I feel like, based on the comments you made, you may not have played the game long enough to give a comprehensive review of it. It appears you didn't even know about the "auto-fire" mechanic, and didn't take the time to acclimate yourself to the game's navigation. After only a short while, the navigation becomes quite simple and easy to utilize. So, I'm not sure how much actual time you spent playing the game. What rank did you get to before stopping to write your review? Did you try more than one faction or "class"?
You also gave the game 5/10 for innovation, which completely confused me. While STO is certainly not the best game ever made, many of their features are VERY innovative compared to the standard MMO fare. Firstly, name ONE other MMO that offers both ground and space combat options in any major degree. SWTOR has a bit of space combat, but it's hardly a main component to the game. What MMO's are you comparing it to, in terms of innovation and features?
Simply put, the things you said left me questioning how much time you've spent playing this MMO, and how much experience you have playing MMORPG's in general. I found the final score reasonable, but your explanations and individual ratings seemed almost arbitrary and uninformed.
While the game is dead now I already experiance ground/space combat with Star Wars Galaxies which offered really allot of freedom in how to play both ground and space.
I find it hard to get into a MMORPG that has such limited ground/space combat as Star Trek Online offers. Where I hoped the game would go beyond what SWG had offered since technology was more limited back then compared to when Star Trek Online began development.
I can say to be a fan of many IP's, Star Wars, Star Trek, Superhero's to name some. But with the exception of SWG those other games with grand IP's really where a let down for me personaly. I also know SWG was a let down to many people when that game was released.
But I tried STO a couple of times but just didn't feel "Trekkie" enough to me. Sure sound/Visuals did lure me in but the gameplay put a end to my enjoyment.
It's a shame because there isn't much out there for a trekkie fan. Though the MMORPG is still allot beter then the last singleplayer JJ's Star Trek game.
(1) The Navigation and tavel system is poorly designed.
(2) The Exploration system is weak, "Exploration" is more of a grinding chore than an interesting experience.
(3) The Combat system is poorly designed.
(4) Not enough priority is placed on being a SHIP Captain. The Bridge is just for show in STO.
(2) don't think this can count as a chore anymore as last time i checked 'exploration' in sto was almost completely pointless. Only real point of doing exploration mission is for the dilithium and there are much better and easier ways to get it.
First page read quit well, second page read like you were desperate to think of something to push the score up. It ;ools like star trek but is kinda dull and doesn't really offer anythin new, but has lsated 4 years 9/10 what?????????
It's also seems clear that the reviewer didn't try any real interaction with the playerbase in sto and reads like you just say a bunch of fleet names about. There only seems to be a few actual active guilds about that interact with it's members, most seem to consist of a few of people(at best) that rarely talk(if ever). Try running a few pugs, joining a fleet or two or reading the chat for longer than a few mins and still give social that high a score.
Also the people suggesting the use of autofire to improve space combat, seriously! Putting you ship on autofire and then just turing in an endless circle is better? Then after you do the endless rep grind so that you can tank you don't even need to do that, just stick on autofire and go and do something else.
A "fair" review, although (as mentioned previously), the space combat really shines and is the biggest draw for many.
Also mentioned, the Foundry provides and endless amount of content, both for those who want only combat, to long and involved stories, real RPG elements etc.
As a lifetime subscriber and active player for almost the entire four years, I can say that I have spent many hundreds of dollars investing in everything from costumes to ships that cost more than $50, depending on how I wanted to acquire them. Even so, one of my primary captains is using a "Mirror" ship bought off the exchange for almost nothing (20 minutes of work to earn the EC for it). At no time even in Elite STF missions does a level 50 character with decent gear acquired through gameplay need to feel like they cannot succeed.
Whilst I appreciate the time taken to "re-review" a game that sorely needed a fresh look, the bottom-line is that in a F2P game with one the most fair and generous models in the market...anyone who has a bit of space on their hard drive and a few hours to invest in having a go should do that and see for themselves whether the game is something they would enjoy!
Huh? That's the first word out of my mouth after reading the "cons" list...
Difficult Space navigation? You can auto pilot to any point on the "world map". Within instances, there really isn't much to it. The opening tutorial explains everything there is to moving around in space. You can actually get away with holding A or D to circle round a target and still win. PvE is insanely easy.
Slow, painful space combat? Sounds like a customization problem, or you're in a poorly geared cruiser. The player has almost complete control over their abilities in the game. That can make or break combat experiences. Don't like "slow" run an escort. Their overall speed and DPS is crazy.
Expensive shop items? The Dilithium exchange nullifies that. Want a shiny new ship? Save up the Dilithium, convert it to Zen and get it that way.
You also gave the game 5/10 for innovation, which completely confused me. While STO is certainly not the best game ever made, many of their features are VERY innovative compared to the standard MMO fare. Firstly, name ONE other MMO that offers both ground and space combat options in any major degree. SWTOR has a bit of space combat, but it's hardly a main component to the game. What MMO's are you comparing it to, in terms of innovation and features?
SWG did space and ground combat.. and did it a lot better i might add.
CoH did the whole "foundry" thing before STO
the character designer is in essence ripped from CoH
Do you have any other features that are worthy of pointing out as innovative.?
