Star Trek Online any good?

TheBuzzer

TheBuzzer

HACK THE WORLD!
Joined
Aug 15, 2005
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I heard Star Trek Online went free to play so is that game any good at all?
 
Ive heard the ship part is ok but ground is crap. Overall I have not heard good things.
 
It wasn't great in Beta but I don't know if it's improved now. The ship part is your ground character with a skin and buffs. It could have been so much better. The combat was nice but Trek space combat is always pretty fun in and of itself. The proportions are all wrong. People are half the height of the interior Starship sets!
 
I was not impressed with the beta, but I didn't play that much. I did not get to the space ship part. I have played a ton of MMOs, and it didn't seem that fun.
 
I was browsing star trek info and found this about the battle of wolf 359:
Star Trek Online features a mission wherein the player, aboard the USS Saratoga, is sent back in time by Q to prevent the death of Benjamin Sisko. The player can also go to Wolf 359 and view a memorial to the battle and its victims.


Sounds pretty cool!
 
Zohar78 said:
I was browsing star trek info and found this about the battle of wolf 359:
Star Trek Online features a mission wherein the player, aboard the USS Saratoga, is sent back in time by Q to prevent the death of Benjamin Sisko. The player can also go to Wolf 359 and view a memorial to the battle and its victims.


Sounds pretty cool!
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There are some cool concept missions here and there. There's one where you go back in time inside the Guardian of Forever and you meet the TOS Enterprise and Spock (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) is there voicing an unconvincing version of his 1960s self.
 
DASHlT said:
simple answer.

No.

Play The Old Republic.
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Free... $60+monthly fee... free.... $60+monthly fee....

I'll go back to playing STO until TOR isn't so expensive then I'll nerd it up properly. Hopefully by then I'll have a respectable internet connection again.

I enjoyed playing STO when I had a monthly sub. Didn't buy a lifetime subscription thankfully since its... well... free now. The ship combat was funnest for me. Surpassed the ground combat by leaps and bounds.

Edit: I would like to add, and although it isn't much, but at least I can control where my ship flies in STO as opposed to being on rails the whole time.
 
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Zohar78 said:
I was browsing star trek info and found this about the battle of wolf 359:
Star Trek Online features a mission wherein the player, aboard the USS Saratoga, is sent back in time by Q to prevent the death of Benjamin Sisko. The player can also go to Wolf 359 and view a memorial to the battle and its victims.


Sounds pretty cool!
Click to expand...

It does sound cool but the gameplay is definitely not cool. The ship combat is "ok" at best.

^^ At least IMO.
 
The worst part is that the ship combat happens on a basically 2D plane. Want to do the Z minus 10,000 meters like Kirk did in Wrath of Khan? You can't. Want to fly around and loop above your enemy ship like a WWI biplane? You can't. There is only limited, flat movement on a 2D plane where everything happens. Stupidest decision for space game.
 
You cant loop, thats true, but you can go up and down above and under the enemy. It does need to be worked on, but its not as bad as you claim...
 
Spare-Flair said:
The worst part is that the ship combat happens on a basically 2D plane. Want to do the Z minus 10,000 meters like Kirk did in Wrath of Khan? You can't. Want to fly around and loop above your enemy ship like a WWI biplane? You can't. There is only limited, flat movement on a 2D plane where everything happens. Stupidest decision for space game.
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The greatest starship combat computer game of all time is all 2D plane. Still plenty of fun without a Z-Axis.
 
A friend and I are going back in and creating new characters, the world has been drastically altered and the environment and the bad guys you encounter now changer depending on what level you are. So by the time you are RA the Klingon War is over and now you are running into Borg at places like Starbase 24. Also the currency and spec system has completely changed, its taking me some time to get use to. Also LOADS of user generated content that you can play by simply hailing Starfleet and a nice menu system to access episodes and mission replay (use to be a pain in the hind). Also duty rosters are overly complicated, but can give you some awesome benefits, like instant cool down for transwarp, extra away team members and buffs to Science team.
 
I enjoyed the game during my trail period.

Space combat is the best part of the game but in the end it got very boring very quick. This was less then 6 months ago.
 
Is the space combat at least a simulation, like it was back in the Starfleet Command era games back in the 90's? You know, adjusting power between different systems, priority to repairs, etc..
 
The game sucked. I wish the original dev had not gone tits up because I think the game they had in mind would have been very good with deep gameplay and 3-4 starting races planets-cities-regions-zones etc.

The stoopidest thing about STO is the interior of the ships and buildings. Everything looks 15 feet higher and bigger than it should be. Looks stoopid and ruins the game to unplayable to me.

I won't even bother with it FREE.
 
