Captain's Log, Stardate 77777.1 – Report on Star Trek Online

[spoodie]

I decided to wait until I hit the first promotion, that's level 11 to you, but in STO that's Lieutenant Commander. Bear in mind that I'm mostly soloing at the moment and only team with a few random people I might see in the combat instances. Also This is more of a report than a review, as reviews of MMOs don't really work. I'll post some screenshots later.

Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship USS MacGuffin ...

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI[/media]
Introduction
Much of the game is traditional MMO under a veneer of Star Trek canon. If you're familiar with other MMOs, especially Cryptic MMOs, you'll recognise the staples. This can give you a feeling of comforting familiarity or disappointment, if you were expecting something different. I was initially disappointed but that changed.

Combat
Combat is split into space and land-based. All of the combat areas are instanced, but you'll often be with other players or at least some kind of company. In space that can be other captains in their own ships, which you can choose to party-up with or not. On land you'll always have members of your AI controlled away-team, which do have some squad command functionality. I don't know if you can team up with other players to do surface-based missions or how that works as I've not done it.

Combat on the surface of planets and onboard spacestations is fairly traditional, if a little more action oriented from the norm. It's quite enjoyable and has enough variety in terms of tactics, environments and tasks.

Space combat is were it gets really interesting. Initially you'll think your ship is capable of two speeds; stop and ramming speed. While you're concentrating on shooting, maintaining your shields and using special abilities provided by your bridge officers you may notice that your ship is trying to fly inside the enemy. Fortunately this doesn't cause any damage, until the enemy is defeated and explodes. Then it's best to be a bit further away. After a while you get the hang of controlling your speed, working with other captains and flanking to get at the weak spot in the enemies shields. Compared to Eve the space combat may be a little basic but it's does feel more hands-on and satisfying because of it.

So far, in both combat modes, I found it quite hard to die. Something which I usually achieve quite easily in most other MMOs. And there doesn't seem to be any kind of penalty when you do die, beyond a few seconds down-time. Both of these things are welcome.

Questing/Missions
It's the same as all other expect you can talk to most of the NPCs remotely. You don't get experience for individuals kills, just the mission completion.

Levelling and skills
Your character's progress is somewhat different from other MMOs: As you gain experience you get skills points to spend on skills specific to your class. As you spend these skill points your rank increases. At least that's my understanding and I get by with it.

The more confusing aspect of progression is the skills themselves. Initially the game suggests that new captains should focus on Starship Command (I think), so I maxed that out. That just leaves about 10 other skills that I only vaguely understand. However with a bit of imagination and logical thinking it starts to make more sense. In the end it doesn't matter that much as you can almost max out all the skills in the first tier by the time you get your first promotion. When you become a Lt Commander you get your new tier of skills to spend you points on.

Bridge officers also have skills to upgrade with separate skills points. And you can swap them out and assign more staff to your ship as you are promoted.

Loot
Loot comes in small quantities, but is mostly useful. You're not given much of an opportunity to fill your inventory with junk. Also when in space you can sell loot at any time to the replicator. Which is handy if you're out and about with a full cargo hold.

The upgrade items you get, especially for your ship, can be confusing. I don't know how “astrometrics +5” helps me, but like the skills it's a case of using your imagination. My knowledge of Star Trek only helps a little. Perhaps if you're one of those people that read the ship manuals you're better off. I've just realised there a long list of stats I could look at when fitting new kit, to see what difference it makes.

There are usually a few crafting materials in each instance and they're a free-for-all for anyone in the instance. Dropped items are reserved for individual players.

Social
When I first logged on there was a massive spam problem on the chat channels and the reporting system wasn't working properly. It's most fixed now and I only see the odd one.

I get the impression from lurking on the zone chat that there is a wide range of people playing the game. Perhaps the license has bought in people that wouldn't normal play an MMO. In combat I seem to be one of the more effective players, which makes a nice change. I should really interact more with these potentially normal people.

Exploration and Travel
Moving around the Star Trek world is quite straight forward and fast. To get between instances your ship goes into an abstract space that I suppose is representative of being in warp. It looks like a 3D map and you can point your ship at a destination and sit back for a couple of minutes. However there are roaming enemies to keep an eye out for and avoid if you don't want a fight on the way.

The locations themselves can look quite lovely, especially the ground based ones. With bizarre landscapes and flora. Then you go pew pew and leave.

Space is quite nice as well. If you take the time to visit systems that your missions don't point you to you may get a nice surprise. You can visit places like the space memorial for the Battle of Wolf 359. Where the Borg lead by Picard as Locutus defeated the Federation. There's lots of nice touches if you're familiar with the source material, but it's by no means a requirement.

Crafting
There is crafting but technically you don't do it yourself, you have to visit an NPC and they convert your materials. Initially you're limited to one NPC, but as you use the facility more NPCs will become available to you. What you get, at least initially, is the ability to upgrade items using the crafting materials. From hyposprays (health potions) to ship parts, adding bonuses and changing them from common to uncommon parts.

One good thing about this is that you don't need the materials in your inventory, it works if they're in the bank as well.

Conclusion
All in all I'm enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting to. After Champions Online I thought I was bored with how Cryptic did MMOs, especially considering how broken CO was. In comparison Star Trek Online works like a dream. The only issues I've experienced are some delays on server connections and inventory management (and the spamming, which is mostly gone). There have been no issues that interfere with combat or other parts of the game that require a good response. And no bugged missions either. However I've found it is possible to break missions, temporarily, if you don't follow the prompts and go off hunting for crafting material outside the gameplay area.

You don't need to like or be overly familiar with Star Trek, so long as you don't hate it. For me it's a plus and so is the general sci-fi-ness of it. It's enjoyable working out how to spec out my ship and officers to make them more effective. I'm quite tough anyway, without really knowing how. It's strange because much of the game is quite casual but there are aspects which could be almost impenetrable to a new gamer. It's good there's plenty of people around to ask.

I'm going to continue playing, as it's still a lot of fun, and try to find a fleet (guild) I can get on with.

I now have a free 5 day pass if anyone is interested. Any questions?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Has it stopped feeling like CO, with occasional painfully sluggish space fights?

[Dog Pants]

Hmm. I'm still not convinced, but it sounds better than I expected. I'm curious as to how the fleet stuff is done. I really like the 5punky multiplayer stuff in games, especially being able to help each other out, and if STO did that well and had a little 5punky following I'd maybe give it a shot.

[spoodie]

Has it stopped feeling like CO, with occasional painfully sluggish space fights?

I don't know what you're experiences were but I'd guess it's not changed too much. The land-based combat is similar to CO, but the away team members are a good change. Space combat is more frequent in my experience and sluggish compared to other games. It's required for the shield mechanic and fitting with how ships in Star Trek move, like sea ships.

Hmm. I'm still not convinced, but it sounds better than I expected. I'm curious as to how the fleet stuff is done. I really like the 5punky multiplayer stuff in games, especially being able to help each other out, and if STO did that well and had a little 5punky following I'd maybe give it a shot.

Obviously I don't know much about the fleet side of things, but I'd guess the infrastructure is recycled from Champions, like much of the game.

I'm not trying to sell the game, just venting my brain. It would be good if people started playing but I'm not expecting that to happen. It's a shame it's not possible for anyone to try the final game for free,

[shot2bits]

ive not really watched star trek but if no one else wants the trial key i wouldnt mind giving it a go

[spoodie]

ive not really watched star trek but if no one else wants the trial key i wouldnt mind giving it a go

PM'd

The friends system is carried over from Champions so I might see you online.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I don't know what you're experiences were but I'd guess it's not changed too much. The land-based combat is similar to CO, but the away team members are a good change. Space combat is more frequent in my experience and sluggish compared to other games. It's required for the shield mechanic and fitting with how ships in Star Trek move, like sea ships.

Y'know when you play a game, and you just have that weird feeling that you've done it all before? That's what I got from the land combat in the STO beta, didn't really appeal to me.

As far as the Space combat goes, it's almost perfect if it's trying to be a star trek space combat simulator. Unfortunately, for someone wanting to play a game, it was a lot like being bored to death waiting for cooldowns.

All very tactical feeling, but actually just same old faceroll from any MMO, but with a 5 second cooldown.


Course, it could well be a great game, but I didn't find it at all compelling during the beta, didn't give me any feeling of exploration or progression (same problem I had with CO)

[FatherJack]

I didn't like the space combat and stopped playing the beta as I got bored of what felt like the same fight over and over.

The ground bits were better to look at, but still a bit of a slog, but the one where you didn't do any fighting was a step in the right direction.

This game is a sci-fi shooter with a (to my mind misused) Star Trek license. Phasers and disruptors in the series were typically either 100% or 0% effective with a single shot, but mostly it was about solving problems ingeniously and usually nonviolently.

The 1992 DOS game Star Trek 25th anniversary was closer to what I'd liked to have seen, although I do take the point that this game is about what happens in all the other starships and not everyone can be Captain Kirk.

[spoodie]

I didn't like the space combat and stopped playing the beta as I got bored of what felt like the same fight over and over.

I know what you mean. I was in a one-on-one pvp fight with a Klingon and it just went on and on. I couldn't turn fast enough to hit him with a devastating torpedo volley, so I just kept phasering him and boosting my shields. It took forever.

[shot2bits]

had a quick bash, made a vulcan engineer, i really enjoy the ground combat, it feels like it could be smoother but thats teething problems, the space side of things did feel a bit slow, you cant be perticuarly accurate with the acceleration as there just seems to be go, go slightly faster, then slightly faster again, and top speed and stop, im mainly wondering how customisable ships are, ie can i change the weapons, am i stuck in the same ship the whole game? how many weapons can be fitted, are there different types of ships etc etc.

although its different enough and seems to be not too broken for a new mmo to maybe warant me playing beyond the trial

[spoodie]

the space side of things did feel a bit slow, you cant be perticuarly accurate with the acceleration as there just seems to be go, go slightly faster, then slightly faster again, and top speed and stop, im mainly wondering how customisable ships are, ie can i change the weapons, am i stuck in the same ship the whole game? how many weapons can be fitted, are there different types of ships etc etc.

When you're not in combat you can use full impulse to zoom around quite fast in normal space.

You get a new ship when you're promoted to Lt. Commander. That's as far as I've got, not even used it yet. It does have more slots for ship parts and officers.

Your ship inventory works like any other RPG. You have inventory screens for your, your ship and your bridge officers.

[friznit]

Necro! What's happened to STO? Is anyone still playing it or has it fallen into the 'meh' bin and everyone gone back to WoW and Eve?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Necro! What's happened to STO? Is anyone still playing it or has it fallen into the 'meh' bin and everyone gone back to WoW?

Fix'd for FACT. Joooooiiiiiiin usssss

[spoodie]

Personally I'm bored of all MMOs at the moment. They seem like too much of a chore.

[friznit]

Fix'd for FACT. Joooooiiiiiiin usssss

I was referring to the wider STO community, many of whom were Eve players.

Neveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I really can't see what would draw people to STO for any length of time, the ship combat was painfully slow* and had very little feel of danger.

Person based combat was CO, without the customisation.

*Yes, I realise it's correct for a Star Trek thing, but that doesn't make it fun to play


Do It! We're raiding in a drama free, oddly competent, but uttery 5punky way, it's awesome.

[spoodie]

This is going free to play as of 17th Jan. Or if you played previously you should already be able to login. Not sure it's a good thing, lets see ...

[Anery]

I was given a trial of this a while back at i43, I think I activated it then never arsed downloading it. I might give this a whirl when it goes F2P, I look forward to sailing the in USS Yvonne Magruder

[FatherJack]

It looks like former beta players are able to login and download/patch, at least I am, courtesy of the account I created after buying the lifetime sub for Champions Online which granted me STO beta access. I wasn't particularly impressed with this in beta, but if I can get in will see what's improved.

It had some ideas I liked which were more in tune with the spirit of the TV series - that is, everything before the USS Defiant - but most of the disappointing stuff was in a post-Defiant vein.

In case that needs clarification, by pre-Defiant I mean Exploration, Discovery and Contact/Communication to exciting new worlds and by post-Defiant I mean kill every single motherfucker in the galaxy because it looks so damn cool.


Edit: Can only log in to the site and download client to patch it, it boots me out when the game starts.

[Anery]

Has anyone tried the F2P? is it worth downloading?