Star Trek Online Preview

Can I emulate Malcom Reynolds from Firefly in this game? Star Trek is pretty shitty, so the only way I'd play this game is if I can pretend its based on a good sci fi show.
 
Giant Bomb is doing a massive preview:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 (probably posted later today)

I have only managed to play for about an hour so far, but it looks reasonably good so far.
 
I hate when they have limited open betas.

Do they even know what 'open' means?
 
This game is fun. It is a bit clunky, it is polished but not to an extreme, and in a way it still seems to be a work in progress (and I mean beyond the beta), but still I am enjoying myself. The ground combat is adequate, but the real fun is to be had in space. Combat with your ship feels like a 3D version of a naval battle. I might get this game if it stays fun.

My toon Root, an android:

root03.jpg


So it's PvE focussed? Yawn.

The PvP is supposedly a lot of fun. Haven't tried it out myself though.
 
I've only played a little so far... my motivation for playing a beta is rather low since everything just gets wiped out, plus there's been a lot of server maintenance.

So far, though, space is cool (and I really look forward to upgrading to a huge cruiser), but I could do without the ground segments.
 
it is polished but not to an extreme, and in a way it still seems to be a work in progress (and I mean beyond the beta)

Missing features (not beta related), bugs, many inconsistencies, bugs, holy mother of lag, more bugs. Bugs are fine I can deal with those and the horrific crashes what I can't deal with is what seems to be a half finished product. You say polish I say there isn't any to be seen.
 
This is a sorry excuse of a game. The beta test, as with Champions Online, was a ****ing joke.
This rushed piece of shit is an insult to Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry's legacy.
Why, you ask? Quite frankly, i am too ****ing exhausted to go into any details. Go check their forums out for more in depth complaints.
If you consider lack of depth and the kind of dull rinse and repeat gameplay of Champions Online a fun time. Then, by all means, enjoy!
I, for one, am not going to get bamboozled again by this shitty developer.
 
You say polish I say there isn't any to be seen.

Thing is: there is polish in places like the UI and the sound department, but it is sometimes lacking in areas you'd expect it, like for example ground combat. But overall I'd say this is a pretty good beta, compared to others I have played like Conan, Warhammer Online and Tabula Rasa.
 
Ensign Sternn reporting for duty on the U.S.S Spartan. played for a few hours last night. performance is kinda choppy, ran into a few showstopping bugs but other than that it's kinda fun. the ground combat isnt the greatest and the art direction seems to be a mix of star trek with generic space sets but all in all it feels like star trek the mmo. I'm undecided as to whether I'll get this when it's released. it all depends on how big/intricate the universe is
 
Oh dear. I had high hopes for this, too.
 
I played a bit more last night, and one of the coolest things, I think, is the implementation of the open groups where you just automatically join a group with other people when you zone into a mission system. It's like a cross between Warhammer "public quests" and traditional instance groups. I thought the ground bits were much better playing them with others, but it could still stand to be a lot less herky-jerky and have a little more depth. I am only like level 4, though, so the depth part could still come later. This certainly isn't like Champions where you could be halfway done with leveling in just a couple of hours. And as long as it doesn't end up taking Aion-like amounts of time to progress, that's a good thing!

I think what would add most to the game at this point is the addition of some "fluff" stuff. The way the missions are given are very wooden, and there is no voicing at all, not even just a quick little line like World of Warcraft NPC's give. That pop-up box with my ugly-ass science bridge officer giving me info doesn't do much for me either.
 
I think what would add most to the game at this point is the addition of some "fluff" stuff.

Yeah, that is probably the right way to put it. The basics of the game are pretty solid, but it simply misses the icing, cherries and whipped cream on the cake.

btw I am Root@DonCaliente piloting the USS Dawkins in-game.
 
Played the beta, not really worth paying to play for it IMO, it didn't feel very Star Trekky gameplay-wise to me, the z-axis in space combat is also completely useless.
 
Almost level 6 now and I am enjoying myself more and more with this game. Ground combat is kinda meh (although bearable), but the space battles are where the real fun is. Example: on my way to a mission I pass the Pico system and I get a distress call from a mining facility there. They are getting attacked by Orion battleships and frigates and they want me to help them out. Being the friendly droid that I am I decide to let the USS Dawkins drop out of warp and investigate. There are five mines in an asteroid belt being attacked by either 2 frigates or a battleship each. Especially the frigates are a bit of a bother since they have power draining weapons and they seem to work together. What usually works is to try and destroy the first frigate from afar while defeating the second in a close quarters dogfight. Very tense stuff.
 
Sounds like it won't have any lasting value.
 
You can get the same exact thing as the space battles for $40 cheaper and without a monthly fee.
 
Which game would that be, X3?

Or maybe Starfleet Command 3, I dunno? Heck if anything Starfleet Command series have more advanced combat than Star Trek Online, and they're also official Star Trek products!

Honestly I found STO to feel like a generic MMO with a Star Trek skinning, they could have done so much more with the license IMO, but I guess the development issues or rather DEVELOPER issues, since the original developer went down under iirc, took it toll on the original game concept.

Besides, STO basically copies and simplifies the space combat of Starfleet Command and adds a Z-axis that has no real effect on combat seeing as shields are only counted on four sides, no lower or upper shields.

Heck, at least Star Fleet Battles(the original Star Trek tabletop space command game, of which Starfleet Command for example is based) had six shields, in the form of a hexagon around the vessel, in STO we only get four, left-right-front-back.
 
Besides, STO basically copies and simplifies the space combat of Starfleet Command and adds a Z-axis that has no real effect on combat seeing as shields are only counted on four sides, no lower or upper shields.

The Z-axis isn't redundant imo. I have fought a couple of battles where it helped to approach from high up since enemy ships were hiding in an asteroid field or where the dogfighting was very much about getting out of the torpedo arc of other ships, also by dodging them or flying upwards. That said though it isn't like it is full 3D space. Your ship very clearly moves along the X/Y plane and it isn't even possible to do loopings or barrel rolls. Which kinda sucks.
 
Pretty much every game with ships. The Z-axis did indeed feel a bit unnecessary, or rather unused, but needed to be in there because space is 3 dimensional. It felt like every other ship game I've played.

herp derp line up your cannons and press buttons to fire. Hell, it even felt a little like EVE only you have restricted firing arcs.

However, I absolutely adore the group missions like this.

startrekspacebattle.jpg
 
I'll buy it and try it out but the beta was disapointing....Im a trekkie so yeah I'll go retail.
 
I see that they still haven't bothered to fix the Geforce driver stutter issue. This very same problem was and probably is still present in Champions Online too. How ****ing lazy are these devs?
 
I see that they still haven't bothered to fix the Geforce driver stutter issue. This very same problem was and probably is still present in Champions Online too. How ****ing lazy are these devs?

Or you could revert to older drivers. That solution is offered in the second or third post in the thread you just posted in.
 
Reverting to an outdated driver is not a fix in my book. It may solve this particular issue but it will introduce a shitload of problems with several other games. Cryptic Studios is just too ****ing lazy to address this year old issue. If it's a problem that Nvidia needs to resolve, then they should have done their job and contacted them long ago.
 
It might be a buggy game but that won't stop me from playing. I had a lot of fun just now doing a couple of missions with two other dudes. More people = more fun. One mission I had already done by myself and it was quite easy: clear an asteroid field, i.e. kill 3 Birds of Prey 5 times. The three player version was a bit different: Kill 5 Klingon fleets consisting of a swarm of Birds of Prey, 2 or 3 frigates and a battle cruiser. Very awesome stuff. The other missions were equally hard but fun. Gonna try out PvP tomorrow.
 
I'm gonna wait a bit more before deciding on whether purchasing and trying it out again, gonna wait and hear how many solo-friendly Quests there are, because I'm not that into having to rely on other people in games.

Except if it's people I know but I don't know many people playing STO, other than you Shaker.
 
I am @hippins and will be playing come release. I do intend to finish Mass Effect 2 first, though.
 
I am playing it, only 2 days tho :)
Have one more cd key so pm me. (beta ends in jan. 26)

After last patch it is much better and i like the game, it just needs more time, i hope they will extend the beta, becose it is not even close for retail...
But give it month or two and it will be THE cake.

in game name : n1Cola
 
I didn't find it good enough to justify a $50 purchase. It felt distinctly unfinished.

I'll wait until the price inevitably drops really low like Champions.
 
I like it. Bought it as well. Just don't want to play too much of the beta anymore, since we're starting over next week anyway.

My thoughts exactly, I have ME2 pre-ordered so that will keep me busy till launch.
 
TBH, I'd probably buy it and give it some more time to see if I liked it, but I don't have the time for MMOs due to my huge backlog of games.:\
 
I don't consider myself much of a "Trekkie" - I grew up on The Next Generation, but I never really cared for the other series' and even hated the new movie. That said, I am loving this game.

It's certainly not without problems. Combat, especially in space, takes some warming up to, and on the ground feels awkward in the same sense the KOTOR games do. But the amount of customisation, and even just the notion that you can go back and forth between Space and Ground is fantastic.
 
Back
Top