test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Preparing for Season 8 - Useful tips
rahmkota19
Member Posts: 1,929 Arc User
Hey everybody,
In this thread I'll give some very useful tips for the upcoming launch of Season 8: The Sphere.
==Parking your characters==
{WARNING: SPOILERS FOR FEATURED EPISODE}
Most of the new content we are receiving in Season 8 will play in the Solanae Dyson Sphere. This sphere is located in the Delta Quadrant, and as such not in any of the currently existing Sector Blocks.
With the Featured Episode "Spheres of Influence" we did found a massive Iconian gateway in the Jouret System, which is located in the top left corner of the Azure sector of the Tau Dewa Sector Block (Image). It is likely that we will use this gateway for getting to the Delta Quadrant, although THIS HAS YET TO BE CONFIRMED. Placing your characters close to the Jouret system will most likely place you in the perfect position to start playing the new content.
==Choosing your gear==
According to Dev blog 6 and Dev blog 7 the Voth, your new enemies, are defensive in nature. This will most likely mean that sheer DPS won't be the best strategy for taking on the Voth. You will need some ability to take damage yourself, so consider this when you are equipping your ships and characters for fighting the Voth.
==Preparing recourses==
Season 8 is going to bring a new Reputation and a new Fleet holding. Both of these are going to need a large amount of recourses to advance. By starting to save up your dilithium, energy credits, duty officers and expertise today, you are going to have an easier game in 9 days.
==Getting information==
Cryptic has been providing us with a large amount of information regarding Season 8. Our Community Manager BranFlakes has been so kind to create a clear overview of all dev blogs. This list can be found here.
The most important dev blogs regarding season 8 are: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12.
==Preparing for launch==
Any seasonal patch is a big one. And you don't want to be locked away in the launcher while your friends are already hunting down their first dinosaurs with laser beams. The best way to prepare yourself for this is to sign up for Tribble.
This will open up a new option in the launcher, above the Patch Progress display, that allows you to choose for Holodeck (the main server), Tribble (the Test Server) or Redshirt (the secondary Test Server, not used as much as Tribble). By clicking on Tribble, STO will start a new patch. This will be 85% copying your existing game files and 15% the Season 8 content that is live on Tribble as we read.
What will this do? Simply. Like the game has copied your Holodeck files to use for Tribble after you signed up, the game will copy your Tribble files for Holodeck use on the 12th of November. This will mean that you will have a lot less to download, but more copying. And believe me: downloading will be slow since the servers will have to handle a huge amount of download requests.
Additionally to adding to speed, you will have access to the Season 8 content on Tribble, where you can help testing the content. This is entirely optional ofcourse.
==Avoiding queues==
Well, login queues are possible to occur. After Legacy of Romulus first went live, there were sometimes queues of over ten thousand people trying to log in. This is very easy to avoid: go gold for a month. Next to all the other benefits (if you have 5 characters, the benefits you unlock are around 8725 zen), you will be placed in front of any login queue, so you will not have to wait for thousands of players to log off before you can begin.
==Be patient==
If the other season updates have taught us anything, it is that the first week will probably have a lot of down time to fix new bugs and to stabilize the server. Don't go cursing around when the game is patching when you are preparing to play. This period wil never last longer than 2 weeks, and then the game will be more enjoyable as it is today.
That is my list of preparations. I am making them all myself (I'm now even in my first month ever of being gold since I started playing the game in February 2012). These simple preparations will allow you to meet the Voth battle ready.
I am hoping that this list will help you as much as they help me. If anything new comes to mind, I will update this post to keep up with current known information.
In this thread I'll give some very useful tips for the upcoming launch of Season 8: The Sphere.
==Parking your characters==
{WARNING: SPOILERS FOR FEATURED EPISODE}
Most of the new content we are receiving in Season 8 will play in the Solanae Dyson Sphere. This sphere is located in the Delta Quadrant, and as such not in any of the currently existing Sector Blocks.
