LOL! Uhm… K… JP, I am on the Rift hit list right? That’s cheap dude but I love it. :P I honestly hope you have a lot of fun playing it.
Some might hate the mini review I did on it in that forum. I never said it was a bad game and I never bashed it. I noted who I thought would like it. I was critical with good reasons. If you want a 1 to 10 on Rift outta me i'd give it a 7 after coffee but only a 6.5 before. hey seem to be working up a patch to try and deal with “some” of those criticisms now as I am not the only one…
I hope Trion gets it right and they make good. Who knows? I might try it again in a year and do a write up like this too. However, it isn’t an appropriate topic for this thread.
I mentioned some issues with STO ground combat earlier myself. I haven’t hit on the nuts and bolts or in depth yet as I want to get a few more levels of play with the current game build. I can say there is a huge difference in tactical depth between an engineer with mines, turrets, weapon malfunctions, cover shields, and support drones to a tactical officer with basically just gun enhancers and grenades…
He said: "They are adding to staff. " That statement implies that new staff has come on board, or is in the process of coming on board (i.e. have been hired and will start work shortly). The truth is that no, they are not; DStahl is talking to Jack about doing so, but they are not actually adding to their staff yet.
What you think he meant is just that; what you think. However, all that really matters is what he meant. Either way, he did not say they have already done it, so his statement is not factually incorrect as of yet.
He said: "They are adding to staff. " That statement implies that new staff has come on board, or is in the process of coming on board (i.e. have been hired and will start work shortly). The truth is that no, they are not; DStahl is talking to Jack about doing so, but they are not actually adding to their staff yet.
What you think he meant is just that; what you think. However, all that really matters is what he meant. Either way, he did not say they have already done it, so his statement is not factually incorrect as of yet.
Lmao, the irony is wonderful, thanks for the laugh this morning.
He said: "They are adding to staff. " That statement implies that new staff has come on board, or is in the process of coming on board (i.e. have been hired and will start work shortly). The truth is that no, they are not; DStahl is talking to Jack about doing so, but they are not actually adding to their staff yet.
I don't see why they couldn't add staff. Just my opinion, as I've seen this done in some job fields. As some projects get done, for example Daggerdale and they cut back on staff (on that project) that could allow for a hire/s in the STO team. Like taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other.
Sevenwind keep in mind that Atari actually owns Cryptic and is the only source of income, for the most part. Also consider Cryptic is attempting to launch other games as is Atari, so it's not like they actually have cash laying around to throw at someone.
I resubbed as well a couple of weeks ago and i'm enjoying it. Mind you, I enjoyed the space battles before but the ground missions were dreadful, repetitive and well you guys all know that..... Now the ground missions have definately improved.
I did The Vault last night, a Romulan Front mission and really enjoyed it, lots of variety, needed some thought and the difficulty was just right (especially in a Type 8 shuttle). The Breen Front missions were great as well, with only a couple of cookie cutter corridor areas but mostly varied environments. So much better although I can't be sure if this is new content or that the content is better the higher level you get. I'm a Commander 3.
I see plenty of people playing, but not much in regional chat, even on Earth Space Dock. It still feels like a single player game with a chat box unfortunately. If it was F2P it would be brilliant, but i'm finding it hard to justify paying monthly for a game which reallly isn't an mmorpg.
To be really honest though, i'm just treading water until GW2 and SWtOR come along...
I resubbed as well a couple of weeks ago and i'm enjoying it. Mind you, I enjoyed the space battles before but the ground missions were dreadful, repetitive and well you guys all know that..... Now the ground missions have definately improved.
I did The Vault last night, a Romulan Front mission and really enjoyed it, lots of variety, needed some thought and the difficulty was just right (especially in a Type 8 shuttle). The Breen Front missions were great as well, with only a couple of cookie cutter corridor areas but mostly varied environments. So much better although I can't be sure if this is new content or that the content is better the higher level you get. I'm a Commander 3.
I see plenty of people playing, but not much in regional chat, even on Earth Space Dock. It still feels like a single player game with a chat box unfortunately. If it was F2P it would be brilliant, but i'm finding it hard to justify paying monthly for a game which reallly isn't an mmorpg.
To be really honest though, i'm just treading water until GW2 and SWtOR come along...
loved doing the vault mission. It was the kind of mission I was expecting from a Star Trek mmo. Also liked the Drozana station missions where you go back in time. The content does seem to improve with higher levels. It is really a lot better than what it was a year ago. I'm kinda like you waiting for GW2 and SWtOR, but STO seems to be a good filler game till then.
Try joining some global chat channels for chat activity, just go to chat settings and in the box enter the name of the channel you want to join. So far I have global, help, trade and ssr and there is activity in those channels, or you can try some of the fleet channels. Would be nice if STO had some kind of channel search feature, so you could see the most active channels instead of just having to guess.
I resubbed as well a couple of weeks ago and i'm enjoying it. Mind you, I enjoyed the space battles before but the ground missions were dreadful, repetitive and well you guys all know that..... Now the ground missions have definately improved.
I did The Vault last night, a Romulan Front mission and really enjoyed it, lots of variety, needed some thought and the difficulty was just right (especially in a Type 8 shuttle). The Breen Front missions were great as well, with only a couple of cookie cutter corridor areas but mostly varied environments. So much better although I can't be sure if this is new content or that the content is better the higher level you get. I'm a Commander 3.
