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Star Trek Online: Early Impressions
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's new Star Trek Online Correspondent writes this first look at the game, giving his impressions on what he knows and has heard so far about the upcoming MMO.
Just how innovative is STO? What will make STO better and different? Ship customizations, vivid character creation, intense PvP on the ground and in space, possible PC/Console hybrid, where console and PC units can connect to the same sever - and explore together sounds like a good start to me.
To me, STO is going to go where no MMO has truly gone before. The level of customization that Cryptic is said to offer is staggering,b ut wait, haven't we seen great customization before? Haven't we all played Spore? Or perhaps another Cryptic game known as City of Heroes? There's a difference here, and that is content. Yes, Spore isn't an MMO, but let's take a deeper look. The customization is down right innovative, if not the best there is on the game market. However, afterwards there isn't much to chew on to keep you hooked. That is where STO will hopefully not make that mistake.
)
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
- Removing starship interiors from the designplan for launch. And what is now the status on the Starbases / HQ's with their massive interiors? Are they now removed too or not?
- Not having the choice to form either a player crew or NPC crew. Basically having one true class. Namely captain.
Those are 2 basic gripes I have that pretty much killed it for me. As especially point 2 has the biggest impact on the whole direction of the game.
Everyone is going to be a captain. So woohoo on great customisation. On what? Faces. As for the rest everyone will be walking around in a red suit and thus look the same.
Basically, what is this game going to offer? Fly around and Pew Pew other players with your ship?
Or beam to the ground and Pew Pew other players there?
Is that it? Combined with some PVE mission system in prolly the same boring random map rotation scheme as they did with CoX?
What is the fun if everyone is playing basically the same class. Namely Captain?
People kept saying about who wants to be playing the boring engineer or tactical officer... but that it might be boring to you, doesn't mean that it's boring to others.
Being an Engineer could have gone part with also being a good Engineering crafter.
Being a Tactical officer could have gone part with also being a good Weapons crafter.
Being a Medical Officer could have gone part with also being a good Alchemist/Bio engineer.
Options are limitless on what they could have done in making this a trully Star Trek worthy MMO in wich crew members relied on eachother like family and how crew members explore where none has gone before.
Instead Cryptic is basically turning it into a cheap PVP SciFi shooter with some PVE.
As a Star Trek fan having looked forward to this MMO for a long time it was really dissapointing to see how they went with the Easymode approach, instead of trying to make something great and true to the Epic Star Trek lore!
Another huge and legendary IP gone to waste? I think so yes.
Is this going to be just another Eve Online but with a StarTrek name attached to it?
And Spore wasn't innovative. It was downright boring.
I was looking at this game over jumpgate because I thought you could have a player crew. That is gone though, so I dunno.
http://baneoflife.com
Sorry, but I could not keep myself from laughing at the above diatribe. While the concept of multiple character types is laudable, it is entirely impratical. Imagine spending 45 minutes or so finding a decent engineer for your ship,only to find out your tactical officer had to go eat dinner. Or right in the middle of a big fight your engineer goes D/C...opps.
You have to love pie in the sky thinkers that can't interface their concepts with reality. Nothing wrong with tilting at windmills long as you can eventually tie it to reality.
I do think Cryptic is going to do a great job with this title. Perpetual with the infamous Daron Stinnett was dialing a recipe for disaster. That is obvious to anyone. Cryptics boards are full of meaningful discussions, while perpetual's were full of contentious derision.
God Bless Cryptic for working on two MMOs at once. I just really wished they put their resources into STo than Champions, and therefore give it the time and money it needs. I get the feeling they will rush this thing and we all get an Earth and Betond Game in a Star Trek skin.
If that is what you like ( you haven't played E&B / EvE), then you should enjoy STO for a few months. Unfortunately I was looking for more.
::clenches fists at Jack Emmet::
Quit misleading the consumers!
Shame on you MMORPG.COM
{Mod Edit}
I've always disagreed with the decision to only have captains and not have player bridge crews. A big part of the magic of Star Trek has always been the interaction of the bridge crews. The friendly teasing between Spock and McCoy. Data's quest to become more human, along with the constant "will they or won't they" of the Riker/Troi relationship. Worf coming over to DS9. Paris and Kim with their ongoing friendship and strange fascination for Captain Proton. It goes on and on.
What's more, Star Trek has always been about fighting as a last resort. There has certainly been plenty of action, but that wasn't why the Enterprise was out there. The fact that STO seems to be moving more and more toward a space and ground combat game makes me wonder whether the devs really "get" Star Trek at all.
