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

[intrinsical]

I've been playing in the Neverwinter beta today and I've got to say its a beautiful game. Compared to Turbine's DDO's city of Stormreach which never truly felt like a city, the city of Neverwinter created by Cryptic feels like a living breathing fantasy medieval city.

The few dungeons maps I have seen so far are very well done. Very atmospheric, filled to the brim with stuff, non repetitive (which is a feat) and laid out much better than STO's style of room, long passage, room, long passage, room layout.

The only thing that stumped me a little is the class system and class abilities. Part of it stems from me know very little about 4th edition D&D rules. All classes only get to use 3 at-will abilities, 3 encounter abilities and 3 daily abilities? Also, I'm not getting why we're picking specialized classes at character creation time. For example, if I picked the class Control Wizard at character creation, does it mean I can't be another type of wizard in the future when Cryptic adds more wizard types? That just seem like a very strange game design.

Overall, I think Neverwinter will be a sweet game to play if I wasn't already committed to STO.

 

[Aeolusdallas]

I've been playing in the Neverwinter beta today and I've got to say its a beautiful game. Compared to Turbine's DDO's city of Stormreach which never truly felt like a city, the city of Neverwinter created by Cryptic feels like a living breathing fantasy medieval city.

The few dungeons maps I have seen so far are very well done. Very atmospheric, filled to the brim with stuff, non repetitive (which is a feat) and laid out much better than STO's style of room, long passage, room, long passage, room layout.

The only thing that stumped me a little is the class system and class abilities. Part of it stems from me know very little about 4th edition D&D rules. All classes only get to use 3 at-will abilities, 3 encounter abilities and 3 daily abilities? Also, I'm not getting why we're picking specialized classes at character creation time. For example, if I picked the class Control Wizard at character creation, does it mean I can't be another type of wizard in the future when Cryptic adds more wizard types? That just seem like a very strange game design.

Overall, I think Neverwinter will be a sweet game to play if I wasn't already committed to STO.

As you gains levels you unlock more at will, encounter and daily powers. When you are at camp sites you can then switch out the powers as you like. In 4th they break up the classes more then in earlier additions. So I assume they will eventually add other build , wizard sword Mage, dps wizards. Battle clerics warlords, etc....

 

[Captain_Amasov]

The only thing that stumped me a little is the class system and class abilities. Part of it stems from me know very little about 4th edition D&D rules. All classes only get to use 3 at-will abilities, 3 encounter abilities and 3 daily abilities? Also, I'm not getting why we're picking specialized classes at character creation time. For example, if I picked the class Control Wizard at character creation, does it mean I can't be another type of wizard in the future when Cryptic adds more wizard types? That just seem like a very strange game design.

The 4th edition has these if I remember:

Cleric: Devoted or Battle
Fighter: Guardian or Great Weapon
Paladin: Avenging or Protecting
Ranger: Archer or Two-Blade
Rogue: Trickster or Brawny
Warlock: Deceptive or Scourge
Warlord: Inspiring or Tactical
Wizard: Control or War

With Neverwinter, you can't swap between being a Guardian or Great Weapon Fighter, because they are flagged as two individual classes. It'll be the same once they add in new kinds of wizards or clerics too. I'd have much preferred had they just had Fighter, and then allowed you to use those trait paths to determine what kind of Fighter you'd like to be.

Now, someone had delved into the HOGG files in Neverwinter and found some interesting evidence that two of the next character classes maybe the Archer Ranger and the Scourge Warlock. Whether they'll actually be the next two remains to be seen, as some kind of Bard class has also been mentioned as well.

 

[Aeolusdallas]

The only thing that stumped me a little is the class system and class abilities. Part of it stems from me know very little about 4th edition D&D rules. All classes only get to use 3 at-will abilities, 3 encounter abilities and 3 daily abilities? Also, I'm not getting why we're picking specialized classes at character creation time. For example, if I picked the class Control Wizard at character creation, does it mean I can't be another type of wizard in the future when Cryptic adds more wizard types? That just seem like a very strange game design.

The 4th edition has these if I remember:

Cleric: Devoted or Battle
Fighter: Guardian or Great Weapon
Paladin: Avenging or Protecting
Ranger: Archer or Two-Blade
Rogue: Trickster or Brawny
Warlock: Deceptive or Scourge
Warlord: Inspiring or Tactical
Wizard: Control or War

With Neverwinter, you can't swap between being a Guardian or Great Weapon Fighter, because they are flagged as two individual classes. It'll be the same once they add in new kinds of wizards or clerics too. I'd have much preferred had they just had Fighter, and then allowed you to use those trait paths to determine what kind of Fighter you'd like to be.

