Star Trek: Online

I spent a couple hours on last night. My MMO experience began with The Realm and continued through EQ and EQ2 with diversions into other MMO's along the way. I may have gotten lazy with my use of auto-run and quest tracking in EQ2 because I spent much of my time last night trying to get used to flying. The combination of left hand control and slow movement was disconcerting. As we were fighting Borg probes other ships were speeding into position while I moved slowly. I wonder if they know a command that I don't know or if being an engineer gave me a powerful but slow ship?

 

Try that "up"-arrow button on top of your speed-throttle bar.

 

Oh, right, that's it! I discovered that during Open Beta but forgot how I got it so since Head Start began I've been wondering what the secret was.

 

FWIW, you stated the situation very, very well, which also answered my earlier question. STO, at its core, is for hardcore MMO players, not for casual gamers like myself. Granted, I've played City of Heroes for a number of years now (I log in probably 3 to 4 hours total a week) and may even keep it and cancel STO. But simply being a die-hard Trek fan isn't enough for one to really enjoy this game.

I'm not saying STO lacks direction; it just has a defective compass.

 

The up arrow on the throttle bar puts in basically a sprint mode. Be careful with that as it drops your shields.

 

I don't mean to imply that it's for hardcore MMO players. Hardcore would be EVE or Vanguard. As an MMO it's very casual but there are still basic MMO assumptions built into the game that take getting used too. WoW's greatest strength was making those assumptions very easy to understand and easing a player in. STO tutorial is a alot more bare bones in that regard .

 

I know you didn't imply it, but it confirmed my belief and I stand by my own conclusion. As I said, every time I log in, the Zone chat tab is always filled with numerous questions. Where's the Tailor? Where's the shipyard? How do I get from Point A to Point B? How come it doesn't do this and that? Where do I sell my stuff? Where do I get the tribbles? If I deleted my bridge officer, would I get him back or get a different one? Here's my favorite: Where's Sulu?

I don't believe this is the kind of game that your garden-variety Trek geek could simply jump into and quickly advance in a few days. It took me weeks to get a good grasp of City of Heroes, which by far has the most user-friendly and straightforward interface of all the MMOs I've tried.

I had high hopes for this game. When I first heard STO in development years ago, I was very excited and thought it was one of those highly anticipated games I must have. Now the excitement quickly wears off and is replaced by bitterness. I dislike the "fend for yourself in the jungle with a butter knife" dynamic. That's because I'm the kind of person who wants to be in control (not that I'm a control freak); I want to be able to know what I'm doing and what's going on. It's impossible to do that without the proper knowledge and resources.

 

well there is no reason to hurry through the game. take your time. wander around talk to all the npc's. Experiment. It's not like there is a death penalty.

 

Exactly the same happened in general chat channels in WoW during release, the launch of BC and the launch of WotLK.
It's not a testament to the newbie-friendliness of a game but to the lazyness of most people.

 

Or the lack of intuitive design/GUI/controls.

My one complaint is the set-waypoint function. It's useless, really, as it meanders around the screen and you never seem to be able to 'look down' at it even when you're allegedly standing on top of it. It also does not get placed exactly where you click on the map. (at least not for me)

 

I was just going to say the same thing. The whole point of an MMO in my mind is to explore, look around, find things. I had no problem finding sulu.
Now it would be nice if they had an option, like in WoW, where you talk to a crewman and ask for directions. But even without that it didn't seem like a big problem. And on the sector map, you can set your ship to AUTOPILOT for cryse sake, and it does tell you how.

One think I'd like to see them clear up a bit... What exactly does shield +5 do and how does it help compared to deflector +5. Now, I know what they do as far as trek is concerned, but people who are just playing it, and are new to trek might not.

 

Ayelbourne, tsk, tsk. Have you not been paying attention? Really, accusing people of being lazy is so immature when I've been doing my part asking a hundred thousand questions and looking at the website simply because the 12-page manual doesn't cover it. When CoH and Guild Wars II came out, there was actually a thick game manual that came with each of them. And I had to read through the whole f***ing thing although I was excited as hell to get started!

Maybe it just has a steep learning curve.*

*EDIT: The phrase "steep learning curve" has been known to be misused to mean the opposite, but you get what I'm saying.

 

You're right. I have at least a month's worth of free game time, so I may as well take advantage of it.

 

The truth is, I really want to like and play this game until something better comes along, e.g., DC Universe Online. Since that's a superhero-oriented MMO, I wouldn't have a hard time adjusting to it with my CoH experience.

 

My current complaint is the lack of directions, maps, and game guide. The time wasted by wondering around for an hour trying to find an NPC is surpassed only by leveling a character for a week and finding that you really screwed up his skills.

 

There is a bit of a downside, yes. For example, in chat, all you see is "where can I find this?" or "where is that located?", "where can I find Memory Alpha?". The in game map is just about useless in it's current format, and the locations list is missing about 1/3 of it's locations.

This, of course, will be ironed out over time, and I still very much enjoy the game.
Now if they could only fix that damned ship customization bug.

 

My problem with the game is the servers are down right now. Getting a little old. Hopefully it'll be taken care of this weekend. As far as the game itself, I'm really enjoying it.

 

Well, that's to be expected. They've been running full release only a couple of days. This weekend they're getting more servers.

 

Pffft. I like the 2409 B-01 uniform.