Best characters for a miserly newb?

[ragnarcarlsen]

Looking to start this game, and looking to start cheap. (If I like it, I'll invest cash after I know where to best put my money)

What's the best character to start with? I was thinking a starfleet science officer or engineer, as support characters rather than DPS may find more opportunities. Is this accurate?

[ragnarcarlsen]

Really? It won't let me use ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ newb? Anti-aliteration authoritarian ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Szeron]

Science would probably be the safest bet in your case.

They get defensive and offensive support abilities in space and are the primary healers on ground(although they do have some really nasty AE damage potential as well). It honestly doesn't matter that much though, the game is very flexible and you generally have your bridge officers to lean on for anything you may be lacking.

[ragnarcarlsen]

Thanks for the advice Szeron. Any advice about game controls? They seem terribly counter intuitive, particularly the ones in space. For instance, isn't there any way to make my several mouse buttons do stuff? Am I missing something in the options menu?

[angel of derp]

Play KDF side (or Romulan KDF) also because you get more Dilithium, which you can use to convert to Zen & purchase the fancy gear. That has changed a bit with the Dyson space... but KDF has traditionally been better at farming.

Whether you are DPS or not doesn't matter. The endgame stuff, such as the Dyson Battleground, doesn't matter because you're in a giant clump & you bring your own support officers with you. As for ships, DPS matters more than CC because they nerfed the heck out of Science abilities.

It USED to matter, and it does matter if you want to do Borg STFs on the Ground, but Science & Engineering aren't UNpopular, so it doesn't matter that much. It's not like World of Warcraft where being a healbot is terribad. People actually play Sci officers, so it's not like there aren't healers.

As for mouse buttons, you really need to use the number keys, plus Ctrl & Alt, once you get to higher levels. You will have so many abilities to map, you'll need all the buttons you can get.

[LupisVolk]

for me the Romies are begineer freindly.

[Szeron]

Originally posted by ragnarcarlsen:

Thanks for the advice Szeron. Any advice about game controls? They seem terribly counter intuitive, particularly the ones in space. For instance, isn't there any way to make my several mouse buttons do stuff? Am I missing something in the options menu?

You can bind buttons to your mouse through the options - I personally have Distribute Shields and Roll bound to M4. You have to select the mouse buttons from the drop-down menu though.

As for space UI.. can you be a bit more specific? General tips:
-Right-click weapons to set them to autofire. (You can even enable this feature for ground weapons if you set it up through options - be warned this makes it harder to use other abilities on the ground though.)
-Spacebar will engage/fire weapons.
-Shift-R will take you to full impulse out of combat. I recommend 'pulsing' it rather than keeping it on to mitigate the power drain. Shift-R will also activate Quantum Slipstream on the sector map once you hit 50.
-R will take you to full speed, and drop you to 0 if you're currently at full.
-V will activate your scanner and show you your nearest objective(on ground or in space).
-You can speed up looting by setting your options to Auto-loot. This will let you pick up everything in a loot container by pressing F twice while you're near it.
-There are several camera modes, experiment with them. Some are better suited to different players and playstyles. (I usually run Free-cam unless I'm in something extremely nimble.)

[Bacon.熏肉.[DK | Newbee]]

Originally posted by ragnarcarlsen:

Looking to start this game, and looking to start cheap. (If I like it, I'll invest cash after I know where to best put my money)

What's the best character to start with? I was thinking a starfleet science officer or engineer, as support characters rather than DPS may find more opportunities. Is this accurate?

I don't think it really matters, especially since your Bridge Officers and choice of space-ship dictate most of your play options. It's just what is your favorite play-style. You might as well start one of each type of character to the maximum number allowed for free (I think that is two, maybe four). The only must is probably Fed is the best faction for your primary character. You might find Romulans cute and edgy, I don't know.

In other words, you could run a science officer, but still run with a escort or a cruiser, and mostly pick tactical and engineering bridge officers. There would be very little difference between that and your character being a tactical officer.

The biggest difference in what you pick for your officer character, is in the ground combat. Your character class dictates what kits you carry which dictates how your character acts in ground combat. But you can totally avoid ground combat most of the time, if you want. You can even skip story-line missions, so if you find one is too heavy in ground combat, you can skip it completely.

If you want your characters to start off wealthy, which is about the only 'starter' bundle you really need (unless you are obsessed with making level 50 tomorrow), is this: spend $5 (or $10) and spend it all on Master Keys. Then sell those keys at the in-game exchange for about 2million credits each (maybe deduct 200,000 for a quicker sale). 10 million energy credits will get your starter hero almost anything you'd want from the exchange. Not everything can be bought this way, but about any gear that would make grinding to level 50 easy could be bought this way. Before you spend any of that money, be sure you understand the mechanics of the game really well from the STO wiki, and the in-game skill browser, which will explain what skills to get, what equipment to buy, etc...

The KDF (Klingons) is definitely not the way to start this game, but there is just enough PvE and story progression in the Klingons now that you can do it. The biggest problem is the game launched as basically a 'be a Federation officer' and that bias is still ingrained in the game's population, even if Cryptic has evened out the differences between Klingon and Federation by this date.

[angel of derp]

Oh, the game still is "Starfleet Online". KDF-side just has far better access to Dilithium, which a "miserly" player can convert to in-game $$$ for fancy ships.

Romulans have the best stuff, though. It's still "Starfleet Online" for Romulans.

EDIT: Also, I would add that I wish I had started on KDF earlier. Then I wouldn't have spent so much $$$ and time on Starfleet.

Of course, now that applies to KDF-aligned Romulans due to all the cool Romulan toys.

[LupisVolk]

Originally posted by smelly tank:

Oh, the game still is "Starfleet Online". KDF-side just has far better access to Dilithium, which a "miserly" player can convert to in-game $$$ for fancy ships.

Romulans have the best stuff, though. It's still "Starfleet Online" for Romulans.

EDIT: Also, I would add that I wish I had started on KDF earlier. Then I wouldn't have spent so much $$$ and time on Starfleet.

Of course, now that applies to KDF-aligned Romulans due to all the cool Romulan toys.

so does that mean those who sided with the KDF get better access to Dilithium

[Nephtys]

Engineers are one of the best starter classes in my opinion, you can spec them quite aggressively and still have a decent tank, I regularly out DPS tactical officers on my engineer, and I can out tank them too! Another tip regarding the UI, make sure you set your weapons to autofire, just r click on each weapon on the UI till it glows green, and voila that's 50% of your button clicks done away with!

[jamesharris.404]

My suggestion is that you get a enginneer and surround your self with tactical and medical you can have a tank but also have a true specs ops guy, as said before it is a good starter class, my first character was a engineer and he was a beast and he could fight

[TheWolfDrone]

It has already been said but I myself find that Feds side is a good place to start. Rom is a fun side as well, for some reason I found the KDF extremely boreing and dull. I would say you should do some research as well on skills, traits ect ect. The game throws alot of info at you from the get go and it can be a tad bit to much for those who do not check up on things first. Hope to see you in game some day, have fun and see you around ^^

[jamesharris.404]

I played the kdf first and loved it i do like the romulans more though because you don't just recieve one factions bnefits you can get two. Plus it is way easier

[jamesharris.404]

I have had 8 level 50's in all factions the romulans were the easiest