Star Trek Online Catch-All

Thought they were down at starfleet academy, not earth dock?

But they also used to appear in my DOFF screen like other missions. I haven't logged back in recently to check since they have changed things around to make you use the ship now though.

Doff recruiting changed a couple of patches ago. They used to appear randomly in "Shipboard" (now "Personal") but now only appear in a few specific places:

Starfleet Academy: (1) the Personnel Officer gives you general recruiting and Recruiting for officers of each category (civilian, science, etc). (2) the andorian, tellarite, and Vulcan officers outdoors offer cultural exchange missions for doffs of their race.

The shipboard or personal tab, can't remember which one, will occasionally have a cultural exchange for other races. I believe this only appears in sector space.

Finally, if you have completed certain doff mission chains you can earn other doffs reliably. Each star cluster's colonization chains yields refugees, a blue, and a purple. Completing each of the cardassian-area species' consulate mission chains enables officer exchange missions, which allow you to trade your officers for those of each of those races.

I've also got to point out that the Personnel Officer at SFA not only gives you standard recruiting but also allows underperforming doff exchanges, in which you trade five doffs of one rank and a bit of dilithiun for one random doff of the next rank. That new ability is why all common doffs were 10k on exchange before but are now 100k.

Keithustus wrote:

Doff recruiting changed a couple of patches ago. They used to appear randomly in "Shipboard" (now "Personal") but now only appear in a few specific places:

Starfleet Academy: (1) the Personnel Officer gives you general recruiting and Recruiting for officers of each category (civilian, science, etc). (2) the andorian, tellarite, and Vulcan officers outdoors offer cultural exchange missions for doffs of their race.

The shipboard or personal tab, can't remember which one, will occasionally have a cultural exchange for other races. I believe this only appears in sector space.

Finally, if you have completed certain doff mission chains you can earn other doffs reliably. Each star cluster's colonization chains yields refugees, a blue, and a purple. Completing each of the cardassian-area species' consulate mission chains enables officer exchange missions, which allow you to trade your officers for those of each of those races.

I've also got to point out that the Personnel Officer at SFA not only gives you standard recruiting but also allows underperforming doff exchanges, in which you trade five doffs of one rank and a bit of dilithiun for one random doff of the next rank. That new ability is why all common doffs were 10k on exchange before but are now 100k.

You sir, are a saint.

A well educated, helpful saint.

Hey dudes! I've been on an MMO binge lately. I'm pretty much playing everything and seeing what sticks and I wanna give STO a fair chance this time. My problem is I don't really know anything about Star Trek beyond what was in the latest movie.

Can I actually love this game without being a Trekkie? Would anyone be willing to give me a crash course in what is "need to know" of the lore or characters in STO or can I be pointed in the right direction? I certainly don't want to go reading Star Trek wiki pages or anything.

What is KHAAAAAAAAAN? What's a tribble? Why do phasers look so puny? What's Spock's race called again? What is that thing he does where he chokes dudes out or whatever? What is the "KuhSomething-something-Maru"?

For the game specifically, I remember having the early choice of three "classes", but it must branch out more than that, right? How does it do that and what are the more unique roles available in STO versus every other MMO? I like weird class roles in MMOs.

Thanks in advance! I hope I get a response before my download finished because DCUO is wearing out its welcome on my hard drive.

We can probably help you on that, but being a hardcore trekkie, I'd probably talk too much.

Real quickly, though....

agemyth wrote:

What is KHAAAAAAAAAN? What's a tribble? Why do phasers look so puny? What's Spock's race called again? What is that thing he does where he chokes dudes out or whatever? What is the "KuhSomething-something-Maru"?

1). Refers to a character, Khan Noonian Singh, who shows up in the original series episode "Space Seed" and then later in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." That quote comes from the movie, yelled by Captain Kirk. You should watch the movie.

2). A tribble is a creature shaped like a furry ball that showed up in multiple instances, but firstly in the original series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." They hate Klingons.

