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Things Star Trek Online does right.
centersolace
Member Posts: 11,178 Arc User
Between going back to school, getting a job, and helping my parents move, I have had very little time for videogames. Because of this, I have been mostly sticking to various Beta's and Alpha's I've been invited to test. While in the middle of all this, I have noticed quite a few things that I really really miss from STO. Things like:
No class locked gear. "Look at this wonderful sword, how shiny and awesome it is. Too bad it's the wrong type of sword for your class! Sucker!!!" In STO, if you find, pick up, craft, or buy a shiny weapon or armour, you can use it no matter what. None of that "you use axes and only axes and you can't use that epic bow that somehow does twice the damage your axe does because you use axes. Because."
Gear and appearance have nothing to do with each other. I had forgotten just how much of a pain in the butt this was. In another game you have to change your entire playstyle and stats if you want to chance what you look like. But if you want to be viable in combat, you have to look like a clown. Conversely, in STO, if you want to look different, you find a Cardassian, pay them a small ingame fee, and poof. You're ADHD costuming itch has been satisfied.
The fact that you can walk backward. No really. I know it sound odd, but in shooter mode, when you press the back key, your character will actually take steps backward. You hardly ever notice it, and you never notice it in combat, but by god do you notice it when it's gone. Try playing TERA after you've gotten used to STO's shooter mode. It's frustrating beyond all reason because the character turns around when you're trying to run away. This means that you can't attack while retreating, and you take extra damage while trying to kite. Arrrrg.
Bridge Officers. I don't know how many times I was slugging my way through a single player dungeon, and think; "I wish I had a redshirt with me". ;_;
That goals and rewards are clearly defined. As much as I dislike the Reputation system, it does have the unexpected benefit of making it very clear what the best gear is. In other games you either have to hunt through a (often poorly made) wiki, or find it randomly (see points #1 and #2). Instead, you can just pull up a tooltip, and at level one you know exactly what endgame set is going to fit your playstyle.
That Borg Cubes explode in massive, loud, pyrotechnic, flashy, spark throwing, map shaking deaths. It really is a beautiful sight. It really is.
That two characters can have the same name. For this one thing, Cryptic deserves to have a cake that needs to be hauled in on a Baxters Kenworth T904 aero which leads a parade of a thousand floats, where each float is carried by a polo team riding upon unicorns as the 1812 Overture plays in the background with actual cannons. I can name my character Steve. I can have a guild full of Steves. I can have a guild with nothing but Steves. And it is beautiful. Everyone should do it. And everyone that doesn't, should be hanged. And then I will no longer have to look through a swahili dictionary to find an original name ever again. Thank god.
No class locked gear. "Look at this wonderful sword, how shiny and awesome it is. Too bad it's the wrong type of sword for your class! Sucker!!!" In STO, if you find, pick up, craft, or buy a shiny weapon or armour, you can use it no matter what. None of that "you use axes and only axes and you can't use that epic bow that somehow does twice the damage your axe does because you use axes. Because."
Gear and appearance have nothing to do with each other. I had forgotten just how much of a pain in the butt this was. In another game you have to change your entire playstyle and stats if you want to chance what you look like. But if you want to be viable in combat, you have to look like a clown. Conversely, in STO, if you want to look different, you find a Cardassian, pay them a small ingame fee, and poof. You're ADHD costuming itch has been satisfied.
The fact that you can walk backward. No really. I know it sound odd, but in shooter mode, when you press the back key, your character will actually take steps backward. You hardly ever notice it, and you never notice it in combat, but by god do you notice it when it's gone. Try playing TERA after you've gotten used to STO's shooter mode. It's frustrating beyond all reason because the character turns around when you're trying to run away. This means that you can't attack while retreating, and you take extra damage while trying to kite. Arrrrg.
