I almost wet myself laughing...., its so true too.
the game is lacking in EVERYTHING, but I have pre-ordered. I'm not sure if that was very wise though. But then again I am a startrek fan, serves me right
You know.... all the comparisons I see here are STO vs. CoX and STO vs. LotRO...
Both games are pretty good so I don't really see the downside atm. What were you expecting?
An EvEesque colossus with diplomacy minigames, player build orbital factories, homegrown phaser-turrets, 5 faction sector-based faction PvP and a cookie?
I'm gonna give this game a shot. If it feels like Star Trek, has pew pew and you can play together, it has the fundamental ability to be fun.
Always remember Diablo. This game had a handful of quests, no crafting, no housing, no diplomacy, no real PvP, 4 players max on one game... But i still had such a load of fun there.
Always remember Diablo. This game had a handful of quests, no crafting, no housing, no diplomacy, no real PvP, 4 players max on one game... But i still had such a load of fun there. M
Diablo didn't have a monthly fee with microtrans stacked on top of it. This is really a question about value. I doubt there would be such s discussion if this game shipped at 20 bucks and no monthly fee. Personally, I don't think its a crap game but it's not worh the price they are asking, to me.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
Emjoyed your piece on STO. I might even be able to out-geek you on the Trek front, seeing as my wife and I are such Trek nerds we actually got married on the bridge of th Enteprise-D in Las Vegas.
I've logged a good unmber of hours in the beta, and I'm well along into the second tier now. I can tell you that, from my own experiences, the game gets more fun when you hit the second tier. I hope you'll find that to be true, as well.
Hey Scott, Emjoyed your piece on STO. I might even be able to out-geek you on the Trek front, seeing as my wife and I are such Trek nerds we actually got married on the bridge of th Enteprise-D in Las Vegas. I've logged a good unmber of hours in the beta, and I'm well along into the second tier now. I can tell you that, from my own experiences, the game gets more fun when you hit the second tier. I hope you'll find that to be true, as well. See you in sector space!
I've gotta question for the few who keep saying "it get's better once you get the second ship/second tier" and I haven't seen anyone answer it yet. WHAT makes it better when you hit the second tier? What is so different that makes it that much better? I am not being a smart ass, I am actually curious since I've seen quite a few people say it anytime someone expresses a negative opinion about the game.
Hey Scott, Emjoyed your piece on STO. I might even be able to out-geek you on the Trek front, seeing as my wife and I are such Trek nerds we actually got married on the bridge of th Enteprise-D in Las Vegas. I've logged a good unmber of hours in the beta, and I'm well along into the second tier now. I can tell you that, from my own experiences, the game gets more fun when you hit the second tier. I hope you'll find that to be true, as well. See you in sector space!
I've gotta question for the few who keep saying "it get's better once you get the second ship/second tier" and I haven't seen anyone answer it yet. WHAT makes it better when you hit the second tier? What is so different that makes it that much better? I am not being a smart ass, I am actually curious since I've seen quite a few people say it anytime someone expresses a negative opinion about the game.
Well, the biggest change is the way that starship combat feels. Amd starship combat seems to make up about 65% of the game, so an improvement to starship combat is really an improvement to the overall experience.
So, how does starship combat improve in Tier 2?
Well, in my own personal opinion, it improves for these reasons:
In tier 2, starships begin to take on specific roles, establishing a role-driven group dynamic that's at the heart of most MMOs today. Fights are a lot more fun when everyone isn't basically the same; there's a tactical variety, and each player has a specific job to do. There's a great sense of satisfaction derived from knowing that your cruiser did a great job "tanking" the enemy ships to keep your allies safe. There's a tremendous rush when your escort swoops in at blazing speed to do a strafing run with dual heavy phaser cannons on an enemy vessel, only to blast him with a photon torpedo from your aft as you leave him in your impulse trail.And nothing will bring a smile to your face like bailing out an ally with a life-saving nick-of-time dose of shield energy that spares him from a fiery doom at the hands of a Negh'Var-class battle cruiser. So much of that is missing in Tier 1 gameplay,it tends to homogenize the experience. Players like variety. It's the spice of life, after all.
