Again you miss the point.


No ship in the c-store helps you win.


They have nothing that elevates them over the other t5 ships in any way that puts them above their competition in any meaningful (aka measurable) way.

Yet, at least. We'll see about the Rhode Island and what it will lead us too.

The worst items in this game have actually been stuff gained through Featured Episodes.

Which isn't just a PvP issue, by the way. One of the Breen items was a very popular griefing tool for a while. And was "nerfed" for that as well. But of course, that pales compared to Tractor Beam Mines or Hargh'Pengs.

oh come on. the rhode island.
what does that console really do?


It give you a click able mes. and messes up your opponents targeting.

Basically what sensor scramble does (and that can be chained and is basically available for free).
The MES effect is only really useful when the ship already made a halfway decent escape (and you probably aren't going to run after any sci vessel since they are elusive in any case).
Oh and sensor jam 1 basically does all of this better, lures the use of sci team and is available at ensign level, aka almost for free.when it comes to sci vessels that are laden with sci slots anyway.



As for the ship itself: so it has a better boff slot. yeah. thats gonna turn t2 pvp upside down i nways that noone will ever play those again! oh wait...

I am rarely talking about the console these days. I am talking about the actual ship. You know the one with 2. Lt. where every other ship of its tier has only 1? The one with 5 Consoles where every other ship only has 4? In short, the ship that breaks the tier system and costs you money to buy. The ship that is not merely a precedent, but stated as the first ship in a large batch of ships to come to this game.

But if you want to talk about the console. Yes, even the console is problematic. It's another layer of defense a Captain can give his ship. Sure, you take damage. You pop some buffs. Someone subnukes them. You pop some reserve buffs. You get subnuked again. Now you go down.

Wait, no you don't - you're either an Intrepid, and pop Ablative Armor, giving you up to 15 seconds to get all your heals back from cooldown. Or you pop this new console, having your enemies waste his buffed attacks on a harmless decoy and your ship slip away for up to 15 seconds - again plenty of time to recover your cooldowns, and being back to your first layer of defense.

While I don't disagree about the BO layout....I want to know what you have (besides weapons) that you get back after a 15 second cooldown? I don't get any of my important health stuff or any other overlapping buffs back for anything under 45 seconds if I remember correctly.

And whatever these powers are...can you train my guy?

I don't like the idea of 'pay to win' or even 'pay for an advantage'. But there is some grey area here, and I think the console is still in it.

And although the most egregious violation is the extra console slot on the ship itself, we're still talking about a Tier 2 ship.

But an extra slot on a T5 ship? That would be very debatable unless it was offset by a significant disadvantage.

YOu don't get them back from the 15 seconds alone - but you get them back thanks to the fact that you have already lived 15-30 seconds since you popped them, you _then_ add another 15 seconds.

But there actually are powers that you can get within 15 seconds:

• All the team skills if you got two copies (and why not have two team skills - it doesn't have to be the same team, of course)
• Auxiliary to Structural Integrity

In addition, there is the extra time you give your heal to react, and other powers that can also help you survive, like Evasive Maneuvers, Deuterium Burn, Captain Powers like Science Fleet or Rotate Shield Frequency. A shockwave or a tractor beam repulsor can also give you some extra time.

There are several layers of protective powers you can have at your disposal, and adding another one isn't bad.

Dang, i feel like i need to bleach my eyes after reading this thread.
Lots of little things seem to be pointing towards f2p in STO's future. Pay to win is perhaps the largest.

"Free to play" is a terrible term anyway, since it really means 'No subscription'. But it doesn't mean "free".

Just wanted to say - awesome avatar.