3). Phasers are not puny. They can asplode if you overload them. Klingon blasters look more badass if that's what you prefer.

4). Spock is a Vulcan. Though, technically, he's half-Vulcan, half-Human.

5). He uses a "Vulcan Nerve Pinch" to incapacitate folks. He once used a "Vulcan Death Grip" on Kirk, but it turned out he was really faking and there's no such thing.

6). The "Kobayashi Maru" is a training simulation for Starfleet Cadets that pits students in a "no win scenario" to see how they react. Kirk, famously, got around the problem and beat the "no win scenario." First referred to in the aforementioned "Star Trek II," and then fleshed out more fully in deleted scenes from the most recent movie.

We can write more about the game later. I've got a meeting to get to.

ilduce620 wrote:

"Kobayashi Maru" First referred to in the aforementioned "Star Trek II," and then fleshed out more fully in deleted scenes from the most recent movie.

Ah crap. Now I've got to go look into that movie some more. Thanks.

ilduce620 wrote:

We can probably help you on that, but being a hardcore trekkie, I'd probably talk too much.

Real quickly, though....

agemyth wrote:

What is KHAAAAAAAAAN? What's a tribble? Why do phasers look so puny? What's Spock's race called again? What is that thing he does where he chokes dudes out or whatever? What is the "KuhSomething-something-Maru"?

1). Refers to a character, Khan Noonian Singh, who shows up in the original series episode "Space Seed" and then later in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." That quote comes from the movie, yelled by Captain Kirk. You should watch the movie.

2). A tribble is a creature shaped like a furry ball that showed up in multiple instances, but firstly in the original series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." They hate Klingons.

3). Phasers are not puny. They can asplode if you overload them. Klingon blasters look more badass if that's what you prefer.

4). Spock is a Vulcan. Though, technically, he's half-Vulcan, half-Human.

5). He uses a "Vulcan Nerve Pinch" to incapacitate folks. He once used a "Vulcan Death Grip" on Kirk, but it turned out he was really faking and there's no such thing.

6). The "Kobayashi Maru" is a training simulation for Starfleet Cadets that pits students in a "no win scenario" to see how they react. Kirk, famously, got around the problem and beat the "no win scenario." First referred to in the aforementioned "Star Trek II," and then fleshed out more fully in deleted scenes from the most recent movie.

We can write more about the game later. I've got a meeting to get to. :-)

1. I'm certainly not opposed to actually watching some of the stuff, but at this point it sounds like a very daunting undertaking if I want to understand the proper context for most of it. I suppose that is the point of the new movie's existence.

2. Are tribbles sentient beings with a reason for hating klingons, or are they just "animals" that do horrible things any time they see those awful ridged heads like I do?

3. Phasers that I have seen look puny. I know they can disintegrate a fool pretty good if needed though. Star Trek is like a universe full of people with the "Cricket" from the Men in Black movies

4. Ah right, half-vulcan. That is kind of his thing. That was very clearly expressed in the movie ;o

6. Also clearly stated in the movie. I should have remembered that.

Thanks for the info/refresher. I haven't been exposed to Star Trek anything since that was in theaters

edit: How is STO's quest/story dialogue? I know they try to do an episodic thing with their post release content, so that sounds interesting if they actually explore interesting sociopolitical or whatever kind of content a good episode of Trek tends to explore.

The beginning of the game (at least the tutorial) seems to deal with a lot of Borg. What's up with those guys? I get that they are non-feeling robots or whatever. They kind of seem like the Geth of Mass Effect in that they as a collective group think as one unit... At least that's what I remember the thing with them being. I could be way off. What's up with the borg? Those cube ships are totally silly yet totally cool to see compared to everything else you see in sci-fi.

Keithustus wrote:
ilduce620 wrote:

"Kobayashi Maru" First referred to in the aforementioned "Star Trek II," and then fleshed out more fully in deleted scenes from the most recent movie.

Ah crap. Now I've got to go look into that movie some more. Thanks. :(

It's on the Bluray special edition, for sure. The movie kinda goes into it during the main feature, but there's a somewhat lengthy deleted scene that really shows how he did it. Worth a look!

agemyth wrote:

2. Are tribbles sentient beings with a reason for hating klingons, or are they just "animals" that do horrible things any time they see those awful ridged heads like I do?

If I recall, they are supposed to be "sentient." In a DS9 episode titled "Trials and Tribble-ations," I seem to remember Worf mentioning some ridiculous Klingon war on the Tribble homeworld, which makes Tribbles hate the Klingons. I could be making that up, though...

agemyth wrote:

edit: How is STO's quest/story dialogue? I know they try to do an episodic thing with their post release content, so that sounds interesting if they actually explore interesting sociopolitical or whatever kind of content a good episode of Trek tends to explore.

The beginning of the game (at least the tutorial) seems to deal with a lot of Borg. What's up with those guys? I get that they are non-feeling robots or whatever. They kind of seem like the Geth of Mass Effect in that they as a collective group think as one unit... At least that's what I remember the thing with them being. I could be way off. What's up with the borg? Those cube ships are totally silly yet totally cool to see compared to everything else you see in sci-fi.

Here's where your mileage may vary, and there will probably be some disagreement from the GWJ community on this. There are those that think the game doesn't go far enough in "episode-like stories," meaning that they're more about the combat than they are about diplomacy, story, etc. To an extent, I agree that most of the missions you go on are something of a set structure: early space battle, some middle portion where you collect things or talk with NPCs, and then a final space battle. It can get repetitive, for sure...but, most would also agree (I think) that, around the point you hit "Commander," the content takes off and improves on the story front.

Cryptic has done a reasonable job in the last few years of trying to increase the "Star Trek"-ness of the MMO by adding things like Duty Officers (a mini-game of sorts where you assign duty officers on your ship to do certain tasks in the background while you go about your regular missions. For example, you could have them go research a planet and they could come back with some money or materials for you), Diplomacy Missions, and more in-depth stories. The most recent Season of Featured Episodes, "The 2800," was really good, in my opinion. It provided a good in-depth story, had plenty of variety in what you did, and it did a great job of calling back to the DS9 series without being so obtuse that new users would have things flying over their heads. You also don't have to be max level before you can start the Featured Episodes (though, I'd suggest you play a bit first before tracking them down so you don't get your ass handed to you).

So I think Cryptic is learning and improving on the story stuff, but you won't see most of it until later.

Lastly, on The Borg. They first appeared in Next Generation and gained quite a bit of popularity for the movie "Star Trek: First Contact," and then their multiple appearances in Voyager. They are a collective, much like a bee hive, where they seek to take over civilizations to "add their biological and technological distinctiveness" to the Borg hive. As they are obsessed with achieving perfection through biological and synthetic means, their ships tend to reflect that: a perfect cube, a perfect sphere, etc. They use shapes for their ships.

Also, bear in mind that you could have a ship shaped like a shoe and it would travel through space just the same way as a more "traditional" looking airplane-style ship.

But yeah, they have a collective consciousness, which means that (in the shows) you can hack in to implant a command through one Borg which then gets transmitted to the others. They also use adaptation, where they have force fields that match the modulation in your phaser beams, meaning they adapt to where your phasers are less effective (unless you use a "modulating frequency"). The "adaptation" portion that's important to the shows doesn't seem to show up much in the games, though, likely because, by this time in the game (which takes place decades after the shows), quite a bit of Borg tech has been investigated and analyzed to where they aren't as badass as they used to be.

That was plenty long enough. Time to pretend I'm working again.

It's more accurate to say that Klingons hate Tribbles than that Tribbles hate Klingons. Tribbles are just balls of fur, digestive systems and breeding equipment.

ilduce620 wrote:

If I recall, they are supposed to be "sentient." In a DS9 episode titled "Trials and Tribble-ations," I seem to remember Worf mentioning some ridiculous Klingon war on the Tribble homeworld, which makes Tribbles hate the Klingons. I could be making that up, though... :-P

Sounds like for everyday Tribble encounters I should assume there is not much going on in their brains.

