You used to be able to make decent Zen selling dilithium (with a LOT of micromanagement mind you) but you can't even do that anymore because the exchange rate is so poor. 16 cents per character per day just doesn't add up.
I really only get new ships from the occasional event token or charity bundle anymore.
I don't mind buying cosmetics, or unlocking services like extra inventory space (the game is not so bloated with necessary stuff you need inventory space for, unlike, say, ESO, where i almost have to subscribe when i play to keep the inventory bloat manageable) and character slots.
The balancing around T6 ships and lockbocks traits is very annoying, but atleast you can might get some decent stuff through the pheonix crates (eventually, very, very eventually), and fleets can get you access to some decent gear and upgrades (i think rep gives you limited amount of fleet modules if you max them?).
It could be worse.
I ended up buying elite training token bundle instead of a ship.
And then i bought the 23rd century uniforms and couple extra costume slots for my science captain.
Now i'm even more out of zen than i was before i bought some earlier this month, will decide wether i want to invest in a ship closer to new years.
The best thing I think with STO's monetization is that power creep is strong enough that while you certainly *can* pay to win, you're paying to win a game that was already called for mercy in the first quarter.
My build has been built around a vague story idea, for a long time I've cared more about building something I could believe in a show than something that fits the cutting edge - I've got the Akira line consoles, the Vengeance broadsides, mixed beams, cannons, and torpedoes, flak cannons... Just a mess of nonsense stacked on top of a weapon setup that was only in the meta running way back in year 1 before the weapon power drain changes. But I can solo most of the STFs, many on advanced and most that don't have a timed component on elite.
It's not to say there's anything wrong with grinding or buying the best ships and stuff, just that you don't need that edge in the game unless you're in PVP or the DPS charts, both of which are small parts of the community.
Looks like the fleet K13 is finally done. Hurrah! Now just the grind of doffcrete…
It is done, at last.
You may all feel to upgrade any basic traits you are using to the advanced version from the k-13 Biologist.
Traits such as Beam Training, Acute Senses and so forth. It is rather expensive, and basic traits frequently aren't great. But there are a few that are decent compared to the lockbox traits which these days are running upwards of 10 million credits on the exchange.
This guide hasn't been updated in a while but it's a reasonable starting off point.
The advantage to upgrading a basic trait is extremely marginal compared to tac consoles, a lukari deflector, or romulan tac officers from the embassy (only the blue quality male romulan has Superior Romulan Operative) so keep that in mind before you go throwing 100k fleddits at a trait upgrade.
(As I indicated previously, the rewards for the K-13 station were never stellar, which is why it was allowed to languish for so long)
Just had the stupidest "Best Served Cold".
Me in my t5 science vessel, and a fleet assault cruiser, a zen shop carrier and 2 t6 ships.
I go and defend gamma, other two stations get 2 ships each, i manage to take back mine first.
In phase two the other ships stick around their stations, and barely manage to take out half of the carriers before they escape.
In third phase, they keep defending alpha and beta as before, and i'm alone at gamma.
Gamma station is the only one that survives.
How?
This is like the easiest TFO, how did we manage to loose two stations, both defended by two ships?
I've never seen two stations go down before.
The tabletop Star Trek Adventures game is selling its “Alpha Quadrant” sourcebook for half off today. That’s 5-10 <local currency> for the PDF. It also comes with an STO code for a nifty character bound escort, the Shuk-din.
If you already play the tabletop, that’s decent.
If you wanted the Shuk-din, a lockbox ship, the $5-9 you spend on the sourcebook will be cheaper than getting it out of a gamblebox.
It’s a decent price for a ship, too.
And if you don’t want the ship, it’s not bound until unboxed, so you can sell on the exchange for ~500m credits - though that is likely to dip now, for a while.
BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
edited November 2021
Say, if a friend got me a $150 Arc/Perfect World Zen card as an early Christmas present (they live in Wales in the area of the old Marcher Lords, return shipping would take forever), is there anything in the newest Mudd grab bag that's actually worth it for a sciene focused Captain and a bridge officer contingent that heavily leans on engineering?
