Now this is interesting. Sounds like a clever twist on the death penalty. Much depends on just how easy it is to make money ingame.
IP break, though. Federation captains don't buy their crew.
All those IP breaks really add up for me. How can I enjoy a game if every other mechanic in it screams "not Trek"?
Honestly, I think the whole "IP break" thing really depends on how much you're looking for them. I don't notice them at all when I'm playing, but that's because I'm having too much fun and getting really immersed into the universe.
As far as the buying of crew though, I hadn't heard that. I know the idea is that we're supposed to go back to a station to "replenish" our crew, but I'd never heard of having to pay credits for it.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Some nitpicking from the getgo: They re-used a LOT from CO. The menu, some animations, the server architecture. I know it's the same engine, but the first 2 points could/should have been improved upon or at least customized a bit more. Some of the similarities are so glaring they actually hurt.
Scale is all wrong. I understand the need for the areas of the game having to be slightly bigger for playability, but some areas (like the transporter room and mess hall) are comically large. The ship you start on is under attack by the borg and command and security/engineering personnel is having a casual conversation about Klingon politics. When you look outside you can clearly see that the Borg cube is about 5 feet away from the ship and looks like it can fit in its entirety in the mess hall, with even smaller models of federation ships floating about. Given that the area is purely eye candy they surely could have made it look properly sized without compromising performance too much. As it is now it's ridiculously... stupid, i dare say.
Then there's one thing i haven't been able to confirm yet, but it looks like it's true.... There's levels in the game (obviously), and just like CO, 40 is the maximum. However, you start as Ensign, and "rank up" after that with every rank having 10 grades. Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander, Captain and Admiral. First, why no Commander? Second, are you serious? Admiral? So in a few months time there's a few thousand Admirals walking around whereever you go? This is the definition of "immersion-breaker". I get the feeling that Cryptic lost their grip on the IP right there. While everyone wants to be an Admiral, i bet no one wants it if everyone else can get it so easily aswell. Personally i'd much rather stay at something like Lt.Com, or even Com (which doesn't exist for some reason) rather than be handed the ranks of Captain and Admiral on a silver platter just for "trying hard". But i hope everyone gets my point here.
There are (long) loading screens galore, even on the same ship. Why the ship isn't loaded all at once given how small it is is beyond me. That, and some of the design elements are markedly un-star trek. Even Enterprise managed to stay within the design style for the franchise, but for some reason the mess hall you start in looks like something you'd find in Star Wars rather than Star Trek. Also, rather than showing a door to the corridors outside of the mess hall there's only a turbolift, as if the entire ship cannot be navigated without those things. A simple and small addition like a door with a small window on it letting you peek at the corridors of the ship wouldn't be too much to ask, would it? I didn't even see any panels for Jeffreys tube access. I know this goes into a lot of detail, especially for non-trekkies, but those are details which are very easily added and add a LOT to the immersion and mood of the game, never mind that they keep the trekkies happy aswell, which i would have expected to be the target audience for this MMO to begin with.
Good points? Just a few. The music is pretty good, so are the sound effects, which are directly pulled from the television series and movies. The character generation benefits from having it's origins in CO, though i really wanted to make a Cardassian, which would have been possible but they forgot the option for the specific forehead detail... But that's a REALLY insignificant detail.
Still, more bad than good so far. I still have to get on with playing it a bit more when the overcrowding stops and lets me actually play it beyond the starship you start on. I hope the game can redeem itself, but from what i've read in previews it doesn't look good, and from what i can tell so far it's mostly Champions Online with different graphics. Very, very dissappointed, so far.
A Star Trek MMO should not have been about so much combat... Star Wars is about epic spectacle, Star Trek is a space opera. I wonder if the developers know of this tiny little difference. The franchise has climactic combat, yes, but the vast majority of scenes and stories are about and between characters and their problems in the world of tomorrow, about exploring new places and discovering new races. I can't help but think that the developers mixed up Star Trek and Star Wars somewhere on the way, and also took too much from the movie from last year in the endspurt to closed and open beta.
Some nitpicking from the getgo: They re-used a LOT from CO. The menu, some animations, the server architecture. I know it's the same engine, but the first 2 points could/should have been improved upon or at least customized a bit more. Some of the similarities are so glaring they actually hurt. Scale is all wrong. I understand the need for the areas of the game having to be slightly bigger for playability, but some areas (like the transporter room and mess hall) are comically large. The ship you start on is under attack by the borg and command and security/engineering personnel is having a casual conversation about Klingon politics. When you look outside you can clearly see that the Borg cube is about 5 feet away from the ship and looks like it can fit in its entirety in the mess hall, with even smaller models of federation ships floating about. Given that the area is purely eye candy they surely could have made it look properly sized without compromising performance too much. As it is now it's ridiculously... stupid, i dare say. Then there's one thing i haven't been able to confirm yet, but it looks like it's true.... There's levels in the game (obviously), and just like CO, 40 is the maximum. However, you start as Ensign, and "rank up" after that with every rank having 10 grades. Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander, Captain and Admiral. First, why no Commander? Second, are you serious? Admiral? So in a few months time there's a few thousand Admirals walking around whereever you go? This is the definition of "immersion-breaker". I get the feeling that Cryptic lost their grip on the IP right there. While everyone wants to be an Admiral, i bet no one wants it if everyone else can get it so easily aswell. Personally i'd much rather stay at something like Lt.Com, or even Com (which doesn't exist for some reason) rather than be handed the ranks of Captain and Admiral on a silver platter just for "trying hard". But i hope everyone gets my point here. There are (long) loading screens galore, even on the same ship. Why the ship isn't loaded all at once given how small it is is beyond me. That, and some of the design elements are markedly un-star trek. Even Enterprise managed to stay within the design style for the franchise, but for some reason the mess hall you start in looks like something you'd find in Star Wars rather than Star Trek. Also, rather than showing a door to the corridors outside of the mess hall there's only a turbolift, as if the entire ship cannot be navigated without those things. A simple and small addition like a door with a small window on it letting you peek at the corridors of the ship wouldn't be too much to ask, would it? I didn't even see any panels for Jeffreys tube access. I know this goes into a lot of detail, especially for non-trekkies, but those are details which are very easily added and add a LOT to the immersion and mood of the game, never mind that they keep the trekkies happy aswell, which i would have expected to be the target audience for this MMO to begin with. Good points? Just a few. The music is pretty good, so are the sound effects, which are directly pulled from the television series and movies. The character generation benefits from having it's origins in CO, though i really wanted to make a Cardassian, which would have been possible but they forgot the option for the specific forehead detail... But that's a REALLY insignificant detail. Still, more bad than good so far. I still have to get on with playing it a bit more when the overcrowding stops and lets me actually play it beyond the starship you start on. I hope the game can redeem itself, but from what i've read in previews it doesn't look good, and from what i can tell so far it's mostly Champions Online with different graphics. Very, very dissappointed, so far. A Star Trek MMO should not have been about so much combat... Star Wars is about epic spectacle, Star Trek is a space opera. I wonder if the developers know of this tiny little difference. The franchise has climactic combat, yes, but the vast majority of scenes and stories are about and between characters and their problems in the world of tomorrow, about exploring new places and discovering new races. I can't help but think that the developers mixed up Star Trek and Star Wars somewhere on the way, and also took too much from the movie from last year in the endspurt to closed and open beta.
