Im just curious if the game basicly plays out with all of the combat as it does early on or are there other things to get involved in? So far every mission seems to be combat based. No interaction, everyone wants you dead. No talking first, no diplomacy, just fire, kill, rinse and repeat. Every away mission is combat based. Gangs of bad guys who want to kill you. No puzzles, no diplomacy, no figuring things out, no stressful encounters. Can we resolve this without violence? Will they attack? Maybe we can reach an agreement. Nope. They WILL attack so just fire first.
Im not complaining about the game because it seems like it could be really great. I understand lack of content and such. The game is brand new. Im not in a hurry. But all this focus on combat just seems kind of Non-Trekki if you know what I mean. I just want to to know if it continues on this course or do missions tend to open up a little and be better later? If its all combat all the time then STO is not what I hoped it would be and probably wont be the game for me.
You could always do controlled breeding experiments on Tribbles. If you feed certain types of tribbles certain types of food, you get Tribbles that do more than just heal you out of combat.
There are non-combat missions though to be perfectly honest, they are not particularly complex or dynamic at this time. I really hope Cryptic makes these types of missions more complicated.
I will say, however, that the episodic "story" missions get more complex and more interesting as you get further along. Yes, combat remains the central focus and yes, the diplomatic aspects of these missions remain somewhat flat, but the story gets more interesting (especially as they explore ideas and concepts as relating to the impact of the new movie on the Prime Universe) and the missions themselves become more interesting and involve you doing different things.
It's unfortunate that the beginning is so flat, because the game really is pretty interesting (though those secure the sector block and sector patrol missions always suck) and I think Cryptic can add some more interesting and complex missions as time goes by, but we'll see.
To be fair many times they have attacked first. If they're in Federation space with shields up and guns armed.. that's a pretty clear act of aggression. They've already made the first move before you even arrived.
And if it's in enemy space well... you're in enemy space. Obviously you're on the offensive. What would be the point in talking?
Thank you for the response. I dont mind the combat because it is fun and its different (this being said after years and years of elf slaying and barbarian beheading ) But combat alone or mostly will quickly become boring as hell and not very much like the star trek I grew up watching and reading about. Im concerned but hopeful.
I love the game, BUT I would like to see some more diplomatic type stuff....stuff that makes you think....stuff that makes you go....WOAH! DIDN'T EXCPECT THAT!!!!! .....And I wanna do more stuff on MY ship.....
Thank you for the response. I dont mind the combat because it is fun and its different (this being said after years and years of elf slaying and barbarian beheading ) But combat alone or mostly will quickly become boring as hell and not very much like the star trek I grew up watching and reading about. Im concerned but hopwful.
Episode missions will give some variety, and there are some missions in which you run around and scan things.
One thing to be careful about is getting the wrong idea based on ENT, TOS, and TNG. The mission of the Enterprise has always been one of exploration, so those series have provided a view of primarily that side of Starfleet. The Star Trek universe is larger than that type of mission, though.. and has more practical aspects.
Got to keep in mind that while you have your exploration ships out there, the Federation is huge and Starfleet is also its police force. Police don't often find themselves in negotiating positions but do tend to find themselves in harm's way. DS9 showed best that just maintaining peace in an area of space can be a troublesome job, and this game is based heavily on the feel of that series.
there's quite a few non combat missions, fair few of them in the exploration clusters.
it is more geared towards combat however, what with the war and all
the story missions become a lot more involved, and interesting, you'll find yourself wanting to do more and more.. well i do anyway.
my personal hope, and one i've banked a lifetime sub on, is that they will work in more non combat missions, and more different types of non combat missions, i'd really like to see variable outcome missions, where a decision made affects what plays out in the rest of the mission etc.. it just may take some time to get there.
I believe more exploration content is one of the things being heavily promoted on the main website (under the tab about upcoming content). I think it also specifies that the new content will arrive within two months? Hopefully that's the truth because it's up there for everyone to see.
I'm not sure how to do in-depth diplomacy stuff or whatever without creating more of that single-player feeling. I did that newb diplomacy mission last night where you talk to colonists about their complaints and answer a few questions to finish the quest, and it was...underwhelming.
only way i could see them handling a multi-ending mission type for more than one player would be to have either one player designated the team commander who'd make the choices, or have a mechanic in place for the captains to vote amongst themselves, as field commanders might, with the majority rule being the choice made.
it'd be tricky to work out, and thats probably why we've not seen it yet..
Got to keep in mind that while you have your exploration ships out there, the Federation is huge and Starfleet is also its police force. Police don't often find themselves in negotiating positions but do tend to find themselves in harm's way. DS9 showed best that just maintaining peace in an area of space can be a troublesome job, and this game is based heavily on the feel of that series.
Starfleet as a police force is how it *should* be, but that is not what happens here.
Your facts are not accurate either, the police negotiates a lot more than it fights. In fact, police are trained specifically to direct a confrontation to a non-violent resolution when possible. Police will rarely fire first (I know for a fact that a lot of police officers out there would rather risk getting wounded than harming citizens) and cannot just go around shooting suspects.
Even in DS9, I can argue that Sisko had a significant amount of encounters with Jem'hadar that did not result in combat, or at least not in the sort of kill on sight combat we see here.
This entire war isn't even in style, since both factions are fighting over nothing, and the Federation seems to be in open war with the Romulans too, also for no proper reason.
There's missions where you got to beam down to the planet, talk to miners, search for wreckage, beam down to bases and investigate the stuff. As a previous post mentioned, they are not particularly complex but different.
Im just curious if the game basicly plays out with all of the combat as it does early on or are there other things to get involved in? So far every mission seems to be combat based. No interaction, everyone wants you dead. No talking first, no diplomacy, just fire, kill, rinse and repeat. Every away mission is combat based. Gangs of bad guys who want to kill you. No puzzles, no diplomacy, no figuring things out, no stressful encounters. Can we resolve this without violence? Will they attack? Maybe we can reach an agreement. Nope. They WILL attack so just fire first.
Im not complaining about the game because it seems like it could be really great. I understand lack of content and such. The game is brand new. Im not in a hurry. But all this focus on combat just seems kind of Non-Trekki if you know what I mean. I just want to to know if it continues on this course or do missions tend to open up a little and be better later? If its all combat all the time then STO is not what I hoped it would be and probably wont be the game for me.
no one of the missions you get a part of it anyways requires you to talk to some workers in a mine.. no fighting at all
A lot of the patrol missions i have been doing as Commander have a lot of non combat elements, as well as several of them being quasi-combat.
Meaning that there are enemies but you can complete the objectives without firing a shot if you want.
There are non-combat missions though to be perfectly honest, they are not particularly complex or dynamic at this time. I really hope Cryptic makes these types of missions more complicated.
I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Just look how much trouble people have finding Sulu, the constant asking how to do stuff would never end if they made the non-combat missions more complicated!
One quick fix as far as making missions more deep and complex is the faction mission and points system....
Such as, a mission where federation is in peace talks with cardassia (or what's left) and show of good faith, Starfleet orders you to destroy a ship full of exMarquis rebels that entered federation space seeking asylum. It turns out however those people were POWs of the Dominion War, regardless Federation still wants the ship destroyed.
You can choose not to kill them and as a result you loose Federation Rep and Cardassian rep, but your humanty rep goes up.
If you make choices that goes against humanitarian morals but ones that protect and preserve the Federation, you secrectly gain points in another faction and when it's high enough, you get a visit from Section 31.
Or you take missions from The Syndicate and smuggle arms and people all over the place for them, not realizing you are suppling arms to an antiFedetation jihad group or sneaking Changelings deep into Federation space. But as a reward, you can buy weapon rates from the Syndicate but loose access to certain federation missions.
there are more plot based stories coming soon involving the Borg Queen, Q, & the Guardian of Forever...
& there is talk about adding political & mystery missions to the explorer ones, but they didn't say when that stuff would be added.
Starfleet as a police force is how it *should* be, but that is not what happens here.
Your facts are not accurate either, the police negotiates a lot more than it fights. In fact, police are trained specifically to direct a confrontation to a non-violent resolution when possible. Police will rarely fire first (I know for a fact that a lot of police officers out there would rather risk getting wounded than harming citizens) and cannot just go around shooting suspects.
