I'm attempting to do the Badlands mission, I'm two levels above the recommended rank for the mission but even so, it's simply impossible for me to complete the mission.
The reason? My Galaxy class is so appalling in combat it's untrue.
I can handle the poor turn rate, I can handle the poor shielding and hull - but both combined is a killer. I can't turn fast enough to present a fresh shield to the enemy and if I'm faced with more than one heavy warship, I am toast in seconds. Literally, seconds.
So imagine my utter despair as I am suddenly faced (surrounded!) with two Keldon Class warships and no less than FIVE Photonic Galors.
It's hopeless.
I'm not kidding myself that I'm a great player, but this would challenge even a great player, I feel.
I have four options:
1) Give up. Play something else (not an option, I've been enjoying the game up until this point).
2) Find a friend who can nurse me through my entire Captaincy and accompany me on EVERY mission until I get a better ship in seven ranks time (unrealistic).
3) Go back to my old ship (Heavy Cruiser - don't really want to do this, but she was a fine ship).
4) Buy an Escort. I have enough credits (would at least give me the chance to fly something outside the Cruiser line, but I have been maxing out on Cruiser skill points at every stage).
What's the general opinion here on avoiding this God-awful vessel? And are the Admiral cruisers any better?
Or...can this be fixed? The Enterprise D was WAY more manoeuvrable than this in the TV series. This ship is a retrograde step from the previous IMO.
The fact is that sometimes things like this need to happen in MMOs. If you want to turn more, put power into your engines. You make a statement about buying an escort but I think if you did you'd then be here arguing that they blow up too easily because honestly, I go up like a balloon after a few heavy hits.
Just did the mission this morning as a CDR Lvl 9 with my Heavy Escort. It helps to have good BO skills like Jam Sensors, Reverse Shield Polarity, etc, to withstand the bombardments. And yes, being able to manuever is key as well, which is why I haven't used a Cruiser for missions.
For a Galaxy to take on a Keldon, you're going to have to kit it out just for the mission.
Sensor Jamming, Tractor Beam, and any torpedo damage skill you can muster.
I soloed the Badlands in a Galaxy, but its not one of the usual treadmill missions this game offers up xp on a silver platter with. You've gotta think about what you're doing.
Pin the Keldon down with the tractor beam, sensor jam it to give you a head start on the race to 0% hull, and start wailing on it. When it does start to move again, throw your ship in reverse and keep that broken shield on your forward arc as long as you can, then get it on a broadside. Believe it or not, reverse thrust is your best friend here, the turn radius is tight, so the slow rate of your ship works more effectively as the Keldon orbits you.
Once the Keldon pops the photonic Galors, use every tanking trick in the book. Emergency Power to Shields, Shield Batteries, Balance shield (better than simply reinforcing the one side they're beating on, especially if you're surrounded. Also helpful once the Galors pop is to get some distance between you and the Keldon as soon as possible to avoid being surrounded by them. Evasive maneuvers and now you reinforce the aft shield as you escape.
Keldons are some of the best designed NPCs in the game, because they are actually quite a challenge for the ships you fly once you encounter them, but they are far from unbeatable.
When I completed that quest the ships where +2 above me, and I completed it in an escort as a commander.
I just ignored the photonic ships and blew the hell out of the main one (they disapeer once he is dead)
I'm suprised you cant do it in a cruiser, I thought they where supposed to have loads of shielding?
As I say, I'm not what you might call a great player, probably mediocre at best. I have tried a lot of the tactics listed here, but my BOs don't have some of the suggested skills and it's too late for me to start training them up now so they are any good at them.
I feel the Galaxy ought to be able to take a LOT more punishment than it does. As it stands, it's just way too weak. II usually have no problem sitting and soaking up damage if I know I can wear the enemy down through simple attrition - I know this is a very basic tactic, but it's been working up until now. The Galaxy handles like a pig in syrup and explodes as soon as anyone gives it a hard stare.
As I say, I'm not what you might call a great player, probably mediocre at best. I have tried a lot of the tactics listed here, but my BOs don't have some of the suggested skills and it's too late for me to start training them up now so they are any good at them.
That's not entirely true. If you retrain a BO with a new skill, you get those points spent in previous skills to re-invest. You're only losing out on the merit points required to get them.
I'm attempting to do the Badlands mission, I'm two levels above the recommended rank for the mission but even so, it's simply impossible for me to complete the mission.
The reason? My Galaxy class is so appalling in combat it's untrue.
