I agree that the game is getting better. This is where the game should of been at launch, not that almost Alpha state that it was launched in.
Actually to be where it should have been at launch, they need to thoroughly flesh out the Klingon PvE side of things quite a bit more; only then will it be as they promised it would be at launch.
There it is.
Also, a more useful crafting system, where you can actually SEARCH for the components you need rather than go on blind luck in the nebulae.
Make exploration missions that actually involve exploring. Maybe missions where you can explore for the crafting components noted above.
Get rid of the shoebox map. Remember how in Star Trek, it took the Enterprise hundreds of light years worth of space to do a 180 degree turn? I don't, either.
Completely rework the ground game.
Create social hubs. In particular, create social hubs, then don't do something ANTISOCIAL like making them exclusive to lifers, thereby blowing the whole point of HAVING a social hub.
Also, honorable mention: If you're going to use a "tall ship" design, then how about not creating missions in which you pretty much have to fly straight up for the whole thing?
Anyhoo, do all that, and switch to F2P, then maybe it will be a competitive product.
Having played all the new missions, all I can say is you would have to be mad as a brush to re-subscribe just for them as its just more of the same dull rubbish as before and the rest of the game is in just the samestate as launch with bugger all to do at max level bar grind for differently named emblmes as to what you already have
Oh and the really bad rubber banding in both ground and space area's is even worse than during beta.
Oh, I totaly agree with you that the new episodes are no reason to re-sub. The new weekly episodes are too simple and boarder on being lame. The fact is once you make LG or VA the only things that you can do is your dailies, day after day and an occasional PvP if you can wait for whatever seems forever to get in and then you have to deal with all of the trash that is put out.
The good news? OP is correct, the weekly episodes are a good addition to an ever improving game!
The bad news is that it's far too little.
1) The engine is poor, partly due to what they attempted to do.
STO is very different to "WoW", and yet they try to use the same style UI - it's a disaster.
- I don't want to press 'emergency power to shields II - first copy', nor do I want to press 'attack pattern alpha, attack pattern beta, cannon rapid fire, decloak, fire'. I want to press 'heal me/him', 'buff me', instead I have ~30 buttons many of which are copies of the same thing.
- I sure as hell don't want to press 'balance shields', 'balance shields', 'balance shields' etc. for the whole damn game.
- defensive and offensive targets. Yes, this feature of the future apparently doesn't exist in the Trek version of the future, instead you have a 'cast through' feature - a feature so impressively annoying that it should be immediately disabled when creating a character .
- drop 25 mines in pvp, and suddenly pressing [tab] will give everyone a random mine. Clicking on a target, you better hope that they're not near those mines...
- and then there's the "computer fails to do what you asked it to do" issue...
More than any other game, STO *needed* a customizable UI, but instead they're stuck with an interface designed for CO on the xbox-360.
As the interface seems to be owned by 'cryptic' rather than STO, they don't seem to have the ability to improve it. (practically nothing about the interface has improved since I played CO last year)
2) Random boring content, is still boring.
Go kill 15 boars. Go kill 15 rabbits. Is that 2 different quests? not really.
Go kill 15 boars. Go kill 15 boars, and as you attack the boars an orc army kills them, and attacks you. THAT is 2 different quests - what's more future 'kill 15 boars quests' will be interesting as you're always expecting those orcs to come and flatten you.
Sadly, STO is full of kill 25+ boars and repeat that until your eyes fall out (except they aren't actually as dangerous as boars).
By being instanced STO has the opportunity to create truly interesting quests, way beyond what is possible in any other MMO. Sadly, it is chock-full of the most linear quests of any MMO that I've played.
3) If you visit a planet, and don't even bother looking at the name of the race, does it matter?
The answer is 'no'. Apart from 2-3 key races, all the rest are completely irrelevant. The 'onga-loongas' have the exact same set of classes as the 'bonga-dongas', and fight in the same groups, with the same basic AI as all the other races.
If you don't have any purpose for 'sharks with laser beams on their heads', then don't bother adding them until you find one. Poor content does not add variety, it just makes you realise how little good content is in the game.
4) Crafting/economy. Ho hum...
5) Ground combat. Can't think of anything nice to say here.
6) PvP.
The main/only truly redeeming feature, space PvP, is fun.
--
My main interest is the foundry, I suspect seeing the foundry will explain why the game is full of such dreadful quests - hopefully the playerbase can force cryptic to build on it. That combined with someone taking the click-button UI apart might make something with more appeal outside it's current niche.
Comments
There it is.
Also, a more useful crafting system, where you can actually SEARCH for the components you need rather than go on blind luck in the nebulae.
Make exploration missions that actually involve exploring. Maybe missions where you can explore for the crafting components noted above.
Get rid of the shoebox map. Remember how in Star Trek, it took the Enterprise hundreds of light years worth of space to do a 180 degree turn? I don't, either.
Completely rework the ground game.
Create social hubs. In particular, create social hubs, then don't do something ANTISOCIAL like making them exclusive to lifers, thereby blowing the whole point of HAVING a social hub.
Also, honorable mention: If you're going to use a "tall ship" design, then how about not creating missions in which you pretty much have to fly straight up for the whole thing?
Anyhoo, do all that, and switch to F2P, then maybe it will be a competitive product.
Having played all the new missions, all I can say is you would have to be mad as a brush to re-subscribe just for them as its just more of the same dull rubbish as before and the rest of the game is in just the samestate as launch with bugger all to do at max level bar grind for differently named emblmes as to what you already have
Oh and the really bad rubber banding in both ground and space area's is even worse than during beta.
Oh, I totaly agree with you that the new episodes are no reason to re-sub. The new weekly episodes are too simple and boarder on being lame. The fact is once you make LG or VA the only things that you can do is your dailies, day after day and an occasional PvP if you can wait for whatever seems forever to get in and then you have to deal with all of the trash that is put out.
The good news? OP is correct, the weekly episodes are a good addition to an ever improving game!
The bad news is that it's far too little.
1) The engine is poor, partly due to what they attempted to do.
STO is very different to "WoW", and yet they try to use the same style UI - it's a disaster.
- I don't want to press 'emergency power to shields II - first copy', nor do I want to press 'attack pattern alpha, attack pattern beta, cannon rapid fire, decloak, fire'. I want to press 'heal me/him', 'buff me', instead I have ~30 buttons many of which are copies of the same thing.
- I sure as hell don't want to press 'balance shields', 'balance shields', 'balance shields' etc. for the whole damn game.
- defensive and offensive targets. Yes, this feature of the future apparently doesn't exist in the Trek version of the future, instead you have a 'cast through' feature - a feature so impressively annoying that it should be immediately disabled when creating a character
.
- drop 25 mines in pvp, and suddenly pressing [tab] will give everyone a random mine. Clicking on a target, you better hope that they're not near those mines...
- and then there's the "computer fails to do what you asked it to do" issue...
More than any other game, STO *needed* a customizable UI, but instead they're stuck with an interface designed for CO on the xbox-360.
As the interface seems to be owned by 'cryptic' rather than STO, they don't seem to have the ability to improve it. (practically nothing about the interface has improved since I played CO last year)
2) Random boring content, is still boring.
Go kill 15 boars. Go kill 15 rabbits. Is that 2 different quests? not really.
Go kill 15 boars. Go kill 15 boars, and as you attack the boars an orc army kills them, and attacks you. THAT is 2 different quests - what's more future 'kill 15 boars quests' will be interesting as you're always expecting those orcs to come and flatten you.
Sadly, STO is full of kill 25+ boars and repeat that until your eyes fall out (except they aren't actually as dangerous as boars).
By being instanced STO has the opportunity to create truly interesting quests, way beyond what is possible in any other MMO. Sadly, it is chock-full of the most linear quests of any MMO that I've played.
3) If you visit a planet, and don't even bother looking at the name of the race, does it matter?
The answer is 'no'. Apart from 2-3 key races, all the rest are completely irrelevant. The 'onga-loongas' have the exact same set of classes as the 'bonga-dongas', and fight in the same groups, with the same basic AI as all the other races.
If you don't have any purpose for 'sharks with laser beams on their heads', then don't bother adding them until you find one. Poor content does not add variety, it just makes you realise how little good content is in the game.
4) Crafting/economy. Ho hum...
5) Ground combat. Can't think of anything nice to say here.
6) PvP.
The main/only truly redeeming feature, space PvP, is fun.
--
My main interest is the foundry, I suspect seeing the foundry will explain why the game is full of such dreadful quests - hopefully the playerbase can force cryptic to build on it. That combined with someone taking the click-button UI apart might make something with more appeal outside it's current niche.