Star Trek Online

Aceman

I only recently discovered this game after it when free-to-play in January. Anyone else playing it? I'm rather impressed with the graphics and ship designs - some which are incorrect. I'm not expert but some are just laughable. The Galor for example.

http://www.startrekonline.com/

Anyway - I've been playing this for about two weeks here and there and just wondered if any other SFM'rs had checked it out. For a free game it's pretty impressive. I'm not hard core enough to sign up for a pay to play game like Star Wars Old Republic.. but this STO find (I know I'm late to the party) was pretty cool.

My Excelsior class (U.S.S. Sparrowhawk) is pretty shweet!

Aceman

IRML

yeah I got it on steam just after it went free to play

backstept

I sub'd previously but dropped it about a year ago, and recently picked it up on Steam
I'm having fun with it

perilous

i was on the pre release message list id heard that it had been suspended,so im a bit miffed to find out that its up and running without a message from them! thanks for the heads up, time to open up a can of whup ass on them lol

evil_genius_180

Yeah, I play, but not as much recently. In fact, my avatar is my Vice Admiral tactical character. I was subscribed from August until late January, but I let the sub go because it was free by then. I've only noticed a few minor differences between the subscribed version and the free to play version. I agree, it's a great game, I like it a lot.

count23

I recently returned to it last week because of a friend. It's had some major improvements since when I subbed last in it's first year. Major improvements. And I like that I can now buy stuff from their pay-store without needing to actually pay real money (Everything was overpriced in there by a major margin, especially back when it was subscription based).

Falin

felt like an Orcs and Goblins game with a Star Trek skin, didn't feel like ST at all, just hack hack slash and die.

evil_genius_180

Yeah, the combat missions do get to be a bit much at times. Even the exploration missions turn into combat missions more often than not. But, what do you expect? Most MMORPGs are pretty much hack and slash. It's still fun. That's why my VA toon is a tac officer. You pretty much expect constant battle as a tac officer. Though, I did also level an engineer to VA during beta testing for the F2P build.

I'm glad they fixed the mission progression. Those of you who joined after December 8th (when season 5 went live) don't know what at PITA it was before to figure out which mission you were supposed to do next to progress the story. They didn't have the episodes list, you just got missions when you were at a high enough level to play them, there was nothing telling you what to do next or what you could skip as far as story progression. Now it has linear mission progression, which makes it easier to get a feel for the story. Also, replacing the 15 or so different "special" currencies they had before with dilithium is nice. Now, you don't have to figure out if you have the correct badge to buy a piece of gear, you just have to make sure you have enough dilithium, which is very easy to acquire.

fluxfire

Yes i play it as well, I have to agree with Evil as i was playing a trial back in Oct.

The ground missions are still a pain but i do like the space combat and the general overall feel of space fighting. Fairly well balanced but there are still glitches here and there.

IRML

spacedock is cool

count23

Spacedock used to be a pile of ass. They changed it a few months back because of the majority of complaints that the Mushroom space station was gone and in it's place was something better suited to Star Wars.

I remember after lauch, all the ships looked terrible too, common mistakes everywhere (Intrepid class had impulse engines where the Aft Torpedoes were, Galaxy class had phaser arrays nowhere except the saucer and they were complete 360, etc...) After about 100 pages of complaints and nearly 30 A4 Pages worth of errors documented they finally fixed most of em.

I'm one of the lucky ones, I got my refit Galaxy Class (saucer sep version) just before they were turned into cstore moneysinks. Pity they're useless in anything but PVE these days.

evil_genius_180

I'm rolling around in the Odyssey class they were giving away during the 2nd anniversary celebration. It's pretty cool, though it has its issues. I'll probably never pay for the ship from the C-store, but I'll take a free one. (I also have the ship in my bank for my lower ranking characters, though I may not use it for them.)

I don't get the problem people have with ground combat. I've always found it to be easy. But, I've also been playing video games for 25+ years and RPGs for the past decade or so. It's not any different than combat in most other RPGs, IMO.

Falin

Sure they've made changes, but they drove away a lot of Star Trek fans, most MMO's are hack and slash, and they still could have went that route and felt more Star Trekish. they could have made the missions more like "episodes" and given people the change to group up, take stations on the ship and "solve" a mystery of some sort, Star trek was full of the different types that could be solved by a group. a single Miranda Class taking on 4 Klingon battlecruisers and winning seems a bit absurd, but the pvp battles were not that bad overall, except the silly constant respawning when you died.

evil_genius_180

I agree, it definitely could have been more Trek-ish. There could be more scientific missions. And even the ones they have aren't very scientific. You usually just have to run around or fly around and scan stuff. I think the company that was first developing the game had a more rich type of gameplay in mind, with more substance. However, they went bankrupt or something, and Cryptic took over. And, of course, that's what Cryptic does; hack and slash RPGs. It's the same with Champions Online, their other F2P MMORPG. There are times where your character has to diffuse a bomb, or something. You just run up to the bomb and hit a button. That's it, no real challenge involved.

