I got into this game at launch and had a ball...at least until I maxed out on level super-fast & wound up with nothing to do but grind exploration missions or suffer through a PUG on a raid. Levelling was SO fast that by the time I really got to appreciate a particular starship, its loadout & handling, etc., I'd be leaving it behind for some new ship class. The only enemies that were remotely challenging were Romulan Warbirds, and the Borg--well, the Borg just flat cheated. I'm glad to hear that they've finally got ship interiors, and that they're revisiting & changing around some of the mission content--that'll be good. And I'm very sorry for the Klingon players. They were promised--PROMISED, multiple times--that more Klingon content was coming their way, that Klingons were and had always been intended as more than just "monster play"...and now it turns out that they were lied to. I'm so very sorry.
The rating MMORPG has given STO sounds about right. It should be higher--that is, Star Trek Online SHOULD be rated higher, but the game itself does not deserve it. Maybe it will, eventually...but I'm not holding my breath. STO had vast potential, and I hope that someday, they'll figure out how to unlock it. In the meantime, I'll be ventilating goblins & orcs over at LOTRO while waiting for SW:TOR to go live. For the Republic!
I tottaly agree with you m8t ....
They did the damage to this IP already... it will take alot to get me to go back. But untill then LOTR & EvE online is what i will be playing ... and then SWTOR ..when it comes out .. And maybe Black Prophercy!
But STO .... nope ..there are just much better games out there for my $15 ... than this one!
Fair assessment: the art is solid (and improved), the space combat is fun and nuanced (lots of customization in your build), etc.
The big detractors: the ground combat is stupid easy (especially once you realize how to insta-gib everything), Klingons don't have much PvE content outside of exploration, DSE, fleet actions (Group Instances), STFs (5-man raids), Borg Sector missions, and 8 unique KDF missions.
The game has really improved since launch - and most of the additions have been added in-game (not the C-Store):
Weekly Missions (yes, there are now new missions each week)
In short, I feel like STO is headed in a good direction. The devs are incredibly transparent around the forums - getting preproduction and production screens of new content out for the masses.
In the next three months, the game will see:
Redesigned sector space (larger, less cartoony)
Redesigned ground combat (weakest point in the game)
User-Generated Content (should be able to avoid the pitfalls of Paragon Studios' UGC in CoV/CoH)
More Klingon ship
Continued weekly missions (which are a misnomer - you actually get a suite of missions in each new sector, in addition to the main weekly missions).
Varied gear / more crafting
Am I worried for STO? No, not really.
The game has turned around considerably during the past month. Lots of sore spots are getting polished and the focus is on doing new features right instead of checking as many boxes off for some marketing guru.
Even C-store items are being added via mutiple means, i.e.:
A ship can be unlocked as part of normal level progression
A ship can be acquired through earning X emblems from PvP, STFs, Fleet Actions, etc.
As a last resort, a ship can be acquired via a paid c-store unlock (aka the one lazy bastards choose)
I left STO two months in and came back in the third month and out of all three of the updates I saw none had more release content than C-Store content, I don't see how you could even come to this conclusion, if you count missions seperately then you should also be counting c store items individually as well but even if not I have yet to see it as any closer than fifty fifty.
None of this addresses many of weaknesses that experienced MMO players can't help but notice: No death penalty of any kind, extremely small playable spaces (both in space and on the ground), no economy to speak of, massively oversimplified combat controls (space bar and F and you can play the whole game), little tacticaly flexibilty, no player interdependency, extremely poor use of the IP ( for trek fans), no real end game. This list goes on, and on.....
This whole deal smells surprisingly like a new PR effort on behalf of Cryptic/STO. Access for interviews with Cryptic corproate types (which happened recently) in exchange for a re-review?
Anyway, this game is still not worth the sub fee on top of the C-store on top of the box (even though this can be had cheap these days).
The re-review is a bunch of hot air, just like the promises of Cryptic and their defenders.....
This game is riding the coattails of the Star Trek franchise.
Star Trek was about exploring new worlds and solving diplomatic problems, with some troubles along the way. There is no vision in the mission stories and they all end up being the same, dreary, "go get there over there but watch out for some humanoid bad guys who might try to stop you".
There is no real loss in this game, death has no meaning - clearly tailored towards the instant gratification crowd but displaying all the attributes of a game designer interested in making money now and not caring about what happens a few years down the line because he'll probably be developing another, similar, game to rifle through your pocketbook.
Their constant use of MicroTransactions, especially in a collector world like Star Trek, has dubbed them as heartless blackness.
I'll never play a cryptic game again...
Might as well never play another MMo again, as MicroTransactions are being used by nearly every major title now in some manner and it is the wave of the future sadly enough.
I am still waiting for my Klingon Scaners to work, they been broke since BETA. I find it funny that they can pump out Fed Starships every couple of weeks to put in the C-Store but fail to fix something as small as a scanner. I realy believe that within 12 months, just long enough for the Lifers to get their monies worth to go F2P that way Cryptic dosen't have to justify any thing they do with the game.
Theyre not broken. Scanners only detect non-combat interractable objects, and Klingons simply have none. That said, I do want them to detect combat groups as well, but as it currently stands the scanner works exactly like it was made to, and is therefore not broken.
I think that is a load bull, everything is non-combat interactable until I decide to shoot at it and then it becomes combat interactable.
Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I got taken once by champs online (thank god it was 10$ on steam). I beta'd STO. CBS just needs to flat yank the IP from cryptic. Not one person over there has had an origional idea concerning this game since it's inception. The ground combat might be the worst looking, worst playing piece of total garbage i've ever seen. Hell, even hellgate was better than this galactic turd. I apprecite the re-review, but to be honest, if I see a pile of dogshit on my lawn, im not gonna come back 6 months later and see if it morphed into a flower bed. It's just 6 month old dogshit, and a slightly different color. You can't patch the Star Trek into star trek. You have to get the concept right from the start. They missed the whole damn target and shot a neighbor 4 blocks away. Getting rid of those 2 was an excellent start. But to little to late. As usual. This game is 6 something months old and still is about 1/20th of a normal mmo content with the worst most shallow hampster wheel of content I've ever seen. It gets old in 1-2 days even for the most diehard trek fans. It has about as much to do with star trek as scooby doo has to do with rocket science. Gene roddenberry would have sliced out his eyes with a dull spoon before he endorsed this game. That should tell you something.
I am still waiting for my Klingon Scaners to work, they been broke since BETA. I find it funny that they can pump out Fed Starships every couple of weeks to put in the C-Store but fail to fix something as small as a scanner. I realy believe that within 12 months, just long enough for the Lifers to get their monies worth to go F2P that way Cryptic dosen't have to justify any thing they do with the game.
Theyre not broken. Scanners only detect non-combat interractable objects, and Klingons simply have none. That said, I do want them to detect combat groups as well, but as it currently stands the scanner works exactly like it was made to, and is therefore not broken.
I think that is a load bull, everything is non-combat interactable until I decide to shoot at it and then it becomes combat interactable.
Oh, your free to think whatever you want, but in this particular case your wrong. There is no interaction you can have with enemies other than combat. You cant scan them or activate them in any way.
Well, my experience with Star Trek is nearly life long. I've been waiting for STO to come out for years. My friend bought a key for me, I downloaded it and it crashed the moment I tried to play. It NEVER worked. I contacted both the tech dept and cust servc. For the first time in my history playing MMORPG's, I never got a response of any kind form either dept. Ever! That was in May of this year. I have since found out that, despite earlier assurances that if your machine could run CO or CoH/CoV, the issue I have is with my machine, not necessarily the game. This is my first time here at this website and, though I'm sad to see it, I'm not that surprised by what I'm hearing about the game given my experience. Since I've never played, I obviously can't give a personal view on the game play or anything else. What I can do is present some ideas and observations that might help to turn this around for all the people like me whom have been literally waiting for years to enjoy a fully immersive MMORPG based "faithfully" on the IP.
The first thing I noticed was that many people are very angry and feel ripped off, and rightly so if only half of what I've read is true. It would also seem that the reviewer, Patrick Gerrard either isn't looking for the same things in this game that many Star Trek fans are, or has to stay true to purpose and write a review that gives STO the most favorable outlook possible. Please don't vilify him. He has to eat too. I'm sure many of us might like to be paid game reviewers but that job would quickly lose it's luster when we found out that the people giving us a paycheck could direct us to write a "favorable" article irregardless of how we felt. IF that's even true. I also noticed that Grand_Nagus seems to be working some kind of damage control in favor of the game or the review. I suspect this because of his rather timely entrie onto the forum that seem to be aimed at minimizing or explaining away some of the players complaints about the game and it's shortcomings. I could be wrong about this. Maybe Nagus is just a loyal fan who doesn't want to see his favorite game die. If so Nagus, I apologize for my suspicious nature. If you are being paid to do damage control, that's fine because, as bad as some of this may seem, I don't want this game to die either. I'll explain why shortly. If I'm right, then I'm not mad at you any more than I would be at Patrick for the same reasons, although I will say that your choice of Avatar was highly appropriate. (yes, that was a joke!)
As for why I wouldn't want this game to fail despite how I feel, it's simple. They have done some good things like the graphics and certain aspects of space combat so I don't want that thrown away when we, as gamers and/or dedicated Trek fans, have an opportunity to get Cryptic to turn STO into what we've wanted. I truly believe that, if we operate together, we can do this by thinking "outside of the box" and getting Cryptic to do the same. I’ll post again to explain myself
I've heard that STO doesn't 'FEEL' like trek. I haven't played so I won't try to comment on that. What I will do is give all of you some ideas about ways some of the things that "feel" like Trek may be insertable into the game.
First off, some players don't like the fact that all players are captains and have their own ships. I understand. In old school RPG's, I had the players go through a series of adventures until one of them got promoted and assigned his/her own ship. The other players were usually bridge officers or dept heads. In STO, this might be feasible by having starting charcters that don't want to go right onto the bridge of their own ship go into a "Recruiting area" where NPC or player Capt's may offer them assignments to a ship as a bridge officer or dept head. Good thing about this is that groups of players can operate together on the same ship and replace NPC landing party members. Sub games could be created for selected bridge stations and on board actions such as emergncy repairs, medical emergencies, engineering duties and such. Condensing these into microgames can help players develope skills and then, when that ship encounters situations in space, each player could act his or her role. They would need to be able to play together and a Team Comm system would be needed but it seems like a "dressing" variation on raid type missions in other MMorpgs.