The game is not bad but there is a big step between good and innovative and they do not realte in any way shape or form.
Ironically, your "con"(space combat) is what the majority of people seem to enjoy most about the game. Of course, each person is entitled to their own opinion, and an opinion is neither "wrong" or "right", its just a "feeling".
But as far as my personal opinion goes, here are the 4 main reasons why STO is my favorite game:
1) Its Trek, but not just in title. It isnt just a Trek skin slapped on a generic game. If you play through the storyline episodes, you will see that Cryptic really carries the Trek torch in continuing the story where the movies(Nemesis, not JJ) left off.
2) The Foundry means that I have a completely brand new mission to look forward to playing every time I log in. With the exception of Cryptic's other game Neverwinter, that is a pretty unique experience that cant be found in other MMOs and cant be understated. I will literally NEVER run out of content in STO because of the Foundry.
3) I can play every single mission in the entire game for free. While there are a lot of nice conveniences you can buy from the game store, absolutely none of them are required to completely level your character or to play ANY mission or access ANY new area in the game.
4) Lastly, and this ties in with #3, there is an exchange system in place that allows me to get any item I want in the game store without spending ANY of my own money. In fact, I currently have over $160 of game store currency just sitting in my account unspent from trading dilithium I earned just by playing the game normally(much of which was from the above mentioned foundry missions).
All of that said, of course the game is not perfect and of course there is room for improvement. However that doesnt stop me from enjoying STO for all the reasons mentioned above. It keeps getting better with everyone update and I'm looking forward to Season 9 and the next expansion later this year =D
Live Long and Prosper =/=
You complete destroy your defense when you open with the statement that most people enjoy the combat most. Hello, when I had to aim my ship to shoot, I immediately knew that combat was a huge joke. That was just ridiculous, you don't aim a starship, they never did that in Star Trek. I could forgive the other stuff that does not agree with the series, but seriously, messing up combat that bad, unacceptable.
I could be wrong,i mean i can't remember everything on every game,i read tons.However was this game not the one that Cryptic bought from someone else or am i thinking of another game?I mean the article was all praising Cryptic but if i remember the game was like 80+% already made and that developer went bankrupt or something.
The game definitely looked aged when i first stepped in during Beta and launch,there was definitely no updating from Cryptic,they merely acquired the rights and looked to cash in.What really baffles me is why would perfect world would buy Cryptic for 50 million,.to me that is insane.
To me it looked like for example AO a very ancient looking game and even the systems were boring.I was so turned off i quite the game within the first few hours.If i remember right,they also used only one model for each the male and female sides,so the game was really done cheap.I remember seeing an elevator and thought cool but even that was cheaply done,you simply warped away like an instance.
IMO the game was a C rated effort not even a B,it looked like a budget developer game.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
BTW i was a huge trekky fan,i used to watch it on tv all the time,i really wanted the game to be great,even had me all stoked when i joined in on launch.SWTOR and STO were two games that ruined by childhood memories of great series IP names.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I came back and tried to play this game yet again. After a few hours, I left with the same feeling. Its just not fun to play. I really want to like this game, as I love Star Trek, but this game loses its appeal very quickly.
Really can't believe the author thought the space combat wasn't up to par as it is the one thing that brought many to the game from the start. This isn't space invaders where you one shot things lol. There is stragety needed to make the most of your attacks and just pounding the fire button isn't it. Your ship build and Duty officers placement can make a big difference also, odd nothing was said about the whole Duty officer missions and play.
Basically nothing was said about most of the game such as PvP, the many and varied story line missions, Duty Officers, the many and varied ways you can advance (including just doing Duty Officer missions), that it makes me wonder if the author really actually played the game or just did the few things for a review. A 74 rating for this game is beyond unfair in my opinion and I don't think the crowds that play the game would agree to that either or the many Fleets(guilds) throughout the galaxy with their holdings of Starbases, mining and other fleet holdings...odd that wasn't mentioned either. One has to wonder if the author ever grouped or talked to any who were playing this game.
This review really is seriously lacking for people that actually understand this game from top to bottom and understand all the systems. Not a single instance talking about the PvP, how on earth is traveling problematic in this game when you can transwarp everywhere with the little icon to the right of the missions description and can even lower the cooldown on your Spacedock/Qonos transwarp with duty officers.
"As always, there was one uber-ship that seemed to take forever to finally kill…and my fingers told the tale. Ed. Note: Yes, I utilized auto-fire but that didn't help either. There always had to be at least one or two fingers on the keyboard or the mouse."
Lol what? are you telling me you play MMOs with a controller or something because every single MMO ever required using at least 1 or 2 fingers on the keyboard or mouse just to move (WASD to move ring a bell?). The reason the Uber-ship takes forever to kill is probably the way you set up your bridge officer skills or your captain skills and talents, did you get any feedback from other players or ask for help on how to build your particular role?
Essential skills for just about every captain: Tactical Teams, Attack Patterns (if your going for damage), Hazard Emitters for clearing plasma and damaging debuffs. Emergency Power to Shields and Weapons, Transfer Shield Strength and Auxiliary to Structural which can repair your ship and other players. There are so many essential things that go into combat that you will never experience until you hit the endgame where using the wrong build is essentially suicide against tactical cubes or bastion voth ships.
