As some of you know, the game is due to be released on Feb 2. Those who pre-ordered have already been given the go-ahead to play the game already.
A couple of weeks back, a friend of mine gave me a key to the open beta for Star Trek Online. Given that I am unemployed at the moment, I essentially spent the next week playing the game.
Plus things first: although I usually shy away from MMORPGs, this is one I would like to play, although it wouldn't be good for my relationship to my SO, nor would it be good for my wallet as I would be unemployed.
The space battles are a nice touch and require a bit of strategy to participate in. The away team missions are a different matter and present a serious problem: motion sickness. The constant spinning of the screen at times and the graphics at some places (Memory Alpha comes to mind) has induced many headaches for myself. As a result, I find myself standing in one place while fighting the enemy. The sniper rifles are very powerful in the game and are my preferred primary weapon on away team missions.
My friend, who was a fan of the Ultima Online and WoW iterations, has said that the game mechanics are more simplistic than the other games he has played and for him, it would not be his choice to participate in.
So my Beta has expired and as I sit here, unemployed and bored out of my skull, I wonder if I could pass the time by getting this game, and stretching my already stretched budget. Only problem is that the game is indeed addictive but then, that's just the initial thrill for me. And if I go back to work, can I wean myself from this game?
Anyone also tried the beta or planning to get this game?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
You'd be better off getting a single player rpg. You know, something you only have to buy once.
Posted by OverRon (Member # 2036) on :
Being in the same boat job-wise, I managed to grab myself a beta key a few weeks back. So for about a week and a half I was playing this, when the servers were up, that is.
I just made it to the rank of Rear Admiral before the end of open beta, so I saw a lot of the content that was available during beta.
The Good:
- Space battles. I loved them, they're my favourite aspect of the game. Especially the bigger battles, like the Laurentian system fleet action. Fighting the Dreadnoughts at the end almost feels like fighting the Borg cube in First Contact. You need to use some tactics in the space fights, like having to distribute shield power to make sure your shield facing the enemy is holding. Energy weapons are good against shields and torpedoes are good against the hull. So you would knock down the enemy shield with phasers, so you can fire a high yield spread of quantum torpedoes into the enemies unprotected hull.
- The customisation. I like how it gives you the option to customise a lot of things. So you can customise your looks and uniform, and your bridge crew looks and uniform. I opted for a First Contact/latter DS9 uniform.
The Bad:
- The button mashing. The game only allows you to set one forward facing weapon and one aft facing weapon into auto-fire mode. Which is okay on the starter ship but when you reach Rear Admiral and using one of the higher tier ships, you can have upto 4 fore and 4 aft weapons. To fire all your energy weapons you need to mash the space bar every few seconds, and after a few hours of this you thumb starts to cramp up. Admittedly, the more weapons you use, the greater the drain on your power reserves. The same is true with reinforcing shield facings, as you need to keep hammering an arrow key to reinforce a shield. When you're using your left hand to manoeuvre, use key bound abilities, tab between targets and fire your weapons. Your right hand on the mouse to move the camera, target ships, use bridge officer abilities and having to take the hand off the mouse to spam the arrow keys to reinforce shields, you end up running out of hands to do stuff with. A better way to do this is that you should be able to pick and choose which energy weapons you want to auto-fire, even all of them, and then you can balance your offensive power against the drain on your system power. Use the space bar to toggle the auto-fire weapons on and off, and save your thumb from RSI. With the shield reinforcing, they should be toggles as well, so you hit an arrow key and it'll keep reinforcing that shield till you tell it to stop.
- Camera controls. I don't know about you, but when fighting in space combat, I'm also fighting the camera controls so I can actually see what I'm shooting at. Using an Escort vessel with phaser cannons with a small forward firing arc, it can be hard to judge if enemies are in the line of fire. They really need to add a fixed chase cam mode, so you can look around with the mouse, but as soon as you let go, it'll move back behind your ship. And change the face target camera mode, so that it'll centre the enemy on your screen, rather than be just at the edges of the screen.
- Mission diversity. 95% of the missions are combat oriented, and the space combat is great, but I would like the option to be able bluff my enemy, use diplomacy to avoid a fight, or subterfuge to get around enemies. Out of all the missions I did, I think a grand total of 2 of them were diplomatic ones and they only loosely fitted into that category.
- Exploration mission. These are very poorly fleshed out, generally falling into these categories, scan 5 anomalies in space, scan 5 probes on the ground (sometimes with killing random enemies on the ground), scan 5 derelicts/wreckage in space (Also killing enemies some of the time), protect a station/ship, and give colonies 10 of a certain commodity (which you have to head back to a starbase to get as you can't use your replicator to make them). I was hoping for mission which required a bit of thought. Like mediate disputes between 2 worlds. Find an artefact and have to puzzle out the meaning/riddle/markings/whatever to find out where to go or what to do next. Or explore a nebula where you can barely see 10 km around your ship and follow beacons, or wreckage or whatever. Have a chance to find unique pieces of alien technology to put in your ship, some positive and some negative, or have your bridge officers gain unique abilities from artefacts/parasites/virii.
