Star Trek: Online

[Jax]

Anthony Sabre wrote:

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I'm still hopeful but this, along with non-player character bridge crew, is disappointing.

Looks like ST will follow the same old path of MMO's and suck. Surly the whole idea of MMO means they should give you a human bridge officers optio to make you feel like your playing with other people.

[Herkimer Jitty]

The non-player bridge crew is a fine idea. Especially for an MMO.

How would you like getting your ass stuck somewhere because your helmsman is AFK because his dad told him to mow the lawn? Multi-group raids are hard enough as is in MMOs, and those are usually done in special circumstances. Imagine having to corral multiple people just to have a functional ship.

That's the smartest decision Cryptic made, IMO. Everything else is not so confidence-inspiring, though.

[Haggis and tatties]

If bridge commander released way back in 2002 could do decent ship to ship 3D space battles i wonder whey they chose not to do it now in STO.

And i would have thought a player character bridge control team might also be optional, I'm sure the first thing everybody thought when they heard STO MMO was getting together with some mates and running the ship from the bridge, and would having this one player only controlling the ship not then turn the game into a single player game type experience, which sort of negates the whole MMO thing.

The plot thickens.

[Noname Given]

Haggis and Tatties wrote:

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If bridge commander released way back in 2002 could do decent ship to ship 3D space battles i wonder whey they chose not to do it now in STO.

And i would have thought a player character bridge control team might also be optional, I'm sure the first thing everybody thought when they heard STO MMO was getting together with some mates and running the ship from the bridge, and would having this one player only controlling the ship not then turn the game into a single player game type experience, which sort of negates the whole MMO thing.

The plot thickens.

Because of the amount of data they'd need to kep track of. This is't a single player enviroment on a local stand alone PC - this is a MASSIVE (probably 1000 or more people concurrently playing on one server at a time) multiplayer enviroment that has to send data over the internet in real time. Honestly, it's apple and oranges, and they probably want the largest 'bang' per server CPU cycle, and tracking in a tre 3D enviroment really amps up what the server is handling as it tracks player objects.

[The_Emperor]

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

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The non-player bridge crew is a fine idea. Especially for an MMO.

How would you like getting your ass stuck somewhere because your helmsman is AFK because his dad told him to mow the lawn? Multi-group raids are hard enough as is in MMOs, and those are usually done in special circumstances. Imagine having to corral multiple people just to have a functional ship.

That's the smartest decision Cryptic made, IMO. Everything else is not so confidence-inspiring, though.

Agreed. I find it really odd that there're people complaining about that. Clearly some people haven't actually thought things through. Nevermind that a player crew would probably be one of the most miserable play experiences for pretty much everybody, ever. So I'm a helmsman. That means all I do is sit around and drive the ship? That's not what I call terribly exciting. Same goes for chief medical officer. Or I'm a tactical officer. I get to shoot the weapons. That's cooler, at least. But if the mission doesn't call for combat, I'm utterly useless and have nothing to do. And we all have to obey the captain, so if the helmsman wants to see DS9, the doctor wants to visit Earth, and the tactical officer wants to go to Q'o'nos, that doesn't mean squat, because the captain's the one who decides where the ship goes.

And even if people are okay with having such a miserable play experience, agreeing to a crappy play experience so the captain player can have fun, you still need to get all those people playing at the same time to get a functional ship. And God forbid if the tactical officer has to answer the door or take a phone call while you're in the middle of a fight with a couple Birds of Prey. I've had more then a few frustrating experiences with task forces in CoH and dungeon crawls in WoW where a player drops out, leaving the rest of the group underpowered and unable to complete the mission. Can you imagine the sheer hell of being unable to play because you're constantly short one guy? And this is the kind of game people are looking for? It boggles the mind...

Anyway, how do folks feel about the plot elements revealed so far? For instance, we've got the Klingons breaking the treaty yet again and becoming more hostile towards the Federation. It'll certainly be interesting to see how that happens with Martok as Chancellor. Who knows how long he'll last in that position if that's the case. I'm a bit torn on this point. I liked having the Klingons as allies to the Federation, and sort of good guys. But on the other hand, this isn't exactly out of character for them.

One thing I'm disappointed about is that they didn't stick closer to the DS9 relaunch novels. They stated they'd be treating the novels as "soft canon", only, but I was hoping the DS9 relaunch novels would be something they adapted into the game as-is.

One thing I did like, though, was the idea of Worf marrying Grilka. That's a great idea which I hope carries over into the novel line. What can I say? I've liked the story of Cyrano de Bergerac for years, and Worf is the Star Trek version of Cyrano, with Grilka in the role of Roxane. Be nice to see Worf get a happier ending than what Cyrano got. And besides, it'd be nice if Worf finally, FINALLY, actually got together with an actual Klingon woman. Honestly, is he the only guy in the universe who's NEVER been with a woman of the same species as him? K'Ehleyr was the closest, and she was only half-klingon.

Last but not least, there's one aspect that I'm really looking forward to. Namely that someone will finally have cause to fill out the available ship designs. We've seen plenty of Starfleet ships in the shows, but not a whole lot of ships of other races. With the Klingons we've seen, what? The D7's, Birds of Prey, Vorcha's, Negh'var, and...? But with Klingon Empire as a playable faction, that means that the variety of Klingon ships will likely have to be just as great as that of the Starfleet ships. Case in point, the Klingon Raptor class...

http://www.startrekonline.com/ships/raptor_class

I've never heard of it, before. So did I just miss it from other sources, or is it a brand new ship? If so, then I take that as an example of what we can expect from the game. And I assume that that's just the first in a long line of brand new Klingon ships. Now, wouldn't it be nice to see a Klingon fleet with ship types just as varied as those of Starfleet? Same goes for others, like the Romulans, Cardassians, Dominion, etc. With the Romulans we've only seen the Warbird and Scout ship, along with the Balance of Terror ship. Cardassians it's pretty much just the Galor and Keldon. The odds of Romulans becoming a playable faction down the line are pretty good, and I'm hoping the Cardassians also become a playable faction. If that happens, then they'll also need a much more varied selection of ships, so we'll finally get to see Romulan ships that're something other than Warbirds. That, IMO, would be fantastic.

And let's not forget the new Starfleet ships they're coming up with. Did I mention my deep and abiding love for the new Excalibur class in STO?

http://www.startrekonline.com/ships/excalibur

Moment I saw it I knew what my main ship was going to be.

[Praetor]

The Klingon Raptor was from "Enterprise."

That's right, a 22nd century ship has an identical in all plus name 24th century reincarnation. Of course, the Klingons are notorious for this.

[Herkimer Jitty]

In the vanilla blandness of the future, there is only technological stagnancy.

[The_Emperor]

Praetor wrote:

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The Klingon Raptor was from "Enterprise."

That's right, a 22nd century ship has an identical in all plus name 24th century reincarnation. Of course, the Klingons are notorious for this.

True enough. Exactly how long have they been using that Bird of Prey design? Aren't 24th century Bird of Prey's much larger than their TOS equivalents? That's a shame, though, as I thought that was a newly designed ship. Either way, the point still stands. Federation players are going to have a certain number of ships available to them to play as. That number will likely exceed a good dozen (Let's see, the game will definitely include the Sovereign, Galaxy, Excalibur, Oslo, NX-91001, and at least two others that I've seen in trailers). So there's no way that the Vorcha, Negh'var, Bird of Prey, Raptor, and D7 Cruiser are gonna cut it on the Klingon side. They're going to have to make a lot more Klingon starship models for the Klingon players. And if those designs are worth a damn, then we may see them popping up in more official venues, like Star Trek novels. The same'll be true when Romulans and whoever else becomes a complete faction. Well, we'll see, but I'm looking forward to that aspect, at least.

In the vanilla blandness of the future, there is only technological stagnancy.

Stagnancy? Nah. Just lots and lots of nostalgia for "the good old days". Starfleet seems to be suffering from that, too, as the Excalibur is essentially an upgraded Constitution class.

[Herkimer Jitty]

Somebody obviously missed reruns of Voyager (Which showed the lameass same as what we've seen 29th century) and Enterprise (Which showed 3 centuries which are barely differential from the 23rd and 24th centuries: the 22nd century, the 26th century, and the 31st century).

Plus: WH40K joke.

[SilentP]

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

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Plus: WH40K joke.

Don't worry, I caught that one

It is annoying that a lot of the ship for Starfleet seem to be 25th Century-ified version of older classes, nearly kitbashed upgraded, rather than any new shapes. Any bets on a Online-ified Excelsior or Ambassador class? I will however admit there is something ship-sexy about the Excalibur class.

If that's how the ship design for the Starfleet ships is going, I dread how the other player races will end up looking like. I doubt Cryptic can start raiding other games and the like, can they? I reckon that the SuQ'Daj class or however you called it from ST:Armada would make a nice 'heavy' ship (that's the cruiser armed with torpedoes that had armed boarding party assault pods as a special weapon, for those who have hazy memories). The Griffon for the Romulans would also make a solid choice, though I don't know if that actually turned up in canon or not.

[The_Emperor]

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

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Plus: WH40K joke.

No worries, I caught it. I just felt my responding to it would've been a bit on the nose.

[jefferiestubes8]

These look great.
http://www.worthplaying.com/kiwi_pop...Online_068.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/kiwi_pop...Online_075.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/kiwi_pop...Online_078.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/kiwi_pop...Online_069.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/kiwi_pop...Online_080.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/kiwi_pop...Online_077.jpg

20 New Screens 'Star Trek Online'
http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=64776

[SilentP]

On the Xbox possibly as well? Well that does give some impetus for me to get Xbox Live, unless people can give me reasons as to why going for PC would be better...

[Cyke101]

Is it ironic that I wish Online had more established classes (Steamrunner, Sabre, Galaxy, Ambassador, etc etc) while being disappointed that the designs of the new classes are too derivative and uninspired?

[All Seeing Eye]

I dunno whether I wanna play this or Stargate online.