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Sum It Up For Me Please
BribarianII
Member CommonPosts: 12
A Star Trek MMO is a great idea, but something tells me they held back on this one and didnt go the whole way. One thing I found disappointing is there's only two factions, when there could be several. I just want a few questions answered.
1. Do you have fun playing it? What is your favorite part of STO?
2. How does the PvP in STO work? I hear it's in bad shape, but for me PvP is important because it adds a lot of replay value to your game. Is it playable?
3. What kind of customizations are involved? I do like the design of the ships.
4. Is the questing/missions PvE aspect good enough to justify playing?
5. How's the community?
6. How long is the grind to endgame?
7. Is there enough content to keep it satisfying?
Thanks in advance to fellow trekkies who comes in to respond
Comments
In one word? Limited. Which is exactly how a game based on space exploration shouldn't feel. It started off horribly but the good people at cryptic have done a fantastic job of doing what they could with a horrible game and engine (this I hope bodes well for Neverwinter in they seem to be getting their shit together more in recent years). It has come on leaps and bounds since release to the point that it is now very playable but I don't personally feel it's more than occasionally playable or durably fun.
1. Yes, for a while, until you get bored of running the same basic kind of missions over and over. This is extended slightly by the recent inclusion of more expansive faction storyline stuff and player made content all of which can be a lot of fun.
2. NA since I didn't do any
3. Customisation, like in all Cryptic games is one of the best elements of the game from launch, you can also buy cosmetic stuff like TV series and movie uniforms from the shop...if you;re that way trekkily inclined.
4. Space missions/combat look amazing and sometimes appear almost as if you're watching a fight from an episode of Star Trek Voyager. The ground missions, even with the recent polish are still sadly lacking in scope and enjoyability imo.
5. Not bad in my experience but like a lot of games these days, you don't really need the community to do most of the content so that usually means relationships aren't developed.
6. NA didn't get that far
7. See 4.
Overall, it's free, so unless you have a bandwidth cap, download it and give it a go. I find that some games I dislike turn out to be other peoples favorites and vice versa these days.
I can answer some of your questions.
1. I had fun playing for a couple of years. My favourite part would be the customisation and gearing of your char, bridge officers and ships.
2.
3. For the ships you can customise the material they are made of, the patterns and colourings, and each class usually has a choice of parts from three different models. E.g. you can choose the saucer, hull, naucelles and pylons from 3 different models to make your ship look different. It works very well. There is also gear which you can equip to change the look of your ship.
There are several different weapon types which change the colour, sound and effect of your weapons.
4. The older quests are all very similar. The newer quests and feature episodes are good. Some are very good and have lots of atmosphere. There are also the user created foundry missions which are great.
5. The community is one of the best I have experienced. Mostly polite and helpful.
6. You can get to max level in a week if you play a lot. It's extremely quick, but the best stuff is at end game.
7. Personal preference on this one I think. There is quite a lot of grind in the game for certain things but you don't have to do it. I ended up just creating lots of new chars because I enjoyed the customisation so much, instead of grinding for gear.
1) I had fun playing STO for the story missions but they have been abandoned in favor of grind content. The combat was decent fun for me both in space and on the ground but it’s best in quick doses. The grind makes it a chore after a time.
2) PVP has been abandoned by 98% of the player base. It is accessed by means of a queue or flying to one of the PVP systems. It is dominated by pre-mades and only pops once in a rare while. It’s very pay to win by means of cash shop and lockbox ships and associated consoles.
3) They do have one of the better character customization systems available in an MMORPG on the market even now. Ship customizations are limited to mixing parts from the same grade of ship and applying color patterns. You can select a bridge layout but it doesn’t often match the rest of a ship interior.
4) It’s a very casual game and you can have fun playing through the story and various PVE pick up fight activities like Borg alerts and fleet actions. Its not very challenging once you learn what you are doing and that's one reason people call it grindy (ie its easy enough to bore.) However, you can adjust your personal difficulty but that feels buggy some missions. The player made content is a mixed bag. There are a few gems and a lot of garbage.
5) The community is... well, I found it young out in the general areas with older folks met most often in guilds. There are trolls n misfits but nothing like WOW trae chat. People seem pretty nice and helpful.
6) I leveled my last character in 18 hours of play, from tutorial to level cap, over a three day weekend. I made sure to do the mirror universe event every time it was up for the full hour and every system patrol I could find. I had money for gear through buying a cash shop item and selling it on the in game exchange. Then, I went through the story missions at my leisure for fun as they adjust to your level.
7) No. There is not enough playable content outside of just pure grinding for gear you don’t really need, reputation, starbase projects, or dilithium ore. It really will wear you down and feel like a useless and unfun chore in short order. Find a good fleet. If you go in looking for a month or two diversion you’ll be fine and might return now and then but unless you like leveling alts its a crash ending...
Personally, I would recommend that you subscribe to level your characters and then go free to play. The free respec tokens and free ship upgrades every ten levels are well worth it. STO isn't the greatest game but its not the worst. If you are like me you may eventually lament what could have been as it had potential. PWI though is squandering it by trying to make it like their other offerings.
I agree with these and would only add that STO is graphically one of the better MMOs out there. Cryptic's art department really builds some beautiful landscapes and interior environments. The new Romulan zone added in Season 7 is expansive, it's just a shame they did not add more content to it beyond boring rep grinding for a useless embassy.
I also would not recommend subscribing to the game. It is F2P and you are not really missing out on much if you do not subscribe.
1. Yep, lots of fun. Story missions and Foundry missions are my favourites.
2. n/a
3. You can customize the ships in most details, interiors as well.
4. Yes
I do it all the time, since I don't pvp and I hate grinding. If you ran out the seasons, still there's the Foundry, with lots of great missions created by trekkies. It beats the stf / fleet mark grind hands down, absolutely justify playing. Imo, of course 
5. Mostly decent and helpful. Surprisinigly good for an f2p game. Very few trolls/griefers/etc.
6. None. If you play the storyline, you'll be VA in 1-2 weeks, depending your playtime per day. And the story is pretty good.
7. Tough one... If you're like me and focusing on missions, the Foundry is a big help. Cryptic also releasing new content occasionally, like New Romulus in the last update. So I'd say it is pretty satisfying
But if you like the endgame treadmill, I don't know because I try to avoid that.