Incline Official codex Star Trek Online topic :salute:

[dextermorgan]

I'm bored interested enough to give it a spin. Any particular server/world I should pick (inhabited by fellow Codex degenerates)?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

There's only one server.

 

[dextermorgan]

Right, whoever designed the noob level(s) needs to be shot.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Alright newbies, anyone who wants to join the Heralds of the Decline...post your character handles. Hit the Social button (the three heads to the top right), and then click team settings. Under name it'll have your character handle. Blahblah@blahblah. Post it here, and we'll send you an invite.

A Fleet Bank (charmingly small), our own chat channel, witty rank names, fun and brotherhood. Or come in and bitch about topics in chat so you don't create yet another thread here.

 

[XenomorphII]

Xeno@xenomorphii0

 

[dextermorgan]

vlad@vladan77

 

[DwarvenFood]

DwarvenFood@dwarvenfood

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Remember, to help me add you to the chat channel, send friend invites to Overman@vaarna_aarne.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

There's some kind of problem getting your Fleet invite to go through, DwarvenFood. Could you doublecheck your character handle?

 

[dextermorgan]

So the servers are down. This shit is pretty addictive, despite how poorly some things are explained in-game. I dropped (and lost) a tribble I found because I thought it was just another confectionery item.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Fuck fuck fuck when will maintenance end?

And what shall I call my future Assault Cruiser?

Anyway, Starfleet Captain Valkar continues his adventures on the new-fangled USS Majestic:

 

[Country_Gravy]

I have almost reached level 40 already. This will probably be the first MMO that I reach the level cap. I have mostly been doing the episodes and it is basically a single player game so far until I level enough to do the other PvP and PvE stuff.

I currently am rolling in the USS PoonWagon but I think that my next ship will be called either the USS KnobSlobberer or the USS PantySnatcher.

 

[Edwin]

Also, what you need to know is that your Class and your Ship do not have a major influence on each other. Your Class is first and foremost what you do on Ground when you apply your Kit, which is essentially your special abilities (Tactical = DPS, Engineer = Summoner DPS/Summoner-Tank, Science = Debuffer/Healer-Tank, that's the short of it). In Space, what matters more than anything are two things: Your Ship (Escort = DPS, Cruiser = Tank, Science Vessel = Buffer-Debuffer), and your Bridge Officers (who will be your array of special abilities). Space Skills are identical for all Classes (though only a specific class unlocks new training options for Bridge Officer abilities due to skill levels, ie only Science captains can teach Hazard Emitters III and only Tactical captains can teach Overload Beam III; Otherwise you need to either buy the abilities or use a non-commisioned Bridge Officer to teach one of their abilities).

There is actually pretty big difference between classes in space but all classes can function in different kind of ships max. they are not as effective as others.

for example science captains get sensor scan(reveal cloaked ships in a few kms proximity and - hull damage resist,its strength depends on your auxiliary power),subnucleonic beam(strip all buffs from the enemy ship,this 1 ability makes science deadly in escorts(like PURGE in wow just better)),photonic fleet(summons 2 photonic ships to aid you) and dampening field(mass shield resist buff)

tacticals can deal crazy amount of damage(compared to the 2 other classes) thanks to attack pattern alpha,go down fighting and fire on my mark(-hull resist) they also get something called tactical initiative which reduces the cooldown of all tactical abilities by a significant amount(BO abilities too)

engineers get abilities which makes them a hard nut to crack,rotate shield frequency is a shield resist buff and miracle worker is a powerful instant shield and hull heal.The other 2 abilities are kinda useless(compared to what other classes get) but nadion inversion reduces power drain and EPS power transfer speeds up power transfer rate and increases your ships power levels.Engineers used to be godlike but since Cryptic nerfed perfect shields(100% shield resist,now it caps at 75% I believe) they are the weakest out of the 3

somewhere after general/admiral rank they get tactical/engineering/science fleet abilities too(group buff),for example the tactical fleet increases damage output,engineering fleet adds damage resist buff and increases warp core performance

http://www.stowiki.org/Captain#Tier_1_-_Ensign_and_Lieutenant


Other classes can train BOs for you if you trade the BO with them.For example if you trade a BO with my engineer character I can teach him engineering team 3 and I can give it back to you(and he will keep engineering team 3).

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I'm up to rear admiral lower half and decided to take an escort because all my previous ships have been big fat cruisers, and I've got the odyssey for big fat cruisering at level 50. Escort's kinda cool, does a lot of damage.

As much as I keep thinking I'm done with STO I keep loading it up and playing anyway.

 

[Edwin]

The best solution to the autofire bug is making keybinds.For example I use 0 to rebalance all my shields and 1 to fire all weapons(so in combat I never forget to balance my shields because smashing 0 and 1 all the time is part of my rotation )

 

[Edwin]

Useful and active channels what I use(if you want something to read outside ESD)

OrganizedPVP(random chat and premades)

DOFFJOBS(random chat and helps you find rare duty officer missions too)

EliteSTF(just if you get to max level and you get tired of getting into horrible pugs)

 

[Szioul]

There's some kind of problem getting your Fleet invite to go through, DwarvenFood. Could you doublecheck your character handle?

