Joining a fleet. Is it worth it?

[hughborgsyn]

Is it worth it to join a fleet? Do you get perks?

[VoodooMike]

Some of the best equipment in the game can only be obtained from Fleet holdings, so in that respect it is worth it. Whether or not its worth putting up with a particular fleet's BS, however, is another story.

STO's fleet system is far less casual and kind than a typical MMO's guild system, requiring members donate resources to projects to get fleet credits which are needed to buy fleet gear.. and you can only donate certain amounts of certain resources to do so... and the amount of credit you get for various types of resources are unrelated to how easy they are to obtain.

Try to find yourself a well-run fleet that regulates the dumping of fleet marks into projects so that everyone gets some opportunity to earn fleet credits and buy their needed gear. No few fleets will involve the people at the top doing all the easy resource dumps and leaving the rest for the rank-and-file to fill in if they want any credits at all.

[jonnin]

not only do you get some of the best items, there are also fleet ships. There are pros and cons to fleet ships but at the end of the day, they are very easy to get (several fleet modules are free from reputation, enough to get a couple of ships, and the modules are relatively cheap in the exchange too) and worth having at times. Specifically for science captains its a very cheap/easy way to get a top tier ride for low effort. I have probably 6 or 7 fleet ships just cause they were effectively free.

[s0t3lg]

also some of the higher tier fleets that have active members usually do have a project that gives extra resources active usually dilithium.

[cap-boulanger]

Originally posted by hughborgsyn:

Is it worth it to join a fleet? Do you get perks?

Yes. Particularly if the fleet is in an actively managed armada (group of fleets), preferably the fleet you're in being a high level (I'd say 77+, cap is 85) while there are other fleets in the armada that are lower.

Reason being, as VoodooMike mentioned, there's a lot of good fleet gear you can buy. You earn credits for your donations and those credits are used to buy the fleet gear. High level fleets, especially if they have a lot of members, it can sometimes be a problem to find places to donate, BUT you can donate also to other fleets in the same armada (and some people do not know that). But you want your own fleet to be high level since that's what unlocks the vendors. (Although there is a workaround for that, for some items.)

For example, I run a Fed armada, which has one maxed out (level 85) fleet, and the others, we have two or three that are around level 30, and around eight that range from levels 50-81. So there's usually plenty of places for people to donate to.

Some fleets / armadas are also socially active (Discord, an in-game custom chat channel, etcetera) and may organize events, TFO runs, etcetera. But that's more of a case by case basis. The game provides the mechanical framework, but these are player-run organizations, and each is run its own way.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by cap-boulanger:

BUT you can donate also to other fleets in the same armada (and some people do not know that).

While it is true that fleets within an armada can open their projects for outside donation, they are able to restrict those donations based on several things, including restricting donation types. It is not uncommon for fleets to make outside donators unable to donate fleet credits, only dilithium, or whatever sort of resource they don't want to part with themselves.

STO has never updated the amount of resources needed for projects to keep up with resource-type inflation, so any freely open project is going to quickly be filled by people's mark dumps, EC dumps.. and left only needing dil and occasionally doffs.

[cap-boulanger]

Originally posted by VoodooMike:

Originally posted by cap-boulanger:

BUT you can donate also to other fleets in the same armada (and some people do not know that).

While it is true that fleets within an armada can open their projects for outside donation, they are able to restrict those donations based on several things, including restricting donation types. It is not uncommon for fleets to make outside donators unable to donate fleet credits, only dilithium, or whatever sort of resource they don't want to part with themselves.

While yes those settings are available... I would say that using them is evidence of a badly managed fleet / armada.

And... how "not uncommon" is it really? In the various armadas (about six?) I've been involved in, I've only ever seen two fleets using those options, and one of those just recently started (and is being pressured by the armada organizer to backtrack it).

Usually the more significant problems are fleets that are not being actively managed (so there's no projects being slotted), and/or the armada having too many max-level fleets (or max-except-colony which in many ways is pretty much the same thing; also no projects being slotted, or very few).