They just transitioned to F2P. Basically overhauled the game’s underlying economy for that, as well as leveling speed. So a lot of bug fixes and balancing going on there, too.
Game is back up on STEAM, if you prefer to launch it and keep track of playtime from there.
Question for those playing, are any of you crafters in game? I want a set of Aegis gear, but I hate crafting, I’d be willing to trade / pay for it somehow. I saw some up for sale on the Exchange but for Energy Credits , which I don’t have enough of. I do have tons of dilithium and C-store points.
So is there a career path geared toward exploration, and does the exploration involve mandatory combat? I’m kind of interested in playing but I’m tired of the old mmo formula of having to frag mobs to advance.
Sorry if this is a dumb question.
All careers can do “exploration.” Basically it’s a randomized series of combat encounters (space, ground), aid the planet missions (replicate some stuff and give it to the locals) and scanning for anomalies (crafting mats). Exploration, in a word, isn’t exploration. I enjoy it in the sense that it’s rather relaxing the equivalent of, say, fishing in other MMOs.
On the other hand I wish there was more to it. I’ve got ideas and made suggestions along those lines but so far it’s still the same old side-project. One of many alternate ways to spend ones time rather than something you can really sink yourself into and feel any sense of wonder about. Single-player games manage good randomization but MMOs haven’t figured out how to do it yet.
And it is mostly combat when it comes down to it.
If you want non-combat situations your best best is to sort through Foundry (player made) missions. There are several missions, written by Trek fans, that do have some scientific feeling elements to them or more interesting and dramatic diplomatic interactions. As good as Cryptic’s in-house Episodes are, and they are good, it really falls to the players to think in highly creative ways and bring out imaginative Trek goodness rather than more combat oriented, actiony, storylines.
That some are capable of this is why things like Foundry and user generated content in general are exciting to me.
Jag
1826
I’ve been playing Klingon side, leveling up my toon Daxx on her Qorgh Raptor
Jag, I haven’t touched the Klingon side since season 2, whats it like over there gameplay wise, I recall it being a lot of boring grind, and PvP was pretty dead.
Once I VA1 my Engineer for the Fed, I am gonna pick up where I left of with my Klingon Engie.
Do we have a Qt3 Klingon fleet? Or is QuarterToFleet just one big fleet where Klingons and Fed co-exist peacefully?
I went ahead and bought the collector’s edition on Amazon for $6.50 (free Prime shipping!), and it activated perfectly on my account. The big bonus is I know have the Red Matter Capacitor, which is a reusable power-up that gives +25 on all power settings for 10 seconds, as well as repair all disabled systems. The RMC is only available through the CE.
But it also gave me the TNG uniforms, as well as three more rows on my inventory, and a liberated Borg bridge officer. If you pay for those three on the C-Store, it’s way more than $6.50.
The art book is pretty meh (The problem with all these “art” books is that they’re so small to fit in the packaging that they’re pretty mediocre.) The aluminium communicator badge is very nice, though.
Did it come with cryptic points? I recall some versions came with c-store points.
The Digital Deluxe Editions do. But the physical retail versions don’t.
And, daaaaaamn, the Red Matter Capacitor is niiiiiiiiiice. I already have various consoles to give me extra weapon and shield power, but I flick this baby on and it’s like watching the Master Chief’s shields in Halo recharge, while at the same time giving the engines a gigantic kick in the pants, and the phasers a ton more punch. And, it’s actually on a 3-minute cooldown, not 5-minute as the wiki indicated.
I like using it just after an assault run , as I can 360 my defiant on a dime (due to the extra power to engines and the 35% turn rate console I have), using Beam Overload 3 while my power level is back at 125, it allows me to fire off a killing blow.
On my tactical toon, I can get it to Crit for around 13,000+ hull damage, if I am under Attack Pattern Alpha / Beta and Go down fighting.
Jag
1833
Pre-F2P my Klingon was 16. She was 21 when I logged back in, but they didn’t update the quest levels in my log so I had to drop those and pick them up again. There seems to be plenty of content to level, even if you just stick with Episodes (which are the best designed and rewarded).
PvP is fairly active, never had a long wait, but Feds routinely kick our butts.
The new hourly quests/activities are fun and break up the leveling tedium. My favorite is the alternate universe invasion, just press a button and you go right to it. Probably get a half a level just off that.
There are separate Fleets for each side, but your friends list is the same. So you can see who logs on and off.
Woolen, the Red Capacitor is a standard part of many STF builds, so that’s not a bad purchase. I’m wondering if the physical version also comes with 30 days of free gold membership which is another way to get C-Store points I would think.
Well if anyone needs the Aegis Gear, let me know, I maxed my crafting skills on my 1st character, only took 3 hours, lots of exchange particle buying, a million or so energy credits, 55000 dilitium, and I now have a full set of Aegis Gear for my main character. :)
http://www.stowiki.org/Aegis_Technological_Research
All I ask is that you provide the resources, I’ll do the crafting. :p
Specifically the most expensive stuff is the : Unreplicateable Materials
The cost of "Uncommon Unreplicateable Materials" is 1000 Refined dilithium each.
The alternative for a full set of ship gear is around 3 million energy credits on the Exchange.
I can craft a full set for around 1 million and 55000 dilitium.
Jag
1835
Hmm, I’ve been watching the exchange for a set of Aegis gear and wondered why it never went down below a million. I’m tempted to take you up on this, although I have 15 STF credits and may buy the borg or MACO sets instead.
The dilithium is the sticking point for me. Energy Credits are easy to get, dilithium not so much.
How is this game? I haven’t looked t it in a while, but wasn’t to interested. Now that I know it’s FTP I’m thinking of giving it a try.
Squee
1837
It’s fairly un-shitty for an MMO. I played 30-40 hours and got myself to a Picard ship before I got burnt out. The space combat is fun, but the encounters are pretty samey after a while I found. Since free to play in STO basically doesn’t restrict you in any way with regards to the actual gameplay it’s worth messing with until you get sick of it.
I’ve got 5.5 million in the bank, 110,000 dilithium, and a crapton of different particles. I’ll have to check at home to see which ones. But, damn, yeah. I was looking at the exchange and the set there could easily go for 1.25 million a piece.
someone is keeping the market inflated for the super rare gear, i posted 3 pieces at 1 mill each, and they were gone in 15 minutes. it seems they want the price of entry to be 1.2 million per piece, and they are netting the 200k profit for each piece.
the next issue is particles are expensive as hell, i had to buy 3 million credits worth just to get a new set made to sell, but that 3 mill spent when added to around 180k dilitium will net me 9 pieces of gear , around 10 mil energy credits. :)
the economy is a game now, which at this level of investment is sorta fun unto itself.
the crafting aspect held me back as it was really confusing for some reason, but after a few hours of reading i was able to knock it out in maybe a total of 5 hours.
So PROTIP , if you come across any BLUE RARE Particles, pop them up on the exchange, they vary in value between 5k and 45k credits.
How much is 180k dilithium worth?
