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Give me Star Fleet Battles
Feydaway
Member Posts: 122
If this game were just the ship combat as a free online game, I'd buy it in a sec and probably play the heck out of it.
I thought they really nailed the ship combat. The feel and the gameplay capture the show and the old SFB game perfectly.
Unfortunately, like PotBS before it, the avatar combat/play blows. Add to that the obvious fact this game is about a year from being completed - seriously, no Klingon PvE? And, a serious lack of content... - and there is no way I'm paying a subscription to watch Cryptic bring it up to par. Not now.
I think they'd be smart to release ship combat as a FTP online game while they work on improving/completing the MMO aspect. They'll still get some die-hard fans subscribing...and, that's about all they'll get with this product as well. But, I think they would gain fans and get better word of mouth by allowing lots of people to enjoy the ship combat. Plus, they would make money off the software sales.
Comments
Yeah, the space combat is great. I think that it's a very nice representation of Star Trek. The rest of the game is meh. I think that they would do well to abandon the pay to play business model and go with an item mall type deal. Let all of the weapons/tech be discovered in game, and make the customizations the item mall part. Start everyone out with the same boring ship... Then let people buy tokens at the item mall that they can trade in to customize the ship. Other possible items in the item mall would be, "peace time warp enhancements," which allow your ship to go significantly faster when in sector space. Improved salvage which would allow more frequent loot drops from defeated enemies. That kind of thing.
This game reminds me of Auto Assault and Hellgate London. Both Auto Assault and Hellgate were fun as heck to play, but they simply did not feel like they were MMO games. I wish those two were still around in a non-subscription form.
That is my reaction as well.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Problem is, that is the easiest aspect to nail. Star Trek space combat really isn't that involved, which is why it was never central to the storytelling.
I'd be more impressed if STO combat had the depth found in SFB or even Star Fleet Command. Dropping scatter pack shuttles; rolling mines out the shuttlebay doors; the large variety of ship types. None of that is canon, of course, but what does that matter at this point?
From everything I've read this game sounds like playing Starfleet Command with less tactical depth, crappy avatar combat tacked on, and the privilege of paying a monthly fee.
I miss Hellgate myself.
Is STO really as segregated as Hellgate?
Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty
Bingo.
I miss Hellgate myself.
Is STO really as segregated as Hellgate?
The entire game is instanced. That means, for every section of space, there are many, "alternate universes." Each instance is limited to about 50 people. Some are apparently limited to many fewer people. There's one sector that I saw with about 7 people per instance, and about 20 different instances. It was a pretty small sector.
It seems that there are solo instances as well. Usually these are limited to specific missions.
Yeah, the space combat sounds rather intriguing, but when I consider the game overall sounds very shallow in terms of content for missions, crafting, exploration, and end game content then I just don't see how the monthly fee could possibly be justified.
I suppose the game sounds a bit like:
Starfleet Command - Stuff + Diablo 2-like Multiplayer, Crafting Depth + Slightly Better than D2 Random Content + Fleet Actions.
To me everything but fleet actions is basically a space version of a Diablo Game or Guild Wars, and I'm sure as heck not going to pay 15 bucks a month for fleet actions -- maybe I just should have said it is like a Space version of Guild Wars + Fleet Actions, that perhaps would be simpler (but I've never played Guild Wars, so I stuck with what I know).
Well, my other concern is that there are going to be major balance issues. Might not be a big deal in PvE (usually it is less of a deal here), but from what I've heard PvP is really unbalanced and Cryptic has classically shown a lot of problems fixing such things.
Anyhow, a family emergency kept me from getting a free beta key, so I can't test out if the space combat appeals to me, but the other stuff definitely doesn't.
Sorry but where are you guys getting some of this stuff? It's all over the place.
Lack of content? Specifically what? Have you reached the cardassian or borg areas of the game yet? Diablo 2 multiplayer how?
Explainations rather than generalities go a pretty long way to giving your points validity.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Aren't they still locked out? As well as all content above L16?
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Lack of Content:
Reports are that the crafting is quite lame. From what has been said it is essentially a shop you go to and purchase things with special types of money. From what everyone who has talked about it has said, the stuff you get isn't even that good and you'll get better stuff doing PvE content normally.
Lots of people have said the missions are quite repetitive. You're one of the few that thinks otherwise.
Exploration, from what has been said by Devs and the like (it's unclear if it is actually in the game yet), is not really exploring anything. You can to a place an instance has created and when you leave and the mission is over then you can't go back.
Lots of people have said things are very linear as well.
Edit: Can't believe I forgot perhaps the biggest one. Klingons got almost no content due to the game getting rushed.
And just because they've made going through content a very slow and methodical process because you gain rank slowly doesn't make shallow content less shallow.
The main draw of the game, what has the least criticism by a good bit, is ship combat. That largely sounds like Starfleet Command or something similar with fewer options.
When I say it is "like Diablo 2" I refer to the heavily instanced nature of it. Like I said, perhaps saying "it is like Guild Wars" would have been a better thing to go with. The main difference seems to be it is in space, there is a flawed ground combat system, and there are Fleet Battles. That just doesn't seem like it is worth spending a monthly fee on. To use WoW as an example (not because I think WoW is a perfect game, far from it, but I know it well so it is easier to do this), even at release WoW had a lot of content, a large crafting system where you could make things that mattered (this has been improved on so that you can make high-level gear that matters) creating a vibrant economy, a largely seemless world/universe, tons of quests with a fair degree of variability, etc.
Hmm, beyond the WoW thing (which I am reluctant to delete but I also think it misses my central point to a degree), it seems like 95-99% of STO could be replicated with a Guild Wars-like system (which is similar to a Diablo-like game with a better lobby) as far as group play goes (though Guild Wars has a much more complex skill system). Fleet Battles seem like the one exception. I think it is fair to call GW an MMO and STO an MMO, but I wouldn't pay a monthly fee for the former and don't see how it is justified for the latter. Well, maybe reduced rate monthly fee, but not the standard MMO one.
Like I said before (I think), this is assuming I like the space combat system. I'm not 100% sure I would -- it's hard to say...I get bored of systems I master, but it is far from easy to tell how complex a system is from beta reports. One person can think a system is very deep and really not be accurate at all and another person can get bored and frustrated with a deep or shallow system. If I manage to get a beta key I'll test that out just for my own edification.