Star Trek Online

[Xev]

I have my laptop and the internet

If the laptop was from this decade and was an x86, that'd probably be all you need.. Add a cable to run to your TV and an external keyboard for extra joy.

iirc you have an Apple.

Hey, at least you still have Titan and my uber screenies to get you by...! And the build planner... This might be a good time to work on some builds.

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com

For reasons of my own I would also hit the Wiki and make a list of all Rep Gear Set Bonuses. No other info. Just the name of the Set for reference, and, the Bonuses. Due to all the other info is in-game, so, why waste a bunch of space on info you can easily look up in-game. Set Bonuses is the only info Not available about Rep Gear in-game and I'm constantly having to look them up due to I never take the time to make such a list, and, poor memory.

Video games are well known to soothe/bust ghosts and such, btw. Even single player ones. So once you get hooked back up all should be good.

[Night-Hawk07]

For anyone on here that's part of the Paragon Fleet on PC, do we have a console fleet as well (specifically XB1), or is everyone exclusively playing on PC?

[Angel Phoenix77]

For anyone on here that's part of the Paragon Fleet on PC, do we have a console fleet as well (specifically XB1), or is everyone exclusively playing on PC?

I am a part of the Paragon Fleet, but honestly I? do not know if there is a console fleet. . I never heard anyone talk about it.

[Tahquitz]

Star Trek Online has separate worlds (and separate game versions) for Console and PC users.  It's not possible to have a joined fleet across Console and PC.  A disjointed one (same fleet name, different members, management, and channels) is possible though.

Night-Hawk, Paragon Expeditionary Fleet and Paragon Vanguard Fleets are on the PC Version.  Just hop on the [CoX] channel and ask for an invite. (Or [CoX-STO] if the first one is really quiet.)

[Night-Hawk07]

A disjointed one (same fleet name, different members, management, and channels) is possible though.

That's actually what I was asking about. I knew the PC and console worlds were separate, I just wasn't sure if a CoH-vet fleet had formed on the console side or not.

And I'm actually part of PEF on PC, but I've been playing the console version more, lately.

[Xev]

It might be a point of interest to someone out there: STO subs are gone. You can't sub to STO anymore unless it's a Lifetime Sub..

What have they replaced subs with? I honestly can't tell you. They have a new pack you can 'buy' (with real money or not..) for 1500 zen, now, under Services, that gives you a bunch of shared bank slots and some retcons and whatnot and then if you buy that, you can 'buy' a recurring Services item that isn't really all that special, either. I mean, they aren't selling anything that wasn't available before and what they are selling in a bundle... is nice but it isn't overly appealing and unlike a sub, I can get it with funny money.

Well, and, I didn't sub to STO but if I was subbed I think I would have liked to have kept my sub..

Odd decision from them, I thought. I mean... Why throw away subs? People who were subbed seemed happy enough about it - and now that there are no subs - who is Leet, now? Who gets the perks? Who am I supposed to be jealous of and who is going to feel superior to me because they have a sub and I don't? I am not even compelled to buy that new Service, whatever it's called. Until it goes on sale maybe. And then when I do buy it, I surely won't do it with real money...

Are they really making that much money off of the Z-store? And even so.. lol.. why throw away good, easy, money (subs)?

*shrug*

There is plenty of development going on in STO. I can't say as I've ever seen a decline since I started play a year or two ago. They even have Star Trek TV actors on the payroll.

Anyway, there ya go. The STO news that is news. And, we're getting a new Rep and queue, soon. And Mirror Universe started today. There's this new crafting thing, too.

OH! and the new Romulan whatever it is called, queue (you only get the most accurate info from me). This is a pretty big deal if you play like me.. Because.. You can get in it at like level 10 and it has no cooldown... and it's about as hot as the Crystalline Entity queue. And.. with an expensive (to some *ahem*) XP booster (these have been upgraded to add 50% XP recently, btw..),  I am dinging nearly every time the queue finishes... Means: All Space Levelling With No Hassles Annnnd a Dil reward (780 for a Delta Recruit, not bad! - Oh yeah, btw, I think you just missed Delta Recruits or are about to), even. It's a fun enough queue to repeat a bunch of times, too. Without cooldown.. Excellent addition to the game.

[Xev]

Romulans being able to fly nearly every ship in the game, soon.... is an interesting development. I started making only Roms since a few newbs back due to I play deeps and I like SRO. Now you tell me I can fly nearly every ship in the game with my Roms? Hmmm... Well. I can see myself sticking with Roms for awhile.

The second thing I thought, was.. Wow, Klingons sure got not loved. I mean.. Isn't the best thing about playing a Klingon, Spacewise, the Raider? I haven't even tried their other ships, but, since trying that Event Raider they were giving away awhile back, I was seriously tempted (to try a Real Raider), for the first time and on a regular basis thereafter, to play a Klingon (or other race of their faction).

But now.. I don't have to give up my SRO. I can stick with my Roms and fly a Klingon ship if I pick their faction, which, I have once already and probably will again, now.

I mean, there are other reasons to play Klingons than what ships they can fly and if they have a useful Space innate. But those would be for other people.. lol. They have effectively removed any desire for me to play Klingon, now. Other than they are Klingons. I mean, I made an Andorian, once.., due only to he is Andorian and I wanted to be blue and have antennas. He's one of my best equipped toons and his ship's in the garage and he makes weapons for my newbs, sometimes, now.

Well, anyway.. All Most of the teasing aside.. It was a controversial decision, and, one that is going to require more un-diversification in the future, I'm imagining. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I always thought their faction stuff was kinda screwed up anyway. And it still is, just in a different way that happens to favor me atm  : )

I can envision an STO future in which you can have Any space innate in (nearly) Any ship. This is what un-diversification boils down to in the Space game and with Roms we see it beginning. Possibly.

Again, not necessarily a bad thing for the game to add some vanilla in this case. It should get people flying or at least trying more ships due to they can keep their preferred race(s) and fly ships from other races. It should speed along my test drive of a Real Klingon raider.. I hadn't planned on making a Klingon for at least 2 more newbs. Now I don't have to and I can still try the ship I want to try. A Zen costing ship... AHA!

[Night-Hawk07]

I must not have been paying attention over the past several years, because I always thought Romulans had access to their chosen ally's ships....I just always "chose" to stick with the Romulan ships.

[Thunder Glove]

Romulans have had access to their chosen ally's T1 through T4 ships, but only Romulan T5s and T6s.  Until now.

[Xev]

I must not have been paying attention over the past several years, because I always thought Romulans had access to their chosen ally's ships....I just always "chose" to stick with the Romulan ships.

Hey, don't feel bad. I made an entire lengthy post awhile back ago about how great Roms are, and, one reason, was, "they can fly all ships". My Rom wasn't high enough level at that time to have found out I was wrong.

I was in Cruiser & Rom mode at the time is the only reason I got in that situation.

I'm kinda looking forward to trying a Rom in an Escort as well as a Raider. My latest newb just shredded his way from 40 - 50 in that Bajoran Event escort.. very nicely.

[Tahquitz]

Odd decision from them, I thought. I mean... Why throw away subs? People who were subbed seemed happy enough about it - and now that there are no subs - who is Leet, now? Who gets the perks? Who am I supposed to be jealous of and who is going to feel superior to me because they have a sub and I don't? I am not even compelled to buy that new Service, whatever it's called. Until it goes on sale maybe. And then when I do buy it, I surely won't do it with real money...

I think it was the opposite.  Subs were falling since Lifetimers are buy-once, play forever, and most folks who play go free to play/MT, so they made the Sub privileges MTs instead.  See if more folks would pay to boost their free accounts forever rather than pay monthly for the same perks.

[Xev]

What about veteran rewards and whatnot? There's no prestige in buying a service from a menu. Very generic way to sub to me.

Plus, with a sub, they were already collecting money from people that had the sub in their budget. Was anyone complaining about sub prices? I never heard any. Why toss that money away? Now.. these people who were subbed have to go to an extra effort to spend cash - make an extra decision to do so... Before, it was an automated decision that only had to be thought about if someone's budgeting was tight.

Why not offer the Service in parallel to subs..? Why not have an extra way to get cash instead of only a completely different one?

This decision only adds another bundle to the Z-store, to me. But I used..... to sub a lot to games and I used to like my veteran awards/prestige and whatever other perks came with being subbed. That, and, I just can't imagine a company telling the entire subscriber base "nahhhhh just pay us when ya want, thanks for those subs all those years tho".

There is still a LTS.. And, if you were subbed for 'all those years' you probably should have bought an LTS by now... But that's other nits to pick.

Having said that, though, I guess the New Leet/Subscriber, would be an LTSer. An Uber Leet/Uber Subscriber would be an LTSer who regularly buys bundles... Right? The rest of us are Glorified Silvers. So, again, nothing's changed for me.. hehehe. But I still think it was an odd/Bold decision to kick people out of their subs.

