Sphinx wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 14:22:

ElectricTurtle wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 11:26:
I started the day after F2P went live, and I'm already level 40 (Rear Admiral) of max 50. It really seems too easy. The stupid thing is that turning up the difficulty does not give more XP like DDO (the only other MMO I ever really messed with), so why bother?

Goodness, how many hours a day are you playing?

I hit level cap in ten days playing about five hours a day myself (insert joke and/or lamentation about being out of work and having way too much time here.) It's definitely easier to level up than in other games. I can't say I really mind, though, it's better than staring at all the higher-level stuff wishing I could have it RIGHT NAO DAMMIT.

The cynic in me says that there's a more monetary reason for the quick leveling. Every ship tier has a microtransaction-only ship. They're ultimately useless unless you plan on rolling more characters (microtransaction purchases are per account, not per character, so future characters can use them) since even the free stuff in the next tier is better, so I doubt they sell well. However, the two best ships in the game on the Federation side are both-max level and microtransaction-only. Then again, many players dismiss one of those ships outright because they're too shortsighted to see how it can work, so maybe that one doesn't sell well anyway.

Two already? Did the game change much since its beta which was decent?

ElectricTurtle wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 11:26:
I started the day after F2P went live, and I'm already level 40 (Rear Admiral) of max 50. It really seems too easy. The stupid thing is that turning up the difficulty does not give more XP like DDO (the only other MMO I ever really messed with), so why bother?

Goodness, how many hours a day are you playing?

I started the day after F2P went live, and I'm already level 40 (Rear Admiral) of max 50. It really seems too easy. The stupid thing is that turning up the difficulty does not give more XP like DDO (the only other MMO I ever really messed with), so why bother?

It seems to be ludicrously easy to level. I played DDO for a few months and didn't get much further than level 14 (of 20). On a relative scale I've gone further than that in STO in barely more than two weeks. At my current rate I will likely be max rank in a few days.

If it weren't for finding an RP fleet to add a community dimension I would probably get pretty bored with it. That and the community-created missions that come through the foundry. In a way it is paradoxical that there is so much community value considering that the gameplay is seriously solo-oriented for an MMO.

Silicon Avatar wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 06:13:

Dr. D. Schreber wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 03:05:
It's funny how everyone bitches about the amount of combat being un-Trek like, considering:

- The last series most of the fanbase liked was based on a war (DS9.)

- Few liked Voyager because its solution to most problems was "invent new magical technology on the spot."

- Nobody liked Enterprise until it started getting more violent with the most popular episodes being the mirror-universe two parter, where the cast explicitly solves their problems with violence.

- Only two of the movies end in non-violent solutions. Wrath of Khan is by far both the most violent and most popular.

Yeah, that's fine.

The thing is there are exploration missions in STO. If you knew what a pile of fail those were you'd probably understand.

It's still worth checking out for free, but if you're expecting anything as decent as Interplay's old Star Trek games (the high water mark for Trek story games as far as I can tell) then your expectations are too high.

Except none of the exploration missions are mandatory, so I don't do them and spare myself the ensuing suicide.

Anyway, I don't see how that's relevant. The complaint is "Star Trek isn't about combat" and several variations thereof ("too much combat," "so much fighting not being in the spirit of 'Trek," etc.) The reality is that combat-themed parts of actual canon are the most popular. The batshittery is that everyone who makes this complaint somehow manages to miss this fact. It would be nice to have some quality exploration and diplomacy missions, with a better dialog system to support said missions, because those things are a part of Star Trek regardless of whether it's to the perceived amount. The fact that it's something the game doesn't do very well, to put it mildly, doesn't change the fact that "there's too much combat for Star Trek" is still a ludicrous complaint.

Bumpy wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 00:00:

Jay wrote on Feb 2, 2012, 23:45:
Wait.
You can pause ground combat? How?

You can set a key bind to activate it or click the Pause Zone button on the right hand lower side of screen. Note, it has a limited time (38 sec in this pic) but recharges when out of Pause. You can give anyone way points and several different commands.
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/8476/gameclient2012012723495.jpg

Oh man, I never knew that. Thanks.

The Half Elf wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 06:14:

Bumpy wrote on Feb 2, 2012, 21:24:
Started playing this 2 weeks ago. I feel sorry for the early buyers being beta testers but this now is really a great game. So much stuff to do and manage is sweet.

I might be hooked on MMOs for the UI and HUD alone. So nice to not have consolitus in my PC game. DX11 is a nice touch too.

People complain about the ground combat but when you pause+plan its much more fun. Only thing I don't like is the battles are over pretty quickly.

For a Star Trek world, not sure I can ask for anything else.

Yeah you can ask them to return the game to how it was, a complex game that wasn't dumb'd down, turned into a asian mmo grind-fest, and a pay 2 win game.

Huh? The game is anything but a grind fest (so far) basically each story mission corresponds to one level, easy leveling FTW. If anything its the opposite of a grindfest.

F2P WITHIN A YEAR!

Whoops wrong thread

I was hoping, back when they announced this one, that they would do a proper space mmo.

Think of how awesome a single-shard, skill-based, open-pvp game like EvE would be with the ST lisence.

Instead we get this....

Oh well

The new Odyssey ship they let you get for the anniversary is a big, fat target. It has 4 weapons slots on front and back but turns so poorly you might as well remove any power from your engines and put it all in weapons and shields.