Here's where your mileage may vary, and there will probably be some disagreement from the GWJ community on this. There are those that think the game doesn't go far enough in "episode-like stories," meaning that they're more about the combat than they are about diplomacy, story, etc. To an extent, I agree that most of the missions you go on are something of a set structure: early space battle, some middle portion where you collect things or talk with NPCs, and then a final space battle. It can get repetitive, for sure...but, most would also agree (I think) that, around the point you hit "Commander," the content takes off and improves on the story front.

Cryptic has done a reasonable job in the last few years of trying to increase the "Star Trek"-ness of the MMO by adding things like Duty Officers (a mini-game of sorts where you assign duty officers on your ship to do certain tasks in the background while you go about your regular missions. For example, you could have them go research a planet and they could come back with some money or materials for you), Diplomacy Missions, and more in-depth stories. The most recent Season of Featured Episodes, "The 2800," was really good, in my opinion. It provided a good in-depth story, had plenty of variety in what you did, and it did a great job of calling back to the DS9 series without being so obtuse that new users would have things flying over their heads. You also don't have to be max level before you can start the Featured Episodes (though, I'd suggest you play a bit first before tracking them down so you don't get your ass handed to you).

So I think Cryptic is learning and improving on the story stuff, but you won't see most of it until later.

Well... yeah it is an MMO, right? Most mmo's do not have amazing early game experiences, so I go into these games with that understanding. It is a silly idea to accept that an entire genre of games has such flaws and does not do much to change it. At least in this case I know the game takes place in one of the most beloved sci-fi universes ever crafted over decades. There is merit to what the game is based on and like every other MMO it is still changing and growing.

Lastly, on The Borg. They first appeared in Next Generation and gained quite a bit of popularity for the movie "Star Trek: First Contact," and then their multiple appearances in Voyager. They are a collective, much like a bee hive, where they seek to take over civilizations to "add their biological and technological distinctiveness" to the Borg hive. As they are obsessed with achieving perfection through biological and synthetic means, their ships tend to reflect that: a perfect cube, a perfect sphere, etc. They use shapes for their ships.

Neat, so I have more crazy robot geometry in space to look forward to then. I have no problems with this.

Also, bear in mind that you could have a ship shaped like a shoe and it would travel through space just the same way as a more "traditional" looking airplane-style ship. :-P

Hell yeah! Why bother making a space ship aerodynamic if it is never going to experience any aerodynamic forces? Leave aerodynamic designs to landing craft!

That was plenty long enough. Time to pretend I'm working again.

Awesome. I have my own Star Trek tutor.

I'm really concerned about someone wanting to try STO without having more than a heard-of-it knowledge of Star Trek. That would be like wanting to go to that theme park about creationism without having read any of the Bible.

Keithustus wrote:

I'm really concerned about someone wanting to try STO without having more than a heard-of-it knowledge of Star Trek. That would be like wanting to go to that theme park about creationism without having read any of the Bible.

I'm kind of banking on the idea that Cryptic would try to appeal to those of us who have been on the sidelines gawking at the Trek fans and wondering what they were going on about until the Abrams film. I liked the last film, but that certainly does not give me the right to consider myself a "fan" with that alone. I like one piece of the fiction and am at least interested in the rest of the fiction. Cryptic should appeal to Trek fans first as they would be the more likely ones to stay long term, but you simply don't make a MMO like STO and cater to a niche audience only if you want to be big. Maybe I'm wrong though.

I love Star Wars and KOTOR, but that probably hurt my experience as much as it helped it in TOR. Okay, I'm actually going to go play the game now.

EDIT: lol. Servers just went down for "unexpected maintenance" while i was creating my character. This game is already trying to keep me from playing it

AnimeJ wrote:

It's more accurate to say that Klingons hate Tribbles than that Tribbles hate Klingons. Tribbles are just balls of fur, digestive systems and breeding equipment.

