In any case, I think Cryptic has some work to make Clusters less tiresome and more varied. And hopefully they can come up with some mechanics where "Scan Flora" isn't disguised as "exploration". If clusters were all they were cracked up to be I don't think this debate would have happened.
Something other than the seemingly 90% ground/aid planet mission, 8% scan 5 space anomalies, 2% space battles would be nice. From Captain through RA5, it seems as though nearly every mission is a ground mission when doing clusters, which gets old very fast.
PREFACE
With 100 Pages of posts by the time I got here, I am hardly going to try to read them all to see that my thoughts have already covered.
Body
So, what I would like to say will seem a little off topic, but I assure you it comes around.
1. The Game - I beta tested and played SWG, Star Wars Galaxies Online, and from the very start I was disappointed. All my expectations were crushed and all my fears realized. Due to that I had no expectations, some interest and a tremendous amount of fear of STO ruining my childhood Star Trek memories. I am delighted to say that Cryptic has gone above and beyond my expectations.
2. The Content - So far I love the content, though I can't help to feel my vision is a little broader than Cryptic's was when I was playing some of the "Episodes". For instance, City on the Edge of Never, I fully expected or hoped that the content would lead me to Earth Circa 1930's or something like that. I was pleasantly surprised with the direction it finally did take me in, but I hope that Cryptic keeps some of the classics in mind, like a TOS Episode where Kirk and Co. ended up on a planet which appears to be run by Chicago Mobsters. The possibilities are limitless. Special Note - Cryptic, please consider, if you haven't already, getting in touch with some of the Star Trek series writer's. Get those people on the payroll. Not that I have a problem with your content department. I see so much potential in this game, much more than I ever envisioned when it was first proposed.
3. Mechanics - Please, and I am sure this has been covered, I understand why some of the in system space flight is set up the way that it is, but we need to have the Z-Axis opened up, not to present a new shield face, but to be able to attack the enemy. I've had NPC cruisers park right on top of me and I can't get them in firing arc quickly enough to not get destroyed. I am learning to live with the limitatations, but it's space, the limitations shouldn't be there. My solution to the disorientation that people might encounter is to put in a "center" button. Where you center on the X, Y plane in an "upright" position. When I used to play Star Fleet Battles, the question of ship orientation invariably came up. The mechanic that was determined was the idea that in all the the first starship in system set the tone for what is up, and every arriving starship aligned to that position. This made sense from a tactical stand point since a fleet needs to coordinate.
4. Targetting - This is probably the single biggest gripe I have about the game, mostly in fleet actions. There are 30 ships and chunks of asteroids floating about with high quantities of energy arcs all around me. It's gorgeous, but I can't tell where I am flying in this beautiful, visually stunning mayhem. Could we get a flashing name over the ship we have targeted or a retical with a dot on it showing the targets position in relation to us. I know you guys are overwhelmed with requests, but right now fleet actions simply aren't fun for me for this simple reason.
5. Sensors - Long Range and Short Range - Right now we just have a sensor sweep for anomolies. I would be interested in seeing something usable for showing friendlies, especially in fleet action missions.
Again, I apologize if this isn't the proper place for this post. Cryptic keep up the great work, I am having a lot of fun. Yes there are frustrations, but after 11 years of MMOing, you realize it comes with the territory.
Live Long and Prosper - Metaphorically and Literally
Well, HHJJ, I must admidt, you certainly give me the opportunity to express my displeasure, and displeasure it is at what you just said here. As such, what I say is not out of anger or ill-will of any suchness but you are so absolutely full of TRIBBLE up to your eyeballs for that statement.
While I agree that everyone has the right to express their own ideas and perspective, and I am certainly not with any intention supressing that right by making that statement. There does not need to be a SUPPORT for a debt system like that in CoX. No grinds in any environment, PvE, PvP, Clusters, or whatever. You don't need an abundance of anything to work off debt. Missions in CoX are exactly like they are here in STO ... you get a mission from an NPC, you go to a door to a building, an entrance to a cave, either solo or with a team, and you enter. You arrest (not kill) groups of villains between you and the objective and that's it. Just like here. The only difference is the environment, and the method used for taking out a mob, and CoX's only henchmen are particular to the class of player you choose. In CoX it's arrest/apprehend, in STO it's KILL. In CoX it's henchmen, in STO it's Bridge Officers.
