So why the talk of 'dead space' and no-one around in-game? The forums are active in every single section, and some stretch back 2-4 pages long for posts from 'Today'. Most MMO's a year down the line have relatively dead forums, like WAR and AoC a year post-launch barely had 2-4 active topics a day. They were just as much 'failures' as STO. Has STO simply managed to successfully retain its die-hard trekkie fans with ease?

Im curious simply because i own the game but have yet to muster the enthusiasm to log in and play to see how its changed. It looks like a lot has improved. But what about core mechanics? For example are character stats/spec actually important now, or can everyone still be everything they want? IE: Engineer/science/tactic, no specific class roles etc.

Dude, just load the game and play!

You could be loading it right now while you are on the forums here.

Then come back and tell us about it. I want to hear how it turns out for you.

Resubbed...there are lots of players around!! The basics are the same...engineers = tanks, Tactical = dps and science = support/healers.

There are way more people playing than I thought there would be. I downloaded the demo yesterday, went thru the tutorial part and only saw a few others but as soon as I got to the Earth Station zone...BAM! Tons of ships out there (some really sweet looking ones too).

Lagged me out like crazy loading all of em lol...even got a low memory warning on my screen...my PC sux

I'll give you 1 warning as a former player.

Keep a close eye on your wallet.  As for gameplay and issues about Cryptic, well, you can read around the forum or do searches on those subjects.  They make for fun reading.

Good to read some possitive posts here :D

last time played was 2010-06 but i will resub today, can't even wait until i get home.

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Originally posted by Warmaker
I'll give you 1 warning as a former player.
Keep a close eye on your wallet.

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http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/276806/page/1

I recently gave STO a try, and at Cmdr atm, I'm really enjoying it, both ground combat and space combat, but particularly space combat.  They've really nailed space combat in a way that's nicely balanced between beard-stroking simulator and twitchy gameplay.  (It's basically PotBS in space, without wind, in pseudo-3d; the Sector map is also like the Open Sea in PotBS.)

In fact, much as I love EVE, I have to say the space combat in STO is a zillion times more fun and engaging (just been reading the Hyperbole article lol).

But "fun combat" has never been one of Cryptic's failings - they always do tend to be pretty solid when it comes to combat.  It's in the "depth" area where they usually fall down a bit.

Still, as with CO, most players will probably have a great time for at least a month or two.  And STO is a bit deeper than CO.

And apart from the severe lack of in-ship action (e.g. bridge command while travelling or anything like that) they've done a good job of making it feel quite Star Trekky, on the whole (well, as Star Trekky as a game can feel when there are the occasional starships with 1337 names floating around ).

Originally posted by gurugeorge

But "fun combat" has never been one of Cryptic's failings - they always do tend to be pretty solid when it comes to combat.  It's in the "depth" area where they usually fall down a bit.

Well said. Flying around shooting stuff in pretty graphics is indeed fun for a while but sadly, like you said, the game lacks any depth beyond that :s

Originally posted by Ad-am

Resubbed...there are lots of players around!! The basics are the same...engineers = tanks, Tactical = dps and science = support/healers.

This is incorrect your role has more to do with your ship, escort dps, cruiser healer, sci ship suppot/roots etc Hybird models work very well especially eng/escorts and tact/cruisers really one of the highlights of the game is the sheer amount of powers and styles of play u can have even amongst hardcove pvpers there is no one better then all builds although there are certianley bad builds.

And yes STO is doing surprising well giving its introduction this is probably do to two reasons ones the IP star trek and the loyal trekkies and two cryptic has been surprisingly inclined to listein to the forum community theres even a mini game directly from a players idea and a campgan amogst forum goers to get chase mattersons voice for dabo. Theres also a chance within the next year STO could be one of the few games on the market to actually have three sided pvp with the additon of the romulans

Originally posted by Flato

Originally posted by Ad-am

Resubbed...there are lots of players around!! The basics are the same...engineers = tanks, Tactical = dps and science = support/healers.

This is incorrect your role has more to do with your ship, escort dps, cruiser healer, sci ship suppot/roots etc Hybird models work very well especially eng/escorts and tact/cruisers really one of the highlights of the game is the sheer amount of powers and styles of play u can have even amongst hardcove pvpers there is no one better then all builds although there are certianley bad builds.

 

And yes STO is doing surprising well giving its introduction this is probably do to two reasons ones the IP star trek and the loyal trekkies and two cryptic has been surprisingly inclined to listein to the forum community theres even a mini game directly from a players idea and a campgan amogst forum goers to get chase mattersons voice for dabo. Theres also a chance within the next year STO could be one of the few games on the market to actually have three sided pvp with the additon of the romulans

Not going to happen. Not this year anyway. Pay close attention to what DStahl says about the Romulan faction on the official boards. The Romulans won't be added until the Klingons are in a more complete shape. And I have my doubts that will be completed this year. Too much work left to do there.

Not only do they have a lot of work to do on the paper thin KDF, but I'm hoping they don't release Romulans in the state the KDF started at.  They need time to make them worth releasing.

Originally posted by WhiteLantern

Originally posted by Flato

Originally posted by Ad-am

Resubbed...there are lots of players around!! The basics are the same...engineers = tanks, Tactical = dps and science = support/healers.

This is incorrect your role has more to do with your ship, escort dps, cruiser healer, sci ship suppot/roots etc Hybird models work very well especially eng/escorts and tact/cruisers really one of the highlights of the game is the sheer amount of powers and styles of play u can have even amongst hardcove pvpers there is no one better then all builds although there are certianley bad builds.

 

And yes STO is doing surprising well giving its introduction this is probably do to two reasons ones the IP star trek and the loyal trekkies and two cryptic has been surprisingly inclined to listein to the forum community theres even a mini game directly from a players idea and a campgan amogst forum goers to get chase mattersons voice for dabo. Theres also a chance within the next year STO could be one of the few games on the market to actually have three sided pvp with the additon of the romulans

Not going to happen. Not this year anyway. Pay close attention to what DStahl says about the Romulan faction on the official boards. The Romulans won't be added until the Klingons are in a more complete shape. And I have my doubts that will be completed this year. Too much work left to do there.

Agreed.

The amount of work still needed to get Klingons in line with Federation gameplay not to mention having to do the same amount for a Romulan faction puts 3 sided PVP at least a year away going by how slowly the STO devs add content to the game. Maybe if Craptic didnt waste so much development time on c-store bullshit and instead focused on the core game if could be a different story.

I beg to differ with you on the popularity of STO.  For the last two weeks I have been sitting in space looking for a group to do a STF with and the most I could get was three, sometimes I would be the only person in the whole sector.  The wait for Pvp is not as long as it used to be but there still is a good wait and when you do get in you have to put up with all the space junk like mines fighters and now that every one can put out fighters and tractor beam mines the battle field is just too cluttered to get or keep a lock on a target.  Your ship still gets stuck in rocks in space and your character sitll gets hung up on plants and anything else over an inch in height  while moveing on the ground.  Sure they made alot of of new content, but that content should of been there at launch, not over a year after and they made little improvement to he mechanics of the game, but the game does look pretty with those Borg equipment attachments for you ships, now everyone can fly around in a Christmas Tree.

Originally posted by ScribbleLay1

I beg to differ with you on the popularity of STO.  For the last two weeks I have been sitting in space looking for a group to do a STF with and the most I could get was three, sometimes I would be the only person in the whole sector.  The wait for Pvp is not as long as it used to be but there still is a good wait and when you do get in you have to put up with all the space junk like mines fighters and now that every one can put out fighters and tractor beam mines the battle field is just too cluttered to get or keep a lock on a target.  Your ship still gets stuck in rocks in space and your character sitll gets hung up on plants and anything else over an inch in height  while moveing on the ground.  Sure they made alot of of new content, but that content should of been there at launch, not over a year after and they made little improvement to he mechanics of the game, but the game does look pretty with those Borg equipment attachments for you ships, now everyone can fly around in a Christmas Tree.

 I like how you actually begin your post on-point and then quickly move to another complaint about a bug you hate and more upgrade complaints!  BTW, it is "should have" not "should of".

While I find it terribly odd that you would even spend time online in a game you clearly despise, I question your validity - you are clearly not playing the same game I am.  I've been on nearly every day for the last two weeks and varying times of the day and there is simply no such thing as an empty zone.  There are ships EVERYWHERE.  And, if you are in Gamma Orionis (the STF zone) there are ships gathered all over the STF systems.  Should be easy enough to find a group.  I've done Infected twice in the last week and it took about 10 minutes to get a group.  And, if you go to the episode systems there are so many ships surrounding them you can hardly see the star!

Originally posted by ScribbleLay1

Originally posted by Feydaway

Originally posted by ScribbleLay1

I beg to differ with you on the popularity of STO.  For the last two weeks I have been sitting in space looking for a group to do a STF with and the most I could get was three, sometimes I would be the only person in the whole sector.  The wait for Pvp is not as long as it used to be but there still is a good wait and when you do get in you have to put up with all the space junk like mines fighters and now that every one can put out fighters and tractor beam mines the battle field is just too cluttered to get or keep a lock on a target.  Your ship still gets stuck in rocks in space and your character sitll gets hung up on plants and anything else over an inch in height  while moveing on the ground.  Sure they made alot of of new content, but that content should of been there at launch, not over a year after and they made little improvement to he mechanics of the game, but the game does look pretty with those Borg equipment attachments for you ships, now everyone can fly around in a Christmas Tree.

 I like how you actually begin your post on-point and then quickly move to another complaint about a bug you hate and more upgrade complaints!  BTW, it is "should have" not "should of".

While I find it terribly odd that you would even spend time online in a game you clearly despise, I question your validity - you are clearly not playing the same game I am.  I've been on nearly every day for the last two weeks and varying times of the day and there is simply no such thing as an empty zone.  There are ships EVERYWHERE.  And, if you are in Gamma Orionis (the STF zone) there are ships gathered all over the STF systems.  Should be easy enough to find a group.  I've done Infected twice in the last week and it took about 10 minutes to get a group.  And, if you go to the episode systems there are so many ships surrounding them you can hardly see the star!

So you jump to correcting my use of the English language, well, more power to you for showing me your superiority.  I also suppose that if I post screen shots of the map with noone but myselt in it you would say I edited it or something.

I've got to agree with Feydaway - I'm not sure if we're talking about the same game.  The last time I logged in, which was yesterday, the areas I travelled in were full of other players.  In fact, many of the zones appear to be almost TOO full of ships.

I think they are getting a steady stream of returners, but also don't be fooled by the increased caps on some of the instances. This game is still financially viable no doubt about that, but I doubt it will ever become a runaway success. 

Originally posted by Leoghan

I think they are getting a steady stream of returners, but also don't be fooled by the increased caps on some of the instances. This game is still financially viable no doubt about that, but I doubt it will ever become a runaway success. 

I agree that there has been a steady stream of people coming to the game, both returning people, and new players.

But, too many people are concerned with subjectively defined success and failure on these boards.  They also appear permanently stuck on launch day.

As long as there are enough people to play with, and a dev company makes enough money to fully develop a game, does the fickle MMO community's perception of "success" really matter if you enjoy a game?

For those really concerned with such things - XFire numbers seem to indicate a steady rise in STO player activity.  A few months ago, STO was routinely falling just outside the top 100.  Since then, it has steadily risen until it is now averaging rankings in the 60s and 70s (with commensurate rises in players and time played).  Yeah, that's the same XFire that critics of the game were lauding as accurate when STO's ranking was steadily falling as proof that it was a "bad game".

Now that it's rising, what does that mean?  If you hate the game, will you hate it less?  If you love it, will you love it more?  Or, is it just a game that, like most others, has been steadily improving and people *gasp* are enjoying?

In my opinion, the game has gotten a lot better than it was at launch, there are plenty of others to play with, and is fun to play.  That's all that really matters to me.

i recently returned to this game after having "launch day disaster" syndrome... i gotta say, i am having tons of fun with it now

Originally posted by Rohn

Originally posted by Leoghan

I think they are getting a steady stream of returners, but also don't be fooled by the increased caps on some of the instances. This game is still financially viable no doubt about that, but I doubt it will ever become a runaway success. 

 

I agree that there has been a steady stream of people coming to the game, both returning people, and new players.

But, too many people are concerned with subjectively defined success and failure on these boards.  They also appear permanently stuck on launch day.

As long as there are enough people to play with, and a dev company makes enough money to fully develop a game, does the fickle MMO community's perception of "success" really matter if you enjoy a game?

For those really concerned with such things - XFire numbers seem to indicate a steady rise in STO player activity.  A few months ago, STO was routinely falling just outside the top 100.  Since then, it has steadily risen until it is now averaging rankings in the 60s and 70s (with commensurate rises in players and time played).  Yeah, that's the same XFire that critics of the game were lauding as accurate when STO's ranking was steadily falling as proof that it was a "bad game".

Now that it's rising, what does that mean?  If you hate the game, will you hate it less?  If you love it, will you love it more?  Or, is it just a game that, like most others, has been steadily improving and people *gasp* are enjoying?

In my opinion, the game has gotten a lot better than it was at launch, there are plenty of others to play with, and is fun to play.  That's all that really matters to me.

 Don't mistake the rise in numbers as a rise in subs. There are a lot of LTS out there who simply don't play unless some new content is added. If you want to measure health of a game , look to the noobie areas. Although Cryptic for the most part doesn't have these zones. A lot of people in a zone means nothing , how many instances of that zone ? How many are at capacity ? The LTS model that Cryptic currently functioning on is not sustainible over the long term , unless they plan on going F2P, which will hamstring them to a large degree.