Happy Free to Play Anniversary!

sophlogimo · January 2013

Today it is exactly one year ago that Star Trek Online went free To Play.

I just jumped into "testing" it (hah, who was I fooling) when the servers came back up as free to play after that patch. I was instantly caught, and while of course you also need to adjust your expectations when coming to an IP-based game, I knew after a few hours that I would be playing this game for a long, long time. And look, today I am a lifer... with seven toons and many cool ships to command.

This was, all things considered, an awesome year of Star Trek entertainment for me.

Happy anniversary, STO!

plox21 · January 2013

happy F2P anniversary mate , now i want to see faces of everyone who yell that F2P model will fail in few months lol.

arcademaster · January 2013

Happy Anniversary!

I also started back then. I just wanted to take a quick look, I wasn't expecting anything. I read reviews on launch that said the game was meh and I played other MMOs and never liked any of them enough to stick more than the free month. Now I'm still playing STO. Never expected that! Sure there were some droughts and some drama along the way, but such things are just unavoidable in a living, evolving game.

Good job devs, and to another good year for STO!

rs2965 · January 2013

The year went by fast.

The subscription model is dead. I think most everyone has finally seen the absurdity of paying $15/month to play one game.

That said; I think it was reasonable for people to be skeptical of the f2p model and it is still an evolving model and there are many games that aren't getting right.

STO is far from a perfect game, much of which is still due to the unfortunate circumstances involved in the pre-launch development of the game, but the STO team did an admirable job moving it to f2p.

The devs of this game has managed to find a way to be fair to the player base, keep the game fun for those who wish not to spend much, and earn a profit and invest in making the game better.

I have to say, well done.

sekritagent · January 2013

Fine, I'll be "that guy":

Higher costs across the board, especially dilithium for fleet bases, reputation projects, and then once you're over those paywalls, ON TOP OF THAT more to get actual items.
Small fleets completely or mostly dead in the water on Fleet base advancement, loud and repeated calls for smaller bases for small fleets have been met with a concern about exploiting joining fleets - when obviously the bigger concern is SMALL FLEETS LEAVING THE GAME (that is 3 years old, a niche genre, slow on development, and doesn't have a great reputation...priorities please Mr Stahl?)
Almost zero story advancement, the sole exception being the New Romulus opening sequence and the reputation missions and The 2800 FE Series.
100% mindless zerg maps that don't even pay well for your time, as you're mowing down Tholians/Borg/Undine/Gorn/Rebel Klingons/take your pick in both ground and space.
The other extreme being mostly unengaging content on New Romulus. Here Admiral, scan this rock or pick up this report on the ground. (BTW you should have had only the starting zone be like this, the others should have been like in "Of Bajor").
Many more lockboxes, many more exceedingly expensive Lobi store items.
Z-Store sales extremely few and far between, store stocked with items of dubious build quality (Aquarius bridge anyone?) and poor value now that they're outclassed by Fleet ships.
A huge list of equipment, power, and doff nerfs.
Almost no updates to Duty Officer missions except to add more doffs, nerf existing doffs, and increase the upgrade grinder costs by 5000%.
No PVP advancement.
Dilithium Exchange effectively useless for buying dilithium since the market has completely collapsed.
2-3 year old bugs still not resolved (Intrepid underside, Nova saucer, Exchange bugs still abound, power tray not responding...but we did get 700 Day Android options thanks to someone volunteering personal time )

So is this game going in the right direction?

Remind me why this is a happy anniversary?

origcaptainquack · January 2013

i have to agree. not only the f2p but the transition to pwe from atari. the game is much better now then it was when owned by atari.

i would like to see an event today to celebrate it like pvp contest or pve contest of sometype.

twg042370 · January 2013

sekritagent wrote: »

Remind me why this is a happy anniversary?

The game survived Atari trying to strangle it in it's crib and is now producing new stuff on a regular basis.

solidneutronium · January 2013

sekritagent wrote: »

Remind me why this is a happy anniversary?

We are able to log in and play?
Happy FTP anniversary!:D

olivia211 · January 2013

FTP brought me in, but now I am actually happy to fork over a little dough not only because I like the clothing here, but also because I feel like the community is much stronger and closer. Also, it feels like the DEVs actually pay attention to us. At least, that's been my experience as I did have a short twitter conversation with Mr. Brandon and he seemed to really care about any issues I was having with the game. With WOW, it never felt like the GMs or DEVs really cared about us at all. They were gonna do their own thing regardless of our feedback.

Here is very different. A smaller MMO (or a free one) does not mean worse in this case. Sure, there are still bugs, but the fun I have here makes up for it.

sheppardus · January 2013

sekritagent wrote: »

Fine, I'll be "that guy":
Higher costs across the board, especially dilithium for fleet bases, reputation projects, and then once you're over those paywalls, ON TOP OF THAT more to get actual items.

Small fleets completely or mostly dead in the water on Fleet base advancement, loud and repeated calls for smaller bases for small fleets have been met with a concern about exploiting joining fleets - when obviously the bigger concern is SMALL FLEETS LEAVING THE GAME (that is 3 years old, a niche genre, slow on development, and doesn't have a great reputation...priorities please Mr Stahl?)

Almost zero story advancement, the sole exception being the New Romulus opening sequence and the reputation missions and The 2800 FE Series.

100% mindless zerg maps that don't even pay well for your time, as you're mowing down Tholians/Borg/Undine/Gorn/Rebel Klingons/take your pick in both ground and space.

The other extreme being mostly unengaging content on New Romulus. Here Admiral, scan this rock or pick up this report on the ground. (BTW you should have had only the starting zone be like this, the others should have been like in "Of Bajor").

Many more lockboxes, many more exceedingly expensive Lobi store items.

Z-Store sales extremely few and far between, store stocked with items of dubious build quality (Aquarius bridge anyone?) and poor value now that they're outclassed by Fleet ships.

A huge list of equipment, power, and doff nerfs.

Almost no updates to Duty Officer missions except to add more doffs, nerf existing doffs, and increase the upgrade grinder costs by 5000%.

No PVP advancement.

Dilithium Exchange effectively useless for buying dilithium since the market has completely collapsed.

2-3 year old bugs still not resolved (Intrepid underside, Nova saucer, Exchange bugs still abound, power tray not responding...but we did get 700 Day Android options thanks to someone volunteering personal time )

So is this game going in the right direction?

Remind me why this is a happy anniversary?

If you are so unhappy about it, why are you still here playing? for a game that is now only increasing its workforce from a small team I think we got a lot of stuff.

Oh and Dilithium Exchange collapsing is down to players not the Devs, granted there could be new items in Z store to boost people wanting Zen more to drive prices up

New Lockboxes, again people will want keys from Z store and will most likely trade Dilithium for it, which might push up prices again

sheppardus · January 2013

sekritagent wrote: »

Fine, I'll be "that guy":
Higher costs across the board, especially dilithium for fleet bases, reputation projects, and then once you're over those paywalls, ON TOP OF THAT more to get actual items.

Small fleets completely or mostly dead in the water on Fleet base advancement, loud and repeated calls for smaller bases for small fleets have been met with a concern about exploiting joining fleets - when obviously the bigger concern is SMALL FLEETS LEAVING THE GAME (that is 3 years old, a niche genre, slow on development, and doesn't have a great reputation...priorities please Mr Stahl?)
[/B]

Costs were alwasy there from beginning for starbases as a dilithium sink, and the cosmetic ones are optional.
Small fleets are able to recurit new members to revive the fleet and grow.... guessing you have a fleet yourself with you and your alts and maybe 1 or 2 friends?
Small fleets leaving the game... Where did you get the idea that the small fleets are leaving the game enmasse? not everyone plays constantly, and even then you can join other fleets if your fleet is dead

nicha0 · January 2013

Don't go thinking Atari was purposefully trying to kill STO, they were simply incompetent with every game they published, look at their record.

eldarion79 · January 2013

Happy Anniversary, however, what did I see in the last three years, broken promises from getting level caps raised with a good stream of content in the first year to content being called lock boxes and turning players in hamsters on wheels.

Why do I log on, its called STAR TREK Online, if it was Space Journey Online, I would've gone somewhere else during the Great Content Drought of 2011. However, I will still log in and play, why because its STAR TREK Online and I will occasionally buy something because the alternative is not Star Trek.

sekritagent · January 2013

My apologies everyone.

If the new standard of good game development is just being able to log in or having anything done by the developers ever...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

suaveks · January 2013

sekritagent wrote: »

So is this game going in the right direction?

As much as I agree with most of the criticism in your post I have to say - yes, it is.

It's not ideal. It's a F2P game which means focusing on monetising anything that's possible. This leads us to all the arguable decissions being made regarding the game content, development priorities, paid content and such.

Still, did you really prefer Atari times, when the game was 15$/month and provided little to no new content for months, yet still persisted on introducing overpriced C-Store stuff in addition to a retail copy and a monthly subscription? Do you remember the so called "year of fail" which was 2011 (up until Season 5 came out)?

Don't get me wrong - I'm the first guy in line to criticise Cryptic's decissions about the game and to show my disappointment about new content not living up to expectations. Still, the game certainly IS progressing at a steady pace, and despite all the limitations, randomness, artificial barriers, failed promisses and such I'm still able to be competitive, play all the content there is, and purchase all the endgame stuff provided the time to grind. And quite honestly, it's still a much better model than many, if not most other F2P games (*cough*TOR*cough*). Most importantly, I still keep coming back to play, even if for a little while.

So yeah, happy anniversary, and despite all the game flaws let's hope it's all gonna get tweaked over time (soon tm) and that the game will provide at least _some_ new playgrounds, and not just toys.

I just wonder if Cryptic has prepared at least some kind of small in-game event for this anniversary?

bluedarky · January 2013

sekritagent wrote: »

Fine, I'll be "that guy":
Higher costs across the board, especially dilithium for fleet bases, reputation projects, and then once you're over those paywalls, ON TOP OF THAT more to get actual items.

Small fleets completely or mostly dead in the water on Fleet base advancement, loud and repeated calls for smaller bases for small fleets have been met with a concern about exploiting joining fleets - when obviously the bigger concern is SMALL FLEETS LEAVING THE GAME (that is 3 years old, a niche genre, slow on development, and doesn't have a great reputation...priorities please Mr Stahl?)

Almost zero story advancement, the sole exception being the New Romulus opening sequence and the reputation missions and The 2800 FE Series.

100% mindless zerg maps that don't even pay well for your time, as you're mowing down Tholians/Borg/Undine/Gorn/Rebel Klingons/take your pick in both ground and space.

The other extreme being mostly unengaging content on New Romulus. Here Admiral, scan this rock or pick up this report on the ground. (BTW you should have had only the starting zone be like this, the others should have been like in "Of Bajor").

Many more lockboxes, many more exceedingly expensive Lobi store items.

Z-Store sales extremely few and far between, store stocked with items of dubious build quality (Aquarius bridge anyone?) and poor value now that they're outclassed by Fleet ships.

A huge list of equipment, power, and doff nerfs.

Almost no updates to Duty Officer missions except to add more doffs, nerf existing doffs, and increase the upgrade grinder costs by 5000%.

No PVP advancement.

Dilithium Exchange effectively useless for buying dilithium since the market has completely collapsed.

2-3 year old bugs still not resolved (Intrepid underside, Nova saucer, Exchange bugs still abound, power tray not responding...but we did get 700 Day Android options thanks to someone volunteering personal time )

So is this game going in the right direction?

Remind me why this is a happy anniversary?

And it's still more stuff in a year than we got in a year and a half under Atari.

Perspective, that's what it's all about.

sheppardus · January 2013

suaveks wrote: »

I just wonder if Cryptic has prepared at least some kind of small in-game event for this anniversary?

Yes, there is an anniversary mission and a Free Ambassador class starship

suaveks · January 2013

sheppardus wrote: »

Yes, there is an anniversary mission and a Free Ambassador class starship

I mean today's F2P Launch Anniversary, not the February's event, which is game's 3rd anniversary.

garaks31 · January 2013

i joined also with f2p before f2p i was afraid of monthly sub now i am thinking about a life sub. i like in sto that we can get the resources in short time for example in one year i got my 3 time ships and temporal set The dev team keep always their cool against drama queens and sto makes always fun if you know when and what to do if you can socialise there are every day new things to discover ... :rolleyes::cool:

syberghost · January 2013

It's the most fun F2P game currently. It's not perfect; no game is. But it's FUN.

lucianazeta · January 2013

Ah yes, I also started playing exactly one year ago now. xD

pwebranflakes · January 2013

Happy F2P Anniversary, STO! Thank you to all our players for the continuous support. Our 3 year anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks and we have a great event planned in-game for you all to celebrate the amazing milestone

Cheers,

Brandon =/\=

walkincrow · January 2013

Happy Anniversary! Like many others, I too started to play roughly around a year ago. It's amazing how much the game has changed over the last year. Some for the better, some for the worst, IMO. I hope in the coming year the game addresses the areas it is weak in. Mainly PVP, Exploration, KDF, and faction uniqueness. That way we can continue to attract new players and new play styles!

mvaiks · January 2013

I've been around here since the open beta and the game improved a lot since it went f2p.

I personally believe this game will be around for many years.

Happy F2P anniversary STO:D

daveyny · January 2013

Happy F2P Anniversary, youse guys (& gals)...

As another Opening Day Player, I want to thank all of you for showing up and keeping my favorite MMO going with your continued presence.

It's been a long road, getting from there to here... (yeah, I went there) :P

tx6275 · January 2013

daveyny wrote: »

It's been a long road getting from there to here... (yeah, I went there) :P

Still makes me chuckle that when the first in-game screenshots of the NX were revealed someone posted that they didn't know that was the first line of the song cause on his TV it always went "It's been a long ro- >click<"...

nx420 · January 2013

F2P brought me back to this game. Free is all I can justify paying to play the same content over and over again. Since STO costs me absolutely nothing, I feel no guilt when I log on and find myself playing the same old re-skinned missions or the browser style meta-game. Constant grind is a lot more palatable when it's free. STO serves its purpose for me as an amusing distraction when I'm doing something else; so, yes, Happy Anniversary F2P.

darkenzedd · January 2013

daveyny wrote: »

Happy F2P Anniversary, youse guys (& gals)...

As another Opening Day Player, I want to thank all of you for showing up and keeping my favorite MMO going with your continued presence.

It's been a long road, getting from there to here... (yeah, I went there) :P

Brings a tear to me eye!

rifter1969 · January 2013

Happy anniversary!!!

I have seen all the negative comments, and though it may be justified, what software is EVER bug free???

Even the big software houses can't even make an application that doesn't have bugs in it.

With that said...

I have been playing since just after launch (April 2009), when it was subscription based. Played very happily (and still do) with that. Was very content to pay the monthly fee to play a game that is based on my favorite Sci-Fi series.

Had to stop playing for about a year due to external factors, but came back when the factors were solved, and love the game as much now as I did then.

Even though it is F2P, I wanted my monthly sub, and have been paying it. Would like to get a LTS, but that remains to be seen...

This is the only MMO I have ever played, so the comparisons that other make to this game are meaningless to me, and quite frankly, irrelevant. I do not care what other games do or don't do, I care what Cryptic does for this game. So whatever they give us, I am appreciative for the chance to log into a universe that I grew up with.

Thank-you again Cryptic for bringing Star Trek alive, for me at least.

suaveks · January 2013

mvaiks wrote: »

I've been around here since the open beta and the game improved a lot since it went f2p.

Heh, kind of an offtopic, but I wonder how many newer players realise how much the game improved since its launch ;> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMrJRwHQ_B8

meurik · January 2013

mvaiks wrote: »

I've been around here since the open beta and the game improved a lot since it went f2p.

I personally believe this game will be around for many years.

Happy F2P anniversary STO:D

Not to put a dampener on this party, but i'm curious; In what way?

Season 6: Adding new grind mechanics (Fleet Starbases)
Season 7: Adding new grind mechanics (Personal Reputation, Dilithium re-balance)

In the past year since F2P, how much story content have we gotten?

During Season 6; 5 Feature Episodes + 1 KDF episode + PVE Events
During Season 7: 5 Reputation Story Missions + 1 STF + PVE Events

How much has PVP been improved over the past year?

Huh?!? PVP? What the hell is that??? PVP hasn't seen any major fixes or additions since launch of STO. Instead, it's become broken repeatedly after all the PVE additions with no regard for it's PVP impact. Most notably, whenever they add a "unique console ability" to one of their lockbox/C-Store ships.

Sorry, i'm just not buying the whole "improved alot since F2P". We hear big things are coming in the form of the Year 3 anniversary event, and later launch of Season 8. But then again, haven't we heard similar statements in the past???

Happy Free to Play Anniversary!

Comments