I see plenty of people playing, but not much in regional chat, even on Earth Space Dock. It still feels like a single player game with a chat box unfortunately. If it was F2P it would be brilliant, but i'm finding it hard to justify paying monthly for a game which reallly isn't an mmorpg.
To be really honest though, i'm just treading water until GW2 and SWtOR come along...
loved doing the vault mission. It was the kind of mission I was expecting from a Star Trek mmo. Also liked the Drozana station missions where you go back in time. The content does seem to improve with higher levels. It is really a lot better than what it was a year ago. I'm kinda like you waiting for GW2 and SWtOR, but STO seems to be a good filler game till then.
Try joining some global chat channels for chat activity, just go to chat settings and in the box enter the name of the channel you want to join. So far I have global, help, trade and ssr and there is activity in those channels, or you can try some of the fleet channels. Would be nice if STO had some kind of channel search feature, so you could see the most active channels instead of just having to guess.
I just did the Drozana missions, yes very good and meeting Scotty and Bones was good too. Ending was hard though, those D7s that turned up blew me away several times. Still much better than I remember it.
I made Commander 3 a bit ago. I will log in and play more after while.
The Vault was an okay intro to shuttle usage. I consider it a tutorial. The villain’s dialogue was much better than the Breen Commander. I am not sure how often I’ll actually use my runabout though. A good set up for the story line none the less.
The follow up, Mine Enemy was a great mission that felt like a Trek Episode. I really enjoyed the mining colony and was upset I could do so little for the bullied refugees. I loved the puzzle decryption of the protected file you had to do in your ready room. I like my Horta too. I enjoyed sifting through all those analysts files just to see... I kept looking for a mention of my character directly.
The guardian of forever mission arc deserves special mention as being a great Trek experience too so far. Miral Paris should marry my character after all those rescues. The Klingon Commander’s feelings about his future proved interesting too.
Those missions with perhaps a nod to Decker’s Nightmare have been my favorites “so far.” The fleet was gone from that mission though. I feel like it could be more in the classic episode mold. It would have to be expanded and redone with new content for that.
The Gorgon mission found in the random exploration mission was neat. I just wish there had been a fight at the end. Maybe we should all have drunk blood wine while standing in a big circle to mock it unto death.
Still too many asteroids on too many maps but isn’t as bad as it used to be.
I really like the selectable unique character rewards from some missions now like the horta pet and cryo grenade. I hope Cryptic keeps that up.
My T3 cruiser is proving to be a joy. I am arguing between a future Star or Assault cruiser strongly. For me it’s a difference between polarize hull for tractor breaks and a torpedo power for DPS. I wish science team broke tractors.
Ground combat… I think it might have been better as a light cover shooter maybe in the vein of Gears of War for example. As it is I think energy weapons should do more damage. Not just to make it go quicker but to capture the feel of what I expect from a sci fi firefight better. I think everyone would enjoy it more if it was faster going.
As an engineer there are options to manage. As quick examples: Weapon malfunctions ruin Breen heavies. Mine Fields mess up Klingon and Gorn ground squads. Generators really annoy Romulans (they actually try to stasis field them.)
I don’t consider ground combat horribad and enjoy it as an option sometimes. I call it “passing” in grade.
There are days I wish I could board and attempt to capture an enemy ship.
The crying, out of control emotionally, Vulcan is no longer present on SB 39. As a matter of fact, Admiral T’Nae seems to have really cleaned up her act.
That’s it for now. Hope you are having fun out there too. Yeah you can ask questions or add your own thoughts too.
I don't see why they couldn't add staff. Just my opinion, as I've seen this done in some job fields. As some projects get done, for example Daggerdale and they cut back on staff (on that project) that could allow for a hire/s in the STO team. Like taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other.
I never said they couldn't add staff, which would be a good thing for STO, just that they hadn't done so yet as Gruug implied. As I said earlier, the last Dev comment I saw was still talking about their small staff.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
What you think he meant is just that; what you think. However, all that really matters is what he meant. Either way, he did not say they have already done it, so his statement is not factually incorrect as of yet.
Is Gruug your alternate account, or have you developed psychic powers? Most reasonable people, when reading a statement that says a company is adding to its staff, would take it to mean that the company is adding to its staff. In other words, the size of the staff is increasing; it either has increased, or people are coming on board. As I have pointed out, that is not yet true. I don't know if you misunderstood the original statements and are now trying to cover yourself, or if you are blindly defending STO against an incorrectly perceived attack (it wasn't by the way; it was merely a correction), but this is starting to get silly. If Gruug's statement wasn't clear and didn't represent what he wanted to say accurately, it is up to him (and not you) to clarify things.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I have a lifetime sub but I dont play the game very often. I agree that Cryptic has added a lot to the game but I also know that the game launched in such a horrible state that the executive producer left shortly after launch so there was not anywhere for the game to go but up. When I do try to play the game I feel dirty, like I'm helping to make MMO's worse in the years to come, let me explain...
First we had subscription MMO's where the sub entitled you to everything in the game.
Next we had F2P were you got a little but had to pay for more if you wanted the cool stuff
Then we had sub games where you could buy some extra cosmetic stuff. Now mind you, you still got free stuff and there was plenty of it, such as mounts in WoW, there are a lot of mounts you can have for free but if you want a cosmetically different one, you can pay extra.
Now we have STO where you pay a premium sub but only get a portion of the material. You do not get all the races, you only get one ship choice at each tier and you get very limited clothing for your char. You can however pay extra and get a better ship. Now some may argue that this is the same thing as a mount in WoW but it is not. You are not a mount in WoW, in STO, you ARE the ship, it is your avatar in the game during most of your playtime. Once you pick your starting clothes, the only way to get more is vet rewards and paying extra for them. Basically we are now at the level where you paya sub AND have to pay extra for the good stuff, it is like the worst of both worlds.
You need to ask yourself if the current business model is good for the MMO industry. Are you ok with most new games only giving you a limited amount of starting races and making you pay for the others, even the good ones like Klingons? (Come on, Worf was a favorite char in the series and even went on to a second series because of customer response to his char) Are you ok with your premium sub no longer giving you the max inventory space? Are you ok with looking like everyone else in the game unless you also PAY for new clothes and char models?
I dont have an issue with SOME cosmetic items in an item store in a sub game. I do have an issue when you pay a premium sub only to get the starting F2P options and then have to pay extra to get the things that most other MMO's give to subscribers. I hate this business model and if this is the way the industry is going, I will be moving away from playing MMO's.
So, I guess I'm trying to say, I'm glad you are having fun playing STO. If I could get past the greedy Cryptic business model, I could play this game casually and have a bit of fun too.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
I have a lifetime sub but I dont play the game very often. I agree that Cryptic has added a lot to the game but I also know that the game launched in such a horrible state that the executive producer left shortly after launch so there was not anywhere for the game to go but up. When I do try to play the game I feel dirty, like I'm helping to make MMO's worse in the years to come, let me explain...
First we had subscription MMO's where the sub entitled you to everything in the game.
Next we had F2P were you got a little but had to pay for more if you wanted the cool stuff
Then we had sub games where you could buy some extra cosmetic stuff. Now mind you, you still got free stuff and there was plenty of it, such as mounts in WoW, there are a lot of mounts you can have for free but if you want a cosmetically different one, you can pay extra.
Now we have STO where you pay a premium sub but only get a portion of the material. You do not get all the races, you only get one ship choice at each tier and you get very limited clothing for your char. You can however pay extra and get a better ship. Now some may argue that this is the same thing as a mount in WoW but it is not. You are not a mount in WoW, in STO, you ARE the ship, it is your avatar in the game during most of your playtime. Once you pick your starting clothes, the only way to get more is vet rewards and paying extra for them. Basically we are now at the level where you paya sub AND have to pay extra for the good stuff, it is like the worst of both worlds.
You need to ask yourself if the current business model is good for the MMO industry. Are you ok with most new games only giving you a limited amount of starting races and making you pay for the others, even the good ones like Klingons? (Come on, Worf was a favorite char in the series and even went on to a second series because of customer response to his char) Are you ok with your premium sub no longer giving you the max inventory space? Are you ok with looking like everyone else in the game unless you also PAY for new clothes and char models?
I dont have an issue with SOME cosmetic items in an item store in a sub game. I do have an issue when you pay a premium sub only to get the starting F2P options and then have to pay extra to get the things that most other MMO's give to subscribers. I hate this business model and if this is the way the industry is going, I will be moving away from playing MMO's.
So, I guess I'm trying to say, I'm glad you are having fun playing STO. If I could get past the greedy Cryptic business model, I could play this game casually and have a bit of fun too.
And this is why I no longer play STO. Well this and the fact its sooo incredibly boring and monotonous.
I made captain 1 today. I am outfitting my new Galaxy at space dock. I am still adventuiring in Iota Pavonis.
I posted some screens in my STO Album: HERE I'll note when I add screens in the future.
The Reman series of episodes that started with The Vault have been a lot of fun in the Trek tradition all the way through to the finale. Way cool! I kept my sword.
I was left asking myself, “what happened with the Breen arc” as it simply doesn’t compare story wise. I didn’t get an officer reward from either arc.
They have remasted a few missions like the hirogen trap where your away team used to be split between several force field seperated areas. Now you all beam down together in one spot. That was nice. i used to hate that mission.
I wish I could dual spec something awful so I could keep a trainer build and a play build.
The recommended DPS cruiser build described in the premade thread I linked earlier is fatally flawed and shouldn’t be used. It’s gimped as Directed Energy Modulation fails with beams but works alright with cannons (cannon rapid fire) due to the way the power applies the damage with each shot.
It's hard to fit that DEM + Cannon combo outside of an advanced heavy cruiser retrofit though.
You want to talk Bridge Officer builds?
This is for my upcoming Star Cruiser. It’s an anti-borg build (and undine) for STF’s and pve play.
Space:
E4: Emergency Power to Weapons 1, Emergency Power to Shields 2, Engineering Team 3, and Aceton Field 3.
E3: Emergency Power to Weapons 1, Emergency Power to Shields 2, Engineering Team 3 (Eject Warp Plasma 3.)
S2: Science Team 1, Hazard Emitters 2.
T2: Tactical Team 1, Beam Overload 2.
S1: Polarize Hull 1.
I can swap engineers betrween consoles depending on need. Going against the named opponents you need the Tac team to clear boarders, the hazzard emmitters to cure debuffs, and the polarize hull for tractor breaks. Since you can't shield tank borg the heavy hull healing for yourself and allies is the only way to go. Need the science team to purge sensor or viral effects. The cooldowns allow continuous uptime coverage from the duplicate powers or the teams as needed.
Aux to SIF 3 is outta my budget. Not sure I want it.
