Star Trek Online

[econ21]

I'm starting to get intrigued by Star Trek Online. While the idea of everyone being a Captain and riding around in their own space ships seemed odd initially, I can see the practical reasons for it and it will allow more solo play, which is all I could commit to. The intriguing thing to me is having a crew that you pick, equip and level up - that appears to the RPGer in me. The ship combat also sounds promising, but the planet side combat looks weak. I may dabble with it, depending on when it arrives relative to the Star Wars MMO (which sounds much more my cup of tea).

I used to be scared of monthly fees, but now have conquered that fear. My scarce time is the constraint on my gaming and anyway I would not spend even a month on a game that turned out to be poor.

BTW: I'm enjoying LOTRO, so tastes differ.

[Beskar]

Star Trek MMORPG has been going boom and bust more times than the economy.

[Krauser]

I've been following this for a while but I don't know yet. I don't know if they can compete with The Old Republic. I'm more interested in sci-fi MMOs lately, because there are not that many of them. There's a lot of potential for original gameplay. Kind of an untested setting. You have WoW the king of PvE in the fantasy setting. Maybe Aion the king of PvP in fantasy setting. Maybe Eve could be the king of PvP sci-fi. I haven't seen a great PvE MMO in the sci-fi setting yet. (I generally like PvE more, with a touch of PvP.)

[Martok]

Enlisted in beta application because I figured you wouldn't and that if I got in I could give you info not covered by NDA.

Quite true on the former; I doubt I have the necessary patience to be a beta-tester in *any* game, let alone an MMO. As for the latter, whatever you can tell us about the game without breaking the NDA would certainly be appreciated.

You did well to not play LOTRO. I close beta tested that and it was baad. I do play Turbine's other game though, DDO.

Really? I find that a little surprising, given that the game received largely positive reviews (average score of 86 on Metacritic). I'm curious as to what you didn't like about it.

I'm starting to get intrigued by Star Trek Online. While the idea of everyone being a Captain and riding around in their own space ships seemed odd initially, I can see the practical reasons for it and it will allow more solo play, which is all I could commit to.

Yeah, I had a similar reaction at first as well (that it seemed a strange choice to allow everyone to command their own vessel). On reflection, however, I realized it's actually the best overall solution: With everyone having their own ship, there should (hopefully!) be less infighting among Fleet (guild) members, not to mention the inherent freedom to explore and go where you want should you feel like doing some solo play. Also, more ships mean bigger and more epic battles.

The intriguing thing to me is having a crew that you pick, equip and level up - that appears to the RPGer in me. The ship combat also sounds promising, but the planet side combat looks weak. I may dabble with it, depending on when it arrives relative to the Star Wars MMO (which sounds much more my cup of tea).

I second this in its entirety. I'm quite curious to see how crew development/advancement works, but am likewise not impressed with what I've seen on ground combat. If I do end up getting STO, I strongly suspect I'll be avoiding those types of missions as much as possible.

BTW: I'm enjoying LOTRO, so tastes differ.

That's good to hear. So if I may ask the inverse of what I asked pevergreen: What is it about the game that you like?

I've been following this for a while but I don't know yet. I don't know if they can compete with The Old Republic. I'm more interested in sci-fi MMOs lately, because there are not that many of them. There's a lot of potential for original gameplay. Kind of an untested setting. You have WoW the king of PvE in the fantasy setting. Maybe Aion the king of PvP in fantasy setting. Maybe Eve could be the king of PvP sci-fi. I haven't seen a great PvE MMO in the sci-fi setting yet. (I generally like PvE more, with a touch of PvP.)

Some interesting points there, Krauser; there may very well be something in what you're saying. While I've not played any MMO's, I have a strong hunch that I too would mostly prefer PvE over PvP, only occasionally dabbling with the latter (if at all). I've always liked the idea of working *with* other players instead of against them.

[Beskar]

This would probably work better as a Multiplayer RPG game, opposed to a MMORPG.

[Mailman653]

I've been following the game for a while as well. I might get it at launch but I want to play as a Romulan and they will most likely be included in a future expansion; and since you probably won't be able to port your character or stats to a new one, I might not play too much to avoid getting attached to my first character.

[pevergreen]

I reccomend giving DDO (Dungeons & Dragons: Online) a go. Free to play now, its a lot of fun.

Its the only real MMO I have played outside of beta testing. When LOTRO was in beta it was just...bad.

Choppy graphics, bad storylines, animations et al.

I know it was beta testing, but even so. I couldn't stand to play it for very long.

[Scienter]

This would probably work better as a Multiplayer RPG game, opposed to a MMORPG.

This is such a good idea! I'd love to play a Star Trek game, but I'm not into MMOs. Monthly fees make me feel like I *have* to play, even if I don't really feel like it.

[Major Robert Dump]

I preordered. Shame on me.

If anyone else is gonna get the game, we should all try to get on the same server so we at least know people, even if we arent gonna be allies or guildies. Because once I get on a server and start playing, I'm not changing. I hate starting new characters. The last MMO I played i did 4 server transfers with the same character because paying $75 each time was far more prudent than creating another character.

[Meneldil]

Really? I find that a little surprising, given that the game received largely positive reviews (average score of 86 on Metacritic). I'm curious as to what you didn't like about it.

There's a couple of thing that made the game less interesting than it could have been.

1 - The PvP. As there's only one faction (which is lame), if you want to PvP, you have to roll an evil character that can only be used for PvP-purpose, or fight against someone who rolled such a character. Now, that might seem weird, but when I level-up a RPG character, I grow attached to him/it, and expect to be able to play with it all the time.

2 - The game is honestly too casual friendly. I understand that some people think it's a plus, but there's no feeling of achievement when every single boss can be killed after a few attempts.

3 - Housing has been poorly implemented. Housing areas are instanced areas, which mean you're never ever going to meet someone in your neighbourhood. You see that more houses are being built, that statues and trophies are added to gardens, but you never meet the owners of those. Now, as much as I like collecting stuff and having my own virtual house, the fact that nobody cares about it kind of defeat the purpose. (that was my biggest let down, as the housing and collecting stuff was what make me try the game).

4 - Luck is way too important, even more so for a casual-friendly game. This is especially true with the Moria extansion, as many bosses requires you to collect a specific gear set. Some people get the complete set in a few days, while some others have been farming it for months.

5 - As a result of all this (and other things, such as the game being generally a subpar clone of WoW), servers are empty. While leveling my last character, I met maybe 30 people at max, even when I was doing stuff in capitals and big cities. And since the leveling can be handled in solo by any available class, there's no point in grouping, which somewhat kills the social aspect of the game.

[econ21]

(...regarding Lord of the Rings online...)What is it about the game that you like?

The core gameplay in LOTRO is very like WoW in many ways - the classes, the levelling, the crafting, the instances, the collecting gear etc. For some people, like Pevergreen, that's probably a bad thing but personally, I thought WoW was a pretty solid game. LOTRO has fewer instances than Wow and, as Menedil says, little PvP, but that suits me at the moment. I was looking for an RPG where I can quietly level up, rather like playing Morrowind or Fallout 3 but with more content and progression to avoid me burning out as do with most SP games.

I like the attempt made at staying true to the Tolkien lore. You are a supporting character at the time the fellowship is travelling from Bree to Lothlorien. You never hear of the ring, but you get to meet the fellowship, know they are on a very important secret quest and generally fight the war of the ring on other fronts. The best bits are often the instances that give you a peek into the Tolkien world (there's a nice one where you chase an unidentified Gollum, for example). The worst bits are the generic "kill 12 boars" quests. More generally, the world is rather attractive and true to Tolkien - it's fun to wander round the Misty Mountains, the Shire, Weathertop or Bree, for example. It's a pretty good recreation - more understated that the movies, but recognisable and nicely done. Levelling up by exploring the world is fun. I play on the English speaking EU roleplaying server and, if you log off the OOC channel, players play in a friendly, cooperative way and generally stay in character - much better than WoW, where even the RP servers are tainted by uncouth loudmouths. The server population seems reasonable - not enough to get in your way (stealing "your" quest items etc), but not deserted. It can be hard getting a group but I have not tried that too often and where I have put my mind to it, it's usually been possible. The game allows you to level without grouping, although the best story (epic) quests require periodic grouping.

Other things I like:

- the graphics: probably a notch above WoW.

- the combat: playing a tank class (guardian), I find it engaging - in essence, like WoW but relying on reactive moves rather than mindless repeating a rotation. The difficulty seems fairly well balanced to me - I seem to die more than in WoW (no paladin style heals or bubbles) and can typically only comfortably handle a couple of foes my level, maybe three at a pinch but typically four will do for me. It's easy to run into a fight you can't win and have to flee; likewise the wandering elites are sometimes winnable but sometimes too much.

- crafting: as a metalsmith, it's probably less of a time sink than blacksmithing in WoW but gives you better rewards; crafted gear is closer to reward and raid gear.

An 86% sounds like a reasonable rating for the game. The quests and writing are nowhere as good as say Bioware ones, so I wouldn't go overboard about it.

[pevergreen]

As I read through that, I see that I am still happy with staying on DDO.

1) Its free. Forever. If you want something extra, pay for it. You can aquire all features of paying subscribers in about 8 months, if you pay the same as the subscription per month.

2) Ok, so you have to pay to unlock anything after 12th level. But it takes a long time to get there, and without purchasing anything there is 79 quests to do, plus adventuring areas (3)

3) each quest, even the starting ones, is part of a good storyline. The tutorial has you come onto the island of Korthos, you wake up on a beach after your boat was destroyed by a dragon. You follow a small group of adventurers through the caverns onto the island village, defeating a sahaugin group along the way. You then have to do three starting quests; destroying a sahaugin cursed alter, protecting a magical crystal from the cultists and stealing a scroll with infomation on the dragon. Then you follow the collaborator who has betrayed everyone to the village and deal with him. Then you venture out into the island. 12 sites to visit (explorer) 3 rare monsters to find and kill (rares) and a task to kill x amount (caps out at 750. run around once you can kill 90 odd). You don't have to do these, but they are fun.

You then rescue the mayor's daughter from a sahaugin prison, kill an evil necromancer and find a giantish device, and protect a missing villager, before heading to misery's peak. When there you discover a Quisori mindsunder controlling the dragon, and you must break the crystal that gives him extra power. With that, the dragon eats the mindsunder and peace is restored to the island.

All of that, is the introduction area. 250MB download.

DDO does, however, lack housing and crafting. Crafting is sort of there, but is high level only, you do it while inside a quest chain.

[econ21]

1) Its free. Forever.

I heard something about the free to play DDO being for the US only, not for Euros. But you're in Australia, aren't you Pevergreen? I wonder if a Euro can access the free to play version?

On LOTRO, I am just entering Moria (the expansion). And it is suitably impressive - biggest dungeon ever!