Posts by Centaurian

If only ARC/Cryptic were not so inept, I might have got my red matter capacitor! I got the Collector's Edition, went to the activation page (based on a link posted by another player - https://my.perfectworld.com/redeemkey/sto), entered my code. This began an unhappy re-route chain that has resulted in ZERO benefits! I was sent to a different activation page, where I entered my code sucessfully, but was asked for my "computer name" (what I call my comp). I entered this, and checked all the available boxes in the "account" page, with no 30-day Gold subscription, no legacy unlocks, so I entered the (3) 10-day pass codes, thinking this was the 30-day subscription. Still no joy; in game, I see no legacy items in the C-store, no extra uniforms, no RMC... I posted a bug report on STO forums, but unless this gets resolved, STO will never see any of my money ever again...

I finally managed to get my comp running again, albeit with a new platform; had to abandon the old socket 478 kit, since I could not find a correct power supply in time anymore. So now I should be able to finish the MI event; I had not yet reached Tier 5 on any of my characters, on any of the reputation projects. So in a sense, I will be losing less than some others on reputation, and most likely will not have reached Tier 5 before the Undine rep is added. Unless they throw some really good abilities into the Undine rep, I'll most likely just focus on one rep at a time now, so I can get the Tier 5 rewards sooner, while finally playing through the episode missions. This will be especially important with the new season and the summer event grinds on their way; grinding really does take some of the fun out of the whole thing. At least having a week offline helped me get some perspective again, and reveal how quickly I had become addicted to the pace...

Yesterday, I ordered the core of the new comp build, just in case there was additional damage to my old mobo or other parts. I was expecting to have a replacement power supply as early as today, since I thought I had completed the order Monday. Sadly, the first order never went through, so now I have to wait until this weekend or Monday to find out if the old comp will still run...

PWE has extended the Mirror Invasion Event to 10am, PST, April 7, to make up for the server issues they have experienced with STO. This is excellent news for those who got a late start, and those of us who have had technical difficulties with our equipment!

I got two beautiful days online with my brand new (5-year-old technology) graphics card; last night, my recently-replaced 500w power supply imploded with a loud buzz & POP! So, I will unfortunately be offline until I get another replacement PS around 3/27; still enough time to finish the MI event. I think I'll put my old vid card back in to finish the event, assuming that nothing else in my comp was damaged by the power spike. If there was further damage, I may be offline for as much as a month, while I get the major components together for my next (long-overdue) comp build. Oh well, life is what happens while you are making other plans...

In my experience, one torpedo fore & aft works ok, so you can do an attack as you turn away from the target for another pass, and to let your front shields heal a bit. The only torp that fires irrespective of orientation is the Bio-Neural torpedo, which I have seen launch forward from the rear mount, and has its own cooldown. Once you have your weapons loadout set, then you can look at getting your BOffs trained for the appropriate support skills (beam overload, firing pattern, etc.) for additional weapons efficiency.

Strange...I don't see any robotic vacuum cleaners keeping those floors so clean... Looks like there may be some new ship colors available, too! Good post, Berry!

BTW, everyone should keep in mind that with the new Season 9 release, Cryptic/PWE will almost certainly be offering specials on Zen, lockbox keys, and many other incentive items. I'm not spending a single Zen until they make those announcements!

After some more searching, I found there are a few Gold Editions still available in the UK, and more than 20 Collectors' Editions in the US (most of these are offered for $150 US!). So if you've just GOT to have it, they will likely be around for a bit longer; start saving today!

Meanwhile, I added up the a la carte C-store costs of the stuff OP listed, and it comes to ~$103 US (not even counting the RMC), so it's not really such a bad deal @ $100.

EDIT: With a new wave of medical debt coming after what's left of my disposable income, I took the plunge & ordered the STO:CE package from Amazon for $100 + shipping. At least, I can travel in cyberspace even though I can't afford to leave my neighborhood anymore...