Don't even get me started on the part where you said you didn't feel like a captain, there is a system in the game which literally lets you issue orders to hundreds of your officers. The system itself is beyond complex and there are so many things you would never understand about its importance without actually researching it or asking players about. For people that play they will know these right away:
nadorc, fed and kdf support missions for very rare duty officers, resettle colonists so you can start the fortifying colony missions for very rare doffs, trafficking contraband missions and inspect civilian freighters so you can stack the contraband. flight deck officer missions, asylum missions for refugees, devonite and shapeshifting locket missions for nadorc so that you can get the alien artifacts which can be used for mk 12 consoles.
It is absolutely painful how much this review misses and I haven't even scratched the surface yet with what is needed to truly understand the complexity and fun you can get from this game. This game gives trekkies everything they could ask for. There is so much fan service and lore that I am still finding things years into playing it that pay homage to even the most obscure episodes of every series.
They have literally made entire enemy races out of aliens that showed up in only 1 or 2 episodes or movies (Hirogen, Voth, Elachi, Solanae, Species 8472 and Remans).
Should have made the space combat as complex as Star Fleet Battles, or Star Fleet Command. something that people could get into and master over time....if a player does not care about that, then the controls to finish NPC missions will still be simple to do......guess that didn't care to put money into it
Ok, I do not always like posting replies to articles like this, however this time I felt I must. I want to say 2 things upfront before I continue this. First, please remember that this is just a game that we are talking about. Second, If I make people mad with what I say, the remember this, my motto is "WYSIWYG if you do not like that then STFU."
I find that Star Trek Online (#STO) is a game that is in the most part very relaxing to me. I grew up watching the Star Trek on TV, I remember going to the movies and watching the show in the theater, I have read a lot of the books - both the 'tech manuals' and the stories. I think of myself as a Trekie. I am also a gamer. I played World of Warcraft (WOW) for 8 years. I know that many people will say I am a nerd, a geek, and even a dweeb for admitting that fact, but it is part of who I am. I find that the gameplay in #STO is very smooth and can be done by any level of MMO Gamer. The one thing I have learned about MMOs is this, YOU CAN NOT PLEASE EVERYONE ALL THE TIME. Yes I am shouting that phrase. I want people to understand something. Because of how MMOs are set up, there will always be something that one person will love that another person will hate. This is a fact of life. It comes from human nature.
I, for one, love the Space Combat and Exploration parts of the game, while at the same time I dislike the ground combat and PvP parts of the game. However, you want to know the best thing about this game, I do not have to do the parts I do not like, while doing the ones I do like. I was talking with a person the other day, that is what I would call a "Ubar-Trekie" and when I told him about the game, he went on about all the 'great' things about the PvP System of #STO. Being as I do not like the PvP aspect of #STO, I did not agree with most of what he said, but I respect his thoughts. If you do not like #STO, then do not play it, PERIOD. Do not complain about it, do not try to make it sound like #STO is the worst game ever, when it is not. Likewise if you like playing #STO, then work with the Devs on the forums to help improve the game more.
I am one that started playing #STO because of another friend I have. I was burned out on WOW and was not really wanting to play another MMO that much. However after playing the game for only 3 months, I started to pay for the Gold Membership. I may not bet the best at making Foundry Missions or playing PvP, but I at least like playing the game. I am not going to 'coodle' people about this game. If you like it - great. If you do not like the game for whatever reason, that is ok also, but leave your hate of the game somewhere else and move on. There are lots of others games for you to try.
With all that said, I think that the article was well written and expressed the authors feelings well. I did agree with some points of it while others I was thinking that this person could not be more wrong. However, Suzie Ford is entitled to her opinion and I respect her for stating it. I would like to say thank you to the Devs at Cryptic for all of the hard work they do to make the game of #STO what it is.
Just have to put it as simple as possible. The Space combat was extremely fun from my fact with the 4 dimensional combat while the ground combat was extremely dull and needed a full overhaul. One huge thing they need to add in my own personal opinion is defending your ships interior from outside forces that beamed aboard your ship. O one extremely huge thing they need to work on is Fleets for smaller groups instead of just the ones with 20+ players in them. Most large Fleets are real pricks when it comes to their rules and for new and up and coming Fleets it would be nice if they got some love from the devs.
With regards to the combat, I can agree with the issues of the reviewer in the context of this game being one MMO among many. However, I have been a fan of computerized attempts at Star Trek games since the days of the grid-based, Battleship-style strategy games on the Apple II and Commodore 64. I even still have copies of a few.
My impression of the combat, from that perspective, is much more forgiving. There have been a great many attempts at bringing the "feel" of Star Trek to the computer, and most were failures, at worst, and silly, at best. (I'm lookin' at you, Starfleet Academy!) Each element feels familiar, as though the developers, in the planning phase, knew what they were up against, what had come before, and said, "OK. What were the best games that incorporated the things that we want this game to do?"
Much like World of Warcraft was the culmination of years of work that began with a simple, little RTS, STO feels like all of the games that had come before were brought together into this one place, polished off, edited down, and distilled into one glorious, immersive experience. Is it a perfect game? Absolutely not. Is it the best game out there? Not by a longshot. What it is, at its heart, is a game, much like anything that has come from Cryptic, created first and foremost by fans of the material.
