Initial feedback on closed beta

jaturnley · April 2013

Here's my list of good and bad. It's almost all good, really - I was truly impressed with every aspect of the new content. Most of the negatives are really just concerns over balance with the existing races.

The GOOD:

The high detail character art and animations in the mission info windows is AWESOME. It's a huge improvement to be looking at a Cardassian or Suliban who look like they are alive rather than the old lower-detail images.
The missions themselves and the surrounding story are great. Immersive, fun and pretty well balanced on the whole.
The new ship models look great as well. I didn't think I would like the Dhelan, but spinning around it, it's actually very sleek and beautiful.
The new singularity core dynamic is something to get used to, but it adds a nice new mechanic to work into tactics.

The not-so good:

The uniforms, while great looking for the most part, really need some passes for clipping detection - especially the sleeveless female peasant shirt, and all of the chest strap accessories. I am also a bit concerned that the quality of the Rom outfits make almost all of the existing Fed/KDF ones look like TRIBBLE - even the premium ones. Art may have just dug a hole they will have trouble digging themselves out of.
Some of the missions need a balance pass. The Tholian Commander was perhaps a little too tough for a tutorial-level mission, and the 'Mystery Ship' mission, while not overly tough when I ran through it, was a little confusing with its' teleport powers. I was also a little disappointed that we were given no chance to save the shuttle crews - it would have been nice to have SOME way to pull it off, even if it was very hard to do.
I am a little concerned about the "ally" mechanic. At level 10, I was able to claim every Fed "+1" ship and grab its unique console, then delete them. While this in and of itself doesn't matter a whole lot (although the Ionized Gas Sensor and Grappler do give a low-level ship a pretty decent boost in capabilities), the fact that Romulans can claim all of their allies' stuff, but the allies cannot use the Romulans' may be a balance issue.
Singularity Core concern #1: It seems like the singularity powers are a much larger advantage vs the equivalent warp core powers. A big PBAOE blast attack or a built in shield Boost/Heal/HOT is a pretty big advantage, vs the Warp Coil's nothing. I am going to assume that the Warp Coil will be getting a better power as we go on, but I didn't want to leave it unsaid
Since I have only made it to level 12 so far, I cannot say this for sure, but if the singularity powers you get as you go up in level are tied to the ship, that seems like an odd design choice. I suppose it makes sense if you are using the singularity powers as a way to differentiate the ships at the end of the game, but it might be a bit jarring to have to learn a new mechanic every time you get a new ship for less-experienced players.
So far I am not overly impressed with the way the Romulan ships fly. I guess I was expecting a little more differentiation between them and the existing ship classes. It's not BAD, it's just not as "different" as I was hoping for. Maybe once the ship stats are finalized I will feel different, but in general it felt pretty "more of the same" to me.

I will post more after I have had more play time. Keep up the great work, guys!

chaosgod777 · April 2013

I agree with everything you just said. I just hit 21 this morning and I can say while I had loads of fun with the storyline, perhaps there could have been side missions we could do as well? like the feds have starbase 24 and whatnot. I noticed very few if any minor grammatical errors and gameplay was good clean combat. I encountered no glitches that I saw but that does not exclude the possibility they are there. The fight with Hakeev (think that's how you spell it) is a whopper. The space battle tore me up a couple times and it seemed like my hazard emitters skill would not work and was completely grayed out the whole time. So maybe some toning on the enemy fire from that mission as well as a powers and skills check might be necessary. otherwise up to lvl 21 I've had a blast and am looking forward to the next set to test. also I've noticed the romulan experience seems more cinematic, that said there's no voice whatsoever in any mission. I assume this is because voice-overs are not finished yet and still need to be put in. If not and this is the final product you will kill it by not doing voice for this. The look and feel of cinematic experience is awesome and draws in the player but without voice you might as well TRIBBLE a static picture with a wall of text to read.

jaturnley · April 2013

chaosgod777 wrote: »

also I've noticed the romulan experience seems more cinematic, that said there's no voice whatsoever in any mission. I assume this is because voice-overs are not finished yet and still need to be put in. If not and this is the final product you will kill it by not doing voice for this. The look and feel of cinematic experience is awesome and draws in the player but without voice you might as well TRIBBLE a static picture with a wall of text to read.

Dstahl said in TTS chat last night that voiceovers were incomplete, but were coming. We don't know to what extent there will be VOs, but I am hoping for they level we saw in the Featured Episodes or better. If we have to live with it just being in the cinematics, I can live with that, though.

FYI, if you have not joined the TTS channel, you should, at least for the beta - it's as close as you get to direct access to the devs.

Initial feedback on closed beta

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