Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)

[Bird of Prey]

From my understanding, as a Gold member, they give you a 400 point (C-store points?) allowance each month. As a current monthly subscriber, I will be automatically transitioned into a Gold member, meaning I can now buy items in the C-store without spending additional money. I guess that works as a reward for choosing to pay to play, on top of the unlimited access.

[syberghost]

The Klingon changes are... interesting. They say they're going to compress the existing Klingon play into those top levels, which should make Klingon PvE much more viable. However, this could all but eliminate low-level PvP.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Rightlick the crates and pich equip to open then.

[Timelord_Victorious]

syberghost wrote:

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The Klingon changes are... interesting. They say they're going to compress the existing Klingon play into those top levels, which should make Klingon PvE much more viable. However, this could all but eliminate low-level PvP.

FvF still works.

[syberghost]

Timelord_Victorious wrote:

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FvF still works.

But has never been very popular. It remains to be seen if this will change that.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Well, given the choice of a grindy leveling experience, a low level cap to play levels 1-25 or what they do now. i prefer the newest modell I think.
It allows players without another learning curve to play a reasonably powerful Klingon to actual cap and allows Cryptic to stealth develop new content which could gradually lower the entry level until level 1 and a new tutorial.

[Freman]

hmmm...Free to Play, huh? I dont know, I was thinking of cancelling my membership (just due to save a small bit of money every month, plus I never have time to actually play the game) this month anyway. I think I'll wait now until the game actually goes F2P. That way I can still play the game until such a time as I can afford to pay again.

[23skidoo]

I see Warcraft has also gone free to play. Question: is this considered an ominous thing, as in "we can't get enough people to buy into it, so we're rolling the dice", or is this actually some kind of evolution at work. I have to admit the idea of paying a fee has kept me away from most of these types of games especially as I'm in the same position as the poster above who says he rarely has time to play anyway. But if it's free I might give it a shot.

Alex

[Kaziarl]

23skidoo wrote:

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I see Warcraft has also gone free to play.

What? When?

Oh wait, do you mean that "Starter Edition?" That's just a glorified trial. Looks like the original, and only to lvl 20.

[syberghost]

As Kaziari says, WoW hasn't really gone F2P yet. However, yes, this is an evolution. The discussion in MMO development circles over the past few months has changed from "should we go F2P" to "which game will be the last to go to F2P". That this model will dominate the US market like it dominates every other market is a foregone conclusion.

[Kaziarl]

I will admit, I'm wondering how it will play out. Some of the early F2P games (Evony being one of them, I wouldn't waste your time with it though) gave MASSIVE advantages to paying players. Now that game is entirely PVP, which pretty much made it to where free players either were forced to quit, or were forced to pay. When I started hearing about MMO's going F2P, I was worried they would have the same issue. However, other then a couple of them, I've been pleasantly surprised with the ones I've tried.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Now with STO the free version looks highly attractiv. For a casual player there are nearly no drawbacks. And I don't believe that will change much until the transition actually happens. There is no date yet. It's supposed to happen this year though.
I just hope they will add a couple more perks for subscribers so they get a satisfied experience out of their modell.
A few more freebies in gameplay and character creation would certainly be nice.

[Scout101]

yeah, there weren't nearly as many 'limited' things as I would have expected. Wouldn't mind a few more perks for the $300 I threw their way. That, and the ominous 'may readjust the C-store pricing' comment that has me afraid they'll jump the prices up a bit to compensate for the fact that I'm getting 'free' points now...

[Timelord_Victorious]

I think dStahl has already said we won't see higher prices but some things (ships) might actually become cheaper.

[Bird of Prey]

For Gold members, will we be able to pool the 400 points we receive each month, or will the expire at the end of each month. If they don't expire, then I'm planning on picking up a couple of the sets, such as the Enterprise set (NX ship, crew uniforms, mirror universe uniforms, and T'Pol uniform).