When I played I had 10 level 50 characters (capped) and the only thing I really looked forward to was the Debt because once capped, there is no more XP to be gained. And having to play mobs 5 levels over me was almost always certain death ... not always, but almost always if I didn't have a healer with me.
You should play City of Heroes and City of Villains both before you go debunking the Dept system.
...???
WTF are you talking about?
Of course you need a system in place to support an XP debt because you need somewhere for the XP to come from, and little Joey Sixpack the casual gamer isn't going to want to have to spend five hours to grind off his debt in the Clusters so he can hit level eight and grab the next scripted missions up for grabs, and he will have no other option.
You can't get a level 45 mission at level six in STO, you need to qualify for it by being close enough to the missions level. When you are (and assuming you've finished any prerequisite missions) you can then gain the mission by hailing or visiting a contact.
Levelling is based on XP (or SP if you want to get persnickety). Now, your suggestion is that the game doesn't need a system in place to support a debt system?
Okay, so tell me where all the XP players are going to need will come from? Grinding and PvP? Well, little Joey doesn't want to do that remember, he's expecting to play his nice scripted missions like he found in World of Warcraft. Joey is going to quit if he can't do that, or at least spend most of his time doing it.
Right now, gaining FULL XP from every single mission in the game... Joey can't. It's not there. The missions don't exist for him to hit the cap naturally just playing the scripted content. If you ignore all the random stuff the game, right now, has content gaps. He's going to have to grind, but just a little. He's probably not going to be happy about that.
Now, you want to take some of Joey's XP away. He's now getting LESS from missions where there are ALREADY content gaps (which, yes, I've HIT so I -know- they're there). Where is that XP coming from? Scripted missions? Nope, because there aren't enough WITHOUT taking that XP. So where? Grind? PvP? Basically the stuff that Joey doesn't want to do. The stuff that Joey already HAS to do some of. The stuff that Joey will probably end up quiting over.
This ISN'T City of Heroes, it's not City of Villains. Those games don't have content gaps (anymore). STO does, right now, even without taking XP away from anyone.
just a thought.....what if instead of playing good guys or bad guys you simply improved on somthing already in the game? make traders a playable character. with their own ship class and all.
I just hope that the people that Cryptic asked about death penalty's are not like the infamous Focus groups SOE used pre CU/NGE to wreck any income stream they once had with SWG
I like except for adding a death penalty. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that STO didn't follow the herd and have some stupid penalty. I can't for the life of me see how you can implement a fair or reasonable one given how the game coding works.
Okay, so I've only been playing a week and haven't posted yet, but ...
Death Penalty? Why?
I've quit other games before because of too stringent death penalties. Experience loss in the first Everquest (especially losing a level) has forever hardened me against that sort of concept. It wasn't quite as bad in EQ2, with a "reduced rate of xp gain," but a penalty that removes what's already been earned or reduces the rate of future earning.... That turns a game into work.
And that turns players into people who leave and strongly recommend against the game to their friends that might be curious.
Between lag and warping into the middle of an enemy fleet in an encounter, there's so much outside the control of the player that can contribute to unjustly awarding a death penalty that it doesn't make sense to blast everyone with one arbitrarily. There's an old adage that I think applies: "It's better that a few guilty go free than to unjustly punish a single innocent."
The only reason a death penalty of any sort could make sense is in competitive (read, PVP) encounters, which I haven't done yet, so can't speak for how they work. But ... in that case, just start upping the respawn timer for subsequent deaths so that perhaps it "means something" where it needs to mean something, and isn't forced upon people everywhere else...
Well, The Users think that we need to do more non-combat."
"Guys, I'm sorry to interrupt, but The Players really want ground auto-attack back. Drop what we're doing."
