Star Trek Online for newbies

[Batman]

The thing is you do get better ships for free on leveling up, it's just the three basic ship types for that level. You only need dilithium if you want to change your mind later. It just seemed weird, that's all.
And is it me or are named ships considerably tougher than their regular brethren? I've faced D'Deridexes in Deep Space Encounters a few times and they were no unsurmountable problem-tough to be sure, but manageable. Named ones in missions? They need like 15 seconds to take me apart.
I've-once-managed to drive one off-by exploding in its face. That seems a tad excessive to me.

[White Haven]

What difficulty level are you running missions on?

[Batman]

Regular, given there is no easy setting.

[White Haven]

Probably because regular is the 'unfathomably easy' setting. I don't know what to tell you, man, if regular space combat is kicking you're ass, you must be doing something very, very wrong somewhere, some oversight, something. What's your ship fitted with?

[Batman]

About what you'd expect at that stage (Captain 34). Exploration Cruiser with Plasma Beam Array Mk VIII [Acc]x2 (185 DMG/148DPS, +20 Acc), Phaser Beam Array Mk VII (169DMG/136DPS)and two Mk VII photorp launchers (2290 DMG/352 DPS)forward, two Mk VII Phaser Beam Arrays and a Mk VII photorp launcher aft, Mk VI deflector array (+10 to sensors/inertial dampers/insulators) Efficient Impulse Engines Mk VI (+10 flight speed, +0.16 turn rate, +1.2 weapon/shield/auxiliary power setting, +85 speed max impulse), Shields Mk VIII [Cap][Reg] (5060 max capacity with 10% bleedthrough, 169 regen in 6 secs), consoles give +22% turn rate, +10 able/alive crewmen resistance, +7.5 kinetic/all energy damage resistance, +11% phaser damage, +13 stealth and +5.8 inertial dampers.

[White Haven]

Well, first-off, get rid of one of those forward tubes, swap both remaining photon tubes to quantums, get rid of that plasma beam, replace it and the torp you're losing with phasers, and I don't even see a second tactical console in the list you provided, but I'd recommend either quantum damage or phaser damage. Don't rainbow-fit weapons, and you're not nearly maneuverable enough in a Galaxy to really want a bunch of 90-degree-arc weapons. What bridge officer powers do you have set up?

[Batman]

Um-the very reason I'm sticking with beam arrays is because of the firing angle issue. I'd have switched to quantums except that hasn't been an option so far?
And yes, there's only one tactical console, because that's the only tactical console I've got at this point.

[White Haven]

Impressive. A captain who hasn't found out how to fly to Earth Space Dock, go to the Exchange, and burn otherwise-useless energy credits on gear that fills EMPTY SLOTS in your ship's layout? And no, you're not using primarily beam arrays, because you have TWO FORWARD TORPEDO TUBES on a ship that, from painful experience, turns like a beached whale. To be blunt, equip your ship and you might not get yourself blown to kingdom come all the time. Depending.

[White Haven]

Oh, and since it's specifically named D'deridexi that are killing you, keep the range open and have Fire At Will or something similar on hand to squash those nasty heavy plasma torp salvos.

[Batman]

I'm not getting killed all the time, I'm getting killed by named D'Deridexes (specifically the I.R.W. Sithesh in 'Ground Zero').
And yeah, I somehow never checked out the exhange before for some reason so thanks for that.
I kept (upgraded, even) the photorp launchers because this is a Starfleet ship and Starfleet ships have photorp launchers dammit.
Not that the eventual (and reluctant) switch to all beam arrays made much of a difference. Yeah, it's the heavy plasma torpedoes that do me in, but apparently that damned D'Deridex can fire those salvoes faster than I can reengage Fire At Will II. Have yet to try with the recently upgraded forward armament and 2nd tactical console. (Forward phasers and torpedo tubes replaced with Plasma Beam Arrays [CrtD][Dmg]x2, 2nd console gives +19% to plasma energy weapons.).

[White Haven]

The thing I said about not rainbow-fitting? That means pick an energy type and stick with it, so you can stack tactical consoles to match. Phasers or plasma or whatever, not a mix. Also, wasn't saying NO torps, but rather no to multiple torps per arc, and recommending a switch to Quantums. Tractor Beam Repulsors on a science officer can put paid to those heavy plasma salvos, just requires a bit of planning and forethought.

[Batman]

And if you give me another 210,000 energy credits, I'll replace those rear phasers too.

[White Haven]

The point, which I've attempted to make crystal fucking clear, is that you should equip ALL ONE or ALL THE OTHER. So while you're still trying to buy more plasma beams, DON'T USE THEM YET. Because ALL PHASERS with TWO PHASER CONSOLES is much, much more damaging than HALF PLASMA and HALF PHASERS with one console of each. Staaack. Iiiiing.

[rhoenix]

Indeed - the boosts to damage gained from the consoles make it silly to mix & match types of beam weapons, or torpedo systems. It's even better to have lower-end gear that all matches type than mixing and matching, simply due to the boosts one gets from the consoles.

