I'm not 100% on board with what is coming with the Voth release. I'm all for the Voth, but I'm not sure the direction they have taken with the Voth is thematic with Star Trek. From their creation of the costuming, the dino's, and other things.
I also like the idea of the Dyson's sphere, but I'm worried they can't keep it thematic with Star Trek. I wish they would have used the one the Enterprise-D found, that one, IMO, would have felt more immerse. It was an already known sphere from the show, and having it in this game would have given us the chance to explore it in a way we didn't get to see on the show, it'd show us what was down on that surface.
Season 8 is making me think that Cryptic, or PWE, wants to downgrade Star Trek Online into a "General SCIFI" type of MMO, loosely based on Star Trek. I'm getting that worrying feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I look at Season 8 so far and think "Mass Effect" or "Halo", not Star Trek. And that's not a good thing. Imagine how people on the outside, who have never played the game before, are looking at it.
Plus, there are so many unfinished things in STO, and parts of the game that need a big overhaul first, before introducing a completely new thing like this into the game that was only seen in one episode of Voyager, and a sphere that is completely made up and never seen in the show.
I would like the Star Trek to come back to Star Trek Online please.
Thanks,
A Loyal Lifetime Fan since Open Beta
yea what abouth to boldly go were no one as gone before that to me meen that they can ad what ever they whant to a new season becose it's the unknown that only imagination can create dinausore or running spyder dont care as long as it wil keep people entertain and playng this game , my only fear is grinding wich that there would be less of it after al in any episode we dont see kirk spock and al comedien scanning every 10 second do we?
and sory for my english no am not english but am not blocked to my own language ether, like some here! ...
And most of the guys i know, trek fans all say Jj Wreck is a peice of TRIBBLE. i saw the 2009 movie. good flick, but trek no. and i saw and heard anough about Into Darkness that i said not going.
What is your definition of Trek? TMP probably the best example of what a Trek ideological movie, but rated not the best, TWOK action action, FC action action, TVH swearing humor, TSFS action action, TFF what does god need with a starship, TUC action action, GEN action action, INS forced humor, action, NEM action action forced drama, ST09 action action. I detect a theme here.
What is your definition of Trek? TMP probably the best example of what a Trek ideological movie, but rated not the best, TWOK action action, FC action action, TVH swearing humor, TSFS action action, TFF what does god need with a starship, TUC action action, GEN action action, INS forced humor, action, NEM action action forced drama, ST09 action action. I detect a theme here.
Most of the tv series and movies. Even Enterprise, as continuity error prone tried to stay true to establish trek. Jj Wreck throws 40 plus years out the window and says who cares. it's all NEW. trust me if they did that to Doctor Who the fans there would go nuts. Or the fact many SW fans HATE the prequels.
What is Trek? In my mind is the strive to learn new things, overcome flaws or problems. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. many here can argue the pros or cons of any of the shows. But face it after inital release the JJ Wrecks flop.
TWOK action with the question of power of life and death., ST 3 family above duty, ST4 comedy with inner reflection, St5 defining family and beleif of something, St6 final huurah and looking to the future as things change. Gen mortality, First Contanct, action, with with dealing with inner demons as well as the start of something grand. Insurection Upholding the spirit of the law while defying orders. Nemsis, defining who you are.
Most of the tv series and movies. Even Enterprise, as continuity error prone tried to stay true to establish trek. Jj Wreck throws 40 plus years out the window and says who cares. it's all NEW. trust me if they did that to Doctor Who the fans there would go nuts. Or the fact many SW fans HATE the prequels.
What is Trek? In my mind is the strive to learn new things, overcome flaws or problems. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. many here can argue the pros or cons of any of the shows. But face it after inital release the JJ Wrecks flop.
TWOK action with the question of power of life and death., ST 3 family above duty, ST4 comedy with inner reflection, St5 defining family and beleif of something, St6 final huurah and looking to the future as things change. Gen mortality, First Contanct, action, with with dealing with inner demons as well as the start of something grand. Insurection Upholding the spirit of the law while defying orders. Nemsis, defining who you are.
Well, in the new Trek, Kirk had to overcome growing up without his father and overcoming being headstrong and putting people in unneeded risk. Spock had to come to gripes with losing his mother and the fact that he hasn't gotten his emotions under complete control. There are questions of violating sovereign territory, extra-judicial execution, militarization of an exploration force, "the ends justifying the means" etc...
So in that instance, JJ Trek lives up to your standards. And quite frankly, everything you used to describe the other movies fits easily into the New Trek.
How the Devs see Star Trek, apparently:
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
Well, in the new Trek, Kirk had to overcome growing up without his father and overcoming being headstrong and putting people in unneeded risk. Spock had to come to gripes with losing his mother and the fact that he hasn't gotten his emotions under complete control. There are questions of violating sovereign territory, extra-judicial execution, militarization of an exploration force, "the ends justifying the means" etc...
So in that instance, JJ Trek lives up to your standards. And quite frankly, everything you used to describe the other movies fits easily into the New Trek.
JJ 1 was a toos out the window movie. admittedly had potential to be good but got screwed up. JJ2 fail rehash of the Wrath of Kahn. If they did the section 31 bit with out the kahn part. could have been better.
JJ 1 was a toos out the window movie. admittedly had potential to be good but got screwed up. JJ2 fail rehash of the Wrath of Kahn. If they did the section 31 bit with out the kahn part. could have been better.
Critical and financial reports show that both movies were hardly a toss out or a fail.
But, as I stated, everything you used to describe the other Trek movies can describe the New Trek, and the points I laid out show that even by your standards the new Trek is "Trek."
How the Devs see Star Trek, apparently:
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
This game is Star Trek, but is set on a crazy alternative universe where some things went really, really wrong.
I want to believe, that in the Prime Universe, the "real" Enterprise is still exploring the universe, and my character that just graduated from the academy is still a ensign in some ship in an current survey mission of a nebula.
I agree with this. A starship captain never would go in guns a blazing and in every single mission in STO that's exactly what you do.
Also Starfleet constantly had their captains try the diplomatic approach before they pulled out the phasers, and in this game soon as you blow up a ship Starfleet contacts you and tells you what a good job you did and to destroy all the ships in the system and don't leave until you do or we won't give you any rewards!
That was never Star Trek but is sure is STO...:eek:
Well... there goes this topic getting locked, I'm willing to bet...
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it's not for the timid." -- Q, TNG: "Q-Who?"
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
I look at Season 8 so far and think "Mass Effect" or "Halo", not Star Trek. And that's not a good thing. Imagine how people on the outside, who have never played the game before, are looking at it.
I think that the game looking a little bit more like Mass Effect or Halo might make the game more accessible to people who aren't hardcore Star Trek fans. Also its not like any of the ships look like the Battlestar Galactica or Serenity. The game is still very recognizably Star Trek maybe with a higher ground combat/ mission focus than the shows, but still Trek.
What is your definition of Trek? TMP probably the best example of what a Trek ideological movie, but rated not the best, TWOK action action, FC action action, TVH swearing humor, TSFS action action, TFF what does god need with a starship, TUC action action, GEN action action, INS forced humor, action, NEM action action forced drama, ST09 action action. I detect a theme here.
I know things have changed and a modern movie's definition of "action" is different. But I don't called Wrath of Khan an action movie. There are two "action" sequences - Reliant's surprise attack; and the Mutara submarine sequence.
"Perhaps I could use this as an excuse to go to those far off planets, with little polka-dotted people, if necessary. And to be able to talk about love, war, nature, God, sex, all those things that go to make up the excitement of the human condition. Maybe the TV censors would let it pass because it all seemed so make-believe."
I'm going to be honest with you, as someone who has played STO since launch: no. I don't remember.
I mean I like this game and all, but going on 3.5 years now I've never seen exploration that felt like Star Trek. Never seen diplomacy that felt like Star Trek. For a brief period of time, the developers made "featured episode series" that very nearly captured the episodic feeling of Trek. But most of the episodes outside of those few series are awful, and they stopped making new series' because it was too much work.
STO looks a lot like Star Trek. You wear Star Trek uniforms and fly around in your favorite Star Trek ships. A few episodes are good, and if you close one eye and squint the other, the overall storyline is vaguely Trek-like. I'm not into roleplaying but I'm sure a group of people can create Star Trek for themselves.
But all in all this game has never really captured that Star Trek essence and frankly I'm not sure it's possible to translate that to a game like this.
I think they are trying to dumb down this game to a general "SCIFI MMO", rather than pure Star Trek, IMO. It just seems that way, that's the vibe I get lately.
Hey doc!
I feel similar.
Star Trek >< MMO.
I think STO never was a especially good (or better said typical) Star Trek game. Cryptic imports too many things they find "cool" from other Sci Fi universes in this Game and alienating STO from Star Trek too much. I think Cryptics designers and other devs are trying too hard in making STO different to Star Trek and designing everything too extreme (both, game mechanics and graphical design).
Just a few things:
The (un)holy Trinity doesn't work with Star Trek ships. Ships work different, in "real" trek there isn't a trinity. Cruisers are not supporters or healing stations for escorts nor there are so many science ships. All Starfleet ships where more or less Cruisers (some light, heavy and others). (Just because some of Cryptics devs are huge fans of DS9 they made escorts the most powerful ships, althrough that's just nonsense in "real" Trek universe.
The Defiant was a exception and not a typtical Starfleet ship, it fundamentaly contradicts the whole premise of Starfleet.)
Mass effect looking Armor and kits and other designs that should belong to other games but not to a Star Trek game. Or can someone imagine picard runnning around with such a rediculus looking armor?
The General graphical design of STO is too far away from Star Trek. Everything besides some canon ships look like taken from other Sci Fi universes IMO. If you would remove all the canon stuff and change some names, i think STO wouldn't be even reckognizeable as Star Trek game.
In my opinion Cryptic should orientate more on what differs Star Trek from other Sci Fi universes and not take over or imitate others.
Star Trek has (had) its own style (not just literary spoken) but Cryptic completely failed to realize this and just makes everything to look and wrok in a "cool" way.
("cool" meaning what the devs find cool, without caring about Star Trek at all)
As far as i can see they are not even trying to do Star Trek some justice. Which is really sad IMO, STO has still much potential if the devs where willing to catch the spirit of Star Trek. As i said, i don't think Cryptic is even interested in doing so. They seem to be confident in the way STO is going, criticism gets ignored or counteracted.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
I'm going to be honest with you, as someone who has played STO since launch: no. I don't remember.
I mean I like this game and all, but going on 3.5 years now I've never seen exploration that felt like Star Trek. Never seen diplomacy that felt like Star Trek. For a brief period of time, the developers made "featured episode series" that very nearly captured the episodic feeling of Trek. But most of the episodes outside of those few series are awful, and they stopped making new series' because it was too much work.
STO looks a lot like Star Trek. You wear Star Trek uniforms and fly around in your favorite Star Trek ships. A few episodes are good, and if you close one eye and squint the other, the overall storyline is vaguely Trek-like. I'm not into roleplaying but I'm sure a group of people can create Star Trek for themselves.
But all in all this game has never really captured that Star Trek essence and frankly I'm not sure it's possible to translate that to a game like this.
This. Even back in the day when you could do exploration missions and level up from 1-40 without doing a single "storyline" mission except the tutorial wasn't very Star Trek like. You'd go to the planet and either be told "Give us your commodities" which you would, or you'd pop into a space battle instantly, or pop into a space area and just fly around for crafting materials, which you couldn't really do anything with, or you'd land on a planet to "explore" and 75% of the time, get into battles.
There never was diplomacy as you think of it, except for maybe a handful of missions (which are still in) where you'd actually run between people four or five times, come up with clues, and answer the question properly, and if you failed, just do it again and again until you got the result you want. No way to talk your way our of combat ever, and the "new planets" you did find were the same old planets you explored before.
Mind you part of it is limitations with computer games in general, you can only randomize so much before you have to start repeating the random generator, so its not necessarily Cryptics fault, and it would be aweful boring if you never did combat at all, and just got free experience. But no, it never was very "Star Trek".
I'm going to be honest with you, as someone who has played STO since launch: no. I don't remember.
I mean I like this game and all, but going on 3.5 years now I've never seen exploration that felt like Star Trek. Never seen diplomacy that felt like Star Trek. For a brief period of time, the developers made "featured episode series" that very nearly captured the episodic feeling of Trek. But most of the episodes outside of those few series are awful, and they stopped making new series' because it was too much work.
STO looks a lot like Star Trek. You wear Star Trek uniforms and fly around in your favorite Star Trek ships. A few episodes are good, and if you close one eye and squint the other, the overall storyline is vaguely Trek-like. I'm not into roleplaying but I'm sure a group of people can create Star Trek for themselves.
But all in all this game has never really captured that Star Trek essence and frankly I'm not sure it's possible to translate that to a game like this.
This is true, STO is more of an online Star Trek theme park than an actual Star Trek online.
When it comes to diplomacy and exploration, there is actually a 27 year old PC Game that has literally 100x more exploration and actual diplomacy than in all of STO combined. I'm dead serious. Even Everquest had more exploration than in STO ever had. And that honestly is sad.
Instead, since F2P, we are essentially in a loop of "content". New Season we get a new reputation and a new Fleet holding to grind, rinse, repeat. And for us players it's Dilithium, Fleet Marks, and Reputation grinding.........And Season 8 just the same ol with a new trick.
STO is visually losing players, you can tell that in the queues. And if they don't do something good for Season 9, it's all downhill from here folks.
STO is visually losing players, you can tell that in the queues. And if they don't do something good for Season 9, it's all downhill from here folks.
Doooooooooom!
Seriously you have been here long enough to know full well that it always slows down towards the back end of every season, then spikes when a new season comes out then slowly over time goes back down again.
every season someone says 'if they next one isn't good then its the beginning of the end', yet the very last update was very popular in players and the financial side of it. season 8 is not even fully on tribble let alone live. have two or three bad seasons in a row once they have come out and metrics can be measured and then you can start calling it going downhill.
This is true, STO is more of an online Star Trek theme park than an actual Star Trek online. (...)
And I think that's already a huge coincidence. For some reason they got lucky to slap the Trek license on the game though the Original Cryptic designs (Space and Ground) look like a completely different game and the whole Gameplay reminds me of a Freelancer-esque space opera rather than a episode of Star Trek. I think the game was already halfway done and intented to be a original Sci-Fi MMO when they acquired the license and retextured heir Starfighter MMO with Star Trek skins
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
Instead, since F2P, we are essentially in a loop of "content". New Season we get a new reputation and a new Fleet holding to grind, rinse, repeat. And for us players it's Dilithium, Fleet Marks, and Reputation grinding.........And Season 8 just the same ol with a new trick.
.
This is the part people really need to be up in arms about. Dinosaurs with lasers is nothing compared to what seems to be the norm now; new season brings another rep to grind, another holding to grind, 2 or three missions to with poor mark rewards for that new rep system that have to be played ad nausiem, something that generated decent amount of marks and dilithium and credits getting nerfed, and a handful of less than mediocre missions.
Legacy of Romulus was a nice bright spot (for the Klingons especially) but all in all the game lacks imagination and direction.
Not a Star Trek issue, but a development issue. You expect these mistakes with a first time developer, but this isn't Cryptic's first game.
How the Devs see Star Trek, apparently:
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
Seriously you have been here long enough to know full well that it always slows down towards the back end of every season, then spikes when a new season comes out then slowly over time goes back down again.
every season someone says 'if they next one isn't good then its the beginning of the end', yet the very last update was very popular in players and the financial side of it. season 8 is not even fully on tribble let alone live. have two or three bad seasons in a row once they have come out and metrics can be measured and then you can start calling it going downhill.
You have to admit this time it's different. Introduction of the Romulans was something many people have been waiting for.
The Forum was full of speculation threads. Quite different to the current situation.
How many people are excited about a new grind and dinos with frikkin laserbeams ?
At least I'm not.
Seriously you have been here long enough to know full well that it always slows down towards the back end of every season, then spikes when a new season comes out then slowly over time goes back down again.
I and several friends are the very definition of those types of players who drop out after doing everything worth doing which that season has to offer, yet come back to prepare for the next season while that next season dawns.
I agree with azurian star, this is more of a Star Trek theme park.
however if we really want one....we can get a real Star Trek MMO, it would take real planning, real preparation, and an entirely new engine.
I do believe Cryptic has the talent to do such, but it never was given the time the proper time to make STO, it was given the title and only a small window of time to make it.
Cryptic did a damn good job, and anyone who says Cryptic is a disgrace to the name developers and believe they know how MMO's are made,are wrong, I've worked on at least ten MMO's in my line of work, none of them are the same none of them have the same problems, every situation is undoubtedly different.
A well thought out and well planned Star Trek MMO is entirely possible, with exploration, diplomacy and a proper ship management/operations setup so we can actually interact with our ship. Even a Captain limit can be possible with a real Star Trek Feeling, mind you this is all possible but right now Cryptic is still trying to plug up all the holes in STO to make it survivable.
If you mean limiting the people that can command their own ship, then I must say (and please don't take this personal) that is about as dumb as making a Star Wars MMO without an option to be a Jedi from the start, or a WWII flight sim where you are stuck being a gunner the entire time.
People forget that the point of making a game is to get people to play it (an thus, make money).
"Come play this Star Trek game, but you can't fly your own vessel." Yea, that will go over well with the critics and general public.
How the Devs see Star Trek, apparently:
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
You have to admit this time it's different. Introduction of the Romulans was something many people have been waiting for.
The Forum was full of speculation threads. Quite different to the current situation.
How many people are excited about a new grind and dinos with frikkin laserbeams ?
At least I'm not.
*raises hand*
I'm always excited to meet new races and dismember them with a Nanopulse bat'leth.
Something else to be more up in arms about: the little things.
I mean, the devs can create a New Romulus, a Dyson Sphere, add a new race with war beasts...
But they can't give Klingon's hair options other than dreadlocks, (which was never seen in any other Star Trek media, to the best of my knowledge) or any of the clothing that appeared in any of the other media (aside from the TNG and TOS uniforms).
Small issue in the grand scheme of things, but it's still pretty frickin' pathetic.
How the Devs see Star Trek, apparently:
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
Dreads aren't really outside Klingon fashion from the shows though. Some of them had neatly combed hair, but some of them wore their hair in various states that at lest resembled dreads.
I seem to remember attempting to look up a Klingon with dreads the last time this got brought up. I don't think I found one, but I did see similar hairstyles.
I think they are trying to dumb down this game to a general "SCIFI MMO", rather than pure Star Trek, IMO. It just seems that way, that's the vibe I get lately.
No disrespect but I really dont think you have a clue what you are talking about nor have you given any valid points to back up your 'opinion'.
If anything this game was less like ST when it launched. The game with have today is much more like ST.
Comments
yea what abouth to boldly go were no one as gone before that to me meen that they can ad what ever they whant to a new season becose it's the unknown that only imagination can create dinausore or running spyder dont care as long as it wil keep people entertain and playng this game , my only fear is grinding wich that there would be less of it after al in any episode we dont see kirk spock and al comedien scanning every 10 second do we?
and sory for my english no am not english but am not blocked to my own language ether, like some here! ...
What is your definition of Trek? TMP probably the best example of what a Trek ideological movie, but rated not the best, TWOK action action, FC action action, TVH swearing humor, TSFS action action, TFF what does god need with a starship, TUC action action, GEN action action, INS forced humor, action, NEM action action forced drama, ST09 action action. I detect a theme here.
Most of the tv series and movies. Even Enterprise, as continuity error prone tried to stay true to establish trek. Jj Wreck throws 40 plus years out the window and says who cares. it's all NEW. trust me if they did that to Doctor Who the fans there would go nuts. Or the fact many SW fans HATE the prequels.
What is Trek? In my mind is the strive to learn new things, overcome flaws or problems. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. many here can argue the pros or cons of any of the shows. But face it after inital release the JJ Wrecks flop.
TWOK action with the question of power of life and death., ST 3 family above duty, ST4 comedy with inner reflection, St5 defining family and beleif of something, St6 final huurah and looking to the future as things change. Gen mortality, First Contanct, action, with with dealing with inner demons as well as the start of something grand. Insurection Upholding the spirit of the law while defying orders. Nemsis, defining who you are.
Well, in the new Trek, Kirk had to overcome growing up without his father and overcoming being headstrong and putting people in unneeded risk. Spock had to come to gripes with losing his mother and the fact that he hasn't gotten his emotions under complete control. There are questions of violating sovereign territory, extra-judicial execution, militarization of an exploration force, "the ends justifying the means" etc...
So in that instance, JJ Trek lives up to your standards. And quite frankly, everything you used to describe the other movies fits easily into the New Trek.
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
JJ 1 was a toos out the window movie. admittedly had potential to be good but got screwed up. JJ2 fail rehash of the Wrath of Kahn. If they did the section 31 bit with out the kahn part. could have been better.
Critical and financial reports show that both movies were hardly a toss out or a fail.
But, as I stated, everything you used to describe the other Trek movies can describe the New Trek, and the points I laid out show that even by your standards the new Trek is "Trek."
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
I agree with this. A starship captain never would go in guns a blazing and in every single mission in STO that's exactly what you do.
Also Starfleet constantly had their captains try the diplomatic approach before they pulled out the phasers, and in this game soon as you blow up a ship Starfleet contacts you and tells you what a good job you did and to destroy all the ships in the system and don't leave until you do or we won't give you any rewards!
That was never Star Trek but is sure is STO...:eek:
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
I think that the game looking a little bit more like Mass Effect or Halo might make the game more accessible to people who aren't hardcore Star Trek fans. Also its not like any of the ships look like the Battlestar Galactica or Serenity. The game is still very recognizably Star Trek maybe with a higher ground combat/ mission focus than the shows, but still Trek.
Section 31
[Joseph Steel] [Jennifer Steel] [Dredd Steel] [Kenzi Steel] [Shira Steel] [Eris Steel] [Artemis Steel] [Stardragon] [Delta] [Alexandria Rose] [Number Six] [K'emb'ah Steel] [Karnak Steel] [Kacy Steel] [Venom Steel] [Areli Steel]
I know things have changed and a modern movie's definition of "action" is different. But I don't called Wrath of Khan an action movie. There are two "action" sequences - Reliant's surprise attack; and the Mutara submarine sequence.
From the director himself, it's an exploration of humanity through allegory and metaphor:
http://strangersandaliens.com/2011/11/quote-nicholas-meyer-on-allegory-and-metaphor-in-star-trek/
From Roddenberry:
http://tos.trekcore.com/episodes/season1/0x01/audio.html
"Perhaps I could use this as an excuse to go to those far off planets, with little polka-dotted people, if necessary. And to be able to talk about love, war, nature, God, sex, all those things that go to make up the excitement of the human condition. Maybe the TV censors would let it pass because it all seemed so make-believe."
I can still fly Star Trek classics, like Galaxy, Defiant and Intrepid.
As for the 4 peps who got snagged i wish i could have seen what youm all said!!!
I am Il Shadow and i approve these Shennanigans!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I mean I like this game and all, but going on 3.5 years now I've never seen exploration that felt like Star Trek. Never seen diplomacy that felt like Star Trek. For a brief period of time, the developers made "featured episode series" that very nearly captured the episodic feeling of Trek. But most of the episodes outside of those few series are awful, and they stopped making new series' because it was too much work.
STO looks a lot like Star Trek. You wear Star Trek uniforms and fly around in your favorite Star Trek ships. A few episodes are good, and if you close one eye and squint the other, the overall storyline is vaguely Trek-like. I'm not into roleplaying but I'm sure a group of people can create Star Trek for themselves.
But all in all this game has never really captured that Star Trek essence and frankly I'm not sure it's possible to translate that to a game like this.
I feel similar.
Star Trek >< MMO.
I think STO never was a especially good (or better said typical) Star Trek game. Cryptic imports too many things they find "cool" from other Sci Fi universes in this Game and alienating STO from Star Trek too much. I think Cryptics designers and other devs are trying too hard in making STO different to Star Trek and designing everything too extreme (both, game mechanics and graphical design).
Just a few things:
(Just because some of Cryptics devs are huge fans of DS9 they made escorts the most powerful ships, althrough that's just nonsense in "real" Trek universe.
The Defiant was a exception and not a typtical Starfleet ship, it fundamentaly contradicts the whole premise of Starfleet.)
The General graphical design of STO is too far away from Star Trek. Everything besides some canon ships look like taken from other Sci Fi universes IMO. If you would remove all the canon stuff and change some names, i think STO wouldn't be even reckognizeable as Star Trek game.
In my opinion Cryptic should orientate more on what differs Star Trek from other Sci Fi universes and not take over or imitate others.
Star Trek has (had) its own style (not just literary spoken) but Cryptic completely failed to realize this and just makes everything to look and wrok in a "cool" way.
("cool" meaning what the devs find cool, without caring about Star Trek at all)
As far as i can see they are not even trying to do Star Trek some justice. Which is really sad IMO, STO has still much potential if the devs where willing to catch the spirit of Star Trek. As i said, i don't think Cryptic is even interested in doing so. They seem to be confident in the way STO is going, criticism gets ignored or counteracted.
This. Even back in the day when you could do exploration missions and level up from 1-40 without doing a single "storyline" mission except the tutorial wasn't very Star Trek like. You'd go to the planet and either be told "Give us your commodities" which you would, or you'd pop into a space battle instantly, or pop into a space area and just fly around for crafting materials, which you couldn't really do anything with, or you'd land on a planet to "explore" and 75% of the time, get into battles.
There never was diplomacy as you think of it, except for maybe a handful of missions (which are still in) where you'd actually run between people four or five times, come up with clues, and answer the question properly, and if you failed, just do it again and again until you got the result you want. No way to talk your way our of combat ever, and the "new planets" you did find were the same old planets you explored before.
Mind you part of it is limitations with computer games in general, you can only randomize so much before you have to start repeating the random generator, so its not necessarily Cryptics fault, and it would be aweful boring if you never did combat at all, and just got free experience. But no, it never was very "Star Trek".
This is true, STO is more of an online Star Trek theme park than an actual Star Trek online.
When it comes to diplomacy and exploration, there is actually a 27 year old PC Game that has literally 100x more exploration and actual diplomacy than in all of STO combined. I'm dead serious. Even Everquest had more exploration than in STO ever had. And that honestly is sad.
Instead, since F2P, we are essentially in a loop of "content". New Season we get a new reputation and a new Fleet holding to grind, rinse, repeat. And for us players it's Dilithium, Fleet Marks, and Reputation grinding.........And Season 8 just the same ol with a new trick.
STO is visually losing players, you can tell that in the queues. And if they don't do something good for Season 9, it's all downhill from here folks.
Doooooooooom!
Seriously you have been here long enough to know full well that it always slows down towards the back end of every season, then spikes when a new season comes out then slowly over time goes back down again.
every season someone says 'if they next one isn't good then its the beginning of the end', yet the very last update was very popular in players and the financial side of it. season 8 is not even fully on tribble let alone live. have two or three bad seasons in a row once they have come out and metrics can be measured and then you can start calling it going downhill.
And I think that's already a huge coincidence. For some reason they got lucky to slap the Trek license on the game though the Original Cryptic designs (Space and Ground) look like a completely different game and the whole Gameplay reminds me of a Freelancer-esque space opera rather than a episode of Star Trek. I think the game was already halfway done and intented to be a original Sci-Fi MMO when they acquired the license and retextured heir Starfighter MMO with Star Trek skins
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This is the part people really need to be up in arms about. Dinosaurs with lasers is nothing compared to what seems to be the norm now; new season brings another rep to grind, another holding to grind, 2 or three missions to with poor mark rewards for that new rep system that have to be played ad nausiem, something that generated decent amount of marks and dilithium and credits getting nerfed, and a handful of less than mediocre missions.
Legacy of Romulus was a nice bright spot (for the Klingons especially) but all in all the game lacks imagination and direction.
Not a Star Trek issue, but a development issue. You expect these mistakes with a first time developer, but this isn't Cryptic's first game.
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
You have to admit this time it's different. Introduction of the Romulans was something many people have been waiting for.
The Forum was full of speculation threads. Quite different to the current situation.
How many people are excited about a new grind and dinos with frikkin laserbeams ?
At least I'm not.
I and several friends are the very definition of those types of players who drop out after doing everything worth doing which that season has to offer, yet come back to prepare for the next season while that next season dawns.
I agree with azurian star, this is more of a Star Trek theme park.
however if we really want one....we can get a real Star Trek MMO, it would take real planning, real preparation, and an entirely new engine.
I do believe Cryptic has the talent to do such, but it never was given the time the proper time to make STO, it was given the title and only a small window of time to make it.
Cryptic did a damn good job, and anyone who says Cryptic is a disgrace to the name developers and believe they know how MMO's are made,are wrong, I've worked on at least ten MMO's in my line of work, none of them are the same none of them have the same problems, every situation is undoubtedly different.
A well thought out and well planned Star Trek MMO is entirely possible, with exploration, diplomacy and a proper ship management/operations setup so we can actually interact with our ship. Even a Captain limit can be possible with a real Star Trek Feeling, mind you this is all possible but right now Cryptic is still trying to plug up all the holes in STO to make it survivable.
If you mean limiting the people that can command their own ship, then I must say (and please don't take this personal) that is about as dumb as making a Star Wars MMO without an option to be a Jedi from the start, or a WWII flight sim where you are stuck being a gunner the entire time.
People forget that the point of making a game is to get people to play it (an thus, make money).
"Come play this Star Trek game, but you can't fly your own vessel." Yea, that will go over well with the critics and general public.
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
I'm always excited to meet new races and dismember them with a Nanopulse bat'leth.
My character Tsin'xing
I mean, the devs can create a New Romulus, a Dyson Sphere, add a new race with war beasts...
But they can't give Klingon's hair options other than dreadlocks, (which was never seen in any other Star Trek media, to the best of my knowledge) or any of the clothing that appeared in any of the other media (aside from the TNG and TOS uniforms).
Small issue in the grand scheme of things, but it's still pretty frickin' pathetic.
Star Trek: The Original Grind
Star Trek: The Next Grind
Star Trek: Deep Space Grind
Star Trek: Voyage to the Grind
Dreads aren't really outside Klingon fashion from the shows though. Some of them had neatly combed hair, but some of them wore their hair in various states that at lest resembled dreads.
I seem to remember attempting to look up a Klingon with dreads the last time this got brought up. I don't think I found one, but I did see similar hairstyles.
My character Tsin'xing
No disrespect but I really dont think you have a clue what you are talking about nor have you given any valid points to back up your 'opinion'.
If anything this game was less like ST when it launched. The game with have today is much more like ST.
Kanharn's Memory Alpha.