Starship (types)

From Star Trek Online Wiki

Types

Federation

Whether you are a dealer of damage, or someone who prefers to stand back and help in more subtle ways will depend largely on your choice of vessel and how you choose to configure it. While the configuration will be a personal choice, and almost unique compared to other players, your selection of vessel type is subject to 3 choices.

Cruisers

Cruisers are the workhorses of fleets far and wide, and as such they are capable of filling a multitude of roles depending on their configuration. The Cruiser favours Engineering tasks with the bridge officer stations reflecting this, and is well suited for those Captains who have an in-depth understanding of Engineering functions and duties.

Despite their slow maneuvreability, Cruisers have Advanced Warp cores, and with the extra power produced are capable of withstanding large amounts of damage, extending their shields to nearby damaged vessels, and equiping multiple phaser arrays to in their bow and aft equipment bays. These vessels also have large cargo holds making them ideal for moving equipment or personnel on long journeys.

Science Vessel

The Science vessel is perhaps the most versatile and useful ship found on the front lines of combat, and can be configured to support other vessels in a variety of different ways. The Science vessel shines when it comes to scientific research and application with the majority of the Bridge Officer stations focussed to Science personnel. Captains with a deep understanding of Scientific research and theory will find themselves and their vessels sought on the battlefield for the multitude of tasks they are able to perform.

Although Science vessels are not the most powerful, indeed some may see them as the most vunerable, they are not unarmed and can still be formidable vessels.

Escort

At the forefront of the smallest skirmishes and the largest battles, you will find Escort vessels. These smaller, more nimble craft are vastly more manuevreable and are built for for one purpose and one purpose only. With the ability to equip cannons, these ships are designed to damage and destroy enemy vessels quickly and efficiently, and it is at this single role that they excel.

The Escort is a Tactical vessel, and any Captain with a thorough understanding of tactical warfare will be able to maximise the effectiveness of their vessel at the forefront of battle. With a small crew compliment typical for vessels of this size and role, the Escort class vessels are unable to man full medical facilities onboard, but with extensive armour and weaponry, coupled with its speed and agility, this is of minimal concern for astute Captains.

Klingon Empire

Vessels of the Klingon Empire are split into categories rather than types, as mostly all Klingon vessels are warships. Even though they are warships, they differ a lot in what they offer to the player. Current playable ship catagories for the Klingon Empire faction are:

Bird-of-Prey

The Bird-of-Prey is a long standing Klingon design scout, patrol and reconnaissance ship although has excellent capabilities as a hit-and-run warship. In Star Trek Online it is a Tier 1 to 5 class starship available to players of the Klingon Empire. These ships are extremely maneuverable by design and can on-paper out maneuver any Federation starship at any Tier.

Raptor

Raptor class is a starship belonging to the Klingon Empire. They encompass tiers 2-5, and are available to Klingon characters from rank Lieutenant Commander upward. They host roughly twice the crew of a Bird-of-Prey class, and are built purely for firepower. They have good maneuverability and are comparable to the Federation Escort.

Battle Cruiser

Battle Cruisers are warships. In comparison to a Raptor, the Battle Cruiser carries slightly more in the way of firepower due to it's increased size but takes a hefty reduction to maneuverability in the process. Cruisers do however have improved larger warp cores which allows them the luxury of more power to their systems. They also have a much stronger hull therefore can take more damage before being destroyed.

Carrier

The recently built Vo'Quv Carrier is the pride of the Klingon Defense Force. This gigantic ship spans nearly 1,300 meters in length which is over 5 times the length of an average Bird-of-Prey. The vessel is capable of providing a support role to other Klingon Empire vessels although this ship itself is still very much a warship. It carries 6 main weapon slots for players to customise - 3 at fore, and 3 at aft. This is not as many as much smaller Klingon vessels. To compensate, the Vo'Quv has 2 hanger bays which are capable of launching squads of smaller fighters into the fight.

Roles

In nearly all MMO games, players are generally seperated into three main categories depending on their type of character or class. These are tanking, healing and damage dealing and help define the role that the player is set up to excel in. These roles are described below in more detail.

Tanking

A tanking player is a player that is set up to be able to take heavy punishment from an enemy. In Star Trek Online starships that fall into tanking categories would be Cruisers and Carriers due to their increased hull size and overall power.

Healing

A healer is a player that is capable of healing other players. In the-game there are no specific healing ships as each player can repair their own hull and shields through numerous abilties. Each ship is also capable of repairing another players shields through the Transfer Shield Strength ability. Science Vessels are more suited to this task as the aforesaid ability is increased in potency with Auxiliary power and Science Vessels have a bonus of +10 power to Auxiliary.

Damage

For the Federation damage dealing ships are primarily looked at to be Escorts. For the Klingon Empire all of their ships are capable of doing heavy damage due to their ability to mount cannons. Science Vessels and Cruisers however can still be very formidable opponents in the right hands and their damage dealing capabilities are not as terribly far behind Escorts.