I have been playing since beta and I find STO to be fun, yes it could have/should have been more. I will admit to not caring for some of Cryptics design decisions(to much instancing, no real exploration, the warp map, WoW BG style PvP, etc but all in all I enjoy the game quite abit.
STO is not the game for you if you play 10 hours a day, but, if you have a life and only a few hours here and there to play, or need a second MMoRPG to log into every so often then this is a great game.
Lets face it, what MMoRPG has depth? and dont go screaming about original SWG cuase I was there and the same complaint was screamed at that game...
No game is going to please everyone but no game is also as bad as the regulars on these forums claim either, oh ya, I hope the new Star Wars MMoRPG is going to be great, but read all the hype about it, its the next coming of Christ, just like every other game since WoW, and as soon as release these forums turn on it like pigs in blood lust, unfortinatly the same fate will befall Bioware soon.
lets see, what mmo's have i played that have/had more depth than sto
eve,wow,autoassault, earth and beyond, ddo,lineage 2, fallen earth, city of heroes, lotro, ill be back in sec to edit, i have to go look at the games list to remember everything ive played ove rthe years.
almost forgot vanguard, and i can say with all honesty that sto is by far (by a long way) the worst of all these games with the least content.
pointing out that other games have faults too doesnt make sto playable, it just shows you really have nothing positive to say to defend it.
IF THE ONLY DEFENCE FOR CRITICISM OF A GAME IS CALLING SOMEONE A TROLL OR HATER, THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE GAME
Well, I'd call it a fairly well established fact that a game is content light, when a player can cap out and do all the in-game content during the free month without playing 4-8 hours a day. Heck, people were capping out in 10-14 days, the hardcore types. And that is what we have here. Otherwise, as bad as STO is to some people, there would not have been the population crash after the first month, would there?
And, for being feature light, I would point to the economy, crafting, and meaningful options for non combat gameplay. All of these have been given very, very little attention in STO, both in comparison to other modern MMOs and the ST franchise itself. It is a fact that besides combat, there is nothing much to do in STO.
And there is game design. Over instanced everything, the whole game is a bunch of instances, really. And the player caps are so small, not all people in the same fleet could fit into the same instance. And God forbid you want to try to get together with friends when you go someplace with multiple stacked instances and can't get into the ones you want together (although this is probably less of a problem,, now that so many have canceled).
STO had its shot and missed the mark. In the end, it is just another mostly failed MMO to throw on the fire, when the remaining diehards finally give up.
Just a clarification, but the hardcore players were hitting the level cap during the three day headstart. Many others hit RA5 in the first week, and casuals started hitting RA5 during the 10-14 day period. It only seems that the ultra-casual players and those that deliberately took their time have taken longer to hit RA5 (not counting the late comers, of course).
"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
It's a fact that STO has a ridiculously small amount of content. It's a fact it was launched with a half-finished faction that still isn't done. It's a fact it is charging more than MMOs that offer far, far more features (because to get all of STO's features, you have to pay more cash). Even ignoring the micro-transactions, it is still a LOT LESS content for just as much money.
So what are these "facts" based on ? What feature of STO requires the cash shop? The Klingons where very under developed at launch I will give you that one, but, I am not sure you actually know what your typing about or that you just parrot the hate posts of others.
Anyway if you dislike STO so much why are you spending so much time in forums about it? OCD maybe?
Cosmetic stuff ARE game features. Races are game features. Obviously you have to spend money to have access to all game features. As for the other game stuff, other posters have handled that.
As for why I am spending so much time here. Eh, 20-some minutes over the last week is not that much time. I think that last time I posted before that was before the game came out, when I said it was a joke and a failure. Obviously I was right. The majority of people who've played the game are admitting that now on these forums. Anyhow, I'm enjoying how right I was, if you are wondering why I've bothered posting at all. Don't worry, I'll be gone in another week.
STO had its shot and missed the mark. In the end, it is just another mostly failed MMO to throw on the fire, when the remaining diehards finally give up.
Yeah the SWG vet nutjobs have been crying that same tune about SWG for almost a decade now. Whishful thnking don't make it so.
I dont know what the sub count is but I see people on at all times of day. Not packed but there are others on. I hope enough Trekkies stick with it long enough to give the devs time to get out more content and expand the game. As for those talking about how it wasnt ready for launch I wont argue with it but I would like to know what the last MMO was they bought at launch that was actually ready. For me it was LOTRO in 2007. I dont buy everything but other than perhaps Aion (didnt buy but did play in beta) I cant think of one that has been "ready to launch" at launch. The main thing I do dislike is the cash shop along with a sub fee. Nothing I have to have but still I find it rediculous to have to buy a class in a subscription game. Ive heard all the hate and discontent about the game and it doesnt matter. I will have fun until it isnt fun.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
I've just started the game and can't see what all the hate is about!
I'm finding it fun and involving.
Well, in all honesty, some people are more easily amused than others. And thats not a bad thing.
Ever since more mmorpg enthusiasts started playing STO, many became disappointed at the lack of mmorpg content, assets, game-play and overall experiences. These realities kept coming to the forefront; ‘Lack of Social Interaction’, ‘Easy Mode Combat’, and no exploration, ‘single-player feel’, lack of anything resembling community-centric massively-multiplayer feel, ‘It’s Just not Star Trek’, etc. The generalizations came in fast and furious about this game, and specificity was getting lost.
Then the specificity became more well-published about STO. I may not be the best at categorizing all the mundane stuff specifically myself, but I can lay it out.
All-in-all, STO is a shallow third-person space shooter that lacks much of the staples of mainstream mmorpgs
- Content is sorely lacking to the point where very very early on in this game, the 'instanced' pve quests are nothing more than similar repeatable maps and mobs of previous quests done; the static nature of pve and its' redundancy is astounding.
- Space is space-less. Each map is nothing more than a confining shoe-box, a small space of nothing to interact with.
- There is no game-play freedom of exploration. No exploration to other planets or discovery; again, your confined to your shoe-box instance. There's nothing dynamically to do in this game that would be reminiscent of Star Trek.
- No exploration or away-team capability. If you do see a planet on an instanced map, there is no "away-team" capability to freely explore its surface. Its nothing more than a static inactive marble that you bounce off of in your confined instance.
- Space is life-less. Other than the instance nodes that you bump into to enter for a ship pve encounter, or to wait in a long line of trying to perform pvp with other players; its essentially a single-player lobby system game that your forced to pay $15 a month for. If you see an opposing faction player on a system map, there is absolutely no engagement.
- Space flight is confining. Space flight lacks freedom with a limited z-axis that prevents looping or gaining weapons locks on ships that are above or below, yet in front of you in many cases. It just adds to the unnecessary maneuvering of your ship.
- Quest copywriting seems very week that leads to weak story engagement or sense of draw that you’re actually contributing to a story-arc or meaningfully contributing to federation or klingon game-play.
- Space and ground game-play combat has the most limiting, redundant, Quake 3rd-person shooter type feel of any game in the mmorpg market; its shallow.
- There is no physics to ground combat as there is no physics to space combat that factor into game-play.
- Ground and Space pvp combat amounts to a frag-fest of limited players and non-tactical or strategic importance in any respect to story or game-play in this faction vs. faction environment.
- Like a 3rd-person or first-person shooter, the player-vs-player stuff is without any game-play contributory value, other than winning a small confining map, it amounts to run, gun, die, or run,gun, win, limp, die. But your rewarded as much for being a loser as a winner; no mmoprg game-play distinction. I havent found the game-play nutrition in this yet.
- There is no reasonable complimentary opposite to winning. You win in space and on ground, you get a battery or such (a weak reward), you lose on space or on ground, you miraculously reappear next to the fight to battle like a button mashing mindless drone without consequences again. Lack of consequences to death has turned this title into a series of suicide runs for the same exact reward I get for battling tactically and strategically. The grossly equivalent rewards for those that die often is enough to leave this game.
The lack of any penalty for being a suicide player is astounding. So, as a Klingon that must rely on pvp matches to level, when these suicide players enter a match just to roll into klingons without putting up any fight, but just to die repeatedly and quickly to get the match over so they can rinse and repeat, thats considered good game-design and fair play at my game-play expense?
There are several things missing, underwhelming and poorly implemented in STO, and this has got to rank at the top of the list. . .they, those that die purposely and repeatedly without consequence, advance their own rush for experience at others game-play and immersion expense are exasperating a real problem; they are rewarded handsomely for being losers; figuratively and literally by Cryptic.
- The community (massively multiplayer) element of this mmorpg is very fragmented (as opposed to expanded and cooperative) due to the great number of single-player feel instances. Community feels fragmented to one of those several small instanced zones that does nothing to encourage the feel of massively multiplayer entertainment.
- No alternative industry, aka, no resource gathering towards community crafting, enterprise, or merchandising elements for the federation or klingons. Would be nice if this mmorpg staple were available to players, rather than being non-existant.
Comments
lets see, what mmo's have i played that have/had more depth than sto
eve,wow,autoassault, earth and beyond, ddo,lineage 2, fallen earth, city of heroes, lotro, ill be back in sec to edit, i have to go look at the games list to remember everything ive played ove rthe years.
almost forgot vanguard, and i can say with all honesty that sto is by far (by a long way) the worst of all these games with the least content.
pointing out that other games have faults too doesnt make sto playable, it just shows you really have nothing positive to say to defend it.
IF THE ONLY DEFENCE FOR CRITICISM OF A GAME IS CALLING SOMEONE A TROLL OR HATER, THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE GAME
Just a clarification, but the hardcore players were hitting the level cap during the three day headstart. Many others hit RA5 in the first week, and casuals started hitting RA5 during the 10-14 day period. It only seems that the ultra-casual players and those that deliberately took their time have taken longer to hit RA5 (not counting the late comers, of course).
"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
Cosmetic stuff ARE game features. Races are game features. Obviously you have to spend money to have access to all game features. As for the other game stuff, other posters have handled that.
As for why I am spending so much time here. Eh, 20-some minutes over the last week is not that much time. I think that last time I posted before that was before the game came out, when I said it was a joke and a failure. Obviously I was right. The majority of people who've played the game are admitting that now on these forums. Anyhow, I'm enjoying how right I was, if you are wondering why I've bothered posting at all. Don't worry, I'll be gone in another week.
Yeah the SWG vet nutjobs have been crying that same tune about SWG for almost a decade now. Whishful thnking don't make it so.
I dont know what the sub count is but I see people on at all times of day. Not packed but there are others on. I hope enough Trekkies stick with it long enough to give the devs time to get out more content and expand the game. As for those talking about how it wasnt ready for launch I wont argue with it but I would like to know what the last MMO was they bought at launch that was actually ready. For me it was LOTRO in 2007. I dont buy everything but other than perhaps Aion (didnt buy but did play in beta) I cant think of one that has been "ready to launch" at launch. The main thing I do dislike is the cash shop along with a sub fee. Nothing I have to have but still I find it rediculous to have to buy a class in a subscription game. Ive heard all the hate and discontent about the game and it doesnt matter. I will have fun until it isnt fun.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Well, in all honesty, some people are more easily amused than others. And thats not a bad thing.
Ever since more mmorpg enthusiasts started playing STO, many became disappointed at the lack of mmorpg content, assets, game-play and overall experiences. These realities kept coming to the forefront; ‘Lack of Social Interaction’, ‘Easy Mode Combat’, and no exploration, ‘single-player feel’, lack of anything resembling community-centric massively-multiplayer feel, ‘It’s Just not Star Trek’, etc. The generalizations came in fast and furious about this game, and specificity was getting lost.
Then the specificity became more well-published about STO. I may not be the best at categorizing all the mundane stuff specifically myself, but I can lay it out.
All-in-all, STO is a shallow third-person space shooter that lacks much of the staples of mainstream mmorpgs
- Content is sorely lacking to the point where very very early on in this game, the 'instanced' pve quests are nothing more than similar repeatable maps and mobs of previous quests done; the static nature of pve and its' redundancy is astounding.
- Space is space-less. Each map is nothing more than a confining shoe-box, a small space of nothing to interact with.
- There is no game-play freedom of exploration. No exploration to other planets or discovery; again, your confined to your shoe-box instance. There's nothing dynamically to do in this game that would be reminiscent of Star Trek.
- No exploration or away-team capability. If you do see a planet on an instanced map, there is no "away-team" capability to freely explore its surface. Its nothing more than a static inactive marble that you bounce off of in your confined instance.
- Space is life-less. Other than the instance nodes that you bump into to enter for a ship pve encounter, or to wait in a long line of trying to perform pvp with other players; its essentially a single-player lobby system game that your forced to pay $15 a month for. If you see an opposing faction player on a system map, there is absolutely no engagement.
- Space flight is confining. Space flight lacks freedom with a limited z-axis that prevents looping or gaining weapons locks on ships that are above or below, yet in front of you in many cases. It just adds to the unnecessary maneuvering of your ship.
- Quest copywriting seems very week that leads to weak story engagement or sense of draw that you’re actually contributing to a story-arc or meaningfully contributing to federation or klingon game-play.
- Space and ground game-play combat has the most limiting, redundant, Quake 3rd-person shooter type feel of any game in the mmorpg market; its shallow.
- There is no physics to ground combat as there is no physics to space combat that factor into game-play.
- Ground and Space pvp combat amounts to a frag-fest of limited players and non-tactical or strategic importance in any respect to story or game-play in this faction vs. faction environment.
- Like a 3rd-person or first-person shooter, the player-vs-player stuff is without any game-play contributory value, other than winning a small confining map, it amounts to run, gun, die, or run,gun, win, limp, die. But your rewarded as much for being a loser as a winner; no mmoprg game-play distinction. I havent found the game-play nutrition in this yet.
- There is no reasonable complimentary opposite to winning. You win in space and on ground, you get a battery or such (a weak reward), you lose on space or on ground, you miraculously reappear next to the fight to battle like a button mashing mindless drone without consequences again. Lack of consequences to death has turned this title into a series of suicide runs for the same exact reward I get for battling tactically and strategically. The grossly equivalent rewards for those that die often is enough to leave this game.
The lack of any penalty for being a suicide player is astounding. So, as a Klingon that must rely on pvp matches to level, when these suicide players enter a match just to roll into klingons without putting up any fight, but just to die repeatedly and quickly to get the match over so they can rinse and repeat, thats considered good game-design and fair play at my game-play expense?
There are several things missing, underwhelming and poorly implemented in STO, and this has got to rank at the top of the list. . .they, those that die purposely and repeatedly without consequence, advance their own rush for experience at others game-play and immersion expense are exasperating a real problem; they are rewarded handsomely for being losers; figuratively and literally by Cryptic.
- The community (massively multiplayer) element of this mmorpg is very fragmented (as opposed to expanded and cooperative) due to the great number of single-player feel instances. Community feels fragmented to one of those several small instanced zones that does nothing to encourage the feel of massively multiplayer entertainment.
- No alternative industry, aka, no resource gathering towards community crafting, enterprise, or merchandising elements for the federation or klingons. Would be nice if this mmorpg staple were available to players, rather than being non-existant.
Hope that helps.