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Beginner's Guide to Ship's Power
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I was among the first group of Closed Beta testers so I've got a bit of knowledge I can share about a Ship's power and how to squeeze every megawatt of power from the Warp Core. So this is my Beginner's Guide to Ship Power. I'm not going to cover everything about a Starship in details. I'm going to assume you have a basic familiarity your ship.
First off a ship's power is the foundation for everything you do. If you don't have any power, you can do nothing at all. Secondly no matter how many gigawatts of power your Warp Core can provide, it's never enough. So you have to distribute power to the subsystems of you ship depending on need.
All of the systems on a ships are divided into 4 groups of Subsystems: Weapons, Shields, Engine, and Auxiliary. Weapons are thing can do damage are classified as weapons. Shield (aka Deflector Shield) is your protection to prevent damage from Weapons. Engine is basically how fast you can travel. Auxiliary is everything else. It's the Deflector/Tractor Beam (push/pull/hold ships), Emitters (which can buff/debuff targets in various ways), Sensors (how well you can sense other ships or prevent them from seeing you), and last but now least Turning Rate (how fast you ships can turn). Obviously the more power a subsystem has the better they perform. Weapons will do do more damage. Shield will regenerate faster. Engine allows you to travel faster. Auxiliary allow better Buff/Debuff and tighter turning radius.
How do I power my systems?
I'm glad you asked. Base Total Power is represented by 200 units. You distribute these 200 units to each Subsystem. The rules you have to follow are as follows. You allocate units in groups of 5. And you must allocate at least 25 units to a subsystem. And you can allocate no more then 100 units to a Subsystem. So you could run all 4 Subsystems at 50. Or 1 Subsystem at 100, another at 50 and the other two at 25. Or two subsystems at 75 and there other two at 25. Well you get the picture.
How do I manage my ships power?
You ships power management console is located to the right of the throttle. Most of the console is taken up by the power displays for each Subsystem. In order, the indicators are for Weapons, Shield, Engine and Auxiliary. Each indicator shows what the power allocation is set to. And also how much actual power actually is in each Subsystem. (More on this below)
At the top of the console there are 4 buttons which represent 4 default power allocations: Attack, Defense, Speed, and Balanced. (And for now on I will refer to power distributions at 50/50/50/50 which in order are Weapons, Shields, Engine and Auxiliary). Attack profile is for maximum weapon damage and moderate shield regen (100/50/25/25). Defense is maximum shield regenerate and moderate weapons damage (50/100/25/25). Speed is for maximum speed and moderate turning rate (25/25/100/50). Balanced is moderate performance for each Subsystem (50/50/50/50).
You select the power distribution icons and that will change the power allocated to each subsystem. However the change in power is not instantaneous. The actually power levels take time to reach their new levels. Otherwise you would be blowing out plasma conduits all over your ship. As I previously mentions the power indicator show the power allocation and the actually power in each subsystem. When power allocation changes, you'll see the amount of power increase/decrease to the new allocated levels.
Custom Power Profiles
The power distribution console has 3 different display modes. You select the mode by clicking in the icon that looks like tiled windows. Mode 1 is a numeric display for the power indicators. Mode 2 is a bar graph for the power indicators. Mode 3 is a bar graph display as well. But Mode 3 also allows you to manually tweak the power distribution settings. You can click and drag the power indicators. The other subsystem indicators will change in response. To lock a power settings for a subsystem. Click on the small locks icon on top of the subsystem power indicator. Don't lock more then 2 otherwise you won't be able to change power allocations. Below the Power Present icons are two buttons which allow you reset the power allocation back to the current Present defaults. And the other button allows you to save the current power allocation for the current Preset profile.
How do I squeeze some more power from my Warp Core?
A Starfleet Officer with the right training, the right equipment and/or the ships can get more performance of their Warp Core and Subsystems. This means that you can actually go above base power level allocated to a Subsystem. You can go above the normal maximum allocation level 100.
Ship Bonuses
As I mentioned the type of ships can have more efficient Subsystems which will affect base power settings. Escort ships have a +10 bonus to the Weapon power setting. Science Ships have a +10 bonus to the Auxiliary power setting. A Cruiser ship has a more powerful Warp Core go they get a +3 bonus to all 4 Subsystems. That means an Escort can each 110 Weapons setting. A Science ship can reach 110 Auxilary. And a Cruiser can each 103 for any Subsystem.
Equipment Bonuses
The right equipment can also increase power settings. There are various Console which can add a bonus to one or more individual Subsystems. The lower level Consoles can at +1.5 - +2.5 to a single subsystem. If you have the Console slots on the ships, you can have multiple of the same type of Console. The Console bonuses do stack with any other power setting bonus.
Skill Bonuses
An officer with the right training can squeeze more power from the Warp Core and make Subsystems. There are Efficiency Skills which make Subsystems run more efficient at lower power levels (<60). And there are Performance skills which get more performance out of a Subsystem at higher power levels (60+)
Right off there is Starship Warp Core Training which is teh basis of all of these skills. This skill can grant power setting bonuses to systems not running at 100. The lesser for allocations the bigger the bonus. At Rank 2, you can get a +2 Bonus to a Subsystem at 25, and a +1 Bonus to a Subsystem at 50. Warp Core Training by itself will grant a maximum bonus at Rank 6 of +4 for a setting of 25, and a bonus of +2 for 50.
If you take the character trait Warp Core Theorist, you get a +10 skill bonus. That stack stack with Starship Warp Core Train, and you can get bigger bonuses. At Warp Core Training Rank 9 plus Warp Core Theorist, you can be a +7 power setting bonus at 25 and a +3 power setting bonus at 50. So you could potentially have power levels in Attack 100/53/32/32. Defense 53/100/32/32, Speed 32/32/100/53, Balanced 53/53/53/53.
A handy chart.
Base Power Setting
Rank Skill | w/ Theorist
50 25 | 50 25
1 +6 | +0 +1 | +2 +4
2 +10 | +1 +2 | +2 +4
3 +12 | +1 +3 | +3 +5
4 +14 | +1 +3 | +3 +6
5 +15 | +1 +3 | +3 +6
6 +16 | +2 +4 | +3 +6
7 +17 | +2 +4 | +3 +6
8 +17.5 | +2 +4 | +3 +6
9 +18 | +2 +4 | +3 +7
I hope this isn't too hard to read. The first column is the skill Rank of Starship Warp Core Training. The second column is the skill values that rank gives. The next four columns are the actuall power settings bonuses that you receive. The first set of power setting bonuses are what you receive at power setings of 50 and 25. The last two columns are the power setting bonuses with the Warp Core Theorist trait.
All of the skill power setting bonuses stack with the Equipment and Ship Bonuses. If you take everything together you can have the following examples. An Escort with a +5 power settings Console can run 115/53/32/32 in Attack profile. A Science with a +5 AUX console ould be running be running 53/100/32/47 in Defense profile or 53/53/53/68 in Balanced Mode. A Cruiser could be running 55/55/55/55 in Balanced mode.
First off a ship's power is the foundation for everything you do. If you don't have any power, you can do nothing at all. Secondly no matter how many gigawatts of power your Warp Core can provide, it's never enough. So you have to distribute power to the subsystems of you ship depending on need.
All of the systems on a ships are divided into 4 groups of Subsystems: Weapons, Shields, Engine, and Auxiliary. Weapons are thing can do damage are classified as weapons. Shield (aka Deflector Shield) is your protection to prevent damage from Weapons. Engine is basically how fast you can travel. Auxiliary is everything else. It's the Deflector/Tractor Beam (push/pull/hold ships), Emitters (which can buff/debuff targets in various ways), Sensors (how well you can sense other ships or prevent them from seeing you), and last but now least Turning Rate (how fast you ships can turn). Obviously the more power a subsystem has the better they perform. Weapons will do do more damage. Shield will regenerate faster. Engine allows you to travel faster. Auxiliary allow better Buff/Debuff and tighter turning radius.
How do I power my systems?