- Latency problems. During the open beta there were some serious lag problems throughout. Rubber-banding, where you keep being shifted back to a previous spot as the server didn't realise you had moved. Going from ground to space and vice-versa, often ended up as you as your space ship on the ground and no away team. Or you appear as your humanoid avatar in space, and end up falling through space. And sometimes when switching zone, you'd be greeted with a "server not responding" message and be booted to the login screen, and then your character is stuck in limbo for 10 minutes, until the server catches up and remembers where you are and allows you to log in. I'm hoping these were just issues in open beta, as they were using a small amount of server hardware and bandwidth, and that on release they've got some meatier hardware and connections to alleviate these problems.
The Mediocre:
- Ship designs. Some of them are great, especially the venerable older designs from previous shows, but most of the ones designed for the game are horrible. Also some of the designs seen in old screen shots were not in the game, unless they were being saved for the full release. Other canon designs are notably missing, you can fly around in a Connie or Miranda, but not an Excelsior, Ambassador, Nebula, or an Oberth. I think the Klingon side of things was bad as well, didn't play much on a Klingon character, but from my understanding they only get a handful of ship designs with the better tiers of ships just having more slots and better stats.
- The music. Some of the music used in the game was good, but I missed some of the more iconic Trek scores from the shows and movies. I'm not sure of the licensing issues involved here but surely permission could have been given to use past music. It would have been great to hear the DS9 theme when you approach the station, or hear the Klingon battle theme when you come across them in battle.
- Ground combat. This is a bit hit and miss. Some parts are tediously easy, other bits are very hard, with little in between. When you have a full away team, with your NPC allies having decent abilities, you can almost go AFK during fights. The NPC pathing has issues as well, as they can be come stuck on bulkheads or in rooms while you're half a map away. The outdoors maps are generally good looking with some nice varieties of scenery, but quite small when you realise you can only move about in a small square area. That and the fact they could do with more types of randomly generated scenery, like proper cities, or airless moons or toxic atmospheres where you need an EVA suit. They are very static as well, no animals running about, or shuttles flying in the sky, and most of the NPC's you meet are hostile. There are some missions where you have to deactivate probes/artefacts to save the indigenous species and avoid breaking the prime directive, trouble is, you never see any of these natives.
- Sector space. The first time I saw it I thought it looked pretty good, but that wore off pretty quick, once your realise that each sector is fairly small and boxed off from the other areas. I was hoping for a more seamless version of sector space without artificial borders put in, and if an artificial border is needed, exploration areas for instance, just have a transwarp node that you need to fly to, to transport you to another area.
- Doesn't feel like an MMO. For the most part I'm just flying about on my own doing my own things. With rare smatterings of fleet actions with 10+ players, and even then there wasn't much interaction or communication with the other players, or even any discussions of tactics or whatnot. There are enemy signal contacts about the place, which are instances for upto 5 players to fight in, kinda like a left4dead or COD MW2 co-op play. These ones feel like I'm playing a multi-player game, where you have to stick in groups and have the cruisers go in get the enemies attention so the escorts can pound on them. In general it feels like 70% single-player, 25% co-op, and 5% MMO.
All-in-all, I like this game, the bad and the mediocre points I made can be fixed in future patches hopefully. I'm seriously thinking about getting this game. The only problem I foresee is the inevitable endgame. Once you reach Rear Admiral and have done all the missions, what then? As in MMO terms, it was very quick to reach the maximum level, within a month or two casual players would reach RA, and for hardcore players I can see some people hitting RA in days or a week at most. Unless it was just accelerated levelling for the open-beta, I see people hitting a brick wall content-wise very quickly. There'll be the inevitable MMO grinding for better gear, so you can a ship with full "very rare" ("epics" of other games) items, and a smattering of PvP, if there are enough Klingon players to support this that is.
I may wait a month or two to see if any future patches will bring in some endgame content that will give the game replayability, before subbing for the game. As I have tried other MMO's which haven't had full endgame content at the start or brought in soon after release which have then died due to lack of subscribers, like Tabula Rasa for example.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
"I may wait a month or two to see if any future patches will bring in some endgame content that will give the game replayability, before subbing for the game. As I have tried other MMO's which haven't had full endgame content at the start or brought in soon after release which have then died due to lack of subscribers, like Tabula Rasa for example."
Good point, the lifetime subscription costs a whopping $240 USD on top of the game....
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Yeah I'm of the opinion that once you buy a game you shouldn't have to continually pay for it. The only exception for me has been Fallout 3, since I have actually enjoyed the Download-able content Bethesda has offered. Though I've also run into a problem with RPGs in that it takes me alot of time to do things, time I don't really have, but time I need to fully explore levels and complete missions.
Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
I purchased it but haven't had much of a chance to play lately. Or rather, at all. I'll get around to it...
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
You using a monthly subscription, Charles?
Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
I will be once I actually get it all set up and stuff. The game comes with one month free.
I do intend to hit the level cap and see what's there, but I'm not in a rush.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
I'm playing as well. As I said in another thread, it's not a perfect game, but it's good.
Would anybody else here at Flare be interested in forming a fleet?
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
There will come a day, someday, when I have disposable income and I will get this game.... no time soon, though. Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
One of the guys I work with bought the game. Apparently Del Taco is doing a promo to get a small shuttlecraft pet with their macho-sized meal. Gave him the code on my cup.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Okay, THIS looks waay the fuck better than the Trek online stuff.
It's a mod for "Sins of a Solar empire'- anyone play that?
Not real keen on some of the TOS design Romulans in there though...
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I play SINS quite a bit, it's more addictive than crack once you get into it. I might give this a go, it cant be any more unstable than the SINS game itself. This is purely a top-down RTS though, not at all like Star Trek Online is supposed to be. You never really use the cinematic view, it looks nice but is no use for actually playing the game.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
quote:Originally posted by Krenim: I'm playing as well. As I said in another thread, it's not a perfect game, but it's good.
Would anybody else here at Flare be interested in forming a fleet?
Well I do have some extra money kicking around despite my unemployment. And I am seriously tempted. Playing the beta was kinda fun, never played a MMORPG. Can anyone hook me up with one of those free promotion thingys? Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Looks interesting, but right now I'm busy being hooked on Mass Effect 2. It's already gotten that chronic I fully expect to be attending Mass Effect Anonymous meetings within the month.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
Every review of ST:Online says the same thing, it's not finished yet. I think I'll be waiting a while to see how it pans out before i lash out any hard earned on this one. I laugh at my mates for grinding away on Warcraft for hours. They'd laugh their arses off at me playing something even worse.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
Well, it's offical: STO is the real deal, post Nemmy TNG and the books? well, they are books...
Now, take it for a gram of crack, that all that means, but to me, at least, the books are pretty much ignored (just like they have done in the past) with the only comments on the Borg's disappearance being ONLY attrubed to the end results of VOY-Endgame. No destiny tie-in's, no Eri Dax and the Slipstream (for those of you who seem happy with that, No eri = win)... well maybe, Eri since someone actually did a pic for the recent calendar series... but no Orion/Gorn/Tholian orgy-feast, No 'NO-Bork' and i guess Janeway is still kicking...
and since none of this matters since i've still out at sea, with 4 miles of straw, i think i'm just ranting to rant (it burns calories, i'm told)
thoughts?
Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Axeman 3D: Every review of ST:Online says the same thing, it's not finished yet.
I'll agree with that assessment, but in my experience I have yet to see any MMO in the 8 years I've been playing them launch in a completely satisfactory manner. Even World of Warcraft had some bad launch buzz.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
One of the biggest complaints that I'm hearing is that the game is heavily instanced. Meaning that if you wanted to assemble a group to take on missions, there is no guarantee that you will always end up in the same mission instance. I've noticed that a lot of my playing away team missions on the Beta was done doing solo. Hope they add some functionality for group instancing.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
The borg in this game look like anorexic supermodels. The "new" queen in particular looks interesting, especially her head gear and her exposed spinal column. What sense does that make?
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
Does anyone know if these keys this site is selling are legit?
That's just the trial and not the full game. They do sell those at Wal Mart and a few bucks.
If your just looking to try the game out for 10 days, I'm pretty sure I have one free trial key left I got with the collector's edition that I can PM you when I get off work.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
Yeah, I'm aware that these keys are trial only. I'm just trying to figure out if I really want the game or not.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I think I'll wait till they get the kinks worked out before I give it a try.
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
I've been on since Beta and bought lifetime membership... I've been casually playing it as I'm myself waiting for the 45 day mark. So far I've made it to Commander with a Cheyenne Class Heavy Cruiser with shit loads of fun with my friends. It's not yet perfect... I'm waiting it out considering.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
So thanks to Josh who provided me with a Trial Key, I've spent the last 10 days playing STO.
There are a lot of people who love the game just as much as there are a lot of those who hate it with a passion. For me, being an newbie to the world of MMO it clearly puts me in the former category to which some people note that World of Warcraft is the more polished, and the standard that STO needs to beat. I've never played WoW before but one friend says that STO is nowhere close providing the entertainment value that WoW provides.
Part of the new thrill for STO for me is that new starship you get, that new weapon you obtain and that shiny piece of equipment that makes your ship or away team that much stronger. Seeing that in only 10 days of constant playing, I've made it to Commander, Level 7, with a new Heavy Cruiser, it makes me wonder what happens after I make it to the highest level possible, with the most powerful starship? Will there still be fun? Replay value? What happens after I max out all my skills? Some people say that in WoW the possible skills that you obtain is immense and STO doesn't even come close (for some, the biggest complaint is the so-called "skill cap").
Truthfully, if I kept pushing, I would have probably made Captain by now. But perhaps I need to get my feet back in the game, I've got some things to do in the next month so getting the game itself is probably not an option at the moment. But I will get it, the only question is when. Hopefully by then, the game will be a lot better.
But it was fun while it lasted. Thanks Josh!!!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
You would have made captain already? maybe they base their rank advancment on the Abramsverse. Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
PLay as long as my mates play WoW and you'll be Grand Poobah of the Universe in a couple of months.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
When you're unemployed, playing around 8 hours/day is not.... unheard of.... :S
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
My old room-mate showed me the total WoW time he had amassed- over two weeks in 2 1/2 years! That's a lot of time in my opinion...but I'm not really a gamer.
I've definitely spent as much time reading, I suppose, now that I dont watch TV.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I really don't get how people can spend so much time on theses MMO games. I'm unemployed and even I don't have that much free time to burn!
Even if I did, I'd rather play a game I can: - 1) Complete. 2) Only have to pay for once.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I play maybe an hour or so most days, kicking ass on Call of Duty multiplayer, so I have no problem with a game I cant complete. I'm all for just paying once though, a subscription service just eats at my cheap, Scottish soul. A game would have to be VERY good for me to sign up to giving them money every month. WoW is completely the wrong premise, and STO is too limited and poorly executed.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Well, to be honest I have been known to spend an hour or so playing Team Fortress 2, but like CoD it doesn't pretend to be a role playing game and there's no way I'd have done so if there was a subscription charge. It is fun though and on a good day I'm a lethal demoman. Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
quote:Originally posted by Krenim: I'm playing as well. As I said in another thread, it's not a perfect game, but it's good.
Would anybody else here at Flare be interested in forming a fleet?
Since I am seriously considering getting the game, participating in a fleet would be nice. But want to know who else would be interested.
Methinks if such a fleet can be formed, perhaps Charles can put a private forum for us to access.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
I caved.
Bought it online at Atari.com for $29.99. With the exchange rate, it's a lot better than paying $60 Canadian for full price.
Let's build a fleet!!! Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
quote:Originally posted by Saltah'na: Methinks if such a fleet can be formed, perhaps Charles can put a private forum for us to access.
If you get enough members, sure.
To be honest, when I do try the game out (I've purchased it, just haven't installed or activated yet), I'm likely to just do something silly and join Goonfleet Starfleet Dental for the hilarity of the experience.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I've never played an MMO. I've been curious, but worried I'll get hooked on it to the detriment of my social life.
But, if I was interested, could someone tell me why I should get this rather than Eve?
Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
Okay then, why should I get this and not Mass Effect 2?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
No reason at all. Get ME2, there is dry humping to be had!
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
Well I'm afraid Battlefield BC2 just got my hard earned coin, and it's great fun. It's like that crap BF2142 never happened, and they've updated Battlefield 2 with better graphics and pretty maps. Lovely.
Why not visit Metacritic and see what all the critics scores say when combined. STO is getting a whopping 60% and overall derision, where BF:BC2 is getting 95% and universal acclaim. No contest, really. Lets ne honest here, if they didn't have the Star Trek franchise it would die on its arse.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I have to say I've never been able to get into the "real world" type FPSs like Call of Duty, Battlefield and the like. To much looking through scopes and not enough hitting things with a crowbar!
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Well Valve is coming out with Portal 2, but I want Half Life Episode Three already, or better yet a full fledged Half Life 3. I'm a little sick of waiting a long time for these episodes, which are short and don't offer too much in the way of new content(specifically enemies).
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I still haven't bothered getting the latest episode, I got bored with HL2 quite quickly. Half Life was the bestby far; exciting and with tons of surprises and real single player value for money. HL2 was dour, short and slightly prettier, that was it.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Hey, any game that lets you drive around a 1969 Dodge Charger and run over zombies is worth every penny!
Kenny, even if you're not interested in the Half-Life episodes, Team Fortress 2 and Portal are defiantly worth the price for the orange box (about £17 I think.)
I can't deny though that Valve have drop the ball with the episodes. As I recall the stated intention was the release less content at a reduced price with greater frequency. They got the first two right but that last one seams to have gotten away from them. It's not as if they wasted any time developing Left 4 Dead 2.
Still, when they do deliver at least you know it's no a quickly squeezed out emission like you get from other studios. I can't speak for anyone else but the hunters in Ep2 had me genuinely afraid the first time you get to fight them. Valve games may not always be action packed, but they know how to create an immersive environment.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I have TF2, it never really took my fancy, and portal has a few hours of gameplay in it and it's done. Half Life felt like it took a week of solid gameplay to complete, with amazing set pieces around every corner and every more clever enemies to fight. Maybe that's why I like playing multiplayer sandbox games like Battlefield 2, because no computer opponent is as devious and unpredictable as another human.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I'm usually not big on FPS multiplayers. So far TF2 is the only one I've had any fun with. If you haven't touched it since the launch I recommend you give it another go. They've been updating it almost constantly for years and there's tons more content, new weapons, maps, game modes etc.
I had a go with Counterstrike 2 since it came free with HL2 way back when but it just wasn't fun. Snipers lined up with pixel perfect kill zones and swarms of grenades around every corner gets old very fast. Left 4 Dead started out OK but the community very quickly deteriorated into a bunch of kick happy elitists, which sucks the fun out of things very quickly. A shame because it's a good game and it's put me off bothering with the sequel.
I've never actually had a go on a multiplayer sandbox gave before and it sounds intriguing. How does it work? Are there teams and objectives or is it just a free-for-all kill anything that moves?
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
The Battlefield games are just that, battlefields. They give you a huge map, 16 to 32 players a side, various weapons loadouts and a map littered with tanks, planes, ships, armoured cars, jeeps, helicopters, speedboats, quadbikes, etc, etc.
You join a squad on one of the teams, and game modes usually revolve around holding various flags across the map or destroying certain objectives. The fun part is seeing what people do with all those toys. Some specialise as pilots and pull off outrageous moves, others are snipers hiding in a corner of a building all day, still more planting booby-traps and defending flags.
The best bit is the inventiveness. Someone invented the 'jihad jeep', where they covered a jeep with C4, drive like a maniac into an enemy base and press the detonator. Some squads loaded up Blackhawk choppers with engineers and flew around repairing on the move, hovering over flags capturing them while using miniguns and dropping mines and C4. I cant wait to see what evolves in BF:BC2, you have the ability to flatten entire buildings by blowing walls out.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Sounds like fun, but I imagine it'd be pretty unforgiving for the noobs. Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I played BF1942 back in the day and it was pretty hard. The "Jihad Jeep" was around back then too. One interesting strategy that I remember well involved taking the flag from the enemy base during CTF and having a teammate in a fighter plane fly into you and jump out, causing you to jump in the still flying plane with the flag and fly back to your base to score.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
Yeah, plane to plane transfers at speed while skydiving was another one for that. Lying on the wings during take off to skydive in was another. People are well crafty when it comes to that sort of stuff. Occasionally you'd get someone who got the flag and just ran off and hid in the hills for a laugh. Both teams wondering what the hell is going on, and he's miles away.
Most multiplayer games are unforgiving of noobs, but BF games aren't too bad as the maps are so big and the play so diverse. It's not Counter-strike with the whole team relying on you getting the bomb. The fact it's got a decent single player game now is a help too, you get the hang of the weapons there before going multi.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I suppose a PC demo or the odd free-play weekend (like they do with TF2) would be too much the ask for?
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
There was a free beta demo out for some time, I dont know if it's still available now that the game has been released. So many people bought the game it's crashed the EA servers, getting on line is a hot or miss affair right now, but I've been playing the single player through so it's no biggy. As per usual the companywont invest in the amount of servers it needs until the whole thing crashes around their ears on launch day. tards.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
That's another thing that put me off L4D actually. It took forever to get onto a server sometimes and once you did, chances are you either immediately get kicked by some 12 year old, or you get stuck in a waiting room while whoever happens to be the admin spends 5 minutes figuring out how to press "start game", during which time everyone inevitably bails leaving you to repeat the process. No joke, on several occasions it's taken me over 30 mins just to get into a single game and I've lost count of the amount of times I just gave up and closed it down to play something else instead. Give me a single player any day!
I've had a look at BC2 on youtube and it defiantly looks fun once you know what you're doing, but the difficulty curve looks like the east face of Everest.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
Eh? You shoot people, it's the original point and click interface.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Sorry, I meant in terms of surviving for more than five seconds at a stretch without having some sneaky bugger stab you in the face or ram a jeep loaded with explosives up your arse. Perhaps the fan made videos are a little slanted towards the veteran players but speaking as someone who tends to avoid the more involved tactical shooters, it all looks a little daunting.
I've never been good at games like this anyway. A few years back I got a bargain bin copy of one of the old Rainbow Six games bundled with a couple other FPSs. Uninstalled it after just a few hours, I was useless at it! I considered getting Modern Warfare, but after a few years I think it's still £30. By contrast I got Mass Effect 1 on the PC for about a tenner. No contest.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
Battlefield isn't like Call of Duty or COunter-Strike, the maps are humungous in comparison and relatively sparsely populated. You dont get slotted in seconds (normally), you usually have to commute to a fight to get yourself killed. Normally you spawn, trek for a bit and watch for people running around in the distance to have a pot-shot at. Then a tank comes around the corner and you hide or are blown to smithereens. Nice and easy.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
FYI, I have a 5 day trial buddy key available to anyone who is interested. One caveat is that this key cannot be used with any other key for your account. So if you already have another 5 day buddy key or a 10 day promotional one, sorry, can't help you with that.
First person to PM me gets the key.
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
I have 3 5 day keys myself... who wants one? PM me...
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
the PW likes STO (for the most part)... but the controls suck, for certain. it might be my keyboard getting angry at me but the turn/straif keys in ground mode have been buggy since i patched this morning. I'm still a Lt/8 atm and manage to hold my own against ships of my caliber but i hate the instances where i dont manage to avoid a random contact/fight and as i start the battle i watch my SI drop automatically because of some rather large target than owns me in seconds... i really fucking hate that.... and i never can react fast enough... its like im collecting these power cells and never use em...
but i do like it.
oh... does anyone even talk in this game? ill see like several dozen ships in the sectors and get rare random chat (not directed to me) and hardly ANYONE talks in the random battles or missions i might sumble across...
wtf? o.O
Posted by shikaru808 (Member # 2080) on :
Player on player interaction is fairly sparse, I try to talk when I get into open instance missions with other players but most of them ignore me or don't see me at all. That along with the ground mode would be my only complaints with the game.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I hear a lot people complaining about the fact the game is mostly combat oriented, with little to do in the way of exploration or using diplomacy to end conflicts.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
I've just ended my membership to STO.
Unemployment means that I've had a lot of time to do stuff and that means that I likely have played STO to death. This doesn't mean I'm quitting STO for good, but it likely means that I won't be back for a while. Maybe a few more months, I'll be buying one of those 60 day membership cards instead.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Just downloaded the free demo and after about 30 mins I have to ask; is that it? It's naff, even for a Trek game.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
So I ask again, is it really just combat oriented with little room for exploration.
Posted by shikaru808 (Member # 2080) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mars Needs Women: So I ask again, is it really just combat oriented with little room for exploration.
Yes. They have specific exploration missions as well, and they have interesting story arcs in the Trek fashion, but they aren't all very unique and few and far between so I notice a lot of repeat storylines.
To top it off, the exploration missions of that kind are fairly "boring" in a gaming sense ("Find 5 of these, talk to these 2 people, etc.") especially for someone who doesn't like to read. The game is mainly centered on the new war between the Federation and the Klingons with the Borg and collapse of the Romulans on the side so you can see how combat plays a pretty big role in the game.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I wouldn't mind the combat focus if it wasn't such dull combat. There's not much in the way of tactics and strategy involved, just blast away until the other guy is dead. RPGs like Deus Ex and Mass Effect 2 at least realised that if a fair portion of the game is going to be combat that they should at least have an engaging combat system. This game reminds me too much of KotoR's quasi-turn based system that I never felt engaged with.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
It does appear to be mostly combat oriented at this time. A lot of the feedback does seem to be against this point and the creators have acknowledged this and will be creating material that will be added to the STO universe at some point. The only people who don't think such missions are necessary are those who are fans of the Star Trek Abramsverse.
Like I said, I cancelled my membership but I hope to be back when there is more stuff to play with.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I'm playing! It's awesome how my Cardassian fleet decloaked and hosed my roommate's Romulan shipyards- he was cursing so loud the cats ran and hid!
Oh wait...I'm playing Armada II.
Never mind.
Er...does this game let you go head-to head against another player with just one ship you've decked out?
that and that alone might make me buy it.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I think so. A saw a few battles going on but wasn't allowed to join in with the demo version. I wouldn't get too excited though, the "starship design" feature is just a pretty simple kitbash engine. I had at least hoped for some slider bars that'd let you deform and reshape the default hull sections into something new (I had thought to try recreating one of the old ASDB designs), but no, it's just ugly kludgeing.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
There are apparently two ways to challenge other players. First is the PvP engine where you can go up against other people in different battles or simulations, supposedly, the second method is to somehow "challenge them directly". I don't think that feature is fully available, and I also think that only Klingons can do that.
My biggest problem with the Starship design feature is that the ships in any particular class look WAAAY too similar. It doesn't allow for diversity of designs like a true kitbash. You can't have an Akira-like rollbar on your Heavy Cruiser ship. Nor can your Fleet escort can have Sovereign Nacelles or stuff like that. It's dissappointing but frankly I don't care that much. My fav design is the one that I did for my Heavy Cruiser class, as soon as I can get a pic, I can put it up.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
Agreed Salty, the 'customination' that STO has is really just vinilla frosting. as a Commander-6, i currently ride a Heavy Cruiser, base Cheyenne class ship with Stargazer & Dakota class parts. the important thing (and its something that sucks) is the base class of Heavy Cruiser. that tells you what the ship will carry in terms of items, consules, weapons & how many bridge officers (and bridge officer powers) you can have during space ops.
no difference in class base between any of those three ships. in fact, the only difference in equivalent classes (Escorts & science ships) is the combination of weapon hard points, consule slots and bridge officer slots.
id rather ditch the costumination and simple allow slight different abilitys per class...
doing the way they did things makes putting some classes of ships we know and love harder. for example, since their new semi-cannon ships are based on cannon designs (the Cheyenne, spawning the Stargazer & Dakota classes), how do you kit-bash classes like the Nebula (and how do you catagorize them)?
o.O am i making sence or have i gotten too much sun today? LOL
Posted by Chaching (Member # 2228) on :
I agree with Abbadon. I enjoy the one-on-one battles more. Everything just feels clunky when you get so many different ships and strategies going. I'm all about dumping your resources into one single ship and blowing the crap out of everyone.
Keeping that in mind, and the fact that I can't afford to buy the full version right now, does anyone know of any OTHER good Science Fiction MMORPG's that I could play for cheaper...maybe free would be nice?
EDIT: snippy snip...
[ September 03, 2010, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: Fabrux ]
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
Wow... the spambot is... personable?
and i gotta roll.i have CAT agro atm...
ok, i have a moment to edit this...
hmm, i love Escorts. I love cannons. i now love autofire now that i figured out how it works (so simply, me stupid. right-click on the specific gun icon). i have a lot fo fun shooting at shit now...
the breen content is cool, a different direction and very TOS presentation...
in short, im still playing, happily. now i gotta deal with my cat... o.O
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
I've been hearing STO might become free to play in the near future. Good news for people who haven't joined, bad news for those who have been paying.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
I cancelled my subscription to STO long ago. If it becomes free-to-play, I might just start playing again.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mars Needs Women: I've been hearing STO might become free to play in the near future. Good news for people who haven't joined, bad news for those who have been paying.
I shouldn't think so. Typically when MMOs go F2P the existing paying members get something a long the lines of a platinum membership status for pretty much the same content while the free players get a nerfed version of the game.
Personally a couple hours messing around with the demo when it came out left me very disinterested in the whole affair. I think I'm just not built for MMORPGs.
Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :
I think if you know a bunch of others who are playing then it can be fun, but if not then I find it a rather lonely experience, and leveling up can turn into a chore.
Luckily, for my wallet and my social life, I didn't find STO at all interesting, as the design work just seemed like a mess of overlapping styles (and almost offensively ugly ships) and the gameplay wasn't anything at all out of the ordinary.
Might get into EVE or the Star Wars one though. :/
Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
I played at launch for a month and then revisited the game back in June. It has improved significantly in it's breath of content and Trekness.
At launch the game was just run and gun. It's opened up quite a bit with diplomatic missions and a plethora of things drawn from the various series and movies.
The developers seem to know what they are doing and have a sense of humour. When Earth's starbase received a significant redesign, the in-game explanation is that Q decided to do it for fun.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
I've had an on again, off again relationship with STO. Maxed out my Fed and Klingon characters, but now there isn't much to do out there. I'll occaisionally drop in to view new content and see if I can snag that very rare bridge officer, but other than that, nothing else.
I've heard that transferring to F2P usually is the sounding of the death knell for MMORPGs. The less people put money into a product, the less work is done on the product itself. You have to wonder why WoW is still the #1 RPG out there, and they still charge monthly subscriptions.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
DDO seems to be doing well, though i admit its harder for me to find groups around my level (since folks are either lvl20s, TR's that seem to know how to lvl much faster than i do, or F2P noobs playing disposable lowbie toons for favor only). update 11 will be out this week i think so there will be glut of Artificers and no rogues probably LOL
Posted by akb1979 (Member # 557) on :
Thanks for the heads-up, I'll probably check that out later today.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I wonder how the Old Republic MMO is doing. Heard a lot of good things.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
People at my work play it- they're very happy, but then, they were WoW players before so...
Posted by shikaru808 (Member # 2080) on :
I play it. It's pretty dope. Although I'm sure my nostalgia for SWG is the main motivating factor behind my enjoyment of it. Tis a shame, I don't think I'll pick STO back up again.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
I started STO. It's OK for a time waster but by the time you get a character topped out with all the high end stuff....there's not much to do with them so you start back over with a new character.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
well, they have monkied a lot of the game content in time for F2P. They did up the skills to ensure folks put at least some points into ground-based skills (space specing with zero ground skills seemed to be very common for some folks). Crafting is harder for Epic loot (ing only purchaseable using dilithium ore as well as scan ing + schematics), common content for the Klingons (or least some reason why i see Ridgeheads crusing Fed Space)... oh, the Micromanaging that is Duty Officers (OMG the awesome LOL)
Posted by starship (Member # 2203) on :
I never played STO, but I do like a lot of a few ships. Sadly I can´t convert them to 3dsmax, which I can do with Bridge Commander ships. At least, I don´t know a way to make a conversion from STO to MAX. Any of you does to know?
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Well, I hardly ever turn down a free to play starship game, even if it is Star Trek.
My display name is dabang80 so if anyones going to be playing in a few hours it'd be fun to go blow something up.
Posted by starship (Member # 2203) on :
Here it goes what he said about this: "...The ripped model was around 10k tri's. I say "was" because by just messing with the saucer, I was able to remove a good five thousand triangles. STO models have a different way of smoothing than what we do with BC ones. STO's meshes all use only one smoothing group. At areas that need hard edges, like the rim of a Sovereign-like saucer, there are actually entire bunches of minuscule polygons that make it appear sharp. Without these micro-polies, the entire mesh would look like a blob, but with them the poly count is excessively high for a relatively low quality mesh." Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
So I finally got around to giving this game another shot a few weeks ago, and this time around, I've gotten hooked.
Finally got my Fed character up to max level, very slowly trying out endgame stuff.
And Romulans are now a playable faction. Sorta. But hey, warbirds!
Anybody still playing this? I'm getting so sick of perfect strangers throwing me fleet invites; if I'm gonna join one, I'd like to join one with people I know.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
I think of this like trying some awesome drug . . . best not to even make it possible to get hooked, 'cause I know I would.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Out of curiosity, how far has the game come since launch? I had a go at the free trial way back when but it just never really grabbed me.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
The game is a lot better now than it was before. Call it teething or growing pains or whatever. The fleet advancement system is a nice thing to have. My KDF and FED fleets are now at Tier 2 but I would appreciate some help. The FED fleet is called Royal Canadian Mounted Starfleet, and the KDF fleet is called Parliamentary Canadian Empire. It's ok if you guys are not Canadian, send me a PM at @Tahna_Los and I'll add you in. I've got a lot of free stuff in the fleet that you can help yourselves in.
Some of the new ships are also nice too. The U.S.S. Prometheus is there, complete with Multi Vector Assault Mode. The Next version of the Galaxy Class (Oddysey Class) is nice to have with saucer separation and a separate attack module, its KDF and ROM counterparts aren't too shabby either. I also got my hands on a beefed up Akira Class ship that I call me Torpedo Rain Boat, if you see how many torpedoes I can throw at the enemy, you would understand.
This game is especially worth a shot now that it is F2P. There are a lot of good things about it however, my advice for you is to get a subscription first. Level up your character then go back to F2P. It's now easy to level up any character with the Duty Officer system (set duty officer assignments then disappear for a while), and you get lots of free perks when you level up.
This game is awesome. We need more people. And I need more people in my fleets!!!
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I'm sorta tempted. But then I've been tempted by Eve for the past 6 years. I suspect that a MMO would be bad for me.
On the other hand, my wife is moving to Newcastle for two years, so I'll be free most week nights.
Hmm.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
Anyone looking for an invite to the Fed Fleet or Klingon fleet?
In both cases the original members seem to have disappeared from the STO scene but they were gracious enough to give me control of the fleet. If I get any more takers I can rename the fleet. Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I like that they've given the option to play as Romulans, but that feature has come to late to pull me back in. The game just gets a tad repetitious after a while. Unless that has changed?
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
Repetitious? Probably not, not with all that new content that has come in. More ships, more missions, more equipment, more ways to play.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
WARNING: The following post contains massive spoilers for Star Trek Online through the episode "Time in a Bottle".
So... I'm a happy camper.
First, some backstory for those unfamiliar with the game. The overall plot is that the Iconians are actually still alive and want their galaxy back. They initially remained in the background pitting the major powers of the Milky Way against each other. Now, however, they have moved on to outright invasion.
As revealed in last year's expansion Delta Rising, the Iconians provided the Vaadwaur with advanced technology and unleashed them on the Delta Quadrant. Amongst those noted to have already fallen to the Vaadwaur were the Krenim.
However, more recent episodes have revealed that the Krenim Imperium was not just another victim. The Iconians specifically ordered the Vaadwaur to eliminate the Krenim first, and I don't mean just defeating them. The Krenim were apparantly genocided to death, and all their technology destroyed. Presumably, this has something to do with the revelation in the episode "Uneasy Allies" that the Iconians cannot time travel, as doing so actually causes them brain damage.
Today's episode, "Time in a Bottle", reveals that the Krenim colony on Kyana Prime survived by adapting Annorax's research (remember that PADD at the end of "Year of Hell, Part II"?) to place it out-of-sync with the space-time continuum. Furthermore, the Krenim have provided the Federation/Klingon/Romulan alliance with the plans to Annorax's temporal weapon ship (in the current timeline, it was planned but never built) so they can build one themselves to use against the Iconians. Given that Annorax himself never managed to quite get the results he wanted by using it, I'm guessing we're in for major temporal shenanigans.
In short, the Krenim are back, baby! And it only took...
*Checks watch*
...eighteen years.
Posted by Zipacna (Member # 1881) on :
Must admit that I've enjoyed the latest episode, although as my main toon is a Vulcan Starfleet officer I had two things going through my mind...what about the Temporal Prime Directive, and of course that the Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel is impossible. Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zipacna: Must admit that I've enjoyed the latest episode, although as my main toon is a Vulcan Starfleet officer I had two things going through my mind...what about the Temporal Prime Directive, and of course that the Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel is impossible.
I knew there was a reason my main toon is an Andorian. Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
And today it was announced that the next fleet holding will be a Krenim-themed research lab.
I don't think the devs could make me happier even if they directly stimulated the joy centers of my brain.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
And the research lab is apparently now available on the test server. Among the unlockables are Krenim uniforms, Krenim duty officers, and Krenim bridge officers.
*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
(Yes, I just squeed. Everything I've ever wanted from Star Trek is being handed to me on a silver platter. Please excuse my insufferability.)
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