There are a lot of ship collectors in STO so Cryptic gives every player many ship slots. So it is possible to 'keep' the Constitution or any ship you own. For instance my character is a level 50 Rear Admiral who now commands a state-of-the-art Armitage class Heavy Escort Carrier, but he still have his Lieutenant grade starter ship even though. Star Trek Online (STO) is radically different from Netrek both graphically and with gameplay mechanics. STO adds ground-based missions and areas, and these areas along with space combat are 3D. Ship graphics, weapon and ability effects, and many other graphical elements are significantly more complex than Netrek.

(Screenshot by @Rurinnfane, dont miss more awesome pics >here< )

Hello everyone,

here is our suggestion for the latest version from the Federation Flagships, lead your following Captains to victory!

Skilltree:

Boffs:

For Beam Overload:

For Fire at Will:

For Fire at Will + Torpedo:

Doffs (for all builds):

• 3x Technician: Auxiliary to Battery CD Reduction (required, could be obtained via B’tran Cluster chain for free or via commendation ranks store)
• Energy Weapon Officer: Chance for CRTH (expensive, rare is usually good enough)
• Energy Weapon Officer: Chance for CRTD (expensive, rare is usually good enough)
• Emergency Conn Hologram: CD Reduction for Evasive Maneuvers (phoenix store, just get one!) and/or
• Shield Distribution Officer (Agent Nerul): Attack Pattern Beta restores hull when fir...

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Time Spent

Three hours replaying Netrek, around a dozen before both multiplayer and with bots.

Thirty-four total playing Star Trek Online, with around 16 playing new content. Passive level up system enabled the progression of a character to near-max level with modest equipment.

Graphics and Gameplay Summary

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Netrek was a 1988 successor of X Trek from 1986 which ran on the X Window System, which was a successor of Empire from the PLATO system which dates back to 1973. The original Netrek used wireframes and was even less visually appealing than the version shown above. The above screenshot is taken from the 2010 updated client, although the gameplay and other settings remained the same. Aside from choosing to use the classic wireframe client or the new client, there are no other options for Netrek graphically besides modding the client.

Netrek is an arena based game, with teams of players working together to accomplish the goal of defeating the other team(s). To do this, it is beneficial to use cloaked scouting ships to monitor enemy movements, use specialized ships for bombing enemy armies and for transporting allied armies, and to use other ships for dogfighting and protecting allies. While strategies might be complex, gameplay is relatively simple and straightforward, it is just a matter of learning all the options available to the player.

Star Trek Online (STO) is radically different from Netrek both graphically and with gameplay mechanics. STO adds ground-based missions and areas, and these areas along with space combat are 3D. Ship graphics, weapon and ability effects, and many other graphical elements are significantly more complex than Netrek. For instance, shields have angular responsiveness in STO while in Netrek there is only a circle around ships that progresses through three colors and eventually disappears when damaged.

Star Trek Online retains a focus on ship-based combat, and continues to offer arena style missions and events. However, the main player factions are currently in an uneasy peace and open hostilities do not usually occur. There are not overarching goals for groups of players int he game mechanics besides “get better stats and equipment”. Players may have some influence over story direction, however. Additionally, STO adds ground combat and exploration missions. In fact, not every gameplay aspect of STO is focused on combat, with there being many puzzle missions or mission segments as well. There are so many gameplay styles available to players that it is hard to define them.

Controls

Netrek has many different controls, for orbiting a planet to launching torpedoes. Sometimes, these controls are used for different actions, and so the lock-on key also controls orbiting a planet. It can be difficult to know what keys control when playing for the first time, but with practice (and/or a cheat sheet nearby) a player will eventually be able to master the game.

Star Trek Online also has a significant number of hotkeys for different actions, which differ based on whether the player is in space or in a ground-based area. On top of this, the player will gain access to dozens of active skills and abilities, customizable weapon loadouts, consumable items, and reusable items. It can quickly become overwhelming to activate keyboard shortcuts without the use of a gamepad with macros. Additionally, different ships may have completely different loadouts or officer complements, and so it is significantly more difficult for a player to adapt to a new ship class than it was in Netrek.

Ship Variance / Customization

The most popular form of Netrek, Bronco, has 5 ship types. There are the cruiser and battleship, destroyer, assault, scout, and starbase classes for ships. A team needs a balance of different ship types in order to succeed, with some ships better able to bomb enemy planets or transport armies, or to attack opponents, or in the case of the starbase even offer aid to allies. These ships have different masses, weapon ranges and damages, hitpoints, travel speeds, etc. Other than that, however, they are largely the same mechanically, just with different stats and with different roles to fill.

In Star Trek Online, most ships have high levels of customization. Not only are there various ship hulls, such as combat focused escorts or support focused engineering ships, but every ship also has many equipment slots. Different hulls have different slot layouts, weapon restrictions, different command positions to assign bridge officers to which grant different abilities, and there is even the option to assign regular duty officers for stat bonuses. There is also the ability for the player to customize their character for ground missions, which adds even more customization to the game. There are many choices ranging from what type of weapon to use, to what time of armor as well. Customization is significantly more complex in STO than Netrek, and it would be difficult for an individual to decide on an optimal strategy on their own without help from wikis and other guiding resources. However, STO locks a character into an archetype at character creation while Netrek allows a player to change their ship and playstyle at will, usually with some restrictions for starbases.

Progression

Netrek’s progression is fairly simple. Individual progression is related directly to the number of kills made since the last time a player was defeated, and team progression is related to the number of planets controlled. Certain servers may restrict ships based on kills, average damage, average bombing, and other statistics. Kills also affect the number of total armies a player can carry. Controlling planets are necessary to win the game, and certain planets can be used to repair, refuel, or generate a significant number of armies.

Star Trek Online has a level up system, a skill system, a trait system which provides passive bonuses, a faction reputation system, a duty officer assignment system, and more. Almost every aspect of STO has some kind of progression system tied to it, with advanced levels of specialization. Additionally, a player’s bridge officers have their own progressions that the player can manage. STO has Fleets as well, which are effectively like guilds in other games. Fleets allow players to donate resources together in order to unlock new ships, equipment slots, and even trait slots. Fleets have their own progression systems, too.

Storytelling

Netrek did not have a story, and focused on the competitive arena aspect of the game. The general idea was that hostilities would open between the different factions of the Star Trek universe, and players would have to work to accomplish their faction’s goals.

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Star Trek Online is very dependent on storytelling, with episodic releases of missions and overarching storylines for players to get involved in. Star Trek Online even has the option for players to create and share their own missions, with top-rated missions being featured and providing better rewards than normal to players.

Monetization

Netrek did not involve monetization, and was a passion-project of those involved.

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Star Trek Online has a significant amount of monetization. Not only are many cosmetics purchasable, but so are additional character or inventory slots, weapons, convenience items, and powerful top-tier ship hulls. The developers regularly push out ship and cosmetic packs that cost over $100; the current featured pack is listed at $129.99 for example. This same pack is purchasable for approximately $150 equivalent in-game; in the above picture, 100 ZEN is about $1.00 although bulk purchases can change this ratio. While players do have the ability to progress without spending money, and even the ability to exchange special ingame currency for cash shop currency with paying players, it is significantly more difficult and “grindy” to do so. This might hurt the game’s appeal, but the developers are able to regularly contract actors from the shows and movies and create new content, so while there are drawbacks to heavy monetization there do seem to be some benefits as well in STO.