Vanity shields

[Boney Oni]

Alright I know I'm an absolute dumbass for not knowing something that is more than 8 months old, but does anyone mind explaining what vanity shields are? What are the requirements besides being just tier 6 reps? How you get section 31 one? Are these things sellable? Which of them would be best with a sensor linked phaser beam build?

[Fedora01]

Vanity shields are exactly as the name implies, they look good and nothing more, fear not though as there's a special tab for vanity effects to be slotted (same area as ship stats/mastery/etc...). Once you raise a rep to T6 a special project will appear allowing you to buy a Vanity shield variant (they don't look exactly like the set shields) in exchange for some marks. Some other vanity shields, like the S31 shield) can be obtained from lock boxes or the exchange. As far as what would go best with Disco style phasers: that's entirely up to personal preference. In my (not so humble) opinion the Terran Task Force visuals are the best thing since sliced bread, but you may not find that to be true for yourself. Best I can recommend here is to look up what all the different vanity shields look like and decide for yourself.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by GenderNeutralSociety:

Alright I know I'm an absolute dumbass for not knowing something that is more than 8 months old, but does anyone mind explaining what vanity shields are? What are the requirements besides being just tier 6 reps? How you get section 31 one? Are these things sellable? Which of them would be best with a sensor linked phaser beam build?

Shields change the appearance of your ship - they're ship skins. First STO added a set of visual-only slots, and more recently they added appearance-only shields (vanity shields) to slap into those slots. Vanity shields have no mechanical effect on your gameplay, they are for looks (vanity) only.

They are extremely rare drops from lockboxes, or you can get vanity versions of the rep shields from tier VI of that rep. The lockbox vanity shields can be sold (just search "vanity" on the exchange). They are irrelevant to gameplay so none is going to pair any better with any build than any other.

[Wisecasper]

They have been around for a while:

Weapon Box
September 2017: Tzenkethi Vanity Shield
January 2018 : Discovery Vanity Shield
June 2018: Ferengi Vanity Shield
October 2018: Hur'q Vanity Shield
January 2019: Emperor's Vanity Shield
May 2019: Section 31 Vanity Shield

Reputation Vanity Shields
October 2018: Gamma, Lukari, Competitive, Iconian, Temporal, Terran, Nukara, Romulan, Delta, Omega, Undine and Voth
May 2019: Discovery Legends Vanity Shield

[Agnithrax]

Even the vanity is pointless. You go to all the trouble to get a Suliban Carrier and slap a Romulan vanity shield on her naming it the Waverider so what do they do, fook with the vanity shield so it won't look like the Waverider no more because some litigious Legends of Tomorrow preeck might play STO, happen to see my awesomesauce ship and then get all beechy about it or something so as to avoid such a circumstance they instead just stamp on ur toys.
That's why we can't have nice things.

[Maj_Cyric]

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Visual_Slots

https://youtu.be/EJJf_FxgDsY

I will say though based on how you customized your ship with the Customize NPC, it can affect how they display on your ship.. mostly being the Kelvin Intel Dread and if i'm using the black Dreadnought color or a white color...

Lockbox ships also can have an extreme change/look to them with with Vanny shield slotted..

You can also right click on slotted quipped items and turn off/on Visual effects..

Husnock with Iconian shields
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1668211771

Husnock with Iconian vanny shield
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1668210832

Husnock with Counter Commander Vanny shield (undine)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1674600005

T6 Fleet Mogh with Iconian Vanny Shield
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1668210582

T6 Fleet Mogh with Counter command Vanny Shield (undine)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1668210610

[Sandormen]

Originally posted by Agnithrax:

Even the vanity is pointless. You go to all the trouble to get a Suliban Carrier and slap a Romulan vanity shield on her naming it the Waverider so what do they do, fook with the vanity shield so it won't look like the Waverider no more because some litigious Legends of Tomorrow preeck might play STO, happen to see my awesomesauce ship and then get all beechy about it or something so as to avoid such a circumstance they instead just stamp on ur toys.
That's why we can't have nice things.

Holy sh**. You ought to go for the more ripe lemons. They're hardly as sour. -And stay away from the salt and tequila. -That'd might just make You very angry.

[Wisecasper]

Originally posted by Sandormen:

Originally posted by Agnithrax:

Even the vanity is pointless. You go to all the trouble to get a Suliban Carrier and slap a Romulan vanity shield on her naming it the Waverider so what do they do, fook with the vanity shield so it won't look like the Waverider no more because some litigious Legends of Tomorrow preeck might play STO, happen to see my awesomesauce ship and then get all beechy about it or something so as to avoid such a circumstance they instead just stamp on ur toys.
That's why we can't have nice things.

Holy sh**. You ought to go for the more ripe lemons. They're hardly as sour. -And stay away from the salt and tequila. -That'd might just make You very angry.

As an owner of a Suliban Cell ship they have a right to be angry.

They're Tier 3 so not much good in combat. But you occasionally take them into STF anyway when you have them equipped and forget to switch off.

They have a special bridge that had access to the old style R&D system until they closed memory alpha and removed it. Got discount commodities until they made it so the fleet projects no longer require them so people are junking those they pick up from missions. They have access to the consoles but most people have either a Ferengi Nandi or a Karemma Trader for that. So having the ship for the look is very much its only remaining function.

(I had to kit out my Tuffli Freighter because I kept accidentally taking it into battle)