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Star Trek Online Previews: Preview, Part One
In part one of a two part preview of Star Trek Online, Dana Massey discusses key gameplay elements like: Missions, PvE, Aesthetics and more.
By Dana Massey on December 23, 2009
The Star Trek Online intellectual property is so huge that it is impossible for Cryptic Studios to please everyone. In fact, it's near on impossible for them to fully satisfy anyone. To meet the expectations of many hardcore fans, a Star Trek MMO would take hundreds of millions of dollars, at least a decade and no doubt a time machine more improbable than the red goo from the latest movie. Even Cryptic COO Jack Emmert lamented things they had not been able to include in a recent interview.
So, when it came time to preview the soon to launch MMORPG, I have not been looking at it to see if it captured everything that I dreamed a Star Trek MMO would be. Instead, I've asked myself if it did enough.
Honestly, it's too soon to tell. So far, the game is a mixed bag. Some of it is a lot of fun, while other parts need a lot of polish in very little time, and still other aspects leave me scratching my head.
The following hands-on preview is based on hands-on time with the game through their ongoing Closed Beta testing. I've logged, as a rough guess, about 20 hours in the game over that time. This preview won't cover every single detail of the game, but honestly, I think it's a fair amount of time and as much as any prospective customer is likely to give it before they make up their mind.
Missions
Star Trek Online has a pretty standard formula when it comes to PvE content. Episodes, as they've been dubbed, are just themed missions. I'm one of those terrible players that ignores the story entirely by default, and if that's you, you can easily navigate a mission without paying attention. For those who do read, there is a bit more depth there and lots of references to the lore.
;)
The average Episode is a pretty standard thing. It always begins with an NPC who sends you out in space to explore something or other. Refreshingly, they took advantage of future communications and don't actually make you return to the quest giver every time. You simply hail him from your UI to redeem completed missions and pick up new ones.
It gives the game a kind of forward progress. Players work their way through zones naturally in a geographic order. This is aided by "patrol missions" that keep you moving and bread crumbs where eventually your superior in that sector is done with you and tells you to go report to someone at a base in the next sector.
The main piece of this game though is the episodes. Once you arrive at the target sector, the formula remains. You first face some kind of space-based obstacle to overcome. Sometimes this is as simple as killing five bad guys, but Cryptic did a very good job at this stage of keeping the simple fresh. There are usually twists in the Episode missions. In one case, I had to fight along side another (NPC) Federation vessel. In another, I took out my "seven squadrons" of bad guys naturally as I chased a run-away freighter. The missions, at this stage, largely consist of two options: kill it or scan it. It's not a bad thing though, because they did a very good job of mixing it up just enough to keep things interesting.
Once that first step is complete, you usually have to beam down somewhere. Sometimes this means to a planet, other times it's a ship or space station. These are inevitably dungeons. Again, like space, they did a good job of not just making it about "kill five guys." There is usually some goal, such as shutting down consoles, and the combat is more something you have to do to reach the end.
The structure here is very "dungeon" based, usually. You fight your way through a series of corridors and reach some kind of "end boss" or goal. Usually there is a twist at the end, such as the need to defend a console that's downloading data for a set period of time from an onslaught of Klingons, or to incapacitate an enemy and tag him to be beamed back to your brig.
The away missions are the least polished content, but the basic concept was good. The best thing about Star Trek Online for me was the constant switch between the two modes. Neither one requires hours of gameplay, so it constantly gives you a new challenge. The away missions specifically are usually relatively short. Never did I find myself bored with a planet or area and ready to move on early. If anything, perhaps the game could use a bit more away mission content.
;)
Once completed, you tend to beam back to your ship where you usually face an additional space encounter. Again, they bring twists in to keep it interesting. When dealing with a particularly nasty shape shifter who had escaped me on a planet, I was left face to face with his vastly superior ship. My instructions from Starfleet were not kill the bad guy. They were to survive. I had to engage the enemy long enough for help to arrive.
In each area there is usually a small pile of missions, although rarely is it more than a few at a time. There is no need to pile up and take 50 at a time so you don't have to run back to town. The communication system cuts that need out.
The patrol missions are more about moving the player through the game world. These are far more basic. They usually say "go to sector X and visit every solar system." In each solar system is one of a few kinds of missions: escort missions, kill missions, scan missions (that require killing), collection missions (the only ones that sometimes send you down to an away mission), or some combination of the above. They're simple, and the OCD completionist in me kept me going. My only complaint is when you go to grind one of these out ,the magic they achieve in the Episodes by constantly moving you between Away Missions and Space is lost. I end up spending more time than I'd like in my ship and they can sometimes begin to drag on.
That constant switch back and forth between Avatar and Space Ship is where the bread and butter of Star Trek Online will be in the end. It keeps things interesting and allows them to cut out a lot of the boring bits. You fight a fun space battle, you beam somewhere and do a mini-dungeon, then you beam back and fight another space battle. Hail the Admiral, collect the reward instantly and start on another mission. Nowhere in there did anyone have to run a long distance (sector space rarely takes very long and is the closest thing to a time sink they have) or do anything else boring.
That was a good read, Dana.
And you've sealed my pre-order.
Not that I think that everything will be perfect, mind you. But, as you said, is it good enough?
For me, I think it will be. At least it looks promising.
Dana, what do you get as mission rewards?
Whether it will be a good game or not, i dont really know, its just not the game i was hoping for when i heard they had started developing a Star Trek MMO, even so, all i've read so far seems to indicate that this is more a single player game with multiplayer online options, which isnt really something im all that interested in, i hope im mistaken, but a few tens of players in one area doesnt make an MMO, though i'll accept that 2 or 300 does
i'll wait until the game is reviewed again after launch, perhaps things will be clearer...
Not a mention in the article yet about Klingons. This is not accidental, I suspect. I understand that a second part is due out , but I doubt you'll see the words Klingon and PvE linked together in any depth. Other than the promise that it has PvE , in the future .
