test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Beginner Basics, Bridge officers . . .

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2014 in The Academy
I thought it might be nice to see if anyone wanted to put together a thread "Helpful Hints" for new people regarding how to begin the game with your bridge officers. Being someone whom likes to start with a full contingent of blue officers (easilly done. it's an ego thing) I wondered what other people's feelings were on this matter.
Post edited by Unknown User on
«1

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    There are three things that probably would help someone out when it comes to BO's and later in the game.

    1. There is no problem with promoting all of the to Commander (as long as they stay one rank behind you). This way, if you take them on an away team, they'll have access to all their Ground skills.

    2. When it comes to your BO's in Space, keep in minind that all you will ever be able to use is 5 maximum. Depending on the ship (at RA), they will be in the following ranks:

    Ship Type (Esc - Tac, Crs - Eng, Sci - Sci) Commander
    Ship Type Lt Commander
    Ship Specialty (for example, Adv Escort - Extra Sci Off) Lieutenant
    Ship Specialty Ensign
    Non-Specialty Lieutenant

    Keeping that info in mind, you can figure out what skills to train to which BO.

    3. By the time you hit Captain, you will have a total of 8 BOs assigned to your ship. This is enough to for a dedicated Bridge Crew and a dedicated Away Team crew. Setting it up this way, you can concentrate your BO skill points on only those skills that they'll need and be able to use, and not have to spend any in skills they won't ever use. Once you have everyone maxed in those particular skills, then you can concentrate on skills they won't generally use. (You never know when a Bridge crew officer might have a skill you would want to use on the ground and vice versa.)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Personally, I've been training them based on what skills I thought would be the most useful (mostly space combat gets the priority) as I go.

    I kind of screwed up when I got promoted to Lt. Commander, though. I wanted to get rid of my generic BO's so I could complete the custom bridge crew with custom names and species of my choosing that I couldn't quite do right away at launch. But I forgot to empty their inventory or skillset before I discharged them so I lost all those points and items and have to start over in a sense with those officers.

    No big deal. Long way to go to Admiral level, still. :-)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I have done that with the equipment too, but you cant get back the skill points. Once assigned to a BO they are gone from your pool forever.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    But I forgot to empty their inventory or skillset before I discharged them so I lost all those points and items and have to start over in a sense with those officers.

    Items, yes, you lost. BO Skill points, you were going to lose those anyway. But, as BO Points seem to be plentiful and have no cap, there's no real need to worry there.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    dragon47 wrote:
    Items, yes, you lost. BO Skill points, you were going to lose those anyway. But, as BO Points seem to be plentiful and have no cap, there's no real need to worry there.

    Ah, that's good to know. I thought I lost my skill points due to my own stupidity, but it just works that way.
    I switched my (boring) human engineer for a Ferengi one.

    Speaking of BO's; am I correct in assuming that there are no Benzite en Saurian BO's?

    I'm also glad that they are adding Tellarite BO's, my own custom Tellarite doesn't look quite right :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    dragon47 wrote:
    Items, yes, you lost. BO Skill points, you were going to lose those anyway. But, as BO Points seem to be plentiful and have no cap, there's no real need to worry there.

    Yep
    Just to give you an idea, I've reached RA5 about 10 tends ago and I currently have over forty thousand boff SPs unspent.
    Not only are all my Boffs skills maxed to 9, but I have specific Boffs (for example, Boffs with hull rep skills for fighting Borg, etc) and I swap Boffs as needed for the circumstances.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Here's a question.. I recently noticed that I had captain rank, personal shields equipped on on of my bridge officers (rank commander).
    I was under the assumption that if an item could not be used, that it could not be equipped. Does that mean I can use my rank gear on my boffs? ..Or is it that it can be equipped in the slots, just without functionality?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Only your rank determines what equipment is usable by you, your ship and BOs.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    dragon47 wrote:
    By the time you hit Captain, you will have a total of 8 BOs assigned to your ship. This is enough to for a dedicated Bridge Crew and a dedicated Away Team crew.

