STO for beginners advice please :-)

[Lurok91]

Finally taken the plunge now STO available for Macs. 

Can anyone explain in simple terms how game develops, and at what point you can add custom elements (which I assume you purchase)?  Or link to a good beginner's guide?   I'm currently at the mission where you're fighting the Borg planetside and get new kit; and looks like there's four or five Borg plants you have to take out.

thanks 

[Darkthunder]

So basically what you're saying, is that you're still at the tutorial (near the end of it anyways)

Every 10 levels (Level 10, 20, 30 and 40) you get a new starship of your own choosing. If you've chosen the career of Tactical, doesn't necessarily mean you need to stick with Escorts (which are better suited for damage dealing). Same goes for Engineer vs Cruisers, or Science vs Science ships.

There's quite a few additional ships that can only be purchased in the C-Store for "Zen" which is Cryptic's own currency. In order to obtain Zen, you can either purchase it from their homepage (for real cash), or participate in activities that reward Dilithium. In your "bag", you have an Assets tab at the top. From there, you can see your total amount of currencies (including Dilithium Ore / Refined Dilithium), as well as access the Dilithium Exchange.

The game can be played from 1 to 50, without spending a single dime. Inevitably, you'll end up looting a "lockbox" item. To unlock it, you need to either buy a Master Key from C-Store, or off of the Exchange (aka Auction House) for Energy Credits. Note however, that these keys are usually pretty pricey on the Exchange. Sometimes exceeding the maximum Energy Credits for a Silver Player (10 million). If you buy anything off of the C-Store, I highly recommend buying the Credit cap increase.

There's also an Account Bank, which is useful if you have multiple characters, for easy transferral of any non-bound items. This bank however is deactivated for Silver players, while Gold players get a 10-slot limit.

Personally, I'd recommend getting a 1-month subscription for the first month, as it also gives you free additional Inventory and Bank space on every rank up (including respec tokens at rank up). Even if you deactivate your subscription, you get to keep the inventory slots you've unlocked by previously subscribing.

Hope this helps a little bit. Feel free to ask more

[Lurok91]

Thanks  .  That's  a useful starter - and reinforces I need to finish the tutorial  .

I'm not that big a fan tbh, but I'll stick with it a bit longer just to see what future options are...

[Darkthunder]

To be perfectly honest, space combat in STO is rather dull until you get your first "proper" ship at Level 10. Depending on your play style, this means either more damage (Escorts), more healing/debuffing (Science) or survivability (Cruisers). I found that going from the Miranda to the Level 10 Escort (Saber Class) was a HUGE difference. The Miranda is essentially a Light Cruiser, and as such, rather sluggish. The story content is pretty good, so I recommend doing those while leveling (each episode gives ~1 level worth of XP as reward).

I'd also suggest engaging in the Fleet Actions available to you at low level (Starbase 24 / Gorn Minefield especially, as a FED, or the Federation Minefield as a KDF). Both involve a ton of space combat, and in general, still pretty fun. Another good source for Dilithium while leveling, is the Exploration Cluster daily (Strange New Worlds for FED). As a KDF, you have the Empire Defense dailies which each give 1440 Dilithium Ore (there are a total of 4 Empire Defense dailies). (list of Dilithium sources)

A good source of information on all things STO is STOWiki

[AllotoniFan]

Don?t forget to equip both ship and character properly. It can and will be a pain in the ass to survive in PVEs without good equips.
Since i use Escorts, i generally go for 3 disruptor dual heavy cannons and 1 photon torp launcher on the front and disruptor turrets on the back.

Now story-wise: That devidian story-arc was lame, but it gets better. Oh, big tip: Don?t grab the Hargh?Pehn(i believe that?s the name) at the end of the Doomsday Machine mission. It acts like a plasma torp, but since it only does 10k damage on the Doomsday Machine, it becomes useless.

[Lurok91]

So I finished the tutorial and got to the Spacedock  ;).  So I assume I can do as please now?   

I need to do some googling coz what I really want is a storyline that doesn't even involve any combat whatsoever 

[Tuskin38]

So I finished the tutorial and got to the Spacedock  ;).  So I assume I can do as please now?  

I need to do some googling coz what I really want is a storyline that doesn't even involve any combat whatsoever  

99% of the missions require combat, and the missions are Linear. You can skip missions, but if you do it too much they will out level you.

[JimmyB76]

ive never even played that game once to be honest...
barely saw any of it in youtube vids, heard it was kinda shitty lol

[Tuskin38]

You should check out the stickied thread Jimmy.

[JimmyB76]

there is a stickied thread? lol
yay for missing the blindingly obvious!

[Darkthunder]

99% of the missions require combat, and the missions are Linear. You can skip missions, but if you do it too much they will out level you.

That's old isn't it? Thought they redid the episode system to scale to player level?

[Tuskin38]

That's old isn't it? Thought they redid the episode system to scale to player level?

Oh yeah, you're right.

The level list still has a 'recommended' level though. Some levels have forced NPCs that might be hard to fight in certain ships.

[Lurok91]

From a superficial read, it does appear there are lots of things you can do other than blow sh*t up (which I find tedious after a while).

I think I might give it another week or so, as it is fun at moment just to roam around and explore.  And I might try another faction.  But at present really underwhelmed by graphical/gameplay side, though I appreciate it's the trade-off to allow MMORPG.

[captain_obvious]

From a superficial read, it does appear there are lots of things you can do other than blow sh*t up (which I find tedious after a while).

There is very *very* very very little non combat content in STO and what NCC there is, is often bugged, glitchy, erratically behaving or just completely broken and un-finishable.  This is the way it has been pretty much since day 1.

Exploration missions - 50/50 as to whether they require combat or not, are completely randomly generated, often erratic, sometimes undo-able due to bad placement during the map generation.  Also, they ALWAYS feel boring and like they're about to fall apart at the seams.  Has been this way since they were introduced (day 1?)

Diplomatic missions - Few and far between, pretty much always broken.  Has been this way for 2 years or so.

I don't think there's any other non combat content in STO.  

EDIT
I forgot, there's one mission called "Of Bajor" which consists of running around a town on Bajor doing odd jobs for the locals.
Or, you could hit the dabo table on ds9.

[Lurok91]

^Thanks for feedback.  

As I said upthread,  not really won over so probably won't continue.  May keep game/character for one of those rainy days when I'm bored but not for me, I guess.  

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