I'm looking for something to burn winter time with and am going to give STO a try, seeing as how some codexers play it. Anything I should know before rolling a character? Are there any classes/factions/whatever this game has I should choose in order to be able to join the codexian guild?
1) There are two factions, and by default you get a character slot for each (Klingon Defense Force opens up when your first character reaches level 24). We have a Fleet on both Factions, and a cross-Faction private chat ingame (to be exact, it's cross-Game, it works between STO and Champions Online as well, and will probably also cover Neverwinter).
2) There's three classes for your captains to choose from: Tactical, Engineering, and Science. The gameplay is divided between Space and Ground, and your Captain has abilities for both. In Space the defining element is your Ship, on Ground your class-specific Kit.
i) Tactical is the DPS/Rogue class of the game on Ground, and in Space focused on providing additional boosts to firepower of your ship.
ii) Engineer is the Wizard/Support/Summon class on Ground (by far the largest variety on Kits), and in Space has a powerful loadout of tanking abilities to supplement your ship.
iii) Science is the Tank/Healer/Debuffer on Ground, overwhelmingly the most resilient class there. In Space however, they're a bit more unfocused, and have a few deadweight abilities compared to stuff Tacs and Engies get. My main is a Science Vulcan.
3) The important thing your race determines is your mandatory Traits. Generally Traits are just polish to the whole, so they're not critical to powergame. Generally it's enough to have Accurate and another %-bonus Trait like Lucky, Peak Health or Acute Senses on top your race traits.
4) Your Ship selection is not limited by your class. Any class can use any Ship (though obviously there's some obvious synergies, Tactical doesn't have much going on in a Science Vessel for example), and it's the ship and it's Bridge Officer layout (and your selection of Bridge Officers) that determine Space gameplay. Cruiser = Tank, Escort = DPS, Science Vessel = Debuff/Wizard (there are further ship types, but these are the basic three). You get a ship for free every ten levels up to the start of Tier 5 (levels 40-50), and there's ships in the cash-shop (which for the most part are there for different gameplay style or exotic abilities, and obviously the sheer :monocle: of flying around in a Defiant or Excelsior; not p2w).
5) Bridge Officers are essentially your party, or more accurately your Spock, Bones, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Chekhov to go along with your Kirk. They too are divided into the three classes, and have abilities accordingly both on Ground and Space (you can change these abilities at any time by visiting the main hub of the faction, or by sacrificing uncommissioned Bridge Officers for an ability they possess). The really cool part is that you customize every aspect of each of them (with a few exception, like the Jem'Hadar bridge officer who is visually non-customizable) from facegen, body options to their uniform and stance. And considering Cryptic's extremely robust customization, that's a lot of fun to have. One of my favourite features. As with your captain, you can change every visual aspect about them whenever you want at a Tailor.
6) To join the Codex guild, just post your Char Name@UserName (they're all case-specific, meaning you include spaces and capital letters) in this topic, and you might as well send a friend request to Valkar@vaarna_aarne and I'll send you the Chat Invite and Fleet Invites.
