Well. I'll be playing a rather tanky orientated Cruiser. Firstly because i'm sick to death of looking for tanks when playing an mmo. Secondly because, well, Constitution, Galaxy and Sovreign.
This is pretty much my only reason for wanting to play a Cruiser. God I'm such a dork.
I'm going to use the Open Beta to see how Engineer plays. I may go Eng/Escort if I feel it goes well. Tac/Escort was fun and I exploded things well, but often would get exploded as well in groups because your fore shield gets pounded /a lot/.
Sounds like somebody needs an Engineering buddy.
I actually didn't do too much grouping in the closed beta. Not til the last weekend at least. I plan to rectify that in the Open Beta, the first tier might go quicker with friends to pewpew with.
Well. I'll be playing a rather tanky orientated Cruiser. Firstly because i'm sick to death of looking for tanks when playing an mmo. Secondly because, well, Constitution, Galaxy and Sovreign.
This is pretty much my only reason for wanting to play a Cruiser. God I'm such a dork.
Now see that I didn't just say "What class do I want?" This is because captain class and ship class do not have to be the same and you are free to mix and match. Now here I have some guesses as to what to pick and why.
Picking your Captain's Class:
I feel that you should base your captain class on ground combat. You receive skills for both ground and space, but I feel your ground skills factor into the game a lot more than your space skills. That said, I will only discuss ground combat for Captain Class.
Before I go into class suggestions, I need to explain an important aspect of ground combat: Expose/Exploit. There are skills that have Expose in bright yellow letters. These skills have a 10% chance to cause the "Expose" status on an enemy, which lasts for a certain period of time. Other skills can have exploit in bright yellow letters. Using an exploit skill on an enemy with the Expose status causes MASSIVE DAMAGE, comparable to attacking a giant enemy crab in its weak point. Killing an exposed enemy with an exploit also causes them to scream as their body dissolves and burns from the inside out.
One more point I want to explain is your kit. You gain some skills with level naturally, but you can equip kits. Your kit gives you more skills. You can equip different ones as you like, within your class. Think of kits as different talent trees... how to diversify your character even more.
Tactical: Pick this if you want to do damage on the ground. I haven't played it much, but I believe they have kits that provide exploits. They have a melee kit, which gives you things like a lunge exploit and a leg sweep expose. They have attack kits, with a focus fire damage buff, and a grenade aoe attack. Some grenades leave fire on the ground where people touching it burnnnnnnnnnnn.
Engineering: Pick this to support everyone. Fabrication kits lets you lay down turrets (phaser or mortar), shield generators (stay int he bubble and have constant shield regen), same thing with health regenerator, or a lil flying drone that follows you around and is basically a mobile phaser turret or force field. The other kit involves things like weapon malfunction that lowers an enemy's weapon damage and exposes, or weapon repair, that heals an ally and removes technology related debuffs.
Science: Pick this to actively heal or be a super exposer. Healing kits..... heal. They also can clean debuffs or add buffs or HoT. Exposure kits are lots of different moves that all have expose chance. Status field which is a long hold that breaks on hit, tricoder is a long range aoe debuff, some move is a cone aoe knockdown (think CO shotgun), an aoe dot, a pbaoe placate, etc.
Summary: Pick Tactical to exploit/kill, Engineer to passive heal/shields/support, Science to expose or active heal.
Picking your ship's class:
Ughhh... I dunno. I wrote too much. You can change ships at will (after buying another one) so don't sweat it too much. Here's my other post about ships, and I might make another post about ship picking later.
Space Random Thought, since no one's asking questions:
Note: Yeah you can change class and ship type and BOs can go into any ship, but types and blah and details... easier for me to be generally braod about this. Ok this note sucks
Tactical Skills: All invovle lacking smack down. When you watch a show and see a ship attack someone, those are all tactical skills. Shooting 5 torpedos spread out? Tactical. Pouring all you got into a giant overloaded beam of death? Tactical. "OhShitThey'reEverywhereEveryoneFireEverythingAtAnythingOhShitOhShit"? Tactical. So these skills make your weapons look cool.
Engineering: "Mostly" Internal effects. They're great for keeping yourself or others alive, but you don't see much visually. Beam an engineering crew to another ship (or yourself) to repair hull. Pour power into shields to regen. Reverse shield polarity to turn beam attacks against you into more shields. Reroute emergency power to shields/weapons/auxilliary/engines? Engineering. Some attacks. Eject warp plasma to burn up stuff around you. Warp field stuff. I dunno.
Science: Every episode of Star Trek where wierd shit happened? It's wartime now baby. They took every episode and weaponized it. Tachyon beam to drain shields. Mask energy signature to hide from enemies. Create a tyken's rift to drain enemy power systems. Tachyon Particle Burst to reveal cloaked ships and cause shield damage. Photonic Shockwave [my favorite] to push everything around you away for kinetic damage. Polarize Hull for defense. Gravity Well to shoot a black hole at people. Photonic Officer to help you reduce cooldown time of skills. Tractor Beam, oh how can I mention this so late. Feedback Pulse to bounce beams back at the enemy. Jam Sensors so 1 enemy can't attack you. Scramble Sensors so enemies attack each other. [Something] Virus that shuts down a ship completely. etc etc (Can you tell I played science in closed beta?)
I haven't played the game yet to know how it actually is, but from the outside I'm kind of disappointed that "medical" isn't a fourth career choice.
I mean, medical officers might not necessarily be captain material, but McCoy, Crusher, and Bashir were all major parts of their respective shows, and it seems weird that players cannot take on that role directly.
Medics are blue are science. As I mention above, one kit type is totally medical skills.
Yeah, medical falls under the wider "science" banner (which, if you're looking at the uniforms closely, is exactly how it works in the TNG-era shows, to boot). In fact there are a whole crapton of medical skills available and even if you have a cruiser or an escort (that is, a ship with just one science station) it is hugely advisable to have a medical-focused science officer on your team - assuming that the one you have isn't already. (In my screenshots, for example, Keren, my Bajoran medical officer, is practically never in a bridge chair but she's crucial on away missions. I probably would have gotten pasted in the ground portion of Starbase 24 without her.)
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The DeliveratorSlingin PiesThe California BurbclavesRegistered Userregular
edited January 2010
Just a heads up for Steam pre-orderers. The beta download is live now.
That sounds cool. Perhaps I'll make my first attempt in the Open Beta a science character with an emphasis in medicine. Bones is pretty much my favorite character in all of Star Trek.
I must agree, a Science BO is pretty vital if you're going to solo at all for ground missions. Nothing like the dutiful crewmate using that tricorder to save you from going incapped at the swipe of a Klingon Swordmaster... damn swordmasters. :x
I thought there would be more talk with the nda lifted. sky didn't write his writeup yet, either. No questions? Pretty much today is the only day to ask because tomorrow the beta's open and I'll be too busy playing. I guess I'll continue posting while at work :whistle:
I said I was going to do a writeup? o_O
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The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
So, just to double check this. What career your captain is. Doesn't really have any bearing on the capabilities of your ship?
A tactical captain in a cruiser for instance. Will be able to tank just as much damage as an Engineer captain? All the captain really effects is ground combat?
So, just to double check this. What career your captain is. Doesn't really have any bearing on the capabilities of your ship?
A tactical captain in a cruiser for instance. Will be able to tank just as much damage as an Engineer captain? All the captain really effects is ground combat?
More or less correct. The various captain types get a few other special abilities over the course of their careers (don't have a list handy), but it doesn't affect baseline ship performance in any way.
So, just to double check this. What career your captain is. Doesn't really have any bearing on the capabilities of your ship?
A tactical captain in a cruiser for instance. Will be able to tank just as much damage as an Engineer captain? All the captain really effects is ground combat?
each class of captain has his own unique abilities. Those abilities will change how the ships the captain commands will perform. Captains also have skills which boost the abilities of Bridge Officers.
Tac captains have some pretty rocking space skills. I've got a 60-second damage resistance debuff that stacks with that of other Tac captains, a skill that knocks 40 seconds off of boff/captain cooldowns, and a 30-second combat buff that gives me a large (60%-ish) damage bump and a very substantial turning increase. And that's just at Commander.
edit: for the record, chalk up another vote for a tac/cruiser build. hit captain buffs, hit beam overload, and watch the +5 battleships melt.
Well then i'll need a skill list to really make a well informed choice. Though i'll likely have a tactical alt anyway for when i'm not playing alongside my brother and his science captain.
