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First thoughts on Star Trek Online
January 22nd, 2010 I promised myself I’d update the blog here with my thoughts on Star Trek Online. I’ve only played about 4 or 5 hours worth with Scott, and I can’t decide whether I love it because it’s a good game, or because I had dreams of being a starship captain at age 11. The ground combat is all right, but the space combat is far more interesting. It’s a good mixture of action and tactical, having to steer the broadside of your ship to the enemy to do the most damage, while doubling your shields on that side and yelling at your engineer for more power (you get to pick and choose a bridge staff, who behave sort of like Magic cards in a deck, each with certain abilities to help out). It feels pretty authentic to me. Ships are fairly customizable. Everyone gets one; you play a captain with some bent towards engineering, science or tactical. (So technically you could be a doctor too, like Crusher was captain of the Pasteur, but still a physician.) You can team up on away teams and missions, which is what Scott and I have been doing, and it’s the raddest. I haven’t played MMOs in a long time, so I don’t know if this is the norm, but I like that the ground missions have a narrative to them. It’s not just “beam down and sweep out this warehouse of Klingon thugs.” You get in a skirmish in an asteroid field, destroy some jamming technology, beam down to get survivors to safety, then hurry back to your ship to take on the Orion cruiser that just dropped out of warp. Ugghhhh that is the best. I’d tell you how beautiful the game looks, but since I’ve gotta play it under emulation, I’ve got the settings down low. But I’ve seen some amazing screenshots! It’s in open beta now if you can find someone who has a key. Anyway — this isn’t supposed to be a real review. I’m just excited. I’m playing STO and I like it! Are you? What do you think? Discussion (17)¬ |
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I've been in the open beta for three days, and I can say only this.
It is made of magic. SOLID MAGIC. If you were to open your computer and look inside while playing, your eyes would bleed and your heart would stop because you would experience too much magic. It would be tragic. Tragic magic.
The space combat is beautifully executed. It's like… it's like EVE online, only… y'know… good. Is it just me, or is the simple act of firing one photon torpedo through a downed sheild just the best? The best!
Anyway, if you ask me, this game should be given out free to everyone forever. So they may bask in its glory. For ever and ever, Beam Me Up.
Lt. Christopher of the USS Constantine
PS Ground combat rules if you go melee. You can Kirk people!
I also played in the open beta and was broken by one mission, the one involving the Vulcan ambassador. The mission broke every tenet Star Trek held up…that we are scientists and intellectuals seeking knowledge and peace.
When the Klingon captain accuses you of hoarding a rogue changeling, I started looking for the diplomatic option…there was none. I then proceeded as an aggressor in open combat instead of the classic defusing role the Federation typically plays. I wanted the non-combat option, and was forced into a sci-fi action movie starring me, my lovable action oriented Vulcan captain.
I've since uninstalled it and gave it up for a pale imitation of Trek. I loved the new movie…especially how even at the end Kirk extends a diplomatic hand. Had Cryptic gotten hold of that script, I fear Kirk would've jumped right to firing everything.
How do you get in the beta? I signed up a couple months ago, but haven't gotten anything in my email.
I don't buy any game without trying it first (unless it's made by Blizzard or Bioware), especially an MMO, so if they want me to give it a chance, they've got to open up the "open" beta, or make a trial version.
In regards to the movie, I figure Kirk was only extending that hand so later he could sock the romulan in person.
As for the game, I greatly enjoy the play, it's a nice pace from Cryptics other ventures where every door has some thugs you trash. I was shocked to have to actually listen to some miners as I heard their problems so I could answer the quiz at the end.
It has a nice blend of tactical combat that I think you could thrive off of in space and some groundwork for rescues and combat. If you were a serious fan of Trek i'd think it could be a radically enjoyable experience.
Hey Dukrous, I know what you mean… That one mission confused me a bit when I did it too. I did manage to get through the entire dialogue tree though, and by the end it is quite diplomatic, trying to extract information from an angry Klingon. Eventually, you run out of conversation topics and the fight begins.
To be fair, he shot first.
I see your point about it being not trek-ish, but there are other missions that are simply exploration, and I've played one that consisted entirely of talking to people and getting thier views on a situation, which I found to be extremely good and fun!
In all fairness, this isn't the Federation from the movies or the shows, this is a Federation embroiled in war on multiple fronts, trying desperately to hang on to the values and principles that made it what it is. So… a majority of missions that are combat oriented are ok by me.
Oooh, and as for the getting into the betea, Dubiosity, go to the Star Trek Online webpage, click on the Open Beta news post, and there are a list of webpages that are giving out keys… Although they go pretty quickly every day
Good luck!
The game is a bit lacking in the diplomatic department, however the game takes place during a war with the Klingons. It only makes sense that open combat would be used. The game is combat focused with skills being allocated to combat (for engineering and tactical officers), and healing/combat buffs (for science officers). I'm Lt. Commander 6 and the game has really opened up. I have missions in almost every sector block.
Tips for new players:
1. Sulu is in the Admiral's Office (but you can hail with him through your communicator after you make initial contact).
2. Never charge into groups of enemies. While it saves time to go in a full impulse and get the fight started it also drains power from your weapons, shields, and aux power. Full impulse until your about 12-15 km out, restore your energy settings and avoid instant death.
3. The Emergency Power to Shields I ability will save your life. Find a Science Bridge Officer with that ability as soon as possible.
4. Badges of Exploration act as currency for the Requisition Officers. If you need new weapons, shields, consoles, ect. you can earn Badges of Exploration through exploration missions and purchase these items. Exploration missions open up around Lt. 3, talk to Lt. Grall and Sulu.
5. Pick up your drops, too many people leaves the drops sitting in space. Since they can't be picked up by anyone else the materials go unused. The drop might contain a new phaser array or shields.
As for beta codes I received mine through fileplanet.com, check the STO website for other locations. The open beta runs through 1/28/2010. Head start begins on 1/29/2010 for pre-orders, and the game officially launches 2/2/2010. If you pre-order you will receive a beta key.
I have feelings similar to Kris about this one. I was never a huge Star Trek fan, but I still find myself wondering if it's the brand that is selling this to me. From a gameplay standpoint, STO is very repetitive. It's the same 4 minutes over and over again.
However, they are a fun 4 minutes. Full impulse to 15km, switch to system energy preset that pumps 90 into Auxiliary power and wait for the enemy to get in range, fire Tachyon Beam, fire Disruptors, launch High Yield Torpedo salvo, reduce throttle to half, reroute power to weapons and keep the enemy in front of you. Maybe start tossing out mines.
All that just feels *right*. I am the captain of the U.S.S. Aurora and that's right, I swapped out my phasers for disruptors.
Under emulation you say? I find myself _intrigued_ by this idea, since I'm not about to reboot my computer for a game.
Koes nailed it. The game can be amazingly repetetive (though to be fair that's probably most MMO's) but the part you're repeating is beautiful. Dropping out of full impulse at the edge of your weapons range and unloading into the side of a bird of prey is just fun.
Also, while at Memory Alpha, I saw a familiar name: Doctor Kirayoshi O'brien. That made me laugh in delight.
We definitely need to get a Starslip fleet going when live hits.
I went from having little interest to preordering after just one week in beta. It's an incredibly addicting game and such a nice change of pace from the usual MMO fodder of elves, swords and dragons.
Two days in, and I'm loving the STO Beta for the space combat, which I continue to find new depths in. How you move (very, very tactical) and time your attacks means at least as much as your abilities and stats. The interface could use a lot of polish, so I can shoot, steer and issue orders to my engineers at the same time, with only two hands, but teaming up with an automatic squadron and taking down a flagship with improvised tactics is a real rush.
They were clearly going for something similar with the ground combat, but the interface is a bit of a mess. It's hard to shoot the target you want to with cone or cylinder area attacks, which are otherwise crazy powerful. The vaporization animation alone might be worth waiting for the interface to improve, though. Striking a vulnerable target for massive damage and atomizing him with a disruptor rifle is the height of comedy.
However, I've found the variety of mission types to be refreshing, especially for an MMO so new, but there were some rough edges that could really cut you there.
The Vulcan Ambassador mission could be a deal breaker, for someone who's really into the Federation ideals and lore. I'm only level nine, but I'm yet to come across anything that feels anywhere near as WRONG as that one manages to. It's right at the beginning, and I've read a lot of negative reviews from folks who clearly stopped right there, so I'm sure this mission will hurt sales a lot.
The game gets a lot more open after that, and I have to assume that this is a byproduct of the early missions getting done first, before the devs found their legs in the universe. Still, I have a feeling that the mistake you're FORCED to make there will come back to haunt/annoy you.
The weird thing is, given the character I'm playing, I'd have chosen to attack anyway, but the lack of an option was quite jarring, especially since I played some 25th Anniversary while waiting for the beta. The mission effectiveness rating system that game used would feel right at home here, if players that choose paranoia over idealism get some reward of their own, to make both options playable.
The other really annoying thing is that it's so hard to get back to a new planet, after you've "discovered" it. Nobody thought to write down the coordinates of the new civilization you found? This is more bad mission scripting, and I wonder if it was by the same guy as did the vulcan mission.
Yeah, I'm loving the beta too, and I didn't think I would like it. It has totally enthralled me. What I will say, Kris, is that if you like it at low levels, just wait until you get out of the Miranda and get a real ship, it gets even better.
So in the game, if you hack the system and change the conditions of the programming, do you get a commendation for original thinking?
How did you get it to run under emulation? Are you using Parallels 5, VMWare 3, or Virtualbox? tried Champions Online under Parallels 5, but that was a no-go. Please advise.
My opinion basically boils down to "The game isn't perfect, BUT". With lots of buts. I've been playing daily since the first day of open beta and I've seen a huge number of improvements just in the last ten days. More importantly, the developers seem to really be listening to the community and trying to integrate what we want into their game.
The gameplay, as mentioned above, is a bit repetitive but it is still fun! The space combat is one of the most enjoyable combat experiences I've had in any MMO. The game is a bit heavy on the action side, but the non-combat missions are surprisingly fun. If you take the time to read all the mission text, you can see the nuggets of some good Trek episodes developing there.
Of course, I pre-ordered the collector's edition and purchased a lifetime subscription so you can tell what my experience has been overall. :p
Zepheros, captain of the USS Feynman.
I really enjoy the game, though at times I find the space battles a little tedious and wish I could do more away missions. But now that I'm more used to maneuvering and have more strategy down, it's a little better. It's cool to see them improving the game as it goes on. Since I've never played a beta or an MMO before, I'm discovering all sorts of new things to do. It's fun to get into an open instance team with people and then go through the missions in a team.
It's exactly the kind of game I'd like to play but it would cost more money than I can justify right now to upgrade my system and pay for the game, so I probably won't be able to play past the beta sadly. I guess it's all to the good because I don't really have the time to be playing it anyway.