First page read quit well, second page read like you were desperate to think of something to push the score up. It ;ools like star trek but is kinda dull and doesn't really offer anythin new, but has lsated 4 years 9/10 what?????????
It's also seems clear that the reviewer didn't try any real interaction with the playerbase in sto and reads like you just say a bunch of fleet names about. There only seems to be a few actual active guilds about that interact with it's members, most seem to consist of a few of people(at best) that rarely talk(if ever). Try running a few pugs, joining a fleet or two or reading the chat for longer than a few mins and still give social that high a score.
....... else.
Pretty well this. It also $eem$ that $pending adverti$ing dollar$ on thi$ $ite entitle$ Cryptic to influence the rating/review of it'$ game$. Gotta love how the all might dollar work$. Hopefully at the 5 year mark the license will be pulled and the game dies. It'll be interesting to see what CBS decides to do. Probably one of the points of the article, is to convince CBS that game is worth the extension.
As a roleplayer, this game is amazing! The ability to customize your character, change "clothes" on the fly, actually HAVE clothes and not just armor, the settings for fleets, ships and all the emotes add to a great RP tool.
Add onto that Foundry, which lets my RP fleet create amazing missions just for our RP story arcs keeps my interested in this game. Foundry is second to none as an RP tool.
I am not a huge Star Trek fan (I prefer Stormtroopers to red-shirts to be honest) but the RP capabilities of STO so far exceeds anything I ever got in TOR. Its just a better game to support an RP community.
Above all else... never ever piss off the penguin.
I play STO and have for over 2 years. I have the Life time Sub level and can say that every character I create gains the titles and benefits at level 7. It took a while for cryptic to pull their heads out of the dark end of their anatomy when it came to the Klingon faction but it has finally happened.
One thing I would like to point out that is missing from this editorial is the state of the economy for Startrek Online...
Economies make or break a game and STO is not immune to this. Now when one looks at the game Energy Credits are easy to gain and can get you pretty much anything in the game... to a point.
Anyone who knows Star Trek knows about Dilithium... Simply put it is the currency that makes doing anything in the game possible at end game. from getting nice upgrades for Personel and ships to accessing the best gear from reputations and fleets. And let me not forget the Insanely stupid amount of Dilithium that is needed to build up your fleets star base.
now one would think you can just get it in the game and spend it right?... that is partly true. You can gain Dilitium ore in the game and its not hard to do.... however you have to refine it yourself and its capped at 8k a day. so if you want that awesome Advanced fleet rifle itll take you two days to get it... to get the advanced fleet weapon load out for a cruiser?.... it takes weeks.
Now we mentioned fleets... Yep you can have them... and you even get a nice lil player housing kinda starbase... Fleet members can transwarp to your starbase and even pick up Duty officer missions there as well as shop for fleet loot. Once you start your fleet you have to level it.
Notice... you cannot level a fleet on your own unless you are a masochistic madman. some of the project take nearly 200k dilithium and thats several times a starbase level... oh yes, and the starbase has twenty levels with 3 tier 44 project levels and the vanity projects to boot. And the All cost dilithium in some amount.
But wait lets not stop there, along with the Star Base you also get the Embassy, Dyson Spine and your very own Dilithium Mine..... If you have a small fleet youre better off not trying to get into building the fleet up.. itll make you hate the game. for large fleets that have been around a while they were just there at the right time and right place. everyone after is pretty well screwed.
Oh and on a note.. if you dont mind spinning in circles and auto firing weapons against a retarded AI that does the same then yes the Space combat is great.. for those who want more you will be sorely disappointed... The normal STFs arent too shabby.. However the elite STFs and events like the Mirror Universe Invasion are completely bunk... Take the same ship you have and then they boost its sheilds and weapons to such a high degree that makes you wonder why your ship isnt so elite...
Even in Star fleets most up to date Cruiser class with the best weapon You will still get treated like a red headed step child in the Elite STFs. Everything has a Monty Python OP feel to it, from shields to weapons to sheer numbers.. It is a fun novelty at first then you realize that the bugs and glitches can take the fun out of it.
Playablity.. its not a bad game if you like the star trek IP then its a good thing to try.. But SWG was a better game for Space/ground battles... Cryptic should have spent more time refining each and making them better.. but they spend most of thier time adding digital goods to the Zen store and the F2P players are not even a thought. So yes you can play the game without spending a dime... but dont expect much out of it...
and you will most definitely get absolutely tired of seeing <insert name here> has gained <insert lockbox/lobi store ship name here> across your screen hundreds of times a day.
I returned to STO for the latest Dyson Sphere episode. Once you make max level despite all of the expansions STO, like many MMOs, becomes mostly an end game gear grind where you repeat that same instances over and over and over..... But say you do get all this cool "borg enhanced" gear you then have to ask yourself for what end? Impress your guildmates? Do better in PvP? Point is the storyline and content is geared towards level progression. Once I saw that I was out. I had guildmates that were doing the same instances over and over for hours upon a day. So much that they could most of them blindfolded. This is not what I play an MMO for.
