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Waiting for the funny: a beginner's story and questions
compassman
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Hello everyone!
I got into Star Trek online after watching some internet videos of the space combat gameplay. Fairly interesting stuff.
Those videos caused me to make it my life's mission to play the game, purchase an exploration cruiser (apparently this is the way they call a Galaxy-class in this game, for some reason), and using a Borg captain, fill the ship with as many borg, android and breen officers.
Then I'd have my own ship, with dom-jot and Starfleet chicks in scant uniforms. Oh, and I'd name it the USS Benderprise.
The actual inspiration for the game came after watching this part, specifically: http://youtu.be/HFlb-CNrVtY
Lovely ship, isn't she? I wanted one, then I looked up the cost of such a vessel and....well, yeah. I'm going to get me one of these some day, however.
The fun part really started in the ground action. By some chance, my first two bridge officers were two cute andorian females. Watch it, girls of Earth, blue is IN. They neatly complemented my human babe captain (because I don't know about other captains, buy I don't plan on staring at some guy's TRIBBLE while leveling).
So while me and my blue girls sported advanced armour,shotguns, miniguns and rifles, these two security dudes we had to bring over for some reason, brought out a couple of phasers. Naturally, they bit the dust in almost every battle I had (dressed in red, too, very subtle there, Criptic).
Luckily, in the meanwhile, my team has been completed by a Trill and a Ferengy dude (and ever since everyone started owing him money for various reasons).
I squealed like a little girl the first time a Klingon Swordmaster charged me...only to go down on his TRIBBLE the next second with a severe case of minigun-to-the-face. Turns out they don't teach dancing at the bath'let academy.
I'd like to apologize for what may seem like a pretty schyzophrenic introduction. I'm starting to enjoy the game thoroughly. I especially like it how it favours a smart tactic against the enemy: prick the hostile vessel's shields until they fail, quickly use that ability which increases your agility by a lot, then maneouver your vessel so that you can blow him up with a salvo of torpedoes (bonus points if you shoot in the aft portion).
That's real gameplay, one out of many, I'm sure.
On to the real questions now. I've had success with cruisers so far, flying them with beam arrays, and assisted by a tactical console boosting beam damage. I also sport a quantum torpedo launcher, for that special borg-queen-on fire effect. It has given me enough DPS to get first place in the Starbase 25 fleet mob scenario, at level 29.
The Galor class cruiser which our slavic friend was flying, in that video above, is also a beam boat. Much more graceful however.
My questions is: how valid is a beam array build, on cruisers, for tactical captains? What skills are most indicated?
I have been informed that there are some sets, or at least parts of sets which are essential to most builds. Alien names, such as M.A.C.O. or the Borg set.
Second less schizophrenic question: dilithium. It appears to be the poor (cheap) man's source of Zen. Does it have any other use, aside from purchasing some mediocre gear and pieces of the sets mentioned above?
As a note, leveling up does not appear to be a very big chore, so far. I'm only stuck at level 29 because I really enjoy shooting Klingons over and over again (that and I hate progressing through episode missions without enough gear to smash the space opposition).
What's there to do once you reach top level? (aside from grinding my way to a Galor)
Thank you for your patience. I look forward to your advice.
I got into Star Trek online after watching some internet videos of the space combat gameplay. Fairly interesting stuff.
Those videos caused me to make it my life's mission to play the game, purchase an exploration cruiser (apparently this is the way they call a Galaxy-class in this game, for some reason), and using a Borg captain, fill the ship with as many borg, android and breen officers.
Then I'd have my own ship, with dom-jot and Starfleet chicks in scant uniforms. Oh, and I'd name it the USS Benderprise.
The actual inspiration for the game came after watching this part, specifically: http://youtu.be/HFlb-CNrVtY
Lovely ship, isn't she? I wanted one, then I looked up the cost of such a vessel and....well, yeah. I'm going to get me one of these some day, however.
The fun part really started in the ground action. By some chance, my first two bridge officers were two cute andorian females. Watch it, girls of Earth, blue is IN. They neatly complemented my human babe captain (because I don't know about other captains, buy I don't plan on staring at some guy's TRIBBLE while leveling).
So while me and my blue girls sported advanced armour,shotguns, miniguns and rifles, these two security dudes we had to bring over for some reason, brought out a couple of phasers. Naturally, they bit the dust in almost every battle I had (dressed in red, too, very subtle there, Criptic).
Luckily, in the meanwhile, my team has been completed by a Trill and a Ferengy dude (and ever since everyone started owing him money for various reasons).
I squealed like a little girl the first time a Klingon Swordmaster charged me...only to go down on his TRIBBLE the next second with a severe case of minigun-to-the-face. Turns out they don't teach dancing at the bath'let academy.
I'd like to apologize for what may seem like a pretty schyzophrenic introduction. I'm starting to enjoy the game thoroughly. I especially like it how it favours a smart tactic against the enemy: prick the hostile vessel's shields until they fail, quickly use that ability which increases your agility by a lot, then maneouver your vessel so that you can blow him up with a salvo of torpedoes (bonus points if you shoot in the aft portion).
That's real gameplay, one out of many, I'm sure.
On to the real questions now. I've had success with cruisers so far, flying them with beam arrays, and assisted by a tactical console boosting beam damage. I also sport a quantum torpedo launcher, for that special borg-queen-on fire effect. It has given me enough DPS to get first place in the Starbase 25 fleet mob scenario, at level 29.
The Galor class cruiser which our slavic friend was flying, in that video above, is also a beam boat. Much more graceful however.
My questions is: how valid is a beam array build, on cruisers, for tactical captains? What skills are most indicated?
I have been informed that there are some sets, or at least parts of sets which are essential to most builds. Alien names, such as M.A.C.O. or the Borg set.
Second less schizophrenic question: dilithium. It appears to be the poor (cheap) man's source of Zen. Does it have any other use, aside from purchasing some mediocre gear and pieces of the sets mentioned above?
As a note, leveling up does not appear to be a very big chore, so far. I'm only stuck at level 29 because I really enjoy shooting Klingons over and over again (that and I hate progressing through episode missions without enough gear to smash the space opposition).
What's there to do once you reach top level? (aside from grinding my way to a Galor)
Thank you for your patience. I look forward to your advice.
Post edited by compassman on
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Some basic information to a few of your questions:
Beam Arrays are the weapon of choice for most cruisers because the top tier cruisers generally have very low turn rates. At your current level, you won't have noticed that yet (the commander-level Cheyenne is the last cruiser that turns nicely IMHO), but ships like the Galaxy or the Romulan D'Deridex can be difficult to turn and point at more mobile enemies if you want to attack head-on. Beam Arrays, with a 270-degree arc and mounted both fore and aft, will allow you to broadside your enemy (as explained in the new tutorial) if you keep them in the area where both your fore and aft weapons can fire at once. Your quantum torpedo is a good addition to deal heavy damage when needed, as beams by themselves are less powerful.
Boosting beams: put skills into Energy Weapons certainly (never a bad idea, no matter what you're flying) and while your console that boosts beams is a nice choice, the consoles that boost specific weapon types (e.g. Phasers or Tetryons) grant better bonuses. For this reason, it's generally a good idea to only use 1 type of energy based weapons (all Phasers for example, though you can mix beam arrays with turrets and cannons of the same type without a penalty). I wouldn't put too much time into your current build until you reach the max at level 50, and then look up ideas for your final ship's setup. As you've noticed, leveling up is fast, so any gear you get now will not be useful for very long.
Dilithium is basically your endgame currency. Most of the top items require it, for example to buy from fleet stores or from the reputation system. Stock up when you can, it's always nice to have some in reserve; you'll definately be needing it later.
These are just very basic tips; look around the forums a bit if you need info on builds, there's a lot of useful information here.
Enjoy the game!
Vice Admiral Mathrias | U.S.S. Utrecht (Blockade Runner Retrofit)
Vide Admiral Kyurin | U.S.S. Cairhien (Fleet Dreadnought Cruiser)
Vice Admiral Kiarl Leftrin | U.S.S. Aegir (Fleet Recon Science Vessel)
--= Starfleet Strategic Command =--
Anyway, at top level, you're not actually done leveling. At level 50 you unlock the reputation system, which is more of a hybrid crafting/alternate progression system than a reputation system. Advancing these (there's four of them currently, they've been adding about one per season) gives you new offensive and defensive passive buffs and activated powers for space and ground, as well as much of the best gear in the game (between here and fleet holdings).
Each reputation is associated with a set of queued events (there is some overlap, especially with fleet advancement) and an adventure zone, which is a persistent zone, usually ground by Dyson Join Command has a space and ground portion, with a number of accolades and objectives throughout the zone.
