Well, i want to play as a tac officer, but i kinda want to use a cruiser. The escorts seem kinda puny for me. I like the big ships!
You'll be fine, there is no reason a Tac Officer couldn't captain a cruiser. Tac does not equal escort, it equals skills on a tactical tree that apply to any ship.
There is no problem what so ever. If you check the skill tree, there are skills for each class, so just increase the skills in cruiser, and you'll be fine. I ran Tac in cruiser in beta, no problems at all.
certain skills give you the ability to train your officer in III-skills. but what skills you can teach depends on what class you are. as a tactical officer you'll be able to teach Fire at Will, Beam Overload, Torpedo spread, High Yield etc. etc. to your tactical bridge officers... they're all LtCmdr and Cmdr skills.
but no cruiser have any LtCmdr or Cmdr Tactical Bridge Officer Stations.
you'll be able to use their III-abilities on the ground though.
certain skills give you the ability to train your officer in III-skills. but what skills you can teach depends on what class you are. as a tactical officer you'll be able to teach Fire at Will, Beam Overload, Torpedo spread, High Yield etc. etc. to your tactical bridge officers... they're all LtCmdr and Cmdr skills.
but no cruiser have any LtCmdr or Cmdr Tactical Bridge Officer Stations.
you'll be able to use their III-abilities on the ground though.
Or, use the skills trainer in earth spacedock for skill you cannot train BOs in.
It depends on your personal style of play. Escorts will ultimately deal more damage than cruisers per hit, but cruisers have more weapons slots. So the trade off is, in essence, having one BIG bang or a half-dozen slightly smaller bangs.
Eleriel also brings up a point regarding training officers, but apart from training other tactical officers I don't think it would have much of an effect apart from ground combat.
Just be aware that since cannons can only be mounted on Escorts that all cannon related powers will be useless in a cruiser. Just make sure you train them in something else.
Or, use the skills trainer in earth spacedock for skill you cannot train BOs in.
last I check, they don't have the III-skills. only I's and II's.
you CAN however, get rare BOs which may have the III's you want.
lastly... if you find that there IS a marked difference... just use the respec that cryptic has said is coming and make him an escort captain and make another en engineer character for your cruiser. they're *very* fun to play as well
There are some limitations with cross class ship command, but it really depends on how you want to play. A tactical officer on a cruiser will potentially have higher damage output than the Engineer would, but the tactical officer doesnt have the defensive abilities.
Its basically a trade off. Cruisers are more forgiving than the Escorts are though.
I tried a tactical officer in an escort and cruiser in Beta and it seemed to work just fine. However, my Engineer in the Escort had survivability issues. (took too long to kill things and defenses couldnt keep up)
Your choice of profession only determines which ground combat tree you get. All space skills are available to all professions so it becomes a matter of which space skill trees you spend your points in and how you spec your bridge officers.
At the same time, don't be surprised if they decided to redesign the skill trees in the not too distant future.
certain skills give you the ability to train your officer in III-skills. but what skills you can teach depends on what class you are. as a tactical officer you'll be able to teach Fire at Will, Beam Overload, Torpedo spread, High Yield etc. etc. to your tactical bridge officers... they're all LtCmdr and Cmdr skills.
but no cruiser have any LtCmdr or Cmdr Tactical Bridge Officer Stations.
you'll be able to use their III-abilities on the ground though.
You only need to have level 9 in the appropriate skill to teach those skills to your bridge officers, and you can have level 9 in any space skill no matter which profession you are (Engineer, Tactical or Science).
Engineering, Tactical and Science Officer are ground professions, not space professions.
holding-of-hands-approach: If you go up to the second level of the flightdeck in earthdock, there's a door. enter if and you'll be greeted with the ship-vendors. and all around the walls will be consoles with holograms of ships. use those consoles to get all the information about all the ships in the game.
Once even one person has seen something in an MMO, it doesn't take long before the rest of the community finds out about it too. so even without the above mentioned way of finding things out... once the first Admiral got into his new shiny tier 5 ship.. it wasn't long till the rest of the community knew their stats.
You only need to have level 9 in the appropriate skill to teach those skills to your bridge officers, and you can have level 9 in any space skill no matter which profession you are (Engineer, Tactical or Science).
There is enough controversy on the subject that I'm not gonna take your word for this, especially since you just quadruple-posted.
use the EDIT function next time and people might take you seriously.
My bad. Apparently I had my phasers set to stupid and suffered a self-inflicted injury. One of Balt's dialogues states that you can only train bridge officers who are in the same career path that you are. Provided this is true, I'll be rerolling my character.
Oh, and Eleriel, pull the stick out of your butt. If someone at Cryptic would enable multi-quoting, that's what I'd do. I'm not working on corporate communications while I'm here.
My bad. Apparently I had my phasers set to stupid and suffered a self-inflicted injury. One of Balt's dialogues states that you can only train bridge officers who are in the same career path that you are. Provided this is true, I'll be rerolling my character.
No need for re-rolling. here's an interview for you to read where the lead designer says you'll be able to teach other player's bridge officers your skills and they'll be able to teach your bridge officers their skills. (need Emergency Energy to Shields III? talk with an engineer.
Oh, and Eleriel, pull the stick out of your butt. If someone at Cryptic would enable multi-quoting, that's what I'd do. I'm not working on corporate communications while I'm here.
*shrugs* You can multi-quote, just takes some clicking and some copy-paste. you just let laziness get the better of you.
No need for re-rolling. here's an interview for you to read where the lead designer says you'll be able to teach other player's bridge officers your skills and they'll be able to teach your bridge officers their skills. (need Emergency Energy to Shields III? talk with an engineer.
so we were both wrong.
*shrugs* You can multi-quote, just takes some clicking and some copy-paste. you just let laziness get the better of you.
was about to say that. Also you can trade officers with other players to get the skills you want. So there seems to be various ways to achive what you desire to fly in STO.
seems the OP can polot his cruiser as he pleases, but he may need a few engineering pals to get those skills he will need to take full advantage of his cruiser.
Mind you I play Klingon so I get some universal seats, currently an engineer and planning to use lots of science officers just to give the federation hell.:eek:
So the level III BO abilities need commander/lt cmdr BOs? So having a lt tactical officer means I can never have the level III ability? like high yield III?
so, could someone put it out plain and simple for me. what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a tac officer on a cruiser? basicly, i want a battle cruiser, so would this be logical? or just stupid?
so, could someone put it out plain and simple for me. what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a tac officer on a cruiser? basicly, i want a battle cruiser, so would this be logical? or just stupid?
right now... the only two disadvantage I can see ... is that you can't teach your bridge officers *yourself*. you'll have to get another engineering player to teach your BOs the right engineering abilities.
and.. each class gets their own abilities (here's a list).
Engineers get Rotate Shield Frequency at Lt 5, and Tacticals get Attack Pattern Alpha I... those abilities would change your playstyle a bit I'd imagine... in the instance of Attack Pattern Alpha... an Escort ship would get more of an effect from it, especially the buff to manoeuvring (it's %-based, a % of 6 is a smaller buff than the same % of 15)..
but you wouldn't be unable to use tactical abilities in a cruiser.
plain-speak:
The only real difference is in the direction of your personal abilities.
An Engineer captain in an escort will probably have a bit more survivability, than a tactical
and the tactical would probably do a bit more damage.
play around with it... see what strikes your fancy.
later on, Cryptic will allow us to redistribute our skillpoints, till then.. try things out as you please. (heck, you may find, like I did, that flying a science vessel is a heck of a lot more fun than either cruiser or escort).
Comments
You'll be fine, there is no reason a Tac Officer couldn't captain a cruiser. Tac does not equal escort, it equals skills on a tactical tree that apply to any ship.
certain skills give you the ability to train your officer in III-skills. but what skills you can teach depends on what class you are. as a tactical officer you'll be able to teach Fire at Will, Beam Overload, Torpedo spread, High Yield etc. etc. to your tactical bridge officers... they're all LtCmdr and Cmdr skills.
but no cruiser have any LtCmdr or Cmdr Tactical Bridge Officer Stations.
you'll be able to use their III-abilities on the ground though.