Quote

the red matter capacitor does seem pretty useful

Yes, but there are players on the STO forums who are satisfied that a satisfactory build can be done by other means, and unless you can get one of the UK Gold Editions, you're looking at $100+ US for the remaining Collectors' Editions. Pretty steep for a "free-to-play" game (yes, most veterans admit that it's also "pay-to-win").

O_O Wow! I never thought I would see the day when OP was so taken with a game that he would make such an investment! I have no idea what the "red matter capacitor" does or why it is an advantage, though some STO veterans seem not to want to play without one; so it's hard to say whether it is worth the search, let alone the cash. As you said it is a "free" game (though I have invested 300euro/year for many years in CF, another free game). I had done a calculation of the relative a la carte costs for the actually usable items in a lifetime membership, and it only addeed up to about $85 US, vs. the $300 cost. Again, it depends on what features you actually value. Some of the wealthier veterans think nothing of buying the entire Dyson ship set just to cull the consoles for a max Science Destroyer build. The rest of us have to balance our game & life goals more carefully.

And yes, Season 9 is coming in April, 2014, with lots of new stuff & giveaways, likely including an Undine lockbox, among others. Here is the Blog link: Season 9 Dev Blog #1

EDIT: (Redacted)

It's been quite a while since I flew a Scouser, but at the time, it was cargo only, and unarmed. The ship configuration did not lend itself to cargo containers, and its cargo capacity was too small for a container. Even the Large Transport (LT) was not large enough, despite seeing NPC ships apparently mounting containers. I personally prefer the LT, since it is easier to fly, and at least has defensive guns for hostile NPC's. Worst case, buy one and report your results back here; most cargo ships have been updated in the last few years...

I've only been playing since November, so I don't know how they looked before, but I have been generally happy with the quality of the episodes, even if a few are somewhat of a stretch from a storyline perspective. Since I am playing Fed, KDF and KDF-aligned Rom characters, I have found that there is quite a bit of overlap in the characters' careers. The Drozana Station episodes, the Vault, Arena & Nimbus III are examples; since I have not played more than half the episodes on any of my char's to date, I can only assume that there will be more of this, including Dyson. There are some minor differences with respect to ship & faction capabilities, at least enough to know that you're playing a different faction...

You can change most all of your key settings under the options menus, and if you have multiple mouse buttons or a 3rd party game controller, the key bindings can be configured there. The tractor beam is one of the most important pieces of equipment, since it is used to take the most valuable loot, like Black Boxes (found on wrecks). When CF 2.0 is released, it will also be important to discard old savegames from CF 1.9, to prevent startup issues. Good Flying!

This is an excellent opportunity for Fleet officers to make big gains on their promotions, since the payout is pretty large for an STO event. In addition, this is a relatively easy practice mission for the No Win Scenario, since it requires (5) ships, of different classes, and the enemy approaches from all sides. Phoenix Legion members should take every opportunity to work this mission together, not only to get the event prize, but to get to know one another's strengths & weaknesses in preparation for the NWS.

BTW, it turns out that even my old X700 graphics card is sufficient to do this mission; I got my first event cookie this morning! (I even managed to close a few rifts and kill some baddies...)

Space Dreams - Digitaly Imported 'net radio...

In keeping with ARC's new policy of weekend/monthly events (instead of the dailies), STO is now running a Mirro Invasion Event for more goodies:

The Mirror Invasion will be returning to Star Trek Online as part of a brand new limited time event starting on Thursday, March 13, 2014, and ending three weeks later on Thursday, April 3, 2014 (when maintenance begins). This revamped event map will only be playable during this three week event timeframe.

In addition to earning a choice of marks for playing the Mirror Invasion queued event, players can run a new reputation project to earn a huge reward of Dilithium, Marks, and a unique very rare duty officer (details below).