Fleet holdings can also be a pretty big part of your endgame - these are similar to reputation but are much larger projects requiring the collaboration of many people over an extended period. There's also four of these, three of them are fairly small projects, just bumps in the road compared to but the main attraction - the Fleet Starbase.
Then there's the duty officer system, which is another alternate progression system based on the minor crew of your ship. You and your bridge officers don't take part in these missions, only manage the lower crew who do, but they're literally everywhere, and advancing all of the categories to their highest level takes quite a while. This system isn't as rewarding as other advancement systems, but it does have some useful features and ultimately has pretty minimal time intput for the trickle of dilithium, experience, and EC that comes back.
I was thinking of subscribing to the game, for the features offered.
Will these features stay if I cease the subscription? Because it would seem pretty advantageous to subscribe for a month or two, for the 500 zen, the free respec (do you still get a respec if you subscribe when your max level?) the removal of the funds limit etc .
Also, how are EC earned in this game?
So far, I've earned them by popping very rare stuff I got in the fleet slaughters (and it looks like it could get someone pretty far, since I'm a 3 million and counting already), but I'm sure there are other ways as well.
Thank you for the answers.
Yes. STO is weird in that way in fact with how much it gives (and you end up keeping) when you sub.
Bank slots, account bank slots, inventory slots, 6 respecs, more BO and ship space, and an unlimited energy credit limit. You keep EVERYTHING except for the unlimited energy credit limit, which you can easily 'purchase' for the 500 Zen you get for free when you subscribe for a month.
Keep in mind that you'll also get everything above after the fact if you sub (so if you subscribe at level 50 for a month) EXCEPT for the respecs.
So in short - subscribe while you're leveling your main and any alts you want. Let the sub lapse when you're done. Buy the energy credit cap increase. Now you have the best of all worlds.
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Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit (Excelsior-class, 2000 Zen)
Assault Cruiser Refit (Regent/Sovereign-class, 2500 Zen)
Both ships sport Lt.Cdr tactical slots (I'll get to why that's important in a second). They also both have "Fleet" variants you can buy if you join a fleet that has leveled up its shipyard enough. Don't confuse with the free Assault Cruiser you can get at Lv. 40, which flips the Lt.Cdr Tac with Eng.
Bridge Officer powers:
Tactical Team: Fill this in your Tac's ensign slot. It automatically shifts shield power toward where you're taking damage from. It is literally a life saver. Don't bother slotting it any higher than its ensign/level 1 version. The shield balancing effect stays the same.
Beam Fire at Will: Increases beam fire rate, but shoots randomly at everything in range. Good for clearing out groups of enemies (do be aware you will take a lot of aggro doing this). If there's only one target in range (like a boss), all the shots will be fired at that one target for devastating effect.
Attack Pattern Beta: This is why you want the Lt.Cdr Tac slot. APB becomes available at the Lt level, so if you have only a Tac Lt. or a Lt. and an Ensign it's hard to use it without demoting BFAW down to ensign. What APB does is place a damage resistance debuff on your target, making them take more damage from incoming fire. That means both you AND your team mates will be hurting it more. This is what's called a force multiplier, and is very good to have.
Emergency Power to Weapons: Recover weapon power, which helps with the drain
Emergency Power to Shields: Boost shield power and recover shields. A staple, always good to have
Now there's one somewhat tricky thing you need to do to really pull this off: You need to run an Aux2Batt build. Here's what you need for that:
Two copies of Auxiliary to Emergency Batteries (Aux2Batt or A2B) in your Lt. level Engineering slots
3x Purple Technician Duty officers with the active roster power that cuts ability cooldowns when using A2B
With those Technicians in your Active Duty Officer roster, you mash A2B as often as one of them comes off cooldown, so that it then leverages the Doffs to cut the cooldown of everything else. This allows you to act as if you have two copies of all your other powers, since you will be able to use them about twice as often. This is important on a cruiser trying to do DPS, since you will have at most 3-4 Tac powers to work with. You can get the Technicians for FREE by doing the colonization duty officer assignment chain in the B'Tran Cluster (which is off the Borg sector, Gamma Orionis). Crit on the repeatable assignment you get at the end of the chain, and it will give you a purple tech. You can start with blue ones, though you will have somewhat awkward lags in between being able to pop off BFAW and APB.
