Star Trek Online

[Allara]

Anybody in the beta for this? I am, but haven't had a lot of time, so I'm still in the middle of the opening scenario. Seems decent so far, really evokes the feeling of Star Trek more than I expected.

[Wresh]

My brother is in the beta. He loves it. Said the space ship combat is really good. Once I can talk to him, I will post more on what he tells me.

[Kurbi]

its all space ship combat pretty much right? I'm a huge star trek fan, but i'm just not sure if i could get into that.

[Wresh]

Nope...there are ground missions as well. From what I have heard, it's about 50/50 between the 2.

[Aindayen]

I duuuuunt have the pooowwwwah

Ain

[Syana]

I played another space mmo before wow came out. I think it was called Earth and Beyond :P I think I actually bumped into Ashram in that game!! haha

It was alright at the time. The game is dead now though.

[Gheltire]

its fun ive been playing around in the USS Galaga!

druzzil has some really good reviews posted by Kantle so I wont steal his thunder but if you like the ST universe, toss yourself a couple generations forward (Sulus grandkid is one of your first NPC contacts) and think about how the universe probably will wind up (although somehow I think a Cardassian is still a tailor for the federation)

you get to pick from a lot of different fed races with varying skillsets. Pretty decent character identity creation (looks, bio, many uniforms from actual or unique created uniforms) and off you go as an ensign on a ship.

Hello Borg. Hello your ship is wiped. Hello you are the commander. Tutorial is good. Instead of go kill this rat its more like the Death Knight sequences of WOW. So you are elevated to command while learning how to do field missions, how to run your ship, how to gear up, how to train skills, and how to pick your bridge crew.

Character advancement is kinda slow. But thats because you are doing storyline quests. Im sure once its live and the battleground areas are open you will level much faster in ship to ship combat or ground skirmishes. But in about 10 hrs of newbie time Im a grade 7 LT. Were I to play it to LT Commander (3 ranks up) I get new ship choices. And cool thing is you get to modify the appearance of your ships.

You level not with exp but with skill points. Your skill points are awarded for feats, missions, combat, you name it. Maybe think upping a weapon or tradeskill to 25, then you are level 2, go to 50 and now youre level 3? Close to that but not quite. Your bridge crew gains exp as well, but they share a pool. You get your own points and dont have to share. Naturally thats good because if you have a bridge officer outranking you due to skill a) you would suck and b) if Klingon, you will DIE!

You have a skill tree:science (tricorder/heals!) engineering (shields/engines) tactical (whoopass/weapons) and operations. Each is then divided into ground and space trees. So you could work towards a lethal handtohand assualt officer for covert away missions. Or be the Admiral Thrawn of the ST Universe as a fleet admiral. Im going starfleet operations and ship combat as my heaviest concentrations, just because I like blowing shit up with my ship. You get to pop 9 ranks in each skill set, and certain "columns" are only available to you based on your pips. Left hand column is the entering skills. Far right are the more specific roles. And you can skill up anywhere so far. Unspent points are banked, but you dont level up in grade until you spend em.

For ground combat when solo and you have an away team, think decent AI bots with you at the head (dragon age?) your tactical guys jump in swinging, your engineer refills your shields, and your science officer heals. Fun fun when you storm a starbase to rescue scientists and are wiping out Klingon swordmasters, targs, and munitions officers

For space, think XWing but with a mouse in your right hand instead of a joystick (although I imagine you could use joystick). Left hand is attacks, shield modulation, special abilities (like tach pulses or upgraded warheads - you can get your bridge crew trained in ground and space skills so you get better skills in those environs)

Graphics are nice. Ground is great visually but I think space is the most impressive. Sound cycles through many familiar star trek themes. But maybe its beta but so far it doesnt sound "right" yet. At least no "combat cycle" midi file though. It does get to sound ok when the fighting is wild.


You know in DND and you have the famous "and youre walking and youre walking"?

not here

in space you are on an XYZ space grid/starchart. The map is navigable by tabs, or by just flying around until you get where youre going.

Ok Sol System? Lets see. Sector Map. Drop down available systems chart. Click SOl System. And off your ship flies. Or you can wander. While wandering you can see enemy action along the perimeters of Fed Space (think Klingon and Rom went live yesterday? havent checked)

Ok so ground combat rescue/collect/diplomacy missions. Space combat/rescue/escort/patrol missions.

And for the Warhammer fans, open zone combat events.

Fly to Spacedock 24. Klingons have invaded and are trying to wipe out the base. YOu need to get scientists out and help counter the assault. Engage!

First wave is a Klingon small class group. You zone in with everyone else in the zone and are autoteamed. You blow those away and move to a battleclass group. Fight through them to get to the space station. You can enter the station to work on your ground objectives. Or hang out and finish mopping up the ships. If you stay in space, when the event ends all damage done is tallied, and you are rewarded based on contribution to the event.

So cool its over, zone in, you get an instanced version of your rescue away team mission. Fight through that. Get back to ship. Get back to space. Now you have an instanced "exit" version of the system. Make your way to a rally point. Beam scientists to the USS McCoy. And you have completed a mission and a group event. Group event resets every like 2 min. Its a blast.

space combat lets you use huge asteroids, hit and run tactics, broadside maneuvering to bring all weapons to bear. Ground combat can be melee (not trained high enough to have many martial arts but some kits ((outfits you wear)) convey certain melee bonuses like kicks) (screw you My Dear Aunt Sally) or ranged. Every weapon has two settings. Feds are stun and kill. The stun is like a "hold" or sap. I went Vulcan tactical officer for physical prowess (and some ship benefits) and use a sniper phaser rifle. Some weapons do wide burst. Some pulse. Klingon disruptors have kill and wide range hurt (but not stun because PAGH! Klingons do not STUN!) You can focus fire of your team, taunt, flank. and generally setup defensive positions to win against larger numbers. Oh and the enemy AI is getting there. Watch out for holding a bottleneck and a Klingon munitions officer lobs a grenade in. Ow.

If anything it's different It's not NetTrek if you remember the old Apple team Star Trek games of about 20 years ago (think those were mostly in university comp labs ) Its not XWing/TieFighter. And its not SWO. Its a little slower and sometimes you miss the "staying on the walls" mentality of EQ when you know youre in a rough zone. So you dont feel emperiled at all times.

But theyre doing a good job on the star trek feel. Nimoy voiceovers went in last night. Running into familiar names on descendants is cool. Theres an overriding question that the borg you are fighting do not assimilate they are grabbing people and seem to be not of a collective mentality. So theres a good star trek question going on. Load scenes have a "ticker" with Star Trek historical data. Both from the things we have seen and from the things read. But also some of the vents that have transpired between the timeframes that we know and the gameworld. Im pretty sure this is post Abrams Star Trek, but not sure yet. Romulus exploded but thats in both timelines. Havent seen if Vulcan did or if there is mention yet of Nero. As much a fan as I am though I havent researched it much since it was PC and Ive been playing 360 so much. But once I saw the open beta status I jumped in.

Ill probably be buying it. Might even do the lifetime to get a borg character. Which makes me figure since theres not Borg space on the charts that maybe the borg will wind up being able to ally with any faction. Because they are freewill (maybe descendants of Hugh?)

Hrm...should also note that I have every STNG season on DVD, most of DS9, DVD and Blue rays of all the movies, and every PC game they made, including the stupid Way of the Warrior Klingon multimedia adventure. So Im probably not an unbiased beta player:P

EDIT: It is the Abrams storyline. The new Nimoy voiceovers and cutscenes tell the same story of his attept to save romulus that failed and he was sucked through a blackhole. And theres a borg footprint on the starmap now.

[Sabertootth]

I am not a trekie by any means but this sounds pretty bad ass. from a FPS MMO type standpoint

[Elkwood]

wow this game sounds interesting. Thanks for the right up !

[Stosh]

Aside from EQ and WoW, every MMO thread starts with the same hopeful anticipation and discussion about what a good game its going to be. Then several weeks to months later, the discussion dries up as people stop playing until finally we're left with "Does anybody still play this game?" followed by "No, it sucks, just waiting for next MMO beta now."

Any reason to believe this won't be the same with this?

[Allara]

Doubt it. That's why I've only spent about half an hour on it so far, heh.

[Maegwin]

Aside from EQ and WoW, every MMO thread starts with the same hopeful anticipation and discussion about what a good game its going to be. Then several weeks to months later, the discussion dries up as people stop playing until finally we're left with "Does anybody still play this game?" followed by "No, it sucks, just waiting for beta now."

Any reason to believe this won't be the same with this?

Eh, I think FFXI had a slightly longer life-span / playerbase but yeah in general that seems to be the lifecycle of MMOs that aren't EQ and WoW.

[Berae]

Eve Online has about 45k players on consistently. I know that's hardly anything compared to the numbers Blizzard gives out for WoW, but its still pretty damned good for an MMO that isn't WoW

[Stosh]

Eh, I think FFXI had a slightly longer life-span / playerbase but yeah in general that seems to be the lifecycle of MMOs that aren't EQ and WoW.

In my original post, before the editor ate it I said western MMOs, as there are seemingly dozens of Asian MMOs that I've never heard of.

[Gheltire]

Nubbin's question is kindof what me, veruca, and our buddy have been kicking around. We picked up all kinds of games over the past decade and a half...moving from UO to EQ to WOW...tried vanguard, ddo, DAOC, Warhammer, EQ2, STO, Conan etc

the best thing I could describe it as now is, are you gonna pay 60 for a console game or 60 for a pc game + some recurring hits. Maybe STO lasts, maybe it doesnt. I STILL pay for Ghel's EQ account even though he's in the bazaar. I dont know why, can't explain it. Im paying for Ghel WOW right now too. But the others I turn on and off much more quickly. Not that Im looking for EQ/WOW again. More like trying to find something that my friends and I can sink our teeths into long enough to hang out and have some fun. Borderlands was great but now we're done. What's next?

So hey Ill try Star Trek for a while. Then maybe it sucks and were playing Mass Effect 2. Then something something until Cataclysm:P

Your locust skill has improved (100)

[depen]

I've been playing it for the last few days - I like it. I'm not that much of a trekkie either. I watch TNG or DS9 if I catch them on TV but other than that, I don't know a lot about the lore of the game.

I'm pretty happy with the character creation, being able to create your own alien races is sorta fun. Being able to design your own ship is great as well.

Nice mix of ground missions and space missions and it flows really well.

[Stosh]

My issues have nothing to do with money. I have a shelf with thousands of dollars of unused or barely played games. I will probably buy Mass Effect 2 today, and play it for 15 minutes before getting distracted. My problem is I have MMO OCD, and irregardless of how shitty an MMO might be, I am compelled to reach max level before quitting. My recent experience in Aion has made me particularly sensitive to this and I don't want to repeat it in STO.

[depen]

Head start started yesterday... anyone else playing?

Federation - Jones, U.S.S. Indiana =p

[Berae]

This game is still around?

[Tenelen]

If you guys want to know about it I work for Cryptic so feel free to ask and no I will not get you a free lifetime account!