But there's more to it than just that. At tier 2, you unlock a bunch of really neat abilities. You can drop phaser turrets in ground combat. You can target specific subsystems on enemy ships, neutralizing weapons or shields. You can promote your officers and have them man more advanced consoles that allow them to use their tier 2 abilities, but still get access to their tier 1 abilities. For instance, I promoted my Chief Engineer and gave her the Lieutenant-tier skill "Boost Shields II" (or something like that, I forget the exact name. At the Ensign tier, she had "Boost Shields I" - same skill, but an earlier level. Now she has both. And they don't share a cooldown! So I can actually have two rotating shild boosts on my cruiser, making me really tough in space combat, What I'm REALLY talking about here though, is that now I have BUILD. So many new options open up, that you actually start to plan out a future for your character and decide what you really want to be good at. You just don't see that enough in tier 1.
There are other reasons... there's some awesome content at the higher tiers. The loor drops start to get really nice, too. I've been seeing a little bit more 'colored' (IE,greens, blues, etc) stuff that is more rare and powerful than what I was getting in tier 1.
So really, it's all the same stuff you see in other MMOs, and it feels good to know all that cool stuff is there in STO, too. You just have to slog through those early levels to get to it.
Anyway, like I said, that's just my own two cents. You mileage may vary.
Originally posted by Shelby13 Originally posted by reanor Even though I am not a StarTrek fan I am finding STO VERY fun. There is no other game where you can do space and combat missions in one game, thats one of the biggest pluses for me. Here is my review: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=1545112 I strongly suggest to try this game to anyone who likse space MMOs.
Actually, Star Wars Galaxies has Space Combat, Ground Combat, Crafting and Housing. So while its nice that STO also has this feature, its not exclusive to this game.
SWG didn't have Space missions until Lightspeed expansion... its already a part of the game in STO. You don't need to wait for expansion *wink*. Plus who wants to go back to SWG now...
Even though I am not a StarTrek fan I am finding STO VERY fun. There is no other game where you can do space and combat missions in one game, thats one of the biggest pluses for me.
I strongly suggest to try this game to anyone who likse space MMOs.
Actually, Star Wars Galaxies has Space Combat, Ground Combat, Crafting and Housing.
So while its nice that STO also has this feature, its not exclusive to this game.
SWG didn't have Space missions until Lightspeed expansion... its already a part of the game in STO. You don't need to wait for expansion *wink*. Plus who wants to go back to SWG now...
If I wanted to return to space combat I would resub in a minute back to swg compared to this garbage space combat we have with STO. Sorry I would go back in a minute to swg rather than play this game of epic STO fail. And that saying a lot since i have been swg free for over 2 years.
I'm a veteran SWG player and I really enjoyed the space combat in Jump to Lightspeed. For about five days. Then it started to become really grindy and repetitive. And the content in space was really buggy at first, and there was not much of it.
In my opinion, Trek's starship combat just blows JTL out of the water. It's much nicer-looking, there's a lot more to do in space, and after 12 levels in STO I've encountered scant few bugs in the system. In summary, it feels much more polished and fun than what SWG offered.
You know, most of this article could be written about Mortal Online, right up to the part where beta is not feature complete... but it would be lost on the fanboys. Thanks for a good read though
I MIGHT try this game, but only after it's been out for at least 6 months. There are two advantages to this 1) it gives the developers time to work out some of the bugs 2) I'll be able to read some reviews to get a sense whether it's any good.
I'm sick and tired of throwing away $40-$50 at a whack to find out a game isn't worth the price of the box it comes in.
Well, I had my recoil moment as well with STO it, but...I am having fun in it in a way that is maybe too old for new MMORPG players to understand (yet one that some of us have been seeking for a time). The best way to explain it is by describing it as I felt in during playing it...in character.
*****
Captain's Log: Star date 012010.22
So here I was Warping through the sector on a mission of Transporting a Vulkan Ambassador to P'jem when Com reports a distress call coming from Starbase 24, informing the ambassador of the delay, I ordered Helm to set course to Starbase 24.
Upon entering the area we came under heavy attack by a squadron of Negh'var battleships. And while we tried our best our shields and hull just could not handle so much punishment so we had to retreat.
Grouping with the other Starships in the area I gave instructions to Tactical to coordinate attacks and along with other Captain's engaged the Battleship squadrons one by one.
Once the Space defense of Starbase 24 was completed I approached the damaged Starbase and beamed on board with my Party (two bridge officers and 2 security Ensigns). The place was crawling with Klingons, we fought corridor by corridor, and gained gradual access to the 6 trapped scientists whom we helped beam out of there, then downloaded the Computer core's data and beamed back to the Athena.
