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

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

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]

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.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

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...

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

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).

 

[syberghost]

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).

They haven't said, but the Champions Online ones don't expire.

 

[mic of orion]

O, need advice, how to equip this sucker, best weapons, consoles ... I already have borg set now i need weapons and stuff. let me know what you think i should be getting, cheers.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

For one you should get the last Borg piece. A universal consol from "Assimilated". It's a regular mission, you can do it soli, just remember to replicate remodulators for your officers.

 

[Blamo]

Lets see.

For starters, dump the bio-function monitor console as it's pretty useless. Since a gameplay update in either season 1 or season 2, crew is only useful for repairing your ship out of combat (in combat you'll hardly notice the very small hull regen). I suggest replacing it with the borg console (gotten via the "Assimilation" mission).

Next, get rid of the transphasics and replace them with quantums or photons. Until Cryptic really buff them, transphasics are rather pathetic in comparison to them.

Stick a field generator Mk XI console in an engineering console slot, which with give you 35% more shield capacity (not these consoles will not stack).

If you're going to mix beam types, I suggest you use "directed energy distribution manifold" instead of "phaser relay" consoles as they effect all beam weapons (but only beam weapons).

The BO powers I'll leave to later, but I think you should promote your engineers. :P

 

[syberghost]

To me, the choice between Quantums or Photons comes down to this:

If you're going to use them every time they're off CD, whether shields are down or not, use Photons. If you're going to only use them when shields are down as burst hull damage, Quantums.

As for mixing beam types; don't mix beam types. Phaser Relay consoles have a higher bonus than Directed Energy Manifold consoles, and putting your points into one beam skill is more efficient than putting them into several. Phasers are the MOST efficient use of skill points, but there is something to be said in PvP for not outputting the same kind of damage everybody else is expecting.

 

[Trekker1966]

WELL,WELL, WELL,! This looks like Soong's work absolutley no redeeming creative quality's at all-Ira Graves Schizoid man TNG

Wow ! I'm Fineginaly on a Star Trek bbs so how many stos geeks are there here?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Haven't counted them. We are however running a small board exclusive fleet.
Fleet member numbers are somewhere between 20-30 more or less active members I estimate.
There are several STO fans here who are not in the TrekBBS Armada as well.

 

[syberghost]

Yep. I run the STO division for All Out Assault. We are on friendly terms with TrekBBS Armada.

There's also the formerly-official STO IRC channel, a link is in my signature. It (thanks to SubSpace Radio) has a relay to an ingame channel, "stoirc". You're welcome and encouraged to join the channel; that goes for everybody reading this.

 

[PsychoPere]

^ Speaking of your link, the exact URL (with the channel ID) leads to a 404 error page. Going just to the top-level domain, of course, works.

 

[syberghost]

^ Speaking of your link, the exact URL (with the channel ID) leads to a 404 error page. Going just to the top-level domain, of course, works.

Thanks for the heads-up. Looks like one of the other IRCops changed out the old client for a new one, and the page he put in won't support direct links.

I'll work on a replacement. Leaving it in my sig for now.