Priority one interview hit a ton of Starbase stuff.
Equipment rewards are purple mk XII and better-than-purple mk XII, which have four modifiers. the Fleet Equipment is in the same qualities, but trades one modifier for a special proc, mentions armor that fires nanite health monitor every minute.
All ship rewards are tier 5, and there's 45 ships between Fed and KDF. All tier 2 and higher ships have a Retrofit (unless there already is one), and then almost* everything has a Fleet Retrofit, with +10% health and shields, and one extra console slot - basically in line with the Odyssey. Fleet store ships have hull type 6 no matter what skin you use, and Fleet Retrofits all get a special interior (one shared by all, not one each). None of them have console powers, but are compatible with matching C-store mods - the Galaxy Fleet Retrofit doesn't have saucer separation, but can equip the Galaxy-R's separation console.
Stats are all over the place, he mentioned the Nova is faster but more fragile than other science vessels, the Sabre is faster than the Defiant but has less hull, etc, a wider variety in speed and durability than existing ships offer. He tried to give everything a different boff layouts, too, so that everything has a distinct definable niche.
*- apparently no Atrox and D'kyr, and KDF got a shorter list of fleet retrofits in a couple cases because the tier 3 and 4 destroyers are almost identical and the raptors aren't that distinct either.
Anyone else get a disaster on hamlet? I thought it was amusing. 2 deaths and 5 injuries.
I got a failure with one death. I feel it should have been specified before the fact that they weren't supposed to use Yorick's skull, a prop would have been acceptable.
Wow, so I apparently hadnt played this since 2010. Logged in with my engineer, and all the achievements kept poring in and brought me to level 45.
Going to goof around between new alts and my level 45 just to try and get a feel for the game again. The new tree respec is kinda interesting.
I was in a similar situation when I came back, and that was after a lot less time. I just started fresh - most of what you probably remember is largely irrelevant now, even worse if you've been gone since close to launch.
Anyone else get a disaster on hamlet? I thought it was amusing. 2 deaths and 5 injuries.
I got a failure with one death. I feel it should have been specified before the fact that they weren't supposed to use Yorick's skull, a prop would have been acceptable.
Wow, so I apparently hadnt played this since 2010. Logged in with my engineer, and all the achievements kept poring in and brought me to level 45.
Going to goof around between new alts and my level 45 just to try and get a feel for the game again. The new tree respec is kinda interesting.
I was in a similar situation when I came back, and that was after a lot less time. I just started fresh - most of what you probably remember is largely irrelevant now, even worse if you've been gone since close to launch.
Any recommendation on what type of captain to play as? Considering I will probably be soloing the majority of the time.
Soloing, I've found tac/cruiser is a pretty good all-around build. You have the damage to deal with just about anything and don't need to worry about getting squished when you don't know what to expect from a new enemy. If you want fast combat, anything in an escort (especially tac or sci), but unless it's an engineer plan to die about 5 seconds into your first fight with a Romulan Warbird. They just don't play fair and it takes a few tries to figure out how to beat them reliably.
Escorts do have an advantage if you don't want to spend money, too. The two free cruisers are just entirely outclassed by the C-store ones, escorts are kinda that way thanks to the Akira carrier but the advanced and fleet escorts still hold up pretty well for having better tactical setups.
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
Once you learn to play pretty well, a tactical captain in an escort just absolutely melts things. A tac in a cruiser is good for soloing/a beginner since you still have good survivability and also some pretty good damage so fights don't drag on.
Noticed they've updated the Terran Empire ship skins. They've got Federation colors with yellow racing stripes like the TOS and Enterprise mirror ships.
Sorry for the lateness but here's the newest Tribble notes that hit the server on the 29th. I bolded the stuff I found interesting.
General:
Resolved several typos throughout the game.
The Caitian Stalker has returned to the Small Craft section of Ship Requisitions. The Miranda Light Cruiser has been added to the ship store.
Resolved several issues that caused client crashes. Most weapons are now displayed on your character when holstered.
-This can be toggled on and off in the character status window.
Starbase Incursion:
Incursion is a new PvE Queue event that takes place on the lower levels of the players' starbases and is intended for 5 players.
To play, you will need to queue up for Starbase Incursion from the Volunteer button on the journal or by clicking the PvE Queue button near the mini-map.
