Created by our very own commander and Content Creator – Fortis
Along with my alliance members, we have been doing very well in competitions and events.
Probably the first question you are going to ask is: How does someone like me get there?
You want to know how do you start from the backwater worlds of Yerma, Vatok and Maynard, eventually ending up deep in faction space?
Ok, I have to admit it is not an easy path to take. If you wish to take the journey, there are a few steps you will need to complete to come out on top.
1) Do What You Feel Is Right
Before you head off into deep space, you need to do what you feel is right for you. You will never become a top-level player unless you are doing something you really enjoy. And sometimes it takes a long time before you know what you want to do. Let me give this some context for a minute. In the Star Trek Fleet Command world I loved both Romulan and Federation starships. For the first year of the game, I was trying to go dual faction. This meant it would have taken a lot longer to get a Legionary or Saladin faction ship. At the time, I was no expert but I soon found out I would have gotten one the ships and become more powerful earlier if I had gone with one faction. I tried to be the “jack of all trades”, but in reality, this was not possible.
After nearly six months, I realized even though everyone was telling me to go dual-faction I didn’t have the heart to do it. I really wanted to unlock Federation ships more than anything. So, what did I do? I stopped trying to go dual-faction and followed my heart. I had a clear vision of who I wanted to be and loved everything Federation and Starfleet.
2) Test Out Your Metal
Before you can settle comfortably into STFC, you have to test how much you can take. Adhering to mobile gaming here, I had to explore the Federation faction (the Mayflower, the Saladin, Officers etc.) and really comprehend how far I could take it, discovering the positives and negatives. And once I knew all the sticking points, I could create a style of play with the aim of improving my style of gameplay.
The only way you are going to improve your style is by doing things differently. Due to the vast amount of systems and non-existent limits on PVP combat, it is the perfect environment to try new things. Test your officers, work with your alliance members, do everything you can think of so you can better understand your limits.
Think of another analogy when you are reading this. If you are a marathon runner, you have to know the dynamics of your body when you are keeping up with the lead runners, or when you are falling behind. When do you slow down or speed up? Once you know your limits, you can begin to shape your body to cover both extremes.
Life teaches us lessons all the time.
3) Starting Again
Everyone believes it is easy to become a master. Nothing is easy. At any given time, you have to be prepared to throw all your hard work out the window and start afresh. The more you are willing to do this and be “born again”, the more you will know yourself and improve.
To give you a true picture of what it took me to understand Star Trek Fleet Command, I upgraded a number of officers, favouring strength over special abilities. It took a lot of officer xp and faction credits to do this. And every time I levelled each officer, I learned something new about the class. It was not something major that would give me a major advantage, something small, that allowed me to advance slowly and give me knowledge.
4) Find Your Teacher
Nothing will help you grow faster than someone who is by your side, teaching you and quadrupling your skill. I am telling you this, your learning doesn’t come from your teacher telling you, do this and you will become great. It comes from that person staying at your side. You must follow everything they do, take their knowledge, use it, and teach others.
A year ago, I decided I wanted to take STFC more seriously. The massive influx of viewers was a clear sign to me that the game was beginning to take off, and I wanted to be a part of that world.
There was a player on the server named Starlord who was really making strides in the game. His style was to raid as much as possible and give the resources to those players lower than himself. I took this style of gameplay seriously and asked him to teach me as much as possible.
I was so inspired by this player, I decided to learn how to properly raid stations and pass on the resources to those less fortunate than myself. It was so easy to replicate this strategy; I was shocked more alliances were not doing it. A few months later, after we had both implemented this strategy, we had a strong alliance and great friendships.
5) Don’t Get Ahead Of Yourself
Building on my story in number 4, I soon realized I was never an expert and needed help. Thanks to players like Starlord, I was able to build on their experience. I improved over time and was soon able to engage with top-tier players on the server. After watching a lot of STFC videos online, I soon realized there was a lot more for me to do. I needed to be faster, more on the ball when it came to shipbuilding and mining.
