Merit Points
Exploration Points (badges of orders 2nd, 3rd and who knows what)
Space anomalies and junk you loot
Food buffs
Personal shield buff things that can be turned in to upgrade gear (WHA?)
Some say this is to prevent credit farmers on day one and to make the currency have more meaning but the game is all over the place with skill points and currency if you ask me.
I do not know for a fact what badges of exploration are for because they are not active in game right now. I would assume, true to their name, that they are for exploring. There are badges of the 2nd order, 3rd order, 4th order and maybe some more but how they are gained? No idea. Add to that the fact that the Klingon side is woefully incomplete and these badges seem to create more headaches than solve them. I quote:
I finally found a dev to tell me the way to get "Badges of Exploration" is to do Star clusters (Genesis/Exploration system). The problem is that Klingons don't have access to Star clusters so we have no way at getting the badges. Please replace all Exploration Badge items with PvP Medals until you give Klingons Star Clusters
Then we have Starfleet Merits. We have energy credits. We have pieces of junk that we pick up and can use to upgrade gear if we turn in a certain collection of them.
The currency in this game is all over the place. To top it all off the PC skill points and bridge officer skill points are not given out at the same rate. When you complete a mission in this game the list of stuff you get scrolls like credits at the end of Avatar:
You have gotten bridge officer skill points!
You recieve Starfleet Merit points!
You get XXX credits
You get some random gear thing that may or may not go on your ship or crewmembers
You have looted a space anomaly or some debris thing
You have gained a level in our obscure bloated leveling system (level 3 first commander of a 2nd platoon!)
Too much. Add to this that each currency type has a vendor and you are running all over trying to figure out what to spend where PLUS you can buy ship modifications and change the way things look. So that is another vendor for cosmetic purposes only.
If anyone in beta at this moment can clear this up for me feel free to post here. Until then I am going to scour the STO boards for a definitive post on this and then cut and paste that sucker for long term reference. I could RTFM too but I doubt it is in there. Good luck asking in game. Zone chat is full of arguments about WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, people asking where to get a light saber and others proclaiming that EvE Online "sucks compared to this game".
I don't even understand the comparisons to EVE Online (and yes, I know that wasn't really what you're on about, but it tweaked me, so I'm babbling). EVE Online is infinitely more complex, and hence, totally different. Not better, nor worse, just different. I tried EVE. I wanted to like EVE. I think EVE is fairly polished and has some great mechanics. But it's actually too open ended and too complex for the way I want to play. I'm too casual an MMO-er, and have too many other demands on my time, to devote the time necessary to really enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteAs to the currency thing...I think I understand most of it, but I agree they may have made that more complex than it needs to be. Skill points are for your own skills; bridge officer points are for BO skills; energy points are for ship upgrades or hull purchases. Gear is gear, some of which can presumably be sold or traded if not equipped.
What's not clear (because I haven't tried selling anything) is which sets of points you can liquidate them for -- do the yield energy points or skill points? I'm betting energy points, and I'm further betting that *purchasing* such gear will require energy points.
So: skill points and BO points are used for levelling up. Energy points are used as credits.
This is an area where Star Trek just doesn't fully translate to "typical" MMO mechanics. TNG-era Trek doesn't *have* currency, at least, not in the main body of the Federation. Hard currencies like gold-pressed latinum and other non-replicable materials get used when dealing with hard-currency cultures outside the Federation, but within the Federation, there is no monetary system at all.
"This is an area where Star Trek just doesn’t fully translate to “typical” MMO mechanics. TNG-era Trek doesn’t *have* currency"
ReplyDeleteCould not have said it better myself.
Yeah. I'm just not really sure what they could have done about it, honestly. I mean, they want a game that's playable by non-Trek MMO-lovers (although the actual product may have enough flaws they won't want to!), which means certain familiar mechanics really have to be there.
ReplyDeleteBut even if it was purely for Trek fen, I'm not quite sure how else you'd ration ship upgrades and equipment. You'd need *some* kind of credit system.
(Of course, I also freely admit that I don't fully understand how TNG-era economics are supposed to function, as described on screen, either. But I'm also prepared to admit that might simply be a failure of my imagination and not because it's impossible).
The Energy Credits I believe stem from Voyager, when they started rationing the amount of "energy" aka replicator rations, holodeck time, etc because they did alot of fighting and needed to conserve power for shields/weapons. Seeing as the MMO is based in a time of War the Energy Credits makes since as the entire federation needs to ration their energy usage in order to beat the klingon's.
ReplyDeleteBridge Officer points are a cool way to level your "pets" which is what the Bridge officers are basically. This allows you to customize your "pets" to your liking, instead of them all having a generic skill set leveled like most MMO's.
Skill Points are nice because also unlike most MMO's where you gain a lvl and get XYZ spells every time, it allows you to create a more customized and specialized character every time you lvl a new toon, this is kinda like eve but implemented differently.
Yes the BO and Skill points aren't given out at the same rate but if you look at the skills they also dont cost the same amount.
Starfleet merits im not to sure about. Dont really see a comparison to any other MMO I have played since they are I believe solely used for buying new Bridge Officers?
The exploration ones seem like a decent idea, they appear to be like the "shards" in EQ2 where you do certain missions, you get the "shards" and then turn them in for rewards. Designed to make you do certain missions and work for your gear vs. buying Plat or "energy Credits" to buy whatever you want.
oh forgot the anomaly stuff, that's kinda like harvesting in EQ2, except there doesn't seem to be a "crafting" system just a vender to turn in the items to upgrade gear.
ReplyDeleteand because it isnt a true lvl based game like WoW is why the "Lvl" is screwy. You have
Lieutenant
Lieutenant Commander
Commander
Captain
Admiral
each of those ranks has 10 grades (basically a % towards your next Rank)
so a Commander Grade 5 would be the equivalent to Lvl 25 in WoW or other Lvl based MMO's. with Lvl Cap being I believe Admiral Grade 10 (i may be wrong) which would be the equivalent to a lvl 50 toon I believe. They claim its not a lvl based game I guess because you don't get XP but instead get Skill points which when used help you progress in Ranks. Once you get used to the system it wont be confusing and the fact that it isnt just a star trek WoW-Clone makes the game that much more interesting in my opinion.