I remember the good ol' days when RPGs involved puzzles and whatnot that you had to solve. However, the MMO games have been "dumbed down" some to appeal more to casual gamers who are there as much for the social aspects of the game as they are for the game play. People like that don't want to have to think as much. I'm sure they like the game because it is more simple, while us die hard RPGers would really like some more substance to the gameplay. I like the game a lot, but it's still far from being my favorite RPG. The same goes for Star Wars: The Old Republic (my current subscription game.) It's dumbed down some over the first two KOTOR games. (run up to the bomb, push a button, and it diffuses itself) But, again, they want to appeal to a wider base than just RPG fans.

Though, they have made the missions more like episodes (as I mentioned earlier.) And you can certainly team up to complete any mission in the game, so I don't get that comment at all. You can team up with friends or random players, whichever is your choice. And a cruiser can certainly take on 3 frigates at once, so that's not really an issue, though it is a bit unrealistic when you're in your starter ship. You usually only get one battlecruiser to fight at once, unless you're playing on a team. If you're unlucky enough to get more than one, you usually die.

Aceman

You know I'm finding (newbie here.. Level 28? I think).. that their is very little Role-playing in the game.. which makes it very anti-social. I'm finding that on the Starbases NO ONE talks.. it's just a bunch of avatars running from spot to spot.. but no one's talking. I'm thinking about finding a fleet, but I'm so random on when I can get on that I feel like I wouldn't be much help. I see a ton of people online, but I feel like I'm playing this game alone.. does that make since? Meh.. oh.. btw.. sold a drop lastnight on the exchange for like 2.1 Million Credits.. WHOOP!. (1 Federation Junior Cadre)..

IRML

yeah I used to play runescape back in the day, and I can remember every time you got to a busy area it would be packed full of people standing around talking to each other

fluxfire

Aceman wrote: »

I'm thinking about finding a fleet, but I'm so random on when I can get on that I feel like I wouldn't be much help. I see a ton of people online, but I feel like I'm playing this game alone.. does that make since? Meh.. oh.. btw.. sold a drop lastnight on the exchange for like 2.1 Million Credits.. WHOOP!. (1 Federation Junior Cadre)..

It's not that no one talks it's that there are so many talking its almost impossible to answer questions. As for a Fleet your are most welcome in Explorers of the Infinate. We have no real requirements for helping other fleet memebers as the majorty of us are lvl 50 .

If you happen to be on at a time i am around feel free to send me a message i will be happy to help ya. @Drunken_Monkey if you wanna pm me.

evil_genius_180

Aceman wrote: »

You know I'm finding (newbie here.. Level 28? I think).. that their is very little Role-playing in the game.. which makes it very anti-social. I'm finding that on the Starbases NO ONE talks.. it's just a bunch of avatars running from spot to spot.. but no one's talking. I'm thinking about finding a fleet, but I'm so random on when I can get on that I feel like I wouldn't be much help. I see a ton of people online, but I feel like I'm playing this game alone.. does that make since? Meh.. oh.. btw.. sold a drop lastnight on the exchange for like 2.1 Million Credits.. WHOOP!. (1 Federation Junior Cadre)..

If you want better multiplayer, you might want to think about joining a fleet. For the first several months, I wasn't in one and it did seem kinda lonely. Then I joined a fleet with some buddies and it's really enhanced my gameplay. For one thing, if people in your fleet are on, you've usually go somebody to chat with. Plus, it's easier to find people to team up with when you're in a fleet. Though, you want to be selective in this process and not join just any old fleet. It helps if you join one with friends, either real world friends or online friends. Of course, if you join a fleet that turns out bad, you can always leave the fleet.

As for chatting randomly, it mostly consists of people asking questions and (sometimes) getting answers. Some people chat just to chat, but it all goes by so quickly at ESD and some other areas that it's hard to tell what is being said. Depending on which Starbase you're referring to, some are more dead than others (Starbase 39 Sierra isn't usually the most social place.)

lennier1

Same here. I just stopped giving a damn, since it's nothing but a boring collection of repetitive RPG cliches.

• Mission Type 1: Run from room to room and kill all enemies you encounter in each room
• Mission Type 2: Destroy all ships in the system.
• Mission Type 3A: Scan the area, walk up to the indicated target, press a button, rinse and repeat.
• Mission Type 3B: Same as 3A, but there are enemies standing around the target.
• Mission Type 4: Collect 10 futuristic french fries (or alternatively, Klingon dog food) and bring the stuff back to some NPC.
• Mission Type 5: Talk to NPC 1, continue to NPC 2, then talk to NPC 3 and continue this until either the list is finished or you can't stand it anymore and close the game.

Add to that how the Federation suddenly uses money (just re-labeled as "energy credits" and "dilithium") and you'll see why I haven't gone near that icon for over a month.

count23

Most of the talking at spac dock and whatnot is done in the Fleet, Team or voice channels . there's very little random chatter because you can't talk in multiple channels at once.