Or, use the skills trainer in earth spacedock for skill you cannot train BOs in.
Eleriel also brings up a point regarding training officers, but apart from training other tactical officers I don't think it would have much of an effect apart from ground combat.
last I check, they don't have the III-skills. only I's and II's.
you CAN however, get rare BOs which may have the III's you want.
lastly... if you find that there IS a marked difference... just use the respec that cryptic has said is coming and make him an escort captain and make another en engineer character for your cruiser. they're *very* fun to play as well
Its basically a trade off. Cruisers are more forgiving than the Escorts are though.
I tried a tactical officer in an escort and cruiser in Beta and it seemed to work just fine. However, my Engineer in the Escort had survivability issues. (took too long to kill things and defenses couldnt keep up)
...pretty much this.
At the same time, don't be surprised if they decided to redesign the skill trees in the not too distant future.
You only need to have level 9 in the appropriate skill to teach those skills to your bridge officers, and you can have level 9 in any space skill no matter which profession you are (Engineer, Tactical or Science).
Engineering, Tactical and Science Officer are ground professions, not space professions.
Could you give us some more information about how Tactical Officer ground skills improve cruiser DPS?
Thanks.
And what would those be?
Source on this? Or have you played every tier of cruiser?
here you go:
holding-of-hands-approach: If you go up to the second level of the flightdeck in earthdock, there's a door. enter if and you'll be greeted with the ship-vendors. and all around the walls will be consoles with holograms of ships. use those consoles to get all the information about all the ships in the game.
Once even one person has seen something in an MMO, it doesn't take long before the rest of the community finds out about it too. so even without the above mentioned way of finding things out... once the first Admiral got into his new shiny tier 5 ship.. it wasn't long till the rest of the community knew their stats.
There is enough controversy on the subject that I'm not gonna take your word for this, especially since you just quadruple-posted.
use the EDIT function next time and people might take you seriously.
Oh, and Eleriel, pull the stick out of your butt. If someone at Cryptic would enable multi-quoting, that's what I'd do. I'm not working on corporate communications while I'm here.
No need for re-rolling. here's an interview for you to read where the lead designer says you'll be able to teach other player's bridge officers your skills and they'll be able to teach your bridge officers their skills. (need Emergency Energy to Shields III? talk with an engineer.
so we were both wrong.
*shrugs* You can multi-quote, just takes some clicking and some copy-paste. you just let laziness get the better of you.
was about to say that. Also you can trade officers with other players to get the skills you want. So there seems to be various ways to achive what you desire to fly in STO.
seems the OP can polot his cruiser as he pleases, but he may need a few engineering pals to get those skills he will need to take full advantage of his cruiser.
Mind you I play Klingon so I get some universal seats, currently an engineer and planning to use lots of science officers just to give the federation hell.:eek:
right now... the only two disadvantage I can see ... is that you can't teach your bridge officers *yourself*. you'll have to get another engineering player to teach your BOs the right engineering abilities.
and.. each class gets their own abilities (here's a list).
Engineers get Rotate Shield Frequency at Lt 5, and Tacticals get Attack Pattern Alpha I... those abilities would change your playstyle a bit I'd imagine... in the instance of Attack Pattern Alpha... an Escort ship would get more of an effect from it, especially the buff to manoeuvring (it's %-based, a % of 6 is a smaller buff than the same % of 15)..
but you wouldn't be unable to use tactical abilities in a cruiser.
plain-speak:
The only real difference is in the direction of your personal abilities.
An Engineer captain in an escort will probably have a bit more survivability, than a tactical
and the tactical would probably do a bit more damage.
play around with it... see what strikes your fancy.
later on, Cryptic will allow us to redistribute our skillpoints, till then.. try things out as you please. (heck, you may find, like I did, that flying a science vessel is a heck of a lot more fun than either cruiser or escort).
thats what she said