    I'm a little slow sometimes. It took me reading this at this time to realize that there was indeed a good reason for more BOs than you have stations.

    Thank you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I'm a little slow sometimes. It took me reading this at this time to realize that there was indeed a good reason for more BOs than you have stations.

    Thank you.

    You can also have specialty BOs. . For instance,I have BO's for when I fight Borg on the ground, and for fighting Borg in space for my RA5 Tac/RSV character. I swap out one of my Eng BO for a Science BO speced for healing. And a BO's that are spec'ed to heal my Ships' hull. FWIW, when fighting Borg in space wave bye-bye to your shields.
  • rrtraxxrrtraxx Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Can someone tell me why my officer candidates are unuseble? I purchased an engineering officer and all they can do is train my current officers. This make NO sense. Why does this need to be so damn difficult. I purchased an upgraded ship, I have an open slot but no way to put an officer in it. Any ideas? The more I play the morebugs I find in this game...
  • bendalekbendalek Member Posts: 1,781 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    rrtraxx wrote: »
    Can someone tell me why my officer candidates are unusable? I purchased an engineering officer and all they can do is train my current officers. This make NO sense. Why does this need to be so damn difficult. I purchased an upgraded ship, I have an open slot but no way to put an officer in it. Any ideas? The more I play the more bugs I find in this game...

    Most likely you do not have enough "open" Bridge officer positions ... You can only have a limited number depending on your Rank.
    Each time you gain a rank you will gain an extra "Open" bridge officer "slot" which allows you to "commission" a new bridge officer.

    You basically gain 1 BO slot at each rank, and under "normal" circumstances this will more or less equal the number of BO's the game gives you, however you may find that you will get a candidate before you reach the next rank, but you can either "save" them by clicking "not now" and they remain a "candidate" (on the right hand side of your "station" tab, or if you really want or need a different class BO, you can "discharge" one of your current ones to make room for the new one.

    Some BO candidates come with extra "Tier III" versions of skills, that you can only get randomly, so sometime "using them up" to train a current BO is an option.
    Also you can purchase extra BO "slots" from the in game "C-Store" to allow even a Lt to have 5 BO's and you don't loose those extra slots as you rank up.
    Oh, hoho hohhhhh, Oh,, hoho, hohhhhh
    My%20STO%20Sig%20Clear_zps5etu86s1.png
  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    You can get any race for a bridge officer. I have a Saurian tactical officer that I received as an award after on of the missions.

    I have kept all my original bridge officers (Boffs). Since the is no limit on how any skill points you can receive for your Boffs I simply maxed out everything. I currently have over 1 million skill points for Boffs; I think they are referred to as Expertise XP; EXP. I have a bunch of Boff candidates that I have not bothered with yet.

    There is a max of 6 free slots for your Boffs. I forgot if that at captain or rear admiral. You can purchase additional slots, but I don't the limit.
  • norobladnoroblad Member Posts: 2,624 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    I thought it might be nice to see if anyone wanted to put together a thread "Helpful Hints" for new people regarding how to begin the game with your bridge officers. Being someone whom likes to start with a full contingent of blue officers (easilly done. it's an ego thing) I wondered what other people's feelings were on this matter.

    Depends on faction and what you want, I guess.

    KDF & Rom can do well right away. KDF just buy cheap blue naussicians with good ground traits right away, throw the ones they give you out the airlock. Rom, some of the starters have operative and the ones you can choose also sometimes have it... pretty easy to get all of your core officers with operative, maybe 1 will be basic, maybe 1 will be superior but they should all have at least a version of it right off. Trick for rom is to have a second set of ground warriors if your space guys do not also have good ground traits. FEDS ... just use what they give you and replace as you can for free with DO missions etc; you got nothing for space and ground guys are a dime a dozen.
  • dareaudareau Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    rrtraxx wrote: »
    Can someone tell me why my officer candidates are unuseble? I purchased an engineering officer and all they can do is train my current officers. This make NO sense. Why does this need to be so damn difficult. I purchased an upgraded ship, I have an open slot but no way to put an officer in it. Any ideas? The more I play the morebugs I find in this game...

