Lootcritter here: Nine new ships this week – NINE. And after a weekend of pure fun, I’ve had a chance to set up all three factions and I can say there’s not a dog in the bunch. Timberwolf’s been salivating for a T6 Odyssey for as long as I’ve known him – so it’s no surprise the following review is a love-affair with this ship. And I’m in complete agreement. This is the first time in the game that all 11 alts are flying versions of their factions flagship – and no two are flying the same build.
It’s a great week for new ships 😉
As always he’s a great source of information and contributor over at The SHOW. If you’re looking for advice I recommend you check out his YouTube channel, and don’t forget to listen in on The SHOW – the best Star Trek Online Podcast in the business 😉
T6 Federation Flagships review:
To start off, this review wouldn’t be complete without showing off this video from ZEF Films. It says a lot about these ships:
Now that is taken of, these ships are of course up my alley! Everyone knows about my love of the Odyssey class in Star Trek Online. After all, it is the flagship of the Federation and she is a beautiful ship that matches up properly with the current lineage of powerful yet elegant flagships we are used to from the shows and movies. The moment I saw the T5 Odyssey in game, I made it my goal to obtain one as my own flagship. Once I bought the Tactical Odyssey, i never looked back! I used other ships and collected ships for reviews or builds for friends and even used them in runs, but I always find myself coming back to the Odyssey… So naturally when the blog was released for the T6 flagships, I poured over every bit of data I could and the moment they were on sale, I bought the 3 pack!
Man, I love my Odyssey class all over again! Each type now has its own design flair for its professions basis and each one got its own different BOFF upgrade to better suit its style and really good (not kidding) consoles for the players to use. Granted my final version will be a T6 Tactical Odyssey with a hybrid of parts and new, but all three are worth their weight in zen for those of you who love cruisers.
Below I break down each one with a video and grade scale (Thanks to Lootcritter for the grade scale)
Endeavour (Tactical) Class: 5/5
The T6 Endeavour Tactical Odyssey is a beast! While I’m not the biggest fan of her looks, her upgrades under the hood are what I like the most. With the upgrade of the Lt. Tactical seat to a Lt. Commander Tactical, it gave me the option to have two Lt. Cmdr. Tactical seats, allowing for Fire At Will 3 and Attack Pattern Omega 1 at the same time! Pair this with a new console that gives a small boost to all energy weapons, with a active ability that boosts firing cycle haste, turn rate, and flight speed…and you have a nice combination of abilities for offense! While I may not use the console in my final build, it still is a viable option to use for many players, especially on a budget. She seems to fly a bit faster than her predecessor, but then again it could be simply that she is newer. I also like the ability to use new command abilities in my builds, namely Overwhelm Emitters 1, which is a good shield drain/shield heal. Knowing myself, I will push her to her damage output potential and beyond, but that is for another video on another day. For now I know she is a great addition and a great upgrade to my T5U version.
Sojourner (Engineering) Class: 4.5/5
The T6 Sojourner Operations Odyssey is a surprisingly good ship and better than its T5U version due to the upgrades she received! The upgrade of the Ensign universal seat to a Lieutenant universal really give her more options for damage output and definitely more options for survival, whether used as a science or engineer seat. Given it has the console layout as the T5U version, along with the Quas (another good ship), it does have a decent setup for a myriad of builds, making her a jack of all trades in my book. She can have strong damage output or have a very decent survival rating. Either way, she is a very good cruiser for her money. Her console will give a nice boost to defense and offense on a dime, especially when paired with Go Down Fighting, Aux to SIF, and Attack Pattern Alpha. She may have her limitations on the high end of things, but that doesn’t mean she isnt great for many players out there. For her looks, while I like what they did with her, It is not my favorite skin for the Odyssey.
However, she does bridge the gap between the Galaxy class and the 1701-J and look wise will make someone who wants the cross between the look of a Galaxy/Andromeda and the power for an Odyssey very happy.
Yorktown (Science) Class: 5/5
The T6 Yorktown Science Odyssey is a fantastic ship and a great upgrade to the T5U version! While it may look similar on paper to its predecessor, the upgrade to its BOFF layout and its new console make it that much better. This variant is well known for damage output and for tanking, considering it can equip four threat scaling consoles and its BOFF layout can be configured very well for both. With the upgrade of the Lieutenant Science to a Lieutenant Commander Science, she has more options in the Science department. So you have more powerful shield or hull heals if you feel a bit squishy, you can slot Gravity Well 1 if you want to group up your own targets, or even Feedback Pulse 2 so while you are collecting the threat and taking in damage, you can reflect it back along with your own weapons (works really well with certain starship traits!) Also, she is so gorgeous! I mean, the upgrades in her looks from the standard Odyssey is amazing! Also, forget to mention that the new console that comes with this ship is very decent! Not only will it give a PBAoE radiation DoT to targets within 4km, but also disable all foes affected for 5 seconds and reduce their energy damage output for 15 seconds…which can be very useful in those moments where a brief recharge is needed. All in all, the Science Odyssey was always a good ship and the T6 Yorktown Science Odyssey is an amazing upgrade to an already nice ship!
