You are giving your impressions of the game and have stated it is a more casual-type of game. How do you feel this game compares to GuildWars? GuildWars has about the same amount of social interaction in the game and gets new content from time to time and is marketed more towards the casual player.
What is your impression of how it compares to Rift, if you have tried Rift. Trion was new to MMO's and seems to have launched a solid product. I am wondering if you tried it and how you feel it compares.
I am actually playing all three right now.
It's kind of hard to compare the three. Especially to RIFT. STO and GW are similar in that they are heavily instanced games. I'm not sure if STO was meant to appeal to and be played by people with casual time frames, but that's how I'm playing it. I do myself interacting more in STO the GW though.
RIFT is very well polished (probably even more so than STO) and I've been enjoying my first 30 days this far, but I don't see much in common with it and STO. I mean they both have quests, and you fight enemies, but that's about it.
Apples, Oranges, and Pears... It depends on what you are looking for.
Rift is a technically polished product placed by marketing in direct competition to WoW. They tried to distill what they thought made WoW appealing into a leaner, more focused, action oriented RP game that's easy enough to top end so that more people can raid. If you are tired of WoW or EQ2 for that matter but want something similar and more streamlined it could be great. The PVP is a mess and they do not cater to roleplayers.
(Can eat chips while playing.)
Guild Wars isn't much of an actual MMO when questing thanks to instancing and I hesitate to compare it on those grounds. It's the most innovative of the three games and I wish more people learned from their crafting and class balancing. Technically polished in it's own right and solid graphiclly. It has the best and most competitive PVP of the three gmes. It's hard to argue against their subscription model as a player.
(Can eat chips while doing PVE.)
STO is an underdeveloped attempt at creating an encompssing Trek RPG experiance on ground and in space that's rooted in the trinity mechanics and still feels like a work in re-progress. Grapically solid, good character modeling, but still harmed by bugs in content . The PVP is a mess. They cater the most to roleplayers of the three with all kinds of support in game from bios to custom clothes, ship skins and switchable parts, meeting areas et al...
(No time for chips while doing PVE.)
That's as good as I can do at some sort of comparison for people looking at the three games and trying to decide what to play.
Now, no one dare ask me to ccompare, Trion, Arena Net, and Cryptic unless you want me to get a headsman's axe....
If you guys want to talk if the game is worth the sub fees or other aspects of dev promises please create another thread. Let's get this one back on topic. Last warning.
Not quite sure I understand the necessity of this? We are discussing numerous aspects of the game . Whether or not the game is worth the sub fee is an ongoing impression/opinion a person may have.
If you guys want to talk if the game is worth the sub fees or other aspects of dev promises please create another thread. Let's get this one back on topic. Last warning.
Um, you do realize the owner of this thread is one of them discussing the topics? I dont see how you can come in here and tell the owner of the thread to get back on topic when its his thread.
I am even going to be as bold to state that everything that has been said in here still falls under the topic at hand. He decided to resubscribe and give ongoing impressions. I would say that everything mentioned, subcribers, fees, dev promises ALL falls under that topic.
I agree with you. When it comes to wether something is worth another try or not everything about the game is taken into account. Too bad it seems like a Mod just wanted to get their two cents in.
Uhm... I don't want to throw sticks at the mod, desrving or not, as it's their site and I'm just a guy writing about playing a game here. I don't want to be a problem, just talk with you guys about the ""various" aspects of the game encountered while playing.
I seem to be getting "a lot" of appreciation during play for tanking and healing in the fleet actions. It really made my day this morning just to get all the tells from various people saying TY, way to go, pleasure flying with you, and well done etc, out of the blue. Made me want to play and do good for em, if you understand.
It's not just content but quality content...
I am coming to think that the current STF model is perhaps "the primary liability" in the game design for keeping players long term sub'ed. There are days I've wondered if they designed the game with players that like a iot of alts in mind. I am one of those guys that want to get more out of my main once I've leveled him.
I've done two STF's and they "basically" seem to be built around grinding mobs to an end boss with a trick on the way that requires some concerted effort. The loot that drops isn't as good as the stuff I can craft outside the mission reward from the quest giver in the Borg set's case so far (but I have a full Aegis set from crafting.)
They need better loot drops (variable so you have reason to run it again), more epic drama (as they feel too mundane), more interesting maps rather than one trail to follow, A few rare bosses that could appear, and maybe slots for more players. You could argue they need more STF's too, particularly at lower levels (like dungeons in that other game.)
Not a lot of people seem interested in doing the harder versions of raids and once done for the quest reward they don't seem to want to do them again. That's discouraging because I always thought raids were what you did endgame in a themepark RPG.
They need to be shook up and made more fun to get people involved and interested in really playing them.
Then there is PVP... It's a whole nother subject...
I asked myself why I played the two STF's and I answered it during one run where I was asked why I was just passing on the loot. I told them I did it for fun, to meet other players, and perhaps to teach others to run them one day.
