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Star Trek Online: A review.
wolfing
Member UncommonPosts: 149
In some crazy "less-than-a-week-before-release" decision, the game that was tested and balanced for over 3 months of testing was suddenly thrown overboard 5 days before release. A space combat that was almost unanimously lauded as 'fun and the best of the game' was destroyed. A series of buffs to players' ships made battles ridiculously easy. If you like playing in god mode, then you may like it. But if you like fun battles where you actually have to press more than 1 button, stay away. All it took was a couple of open beta posts in the forums about 'battles are too hard' (they were not), and Cryptic went into PMS mode, changing everything that had been tested and balanced in closed beta.
Buy at your own risk.
[Mod Edit]
Comments
You talk about PvE or PvP space battles ? If you talk about PvP and you press only one button there especially in T3 battles then yes , stay away from STO its not game for you.
Im assuming hes referring to PvE. I got the chance to play last night and was more than surprised that i no longer had to constantly rotate my shields in between every volley that i fired with my tactical escort and instead just had to pew pew and maybe boost a shield toward the end of a battle maybe 1 or 2x's. The op is right, they had it well balanced (and some would argue it was a little too easy before this last patch) to where you had to actually "play" your character to down enemy ships on space missions, and if you didnt, you actually DIED (GASP!!! Yes you actually would be defeated, imagine that!!!). The game already has basicly no death penalty in pve and now they went and made it way to easy, especially for those of us who actually took the time to learn how to play our accounts properly.
Obviously PvE. PvE space combat was fun and challenging, you used to need to use your bridge officer abilities, play with your energy settings, distribute your shield and change facing as needed. Basically, a very interactive and dynamic combat system. It was all destroyed, you can pretty much win any PvE space combat by stopping and pressing 'space' without even looking at the screen.
I can't comment on PvP as I don't PvP, but I think it's the same as before since the changes that destroyed PvE space combat were to your ships, so everybody was affected the same.
Well, to only press 1 button in pve I guess we are talking about low level pve here? I played up to lvl 7 so far but only about 2 hours since the new patch and the game became harder for my cruiser without the Evasive maneuovre skill. Smaller ship then me can stay in my wake without any problem so I can't use my skill that require them to be in front of me. Of course that is 1 on 1 because in a massive fight what I just said is unimportant since there are targets everywhere.
I seriously hope they rectify this because if cryptic starts bowing to the players who want everything to be easy I'll be out of there. We already have a game like that to play and it's called World of Warcraft .
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Not quite. There are many reports of people at, say, level 16 being able to beat fleets of enemies levels 25 and above.
yeah i agree the game is waayyyy too easy to the point its a joke. I found prior to the patch I had to be tactical, and utilize my proper orientation as well as rotate my shields properly to offset the dmg another ship was dealing me. Now I can roll up on 5-6 ships throw a photon or quantum mine and ice them like they were nothing. I liked the game before were I had to use my brain in order to win, and it felt gratifying to defeat a maruader battleship which now I can tank like 2-3 of them by myself including raptor escorts and BOP's. truly a shame, any fun i had is out the door now along with my preorder.
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Didn't they do something like this to champions online just before/after that came out? Seems they are not learning?
Well that is a shame indeed, i still cant log in to the open beta >.>
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Actually those of us that rather not waste time to play but rather wait and see what others have to say will be weighing carefully everything people post. I've already been burned by Cryptic before.
So yeah, this post is aimed at people like me ofc
The best advice I can give is wait. The real turning point for this game will be after 1 month and how many people will actually start to pay a monthly sub for this. Personally I expect it to be like CO, plenty try it and you have all the preorder folk, but after 1 month they drop like flies.
Actually it was the other way around (well not really but similar) in CO. Fights were extremely too easy in beta, and on release day they changed things to 'easy', but people complained that they couldn't kill 100 enemies with one click and they didn't feel like 'superheroes' anymore.
Still, goes to show you that the company has a really bad game direction. The final weeks of beta should NOT be about changing core game issues. It should be about just fixing bugs and verifying that the server handles the load. They just don't learn.
Unfourtantely that is particulary true for Cryptic games. Atleast WAR and AoC took a few months to drop a huge percentage of subscribers. Champion Online lost more than 70% after the first month, that must be some kind of record.
From what I am seeing now: Very easy and quick leveling and few PvP options this game seems to go the same way.
It is like they are incapabable of learning from their own misstakes.
My gaming blog
Another short-coming of STO. After some honest experience juxtaposed to other games in this genre, and juxtaposed to what are considered mmo/mmorpg design staples, I just come away with the impression that STO is a cleverly designed, rudimentary space shooter with very primitive game-play.
That’s not to say that those that want to invest in something so elementary or basic is wrong; it’s just that others have essential expectations for a product in a genre that has been evolving and advancing, only to see many of those fundamental or evolutionary features not make it into STO.
This move to make everyone feel like a super hero just adds to the boredom of space combat being linear, non-substantial and non-dynamic.
Sad to hear they nerfed the one part of the game that was actually enjoyable.
Guess it will just be a Trekkie fan club Chat room from now on.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
beta
and theres me thinking i was getting better at the game
Damn that means im still crap lol
http://www.speedtest.net/result/502097918.png
Step one: Acquire IP rights to large, popular TV show or tabletop game.
Step two: Hype up the fact that you are making a MMO about it.
Step three: Hire employees and make said game for the lowest amount of money possible.
Step four: Make game exciting at the beginning so players will tell their friends it is fun and make them buy it.
Step five: Forget about the end-game and neglect putting in enough quality content past mid-game.
Step six: Start closed beta.
Step seven: Hype up the MMO even more.
Step eight: Start open beta.
Step nine: Hype up the MMO as much as you possibly can to boost box sales.
Step ten: Release massive balance patch days before or on launch day.
Step eleven: Collect $$$ from box sales and cut operating staff down to a minimum and go back to step one.
Can I have a license for a 24, Law & Order, or Battlestar Galactica MMO? I know how to do it!
I'm no business expert, but that doesn't sound very profitable to me. Would be curious to see someone try it some time.
Hmm, perhaps you missed one though?
Step 8.5: Add lifetime subscription offer that expires the day of release.
I was hoping this game would be awesome too but never held out hope. There were a lot of red flags for me about the game but that offer sealed it for me. Maybe I'll take a look at the game a year from now but not til then, I've been burned too many times.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
I hope you're being sarcastic. This is exactly what Cryptic did with Champions and are currently doing with STO.
Isn't the point of beta testing a game to find out what people prefer? Aren't tweaks common? It's not like the difficulty can't be ramped up a bit again, and I fully expect that it will be, as this is quite a hot topic on the official forums as well.
I'd be hard pressed to believe WoW is easier than STO ATM.
The only diificult PvE mission at lower levels was the Gorn hostage ship...even that encounter is LOL easymode now. Battles that, while not diificult at least required me to pay attention, I now win without shields even dropping below "blue" strength levels. They effed up the only good part of the game.
There is no easy way out for Cryptic. if game is difficult people whine and if its easy they still whine. Its not easy to keep both group of players happy.
Just from reading the first post, you can tell this isn't a "tweak." Tweaks are to be expected for any MMO at any time. Massive balance changes just days before release or after it has been released are not acceptable. Cryptic did it to Champions and we saw what happened. SOE did it to Star Wars, but Cryptic didn't learn from either of the mistakes. This game may sell several boxed copies just because it has the name "Star Trek" on it, but it won't have a decent lasting subscription base because of their inability to "tweak" a MMO.