Regarding the matter of ship interiors, the author of this article made a big goof. How can you beam over to your opponent's ship to fight in their corridors if those corridors aren't going to exist until some nebulous point in time?
That said, as disappointed as I am to learn that ship interiors have been postponed, I have to be realistic. If everyone is the captain of his ship, then what does the ship interior really become except the most elaborate player housing ever -- mostly consisting of generic and barren corridors with NPC's walking up and down them. Yawn.
For my money, the jury is still very much out on this game and will remain so until after the release of Champions Online. That game will show us whether Emmert and company have actually learned from CoX or not. If yes, then there's hope for STO. If not, then I'm going to be even more inclined to give STO a pass. Which is a shame, since I've always loved Star Trek.
If you even bothered to actually read my post.... but no no.... it's far easier to ignore 99,99% of someones post for the sake of trolling.
I said CHOICE! Having the choice to form a crew with your budies and if you have difficulties filling a spot, then you can pick an NPC or go for a full NPC crew if you are the solo type.
An MMO is about diversity and uniqueness.
What is fun about EVERYONE being a captain and that's it?
It's downright boring and get's dull real fast.
It's just shamefull and insulting to see the Star Trek IP being ruined and used for some cheap PVP Pew Pew MMO with some boring PVE a la CoX attached to it.
Star Trek isn't about PVP! Star Trek is about exploration!
Cryptic isn't doing a good job. They just want to rush out a cheap MMO with less then 3 year development time.
With all due respect, how is that any different from playing any other MMO? ("LF tank and healer for Nexus. Two slots left. No paladins.") Raids and even general party play have these exact same issues and players not only deal with them but thrive. Is STO being built as a solo MMO? If not, then it's going to have plenty of content that needs multiple players -- and that content will result in exactly the same sorts of issues that you say make player crews impossible. The difference is that rather than looking for a science officer you'll be looking for a science vessel to support your dreadnaught.
And by the way, there are simple solutions to your issue. Here's one:
Star Trek lore provides for the standard bridge crew, backups for each of these individuals, and multiple shifts throughout the day. Did even Data sit on the bridge 24/7? Other people occupied each station when the primary bridge crew was away. There was always someone available to step in at a moment's notice if the captain sent someone on an away team or if one of the crew was injured. Not only does lore allow this, but it just plain makes sense.
It's also easily modified for MMO purposes. Let players have their own ships. But also allow those who want it the opportunity to serve on each others' ships or even form persistent crews. If a particular station is unoccupied for whatever reason -- whether it be that nobody was available that evening or someone goes link dead, an NPC steps in to take over the role.
With a system such as this, the game would become a lot more dynamic for those players that wish to experience it that way while taking nothing from those players who wish to simply be solo captains.
there is always going to be somebody who thinks they know what everybody wants out of a mmo. In the current economic climate and the history of games attached to the trek ip floundering no matter how good they actually are, do you blame cryptic for being somewhat cautious in how far developed the initial release is. Perpetual spent a butt load of money conceptualizing and building things like ship interiors that in the end they kinda realized noone had all that much interest in if the core of the game was bland. I just recently installed the ultimate universe mod for star trek legacy, a game which sat on my pc for almost a year gathering dust, and with just the introduction of new ships and maps and a little graphical tweek it breathed new life into the game, I played it a whole weekend straight. Cryptic has always been adept at gauging what consumers want. Just because what they are offering doesn't appeal to a few hardcord fanboys ( and make no mistake I am an avid trek fan) or mmo " professionals" doesn't mean the game itself won't be a success. It's time that for once the trek community stops taking itself so seriously and allows new blood and ideas into its fold. After all what would tng have become without the borg? Ds9 without the jem hadar . I loved gene roddenberrys vision but even he admitted that no establishment like UFP is without its flaws....so why not explore them and make the world of trek nmore relatable to everyone aside from tech geeks? Ron Moore did an amazing job turning battlestar galactica from a campy 80's soap opera to a show rooted in relevant issues and relatable stories. It time someone does something different with the ip not only as a movie but as a game otherwise it's going to die.
so say we all
Multi crew ships work perfectly in SWG. You need from 2-8 players to run a ship.
I find this lack of belief in other players really sad. And i guess developers dont trust Trekkies to be able to crew a ship or something. And if there is one fanbase that should be up for it is.....Trekkies..every million of them
Just because you don't agree doesn't mean it's misleading...
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
With all due respect, how is that any different from playing any other MMO? ("LF tank and healer for Nexus. Two slots left. No paladins.") Raids and even general party play have these exact same issues and players not only deal with them but thrive. Is STO being built as a solo MMO? If not, then it's going to have plenty of content that needs multiple players -- and that content will result in exactly the same sorts of issues that you say make player crews impossible. The difference is that rather than looking for a science officer you'll be looking for a science vessel to support your dreadnaught.
And by the way, there are simple solutions to your issue. Here's one:
Star Trek lore provides for the standard bridge crew, backups for each of these individuals, and multiple shifts throughout the day. Did even Data sit on the bridge 24/7? Other people occupied each station when the primary bridge crew was away. There was always someone available to step in at a moment's notice if the captain sent someone on an away team or if one of the crew was injured. Not only does lore allow this, but it just plain makes sense.
It's also easily modified for MMO purposes. Let players have their own ships. But also allow those who want it the opportunity to serve on each others' ships or even form persistent crews. If a particular station is unoccupied for whatever reason -- whether it be that nobody was available that evening or someone goes link dead, an NPC steps in to take over the role.
With a system such as this, the game would become a lot more dynamic for those players that wish to experience it that way while taking nothing from those players who wish to simply be solo captains.
and then you would be looking at the devs trying to develop an infintely more cumbersome game.
Just bear with me before reaching for the reply button.
They already have the 'captain' part of theg ame complete, people can go out and explore, fight, engage in diplomacy etc, so thats done. now they add in the 'other ranks' (for those who states this is a MUST for the STO game they want to play'
So now we have to develop additional portions of the game for Science and engineering, ok lets see what we can do to make engineering fun...... now do you see? not yet? not quite..whoah wait dont hit reply just a few more lines and it becomes clear
So I got to develop a role for engineering and ensure that the person doing this is going to have fun, now my captain is a cautious guy, diplomatic, only fights as a last resort so I dotn need to worry about keeping stuff working in middle of cascade system failures.
OOH Calibrate the dilithium field and plasma injectors. ok so erm... yeah lets make it skill based, players have to translate teh transtemporal Doohickey and tehn hit the corresponding sections .. or maybe we can do that water game, user has tubes going in diffrent directions, just got to build it before plamsa comes out the tube. ok thats one mini gaae in place for an engineer what else can we do?
OOHH research, engineers are always tinkering, lets allow them to develop blueprints for new stuff... Oh but we can never let them build it and fit it to a ship, some people would end up with insanely powerful "Type XXXVI Quantum snowball throwers"
instead of going 'BOOO they should allow us to have a custome crew' think to yourselves, how would we ensure that these science and engienering teams were interesting enough to keep people doing it long term, hour after hour etc, the question is you cant, even in my current game Vanguard, with three spheres people only craft and diplo to unlock civic buffs and make money, I cant see anyone wanting to play minigames hour after hour and then expect to enjoy being an Chief Engineer......
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Norsefire-logo.png
boooooring, I want new screens or videos
I don't like how they removed the crews though
and then you would be looking at the devs trying to develop an infintely more cumbersome game.
Just bear with me before reaching for the reply button.
They already have the 'captain' part of theg ame complete, people can go out and explore, fight, engage in diplomacy etc, so thats done. now they add in the 'other ranks' (for those who states this is a MUST for the STO game they want to play'
So now we have to develop additional portions of the game for Science and engineering, ok lets see what we can do to make engineering fun...... now do you see? not yet? not quite..whoah wait dont hit reply just a few more lines and it becomes clear
So I got to develop a role for engineering and ensure that the person doing this is going to have fun, now my captain is a cautious guy, diplomatic, only fights as a last resort so I dotn need to worry about keeping stuff working in middle of cascade system failures.
OOH Calibrate the dilithium field and plasma injectors. ok so erm... yeah lets make it skill based, players have to translate teh transtemporal Doohickey and tehn hit the corresponding sections .. or maybe we can do that water game, user has tubes going in diffrent directions, just got to build it before plamsa comes out the tube. ok thats one mini gaae in place for an engineer what else can we do?
OOHH research, engineers are always tinkering, lets allow them to develop blueprints for new stuff... Oh but we can never let them build it and fit it to a ship, some people would end up with insanely powerful "Type XXXVI Quantum snowball throwers"
instead of going 'BOOO they should allow us to have a custome crew' think to yourselves, how would we ensure that these science and engienering teams were interesting enough to keep people doing it long term, hour after hour etc, the question is you cant, even in my current game Vanguard, with three spheres people only craft and diplo to unlock civic buffs and make money, I cant see anyone wanting to play minigames hour after hour and then expect to enjoy being an Chief Engineer......
