Leveling up in Star Trek Online

I dinged from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander in STO yesterday with Bierzein, my Trill Science Officer. That’s my first LC — huzzah!

Since I haven’t talked about the leveling process in STO (and the rank promotion isn’t clearly laid out either) … let’s discuss it.  If nothing else, it will give me some notes for when I do it with the next toon.

Leveling within a Rank

STO is kind of weird with the leveling bits. Each rank has 10 grades within it (tracked very efficiently across the top). But the grades (at least on the Lt level) don’t make that much difference — there are a couple of skills that come available mid-rank, but there’s no huge power ding.

(Actually, there is a “ding” — a visual effect, and a hearty “Well done, Lieutenant” from Leonard Nimoy. But it’s not a sudden massive and obvious empowering.)

Advancement in STO during a rank is through skills and skill points. The grades, in many ways, serve more to give a short-hand as to where you are. As it stands, every mission you get additional skill points for yourself and for your bridge officers (the latter share a pool). They can be applied at any time, but when they hit some sort of threshold a “Skill up!” small flasher appears in the upper left corner. Click on it and apply the skill points for yourself and for your bridge officers (one or more of them) and you’re done. (Be sure and click Apply!)

It’s very subtle in effect, but it’s a constant advancement, which is kind of nice. While the gaps between levels in CoX can drive one to despair sometimes, the constant application of skill points in STO gives you something regularly to do, even if you’re seeing more obvious changes from kits and drops and other externals.

Leveling between Ranks

It took me a bit of time to figure out what to do with leveling Bierzein between Lt and LC. It’s possible there are difference at other ranks, and, of course, Klingon (native) players will deal with something in parallel but with all the details different.

Actually Getting the Promotion:  First off, I was on a mission chain when I got the big glowy-congrats. I decided to finish it up, just becauise of transit time. So I finished those missions as “Lt 11.” Right, until I actually get the promotion, I’m still a Lieutenant.

I knew I had to go back to Earth Spacedock for promotion (and picking up my New Ship!), so I transwarped back there.

No announcement.

I docked and went aboard.

Nada.

I trotted over to Admiral Quinn (putting away my phaser rifle into katana-space first, to be polite).

His tone of voice made it clear that he had no new missions for me and, in fact, was a bit peeved I hadn’t finished the ones still in progress.

I ran around a bit on Spacedock trying to figure out who I had to talk to. Despite the signs on the wall, the place is not as well organized as it might be (it would be handy if the map showed the various areas).

Finally I realized, “Hey, I never applied those last skill points I acquired. I wonder …”

Applied them to Bierzein, and, “Hey!” Admiral Quinn was suddenly hailing me, congratulating me, and summoning me “back to Stardock” (bugged) where I should meet with him personally and give me stuff.

Admiral Quinn has a short memory.

So I ran back to Quinn. Saluted. He congratulated me, and then handed me a plaque to turn in for One (1) Free Starship.

My New Ship:  The gal I needed to do that with, Lt Laurel, was upstairs (up the ramp, up the turbolift) from the Shipyard section of Spacedock. I went up to her, got the lecture the different types of ships I could choose from …

… to make a long story short, Escorts are scrapper/blasters, high on lethality and speed and maneuverability, but glass cannons (to hear some) in prolonged combat. Cruisers are tanks/defenders, very tough, able to assist other ships, and pretty unmaneuverable. Science Vessels (Support Ships, some call them) have high shields, specialize in debuffing the bad guys, and are the controllers of the STO universe.

Any type of captain (tactical, science, engineering) can operate any type of vessel (indeed, if you strike it rich, you can actually buy additional ships to swap between, or so they say). The differentiator is less with the captain (who lends some skills to whatever ship they are on) than on intrinsic powers of the vessel class plus the bridge crew (different ships allow added bridge officers off the appropriate type).

Since Bierzein was going to be soloing, I decided to play it safe with a cruiser. (Margie and I have a couple of duos we’re running, and will likely be doing more mixed mini-fleets.)

All that Laurel gave me was a requisition slip for the ship of my choice. The rest of the room is full of educational displays about the ship types, plus guys who could sell me all sorts of ship goodies, but only if you had Yet Another Specialty Currency (one of my minor peeves with STO), or maybe vastly more of a currency I actually had.

From there I had to run downstairs and find the guy who does ship requisitions, Ensign Obin. There I actually received the new ship of my dreams …

… which I immediately renamed (both ship name and registration number) — once, for free.  I’d now be commanding the USS Ad Astra, successor to the USS Per Aspera.  (The renaming button comes up in the normal window that shows you and your bridge crew.)

I then turned around and talk to the guys (Golos Vell and Dirz Raxx) who let me design what my ship looks like. I love this particular STO feature.

Finally, I went over to Ensign Shalah to buy stuff for my ship.  Her selection wasn’t very good, so I took the opportunity to run over to the Auction House Exchange to buy (or sell) some swag.  I decided, though, before screwing around with changing the default weapons config on my cruiser (phaser array and photon torpedoes fore and aft), I’d see how she flew.

My New Bridge Officers:  My new ship came with some new bridge officer slots.  You can requisition officers with Elsa Morel over in Personnel, or check to see if you have some still pending to fill in.  With my cruiser, I got an additional engineering station for a lieutenant, so I promoted my existing Engineering officer to LT, and brought in a new ensign who’d been made available to me in the past.

My New Dress Whites:  I also get a free costume token when I got promoted. That’s nice, too.  I could get the new costume from Ghemik Telur (a simple tailor) in Requisitions, but decided to stick with what I had.  Bierzein is not much of a clothes horse.

The Ceremony:  After all the above (though you can do it at any time after the promotion, if you want), I ran over the Stateroom (auditorium) and talked to Commander Menn Hilo, the guy at the podium who’s usually droning on and on about astrophysics. He offered me formal congratulations and give a nice salute, as did other folks in the room. Pictureworthy (hence the picture at the top of the post).

And that’s it!  I was now a Lieutenant Commander, and when I next beamed up to my ship — it was my new ship, but with all the familiar faces (and one more) around me.  Ready for the next adventure!  Huzzah!