Star Trek Online for newbies

[Batman]

Didn't want to resurrect a two moths old thread but if TPTB feel like merging, I'm fine with that too (not that I could do anything about it if I wanted to). Having recently taken up this game a have I number of questions.
1. Is there any way to find out which ship upgrades will/will not work with your ship? Yeah, the Neutrino deflector Mk II thingy not dissapearing from my inventory is a prety solid indicator that I currently can't use it, but it would be nice to know why, and when that ceases to be a problem.
2. I there any way to rechristen your ship after getting it? You can't have two ships with the same name,and you can't get rid of the first before you get the second. Yeah, I know you can go A, B, C and so on. I want the same name.
3. I'm-tentatively-willing to admit that somewhere, there's an explanation of what the map features mean. It's not in the database though, that much is for certain. I'm currently stuck on the Planet HE-114 mission because thanks to there being exactly zero map markers I can't find the final decalithium deposit.
4. You finding weapons that are worse than the regular (and availavle pretty early) mission reward hand phaser. Lame.
5. Why the hell does the Mk II torpedo launcher replace the forward phaser array instead of the standard torpedo launcher?

[Stofsk]

1. You can only use gear that's leveled. So if you're a LtCommdr, you can only use LtCommdr or below gear. It will say in the tool tip what level the gear is. Other than that, I actually have no idea what you're talking about.

2. You're allowed one free ship rechristening. You don't have to do it right away. After you get your ship, and assuming this is in earth spacedock, you can go up the stairs to a guy who you can select which is your primary ship and/or dismiss your old ship. There isn't much point in keeping old ships anyway so you might as well dismiss them. I take out all the gear they have so that I can either put it on my new ship or sell it.

3. The key to 'scan for objects' is 'x' IIRC. There is also a button around the minimap in the corner. Put your cursor over each and read the tooltip - if it says something like 'scan' then click it. Scanning basically lets you know where anomalies are (in space or on the ground) and where quest items are.

4. At the start gear doesn't really matter. But in general, yeah drops are shit. Crafting is an option but it requires dilithium, which means farming everyday to build up your dilithium supply.

5. What happened was it replaced a weapon slot. Your ship has a number of slots where any weapon system can be put into it (barring certain rules, like cannons can only go in forward slots for example). Your phaser was replaced likely because it was the 'closer' slot and no other reason.

[Batman]

1. You can only use gear that's leveled. So if you're a LtCommdr, you can only use LtCommdr or below gear. It will say in the tool tip what level the gear is. Other than that, I actually have no idea what you're talking about.

Phaser Beam Array Mk IV (Acc). Lt Cdr. Guess what, I AM a Lt Cdr and the damned thing won't mount. My guess is I'm not a high enough level of Lt Cdr but it would be nice if I were actually told that.

2. You're allowed one free ship rechristening. You don't have to do it right away. After you get your ship, and assuming this is in earth spacedock, you can go up the stairs to a guy who you can select which is your primary ship and/or dismiss your old ship. There isn't much point in keeping old ships anyway so you might as well dismiss them. I take out all the gear they have so that I can either put it on my new ship or sell it.

It appears you use that one up even if you choose not to rechristen your ship afterall, however. (Hadn't didtched my starting ship yet, tried to rename, got told 'Dude you already have a ship by that name', and even after I got rid of the starting clunker, no more opportunities to rename).

3. The key to 'scan for objects' is 'x' IIRC. There is also a button around the minimap in the corner. Put your cursor over each and read the tooltip - if it says something like 'scan' then click it. Scanning basically lets you know where anomalies are (in space or on the ground) and where quest items are.

At least so far, the only thing scanning detects is anomalies. Which are moderately useless early in the game (Lt Cdr 14) given that I won't be crafting anything anytime soon, and the damned things just clutter up my decidedly limited inventory. I've given up even bothering with anomalies for the time being as you can't even sell the results.

4. At the start gear doesn't really matter. But in general, yeah drops are shit. Crafting is an option but it requires dilithium, which means farming everyday to build up your dilithium supply.

Well in all fairness I now am using a dropped handgun (which is ironically considerably superior to the three rifles I found afterwards) and I think crafting is a long way away at this point.

5. What happened was it replaced a weapon slot. Your ship has a number of slots where any weapon system can be put into it (barring certain rules, like cannons can only go in forward slots for example). Your phaser was replaced likely because it was the 'closer' slot and no other reason.

