the wiki.
- There are lots of other players who will offer advice and guidance.
Normally, this advice and guidance is well intentioned and good. Use it.
- Do not attempt to play the game you want STO to be instead of the game it is and you will avoid becoming frustrated and disappointed. This game is not a perfect match for Star Trek. Then again Star Trek is not a perfect match for the way many people misremember it. lol
- Star Trek Online is just a game. Do not let it become a lifestyle choice.
Else you'll be right back at that Frustrating and disappointing stuff.
- Use ALL the Things! Don't just take someone's word for it. Find out for yourself.
"Everybody knows..." is a really stupid reason to do something in this game. Unless you go and find out for yourself, you are playing this game the way someone else thinks you should. Which may not be the way which is the most fun for you.
- As long as you are enjoying yourself and you look forward to playing STO again the next time, you are winning(playing STO correctly)!
Lastly stay away from that thunderfoot person. He's obnoxious to a fault and too plain spoken for the delicate sensibilities of most of the denizens of this forum. He'll speak his mind and damn the torpedoes. On a side note, most Americans these days cannot tell you who said that or when he did so. Some hipster will Google it and hurriedly post it here. Then him and his buddies will smirk at the old dude. Awww! look at 'em! Have to use someone else's brain to do their rememberin' for them. Sometimes I almost feel sorry for them. But only almost.
Anyways, welcome. Welcome indeed! I for one am glad you found us. I hope you get as much fun out of this game as I have.
Still new to STO, playing on the PS4, since it came out in September/October timeframe. Advice?
- Lots to do in this game and easy to get side track. I have 4 characters now in the middle 50s for rank and now even half way finished the story.
- Build for what you enjoy. Lot of focus on DPS but the whole game can be played in normal mode using Mark XII gear for both ground and space. Trick is just figure out what goes with what as you learn to build. Various story missions can be replayed to claim items that you didn't claim the first time. Do a search for mission rewards in the STO Wiki to see what it available in each mission. Wiki shows the highest Mark level you can get for an item. First time, your item might be Mark V but if you replay after hitting captain rank 50, the item could be Mark XI or XII.
- You can use any captain for "any" ship. You don't have to use a science captain for a science ship or tactical captain for a tactical ship (escorts). There is basically 6 difference between the three types captains you can see in the player-ability url I proved. The player rank shows what you get in general as you rank up your rank. Tactical ships and Federation tactical captains are the most popular but everything in the game can offer someone something.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Player_rank
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Player_ability
- You don't have to buy anything in the game if you can't afford it. You can play the game just fine with the Tier V ship you get at rank 40. If you want an idea of what sales prices look like, check out the C-store before Monday comes for the Black Friday sales. On the PS4, Zen was on sale for 20% so I got $53 dollars for $40 and then the ship bundle I just bought runs $60 and was on sale at 25% for $45. So I still have spare Zen for some small purchases. Figure typical sale for a $30 T6 ship is $24 dollars. If you buy a Federation ship, you can use the ship for any character you make.
- Point of lockboxes and key? No game is truly fee. Someone has to pay the bills to keep the game going. I don't use them myself, I just pay for T6 ships out keeping an eye on sales for Zen and game items. So I do my part, just don't $100 or more to buy a chance ship.
- My first time playing a game like this also. I find my ideas on things I want to do in the game keep changing. Example, I thought I'd really like cruisers when I first started and that was my focus. Turns out I prefer science vessels and escorts. As someone mentioned, you'll make mistakes. I did spending in-game currency and made ship choices toward cruisers to find out it wasn't the direction for me. So run more than 1 different type of captain and try all the ships offered to see what you like. You might want to make a real money purchase as some point so it help with reducing mistakes for that.
- This is a LONG term game. Think a year or more of game play as long as you keep it enjoyable for yourself.
Enjoy the game!
Like others have said, STO is a different sort of game. Take it easy, relax and have fun. If you make it a grind you will burn out.
There are several free ships each year. The winter event is coming up and there should be a free ship with it. Get the ship. It only needs a few minutes a day for two weeks. Totally worth it.
Don't feel pressured to compete. This game is very easy at the end, if you are having trouble then ask and we can help. It is not like wow or other games where you need certain gear and team compositions. Pretty much whatever you like can work.
Lock box stuff is available on the auction house, so if you don't like paying to gamble delete your boxes and save up energy credits.
Many missions give great gear rewards guaranteed. No need to hunt random drops. So spending money on the game is by no means required.
Solo fleets are a huge commitment, based on what you said, don't go there. There are plenty that don't need voice chat. Again, STO is easy, team runs only take a few minutes so if a fleet tries to force voice chat on you, leave and find someone else.
Again, welcome and hope you like it here.
I just started a new character - Klingon. First thing to do .... kill your captain! LOVE IT
Just as a quickie - What is the best ground weapon against Tholians? I'm getting my butt kicked
My character Tsin'xing
The captains will deploy radiation crystals and web drones. So you need to stay mobile and have some self healing. As noted their main attack is radiation so eva suits work better than most armor.
