Career Paths

[SenatorPardek]

As we know, there will be three career paths at launch. I suppose my question is how much are those career paths going to define our roles. Lets say for example I want to play an engineer. Being non-combat oriented, am I going to need an escort-ship captained by a tactical to take me around everywhere? Or, will say, being an Engineer captaining an Excalibur-Class, will I be able to hold my own in fights and not have to always run unless there is someone to bail me out?

I guess I am afraid of not being able to solo every now and then if I'm not a solely combat ship

[Swordopolis]

Just because you can't out-phaser your opponent doesn't mean you can't win (or at least escape in one piece).

Use science and engineering skills, like confusing their sensors or screwing with their shields. Send boarding parties to knock out their systems. Use superior speed and maneuverability to avoid their fire.

Just because you don't pick a combat-oriented captain doesn't mean you're screwed.

[SenatorPardek]

True, that always sounds good on paper though. I've played some games that unless you are seriously packing some heat you really can't do well on your own.

I'm really hoping we'll see a lot of non-combat oriented content. It makes me a little uneasy that all the material released by Cryptic so far has been combat focused.

[AraYm]

As we know, there will be three career paths at launch. I suppose my question is how much are those career paths going to define our roles. Lets say for example I want to play an engineer. Being non-combat oriented, am I going to need an escort-ship captained by a tactical to take me around everywhere? Or, will say, being an Engineer captaining an Excalibur-Class, will I be able to hold my own in fights and not have to always run unless there is someone to bail me out?

I guess I am afraid of not being able to solo every now and then if I'm not a solely combat ship

Even if your Career path is that of an enginieer you still can be captain of an escort class type of ship
if you need one for a specific mission
There're no class restricted vessels in STO

And as the excalibur class is a "Jack of all trades" there should'nt be any problem

I think the difference is in the abilities.
A tactical Captain'll have abilties like weapons overload or Torpedo volley whereas an enginieer'll have abilites like, i don't know, reroute emergency energies to get a collapsed shield up while still being under fire or something like that.

You can still have the tactical abilites in some kinda way through your bridge officers.

You should'nt be worried, I'm pretty sure that you can solo without problems.

[williams.blaine]

Keep in mind that just because you're on an Engineer or Science path, doesn't mean that you can't captain a Defiant and trick it out with all kinds of nifty new PEW PEWs and Tac BOs to run a DPS mission. Then, you can switch over to your science ship and load up all your science BOs to focus on a non-combat mission.

I think that's one of the key things in STO. You don't decide to be a tank or a healer in the beginning and then go on to rue that choice till the end of your days. Your path choice only locks you in to a portion of your abilities as a player. A lot of other factors can be changed on the fly (or at least near the fly to butcher an expression).

[SenatorPardek]

Even if your Career path is that of an enginieer you still can be captain of an escort class type of ship
if you need one for a specific mission
There're no class restircted vessels in STO


And as the excalibur class is a "Jack of all trades" there should'nt be any problem

I thing the difference is in the abilities.
A tactical Captain'll have abilties like weapons overload or Torpedo volley whereas an enginieer'll have abilites like, i don't know, reroute emergency energies to get a collapsed shield up while still being under fire or something like that.

You can still have the tactical abilites in some kinda way through your bridge officers.

You should'nt be worried, I'm pretty sure that you can solo without problems.


Sounds great to me. I suppose an Engineer could have so kick butt skills too go along with the...oh no, send repair teams over to that exploading Miranda pilioted by Leroy Jenkins gameplay : )

[Rgoodfel]

From what I understand your captains skills are only one component of the system. Just because you are an engineer doesn't mean you always have to play that role. (it just might be a stronger role for you to play) You could take a Escort ship out for a spin and still do well.

What I am hoping for is that some encounters it is better to be set up as different classes of captain/player styles. For example, such as if you run up against a heavily shielded opponent maybe some engineering skills could be useful to disable them somewhat because raw firepower only works so well against a heavly shield target.

[williams.blaine]

The US PC Gamer article made it sound like Engineer captains have abilities that can turn their ships into tanks, BTW. They mentioned the engineer captain in a Constitution-refit engaging the huge Negh'Var to keep it busy while the rest of the team focused on the Vor'chas.

[SenatorPardek]

The US PC Gamer article made it sound like Engineer captains have abilities that can turn their ships into tanks, BTW. They mentioned the engineer captain in a Constitution-refit engaging the huge Negh'Var to keep it busy while the rest of the team focused on the Vor'chas.

That....is.....AWESOME.