First page read quit well, second page read like you were desperate to think of something to push the score up. It ;ools like star trek but is kinda dull and doesn't really offer anythin new, but has lsated 4 years 9/10 what?????????
It's also seems clear that the reviewer didn't try any real interaction with the playerbase in sto and reads like you just say a bunch of fleet names about. There only seems to be a few actual active guilds about that interact with it's members, most seem to consist of a few of people(at best) that rarely talk(if ever). Try running a few pugs, joining a fleet or two or reading the chat for longer than a few mins and still give social that high a score.
....... else.
Pretty well this. It also $eem$ that $pending adverti$ing dollar$ on thi$ $ite entitle$ Cryptic to influence the rating/review of it'$ game$. Gotta love how the all might dollar work$. Hopefully at the 5 year mark the license will be pulled and the game dies. It'll be interesting to see what CBS decides to do. Probably one of the points of the article, is to convince CBS that game is worth the extension.
This place has always been in the bag to the paid advertisers for things like this.
Buy more adspace, get more positive fluff pieces.
This game was a turd when launched, and still is a turd up to this day.
Shallow, simple, massively repetitive, and even a bigger cash shop rip off (and let's not forget lock box gambling!) after the Chinese bought it.
Originally posted by Chaserz ... STO, like many MMOs, becomes mostly an end game gear grind where you repeat that same instances over and over and over..... But say you do get all this cool "borg enhanced" gear you then have to ask yourself for what end? Impress your guildmates? Do better in PvP? ..... This is not what I play an MMO for.
I agree, but that applies to most mmo's sadly - that's why I avoid endgame grind in every mmo. And as I wrote above, STO is maybe the best in this area, because if you scratch off the worthless parts which other games leaning heavily on -gear grind and pvp- STO still has 2 great activities for VA's: the Foundry and the DOff system.
(besides the Rp and gathering all the Accolades, most mmo's have those activities as well. Just as festivals, crafting or pimping your ship / base / characters with cosmetic stuff, etc.)
Personally, I can count on one hand how many times I've joined an STF or any ground or space queue in the last 2 years, and it doesn't hindered my gaming experience one bit. No Foundry missions or DOff assignments or Rp events require a full set of Mk.XIIIIIIgazillion gear (sidenote, yep, I know there's no such Mark, neither it is a valid roman number )
What I try to point out, if you don't like the same ol' endgame BS, in STO you have lots of options to avoid that. For example in LotRO (which I also like) you just have the music system at the level cap (besides the ones all games have, the Rp events, cosmetics, clearing the Deed log, etc.) if you don't want the gear and LI grind.
Oh, almost forgot, in STO you also can raise BOffs, and developing multiple builds with them, collecting the proper ships for that, finding the right DOffs to enhance the builds... it's a great meta-game as well.
I really like this game and have played it a lot. They rep updating content and the player added content keeps the game fresh for me. I'm not into the end game grind thing but the game is flexible enough for you to play without being geared to the gills. It a little buggy but it's never stopped me form enjoying the game.
The one thing I have a problem with is how they are pushing the Arc luncher. I don't need another launcher running in the background keeping track of god knows what. I really didn't like the part of there legal statement which said they have the right to install third party software but take no responsibility for what third parties install.
Haven't played after I read that.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Comments
While the game is dead now I already experiance ground/space combat with Star Wars Galaxies which offered really allot of freedom in how to play both ground and space.
I find it hard to get into a MMORPG that has such limited ground/space combat as Star Trek Online offers. Where I hoped the game would go beyond what SWG had offered since technology was more limited back then compared to when Star Trek Online began development.
I can say to be a fan of many IP's, Star Wars, Star Trek, Superhero's to name some. But with the exception of SWG those other games with grand IP's really where a let down for me personaly. I also know SWG was a let down to many people when that game was released.
But I tried STO a couple of times but just didn't feel "Trekkie" enough to me. Sure sound/Visuals did lure me in but the gameplay put a end to my enjoyment.
It's a shame because there isn't much out there for a trekkie fan. Though the MMORPG is still allot beter then the last singleplayer JJ's Star Trek game.
(2) don't think this can count as a chore anymore as last time i checked 'exploration' in sto was almost completely pointless. Only real point of doing exploration mission is for the dilithium and there are much better and easier ways to get it.
First page read quit well, second page read like you were desperate to think of something to push the score up. It ;ools like star trek but is kinda dull and doesn't really offer anythin new, but has lsated 4 years 9/10 what?????????
It's also seems clear that the reviewer didn't try any real interaction with the playerbase in sto and reads like you just say a bunch of fleet names about. There only seems to be a few actual active guilds about that interact with it's members, most seem to consist of a few of people(at best) that rarely talk(if ever). Try running a few pugs, joining a fleet or two or reading the chat for longer than a few mins and still give social that high a score.
Also the people suggesting the use of autofire to improve space combat, seriously! Putting you ship on autofire and then just turing in an endless circle is better? Then after you do the endless rep grind so that you can tank you don't even need to do that, just stick on autofire and go and do something else.
A "fair" review, although (as mentioned previously), the space combat really shines and is the biggest draw for many.
