I'm still trying to figure out how to get a temporal destroyer to go with my wells class so I can get the dual console bonus, without spending a million dollars of real money. The destroyer is one sweet ship, and that console duo is just fun. I agree it isn't OP though, outside of some tricky gotcha stuff. Vesta class sounds interesting, I wish they'd figure out a way to make sci ships not worthless though. I have a sci toon with two kitbashed ships that I *love* but...well, they're sci ships and they just suck. The only sci ship that's worth a damn is the Kar'Fi, and it isn't a pure sci ship.
But I think cruisers suck too. Honestly, the whole game is about escorts. There are premade tactics that make cruisers good for some healing stuff, but that's it. It sucks that cruiser DPS typically blows, and sci doesn't have anywhere near enough controls or utility to make up for their crappy DPS. In group matches/fleet stuff/STFs I always groan when I see a bunch of cruisers. I don't mind seeing sci ships, but that's only because 90% of the time that means someone will have gravity well and in PvE that means excorts with scatter volley can clean up whole groups in seconds. The Kar'Fi and the MVAM ships are the best in the game for fleet crap, just for that reason.
Everyone, including the Devs, knows it's a problem though. Maybe someday someone will think of a clever way to fix it.
Cheapest way to get any lockbox ship is to buy keys and sell them on the exchange until you can afford one. If you plan ahead you can buy up keys at 600-900k each and resell for 2 million+ the day a new box drops.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
As a lifetime subscriber I am totally happy about getting all rewards since for some reason my start date doesn't count like two months so I'm always behind everyone else getting stuff.
Over the past year, the Borg have been threatening the very existence of many species in the galaxy. Their advancements in the Gamma Orionis Sector Block have cost the Federation and Klingon Defense Force countless lives, but resistance has proved not to be as futile as the Borg would have liked. The nanovirus discovered at Starbase 82 (“Infected”) by Task Force Omega, along with the counteragent that was developed based on data found in the Vorn System (“The Cure”), has helped turn the tides of war. Also, the events in the Quadra Sigma System (“Khitomer Accord”) have helped prove that the Borg attacks on the Vega Colony were mere attempts at trying to alter the timeline to give them the upper hand. While Task Force Omega has been victorious thus far, the Borg threat remains, and a final battle must be won.
All these events now lead to the culmination of the fight against the Borg advancement in our upcoming Special Task Force (STF) mission, Into the Hive. In this new STF, players will infiltrate Unimatrix 01, the heart of the Borg Collective and the home of the Borg Queen.
Incoming message from Task Force Omega…
Captain, our agents have discovered the location of a Borg Unimatrix. We managed to get a probe into the area, and before the Borg destroyed it, the readings indicated that the Queen's vessel was in the area. A small strike team is being assembled because they stand a higher chance of infiltrating the Borg defenses than an attack fleet does.
This is the best opportunity we're going to have to take the fight directly to the Collective. I want you to infiltrate the Unimatrix with a small team and defeat the Borg Queen!
Once you have penetrated to the heart of Unimatrix 01, the first thing you will need to do is defeat the drones connected to Central Plexus Node relays that give the Queen unfettered access to the rest of the Borg fleet. Once you have done that, you can upload a fractal virus to the Collective that will disrupt her communications with the rest of the Collective.
We'll keep the sensors locked onto your position and alert you to hidden dangers, as well as send you more information as it becomes available.
Good luck.
To participate, use the PvE Queue to join either a public or private queue. Into the Hive is a ground mission that is available in two difficulty modes: Normal and Elite. This event is always available, but if you play during certain hourly events (calendar updates to be announced at a later date) you will earn even more rewards. Into the Hive is available to both Federation and Klingon players and is targeted at 5-person groups. You must be a Vice Admiral or Lieutenant General to participate.
We’ll see you in-game and in the queues for Into the Hive when it launches with Season 7!
Disappointed that it's ground only, but honestly, I'm over the Borg as a the big bad and REALLY over fighting the fucks on the ground. They have said there'll be a new set of Tholian STFs and some new queue events, so I'm ok with it. I'll probably run it once to say I beat the Borg and then focus on the other reputation for a while, circle back to Battlegroup Omega reputation some time later.
Redshirt forums are back, too. Looks like the first S7 build might be tomorrow or next week. Following S6's test cycle, that's actually optimistically on track for an early to mid November release. I at least want to get a look at the reputation UI - what kind of grind is involved, how the rewards are structured, etc.