So, for the Excelsior, your final Boff setup would look something like this:
Lt. Cdr Tac: TT1, BFAW2, APB2
Cdr Eng: EPTS1, A2B1, RSP2, DEM2
Lt. Eng: EPTW1, A2B1
Ens. Eng: ET1
Lt. Sci: HE1, TSS2
You can tweak this around a bit to fit other cruisers. If forced to choose, drop APB. BFAW is what makes the whole thing work, and TT is too essential to survivability. For Eng, always keep the two Emergency Power abilities (but no more than two!), and the two A2B (again, no more than two). You can play with things like Eject Warp Plasma if you have an excess of Eng slots. Hazard Emitters and Transfer Shield Strength are pretty standard Science heals that most people carry if they're only given two Sci powers to work with. Pop an Aux battery consumable before using them, since A2B will have drained your Aux power to nothing, making their effect pretty weak. If you get the Regent, swap the Engineering Team for Torpedo Spread, and use the Regent's 180 degree quantum torpedo.
Some other things you can do to push it further, but may be expensive:
Plasmonic Leech: Spec the full 9 points into Flow Capacitors on your skill tree, and use this console to drain about 15-20 extra power into each of your subsystems as long as you are firing on a target. Can be bought off Exchange for a few million EC (if you're Fed). Klingons get it from one of their C-Store ships.
Marion Frances Dulmur: Marion is a purple Systems Engineer duty officer with the unique ability to lessen weapon power drain when you're using Directed Energy Modulation (that's part of why it's listed in the above skills). Marion is STUPID expensive to buy though, consider him a long term goal.
Ok, as far as that ship build posted above, stuff like that has become very popular. However, don't be afraid to experiment and put your own flair on things. You'll find what works for you, and what doesn't.
Also, again on ship builds, you'll have some people complaining if you're not squeezing every point of damage out of your ship possible. I however, take it more easy. I tend to use treasure drops, as applicable, for my ships. Also, if you have more than one character, you can mail your other character items, that the first one gets, and vice versa. So if you have one character wanting to use, say disruptors, but hasn't been finding much in the way of that, but your first one is getting them, send them on over to that second character.
Also, once an item, such as ship and personal weapons, ship & personal shields, personal armour, deflectors, warp cores, & impulse engines have been used, they become "bound to account". You won't be able to sell these on the exchange, give them to another character, or mail them. However, you CAN put them in your account bank, and transfer them this way, to another character on your account. However, ship consoles (Tac/Eng/Sci) will all become bound to character. Thus, you can vendor them, once used, or save them in your inventory/bank, at best, if you decide to no longer use that item.
As to making EC, you can put treasure you get from missions, that you decide not to use, up for sale on the exchange, and list it for whatever price you want to try to get. You can also just vendor them, if you don't want to bother with the exchange, or are running out of room. Also, some missions give EC directly, for the successful completion of it.
Dilithium, as one person explained, can be used to get various items from your fleet, and from the reputation projects (when you hit L50). However, he forgot to mention, that there is also a "Dilithium Exchange". That is where people can try to sell their dilithium for zen, and vice versa. It's pretty easy to use, and largy self-explanatory when you see that screen in front of you.
Well, again, welcome to this game, and I hope you have tons of fun while you're here!:cool::cool:
butcher suspect, "What'd you hit me with?"
Temperance Brennan, "A building"
Thank you very much for these ideas.
It's these little things that take quite a while to learn.
And, yes, it's good to have long-time goals.
How do you get that officer by yourself? I recently realized it's good to spam the doff assignments (and from what I understand, you get some better ones as you play, either from missions, as a reward for leveling, etc).
How many of these guys can you have?
Lt. Cdr Tac: TT1, BFAW2, BFAW3
Cdr Eng: EPTS1, EPTW2, RSP2, DEM2
Lt. Eng: EPTS1, EPTW2
Ens. Eng: ET1
Lt. Sci: HE1, TSS2
You double up on each Emergency Power ability and BFAW in the absence of A2B. Even then though, you lose the high uptime on TT, DEM, and all your heals. It does have the advantage of being super cheap and requiring no special Doffs.
For other stuff, it's pretty much accepted that some ships have been left by the wayside as power creep marches on. The Galaxy-class and even the Galaxy-X (Dreadnought) are the poster boys for this. We could list off all the reasons why they don't match up, but if you like them, fly them. With a decent beam loadout, they can keep up. Could you do better in an Excelsior? Probably, but if you're having less fun what's the point?
* I have heard some pretty good things about the Fleet Exploration Cruiser. While it is expensive, it would make a good long-term goal for you, I believe. That said, I would pick up the C-Store Exploration Cruiser Retrofit, because you need its saucer separation console in order to use saucer separation on the Fleet version. Also, you can claim it on any character at will, whereas the Fleet version is only claimed on one character at a time.
* I would not worry too much about Marion; a lot of newer equipment and the like helps to mitigate energy drain. While if you are a heavy A2B user, Marion may be ideal, he is not critical.
* Please note that in a lot of cases, after a certain point, DPS becomes more for bragging rights and PvP than anything else. I probably put out twice as much DPS with my Fleet Assault Cruiser than I actually vitally NEED, and I could probably raise that by another 50-100% if I went with an optimal build.
I have never allowed this to interfere with my enjoyment of the game, however, no matter the title.
Truth be told, I started playing because I WANT.A.GALOR.CRUISER. The guy in the video I linked absolutely shreds with it, and as far as long-time goals go, I think it's a pretty good one.
From what I understand, lockboxes of that type will drop again some day. And when that day comes (and the prices will drop), I'll be ready.
Why? Because it looks lovely, it appears to handle like one of those expensive cars, while still being a cruiser.
I've heard good things about the Galor (info here). A friend of mine has had one for a long time (it was the first lockbox ship), and he still uses it fairly often. He typically goes all beams with it, although sometimes he puts on the Omega Torpedo (he doesn't have the Romulan Reputation Torpedo yet, which is the better choice on a cruiser in my opinion if you have to choose between the two).
As for mechanics, they can become complicated in this game if you bite off more than you can chew (i.e. 'go it alone'), but there are many people out there willing to give new players advice about the finer points of the game. The Academy subforum is a perfect place to do just that.:)
The Romulan is better versus unshielded unmoving enemies. Like the borg in most STFs.The Omega is better against enemies that move with any degree of speed. Battleships and dreadnaughts are slow enough that they can't often get away from the romulan, but they have enough shields that often it's not really hurting them.
Also, romulan really needs projectile doffs to help it's firing rate, while the omega is bloody fast and doesn't benefit at all from projectile doffs.
the omega firing at a group of enemies with torpedo spread 3 is one of the most beautiful sights in the game. The romulan with 3 purple proj doffs unloading on a borg gate is another.
Both are great, and both have their purpose.
Having a ship that can easily bring such a weapon to bear would then justify issuing it the launcher that has the most damage per shot (since, from what I can see, the basic idea of torpedoes is to be used on unshielded opponents, for maximum damage).
In this case, rate of fire isn't such a big concern, since the torpedoes are tipically launched using skills (spread or high-yield), as a finishing move.
Seeing those 4 quantum projectiles hitting all one after another is quite a sight.
I can't wait to get that ship...
On another note: how does one get that amount of EC in this game?
To be brutally honest? Buy lockbox keys and/or Fleet Ship Modules and sell them on the Exchange. Various people have their money making schemes like flipping the Doffs out of Doff packs, or playing market control with a certain type of item on the exchange, mining valuable items through Doff assignments, or whatever. If you really want to get the gobs of EC you need to buy a lockbox ship in any reasonable amount of time though, you have to pump in real money.
Having reached the next tier (during a fleet game, no less, where I also got the first place), I took out of the bank the mirror universe assault cruiser I had purchased earlier. I like the colors on it and it has more crew (which is better, right?). Also, TRIBBLE having to work with a *normal* federation starship. Now if I could get my hands on some of those mirror universe bathing sui...I mean unifoms.
I am at a loss as how to fit this ship.
I have plenty of money - 7 million EC (not much by normal standards, I know, but for a beginner, it's quite something). I got them because I played in A LOT of fleets. Now, while I'm certain I can whip up a decent dps build for this cruiser, made for fleets (and it's possible that it will cost less than the 2 million I spent on pimping out the Galaxy-class I had before), I'm not sure running fleets like this will be worth it, at admiral level (specifically because a lot of the purple items I have been selling at lower tiers aren't worth so much on admiral).
I'm not even sure I could put together a batch of equipment that could ensure the dps required, at this level, to regularly take places 1 and 2
So here was my vague idea of how to slot the vessel:
1. Buy 7 purple beam arrays, of whatever type comes off the cheapes and can be peared with a cheap purple tactical console (such as disruptor induction, or something like that, to boost damage).
2. Buy a good quantum torpedo launcher (to go with torpedo:high yield 2), for borg sphere finishing moves
3. Try to think of something for the other spots...
Can you please help me with a few hints? I could only go as far as offensive capabilities with my theorycrafting.
I'm also uncertain as to how stacking tactical consoles which offer damage buffs work. For example, I have been running, on the Explorer, 6 blue-quality plasma beam arrays, with one purple plasma infuser and a blue direct energy distribution manifold. Would I have been better off with two plsma infusers? Are there any diminishing returns? Because I could stack three of those things on this ship, and if there aren't diminishing returns, I'd get a 78.6% increase in plasma damage.
Oh, but I'm going to keep the efficient impulse engines (despite the bonus not being much, apparently.
The way Tac consoles stack is that they give a flat bonus on your base damage. If you're doing 500 damage per shot with no consoles, and equip a +15% console, you will get +75 for a total of 575. When adding the second and further consoles is where people get confused. They expect to see 575 * 1.15 = 661. That's wrong. The second console still calculates its bonus off the base damage, 500. So with two consoles you end up at 650 (725, 800, etc).
Also, energy type specific consoles give a bigger boost than weapon type consoles. So for example it's better to have consoles that boost disruptor damage than ones that boost beam damage. This is why it's generally considered a poor build if you run "rainbow beams" or "skittle cannons", which means more than one energy type. Pick an energy type, buy all weapons of that type and consoles to match. You are also maximizing your chance of getting whatever special proc that energy type has.
Personally, I've been having fun replaying Sphere of Influence as a source of beams. The mission rewards a blue Antiproton Beam Array [Acc]x2 on replays, and combined with its standard rewards of the Omni-directional Array and its Warp Core, makes a nice starting point for a beam-based Antiproton build. The only downside to this, is that Antiproton tactical consoles tend to be the most expensive of all the weapon type boosting consoles on the exchange.
Vice Admiral Mathrias | U.S.S. Utrecht (Blockade Runner Retrofit)
Vide Admiral Kyurin | U.S.S. Cairhien (Fleet Dreadnought Cruiser)
Vice Admiral Kiarl Leftrin | U.S.S. Aegir (Fleet Recon Science Vessel)
--= Starfleet Strategic Command =--
Thank you for your indications.
They made a lot of sense out of this game (I've started the B'Tran Doff assignment, so I'll be getting those technicians this week - indeed, a very nice build).
I'm currently standing at level 50, with 10 million EC in my pocket (I've subscribed and I'm really digging the offered stuff).
So, where do I start?
My long-term goal remains acquiring that Galor cruiser. Obviously, it can be done. I have some ideas (farming DOFFs seems to be one way, or I can start grinding the crafting system).
Until then, I'm stuck with the Imperial Star Cruiser (which is not a bad ship, really), and I'd like to continue with another cruiser class vessel, which can field beam arrays. I've setup my skillpoints for flying, shooting beams and torpedos (very little science points).
What ship should I look forward to? Which faction should I start grinding rep with? There's a ton of Borg-centered group activity (and you need Omega marks for some *essential* sets).
I'm grinding doff missions at every possible timer ( doff packs are really cheap on the exchange, so I managed to fill my roster with about a million EC, got a couple of blues and a ton of greens from them, so I'm set until grinding the assigments pays off).
I'm also looking into running episodes ( I feel somewhat obligated to run them, I thoroughly enjoyed the mission on Tatoo..erm, Nimbus 3). The Sphere episode with Worf was really nice (they really like teasing you with that full-purple set-running Obelisk, in the end, those little bugs it fields just chew through the enemies).
Sooo...any suggestions?
And again, thank you.
(I just realized something: the Miranda-class vessel you start leveling with is the Federation ship blown up the most times in the television series. Very smooth of you, Cryptic, heh )
I'm by no means an expert on cruiser builds (I tend not to handle slow turning ships very well), but here's a few bits on the rep system.
Omega Marks probably grind fastest of all the old rep systems, although the top tier items (XII very rares) cost you heaps of marks. Omega also holds many items that are popular for end builds, such as the MACO shields or the Kinetic Cutting Beam. Personally, my approach has been to learn to do a select few Elite STF?s well, and to run those during the bonus mark events to fuel my Omega rep. Infected Space Elite is probably the best one to grind at. If you do Red Alerts, remember to wait to turn them in until there is a bonus mark event; it only gains you 2 marks extra but everything helps.
Romulan Marks are mostly only available in smaller amounts. The largest number available is 400 marks for turning in an Elder Epohh, but raising one takes a lot of time. (This requires Epohh tagging on a regular basis, followed by a lot of doff work). I'd advise this, combined with running either the Tau Dewa daily and/or some of the fleet actions that reward Romulan Marks. I'd consider this rep a lower priority, unless you want a plasma-based build as many of this rep's items are useful there. On the up-side, the Romulan rep does have the most varied number of marks sources, including a fair number of non-combat options on New Romulus and in Tau Dewa.
Nukara Marks are a bit like the Romulan ones. The Crystalline Entity event on Elite during bonus mark events rewards a fair number of them, as does ground farming Nukara Prime (several of the exterior missions on zone, easy and medium can be done at the same time). Nukara rep primarily supports tetryon builds, I haven't maxed mine yet so I cannot judge the quality of the rep items. From what I've heard so far, they are nice if a bit for niche builds.
Dyson Marks and Commendation seem to be fairly easy to grind for. As the main advancement projects are fueled by commendations, I'd advise gathering 350 marks (doing dailies and the battlezone ground missions from Cmdr. Arnold) and the option to convert them to 5 commendations, so that you can keep the rep running for 5 more days without having to grind more. I'm also finding that the battlezone ground is a good source to gather dilithium while you're hunting for marks. The Dyson rep is also unique in that it drops a box with a random item from its rep store every time you start a project, which can be a nice source of Mk XII gear if you've only just reached level 50.
As for ships, if you're saving for a Galor, you'll likely want to conserve your resources as much as possible, as they are in the very top price ranges. Fleet ships would be the next step up for you, but they'll set you back a lot because of the Fleet Ship Modules (and you'll need to be in a fleet). I think Gold members also get a free token for a retrofit ship of choice upon reaching Vice Admiral (?), if so you should be able to claim that as well.
Oh, and keep doing the doff assignments. They're always a good steady source of income.
Cheers,
Tirius
Vice Admiral Mathrias | U.S.S. Utrecht (Blockade Runner Retrofit)
Vide Admiral Kyurin | U.S.S. Cairhien (Fleet Dreadnought Cruiser)
Vice Admiral Kiarl Leftrin | U.S.S. Aegir (Fleet Recon Science Vessel)
--= Starfleet Strategic Command =--
I tried all the Omega-rewarding STFs today (the space ones, that is). Fairly easy with a team that knows what its doing. (I have 2 pieces of the Jem'Hadar set. Now the imperial star cruiser looks downright pimped).
I've invested a lot of my money on some mk XII beam arrays and boosting tactical consoles. I'm starting to regret spending the money, but my DPS has increased substantially.
I must confess, I'm not too crazy about the ground portion of the game. Does it provide any incentives over the space combat part of reputation grinds, or is it optional? Bashing borgs over the head with a bath'let may be fun the first few hundred times...wait a minute, it still IS fun even after a few thousand times.
On another note: I'm having a lot of fun cutting things with my beams. Despite my regrets over spending around 4 million EC on disruptors, I've never once felt underpowered (plus you get that green romulan feeling when shooting the stuff, yarr).
I'm also on a steady roll for dilithium, as time permits, which means that, at one point, I'll be able to afford one of the C-store ships. I've looked through the selection, and, unfortunately, none of the cruisers (except for the new battlecruiser, the Avenger) appear cut for an offensive beam build (at least, not from a BOFF viewpoint). Have I not been looking well enough for such a vessel? I should have the required dilithium (to convert to Zen) in about a month.
The Galor, on the other class, certainly has more in the way (/sigh, it's going to take so long getting the money for that thing).
Like I said, I'm having a lot of fun in this formula. Whenever I'm having so much fun, all I can think of is this: I'd be having a LOT more fun with some friends to tag along. It's the curse of all MMO's that let you have a good time by yourself - they tipically make it even more fun to have friends.
I can imagine how teaming up with a romulan buddy would be downright awesome (and make the grind a lot easier). I suspect that's how people in fleets perform this: they queue up in teams, and shred through the borg. Do you think I'd have a chance of finding a group of people that cater to someone who doesn't have a very stable schedule? I mostly play during the week-ends.
Also, is the bonus mark event occuring at the same time every day, or is it random? I think I remember seeing it at different times of the day.
As for your opinion on the ground portion of the game, it's one I share. The only part of ground I've really begun to enjoy is the Voth Battlezone, although I also liked the Starbase Incursion fleet action (the one where you run around a dark cargo bay). Ground also wasn't the best place to farm for EC, until they increased the value of ground gear in season 8. Nukara has its merits for the rep grind, but Defera is somewhat useless if you?re purely in it for marks. STF?s provide much better results there.
The bonus mark events occur at different times each day.
Weapon type choice is difficult, I agree. I too prefer to go with something that looks nice. My first character used Tetryons, but they are rather useless once the shields are down (or if they are not there altogether, such as with the Crystalline Entity).
As far as C-store cruisers go, again I'm no expert, but there is the Retrofit Excelsior which used to be a popular as a cruiser with a slight tactical edge (with a tactical LtC slot), the newer Refit Assault Cruiser/Regent class (also with a tactical LtC, as well as a Lt universal) which also comes the the wide-angle quantum torp, and of course the various Odyssey variants.
As for playing with friends, I'd advise looking into joining a fleet. There are many fleets that are very casual come-as-you-please, and they are also useful as a place to learn from more experienced players and to buy better items from the fleet stores. I'm still quite a solitary player, but enjoy fleet teaming all the same, even with fleetmates I hardly know. I would advise trying to find a fleet within your time zone though, as I've found that being a European player in a mostly US-dominated fleet can be an issue with planned events.
Vice Admiral Mathrias | U.S.S. Utrecht (Blockade Runner Retrofit)
Vide Admiral Kyurin | U.S.S. Cairhien (Fleet Dreadnought Cruiser)
Vice Admiral Kiarl Leftrin | U.S.S. Aegir (Fleet Recon Science Vessel)
--= Starfleet Strategic Command =--
It was an...interesting experience.
The very first one (The Conduit - Elite) seemed to go fairly well. I did my best to keep aggro off me, killing stuff went fairly well (again, it seemed to be less of a matter of dps and more a matter of people knowing what to do). I kept the gate between me and the last cube, the gate blew up and it was time to finish the last piece of cake.
I went full cooldowns on the square's TRIBBLE, and just as it was about to blow up, it instantly drained my shields and fired a salvo of five (5) heavy plasma torpedoes in my direction.
Turns out that if you're dead in an elite STF when the final enemy dies, you only get omega marks and that's it. Which was really bad since they also had the optional done.
On my next attempt, everything went smoothly. 6 minutes on the clock, and we only had the gate and the cube to finish. No biggie, right? 2 of the guys in the team just disappear, a la Jem'Hadar wormhole style. Naturally, the last cube takes turns in unloading all of its cooldowns on each one of us in turn, just like a real player would when confronted with multiple NPC attackers: shield drain, then full-on torpedo salvos and plasma beams.
I was the last to abandon the game.
The Cure Found went no better. Unlike the normal STF, it appears that once you destroy one of the three cubes, the other two start spamming ships. Which is okay, we had the dps to kill them. Turns out that those ships don't stand and fight, they just go full speed to the wrecked klingon ship, and start hitting it. This immediately broke the optional so everyone just sort of scramped.
Definetly not the best experience - the imperial star cruiser is far too squishy equipped as it is, and while it's half-decent at dps-ing, there doesn't seem to be a way to stop the borg vessels from completely draining its shields. There doesn't seem to be a visible debuff, just a beam shot out by cubes.
What's worse is that the frequency which with they shoot this thing is greater than the time it takes to replenish the shields. Really tough adversaries (duh, borg). Edit: I have since discovered the miracle of the science Boff power known as "Hazard emitters". Apparently, they don't start a cooldown on Tactical team, so I can use it to stave off two of the most annoying things the borgs have: constant boarding parties (with extra teleportation disco effects) and shield drains. I should probably get some plating with plasma resists.
Once I have more time I'll keep doing the normal STFs (which sometimes also award borg memory thingies, or "borg balls", as I like to call them). I suspect that once I have a full MACO set, things will be better.
Or, which set should I look forward to?