Observations from a veteran as well as new players

Hi there. I've been with Star Trek: Online since beta, across two different accounts. I keep falling off the wagon, so to speak. I have a personal fondness for this game. So much so, that I have brought large groups of friends over at different times in this game's development to play with me. Sadly, not a single one of them has stuck around for the late game content. Likewise, even with my rose-tinted goggles, I myself see that there are some very key issues with the game.

In light of the game's console release announcement (which I just found out about,) and the fact that this is a forum for feedback, I figured I would way in on this. I want to note, early on, that I understand that this announcement is months old, and that the plans for this shift were in the works long before we ever heard about it. I'm not a fool; I am fully expecting that much of what I am about to say here will come to nothing. I understand that the developers either will not, or cannot, act on these comments for various reasons associated with limited resources to put toward the game.

With that said, I'm hoping to get some sort of discussion going, and I want to give the developers at least an opportunity to see what the feelings towards the game were by my most recent cadre of friends. Mostly because I feel that it's relevant, because they were new players and the game is preparing to break into a market where there will be an influx of new (and, I feel, short-lived) players. As such, out of all the gripes and otherwise legit complaints I have heard from new players, the one I want to bring to light is:

The New Player Experience

This is the big one, as far as I'm concerned. Comments abound on how to improve the combat and game-play, but most of those suggestions would require a total rewrite of entire sections of the game. The experience of the new player, though, with reference to the information and environments being presented, should be fixed as soon as possible. Free to play games depend on people spending money. People will not stick around long enough to spend money on the game if the content they are presented with out the gate is no good. Common complaints among my friends were as such:

Planets are comically small
I have looked at the frequently created threads notice, and have seen that this topic has been covered. Presumably so much that the developers don't want to hear it. So I'm just going to gloss over this so we can move on:

In a game primarily about space, the planets need to be well done. Because they are one of the only forms of terrain in a vacuum.

It has been stated by a staff member (I forget the name) that a technique being used to rectify this is to place planets in the skyfile, allowing them to be massive. I have personally played missions where this technique is used, and it is striking and beautiful. These sorts of changes are efficient and exactly what the new player needs to see. More early game content needs this touch. For missions that require you to 'approach the planet,' it should be changed to 'establish orbit around the planet' by flying into a specified position in space.

I cannot express enough how much this would make the game look better. Moons should be represented by current planet sizes. Planets should be in the skyfile. This is especially true of the hubs for the three major factions of the game; players are going to spend a lot of time here. It needs to be fetching.

Cutscenes lack overall polish
Cutscenes, from the simple ones such as the 'going to warp' animation to the story mission cutscenes, should be looked at. The lack of voice work is a pity, but I understand why it has to be this way, especially in regards to the player character and his crew. I would prefer that there be a generic voice for each race/gender, but it's far from the most pressing issue.

In this category, the most pressing issue is the engine's tendency to flicker certain animations (Starships sometimes vanishing before, or during, the warp sequence) and playing sounds multiple times. Again, this can be seen (or heard, rather) a lot when going to warp.

In the most extreme case, I and three friends were grouped up for “The Doomsday Device.” I was personally looking forward to this mission, but what I had originally hoped would be a fun and engaging experience for my friends descended into hilarity as the climactic cutscene – the one where K'Valk dies – plays no less than three times in a row. I guess the game wanted to make sure we knew what was happening.

This sort of thing really shouldn't happen. Immediately takes players right out of the game.

Cosmic terrain is poorly modeled
There are two parts to this that I want to address. Both equally serious.

• Celestial objects sometimes look like twenty sided die. This screenshot is from the first real mission for the Federation, “Stranded in Space.” In fact, as soon as you warp into the system, you are forced into a cutscene where this displays prominently. This isn't a one-off thing, as it happens in other maps as well. In fact, this issue continues into the higher level – and much more polished – content.
  
  I love you guys, I really do. But this is unacceptable on modern gaming machines. In fact, this was unacceptable when this game first came out. Please fix this. Anything you can do to make the game look better counts, and a circle is trivial. Also, why is there a small, round moon-like object in “Stranded in Space?” It doesn't make sense there and looks so far out of place as to be ridiculous.

• Asteroids are inconsequential. They should be more than just space-takers. They should be dangerous, as that would give a space battlefield much more consideration. In the mission “Secret Orders,” there are gas clouds that will detonate on players and do heavy damage. They also respawn. In this environment, you must approach fights intelligently. Given that these gas clouds exist, and destructible asteroids exist in other parts of the game, it does not seem like it would be that big of a performance hangup to have asteroids damage your ship if you plough through them. Likewise, crashing your ship into massive objects should cause considerable harm.

Enemies are so laughable, the story ceases to matter
In the beginning of the game, information flies into your face so quickly that the story gets immediately drowned out. As you click through windows, the game boils down to nothing more than 'go here, blow up ships. Go here, blow up more ships.' The sheer tedium made it hard to follow the walls of text and dialogue boxes that the story is conveyed through.

This can be helped by making fights more meaningful. Enemy encounters should be less of a zerg rush, and more of a genuine tactical experience. Even running these missions solo as a new player, the enemies in the first few ranks of the game are laughably inferior, incapable of so much as hurting the player with their weapons – even on the hardest difficulties.

I personally suggest making encounters less of an exercise in withstanding 'human wave' assaults, and more one-on-one battles. Enemy frigates should be equivalent to the current early game battleships. While the battleships are still no match for players, the threat can scale from there. Ultimately, by the time you encounter Negh'Vars, they should be considerable boss battles that require the player to utilize all that they've learned up to that point. Instead, they're currently just another body as you tear through entire Klingon fleets with impunity, your invincible 100+ year old Miranda-class wading through the blood of civilizations.

This game does some things well, and those things are great. But it needs polish. Especially now, as it prepares to break into new markets populated by players who are far less forgiving of basic things like what I pointed out. Those new players aren't going to log in and see the late game content that is crafted and updated with greater care and attention to detail. They're going to be introduced to the dirty, the ugly, and the nasty of the early game experience. Every new player I have brought into this game has been turned away by this sloppy early game. If you want your influx of new players with the console release to stick around, then right now is a critical time to take a step back and start tidying things up, like when you clean up your house in preparation for guests.

Forgive me if this is the wrong forum for a topic like this. I couldn't think of a better place to put it.