Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Watching STO from the sidelines....
Chyren
Member Posts: 16
Well I have been watching...
Scanning the official forums daily, watching reviews from various sites inclusive of this one...
Plotting...Judging...Hoping...
One of the biggest issues involved in me keeping my money out of "STO=land" is the fact that the heavy instancing has really bogged my mind. I've played Open Beta to death and loved the basic game however the fact that you NEVER can really get in a personal group has really killed it for me. I've watched the making of the game way back when it was a Perpetual title, and wanted it to be something greater then SWG was...
There is absolutely NO community feel in STO. None, zero, zip.
Yes its a true MMO in that its massively and multiplayer and online but that's where it stops.
Instancing has kept me out of the game and I know a lot of people seem to like it but I do not and I've not purchased it to date until I see some kind of light at the end of the tunnel.
The space battles are great, the ground battles are absolutely something you'd find on a 1995 PC game. Again ZERO community and City of Heroes with all its instancing is a far better experience ( and that really bugs me to have to say)
And the fact that there is only ONE server is laughable and a cheap way to save money on their end. Nothing like ticking off the WHOLE online community at once for downtimes.
The game wasn't rushed out the door. This is what STO is supposed to be from the vision that Cryptic is giving us.
So sitting here on the sidelines I watch, I wait, and I hope for something better.
I know they're working on making it better, but better will be a faster running version of what it is currently.
The exploration side of the game is non-existant.
Comments
I agree. They might fix it in patches and changes to the game, but I've stopped giving these MMO companies the benefit of the doubt and hold off my cash till i see the real changes implimented, then I'll pay.
Arioc Murkwood
Environment Artist
Sad but true.
I made a mistake and purchased STO. I have now canceled my subscription and pre-ordered the latest EQ2 expansion.
STO is not an MMO it is a sub par version of Guild Wars in a Star Trek setting.
The sad thing is that the Star Trek IP deserved much more than the garbage Cryptic created. I feel bad for all of the serious Star Trek fans as there may never be another Star Trek MMO after this.
It's not a single "server", they're actually multiple servers (clusters) setup in a way that there is no need for multiple "servers" for players to choose, this alone isn't really bad, it's just an ambitious design decision (like in EVE, like in Guild Wars). It makes possible to meet with anyone that plays the game, the execution is poor though as the game being sliced 100% into small instances and shoe-boxes kills the good community potential of being a single shard, potential which the other games I mentioned managed to better explore.
I agree with the rest though.
the problem with the way STO does instances, isn't so much that they use them its how they use them.
From what I saw in OB 90% of the content was limited to mini instances of 5(or was it 6) players with the other 10% limited to 20 players. Sure, on the sector map you could have 50 players, however you could not interact with anything in any meaningful way, it was nothing more then a graphical lobby to select what mission to take.
Not even champions online was so limited as you would run into many other players on the same map/instance all doing different quests and whatnot
The OP has said it much better than I did in any of my OB feedbacks.
While I liked the autogroup feature, the fact that the Dev's didn't allow for any kind of voice feature to fully exploit it kills any community building.
While the roads in getting there were totally different, STO and PotBS keep getting closer and closer. PotBS; while still allowing for a community feel, went heavy into guilds for both econ and a more robust community grouping and with STO you're kind of forced into a fleet to achieve the community feel. Without that, you're pretty much just a solo player with some flashes of being in the same place as others.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Shocking, a company releases unfinished low quality garbage . . .
I just started playing SWG, they should update graphics, add a few new features, polish it up and re-release the game
. I'm in absolute awe of some of the features in SWG. I just can't believe it when i walk into someone's house/shop what is there. Kind of wish i played this game back when it was something special 
.
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
I've been doing the same OP. I have seen that they have finally added the end game content in as well as more Borg encounters. I was in OB and played til about Lt Commander 3 before just messing around and checking out various things.
I don't think that the heavy instancing is going to go away. It is pretty fun though and perhaps worth just $50 imo to play for a month. I mean you will get plenty of hours of game time out of it at least. But I was hoping for a more zone to zone feel of it at least. It didn't have to even be true 3D space, but bigger and just star systems and other phenomenon you came accross while in a zone.
I also agree with sone posters about adding the option for sterring your ship from the bridge, but Sector Space would kill that experience for me with its Tron style gridlock.
Maybe we should just wait it out til' the price drops to $30 or less in a few months?