I'm glad you asked. Base Total Power is represented by 200 units. You distribute these 200 units to each Subsystem. The rules you have to follow are as follows. You allocate units in groups of 5. And you must allocate at least 25 units to a subsystem. And you can allocate no more then 100 units to a Subsystem. So you could run all 4 Subsystems at 50. Or 1 Subsystem at 100, another at 50 and the other two at 25. Or two subsystems at 75 and there other two at 25. Well you get the picture.
How do I manage my ships power?
You ships power management console is located to the right of the throttle. Most of the console is taken up by the power displays for each Subsystem. In order, the indicators are for Weapons, Shield, Engine and Auxiliary. Each indicator shows what the power allocation is set to. And also how much actual power actually is in each Subsystem. (More on this below)
At the top of the console there are 4 buttons which represent 4 default power allocations: Attack, Defense, Speed, and Balanced. (And for now on I will refer to power distributions at 50/50/50/50 which in order are Weapons, Shields, Engine and Auxiliary). Attack profile is for maximum weapon damage and moderate shield regen (100/50/25/25). Defense is maximum shield regenerate and moderate weapons damage (50/100/25/25). Speed is for maximum speed and moderate turning rate (25/25/100/50). Balanced is moderate performance for each Subsystem (50/50/50/50).
You select the power distribution icons and that will change the power allocated to each subsystem. However the change in power is not instantaneous. The actually power levels take time to reach their new levels. Otherwise you would be blowing out plasma conduits all over your ship. As I previously mentions the power indicator show the power allocation and the actually power in each subsystem. When power allocation changes, you'll see the amount of power increase/decrease to the new allocated levels.
Custom Power Profiles
The power distribution console has 3 different display modes. You select the mode by clicking in the icon that looks like tiled windows. Mode 1 is a numeric display for the power indicators. Mode 2 is a bar graph for the power indicators. Mode 3 is a bar graph display as well. But Mode 3 also allows you to manually tweak the power distribution settings. You can click and drag the power indicators. The other subsystem indicators will change in response. To lock a power settings for a subsystem. Click on the small locks icon on top of the subsystem power indicator. Don't lock more then 2 otherwise you won't be able to change power allocations. Below the Power Present icons are two buttons which allow you reset the power allocation back to the current Present defaults. And the other button allows you to save the current power allocation for the current Preset profile.
How do I squeeze some more power from my Warp Core?
A Starfleet Officer with the right training, the right equipment and/or the ships can get more performance of their Warp Core and Subsystems. This means that you can actually go above base power level allocated to a Subsystem. You can go above the normal maximum allocation level 100.
Ship Bonuses
As I mentioned the type of ships can have more efficient Subsystems which will affect base power settings. Escort ships have a +10 bonus to the Weapon power setting. Science Ships have a +10 bonus to the Auxiliary power setting. A Cruiser ship has a more powerful Warp Core go they get a +3 bonus to all 4 Subsystems. That means an Escort can each 110 Weapons setting. A Science ship can reach 110 Auxilary. And a Cruiser can each 103 for any Subsystem.
Equipment Bonuses
The right equipment can also increase power settings. There are various Console which can add a bonus to one or more individual Subsystems. The lower level Consoles can at +1.5 - +2.5 to a single subsystem. If you have the Console slots on the ships, you can have multiple of the same type of Console. The Console bonuses do stack with any other power setting bonus.
Skill Bonuses
An officer with the right training can squeeze more power from the Warp Core and make Subsystems. There are Efficiency Skills which make Subsystems run more efficient at lower power levels (<60). And there are Performance skills which get more performance out of a Subsystem at higher power levels (60+)
Right off there is Starship Warp Core Training which is teh basis of all of these skills. This skill can grant power setting bonuses to systems not running at 100. The lesser for allocations the bigger the bonus. At Rank 2, you can get a +2 Bonus to a Subsystem at 25, and a +1 Bonus to a Subsystem at 50. Warp Core Training by itself will grant a maximum bonus at Rank 6 of +4 for a setting of 25, and a bonus of +2 for 50.
If you take the character trait Warp Core Theorist, you get a +10 skill bonus. That stack stack with Starship Warp Core Train, and you can get bigger bonuses. At Warp Core Training Rank 9 plus Warp Core Theorist, you can be a +7 power setting bonus at 25 and a +3 power setting bonus at 50. So you could potentially have power levels in Attack 100/53/32/32. Defense 53/100/32/32, Speed 32/32/100/53, Balanced 53/53/53/53.
A handy chart.
Base Power Setting
Rank Skill | w/ Theorist
50 25 | 50 25
1 +6 | +0 +1 | +2 +4
2 +10 | +1 +2 | +2 +4
3 +12 | +1 +3 | +3 +5
4 +14 | +1 +3 | +3 +6
5 +15 | +1 +3 | +3 +6
6 +16 | +2 +4 | +3 +6
7 +17 | +2 +4 | +3 +6
8 +17.5 | +2 +4 | +3 +6
9 +18 | +2 +4 | +3 +7
I hope this isn't too hard to read. The first column is the skill Rank of Starship Warp Core Training. The second column is the skill values that rank gives. The next four columns are the actuall power settings bonuses that you receive. The first set of power setting bonuses are what you receive at power setings of 50 and 25. The last two columns are the power setting bonuses with the Warp Core Theorist trait.
All of the skill power setting bonuses stack with the Equipment and Ship Bonuses. If you take everything together you can have the following examples. An Escort with a +5 power settings Console can run 115/53/32/32 in Attack profile. A Science with a +5 AUX console ould be running be running 53/100/32/47 in Defense profile or 53/53/53/68 in Balanced Mode. A Cruiser could be running 55/55/55/55 in Balanced mode.
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But can you provide some more info about:
"And there are Performance skills which get more performance out of a Subsystem at higher power levels (60+)"
Do you know how much they boost a system running on 100 or 110 power already?
Performance skills are quite powerful which is probably why they are Captain level skills. These skills grant power setting bonuses when power allocations are 60 or higher. This skills will allow power settings to exceed 100. And like other power setting bonuses they do stack with the rest.
Based on other player's posting. Subsystem Performance skills allow a bonus of up to +10 are Rank 9.
[Space reserved for future chart(s)]
Power Transfer Rate
Power Transfer Rate is how fast your actual power levels change when you shift power allocations. Power Transfer Rate can be increased with various Engineering Consoles (EPS Relay). At lower levels you can get consoles which increase the rate by 1.5-2.0x. In battle being able to shift power allocations quickly can sometimes be crucial in combat. (You shields are weakening and another two Cruisers is bearing down on you. You need to go defensive to build shield strength while you teams mates finish off the current group of ships.).
Another aspect of Power Transfer Rate is the Weapon subsystem. Weapons draw off of a power capacitor (or energy reservoir) which is also your Weapon Power level. The size of the Weapons Capacitor is your current Weapon power setting. As energy weapons fire they draw energy from the weapons capacitor. You have enough weapons energy generation to fire one energy weapon without drawing down the capacitor (aka WEapon power Level). For every addition weapon you fire, it draws 10 energy from you Weapons power. For example, if you have Weapon power setting of 100 and you fire 2 Phaser Arrays, that will draw down you Weapon power to 90. 4 Phaser Arrays would draw down Weapon Power to 70.
The weapon capacitor is constantly being replenished. At the default recharge rate, a ship fire two energy weapons constantly without depleting Weapon power. Firing three or more energy weapons constantly will deplete your Weapon power and in turn the amount of damage you do. The Weapons Power level also affects the amount of damage your Energy weapons do. The higher the Weapon power level the most extra damage your weapons will do. The rate at which Weapon power is replenished is your Power Transfer Rate. Those EPS Relay Engineering Console will also recharge your Weapon power faster. That means more DPS.
In case people missed the bolded point. The amount of net Weapon Power you have affects the amount of damage your Energy Weapons do. The higher the power the more damage they do. If you draw your Weapon Power do to low levels (i.e below 25), you will be doing virtually no damage. If you run large number of energy weapons, watch your Weapon Power Level.