WOH WOH WOH Hold the phone! Which one of you scum bag trollers made them put ground auto fire over PVE content!!!!! TELL ME SO I CAN STRANGLE YOU!!!! AND HOLD YOU DOWN IN A FIRE AND WATCH YOU BURRRRRN BABY!!!!!!!!!
And in response to the post directly above mine about death penalty. I agree that the death penalty should be significantly lower if not nonexistent in PVE battles because sometimes you just can not do anything about the fact that the Borg will kill you. But in PVP I believe it is a necessity to add more strategic battles instead of RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH KEEP RUSHING. About the lag issue, 1. Lower your quality setting 2. get a better internet connection 3. buy a better graphics card/better computer and finnaly 4. stop downloading TRIBBLE while playing STO. following those easy steps will solve your problem with lag.
I'm excited to hear that the developers are heavily engaged in repairing issues with game performance and designing better game interaction! Along with Cryptic sending out invitations for players to give feedback, I can tell that they are showing interest in how the gamers feel about the MMO. Many developers fix bugs, but not all developers out there put a lot of work in to modifying their game's design after launch. This is great to hear, now we anxiously await the results.
For my short experience into this MMO reaching only mid-way in to the rank of Lt. Commander, I have seen a lot of combat. The Ground combat which reminded me of Mass Effect 1, is without much cover, and enemies tend to constantly rush at me with their blades while I have little option for melee defense or offense. That is until I played a Klingon, and began chopping all of my enemies down with my bat'leth. I thought that picking a Vulcan character would give a melee advantage, but the neck pinch isn't very effective with a 4 minute cool down and no complimenting abilities. When it comes to space combat, Star Trek Online has managed to capture all I expected at the beginnig. All of the various weapons I expected in a Star Trek game are there. I have a lot of control over ship systems, and the dog fight style of the combat is a vast improvement over Eve's version of space fighting. I can only hope to see more of the many ship modifications I can add on in the future.
Ground combat and space combat abound, but in all of the fighting I lost track of the story. I remember how I managed to start running my own ship, but the little bit of information I've managed to pay attention to in the mission texts isn't giving me a great sense of purpose. And, where are the science and logic puzzles that are scene so often with anything Star Trek related? When I'm constantly being asked to fight off groups of enemy factions on the ground or in space, I don't get that traditional sci-fi, techie feel I loved so much when watching the TV shows and movies. My greatest wish for the game is to see science and logic puzzle elements added in to the mission structure.
With the great efforts to improve the game and a fantastic starting point, I have much optymizm for the future of Star Trek Online. I'm sure that we'll be seeing a rich and immersive Star Trek world to play in for many years.
My two cents: No death penalty! If someone wants a death penalty they can opt in to a system that sends energy credits (or starfleet merits or whatever) to those of us that don't want one. (I've had enough of damn death penalties in CoH to continue to last the rest of my natural lifespan...) There are more people in the game than the people that complain. (Bartle has a name for that rule, but I don't recall it, at the moment.)
Also, I'm still confused by the respec issue: I thought the point was that eventually (given time enough) someone might gain advantage of every skill (perhaps like Eve, but not time based)? It still seems like a good idea to me. Starfleet Captains/Admirals seem to be true scholars and have any skill that they need at their fingertips. Respecs don't feel right to me...
State of the Game post very much appreciated. Based on what was said I'd say Cryptic are very in touch with the the STO player base. That can only spell good things for the game's future!
I for one hope this DP is an option to turn on. i also wonder who all these people that want it as it seems most of the people I know are against a DP.
I know I be turning off the auto join team if they add a DP in. Today i was team with some that went afk and let me finish the mission by my self after the first of four mobs.
One little thing that would go a long way is a mod post on threads saying something along the lines of "this idea has been heard, it's being discussed"
great job cryptic on keeping your subscribers up to date on what your working on. I would like to see more of this, including long term projects and expected release dates. STO is a great looking and fun game, but a little repetitive. As a subscriber i am happy to see the effort you are puting into expanding game content. Keep up the good work
Also, I'm still confused by the respec issue: I thought the point was that eventually (given time enough) someone might gain advantage of every skill (perhaps like Eve, but not time based)? It still seems like a good idea to me. Starfleet Captains/Admirals seem to be true scholars and have any skill that they need at their fingertips. Respecs don't feel right to me...
