STFC New Player Blog

How do you know if your base is being attacked? If you are online you will get a warning. Your base will get what is called a "pity shield" for 10 minutes after the first hit. So you have time to get a shield up before the player can continue raiding. 

If you were offline- well you will see the damage and can look at the battle logs.

You have been cruising along playing mostly independently through the teens and early 20 ops levels. You have the game figured out. You are in a public alliance because like so many people playing this game you are not especially social. If you keep playing this way you probably will just ignore the Armada portion of the game. But this would be a mistake. Instead you should find yourself a supportive alliance that fits with your desired gameplay style.

How to Select an Alliance 

Playstyles Info  

USS Franklin- Must Have

What is it for? Swarms. Now the biggest complaint I hear is that other ships do a better job killing swarms. Often this is true. I find it working well for me as long as I have a crew with T'Laan on the bridge. Eventually it will be similarly effective for your swarm Dailies and it will be much cheaper to repair.

Should I get it? YES

• First you need this to complete missions.

• Daily Swarm Task. You will be farming Swarms daily for a long time. So you may as well have the right ship for the job.

• Support Refinery. You get resources for killing swarms.

• If you stick with the game you will need to max this ship so you can get the big brother USS Franklin A. That ship is going to help you with Waves which is a fun group activity you will do in your 30's and 40's. 

• Most important- you get an Archive with this ship! Archives are newer to the game and they help you get through some of the early tasks faster. I already have 3 of the archive buffs so my Franklin is easier to level up and does more damage against swarms.

Botany Bay- Must Have

What is it for? Augment data mining

Should I get it? YES 

• You need this ship to complete missions and open up Augment Space

• You can trade the data for needed credits, officer shards, and other goodies in the Augment Faction Store

• You get an archive that once completed includes independent credit pulls and daily chances for officers including Khan!

Northstar- You probably want this ship

What is it for? Mostly hostile grinding and missions- it can be used to quickly mine 3* materials but it has small cargo/protected cargo so it is not a go-to

Should I get it? PROBABLY- If you can get the BPs easily in an event you should

• This ship has good warp range, good warp speed, and good defenses that will get you further on missions than you standard warships.

• When I am in a hurry I will send 2 ships to complete hostile farming events or dailies- this is a great second ship.

Jellyfish- You may want to skip

What is it for? Strong Early Ship 

Should I get it? MAYBE

• If you are still around level 12 it will be your strongest ship so it may be helpful

• If you are short on time and want to finish missions more quickly- it is pretty fast and if you put an officer in the Captains Chair like Klaa for an impulse speed boost you will get the benefit of the Pilot Recognition ship ability that boost from 15%-70% the captain ability.

• If you plan to do a lot of PVP later int he game, especially during incursions. This ship can be a smart part of your base defense when your base is not shielded. Once maxed the 70% Captain boost with an officer like Yuki who reduces the opponent player's shield can stop the invader in their tracks.

The last couple weeks were tough. Despite my efforts my alliance membership is dwindling. The alliance chat is pretty much just me, people leaving the alliance, and a few armadas. The visits to this blog and my other site are down to pretty much zero. No one appeared to be coming back. So I took the sites down.

Yesterday was especially rough. I was ready to give up on this venture and leave my little failing alliance. Since this is my alt account I am only able to be online in game when I am home- as many of you know you can only have one account on your phone. And I am working longer hours right now due to fiscal year-end activities. So when I got home yesterday admiral from another alliance (let's call them the AGGR for aggressive) marked my little alliance Kill On Sight (KOS) because they accused one of our players of attacking an AGGR player illegally three times and claimed that our alliance was unresponsive and unaccountable. They set us to KOS 2 hours and 15 min after posting the incident. Uh- I am out of the house at work for over 10 hours a day. 

Now the kicker is that the AGGR alliance had no proof and I was just supposed to believe that the incident happened as they stated. Our server etiquette is to post a screen shot of the incident to prove there was a violation. There was no screen shot provided and they were not going to provide one. This was the last straw. The AGGR alliance has been chasing my alliance new folks from the game. While AGGR is careful to follow the Rules of Engagement, they do it in a very aggressive way. The only time my players actually post to Alliance Chat seems to be due to the behavior of AGGR. I had a player leave the game last week because the second they went OPC their miners were attacked. No one likes to be targeted for no reason. Justifying bad behavior based on following ROE is not the way I want to treat people. So I was ready to throw in the towel on this alt account adventure...

Then it happened. People reached out. First I received a message from the admiral of the 2nd largest alliance on the server and he said punishing an alliance for an incident without proof is just irrational. Then I received a message from one of my players asking where the blog had gone. Suddenly I did not feel so alone and I did not feel like such a failure. If I can help people and do it with integrity then I am not giving up. Sorry- I missed a weekly snapshot. But I will post another this weekend. Also look for a new post this weekend with more advice.

EXOCOMPS are something I do not use enough. I often forget about them. But when I do use them they make all the difference. There are 3 different types of EXOCOMPS: Galaxy, Combat, and Station.

The Galaxy EXOCOMPS help with things like Mining Speed, Ship Warp Speed, and Officer Stat increases. Your ships MUST BE DOCKED to apply a Galaxy EXOCOMP. So you must put it on before your ships head out to mine.  

The Combat EXOCOMPS increase damage inflicted by your ship. This may be against a specific target or any target. These can be applied at any time. So you can put it on right when you need it.

The Station EXOCOMPS increase speed for Building, Research, and Repairs. You will need to activate the EXOCOMP before you start the Building, Research, or Repair. This can help you save your speed ups.

Initially you will have one slot for each EXOCOMP which means you can run one of each at the same time. This is one of my favorite features. For instance when I am doing a Q Trial I can use both an Officer Stat boost AND a Combat Damage increase. Many times this gives me that extra oomph needed to finish the Trial. If you also have a Fleet Commander buff activated- you get even more of a boost.

When you are at level 15 you can do an event from the Hollodeck called "Legends of the Cosmos". At the end of this mission you get to choose your first Fleet Commander.  When I have choices in missions I typically do not put much if any thought into the choice. But this one is different. This decision will impact your gameplay.

The Fleet Commander is stationed at your base in the Command Center building. Based on their expertise they help your entire fleet with ship and station buffs. 

You finish the "Legends of the Cosmos" and you choose either Kirk or Spock as your Fleet Commander. If you are like many people you will have no clue how to unlock your Fleet Commander. With my first account I think I was in my 30's before I figured this out! 

Go to the Refinery - Command Center Tab. You will find a reward to unlock your Fleet Commander. 

Go to the Command Center Building to Assign your new Fleet Commander.

First I have to admit I had a bit of a fail this week. The new Story Arc began so I should have had a new Battle Pass. But I did not get one. My excuse is that a lot of things have changed for new players in the last 2 years. I hope others can learn from my mistakes. During the time since I started this account I have had the introductory Going Beyond Event, the Frontier Pass, and I had an Officer Flash Pass. I just assumed that the regular Battle Pass would be there. Turns out you get your first Battle Pass event at level 18. If I had just leveled up before the story arc I would have been golden.

Now you are going to wonder why I care so much about not getting the Battle Pass event. It has to do with those Broken Desealing Rods. I currently have 1080. Once you have 4000 you can trade them in for one Desealing Rod during the Treasury Event for the best loot in the game. Since I am a serious tight wad, I am not going to pay $99 to open that Treasury. I am not buying anything so I REALLY NEED the loot to progress. The mixture of Latinum, Gas, Ore, and Crystal, and the ship parts are a game changer. (Note- Once you trade your broken rods for a Desealing Rod or buy a Desealing Rod use it right away. If not used it will disappear when the Treasury event ends.)

How to get 360 Desealing Rods

• Claim the 30 Day Loyalty Chest

• Complete the Battle Pass Events Every Day- you get the Rods as a reward for completing the Battle Pass Overflow Event

• Complete the Officer Flash Pass Events Every Day- you get the Rods as a reward for completing the Officer Flash Pass Overflow Event

So now you know why I am disappointed. I missed a couple days of the Battle Pass so I cannot complete the Battle Pass Overflow Event, so I cannot pass GO, and I cannot collect my 360 Desealing Rods.

Incursion is here. One of the surprises people have is that a ship with lower power can easily defeat a stronger ship. How can that happen? Well first- you need to pick the right ship for the job. Each ship has special characteristics of its own. The battle triangle is really important- Explorers have advantage over Interceptors, Interceptor over Battleships, and Battleships over Explorers. Just as important is your crew. 

But when folks ask "What crew should I use?" it is a bit tricky because there are so many variables. Officer level, officer strength, Officer attack, defense, and health, and Officer abilities. There are some standard crews that can be used, but the effectiveness will depend on those factors. So today I am going to talk about picking and testing a hostile crew for Swarms. After all, everyone has to do swarms for their dailies when they start out. So I am going to test out some crews on my Jellyfish, an Explorer for advantage over swarms due to the battle triangle.

You get the idea. I could continue to fine-tune this crew with testing below deck officers. Note that some officers will have special below deck abilities that may also help. So review all the info and get a crew that works for you. 

There is a hostile crew you will want to get: Pike-Moreau-Chen/T'Laan. Christopher Pike is an officer you should grab shards whenever possible. Once you have this crew you can use the Pike-Moreau-Chen (PMC) for most hostiles and the Pike-Moreau-T'Laan (PMT) for Interceptor Hostiles.

Happy Swarm Hunting!

Incursion week is the worst time of the month for Alliance Leaders. You communicate by posting in AC (Alliance Chat) and send PMs (Private Messages). And then you still get questions on Incursion Day- "Why are my miners getting attacked?" or "Some BLEEP raided my base". Frustration does not even begin to describe my feelings. This is going to be my first Incursion running an Alliance with my ALT. Wish me luck.

What is an Infinite Incursion? This is a PVP event that is typically held once a month. It is a competition between two servers. Players on each server get points for attacking the other server bases and ships. There are special tokens that allow players 25+ to visit the other server. This means that anyone that can be hit by level 25+ players will be impacted without leaving their own server. You can find your attack range using the PVP Range Finder. You can see that 21+ player bases and ships can be attacked by the other server. 

PVP Range Finder 

Shields are different during Incursion. Normally you can put up a shield on your base in any system with station housing. During Incursion only 19 and lower level systems will have Shields. So Alliance leaders will be sending out requests for players to move their base. Bases cannot be in an Alliance Territory, in Faction Space, or any other 20+ systems. 

Incursion starts one hour before the normal event reset. Players from the other server will have a red halo to their bases and ships so they will be easy to identify.

The first week I started my new Alliance they were running the Alliance Tournament. I am quite successful every tournament on my Primary Account. Tournament is a relatively new thing- so I did not have any experience with it as a low-level player. I decided to get my new little alliance some rewards. This is the first failure I promised to share.

First I had to roll, roll, and re-roll to try to get a task I could actually do. I spent hours as a new Ops 15 hitting level 15 Swarm hostiles to get 5 points each. Having to repair after every 4-5 kills. Destroying 320 hostiles to get 1600 points for the 5000 task. And being a glutton for punishment I also did this for 2 of the 3000 Swarm tasks and a 1500 task.

And I feel like all I got was "this stinking T-Shirt". We did not get promoted, barely got any reward points, and the rewards available for Novice League stink. As you can see I got 4 bps of Tom Paris. Do not get me wrong Tom Paris is an awesome Officer. The juice was not worth the squeeze.

So, here is the question. Why am I doing tasks now that Alliance Tournament is back and I am still just an Ops 16? I have a problem and "admitting I have a problem is the first step", Right?

Above you can see that I have a mission to build the USS Franklin. I also have one to build the Botany Bay. I just reached Ops level 16. The USS Franklin cannot be built until you build level 17 Shipyard and the BB needs a level 18 Shipyard. 

One of the traps many new players fall into is the higher level mission trap. As a leader of 2 Alliances, I often get questions from lower level players asking how to do something that is above their current level. How to get bps, how to defeat specific hostiles, how to get to certain systems. This is not surprising because everyone loves the satisfaction you feel when you complete a task. 

The game counts on this as a way to get people to speed to the next Ops level. As I said in the last post on Power- when you you take your time and focus on power you have an easier time defeating hostiles, traveling to systems, etc. When you rush you are likely to get frustrated by the difficulty you are facing and you are going to be more likely to spend money to get the resources, ship bps, officers, etc. that you do not have yet.

You want to spend- fine, great, do it. That is your choice. Just be aware that the game is influencing this behavior. Be an informed consumer. If you want to be Free to Play (F2P) or Mostly F2P then you may want to archive missions you cannot currently complete. Out of Sight- Out of Mind. Just remember to check them once in a while to see if you are ready to progress the missions.

Archiving Missions

Here is a link to a great site for mission identification: STFC Database 

STFC Statistics Link 

There are a lot of statistics that measure STFC players. Which is most important? Operations Level or Power? You may think I am about to say Power, but actually my answer is Both. You will want to progress in the game so you will need to increase your Ops level to get to new events, new ships, and new capabilities. As your Ops level increases, the power of the hostiles in your dailies and events also increases. I find it so much easier when I have strong ships, officers, buffs from buildings and research, and plenty of resources.

No- I am not saying you are playing the game wrong. There is no such thing. As long as you are having fun, go ahead and play any way you like. I am just sharing my experience and advice in hopes it can help someone. 

Above is a screenshot of the STFC Statistics site. This site includes data on all players and all servers. I just leveled to Ops 15 two days ago. My Power is the 3rd strongest of the 46 players on my server at Ops Level 15. With this power I have an easy time advancing.

So how did I get all this power in two weeks?

• Promo Codes- Use AI or browser to search for codes and watch the Cadet Chat and STFC Communications 

• Complete Daily Goals- At a minimum I complete all the Daily goal chests so I got the 24 hour and 7 day reward chests (I will get the 30 day in a couple weeks).

• Join an Alliance- The "help" button speeds up builds

• Complete Field Training

• Claim Rewards Chests

• Progress the Syndicate

• Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade- Buildings, Research, Officers, Ships

• General Missions- start every general mission you find. Explore systems to find all missions. Do not worry about missions you cannot complete- you can come back to them later.

• FKR Missions- I archive these for when I have events that need me to increase my Fed, Klingon, and/or Romulan reputation.

• Complete Battle Pass Events every day

• Complete Other events whenever possible

• Send out Away Teams Continuously