While I'll probably purchace the game , a little forthrightness would be appreciated. The article paints an very rosey picture of gameplay , it fails to mention that this mainly applies to the federation faction play. By every indication or comment posted by the developers , implies that the Klingon faction will be some version of Crptics Monster play. Cryptic will state it's not , but more and more it appears it is. Why they've chosen this route is a sad mystery , given the potential of this faction , not to mention future factions. I truely hope I'm mistaken or Cryptic has re-evaluated this position and is attempting to correct it . It appears though that the Klingon faction will for the most part be one-dimensional , and purely PvP entity in game.
Fairly nice review there, but I find it interesting you are waiting on diving into reviews of the pvp system etc. until the game launches pretty much.......STO ask you to do that to cover up how horrid it is? I was a bit bored reading about pve ground combat 1-2-3 button spamming that sounds horrid nice you explained it a bit.
Ok that was a good read, but were missing something here. This sounds like a RPG, I don't see the MMORPG in it, from everything I read it sounds like you have NPC's that help you. Nowhere did I read that you have actual life folks helping you on your missions.
Im like it sounds goof for an RPG, but wheres the grouping, where is the looks of an MMORPG, other than the pvp part it sounds mostly like go do stuff on your on.
Dont get me wring I love to solo stuff, but if thats all the game is, im like how can I convince my wife to by this and play this with me at the same time.
Anybody else noticed, how the article centered around the writer, and I did not find anything in there to support what an MMORPG is.
So thats my 2 cents worth.
Even though it was promised in the preamble, I didn't see much negative in the article.
Your 5-man away team can consist of yourself and 4 players OR 4 NPCs.
Seeing as the writer only put in 20 hours, he probably wanted to give a glimpse at content rather than grouping dynamics. Which, let's be honest, how hard to understand can they be? :)
Presumably one can group in space as well, but I haven't seen the dynamic. Probably as simple as on ground, a few invites to a max of 5 ships.
Oh, how disappointed you must be. LOL.
Sure, it doesn't rant, but there are negative criticisms in just about every section listed. They are reasonable, and not rabid hyperbole, so you might have extreme difficulty in discerning them.
Regarding the OP, it's an interesting article, especially the part about Away Team missions. It sounds like this might actually provide a very different style of play from other MMOs.
Just the reaction I expected.
A lack of negativity can mean one of two things - either the game is devoid of any serious flaws, or write chose not to mention them.
Tell me which you think is more likely.
I think the real shocker here is the 45 second pause button, which is clearly a more solo oriented casual friendly feature. I'm up in the air on this one until I see it in action.
My second surprise was the avatar on the transporter pad. I know environments need to be larger, but this avatar in relation to the transporter pad looks about 12 inches high. Perhaps it's just the screen shot though...
To me the real action is on the ground, and I'm really surprised it's being developed as an add on to the space game. What ever person on the Cryptic team thought Star Trek was about the ships first doesn't know a damn thing about Trek. Star Trek has always been about the crew and the stories first and the ships second.
If you want to make a space game you better be very careful eh. Star Trek Legacy tried this and bombed.
Just the reaction I expected.
A lack of negativity can mean one of two things - either the game is devoid of any serious flaws, or write chose not to mention them.
Tell me which you think is more likely.
So very... limited.
It can, in fact, mean a great deal more than your simplistic "two things". Additionally, as with assessing anything complex, it's usually a combination of many, many factors.
But hey, stick with simple - black and white, on or off, great or terrible - if that's what you're comfortable with.
So jaded. So world-weary. That's a freakin' scream.
Danna did say part 2 would be about pvp so I would guess since klingons are pvp centric they will be brought up in that part of the article
Just the reaction I expected.
A lack of negativity can mean one of two things - either the game is devoid of any serious flaws, or write chose not to mention them.
Tell me which you think is more likely.
there was negativity in the article it was just more suttle than a forums flame is all. Ground missions are simplistic and not polished. There are only two basic types of missions. No auto attack. Scaling is off. Shall i go on?
Yeah, this little gem gave me pause as well.
At its worst, it seems like this could almost be a tool for griefers. :)
Who gets to pause and is there a cool down? This seems like a PvP nightmare.
For PvE players it won't be bad maybe.
Oh, how disappointed you must be. LOL.
Sure, it doesn't rant, but there are negative criticisms in just about every section listed. They are reasonable, and not rabid hyperbole, so you might have extreme difficulty in discerning them.
Regarding the OP, it's an interesting article, especially the part about Away Team missions. It sounds like this might actually provide a very different style of play from other MMOs.
Well I saw 3 glarring negatives.
(1) Ground based combat is not very pollished, hmmmm while spacecombat was so away missins are very buggy I did see that.
(2) Lack of skills other than mashing a few keys around
(3) its easy to trick the AI and thn kill your enimies really quickly.
There were a few others that might have been kind of negative but those were the 3 thats stuck out for me.
Yeah, this little gem gave me pause as well.
At its worst, it seems like this could almost be a tool for griefers. :)
Who gets to pause and is there a cool down? This seems like a PvP nightmare.
For PvE players it won't be bad maybe.
the pause button from what has been said in this article and others is for pve ground combat. The question is if you are with other players who gets to use it. I belive he said there was a cool down
Hang in there man, im sure someone is digging up something negative as we speak. For myself this is starting to sound like something i may break my hard fast rule of never preorder and wait a month or two to decide. This is some good stuff following right on the heels of the Leonard Nimoy voice over news. I mean, My God man, its Spock. :)
Hang in there man, im sure someone is digging up something negative as we speak. For myself this is starting to sound like something i may break my hard fast rule of never preorder and wait a month or two to decide. This is some good stuff following right on the heels of the Leonard Nimoy voice over news. I mean, My God man, its Spock. :)
Remember they have a two week open beta in January which gives plenty of time to try it out before you have to preorder unless your going CE ( as I am sure there are limited amount of those produced at launch like in most games.
Personally I have pre ordered multiple copies and am waiting to hand them money for a couple life time accounts, I’m not alone because you can no longer purchase the CE form any game store in my local area and the standard edition is on a week backorder…you know a game is going to be popular when the manager of the local GS say’s better grab a copy online while you can or you will be left with a digital version only for about a month.
Well I saw 3 glarring negatives.
(1) Ground based combat is not very pollished, hmmmm while spacecombat was so away missins are very buggy I did see that.
(2) Lack of skills other than mashing a few keys around
(3) its easy to trick the AI and thn kill your enimies really quickly.
There were a few others that might have been kind of negative but those were the 3 thats stuck out for me.
Same here. I've also heard and this review seems to perhaps confirm, that photon torpedoes aren't really needed. Just load up on phasers instead. You get the shields down much quicker and they do an ok job against hull (net advantage). I believe the initial ship normally has a phaser and a photon torpedo and it sounds like Dana replaced the latter with another phaser. Overall, the impression I got is that space combat gives you more options and looks better, but neither space nor ground combat is balanced very well.
Well, the other negative is that the non-combat stuff doesn't seem that involved or that great, overall. We'll see how the second review goes.
I have to say I have never had this much fun in a beta of any game. I tend to be sceptic when it comes to trying a new MMO, doubly so here since CO was such a huge letdown for me, but this game is a buy for me and I also am hoping they offer lifetime accounts.
Yeah I wouldn't take the whole don't need Torps as gospel guy....it is the case now but we have already been told it's changing.
Also keep in mind non-combat missions haven't been fully revealed yet, what has been showed is only a small sample on low levels.
Remember they have a two week open beta in January which gives plenty of time to try it out before you have to preorder unless your going CE ( as I am sure there are limited amount of those produced at launch like in most games.
Yes that is a good plan. I will see how OB goes. I usually dont expect much from new mmo's but considering its Star Trek, like many, im starting to get impatient . :)
I think you misunderstood what I said. I've gotten the impression that Torpedoes just aren't worth getting AT ALL. It is just flat-out better to go with phasers.
Even the great Nimoy himself isn't always the mark of quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04
Why anyone would comtemplate ordering a half finished game is a glutton for punishment. Brace yourself for all the "we told you so" comments a couple months after release.
Anyone who tells you this game is going to be popular has had a few too many. It is just another crash and burn MMO, you won't have to play beta to figure that out.
Hey Dana, thanks for the info. Good preview. Again, I am cautiously optimistic about this game. I'm still not sure if it is better to wait until you have all of the major features in place and then release a game, or release the game with a roadmap as to what content you would like to add later.
I know this is sort of unique to the MMO genre, but just an interesting concept to me. It's curious Cryptic's release policy (and I'm not sure how much is being pressured from Atari now that it has been bought by the company) as opposed to companies such as Bioware and Blizzard with their "release when its done" policy. Although that has its own built in frustrations for players - I wonder at the end of the day which release method most gamers prefer.
Anyway, thanks again for the preview. Would it be possible to get some more info on the grouping/fleet experience both in space and on the ground? I'm curious how things such as this pause ability you mentioned function in a group.
Thanks and have a great Christmas!
I love all the people trying to convince themselves and others that this game won't rot. Based on this review and the disapointemnet after disapointment Sci-Fi MMO's(Eve,SWG,Earth and beyond etc..) have been i will skip it.
Well if you say so. Guess I wont get the game after all.
i would pointout that Eve is considered a major success and not a disapointment. As for STO I shall wait till the open beta to decide for myself. I am a bit concern that they are locked into a release date when it seems they should push it back till the summer to release. I think they are caught by their statement from when they took over the IP. Back then they said they could produce the game in just a couple of years unlike most MMO's since they had their own engine already to use and were also experienced at 3D combat from coh/cov and Co which they were working on at the time. I am sure when Atari and Cryptic were working out the takeover price the release of STO would have been used to value cryptic
Cryptic also inherited the artwork. That alone probably saved them a great deal of time.
....i would pointout that Eve is considered a major success and not a disapointment. ...
For those that have trouble sleeping I agree; for me it was fun for about a month then it became work. If eve is the best yet for Sci-Fi we have a long way to go yet. It might just not be possible to create a good sci-fi mmo.
Disagree completely. EVE is a very good game, in my opinion. It's not for everyone, but then again, no MMO is.
Well I myself do not need to like a game to acknowledge it's success.
How about the exploration system? Can you give us any insight on it? I'm bored to tears reading about STO combat all the time.
Hey MMo_Doubter did you get a ban or something?
Oh... and.... sorry all you DDO fans but WE WILL be fighting broccoli!
I beg to differ with you about that I played ever for 2 years.
I can say this, always the same old missions, always the same old animations, and when you go in hyperspace the sound makes you think your going fast but you really look like your sitting still on the screen.
I went back a couple of times just to see the same old same old, then the added the worm holes, and the new stuff you could loot with a salavger.
Really i just find running the same old missions over and over a booring thing, and unless you got a good sector 0 allaince to be in then your stuck just sitting there.
Thank you for the good article. Obviously you can't include everything - but I thought you covered a lot very well.
Agree with others - the 45 sec pause is a big WTF?
Will be interesting to see how this works in practice? If you were on a mission with 4 others then 45sec+45sec+45sec+45sec = 3 mins pause potentially? What's the cool down time? My only concern here is could it be used as a griefing feature?
Other than that - sounds good.
Still wont pre-order though. Need to see it first. Champions was fun too as was AoC apparently - but 20 hours is still honeymoon time period.
The test will be - is the game long term fun?
The restricted testing times offered by the closed beta really have stopped players having prolonged exposure and getting 'familiar' (bored) with the title?
Wait and see I guess.
I'm not a great advocate of player crews, but this keeps making me think of how appropriate a pausing mechanic might be for them. How often on the show does the crew have a seemingly ridiculous amount of time to talk in the middle of a dire combat situation while they are being fired upon?
Not sure what the point is for this game though. Makes a little sense if you are controlling 5 guys (though they do have AI, it seems). Seems completely unnecessary in space though.
Thank you Jon,
That was a very good take on what to expect.
If the "pause button" is a problem for you, I'm sure you could get along just fine without using it. I could definitely see it being used in a tactical fashion, much the way that you might pause combat in Dragon Age to set up a strategy.
What about if you are grouped with others and they use it?
You need to re-read.
The game does sound interesting enough to give it a try out, would of liked more content, but isn't that always the case? :)
Pause button. In an MMO. Too much.
Well, at least they are keeping some flavor from the TV series. Commercial break, anyone?
I think you misunderstood what I said. I've gotten the impression that Torpedoes just aren't worth getting AT ALL. It is just flat-out better to go with phasers.
There are situations where torps are very useful, like when you need to do a bunch of damage really quick before something disappears. Plus phasers don't run on raspberry juice.
I don't see what the problem with a 45-second pause feature is, and I'd be surprised if it's not a configurable option just like the looting rules. Frankly, I couldn't be more thankful for it. Learning of it got a big smile out of me. I've never understood why it's such a taboo feature in multiplayer games of any kind.
'But it could be abused!' Yeah, and? If you can't trust who you're playing with, disable it or find better people.
Anyway, I wanted to comment on this:
I strongly doubt it was Majel. She died of leukemia in December of 2008, so the recording would have had to occur very early, indeed.
"I'm one of those terrible players that ignores the story entirely by default."
I stopped reading after this. I find it hard to believe this qualifies as a front page review when the reviewer neglects the basic tenants of journalism and excludes an extremely important aspect of a subject based on personal whim.
Culled from a source
The Pause Button is for solo PvE GROUND combat only, ands its only 45 seconds, normally time to allow you to tell a team member to do something, it does not work in space or in Fleet/Group actions
Also Auto-Fire on Ships is in, not sure why Dana wished for it ;) unless he was using two fore phasers, in which case, yeah i get what you mean ;)
Regarding Klingons, would love to say more but I wont :) and I am guessing if Dana uses the same source as me then he also has his reasons for not including them jsut yet :)
Dragon Age is a single-player game, I believe.
Having a pause button in a real-time multiplayer game is ridiculous.
Dragon Age is a single-player game, I believe.
Having a pause button in a real-time multiplayer game is ridiculous.
It's not as bad as you think. If anything it allows them to make the game more challenging and tactical. Trying to control 5 characters in real-time in no muy bueno.
Dragon Age is a single-player game, I believe.
Having a pause button in a real-time multiplayer game is ridiculous.
as Blurr said, no-one is forcing you to use it, its only for single ground combat to allow players the choice of pausing to set up a tactic or smack the kids for annoying you.
Its about giving players CHOICES and OPTIONS, you know, the things that appeal to some players
Some of you guys are extreamly nieve and airheaded. It's no wonder why gamers are so surprised when after playing there games after 1 week they find out how much of a waste of money the game was, and how bad it is. Havin't you people learned anything from past experiances with mmo's? This game looks good, but you don't know anything until you have actually sat down and played it. Anyone can make a game look good with nice screenshots and trailers, and it continues to amaze me how gulluble gamers are and they go and waste their money on somthing they havin't even played yet or have at least waited to see the ratings on them before considering buying it, and whats even more amazing is some of you people are older people that believe in such bullshit.
The game companys love you type of gamers, because they see you as their greatest wetdream.
From what I read it's for instanced PvE - which could include group content. There seems to be some dispute about whether it is available in space or not.
There's another point - being able to solo group content by using 4 pets. Another huge step forward for the Massively Single player Online RPG.
Let's just take out all chat functions while we are at it. No messy player interaction needed, after all.
Bingo.
P.T. Barnum was right.
I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to. STO's screenshots and trailers range from mediocre to outright poor. I'm with you on people being unable or unwilling to see hype as hype only, but it seems to me that this isn't a great example of it. Apparently, something else is attracting its following.
William Shatner's charisma.
Illogical.
I stopped reading after this.
This is not a review, this is a preview, and the previewer was just telling you his preferred style of play, one that jives with a large number of MMO players out there. That's not to say that he actually ignored the story of the game, in fact he also mentions that for people who do follow the story, there are lots of references to lore and the like... so I ask you how he was actually able to convey that message if he had, in fact, ignored the story.
So, yeah. I'd just suggest comprehending a) the kind of article you're reading and b) the points being made before criticizing the text.
A lot of wether or not this game succeeds or fails will be based on how long it can keep people interested. Then again, not everyone is the same. Not everyone finds the same things interesting. I for example, cannot understand how WoW is as big as it is as that is about the most boring 'Single Player' game ever. When a game punishes you for grouping except in specific places/instances... it's not really an MMO either.
STO, like any MMO has some good and some bad. For me, I already pre-ordered a single copy but I am not even remotely pretending like this is going to be better than sliced bread. For me it comes down to enjoyment. If the combination of Space and Ground is enough to entertain me for more than 12 hours it's a net win as 6 movies cost the same as the box and a months worth of gametime.
I don't think it's going to be a fail, I don't think it's going to be a 'WoW Killer' either. No matter how many trekkies there are it's still somewhat a niche market. As for the 'review' the person not even reading storyline is a big negative for me. No wonder they get bored with stuff if they don't bother immersing themselves in the story which (Ground or Ship based) is the point of Star Trek. The story.
That said, I am glad that it isn't 'go kill ten rats' or 'go collect 5 ears' that you see so often. I am also glad it's not mindless grind like old style EQ for example. Will it be perfect? Not likely. No such thing as a perfect for everyone game. Opinions vary but one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many people must vent their own vitriol just because they don't like something. If you don't like it, don't play it, no point in trying to stop others from trying it themselves and enjoying it.
I find your signature very ironic. Better practise what you preach.
Majority of people are pre-ordering because its a Star Trek MMO. Hell people have spent millions to collect Star Trek merchandise what is a 50 dollar game to them? will they be disappointed later? maybe or maybe not. But thats none of your business now is it? if anything STO is driven by sheer force of Star Trek fans. Its not your typical MMO release. Thus, it doesn't matter if people had bad experience with MMO in past years. When huge IP like STO is about to release such matters take back seat.
The game might suck but you have to look at it through the eyes of a Star Trek fan to understand it.
From what I read it's for instanced PvE - which could include group content. There seems to be some dispute about whether it is available in space or not.
Lets just say I know better than you on this point, Dispute between who? oh thats right, the people reading about it and the people trolling the game...
I can 100% state that my statement is Correct, I am sure Jon could ask Dana to reclarify this point when the next beta session comes up, or could just ask Cyrptic to confirm, Either way i dont need it as I know.
There's another point - being able to solo group content by using 4 pets. Another huge step forward for the Massively Single player Online RPG.
Unless you want to be playing the game solo you dont have to use the BO's for Ground battles, again its about giving players choices, its merely a variation on you PC crew that you so badly want, HERE, there is an option to have a PC crew or have an NPC crew if you want to solo ground combat, so what is the problem? ok its not on a ship but HEY PC and NCP crews are in there in some form.....
Let's just take out all chat functions while we are at it. No messy player interaction needed, after all.
More accurately, why dont you try getting into Beta to actually get more of an understanding of what is actually happening in the game ATM than just trolling?
Nice article
I am a Star Trek fan. Try looking through MY eyes.
How do I get into beta - without being stupid enough to pre-order Champions Online?
How do I get into beta - without being stupid enough to pre-order Champions Online?
There will be lots of open beta key giveaways and you can sign up for a free fileplanet account and get it that way. The first week might be paid fileplanet subscribers only but it always switches over to free subscribers for the last week. If you get a key through a giveaway it won't matter. Also you don't get STO open beta for pre-ordering champions online, you get it for pre-ordering STO. The champions online lifetime subscription was for the closed beta it wasn't the pre-order.
There is a point to trying to keep fellow Trek fans from being duped into buying a game which will disappoint them greatly.
Tell the truth about the game (both good and bad), and then they can make an informed choice.
There is a point to trying to keep fellow Trek fans from being duped into buying a game which will disappoint them greatly.
Tell the truth about the game (both good and bad), and then they can make an informed choice.
I had an image of 'You cant handle the Truth'
its all very good and well saying this but people are individuals, have their own opinions, you are drawing yours from 2nd/3rd hand sources, incomplete date and facts
oh and for those of you who know
840!!!!! WTF!!!!
I heard that all the time from Warhammer's Beta testers. They were lying.
I heard that all the time from Warhammer's Beta testers. They were lying.
WAR did truly suck though........ STO IMO doeant
Well I put down $5 for a STO preorder at Gamestop to get into the open beta, and I hear Target has $0.99 preorder boxes that get you into OB. If the game sucks as bad as I think it's going to, I'll just cancel the preorder and get store credit for that $5. Being a huge Trek fan, I'm sure I'll be hugely disappointed in this game, and for the most part I'm just waiting for this train to derail at this point.
We'll see. If I get into open Beta. I will provide as much information as possible to let players make an informed decision on whether to buy or not.
Keep in mind that the preview author is a self addmitted "OCD completionist" who doesn't read the in game quest content and only played the game for 20 hours (which is perhaps 3 or 4 days for the average player). Could you enjoy the game you are playing now if you played for only a few days and read none of the story content? Sounds to me like we just got a preview of what should/could be STO's free trial week, when played by a typical power leveler.
I think you misunderstood what I said. I've gotten the impression that Torpedoes just aren't worth getting AT ALL. It is just flat-out better to go with phasers.
I'm not a huge min/maxer, but I found phasers were better against single targets and in PvP (see part two). That said, it's way too soon to tell for sure (balance will no doubt be changed over time).
Against multiple targets with less shields though, the key is to get rid of enemies as fast as possible while moving around. Phasers are not nearly as good there. Projectiles are needed because once you make a hole, it's important to capitalize and get a torpedo in there fast.
Me too, but it did sound like her a lot. And she never says anything she likely didn't say 1000 times in the various movies and films. So, I figured, it was possible that they just reused old voice samples, but that said, I honestly have no idea. The point is that it sounds authentic whatever it is.
I may not have been clear on the story comment. I typically ignore story in MMOs. I knew I was previewing this though, so I quite intentionally read much of it. Thus, the comments about it.
Also, I'm by no means a power leveler. A completionist spends as much time as is necessary to do every single mission regardless of the reward or necessity. A power leveler takes the most efficient path to max XP. I am the former.
I want to be fair so I'll say that this may be a great game for some people. Unfortunately it looks like I won't be one of those people. To me this sounds terrible.
It seems to me that this game isn't built for free roaming exploration at all. Can I just point my ship towards the galatic core and head off....that-a-way? You know, that urge to go explore where no-one has gone before? It doesn't sound like it and even if we could it seems obvious that the game isn't really built for that sort of thing so random exploration probably wouldn't be very thrilling anyway.
It looks like this game is going to follow the typicall quest hub formula. Start in this area, load up on quests/chores, slog through all of that tedium, then an NPC admiral or someone will send you off to the next quest hub area. And it sounds like it's all very heavily instanced so I'm left wondering how much actual persistant world there is. Is there ANY persistant world outside of the quest hub areas?
And then there's the grouping question of course...but, oh well, that ship has sailed. It seems clear that this is a single player game with some co-op options which will almost certainly lead to grouping being more difficult and less rewarding than just doing your little chores solo to get them over with so you can load up on your next batch of chores.
And the ability to pause the game during these instanced missions? Come on, if that isn't a clear indication that this is primarily a single player game then I don't know what is.
Whatever, some people will love it I'm sure. But to me this looks like an extension of the trend to turn mmorpgs into pay-to-play single player games and I'm not interested in that at all. If I could play it offline without a subscription fee I might very well buy it but otherwise no.
Wow.. I was going to pre-order this, but that 4 page preview sounded a lot like a Single player game. Where is the socializing? Teaming up?.. I really do not know about this game. I think now I will wait until it has been out for a month or 2 before I buy. To me it seems they really missed the boat when it came to this game.. they could have done so much with it.
I am a Star Trek fan. Try looking through MY eyes.
You are no FAN. you are just a bitter guy who likes to bitch and moan about every single MMO out there. Your name suits you perfectly. MMO doubter. i guess some people are born to complain.
I book movie tickets in advance, i pre order videos, books and everything i can if i am interested in it. For me pre ordering a video game is no different. You need confirmation on every product you buy? you want 100% guarantee? ok wait for it, no one is forcing you to pre order anything.
I'm not a huge min/maxer, but I found phasers were better against single targets and in PvP (see part two). That said, it's way too soon to tell for sure (balance will no doubt be changed over time).
Against multiple targets with less shields though, the key is to get rid of enemies as fast as possible while moving around. Phasers are not nearly as good there. Projectiles are needed because once you make a hole, it's important to capitalize and get a torpedo in there fast.
How many weapon slots did the ship have? I was under the impression that going with two phasers means you would have no room for torpedoes.
January 12th the game goes OPEN BETA. Try it for yourself. A great many of you will be pleasantly surprised, some may love it, and of course some will hate it. At least you have the chance to test it out before it goes gold.. unlike some of the mmos out there today.
Sounds like a fun single player game....
Two forward slots and one aft for tier 1 ships.
When choosing your weapons there is a trade off; the more powerful, the less wide a firing arc (and vice versa). So, turning your broadside towards the enemy could concievably bring two phaser banks to bear (assuming 180 degree firing arcs) and still retain torpedos in forward slot two.
I'm not a huge min/maxer, but I found phasers were better against single targets and in PvP (see part two). That said, it's way too soon to tell for sure (balance will no doubt be changed over time).
Against multiple targets with less shields though, the key is to get rid of enemies as fast as possible while moving around. Phasers are not nearly as good there. Projectiles are needed because once you make a hole, it's important to capitalize and get a torpedo in there fast.
How many weapon slots did the ship have? I was under the impression that going with two phasers means you would have no room for torpedoes.
There are two fore slots and one aft slot on the basic ship.
However, it's like equpping a sword. I cannot change in combat, but I can reoutfit the ship before I enter combat (which is pretty predictable given the 10k firing limit). So if sensors show one stronger ship, I run with two dual phaser banks up front as described in the article (no torpedos). If there are many enemies, I go the more traditional route.
Um... ok. If having your friends on your away teams and things like fleet battles don't interest you, then yes. Go ahead and solo the game.
Don't see the fun in that personally but whatever flicks your bic.
*shrug*
How much of your ship can you reconfigure outside of a Starbase then?
Two forward slots and one aft for tier 1 ships.
When choosing your weapons there is a trade off; the more powerful, the less wide a firing arc (and vice versa). So, turning your broadside towards the enemy could concievably bring two phaser banks to bear (assuming 180 degree firing arcs) and still retain torpedos in forward slot two.
Read the article again, Dana clearly said he went to max range, and pelted the enemy with phasers while backing up. So both of the front mounts had phasors. Made the AI sound very poor as it didn't even try to change its facing when one shield got low.
Read the article again, Dana clearly said he went to max range, and pelted the enemy with phasers while backing up. So both of the front mounts had phasors.
Yes. That's why I used the word "retain".
My point was simply that you can still bring two banks to bear if you had slot two comitted to torps. That's all. Situationally of course. While backing up? No.
Im not that impressed so far. The ground system sounds like a copy of CoH instanced dungeon system. I was hoping to visit planets and explore.
Also the way spacemissions are implemented is a little shallow. This on top of my earlier disappointment when I learned that everyone will fight with his own ship and a ship is nothing but one big mob where subsystems dont mean much. There is no beaming on board to sabotage/take over for random accounters. Or to defend against for that matter. The only boarding that happens, is when its specifically implemented into a mission.
If there was any IP that could use more freedom in exploring and freedom of choice during missions, then it surely was Star Trek.
Um... ok. If having your friends on your away teams and things like fleet battles don't interest you, then yes. Go ahead and solo the game.
Don't see the fun in that personally but whatever flicks your bic.
*shrug*
It's amazing how many people don't know sarcasm when they read it....
It's amazing how many people don't know sarcasm when they read it....
Indeed. I fought fire with fire.
I suggest that your sarcasm detection array needs an upgrade.
How much of your ship can you reconfigure outside of a Starbase then?
As much as you want, if you have the items. You can swap anything you want out whenever you're not in combat. You don't have to report to a starbase to change things.
Read the article again, Dana clearly said he went to max range, and pelted the enemy with phasers while backing up. So both of the front mounts had phasors. Made the AI sound very poor as it didn't even try to change its facing when one shield got low.
Well, to be fair to the AI, it did try to swirve and it did redirect power to the fore shields as well. The problem was it was trying to close the gap and wasn't properly set up when I attacked. The game tries to close the gap, because if that ship gets in close, it can probably wipe me out. I just had enough juice in those two dual phaser banks to rip through his front shields faster than he could fix them.
Great article Dana.. my only suggestion is to continue to give us as much as you can AS WELL AS providing us with your overall views of the STORYLINE, PLOT and CHARACTER development as you immerse yourself into the universe. Trek truly is about the story and some of us would like to hear how the story is progressing in terms of good or poor writing, good or poor storytelling, good or poor text, etc... immersion is the most important aspect for me when it comes to an MMO.. I would like to read how immersive (or not) STO is and could be when it goes live.
Good article. The fact that Cryptic have dropped the NDA for journalists would indicate that they are already very confident with the quality of their game and the polish to come.
So... a mea culpa (which will appear with more prominence in par two):
Cryptic informs me, after a few pointed it out, there is in fact auto attack.
That fact that I never gleaned how is a problem unto itself, but it's there and my numb thumb is more angry at me than ever.
Turns out if you hold CTRL and click certain skills (say phasers) it auto fires. So that entire section where I complain about a lack of auto attack is BS. Apologies to Cryptic and you guys who read it.
Dana,
Please tell them how the teaming system currently works so people will quit whining about it.
I hope you will update the review then because that " no autofie" is definetly something that put a heavy weightbag in the "no go" end of my gaming scales and I'm sure it will do the same for others.
Don't sweat it, we're all just human.
I realize you're getting paid for this, but it is probably not easy to write a thing knowing exactly how it will be dissected and run through the cleaners. :)
I hope you will update the review then because that " no autofie" is definetly something that put a heavy weightbag in the "no go" end of my gaming scales and I'm sure it will do the same for others.
Its NOT a review.
its a preview and its ONLY part one.
My biggest complaint about this system is that this game really, really needs auto attack. Since 99% of your shots are from the 1 button, it's downright annoying to constantly spam it. Especially since it's not like one click is one shot. It tends to fire a phaser burst that takes a couple of seconds. ...
Agree whole heartedly on this one. I really hate clickfests, or let's click the exactly same key every 2-3 seconds ad nauseum. If I remember correctly, COX only had one "auto attack" ability at some point, which made me role my eyes. Do we want to play a game or carpal tunnel?
One totally unexpected feature that comes up often in away missions is the ability to pause the instance. Yep, you can pause in an MMO. This is a useful thing when you need to hit the head, and also helpful for the ability to analyze a situation and micro-manage your crew if that's your play style. It struck me as odd at first, even sacrilegious, but the truth is that I found myself using it in spite of myself. The pause button, by the way, is on a 45 second timer to prevent people from using it in group away missions to the point of annoyance.
Thank the MMO Gods for a pause button. Not exactly sure what the the "45 second timer" part means, but thank who ever will let me pause while I'm soloing, attending to the baby, etc. and not destroy my game experience.
Edit - per Dana's post, there IS auto-attack, so nm :D
Hmm, I have to say that auto-attack on a per-weapon basis is a good idea. Being able to dedicate weapons to targets and have them fire as you maneuver is a good thing, provided you can also quickly cancel that command to save your cycle if your strategy doesn't work out. But for weapons with good arcs like phasers, it's pretty much a natural thing to expect to happen, and I'm surprised it's not like that.Wonder if it can be put in as an "ability" on the tactical officer's part, perhaps one that works with the "Fire at Will" ability mentioned in the article?Edit: but I disagree about CoX's manual attack. To me, the system works perfectly as it actively engages you in the combat, and as you have a lot of varied abilities, you actually need to make choices for your character to do it's best.
My char is a blaster btw, and how simple is that to play? Yet I still need to actively decide which enemy to hit, whether to range or melee, whether to use my limited holds to keep an enemy still and avoid knockback effects which might aggro other groups, and whether to stay with the main attack or shift to protect the support people. It's a very dynamic gameplay style, so I don't see how auto-attack would even work, really.
Don't sweat it, we're all just human.
I realize you're getting paid for this, but it is probably not easy to write a thing knowing exactly how it will be dissected and run through the cleaners. :)
Woot, that's excellent to hear. Now, if it's assignable per enemy, we'll really have some fun in fleets when things get all mixed up and you've got enemies all over the place.
Edit - per Dana's post, there IS auto-attack, so nm :D
Hmm, I have to say that auto-attack on a per-weapon basis is a good idea. Being able to dedicate weapons to targets and have them fire as you maneuver is a good thing, provided you can also quickly cancel that command to save your cycle if your strategy doesn't work out. But for weapons with good arcs like phasers, it's pretty much a natural thing to expect to happen, and I'm surprised it's not like that.Wonder if it can be put in as an "ability" on the tactical officer's part, perhaps one that works with the "Fire at Will" ability mentioned in the article?Edit: but I disagree about CoX's manual attack. To me, the system works perfectly as it actively engages you in the combat, and as you have a lot of varied abilities, you actually need to make choices for your character to do it's best.
My char is a blaster btw, and how simple is that to play? Yet I still need to actively decide which enemy to hit, whether to range or melee, whether to use my limited holds to keep an enemy still and avoid knockback effects which might aggro other groups, and whether to stay with the main attack or shift to protect the support people. It's a very dynamic gameplay style, so I don't see how auto-attack would even work, really.
The reason I am happy auto-attack is in is that I found myself spending too much time trying to time my spamming of the number one and too little time paying attention to my NPC Bridge Officers and where I was standing. I'd just spam TAB when necessary and hit 1 to fire as frequently as possible. When I saw an opening, I'd hit 2, and occasionally use my kit abilities.
With auto attack, I can have my phaser firing on all cylanders and use that time to pay more attention to tactics, position and my own crew, as well as when to actually use the exploit abilities.
Its NOT a review.
its a preview and its ONLY part one.
Okay, preview. But even in a preview a falsely negative statement can hurt the impression people will have of the product. And putting out unfairly negative comments, especially from a site with a popular reader base, is something that I believe should be addressed quickly and corrected before it does further damage to the games appeal to potential customers. It just seems like the responsible thing to do.
Dana succeded in sucking up to cryptic and completely, providing them, as you have other half-baked projects, a pass at their elementary accomplishment while disenfranchising real star trek fans and the mmo hopefuls in your first paragraph; "The Star Trek Online intellectual property is so huge that it is impossible for Cryptic Studios to please everyone. In fact, it's near on impossible for them to fully satisfy anyone. To meet the expectations of many hardcore fans, a Star Trek MMO would take hundreds of millions of dollars, at least a decade and no doubt a time machine more improbable than the red goo from the latest movie."
It is possible to please most, and for starters, they have lost more than they gained, imho, by reskinning champions online and added ship art for the most part, have accentuated the most mundane pve whack-a-mole style of game to as great a boring and mind-numbing extent as I had experienced in that bore of a game called Champions Online, their complete lack mmorpg (in my opinion) by making this game (sto) nothing more than an overly glorified single-player game with nothing but onslaughts of instanced that rips any player from the reality that this is supposed to be an open world of massively multiplayer subscribers as oppsed to an overly simplified single-player lobby game where your paying $15 a month to play a single-player experience, where the grind to reach any realizable accomplishement is far greater than any mmo (aside from asian grinders) than I have experienced in 10+ years of mmorpg gaming, where the redundency of the same missions over and over and over and over again are only beautified by the same quest again and again and again but with a change of pve combatants.
I find it hard to believe that this title will succeed at doing anything but being a footnote within the time-line of other mundane, pve centric mmorpgs released in the last few years, and with enough subscribers to garner as slight a sliver of market-share as most other borish titles available. Absolutley no evoluation other than a costume change.
On the first page you talk about a lot of things needing polish, but aside from the land based combat you don't talk about anything that needs polish...It would have been nice to know how some of the systems of the game beside combat work...unless there just aren't any systems other than combat.
Man, how do you people sleep at night? You try and pass yourselves off as "gaming journalists", and then put out something like this that clearly shows you're in the pocket of some of these companies. Here you do it within the first paragraph.
Cryptic announced this game and right from day one promoted it as having two full factions with full content for both. They continued to promote it that way for over a year. In fact they're still promoting it that way over at their site. Now they're trying to slide half a game out by making one of the factions limited to a few PvP maps.
Now you decide to help them out and give that a pass by making it seem like no big deal and something that's common in game development? Just what did you get for throwing that in there for Cryptic anyway? It's clear they asked you to do it since it's exactly the same BS they've been trying to shovel since announcing they were going to release with only half the game finished.
Guess what pal,there's been a whole lot of people waiting for a very long time to get to play a Star Trek mmo as a Klingon that just had the game completely eliminated as an option for them, and saying "oh well, things get cut" when Klingons were supposed to be half the game is insulting to their intelligence. You were just doing a preview piece? Then why the heck throw that garbage in? Why don't you go out after Christmas shopping and see if you can get a deal on some integrity.
Control as autofirs is a holdover from the City of Heroes days. Although with City of Heroes you usually either put Hasten or your Click Mez protection on auto-fire.
With STO it looks like putting phasers on autofire and manually controlling the crew abilities will be the start of a viable strategy.
I did have a question Dana.
Did you have access to multiple ships and did the different ships seem in scale to each other or other ships? Did the ships within a given tier and specialty have any discernable differences? The differences between the 3 tier 1 ships or the 3 tier 2 cruisers for example.
I recently saw some leaked footage on Youtube of Ship combat where an Akira-class rescued a Constitution class ship and the two ships seemed resonably in scale with each other. At the very least the Akira seemed discernably larger than the Constitution.
Dana,
Good that you clarified this :)
also Right click should work ;)
Just a shame people are being so negative about all this, some of the attacks are quite laughable, Roll on Open Beta is all I can say, think the Cryptic Team are going to be mad busy for the next few Weeks.
Looking forward to part 2
Great article in my opinion. Other than the excuse in the begining saying you cannot satisfy everyone. This is a bit unrelated and already known in this case. Yes, "The Star Trek Online intellectual property is so huge that it is impossible for Cryptic Studios to please everyone", at the same time you cannot use this as an excuse. This has to be a known limitation that your production team itself uses so it can set proper goals.
And to all the nay-sayers talking about how he did not talk about all the other negative stuff we already know about... well that is kind of the point right there. We heard about it over and over again. It is a reporter's job to stay objective as possible. Just play the game and spit out what you find with no hesitation. Researching flaws in content is something that would take quite a long time and would in itself be bias due to the closed beta status.But it seems so many dont want bias for the good stuff however do not mind it for the bad.
Everyone knows about the content short commings already with the ground combat/Klingon/crafting/ mmo issues. All of which is better suited for an interview or playing the game yourself.
However with that said. Please tell us more about the player interaction as an MMO. Large scale battles with groups of other players if possible, and exploration of some sort :) Thanks. Great job with the details of how quests go and the transition from space to ground combat.
Hell in 2 weeks we can see for ourselves either way, but I doubt open beta will be "open"
Note** This post is impossilbe to please anyone I made sure of that ;)
I previewed the game that was, not the game that could be.
That's what a preview is. You play the game and report back on what you see. You don't whine and rant about elements that are not there.
But I imagine from your post you didn't read past paragraph one, which was... you know... an introduction.
There is an entire article on the site about their decision to scale back Klingons. Feel free to go read it.
I never got to the second tier of ships, nor did I run across any of them to the best of my knowledge. Those enemy ships that I saw that were "bigger" though seemed to be appropriately large in scale, without being over the top. In fact, my rant about scaling issues only applies to away missions. Space combat seemed... perfect. Not that I am a purist on these things, but I never noticed any scaling problems. In fact the very thought of scaling in space didn't even occur to me until you asked. So that's likely a good sign.
The only reliably familiar thing I ran across was Deep Space 9... and it seemed quite nice from space. About how I'd imagined it/seen in the shows.
well i cant say anything in this piece is wrong, its a nice piece its just a bit misleading in an optimistic direction.
I found STO currently lacking in all areas except hack and slash.
while there is scientific and engineering content its as thin and weak as paint on a chinese toy.
I didnt notice any crafting or bairly any exploring no real scientific exploration no real engineering no trading or transport or hauling other than the procedural misson after misson after misson
I think that this STO is a shallow and so dumbed down that anyone older than 10 has set their star trek bar very very low. it seems to be another fleecing game aimed at loyal STO fans.
STO is such a dissapointment its bairly still on my intrest list any more.
be wary and do your research about this game before you drop 50-70$
THIS IS NOT THE STAR TREK GAME YOU WERE HOPING FOR.
This is not a star trek game, sadly. I doubt its even an mmorpg, as stated in their faq. Content is king in either an mmo or mmorpg, and for this game to be relatively void of content, other than the re-dressed quests that are clones of each other, I dont think that remotely passes for content.
This game will play like a single-player lobby game, but the catch is you have to pay $15/month to play it; way to over-priced for an asteroids-type space shooter.
Speaking of no content, the other major faction of the game doesnt get any pve content. Its bad enough that your game-play on the federation side is frought with performing the same quest but with different copy-writing to the quest text. . .on the klingon side there is absolutely no pve content; what! lol. Whoever at cryptic decided to make a mmo or mmorpg with absolutely no pve content, and subject the player-base to nothing more than dumbafied cage-match pvp should be looking for a job in a different industry.
The reason I am happy auto-attack is in is that I found myself spending too much time trying to time my spamming of the number one and too little time paying attention to my NPC Bridge Officers and where I was standing. I'd just spam TAB when necessary and hit 1 to fire as frequently as possible. When I saw an opening, I'd hit 2, and occasionally use my kit abilities.
With auto attack, I can have my phaser firing on all cylanders and use that time to pay more attention to tactics, position and my own crew, as well as when to actually use the exploit abilities.
Reviving dead thread, but ... auto-attack is essentially out for all intensive purposes. Explanation:
It's very bad situation for the user interface in that the user is usually i) always firing all weapons ii) always turning iii) concentrating on doing something else like shield management or some other ability. While not necessarily the intent, end result is an interface one of the biggest clickfests in memory.
COX is definitely different that most classes didn't require auto-attack to be usable; STO space combat has so many abilities that could/should be auto-fire, that it's all but a design error.