When Star Trek Online was first released, I regretfully dismissed it. First off, I'm a Mac user... so a game has to really pique my interest to justify going to the trouble of using a bottle or boot camp. But what influenced my prejudgment of STO, was mainly my experiences with other MMOs.
Over the past decade and a half, I've tried several MMOs: Ultima Online, EverQuest, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, World of WarCraft, Lord of the RIngs Online, Star Wars Galaxies, etc. etc. Coming from a Dungeons and Dragons table top gaming background, I was always very disappointed with every MMO that I tried.
They always focused on the leveling system. The XP grind. Usually leveling *was* the core gameplay mechanic. In D&D (at least the sessions I've played in) gaining XP and leveling was a background event that happened as a result of going through a story. Add to this the fact that my computer gaming background centered around point and click adventure games, and you can start to see how I'm a very story focused person. It's caused me to never really click with MMOs. Until now.
I should also preface this by saying that I'm a hard core Star Trek fan, Trekkie, Trekker, whatever. I could argue continuity with the best of them! I own all the series and have watched religiously since I was a little kid (I'm in my thirties). I go to conventions, I blog reviews of episodes. I'm in to it

Anyways, I'm really impressed with STO so far! The missions are extremely well put together and feel almost like episodes of the shows. Yes, things are a bit combat centric... but that's to be expected. It *is* a game after all.
I'm still a noob at this point (Lt. Cmdr rank) so I'm sure that there are strengths and weakness to the game that I've yet to encounter. Regardless, I just wanted to shout out to Cryptic and let you know that I'm really enjoying STO!
Things I love about it so far?
- The missions - they're involved, detailed, and fun! Nothing like the dumb fetch / kill quests (kill 15 skeletons) of other MMOs.
- The Galaxy - Clearly the Dev Team is a fan of Star Trek. There's a certain level of polish and care put into this game that SOE certainly didn't put into SWG. It's the little things, like Tranya being a beverage in the game, little references to the events of the movies and shows. There's too many to count!
- The combat - I love the ground combat. It's action packed, but with an element of strategy. Even the space combat is exciting. It just feels like Star Trek!
- The difficulty - So far, STO doesn't beat you over the head when you die. Not sure if there even is a death / respawn penalty unless you crank up the difficulty level. Games should be fun, not frustrating. I know some folks like having the challenge or risk, but I'm not one of them.
- The episodes - A new, lengthly, detailed mission each week? That's insane. It took SOE months to release anything that resembled content in SWG. You guys crank out new content every seven days.
Things I'd like to see added?
- Voice IP chat in teams
- A native Mac client
- Walk toggle command - as opposed ot having to hold a key down
- More missions that have little to no combat and more exploration / problem solving.
- The ability to join the crew of NPC controlled starships, and take missions / orders from a command structure on the ship (join away teams on whatever planet the ship is visiting) in other words play the game from a perspective where you are not the captain of a starship, but rather just an officer.
- More Star Trek music (perhaps borrow some cues from the various soundtracks)
So congrats. You've taken a hardcore Trekker and someone who had written off the MMO genre and changed their opinion. You've created a game that really seems to focus on actual content, rather than on a game mechanic.
Comments
Glad you like it, voice is coming, there are some problems content wise once you are VA (or if you play a Klingon). Don't get me wrong I like like the game. Ever need a question answered or want to just team up, I have a few at lower levels (characters) as well as my main. Just PM here or try Maina Kittychan@maina while in game.
A couple of the things you'd like to see added are already coming! Both Voice chat via Vivox and Dstahl said more star trek music is coming as well. However i don't think a native MAC client is coming anytime soon. The devs have discussed it but they don't really seem to have the man power to make it happen. I believe their is a thread about it someplace. I'll look it up and post it for you.
EDIT: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=76799 found it.
Cryptic just signed a deal with Vivox (who does voice chat for SOE games). Unlikey to happen. You should be able to set this in options, if I'm not mistaken. You and me both.
There had better be an Amok Time clone Saturday (we're getting new melee weapons, like lirpas).
I've got some good news for you then:
And some bad news:
The Mac Client, I'm not sure about it, I use a Dell Desktop running on Vista, so it's a pretty alien problem for me.
When it comes to playing on NPC ships, it's been discussed before.. And soundly rejected by the player base at large. This is an MMORPG, a game, not a simulation, which is what that would be.
Also, the developers have stated that the Game Engine is incompatible with you being on your bridge at the same time your ship is in a space instance.
That being the case, I nonetheless hold out hope for ... some day down the road, a mac client if Star Trek Online continues to grow and take off. Especcially considering it seems to be the primary money-maker for Atari right now. If it continues to grow to the point where it's Atari's flagship product, ignoring the capability of expanding the player base to Apple products would be insanity.
/agree completely
orly?
im a mac user. I hate having to get into bootcamp everytime..
I haven't it tried it (since I run Windows 7 and ubuntu primarily) but once you get wine up and running, it should work.
Type into the chat window the following:
/bind y ++walk
Feel free to substitute any other key for Y. I used Y because it's fairly conveniently close to other movement controls, without being in the way. Also, as far as I could tell, it didn't seem to have anything else assigned to it.
Your Y key, or whatever other key you selected, will now be a walk toggle. Hit it once to switch to walk mode, again to switch back.
In social zones, the first two keys I usually press are Y and R, to start walking. Then I just have to steer.
after reading some reviews that panned it a bit, i was slightly weary but decided to try the demo a few weeks back and was pleasantly surprised
things i want to see in game ? gimme a romulan warbird to fly and i will be a happy bunny \o/
You can also simply type '/walk 1' in your chat entry field to walk wherever you go, and '/walk 0' to disable it. Keep in mind that this will reset every time you change maps. Binding it to a key will save you some hassle if you use the walk command often enough.
(which was designed to run on the 360 anyway),actually come to the 360.
Or you just use the option in the keybind menu. It's called Auto Move Forward and is the 7th entry in the ground setup.
The reviews have definitely nailed STO for a variety of things, and deservedly. However, the improvements to the game over the last year have been excellent. Some of the new additions and fixes currently in the design or testing phases are equally exciting.
Don't forget to check out the cool community stuff, like the streaming radio stations (often with live Star Trek Online DJs!) and great podcasts. Here's a quick list of the ones I have bookmarked:
- TrekRadio
- SubSpace Radio (I usually listen to this)
- STOked (great interviews and information)
There are a lot more out there, but I don't want to get too "spammy" here. But that will get you started. The radio stations often have fun dance parties, contests (with prizes), PvP events, mass-grouping to take on the STFs (somewhat like raids at higher levels) ... and general fun stuff to mix up your gaming time a bit.Have a fun time!
I think Automove forward is set to R by default.
The ++walk command only seems to work for me if I am already in motion, and only maintains with automove active.
Do you have a link for this game ? Sounds like a awesome game.
Unfortunately that is not exactly true. I think it was recently stated that the plan is to put out 5 featured episode series per year. That means we'll have 1 new mission a week for about half the year, and the other half we wont.
Awesome! Thank you! I'll try that tonight.
The ++ turn the key press action into a toggle.
And if you want smoother manuvering, bind a key or extra mouse button to Mouse Look in ground mode. With mouse look on, which ever direction you point the camera is the direction you character will face. I fine it a lot easier to maneuver around maps with Mouse Look. Don't leave your Ready Room without it.
WIne can run it decently...
Wine on Macs is not like Linux.. on linux it'll integrate in and let you use the GUI and such. On Mac OS X, wine is build from source yourself and run all command line.... and Mac OS X doesn't use X11 as its main windowing system.
Thats why I make Wineskin... uses Wine and Xquartz and more to turn a Windows app into a Mac app. I have a ready to go wrapper already set up for Mac users, they just install the game and play... no need to worry about Wine or X or anything...