I can handle the poor turn rate, I can handle the poor shielding and hull - but both combined is a killer. I can't turn fast enough to present a fresh shield to the enemy and if I'm faced with more than one heavy warship, I am toast in seconds. Literally, seconds.
So imagine my utter despair as I am suddenly faced (surrounded!) with two Keldon Class warships and no less than FIVE Photonic Galors.
It's hopeless.
I'm not kidding myself that I'm a great player, but this would challenge even a great player, I feel.
I have four options:
1) Give up. Play something else (not an option, I've been enjoying the game up until this point).
2) Find a friend who can nurse me through my entire Captaincy and accompany me on EVERY mission until I get a better ship in seven ranks time (unrealistic).
3) Go back to my old ship (Heavy Cruiser - don't really want to do this, but she was a fine ship).
4) Buy an Escort. I have enough credits (would at least give me the chance to fly something outside the Cruiser line, but I have been maxing out on Cruiser skill points at every stage).
What's the general opinion here on avoiding this God-awful vessel? And are the Admiral cruisers any better?
Or...can this be fixed? The Enterprise D was WAY more manoeuvrable than this in the TV series. This ship is a retrograde step from the previous IMO.
Dr. S.
then your doing it wrong my galaxy was fully able to handle itself.
I guess the heavier ships aren't really suited to my play style. As I say, I'm probably a mediocre player at best, but so far I was getting along with the cruisers just fine.
I guess the heavier ships aren't really suited to my play style. As I say, I'm probably a mediocre player at best, but so far I was getting along with the cruisers just fine.
Hey-ho. Now I just sound like a whiney so and so.
Dr. S.
I don't think you're mediocre, just maybe not willing to do some of the things you need to do to get the job done, I re-train my BOs all the time, BO skill points are not hard to get and sometimes you just need a little trail and error when it comes to MMOs.
Just set energy to Offense, blast it with Phasers until shields are gone, tractor it, activate Emergency Shield and Reverse Shield Polarity as soon as your shield goes down, fire high yield torps, blast it with phasers and torps until your shields are down again, then science team and second reverse shield polarity, contiue to blast it and it should be gone before second reverse shield polarity is over.
Ah and don't forget to adjust shields. Easiest way to do it is to just click in the middle of the shield status display.
I don't use the mouse to maneuver, so I can use it to adjust shields.
I don't think you're mediocre, just maybe not willing to do some of the things you need to do to get the job done, I re-train my BOs all the time, BO skill points are not hard to get and sometimes you just need a little trail and error when it comes to MMOs.
Maybe it's because I'm not used to RPGs, but I was wary of re-training because I thought I'd just lose those points for no good reason. Probably a misunderstanding on my part. Also, I kind of like my old little tricks - stuck in a rut no doubt.
Theres a thread here that explains it all. in a nut shell.....
AUX = turn rate
ENG = speed
Shield = shield recharge rate per 6 sec. tic.
Weapons = dps.
Maybe it's because I'm not used to RPGs, but I was wary of re-training because I thought I'd just lose those points for no good reason. Probably a misunderstanding on my part. Also, I kind of like my old little tricks - stuck in a rut no doubt.
Dr. S.
Well to be fair you're right in some respects, sometimes it's best to make sure if you change something it's not permanent, but I've changed my BO skills (and BOs thinking about it) over and over again and I still have enough points come back to me in a short space of time to get those new abilities maxed out again.
i understand how u feel the the crusier galaxy class ship was for too slow at turn rates frustated me for hours, but i did tht quest in the ship, i equiped it with the heavy cannons on the front and quantums on the back did it eventually. did die couple times but took out the galor same time. i just flew into them at slow speed hit him with everything i had knock his shields out then i quickly flew forwad and hit him with my rear weapons eventually worked. i had transfer to shields and engineering II which was very usefull.
I went Mark VIII weapons and shields, and just about everything for that mission when I was in my Galaxy. I also made sure I had some defensive plating that reduced the effectiveness of the various beam weapons and stuck with all phasers. That and if I recall correctly, shields were a maximum the whole time for that mission, and I just kept emergency power to shields going all the time.
The trick that I have found for dealing with the Photonic Galors is to simply ignore them and stay focused on the Keldon. Destroy the Keldon the Galors go away.
Maybe it's because I'm not used to RPGs, but I was wary of re-training because I thought I'd just lose those points for no good reason. Probably a misunderstanding on my part.
Fret not, you weren't the only one who thought that... This was a very useful post... From an outsider looking in, thanks to all for the useful tactics...
(...)
