- Michael Transactions
- Nov 11, 2013
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 A full list of endgame ships (along with how good or bad they are) can be found on the wiki here: http://wiki.wesleyguide.com/goon_guides/bigshipguide
 Federation Starships
Cruisers
These are your typical ships of the line commonly seen in the shows. They're big, fairly slow, and pretty tough to boot, although there is a great deal of variety in terms of boff layout. Unfortunately a lot of cruisers in the game are frankly terrible, and you want want something with a Lt Com tactical slot and more agility. Cruisers typically have very strong hulls and decent shields, but are slower. Cruisers also get access to a series of abilities known as cruiser commands. These commands have varying effects that augment your ship's abilities, and can make a real difference in combat.
Escorts
These are small, nimble and in the grand scheme of things fairly fragile. They hit very hard, and make good use of dual heavy cannons due to their ability to keep targets in the narrow firing arc. Most escorts are fairly similar in ability, and it is very hard to screw up building an escort. Escorts typically have weak hulls and shields but great speed and manuerability.
Science Vessels
Science vessels specialise in crowd control abilities. Their usefulness in PvE is fairly limited, but a well flown science vessel is a great asset in PvP, and with the right setup can be absolutely devastating. Science ships typically have weak hulls but very powerful shields.
Carriers
There is actually only one carrier on the Federation side, and it has a rather poor reputation. It also bears an unfortunate resemblance to a giant flaccid penis. With that being said, in the right hands it can make an excellent healer.
 Klingon Starships
Raiders
More commonly known as Birds of Prey, these tiny ships have extremely weak hulls and below average shields but are incredibly fast, turn extremely quickly, and have all universal bridge officer slots granting them flexibility unmatched by any other ship. In addition to that, raiders are equipped with battlecloaks, allowing them to cloak during red alert. The B'rel retrofit and the fleet version are equipped with enhanced battlecloaks, allowing them to launch projectiles and use certain abilities without dropping their cloak. Raiders are fast, hard hitting, and made of paper.
Raptors
Raptors are your basic parallel to Federation escorts. However, they have a slightly poorer turn rate, and mildly inferior hull and shields in exhange for a built in cloaking device.
Battlecruisers
In the same way that Raptors are a parallel to Federation escorts, battlecruisers are the parallel to Federation cruisers. The difference being is that the klingons exchange hull strength for cloaking devices, and the ability to mount dual cannons. Klingon battlecruisers typically have superior turn rates to their Federation counterparts as well. Battlecruisers also have access to cruiser commands, but only get access to 3 out of 4 of them.
Carriers
Carriers (in this case the Voquv variants) are big, tough, and very slow.The boff layout varies depending on which variant you are flying, but all are biased towards science, and also possess the subsystem targeting abilities. As the name suggests, these ships launch swarms of fighters (or small groups of frigates) to augment their own abilities, or to do extra damage. The Voquv is one of the few Klingon ships that does not possess a cloaking device.
Destroyers
These are the Nausicaan parallel to escorts, although they have more in common with Federation escorts than Raptors do. Unlike Klingon ships, these do not come with cloaking devices.
Flight Deck Cruisers
These are the Orion counterpart to cruisers. They are a cruiser that carries a single hangar bay to launch fighters, however these ships are generally very mediocore, and the hangar bay does not make up for the poor boff layouts. These ships do not have cloaking devices.
Support Vessels
These are the Gorn science vessels. Pretty much exactly the same as their Federation counterparts. Generally a poor performer in PvE, but when flown properly are a real menace in a PvP environment. These ships lack a cloaking device.
Battlecarriers
There is only one battlecarrier, the Karfi. Probably one of the most interesting looking ships in the game that has been cursed with a horrendously outdated boff layout, and the fleet version doesn't help matters. Like other carriers it is still oriented towards science, but gains more tactical abilities, more tactical consoles, and loses the subsystem targeting.
