Thinking about Star Trek Online

[Nefarious Tea]

So in my facebook feed yesterday, amongst all the expressions of sadness for the passing of Leonard Nimoy, I saw a link about a Star Trek Online update via the official Star Trek page. Turns out they've revamped a part of the game, but I haven't played in years (when the Romulan expansion went live I got a Romulan character to... level five? maybe?).

So my questions are thus: Is it worth playing again? Should I bother with my old toons, or will it be easier on my head to play catch up if I roll a new one?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It's grindyier now and there are twice the amount of currencies and reps as there used to be, so... yeah. Basically vanilla 2x the confusion and complication. The writing and gameplay has improved, though. Ground still sucks.

[Nazrark]

It's grindyier now and there are twice the amount of currencies and reps as there used to be, so... yeah. Basically vanilla 2x the confusion and complication. The writing and gameplay has improved, though. Ground still sucks.

To be fair, they haven't emphasized the ground as much as they realize people want to fly a space ship more than anything else. It's F2P so there isn't any harm in trying it out other than your own time.

[Nefarious Tea]

It's grindyier now

In what way?

there are twice the amount of currencies and reps as there used to be, so... yeah. Basically vanilla 2x the confusion and complication.

Hence why I was wondering if I should play old toons (I got one to lvl... 43 I think when the game initially launched), or if I rolled a new one I would get introduced to different things slower than being thrown in the deep end.

The writing and gameplay has improved, though.

This is good!

Ground still sucks.

This is not.

What sort of ship type/captain type is easiest and/or most fun?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It's grindier in that to get cool stuff like the Breen ship, the Borg set, or even cool ships like the retrofits/T6s, you have to grind an increditon to get them. Breen ship? Twenty days of logging in every day for the Christmas event, doing the same damn missions over and over again for forty minutes. Borg set? Go grind Omega sector events for a couple dozen hours. Cool retrofit ship/T6 without spending money? Hoard as much dilithium as you possibly can.

Assuming you left before the revamp, it's pretty much irrelevant whether or not you would start a new toon or continue an old, as you'll still get thrown into the deep end either way with all the "What's new" notifications trying to breakdown all the different currencies and reps.

As for ships (which, as Naz pointed out; Cryptic has learned their lesson is focusing mostly on space combat, with a few ground escapades here and there), escorts (battleships, destroyers, etc) are all about lasers and explosions. Play escort if you just want lasers and explosions. They require some attention though, as they have lower HP than other ships, but are very fast. Cruisers and science vessels can do really cool things besides just shooting lasers and popping explosions. Cruisers are tanky and have a slower playstyle, have insanely powerful warpcores to power them and can do things like launch armies of shuttles to board enemy ships. Play if you like to solo everything, like big ass ships or if you just want to breeze through missions. Science vessels are interesting, because they can scramble subsystems, beam help to other players, etc. Play this if you like utility (pretty much the ret pally of STO so to speak).

The nice thing is that you are no longer tied to being locked into a single type of ship, meaning that you can now switch between say, escorts for zerging PvP matches and cruisers for when you want to relax and have a good 'ole 'Trek story to play through.

[Naequin]

I havn't played in some time either, are escorts still the be-all end-all of ship gameplay? I really want to play a tanky cruiser build, but when I last played they simply weren't either useful or needed. I don't know if it was just because I was massively undergeared compared to everyone else or not, but yeah.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Since space combat is now the primary focus of the game after the overhaul, playing escort means you have to think about positioning and such. If your going in guns blazing, you'll probably get blown up. They still do a ridiculous amount of dmg, but now you actually have to earn that boom at the end.

To put it this way...

If you play escorts, your gonna be maneuvering yourself to avoid enemy firing arcs while focusing down on a specific area of their shields; cruiser you won't really care which side you come from (because you got near unlimited power to spend) so you'll be more focused on rerouting shields where necessary while playing the turning game; science is the in between with a focus on support abilities and anti-support-support like scrambling.

[Nefarious Tea]

So I rolled a Federation toon. I see they changed the tutorial; I'm sure Zachary Quinto is butthurt his character doesn't exist any more :P The Sector Space revamp apparently isn't actually live, which is a tiny bit disappointing.

Did Klingons finally get PVE content/story?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

To a certain extent; they always did have story but nowhere near on the scale as the Federation.

[Nefarious Tea]

To a certain extent; they always did have story but nowhere near on the scale as the Federation.

Or the Romulans for that matter? I mean in a legit PVE sense, not just backstory to give a reason why they're fighting the UFP, when YO THERE IS THE BORG RIGHT THERE. (Or at least that was the case when the game originally went live.)

[Kragragh]

It's F2P and fun to level and play the content once, but it's just a grind at endgame. The first playthrough or two are fun though. You can access all the content for free, but you'd have to buy ships or keys for lockboxes, though if you buy enough lockboxes you'll get a ship also.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Or the Romulans for that matter? I mean in a legit PVE sense, not just backstory to give a reason why they're fighting the UFP, when YO THERE IS THE BORG RIGHT THERE. (Or at least that was the case when the game originally went live.)

There ARE PvE story missions for Klingons and Romulans outside of the starter zone, but they are very few and dwarfed by the sheer the amount the Feds get.

[Nazrark]

As a follow up, I decided to play it again. Started a new character (Romulan Tactical) and I am going through it. The Story is actually interesting, granted I'm level 14, and it is keeping me wanting to know what is going on. At roughly level 10 it gives you the option of joining Starfleet or the KDF or if you don't want to. You don't have to join either. Ground combat isn't complicated, it's more or less a compliment to the game now. Take an away team to the surface/station and see what is going on here. It's in Space combat where things get crazy. They've made the controls more responsive compared to when it first came out. More importantly, even at level 10, if you are going in guns blazing. You will have a hard time.

As another note, you really have to start a new character rather than continue with a preexisting character. The rewards for completing missions were reworked so the pace is set correctly. The tutorial is great especially if you are returning and have no idea where anything is.

Whenever you get your ship, you are given the option to customize it. Change the colour scheme or design on it. You are also given a free change to the appearance of your bridge officers when you first get them.

All in all, it's a very enjoyable game and I haven't done any group content yet either.

Side Note: I went Romulan because it gives me the option to use the Scimitar. Which aside from the Defiant, is probably my favourite ship.

[Yriel]

I've started i few weeks ago (i played at launch for a few months but then stopped) and i'm lv 55 now.
I've done everything but the delta missions but they are really hard for my T4 klingon escort. And it seems that only way to get T5 or T6 ships are to either pay ridiculous prices in the shop (30 Euro for a ship ? really ?) or to do some really hardcore grinds.
I don't like that very much.

Besides there are two other things i'm not a fan of. First the ship design.. when i fly through sector space i see all kind of ships but barely any of them look federation or Klingon. Everyone is flying some random sci-fi designs and it really doesn't feel like Star Trek.
And the other thing is... why did they put all the iconic ships in the T3 category ? I want to fly a defiant or voyager or D'deridex class ship, not the (often ugly) T4 designs that are supposed to look more futuristic but (imo) rarely do. I guess you can buy some upgraded versions of them for 20 euro but still, if i'm stuck with a T4 ship for so long, why can't i have one that looks star trek-y ?
I tried a romulan character, i was happy when i got my D'deridex Warbird, the most iconic romulan ship. But then, only a few levels later i got promoted again and got a super ugly, jagged, whatever kind warbird that is now supposed to be my endgame ship. Yay.

[Nazrark]

There is an exchange where you can buy Zen with Refined Dilithium. Which I have enough of RL I am able to buy a T6 Scimitar. So I'm able to buy the ship. But I'd have to go and get weapons and consoles and bridge officers that work as well.

Escort ships have the issue of needing to kill things before you die since you can't take a lot of punishment.

[Rukh]

The D'deridex class ships were pretty formidable ships too, seems weird they wouldn't be higher classed. They beat the crap out of most anything the Klingons and Federation had at the time.

[Nazrark]

The D'deridex class ships were pretty formidable ships too, seems weird they wouldn't be higher classed. They beat the crap out of most anything the Klingons and Federation had at the time.

Under the ship buying screen. They do have a T6 D'deridex that is a refit. So there is one there for aesthetics. The Valdore is only T3 as well. They have a T6 Intrepid class as well.

If you can find really good shields and weapons and officers. You can make a T4 ship outgun a T6 ship.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Under the ship buying screen. They do have a T6 D'deridex that is a refit. So there is one there for aesthetics. The Valdore is only T3 as well. They have a T6 Intrepid class as well.

If you can find really good shields and weapons and officers. You can make a T4 ship outgun a T6 ship.

The Borg set will do that. You will have to endure an ardorous rep grind to get it, but it's well worth the effort. Plus, the visual effects are fantastic, especially for Romulan vessels.

[Yriel]

There is an exchange where you can buy Zen with Refined Dilithium. Which I have enough of RL I am able to buy a T6 Scimitar. So I'm able to buy the ship. But I'd have to go and get weapons and consoles and bridge officers that work as well.

Escort ships have the issue of needing to kill things before you die since you can't take a lot of punishment.

Yes but that's what i meant with "hardcore grind".
I can refine 8000 dilithium a day and it takes me hours of dailies to get 8000.
8000 refinded delitium get you 43 zen and you need 3000+ zen for a T6 ship... Thats like 150+ hours of grinding dailies for that one ship, thats too hardcore for me honestly.

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The D'deridex class ships were pretty formidable ships too, seems weird they wouldn't be higher classed. They beat the crap out of most anything the Klingons and Federation had at the time.

I think the game is set one or two decades after the tv series and so the ships from them are outdated. That's a mind boggeling design decision because i'd imagine people play a Star Trek game because they want to fly those ships they know and love from TV and not some ships cryptic designed that they have never seen before. Don't know what their thought process was when they decided to do that.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yes but that's what i meant with "hardcore grind".
I can refine 8000 dilithium a day and it takes me hours of dailies to get 8000.
8000 refinded delitium get you 43 zen and you need 3000+ zen for a T6 ship... Thats like 150+ hours of grinding dailies for that one ship, thats too hardcore for me honestly.

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I think the game is set one or two decades after the tv series and so the ships from them are outdated. That's a mind boggeling design decision because i'd imagine people play a Star Trek game because they want to fly those ships they know and love from TV and not some ships cryptic designed that they have never seen before. Don't know what their thought process was when they decided to do that.

Cryptic has limited rights; the most logical thing to do would've been to set the game during the Dommion War or shortly after, thus players would be able to play those iconic ships from the shows. I don't know what's in their contract, but we have seen time and time again the walls of their contract show up, especially when interacting with the iconic characters from the shows. I supposed they just decided to fast forward fifty years and create their own lore as to what happened afterwards with new characters and ships.