It gets pretty hilarious when you transport in a phaser turret, shield generator, medical generator, cover shield to protect the two generators, and a bubble shield to keep guys from getting to you then hailing your ship to order them to fire one of the god damn phaser arrays at your target. Plus any turrets or generators created from your Boffs or other players.
Plus a drone if you have one.
I've come to the conclusion, despite the fact my main is Tactical, that a bunker-kit Engineer is THE most fun you can have in the game. I feel like a one person army with my drones, turrets and fortifications. And team that up with an engineer heavy away team and it just gets a good kind of crazy!
Sci has me puzzled, but then even back in early EQ I never did get around to playing Enchanters or Clerics. Sci feels like an amalgam of the two so it's doubly confusing for me as I was always a rogue/warrior type.
Pot plants and comfy chairs for our starbase? Yay! Now all we need is a Starbucks franchise down from the transporter room and we're set 8-)
Seriously, I hope we do this one too. At the moment the base feels like a banking foyer rather than the throbbing heart of interstellar exploration and battle.
We need to finish providing the resources for the Science DO Officer first so we can get it done and start providing fresh stuff for the special project. At least we haven't got anything baking yet in the Project slot over in the KDF-base so we can start pouring stuff into it there right away. I'll post up the needed resources for the Project when I find out what they are. I can provide right now though tomorrow's patch notes, highlighting once again what caught my eye.
Resolved an issue which prevented players from accumulating multiple injuries.
Exposed the true identity of Lieutenant Marrien's doppelganger on Starbase 39.
-The phony Marrien's name has been changed.
Updated the audio in Starfleet Academy to fill in silent areas.
Updated the sound effects for the Tholian ground set.
The Galaxy X can now use the veteran ship material.
Resolved an issue that occasionally caused audio dropouts.
The Type 8 shuttle has been to the shipyard and been improved visually.
Players can no longer force Mek out of his chair.
Updated the signage for the Admin office turbolift on K-7.
The button text for the DS9 bank terminal has been updated to indicate it works for both Federation and KDF players.
Party popper FX no longer originate from a player's back when weapon are holstered there.
Set piece shield materials should now show up on all costume parts. All Fire Suppression items are now in the left hand and you can still hold your main weapon in the right.
Updated the Foundry so the Draguas is no longer invisible. Added new unholster animations for Batleth, Lirpa, and swords.
The Fleet Advanced Escort has returned to the ship store.
The Fleet Norgh Bird-of-Prey Retrofit now has the correct default variant in the ship tailor.
The 1000 point Tier 1 Military Starbase XP project now properly unlocks for KDF fleets.
Updated the display name for the Tholian bridge.
Missions:
Second Wave: Updated to resolve an issue that prevented solo players from completing the mission.
The consoles for the Klingon Lore missions have been reactivated. Officer of the Watch:
-Added several new missions.
-The KDF Conduct Purser Duties has been updated to specify the supplies required.
War Games: The bridge now displays properly on the map and minimap.
Spin the Wheel: Using the Beam to Ship/Abort button will now correctly progress the mission.
Hide and Seek: Increased the distance from which the player can scan the Enormous Asteroid.
Tear of the Prophet:
-Updated dialogs so that entering combat will no longer prevent reading them.
-There is now only one waypoint for Go to Cardassia Prime.
-Using the transwarp to this mission now correctly puts the player outside Cardassia.
The mission window for Surly Secrets now includes an NPC portrait.
Friends in High Places: Updated the button text for the Chief Engineering Officer.
Rescuing Redshirts: Updated the mission text and object names.
Colony invasion: Dying colonists will now fade out properly after they expire.
-This also resolves the issue with being able to rescue 4/3 colonists or more.
Tholian Invasion:
-Updated location of the Tholian Technology report in the interior medium area that was previously hidden.
-The acid pools will no longer hurt Tholians.
The Vault: The Material Analysis button during the Engineering sub-mission of Picking the Lock, will remain interactable after non- Engineers use it.
The Plesh Brek frigates in the Breen patrol mission will now spawn at the appropriate level.
Collateral Damage: added and updated waypoints for the Safe Passage sub-mission.
Asset Recovery: Added and updated waypoints for the Viral Solution sub-mission.
The New Link: NPC ships will no longer try to fly through rocks.
Tutorial: Updated the text for the Vega space area to match mission objectives.
Ghost Ship: Moved player starting location so the Warwick and enemy groups are further away.
Stop the Signal: Added waypoints for spatial charges.
Mine Enemy: The dialog with Madran can be reopened if it shuts because the player enters combat.
Under the Cover of Night: T'Par's freighter can now be scanned while the player is still moving.
Defera Borg Invasion:
-Reunited a pair of Assimilated Priests that had been separated.
-Interacting with Fabricating Turrets is no longer interrupted by taking damage.
-Patched some holes in the ground that allowed Borg to fall through.
Minefield: The Rubidinum asteroids are now quicker to be destroyed.
Project Nightingale: Updated the player starting location so it's no longer possible to spawn inside a satellite.
Starbase Incursion: Resolved an issue that caused the second phase to end early.
Facility 4028: Lethean Prisoner is now slightly more resistant to physical attacks, as intended.
Systems:
Updated the Tholian Set:
-Tholian Ground Set 2 piece bonus can now be charged up by "Environmental" energy sources as well as Energy Weapons.
--This includes Radiation, Toxic, Cold and Fire damage.
-Tholian Ground Set 2 piece bonus buff now improves all damage, instead of just energy weapons.
-Increased the upgraded set's chances of applying a buff from 33% to 50%.
Updated the Upgraded Tholian Ground Set Shield.
-Resolved an issue that caused the "All Energy Damage" reduction mod to reduce damage by an incorrect amount.
--It has been corrected to the 10% that was intended.
-An additional "Environmental Damage" reduction mod will be added, which will reduce incoming Cold, Fire, Toxic and Radiation damage by 25%.
--These damage types are not included in the "All Energy Damage" category.
Upgraded visual appearance of Hyper-compressed Cryo Launcher Mk XII.
Resolved an issue that occasionally caused Tholian Radiation Crystals to not appear upon use of a consumable item, yet still consume a charge.
Resolved an issue in which several ground AoE attacks were missing moving targets.
Ensured Klingon Cruiser NPCs do not launch bionerual warheads before level 40.
The energy drain debuff applied by Nausicaan Energy Leech no longer stacks between multiple entities. IDIC Tribble: Updated item description to include a brief mention of what each profession-specific buff gives a player.
Updated Remodulators:
-All weapon remodulators have had a short description added that will show up in shops, explaining that they overcome Borg adaptation.
-High quality remodulators also have additional descriptions showing why they are superior to basic models.
Klingon NPC groups:
-The version of Isometric Charge used by NPC ships has been tuned.
--Initial hit damage was improved.
--First jump damage is unchanged.
--Second jump damage has been reduced.
--Final jump damage has been significantly reduced.
--This also affects Assimilated Klingon ships seen in the STF: "The Cure"
Duty Officer Downgrade assignments will no longer fail to start.
The following abilities should now automatically be added to your power tray when you receive them:
-Quantum Slipstream Drive
-Fleet Support
-Miracle Worker
-Engineering Proficiency
-Engineering Fleet
-Strike Team
-Tactical Fleet
-Scientific Aptitude
-Science Fleet
Tuned the effectiveness of Shield Heal for Federation Fleet weapons, both Space and Ground.
UI:
Added the ability to block Fleet invitations.
-This is in the social menu, under Privacy on the Search tab. When the Mail and Exchange windows are open the inventory will gray out items that cannot be traded.
Mail:
-Dragging a stack of items to mail will now prompt query the amount of the stack to mail.
-The mail window will now display more detailed mail information when selected.
-Mail is now sorted by date from newest to oldest by default.
-The mail send button will no longer say that it's only possible to send mail to friends when no recipient has been specified.
-The reply button will now only add "Re:" to the subject if the subject doesn't already start with it.
-The mail subject will now display as much of the title as possible before truncating additional text.
Exchange:
-Resolved an issue that prevented players from searching for Very Rare items.
-The exchange price entry will now be cleared when the item is posted or cleared.
-The exchange item popup will now include Passenger and Prisoner Duty Officers.
-The Exchange will now prevent posting an item for more than the character's energy credit limit
--10,000,000 EC for silver characters.
--1,000,000,000 EC for gold characters.
Fleet:
-Resolved an issue where sometimes the fleet details window would show information on the previously selected fleet
-Players can now use their currently worn uniform as a fleet uniform.
-The fleet minimum rank level selector will no longer cut off 10.
Chat:
-Resolved an issue that prevented escape from being used to cancel chat.
-Ultra Rare items linked in chat will now be colored violet.
Keybinds: Added bindable commands for Set Focus Target, Select Focus Target, and Clear Focus Target.
-Default keybinds no longer persist after re-assigning them.
-Resolved an issue that prevented the keybind for toggling full impulse from working.
Ship store:
-The filters in the Ship Store should now behave correctly.
-The Klingon Ship Store now uses the Klingon rank pips.
-The rank picker menu in the Ship Store now closes after selecting a rank.
-Skill-Based Stats for Space are now also displayed with the ship info.
The status window will now refresh correctly when a Bridge Officer is discharged.
The map change message will no longer occur twice when changing maps.
The Mining minigame will now be titled Crystal Fragment Extraction when collecting crystal fragments instead of Dilithium Ore Extraction.
The outfit popup window no longer disappears immediately if previously used to change outfits.
The Bridge Officer commands added to the power tray will now have a tooltip indicating what the command is.
The Duty Officer UI layout has been improved.
Restored biological and technological distinctiveness to ship names in the ship chooser and character status sidebars.
-The sidebars are now wider and resizable.
The throttle will now display "Transwarp 10.00" instead of "Warp 10.00".
Updated the Level 27 Science Commander Space Ability to indicate Scattering Field.
The Beam To Ship button will no longer say "Abort Mission" while on the tutorial map.
The Ship Tailor purchase button will now have a tooltip when you do not have enough Energy Credits or ZEN to purchase the costume change.
The map should no longer use the incorrect icon for some waypoints.
Resolved an issue that could cause the stack count chooser popup to not display the correct item name.
Added tooltips to the back and play buttons on the character selector.
The tooltip on the button for creating a new Klingon character now correctly indicates that the ability to create a Klingon character is unlocked at Level 24.
Resolved an issue with zooming and changing species in the character creator.
The right-click menu for players now has the option to report the player to a GM.
The current position icon on the galaxy map will now be rotated to indicate current heading.
The crafting window will no longer confirm crafting of an item that can't actually be crafted.
The pinnable overview Duty Officer overview windows will now always remember their last position.
The inventory window will now automatically open when trading. The Exchange, Bank, Stores, and various other contacts no longer close when opening the character window.
The slots in the account bank are now centered in the window, instead of being left aligned.
Fleet stores will now correctly indicate that it's not possible to buy from provisioned Fleet stores, when permission has not been granted for the current rank.
Comparison tooltips have been disabled only on equipped gear.
-Comparison tooltips should still occur whenever hovering over a piece of unequipped gear.
The rewards window now indicates that Omega Force is unlocked at level 44.
Resolved a typo of "afford" when renaming a ship without enough energy credits.
Need Or Greed will now display tooltips on mouse over.
The Rewards window now indicates that Quantum Slipstream Drive unlocks at level 50.
The Duty Officer portrait now properly disappears when unassigning an active Duty Officer.
I just bought 20 of those blue tholian requisition boxes on one character and 25 on another and both of those characters have the full tholian ground set now. It cost less than a million EC at the time. The only loot worth anything from those boxes are the purple XII ground weapons. I think I got 2 to 3 on each character from that binge.
Hrin - Eve Online
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Pot plants and comfy chairs for our starbase? Yay! Now all we need is a Starbucks franchise down from the transporter room and we're set 8-)
Seriously, I hope we do this one too. At the moment the base feels like a banking foyer rather than the throbbing heart of interstellar exploration and battle.
