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Review from a 2 week player

kaibigan42kaibigan42 Member Posts: 3
This is my review of STO... A little about me first. I am 43 and been playing video games for decades. I am a huge Star Trek fan all my life. Star Trek has been in my life since as far back as I can remember. My mother tells a story that my dad, the day I was brought home from the hospital as a baby, sat me on his lap and watched Star Trek TOS.

I avoided playing this game for years since I also love Star Wars and SWG ruined that for me. I was afraid the same would happen here... But 2 weeks ago I watched a streamer playing STO and was amazed. I DLed it and havent regretted it yet.... So on to my review....

First the good... The game still looks amazing. Four years old and still looks great. The graphics are crisp and smooth running. The space battles are freaking awesome. That is the only thing I can say about that. Even the ESD is fun to explore.

The gameplay is just plain wow... There is so much to do and even after 2 weeks I am still learning new things. I had WoW down in a day. SWG in a few days. But STO is so complex. And always things to do. I have yet to search for something to do. Great job there.

The stories are well done as well. I loved the wasteland storyline. Even the first storyline. Getting to see Scotty and McCoy back in the day was great. I am also enjoying being able to interact with characters I know from the series. Kind of want a cellphone to take selfies with them.. Lol

I love the foundry as well... Reminds me of the Architect in CoH. And I cant wait to try it myself. I have a few story ideas I would love to see if I can make happen.

As for the community. I have been in several game communities and I dont say this lightly. Next to early SWG or CoH, this is by far one of the best game communities I have been apart of. So helpful and not afraid to answer noob questions without sarcasm or insult.




Now the bad... There are bugs I am told that are still in game for quite awhile. Like the bug of your away team getting stuck on walls and such. That is a bit disheartening. Away missions themselves while somewhat fun dont really pull me in as much as the space battles. Part of that is the away team bug. I feel more like a baby sitter running around watching to make sure my team doesnt get stuck on a wall or rock.

I do get DCed at times. Its not fun to be doing an episode and having to start a chapter over again because the game DCed. I have checked to make sure its not my connection.. and mine is stable.

Why is it so hard to sub to this game? They should have a button right on the main page. It took me a week to figure out how to sub to this game. That is just poor marketing. They should be pushing that out there too. Also about the main page, honestly it looks trashy. I liked the site they used before. I dont know if its because PWE took it over or what.. But its not very "I want to play this game" nice.



What I would like to see...

Personally I think they are doing great. Though I would love to see more uniforms and outfits from other Star Trek lore. Also alot more off duty stuff. And possibly to go with off duty maybe some off duty missions. Things you can only do when your "on leave" as it were.

In that same vein how about exploring the civilian side of things. Traders and such. A fourth faction that is not aligned with anyone. Basically an advanced crafter class on steroids.

Something in options to turn off or auto decline fleet invites would also be nice and should be a very basic thing. Unless I was missing it.

Speaking of fleets I love your fleets can have their own star bases, dil mines, and such. I would love to see this expanded to personal use as well. Maybe not a full on starbase. How about a holodeck? Players could use it to access an area and personalize with their own creativity. Like you pick a planet environment and then add buildings and such. Using dill, EC, etc to buy upgrades.

EDIT: One last thing. To Cryptic personally... You really need to embrace your streamers. You got a couple of very loyal streamers out there. And ya'll really need to get with them. Streaming is apart of marketing now. Give them codes to give away. Go into their chats and chat it up with the players. Seriously embrace these guys. They are helping push your game.

Anyway thats it.. I like it.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • aloishammeraloishammer Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    kaibigan42 wrote: »
    Why is it so hard to sub to this game? They should have a button right on the main page. It took me a week to figure out how to sub to this game. That is just poor marketing. They should be pushing that out there too. Also about the main page, honestly it looks trashy. I liked the site they used before. I dont know if its because PWE took it over or what.. But its not very "I want to play this game" nice.

    That's all a result of a (fairly) recent move where the STO web site was assimilated by PWE's ARCGames web site...without being really thorough about making sure all existing functionality was enabled at the unnecessary (other than for homogenization into the PWE Collective) new home.
    Something in options to turn off or auto decline fleet invites would also be nice and should be a very basic thing. Unless I was missing it.

    You are.

    Social menu -> Privacy menu, second from the bottom, "allow fleet invitations."

    ("Social" is the button on the right edge of your minimap, below the envelope for "mail."
  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    kaibigan42 wrote: »
    Now the bad... There are bugs I am told that are still in game for quite awhile. Like the bug of your away team getting stuck on walls and such. That is a bit disheartening. Away missions themselves while somewhat fun dont really pull me in as much as the space battles. Part of that is the away team bug. I feel more like a baby sitter running around watching to make sure my team doesnt get stuck on a wall or rock.
    The only pathing issues I tend to encounter are generally only in the Exploration Zone missions - as they are very old and have not had any work done on them since, basically, Launch day.
    I do get DCed at times. Its not fun to be doing an episode and having to start a chapter over again because the game DCed. I have checked to make sure its not my connection.. and mine is stable.
    The very first thing you should do when getting DCed is to run a TraceRt to see exactly where the issue is at. It does not matter if everything seems fine on your end. The route your ISP might be taking could be sending you through a bad area. A TraceRt takes less then a minute and can clearly define if the problem is you, your route, Cogent, or Cryptic.
    Why is it so hard to sub to this game? They should have a button right on the main page. It took me a week to figure out how to sub to this game. That is just poor marketing. They should be pushing that out there too. Also about the main page, honestly it looks trashy. I liked the site they used before. I dont know if its because PWE took it over or what.. But its not very "I want to play this game" nice.
    The website is designed to be Tablet friendly - as PW is moving into the Tablet and Console markets. So the main webpage scrolls exactly as it would if you were using a Tablet - which I do most of the time I am on the website.

    As far as Subscribing, all the "business" stuff is under the Guides section. Once you click on Guides you clearly see a tab that says "Gold Subscriptions." So it is all of two clicks when you are on the STO site: 1 click on Guides and a second click on Gold Subscription.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • jarodroto123jarodroto123 Member Posts: 1,337 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    EDIT: aloishammer beat me to it
  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    After 2 years I'm still finding stuff like - oh that was doing nothing for me. How long have I been using that?

    There are a staggering amount of possibilities that most players do not know exist. Even simple things like subscribing and buying zen are not so simple until you've done them once.

    I'd say a large part of the game is a research project. I enjoy that.

    Anyway, welcome welcome. There are some very knowledgeable people on the forum. When in doubt, ask!
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

  • lan451lan451 Member Posts: 3,386 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Hey welcome to the game. Glad to see you're enjoying yourself. STO has it's issues for sure, but in the end I find it to be quite fun.
    EDIT: One last thing. To Cryptic personally... You really need to embrace your streamers. You got a couple of very loyal streamers out there. And ya'll really need to get with them. Streaming is apart of marketing now. Give them codes to give away. Go into their chats and chat it up with the players. Seriously embrace these guys. They are helping push your game.

    Their first foray into streaming turned into quite a mess. I have to admit that even I got caught up in it and I think I may have gotten that thread closed. Oops. Anyway, they now have their community managers do livestreaming who give away codes and the like. They do one every Friday. Not quite the same as supporting other player streams for sure, but after what happened last time...I can't blame them.
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    Mine Trap Supporter
  • purplegamerpurplegamer Member Posts: 1,015 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    After 2 years I'm still finding stuff like - oh that was doing nothing for me. How long have I been using that?

    There are a staggering amount of possibilities that most players do not know exist. Even simple things like subscribing and buying zen are not so simple until you've done them once.

    I'd say a large part of the game is a research project. I enjoy that.

    Anyway, welcome welcome. There are some very knowledgeable people on the forum. When in doubt, ask!

    STO seems to have an uncommon reliance on tribal knowledge; so much stuff is obfuscated unnecessarily.
  • snoggymack22snoggymack22 Member Posts: 7,084 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    STO seems to have an uncommon reliance on tribal knowledge; so much stuff is obfuscated unnecessarily.

    Agreed. Part of the problem is they never put together a printed manual for launch. Another part of it is they used their forums to be the knowledge base, but then have this utterly counterproductive policy regarding "thread necroing" which unfortunately BURIES so much of that tribal knowledge. (This has bugged me since the very beginning of this game, as it makes zero sense to be so against old threads, yet NOT have an archive of game knowledge to compensate).

    And the final nail in the coffin was the wiki. The wiki itself was not created by cryptic nor is it maintained by them. But they incorporated it into the site eventually, making it SEEM like its an official piece of this game's website, when, it's not.

    Overall, the effect is what we get now with new players really not having the resources they need from any reliable knowledge base.

    And that ends up with me making a link about EPS Flow Regulators in my sig, just so I don't lose the archived post about a change made YEARS ago, if I ever have to explain to an old returning player why their EPS consoles don't do what they did back when the game was a month old.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • kirksplatkirksplat Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    kaibigan42 wrote: »
    This is my review of STO...

    I love the foundry as well... Reminds me of the Architect in CoH. And I cant wait to try it myself. I have a few story ideas I would love to see if I can make happen.

    As for the community. I have been in several game communities and I dont say this lightly. Next to early SWG or CoH, this is by far one of the best game communities I have been apart of. So helpful and not afraid to answer noob questions without sarcasm or insult.




    Thank you for playing Foundry missions. If you find an author that you like please do a custom search for his/her name. There is a lot of good stuff out there, but the search UI is limited and full of grinders.

    When you're ready to try your hand at Foundry, my 9-part tutorial series for Primetime UGC is a good introduction. Here is the link to our tutorials page at Starbase UGC. We have a 24/7 chat room that will answer all of your questions.

    Thanks for the great post.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • seseronseseron Member Posts: 337 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    kaibigan42 wrote: »
    This is my review of STO... <snipped for brevity>
    Anyway thats it.. I like it.

    Welcome. That was a pretty good review and I share many of its sentiments. I've been playing since launch, and some old bugs back then are still present on some maps. But the game is evolving, and I'm seeing improvements on a regular basis. You being a new player, if you would, take the time to fill out some bug reports, so that old bugs get fresh attention.
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  • mightybobcncmightybobcnc Member Posts: 3,354 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Social menu -> Privacy menu, second from the bottom, "allow fleet invitations."

    ("Social" is the button on the right edge of your minimap, below the envelope for "mail."

    This is also the O key.

    Joined January 2009
    Finger wrote:
    Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
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