[Joachim]

Yea also hoping the engineer means i will have shields above average and able to take more punishment in exchange for less offense or such. At least what i was thinking of.

[AraYm]

The US PC Gamer article made it sound like Engineer captains have abilities that can turn their ships into tanks, BTW. They mentioned the engineer captain in a Constitution-refit engaging the huge Negh'Var to keep it busy while the rest of the team focused on the Vor'chas.

Hmm okay...i was going to choose enginieering too,

but I hate tanking...

I prefer the ranged DPS + Buff/Debuff provider (and healing, but just if everybody fails at it in my party ^^)
I hope there're some enginieering skillz to acompish that role for me

[SenatorPardek]

I was definately leaning towards engineering. I like the idea of being able to heal etc but also be able to take punishment, give some out, and use skills.

I also really like the classes of ships Cryptic is putting out there. A very nice variety, and I like the Escort/Cruiser/Science Vessel breakdown.

[erriku]

In the PC Gamer article, we had 4 people playing the mission. 2 were the PC Gamer writers and the other 2 were from Cryptic.

Tactically skilled Captain commanded a Saber class - Light cruiser
Engineering skilled Captain commanded an Excalibur class - Medium? Cruiser
Science skilled Captain commanded a Norway class - Medium Cruiser
Engineering skilled Captain commanded a Steamrunner class - Heavy Frigate

First they took on 5 Klingon B'rel class Birds of Prey, then right after handled a squad of 2 BoP, 2 Vor'cha ships, and a Negh'var battleship. After that, they did some ground combat and even did some time traveling to the 23rd century. It was an awesome read. I hope everyone decides to pick up the magazine.

[williams.blaine]

It was an awesome read. I hope everyone decides to pick up the magazine.

I second that motion. I've read my copy a couple dozen times already.

[SenatorPardek]

In the PC Gamer article, we had 4 people playing the mission. 2 were the PC Gamer writers and the other 2 were from Cryptic.

Tactically skilled Captain commanded a Saber class - Light cruiser
Engineering skilled Captain commanded an Excalibur class - Medium? Cruiser
Science skilled Captain commanded a Norway class - Medium Cruiser
Engineering skilled Captain commanded a Steamrunner class - Heavy Frigate

First they took on 5 Klingon B'rel class Birds of Prey, then right after handled a squad of 2 BoP, 2 Vor'cha ships, and a Negh'var battleship. After that, they did some ground combat and even did some time traveling to the 23rd century. It was an awesome read. I hope everyone decides to pick up the magazine.

That sounds awesome. Nice to see alot of variety

[Draconianknight]

In the PC Gamer article, we had 4 people playing the mission. 2 were the PC Gamer writers and the other 2 were from Cryptic.

Tactically skilled Captain commanded a Saber class - Light cruiser
Engineering skilled Captain commanded an Excalibur class - Medium? Cruiser
Science skilled Captain commanded a Norway class - Medium Cruiser
Engineering skilled Captain commanded a Steamrunner class - Heavy Frigate

First they took on 5 Klingon B'rel class Birds of Prey, then right after handled a squad of 2 BoP, 2 Vor'cha ships, and a Negh'var battleship. After that, they did some ground combat and even did some time traveling to the 23rd century. It was an awesome read. I hope everyone decides to pick up the magazine.
Ok I have not had a chance to pick up a copy of the new PC Gamer yet. But if 3 crusiers and a frigate took down a Neg'Var...the AI they were playing against must have been really dumbed down.
Cause there aint now way in hell it would happen especially with 2 Vor'Cha's there as well. Klingon ships are far more heavilly armored and carry far more fire power. Especially those two classes.

[icemann448]

Ok I have not had a chance to pick up a copy of the new PC Gamer yet. But if 3 crusiers and a frigate took down a Neg'Var...the AI they were playing against must have been really dumbed down.
Cause there aint now way in hell it would happen especially with 2 Vor'Cha's there as well. Klingon ships are far more heavilly armored and carry far more fire power. Especially those two classes.

totally agreed that, that's BS, there's no way that should happen even with AI, PVP better be something a little different... but anyway

to address the OP it's also already been said that your bridge officers will be a HUGE HUGE deal of your "character", so you being an Eng Cpt, wont really effect you if you have 3-5 tactical bridge crew, or something along those lines, or if your single Tac officer is a rare breed (not talking about race) then you could do REALLY well against overwhelming odds.

[Azurian]

As we know, there will be three career paths at launch. I suppose my question is how much are those career paths going to define our roles. Lets say for example I want to play an engineer. Being non-combat oriented, am I going to need an escort-ship captained by a tactical to take me around everywhere? Or, will say, being an Engineer captaining an Excalibur-Class, will I be able to hold my own in fights and not have to always run unless there is someone to bail me out?

I guess I am afraid of not being able to solo every now and then if I'm not a solely combat ship

Well in the Gamescon video, seems like you're career path is still up to you. Meaning if you are an Engineer, you can still pick up other skills from Tactical and Science, so you're not 100% stuck in the Engineering field.

Which is canon, because all the Captains were not solely limited to a single field.


Besides, I wouldn't make like Captains who choose the Engineering field would be weak in combat. I see them basically being the Tanks, where their ships would be able to take tons of pounding and lasting longer in combat.

In short, thinking about it, they would essentially be Paladins. Even more so if they train some in Tactical combat.

[Draconianknight]

They have said all along that your capabilities will be a mixture of your AND your bridge officers skill sets. Your rand and your skils will all come into play as well as the class of ship apparently.
Granted there is not much info on this topic but I kind of see a system similar to EVE.
Hence if you have a science path for your self and a decent eng and tatical officer a Federation science vessel with better than average shielding because of your and your engineer tweaking it. could hold out against a Klingon BoP long enough for help to arrive or to get away..just an example but makes the point. However, since there will be a teired system of ships. A teir 3 science vessel should have little trouble with a teir 1 BoP. Again just an example and my opinon from what little they have said.
Also the Federation WILL NOT have cloaks as per cannon. But you science types will have better chance to detect the cloak. So guess who will be the first to die! Yup, you got it, I am going to take my Neg'Var and shoot a torpedo right up your tail pipe.:D

[FerrariF40LM]

Ok I have not had a chance to pick up a copy of the new PC Gamer yet. But if 3 crusiers and a frigate took down a Neg'Var...the AI they were playing against must have been really dumbed down.
Cause there aint now way in hell it would happen especially with 2 Vor'Cha's there as well. Klingon ships are far more heavilly armored and carry far more fire power. Especially those two classes.

This may be star trek game set in space and in the future but if you look into military history you will find that smaller ships have taken out ships 2-4 times as big and more than triple the armament. Planes have taken out battleships etc.

Everythng has a flaw.

[icemann448]

They have said all along that your capabilities will be a mixture of your AND your bridge officers skill sets. Your rand and your skils will all come into play as well as the class of ship apparently.
Granted there is not much info on this topic but I kind of see a system similar to EVE.
Hence if you have a science path for your self and a decent eng and tatical officer a Federation science vessel with better than average shielding because of your and your engineer tweaking it. could hold out against a Klingon BoP long enough for help to arrive or to get away..just an example but makes the point. However, since there will be a teired system of ships. A teir 3 science vessel should have little trouble with a teir 1 BoP. Again just an example and my opinon from what little they have said.
Also the Federation WILL NOT have cloaks as per cannon. But you science types will have better chance to detect the cloak. So guess who will be the first to die! Yup, you got it, I am going to take my Neg'Var and shoot a torpedo right up your tail pipe.:D

hey Drac, i'm pretty sure unfortunately the Feds will have cloaks.... per CZ.... which is retarded but per the Khitomer Accords, feds can't cloak, but since those are disolved..... you can kinda guess.................

[Draconianknight]

hey Drac, i'm pretty sure unfortunately the Feds will have cloaks.... per CZ.... which is retarded but per the Khitomer Accords, feds can't cloak, but since those are disolved..... you can kinda guess.................

Yo Iceman,
According to the write up and post on Ask Cryptic, the Fedrats will not have cloaks. Unless it is a special mission for something like PvE and then it will not be something they can keep. I could find the exact qoute if you want...its several months back but its there.

[Draconianknight]

This may be star trek game set in space and in the future but if you look into military history you will find that smaller ships have taken out ships 2-4 times as big and more than triple the armament. Planes have taken out battleships etc.

Everythng has a flaw.
Your preaching to the choir..I spent my time in the military, Navy in fact. And yes I know my history.
And everytime that the bigger, badder guy lost was due to poor tatics or because he was overwhelmed.
Do you honestly think we beat the Germans in WWll because we had superior fire power. Hell no we just had more of it. Not the case in the write up. No escort or crusier going toe to toe with a Neg'Var is going to win. He might get some lucky or well placed shots. But in the end it will be taps for the smaller ship.
Even a Soverign class ship would be evenly matched witha Neg'Var. But with 2 Vor"Cha...nope they dumbed down the AI on that one...had to:mad:

[Sir.Bastage]

The ships you will have access to is dependent on skill in that specialty and overall rank. If you start as a Science Officer Lieutenant rank you get a tier one science vessel. You get promoted to Lt. Commander, you get a tier two Science vessel. If you want to command a tier one Escort or Explorer, you need to acquire the skills necessary. If you stay true to your progression tree and reach the rank of Captain of a tier four Science vessel, you will not be able to Captain vessels of another tree until you have acquired the necessary skills. I'm guessing an Admiral would be able to Captain tier four ships of all three trees. :cool: Oh, and all your BO's are of lower rank than you.

[icemann448]

Yo Iceman,
According to the write up and post on Ask Cryptic, the Fedrats will not have cloaks. Unless it is a special mission for something like PvE and then it will not be something they can keep. I could find the exact qoute if you want...its several months back but its there.

oh i'm not doubting you brother, but it's just that hearing it from CZ's lips that in a round about way, Feds "could" have cloaks, says to me that they will, but i dont doubt that it says somewhere that they wont. it was just the most recent thing i seen.

[dscoleri]

hey Drac, i'm pretty sure unfortunately the Feds will have cloaks.... per CZ.... which is retarded but per the Khitomer Accords, feds can't cloak, but since those are disolved..... you can kinda guess.................

Actually, I could be wrong but I believe the Khitomer Accords were only temporarily dissolved during the Dominion War. Aside from that fact the Khitomer Accords didn't have anything to do with cloaking technology. I think you are referring to the Treaty of Algeron which was a treaty between the Federation and the Romulan Empire. In addition to banning the Federation from researching cloaking technology it also established the Romulan Neutral Zone.

[FerrariF40LM]

Your preaching to the choir..I spent my time in the military, Navy in fact. And yes I know my history.
And everytime that the bigger, badder guy lost was due to poor tatics or because he was overwhelmed.
Do you honestly think we beat the Germans in WWll because we had superior fire power. Hell no we just had more of it. Not the case in the write up. :

agreed but i wasnt thinking about the Germans, i was thinking about the japs. Refeer to the USS Johnston a Fletcher class destoryer(TIin Can) that went head on into the jap. force and took out the IJN Kumano that was 6 times as big. The USS Johnston did eventually sink tho. Also look at the USS Samuel B. Roberts. that took out the IJN Chokai which was 2 times a big, but it did eventually sink also. which also was ingaging in the same battle as the USS Johnston was.

My point is that the litte ships took on the big ships head on and took em out. Everything has a flaw wheether its tactics or what ever.

[dscoleri]

hey Drac, i'm pretty sure unfortunately the Feds will have cloaks.... per CZ.... which is retarded but per the Khitomer Accords, feds can't cloak, but since those are disolved..... you can kinda guess.................

Wait sorry, you are referring to the Khitomer Accords being dissolved in the STO timeline. I thought you were referring to the time the Klingons withdrew during the dominion war, that time they resigned the Khitomer Accords a year later when the Cardassians joined with the Dominion. In any case unless there is no longer any Romulan Neutral Zone then the Treaty of Algeron should still be active.

[AraYm]

The ships you will have access to is dependent on skill in that specialty and overall rank. If you start as a Science Officer Lieutenant rank you get a tier one science vessel. You get promoted to Lt. Commander, you get a tier two Science vessel. If you want to command a tier one Escort or Explorer, you need to acquire the skills necessary. If you stay true to your progression tree and reach the rank of Captain of a tier four Science vessel, you will not be able to Captain vessels of another tree until you have acquired the necessary skills. I'm guessing an Admiral would be able to Captain tier four ships of all three trees. :cool: Oh, and all your BO's are of lower rank than you.

And where did you get that information from ?
I would appreciate if you could quote/post the source material for that one
(I read in the dev-chats that BO's are lower in Rank, so no need to get the soruce for that one)

[williams.blaine]

And where did you get that information from ?
I would appreciate if you could quote/post the source material for that one
(I read in the dev-chats that BO's are lower in Rank, so no need to get the soruce for that one)

I don't remember seeing anything that said you can only captain ships that fit your career path, either AraYm.

I do remember them saying that you can only use kits that fit your career path. However, that only affects away missions.

[SenatorPardek]

I was under the impression that you could be any career path any captain any class ship, as long as you spent the skill points on it. So if I wanted a ship in the Constitution Configuration, like an Excalibur class, I'd have to have a certain number of skill points in the "Constitution Configuration Ship Skill" or something like that.

[bradley1701]

Read up on history...there are lots of instances of ship battles being fought and won despite the odds.

The Battle of Trafalgar
The Spanish Armada

Great tactics can make all the difference!

[SenatorPardek]

Read up on history...there are lots of instances of ship battles being fought and won despite the odds.

The Battle of Trafalgar
The Spanish Armada

Great tactics can make all the difference!


Absolutely! I mean even look at the Athenian Navy during the Battle of Thermopylae. They were incredibly out numbered, but weather and battle tatics saved the day for them.

[erriku]

Read up on history...there are lots of instances of ship battles being fought and won despite the odds.

The Battle of Trafalgar
The Spanish Armada

Great tactics can make all the difference!

I also agree. Exceptional captains create exceptional results and all 4 captains in the article played very well together based on what was written.

[SenatorPardek]

I really gotta get my hands on that article. Sounds like an awesome read that would probably give me a good feel for how the game plays.

[ragarth]

My understanding is that each career path with have 2 different directions they can take, what they are I dunno, but science can go 'science' which I think will act as control and debuff, or medical which will act as bandaid. Engineer will apparently be buff and tank, throwing down portable shields and such, tactical will obviously be DPS.

That's just my opinion though.

[moessner]

yea all the diffrent paths will have there + and - to it. i know in the pc mag artical, they stated afew diffrent skills like( brace for immpact) witch makes your hull indistructible for a few sec. there was another skill stated planet bommbardment but was not up and running....so i guess we will see in the next few months.

[Sir.Bastage]

And where did you get that information from ?
I would appreciate if you could quote/post the source material for that one
(I read in the dev-chats that BO's are lower in Rank, so no need to get the soruce for that one)

I've read many articles and have heard a few interviews, I'll try to remember. I'll see if I can locate it for you. I do think it makes some sense. If Starfleet trains you in a field like Sciences, they wouldn't choose to place you in command of a Tactical vessel when they train Officers specifically for that purpose. Also, Officers rarely get to pick their postings.

[Admiral-Darren-Wright]

Well twice now they have said theres 2 ways on career paths,

You can either go down one talent tree, and go along to end game or you can do all 3 and get to end game with all 3 paths like in my other thread asking if people would will do one tree to get to end game faster with one lot of skills , or if they will do all trees but get to end game a lot slower, but be much more talented and have all ships unlocked and have many more abilities and fully versatile.


So the choice my friend, is truly yours.

I want to have an Intrepid configuration the first chance i get, but i also want to be tactically and engineering sound. So ill be doing all 3, me and those with me will get to end game a lot lot slower maybe by the power of 3, but when we do get there, well be full capable.

This was said in the hailing freqeuncy interview with criag and then again at the game play press interview at gamescon for those who want proof its all in there and my other thread with peoples ideas ill bump in a minute

[AraYm]

Well twice now they have said theres 2 ways on career paths,

You can either go down one talent tree, and go along to end game or you can do all 3 and get to end game with all 3 paths like in my other thread asking if people would will do one tree to get to end game faster with one lot of skills , or if they will do all trees but get to end game a lot slower, but be much more talented and have all ships unlocked and have many more abilities and fully versatile.


So the choice my friend, is truly yours.

I want to have an Intrepid configuration the first chance i get, but i also want to be tactically and engineering sound. So ill be doing all 3, me and those with me will get to end game a lot lot slower maybe by the power of 3, but when we do get there, well be full capable.

This was said in the hailing freqeuncy interview with criag and then again at the game play press interview at gamescon for those who want proof its all in there and my other thread with peoples ideas ill bump in a minute

Hmm that would be better i'd like to choose engineering but I also want to have acess to a Defiant-configuration (sometimes i'm just in the mood for straight frontal attack style of (pvp) playing)

[Draconianknight]

Absolutely! I mean even look at the Athenian Navy during the Battle of Thermopylae. They were incredibly out numbered, but weather and battle tatics saved the day for them.

You better finish reading that part...Athens burned in the end. The battle may have been won...but the war was lost.
Why do you think Alexander had such a hard on for Persia?

[Draconianknight]

Ok back on topic and enough history.
I did like the fact that they have said this will be skill based. And that we can advance all 3 paths to have a more rounded capt. I will prob still lean heavily on Tatical with supporting bridge crew.
I like the idea of having an eng. and science alt though. sometimes i like to just craft. But for the most part I plan on being in the fight!:cool:

[BaakCha]

Is there an information source that actually breaks down the three different career paths? I ran couple searches and this thread came the closest. :confused: