STO: De-Borging the Manchester

Star Trek Online may have unique story missions, the genre’s best capital starship battles and a kinda fun “select and dress your crew” mini-game, but the end-game is the same as it is for many MMOs: repeating end game missions on normal mode for tokens with which to buy advanced gear to do heroic mode instances and raids.
In Star Trek Online, these are called “Special Task Forces”, “Elite Special Task Forces” and “Fleet Actions”. But they are not dissimilar to the regular instance grinds in modern fantasy MMOs. Except in one, you can blow up space ships on the Internet.
In STO, the antagonists for all the Special Task Forces are the Borg, the hive mind that wants to encompass the galaxy. To fight the Borg most effectively, you need anti-Borg weapons on your ship (and in your hands for ground missions). You need ship fittings most resistant to Borg weapons. All this stuff is bought with Encrypted Data Chips, which you get by running STFs. Everyone quickly buys the basic “Retro STF” Borg fittings, which partially assimilate your ship, turning it into a creepy green bio-cybernetic mess that clearly illustrates how you become what you fight.
I’m finally working PAST that. The Omega Force, a joint Klingon/Federation command united against the Borg invasion of the Alpha quadrant, has developed technology superior to the Borg fittings. I’ve upgraded my weapons to all anti-Borg weapons that can proc a 1000 point radiation burst against enemy ships. Given that Borg capital ships seem to have a hundred thousand points of hull, this isn’t as amazing as it seems, but fast firing weapons can proc this a lot.
Last night, I won, by chance, a “Rare Borg Shield Tech”. Commander Roxy in DS9 will exchange this for a Mark XI Special Reserve Shield Requisition, with which Federation officers can buy Omega Force or M.A.C.O. gear (Klingon officers get Honor Guard gear instead of M.A.C.O.). I decided to show solidarity with the Federation and got the M.A.C.O. version. Once installed, the dark green hull color scheme changed to the subtle markings above. I could see my ship again.
My Klingon captain has won the corresponding deflector dish tech. That bit changes the Borg green ship monocle to a subtle yellow cylindrical scanning field which I like a lot. I can’t wait to get it on my Fed.
This would go a whole lot faster if I were having any luck at all on the Elite STFs. I haven’t won one since.
Is it fun to keep repeating instances? I guess there’s a sort of mindlessness to them, especially if you get people who have done them before. I’ve been ragged on before for assuming people know what to do when they really don’t, and need it explained (though of course they will never ask). Last night a couple people were working on destroying a gateway that was still being healed by nanite transformers they weren’t helping to destroy. I tried saying something but was ignored. We didn’t get the optional rewards that time…
When things go well, though, it’s a wonderful ballet of coordinated destruction. Everyone knows their job, and their ships can handle the responsibility. Last night for the first time, I took on the role of keeping the probes from the temporal portal in the Khitomer Accord space STF. Nobody was doing it, so I stepped up.
The U.S.S. Manchester is working overtime to keep the galaxy safe. For you.
It’s really great to see so many people online!