I'm pretty confused, now. The missions seem pretty jumbled. I thought I was following the "beginner path" and all of a sudden I'm in the middle of the Terran Gambit arc? "The Calling" was put up front for me after completing the tutorial. I believe I accepted that mission along with Diplomatic Orders. Diplomatic Orders is what starts the Klingon War arc (which should be "first" I would think), but The Calling is in the middle of the Terran Gambit (and I'm absolutely getting my butt kicked in the space combat portions).
I partly want to go back and start a new character just to "erase" having touched the Gambit arc. Should I be closely following the wiki to make sure I'm proceeding in chronological order? Or am I expecting STO to be more like Final Fantasy XIV where each expansion builds on the last? Is STO less linear, maybe?
I want to love this game, and it feels so close to a super fun experience, but I'm not sure if it's quirks I need to get used to, or a shift of mindset.
When new episodes come out, they get the "spotlight" and everyone can play them for a limited time, regardless of where they are in the story. If you tab over to Episodes, you should be able to see where you actually are - you just have to ignore the automatic hails (there is actually a setting to disable them).
It's a bit annoying, but some players really want immediate access to the shiny new rewards.
Ah, that makes sense. I'll try and figure out how to disable the auto-hails (one already ruined a Nimoy narration).
I would definitely recommend accessing all sorry missions from the third tab of the Mission Journal.
As you progress, it might also be worth looking at the "Available" tab - it will have some story arcs that are a little old and dated, and have been removed from the "main" story without being completely removed from the game.
I think I was looking there, after you mentioned it earlier. It made more sense, and was definitely easier to see what's next.
Thanks!