Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Hmmm.... Some problems?
jonezi92
Member Posts: 224
hey guys i've been watching STO for a few weeks now and i cant actually see where MMO genre comes into this..apart from the odd space fight?
I dont want to bring this game down, I know i'll end up buying it, "i've never seen a star trek episode in my life" i personally think it looks really good, but i cant see any major multiplayer factors, it seems more like a single player almost kotor like combat.
i dont know, like i said i've only been watching this game for a few weeks, i've probobly just hit this way off the mark and it actually has.
Knowing what happend with Champions im personally thinking second thoughts about how this game will be launched, the ui already looks like the champions, hmm could this be ... the old way of SoE? same structure and build but the IP's differant???
I really want to give this game a go, but my concerns are that i dont want to be paying monthly for some half cooked cryptic chicken.
Comments
But wait... you just said you're going to buy it anyway, so why even ask this?
You'll find out the answer when you get in the game
Then don't buy the game. Most of the people who voted on a poll on the STO forums couldn't even rank the game as B or better and that's a place where you'd expect them to be biased for the game. It is indeed half-cooked and rushed (2 year development with such glaring problems as no real Klingon PvE content).
So where does Massivly Multiplayer come into this game? the vids i've seen dont really show anything but ship fights
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4093/userbar759160.gif
It's heavily instanced. You can run into people in an instance if they start around the same time you do (they can actually be a bit into it, from what I saw, meaning you might have to catch up with them which can be annoying). Other than that, there are some fleet battles where lots of people fight (kinda like a Battleground, though not PvP), there are pvp instances, and you can meet people on Starbases and such. Lots of people say it doesn't feel that massive though.
It's heavily instanced. You can run into people in an instance if they start around the same time you do (they can actually be a bit into it, from what I saw, meaning you might have to catch up with them which can be annoying). Other than that, there are some fleet battles where lots of people fight (kinda like a Battleground, though not PvP), there are pvp instances, and you can meet people on Starbases and such. Lots of people say it doesn't feel that massive though.
thanks thats all i need to know
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4093/userbar759160.gif
It's not hard to find people. Fly to the red spots on the sector map and join and then throw invites to everyone you see. I've yet to have a person decline to join the group and i've been grouped for 80% of my beta experience. You can also right click on someone that is already in a group and there is an option to request to join their team. It usually instantly adds you to their team.
The only time I have seen more than 50-100 people at one time in a game was at Ogrimmar at the bank/auction house area. Of course in the battle grounds too. Why do people feel the need to be able to see thousands of people at once is beyond me. In fact I don't think there is a game that can handle more than a couple hundred players in its server chunks. What is the magical number of people that can be seen at one time considered to make a game "massive"?
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
I can see both sides on this one. THe encounters part of the game was suppose to be the part where you fight with large groups. The social hubs was the other place where there was to be lots of people. As long as those are decently filled I'll be happy.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
What's really funny is not 4 months ago people were complaining that if you saw more than 10-20 ships in one area it wouldn't seem like Star Trek. Now some of those same people are the ones crying that this isn't a MMO because you can't have 100's of players in one place at a time. I find it extremely amusing how people can do a complete 180 on a subject when their old view no longer falls in line with their current agenda.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
My initial response was a bit snarky, and I apologize for that. Let me attempt to give you a real asnwer.
I'm personally really enjoying this game, but to be honest, if you place a high priority on seeing large crowds of players gathered for some kind of activity ala Dark Age of Camelot-style RvR or old 40-person WoW raids, then this game is probably not going to be for you. As posted above, it is heavily instanced. Groups are limited to five players. The scale of STO is smaller than most MMOs.
That's as honest an answer as I can give you. I hope it will help you make an infomed decisiom. I mean, I'd love to know STO added another new player, but I'd rather you spend your money on something you'll be happy with.
What's even more amusing is that some of those same posters are willing to give games they are supporting a pass on the very same things that they hit this game for.Just check the TOR forums to see what I mean. Like you said, whatever falls in line with their current agenda....
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
In the vastness of space you should come across a star ship 3 parsecs in any direction.
What's even more amusing is that some of those same posters are willing to give games they are supporting a pass on the very same things that they hit this game for.Just check the TOR forums to see what I mean. Like you said, whatever falls in line with their current agenda....
It's a tricky thing for Star Trek. Lots of ships together didn't happen much at all, but an MMO needs that to some extent. Compromises must be made, one way or another. I think what hurts the game more is that there are so many instances in space systems and so forth that it feels very restricted. It's not a matter of a star system being an instance, but the fact that the system and then the area around each object is instanced. That makes it feel more cut up, especially with the loading screens.
Anyhow, I'm not sure I've seen anyone talking out of both sides of their mouth. I don't have a real problem with instancing in general, though I do think STO does it in a bad way. A star system should be completely explorable where there is only instancing when you beam to the surface of a planet.
As for TOR, the exact nature of instancing and how it fits into the large world is far from clear so far. Yes, there will be quite a bit of instancing, but the general idea of instancing isn't bad to me. Again, it is how it is implemented.