No, but if the suspects have already committed violence or shown dangerous, hostile intent, and can be eliminated without risking civilians, then the police very well have the right to open fire.
So lets look at STO.
Most peoples' "first experiences" that they refer to when asking "is this it?" are based in Federation space; meaning the Gorn, Orions, and Klingons have already shown dangerous intent by being where they are with their weapons armed. We're talking weapons capable of leveling outposts and laying ruin to planets- you don't let them fire first if their weapons are already charged and aimed. The conflict has begun before you even arrived.
They're also in vessels in space, so they can pretty often be attacked without risk to civilians.
Also, while police officers are trained to control a situation, they're not negotiators. There are men and women in the police force who go through extra training to reach that level. Picard, as captain of the flagship, obviously received similar training.. but even he wasn't a full ambassador. Our level of diplomacy as ship captains will and always should be inherently limited.
Even in DS9, I can argue that Sisko had a significant amount of encounters with Jem'hadar that did not result in combat, or at least not in the sort of kill on sight combat we see here.
There were quite a few episodes like this, yes... before the Dominion War began. Consider the episode when the DS9 crew goes behind enemy lines in the Dominion ship. The Federation centaur that attacks them didn't try hailing them first, did it? I'm pretty sure it came in guns blazing.
This entire war isn't even in style, since both factions are fighting over nothing, and the Federation seems to be in open war with the Romulans too, also for no proper reason.
According to the backstory the Klingons have already annexed several Federation worlds. Fighting over nothing?
Sadly, 90% of the game(if not more) is combat. Sure, thats how most MMOs are, but most MMOs arent based on ST, so thats not much of an excuse IMHO. That said, I enjoy the game, so I play it. If I stop enjoying it, then I'll stop playing. Theres no need to make it any more complicated than that.
No you can do exploring basically just fly out into space and choose a planet, scan it for life signs and then pick a safe place to beam down. Once you arrive on the planet scan for life or power sources, you can choose by selecting the tricorder option. Then head off in the direction of your reading, careful of the plant life and animal life thats probably on the planet, it may be hostile. Also take your time to check for any strange rocks, minerals or plants, you can collect these for your crafting profs, certain rare gems can be used to add more power when crafting weapons. It also is worth mentioning that the planets are quite large, they are about as big as a typical warcraft zone, so take your time exploring them.
If you meet intelligent life then try to be diplomatic and you may even be making first contact with a new ally that could join the federation, you may also be walking into a trap, care is advised. Also keep an eye out for new quests on these planets as there are sometime quest chains to do that can yeild great rewards. The best thing though is that you may not be the only player on this planet, some klingon players may also have beamed down to secure the planet from themselves and remember out in deep space it's all pvp enabled.
Anyway once back on your ship, pull up the navigation map and set course for another system or planet, while the ship warps away feel free to take a walk down to engineering, sick bay, armoury or the holodeck. Did you know you can also go to your personal quarters and craft new weapons, armour, shields, devices etc, depending on your profession. And don;t worry about your ship, if your bridge crew pick up any unusual signals they will hail you asap.
Sorry I must apologise to you, I keep forgetting Cryptic made this game and not someone like Blizzard, so to answer your question, yes it's boring all the way through, Cryptic lack both the vision and the programming skill to make a proper ST game.
No you can do exploring basically just fly out into space and choose a planet, scan it for life signs and then pick a safe place to beam down. Once you arrive on the planet scan for life or power sources, you can choose by selecting the tricorder option. Then head off in the direction of your reading, careful of the plant life and animal life thats probably on the planet, it may be hostile. Also take your time to check for any strange rocks, minerals or plants, you can collect these for your crafting profs, certain rare gems can be used to add more power when crafting weapons. It also is worth mentioning that the planets are quite large, they are about as big as a typical warcraft zone, so take your time exploring them.
If you meet intelligent life then try to be diplomatic and you may even be making first contact with a new ally that could join the federation, you may also be walking into a trap, care is advised. Also keep an eye out for new quests on these planets as there are sometime quest chains to do that can yeild great rewards. The best thing though is that you may not be the only player on this planet, some klingon players may also have beamed down to secure the planet from themselves and remember out in deep space it's all pvp enabled.
Anyway once back on your ship, pull up the navigation map and set course for another system or planet, while the ship warps away feel free to take a walk down to engineering, sick bay, armoury or the holodeck. Did you know you can also go to your personal quarters and craft new weapons, armour, shields, devices etc, depending on your profession. And don;t worry about your ship, if your bridge crew pick up any unusual signals they will hail you asap.
Sorry I must apologise to you, I keep forgetting Cryptic made this game and not someone like Blizzard, so to answer your question, yes it's boring all the way through, Cryptic lack both the vision and the programming skill to make a proper ST game.
Yes the whole game is like this. There are missions where there is no combat. You have to answer some questions to resolve a 'diplomacy' issue. Oh and you can run around on a small sandbox map tagging 5 items for an 'exploration' mission. But essentially yeah. That's the game and it's what you'll do up until you reach level cap. Which should be around a month at the very most.
Thankfully you won't have to do any of that after you reach level cap because there isn't actually anything to do at that point.
But $15 a month is hardly a lot to pay for all that is it?
Yes the whole game is like this. There are missions where there is no combat. You have to answer some questions to resolve a 'diplomacy' issue. Oh and you can run around on a small sandbox map tagging 5 items for an 'exploration' mission. But essentially yeah. That's the game and it's what you'll do up until you reach level cap. Which should be around a month at the very most.
Thankfully you won't have to do any of that after you reach level cap because there isn't actually anything to do at that point.
But $15 a month is hardly a lot to pay for all that is it?
I would laugh at your post but tbh as a trek fan it's really sad that this game is so shallow.
Comments
I will say, however, that the episodic "story" missions get more complex and more interesting as you get further along. Yes, combat remains the central focus and yes, the diplomatic aspects of these missions remain somewhat flat, but the story gets more interesting (especially as they explore ideas and concepts as relating to the impact of the new movie on the Prime Universe) and the missions themselves become more interesting and involve you doing different things.
It's unfortunate that the beginning is so flat, because the game really is pretty interesting (though those secure the sector block and sector patrol missions always suck) and I think Cryptic can add some more interesting and complex missions as time goes by, but we'll see.
To be fair many times they have attacked first. If they're in Federation space with shields up and guns armed.. that's a pretty clear act of aggression. They've already made the first move before you even arrived.
And if it's in enemy space well... you're in enemy space. Obviously you're on the offensive. What would be the point in talking?
There are a few non-combat missions but right now game play is a bit shallow.
That will improve over time, so you can always come back later and check it out.
Episode missions will give some variety, and there are some missions in which you run around and scan things.
One thing to be careful about is getting the wrong idea based on ENT, TOS, and TNG. The mission of the Enterprise has always been one of exploration, so those series have provided a view of primarily that side of Starfleet. The Star Trek universe is larger than that type of mission, though.. and has more practical aspects.
Got to keep in mind that while you have your exploration ships out there, the Federation is huge and Starfleet is also its police force. Police don't often find themselves in negotiating positions but do tend to find themselves in harm's way. DS9 showed best that just maintaining peace in an area of space can be a troublesome job, and this game is based heavily on the feel of that series.
:rolleyes::rolleyes: thank you for you're Valid opinion, and great use of thread space. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
If your going to complain, at least give some constructive criticism please.
it is more geared towards combat however, what with the war and all
the story missions become a lot more involved, and interesting, you'll find yourself wanting to do more and more.. well i do anyway.
my personal hope, and one i've banked a lifetime sub on, is that they will work in more non combat missions, and more different types of non combat missions, i'd really like to see variable outcome missions, where a decision made affects what plays out in the rest of the mission etc.. it just may take some time to get there.
I'm not sure how to do in-depth diplomacy stuff or whatever without creating more of that single-player feeling. I did that newb diplomacy mission last night where you talk to colonists about their complaints and answer a few questions to finish the quest, and it was...underwhelming.
it'd be tricky to work out, and thats probably why we've not seen it yet..
Starfleet as a police force is how it *should* be, but that is not what happens here.