4) Buy an Escort. I have enough credits (would at least give me the chance to fly something outside the Cruiser line, but I have been maxing out on Cruiser skill points at every stage).
The fact that you have spent your skill point for cruisers does not mean you cant't use sci-vessels or escorts.
I plan to have all six T5 ships for my sci-vessel specced engineer and if I come to the conclusion that for a certain purpose an escort or a cruiser is better suited I just hop into the other ship for this purpose, that's all.
That means for you: If you have a problem with a certain mission then just use another ship type for this one mission and do not care if you are not super-optimized skillwise in the other ship. You will be able to finish the mission even with an unsuited spec.
Be a bit more flexible. In real life it's impossible too to be always perfect for any purpose.
Maybe it's because I'm not used to RPGs, but I was wary of re-training because I thought I'd just lose those points for no good reason. Probably a misunderstanding on my part. Also, I kind of like my old little tricks - stuck in a rut no doubt.
I did the Badlands mission in my Galaxy Class (I'm a Tactical Captain, so it is in fact still my current ship on one of my Federation characters). Whilst I admit that the turn rate of the Galaxy shocked me at first, in a 'glass half full' kind of way, I decided to view it as a challenge, and that has made it fun to play around with, so if it helps at all, here's what I've done, and not just on that particular mission...
First up, I expanded the four system sliders on the UI so that I could manually play around with power levels, but dependent on the situation, I do tend to go with either the defence or the attack presets and only in specific circumstances would I deviate from that. This is because I always make a point of trying to keep stuff at range with the cruisers, since then their turn rate is not an issue at all, as the target is always easily within the cone of fire. I usually try and time my first opening shot to have the enemy facing away from me too, so that they get a few shots on them without them enjoying benefit of being able to return fire with their frontal weaponry. Even a few seconds of that can give you an edge.
In real life I am a pilot with aerobatic experience, and being a flyer, I'm quite into the history of air combat, and one recurring thing in air combat worth bearing in mind, is that turning ability is a defensive ability more than an offensive one, whereas speed is something that allows one to control a fight by controlling the range, thus picking and choosing how and when you engage. Classic examples of this are the big USAF P-47 Thunderbolt over Germany in WW2, engaging the much more maneuverable Fw-190s and bf-109s. The American pilots used 'boom and zoom' tactics for the most part, rather than attempting to turn with the nippier German fighters. They did the same thing in the Pacific, with the big F4 Corsair rarely getting into a close in turning fight with the nippy little Japanese A6M 'Zero'. The point of this is that they played to their strengths.
So, with that in mind, there is another technique you can take from air combat history, and that is to be careful about the 'merge'. You will doubtless have heard of the Red Baron, who was the most successful air combat pilot in WW1. Now despite the nonsense that gets bandied about concerning chivalry and 'knights of the air', the Red Baron was not like that at all, he was aware that in a big melee 'furball' dogfight, you cannot control things, and certainly cannot escape a number of people shooting at you, and so he would studiously try to avoid that and instead do one of two things: The first was to spend a long time manuevering for an advantageous position before engaging, and second, when the fight kicked off, he would invariably hover around the periphery of the fight and look for potential victims who were in a disadvantaged position, whom he would then mercilessly pounce on. He was aware that there is nothing truly honourable about combat if you want to do it right, and like most successful fighters, he would take every opportunity to shoot someone up the TRIBBLE when they weren't looking. It was in fact when he broke his own rules on this, that he was shot down and killed. This is exactly what the AI in STO does to you, in having you engage large numbers of ships. So the simple answer is, don't fight by the enemy's rules, change the fight to suit you.
So, in STO, you have to move around the periphery of the enemy ship aggro range and look for an opportunity to get one in range whilst his buddies are out of range. This is paramount. The others may come into the fight, but if it takes them a few seconds, that's all you need to reduce their numbers by one. Then, you open up the range again, lose aggro, and repeat the performance. In other words, you create a level playing field. It is possible to 'tank' a few ships in the cruiser, but why should you if you don't have to? I enjoy doing this kind of thing so much, that the challenge for me is not merely surviving, but seeing how little damage you can take.
How I do that is as noted above and then when the other ships come in, I drive right at them, eject warp plasma to jam them in place, attempt to disable their weapons and sensors and such, and then I hit every single speed buff I can and get out of there ready to set up for the next attack, sending power to the rear shield as I depart. You might want to give that kind of thing a try.