Once there the USS Oakley came in the area and I instructed helm to rendezvous with her, so we could beam over the scientists we saved from the Starbase.
Following a successfull transport of the scientists I contacted Star Fleet Command and reported the success of the mission to the Admiral and instructed helm to assume the original mission of transporting the Vulkan Ambassador to P'Jem...
Captain Surak'nar, USS Athena
****
This was just one Episode (quest)..a public quest at that, each one I do is an adventure in itself, and a Log could be written or at least imagined for every episode and to me, the capacity for a game to invite the player to use some of their imagination during play is an element that has been lacking from MMORPG's since some time and has caused way too many players to play these games very mechanically instead of organically.
And that is why I will be playing STO, everything else is details that can be tweaked and adjusted in due time provided Cryptic is lending an ear to it's playerbase in the long run.
- Duke Suraknar - Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
Oh and they tease us with the faction page showing 4 factions but only 2 are avaiable. Help me out here. The other 2 faction are cardasian and romulan yes?????
Yes, they will be added later. Currently it's just Starfleet vs. Klingons. I'd also expect to eventually see other factions such as Marqui.
also Borg...and not just the liberated kind, they want to work in...at some point...but yeah i'm kinda on the fence, especially since the login server is the same as CO and while the games are seperate login/friends/chat are shared so if one goes down...like it did last week...champions cant be accessed....
Well, I am a huge Star Trek fan. Was a "trekker" before anyone even knew there would be one. I too was a little tripid about what Cryptic might do the the Star Trek IP. So, with some fear, I joined the Closed Beta of STO some months ago. While the evolution of the game has been up and down, most of the direction the game has been going in the last month or so have been positive. Space combat is almost perfect (almost). Ground combat is still clunky but it is improving. Missions, well, this is an MMO and there are just some things that the general public just comes to expect.
That brings me to the point. The "general public". STO is not meant to be a Star Trek game for just the die-hard ST junkie or Trekker. The game is meant to draw in those that have little to no understanding about the lore. It is meant to be a fun game to play. In that, Cryptic has done a pretty good job. The game is fun. I have two friends and two family members that decided to try to get into Open Beta just because they caught me playing the Closed Beta. All four are getting or have gotten the Lifetime Subscription and I didn't have to talk them into it at all. The game, worts and all, sold them. Them enjoyed it. All have played CoX and LOTRO and SWG and EVE. All have told me that they love STO.
So, will STO do well? I suspect it will do well enough. Will it get better? I certainly think so. Will everyone enjoy it? Probably not...but that is why we have so many MMO's out there.
Hey Scott, Emjoyed your piece on STO. I might even be able to out-geek you on the Trek front, seeing as my wife and I are such Trek nerds we actually got married on the bridge of th Enteprise-D in Las Vegas. I've logged a good unmber of hours in the beta, and I'm well along into the second tier now. I can tell you that, from my own experiences, the game gets more fun when you hit the second tier. I hope you'll find that to be true, as well. See you in sector space!
I've gotta question for the few who keep saying "it get's better once you get the second ship/second tier" and I haven't seen anyone answer it yet. WHAT makes it better when you hit the second tier? What is so different that makes it that much better? I am not being a smart ass, I am actually curious since I've seen quite a few people say it anytime someone expresses a negative opinion about the game.
I hit level 16 in 3 days. I did not find enjoyment levels rise after getting tier two equipment. The mission balancing is consistent with your level, if you don't start grabbing tier two missions before you get there.
Huge imbalance in equipment between the Klingons and Federation. Klingons have no PvE that they can get drops on other than a few drops within an instanced ship kill room.
Over all I would say my enjoyment level dropped as I found it's the same mini games over and over. The lack of hitting a planet side exploring tracts of expanse adds to this down turn. No hint of sandbox, only confinement to narrow corridors and rooms of 1 to 10 other players.
No crafting system, they have a collection system. The scraps you get for the collections leaves many gaps to fill a requirement as you pass the tier level of what it produces. The rewards do not seem to be worth the effort.
I have 50+ million SP in Eve and had canceled my subscription from time to time to revitalize. I did not expect STO to match the sandbox of Eve, I at least want some. I will not be spending my time in STO after it goes gold. I am thankful for my 99 cent purchase at Target for a pre-order to get beta access. They offer a free trial years down the road, then I might try it again being a HUGE fan of the license.
Nice article, personally I need more to convince myself I am in 'Star Trek' but I entirely understand where you are coming from and hope you continue to enjoy it.
I enjoy the Beta very much. I log on and the music makes me smile. I customized my character's look and smiled even more. When I had my ship's saucer, pylons and narcels just perfect, I picked my ship's material, and the window package that looked best to me, sat back and smiled really big.
One of the things I always wished Eve would let me do I could do in the STO Beta... I was able to get out of my ship and walk around a space station interacting with people and NPCs. I had to take a lift to talk to the Admiral and had to use a console to open my bank. It was really cool.
Aaahh, and after loading my ship with bridge officers I launched away from the space station and followed my quests to combat and then I really had a great time.
LUckily the controls are pretty easy to learn. Spinning, firing phasers and torpedos, using my bridge officers to increase shield recharge and redistributing power to level load everything, then having my Red Shirt push some button or another and which allowed me to shoot 3 torpedoes at my target's unshielded side and watching the fantastic BOOM as the enemy was blasted to pieces... made me smile.
Honestly, when I read hatred posts I just shake my head and then... grin.
Honestly, the game isn't all that bad. Space combat is pretty cool though the ground combat would really use some luvin. As long as they continue to advance the game such as adding player crews expanding the universe more as well as expanding on exploration the game will grow. However, if they just leave it how it is now on release then handle it like champions the game is as good as dead.
Diiid try the beta after preordering (and buying lifetime sub, moments after before I had even tried it properly)
Honestly I think it's good value either way, I won't have to worry about the ...bother that is subscription fees ,game-cards or whatnot. It seriously isn't a lot of money.
Also ,as one of the major mmo's it belongs in my collection either way.
The gameplay isn't that varied, I agree, though it -is- fun . Most every major MMORPG I've played the last five years have been fun to play, solid ,and addicting (though not much, since I can't ever make up my mind and stay with one for more than a few hours at a time).
What makes or breaks an MMO in the end ,is it's community, if you find a crew to play with ,if you play
a game with friends, and as such ,have a really good time ,even a mediocre game (by some peoples standards) will
give you a much more favourable impression of the game.
The community I've met on Star Trek Online, is a nice one ,a friendly one, and a helpful one.
It was easy to find parties ,and I nothing, of the sickening elitism I've encountered in other games.
Where weaker party members struggled with commands and such , others stepped in to give a few pointers.
It's only beta, and it's not a set game yet (even if near completion) But if the game has this kind of community at launch,
I'm certain to have fun with this game.
<_< funny to see some of the above comments ,so sour and negative, not sure who pissed in their cups of tea but yeah, if they enjoy being like that, let them.
Comments
oh deer me.
I almost wet myself laughing...., its so true too.
the game is lacking in EVERYTHING, but I have pre-ordered. I'm not sure if that was very wise though. But then again I am a startrek fan, serves me right
Thanks a ton for writing this, Mr Jennings! I know I am not the only mad person now, teh.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I tested and really dont like it... maybee will be improved in the future but the beta is a disappointment.
You know.... all the comparisons I see here are STO vs. CoX and STO vs. LotRO...
Both games are pretty good so I don't really see the downside atm. What were you expecting?
An EvEesque colossus with diplomacy minigames, player build orbital factories, homegrown phaser-turrets, 5 faction sector-based faction PvP and a cookie?
I'm gonna give this game a shot. If it feels like Star Trek, has pew pew and you can play together, it has the fundamental ability to be fun.
Always remember Diablo. This game had a handful of quests, no crafting, no housing, no diplomacy, no real PvP, 4 players max on one game... But i still had such a load of fun there.
M
Diablo didn't have a monthly fee with microtrans stacked on top of it. This is really a question about value. I doubt there would be such s discussion if this game shipped at 20 bucks and no monthly fee. Personally, I don't think its a crap game but it's not worh the price they are asking, to me.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
Hey Scott,
Emjoyed your piece on STO. I might even be able to out-geek you on the Trek front, seeing as my wife and I are such Trek nerds we actually got married on the bridge of th Enteprise-D in Las Vegas.