Your facts are not accurate either, the police negotiates a lot more than it fights. In fact, police are trained specifically to direct a confrontation to a non-violent resolution when possible. Police will rarely fire first (I know for a fact that a lot of police officers out there would rather risk getting wounded than harming citizens) and cannot just go around shooting suspects.
Even in DS9, I can argue that Sisko had a significant amount of encounters with Jem'hadar that did not result in combat, or at least not in the sort of kill on sight combat we see here.
This entire war isn't even in style, since both factions are fighting over nothing, and the Federation seems to be in open war with the Romulans too, also for no proper reason.
no one of the missions you get a part of it anyways requires you to talk to some workers in a mine.. no fighting at all
Meaning that there are enemies but you can complete the objectives without firing a shot if you want.
I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Just look how much trouble people have finding Sulu, the constant asking how to do stuff would never end if they made the non-combat missions more complicated!
Such as, a mission where federation is in peace talks with cardassia (or what's left) and show of good faith, Starfleet orders you to destroy a ship full of exMarquis rebels that entered federation space seeking asylum. It turns out however those people were POWs of the Dominion War, regardless Federation still wants the ship destroyed.
You can choose not to kill them and as a result you loose Federation Rep and Cardassian rep, but your humanty rep goes up.
If you make choices that goes against humanitarian morals but ones that protect and preserve the Federation, you secrectly gain points in another faction and when it's high enough, you get a visit from Section 31.
Or you take missions from The Syndicate and smuggle arms and people all over the place for them, not realizing you are suppling arms to an antiFedetation jihad group or sneaking Changelings deep into Federation space. But as a reward, you can buy weapon rates from the Syndicate but loose access to certain federation missions.
& there is talk about adding political & mystery missions to the explorer ones, but they didn't say when that stuff would be added.
Sulu: Goto the Ultima System and get me 5 Altarian Rat Tails..
No, but if the suspects have already committed violence or shown dangerous, hostile intent, and can be eliminated without risking civilians, then the police very well have the right to open fire.
So lets look at STO.
Most peoples' "first experiences" that they refer to when asking "is this it?" are based in Federation space; meaning the Gorn, Orions, and Klingons have already shown dangerous intent by being where they are with their weapons armed. We're talking weapons capable of leveling outposts and laying ruin to planets- you don't let them fire first if their weapons are already charged and aimed. The conflict has begun before you even arrived.
They're also in vessels in space, so they can pretty often be attacked without risk to civilians.
Also, while police officers are trained to control a situation, they're not negotiators. There are men and women in the police force who go through extra training to reach that level. Picard, as captain of the flagship, obviously received similar training.. but even he wasn't a full ambassador. Our level of diplomacy as ship captains will and always should be inherently limited.
There were quite a few episodes like this, yes... before the Dominion War began. Consider the episode when the DS9 crew goes behind enemy lines in the Dominion ship. The Federation centaur that attacks them didn't try hailing them first, did it? I'm pretty sure it came in guns blazing.
According to the backstory the Klingons have already annexed several Federation worlds. Fighting over nothing?
If you meet intelligent life then try to be diplomatic and you may even be making first contact with a new ally that could join the federation, you may also be walking into a trap, care is advised. Also keep an eye out for new quests on these planets as there are sometime quest chains to do that can yeild great rewards. The best thing though is that you may not be the only player on this planet, some klingon players may also have beamed down to secure the planet from themselves and remember out in deep space it's all pvp enabled.
Anyway once back on your ship, pull up the navigation map and set course for another system or planet, while the ship warps away feel free to take a walk down to engineering, sick bay, armoury or the holodeck. Did you know you can also go to your personal quarters and craft new weapons, armour, shields, devices etc, depending on your profession. And don;t worry about your ship, if your bridge crew pick up any unusual signals they will hail you asap.
Sorry I must apologise to you, I keep forgetting Cryptic made this game and not someone like Blizzard, so to answer your question, yes it's boring all the way through, Cryptic lack both the vision and the programming skill to make a proper ST game.
This brought a tear to my eye, well done!
Thankfully you won't have to do any of that after you reach level cap because there isn't actually anything to do at that point.
But $15 a month is hardly a lot to pay for all that is it?
I would laugh at your post but tbh as a trek fan it's really sad that this game is so shallow.