A question about ships...

[mdredheadguy1979]

In STO, if I want to use a science ship what options would I have in a fight with other ships. Will I be able to fire on ships while they are clooked? How about draining an enemy ships power and using it for my ship? Can a science ship be upgraded with quantum torpedoes?

Now about the escort ships, can they be upgraded to detect clooked ships?

Are these abilitys controled by your B.O.'s and not the ship you pick?

Thanks everyone,
Terry W.

[Acyl]

All my answers are based on recent interviews, dev chats, Q&As and dev posts on the forums. I'll also tell you WHERE the devs said it. I'm too lazy to provide actual links, though.

In STO, if I want to use a science ship what options would I have in a fight with other ships.

Science ships have more science bridge officer positions than Cruisers or Carriers...a Science ship can equip more Science BOs. Depending on how you're set up, that means you can use more powerful (higher rank) Science abilities, a wider range of Science powers (from having several equipped Science BOs), or the same powers more often (if your Science BOs have duplicate skills).

At least two Science space combat powers have been revealed. Zinc's talked about 'Tachyon Beam', which can drop enemy shields - allowing you to follow up with attacks while they're vulnerable. Look for the press briefing from Gamescon in Germany.

He's also mentioned 'Sensor Ghosts', ie. you can create illusionary duplicates or confuse the enemy about exactly where your ship is, that kinda thing. He explained this power in one of his Hailing Frequency podcast interviews (not the most recent one, an older one).

From those two examples, I get the impression that Science ships do sneaky stuff. And various STO articles (PC Gamer, ZAM, etc) say Science ships can also heal other ships. Boost their shields, etc.

Will I be able to fire on ships while they are clooked?

In the comment thread about the Discovery-class, Rekhan revealed that all Science ships have the ability to detect cloaked ships.

How about draining an enemy ships power and using it for my ship? Can a science ship be upgraded with quantum torpedoes?

We don't know. No word on either of those specific things.

Now about the escort ships, can they be upgraded to detect clooked ships?

Yes. In the Discovery-class thread, Rekhan specifically said you can set up your Escort for cloak detection. It's just that all Science ships do that automatically.

Are these abilitys controled by your B.O.'s and not the ship you pick?

We know that some ships have powers built-in. Because Rekhan said that ALL Science ships have the automatic power to detect cloaked ships. So it isn't just BOs.

[mdredheadguy1979]

Thanks for all of the information. I'm just glad to know that the game won't be limited to just "fire at will" and there seams to be other options.

Terry W.