We need to finish providing the resources for the Science DO Officer first so we can get it done and start providing fresh stuff for the special project. At least we haven't got anything baking yet in the Project slot over in the KDF-base so we can start pouring stuff into it there right away. I'll post up the needed resources for the Project when I find out what they are. I can provide right now though tomorrow's patch notes, highlighting once again what caught my eye.
Doesn't this one run under Special Project and not Upgrade Project?
Also, that EV suit is ridiculous. At 100Z I can see it (wouldn't buy it, but I could see it). But at 700, for a single-item unlock? What the fuck? That's several times what most single item unlocks are, and almost twice what a single bridge officer is. And it doesn't even have the pay-to-win excuse.
Whats the best way to get keys for all those boxes? Just farm dilithium and trade it for Zen then purchase the keys? Or are there keys on the exchange for a decent price?
Well, got myself in game last night and zipped around in my little Miranda the USS Lexington for a bit. Killing Kilngons here and there... got a distress call to help against some Borg and I think I lasted 10 seconds before I warped the hell out of there
My engineer is "Lt - 6" at the moment and it is pretty good fun so far. Thanks to the guy in the chat who invited me into the fleet (sorry, didn't grab your name).
With BOffs (picking up the lingo already), am I better having some dedicated to ship work and some for away teams, or at the lower levels are they OK to multitask?
I keep picking up Alien Artifacts / Mineral XYZ type items - I assume I will need these for something as they sell to vendors for 0 credits?
Also, as a lowely lvl 6 is there anything I can do to help the fleet?
Your bridge officers can be used both on the ship and for your away team as well - there's nothing locking them into only one of the two, so it's perfectly fine to use them for both.
Artifacts and Minerals are crafting materials - someone who knows more about crafting should probably step in here and explain it :P
Those items are for crafting, you can check the R&D Progress option in the down-arrow menu off the minimap. Actual crafting happens at Memory Alpha. It's pretty optional, the only good things that come from it are bind on equip so you can just buy them, and it's arguably one of the weakest space sets anyway (aside from maybe the Breen set). Starbases take a lot of them, too, especially on special projects.
It's ok to multitask your boffs. All but a couple very rare traits only work on the ground anyway, and their space/ground skills are separate, so it won't hurt your performance on either side.
Eventually you might want separate teams, or at least ones with less overlap. Like I said: Engineer boffs are awesome. On the flip side, tactical boffs are probably the worst. So if you're in an escort, your space crew with three tactical officers won't translate well to an away team.
I notice that I got a green BOff as a reward rather than the standard white. I take this this means they come in different rarities like items and I shouldn't get to attached to people then?
Will I keep earning the tokens needed to upgrade BOffs at a steady rate, or do I need to be quite selective in what I spend them on?
(Sorry for all the questions)
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
At max level you will have several million expertise spare, so I wouldn't worry too much about training your officers up. As far as tge rarities go, afaik I think they only affect the base skills that a boff has and the traits they gain access to? The skills seem to be the main draw as there are some that you can only get via rare boffs (such as stun grenade I think), I'm sure the traits are useful, but I haven't really put too much thought into those when building my crew.
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
I took the advice and bought about 15 of the blue tholian reward items. They were 22,000 each, considering my multimillions, a drop in the bucket. Got the full crystal set plus several spares that I gave to my away team.
I notice that I got a green BOff as a reward rather than the standard white. I take this this means they come in different rarities like items and I shouldn't get to attached to people then?
Will I keep earning the tokens needed to upgrade BOffs at a steady rate, or do I need to be quite selective in what I spend them on?
(Sorry for all the questions)
You'll get them periodically as you level, and you can recruit them through doff missions - boffs are available in VERY high supply, they're cheap on the exchange with very few exceptions.
As for quality, it doesn't make a big difference. They get slightly better traits - more marked Superior and less marked Basic. It matters very little, though. Some unique boffs (there's a Jem'hadar in the Cardassian front, and when they do feature episode reruns you can get a Breen and Reman) have a fifth ground power in the form of one of their traits, those are the only ones that I'd really call "better" for their higher quality. One of the boffs on my standard away team and two on my tailored anti-borg away team are commons, and they don't hold me back at all, even on elite difficulty.
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Since I had the full tholian crystal set I went to the Lobi store and bought the upgrade. Did you know that the gun and armor has a unique appearance? Kinda cool.
I'm sure most of you know by now but the Interior Decorator project is 200K Dil, so it's time to hit your favorite Dil-gathering quests and STFs to get it done before the 9th. We also need 195 Marks to get the current project in the KDF-Base's slot started and out of the way so we can begin the ID-project there as well. Hope we have some HoM-members that still have some deep Dil deposits on them.
The Borg Invasion event is now always available.
The up arrow now works correctly with the chat suggestions list.
Klingon players in PvP maps should no longer see Federation blue UI and HUD.
The Fleet Advanced Escort now has discount applied if you purchased the Multivector Advanced Escort. It is once again possible to delete mail.
The KDF Officer of the Watch mission Escort Dignitary to Starbase now works properly.
The exchange post price entry will no longer be cleared after posting an item. Resolved several issues with Foundry republishing.
They should attach fleet marks to it, too. Break up the event hour clusterfuck on Nukara a bit.
This would be awesome, but one possible hiccup is that the events that give Fleet Marks require you to be level 50 and in a fleet, right? (It seems like a small thing to me, so obviously it's game-breaking).
OK, so after a second night of playing can I be excused for not having seen any MMORPG aspects yet as every mission seems to be a solo event? Does there come a point when you are forced to join up with other ships? (If so, can they be random groups or are they fleet only things?)
Also... why does it keep telling me that "XXX random player bought a Tholian Web something-or-other", what's so special about these web things that a system announcment is needed?
Missions do scale for more players. For example, if there's two of you, a group of three frigates will usually pick up a fourth ship and upgrade one to a cruiser or escort, and with 5 people a battleship will be a dreadnought with two battleships and several mid level ships. Ground missions stay the same, since new players don't bring their full away team, they take a slot normally occupied by a boff.
As for required group content, there's quite a bit:
1. as you level you'll gain access to Fleet Actions, which are open queued events generally for around 20 people. They don't get much traffic anymore, but whichever one has the dilithium daily up will usually be semi-active.
2. Both invasion zones (Borg on Defera and Tholian on Nukara) have medium missions that require 2-3 people to reliably do, and hard missions that require a full five. Defera even has a zone-wide boss that five people can have a hard time with, but everybody in the zone gets credit on any kill, so raids are a viable option.
3. There's six Borg STFs - three space and three ground - that you can access at level 45, which require 5 people. They come in normal and elite versions, with higher rewards on elite but a lot of 100,000 damage hits through full shields on a hardened hull pissing you off on the way to those rewards.
4. There's a bunch of Fleet related events (Blockade Run, No Win Scenario, Fleet Alert, Fleet Defense, Starbase Incursion, Colony Invasion) that require a group of 5.
5. The Vault queued event (basically a shuttle STF) requires a full team of 5 and doesn't really fit in any other category.
Everything except #2 you can queue solo and be automatically teamed up with random people. Some missions are easy doing that, some you can generally expect lower rewards than in an organized group (fleet defense, blockade run), and some you might as well just pound nails into your testicles now and get it over with (ground STFs and No Win).
Also... why does it keep telling me that "XXX random player bought a Tholian Web something-or-other", what's so special about these web things that a system announcment is needed?
Go into your notification settings under the drop down menu by your map and disable the flyby notifications. The lockbox spam was really annoying before that.
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Also, back in the day (re: Launch and the few weeks after) it would automatically group you with other players on the same mission if you all happened to zone in at the same time. Since there's more than one quest chain now and ridiculous ways to gain XP these days, you're not likely to run into other players on the fly any more outside space contact/random engagements.
Hell, I just went from 12 to 18 without ever leaving my ship. Mainly doing the occasional fleet action but mostly doing a shipload of duty officer missions.
i think i've been randomly grouped with someone on entering a mission twice before. and both times it made me mad because they where floating around and waiting for me to get credit for completing objectives for them.
How long for a semi-regular player to hit lvl 50? I want my sweet, sweet Excelsior-refit but I could be tempted to get the "Commander" level Excelsior as I will hit that level sooner.
You can disable automatic teaming in the social options. Good idea to do in case they ever add new mission content - a leecher can really hurt if it means trying to solo a dreadnought.
How long for a semi-regular player to hit lvl 50? I want my sweet, sweet Excelsior-refit but I could be tempted to get the "Commander" level Excelsior as I will hit that level sooner.
Pretty quick, a month at the outside if you're not actively trying to push levels (hitting the Mirror universe incursion queue when it's up will slash that), easily half that if you get rolling well with the doff system.
How long for a semi-regular player to hit lvl 50? I want my sweet, sweet Excelsior-refit but I could be tempted to get the "Commander" level Excelsior as I will hit that level sooner.
Pretty quick, a month at the outside if you're not actively trying to push levels (hitting the Mirror universe incursion queue when it's up will slash that), easily half that if you get rolling well with the doff system.
also if you hit every system patrol in a sector or just the ones on your way to the next mission you get levels real fast. I didn't learn that till around mid 30s when story missions stopped being a guaranteed level up per episode.
How long for a semi-regular player to hit lvl 50? I want my sweet, sweet Excelsior-refit but I could be tempted to get the "Commander" level Excelsior as I will hit that level sooner.
Someone with better knowledge please correct me, but you may be able to speed up leveling by adjusting the mission difficulty - at the very least, you'll get better loot from drops.
So I won't go far wrong if I pick a mission, fly to it, but on the way hit up every "explore XXX" that pops up.
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Don't forget your daily "Explore XXX" mission. There are the usual "Explore 3 systems in XXX Sector" for XP and there's a daily mission (that you can do in any available exploration sector) for Dilithium. Then there are the planetary patrols for every planet in a sector.
Also, are the Diplomatic Corp missions gone/removed/bugged? I tried talking to the contact but every time I do I get a "Mission acquired: XXX", "Mission resolved: XXX" thing going on.
Most of the diplomatic corp missions don't stay in your log. There's a fake one that resolves itself instantly just to keep the contact in the Available list instead of having to go through the Info tab most people ignore. Investigations will show up if you go to the cluster they're for. First Conctact missions will show up in your journal.
Posts
I've come to the conclusion, despite the fact my main is Tactical, that a bunker-kit Engineer is THE most fun you can have in the game. I feel like a one person army with my drones, turrets and fortifications. And team that up with an engineer heavy away team and it just gets a good kind of crazy!
Sci has me puzzled, but then even back in early EQ I never did get around to playing Enchanters or Clerics. Sci feels like an amalgam of the two so it's doubly confusing for me as I was always a rogue/warrior type.
We need to finish providing the resources for the Science DO Officer first so we can get it done and start providing fresh stuff for the special project. At least we haven't got anything baking yet in the Project slot over in the KDF-base so we can start pouring stuff into it there right away. I'll post up the needed resources for the Project when I find out what they are. I can provide right now though tomorrow's patch notes, highlighting once again what caught my eye.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Doesn't this one run under Special Project and not Upgrade Project?
Also, that EV suit is ridiculous. At 100Z I can see it (wouldn't buy it, but I could see it). But at 700, for a single-item unlock? What the fuck? That's several times what most single item unlocks are, and almost twice what a single bridge officer is. And it doesn't even have the pay-to-win excuse.
MWO: Adamski
Farming dil to change to z might be okay if the price drops low enough as people try to sell z for starbase upgrades.
My engineer is "Lt - 6" at the moment and it is pretty good fun so far. Thanks to the guy in the chat who invited me into the fleet (sorry, didn't grab your name).
With BOffs (picking up the lingo already), am I better having some dedicated to ship work and some for away teams, or at the lower levels are they OK to multitask?
I keep picking up Alien Artifacts / Mineral XYZ type items - I assume I will need these for something as they sell to vendors for 0 credits?
