Star Trek

[bairdlander2]

Anyone get STO?

[martok]

I've not picked it up yet, but I've been tempted....very tempted.

I'm a huge Trek fan (have been since I was five), and STO looks to be about the closest to realizing the ultimate Trek gaming experience as I've seen in a long time -- if not ever. I'm probably going to hold off on getting it for at least another month or so, partially because of some real-life issues and partially because of all the glitches/problems it's experiencing right now, but I have a strong hunch I'm going to end up getting it eventually.

[E]

Got the tee shirt, but have not been there or done that.

(literally... I have a family's-worth of tee-shirts for the game that they were giving away for free at the Vegas Star Trek convention in 2008

I'm holding out for a turn-based Star Fleet Battles myself.  (in the same vein, I will not get an electronic leash, I mean cell phone until they have one that looks and acts like the original trek communicator... needless to say, I'll still be searching for pay phones when I die. *grin*)

[JudgeDredd]

Yes I have.

I enjoy it and it's done a good job of capturing the Star Trek fell imo (though loads disagree).

Three issues at the moment that stop me from really enjoying it...
1. Like most MMORPGs, it's samey - I mean the missions are different and plausible trekkie missions, but there's a routine (destroy ships, beam to surface, destroy ground forces, beam back to ship and destroy other ships, mission done) - like I said, though, the mission types are different...help survivors, disable listening post etc
2. Laaaaaaaaag - they clearly either didn't anticipate popularity of this game or they were waiting for money to flood in before getting servers...I think it's the latter, but anyho, they are getting more servers. The lag is only really on surface missions. Space battles, regardless of size, are free from lag (so might be my settings)
3. Bugs. There are still bugs, though very minor. As an example, in WoW missions you done did not ever show to you again. This appears not to be the case in Star Trek Online. To be fair, I've encountered very few bugs.

The main killer of the experience for me is the lag. Samey mission solving is kind of a things with MMORPGs I think.

I like the buffs you get for your ship and crew. I like the look of character progressions. Get into a war (I was in one the other day with the Borg, or the war at Starbase 24) and watch the glory as photon torpedoes, plasma rays and phaser banks light the darkness. The sounds are brilliant imo. Just about every sound you sit and think Star Trek, which given the games theme is a good thing. Listen to the music playing when you finish a mission....or the different music when you go on red alert...the Red Alert noise...the photon banks firing. Phasers...all the sounds are there and will put you in Star Trek.

It's a good game and will be getting better as it matures. For an "out the box" mmorpg, I think it ticks all the boxes, and as a Star Trek game, it ticks all the boxes.

[Hertston]

Had enough of MMORPG's for the time being, until someone designs one based around genuine human interactions from the word go rather than just solo and co-operative level and money grinding. Plus, last year's movie was a good experience for me, everything ST between 1969 and 2009 (maybe Wrath of Khan and First Contact excepted) being pretty much total crap. Except SFB and Starfleet Command 2 anyway. I think I'll just wait for the next movie.

If any MMO would tempt me at the mo' it would be Global Agenda. Anybody tried that yet?


EDIT: By the way, JD, how does the whole 'MMO' thing work in the Star Trek game? As I understand it, everyone gets to be a Starship captain from the off, so other than the odd fight (presumably) with any player controlled Klingon warbirds you might happen to bump into, how do you interact with other players - just these 'wars' you describe?

[JudgeDredd]

bairdlander, you might get more info over at The Wargamer. Some people talking about it in this thread

[JudgeDredd]

H

Sometimes you get pulled into missions as you pass by (instances if you want to call it that). These are enemy contacts. There's a whole bunch of people normally already there and you are all fighting to the same goal. In the example I mentioned with the Borg, there were maybe 20 Federation ships in there and the idea is to beat the Borg. However, with everyone going there own way it proved impossible when I was in there. No structure or cohesion to what was going on...so it was going to be difficult to win. I gave up and left the instance in the end.

Other times, you may go into a sector and there may be other people there. I noticed in the BETA that you would group together to do the mission, whether it was on land or in space and there would be a team leader...again people don't obviously have to follow the team leader and some don't. But I expect as the game progresses and people understand the mechanics more, these will be less like solo missions and more like structured battles.

Everyone gets a ship at the beginning. As you go through the game, you will be awarded staff for your bridge (up to 3 I think...maybe more later, I'm not sure)...one Tactical, one Science and 1 Engineering.

As you get promotoed, other ship classes become available. The five commissions are Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Captain (something else) and Admiral. Each of these has 10 levels. As you gain levels, you use the skill points to progress your character and your team. Things like I have a Tactical Officer and she has a Photon Torpedo skill. When I'm attacking a ship and I click her "buff" torpedo icon, I have 30 seconds and if I fire torpedos in that 30 seconds, 2 are fired (but only once). Then I have to wait for the remainder of the 30 seconds to "cool down" before I can use that again. Now I can assign skill points to her Torpedo "buff" and this effectively (I think) increases accuracy and reduces the "cooldown" time for each level from one to nine. as an example, when I first got her and her skill level on this "buff" was 1, her torpedo accuracy was low and it probably had a 1 minute "cooldown". For each level between 1 and 10, her accuracy increases (5 maybe 10% something like that) and the "cooldown" drops...so now at level nine, she rarely misses when I fire photons and the cooldown period is down to 30 seconds.

All characters assigned to you (including you) have these "traits" or skills. And they can be upgraded as you gain points from completing missions.

Also as you go through, you can buy or pickup technology for you ship or your "away" team. For example for my ship, these include things like Phasers MkII which have 145DPS (damage per second) as opposed to your original phasers of 90DPS and for your surface party I had a suit that allowed me to build a level 5 turret...another one I had allowed me to lay mines near my team (I gave that to my tactical officer). Phasers on your ship have an arcs of fire (240 degrees I think). I picked up a disrupter the other day that had greater damage, but was limited to 45 degrees, so I sold that. You can pick up devices for your ship as well, like deflector enhancer or a science item and have 3 or 4 of them to attach to your ship...again, I don't know if you get more as you get promoted to bigger ships.

I think I'd say it's Warcraft in the Star Trek world, but it's been done very well imo and is very Star Trek feely. There's no real cohesion between players at the moment and there's no way that I know of knowing if your going into an instance that requires other people or not.

[E]

At the convention, they spoke of different eras being playable... any TOS era in there?

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: E

At the convention, they spoke of different eras being playable... any TOS era in there?

Nope

[Nighteyes]

Me and PunkReaper are playing star trek online together and really enjoying it.

We have finally both got a new ship and cant wait to try them out.

Maybe we should make a Matrix Games Fleet?

[vonRocko]

As a Star Trek (original) fan, I am enjoying the game. But I don.t see myself paying every month to play. After my free 30 days I'll probably quit, because I will ,pretty much ,have done everything and I'll be bored. It has some good potential and is good fun for a bit. IMO[;)]

[ilovestrategy]

My tax refund is coming next week so I'll be getting it. Do they have lifetime membership? I bought that for Lord of the Rings Online and I found that I LOVE lifetime! [&o]!  Best $199 I ever spent. 

[Zakhal]

I play only mmos that are less about meaningless boring pve interaction and more about meaningful interaction between other players like WW2OL, Darkfall and Mortal Online. The gametype is more challenging but ultimately way more satisfying.

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

I play only mmos that are less about meaningless boring pve interaction and more about meaningful interaction between other players like WW2OL, Darkfall and Mortal Online. The gametype is much more challenging but ultimately way more satisfying.

I like pve play. It's really relaxing after a hard day's work. As much as I love strategy gamess(see my forum title! [:D] ) sometimes I just do not want to think.

[Zakhal]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

I play only mmos that are less about meaningless boring pve interaction and more about meaningful interaction between other players like WW2OL, Darkfall and Mortal Online. The gametype is much more challenging but ultimately way more satisfying.

I like pve play. It's really relaxing after a hard day's work. As much as I love strategy gamess(see my forum title! [:D] ) sometimes I just do not want to think.

For me pve feels just like work. Its not fun enough for me. Id rather hire somone to play the game and advance the character for me than play it myself. My char would propably gain levels much faster.

In niche pvp games like darkfall or ww2ol the fun comes to me through meaningfulness of the gameplay. I dont play just to "advance levels" but for real tactical / strategic reasons.

Its a matter of taste. I usually like the more spicy ones when it comes to mmos.

But its true these games are harder. I actually had to quite df after summer since I didnt have enough time to play it anymore so my contribution would have been too low.

But generally I play very little of these mmos even. The only mmo that I go back and am going to go back soon is ww2ol. And thats just because that game doesnt require big time investment before you can make yourself useful.

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Dixie

ORIGINAL: E

At the convention, they spoke of different eras being playable... any TOS era in there?

Nope

There are references to Old Star Trek...a friend of mine came across this the other day

[Scott_WAR]

ORIGINAL: E

At the convention, they spoke of different eras being playable... any TOS era in there?

Forget nearly everything they said. STO isnt the game they claimed they were making. It is a shootem'up and nothing more. No exploration,.no diploamcy, no strategy in battles aside from circle, fire phasors while circling,...and occasionally turn to face the enemy and fire a photon torp. Thats it. Ground missions are simply push tab and a number. No cover, again no real tactics at all.
They claim they have exploration in the game.....let me sum it up for you. GO to XXXXXX usually a asteroid or planet, and scan it (press F). Then kill whatever enemies invariably show up. No, you dont get to talk to them to dfind any other resolution,..,...as I said its a shootem'up,...no point in comms.

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

My tax refund is coming next week so I'll be getting it. Do they have lifetime membership? I bought that for Lord of the Rings Online and I found that I LOVE lifetime! [&o]! Best $199 I ever spent.

The lifetime sub will cost you $299. You will probably play a total of 3 months before you get bored at MOST,...so its really not a good deal at all.

[PunkReaper]

JD what's your STO name and ship so I can look out for you..... We are really enjoying the game so far although I agree with your assessment. The graphics are lovely and having just completed a Fleet Action the gameplay can be quite intense.... love the colours of the phasers etc....

[JudgeDredd]

Online Name is Shawan (don't know the first bit....is it wmar67@shawan) and ship is USS Catalina

[NefariousKoel]

I've been at it for awhile now. 

Only a couple people from my MMO guild has started playing it and they're all in Holland so I don't see them that often.  The rest seem to be spread out over other games, but some more will probably get curious.  It's pretty thin on acquaintances for me. 

Send me a tell if you want to do something or to just say hello.  My handle is @NefariousCoal.  I have Tier 2 & 3 Feds right now and a T1 Klingon.