That format could also be used during the infamous landing party or away team sorts of missions. They will need to provide a good deal more content on worlds but...THAT"S WHAT WE"RE PAYING FOR! It would be interesting if parties were attacked by wildlife instead of armed sentients. How about catching a disease that the med officer has to find a cure for before they can return to the ship? There are many ideas for gameplay that could fit this format.
Modify this format by inserting an opposing team (Klingon, Orion pirates, etc.) and you have a PvP situation. Of course, it will help if they have a fleshed out faction for Klingons and Romulans but if we as their customers keep insisting on that content, Cryptic will have to provide it. We have to give them appropriate time to do the work though. Just spouting mad won't do anything. Organizing that mad will get us a much better game.
Imagine a diplomatic team consisting, on both sides, of Players. Again you'd need comms for the team memebers to talk to each other and the other representatives. Game material can assign critical points to each sides negotiations and the more of your sides concessions you get, the higher your team scores. That would again be a variant on PvP but it's still PvP. Just without the weapons. If those negotiations break down and war breaks out, then you'd have a potential for massive battles with Players controlling ships on both sides. A 'Grand Melee" sort of arena or PvP format. At the conclusion, players should actually see differences in major game content. Neutral zones re-defined or planets lost to the other side who's citizens must now be evacuated in another series of adventures or scenarios. Technology seems to have made all of this possible and many other ideas to bring real Trek content into the game. AS players and fans, we need to rallyy together to get Cryptic to do these things, not just through away what we do have because of what we're missing. Groups of fans are what brought Trek back from extinction in the first place and there's no reason we can't do something like that here too. It's even more likely if their new executive staff realizes and aknowledges that they delivered substandard product and it sounds like they have. Let's push them in the right direction and maje them spend the right kind of time and money to do this. If they do, we'll all get what we want or at least something that's better than what we have.
If there is one game that you MUST avoid, this is it. They are constantly making horrible updates to a game system that is just completely broken. It is a debacle of an MMO, and will make it only slightly longer than Tabula Rasa only because of the license involved.
I am with so many, shame most of these sites make their money of the same games they need to review.
Seems every game gets at least a 7 no matter how crappy, STO and so many other MMO's out there deserve a 5 or less. Very few MMO's would even dare get an 8 out of 10, and this is comming from a guy who really only plays MMO's about 95% of the time.
I am still waiting for my Klingon Scaners to work, they been broke since BETA. I find it funny that they can pump out Fed Starships every couple of weeks to put in the C-Store but fail to fix something as small as a scanner. I realy believe that within 12 months, just long enough for the Lifers to get their monies worth to go F2P that way Cryptic dosen't have to justify any thing they do with the game.
Theyre not broken. Scanners only detect non-combat interractable objects, and Klingons simply have none. That said, I do want them to detect combat groups as well, but as it currently stands the scanner works exactly like it was made to, and is therefore not broken.
I think that is a load bull, everything is non-combat interactable until I decide to shoot at it and then it becomes combat interactable.
Oh, your free to think whatever you want, but in this particular case your wrong. There is no interaction you can have with enemies other than combat. You cant scan them or activate them in any way.
It's only a bug if the Feds can't do it...if the Klingons can't do it it's a "feature"...
That's not it at all.
It's actually a tech issue which prevents this from happening. The difference being that the tricorder scan is looking for interactions described as "clickable" on the map, and then pointing the way there.
Your objectives however are described as "destructable" and so the tricorder doesn't pick them up.
I know... not really cool.
So, what we have is a tech issue, AND we think that we may have a solution. I'm not making promises about a when, or even guaranteeing it will happen right now. However, I did just put a bee in the ear of about half the STO team, starting with Stahl, and they walked me around, we spoke to various different members of the team, and they are going to look to see if it can be done easily. If not, it will take a while longer to get out to you. However, we are working on it!
Out of all the MMO's I have played none have disappointed me as much as STO has.
As a huge Star Trek fan I was hoping for something really unique and special, full of content rich worlds, cat and mouse faction engagements and enormous depth.
Unfortunately, all I got was a partially completed, content less space shoot-em-up with as much depth as a Paris Hilton conversation.
Cryptic basically saw the name Star Trek and thought of dollar signs without thoroughly thinking of what the fans would really want. They took an inadequate game engine and simply bolted on their interpretation of what Star Trek is. The devs clearly were not Star Trek fans and the fact they took only 2 years to develop it is insulting and shows in the end product.
They should have developed a completely new game engine and took the development time that the Star Trek IP deserved. I wanted a Star Trek universe!!! Not a shoot-em-up game sim. I want to be dropped into a Star Trek universe that moves and changes around me. If I want to join Starfleet I start at the academy, if I want to be a pirate I start at some forgotten, grime encrusted space port in the middle of no where. If I want to be a trader I want cargo ships that I can load with medical supplies if a plague breaks out on some world somewhere and sell to them for a disgustingly huge profit. If I a miner different mineral veins appear throughout the galaxy. Starfleet ships, Klingon ships and neutral ships.
On top of all that I want criminal gangs I have to raid, I want peace with some race one day and then war next, the political landscape to constantly shift. I want detailed ship interiors where I can invite friends and colleagues over to view my awards.
I want the ideal Star Trek Universe and I want to live in it. Unfortunately, STO with 2 years of development just isn’t it.
I am with so many, shame most of these sites make their money of the same games they need to review.
Seems every game gets at least a 7 no matter how crappy, STO and so many other MMO's out there deserve a 5 or less. Very few MMO's would even dare get an 8 out of 10, and this is comming from a guy who really only plays MMO's about 95% of the time.