This event is available any time, but if it's played during the Fleet Event, you will receive bonus rewards.
The goal is to defeat all of the saboteurs before they can complete their mission.
-The more you defeat, the more you will be rewarded.
To join a public queue, you must be a member of a fleet.
To play in a private queue, only the host needs to be in a fleet.
Duty Officers:
Warfare Specialists now correctly improve damage against the enemy type listed and stack correctly.
Updated the Hamlet Duty Officer assignments. You should now be able to repeat the version of the quest that rewards Shakespeare until you get him, after which you will get a different repeatable version.
Fixed descriptions of all Flight Deck Officer active roster powers to clarify that they affect all carrier pets, not just Fighters.
Added active roster powers for all existing Biologists, Botanists, Geologists, Research Lab Scientists and Counselors.
Fleets:
Adjusted Fleet Holding Project contribution amounts to reflect values more in line with where we expect them to be with Season 6 launch.
Added information about how to obtain Fleet Marks from Duty Officer missions.
Updated Starbase interiors:
-All 5 ground daily missions are now available at random from the Officer of the Watch.
-Officer of the Watch is now consistently named.
-Daily mission now rewards 5 fleet marks.
-Updated mission tracker to include the floor for each mission.
-Weapons inventory and cargo dispatch missions now completable.
-Interior personnel now have snazzy new outfits!
-KDF starbases now have unlock consoles for mail, bank, fleet bank, and a Duty Officer contact.
-Added the chef to both bases.
-Updated Fed replicators to just provide standard replicator services, since the chef now handles the chef Duty Officer assignments.
-KDF service providers are a little grumpier.
Teams no longer disband when entering the Starbase Blockade.
Set up separate Federation and KDF queues for the 20 player Starbase Fleet Defense.
The Ship Picker contact on starbase maps is now using the correct overhead icon.
Added the ability to warp to the starbase system map from the transporter.
The KDF player starbase respec contact now only offers skill retrain after it's unlocked.
Added ambient audio to the Klingon Starbase Invaders map.
Added a reference to internal sensors in the opening dialogue of the Starbase Ground event.
Updated map image for fleet starbase maps to include icons denoting the location of starbase and supporting facilities.
Unlocks are now included on com array and industrial fabricator upgrades.
-This offers access to an improved Medical treatment officer and Engineering repair officer.
--These have ability to heal/repair increasingly severe injuries.
Added information to the Fleet UI to indicate that multiple projects must be completed to advance to the next tier.
Added a confirmation window when selecting a project to inform players that it's not possible to cancel projects.
Foundry:
New maps created from the "+" menu now have an associated type.
It is no longer possible to paste objects into Unfinished maps.
-This resolves a related client crash.
Dragging the first objective or group on a map onto the map itself in the UGC editor, no longer deletes the objective or group.
It is no longer possible to duplicate Unfinished maps.
Unfinished maps can no longer be deleted from the Maps tab.
-They must be deleted via the Story tab, since there are objectives associated with them.
Moving a Complete All below a new objective no longer breaks the mission's flow.
Invisible objects are no longer invisible in the editor.
We reverted the previous change that caused this.
Project maps no longer display as UNTRANSLATED in the object picker windows.
All costume editor options should display properly regardless of species selected.
The Stance names displayed in the costume editor have been corrected.
When opening the object picker from a place where something is already assigned, the map now scrolls to the correct object and that the object gets highlighted in the list.
The Fire Extinguisher FX should be functional again.
The doors to the ready rooms on the Prometheus and Olympic bridges are now open.
Closed some open faces on Foundry props.
Added new maps to use as templates:
-Ground:
--Bajor
--Bortas Bridge
--Coliseum
--Earth Spacedock -- newer version
--Cardassian Galor Bridge
--Defiant Bridge 02
--Defiant Ship Interior
--Ferengi D'Kora Bridge
--Drozana Station -- 23rd Century
--Facility 4028
--Hfihar
--Jem'Hadar Bridge
--Nopada Desert
--Odyssey Bridge
--Orith
--TOS Bridge
--TOS Ship Interior
-Space:
--Mercury
--Venus
--Mars
--Jupiter
--Saturn
--Uranus
--Neptune
--Pluto
--Sol System (newer version)
Added new backdrops:
-Bajor Ground at Sunset
-Bortas Bridge
-Brea Ground
-Earth Spacedock (newer version)
-Hfihar Ground
-Mars
-Nopada Desert Day
-Nopada Desert Night
-Orith Ground
-Sol System (newer version)
Missions:
Updated Second Wave so the Jem'Hadar fight back when attacked.
Updated the Defera Invasion:
-Players are no longer able to get stuck behind the Probe's shield when the event turns off.
-There are no longer medical drones that spawn inside the terrain.
-Removed superfluous button from Regeneration Hubs in Power Play. Aid the Planet star cluster missions now give 1000 diplomacy xp points as a reward.
Afterlife: Updated the image of Kahless seen after arriving at the shrine.
Cutting the Cord: Map railings updated to address a few issues.
Bringing Down the House: It's no longer possible to defeat Tarsen before receiving the objective to do so.
Updated mission text for Seeds of Dissent and The New Link to list the correct location of the Goralis System.
Systems:
Updated Chroniton torpedoes:
-Inertial Dampers skill now correctly provides resistance to Turn Rate debuffs in space.
-Chroniton Torpedo procs can now be resisted.
-Inertial Dampers skill will reduce duration.
-Powers that provide resistance or immunity will now function as intended against Chronitons.
-Fixed some damage and proc duration inconsistencies among Torpedo Spread and Salvo with Chronitons
-Resolved white box icon for Chroniton Procs.
Updated Galaxy Saucer Separation, Multi Vector Assault Mode, and Dkyr Support Craft launch so the pets match your pitch and roll when you separate.
-The pets no longer always spawn horizontal.
Mines and targetable Torpedoes will now explode, deal damage and play their explosion FX more reliably.
Updated description on Stalker Fighter pets so it is clear they can only be launched from the Atrox.
Bridges officers no longer call out the wrong power name when casting Electro-Gravitic Field.
Increased HP of B'Rel Retrofit.
Increased Turn Rate of T3 and T4 Orion Flight Deck Cruiser.
Renamed Fleet Escorts to Patrol Escorts.
The shield damage proc for tetryon ground weapons now shows up in the combat log and as a damage floater.
Added scrolling combat text for shield damage.
Added icon for Klingon Honor Guard Adrenal Boost.
Updated Nanite Health Monitor:
-Resolved an issue that allowed Nanite Health Monitor to stack with itself if the ability was used multiple times without being triggered.
-Nanite Health Monitor will also now display a buff icon.
-Nanite Health Monitor is now flagged as a science ability.
Mugato Boss will now only attack players.
Added sound effects for Tyken's Rift.
Resolved an issue that was preventing medical generators, shield generators, and force field domes from scaling properly with your stats.
The tooltip for Abandon Ship has been updated to correctly state you must be at <25% crew to activate it.
-This is a text change only.
Resolved an issue with Elite Disruptor Split Beam rifles using two different models for their different attacks.
UI:
It's now possible to toggle the visibility of reticles for mines and small craft.
-By default, the reticles will appear only when the ship or mine is selected.
-This can be adjusted in the Options menu.
Added power descriptions to tooltips for powers.
Removed customization options for the first Bridge Officer received in Federation tutorial.
Duty Officer portraits no longer display outside the posted item borders, overlapping onto the EC area.
The Starbase FXP is now labeled as "Starbase FXP" instead of just "FXP".
The Starbase available projects are now sorted by category
Updated up the appearance of the available Starbase project list.
The Fleet window will now always open to the overview tab.
Selecting a Pre-set face or body option no longer sets costumes to the incorrect costume slot type.
Fleet XP in the side bar now shows aggregate XP.
Updated the appearance of the fleet tier progress bars.
Resolved an issue that would cause the Starbase name to display incorrectly when switching between characters in different guilds.
Eliminated the blank space that appeared at the end of some window tabs.
The rows in the Fleet Vault are no longer misaligned across columns.
The fleet roster has a scrollbar again.
Known Issues:
All stores are empty.
If you defeat a ground enemy then target a new one without letting up on the fire button, the shots continue to the defeated foe.
-The new foe is still being damaged.
Warp-out animations are missing some audio. KDF Fleet Alert Event: When fighting Rival Klingons, A Borg Cube spawns instead of a proper Rival Klingon Dreadnought.
The starbases have had some interior redecorating and the decorator placed some consoles in front of doorways.
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Just checked out the Holstered Weapon addition. Pistols go on the right hip and rifles are slung on the back. My sword did not show up. Placement looks decent. I wish the phasers had a special placement on the left hip since most of the people in TNG drew theirs from left to right with only Data having his in the right hip.
Pattern seems to be :
refit = same as tier 5
fleet refit = tier 5 with extra shields/hull and an extra console
With the exception of the sovereign and the nova... both of which get a lt. cmd tac bridge station, which is pretty huge imo.
I wonder why those are different....
Personally I would have preferred if they just changed the lt.cmd slots to universals on the fleet refits, because then you could do interesting things like run gravity well on a escort. Plus captains flying ships outside their career path would get more options.
They're basically in line with the Odyssey. +10% hull, + .1 shield modifier, +1 console slot, but no special powers anywhere (any of them with a T5 C-store equivalent can use the console off it). And the Odyssey utterly failed to live up to the initial claims of breaking the game and didn't even manage to steal best cruiser. A couple of the ones people are really calling OP on definitely won't pan out - the fleet Sovvy is going to be a deathtrap (it comes out about where an Ody with a tac in the LTC slot does - the health doesn't matter when you can't keep it up), and the fleet Nova is going to run into the same problem the existing Luna has and what tac officers run into flying science vessels.
Apparently there's a pretty far-flung overhaul on space NPCs going on for S6, not just the Terran redesign. Pulling things from Geko's twitter:
Ferengi ships actually getting their own type and not reskinning generic aliens, include battle mode and missiles.
Nausican NPCs getting the Guramba, complete with siege mode and lance, and the existing Scourge getting theta radiation vents.
Orion groups getting the Corsair and Marauder with their special fighters
Gorn groups getting the Dragus and Phalanx with their special powers
Various Klingon ships getting subspace jump, bioneural warhead, isometric charge, and stasis beam, getting the Bortas as a dreadnought option
Fed getting the same treatment, but no word on how.
Basically, bunch of player ships getting NPC counterparts, and a ton of NPC factions getting a power overhaul like the Romulans did.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Is there anything we can start saving up to help the fleet with the star base creation when it goes live?
I've only seen the things required for first tier upgrades, but it looks like we're gonna need lots of stuff by the time we start getting to T4/5.
Some categories we can start saving up for are:
Boff Skillpoints
Dilithium
Commodities
Various flavors of Common Doffs
Particle Traces
Satellite Turrets
My Klingons are going to be marauding and exploring non stop until I can become un-space poor enough just to straight up buy everything. Yay for the account bank at least!
so i've discovered that posting blues/purples to the exchange from doing stfs just completely removed the value of money from this game. i got 200000 ec in less than a minute of effort from 1 console.
Money is still useful, it's just that after you're fully geared the only real purpose is to spend it on luxury items like mkxii consoles, lockbox ships, or keys.
so i've discovered that posting blues/purples to the exchange from doing stfs just completely removed the value of money from this game. i got 200000 ec in less than a minute of effort from 1 console.
I really need to try an STF, but my experience doing similar groupings in City of Heroes totally turned me off doing this with Random People. I tend to spend a few hours reading up on how to do stuff, then watch in frustration as my PUG promptly blows everything either in the first five minutes, or after 3-4 hours. Any of you guys kicking around to do one at some point? And is there a decent time estimate?
I need to avoid my mother-in-law, but I can't leave Mrs. Croaker alone too long or she will come and drag me away.
Oh, and I finally cleared off a couple of Colonization chains and started being able to get refugees. Hurrah!
the regular STFs are really fairly easy. The biggest trick is getting the bonus objective, and usually that isn't too bad. There are some guides up, and if everyone is semi-competent, a usual STF shouldn't take more than 20 minutes or so. The elites can be a bit rougher, but as I've only done a couple of those on my tac/cruiser, I can't really say too much about those other than the difficulty is ramped up a bit.
so i've discovered that posting blues/purples to the exchange from doing stfs just completely removed the value of money from this game. i got 200000 ec in less than a minute of effort from 1 console.
I really need to try an STF, but my experience doing similar groupings in City of Heroes totally turned me off doing this with Random People. I tend to spend a few hours reading up on how to do stuff, then watch in frustration as my PUG promptly blows everything either in the first five minutes, or after 3-4 hours. Any of you guys kicking around to do one at some point? And is there a decent time estimate?
The space stfs are a lot more forgiving than 5-mans in most other mmos. Once you get geared around mkX or higher, go ahead and start running normals. I don't think I've ever seen one outright fail, although I the group is particularly bad you might lose the bonus.
Elites are harder, and you get more frustrating teams of clueless or trolls, but it's rarely worse than other games and at most you're out 20 min.
I would absolutely avoid ground stfs though. Unless you're in a premade theyre usually an exercise in dickpunching.
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
I'll preface this by saying that I am only talking about normal mode, as I have zero experience in the Elite setting. I have only done one ground stf and it was horrible. I imagine that a full group of PAs might be fun, but pugging..not so much.
STFs take (or should take) 15-20min. In my experience the general mission of the STF cannot be failed unless everyone sits at the spawn point and does nothing. The only thing that you can fail is the optionals, which is another 3 blues for the group to roll on. The only time I have seen any bitching in an STF is when the group triggered the spawning of some ads in Infected space, which led some guy complaining that "We'll never get the optional now, scrubs, heres a tip for you" etc. The group got the optional done anyway, so..yeah.
I would start with either infected or cure first and hang behind the group a bit to see how it works. Khitomer Accord is pretty simple, but requires the group to split up so you won't necessarily have the support you need going into an STF first time.
If you are around GMT times, I will quite happily run a couple with ya to get you in the swing of things, can find me in the fleet list as Innk@Snicketysnick.
Is there anything we can start saving up to help the fleet with the star base creation when it goes live?
For tier 1-2, fleet marks are the limiting factor. Aside from some oddball inputs (like 40 satellite phaser turrets, some of the more specific doff inputs, or the 40 refuge special project), one person can pretty much fill all the rest. It only really becomes a thing on upgrade projects, but even then, taking all three facilities and the starbase to tier 1 is in the reach of a poor but dedicated player.
yeah, the one to protect the klingon ship I've never once Not gotten the bonus. the one with a portal on either side and a gate in the middle we never got till I realized i should peel off the power generators and clean up the probe ads heading to the middle gate. I don't even know what the third one's bonus objective is to be honest. it always turns to failed within 5 minutes for me.
the regular ones are really easy though. also talk to the guy at deep space 9 and he'll give you your first stf token for free (i used mine for a space weapon) and after a day I had all mk x fore weapons, a maco deflector, borg engines, and two rear weapons from them.
which makes sector travel twice as fast for me and really makes me a murder machine while doing some episodes.
In 2011, it seemed like every time I came back to the game, I hated it just a little bit less.
By contrast, it seems now like every time I log in, I actually like it just a little bit more.
Which is hilarious to me because my gut reaction to every single change -- duty officers, dilithium, completed reworked player skill tree, etc. -- was "that's going to completely ruin the game!" Taken individually, I still kind of hate each thing that they've changed, but it somehow all comes together to create a game that I actually enjoy logging into and playing during my free time.
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
which makes sector travel twice as fast for me and really makes me a murder machine while doing some episodes.
Really reinforcing the fact that spending your first 5 edcs on some borg engines is the best possible thing you can do from a QoL perspective, makes soo many things in the game easier to do.
which makes sector travel twice as fast for me and really makes me a murder machine while doing some episodes.
Really reinforcing the fact that spending your first 5 edcs on some borg engines is the best possible thing you can do from a QoL perspective, makes soo many things in the game easier to do.
Unless you were a real Captain and got the borg engines under the old STF system. :P
So are these new fleet ships going to be purchased from a fleet starbase? Does anyone know if you can upgrade your existing ship(s), and what kind of currency would we need to buy things? Would ship tokens still work? Sounds like this may just be a money sink esp for people who are already leveled to admiral/general?
do you know what i wish fleet support did... called in some of your older ships instead of generic npcs. You could gear them and pick which ones it calls in your ship select screen. It would add a cool bit of continuity too for you as an admiral having your previous commands as part of your fleet.
So are these new fleet ships going to be purchased from a fleet starbase? Does anyone know if you can upgrade your existing ship(s), and what kind of currency would we need to buy things? Would ship tokens still work? Sounds like this may just be a money sink esp for people who are already leveled to admiral/general?
Purchased from the fleet store. Tokens don't work, fleet credit does. Just like the C-store retrofits, they're new ships, you can't actually upgrade your existing one. And, yes, it's basically an extensive money sink.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
do you know what i wish fleet support did... called in some of your older ships instead of generic npcs. You could gear them and pick which ones it calls in your ship select screen. It would add a cool bit of continuity too for you as an admiral having your previous commands as part of your fleet.
Also if you could order them around instead of them warping off.
do you know what i wish fleet support did... called in some of your older ships instead of generic npcs. You could gear them and pick which ones it calls in your ship select screen. It would add a cool bit of continuity too for you as an admiral having your previous commands as part of your fleet.
Also if you could order them around instead of them warping off.
My question, If you've dumped your old ships and replaced them with high end admiral ships because you couldn't decide what you wanted to play, do you then call in those ships as your support? Cause that could be insane. I don't think the game tracks your ships once you decide to decommission them.
The thought of running enough STFs to kit out not just one ship in borg and MK X+ gear, but 3-4 end game ships...
Hell, someone call the DEV's, I think that's enough end game grind to tack another year or two onto this game.
They've talked about giving Fleet Admirals an away team in space system like that. The associated grind would be truly epic.
In the short term, though, they've said the limitation is that they can't do fully customized NPCs on that level yet. They could theoretically make it pull one of your idle ships, but it would just end up being a generic Fed frigate/escort/cruiser/battleship NPC dressed up in a costume. At one point they even talked about having space boffs work that way - making them a new NPC party member type instead of a full fledged ship.
Posts
Wow, that Tholian dreadnought looks sweet.
This is everything I want.
Going to goof around between new alts and my level 45 just to try and get a feel for the game again. The new tree respec is kinda interesting.
MWO: Adamski
I got a failure with one death. I feel it should have been specified before the fact that they weren't supposed to use Yorick's skull, a prop would have been acceptable.
I was in a similar situation when I came back, and that was after a lot less time. I just started fresh - most of what you probably remember is largely irrelevant now, even worse if you've been gone since close to launch.
Any recommendation on what type of captain to play as? Considering I will probably be soloing the majority of the time.
MWO: Adamski
Escorts do have an advantage if you don't want to spend money, too. The two free cruisers are just entirely outclassed by the C-store ones, escorts are kinda that way thanks to the Akira carrier but the advanced and fleet escorts still hold up pretty well for having better tactical setups.
Also... what the fuck?
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475978868/in/photostream/ intrepid
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475978340/in/photostream/ sovie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475977874/in/photostream/ galaxy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475977354/in/photostream/ nova 1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475976888/in/photostream/ nova 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475976388/in/photostream/ nebula
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475975920/in/photostream/ defiant
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475975474/in/photostream/ sabre 1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475974946/in/photostream/ sabre 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475974458/in/photostream/ recon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475974052/in/photostream/ starcruiser
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475973544/in/photostream/ research sci
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475972596/in/photostream/ heavy cruiser
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475972152/in/photostream/ research 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475971588/in/photostream/ heavy 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475971128/in/photostream/ dssv
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-et/7475970672/in/photostream/ patrol escort
refit = same as tier 5
fleet refit = tier 5 with extra shields/hull and an extra console
With the exception of the sovereign and the nova... both of which get a lt. cmd tac bridge station, which is pretty huge imo.
I wonder why those are different....
Personally I would have preferred if they just changed the lt.cmd slots to universals on the fleet refits, because then you could do interesting things like run gravity well on a escort. Plus captains flying ships outside their career path would get more options.
cause if lockbox ships are worse then fleet ships, they will see a large drop in key sales = much less $$ for them.
they bumped the Excelsiors hp as well, 42,900 now (39,000 old)
Apparently there's a pretty far-flung overhaul on space NPCs going on for S6, not just the Terran redesign. Pulling things from Geko's twitter:
Ferengi ships actually getting their own type and not reskinning generic aliens, include battle mode and missiles.
Nausican NPCs getting the Guramba, complete with siege mode and lance, and the existing Scourge getting theta radiation vents.
Orion groups getting the Corsair and Marauder with their special fighters
Gorn groups getting the Dragus and Phalanx with their special powers
Various Klingon ships getting subspace jump, bioneural warhead, isometric charge, and stasis beam, getting the Bortas as a dreadnought option
Fed getting the same treatment, but no word on how.
Basically, bunch of player ships getting NPC counterparts, and a ton of NPC factions getting a power overhaul like the Romulans did.
Some categories we can start saving up for are:
Boff Skillpoints
Dilithium
Commodities
Various flavors of Common Doffs
Particle Traces
Satellite Turrets
My Klingons are going to be marauding and exploring non stop until I can become un-space poor enough just to straight up buy everything. Yay for the account bank at least!
I really need to try an STF, but my experience doing similar groupings in City of Heroes totally turned me off doing this with Random People. I tend to spend a few hours reading up on how to do stuff, then watch in frustration as my PUG promptly blows everything either in the first five minutes, or after 3-4 hours. Any of you guys kicking around to do one at some point? And is there a decent time estimate?
I need to avoid my mother-in-law, but I can't leave Mrs. Croaker alone too long or she will come and drag me away.
Oh, and I finally cleared off a couple of Colonization chains and started being able to get refugees. Hurrah!
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The space stfs are a lot more forgiving than 5-mans in most other mmos. Once you get geared around mkX or higher, go ahead and start running normals. I don't think I've ever seen one outright fail, although I the group is particularly bad you might lose the bonus.
Elites are harder, and you get more frustrating teams of clueless or trolls, but it's rarely worse than other games and at most you're out 20 min.
I would absolutely avoid ground stfs though. Unless you're in a premade theyre usually an exercise in dickpunching.
STFs take (or should take) 15-20min. In my experience the general mission of the STF cannot be failed unless everyone sits at the spawn point and does nothing. The only thing that you can fail is the optionals, which is another 3 blues for the group to roll on. The only time I have seen any bitching in an STF is when the group triggered the spawning of some ads in Infected space, which led some guy complaining that "We'll never get the optional now, scrubs, heres a tip for you" etc. The group got the optional done anyway, so..yeah.
I would start with either infected or cure first and hang behind the group a bit to see how it works. Khitomer Accord is pretty simple, but requires the group to split up so you won't necessarily have the support you need going into an STF first time.
If you are around GMT times, I will quite happily run a couple with ya to get you in the swing of things, can find me in the fleet list as Innk@Snicketysnick.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
For tier 1-2, fleet marks are the limiting factor. Aside from some oddball inputs (like 40 satellite phaser turrets, some of the more specific doff inputs, or the 40 refuge special project), one person can pretty much fill all the rest. It only really becomes a thing on upgrade projects, but even then, taking all three facilities and the starbase to tier 1 is in the reach of a poor but dedicated player.
the regular ones are really easy though. also talk to the guy at deep space 9 and he'll give you your first stf token for free (i used mine for a space weapon) and after a day I had all mk x fore weapons, a maco deflector, borg engines, and two rear weapons from them.
which makes sector travel twice as fast for me and really makes me a murder machine while doing some episodes.
By contrast, it seems now like every time I log in, I actually like it just a little bit more.
Which is hilarious to me because my gut reaction to every single change -- duty officers, dilithium, completed reworked player skill tree, etc. -- was "that's going to completely ruin the game!" Taken individually, I still kind of hate each thing that they've changed, but it somehow all comes together to create a game that I actually enjoy logging into and playing during my free time.
Really reinforcing the fact that spending your first 5 edcs on some borg engines is the best possible thing you can do from a QoL perspective, makes soo many things in the game easier to do.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Unless you were a real Captain and got the borg engines under the old STF system. :P
So are these new fleet ships going to be purchased from a fleet starbase? Does anyone know if you can upgrade your existing ship(s), and what kind of currency would we need to buy things? Would ship tokens still work? Sounds like this may just be a money sink esp for people who are already leveled to admiral/general?
Purchased from the fleet store. Tokens don't work, fleet credit does. Just like the C-store retrofits, they're new ships, you can't actually upgrade your existing one. And, yes, it's basically an extensive money sink.
Also if you could order them around instead of them warping off.
The thought of running enough STFs to kit out not just one ship in borg and MK X+ gear, but 3-4 end game ships...
Hell, someone call the DEV's, I think that's enough end game grind to tack another year or two onto this game.
In the short term, though, they've said the limitation is that they can't do fully customized NPCs on that level yet. They could theoretically make it pull one of your idle ships, but it would just end up being a generic Fed frigate/escort/cruiser/battleship NPC dressed up in a costume. At one point they even talked about having space boffs work that way - making them a new NPC party member type instead of a full fledged ship.