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A new players thoughts
bierstein
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
I was excited for release but after all the horror stories I held off. More recently I hear the game has actually gotten really good so I gave it a shot. As a new player (level 44) these are my initial thoughts. These are my OPINIONS (obviously)
1. Duty officers, unexpected game mechanic, you guys majorly nailed it. Hit.
2. Storyline has so far been really badly written, I feel like not just myself but also the in game characters are being treated like idiots. This was first glaringly seen with the "Vulcan ambassador" and I have recently started doing the "Romulan Mystery" line and run into the same thing with the "Admiral". In both cases after speaking to them for about one line of text I wanted to shoot them for being a spy, sadly there were no options for this, my characters just weren't that intelligent and apparently neither was I, or anyone else. Take a lesson in subtle or at least multiple options, like you know, shooting them, or have someone else shoot them before I get to the scene cause dang they're too obvious! That said the most well written mission I have played was "Conjoined" by Denizen VI, a foundry mission, hire this guy? All in all story has been a major miss. That said the back to the past mission was a real hit for me.
3. Space combat, well I was thinking of reinstalling Starfleet Command III and someone said STO is the new SFC III of space combat which I enjoyed. It's definitely used the same template which I like, major hit.
4. Ground combat, ugggh it's horribly done! I started playing with someone else I know, both of us being no strangers to RPG, FPS, AND Third person shooters. Both combat modes are extremely clunky and need a serious overhaul IMO or even go generic FPS style with buffs etc. but something needs to be done about the ground combat, anything.
5. PVP, well I'm not sure I've gotten very few PVP missions, I'm assuming it's mostly at lvl 50, that said players dragging high lvls down to lower lvl pvp (on the rare occasion it's there) makes for really unbalanced play even with "match level". Hard to say more without more experience, Fed vs Fed seems to be balanced well with a lot of new guys but Fed Vs Klingon generally ends with a lot of dead Feds. Beyond that Ker'rat sector "PVP" is in a horrible state with afkers etc. and needs looking into by someone more experienced with the game than me. Oh it also seems extremely silly to me that players are able to call in NPC support during PVP, honestly makes no sense at all.
6. Leveling is too fast, I've felt like I spent half my time buying new gear rather than enjoying my new gear. At the same time I understand everyone is at level 50 so it may be that you just want to rush me to the player content. The most unfun part of the game has been constantly re-equipping my ships and personnel simply because it has taken so long and has to be done so often, at first I dreaded leveling up before finally giving in and trying to powerlvl simply so I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.
7. I have to say it but I stopped by Risa out of pure curiosity when I was passing through last night, very very disappointed, felt more like I was on Monkey Island than Risa. This brings us to some of the character models designed to mimic the actors in the show that fell wayyyy short. I've seen players do better jobs on their characters, I swear I saw a Janeway running around the other day. Just need some work on older content I think in general between models and storyline, at least I'm assuming it's older content.
8. 5-20 player PVE content, total hit! Mixed with the space combat mechanics I absolutely love it.
9. Crafting feels like it was a model for a system of crafting that was released as a template rather than a finished piece of content, not much more needs to be said in that regard. The system all in all might be better integrated as an onboard ship mechanic involving first officers and duty officers, major miss, all in all actually kind of hard to figure out why that mechanic is even in the game as is, feels like it was possibly rushed out on release day and then never finished.
10. Ship interiors are like houses in MMOs right now feel kinda empty without any real content that I have seen as far as actually being able to use the interior for practical purposes or even show it off through practical means like boarding operations. Speaking of which what's with the viewscreens? They look sooo 2d and static like someone put a giant square sticker on the front of my bridge, I guess that goes with the models I mentioned.
11. The exchange is a mess, sometimes searches don't work, "ALL" search certainly doesn't work properly. It has no filters of any kind, not even basics like a filter for klingon/fed only content, that doesn't even get into searching for specific modifiers like Boff abilities etc.
12. Insert important points I forgot. Oh and the foundry is pretty cool ^.^ Some are easily the caliber where they could be thrown in areas like Delta Volanis etc. of course a /stuck button for Boffs would also be nice.
I'm sure I'm missing a lot writing this up as I go after thinking about these things in the past but all in all I'm enjoying several aspects of the game enough to continue playing. I do think there's a lot of things already in place with a lot of potential for improvement. There are a lot of potential things that the ST universe offers that aren't in the game, but that's a lot and to be expected, I definitely don't expect a perfect game. All in all you guys hit a lot of good points but I feel like you could definitely improve what's already there via a lot of smaller tweaks and changes rather than massive new content (which is also good). Just feels like there's a lot of unfinished and unrefined content and I'm not sure why it hasn't been gone over and refined. Just the thoughts of a new player and my impressions rather than an experienced one who knows more about what they're talking about.
TL;DR Hai guis!
1. Duty officers, unexpected game mechanic, you guys majorly nailed it. Hit.
2. Storyline has so far been really badly written, I feel like not just myself but also the in game characters are being treated like idiots. This was first glaringly seen with the "Vulcan ambassador" and I have recently started doing the "Romulan Mystery" line and run into the same thing with the "Admiral". In both cases after speaking to them for about one line of text I wanted to shoot them for being a spy, sadly there were no options for this, my characters just weren't that intelligent and apparently neither was I, or anyone else. Take a lesson in subtle or at least multiple options, like you know, shooting them, or have someone else shoot them before I get to the scene cause dang they're too obvious! That said the most well written mission I have played was "Conjoined" by Denizen VI, a foundry mission, hire this guy? All in all story has been a major miss. That said the back to the past mission was a real hit for me.
3. Space combat, well I was thinking of reinstalling Starfleet Command III and someone said STO is the new SFC III of space combat which I enjoyed. It's definitely used the same template which I like, major hit.
4. Ground combat, ugggh it's horribly done! I started playing with someone else I know, both of us being no strangers to RPG, FPS, AND Third person shooters. Both combat modes are extremely clunky and need a serious overhaul IMO or even go generic FPS style with buffs etc. but something needs to be done about the ground combat, anything.
5. PVP, well I'm not sure I've gotten very few PVP missions, I'm assuming it's mostly at lvl 50, that said players dragging high lvls down to lower lvl pvp (on the rare occasion it's there) makes for really unbalanced play even with "match level". Hard to say more without more experience, Fed vs Fed seems to be balanced well with a lot of new guys but Fed Vs Klingon generally ends with a lot of dead Feds. Beyond that Ker'rat sector "PVP" is in a horrible state with afkers etc. and needs looking into by someone more experienced with the game than me. Oh it also seems extremely silly to me that players are able to call in NPC support during PVP, honestly makes no sense at all.
6. Leveling is too fast, I've felt like I spent half my time buying new gear rather than enjoying my new gear. At the same time I understand everyone is at level 50 so it may be that you just want to rush me to the player content. The most unfun part of the game has been constantly re-equipping my ships and personnel simply because it has taken so long and has to be done so often, at first I dreaded leveling up before finally giving in and trying to powerlvl simply so I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.
7. I have to say it but I stopped by Risa out of pure curiosity when I was passing through last night, very very disappointed, felt more like I was on Monkey Island than Risa. This brings us to some of the character models designed to mimic the actors in the show that fell wayyyy short. I've seen players do better jobs on their characters, I swear I saw a Janeway running around the other day. Just need some work on older content I think in general between models and storyline, at least I'm assuming it's older content.
8. 5-20 player PVE content, total hit! Mixed with the space combat mechanics I absolutely love it.
9. Crafting feels like it was a model for a system of crafting that was released as a template rather than a finished piece of content, not much more needs to be said in that regard. The system all in all might be better integrated as an onboard ship mechanic involving first officers and duty officers, major miss, all in all actually kind of hard to figure out why that mechanic is even in the game as is, feels like it was possibly rushed out on release day and then never finished.
10. Ship interiors are like houses in MMOs right now feel kinda empty without any real content that I have seen as far as actually being able to use the interior for practical purposes or even show it off through practical means like boarding operations. Speaking of which what's with the viewscreens? They look sooo 2d and static like someone put a giant square sticker on the front of my bridge, I guess that goes with the models I mentioned.
11. The exchange is a mess, sometimes searches don't work, "ALL" search certainly doesn't work properly. It has no filters of any kind, not even basics like a filter for klingon/fed only content, that doesn't even get into searching for specific modifiers like Boff abilities etc.
12. Insert important points I forgot. Oh and the foundry is pretty cool ^.^ Some are easily the caliber where they could be thrown in areas like Delta Volanis etc. of course a /stuck button for Boffs would also be nice.
I'm sure I'm missing a lot writing this up as I go after thinking about these things in the past but all in all I'm enjoying several aspects of the game enough to continue playing. I do think there's a lot of things already in place with a lot of potential for improvement. There are a lot of potential things that the ST universe offers that aren't in the game, but that's a lot and to be expected, I definitely don't expect a perfect game. All in all you guys hit a lot of good points but I feel like you could definitely improve what's already there via a lot of smaller tweaks and changes rather than massive new content (which is also good). Just feels like there's a lot of unfinished and unrefined content and I'm not sure why it hasn't been gone over and refined. Just the thoughts of a new player and my impressions rather than an experienced one who knows more about what they're talking about.
TL;DR Hai guis!
Post edited by bierstein on
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Comments
4. Ground combat, ugggh it's horribly done! I started playing with someone else I know, both of us being no strangers to RPG, FPS, AND Third person shooters. Both combat modes are extremely clunky and need a serious overhaul IMO or even go generic FPS style with buffs etc. but something needs to be done about the ground combat, anything.
Ground combat is slightly less bad than original. That said another unused poorly implemented part is the XBOX360 controller interface. While the controls are smooth the buttons are a mess. You cannot do any preset buttons with the interface. This makes it impossible for customization. If you play any mission with any real difficulty you cannot keep up with the right abilities. If this were implemented properly it would make Ground combat very passable. Even enjoyable.
5. PVP, well I'm not sure I've gotten very few PVP missions, I'm assuming it's mostly at lvl 50, that said players dragging high lvls down to lower lvl pvp (on the rare occasion it's there) makes for really unbalanced play even with "match level". Hard to say more without more experience, Fed vs Fed seems to be balanced well with a lot of new guys but Fed Vs Klingon generally ends with a lot of dead Feds. Beyond that Ker'rat sector "PVP" is in a horrible state with afkers etc. and needs looking into by someone more experienced with the game than me. Oh it also seems extremely silly to me that players are able to call in NPC support during PVP, honestly makes no sense at all.
PVP is being redone for season 8 or probably season 9 with all the romulan stuff coming out!
9. Crafting feels like it was a model for a system of crafting that was released as a template rather than a finished piece of content, not much more needs to be said in that regard. The system all in all might be better integrated as an onboard ship mechanic involving first officers and duty officers, major miss, all in all actually kind of hard to figure out why that mechanic is even in the game as is, feels like it was possibly rushed out on release day and then never finished.
You hit this one right on the button! The only changes since release here were to fix what was broken and make us pay dilithium to make anything a real downer. There is not even a single MK 12 console you can make. Whts worse is that I don't really think they intended for STO to last a year let alone three. People never really demanded a better crafting upgrade and the game really does suffer for it! With the cost of dilithium and all the running around oyu have to do to get items. Its really easier to just buy them with dilithium from the store. Or just buy the right off the exchange for EC. This is an epic fail for STO! I know the doff system replaced what may have been a crafting upgrade. But please give us some better stuff to make besides some blue MK11 consoles. And outdated MK 11 very rare weapons!
10. Ship interiors are like houses in MMOs right now feel kinda empty without any real content that I have seen as far as actually being able to use the interior for practical purposes or even show it off through practical means like boarding operations. Speaking of which what's with the viewscreens? They look sooo 2d and static like someone put a giant square sticker on the front of my bridge, I guess that goes with the models I mentioned.
Interioirs are more of an after thought. Originally all you had was the bridge. When we first got interioirs there was no funcionality at all. They only did it because the community really wanted it. Now there area at least medical science and engineering officers to talk to. But still a real waste of real funcionality. This will probably go no where fast.
Another thing you missed which is another epic fail is the voice chat system. It only works for me half way maybe 1% of the time and thats being generous. I mean really half of what you do hear is distorted staticky voices. The rest the volume is to low. And the thing does not even work with my microsoft headset. It does not recognize the mic. This really needs updates or trashed all together. Another epic fail.
That being said I do love this game to the core!
On a side note The controller interface was good enough to easily get me a Chel-Gret ship for all my characters. Running those winter event races on the ice 8 times per day would have been impossible for me at least with the Keyboard and mouse interface. Why they don't fix the controller interface I have no idea. I takes 70-90% of the clunkyness out of ground combat. Put in button customization and you have a real winner!!
The story missions also get better as you go along. The first few can be... campy.
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
If you are in the Romulan story missions you played mostly the ancient crappy ones from release. The Breen, Undine/Borg and Dominion episodes are some of the best and still ahead of you.
There is almost no use for them but it would be nice to make the consoles on the bridge function, give orders, and do something else other then sitting in the captain chair
"Yes graphical user interfaces!"
I think my translator is broken.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
Nope, nailed it! Nice to hear I wasn't 100% off as a new player, figured first impressions are important be they on or off the mark so I figured I'd share, almost 50 now can't wait to get utterly annihilated in PVP :P
Love the duty officer system and space combat, major wins there. I also quite like the exchange. And I agree with the point that leveling up seems to happen a bit too quickly, while enjoyable I do feel I have spent too much time upgrading equipment and not enough time actually playing the game.
Story writing is weak early on although I hear it gets better. Crafting and ground combat are definite weaknesses. It also strikes me as a major problem that the ship interior is basically a cosmetic effect, I mean we are captaining a starship after all, should be much better utilized.
Will definitely have to check out the foundry and overall I am really enjoying the game.
Code: NW-DJ5BFT52F
Author: @oortexplorer
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When was this stated? From my knowledge it was just something being looked into but nothing solid. I listened to a recent interview with Gecko and it sounded like they were still just kind of throwing ideas in the air.
Could you be a little more specific as to your issues ?
Saying that it's "horrible" does not amount to much .
I can understand that the ground NPC's don't offer much challenge (especially to a gamer) , and they are repetitive and the races you encounter don't offer a lot of variation on the theme .
That plus the rest of your AI team are not always the brightest blokes .
But I have always found the performance of your Avatar (i.e. you) to be decent , both in high end content and in PVP .
Oh and don't be in a hurry to get to said 'high end content' (STF's) -- there is very little of it at the moment .
It has been said that this game is not much of a challenge for gamers , as it is more geared toward the 'casual player' and sci-fi fans who don't usualy play games .
We allready know this, We do, Cryptic knows, PWE knows I guess they do...
They focus on lvl 50 and above noting more or less....
Maybe with the romulans comming they will change some off it and yess I agree they make federation look like dummy's guess thats why I play KDF.
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
1. No 3D in space.
2. No flying from the bridge.
It'd be the same as making a super hero game without capes! (which has actually happened too).
After it went f2p, since I like star trek, I gave it a go and it's pretty much as I expected.
It's funny because initially I hated it a lot but playing ground stf made the difference for me.
Ground combat is fun (and in oppose to space it's 3D) and you are allowed to grind your way to everything.
That combined with being allowed to mess aruond with an alien skin is pretty much what kept me going
I can't really comment on the story since to me I am the story - not being able to impact it and it not being canon it's basically just in the way of the grinding.
PVP could be fun but I am not really interested in being live bait for people with better stats - if I am going to be someone's gameplay (pvp is for people who have nothing left to do in-game) they have to pay me a lot or give me game master status since that's what I am doing.
I agree with this.
I also think that the UI can be improved. The chat box etc. Right now its all very "simple",..
Risa should be as huge as New Romulus. There should be a hotel facility..you should be greeted by a beautiful male or female.. just as you expect it to be. There should be fun activities as games .. like the one you see on some of the shows in holodeck. Some ball games, racing in the beach etc...Something you can play in a small group. Something that starfleet officers would do in their free time. Right now its just a shallow empty and small map ... landscape is huge disappointment. Not able to have swin-wear.