There's a lot of depth, surprisingly so to the combat and builds in STO which is something you can only learn with time and experience. I've been playing the game almost since launch although I wouldn't call myself a guru on the game by any means I would be happy to help you with anything in game. Throw me an in game mail to @tim3822 which is my character handle and it will go to all my characters
I would absolutely look to join a fleet as soon as possible though, there are some really good fleets out there and people will be more than happy to help you get to grips with the game and help you on the way! It also makes the experience of playing much more enjoyable, it is a multiplayer game after all
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
2) In Space, bridge officer abilities are really important. Know what they do, which ones are good and for what purpose, learn how and when to use them and what they need to work well. Good bridge officer abilities and smart use of them can even make poor gear perform okay, but good gear can't save bad selection of bridge officer abilities or the inability to use them well.
Every ship has a different selection of abilities they can use, and thus require or allow different builds.
Other Build Advice:
- When you get your first ship and every time you get a new ship, check your power settings. If you rely on energy weapons (most ship classes do), prioritize weapon power. If you rely on (science) exotic damage powers (aka space magic), boost Auxilliary.
- Shield Distribution keeps you alive. Tactical Team is a Bridge Officer skill that automates it while it's running, but practice doing t manually.
- To stay alive and deal with various debuffs and damage over time abilities enemies might throw at, Hazard Emitters, Science Team, Emergency Power to Shields are kinda the basic survial skills. You will not need them on every build, but if you're in doubt and are struggling, it's a starting point to help your defense.
- Don't mix energy types, avoid mixing weapon types (cannons with beams for example). Reason is mostly that items that buff damage usually grant bonuses to one energy type, and many strong powers that buff weapons buff weapons of one particularly type, so you get literally more bang for your buck by focusing like that. (There are some exceptions. You might want to learn them and try to figure out when you might want to use them)
Other Advice:
- Enjoy the Trek lore references that the whole game is based around. If you're not familiar with Star Trek - STO might be an excuse to start getting more familiar with it and figure out those references...
- Don't spend money (real world or game currencies) until you know what you like and need. The free ships you get from levelling will eventually need replacement, but make informed purchases. (And ideally, well-timed, like when there is a sale going on, not two days before or after
- Participate in the Special Events, be it the Winter, Anniversary and Summer Event (you get a free endgame ship for that, you totally wouldn't want to miss that?!), or the Crystalline Catastrophe, Mirror Invasion or The Breach event (you get a lot of Dilithium, Reputation Marks and some other niffty item for that).
- Engage in DOFFing and Admirality when it becomes available. It doesn't cost much time to set the assignments up, and you get rewards for it. (It's a method by Cryptic to keep you log in regularly).
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
Trying to become a "competent player" to satisfy that small corner of the room is a waste of time and mental energy. I've not started a fleet of my own, despite really having wanted too. After researching all of the elements involved I just decided that joining a fleet was preferable.
Again good luck, enjoy and simply have fun!!
Yes, wish I could at least put a "like" or thumbs up on the posts. So much great info (overload!) I will need to spend a lot of time digesting and practicing it all.
Massive thanks to all that have posted. LL&P (Live Long And Prosper)
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
yes, I spotted that as i just did "The Vault".
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
I have noticed that most of them are trying to use shuttles as if they were full sized spaceships. Instead recognize how they are different, and how that can help you in those missions to defeat enemy shuttles.
First shuttles have huge defense bonuses so many attacks miss. Second shuttles have really low hull and shields. Those defense points are how they survive.
You could stack acc and fire at them. Or try torpedo spread. It is auto hit. Tractor beams reduce defense to zero. So does warp plasma or the cryo plasma from a breen set. One of the romulan ships gets an aoe plasma burn singularity power. This auto hits.
But my favorite is the aceton emitter console. This lets you drop two satellites that drain power, are immune to beams and cannons, and use an auto hitting aoe pulse each time someone shoots them. The enemy WILL shoot them. They make shuttle missions very easy.
On the auction house you can pick up structural integrity collapse for an engineer. It is one of the few attack powers shuttles can use.
Later in the story you will get access to the jem haddar space set, it has a forward firing cone that strips shields. The damage is not reduced when mounted on a shuttle even though enemy shuttles have much lower shield points than ships do.
Some bullet points, redundant with above:
- As long as they match, energy type and weapon type in space are fine, with the time to nitpick it being endgame or if you have a specific build in mind.
- With the upgrade system, it is worth keeping any unique gear you get from a mission, because it can be made usable for not many resources
- Npc officers on ground have poor self-preservation, and there's no good way around it. You can make one medic and others damge for simplicity's sake.
- All three player professions can perform just about any role competently, so don't fret if you play an Engineer and someone gives you advice predicated on a tactical or science career.
- Seasonal events, as well as a lot of missions later in the mission journal/story arcs give good gear sets for ground and space, with some even being the best in their field. These are worth spending the time to acquire.
Etc...
I'll stop here before I go on all day
Bridge Commander was a great game. Would really love to see a new game of similar design these days.