PVP:Yes | Distribution:Retail | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Subscription
Desktop Client | System Req:
Star Trek Online Previews: Inside Beta: Missions
MMORPG.com's Jon Wood recounts his experiences with some of Star Trek Online's missions, giving readers an example of how they function within the game.
By Jon Wood on December 22, 2009
One of the most frequent requests that I have heard since we started presenting Inside Beta: Star Trek Online, is for more specific information about the kinds of missions in the game, so I thought I'd use this time to go into a little bit more depth.
First, I should say that I appreciate the way that the STO designers went about creating the missions for their game. They have been put together in such a way as to insure that players don't easily get bored of what they are doing, alternating between ship, space and ground missions.
So, in thinking about the best way to present the kinds of missions that are available in Star Trek Online, I thought I'd take the time to recount a few of the ones that I experienced:
SS Azura
In the first mission that I undertook, I was sent to the aid of a Federation cargo ship called the SS Azura. The Azura is under attack by Orions. My first order of business was to fend off the attackers. This was your more typical "destroy all attackers" objective. After completing the space combat portion of the mission, I learn that the ship has suffered heavy damage, numerous plasma conduits have ruptured and that they have been boarded. Like a good Starfleet Ensign, I beam over to the ship with my away team to help out.
)
Once on board the Azura, I see damaged systems and unconscious crewmen. I scan the nearest crewman and learn that he's been overcome by radiation from the leaking systems and that I can beam them to my ship's sickbay as soon as I get those leaks fixed.
My away team and I make our way through the ship, interacting with the appropriate consoles to shut down the leaks which have been blocking us off from the Captain in Main Engineering. Once we shut down the leaks, we are able to beam injured crewmen away and make our way to Engineering.
Upon arriving in Main Engineering, we find that the Warp Core is too heavily damaged and is going to breach, so we have to fight our way back to our beam-in point to return to our own ship. Once back on board, we are hailed by an Orion battleship. Bigger and more powerful, it tells me to back off or be destroyed. I fight the battleship, which basically equates to a small "boss fight" before beaming the captain and remaining crew from the Azure to safety. Mission complete.
Miners
Players who wanted to see some emphasis put on diplomacy will be happy to learn that there are indeed missions that involve no combat at all. The first of which I came across sent me to a mining colony that had been having problems with their workers.
)
Upon beaming down to the planet, my away team and I were greeted by the colony's leader who told me that they were willing to talk, but felt that Starfleet just didn't understand their plight. He urged me to go and speak with some of the workers so that I might educate myself as to their problems.
Speaking with the miners, I learned that there were a number of grievances. In fact, everyone seemed to voice something different. Like the seasoned MMO vet that I am, I ignored their answers the first time around in favor of checking off the "speak to so-and-so" instructions in my quest log. When I returned to my original contact though, he wanted to test me to see if I understood the miners' plight any more or if I was like the rest, and didn't understand at all. He asked me a series of questions to which I didn't know the answer and basically told me to kiss off. The next time through with another character, I took the time to listen (read the dialogue) and answer the questions correctly. It was a mechanic that surprised me, I don't mind saying.
Species 8472
Yup, your favorite race from fluidic space makes a return in one of the game's early missions that sees you escorting a Vulcan diplomat from Earth Station to a monestary on the planet P'Jem.
)
When your ship arrives at the planet in question, you are hailed by a Klingon ship that tells you that you are carrying an impostor and while your puny Federation might not see the truth, the Empire does, and you will be destroyed. This sets up a nice pace battle with the Klingons.
After the battle, you beam down to the planet, which is under siege by Klingons. You have to fight your way to the top of a large hill to rescue some captured Vulcans, only to learn that the Ambassador was indeed an impostor, a member of Species 8472. Your merry chase looking for the creature sets up more Klingon combat on the ground before I lost the creature's trail. One of my bridge officers helpfully informed me that he detected transporter activity, and that we should return to our ship.
Lo and behold, the creature had beamed back up to its ship, which was far too powerful for my beginner ship to handle. My orders were to hold it off until help arrived (via a timer).
Patrols
Some of the earliest mission types that players will receive are patrols. Starfleet is spread thin, what with their war with the Klingons and trouble with the Orions and others, they ask you to take yourself and your ship on patrols of various systems. For example, you might be asked to Patrol the Vulcan System, the system actually consisting of a number of destinations, each one producing a different circumstance.
)
Still, this article is about the different kinds of missions that are available, so I'll tell you a little bit about three missions I undertook while on patrol:
- Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.
- You find an Orion Shipyard and are tasked with fighting your way through guard patrols and destroying a number of the monstrosities. It's a great one to group up for, as two-ship or more tactics are quite effective.
- A transport ship near a mining base is having trouble with its navigation system in an asteroid field. You have to find the ship and escort it to safety. Not the most entertaining mission I've ever played, but it did offer an interesting variation.
Now, this is just a small cross section of the missions that are available to players in Star Trek Online. As I said at the top, I have been both impressed and entertained (for the most part) by the diversity of things that are available for players to do, and by the way that the missions mix it up enough so that I don't feel like I'm grinding my enemy's bones to make my XP.
It's not all roses and sunshine though, missions like the escort mission mentioned above don't feel like they have much meat on them, but the mechanic required (escort a vessel) has potential if used later in the game in a mission that asks you to escort a vessel while defending it from attack. So, as you might expect from a beta, things are still a little bit rough around the edges at times. However, the general approach and the tools that Cryptic has at their disposal give me hope that the missions will become increasingly deep and dynamic as the game progresses toward launch.
Sounds promising.
I probably would have played the miner mission just as you did, Jon. What, you mean I have to pay attention? :)
I wonder how quickly they gave you missions while patrolling. Because knowing Cryptic I will spend a lot of wandering around patrolling before I happen on something that gives me a mission, at least CO was like that. Other then having to patrol the rest sounded pretty good, I like the fact they are actually requiring you to pay attention during missions. And not just clicking your way through NPC objectives, however at the same time I hope the quest context info is presented in a much more engaging manor then CO as well. When that blue NPC dialog box pops up I know my eyes glaze over.
It sounds pretty good. I can't wait to jump in and start playing.
I can honestly say I have never, ever ,ever, ever had as much fun with a MMO beta as I have had with STO, and I have pretty much beta tested every Major MMo out there. The game doesn’t try to be more than it is nor does it suffer from trying to please too many types of gamers at once. It simply puts you inside a Star Trek episode, thank god they limit the number of hours we can test or I would be divorced now, god help me when the game is actually released.
that's amazing
Well I guess it comes as no surprise that some of the missions described (and hoped for) sound like SWG space missions. Guess it stands to reason you'd see a limited set of options with what you can do up there.
Patrol missions - hit 1 or 2 waypoints and something happens at the next
Timer missions - be they delay or hold this spot or protect X until it can do it's thing
Escort missions - (his later on wish version) always hated these in SWG as they were the most challenging
I wonder if on his patrol mission where he found a shipyard, if it gives you time to call in other ships to help or if you have to start grouped and hope to find something for the other ship to do
Sounds like he got a good mix of missions.
Any eccentric quests, like some of the really odd ones from early TNG and TOS. Like getting trapped in a 1920s style Vegas hotel on some alien planet and having to figure out a way to get out, or having some something that just seems completely out of context with the rest of the sci-fi setting.
Ok not quite sure whats happening to allow so much open discussion about a closed beta.... have the rules changed around here ?
But that being the case I will chime and give my take... its not long...
Champions Online Expansion Pack, Star Trek Skins.
thats it.
Enjoyed the article Jon. It definitely brings out a bit of the imagination many of us had as kids growing up to this universe. These articles have provided a source of information that I am looking for to determine where to spend my next gaming purchase.
Keep it up bud!
Hmm sounds like Cryptic is doing the same thing as Bioware in thier upcomming Star Wars the Old Republic MMO. Storyline type MMO. If this indeed the case it will be most welcome change to the usual boring stuff.
Nicely written article, Jon. Fairly objective and detailed. The cargo ship mission and diplomacy mission did have an air of Trek about them.
But the Species 8472 mission set off some subtle warning bells and then your comments:
1. Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.
You are describing an emotion more fitting of Star Wars than Star Trek here. And that is what I've finally realized about STO: it has a cynical interpretation of the Star Trek universe. With rare exception (the final DS 9 episodes) did the emotion of 'badassery' ever play across the screen for the protagonists. They were almost always loathe to use force to solve a problem, and never gleeful about it as this mission clearly evokes is you. In Star Wars? Yes. Plenty of 'badassery' and 'yippie' moments of glee at the destruction of opponents. Star Trek? Yeah, not so much.
If these 'yippie' moments are what STO is going for, then Cryptic really has failed to present Star Trek in a way I find appealing.
I don't agree.
One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)
Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.
Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)
I don't agree.
One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)
Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.
Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)
The setting of this game is in a time of open war with the Klingons. So with that in mind, I can understand a more agressive stance from the Federation.
I don't agree.
One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)
Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.
Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)
I never 'yippied' in the classic pulp sci-fi sense of revelry that Lucas tries to capture with Star Wars. That is decidedly different than what Roddenberry was going for, and an even a more stark departure for the more recent series. Kirk and Piccard certainly approached leadership differently. But neither reveled gleefully in combat (unless possessed, which further proves the point) that is so prevalent in Star Wars. Star Trek nearly always presented a more serious tone regarding conflict.
So while the defeat of the Borg offered a very satisfying end to the conflict, there was no glee in it, nor was such expressed by the characters or myself in the theater.
This is not to say I didn't enjoy those gleeful feelings in Star Wars. When Luke blows up the Death Star, or Anikin destroys that Nemoidian Mothership, there is certainly some revelry to be had. That is pulp fiction. That is the universe of Star Wars.
I never 'yippied' in the classic pulp sci-fi sense of revelry that Lucas tries to capture with Star Wars. That is decidedly different than what Roddenberry was going for, and an even a more stark departure for the more recent series. Kirk and Piccard certainly approached leadership differently. But neither reveled gleefully in combat (unless possessed, which further proves the point) that is so prevalent in Star Wars. Star Trek nearly always presented a more serious tone regarding conflict.
So while the defeat of the Borg offered a very satisfying end to the conflict, there was no glee in it, nor was such expressed by the characters or myself in the theater.
This is not to say I didn't enjoy those gleeful feelings in Star Wars. When Luke blows up the Death Star, or Anikin destroys that Nemoidian Mothership, there is certainly some revelry to be had. That is pulp fiction. That is the universe of Star Wars.
Well, I don't see how a design decision promotes that. I'm sure when you play that scene that you'd be very calm in victory. :)
Of course, maybe you just read a little much in to what Jon said. After all, HE isn't in Starfleet. :)
I'm interested in knowing if there's multiple ways to complete a mission. For instance, could you have navigated to the same side of the Azura as the Orion battleship, dropped just the shield on the Azura's side and beamed them out, then fled for partial credit? Or were you railroaded into fighting the battleship whether you wanted to or not?
Things like that turn a game from "just another MMO" to a really cool one, because you can adapt your strategy to your abilities and get over humps that you're not really suited to handle at that point in the game.
That is an excellent point. Even if he was really proud of having the flagship, JTK only kicked @ss after he'd exhausted the available alternatives. Picard's meetings were merely a group-oriented way of evaluating the alternatives that JTK and Cisco pretty much did on the fly with their bridge crews, so the approaches only differed in method, not purpose.
I'm really impressed by the descriptions of the missions in this article. My biggest issue with Champions was the missions barely made any sense or at least seemed like thinly disguised missions from WoW or other fantasy MMOs. The beat X enemy and collect Y item drop was the mission type I found most guilty of this. City of Heroes had similar issues but it used instancing much more which made a mission easier to follow.
This is a really big piece of evidence that the devs "get Star Trek", something which they've often been accused of not doing.
It probably still has some tried and true MMO tropes, but as long as they're thinking out of the MMO box and trying to innovate a little I can give that a pass.
As for Starfleet "Men of Action", the Next Generation movies always tried to turn Picard into an action hero which frankly was always odd. Granted Picard had episodes like "Starship Mine" where he got to play the action hero, it was very different from the elaborate stunts he did in the movies.
As for Kirk, yeah he wasn't exactly "Shoot first, and ask questions later" but how many episodes featured Kirk busting-out the "Shatner-Fu"?
I'd be very suprised if there were many "Planet full of 'I can't believe they're not Humans!' in what looks like X time period"-story arcs. Mobster-planet, Nazi-planet, and 20th-century Roman-planet were cute, but let's be honest the stories came more from the fact that they had access to 1960's Hollywood Wardrobe and Sets. Every so often they'd get really creative with the budget and have an episode like the with the Half-finished Wild West town on an Alien planet.
I love the original and the newer Star Treks, but after a while inconsistancies creep in and you end up with "Nitpickers guide to Star Trek". I do think Trek in general has been missing a certain sense of "fun" the original series had. The only thing I can think that might be a symptom of the fandom taking itself too seriously.
Umm, people under NDA are still under NDA. I suggest not discussing it as our rules haven't changed.
I have special permission as a member of the press... Just a warning.
If you can still find any joy in any part of The Phantom Menace it's obvious you haven't seen :
io9.com/5431426/70+minute-review-of-phantom-menace-is-the-only-prequel-im-ever-watching-again
.. (it's 70 minutes long )
I agree with your overall arguement. That said it got me thinking about video games in general and it's a hard task to find compelling examples of non-combat oriented advancement or challenges. Older adventure games like Zork or the ironically named Space Quests, Kings Quests etc. Actually it might be great if quest and missions were more like the puzzles in these old games.
The miner quest is a step in the right direction. I wonder how much patience the average gamer will have with them though.
I seem to recall a certain Starfleet captain pouring out his goblet of bloodwine onto the ground rather than drink to the merciless slaughter of his enemy.
Aww... He was just pourin' some for his homies. He did lose a lot of homies....
You know having beta tested Cryptic products in the past, not in STOs, I kind of expect that. Hrm... at least I will get some play time out of it when it releases, hopefully just enough to tide me over till TOR comes out then.
You know having beta tested Cryptic products in the past, not in STOs, I kind of expect that. Hrm... at least I will get some play time out of it when it releases, hopefully just enough to tide me over till TOR comes out then.
Aye. Even though I am more a Star Trek fan than I am Star Wars, I will eventually navigate to the better of the two games which I expect to be TOR along with almost everyone else probably.
Time will tell.
***Drachasor's 3rd day 2 very sick post...."still alive....old...friend"***
Some questions.
Were these episodic missions or random missions? A mix?
If a mix, which ones were which?
If the mining one was random, is that about how involved as the random non-combat missions get, or are there more involved ones than that?
If it wasn't random, what are the non-combat random missions like?
Argh...and that's all I got...
Aye. Even though I am more a Star Trek fan than I am Star Wars, I will eventually navigate to the better of the two games which I expect to be TOR along with almost everyone else probably.
Time will tell.
Exactly the same sentiment from me.
If you can still find any joy in any part of The Phantom Menace it's obvious you haven't seen :
io9.com/5431426/70+minute-review-of-phantom-menace-is-the-only-prequel-im-ever-watching-again
.. (it's 70 minutes long )
I agree with your overall arguement. That said it got me thinking about video games in general and it's a hard task to find compelling examples of non-combat oriented advancement or challenges. Older adventure games like Zork or the ironically named Space Quests, Kings Quests etc. Actually it might be great if quest and missions were more like the puzzles in these old games.
The miner quest is a step in the right direction. I wonder how much patience the average gamer will have with them though.
Old puzzle or mystery solving (Myst comes to mind) games are basically single person game. It is hard to make it a permanent online game, unless there are crimes everyday for you to solve without fighting the criminal.
Exactly the same sentiment from me.
Yeah, I am holding on to my three current subs and watching. These 2 games looks interesting. But, you know, with WAR and AoC, and tons of failed launch, I am not rushing in to play on day 1 of any launch.
Indeed. Requiring one to actually read the text is a very good mechanic and I hope for those playing the game that it is a common theme in quests.
Perhaps Cryptic will put more than just a couple of varied quests in the game, unlike what Mythic did with Warhammer - overselling their special quest features and barely using them.
Multiple paths to completion would be brilliant... you could then reward players who actually try another tactic other than combat. Not all quests would have alternatives, i.e. some cannot be resolved without combat so players cannot assume there is an alternative to be found. Have to keep the player guessing. :)
This would actually be quite a clever way of bringing a Star Trek approach to how you play Star Trek Online missions. You could even have some sort of reputation with Starfleet for being a thinking Captain. Such reputation might lead to additional quests that require thought and strategy.
Of course within a few weeks, the missions and how to solve them without combat would be posted on the web... but that's just life with the internet eh.
Bottom line, I agree with Wootin. This would make a very cool mmo.
I suddenly have the urge to pre-order this game.
I'm mainly looking forward to TOR, but this game seems like a very interesting one judging from recent hands-on articles!
Might be in for a buy, although I'll probably wait a bit to see how it shapes up...
This approach would also be in keeping with ST Lore since if you think about it, Picard got various missions from StarFleet of a diplo nature / first contact based on his personality / command style which Kirk probably wouldn't have.
Get known as 1 type of Captain and it opens up that branch of the missions tree, other type different mission tree.
After all can you picture Kirk doing the 'ahhh click clack smack smack ....' greeting to those bug people that Picard did?
'ahhhhh ahhhhhh ...... oh screw it!'
He got on fine with the mobsters.
I agree that missions being tailored to the Captain's experience would be a good design, but it's more of a BioWare kind of design.
Frankly, we would all be better off if BioWare was doing the Trek MMO and Cryptic was doing Star Wars.
Me too!!
This all sounds promising.
He got on fine with the mobsters.
Wasnt the prime directive kind of important to the Federation? whatever happened to Diplomacy first, Phasers last.. kind of thing, its not that im against PVP etc, its just that i dont think the current focus, which seems to be predominantly combat orientated, is the right one.
we come in peace 'shoot to kill' is now the starfleet motto...
Yup.
Aside from the graphics and sound effects, this game is not going to feel like Trek to me.
A constant refrain about most games out right now is that they are repetitive which makes sense when people play them 80 hours a week or more as it is pretty hard to come up with unique content that doesn't repeat as fast or faster than people can chew their way through it.
While space combat in Trek was less prominent in the movies and the various series to fail to have it would restrict the final game to a very small part of the market and would likely be accused of being boring with no action to keep people interested. It seems like they are trying to add layers to the game ontop of the basic Trek premise which sounds good. The last thing I want to play is another Eve online that is so narrowly focused that it quickly loses fun. I want to explore, to interact and to sometimes blow someone into itty bitty little pieces.
Not sure how this game is going to turn out in the long run but it definitely has my interest and I will be giving it a try when it is released.
Amen.
I don't think anyone has suggested having no combat in the game. I'd be fine with a nice border war campaign for PvP between Federation and the Empire - in addition to the exploration and diplomacy which the series focused on.
The quality of the the combat is an issue, as well. Space combat looks okay to me, but the ground combat looks like garbage. Nothing like Trek which was all about utilizing cover and making flanking moves. Not to mention characters taking multiple hits to knock down - completely unlike Trek. The ground combat is just standard MMO combat with a Trek skin.
I had the exact same thought, actually.
But, oh well. As long as one of the two is good.
In fact, if both are good then I'm not sure what I'll do. :)
This is a promising sign, the fact that there does seem some attempt at mission variety is already very distinct from CO which has none. Equally I am very happy with making the Klingons a prodominently pvp race, the style and ambition of the races need to be distinct and different and that is a good way to achieve it. As the game expands it would be nice to see playable Vulcan, Borg and Romulan races all offering a different playing experience with diffferent baises to pvp, pve and exploration etc. Real replay variety and real factional boundaries that open into a solid endgame.
Although the federation is at war there needs to be an indentity to them that is nevertheless familiar, a positive and progressive optimism for a better future is really at the core of what makes Roddenberry's Star Trek distinct from virtually all other Sci Fi franchises.
I'd given up on Cryptic after CO but I might just be tempted to give this a go after all.
I don't agree.
One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)
Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.
Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)
I don't think anyone has suggested having no combat in the game. I'd be fine with a nice border war campaign for PvP between Federation and the Empire - in addition to the exploration and diplomacy which the series focused on.
The quality of the the combat is an issue, as well. Space combat looks okay to me, but the ground combat looks like garbage. Nothing like Trek which was all about utilizing cover and making flanking moves. Not to mention characters taking multiple hits to knock down - completely unlike Trek. The ground combat is just standard MMO combat with a Trek skin.
These are from 2 different posts but kind of go together.
For Phry sadly we can say 'this ain't your grandparents TV show anymore'. The canon Cryptic has come up with is a war between the Federation and pretty much everyone else. With that thought in mind what they're doing for the missions makes sense. Might not be right, but works for THEIR canon. Plus for the mission vs the Orions; we'll they were pirates even back in Archer's day so going to a fight with them makes prefect sense and for any Klingon missions Cryptic just has to point towards it's canon.
For MMO Doubter from what I've read that's exactly what they're doing. The Border War part will be the Pvp zone between the Klingons and Fed's. For the missions, you'd pretty much always have ships slipping across the border both ways to raid / harass the enemy so the NPC missions work there.
Might not be what any of us would like to see for an IP like Star Trek and some where I read what has to be the perfect definition of the game: 'They (Cryptic) aren't making a game for everyone, nor are they making a game for just the Trekers, but they are making the most of what they can'. Wish I could find it again since I know I mangaled it.
wasn't a big part of star trek(especially tng) the idealism and the fact that humanity was meant to have moved on beyond its baser instincts
Of course. But that has sort of been the goal of civilization from its inception.
We are still only human.
Picard himself acknowledges this very thing to Q during Farpoint. After having unleashed a bit of Hamlet's "Oh what a work is man" speech upon Q, Q sneers and says "you don't really believe that, do you?"
Picard replies that he envisions humans becoming that. Someday. :)
Not sure I really agree with that assessment. Kirk, above all, did whatever he had to do to save lives. I don't think Kirk engaged in unnecessary violence and even when he did fight he tried to stop it when he could. Remember, Kirk only killed the Klingon Captain in Star Trek III because the Klingon wanted them BOTH to die and hence Kirk couldn't save him. This was the SAME Klingon responsible for the death of Kirk's son not so long before. Saying he was a swashbuckling kicker of behind seems about as accurate of saying Superman is a swashbuckling kicker of behind. Yes, they can both kick ass when needed, but they both avoid violence when they can as well. So that moniker seems quite lacking to me.
As for Picard, I think early TNG did have a bit of a problem where something like "shields down to 60%" and Picard would just be hailing. That sort of thing makes sense when no significant damage is being done, but those scenes always seemed a bit unrealistic to me when it was a Romulan Warbird or Uxbridge's recreation where significant damage would be dealt and no sign talking was going to work (e.g. no sign hails would ever even be responded to). It only seemed to work for plot-reasons, rather than logical ones. Didn't come up THAT much, but was jarring from time to time. I think they stepped back from this later (rewatching TNG now, but just near the end of season 3).
One of the main other differences between Picard and Kirk is that Kirk was more proactive about protecting primitive cultures, violating the prime directive when needed. Picard was so placid that rewatching some of the early episodes is a bit shocking. He was willing to let planets explode of natural causes because stopping it would interfere with natural cultural development -- the natural development being death and the end of all future development. Picard only backed down from such positions because of the rest of the crew. I think he lightens up on it later...he was at times extremely cold in the beginning though.
Anyhow, overall I don't think they are THAT different, but they do have different strengths. Picard is better at diplomacy and Kirk is better at fighting, but they are both willing to use either method and avoid even the death of their enemies whenever they can manage it.
So people didn't like the fact that the writer said he felt like he was a badass? If that's all we have to complain about out of this article, I think the game's going to be just fine.
I see people saying that the federation was only this aggressive in times of direct war, like with the dominion war. I guess it's a good thing that the federation is now in times very near to if not in open war.
Also he did say that he was coming to the aid of miners being attacked by pirates. I don't think even picard would stop to try diplomacy with a group of orion syndicate pirates if they were in the middle of killing people.
Uh, I don't want Cryptic touching Star Wars, thanks. Maybe Bioware can do the next Trek MMO and get it right.
mmorpg.com has the best STO info. Thanks!
Having Klingons as a predominately pvp race is fine. Thats what Klingons do, fight.
However they need a fleshed out content rich experience just like the Federation side.
They cant just be stuck out in some Neutral Space zone waiting for sheep (and beating on each other in the mean time)
Because lets face it, the Feds dont/wont have to pvp to get a full game experience. Klingons do since thats 60-90% (?) of what they will be.
They need enough to do to keep them busy between cracking turtleheads and waiting for Federats to wander into a Red Zone.
Cryptic is failing (yet again) to consider that there are alot of Star Trek fans that have no desire to play Federation.
They want to be Klingons, Romulans, Cardassian, etc.
Imagine if in DAoC, Mythic in their divine wisdom made Midgard and Hibernia as unlockable PvP factions and all they did was wait out in the Frontiers for the Albs to come try to take a Keep?
This about sums it up, with an extra helping of those 4-5missions renamed with different mobs over and over and over again. An exercise in ignoring the extreme boredom after the first week.