Star Trek Online Free-to-Play is on STEAM now

[Droc]

is it free to play, or free to play but pay for items or faster exp?

 

[RangerXML]

The free items are just fine (no level caps and great ships), the pay stuff is more like icing, every now and again you might feel like indulging a bit. Take the Excelsior class for example, you can earn Transwarp to the key stations from the Galaxy map (100% success rate) via Diplomatic XP or you can pay for an Excelsior with Transwarp ability to just about any Sector block, but it has a draw back that there is a chance of it failing.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

is it free to play, or free to play but pay for items or faster exp?

nope its its F2P but its not a pay to win F2P game. sure spending real money helps you rank up faster but honestly its not needed.. 4 days i've gone from level 1 to level 33 its quite easy to level up in this game. though the advantages if you do pay is that you can unlock more slots in your bank or your inventory which is nice if you do a lot of collecting and selling. it also allows you to sell more then 40 items in the exchange. in the end spending real cash on the game just makes things easier all around but it is by no means required to do anything.

 

[RoboticPotPie]

This thread convinced me to try it out.
Spent 2 hours making my PC, hit "Play!" and then I get "Character Creation Failed".

Turns out there's a 15 minute idle autokick and it ignores character creation.
Then in my rush to do it all again in under 5 minutes, I forgot to set her uniform.
Someone tell me you can fine tune the uniform after the tutorial! Just got to the away-mission part of it.

So far I like the soundtrack at least and the space-combat seems above-average for sure.
But man, the interface is ROUGH.

 

[Greene420]

One word:

Meh.

 

[Thuleman]

This thread convinced me to try it out.
Spent 2 hours making my PC, hit "Play!" and then I get "Character Creation Failed".

Experienced the same and said fuck it, not worth bothering when they didn't figure out that people want to spend more than a couple of minutes creating their character after having the game online for 2 years. Total fail.

 

[RangerXML]

Once your in, you can go to any tailor and fine tune your character, only things you can't change in game are Race, Sex and Traits. You get an out fit slot for getting to certain lvls and an extra one for joining a fleet where you can change just about every feature on your character, first changes are always free (and first creations in the tailor).

As for soundtrack, it is great, but I turned it off and am just playing my music like any other MMO.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

lol i've made 4 characters over 2 accounts and didn't have a single issue, hell i even did the advanced customization of the characters and didn't have an issue.

shit happens sometimes deal with it and yes robotic you can change your clothes in game.


but on a side note i finally figured out why my SLI wasn't working and i'm not back to getting 60fps constant. if anyone else notices the same problem i had, make sure you go into the options and click troubleshooting and TURN OFF the 2 stabilize frame rate options. if you alt tab in and out of game a lot like i do it completely screws it up so it just locks it at 30fps or lower.

 

[Spare-Flair]

This thread convinced me to try it out.
Spent 2 hours making my PC, hit "Play!" and then I get "Character Creation Failed".

Turns out there's a 15 minute idle autokick and it ignores character creation.
Then in my rush to do it all again in under 5 minutes, I forgot to set her uniform.
Someone tell me you can fine tune the uniform after the tutorial! Just got to the away-mission part of it.

So far I like the soundtrack at least and the space-combat seems above-average for sure.
But man, the interface is ROUGH.

I got character creation fail when I set a full name for my character so I just didn't do it. Tested it 5 times over. The moment I set a full name at the creation prompt, it failed. That's what triggers it I think.

None of that matters. You can change all that at the tailor at Starbase and at the booth at Starfleet Academy. Your whole look can change for free. Just make the character and get in.

 

[That's_Corporate]

downloading it now

10 minutes left and i need to leave to watch the stupid superbowl

FML

 

[The Cobra]

I am a lifer on STO...here are a few small updates that are coming:

DX11 is a base install: None of the advanced features have been turned on. They tend to test stuff out on tribble (STO test server for paying base/lifers) before transferring it over to the holodeck. SLI has been known to crash STO. This has been going on since day one. I usually turn off SLI on my machine. The games plays fine with one card though.