I've logged a good unmber of hours in the beta, and I'm well along into the second tier now. I can tell you that, from my own experiences, the game gets more fun when you hit the second tier. I hope you'll find that to be true, as well.
See you in sector space!
I've gotta question for the few who keep saying "it get's better once you get the second ship/second tier" and I haven't seen anyone answer it yet. WHAT makes it better when you hit the second tier? What is so different that makes it that much better? I am not being a smart ass, I am actually curious since I've seen quite a few people say it anytime someone expresses a negative opinion about the game.
I really hope it does get better at tier 2. Because I haven't really enjoyed tier 1 very much so far.
-Davorn
I've gotta question for the few who keep saying "it get's better once you get the second ship/second tier" and I haven't seen anyone answer it yet. WHAT makes it better when you hit the second tier? What is so different that makes it that much better? I am not being a smart ass, I am actually curious since I've seen quite a few people say it anytime someone expresses a negative opinion about the game.
Well, the biggest change is the way that starship combat feels. Amd starship combat seems to make up about 65% of the game, so an improvement to starship combat is really an improvement to the overall experience.
So, how does starship combat improve in Tier 2?
Well, in my own personal opinion, it improves for these reasons:
In tier 2, starships begin to take on specific roles, establishing a role-driven group dynamic that's at the heart of most MMOs today. Fights are a lot more fun when everyone isn't basically the same; there's a tactical variety, and each player has a specific job to do. There's a great sense of satisfaction derived from knowing that your cruiser did a great job "tanking" the enemy ships to keep your allies safe. There's a tremendous rush when your escort swoops in at blazing speed to do a strafing run with dual heavy phaser cannons on an enemy vessel, only to blast him with a photon torpedo from your aft as you leave him in your impulse trail.And nothing will bring a smile to your face like bailing out an ally with a life-saving nick-of-time dose of shield energy that spares him from a fiery doom at the hands of a Negh'Var-class battle cruiser. So much of that is missing in Tier 1 gameplay,it tends to homogenize the experience. Players like variety. It's the spice of life, after all.
But there's more to it than just that. At tier 2, you unlock a bunch of really neat abilities. You can drop phaser turrets in ground combat. You can target specific subsystems on enemy ships, neutralizing weapons or shields. You can promote your officers and have them man more advanced consoles that allow them to use their tier 2 abilities, but still get access to their tier 1 abilities. For instance, I promoted my Chief Engineer and gave her the Lieutenant-tier skill "Boost Shields II" (or something like that, I forget the exact name. At the Ensign tier, she had "Boost Shields I" - same skill, but an earlier level. Now she has both. And they don't share a cooldown! So I can actually have two rotating shild boosts on my cruiser, making me really tough in space combat, What I'm REALLY talking about here though, is that now I have BUILD. So many new options open up, that you actually start to plan out a future for your character and decide what you really want to be good at. You just don't see that enough in tier 1.
There are other reasons... there's some awesome content at the higher tiers. The loor drops start to get really nice, too. I've been seeing a little bit more 'colored' (IE,greens, blues, etc) stuff that is more rare and powerful than what I was getting in tier 1.
So really, it's all the same stuff you see in other MMOs, and it feels good to know all that cool stuff is there in STO, too. You just have to slog through those early levels to get to it.
Anyway, like I said, that's just my own two cents. You mileage may vary.
Actually, Star Wars Galaxies has Space Combat, Ground Combat, Crafting and Housing.
So while its nice that STO also has this feature, its not exclusive to this game.
SWG didn't have Space missions until Lightspeed expansion... its already a part of the game in STO. You don't need to wait for expansion *wink*. Plus who wants to go back to SWG now...
Actually, Star Wars Galaxies has Space Combat, Ground Combat, Crafting and Housing.
So while its nice that STO also has this feature, its not exclusive to this game.
SWG didn't have Space missions until Lightspeed expansion... its already a part of the game in STO. You don't need to wait for expansion *wink*. Plus who wants to go back to SWG now...
If I wanted to return to space combat I would resub in a minute back to swg compared to this garbage space combat we have with STO. Sorry I would go back in a minute to swg rather than play this game of epic STO fail. And that saying a lot since i have been swg free for over 2 years.
I'm a veteran SWG player and I really enjoyed the space combat in Jump to Lightspeed. For about five days. Then it started to become really grindy and repetitive. And the content in space was really buggy at first, and there was not much of it.
In my opinion, Trek's starship combat just blows JTL out of the water. It's much nicer-looking, there's a lot more to do in space, and after 12 levels in STO I've encountered scant few bugs in the system. In summary, it feels much more polished and fun than what SWG offered.
Bring on STO, I'm psyched for it.
You know, most of this article could be written about Mortal Online, right up to the part where beta is not feature complete... but it would be lost on the fanboys. Thanks for a good read though
Pfft. I am a Trekkie, but I have no desire eating a developer's shittaco just because it says Star Trek on it.
This pretty much sums it up. Why I'll play Star Trek Online, yeah I did...then I quickly removed it from my computer
I MIGHT try this game, but only after it's been out for at least 6 months. There are two advantages to this 1) it gives the developers time to work out some of the bugs 2) I'll be able to read some reviews to get a sense whether it's any good.
I'm sick and tired of throwing away $40-$50 at a whack to find out a game isn't worth the price of the box it comes in.
Well, I had my recoil moment as well with STO it, but...I am having fun in it in a way that is maybe too old for new MMORPG players to understand (yet one that some of us have been seeking for a time). The best way to explain it is by describing it as I felt in during playing it...in character.
*****
Captain's Log: Star date 012010.22
So here I was Warping through the sector on a mission of Transporting a Vulkan Ambassador to P'jem when Com reports a distress call coming from Starbase 24, informing the ambassador of the delay, I ordered Helm to set course to Starbase 24.
Upon entering the area we came under heavy attack by a squadron of Negh'var battleships. And while we tried our best our shields and hull just could not handle so much punishment so we had to retreat.
Grouping with the other Starships in the area I gave instructions to Tactical to coordinate attacks and along with other Captain's engaged the Battleship squadrons one by one.
Once the Space defense of Starbase 24 was completed I approached the damaged Starbase and beamed on board with my Party (two bridge officers and 2 security Ensigns). The place was crawling with Klingons, we fought corridor by corridor, and gained gradual access to the 6 trapped scientists whom we helped beam out of there, then downloaded the Computer core's data and beamed back to the Athena.
Once there the USS Oakley came in the area and I instructed helm to rendezvous with her, so we could beam over the scientists we saved from the Starbase.
Following a successfull transport of the scientists I contacted Star Fleet Command and reported the success of the mission to the Admiral and instructed helm to assume the original mission of transporting the Vulkan Ambassador to P'Jem...
Captain Surak'nar, USS Athena
****
This was just one Episode (quest)..a public quest at that, each one I do is an adventure in itself, and a Log could be written or at least imagined for every episode and to me, the capacity for a game to invite the player to use some of their imagination during play is an element that has been lacking from MMORPG's since some time and has caused way too many players to play these games very mechanically instead of organically.
And that is why I will be playing STO, everything else is details that can be tweaked and adjusted in due time provided Cryptic is lending an ear to it's playerbase in the long run.
Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
Yes, they will be added later. Currently it's just Starfleet vs. Klingons. I'd also expect to eventually see other factions such as Marqui.
also Borg...and not just the liberated kind, they want to work in...at some point...but yeah i'm kinda on the fence, especially since the login server is the same as CO and while the games are seperate login/friends/chat are shared so if one goes down...like it did last week...champions cant be accessed....
also
Your video settings are extremely low, my friend.
Well, I am a huge Star Trek fan. Was a "trekker" before anyone even knew there would be one. I too was a little tripid about what Cryptic might do the the Star Trek IP. So, with some fear, I joined the Closed Beta of STO some months ago. While the evolution of the game has been up and down, most of the direction the game has been going in the last month or so have been positive. Space combat is almost perfect (almost). Ground combat is still clunky but it is improving. Missions, well, this is an MMO and there are just some things that the general public just comes to expect.
That brings me to the point. The "general public". STO is not meant to be a Star Trek game for just the die-hard ST junkie or Trekker. The game is meant to draw in those that have little to no understanding about the lore. It is meant to be a fun game to play. In that, Cryptic has done a pretty good job. The game is fun. I have two friends and two family members that decided to try to get into Open Beta just because they caught me playing the Closed Beta. All four are getting or have gotten the Lifetime Subscription and I didn't have to talk them into it at all. The game, worts and all, sold them. Them enjoyed it. All have played CoX and LOTRO and SWG and EVE. All have told me that they love STO.
