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COMO Sapel
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re: VIL - Introduction to Ship building Basics.

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Considering the number of new builds that we will likely see in the coming weeks (both from new characters, and from old characters moving to new ships)... I thought this might be useful... 10 "basic guidelines" of ship design.

I was initially taught some of these when I started playing, back in 2013, and have developed others as I have studied various game mechanics. While you do not (of course) have to follow these... doing so will result in ship that can easily produce the damage needed in any normal-difficulty and many advanced-difficulty situations.

 As you will see, there is still a lot of room for customization. Some of these can be bent or broken successfully(6,7 and 8 are easiest to bend/break and still have a really nice build), but think about it first.

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Basic Shipbuilding Guidelines.

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 These guidelines are designed to apply broadly to most common builds, which use energy weapons as their primary damage source, with a limited number of projectile weapons.

 Please note that many of these guidelines are NOT applicable to two less-common build types (both of which inherently break at least one of the below guidelines): exotic-science based builds and kinetic damage (torpedo-centric) builds.

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 1. All energy weapons should have the same "damage type". (There are six: Phaser, Disruptor, Plasma, Antiproton, Polaron, Tetryon.) This is usually named in the item name, but some are deceptively named, so check the tooltips.

 NOTE: all six types share the same base damage scale, they just have different additional special effects, meaning that there is not one that is inherently better than the others.

 Some ships do have built-in (or console) weapons of a specific type, however, and in those cases, you should probably match that type.

 

2. All energy weapons should be EITHER beam-style OR cannon-style. (Turrets are considered cannons.)

 NOTE: This is due to the efficiency of applying Bridge Officer weapon mode skills; on ships that have extremely high tactical officer seating, it may not be necessary.

 

3. You should use only one projectile weapon, placed in the far right forward slot (they work slightly better there, due to a combination of the autofire game mechanic and the effects of different weapon styles), or none at all.

 

4. 360-degree weapons, if used, should be used in aft slots only.

 NOTE: the tooltips on omni-directional beam weapons are somewhat deceptive. Although they say that you may only use one per ship, there are actually three different categories, and you may use one of each. (Episode reward omni-directional beams, the Omega reputation kinetic beam, and all others.)

 

5. All Tactical console slots should be used ONLY for Tactical consoles with weapon damage boosting effects. These include ONLY: standard craftable/lootable tactical consoles (Phaser Relay, Disruptor Coil, etcetera), Fleet Spire vendor Tactical consoles (Vulnerability Locator and/or Exploiter), and some other Fleet vendor Tactical consoles. These should ALWAYS be specific boosters for your energy weapon damage type and/or your torpedo damage type.

 An exception to the above list may be made for the the Counter-Command Tactical Console (an episode reward), *if* you are also using something else from the set and therefore activating its 2-piece bonus, *and* you are using an applicable energy type *and* a torpedo.

 DO NOT use +Beam or +Cannon type tactical consoles, as they are inherently less efficient than the energy-specific consoles.

DO NOT use Tactical console slots for Universal consoles.

 

6. Your top two Tactical Bridge Officer abilities should be some combination of: either Beam Fire at Will OR Cannon Scatter Volley (depending on chosen weapon style), and an Attack Pattern (Beta, Delta, or Omega). Third should be Torpedo Spread, if you have chosen to use a torpedo and have room for four or more Tactical abilities. You should also use Tactical Team (generally, the first-rank ability is enough).

 

7. Science Bridge Officer abilities should always include Hazard Emitters (I usually put this at second rank if possible) and, if you have room for them, Polarize Hull and/or Science Team (generally, the first-rank ability is enough for both of these).

 

8. Engineering Bridge Officer abilities should always include Engineering Team (again, generally, the first-rank ability is enough) and, if you have room for it, Emergency Power to Weapons.

 

9. Seek out equipment (universal consoles, science consoles, engineering consoles, deflectors, shields, impulse engines, warp engines) which have some of the following boosters: +All Damage, +Damage for your chosen weapon types, +Critical Hit Chance, +Critical Severity, +Turn Rate, +Max Hull, +Max Shield, -Weapon Energy Cost, +Weapon Firing Speed, -Bridge Officer Cooldown. In some cases, these stats can also be found as 2-piece or 3-piece set bonuses.

 

10. All active Bridge Officers should have a "space" personal trait. (Bridge Officers have four personal traits, but many have four ground traits... these are not desirable for use on your ship, but may be retained for Away Team duties.)

 The possibly-best such trait is Superior Romulan Operative ("SRO"), which is commonly (but not always) found on Romulan faction Bridge Officers; Romulan captains can easily get enough to run an all-SRO bridge crew. However, for non-Romulan captains, they must be obtained from a Fleet Embassy vendor, where only Tactical officers are available with this trait (specifically, only the blue-quality male, though you may purchase multiple copies). This means that non-Romulan captains will need to look at Bridge Officers with other space traits.

 Pirate is also quite useful; Klingon captains can easily get many of these, as Nausicaans always come with this trait; Federation captains may get one as a reward for reaching 100,000 Diplomacy duty officer points. There is also an episode-reward officer, the Hierarchy Science officer (Delta episode "Alliances") who has both Pirate and Efficient, making him the best free Bridge Officer in the game (for non-Romulan captains).

 

Other Bridge Officers with an assortment of other traits are available via duty officer recruiting assignments (random officers with Efficient are available for both Federation and Klingon) or via fleet vendors (especially at the Embassy, Research Lab, K-13, and Colony), and also via the CStore (individually or included in purchasable expansion packs).

 

A thanks to Charles Jencks who crafted this post and is posted here with his permission.



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Wupteedo
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re: VIL - Introduction to Ship building Basics.

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Good post.  Wish it where here about 5 years ago.  My only advice to Captains with multiple toons, and I only have eight, is only use two type of energy weapons per character.   You can have both beam and cannon type weapons, but keep the type the same.  This way consoles can be interchanged and other special features carry thru your various ships for that character/toon.  This is more about economics than actual game play.  Why spend dilithium on extra weapons systems you don't need or will use with that character. 

Also, in my attempt to role-play, I try to keep my toons, based on alignment, to their primarily energy type weapon.  So, for Federation, it is phaser, Klingon is disruptors, and Romulan, Plasma type weapons. 

Qa'pla



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Jiinan
Tactical - Captain

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re: VIL - Introduction to Ship building Basics.

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I've been more of a cannon based build since I returned with the exception of my main at the moment. Too heavily invested in Anti-proton to go phasers for now. I've also enjoyed putting +Drain on my KDF with the Disruptors, love watching my enemies just melt before me.

VADM JT Kerry
VADM JT Kerry
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re: VIL - Introduction to Ship building Basics.

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Good find Sapel!



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