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Say, if a friend got me a $150 Arc/Perfect World Zen card as an early Christmas present (live in the Wales in the srea of the old Marcher Lords, return shipping would take forever), is there anything in the newest Mudd grab bag that's actually that worth it for a sciene focused Captain and a bridge officer contingent that heavily leans on engineering?
Honestly, I'd go buy 19000 Zen with it right now, while the charge bonus is active (until Dec 2nd).
Then buy the tenth anniversary bundle with that Zen, the next time it re-enters the cycle on sale. It appears to be absolutely the best value.
That Mudd's bundle looks..IDK, fine if you've really wanted that S31 ship, but depending on what you already have, there's definitely better uses for your money.
The ship design in this game is real hit and miss for me.
Mostly miss with federation ships.
Probably why i stuck with cruisers on my engineer captain and have kept to t5 science vessel on my science character.
The ship design in this game is real hit and miss for me.
Mostly miss with federation ships.
Probably why i stuck with cruisers on my engineer captain and have kept to t5 science vessel on my science character.
You can't really blame the ship designers, they're just working with what they get off of CBS.
I don't really like the 32c designs, though. But I think that's just me being a stick in the mud. Like, I can see how they are iterative, and nicely unique, 32c designs, I just don't really like the aesthetic.
Partial problem for me might just be that i am not a trekkie, and the last series i watched a single episode of was TNG.
So my idea of what starfleet vessel is like is kinda limited.
It's not necessarily even a bad design, it's just not what i want out of a starfleet vessel, or one i would want to fly.
The ship design in this game is real hit and miss for me.
Mostly miss with federation ships.
Probably why i stuck with cruisers on my engineer captain and have kept to t5 science vessel on my science character.
You can't really blame the ship designers, they're just working with what they get off of CBS.
I don't really like the 32c designs, though. But I think that's just me being a stick in the mud. Like, I can see how they are iterative, and nicely unique, 32c designs, I just don't really like the aesthetic.
Yeah I hate the aesthetic.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I just hate what they are doing with Disco, and now it feels like we are being boxed in by that terrible writing on both sides of the timeline. I will continue to pretend it doesn't exist. An inexplicably popular holodeck series is all it is.
I'm just glad the story tie-ins are (hopefully) done. The ships are weird but I don't gamblebox so even if they were nice I would never get them.
I'd still prefer they get back to original creations instead, though. They have some seriously talented ship designers and there are still plenty of underrepresented races out there.
I kind of like the look of the Saturn, and anticipate seeing a great many of them named after Xena.
It doesn't look particularly "Star Trek" to my mind, but it doesn't look as bad as the Earth Defense Force ships which just look all wonky to me.
It's yet another intel science ship which no one asked for.
If they want people to get excited about intel ships, then they will need to get off their lazy asses and do an intel balancing pass because it's way behind everything else.
-edit-
That being said, I do actually kinda like the look of the Eisenberg and although it has weird seating, it's free, and I will definitely play with it some after I've gotten it from the Christmas event.
I kind of like the look of the Saturn, and anticipate seeing a great many of them named after Xena.
It doesn't look particularly "Star Trek" to my mind, but it doesn't look as bad as the Earth Defense Force ships which just look all wonky to me.
I didn't look into the Earth Defense ship because a) promo ship and b) I took one look at it and laughed, but apparently there is something there because it's that ship which now holds the highest DPS run of all time in an ISE (torp boat). Other exceptional torpedo platform ships running the exact same loadout and spec parsed hundreds of thousands of DPS behind.
So if you have infinite money and no taste, apparently that's the ship to be flying.
I kind of like the look of the Saturn, and anticipate seeing a great many of them named after Xena.
It doesn't look particularly "Star Trek" to my mind, but it doesn't look as bad as the Earth Defense Force ships which just look all wonky to me.
I didn't look into the Earth Defense ship because a) promo ship and b) I took one look at it and laughed, but apparently there is something there because it's that ship which now holds the highest DPS run of all time in an ISE (torp boat). Other exceptional torpedo platform ships running the exact same loadout and spec parsed hundreds of thousands of DPS behind.
So if you have infinite money and no taste, apparently that's the ship to be flying.
Fortunately, I only have one of those qualifications.
Anyone want to stick their hand up and claim the old PA KDF fleet? It’s letting me claim leadership so I guess it’s been dead for a while. I don’t mind a fortress of solitude, mind you.
ETA: one day left on my annual campaign progress, thank goodness I planned that reasonably.
Anyone want to stick their hand up and claim the old PA KDF fleet? It’s letting me claim leadership so I guess it’s been dead for a while. I don’t mind a fortress of solitude, mind you.
ETA: one day left on my annual campaign progress, thank goodness I planned that reasonably.
You might as well claim it. It was always the stepchild fleet, and even when the Klingon Recruit event semi-revitalized KDF play (temporarily) I imagine most people looked for more active fleets for their KDF recruits.
Just curious, the Klingon fishing event.
I get that the Klingon fish are called Ghoti, a long standing joke about how messed up the English language is that ghoti could be pronounced "fish".
Is there a similar joke for the gummy sea serpent that I'm not getting?
No, the name there comes from Voyager. Kos'karii are pale white serpents that swim around the barge to Grethor and mimic the voices of loved ones go lure souls into the water to be eaten. Basically the Klingon version of a siren.
Probably pretty much status-quo. They're already all in on the bullshit monetization, it's not like they'll get any worse. 50/50 if it means more content or less, but they've already slipped to almost 6 months between content drops.
Probably pretty much status-quo. They're already all in on the bullshit monetization, it's not like they'll get any worse. 50/50 if it means more content or less, but they've already slipped to almost 6 months between content drops.
Definitely status quo.
They acquired Perfect World Entertainment directly (not Cryptic) and aren't planning to make staffing changes there. This likely means nothing will be different for us.
Is there anything worth grabbing from the holiday event? I bought a snow gun thing so I wouldnt have to throw snowballs forever, but I'm not sure what event gear is worth grabbing. Maybe the Breen ground set?
I have pretty shit gear, although I'm close to maxing out the Discovery and Temporal reputations which might have something worth using? I think most of my stuff is Mark XII.
Is there anything worth grabbing from the holiday event? I bought a snow gun thing so I wouldnt have to throw snowballs forever, but I'm not sure what event gear is worth grabbing. Maybe the Breen ground set?
I have pretty shit gear, although I'm close to maxing out the Discovery and Temporal reputations which might have something worth using? I think most of my stuff is Mark XII.
I got a snow gun of some kind (the !Nerf sniper rifle), and a better fishing gauntlet (I think they have better chances of bigger fish), I'm just showing up to get the progress towards the horrible free ship.
I've heard that the new breen set is pretty good. Maybe not meta-defining, but fun if you want to do some cold damage, I'm picking it up to swap out with my Klingon MycMine gear.
I might also get a different color laser bat'leth, depending on how drops go for me once I've got the breen set.
Is there anything worth grabbing from the holiday event? I bought a snow gun thing so I wouldnt have to throw snowballs forever, but I'm not sure what event gear is worth grabbing. Maybe the Breen ground set?
I have pretty shit gear, although I'm close to maxing out the Discovery and Temporal reputations which might have something worth using? I think most of my stuff is Mark XII.
The new Breen ground set is fun. Got it for my sci guy who didn’t have any good gear.
Frosted boots for each captain/alt, so you
can use that speed boost in missions.
Endothermic induction field for sci
Grethors whatever kit module for engineers - not tac.
Very cold in space for sci captains
Not the Breen warp core unless you want it for space Barbie, the Disco rep set is better.
BTW, Disco rep shields+warp core+Lorax’s fire control has done wonders for my survivability and damage, get those!
Twenty tac projects left on the Fed starbase. It can be done!
Also, I may have had a moment and picked up the tenth anniversary bundle. That Legendary Crossfield is great fun, just tearing stuff up with gravity well and recursive shearing - everything goes boom, it’s a giggle.
Twenty tac projects left on the Fed starbase. It can be done!
Also, I may have had a moment and picked up the tenth anniversary bundle. That Legendary Crossfield is great fun, just tearing stuff up with gravity well and recursive shearing - everything goes boom, it’s a giggle.
Might try one of the cruisers next…
I also had a moment, with a gift of Zen from a friend and a buttload Microsoft Rewards I nabbed the psychotic Mudd Intel pack on Xbox. The 50 keys got me another 6 ships, 5 T6 and a T5 and some sweet training manuals and traits.