I liked the game during my trial period when I bought the game, but honestly, it does not deserve 15 a month. Maybe 5 or 7.50 a month, not 15.
 
SolidSnakeUS said:
I liked the game during my trial period when I bought the game, but honestly, it does not deserve 15 a month. Maybe 5 or 7.50 a month, not 15.
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:confused:
I didn't know there was a monthly fee at all for a F2P game...
:confused:

Anyway I spent a few hours last night playing the game. I had a LC17, tactical escort character. All my skills were blank and they were changed completely I was so lost. I also had a cruiser sitting in my requisition area. I can't remember if it was my original ship or a free ship given to me. I don't know.

Seems a LOT has changed since I last played which is kind of a good thing. I had to end up creating another character just to I can figure out whats new and what I missed out on. Not a big deal.

Ship combat hadn't changed much at all. Seems the angle you can pull up or dive has increased a bit. Wish I can remember how to get my ship to automatically fire when an enemy is targeted and in range.

Ground combat is still.... boring and almost tedious to me.

Part of the biggest gripe that I have with this game is they use names for the systems and attack patterns or the skills but it doesn't really explain what in the hell they are or do. Not to mention that your Bridge Officers take advantage of those skills in some way was confusing, and is still a little confusing.

I got some duty officers. That was actually pretty neat. Ability to have a little more crew control and send them off into missions. Had an Assassins Creed Brotherhood esque feel to it but Trek-y. It seems the only way to get additional crew is by using the C-Store, of which I can care less about.

Far as I'm concerned about the C-Store, anything available in there should be gettable in game in some way shape or form.

Its free.

Thats my thoughts from my few hours of gameplay getting back into the game.
 
I played the game for 112 hours and got to Captain (lvl 37). If they did not have the Star Trek IP behind this game I would not have played so long.

Pros:

1. Great graphics
2. Some memorable episodes that if you are ST fan will bring a smile to your face.
3. Ship combat is fun in fleets.
4. Space PVP can be a hoot


Cons:

1. Ground combat is garbage.
2. Overused mmo mechanics ie click on this glowing thing 5 times and contact somebody.
3. Overly complicated bridge office and skill system.
4. Ship combat can become repetative.


Now that its F2P it might be fun to kill some time before Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2 comes out but honestly its not worth a subcription. The game had/has great potential but some design decisions make you think "WTF"? For example, why in a space combat sim am I only able to move in a 2D plane? Also the skill mechanics are too complicated. They need to really rework the skills and clean up the interface.

I play on logging in sometime this week for look me up. My Captains name is Kranos Dejinn.
 
Kerkain said:
:confused:
I didn't know there was a monthly fee at all for a F2P game...
:confused:

Anyway I spent a few hours last night playing the game. I had a LC17, tactical escort character. All my skills were blank and they were changed completely I was so lost. I also had a cruiser sitting in my requisition area. I can't remember if it was my original ship or a free ship given to me. I don't know.

Seems a LOT has changed since I last played which is kind of a good thing. I had to end up creating another character just to I can figure out whats new and what I missed out on. Not a big deal.

Ship combat hadn't changed much at all. Seems the angle you can pull up or dive has increased a bit. Wish I can remember how to get my ship to automatically fire when an enemy is targeted and in range.

Ground combat is still.... boring and almost tedious to me.

Part of the biggest gripe that I have with this game is they use names for the systems and attack patterns or the skills but it doesn't really explain what in the hell they are or do. Not to mention that your Bridge Officers take advantage of those skills in some way was confusing, and is still a little confusing.

I got some duty officers. That was actually pretty neat. Ability to have a little more crew control and send them off into missions. Had an Assassins Creed Brotherhood esque feel to it but Trek-y. It seems the only way to get additional crew is by using the C-Store, of which I can care less about.

Far as I'm concerned about the C-Store, anything available in there should be gettable in game in some way shape or form.

Its free.

Thats my thoughts from my few hours of gameplay getting back into the game.
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LOL I forgot about the Godawful map. Its almost useless. STO is F2P but you can get a "gold" account which allows better access. In its current form STO doesn't deserve space on my already crammed SSD let alone 15 dollars a month.
 
fdiaz78 said:
LOL I forgot about the Godawful map. Its almost useless. STO is F2P but you can get a "gold" account which allows better access. In its current form STO doesn't deserve space on my already crammed SSD let alone 15 dollars a month.
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Agreed. The map is awful. Borderline the worst map I've had to use. Actually, no, it is the worst one I've had to use. I also agree with your pros/cons.

The benefits of being a subscriber are not that much different. There are a small amount of "features" that I don't really believe are worth the payment.

http://startrekonline.com/f2p_features

Probably the biggest I can see is some extra BO slots, also purchasable in the CStore but not something I'm concerned about.