In part, arriving at this mindset means letting go of your ego. I could have stayed with the same players and watched the same videos, but this did not help me in the end. I needed to surround myself with the best players and involve myself with the top alliances. The day I built my first faction ship and flew it into my first PVP fight, I realized how little I knew. After I made such moves, I understood the importance of patience.
Always grow in increments, learn and teach others.
6) Practice Makes Perfect
I cannot say this enough. You need to get practice in every day.
Players think a lot about practice. Everyday players are going on Twitch and YouTube, looking for tutorial videos on everything from PVP to the best mining areas. You can watch over one hundred YouTube videos and then it clicks… you will never get better by only watching content. You and ship have to engage in action. I took this advice to heart. Soon, I was taking my ships out on missions and hostile hunts. I replaced at least half the hours I spent watching content and used that time to make myself better.
Something to add… Do you know how much mobile gaming time I signed up for? I used to play different mobile games every day. I practised at least five to six hours on and off each day. That’s an incredible amount of time to put into your phone or tablet.
So many social rules violated in order to practice. I stayed up late, took part in battles at strange hours. I chatted to people in different time zones and stayed awake in the middle of the night. In order for me to improve I had to break conventions.
In order to succeed in life, sometimes we have to break the mould.
7) Being Poor Over Rich
My one mission in the game was to build the best faction ship ever. This meant skill and determination. I didn’t care how much Parsteel or Dilithium I had. I didn’t care about being in the top alliance or being number one in events. The ONLY thing which mattered to me was how to grow and pass this onto my fellow alliance members.
To complete this goal, I had to give up on everything else. I was “resource-poor” and rarely had any real money to spend on packs. I didn’t have the best resources because I didn’t have time to raid or kill boss NPCs. I didn’t have a lot of friends in-game because I kept to myself. Clearly, there are some real-life parallels to draw from this. If you want to focus on something, in particular, you have to give up everything else. Giving up money, rewards etc you then focus on being poor over rich… I.e. you are focusing on the skill of the game. Give up gratification and acceptance and reap in the benefits.
Throw out the wealth and status. Focus on the process and the journey it took to get you there.
8) Build Your Own Road
Ok so if you have made it this far into the article, you are now near the top per cent… Congrats fellow STFC player! Now is the time to fight for what you believe in.
So far throughout the entire span of playing Fleet Command, I’ve been told I am wasting my time. I’ve been told I should quit trying to teach people. I’ve been told to go and quit. I’ve been told I won’t be anything in life. The path to becoming better isn’t easy, it becomes harder when you have hundreds of voices telling you to stop.
Do you think I listened?
If you want to be at the top, you have to be prepared to trust what your head is telling you… no one else. Mentors and friends can be very helpful because they reinforce what you are telling yourself. Always heed their advice.
Build your own road. Stick to the lines and channel your frustration into a new vision.
9) Be Determined
When you are close to the top level, you will be able to feel it. It will be like looking at stars through a telescope. You can see them up close, but they will be just out of your grasp… Taunting you to reach further.
In Star Trek Fleet Command, you will be competing against players in events every day. During one research event, the scores were not very high. I realized I had a chance to compete and become first in the event, possibly winning millions of resources. I wanted to be the best and I wanted everyone to know about it.
Within the last hour, I saw a LOC player quickly catching up to me. They weren’t quite there but they were getting closer to my number one score. I relentlessly poured multiple speed-ups into my research to make sure I was still first. Five minutes before the event was due to end, I stopped putting in resources, I thought I had done enough.
I was wrong.
RIGHT THERE with 20 seconds to go, the LOC player had overtaken me in research. I lost the event.
Should I have given up right then and there?
The next day, my alliance members perked me up and gave me tips to help me in future events. Even though we didn’t win all the research events, we did win some which proved we were building a strong team.
10) Achieve It and Keep It!
Ok, so you made it to the top. Now the biggest question you have to take into consideration… Do you have what it takes to remain there?
If you let being at the top get into your head then pretty soon, you’ll lose your top spot.
Think about it.
You’ll be offered everything, people will message you, others will want to be allied with you and then what? You stop focusing on the skill that got you there.
It takes a lot of work to stay at the top.
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