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Started by BlueBard, March 19, 2010, 12:44:50 PM

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BlueBard

I'm still on the fence about buying this game.  Love the franchise, but still not sure if it's right for me.

Does anyone have any insight about how playable Science captains and Science ships are?  Is there enough for them to do?  Are they able to solo content?  Do they level more slowly than more combat-oriented captains?

How family-friendly is this game?  I get that combat is part of the game and that there's going to be a certain level of violence involved, but how is that portrayed? 

What about moral choices?  TOS and its' offspring all dealt with ethical themes... does the game encourage generally honorable behavior?

What's the player base like, in general?  If you had to categorize how most people behaved themselves, would you say they act more like Vulcans, Starfleet, Klingons, Ferengi, Romulans, Cardassians, or Borg?
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Ares_God_of_War

1. Science ships were the most overpowered of the ships. I dont know if this will influence your descision in any way but you can be any type of captain in any type of ship. Your Bridge officers help round out abilities you miss. Basically you can level how you want to. The basics of a science captain seem to be buffing/debuffing/healing. Everything pretty much levels the same. There are lots of repeatable exploration and combat missions. On the patrol missions it usually groups you with anyone else in the instance.

2. It is about as violent as DS9's ship combat and some of the movies. About the most violent things I have seen are the blowing up of another ship and the disintigration of a ground enemy with a phaser.

3. Federation missions have a tinge of doing the right thing in the mission but there really isnt any sort of choice alot of times. All the federation missions want you to be the good guy. I havent gotten far enough into klingon missions but so far its been about combat all the way. They are also just fleshing out Klingon PVE.

4. So far there are lots of different people. If you have ever played WoW then the most vocal of these make it seem like Barrens chat. There are people who want to RP but I havent met them. There are the gold spam tells. And generally the people I get automatically queued with. Generally good experiences with the automatic queue except for a few lazy people who seem to afk and hope you complete the mission for them. So far the biggest source of douchebaggery has been when you combat the new Crystaline Entity. People seem to like to either yell and call names or grief the encounter.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."

BlueBard

Quote from: Ares_God_of_War on March 19, 2010, 02:51:03 PM
1. Science ships were the most overpowered of the ships.

In other words, don't be surprised over some kind of nerf at some point ;)

Quote from: Ares_God_of_War on March 19, 2010, 02:51:03 PM
3. Federation missions have a tinge of doing the right thing in the mission but there really isnt any sort of choice alot of times.

So there are no real decision branches as far as outcomes for missions goes?

Thanks, Ares!  I still haven't made a decision, but it helps.

How would you rate the storylines?  Are they immersive and interesting, or is there a lot of grind involved?

How difficult is it to manage ship combat?
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Ares_God_of_War

well I had a huge response to this but the forums decided to eat my answer.

Science has already been rebalanced. I think for the most part the abilities are based mostly on the officer and not the ship. basically:

Cruisers = Most survivability/Least Manuverability
Science = Middle
Escorts = Least survivability/Most manuverability

And again you can be any captain in any ship type. Also there are things like the various officers you can station per ship and the escorts are the only ship that can use cannon weapons. So it all depends on personal preferance. Personally I like the ship combat alot more than ground combat.

You can level pretty much doing just story missions. I do combat ones for fun and to get ahead. You can grind if you want to but it doesnt seem nessesary. You have story missions, Patrol missions and repeatable combat, exploration and fleet actions.

The story is interesting so far. You find out about what caused Hobus to go nova and you may find out why soon. I am a Captain so I am almost maxed. You learn some of the story lines about the Romulans, Klingons and I am currently working in the DS9 area. There are throwbacks to the various series including TOS.

The game is also getting new content all the time. They are adding more for the Klingons as well. Eventually they may let us play as one of the other races like the Romulans, Cardassions, Dominion or even possibly the Borg depending on feedback.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."

BlueBard

I just made Lt. Commander on my first character.  I knew I wanted a science vessel, so that's done.  I also promoted my Science officer.  Now I need to fill that ensign Science station.

I've got a candidate, but not really wanting to use it for this.  I'm not entirely happy with the available mix of traits and skills.  Are we able to trade officer candidates, and if so how does that work?

If I can't trade in for a better candidate, what do I do with the ones I've got?

Any advice?
STO/CO: @bluegeek

BlueBard

Another question unrelated to the last...

With my new rank comes the opportunity to retrain if I want.  I haven't decided if I want.

Here are my skill point allocations as best as I can remember them:

Science Team: 5
Starship Vectors: 4
Starship Command: 9
Warp Core: 6
Starship Operations: 9
Energy Weapons: 9
Projectile Weapons: 7
Science Practice: 5
Science Research: 9

I understand that the tier 2 skills cost more points to increase so there are diminishing returns.  If I know that I want to specialize in, say, Phasers... should I dump points in the general skill to improve Phasers or leave it be and progress from there?

Any other recommendations based on the allocations I have so far?
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Funeral-Pyre

Even though I have a toon at Commander 9, I'm still pretty new too, but here are my two cents.

Point allocations are best slotted for the BO skills you are working on.  For example, I'm a Tactical Officer on an escort, my main Lt. Commander is also a Tactical Officer.  She has Photon Spread, Cannon Volley, and High Yield Torpedo as her space abilities.  My ship is outfitted with tetryon cannons, disruptor array, plasma torpedoes, and quantum torpedoes. Therefore to enhance her skills, I spend skill points on abilities that enhance those skills, such as Projectile Weapons, Disruptor Weapons, and Plasma Projectiles. This way when she uses those abilities they do more damage.

As far as your current skill set goes, it depends on the abilities of your other officers on whether or not what you have currently slotted is worth it.  Do you have a science officer that has abilities linked to Warp Core?  If so, spend more skills there. 

You can trade officers at the Sol station or probably any station using the computers.  I can't remember what they are called atm.  The ones on the Sol station are in the room between purchasing kits and access to the federation bank.

I hope this helps.  If not, sorry. 

BlueBard

I found the Exchange and figured out I can auction off my candidates there.  Along with anything else I don't want to trust to standard exchange rates or the replicator.
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Lionheart

Quote from: BlueBard on April 12, 2010, 05:44:40 PM
I just made Lt. Commander on my first character.  I knew I wanted a science vessel, so that's done.  I also promoted my Science officer.  Now I need to fill that ensign Science station.

I've got a candidate, but not really wanting to use it for this.  I'm not entirely happy with the available mix of traits and skills.  Are we able to trade officer candidates, and if so how does that work?

If I can't trade in for a better candidate, what do I do with the ones I've got?

Any advice?

You can also pick up bridge officers through the exchange; some pretty solid Rares (blue) sell for 5000 or under. You do have to search for them. In the Exchange, set your preference to Rare, select the Bridge Officer tab, and search for Science to narrow down your choices. You can narrow the search further if you want a specific race (e.g., Alien Science). At the bottom of the results screen will be arrows to see more pages of results (it defaults to 100 results per page). I did this to outfit my new Science Captain with all Rare Bridge Officers, using my higher level Tactical Captain (Lt. Comm. 8) to do the purchasing, then mailing them to the Science Captain. I paid anywhere from 300 to 5000 credits and found some of the better selections (not everyone prices them to the extreme).

In addition, in the Personnel section, there is a trainer who can retrain your bridge officers with different skills, but only up to tier 2 skills (i.e. Jam Sensors II, but not Jam Sensors III).

Ares_God_of_War

or if like me you like certain races or what specific officers you can buy the Rare BOs and then use them to train your regular ones.

Also Bluebard I sent an add for you buy I seem to miss you online or something
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."

Lionheart

Quote from: Ares_God_of_War on April 17, 2010, 05:04:40 AM
or if like me you like certain races or what specific officers you can buy the Rare BOs and then use them to train your regular ones.

Also Bluebard I sent an add for you buy I seem to miss you online or something

This is true; the only thing you miss that way is if they have any inherent "superior" traits (non-trainable). But certainly for any trainable skills this works great.

BlueBard

Quote from: Ares_God_of_War on April 17, 2010, 05:04:40 AM
Also Bluebard I sent an add for you buy I seem to miss you online or something

Dunno... I have been on but infrequently over this past week.  I haven't noticed any incoming message, but I might have missed it.
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Ares_God_of_War

click the little arrow at the bottom of the minimap and choose social then the friends tab
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."

BlueBard

I am thinking about training up an extra Tactical BO... not much use on a Science vessel, but it seems like I could use the extra firepower on some of these away team missions.

Obviously, I don't want to keep too many extra BO's on hand... I only have so many BO skill points to spread around.  Is this a good idea, or not-so-good?

While I'm on the topic of BO's... should I promote BO's even if I don't have a Bridge Console of the appropriate level?  I know they can't use their higher tier space abilities without the right console, but they can still use their ground abilities, right?
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Ares_God_of_War

yes they can use their ground abilities. You will also get more BO as you move up I have 4 for my ship at admiral. Also BO points are something you will constantly get even when you max out.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."

BlueBard

Is there a limit how many officers you can commission, even if you can't put all of them on a console?
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Lionheart

#16
I believe they currently max out at 10.

[edit]It might be nine. I know there is a thread on the STO forums that gave the breakdown, but I can't find it at the moment.

I do know the following from forum comments I read today (my highest level character is only LtC8, so this is secondhand knowledge):

Lt. = 4
LtC = 6
Cmdr = 7
Capt = 8

Whether Rear admirals bump up to 9 or 10 is what I don't know at this point.


BlueBard

Good to know there is a limit, so I don't do something stupid :)  Thanks!
STO/CO: @bluegeek