I would suggest that STO is better designed for someone like me than someone like you. If grinding raids for gear is your thing, there are many games that do it much better. STO is my current favorite game. There's more than enough content to keep me busy without ever touching raids or PvP.
Combat is a big part of STO. I wouldn't call it a combat game, though. There are plenty of action games that feed the need for some to have near-constant combat. There's a lot of role play potential in this game, and managing assets (like DOffs and such). I enjoy a non-combat mission just as much as a combat one, and there…
You're missing the point. I'm not saying it's too much trouble to gear for elites. I'm saying that I don't bother gearing for elites, because I don't have fun playing elites. As for getting advanced gear with minimal effort, I don't do team content. That pretty much leaves reputation, which takes me ages. Yes, a few pieces…
Not all of us put effort into min/max. If you grind and gear for elites, yes, the normal stuff will be target practice. For me, with my Mark XI-XII very rare gear and loads of characters, Normal is just fine.
Do something I won't enjoy? No. It doesn't matter whether I'm capable of doing it or not. I play the game to have fun, and I don't have fun doing raids.
Say, that sounds pretty good... ZOMG! I had a bunch of characters in the 55-59 range. After cashing in Admiralty and DOff missions, they are 60. Wow. I wasn't planning on making a new character until all my existing characters reached 60. I guess I can get on with that now.
I lucked out with the Breen ships from the past two Winter events. My KDF characters were hurting for T6 ships. The carrier works great for my science Orion, and the dreadnought is perfect for my engineer Joined Trill. But those ships aren't available for people who missed those events.
Fortunately, I never liked those costumes. I wouldn't buy them if they sold for 1,000 dilithium each. I just hope that kind of thing doesn't become a trend. Of course, I was hoping the same thing for the lobi costumes, and that clearly didn't work out.
I asked for some decent boot options for my non-Klingon KDF characters. It took a very long time, but I finally got them. I am happy to play my KDF characters these days. Of course, they'll have to wait a little while, because I'm busy with my AoY characters.
Since I don't do task forces, no, it won't be the one rep I max. The one I've maxed is Delta. I can do Delta and Romulan pretty easily. I have no idea what the Tholian Red Alert is like, but if it's like the old red alerts, I wouldn't be interested in doing it.
I have low expectations for any expansion. I've been enjoying this expansion a lot, though, so it's certainly exceeded my expectations. I have my new AoY characters, and they've been benefitting greatly from the Temporal Agent system. I like my new temporal battlecruiser, and I've been making good use of some of the new…
In general, I haven't been interested in the Reputation System until recently. I've only managed to complete one, and only on my main character, but that's because I've been mostly ignoring the system. Now that I've completed one, I'm looking more closely at the system, especially with my AoY characters earning thousands…
I focus mainly on solo PvE. I also enjoy the DOff and Admiralty systems. I do spend a fair amount of time on my characters' and BOffs' appearances, but I don't think that would quite qualify me for the space Barbie/collector option.
I've never been big on collecting ships, and I haven't bought any with real money so far. My main character has 13 ships, all T5-T6, and I could easily bump that up to 16 ships. I'll be getting another T6 before long, and I could add in a Connie and a T4 dilithium ship if I scrap a couple shuttles. Any more than that, I'd…