Sooooo.... Thoughts on Star Trek Online (Open Beta)?

I haven't put much time in yet, but first off, I find the controls stiff and awkward. I like the environment, but the combat seems a bit to be desired, that's just ground combat so far though....

Any thoughts from some die hard players that got in a dozen hours or so, so far?

 

Hmm I am thinking bout joining you Laz, I'll go see if I can get a key from that other thread.

Edit: and nope, all keys are gone. So'k though I'll go mess with my N900, I have my freakin phone working as a SNES emulator with a wiimote and it has a TV out so I have a pocket sized SNES how cool is that?

 

I played all night( 7pm to 3am eastern) in a full group and Vent going full bore. 1 downtime for a patch for like an hour or so. We have Tiers and like 20 channels going. First impressions are excellent. Space combat is awesome. I love it. You can take a beating and shields are really doing what they are supposed to. Think of Star Trek 6 the undiscovered country. The ships can take a pounding. When you get out of combat the ship heals itself. You control where power goes but its easy. Nothing crazy. The thing you do most is try to position your strong shields to take the damage while you have the best weapon arcs pointed at what you want to kill. It's great fun.
Ground combat is very mmo style ground combat. It's nothing special. You don't have to do it that much though and it gives you a break from the insane space action. The space action is great!!!!

 

So, how does space combat work - does everyone have their own ship, or are several people crewing a ship together?

 

Everyone has their own ship. You can beam down as an away party if you are in a group.

 

When I beamed to my ship, I actually am in space as my character (Captain Sydney Anne Bristow) not as my ship (USS Alias). LOL. I have to exit and come back in for it to be fixed. Same thing for going down on the planet, I'm my ship.

 

*CRY* curse my failed downloads last night, seems really good from what i've seen and heard!

 

My offer is still open. I'll mail the open beta code on DVD for $3US to cover material and shipping costs, to continental US only though.

 

Too much lag and when I went down to a planet, a quest asked me to pick up a weapon, but I wasn't able to do that, no matter what I pressed.

 

Yeah, this seems to be a pretty buggy Beta. Seems like they have a lot of kinks to iron out in just a couple of weeks. But like someone else mentioned, considering the release date of Feb 2, the retail DVDs will have to be off code from open beta or shortly thereafter to meet the release date.

 

Not as good as to draw me away from Lord of the Rings Online nor City of Villains.

 

If you are a trek fan, you'll be in heaven in STO. They have some serious trek fan in the dev team, you'll see nods to the varies series, episodic missions with link to past events, Sulu's grandson is one of your 1st mission contacts, the Child of a Voyager couple plays a key role in some of the early missions.

The game was running fairly smoothly in the last closed beta session. While the open beta seems a bit rough, it's mostly got to do with load balancing issue since this is probably the first time the server get loaded to the extreme. There are probably still a small amount of mission bug that needs to be iron out and play balance will continue to be an issue long after launch like most other MMO.

I'm actually surprise how far the game have came along since I join closed beta right before thanksgiving. There were times back then that I did not think it will be ready for launch day but there have been a lot of improvement and now I feel that it should hit launch day as a fun and enjoyable product.

I'm going to slowdown during the open beta since I really want to save some surprises after launch. Some of the episodic mission that I have experienced so far are so good that it had me going WOW WOW WOW as events unfold.

 

Considering the servers have been down for a few hours now, I can't even play. Such is the nature of beta.

 

hmm wish i coulve got a beta key from those sites that had those beta keys but i was to late to get them...

tho im not really a star track fan sense i never watch the shows well i did some of them.

but would've been nice to give the game a try sense by the videos on youtube it looks pretty good and i pretty much like all mmos

 

I like it alot so far. Its a far different mmo than i have ever played. I like how its skill based and i like how its not a WoW clone.

I dont like the vierticle ship movement. There are still alot of bugs to be worked out and this game has alot of potential.

I wish my laptop didnt have a cooling problem or i would be enjoying this game more.

 

Without Z axis movement I would think it was retarded. There is a reason Kirk says Z minus 10,000 to Sulu in Wrath of Khan. It may not be represented yet with efficiency in STO but we will see it become important at some point.

Expect high utilization by Goons if it helps capitalize on ship type weak points in PVP. Shields could potentially have weak points especially as energy is drawn from total capacity. Escort division could hit and run from above or behind or down low on purpose.

 

So I'm thinking STO could be my dive into the MMO world (I've never given them the time of day). The only question in my mind is how much time do you need to devote to this? Basically... this won't end up like WoW will it? Think you'll be able to play this casually and still have fun and make headway?

 

My guess is somewhat casual. I haven't really done anything yet that wasn't casual but we only can play up to level 16 in beta right now.
The following will be in game:

pvp queue, you click a button and you can go straight to pvp against somewhat same level guys. Leveling will be possible in pvp.

Missions you can do solo. - missions do scale as far as I can tell. I've had some hard ones and some easy.

5 person groups. If you can't find 4 people to join you aren't being social enough. It's not hard. I recommend just joining a casual guild.

Hope you enjoy your first mmo experience. Not everyone does but some love it.

 

Well, looks like IT have arrived in STO, they'll kick Goon's behind just like they did in Fountain ;-P

 

bring it. I merely have to a press a button and you will have spies stealing your warp cores. They will all be wearing fedoras and Geordi LaForge visors.

 

You know what HT...in your shoes...I would have probably lost it long ago. Stay strong mate

 

I got my hands on one of the beta keys that are being handed out (just follow instructions from the main website for STO) and am downloading the client right now.
Will test it out tomorrow though, since it's almost midnight here and the client will be downloaded in about 3 and a half hours.

Right now, I'll go exercise for about an hour, and then to bed.

I am indiferent for now in regards to ST:O.
I just hope it's not all action based because I prefer the more intellectual/exploration side of Trek.

 

I am finally at home with this MMO. Years of playing WoW (Still do), EQ2, Lineage 2, pretty much all the MMO's. This is the first that I will either die playing or play until they unplug the servers.

The space combat is just plain amazing. Awesome graphics engine - loads of details, shield animations, etc. It is VERY well done. The graphics engine in this game just shines. Better than any other MMO to date - with the exception of Aion.

I was fighting with stuttering, but finally read a dev post telling all Nvidia owners to use 190.63 - which makes the game run like butter completely maxed out. They promised that the newest drivers will function correctly in the near future. Also the no AA with ATI cards will be enabled around release time. Other than that, animations and load screens being a bit wonky once in a while it's pretty smooth.

I'm obviously a major Trekkie, to the point I can speak fluent Klingon lol. But in an unbiased review I'd say try it. It's FINALLY SOMETHING FRESH! Definitely NOT a clone of any other MMO which is refreshing. While non trekkies will like the game, I've noticed a lot of little subtle things hard core trekkies will recognize, as stated in another post the dev team has some die hard trekkies on it. Like Species 8472, Sulu's family, etc.

Try it!

 

There should be more z axis movement than there is right now, it takes forever to spiral down if a ship is below you (depending on your ship)

 

I agree on the issue of Z axis.

Also, about the graphics engine ... truth be told, it left something to be desired.
Perpetual's graphics were far better in my personal opinion ... but ultimately it still looks decent enough.

I am a Trekkie myself, though I was also hoping for a bit more substance.
We'll see.
I'm too early into the game to make any final conclusions just yet, so the ruling is still out as far as I'm concerned.

 

I have a key. Picked one up just to reserve it for someone who didn't mind paying for it

 

I have played for a few hours and I am not really satisfied.

Too many things are hidden and needed to be searched for and neither the menu or UI are user friendly. Also it is not rly well optimised in TPS view, other (offline) RPGs with much better graphic have much better FPS in-game.

The quests are boring and few of them are only running around and the map is useless at some points. There are still some bugs, for example there are items you can't loot, despite what you are pressing.


There are still a lot of things to be done with this game, if they going to release it at this state, it won't be a big hit as it should be. It is boring, not optimised and not user friendly.


In my final thoughts, I give it, 2 USS Enterprise, out of 5.

 

The file sizes are getting more & more ridiculous as the beta progresses. I'm just making the transition from closed to open now. Had to download the new open beta client @ 6+GB which took about 7 hours thru File Planet. Then after launching the launcher another 10GB patch update had to be installed! It's about 85% complete now, 6 hours since starting. Yeesh!

 

I saw one year and life-time subs are available for those interested.

 

Nope, no bias at all.

 

Hey Mr. Spock I'm sure you already know this, but just in case you didn't (a .01% chance I'm sure lol), you can buy a lifetime subscription for $240, for a limited time. Would hate to see someone who likes it so much to miss out on a great deal like that (if they had something like that for WoW, I'd buy it in a heartbeat)


Anyway, I'm really excited about this game, but have absolutely no star trek knowledge. I've been wanting to start watching it for some time, and figure now would be the best. Am I safe to assume I should start watching the originals first? There are so many different series out there that I don't plan on watching all of them, but would still like to watch a good amount. I'm sure it would make the game much more enjoyable.

I was thinking of watching the original series with Bill, and then maybe moving on to the next generation. hows that sound?

Any trek trek fans opinion would be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately I can't add any opinions about the beta, but I'm really looking forward to space combat.

 

I've found space combat to be clunky, awkward, and clumsy. Before I get ragged on and told that STO is still in beta (which it is), please understand that the game goes live in February which is like 2-3 weeks away. There is not a whole lot that will be changed as far as space combat goes and still meet the "go live" deadline in February.

 

Y'know what the saying is..."hindsight is 20-20". We all know what WoW is like and the behemoth it's become in terms of longevity. So it's easy now to say 'I would buy a WoW lifetime sub if I could'. Cryptic is being a bit presumptuous in offerng lifetime subs before the game hits retail and imposing a deadline to make that $300 commitment by. Yes, $240 + retail purchase still required.

 

Oh yeah, of course. I was just responding to what Spock said. "This is the first that I will either die playing or play until they unplug the servers. "

Still, It is a gamble. Who knows how long it will stick around for =p

That being said I wonder if he's going to pay for it or not.

 

I agree with garetjax: overall controls feel rather clunky in both space and ground movements. Also missions were just too much of a click-through to capture my interest. I had high hopes for a space sim that also allowed ground exploration; however it seems it is able to encompass that at the expense of both. As a space sim, it is miles to go before it even brushes shoulders with EVE, and the same could be said for WoW; however it does succeed well at appeasing a fanbase that has been eagerly waiting for something like this. Overall it's a decent game, not spectacular, but may come into its own with some more polish.

 

I've been too busy playing to post. I'll be getting the lifetime sub.
Go to starbase 24. Fight with people. Try the pvp as well if you are in game. Controls are not sluggish. Ships don't turn on a dime.

 

What I find lacking with the game is the away missions are for the most part running around and action.
Almost no intellectual based stuff, let alone the ability to progress through ranks by taking risks that will reflect on the Federation as a whole for example and that could progress your rank even faster, or slow it down.

I find the emphasys on 'action' in games less than rewarding these days really because I grew up with Trek liking it more for the intellectual aspects.
Action is also good, don't get me wrong, but if Perpetual hadn't gone under, we'd likely get a true Trek experience that would be enough to sate EVERYONE'S needs.

However, it's actually refreshing to see a new Trek game, and regardless of it's shortcomings, it's fun to play.

 

I've had one "diplomatic" mission so far.

I got to talk to 5 people whine about their working conditions, and then I had to fill out a questionnaire detailing exactly what they were complaining about so I could report it to their boss.

I also got stuck in an endless dialog loop with some Klingons where every dialog option looped back to the same screen, even the exit button. And then I force quit the dialog window and another friggen window pops up saying they are hailing me and I have to answer and it goes back to the exact same dialog.

Eventually I just left the hail window open and killed them and that made it go away.

 

Much as I'd like to provide some thoughts, apparently there is a 3 gig server running the operation. I purchased yesterday, so invited to open beta. After 5-6 hours to download (ridiculous), been able to get in exactly once, at 8 am this morning, for about 30 minutes.

I like to think these are beta issues, but since this open beta right before release, there certainly should have been enough server space to allow folks to log in...makes it hard to even consider the lifetime sub...

 

I had made my last post after playing while tired. Here's a more substantial review from a next-day perspective:

A WoW-Champions-Online cross-breed tickled with Trek trivia and fed to long-awaiting hungry fans; the game has met the expectations I set for it.

Initial impressions (beyond the launcher, which was clearly "beta"ish) were at par: the logon interface and controls were decently Trek-based and easy enough to navigate. The greater impress came at character selection, in which I thoroughly enjoyed spending 50+ minutes creating my androgenous yet intellectually-sexy Trill symbiot named "Dymiir". Adjustable traits and facial features left for an endless array of subtleties (and I learned that an elongated but thin nose and high eyes/brows with large cranium are strangely appealing).

Time to login. I was forewarned Cryptic were experiencing overload, but after only one failed logon attempt I was in; not bad. I found myself in the tutorial having fun already, just strolling about the mess hall and acquiring a feel for things (fairly easy if you've played any MMO) while crisis alerts were going off as the Borg attacked

After teaming up with a friendly trekkie (who proceeded to inquire about my previous hosts and asked me if I was "joined" or not) we pushed through the tutorial, until I decided to "take it slow" and explore instead. I wasn't a fan of the mundane "click-through" action required of the missions. Select a target, button mash random number keys, and watch it die - standard WoW fare. I prefer strolling through a station, perhaps getting an energy drink at a nearby replicator or checking in with the local bar

After completing the ground tutorial I found myself in space, captain of a quaint looking Federation starship due to a string of unfortunate events. Space combat is cross-breed between EVE and Freelancer, with point & click being the primary means of engagement, but navigation is still done via mouse movements or keyboard. A delightfully charming nod was that you could divert energy to shields or to the weapons array or the warp drive for customizing ship performance (and yes, I admit I audibly barked "divert all energy to aft shields!" the first time I did this). Combat overall was pretty cool, with the ability to fire beam weapons or torpedoes, or both depending on how cleverly you maneuvered your ship and aligned firing arcs; however after initial excitement wore off, it was obvious that the controls were clunky and did not feel as natural as Freelancer or as robust as EVE. Hopefully over time and beyond the beta, this will improve.

Landing once more on a station above Earth, is where I found the most fun... playing? no. Just mucking about the halls talking with/following random strangers or sitting in on a conference being given by a Starfleet Admiral. Yes, you can literally sit, along with a slew of other character emotes including dance, cry, blow a kiss, "engage!" and a whole lot more! This type of experience is what trekkies are looking for I'm sure and it's because of this I was again saddened that Pandemic was cut and Cryptic brought on to finish the job. They no doubt trampled over the original "trek sim" designs and instead WoW'd it up like any other MMO clone.

To bring this to a close, overall it met expectations but did not exceed them; expectations which were (to say the least) fairly low to begin with. As far as MMO's go it's just a Trek-flavored WoW clone that attempts space sim and ground exploration, but doesn't particularly excel at either. However, there's no question that this is likely to be the only outlet for Star Trek fans for some time to come. For this reason, they'll likely be anxious to overlook quality in order to get a taste of what they've been waiting for for many a parsec.

 

Is anyone playing this with ati hd3650? If so what sort of performance are you getting?

 

We are having so much fun:


New Notes from the Game Developers:
Where’s Sulu?

The first week of Open Beta has been amazing!

We have seen more signups and players than we ever imagined we could. So very many people have shown interest in Star Trek Online and logged in to play that we've actually had to scramble to support everyone. Our core engineers are this very second working like crazed technology wielding madmen to improve performance and stability across the board. We're also adding a lot more hardware to accommodate our players.

p.s. Sulu is right behind you in Quinn’s office. Right there, behind the other desk.
Stability and Performance

Where the heck did you all come from!?!

Reality has exceeded even our wildest expectations. We looked at numbers from Closed Beta, numbers from games we've worked on in the past, and some numbers that float around the games industry. Based on those numbers, we predicted that about 65% of the keys we generated would eventually turn into active players (some keys never get delivered, others are lost in spam boxes, some are never redeemed, etc.). And, we predicted about 1/6 of those redeemed keys would turn into players that game at the same time. It's what we call our concurrent users or CCU, for short.

The actual numbers crushed our predictions.

So, we tore apart our logs and began doing a lot of extra optimization work even while we stumbled upon some truly bizarre crashes that can only appear with this sort of load. The result? The shard has been steadily improving over the first few days of Open Beta. Given the hardware we're adding and a couple more fixes we have in the pipe, shard performance and stability should continue to improve over the coming week.
Space Combat Alpha Strikes

There appears to be an issue with enemies performing devastating Alpha strikes in space -- all ships will target the first player, take him out, and move through the rest of the squadron. This makes space combat, when you’re teamed up, very difficult.

We’re addressing this in the next major patch. For now, flying in a tighter formation with your team will help.
Klingon, Klingon, Klingon

Better stores are coming to Qo’noS. You’ll be able to purchase disruptors, consoles, and all the things a proper warlord needs to improve his starship and clobber his pathetic, cowering enemies.

Your ship's starter gear is getting an upgrade as well. You won’t be able to sell this to the store for as much as you used to, but it packs a meaner punch out of the gate.

PvP maps and queues are getting a lot of attention. We’re working on all the queue and map issues we've seen reported and we're jamming as many fixes as possible into the game.
Bridge Officers

Starting at Lt. Grade 6, new and sometimes strange recruits from Starfleet and the KDF will periodically ask to be transferred to your starship. Every few Grades, you’ll automatically receive more Bridge Officers.

By popular demand, Bridge Officers can now be immediately renamed and tailor when they join your crew. and species are still off the customization block, but pretty much everything else can be meddled with.
UI

The build you are playing does not feature an enormous amount of work the UI team has done.

For instance, the mini-map, team window, away team controls, and many of the HUD elements have all received an overall look and feel pass. The sector maps are way more useful and the galaxy map now tells you where you are, too. A gigantic number of small fixes have also gone in to tighten up the overall HUD experience.

Klingon UI is also looking great. Icons, buttons, FX and everything else has been re-styled in true Klingon fashion. The next major patch will have you piloting a Bird of Prey using a HUD General Martok would be proud of.

Finally, and most importantly, the crew bar on the space HUD now looks like little people... But it's so sad when they get depleted!
Exploration Improvements

We’ve fixed many bugs in star cluster missions. We’re finding and crushing them. You target 'em and we fire the torpedoes. So keep those bugs coming, please.

More alien races and stranger alien races will appear with greater frequency in those clusters now. Some are friendly and in need of assistance... Others, not so much.
Scanning

Due to popular demand, we’ve added in-game scanning FX.

On ship and on ground, pressing the scan button located near the mini-map will point you to the nearest object that you can interact with.

Looking for that last alien artifact on a bizarre and unfriendly alien world, but you just can’t seem to find it? Hit the scan button! Looking for a particularly hard to find spacial anomaly in a far-off star system? Hit the scan button! Looking for Sulu? ... Look out! He’s right behind you!
Level Cap

Have no fear! The current level cap will be removed sometime this week.

We’re really looking forward to opening up the entire game for our testers. You’ll get to visit DS9, Memory Alpha and advance your characters past Lt. Commander.

Again, thank you so much for showing an interest in our game and helping us to improve the experience for all. We really appreciate the feedback and we look forward to hearing more and more and more as we continue to develop and improve Star Trek Online far past its February launch.

 

If i were to continue to lvl my character it would almost be a waste of time because all that work will just reset to lvl one after a week or so..

IDK tho they may not reset it.

 

This is not neccessarily true. I am reasonably sure that STO is using the "headstart" feature which allows people to create characters and play them one week in advance prior to the release of STO to the public. When STO does go live, your character still retains the same level, loot, etc. as when you were playing it during the headstart.

Headstarts, I have found, are most useful when reserving your in-game name so it's available to you right off the bat before anyone else nabs it.

 

i was refering to beta, it is stated they will take out the lvl restrictions and open up all the content etc. If i keep lvling my character it will just reset for the head start.

 

Yup, complete toon wipe at the end of open 'beta'. Then a 4 day head start for pre orders.

 

Yea, while I would love to help test out the high end contents, I really want to save some surprise for my head start character.

 

I have been a Star Trek fan since 1969, though I did watch my first Trek episode in 1966, it scared me so much (The Man Trap), that I didn't really get into the show until the reruns started and I was a teenager (13). Since then I have watched every show and movie and own plenty of them on DvD. I have also read well over 250 Star Trek books, fiction and nonfiction alike.

I have also owned every Star Trek PC game ever made. The longest period that I ever played one was for 2-3 months (Star Trek Armada), and I am what you would call a fairly hardcore gamer as I have been playing WoW since late 2005 and have one toon with almost 122K kills in PvP. I have been let down by every Star Trek game that I have ever purchased, that is they have never been close to living up to expectations.

So I tell you this so that you will understand when I say that I am very hesistant to purchase STO. Considering that I am still enjoying WoW very much, I am not sure that I want to devote much time to STO, and I love the Star Trek Universe.

What would any of you diehard fans say to convince me otherwise? I do want to be convinced , so have at me!

Oh and how much is the monthly fee?

Thanks!

 

Monthly is around $15 I think. As a non-Star-trek fan I give you warning that if you are a diehard fan or role-player STO stands poised to destroy your fond memories. As from my earlier post it's a sub-to-standard MMO which merely borrows the franchise name simply to rake in the fans. It doesn't much resemble or capture the splendor of the Trek universe.

But as with anything I recommend you at least give it a try through the Open Beta. The only harm in doing so depends on how easily you are offended/discouraged by things passing themselves off as being "Trek" then falling short of it.

 

WoW = Elves
STO = Spaceships

Likely the standard $14.99/mo (US)