Want to team up with a friend who's new to the game? You're in luck! In Season One: Update Two, we're happy to introduce the Squad Support System. Now, players of any level can team with each other using our special level scaling technology. This is a great way to spend time with your friends and fleetmates of differing levels, and to enjoy Star Trek Online in a brand new way.
The Squad Support system does more than just alter your effective level. Your hit points, base damage output and base healing will all scale to an amount appropriate to the level you've assumed.
In Squad Support mode, some of your items will have their efficacy scaled down under the hood to correspond to the level of the player you’re supporting.
You'll retain your Bridge Officer's powers, but their effectiveness will be scaled to appropriately match the effectiveness of a power used at your assumed level.
Other things won't change. Your items, skill points, ships, Bridge Officer complement, console stations and Bridge Officer stations will remain in your possession.
As you change your level, some rewards will scale with you.
Your skill point rewards will vary based your level relative to the player you're Supporting. Check out this table for some examples:
| Actual Level | Effective Level | Enemy's Level | Skill Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | N/A | 30 | 30th level skill points |
| 30 | 40 | 40 | 30th level skill points |
| 30 | 40 | 42 | 32nd level skill points |
| 30 | 20 | 20 | 20th level skill points |
| 30 | 20 | 18 | 18th level skill points |
Enemies will always drop items appropriate to their level, so Support higher-level players and enjoy the spoils! Do note, however, that tier and rank restrictions will still apply to all items. If you cannot equip an item that you received when Supporting a friend you can sell them or save them for when you rank up.
Most missions in Star Trek Online have a level pre-requisite and the Squad Support system will not let players bypass this requirement to receive primary mission rewards. However, players can still accept these missions as secondary missions and receive appropriately-scaled rewards.
There are a few system-wide restrictions to keep in mind:
Squad Support is built into the teaming system. Once you join someone's team, you can designate a Squad Leader separate from the team leader. Other members of the team can then adjust their effective level to that of the Squad Leader's. You can scale your level up or down, too!
Beginning your Squad Support session is as easy as joining a group. In this pictured example, Voroy has invited T'Pen and Kreti to his team, and is acting as the Squad Leader. At this point, the invited players can opt to match Voroy's level, or continue on at their regular rank.
Next up is the team status window, which you should be familiar with. In the above example, you're looking at a team status window as though you were Voroy, the team leader.
T'Pen and Kreti are player character team members. T'Pen is Supporting Voroy, and the tooltip over the button to the left of her portrait says she's matching "your" level because Voroy is the Squad Leader. To the left of her portrait is an icon displaying a large character standing near a smaller one. This indicates T'Pen has matched Voray's level. Hovering your mouse over T'Pen's status also reveals a tooltip that explains T'Pen is matching the Squad Leader's level.
In this image from T'Pen's perspective, T'Pen is Supporting Voroy. If you look in the upper-left corner, you'll notice an arrow indicating T'Pen's rank has increased to support Voroy. Her effective rank is also in parentheses to the right of her actual rank. When you hover over Voroy's portrait, a tooltip appears to inform you of Voroy's status as Squad Leader. As a Supporting member of the team, you can opt to stop or begin Supporting the Squad Leader by clicking on the icon to the left of the Squad Leader's portrait.
This is Kreti's view of the team. Because he's not Supporting Voroy, his rank in the top-left of the screen appears normal. The icon to the left of Voroy's portrait indicates Kreti is not currently Supporting him. Kreti can click the icon to begin Supporting and alter his effective level to that of Voroy's.
