Okay lets keep this 100% (as a new player)

[Darkmaster]

The starter pack is very good for new players and I love it! That T6 ship kills all the enemies from the quests with no problem. Some of the quests I've done before I had some problems with completing till I got the ship! Any more nice items you all can recommend that's account bound such as T6 ships or bridge officers?

[cap-boulanger]

You might of course need some account bank unlocks, character slots, EC cap lift... and you might want the lifetime sub (which includes some of all of those), but I'm skipping over those.... let's talk about the ships, BOFFs, etc....

The shopping list I would currently rec for new players:

(roughly in order by preference)

* note: wait for sales! There's plenty of sales in STO, and stacking a sale with a zen "charge bonus" event can get you things for as little as 60% or so of the normal price.
* even then, this list is pricey. Don't buy it all at once. It's more intended as guidance of what *not* to buy... namely, anything that is not on this list.
* Also note, some of the recommended bundles come with T6 ship coupons, which could be used toward the four or five ships that are on this list individually.

- 10th Anniversary bundle (not always available but worth the wait... and get the discount version with just the ships)
- Arbiter Battlecruiser (or the KDF Kurak or Rom Morrigu ships that have the same trait)
- Gagarin Battlecruiser (or the KDF Qugh ship that has the same trait)
- Narendra Support Cruiser (or the KDF Vor'ral ship that has the same trait)
- Jem'Hadar Vanguard Temporal Warship (there's also Fed, KDF, and Rom versions with the same trait, but the Jem'Hadar one is markedly superior to fly)
- Somerville Science Vessel
- one of the Andorian, Dewan, or Lethean pilot escort 3-packs.

(these mainly for a good selection of traits, special weapons, consoles, etc... several are also fun to fly. Note that the last two are mainly used for traits for exotic science builds, if you're not going there, you can skip those.)

(for example, most of my phaser weapons build ships, use two consoles and sometimes weapons out of the 10th Anniversary bundle, as well as the Arbiter, Narendra, and sometimes Gagarin and TempWar traits.)

OPTIONAL:
- 13th Anniversary bundle
- 12th Anniversary bundle
- 11th Anniversary bundle (if you're planning this, don't get the Narendra / Vor'ral listed above, as this bundle includes Legendary variants of both)

* note: the 12th and 13th Anniversary bundles have most of the ships also sold separately, but each has one ship that is bundle-exclusive (and the one in the 12th has a really good trait)

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THEN:

High Budget Option:
- Gamma expansion bundle (10 ships, 7 T6 and 3 T5, plus extras)
- Delta expansion bundle (9 ships, all T6, plus extras)

(these have some good ships, but the real draws are the special bundle-exclusives... BOFFs, DOFFs, and in the case of Gamma, three T5 ships, one of which comes with special weapons. Two of the Gamma BOFFs were, until last September, the best-in-slot option for non-Romulan captains, and two of the Delta ones are best-in-slot for Romulan captains.)

Low Budget option:
- the Cardassian bundle

(if you're not getting the Gamma bundle, this bundle is 4 of those 10 ships, including three T6s and the one T5 with the special weapons, and the Cardassian species unlock.)

[x1Heavy]

Generally upgrade until you quit exploding.

Then refine further to eliminate problems during battle. If you find your shields are wet paper bags, use consoles and so on to beef them up for example. Swap and experiment until your ship is able to fight adequately in any battle within the game space other than Human PvP.

There are online at least 12 years worth of pages and sites that explain how powerful ships were built and configured for STO.

You will eventually maintain different types of weapons, power and so on for the various regions of space with their particular enemies and their weapons grouping and type in them. You are essentially learning to tune your starship to fight those enemies before you arrive there.

For example if I plan on fighting Klingons all day in a starship, I make sure that everything equipped on that ship is able to in some way resist Disruptor weapons specifically and find weapons that will delete the Klingons by the crowd. When you start seeing birds of prey going poof with one phaser blast you know you are on the path.