Star Trek Online

[Grand Admiral]

I'm still waiting for them to add playable Romulans.

[one_klump]

I could honestly care less about the Klingon faction - no offense to anyone here. Now that I've wrapped up another Mass Effect 2 playthrough, I'll be back onto STO. The Tier 3 cruisers are a bit clunky, but that is mid-game, the end game cruisers are much more visually pleasing.

Edited April 6, 2011 by one_klump

[Warmaker]

I could honestly care less about the Klingon faction - no offense to anyone here. Now that I've wrapped up another Mass Effect 2 playthrough, I'll be back onto STO. The Tier 3 cruisers are a bit clunky, but that is mid-game, the end game cruisers are much more visually pleasing.

No offense, but I can give 2 s*its about the Feds, even though they got by far the majority of the dev attention. And this is supposed to be a multi-faction game?

And people are hoping to see a playable Romulan faction? I recall when I left there was also the hope of a playable Cardassian and most especially the Dominion (I personally would have loved to try them also). And Cryptic's total work on the Klingons has been done only through much arm twisting and heated forum wars. It's like they really just don't want to work on them, period. Not a good sign for having a truly diverse gaming experience set in the Star Trek universe.

One of the things when I signed up for STO leading into its release was for a chance to live in the Star Trek universe, pick my faction to join and have adventures with, and have at it. I did like the idea of a renewed Federation-Klingon War, and it made for an outstanding backdrop for players of both sides to fight over. It's also a classic Star Trek theme. But PvP when I left got boring, most especially for the KDF since it really is the ONLY thing they can do. Ground PvP was a total nightmare (the word "HOLD" comes to mind as one example). Space PvP had access to a variety of maps but really, they only generally took place on 2 of them. PvP also began to die down as the months progressed after release. Hell, there used to be alot of Klingon player fleets but once people saw Cryptic's lack of effort and attention on the faction, those fleets died out. Not to mention being isolated to 1.5 game sectors vs the Federation's roughly 9 game sectors (again, at the time of me leaving).

And don't get me started with Cryptic constantly dropping stuff into the C-Store, an MMORPG Cash Shop, while the game collects money as a Subscription-based MMORPG to even play. That's double-dipping big time. They especially loved doing this with ships, and from my time-to-time checkups into the game, they still do.

[Zor Primus]

WTF is that thing? The simpler Sovereign design is much better. Also, they should offer that big ugly Romulan gunboat from Nemesis, damn that thing was ugly.And while I'm on a bitchfest, just from reading reviews here, I get the impression they don't seem to put much meat into the non-federation content. For whatever reason, if they feel not enough people are playing it to justify the costs, then they should have their own company dudes play the bad guys for players to go up against, just to make things a bit more interesting.

LOL...I can just see your face as you typed WTF?

Its a Stargazer class, similar to Picard's first command. Not stylish at all. In fact I hated its look so much I dropped 137k creds on the Tier 3 Excelsior.

Tier 3 ships for all classes except Escort are weak looking...especially the Science vessels.

Here it is with the Reman shield array installed.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Zor Primus

[Keith]

LOL...I can just see your face as you typed WTF?

Its a Stargazer class, similar to Picard's first command. Not stylish at all. In fact I hated its look so much I dropped 137k creds on the Tier 3 Excelsior.

Tier 3 ships for all classes except Escort are weak looking...especially the Science vessels.

Here it is with the Reman shield array installed.

..Could have done without the shield array, but the Excelsior is still win.

[one_klump]

Got the Intrepid for my T4 science ship. It is super maneuverable compared to my old Nebula class. Trying a dual beam bank instead of all arrays, and the extra damage is worth while.

[Uxi]

I loved the atmosphere of the game and putting TWOK costumes on my crew. Ship interiors were pretty cool but too obviously tacked on. Have they improved at all?

The game was too obviously formulaic with it's "Do Action 3-5 times" rinse and repeat. Especially annoying in the combat but also in the "diplomacy" and "survey" missions.

[one_klump]

I won't argue with the formula missions that are obviously generated randomly. Same with many of the planet surfaces. However, the scripted episodes are very well done. Additionally, much of what is comming out of the Foundry is amazing stuff.

I used to really dislike Cryptic, but then I did a bit of digging and found out that they are a company of about a dozen people, so hats off to them.

Try doing some of the end game stuff with a fleet that is communicating very well. It's super cool to have the fleet leader giving out orders and orchestrating a large battle.

[Zor Primus]

I need to join an active fleet...the one I am in is more silent then a monk without a tongue. Zero interaction.

If anyone can point me towards one...much obliged.

[one_klump]

I'm in Sol Vanguard

Its pretty active, they are always doing something, weather it be Special Task Force, Featured Episodes, and PVP. The fleet leader, Keith, is a bit talky in vent, and he seems a little harsh when you first meet him, but so far its been fun. Not to mention that since the entire game population share a server, we have people from around the world in our fleet, which is really cool.

[Keith]

I'm in Sol Vanguard

Its pretty active, they are always doing something, weather it be Special Task Force, Featured Episodes, and PVP. The fleet leader, Keith, is a bit talky in vent, and he seems a little harsh when you first meet him, but so far its been fun. Not to mention that since the entire game population share a server, we have people from around the world in our fleet, which is really cool.

Your team leader is named "Keith," and didn't call his team 'Voltron Force." For shame!

[one_klump]

For that offense, he has no defense. lol

[Zor Primus]

Your team leader is named "Keith," and didn't call his team 'Voltron Force." For shame!

LOL

[mikeszekely]

Free to play STO by the end of the year.

Figures. I played on a 10-day pass a friend gave me when the game first came out, and though I liked it, I didn't really like it enough to pay $50 plus $15 a month.

Lately I've been bored, though, and I'd heard they improved the game a lot. So when I found the Collector's Edition for $12.99 at Gamestop, I figured I'd bite the bullet and get a subscription.

[Greyryder]

Depending on the free to play model, I might finally jump in on this. It's the only MMO I've ever been interested in.

Now, if we could just plant the seeds in the devs' minds to put in the proposed season five NX class refit....

[UN Spacy]

Finally. This'll bring back the masses.

[Chewie]

As long as I can have all the stuff I already acquired and keep the store points I have rotting, I'm down to play again. I just couldn't afford to play this, DCUO and WoW.

Edited September 2, 2011 by Chewie

[mikeszekely]

As long as I can have all the stuff I already acquired and keep the store points I have rotting, I'm down to play again. I just couldn't afford to play this, DCUO and WoW.

That's easy; stop playing WoW.

I know millions of people seem to disagree, but WoW is just awful. Boring quests, no fun to solo, numbingly dull trying to get from point A to point B. The only time I've even come close to having fun was socializing with friends on it, but even that quickly turned into one friend not being able to get online when we decided to meet, one friend getting online but constantly going away from keyboard because of girlfriend drama, and one dude who would play way more than us, get 20 levels ahead, and think it a good idea to take the rest of us on instances that were level appropriate for him and him alone.

STO's not perfect, sure. It's a little repetitive (but I don't think I've played an MMO that isn't), and flying from one sector to another is just as boring as flying around in WoW. But at least the game itself is fun.

[Chewie]

I have plenty of fun in WoW and when I get too bored, I find something else to occupy my time.

Regardless of what, who, how, why, when or genre an MMO is an MMO is an MMO.

Personally, lore and storyline make games enjoyable for me. If I can do a quest or hundreds of quests that are linked together forming a story, the same MMO formula no longer applies. It's the reason ToR will have me at it's mercy for a long time to come; it's supposed to be incredibly story rich. All too many people play MMOs purely for the pvp or to be omgwtfawesome because they seem to forget the rest of the acronym, RPG and then complain when it's boring. Yeah, you skipped every piece of actual content in the game, including the reason why you're killing this boss or that boss just to get gear to show off your epeen or to get points to buy pvp gear.

Sorry for the long winded, off topic-ness of that. mike, I do feel ya, though. <3

[raptormesh]

Picked up STO three months ago for a few pennies, and now it's gotten me wondering if I should get a lifetime sub. I just can't get enough of looking at my ship...oh so pretty. Glad it's going F2P though, wondering what'll gold subbers get compared to the free accounts. I'm a 6 year old WoW vet, never missed a month but finally stopped for good March this year. IMO blizzard tossed any semblance of lore out the window and now the boss encounters drives the narrative and have been post Ulduar.

[mikeszekely]

Personally, lore and storyline make games enjoyable for me. If I can do a quest or hundreds of quests that are linked together forming a story, the same MMO formula no longer applies.

But this is exactly my problem with WoW. Is there lore and storyline in the Warcraft universe? Absolutely! I've had friends try to tell me that even the details in what spells my Blood Elf mage was learning had a ton of lore behind them. But I never played Warcraft 1-3, and whatever story WoW is supposed to have is too poorly presented. All I've been able to glean is that a bunch of disparate races have united into two factions that don't like each other. That's it. And my champion of the Horde is off in the woods, killing X number of Y because it's how some dude gets his jollies, I guess. At some point, I stopped reading the quest givers' explanations for whatever it was they had me doing. It was just tedious. And of course, there's the PVP, which I never cared for. Nothing sucks quite like running through contested area for 20 minutes to complete a level-appropriate quest only to have some guy from the opposite side 20 levels ahead of you run up and kill you.

Like I said before, STO isn't perfect. There are some missions that are repetitive (the patrol a certain sector block missions), and some that I flat out won't even take (most fleet actions, deep space encounters, sector block defense, anything PVP, and any mission that involves going into uncharted space and looking for a needy planet to donate commodities to). But I love that most missions have easy to follow stories (even if you just clicked the green text quickly from the mission-giver without reading it) with multiple objectives that play out like an episode of the TV show.

Or maybe it just helps that I'm a fan of the TV shows. *shrugs*

[raptormesh]

Yeah Mike the episodes in STO, especially the featured and remastered ones are quite well done and can convey the feeling that you're in an episode of trek. Hope they would make more of those when the game goes f2p. In fact fleet missions are a blast if you're in an organized fleet and the borg invasion event that's been happening now is quite fun with a red alert channel up and players making distress calls in various sectors.

[mikeszekely]

What FTP players are missing.

It's not much. One less character slot, fewer inventory and bank slots, no veteran rewards, limited forums, chat, and customer service, ad-supported chatbox, and the inability to create content in the Foundry (although they can still play it).

No word yet if Gold (paying subscribers and lifers) members get any other perks. If they don't, I'm thinking I'll go Silver.

[raptormesh]

Yeah, it's a bit of a downer. The only thing I value in being a gold member is the ability to create missions in the Foundry. The limit on chat and forums will be lifted after 20 hours of play or you having purchased anything at all from the c-store. Probably going silver and then buying what I want piecemeal.

[Uxi]

The patrols actually most the sense, sort of. That sort of mission should be a bit boring and tedious, but you shouldn't actually run into anything at some/most points and run into something big you should call in the big guns (IOW some missions should be get close scan and bug out). I remember a couple of cool missions in the old X-Wing and TIE fighter games like that where you had to get really close, scan them and avoid the fire.

The game itself is pretty good on the scripted missions but it's so blatantly repetitive and formulaic. I will play more if it's free since I had enough fun with it as just a ship simulator.

[kung flu]

http://startrekonline.com/f2p_features

They've put up some stuff at what to expect when the game goes f2p. Alot of life time subcribers are complaining, I'm alright with most of it since i've had my life time since the start, i guess its less painful for me than players who may have purchased a life time later on. Getting paid 400 C-points a month is something to look forward to, that is if the C store has got stuff i want. But it really does mean i don't have to pay anything ever again to play or in C-store and that is something i'm happy with.

Edited September 7, 2011 by kung flu

[UN Spacy]

Just got an e-mail....STO is NOW free to play.

[mikeszekely]

Just got an e-mail....STO is NOW free to play.*

*If you played before. Officially, FTP doesn't start until 1-17.

[one_klump]

Loaded up the F2P STO, and I still love my ships and characters, but SWTOR has me in it's grasp, and what a wonderful grasp it is.

[Max Jenius]

I'm back too! My buddy hooked up my sovereign with some fancy shields and weapons! I'm all blinged out now & ready to see what's new! I think I'm... Canis.Majoris

[mikeszekely]

I'm playing again too. I loaded up my rear admiral, flew around a bit in my Prometheus, and was a little daunted by everything that changed. So I decided to to start over. Still playing Federation, but I'm an engineer instead of tactical, and I'm flying cruisers instead of escorts this time.

I know that if you had stuff that is considered "premium" now you have to convert your toon to a F2P unless you remain a subscriber. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I still have my preorder bonuses and my Collector's Edition bonuses, though.

[Vostok 7]

I got back in to playing recently and finally hit Captain (yeah, I never had made it past Commander... Having kid #2 will do that to you lol). Leveling seems so much easier, everything is vastly improved from where it was previously. Love the new Duty Officer setup (very "treky" feeling). Overall very happy with the experience.

I'm a lifer so I don't have to deal with the F2P stuff thank goodness.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Vostok 7

[TehPW]

anybody know who the hell is this 'Perfect World' affliate that seems to have joined with Cryptic? i noticed how the logon to STO changed, with the option of logon from PWE or Cryptic (with the notice that once you switch from Crytptic to PWE, you cant revert back).

I never heard of their so-called games. are they a Euro or Asian-based?

[mikeszekely]

anybody know who the hell is this 'Perfect World' affliate that seems to have joined with Cryptic? i noticed how the logon to STO changed, with the option of logon from PWE or Cryptic (with the notice that once you switch from Crytptic to PWE, you cant revert back).

I never heard of their so-called games. are they a Euro or Asian-based?

Perfect World bought Cryptic from Atari in May 2011. They're Chinese, with their HQ in Beijing, but they apparently have an office in Foster City, California. They specialize in MMOs, inlcuding one named Perfect World. Runic is supposedly working on a Torchlight MMO, and Perfect World is supposed to publish it.

[TehPW]

*snaps fingers* Oh joy, that's right. CHINA basically owns STO... so im giving 15$ a month to China... how quaint.

Well maybe China. im assuming that this particular horse is well beat elsewhere...

Edited January 15, 2012 by TehPW