And yea, while it's hack and slash. I loved being able to fly around in a Galaxy class ship and stand on my horribly mis-sized bridge.

But after playing STO again for two weeks, some of the problems that drove me away the first time are creeping back into the foreground. Particularly how badly written most of the episodes were and how they shart all over established racial profiles, events and characters. (Yea, a Jem'Hadar would turn on a founder openly because he didnt like what she ordered... right. Also, apparently "hatchery" means eggs are stuck in a pit).

nightfever

Got a lifetime membership for birthday present a year ago. I have two Fed Vize Admiral characters (blue and red), researched all technology and started a Klingon career.
Now I'm only logging in to get a unique item or to have a short fun.

Maverick Eagle

Nice to see other Sci-fi mesh people playing STO. . I usually visit Space Dock, or DeepSpace 9 on missions or battles its pretty fun and the battles in the game can be pretty epic especially in some of the stories or PVE missions. If any of you are online look for U.S.S REAPER. Be sure to take a pic cause i'm usually on the move.

count23

Yea, if anyone's after me, look for Admiral CooCooCachu on the Galaxy-Class Andromeda.

I also run a fleet, but that's more just for my family and close friends, "The Malevolent Society" (bonus points for anyone who gets the reference) so you can look me up that way.

Maverick Eagle

I do like how they portray the borg in STO. They actually feel like a real threat. Like how they were in the TNG series, not the voyager series.. I've seen whole squads of players with decent ships with standard weaponery and shields get wiped out by single borg cubes and in some battles there could be easily over several dozen not including probes and spheres, oh lets not forget the fact the borg are alot smarter in STO then in the series, they have a nasty habit of having a cube or two along with escorts attacking invidividual players who are big threats and nothing is more demoralizing then having two spheres hold you in place well a cube tears you too shreds and knowing you don't have a chance.. . you really need to get good weapons, good late tier ships and good players to stand a chance against borg.

nightfever

What's that mighty Borg weapon that makes 17,000 or more damage with one hit ?

count23

heavy plasma torpedo. Usually does 20-35k damage, but since the borg use abilities that reduce your damage resistance, a cruiser wtih hul buffs can still be taken out in 1 hit once the shield neutralizer takes your defences down.

evil_genius_180

I like the Borg in the game, but I rarely do the Red Alerts. Whether or not you beat the uber ship at the end is dependent on who is on your team. If you're on a good team, you can take it out. Otherwise, resistance is futile and you die a lot.

Has anyone else ever gotten assimilated by the Borg in the game? I was doing the Defera invasion event with Ice-Dragon one day and I was getting tired of having to remodulate my weapon, so I switched to my bat'leth. It was going well for a while, the Borg can't adapt to melee weapons. However, I found out that they can assimilate you. My screen went all FUBAR and I couldn't control my character, Ice-Dragon had to kill me so that I could respawn and no longer be a Borg.

fluxfire

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

I like the Borg in the game, but I rarely do the Red Alerts. Whether or not you beat the uber ship at the end is dependent on who is on your team. If you're on a good team, you can take it out. Otherwise, resistance is futile and you die a lot.

Has anyone else ever gotten assimilated by the Borg in the game? I was doing the Defera invasion event with Ice-Dragon one day and I was getting tired of having to remodulate my weapon, so I switched to my bat'leth. It was going well for a while, the Borg can't adapt to melee weapons. However, I found out that they can assimilate you. My screen went all FUBAR and I couldn't control my character, Ice-Dragon had to kill me so that I could respawn and no longer be a Borg.

I have done the Defara invasion and yes when you Melee you have a greater chance of the borg being able to assimalte you. The cure for this is the nanoprobe hypo you get them on vairious ground STF's. Other wise like you said a team mate has to kill ya

As for the red alerts i just do those for the acalades you get from them. Other then that there really is no point in doing them any more. If you have a group of RA's even with stock uncommon weps you can beat it however you have to have a damn good or well coordinated group of players.

evil_genius_180

I don't do STFs. So, on the odd chance that I get assimilated, death is my only release.

I thought the Red Alerts were fun at first. They started doing those around the time I started playing the game. I was on a couple that went well, (obviously, good teams) so I thought they were cool. However, those were the only two that went well. I started getting on dreadful teams, so I stopped doing them. I figure, if you can't win and claim the rewards, what's the point? One of these days, I need to log back on and see if the fleet wants to knock one out, just for fun.

Maverick Eagle

The Red Alerts are fun sometimes. It kinda also depend where you are when a red Alert goes out. Noobs tend to lurk around near safe areas of federation space the further out you go the more experienced the players. I found Borg Red Alerts in space near DS9 to be very fun probably cause most players in that region are upgraded with powerful defense and weapons, that can pop cubes in a couple of good hits with help oh and not to mention know how to kill borg. The ones near Sol or Surius its like watching a space going bloodbath. Oh and its worst with noobs trying to kill the Cystal entity

PATHFINDER

Love my characters in Star Trek Online.