They added a skillpoint cap (shortly after launch I believe). But even before that, you could only learn ground skills from your division (sci, eng, tac). All space skills are available to everyone, however. So no, you don't have enough skillpoints to learn everything available to you. We'll need respecs.
Since you said your listening to what we would like to see in the game, I have seen so many people talk about Battleships, we see them in the game, in missions, and doing guard duty at Spacedock and Gamma Orionis, Typhoon Class Battleship, So how about letting us RA 50 useing the Battleships that you have in the game already, if your trying to figure out what ship to let us use next at RA 50.
Thank you very much cryptic, just knowing you are all listening and will continue to grow this fantastic Star Trek Universe lets me know that lifetime subscription was the right call!
I will see you all around in the galaxy! Thanks again.
I just hope that the people that Cryptic asked about death penalty's are not like the infamous Focus groups SOE used pre CU/NGE to wreck any income stream they once had with SWG
Gah...NOOO if this goes the CU way I will cry. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, and it would seem to me, that no one was "asked" about this. A small group of harcores on the forums volunteered the opinions on this and have been volunteering their opinions since before launch when i was saying "NO DP!" The game has gotten this far without a DP and I don't here a single person saying "I'm quiting over no DP." I hear people saying "I am quiting because it is too easy." These are the same people who want 40 man raid teams where 90% of you die and it takes 7 hours. I am a Starship captain, in 98% of the TOS episodes, The Enterprise solves the problems solo.
Death Penalty is just a waste of time. The game does not have enough content as is and the DP will just make it worse. The Champs DP is laughable and pointless and the CoH xp debt XPs are mind numbingly boring. Gear degredation openalties are painful and ultimatley a downward spiral for all but the most harcore. A minigame with balancing reactor levels? WTH? I'm the Captain not some low level Engineering Ensign, why would I be down balancing levels or realigning photon arrays? How bout this they make a mini game for that and you can come work on my ship and do it.
For god sake, leave the DP issue die already Devs. Come out and make a statement that there will never be a DP and be done with it. Learn the real mind of the player base and don't make decisions on a whiny minority.
Does this term scare anyone else that they COULD be charging for for this UPDATE?
I don't mind the idea of paying for extra FLUFF content but this is all meaningful game matters. As much as I have been patient with the start of STO, being an experienced MMO player, I will be VERY disappointed if they start trying to charge for things such as this.
Very encouraging letter. It's good to see they're jumping in with both feet, hands, and a few other appendages.
I also do not want a death penalty until steps are taken to keep people from dying from things which cannot be avoided (such as getting zoned into the middle of an enemy fleet). Right now it's just too freaking easy to die for there to be a significant death penalty.
I'm not sure how difficulty sliders are to work. If it JUST makes things more difficult they don't sound like they'd make a lot of sense. If it also increases the reward then they'd make sense.
If they're looking for short term things to add. My suggestion would be more ships. Lots and lots of different kinds of ships with different optional configurations. Give people as much of a choice as possible. Stretch the system as much as they can to add variety, then add to the system so they can stretch it some more. Have varieties of each ship with non standard configurations (for example, escort ships with fewer tactical consoles and more engineering or science consoles -- comparable switching around for science and engineering ships -- shields which are not uniform in all directions, different numbers of front and back weapon slots, ships which are faster but less maneuverable, ships which are slower but more maneuverable).
They'll probably also need something for all those maxed out rear admirals pretty soon as advancement is so rapid.
Does this term scare anyone else that they COULD be charging for for this UPDATE?
I don't mind the idea of paying for extra FLUFF content but this is all meaningful game matters. As much as I have been patient with the start of STO, being an experienced MMO player, I will be VERY disappointed if they start trying to charge for things such as this.
They've clearly stated that this upcoming content is free...