PvP has had the same maps since the invite only beta. It was one of the most tested features of the game before it was released. Cryptic has since forgotten about PvP completely. It was announced on their website last month in the run-up to F2P, that in this summers update (June/July sometime) that PvP will be getting a complete revamp (Supposedly) with new maps, an open PvP area and new purple PvP gear for purchase.

The game in general has gotten better since its release with more room for improvement though...

 

[sirmonkey1985]

I am a lifer on STO...here are a few small updates that are coming:

DX11 is a base install: None of the advanced features have been turned on. They tend to test stuff out on tribble (STO test server for paying base/lifers) before transferring it over to the holodeck. SLI has been known to crash STO. This has been going on since day one. I usually turn off SLI on my machine. The games plays fine with one card though.

PvP has had the same maps since the invite only beta. It was one of the most tested features of the game before it was released. Cryptic has since forgotten about PvP completely. It was announced on their website last month in the run-up to F2P, that in this summers update (June/July sometime) that PvP will be getting a complete revamp (Supposedly) with new maps, an open PvP area and new purple PvP gear for purchase.

The game in general has gotten better since its release with more room for improvement though...

so far i haven't had any issues with SLI running in game and causing it to crash. i think the games only crashed on me twice and that was because i alt tabbed during a loading section went back in and then alt tabbed out again really fast when i forgot to check something. other then that the base game its self has run fine for me other then the stuff cryptic keeps breaking and unbreaking in each update.

as far as the PVP goes the only PVP i've done is warzone and that thing sucks like hell.. it spawns federation and klingon in the same spot and the klingon always get raped.

and yes the game does play fine with 1 card but unfortunately my cards are old and suck and this is one of the few games that requires AA to save its horrible graphics in DX9.

 

[Spewn]

The Dilithium market seems to go up and down a fair bit, but I'm glad it's been trending down overall! The other night I bought points at 175per at like almost 4am EST. They seem to be highest during the day at like peak times and then lower really really late at night. They must have dropped 20-25 dilithium just in the span of 2-3 hours that I watched it, waiting to buy lol

I'd really love it if they fixed the Klingon "Empire Defense" missions though :/ The Borg one worked for me yesterday but none of the other ones did. It would be a really fast/easy way to get Dilithium capped out when I don't feel like doing STF's

 

[sirmonkey1985]

The Dilithium market seems to go up and down a fair bit, but I'm glad it's been trending down overall! The other night I bought points at 175per at like almost 4am EST. They seem to be highest during the day at like peak times and then lower really really late at night. They must have dropped 20-25 dilithium just in the span of 2-3 hours that I watched it, waiting to buy lol

I'd really love it if they fixed the Klingon "Empire Defense" missions though :/ The Borg one worked for me yesterday but none of the other ones did. It would be a really fast/easy way to get Dilithium capped out when I don't feel like doing STF's

the warzone ones the easiest for dilithium on federation side, not sure what its called for klingon, 3 minutes of work for 1440 dilithium, then once it finishes just go through the instances til you find one thats about to start so you don't have to wait the useless 3 minutes til the next round starts.

 

[roach9]

Star Trek?

Free?

I'm IN.

 

[Spewn]

the warzone ones the easiest for dilithium on federation side, not sure what its called for klingon, 3 minutes of work for 1440 dilithium, then once it finishes just go through the instances til you find one thats about to start so you don't have to wait the useless 3 minutes til the next round starts.

Thanks for suggesting the warzones, I'd never tried any PVP related stuff before but there really wasn't that much going on. Every once in a while I'd get into a fight with someone, most of the time they'd be like 20 levels lower than me and I'd strip their facing off in one volley and destroy their hull the next. Occasionally I'd fight some stupid tanked-out cruiser that I couldn't kill, and he couldn't kill me because he was set-up to tank and not deal damage, which was annoying. For the most part though it's just really fast...I just did 3 in like 30 mins or so, only ever had one fail(must have been outnumbered I guess).

I haven't done them as my klingon yet, but as a Fed it's definitely the fastest way to get dilithium. I hit my cap already today lol

 

[Brent_Justice]

Brent, is there any explanation in game about why TOS era Constitution Class ships are still around?

Not really any in-game story missions to explain it. What has been stated is that this is a "replica" of the TOS Connie, built with modern materials and weapon, power, computer, and subsystems of current 25th century technology. Perhaps Starfleet did it just cause it is that Iconic

You can read about the ship in STO here - http://www.stowiki.org/TOS_Constitution_Class_Cruiser

 

[Brent_Justice]

i concur.. just started playing the game a couple days ago after finding out it went F2P.. good game, still has its issues but still fun when in a group.. i just wish they allowed more people per team because out of all my friends that play there's always 1 or 2 people left out of the team.

This has always been one of my pet peeves with the game as well, I wish they allowed more people per team. I'd like to see at least 10 people supported per team, instead of the 5 limit. I'm hoping one day they increase it.

Ive never really played an MMO before besides Guild Wars back in the day but I decided to download it last night and check it out. Any suggestions on how to set up my character for someone who knows little about STO or MMOs?

Set it up to have fun. I mean, there are a million different ways you can play the game, and set it up, so its hard to narrow down one way, do what is fun for you. Do you like playing as a Science person? an Engineer? a Tactical? If you want a good balance, I'd suggest Engineer to start off with. From there, be whatever race you want, add their powers, use the best gear you can get etc... just have fun with it.

I suggest watching my Let's Play STO series on youtube, as it shows you exactly how to setup a new character and I'm explaining very well through the whole thing how to equip the best gear and setup your ship, your character and your BO's. It is the perfect intro for a new player.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JustGaming4Us

I tried this game way back when it came out and couldn't get into it, I just tried it again last week when former captains were invited back for free. Its just so hard to get into. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to quit out of the game so I ended up using task manager to kill it.

Sounds like an issue on your end, have never had this issue or ever heard of anyone having this issue on the forums.

I'm going to give it a try also.

Those are very informative videos, by the way. They look terrific to boot.

Thanks

It's Free 2 Play, but is it Fun 2 Play? I tried the pre-release beta as well and wasn't really impressed at all.

I would say, Yes, it is fun to play. Wouldn't still be playing it 2 years later if it wasn't. Fun, of course, is relative.

I was hooked on this game until I found out the PvP in it was almost non-existent. Killed it for me. It's a shame because it really is a nice game.

PvP use to be good, when the game was first released, you'd find PvP full all the time and it'd only take seconds to get into a match. However, it has fallen since then. Now, PvP is considered one of the weak points of the game, but hopefully they will improve it and its really up to the community to utilize it. Of course, there are lots of private fleet PvP's all the time. Our fleet, for example, has weekly PvP matches, with ourselves and with other fleets.

Okay I am very tempted to start playing again. Disliked the game in beta but I am thinking of spending a few $ to get over the grind.

The starter pack seems to be a good idea for 240 C points as Brent mentioned. Any ships worth buying? I really only like the Sao Paulo class and the Exeter class designs in the ships for sale.

Also, what are the promotional points that gold players get?

I like the Sao Paulo a LOT, great ship. All the new refit ships they've offered lately are great, I also love the Advanced Heavy Cruiser Refit.

You can check the Silver vs. Gold Matrix here - http://www.startrekonline.com/f2p_features

The 2 year anniversary event is going on right now. I popped back into Earth Spacedock to re-arm my fleet escort, and this dude is there saying he needs folks to test-drive Starfleet's new hotness... You get to take an Odyssey cruiser out for a spin and blow some stuff up. It's definitely no escort, but it was really fun to try out... Then something ridiculous happened; dude gave me the ship. No lie. Free ship. Free ship. Party on. Excellent.

Yep, a FREE ship during that limited time, was awesome, love it.

Okay I am downloading STO now. Where do I meet this guy?

Event is over now, lasted 2nd-6th

Got my Bortas and Odyssey classes today I won't be able to fly the Odyssey for a while, but my klingon is 44 right now so it won't be much longer for him.

Got mine as well, on all my characters

You can have the ship now, and when you hit lvl 50 then you can use it.

Why is the server down?

Since F2P there have been daily server maintenance, they have had an issue with databases, and to keep everything running smooth it had been restarted about every day, but now it seems the daily maintenance is not as needed anymore.

Picked it up officially last night. Played up to Lt. rank 5 and grabbed the cube for my class ship which I cant even use until Admiral I believe. So, oh well, at least I got it.

Its fun.

Yep, at lvl 50 you can use it, so don't lose it!

I need companions, but my account is "too new" to say anything in zone chat or direct message anyone according to the game. Lt. Commander means nothing lol

You can find me in-game - @The-Doctor.

Anyone know if you can still get retrofit token when you get to lvl 50?

I believe so

is it free to play, or free to play but pay for items or faster exp?

You don't have to pay a dime to enjoy the game and level to max level.

Optionally, you can purchase items with special perks, but it isn't required.


Again, I suggest everyone check out my youtube channel for the Let's Play STO series I've began, if you are new to STO, or MMO's, it will help.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JustGaming4Us

Happy Gaming

 

[Spare-Flair]

When I am levelling up skills for my main character, I am a tactical officer but there are also skills for science and engineering.

Should I also put skills into science and engineering even though I am a tactical officer?

Any good guides for levelling up? I am a tactical officer and will probably fly escorts.

 

[Angelus897]

Started this up when it went F2P. Turns out I had 2 free months of the gold account (I pre-ordered, but never played). Up to level 24. I love my Akira-class (brings back good memories of Star Trek: Armada... anyone?).

PS: Favorite part about STO has got to be all the tie-ins. If you're a fan of the shows, you have to play this.

 

[Droc]

Anyone have a quick guide/tips link?
Im thinking of downloading it tonight, but havent done a MMO in half a decade so Im sure Ill get everything wrong.

 

[RoboticPotPie]

Anyone have a quick guide/tips link?
Im thinking of downloading it tonight, but havent done a MMO in half a decade so Im sure Ill get everything wrong.

I'm about 5 hours in and so far at least, the game pretty much holds your hand. So honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Just have a general idea what kind of role you want to play (tank, DPS, etc.) and follow the prompts.

Optionally, plenty of stickies with misc info in the official forums. No posting for F2P members unfortunately.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

there is also www.stowiki.org which pretty much gives you every piece of information you need.

and like robitic said, it holds your hand the whole way pretty much, once you get toward the cardasian missions it turns into a biotch because it doesn't help you with anything. but it officially took me 6 days(4 1/2 days worth of playing time) to make it to level 50.. now its time get all the borg gear woot woot! would of taken me about 4 days to hit level 50 but i was doing missions with some one that was further ahead in the story line so i wasn't getting the crazy XP i would of been getting if i was doing my own missions.

 

[FreiDOg]

I put in 12 or 15 hours. And that's probably enough.

The ship combat was serviceable. A faster paced than the old Starfleet Command games (you're basically constantly firing something), but not much more involved. Hit the weakest shield arc while keeping your facing shield strong. The big fleet actions are cool, but very chaotic. The engineering/science/tactical paths open up a few unique abilities for each rank that help you settle into a role in the fleet, and those add some relevance to what path you take, but they're focused on pretty basic tank/damage/wizard classes.

The ground combat is pretty bland. The non-combat ground stuff is especially bad. I get they were trying to evoke some of the exploration aspect of Star Trek, but they failed miserably. Instead of a puzzle or mystery, they went with the simple run around and click the 'use' button.

I'll probably keep it installed for the big PvE and the space PvP environment because they are good enough to waste some time on. But I don't expect to be unpacking my Odyssey class ship pack.

 

[Brent_Justice]

I put in 12 or 15 hours. And that's probably enough.

The ship combat was serviceable. A faster paced than the old Starfleet Command games (you're basically constantly firing something), but not much more involved. Hit the weakest shield arc while keeping your facing shield strong. The big fleet actions are cool, but very chaotic. The engineering/science/tactical paths open up a few unique abilities for each rank that help you settle into a role in the fleet, and those add some relevance to what path you take, but they're focused on pretty basic tank/damage/wizard classes.

The ground combat is pretty bland. The non-combat ground stuff is especially bad. I get they were trying to evoke some of the exploration aspect of Star Trek, but they failed miserably. Instead of a puzzle or mystery, they went with the simple run around and click the 'use' button.

