Star Trek Online : A New and Unbroken Thread!

[Rishathra]

The passenger list is pretty much where you store colonists.  They are technically duty officers, but they don't count towards your cap (only the passenger cap, which is 20).  Think of them more as commodities.  There is 'Relocate Colonists to Federation Borders' which uses them as a way to generate dilithium, and there are the colonial assignment chains.  These are a series of chained assignments that appear in each exploration cluster - the sectors where you scan anomalies and it generates random mini-missions.  Completing the chain gives you a unique rare duty officer for each cluster you complete it in, and unlocks a repeatable rare assignment that has the possibility of rewarding a very rare version of the doff you got for completing the chain.  These chains are definitely worth doing as the duty officers they reward are really good, and possibly your only source of rare/very rare doffs for a good while.

[Stormwaltz]

To use passengers, look for colonial missions in the "exploration" zones. There's a chain up in each that ends in a blue Duty Officer reward and repeatable missions that reward swackloads of assignment XP.

Important hint: you can also find colonial assignment chains in the other side's exploration zones. As a Feddie, I can do them in Klingon areas, for example.

EDIT: So what Rishathra said. This is what happens when I don't notice the thread goes on for another page.

[Morat20]

A few more question: What are all these common goods I keep getting? And two, I have a cargo hold full of stuff that I know is in my bank. Does that mean I don't have to empty my bank of particles before running to Memory Alpha?

[Rishathra]

The cargo hold is more of a pointer than an actual place.  You are looking at all of the commodities you posses in your inventory and bank.  I assume that is what you mean by common goods, stuff like provisions, medical supplies, industrial energy cells, things like that?  There are diplomatic missions in the exploration clusters that use them, and they are also used in several duty officer missions and starbase assignments.  Generally, it is easier to just replicate the ones you need than to actually store them in your bank/inventory.  The downside to replicating is that it is more expensive than buying from a vendor, but it doesn't really matter considering the small quantities you need in most applications.  I've only started collecting certain ones because of the large numbers you need for starbase assignments, but otherwise, it is easiest to just sell off the ones you have and replicate at need, to save on inventory space.

That being said, Bat Quadrant happily accepts any and every industrial energy cell you choose to donate.

[Sir T]

One thing as well, you can get medical hypos, Components and regenerators from Vendors. You would be surprised at the people who don't know that and think you can only get them from the exchange.

[Rishathra]

Crafting and duty officer assignments that require materials automatically pull from your bank.  There's no need to empty it out.

[Morat20]

Crafting and duty officer assignments that require materials automatically pull from your bank.  There's no need to empty it out.

Now that is some sweet news. I'm tempted to buy more bank space as it is. I'm liking the game. Admittedly, I've come in after a lot of smoothing work has been done.

[Stormwaltz]

Crafting and duty officer assignments that require materials automatically pull from your bank.  There's no need to empty it out.

In case it's ever relevant, they pull from the bank by preference. If you have some material X in your bank and in your inventory, and use some in crafting or a Duty Officer assignment, it will pull from the bank until that's empty.

[Morat20]

Is there an F13 fleet? I like doing the PvE stuff, and it seems a waste not to earn fleet marks.

[Stormwaltz]

Something else I noted tonight: Duty Officer missions will NOT pull needed materials from account storage - only character storage. I imagine crafting would be the same.

[Rishathra]

Is there an F13 fleet? I like doing the PvE stuff, and it seems a waste not to earn fleet marks.

Technically there is, but I'm the only one in it who plays regularly.  You are still welcome to join if you want.

[Morat20]

Is there an F13 fleet? I like doing the PvE stuff, and it seems a waste not to earn fleet marks.

Technically there is, but I'm the only one in it who plays regularly.  You are still welcome to join if you want.

What's the upsides of fleets? I know there are starbases now....can you put them together yourself, or do you need a sizeable fleet? (Fleets are just guilds, right?). Are solo fleets common?

I just realized I do stuff that can earn fleet marks in addition to what I am doing, but don't because I'm not in a fleet.