[Xev]

We didn't mention one of the more noteworthy side effects of this Bold (sounds better than Odd) decision to end monthly subs. Everyone will have Tribble access. "Unless there are probs" (loose quote..).

[Xev]

This would be my "8 Beams and no Ultimate" build.

I didn't put any points into Projectile or Energy damage, due to, I plan to fly a Miracle Worker w/5 energy weapon Tac Consoles (with plenty of +Energy Weapon +ness) and will have no projectiles.

I have lots of +Power yumminess in there. There's like +10 15 to Weapons/Shields, and, +8 10 to Aux/Eng, once you factor in Unlocks. There's max +EPS, there's Crit Chance/Severity, there's Defense, there's Long Range Sensoring, there's all kinds of Shield and Hull love - about the max.

There is no Ultimate.. I don't plan to Deeps. This is for my (Expensive!) Reman who is going for Defense and if I have my way, just firing FAW with a-thor-i-tie, will draw me plenty of agro. I decided awhile back ago that the power of Ultimates outweighed any benefits that a half dozen or less Skill choices could offer, but, today, that order got rescinded for some reason. Wanted to try something new.. It all started with wanting all the Eng goodies after depriving myself for so long due to always going for a maxxed Tac Ultimate lately. Due to I always usually spend nearly that many points in Tac anyway, sooooo.., why not.

I didn't work Sci like I could have with +Drain and/or +Control.. But, I didn't put points into Sci Recharge, either, like I did for Tac and Eng, and, I plan to use as little Sci as I can get away with - which, is probably driving against traffic when it comes to the more pr0h builds. As-is giving up an Ultimate.

Oh, and I left 1 point open. This point will likely remain open for... months after he levels. I seem to do this often.. I always wait for that day I say "man I wish I had a little more...." *click* and then I have it. But that day never seems to come. But if it does...I'm ready!

Anyway, there ya go. It probably sucks but maybe not! I think I'm gonna try it. I should have renamed it to "More Powah". That's what I was kinda going for, and Defense stuff.

https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/cc74df6f1a822d16dfce44476cf96551


-----

Must add: Never have stuck with my Cruiser type builds, and, usually go for Escort type builds. As far as that goes... I have no go-to Beams oriented builds. I started with Cannons. Every toon I pew-pew with regularly, uses Cannons.

[Xev]

I usually use something close to this:

https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/e0f50735272f4d80e61bd341794f2860

Tac is where I usually want to spend most of my points, and, a maxed Tac Ultimate is a good thing to have. Is how I end up with that type of build.

Things I don't like about this build, are, I don't think the + to energy weapons and torps does that much for me due to my consoles already probably put me heavily into DR territory. I don't normally have hangar pets. And, everything that's level 3 in Tac, I'd probably be OK with, if it were at level 2.. scooping me up at least 5 points that I would be perfectly fine with spending elsewhere. 1 more point in Accuracy would probably not be a bad idea due to I like to use scatter volley. I like Rapid Fire, too.. and used to use it exclusively, but, have been using more Scatter Volley, lately. So, I could lose 4, and re-arrange 1, in Tac, and wouldn't mind trading it for something like control expertise for round-up with Gravity Well, and I wouldn't mind Shield Drain being maxed, with Drain Infection. I know Drain Infection isn't much, but, where else can you get it? It's a direct damage boost to something that can be useful when spammed *shrug* I have it on my first Rom who uses Romplasma and have let him keep it. I would really like to have the +10 to +15 Subsystem power from Eng, like in the previous build, too.

Anyway, there ya go, now you can feel better about YOUR builds...hehe. I think about anything can work (I.E. you can run advanced queues fairly easy and breeze through Events) if you have a theme. I would be perfectly happy playing 100k+ builds, but, I don't want to copy someone's and I can't make my own, yet.


Anyway, this isn't an exact copy of anything I'm flying right now I don't think, but, it's pretty close to the general theme.

[Xev]

They forced Retcons on my Delta Recruits.... so....

https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/e6791e2b2af210abf1b603b5b3cb46c3

I get my tac ultimate with 2 points in it and all the rest of tac I want and more. I get +8 (7.8...) to Weapons and Shields power from Eng. I get + 10 to hull and shields from Eng and Sci Unlocks. I get a lot of love for shields and a respecable amount of love for hull.

We'll see how it does with some new Gold dual heavy cannons in a Pilot Warbird on this Marks Weekend.

About average, I'm imagining.. : ) With a little more power to shields than normal.

And now I quit spamming my very non-meta and nothing earth shattering, builds.

[Xev]

There are so many combos of things you can do in STO. I just started using that Bajoran Space trait that gives a nice buff whenever I fire off an Emergency Power To Engines (yuck..) or a Pilot Boff power (previously thought of as, kinda yuck).. Well, once every 20 seconds it does. Good enough.

Anyway, now I have become kinda hooked on this Pilot buff that I never would have tried, before. And, now I have a whole new power that I never even knew existed with the Trait and Boff powers merged. As can often happen in STO.

This brings me to the only reason I wanted to post..

Why are my Escort type Warbirds so weak in the subsystem power department as compared to an actual Escort?

I've been flying that Bajoran Event Escort (no Faction restriction) they were giving away recently with my Pilot (!) Warbird captains, and, the power levels are through the roof in comparison. I mean, I can nearly max (125) weapons *and* Shields is at, like... 80ish, if I put all power to Weapons and Shields. There is more bonus Aux and Eng power, too.

Why? Why so *much*?

OK, I didn't take the time to get screenies or even take down actual numbers, so, this is more of a general question. I have like nearly Twice the subsystem power in that Bajoran Escort than I do in my Pilot Warbirds.. My Warbirds feel like paper, now.

Which brings me to another question which I just remembered!

If I want the Rom Cloak Damage bonus (I should know this, and I should be able to figure it out easily enough, but, I'm asking you instead...)... just how long do I have to be cloaked...? For the other cloak buffs, I have to be cloaked for like 3 seconds... but the tooltip doesn't say how long I have to be cloaked to get the damage bonus...

A millisecond?

That would be the reason for me to stick with my Warbirds.  Otherwise.. Sheesh. Escort Me.

I have to do some more testing on that cloak thing if no one knows. It seemed to work that way (millisecond) but I kept getting in high dps teams so it was hard to tell! I used to not use cloak that much due to I thought I had to be cloaked for 3 seconds, and, shields drop when I cloak - which is bad, for, ya know... combat. Watching enemies melt after I insta cloak/de-cloak, is, kinda, ya know... fun  : ) Again, I was in huge dps teams every single time I tested... so it was hard to tell.. but.. I sure like the idea of it working and will be trying this out more : )

Where's my Warbird Subsystem Powah?? I'm using identical gear in both except that one ship has a Warp core and the other the same version of Singularity. We're talking about 3 different builds, too.

[Xev]

Warbird cloak does Not give damage boost if you aren't cloaked for 3 seconds or more. 3 seconds is a full round of Heavy cannons or 3 full rounds of Dual Beam Banks. Well, and my Shields are down for 3 seconds.

So as far as combat goes, that leaves Singularity buffs. Singularity buffs in my Warbirds can be nice when the Singularity is charged.. and nicer when fully charged.. but... I mean.. wow. I get way more subsystem power piloting an Escort. I have less power in all subsystems except Weapons (125), in my Warbird.

Comparing Pilot Escorts to Pilot Warbirds.... You get exactly *grabs calculator* a lot more subsystem power in the Escort. Even the Bajoran event Escort makes my Pilot Warbird feel like paper. I mean, like 50 less shields power is fairly significant.

I'll have to come up with better numbers... but you get the idea!

So, yeah. I'm looking forward to flying Escorts with my Roms/Reman. Raiders, too.

[Thunder Glove]

Keys were on sale.  Bought 50 keys.  Sold 50 keys.  Now my Klingon has Baltim Raider pets for his Vonph.  i have barely any Zen, but I'll just trade more Dil when the next Phoenix Box event comes around, so that's no problem.

(I don't play this game as much anymore, but I really wanted those Baltim Raider pets)

[Xev]

Keys were on sale.  Bought 50 keys.  Sold 50 keys. 

For EC's? That's a lot of EC's. I'm trying to reach cap (it's not *that* cappy...) on my main tradeskill toon just to say I reached the cap, which, is something I never did in an online game with currency. The newbs have been draining funds, lately, though.. Those gold weapons just are usually never very cheap.. Luckily the crafted ones are tradable and pretty darn good to use while waiting to upgrade to sets.

Speeeeking of newbs.. OK, here's a tiny bit less boring Build. This is for Reman/Eng/Tank/GravWell Roundup/in an 8 beam boat:

https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/c69e696426c264015e800f28e7b03d01

Next one is going to be Rom/Tac/Escort/Torps (5 up front!)/Drain. and then I'm done for awhile I think.

It's nice to have some variety.. Sometimes one toon scratches an itch the others can't.

Grats on the Raider pets! Good hangar pets are what make that Vorgon Event ship special. Those suckers even seem to grab dps agro from a team sometimes when their 'stars' are maxed.