With the Featured Episode "Spheres of Influence" we did found a massive Iconian gateway in the Jouret System, which is located in the top left corner of the Azure sector of the Tau Dewa Sector Block (Image). It is likely that we will use this gateway for getting to the Delta Quadrant, although THIS HAS YET TO BE CONFIRMED. Placing your characters close to the Jouret system will most likely place you in the perfect position to start playing the new content.
==Choosing your gear==
According to Dev blog 6 and Dev blog 7 the Voth, your new enemies, are defensive in nature. This will most likely mean that sheer DPS won't be the best strategy for taking on the Voth. You will need some ability to take damage yourself, so consider this when you are equipping your ships and characters for fighting the Voth.
==Preparing recourses==
Season 8 is going to bring a new Reputation and a new Fleet holding. Both of these are going to need a large amount of recourses to advance. By starting to save up your dilithium, energy credits, duty officers and expertise today, you are going to have an easier game in 9 days.
==Getting information==
Cryptic has been providing us with a large amount of information regarding Season 8. Our Community Manager BranFlakes has been so kind to create a clear overview of all dev blogs. This list can be found here.
The most important dev blogs regarding season 8 are: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12.
==Preparing for launch==
Any seasonal patch is a big one. And you don't want to be locked away in the launcher while your friends are already hunting down their first dinosaurs with laser beams. The best way to prepare yourself for this is to sign up for Tribble.
This will open up a new option in the launcher, above the Patch Progress display, that allows you to choose for Holodeck (the main server), Tribble (the Test Server) or Redshirt (the secondary Test Server, not used as much as Tribble). By clicking on Tribble, STO will start a new patch. This will be 85% copying your existing game files and 15% the Season 8 content that is live on Tribble as we read.
What will this do? Simply. Like the game has copied your Holodeck files to use for Tribble after you signed up, the game will copy your Tribble files for Holodeck use on the 12th of November. This will mean that you will have a lot less to download, but more copying. And believe me: downloading will be slow since the servers will have to handle a huge amount of download requests.
Additionally to adding to speed, you will have access to the Season 8 content on Tribble, where you can help testing the content. This is entirely optional ofcourse.
==Avoiding queues==
Well, login queues are possible to occur. After Legacy of Romulus first went live, there were sometimes queues of over ten thousand people trying to log in. This is very easy to avoid: go gold for a month. Next to all the other benefits (if you have 5 characters, the benefits you unlock are around 8725 zen), you will be placed in front of any login queue, so you will not have to wait for thousands of players to log off before you can begin.
==Be patient==
If the other season updates have taught us anything, it is that the first week will probably have a lot of down time to fix new bugs and to stabilize the server. Don't go cursing around when the game is patching when you are preparing to play. This period wil never last longer than 2 weeks, and then the game will be more enjoyable as it is today.
That is my list of preparations. I am making them all myself (I'm now even in my first month ever of being gold since I started playing the game in February 2012). These simple preparations will allow you to meet the Voth battle ready.
I am hoping that this list will help you as much as they help me. If anything new comes to mind, I will update this post to keep up with current known information.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
DON'T sugarcoat this...
Going gold, will only put you in front of the non-subscribers... You can (and most likely will) still end up in a somewhat smaller queue, behind the other golds who did the same... but its still a queue.
And the more people who subscribe, the longer the queue gets.
This means that our boffs may not be as well set up as they could be.
I understand that the new content allows us to bring boffs with us, so if you're like me and haven't even looked at your boffs kit in a while it may be worthwhile to spend a little time equipping them a bit better.
One quickie about the queues... Since I am still in the middle of the Cardassia missions, will the increase in attention on the Season 8 material mean shorter queues for the rest of the STO universe?
Thanks!
CM
Season Eight should be looked at with new eyes. Instead of confining people to a set of rules, the player base should be allowed to experiment.
Allow other players to mess up.
Allow other players to experiment.