So, will STO do well? I suspect it will do well enough. Will it get better? I certainly think so. Will everyone enjoy it? Probably not...but that is why we have so many MMO's out there.
Let's party like it is 1863!
I've gotta question for the few who keep saying "it get's better once you get the second ship/second tier" and I haven't seen anyone answer it yet. WHAT makes it better when you hit the second tier? What is so different that makes it that much better? I am not being a smart ass, I am actually curious since I've seen quite a few people say it anytime someone expresses a negative opinion about the game.
snipThanks Venthrac, exactly what I was looking for.
I hit level 16 in 3 days. I did not find enjoyment levels rise after getting tier two equipment. The mission balancing is consistent with your level, if you don't start grabbing tier two missions before you get there.
Huge imbalance in equipment between the Klingons and Federation. Klingons have no PvE that they can get drops on other than a few drops within an instanced ship kill room.
Over all I would say my enjoyment level dropped as I found it's the same mini games over and over. The lack of hitting a planet side exploring tracts of expanse adds to this down turn. No hint of sandbox, only confinement to narrow corridors and rooms of 1 to 10 other players.
No crafting system, they have a collection system. The scraps you get for the collections leaves many gaps to fill a requirement as you pass the tier level of what it produces. The rewards do not seem to be worth the effort.
I have 50+ million SP in Eve and had canceled my subscription from time to time to revitalize. I did not expect STO to match the sandbox of Eve, I at least want some. I will not be spending my time in STO after it goes gold. I am thankful for my 99 cent purchase at Target for a pre-order to get beta access. They offer a free trial years down the road, then I might try it again being a HUGE fan of the license.
Nice article, personally I need more to convince myself I am in 'Star Trek' but I entirely understand where you are coming from and hope you continue to enjoy it.
I enjoy the Beta very much. I log on and the music makes me smile. I customized my character's look and smiled even more. When I had my ship's saucer, pylons and narcels just perfect, I picked my ship's material, and the window package that looked best to me, sat back and smiled really big.
One of the things I always wished Eve would let me do I could do in the STO Beta... I was able to get out of my ship and walk around a space station interacting with people and NPCs. I had to take a lift to talk to the Admiral and had to use a console to open my bank. It was really cool.
Aaahh, and after loading my ship with bridge officers I launched away from the space station and followed my quests to combat and then I really had a great time.
LUckily the controls are pretty easy to learn. Spinning, firing phasers and torpedos, using my bridge officers to increase shield recharge and redistributing power to level load everything, then having my Red Shirt push some button or another and which allowed me to shoot 3 torpedoes at my target's unshielded side and watching the fantastic BOOM as the enemy was blasted to pieces... made me smile.
Honestly, when I read hatred posts I just shake my head and then... grin.
Honestly, the game isn't all that bad. Space combat is pretty cool though the ground combat would really use some luvin. As long as they continue to advance the game such as adding player crews expanding the universe more as well as expanding on exploration the game will grow. However, if they just leave it how it is now on release then handle it like champions the game is as good as dead.
Hehe ,great article ,fun ,but so very true too.
Diiid try the beta after preordering (and buying lifetime sub, moments after before I had even tried it properly)
Honestly I think it's good value either way, I won't have to worry about the ...bother that is subscription fees ,game-cards or whatnot. It seriously isn't a lot of money.
Also ,as one of the major mmo's it belongs in my collection either way.
The gameplay isn't that varied, I agree, though it -is- fun . Most every major MMORPG I've played the last five years have been fun to play, solid ,and addicting (though not much, since I can't ever make up my mind and stay with one for more than a few hours at a time).
What makes or breaks an MMO in the end ,is it's community, if you find a crew to play with ,if you play
a game with friends, and as such ,have a really good time ,even a mediocre game (by some peoples standards) will
give you a much more favourable impression of the game.
It was easy to find parties ,and I nothing, of the sickening elitism I've encountered in other games.
Where weaker party members struggled with commands and such , others stepped in to give a few pointers.
It's only beta, and it's not a set game yet (even if near completion) But if the game has this kind of community at launch,
I'm certain to have fun with this game.
<_< funny to see some of the above comments ,so sour and negative, not sure who pissed in their cups of tea but yeah, if they enjoy being like that, let them.
STO , fun game