    To help confirm:

    You have a limit as to how many "active" Bridge OFFicers (BOffs) determined by your level and status (Gold-Lifer/Silver-F2P). This limit can be increased with a C-store purchase of about 500 zen or so...

    Once that limit is reached, you cannot commission any further BOffs. Right now, you seem to be at your limit.

    On the same note, your ship has Y many BOff stations of pre-determined rank and class...

    At this moment, it seems that your limited staff does not match your seating - for example, you might have 2 tactical BOffs, a Science BOff, and an engineer BOff, but if you bought a cruiser you have 2 engineering stations, a science station, and a tactical station. That second Tactical BOff cannot sit in the engineering station for "obvious" reasons...

    There are two "cures" for this situation - option 1 is to "buy" a bridge officer slot expansion, giving you 2 new slots to activate BOffs - so that that new BOff you want can be activated. You can also examine your current BOffs, find one that's "extra", and dismiss him, freeing up the slot to commission the BOff you do want. If you are going this second route, remember to strip all gear off the BOff, otherwise it goes away with the BOff.

    Of course, the game does not help explain these limits or attempt to present you with "appropriate" BOffs after the first three...
    Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...

    To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
  • royalsovereignroyalsovereign Member Posts: 1,344 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Wow, worst zombie thread I've seen in awhile - this one was dead and buried for 4 years until someone went and raised the thing.
    "You Iconians just hung a vacancy sign on your asses and my foot's looking for a room!"
    --Red Annorax
  • sleepingtiger01sleepingtiger01 Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    HOd do i get to see the interior of my ship?
  • norobladnoroblad Member Posts: 2,624 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    HOd do i get to see the interior of my ship?

    it would be great if you could stay on topic in the future, but you get there with the drop down menu in the lower corner of your mini-map. One of the choices is to visit your starship (and if you have one, shuttle) bridge. Some ships have an extensive interior, and some ships just have one round room with a bank shoved up against the wall....
  • deadbrkwarriordeadbrkwarrior Member Posts: 37 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    i have an open ensign engineering spot on my ship and have bridge officers in my pool but the game tells me i have no room for my klingon engineer.. any idea y??
  • deadbrkwarriordeadbrkwarrior Member Posts: 37 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    please help w my last post
  • bendalekbendalek Member Posts: 1,781 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    i have an open ensign engineering spot on my ship and have bridge officers in my pool but the game tells me i have no room for my Klingon engineer.. any idea y??

    What level rare you? How many "open" bridge officer slots do you have? Unless you buy more slots from the C-Store, you are limited at each level on how many "active" or "commissioned" bridge officers you can have.

    No matter how many "candidates" you have, if they give the message "you don't have any positions for bridge officers, but I can train one for you" (or something like that) then you don't have enough BoFF slots.
    Oh, hoho hohhhhh, Oh,, hoho, hohhhhh
    My%20STO%20Sig%20Clear_zps5etu86s1.png
  • vwadkavwadka Member Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    I have 3 ships at this time, but when I attempt to assign BOffs it relates it to my shuttle, (awarded at time of registration) and says I have no room for them. I have a cruiser and a LC as well, how do I assign BOffs to one or both of those ships?
  • vwadkavwadka Member Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    It's all well and good.to tell us all the lilttle things..we truely appreciat it.. how ever what about the time we have to fight cardasian battle cruisers..with cruisers, which is what noobs have to do.
    I'm sure players have done it, other wise there'd be few past me, question is.....did they have to pay for it
  • fatman592fatman592 Member Posts: 1,207 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Epic necro... Seems like these questions are being posed by one person. I salute this level of trolling.
  • gurugeorgegurugeorge Member Posts: 421 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Personally, I've never understood the animus against "necro" in forums, it seems daft to me. A topic is a topic is a topic, if it contains useful information it contains useful information, and adding to that useful information can only be good.

    The proliferation of threads on the same topic, over time, seems to me to be a far worse sin in forums. But whatever, it's the policy.
  • dareaudareau Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    gurugeorge wrote: »
    Personally, I've never understood the animus against "necro" in forums, it seems daft to me. A topic is a topic is a topic, if it contains useful information it contains useful information, and adding to that useful information can only be good.

    The proliferation of threads on the same topic, over time, seems to me to be a far worse sin in forums. But whatever, it's the policy.

    In many games such as this, the information in a post that hasn't been discussed in the past month or so most likely is invalid/outdated. And the older the thread, the more likely the information is outdated.

    Try finding/reading a thread about the reputation system written when it was released vs. what the system is like, today. Now imagine of someone "necroed" the thread (ie, bumped it back to live) and a lot of players saw all that outdated (and therefore incorrect) information.

    However, instead of locking "older" threads about mechanics that have changed vs. leaving intact the threads (no matter what the age) that are still "correct" - a system that requires a lot of manpower, typically through volunteer mods, and a global "do not necro thread" policy, the policy is obviously easier even though it means many posts on the same subject.

    What doesn't help is that a lot of F2P players don't get the rights to post new topics early in their careers, when they need the help the most, yet they get "reply" rights early. Therefore, many threads get necroed "unintentionally" by these reply-only people to get their information.
    Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...

    To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
  • edgecrysgeredgecrysger Member Posts: 2,740 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    gurugeorge wrote: »
    Personally, I've never understood the animus against "necro" in forums, it seems daft to me. A topic is a topic is a topic, if it contains useful information it contains useful information, and adding to that useful information can only be good.

    The proliferation of threads on the same topic, over time, seems to me to be a far worse sin in forums. But whatever, it's the policy.

    Because this only happens with cryptic's forums. I dont understand it either. But it's cryptic lol.

    In any other decent forum, if a thread is considered "necro" it gets closed, or deleted.

    Here, the only thing you can see is other members of the forums winning and repeating the words "great necro" , "epic necro jihaaa" , and other stupid and useless sentences. Besides, i dont understand why a thread that can be useful a few months later, hell, even a year later in the case of cryptic, can be considered necro lol. This only happens here, in the great cryptic's forums. :P
  • edgecrysgeredgecrysger Member Posts: 2,740 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    dareau wrote: »
    In many games such as this, the information in a post that hasn't been discussed in the past month or so most likely is invalid/outdated. And the older the thread, the more likely the information is outdated.

    This is so NOT true lol. NO game will consider a thread necro after 1 month. Thats impossible. I tell you, the first time ive ever seen a thread called necro after 1 month is here. Only here. I played tons of games, and unless a few months passed, the thread is not considered necro. Same on almost all forums i visit. But here is diffeent, for some reason lol.

    And specially in cryptic's forums, thread should be open for even years. In the case of bugs reports, the threads should be open the entire life of the game LOL, but after 1 month they are considered necros.. seriously?? ahhahahahaahahahaha... its the most stupid thing ive ever seen, when it turns out that every 2 or 3 days , the same thread called necro is used again, to expose the same bug again and again. xD.
  • vwadkavwadka Member Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    vwadka wrote: »
    It's all well and good.to tell us all the lilttle things..we truely appreciat it.. how ever what about the time we have to fight cardasian battle cruisers..with cruisers, which is what noobs have to do.
    I'm sure players have done it, other wise there'd be few past me, question is.....did they have to pay for it

    NVM...I answered my own question, we may get assignments a little out of our range but we have the ability to prgress and gain the ability to achieve them...and also I posted this in the wrong thread, sorry :-P
    :o
  • peetapipmacpeetapipmac Member Posts: 2,131 Arc User
    edited March 2014
    Edge, do you ever do anything other then complain? Every one of your posts I've seen so far has been a complaint about something. lol
    It's not my fault if you feel trolled by my Disco ball... Sorry'boutit.



    R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
Sign In or Register to comment.