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
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Comments
Don't start a fleet. However you look at it, for a player like you (inexperienced, casual and not willing to spend RL money) owning a fleet is more trouble than it's worth.
That said, joining a fleet, preferably a laid back one that tolerates players that aren't regularly online may be a good idea. In any fleet worth the name there would be someone willing to explain how they work and what (besides people you can chat with) you get out of joining and how you can help building it up.
Not all fleets use/require voice chat, BTW, and even in those that do text chat is used just as much (on PC, that is.)
The best thing to do with lockboxes in your situation is to ignore them. There's a lot of in-game trade in keys, lockboxes and things you get out of them, mostly facilitated by the exchange (auction in many other games) and if marketeering is your thing, it can be pretty interesting, but again, no point bothering right now.
The only "extra" you really need to enjoy the game is a ship other than standard freebies*. There would be a way to earn a free ship during the winter event (starts on the 1st) with lots of threads here explaining how it works, if you aren't sure. Another one is to stockpile refiined dilithium, then using the dilithium exchange, trade it. There are also lockbox ships on the EC exchange, but nowadays even the cheap ones aren't really (and the cheap ones tend to be no better than standard freebies anyway. Still useful if you want to try out different classes.)
* Even then, free ships are still usable. Although I'd advice against cruisers and non-Fed sci vessels.
i'll give myself as an example. I started in 2011 when I discovered the game, looking for something as a distraction, something to immerse myself in.
I class myself as a casual player, as I could have day-long marathons, but I can also go without ever logging in for several months at a time.
I play STO Like a "game". in other words, i'm just here to pew-pew-pew. I log in, do a few ground battlezones/space battlezones, maybe a few queue instances, then I log out. I don't really socialise, I dont do much R&D, and I don't participate in many fleet activities. I do spend money in the game from time to time for some awesome gear/ships, and i like taking part in events like the Summer/Winter events. I also like collecting ground weapons and upgrading them (using cash rather than R&D) making my chars very formidable on Ground zones.
I'm not very social on STO, as most players seem to have sapped the fun out of the game, lecturing everyone on statistics, DPS, exotic damage, blah blah, blah. It's a game, so treat it as such, have a laugh, enjoy it, and enjoy the social aspect of sharing good times with a friend as well. I've yet to find someone who has the same easy-going attitude to gaming. For me, if you win a round, you win, if you lose, then you lose. it's not the end of the world, it's not even worth talking/arguing about as it is JUST A GAME. I'm not one of these people who are overly obsessed with getting a ridiculous DPS, as I never PvP. My DPS is more than adequate for PvE's and that is all I need it to be.
Fianlly I suppose I also play because i grew up with the Kirk movies in the 80s & 90's. i used to see ships like the Bird of Prey, The D'deridex Warbird and the Klingon battlecruisers as a kid and wished that I could fly them about. With STO, my childhood wish comes true, in a fashion
So in short, in order to find your focus, you have got to see what pips your interest. Some play STO purely for the Foundry, If you have a good imagination, you can always try that.
Starting a fleet for a casual player is a bad Idea. joining a fleet for a casual player is a much better suggestion.
Ah yes, sorry. I am running STO on my laptop (win 7)
Oh my god, I'm talking to myself!
It won't help you kill things but it'll mean you can start to trade things on the exchange an save money for some fancy gear or ships in the future. It literally opens up the door for expanding into the market proper.
Lol, you will find there are many of us like-minded souls in STO
Just to ask, what are you current characters, faction, career etc....
ADD: And it's one more reason not to bother with boxes and keys right now.
I have one character, me.
Currently:-
Human
Starfleet Engineer
Rear Admiral, Upper Half (49)
I think I should point out that I am a Lifetime member (it was on offer!). I believe that if I'm going to play a game of this magnitude, I should at least buy the bloody thing ... I'm just not cool with all the constant paying for extras.
