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Returning player - Fed or Rom storyline? Some Q's.
kamatsudash
Member Posts: 36 Arc User
Hi,
I'm a returning player, haven't played the game in awhile - tried playing a bit and decided to re-start as I was completely lost in regards to the story where I had left my old character.
Played through the new federation introduction / tutorial... and my mind was blown at how good it is now compared to how it used to be. It's completely changed, and much, much better than it used to be, and I was impressed by it.
However I'm not sure if I want to continue as a federation or start up the new Romulan story, as it was not around when I last played. Not sure how good / thorough the story is... nor with the Klingon's. When I last played, the Klingon's basically had no real story and were started at like lvl 20 or something like that.
Some points/thoughts:
- I never did get all that far with the federation storyline as it is. IIRC I never had to leave the vulcan block for the main storyline, was doing the last planets. I'd dealt with some false ambassador and beaten up some really nasty ship... and that's about all I can remember.
- Early fed space combat is as bad as I remembered it to be. Stupid suicidal enemies which try and scrape the paint from my hull every fight... lol (ie they race at me full speed and then try and circle me at 0.5 KM range... lolz)
- No credits. Yeah, I left the game with basically no money.. and Dilithium? was not a thing when I last played (or well, not that I remember). So any gear I get will be from quest gear.
So not sure, is the Romulan storyline good/adequate to pick stuff up and follow? I admit I am interested in seeing where it goes... Or should I continue my Fed tac captain and do the fed storyline since I never actually finished it?
- I know that at some point Romulan players have to choose either Fed or Klingon... at which point in the Fed storyline would a romulan player get placed?
- When they choose sides, do Romulan players get a separate storyline to that side's storyline? Or just tossed into the fed/klingon storyline at that point? Or do both a separate Romulan storyline and F/K storyline?
Cheers for any answers. I did look around... but too much focus on end-game and PvP... neither of which I have any interest in right now. Just want to play through the PvE storylines/gameplay.
I'm a returning player, haven't played the game in awhile - tried playing a bit and decided to re-start as I was completely lost in regards to the story where I had left my old character.
Played through the new federation introduction / tutorial... and my mind was blown at how good it is now compared to how it used to be. It's completely changed, and much, much better than it used to be, and I was impressed by it.
However I'm not sure if I want to continue as a federation or start up the new Romulan story, as it was not around when I last played. Not sure how good / thorough the story is... nor with the Klingon's. When I last played, the Klingon's basically had no real story and were started at like lvl 20 or something like that.
Some points/thoughts:
- I never did get all that far with the federation storyline as it is. IIRC I never had to leave the vulcan block for the main storyline, was doing the last planets. I'd dealt with some false ambassador and beaten up some really nasty ship... and that's about all I can remember.
- Early fed space combat is as bad as I remembered it to be. Stupid suicidal enemies which try and scrape the paint from my hull every fight... lol (ie they race at me full speed and then try and circle me at 0.5 KM range... lolz)
- No credits. Yeah, I left the game with basically no money.. and Dilithium? was not a thing when I last played (or well, not that I remember). So any gear I get will be from quest gear.
So not sure, is the Romulan storyline good/adequate to pick stuff up and follow? I admit I am interested in seeing where it goes... Or should I continue my Fed tac captain and do the fed storyline since I never actually finished it?
- I know that at some point Romulan players have to choose either Fed or Klingon... at which point in the Fed storyline would a romulan player get placed?
- When they choose sides, do Romulan players get a separate storyline to that side's storyline? Or just tossed into the fed/klingon storyline at that point? Or do both a separate Romulan storyline and F/K storyline?
Cheers for any answers. I did look around... but too much focus on end-game and PvP... neither of which I have any interest in right now. Just want to play through the PvE storylines/gameplay.
Post edited by kamatsudash on
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The faction you side with doesn't affect your story other than some minor dialogue differences; really its just about which side gives you material support in the form of their c-store ships, doffs and doff missions, and starbase access, plus who you can team with in group missions. You're still Romulan Republic, just liasing with the Federation or Empire.
A few of the Federation missions have been revamped--the most dramatic being the "Doomsday Device" mission, where you now have to commandeer a Harg'peng-torpedo-armed B'rel and sneak around holographically disguised as a Klingon before facing the Planet Killer.
And your right, finding the Fed quest's mainly the same, well my Fed captain is just on the first quest (SS Azura iirc). However, I've been busy running around with some new quest's which give diplomacy xp... which I don't remember being around when I last played.
Also found the whole Quadrant 'explore' stuff has changed dramatically since I last played, as now it gives daily Dilithium and not badges. Seems to me to be a good thing, as I found doing the explore stuff for badges to get decent gear to be boring, rather just do the quests.
Q - what is the diplomacy xp / level's used for? I talked with the fed diplomacy npc on the fed base, but wasn't left much clearer than before. Is it just fluff? Or can you gain gear and stuff from it?
Around the only thing I am 100% certain of is as a Fed captain I need to do diplomacy quests & such if I want to be able to access the Klingon block, as that requires Diplomatic Immunity - well, that's what I was told when I blundered into the block change while doing some quest to pick up a crate of illegal goodies
Thank you so far for the replies. I think I might just focus on a Romulan character for now, as while I know I never did finish the Fed storyline... I can't remember how far I got with it... and something new would be good. Oh, and Romulan ships seem to look a lot cooler than Fed ships. lolz At least early on.
Q - As Romulan, I noticed I have a skill which as a 4?5? bar power level that seems to power up and down, unfortunately I haven't really taken much time to look into that. It seems to be a PBAoE? How does it power up? And is it on all Romulan ships?
Sorry, I know that's not descriptive... don't have access to the game right now, so can't check for it's name.
Also, as Romulan.. should I be doing the whole battle-cloak when ever possible? Seems a lot of the passives focus on that.. which would suggest playing like the Romulan's in the TV series/movies did.. cloak into battle and cloak whenever possible during battle?
Definitely. Dilithium is much more versatile, as opposed to the level-locked badges (e.g. the level 30-40 badges being nearly worthless to a player that can get level 50 badges).
Diplomacy XP are part of the "Duty Officer" system nowadays. Once you reach level 12, you unlock the ability to assign your Duty Officers to perform missions that reward Skill Points, Expertise, Commendation Points (XP for the Duty Officer categories), a small amount of Dilithium, and sometimes more tangible items (even green/blue/purple quality ground and space gear!). Common (white) quality Duty Officers are also used as an input in many Fleet projects, should you join a Fleet.
Once you have unlocked the Duty Officer system (you will get a message from Starfleet/KDF/Romulan Flotilla informing you that you have been awarded your first group of them), you can get more by going to the personnel officer and running the recruitment assignments. For Starfleet it is the woman on the east side of the counter in the center of the round building on the northwest of Starfleet Academy. For KDF it is the officer just to your left after you enter the building on the east--not S'trass up on the platform--you want the guy on the bottom level near S'trass' feet. For Romulans you have to go to a console instead of an officer, and it is right to your left on the wall as you enter the doorway opposite the Admiral's office at the Romulan Command Center.
That is your Singularity Power display. Romulan ships use artificial singularities (black holes) as power sources instead of antimatter. This results in lower base energy generation (Romulan-built ships have a default 160 power units to allocate instead of Starfleet/KDF 200 units). However, in exchange for the lower power levels they get special abilities (detailed below). The number of bars in the semicircle (and the "level" indicator) show how much "Singularity Charge" you have charged up (you charge up more as you deal damage to enemies), and the more energy you have charged, the stronger and longer-lasting the effects will be when you use a Singularity ability.
Plasma Shockwave: Available on Tier 1 (lieutenant) ships and above. This is the one you probably already noticed. It is basically Photonic Shockwave on steroids--more range, more damage, and leaves a plasma damage-over-time effect on anything that it doesnt' kill. Use it to blow up encroaching groups of mines, fighters, or other things too nimble and numerous to turn your whole ship to face. It also briefly stuns and knocks back larger ships, but beware of generating too much threat--your tier 1 ship can't really handle four or more enemy ships targeting you at once.
Quantum Absorption: Available on tier 2 (Centurion) ships and above. This ability grants you shield healing and temporary extra hit points. These "extra" hit points are basically like putting an armor layer in between the enemy and your hull--all hull damage will come out of this extra pool until it is depleted or combat ends, but you CAN NOT heal the pool--all heals will be to your regular hull.
Warp Shadows: Available on tier 3 (Subcommander) ships and above. This ability creates (1 x Singularity Charge Level) illusory copies of your ship, and for several seconds enemies will be able to target the shadows, but not your own ship. Since the targeting information on the shadows is identical to that for your own ship, if you launch only a single shadow (i.e. use the power when Singularity Charge is at level 1), other players may mistake the shadow for your real ship. This ability is most useful as a distraction to allow you to slip away under Battle Cloak (or re-position yourself for a strike).
Singularity Jump: Available on tier 4 (Commander) ships and above. This ability causes your ship to instantly jump 5.0 km forward while leaving a Gravity Well at your previous position. The jump also briefly breaks all enemies' target lock on you.
Singularity Overcharge: Available on tier 5 (Subadmiral and above) ships. This ability causes your energy weapon shots to drain a negative amount of energy--in other words, instead of losing energy with every shot, you GAIN weapon system energy with every shot. You can thus shift weapon power to other systems, and then activate this ability and have full weapon power for the duration. However, be aware that other energy weapon powers (Beam Overload, Beam Fire At Will, Cannon Rapid Fire, Cannon Scatter Volley) get a 15-second shared cooldown when you use this power.
Obviously you don't want to cloak when you want to be shooting, since most of the time the two are mutually exclusive. However, you do want to be cloaked whenever you are getting into position to shoot a strong enemy, or when you approach a group of smaller enemies from outside of their weapons range. Besides keeping you from getting shot at during your approach, you will get to choose which side to shoot them from (good if they have their shields down or weak on that side--when you are cloaked they will not know which way to turn to protect that side from you), and you also get a 15% ambush bonus to your energy weapons for the first few seconds after decloaking.
As for combat, hit escape and put the setting on *advanced* if you are bored. You get better loot, that way, and the fights are "about right" for a player that has some understanding of how to gear up and control the ship. "normal" setting is really for novice players or casual players who do not understand gear, officers, or their ship. Same for ground combat --- advanced is about right (though some bosses will be very tough).
As a filthy casual, I would note that playing on normal doesn't mean I don't understand the game. I just want to sit back and enjoy the Trek experience.
Not everyone is here for uber 1337 PVP minmaxing.
No one said you are filthy.
I think you misread the thread -- he said the solo, normal content is too easy, and I suggested bumping the difficulty up.
And, if you understand the game, you can beat the solo content in blue XI quality gear without any challenge at all (apart from one or two specific quest bosses), on normal. You can even do non-elite group content and will only be hurt if you pull a big group onto yourself unintentionally.
Give it a try -- turn the setting to advanced and take on something like the daily patrol tau dewa sector for rom marks. I suspect you will slaughter the enemy.... because the AI is dumb and the solo content is, by design, fairly easy.
There are harder things to do (as you said, pvp, because the opponents are smarter, or elite content, because it hits harder or has gimmicks or overwhelming numbers or all 3) where normal difficulty is appropriate. But if you find the fights boring, the slider is there to use.
noroblad - I've played through a bit of the Romulan story, so see what you mean about what the basis of the story it. Seems more... appealing? a story than the federation story.
As for combat difficulty - umm, I'm fine with it being on Normal for now. Esp since I'm still trying to get used to fighting and such - just recently did a mission on my romulan where I ended up fighting 4 enemies in space at once and going *splat*. lolz. Was my fault, used abilites incorrectly and forgot to use some.. lol But I might consider changing difficulty if/when I feel a lot more comfy in fighting in space.
My only realy comments about difficulty has been regarding how the early fed missions have suicidal enemies - where they try and circle-strafe you at 1-2k radius, even though there is a 10km range in the game. They also seem to have a tendancy to try and get as close as possible to me when they are nearly blown up... I'll admit this is one thing that helped drive me away from the game initially.
This hasn't been an issue on my Romulan as much as it has been for my Fed - seeing as the romulan level's up so fast, and before I knew it I was lvl 10+ flying a better ship. This one I fly in at enemies, hit tactical teeam and open fire with 2x cannons and 1 torp launcher, and enemies go *pop* fast - then swing away and circle fast for another target. Unlike my Fed who is still stuck using the starter ship with it's slow turn rate, slow speed and only 2 front weapons.
Q - for the romulan warbird, it has 2 science officer slots, is it better to have 2 defense skills? 2 science offense skills? or 1 of each?
Right now I have 2 defensive skills (the default skills on the science officers I've gotten) - can't remember the name, but they are shield/hull repairs and resistance buffs. Was thinking maybe of dropping 1 of them for Tachyon Beam, which I love on my fed ship.
Q - on a Warbird, is Aux used for much?
I'm consideringchanging the power settings, for higher weapons and shields, similar speed and way lower aux... but not sure if that's a good idea. More power to weapons and shields would let me kill faster and take a tiny bit more damage... but now sure what the loss of aux would do. Aux is science skills? So lower aux would mean worse defense skills?
I made this thread because of the story, not end-game pvp, or end-game pve, etc. Was never too enthralled by the federation.. and really liking the personal touch of the romulan story so far. Thank you to all who have suggested that
Distance matters --- close up, you can launch targetable weaponry and the opponent cannot shoot it down in time. Some weapons (esp cannons) do significantly more damage up close. Far away, you can hit brace if someone lobs 5 torps at you, up close, takes better reflexes.
So get used to AI opponents trying to get closer in general. There are rules in it and some ships will not (some are programmed to flee, some are too slow to close, and so on).
As for skills... it depends? One thing to avoid are skills that share cooldowns. It is better to have a shield recharge and a science team than 2 copies of science team, for example. If you are taking a lot of damage and having trouble, more defense skills will keep you alive but your damage is reduced. If you are not having any problems, more offense is better than skills you do not use. Later, hazard emit is important but for a while, nothing will put any nasties on you so it sits there as an idle skill until level 30 or higher. Early on, tractor beam is nice, but later a mine thrower does just about as well if not better. Tacy beam is nice. I prefer low level defense skills and high level offense, but it just depends on your preferences. An obvious example of making a choice... the big utility for me in tactical team is the shield rebalance. Rank 1 is just as good as rank 3 for that in practice, while rank 1 of FAW or cannon whatever is inferior ..... but science skills you have to choose which you want more.
Aux is important at higher levels. Early on, for just about ANY rom character, (talking 1-30 level here) you probably just want to go max power to weapons, hang cannons on the escort they gave you, and shoot things. At 30+, when you start having rank 3 BO attacks, you may want to feed them more and some of those rely on aux, also other skills can use aux like engineer aux to batteries which is currently a powerful skill (entire builds are made around the one skill, I expect it to be "balanced" sooner or later).
and yea i agree with almost everything dude above me said.
the discrepancy is my preferences over what is "the sh*t" atm