Star Trek Online going F2P on Tuesday. Anyone else a little excited? [Archive]

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Graphic

01-13-2012, 23:38

I haven't heard all good things about this game, but surely it's improved in the last few years.

I've never really played MMORPGs before so I don't have WoW or something else to negatively compare it to. As long as the space battles are cool and its got a nice Star Trek atmosphere, I should enjoy it.

Most interestingly though the F2P economy sounds like its going to be pretty fair. Apparently everything in the game can be gotten through grinding, paying just eases the burden.

SkySonata

01-14-2012, 00:04

Seems fair enough on the economy. Should be fairer if they have a timed exclusive on new loot: being able to buy it after everyone has had a chance to grind for it.

econ21

01-14-2012, 18:28

If Star Wars had not come out, I would be tempted. Reading about it, the space combat sounded like it was good but the ground missions were weak. I could live with that.

However, my experience with LOTRO has made me a little sceptical about F2P. Yes, it's good because it means you can keep dipping in casually to your character without having to keep paying a hefty subscription. However, levelling is often effectively gated by things that require real money (or insanely mind-numbing grinding).

And ultimately, I think these games need serious amounts of money to run and develop new content, so going F2P is often a signal that the company does not have the resources to continue developing the game in the way to which players have become accustomed.

Greyblades

01-14-2012, 19:36

Oh heck yes, I had to quit ages ago because I could not justify paying a monthly fee for playing for only like 5 hours each month. Awesome!

Martok

01-15-2012, 15:04

I think I might give STO a go when it becomes F2P. I wasn't terribly impressed with it in the beginning during the open beta, but I've heard it's improved quite a bit since its release (at least/especially for Federation players). I'm still keeping my expectations low, though, to avoid potential disappointment.

Reading about it, the space combat sounded like it was good but the ground missions were weak.
That was definitely my experience. The space "action" is where it/was at. I doubt the ground missions have improved much, but we'll see.

However, my experience with LOTRO has made me a little sceptical about F2P.

[snip]

...levelling is often effectively gated by things that require real money (or insanely mind-numbing grinding).
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you there. I know I probably shouldn't complain -- since it was free, after all -- but stuff in LOTRO still felt like they were "capped" at too low a level (if you were going to genuinely enjoy yourself, that is).

And ultimately, I think these games need serious amounts of money to run and develop new content, so going F2P is often a signal that the company does not have the resources to continue developing the game in the way to which players have become accustomed.
Oh, I'm not so sure about that.

From what I've read, a number of MMO's -- including both Dungeons & Dragons Online and the aforementioned Lord of the Rings Online -- are actually doing *better* financially after going to a F2P system. I'll admit that does seem a bit counter-intuitive, but it looks like it might just be the future of the genre.

Indeed, I've heard it suggested that The Old Republic might be the last big MMO to have a standard subscription system, and that all future entries into the genre might actually release as free-to-play right from the beginning. I'm not sure if things will go quite *that* far, but neither would I be entirely surprised.

Graphic

01-16-2012, 09:35

Less than 48 hours now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58wJRrvVgZI

Graphic

01-18-2012, 07:52

I like it a lot so far. Space combat is great. Ground combat isn't amazing but I like the shooter/RPG hybrid feel of it.

Does anyone know how long approximately it will take me to get to level 25? I want a Bird of Prey NOW.

Mailman653

01-18-2012, 23:26

Graphic

01-19-2012, 04:45

Depends how many hours you want to put into the game.

Glad to see some Org members interested in STO, I've been playing for over a year and decided to go lifetime when it was on sale a few months ago. I'm in an RP fleet so if any of you guys are interested in RP or want to see what it's about, just let me know.

I might take you up on that eventually when I feel comfortable with all the aspects of the game. Three levels from getting a Constitution class ship.

My current ship is the U.S.S. Stalingrad. It's hard trying to think of something equally bada** for my next ship.

Mailman653

01-19-2012, 23:44

Sure thing, we primiarly operate on EST time but we have members from all over. The fleet calender will update to your time zone accordingly.

Graphic

01-20-2012, 07:22

Can you confirm something for me since I'm not allowed to post on the STO forum?

I heard that once you get to Captain rank, Silver accounts don't get a free ship anymore, instead you just get discount token. Is that true? If so, how much does the discount token knock off? The people who said it used a lot of "I thinks" so they didn't sound totally sure.

I'd like to know well in advance if I'm going to have to grind possibly 80,000 dilithium to get my Galaxy class ship when I make Captain.

Nevermind...got impatient and bought some c points, now I can post.

Sarmatian

01-20-2012, 09:23

I might take you up on that eventually when I feel comfortable with all the aspects of the game. Three levels from getting a Constitution class ship.

My current ship is the U.S.S. Stalingrad. It's hard trying to think of something equally bada** for my next ship.

USS Overlord :D

Graphic

01-20-2012, 14:47

I named it Leningrad, then I changed it to Soyuz.

econ21

01-21-2012, 12:43

Mailman653

01-21-2012, 19:15

Voigtkampf

01-31-2012, 10:20

Anyone found any good sites for this game? I logged in, found all my pre-launch skills reset and then logged out after finding the choice a little overwhelming.

If anyone has found a guide to a levelling build for an engineer in a cruiser ship, that would be great. The official forums look good, but a lot to sift through.

Same thing happened to me as well. Life-time sub and haven't been playing for a long time. Too much work, too little time, too many other games, you name it. But I am getting back in there, step by step. They have improved the game a LOT in recent year or so, while Dan Stahl was in charge. That man should have his statue ingame erected.

Mailman653

01-31-2012, 20:56

Dstahl was very active in the community and giving out a kind of transparency about things, something which has all but stopped with the current guy who's only "temporary."

Major Robert Dump

02-02-2012, 18:57

I was having a lot of fun with it but then I deployed and havent played in almost 18 months I think. I had a killed ground PVP build for Klingon that enabled me to go 1v3 and kill all 3 easily. Ship combat not so good. They never had any ground missions for crew members besides PVP and some large battleground that I could solo due to build. I am sure I got teh nerf....

I also had an epic troll post on the forums, like 10 pages in a day as I recall

Voigtkampf

02-03-2012, 17:50

If you are looking for a reason to check out Star Trek Online again, here is one: 2nd Anniversary and Cryptic giving away a special ship for all characters above level 5. I wrote a short article on how to get it, you can check it out here.

Star Trek Online 2nd Anniversary – Get your Odyssey/Bortas now! (http://www.voigtkampf.com/2012/02/03/star-trek-online-2nd-anniversary-get-your-odysseybortas-now/)

Voigtkampf

02-14-2012, 18:35

Daniel Stahl is back in captain's chair. (http://startrekonline.com/node/2874) Nuff said.

Mailman653

02-15-2012, 19:42

I'm glad to see Dstahl back, I hope he gets back into the swing of things quickly and give the Cryptic team some leadership/focus.

Graphic

02-21-2012, 10:15

I joined a fleet made up of Rock Paper Shotgun posters. There's a decent amount of actives but they're all Feds. Please, if anyone here mains Klingon and is interested in teaming up for STFs, mirror events, story missions, whatever, feel free to add @Grafico ...even if you're low leveled, don't hesitate to add me. We can always chat in the mean time and team up later.

And "I can't believe this is free-to-play" are my sentiments exactly. Ground combat is...not good, but the amazing space combat makes up for it. It's a little geeky, but raiding Federation outposts in a fully functional Klingon Bird of Prey (with wings that move when you begin an attack and cloaking device included) is one of the coolest things I've done in my gaming history.

Mailman653

02-22-2012, 19:28

I'll send you an add request Grafico, I do some STF's on my KDF for the XII gear (pain in the butt).

Graphic

02-25-2012, 08:47

I think I found my calling in PvP. We absolutely wrecked the Feds. I didn't realize how sick my Bird-of-Prey set-up was until now (its hard to tell vs. AI because they suck)

This is what happens when you have all mk XI purple/Klingon Honor Guard weapons/gear, and stuff like High Yield 3 (4 torpedos at once) and Rapid Fire 3

I'm Kurando

https://i.imgur.com/VML79.jpg

I didn't even die.

Graphic

03-03-2012, 07:38

Are all MMOs like this? I've barely played in the last week because I feel like I'm done with it. Doing endless raids so I can have better gear to do more raids does not appeal to me. Maybe I just don't have the MMO gene.

I could see sticking with it long term and having motivation to grind for gear if PvP was overhauled. Right now its "PvE vs. other humans," so it's incredibly unbalanced, not to mention taking forever to get a match. Only one map for each mode doesn't help either.

I'm not even really interested in pursuing my Intrepid-R fantasies with my science captain, because it would entail dozens of hours doing story missions I hate, only to get back to doing endless STFs for the sake of being better prepared for more STFs.

At this point I'd much-much-much rather have a Bioware-style (design and production values) singleplayer RPG with this awesome space combat that lasted 30 hours instead of this theoretically endless MMO. It boggles my mind how there are people who have been playing this for two years straight.

Voigtkampf

03-03-2012, 09:01

I have had a lifetime sub since the very beginning of the game, but still I stopped playing after some two months. Even though the game has very much improved since then, it still feels as if its lacking huge chunks of it. Maybe this isn't the best choice of an MMO for you.

As for the question if all MMO's are like this, well, more or less, yeah. They are. Some differ in the fact that they are not themeparks but rather sandboxes, but in the end, this is how it is. The true strength in MMO's, however, lies in the fact that you can have immense fun from playing with your friends. Friends + solid gameplay = epic fun. Sadly, PvP in STO is severely lacking still.

I have no MMO's where my friends still play, so I am basically playing MMO's as if I am playing multiplayer part of any game; to compete with real players. That is the idea behind all my SC2 matches and all my WoW and EVE sessions.

Graphic

03-03-2012, 10:02

I guess thats what it boils down to then...not lack of end game content, but lack of core game content. Setting aside my lack of enthusiasm for the story content, there's just not a whole lot of it, and updates have apparently been few and very, very far between. Actually its not the stories that are that underwhelming, its being forced into the wretched ground combat (if you look at my posts in this thread, you can see my opinion of ground combat to lower in real-time :laugh4:). They need to just throw the whole ground system into the trash and start over.

Also from what I hear PvP is unlikely to ever be overhauled because its been this way for two years now, which is a terrible shame. If PvP was molded into something that's balanced and competitive with enough map and mode variety to keep it fresh, I could make this my main game for maybe years, because I LOVE the space combat to death.

STO: biggest waste of opportunity I've ever played. :(

econ21

03-05-2012, 13:35

The true strength in MMO's, however, lies in the fact that you can have immense fun from playing with your friends. Friends + solid gameplay = epic fun. Sadly, PvP in STO is severely lacking still.

That's very true. And the friends can be those you meet during the game - they don't have to be RL ones.

I've stopped playing SWTOR at level 50 because I can't face another gear grind. I'm still playing WoW, because I am pretty much geared up, so the grind is not so daunting, and because I'm part of a fun guild I enjoy raiding with.

Doing endless raids so I can have better gear to do more raids does not appeal to me.

It sounds like your tastes may lie more in the PvP content. With the PvE content, the gear grind is very important but ultimately, raiding is supposed to be about beating bosses - learning new fights and progressing through more difficult encounters. There comes a point when there are no new bosses to kill, but some MMOs - such as WoW - do a pretty good job of protracting that moment, as least for the non-uber player like myself[1]. I am on the fence about how much fun the gameplay of raiding is: I find it a little abstract and "gamey"; someone likened it to learning a dance, which has an element of truth. But as Voigtkampf said, it's the cooperative multiplayer element that makes it attractive - playing together, having a laugh with friends.

[1]With expansions, you typically get a lot of new content to play through. That's where I am a little sceptical of F2P games - whether they can finance the extra content needed to keep it fresh.