I stopped playing STO about a year ago but started up again now that its free to play. The best new thing is the duty officer (DOFF) roster. Now you can send other NPCs off to do missions for you and get some experience and money. In fact the timer to complete those missions for the DOFFs runs even when you're not logged into the game.

Or if they have special bonuses like a chance to have your weapons cool down quicker you can take them off of away missions and make them a ship officer. Best comparison I could think of would be these DOFFs are like the gems or imbuing of weapons in other MMOs.

After you finish the main storyline there's not much to do except grind about 10 "Kill the Borg" missions for special drops. To its credit though the missions to level are pretty fun but that might just be my Trek nerdiness talking. Please don't kick sand in my face.

Bumpy wrote on Feb 2, 2012, 21:24:
Started playing this 2 weeks ago. I feel sorry for the early buyers being beta testers but this now is really a great game. So much stuff to do and manage is sweet.

I might be hooked on MMOs for the UI and HUD alone. So nice to not have consolitus in my PC game. DX11 is a nice touch too.

People complain about the ground combat but when you pause+plan its much more fun. Only thing I don't like is the battles are over pretty quickly.

For a Star Trek world, not sure I can ask for anything else.

Yeah you can ask them to return the game to how it was, a complex game that wasn't dumb'd down, turned into a asian mmo grind-fest, and a pay 2 win game.

Dr. D. Schreber wrote on Feb 3, 2012, 03:05:
It's funny how everyone bitches about the amount of combat being un-Trek like, considering:

- The last series most of the fanbase liked was based on a war (DS9.)

- Few liked Voyager because its solution to most problems was "invent new magical technology on the spot."

- Nobody liked Enterprise until it started getting more violent with the most popular episodes being the mirror-universe two parter, where the cast explicitly solves their problems with violence.

- Only two of the movies end in non-violent solutions. Wrath of Khan is by far both the most violent and most popular.

Yeah, that's fine.

The thing is there are exploration missions in STO. If you knew what a pile of fail those were you'd probably understand.

It's still worth checking out for free, but if you're expecting anything as decent as Interplay's old Star Trek games (the high water mark for Trek story games as far as I can tell) then your expectations are too high.

There's a difficulty toggle that's set to Normal by default, I don't know if you've seen it but it might make the ground missions more difficult for you.

I really don't like the ground portions either, they feel clunky and tacked on next to the smooth and enjoyable space portions. I particularly dislike fighting the Borg on the ground as for some reason they decided to keep that adaptation mechanic. Fire off a few blasts and the goddamn swarm of Borg drones heading towards you is immune to your weapon until you faff about with a remodulator thingy for a couple of seconds.

When the best thing about a ground mission is blasting through it to get it done as fast as possible that is not a fun mechanic.

Im playing it to pass the time, the story missions and space combat are fucking great. But the ground portions are so utterly detestable they are putting me off of what is otherwise a pretty sweet game. I wouldnt mind 'some' ground missions but nearly every single 'quest' mission has at least one portion of ground combat. They take too long and they are way too easy. Sure there is a pause button but if all the enmies keep dying like flies without using it whats the point?? If only there was some way to send an 'away' team down without beaming down myself that would be very sweet.

Also the PvE Fleet actions are pretty damn awesome from what Ive seen of them. I dont know about PvP but once I roll the Klingon character Im definitely going to try it.

It's funny how everyone bitches about the amount of combat being un-Trek like, considering:

- The last series most of the fanbase liked was based on a war (DS9.)

- Few liked Voyager because its solution to most problems was "invent new magical technology on the spot."

- Nobody liked Enterprise until it started getting more violent with the most popular episodes being the mirror-universe two parter, where the cast explicitly solves their problems with violence.

- Only two of the movies end in non-violent solutions. Wrath of Khan is by far both the most violent and most popular.

There are an awful lot of "kill this to get this" style missions though - way too many for Star Trek.

But I thought the Star Trek motto was to "boldy go where no man has gone before... and then kill every higher life form you come across"?

The free lvl 50 ship is a pretty big deal for this event. Level 50 ships are the only ones you don't get for free as you level, and they are pretty pricey also requiring real money.

You also only need to be lvl 5 to do the mission for it, unless you are Klingon but then you already know all this.

Offer only lasts for 4 days, so get on it if you intend to play.

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2838

Surprised they didn't try a Diplomacy track, such as Vanguard.

I'm a vice admiral. There's not really much left for me to do but fight Borg and get the special Borg equipment. It was fun for a while but now I hardly log in.

Of course I'm not paying for it either so no loss.

Some of the missions are pretty fun. I like that you can solo most of the content. The space combat is pretty fun. The ground combat is okay now. It still isn't awesome but it's better than it was at release. Some of the stories are pretty good.

There are an awful lot of "kill this to get this" style missions though - way too many for Star Trek.

Prez wrote on Feb 2, 2012, 23:19:
Also, if one does not like them, is it possible to forego ground missions altogether or are they required for advancement through the game?

No, they are required during the missions.

Jay wrote on Feb 2, 2012, 23:45:
Wait.
You can pause ground combat? How?

You can set a key bind to activate it or click the Pause Zone button on the right hand lower side of screen. Note, it has a limited time (38 sec in this pic) but recharges when out of Pause. You can give anyone way points and several different commands.
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/8476/gameclient2012012723495.jpg