Allow other players to learn on their own.
Allow other players to let loose.
While your tips may work for you, they may not be useful to others. Season Eight arrives on Holodeck next week. Give everyone a chance to play the new season.
Part of the fun is done through a trial and error process.
Everyone should go into this season with a blank slate.
Please ditch the spoilers.
Keep calm, and continue firing photon torpedoes.
I see where you're coming from about the STFs. The number of probes I've seen trundle right past the nearest person to them and straight into the Vortex because 'someone else was on probes' is staggering. 0/100 for Pro-Activity........ anyway... that's not the point of this thread...
I don't think the OP's advice here falls into the same category. Many of the STF 'rules' you see some (frankly ridiculous) people rage over are either just one of a few ways of doing things, shockingly out of date due to patches nerfs and buffs or are just plain urban myths propogated by people who don't actually know what they're doing, and I wish to commend the OP here on what is a very generous use of his (I assume from the avatar) free time for the benefit of the STO community. I haven't been on tribble to see for myself, but it all looks like good advice and I think most of the visitors to this thread will disagree with you that the advice comes early. There's nothing wrong with a bit of prior research and we'll see soon enough, after trialing and erroring the OPs info whether it's all good advice, or just some, or none of it.
No. Your fun makes everyone else's fun wrong by default.
I dunno... If they are going to play Defensively then that just tells me you need MORE damage dishing to overwhelm them and destroy them. Besides, that is how it always works. More damage = faster kills = win.
My best bit of advice is to avoid logging in for a few days after this hits and expect massive bugs and server issues for a couple weeks to a couple of months so be patient.
Very well put, I retired from the ground missions. I am strictly space STF's now. I find to much lag when I am doing the ground stf's so I just quit doing them. As for the information provided about the upcoming Season 8. Very nice advice, I have been doing that right as we speak. Racking up exp, dil, and other resources.
and thats where u well mess up cause they can reflect ur damage back right at u lol.
Wider angle weapons are a lot more useful due to the directional immunity/reflection most voth ships have and the small swarm ambushes. If you're running a DHC Battlecruiser, consider preparing a beam setup for it in advance. Mobility is paramount for engaging the larger ships (DHC Bortasqu and Scimitar builds are heavily punished).
I recommend some manner of omni-directional point defense - either a console, Beams: Fire At Will, Tractor Repulsors, Tholian Rep ability, etc. As previously mentioned, there are many triggered spawns that will swarm you from all directions.
Engineering Team is highly recommended. Voth battleships and Iconian probes are more than happy to liberally bathe you in Viral Matrix spam.
Voth ships have a lot of AE potential. Fighters and seeking/targettable weapons can get chewed up pretty quickly. Consider using torpedo spread instead of High Yield if you're running plasma torpedos. Also, be mindful of where you are in relation to other player ships - they/you might suddenly end up being in the center of multiple gravity wells and/or rifts.
If I may add my two cents as a longtime gold member:
. Patience, start stock piling up on it now. You're gonna need it in abundance.
. Keep checking the forums for any updates and the latest info, AND as a bonus !, it gets pretty entertaining on these threads when things go wonky....:rolleyes:
Keep some of your favorite alcoholic beverages in stock and handy, every time someone gets on the forums and starts insulting other players, enjoy a nice cool beverage !
You might also want to stock up on aspirin for the next day too....
. Treat emergency maintenance as an excuse to go spend some extra time with those closest to you, like your wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, imaginary friend... Just DON'T TELL THEM WHY EXACTLY they're getting all this extra sudden attention tho. Trust me on this one.
. Organize all you Star Trek shows and movies, go to the store and get some microwave popcorn. When you find yourself in downloading hell, Go entertain yourself by brushing up on some classic Trek for your fix. Come back to the forums and discuss your favorite episodes with the rest of us.
Relax before you burst a vein in your skull.
Nice to know I am not the only one who takes advantage of that time in a similar fashion