I hear what you're saying...And I think the point is valid.
Part of what I've seen personally about STO is directly related to the strength of other MMO's. I have 4 Guildies who I've been playing with for years now...These 4 wanted STO to succeed more than I can even explain...They are all HUGE Trek Fans...I personally was really hoping I could call STO my temporary Home for a year or so before SWTOR comes out...All of us are back on LOTRO now full time and actually, we're all thrilled about it. We're thrilled because we are playing an outstanding game with some real depth and teeth to it...Because even for those 4 who like Trek lore more than LOTR, the quality of the games overall is simply uncomparable...
When I see that STO gets a re-review of 7.4 I think it is a bit misleading...I realize a superior game like LOTRO got an 8.5, but I still think 7.4 is misleading to folks who may be looking for feedback on this game...I'm sorry, but in comparison to the rest of the market, STO is not average...It's below average...I'm not saying that to dump on the game either because it does have potential...But it's still probably a year or so away from being average and this quick re-review, 6 months after launch, is kind of screaming "help!" And I think even if MMORPG.com wants to help, they should have passed in this case...Because if STO can't hold the rabid Trek Fans that I know, the game is very simply lacking greatly overall and in no way should be only 1.0 rating point (or so) below the elite MMO's on the Market today...It's just not that good...And I've got a Guild full of Vet MMO Players who feel that way...
There is just no way in hell any unbiased reviewer with more than 20 minutes experience in MMORPGs could give this quai-turd any rating higher than 4. The only game I've played to date which was shorter, more shallow, and lacking content was APB. The ground combat alone in STO is enough to make you uninstall it, let alone the the absurd adaptation of this view or star trek. They seriously should have just left the ground portion out and called it Starfleet command 4. In reality, thats all it is. Thanks cryptic for another incredibly shallow and 1/15th done game. And gee, we get to look forward to them utterly destroying the neverwinter nights franchise now too. It boggles my mind that CBS hasn't yanked this ip and had ATARI liquidate these douchehats. The moronic crpytic store is enough to make me sick, let alone a subscription fee. Sometimes it's ok to just give up and let something die. You can't polish a dog turd.
I know what I post will be at the end of the comments, but I'll post it anyway... reading these, I see a TON of displeasure coming from the posters above me, and I'm not exactly sure why.... the general overall theme I get from people here is "Its not WoW in space. We demand WoW in space." You're all just comparing it to something that not even you are able to truly define... its not want it to be... but I can't tell you what that is. Being an MMO developer is not an envious position...
Aside from all the rantings and ravings about how people want the game to be, I feel the above article and rating are accurate. Because, if you haven't played any other MMO before, and knew nothing of what MMO's were... this game would definitely be enjoyable. This game is a very close second to "Best Star Trek Game Ever Made" in my opinion (first being the RTS game Star Trek Armada). Here's why:
The game is instanced... yes, how many times have other captains really gathered together to go on your standard Star Trek missions? Not many times. But does that mean its not encouraged? It really is... because STO has loot, with more people, you face harder enemies, you get better rewards. However, its nicely instanced in that I don't have to worry about other players coming in and stealing my kills or drops or any other nonsense. The fact that you have the choice to encounter other ships and captains sparingly feels a lot more like Star Trek than if you had to group up with other ships for every encounter.
The graphics are nice. There's no denying that... a little repetitive... another planet, another asteroid belt, another nebulae backdrop... but really, when it comes to space... there's not that much out there. For what they got, the backgrounds and graphics are nice. Space combat is also fun, albeit a little easy. Character and ship customization is top notch.
Now when it comes to the content, thats where most of people complain of lacking... but I'd be willing to bet most of those complaining haven't played the game recently. STO contains a lot of missions that are designed to be randomly generated. Patrol and Exploration missions, specifically. In the beginning, you'd complete some story and then have no other storyline content, and have to rely on the random stuff to get you through to the next level. It was pretty aggravating. HOWEVER, the game is not the same as it was before. WAY different, in fact. I restarted a new character, and am having to go back to the random stuff as the amount of story and special content is much greater than it was before. I now can't keep up with all the storyline content, and with the advent of weekly missions (Really great stuff, there. Its intriguing, will keep me coming back to see the story unfold) the amount of special content means even more choice for leveling outside of randomly generated stuff. The amount of content is tenfold and even the random missions don't feel as random. There was a time when it was "kill groups" and it took forever, then the next randomd mission would be to again, "kill 5 groups"... it was rediculous. Now, its a lot more shifted where some of the stuff is repeated, but theres a lot more options to choose from.
However, it is FAR from perfect. The ground combat still feel a little sporadic at times. "Exploration" feels like a sidenote, when it should be one of the main focuses of Star Trek, and their Klingon faction is mislabeled. They call it a faction, when in reality it's like LotRO's Monster Play. Billed as for the PvP-centric. Instead, it came across as an Alliance/Horde situation which it clearly isn't. Mislabeled... see it for what it is and you might appreciate it more.
Overall, to each their own. Give it a shot and if you don't like it, you don't like it. But, if you enjoy Star Trek and don't need a game to be exactly like a re-skinned version of every other game you play, I'd say give it a shot. I'm playing it, and I like it. Compare that to those that have not played it, or have just dabbled in it, and how much their opinion means. (Heck, I could tell you my opinion on medicine today, but I am no doctor, or my opinion of what in your car might need fixed, but I am no mechanic... so what does my opinion really mean?) Cryptic, despite mass opinion, is doing a good job to bring this game up to where it should be. It has only improved since launch, and it shows no signs of stopping continued improvement.
I enjoyed the rating, and I enjoyed the comments by Ambrose99. I really like this game. Can it improve? Yes, but so can every other MMO I have played. The peeps I run into for group play love the game, and the community seems very helpful. Crafting is weak, but since I hate cratfing as a time sink, I consider this a strength (in other MMOs I could rarely make enough money to buy others crafts anyways). Please keep up the improvements.
I played STO in beta...gave it a 5 out of 10, which was frankly much better then I expected after having followed the development of it. Haven't tried again since.
I'm glad to hear it's improved....but frankly I'm not inclined to give my business to any company who's business model seems to revolve around cranking out fast/cheap MMO's out of well established IP's and hyping the hell out of them to cash in on the IP while shorting actual development of resources needed to make it half-way decent.
I'm also rather skeptical of just how much CAN be done to improve STO given alot of the choices they made in design.
Bottom line is that there are so many games and companies out there competeing for entertainment dollars... that I'm not sure Cryptic really deserves another bite at the apple, given it's past business history. However, I'm glad that it has gotten better (if that's true) for those who are playing it.
Ambrose99 your logic is flawed . Firstly you assume everyone here plays WoW , which they don't . Secondly you assume that everyone here likes WoW , which they do not. Thirdly you imply that to like this game it is better to be virginal gamer then experienced . If you have experience you can't appreciated what STO has to offer , because you're tainted with ideas of what a good gaming experience should be.
You sir a laughable. Unfortunately Cryptic is banking on people of your mentality to pump up the shit they have. They want people with little to no MMO experience because you don't know any better, and are therefore more accepting of this crap. It's the console generation this game was aimed at originally and meant for Consoles . Thankfully M$ and $ony opted made it unprofitible for Cryptic to put this crap on Consoles. Unfortunately PC gamers are now stuck with POS. It's that apoligists attitude that allows Cryptic to exsist.
Comments
I tottaly agree with you m8t ....
They did the damage to this IP already... it will take alot to get me to go back. But untill then LOTR & EvE online is what i will be playing ... and then SWTOR ..when it comes out .. And maybe Black Prophercy!
But STO .... nope ..there are just much better games out there for my $15 ... than this one!
PS: ...and i Love Star Trek...!
None of this addresses many of weaknesses that experienced MMO players can't help but notice: No death penalty of any kind, extremely small playable spaces (both in space and on the ground), no economy to speak of, massively oversimplified combat controls (space bar and F and you can play the whole game), little tacticaly flexibilty, no player interdependency, extremely poor use of the IP ( for trek fans), no real end game. This list goes on, and on.....
This whole deal smells surprisingly like a new PR effort on behalf of Cryptic/STO. Access for interviews with Cryptic corproate types (which happened recently) in exchange for a re-review?
Anyway, this game is still not worth the sub fee on top of the C-store on top of the box (even though this can be had cheap these days).
The re-review is a bunch of hot air, just like the promises of Cryptic and their defenders.....
This game is riding the coattails of the Star Trek franchise.
Star Trek was about exploring new worlds and solving diplomatic problems, with some troubles along the way. There is no vision in the mission stories and they all end up being the same, dreary, "go get there over there but watch out for some humanoid bad guys who might try to stop you".
There is no real loss in this game, death has no meaning - clearly tailored towards the instant gratification crowd but displaying all the attributes of a game designer interested in making money now and not caring about what happens a few years down the line because he'll probably be developing another, similar, game to rifle through your pocketbook.
Might as well never play another MMo again, as MicroTransactions are being used by nearly every major title now in some manner and it is the wave of the future sadly enough.
I think that is a load bull, everything is non-combat interactable until I decide to shoot at it and then it becomes combat interactable.
Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I got taken once by champs online (thank god it was 10$ on steam). I beta'd STO. CBS just needs to flat yank the IP from cryptic. Not one person over there has had an origional idea concerning this game since it's inception. The ground combat might be the worst looking, worst playing piece of total garbage i've ever seen. Hell, even hellgate was better than this galactic turd. I apprecite the re-review, but to be honest, if I see a pile of dogshit on my lawn, im not gonna come back 6 months later and see if it morphed into a flower bed. It's just 6 month old dogshit, and a slightly different color. You can't patch the Star Trek into star trek. You have to get the concept right from the start. They missed the whole damn target and shot a neighbor 4 blocks away. Getting rid of those 2 was an excellent start. But to little to late. As usual. This game is 6 something months old and still is about 1/20th of a normal mmo content with the worst most shallow hampster wheel of content I've ever seen. It gets old in 1-2 days even for the most diehard trek fans. It has about as much to do with star trek as scooby doo has to do with rocket science. Gene roddenberry would have sliced out his eyes with a dull spoon before he endorsed this game. That should tell you something.
Obvious crap is obvious.
Oh, your free to think whatever you want, but in this particular case your wrong. There is no interaction you can have with enemies other than combat. You cant scan them or activate them in any way.
Well, my experience with Star Trek is nearly life long. I've been waiting for STO to come out for years. My friend bought a key for me, I downloaded it and it crashed the moment I tried to play. It NEVER worked. I contacted both the tech dept and cust servc. For the first time in my history playing MMORPG's, I never got a response of any kind form either dept. Ever! That was in May of this year. I have since found out that, despite earlier assurances that if your machine could run CO or CoH/CoV, the issue I have is with my machine, not necessarily the game. This is my first time here at this website and, though I'm sad to see it, I'm not that surprised by what I'm hearing about the game given my experience. Since I've never played, I obviously can't give a personal view on the game play or anything else. What I can do is present some ideas and observations that might help to turn this around for all the people like me whom have been literally waiting for years to enjoy a fully immersive MMORPG based "faithfully" on the IP.
The first thing I noticed was that many people are very angry and feel ripped off, and rightly so if only half of what I've read is true. It would also seem that the reviewer, Patrick Gerrard either isn't looking for the same things in this game that many Star Trek fans are, or has to stay true to purpose and write a review that gives STO the most favorable outlook possible. Please don't vilify him. He has to eat too. I'm sure many of us might like to be paid game reviewers but that job would quickly lose it's luster when we found out that the people giving us a paycheck could direct us to write a "favorable" article irregardless of how we felt. IF that's even true. I also noticed that Grand_Nagus seems to be working some kind of damage control in favor of the game or the review. I suspect this because of his rather timely entrie onto the forum that seem to be aimed at minimizing or explaining away some of the players complaints about the game and it's shortcomings. I could be wrong about this. Maybe Nagus is just a loyal fan who doesn't want to see his favorite game die. If so Nagus, I apologize for my suspicious nature. If you are being paid to do damage control, that's fine because, as bad as some of this may seem, I don't want this game to die either. I'll explain why shortly. If I'm right, then I'm not mad at you any more than I would be at Patrick for the same reasons, although I will say that your choice of Avatar was highly appropriate. (yes, that was a joke!)
As for why I wouldn't want this game to fail despite how I feel, it's simple. They have done some good things like the graphics and certain aspects of space combat so I don't want that thrown away when we, as gamers and/or dedicated Trek fans, have an opportunity to get Cryptic to turn STO into what we've wanted. I truly believe that, if we operate together, we can do this by thinking "outside of the box" and getting Cryptic to do the same. I’ll post again to explain myself
I've heard that STO doesn't 'FEEL' like trek. I haven't played so I won't try to comment on that. What I will do is give all of you some ideas about ways some of the things that "feel" like Trek may be insertable into the game.
First off, some players don't like the fact that all players are captains and have their own ships. I understand. In old school RPG's, I had the players go through a series of adventures until one of them got promoted and assigned his/her own ship. The other players were usually bridge officers or dept heads. In STO, this might be feasible by having starting charcters that don't want to go right onto the bridge of their own ship go into a "Recruiting area" where NPC or player Capt's may offer them assignments to a ship as a bridge officer or dept head. Good thing about this is that groups of players can operate together on the same ship and replace NPC landing party members. Sub games could be created for selected bridge stations and on board actions such as emergncy repairs, medical emergencies, engineering duties and such. Condensing these into microgames can help players develope skills and then, when that ship encounters situations in space, each player could act his or her role. They would need to be able to play together and a Team Comm system would be needed but it seems like a "dressing" variation on raid type missions in other MMorpgs.
That format could also be used during the infamous landing party or away team sorts of missions. They will need to provide a good deal more content on worlds but...THAT"S WHAT WE"RE PAYING FOR! It would be interesting if parties were attacked by wildlife instead of armed sentients. How about catching a disease that the med officer has to find a cure for before they can return to the ship? There are many ideas for gameplay that could fit this format.
Modify this format by inserting an opposing team (Klingon, Orion pirates, etc.) and you have a PvP situation. Of course, it will help if they have a fleshed out faction for Klingons and Romulans but if we as their customers keep insisting on that content, Cryptic will have to provide it. We have to give them appropriate time to do the work though. Just spouting mad won't do anything. Organizing that mad will get us a much better game.
Imagine a diplomatic team consisting, on both sides, of Players. Again you'd need comms for the team memebers to talk to each other and the other representatives. Game material can assign critical points to each sides negotiations and the more of your sides concessions you get, the higher your team scores. That would again be a variant on PvP but it's still PvP. Just without the weapons. If those negotiations break down and war breaks out, then you'd have a potential for massive battles with Players controlling ships on both sides. A 'Grand Melee" sort of arena or PvP format. At the conclusion, players should actually see differences in major game content. Neutral zones re-defined or planets lost to the other side who's citizens must now be evacuated in another series of adventures or scenarios. Technology seems to have made all of this possible and many other ideas to bring real Trek content into the game. AS players and fans, we need to rallyy together to get Cryptic to do these things, not just through away what we do have because of what we're missing. Groups of fans are what brought Trek back from extinction in the first place and there's no reason we can't do something like that here too. It's even more likely if their new executive staff realizes and aknowledges that they delivered substandard product and it sounds like they have. Let's push them in the right direction and maje them spend the right kind of time and money to do this. If they do, we'll all get what we want or at least something that's better than what we have.
If there is one game that you MUST avoid, this is it. They are constantly making horrible updates to a game system that is just completely broken. It is a debacle of an MMO, and will make it only slightly longer than Tabula Rasa only because of the license involved.
I am with so many, shame most of these sites make their money of the same games they need to review.
