What was the first hour of the game like for you? I usually get turned off of an MMO within the first hour if it's just a bunch of point and click shit.
What is the combat like? Ship to ship and man to man
What short of ships do you start out with and what can they really do?
Is the travel in "real-time" or do you just cut to the new system you have plotted a course to?
Is the digital deluxe version really worth it?
Will my character carry over from the beta if I buy the game from Steam now?
This might be my first MMO since I gave up on WOW back in '05. I hold very high expectations for this being NOTHING like WOW. Since I find most MMOs boring as hell, how does this stack up?
If you don't mind the shameless plugging,these videos show me going through the tutorial and showing off some stuff about the game and making some comments about it.
I hate to be a bitch, but I'm too lazy to answer all of your questions when all the answers are already available in the faqs and reviews available on the website. Man.. Do your own research if you want to buy a game =P
Reviews and FAQs do you give me a wide range of opinion. I figured by asking here I could get better feel than someone who has been payed to review a game.
I can't help but wonder what kind of game we'd have had if Cryptic had just ditched the ground stuff and put all that time and effort into content and polish for the space parts. I realize the trekkies would've screamed bloody murder, but that could've been an incredible game.
The ground game is nowhere near as good as the space game. But I do think it provides a nice break from fighting in space. It lacks a lot of polish (for example, I'm going to be very happy if they add in the tricorders they've talked about to find quest objectives). But even with its flaws, personally I think the game is better for having both.
Besides, what would you have preferred them to add for space combat. Or are you talking about better mission design not better space combat mechanisms. There are things that I miss from the old Starfleet Command series that I wish were in space combat (such as weapons on left and right in addition to front and back, combined with ability to damage weapons, leading toward more strategic play -- e.g., all my starboard phasers are out, must keep enemy to port side). But I think by and large those aren't in there not because they didn't have time but because they decided they were too complex for a wider audience.
No arguments if you want better more complex missions. But IMO the space combat really is quite terrific, and a marginal improvement in space combat isn't worth the tradeoff for complete removal of ground missions.
Oh boy, I hit level 11! And bought an Escort ship. And am very disappointed. In theory the speed would be nice for dodging torpedoes and such but the game isn't really set up for that, so I'm not sure what the point is. Cannons are neat I guess.
Also, is the Digital Deluxe version really worth it?
I went back and forth on that, but in the end, I decided no. I would love to have ToS uniforms, but I don't know if I can justify spending $10 for them. Maybe I'll pick them up later in the store. And I can imagine the "Khaaaan" thing could be fun, but how often are you really going to use it?
If you're going digital, you might consider going with Impulse. Their preorder bonus is actually 500 Cryptic points, which turns out is worth $6.25. I ended up going with Steam though, since they are my most used, most reliable Digital Provider -- I haven't had any problems with Impulse, but my Direct2Drive games have been having problems.
Oh boy, I hit level 11! And bought an Escort ship. And am very disappointed. In theory the speed would be nice for dodging torpedoes and such but the game isn't really set up for that, so I'm not sure what the point is. Cannons are neat I guess.
So the manual claims "Adding power to engines increases your top speed. The faster you are moving the harder you are to hit." Do you notice anything missing you in an escort? I've occasionally seen "missed" messages flash above enemy targets in place of the combat damage floating numbers, but I've never seen them over myself, so I'm not sure if that represents missed beams, missed torpedoes, or what.
Note on the auto-grouping thing, I have it disabled, but every once in a while it'll still stick me with a group anyway.
The fleet actions (at Starbase 24), the Deep Space Encounters, and a few other missions I've run into (there's a Gorn fleet mission, for example) can only been done as a group. Other than those, I personally have not had any problems playing solo, and have never seen another player in any of my instances.
Oh boy, I hit level 11! And bought an Escort ship. And am very disappointed. In theory the speed would be nice for dodging torpedoes and such but the game isn't really set up for that, so I'm not sure what the point is. Cannons are neat I guess.
My strategi on my Escort and Birds of Prey is a simple three point overall strategi.
1: All weapons maximum damage forward pointing (with a turret in the aft slot).
2: Use speed to come at target from optimal angle (against klingons this is from the side or back as they are frontal attackers).
3: Use tractor beam to lock them down long enough to punch through their shields and destroy them.
I got to admit I'm enjoying the ship battles, I find them quite fun, especially when your group up with a bunch of people and go attack a massive fleet, those are a blast.
Although I've been running into one bug that is most problematic, namely twice now when I beamed down to a planet/starbase my character showed up as my ship, the first time in the starbase it quickly transfromed back into my character but a few minutes ago I beamed to one planet and there I was as my ship, nothing worked to get 'it" back to human form so I aborted mission to leave to get back again.
I appeared back in space....as my character and not as the ship.
My opinion on this game goes from one extreme to the other everyday. And the "Server is busy" debacle thats been going on for the past day or so isn't helping any.
As a Trek fan and someone who loves the "idea" of MMOs I really want to like this game. Especially since this game has a lot of what I wished EnB would've been.
Sadly, Cryptic's track record with MMO depth/end game, the very short dev cycle, mixed in with obvious bugs and oversights/placeholders has me scared. I'm still going to buy the game, but pay for the lifetime sub, I don't think so.
Decoy on
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
What was the first hour of the game like for you? I usually get turned off of an MMO within the first hour if it's just a bunch of point and click shit.
What is the combat like? Ship to ship and man to man
What short of ships do you start out with and what can they really do?
Is the travel in "real-time" or do you just cut to the new system you have plotted a course to?
Is the digital deluxe version really worth it?
Will my character carry over from the beta if I buy the game from Steam now?
This might be my first MMO since I gave up on WOW back in '05. I hold very high expectations for this being NOTHING like WOW. Since I find most MMOs boring as hell, how does this stack up?
If you don't mind the shameless plugging,these videos show me going through the tutorial and showing off some stuff about the game and making some comments about it.
Honestly, between this and other games coming out soon (ME2 comes to mind) I think I'd rather go with something else and wait how this developes. Judging from CO, I fear the game will not end well, despite the good ideas and robust design in some places.
Ferrus on
I would like to pause for a moment, to talk about my penis.
My penis is like a toddler. A toddler—who is a perfectly normal size for his age—on a long road trip to what he thinks is Disney World. My penis is excited because he hasn’t been to Disney World in a long, long time, but remembers a time when he used to go every day. So now the penis toddler is constantly fidgeting, whining “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How about now? Now? How about... now?”
And Disney World is nowhere in sight.
0
ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
Oh boy, I hit level 11! And bought an Escort ship. And am very disappointed. In theory the speed would be nice for dodging torpedoes and such but the game isn't really set up for that, so I'm not sure what the point is. Cannons are neat I guess.
So the manual claims "Adding power to engines increases your top speed. The faster you are moving the harder you are to hit." Do you notice anything missing you in an escort? I've occasionally seen "missed" messages flash above enemy targets in place of the combat damage floating numbers, but I've never seen them over myself, so I'm not sure if that represents missed beams, missed torpedoes, or what.
Escorts are really nice if you don't mind being very active ingame. They're basically very nimble glass cannons, and it shows if you start trying to slug it out in a fair fight with heavier ships.
Speed does influence how often you're hit. Two good strategies for escorts are:
Set all power to weapons and hit someone from the sides. Your main threat is torpedoes as an escort, as they will fuck your shit up something fast if your shields drop. Having your shield drop while getting broadsided, by contrast, is nothing to worry about. Be sure to get the right skills. Personally, I make sure my tactical BO has the torpedo salvo skill, and that my engineering BO either has a repair or regeneration skill. Depending on the situation, i'll either have a science BO with a skill that drains enemy shields, alters my speed, or detects cloaked vessels.
Some of the subsystems targeting skills are great too, like the ones that cause your weapons systems to target them, or boarding crews. If you can knock out either propulsion or shields in a fight, your target is done for.
The other tactic is to set all your power to speed and focus on being an utter cock to kill. With speed, and the right science and engineer BO skills, you can basically turn the battle into a joust, where you'll have a serious advantage. Cruisers may have more staying power, but they can't maneuver for crap, which means you can run rings around them, and even manuever out of weapons range and regenerate your shields while they limp after you.
Also, as a general rule of thumb for escort ships, and DPS oriented tier 1 ships, ditch whatever you have in the aft weapon slots, and put a turret in there. That gives you yet another forward-facing weapon system, which will mean you out-gun pretty much every other NPC ship in the game up until late tier 3.
