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

[Scout101]

Another question: the DS9 series is the next weekly, and we've been told they're hold it until the game goes F2P, presumably so it looks like the game isn't completely dead when new players arrive. Question being: will new players even be able to see that series? Isn't the who sector with DS9 locked out until you level up a bit? So newbies won't be able to go to DS9 in the first place?

[Harvey]

I think so, unless that is being changed when the game goes f2p. Honestly, it's been so long since I played for more than fifteen minutes that I can't remember.

[Scout101]

Would love to see the reasoning behind holding it back, then. It'll look better if the current players are running around doing that when the new F2P players arrive, I guess? Make it look like an active game instead of a ghost town full of disgruntled ghosts...

Seems like it would have been a no-brainer to release that, or whip up something else to tide people over, just to keep the current players from getting too pissed off. Unfortunately, they just went into their bunker, and we've had a game that's only existed for 2 years, but has taken 8 months of that time off...

[Hartzilla2007]

Scout101 wrote:

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Another question: the DS9 series is the next weekly, and we've been told they're hold it until the game goes F2P, presumably so it looks like the game isn't completely dead when new players arrive. Question being: will new players even be able to see that series? Isn't the who sector with DS9 locked out until you level up a bit? So newbies won't be able to go to DS9 in the first place?

No only the sector with the borg and the sector with the breen are locked out until you hit certain levels everywhere else is always open.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Not even the Breen sector is locked out. You can access the sector any time. It's actually just the Borg and Undine sectors you have to be RA3 for.

You won't be able to access the missions there until you are sufficiently leveld up though.

I would imagine, forced mission progression or not, that a new Feaure Series will be level agnostic and maybe unlocked with a minimum of LC1 or so.

However, Cryptic might decide to hold the mission back a little further once FTP is released so all those new players have an actual chance to be high enough in the usual release weeks to get the special rewards.
So expect the mission a month after FTP at the earliest.

If we are lucky they rerun the other 3 (has it only been 3) before that.

[Rocketeer]

Timelord_Victorious wrote:

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FTP testing is going ahead with giant strides... today the first part of the skill tree revamp has been released for testing.

Space skills have been simplified a lot.

Interesting, will take a little getting used to. Feels like a lot of detail has been lost though and that was part of the fun of STO.

The one thing that I like is the DOFF system (except that Colonists and Prisoners seem to be currently stuck). I should make Captain today or tomorrow and that's almost exclusively using xp gained from DOFF completed assignments. However as mentioned by many others, I may give up on STO if things continue to deteriorate. (never thought I'd say that) Seems like the current membership is largely ignored in favor of the future F2P crowd.
.

[Rocketeer]

syberghost wrote:

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No they haven't; none of your characters who received that have had their token removed.

I'm having a hard time understanding your logic about not being cheated.

Imagine that you worked for a company that paid retirement to any employee after 30 years and the company dropped the policy in your 29th year. You never "received" the retirement, so have you lost anything...

[PsychoPere]

Timelord_Victorious wrote:

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I would imagine, forced mission progression or not, that a new Feaure Series will be level agnostic and maybe unlocked with a minimum of LC1 or so.

Which would square exactly with how the previous 3 FE series have been handled - initially open to pretty much everyone, then changed later down the road to unlock at certain levels. That's very likely what will happen with the DS9 one too.

[Scout101]

Annoying that they went back and changed them to make it level-appropriate gear, instead of leveling it with you. Great if you're already at VA when one comes out, but pretty annoying to do on an alternate toon that's at a lower rank. You have to do it right when it comes out to get the extra bonus gear (BOFF, weapon, etc), but the regular rewards (like the Breen set, for example) end up being throw-aways pretty quickly as you level past them. So if the reward is actually any good, you have to do the whole series 5-6 times to keep getting it, whereas it used to stay with you before...

[Timelord_Victorious]

To be fair, those level appropriate items are all better then the scaling ones.
If you are a Captain 1, a scaling item is scaled to Captain 1, where the fixed one is appropriate for a Captain 9 or so.

[Scout101]

True enough. But then have to go get it again once I hit RA. Fine for some one-off stuff like a weapon, fairly annoying for things like the Breen set, where you'd have to go get them all

[PsychoPere]

That won't be much of an issue after F2P with the new episode progression, since the Breen episodes won't unlock until something like level 41.

[Scout101]

if it ever gets around to coming out... Kinda feels like if they don't make it before KOTOR goes live, it's gonna mean bad things for STO's survival. Get people into trying it before they jump to KOTOR, they might stick around. Offer them both at the same time, suspect people will pick the shiny new game with potential over one that feels like it's on the downslope already.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Or wait until the hype for TOR has died down and people start looking for free alternatives... But that would put release way into 2012 which won't happen.

[Scout101]

DC Online also appears to be getting some good buzz in their F2P model, was thinking of checking that one out. Was a huge fan of KOTOR games, so definitely interested in that, as well.

As more and more games switch towards the F2P model, it'll come down to things like content, end-game, crafting, socializing, value... Areas that sadly, STO doesn't seem to be focusing on at the moment. Doubt that grind and micro-transactions are going to be the big draw they seem to think. If STO was an early adopter of the F2P model, they might have had a chance, but they seem to have missed the boat there...

Really has the feel of something that's going to just fall flat at relaunch, at which time they'll try to come crawling back towards a fanbase they just spent the last 8 months or so pissing off and driving away.

STO has been my first real experience with MMOs, and while it was fun at first, I'm afraid it's really leaned more towards regret lately. I've enjoyed the limited amount of group participation in this game, and while this has been kind of a hybrid, I think I'm happier with single-player games. Much cheaper, with a known set cost upfront, and it is what it is. Play it until you're bored or beat it, replay it occasionally if it was good, and move on. Not a big fan of the "give us $300 upfront and hope you get what you pay for later, and we don't fold up the game or change it to drive you away" model that seems to be running here.