Star Trek Online - To Boldly Beta where No One Has Beta'd Before!

[SunnyD]

3 solid days (if not punctuated by server crashes, reboots and patches at least) of "testing" coming up!

 

[Tremulant]

I played a little bit the other day.

My impression: meh.

 

[SunnyD]

I played a little bit the other day.

My impression: meh.

I'm told it gets better once you get past the nooby crap. We shall see. It's going to be a giant clusterfuck this weekend though, since they did a player wipe on the server.

 

[Tremulant]

I only completed the opening noob sections (ground combat and space combat). Once it put me on the next planet I closed the game.

 

[ITPaladin]

Stargate Online, I believe.

You mean SG:W(orlds)

 

[TheNoblePlatypus]

Just "Hmm." There's definitely potential, the mechanics seem fairly solid. Main thing I'm afraid of at this point is the potential lack of content. The Star Trek universe needs content, and has the necessary tools to provide it.

This sounds familiar.



After Cryptic's complete failure on Champions, I don't know if this game can get a solid user base from the Star Trek IP alone. Star Trek has been raped with enough bad movies (3, 5, 7, 9, 10) and bad television shows (Enterprise, Voyager, DS9) that it's brand name might not be enough to make a bad game a success. Then again, Star Wars Galaxies is still around.

 

[SunnyD]

Okay, see... now THIS is fun! (That's all I can say unfortunately, for NDA reasons)

Heh... +1 for the red shirts!

 

[manimal]

This sounds familiar.



After Cryptic's complete failure on Champions, I don't know if this game can get a solid user base from the Star Trek IP alone. Star Trek has been raped with enough bad movies (3, 5, 7, 9, 10) and bad television shows (Enterprise, Voyager, DS9) that it's brand name might not be enough to make a bad game a success. Then again, Star Wars Galaxies is still around.

You would be surpised how much a established brand like star trek will get fringe people to buy this and enroll. People that never have played MMOs before. Look at Final Fantasy 11. The amount of non MMO people that started to play that game because they LOVED the series was huge.
Now keeping those people will be another story...Look at WOW. Established brand with name recognition goes a long way.

 

[SunnyD]

I am so digging this now...

 

[brandonb]

Need more info Sunny! =)

 

[SunnyD]

Need more info Sunny! =)

Erm... uh... that away team mission rocked my socks. It's like... like... um... take what's good about EVE's ship combat, add in manual piloting (think fighter jockey sims like Wing Commander, but slowed way down to more of an EVE-like pace with a good amount of action going on), add in a good sticky-target FPS/MMO hybrid like Tabula Rasa, mix in some Klingons. No. Mix in a LOT of Klingons. Yeah, that's it.

I should mention that up until this mission, I wasn't terribly impressed with the graphics so much. Wow.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Erm... uh... that away team mission rocked my socks. It's like... like... um... take what's good about EVE's ship combat, add in manual piloting (think fighter jockey sims like Wing Commander, but slowed way down to more of an EVE-like pace with a good amount of action going on), add in a good sticky-target FPS/MMO hybrid like Tabula Rasa, mix in some Klingons. No. Mix in a LOT of Klingons. Yeah, that's it.

I should mention that up until this mission, I wasn't terribly impressed with the graphics so much. Wow.

Ok, now you are pulling me back in. Must.....resist...

I don't know, maybe if I get enough gift cards for Christmas, I can gamble on the game. Can anyone give me some sort of feedback on how Cryptic is with adding content and keeping their promises when they vow to add something down the line? I learned my lesson with SOE and Funcom, to a lesser extent.

 

[SunnyD]

DS9 is impeccably done. Insane!

 

[mizzou]

I knew I should have said I was a 40 year old woman!! No invite yet, applied back in end of October

 

[allthatisman]

So just out of curiosity, how is the game running even in beta form? Do you think that it will have steeper than average system requirements? I'm not worried myself, but just interested since the graphics at least appear to be pretty decent.

 

[Phobic9]

Not sure if it's been brought up in this thread or not (just skimmed it) but OP, have you seen that leaked beta footage? I downloaded it the other day and honestly the game looks really boring. The ground combat looks like "more of the same" when it comes to MMOs although the space combat looks fairly interesting. I guess if you're a die hard fan of the Star Trek universe, you'd love this (obviously) but what little hope I had for this game is more or less gone.

 

[SunnyD]

So just out of curiosity, how is the game running even in beta form? Do you think that it will have steeper than average system requirements? I'm not worried myself, but just interested since the graphics at least appear to be pretty decent.

Performance-wise, pretty decent. Should be close to what Champions Online needs (same engine), except that all of the performance tweaks should be built in from them learning their mistakes in CO.

Not sure if it's been brought up in this thread or not (just skimmed it) but OP, have you seen that leaked beta footage? I downloaded it the other day and honestly the game looks really boring. The ground combat looks like "more of the same" when it comes to MMOs although the space combat looks fairly interesting. I guess if you're a die hard fan of the Star Trek universe, you'd love this (obviously) but what little hope I had for this game is more or less gone.

Alright, let me put it like this; I mentioned my take on space combat earlier - it's a blend of EVE meets Wing Commander (slowed down to EVE's pace). Basically, it's a twitch game, though you don't need superior reflexes to win it. It's also a click-fest, as 80% of my time was clicking on the "fire all weapons" button with my mouse hand, while maneuvering with the keyboard. Except... as I got further along in the game, my own tactics and positioning became relevant. Some enemies can chew through shields like termites in a Florida home, so it becomes a matter of managing not only your own position relative to the enemy (turning your ship so that a different shield facing starts taking the brunt of the blows), but also managing the shields themselves (rerouting power from one shield to another for example), to using your "skills" (some of them buff your shields for a bit, enhance their regen rate, etc., another one increases your ship's speed and agility so you can maneuver better...).

Over all, the space side of things is well done. Getting position, then taking down an enemy's shield, then holding him in place with a tractor beam while you pound his hull with photon torpedo's in itself is gratification. Over all, I thought the space combat portions were the most repetitive and "boring" part of the game, but they were challenging and enjoyable.

The ground combat on the other hand... that's where this game is at! Other than AI needing to be more intelligent overall, I found the ground combat portions really entertaining. They have sort of an old school MMO feel to them, but at the same time integrate in several nice FPS "elements" that make it feel real neat. Some of the missions are rather short, which sucks. Some though, take a long time. I wish more tactics were involved other than avoiding too much agro, but the way ground combat works makes it feel more FPS than it actually is. A bonus for both camps.

 

[allthatisman]

Performance-wise, pretty decent. Should be close to what Champions Online needs (same engine), except that all of the performance tweaks should be built in from them learning their mistakes in CO.



Alright, let me put it like this; I mentioned my take on space combat earlier - it's a blend of EVE meets Wing Commander (slowed down to EVE's pace). Basically, it's a twitch game, though you don't need superior reflexes to win it. It's also a click-fest, as 80% of my time was clicking on the "fire all weapons" button with my mouse hand, while maneuvering with the keyboard. Except... as I got further along in the game, my own tactics and positioning became relevant. Some enemies can chew through shields like termites in a Florida home, so it becomes a matter of managing not only your own position relative to the enemy (turning your ship so that a different shield facing starts taking the brunt of the blows), but also managing the shields themselves (rerouting power from one shield to another for example), to using your "skills" (some of them buff your shields for a bit, enhance their regen rate, etc., another one increases your ship's speed and agility so you can maneuver better...).

Over all, the space side of things is well done. Getting position, then taking down an enemy's shield, then holding him in place with a tractor beam while you pound his hull with photon torpedo's in itself is gratification. Over all, I thought the space combat portions were the most repetitive and "boring" part of the game, but they were challenging and enjoyable.

The ground combat on the other hand... that's where this game is at! Other than AI needing to be more intelligent overall, I found the ground combat portions really entertaining. They have sort of an old school MMO feel to them, but at the same time integrate in several nice FPS "elements" that make it feel real neat. Some of the missions are rather short, which sucks. Some though, take a long time. I wish more tactics were involved other than avoiding too much agro, but the way ground combat works makes it feel more FPS than it actually is. A bonus for both camps.

I feel that your game style preferences are similar to mine, in that your review focuses on the same things that I would have focused on... had they allowed me to join the beta But in order for this game to succeed they need to have content... and a lot of it. Trek fans want to feel like they are in that universe, and if this just turns into a watered down, cartoony Eve... it will fail. Have you encounteded any PvP yet? How do the Klingons stack up.. or is it pretty matched, and simply more about attitude than anything?

 

[SunnyD]

I feel that your game style preferences are similar to mine, in that your review focuses on the same things that I would have focused on... had they allowed me to join the beta But in order for this game to succeed they need to have content... and a lot of it. Trek fans want to feel like they are in that universe, and if this just turns into a watered down, cartoony Eve... it will fail. Have you encounteded any PvP yet? How do the Klingons stack up.. or is it pretty matched, and simply more about attitude than anything?

I agree. Content is going to be make or break for STO, and judging by what happened with CO (I haven't logged in in ~2 months now) I have a bad feeling. Atari is rushing STO out the door. Granted, Cryptic is the master of putting out several-hundred-megabyte patches day after day right after release fundamentally changing game play - but right now a hard and fast release date is definitely not something they should be proud of.

PvP: Yes. Klingons are way overpowered in PvP. The cloaking device is a great tactical advantage for both offense and defense (get out of jail free). Klingons do indeed have nearly 0 content though. It's PvP or bust.

 

[allthatisman]

I agree. Content is going to be make or break for STO, and judging by what happened with CO (I haven't logged in in ~2 months now) I have a bad feeling. Atari is rushing STO out the door. Granted, Cryptic is the master of putting out several-hundred-megabyte patches day after day right after release fundamentally changing game play - but right now a hard and fast release date is definitely not something they should be proud of.

PvP: Yes. Klingons are way overpowered in PvP. The cloaking device is a great tactical advantage for both offense and defense (get out of jail free). Klingons do indeed have nearly 0 content though. It's PvP or bust.

I kind of thought that is was stupid for the player to be able to choose a side, since most people(fans really) would opt to be Starfleet... I also thing that since the shows/movies revolved around Starfleet, that it would be better from a content perspective to focus all their energy on one side. They could make the Klingons more of an ominous threat. But since this is in the future, and the Federation is at war with the Klingons, there is obviously no treaty, and therefore no reason for the Federation to NOT have a cloaking device. I always thought that was lame in the series, that one side gets one and the other doesn't, even though it's obvious that it is a huge tactical advantage... Perhaps in your beta comments you could relay that to them...

 

[villageidiot111]

Is there any word on what this game will cost yet?

 

[SunnyD]

Is there any word on what this game will cost yet?

Yep. $49.99 / $59.99 (CE), $15/mo subscription. Same as all MMOs out there.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Anything new to add, SunnyD? I am leaning towards buying this game for launch. Even though there are a lot of aspects that I don't think I will like, my inner geek wants me to buy it NOW.

 

[SunnyD]

Anything new to add, SunnyD? I am leaning towards buying this game for launch. Even though there are a lot of aspects that I don't think I will like, my inner geek wants me to buy it NOW.

Nothing at the moment. Hasn't been a playtest in the last week. Next one ... um... may or may not happen on Wednesday :hmm:.

Only thing I can add is they must have tweaked Klingons a bit making then all too powerful in PvP even on the ground now. They were just in OP in the aerial PvP before.

 

[SunnyD]

Looks like about 4 gigglebytes of patch today... hmm...