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StarQuest Online open beta preview
Polarization
Member Posts: 1,410
This is my preview of the game play and features of the MMORPG Star Quest Online that’s in open beta, if your interested in Player star ship’s with interiors, sandbox and non linear game play and open PvP with great role-playing opportunities then read on.
Don’t bother if you cant get passed the low production value graphics and sound effects, Beta bugs and server lag, this game is developed by a small independent group and what it lacks in visuals I think t more then makes up for in other aspects.
I am only mentioning the features and game play possible not my impressions or opinions to keep the post as short as possible
I recommend any beta testers to post on the games forum requesting a position on a player ship as a star fleet character to really appreciate what the game has to offer when first starting, although this is not absolutely necessary.
The game has a skill based system and attributes that improve from in game actions, you can change your profession or learn new skills or get other players to teach you so there are no levels or class restrictions.
When you create your avatar you can choose between a career in the star fleet specializing in Medical, tactical, engineering etc, be a civilian who trades between planets or a pirate attacking other ships or hijacking them.
The majority of the game play is centered around player starships which have interiors that you can explore and interact with, but you can walk on planets and in space stations.
You can choose a 3rd person view inside the ship walk about, go to the bridge and talk with your crew or zoom out to the external view of the ship but still operate the GUI of the station you are sitting at.
There are different systems to repair or upgrade located onboard the ship and also stations like Helm or Weapons that have GUI’s you can man and operate to perform ship functions like piloting the ship or firing weapons and raising shields.
If the ship takes damage in combat you can leave the bridge and travel to other parts of the ship to repair the damaged systems , or fight intruders on the ship. You can teleport to other ships or onto the surface of planets for away missions.
There are training missions for new players and scripted missions for captains of Starfleet ships that include defending systems under attack from NPC ships or exploration missions scanning for life on planets, these require a crew of players on a ship to work together to achieve the objectives.
There is also the constant threat from player pirates, events like attacks from alien space ships and invasions of worlds by the developers, Earth was attacked recently by NPC ships and aliens invaded earth which the players had to try to defend against.
The role-play aspects of the chain of command are supported by an in game faction system which allows players to work there way up to command there own ship or be awarded medals and prestige.
If you decide you don’t want a life in the navy you can start the game as a civilian, mining for ore to make ingots and selling them or reverse engineering and fabricating items to sell for profit. Or just sign up to serve on another players ship as a member of the crew.
Eventually you can earn enough for your own ship and trade between planets or even create your own colonies on distant worlds. You can place buildings on the surface of your planet and put space stations in orbit around your colony.
You can play a bounty hunter taking contracts on NPC’s and Players and track them down for the reward or smuggle illegal cargo between planets.
The game features full loot and PvP with no safe zones, there are NPC Police and Marines that attack player criminals on the core worlds but the life of a thief and a thug is possible, there’s a criminal system to mark players character with there crimes and a prison system to incarcerate offenders when caught.
Pirates and smugglers have to contend with NPC and player Fleet ships scanning and boarding them to search for illegal cargo or capturing them and holding them in the Brig.
Your avatar has to perform the normal functions of eating, drinking and sleeping etc but these are not time consuming and really encourage role play, you can be stunned and incapacitated, take physical damage and receive lethal wounds that eventually cause death.
There are various forms of weapons to defend or attack other players or NPC’s with , equipment like scanners, communicators, medical kits and some have GUI’s. There are picks and smelters for mining and tools for fabricating items from blue prints that you can reverse engineer to obtain.
You can get an apartment or buy your own house deed and place it on a planets surface and decorate the interior with furniture etc.
Player avatars and ships are persistent in the game world so you cant log of to escape or to save your ship, but you can go to your apartment or ship quarters and lock the door before logging.
Multiple players can be active on a ship during different time zones so players can crew its positions 24 hours a day or you can choose a player ship that operates in your time zone.
There are probably things I have missed and not really explained fully but I hope people try this out and support this company which is achieving so much with such a relatively small budget and team size, they are improving the graphics and recently got a new server to help with the lag.
http://www.castlethornsoftware.com/sq.html
Comments
Yes I think the core game play is working with a team of players as the crew inside the interior of a player ship which makes operating the ship much more efficient and entertaining, but you can solo fly ships if you desire by moving from the different consoles in the bridge.
A few more features I did not mention are that a portion of the milky way galaxy is modeled with hundreds of stars with there real locations and names with randomly generated planets orbiting them.
There are alien empires that control areas of the milky way which border the human territory and there are opportunities for battle’s, invasions or covert surveillance type missions on the borders.
The alien empires are planed to be playable but are only for restricted testers and developers at this time but this will allow Factional player PvP between the different races.
But there can also be peace treaties or alliances between the races and this game play is supported by the developers in the role-play sections of the forums.
And there are positions of authority supported by the in game faction system and also by the developers on the role-play forums like fleet admirals, civilian diplomats, politicians and judge’s that players can be promoted too.
It's good game... But one thing - i see Pay to Play method in the final stage of the game...
This is not good factor, game is not have enough charm for P2P, this ideal good for item mall system, or something else.......
Well, after 1 virus-warning during installation, and 2 crashes while making my avatar i uninstalled...
Hope someone else will have fun in Starquest
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no sig
If I do a scan of the game directory with my virus software with the latest update is says no viruses, spy ware or other risks found, and out of hundreds of testers no one has reported anything about viruses on the forums.
I would say its much more likely that your computers are already infected and it has nothing to do with this game, or you are mistaking firewall internet access setting’s pop up’s for virus warnings.
also im 100% confident my system does not have any kind of virus on it
the log-
file - starquest.exe
threat - newheur_pe virus
action - quarantined
info from nod - File marked as "NewHeur_PE vírus" was detected using broad heuristics because it contains parts of code typical of worm infiltrations spread over the internet. Using this method NOD32 was able to identify worms Win32/Zafi.B, Win32/Mydoom.R, Win32/Bagle.X and many others.
if it is legit then starquest need to update their code and get this fixed before id go anywhere near the game, and prob most of the other nod32 users (which is the best av there is btw hehe)
I will repost the information you have provided about the virus alert on the official forums for a response to help resolve this.
And people who are posting technical problems who are genuinely seeking help use the beta forums for the game, the developers will help you.
Also, I noted in a previous post about the Donation button and now it seems someone has found a virus in the software. I wouldn't touch the thing with a 100 foot pole, let alone a 10 foot one. The whole thing smacks of something stinky...............
I will repost the information you have provided about the virus alert on the official forums for a response to help resolve this.
And people who are posting technical problems who are genuinely seeking help use the beta forums for the game, the developers will help you.
This is the response from the development team about the virus alert
"There is no way it's in our installation, I'm sure it's a false positive from the virus scanner"
"We have emailed the makers of nod32 and asked them to fix their scanner"
Email from the makers of StarQuest Online to the makers of NOD32:
"Some of our customers have been getting a false positive virus warning from your software, claiming our installation file contains the newheur_pe virus"
Email response from the makers of NOD32:
"we test it, using new virus database and updated heuristics, but nothing was detected"
This is a After Action report of a few hours play yesterday I experienced after logging on a star fleet character onto a player ship.
I started in my quarters and was greeted by the sounds of combat, I quickly moved to the bridge and reported for duty.
Captain told me to take the helm as the ship was in combat I listened to orders and maneuvered the ship while the other players operated the stations for weapons and scanners etc.
It appeared that NPC or possibly developer crewed ships of an enemy faction where attacking the system are ship was in, the captain informed me that the ship was trying to transfer a captain and his crew to a ship in orbit around a planet.
We could not get close enough to the ship for the crew to transfer because of the enemy presence and the risk of dropping shields to use teleporters, after fighting and damaging some enemy ships the captain decided to leave the system and make repairs.
The captain organized players into teams for repair duty and sent them to repair the shields and other systems located on other decks of the ships.
Everything was going well until some players started reporting they where sneezing and being sick, it appeared that some kind of disease had been brought onto the ship, players started becoming ill and some where incapacitated and where picked up and taken to sick bay.
Luckily I had some medical skill and requested permission to leave my post at the helm and begin to start treating the sick with my medical kits I carried.
After treating the crew on the bridge I traveled down to sickbay and managed to cure everyone and prevent a few players from dieing who had passed out on the sick bay beds.
When the outbreak had been contained and exterminated the repairs where complete and we traveled back to the system and got close enough to transfer the captain with his crew to there new ship.
Other player fleet ships who had been fighting with us before we left had defeated the enemy ships and where able to safely complete the task.
I could not believe how cool this was and it was just like an episode of Star Trek, it was not even a scripted mission just a random course of events generated by the game and the players that made some great spontaneous game play.
Go grow a brain.
newheur_pe is nod32s way of saying it's unknown, it could be a virus but the program is not sure.
There's a big chance that you a getting a false positive.
As I have already mentioned I’ve been in the beta for a few weeks had no problems and out of hundreds of testers no one has mentioned anything to do with virus’s. (And yes I also keep my virus/spy ware software up to date and have a firewall etc.)
The fact that the developers of SQO dealt with the issue quickly and professionally indicates that there is no grounds for suspicion on there part, and allegations made against there credibility are totally unfounded.
If people are not satisfied by an official email from the NOD32 technical support (which you can view on the games forums) stating that nothing was detected then that is there decision, but I think that the evidence provided shows beyond reasonable doubt that there is no virus, but instead a false positive.
"It is better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees,"
Just a small update to mention that the developers have recently added Motion capture animations for the avatars and other improvements to the graphics.
A list of a few memorable experiences I’ve had in the game lately people might find interesting.
Gone on away teams with the ships player crew to discover new species and races of aliens and conduct diplomacy and provide aid or get into fire fights.
Getting promoted by other players of higher rank and move my way up the chain of command, and receiving medals by the admiral of the fleet for various actions.
Fought in large space battles with many player ship each with player crew’s serving on them against enemy fleets of alien ships.
Rescued other players who have sent out distress calls and tractor beamed there ships and towed them to safety and/or repaired there ships.
Sneaked onto ships and performed sabotage and stolen money and items, fighting and hiding from the crew trying to find me.
Acting as a security officer on a ship to prevent members of the crew from committing crimes and catching them and putting them in the brig.
Using medical skills and teamwork managed to prevent a deadly disease from killing the player crew on the ship but could not save everyone.
Exploring the huge galaxy and discovering interesting things in space and on planets that possibly no other players have seen before.
Role playing during my play time as a crew member in the star fleet and also on the various forums which is supported by the developers and players.
I’ve still not tried being a civilian trader or a smuggler and pirate or a bounty hunter so I feel like there’s still a lot more for me to experience, this game offers so much hopefully more people can get past the graphics and enjoy the excellent game play and support this independent developer.