Truth. Dr. McCoy said as much when he dissected one. Good call.

agemyth wrote:
ilduce620 wrote:

That was plenty long enough. Time to pretend I'm working again.

Awesome. I have my own Star Trek tutor.

Also truth. And happy to serve.

I read the first edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia before bed while I was growing up. Yes, I'm that guy. More useful knowledge than sports statistics, I'd argue...

agemyth wrote:

I'm kind of banking on the idea that Cryptic would try to appeal to those of us who have been on the sidelines gawking at the Trek fans and wondering what they were going on about until the Abrams film. I liked the last film, but that certainly does not give me the right to consider myself a "fan" with that alone. I like one piece of the fiction and am at least interested in the rest of the fiction. Cryptic should appeal to Trek fans first as they would be the more likely ones to stay long term, but you simply don't make a MMO like STO and cater to a niche audience only if you want to be big. Maybe I'm wrong though.

The game draws far more on the TV shows and previous movies, but in many ways, it's more "fan fiction" than "canon fiction." In that, I mean that there are various book series that extend upon the canon set up in the TV shows and movies and the MMO is representative of that side of things. However, because the new movie generated an alternate timeline, it doesn't really figure in to the timeline this game inhabits (i.e. the one of the first 10 movies and the shows).

For the record, as a long-time Star Trek fan, I loved the most recent movie. It was a clever way to pay homage to the original characters while crafting a means to create a new "history" that won't affect events later on. The last show, "Enterprise," ran into that problem to a large degree, where they were very limited in what they could do without pissing off Star Trek fans saying "Well, that would have changed future events! You can't do that!" By creating the alternate timeline, they are free to do whatever the heck they want now. Good on them.

agemyth wrote:

I love Star Wars and KOTOR, but that probably hurt my experience as much as it helped it in TOR. Okay, I'm actually going to go play the game now.

I haven't played SWTOR, but I watched some of Giant Bomb's Quick Look on it. The internal environments looked an awful lot like STO's, with regards to the size of the doors and hallways and how you run your character around space stations, etc. The space combat (my favorite part of STO by far) looked pretty boring in SWTOR, but again, I haven't tried it, so I am hardly qualified to comment.

I'd be interested in hearing a good "compare and contrast" between the two properties. What STO has ended up with after 2 years running and what SWTOR could learn from STO's experience. Or what things SWTOR gets right (besides story) that STO could implement. That sort of stuff.

Are you in the GWJ Fleet, "Captains With Jobs?" I haven't gone through the previous pages to see if you requested joining. If you haven't yet, we'll need your character's handle. Mine, for example is "jolan@ilduce620" and my alt is "xet@ilduce620."

Hmm... I got distracted by The Witcher 2 and now I'm feeling a little MMO apathy. I gotta take a break from these kinds of games for a week or so

I will return though!

agemyth wrote:

Hmm... I got distracted by The Witcher 2 and now I'm feeling a little MMO apathy. I gotta take a break from these kinds of games for a week or so

I will return though!

Indeed. I've got Witcher 2 on PC, but I'm trying to finish Mass Effect 2 first. Stupid games...

So... anybody else get the e-mail about Cryptic security being broken? Apparently back in Dec 2010 account names and passwords were accessed. Just sending out a notice now as they apparently recently discovered it.

Stele wrote:

So... anybody else get the e-mail about Cryptic security being broken? Apparently back in Dec 2010 account names and passwords were accessed. Just sending out a notice now as they apparently recently discovered it.

Yep I got the email, for both my Co and STO accounts

Stele wrote:

So... anybody else get the e-mail about Cryptic security being broken? Apparently back in Dec 2010 account names and passwords were accessed. Just sending out a notice now as they apparently recently discovered it.

Got it as well, tried changing the password, and it's telling me it's now a Perfect world account now. Guess the Perfect World server are jammed as well, still waiting on my email to change my password.

I didn't get an email, but I did get a prompt to change my PW, which went away to a regular login.

Yeah, I got it too. I was wondering if the emails themselves were a phishing scheme.

Nevin73 wrote:

Yeah, I got it too. I was wondering if the emails themselves were a phishing scheme.

That was my first thought too, so I just went to the sites manually and changed my passwords anyway just to be safe. I mean if this was Dec *2010* I think they would have done whatever they were going to do with my account by now, no?

Junior Officer Appreciation Weekend is going on right now!

From today, April 27th, until Monday, April 30th, STO players will be able to give back to their valued junior officers in the form of up to 50% bonus commendation experience for all duty officer assignments. In addition, captains can receive a free purple-quality duty officer "with a unique active roster power," and any duty officer packs opened during the course of the event will each contain a free additional green-quality or better duty officer, so if you're looking to pad out your junior officer roster after the redshirt massacre that happened last mission, now's the perfect time to do so. Just head on over to the STO official site for the full details.

Could I be reinvited? Name should be Quinn@Xeknos.

Edit: Fixed name.

My game name should be Neutrino@agemyth. Jumped back in and killed some Klingons and other aliens with weird faces. My time away actually really seemed to help with grasping some of the game's systems that seemed foreign last week. Now it's just kind of lonely out here in space.

I just installed a new SSD, so while I've got the game "installed," I'm not sure how functional it is yet. Thus, I probably won't be able to get you guys added anytime soon.

If someone else can get this taken care of, post it up here so we all know! If no one else gets to it, I'll try to do it later tonight (after 9:30 CDT), if my drive decides to cooperate.

Edit: My Windoze box is out of commission until I get new SATA cables...er...tomorrow... Hopefully someone else can get this done?!

Man... these skills. These skills. I'm not worried about the skills on my captain, because I think I'm making good choices there. However, something tells me that I've screwed up my boff skills somehow.

I'm Lt. Commander 14 and it already feels like I'm starting to struggle a little bit with these missions... Is that normal? Is it a good idea to train your officers in the next tier of their skills ASAP, or wait?

When's a good time to upgrade your weapons/equipment? Is crafting worth it?

Xeknos wrote:

Man... these skills. These skills. I'm not worried about the skills on my captain, because I think I'm making good choices there. However, something tells me that I've screwed up my boff skills somehow.

I'm Lt. Commander 14 and it already feels like I'm starting to struggle a little bit with these missions... Is that normal? Is it a good idea to train your officers in the next tier of their skills ASAP, or wait?

When's a good time to upgrade your weapons/equipment? Is crafting worth it?

To be honest, I played through with my first character (at launch, with a different skills system in place) without really thinking about it. I was a Science Officer that focused quite a bit on healing, but I put quite a few points into Quantum Torpedoes and Phasers to that I'd still be effective in a fight. Mostly, I did this because I gravitate toward "healer" classes, but also because I like to solo these missions, so I needed to be able to complete them without dying every 30 sec (which still happens, believe you me).

I guess I'm saying that, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about "doing it wrong," with regards to skills.

Now, there is one thing to keep in mind. Back at the beginning of the game, there was a guy that ran the figures and thought it was most efficient to put no more than 6 or 7 skill points into the first Tier of ship-based skills, in that the benefits for maxing that out weren't as good as shifting those points into higher Tiers. So if there was one thing I'd do, I'd do something like that. Bear in mind, however, that those calculations were made on the previous skill system, so it may not hold as true as it once did.

For the most part, I upgraded my weapons to something better any time I ran across one. Once you have access to the Fleet Bank, you'll get plenty of stuff from there!

You were in the Fleet with another character awhile back though, right? Shouldn't they still be in it? I don't think we removed people once they were in it...

Crafting...well...that's up to you. I haven't messed with it in awhile. Personally, it isn't something I find very fun, in any game I play, so while I've dabbled a bit with my Alt, I haven't touched it in awhile and that's a constantly evolving system. Again, though, we store crafting materials in the Fleet Bank for those that want to mess around with such things!

ilduce620 wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

Man... these skills. These skills. I'm not worried about the skills on my captain, because I think I'm making good choices there. However, something tells me that I've screwed up my boff skills somehow.