A lot of the stuff is unlockable after playing for a while or if you've already had a subscription. But really, there isn't a HUGE difference between paying and not.

I'd like to add that the skills are difficult to understand. Say your adding points into... anything. What does the +18 +10 +5 add into? It's hard to tell where exactly the benefit of those points are going. At least you are able to compare items to tell whats better. Maybe I just need to look at it differently but as it is now its gotten confusing for me again.

Edit: There was a neat thing that I noticed. A patching as you go sort of system. Since my internet connection isn't the greatest (think 100KB/s dl speeds, believe it or not its not as laggy as I expected...) I would hang out in a loading screen for some time as the game was patched. Walking into certain areas there would be a few files getting patched. I only ever seen in this implemented in A Tale In The Desert and I personally like that kind of patching system.
 
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I say this with all due respect but I really don't know how people could like this game, die hard Trek fans or not.


My comments are only based on the demo that had come out and I understand that of course the game evolved well past that point but by ALL accounts that I gathered, the fundamentals stayed the same which meant, in my case, horrible gameplay.


I'm anti MMO but this was one of two MMOs that I went into with an open mind because I'm a Trek fan and I'm also a Star Wars fan. Yes, I'm keeping an eye on Old Republic.

Either this game was simply done bad or the demo was enough to tell me that MMOs just aren't going to be for me no matter what.

Believe me, I REALLY wanted to like this thing. Badly. I've been starving and damn near dying for a good Trek game I could get immersed in.

This wasn't it although it could have been. YMMV.
 
Q-BZ said:
I say this with all due respect but I really don't know how people could like this game, die hard Trek fans or not.


My comments are only based on the demo that had come out and I understand that of course the game evolved well past that point but by ALL accounts that I gathered, the fundamentals stayed the same which meant, in my case, horrible gameplay.


I'm anti MMO but this was one of two MMOs that I went into with an open mind because I'm a Trek fan and I'm also a Star Wars fan. Yes, I'm keeping an eye on Old Republic.

Either this game was simply done bad or the demo was enough to tell me that MMOs just aren't going to be for me no matter what.

Believe me, I REALLY wanted to like this thing. Badly. I've been starving and damn near dying for a good Trek game I could get immersed in.

This wasn't it although it could have been. YMMV.
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I agree. The only reason I put in 112 hours into it was because of the Star Trek IP. If they had used some new unknown IP on this game with the same game mechanics I promise you the servers would have been shut down a long time ago. Hopefully Paramount will not renew the license and give a competent studio a chance to do Star Trek justice.
 
Dan_D said:
Actually I think it's worse if you are a die hard Star Trek fan.
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I think you're right. It was arrow in the knee time for me when I slogged through the demo of this because I could SEE the potential and I could almost "feel" the kind of gameplay that I wanted to have.

fdiaz78 said:
I agree. The only reason I put in 112 hours into it was because of the Star Trek IP. If they had used some new unknown IP on this game with the same game mechanics I promise you the servers would have been shut down a long time ago. Hopefully Paramount will not renew the license and give a competent studio a chance to do Star Trek justice.
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I think you are spot on, my friend.

How in the hell is it that a rich IP like Star Trek hasn't inspired better games? Really?
 
Cryptic is one of the most disappointing and unimaginative and worst developers I've ever seen. I wished from day one of Cryptic getting the IP that the original dev of STO didn't go under. Their vision was much more in line with what fans wanted. Cryptic just reskinned City of Heroes.

Cryptic was bought out by a Chinese company a few months ago. I wish they just went under completely.
 
I enjoyed the space based aspects of the game, the away missions were appalling so I ignored as many of them as I could.

I never played regularly but it was fun to jump in and out of here and there for some fun space battles. When they patched it over the summer it broke and their support people claimed my IE9 install (which I had since beta) was suddenly causing problems I didnt feel like un-installing IE9 and quit. I have not really missed it.

It was pretty and space was fun but eh. I'm out of MMO's till Guild Wars 2. DOTA 2 and TF2 continue fill most of my spare time.
 
Kerkain said:
:confused:
I didn't know there was a monthly fee at all for a F2P game...
:confused:

Anyway I spent a few hours last night playing the game. I had a LC17, tactical escort character. All my skills were blank and they were changed completely I was so lost. I also had a cruiser sitting in my requisition area. I can't remember if it was my original ship or a free ship given to me. I don't know.

Seems a LOT has changed since I last played which is kind of a good thing. I had to end up creating another character just to I can figure out whats new and what I missed out on. Not a big deal.

Ship combat hadn't changed much at all. Seems the angle you can pull up or dive has increased a bit. Wish I can remember how to get my ship to automatically fire when an enemy is targeted and in range.

Ground combat is still.... boring and almost tedious to me.

Part of the biggest gripe that I have with this game is they use names for the systems and attack patterns or the skills but it doesn't really explain what in the hell they are or do. Not to mention that your Bridge Officers take advantage of those skills in some way was confusing, and is still a little confusing.

I got some duty officers. That was actually pretty neat. Ability to have a little more crew control and send them off into missions. Had an Assassins Creed Brotherhood esque feel to it but Trek-y. It seems the only way to get additional crew is by using the C-Store, of which I can care less about.

Far as I'm concerned about the C-Store, anything available in there should be gettable in game in some way shape or form.

Its free.

Thats my thoughts from my few hours of gameplay getting back into the game.
Click to expand...

It used to be pay to play, before F2P.
 
SolidSnakeUS said:
It used to be pay to play, before F2P.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear...

I'm aware of that. I own the box and had the trial and paid for a few months myself. But I was responding based off you stating it wasn't worth the 15 monthly fee.

I'll assumed you thought there was a fee regardless of the fact it is now F2P. Unless, of course, you're referring to the purely optional fee to become a "Gold" member...???
 
Kerkain said:
Just to be clear...

I'm aware of that. I own the box and had the trial and paid for a few months myself. But I was responding based off you stating it wasn't worth the 15 monthly fee.

I'll assumed you thought there was a fee regardless of the fact it is now F2P. Unless, of course, you're referring to the purely optional fee to become a "Gold" member...???
Click to expand...

No I meant by when you actually had to pay for it. It's not worth the 15 I don't think, but maybe half or third of that.
 
Q-BZ said:
Sums it all up, really.
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Except not at all. Apparently the people commenting in this thread haven't played the F2P version, most of them anyway, and IMO that means they should refrain from commenting at all on the quality of this game.

The episode and mission structure have been completely reworked, there are way more missions to do now, the featured missions are great, the ground combat has been completely redone(still not great but it's not the abysmal "I'm canceling my subscription because of this." nonsense it used to be), even itemization(for starships; Ground itemization has been completely redone, no more upgrading your disruptor rifle Mk IV for a Mk V that does ONE extra dps, lol) has been worked a bit and they've improved the end-game.

If you haven't played since F2P then chances are you have no idea what you're talking about and should probably avoid telling people that the game is bad/grindy etc.
 
I'm having a blast and am being joint by two more friends tonight, the game also seems to push your rank a lot faster to get to all the good stuff, so no need for mindless grinding for rank. Instead of focusing on rank the game has other stuff for you to actually do. My friend is getting this whole duty roaster thing figured out and is having about as much fun assigning people to do things in ship and a broad as he is in actual space battles.

I still have no idea what to use Dilithium for, but I heard it was a general get rid of all marks into one currency, so more higher rank content. I'm holding off getting back into my higher rank characters until I have a better idea of all the new content and there is a lot of it. My favorite is that you no longer have the system patrol missions, instead you can go into them anytime you like if your looking for a fight.
 
Yeah they definitely streamlined the game, and the leveling is much faster now. The duty officer system is neat, and as far as I know they plan to do a lot more with it.

Dilithium is for a number of different things; There are some special ship equipment requisitions that require dilithium. A new engineering console, for example, that raises your shield value by 35%(obtainable as XI rank only), can only be purchased with dilithium. Dilithium is also used for purchasing ships beyond the ship token that you get at each rank up. In addition there's an exchange that allows you to use your dilithium to buy C credits from other players, meaning you technically don't have to spend any money even if you want to buy things in the C-store. That being said I think most people will have to wait for the exchange rate to come down(if it does) quite a bit before that becomes a reasonable option. Right now 1000 C credits would cost almost 300,000 dilithium which is 38 days of grinding out 8,000 dilithium per day(the max you can refine in a day). 1000C credits is getting into the range where you could buy one of the special ships, for example, and not many things cost more than about 1200 I believe. Most things you can buy cost considerably less, but I still think the exchange rate is too high. I don't know if there's anything PW can do to help bring the rate down or if it's just going to be entirely player-driven, but I sure hope it levels out at more like 150 dilithium per C.

Almost none of the restrictions on free players are anything that matters. There's a 20h chat lock-out(you can only talk with friends, or something, I think?), but that doesn't apply if you ever used to have a sub(even for the initial month that came with purchasing the game). Premium players can refine up to a week's worth of dilithium in a day, but they would then have to wait until next week to refine more(and since refining is instantaneous, it's rather inconsequential). Premium players can have a larger group of Bridge Officers, which basically means being able to have multiple ships crewed or potentially multiple crews ready to swap-in depending on your current loadout.
 
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