I gotta craft or buy a Lirpa. See you folks later.
STF's are supposedly getting some tweaking. I know Gozer has posted they are changing the "encounter groups" and how they spawn. This is supposed to make the STFs feel less of a trash mob grind.
The other goal Gozer has posted about is to get the difficulty slider working for the STFs. As they stand currently, the trash mobs are set to "Advanced" while the Bosses are set to "Normal", which is what is causing the boss fights to be ridiculously easy. Gozer had also posted they may look into adding better loot drops for the higher difficulty settings once they get the difficulty slider working.
Having done all the STFs quite a few times with our fleet, I would not categorize them as fun or a good story. Tedious is how I would describe them. "Infected" is the least tedious, whereas "The Cure" is just way too many trash mobs and the lack of respawn points makes deaths overly punitive due to the running involved. "Khitomer Accord" is dragged out much too long IMO, yet it does have a decent story to it that ties into the tutorial. The Borg gear that drops from the Borg STFs are nice, yet the tedious grind, lack of fun and cheesy mechanics makes them not worth the replay.
Just my two cents, but I doubt STO will get many future STFs, if any at all. Gozer had posted that if more people do not play them, they will not make any more.
I'm on the fence after reading your post to resub, actually pretty much figured I'd not even make it to 50 in rift as I find the game to have zero character personality.
How is the PVP at 50(Ground combat actually) does it launch fairly often, as that was one aspect I greatly enjoyed, felt a bit like old school with all the quick and fast based fps like action.
If you are focused on ground PVP then, sorry... I could not reccomend this game, personally. There are others like you that do or want to do it as a primary activity. But, it's kind of a mess in power balancing, doesn't pop a que often, and the ground combat system is being chucked later this year for a new and revised system. I don't know what it will be like then.
If you are just into pugs then know that the first time you have a premade on you then you will get rolled (space or ground.) The real fun in STO PVP is if you can get into a premade group and learn to fight together.
PVP happens on high traffic days but for some reason it never really took off in STO. Kinda like STF's in pick up.
Some of the upcoming games put more personality into their character archtypes than the MMO you mentioned. But i have no desire to get into a finger pointing contest.
I'm also giving this game another go even though I swore last year that I wouldn't.
Customer service has greatly improved. I had an issue with severe lag and me and tech support exchanged a few tickets. He was very helpful in walking me through the problem. FYI- /netgraph 2 in chat shows a graph that can visualize any potential hardware or internet issues. Green bars show a potential hardware issue, red/yellow bars show potential internet issue.
Ground combat has improved, but still needs work. It's still hack and slash with maybe a couple barrel rolls.
Space combat is the same, but that was never an issue with me.
Scanning anomilies has been given added work. You scan the anomiliy and have to line up the red bars. I'm guessing that if you do this successfully, your drop will be better.
I'll report more once I've been able to see more. I'm starting a fresh new federation character and going back through it. I figure this can act like a stop gap while I wait for TOR to come out.
Comments
I am actually playing all three right now.
It's kind of hard to compare the three. Especially to RIFT. STO and GW are similar in that they are heavily instanced games. I'm not sure if STO was meant to appeal to and be played by people with casual time frames, but that's how I'm playing it. I do myself interacting more in STO the GW though.
RIFT is very well polished (probably even more so than STO) and I've been enjoying my first 30 days this far, but I don't see much in common with it and STO. I mean they both have quests, and you fight enemies, but that's about it.
0118 999 881 999 119 725... 3
Apples, Oranges, and Pears... It depends on what you are looking for.
Rift is a technically polished product placed by marketing in direct competition to WoW. They tried to distill what they thought made WoW appealing into a leaner, more focused, action oriented RP game that's easy enough to top end so that more people can raid. If you are tired of WoW or EQ2 for that matter but want something similar and more streamlined it could be great. The PVP is a mess and they do not cater to roleplayers.
(Can eat chips while playing.)
Guild Wars isn't much of an actual MMO when questing thanks to instancing and I hesitate to compare it on those grounds. It's the most innovative of the three games and I wish more people learned from their crafting and class balancing. Technically polished in it's own right and solid graphiclly. It has the best and most competitive PVP of the three gmes. It's hard to argue against their subscription model as a player.
(Can eat chips while doing PVE.)
STO is an underdeveloped attempt at creating an encompssing Trek RPG experiance on ground and in space that's rooted in the trinity mechanics and still feels like a work in re-progress. Grapically solid, good character modeling, but still harmed by bugs in content . The PVP is a mess. They cater the most to roleplayers of the three with all kinds of support in game from bios to custom clothes, ship skins and switchable parts, meeting areas et al...
(No time for chips while doing PVE.)
That's as good as I can do at some sort of comparison for people looking at the three games and trying to decide what to play.
Now, no one dare ask me to ccompare, Trion, Arena Net, and Cryptic unless you want me to get a headsman's axe....
Not quite sure I understand the necessity of this? We are discussing numerous aspects of the game . Whether or not the game is worth the sub fee is an ongoing impression/opinion a person may have.
I agree with you. When it comes to wether something is worth another try or not everything about the game is taken into account. Too bad it seems like a Mod just wanted to get their two cents in.
Uhm... I don't want to throw sticks at the mod, desrving or not, as it's their site and I'm just a guy writing about playing a game here. I don't want to be a problem, just talk with you guys about the ""various" aspects of the game encountered while playing.
I seem to be getting "a lot" of appreciation during play for tanking and healing in the fleet actions. It really made my day this morning just to get all the tells from various people saying TY, way to go, pleasure flying with you, and well done etc, out of the blue. Made me want to play and do good for em, if you understand.
It's not just content but quality content...
I am coming to think that the current STF model is perhaps "the primary liability" in the game design for keeping players long term sub'ed. There are days I've wondered if they designed the game with players that like a iot of alts in mind. I am one of those guys that want to get more out of my main once I've leveled him.
I've done two STF's and they "basically" seem to be built around grinding mobs to an end boss with a trick on the way that requires some concerted effort. The loot that drops isn't as good as the stuff I can craft outside the mission reward from the quest giver in the Borg set's case so far (but I have a full Aegis set from crafting.)
They need better loot drops (variable so you have reason to run it again), more epic drama (as they feel too mundane), more interesting maps rather than one trail to follow, A few rare bosses that could appear, and maybe slots for more players. You could argue they need more STF's too, particularly at lower levels (like dungeons in that other game.)
Not a lot of people seem interested in doing the harder versions of raids and once done for the quest reward they don't seem to want to do them again. That's discouraging because I always thought raids were what you did endgame in a themepark RPG.
They need to be shook up and made more fun to get people involved and interested in really playing them.
Then there is PVP... It's a whole nother subject...
I asked myself why I played the two STF's and I answered it during one run where I was asked why I was just passing on the loot. I told them I did it for fun, to meet other players, and perhaps to teach others to run them one day.
I gotta craft or buy a Lirpa.
See you folks later.
STF's are supposedly getting some tweaking. I know Gozer has posted they are changing the "encounter groups" and how they spawn. This is supposed to make the STFs feel less of a trash mob grind.
The other goal Gozer has posted about is to get the difficulty slider working for the STFs. As they stand currently, the trash mobs are set to "Advanced" while the Bosses are set to "Normal", which is what is causing the boss fights to be ridiculously easy. Gozer had also posted they may look into adding better loot drops for the higher difficulty settings once they get the difficulty slider working.
Having done all the STFs quite a few times with our fleet, I would not categorize them as fun or a good story. Tedious is how I would describe them. "Infected" is the least tedious, whereas "The Cure" is just way too many trash mobs and the lack of respawn points makes deaths overly punitive due to the running involved. "Khitomer Accord" is dragged out much too long IMO, yet it does have a decent story to it that ties into the tutorial. The Borg gear that drops from the Borg STFs are nice, yet the tedious grind, lack of fun and cheesy mechanics makes them not worth the replay.
Just my two cents, but I doubt STO will get many future STFs, if any at all. Gozer had posted that if more people do not play them, they will not make any more.
I'm on the fence after reading your post to resub, actually pretty much figured I'd not even make it to 50 in rift as I find the game to have zero character personality.
How is the PVP at 50(Ground combat actually) does it launch fairly often, as that was one aspect I greatly enjoyed, felt a bit like old school with all the quick and fast based fps like action.
If you are focused on ground PVP then, sorry... I could not reccomend this game, personally. There are others like you that do or want to do it as a primary activity. But, it's kind of a mess in power balancing, doesn't pop a que often, and the ground combat system is being chucked later this year for a new and revised system. I don't know what it will be like then.
If you are just into pugs then know that the first time you have a premade on you then you will get rolled (space or ground.) The real fun in STO PVP is if you can get into a premade group and learn to fight together.
PVP happens on high traffic days but for some reason it never really took off in STO. Kinda like STF's in pick up.
Some of the upcoming games put more personality into their character archtypes than the MMO you mentioned. But i have no desire to get into a finger pointing contest.
I'm also giving this game another go even though I swore last year that I wouldn't.
Customer service has greatly improved. I had an issue with severe lag and me and tech support exchanged a few tickets. He was very helpful in walking me through the problem. FYI- /netgraph 2 in chat shows a graph that can visualize any potential hardware or internet issues. Green bars show a potential hardware issue, red/yellow bars show potential internet issue.
Ground combat has improved, but still needs work. It's still hack and slash with maybe a couple barrel rolls.
Space combat is the same, but that was never an issue with me.
Scanning anomilies has been given added work. You scan the anomiliy and have to line up the red bars. I'm guessing that if you do this successfully, your drop will be better.
I'll report more once I've been able to see more. I'm starting a fresh new federation character and going back through it. I figure this can act like a stop gap while I wait for TOR to come out.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft