Hello there, I have just got my hands on the game, and I am really enjoying my new Bird of Prey.. (much more fun than that slow-to-turn cruiser I had to start with on the Federation.. and I much prefer to see everything warm and red in space.. Federation sector space.. just seemed "too blue"...

Anyways, when I read up on the game, I saw even the standard issued BoP could cloak in combat.. yet I don't seem to be able to cloak in combat, as soon as I enter combat, my cloak button grey's out.

What am I missing? Was this infomation incorrect and do I need to have a higher ranked BoP? Or do I need to buy and equip an item first?


Thanks a lot, look forward to flighting along side you, my brothers.

The Tier 2-BoP has battle cloak. So you just have to level a bit up and get the next one.

Okay, thank you very much for your swift responce.

They need to change their very own infomation on this then, as it is out of date.. this is where I got my infomation:
http://www.startrekonline.com/node/777

``Warrior
B’rel Bird of Prey – capable of cloaking in combat.``

The page says every type of BoP has combat cloak.


Also, at the final tier.. how do the other ships compare. The BoP is really fun, but the cruiser and carrier look like power-houses. Is it possible (skills-wise) to set myself up to be a BoP pilot and a Carrier Pilot?
.. or does the skill cap come too soon?

Unfortunately the skill cap is so low you can't even max out two T5 skills. Try out the skill calculator here and see for yourself.

Unless you don't want any other admiral skills, it's pretty hard to be skilled in both... sadly.

I guess whenever they add respecs to the game you can use them to play around with different ships, but I wouldn't count on it being cheap.

Thank you very much for linking the skill calculator, I've just had a nice little play around with it.


I have a few more questions, if I may.

In the caluclator, on the third tier of Starship Emergy/Projectile Weapons, all of the upgrades are for Distruptors, Phasers, Torpedo's etc, the weapons type's I am using now.
However in tier four, the bonues are for Plasma, Transphasics and Tetryon.



My main question is, Does Transphasic weapons replace Phasers? And if so, does it mean investing into improving the weapon types at tier 3 renders itself useless come tier 5?

Or do we end up getting the option to use all 8 type's of these weapons come end-game?

Or does the Phaser skill in tier three still effect Transphasic weapons?



It seems like a number of skills ("Heavy Cruiser Captain"for example) seem to only provide buffs for that stage in the game, and come tier 5, they are wasted points.
I just want to make sure I don't waste my skills at tier 3 to find out come tier 5 that I don't use standard phasers anymore.
Afterall, as you said, we have no re-spec in the game at present.

Does Transphasic weapons replace Phasers?
No.

Or do we end up getting the option to use all 8 type's of these weapons come end-game?
Yes. This is one major issue with the skill system as it stands.

Or does the Phaser skill in tier three still effect Transphasic weapons?
Nope.

The skill system works like this... T1 skills are extremely general, affecting everything within their particular branch. T2 skills are more specific. They stack with T1 skills, but only on the area they focus. T3-T5 are the most specific skills and stack with the appropriate T1 and T2 skills but NEVER each other. Unfortunately those T3-T5 skills are all EXACTLY the same in effectiveness, but not in cost, which is why the skill system is broken.

So for any given ability or weapon you have up to three skills improving it. One T1, one T2, and one T3-T5.

In fact it's quite the opposite... get used to using those phasers all game long, because it's never worth the extra skill point investment in higher tier weapons which have the same DPS and just slightly different effects.

I see, so as it stands the system is broken, as tier 3-5 have the same effectiveness, yet the higher the tier the more the skills cost.
So, at present the only reason to get tier 4 skills over tier 3 is to spec and open up promotions to captain your tier 5 ship.

Okay, thank you all very much for your help and time, I wont take up anymore of it today.


Look forward to seeing you all in game

Just want to clarify here, you don't actually have to spend any points in T4, you can spend those points in lower tiers instead. You just have to spend enough points to get promoted, where you spend them doesn't really matter.

Oh, excellent. I guess I'll be spending them in tier 2 and 3 instead then. Thank you very much!