So you have seen what I can do with my favorite ships and its time I go out with them and blow up the universe! (or maybe just every Borg ship I see). I highly recommend buying this 3 pack and enjoy using the flagship of the Federation in all three of its iterations!
Until next time, Timberwolf is signing off!
Conversations with the Lootcritter 
Thanks for the great review Timber, and Lootcritter for hosting it!
I also really like the new Odyssey Ships and was quite stoked they finally arrived! Their looks are amazing, seating is nice and diversified, and I think each one fits its own niche better than the T5 versions. That said, I do have some issues with the T6 Oddys, and do not feel they deserve perfect marks.
1. They are still the only flagship where two of the consoles are mutually exclusive of each other. There is no reason that the T5 Chevron Separation and Aquarius consoles couldn’t have been upgraded so in the T6 Odyssey both could be used at once. Rather, it would have been a nice bonus for those who purchased the previous ship bundle to allow use of both at the same time on the T6 ships. The Galaxy class can launch pets that you actually have control over, as well as Saucer separate. The MVAE (Prometheus) has 2 uncontrollable pets with its ONE console equipped. So, again, why can’t this ship launch both? Especially when you use two console slots to have access to both? It just doesn’t make sense at this point of the game.
2. As the Chevron Separation and Aquarius are exclusive, you are given very little reason to slot both. So why can’t we have the original Oddy hull that has the Aquarius bay filled in? Or have the game automatically fill the bay in if you haven’t slotted the console? It seems a missed opportunity, especially as between the T5 and T6 Oddys, that’s up to 7 consoles you could use of your 11 slots. Not too many are going to slot them all anyway. So why not an option to visually represent this on your ship? Additionally, this feature was very often requested for the previous Odyssey generation as well, so this would have been the perfect opportunity to implement it.
3. This issue is more of an issue with the overall T6 flagship bundle and how the Oddy fared compared to the others. The T6 Oddy has fewer upgrades than the Bort and Scimitar T6 packs. The only appreciable stat difference between the T5 Oddy (stats, not BOff seats, console slots, etc) is that the Odessy had its inertia increased from 20 to 30. The Bortasqu? +1 Turn radius, boosted to 30 Inertia from 18, and a shield modifier bump of 0.1. The Scimitar also fared better than the Oddy as well in the generation jump. It also had its Inertia brought up to the 30 that seems to be the new standard across these ships, is now getting +20 total bonus power (was +15 before). The T6 Bortasqu and T6 Scimitar both received more meaningful stat upgrades than the Odyssey. To be frank, the Odyssey really lost out in the T6 upgrade when it comes to ship stats.
So, those are three issues right off the top of my head, as to why these ships are less than perfect.
Honestly, I’d like to have seen the Bort and Oddy get a hanger bay and unique pet that they could control. A hanger bay on these ships with their own pet would create an additional Dilithium cost (netting Cryptic more money), and bring the ships closer to parity with the Scimitar. The would also push these ships away from the far inferior uncontrollable NPC pet. The Odyssey gets penalized twice as hard because of this, as it still has chevron separation as well.
I’d also like to see the Oddy get something to make up for the buffs the other ships got, even if its just an extra 1 degree of turn rate or something similar.
Visually? They get an 11/10. Except the saucer section of the Endeavor. Something about those sharp angles reminds me of the old Low Poly models we had at launch. The Endeavor gets a 9/10 visually, because that’s the only issue that bugged me. They even updated the original C Store Odyssey model as well, a nice extra!
Seating? Fantastic job! More varied than the previous generation, and well thought out. Two thumbs up. Would have liked Intel instead of Command seating, but Command makes more sense thematically.
Timber, I’d love to hear your thoughts, as well as the other hosts, on the points I’ve brought up if you do an episode of The Show on the new T6 Flagships. I’m sure there is stuff I missed as well 🙂
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I haven’t checked in-game, but the official game announcement of the T6 flagship stats state that T6 Scimitars only have inertia of 20, same as the T5 version. Is that not true? When I did my comparison the T6 Oddy has the inertia upgrade and some hull increase, while the T6 Scim only has +5 weapon power. Based on that comparison the T6 Scims are the ones who got the shaft.
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I stand corrected on the Inertia. The new Scimitars are still at 20. Serves me right for posting w/o sleep at 5 am.
That said, I believe a 5 point power boost is far superior to a minor inertia boost, especially on a Romulan Warbird which is already starved for power when compared to ships with Warp cores, which have higher base power.