I thought there would be more talk with the nda lifted. sky didn't write his writeup yet, either. No questions? Pretty much today is the only day to ask because tomorrow the beta's open and I'll be too busy playing. I guess I'll continue posting while at work :whistle:
Tac captains have some pretty rocking space skills. I've got a 60-second damage resistance debuff that stacks with that of other Tac captains, a skill that knocks 40 seconds off of boff/captain cooldowns, and a 30-second combat buff that gives me a large (60%-ish) damage bump and a very substantial turning increase. And that's just at Commander.
edit: for the record, chalk up another vote for a tac/cruiser build. hit captain buffs, hit beam overload, and watch the +5 battleships melt.
Please rewrite that like a list. And maybe mordrack can reply for engineer
Default Captain Space Skills:
Evasive Maneuvers: short speed/turning buff
Brace for Impact: short defense vs kinetic
Ramming Speed: Speed boost; any enemy you ram gives you and them massive kinetic damage (kinetic sucks vs shields, great vs hull)
Abandon Ship: Self-destruct
Science Captain Space Skills:
Sensor Scan: AoE Enemy Damage resistance debuff, decloaks ships
[some name]: Interrupt enemy skill and Increase cooldown of all skills from that single enemy
Dampening Field: Take Less energy damage
Here's a bit of general information regarding some of the specifics of the Open Beta, taken from the official forums.
Hey gang, I'm seeing an awful lot of the same questions floating around, so, let's just answer them all in one spot!
Here's a couple of quick ones, and as you ask more, I'll add to this list!
Q: Do I have to pay to get into Open Beta?
A: No! It's an Open Beta! We have just a few of our Open Beta Partners listed on our download page now. As more of our partners get their downloads online, and their keys become available, we'll update that page.
Q: I'm having issues downloading the client! Where do I go for help?
A: We've opened our PC & Technical Issues forum. You can seek support from us there. If you're having trouble with the download from one of our download partners, I would suggest talking to them first however.
Q: What time does Open Beta begin?
A: 10 a.m. PST on January 12th, 2010.
Q: What hours can I log into Open Beta?
A: All hours! We will be performing maintenance as needed during the wee hours of the morning, and please do remember this is still Beta. However, our goal is to have the servers up and you playing 24 hours a day.
Got more questions? Just reply here. I'll answer as many as I can.
When does Chekov join the crew of TOS? I've watched 5 or 6 episodes so far (in order) and he isn't there yet. They keep having random people in his chair on the bridge. Its kind of annoying cause its a different person each episode.
When does Chekov join the crew of TOS? I've watched 5 or 6 episodes so far (in order) and he isn't there yet. They keep having random people in his chair on the bridge. Its kind of annoying cause its a different person each episode.
I could be wrong but I thought it was either late in first season or the beginning of second.
We don't have a target in town, but i did a Amazon pre-order. I'll try the beta and if I don't like it I can cancel the order up to the day they ship it.
When does Chekov join the crew of TOS? I've watched 5 or 6 episodes so far (in order) and he isn't there yet. They keep having random people in his chair on the bridge. Its kind of annoying cause its a different person each episode.
I could be wrong but I thought it was either late in first season or the beginning of second.
When does Chekov join the crew of TOS? I've watched 5 or 6 episodes so far (in order) and he isn't there yet. They keep having random people in his chair on the bridge. Its kind of annoying cause its a different person each episode.
I could be wrong but I thought it was either late in first season or the beginning of second.
So uhh, is anyone else still waiting for their amazon key or am i the only one? I emailed earlier and they said i had to wait until 11:59 until i can actually complain about not getting it, but i have the feeling that if it didnt show up in the last 23 hours and 15 minutes like everyone elses did, its probably not gonna show up at all. I swear if i have to wait longer than until after work tomorrow to play this, im gonna get stabby. Or just sad, i havent decided yet.
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This is pretty much my only reason for wanting to play a Cruiser. God I'm such a dork.
I actually didn't do too much grouping in the closed beta. Not til the last weekend at least. I plan to rectify that in the Open Beta, the first tier might go quicker with friends to pewpew with.
Hey! We're playing a Star Trek MMO.
We're all dorks.
Now see that I didn't just say "What class do I want?" This is because captain class and ship class do not have to be the same and you are free to mix and match. Now here I have some guesses as to what to pick and why.
Picking your Captain's Class:
I feel that you should base your captain class on ground combat. You receive skills for both ground and space, but I feel your ground skills factor into the game a lot more than your space skills. That said, I will only discuss ground combat for Captain Class.
Before I go into class suggestions, I need to explain an important aspect of ground combat: Expose/Exploit. There are skills that have Expose in bright yellow letters. These skills have a 10% chance to cause the "Expose" status on an enemy, which lasts for a certain period of time. Other skills can have exploit in bright yellow letters. Using an exploit skill on an enemy with the Expose status causes MASSIVE DAMAGE, comparable to attacking a giant enemy crab in its weak point. Killing an exposed enemy with an exploit also causes them to scream as their body dissolves and burns from the inside out.
One more point I want to explain is your kit. You gain some skills with level naturally, but you can equip kits. Your kit gives you more skills. You can equip different ones as you like, within your class. Think of kits as different talent trees... how to diversify your character even more.
Tactical: Pick this if you want to do damage on the ground. I haven't played it much, but I believe they have kits that provide exploits. They have a melee kit, which gives you things like a lunge exploit and a leg sweep expose. They have attack kits, with a focus fire damage buff, and a grenade aoe attack. Some grenades leave fire on the ground where people touching it burnnnnnnnnnnn.
Engineering: Pick this to support everyone. Fabrication kits lets you lay down turrets (phaser or mortar), shield generators (stay int he bubble and have constant shield regen), same thing with health regenerator, or a lil flying drone that follows you around and is basically a mobile phaser turret or force field. The other kit involves things like weapon malfunction that lowers an enemy's weapon damage and exposes, or weapon repair, that heals an ally and removes technology related debuffs.
Science: Pick this to actively heal or be a super exposer. Healing kits..... heal. They also can clean debuffs or add buffs or HoT. Exposure kits are lots of different moves that all have expose chance. Status field which is a long hold that breaks on hit, tricoder is a long range aoe debuff, some move is a cone aoe knockdown (think CO shotgun), an aoe dot, a pbaoe placate, etc.
Summary: Pick Tactical to exploit/kill, Engineer to passive heal/shields/support, Science to expose or active heal.
Picking your ship's class:
Ughhh... I dunno. I wrote too much. You can change ships at will (after buying another one) so don't sweat it too much. Here's my other post about ships, and I might make another post about ship picking later.
I think for at least OB, I am going Engineer/Escort.
I said I was going to do a writeup? o_O
A tactical captain in a cruiser for instance. Will be able to tank just as much damage as an Engineer captain? All the captain really effects is ground combat?
More or less correct. The various captain types get a few other special abilities over the course of their careers (don't have a list handy), but it doesn't affect baseline ship performance in any way.
each class of captain has his own unique abilities. Those abilities will change how the ships the captain commands will perform. Captains also have skills which boost the abilities of Bridge Officers.
edit: for the record, chalk up another vote for a tac/cruiser build. hit captain buffs, hit beam overload, and watch the +5 battleships melt.
I'm leaning Engineer, but I would love to see what the high level space skills are.
Who knows, guess I'll wing it in OB.
tried the torrent... couldnt get it to start.
and the downloader program is like .01KB/s
Well then i'll need a skill list to really make a well informed choice. Though i'll likely have a tactical alt anyway for when i'm not playing alongside my brother and his science captain.
Default Captain Space Skills:
Evasive Maneuvers: short speed/turning buff
Brace for Impact: short defense vs kinetic
Ramming Speed: Speed boost; any enemy you ram gives you and them massive kinetic damage (kinetic sucks vs shields, great vs hull)
Abandon Ship: Self-destruct
Science Captain Space Skills:
Sensor Scan: AoE Enemy Damage resistance debuff, decloaks ships
[some name]: Interrupt enemy skill and Increase cooldown of all skills from that single enemy
Dampening Field: Take Less energy damage
Source
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
I could be wrong but I thought it was either late in first season or the beginning of second.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Second Season
yeah that's kind of what i was thinking.
So what's the story for Quantum Torpedoes? Upgrade for normal torpedoes? Only certian ship types?
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Check out my band, click the banner.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
it's like CO when it comes to naming.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Keep in mind, no one play CO so thats not very helpful.
As far as im aware names are not unique. I could be wrong.
Check out my band, click the banner.
Oh good, so anyone at level 35 can recreate the adventures of the USS Jihad.
Heh, dont idle at the zone in point.
Lots of people have tried CO. But no you are not wrong, names are not unique for either ships or characters.