Do you see the real numbers somewhere else, or did I not do something I was supposed to, to see the powers?
However, you say the Emitters are for Buff and DeBuff, and you groupe Deflector with Tractor for Push, Pull and Hold.
In the Starship Operations skill tree, Startship Emitters (Lc.) improves Tractor Beam and Deflector improves Tachyon Beam and Feedback Pulse, which have nothing to do with Push, Pull and Hold.
Did you reference them the wrong way round?
Poster is correct. The power skills don't work in sector space. You have to be in a system instance in order to see them. Note sure if its a bug or not.
If I did I didn't mean too. I was talking about the Subsystem skills where Subsystem == Weapons/Shield/Engine/Auxilary. Those are power management skills. Anything more specific then those groups, I don't belive affect power levels.
Okay I see. I am trying to find a good breakdown of the Science related skills I can pick. There is lots of talk about tachyon and photonics and deflectors etc... But I have no idea what any of it relates to!
That way we can at least stand a chance of planning a build around a good idea of its power consumption.
One question I have is whether the Warp Core Training/Theorist takes effect before or after console and ship bonuses. For example, let's say your power is set to 25 in Aux, but you are in a science ship (+10) and have a +5 Aux console. Would the bonus be +7 based on your actual power setting of 25, or would it be based off of your effective power setting of 40, providing a smaller bonus?
See this site that has a list of space abilities: http://sto-intel.org/index.php?title=Space_bo_abilities
There you should see which abilities correspond to which systems in the ship. For example, Tachyon Beam is based off of the Deflector Dish and any bonuses to that system should improve that ability.
You were quite right. Saw it in combat. TY!
On a related note, I wonder what the absolute max power number is you can put into weapons...
Warp Core Training bonuses are based upon the power allocation level. That's the "base level that all bonus whether an adder or multiplier are lumped on top of.
You can push power levels up to 125 is you have enough bonuses.
I've got rank 7 Warp Core Training and Warp Theorist in a Cruiser and my power levels are always 53 in balanced mode. This is how it should be according to the chart, but it seems like a small gain for the amount of points invested (700). Do you think the skill needs to be rebalanced to provide a higher power level gain? It just seems like "Can you give me any more power?" and all Scotty sqeezes out of it is 3 on everything from 2 days work of learning how to make the core work better. I mean from a realism standpoint. So much invested for so little gained.
Also according to the chart it sounds like rank 3 in Warp Core and Theorist gets the max extra power levels, but of course that gimps the skill's boost to abilities that mess with power management. So it's good to get rank 7 anyway for the sake of abilities, right? You seem to be advocating 6, though. Why is that?
I'm not new in the sense of how long I've had access (Since CB), but I'm new in the sense of how much I actually got to play (2nd day of OB to end of headstart before school started), so this is appreciated muchly and I'm having questions. I just didn't get to play very much because of how slow I download, downtimes on my available time, horrible lag on entering Sol System, and the amount of research online I was doing at the time. All this contributed to less beta time.
Again we see the problem in Cryptic's crypticness. Why is it so difficult for them to provide information?
Auxiliary is for any BO skill that doesn't have anything to do with Weapons, Shield, or Engine. Hull Repairt, Viral Matrix, Tachyon Beam, Charged Particle Burst, Tractor Beam, Photonic Wave, Scramble Sensors, Crew healing rate, etc. And very important in some ways, turning rate. The basic power schema is 25 system is operational but minimally. Power allocation of 50 is 1x, setting of 75 is 2x, and 100 is 3x. Where X is a buff to the magniutde or duration of the the power effect.
Sorry. I didn't miss it. I just forgot about it while replying to other things.
It looks like you are only seeing the innate power setting bonus that Cruisers give. Which says you were looking at you settings in Sector Space. Skills bonuses don't show up in Sector Space. You need to enter a system instance or a mission instance to see your actual bonuses.
The bonuses are forumlic as you surmised. I only use 25 and 50 as those are the default power settings used mostly, I find that using actually concerte examples gives most people a better feel about it.