Now I've got a backlog of 12 ships and consoles to fool around with. I really like the look of the S'ona one, but I'll need to pump impulse and turn rate for bigger battles and TFOs. It's not Borg Juggernaut slow, but is certainly no lithe and agile bird.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
0
SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
I *love* my legendary sovereign, it's a fantastic ship, highly recommended if you like cruisers
Posts
I really only get new ships from the occasional event token or charity bundle anymore.
The balancing around T6 ships and lockbocks traits is very annoying, but atleast you can might get some decent stuff through the pheonix crates (eventually, very, very eventually), and fleets can get you access to some decent gear and upgrades (i think rep gives you limited amount of fleet modules if you max them?).
It could be worse.
I ended up buying elite training token bundle instead of a ship.
And then i bought the 23rd century uniforms and couple extra costume slots for my science captain.
Now i'm even more out of zen than i was before i bought some earlier this month, will decide wether i want to invest in a ship closer to new years.
My build has been built around a vague story idea, for a long time I've cared more about building something I could believe in a show than something that fits the cutting edge - I've got the Akira line consoles, the Vengeance broadsides, mixed beams, cannons, and torpedoes, flak cannons... Just a mess of nonsense stacked on top of a weapon setup that was only in the meta running way back in year 1 before the weapon power drain changes. But I can solo most of the STFs, many on advanced and most that don't have a timed component on elite.
It's not to say there's anything wrong with grinding or buying the best ships and stuff, just that you don't need that edge in the game unless you're in PVP or the DPS charts, both of which are small parts of the community.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
It is done, at last.
You may all feel to upgrade any basic traits you are using to the advanced version from the k-13 Biologist.
Traits such as Beam Training, Acute Senses and so forth. It is rather expensive, and basic traits frequently aren't great. But there are a few that are decent compared to the lockbox traits which these days are running upwards of 10 million credits on the exchange.
This guide hasn't been updated in a while but it's a reasonable starting off point.
https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/build_anatomy/traits/space
The advantage to upgrading a basic trait is extremely marginal compared to tac consoles, a lukari deflector, or romulan tac officers from the embassy (only the blue quality male romulan has Superior Romulan Operative) so keep that in mind before you go throwing 100k fleddits at a trait upgrade.
(As I indicated previously, the rewards for the K-13 station were never stellar, which is why it was allowed to languish for so long)
Me in my t5 science vessel, and a fleet assault cruiser, a zen shop carrier and 2 t6 ships.
I go and defend gamma, other two stations get 2 ships each, i manage to take back mine first.
In phase two the other ships stick around their stations, and barely manage to take out half of the carriers before they escape.
In third phase, they keep defending alpha and beta as before, and i'm alone at gamma.
Gamma station is the only one that survives.
How?
This is like the easiest TFO, how did we manage to loose two stations, both defended by two ships?
I've never seen two stations go down before.
The tabletop Star Trek Adventures game is selling its “Alpha Quadrant” sourcebook for half off today. That’s 5-10 <local currency> for the PDF. It also comes with an STO code for a nifty character bound escort, the Shuk-din.
If you already play the tabletop, that’s decent.
If you wanted the Shuk-din, a lockbox ship, the $5-9 you spend on the sourcebook will be cheaper than getting it out of a gamblebox.
It’s a decent price for a ship, too.
And if you don’t want the ship, it’s not bound until unboxed, so you can sell on the exchange for ~500m credits - though that is likely to dip now, for a while.
PDF here: https://www.modiphius.net/products/star-trek-adventures-alpha-quadrant-sourcebook
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Honestly, I'd go buy 19000 Zen with it right now, while the charge bonus is active (until Dec 2nd).
Then buy the tenth anniversary bundle with that Zen, the next time it re-enters the cycle on sale. It appears to be absolutely the best value.
That Mudd's bundle looks..IDK, fine if you've really wanted that S31 ship, but depending on what you already have, there's definitely better uses for your money.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
New ship for the next infinity lockbox run, one of the random ships from Discovery S3 and probably the first 31st Century ship I didn't hate.
Winter event ship will be another 31st Century ship, this time the Eisenberg-class. I'll post pictures when Cryptic does.
Gotcha covered.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
No, Lt., I said get me the BIG phaser pistol.
Mostly miss with federation ships.
Probably why i stuck with cruisers on my engineer captain and have kept to t5 science vessel on my science character.
You can't really blame the ship designers, they're just working with what they get off of CBS.
I don't really like the 32c designs, though. But I think that's just me being a stick in the mud. Like, I can see how they are iterative, and nicely unique, 32c designs, I just don't really like the aesthetic.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
So my idea of what starfleet vessel is like is kinda limited.
It's not necessarily even a bad design, it's just not what i want out of a starfleet vessel, or one i would want to fly.
STO made a lot of future ships, but they're a bit more grounded, 29th Century ships from the same era as the Aeon and Wells from Voyager.
Yeah I hate the aesthetic.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I'd still prefer they get back to original creations instead, though. They have some seriously talented ship designers and there are still plenty of underrepresented races out there.
It doesn't look particularly "Star Trek" to my mind, but it doesn't look as bad as the Earth Defense Force ships which just look all wonky to me.
If they want people to get excited about intel ships, then they will need to get off their lazy asses and do an intel balancing pass because it's way behind everything else.
-edit-
That being said, I do actually kinda like the look of the Eisenberg and although it has weird seating, it's free, and I will definitely play with it some after I've gotten it from the Christmas event.
I didn't look into the Earth Defense ship because a) promo ship and b) I took one look at it and laughed, but apparently there is something there because it's that ship which now holds the highest DPS run of all time in an ISE (torp boat). Other exceptional torpedo platform ships running the exact same loadout and spec parsed hundreds of thousands of DPS behind.
So if you have infinite money and no taste, apparently that's the ship to be flying.
Fortunately, I only have one of those qualifications.
ETA: one day left on my annual campaign progress, thank goodness I planned that reasonably.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
You might as well claim it. It was always the stepchild fleet, and even when the Klingon Recruit event semi-revitalized KDF play (temporarily) I imagine most people looked for more active fleets for their KDF recruits.
I get that the Klingon fish are called Ghoti, a long standing joke about how messed up the English language is that ghoti could be pronounced "fish".
Is there a similar joke for the gummy sea serpent that I'm not getting?
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
pleasepaypreacher.net
Definitely status quo.
They acquired Perfect World Entertainment directly (not Cryptic) and aren't planning to make staffing changes there. This likely means nothing will be different for us.
I have pretty shit gear, although I'm close to maxing out the Discovery and Temporal reputations which might have something worth using? I think most of my stuff is Mark XII.
I got a snow gun of some kind (the !Nerf sniper rifle), and a better fishing gauntlet (I think they have better chances of bigger fish), I'm just showing up to get the progress towards the horrible free ship.
I've heard that the new breen set is pretty good. Maybe not meta-defining, but fun if you want to do some cold damage, I'm picking it up to swap out with my Klingon MycMine gear.
I might also get a different color laser bat'leth, depending on how drops go for me once I've got the breen set.
Leather jacket and rainbow scarf, not sure what else i will buy, probably a hat and another jacket.
The new Breen ground set is fun. Got it for my sci guy who didn’t have any good gear.
Frosted boots for each captain/alt, so you
can use that speed boost in missions.
Endothermic induction field for sci
Grethors whatever kit module for engineers - not tac.
Very cold in space for sci captains
Not the Breen warp core unless you want it for space Barbie, the Disco rep set is better.
BTW, Disco rep shields+warp core+Lorax’s fire control has done wonders for my survivability and damage, get those!
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
Also, I may have had a moment and picked up the tenth anniversary bundle. That Legendary Crossfield is great fun, just tearing stuff up with gravity well and recursive shearing - everything goes boom, it’s a giggle.
Might try one of the cruisers next…
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
I also had a moment, with a gift of Zen from a friend and a buttload Microsoft Rewards I nabbed the psychotic Mudd Intel pack on Xbox. The 50 keys got me another 6 ships, 5 T6 and a T5 and some sweet training manuals and traits.
Now I've got a backlog of 12 ships and consoles to fool around with. I really like the look of the S'ona one, but I'll need to pump impulse and turn rate for bigger battles and TFOs. It's not Borg Juggernaut slow, but is certainly no lithe and agile bird.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO