[Proteus]

Like the title says, how would you describe how a casual player plays STO, specifically as opposed to an end-game, competitive player?

[Bridger]

Like the title says, how would you describe how a casual player plays STO, specifically as opposed to an end-game, competitive player?

I am not sure if something like this exists in this game but the difference would be that a competitive player either knows how to use the Market to his advantage or has enough Cash to get the ships, traits needed to play with the big boys.

[Heyallo]

there's Bridger, and then there's everyone else (casuals) =P

[Draco]

That is a very good question... I personally don't have a good answer. I certainly consider myself a casual player, although I have put in enormous amounts of hours by now, so perhaps that's not valid.

STO seems a bit different (to me) than the other MMORPG I've put in a lot of hours (Lord of the Rings Online) in that there doesn't seem to be a lot of hard endgame content, raids etc, that require the very best gear, a team that works well together and a lot of practice - I had pretty decent gear and skills in Lotro, yet I'd get curb stomped in seconds in some of the mid level raids. I wouldn't even consider the top stuff. In STO you can run pretty much any content with gear you grind with little effort and a group of random strangers. I guess thats a long winded way of saying I think there aren't the kind of hardcore 'end game players' like you might find in other games because there isn't the kind of hardcore endgame content . The closest you will find are people who are constantly trying to improve their own DPS scores, not so much in competition with others, but more as a personal challenge.

Oh and I'd consider people who spend real life cash to buy ships and skills and such to improve those DPS scores (rather than just to play space barbie) as hardcore too.

Ps. I've never explored the PvP stuff in STO, can't comment on that.

[Mack]

Like the title says, how would you describe how a casual player plays STO, specifically as opposed to an end-game, competitive player?

End-game and competitive player are two different things. In essence there is no end-game, you are using the same STF for parse DPS for years and years, there's no real skill other than perhaps piloting your ship after learning how to bind your your ability activations properly.

Once you are a fully levelled, it's what Bridger said. You either know how to play the market place in-game + Dilithium and get those high end ships or you have enough in your wallet RL to purchase ships for traits from z-store.

.... that's about it really. You'll be surprised how well your DPS improves just by putting on a bunch of traits on the same ship even with MK XI weapons.

There are definitely competitive players in this space though, people who do compete to get the best DPS numbers.

[Proteus]

Thanks for the insight so far guys.

What about the kind of content the player gets involved in?

Would I be incorrect if I were to guess that a more casual player wouldn't invovle themselves in things like queues and the umpteenth "new" reputation system, nor strive so much for the bleeding edge DPS tech, but rather, would stick to regular tiered gear and ships obtained from just playing episodes which they would stick to for the most part? So far, this is the impression I have gotten.

[Mack]

Thanks for the insight so far guys.

What about the kind of content the player gets involved in?

Would I be incorrect if I were to guess that a more casual player wouldn't invovle themselves in things like queues and the umpteenth "new" reputation system, nor strive so much for the bleeding edge DPS tech, but rather, would stick to regular tiered gear and ships obtained from just playing episodes which they would stick to for the most part? So far, this is the impression I have gotten.

Again, it depends. If you are a casual player experiencing this for first time? You wouldn't mind doing the grind the first time for all the reps to be honest. Maybe even for one more alt.

Queues are a breeze, to be a good teamplayer, you just need between 60K-80K DPS and usually whenever you queue you find that one beefed up player having all the specs and DPS of 200K+. So you're fine really.

Ideally you want to do your reputations not just for the gears unlocks but for the traits they unlock for you. The Rep traits also are pretty significant. Tbh, some of the weapons+space set gear are also noteworthy in the rep store. For everything else, you can visit the fleet holding.

But if how much damage you do, acquisition of various other space sets and weapons is not your concern even when new to game, you are right. You can player episodes and go from one episode to the other.

[darthnovawave]

Yeah "casual" is a tricky one because there are so many different ways to play the game (TFOs, episodes, RP, fleet mgmt, doff/admiralty, space barbie, alt hopping, PVP). Pointing to one metric like DPS output might be misleading, because not all players might invest time, effort, and/or money into maximizing DPS on a single toon. "Casual" probably refers to someone that doesn't spend much time, effort, and money on the game, but the amount of disposable time, effort, and money to allocate to STO and other recreational activities is going to be different for each and every player.

[JByb04]

I considered myself a casual player until I realized that I always strive to have gold level gear on my ships (much dilithium has been spent on phoenix tech upgrades). I suppose that would make me slightly above casual. I don't concern myself with DPS output though and I've never been big on PvP. Kind of an oxymoron if you think about it.

I think a casual or hardcore STO player is an individual interpretation. There's no real set definition for either.