I think we'll see a paid expansion when the new faction comes along.
I would have to agree with the no death penalty. There are two reasons for this: 1) DP are simply annoying and constatnly set you back, and it is also way to easy to die in this game. 2) If there is an equipment errosion system then it is again very annoying. On other MMORPGs those were the two reasons I hated playing most. Usually end up spending so much money on repairs, that there was never enough to do anyhing else. This is espically true since I couldn't play much on them, since I needed time devoted to other pursuits.
As for ship interors...AWSOME...about time. Can't wait to see that. Along with some buyable stuff to personal the captain's quarters or something.
Hopefully there will be some open ened diplomatic missions in the future witha real chance to fail at it.
Glad to see u Know that we NEED a 1st Officer. I was upset when I hit Admiral and couldn't turn one my BO's into my 1st Officer. But Come on I Thott we would at Least get our Capt. Office AKA HOUSE in this update. Of corse we would need Furniture , Trophy's , trinket's and Ect to Put in our Home. Glad to see u are adding some to the Crafting . Hopefully when will seee some Recipe's SOON. Yes it would be nice if u even Added some Sub Classes to Recipe's only Eng's can make Ship compont's, ONLY Tach's can make Weapon's and ship Weapon's, and of corse the Science folk's can make Console's , Consumable's, and Something else Something GOOD since Tach and Eng got the best 2 hehe. THIS CAN< AND HOPEFUL BE A GREAT MMO. If u play your Card's right and ADD some Great MMO Fun time comsumin Mini game's,Crafting system ( That work's good) and Housing. U will Have a Wonderful and long lasting Game. OHHHHH YES Don't forget to give us a Couple more Shard's to this 1 Shard idoesn't make for a Great MMO . Ppl love to get to know the ppl on there Server and it is just nice to Have at Least a Few shard for like minded ppl. You know how many ppl HATE YES HATE see the U.S.S BOOTLICK or U.S.S SPITONU. With a RP Shard we could go have a Nice MMO exp. So even if u just have 3 Shard's.( PvP,Rp, and Test AKA Tribble) With Rule's Like in a Rp Shard u and your Ship has to have a Rp Fill this would make a Majority of your Sub Extramly Happy. So Capt Jack Me Hog in the U.S.S SHOOT2MANY can do his thing with out Killing the mood for us that would like to get into the world we came to love in this short time.
Thank You,
Capt. Thourak
P.S Like Many on this Fourm I agree with DP there shouldn't be one till the fix the Ship's Farming the warp in point on Deep space encounter's. U are died by the time u warp in or down to 10% and die 10 sec's after u warp in. I don't mind Repair's I will pay for a Repair bill, BUT if u start taking my Xp we willl be fighting hehe. But for real I work hard for the xp I get I don't need to lose it because I enter into a Dread or flagship when I warp into the zone. Plus I uselly only die 1 to 3 per PvP compared to the 12 kills I get. But the name of the Game is kill them 40 time's . WAIT die 40 time but u are to get a DP this doesn't make since. If I'm to Kill a team 40 time's and say it's one of these PvP matches I been in where only 2 on my side choose to enter and all there's did So now I die 20 time's my Partner die's 20 time's which some death was because they rezzed me ON THE KLING GROUP WHAT YES U HEARD ME ON ON ON THEM Instant Death.
Comments
Something other than the seemingly 90% ground/aid planet mission, 8% scan 5 space anomalies, 2% space battles would be nice. From Captain through RA5, it seems as though nearly every mission is a ground mission when doing clusters, which gets old very fast.
With 100 Pages of posts by the time I got here, I am hardly going to try to read them all to see that my thoughts have already covered.
Body
So, what I would like to say will seem a little off topic, but I assure you it comes around.
1. The Game - I beta tested and played SWG, Star Wars Galaxies Online, and from the very start I was disappointed. All my expectations were crushed and all my fears realized. Due to that I had no expectations, some interest and a tremendous amount of fear of STO ruining my childhood Star Trek memories. I am delighted to say that Cryptic has gone above and beyond my expectations.
2. The Content - So far I love the content, though I can't help to feel my vision is a little broader than Cryptic's was when I was playing some of the "Episodes". For instance, City on the Edge of Never, I fully expected or hoped that the content would lead me to Earth Circa 1930's or something like that. I was pleasantly surprised with the direction it finally did take me in, but I hope that Cryptic keeps some of the classics in mind, like a TOS Episode where Kirk and Co. ended up on a planet which appears to be run by Chicago Mobsters. The possibilities are limitless. Special Note - Cryptic, please consider, if you haven't already, getting in touch with some of the Star Trek series writer's. Get those people on the payroll. Not that I have a problem with your content department. I see so much potential in this game, much more than I ever envisioned when it was first proposed.
3. Mechanics - Please, and I am sure this has been covered, I understand why some of the in system space flight is set up the way that it is, but we need to have the Z-Axis opened up, not to present a new shield face, but to be able to attack the enemy. I've had NPC cruisers park right on top of me and I can't get them in firing arc quickly enough to not get destroyed. I am learning to live with the limitatations, but it's space, the limitations shouldn't be there. My solution to the disorientation that people might encounter is to put in a "center" button. Where you center on the X, Y plane in an "upright" position. When I used to play Star Fleet Battles, the question of ship orientation invariably came up. The mechanic that was determined was the idea that in all the the first starship in system set the tone for what is up, and every arriving starship aligned to that position. This made sense from a tactical stand point since a fleet needs to coordinate.
4. Targetting - This is probably the single biggest gripe I have about the game, mostly in fleet actions. There are 30 ships and chunks of asteroids floating about with high quantities of energy arcs all around me. It's gorgeous, but I can't tell where I am flying in this beautiful, visually stunning mayhem. Could we get a flashing name over the ship we have targeted or a retical with a dot on it showing the targets position in relation to us. I know you guys are overwhelmed with requests, but right now fleet actions simply aren't fun for me for this simple reason.
5. Sensors - Long Range and Short Range - Right now we just have a sensor sweep for anomolies. I would be interested in seeing something usable for showing friendlies, especially in fleet action missions.
Again, I apologize if this isn't the proper place for this post. Cryptic keep up the great work, I am having a lot of fun. Yes there are frustrations, but after 11 years of MMOing, you realize it comes with the territory.
Live Long and Prosper - Metaphorically and Literally
WTF are you talking about?
Of course you need a system in place to support an XP debt because you need somewhere for the XP to come from, and little Joey Sixpack the casual gamer isn't going to want to have to spend five hours to grind off his debt in the Clusters so he can hit level eight and grab the next scripted missions up for grabs, and he will have no other option.
You can't get a level 45 mission at level six in STO, you need to qualify for it by being close enough to the missions level. When you are (and assuming you've finished any prerequisite missions) you can then gain the mission by hailing or visiting a contact.
Levelling is based on XP (or SP if you want to get persnickety). Now, your suggestion is that the game doesn't need a system in place to support a debt system?
Okay, so tell me where all the XP players are going to need will come from? Grinding and PvP? Well, little Joey doesn't want to do that remember, he's expecting to play his nice scripted missions like he found in World of Warcraft. Joey is going to quit if he can't do that, or at least spend most of his time doing it.
Right now, gaining FULL XP from every single mission in the game... Joey can't. It's not there. The missions don't exist for him to hit the cap naturally just playing the scripted content. If you ignore all the random stuff the game, right now, has content gaps. He's going to have to grind, but just a little. He's probably not going to be happy about that.
Now, you want to take some of Joey's XP away. He's now getting LESS from missions where there are ALREADY content gaps (which, yes, I've HIT so I -know- they're there). Where is that XP coming from? Scripted missions? Nope, because there aren't enough WITHOUT taking that XP. So where? Grind? PvP? Basically the stuff that Joey doesn't want to do. The stuff that Joey already HAS to do some of. The stuff that Joey will probably end up quiting over.
This ISN'T City of Heroes, it's not City of Villains. Those games don't have content gaps (anymore). STO does, right now, even without taking XP away from anyone.