Edit: now Redshirt itself is up, seems to have the same build as live and tribble. Patched in with 0 downloaded for me. Anyone remember how they did it in S6? Was Redshirt the season test or did it take over for tribble on minor patches?
One last dig on the lifer rage: Apparently an interestingly high number of the people ragequitting STFs because they're teamed with people who "bought what they earned" are flying Galaxy-X's that they bought on the C-store instead of earned through the referral program, leading to a revival of that old argument. The irony seems to be lost on both sides of the argument, though.
Not in quite a while. When I still did, I went right to the dedicated class forums. After they made the general DPS/tank/healer forums the non-druid class forums weren't half bad. Then again, WoW was down about four million players from then last I knew, and community shrinkage always leaves the worst of the worst.
The WoW forums are practically the height of sophistication and intelligence compared to STO. I walk into the WoW forums and it's all "Greetings my good man. Would you care to join us for a spot of tea and rousing discussion of class changes?" Then I go to the STO forums and it becomes "oh god how did the monkeys escape? And is that shit? It is! They're throwing shit everywhere!"
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Fleebhas all of the fleeb juiceRegistered Userregular
Haaaha, nice. I have to admit I've never peeked in at the STO forums. I learned my lesson back in the day with Wow and now I avoid any MMOs dedicated forums like they're syphilherpesaids.
Depends where you go. The closer you stay to pure help forums (Missions, Academy, Doffs) the better they are. The closer you get to KDF or PVP topics, the worse. Break point is STFs and Federation ships, where valid and intelligent discussion is possible, but every thread has the potential to turn irreversibly to shit within two replies.
The actual PVP forum takes MMO community misanthropy to the level of magical artform. Just this week:
Last week: Problem discussed, suggestion offered.
Tuesday AM: Suggestion patched
Tuesday: WTF DEVS NERF CROOSERS HARDER GOTTA SELL CHIMERAS
Wednesday AM: Patch partially reversed.
Wednesday: Wow that was quick, good job, not a perfect solution but goes a long way.
Thursday: DEVS NEVER LISTEN TO US NO PVP PATCH IN TWO YEARS
I've seen that cycle happen in every MMO I've played, but I've never actually watched it unfolds hour to hour so rapidly with all the relative posts still being active with the same posters.
Ironically, their off topic forum manages to be one of the most reliably non-shit of them all. Most games that's the no mans land where only fools dare tread.
When Season 7 launches next month, we will be introducting a brand-new sector block that players will be able to explore, patrol and discover new missions in. The Tau Dewa Sector Block, which is south of the Psi Velorum Sector Block, is populated by Romulan refugees looking for places to call home after the collapse of the Romulan Star Empire.
This sector is home to the Azure Nebula and 17 new systems, 13 of which have requested the Federation and Klingon Defense Force’s aid in sorting out issues related to the colonization occurring nearby.
Star Trek Online STO MMORPG F2P Sc-Fi MMO game
Several systems in the Tau Dewa Sector Block have caught the eyes of the Romulan refugees as worth considering for future colonization efforts. However, there is a lot of work that needs to be completed before they can break ground and they have asked for your assistance. Please seek out Romulans in the following systems to see how you can lend a hand:
Archer System
Narendra System
Gamma Eridon System
Beta Thoridor System
Japori System
Carraya System
Pheben System
Nequincia Alpha System
Jouret System
Acamar System
Beta Lankal System
Starbase 234 System
Galorndon Core System
Other systems in the sector block include:
Suliban System
Khitomer System
Nimbus System
New Romulus System (This is home to our new Adventure Zone – look for a Dev Blog on this next week)
Star Trek Online STO MMORPG F2P Sc-Fi MMO game
Missions in the Tau Dewa Sector Block are available to players who have reached Vice Admiral or Lieutenant General Rank, and bonus rewards will be awarded if played during special timeslots found on the hourly event calendar. To participate in the various missions listed above, speak to sector contact Subcommander Mivek by using the button that will appear towards the lower-right section of your screen while in the sector. They are designed for both solo and group play.
We’ll see you in-game and in the Tau Dewa Sector Block when it opens with the launch of Season 7!
Some stuff gleaned from screenshots: The zone is located between Psi Velorum and Pi Canis. Not sure the fates of the current Azure nebula, Hromi cluster, or Arucanis Arm, but it's nice to see the Azure nebula closer to it's proper location (it was in the Triangle where the Romulan neutral zone overlapped the former Klingon neutral zone.