You can invite with just the @handle.

Also they fixed the Autofire.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

God DAMN I am loving escort. Took me a while to get used to it, but it's pretty awesome. Taking out romulan birds of prey in one pass.

Real shame a lot of the upgrades I'm vaguely interested in are per-character and not account wide. As much as I'm playing the game I'd be tempted to throw them a few bucks for inventory expansion and shit, but since that's per character nuts to it. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaay buy more character slots at some point though.
Playing STO 99% singleplayer but for some reason I'm hooked. I guess just something relaxing about it, and the space battles are still kinda fun and the ground battles are inoffensive enough that I can get through them quickly. The occasional minor puzzle is sorta nice too. Don't think there's any way in hell I would've stuck with it if I had been playing while it was $15 a month, but free to play is bringing me back more than I would have thought.

 

[dextermorgan]

I just made a b-line from level 17 to 20 because I just HAD to have a new ship (heavy cruiser U.S.S. Titanic ), which, by the way, are what makes advancement different (more appealing) in this game than it is in other MMOs. It's an awesome goal that doesn't grow old, I think. The appeal to my inner (non-fanatic) trekkie geek is also huge - whenever I find myself frustrated by a particular piece of derp, there's always oh-shit-this-is-so-awesome something waiting around the corner to make you forget about it.

Considering cruisers are slow-ass beasts I'm thinking 2 beam banks + torpedo fore and 2 turrets + 1 beam aft. Sound like a good idea, fellow cruiser captains? Gonna go farm mats for Mk VI components before I go on advancing this char further.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I would recommend against going all beams. That's what I tried with cruisers for a while, and while it's workable, and is vaguely useful in fleet battles since you'll be hammering down shields and can pop "Fire at will" to take out torpedoes and mines and crap, they just can't compete with torpedoes for hull. Even fully specced toward beams and energy weapons and no points in projectiles.

 

[dextermorgan]

What about 2 fore torpedo banks + 1 beam and 3 turrets aft? (it's a 3+3 configuration)

I find that I almost never use the aft torpedo bank in standard config anyway, plus I like being able to keep fire on the enemy at all times, whittling down his shields in time for the next torpedo volley. Of course, discerning escort captain could in theory just stay on my tail but we all know AI isn't like that...

EDIT: Goddamit, maintenance AGAIN?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

That probably would be pretty good, actually. One beam and three turrets knocking down shields, then 2 fore torpedoes to hammer the hull. I might try something like that next time I get in a cruiser. I never really used turrets for some dumb reason, dunno why. Might try replacing the ass-phasers in my escort with turrets, since I've been running with full power to weapons I could probably handle it.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

In my PVE experience, the best use is to have a front and aft Torpedo on a cruiser, so you limit the terrors of slow turning. High Yield II can handily increase your firepower by a great degree as well, on both sides. I've been working out specs for my future Odyssey in my head, and I've been thinking about 3 Turrets, 1 Torp aft, 1 Torp fore and 3 Beam Arrays at fore. That way I should be able to chew through a shield (with the help of Tachyon Beam) and pop in a High Yield salvo and a Beam Overload before the enemy turns. Though I guess two fore Torps could be good as well.

What I'm really struggling with though is BO loadout. I know I only need one Engineer what with the max rank slot (gotta get Emergency Power To Shields III for Jhrat to replace Aceton Beam III), but I haven't figured out where to spend the Universal slot. I don't think I need Fire At Will, since you can eliminate Romulan plasma torps manually too, and only the battleship's salvo is a world of pain to me, but Rapid Fire for the turrets and some other Tactical abilities could be useful for killing shit faster, and Attack Pattern Omega would replace Polarize Hull as my Tractor Beam counter. Then again, with a third Science officer I could expand my trolling ability beyond Operation Space Fart (nowadays uses a combination of Tractor Beam, Sensor Scan, Evasive Maneuvers and Eject Warp Plasma) and improve my shield recovery too.

 

[dextermorgan]

Actually, with a cruiser it might be better to put torpedoes aft. I had a fight where I forgot to decrease speed and constantly had enemies on my tail, unable to turn properly to fire head-on. They got quite a few torps in the kisser though. One advantage of this is increased distance from enemy ship when it goes critical. Of course, this is untested, I'll try it out once I'm done researching my new ship gear.

By the way, speaking of daily Dilithium gathering so far I've found:
1. Starfleet exams - opposite duty office recruitment
2. Explore strange new worlds - some admiral dude hands that one out, goes hand in hand with collecting research components
3. Satellite repair - down in Pi Canis block, Xarantine sector

That's almost 1500 daily with minimum effort. Haven't tried user made maps yet.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

There's also the satellite repair mission.