I am taking 2 engineers and 2 scientist for my ground team most times. That's right, I've been buisily aquiring two copies of both tachyon harmonic 3 and vacular regenerator 3 for my science officers. Expensive but powerful. Do not underestimate those support drones as they are just nasty with area affect expose attacks, decent damage and durability, while being mobile platforrms...
I actually like my assault cruiser officer build a bit better but it's not trully optimized for the stf opponents. I can share if pleaded with though.
Strange that a star cruiser matches up better against the borg for example than a sovvy (supposedly desinged too...)
Right now , I am grinding my way onward. See you next time I got something...
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The MMO business model is what it is... That would lead me way off topic.
Really, as noted before STO is the only game that gives me what I want "right now." Like everyone else I am waiting on games like SWTOR to see how it compares.
Cryptic did lose a lot of trust and garner a lot of negative feeling with the game's launch. I am not sure they ever really made up to the fans either. Doesn't matter what was whose fault as their name is the one in bright letters.
Yeah, some things are waiting to admiral rank (end game stuff) on my to post about list. Like their tendancy to reuse maps etc...
Well, just about everyone is either an Admiral ot General and they all fly their own ship getting orders from Lts. and Capts. on what to do. An Admiral for every ship and every ship for an Admiral. If they had this system Admiral Kirk would never of had to be busted down to Captain just to get a ship again.
Well, just about everyone is either an Admiral ot General and they all fly their own ship getting orders from Lts. and Capts. on what to do. An Admiral for every ship and every ship for an Admiral. If they had this system Admiral Kirk would never of had to be busted down to Captain just to get a ship again.
This I agree with. The current rank system is a bit fugged up. That and the content for the Klingon side.
After reading your posts I decided to jump in and see for myself what "alot" of people in the Sol system was. I was surprised to find about 450 people in all instances of space and in-station combined. I guess it seems like a lot of people when you fly in and there are 50 people in your instance but when you realize that every player in the game has a free jump to Sol and that it is the main meeting hub and that there are no other servers, then 450 seems kinda small. After flying around and checking several sectors, I still dont think this game has more than 5000 people playing at any given time. I'm not saying they have 5000 subscribers.
I do agree it seems like they have more online then in Dec/Jan when I last checked. It was a good idea for them to increase the number of users in an instance. In Dec, I went to Sol and saw 8 instances and each had less than 30 people in it. Now there are instances with 70 people and it really helps.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
Are you tired of pressing F or spamming the spacebar , yet ?
game has autofire in space now lol.. ground combat is another story, spam the 1 and 2 keys
I know about the autofire , but how does that exactly change anything ? lmao. Ground combat = spam 1 and 2 keys. Making sure that one weapon is an expose and the other an exploit.
Are you tired of pressing F or spamming the spacebar , yet ?
Now that you mention it, I've not touched those two keys since the tutorial.
You right click to interact with objects or select the option from a pop up menu. Space bar is for the character jump command. In space as a cruiser pilot I use autofire for beams and regular torps.
No. I am not just hitting the numeric 1 and 2 keys in ground combat. It's more like click, call support drone , drploy mine field, identify focus fire target for group, select stunned target for exploit killshot (as the drones and science officers seemingly expose everyone), weapon malfuction on best armed enemy, rifle butt near enemy down, recharge shield (myself or BOFF) when needed, shoot while waiting on ability recharge. Rinse and repeat with desired variations as needed. I forgot fuse armor but you get the idea...
I do wish they had an autofire toggle for ground attacks too so I could focus on ability usage more.
I'll admit fighting all those fed enigneer medic tandems on the S31 holoship and onbaord the typhoon BB in Wargames wore me down a bit. Takes forever to kill those guys sometimes.
Made Cap 6 (just shy of.)
Found a start up fleet to try.
PS: Tactical Team will auto-redistribute shields now while active.
Yeah, it has been a while. I wanted to play enough to make sure I could write with confidence.
I made Vice Admiral many days ago. To be frank… fun in end game content is a problem still.
I've been flying a Galaxy X around for a good while now. It was my present to self for the hard work of leveling and grinding my way to the top. I was a dumb a##. It's cool to look at but really, an assault cruiser is a better ship for your main.
This thing is a show boat with a trick or two for occasional fun boating. To make it worth the price and an effective main ship option for a character that's fun to play I would a) increase turn rate and inertia value to match the assault cruiser, b) add one tactical console slot, and c) improve spinal lance accuracy just one more "notch" while reducing the cool down to 90 seconds.
That's all I would change. Then it would be a rival for other top tier ships including the advanced cruiser retrofit (arguably the best ship in game.) Frankly, for the price, it should be at least fun to fly rather than a lumbering chore out performed by “all” the other available options. Those changes would buff it but not overpower it in comparison. They just didn’t buff it enough when they retooled it recently.
Beam Fire at Will is the new flavor of the month power and it is a trick since the buff. I am of mixed feeling about it right now. It does outclass beam overload but you better be ready to tank a mob.
The Admiral tier missions are in bad need of re-mastering. The difference in polish and fun to play does show when compared to the newer stuff. The Borg used to be a lot tougher. They still have teeth but it’s inconsistent. Now they seem either too much or too little. The Undine are not much of a challenge. Q annoyed rather than entertained.
You will be left with the few STF’s to do at cap. There are pick up groups available. I’m not sure how I feel on those. Right now, I am hoping the fleet I joined comes together so we can run them. One of the STF’s is pretty well bugged and people aren’t running it in pugs right now.