And this is why I say some will like it and some wont. All those bad that you talk about are just nit picky like the cardassian forehead missing. If you can't get over the scale of doors and ships and interiors and just play the game for the trek that it is, then you wont like it. To much nitpicking about small stuff that really doesn't matter a hill of beans, But to a trekkie, its like cryptic took the bible and stomped on it. Sorry, To me this is a game and it is fun and I am going to even say great, in my opinion. I see all the little details that are wrong or exaggerated or just plain missing and I have no problems at all ignoring that because some of it is done for MMO reasons and people really do not understand that concept. If they did, then it really wouldn't bother them. No offense crome, like I said, not everyone is going to like STO and I can understand where your coming from but to me, they are minor minor things and I am not going to try and talk you into ignoring them because your version of how you want trek to be is your version. But just take this with you when you look at this game. 2 years in development, for what they have gotten in, in those 2 years is amazing. Maybe instead of playing it at launch, come back in a year and it might be more to your liking, but then again, many of those mmo elements that are in there, will not change and will probably still bug you enough that you might not be able to overlook them.
Now this is interesting. Sounds like a clever twist on the death penalty. Much depends on just how easy it is to make money ingame.
IP break, though. Federation captains don't buy their crew.
All those IP breaks really add up for me. How can I enjoy a game if every other mechanic in it screams "not Trek"?
I'll grant you that, except as I noted in another post somewhere, Star Trek has always been unclear how their economy really works. There is also consideration as to how a finite number of crewmen are distributed among the fleet. Letting crewmen die certainly has a cost. Perhaps if Cryptic had implemented some type of captain reputation system instead of "credits" (money). Killing crewmen "drains" your reputation. But the only real difference then would be the term used. The function would be the same.
It sounds like a reasonable compromise, again provided money doesn't flow at such a high rate that the penalty is moot.
Originally posted by ChromeBallz A Star Trek MMO should not have been about so much combat... Star Wars is about epic spectacle, Star Trek is a space opera. I wonder if the developers know of this tiny little difference. The franchise has climactic combat, yes, but the vast majority of scenes and stories are about and between characters and their problems in the world of tomorrow, about exploring new places and discovering new races. I can't help but think that the developers mixed up Star Trek and Star Wars somewhere on the way, and also took too much from the movie from last year in the endspurt to closed and open beta.
This is what I was hoping would not be true. I knew knew it was, based on dev statements and leaked reports, but the game supporters kept admonishing me to keep an open mind.
Well, my mind is open. Anyone able to me this gentleman is wrong?
Originally posted by ChromeBallz A Star Trek MMO should not have been about so much combat... Star Wars is about epic spectacle, Star Trek is a space opera. I wonder if the developers know of this tiny little difference. The franchise has climactic combat, yes, but the vast majority of scenes and stories are about and between characters and their problems in the world of tomorrow, about exploring new places and discovering new races. I can't help but think that the developers mixed up Star Trek and Star Wars somewhere on the way, and also took too much from the movie from last year in the endspurt to closed and open beta.
This is what I was hoping would not be true. I knew knew it was, based on dev statements and leaked reports, but the game supporters kept admonishing me to keep an open mind.
Well, my mind is open. Anyone able to me this gentleman is wrong?
Is he wrong? Kind of.
As far as stories between characters, that's something you really can't do very well in an MMO. I mean you kind of can, and there's some stuff that goes on in STO, but we're talking about a different medium here. There is still plenty of stuff about the problems of the world of tomorrow, exploring new places and discovering new civilizations.
That being said, the universe of 2409 is a bit more chaotic than that of TNG. Think more the Dominion War. The Cardassians are trying to rebuild. The Romluans are still trying to recover from losing their homeworld and their leaders. The Federation has it's own internal strife. The Undine (Species 8472) are lurking in the shadows. The Borg have made a reappearance. The Klingons are at war with everybody.
Honestly I'd like it if someone could point out a Star Trek video game with more of the exploration/diplomacy/etc than STO has. They did a pretty decent job of making you feel like you're actually doing various non-combat missions for the Federation. You just have to play for more than an hour to really get into it.
As far as people not trusting me, well, that's fine if it makes you feel better. Personally I don't trust anyone that's registered today, but that's just me.
Regarding the Cardassian head thing, I believe they took that out briefly for closed beta because they wanted to update it. The last Cardassian I saw had a perfectly formed Cardassian forehead on her though. It still being beta, there's a few things they're tweaking. Anyone who was in closed beta can tell you though, even in the last week they've made HUGE improvements, iteration, and polish on the game.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Thanks for the info. My question is, outside of Tribbles that everyone seems to be interested in, what about depth and immersion? From what I understand there's no crafting, is that right? I also hear that the game missions get old quickly. So what exactly is the catch? What's going to hold my interest after a month of play?
It's pretty evident you've made up your mind already, so lets not play these little forum games, shall we?
If anyone has any actual questions on beta or game systems and whatnot, feel free to post them.
Um, excuse me but I'm really asking. Do you not want to answer or what? There are a lot of people out there wading through all the information to figure out if they want to spend the cash or not. No need to get offended about it.
Well I know what you're doing, and you know what you're doing, but I guess you'll just keep rolling along eh? Okay I will play the game....
So anyone who has any questions about the game that you can't give glowing positive answers to is a troll? Lol. You've hurt your credibility big time.
So anyone who has any questions about the game that you can't give glowing positive answers to is a troll? Lol. You've hurt your credibility big time.
Really? I didn't think so until you just told me. Crap, what will I do? I guess I'll have to stop posting. If this board had emoticons I would put a sad face. And yet, still no real urge to play "impress me" on the forums.
Seriously, getting impressions from people who've played is all well and good, but have some sense and play the game to make the decision for yourselves. It's the sensible thing to do. Don't just listen to the haters who've made up their minds (some without having played the game), or even all of us who say we're having loads of fun playing the game.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
The fleet actions sound a lot like Warhammer's PQs, which is good, as they were one of the best features of that game. It's good to see other games using similar mechanics. To my fans: there, see? I said something positive.
Haha Yay! I knew you could do it!
I know you're just concerned, and having played the open beta, I'll say it's a fun fun game. Lots of customization from skills, to looks, to ships. Immersive missions. Fun combat on ground and in space. They even have a psuedo aim down sights mechanic to increase damage at the loss of mobility.
I did not play the beta as much as some STO fans. I am a Champions Fanatic and so I want Cryptic to succeed, but I can't recommend STO unless you are going to "make it work", like I did with CO. What I mean is that if you are 100% determined to enjoy STO, then you probably can do it, like I did with CO, but it involves going insane and changing your definition of quality (half-joking). I say similar things about CO as STO fans say about STO, "use your imagination and it is very immersive", "i am a realist', and many more.
After a few months of playing only CO I decided to replay Mass Effect for a little while, and I felt like I had jumped 10 years into the future of producton value. I still play CO everyday, but since playing Mass Effect I have remembered what quality is, so I see why most folks find CO grotesque (but after 1000 hours who does not love to be a game wizard eh?).
Basically my complaints about STO are the same as everyone else's complaints about CO:
1. Way too instanced, does not feel like space, too many loading screens.
2. Weak death penalty either makes everything trivial or impossible: either you can zerg it, which is trivial, or man if you can't even zerg it then it is impossible. Also the devs stated many times that they want little to no death penalty.
3. You spend a lot of time doing missions that are too menial to team up for.
4. While the general space maps were ok, I found the maps for the away missions (planets) to be ghastly. A lot like the planets in Mass Effect actually, about 1/2 a square mile of barren terrain with the only interesting features coinciding exactly with the things you have to interact with, and again suffering from problem (3), too menial to be worth two load screens. An experienced community modder could make maps like these in an editor in just a few minutes each.
5. Exploration and crafting (didn't get to play them, just read beta forums) were added pretty late and were kind of the nail in the coffin for me and this game, my only hope for STO was that it would have a procedurally generated crafting/exploring end game with long term character progression.
As a ST fan, the biggest problems for me were 1, 4, and 5. For MMO fans, I find 2 and 3 to spoil the game: you cannot play it with the intensity of challenge in a WoW or EVE. The game will stop challenging you long before you master it, and the best way to have fun is to use your imagination / pseudo-roleplay / gimp yourself for variety sake, you guys probably know what I am trying to convey. Eventually everyone will be an admiral, and yes there was heavy pleading and whine-quitting over the "admiral" issue in the beta forums, and Cryptic inexplicably took a hardline on this choice of designation. After the first month CO had about 5,000 "admirals" (lvl 40s) amongst 1million total characters (the total includes all characters, including those that had been deleted, created just for testing, etc).
I did not play the beta as much as some STO fans. I am a Champions Fanatic and so I want Cryptic to succeed, but I can't recommend STO unless you are going to "make it work", like I did with CO. What I mean is that if you are 100% determined to enjoy STO, then you probably can do it, like I did with CO, but it involves going insane and changing your definition of quality (half-joking). I say similar things about CO as STO fans say about STO, "use your imagination and it is very immersive", "i am a realist', and many more.
After a few months of playing only CO I decided to replay Mass Effect for a little while, and I felt like I had jumped 10 years into the future of producton value. I still play CO everyday, but since playing Mass Effect I have remembered what quality is, so I see why most folks find CO grotesque (but after 1000 hours who does not love to be a game wizard eh?).
Basically my complaints about STO are the same as everyone else's complaints about CO:
1. Way too instanced, does not feel like space, too many loading screens.
2. Weak death penalty either makes everything trivial or impossible: either you can zerg it, which is trivial, or man if you can't even zerg it then it is impossible. Also the devs stated many times that they want little to no death penalty.
3. You spend a lot of time doing missions that are too menial to team up for.
4. While the general space maps were ok, I found the maps for the away missions (planets) to be ghastly. A lot like the planets in Mass Effect actually, about 1/2 a square mile of barren terrain with the only interesting features coinciding exactly with the things you have to interact with, and again suffering from problem (3), too menial to be worth two load screens. An experienced community modder could make maps like these in an editor in just a few minutes each.
5. Exploration and crafting (didn't get to play them, just read beta forums) were added pretty late and were kind of the nail in the coffin for me and this game, my only hope for STO was that it would have a procedurally generated crafting/exploring end game with long term character progression.
As a ST fan, the biggest problems for me were 1, 4, and 5. For MMO fans, I find 2 and 3 to spoil the game: you cannot play it with the intensity of challenge in a WoW or EVE. The game will stop challenging you long before you master it, and the best way to have fun is to use your imagination / pseudo-roleplay / gimp yourself for variety sake, you guys probably know what I am trying to convey. Eventually everyone will be an admiral, and yes there was heavy pleading and whine-quitting over the "admiral" issue in the beta forums, and Cryptic inexplicably took a hardline on this choice of designation. After the first month CO had about 5,000 "admirals" (lvl 40s) amongst 1million total characters (the total includes all characters, including those that had been deleted, created just for testing, etc).
Did you do the Champions Beta? and if you did could you compare them? I'm wondering if you like CO do you think that STO where it is now can improve out of Beta like Champions did?
I did not play the beta as much as some STO fans. I am a Champions Fanatic and so I want Cryptic to succeed, but I can't recommend STO unless you are going to "make it work", like I did with CO. What I mean is that if you are 100% determined to enjoy STO, then you probably can do it, like I did with CO, but it involves going insane and changing your definition of quality (half-joking). I say similar things about CO as STO fans say about STO, "use your imagination and it is very immersive", "i am a realist', and many more.
After a few months of playing only CO I decided to replay Mass Effect for a little while, and I felt like I had jumped 10 years into the future of producton value. I still play CO everyday, but since playing Mass Effect I have remembered what quality is, so I see why most folks find CO grotesque (but after 1000 hours who does not love to be a game wizard eh?).
Basically my complaints about STO are the same as everyone else's complaints about CO:
1. Way too instanced, does not feel like space, too many loading screens.
I am not really what you would call an instance fan but for me, it actually felt like it worked really well in STO. What would have fixed this problem for a lot of people is if they had done something like mass effect did when it was loading. They should have made your ship be in warp during the loading screens and I don't think it would have bothered people nearly as much.
2. Weak death penalty either makes everything trivial or impossible: either you can zerg it, which is trivial, or man if you can't even zerg it then it is impossible. Also the devs stated many times that they want little to no death penalty.
Wait till you start having to hire your crew back due to death, you wont think it so weak lol. During missions that I was solo in, I never zerged anything, but you do have a lot of those folks that wont read whats going on in the quest and just click through it and take off. Thats why I like the solo option. If I can't find a group that wants to take their time and go through it, then I would rather do it solo then deal with people who have MMO adhd and cant be bothered to do anything other than storm to the top level as fast as they can. And this is coming from someone who knows how to level in MMO's and who plays them usually 4-5 hours a day, every day. This has been the first MMO since EverQuest, that I actually want to spend time reading the lore and just enjoy the feeling of, you are the captain and you are making a difference for starfleet. And this is coming from someone who loves the shows but that is about as far as I would take it. I dont go to any of the conventions, I dont read the books, I just enjoyed the shows and thats the feeling I get from playing the game.
3. You spend a lot of time doing missions that are too menial to team up for.
There are a few in there like that, but remember, when you team up, it scales the mission in difficulty for teams, so there really isn't to much problems with menial missions.
4. While the general space maps were ok, I found the maps for the away missions (planets) to be ghastly. A lot like the planets in Mass Effect actually, about 1/2 a square mile of barren terrain with the only interesting features coinciding exactly with the things you have to interact with, and again suffering from problem (3), too menial to be worth two load screens.
I can't really argue this point other than this. You see about what you see, just like in the tv shows.
5. Exploration and crafting (didn't get to play them, just read beta forums) were added pretty late and were kind of the nail in the coffin for me and this game, my only hope for STO was that it would have a procedurally generated crafting/exploring end game with long term character progression.
And it probably will.
As a ST fan, the biggest problems for me were 1, 4, and 5. For MMO fans, I find 2 and 3 to spoil the game: you cannot play it with the intensity of challenge in a WoW or EVE. The game will stop challenging you long before you master it, and the best way to have fun is to use your imagination / pseudo-roleplay / gimp yourself for variety sake, you guys probably know what I am trying to convey. Eventually everyone will be an admiral, and yes there was heavy pleading and whine-quitting over the "admiral" issue in the beta forums, and Cryptic inexplicably took a hardline on this choice of designation. After the first month CO had about 5,000 "admirals" (lvl 40s) amongst 1million total characters (the total includes all characters, including those that had been deleted, created just for testing, etc).
What about playing the game for fun? Does every game have to be super intense or extremely hard? I dunno, I see a couple things here. I am willing to bet that the old hardcore EQ type players would probably enjoy this game more than the WoW type players. And to me, that says a lot about a game. The game doesn't hand hold you through out the game. it doesn't draw pretty lines to go from your quest giver to the mobs you got to kill. it makes you take time to learn the universe on your own, without saying, Here ya go sony, let me draw you a map to where you have to go.
I also don't have a problem with the admiral issue. This is an MMO and eventually your going to have tons of folks at end level. For star trek sake, I really think they should have put in commander and made captain the last level and left admiral off the list, but it is just a game. People need to quit taking that so seriously. I remember the whines that used to go on in SWG, OMG, we are going to have millions of jedi running around and its wrong! To crap like that, I am sorry, nobody gets any sympathy from me because its just a game, enjoy it for what it is and not what you feel it should have been. BTW, that was a generalization, not directed at championsfan.
My one question is how is the flying in space. Is it a simulator/fps like SWG or is it something else. What is the movement like in space?
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
PS - Why has complaining about loading screens become the IT thing to do these days? Way too many over-entitled sensibilities these days. And yes, it IS too much to ask for an mmo that has zero loading screens.
Originally posted by tman5 I'll grant you that, except as I noted in another post somewhere, Star Trek has always been unclear how their economy really works. There is also consideration as to how a finite number of crewmen are distributed among the fleet. Letting crewmen die certainly has a cost. Perhaps if Cryptic had implemented some type of captain reputation system instead of "credits" (money). Killing crewmen "drains" your reputation. But the only real difference then would be the term used. The function would be the same.
It sounds like a reasonable compromise, again provided money doesn't flow at such a high rate that the penalty is moot.
Great suggestion actually
And it wouldn't be the same since getting money and the reputation of being a good captain is 2 very different things.
My one question is how is the flying in space. Is it a simulator/fps like SWG or is it something else. What is the movement like in space?
Turning ships are really slow, your not going to turn around on a dime. heck, your not going to turn around on a basketball court, at least not for the bigger cruiser type ships. I never played the space expansion of swg and I am trying to think of a game that I could compare it to but nothing really comes to mind. You can't go straight up or down, I would say it is probably a 75ish degree angle up and down. This will cause you to, on occasion, have to spiral downwards or upwards towards your target. It is a little annoying and I think it is possible they could increase that range but only time will tell. You cant just look at flying, you also have to think about all the other stuff you have to do while your flying. managing your shields, managing your power (later on in the bigger ships) using your abilities, along with trying to fly the ship and try to keep the enemy from out maneuvering you and forcing you to start over on a fresh shield.
My one question is how is the flying in space. Is it a simulator/fps like SWG or is it something else. What is the movement like in space?
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
ya know, I was going to mention dark space but I doubted that a lot of people had ever seen that game. I would also say that while its similar to dark space, its MUCH slower moving compared to that game.
My one question is how is the flying in space. Is it a simulator/fps like SWG or is it something else. What is the movement like in space?
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
Ok thanks, I think I get the jist. So what is the targeting like is it just tab/target fire specials or do you actually have to aim at what your shooting.
My one question is how is the flying in space. Is it a simulator/fps like SWG or is it something else. What is the movement like in space?
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
ya know, I was going to mention dark space but I doubted that a lot of people had ever seen that game. I would also say that while its similar to dark space, its MUCH slower moving compared to that game.
In. The. Starter. Ship.
I didn't bother mentioning that because it's the starter ship. It's supposed to be slow and clumsy and weak. Unless you've experienced end-game ship tiers, in which case I still shrug because it's still fun.
Is he wrong? Kind of. As far as stories between characters, that's something you really can't do very well in an MMO. I mean you kind of can, and there's some stuff that goes on in STO, but we're talking about a different medium here. There is still plenty of stuff about the problems of the world of tomorrow, exploring new places and discovering new civilizations. That being said, the universe of 2409 is a bit more chaotic than that of TNG. Think more the Dominion War. The Cardassians are trying to rebuild. The Romluans are still trying to recover from losing their homeworld and their leaders. The Federation has it's own internal strife. The Undine (Species 8472) are lurking in the shadows. The Borg have made a reappearance. The Klingons are at war with everybody.
You can't claim Cryptic is creatively limited by a storyline which they wrote themselves. It's pretty likely that they wrote the storyline to match the game they wanted to make, not the other way around.
It's the same as the 'they only had two years to make it'. Their choice there, too.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Did you do the Champions Beta? and if you did could you compare them? I'm wondering if you like CO do you think that STO where it is now can improve out of Beta like Champions did?
Yes I was in beta for CO, and in comparison I feel like STO made more progress in a shorter time than CO did. On the otherhand, I liked CO as soon as I played it (it was more polished at a chronologically earlier point of beta), while STO went from "I'm not sure even major ST fans will like it" to "ST fans might not regret the purchase but MMO fans probably will feel similar to CO." But the point is that improvements came to STO faster, Cryptic has been working like madmen on it, and so there is some hope in this regard.
My one question is how is the flying in space. Is it a simulator/fps like SWG or is it something else. What is the movement like in space?
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
Ok thanks, I think I get the jist. So what is the targeting like is it just tab/target fire specials or do you actually have to aim at what your shooting.
Think of more or less any MMO you have played. Tab target or click. Then hit 1-9 (1-3 for the first 10 levels) to choose your attack. Thats about it really. Simulates the complexity of ST ship combat like GTA simulates the complexity of formula one.
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Comments
IP break, though. Federation captains don't buy their crew.
All those IP breaks really add up for me. How can I enjoy a game if every other mechanic in it screams "not Trek"?
Honestly, I think the whole "IP break" thing really depends on how much you're looking for them. I don't notice them at all when I'm playing, but that's because I'm having too much fun and getting really immersed into the universe.
As far as the buying of crew though, I hadn't heard that. I know the idea is that we're supposed to go back to a station to "replenish" our crew, but I'd never heard of having to pay credits for it.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Some nitpicking from the getgo: They re-used a LOT from CO. The menu, some animations, the server architecture. I know it's the same engine, but the first 2 points could/should have been improved upon or at least customized a bit more. Some of the similarities are so glaring they actually hurt.
Scale is all wrong. I understand the need for the areas of the game having to be slightly bigger for playability, but some areas (like the transporter room and mess hall) are comically large. The ship you start on is under attack by the borg and command and security/engineering personnel is having a casual conversation about Klingon politics. When you look outside you can clearly see that the Borg cube is about 5 feet away from the ship and looks like it can fit in its entirety in the mess hall, with even smaller models of federation ships floating about. Given that the area is purely eye candy they surely could have made it look properly sized without compromising performance too much. As it is now it's ridiculously... stupid, i dare say.
Then there's one thing i haven't been able to confirm yet, but it looks like it's true.... There's levels in the game (obviously), and just like CO, 40 is the maximum. However, you start as Ensign, and "rank up" after that with every rank having 10 grades. Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander, Captain and Admiral. First, why no Commander? Second, are you serious? Admiral? So in a few months time there's a few thousand Admirals walking around whereever you go? This is the definition of "immersion-breaker". I get the feeling that Cryptic lost their grip on the IP right there. While everyone wants to be an Admiral, i bet no one wants it if everyone else can get it so easily aswell. Personally i'd much rather stay at something like Lt.Com, or even Com (which doesn't exist for some reason) rather than be handed the ranks of Captain and Admiral on a silver platter just for "trying hard". But i hope everyone gets my point here.
There are (long) loading screens galore, even on the same ship. Why the ship isn't loaded all at once given how small it is is beyond me. That, and some of the design elements are markedly un-star trek. Even Enterprise managed to stay within the design style for the franchise, but for some reason the mess hall you start in looks like something you'd find in Star Wars rather than Star Trek. Also, rather than showing a door to the corridors outside of the mess hall there's only a turbolift, as if the entire ship cannot be navigated without those things. A simple and small addition like a door with a small window on it letting you peek at the corridors of the ship wouldn't be too much to ask, would it? I didn't even see any panels for Jeffreys tube access. I know this goes into a lot of detail, especially for non-trekkies, but those are details which are very easily added and add a LOT to the immersion and mood of the game, never mind that they keep the trekkies happy aswell, which i would have expected to be the target audience for this MMO to begin with.
Good points? Just a few. The music is pretty good, so are the sound effects, which are directly pulled from the television series and movies. The character generation benefits from having it's origins in CO, though i really wanted to make a Cardassian, which would have been possible but they forgot the option for the specific forehead detail... But that's a REALLY insignificant detail.
Still, more bad than good so far. I still have to get on with playing it a bit more when the overcrowding stops and lets me actually play it beyond the starship you start on. I hope the game can redeem itself, but from what i've read in previews it doesn't look good, and from what i can tell so far it's mostly Champions Online with different graphics. Very, very dissappointed, so far.
A Star Trek MMO should not have been about so much combat... Star Wars is about epic spectacle, Star Trek is a space opera. I wonder if the developers know of this tiny little difference. The franchise has climactic combat, yes, but the vast majority of scenes and stories are about and between characters and their problems in the world of tomorrow, about exploring new places and discovering new races. I can't help but think that the developers mixed up Star Trek and Star Wars somewhere on the way, and also took too much from the movie from last year in the endspurt to closed and open beta.
Playing: WF
Played: WoW, GW2, L2, WAR, AoC, DnL (2005), GW, LotRO, EQ2, TOR, CoH (RIP), STO, TSW, TERA, EVE, ESO, BDO
Tried: EQ, UO, AO, EnB, TCoS, Fury, Ryzom, EU, DDO, TR, RF, CO, Aion, VG, DN, Vindictus, AA
See? Even there, your standards are low. She's okay, but If I was dreaming, it would be about Jessica Alba.
lol... well, as long as we are nit picking I wholely agree.
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And this is why I say some will like it and some wont. All those bad that you talk about are just nit picky like the cardassian forehead missing. If you can't get over the scale of doors and ships and interiors and just play the game for the trek that it is, then you wont like it. To much nitpicking about small stuff that really doesn't matter a hill of beans, But to a trekkie, its like cryptic took the bible and stomped on it. Sorry, To me this is a game and it is fun and I am going to even say great, in my opinion. I see all the little details that are wrong or exaggerated or just plain missing and I have no problems at all ignoring that because some of it is done for MMO reasons and people really do not understand that concept. If they did, then it really wouldn't bother them. No offense crome, like I said, not everyone is going to like STO and I can understand where your coming from but to me, they are minor minor things and I am not going to try and talk you into ignoring them because your version of how you want trek to be is your version. But just take this with you when you look at this game. 2 years in development, for what they have gotten in, in those 2 years is amazing. Maybe instead of playing it at launch, come back in a year and it might be more to your liking, but then again, many of those mmo elements that are in there, will not change and will probably still bug you enough that you might not be able to overlook them.
IP break, though. Federation captains don't buy their crew.
All those IP breaks really add up for me. How can I enjoy a game if every other mechanic in it screams "not Trek"?
I'll grant you that, except as I noted in another post somewhere, Star Trek has always been unclear how their economy really works. There is also consideration as to how a finite number of crewmen are distributed among the fleet. Letting crewmen die certainly has a cost. Perhaps if Cryptic had implemented some type of captain reputation system instead of "credits" (money). Killing crewmen "drains" your reputation. But the only real difference then would be the term used. The function would be the same.
It sounds like a reasonable compromise, again provided money doesn't flow at such a high rate that the penalty is moot.
some more reviews?
i dont trust Blurr
This is what I was hoping would not be true. I knew knew it was, based on dev statements and leaked reports, but the game supporters kept admonishing me to keep an open mind.
Well, my mind is open. Anyone able to me this gentleman is wrong?
This is what I was hoping would not be true. I knew knew it was, based on dev statements and leaked reports, but the game supporters kept admonishing me to keep an open mind.
Well, my mind is open. Anyone able to me this gentleman is wrong?
Is he wrong? Kind of.
As far as stories between characters, that's something you really can't do very well in an MMO. I mean you kind of can, and there's some stuff that goes on in STO, but we're talking about a different medium here. There is still plenty of stuff about the problems of the world of tomorrow, exploring new places and discovering new civilizations.
That being said, the universe of 2409 is a bit more chaotic than that of TNG. Think more the Dominion War. The Cardassians are trying to rebuild. The Romluans are still trying to recover from losing their homeworld and their leaders. The Federation has it's own internal strife. The Undine (Species 8472) are lurking in the shadows. The Borg have made a reappearance. The Klingons are at war with everybody.
Honestly I'd like it if someone could point out a Star Trek video game with more of the exploration/diplomacy/etc than STO has. They did a pretty decent job of making you feel like you're actually doing various non-combat missions for the Federation. You just have to play for more than an hour to really get into it.
As far as people not trusting me, well, that's fine if it makes you feel better. Personally I don't trust anyone that's registered today, but that's just me.
Regarding the Cardassian head thing, I believe they took that out briefly for closed beta because they wanted to update it. The last Cardassian I saw had a perfectly formed Cardassian forehead on her though. It still being beta, there's a few things they're tweaking. Anyone who was in closed beta can tell you though, even in the last week they've made HUGE improvements, iteration, and polish on the game.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
It's pretty evident you've made up your mind already, so lets not play these little forum games, shall we?
If anyone has any actual questions on beta or game systems and whatnot, feel free to post them.
Um, excuse me but I'm really asking. Do you not want to answer or what? There are a lot of people out there wading through all the information to figure out if they want to spend the cash or not. No need to get offended about it.
Well I know what you're doing, and you know what you're doing, but I guess you'll just keep rolling along eh? Okay I will play the game....
So anyone who has any questions about the game that you can't give glowing positive answers to is a troll? Lol. You've hurt your credibility big time.
Really? I didn't think so until you just told me. Crap, what will I do? I guess I'll have to stop posting. If this board had emoticons I would put a sad face. And yet, still no real urge to play "impress me" on the forums.
Seriously, getting impressions from people who've played is all well and good, but have some sense and play the game to make the decision for yourselves. It's the sensible thing to do. Don't just listen to the haters who've made up their minds (some without having played the game), or even all of us who say we're having loads of fun playing the game.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Haha Yay! I knew you could do it!
I know you're just concerned, and having played the open beta, I'll say it's a fun fun game. Lots of customization from skills, to looks, to ships. Immersive missions. Fun combat on ground and in space. They even have a psuedo aim down sights mechanic to increase damage at the loss of mobility.
I did not play the beta as much as some STO fans. I am a Champions Fanatic and so I want Cryptic to succeed, but I can't recommend STO unless you are going to "make it work", like I did with CO. What I mean is that if you are 100% determined to enjoy STO, then you probably can do it, like I did with CO, but it involves going insane and changing your definition of quality (half-joking). I say similar things about CO as STO fans say about STO, "use your imagination and it is very immersive", "i am a realist', and many more.
After a few months of playing only CO I decided to replay Mass Effect for a little while, and I felt like I had jumped 10 years into the future of producton value. I still play CO everyday, but since playing Mass Effect I have remembered what quality is, so I see why most folks find CO grotesque (but after 1000 hours who does not love to be a game wizard eh?).
Basically my complaints about STO are the same as everyone else's complaints about CO:
1. Way too instanced, does not feel like space, too many loading screens.
2. Weak death penalty either makes everything trivial or impossible: either you can zerg it, which is trivial, or man if you can't even zerg it then it is impossible. Also the devs stated many times that they want little to no death penalty.
3. You spend a lot of time doing missions that are too menial to team up for.
4. While the general space maps were ok, I found the maps for the away missions (planets) to be ghastly. A lot like the planets in Mass Effect actually, about 1/2 a square mile of barren terrain with the only interesting features coinciding exactly with the things you have to interact with, and again suffering from problem (3), too menial to be worth two load screens. An experienced community modder could make maps like these in an editor in just a few minutes each.
5. Exploration and crafting (didn't get to play them, just read beta forums) were added pretty late and were kind of the nail in the coffin for me and this game, my only hope for STO was that it would have a procedurally generated crafting/exploring end game with long term character progression.
As a ST fan, the biggest problems for me were 1, 4, and 5. For MMO fans, I find 2 and 3 to spoil the game: you cannot play it with the intensity of challenge in a WoW or EVE. The game will stop challenging you long before you master it, and the best way to have fun is to use your imagination / pseudo-roleplay / gimp yourself for variety sake, you guys probably know what I am trying to convey. Eventually everyone will be an admiral, and yes there was heavy pleading and whine-quitting over the "admiral" issue in the beta forums, and Cryptic inexplicably took a hardline on this choice of designation. After the first month CO had about 5,000 "admirals" (lvl 40s) amongst 1million total characters (the total includes all characters, including those that had been deleted, created just for testing, etc).
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
I did not play the beta as much as some STO fans. I am a Champions Fanatic and so I want Cryptic to succeed, but I can't recommend STO unless you are going to "make it work", like I did with CO. What I mean is that if you are 100% determined to enjoy STO, then you probably can do it, like I did with CO, but it involves going insane and changing your definition of quality (half-joking). I say similar things about CO as STO fans say about STO, "use your imagination and it is very immersive", "i am a realist', and many more.
After a few months of playing only CO I decided to replay Mass Effect for a little while, and I felt like I had jumped 10 years into the future of producton value. I still play CO everyday, but since playing Mass Effect I have remembered what quality is, so I see why most folks find CO grotesque (but after 1000 hours who does not love to be a game wizard eh?).
Basically my complaints about STO are the same as everyone else's complaints about CO:
1. Way too instanced, does not feel like space, too many loading screens.
2. Weak death penalty either makes everything trivial or impossible: either you can zerg it, which is trivial, or man if you can't even zerg it then it is impossible. Also the devs stated many times that they want little to no death penalty.
3. You spend a lot of time doing missions that are too menial to team up for.
4. While the general space maps were ok, I found the maps for the away missions (planets) to be ghastly. A lot like the planets in Mass Effect actually, about 1/2 a square mile of barren terrain with the only interesting features coinciding exactly with the things you have to interact with, and again suffering from problem (3), too menial to be worth two load screens. An experienced community modder could make maps like these in an editor in just a few minutes each.
5. Exploration and crafting (didn't get to play them, just read beta forums) were added pretty late and were kind of the nail in the coffin for me and this game, my only hope for STO was that it would have a procedurally generated crafting/exploring end game with long term character progression.
As a ST fan, the biggest problems for me were 1, 4, and 5. For MMO fans, I find 2 and 3 to spoil the game: you cannot play it with the intensity of challenge in a WoW or EVE. The game will stop challenging you long before you master it, and the best way to have fun is to use your imagination / pseudo-roleplay / gimp yourself for variety sake, you guys probably know what I am trying to convey. Eventually everyone will be an admiral, and yes there was heavy pleading and whine-quitting over the "admiral" issue in the beta forums, and Cryptic inexplicably took a hardline on this choice of designation. After the first month CO had about 5,000 "admirals" (lvl 40s) amongst 1million total characters (the total includes all characters, including those that had been deleted, created just for testing, etc).
Did you do the Champions Beta? and if you did could you compare them? I'm wondering if you like CO do you think that STO where it is now can improve out of Beta like Champions did?
My one question is how is the flying in space.
Is it a simulator/fps like SWG or is it something else. What is the movement like in space?
I did not play the beta as much as some STO fans. I am a Champions Fanatic and so I want Cryptic to succeed, but I can't recommend STO unless you are going to "make it work", like I did with CO. What I mean is that if you are 100% determined to enjoy STO, then you probably can do it, like I did with CO, but it involves going insane and changing your definition of quality (half-joking). I say similar things about CO as STO fans say about STO, "use your imagination and it is very immersive", "i am a realist', and many more.
After a few months of playing only CO I decided to replay Mass Effect for a little while, and I felt like I had jumped 10 years into the future of producton value. I still play CO everyday, but since playing Mass Effect I have remembered what quality is, so I see why most folks find CO grotesque (but after 1000 hours who does not love to be a game wizard eh?).
Basically my complaints about STO are the same as everyone else's complaints about CO:
1. Way too instanced, does not feel like space, too many loading screens.
I am not really what you would call an instance fan but for me, it actually felt like it worked really well in STO. What would have fixed this problem for a lot of people is if they had done something like mass effect did when it was loading. They should have made your ship be in warp during the loading screens and I don't think it would have bothered people nearly as much.
2. Weak death penalty either makes everything trivial or impossible: either you can zerg it, which is trivial, or man if you can't even zerg it then it is impossible. Also the devs stated many times that they want little to no death penalty.
Wait till you start having to hire your crew back due to death, you wont think it so weak lol. During missions that I was solo in, I never zerged anything, but you do have a lot of those folks that wont read whats going on in the quest and just click through it and take off. Thats why I like the solo option. If I can't find a group that wants to take their time and go through it, then I would rather do it solo then deal with people who have MMO adhd and cant be bothered to do anything other than storm to the top level as fast as they can. And this is coming from someone who knows how to level in MMO's and who plays them usually 4-5 hours a day, every day. This has been the first MMO since EverQuest, that I actually want to spend time reading the lore and just enjoy the feeling of, you are the captain and you are making a difference for starfleet. And this is coming from someone who loves the shows but that is about as far as I would take it. I dont go to any of the conventions, I dont read the books, I just enjoyed the shows and thats the feeling I get from playing the game.
3. You spend a lot of time doing missions that are too menial to team up for.
There are a few in there like that, but remember, when you team up, it scales the mission in difficulty for teams, so there really isn't to much problems with menial missions.
4. While the general space maps were ok, I found the maps for the away missions (planets) to be ghastly. A lot like the planets in Mass Effect actually, about 1/2 a square mile of barren terrain with the only interesting features coinciding exactly with the things you have to interact with, and again suffering from problem (3), too menial to be worth two load screens.
I can't really argue this point other than this. You see about what you see, just like in the tv shows.
5. Exploration and crafting (didn't get to play them, just read beta forums) were added pretty late and were kind of the nail in the coffin for me and this game, my only hope for STO was that it would have a procedurally generated crafting/exploring end game with long term character progression.
And it probably will.
As a ST fan, the biggest problems for me were 1, 4, and 5. For MMO fans, I find 2 and 3 to spoil the game: you cannot play it with the intensity of challenge in a WoW or EVE. The game will stop challenging you long before you master it, and the best way to have fun is to use your imagination / pseudo-roleplay / gimp yourself for variety sake, you guys probably know what I am trying to convey. Eventually everyone will be an admiral, and yes there was heavy pleading and whine-quitting over the "admiral" issue in the beta forums, and Cryptic inexplicably took a hardline on this choice of designation. After the first month CO had about 5,000 "admirals" (lvl 40s) amongst 1million total characters (the total includes all characters, including those that had been deleted, created just for testing, etc).
What about playing the game for fun? Does every game have to be super intense or extremely hard? I dunno, I see a couple things here. I am willing to bet that the old hardcore EQ type players would probably enjoy this game more than the WoW type players. And to me, that says a lot about a game. The game doesn't hand hold you through out the game. it doesn't draw pretty lines to go from your quest giver to the mobs you got to kill. it makes you take time to learn the universe on your own, without saying, Here ya go sony, let me draw you a map to where you have to go.
I also don't have a problem with the admiral issue. This is an MMO and eventually your going to have tons of folks at end level. For star trek sake, I really think they should have put in commander and made captain the last level and left admiral off the list, but it is just a game. People need to quit taking that so seriously. I remember the whines that used to go on in SWG, OMG, we are going to have millions of jedi running around and its wrong! To crap like that, I am sorry, nobody gets any sympathy from me because its just a game, enjoy it for what it is and not what you feel it should have been. BTW, that was a generalization, not directed at championsfan.
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
PS - Why has complaining about loading screens become the IT thing to do these days? Way too many over-entitled sensibilities these days. And yes, it IS too much to ask for an mmo that has zero loading screens.
Great suggestion actually
And it wouldn't be the same since getting money and the reputation of being a good captain is 2 very different things.
Turning ships are really slow, your not going to turn around on a dime. heck, your not going to turn around on a basketball court, at least not for the bigger cruiser type ships. I never played the space expansion of swg and I am trying to think of a game that I could compare it to but nothing really comes to mind. You can't go straight up or down, I would say it is probably a 75ish degree angle up and down. This will cause you to, on occasion, have to spiral downwards or upwards towards your target. It is a little annoying and I think it is possible they could increase that range but only time will tell. You cant just look at flying, you also have to think about all the other stuff you have to do while your flying. managing your shields, managing your power (later on in the bigger ships) using your abilities, along with trying to fly the ship and try to keep the enemy from out maneuvering you and forcing you to start over on a fresh shield.
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
ya know, I was going to mention dark space but I doubted that a lot of people had ever seen that game. I would also say that while its similar to dark space, its MUCH slower moving compared to that game.
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
Ok thanks, I think I get the jist. So what is the targeting like is it just tab/target fire specials or do you actually have to aim at what your shooting.
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
ya know, I was going to mention dark space but I doubted that a lot of people had ever seen that game. I would also say that while its similar to dark space, its MUCH slower moving compared to that game.
In. The. Starter. Ship.
I didn't bother mentioning that because it's the starter ship. It's supposed to be slow and clumsy and weak. Unless you've experienced end-game ship tiers, in which case I still shrug because it's still fun.
Anyone have an extra open beta key?
You can't claim Cryptic is creatively limited by a storyline which they wrote themselves. It's pretty likely that they wrote the storyline to match the game they wanted to make, not the other way around.
It's the same as the 'they only had two years to make it'. Their choice there, too.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Did you do the Champions Beta? and if you did could you compare them? I'm wondering if you like CO do you think that STO where it is now can improve out of Beta like Champions did?
Yes I was in beta for CO, and in comparison I feel like STO made more progress in a shorter time than CO did. On the otherhand, I liked CO as soon as I played it (it was more polished at a chronologically earlier point of beta), while STO went from "I'm not sure even major ST fans will like it" to "ST fans might not regret the purchase but MMO fans probably will feel similar to CO." But the point is that improvements came to STO faster, Cryptic has been working like madmen on it, and so there is some hope in this regard.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
It's like Darkspace....if you've ever played that. Except it's actually 3D.
Keep in mind you're flying a large ship with crews of 50+. So if you try it don't go in with the mindset of flying an x-wing or tie fighter (wink, wink), but rather with the mindset that you're controlling a very large ship.
Ok thanks, I think I get the jist. So what is the targeting like is it just tab/target fire specials or do you actually have to aim at what your shooting.
Think of more or less any MMO you have played. Tab target or click. Then hit 1-9 (1-3 for the first 10 levels) to choose your attack. Thats about it really. Simulates the complexity of ST ship combat like GTA simulates the complexity of formula one.
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
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