Star Trek: Online

[Jono]

Still no love for the Excelsior class! They have the Centaur, Nova, Prometheus and Olympic that only have appeared once on screen but they can't give the Excelsior a go? They even have the Cheyenne whose contribution to Trek was to be a background piece of flotsam in one episode! What does the Excelsior have to do to get into a game?

[Aeolusdallas]

Jono wrote:

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Still no love for the Excelsior class! They have the Centaur, Nova, Prometheus and Olympic that only have appeared once on screen but they can't give the Excelsior a go? They even have the Cheyenne whose contribution to Trek was to be a background piece of flotsam in one episode! What does the Excelsior have to do to get into a game?

When asked they state that they will be adding more ships to the game. My guess is that it and the nebula will be the first ships added.
EDIT also the Vesper is said to look alot like the excelsior

[Ayelbourne]

Aeolusdallas wrote:

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EDIT also the Vesper is said to look alot like the excelsior

Yeah, I believe I saw a very "excelsioresque" ship in one of the gameplay trailers. Guess that's the one.

[USS Mariner]

I'm sure someone's noticed this, but it's pretty obvious that they cribbed most of their battle mechanics directly from Starfleet Command/Star Fleet Battles.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, as I love SFC, but given that it's a 3D environment, it's kind of funny that they didn't develop dorsal and ventral shields.

You shouldn't be able to hit your opponent's forward shield from behind.

[Anthony Sabre]

Closed beta access for Fileplanet Founder's Club members here.

Edit: Looks like only til Monday though.

[dragunzng]

In case anyone's interested, the latest episode of STOked (unofficial STO podcast) had some complimentary things to say about how things are shaping up.

STOked beta preview

Is there an official TrekBBS Fleet? I don't usually play MMO's with others or form guilds, but I love the folks at TrekBBS and would really like to play with you guys.

[Timelord_Victorious]

Just preordered it from Amazon. It said I'll get a freed Borg Drone Officer for that.
That must mean I can solve any and every mission within minutes using some nanoprobes. Right? ....right?

[Arthur Frelling Dent]

I've been eagerly anticipating STO since the Perpetual days, but I actually wasn't planning on buying it (at least at launch) because my PC was way too old to handle STO and I wanted to squeeze some more life out of it. As (bad?) luck would have it, my computer finally died a couple of weeks ago so the first thing I did after ordering a new computer was to pre-order STO from Amazon.

I too would be interested in joining a TrekBSS fleet.

[USSHermes]

How they should have done it:

You start out as one ensign on a type 6 shuttle, you go around doing missions for the fleet and building up points. Eventually you move up to a type 11 a runabout or one of those federation fighters. At this point you start building up a crew. The crew can either be other players or bots.

Eventually you 'buy' a ship when you have the rank and credits to afford one. Something like an old Miranda class. (You would see lots of these at first).

Some dedicated fans would form large guilds to buy galaxy classes when the regular players still are ferrying dilithium ore to build up points, but that's the way it would work.

Once you get a ship and have built up enough points you could then 'sell' it and buy another or upgrade the existing ship. Imagine battling a klingon fleet with a super-modded constitution class with Quantorps and upgraded phasers!

Eventually the ship would have no more possible mods so you would have to trade it or have it as a secondary ship.

Also, I would like to see no 'instances'. Like I really want to hang around until five other players are in the area till we all get some distress call for a ship I have already rescued ! Play should be as natural as possible, with some deaths. If your shp gets blow up you should wake in sickbay with your heavily damaged ship in dock and the computer should say you were found floating in space, heavily damaged by a salvage team.

[strikefalcon]

No offense, but that would be boring as hell and it would take a casual gamer months before they actually earned enough skill or credit to actually get an actual starship!

I think Cryptic has done the best they can walking the tightrope to please as many people as possible with one product.

[USSHermes]

No, it would give you a sense of achievement when you buy and name your first starship

[Cyke101]

strikefalcon wrote:

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No offense, but that would be boring as hell and it would take a casual gamer months before they actually earned enough skill or credit to actually get an actual starship!

I think Cryptic has done the best they can walking the tightrope to please as many people as possible with one product.

I'll have to concur with this post here. When people think of Star Trek, they think of starships and not dinky little shuttles or fighters.

It's like City of Heroes. You start out as a superhero right off the bat. You're not training with some sensei or in a school like Xavier's or learning to cope with radiation poisoning. You're pretty much shoved into the action (even the tutorial itself is a prison break) and so far it's proven successful amongst new players.

USSHermes wrote:

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Also, I would like to see no 'instances'. Like I really want to hang around until five other players are in the area till we all get some distress call for a ship I have already rescued !

That won't be the case, at least with away missions. On there, you'll get a team of NPC crewmen to accompany you. If you're teamed with others, then they'll be with you, with NPCs filling out the other slots. Whether you solo or you're with a team, you're never really alone for landing parties.

USSHermes wrote:

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No, it would give you a sense of achievement when you buy and name your first starship

Unless you're in Beta (and if you are, major NDA-violation here), how do you know that you won't get a sense of achievement through other means? As well, you're still going to have to put in some effort in order to upgrade your ship, nevermind moving on to more advanced vessels.

[darthraidr]

strikefalcon wrote:

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No offense, but that would be boring as hell and it would take a casual gamer months before they actually earned enough skill or credit to actually get an actual starship!

assuming a casual gamer is going to bother to take a look at this game...

[Anthony Sabre]

darthraidr wrote:

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assuming a casual gamer is going to bother to take a look at this game...

They will. Whether or not they choose to stay is another matter. I, for one, am all in. Hoping this game is good enough to get me to cancel my EVE subscription. If not... eagerly anticipating 5 other MMOs this year.

[Danoz]

CaptJimboJones wrote:

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Given the difficulties of coordinating an actual "crew" of real players in an MMO (which was the original plan, IIRC), it seems to me that it's the best choice. I think the whole "every player is a captain" approach is the best way to go.

I'm really, really worried that this game is going to be good. Because then I might end up buying it. And then my wife would leave me because of all the time I waste on STO.

I'll definitely have to try it out. I finally have an internet connection that's worth something... and as much as I avoid MMORPGs I have to at least give this a shot.