Bridge Officers. I don't know how many times I was slugging my way through a single player dungeon, and think; "I wish I had a redshirt with me". ;_;
That goals and rewards are clearly defined. As much as I dislike the Reputation system, it does have the unexpected benefit of making it very clear what the best gear is. In other games you either have to hunt through a (often poorly made) wiki, or find it randomly (see points #1 and #2). Instead, you can just pull up a tooltip, and at level one you know exactly what endgame set is going to fit your playstyle.
That Borg Cubes explode in massive, loud, pyrotechnic, flashy, spark throwing, map shaking deaths. It really is a beautiful sight. It really is.
That two characters can have the same name. For this one thing, Cryptic deserves to have a cake that needs to be hauled in on a Baxters Kenworth T904 aero which leads a parade of a thousand floats, where each float is carried by a polo team riding upon unicorns as the 1812 Overture plays in the background with actual cannons. I can name my character Steve. I can have a guild full of Steves. I can have a guild with nothing but Steves. And it is beautiful. Everyone should do it. And everyone that doesn't, should be hanged. And then I will no longer have to look through a swahili dictionary to find an original name ever again. Thank god.
Post edited by centersolace on
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www.divisionhispana.com
Only real limitation STO makes is the ships that is classbased. Sure you can still use it but it will not be as good for you as your class ship but you still have the option to do it.
Cryptic has been very friendly on making all "make-ups" on your ships (Shields, engines etc) whos equipement change the color fo the ship or the impulse effect as well as the ground combat gear to be be turned off if the player want.
But what makes STO one of the better MMO is for me the solo mode. Most MMO if you want the finest gear and the finest shiny stuff, you really need to be a group of 20+.
Here you can collect dilithium on your own, Get rep by yourself to get access to vendors, play around with your Duty Officers. STO is very solo friendly, and for me who has a job, responsibilities and can't play every day, that is a pleasent welcome.
And the Foundry can make all your dull play days fun, you never know what you can expect and it always a nice break to see what (mostly) creative Trek fans can create.
The artwork looks like Star Trek game ought to look.
The doff/boff system is very cool, wish they would actually move it to the center of the game and replace skills with crew allocation.
Few other things. I'm here because its a multiplayer space game, which they are borderline on delivering.
-The game is free to play. (Yes, I'm looking at TOR)
-Not only you can change your looks, but have multiple costumes.
-You can have more then two Johns, Steves, and Jacks. You are not forced to name your character XXDerpBB23 because all the names have been taken.
-Casual friendly, with solo mode.
-Good space combat.
Being that this is the only MMO I have ever played, and only playing it because it is Star Trek...
I love the systems that have been developed, it feels like you are in part commanding a crew.
I artwork has been very spectacular... I especially love the Milky Way galaxy profile.
I was truly amazed with the details on the shhip models, most Star trek games I have played before gave you something that looked like a starship, and that was about it.
So.... thanks!
But yeah, quality thread. Never hurts to remind the devs what's right in between long sessions of incessant berating with what is wrong.
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
That's a big one for me. I'd also like to add that I can freely change my appearance any time I wish using in game currency. How many other MMOs charge real cash for appearance change tokens in their cash shops? Pretty much all of them. I really hate it since I like tweaking and changing my character all the time. Games like TERA though? Ugh I've been playing that game for over a month and I'm still not off of the newbie island because I refuse to pay for their appearance change tickets. So I have to get my character looking just right which means lots of rolling, deleting, and re-rolling. I hate you TERA, I hate you.
Another big one for me. I remember when some people actually argued against this system. Ridiculous. It's just so nice knowing that whatever alt I roll in the next few years will have the exact name I want them to have.
I actually played (or attempted to play) a F2P MMO a few years ago (can't remember the name right off...) that not only didn't let people use the same name, it wouldn't let you use the names of deleted characters on that server. So if you deleted a character and tried to remake (referring to my TERA issue above) it would forever lock that name out and you could never, ever use it again. Wtf who does that? Probably why I didn't play that game in the end and forgot the name lol.
Mine Trap Supporter
Words can not express how much I agree with this. Well, not all the celebratory fanfare part. That seems a tad excessive. I am also not a big fan of the name Steve, so I am not naming any of my captains that.
But the fact that I can name my captain anything I want, and as long as I don't already have that same name I am good, is beyond a blessing.
On other games, it seems like I spend 10-15 mintues on the character creator just to pick a name because no matter what i come up with someone already has it.
Yeah with most other games you go this route.
-makes new toon and trys to name it Ray-
Sorry that name has been taken, choose another.
"Damnit, alright how about this?"
-types in Ray2-
Sorry that name has been taken, choose another.
"What!? Fine alright how about......"
Three weeks later.....
"Okay.....-sigh-.....how about.....this?"
-types in Ray5146246-
Sorry that name has been taken, choose another.
"ARGGGGGHHHHH" -jumps out window-
no really it is you would not believe how long it took me to find a name that did not have random numbers at the end just to try out ToR. i think i spent an hour with seeing "this name is already in use"
i look at the Kits more of class powers not really gear but yeah kits are probably the only class locked gear in the this game
The names thing is another.
- Making something <$$$$> out of nothing, THAT is what STO def. does right. PW probably sells text book rights to public schools in China for Business and Economics Books, all based on STO.
Yeah, that's right.
Another thing this game does right is space combat with the Star Trek feel. Sure, it's "unrealistic" for starships to be unable to fire their weapons unless they're within 10 kilometers of one another, but that's the way it's always been on the shows - you could actually see the target ship from outside the firing ship. It flows, the ships whip around like they were in atmosphere, and overall it just feels like a Star Trek fight.
But yes, the naming conventions in STO (and CO) are excellent. I tried to play "City of Heroes" on a free weekend once; creating the character wasn't a problem, but good heavens, trying to find a good name for a lightning-based superhero wasn't easy...
Not entirely true - try equipping that ground Sci Kit on your Engineer.
(That said, yes, there's WAY less 'class only' specific gear for the most part whn compared to most other MMOs.))
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Helpful Tools: Dictionary.com - Logical fallacies - Random generator - Word generator - Color tool - Extra Credits - List of common English language errors - New T6 Big booty tutorial
why???????????
Well it probably has something to do with playability.
When a set of gear forces X look on a player, another player seeing X look can instantly anticipate the other player's prospective performance and skill set. It's a valuable aid.
STO has this a little already in ship classes having certain loadouts, though this is very basic and is muddled somewhat by universal slots and variants. Still, you know an Escort from a Cruiser at a glance usually, and that's the critical thing. But you can't tell what kind of gear they have equipped, unless they have set visuals enabled. So you don't know if that MVAE is supposed to be tank-y or pew-y, or if that Science ship is geared for power drain or not.
Basically it's a PvP concern more than anything. For RP's sake, I say good riddance, but there's a reason I don't support those "let me put a Cruiser skin on my Escort" threads (beyond the fact that an Odyssey zipping around like a Defiant spraying DHC skittles would look monumentally stupid).
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
I have to point out that TOR is F2P. You can play either F2P or pay a sub. Subscription does have benefits that F2P does not have. In other words, TOR is a hybrid game.
Now on the the main point.
STO does many things things right. Space combat is one of the best aspects in this game.
However, I would like to see changes to how armor works in this game. Now most armors does not come with abilities, but some does (MACO and Omega and KHG).
I would really like to see STO take one idea from TOR, wich is adaptive armor. What adaptive armor does, in short, is that you buy different armor plates and other things that you slot into the armor, thus making it nearly like the weapons that level with you in STO. But the best part is, you keep the looks of the armor, and only have to buy new things to slot in your armor.
This would mean no more MK this or that armors, you could use one from the get go to end game.
But I digress. STO does many things very well, as the OP said, but some things are not so great, but then again, every game have good and bad sides...
thats a big pile of something.
First if you look at how your opponent's gear looks not his buffs/position you are doing it wrong.
Now call of Duty (the most known) and all those PvP games out there are more complicated than pong(the version you like probably has no white dot) and have a skin/look/model for each weapon.
Why thats not in STO? Because when STO was made the guy who made models was either lazy or they pushed the game too fast...either way its cheap work which is getting slowly fixed in fleet bases /rep system ,etc.
again if you think sto should be pong for the sake of PvP I will try my best that PvP to be removed from game ...but Im pretty sure PvP is fine and the problems are those who complain all day about it.
Free to play that actually is free. Yes there's great stuff to buy. But you actually can play and have fun for free. Many free to play games gimp you so badly that after a while, you just leave and never come back.
Look the way you want starting at level 1. It's not just that gear and looks aren't married here, but more importantly, I can look exactly the way I want right away. I don't look like a moron in the tutorial, then a half-wit in the lowbie missions, sub-par in the middle, then decent towards 40 and finally start looking impressive a few months after I've hit 50. No, I look the way I want right in the tutorial.
You have a crew that feels like a crew. Not everyone enjoys ground combat, I know. But everyone has to admit that having your boffs and doffs gives the game a very different feel than anything else on the market. You are a team even by yourself. You have people on your crew and they're doing stuff all the time. Even when you're logged out. You rarely have to go anywhere alone if you don't want to. Trek was always an ensemble show and we get that experience even without teammates. The 2800 brings it together best of all the missions (where your doffs help during a ground mission), but it's always there.
Almost no missions require a specific team makeup to win.Armek is just about the only one I know of. Everything else you can win with whatever group of yahoos show up as long as people stay focused.
Steady progress. No matter what people think about the individual prices or time gates, it's pretty true that whatever you want to get you can make noticeable progress toward on a daily basis. Most of the best gear only takes a few days worth of resources to purchase. So you can log in for an hour or two and actually feel like you got closer. No "my guild only does this specific raid once every three weeks and I don't have enough dpk so I won't even get a chance for my loot until Spring" nonsense.
Sidekicking. Seriously, I don't understand why this isn't mandatory in all MMO design. I want to play with my friends, I don't want to have to wait four months for them to catch up to me so they can come along and leech for the next four months until their gear is good enough t contribute. I want to play with them. Here I can. Right away. We can do missions together, I can drop down to them, they can sidekick up to me, whichever way it's all good.
The Devs talk to us and they care about the game. Yes we know some people don't always like or believe what they have to say. But they talk. We get regular blogs, we get responses to threads, we get questions answered. There's communication. And whether or not anyone agrees with the direction they're taking and decisions they make, I hope everyone can tell that they love the game and are doing their best. God knows I really appreciate it after some of the other MMOs I've tried. Never take these devs for granted.
Loot is almost never bind on pickup. For me, this is as big a deal as the names. I just bought a Tholian Recluse today off the auction house. 800 Lobi I think would take me another year or more. But because someone else was willing to spend the approx $200, cryptic got money, that dude got my EC, and I got a recluse. Pets, gear, ships, costumes, so much stuff is sell-able and trade-able. Way more than most other games. It makes it available, and cryptic still gets paid for it. I love this.
For anyone who hasn't tried other MMOs, believe those of us who have, this one is better than most.
Look how cool I am. I made a negative post in a positive thread. :cool:
Its just my opinion, its not a way for me to judge how "cool" I am, just simply my opinion. If it came across as sounding "cool" well, what can I say? You are the only one sending me fan mail.
Yeah, that's right.
can't step back from playing this for over a year now.... some bf3 when servers are down, a civ5 ww2 mod for the lulz (perfect panzergeneral adaption ;D)...
but indeed nothing still attracts me more than the sight on the butts of my ships, and the glow of an exploding foe in front of me, who may seemed thought i was out of apo ;D...