The daily runs are repetitive. There are not many to choose from and the Big Dig, and Gorn Fleet actions are just strange choices at VA.
Your best gear at cap comes from crafting (possibly barring the Borg set from STFs and the console.) It is a long, boring, expensive grind. Save the Vertion, Metreon, Antithoron, and Chronometric particle traces you find in your early explorations. You will get sick of flying a circle around B’Tran cluster looking for these and other crafting materials. And I fear to get that edge you will have to just to make money to buy crafted goods if nothing else…
Some of the B’Tran top end exploration missions are still bugged.
Crafting grind, fleet actions, and waiting for an STF run occupy my time right now on my VA. The end is not as fun as the ride was getting there. If like me, you’ll be starting an Alt soon. I am already leveling a tac alt and considering a Klingon character for PVP. That’s it…
But then they up and released the foundry. I’ll tell you what I think of it next time as it seems to be one of the few things left of genuine interest for me to explore.
***
I honestly wonder what Cryptic could have made in four years rather than two. They show flashes of brilliance here and there but you can see where it falls short. They are trying to fix it and I thank them for that.
There is a road map posted at the wiki showing where they intend to go with each seasonal release. They claim to be working on end game content, new fleet actions and STFs, and polish. I look forward to seeing what they do with the Decker’s Nightmare mission in re-mastering.
There is a lot of C-Store content and maybe not enough in game for a long term subscriber. I don’t mind a booming cash shop. I just like to feel I get my money’s worth when paying an actual monthly sub. They could learn a bit from Turbine here.
It’s a theme park meant to guide you along all the years of Trek and not a new consistent story line or game universe in itself. The first missions are TOS inspired and they move along to each series from there in arcs depending on your rank. In understanding that, you begin to understand why a 22ndcentury Excelsior ends up being the toughest ship around and why the retrofits exist end game. Live your favored day in trek…
They do not have rights to everything in Trek. Pocket books materials like the U.S.S. Aventine are off limits right now.
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Cryptic has been working to improve the game from launch conditions.
I can see myself playing until some of the other games I am interested in come along at the end of the year. It is a fun ride to what feels like a bit of a crash right now. With the ongoing work, it could be come my fall back game. But there is a need for end game material.
***
Until next time.
I’mma hammer on stuff in that foundry thing a ma bob and then will come back and write about it.
good post.. agree with you, end game right now is still shallow. I think they put the foundry in to help with that but they dropped the ball (yet again) with it.
There is an ongoing debate right now about people creating easy grind missions to get easy accolade points so they can get titles, trophies, and passive skills. It is catching on and now the accolades are cheap because all you have to do is go into a foundry mission, blow up a bunch of tier 1 ships and boom max accolade points. Hopefully they fix this
Comments
LOL! Uhm… K… JP, I am on the Rift hit list right? That’s cheap dude but I love it. :P I honestly hope you have a lot of fun playing it.
Some might hate the mini review I did on it in that forum. I never said it was a bad game and I never bashed it. I noted who I thought would like it. I was critical with good reasons. If you want a 1 to 10 on Rift outta me i'd give it a 7 after coffee but only a 6.5 before. hey seem to be working up a patch to try and deal with “some” of those criticisms now as I am not the only one…
I hope Trion gets it right and they make good. Who knows? I might try it again in a year and do a write up like this too. However, it isn’t an appropriate topic for this thread.
I mentioned some issues with STO ground combat earlier myself. I haven’t hit on the nuts and bolts or in depth yet as I want to get a few more levels of play with the current game build. I can say there is a huge difference in tactical depth between an engineer with mines, turrets, weapon malfunctions, cover shields, and support drones to a tactical officer with basically just gun enhancers and grenades…
What you think he meant is just that; what you think. However, all that really matters is what he meant. Either way, he did not say they have already done it, so his statement is not factually incorrect as of yet.
Lmao, the irony is wonderful, thanks for the laugh this morning.
Sevenwind keep in mind that Atari actually owns Cryptic and is the only source of income, for the most part. Also consider Cryptic is attempting to launch other games as is Atari, so it's not like they actually have cash laying around to throw at someone.
I resubbed as well a couple of weeks ago and i'm enjoying it. Mind you, I enjoyed the space battles before but the ground missions were dreadful, repetitive and well you guys all know that..... Now the ground missions have definately improved.
I did The Vault last night, a Romulan Front mission and really enjoyed it, lots of variety, needed some thought and the difficulty was just right (especially in a Type 8 shuttle). The Breen Front missions were great as well, with only a couple of cookie cutter corridor areas but mostly varied environments. So much better although I can't be sure if this is new content or that the content is better the higher level you get. I'm a Commander 3.
I see plenty of people playing, but not much in regional chat, even on Earth Space Dock. It still feels like a single player game with a chat box unfortunately. If it was F2P it would be brilliant, but i'm finding it hard to justify paying monthly for a game which reallly isn't an mmorpg.
To be really honest though, i'm just treading water until GW2 and SWtOR come along...
loved doing the vault mission. It was the kind of mission I was expecting from a Star Trek mmo. Also liked the Drozana station missions where you go back in time. The content does seem to improve with higher levels. It is really a lot better than what it was a year ago. I'm kinda like you waiting for GW2 and SWtOR, but STO seems to be a good filler game till then.
Try joining some global chat channels for chat activity, just go to chat settings and in the box enter the name of the channel you want to join. So far I have global, help, trade and ssr and there is activity in those channels, or you can try some of the fleet channels. Would be nice if STO had some kind of channel search feature, so you could see the most active channels instead of just having to guess.
I just did the Drozana missions, yes very good and meeting Scotty and Bones was good too. Ending was hard though, those D7s that turned up blew me away several times. Still much better than I remember it.
I made Commander 3 a bit ago. I will log in and play more after while.
The Vault was an okay intro to shuttle usage. I consider it a tutorial. The villain’s dialogue was much better than the Breen Commander. I am not sure how often I’ll actually use my runabout though. A good set up for the story line none the less.
The follow up, Mine Enemy was a great mission that felt like a Trek Episode. I really enjoyed the mining colony and was upset I could do so little for the bullied refugees. I loved the puzzle decryption of the protected file you had to do in your ready room. I like my Horta too. I enjoyed sifting through all those analysts files just to see... I kept looking for a mention of my character directly.
The guardian of forever mission arc deserves special mention as being a great Trek experience too so far. Miral Paris should marry my character after all those rescues. The Klingon Commander’s feelings about his future proved interesting too.
Those missions with perhaps a nod to Decker’s Nightmare have been my favorites “so far.” The fleet was gone from that mission though. I feel like it could be more in the classic episode mold. It would have to be expanded and redone with new content for that.
The Gorgon mission found in the random exploration mission was neat. I just wish there had been a fight at the end. Maybe we should all have drunk blood wine while standing in a big circle to mock it unto death.
Still too many asteroids on too many maps but isn’t as bad as it used to be.
I really like the selectable unique character rewards from some missions now like the horta pet and cryo grenade. I hope Cryptic keeps that up.
My T3 cruiser is proving to be a joy. I am arguing between a future Star or Assault cruiser strongly. For me it’s a difference between polarize hull for tractor breaks and a torpedo power for DPS. I wish science team broke tractors.
Ground combat… I think it might have been better as a light cover shooter maybe in the vein of Gears of War for example. As it is I think energy weapons should do more damage. Not just to make it go quicker but to capture the feel of what I expect from a sci fi firefight better. I think everyone would enjoy it more if it was faster going.
As an engineer there are options to manage. As quick examples: Weapon malfunctions ruin Breen heavies. Mine Fields mess up Klingon and Gorn ground squads. Generators really annoy Romulans (they actually try to stasis field them.)
I don’t consider ground combat horribad and enjoy it as an option sometimes. I call it “passing” in grade.
There are days I wish I could board and attempt to capture an enemy ship.
The crying, out of control emotionally, Vulcan is no longer present on SB 39. As a matter of fact, Admiral T’Nae seems to have really cleaned up her act.
That’s it for now. Hope you are having fun out there too. Yeah you can ask questions or add your own thoughts too.
I never said they couldn't add staff, which would be a good thing for STO, just that they hadn't done so yet as Gruug implied. As I said earlier, the last Dev comment I saw was still talking about their small staff.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Is Gruug your alternate account, or have you developed psychic powers? Most reasonable people, when reading a statement that says a company is adding to its staff, would take it to mean that the company is adding to its staff. In other words, the size of the staff is increasing; it either has increased, or people are coming on board. As I have pointed out, that is not yet true. I don't know if you misunderstood the original statements and are now trying to cover yourself, or if you are blindly defending STO against an incorrectly perceived attack (it wasn't by the way; it was merely a correction), but this is starting to get silly. If Gruug's statement wasn't clear and didn't represent what he wanted to say accurately, it is up to him (and not you) to clarify things.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I have a lifetime sub but I dont play the game very often. I agree that Cryptic has added a lot to the game but I also know that the game launched in such a horrible state that the executive producer left shortly after launch so there was not anywhere for the game to go but up. When I do try to play the game I feel dirty, like I'm helping to make MMO's worse in the years to come, let me explain...
First we had subscription MMO's where the sub entitled you to everything in the game.
Next we had F2P were you got a little but had to pay for more if you wanted the cool stuff
Then we had sub games where you could buy some extra cosmetic stuff. Now mind you, you still got free stuff and there was plenty of it, such as mounts in WoW, there are a lot of mounts you can have for free but if you want a cosmetically different one, you can pay extra.
Now we have STO where you pay a premium sub but only get a portion of the material. You do not get all the races, you only get one ship choice at each tier and you get very limited clothing for your char. You can however pay extra and get a better ship. Now some may argue that this is the same thing as a mount in WoW but it is not. You are not a mount in WoW, in STO, you ARE the ship, it is your avatar in the game during most of your playtime. Once you pick your starting clothes, the only way to get more is vet rewards and paying extra for them. Basically we are now at the level where you paya sub AND have to pay extra for the good stuff, it is like the worst of both worlds.
You need to ask yourself if the current business model is good for the MMO industry. Are you ok with most new games only giving you a limited amount of starting races and making you pay for the others, even the good ones like Klingons? (Come on, Worf was a favorite char in the series and even went on to a second series because of customer response to his char) Are you ok with your premium sub no longer giving you the max inventory space? Are you ok with looking like everyone else in the game unless you also PAY for new clothes and char models?
I dont have an issue with SOME cosmetic items in an item store in a sub game. I do have an issue when you pay a premium sub only to get the starting F2P options and then have to pay extra to get the things that most other MMO's give to subscribers. I hate this business model and if this is the way the industry is going, I will be moving away from playing MMO's.