As far as the HPs go, if I recall correctly, all 3 T6 versions had superior HPs to their T5-U counterparts. Comparing the HPs of the T6 flagships to each other is like comparing Apples and Oranges, as they are different classes of ships (Warbirds, versus Battle Cruisers, versus Cruisers). That’s why I chose to omit that from the comparison.
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You are quite right – they really can’t be compared. The Romulan ships are in a class of their own, with the KDF and Feds have greater similarities. The power increase on the T6 ‘Scimis’ is actually more valuable on that class. Who doesn’t need more DPS?
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I have a comparison chart in the works – unfortunately it’s so large (18 columns of data), it’s not practical to view. Hopefully will have it up tonight.
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Though I’ve yet to see the videos – I’m at work and can’t watch them – I’m quite glad to see this Tier 6 Fed flagship review.
I’ve mastered all 3 flagships by now too, testing each of them out in thier own skins so I could form an opinion of them.
The Endeavor is a ship I wanted to like, but it fell behind the curve of the other two for me. Access to tactical powers is nice, but we’ve had so many tactical oriented cruisers of late that it’s hard to see it as exceptional for me. As for its looks, I feel that some angles really flatter her, while others don’t (she looks amazing on the cover of the PDF brochure). That module atop the engineering hull is its biggest detractor to me, as I don’t like the ‘step’ it creates that breaks up the flow of the ship’s otherwise sleek lines. Aside from that, my prefered look for it is stock, with the nacelles changed to the Sojourner’s (I don’t like the topside of the Endeavor nacelles, and the Sojourner still makes it look mean and angular).
I don’t like the Sojourner as much as some other players seem to, but it does feel like a solid offering and a vessel I unapologetically picked up in replacement to my Fed engineer’s Andromeda. I enjoy the versatility its bridge station bring, and console-wise it feels very balanced. Lookswise, it has a good silhouette, but I’m not onboard with its retro-looking deflector and I feel the 90-degree nacelles are too close to the body, but applying the Endeavor pylons balances them better in my eyes and brings it more in the direction of the Andromeda’s likeness in my eyes.
The Yorktown is the one I’ve presently settled on. Sensor Analysis, 4 science console slots and a bridge station offering a native LtC Science appeared rather valuable… but in experience, only the science consoles for stacking embassy consoles really seem to be useful. LtC offers gravity well 1… but with a cruiser, I don’t feel that I really need it (given that my embassy consoles are [flow], I haven’t bothered with Feedback Pulse yet – always felt it was kind of ineffective versus NPCs in the past, and not worth it due to long cooldown/conflict with Transfer Shield Strength). Sensor Analysis would be useful if it actually triggered when I first click it (lag), if targets actually lasted long enough to have it increment up to the point of being effective and the 5 second cooldown afterwards prevents me from using it in smaller skirmishes on multiple targets.
I also like the looks of the Yorktown best. The protruding impulse drives remind me a bit of the Enteprise-A and B’s, I like how much sharper the secondary hull feels as it curves more sharply down to its nadir, the forward-swept pylons are a trait from the Soverign concept sketches (and the Regent) that I’ve always liked (though I’m sad we lost the impulse thrusters on them – it was my one contribution to the Enterprise-F) and the warp nacelles have an incline on their front which harkens back to the the same forward incline on the nacelles of the Constitution Refit, while the back fins remind me of the Aquarius’ nacelles.
I plan to stick to the Yorktown look for the moment for Ayana, my main Fed Sci, but unless I can make sensor analysis or that LtC Sci work, I’m leaning towards changing to the T6 Operations Star Cruiser.
Pet peeves:
– If we’re stuck with the geometry of the Aquarius, I really hoped that Cryptic would’ve made the saucer separation and undocking of the Aquarius as innate power, which adding the T5 consoles would make more powerful to match T6 content difficulty.
– back when the Odyssey was just announced, CapnLogan told me that the intent behind the Aquarius console was to make it add geometry to the aft “module” of the engineering hull. Kind of like how the Borg gear adds geometry on a ship when you enable it to do so. That way, if you didn’t have the Aquarius, you’d end up with the geometry for the clamshell doors. Alas, that never panned out. Still hasn’t, despite how people don’t use the Aquarius that much and that the clamshell shuttlebay might make for a more attrative behind.
– the overhaul of the original T5 Odyssey doesn’t do much for me. Some changes have actually grown in my eyes to be unwelcome, and I kind of wish that – besides the changes to the pylons to make them modular – they’d have left her as she was. I get the extra phaser strips were added to match the hardpoints of the other variants, but I kind of feel the sensor patches atop the top of the main shuttlebay are kind of unsightly and the ventar sensor done gaining detailing actually detracts from design lineage compared to other ships that actually had a similar dome inspired from the T5 Odyssey. I was content to consider the T6 Yorktown the Odyssey refit; I think it does it better.
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