Star Trek Online Catch-All

Normally I avoid MMo forums like the plague. But you can sift out a few useful nuggets.

Melee combat guide:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...

Tribble breeding for different stat effects (not just healing!)
http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...

How in the hell do you Win in a War Zone? I've tried two different Ground Wars now and keep getting my butt handed to me, they were both the Assimilated Cruiser. I just can't seem to win, the first time I was LT7 this time I was LT Cmdr2.

Tigerbill wrote:

How in the hell do you Win in a War Zone? I've tried two different Ground Wars now and keep getting my butt handed to me, they were both the Assimilated Cruiser. I just can't seem to win, the first time I was LT7 this time I was LT Cmdr2.

Well, the break the planet one is bugged.

Tigerbill wrote:

How in the hell do you Win in a War Zone? I've tried two different Ground Wars now and keep getting my butt handed to me, they were both the Assimilated Cruiser. I just can't seem to win, the first time I was LT7 this time I was LT Cmdr2.

I'm having the same issue. I had the one with all of those borg cubes in it. I was able to "participate in a war", but I still have the "win a war zone" objective that remains unticked. I have no idea how to "win" it.

Another question...does anyone know what, say, putting one point in the Escort skill really does? I'm having a bit of a problem really understanding my skill point spending choices. Or...trouble understanding how those spent points help my chracater's progress,

Strekos wrote:
deftly wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

When you rename your ship there is a slot for custom designation. It has two parts with the first being any number within the valid range. (something like 93000-999999 or thereabouts). The second slot appears to have room for only 2 letters or numbers. So I be that is where it goes. I didn't click on it to see if it is a drop down menu or a type in box.

I think that second box is for successive ships with the same designation, like NCC 1701-D. I'm trying to use NX instead of NCC.

Did you claim your bonus items from the C-Store? You need to click the down arrow by the mini-map, choose C-Store, go to the special unlocks tab, and claim all your stuff.

That's got to be it. I checked my in-game mail and a bunch of other things, but I didn't even know about the C-store. I'll try it when I get home, thanks!

Could anyone give me a quick step-by-step regarding resetting my power presets? They're currently at the default attack = 100/50/25/25, etc.

Also, the captain skills of "starship operations". It looks like that mainly goes toward skills involving deflectors, tractor beams, etc. Is that useful for anyone other than science vessel captains? I've been plugging all my points into space based skills while completely ignoring my ground skills and I'm running out of the obvious choices for dumping skill points into.

Kehama wrote:

Could anyone give me a quick step-by-step regarding resetting my power presets? They're currently at the default attack = 100/50/25/25, etc.

Also, the captain skills of "starship operations". It looks like that mainly goes toward skills involving deflectors, tractor beams, etc. Is that useful for anyone other than science vessel captains? I've been plugging all my points into space based skills while completely ignoring my ground skills and I'm running out of the obvious choices for dumping skill points into.

I believe it will improve the abilities of your science bridge officers. If you hit 'p' to bring up your abilities, most will tell you exactly which skills will improve them. If you're not piloting a science vessel, that still means it will only help two or three abilities at the endgame.

Are you trying to save new defaults for the power presets? I usually change that to the third layout option. I think you'll get some tooltips then that will be helpful.

I got hooked up with the CwJ Fleet yesterday and tried logging into Vent to chat, but I couldn't get Vent to work. Anyone around level 7 or 8 going to be around Saturday evening I should be on.

darrenl wrote:
Tigerbill wrote:

How in the hell do you Win in a War Zone? I've tried two different Ground Wars now and keep getting my butt handed to me, they were both the Assimilated Cruiser. I just can't seem to win, the first time I was LT7 this time I was LT Cmdr2.

I'm having the same issue. I had the one with all of those borg cubes in it. I was able to "participate in a war", but I still have the "win a war zone" objective that remains unticked. I have no idea how to "win" it.

Another question...does anyone know what, say, putting one point in the Escort skill really does? I'm having a bit of a problem really understanding my skill point spending choices. Or...trouble understanding how those spent points help my chracater's progress,

I've run the borg War Zone scenario several times and I'm pretty sure that I won it once. I got a message saying that the Klingon's had captured the Borg technology, or something to that effect. However, I still need to "win a war zone" so I'm guessing there are bugs abound with that mission.

