Goodbye Stan you created some very iconic memories for millions. Shaped peoples lives. And you will be missed. So in your own words Excelsior true believers.Goodbye Stan you created some very iconic memories for millions. Shaped peoples lives. And you will be missed. So in your own words Excelsior true believers.

Mom and I were discussing shuttles and we have slightly differing opinions on them: I think they're awesome good fun, Mom thinks they're   

The difficulty people have with shuttles, especially when they join STO, is that the shuttle comes with -S equipment which can be confusing. Namely, shuttles do not need to use shuttle-specific equipment and often, such equipment is worse than just using the equipment off your main ship. In addition, shuttles also have their own challenges: they are fundamentally small ships in their own right and need to be built with the same care as a capital ship with fewer slots. However, it's easier to show not tell.

With that in mind, I built a Captain's Yacht using (almost) all mission-obtained equipment. I tested it out and it works reasonably well. I will note here, as a traditionalist I like to have both energy and torpedo weapons on ships; and to push it further, I gave myself the limit of having only Federation weapon types on this shuttle, so that limited my choices to the phaser and quantum torpedo (or photon torpedo) sets. However, there are several other options available.

Captain's Yacht

The real value in using mission equipment (or even better, reputation equipment) is in two-piece set bonuses. This build benefits from:

• Trilithium-laced weaponry/console bonus: 5% firing haste for all energy weapons, and +15 flight speed.
  
• Quantum Phase Catalysts weaponry/console bonus: +15 accuracy rating, doubles potency of quantum phase weapons shield drain, and doubles potency of quantum phase high-yield torpedo shield heal.
  
• Kobali Regenerative Circuitry bonus: +60% hull regeneration (increases as hull decreases)
  
• Incontrovertible defences bonus: +30 kinetic damage resistance rating
  

I did not look to change any traits from my ship as people simply don't do that. I cheated slightly on my goal by using the Point Defence System, but that's a cheap console (from a 1000 zen ship) and can easily be swapped for a tactical console, a science console, or something off the Exchange. The Captain's Yacht has an extra device slot, and allows for the bridge officer to be any type (Eng, Sci, Tac). It's a good idea to have the bridge officer trained in all available Ensign abilities so you can swap out if required (e.g. using Torpedo Spread here but can swap to High Yield, Fire at Will, or even hull or shield heal with this ship).

An issue that people also have with shuttles is the difficulty in aiming and shooting. There are a couple of 'fixes', one being to get a ship holoemitter from the GPL Store; the other is to use reputation equipment visuals on the ship (such as the Iconian reputation deflector) which provides a good "front end". Having said that however, as you use shuttles more, you get used to its orientation (unless you're Red Squad, in which case you "can't recall").

I hope this will give people having some difficulty with shuttles to give them another look.

My Jem'Hadar characters did no grind at all - the Gamma Recruits got plenty stuff of everything, they just fed the Reputations for 30 days...

This is new at Tier VI
The word immediately gets a new meaning: it may last a minute or two until all the new shiny bonuses beam in.

Vanity Shields
For 300 Reputation Marks each faction offers a distinct shields, some are very distinct...

Faster, Stronger, Better!
All Space, Ground, and Tier V reputation traits get replaced immediately by a rank 2 version that is 25% stronger, harder, or cooler. The old traits are gone. You need to activate new traits manually and refill your action trays accordingly.

Each weapon from reputation requisition projects immediately gets +2% Bonus All Damage. That fancy green tooltip is misleading - it's just the weapon itself that gets the bonus applied.

Fleet Ship Modules
Each Character can claim a Fleet Ship Module in each Tier VI Reputation for 100 Reputation Marks, once.
One. Hundred. Reputation. Marks.

Retrain Tokens
Each Character can claim a Retrain Token in each Tier VI Reputation for 50 Reputation Marks, once. Indeed.

Account Wide Discounts
The Account Wide Discount gives you a 50% cost reduction in EC, Dilithium, and Reputation Marks for all requisition projects from that reputation. No refunds, but also applied to active projects. The price of the discount unlock varies by reputation:

Omega: 5 Elite Marks (Neural Processors), 25000 Dilithium, 175 Marks, 100000 EC
Nukara, New Romulus: 25000 Dilithium, 175 Marks, 100000 EC
Others: 5 Elite Marks, 20000 Dilithium, 100 Marks, 100000 EC

Again: it may last a minute or two until all the new price tags arrive the shelves.

Be smart!
NONE of these projects can be cancelled. So check your bank if your have the Marks and Elite Marks in your vault before statintg the Claim Projects.

New Energy-Weapons for your Space Ships
I list by Energy Type thoss I found. Set and Console Bonuses are also extended to include those new energy types.