[Stormwaltz]

I know there are starbases now....can you put them together yourself, or do you need a sizeable fleet? (Fleets are just guilds, right?). Are solo fleets common?

I doubt it's possible to get a base rolling as a soloer. I'm in a fleet of six, with 3-4 active players. We formed on July 20, and only got our base to tier 1 a few days ago.

[Rishathra]

I see myself as able to eventually get everything to tier 2, but that's it.  I'm a day away from starting the Tier 2 Communications Array, which will open up the Tier 2 Starbase and Transwarp Gate projects.  The shipyard and industrial fabricator will come up in the next few months after that.

[Morat20]

You're doing that as part of the f13 fleet of one? :) let me know who to mail ingame to join. Bat country, right? :)

[MisterNoisy]

Is there an F13 fleet? I like doing the PvE stuff, and it seems a waste not to earn fleet marks.

Technically there is, but I'm the only one in it who plays regularly.  You are still welcome to join if you want.

I'll try to be on more regularly, but between a week-long trip and Borderlands 2, play time may be somewhat limited.

[Morat20]

No hurry. Might make a one man fleet and toy around. I'm still futzing with the duty officer system. Now that I'm closing in on forty I'm thinking of trading five or ten for some uncommons.

[Rishathra]

I need your full name@handle to send you an invite.  You don't need to be online.  I also have stacks and stacks of duty officer cadre packs if you want to boost your roster up.

And it's Star Trek, so Bat Quadrant.

Oh and for the record, I'm not trying to guilt anyone into contributing more.  I knew what I was getting when I formed a Bat Country STO chapter! ;)

[Morat20]

DDoesnt bother me. :) its not the best mmorpg, but its star trek and due to going so long with a crap computer I'm not quite as jaded on the genre. I can see that extended bank space and bridge officer slots are in my future, at a minimum. I managed to get a Ferengi bridge officer as a duty officer reward and want to use him. :)

I believe I'm janya@morat1 (charactername@account handle, right?)

As for duty officer packs, I have room for thirty or so officers at the moment and would be happy to get them. Other than that, I'm solid.

And I don't mind helping build a starbase. Just let me know how I can help!

[Rishathra]

And I don't mind helping build a starbase. Just let me know how I can help!

Dilithium.  But seeing as you are relatively new, you need it way more than the fleet does.  Common duty officers also help, but again, you're new, and just starting to build your roster.  Any uncommon astrometrics scientists you acquire will definitely be needed, so please keep an eye out for them.

[Morat20]

Will do. :) also industrial power cells, right? I've only got about 15k dilithium. About to hit commander and will probably need it to outfit my ship. Only level 18 now, about 80% of the way to 19.

What are fleet marks used for?

[MisterNoisy]

And I don't mind helping build a starbase. Just let me know how I can help!

Dilithium.  But seeing as you are relatively new, you need it way more than the fleet does.  Common duty officers also help, but again, you're new, and just starting to build your roster.  Any uncommon astrometrics scientists you acquire will definitely be needed, so please keep an eye out for them.

I'm pretty sure I can help with that - I've got at least 3 or 4 of them in my roster already - how many are needed in total?

[Sir T]

What are fleet marks used for?

Just paying into fleet starship projects. You can get currency from them to buy shit from an in starbase store, but don't worry about that for the moment.

I'll add you to my friends list in game as well. My handle is @suranis. I haven't been playing much the last few weeks but I'm online when you are poke me and we can run some missions together.

[Rishathra]

I'm pretty sure I can help with that - I've got at least 3 or 4 of them in my roster already - how many are needed in total?

20.  It will be about two weeks before that project will be up.  I want to get the starbase project done first.  When it's ready, I'll announce it.

Fleet marks are basically an input for starbase projects.  Anything you input into a project earns you fleet credits, which you use to buy stuff from the fleet store.  Fleet marks have the highest payback in regards to how many credits you earn, but everything counts.

[Rishathra]

janya@morat1

Player not found.  I'm assuming morat1 is your login?  The ingame handle is different.  Which is stupid, I know.  It's a problem with the way Perfect World handles player accounts.

Edit: and yes, Industrial Energy Cells are good, and are needed in large supply for the starbase upgrade, which should be sometime next week.

[Morat20]

Typed it on my cell and screwed up -- jayna@morat1

Also, I have several green astrometrics officers. All I think assigned to my crew though..

[Morat20]

Holy crap, the tier three science ship DOES suck. I went from damn hard to kill to...target practice with weak guns?

Admittedly I also jumped from "top of the lt. commander bracket" missions to "bottom of the commander" ones, but dang...

Plus, ugly as sin. i do like creating black holes -- except for the fact that it seems to draw aggro like crazy.

[apocrypha]

Unfortunately science as a career is a bit lacklustre I find, and that tier of ship is where it really starts to become apparent :(

I actually ended up levelling my science character to about level 30 just from Doff missions. Switch to a tactical char, level the science guy without actually having to fly the useless ships, and revel in the sheer destruction the tactical ships can dish out. 

[Sir T]

Yeah, soon you will realize the joy of half the science powers sharing a cooldown with each other, meaning that if you use one you start a 15 second cooldown with other ones. My favorite combination is Grav well, Tachyon beam and Energy Siphon, all 3 of which I would use all at once if I could. And Tychens rRft another mass screw you power. Tac guys whined incessantly about how OP science guys were so they were Nerfed hard. See also "Klingon ships are not OP, Fed ships are better its just the players are crap *ignores klings ripping feds apart*"

There's a reason a lot of sci guys fly carriers. The sheer joy of actually being able to dish out some damage...

Science however is pretty damn good on the ground, which is a good thing really.

[Morat20]

I'm actually an engineering guy. I just have two science bridge officers. Otherwise I'd be flying something else. (I have like four tactical guys on hand -- two saurians, an andorian and a human) and a Ferengi Engineer. I just can't use them withotu discarding the guys I have. :(

I'm planning on purchasing a bit of Zen for some more bank slots, might as well pick up an extra bridge slot and shove in a tactical guy, and an extra ship slot -- and maybe a ship.

[Morat20]

So do any of the Captain level ships stand out?

[apocrypha]

The Defiant. Awesome, awesome ship.

[Sir T]

For an engineer the Exceslsior is probably the best, but needs zen to get

You can look at the stats on this page here http://www.stowiki.org/Playable_starship

Essentially the captain cruised is the Enterprise D. Powerful, but has the lowest turning of any ship in the game short of Carriers. The Science vessel is Voyager. The Escort is... well, an escort. Its the Defiant model.

Since you are forking over Dil as an FTP player at this point, you could keep saving it up and go for your admiral ship though,

[Morat20]

I'm enjoying it enough I've considered a gold membership for three months or whatever they call it.

Currently thinking between defiant and voyager...I'm still iffy on how good subsystem targetting is. I've enjoyed the science vessels so far, despite how ugly the lt. Commander ones were. The lt version was a sweet ride. :)

[Sir T]

The Nova is one of the best ships for its tier in the game. Sadly its the best of the bunch. A lot of Eng captains do go for the Captain science vessel hoever as its a pretty maneuvrable piece of kit. If you are undecided between the sci vessel and the Defient, go for the Sci. While people rave about the Defiant I dont rate it that much. Its tough, but that's only compared with other escorts.

What the subsystem targetting does is the rank one tactical beam ability. This is the list for targetting weapons, but the rest are all the same.

http://www.stowiki.org/Ability:_Target_Weapons_Subsystems

Rank I: Ensign - Science Ships only    

    75% Weapon Damage
    -24 Weapon Power Setting
    20% Chance to Disable Weapon systems

Rank II: Lieutenant     

    75% Weapon Damage
    -32 Weapon Power Setting
    30% Chance to Disable Weapon systems

Rank III: Lt Commander

    75% Weapon Damage
    -40 Weapon Power Setting
    40% Chance to Disable Weapon systems

Its useful to have when you dont have to out it on a Boff skill