Another big question I have is about the weapons I'm running and what they are considered when it comes to skills/bonuses. I run up front a set of Dual Heavy Phaser Cannons and a set of Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons, are these considered cannons? I ask because when I got to LT Cmdr it said that Escorts are the only ones that can equip cannons, yet I was using these exact weapons on the starting ship. I would like to train a BO in a skill that will help these weapons as I like what the do and they fit my run n' gun play style when paired with a torp launcher.

El_Duder wrote:

. However, I still need to "win a war zone" so I'm guessing there are bugs abound with that mission.

I think they're treating these war zones the same way they did the open area quests in CO. That is, each player that participates receives points for doing damage, kills, etc. The person at the top of that list at the end of the 5:00 round is the winner. I know the first Fleet Action that I ran was set up like this and the reward you got at the end of the round depended on where you landed in the overall ranking. The only difference is that in these war zones I don't see a big ranking screen.

Tigerbill wrote:

I ask because when I got to LT Cmdr it said that Escorts are the only ones that can equip cannons, yet I was using these exact weapons on the starting ship.

I had this same question the other night and on the starter ship you can equip cannons. After that you can only equip them on escorts. I actually tried out some cannons on my preorder light cruiser starter ship. Still worked. It was odd seing the old Enterprise style ship flying around firing phaser cannons. Oh, also, on the Gamestop preorder ship it has 2k more hull than the standard starter and also has slots for 2 engineering consoles. I thought that was a nice little bonus all things considered.

Kehama wrote:

I had this same question the other night and on the starter ship you can equip cannons. After that you can only equip them on escorts. I actually tried out some cannons on my preorder light cruiser starter ship.

My Tier 2 Escort came with a weapon the was some kind of "Cannon" I hadn't seen before or since and it was different than what I am using, that is why I'm confused on what's a cannon.

I heard someone on vent the other day saying that Escorts are the only ones that can use the MkIII cannons and above and all ships can use the MKI and MKII cannons.

I know I saw a turret for the first time the other night for sale in the neutral zone. Low dps but no arc of fire listed so I assume it's 360 degrees? Can those be used on any ship? I didn't bother buying it... especially seeing as how I had no PvP badges to purchase it with.

Tigerbill wrote:
Kehama wrote:

I had this same question the other night and on the starter ship you can equip cannons. After that you can only equip them on escorts. I actually tried out some cannons on my preorder light cruiser starter ship.

My Tier 2 Escort came with a weapon the was some kind of "Cannon" I hadn't seen before or since and it was different than what I am using, that is why I'm confused on what's a cannon.

The Lieutenant-level cannons (mk I and mk II) are special and can go on anything.

Dual Cannons, Dual Heavy Cannons -- use cannon bridge officer powers. 45 degree firing arc, highest DPS. Escort and fore mount only. High dmg falloff at range.
Dual Beam Banks -- use beam bridge officer powers. 90 degree firing arc, high DPS. Fore mount only. Some dmg falloff at range.
Cannons -- use cannon bridge officer powers. 180 degree firing arc, medium DPS. Escort and fore mount only. High dmg falloff at range.
Beam Array -- use beam bridge officer powers. 270 degree firing arc, low DPS. No mount restriction. Some dmg falloff at range.
Turret -- not sure what skills these use, if any. 360 degree firing arc, lowest DPS. Not sure on mount restriction. Very short range.

edit: added range info.

I know I saw a turret for the first time the other night for sale in the neutral zone. Low dps but no arc of fire listed so I assume it's 360 degrees? Can those be used on any ship? I didn't bother buying it... especially seeing as how I had no PvP badges to purchase it with.

I ran a turret on my starter ship during the Beta. I was running disruptor cannons (set to auto-fire) and quantum torpedos in the front and had the turret (set to auto-fire) slotted in the rear. It was pretty weak damage but if you can get the targeting keystrokes down, you can quickly tab over to incoming photon mines or fighters / power syphons and take them out before they damage you. It was kind of nice to have a fire & forget weapon like that to deal constant damage to enemies and hold off special weapons. No idea how effective it would be against a plasma torpedo though.

If I was running an escort with a narrow forward focus, I might consider keeping it installed but more than likely you'll get better damage from a rear array.

Strekos wrote:

The Lieutenant-level cannons (mk I and mk II) are special and can go on anything.

Dual Cannons, Dual Heavy Cannons -- use cannon bridge officer powers. 45 degree firing arc, highest DPS. Escort and fore mount only. High dmg falloff at range.
Dual Beam Banks -- use beam bridge officer powers. 90 degree firing arc, high DPS. Fore mount only. Some dmg falloff at range.
Cannons -- use cannon bridge officer powers. 180 degree firing arc, medium DPS. Escort and fore mount only. High dmg falloff at range.
Beam Array -- use beam bridge officer powers. 270 degree firing arc, low DPS. No mount restriction. Some dmg falloff at range.
Turret -- not sure what skills these use, if any. 360 degree firing arc, lowest DPS. Not sure on mount restriction. Very short range.

edit: added range info.

Makes sense as I only bought my first MkIII Cannon last night and only put it on the front of my Escort; to verify I will try to throw it on the newbie ship to see.

Thanks for the rest of the info, what is the ideal range for Dual Heavy Cannons then, does anyone have that info yet? Also I'm finding mines only lock on at around less than 4km range, is this what others are finding?

Is it wrong that I'm spec'ing for Ground and Space evenly? While I find the Space combat fun, the Ground stuff is a blast to me.

In some of your pictures I noticed you were able to get the colorings to show on your ship. Is there some trick to this? I always seem to chose colors but never see them showing anywhere.

I think I read a blip on a loading screen that said that all energy weapons do more damage the closer you are to your target.

Thanks to some advice from Shoal and some other gwjers, I am having a much better time with my tier 2 ship(s). Upon hitting lt commander, be sure to head to starbase 39 in the sierra system in the alpha centauri sector to buy yourself some mkiii ship weapons. It make a big difference. On my tier 2 escort i have found great success running with 2 dual cannons and a photon torpedo in front and a phaser in back. (all mkiii) My favorite configuration right now is 2 dual cannons with a phaser in front and a phaser in back.

I don't know what I'm going to equip my science vessel with as of yet. I wish I could use dual cannons, since it would be neat to run 2 of them up front and 2 phasers in back or I could run 1 dual cannon up front with 3 phasers. But I may just got with 3 phasers and mines in the second rear slot.

Tigerbill wrote:

Makes sense as I only bought my first MkIII Cannon last night and only put it on the front of my Escort; to verify I will try to throw it on the newbie ship to see.

Thanks for the rest of the info, what is the ideal range for Dual Heavy Cannons then, does anyone have that info yet? Also I'm finding mines only lock on at around less than 4km range, is this what others are finding?

I'm questioning my memory on turret range btw. I think the very short range might only be on the special turret that comes as a pre-order bonus, and the normal ones don't have that limit.

I think the severe falloff for cannons starts at around 5-6k. I don't think you get much benefit from going closer than 3k. This is from memory, I haven't tested it recently, so don't take it as gospel. Beams are better at close range too of course

The other thing about cannons is they have a shared cooldown of 1 sec. With dual cannons having an individual cooldown of 2 seconds, this means you can have a pair of dual cannons firing perfectly but more than that and the global cooldown comes into play. Heavies have a longer individual cooldown (4 seconds? 3? can't remember) so you can have more of them mounted without running into cooldown problems.

Strekos wrote:

Beams are better at close range too of course

Every time I read something like this I feel like there's a metric buttload of documentation somewhere that I missed. Heck, I still haven't even worked out the difference between disruptors and phasers - I'm guessing disruptors do more hull damage?

Are most people just learning by trial and error? I'm currently making inroads into the crafting system, and have upped my dps considerably by making some green MkII phasers for my little miranda. Still not entirely sure how the crafting system levels up or how you unlock the other scientists, though... and the main thing I've learned from some googling is that a lot of other people aren't sure either.

Strekos wrote:

Turret -- not sure what skills these use, if any. 360 degree firing arc, lowest DPS. Not sure on mount restriction. Very short range.

Turrets use cannon powers. So they also are affected by rapid fire. Having a single turret anywhere on your ship combined with the cannon-spread ability is the ultimate minesweeper because it can fire in any direction instantly. Any mine within 10km just melts away. Since the cone is directional it can also hit cloaked ships on occasion.

Petriefied wrote:

In some of your pictures I noticed you were able to get the colorings to show on your ship. Is there some trick to this? I always seem to chose colors but never see them showing anywhere.

You have to pick a certain scheme first for each part of your ship. They work a lot like tattoos and determine how the colour shows up on your ship. These tend to be named after the zodiac. So "Leo" (my favourite) has big angular blocks of primary colour. While "Lacerta" has more a curved bladed look to it, like the Klingon Empire emblem.

Sonicator wrote:

Every time I read something like this I feel like there's a metric buttload of documentation somewhere that I missed. Heck, I still haven't even worked out the difference between disruptors and phasers - I'm guessing disruptors do more hull damage?

