A Few Noob-ish Questions

i8udz · February 2016

I've been playin' for just over a week now and I think I've got the majority of the basics down. I'm just startin' to get into the nitty-gritty side of the gear grind now, was hopin' to get some advice which'll help me set goals and point me in the right direction.

I rolled a tactical Fed, for my first toon and have gotten him to 56.
Made a science Rom last night and have fallen in-love, Rommy ships look friggin' amazin', imposin' and beastly. I've seen a bit of zone chat say that KDF and Rom Warbird's are awesome for damage, are they better than Fed ships?
Would it be silly to shelf my Fed toon and go with a Rom? I'm not a huge alt guy so it'd be either/or for me. I don't have the patience to gear two toons at the same time, heh

Currently floatin' around in the level 40 free boat, a T4(I think?) Prometheus-type escort. The only T6 that I'm goin' to have access to (for a lil' while) will be the event science ship. Which didn't interest me, at first but I've just done a tiny bit of Googlin' and have found a "Beam-Boat" build that seems intriguin' and fun. Would the event ship be suitable for such a build?

Do the different classes matter hugely for end-game?
I like to min/max damage and numbers, mostly but I also love to heal; are science Captains on-par with tactical Captains, damage-wise?
How much healin' needs to be done, end-game? I realize there is no standard-MMO type raids in STO but are healer roles still as sort after in PvE?

What rep/faction and marks should I be concentratin' on, first?
Where can I find what all the factions have to offer/their stores?
I'm likin' the look of Antiproton weapons; is there a faction that caters to Antiproton do-dar's?

At 60; what is there to do? I hope more than just the daily's and repeatable episodes, I've been doin' to level.

Share your knowledge with me! I've just learnt that cannon damage drops off after 5kms.
Is there any other little half-hidden, tid-bids of info similar to that cannon damage drop-off that would be awesomely handy to know?
Does current engine power levels effect sector space speed, at all? Etc.

From lookin' (and droolin') at the upper tier ships in the requisition store, it seems that my fleet/fleet's shipyard needs to be of a certain level for me to purchase? Is there any other way to get ship provisions apart from the exchange and buyin' 'em with Zen?
My fleet is level 23 and not very active, which is great for contributions but not so good for actually playin' the game and conversations.
Is there a mature and friendly fleet out there that'd want someone like me; who's more than willin' to contribute, is friendly, semi-intelligent, polite and a little quirky once I find my feet and come outta my shell?

Apologies if these are all old questions, that people have already answered time and again.
Please help a bloke out and thank you for anything you're willin' to share. Much loves.
@i8udz

centaurianalpha · February 2016

Welcome to STO!

It's not a bad thing to have at least 1 alt; you can leave it alone for a while or use it as a farming character, especially with DOffing & Admiralty.

Beam builds are fine for science ships, especially cruiser class. Exotic damage in some cases can be as effective as DPS builds, just works differently. Several players here specialize in Science builds, and have posted extensively.

For faction gear, you'll need to look at your Reputation tab, and whatever level you have achieved in a specific faction reputation will unlock different gear options. In some cases, parts of space or ground sets are available at lower reputation levels, but in general you are better off waiting until you have maxed the reputation before buying the gear, especially since most reputations pay marks, 30+K dilithium, and faction tokens to buy their gear at the end of the rep grind.

The Voth have the most AP weaps, I think, though there are fluidic versions as well (Undine).

Past level 60, there is still a lot to learn & explore; exploration DOffing, the Foundry (1000's of missions), system patrols in all sectors, STF's with your fleet mates, etc. Fleets in general have seen some decline in memberships across the board, but most armadas have a common channel to find others to fly with. Expendables is my Fed fleet; you might want to peruse the Fleet forum to explore the different fleets out there before you commit, even though it is relatively easy to leave one.

The complexity of STO is what has kept me interested, after some of my gaming buds lured me here. Some of them have departed, but there remains much more to be explored & mastered!

noroblad · February 2016

Hey!

Rom & sci.. well let me warn you, there are almost no science ships. If that does not bother you, its fine ... you can fly a hybrid (more than 6 guns, and a ltcmdr seat in science) science nod death ship or try for a freebie (current event, unlock the ship for your rom sci!) or a box ship (the current lobi t6 ship is a great sci pick).

The current event ship is a science ship. Again, unlock it and you cna use it or not, its not that much trouble to earn it.
Beam boats, definition varies (some say only arrays and broadside, some accept banks up front ) but youll want a nasty hard hitter like the faeht, scimitar, or the like. A pure damage ship is going to have intel seating, 5 tac consoles, and at least 7 guns, preferably 5 of them up front but the faeht, due to its intel seats, can swing 4.

class matters. Big numbers are for tac captains. Engineers can keep a ship alive longer and are great on the ground. Sci is its own thing.

Reputaion is time-gated. Youll want to do each faction enough to turn in a daily rep increasing task every day. To do this, you can do a misison for say 3 factions per day, then a different set of factions tomorrow, yet another set the next day, and rotate like that. A daily mission gives several days worht of marks.

This isnt a raid game. At 60 you can do elite and advanced group content, but for the most part you have to figure out what is fun for yourself to do. I have a lot of alts and do a lot of ship building and tinkering. I do a mixed bag of whatever for fun, sometimes run group missions, sometimes solo, special events. When I get bored, a different character or ship usually takes care of that.

Cannons, eh? Cannons are severely disadvantaged. The aft cannons (turrets) are poor compared to the aft beams; the aft beams are 360s that do the damage of an array. Turrets do the damage of a pea shooter (though given the stupid dps potential in the game, you could still run 8 turrets and still melt faces). Cannons have a small arc, so its harder to hit stuff. Cannon damage is less than beams at about 7 distance. Its greater at less than 5 km, and significantly more at point blank range. Cannon officer skills are bumped up 1 notch for the same skill as a beam. So for example your aoe is not available at ensign level but for beams, it is. Cannons have a crappy aoe, beams hit everything in a very large swath and again, hit hard at range. To aoe with cannons, step 1) lob a massive gravity well with high gravity gens. Step 2: wait for them to pile up. Step 3, use cannon aoe on the pile. Anything else, you probably only hit a ship or 2 for decent numbers in most situations. On top of this the crafting beam aoe skill is better. Overload is not as power hoggish as rapid and is more effective in general. All in all, cannons are weaker. Cannons do ONE thing well: they can obliterate one target at point blank range while flanking in a real raider. This is compared to driving by killing all the targets with a beam ship. Cannons are FUN, but they are simply not best from a max/min perspective, in other words.

You can't buy fleet provisions. Yes, your fleet has to work to unlock a lot of the stores. There are tons of casual fleets that have most of the stuff available to use. A lot of the fleet gear is outdated, but not all of it... ships are the main thing you can't replace from another source. Id invite you to our fleet but its also not terribly active.

twg042370 · February 2016

i8udz wrote: »

At 60; what is there to do? I hope more than just the daily's and repeatable episodes, I've been doin' to level.

Week 1: Finish up missions you skipped.

Week 2: Do daily clickies.

Week 3: Farm for Zen.

Week 4: Sigh. Roll a Klingon and run errands for Worf.

Unknown · February 2016

This content has been removed.

antonio · February 2016

Hello everyone!
I am sorry for being off-topic, but I am still not able to post a topic, so I had to post IN some of the existing topics and couldn't find a suitable one.
Anyway, how can I play the game?? I downloaded it, but when I open it, I don't know what to do. I can't enter the game. Only think that I can click on the window that opens, except 2 commercials that redirect me to the page with news etc, is some "visit the gateway". But when I do that, and log in there, it tells me that I haven't created a character and that I should go to the star trek online and create a character first. But where exactly should I go and how should I create it?? Because I don't see any place like that!
Thanks in advance for help!

noroblad · February 2016

You should see a screen when you start the game that says login, user name and password, and right near that, "register" ... click register and make an account. You may need to give an email address for this. Its free.

Once that is done, and you get past the login screen, you can make a character in-game right there.

gateway is no longer a valid thing, you can ignore it.

noroblad · February 2016

Actually, sorry, once you log in you get the dumb advertisement page. I forgot about that. At the bottom of THAT is the word engage. Hit this.

antonio · February 2016

Thanks everyone for answers. It succeeded and I play now :)
However, I have a new problem, and I hope no one will get mad if I post it in this topic. Anyway, it's connected with ship customizing. When I do it in shipyard, mostly it works, EXCEPT when it comes to the interior. Now matter how many times I pressed "ok", "save", "purchase", I always have origin medium interior. And few times I was going back to shipyard, trying to change it to sleek small for example, but with no effect. Why is it so and what can I do?

noroblad · February 2016

You have to hit purchase even if it does not cost anything, if I remember it correctly. Some of these cost zen (real money tokens, but can get in game) and you can't use without paying. Others you can just use. But you still have to hit purchase either way, I think. Check the price, make sure its zero or that you want to pay for it. Interiors have virtually no effect in game ... I would not buy them, but thats just me.

antonio · February 2016

Noroblad, as I already mentioned in my post, I did hit "purchase". But it doesn't change anything. And those interiors are free, they don't cost anything.

noroblad · February 2016

May be a bug. I havent tried to change an interior in ages, and stuff does stop working now and again. If none of the buttons change it, do a bug report.

A Few Noob-ish Questions

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