I'll probably keep it installed for the big PvE and the space PvP environment because they are good enough to waste some time on. But I don't expect to be unpacking my Odyssey class ship pack.

At what storyline mission are you into the game? I find the Romulan section the most interesting, Klingon stuff at first is a bit repetitive.

Have you played any of the Breen, Dividian or Remen FE's?

The FE stories are the best, with the Remen one being the most recent, and they have puzzles.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

I put in 12 or 15 hours. And that's probably enough.

The ship combat was serviceable. A faster paced than the old Starfleet Command games (you're basically constantly firing something), but not much more involved. Hit the weakest shield arc while keeping your facing shield strong. The big fleet actions are cool, but very chaotic. The engineering/science/tactical paths open up a few unique abilities for each rank that help you settle into a role in the fleet, and those add some relevance to what path you take, but they're focused on pretty basic tank/damage/wizard classes.

The ground combat is pretty bland. The non-combat ground stuff is especially bad. I get they were trying to evoke some of the exploration aspect of Star Trek, but they failed miserably. Instead of a puzzle or mystery, they went with the simple run around and click the 'use' button.

I'll probably keep it installed for the big PvE and the space PvP environment because they are good enough to waste some time on. But I don't expect to be unpacking my Odyssey class ship pack.

like brent mentioned the the romulan section of the story line is pretty much all puzzles except a couple of them. the klingon might of had a good story but i never read any of the things. nor did i read them for romulan. spent most of my time playing catch up with my friends to get to the same story line point as them. but then i hit level 50 and now the story line and all the missions are pretty much pointless.

 

[Brent_Justice]

Leveling is too fast in this game now, it is one of my major complaints about this game at this time. Leveling use to be a lot slower, and you could actually enjoy the gamplay experience. Now, they've made leveling so much faster, mainly to keep the F2P'ers interested in the game and stay, but I think they've dumbed down the gameplay a bit, some people like a nice long gameplay experience. And like you said, once you hit 50, there is no incentive to finish the other story missions. Even though they are really great, and worth doing for the story.

 

[Spare-Flair]

Leveling is too fast in this game now, it is one of my major complaints about this game at this time. Leveling use to be a lot slower, and you could actually enjoy the gamplay experience. Now, they've made leveling so much faster, mainly to keep the F2P'ers interested in the game and stay, but I think they've dumbed down the gameplay a bit, some people like a nice long gameplay experience. And like you said, once you hit 50, there is no incentive to finish the other story missions. Even though they are really great, and worth doing for the story.

It's a bit ridiculous actually. I played sporadically over two days and got a free ship @ Lt. Cmdr. This is quite a shock coming from the other MMOs that punish you. I thought I had to grind for dilithium (which in and of itself is not even a grind either) to be able to buy a ship but you get a free one when you rank up. Hell it even gave me more slots (wtf?!!, in most MMOs you have to pay for slots over the bare minimum).

Then since I already made 15,000 dilithium in like an hour (so easy!) and didn't have to buy a ship with it, I instantly decked out my ship from head to toe with the highest level rare equipment I could buy from the requisitioner. WTF?!! This is an MMO? Rare gear can just be bought from an NPC? Don't have to grind levels for a drop? Don't have to pay through the nose on the market/exchange? This is unheard of! Blue drops mean nothing when you can just get them for dilithium.

I got a purple drop the other day (ultra rare) but sadly, I levelled up so fast that it's already outdone by common items of a higher MK level only 30 minutes later.

I come from Vindictus and World of Tanks in which levelling and gear and new things will make you sweat blood for weeks just to be able to sniff at it. STO is like an instant gratification machine. How will they make any money? Most F2P games understand that there is a mechanic in which you really need to punish people just enough so that they go out and buy their way over the hump of grinding but STO makes it too easy and I don't see a need for dililthium -> cryptic points exchange.

 

[Tempest_Prime]

How the heck do you get 15,000 dilithium in about an hour?

 

[RangerXML]

I would like to know as well, my C-Point stipend should be coming soon and I could use some extra.