What's even more amusing is that some of those same posters are willing to give games they are supporting a pass on the very same things that they hit this game for.Just check the TOR forums to see what I mean. Like you said, whatever falls in line with their current agenda....
Oh yes, I'm following TOR with great interest so I know exactly what and 'who' you are referring to. What I find extremely interesting is that TOR fans will come to this forum to trash this game quite frequently but you don't really see many STO fans doing the reverse. I guess it speaks loads for the maturity level of the two fan bases. LOL
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
What's funny is I really hope that TOR is a great success. It seems like Bioware is avoiding the mistakes that SOE did with SWG and are making a truely unique game that doesn't violate canon and will be immersive. It's not like the two games will be a threat to each other. Both are completely different with different IPs,different fanbases, different core designs and are launching almost a year apart from each other. So I don't get the reason for anyone thinking that one has to fail in order for the other to succeed.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
What's even more amusing is that some of those same posters are willing to give games they are supporting a pass on the very same things that they hit this game for.Just check the TOR forums to see what I mean. Like you said, whatever falls in line with their current agenda....
It's a tricky thing for Star Trek. Lots of ships together didn't happen much at all, but an MMO needs that to some extent. Compromises must be made, one way or another. I think what hurts the game more is that there are so many instances in space systems and so forth that it feels very restricted. It's not a matter of a star system being an instance, but the fact that the system and then the area around each object is instanced. That makes it feel more cut up, especially with the loading screens.
Anyhow, I'm not sure I've seen anyone talking out of both sides of their mouth. I don't have a real problem with instancing in general, though I do think STO does it in a bad way. A star system should be completely explorable where there is only instancing when you beam to the surface of a planet.
As for TOR, the exact nature of instancing and how it fits into the large world is far from clear so far. Yes, there will be quite a bit of instancing, but the general idea of instancing isn't bad to me. Again, it is how it is implemented.
A reasonable explanation... I respect and thank you for that. As I said I'm following TOR as well as I like both IPs although I am less vocal in that area. There will be a lot of instancing in TOR... of that I have no doubt but as you have stated how exactly it will be implemented is yet to be seen. I happen to think the instancing in STO is needed to fall in line with the IP but I admit freely that it isn't everyone's cup of tea so-to-speak. The load screens don't really bother me as they usually take less than 10 seconds on my rig and I used to play EQ so I'm used to it. In that game you could literally go make a sandwich and a pot of coffee while a zone was loading... LOL
I like the instancing personally because without it you would be seeing multitudes of ships everywhere you go and to me at least that would be an extreme immersion breaker in a Star Trek game. If load screens are the price we have to pay to prevent that I'm perfectly ok with it.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
STO is, no matter what anyone says, Champion's Online with a Star Trek skin - plain and simple, through and through. Now, the ST version of Cryptic's CO engine is better I think but they are handling it EXACTLY like the did CO. Rushed to live, incomplete and lacking polish and somewhat simplistic and shallow and here we are as of today just a few days from launch and they are making wild, sweeping balance changes almost like stabs in the dark to turn around the negative impressions that people are getting.
STO may well be worth the $50 in terms of you easily getting a few weeks of fun out of it but if you have no grand desire to be there from day 1 for some reason wait until March, and if you hated CO the chances are you may not like STO as it is, largely, a port of CO to the combat scenario of ST.
--------------------------------
Achiever 60.00%, Socializer 53.00%, Killer 47.00%, Explorer 40.00%
Intel Core i7 Quad, Intel X58 SLi, 6G Corsair XMS DDR3, Intel X-25 SSD, 3 WD Velociraptor SATA SuperTrak SAS EX8650 Array, OCZ 1250W PS, GTX 295, xFi, 32" 1080p LCD
I myself have no problem with instances so long as their done right. I completely understand why they were created because I've dealt with more kill stealers and griefers in MMORPGs than I cared to.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
I agree with your take on instancing overall, but I think STO is an example of instancing done very wrong while I think LotRO is an example of instancing done very right. STO has terribly small areas (I mean think of a non instance MMO where every two or three minutes of moving through the world where you got to load to a new area). They are incredibly slow loading instances. Incredibly small (biggest hold 40 or 50 people and I have seen many areas that hold no more than 4 or 5). And the benifit of all this instancing is simply the one server thing (nice, overall) but you still have every single zone/area being absolutely small, no great graphics or gameplay advantages either. So it is a steep price for little gain.
By example, for those that play STO, with the amount of instancing they do and the load times and all it is ridiculous that there is not just one sector space region for each faction (i.e. Fed Space, Klingon Space, etc) instead of sector after sector being a load to a new instance - heck, for the lack of detail and complexity to sector space it should be one seamless instance with way more than 50 people per instance.
Somewhere I saw someone put it this way ... Star Trek Online - boldly load where no man has loaded before.
--------------------------------
Achiever 60.00%, Socializer 53.00%, Killer 47.00%, Explorer 40.00%
Intel Core i7 Quad, Intel X58 SLi, 6G Corsair XMS DDR3, Intel X-25 SSD, 3 WD Velociraptor SATA SuperTrak SAS EX8650 Array, OCZ 1250W PS, GTX 295, xFi, 32" 1080p LCD