Still doesn't make sense to me, but irrelevant as Bats has a new ship which mounts the Mk2 torpedo launcher on both ends

[Stofsk]

If you can't mount the weapon, it may not be bound to your character. Where did you get it?

EDIT Phaser beam arrays are, I think, one of the few weapons that can be put onto any ship. They're not like cannons which can only be put on the forward arc on certain types of ship (for example).

Are you sure they were beam arrays? Dual beam emitters can only be put on the forward arc as well. In any case, when you get a green, blue or purple quality item and mount it onto a ship, a tooltip should come up that says 'this will bound the item to your ship' or something like that. After that you can't trade it. That might not be the problem here though, because I don't know how a bound item could be traded to you or found into your possession. It may be a bug but I don't think so - if your level is Lt Commdr and it is a Lt Commdr level item, and it's an array rather than dual beam emitters, and assuming that you bought it or crafted it or found it, then it should be 'bound' to you.

[Batman]

'If you mount this item, you won't be able to trade it' (not 100% about the wording, but yeah, know that one). And it was definitely a phaser array which I got as a mission reward. Moot now, am on my third ship (made Cdr earlier today) and this time I could mount my better-than-average weapons. I think I'm slowly getting the hang of this thing.
I have to say I'm somewhat dissapointed that so far, the best infantry weapon I found is the...TOS era Type II? I've had half a dozen rifles, two different miniguns, and the best yet is a sidearm 150 years old?
Also, do my bridge officers ever get promoted or do I have to hope for higher ranking ones becoming available and just ditch the old ones?

[Stofsk]

The TOS Phaser is only good because it levels with you. This makes it good for most of the game, but at endgame it's outclassed by elite gear. (stuff you get to fight the borg)

Boffs can be promoted; you do it yourself. They can never be your rank, and the max their skills are tiered to are Commdr level. So once you hit Captain all your Boffs can be ranked to their max. Note that this may not make sense with ships having different rank levels for consoles, but you will want to do it anyway because ground skills are unrestricted - so it pays to have Boffs with four ground skills.

Also bear in mind that the Boffs you get at the start are common quality, you usually get offered blues and eventually purple quality Boffs as you level up. Purple quality Boffs are the best but I think the actual improvement isn't all that significant.

[Batman]

Um-so how do I promote bridge officers? While I so far like this game (despite certain misgivings at the start and still being miffed the default heavy cruiser notbeing the Excelsior) I have to say at least in-game, the documentation of the interfaces and how to do what with them leaves something to be desired. As in is virtually inexistant.
EDIT: Nevermind, found out how to promote bridge officers. Pretty straightforward on hindsight. At least now I know where all those body armours disappeared to
EDIT Mk 2: Oy. Turns out your bridge officers really can turn the tides in ground missions if they're properly promoted and equipped.

[Batman]

Is there a complete system list to be had somewhere? I already know the STO Academy and STO Wiki and they don't have it.
And is there any point in keeping the Ferengi Lock Boxes? So far, the only way to get the key seems to pay real-world money, and-um, no? This game is supposedly free now.
If that particular aspect is reserved for paying members, that's only fair, but I'd like to know.

[Stofsk]

Is there a complete system list to be had somewhere? I already know the STO Academy and STO Wiki and they don't have it.

A what?

And is there any point in keeping the Ferengi Lock Boxes? So far, the only way to get the key seems to pay real-world money, and-um, no? This game is supposedly free now.

How do you expect Cryptic makes money? Anyway you can keep the Ferengi Lockboxes, or you can get rid of them, it's up to you. Keys can be bought or you can farm dilithium like a motherfucker and convert it to c-store credit. The exchange rate was, last I saw (which was awhile ago), something ridiculous like 250:1.

[Batman]

A system list. As in, a list of all the star systems in the game. 'System ABC is in the XYZ sector block'. A lot of missions tell you where to find the system exactly once at the beginning of the mission with no way to look it up later.
And Cryptic is positively entitled to charge for the damn things as long as I don't actually need them or can get them without paying (however time-consuming that may be).

[Hotfoot]

I really have to wonder if you ever read documentation for games or do any sort of fiddling with buttons, Bats. For someone who takes on the role of the world's greatest detective, you need a lot of hand-holding.

