I think this piece of news is worth a new thread. http://community.arcgames.com/en/news/star-trek-online/detail/3037203 Well, a warm welcome in advance to all TrekBBS Mac users who like to check out the game for the first time. We have a small but active community for the game right here in this forum. [shamelessplug]Some of us are also members of the TrekBBS Armada, an ingame fleet which you will be gladly invited to. Just leave your new user@handle in the Armada thread for an invite.[/shamelessplug]
Well, I went to startrekonline.com and was redirected to Arc. Whatever the frell that is. So I registered and downloaded the 45mb client. Ran it, it updated and a Cryptic connection of some sort flashed up and then... nothing. At all. Great launch. *golf clap* The only thing I wonder is if my video card is supported. I'd be wildly surprised if it wasn't considering all the other ones are listed in the system regs. ATI Radeon HD 4670 256mb
Hmm, I'm considering trying this game out. Apparently it's free to play, which means its "significant cash to actually do anything useful in the game" What would I spend on average to get a useful gaming experience out of it?
My opinion is that STO has the least offensive f2p business model I have seen thus far primarily because they put value in having you play the game. Which means stuff in the paid store can be paid in $USD OR through playing events in the game OR a combination of the two. Not only that, all missions, areas (except 1 unused area), events, encounters, reputation factions are available to all players for free. So the paid store mainly sells: - Starships. Frankly unless you're a starship collector, you only need one starship per character. - Lottery ticket called Master Keys that lets you unlock a random bunch of stuff of varying value - In-game services such as additional inventory, bank, officer slots and character respecs. - Cosmetic stuff such as uniforms, custom ship bridges, non-combat pets Let me give the example of a Tier 5 starship which all players will eventually want and need. Each Tier 5 starship cost between 2,000-2,500 zen. That's $20-$25 USD ($1USD = 100 zen). Or you can play 271-339 Special Task Force events, which nets you 260,000-326,000 dilithium that you can convert into 2,000-2,500 zen. Each event averages around 15 minutes although good players can complete in 5 minutes while a totally newbie team might take as long as 30 minutes or even fail the event. Lets say you complete 4 such events every day, you can earn enough to buy a Tier 5 starship just by playing constantly for 2-3 months. Normally if you are just starting out, it is going to take you at least 1-2 months of playing events to figure out what type of ship best suits you, and you are accumulating points to buy your ship in that time. So realistically, most patient players don't even spend a dime in the game. And I should add that you don't need to touch anything in the paid store until you've reached the maximum level in STO.
Even then... Until you join the min/maxing brigade the game provides you with a free stock ship that won't be spectacularly powerful but will do the job. Depending on your prefered ship type these will even be (soft) canon ones. Slower Cruiser with the best surviving abilities: Sovereign class Average fast science ship with good utility abilities: Luna class Fast damage dealer escort: Prometheus class. Each of these ships has a more powerful pay version in game, but as I said, to play and win 99% of the mission content those free stock ships will be good enough.
Oh wow thanks guys. If I came across as a freeloader that wasn't my intention. I just hate these F2P game models where the "free" part is basically looking around the game with no capability to do anything useful at all until you pay. Megapolis and Stellar Alliance on the iPad are such games. The Asphalt series racing games are a perfect example of a good F2P model. I payed 99 cents for the game and it's not crippled in any way. Or N.O.V.A 3, I payed 6.99 and it's also not crippled in any way. But you are given a chance to purchase more stuff if you want, which I usually do. I think I will give STO a chance.