I can't help but wonder what kind of game we'd have had if Cryptic had just ditched the ground stuff and put all that time and effort into content and polish for the space parts. I realize the trekkies would've screamed bloody murder, but that could've been an incredible game.
Besides, what would you have preferred them to add for space combat.
I am pretty much talking about better / more interesting mission design, I guess. Maybe have a little more variety in terms of ship selection, things like that. Maybe they could've come up a more interesting PvP setup rather than the battleground thing they've got going right now. I guess there are just a lot of cool things I would've rather they spent time on than a sort of lackluster ground game, though I do agree that it helps add some variety. In terms of polish I mean more things like UI, and just the general MMO stuff that all feels kind of clunky right now. Like, for instance, a freakin' login queue. That would've been nice.
Judging from CO, I fear the game will not end well
What happened with CO? I know pretty much nothing about the game.
The beta's going to end before there's a free slot on this frigging server. I'm going to assume that they're just using a crappy server for the beta, which they controlled the amount of people allowed to enter, rather than imagine that Cryptic is incompetent.
I'm not even that interested in this game, I was just curious.
I can't help but wonder what kind of game we'd have had if Cryptic had just ditched the ground stuff and put all that time and effort into content and polish for the space parts. I realize the trekkies would've screamed bloody murder, but that could've been an incredible game.
Besides, what would you have preferred them to add for space combat.
I am pretty much talking about better / more interesting mission design, I guess. Maybe have a little more variety in terms of ship selection, things like that. Maybe they could've come up a more interesting PvP setup rather than the battleground thing they've got going right now. I guess there are just a lot of cool things I would've rather they spent time on than a sort of lackluster ground game, though I do agree that it helps add some variety. In terms of polish I mean more things like UI, and just the general MMO stuff that all feels kind of clunky right now. Like, for instance, a freakin' login queue. That would've been nice.
Judging from CO, I fear the game will not end well
What happened with CO? I know pretty much nothing about the game.
Lots of whining. The developers upped the difficulty of the game, slightly, shortly after release.
They then balanced out the difficulty from there to make sure that nothing was overpowered. The original change pissed alot of people off (Me included, at first, until I realized that the changes made sense given what they were trying to do.) and they swore a SWG-NGE-esque vendetta against the game.
What was the first hour of the game like for you? I usually get turned off of an MMO within the first hour if it's just a bunch of point and click shit.
What is the combat like? Ship to ship and man to man
What short of ships do you start out with and what can they really do?
Is the travel in "real-time" or do you just cut to the new system you have plotted a course to?
Is the digital deluxe version really worth it?
Will my character carry over from the beta if I buy the game from Steam now?
This might be my first MMO since I gave up on WOW back in '05. I hold very high expectations for this being NOTHING like WOW. Since I find most MMOs boring as hell, how does this stack up?
The first hour of the game varies for me, since the tutorial was different back then. While I thought it was pretty kickass, I wondered what the hell I had done to piss off the NPC captain commanding the ship my character was serving on, since he sent me over to the U.S.S Khitomer alone to help fight off the Borg that were boarding the ship en-masse. Otherwise, it served as a good tutorial once I got my bearings.
Everyone starts out with the same ship, but with a different look. Your choice of career, character traits, and several other things influences what the ship, along with your personal character, can do. On top of that, you can equip it however you want. There's a fairly large number of choices available to you. You can make a ship that focuses on laying mines, or one that lays down broadsides, or a front-facing jouster, or any other number of things.
Sadly, most people are still new to the game, so you mostly only see the broadside and mine types in PVP in tier 1 currently.
Travel is done in real-time over the sector map. The sector map is part of a larger map called the galaxy map. You directly control your ship's movement on the sector map. When you reach the edge of a sector, you have the option to warp to the adjacent sector of the map that's touching the edge of the sector you're in. The map changes color to show what "nation" you're in, and there are enemy ships that patrol in hostile or neutral territory.
The digital deluxe version is competely optional, as is the collectors edition. The CE has more real life doodads, while the DDE has more ingame rewards, like the ToS uniforms, and Joined Trill, which have some really good starter stats. Overall, neither one is required to enjoy the game. They're just there to show support for the game, or for Atari to make a bit more money off the people who absolutely have to have the stuff offered there.