Also mentioned, the Foundry provides and endless amount of content, both for those who want only combat, to long and involved stories, real RPG elements etc.
As a lifetime subscriber and active player for almost the entire four years, I can say that I have spent many hundreds of dollars investing in everything from costumes to ships that cost more than $50, depending on how I wanted to acquire them. Even so, one of my primary captains is using a "Mirror" ship bought off the exchange for almost nothing (20 minutes of work to earn the EC for it). At no time even in Elite STF missions does a level 50 character with decent gear acquired through gameplay need to feel like they cannot succeed.
Whilst I appreciate the time taken to "re-review" a game that sorely needed a fresh look, the bottom-line is that in a F2P game with one the most fair and generous models in the market...anyone who has a bit of space on their hard drive and a few hours to invest in having a go should do that and see for themselves whether the game is something they would enjoy!
Huh? That's the first word out of my mouth after reading the "cons" list...
Difficult Space navigation? You can auto pilot to any point on the "world map". Within instances, there really isn't much to it. The opening tutorial explains everything there is to moving around in space. You can actually get away with holding A or D to circle round a target and still win. PvE is insanely easy.
Slow, painful space combat? Sounds like a customization problem, or you're in a poorly geared cruiser. The player has almost complete control over their abilities in the game. That can make or break combat experiences. Don't like "slow" run an escort. Their overall speed and DPS is crazy.
Expensive shop items? The Dilithium exchange nullifies that. Want a shiny new ship? Save up the Dilithium, convert it to Zen and get it that way.
^^ THIS
You complete destroy your defense when you open with the statement that most people enjoy the combat most. Hello, when I had to aim my ship to shoot, I immediately knew that combat was a huge joke. That was just ridiculous, you don't aim a starship, they never did that in Star Trek. I could forgive the other stuff that does not agree with the series, but seriously, messing up combat that bad, unacceptable.
I could be wrong,i mean i can't remember everything on every game,i read tons.However was this game not the one that Cryptic bought from someone else or am i thinking of another game?I mean the article was all praising Cryptic but if i remember the game was like 80+% already made and that developer went bankrupt or something.
The game definitely looked aged when i first stepped in during Beta and launch,there was definitely no updating from Cryptic,they merely acquired the rights and looked to cash in.What really baffles me is why would perfect world would buy Cryptic for 50 million,.to me that is insane.
To me it looked like for example AO a very ancient looking game and even the systems were boring.I was so turned off i quite the game within the first few hours.If i remember right,they also used only one model for each the male and female sides,so the game was really done cheap.I remember seeing an elevator and thought cool but even that was cheaply done,you simply warped away like an instance.
IMO the game was a C rated effort not even a B,it looked like a budget developer game.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I'm a total Trekie. I've seen every show & movie made several times over and have even pondered going to a convention.
I love the game. I love it because the ambiance is spot on.
I agree with the review 100%This review really is seriously lacking for people that actually understand this game from top to bottom and understand all the systems. Not a single instance talking about the PvP, how on earth is traveling problematic in this game when you can transwarp everywhere with the little icon to the right of the missions description and can even lower the cooldown on your Spacedock/Qonos transwarp with duty officers.
"As always, there was one uber-ship that seemed to take forever to finally kill…and my fingers told the tale. Ed. Note: Yes, I utilized auto-fire but that didn't help either. There always had to be at least one or two fingers on the keyboard or the mouse."
Lol what? are you telling me you play MMOs with a controller or something because every single MMO ever required using at least 1 or 2 fingers on the keyboard or mouse just to move (WASD to move ring a bell?). The reason the Uber-ship takes forever to kill is probably the way you set up your bridge officer skills or your captain skills and talents, did you get any feedback from other players or ask for help on how to build your particular role?
Essential skills for just about every captain: Tactical Teams, Attack Patterns (if your going for damage), Hazard Emitters for clearing plasma and damaging debuffs. Emergency Power to Shields and Weapons, Transfer Shield Strength and Auxiliary to Structural which can repair your ship and other players. There are so many essential things that go into combat that you will never experience until you hit the endgame where using the wrong build is essentially suicide against tactical cubes or bastion voth ships.
Don't even get me started on the part where you said you didn't feel like a captain, there is a system in the game which literally lets you issue orders to hundreds of your officers. The system itself is beyond complex and there are so many things you would never understand about its importance without actually researching it or asking players about. For people that play they will know these right away:
nadorc, fed and kdf support missions for very rare duty officers, resettle colonists so you can start the fortifying colony missions for very rare doffs, trafficking contraband missions and inspect civilian freighters so you can stack the contraband. flight deck officer missions, asylum missions for refugees, devonite and shapeshifting locket missions for nadorc so that you can get the alien artifacts which can be used for mk 12 consoles.
It is absolutely painful how much this review misses and I haven't even scratched the surface yet with what is needed to truly understand the complexity and fun you can get from this game. This game gives trekkies everything they could ask for. There is so much fan service and lore that I am still finding things years into playing it that pay homage to even the most obscure episodes of every series.
They have literally made entire enemy races out of aliens that showed up in only 1 or 2 episodes or movies (Hirogen, Voth, Elachi, Solanae, Species 8472 and Remans).