So, I guess I'm trying to say, I'm glad you are having fun playing STO. If I could get past the greedy Cryptic business model, I could play this game casually and have a bit of fun too.
And this is why I no longer play STO. Well this and the fact its sooo incredibly boring and monotonous.
Retired: EVE, SWG, STO, EQ2, Ryzom, AO, LotRO, FFXI
Currently Awaiting: SWTOR, TSW, ArcheAge
I made captain 1 today. I am outfitting my new Galaxy at space dock. I am still adventuiring in Iota Pavonis.
I posted some screens in my STO Album: HERE I'll note when I add screens in the future.
The Reman series of episodes that started with The Vault have been a lot of fun in the Trek tradition all the way through to the finale. Way cool! I kept my sword.
I was left asking myself, “what happened with the Breen arc” as it simply doesn’t compare story wise. I didn’t get an officer reward from either arc.
They have remasted a few missions like the hirogen trap where your away team used to be split between several force field seperated areas. Now you all beam down together in one spot. That was nice. i used to hate that mission.
I wish I could dual spec something awful so I could keep a trainer build and a play build.
The recommended DPS cruiser build described in the premade thread I linked earlier is fatally flawed and shouldn’t be used. It’s gimped as Directed Energy Modulation fails with beams but works alright with cannons (cannon rapid fire) due to the way the power applies the damage with each shot.
It's hard to fit that DEM + Cannon combo outside of an advanced heavy cruiser retrofit though.
You want to talk Bridge Officer builds?
This is for my upcoming Star Cruiser. It’s an anti-borg build (and undine) for STF’s and pve play.
Space:
E4: Emergency Power to Weapons 1, Emergency Power to Shields 2, Engineering Team 3, and Aceton Field 3.
E3: Emergency Power to Weapons 1, Emergency Power to Shields 2, Engineering Team 3 (Eject Warp Plasma 3.)
S2: Science Team 1, Hazard Emitters 2.
T2: Tactical Team 1, Beam Overload 2.
S1: Polarize Hull 1.
I can swap engineers betrween consoles depending on need. Going against the named opponents you need the Tac team to clear boarders, the hazzard emmitters to cure debuffs, and the polarize hull for tractor breaks. Since you can't shield tank borg the heavy hull healing for yourself and allies is the only way to go. Need the science team to purge sensor or viral effects. The cooldowns allow continuous uptime coverage from the duplicate powers or the teams as needed.
Aux to SIF 3 is outta my budget. Not sure I want it.
This build fits my play style.
Ground:
E4: Weapons Malfunction 1, Shield Recharge 2, Mine Barrier 3, Support Drone 1.
S4: Gravimetric Shift 1, Medical Tricorder 2, Tachyon Harmonic 3, Vascular Regenerator 3.
I am taking 2 engineers and 2 scientist for my ground team most times. That's right, I've been buisily aquiring two copies of both tachyon harmonic 3 and vacular regenerator 3 for my science officers. Expensive but powerful. Do not underestimate those support drones as they are just nasty with area affect expose attacks, decent damage and durability, while being mobile platforrms...
I actually like my assault cruiser officer build a bit better but it's not trully optimized for the stf opponents. I can share if pleaded with though.
Strange that a star cruiser matches up better against the borg for example than a sovvy (supposedly desinged too...)
Right now , I am grinding my way onward. See you next time I got something...
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The MMO business model is what it is... That would lead me way off topic.
Really, as noted before STO is the only game that gives me what I want "right now." Like everyone else I am waiting on games like SWTOR to see how it compares.
Cryptic did lose a lot of trust and garner a lot of negative feeling with the game's launch. I am not sure they ever really made up to the fans either. Doesn't matter what was whose fault as their name is the one in bright letters.
Yeah, some things are waiting to admiral rank (end game stuff) on my to post about list. Like their tendancy to reuse maps etc...
... just because my thoughts trail.
Well, just about everyone is either an Admiral ot General and they all fly their own ship getting orders from Lts. and Capts. on what to do. An Admiral for every ship and every ship for an Admiral. If they had this system Admiral Kirk would never of had to be busted down to Captain just to get a ship again.
This I agree with. The current rank system is a bit fugged up. That and the content for the Klingon side.
After reading your posts I decided to jump in and see for myself what "alot" of people in the Sol system was. I was surprised to find about 450 people in all instances of space and in-station combined. I guess it seems like a lot of people when you fly in and there are 50 people in your instance but when you realize that every player in the game has a free jump to Sol and that it is the main meeting hub and that there are no other servers, then 450 seems kinda small. After flying around and checking several sectors, I still dont think this game has more than 5000 people playing at any given time. I'm not saying they have 5000 subscribers.
I do agree it seems like they have more online then in Dec/Jan when I last checked. It was a good idea for them to increase the number of users in an instance. In Dec, I went to Sol and saw 8 instances and each had less than 30 people in it. Now there are instances with 70 people and it really helps.
Are you tired of pressing F or spamming the spacebar , yet ?
game has autofire in space now lol.. ground combat is another story, spam the 1 and 2 keys
I know about the autofire , but how does that exactly change anything ? lmao. Ground combat = spam 1 and 2 keys. Making sure that one weapon is an expose and the other an exploit.
Now that you mention it, I've not touched those two keys since the tutorial.
You right click to interact with objects or select the option from a pop up menu. Space bar is for the character jump command. In space as a cruiser pilot I use autofire for beams and regular torps.
No. I am not just hitting the numeric 1 and 2 keys in ground combat. It's more like click, call support drone , drploy mine field, identify focus fire target for group, select stunned target for exploit killshot (as the drones and science officers seemingly expose everyone), weapon malfuction on best armed enemy, rifle butt near enemy down, recharge shield (myself or BOFF) when needed, shoot while waiting on ability recharge. Rinse and repeat with desired variations as needed. I forgot fuse armor but you get the idea...
I do wish they had an autofire toggle for ground attacks too so I could focus on ability usage more.
I'll admit fighting all those fed enigneer medic tandems on the S31 holoship and onbaord the typhoon BB in Wargames wore me down a bit. Takes forever to kill those guys sometimes.
Made Cap 6 (just shy of.)
Found a start up fleet to try.
PS: Tactical Team will auto-redistribute shields now while active.
It's been almost a week blazin-ace. Anymore updates?
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
He lost interest and quit.
Just kidding.
Just installed the client. I'm gonna follow this thread to maybe post some comments. New user for this MMO but hardly new to MMO's
Yeah, it has been a while. I wanted to play enough to make sure I could write with confidence.
I made Vice Admiral many days ago. To be frank… fun in end game content is a problem still.
I've been flying a Galaxy X around for a good while now. It was my present to self for the hard work of leveling and grinding my way to the top. I was a dumb a##. It's cool to look at but really, an assault cruiser is a better ship for your main.
This thing is a show boat with a trick or two for occasional fun boating. To make it worth the price and an effective main ship option for a character that's fun to play I would a) increase turn rate and inertia value to match the assault cruiser, b) add one tactical console slot, and c) improve spinal lance accuracy just one more "notch" while reducing the cool down to 90 seconds.
That's all I would change. Then it would be a rival for other top tier ships including the advanced cruiser retrofit (arguably the best ship in game.) Frankly, for the price, it should be at least fun to fly rather than a lumbering chore out performed by “all” the other available options. Those changes would buff it but not overpower it in comparison. They just didn’t buff it enough when they retooled it recently.
Beam Fire at Will is the new flavor of the month power and it is a trick since the buff. I am of mixed feeling about it right now. It does outclass beam overload but you better be ready to tank a mob.
The Admiral tier missions are in bad need of re-mastering. The difference in polish and fun to play does show when compared to the newer stuff. The Borg used to be a lot tougher. They still have teeth but it’s inconsistent. Now they seem either too much or too little. The Undine are not much of a challenge. Q annoyed rather than entertained.
You will be left with the few STF’s to do at cap. There are pick up groups available. I’m not sure how I feel on those. Right now, I am hoping the fleet I joined comes together so we can run them. One of the STF’s is pretty well bugged and people aren’t running it in pugs right now.
The daily runs are repetitive. There are not many to choose from and the Big Dig, and Gorn Fleet actions are just strange choices at VA.
Your best gear at cap comes from crafting (possibly barring the Borg set from STFs and the console.) It is a long, boring, expensive grind. Save the Vertion, Metreon, Antithoron, and Chronometric particle traces you find in your early explorations. You will get sick of flying a circle around B’Tran cluster looking for these and other crafting materials. And I fear to get that edge you will have to just to make money to buy crafted goods if nothing else…
Some of the B’Tran top end exploration missions are still bugged.
Crafting grind, fleet actions, and waiting for an STF run occupy my time right now on my VA. The end is not as fun as the ride was getting there. If like me, you’ll be starting an Alt soon. I am already leveling a tac alt and considering a Klingon character for PVP. That’s it…
But then they up and released the foundry. I’ll tell you what I think of it next time as it seems to be one of the few things left of genuine interest for me to explore.
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I honestly wonder what Cryptic could have made in four years rather than two. They show flashes of brilliance here and there but you can see where it falls short. They are trying to fix it and I thank them for that.
There is a road map posted at the wiki showing where they intend to go with each seasonal release. They claim to be working on end game content, new fleet actions and STFs, and polish. I look forward to seeing what they do with the Decker’s Nightmare mission in re-mastering.
There is a lot of C-Store content and maybe not enough in game for a long term subscriber. I don’t mind a booming cash shop. I just like to feel I get my money’s worth when paying an actual monthly sub. They could learn a bit from Turbine here.
It’s a theme park meant to guide you along all the years of Trek and not a new consistent story line or game universe in itself. The first missions are TOS inspired and they move along to each series from there in arcs depending on your rank. In understanding that, you begin to understand why a 22ndcentury Excelsior ends up being the toughest ship around and why the retrofits exist end game. Live your favored day in trek…
They do not have rights to everything in Trek. Pocket books materials like the U.S.S. Aventine are off limits right now.
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Cryptic has been working to improve the game from launch conditions.
I can see myself playing until some of the other games I am interested in come along at the end of the year. It is a fun ride to what feels like a bit of a crash right now. With the ongoing work, it could be come my fall back game. But there is a need for end game material.
***
Until next time.
I’mma hammer on stuff in that foundry thing a ma bob and then will come back and write about it.
good post.. agree with you, end game right now is still shallow. I think they put the foundry in to help with that but they dropped the ball (yet again) with it.
There is an ongoing debate right now about people creating easy grind missions to get easy accolade points so they can get titles, trophies, and passive skills. It is catching on and now the accolades are cheap because all you have to do is go into a foundry mission, blow up a bunch of tier 1 ships and boom max accolade points. Hopefully they fix this