I play on console [Xbox One] and my question is directed at long time STO veterans. I've got a number of maxed level fleet admirals and dahar masters, plus a number of other toons at various levels. You see I enjoy this game, and am a sucker for character creation.
Thus far no matter what contributions that I've made to the various fleets that I've joined, I have not been given access to fleet stores for ships or equipment in any fleet. That seems pretty consistent across my various playthroughs, whether I have dumped ample amounts of resources into fleet holdings or routinely donated stuff to their fleet banks. I am a daily player and I try to hit each and every one of my characters at least every three days or so, continually doing my part to help grow each fleet. My membership withdrawals in any of them have not been extensive, an item here or there and I have NEVER withdrawn any fleet bank credits. I see these same fleets constantly urging recruitment often teasing contest rewards for the most new members, and I see these same fleets regularly purge their rosters of inactive or "non-contributing" gamers. I have survived each and every round of that stuff. I have even pooled characters on both of my accounts to the same fleet in order to focus my overall contributions to these fleets. And still no access to fleet ships, ship or ground equipment, consoles, etc. has been forthcoming. I am not mad, but I am becoming confused?
Yes, I apologize for having beaten around the bush a bit, so thanks for your patience - Here is my main question:
Are the fleets in this game generally understood to be a tool for the founders and their "bestest" of buddies to glean all of the fleet benefits at the expense of the suckers whose participation helps them do so?
0
Comments
In my primary fleet (on PC) we have that posted on Info page.
If your fleet doesn't explicitly list that and stick to it....time to find a new home.
In my experience: no. It sounds like you've simply had a bad experience with one or more fleets. If leaders aren't attentive to contributions, promotions, and access then they don't deserve your contributions to their projects. This can happen if they're apathetic but if a fleet's leaders are no longer playing the game then you'll have the same luck.
Leave, find another, and repeat as need be until you find a group you can work with. That's all there is too it.
BTW, contributions track per character and fleet gear is claimed on a per character basis. All fleets I've had experience with only look at per character contributions, not account contributions, in deciding how to handle fleet ranks.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I don't play on console so I don't know the situation there, but on PC it takes a fair while for fleets to complete all available upgrade projects.
My character Tsin'xing
I will reach out to the fleet where my toon has parked enough modules to purchase the fleet ship that I want, and if things don't pan out; I will cut a dusty trail.
My character Tsin'xing
Yeah, but if you leave a fleet with unspent fleet credit then you loose it (as I learnt to my detriment when I swapped from a very inactive fleet to a somewhat better one).
This makes joining a deadbeat fleet a very expensive experience for casual players who could sink a lot of boffs or dilithium etc. into discovering that the promised unlocks are not, actually, forthcoming.
You shouldn't lose fleet credits, only the progress you've made in making fleet contributions (because what you donate to one fleet does not support all fleets in the game, each is individual.)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Dilithium is the responsibility of the folks who claim to own the fleet, so if you're being pressured to dump yours into it without an offer of ownership rights, that's a red flag.
false false false
Before you quit in a huff, be sure to send a polite email first.
It sounds like consoles have more of the less mature and less helpful fleet leaders, but in some cases they might be busy playing the game or with real life and are expecting you to send an email asking for the increase in rank.
I really do appreciate all of the comments offered here folks, and am particularly glad that none of the remarks offered so far have delved too far into negativity. I suspect that a great deal of what I have encountered on console is in fact somewhat common with many emergent fleets. I have not seen anything implying that dilithium is the responsibility of the ones owning the fleet, but I am all for that idea! Time to start building up that resource in order to claim one of those sweet Andrea models from K-13, if you know what I mean?
Here would be a good time to reach out to any fleet that might be pushing its own K-13 projects to the point of making that wish a reality? I've got several Temporal Agents that would love to visit your facilities.
Dilithium is the responsibility of the Fleet Leaders? Sorry but that is not the case. It is the Responsibility of all the fleet members, and should not be foisted off on one or two people, just because.
Now if a Fleet REQUIRES you to donate dilithium, or you get booted, then that is a red flag with sparks shooting out of it.
OP you are going to have to get a fleet that will give you access to its stores, If you were on PC you would be welcomed to join us but since we don't have a fleet on xbox, all I can do is offer you some advice.
Keep looking for a good fleet, They are out there, but sometimes you just have to search for them. Ask questions upfront before you join.
How active is the fleet? What tier are its facilities? These will give you an indication of how active the fleet is.and at the same time give you an idea of how hard it will be to get more FC to replace ones you spend. The more active the fleet the higher the tier will be as its projects get filled up extremely fast. Sometimes even seconds after the project is listed. The flip size of this is for Tier 5 facilities, Those are finished and only provisioning is all that's left. So getting the credits can be EXTREMELY hard in those situations, and about all you can donate is Dilithium. So you can find a fleet with Tier 5 and 2 active players.
What is required to be promoted to get access to the Fleet Stores?
Are Voice coms required? Sometimes the Fleet will require Voice coms to all who have fleet store access.
Try to find a fleet that is not tiny but at the same time has enough players to fill projects, in a reasonable amount of time.
In the end you have to decide what you are willing to do for a fleet to get access, not all fleets are the same, but the ones shouting out in zone chat recruiting or with fleet leaders who urge recruiting drives and contests have their own agendas, and imho should be avoided.
Never accept a blind invite for either friend or fleet.
One last thing. Never forget if you arent happy click the leave button, Someone out there will be more than happy to have you in thier fleet.
Good luck.
Fleet leader Nova Elite
Fleet Leader House of Nova elite
@ren_larreck
It's even fair to require donating X dil before gaining stores access since buying from the stores uses up "fleet provisions" that are gained from projects that require dil. If you get a K-13 boff, not only did it cost the fleet millions of dil to get the holding, but also more dil, credits, and common doffs to get the fleet provision you just used up.
But any fleet that requires a weekly/monthly "subscription fee" of dil, etc. is a bad fleet. Run away!
Odd seemed that my post was deleted or edited? Weird
I am a PC player, so dunno what is the story in regards to console, in regards to population etc...
Most fleet leaders are decent folks if you properly communicate with them, especially if the fleet is huge with many members, a simple oversight can happen. I recommend you in game mail your fleet leader.
Also read their store access policy
Fleet leaders can only see your contributions to their fleet only, however; the system doesn't give you the option to exam your actual contributions for that said fleet, so make sure you are crunching your numbers.
Although I play PC and not console, so I can't say how far along the Console fleet holdings are, it's all managed by the same group of people and having been in more than a few .... not so good ... fleets, in my opinion it's one of the best.
You can go to UFplanets.com and read up on them and how they work etc, and then if you decide you want to give it a go, just use the application link.
To check and see your total contributions to a fleet, look in the roster above the area where the comments are is a small box with an arrow says comments normally, click on the arrow and a menu will open up one of the options is total contributions. That will show you how much you have contributed to that Fleet holding in FC. That is also how Fleet Leaders check to see what you have contributed.
Fleet leader Nova Elite
Fleet Leader House of Nova elite
@ren_larreck
I actually have something of an opposite problem. I have my main characters in a fleet and access to the store, but for whatever reason, our leader decided to leave our former Armada and joined one without any other fleets (and the lead fleet seems to be one person). So basically I have a ton of fleet marks and no way to get fleet credits.
It's almost impossible for me to get rid of fleet marks in two separate fleets I'm in with separate armada's. I can check my fleet, and every single other fleet in the armada and the story is the same for fleet mark taking projects. And that is, full, full, and full. There is a serious need to do something about the ridiculous difficulty in that.
Systems like this were originally designed for players to organize for group content. It simply doesn't work that well when extended unmodified into large-scale construction investments.
In the Fleet I run, I make an effort to meet or interact with the new members on the first time I see them active. They chose my Fleet over others and they have a pretty good selection to choose from. We're an old Fleet which has been nearly defunct for a long time with a lot of members who don't seem to play any more. I'm not the Fleet Leader, but I looked around and no one else was doing anything with the Fleet. Since I wanted the Fleet I was in to be something I decided to get to work.
I want all our members to want to play with each other and enjoy each other's company while playing. However, Cryptic has done far too good a job making STO into a single player game with multiplayer aspects tacked on as an afterthought. I don't really see this changing any time soon. Season 13's supposed PvP improvements are something I am looking forward to, but I have low expectations. Too many things will be broken in implementing the new things and some of the new things will remain as broken as some of the other flaws in this game which will never ever get fixed. Not blaming Cryptic solely for the lack of bug fixes here. Blaming the people who allocate resources for bug hunting and repair.
People join Fleets primarily to get access to 'the good stuff'. I disagree with some who restrict access to Fleet Stores until a certain level of contributions are met or a certain time has passed. I am not saying they are incorrect. I am just saying I prefer to do things differently. Over the past year it has worked out well. Could we be 'burned'? Yes. Are there people more than willing to tell me, 'I told you so.' Yes. But if I spend too much time worrying about what might happen, this game stops being fun. Do you really want that? So I am promoting people one rank upon joining which gives them access to the Fleet Stores. Fleet Bank access is handled separately and disconnected entirely from access to Fleet Stores. I see them as two different issues which should not be linked at all.
I saw someone state Dilithium was the responsibility of the Fleet Leaders somewhere up thread. I also saw the opposite viewpoint expressed. I don't expect people to drop a ton of Dil on Projects I have slotted. Some of them will and I will as well. But I do expect people to meet the Fleet's Dil needs out of their excess. Someone in my Fleet choosing to convert 3,000 Zen into Dil and then drop that into the Fleet instead of getting that T6 ship they want is something I discourage. If they have Zen left over to convert after they purchase the ship, fine. But I never will be one of those Fleet Leaders whose only interest in a member is the size and amount of their contributions. Nor do I want members thinking they are accorded special privileges because they contribute more than others do. To date, I have contributed about 25 million's worth of Fleet Credits to my Fleet. This doesn't make me special. It makes me someone who wants the Fleet to succeed.
I have lots of other stuff, OP, but this has turned into a wall and that wasn't what I was after.
That project is only available if the fleet is T5 - not an option for less advanced fleets.