Star Trek Online

[Prime]

found this post on the official forums at dinner - im REALLY not slating the game because i do hope the initial testing will give positive changes but the points this guy makes are EXACTLY what i was thinking:

Yes its a whine but perhaps these are things that can be looked at.

Im from a long lineage of MMO's spanning more years than it probably should, but as an avid gamer its how i like to spend my free time following work and homelife with the family. But theres so many basic errors here in gameplay that are almost day one learning for an MMO.

1. Game information is either spoon fed or blasted at you with walls of text. This is an awful way to introduce players to the game. Some examples, your tutorial modes is choc full of go here and right click, not one piece of the tutorial is gripping or exciting, move a few feet and right click and be told who to go right click next time, i found within the first few minutes i was skipping text as it was pretty obvious the next part was go to xx location and right click it to move to the next section and right click again. Un interesting and pointless, train of thought, get through this as quickly as possible.

Now your in a ship! excellent, not really, they move incredibely slow and now the ui has tonnes of options that you should read. Not being one too spam zone chat at every wrong turn and i'm sure other long time gamers will know, reading whats in front of you is the best way to learn a new game. However their is so much you can spend a good chunk of time mouse overing this abundance of new options to see what they do. Only to find none of them are the cool things you were hoping for in a Star Trek game. When something does happens which may be more interesting its presented to you with a huge button that repeatedly comes up in your LOS, Leave Sector Space.. Warp to here... Beam Here, like children.

After this rolling slide show we arrive at Star Base, and are given screens upon screens of text to read, endless word vomit about every aspect of the game from kits to bridge officers. So much data to take in from 10 minutes of loading in. Its too much, this sort of gameplay needs to be staggered or more importantly obvious at a low level. Theres no need for a level 2-3 to be given so much information, weve only just installed and already were spending our long anticipated game time endlessly reading to only return to being spoon fed where to go. We have a mission LEAVE SECTOR SPACE.. huge button, errr ok then.

2. Space Travel is uninspired. Graphically the game is beautiful, system space is how i imagined it, lovely vistas from all angles, however Sector Space where were about to go to Warp Speed!!! is a framework from a late 90's game, furthermore its incredibely slow. Going to Warp is a major part of the trek feel, but it could not be any slower, even moving to the closest low level systems is just a chore. On my second movement between systems i used the map to set a course and went to get a drink, this is Trek! going at warp speed into the action, so dissapointing and the view around me is basic wire fram graphics from yester year.

3. Mission variety is non existant and in most cases non sensicle. A couple of examples for people who will have completed the early levels. Your first negotians with the miners in the Vulcan missions. crawl to system, right click, crawl to planet, right click to beam down, right click person in front of you, what does he say! go right click people spread out all over the map......ok then..... 5 right clicks later, go back to guy one and right click.. to take a quiz! wtf, are u joking? i actually laughed to myself, now to be clear i hadnt read anything the miners said, not that you need too, with questions like 'do the miners enjoy working long hours? yes/no. ROFL, and apparently by completing the quiz i had solved the planets problems O_o. How? i did nothing whatsoever, but the NPC was delighted i had turned up and resolved the problem.

Rescue a Freighter! another example, crawl to another system, Bridge officer (good job he's here to give you big poppups explaining exactly what to do in each and every situation, to be fair he should be captain, he knows more than i do about whats happening). Back to point, float over to damaged freighter, right click, turns out freighters ok actually, engines work and everything, but wants an escort back to the base. No problem, although it turns out this freighter doesnt know where its own base is for no reason whatsoever, it simply follows you around (slower than you can move) not mentioning a thing. sigh. you float near the base and nice big button, LEAVE SYSTEM. None of this is remotely interesting or fun so far and weve been playing long enough to have had something fun occur.

I really could go on and on about this, theres so many basic flaws in the game from minute 1 but after seeing how much ive written already its not going to help.

Good luck to those who enjoy this, really i envy you and wish i could ignore the obvious.

[Growkin]

Hes got a few good points there (the whole mission with the vulcan miners, I did the exact same thing)

One major problem I have is that the viewscreen pops come up at the most annoying moments in battle and then when ya click exit switches to another talk tree and its seems you can never get out of it

[eshrules]

Prime, that guy's hit the nail(s) on the head(s). I paid for a pre-order, I loved it for a few days, I've now had my pre-order refunded.

As a keen Star Trek fan, I'd hoped for big things with this game and it's just not pulling it off at all. The UI is clunky at best and I agree with the walls of text, after completeing the 5/6th mission of "go here, here and kill this and this" it gets a bit repetitive.

Another thing I noticed, specifically in regards to space combat is that there's no "crap, warp speed out of here now!" option, so once you're in a battle, lord help you if your opponent is more powerful than you. But then, you just respawn again, which is slightly boring too!

All in all, I'm very disappointed in the game and I do hope they pull something out of the bag post-Beta to make it shine.

[Gerrard]

I agree with most of what that guy said except the speed when in combat. I can only presume he hasn't used the "Full Impulse" button. The lack of warp speed in sector space is annoying, especially as Earth and Beyond used it pretty well years ago. It doesn't matter if you "skip" the enemy encounters since even if you get drawn in, you can just leave again immediately, so achieves nothing unless you go looking for a fight.

I reached Lt Cmd and got myself a new ship. With it, I was able to promote one of my officers and get another one. So I had 2 new powers and one more weapon slot basically. This kept me interested for a brief while (not even a level), but have now decided to can it. There's no way that alone is going to keep me interested for another 10 levels. I also found out that I could change the skills my officers had, which was nice. However, the fact I had put the full 9 ranks into the old ones which was then "lost" wasn't. It's a pity, I want to enjoy this game but it is lacking a bit of depth. As I said earlier, I'll keep an eye on it and may pick it up later on the cheap or if it gets better.

[roorooroo]

It's fun but i wish the missions were a little more complex. Don't think i'll be parting with my readies for this one.

[eshrules]

It's fun but i wish the missions were a little more complex. Don't think i'll be parting with my readies for this one.

well, you can't really judge it on it's specific mission content just yet, it is still Beta after all, so they can't release too much content.

I'm hoping as time progresses and the Dev's make improvements to it, I'll be given better reason to purchase, until then I'll be using my £10 a month on something else.

[roorooroo]

Yep, will wait and see what the devs come up with in way of improvements. Would be exciting to have have missions akin to those from the old Star Trek Judgment Rites game.

[Salazaar]

I got my first LC level on Sunday and I've had a bit of fun bashing my new ship around some large fleet battles. It does all seem pretty thin though and I imagine the fun will wear off fairly soon.

[setras]

bit of an old thread to dig up... but how many of you are still playing? I started STO in Dec 2012 and it has me hooked.

[aramil]

Necro-post

But yeah I still play, have an active fleet etc & PvP team.

[Dooms]

I never did try it in the end. Was out of the country when it came out and it had already 'flopped' by the time I got back.

[setras]

I did note the date of the original posts.... Which is why I was wondering who was still playing. The game has come a long way since it was launched and has lots of new features and ways to zap you of your cash..... the only downside to whole STO Experience is the Technical Support..... Issues that really affect game play are not resolved where as the sever is taken down and an update applied because a ship is the wrong colour....

[big_hairy_rob]

I should probably take another look at it, but I only lasted about 2 months the first time round. They made what could have been an interesting game, but somehow it just didn't live up to expectations for me sadly. The away missions were rarely interesting, however the space battles were at least entertaining. Sadly when compared to the game I played before (Eve online). it just couldnt compete. I may download and take another look over the next few weeks!