Death Penalty? Why?
I've quit other games before because of too stringent death penalties. Experience loss in the first Everquest (especially losing a level) has forever hardened me against that sort of concept. It wasn't quite as bad in EQ2, with a "reduced rate of xp gain," but a penalty that removes what's already been earned or reduces the rate of future earning.... That turns a game into work.
And that turns players into people who leave and strongly recommend against the game to their friends that might be curious.
Between lag and warping into the middle of an enemy fleet in an encounter, there's so much outside the control of the player that can contribute to unjustly awarding a death penalty that it doesn't make sense to blast everyone with one arbitrarily. There's an old adage that I think applies: "It's better that a few guilty go free than to unjustly punish a single innocent."
The only reason a death penalty of any sort could make sense is in competitive (read, PVP) encounters, which I haven't done yet, so can't speak for how they work. But ... in that case, just start upping the respawn timer for subsequent deaths so that perhaps it "means something" where it needs to mean something, and isn't forced upon people everywhere else...
R/
--mei
"Guys, I'm sorry to interrupt, but The Players really want ground auto-attack back. Drop what we're doing."
WOH WOH WOH Hold the phone! Which one of you scum bag trollers made them put ground auto fire over PVE content!!!!! TELL ME SO I CAN STRANGLE YOU!!!! AND HOLD YOU DOWN IN A FIRE AND WATCH YOU BURRRRRN BABY!!!!!!!!!
And in response to the post directly above mine about death penalty. I agree that the death penalty should be significantly lower if not nonexistent in PVE battles because sometimes you just can not do anything about the fact that the Borg will kill you. But in PVP I believe it is a necessity to add more strategic battles instead of RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH KEEP RUSHING. About the lag issue, 1. Lower your quality setting 2. get a better internet connection 3. buy a better graphics card/better computer and finnaly 4. stop downloading TRIBBLE while playing STO. following those easy steps will solve your problem with lag.
For my short experience into this MMO reaching only mid-way in to the rank of Lt. Commander, I have seen a lot of combat. The Ground combat which reminded me of Mass Effect 1, is without much cover, and enemies tend to constantly rush at me with their blades while I have little option for melee defense or offense. That is until I played a Klingon, and began chopping all of my enemies down with my bat'leth. I thought that picking a Vulcan character would give a melee advantage, but the neck pinch isn't very effective with a 4 minute cool down and no complimenting abilities. When it comes to space combat, Star Trek Online has managed to capture all I expected at the beginnig. All of the various weapons I expected in a Star Trek game are there. I have a lot of control over ship systems, and the dog fight style of the combat is a vast improvement over Eve's version of space fighting. I can only hope to see more of the many ship modifications I can add on in the future.
Ground combat and space combat abound, but in all of the fighting I lost track of the story. I remember how I managed to start running my own ship, but the little bit of information I've managed to pay attention to in the mission texts isn't giving me a great sense of purpose. And, where are the science and logic puzzles that are scene so often with anything Star Trek related? When I'm constantly being asked to fight off groups of enemy factions on the ground or in space, I don't get that traditional sci-fi, techie feel I loved so much when watching the TV shows and movies. My greatest wish for the game is to see science and logic puzzle elements added in to the mission structure.
With the great efforts to improve the game and a fantastic starting point, I have much optymizm for the future of Star Trek Online. I'm sure that we'll be seeing a rich and immersive Star Trek world to play in for many years.
Also, I'm still confused by the respec issue: I thought the point was that eventually (given time enough) someone might gain advantage of every skill (perhaps like Eve, but not time based)? It still seems like a good idea to me. Starfleet Captains/Admirals seem to be true scholars and have any skill that they need at their fingertips. Respecs don't feel right to me...
I know I be turning off the auto join team if they add a DP in. Today i was team with some that went afk and let me finish the mission by my self after the first of four mobs.
even small ideas deserve a chance
They added a skillpoint cap (shortly after launch I believe). But even before that, you could only learn ground skills from your division (sci, eng, tac). All space skills are available to everyone, however. So no, you don't have enough skillpoints to learn everything available to you. We'll need respecs.
LvL 50 Battleships ?
I will see you all around in the galaxy! Thanks again.
Gah...NOOO if this goes the CU way I will cry. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, and it would seem to me, that no one was "asked" about this. A small group of harcores on the forums volunteered the opinions on this and have been volunteering their opinions since before launch when i was saying "NO DP!" The game has gotten this far without a DP and I don't here a single person saying "I'm quiting over no DP." I hear people saying "I am quiting because it is too easy." These are the same people who want 40 man raid teams where 90% of you die and it takes 7 hours. I am a Starship captain, in 98% of the TOS episodes, The Enterprise solves the problems solo.
Death Penalty is just a waste of time. The game does not have enough content as is and the DP will just make it worse. The Champs DP is laughable and pointless and the CoH xp debt XPs are mind numbingly boring. Gear degredation openalties are painful and ultimatley a downward spiral for all but the most harcore. A minigame with balancing reactor levels? WTH? I'm the Captain not some low level Engineering Ensign, why would I be down balancing levels or realigning photon arrays? How bout this they make a mini game for that and you can come work on my ship and do it.
For god sake, leave the DP issue die already Devs. Come out and make a statement that there will never be a DP and be done with it. Learn the real mind of the player base and don't make decisions on a whiny minority.
Does this term scare anyone else that they COULD be charging for for this UPDATE?
I don't mind the idea of paying for extra FLUFF content but this is all meaningful game matters. As much as I have been patient with the start of STO, being an experienced MMO player, I will be VERY disappointed if they start trying to charge for things such as this.
I also do not want a death penalty until steps are taken to keep people from dying from things which cannot be avoided (such as getting zoned into the middle of an enemy fleet). Right now it's just too freaking easy to die for there to be a significant death penalty.
I'm not sure how difficulty sliders are to work. If it JUST makes things more difficult they don't sound like they'd make a lot of sense. If it also increases the reward then they'd make sense.
If they're looking for short term things to add. My suggestion would be more ships. Lots and lots of different kinds of ships with different optional configurations. Give people as much of a choice as possible. Stretch the system as much as they can to add variety, then add to the system so they can stretch it some more. Have varieties of each ship with non standard configurations (for example, escort ships with fewer tactical consoles and more engineering or science consoles -- comparable switching around for science and engineering ships -- shields which are not uniform in all directions, different numbers of front and back weapon slots, ships which are faster but less maneuverable, ships which are slower but more maneuverable).
They'll probably also need something for all those maxed out rear admirals pretty soon as advancement is so rapid.
Anyway, overall it sounds really good.
I'm pretty much a carved-out-of-wood old soldier, but "klingon ships" plural almost brought a tear.
They've clearly stated that this upcoming content is free...
I think we'll see a paid expansion when the new faction comes along.
As for ship interors...AWSOME...about time. Can't wait to see that. Along with some buyable stuff to personal the captain's quarters or something.
Hopefully there will be some open ened diplomatic missions in the future witha real chance to fail at it.
Thank You,
Capt. Thourak
P.S Like Many on this Fourm I agree with DP there shouldn't be one till the fix the Ship's Farming the warp in point on Deep space encounter's. U are died by the time u warp in or down to 10% and die 10 sec's after u warp in. I don't mind Repair's I will pay for a Repair bill, BUT if u start taking my Xp we willl be fighting hehe. But for real I work hard for the xp I get I don't need to lose it because I enter into a Dread or flagship when I warp into the zone. Plus I uselly only die 1 to 3 per PvP compared to the 12 kills I get. But the name of the Game is kill them 40 time's . WAIT die 40 time but u are to get a DP this doesn't make since. If I'm to Kill a team 40 time's and say it's one of these PvP matches I been in where only 2 on my side choose to enter and all there's did So now I die 20 time's my Partner die's 20 time's which some death was because they rezzed me ON THE KLING GROUP WHAT YES U HEARD ME ON ON ON THEM Instant Death.