How come people are so focussed at ship to ship combat?
Did you guys even watch the Star Trek series at all I wonder?
Most of the episodes were about away missions. Hence the famous quote of all time: "Beam me up Scotty!"
So with a full player crew (with that I mean the iconic stations) it's not only hanging around in the ship Pew Pew'ing.
It's exploring with the ship and with your player crew going into away missions! You are basically spending most time on away missions inside nebula's, planets, civilisations and all kinds of other interesting anomalies.
If anyone ever (even Cryptic crew themselves for crying out loud) has ever seen enough Star Trek then they could see how Epic the Star Trek IP really is and what kind of possibilities it provides.
Hence, it's pretty much safe to say that the Lore available for Star Trek completely dwarfs the Star Wars IP.
Being a Chief Engineer, Chief Tactical Officer, Officer at the Helm (pilot basically) or Chief Medical Officer opens a pleatora of possibilities in both combat missions sense, crafting, diplomacy missions, science missions, etc, etc.
There is plenty of things you can do to make all those classes viable, fun and entertaining.
A lot of people say "Who the heck wants to spend their entire time only crafting?". Well in old SWG there were plenty of such people that actually did!
If it's done right, then players will enjoy it.
Player crews were never part of the design. I was at the convention last year where Jack laid out the plans for STO, and this was the biggest sticking point among those who were present.
What it comes down to is that Jack could have taken two roads:
Road 1 was to bring MMO's to the Star Trek crowd by giving them the things that they love about Star Trek, but in an MMO format.
Road 2 was to bring Star Trek to the MMO market by giving the MMO a Star Trek look.
Option one would have grown the MMO market, but taken longer to really do right. Option two is quicker and cheaper, but ultimately only adds to the competition within the existing MMO market without actually bringing anything new to it.
Cryptic chose the lower road, and I think it's going to hurt them. MMO hoppers will come to it for a little while before they hop on to the next game. The bulk of the Star Trek community, however, will find the game to be pretty shallow and totally lacking in the things that they really love about Trek. The only people who will actually stick with STO are the Star Trek fans who are already MMO players (of which there are many, no doubt) -- but only if they find STO to be more interesting than the many, many other MMO's on the market. From what I've seen so far, I'm really not convinced that Cryptic is going to deliver that.
What's bad is that my heart and mind follow two different path's for STO. My mind agrees with Ozmodan, when he points out that in reality, requiring grouping wouldn't be a good idea. STO wouldn't be the first game that required you to have x,y,z before you went on a mission. What happens, a lot, is exactly what Ozmodan said would happen. You get a lot of people who (rightfully) put real life first, and end up screwing fellow STO players when something IRL comes up that ruins the mission. People aren't responsible enough to take care of business first and make sure they have time to dedicate to a game before logging on like MMORPG gamers used to. Instead, people don't take gaming seriously, so they take out the trash while in group, go afk for 20min to eat dinner, take the dogs for a walk, or the infamous "I gotta go" while you are in the middle of a mission.
My heart follows your idea, and that's player made crews, where each part is fun to play. I personally would love to play as a Security Officer (not sure on name. Red shirts in original Star Trek). I'd prefer the game to be more like the early Tomb Raiders, where most of the game involved exploration and problem solving, and a lot less combat. The thing about combat is that it's only fun when it gets your blood pumping, so turning combat into a routine, like in other MMO's, turns combat into a boring grind. I LOVE combat, but I don't ever want combat to be the center of the game. Make exploration the center of the game. Let action adventure games worry about combat being the center.
With that all said, there is a solution to the problem that my mind has found fault in the player crew dilemma and that's NPC hirelings. If Cryptic made it to where you can replace a player crew member with a NPC crew member anywhere in the galaxy, then it'd solve the problem of people going AFK and leaving the ship during a mission. Also, I don't think anyone is saying they want a SIMS Online on a Star Trek ship. I just think people want to experience the build up of anticipation while talking with fellow crew members, walking around the ship, while the ship is on the way to a mission. They want to experience the cool down that a person experiences after something exciting happens. This cool down would be experienced on the ship, while flying back to a space station or something with your fellow crew members. So you have the anticipation, the mission, and the cooldown, all happening on ship with your player crew. You experience the excitement of playing the game together, in person, not over a chat box.
