Giving STO Another Try

[Haggis and tatties]

First contact day has started with some nice rewards.....

• Martian Mining Laser (ground weapon)
• First Contact Day Bundle – contains all of the following:
  • 1x Captain Specialization Point (cannot reclaim)
  • 25,000 Dilithium Ore (cannot reclaim)
  • “Launch Toy Rocket” Social Device (Account Unlock)
  • Holo-Emitter – Phoenix Shuttle (Account Unlock)

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/x.../detail/11485443-celebrate-first-contact-day!

 

[137th Gebirg]

I love the rocket-building op (and so does my daughter), but I'm not too stoked about the bundle this time around. I already have the toy rocket and phoenix holo from last year, I'm maxed out on all my specializations and I have over 4 million dilithium ore. Now, 25,000 REFINED dilithium would definitely pique my interest, but overall I'm kind of meh about it this year, sadly. I'm curious how powerful a ground weapon the mining laser is really going to be. I haven't seen any stats on it. Damage, DPS, rate of fire, etc.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^I never did this first time round so i quite enjoyed the rocket one, plus i got almost all the badges in one day by using all my unsed charactors, and they are account unlocked so only need to claim them once. ha

 

[Phily B]

I gave it a try, but I just couldn't get into it. Not so much the gameplay, more the story. It started with my leaving the academy, being ambushed by Klingons, fighting them off, then fighting The Borg, including a friggin cube. Then the tutorial mission ends with me leaving . I was hoping for something a bit less...over the top. I remember when I originally played, I enjoyed just flying around doing random missions that could bea nything from escort, patrol or just landing on a planet to fix a transceiver. It's almost like the same problem I have with the newer TV shows and escalation, how can I fight a Borg Cube in a Miranda class then go do other missions?!

I think it just made me want a single player next-gen Trek title in a similar mould.

 

[matthunter]

You don't fight that Cube alone though. And this isn't the TNG days when a single Cube curbstomps 40 ships. It's past even First Contact when a single Cube can fight a running battle against 40 ships whilst taking heavy damage that could be exploited by someone with insight.

 

[BillJ]

I'm up to next gen consoles now, does the game still look like it is from the PS2-era?

 

[BillJ]

I think it just made me want a single player next-gen Trek title in a similar mould.

I desperately want a great AAA Trek game. CBS seems stuck in trying to sell Trek solely on TV, and hitting up old-timers with microtransaction filled phone games.

 

[Phily B]

I don't even need an AAA title, give me a game like Outer Worlds set in Star Trek. Graphics aren't an issue in Star Trek Online, it's pretty enough for an MMO.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I'm up to next gen consoles now, does the game still look like it is from the PS2-era?

It still runs on the same engine.
The graphic artists are going above and beyond with the assets they have in terms of detail love, lighting,etc.
But the limits of the system are apparent. It was already old(ish) when it was used to develope STO.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^Plus on the console version a lot of the detail is missing or really low, plus you only have three camera settings, so you can't see your ship in the same fine closeup detail as that of the PC version.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

It‘s biggest downfall is the lack of dynamic lighting and the extremely tight polygon budget.
They cannot add too many polygons to assets for whatever performance reasons and that‘s why it looks so extremely early 2000s.

(Also the unrealistic body slider options. People tend to make really aweful thin waste, big boob avatars, which just exaggerate the flawed body modeling.
I always try to downplay all those curves and bumps to look halfway realistic proportionally. Unfortunately the NPCs Are Build equally as bad.)

 

[Haggis and tatties]

New 10 day event up, ship upgrade, ship x upgrade and XP boost up for grabs and all you have to do is one red alert a day, plus a free daily phoenix box is up for grabs for the next 5 days.....so don't delay, Beam on down!

 

[Deks]

It‘s biggest downfall is the lack of dynamic lighting and the extremely tight polygon budget.
They cannot add too many polygons to assets for whatever performance reasons and that‘s why it looks so extremely early 2000s.

(Also the unrealistic body slider options. People tend to make really aweful thin waste, big boob avatars, which just exaggerate the flawed body modeling.
I always try to downplay all those curves and bumps to look halfway realistic proportionally. Unfortunately the NPCs Are Build equally as bad.)

I guess the question here is, how much can the devs build upon the existing engine to further improve things?

I know its old and there are limits, but couldn't they simply replace the game engine at some point down the line and just integrate it when its ready?

Majority of the gameplay and player data would remain as is (obviously), and I imagine it would be easier to simply 'port' a lot of mechanics into a new (more robust) engine that would predominantly use Vulkan and/or D3D12 and give a LOT more options to developers in terms of upgrades in the future?

I was able to discover that 2 MMORPG's have decided to upgrade their game engine:
Gloria Victis:
https://www.mmorpg.com/news/gloria-...ises-better-graphics-and-stability-2000121583
Ship of Heroes:
https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/comment/7171036/

I mean, couldn't ST:Online devs do the same?
Just use a new engine, port as many stuff as they can (and adapt it) to the new engine... possibly change/improve upon various things (obviously) and dispense with the old.

 

[137th Gebirg]

So, this happened! ♫♪♪ It's been a long road... ♫♪♪
(Note - this is a composite of two photos showing upper and lower halves of the list):


Maxed out all my Reputation requirements last year. Focusing fully on Endeavor boosters now.

 

[USS Firefly]

After 5 years I have played for about an hour. I only had to fight so I will probably try It again over 5 years

 

[matthunter]

I set up a solo fleet (with some temp helpers) a few years back and got the main base up to T2 (for fleet ships) and Dil mine to T1 (for the turn rate Neutronium Hull consoles) but then largely let it stagnate. I recently decided to try and pump some life back into it. I was reminded how big the drain in Fleet Marks is, but luckily remembered I have a shitload of inactive toons that I'd never claimed my account unlock mark rewards for my Delta and Klingon recruits. That can net you about 2k fleet marks per toon, and I was able to clear some of them out of DOFFs for the larger projects.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

New summer event is up and running with a new free T6 ship at the end of it plus extras, plus 1 free phoenix box for the next few days from the usual Drozana station.

 

[137th Gebirg]

You can also get them from Onna on the DS9 Promenade. Unfortunately, they haven’t shown up on the Xbox yet, even though the Risa event started at the same time.

 

[matthunter]

Basically just making Jem'hadar alts at the mo to farm the boosts from the Gamma Recruitment event as my solo fleet needs lots of stuff.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I'm personally trying to unlock that final Admiralty slot (which I'm hoping will extend to my other characters when it happens).