Keep in mind that if you do this, there are a few logical choices you can make as far as weaponry goes. First you need to be aware that beam weapons do by far the best damage if you engage at range, so you need plenty of those up front, particularly since torpedo launchers have a global cooldown, meaning you can only fire one of them at once, which is a limitation that beam weapons do not have. with that in mind I have a very small number of torpedo launchers on board, just one at the front and one at the rear. I also have a turret in a rear slot too, so that it can fire forward and add to the weight of firepower going forward.
Obviously a good hard look at the skills of both you and your Bridge Officers is in order to ensure that you are equipped with the best things for such a tactic. But for the most part this is common sense, as is who and what you fire at. An example of that would be here: one thing I always do too, is make sure I come off the target and shoot every single torpedo that is launched at me the moment I see them appear. This is because even though I have an automated tactical defense turret which can theoretically do that, if I zap a torpedo right after it has left the enemy's launcher, when it explodes, it is still close enough to the enemy for the blast to damage them. Also worth doing, is shooting the little guys first, and the science ships too if there are any. Nailing the little guys first takes numbers out of the fight quickest, and taking out science ships removes the ones that can best stop you doing that.
Other things worth trying if you get overwhelmed are boarding party, which in combination with ejecting warp plasma, can be devastating and does not require any manueverability on your part at all. As can using evasive action whilst you eject plasma, which spreads the plasma in a big long trail so it can hit numerous enemies, since it has a 0.5km radius. Do a flyby of a big group of bad guys with that and you will cause them a lot of trouble, and if you keep going, you'll be gone before they can retaliate.
In short, you just need to change the fight so that it proceeds according to what you want, and not the other way around.
As I say, I'm not what you might call a great player, probably mediocre at best. I have tried a lot of the tactics listed here, but my BOs don't have some of the suggested skills and it's too late for me to start training them up now so they are any good at them.
I feel the Galaxy ought to be able to take a LOT more punishment than it does. As it stands, it's just way too weak. II usually have no problem sitting and soaking up damage if I know I can wear the enemy down through simple attrition - I know this is a very basic tactic, but it's been working up until now. The Galaxy handles like a pig in syrup and explodes as soon as anyone gives it a hard stare.
Dr. S.
1 what type of shield are you using.
2. what do you set your power levels at
3. what are your BO skills
4. what type of weapons do you have on your ship
5. what is your class
give us this info and it would go a long way in helping you in your situation
general rules for that place are, ignore the photonics, always go for the main. kheldons are powerful but not powerful enough that a galaxy class can't out attrition them.
i don't want to make you seem ill informed, but you do know you can repeatedly reinforce a shield quickly and get better results correct?
When facing a Keldon in my Galaxy (and any other cruiser), I deal with the Photonic Galors by using Reverse Shield Polarity when they show up. Then I just ignore them and continue to pummel the Keldon. Dealing with the Keldon's abilities is seriously no problem at all if you have the right BO skills. Reverse Shield Polarity, EP to Shields, Scramble Sensors, etc.
Do yourself a favor and get either an escort or a science ship. The Galaxy is undeniably the worst ship in the game, which is horrible because it's one of the more iconic ships.
Um, no. Get better shields. I had shields on my Galaxy that had 6998 strength and a 455 regen, as mk VII shields. You're probably doing something wrong.
Comments
But you might want to try playing around with your power settings
More aux = faster turning rate.
Buy the Defiant and kick some TRIBBLE!
Sensor Jamming, Tractor Beam, and any torpedo damage skill you can muster.
I soloed the Badlands in a Galaxy, but its not one of the usual treadmill missions this game offers up xp on a silver platter with. You've gotta think about what you're doing.
Pin the Keldon down with the tractor beam, sensor jam it to give you a head start on the race to 0% hull, and start wailing on it. When it does start to move again, throw your ship in reverse and keep that broken shield on your forward arc as long as you can, then get it on a broadside. Believe it or not, reverse thrust is your best friend here, the turn radius is tight, so the slow rate of your ship works more effectively as the Keldon orbits you.
Once the Keldon pops the photonic Galors, use every tanking trick in the book. Emergency Power to Shields, Shield Batteries, Balance shield (better than simply reinforcing the one side they're beating on, especially if you're surrounded. Also helpful once the Galors pop is to get some distance between you and the Keldon as soon as possible to avoid being surrounded by them. Evasive maneuvers and now you reinforce the aft shield as you escape.
Keldons are some of the best designed NPCs in the game, because they are actually quite a challenge for the ships you fly once you encounter them, but they are far from unbeatable.
I just ignored the photonic ships and blew the hell out of the main one (they disapeer once he is dead)
I'm suprised you cant do it in a cruiser, I thought they where supposed to have loads of shielding?
As I say, I'm not what you might call a great player, probably mediocre at best. I have tried a lot of the tactics listed here, but my BOs don't have some of the suggested skills and it's too late for me to start training them up now so they are any good at them.
I feel the Galaxy ought to be able to take a LOT more punishment than it does. As it stands, it's just way too weak. II usually have no problem sitting and soaking up damage if I know I can wear the enemy down through simple attrition - I know this is a very basic tactic, but it's been working up until now. The Galaxy handles like a pig in syrup and explodes as soon as anyone gives it a hard stare.
Dr. S.
That is correct.
That's not entirely true. If you retrain a BO with a new skill, you get those points spent in previous skills to re-invest. You're only losing out on the merit points required to get them.
then your doing it wrong my galaxy was fully able to handle itself.
Yes, that's entirely possible.
Dr. S.
I plumped for this and TRIBBLE was duly kicked.
I guess the heavier ships aren't really suited to my play style. As I say, I'm probably a mediocre player at best, but so far I was getting along with the cruisers just fine.
Hey-ho. Now I just sound like a whiney so and so.
Dr. S.
I don't think you're mediocre, just maybe not willing to do some of the things you need to do to get the job done, I re-train my BOs all the time, BO skill points are not hard to get and sometimes you just need a little trail and error when it comes to MMOs.
Engineer 1: Emergency Shield, Reverse Shield Polarity
Engineer 2: Engineering Team, Reverse Shield Polarity
Science: Science Team, Tractor Beam II
Tactical: Torpedo High Yield
Just set energy to Offense, blast it with Phasers until shields are gone, tractor it, activate Emergency Shield and Reverse Shield Polarity as soon as your shield goes down, fire high yield torps, blast it with phasers and torps until your shields are down again, then science team and second reverse shield polarity, contiue to blast it and it should be gone before second reverse shield polarity is over.
Ah and don't forget to adjust shields. Easiest way to do it is to just click in the middle of the shield status display.
I don't use the mouse to maneuver, so I can use it to adjust shields.
Maybe it's because I'm not used to RPGs, but I was wary of re-training because I thought I'd just lose those points for no good reason. Probably a misunderstanding on my part. Also, I kind of like my old little tricks - stuck in a rut no doubt.
Dr. S.
AUX = turn rate
ENG = speed
Shield = shield recharge rate per 6 sec. tic.
Weapons = dps.
Outfitted with 2 beams on front and 2 beams on back. 2 Quantum Torps on front and Quantum mines on back.
Well to be fair you're right in some respects, sometimes it's best to make sure if you change something it's not permanent, but I've changed my BO skills (and BOs thinking about it) over and over again and I still have enough points come back to me in a short space of time to get those new abilities maxed out again.
hope u complete it
The trick that I have found for dealing with the Photonic Galors is to simply ignore them and stay focused on the Keldon. Destroy the Keldon the Galors go away.
Fret not, you weren't the only one who thought that...
The fact that you have spent your skill point for cruisers does not mean you cant't use sci-vessels or escorts.
I plan to have all six T5 ships for my sci-vessel specced engineer and if I come to the conclusion that for a certain purpose an escort or a cruiser is better suited I just hop into the other ship for this purpose, that's all.
That means for you: If you have a problem with a certain mission then just use another ship type for this one mission and do not care if you are not super-optimized skillwise in the other ship. You will be able to finish the mission even with an unsuited spec.
Be a bit more flexible. In real life it's impossible too to be always perfect for any purpose.
Did you try what I wrote?
First up, I expanded the four system sliders on the UI so that I could manually play around with power levels, but dependent on the situation, I do tend to go with either the defence or the attack presets and only in specific circumstances would I deviate from that. This is because I always make a point of trying to keep stuff at range with the cruisers, since then their turn rate is not an issue at all, as the target is always easily within the cone of fire. I usually try and time my first opening shot to have the enemy facing away from me too, so that they get a few shots on them without them enjoying benefit of being able to return fire with their frontal weaponry. Even a few seconds of that can give you an edge.
In real life I am a pilot with aerobatic experience, and being a flyer, I'm quite into the history of air combat, and one recurring thing in air combat worth bearing in mind, is that turning ability is a defensive ability more than an offensive one, whereas speed is something that allows one to control a fight by controlling the range, thus picking and choosing how and when you engage. Classic examples of this are the big USAF P-47 Thunderbolt over Germany in WW2, engaging the much more maneuverable Fw-190s and bf-109s. The American pilots used 'boom and zoom' tactics for the most part, rather than attempting to turn with the nippier German fighters. They did the same thing in the Pacific, with the big F4 Corsair rarely getting into a close in turning fight with the nippy little Japanese A6M 'Zero'. The point of this is that they played to their strengths.
So, with that in mind, there is another technique you can take from air combat history, and that is to be careful about the 'merge'. You will doubtless have heard of the Red Baron, who was the most successful air combat pilot in WW1. Now despite the nonsense that gets bandied about concerning chivalry and 'knights of the air', the Red Baron was not like that at all, he was aware that in a big melee 'furball' dogfight, you cannot control things, and certainly cannot escape a number of people shooting at you, and so he would studiously try to avoid that and instead do one of two things: The first was to spend a long time manuevering for an advantageous position before engaging, and second, when the fight kicked off, he would invariably hover around the periphery of the fight and look for potential victims who were in a disadvantaged position, whom he would then mercilessly pounce on. He was aware that there is nothing truly honourable about combat if you want to do it right, and like most successful fighters, he would take every opportunity to shoot someone up the TRIBBLE when they weren't looking. It was in fact when he broke his own rules on this, that he was shot down and killed. This is exactly what the AI in STO does to you, in having you engage large numbers of ships. So the simple answer is, don't fight by the enemy's rules, change the fight to suit you.
So, in STO, you have to move around the periphery of the enemy ship aggro range and look for an opportunity to get one in range whilst his buddies are out of range. This is paramount. The others may come into the fight, but if it takes them a few seconds, that's all you need to reduce their numbers by one. Then, you open up the range again, lose aggro, and repeat the performance. In other words, you create a level playing field. It is possible to 'tank' a few ships in the cruiser, but why should you if you don't have to? I enjoy doing this kind of thing so much, that the challenge for me is not merely surviving, but seeing how little damage you can take.
How I do that is as noted above and then when the other ships come in, I drive right at them, eject warp plasma to jam them in place, attempt to disable their weapons and sensors and such, and then I hit every single speed buff I can and get out of there ready to set up for the next attack, sending power to the rear shield as I depart. You might want to give that kind of thing a try.
Keep in mind that if you do this, there are a few logical choices you can make as far as weaponry goes. First you need to be aware that beam weapons do by far the best damage if you engage at range, so you need plenty of those up front, particularly since torpedo launchers have a global cooldown, meaning you can only fire one of them at once, which is a limitation that beam weapons do not have. with that in mind I have a very small number of torpedo launchers on board, just one at the front and one at the rear. I also have a turret in a rear slot too, so that it can fire forward and add to the weight of firepower going forward.
Obviously a good hard look at the skills of both you and your Bridge Officers is in order to ensure that you are equipped with the best things for such a tactic. But for the most part this is common sense, as is who and what you fire at. An example of that would be here: one thing I always do too, is make sure I come off the target and shoot every single torpedo that is launched at me the moment I see them appear. This is because even though I have an automated tactical defense turret which can theoretically do that, if I zap a torpedo right after it has left the enemy's launcher, when it explodes, it is still close enough to the enemy for the blast to damage them. Also worth doing, is shooting the little guys first, and the science ships too if there are any. Nailing the little guys first takes numbers out of the fight quickest, and taking out science ships removes the ones that can best stop you doing that.
Other things worth trying if you get overwhelmed are boarding party, which in combination with ejecting warp plasma, can be devastating and does not require any manueverability on your part at all. As can using evasive action whilst you eject plasma, which spreads the plasma in a big long trail so it can hit numerous enemies, since it has a 0.5km radius. Do a flyby of a big group of bad guys with that and you will cause them a lot of trouble, and if you keep going, you'll be gone before they can retaliate.
In short, you just need to change the fight so that it proceeds according to what you want, and not the other way around.
Al
1 what type of shield are you using.
2. what do you set your power levels at
3. what are your BO skills
4. what type of weapons do you have on your ship
5. what is your class
give us this info and it would go a long way in helping you in your situation
general rules for that place are, ignore the photonics, always go for the main. kheldons are powerful but not powerful enough that a galaxy class can't out attrition them.
i don't want to make you seem ill informed, but you do know you can repeatedly reinforce a shield quickly and get better results correct?
Um, no. Get better shields. I had shields on my Galaxy that had 6998 strength and a 455 regen, as mk VII shields. You're probably doing something wrong.
Thanks guys!