You didn't miss anything. It just doesn't exist. Try this instead:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...

Sonicator wrote:

Still not entirely sure how the crafting system levels up or how you unlock the other scientists, though... and the main thing I've learned from some googling is that a lot of other people aren't sure either.

I did a lot of research on this because I was wondering how it works as well. It seems that the time it takes to "unlock" the next crafter on depends on the cost of the item, or something similar. People have said they needed to turn in 63 or so items to get past Romaine. But then other people have also said they got past her with as little as 23, or even 15. The very cheap items like the Hypos and Powercells therefore probably are not as efficient. You best bet would be to craft the items with the lowest high-tier material cost. So for Romaine that would be the tier 2 phasers that only require 2 each of the tier 2 anomalies.

But anyhow, you might as well just save your anomalies until Cryptic fixes and or buffs the system. Its kind of {ableist slur} right now, especially given that we have no way to track our progress.

Strekos wrote:

The other thing about cannons is they have a shared cooldown of 1 sec. With dual cannons having an individual cooldown of 2 seconds, this means you can have a pair of dual cannons firing perfectly but more than that and the global cooldown comes into play. Heavies have a longer individual cooldown (4 seconds? 3? can't remember) so you can have more of them mounted without running into cooldown problems.

I've been spending points on cannon related stuff and my MkIII Dual heavies (both kinds equipped) are on like a 2 sec cool down. Just got Rapid Fire I tonight and it is growing on me. I wasn't really using the Dispersal Pattern Alpha for my mines anyway.

Ok so you can turn all your stuff in at Memory Prime for upgrades? I went there on a mission but I didnt have enough items to build anything.

Is it wrong that I have now turned my bank storage into a Tribble breeding farm, for no good reason. I never used any of the darn food I would loot anyhow; so I threw my Preorder Tribble in there with some alcohol and pasta and shut the door. I come back every so often to add more food (mostly caffeine) and pull out some of the offspring. My entire 4 man away team has one equipped, anybody want some Tribbles? I will put them in a box outside the star dock with a sign reading "FREE TRIBBLES to a good home".

Put them in the guild bank. I could use a few more.

Are you starting to get different breeds?

cube wrote:

Put them in the guild bank. I could use a few more.

Not part of the guild yet, wasn't sure if I would like the game so I didn't apply. Might do that now, but it's mostly my good friend and I rolling together.

Tamren wrote:

Are you starting to get different breeds?

Just the different base colors right now, I really need to go back and read the threads about breeding them. Now that my AT is fitted with them I can keep a few different ones in the "Farm".

Kehama wrote:

Could anyone give me a quick step-by-step regarding resetting my power presets? They're currently at the default attack = 100/50/25/25, etc.

Also, the captain skills of "starship operations". It looks like that mainly goes toward skills involving deflectors, tractor beams, etc. Is that useful for anyone other than science vessel captains? I've been plugging all my points into space based skills while completely ignoring my ground skills and I'm running out of the obvious choices for dumping skill points into.

Click the far right button above your powers and select "3". This will give you a bar you can play around with to set your own power levels. I have my attack one (the one I usually use) set to 80/60/30/30. I have the rest at default, because if I need shields or engine power I need them, so default of 100 is fine for me.

I played around with my power setting a good bit last night and I finally settled on 80/50/25/45 for my attack setting. It's really been working out great for me. Even taking on +1 battleships I haven't had any problems. With fully trained emergency power to shield and science team abilities with my bridge officers I can keep at least 1 shield buff up at all times. If things get really hairy then I can have my engineer captain trigger shield oscillation.

When I go into a fight I drop my impulse down to about 10%, just enough to allow me to spin at a good rate. Because my rear mine launcher is on auto I build up a pretty good swarm of mines around me by the time the enemy closes. With slower enemies I generally get their fore shields down right about the time they get within range of my mines. Throw out a high yield quantum torpedo followed by 20 photon mines and most mid-size and smaller ships will blow. So far the enemies have always charged directly at me and then tried to just circle my almost stationary ship. With the increased auxillary power setting I can spin left and right fast enough to track just about any ship out there keeping my fire on one point and as soon as my mines drop they go straight for the enemy. In some ways I've begun fighting like a slightly mobile weapons platform rather than a fighter. Guess that'll work out well since I'm going cruisers.

Great tips on the custom power settings, I will play around with this tonight. I will tailor your guy's to my own sit and spin tactics. I usually fly in guns blazing and once I punch through the heart of the group I drop power and sit on the other side picking off targets.