[Trekster]

I'm a huge Star Trek fan, and I love that we have STO. Unfortunately, I don't get to play often or regularly, but sometimes I have more time than others and try to jump back in. Frankly, there seems to be so much to this game that it overwhelms me. DOFFs. BOs. Reputation. Admiralty. Gearing. Abilities. Skills. Stuff like intelligence officer.... It just seems like such a huge mountain to climb that I usually wind up just giving up as I get busy in RL again.I wish I could ask specific questions, but that's part of the problem...I don't even know where to start.

Hopefully, people get my meaning and can give me some advice and help.

One specific question I can ask in the meantime, it's a tac captain, and I'd like to keep it discovery era themed. I guess that limits my ship options to what.... walker class or crossfield? (yikes and YIKES trying to get either of those).

[Arlu3n]

I have the same problem as you. STO just keep overwhelming me so I just go to other games again. xD

[Ricwin]

The developers do have a habit of falling into the old trap of "adding more stuff means we're adding new content". Theres alot going on in STO but also alot of information around which can help people get to grips with things like Boffs, Doffs and gear.

If you really want to see something truly overwhelming, go play Eve Online for a week. STO is a childrens playgroup compared to Eve

[ForTheGamer]

If you ever need help, we're always here to help. Just give a shout in the chat and someone can always help you out. Though I know the feeling. There's a lot you can do in STO and lot to remember, so it can feel like there's too much.

[Mack]

To be fair - it all only looks like a mountain. Other than T5 to T6, everything so far gets done in a reasonable amount of time.

The most important thing is - if you play this game with a mindset of accomplishing and quickly levelling. It can seem daunting, unwilling and simply a mood killer for any game.

Just play the game, do your episodes and along the way level up. You won't even realize when you levelled it all up and you'll be complaining for lack of content.

[Scarlett]

Hey Trekster! Man, when i started in 2012 I had THE SAME THOUGHTS!

Then, the thought hit me in the shower one morning: what am I doing the most? For me, it was standing around looking at my toon.

If I may make recommendations? Some of these you likely have already handled, so your patience is requested

Start with your Captain. Specifically how he/she LOOKS. You will be seeing a lot of this character so spend your time making them look decent. Not good. Not awesome. Decent. And I mean, the face/hair/body in that order. The Discovery uniform should be relatively easy to get so that is not an issue ... right?

Next: weapons. Again, Discovery weapons should be relatively easy to get so ... there. Don't worry about re-engineering them yet.

Next: Kit and modules. Here is where you should spend less playing the game and more on some research online. Some sites:

++This Fleet website++ - no question is too crazy, silly or dumb. We were all new to the game and have gained experience along the way. For example: I didn't know how to scan for anamalies in space until maybe into my 20th level as I recall ... anyway.
STO Cryptic Forums
STO Wiki
STO Reddit
STO Reddit Ground
STO Reddit Builds

Lots of Reddit, yeah? Using any one of these will show A LOT of trash, so your search-fu will come in handy. Scarlett is not a Tac Captain, so I can't point you to specific places to that end

Seriously, make the time to look around, but you need to focus your attention to Kits and Modules. THEN ...

The ship. Frankly, A LOT of attention is put more to this part of the game than anything else so I recommend showing US what you have now.

Go HERE - although the site has some neat resources, this is a go-to for his most-excellent skill planner - it's also time consuming to fill out completely, but there is huge dividends to get help here and/or on Reddit. It's totally worth the effort.

OR you can do what I (and Bridger, and T'Tan and Snowwolf have done buy "simply" posting our stuff and talking about it. Do that and you are certain to get some help.

THEN: DOffs ... man, this is a neat and crummy part of the game. MOAR WEBSITE LINK!
STO Reddit DOffs

Frankly ... I wouldn't sweat this until later.

You know ... there is a lot ...

SO ... ask a specific question and we'll go from there

[Dylan Erikson]

both the Walker (lobi version of the Walker) and Crossfield class ships are great to play... each has their own appropriate bridges, which is a plus.. the Crossfield is pricey on the exchange.. however the Walker is available in two versions: 1: the scaling version that levels as you do.. and 2: the lobi version, which is really fun and it is in the lobi store forever..

[Sul-Matuul]

To mirror what Mack said already, just play the episodes and you'll soon start to pick up on things surprisingly fast. You'll be up to higher levels in no time once you get that itch.

There are a lot of systems in the game, but honestly that is the case for all online and MMO's these days and STO is child's play compared to some games where your very existence relies on hold a Phd in the game mechanics.

So to summarize the general mechanics for you:

Gear: This is the stuff you put on your ship and on your character. It determines how effective you are and what you can do weapon wise. Certain parts are essential (without impulse engines you'll barely move!) and there is a massive selection out there from a million sources. Best option for a newer player, just play the story missions and get used to what things do. Then once you feel like going in a certain direction with a build and gear, ask here for help and people will be more than willing to help you out with good choices and training.

Abilities: Abilities are the "skills" or "attacks" you can use whilst in control of your starship. They are determined by your bridge officers (see below), and also affected by and controlled by the gear you have equipped.
There's a wide variety but generally they fall into 3 main schools: Tactical, Science, Engineering. There are additional specialist schools too but you'll likely not come across those until at top level so don;t worry about them just yet.
Each ability has generally 3 ranks, and they can be used in a bridge officer seat of the corresponding rank. A max level ship will have access to 12 abilities, plus various clicky extras from the captain him/herself and certain gear.

Bridge Officers (BOFFS): These are your away team you take on missions and they are also your bridge crew. They determine what exact abilities you have to use in space (things like torpedo buffs, heals, debuffs against enemies, spacial anomalies etc. They are on ground essentially kitted out the exact same as your captain, the only difference is you can change their abilities, which as a captain you are locked into (though you have a ground kit & modules that do a similar job).
You'll earn extra boffs as you level but they can be found on the exchange, in missions, even in the Lobi store for elite ones.

Duty Officers (DOFFS): These are the rest of your crew basically. They are not "real" in so much as you cannot see them but act more like cards in something like Magic or Pokemon because they boost all the other aspects of your ship and character. They can also be used for side missions via the DOFF system to earn minor rewards and progress in the different departments they represent.
You'll earn plenty of doffs during leveling but you can buy more via the exchange or the personnel officer in various places.
Doffs also play a role in crafting.

Traits: These are the more specialised part of your character which add all manner of fun passive affects to your existing gear and builds. They come in a variety of types: Captain Ground (those affecting you on ground), Captain Space (those affecting you in space), Reputation (those from the Reputation system in both passive and active forms), Starship (those that affect the ship itself).
They come from a wide variety of places but you have access to a fairly decent number just leveling up. Other sources are from lockboxes, mission rewards, certain special events, leveling T6 ships.

Reputation System: This is a sort of reward system for continual progress against specific enemies once you unlock access to it (Lvl 50 i think?). You will earn Marks for completing certain missions in game, most of which are found via the PVE or Task Force Operations (TFO) menu. They are the game's way of rewarding you for defeating specific enemies with gear aimed towards making fighting those guys easier.
The system also unlocks various costumes, shield visuals for ships, traits, and other goodies.

Admiralty System: This is essentially the same as the DOFF system but you send out entire ships not just crew. For every ship you unpack/acquire once the system is unlocked to you, you will acquire a "card" representing that ship that can be used for missions. Every single ship in game has a card, even shuttles.
You'll also unlock extra cards from good results on missions and these are single use, unlike your personal fleet of owned ship cards. And you'll also get special gold cards from the campaigns in the system too.
Admiralty is highly lucrative for rewards once you get the hang of it, and a good daily task to keep ticking over for constant goodies!

I hope all that is not too overwhelming for you!

If you need any help at all please feel free to ask and we'll all do what we can!

[Scarlett]

...

I was getting to that!

[Sul-Matuul]

I was getting to that!

I was actually writing my post at the same time as you!

[casualsto]

I've never found it overwhelmimg, but the amount of features and mechanics was a joyous galore of stuff to do.

I stay away from doffing and use just doffs required for builds.

Admiralty is a game of mix and match, nothing too fancy.

For anything else, feel free to ask. This mountain is more like a mound, once you become big enough for it.

[Ariotex]

My approach to it is quite simple. I play the game to have fun and if some aspect of the game detracts from the fun, I avoid it...unless there's something there I really want/need. For example, the Reputation system. So many reps and so many marks needed for them all it seems overwhelming, so, mostly don't even bother with it. Some things in there I really want/need like the KCB, so I do what's needed to get that and ignore the rest, or I decided I wanted to try the Iconian space set on one of my toons, so every time I played that toon for a while, I'd earn myself a day or three's worth of Iconian marks and then go do something fun. That mountain of grind called the rep system isn't near so huge if you concentrate on a few pebbles here and there.

Doffing, I generally go through and do the ones that reward something more than 5 Dilithium and then just fill the rest of the open spots with anything that doesn't require me to spend EC on provisions for it. Of course, you want to watch for the ones that give you new Boffs, Boffs are always nice even if the makority of them end up becoming training manuals, every now and then you get lucky and get a really good one.

Admiralty, I do when and if I feel like it, most of the time I don't even bother because I'm too lazy to take the time picking ships. When I do, I look for the ones that again, reward the most Dilithium, or a decent XP return. I throw big ships with high numbers at them. Anything requiring huge amounts without a huge reward, I toss a shuttle in there. Sure, it's going to fail but it gets rid of that mission without requiring a pass token.

They key point here is that STO is a game and (most) people play games to have fun. Sure, SO has tons of stuff available to do, but none of that stuff has to be done. Find the stuff in STO that you love and have fun doing and don't even worry about the rest. Way, way back when, I had a couple of max level toons that had never used the exchange, never once done an equipment upgrade, only did Doffing if it was a Boff award mission or an engineering task that gave "free" gear and only used the rep system to get rid of all those mark reward boxes (they were Delta toons, from when DR first came out). And guess what, I had tons of fun. A lot more fun than I tend to have now because I ignore the advice I've given in this post too often, instead of just playing and having fun, i get wrapped up in all that other stuff.

Don't sweat the small stuff, find what aspects of the game you enjoy and the heck with the rest.