This game doesn't really have in depth builds its pretty much like a space version of wow easy and straight forward nothing like some of the games that require a lot more thinking than this one does. Plus you've got TFO's like Assault on Terok Nor where the devs that made that one utilized the mechanics of an 80's game referred to as simon says which now is incorporated in most toddler toys that toddlers can easily learn to play with. However being how dense a lot of players are in this game they are outsmarted by a toddler's toy so I guess this builds in this game could appear to be more than what they actually are. Kind of like how the only build reference locations pretty much all have aux2bat builds copied for each ship in the game. Even though there are more optimal builds out there that do not even use aux2bat.
However the only real reasons I came back was first that GW2 has gone through some bad times before the pandemic that it just became less developed than this game which is sad but stuff like this anniversary pack and the sheer amount of quality of life processes in gw2 sometimes make me really want to not play this game especially the exchange. However being that it seems the anti-torp boat people have essentially died out and you can make one of those that work now that is a plus.
However one of the downsides that limit this game and often turn people away is the aspect of how they take the more popular ships and can't find a way to interest players so they lock them behind paywalls. Although the dilithium exchange makes perfect sense when you make content on the basis that only 1% of any games population will be able to afford it. So you have an economy where no one is spending money because the prices are just too high. Which then makes people less willing to spend their dilithium on contributions to their fleet and the fleet dilithium vouchers didn't really do anything to change this. Its just if PWE and Cryptic want to continue their business they are going to have set reasonable prices or end up losing everything they have built up. Plus being how limited they were before the pandemic on how voice overs were done in other locations and not in their studio most of the time that it put them ahead of the other games out there that relied on their physical studio locations. As well times like this too they need to focus more on sandbox content because people are at home more and playing more that they need content that can pacify their enjoyment for extended periods of time. Anyways thats my rant but still this game isn't hard or anything like that its just designed for people who don't have the ability to think to enjoy themselves.
I grew up watching TOS with my family as it aired. It became a tradition and was followed by Walter Cronkite with the evening news and then Walt Disney. My parents even enjoyed TNG... especially the cliff hanger 2 part episodes.
Getting to fly my own Starship and explore the galaxy with my away team was a dream come true. I never would have even tried the game if it wasn't Star Trek. It's the only game I play.
I enjoyed the story line (and even the tailor) for years and the ability to tinker with things keeps me going.
Group experiences with fleet mates and friends have always provided the best and most memorable experiences.
Lots of playstyle and gear options. I can pretty much pick a theme, gear up for it, and it usually doesn't suck.
Story content is usually pretty decent and scratches the Trek itch.
Cons:
Some balance feels pretty arbitrary. Why does my now-pretty old lobi herald stick still feel like one of the best weapons in the game?
Restricted tailor system, especially compared to its sister game, Champions Online. There was a brief period when the unrestricted tailor could be accessed, and it allowed for vast amounts of creativity. Then it got patched, and now customizing appearances is just "what limited things does my species get?" and "oh boy, 5 muted colors in various levels of dark. How exciting." and "I guess I can't use these boots with these pants, how irritating." and soforth.
Reputation system. It's time to revamp this because dear god it's terrible, especially for new characters as I'm finding out. There's SO. MUCH. CLICKING. EVERY. DAY. ...for this nonsense. It at least needs a 1-click start button to start all daily reputation projects for unmaxed reputations as well as a 1-click claim button to collect any finished project rewards.
GoTtA ChaSe ThaT TiMe LiMiTeD ReWaRd CaRrOt DerKa DuRr. By far the worst offender in my cons list. FOMO abuse by MMO developers is pretty scummy, and especially in the more recent years, this game has been shoveling it out in spades. At least the Phoenix Prize Pack exists I guess, but still...stop it. Or at least let up a bit. I had to look at an unfinishable campaign checklist in the event tab for like a freaking year because I missed one of the events. Really trashy design decision that makes me lose a lot of respect for a company I once thought rather highly of.
Unfortunately it is the only Star Trek mmo-ish currently.
STO despite all it's flaws has not just good but great moments.
Some of the storyline missions are really well crafted & excel.
The decision to close The Foundry locking-away something more unique that STO did offer was a shame. (Cryptic won't bring it back, too much effort)
The proliferation of gambling into STO's almost every nook & cranny is a big turn-off especially with the abysmal odds.