HEAVEN OR HELL
Duel 1
Lets ROCK!
Ok, I do not always like posting replies to articles like this, however this time I felt I must. I want to say 2 things upfront before I continue this. First, please remember that this is just a game that we are talking about. Second, If I make people mad with what I say, the remember this, my motto is "WYSIWYG if you do not like that then STFU."
I find that Star Trek Online (#STO) is a game that is in the most part very relaxing to me. I grew up watching the Star Trek on TV, I remember going to the movies and watching the show in the theater, I have read a lot of the books - both the 'tech manuals' and the stories. I think of myself as a Trekie. I am also a gamer. I played World of Warcraft (WOW) for 8 years. I know that many people will say I am a nerd, a geek, and even a dweeb for admitting that fact, but it is part of who I am. I find that the gameplay in #STO is very smooth and can be done by any level of MMO Gamer. The one thing I have learned about MMOs is this, YOU CAN NOT PLEASE EVERYONE ALL THE TIME. Yes I am shouting that phrase. I want people to understand something. Because of how MMOs are set up, there will always be something that one person will love that another person will hate. This is a fact of life. It comes from human nature.
I, for one, love the Space Combat and Exploration parts of the game, while at the same time I dislike the ground combat and PvP parts of the game. However, you want to know the best thing about this game, I do not have to do the parts I do not like, while doing the ones I do like. I was talking with a person the other day, that is what I would call a "Ubar-Trekie" and when I told him about the game, he went on about all the 'great' things about the PvP System of #STO. Being as I do not like the PvP aspect of #STO, I did not agree with most of what he said, but I respect his thoughts. If you do not like #STO, then do not play it, PERIOD. Do not complain about it, do not try to make it sound like #STO is the worst game ever, when it is not. Likewise if you like playing #STO, then work with the Devs on the forums to help improve the game more.
I am one that started playing #STO because of another friend I have. I was burned out on WOW and was not really wanting to play another MMO that much. However after playing the game for only 3 months, I started to pay for the Gold Membership. I may not bet the best at making Foundry Missions or playing PvP, but I at least like playing the game. I am not going to 'coodle' people about this game. If you like it - great. If you do not like the game for whatever reason, that is ok also, but leave your hate of the game somewhere else and move on. There are lots of others games for you to try.
With all that said, I think that the article was well written and expressed the authors feelings well. I did agree with some points of it while others I was thinking that this person could not be more wrong. However, Suzie Ford is entitled to her opinion and I respect her for stating it. I would like to say thank you to the Devs at Cryptic for all of the hard work they do to make the game of #STO what it is.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting.
Live Long and Prosper. =^=
With regards to the combat, I can agree with the issues of the reviewer in the context of this game being one MMO among many. However, I have been a fan of computerized attempts at Star Trek games since the days of the grid-based, Battleship-style strategy games on the Apple II and Commodore 64. I even still have copies of a few.
My impression of the combat, from that perspective, is much more forgiving. There have been a great many attempts at bringing the "feel" of Star Trek to the computer, and most were failures, at worst, and silly, at best. (I'm lookin' at you, Starfleet Academy!) Each element feels familiar, as though the developers, in the planning phase, knew what they were up against, what had come before, and said, "OK. What were the best games that incorporated the things that we want this game to do?"
Much like World of Warcraft was the culmination of years of work that began with a simple, little RTS, STO feels like all of the games that had come before were brought together into this one place, polished off, edited down, and distilled into one glorious, immersive experience. Is it a perfect game? Absolutely not. Is it the best game out there? Not by a longshot. What it is, at its heart, is a game, much like anything that has come from Cryptic, created first and foremost by fans of the material.
Pretty well this. It also $eem$ that $pending adverti$ing dollar$ on thi$ $ite entitle$ Cryptic to influence the rating/review of it'$ game$. Gotta love how the all might dollar work$. Hopefully at the 5 year mark the license will be pulled and the game dies. It'll be interesting to see what CBS decides to do. Probably one of the points of the article, is to convince CBS that game is worth the extension.
As a roleplayer, this game is amazing! The ability to customize your character, change "clothes" on the fly, actually HAVE clothes and not just armor, the settings for fleets, ships and all the emotes add to a great RP tool.
Add onto that Foundry, which lets my RP fleet create amazing missions just for our RP story arcs keeps my interested in this game. Foundry is second to none as an RP tool.
I am not a huge Star Trek fan (I prefer Stormtroopers to red-shirts to be honest) but the RP capabilities of STO so far exceeds anything I ever got in TOR. Its just a better game to support an RP community.
Above all else... never ever piss off the penguin.
I play STO and have for over 2 years. I have the Life time Sub level and can say that every character I create gains the titles and benefits at level 7. It took a while for cryptic to pull their heads out of the dark end of their anatomy when it came to the Klingon faction but it has finally happened.
One thing I would like to point out that is missing from this editorial is the state of the economy for Startrek Online...
Economies make or break a game and STO is not immune to this. Now when one looks at the game Energy Credits are easy to gain and can get you pretty much anything in the game... to a point.
Anyone who knows Star Trek knows about Dilithium... Simply put it is the currency that makes doing anything in the game possible at end game. from getting nice upgrades for Personel and ships to accessing the best gear from reputations and fleets. And let me not forget the Insanely stupid amount of Dilithium that is needed to build up your fleets star base.
now one would think you can just get it in the game and spend it right?... that is partly true. You can gain Dilitium ore in the game and its not hard to do.... however you have to refine it yourself and its capped at 8k a day. so if you want that awesome Advanced fleet rifle itll take you two days to get it... to get the advanced fleet weapon load out for a cruiser?.... it takes weeks.
Now we mentioned fleets... Yep you can have them... and you even get a nice lil player housing kinda starbase... Fleet members can transwarp to your starbase and even pick up Duty officer missions there as well as shop for fleet loot. Once you start your fleet you have to level it.
Notice... you cannot level a fleet on your own unless you are a masochistic madman. some of the project take nearly 200k dilithium and thats several times a starbase level... oh yes, and the starbase has twenty levels with 3 tier 44 project levels and the vanity projects to boot. And the All cost dilithium in some amount.
But wait lets not stop there, along with the Star Base you also get the Embassy, Dyson Spine and your very own Dilithium Mine..... If you have a small fleet youre better off not trying to get into building the fleet up.. itll make you hate the game. for large fleets that have been around a while they were just there at the right time and right place. everyone after is pretty well screwed.
Oh and on a note.. if you dont mind spinning in circles and auto firing weapons against a retarded AI that does the same then yes the Space combat is great.. for those who want more you will be sorely disappointed... The normal STFs arent too shabby.. However the elite STFs and events like the Mirror Universe Invasion are completely bunk... Take the same ship you have and then they boost its sheilds and weapons to such a high degree that makes you wonder why your ship isnt so elite...
Even in Star fleets most up to date Cruiser class with the best weapon You will still get treated like a red headed step child in the Elite STFs. Everything has a Monty Python OP feel to it, from shields to weapons to sheer numbers.. It is a fun novelty at first then you realize that the bugs and glitches can take the fun out of it.
Playablity.. its not a bad game if you like the star trek IP then its a good thing to try.. But SWG was a better game for Space/ground battles... Cryptic should have spent more time refining each and making them better.. but they spend most of thier time adding digital goods to the Zen store and the F2P players are not even a thought. So yes you can play the game without spending a dime... but dont expect much out of it...
and you will most definitely get absolutely tired of seeing <insert name here> has gained <insert lockbox/lobi store ship name here> across your screen hundreds of times a day.
Played: UO, LotR, WoW, SWG, DDO, AoC, EVE, Warhammer, TF2, EQ2, SWTOR, TSW, CSS, KF, L4D, AoW, WoT
Playing: The Secret World until Citadel of Sorcery goes into Alpha testing.
Tired of: Linear quest games, dailies, and dumbed down games
Anticipating:Citadel of Sorcery
Played: UO, LotR, WoW, SWG, DDO, AoC, EVE, Warhammer, TF2, EQ2, SWTOR, TSW, CSS, KF, L4D, AoW, WoT
Playing: The Secret World until Citadel of Sorcery goes into Alpha testing.
Tired of: Linear quest games, dailies, and dumbed down games
Anticipating:Citadel of Sorcery
This place has always been in the bag to the paid advertisers for things like this.
Buy more adspace, get more positive fluff pieces.
This game was a turd when launched, and still is a turd up to this day.
Shallow, simple, massively repetitive, and even a bigger cash shop rip off (and let's not forget lock box gambling!) after the Chinese bought it.
I agree, but that applies to most mmo's sadly - that's why I avoid endgame grind in every mmo. And as I wrote above, STO is maybe the best in this area, because if you scratch off the worthless parts which other games leaning heavily on -gear grind and pvp- STO still has 2 great activities for VA's: the Foundry and the DOff system.
(besides the Rp and gathering all the Accolades, most mmo's have those activities as well. Just as festivals, crafting or pimping your ship / base / characters with cosmetic stuff, etc.)
Personally, I can count on one hand how many times I've joined an STF or any ground or space queue in the last 2 years, and it doesn't hindered my gaming experience one bit. No Foundry missions or DOff assignments or Rp events require a full set of Mk.XIIIIIIgazillion gear
(sidenote, yep, I know there's no such Mark, neither it is a valid roman number 
)
What I try to point out, if you don't like the same ol' endgame BS, in STO you have lots of options to avoid that. For example in LotRO (which I also like) you just have the music system at the level cap (besides the ones all games have, the Rp events, cosmetics, clearing the Deed log, etc.) if you don't want the gear and LI grind.
Oh, almost forgot, in STO you also can raise BOffs, and developing multiple builds with them, collecting the proper ships for that, finding the right DOffs to enhance the builds... it's a great meta-game as well.
I really like this game and have played it a lot. They rep updating content and the player added content keeps the game fresh for me. I'm not into the end game grind thing but the game is flexible enough for you to play without being geared to the gills. It a little buggy but it's never stopped me form enjoying the game.
The one thing I have a problem with is how they are pushing the Arc luncher. I don't need another launcher running in the background keeping track of god knows what. I really didn't like the part of there legal statement which said they have the right to install third party software but take no responsibility for what third parties install.
Haven't played after I read that.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey