Nope, that's all you need. I think Bren (stavag) and I are the only ones playing a lot. Doob has been on occassionally. Maligner said he was playing but I haven't seen him online recently.

stavag@stavag
christ@glorkfoo
doob sai@e30m3

Gallus was taken so I am pragus@pragus

If you have any questions, let us know. There's quite a bit of a learning curve -- we're still learning. Bren is a Commander halfway to Captain already and I'm a Lt. Commander 8. Bren is Tactical/Escort and I'm Engineer/Cruiser.

I'm ltc 8 engineer/cruiser as well.

I've not been on all week I don't think. I got back into WoW, which happens to me for some reason. Been on a jag leveling my priest. Went from 71 to 78 so far in about 6 days.

STO is different, but it's pretty thin so far too. I'll probably get on it again sometime soon because my time will be running out and I have to decide if I want to resub right away or not. I have problems with Cryptic and I'm not happy with the way the pre-order went down. I'm waffling on how I want to handle this. Will probably resub so you might find me on but I am progressing slowly. Oh yeah, I think the crafting sucks and that's big for me too. Also, I love alts and you only get like 2 extra slots and have to buy more with real money. Like I said, I have problems with Cryptic.....

I think it's pewty@apewty

Yeah, I kicked you a friend request. I've found, oddly enough, that their is more content the higher you get. I found a lot more to do as a Commander than I did as a Lt. Commander. They also seem to be patching every other night which is nice. It shows they're fixing/adding stuff.

I honestly have no desire to roll an alt ... yet. The bridge officers add a whole new element to the game. I have all kinds of back stories floating through my head as I'm running missions. I care for them just as much as I do my character. It's pretty neat.

I'm not usually much of an RPer but this game plus my love for Star Trek has totally pulled my geek out.

Not that I am recommending the game in any way shape or form but an FYI for those who want to play Star Trek Online both Direct 2 Drive and Steam have the game for $10 off either version till March 2nd.

That's $10 off.

That's $10 off.

Yea, DOH, I edited the post $10 yes.

Is there a trial version?

No, but there are buddy keys... I think I only had one which I gave away last night. :(

I'm well into Captain and still enjoying the hell out of it. I'm curious to see what 'end game' consists of, but even as a non-trekkie, the various story-archs and lore are enjoyable and well done. Its pretty buggy in some ways, but like Don said they are patching nearly daily and constantly working to fix problems. I certainly have gotten enough enjoyment out of it so far to justify the box price.

Is there a trial version?

I have a buddy key or keys. I have to go look for it which is why I don't know how many I have. If someone wants one I can give mine up.

I'm going to try to get to commander soon to see how much better it gets. So far, my BO's are being ignored. I suppose that's a mistake but I don't really see much of them, you know?

HUGE mistake. Bridge officers are an integral part.

HUGE mistake. Bridge officers are an integral part.

I believe you, but I guess I don't get it. As part of an away team they are very important but I just let them do their thing. I make sure they have the best shield, weapon, etc.

On my ship, I can use only one skill at a time of each BO. Most cases, I don't really need that skill. Just for hard encounters.

Also, I might add, I've been saving the BO points for some time because I don't want to spend them all. I've got over 3500 BO points. That's how much they seem to work for me. Can you imagine if I'd spent all those points?

What am I missing (besides the RP aspect)?

As you increase in rank, you get to use more of their skills when in space and on away missions. What occupation/ship type are you going with? I can give you recommendations for skills.

Starting off, I can tell you these are very useful:

Tactical:
Ground - Photon Grenade, Overwatch, Target Optics, Plasma Grenade
Space - Tactical Team, Beam Overload, Torpedo High Yield

Engineering:
Ground - Mine Barriers and Phaser Turrets
Space - Engineering Team, Emergency Power to Shields, Reverse Shield Polarity

Science:
Ground - Tachyon Harmonic and Medical Tricorder
Space - Science Team and then a lot of others depending on your own strategies. Science space skills, as of right now, are the most useful but you need to play around with them to figure out what you like. Personally, I use tractor beams.

I do use the skills but it's just like I have skills (ala leveling in WoW) and nothing like it's someone else doing it. I guess I just don't have the leap of RP in me. If there were voice feedback, for instance, then I think I could get to thinking that an officer is transferring auxiliary power to shields. Instead, I just mash the button and move on.

I am engineer/cruiser. I just hit commander, but I was running exclusively beams. I had a +beam console and +turn console. My tac has beam spread, which I use against multiple targets (ships, mines and plasma/quantum torps). My engineering has emergency power to shields and emergeny power to weapons. My science has scramble target lock (makes the target unable to fire for the duration).

This has been working well. I use power to weapons the most. With that running, I get like 20+ seconds of 125 weapon power. In instances I get the kill 2 times out of 3, when I am able to concentrate fire on one target.

Everything is going to change with the new ship. I'm trying to add a mine layer in the rear slot for ships two fast for me to keep my broadsides on. If I have trouble with too many beams I may go with two mines.

I think as you get more bridge officers and start swapping them out for different tasks, the RP comes along a bit more.

Being all about the immersion, I've been keeping to phasers and torps. On my galaxy class, I'm running 3 forward and 2 aft phaser arrays with 1 torp in front and back. My beam arrays aren't pure phaser -- there's some tetryonic and disruptors in there.

Everyone must now address me as Admiral. That is all.

So now you are a pencil pushing bureaucrate! Congrats on improving your golf game ;)

mmm... my new baby.

If that's an actual in-game screen shot, then part of my problem is that my computer is sorely lacking; the game just isn't that attractive and it's probably all due to my crappy computer. I'm not in a position to upgrade any time soon either.

Oh Mal, you are really missing out. Part of the reason I like space sim games like these in general is for the beautiful visuals- and STO doesn't disappoint.

And that is indeed a screenshot.

Killian,

I can live with calling you Admiral so long as I don't have to call you Sir. Or is that Miss, I keep forgetting.

For those who are still interested in getting STO and joinging Killian, Bren and the rest of the gang it is now $20 off both regular and collectors edition at the Atari site till March 7th.