Phaser
Gamma: 360° Beam Array, Turret
Terran: Beam Array & Heavy Dual Cannon

Disruptor
New Romulus: Beam Array

Plasma
Undines: Heavy Turret
Lukari: Beam Array & Dual Cannon

Polaron
Temporal: Beam Array & Heavy Dual Cannon

Antiproton
Nukara: Dual Beam Bank
Delta: Beam Array & Heavy Dual Cannon
Manneuver: 360° Beam Array, Heavy Turret

Tetryon
Undines: Heavy Turret
Iconians: Beam Array & Heavy Dual Cannon

PLUS
A new ground ability for partay fireworks on ground as shown on pic

You've heard the rumors, now it's time to see for yourself!

With Brawndo_Mom and Darkthorne making more videos on the mechanics of STO, I thought it would be a good time to show (not necessarily "show off") my own builds.

I shall be building each ship into STOAcademy.com and then listing them on here.

As some background: I have a number of toons in Starfleet, the Klingon Star Empire, Romulan Republic, and one in the Dominion. I like to try out all three careers in each, as well as trying out different styles of build. I personally get the most enjoyment out of trying new and quirky things, so while I do have one or two high-DPS ships, many of my builds are done more to see how far I can push a single idea. As such, each ship is different. While some builds are more successful than others, they all fly differently and provide their own unique and enjoyable gameplay. And sometimes, what I consider a successful build is that the ship is performing in a way that people (not Strike Group people but *eek* Zone Chatters) said cannot be done.

In terms of approach, I like to headcanon each ship having its own mission, and captain having their own goals and aspirations. I therefore include a biography for each ship and captain in the listing. These are important as the build itself is targeted to this mission and will help visitors (both from here, and directly from STOAcademy) understand why things have been done in a certain way, even if it's not "the most effective" build. After all, for me it's about what's the most fun.

So with no further ado, allow me to present for your popcorn-munching enjoyment

USS Kleist - Odyssey Class threat/healboat
RRW Tuttalius - D'Deridex Class that can move like an escort and fire like TNG

Check it out, my Disco Klingon is in the "Starfleet Academy Yearbook Page 3."  My Captain is standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge!

https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/start...ook-page-3

The Join Random Button gets your Private team into PUGs. Here is how we go:

STO WORKS ON MAC, AGAIN!


WINE v3.13 (maybe earlier?) fixed the broken DirectX 11 dependency, which is what killed STO on Macs in the first place.
If you already have "PlayOnMac" (it's a WINE wrapper) with IE8 and STO installed, set PlayOnMac to use WINE v3.13. STO should run just fine, after that.

If you don't have PlayOnMac, or if you're missing STO, or if the above just didn't work, then it's a little trickier, but have no fear!

• Install PlayOnMac
  
• Set WINE version to 3.13 or better
  
• Use PlayOnMac to install Internet Explorer 8
  
• Download Star Trek Online
  • The STO download will install DirectX 9, 10, and 11, and then crash when it can't find "Star\ Trek\ Online.exe"
    
  • THIS IS OKAY!
    
• Download the old STO launcher from this link. (Can we get a public Dropbox link, in case this ever disappears?)
  
• Move the "Star Trek Online.exe" file into the program-files directory that PlayOnMac created for STO during the original download attempt, above: "Users/{username}/Library/PlayOnMac/wineprefix/StarTrekOnline/drive_c/Program Files/Star Trek Online"
  
• Use PlayOnMac to manually set a shortcut to the "Star Trek Online.exe" file, so it knows to add this executable to your list of applications.
  
• Run STO
  
• ??????
  
• PROFIT!
  

If you have more than one graphics card on your Mac, you may need to manually switch to the superior one. Switching from the integrated Intel chip to an AMD chip causes weird artifacts on the character load screen, but walking around the interior of Deep Space Nine is fine.

I testes this!  So at level 11 you get your first compliment of 20 DOFFs.  You will need more than 20, about 120 DOFFs of any rarity.  You will also need to buy about 26-30 Research DOFF missions, either from the Exchange or Lockboxes.  Each Research says it has over 5,000 XP, but when it is complete, you will receive over 30,000 XP per research.  The only problem with this, you cannot do any research missions until level 12 for some reason, I don't know why?

The other thing about research mission, they do not count as regular DOFF missions.  So, if you do 15 Research, you can still do 20 regular and have 35 going on at once.  So if there are any people who want to power level there characters, I hope this was helpful!?

If you can't open your overflow-bag due to long existing  bug, where the menu doesn't pop up.
Don't log out, don't restart STO simply,

in your chat-menu type "/lootcancel", then try to access your overflow bag...