Also, as a lowely lvl 6 is there anything I can do to help the fleet?
Artifacts and Minerals are crafting materials - someone who knows more about crafting should probably step in here and explain it :P
It's ok to multitask your boffs. All but a couple very rare traits only work on the ground anyway, and their space/ground skills are separate, so it won't hurt your performance on either side.
Eventually you might want separate teams, or at least ones with less overlap. Like I said: Engineer boffs are awesome. On the flip side, tactical boffs are probably the worst. So if you're in an escort, your space crew with three tactical officers won't translate well to an away team.
Will I keep earning the tokens needed to upgrade BOffs at a steady rate, or do I need to be quite selective in what I spend them on?
(Sorry for all the questions)
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
You'll get them periodically as you level, and you can recruit them through doff missions - boffs are available in VERY high supply, they're cheap on the exchange with very few exceptions.
As for quality, it doesn't make a big difference. They get slightly better traits - more marked Superior and less marked Basic. It matters very little, though. Some unique boffs (there's a Jem'hadar in the Cardassian front, and when they do feature episode reruns you can get a Breen and Reman) have a fifth ground power in the form of one of their traits, those are the only ones that I'd really call "better" for their higher quality. One of the boffs on my standard away team and two on my tailored anti-borg away team are commons, and they don't hold me back at all, even on elite difficulty.
Jesus some of these are going for 10mil. Guess I got lucky.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Unless we get that holo deck working.
:winky:
They should attach fleet marks to it, too. Break up the event hour clusterfuck on Nukara a bit.
That would be an awesome addition to bring some life to it again.
Also... why does it keep telling me that "XXX random player bought a Tholian Web something-or-other", what's so special about these web things that a system announcment is needed?
As for required group content, there's quite a bit:
1. as you level you'll gain access to Fleet Actions, which are open queued events generally for around 20 people. They don't get much traffic anymore, but whichever one has the dilithium daily up will usually be semi-active.
2. Both invasion zones (Borg on Defera and Tholian on Nukara) have medium missions that require 2-3 people to reliably do, and hard missions that require a full five. Defera even has a zone-wide boss that five people can have a hard time with, but everybody in the zone gets credit on any kill, so raids are a viable option.
3. There's six Borg STFs - three space and three ground - that you can access at level 45, which require 5 people. They come in normal and elite versions, with higher rewards on elite but a lot of 100,000 damage hits through full shields on a hardened hull pissing you off on the way to those rewards.
4. There's a bunch of Fleet related events (Blockade Run, No Win Scenario, Fleet Alert, Fleet Defense, Starbase Incursion, Colony Invasion) that require a group of 5.
5. The Vault queued event (basically a shuttle STF) requires a full team of 5 and doesn't really fit in any other category.
Everything except #2 you can queue solo and be automatically teamed up with random people. Some missions are easy doing that, some you can generally expect lower rewards than in an organized group (fleet defense, blockade run), and some you might as well just pound nails into your testicles now and get it over with (ground STFs and No Win).
Go into your notification settings under the drop down menu by your map and disable the flyby notifications. The lockbox spam was really annoying before that.
Hell, I just went from 12 to 18 without ever leaving my ship. Mainly doing the occasional fleet action but mostly doing a shipload of duty officer missions.
Pretty quick, a month at the outside if you're not actively trying to push levels (hitting the Mirror universe incursion queue when it's up will slash that), easily half that if you get rolling well with the doff system.
also if you hit every system patrol in a sector or just the ones on your way to the next mission you get levels real fast. I didn't learn that till around mid 30s when story missions stopped being a guaranteed level up per episode.
I finally get some free time back next week (maybe), so if you're on and see me around, kick me - I want to finish the Cardassian Front!
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Someone with better knowledge please correct me, but you may be able to speed up leveling by adjusting the mission difficulty - at the very least, you'll get better loot from drops.
Also, are the Diplomatic Corp missions gone/removed/bugged? I tried talking to the contact but every time I do I get a "Mission acquired: XXX", "Mission resolved: XXX" thing going on.