Now, someone had delved into the HOGG files in Neverwinter and found some interesting evidence that two of the next character classes maybe the Archer Ranger and the Scourge Warlock. Whether they'll actually be the next two remains to be seen, as some kind of Bard class has also been mentioned as well.

My brother wants them to add Sword Mage so badly. I want Warlord , Druid and Wardens.

 

[intrinsical]

I suspect they're following the Champions Online model.

For players who don't want the hassle of hand-picking powers, there will be pre-made builds for sale in the C-Store. They will also sell an unlock for custom builds for players who want to hand-pick powers.

 

[Capn Flukie]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/12/28/move-around-in-your-favorite-mmo-with-kinect/

I hope they get this going cus I would love to punch a Klingon in the face instead of mashing a key.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Should look interesting, when you start swibging your bat'leth or lirpa.
(interesting fact: my smartphone auto correct feature already knew the Word bat'leth but didn't lirpa).

And should we also be able to use a voice Interface to command our ships by now?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Well I went and bought the Vesta pack and it is a really nice ship and what I was hoping to get from the Odyssey and Regent aka a good looking ship that can tank decent while also doing good dps. Not to mention with the 10 consoles I don't need a fleet ship trade up so my fleet modules can sit in my bank for now.

 

[intrinsical]

I got my Vesta two weeks ago for my new character and am loving it. Even though it is still using common white turrets and store bought deflector, shields and engines, its still putting out an amazing 4.8k dps an Infected Space Elite run.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I got my Vesta two weeks ago for my new character and am loving it. Even though it is still using common white turrets and store bought deflector, shields and engines, its still putting out an amazing 4.8k dps an Infected Space Elite run.

I'm thinking of running dual heavy cannons and turrets on mine since the Chimera my eng alt is currently using has a similar setup and it destroys things beautifully.

I'm also considering trading out the runabout carrier pet for a different ship.

 

[Scout101]

Out of curiosity, what are people DOING in this game at the moment? I'm kinda stuck right now, and there just doesn't seem to be much worth running. On my primary toon, finished all DOFF assignments except Recruitment (hard to get that many points!), maxed out both Rep chains, and had pretty much all the STF gear to start with. Bought the 2nd set of Borg stuff and the KHG version of the MACO stuff just because I had a ton of points, didn't see anything else worth grinding for. Romulan gear seems 'meh'.

On my secondary toons, I log in and run a few DOFF assignments, rotate the Rep jobs, and that's about it. Will have to farm a few more rep marks at some point to finish them out, but kinda done.

I know we're in another lull because they're bunkered down trying to get the "not season 8" released, but is there really nothing else to do in this game?

They killed STFs when they went towards the Rep system (try and get a ground game going, almost impossible lately. They take longer, are harder, and same reward as the 10 minute, guaranteed win space one, so why bother?), they didn't give us much to DO when they released the new Romulan sector, crafting is long dead, PvP is a joke, and the new STF set they released kinda sucks.

find myself with 4 maxed out toons and nothing to DO with them. disappointing end game. Wish they'd put some priority into dribbling out occasional missions, developing new planets, etc. aside from the big Season packs. If something new (even if small and not a game-changer) showed up every couple weeks, at least there'd be constant activity, if in bite-sized chunks. Instead, they do NOTHING for months, vomit up a big chunk of stuff that we burn through because we're starved for something to do, and then go quiet for months again. I don't want weekly, fully-formed FEs, just fun little one-offs or new zones to explore/play in. For example, how hard would it be to tweak the winter zone and drop in on Andoria? Something new to play with in a place that's never been touched, work's already mostly done. Or could introduce some little mini-games around the starbase they introduced with the Federation Day event.

They don't all have to be like that, just gotta be more ways to tweak existing things for fun little missions.

I dunno, just bored at the moment, and can't think of much to do when I log in, so I just swap out the Rep/Doff missions and log out again usually...

 

[Rocketeer]

I was also in the Neverwinter Beta 2. I recreated the same character as before, dwarf defender, Rusty Ironfyst. I was able to handle the character a little better this time with the mouse control.

Neverwinter is a game that rewards the observant. Most players miss a lot of the treasure chests laying around.

I'm waiting for the Ranger/Archer which should be out in the April Beta.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I stopped playing STO for now and I havent even finished the reputation chains yet...

Getting the gear is near pointless, since I can just buy from the fleet stores if I want to.

This way I always know when I come back I have a new mission still waiting for me.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Getting the gear is near pointless, since I can just buy from the fleet stores if I want to.

Actually the Borg engines are faster than the fleet store ones.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Getting the gear is near pointless, since I can just buy from the fleet stores if I want to.

Actually the Borg engines are faster than the fleet store ones.

Yes, but I have the engines still from the old STF store and on my oldest toons back from the day when you had to do the hour long most difficult mission incarnation.

And no content in the game requires me to actually get any of the most elite gear anyway. once you get the best gear you don't even have anything left to grind for...

 

[Amaris]

I have my retro STF gear, fleet store weapons, and have been flying my Ambassador. There's no need for any kind of upgrade right now. I don't PvP like I used to, mainly due to min/maxers who don't die ever and are always found in groups, and the STFs I could sleep through. I am playing Battlefield 1942, though.

 

[Captain_Amasov]

The only thing that stumped me a little is the class system and class abilities. Part of it stems from me know very little about 4th edition D&D rules. All classes only get to use 3 at-will abilities, 3 encounter abilities and 3 daily abilities? Also, I'm not getting why we're picking specialized classes at character creation time. For example, if I picked the class Control Wizard at character creation, does it mean I can't be another type of wizard in the future when Cryptic adds more wizard types? That just seem like a very strange game design.

The 4th edition has these if I remember:

Cleric: Devoted or Battle
Fighter: Guardian or Great Weapon
Paladin: Avenging or Protecting
Ranger: Archer or Two-Blade
Rogue: Trickster or Brawny
Warlock: Deceptive or Scourge
Warlord: Inspiring or Tactical
Wizard: Control or War

With Neverwinter, you can't swap between being a Guardian or Great Weapon Fighter, because they are flagged as two individual classes. It'll be the same once they add in new kinds of wizards or clerics too. I'd have much preferred had they just had Fighter, and then allowed you to use those trait paths to determine what kind of Fighter you'd like to be.

Now, someone had delved into the HOGG files in Neverwinter and found some interesting evidence that two of the next character classes maybe the Archer Ranger and the Scourge Warlock. Whether they'll actually be the next two remains to be seen, as some kind of Bard class has also been mentioned as well.

My brother wants them to add Sword Mage so badly. I want Warlord , Druid and Wardens.

I guess Scourge Warlock is further along than I thought:

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/3033/warlockk.jpg

Speaking of stuff found, someone apparently found a faction picture for the Romulans in STO's Gateway. Usually these are only for player factions, probably not gonna happen for the upcoming update in May, but maybe we'll see the start of it?

 

[Blamo]

Lets see, I've been PvPing like I've been doing for the last 3 years. It's really the only thing in the game that I find consistently exciting. That is unless you're up against a premade with three healers, in which case it's a yawn fest.

I've stopped flying my Andorian escort for a while as ROFLstomping players and NPCs is boring. I'm instead flying a Galaxy-X. It's working out surprisingly well. My fleet just got access to elite fleet shields, so that's something new to mess around with.

Also been grinding dilithium.

 

[intrinsical]

Like many here, I have 2 maxed out, 3 nearly maxed out and 1 freshly made character and am finding it boring. Getting what I want for the new character now requires so much dilithium and what nots that I'm pretty demotivated in kitting him out with the greatest. What's more, devs have said Season 8 is primarily targeted at new players so I suspect there isn't going to be a wealth of new content for us old timers. At best, I anticipate a new adventure zone and a new reputation faction to grind in season 8.

As for a romulan faction... *yawn* By this time I have so much invested in the Federation in terms of unlocked c-store starships and unique fed-only consoles that I don't even bothered to max out my current 2 kdf characters. So I don't see why I would create a new romulan faction character.

So if Cryptic add my favorite classes, Druids and Rangers, I'll may just jump on the NWN bandwagon instead.

 

[Scout101]

That's kinda the problem. Yes, the random element sucked, but at least you had a chance of getting the max gear on your non-primary toon. Now, i've kinda given up on having it on anyone but my primary. The DIL cost, the time, EC cost, so much grinding. Yes, you definitely get it, but it's brutal and expensive to get there, so just can't sustain doing things that many times in a row.

So I've just got the maxed out toon that sits there bored, and i pick at a couple alts at a slower pace towards Rep.

Biggest problem all along has been that once you get the gear, there's nothing to DO with it. Only thing it's useful for is the thing you were grinding for months to EARN it, so by the time you get the reward, you can't stand to play the place it's useful.