I've forked out £200 already for this (£150 membership, £50 for Zen and a couple of bits early on ... which I then wasted on stuff I didn't actually need because I didn't know what I was doing,
You also got most of the extras you really need, including a ship, and what you don't have you can get eventually with the 500 free Zen/month, if nothing else.
Multiple characters can be fun and useful, the downside is that even if you do nothing but log in, do reps/doffs/admitralty and then refine dilithium with them, it still takes time. Then again, you can simply let them stay in your character list.
On the up side you get to try different factions, species and builds and each character can refine extra dilithium either for zen trading or to buy rep/fleet gear.
The section on skills is obsolete, they work completely different now, but much of it still stands.
At the beginning it does not really matter what ship you fly because you will not be flying it for very long each time you rank up (every 10 levels) you get to choose a higher tier (better) ship. The last free ship you will get is a T5 ( Tier 5) ship when you reach level 40. It is that ship that really matters or a ship from the C-Store should you decide to make a purchase.
In essence, the type of energy weapon you choose does not really matter. It's basically pick a color and run with it. The most important thing to remember is to make sure they are all the same energy type like disruptors so that you can use tactical consoles that specifically enhances that energy type; for disruptors that would be Disruptor Induction Coil consoles. Each weapon has a special type of ability that has a 2.5% of being activated ("proc'ed") so unless you really plan on a min/max build, then energy weapon type does not really matter. Antiproton weapons are pretty popular since instead of a 2.5% proc chance for whatever special ability, they instead have a baseline 20% critical severity (damage) on a critical hit. Each ship has a 2.5% critical chance (hit), but that can be increased later in the game using special consoles, and personal traits.
Joining a fleet is up to you. I have not done so yet after nearly playing for 3 years. Do not bother with creating your own fleet unless you are totally committed to doing so. Upgrading a fleet takes an enormous amount of resources, free time, and you need to find the right people to recruit. Join a fleet first to learn some of the things before even attempting to start your own... it is a huge commitment.
It is possible to play STO without spending any money. First, throw out all the lock boxes you have collected if you do not intend on opening them. You can check the prices listed on the Exchange, but chances are they are not worth the time and effort to list them for sale. The only exception would be the Infinity Lock Box which typically comes out right before a new season starts. I have sold quite a few for at least 20k EC each, which is not bad. However, currently on the Exchange (on the PC) only sell for around 6k EC each or 2.5k in lots of 100. The real value is when you open them though.
I have a secondary STO account that is completely Free-to-Play, I have not spent any money on it. Yes, it is possible to play the game without spending real money. It's a bit limited, but it is possible to play through the game. I have 3 captains on that account currently between level 50 and 55 and are all currently in the Cardassian Struggle story arc. Each one is flying the free T5 starship I selected at level 40. They are pretty decent at doing some of the advanced end game queue missions (for the various reputations) when equipped properly, though they can be a bit squishy.
Be aware, there are 3 major events during the year that offer you a chance to grind for a free T6 starship which is the highest tier ship in the game. There's the Anniversary Event in February. The Risan Summer Event is in June. Lastly, there is the Winter Wonderland Event that begins in December. Each event rewards a specific ship; it may not be the ship you want, but it is a T6 starship. I you generally need to devote about 5 each day to do the little daily mission to get vouchers in order to claim the T6 Starship... once you get proficient at doing that mission. The Winter Wonderland Event involves the "Fastest Game On Ice" race against an NPC. You will be running on ice so there will be lots of slipping and sliding. Expect to fail the race many times before becoming proficient; you can restart the race if you fail. Each daily race will earn you 40 vouchers. You need 1,000 vouchers to claim the ship and it will be unlocked for all captains on your account... even captains to create 2 years from now. Therefore, you only need to this on one captain. You have around 42 days to get all 1,000 vouchers so that is plenty of time.
Since you are F2P, the only way to get Zen to make purchases from the C-Store is to exchange refined dilithium (Dil) for Zen in the Dilithium Exchange; press I to get to inventory, click Assets tab, and scroll down. You are limited to refining 8,000 dil per day, and the current exchange rate is about 420 Dil to 1 Zen. If you want to get 3,000 Zen to buy a T6 starship from the C-Store that means you need 1.26 million Dil. Getting raw Dil is relatively easy to get as you level up since more opportunities become available to you. However, if you really want to accumulate a lot of refined Dil, then you need to play more than one captain... assuming you have the time to do so. Trying to get 1.26 million Dil on a single captain will take about 158 days and that is assuming you get enough raw Dil to max out refining 8,000 Dil per day.
And you've got access to the T6 Manticore Destroyer and the RR & KDF equivalents, which are really good ships. The Manticore can be a really vicious torp boat.
Multiple toons can help in some ways, any events such as the Crystalline event we just had will reward each toon a set amount of dilithium. So stacking up multiple toons to complete those can be quite lucrative.
Bigger event like the summer/winter/anniversary will give you account unlocks though so no real benefit there.
That said, like @nefab said, having multiple toons can be time consuming and it can be a real pain to get each one kitted out as well as your primary one. Depends how much time you have.
I'd definitely recommend at least trying a toon from each faction, and maybe one from each class, even if you delete them as you'll get a good feel for all aspects of the game.
BFaW boat, simple as it is, is a bit more complicated than that, from a newbie perspective anyway. What is usually meant by "spacebar" in this context isn't just a spacebar.
The Hilbert Guide http://hilbertguide.com/ is quite obsolete (esp. about actual PvP) but it still has the most straightforward and foolproof explanation of the whole spacebar thing: Having spacebar also redistribute shields has some downsides, so some more advanced players edit the file accordingly, but the original spacebar file still works well enough.
Stuff in tray 7 should be what you want to have up as often as possible: BFaW, attack patterns, Tactical Team, Emergency Power to Weapons/Shields. I also tend to put fighter launch there.
Why?
1) Beacuse you can expect a giveaway event 2-3 times a year, and you need to claim the freebie things on characters that can use them - and in case of T5 ships (it happened) that means characters at level 40+ from correct factions (and if they giveaway a T5 ship from each faction?)
2) Every 2 or 3 months we have something like Crystaline Catastrophe Event or Mirror Invasion... or something Event - which is basically one big attack with 5-10 or so players in team against computer - every day for 3 weeks - each day you can get special token from this and after gathering 14 or so tokens (we got some reserve time in the event) you can exchange them for main prize - 50k dilithium ore and special gear for each captain that did this
3) The plotline missions (first half or so of episodes) are different for each faction, so you get somewhat different story, also each faction ships and playstyle are somewhat different...
do you have a fleet/community to paly with already?
if not and if you got a mic/headset (strongly recommanded to get one)
you might join us (you can join our fleet or be in an other fleet and just play with us)
ingame: @VladTepech
Lifetime? Check!
Excellent advice all through this thread? Check!
Then I would say ...
Find some folks to hang with and shoot at stuff with. A Fleet is a good idea. Move slowly with things for awhile.
I had a KDF ally who kept 'Executing' his doffs because he didn't pay attention to he details. The same guy also bought more doffs of the wrong faction when trying to replace the ones he had killed, and couldn't equip them. Another guy accidentally deleted good gear because he didn't understand the e-mail system. Smart people, just in a hurry.
A good set of allies can help you see these things coming. Choose wisely.
I don't think KDF is abandoned. It's just that not everyone will take the challenge of playing it.
It's OK to ask questions in the chat. Lots of us are the type to jump in with an offer to help. See you out there!
Qapla'!
The amount of grinding is completely understated here. ~2 weeks of actual game content, followed by months to years of grinding for gear with little to no high end/end game content to make that gear really useful. You just keep grinding the same stuff.
But damn is it fun.