Storyline seems to be moving FE3 forward on a side-plot in the larger Romulan civil war, with the Fed and KDF competing for favor with a bunch of breakaway colonies. This also fits with the fleet embassies being in the sector, and the Romulan reputation that was hinted in the Ask Cryptic.
The last screenshot also looks interesting. The ship on the left I can't tell if it's Hirogen or new. It has tetryon weapons, but I don't think any Hirogen NPCs have power siphon.
Interestingly, Suliban is in Federation space, but from past appearances the Suliban are a minor member of the KDF alliance. Though I'm probably just reading too much into the color of sector space, since the new Romulan capital is also in Federation space.
Edit: Oh, and this:
This is even better than fixing the bug where the client remembers your old Cryptic name instead of your PWE name, because now I don't have to log back in every fucking time.
Hevach on
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
I used to read the sto forums back when the dev Captain Logan was working on improving the cannon ship appearances. He'd post work in progress shots and ask for feedback. People posted genuinely good comments back to him and he made modifications. It was actually kind of amazing for an mmo message board.
SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
Work on the Shipyard has begun! The pain is going to be the 120 green tac/security doffs, I had a few that I was saving especially but apparently all but was bound. Which is annoying because I am sure I have used bound doffs for projects before. Oh well. Bonus points for making it so that you cannot buy the doffs for fleet credit before the shipyard completes.
Aside from that the requirements don't look too horrible.
The bound thing depends on how they got bound. Almost every doff binds if you use them on the active roster, and that doesn't stop them from going to fleet projects. Bind on acquire doffs, though, can't be because they're all marked as unique. I did a big purge of my green and white doffs, since I have about 170 blues and purples now and anything lower is just there to feed the recruitment churn or starbase grind.
First Season 7 update is on Tribble now. Patch note highlights:
Mine Trap: 20 man ground fleet action involving protecting Romulan civilians from the Tal Shiar
Azure Nebula Rescue: 5 man space event, rescue Romulan ships from Tholians
The Vault Ensnared: 5 man event fighting Tholians in the Vault (patch notes fail to specify but I assume shuttles) Edit: It is not shuttles, it's bigships, and it's outside the vault instead of inside.
Into The Hive: 5 man ground STF against Borg
Cool stuff:
Log out to character screen
Confirmation on assignments that will permanently remove doffs
New PVE queue window
Bank auto-deposit and atuo-sort
Foundry authors can give patrol waypoints to NPC groups
No reputation system yet, don't see mention of the new zone being open or the new fleet holding, but considering S6 launched as nothing but the blockade run and no win scenario, this is actually a pretty big first patch.
Edit: and blog #3
Romulan Colony Adventure Zone
Life has been hard for the Romulans. Ever since the destruction of their home world, they have struggled to find their place in the galaxy. While some have decided the best course of action is to side with the militaristic and fanatical Tal Shiar, many realize they must look inward and repair what was lost before they can look across the galaxy with larger plans.
The first evidence of this new direction came via an alliance with the Remans, led by Obisek. Together with both the Federation and the Klingon Empire, they were able to stop Hakeev’s Tal Shiar forces and prevent potentially massive destruction. With larger threats temporarily subsided, the surviving Romulans and Remans began to search for a new place to call home.
And now, it seems, they’ve found it. Welcome to New Romulus, or Mol’Rihan in the traditional tongue.
As a member of the Federation or the Klingon Defense Force, you will be tasked with helping them establish their new home world in the form of a new Adventure Zone.
Is this Adventure Zone available to all players at all times?
The Romulan Colony Adventure Zone is always available to players who have reached Vice Admiral or Lieutenant General Rank, and bonus rewards will be awarded if played during special timeslots found on the hourly event calendar. To participate, players will travel to the Tau Dewa Sector Block and beam down with a single Bridge Officer to New Romulus where a variety of missions await them.
How does an Adventure Zone work?
Different regions of the zone will have daily missions that can be completed to help the Romulans and Remans colonize the planet. A Reman or Romulan officer is stationed in each of the areas, offering a different daily mission. Each mission has a variety of ways it can be completed and it’s up to you how you’d like to help. You can choose combat options or collection options as listed by that area’s mission. Each element you or your team chooses to do advances an overall tracker that completes when it reaches 100%. There are also special events that periodically take place in the various areas; participating in those events also count towards overall mission progression.
What do I get for completing these missions?
By completing these tasks, you earn Romulan Marks for use in the new Reputation system which awards new special rewards and gear, as well as increasing your reputation with the Romulans (look for another Dev Blog on this system in the near future). You will also unlock story elements that explain the history and potential future of New Romulus.
What else can I do in this adventure zone?
As you advance in the reputation system, special instances will unlock that can be done with more of your bridge officers or other players. There are also additional daily missions that will help teach you the map and learn additional planetary and cultural lore.
The Romulans and Remans need your help! Will you answer the call?
We can’t wait for you to adventure on New Romulus when it launches with Season 7! We’ll see you in-game.
Scott "Goatshark" Shicoff
Lead Content Designer
Star Trek Online
Foundry daily gives 50 for 3 seconds of work with a quickie mission. As for the rest, blockade run is best if you have a good group, with Starbase Incursion second. Then colony invasion, fleet alert is worst. Fleet defense has potential, but in pugs it's usually dead last due to taking too long and losing too many objectives.
Nukara gives them, too, at least during the event. Not sure about Defera. Before they added the cooldowns, a group spread out in the medium area could generate a fucking ton of marks.
DOff report missions too, accessed at the starbase (if you have 110,000+ xp in a single category), 75 marks a pop (but it takes a few hours).
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
You get 100 on a crit though! This is probably my main source of fleet marks, especially now that I have hit rank 4 in each category (I like doffing ok?). Crits on some of the longer doff missions mean you can get almost half a bar in 1 shot, so 10k doesn't take that long to come by with a decent crew.
There’s a new gateway that will be available to Star Trek Online players soon, and it’s not a transwarp gateway, or an Iconian gateway, or even a trans-dimensional gateway to the mirror universe. Star Trek Online and Cryptic Studios are proud to present the beta version of the STO Gateway (working title)! This new feature allows players to remotely access their in-game status information via their desktop, tablet, or smartphone. In its initial release, the STO Gateway will allow players the ability to view their player status and equipped items, ship status and equipped items, bridge officer status and equipped items, and accolades. This list of features is only the beginning of what’s possible — there will be more features and functionality to come.
I've shifted both the upcoming Science and Engineering fleet projects to provision operational assets. Please don't change it; we don't have any of those provisions, and sooner or later we're going to want some. I will ensure that the project will get started within 8 hours of our getting the fleet marks filled on those two. (That is, I take responsibility for providing the doffs, although doing so isn't a huge challenge when there is a doff sucking project in all three of Tactical/Security, Science/Medical and Engineering/Ops.) I'd rather get those assets provisioned now than have to deal with the issue later.
"Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction. . . . This tremendous friction . . . is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings about effects that cannot be measured, just because they are largely due to chance" Carl Von Clausezwitz. (1832),
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
If that thing app or website works, I'll have hardly any need to login.
I'm kind of disappointed that the first version will basically just be WoW's armory, but branflakes has talked a lot about fleet holding and reputation management... He's been suspiciously quiet on doff management, though, but since I'm at tier 4 across the board there I'm not too badly fussed if it's not the first priority.
Something interesting from Tribble: They split the Borg set into two 3 piece sets now. The shield/deflector/engine are the same as currently, and the assimilated tractor beam was moved down to the 3 piece. The console is now on a set with an assimilated antiproton cutting beam and assimilated plasma torpedo. It's set bonuses are a +10 weapon power proc and a chance to drastically reduce incoming damage when hit. We don't have stats on the cutting beam or torpedo yet, they probably won't be in until the reputation system is.
Basically, this cuts the bog standard 3 Borg+non-shitty shield setup down to just the hull heal. Which is by far the better of the two procs, so it's not too bad. However, it completely ends the 2 Borg+Tetryon glider setup - if you want tetryon glider you pretty much might as well go full Omega and put your tanking in the tank.
Considering that on the PVP boards, those were the only two setups considered viable for ships aside from the bug, I'm tempted to say they could use a bit of a kick.
Of course, that doesn't stop the boards from spawning a class 12 ragestorm, but surprisingly this is less rage than from the last time the Borg set got nerfed, which was both a larger nerf and failed to actually change the balance forcing people into 3 Borg setups.
Hevach on
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Cool thing about the Doff stuff is that I can get my friends (whom I modeled my bridge crew after) to play their parts as department heads.
