The non-player bridge crew is a fine idea. Especially for an MMO.
How would you like getting your ass stuck somewhere because your helmsman is AFK because his dad told him to mow the lawn? Multi-group raids are hard enough as is in MMOs, and those are usually done in special circumstances. Imagine having to corral multiple people just to have a functional ship.
That's the smartest decision Cryptic made, IMO. Everything else is not so confidence-inspiring, though.
Agreed. I find it really odd that there're people complaining about that. Clearly some people haven't actually thought things through. Nevermind that a player crew would probably be one of the most miserable play experiences for pretty much everybody, ever. So I'm a helmsman. That means all I do is sit around and drive the ship? That's not what I call terribly exciting. Same goes for chief medical officer. Or I'm a tactical officer. I get to shoot the weapons. That's cooler, at least. But if the mission doesn't call for combat, I'm utterly useless and have nothing to do. And we all have to obey the captain, so if the helmsman wants to see DS9, the doctor wants to visit Earth, and the tactical officer wants to go to Q'o'nos, that doesn't mean squat, because the captain's the one who decides where the ship goes.
And even if people are okay with having such a miserable play experience, agreeing to a crappy play experience so the captain player can have fun, you still need to get all those people playing at the same time to get a functional ship. And God forbid if the tactical officer has to answer the door or take a phone call while you're in the middle of a fight with a couple Birds of Prey. I've had more then a few frustrating experiences with task forces in CoH and dungeon crawls in WoW where a player drops out, leaving the rest of the group underpowered and unable to complete the mission. Can you imagine the sheer hell of being unable to play because you're constantly short one guy? And this is the kind of game people are looking for? It boggles the mind...
Anyway, how do folks feel about the plot elements revealed so far? For instance, we've got the Klingons breaking the treaty yet again and becoming more hostile towards the Federation. It'll certainly be interesting to see how that happens with Martok as Chancellor. Who knows how long he'll last in that position if that's the case. I'm a bit torn on this point. I liked having the Klingons as allies to the Federation, and sort of good guys. But on the other hand, this isn't exactly out of character for them.
One thing I'm disappointed about is that they didn't stick closer to the DS9 relaunch novels. They stated they'd be treating the novels as "soft canon", only, but I was hoping the DS9 relaunch novels would be something they adapted into the game as-is.
One thing I did like, though, was the idea of Worf marrying Grilka. That's a great idea which I hope carries over into the novel line. What can I say? I've liked the story of Cyrano de Bergerac for years, and Worf is the Star Trek version of Cyrano, with Grilka in the role of Roxane. Be nice to see Worf get a happier ending than what Cyrano got. And besides, it'd be nice if Worf finally, FINALLY, actually got together with an actual Klingon woman. Honestly, is he the only guy in the universe who's NEVER been with a woman of the same species as him? K'Ehleyr was the closest, and she was only half-klingon.
Last but not least, there's one aspect that I'm really looking forward to. Namely that someone will finally have cause to fill out the available ship designs. We've seen plenty of Starfleet ships in the shows, but not a whole lot of ships of other races. With the Klingons we've seen, what? The D7's, Birds of Prey, Vorcha's, Negh'var, and...? But with Klingon Empire as a playable faction, that means that the variety of Klingon ships will likely have to be just as great as that of the Starfleet ships. Case in point, the Klingon Raptor class...
http://www.startrekonline.com/ships/raptor_class
I've never heard of it, before. So did I just miss it from other sources, or is it a brand new ship? If so, then I take that as an example of what we can expect from the game. And I assume that that's just the first in a long line of brand new Klingon ships. Now, wouldn't it be nice to see a Klingon fleet with ship types just as varied as those of Starfleet? Same goes for others, like the Romulans, Cardassians, Dominion, etc. With the Romulans we've only seen the Warbird and Scout ship, along with the Balance of Terror ship. Cardassians it's pretty much just the Galor and Keldon. The odds of Romulans becoming a playable faction down the line are pretty good, and I'm hoping the Cardassians also become a playable faction. If that happens, then they'll also need a much more varied selection of ships, so we'll finally get to see Romulan ships that're something other than Warbirds. That, IMO, would be fantastic.
And let's not forget the new Starfleet ships they're coming up with. Did I mention my deep and abiding love for the new Excalibur class in STO?
http://www.startrekonline.com/ships/excalibur
Moment I saw it I knew what my main ship was going to be.
