Star Trek Online

[Vostok 7]

I'm highly surprised there's no STO thread on here (forgive me if there is, I did a search and didn't find anything). This game rocks! I'm in the open beta and I have to say I'm very pleased.

http://www.startrekonline.com/

There's a lot of extremely nerdy fanbois (mostly fans of the flowery "let's make friends with everyone" TNG era) who are saying it's "not real Star Trek" because there's "very little diplomacy" which isn't really true but oh well. The game has a strong TOS/TMP/DS9/VOY feel to it which I enjoy quite a bit. The basics of the plot are that it's 2409, Romulus has been destroyed, the Federation is still picking up the pieces, and the Undine (Species 8472) have been using their shape-shifting powers to create havoc in the Federation, culminating in the dissolution of the peace treaties between the Klingon Empire (now including the Gorn bent on galactic takeover, the Orions and the Nausicaans) and the Federation resulting in a very TMP like state where the two superpowers are "almost at war" and generally very hostile to each other. The Romulans are building their military and trying to reconstruct their Empire so they can join in on the fun, and then you have the Cardassians just waiting for a chance on the other side of the wormhole, and finally the Borg always present to just cause trouble.

The Federation and the Klingons are currently playable, with the Romulans definitely being added later and more options being explored.

All in all it's pretty good.

This is my current ship, the U.S.S. Crozier, NCC-91848, a Constitution II-class Cruiser obviously. I don't have any shots of my Miranda-class Light Cruiser (the starter ship) named the U.S.S. Arkhangelesk unfortunately, but I assume most people know what the Miranda-class looks like. The game has a really cool ship customization system.

Vostok 7

[eugimon]

I'm playing the open beta as well. I have to say I'm pretty ambivalent about it. I like the ship to ship encounters but the away missions just suck and it's not because that code is still buggy.

I doubt I'll be paying to keep playing and there's no way I'll be buying either the 1 year or lifetime memberships

[Vostok 7]

Why would this get locked?

Vostok 7

[David Hingtgen]

Because it's already been discussed recently in the "all things videogames" thread.

Anyways-----no Excelsior, no purchase. (it'll probably be DLC later, but that just ticks me off---that's like making lightsabers an "optional extra cost" item in a Jedi game----it's so well-known it absolutely should be there period)

[Vostok 7]

Because it's already been discussed recently in the "all things videogames" thread.

Anyways-----no Excelsior, no purchase. (it'll probably be DLC later, but that just ticks me off---that's like making lightsabers an "optional extra cost" item in a Jedi game----it's so well-known it absolutely should be there period)

Sorry, I did search!!

I know, there's three ships they're really missing. The Nebula, the Excelsior and the Ambassador. Hopefully they add them in the future.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Vostok 7

[David Hingtgen]

Yeah, but those 3 are the exact top 3 I wanted. I wanted something other than "Ent-A, Ent-D, Ent-E".

[Vostok 7]

Yeah, but those 3 are the exact top 3 I wanted. I wanted something other than "Ent-A, Ent-D, Ent-E".

That's not all there is Plus, you can customize the ships so they look different.

http://suricatasblog.files.wordpress.com/2...iptierchart.png

Vostok 7

Edited January 19, 2010 by Vostok 7

[David Hingtgen]

Yeah, I know. Half those classes are fake and/or modifications.

I don't want a bunch of stuff you'd find in the fan-art section of a Trek site, I want the uber-famous, canon, established ships that formed the bulk of the fleet.

I'll keep with the Star Wars comparisons---if I buy a ship combat game, I expect the X, A, B, and Y-wing. Not the X, C, F, G, K, M, and S-wing.

PS---hello, the Excelsior class has CANON modifications---notably the Ent-B and Lakota. It's the PERFECT ship for the game for that reason. Instead, we get rejects from Deviantart...

[eugimon]

but this game takes place after the destruction of the romulan homeworld

[miles316]

So is this a post Romulus destruction post reboot alternate reality universe.

[eugimon]

So is this a post Romulus destruction post reboot alternate reality universe.

no, it continues the main continuity

[Robelwell202]

Too damn expensive for me...

[David Hingtgen]

but this game takes place after the destruction of the romulan homeworld

Everything I've seen covers quite a long list of available ships, time-wise. Also, the Trek universe has the longest-serving military ships around it seems---Excelsiors and Mirandas were front-line in the Dominion War. Surely by ST:O there's lots of Nebulas still around, and probably a few Ambassadors.

If they're allowing CONSTITUTION class, then surely they should have newer, better ships like Excelsior and Ambassador. (also, I think it's quasi-canon that the refit Constitution was actually rather rare in the fleet, it's just uber-famous due to the Enterprise---but the Excelsior and Ambassador were common)

[mikeszekely]

Finally got a beta key. I'm not impressed with it so far, but I can't say I've done much more than all that intro crap (I was doing my first actual mission when the server went down).

Little things are irritating me with it. Like why is it that when I click on an enemy, I'll shoot him and then stand there like a doofus? Can't it be assumed that I want to keep shooting him with my regular attack until the guy is dead? And I hope they really beef up their servers before launch, because as it stands the game is laggy as hell. When I was at the starbase, it would take awhile for the game to figure out when I changed my inventory. The worst is transitioning from space to ground (or vice versa). Instead of a smooth transition, my ship model will still show for several minutes, during which I can do nothing (except maybe play a more fun game on my PSP or DS while I wait).

[eugimon]

Everything I've seen covers quite a long list of available ships, time-wise. Also, the Trek universe has the longest-serving military ships around it seems---Excelsiors and Mirandas were front-line in the Dominion War. Surely by ST:O there's lots of Nebulas still around, and probably a few Ambassadors.

If they're allowing CONSTITUTION class, then surely they should have newer, better ships like Excelsior and Ambassador. (also, I think it's quasi-canon that the refit Constitution was actually rather rare in the fleet, it's just uber-famous due to the Enterprise---but the Excelsior and Ambassador were common)

I guess but I'm guessing you can customize the Galaxy class into a Nebula configuration as you can choose different secondary hull and pylon configurations.

There's still a lot of canon designs like the galaxy, intrepid, and defiant classes.

Personally, I don't think ship selection is the flaw with this game.

[eugimon]

Finally got a beta key. I'm not impressed with it so far, but I can't say I've done much more than all that intro crap (I was doing my first actual mission when the server went down).

Little things are irritating me with it. Like why is it that when I click on an enemy, I'll shoot him and then stand there like a doofus? Can't it be assumed that I want to keep shooting him with my regular attack until the guy is dead? And I hope they really beef up their servers before launch, because as it stands the game is laggy as hell. When I was at the starbase, it would take awhile for the game to figure out when I changed my inventory. The worst is transitioning from space to ground (or vice versa). Instead of a smooth transition, my ship model will still show for several minutes, during which I can do nothing (except maybe play a more fun game on my PSP or DS while I wait).

yeah, the whole away mission mechanic is seriously flawed. Even if it wasn't laggy and buggy as hell. The complete lack of a cover system when there's a next to useless "crouch" mode, having to continually hit the fire button for the basic attack... it just feels like a mediocre 3rd person shooter from 10 years ago.

And the pop up dialog screens... who the hell thought that would be a good idea?

[David Hingtgen]

Every beta key I find is gone 30 secs after I find it... (yes, I'd like to try it, but doubt I'd actually buy it)

[Vostok 7]

yeah, the whole away mission mechanic is seriously flawed. Even if it wasn't laggy and buggy as hell. The complete lack of a cover system when there's a next to useless "crouch" mode, having to continually hit the fire button for the basic attack... it just feels like a mediocre 3rd person shooter from 10 years ago.

And the pop up dialog screens... who the hell thought that would be a good idea?

1st, it's an MMO. MMO's don't have things like "cover systems" and almost always feel like "mediocre 3rd person *genre here* game from 10 years ago" and require "continually hitting the fire button for the basic attack". That's just a fact of MMOs.

2nd, it's still Beta. There's a lot of features disabled for the open beta that will be coming at release. Also, MMOs don't always stay the same, it will be improved over time, which is great as long as they don't break the game trying a new idea like Sony did with Star Wars Galaxies.

Overall, I've enjoyed the game because it's exactly what I was hoping for. Playing away missions feels like watching an episode of TOS and I love that. The space combat is very good as well. Once you get past the usual "MMO flaws", it's a pretty darn good game IMO.

Vostok 7

[Vostok 7]

Every beta key I find is gone 30 secs after I find it... (yes, I'd like to try it, but doubt I'd actually buy it)

I have the collectors edition coming and I believe it has three 14 or 30 day pass keys (can't remember which) that come with it. I'd be happy to give you one if you wanted, but you got to wait until release when I get my box copy.

[David Hingtgen]

I'd appreciate that. And with Mass Effect 2 coming next week, I couldn't put many hours into it anyways now.

[eugimon]

1st, it's an MMO. MMO's don't have things like "cover systems" and almost always feel like "mediocre 3rd person *genre here* game from 10 years ago" and require "continually hitting the fire button for the basic attack". That's just a fact of MMOs.

2nd, it's still Beta. There's a lot of features disabled for the open beta that will be coming at release. Also, MMOs don't always stay the same, it will be improved over time, which is great as long as they don't break the game trying a new idea like Sony did with Star Wars Galaxies.

Overall, I've enjoyed the game because it's exactly what I was hoping for. Playing away missions feels like watching an episode of TOS and I love that. The space combat is very good as well. Once you get past the usual "MMO flaws", it's a pretty darn good game IMO.

Vostok 7

yes, I've played MMOs before, I'm familiar with the concept. But if you're going to have a crouch mechanic then it should be useful. And I don't recall having to spam the attack button in WoW. You just keep attacking until it dies, you can interrupt with spells and what not.

And yes, it's a beta but I'm not knocking the game because it's a beta. I'm just talking about the basic play mechanic of standing around in a fire fight and having to spam the attack button while your AI squadmates run around in circles, get stuck in other rooms, wander off and draw the attention of other mobs, etc. There's no reason for that even in an MMO. Even the AI in Guild Wars had more sense than these guys do.

I agree there's plenty to like. Upgrading your crew, ship to ship combat, all fun. I just don't think it's 15 dollars a month fun

[kaiotheforsaken]

I've been investing a lot of my free time into this game over the last few days and I'm pretty impressed. I honestly don't find the away missions bad at all. Even if it is rough around the edges the fact it's there is huge for me. The "crouch" mechanic is actually the "aim" mechanic and it provides a boost in damage, that's really it's only function right now, but it isn't some arbitrary thing. Quite frankly I like the fact that there isn't and "auto-attack" ability during missions ground or space, it makes the combat feel a bit more involved.

While I agree they are missing some very classic ship designs, I imagine we'll see them added eventually same with other major races being playable (like Romulans). The largest portion of the game, the space combat, is really wonderful imo. It feels exactly like Trek should. Is the game perfect? Of course not, but I think it's a damn good start. Its biggest downside right now is that it will be competing directly with Mass Effect 2 for my gamer hours.

[mikeszekely]

Every beta key I find is gone 30 secs after I find it... (yes, I'd like to try it, but doubt I'd actually buy it)

PMed

[Vostok 7]

I've been investing a lot of my free time into this game over the last few days and I'm pretty impressed. I honestly don't find the away missions bad at all. Even if it is rough around the edges the fact it's there is huge for me. The "crouch" mechanic is actually the "aim" mechanic and it provides a boost in damage, that's really it's only function right now, but it isn't some arbitrary thing. Quite frankly I like the fact that there isn't and "auto-attack" ability during missions ground or space, it makes the combat feel a bit more involved.

While I agree they are missing some very classic ship designs, I imagine we'll see them added eventually same with other major races being playable (like Romulans). The largest portion of the game, the space combat, is really wonderful imo. It feels exactly like Trek should. Is the game perfect? Of course not, but I think it's a damn good start. Its biggest downside right now is that it will be competing directly with Mass Effect 2 for my gamer hours.

+100%.

However, if your thumb is trying to blister from hitting "fire all phasers" during space combat like mine, you can right click their buttons and they will turn green and then they will fire automatically as long as you initially order them to attack the target (they won't attack a target automatically until ordered to, and then they take over). I do this with my cruiser so I can focus on maneuvering my torpedoes into play.

Vostok 7

[Chronocidal]

You know, I might have been interested in this (and might still try it if I can peel myself away from the games I already play), but I think the mechanics used for the game really spoiled something that could've been very interesting..

It's an MMO. You have tons of players. And yet, every single person gets to captain their own ship?

Maybe I'm too interested in some semblance of accuracy to how combat would actually work on ships or the ground, but I would've loved to see some sort of character class system here, and I don't mean races of aliens. I mean the classic divisions of command, communications, tactical, medical, science.. you get the idea. Sure, you could still use AI characters... they make great red shirts. MMOs in general are a mixing of character classes, and it takes the skills of all types working together to do well. As it is, this just sounds like a more multiplayer-ized version of Bridge Commander crossed with a third person shooter.

Granted, having a player designated just for command could lead to problems, but I'm pretty sure you could figure out something, even if it's just steering the ship while other people get to do targeting and damage control. It would probably wind up making the game very lackluster in terms of single player content... but if you want to play solo, why are you playing an MMO?

To me, it's the same thing that killed off Galaxies: everyone wanted to be a jedi. Here, everyone gets to be captain. Personally, I'd much rather have dedicated human players that I could trust to do their jobs, instead of having my AI doctor get stuck behind a rock while my science officer tries to scan my rapidly dying body for signs of life.

Maybe the fanbase for something so complex would be small-ish, but I know it exists. I mean, look what Team Fortress 2 did (and did well): you have a range of classes available, all with specific jobs and limitations, and it takes teamwork to do well. I just wish they would have tried that here.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Chronocidal

[Uxi]

Cardassians are on the other side of the wormhole? Did you mean Dominion, instead?

Initial reviews seem to indicate it's very repetitive: go here, fight there, etc.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Uxi

[eugimon]

Cardassians are on the other side of the wormhole? Did you mean Dominion, instead?

Initial reviews seem to indicate it's very repetitive: go here, fight there, etc.

so far yes... there's the occasional go there, fight, beam down, walk around and find 4 rocks mission... but as you play the missions you start to develop a story line for your character

[Ghost Train]

Meh judging from all I have seen , I'll stick to eve online, sto just looks like 1 giant pve fest with fanboys dressed up in their uniforms at home . No great potential for epic player drama, which is what makes mmo's great.

[kaiotheforsaken]

You know, I might have been interested in this (and might still try it if I can peel myself away from the games I already play), but I think the mechanics used for the game really spoiled something that could've been very interesting..

snip

You know, before STO was being developed by Cryptic it was in the hands of someone else, and they had this very idea. As I recall the studio completely folded and Cryptic acquired the license. The problem with your idea is that well...no one (or very few) people are going to want to reroute the deflector dish to emit an inverse tachyon pulse and not see the action going on. That gameplay concept essentially turns everything you do into a "dungeon" or "raid" activity.

The difference between and Galaxies is that there are only a few Jedi in "modern" Star Wars, though they were on the rise after RotJ. The Federation, on the other hand, has thousands of ships and everyone needs a captain. It makes far more sense that everyone would be a captain. Personally I think that if they had gone with this model, it would have failed miserably. There was a game...I cant recall the name, that was released some years ago that was basically an RTS, one person built and controlled units, while other players took individual 3rd person control of said units...the game was a total failure. Not exactly the same, but similar in concept.

In an RPG, MMO or not, everyone wants to be the hero in some capacity and I think Cryptic has found a totally justifiable way to go about this.

[Ghost Train]

The idea of everyone commanding their own ship makes sense. Although a nice team-based mechanic where you have 1 ship crewed by say 5 actual players as Engineering Chief, Helmsman, Captain, etc would be a pretty neat idea on paper on how to design a nice coop-styled pve grinder, it will fail horribly in actuality.

Everyone wants to be the captain of the Enterprise or Chief Tactical officer so they can pew pew... anyone want to be chief engineer, medical officer, or transporter chief lol? It would pretty much wind up like other MMO's, when you want to start a group or party but you're missing the 1 critical piece like the healer or debuffer, so you waste 5 hours looking for one and the nerd's night out is ruined.

[mikeszekely]

I'm up to about level 4 now, and playing STO kinda makes me wish Bioware would do a proper single-player Trek RPG. My character, Mike "Zero" McAwesome, Captain of the USS Executor, is just begging to be evil. Evil beard, black gloves, stance that always looks mere moments away from lifting his arms, throwing his head back, and belting out a truly wicked evil genius laugh... and he's tooling around the sector helping miners and rescuing Vulcan monks.

One thing I do like about the game is how you can, if you've got the credits, replace parts of your ship with parts from another class. The Executor is mostly a Centaur class, but I replaced the struts with another class. The result is that the nacelles are farther apart and sort of swooped down, almost like a Klingon Bird of Prey. I'm looking forward to getting another promotion so I can get a bigger cruiser, though. That new Excalibur class is looking awful sexy...

[kaiotheforsaken]

I wasn't really a fan of either new cruiser design, and ultimately just went classic Constitution for mine. But I seem to be in the minority on the beta. Most people are flying around in the new designs, or at least with pieces of them. I just hit level 14 so my progression in terms of the beta is coming to a close. I'll probably still mess around and try to learn as much as I can even at 16, just to be as prepared as possible for early start.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Thanks for the beta heads up. Though I'm also having difficulty finding a key (only one that seems active is on Twitter, and I'm not joining that cess pool just for the slim chance they're still there). The game looks interesting as a Trek fan, though i generally don't pay for subscription games. Still, maybe I'll get a chance to try it. I do agree that all the ships should be in it. If you can have a Constitution class (long retired), you should be allowed to have an Excelsior (still seen in the TNG era).

[kaiotheforsaken]

My recommendation is just head down to gamestop and put down a 5 dollar pre-order, they'll hand you the little card with the beta code right there. Then, if you don't like the beta you can just cancel the pre-order and get your 5 bucks back. Or you can see if you can get a friend invite from someone on the board come retail. I know I have a collector's edition on pre-order as well. So if there is some 14-30 day friend trials, I'd be happy to share when I get them.

[kung flu]

How much is the subscription fee for this game? I've never really played an MMO before apart from the free to play version of RF online. I'm actually considering trying out star trek though, but I'm worried that it might end up getting deserted and end up being a waste of money. I've heard similar stories with Conan and warhammer where their servers ended up being deserted within a year.