Author Topic: Star Trek Online  (Read 273830 times)

Xev

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #140 on: June 16, 2016, 01:25:00 PM »
It seems like I needed ARC to install STO (I can't remember how I did it atm..).

You don't need ARC to run STO once it's been installed, though. Just make a shortcut to the edit: Client executable Launcher. F/x "F:\STO\Star Trek Online_en\Star Trek Online.exe"

CO works the same way.

This is assuming that you have no problems with the game going on ofc!

I really dislike Arc. Bloated bast.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2016, 01:40:42 PM by Xev »
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Exxar

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #141 on: June 16, 2016, 04:52:26 PM »
So you don't need Arc to patch the games?

Xev

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #142 on: June 16, 2016, 05:20:56 PM »
You do not need Arc to play and patch STO or CO once it is installed.

You don't need Arc for anything but setting up a PWE account initially and(?) downloading the client.
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Turjan

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #143 on: June 17, 2016, 10:12:00 AM »
I just checked, and the 'last date modified' stamp on my Cryptic STO launcher is actually December 2014 (installed in 2009).

It seems to behave itself with patching the game (I did just visit Risa last week to look at 'Teh New Shiny' ) so I reckon Dec 2014 was the last compatible non-Arc version. They campaigned on the forum for ages at the time getting everyone to swap over to Arc (even dangling the extremely fancy open-chested Ceti Alpha V Khan outfit as an exclusive for getting the Arc updater) but it wasn't demanded to change over.

So it's possible that Dec 2014 version of the Cryptic launcher might work with a fresh install. My install has been on that hard drive since STO beta though, so in all honesty I can't say if the game's referencing any other quirky old files when it launches without the help of Arc.

Ah well, at least you might be able to get the Khan outfit by installing the Arc thing - as far as I know it's still not available in the ingame store. I certainly don't have it, so it may well still be exclusive to Arc users.

Xev

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #144 on: June 17, 2016, 01:38:22 PM »
Just in case anyone gets confused. I just installed STO a few months ago for he first time. I had to use Arc to set up an account and I think I needed it to download the client. Once the client was installed I promptly stopped using Arc.

Just make a shortcut to the launcher (f/x "F:\STO\Star Trek Online_en\Star Trek Online.exe) if you want to run the game without Arc. It works the same with CO.

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Xev

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #145 on: June 20, 2016, 01:33:10 PM »
I think one wall I'm running into now is my gear..

Take the Crystalline Entity event f/x.. That part where we are supposed to stop attacking and no one does so we all get mega damage-pulsed? I get one-shotted on that almost every time and almost every time I'm the only one.. or I'm at least in the minority.

I have or am close to level 5 rep with everyone but I still don't understand how gear sets work other than they exist and if I have a complete set then I get some kind of combat bonus(es).

I have mostly mk 12 purples.. 1 mk 14 just due to I wanted to see how to make a mk 14 and then I stopped due to it seemed like a lot of expense for one not knowing what he was doing..

BTW... having a wall sized (ok it's not THAT big...) TV helps a lot with the telling the front from the back of the ship issue... Man, was it worth the wait to see STO large ...   : )
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Angel Phoenix77

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #146 on: June 21, 2016, 01:14:40 AM »
I just did a test on how to make fast legal money :D, I deposited 21750000 ec into my account bank that left me. That left me with 250 k, which I turned into 2100000 in two hours :D.
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Arcana

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #147 on: June 21, 2016, 02:44:43 AM »
I think one wall I'm running into now is my gear..

Take the Crystalline Entity event f/x.. That part where we are supposed to stop attacking and no one does so we all get mega damage-pulsed? I get one-shotted on that almost every time and almost every time I'm the only one.. or I'm at least in the minority.

I have or am close to level 5 rep with everyone but I still don't understand how gear sets work other than they exist and if I have a complete set then I get some kind of combat bonus(es).

I have mostly mk 12 purples.. 1 mk 14 just due to I wanted to see how to make a mk 14 and then I stopped due to it seemed like a lot of expense for one not knowing what he was doing..

BTW... having a wall sized (ok it's not THAT big...) TV helps a lot with the telling the front from the back of the ship issue... Man, was it worth the wait to see STO large ...   : )

For something like the Crystalline Entity mission, until you're well-geared up (or like exploding) I'd stick to the easy queue instead of the advanced queue.  In the advanced queue nobody stops shooting because honestly pretty much everyone has enough resilience to survive the pulse.  If you're having trouble even surviving the pulse in the easy queue then when it says to stop shooting because the entity is absorbing energy, fly out to just outside 10km.  The pulse only reaches that far.  You'll be out of range, but so will it.  Then fly back into range when the pulse goes off.