When you bring up the map in space, there are tabs for looking at it in sector view, quadrant view, and system list. When you look at the mission description, it will like planet blah in the blag sector. You go to the sector, you bring up the system list, which is in alphabetical order, scroll down to the system you want, double click on it, and you will plot a course to the planet. Additionally, if you're in sector view, planets with quests for them tend to be highlighted, and if you double click on them, you will again be able to plot a course to the system. Sit back and drink some tea, Earl Gray, hot, and wait until you get there.

And if you can't find the way to look at the Mission Logs of Active Missions to read the destination of where it is you're supposed to go, I propose you change your in-game captain's name to Neelix.

[Batman]

And you apparently have the reading comprehension of a dead tribble. Yes, you're told in detail where to go once, at the very beginning of the mission. You want to take it up later? I hope you noted down where you have to go because the mission log won't tell you.

[Hotfoot]

Hahaha, oh Neelix, you wacky Tellaxian, I'm afraid you're just dead wrong. I mean, I could be cruel and insult you grieviously or some such, but that would be cruel. I played STO more than I'd actually care to admit to doing, and you absolutely can do just exactly that in the mission log.

In fact, I think I'll help by creating a visual guide to assist you, since words don't seem to help. Bare with me, this may get complicated, and the universal translator may not be able to work some concepts into your limited vocabulary.

First, you hit the letter "J" on your keyboard. No, you don't need to use the quotes, I did it to help you highlight the letter itself. You also don't need to use the shift button to make it a capital letter, that was also for drawing attention to the specific letter in question. Barring that, you can use the Starfleet Symbol up on your minimap in the upper right portion of your screen. When you do, you'll get a box that has a bunch of tabs and buttons on it. If you flail like a Tarkasian Razorbeast, you might even get them to look exactly like this:



Now, do you see that bright green text? The text all the way at the bottom of the mission description? The one that tells you exactly where it is you need to go? That exists for every single mission in the game. Every one. I have three characters on the Federation side at max level or not far from it. I have used this method to figure out where it is to go for every single mission. Ever.

That is the mission log. Read it. Or learn to read it. Especially before you berate someone for not being able to understand what was read.

[rhoenix]

Additionally: http://www.stowiki.org/Key_binds

[Batman]

Except that green text isn't there for every mission, hotshot. It's only their for every mission where you get explicitely sent to a specific system.
'Explore nebula/cluster/something' or 'patrol' missions, or missions you just stumble across-not so much.
You are nevertheless correct that for the missions where they sent you to a specific system, that data indeed remains available, so I may have gotten my mission types mixed up.
And you gotta be kidding me. I finally make Captain and get an Exploration Cruiser and fights I used to breeze through before are suddenly serious challenges? That ship's supposed to be an improvement, not a detriment.
And I'm not sure if I should be delighted or disgusted that the easiest way to finish some missions is to do something else and wait until the computer-controlled reinforcements have gotten the job done.
I was pleasantly surprised that subsequent ship rechristenings, while not free, only cost energy credits (which you have coming out your ears anyway), and that so does decent (and by and large superior to the stuff I found during missions) Away Team equipment.

[Hotfoot]

You were asking about missions that were sending you to specific systems, sir. I quote:

'System ABC is in the XYZ sector block'. A lot of missions tell you where to find the system exactly once at the beginning of the mission with no way to look it up later.

Followed by:

And you apparently have the reading comprehension of a dead tribble. Yes, you're told in detail where to go once, at the very beginning of the mission. You want to take it up later? I hope you noted down where you have to go because the mission log won't tell you.

You can't throw it in reverse fast enough to backpedal out of this one. I told you to read the mission logs for your active missions, and you came back with an attitude. You don't get to try and save face here, so don't bother. You've shown your character here today sir and it is lacking.

Now, on to your attempt to nitpick and backpedal to improve your image. Since you did not do the mature thing and simply say, "Oh, my bad, silly me," something which, by the way, may seem to be shameful, rather shows character, maturity, and class.

Neelix, I know English is not your first language, so I'm going to assume that certain words don't translate well. However "Explore" and "Patrol"?

Okay, English 101, Neelix. Explore means you go out into the great unknown and look for something. The explore missions say go to nebula/expanse/whatever X and explore three systems. You then go use that whole map thing (which includes sectors in the things you can autopilot to), and go explore random systems as they show up on your sensors. They are repeatable random content. This is explained in the mission log.

The same is true of Patrol. Patrol means you go to an area and look for angry enemy ships fighting in those areas. And you fight them. And you do it a number of times. This too, is explained in the mission log.

There is no set destination for either of those types of missions, outside of the sectors which are in the titles of the mission in the mission logs. You can even see one listed in the above screenshot, which was taken ten minutes prior to my posting it last night. Thus your previous complaint of not knowing where to go? It is not only null and void, it as though the Q Continuum decided its presence in the universe was unpleasant and replaced it with daffodils.

Oh, and for the record? Exploration targets and patrol targets, while not necessarily showing up on the alphabetical listing of systems in a given sector, do show up on the sector map and still allow you to plot courses to them for as long as they appear.

In case you're wondering, the reason I'm giving you this much grief over this is not because it is simply an easy thing to figure out, that everyone I've played the game with has managed to do with ease or simply a little prodding, or that your question could have been answered in general chat by the player base of the game which, shockingly, is still somewhat helpful at times, but that it was your level of arrogance and attitude that you displayed that, instead of taking some playful banter alongside helpful advice and moving on, you decided to take a line in the sand that put you into what you though was Ceti Alpha Six, hoping to make new life.

THIS IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!!

You may now continue.

[rhoenix]

THERE ARE FIVE LIGHTS!

Honestly Batman, most of us played STO as a group a while back, before it went F2P. My advice is just to ask "can x be done?" instead of "I CAN'T SEE IT SO IT DOESN'T EXIST AND THE GAME SUCKS". Nine times out of ten, you'll get far more helpful answers.

Have some humility and perspective, man. It's on the house.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Bats if you need any help I can also help, you can pop me an add on your ingame friends list, my handle is @TheFirewalker

[Batman]

You were asking about missions that were sending you to specific systems, sir. I quote:

'System ABC is in the XYZ sector block'. A lot of missions tell you where to find the system exactly once at the beginning of the mission with no way to look it up later.

Followed by:

And you apparently have the reading comprehension of a dead tribble. Yes, you're told in detail where to go once, at the very beginning of the mission. You want to take it up later? I hope you noted down where you have to go because the mission log won't tell you.

You can't throw it in reverse fast enough to backpedal out of this one. I told you to read the mission logs for your active missions, and you came back with an attitude. You don't get to try and save face here, so don't bother. You've shown your character here today sir and it is lacking.

I already admitted I was wrong about that.

Now, on to your attempt to nitpick and backpedal to improve your image. Since you did not do the mature thing and simply say, "Oh, my bad, silly me," something which, by the way, may seem to be shameful, rather shows character, maturity, and class.

Except I did exactly that once I saw I was indeed mistaken. If you want to argue that I didn't pay all that much attention as to which missions do and don't retain the destination information, I plead guilty.

Okay, English 101, Neelix. Explore means you go out into the great unknown and look for something. The explore missions say go to nebula/expanse/whatever X and explore three systems. You then go use that whole map thing (which includes sectors in the things you can autopilot to), and go explore random systems as they show up on your sensors. They are repeatable random content. This is explained in the mission log.

The initial exploration mission is. Once you find the actual unexplored system, no, you do not get that detailed information on how to find it again.

The same is true of Patrol. Patrol means you go to an area and look for angry enemy ships fighting in those areas. And you fight them. And you do it a number of times. This too, is explained in the mission log.

Patrol means I run across a system I can patrol while I'm technically on my way elsewhere and can involve a lot more than just blowing other ships up.
EDIT: That refers the the Patrol missions I so far ran into. This may not apply to Patrol missions if and as you get assigned via the 'Hail Starfleet' mission system.

[Hotfoot]

No, Neelix, what you did was the classic backpedal "well you're not one hundred percent right so I'm justified in being a jackass" to save face. That can sometimes work, but not when you're also wrong about the backpedal.

Do you know what random means? The Exploration systems are generated once, then when the mission inside of them is done, they disappear. Then another one appears, with a new random mission in it, and the process repeats itself. The reason you can't find the systems again once you've "explored" them is because for all intents and purposes, they no longer exist. Nebula contacts are randomly anomalies or systems, and you can't tell which until you scan them. You fly around hunting down sensor contacts and rolling the dice to see what you get.

Look, I'm going to be blunt with you, I suggest you move on and learn from this experience. Perhaps even develop a habit of exploration of buttons and functions, just to see what they can do. I know it's odd that I should be asking you this, since if you are playing the game, I assume you are a fan of the show, and thus understand the basic concepts of exploring, learning, and interacting with new things, figuring out puzzles and outwitting your opposition.

Maybe one day you'll let those ideals gel, and you'll be ready for first contact. Until then, I wish you luck.

Kam to Ares, one to beam out.

[Batman]

No, Neelix, what you did was the classic backpedal "well you're not one hundred percent right so I'm justified in being a jackass" to save face. That can sometimes work, but not when you're also wrong about the backpedal.

Only in Hotfoot world is an open admission that I was wrong about the 'go to system XYZ in sector block ABC' missions a backpedal.

Do you know what random means? The Exploration systems are generated once, then when the mission inside of them is done, they disappear.

And until they dissapear, they exist at a distinct location (one you can get back to if you did have the smarts to note it down.)

Then another one appears, with a new random mission in it, and the process repeats itself. The reason you can't find the systems again once you've "explored" them is because for all intents and purposes, they no longer exist.

I'm not talking about mission systems that have been finished you idiot, I'm talking about mission systems that are still active.

Nebula contacts are randomly anomalies or systems, and you can't tell which until you scan them. You fly around hunting down sensor contacts and rolling the dice to see what you get.

Noted and irrelevant. My point-my only point-was that those missions do not leave you with the detailed 'where to go' information regular missions do.

[Hotfoot]

Batman, after the way you've acted here, you do not have the privilege of even attempting to call someone else an idiot. Even assuming I'm wrong about this particular point, which I may well be, this is a trifling aspect of the issue you originally created. An iota of a wealth of instances in which you might be right and I might be wrong means that, at best, you have proven that your own intellect is not entirely devoid of function, and that you are now trying to hold it up as now a major aspect of the whole thing is, well, simply unfortunate.

Of course, the simple fact is that you are still, once again, sadly, wrong.

This is why you don't take an attitude when you're ignorant. Note, ignorance and stupid are two different things, but we'll come back to that.

When you go to one of these random missions and leave, which is not a common or necessary thing to do in any of them, but let's say that you do. Let's say you even leave the nebula and then want to go back to do it for some reason, you don't have to go back to find the planet again, because the game would never have a static planet for the randomly generated mission in the first place. Instead, in the lower left section of your screen, around where it says Disable/Enable Astrometrics, there will be a little message saying "Continue X Mission". Click that button, and you are magically brought back to the mission you mysteriously left behind was.

Ignorance does not bother me, ignorance is something I enjoy, because I actually like teaching and sharing things with people, making their lives better. While occasionally I will say, "Oh, you didn't get that? Oh that's easy, here," I, along with everyone else here, have been on the other end of that conversation, red-faced and contrite, even if we're made the subject of a few jokes along the way. You seem to lack that experience, or at the very least have failed to learn from it, and with it have developed a simply vile temperamental way about you that feeds back into itself.

Even if today, you had been right about any of the number of things we have been discussing, it would not have changed the fact that you have carried yourself poorly in the process and I have been making a fool of you in the procedure.

And that, ultimately, this mockery began when you insisted I was incapable of understanding written material when your own statement indicated your inability to notice bolded, bright green text, and has only continued to allow yourself even more rope with which to hang your would-be cowled neck.

I would consider it almost perfect performance art, if we had collaborated in a Jerry Lawler/Andy Kaufman-esque theatrical escapade, but sadly, you are no man on the moon, you are simply lost in space.

[frigidmagi]

Okay Everyone. That will do.

[Batman]

Cryptic sure has weird priorities. I can buy away team equipment and even different ships (as long as I'm willing to settle for the default selection) with energy credits/dilithium but I need Cryptic points to buy different visuals? (ref the Venture layout for the Exploration Cruiser).

[General Havoc]

Well, I mean, you physically can't proceed in the game very far if you can't upgrade to a better ship, whereas the visuals on the inside are a "nice to have". If they charged for new ships, it wouldn't be free to play so much as "free to play for a little bit".

Not saying that model wouldn't work, but it's pretty standard for that to be the way of things.