 

[FreiDOg]

At what storyline mission are you into the game? I find the Romulan section the most interesting, Klingon stuff at first is a bit repetitive.

Have you played any of the Breen, Dividian or Remen FE's?

The FE stories are the best, with the Remen one being the most recent, and they have puzzles.

No, I never made it past the Klingon story line. The first good chunk of that kind of reminded me of those old spice commercials from a few years ago, constantly and randomly changing settings for no reason.
Now I'm at a peace conference
Now I'm fighting a changling
Now I'm in an asteroid field
Now I'm attacking the Dominion
Now I'm hunting ghosts
Now I'm on a horse.

I guess each major content update got it's own story arc, and Klingon campaign was obviously the first.
Thanks for the feedback on the later stories, I may have to try and slog my way through to the good stuff when I've cleared out my backlog.

 

[Spare-Flair]

How the heck do you get 15,000 dilithium in about an hour?

As previously explained in this thread by other poster, just do the Klingon Foragers/Scavengers war zone. Change instances to ones that are almost complete. Do 3x in about 3 minutes. Fly back to K7, return, rinse, repeat.

That can't all be refined of course, only 8000 can be at a time.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Leveling is too fast in this game now, it is one of my major complaints about this game at this time. Leveling use to be a lot slower, and you could actually enjoy the gamplay experience. Now, they've made leveling so much faster, mainly to keep the F2P'ers interested in the game and stay, but I think they've dumbed down the gameplay a bit, some people like a nice long gameplay experience. And like you said, once you hit 50, there is no incentive to finish the other story missions. Even though they are really great, and worth doing for the story.

sadly the fast leveling is having the opposite effect, out of the 8 of my friends that started playing at the same time, theres only 3 of us left playing, we have all hit level 50 we all have the M.A.C.O. and elite force upgrades, we all have at least MK XI borg specialty weapons. so theres not much left to play for except to get MK XII weapons which is my plan and then i'm done playing after that.

even if they had the fast leveling, they should of doubled the upgrade requirements.. so instead of every 10 levels being a rank it should be every 20 level's and make the leveling infinite so if we really wanted to we could go to level 200 or what ever and max out all our perks. that alone would be enough incentive to keep playing. it just seems they didn't put a lot of thought into the leveling/upgrade process.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

well it was fun while it lasted but the stupid mystery boxes and the fake ship unlock messages has finally ended that.. time to find a new game to play now since i already own everything in the game except the useless stuff you have to craft or pay real money for.

 

[Spare-Flair]

What's the point of the Cardy ships anyway? When you fly them and you visit the bridge, is it just a Starfleet bridge?

This is pretty sad. These guys have no idea how to operate an F2P mmo. They make it way too easy and offer crappy purchasables.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

What's the point of the Cardy ships anyway? When you fly them and you visit the bridge, is it just a Starfleet bridge?

This is pretty sad. These guys have no idea how to operate an F2P mmo. They make it way too easy and offer crappy purchasables.

my guess is it has something to do with the next season addon thing but its pretty stupid none the less. the ships quite useless in its self. some of the purchasable ships are actually insanely powerful if you set them up correctly. but given that PvP is god aweful in the game they don't really serve a purpose since a standard free ships are just as good against the NPC's.

actually the parent company knows how to run them but the problem is they primarily run korean based F2P games which may work well in that market but don't really work all that well outside of that market.





well my hopes of tonights quick fix patch removing that stupid message were wasted, oh well. glad to see the developers don't bother listening to their paying customers let alone the people they are attempting to cash cow off of.

 

[Q-BZ]

well my hopes of tonights quick fix patch removing that stupid message were wasted, oh well. glad to see the developers don't bother listening to their paying customers let alone the people they are attempting to cash cow off of.

You just figured this out now?

Look at the track record on this game since it was released.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

You just figured this out now?

Look at the track record on this game since it was released.

given that i only put a week into the game, i don't know much about their track record.

 

[Zohar78]

Just finished d/l it on steam. Creating my character, hopefully in about 5 minutes. Is there clans/guilds in this game? If so, anybody want to toss an invite?
Steam name is zohar78