The space combat shines & I think the ground combat gets overlooked too often.
STO offers a wealth of content at this stage even though the pace of additional new content has slowed & Cryptic seems to hide older content sometimes. (convoluted Available tab)
STO's in-game economy is hyper-inflated & seems to be gathering climbing speed across it's multitude of currencies mostly.
The lack of "bug" fixing is concerning & a bad indicator of Cryptic's priorities &/or resource management, some have been in-game for months if not over a year, that right there displays something is wrong.
There's some awful communication at times either by mistake or intention, but mostly adequate.
Good synergy between the various venues of this intellectual property & STO. (still waiting for a U.S.S. Cerritos)
When Cryptic discontinued the monthly subscription not "bumping-up" to the next tier a player was at then was petty & a big "thanks but don't care & don't let the door hit you".
Something I've noticed since this Klingon recruitment is the viewership on Twitch has overall been increased, I don't stream, but I like seeing that because overall I think STO is an overlooked mmo.
Over the years I've witnessed Cryptic's, sometimes glacial, changing from almost Draconian game changes with none or little heads-up to a more empathetic approach & informing players beforehand which is appreciated.
Someone(s) at Cryptic really should perhaps try to get over their FOMO (fear of missing out) fetish & lording it over us.
I recently had an impressive, & a bit shocking, customer service experience/response & it was appreciated, though I know overall it's majority casted in a not so glowing light.
Some of the ships' designs & environments are wonderful to just gaze & admire at & what Cryptic does with it's older engine is still superb.
DS9 despite becoming more accurate should've been widened a bit for practical maneuvering purposes, but is was re-done well.
Despite any monetization, paywalls, & casino mechanics (re-engineering is atrocious) dressed-up as STO this game can mostly be enjoyed without spending a literal dime & that is astonishing.
I'm not liking the direction of where these worse-value almost "legendary" by title only ships are headed.
Does Cryptic deserve accolades & thanks? Absolutely! The same question & answer though for Cryptic & criticism is true.
Also, though I don't like it's ever-consuming presence in STO but any gamblers have probably kept STO afloat & is in some cases the only method (thanks to Cryptic) for having new items introduced to STO, so thanks to the prolific gamblers.
I suspect we all like & enjoy STO, some parts more than others & at different times, otherwise we wouldn't be playing it, for myself the more I enjoy the more likely I'll spend, I'm a simple animal like that.
Now off the soap-box & onto the porcelain throne :-)
Lots of playstyle and gear options. I can pretty much pick a theme, gear up for it, and it usually doesn't suck.
Story content is usually pretty decent and scratches the Trek itch.
Cons:
Some balance feels pretty arbitrary. Why does my now-pretty old lobi herald stick still feel like one of the best weapons in the game?
Restricted tailor system, especially compared to its sister game, Champions Online. There was a brief period when the unrestricted tailor could be accessed, and it allowed for vast amounts of creativity. Then it got patched, and now customizing appearances is just "what limited things does my species get?" and "oh boy, 5 muted colors in various levels of dark. How exciting." and "I guess I can't use these boots with these pants, how irritating." and soforth.
Reputation system. It's time to revamp this because dear god it's terrible, especially for new characters as I'm finding out. There's SO. MUCH. CLICKING. EVERY. DAY. ...for this nonsense. It at least needs a 1-click start button to start all daily reputation projects for unmaxed reputations as well as a 1-click claim button to collect any finished project rewards.
GoTtA ChaSe ThaT TiMe LiMiTeD ReWaRd CaRrOt DerKa DuRr. By far the worst offender in my cons list. FOMO abuse by MMO developers is pretty scummy, and especially in the more recent years, this game has been shoveling it out in spades. At least the Phoenix Prize Pack exists I guess, but still...stop it. Or at least let up a bit. I had to look at an unfinishable campaign checklist in the event tab for like a freaking year because I missed one of the events. Really trashy design decision that makes me lose a lot of respect for a company I once thought rather highly of.
- Restricted Tailor System: I believe I seen something from the devs a while back that the reason why we don't have access to everything in the tailor is that a lot of parts haven't been made to work well with others, hence why only certain clothes work together without clipping issues, or why only certain costumes are available to certain species.
- Reputation system: Believe me, before the change they did to add in the button to fill all the daily inputs for one, the clicks were like triple what they are now. The only things that honestly having a 1 click start all, 1 click finish all would be to save time going through them on your character(s).
- Limited time events: I think you and I know the very reason they do the limited time events is to draw interest for people to keep logging in between big updates. No one says you DO have to do all of them if you don't want to. Depending on what the thing is, you can buy it out the first day and you don't have to do anything more with it, as you have what they offered at that point.
Yep! Thats kind of a biggie. Thank you for bringing it up!
My hotfix to it has always been my frinds. Somehow I managed to get into team with @seaofsorrows and 4 other long term in game and rl frinds of mine tonight. Lol, we played RTFO for like 3-4hours flat with our KDF recruits. We had so much fun but for me it is becomming harder and harder to differenciate if it was thanks them allone or the content provided by Cryptic. The older the maps were the more fun we seemed to have it appeared.
Days like today are why I stick with STO. I just logged on to see if I could find something fun to do and next thing I know I am spending over 4hrs doing RTFO’s with you guys. Yeah, the game that Cryptic provides is a huge factor obviously.. but the best part about STO for me is definitely joining OCD and the friends I have made along the way.
That was the best time I have had in STO in a while, and the main reason I keep playing. Without you guys I probably would have gotten bored quite a while ago.
Doing Starbase 1 on Elite with 3 guys using new characters was pretty cool.
I think I logged in in the middle of it - you were, if I remember correctly, on the 13th random queue - and it honestly made my day to see Kyle going kinda crazy in the chat, LOL.
Seriously though, you both made a very good point: playing with friends is ultimately what keep me from moving on.
My fleet, that I have been tasked with managing for the past almost two years now, and my fleetmates, not to mention people like you guys, are what makes this game still playable for me.
If it wasn't for that, I would've left for good a long time ago, because yes this is the only Trek MMO out there, but playing alone wouldn't be nearly as worth it.
Kyle was hoplessly drunk yesterday. I had him on phone. He is a good RTFOjockey. I think he may always do it from now on.
I'm sure you have your obligations in your fleet and perform them well. We opened our Armada chat not only for our fleets but friends too. If you have players in your comunity youd like to have in VoC chat please feel free to name them and we invite. Same always counts for map invites to our holdings to get stuff. We are complete both fed and kdf side if you folks happen to need anything.
He was? Oh my god, ROFL!!
And thank you Pete! It's wonderful to see communities like OCD, that are so open and friendly to a lot of people. I'm sure you helped many more than you realize just by offering a word of support here and there.
As for invites, I'd offer you the same, but neither of our fleets are maxed out yet - Fed's almost there, KDF is lagging behind a bit, but we'll get there! - and seeing as yours are it would be kinda pointless.
Still, know that if the roles were reversed, the invitation would be open for every one of you guys!
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
[*] GoTtA ChaSe ThaT TiMe LiMiTeD ReWaRd CaRrOt DerKa DuRr. By far the worst offender in my cons list.
Good luck avoiding that these days. Just about every online / early access / "live service" / MMO / etc, game nowadays is doing the same thing. Industry standard, it is.
[*] GoTtA ChaSe ThaT TiMe LiMiTeD ReWaRd CaRrOt DerKa DuRr. By far the worst offender in my cons list.
Good luck avoiding that these days. Just about every online / early access / "live service" / MMO / etc, game nowadays is doing the same thing. Industry standard, it is.
This is absolutely true.
Another MMO that I used to play handles it in a similar fashion, as do many other games. This can kind of bite game companies in the back side though.. it's designed to keep people actively playing. In my case with this other game, I had taken several years off and I thought about maybe picking it up again. I did a little research on it, found all the stuff I missed that was no longer available and just decided not to bother at all.
I would guess that happens with this game as well.. probably more often then Cryptic wants to admit.
- Restricted Tailor System: I believe I seen something from the devs a while back that the reason why we don't have access to everything in the tailor is that a lot of parts haven't been made to work well with others, hence why only certain clothes work together without clipping issues, or why only certain costumes are available to certain species.
Yeah see I don't buy that at all. As someone who's been able to play with the unrestricted tailor firsthand, I can assure you that most pieces work pretty well together. There's a few that clip, but honestly that isn't even a big deal when you think about it. Champions Online has a lot of things that clip into each other, and yet players are very good at working around it. Clipping also has nothing to do with the terrible, limited color palette so many clothing pieces are limited to. Being able to use the unrestricted tailor was the only time I ever felt like I could make my alien character feel truly alien.
Restrict uniforms? Absolutely. But let me go nuts with off-duty.
- Reputation system: Believe me, before the change they did to add in the button to fill all the daily inputs for one, the clicks were like triple what they are now. The only things that honestly having a 1 click start all, 1 click finish all would be to save time going through them on your character(s).
Oh I remember, but they can still do better. There doesn't need to be so much clicking involved. Hell, give me a checkbox that automatically starts daily reputation missions if they're available and fillable so I can focus on the gameplay aspects of collecting marks without dealing with the tedious BS. Then they can auto-claim when done. The tier upgrade project already auto-claims, so I know they can do this.
- Limited time events: I think you and I know the very reason they do the limited time events is to draw interest for people to keep logging in between big updates. No one says you DO have to do all of them if you don't want to. Depending on what the thing is, you can buy it out the first day and you don't have to do anything more with it, as you have what they offered at that point.
Oh I know why they do it, but it's the laziest and blandest of low-hanging fruit a game developer can throw at players. It seems to be the Cryptic model though because it's infected CO as well.
In my case with this other game, I had taken several years off and I thought about maybe picking it up again. I did a little research on it, found all the stuff I missed that was no longer available and just decided not to bother at all.
This is kind of how I feel about STO, actually. I took like half a year off for various reasons, and when I came back, this whole some-stupid-daily-event-is-always-running nonsense had become the norm. I missed a few nice things, including that ground kit that lets you place crystals that do broken amounts of damage to enemies once you get several set up. I've got a pretty strong ground build, both offensively and defensively, so it was quite the gut punch to know that unless I waste 80 freaking dollars in Mudd's Market, my character will now always be substandard in any situation that involves repelling waves of enemies. Terrible.
For me it is just another way to interact with the Star Trek universe that I love, not to say this is the greatest game in the world but without any competition this is where I will continue to go to pilot the Enterprise D.
For me it is just another way to interact with the Star Trek universe that I love, not to say this is the greatest game in the world but without any competition this is where I will continue to go to pilot the Enterprise D.
I agree with the sentiment about interacting with the Star Trek universe. I also think STO isn't the greatest game, it's a decent to a good game, could be a better game, by far not the worse game, but sort of the only Star Trek mmo too.
Warranted quest considering I megaloath so much about this game and most importantly it’s “business model” especially as of late. Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGw-0zwt4is
A force of habit perhaps with a good chunk of sunk cost fallacy mixed in?
I mean I have been playing this game since beta granted with prolonged times of absences in-between actively playing it.
As for the sunken cost I did spend several thousands of hours in this game. If I remember right I think I had to buy the game and I also paid some subscription time. Additionally I bought I think about 8 or so years ago the life time abo and over the time some Zen refills. So I‘m also several hundred dollars if not a thousand dollars invested in it.
Makes leaving it for good kind of hard when you got “everything” and have always been around at some capacity.
Of course I do some times enjoy actually playing it. You know flying a space ship which design you really like around and immerse yourself in a universe you once liked.
Past tense because NuTrek I do not enjoy, watch or engage with much. LD I did like to some extend. Telling it is set closer to the golden age of Trek which started me with ST in the first place.
I guess I’m also still here because there is nothing else.
There is a certain lack of Trek related video games.
If you care to take a look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_games
The last „conventional“ Trek related video game was in 2013 and that too was mediocre at best.
Just imagine there are now teenager alive that never played an Armada, Bride Commander or Elite Force video game… just sad.
3 weeks ago or something I was on GoG and truly considered buying the old point & click adventures from 1992 and 93. I’m not a retro game and I know I start the games once think “ah good old times” and switch them off again because 30 years of progress happened since then.
The community aspects of it doesn’t weight heavily for me.
The friends I started with are long gone, good for them. While I am in a fleet I am rather detached to it all. It is more of a beneficial business relationship than kinship. I get to use the fleet holdings and in return I contribute to the upkeep or expansion of it. Thats about it.
I think the issue here is that the game makes it a chore to actually play together in a meaningful way.
Since I am sort of always around I also get to enjoy all the benefits of FOMO.