In my opinion the quickest way to get a very sturdy ship is to get a high level cruiser and outfit it with the Kobali set, and plug a lot of armor into the engineering console slots.  You don't really need a ton of offensive firepower when you are running in team queues, just good enough.  But a lot of defense helps.  Think Scrapper or Brute: you want to build ships like strong Scrappers when you are starting out.  That means twenty purples in attacks is okay, but just a few in defense is much better.

Don't spend money upgrading past Mk12 until you know what you're doing.  It isn't necessary to run advanced queues, and I could solo Borg events in my Kobali cruiser with just mark 12 gear.

Also, your bridge officers, or rather their powers, can be just as important as gear.  In effect, bridge officers are like CoH powersets, and their abilities are like powers.  And because you can train them, you can in effect customize your build with something close to exactly the mix of powers you want, within the limits of how many (and what kind) of bridge officers you have.

Think of bridge officers as like the primary, secondary, and pool powers you picked in CoH.  STO gear are kind of like inventions.  Ships are like archetypes.  Ship tiers are like CoH levels.

Incidentally, I would get all your reps to level 5 because they unlock all sorts of goodies, but I wouldn't buy anything from the rep stores, again, until you know what you are doing.  Some of the best gear is stuff you can get for free just by running the appropriate mission arcs and choosing them as rewards at the end.  The entire Kobali set except for the warp core, for example, you can get just by running Dust to Dust over and over.  I like this set because the deflector dish gives good defensive buffs (shield and hull regen and capacity), the shield is one of the bigger shields in capacity, and if you slot just the three easy to get pieces the set bonuses include a hull regen that gets higher as your hull gets lower, and an emergency heal that triggers automatically whenver you have less than 25% health.

This is just my opinion, but I think when you are learning STO you should start in cruisers and branch out to science and escorts as you get better and more knowledgeable.  Cruisers are the Scrappers of STO.  Escorts are the Blasters, and that's in a world without crazy inventions that can soft-cap you.  Science are like debuffing controllers without a lot of hard control.  In terms of how easy they are to pilot, I would say at high levels it is Cruisers are the easiest, then Science, then Escorts.  When leveling, I level with escorts until about the 30s.  Just like CoH blasters, in the early levels it is all about how much offense you can pack to kill things, then one day you discover oh yeah, the enemies shoot back and then Scrappers overtake Blasters in the good-enough offense but-actually-still-alive department.

Xev

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #148 on: June 21, 2016, 10:53:27 PM »
Cool, thanks.

Besides not having enough HP's to survive the Crystalline Entity on Advanced I also don't like 45 degree arc cannons (I'm using them at the front with rear turrets..). It seems like if I run an Escort it's a waste to not use the biggest cannons I can put in the thing. It seemed like I was doing better overall dps with 230 (ish?) degree arc phasers and firing off torpedoes from the rear when I needed to turn around or finish someone off, though. Also, with the cannons, it seems like, a lot of the time, I end up turtling in one spot - or trying to. So I can pew-pew in that narrow arc without having to turn around so much when I'm about to bump into the bad guy. With the phasers and torpedoes I was always on the move. Which, is a lot more fun to me.

I think a gear upgrade will get me through the Entity with my Escort. I've already been thinking about trying out a new newb.. Can't decide on Science or Cruiser. They both look fun and more survivable especially for a newb player. Klingon/Rom stuff is usually cheaper in the Auction house and I want to try Klingon and Rom ships too.

I should have lvl 5 rep with everyone soon with my Escort guy. I'm very happy with my Boffs but I would like to experiment. I'm happy enough with my Doff bonuses for now. I'm not going to mess with any more MK XIV upgrades or Rep gear until I have a better idea about things.

Once I get level 5 rep with someone.... I can get some kind of token with them to pass on to my newbs that gives them double xp with that faction? Is that right?

I looked around some for Dust to Dust.. I haven't ran mishes since like level 30.. Didn't find it.. Hint?

I'm missing out on the whole Summer Event thing  : / There still time to get the ship?

I usually run advanced queues just due to .. I figure I ought to be able to by now! They are way more active, too..  I won't run the Crystalline Entity one on Advanced again until I can survive the death-to-newbs-pulse.. Maybe you're right, though, maybe it's smarter to learn the game with an easier ship and to twink out my Escort with said ship. I want to try the different playstyles too.


« Last Edit: June 21, 2016, 10:59:33 PM by Xev »
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Arcana

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #149 on: June 22, 2016, 02:50:39 AM »
Besides not having enough HP's to survive the Crystalline Entity on Advanced I also don't like 45 degree arc cannons (I'm using them at the front with rear turrets..). It seems like if I run an Escort it's a waste to not use the biggest cannons I can put in the thing. It seemed like I was doing better overall dps with 230 (ish?) degree arc phasers and firing off torpedoes from the rear when I needed to turn around or finish someone off, though. Also, with the cannons, it seems like, a lot of the time, I end up turtling in one spot - or trying to. So I can pew-pew in that narrow arc without having to turn around so much when I'm about to bump into the bad guy. With the phasers and torpedoes I was always on the move. Which, is a lot more fun to me.

Important note: escorts are a bit glass cannon-like and they sucker you even more by giving you access to cannons.  They only fire forward, so the tendency is to not fly around so fast and just point at the target.  But in STO, unlike in CoH, movement helps: the faster you move the higher evasion you have.  If you stand still you get hit more.  Less health + standing still = dead escort.

Which is not to say a good escort driver can't make it work, but it took me a while to get reasonably good at driving escorts.

Quote
Once I get level 5 rep with someone.... I can get some kind of token with them to pass on to my newbs that gives them double xp with that faction? Is that right?

Yeah, you should drive one alt to level 5 first, then buy the reputation token.  You can buy as many as you want and give them to alts.  When you give it to an alt and they run the appropriate task, they start earning reputation XP twice as fast as before.  Not only are you progressing twice as fast you're using only half the marks.  So you end up burning less marks, and if you decide to buy things from the reputation shop later you have more left over.  Definitely worth it.


Quote
I looked around some for Dust to Dust.. I haven't ran mishes since like level 30.. Didn't find it.. Hint?

Dust to Dust is the last mission in the Delta Quadrant series.

Incidentally, if you're farming marks to run through the reputation levels you are aware of the two repeatables on Kobali Prime, right?  The last two missions on the Kobali zone (or rather penultimate: the "last" mission is basically just a wrap up zero-combat story thing) grant Iconian and Delta marks, and they grant daily bonuses for the first run of the day.  So if you run them once per day each, you'll get about 60ish Iconian and Delta marks for about fifteen minutes of effort.


Quote
I'm missing out on the whole Summer Event thing  : / There still time to get the ship?

I believe so.  I think the event runs until July 21.  You need to run the floater mission 25 times (once per day) to get the ship.  You only need to run it on one alt: as of last year they changed it so now when you earn an event ship on an alt all other alts can claim it.  So this is like ten minutes out of your day, every day, for 25 days.  It is cutting close though: you have about 5 days of margin for error at this time if you haven't started yet.  The ship is a heavy escort.


Quote
I usually run advanced queues just due to .. I figure I ought to be able to by now! They are way more active, too..  I won't run the Crystalline Entity one on Advanced again until I can survive the death-to-newbs-pulse.. Maybe you're right, though, maybe it's smarter to learn the game with an easier ship and to twink out my Escort with said ship. I want to try the different playstyles too.

My main primarily runs the Kobali dreadnaught and its a monster, but I can run Crystalline Advanced on all my frequently played alts.  For example, I have an engineer that runs a T6 Operations Star Cruiser that has a hodge-podge of gear and runs Advanced ok.  Lets see:

I have a rainbow mix of weapons.  VR Chronometric Polaron Beam Array (Mk12) x2, Rare Withering Disruptor Beam Array (12), Unc Disruptor Beam (12), Rare Polaron Beam (12), Rare Tetryon Beam (12), VR Krenim Chroniton Torpedo (12), VR Withering Photon Torp (12).  In other words, a junkpile of stuff I've accumulated through drops and mission rewards.

I actually have, wow, an uncommon warp core.  I really need to get around to swapping that.  VR impulse, rare deflector, and a mkXI covariant shield.  Actually, now that I look at this I should give this alt more love, sheesh.  I do have three tetraburnium armor consoles, a shield amplifier science console, and some crap weapons consoles.  Its really my bridge officer powers that make this ship tough, its an Aux2Bat build, and it can survive Advanced Crystalline queues.  Every once in a while she blows up when I'm not paying too much attention, but its usually okay.  When you look at that gear, its actually kind of a mess.  There's a method to the madness, but its not really great.  I think its because I was leveling this ship to tier V and forgot to put strong gear in it.  But if this can do Crystalline at Advanced, that tells you how important MkXXIV gear is.

Tahquitz

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #150 on: June 22, 2016, 04:34:08 AM »
My daily ship is a Risian Corvette, but I could easily substitute it for a Pilot Escort.  I don't go for rainbow, but I have three complements of weapons in storage... I think AntiProton, Tetryon, and Plasma weapons make a good complement, and I swap them out using the build system in the Character Panel.

I love cluster kinetics.  I have two torpedos on mine, the Breen Cluster and Vaadwaur Cluster (one in front, one in back).  That way, it's the typical Escort config: Cannons and Turrets on the ship for the front arc as the lead assault, get one facing down to zero, then tap a cluster torpedo within 3KM when the facing is down...

... it's sweet to watch when it works.  Low points of damage, followed by 4-8 hits around 2-5,000 each hit. (More if you buff with Torpedo: High Yield before releasing the Cluster, and you can have as many as 12 hits.  Then turn 180 degrees and let your turrets hit the reduced facing to keep it red or yellow for a second run.
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Xev

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #151 on: June 22, 2016, 01:30:17 PM »
I swapped out my EPS Flow Generators for Engineering consoles that give + 20 to all Energy & Kinetic damage. This, combined with that Universal console we just got from the Crystalline event give me ~ 29%ish damage resistance (I forget already..) to everything but Exotic damage I think. I noticed a noticeable difference, Much fewer self-explosion animations... So, they will stay equipped until I find something even better.

I have three complements of weapons in storage... I think AntiProton, Tetryon, and Plasma weapons make a good complement, and I swap them out using the build system in the Character Panel.

I have been thinking about becoming educated enough to figure out who fires what and swapping gear at the appropriate time... I mean, if I am fighting someone who uses primarily Phasers and I have a ton of resist gear for Phasers I could build swap into...

Important note: escorts are a bit glass cannon-like and they sucker you even more by giving you access to cannons.  They only fire forward, so the tendency is to not fly around so fast and just point at the target.  But in STO, unlike in CoH, movement helps: the faster you move the higher evasion you have.  If you stand still you get hit more.  Less health + standing still = dead escort.


OH! I didn't know this.. So there's an actual incentive to fire wildly while flying around like an idiot as fast as I can.... The ever motion making min/maxer in me is pleased.

That's good news about the level 5 Rep, too. I'm almost there with everyone on my first toon and probably already have plenty of Marks. I run the queues for fun and tradeskilling components, Sooo, I've been building up marks np. And thanks for the tip on Dust to Dust I will look that up. I would really like to have a good set of gear just to see how sets work, and, to see what it's like to have a good set of gear..

Cannons just aren't working out for me. (I dumped a relative ton of EC into them and anti-proton damage consoles too... but oh well). But, Escorts are. But Escorts are supposed to use Cannons for max maxiness (I thought) .. so .. this was causing a short circuit. Tahquitz's strategy is interesting. I was thinking last night that dumping some turrets for torpedoes might make having to turn my ship around to line up that 45 degree arc more fun. I'm gonna play around with cannons some more just due to they have powah and I like that but I might switch back to some wider arc weapons to get my previous playstyle back. I'm fairly decent with the (1) 90 degree arc cannon I have that hits as hard as my 45 degree arc ones(it's a you- can-only-have-one-of-these, cannons, or I would have more..) so maybe I try some less powerful cannons with wider arcs instead of going back to 230 degree phaser arrays. Either way, torpedoes are probably going to make a comeback (I'm all cannons and turrets atm with the idea of focusing on that 45 degree arc).

I'll see if I can figure out the Summer Event. Seems a shame to pass up that ship. I don't have a lot of playtime lately so when I get on, I just press the Happy buttons I know about.

I kinda want to try an Engineer behind the wheel of a Cruiser, next. An Engineer/Escort sounded good too but I want to try a different ship.

I got a chuckle out of you (Arcana) inventorying your alt btw... "An Uncommon??" hehe...





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Angel Phoenix77

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #152 on: June 22, 2016, 04:21:16 PM »
I swapped out my EPS Flow Generators for Engineering consoles that give + 20 to all Energy & Kinetic damage. This, combined with that Universal console we just got from the Crystalline event give me ~ 29%ish damage resistance (I forget already..) to everything but Exotic damage I think. I noticed a noticeable difference, Much fewer self-explosion animations... So, they will stay equipped until I find something even better.

I have been thinking about becoming educated enough to figure out who fires what and swapping gear at the appropriate time... I mean, if I am fighting someone who uses primarily Phasers and I have a ton of resist gear for Phasers I could build swap into...

OH! I didn't know this.. So there's an actual incentive to fire wildly while flying around like an idiot as fast as I can.... The ever motion making min/maxer in me is pleased.

That's good news about the level 5 Rep, too. I'm almost there with everyone on my first toon and probably already have plenty of Marks. I run the queues for fun and tradeskilling components, Sooo, I've been building up marks np. And thanks for the tip on Dust to Dust I will look that up. I would really like to have a good set of gear just to see how sets work, and, to see what it's like to have a good set of gear..

Cannons just aren't working out for me. (I dumped a relative ton of EC into them and anti-proton damage consoles too... but oh well). But, Escorts are. But Escorts are supposed to use Cannons for max maxiness (I thought) .. so .. this was causing a short circuit. Tahquitz's strategy is interesting. I was thinking last night that dumping some turrets for torpedoes might make having to turn my ship around to line up that 45 degree arc more fun. I'm gonna play around with cannons some more just due to they have powah and I like that but I might switch back to some wider arc weapons to get my previous playstyle back. I'm fairly decent with the (1) 90 degree arc cannon I have that hits as hard as my 45 degree arc ones(it's a you- can-only-have-one-of-these, cannons, or I would have more..) so maybe I try some less powerful cannons with wider arcs instead of going back to 230 degree phaser arrays. Either way, torpedoes are probably going to make a comeback (I'm all cannons and turrets atm with the idea of focusing on that 45 degree arc).

I'll see if I can figure out the Summer Event. Seems a shame to pass up that ship. I don't have a lot of playtime lately so when I get on, I just press the Happy buttons I know about.

I kinda want to try an Engineer behind the wheel of a Cruiser, next. An Engineer/Escort sounded good too but I want to try a different ship.

I got a chuckle out of you (Arcana) inventorying your alt btw... "An Uncommon??" hehe...
While Arcana, is very helpful and keep in mind that escorts can be a bit of glass cannons, especially in early game. The late game escorts such as the T6 Akira single deck carrier can be made into kind of tankish. This really depends on how you are speced out on your captain, and the type of gear you have.
There are ways to speed up getting the summer ship, try trading in your lobi crystals in the lobi store, I cannot remember the name but it is not the locknut items. When you trade in the lobi, you can  get anywhere from 1-4 items you can then spend on the ship event.
Making an engineer with an escort, is next to awesomeness, with the ship healing you get. You could take on harder enemies almost effortlessly. Same could be said with a tact in a cruiser, just would be slower.
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Arcana

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #153 on: June 22, 2016, 08:31:23 PM »
My daily ship is a Risian Corvette, but I could easily substitute it for a Pilot Escort.  I don't go for rainbow, but I have three complements of weapons in storage... I think AntiProton, Tetryon, and Plasma weapons make a good complement, and I swap them out using the build system in the Character Panel.

I'm only rainbow by laziness.  I'm partial to plasma weapons myself: I had a full complement of VR plasma with the Rom Experimental Array on my primary alt's primary ship (tactical captain, Kobali Cruiser) before I decided to try my hand at crafting.  A couple hundred AP arrays later I sold about 200 million worth and now have a full set of AP arrays.  I switched out all my plasma into another ship.  I don't like swapping builds myself, actually.  I tend to build alternate weapon/console sets in other ships instead and pull them out from time to time.

Arcana

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #154 on: June 22, 2016, 08:58:20 PM »
Cannons just aren't working out for me. (I dumped a relative ton of EC into them and anti-proton damage consoles too... but oh well). But, Escorts are. But Escorts are supposed to use Cannons for max maxiness (I thought) .. so .. this was causing a short circuit. Tahquitz's strategy is interesting. I was thinking last night that dumping some turrets for torpedoes might make having to turn my ship around to line up that 45 degree arc more fun. I'm gonna play around with cannons some more just due to they have powah and I like that but I might switch back to some wider arc weapons to get my previous playstyle back. I'm fairly decent with the (1) 90 degree arc cannon I have that hits as hard as my 45 degree arc ones(it's a you- can-only-have-one-of-these, cannons, or I would have more..) so maybe I try some less powerful cannons with wider arcs instead of going back to 230 degree phaser arrays. Either way, torpedoes are probably going to make a comeback (I'm all cannons and turrets atm with the idea of focusing on that 45 degree arc).

Something else about cannons and weapons in general you might not know.  Weapons drain power in a complex way and it can actually *hurt* your damage to have too much firepower.

Short explanation (at least the shortest I can come up with).  Most weapons drain power in a specific way.  All weapons fire in a firing cycle.  That means when you fire the weapon, it doesn't go "pew" and that's it.  It goes "pew pew pew pew" like every second for a certain number of shots.  Then there's a short cooldown when it cannot fire again for a while.  While a weapon is firing, if when it starts firing it is the only weapon firing at that moment it doesn't drain any power.  That's the "first one's free" rule of weapon drain.  But every other weapon that fires at the same time that one is firing will drain power.  Each kind of weapon has a certain weapon drain listed in its info.  Some drain more than others, usually related to their damage.  Turrets for example do the least amount of damage and drain the least: 8 weapon power (it also fires 360 degrees: the wider the firing arc gneerally the lower the damage also).  Arrays and Dual Cannons drain 10 and Dual Heavy Cannons drain 12.

You might wonder since heavy cannons and dual heavy cannons have the same firing arc, but DHCs do more damage, why would anyone slot the lower damage cannon.  That's because it drains less weapon power.

Why does weapon drain matter?  Because the amount of damage an energy weapon does scales with weapon power.  So lets say you have 100 weapon power and you fire an array and it does 500 damage.  The next array you fire drains 10 power and your power drops to 90.  It will do less than 500 damage (about 450 if I remember the calculations correctly).  The next one you fire will do even less damage, and so on.  Power drain is complicated because it happens in pseudo-real time.  Your engines are adding power back in regular intervals (think endurance recovery) while your weapons are temporarily draining it (I say temporarily because when they stop firing they stop draining).  How much and how fast you can replenish that power is based on your EPS rating.  If you cannot recover power fast enough to supply your weapons, you can actually find weapon drain dropping weapon power so low you actually do a lot less damage than if you used less powerful weapons you can sustain.

So: do you deal more damage piling cannons into an escort?  It depends.  Even accounting for the limited firing arc and even accounting for the time cost of maneuvering, even if you just park in front of a target and dump your cannons into it, you *still* might not be dealing as much damage as you think you are if you did not build your escort for a high enough EPS and weapon power to supply those cannons.

It is because of this that many times escorts have torpedoes.  Its not just because of the tactical options Tahquitz mentions.  It is also sometimes because torpedoes don't cost weapon power and in effect "fire for free."  They are slow recharging, have limited firing arc, and often deal mostly kinetic damage (that is highly resisted by shields) but because it doesn't drain weapon power that torpedo's limited damage might be better than replacing it with a turret or array.

You don't have to know any of this to play STO, just like you don't have to understand the mechanics of recovery to play CoH.  But if you're going to make strong builds, just like you really needed to understand sustainability in CoH to make a really good invention build, you need to understand weapon power dynamics in STO to get to that next level.  But if you want a quickie way of looking at this, take a look at your ship stats (do this while in space: if you're on the ground all your ship stats will be off because all ship gear will be "turned off" while you're on the ground) and look for "Power Transfer Rate".  If you're trying to build an escort that, say, fires three DHCs forward and three turrets aft at the same time, you're looking at a combined weapon power drain of about 48.  If your PTR is 5/sec, obviously when you fire your weapons your weapon power is going to drop very fast.  If you have something like 15/sec, you'll be recovering that power back much faster.

Pretty much everything I know about weapon power I learned from watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_DmKQjWrcQ  However, I should warn you that the video is about a half hour long and the guy has a speaking voice that could put charging rhinos to sleep.  It is, however, extremely detailed and straight forward and easy to understand.

Tahquitz

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #155 on: June 22, 2016, 09:00:28 PM »
Cannons just aren't working out for me. (I dumped a relative ton of EC into them and anti-proton damage consoles too... but oh well). But, Escorts are. But Escorts are supposed to use Cannons for max maxiness (I thought) .. so .. this was causing a short circuit.

Arcana beat me to the punch... I was writing about the same thing!

Overall, you should limit a ship to about 5-6 beam/cannon weapons in total (even if you have more slots to add additional weapons) at 100 weapons power level for energy (I typically set 80-100 weapons, 60 shields, 40 engines, and 20 aux... you have the presets to punch up shields or engines if you need it). 

Also, the types of weapons in use will drain your energy faster than others:

Dual Heavy Cannons are the worst to place. While their Damage Per Volley/DPS is high, they drain -12 power each. (There are wide arc varieties you can craft, but those have the same drain.)  I'd use one at most.
Quad Cannons are an odd beast.  Power drain is -10 each, four shots, but you can only equip one quad cannon per ship and there's three types: Disruptor, Phaser, and Plasma only. (I've never used them: they are levelless, and damage per volley is 50% of a Dual Heavy Cannon, or essentially the same output as a Dual Cannon.)
Dual Cannons and Single Cannons (just called "cannons": Plasma Cannon, Tetryon Cannon, etc.) drain -10 power each.
Beam Banks are the beam array version of cannons: narrow arc, two shots per fire.  Like cannons, Beam Banks also must be front mounted.  Like Beam Arrays, though, proximity is required for higher damage: firing these at 3km is better for damage than at 9-10km, which is why die-hard escort players tend to pass on these in favor of cannons.  (Like Blasters in CoH, Escorts shouldn't be close and personal with anything unless it's trying to fly right past it.) Those drain -10 power each.
Turrets are the weakest of the cannon weapons, but they are worth consideration for your back slots over mines or phaser banks because their radius is 360 degrees.  They constantly fire no matter what direction your ship is headed at: if you're facing forward, they can fire at the same time as your front weapons.  If you don't use turrets on the back slots, those weapons can't fire unless you turn around.  These drain -8 power each.
Better Weapon Info: http://sto.gamepedia.com/Ship_weapon

Why not Beam Arrays?  Beam Arrays and other high-arc/wide arc weapons are more useful on Cruisers and Science vessels where broadsiding a ship matters: Escorts fly and turn way too fast to make broadside attacks worth the trouble, and Cruisers have way more slots to make the lower DPS of Arrays not matter as much.  The higher flight speed and faster turning potential means I avoid wide arc weapons on Escorts typically: the port and starboard shield facings are better used to bend a 90 degree turn if your front and rear facings are zeroed out and you need quick defense from fore and aft targets.

Cannons do the same damage from 10Km away as they do from point blank.  Of course, your weapons energy available means your first volley of cannon fire will be the most damaging with repeat volleys being less and less powerful until the energy recovers.  With Beam Arrays and Beam Banks, you have both Weapons Energy Level as well as distance mitigating damage potential.

And like any glass cannon, you should go out of your own way to get out of a position where you take fire on all four sides in an Escort.  That's the best way to explode.

So an ideal weapon mix for DPS play is about 5-6 weapons to drain about 50-60% weapons power in a single volley facing forward in attack, with the "recovery phase" being when you are flying away from your target taking fire in the aft and positioning for another run at them.  Your turrets can't fire fast enough to drain your recovering weapons energy without the front weapons engaged.  The downside to this approach means that having them means you'll be 8-16% less in energy than the first volley unless you cease fire altogether when retreating.  (This guide was written for a Science ship, but it works on Escorts, too.  Escorts are just squishier and typically can't do control worth a damn.) 

Yes, Torpedos are free: don't worry about them draining energy.  Torpedos make excellent additional weapons if you have more slots than you need for beams and cannons.  Mix the front slots with any combination of Cannons you like, with one slot for a torpedo, and the back slots with turrets and a one slot torpedo:

Typical Tier 5/6 Escort --
Front (5 slots): 2 slots of Dual Cannons or Cannons, One Dual Heavy Cannon, One or Two Torpedos (one cluster, one standard as a fallback since recharge on cluster torpedos sucks.)
Rear (3 slots): 2 slots of Turrets, One Cluster Torpedo

The Breen Arc is the best way to get your first cluster torpedo.  Typically, you can only equip one TYPE on a ship, so the Delta Quadrant Missions are a place to pick up a second one. (I'm not 100% sure of the names, but you can't have two Breen Cluster Torpedos on the same ship.  You can, however, have one Breen and one Vaadwaur Cluster Torpedo.)  I like Clusters on Escorts because they turn the mine concept around on it's head: instead of dropping them and passively hoping a pursuer hits them, you're throwing them at a shield weakness directly to exploit it.  The downside of Cluster Torpedos are the same as using mines: they're practically useless on a small, fast craft like an Escort (or enemy equivalents like Fighters or Corsairs).  When the cluster unpacks into mines, 75% of the time an escort is too far away from the mines to trigger them, or they lock on but can't move fast enough to catch the ship and eventually fade.  Having a regular torpedo on hand mitigates this problem (a quantum overcomes speed issues readily.)

Hargh'peng Torpedoes are also sweet if you can nab one early on in the game.  If you do get one in the early levels, don't ditch it!  The crafting system means that a Mark III Hargh'peng can be upgraded to a Mark XIII and placed on your Tier 5/6 ship no problem instead of paying a ridiculous fee for one in the Exchange.  Especially on large ships, it's entertaining to watch it slap a Borg Cube with a purple Radiation DOT, followed by a secondary explosion that hits up to 10 ships in an AoE from the target.  (The consequence?  Hargh'peng Torpedoes can't be improved with consoles, take longer to recharge, and Torpedo Skills like High Yield doesn't affect it.)

And I'd set all the cannons/beams/turrets to autofire (right click them to outline them as green), so it's as easy as picking a target, flying up to them, then for the distance from 10-2km, watch your front shield and the enemy facing, and click on a torpedo if the enemy facing goes down.  If it doesn't, fly away, heal your front shield facing (or balance the remaining shield energy at the least), and come back for another go at it.

Arcana is right, every shot fired makes your next shot less powerful until your weapons energy is recovered.  But at least this way you're constantly firing and not worrying about running "dry" on subsequent runs. (Starting a run at below 50 weapons power is no place to be.)

Also: my captain is an Engineer.  "Miracle Worker" alone improves the survivability of an Escort dramatically when fighting something much more powerful than you, or a mob of 2-4 ships that are your level or close, but it's not a strategy that can keep an Escort alive in a mosh pit of 4-8 ships firing upon you at once.

(I'm an armchair player, not a min-maxer.  Corrections welcomed!)
« Last Edit: June 22, 2016, 10:56:15 PM by Tahquitz »
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Arcana

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #156 on: June 22, 2016, 09:06:34 PM »
I should also mention, with regard to the special event ships, I recommend even casual STO players spend the time to get them, particularly if they are tier 6 ships.  Even if you don't want to fly it, ships have something called mastery where all XP you earn killing things in space get credited to the ship itself (as well as yourself of course).  Tier 5 ships get up to four tiers of mastery which grant bonuses to the ship but tier 6 ships get a fifth tier of mastery.  Unlock that, and you get a special bonus power which you can slot in your ship trait slots and that will work for *any* ship.  So for example I'm unlikely to be flying the summer event ship regularly since it is a heavy escort (although you never know: I might like it).  But I will fly it long enough to unlock tier 5 because that trait is the harasser mine trait.  Slot that, and while flying any ship (not just the escort) all cannon scatter volley and beam fire at will shots will spawn chroniton mines near all of your targets, once every 20 seconds.  That sounds interesting.

Arcana

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #157 on: June 22, 2016, 09:10:28 PM »
Also: my captain is an Engineer.  "Miracle Worker" alone improves the survivability of an Escort dramatically when fighting something much more powerful than you, or a mob of 2-4 ships that are your level or close, but it's not a strategy that can keep an Escort alive in a mosh pit of 4-8 ships firing upon you at once.

Here's a tip I didn't figure out until probably six months after playing.  If you haven't discovered it yet, find and slot the "Grace Under Fire" trait on your engineer.  Basically, if you take a big burst of damage all at once and you've already used Miracle Worker, it will instantly recharge.  This can only happen once every 90 seconds, but it can be a life saver when you're suddenly taking a ton of damage and you get to use Miracle Worker twice in rapid succession.

Tahquitz

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #158 on: June 22, 2016, 09:13:08 PM »
Here's a tip I didn't figure out until probably six months after playing.  If you haven't discovered it yet, find and slot the "Grace Under Fire" trait on your engineer.  Basically, if you take a big burst of damage all at once and you've already used Miracle Worker, it will instantly recharge.  This can only happen once every 90 seconds, but it can be a life saver when you're suddenly taking a ton of damage and you get to use Miracle Worker twice in rapid succession.

Hmm... I didn't know that. :D Thanks!
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Tahquitz

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Re: Star Trek Online
« Reply #159 on: June 22, 2016, 09:26:09 PM »
I should also mention, with regard to the special event ships, I recommend even casual STO players spend the time to get them, particularly if they are tier 6 ships.

This isn't directed at Arcana, specifically, just advice in general.

Watch the news for events like this in Summer and Winter, and if you're serious about getting a ship for the Tier 6 trait unlock, start working on earning the ship from Day 1 of the event for the best chance at getting it.  June 9 to July 21 is the event window, and it costs 1,000 vouchers to get the ship from the event store.  You earn 40 vouchers a day from the Risa event.

Starting now, you need approximately 25 days to unlock the ship.  That means you have to play Star Trek Online once a day nonstop without missing a single day to earn it. The event itself isn't terrible: it takes 12-18 minutes to finish, and it resets every 20 hours, but you can't count on working the clock to "gain" an extra day (by shifting the event completion 4 hours earlier than the prior day... that is, unless you get on at really weird hours). 

If real-world issues prevent you from logging on like family, work, or internet outages, there's a chance you can't finish the event.  Also, consider Server Maintenance, which might prevent you from making a session on time, or doing a session later than you'd like.  Starting this year, if you don't make it the unspent vouchers cannot be spent next year for a starship prize, nor can an incomplete event be finished with next year's vouchers.

I'd start immediately.  Starting today would give you a 5 day 'cushion' in case you have to miss a session or three.  Past June 27th, it will be impossible to earn the ship starting from scratch.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2016, 10:09:43 PM by Tahquitz »
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