Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Tips to enjoying STO.
Shelby13
Member Posts: 79
This is probably directed toward those who are in the 'neutral' zone like I was on if Star Trek online is worth the download and play-test time or not.
If you are already convinced that STO the best thing since sliced bread, then you can carry on playing the game as you do now.
If you are already convinced that STO is the biggest disappointment in MMO history, nothing here will change that.
I just have a few tips to share with potential and new STO MMO players to hopefully get them started on the right foot.
- STO has a 'buddy token' feature that lets you try the game for free. No way to really know if you like enough of the game to get an account subscription unless you try it first. Buddy tokens are offered by players. Visit the forums and ask if you can get one, be polite and patient and it should be possible to get a buddy token.
- STO is not a full feature MMO with lots of social aspects... not yet. There are plenty of better social-aspect MMOs out there with more robust features. STO is not devoid of any social aspect but it is still very young and players are still just figuring out how to make things work. Fleets (guilds) are slowly forming up. Most of the social aspects are done via Zone chat for now.
- Don't let the 'instance' model bother you if you can manage that. All that does is limit the number of players you see.. it does not limit your ability to connect with players... in fact, unlike servers you don't have to worry about who is on what server and re-rolling new characters so you can play with them.
- TAKE YOUR TIME.. the game does not get 'suddenly' more exciting at the top rank. From what I have heard, its lonely at the top for Rear Admiral players... the 'top end' of STO is much smaller than the bottom & middle for player interaction. Avoid the temptation to power-grind quests or combat.
- MIX IT UP... one of the strongest features of STO is that you have both a space and ground system with variances. The ranking process happens in PvP, PvE, Space and Ground. Try a bit of everything and don't set yourself up to get bored.
- READ.. those story lines are part of the ST universe.. they have some interesting connections and make the 'questing' experience a whole lot more interesting than if you simply skip them. Skip them on your SECOND toon, not your first
- Try more than one class/ship/race. Cryptic does a great job allowing you to customize your characters and NPC officers and ships. Explore those variations, you might find something you like better than what you picked the 1st time out of the gate.
- Klingons are PvP.. and only PvP for now. If you like PvP.. go Klingon. If you don't.. wait till they add more PvE options for Klingons in the game. This should be a well known fact by now, but players sometimes forget it when they see its available after they unlock the option.
- Play your RANKS content. Playing content that is 12 ranks below your character WILL BE BORING... like any other MMO system. Don't cheat yourself by power grinding past then doing it at a higher level. Roll a new character if you can instead of spoiling the mission.
STO has some fun features, but if you go nuts trying to do them all in one evening as fast as possible, you might get it done, but you will have missed the point.
There is nothing in the 'end game' worth rushing to get there. The game, like your character, is still in its infancy and will likely 'mature' at a fairly rapid pace as new game features get added to improve player retention.
Now, if you've done all of the above, or its simply not your playing style, there are many other MMO titles you can explore and wait till STO grows in depth. Put your STO account on inactive and put your time and money into something else.
Good or bad.... Great or horrible... whatever opiion you end up with will likely depend on your point of view and how you approach your game play. STO has some good features, and some missing features, a few bad bugs.. but nothing too great or too horrible that would keep you forever or turn you off forever... again depending on what you are after and your expectations.
Only time and trying it out will tell.
Till then.. Engage!
SWG/STO/(SWTOR)
Comments
TIP 1...If you bought a retail version of STO, try using the box it came in as a fresbee, hours of fun with friends.
TIP 2...Get a few friends together and float boxes down a river and bet whose STO box makes it past the bridge first.
TIP 3... Put snakes in box and give it to a friend, hours of laughter.
TIP 4... Arrange boxes on window ledge and sprinkle with water cress seeds and water, relax with a view of greenery.
TIP 5... Dang I cant think of any more tips to make STO enjoyable other than stopping getting coffee rings on my desk.
ha ha too funny.. I liked that..
I'm waiting for STO to offer a FREE trial for 14 days like Eve.. After all if the company is so confident of the game being all that and a bag of chips, why not? Eve has been doing that for years, and they are one of few MMO games out that show growth since launch.. hmmmmmm
Well put. I find that I enjoy the game much more when I leave grouping to deep space and fleet action. For the rest I turn off the auto group function. I hate being grouped for the storylines because by the time I 've warped into the zone, the mission is halfway done.I never get to read all the text because everyone is just rushing from one enemy to the next. Plus, Ive had issues with idiots zerging into large enemy fleets, exploding , and then in a huff leaving( "this game sux" is sometimes added). Which means that now I have to fight groups of 6 instead of groups of 3.
The instances don't bother me. The only time I thought it was a bit much was when I had to instance in the same room for my Klingon ring fight. Other than that they haven't been an issue. I'm usually in and out of them in 3-5 seconds.
The social aspects would be helped if there was a better economic system in place. The Memroy Alpha part is just a mess. I'm still stuck on Commaner Romaine who keeps telling me to find more resources.I can't even give her the egg that I'm suppose to deposit for completing a mission. I have over half an inventory list filled with 50 of every type of elemant. They need some type of guide so that you aren't guessing, because I'm almost to the point of just quitting this part of the game.
I really do think the people who are calling the game "too easy" are playing against ships that are levels below them, because if you try and AFK your way past ships that are on your level you well get toasted. You have to "at least" be turning your ship and re-enforcing your shields so that you don't take hull damage.
All in all, I'm enjoying myself and so are many others.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
1> Obtain a copy of STO.
2> Place yourself infront of a cozy fire with your laptop and previously favorite MMO.
3> Log into previous MMO
4> Find a group and continue enjoying said MMO
5> When the fire grows dim, through STO into it to rekindle the flame.
Some people just can't help themselves.. and have a lot of spare time to troll topics
STO 'trade' interface needs some serious lovin.. hopefully that will be one of the first things they make better.
The player guides and fleets are still forming up slowly.. lots of 1 off players giving it a shot.. not much organized team building quite yet.
My SWG guild has about half a dozen fleet members in STO at different ranks, but we do manage to get together and run missions in small teams.
There is a fair amount of 'theorycrafting' going on right now also on what builds/skill combinations seem to work. Thats not for everyone, but there are certainly some game mechanics to explore.
SWG/STO/(SWTOR)
The Buddy program is 10 days free... basically the same concept as the EvE 14 day trial. Buddy accounts are full feature and you can pretty easily get to Lt. Commander and a nice leisurely pace to see what the non-starter ships handle like.
Players have been pretty generous with the buddy tokens.. as long as the player asking has been polite and patient about it
SWG/STO/(SWTOR)
I was going to suggest being extremely stoned, but I like your ideas better. Cheers.
Starfleet Dental (Goons) seem to like self destructing at Earth SB blowing up noobs by the dozen, and inviting dumb opposite faction members to a ship's bridge and chain ganking them for hours.
The trouble, rather than the strength, of STO is that there isn't ENOUGH variance, and that the ground combat is extremely bland. I stuck to starship combat almost 100% of the time, but even though it's quite fun, it gets too repetitive when the combat consists almost entirely of turning in circles at point-blank range and mashing the fire buttons.
STO has moments of fun, but it's too weak a game to charge a box fee, monthly sub and also have a microtransaction store. F2P would maybe make STO worth playing for a short while on a casual basis.
There is fun to be had with STO but only in small bites of an hour or two before it starts getting a little boring.But if you only play it in short bursts it can be a lot of fun like an old arcade game.Just my take on it having played in beta and on a buddy key.It's nowhere near as bad or as good as the more extreme views here would suggest and I think it would of made a better single player RPG with limited MP(Say like Neverwinter Nights).Just my honest opinion...I have more issues with the Atari/Cryptic's business practices but that is a separate issue from judging STO as game.
You don't actually give Cmdr Romaine the item, you need to "deposit" the item in a console nearby. With regard to the "crafting", it's as simple as acquiring the component and materials to "purchase" the improved component. When you've "purchased" enough of the components (roughly 7,800 energy credits, if I'm not mistaken), you move onto the next set of scientists or engineers. It's not really exciting and you're not missing much by not participating.
Tips to enjoying STO:
1) Find the account management page.
2) Cancel subscription.
3) Never buy another Cryptic game for as long as you live.
Tips for enjoying STO, collect many retail boxes, build a coffin from them, place phaser against your head and fall backwards...
Was your post intended to make the game look good? Because all it seemed to do is emphasize the shallow nature of the game... It seems like you pretty much to have to be the type of person who enjoys playing MMOs solo, enjoys lots of combat and nothing else in their MMOs, and doesn't mind reading copious amounts of text to enjoy this game (on that note, did we ever see Sisko or Picard reading a mission briefing for two hours before starting a mission? Nope. Age of Conan's voice acted quests are looking pretty good about now.)
If I was an impartial observer (and I'll freely admit I'm not) this post would make me want to take a pass and go back to playing Age of Conan.
The Buddy program is 10 days free... basically the same concept as the EvE 14 day trial. Buddy accounts are full feature and you can pretty easily get to Lt. Commander and a nice leisurely pace to see what the non-starter ships handle like.
Players have been pretty generous with the buddy tokens.. as long as the player asking has been polite and patient about it
If this is the case, why don't they just switch to a free trial instead of using the buddy token thing? It kinda seems like a roundabout way for offering free trials to me.
If you'd like you could send me a buddy token, maybe you'll change my mind about the game.
There is only 1 way STO will entertain you longer then a few weeks/ a month.
You need to play it very casualy, an hour a day casualy, if that.
Play it more and it becomes a borefest after a week.
It's not worth the money atm, I played the beta and had to choose between Mass Effect 2 and STO at launch.
I figured ME2 will last me longer then STO and sadly I was right heh.
I'll give STO a try after the price drops to 20 bucks or so and I hope by then they'll add some features that will keep me busy for longer then 2 weeks.
I feel sorry for the suckers that purchased lifetime sub.
I care about your gaming 'problems' and teenage anxieties, just not today.
STO is a very fine game. There i said, i even left out words like mmorpg or anything that tends to get people riled up. Its a game, so chill. There are currently like over 100 mmorpgs on the market, and anyone of them has a active userbase, some bigger some smaller. So STO isnt the next WoW with 10+mil userbase, exactly like the other 99 mmorpgs, again, chill.
I had oodles of fun playing games that got far worse ratings than STO, and was heavily disappointed by games that got 85+ ratings. There are plenty of people having fun with STO, i meet them daily cause im playing with them. Obviously there are also plenty who hate the game, well sucks to be you, would be nice if there was a game that everyone loved i guess.
Games tend to polarize, i hate soccer sim games with a passion, but im not dissing the people who actually like them. Also i dont blame the company for making them, my own fault for buying a game i dont like. Dont blame the company if you are the one who bought a product without refund without prior testing or researching it. Its not like the heavy instancing or lack of klingon content is a well kept trade secret. And if your posting here, on a mmorpg site, and still didnt bother doing even the most basic research before buying a game, you deserve everything you got.
If you didnt buy the game ... what are you upset about? Isnt there more important stuff going on in your world than a game you dont own not meeting up to your personal standards? Do make such a ruckus about every game released that you dont like?
P.S.: What im trying to say is that people seem unable to just enjoy a game, all they can do is compare it to other games and pick it apart. People are getting angry over principles, like instances, what term applies to the game, wether its persistant or not etc. While in the end thats just a stupid discussion(and yes i admit i let myself get pulled into it), in the end all that matters is having fun vs not having fun.
You're not impartial observer but just a troll.
You complain about the game having too much of combat and with the same breath you complain about too much text.
If the TV serie was supposed to have more combat, it would be as unappealing as space MMO adventure game.
The game is using Star Trek IP(the world and lore), not aspiring to be a transition of TV serie onto MMO platform.
Trial accounts can take easily 20-30% of your active players. That requires lots of resources with arguable return.
Most of MMO developers after launch work on smoothing, improve the game and getting rid of bugs as best as they can. Taking care of another bunch of trial accounts is not what would help them much with their tasks.
I for one have began to get hooked on it. I'm at Rear Admiral, grade five. Commanding a very nice Assault Cruiser also helps.
Now there's epics to collect and stuff to do in Borg space, it'll keep most of us busy. Then once that runs dry, I'll take what I've earned and collected, gather some of my fleets officers, and work on putting the klingons in their place.
The only thing that annoys me is, I have 740 cryptic store points and theres nothing interesting to buy at the moment, but all things in time.
I can see them adding like, alternate ship designs. (Don't cry about microtransactions. Truth is If i can't get it for free, then I won't bother. Those points I've accumulated through a survey and pre order.)
As for people slagging off the game for the god knows what time...
Why did you buy the game without researching it? Not all of you did no, but some of you are tools and we know you did. Personally I can't understand the logic of someone who buys a lifetime subscription to a game though.
I'll admit this game needs alot of work, but it's fun to see where it can go. If you don't like it, cry some more? There's a whole industry out there full of games, why not just play a different one and get on with your lives. I do wonder whats worse, someone playing an mmo religiously, or someone who takes time out of their day to bash a game that they don't play or want anything to do with.
Longing for Skyrim, The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3
If the game was fun would you really need tips to enjoy it.?
If the information available about the game is troll spam mainly, then yes, tips are handy.
Well,I playing STO as an single play rpg ,really enjoying!
I am try play as an mmorpg but was bored & irritable.After expired my 30 day leaving game & waiting romulans as playable faction.Don't like to much klingons & arrogant federation .
If the information available about the game is troll spam mainly, then yes, tips are handy.
As a huge Star Trek and hardcore gamer I looked forward to this game. I played a month and didnt want to go back.
Cryptic games are cookie cutter.
You're not impartial observer but just a troll.
You complain about the game having too much of combat and with the same breath you complain about too much text.
If the TV serie was supposed to have more combat, it would be as unappealing as space MMO adventure game.
The game is using Star Trek IP(the world and lore), not aspiring to be a transition of TV serie onto MMO platform.
Trial accounts can take easily 20-30% of your active players. That requires lots of resources with arguable return.
Most of MMO developers after launch work on smoothing, improve the game and getting rid of bugs as best as they can. Taking care of another bunch of trial accounts is not what would help them much with their tasks.
I never claimed to be an impartial observer. Maybe read my post again? (And I'd thank you to not take my post out of context. The full line was "If I was an impartial observer (and I'll freely admit I'm not)")
I don't recall complaining about anything, maybe read my post again? I did say that it looks like, from the OPs post, the type of person who would enjoy this game must enjoy nothing but combat and also not mind reading lots of text. Unfortunately, in my experience those who enjoy nothing but combat in MMOs seem quite adverse to reading almost anything at all. When I played WoW I read every single quest, it made the game fun and deeper for me, but I was constantly surprised by the stupid questions asked in chat to problems that could be solved simply by reading the quest. It's gotten to the point that WoW now uses a quest tracker because you simply can't expect people to actually read any length of text to see what to do, they'd rather have it spelled out for them visually.
If STO is expecting to capture the ultra-casual market then they are going about it completely the wrong way by having any significant amount of text in the game. And if it is true, like the OP claims, that reading this text is important for the enjoyment of the game then STO really is doomed from an ultra-casual perspective.
Where did you get the 20-30% figure? Can you site sources, or did you make that statistic up? I very, very highly doubt that a successful game has anywhere near that amount of trial accounts. Playing City of Heroes I've met a few people playing on trial accounts, but the number was nowhere near one third of the players I'd encountered.
Also, if Cryptic is hurting for server power in the face of so many possible trial accounts, then why are they giving out buddy tokens to players to try to get their friends interested? I'll give you a hint: the reason isn't inadequate server architecture otherwise they'd seriously restrict the number of buddy tokens they give out.
Have you guys read Ronny Calahans tip guide on how to have fun? Its a short list but man is it informative.
If the information available about the game is troll spam mainly, then yes, tips are handy.
Ah yes, the old "it's all a conspiracy to keep this great game down!" argument. I suppose all those sites that gave the game scathing reviews were just trolling too then?