Star Trek Online

[Grand Admiral]

The other one with the pointed nacelles that shows up in loading screens looks much better IMO.

I think those nacelles look silly because the Bussard collectors are tiny little pinpoints. The overall shape of them is nice, though.

There's not a lot to choose from at Admiral level. You can use the Sovereign, or your choice of 5 other new designs. I like the Sov ok, but I like playing around with ship customization and seeing what sort of looks I can create.

I like the sleek look of the Star Cruisers, but the other two Assault Cruiser designs (obviously Cryptic's) look like Fast and the Furious meets Star Trek. They have far too many winglets, gaps and protrusions.

I'd like it if a more saucer-ish primary hull was available for the Star Cruiser. I chose the most saucer-y one. The other two choices are even more shovel-y.

[one_klump]

Almost all of the Escort class ships have a non-standard hull / nacelle / saucer configuration, and I like almost all of them, except for the Gallent class.

The Zephyr (Steamrunner) class was butchered, they moved the Deflector dish to under the saucer, and the dangly bit between the nacelles is now completely pointless. Also, the Bussard collectors are no longer integrated into the saucer, they hover right above it.

I understand why it was done, the modular aspect of the ship customization demands it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

[kaiotheforsaken]

There is a list on the STO forums of every canon models faults/flaws as well as bugs with other models. At least one dev has posted on the thread about fast tracking some changes and I know the Steamrunner was listed. So perhaps we'll see things changed in the future.

[Ghost Train]

Minor changes to canon-designs are ok in my opinion. The game does take place in the 25th century after all. And the Zephyr is not the Steamrunner but are only technically design related. Likewise, it can't be expected that 23rd century designs like Miranda and Constitution survive in the 25th century relatively unchanged... yet surprisingly these 2 designs are remarkably faithful to their actual counterparts.

[Chewie]

I think after you reach Admiral you should be able to either use or buy the ability to use any parts from any ship. It's not exactly canon but MMOs are never fully canon and this would be a nice addition that would extend the fun and cool factor of the game significantly.

[Grand Admiral]

Yeah I would really enjoy being able to go nuts customizing my ship with this saucer and that hull with those nacelles. Whee!

[Max Jenius]

I don't understand why people like the defiant design. Blech.

[Grand Admiral]

New screenshots for today:

Been playing with the Sovereign class design a bit. I swapped in the hull, neck and pylons from the Noble class. I like the larger deflector and wider look of the pylons, but I wish the pylons didn't have the little gaps and holes in them.

[Ghost Train]

I just did a quick Starbase 24. Finally got top damage lol. Beat a few Tac's in Escorts that were 3 levels ahead of me, and another LTC in a Cruiser. Though 2 of the escorts were using beams >_> . I am still only LTC2, running a pretty cookie-cutter Saber setup.

Edited February 19, 2010 by Ghost Train

[Uxi]

Can you do a side profile shot, Grand Admiral?

yeah those pylons look wacked. What's with the 'chopped off' section? What purpose could that serve?

[Grand Admiral]

Here ya go. Looks pretty much like the Sov in profile.

[Uxi]

Cool, thanks. Makes me wanna play this game.

[David Hingtgen]

Yeah, the "holes in the pylons" look bugged me during the beta. "True" Sovereigns were rare, you usually got Noble-class and hybrids.

[Ghost Train]

Vogue... absolutely fabulous. Shirt and slacks by Versace, Dolce & Gabbana boots. His gorgeous Andorian first officer is also looking stylish with Donna Karan

[Ghost Train]

And redid my bio :

[Max Jenius]

Here's my Commander Cruiser: Super King NC99504C.

Had more pics, but they didn't come out.

[Max Jenius]

I got a question: What do you do when you're max level?

[David Hingtgen]

Go to the STO forums and bitch about how there's nothing else to do. (at least, that's what everyone else does)

[Grand Admiral]

Heh.

I hit max level the other day. There are "epic" level weapons and equipment you can grind daily missions for. I've been doing that lately and also helping some friends level up. Once a buddy of mine makes it to top level we're going to both start new characters and try different ships. Since I chose Engineering and Cruiser, I think I'll try Science next.

Cryptic should be releasing the first "raidisode" epic-level quest soon.

[Uxi]

Well that certainly sounds like a more casual game that I can be into. It would be bad enough starting and finding all you goons as Admirals. But not taking that long to catch up would be encouraging, in that regard.

The best way to avoid that problem is to make it a skill based game and avoid the levelling (or at least the player perception of it), as much as possible. Ah, how I miss the original SW: Galaxies system. I hate class/leveling in RPG's. Such an artificially convoluted and arbitrary mechanism.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Uxi

[Chewie]

Yeah. Sandbox systems are great, it's just too bad EVE is really the only one with a good one anymore and it's stupidly hard to play.

[Ghost Train]

There has to be a right design balance for leveling up in MMO.

FFXI was a grind-fest, pull mob, party fights, repeat 1E6 times.... if you get KO, you loose exp and can delevel.

EVE is no grinding at all, you learn skills, but higher level skills take a long time to learn (1+ month)... but you can have fun and be productive while your skills train.

WoW is like grinding, but light.

STO has some tedious grinding, but you cap out too fast.

On another topic, they should really introduce something like Tech II ships from EVE, which have the same basic hull as the basic counterpart but a boost in performance. Say for example, the Tech II version of the Galaxy should be the tri-engined All Good Things Galaxy variation. Or something like that. It should be done with some consideration for balance. In EVE, a Tech II cruiser can defeat a Tech I cruiser, and a battlecruiser, but would still not be a match for a Tech I Battleship.

As it stands now, whatever ship or ships you have at Admiral rank is basically what you're going to be using forever and ever. Finding a role for all ship hulls would be a plus. For instance, making a large ship inept at targeting smaller and faster craft (more so than it is now), gives people a reason to mess around with otherwise mothballed lower tiered vessels.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Ghost Train

[Uxi]

That kinda does go into an economic, if not Fleet logistics models. Start making captains "pay" for their maintenance and crew slots and the advantages of smaller ships make more sense. A Sovereign must have far greater upkeep costs and a gigantic multiple of the crew than an Intrepid, after all. Weird ships like the Defiant would be proportionally even more atrocious.

Are there science/survey missions you can do without going to red alert and firing weapons all the time?

[eugimon]

yeah, there's exploration missions where you wander around looking for stuff. And there's some fun missions hidden (you don't get them from NPCs) where the game play is just walking back and forth talking to different people but the story itself is light and fun.

when you get to admiral level you have two ships to choose from within the same class and they have slightly different bride crew allocations (2 engineering in one versus, say, two science officers in the other) and since the bridge officers have differing abilities depending on their own class, this can really affect how the ship you choose handles compared to the same tier but differing class.

[kaiotheforsaken]

Well despite being an admiral, I've opted to start over as a Federation Klingon. It's only a few bucks, and it's a race I'd much rather play. Also the 10% to threat racial will be very beneficial as I'll still fly cruisers.

[eugimon]

so I just answered a survey from cryptic and got 240 cryptic points, enough to buy me a fed klink

[kaiotheforsaken]

Yeah, I just got my survey as well. Kind of a bummer it didn't come a few days earlier, but I'm only out 2-3 dollars worth of points. I imagine they'll add more cosmetic stuff on there eventually that I can get with the extras. Maybe something cool like Klingon armor for fed-Klingons.

Leveling my fed Klingon up kinda sucks since I just finished leveling last week on my human. But it's much more in line with what I wanted to play originally, so it works out.

Edited February 24, 2010 by kaiotheforsaken

[kung flu]

Still can't seem to take screenshots, i keep ending up with blank black images, only one image turned out alright, out of 15.

My ship the USS Defiance, i'm captain level 7 atm..... Wong@River_Waters

[one_klump]

My fleet Escort, the USS Archangel

I love this boat, her damage is through the roof. My issue is that I didn't have enough skill points to spec into antiproton weapons to make the endgame items worth getting

[kaiotheforsaken]

I'm jealous of you guys and your NX registries. I like my TV TNG uniforms but the NX would be sweet.

Hopefully they implement respecs relatively soon, both my characters are tactical and were taking the cruiser route. That being said, I really enjoy my escort in groups on my admiral, so there is a strong chance I could swap come the "raidisodes"

[eugimon]

My fleet Escort, the USS Archangel

I love this boat, her damage is through the roof. My issue is that I didn't have enough skill points to spec into antiproton weapons to make the endgame items worth getting

I love the fleet escort class ships, they just look st brutal and thuggish.

[Ghost Train]

Still can't seem to take screenshots, i keep ending up with blank black images, only one image turned out alright, out of 15.

My ship the USS Defiance, i'm captain level 7 atm..... Wong@River_Waters

Really love that paint-job.

And yea... fleet escorts look atrocious. When I think ADM I think I'll try the Cerberus out first, though even in that design the X-wing nacelle configuration looks a bit tacky. /Sigh, at the moment still LTC5 ... I have vacation coming up next week, so going to see if I can grind to Admiral in just a few days.

[eugimon]

I like the advanced escort look (they remind me of that hero ship from B5) but I don't like their console distribution.

[kaiotheforsaken]

I really dig the advanced escort too, especially in terms of Cryptic designs which I haven't really liked. It looks like we are getting our first bit of end game on at least test servers tomorrow. Hopefully I can power my Klingon up high enough to be within reach when it's supposed to hit live next week.

[one_klump]

Hope some endgame happens soon, because I'm on the edge of canceling my sub. Just not enough to keep me interested right now. Between limited skill points and the fact that you can't spec into both your ship type and weapon type at endgame really puts a damper on it for me.