First Impressions

Well, actually, second ones. Had a bit of time earlier in the week and played the Patrol Mission. Enjoyed it. Tholians are decent in a space fight. The Web caught me off guard once or twice. However, using the Jump Console allowed me to escape. Just finished wandering around Mol'Rihan for the second time as well. Wasn't doing anything other then sightseeing but did help the Foreman out with the Staging Area mission. Reminded me of the "Of Bajor" and Defera PvE missions which I enjoy a lot. All three make for a nice change from the 'pew pew pew' which seems to be so central to STO. Mol'Rihan is top shelf eye candy. Looks like an alien planet ought to look. Ran into some Hirogen during my walkabout. Nice touch.

Now onto the 'Reputation' and 'Marks' thingies. Lots of doom and gloom on these threads about how this will "simply ruin" STO. Just exactly like the switch to EDC's, Salvage and Tech for MACO and KHG gear did when they were introduced. Reputation system will ruin STO? In a word - nonsense. I like the idea of a reputation for my toon. I think people ought to have some way other than how purple their ship or Away Team is of showing what they've accomplished. I like the idea of having goals and accomplishments besides securing MK XII purple gear so I can go out and redo the missions wherein I earned all that gear over and over again. That I now have to decide whether the Fleet Base or my Reputation are more important at the moment means I face a challenge every time I have enough resources to contribute to one or the other. I do not believe I'll ever have enough resources to contribute to both in equal measure at the same time. Nor should I.

Some will call this Grinding and complain about it. Some will complain about how the MACO gear is awarded now. Some will complain about how their favorite part of STO is now irrevocably wrecked. Learned a long time ago when modding Star Trek:Armada II no matter how good my public releases were, someone always complained.

I think you're onto something good here, Devs. I am encouraged by what I view as a decent beginning. I can see where it has flaws and needs tweaking but S7 is still what a game expansion is supposed to be - Entertaining. Haven't had to work hard against PvE opponents for quite some time. The Tholians caught me on my back foot initially and I had to hustle a bit to keep up. And yes, they got me a couple of times before clean living prevailed. The Fleet Base was and is a little too resource intensive for my tastes. The Reputation system, with its reduced resource requirements, is a positive step in the right direction. Making Fleet Missions more important for earning stuff is as well. Means I have to spend more time with my mates in the Fleet doing stuff together.

And a final note to those of you who disagree with my views and will post here to dispute them. I play this game for my entertainment. Not yours. I really do not care how 'wrong' you think I am. I care even less why you think your opinion is the only which matters. Nor am I going to look at how you play STO and pass judgement in public on it. To me, what matters is this: Are you having fun when you sit in the Big Chair and warp out to save the Deferi from the clutches of the evil Breen once more? If you are, great! Fun and entertainment are what all of this are supposed to be about. If playing STO is neither and you find yourself stridently proclaiming the latest mistake PWE/Cryptic has made to everyone, it may be time to think about something other than STO for a bit. Just to regain a sense of perspective.

I've gone on a bit longer than I intended but before I depart a couple of things.

1) Could we please have some sort of reward for PvP other than just braggin' rights? Doesn't have to be anything large, just something to encourage more people to enter the lists and take a joust or two against a live opponent. Always much more entertaining to face a live Captain rather than an AI Captain. Perhaps extending the Reputation system to cover PvP would suffice?

2) Could we give the AI controlling the various opponents some sort of "signature move"? Even on the Elite settings, there is a sameness to the AI which reduces the quality of the fight. I suggest developing a style for each of the races and factions which is separate and unique. For example, having the Romulans run cloaked until they decide to shoot at a player. Worked pretty good in SFC III and made the Romulans there look and feel different from, say, the Klingons.