by Dalmarus on Feb 04, 2010
Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of… you!
Star Trek Online went live this past Tuesday and that means
it’s time to get your Trek on, or as my wife puts it,
“geek out”. To help you get started,
here’s a brief editorial with some tips and hints you can use
to make the most out of your budding career as a Starfleet officer.
The Federation has a desperate need for officers with proven combat
skills and fortunately for you, Admiral Quinn thinks Starfleet could
use someone with your leadership abilities. In light of this, and the
fact that the Federation has been embroiled in a brutal war with the
Klingon Empire since their withdrawal from the Khitomer Accords in 2399
(approximately ten years ago), he's given you command of your first
starship. I'd say congratulations, but now is when the hard work really
begins.
The beginning levels of the game have you completing a number of
missions for various Starfleet Officers from Earthdock in the Sol
system. You'll spend the early levels focusing primarily on space
combat missions with a bit of ground combat tossed in for good measure.
As you progress further through the game's storyline and start
traveling outside of your initial sector block, the ratio between space
and ground combat will get a lot closer.
At this stage in your career, you should just concentrate on getting
comfortable with the controls of the game and some basic combat tactics
(see the links I listed at the beginning of the article!). Take the
time to learn how to change your ship's power settings on the fly, slow
down your ship to keep an enemy in range, and how to get the best out
of your away team during those ground combat missions. You can get
through a number of levels by just "going along” with it all,
but if you take the time to really learn what makes you and your ship
tick now, it will pay off in dividends later.
All the proof you need of this is to take a look at some of the
compatriots you’ll find yourself automatically partnered with
during some of the open instance missions. When you really learn how to
control your ship, shift your shields, adjust power levels, and take
out a target quickly, you're going to see there are those who haven't
even learned the basics yet. As a perfect example to highlight this, I
was privy to combat with two vastly different groups on back-to-back
missions last night.
The first group was filled with players that knew their stuff without a
doubt. We plowed through targets that should have given a better
challenge, but with three people that knew how to focus fire on not
only the same ship, but also the same shield faces, our enemies
didn’t stand a chance. Combine this method of targeting
enemies with the ability to keep a favorable position of your target
and you'll be welcome in any group (an advanced space combat tactics
guide is coming soon!).
Let's just be polite and say the next group I found myself in was
*nothing* like the first. At one point, I realized that myself and one
other player were taking on an entire squadron that had been thrown at
us virtually by ourselves. The other players in our group were
wandering around the edges of the battle, occasionally tossing a photon
torpedo into the mix, and getting themselves blown up any time they
actually entered the fray. Take the time to learn. Both you and your
future groupmates will thank you for it!
Your first few days in Star Trek Online as a Starfleet officer will be
exciting, but shouldn't prove overly difficult. Don't let the
simplicity of the early missions lure you into a path of complacency.
As you progress through the game, even the random exploration missions
you'll go on not only become more interesting, but also much more
challenging.
In the meantime, enjoy the beginning of your Starfleet career. Learn
how to play the game and your character and you'll soon find yourself
doing everything from escort an ambassador to engaging in a massive
fleet action battle - all before level five.
It's an exciting time to be a Starfleet officer in the United
Federation of Planets, Ensign. Are you up to the challenge?