You can try out whatever combinations of both that you want. Here are my findings from the testing with them I did.

Beam types:
Phaser - probably one of the best overall. Knocking out random subsystems is hilarious, and is always useful.
Disruptor - ties with the phaser for first place for most of the game, in my book. Reducing damage reduction is fun, but usually better when you're in teams than in solo play.
Plasma - the damage over time sounds impressive, until you see just how much damage it actually does - and the fact that it does not stack. WEAK SAUCE.
Tetryon - If this did more shield damage, I would have it tied for first place. Unfortunately... not so much. It looks more impressive than the others (excluding antiproton and polaron), but...

I'll skip antiproton and polaron for this section, since I pretty much quit STO before I would've been a high enough level to use them, and therefore have little to no practical experience with them.

Torpedo types:
Photon - hard to top this one for refire rate and raw DPS, especially for Tactical captains. It really is.
Quantum - higher damage, slower refire rate. These are very scary in bursts.
Plasma - gives damage over time that doesn't stack, just like the beam type. SKIP.
Tricobalt - it has a 60 second cooldown, which seems excessive. However, I've personally observed Havoc blow ships that were formerly at full health and shields right in half with a well-fired tricobalt. Accompanied by maniacal laughter, of course.

Again, skipping transphasic and chroniton, for the same reasons as the beam weapons above.

[Batman]

I picked plasma because they were cheaper than the phasers with the same damage rating, and I like the audio and visuals. I've been seeing orange phaser beams and hearing the same phaser beam sounds for 25 years. Time for a change.
I should perhaps pay more attention to my duty officer assignments. Now perhaps a fifty percent failure rate is normal, but I can't shake the nagging suspicion that me going yeah, whatever and just clicking through them as fast as possible has something to do with that.
And being able to redo the exporation missions not just daily, but instantly is just weird, as is being able to explore three different star systems...without so much as firing the drive up.
Also, was that just a glitch or do you really need to have the supplies you need for 'aid the system' missions onboard before you ever get the mission? Because 'get the mission, go back and get the supplies, return to planet' so far only resulted in me bumping in the planet with the mission remaining unresolved.
And while the Star Trek galaxy is known to be lousy with anomalies, I think the number of systems that have ludicrously dense asteroid fields is a bit on the high side even for that.

[White Haven]

...oh dear. You have, I dearly hope, noticed the 'replicator' button in your inventory? Rather handy for Aid missions.

[rhoenix]

I picked plasma because they were cheaper than the phasers with the same damage rating, and I like the audio and visuals. I've been seeing orange phaser beams and hearing the same phaser beam sounds for 25 years. Time for a change.

That's why I went with Disruptors for my Tactical captain, back in the day - to burn through enemies with rapidity. I rocked Disruptors and Photon torps for most of my ship's career, honestly.

Also, was that just a glitch or do you really need to have the supplies you need for 'aid the system' missions onboard before you ever get the mission? Because 'get the mission, go back and get the supplies, return to planet' so far only resulted in me bumping in the planet with the mission remaining unresolved.

You... can, but it's a giant pain in the ass to fly back and forth. Just use the Replicator, grumble to yourself about it costing money, and go from there.

[Batman]

I wouldn't mind the flying back and forth if it actually worked. So far for me it doesn't. I either have 10 of whatever they need on board or the mission is a wash. I go shopping for what they need, I go back...the damned 'what is it you need' dialogue never shows up, I just eventually bump into the planet. You'd think the most obvious solution would be 'Okay, you need 10 of X, so how about I go get them and come back to deliver'. Doesn't seem to work that way.
The game also doesn't seem to like providing map markers-'download the data from those five research probes'. Hey, thanks for showing me where those probes are on the map. Oh wait.
And um-starship. Yes, I can absolutely move vertically as much as horizontally even if you restrict me to airplane-like maneuvring.

[Hotfoot]

Scanners. Use them.
Replicators. Use them.
How? SCIENCE!

[Batman]

Scanners are useless for detecting anything but anomalies which I couldn't possibly care less about?

[Hotfoot]

WRONG!

[Batman]

Hey, thanks for this incredibly detailed explanatation. Oh wait. You didn't give any.
Up to this point all scanners show me are anomalies. They haven't told me where enemy ships are, they haven't told me where the damned mission objectives are, they just point me to anomalies.

[Hotfoot]

I told you how to do it. SCIENCE!

Seriously. Employ science. It works.

Do I need to teach you science?

[Batman]

Which particular part of 'scanners never give me anything but anomalies' didn't you understand? Some of us didn't pick cruisers because they're science officers, but simply because they like cruisers (and are lousy shiphandlers).

[Hotfoot]

Oh, I understood you properly. I know that you're just 100% Grade-A USDA Approved WRONG.

But you could stop being wrong if you simply applied SCIENCE.

Would you like to know more?