So FOMO is also why I am still here. Good job I guess?
The events in this game are mostly garbage but some of the rewards are powerful or beneficial. There is always this nagging feeling that this will change or benefit my build. That I rediscover what made me pick this up in the first place while being fully aware that it probably won’t do that.
So I play these uninspiring, boring events despite not really being in the mood for it.
And since STO now goes the route of events all the time I’m here also all the time… 20 minutes a day at least.
Pros:
- a chance to immerse myself into a Star Trek scenario
- decent ship design
- good space combat concept
- characters from TV shows (not counting the Discovery, that's no Star Trek)
Cons:
- dated graphics
- ground combat uninspired and bloated with visuals
- NO OPTION TO TURN OFF/MODIFY INCREASINGLY BAD, "SEIZURE INDUCING" VISUAL EFFECTS (a complete deal-breaker for me, haven't been actively playing for more than 2 years)
Because it’s a real simple game to play. Requires no real financial investment. Plus, it’s on console. Grew up in ST (TOS to VoY) so to relive/revisit those plot lines is cool. Don’t care for Disco or Picard (no judgment on ENT as I haven’t invested the time in it).if it was a new IP I probably would’ve still given it a chance.
I play for the pew pew sounds. That consists of logging in, playing one mission, getting my pew pew sound fix for that one mission, then logging off.
I have a lifetime sub and have played off and on since the game was conceived. The lifetime sub was a bad investment in entertainment as PWE is a greedy business that has not improved the game for years, to include fixing graphics, tons of bugs and performance.
PWE charges beyond stupid amounts of cash for items in STO to please investors, not the gamers that PWE depends on as batteries and piggy banks.
For every laudatory comment in favor of STO, there are ten against. This is because of PWE, who they are, and how they do business in relation to gamers verse how they cater to their investors.
Always remember, PWE charges what they do because of their investors, not to improve the game or please the gamers, This single thing makes the OP's question very relevant.
There is no worse feeling in the world than the moment during an argument you realize you are wrong.
Warranted quest considering I megaloath so much about this game and most importantly it’s “business model” especially as of late. Related:
"video is not available in your country"
There is a certain lack of Trek related video games.
If you care to take a look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_games
The last „conventional“ Trek related video game was in 2013 and that too was mediocre at best.
Just imagine there are now teenager alive that never played an Armada, Bride Commander or Elite Force video game… just sad.
You know, I've been playing computer games since 1979 (Apple II+, baby!), and I've never played any of those games?
(and yeah, I started watching Trek in reruns in the 70's & 80's)
edit: actually, I think the only other digital "Trek" game I've played is X-Trek on the Unix workstations at my Undergrad college.
I did play a few games of Star Fleet Battles back in those days, too. But that was tabletop.
You know, I've been playing computer games since 1979 (Apple II+, baby!), and I've never played any of those games?
(and yeah, I started watching Trek in reruns in the 70's & 80's)
edit: actually, I think the only other digital "Trek" game I've played is X-Trek on the Unix workstations at my Undergrad college.
I did play a few games of Star Fleet Battles back in those days, too. But that was tabletop.
That makes you considerable older than me but my point is that those games were popular for ST games and all things considered perceived as good.
And now there are ST fans in their teens, an age where video games are very popular, that never played a good ST video game because they haven't made one in decades.
And yes I'm saying STO is not good because it just isn't. The last overall favorable reviewed ST game was Elite Force 2 from 2003.
It's the only Star Trek MMO and it's filled with Whales.
Oh, what species?
$$$--->Cryptic
^^^
This species...
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 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..."
So as not to restate what many others have said, I agree with pretty much all of the "pros" that have been mentioned. This is, in my opinion, the only Star Trek game worth investing any time into.
The only con I really have is that multiplayer (TFOs and such) isn't much fun. Unless you know the maps like the back of your hand and are nothing less than stellar in your performance, you will be chastised and run off by the elitists in the game. I liked that you could solo the events to get free ships and equipment, but Cryptic is killing the solo aspect of those events. Now that there are no rewards for solo play, there is not much reason left for me to even log on.
I have been a Star Trek fan for the last 50 years. STO gives me the chance to immerse myself in that world, escape from the real world, and use my imagination. There are so many different ways to have fun, depending on what I want to do that day. Social interactions with other players and doing some role play in character adds variety to the experience of TFO’s, story missions, grinding, events, etc.
Captain Kirk is a hero of mine and when I can play my TOS themed character as a virtual version of myself in the STO world with his own TOS ship to command, I can be following in the the path of Captain Kirk. Not quite as great as he was, but at least doing my part as another Starfleet captain.
Comments
However the only real reasons I came back was first that GW2 has gone through some bad times before the pandemic that it just became less developed than this game which is sad but stuff like this anniversary pack and the sheer amount of quality of life processes in gw2 sometimes make me really want to not play this game especially the exchange. However being that it seems the anti-torp boat people have essentially died out and you can make one of those that work now that is a plus.
However one of the downsides that limit this game and often turn people away is the aspect of how they take the more popular ships and can't find a way to interest players so they lock them behind paywalls. Although the dilithium exchange makes perfect sense when you make content on the basis that only 1% of any games population will be able to afford it. So you have an economy where no one is spending money because the prices are just too high. Which then makes people less willing to spend their dilithium on contributions to their fleet and the fleet dilithium vouchers didn't really do anything to change this. Its just if PWE and Cryptic want to continue their business they are going to have set reasonable prices or end up losing everything they have built up. Plus being how limited they were before the pandemic on how voice overs were done in other locations and not in their studio most of the time that it put them ahead of the other games out there that relied on their physical studio locations. As well times like this too they need to focus more on sandbox content because people are at home more and playing more that they need content that can pacify their enjoyment for extended periods of time. Anyways thats my rant but still this game isn't hard or anything like that its just designed for people who don't have the ability to think to enjoy themselves.
I grew up watching TOS with my family as it aired. It became a tradition and was followed by Walter Cronkite with the evening news and then Walt Disney. My parents even enjoyed TNG... especially the cliff hanger 2 part episodes.
Getting to fly my own Starship and explore the galaxy with my away team was a dream come true. I never would have even tried the game if it wasn't Star Trek. It's the only game I play.
I enjoyed the story line (and even the tailor) for years and the ability to tinker with things keeps me going.
Group experiences with fleet mates and friends have always provided the best and most memorable experiences.
Yes, the Salt Vampire freaked me out as a kid
Cons:
STO despite all it's flaws has not just good but great moments.
Some of the storyline missions are really well crafted & excel.
The decision to close The Foundry locking-away something more unique that STO did offer was a shame. (Cryptic won't bring it back, too much effort)
The proliferation of gambling into STO's almost every nook & cranny is a big turn-off especially with the abysmal odds.
The space combat shines & I think the ground combat gets overlooked too often.
STO offers a wealth of content at this stage even though the pace of additional new content has slowed & Cryptic seems to hide older content sometimes. (convoluted Available tab)
STO's in-game economy is hyper-inflated & seems to be gathering climbing speed across it's multitude of currencies mostly.
The lack of "bug" fixing is concerning & a bad indicator of Cryptic's priorities &/or resource management, some have been in-game for months if not over a year, that right there displays something is wrong.
There's some awful communication at times either by mistake or intention, but mostly adequate.
Good synergy between the various venues of this intellectual property & STO. (still waiting for a U.S.S. Cerritos)
When Cryptic discontinued the monthly subscription not "bumping-up" to the next tier a player was at then was petty & a big "thanks but don't care & don't let the door hit you".
Something I've noticed since this Klingon recruitment is the viewership on Twitch has overall been increased, I don't stream, but I like seeing that because overall I think STO is an overlooked mmo.
Over the years I've witnessed Cryptic's, sometimes glacial, changing from almost Draconian game changes with none or little heads-up to a more empathetic approach & informing players beforehand which is appreciated.
Someone(s) at Cryptic really should perhaps try to get over their FOMO (fear of missing out) fetish & lording it over us.
I recently had an impressive, & a bit shocking, customer service experience/response & it was appreciated, though I know overall it's majority casted in a not so glowing light.
Some of the ships' designs & environments are wonderful to just gaze & admire at & what Cryptic does with it's older engine is still superb.
DS9 despite becoming more accurate should've been widened a bit for practical maneuvering purposes, but is was re-done well.
Despite any monetization, paywalls, & casino mechanics (re-engineering is atrocious) dressed-up as STO this game can mostly be enjoyed without spending a literal dime & that is astonishing.
