Star Trek Online

[exiii]

Loving it...

[alan]

Tell me about it, it looks somewhat interesting.

[Codefox]

Yes a little more data please!

[exiii]

startrekonline.com

still learning the ropes, but I'm having a blast.

Not really being a "well-rounded" gamer, and playing WOW exclusively for several years, I've had to shake off a lot of the comparisons. It's completely different.

You start out by picking a class: Engineering, Science or Tactical. These are LOOSELY related to Tank, Heals and Damage roles. Not that it really matters yet, as I'm still in the "ZERG IN AND EAT IT ALL" mode. Reading through the descriptions though, there is a lot of inter-role customization. And as there is very little on the web right now as to what makes a great tank/healer/dps, we're all explorers.

You then go on, to choose either Klingon Empire or Federation. Then you choose a race (Klingon, Orion, Bajoran, Human,... again, a lot of options here, including creating your own). Each race has a few built in "traits", and you can then fill out the rest of your 4 character traits.

I started out with an Andorian (blue guy - antenas), but then found my deluxe version of the game gave me the option to have a Federation Klingon (I prefer the term Pussified Klingon though). I wanted a Klingon, but my friends are playing Fed toons, so this worked out nicely.

Customizing your toons features and uniform is insane! So many options - a recurring theme in this game.

You then start questing. your captain dies, you take the helm. You now get a ship to customize. Oh hell, more customization. Starting out though, there are really only 3 ships with parts to mix and match (unless you bought a boxed deluxe version, then you can choose a Constitution class ship). As you rank up, these options explode.

Space combat rocks! Team Space combat SERIOUSLY rocks!!! Really, it's a lot of fun. 3D-multiple-bogey combat opens a new part of your brain. One complaint: you cant go straight up, you can't loop. there is a maximum "climb" angle of ~60 degrees. If something is above or below you, you need make sweeping circles up to their "elevation". You have to remain aware of the X-Y-Z axis - in space, there should be no climb angle. Nevertheless, it is a blast.

I was wary of Away Team Missions, but I'm digging these too. Teams consist of 5 members. If you're in a group of 5, you all go down. If you're soloing it, or in a partial Team, you can choose to take Bridge Officers with you. This works very well for both grouped or solo play, as you always have a full Away Team.

Choosing officers:
You choose a First Officer, and then are given other bridge officers as you progress. You want to have every class represented, as each class brings different types of tools/skills. Also, each officer has specific specialties as well for both ground and space combat. If you have 2 science officers, you take the one better suited to what you expect (or seat them at the ship console).

There is a WHOLE LOT of customization and different levels of speccing and training.
- gear for yourself
- gear for your officers
- gear for your ship
- skilling up yourself for both ground and space
- skilling up your officers for both ground and space
- paid training for yourself
- paid training for your officers

Options are great! But they also make my brain hurt! The tooltips and descriptions seem a little weak on many items or skills, leaving you unable to compare the given choices. And currently, there is no respeccing - it will be back, but it was disabled in one of the patches at launch. I look forward to it's reintroduction.

The game launched last week, and there have been hiccups. There are often long queue times getting in, and as EVERYTHING is instanced, you may get queued going into a new zone. They say they are fixing capacity issues.

There have been some bugs in gameplay, but not much worse than there have ever been in WOW.

If they need work in one area, I think it's the social features. My friends and I are having a hard time sending "tells" back and forth and finding each other in the game. You don't just remember their name, you have to remember their name@account name - and their account name isn't above their head. Lots of spam, lots of zone chatter. IDK, communicating is just tedious - we use ventrillo and bypass it all with voice chat.

Thats my experience in a nutshell.

[Codefox]

So here's my question, as an avid Trek fan:

How well does it capture Trek? ST games are really tough because they require a lot of diplomacy and exploration. Is there a good sense of that?

[exiii]

I'm afraid that my standards in that regard may not be on-par with yours, but I would answer yes.

The missions are thoughtfully played out as episodes. You get an incoming message from the Admiral. You're asked to go to such and such system to investigate unknowns or provide assistance, if needed. You get there, do a little system exploration, kill baddies, scan anomalies, repair something. More often than not, you're also asked to beam down to the planet to do a lot of the same. Things aren't always what they appear, and your friends can turn into baddies and vice versa, and the episode may resume again in space.

There's an ongoing storyline about recently inhabited systems once belonging to the ancient ancestors of the Gorn (think back to TOS, the first year, and the Greatest Man vs. Man-in-a-plastic-lizard-suit fight EVER) and how they are reclaiming those systems. I'm level 7 of 50, but I have a feeling this will play out a lot more as I rank up.

So far, I've been asked to investigate disgruntled workers on a planet, escort Ambassadors, fight alongside enemy Klingons in the name of peace. So yeah, I think they capture a sense of diplomacy and faction interactions.

Throughout everything though, the sense is that, yes, the Federation is at war, with Klingons, the Borg, Species 8472, (haven't seen Romulons yet), but we are still explorers. I'm hoping this will play out a little more; but everywhere you go, you are scanning anomalies, collecting data, alien artifacts and bringing them back to Memory Alpha. There's a lot of content that hasn't been opened up to me yet there though, so I can only hope.

Overall, I think they capture Trek very well actually.

[Codefox]

Well I'm willing to give it a shot but Star Trek: The Next Generation is the gold standard of Trek to me and most of its best episodes featured little or no fighting which I suspect is not what the MMO is at all like

[exiii]

yeah, not quite. The galaxy is at war. There are a few non-combat missions, but there's gotta be some butt-kicking or it's pointless.

I'm actually very excited to do some PVP, but haven't gotten there yet. I suppose in PVP we could just compare gear and discuss why it's in our best interest just to come to a peaceful arrangement, but I'd rather just kill they guy or die than talk to him.

[alan]

I have to say, of the folks I know, you seem to be the only one who has so much positive to say about the game. I do want to try it out, just because I'm a fan, but the price is a little steep for me to "try".

[Codefox]

I'm likely to keep holding out for SW:OR