Star Trek Online

[Tyyr]

Basically just the high points.

Questing
Gear
Grouping
PvP

[Reliant121]

I will try my best to inform (:

[Tyyr]

Oh, and also how true does it stay to the ST universe.

Honestly, if it gives a big middle finger to the basics of the universe I'll get turned off real fast.

[Lt. Staplic]

If I get it I'm going to wait until after I get my laptop...my computer just isn't up to online gaming.

[Reliant121]

I've preordered, So I shall be getting access to the Open Beta about the 8th/9th January. Reviews and comments shall follow from there :3

[Deepcrush]

We shall await your report. Good luck young redshirt, may you die without screaming.

[Mark]

If it sucks, I'm going to be rather disappointed. I'm actually considering getting a new system just to play.

[Aaron]

Wait for them to come out with a free trial. Seriously, how many MMO's have turned out to be viable in the long run? WOW, GW and EVE are the three that come to mind, lots of others have failed.

[Mark]

Good point.

[Reliant121]

Cryptic's done a MMORPG, can't remember the name, that's been fairly successful. Thats the only reason its going to be out so quick, all the engine and infrastructure is already existing they are merely taking their earlier game and rewriting the characters and graphics,

[Reliant121]

Well the beta is downloading. but i have to download all 8 GB from the internet. And its set to take up to a day ¬___¬

[Reliant121]

STAR TREK ONLINE - Beta preview review

High hopes are riding on this game, in the hopes it can breathe a little life into the ailing star trek game franchise. With the last games Star Trek Conquest, and Star Trek Legacy both being dismal failures; Star Trek online must prove itself to be a game worthy of the star trek franchise. Not only that, but it must strike an utterly perfect balance between pleasing the trekkies of old, and providing enough MMORPG juicy noob-pwning fun for the likes of WoW players. Theres got to be a significant amount of loot to pilfer, a huge map that will take ages to explore, a huge skill tree to make sure theres an utterly insane time frame before you even contemplate finishing the game. The question is, has Cryptic done it?



Customization - Since this is a cryptic game, there is of course going to be a very high level of customization. Both your captain's character, and your starship are customizable to varying levels. Characters get the widest spread of all. A intuitive and easy to use interface just begs you to go fiddling with a few sliders and make your avatar's face unimaginably ugly. A preset group of races exist for both the Federation and Klingon factions, however you are entirely free to strike out and create your own using the hundreds of textures and ridges that you might find from various stages of the star trek franchise. I like how they made extra effort to include physical textures from the actual show. The three i can remember vividly are the various Kobali textures, the to Kretassian textures and the hundreds of Coral textures. It allows you to make a truly unique character.

Starship customization is where it could trample a little on the trekkies of old. You start off with your first ship, which is imaginatively dubbed the "Federation Light Cruiser". Well technically its either a Miranda, a Sha'Kir or a Centaur. Depending on what bridge officer you choose first, you get one of three different ship "templates": A Miranda for Engineering officers, a Centaur for science offers and te all new Sha'Kir for Tactical officers. Once you've played through the beginning missions you can have a fiddle around with your starship. This allows you to change paint jobs on the outside (subtle, not garish. often quite distinguished actually); Window sets etc. And then we get to the big changes. The four categories. You can change, on a federation ship anyway, 4 of the main hull characteristics: Saucer, Nacelles, Nacelle Pylon, and an extra one which in the case of the Light Cruiser, is the torpedo rollbar. In my starship, I have a Centaur saucer section, with Miranda nacelle pylons, coupled to Centaur nacelles and finally a Sha'Kir torpedo rollbar. This does produce a tendency for other players to create some truly awful frankenstein fleet creations, however some ships turn out quite alright. I'll take a screen of mine, NCC-93136 USS Commanche, when i get the chance.

The klingon's work a little different. They can only change paint works, as the cryptic team hasn't produced the same number of different hull options.

The new ships that I have seen, mainly the Sha'Kir class, is actually quite good. It looks incredibly similar to a Miranda class in general layout, but features a much chunkier, more combat orientated external appearance. If anyone has played Starfleet Command 1 or 2, then imagine a miranda class crossed with the orion ships. I'll do a screen soon.

Ground combat - This is pretty similar to most MMORPG combat, a standard attack and a few specials that do loads of damage. You have a personal shield generator and your own health. on your own, you're gonna crumble under the firepower of the enemy pretty quickly, but you can take bridge officers along which offer som unique bonuses to the combat field. Ground combat is pretty bulk standard, but the way they have integrated star trek themes is pretty darn good.

Community - Already there is a great community atmosphere. i've been present at numerous "RP parties" with my Federation character and made a few friends, chatted around with people. Everyone is very willing to talk to one another and help each other out, even if they are from opposing factions.

This brings me neatly on to Team play. Let's just assume that I have a mission in the Vulcan system. I travel through the sector map and warp into the system. if there is someone already there, doing the same mission, I am automatically added to their team. You can leave their team if you like, and go it alone, but you are automatically placed in the team for the duration of the mission. This means when you travel to different zones, maybe beam down to vulcan itself, your team mate will come with you. This is a great way to make some friends, and there are definitely some missions that my lowly little Light Cruiser couldnt handle. Nothing like blowing gorn to bits with the Commanche and the Hyperion...._{I'll find you some day, Darksider}

You can of course join a team before hand, meaning whenever you go into a mission zone as a group, you will stick together.

PVP is an interesting one. there are PVP queues for both teams, but you can if you like openly engage the enemy in certain sectors in space. One of the prime candidates is the Eta Eridani area, where Deep Space K7 is situated. A klingon player decided to attack me randomly and we had a lovely PvP battle where, since he was flying a tier 2 ship (A Raptor in his case), he blew me to bits.

Klingons have very few computer given quests. Klingon players advance much quicker from pure combat, especially envolving other players, than by completing missions. This means Klingon's often level up a lot quicker, but the Klingon race doesnt offer the same versitility of the Federation races.

[stitch626]

Interesting. Might be worth it. Maybe.

[Mark]

I going to reserve judgement.....I'll have to buy a whole new computer system if I wanna be a part of this, and I wanna be DAMNED sure.

[Reliant121]

I give you the USS Commanche. I'll follow up with some better images soon.