The first fleet training exercises of the Federation News Service went well, once we got things figured out. The original plan was to get as many captains together and attempt a Fleet Action. Unfortunately we found that Fleet Actions are currently rank restricted, meaning that Commanders go to a different instance than Captains who are in a different instance than Admirals. This was problematic since we had three Rear Admirals, one Captain (me), and one Commander. Originally this wasn’t the case, but I know there were issues with scaling when an Admiral would spawn the initial instance, so I can understand why the instances are restricted. Plus having a rank include 10 levels means that the Fleet Actions are still fairly open. Still it meant no Fleet Action in Tostig for the FNS. Instead we headed to the Beta Ursae sector block to find a few Deep Space Encounters, these weren’t quite challenging enough, so we headed into Cardassian space to the Kora sector in Zeta Andromedae.

We also had some problems getting everyone into the same instance. Apparently the DSE’s are capped at five players, so when we entered an existing one our team was split across multiple instances. Switching instances isn’t hard, but it is a pain when you have to wait for spaces to open up in the instance where the rest of your team is. What the game should have done was spawn a new instance for us if there weren’t any that could accommodate a full team, I guess I need to go to the suggestion forum and make a post.

Once we were all in an instance together, we did have quite a bit of fun. This was the first real team experience I’ve had in STO, and it was interesting to get the hang of coordinating with other players. I have teamed up in the past, but not in situations where I needed to worry about tactics or keeping an eye on my teammate’s shield indicators.

All in all it was a good learning experience and a lot of fun, I’m looking forward to our next Fleet engagement and hopefully I’ll be a Rear Admiral, grade 1, by then.

I did take quite a few screenshots, or at least I though I was, but I’ve been having an issue where Fraps sometimes doesn’t recognize my game. I did take a few using the built-in screenshot function, which I’ve embedded below or you can look at them here.

Tipa did get a good shot of the fleet and a good write up (as always). Longasc has quite a few good shots as well (the link is the starting point for the fleet exercise).

Click here to go straight to the Picasa album.

Fleet Training Exercise Debriefing
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7 thoughts on “Fleet Training Exercise Debriefing

  • April 25, 2010 at 1:11 am
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    I’m sorry I missed it, but from the sounds of it, I don’t think I would have been able to sneak in as a Commander 2. Maybe next time.

    • April 25, 2010 at 1:58 am
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      Amuntoth was Commander and seemed to do ok. I don’t know what grade is was though. He was flying a cruiser so that probably helped.

      There’s a squad system that’s supposed to be in Season 1.2 (May), that’s supposed to allow people to adjust rank up/down, so that should help us do more fleet activities.

      • April 25, 2010 at 5:37 am
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        I don’t know if the squad system is like the sidekick system in City of Heroes, maybe it just allows a group to enter its own instance, like only our fleet entering the Crystalline Entity encounter, and taking a dump on rank/difficulty barriers.

        The rank restriction on fleet actions and them scaling on rank was made to give Admirals something to do. And also to stop Admirals from annoying newbies at Starbase 24 (i.e. they were testing if beam overload can destroy a low level Negh’Var at once and so on). Plus scoring issues – thought the “rewards” for the missions are generally poor, as they are “odd” level and not the “even” max level variants. So Mk IX instead of Mk X gear for Admirals, and Mk III or MK V gear for LtCs and Commanders.

        Whatever, this is how it is at the moment. I can think of some ideas to improve that.
        What should immediately improved is a full team joining a Deep Space Encounter. Splitting a team over various instances is probably one of the BIGGEST BULLSHIT moments in MMO design – but I read they are working on it.

        I was also surprised by the 5 man limit. Even the later Borg DSE’s in Gamma Orionis seem to have a 10 man limit. For sure higher than 5. Very odd.

        Our Cruiser and Science Vessel pilots will be able to practice their support abilities in the Borg Encounters. I suggest making a special Sci or Eng BO just for this purpose, i.e. assign this dude a ton of “support ally” abilities that are rather wasted in solo or small group mode, except Sci Team or Engineering Team.

        Totally unrelated: Soon we will get an update that highlights in the skill tree which skills influence certain abilities. Interestingly it seems that always three skills seem to be assigned to an ability. I noticed that Engineering Team does not get influenced by Subsystem Repair, the UI is misleading and dead wrong again! Instead an “Engine” related ability influences Engineering Team positively. Not only positively, it jumped from 6338 to 8100 hull repair, which is a significant increase of around 28%.

        Our latest fleet maneuver was great fun, and especially Amuntoth fought bravely and fiercely against higher level odds. I suggest a few more space encounters and joining the Tribble Test Server channel #TTS, as random players organize quite often Fleet Actions there.

        • April 26, 2010 at 11:28 am
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          I’ve been planning to make a second set of BO’s for when I’m in a squadron. Guess it’s getting close to the time I need to actually do that.

          I did join the TTS channel once you mentioned it, thanks for the tip on that.

  • April 25, 2010 at 2:09 am
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    Nice screenies, I took a few myself.

    I also have to remind myself to do what Longasc does and take off the shields option.

    • April 26, 2010 at 11:26 am
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      Take off the shields option?

  • April 25, 2010 at 4:55 pm
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    Sounds awesome for the fleet event. Haven’t really been on playing much. Usually in and out at odd times during the day. Anyway for such events will try to be on if it’s possible though haven’t used my skills in a while.

    I may be rusty from not playing as much but if I’m correct Engineering Team is boosted by three skills and if correct one of them is also “Hull Repair” the one in T5 skills. As well Engineering Team makes Subsystem Repair goes faster for subsystem repair rate if I’m correct as well. But the benefit seems really minor to boost that skill as well but that’s the effect on that skill

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