Do not try to be a great gamer, just be a gamer. Cause, I don't care how good you are anyway.
The ops words are full of wisdom, facts and truth
What it comes down to is, people wanted Eve with Star Trek ships/races. That wasn't the direction the game went. Instead it went for episodic content delivered via instances. In all honestly, the flow does replicate the feeling of an episode for each mission rather well. However, it does make it feel very less MMO like as most of the time you're on your own personal mission. I would like to see them open it up more, but the sandbox Star Trek experience is not going to happen, and honestly, I don't think it would be that great either. I mean hell, look at Eve. It's an accomplishment, but its very very empty feeling, and not very fun (imho).
Side note: I don't know why the hell you would want voice for grouping, or why its even necessary for it to be a true "community experience". Personally I view voice as a complete bane to MMOs and I'm fairly glad it's not there, as making it an option causes elitist "voice only" rules to crop up, and forcing it on everyone just forces the idiocy generally found in MMO communities into your ears. I can do without knowing my open group partner is listening to terrible music and eating cheetos while whining like a brat because he thinks its MY fault he got himself killed.
BTW: Price actually did drop, possibly temporarily, at Gameslop at least. I believe it was $59.99 for the CE and $39.99 for the standard. So you're not far off.
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
What it comes down to is, people wanted Eve with Star Trek ships/races. That wasn't the direction the game went. Instead it went for episodic content delivered via instances. In all honestly, the flow does replicate the feeling of an episode for each mission rather well. However, it does make it feel very less MMO like as most of the time you're on your own personal mission. I would like to see them open it up more, but the sandbox Star Trek experience is not going to happen, and honestly, I don't think it would be that great either. I mean hell, look at Eve. It's an accomplishment, but its very very empty feeling, and not very fun (imho).
Side note: I don't know why the hell you would want voice for grouping, or why its even necessary for it to be a true "community experience". Personally I view voice as a complete bane to MMOs and I'm fairly glad it's not there, as making it an option causes elitist "voice only" rules to crop up, and forcing it on everyone just forces the idiocy generally found in MMO communities into your ears. I can do without knowing my open group partner is listening to terrible music and eating cheetos while whining like a brat because he thinks its MY fault he got himself killed.
BTW: Price actually did drop, possibly temporarily, at Gameslop at least. I believe it was $59.99 for the CE and $39.99 for the standard. So you're not far off.
I myself did not say anything about voice commands as far as I am aware, but my alternate personality does pop up at times. Hold on let me as her real quick.
Nope. Unless that was someone else who you were directing that part of your post to.
Do not try to be a great gamer, just be a gamer. Cause, I don't care how good you are anyway.
That would be me, he directed it at.
As to why a voice feature; be it in-game voice, vent or somekind of pre-macro'd 'chatter' like SWG JTL had but listing various tactics to use, the dev's gave the players 3 'types' of ships. Wouldn't it be nice if you could coordinate your attacks or let the Sci vessel know if / when you needed assistance?
What I saw in OB was you popped into your instance, a PUG was formed and then with no coordination (since trying to type / fly / fight generally involves more hands than originally grown) everyone just swammed the targets and if you blew - you blew and re-spawned to throw yourself back into the fight.
The community part would come into play after the fight, where instead of just popping out of the instance you could communicate your next intentions and just maybe form a group for the night, next week, a fleet or whatever. In OB the game seemed to lean more towards solo play than rewarding / requiring group play. Which granted is not always a bad thing since I'm not very big on guilds or groups but I know alot of players like them.
And on a personal note, I generally stay away from voice unless it's absolutely necessary - a PotBS Port Battle or one of the large Saturday SWG space fights as if ruins my immersion illussion I'm trying to obtain. Knowing that hot elf looking chick sounds like a 50 yr old chain smoker is in no way fun :-)
The fact that running the game from the bridge (something that can never happen in this engine btw so don't even wait for it) appeals to you shows that you're looking for an expecting a very different type of game than what was being offered, so really, nothing they can do will make you happy with it. Honestly, while it would be cool, its also completely impractical.
Just curious on why it would be impractical? Now if you're talking about having to click on your BO to open up their 'buff' buttons - then yes it would be. But since most space games allow you to scroll in for a cockpit view and let you fight that way if you wish I don't see why it wouldn't work. The UI would still be there, all you would have done is given yourself a limited view and more challenge to the fight. I have 1 son that prefers this view, while it makes me slightly seasick so I'd rather do the 3rd person view.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter