Never thought I would say this, but I am absolutely in love with STO. Some things I don't like and I wish other things would be added - but the game, as it is right now, is my new favorite mmorpg that I cant do more than 1-2 days without playing! :eek:
So, if STO is your favorite mmorpg - tell everyone why!
For me, I love that:
there are millions of different things to do
there are soooo many types of ships, each with their own benefits and looks
that I can change the way my character looks and how they are dressed - whenever I want
there are over 110+ planets I can do "Patrol" missions in
there are dozens of dailies and reputation dailies
when I take my time, the game is 1000x MORE FUN - and I can just soak up every bit of amazing epic content
STO has one of the friendliest and mature communities of any mmo I have ever played
the graphics - characters, ships, maps, etc.. are sooooo GORGEOUS when video settings are maxed out
I especially love STO because I was never a Trek fan before it. So as I play the game, everything I see and do is usually brand new to me, and I love that I don't need to compare the game to the books/movies/series
WHAT ABOUT ALL OF YOU? WHY IS STO YOUR FAVORITE MMORPG?? WHY DO YOU PLAY STO??? (not what needs to change for it to be your favorite, or why you hate it - just good comments about why you play)
I'm actually not much of an MMO fan. I play STO more because it's a Star Trek game than because it's an MMO.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
still waiting on end game content tho..............
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
I'm actually not much of an MMO fan. I play STO more because it's a Star Trek game than because it's an MMO.
Same here.
To be completely honest i'd wish there where some singleplayer sanbox Star Trek game like STO.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
This is the only MMO I've ever played. It's also the only one I am ever likely to play. I had intended to get involved in both the Stargate MMO and the 40k MMO too, but both were cancelled. I had also thought about KOTOR too, but have heard there are seriously stupid limitations there for F2P Gamers, and in truth, the idea of flying a Trek ship appeals more to me than flying a Star Fighter. That said, the appeal of controlling a Jedi typically beats that of playing an Officer of the Federation.
Still, I have no intention to hit KOTOR anytime soon.
Yes. i've played many over the years and STO is the only one that keeps me playing over and over. Other MMO's do some things better and there are some areas that need major work but the others bore me after a while but the total package of STO attracts me and keeps me coming back for more.
Same here.
To be completely honest i'd wish there where some singleplayer sanbox Star Trek game like STO.
^^This. One of the reasons i like this mmo, is that it is as close as one can get for an mmo to be a singleplayer game. Avoid PvP, and what do we get... Yup. Singleplayer with a noisy chatbox and npc's with a vivid AI (them other players.)
For the community to be mature and friendly... That is debatable. :rolleyes:
I am going to have to go on a soap box to explain.
I have played many MMO's from EQ to CoH, DoC, and many other fantasy and super hero and science fiction games.
Each one has something you can't get in a stand alone game. The biggest is how big the world is. An MMO has huge room to rove around and see other content. Different ways to level, different ways to build a character.
I resisted playing this game when it came out. My computer at the time was a little too under powered and even if it had the ability. Star Trek games have left me sad for many years prior to this. (and I recall games where this was a ship 0= )
When I got my new machine and saw this game had gone free to play I decided to give it a try. A free sample can't hurt and if it is bad uninstall and shake my head that there was another failure in a long list of them.
But the tutorial was well spoken, the initial play through fun and I found myself replaying the same missions over and over because I enjoyed them so much. And I wanted badly to see the next tier of ship before I ran out of resources. (Yes I know they did a better job than that. But getting a Galaxy for the first time was like getting ultra rare armour on WoW.)
The C-store and its points from before Zen, had things I wanted to see and try. I put in money and had TOS uniforms, or the ship or loads of other great things.
A friend of mine suggested I try this games leading competitor with flashing energy swords. And it has some strong points. The writing is sharp. Every class has their own missions set in places where most all other players will go. But there is where customization fell off. As a certain rogue like character you can have 2 pistols or a shotgun. Your other skills are not that well defined for what you should be able to do. Your armour is based heavily on drops and all of it has a look. Often a bad one. No themes for characters just great(er) stats. Each of the trinity characters got a ship. That was the one you were stuck with and it took a while to get it at all. Then the flight was more like a transporter to get between worlds and ship combat is rail shooting.
Why so much on the competition? Because I dropped that game. I got a subscription here and eventually a lifer. Because being able to make the character(s) you want to see, with ships you outfit and fly in your style are worth it.
And since I got here they came up with a grand tutorial for the Romulans, did great by the Klingons. And then went and redid the Federation tutorial to have so much more immersive a story. Each month the game over all gets improvements. And even more fun than the previous month. Listen to Michael Dorn on the Klingon side. If you don't get goosebumps then you never enjoyed TNG or DS9.
STO is my favourite MMO because it is great and getting better everyday.
Good job to the Dev team.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
One of the reasons i like this mmo, is that it is as close as one can get for an mmo to be a singleplayer game. Avoid PvP, and what do we get... Yup. Singleplayer with a noisy chatbox and npc's with a vivid AI (them other players.)
^^This. Plus, hey, it's Star Trek. Sto is the only MMO I have ever played and will ever play. A lot of people have stated that if you want to play a single player game play Armada or Bridge Commander. But what everyone forgets is that all "multiplayer" means is that more than one person can play the game at once. It does NOT mean you have to interact in any way with the other people playing. That being said, the few interactions I have had with other players have went well. So there are some decent people in game.
I don't care what the header says, I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, an "ARC user".
Still, I have no intention to hit KOTOR anytime soon.
I tried it during the summer. I gave up after it refused to let my progress past the tutorial.
I like STO. I've been involved in EVE a few times but I dislike it because unless you've got friends who play it, it's a very lonely game with the world's steepest learning curve. I like it's ambition, but ultimately I prefer STO due to it's queued events as it doesn't mean you have to join a lolhuge guild just to start playing.
You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
i really don't care to team up with people who i don't know to do the stfs and such. mostly they complain about not wearing a headset.. like i don't wear the damn things all damn day at work. last thing i want to do is wear one at home
STO is the only MMO I really play. I am burned out on DnD style MMOs like WoW and Guild Wars 2. SWTOR while it is sci-fi they really dropped the ball as it should of had space combat similar to SW Battle Front not some star fox clone.
This game cant hold a candle to my favorite MMO of all time. but I cant play that anymore.
Oh the times long gone, the golden era of the mmo when WOW clones didnt exist, when even WOW didnt exist. I miss those days...
Seems so long ago now.
But this game is alright, I probably wouldnt still be playing it if it was subscription-only though. Good IP, decent looking, fun the first couple runs... then I find myself trying to find a reason to log in half the time.
Oh well, cant get my warp speed fix any other way. Make it so.
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
This is the only MMO I've ever played. It's also the only one I am ever likely to play. I had intended to get involved in both the Stargate MMO and the 40k MMO too, but both were cancelled. I had also thought about KOTOR too, but have heard there are seriously stupid limitations there for F2P Gamers, and in truth, the idea of flying a Trek ship appeals more to me than flying a Star Fighter. That said, the appeal of controlling a Jedi typically beats that of playing an Officer of the Federation.
Still, I have no intention to hit KOTOR anytime soon.
You really should. For an older game KOTOR is considered one of the best CRPGs ever written, and if you add the restored content mod the sequel is really good too.
(Hint: KOTOR =/= SWTOR. The one is a great singleplayer game, the other is an MMO of at best questionable quality. )
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
This is the only MMO I actually enjoy. It has it' downsides, like some other MMO's out there (grind, grind..), but it also has player missions, which are enjoyable & some of them really surpass those designed by Cryptic, both ground & space combat at least give me feeling of a good run. I play this game on a side to other title I play rather competitively, so as a pass time, to enjoy story, immerse myself into my character, kick some butts and blow off ships off the sky - perfect.
Now, if they add more stories, more Trek like... all power to the devs. I've started enjoying Trek universe, just because of this game. My sci-fi cultural life is filling a gap...
[10:20] Your Lunge deals 4798 (2580) Physical Damage(Critical) to Tosk of Borg.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator "bIghojchugh DaneH, Dumev pagh. bIghojqangbe'chugh, DuQaHlaH pagh." "Learn lots. Don't judge. Laugh for no reason. Be nice. Seek happiness."~Day[9] "Your fun isn't wrong."~LaughingTrendy
Despite how much I loathe what it has become, WoW will always be the most memorable MMO experience I've had, along with Guild Wars 1.
I wanted STO to become my most favorite game, but nowadays, despite improvements over the years, it still reeks of "what could've been."
For a gamer and a fan of Star Trek, it left me disappointed, but in time I mostly got over it. Maybe I still hold out hope that one day Cryptic will take the quality of their games seriously and make much needed improvements. It doesn't need to be perfect, but traversing that path is much better than where STO is currently heading.
Until then, I'll continue to support what I like from Cryptic, and chastise and critic them when they **** up.
My first dip into the MMO world was F2P D&D Online:Eberron. Loved that game. even got my wife playing it with me! Woot!
Then STO went F2P and D&DO got lost somewhere on my HDD in the excitement. I uninstalled it to make room and never looked back.
I then heard that SWTOR was going to be going F2P and jumped in to try that too. I started as a F2TRY player and rolled 6 alts (with 2 more slots available). I was going to roll one of each and get them up to lvl 15 (max level for a F2T player) and play them more once F2P was launched. Whilst I loved the missions and dialogue (all so well written I can understand their MASSIVE VO budget) I found some things lacking. Don't get me wrong, some things in STO were lacking too, but I really was expecting more of a KOTOR feel to SWTOR and it just seemed to be missing something vital.
Anyway, I went back to STO until SWTOR went F2P. SWTOR F2P launch day came and I was sorely unimpressed.
Everything was gated behind microtransactions. And I mean EVERYTHING!
First, I was only allowed 2 alt slots (not the 8 I got as a F2T player). This meant no restarting any alts to get things right second time around without buying more slots.
Second, I had several alts merged to new servers and alt names needed to be changed as someone else had those names on the new server.
Third, my companion now had fewer skills. Turns out, so did I (archaelogy, trade, etc.). More would require a purchase.
Fourth, more people on fewer servers meant LAG! Yuck. Never watched a slower Jedi and I've seen Family Guy Blue Harvest!
Back to STO I came. I've rolled new toons, bought Romulan stuff with cash, ground-out dil->zen to buy ships and keys, subbed and generally tried to support the game where I can.
I lead a KDF fleet and a Fed fleet (both small, but building solidly), I've made good friends and persisted (nudge, nudge) and I'm saving subs and grinding to buy the Mogh.
Safe to say, STO all the way.
"...we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things that divide us.”
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
STO has potential ill give it that,
one of the best character customization systems out there
a great use of the graphics engine keeping things more real looking
an unneed of the 6pm raid requirement unlike a good majority of mmos
endless possibilities
and that's where it stops
space combat...face it doesn't hold a candle compared to SWG it was like Kahn designed the combat here since its so linear (another game that is very comparable to ship combat is POTBS)
interiors....ug maybe by 2015 we can finally do something with them
end game...its mostly mind numbing rep grinding with very little true effort in rewards(granted its a diferent change of pace from the 6pm raid time and maybe getting that 1 item after several weeks, but its also still a missing element imo)
missed opportunities...ya delta quadrant fans im sure your all happy but considering the GAMMA quadrant was already established as a feasible back and forth without relying on a SG storyline...
can this game go farther,
YES
will it...who knows
as for people like myself who are dying to get back to a more realistic space combat system, this game most likely will not hold my interest once Star Citizen hits and that's the simple truth.
Well on my main account I have clocked over 3600 hours since 5/2010. This doesn't include deleted characters or my f2p account. I really enjoy the game but have taken some time off from time to time to get away from the grind.
This is my favorite MMO and I don't really have time for another but I am interested in the new Star Citizen game that's coming and definitely would love to see a Mass Effect type MMO who knows what will be part of ME4.
Favorite STO aspects are the character creator and the variety of customization on your ships in terms of consoles, equipment, weapons, etc. I like foundry ability but it needs refinement and better rewards.
Not so favorite aspects are lack of useful mission rewards, poor loot drops, way too fast leveling of story content (you are level 50 in iota pavonis), poor management of the starbase system to benefit all fleets. Also a biggy here is it seems the designers are making the game for the attention deficit crowd. The game is all over the place with a real lack of continuity until recently with the Iconians.
Besides being a big trek fanatic I have invested $1000+ into the game with 2 LTS and various c-store purchases so that is probably one of the biggest things that keeps me playing but If something space scifi comes along I will probably shift my time elsewhere. I will still pop in from time to time for the new stuff of course.
Gold Sub since March 2010
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
Its funny because STO actually introduced me to Star Trek universe and since I've started playing STO I watched everything there is about Star Trek except the "Enterprise". I hated that show from the very first episode... I am not a trekky, nor I am a ST geek now. But I liked the shows similar to how I like Star Wars movies. STO, however, have captured me by its dual layer of fun - space missions and planet missions. And it has fun customization and a lot of stuff to do now especially with Romulan side.
STO is my favorite MMO... today. I mean I've been playing it since the very beginning, even Beta tested it, but I take breaks. I dont have any of rep Tier 5 yet.. mostly because I hate grind and after PWE bought Cryptic there was nothing but grind. Of course there was some grind before that too but releasing Seasons and Episodes helped a lot imho. You don't really have to grind though which I like, since all the top equipment as I call them BoBs - Best of the Best are pretty much only important in PvP. Elite fleet equipment and blah blah, you don't need any of that for PvP or even for Elite STFs. You can obliterate everything even with rare-blue equipment when team is on par and everyone knows what they are doing.
Customization is a big plus imho in STO, at least it is what keeps me coming back and everything else. Somehow it just clicks with me. But who knows, maybe after grinding STFs I may get bored again and switch to LOTRO - another great MMO that has advanced into a lot of content throughout the years and quite deep customization system.
So yeah at this point it is STO and LOTRO and LOTRO and STO for me... I plug in Single Player games from time to time to keep things fun.
My first dip into the MMO world was F2P D&D Online:Eberron. Loved that game.
Then STO went F2P...
I then heard that SWTOR was going to be going F2P...Everything was gated behind microtransactions. And I mean EVERYTHING!
Back to STO I came.
Were you following me?
I did make a short sojourn into Neverwinter when that launched... that also suffered from pay-gating irritants, but mostly it suffered from constant rules changes ("Open Beta" and the fact that I played a TR whose powers were incessantly nerfed/altered) and a disappointing setup after the broad customization of DDO's modified 3E rules (Neverwinter uses modified 4E rules). Other than that, though, same path entirely... if DDO had copied STO's F2P format and added hirelings similar in quality to STO's boffs... yeah, I'd still be there. The F2Try setup means lower population, which increases prices of anything you actually want and makes grouping difficult... think playing KDF and imagine that was the whole population of the game. Add to that truly terrible Hireling AI (worse than mobs, I kid you not) that prevents you from managing to properly solo things if you can't find a group. SWTOR... yeah, pay-gated everything up to and including gear quality, to the point where I didn't really consider purchasing anything because there were so many additional irritants.
Really, the best part of STO is the F2P structure and the general improvements. It has bugs, but there is progress being made, even on the oft-neglected Klingon front... there's still room for improvement in actually balancing the factions, but I picked up the Mogh mostly because it was the first end-game ship added to the KDF's C-Store tab since I started playing. An honest commitment to fixing the bugs and balancing the factions would make STO far better, and individual Reputation progress makes leveling alts cumbersome despite the tokens, but it's my favorite overall game at the moment.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
STO is not my favorite MMO. My favorite MMO was, is, and always will be City of Heroes. I played it from closed beta to the day that NCSoft unceremoniously pulled the plug. Having said that, I have a soft spot in my heart for Cryptic Studios. Out of the three MMOs they have up and running, STO is the one I've come back to full-time. Part of that is because I recognize former Paragon Studios devs on the staff, and I trust them enough as developers to know that they want to put out quality content.
tl;dr: STO isn't my favorite, but it's the only one I'm actively playing right now.
STO is the only true MMO I've played for any length of time.
But that being said, I do like it more than Diablo 2. It's hard to say whether it's better than DC Universe Online. I only played that for a short time before their account server got TRIBBLE and I was never able to login again....
1. It's the Star Trek universe. While some deride the fact that we're not being lectured with ethical "lessons" delivered by straw man-based stories, I find this iteration of the Star Trek universe to be much more believable, and relatively immersive.
2. Although there are noteworthy problems, I overall actually enjoy the gameplay in and of itself, and quite a bit at that.
3. The Foundry. While it's mostly got untapped potential right now, the potential is there.
It's got problems, and there are places wherein they could easily expand the game to be more interesting and appeal to a wider audience. However, it feels a lot more like the Star Trek universe than anything else I've seen so far, and a version that's more fleshed out, to boot. It's the main game I play these days, and I don't particularly want to bother with any other MMO - and in fact don't play many other games in general.
It's star trek and free to play. What more can be said?
Not only is it free to play but it the most generous free to play I have ever played. The Duty Officer System is the sticky part for me. I would have left STO long time ago without it. Between the Duty Officer System and Rep grinding I haven't had time to finish the basic story line. Oh and there's all the alts I have too...
As far as other MMO's well for starters CoX was awesome.
The only PvP I ever got into was the early (original) Plantside. The funny thing is that I'm not a PvP (can't hit the broadside of a barn), but what made the game fun was that I could still contribute to my side in other ways. Those early tower battles were epic. I learned the term "zerg" and painfully learned the term "nerf" which made the game a chore and caused me to leave.
Ex-CoH players, Please add the chat channel "CoX STO"
Could have been something incredibly awesome. Star Trek's IP is a latinum mine of lore. Sadly, devs are too focused on short term gains to invest in content, quality of life or bug fixing. Also lacking seriously in PvP development and balance. Still space combat is very fun and it is the only Star Trek MMO ... And probably the only serious Star Trek game. So I will stick around for now.
Deserves better devs and publisher though.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Comments
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
so its my favorite
still waiting on end game content tho..............
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Same here.
To be completely honest i'd wish there where some singleplayer sanbox Star Trek game like STO.
Still, I have no intention to hit KOTOR anytime soon.
^^This. One of the reasons i like this mmo, is that it is as close as one can get for an mmo to be a singleplayer game. Avoid PvP, and what do we get... Yup. Singleplayer with a noisy chatbox and npc's with a vivid AI (them other players.)
For the community to be mature and friendly... That is debatable. :rolleyes:
I have played many MMO's from EQ to CoH, DoC, and many other fantasy and super hero and science fiction games.
Each one has something you can't get in a stand alone game. The biggest is how big the world is. An MMO has huge room to rove around and see other content. Different ways to level, different ways to build a character.
I resisted playing this game when it came out. My computer at the time was a little too under powered and even if it had the ability. Star Trek games have left me sad for many years prior to this. (and I recall games where this was a ship 0= )
When I got my new machine and saw this game had gone free to play I decided to give it a try. A free sample can't hurt and if it is bad uninstall and shake my head that there was another failure in a long list of them.
But the tutorial was well spoken, the initial play through fun and I found myself replaying the same missions over and over because I enjoyed them so much. And I wanted badly to see the next tier of ship before I ran out of resources. (Yes I know they did a better job than that. But getting a Galaxy for the first time was like getting ultra rare armour on WoW.)
The C-store and its points from before Zen, had things I wanted to see and try. I put in money and had TOS uniforms, or the ship or loads of other great things.
A friend of mine suggested I try this games leading competitor with flashing energy swords. And it has some strong points. The writing is sharp. Every class has their own missions set in places where most all other players will go. But there is where customization fell off. As a certain rogue like character you can have 2 pistols or a shotgun. Your other skills are not that well defined for what you should be able to do. Your armour is based heavily on drops and all of it has a look. Often a bad one. No themes for characters just great(er) stats. Each of the trinity characters got a ship. That was the one you were stuck with and it took a while to get it at all. Then the flight was more like a transporter to get between worlds and ship combat is rail shooting.
Why so much on the competition? Because I dropped that game. I got a subscription here and eventually a lifer. Because being able to make the character(s) you want to see, with ships you outfit and fly in your style are worth it.
And since I got here they came up with a grand tutorial for the Romulans, did great by the Klingons. And then went and redid the Federation tutorial to have so much more immersive a story. Each month the game over all gets improvements. And even more fun than the previous month. Listen to Michael Dorn on the Klingon side. If you don't get goosebumps then you never enjoyed TNG or DS9.
STO is my favourite MMO because it is great and getting better everyday.
Good job to the Dev team.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
^^This. Plus, hey, it's Star Trek. Sto is the only MMO I have ever played and will ever play. A lot of people have stated that if you want to play a single player game play Armada or Bridge Commander. But what everyone forgets is that all "multiplayer" means is that more than one person can play the game at once. It does NOT mean you have to interact in any way with the other people playing. That being said, the few interactions I have had with other players have went well. So there are some decent people in game.
I tried it during the summer. I gave up after it refused to let my progress past the tutorial.
I like STO. I've been involved in EVE a few times but I dislike it because unless you've got friends who play it, it's a very lonely game with the world's steepest learning curve. I like it's ambition, but ultimately I prefer STO due to it's queued events as it doesn't mean you have to join a lolhuge guild just to start playing.
Oh the times long gone, the golden era of the mmo when WOW clones didnt exist, when even WOW didnt exist. I miss those days...
Seems so long ago now.
But this game is alright, I probably wouldnt still be playing it if it was subscription-only though. Good IP, decent looking, fun the first couple runs... then I find myself trying to find a reason to log in half the time.
Oh well, cant get my warp speed fix any other way. Make it so.
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
You really should. For an older game KOTOR is considered one of the best CRPGs ever written, and if you add the restored content mod the sequel is really good too.
(Hint: KOTOR =/= SWTOR. The one is a great singleplayer game, the other is an MMO of at best questionable quality. )
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Now, if they add more stories, more Trek like... all power to the devs. I've started enjoying Trek universe, just because of this game. My sci-fi cultural life is filling a gap...
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator
"bIghojchugh DaneH, Dumev pagh. bIghojqangbe'chugh, DuQaHlaH pagh."
"Learn lots. Don't judge. Laugh for no reason. Be nice. Seek happiness." ~Day[9]
"Your fun isn't wrong." ~LaughingTrendy
Find me on Twitterverse - @jodarkrider
I wanted STO to become my most favorite game, but nowadays, despite improvements over the years, it still reeks of "what could've been."
For a gamer and a fan of Star Trek, it left me disappointed, but in time I mostly got over it. Maybe I still hold out hope that one day Cryptic will take the quality of their games seriously and make much needed improvements. It doesn't need to be perfect, but traversing that path is much better than where STO is currently heading.
Until then, I'll continue to support what I like from Cryptic, and chastise and critic them when they **** up.
Then STO went F2P and D&DO got lost somewhere on my HDD in the excitement. I uninstalled it to make room and never looked back.
I then heard that SWTOR was going to be going F2P and jumped in to try that too. I started as a F2TRY player and rolled 6 alts (with 2 more slots available). I was going to roll one of each and get them up to lvl 15 (max level for a F2T player) and play them more once F2P was launched. Whilst I loved the missions and dialogue (all so well written I can understand their MASSIVE VO budget) I found some things lacking. Don't get me wrong, some things in STO were lacking too, but I really was expecting more of a KOTOR feel to SWTOR and it just seemed to be missing something vital.
Anyway, I went back to STO until SWTOR went F2P. SWTOR F2P launch day came and I was sorely unimpressed.
Everything was gated behind microtransactions. And I mean EVERYTHING!
First, I was only allowed 2 alt slots (not the 8 I got as a F2T player). This meant no restarting any alts to get things right second time around without buying more slots.
Second, I had several alts merged to new servers and alt names needed to be changed as someone else had those names on the new server.
Third, my companion now had fewer skills. Turns out, so did I (archaelogy, trade, etc.). More would require a purchase.
Fourth, more people on fewer servers meant LAG! Yuck. Never watched a slower Jedi and I've seen Family Guy Blue Harvest!
Back to STO I came. I've rolled new toons, bought Romulan stuff with cash, ground-out dil->zen to buy ships and keys, subbed and generally tried to support the game where I can.
I lead a KDF fleet and a Fed fleet (both small, but building solidly), I've made good friends and persisted (nudge, nudge) and I'm saving subs and grinding to buy the Mogh.
Safe to say, STO all the way.
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
The only reason I got into mmo's, was because STO is Star Trek.
one of the best character customization systems out there
a great use of the graphics engine keeping things more real looking
an unneed of the 6pm raid requirement unlike a good majority of mmos
endless possibilities
and that's where it stops
space combat...face it doesn't hold a candle compared to SWG it was like Kahn designed the combat here since its so linear (another game that is very comparable to ship combat is POTBS)
interiors....ug maybe by 2015 we can finally do something with them
end game...its mostly mind numbing rep grinding with very little true effort in rewards(granted its a diferent change of pace from the 6pm raid time and maybe getting that 1 item after several weeks, but its also still a missing element imo)
missed opportunities...ya delta quadrant fans im sure your all happy but considering the GAMMA quadrant was already established as a feasible back and forth without relying on a SG storyline...
can this game go farther,
YES
will it...who knows
as for people like myself who are dying to get back to a more realistic space combat system, this game most likely will not hold my interest once Star Citizen hits and that's the simple truth.
This is my favorite MMO and I don't really have time for another but I am interested in the new Star Citizen game that's coming and definitely would love to see a Mass Effect type MMO who knows what will be part of ME4.
Favorite STO aspects are the character creator and the variety of customization on your ships in terms of consoles, equipment, weapons, etc. I like foundry ability but it needs refinement and better rewards.
Not so favorite aspects are lack of useful mission rewards, poor loot drops, way too fast leveling of story content (you are level 50 in iota pavonis), poor management of the starbase system to benefit all fleets. Also a biggy here is it seems the designers are making the game for the attention deficit crowd. The game is all over the place with a real lack of continuity until recently with the Iconians.
Besides being a big trek fanatic I have invested $1000+ into the game with 2 LTS and various c-store purchases so that is probably one of the biggest things that keeps me playing but If something space scifi comes along I will probably shift my time elsewhere. I will still pop in from time to time for the new stuff of course.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
STO is my favorite MMO... today. I mean I've been playing it since the very beginning, even Beta tested it, but I take breaks. I dont have any of rep Tier 5 yet.. mostly because I hate grind and after PWE bought Cryptic there was nothing but grind. Of course there was some grind before that too but releasing Seasons and Episodes helped a lot imho. You don't really have to grind though which I like, since all the top equipment as I call them BoBs - Best of the Best are pretty much only important in PvP. Elite fleet equipment and blah blah, you don't need any of that for PvP or even for Elite STFs. You can obliterate everything even with rare-blue equipment when team is on par and everyone knows what they are doing.
Customization is a big plus imho in STO, at least it is what keeps me coming back and everything else. Somehow it just clicks with me. But who knows, maybe after grinding STFs I may get bored again and switch to LOTRO - another great MMO that has advanced into a lot of content throughout the years and quite deep customization system.
So yeah at this point it is STO and LOTRO and LOTRO and STO for me... I plug in Single Player games from time to time to keep things fun.
Were you following me?
I did make a short sojourn into Neverwinter when that launched... that also suffered from pay-gating irritants, but mostly it suffered from constant rules changes ("Open Beta" and the fact that I played a TR whose powers were incessantly nerfed/altered) and a disappointing setup after the broad customization of DDO's modified 3E rules (Neverwinter uses modified 4E rules). Other than that, though, same path entirely... if DDO had copied STO's F2P format and added hirelings similar in quality to STO's boffs... yeah, I'd still be there. The F2Try setup means lower population, which increases prices of anything you actually want and makes grouping difficult... think playing KDF and imagine that was the whole population of the game. Add to that truly terrible Hireling AI (worse than mobs, I kid you not) that prevents you from managing to properly solo things if you can't find a group. SWTOR... yeah, pay-gated everything up to and including gear quality, to the point where I didn't really consider purchasing anything because there were so many additional irritants.
Really, the best part of STO is the F2P structure and the general improvements. It has bugs, but there is progress being made, even on the oft-neglected Klingon front... there's still room for improvement in actually balancing the factions, but I picked up the Mogh mostly because it was the first end-game ship added to the KDF's C-Store tab since I started playing. An honest commitment to fixing the bugs and balancing the factions would make STO far better, and individual Reputation progress makes leveling alts cumbersome despite the tokens, but it's my favorite overall game at the moment.
STO is great, I love it, and mostly because it is the only source of diluted new Trek left.
In general, I don't like MMOs, and NWO is only there as a break.
So answering the OPs question: Yes!
I hope STO get's better ...
tl;dr: STO isn't my favorite, but it's the only one I'm actively playing right now.
But that being said, I do like it more than Diablo 2. It's hard to say whether it's better than DC Universe Online. I only played that for a short time before their account server got TRIBBLE and I was never able to login again....
So yeah, Overall STO is my favorite of the three.
My character Tsin'xing
1. It's the Star Trek universe. While some deride the fact that we're not being lectured with ethical "lessons" delivered by straw man-based stories, I find this iteration of the Star Trek universe to be much more believable, and relatively immersive.
2. Although there are noteworthy problems, I overall actually enjoy the gameplay in and of itself, and quite a bit at that.
3. The Foundry. While it's mostly got untapped potential right now, the potential is there.
It's got problems, and there are places wherein they could easily expand the game to be more interesting and appeal to a wider audience. However, it feels a lot more like the Star Trek universe than anything else I've seen so far, and a version that's more fleshed out, to boot. It's the main game I play these days, and I don't particularly want to bother with any other MMO - and in fact don't play many other games in general.
Not only is it free to play but it the most generous free to play I have ever played. The Duty Officer System is the sticky part for me. I would have left STO long time ago without it. Between the Duty Officer System and Rep grinding I haven't had time to finish the basic story line. Oh and there's all the alts I have too...
As far as other MMO's well for starters CoX was awesome.
The only PvP I ever got into was the early (original) Plantside. The funny thing is that I'm not a PvP (can't hit the broadside of a barn), but what made the game fun was that I could still contribute to my side in other ways. Those early tower battles were epic. I learned the term "zerg" and painfully learned the term "nerf" which made the game a chore and caused me to leave.
Ex-CoH players, Please add the chat channel "CoX STO"
Deserves better devs and publisher though.
- Judge Aaron Satie