How much Star Trek do I need to know to fully enjoy STO?

[tipsyConfection]

I love Star Trek, but i haven't watched ALL of Star Trek yet, am a third or midway through the grand marathon i've organized for meself, from TOS to Enterprise (without Picard and Discovery because i'm now scared of watching from all the things fans i know told me 'bout them).
I know more than i should by this point already for better or worse due to my occasional bouts of Memory Alpha and Memory Beta surfing, plus discussions with some Trekkies i know, but that's about it.
I am REALLY interested in trying out STO either way, because it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Star Trek video game RPG, even if MMO and not CRPG i would've prefer, AND it's a space cruising video game RPG as well, something i craved for a long while (sure there is E.V.E. Online but that's more of an actual corporate/space warfare simulator, neither time nor brainpower to handle this), so i'd love to try it out already... But i really don't wont to sour my experience due to not knowing a lot of the canonical stuff yet.
Should i try anyway, or really wait till i'll at least finish with TNG era shows?
(And should i then try Discovery and Picard after all or nah?)

[Bruceusa2086]

as long as you have a basic understanding of Star Trek that is all you need to fully enjoy STO

[tipsyConfection]

Originally posted by bruceusa2086:

as long as you have a basic understanding of Star Trek that is all you need to fully enjoy STO

How so? Game just explains everything well enough, or due to it being set so far enough in the future and being concentrated on a refreshed "warzone again" state of the galaxy?

[Agnithrax]

There are creative little Easter Eggs and Fan Service for sure, but they're just ancillary little bits of fun and not integral to gameplay or getting into the story. I wasn't a real Trekkie before playing STO, but enjoying the game and then streaming the shows sure turned me into one. Try it out Tipsy and you'll see for yourself, you don't really need to know Tasha is Sera's mother or any TNG stuff to try and rescue Tasha with Sera from the Romulan prison colony now that Romulus is gone; but when you do you just dig it on a different level not as any barrier to entry.

[Xautos]

Canon order by timeframe:
ENT
DSC (Seasons 1-2)
(SNW will go here when it airs)
(S31 will go here when it airs)
TOS (During DSC, can't be accurate if season 1 or 2 due to stardate inconsistencies)
TAS (During TOS Season 3 due to inconsistencies in stardates)
Films: Motion Picture to Undiscovered Country
TNG
DS9
VOY
Film: Generations (Around: DS9 s3 e19-e24 and VOY s1 e9-e10)
Film: First Contact (Around: DS9 s5 e23 and VOY s3 e23)
Film: Insurrection (Around DS9 Season 7 and VOY Season 5)
Film: Nemesis
LD
PIC
DSC (Season 3-Onwards)

if you really want to get your teeth into it, that is your order. :P

As for STO, it does require some understanding of events, not all of them. There will be some specific events that happened that can't be ignored and the developers focus on those.

[Nerva Matapan]

Mostly TNG, DS9 and Voyager. While there are obvious inclusions from TOS, Enterprise, Picard (ugh), Disco (double ugh), and the JJ movies (kill me), the 'core 90s Trek' is what dominates the direction of the game.

[NavFamG]

I'd say just basic you'd get from a casual viewing of the shows.

You'll see some of the old characters from the different series show up in game, but even if you didn't have a clue who they were, WHAT they are / doing is explained.

Having them in or having some of the TV shows ships in game is more a nod to the TV series fan base, not game breaking knowledge if you don't know them.

[Bruceusa2086]

Originally posted by Agnithrax:

There are creative little Easter Eggs and Fan Service for sure, but they're just ancillary little bits of fun and not integral to gameplay or getting into the story. I wasn't a real Trekkie before playing STO, but enjoying the game and then streaming the shows sure turned me into one. Try it out Tipsy and you'll see for yourself, you don't really need to know Tasha is Sera's mother or any TNG stuff to try and rescue Tasha with Sera from the Romulan prison colony now that Romulus is gone; but when you do you just dig it on a different level not as any barrier to entry.

you beat me to it mate

[SeaDog]

You don’t need to know any Star Trek at all. You can learn everything you need by doing missions.

[SangReal]

Well, when I first started playing a few weeks after launch (Feb of 2010) I really only knew TOS, TNG and their movies including the 2009 reboot. I fell out of watching Trek when TNG went off the air, didn't care for DS9 at the time (much better after the second season, and when the Dominion war gets going there are some fantastic episodes), Voyager never did it for me and I hated Enterprise. If anything STO made me want to watch the series I hadn't cared for because of characters or other things mentioned in mission in the game. Couldn't get past Enterprises theme song (the episode I caught must have been a total stinker as well because I HATED that show when it first ran, I've since watched the whole series twice as well as several episodes more time). Damned if I haven't watched nearly all of the shows I didn't care for when they came out. Even Voyager (still my least favorite) will get a watch whenever BBC America, the only channel I have that shows "old" Trek, plays it. As far as Discovery and Picard go, I thought Discovery's first season wasn't that great, the second was pretty damn good (Pike is awesome in it and will be getting a show with his Enterprise called "Strange New Worlds" soon. Honestly my favorite version of the character and I've liked all 3). I haven't watched season 3 yet, waiting for it to come out on disc, my internet is terrible and slows down considerably after about 25 GB's of use in a month, so I use that for STO, but I've heard it was pretty good. I don't care much for Michael Burnham, easily the worst ST lead for me, but some of the other characters are pretty awesome.
I personally thought Picard was great. Some people complained it was too dark, they swear and it's fairly violent, but those didn't bother me. Haven't watched "Lower Decks" but haven't heard much bad about that, hopefully that will be out on disc soon and I'll pick it up. If you're streaming them, it should only cost a months sub to get through all 5 seasons of the 3 shows, so for about 10 bucks I'd say watch them and see if you like them.

[tipsyConfection]

Thanks everyone, now my tits are calm and i can finally start the game whenever i get a weekend.

[brog]

I've just started too as well as watching the TNG if you want a buddy later on! r/STO on Reddit is also very helpful.

[The_Daleatron]

can you play as the borg in this game ?

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by The_Daleatron:

can you play as the borg in this game ?

Its possible to play as a Liberated Borg, like Seven of Nine, but not as an assimilated borg captaining borg cubes and such. There's currently only one borg ship that can be captained by players, and it's not a geometric shape sort, and its hard to get a hold of.. and isn't a particularly wonderful ship overall.

There are, however, several borg-themed pieces of equipment that give you good borg-y look and feel, if that's what you're after.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by The_Daleatron:

can you play as the borg in this game ?

Going off topic for this reply:
Not part of a Borg faction in any event, and the user in reply #13 covered the rest.

If there were to be a Borg faction, it would be a liberated collective like the cooperative and xB's that regained some measure of their previous life or a complete new one free from the collective.

I'd never expect to see a Borg faction based on being a drone in a collective because it wouldn't make any sense to a customer base who want to operate independently within the game and the Borg Queen would not only not allow it, but being a drone amongst trillions of voices ordered by sub-matrix, adjunct, uni-matrix and whatever else the collective use, you'd be required to comply to directives with no ability to be independent.

[Vellari]

This is the only flyable Borg ship in the game (currently).

https://intl.startrek.com/database_article/borg-renegade-ship
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Liberated_Borg_Command_Juggernaut

The Liberated Borg character species is a lifetime subscriber perk.

PS. There are also the Assimilated Romulan ships, but that's a bit different.