I'm not liking the direction of where these worse-value almost "legendary" by title only ships are headed.
Does Cryptic deserve accolades & thanks? Absolutely! The same question & answer though for Cryptic & criticism is true.
Also, though I don't like it's ever-consuming presence in STO but any gamblers have probably kept STO afloat & is in some cases the only method (thanks to Cryptic) for having new items introduced to STO, so thanks to the prolific gamblers.
I suspect we all like & enjoy STO, some parts more than others & at different times, otherwise we wouldn't be playing it, for myself the more I enjoy the more likely I'll spend, I'm a simple animal like that.
Now off the soap-box & onto the porcelain throne :-)
- Restricted Tailor System: I believe I seen something from the devs a while back that the reason why we don't have access to everything in the tailor is that a lot of parts haven't been made to work well with others, hence why only certain clothes work together without clipping issues, or why only certain costumes are available to certain species.
- Reputation system: Believe me, before the change they did to add in the button to fill all the daily inputs for one, the clicks were like triple what they are now. The only things that honestly having a 1 click start all, 1 click finish all would be to save time going through them on your character(s).
- Limited time events: I think you and I know the very reason they do the limited time events is to draw interest for people to keep logging in between big updates. No one says you DO have to do all of them if you don't want to. Depending on what the thing is, you can buy it out the first day and you don't have to do anything more with it, as you have what they offered at that point.
He was? Oh my god, ROFL!!
And thank you Pete! It's wonderful to see communities like OCD, that are so open and friendly to a lot of people. I'm sure you helped many more than you realize just by offering a word of support here and there.
As for invites, I'd offer you the same, but neither of our fleets are maxed out yet - Fed's almost there, KDF is lagging behind a bit, but we'll get there! - and seeing as yours are it would be kinda pointless.
Still, know that if the roles were reversed, the invitation would be open for every one of you guys!
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Good luck avoiding that these days. Just about every online / early access / "live service" / MMO / etc, game nowadays is doing the same thing. Industry standard, it is.
This is absolutely true.
Another MMO that I used to play handles it in a similar fashion, as do many other games. This can kind of bite game companies in the back side though.. it's designed to keep people actively playing. In my case with this other game, I had taken several years off and I thought about maybe picking it up again. I did a little research on it, found all the stuff I missed that was no longer available and just decided not to bother at all.
I would guess that happens with this game as well.. probably more often then Cryptic wants to admit.
Restrict uniforms? Absolutely. But let me go nuts with off-duty.
Oh I remember, but they can still do better. There doesn't need to be so much clicking involved. Hell, give me a checkbox that automatically starts daily reputation missions if they're available and fillable so I can focus on the gameplay aspects of collecting marks without dealing with the tedious BS. Then they can auto-claim when done. The tier upgrade project already auto-claims, so I know they can do this.
Oh I know why they do it, but it's the laziest and blandest of low-hanging fruit a game developer can throw at players. It seems to be the Cryptic model though because it's infected CO as well.
This is kind of how I feel about STO, actually. I took like half a year off for various reasons, and when I came back, this whole some-stupid-daily-event-is-always-running nonsense had become the norm. I missed a few nice things, including that ground kit that lets you place crystals that do broken amounts of damage to enemies once you get several set up. I've got a pretty strong ground build, both offensively and defensively, so it was quite the gut punch to know that unless I waste 80 freaking dollars in Mudd's Market, my character will now always be substandard in any situation that involves repelling waves of enemies. Terrible.
> Because I enjoy it.
That’s good!
What do you enjoy the most in STO?
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I agree with the sentiment about interacting with the Star Trek universe. I also think STO isn't the greatest game, it's a decent to a good game, could be a better game, by far not the worse game, but sort of the only Star Trek mmo too.
Cons
A force of habit perhaps with a good chunk of sunk cost fallacy mixed in?
I mean I have been playing this game since beta granted with prolonged times of absences in-between actively playing it.
As for the sunken cost I did spend several thousands of hours in this game. If I remember right I think I had to buy the game and I also paid some subscription time. Additionally I bought I think about 8 or so years ago the life time abo and over the time some Zen refills. So I‘m also several hundred dollars if not a thousand dollars invested in it.
Makes leaving it for good kind of hard when you got “everything” and have always been around at some capacity.
Of course I do some times enjoy actually playing it. You know flying a space ship which design you really like around and immerse yourself in a universe you once liked.
Past tense because NuTrek I do not enjoy, watch or engage with much. LD I did like to some extend. Telling it is set closer to the golden age of Trek which started me with ST in the first place.
I guess I’m also still here because there is nothing else.
There is a certain lack of Trek related video games.
If you care to take a look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_games
The last „conventional“ Trek related video game was in 2013 and that too was mediocre at best.
Just imagine there are now teenager alive that never played an Armada, Bride Commander or Elite Force video game… just sad.
3 weeks ago or something I was on GoG and truly considered buying the old point & click adventures from 1992 and 93. I’m not a retro game and I know I start the games once think “ah good old times” and switch them off again because 30 years of progress happened since then.
The community aspects of it doesn’t weight heavily for me.
The friends I started with are long gone, good for them. While I am in a fleet I am rather detached to it all. It is more of a beneficial business relationship than kinship. I get to use the fleet holdings and in return I contribute to the upkeep or expansion of it. Thats about it.
I think the issue here is that the game makes it a chore to actually play together in a meaningful way.
Since I am sort of always around I also get to enjoy all the benefits of FOMO.
So FOMO is also why I am still here. Good job I guess?
The events in this game are mostly garbage but some of the rewards are powerful or beneficial. There is always this nagging feeling that this will change or benefit my build. That I rediscover what made me pick this up in the first place while being fully aware that it probably won’t do that.
So I play these uninspiring, boring events despite not really being in the mood for it.
And since STO now goes the route of events all the time I’m here also all the time… 20 minutes a day at least.
- a chance to immerse myself into a Star Trek scenario
- decent ship design
- good space combat concept
- characters from TV shows (not counting the Discovery, that's no Star Trek)
Cons:
- dated graphics
- ground combat uninspired and bloated with visuals
- NO OPTION TO TURN OFF/MODIFY INCREASINGLY BAD, "SEIZURE INDUCING" VISUAL EFFECTS (a complete deal-breaker for me, haven't been actively playing for more than 2 years)
I have a lifetime sub and have played off and on since the game was conceived. The lifetime sub was a bad investment in entertainment as PWE is a greedy business that has not improved the game for years, to include fixing graphics, tons of bugs and performance.
PWE charges beyond stupid amounts of cash for items in STO to please investors, not the gamers that PWE depends on as batteries and piggy banks.
For every laudatory comment in favor of STO, there are ten against. This is because of PWE, who they are, and how they do business in relation to gamers verse how they cater to their investors.
Always remember, PWE charges what they do because of their investors, not to improve the game or please the gamers, This single thing makes the OP's question very relevant.
"video is not available in your country"
You know, I've been playing computer games since 1979 (Apple II+, baby!), and I've never played any of those games?
(and yeah, I started watching Trek in reruns in the 70's & 80's)
edit: actually, I think the only other digital "Trek" game I've played is X-Trek on the Unix workstations at my Undergrad college.
I did play a few games of Star Fleet Battles back in those days, too. But that was tabletop.
Time to get a VPN then?
It's a music video with the Wellerman shanty, it's a joke about Craptic being on a Whale hunt.
That makes you considerable older than me but my point is that those games were popular for ST games and all things considered perceived as good.
And now there are ST fans in their teens, an age where video games are very popular, that never played a good ST video game because they haven't made one in decades.
And yes I'm saying STO is not good because it just isn't. The last overall favorable reviewed ST game was Elite Force 2 from 2003.
Jokes aside..simply as I enjoy it
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Oh, what species?
$$$--->Cryptic
^^^
This species...
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..."
aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
either to conquer or to die for the Empire
The only con I really have is that multiplayer (TFOs and such) isn't much fun. Unless you know the maps like the back of your hand and are nothing less than stellar in your performance, you will be chastised and run off by the elitists in the game. I liked that you could solo the events to get free ships and equipment, but Cryptic is killing the solo aspect of those events. Now that there are no rewards for solo play, there is not much reason left for me to even log on.
Captain Kirk is a hero of mine and when I can play my TOS themed character as a virtual version of myself in the STO world with his own TOS ship to command, I can be following in the the path of Captain Kirk. Not quite as great as he was, but at least doing my part as another Starfleet captain.