@Borg set changes: I like it. They are honestly in a bad place where min-maxers only have two options. All the fleet gear is crap, everything is crap, in fact, compared to the STF gear. No-one has any options to be interesting if they want to be in the top of the game. And plasma weapons suck because the best gear has high resists against plasma. So I like breaking things up again, we might see a bit more variation rather than everyone running 3 borg + MACO/HG. If they bitch about it too much they need a slap to the face, because there are tons of threads from the PvP crowd *asking* for changes to the Borg set. Freaking whiny babies.
Mine Trap is a great fleet action. And it's a ground one, too, so that's really saying something.
Takes place in the mining camp from Mine Enemy. The enemy is the M-119 Salt Vampires from TOS. They were extinct according to that episode, but the Ta Shiar apparently saved the species because apparently B'vat's been making them look bad in the Bond Villain crazy plan department.
Anyway, it's a mix of reverse tower defense and zombie apocalypse.
Phase 1: There's 200 Romulan and Reman civilians standing around the four districts of the camp. You have to run around and get them to go home and lock their doors while a few salt vampires wander around attacking them. Some civilians they kill, some they turn into more vampires.
Phase 2: Any civilians still out transform and you have to collect building materials and barricade all the buildings as best you can.
Phase 3: Subterranean Exists spawn all over and flood the camp with salt vampires, which attack the buildings. You have to collapse the entrances to stop them spawning and keep them from breaking into the buildings.
Phase 3: All the surviving civilians evacuate to four zones outside the camp, and need to be protected from salt vampire attacks along the way.
Phase 4: Surviving civilians are evacuated by shuttle while you hold the LZ against the vampires.
Can't believe I'd say this, but despite being ground based, it's probably the best large group fleet actions in the game. Cool unique mechanics without being frustrating silly bullshit like Gelki Feeding Ground.
Is it possible for you guys to see my setup in game? After leveling a few times by running doffs and getting a new ship, I went out into the thick of things to complete the next step of the Klingon front and got thoroughly molested by Orion ships.
I'm sure I have my whole ship fucked up or points allocated incorrectly and would like some suggestions on how to not suck.
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
Screenshots might do the trick, unless I am missing something there is no "inspect" facility in game though What sort of level are you? I found things a little tough in places at low level simply because I didn't have as wide a toolbox of abilities to play with. That said, those problems were mainly with those dastardly Romulans.
One thing I would suggest is to see if you can get some greens for your ship that match your level, if you have not done so already, the starting gear for each ship is decidedly sub-standard. They also have some weird ideas like escorts with beam arrays.
SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
Skills wise you look to be on the right track to me,
In a cruiser, I would see if you can get Emergency power to weapons 1, shields 1 and Auxiliary to Structural 1, as well as Tactical team 1 or Fire at Will 1 and whatever you fancy really for the science slot. I'd run 1 torpedo up front (You'll get a good one from the Doomsday mission if you have not got that far) and fill the rest with beam arrays. Try to keep both emergency powers running and you should be able to outlast most opponents at that level and whittle them down. Don't forget your EPS power transfer, that makes for a pretty good dps buff as well.
The trick with cruisers is to get your throttle speed right so that you can slowly circle and keep that broadside beam-spam working. You can turn your nose in to get off a torpedo, but most of the time you'll want to keep at about 3/4 throttle and pew pew away.
's a bit general, but that's what occurs to me off the top of my head without knowing any specifics you're having problems with.
Skills wise you look to be on the right track to me,
In a cruiser, I would see if you can get Emergency power to weapons 1, shields 1 and Auxiliary to Structural 1, as well as Tactical team 1 or Fire at Will 1 and whatever you fancy really for the science slot. I'd run 1 torpedo up front (You'll get a good one from the Doomsday mission if you have not got that far) and fill the rest with beam arrays. Try to keep both emergency powers running and you should be able to outlast most opponents at that level and whittle them down. Don't forget your EPS power transfer, that makes for a pretty good dps buff as well.
The trick with cruisers is to get your throttle speed right so that you can slowly circle and keep that broadside beam-spam working. You can turn your nose in to get off a torpedo, but most of the time you'll want to keep at about 3/4 throttle and pew pew away.
's a bit general, but that's what occurs to me off the top of my head without knowing any specifics you're having problems with.
Oh, one last very important thing. Set your weapons power to 100 (or some other high number). Power settings are per ship, so you may be on the default balanced power setting i.e. energy weapons tickle your opponents. I don't recall if they ever actually tell you about power levels.
Skills wise you look to be on the right track to me,
In a cruiser, I would see if you can get Emergency power to weapons 1, shields 1 and Auxiliary to Structural 1, as well as Tactical team 1 or Fire at Will 1 and whatever you fancy really for the science slot. I'd run 1 torpedo up front (You'll get a good one from the Doomsday mission if you have not got that far) and fill the rest with beam arrays. Try to keep both emergency powers running and you should be able to outlast most opponents at that level and whittle them down. Don't forget your EPS power transfer, that makes for a pretty good dps buff as well.
The trick with cruisers is to get your throttle speed right so that you can slowly circle and keep that broadside beam-spam working. You can turn your nose in to get off a torpedo, but most of the time you'll want to keep at about 3/4 throttle and pew pew away.
's a bit general, but that's what occurs to me off the top of my head without knowing any specifics you're having problems with.
Oh, one last very important thing. Set your weapons power to 100 (or some other high number). Power settings are per ship, so you may be on the default balanced power setting i.e. energy weapons tickle your opponents. I don't recall if they ever actually tell you about power levels.
Seconded. Really; I forget this every time and then wonder why my new ship is such complete crap. (at least ships now remember their BOFF configurations, which is a major help).
The other thing about cruisers is that your after torpedo is probably more useful than your forward; at least in my experience (and I haven't played my cruiser driver in years) you end up making many more counter-turns[1] than you would in an escort or a sci ship.
[1] For want of a better term. I'm talking about turns away from the enemy, to bring your opposite broadside to bear, rather than turns in to follow and hold your forward weapons on target. Done correctly, it means there will be a moment when your after torpedo will come into perfect alignment with the shield you just finished ripping apart with your beam array. I usually set my after kinetic to auto-fire and keep spamming HY2/3 or Spread2/3 so that I don't miss those shots. More than anything, I've always felt that its the ability to get the most out of that pattern that makes the Excelsiors so good. Or did; with the newer cruisers, I'm not sure the uniqueness of that advantage still holds.
Edit: Wow. I really haven't playedfiddledused --Fuck it. JERKED OFF with my poor engineer in way to long... What is a good build for an Engineering VA? I apparently have touched this guy since before the skill tree was changed. I didn't like the new 1000 day ship on my Tac, but I wonder if I could get an engineer into some fun trouble on that one. After I spend a small fortune on parts. Or maybe I'll build a Fed Science type; I've never played one. I'm suffering from one of my periodic fits of enthusiasm.
jamesra on
"Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction. . . . This tremendous friction . . . is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings about effects that cannot be measured, just because they are largely due to chance" Carl Von Clausezwitz. (1832),
Weapons to 100, really? I was playing defensive and still getting my ass handed to me. It was immediate shield drain against the Orions. I literally could not do anything. There were a dozen ships out of nowhere, they all handily outmaneuvered me and destroyed me in no time flat.
Posts
But I think cruisers suck too. Honestly, the whole game is about escorts. There are premade tactics that make cruisers good for some healing stuff, but that's it. It sucks that cruiser DPS typically blows, and sci doesn't have anywhere near enough controls or utility to make up for their crappy DPS. In group matches/fleet stuff/STFs I always groan when I see a bunch of cruisers. I don't mind seeing sci ships, but that's only because 90% of the time that means someone will have gravity well and in PvE that means excorts with scatter volley can clean up whole groups in seconds. The Kar'Fi and the MVAM ships are the best in the game for fleet crap, just for that reason.
Everyone, including the Devs, knows it's a problem though. Maybe someday someone will think of a clever way to fix it.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Redshirt forums are back, too. Looks like the first S7 build might be tomorrow or next week. Following S6's test cycle, that's actually optimistically on track for an early to mid November release. I at least want to get a look at the reputation UI - what kind of grind is involved, how the rewards are structured, etc.
Edit: now Redshirt itself is up, seems to have the same build as live and tribble. Patched in with 0 downloaded for me. Anyone remember how they did it in S6? Was Redshirt the season test or did it take over for tribble on minor patches?
One last dig on the lifer rage: Apparently an interestingly high number of the people ragequitting STFs because they're teamed with people who "bought what they earned" are flying Galaxy-X's that they bought on the C-store instead of earned through the referral program, leading to a revival of that old argument. The irony seems to be lost on both sides of the argument, though.
The actual PVP forum takes MMO community misanthropy to the level of magical artform. Just this week:
Last week: Problem discussed, suggestion offered.
Tuesday AM: Suggestion patched
Tuesday: WTF DEVS NERF CROOSERS HARDER GOTTA SELL CHIMERAS
Wednesday AM: Patch partially reversed.
Wednesday: Wow that was quick, good job, not a perfect solution but goes a long way.
Thursday: DEVS NEVER LISTEN TO US NO PVP PATCH IN TWO YEARS
I've seen that cycle happen in every MMO I've played, but I've never actually watched it unfolds hour to hour so rapidly with all the relative posts still being active with the same posters.
Ironically, their off topic forum manages to be one of the most reliably non-shit of them all. Most games that's the no mans land where only fools dare tread.
Some stuff gleaned from screenshots: The zone is located between Psi Velorum and Pi Canis. Not sure the fates of the current Azure nebula, Hromi cluster, or Arucanis Arm, but it's nice to see the Azure nebula closer to it's proper location (it was in the Triangle where the Romulan neutral zone overlapped the former Klingon neutral zone.
Storyline seems to be moving FE3 forward on a side-plot in the larger Romulan civil war, with the Fed and KDF competing for favor with a bunch of breakaway colonies. This also fits with the fleet embassies being in the sector, and the Romulan reputation that was hinted in the Ask Cryptic.
The last screenshot also looks interesting. The ship on the left I can't tell if it's Hirogen or new. It has tetryon weapons, but I don't think any Hirogen NPCs have power siphon.
Interestingly, Suliban is in Federation space, but from past appearances the Suliban are a minor member of the KDF alliance. Though I'm probably just reading too much into the color of sector space, since the new Romulan capital is also in Federation space.
Edit: Oh, and this:
This is even better than fixing the bug where the client remembers your old Cryptic name instead of your PWE name, because now I don't have to log back in every fucking time.
Aside from that the requirements don't look too horrible.
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Mine Trap: 20 man ground fleet action involving protecting Romulan civilians from the Tal Shiar
Azure Nebula Rescue: 5 man space event, rescue Romulan ships from Tholians
The Vault Ensnared: 5 man event fighting Tholians in the Vault (patch notes fail to specify but I assume shuttles) Edit: It is not shuttles, it's bigships, and it's outside the vault instead of inside.
Into The Hive: 5 man ground STF against Borg
Cool stuff:
Log out to character screen
Confirmation on assignments that will permanently remove doffs
New PVE queue window
Bank auto-deposit and atuo-sort
Foundry authors can give patrol waypoints to NPC groups
No reputation system yet, don't see mention of the new zone being open or the new fleet holding, but considering S6 launched as nothing but the blockade run and no win scenario, this is actually a pretty big first patch.
Edit: and blog #3
Tholian in an EV suit:
PSN = PessimistMaximus
Nukara gives them, too, at least during the event. Not sure about Defera. Before they added the cooldowns, a group spread out in the medium area could generate a fucking ton of marks.
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Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
I've shifted both the upcoming Science and Engineering fleet projects to provision operational assets. Please don't change it; we don't have any of those provisions, and sooner or later we're going to want some. I will ensure that the project will get started within 8 hours of our getting the fleet marks filled on those two. (That is, I take responsibility for providing the doffs, although doing so isn't a huge challenge when there is a doff sucking project in all three of Tactical/Security, Science/Medical and Engineering/Ops.) I'd rather get those assets provisioned now than have to deal with the issue later.
It'll be Doff: The Gane.
Something interesting from Tribble: They split the Borg set into two 3 piece sets now. The shield/deflector/engine are the same as currently, and the assimilated tractor beam was moved down to the 3 piece. The console is now on a set with an assimilated antiproton cutting beam and assimilated plasma torpedo. It's set bonuses are a +10 weapon power proc and a chance to drastically reduce incoming damage when hit. We don't have stats on the cutting beam or torpedo yet, they probably won't be in until the reputation system is.
Basically, this cuts the bog standard 3 Borg+non-shitty shield setup down to just the hull heal. Which is by far the better of the two procs, so it's not too bad. However, it completely ends the 2 Borg+Tetryon glider setup - if you want tetryon glider you pretty much might as well go full Omega and put your tanking in the tank.
Considering that on the PVP boards, those were the only two setups considered viable for ships aside from the bug, I'm tempted to say they could use a bit of a kick.
Of course, that doesn't stop the boards from spawning a class 12 ragestorm, but surprisingly this is less rage than from the last time the Borg set got nerfed, which was both a larger nerf and failed to actually change the balance forcing people into 3 Borg setups.
Ok, I'm probably a little too into this idea...
Takes place in the mining camp from Mine Enemy. The enemy is the M-119 Salt Vampires from TOS. They were extinct according to that episode, but the Ta Shiar apparently saved the species because apparently B'vat's been making them look bad in the Bond Villain crazy plan department.
Anyway, it's a mix of reverse tower defense and zombie apocalypse.
Phase 1: There's 200 Romulan and Reman civilians standing around the four districts of the camp. You have to run around and get them to go home and lock their doors while a few salt vampires wander around attacking them. Some civilians they kill, some they turn into more vampires.
Phase 2: Any civilians still out transform and you have to collect building materials and barricade all the buildings as best you can.
Phase 3: Subterranean Exists spawn all over and flood the camp with salt vampires, which attack the buildings. You have to collapse the entrances to stop them spawning and keep them from breaking into the buildings.
Phase 3: All the surviving civilians evacuate to four zones outside the camp, and need to be protected from salt vampire attacks along the way.
Phase 4: Surviving civilians are evacuated by shuttle while you hold the LZ against the vampires.
Can't believe I'd say this, but despite being ground based, it's probably the best large group fleet actions in the game. Cool unique mechanics without being frustrating silly bullshit like Gelki Feeding Ground.
I'm sure I have my whole ship fucked up or points allocated incorrectly and would like some suggestions on how to not suck.
One thing I would suggest is to see if you can get some greens for your ship that match your level, if you have not done so already, the starting gear for each ship is decidedly sub-standard. They also have some weird ideas like escorts with beam arrays.
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Here is my build: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=sen1_0
In a cruiser, I would see if you can get Emergency power to weapons 1, shields 1 and Auxiliary to Structural 1, as well as Tactical team 1 or Fire at Will 1 and whatever you fancy really for the science slot. I'd run 1 torpedo up front (You'll get a good one from the Doomsday mission if you have not got that far) and fill the rest with beam arrays. Try to keep both emergency powers running and you should be able to outlast most opponents at that level and whittle them down. Don't forget your EPS power transfer, that makes for a pretty good dps buff as well.
The trick with cruisers is to get your throttle speed right so that you can slowly circle and keep that broadside beam-spam working. You can turn your nose in to get off a torpedo, but most of the time you'll want to keep at about 3/4 throttle and pew pew away.
's a bit general, but that's what occurs to me off the top of my head without knowing any specifics you're having problems with.
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Oh, one last very important thing. Set your weapons power to 100 (or some other high number). Power settings are per ship, so you may be on the default balanced power setting i.e. energy weapons tickle your opponents. I don't recall if they ever actually tell you about power levels.
Seconded. Really; I forget this every time and then wonder why my new ship is such complete crap. (at least ships now remember their BOFF configurations, which is a major help).
The other thing about cruisers is that your after torpedo is probably more useful than your forward; at least in my experience (and I haven't played my cruiser driver in years) you end up making many more counter-turns[1] than you would in an escort or a sci ship.
[1] For want of a better term. I'm talking about turns away from the enemy, to bring your opposite broadside to bear, rather than turns in to follow and hold your forward weapons on target. Done correctly, it means there will be a moment when your after torpedo will come into perfect alignment with the shield you just finished ripping apart with your beam array. I usually set my after kinetic to auto-fire and keep spamming HY2/3 or Spread2/3 so that I don't miss those shots. More than anything, I've always felt that its the ability to get the most out of that pattern that makes the Excelsiors so good. Or did; with the newer cruisers, I'm not sure the uniqueness of that advantage still holds.
Edit: Wow. I really haven't played fiddled used --Fuck it. JERKED OFF with my poor engineer in way to long... What is a good build for an Engineering VA? I apparently have touched this guy since before the skill tree was changed. I didn't like the new 1000 day ship on my Tac, but I wonder if I could get an engineer into some fun trouble on that one. After I spend a small fortune on parts. Or maybe I'll build a Fed Science type; I've never played one. I'm suffering from one of my periodic fits of enthusiasm.
0x = 25 power
1x = 50 power
2x = 75 power
3x = 100 power
In general, you should be able to stay with max weapons, and everything else in shields.
MWO: Adamski