Seems every game gets at least a 7 no matter how crappy, STO and so many other MMO's out there deserve a 5 or less. Very few MMO's would even dare get an 8 out of 10, and this is comming from a guy who really only plays MMO's about 95% of the time.
#6
StormShade
Online Community Rep
Join Date: May 2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by KBFLordKrueg
It's only a bug if the Feds can't do it...if the Klingons can't do it it's a "feature"...
That's not it at all.
It's actually a tech issue which prevents this from happening. The difference being that the tricorder scan is looking for interactions described as "clickable" on the map, and then pointing the way there.
Your objectives however are described as "destructable" and so the tricorder doesn't pick them up.
I know... not really cool.
So, what we have is a tech issue, AND we think that we may have a solution. I'm not making promises about a when, or even guaranteeing it will happen right now. However, I did just put a bee in the ear of about half the STO team, starting with Stahl, and they walked me around, we spoke to various different members of the team, and they are going to look to see if it can be done easily. If not, it will take a while longer to get out to you. However, we are working on it!
Thanks,
Stormshade
Looks like Cryptic is on the ball.
Out of all the MMO's I have played none have disappointed me as much as STO has.
As a huge Star Trek fan I was hoping for something really unique and special, full of content rich worlds, cat and mouse faction engagements and enormous depth.
Unfortunately, all I got was a partially completed, content less space shoot-em-up with as much depth as a Paris Hilton conversation.
Cryptic basically saw the name Star Trek and thought of dollar signs without thoroughly thinking of what the fans would really want. They took an inadequate game engine and simply bolted on their interpretation of what Star Trek is. The devs clearly were not Star Trek fans and the fact they took only 2 years to develop it is insulting and shows in the end product.
They should have developed a completely new game engine and took the development time that the Star Trek IP deserved. I wanted a Star Trek universe!!! Not a shoot-em-up game sim. I want to be dropped into a Star Trek universe that moves and changes around me. If I want to join Starfleet I start at the academy, if I want to be a pirate I start at some forgotten, grime encrusted space port in the middle of no where. If I want to be a trader I want cargo ships that I can load with medical supplies if a plague breaks out on some world somewhere and sell to them for a disgustingly huge profit. If I a miner different mineral veins appear throughout the galaxy. Starfleet ships, Klingon ships and neutral ships.
On top of all that I want criminal gangs I have to raid, I want peace with some race one day and then war next, the political landscape to constantly shift. I want detailed ship interiors where I can invite friends and colleagues over to view my awards.
I want the ideal Star Trek Universe and I want to live in it. Unfortunately, STO with 2 years of development just isn’t it.
I hear what you're saying...And I think the point is valid.
Part of what I've seen personally about STO is directly related to the strength of other MMO's. I have 4 Guildies who I've been playing with for years now...These 4 wanted STO to succeed more than I can even explain...They are all HUGE Trek Fans...I personally was really hoping I could call STO my temporary Home for a year or so before SWTOR comes out...All of us are back on LOTRO now full time and actually, we're all thrilled about it. We're thrilled because we are playing an outstanding game with some real depth and teeth to it...Because even for those 4 who like Trek lore more than LOTR, the quality of the games overall is simply uncomparable...
When I see that STO gets a re-review of 7.4 I think it is a bit misleading...I realize a superior game like LOTRO got an 8.5, but I still think 7.4 is misleading to folks who may be looking for feedback on this game...I'm sorry, but in comparison to the rest of the market, STO is not average...It's below average...I'm not saying that to dump on the game either because it does have potential...But it's still probably a year or so away from being average and this quick re-review, 6 months after launch, is kind of screaming "help!" And I think even if MMORPG.com wants to help, they should have passed in this case...Because if STO can't hold the rabid Trek Fans that I know, the game is very simply lacking greatly overall and in no way should be only 1.0 rating point (or so) below the elite MMO's on the Market today...It's just not that good...And I've got a Guild full of Vet MMO Players who feel that way...
There is just no way in hell any unbiased reviewer with more than 20 minutes experience in MMORPGs could give this quai-turd any rating higher than 4. The only game I've played to date which was shorter, more shallow, and lacking content was APB. The ground combat alone in STO is enough to make you uninstall it, let alone the the absurd adaptation of this view or star trek. They seriously should have just left the ground portion out and called it Starfleet command 4. In reality, thats all it is. Thanks cryptic for another incredibly shallow and 1/15th done game. And gee, we get to look forward to them utterly destroying the neverwinter nights franchise now too. It boggles my mind that CBS hasn't yanked this ip and had ATARI liquidate these douchehats. The moronic crpytic store is enough to make me sick, let alone a subscription fee. Sometimes it's ok to just give up and let something die. You can't polish a dog turd.
I know what I post will be at the end of the comments, but I'll post it anyway... reading these, I see a TON of displeasure coming from the posters above me, and I'm not exactly sure why.... the general overall theme I get from people here is "Its not WoW in space. We demand WoW in space." You're all just comparing it to something that not even you are able to truly define... its not want it to be... but I can't tell you what that is. Being an MMO developer is not an envious position...
Aside from all the rantings and ravings about how people want the game to be, I feel the above article and rating are accurate. Because, if you haven't played any other MMO before, and knew nothing of what MMO's were... this game would definitely be enjoyable. This game is a very close second to "Best Star Trek Game Ever Made" in my opinion (first being the RTS game Star Trek Armada). Here's why:
The game is instanced... yes, how many times have other captains really gathered together to go on your standard Star Trek missions? Not many times. But does that mean its not encouraged? It really is... because STO has loot, with more people, you face harder enemies, you get better rewards. However, its nicely instanced in that I don't have to worry about other players coming in and stealing my kills or drops or any other nonsense. The fact that you have the choice to encounter other ships and captains sparingly feels a lot more like Star Trek than if you had to group up with other ships for every encounter.
The graphics are nice. There's no denying that... a little repetitive... another planet, another asteroid belt, another nebulae backdrop... but really, when it comes to space... there's not that much out there. For what they got, the backgrounds and graphics are nice. Space combat is also fun, albeit a little easy. Character and ship customization is top notch.
Now when it comes to the content, thats where most of people complain of lacking... but I'd be willing to bet most of those complaining haven't played the game recently. STO contains a lot of missions that are designed to be randomly generated. Patrol and Exploration missions, specifically. In the beginning, you'd complete some story and then have no other storyline content, and have to rely on the random stuff to get you through to the next level. It was pretty aggravating. HOWEVER, the game is not the same as it was before. WAY different, in fact. I restarted a new character, and am having to go back to the random stuff as the amount of story and special content is much greater than it was before. I now can't keep up with all the storyline content, and with the advent of weekly missions (Really great stuff, there. Its intriguing, will keep me coming back to see the story unfold) the amount of special content means even more choice for leveling outside of randomly generated stuff. The amount of content is tenfold and even the random missions don't feel as random. There was a time when it was "kill groups" and it took forever, then the next randomd mission would be to again, "kill 5 groups"... it was rediculous. Now, its a lot more shifted where some of the stuff is repeated, but theres a lot more options to choose from.
However, it is FAR from perfect. The ground combat still feel a little sporadic at times. "Exploration" feels like a sidenote, when it should be one of the main focuses of Star Trek, and their Klingon faction is mislabeled. They call it a faction, when in reality it's like LotRO's Monster Play. Billed as for the PvP-centric. Instead, it came across as an Alliance/Horde situation which it clearly isn't. Mislabeled... see it for what it is and you might appreciate it more.
Overall, to each their own. Give it a shot and if you don't like it, you don't like it. But, if you enjoy Star Trek and don't need a game to be exactly like a re-skinned version of every other game you play, I'd say give it a shot. I'm playing it, and I like it. Compare that to those that have not played it, or have just dabbled in it, and how much their opinion means. (Heck, I could tell you my opinion on medicine today, but I am no doctor, or my opinion of what in your car might need fixed, but I am no mechanic... so what does my opinion really mean?) Cryptic, despite mass opinion, is doing a good job to bring this game up to where it should be. It has only improved since launch, and it shows no signs of stopping continued improvement.
I enjoyed the rating, and I enjoyed the comments by Ambrose99. I really like this game. Can it improve? Yes, but so can every other MMO I have played. The peeps I run into for group play love the game, and the community seems very helpful. Crafting is weak, but since I hate cratfing as a time sink, I consider this a strength (in other MMOs I could rarely make enough money to buy others crafts anyways). Please keep up the improvements.
I played STO in beta...gave it a 5 out of 10, which was frankly much better then I expected after having followed the development of it. Haven't tried again since.
I'm glad to hear it's improved....but frankly I'm not inclined to give my business to any company who's business model seems to revolve around cranking out fast/cheap MMO's out of well established IP's and hyping the hell out of them to cash in on the IP while shorting actual development of resources needed to make it half-way decent.
I'm also rather skeptical of just how much CAN be done to improve STO given alot of the choices they made in design.
Bottom line is that there are so many games and companies out there competeing for entertainment dollars... that I'm not sure Cryptic really deserves another bite at the apple, given it's past business history. However, I'm glad that it has gotten better (if that's true) for those who are playing it.
Ambrose, screw wow. I hate wow with a passion. Wow isn't the reason I hate this game. I hate this game because its lacking in pretty much every way.
Exactly...
I never even played WOW...Neither has anyone else I know that quit STO...Well, maybe one guy, I'm not sure...
Anyway who's saying they wanted STO to be WOW in space? I wanted it to be a quality ST game myself...
Seriously? You can't use that kind of logic to justify a high score in a game.
That's like saying E.T for the Atari 2600 would be an enjoyable game... if only for those who've never played a videogame before.
Ambrose99 your logic is flawed . Firstly you assume everyone here plays WoW , which they don't . Secondly you assume that everyone here likes WoW , which they do not. Thirdly you imply that to like this game it is better to be virginal gamer then experienced . If you have experience you can't appreciated what STO has to offer , because you're tainted with ideas of what a good gaming experience should be.
You sir a laughable. Unfortunately Cryptic is banking on people of your mentality to pump up the shit they have. They want people with little to no MMO experience because you don't know any better, and are therefore more accepting of this crap. It's the console generation this game was aimed at originally and meant for Consoles . Thankfully M$ and $ony opted made it unprofitible for Cryptic to put this crap on Consoles. Unfortunately PC gamers are now stuck with POS. It's that apoligists attitude that allows Cryptic to exsist.
This is how bad this game is : http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=181315
LMAO !
I think the rating needs to go up to 8.4 now ? Especially since the bargin rates at which you can get this game at now.
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Online-Pc/dp/B002673XJA?tag=dealnewscom
Because it just keeps getting better.