Forget everything you know about the Mirror Invasion. Veterans of STO may be familiar with battling the Terran Empire in the previous Mirror Invasion event, but the new event has been completely redesigned from the ground up. Now players will be defending Vauthil Station, a Romulan Republic space station that Obisek has taken as a temporary command post.

As the event begins, a number of rifts open around the map and ships from the Mirror Universe begin to cross over into ours. If left unchecked, the rifts will grow and launch more powerful ships. You must stop these ships before they can damage the station by either destroying the ships or by closing the rifts.

The station is not entirely defenseless, but many of its defenses have been knocked offline in the initial salvos. There are four power substations around the map. Activate them and they will restore power to the station, which will in turn bring station defenses back online.

After the initial stage of closing rifts, Vauthil Station emits an anti-tachyon pulse that sends the Mirror Universe ships back to their dimension. However, the Terran Empire launches one final assault, sending one of its special modified dreadnoughts through. These dreadnoughts have the ability to return to the Mirror Universe and will reappear through any open rift in the area.

Players can earn marks by closing portals, keeping the station’s health high, leveling up the defenses of the station, and defeating the Mirror Dreadnought within the time limit. The number of marks rewarded varies based on player performance.

Once a day, players will be awarded a Multidimensional Transporter for playing this event. By turning in 14 Transporters through the Reputation System, players will receive 50,000 Dilithium Ore, 500 Fleet Marks, 250 Marks of Your Choice (Fleet, Romulan, Nukara, Omega, or Dyson) and a unique Very Rare Duty Officer – Mirror Hakeev (1 Federation version and 1 Klingon Defense version are available to their corresponding captains and allied Romulans)! Each additional Multidimensional Transporter can be traded in for an additional 50 Fleet Marks, 2000 Dilithium Ore, and 35 Marks of Your Choice (Fleet, Romulan, Nukara, Omega, or Dyson) through a secondary Event Reputation Project that will become available after the main Project is completed.

Sadly, my GPU died on my comp yesterday, and its replacement won't arrive until sometime next week, so I may not be able to take advantage of this one. My OLD Radeon X700 is only 256Mb, so detail is limited even when not in combat; maybe someone will have sympathy on me and let me join a few missions until I get my new card...

Judging by that list of BOff's, you'll be able to make good use of the new loadout tool...

I opened 12 Hirogen lock boxes yesterday, to get a feel for how they might be different from other races lock boxes. I opened 4 each with my Fed, KDF and Romulan char's, with the following results:

FED: Destabilized Tetryon weapon pack (Mk XII round weapon); Gamma Quadrant DOff cadre (7 DOff's); Gamma Quadrant DOff mini-pack (4DOff's); Preferred Rich Dilithium mining claims (6-pack); 33 Lobi total.

KDF: (2x) Gamma Quadrant DOff mini-pack (4DOff's); Destabilized Tetryon weapon pack (Mk XII round weapon); Alpha Deception Field Console; 17 Lobi total.

Romulan: Gamma Quadrant DOff mini-pack (4DOff's); Hirogen Predator DOff (purple); Destabilized Tetryon weapon pack (Mk XII round weapon); Genetic Resequencer extra Hunter Trait & trait respec; 17 Lobi total.

So it sems Hirogen boxes yield Gamma Quadrant DOff's 50% of the time, with Destabilized Tetryon weapon pack (Mk XII round weapon) 25% of the time, and other special items the other 25%. These probabilities are different than those given by a larger test (60 boxes) on the STO forums, but this should give everyone some idea of what to expect.

If anyone has some quantitative data on other race-specific boxes, please post it below!

I have attached two of the error codes I'm seeing; I hope this helps solve the issue.

Dunno if it's my browsers, or what, but lately I'm having a real hard time posting anything to the forums, or even going into threads to read posts. About 50% of the time I'm getting an "internal server error", and this happens both on my Win XP /IE8 setup at work, and my Win 7/ FireFox home setup. This is pretty frustrating after typing a half page, only to see it disappear when the error pops up...