Your character will not carry over from beta. That's part of the usual deal with beta's. Characters get wiped at release.
WoW is a game based on EQ mechanics. STO is a game based on past Star Trek game mechanics, and a few MMO mechanics. They're nothing alike, and hard to really compare. That being said, i'm having a hell of a lot more fun with STO then I ever did in WoW.
Ground combat in particular is much more engaging once you start to get into the next tier of content. It's very tactical, and if you get caught out from behind cover, it's pretty easy to get gunned down if you don't have the right BO's backing you up.
One thing you need to keep in mind, if you're a big fan of Star Trek, is that the game is supposed to take place during a time of war. There's less diplomacy, and more combat as a result, though you'll start seeing more non-combat episodes around level eight. I just got done with a mission where I had to go to a trading station to find a spy that was wanting to defect to the Federation.
Also, the tutorial sucks for showing the gameplay. There's no reason why you should expect to get the full game from it, just like you wouldn't for pretty much any other game. You don't even get a full set of ground combat officers, or a real weapon, until the end. That being said, check out the final ground fight at P3 of those Let's Beta videos. If the combat displayed there doesn't appeal to you at least one half of the game probably won't. Though, keep in mind that for some reason, that guy isn't using the BO he got a few minutes before that.
The best thing to do if you're up in the air about getting the game would be to get an open beta key and try it out yourself and see if you like it.
That is some good escort knowledge! After spending some time at Starbase 24 getting twice the score as the next guy, the little bugger has grown on me. Will have to adjust my crew skills and pick up a turret for the back.
ydejin: I haven't noticed much difference in miss rates while I'm zipping around, though with the lag we've had lately it's very hard to tell. Usually it freezes and the game assumes I parked in front of the nearest battleship, yearning to catch the next torpedo volley.
Fats on
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KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
Though, keep in mind that for some reason, that guy isn't using the BO he got a few minutes before that.
I'm not using the BO because I am bugged there and my BO didn't spawn with me. It's a common bug.
I actually said something about it but had to cut that out to get the video under 11 minutes.
What was the first hour of the game like for you? I usually get turned off of an MMO within the first hour if it's just a bunch of point and click shit.
What is the combat like? Ship to ship and man to man
What short of ships do you start out with and what can they really do?
Is the travel in "real-time" or do you just cut to the new system you have plotted a course to?
Is the digital deluxe version really worth it?
Will my character carry over from the beta if I buy the game from Steam now?
This might be my first MMO since I gave up on WOW back in '05. I hold very high expectations for this being NOTHING like WOW. Since I find most MMOs boring as hell, how does this stack up?
The first hour of the game varies for me, since the tutorial was different back then. While I thought it was pretty kickass, I wondered what the hell I had done to piss off the NPC captain commanding the ship my character was serving on, since he sent me over to the U.S.S Khitomer alone to help fight off the Borg that were boarding the ship en-masse. Otherwise, it served as a good tutorial once I got my bearings.
Everyone starts out with the same ship, but with a different look. Your choice of career, character traits, and several other things influences what the ship, along with your personal character, can do. On top of that, you can equip it however you want. There's a fairly large number of choices available to you. You can make a ship that focuses on laying mines, or one that lays down broadsides, or a front-facing jouster, or any other number of things.
Sadly, most people are still new to the game, so you mostly only see the broadside and mine types in PVP in tier 1 currently.
Travel is done in real-time over the sector map. The sector map is part of a larger map called the galaxy map. You directly control your ship's movement on the sector map. When you reach the edge of a sector, you have the option to warp to the adjacent sector of the map that's touching the edge of the sector you're in. The map changes color to show what "nation" you're in, and there are enemy ships that patrol in hostile or neutral territory.
The digital deluxe version is competely optional, as is the collectors edition. The CE has more real life doodads, while the DDE has more ingame rewards, like the ToS uniforms, and Joined Trill, which have some really good starter stats. Overall, neither one is required to enjoy the game. They're just there to show support for the game, or for Atari to make a bit more money off the people who absolutely have to have the stuff offered there.
Your character will not carry over from beta. That's part of the usual deal with beta's. Characters get wiped at release.
WoW is a game based on EQ mechanics. STO is a game based on past Star Trek game mechanics, and a few MMO mechanics. They're nothing alike, and hard to really compare. That being said, i'm having a hell of a lot more fun with STO then I ever did in WoW.
Ground combat in particular is much more engaging once you start to get into the next tier of content. It's very tactical, and if you get caught out from behind cover, it's pretty easy to get gunned down if you don't have the right BO's backing you up.
One thing you need to keep in mind, if you're a big fan of Star Trek, is that the game is supposed to take place during a time of war. There's less diplomacy, and more combat as a result, though you'll start seeing more non-combat episodes around level eight. I just got done with a mission where I had to go to a trading station to find a spy that was wanting to defect to the Federation.
Also, the tutorial sucks for showing the gameplay. There's no reason why you should expect to get the full game from it, just like you wouldn't for pretty much any other game. You don't even get a full set of ground combat officers, or a real weapon, until the end. That being said, check out the final ground fight at P3 of those Let's Beta videos. If the combat displayed there doesn't appeal to you at least one half of the game probably won't. Though, keep in mind that for some reason, that guy isn't using the BO he got a few minutes before that.
The best thing to do if you're up in the air about getting the game would be to get an open beta key and try it out yourself and see if you like it.
THANK YOU. I've been looking on this thread for something like this, glad to see someone got off their ass to write it XD.
I'm more interested in this game now.
Mifio on
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
Though, keep in mind that for some reason, that guy isn't using the BO he got a few minutes before that.
I'm not using the BO because I am bugged there and my BO didn't spawn with me. It's a common bug.
I actually said something about it but had to cut that out to get the video under 11 minutes.
That's another lag related bug. It's linked to the "appearing on the ground as a ship" bug. It'll probably go away once Cryptic expands it's server capacity.
Archonex on
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KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
Though, keep in mind that for some reason, that guy isn't using the BO he got a few minutes before that.
I'm not using the BO because I am bugged there and my BO didn't spawn with me. It's a common bug.
I actually said something about it but had to cut that out to get the video under 11 minutes.
That's another lag related bug. It's linked to the "appearing on the ground as a ship" bug. It'll probably go away once Cryptic expands it's server capacity.
Yeah I know,that's what happened. Like I said,I cut that out.
I think someone would have had to invite me into a team and then I could have gotten my BO down,but meh, it's not like you need him at that point.
I just watched the Giant Bomb "Phasers on Fun" preview. This game totally snuck up on me, I had no idea it was coming out so soon. I'm going to give it a shot.
Well, apparently if you do get to log into the game by somehow getting passed the "Server is Busy" message, you can't create a character at the moment. Faaannnnnntastic.
And and then youre kicked back into the loging screen and have to face the "Server is Busy" message again.
Decoy on
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited January 2010
I have to say I feel more...Involved than I have in previous MMOs. Sure there are lots of bugs, and lag, but when I'm doing something, I'm doing something! I'm busy enough that I stop paying attention to chat. For me thats a big A+ for the game.
Same here, I might be glancing over a convo in the PA channel one minute, get into a fight and have to pay attention, then realize what I'd been reading is long gone. Sure things like escorts/frigates/etc are easy as hell. I can actually read chat while fighting them. Toss in a Cruiser or better, a warship/battleship and then I have to pay attention. I've had a couple of good stress-pushing fights against those bigger ships.
I just watched the Giant Bomb "Phasers on Fun" preview. This game totally snuck up on me, I had no idea it was coming out so soon. I'm going to give it a shot.
Also, as a general rule of thumb for escort ships, and DPS oriented tier 1 ships, ditch whatever you have in the aft weapon slots, and put a turret in there. That gives you yet another forward-facing weapon system, which will mean you out-gun pretty much every other NPC ship in the game up until late tier 3.
Judging from CO, I fear the game will not end well
What happened with CO? I know pretty much nothing about the game.
A bit of a rocky launch thanks to some last-minute difficulty tweaks that took the game from ridiculously easy (people were hitting level cap in a week) to frustrating (well, frustrating for a modern MMO. Nothing compared to FF11). They fixed it fairly soon, and the game's improved considerably since.
Honestly, for me the only thing that CO (and CoX) demonstrate about Cryptic's MMOs is that they make fun games that could use a few more months in testing and patching before release. Which isn't really all that unique to the genre; at least unlike some other games they're not rendered unplayable for weeks at a time due to overloaded servers or sub-alpha stability.
Glal on
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
edited January 2010
You have to give Cryptic credit though. When they set out to make a MMO, they set out to make an original MMO.
Hell, just look at some of the concept art for their next MMOs on their website.
It looks like they're making some sort of game that's going to be based on traditional horror and Lovecraft's works, going off of the Innsmouthy picture, and the picture of the girl shooting at what appears to be a Werewolf.
Nevermind the picture of some guys in african safari clothing, complete with brownish hats, holding what appear to be loot stolen from a tomb, driving through the desert, firing their pistols at the giant skeleton monster that's rising up out of the sand behind their jeep.
Actually, all of those concept art pictures look like they'd make for an incredibly badass game. It looks like they're wanting to make a game that combines Lovecraft with Indiana Jones.
Actually, all of those concept art pictures look like they'd make for an incredibly badass game. It looks like they're wanting to make a game that combines Lovecraft with Indiana Jones.
Dear god that sounds cool. But then again I get excited about any MMO that isn't the same old fantasy crap.
Posts
If you don't mind the shameless plugging,these videos show me going through the tutorial and showing off some stuff about the game and making some comments about it.
Reviews and FAQs do you give me a wide range of opinion. I figured by asking here I could get better feel than someone who has been payed to review a game.
The ground game is nowhere near as good as the space game. But I do think it provides a nice break from fighting in space. It lacks a lot of polish (for example, I'm going to be very happy if they add in the tricorders they've talked about to find quest objectives). But even with its flaws, personally I think the game is better for having both.
Besides, what would you have preferred them to add for space combat. Or are you talking about better mission design not better space combat mechanisms. There are things that I miss from the old Starfleet Command series that I wish were in space combat (such as weapons on left and right in addition to front and back, combined with ability to damage weapons, leading toward more strategic play -- e.g., all my starboard phasers are out, must keep enemy to port side). But I think by and large those aren't in there not because they didn't have time but because they decided they were too complex for a wider audience.
No arguments if you want better more complex missions. But IMO the space combat really is quite terrific, and a marginal improvement in space combat isn't worth the tradeoff for complete removal of ground missions.
I went back and forth on that, but in the end, I decided no. I would love to have ToS uniforms, but I don't know if I can justify spending $10 for them. Maybe I'll pick them up later in the store. And I can imagine the "Khaaaan" thing could be fun, but how often are you really going to use it?
If you're going digital, you might consider going with Impulse. Their preorder bonus is actually 500 Cryptic points, which turns out is worth $6.25. I ended up going with Steam though, since they are my most used, most reliable Digital Provider -- I haven't had any problems with Impulse, but my Direct2Drive games have been having problems.
So the manual claims "Adding power to engines increases your top speed. The faster you are moving the harder you are to hit." Do you notice anything missing you in an escort? I've occasionally seen "missed" messages flash above enemy targets in place of the combat damage floating numbers, but I've never seen them over myself, so I'm not sure if that represents missed beams, missed torpedoes, or what.
The fleet actions (at Starbase 24), the Deep Space Encounters, and a few other missions I've run into (there's a Gorn fleet mission, for example) can only been done as a group. Other than those, I personally have not had any problems playing solo, and have never seen another player in any of my instances.
My strategi on my Escort and Birds of Prey is a simple three point overall strategi.
1: All weapons maximum damage forward pointing (with a turret in the aft slot).
2: Use speed to come at target from optimal angle (against klingons this is from the side or back as they are frontal attackers).
3: Use tractor beam to lock them down long enough to punch through their shields and destroy them.
This works very well and I think it's super fun.
Although I've been running into one bug that is most problematic, namely twice now when I beamed down to a planet/starbase my character showed up as my ship, the first time in the starbase it quickly transfromed back into my character but a few minutes ago I beamed to one planet and there I was as my ship, nothing worked to get 'it" back to human form so I aborted mission to leave to get back again.
I appeared back in space....as my character and not as the ship.
Pictures of said events:
Humans can breath in space!
Human in the system chart screen
I'm a ship on ze world!
Edit: Or maybe its just doing some sort of file verification. Hard to tell.
As a Trek fan and someone who loves the "idea" of MMOs I really want to like this game. Especially since this game has a lot of what I wished EnB would've been.
Sadly, Cryptic's track record with MMO depth/end game, the very short dev cycle, mixed in with obvious bugs and oversights/placeholders has me scared. I'm still going to buy the game, but pay for the lifetime sub, I don't think so.
Those videos really helped. I now have no interest in playing STO anymore. Thanks!
And Disney World is nowhere in sight.
Escorts are really nice if you don't mind being very active ingame. They're basically very nimble glass cannons, and it shows if you start trying to slug it out in a fair fight with heavier ships.
Speed does influence how often you're hit. Two good strategies for escorts are:
Set all power to weapons and hit someone from the sides. Your main threat is torpedoes as an escort, as they will fuck your shit up something fast if your shields drop. Having your shield drop while getting broadsided, by contrast, is nothing to worry about. Be sure to get the right skills. Personally, I make sure my tactical BO has the torpedo salvo skill, and that my engineering BO either has a repair or regeneration skill. Depending on the situation, i'll either have a science BO with a skill that drains enemy shields, alters my speed, or detects cloaked vessels.
Some of the subsystems targeting skills are great too, like the ones that cause your weapons systems to target them, or boarding crews. If you can knock out either propulsion or shields in a fight, your target is done for.
The other tactic is to set all your power to speed and focus on being an utter cock to kill. With speed, and the right science and engineer BO skills, you can basically turn the battle into a joust, where you'll have a serious advantage. Cruisers may have more staying power, but they can't maneuver for crap, which means you can run rings around them, and even manuever out of weapons range and regenerate your shields while they limp after you.
Also, as a general rule of thumb for escort ships, and DPS oriented tier 1 ships, ditch whatever you have in the aft weapon slots, and put a turret in there. That gives you yet another forward-facing weapon system, which will mean you out-gun pretty much every other NPC ship in the game up until late tier 3.
I am pretty much talking about better / more interesting mission design, I guess. Maybe have a little more variety in terms of ship selection, things like that. Maybe they could've come up a more interesting PvP setup rather than the battleground thing they've got going right now. I guess there are just a lot of cool things I would've rather they spent time on than a sort of lackluster ground game, though I do agree that it helps add some variety. In terms of polish I mean more things like UI, and just the general MMO stuff that all feels kind of clunky right now. Like, for instance, a freakin' login queue. That would've been nice.
What happened with CO? I know pretty much nothing about the game.
I'm not even that interested in this game, I was just curious.
CO had tons of problems and was generally shitty. I wish Cryptic would concentrate on a single good MMO, instead of a million terrible ones.
Sure,no problem man. Just hope it wasn't my commentary that was so off putting
Lots of whining. The developers upped the difficulty of the game, slightly, shortly after release.
They then balanced out the difficulty from there to make sure that nothing was overpowered. The original change pissed alot of people off (Me included, at first, until I realized that the changes made sense given what they were trying to do.) and they swore a SWG-NGE-esque vendetta against the game.
The first hour of the game varies for me, since the tutorial was different back then. While I thought it was pretty kickass, I wondered what the hell I had done to piss off the NPC captain commanding the ship my character was serving on, since he sent me over to the U.S.S Khitomer alone to help fight off the Borg that were boarding the ship en-masse. Otherwise, it served as a good tutorial once I got my bearings.
Everyone starts out with the same ship, but with a different look. Your choice of career, character traits, and several other things influences what the ship, along with your personal character, can do. On top of that, you can equip it however you want. There's a fairly large number of choices available to you. You can make a ship that focuses on laying mines, or one that lays down broadsides, or a front-facing jouster, or any other number of things.
Sadly, most people are still new to the game, so you mostly only see the broadside and mine types in PVP in tier 1 currently.
Travel is done in real-time over the sector map. The sector map is part of a larger map called the galaxy map. You directly control your ship's movement on the sector map. When you reach the edge of a sector, you have the option to warp to the adjacent sector of the map that's touching the edge of the sector you're in. The map changes color to show what "nation" you're in, and there are enemy ships that patrol in hostile or neutral territory.
The digital deluxe version is competely optional, as is the collectors edition. The CE has more real life doodads, while the DDE has more ingame rewards, like the ToS uniforms, and Joined Trill, which have some really good starter stats. Overall, neither one is required to enjoy the game. They're just there to show support for the game, or for Atari to make a bit more money off the people who absolutely have to have the stuff offered there.
Your character will not carry over from beta. That's part of the usual deal with beta's. Characters get wiped at release.
WoW is a game based on EQ mechanics. STO is a game based on past Star Trek game mechanics, and a few MMO mechanics. They're nothing alike, and hard to really compare. That being said, i'm having a hell of a lot more fun with STO then I ever did in WoW.
Ground combat in particular is much more engaging once you start to get into the next tier of content. It's very tactical, and if you get caught out from behind cover, it's pretty easy to get gunned down if you don't have the right BO's backing you up.
One thing you need to keep in mind, if you're a big fan of Star Trek, is that the game is supposed to take place during a time of war. There's less diplomacy, and more combat as a result, though you'll start seeing more non-combat episodes around level eight. I just got done with a mission where I had to go to a trading station to find a spy that was wanting to defect to the Federation.
Also, the tutorial sucks for showing the gameplay. There's no reason why you should expect to get the full game from it, just like you wouldn't for pretty much any other game. You don't even get a full set of ground combat officers, or a real weapon, until the end. That being said, check out the final ground fight at P3 of those Let's Beta videos. If the combat displayed there doesn't appeal to you at least one half of the game probably won't. Though, keep in mind that for some reason, that guy isn't using the BO he got a few minutes before that.
The best thing to do if you're up in the air about getting the game would be to get an open beta key and try it out yourself and see if you like it.
That is some good escort knowledge! After spending some time at Starbase 24 getting twice the score as the next guy, the little bugger has grown on me. Will have to adjust my crew skills and pick up a turret for the back.
ydejin: I haven't noticed much difference in miss rates while I'm zipping around, though with the lag we've had lately it's very hard to tell. Usually it freezes and the game assumes I parked in front of the nearest battleship, yearning to catch the next torpedo volley.
I'm not using the BO because I am bugged there and my BO didn't spawn with me. It's a common bug.
I actually said something about it but had to cut that out to get the video under 11 minutes.
THANK YOU. I've been looking on this thread for something like this, glad to see someone got off their ass to write it XD.
I'm more interested in this game now.
That's another lag related bug. It's linked to the "appearing on the ground as a ship" bug. It'll probably go away once Cryptic expands it's server capacity.
Yeah I know,that's what happened. Like I said,I cut that out.
I think someone would have had to invite me into a team and then I could have gotten my BO down,but meh, it's not like you need him at that point.
And and then youre kicked back into the loging screen and have to face the "Server is Busy" message again.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
http://www.giantbomb.com/star-trek-online-beta-set-phasers-to-fun-part-01/17-1871/
Is that the one?
Omg this is hilarious.
I hate everything about it individually, but can't seem to stop playing
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
Except for the space maps, those are awesome
But the ground maps? Fucking awful
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
This.
A thousand times this.
Honestly, for me the only thing that CO (and CoX) demonstrate about Cryptic's MMOs is that they make fun games that could use a few more months in testing and patching before release. Which isn't really all that unique to the genre; at least unlike some other games they're not rendered unplayable for weeks at a time due to overloaded servers or sub-alpha stability.
Hell, just look at some of the concept art for their next MMOs on their website.
It looks like they're making some sort of game that's going to be based on traditional horror and Lovecraft's works, going off of the Innsmouthy picture, and the picture of the girl shooting at what appears to be a Werewolf.
Nevermind the picture of some guys in african safari clothing, complete with brownish hats, holding what appear to be loot stolen from a tomb, driving through the desert, firing their pistols at the giant skeleton monster that's rising up out of the sand behind their jeep.
Actually, all of those concept art pictures look like they'd make for an incredibly badass game. It looks like they're wanting to make a game that combines Lovecraft with Indiana Jones.
Dear god that sounds cool. But then again I get excited about any MMO that isn't the same old fantasy crap.