I'm Lt. Commander 14 and it already feels like I'm starting to struggle a little bit with these missions... Is that normal? Is it a good idea to train your officers in the next tier of their skills ASAP, or wait?

When's a good time to upgrade your weapons/equipment? Is crafting worth it?

To be honest, I played through with my first character (at launch, with a different skills system in place) without really thinking about it. I was a Science Officer that focused quite a bit on healing, but I put quite a few points into Quantum Torpedoes and Phasers to that I'd still be effective in a fight. Mostly, I did this because I gravitate toward "healer" classes, but also because I like to solo these missions, so I needed to be able to complete them without dying every 30 sec (which still happens, believe you me).

I guess I'm saying that, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about "doing it wrong," with regards to skills.

Now, there is one thing to keep in mind. Back at the beginning of the game, there was a guy that ran the figures and thought it was most efficient to put no more than 6 or 7 skill points into the first Tier of ship-based skills, in that the benefits for maxing that out weren't as good as shifting those points into higher Tiers. So if there was one thing I'd do, I'd do something like that. Bear in mind, however, that those calculations were made on the previous skill system, so it may not hold as true as it once did.

For the most part, I upgraded my weapons to something better any time I ran across one. Once you have access to the Fleet Bank, you'll get plenty of stuff from there!

You were in the Fleet with another character awhile back though, right? Shouldn't they still be in it? I don't think we removed people once they were in it...

Crafting...well...that's up to you. I haven't messed with it in awhile. Personally, it isn't something I find very fun, in any game I play, so while I've dabbled a bit with my Alt, I haven't touched it in awhile and that's a constantly evolving system. Again, though, we store crafting materials in the Fleet Bank for those that want to mess around with such things!

Yeah, my first character was the old Fleet Leader, until I passed off leadership and quit the game. I don't think I have that character anymore, because with my recent return I wanted to try a "fresh start".

Thanks for the advice. From what I've seen people in zone chat say, it looks like your boff skills don't really matter - just pick two that will be useful and pump 'em up. I tried a little bit of crafting but it looks like it's more trouble than its worth. I'm now Lt. Commander 18 and in the Briar Patch, so it won't be too long before I get my Commander ship (will likely get the Excelsior off the CStore) and shiny new equipment.

Xeknos wrote:

eah, my first character was the old Fleet Leader, until I passed off leadership and quit the game. I don't think I have that character anymore, because with my recent return I wanted to try a "fresh start".

Thanks for the advice. From what I've seen people in zone chat say, it looks like your boff skills don't really matter - just pick two that will be useful and pump 'em up. I tried a little bit of crafting but it looks like it's more trouble than its worth. I'm now Lt. Commander 18 and in the Briar Patch, so it won't be too long before I get my Commander ship (will likely get the Excelsior off the CStore) and shiny new equipment.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I just didn't know if your old character still existed, in which case they'd probably have the rights to add your other character to the Fleet. My new SATA cables are on the truck for delivery, so hopefully I'll have a functioning computer by tonight so I can add you again!

BOFF skills, to me, are just important to what you want your party to do. I liked having an Engineer that had Shield Generators, for example. So yeah, pick the stuff you want and train up to other skillsets if your current officers don't do what you want.

How far did you rank up your previous character? Did you make it through Commander last time around? That's when the game really starts to pick up...

Looks like they revamped the (player-character) skill tree again. Curious. Limits on space power points is understandable. And the interface is better, though still buggy.

Having not played in months, and seeing lots of new ship options, I'm curious: what ship should a Fed Tac max-level character be flying? I had gotten the Defiant-class (with stealth) way back when, but am curious what's fun now? I'm happy to fly any type, just looking for something new. Also got close to 2k points to spend, so not too worried about blowing it all on one ship.