This is all possible, but Cryptic is choosing to cater to the trigger happy teens of the genre. Ask any Trek fan what they loved the most about the Original series or any other series and I bet it won't be the combat. It'd be the exploration, the interaction between the crews, and solving whatever mystery the episode presented that day. So exploration, interaction, and problem solving. Doesn't sound like Captain, combat, and fast paced combat. The former sounds like Star Trek, the latter sounds like a kids game.
Thanks.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Sorry was looking forward to this game but if interriors are our so am I.. Thats what I was looking forward some cool walking around ships and such likw SWG space sort of idea but for once where had tons of people and such and oh it was gunna be fun!
SNIP
The article mentioned in PvP being able to beam aboard other spacecraft and fighting. How exactly do you beam aboard another players ship if there is no interior? Are you only allowed to beam to certain areas like the bridge? That sucks.
Everything I've read on the official site indicates that free-roaming ship interiors are not planned for launch. There will be mission ship interiors, I suspect something on the order of City of... missions, but more complex and Star Trekkish.
It also sounds like ship interiors are still considered something to be added at some point. Frankly, given the mechanical structure of the game, I suspect they'll be fairly pointless. I mean, hundreds of staterooms and hallways and storage bays? So you'll be able to stalk the halls of your own ship, alone with random passing bot crew? I think the devs are right in spending their time on the parts of the game that actually matter, like the missions and space.
Hi guys, this is the writer of the article Troy. The article was made to shine a light on the game and to add some critical discussion to STO. There may be a misconception, ship interiors will not be avilable at launch. Cryptic has said you can beam to enemy ships, which I'm guessing are NPC ships and will have limited use. These are not fully function player ship interiors. Please forgive me, I'm writing this from a mobile device! Thanks everyone for reading and I am loving the discussion.
Thank you
Star Trek Online Correspondent
MMORPG.com
"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?"
-Patton
Wow, if ships interiors are useless then it sounds like the game isn't designed right and they need to start over. NPC crews are fine but you should be able to swap them out for human crews if you want. NPC's should be there to fill in when a PC isn't available.
Isn't this whole no player ship interiors what started the big mutiny when Perpetual still held the IP? I can't speak for everyone but when I envision Star Trek the first image I get is on board the bridge and the rest of the ship. Star Trek is 55% Ship Interiors and 45% away missions. I say this because not all missions take them to the surface but no matter what your on the ship. Your at Ten Forward, or your in the medic lab, Holo deck, or actually working on the bridge. Heck the ship could be a game by itself with all the features that should be in it.
I realize this all could be time consuming but don't half ass the game. Many will come to play and many will leave and not come back if you don't get it right out the gate.
"It is better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees,"
Guys the simple fact is they need to get the game out before the money runs out. Thats what it always boils down to.
If they tried to release the game with Ship Interiors and building crew roles so groups could play 1 ship. Then do all the balancing for that. Then add in enough content so that combat is rare....
Well the game would come out sometime in 2012 and cost about 10x as much as they can afforde to put into it.
However if they release the game without some of these features, they can be added in later. Heck Cryptic is well known for adding in major core functions to a game as part of free expansions. If the game can grab the public market and thrive then we will see all of these other bells and whistles come out.
If it can not grab the general market... Then its dead no matter what. And adding the level of complexity some of the people here are asking for would mean that 90% of the potental player base would be run off before they could get a grip on the game.
Shrug, I think they are doing fine and am looking forward to the game. Does it have everything I want? No not even close. Does it look like a Star Trek MMO that is at least trying to follow the Star Trek universe? Yes.
So far its worth my $60 +$14.95 a month.
As a long time Star Trek fan, i'll be playing the game, ship interiors or not.
If they can add them in later that would be cool, but if not oh well no big deal for me anyways.
They never said this game would be a simulator, perhaps one day someone will build the Star Trek sim people are looking for, Cryptic is building a Star Trek game.
I do respect the fact that there are those that won't play without starship interiors, hope you all find something that you find worth playing.
I'll be having fun in STO, well i hope lol, hopefully a beta will happen soon.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
Multi crew ships work perfectly in SWG. You need from 2-8 players to run a ship.
I find this lack of belief in other players really sad. And i guess developers dont trust Trekkies to be able to crew a ship or something. And if there is one fanbase that should be up for it is.....Trekkies..every million of them
You choose to use the biggest fail in the history of all MMO's as an example for how a game should be.Not a good way to make your point.
Try and visit the actual website before posting lies about how much the developers don't care about the fans of Star Trek. Many of the guys working on the game are fans of Star Trek, but they also realize this going to be a game, not a simulator.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft