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So, I'm debating returning.
cbrjwrr
Member Posts: 2,782 Arc User
Three things.
1) What happened on the 20th of June? I've got 24 messages and not a clue about them except they were all on the same day...
2) How is the game these days? I know it is still running and they've added a lot of stuff.
3) Just how much effort will it take to bring a new character up to some sort of passable state? I have absolutely no idea what I left the game with last time, I do know there are a few C-store items, but beyond that not a clue, so assume from scratch.
Edited because I used the wrong number...
1) What happened on the 20th of June? I've got 24 messages and not a clue about them except they were all on the same day...
2) How is the game these days? I know it is still running and they've added a lot of stuff.
3) Just how much effort will it take to bring a new character up to some sort of passable state? I have absolutely no idea what I left the game with last time, I do know there are a few C-store items, but beyond that not a clue, so assume from scratch.
Edited because I used the wrong number...
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Define "passable". As-is skilled players can do decently well even in T5 ships equipped with mk12 purple gear....
My character Tsin'xing
As to skilled piloting; there was a reason my old sig had the line saying the most important part of a build was a pilot who could fly straight. And as anyone who ever saw me in PvP will attest to, I can't fly straight...
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/query
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
The game is free to play. That means it is just a matter of time spent, not money spend, whether you return.
In game, you can earn currency and trade via the Dilithium exchange for Zen, the currency used in the C-Store. Ships are a big seller. The game also has lockboxes that will be dropped as loot, but require a Zen-purchasable Master Key (keys can be traded in game) to open, and you will get Lobi and something else, with which around a 0.5 % chance might be a cool (for certain definitions of cool) non-faction ship. Specific content is dependent on the lockbox.
The game has 3 factions now, Federation, Klingon Empire and Romulan Republic. But most higher level content is faction-agnostic.
The game has a reputation system, with new reputations added practically every season, each thematically linked to a particular part of the story-line and with special queued multiplayer missions. Reputations give access to particular gear including set items. Basically an evolution of the old Borg Special Task Force "system".
Fleets can now build Starbases with various holdings which grant access to good gear and to fleet ships.
The game has a crafting system that utilizes elements from the Duty Officer system and from the old anomalies.
The game has had a level cap increase, this time both for character levels (you can become a Fleet Admiral or Dahar Master) and for ships (Tier 6).
Tier 5 ships can be upgraded to be closer to Tier 6 ships, but will always be short one Bridge Officer and one console slot and unlike Tier 6 ships do not have access to specialization bridge officer seats.
The Bridge Officer system got revamped, allowing you to train a Bridge Officer with multiple skills and selected a specific suite of known skills he has active at any given time.
After reaching Level 60, you can continue earning specialization points, which is basically an end-game skill tree. You can have only two specializations active but you could theoretically learn all of them (will take you quite some time).
The old gensis system for "exploration "(Scan 5 / Kill 5 missions mostly) was removed.
The story has moved on and partially retconned, for example how the Romulan Republic formed and how it stands to the Romulan Star Empire. We found a new Dyson Sphere, encountered the Voth, the Undine and some Iconian servitor races there, and used parts of the Iconian Gateway network to reach the Delta Quadrant, where we helped win a war against a newly recruited Iconian servitor race. This eventually lead to the Iconians openly starting their war, and we're in deep trouble in the storyline (the Iconian had 200,000 years to build up their army) and consider using temporal manipulation to fix our problem, which so far disastrous to disappointing results.
Many old missions were revamped and tend to look and flow a lot better than the original ones, but some content got lost, merged or retconned in the process.
Anyway, my internal thought process and the label I give to that process aside, could we please answer the points? Thank you.
I have looked at the arc site; the tales of the war parts are quite interesting. The problem is I've forgotten basically everything I did know, and even then the game has probably become very different since I last saw it; and I don't know where to look at to check the first question...
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January this year; my last post on the forums was the 21st, so it was probably around then. I recognise nearly all of that, except the changes to the bridge officers and the storyline changes past "This eventually lead to the Iconians..."
In particular, what got retconned?
Simulate STO: Shut off your computer and stare at screen. You are now playing STO as much as anyone else...
My character Tsin'xing
if you come back into the game expecting it to be vastly different from when you quit chances are you will find that its not much different at all and if you didn't want to play then why would you want to play now.
but I agree with some of the other posters the game is free to play so it wont cost you anything to take a look, my tastes will be totally different to yours, so theres not much point in me telling you what I enjoy about the game as its possible they might be the very things you hate.
just be aware that if you do come back you will have some catching up to do to get to the same state as other players who stayed and played.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Or was it in game?
Well, I am not sure how to reply to that question. I enjoy the game well enough, others do not, complains on the forums are rampant as always, some justified, some not, as usual.
We got a Sector Space revamp. There are now only 3 sector space maps, Alpha, Beta and Delta Quadrant.
There are new DSEs in this sector space, and also the occassional anomaly to scan for R&D materials.
We're at war with the Iconians, and got a lot of new episodes, with new rewards. We discovered what happened to the Krenim (which were suspiciously absend during the Delta Rising arc.). With the Iconian arc came also the Iconian reputation and Iconian Queued missions.
There is now the Intel Specialization, the Command specialization and the Pilot specialization as fully fledged primary specs, and with matching ships. (Pilot Escorts rock & roll.)
They also added a few new powers to engineering, tactical and science. Some of them are in lockboxes, some of them are mission rewards.
I believe you might have missed the Vaadwaur and the new Xindi-Terrestial lockbox, we are now at the "Year of Hell" lockbox and have a Duty Officer Pack related promo going.
If you were suffering a lot of lag in the past, the situation may have improved, as Cryptic has done a lot of changes. But some still complain that they suffer lag, though Cryptic isn't done yet with the work on it either.
Queues are Empty is an ongoing complaint, but I never experience that, probably because I only join active queues, which definitely exist. Currently the Crystalline Event is running.
One answer is constant pretty much regardless of when you left: There have been no PvP additions.
If you left this year in January, the effort is still the same as when you left. The top end gear is Mark XIV (possibly up to Gold/Epic rarity). The upgrade system has changed a tiny but perhaps important bit - the ugprades now finish instantly, you don't need to wait any longer or pay any extra Dilithium fees to speed up the process.
okay, if you really wanted to max out all specializations, there are of course more now, with two new specs, but you still only can utilize a primary and a secondary one.
If you want to get maxed out, you need a bunch of upgrade kits, a Tier 6 ship and start earning skill points. Which you can do by doing pretty much anything in game, as usual.
1) Apparently bluegeek said something in a tirade; it is all players, like a thread of private messages. Curiously, it is gone from the inbox now so I can't check... Oh well, I guess that will just have to go unanswered...
2) Ooo, the changes to sector space sound interesting - what can be done in the DSEs? Command and Pilot are new but were coming at the time, rest is probably new look same thing.
3) As I thought.
Well, the 14 GB download has finished, so I can see for myself.
oh, that was just a TRIBBLE-up with vanilla's PM system that happened shortly after the forums migrated that was quickly fixed; don't pay any attention to it
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
The DSEs are structured a bit differently than the ones before, but the are still mostly space pew-pew. The enemies come in waves (a new wave when the first is killed), the size of the wave depends on the players in the map. At the end, you earn rewards, including Dilithium, skill points and crafting materials (but no very rares). If there are enough players in the map in time, a second phase is triggered with a few new, stronger waves, and you get another set of rewards afterwards.
I think the change to the rewards and the special final phase are the most important changes. DSEs with a large group of players can be a good source of skill points for your Starship Mastery, and getting more crafting mats is nice.
Ok, that solves that one.
That's an improvement, they used to only be good for target practice and scenery...
You should hop on and see if you like the changes, worst it will cost you is a little of your time.
It would be helpful if I could remember how to play the game.
I'm currently messing around in a T6 Galaxy, since I've been given one; lag is quite bad, I've got the graphics as low as they go and it still isn't happy... I don't think I'll be attempting queues anytime soon because of it.
Wow, sorry to hear that. Hopefully, it's just a temporary network issue and it clears up. Playing with Lag sucks.
It lagged before; not really any different now...
It's surprisingly ok graphics actually.
Anyway, are you still using that Guardian?