 Romulan Starships
One thing to note about romulan starships is that if the phrase "warbird" is in its name, then it possesses a particular set of abilities. Firstly, all warbirds have a built in battlecloak. Secondly, all warbirds have a series of singularity abilities, and use singularity cores instead of warp cores. Lastly, all warbirds have -10 to base power levels for each subsystem compared to ships with warp cores.
Warbirds
Warbirds have a lot of variety, but are basically escorts. They range from the fast hit and run style of the T'varo, to the heavy brawler style of the Ha'feh. As with escorts, they have weaker hulls and shields, but are fast, turn quickly and can mount dual cannons.
Warbird Battle Cruisers
These are akin to the Klingon battlecruisers, although unlike KDF battlecruisers they possess a battlecloak and the singularity abilities their cores afford them. However, while they can benefit from cruiser commands when in range of a friendly cruiser, they cannot use them themselves.
Warbird Science Vessels
Like other science vessels, these ships have a weak hull, but pack an excellent shield modifier. As with all science vessels these ships are poor performers in PvE, but can be used for excellent healing and crowd control in a PvP environment.
Dreadnoughts
The Scimitar dreadnoughts are some of the most versatile ships in the game. They possess all the innate abilities that warbirds are afforded, they have a hangar bay that can use some of the best fighter pets in the game, and have a 5/3 weapon layout. They would be amazingly overpowered, if it wasnt for the fact their hull resistances are absolute poo poo, and once they lose a shield facing a Scimitar is generally toast.
Weapon Layouts
The weapon layout of the ship generally depends on the type of ship it is. In most situations, the weapon layouts are as follows:
Cruisers/Battlecruisers
Fore - 4
Aft - 4
Escorts/Destroyers
Fore - 4
Aft - 3
Science Vessels/Support Vessels
Fore - 3
Aft - 3
Carriers
Fore - 3
Aft - 3
Raiders
Fore - 4
Aft - 2
Like always, there are some exceptions to the rules, and some ships do not follow the typical layout as specified above. These ships are as follows:
Andorian Kumari/Khyzon/Charal Escorts
Fore - 5
Aft - 2
Avenger Battlecruiser
Fore - 5
Aft - 3
Mogh Battlecruiser
Fore - 5
Aft - 3
Karfi Battlecarrier
Fore - 4
Aft - 3
Scimitar/Falchion/Tulwar Dreadnought Warbirds
Fore - 5
Aft - 3
Weapons
Ok, so you know what ships there are, you know what weapon layouts they have, so you're now thinking what you're going to use in those weapon slots. More detailed information can be found on the wiki, although we will have a brief overview here.
Energy Weapons
Beam Array
Beam arrays fire a single beam in several shots over a period of several seconds. Beams do moderate damage, and have a wide firing arc of 250 degrees (making them ideal for broadsiding with cruisers). They also benefit from a very minimal accuracy and damage falloff at long distances. Can be mounted in any weapon slot.
Dual Beam Bank
These are like beam arrays, but instead fire two beams and have a firing arc of 90 degrees. Unless being used for beam overload shenanigans, not recommended for use. Can only be mounted on fore weapons slots.
Cannon
Fires multiple cannon bolts over a period of several seconds, and has a firing arc of 180 degrees. Unlike beams, cannons suffer from damage and accuracy falloff the further away the target is. Optimal firing range is 2.5KM, and it is recommended to be no further than 7.5KM away when engaging a target. Due to the poor damage cannons offer, these are not recommended unless being used with DEM. Can only be mounted in fore weapon slots.
Dual Cannons
Fires a pair of multiple cannon bolts over a period of several seconds, and has a firing arc of 45 degrees. Like all cannons, they suffer from damage falloff at distance, and due to the poor damage they offer dual cannons are not recommended for use. Can only be mounted in fore weapon slots.
Dual Heavy Cannons
Fires multiple pairs of cannon bolts over a period of several seconds, but unlike cannons and dual cannons they fire much fewer shots. However, they deal a large amount of damage per shot, and have an innate +10% critical severity bonus, and are more energy efficient than single and dual cannons. They still suffer from the damage at distance falloff, but these are a solid choice for any ship with the adequate turn rate to use them. Dual heavy cannons have a firing arc of 45 degrees and can only be mounted in fore weapon slots.
Turrets
Fires several single cannon bolts over a period of several seconds. Turrets are similar to single cannons, but have a much slower firing rate, and have a firing arc of 360 degrees. Typically mounted on the rear of ships using cannons as no other rear mounted energy weapon has the firing arc to hit a front facing target when mounted in the aft weapon slots. Suffers from the same damage distance falloff as cannons. Can be mounted in any weapon slot.
Projectile Weapons
Torpedo
Fires a single projectile at the current target. Torpedo damage and quantity can be modified with bridge officer skills, and once fired have a cooldown before they can be fired again. This cooldown is dependant on the type of torpedo used, and torpedoes do not drain weapon energy. Torpedoes suffer a severe damage penalty against shields, and are most effective when used against bare hull. Torpedoes have a firing arc of 90 degrees and can be mounted in any weapon slot.
Mines
Deploys a series of mines that remain stationary until a target comes into range. Mines generally offer very poor damage, and for this reason are usually used for their procs rather than the damage they can do. Mine quantity and dispersal pattern can be modified with bridge officer skills, and like torpedoes suffer a severe damage penalty against shields and do not drain weapon energy. Mines do not have a firing arc and can only be mounted in rear weapon slots.
Ship Stats and Other Bollshit
You've probably seen all those numbers and stuff on the STO wiki and are wondering what the gently caress it all means? Well luckily we got you covered.
Tier - This refers to the level of character that the ship is designed for, with Tier 1 being the starter level ships and Tier 5 being level 50 starships. Technically fleet ships are higher than T5 vessels, but are classed as T5 nonetheless.
Hull - This figure refers to the base strength of the ships hull. Once your shields are down your hull begins to take damage. Bear in mind however that this number will be modified massively by your captain skills. For example, the base hull of a Fleet Tactical Escort Retrofit is 33,000, but my actual hull strength ingame is 42,901.
Shield Modifier - This figure determines the shield strength per facing that you will get on your ship. Shields come in all different strengths and attributes, so your actual strength will depend on your shield modifier, your captain abilities, the shield's base strength, and any consoles you may have equipped. For example, if a ship has a shield modifier of 0.9 and uses a resilient shield with a base value of 8000 per facing, your strength will be 7200 per facing (not taking into account your skillpoints and consoles). On the other hand, if you use the same shield on a ship with a shield mod of 1.3, your facing strength will be 10400.
Impulse Modifier - As with the shield modifier, this determines your engine speed. As you'd expect, large ships such as carriers will have a much lower modifier (and much lower speed) than smaller more nimble vessels like escorts and raiders. This is also heavily affected by your captain skillpoints.
Crew - This stat is supposed to determine effectiveness of hull healing skills and regeneration. However this doesn't actually work properly and can generally be ignored.
Inertia - This determines the inertia of your ship when making turns and coming to a stop. As you would expect, a bigger and bulkier ship will drift more when making sharp turns and trying to stop quickly than a much smaller vessel. You can generally use commonsense with this one.
Turn Rate - This determines how quickly your ship can turn, and is heavily modified by skillpoint distribution, engine power, RCS consoles and boff skills. This is cruicial when using weapons with a small firing arc.
Bonus Power - Most T5 ships have an innate bonus of some description. This varies from ship to ship, but all ships have some form of bonus to subsystem power levels, and others will have abilities such as cruiser commands and cloaking devices.
OK, I think I understand now, how do I fit out babby's first starship?
If you had any sense you would have selected a tactical captain for your character, so we can throw you in an escort and be on your way. Visit this link for an easy and cheap build to use with a standard T5 escort - http://wiki.wesleyguide.com/goon_guides/cheap_escort
Somebody fucked around with this message at 09:43 on May 24, 2017
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May 19, 2017 00:26
