The next Star Trek MMORPG: Another Epic Fail?

[crazy canuck]

Too bad BBs weaseling means that if this does turn out to be awesome, he won't be able to take any credit.

Not sure how BB could take any credit if it were otherwise since none of us have seen enough of the game to make any decisions one way or the other.  If he told us this was the best game ever he would be no better then Marti not liking Warhammer because of the way the horses moved.

[Barrister]

Too bad BBs weaseling means that if this does turn out to be awesome, he won't be able to take any credit.

Since I don't work for Cryptic, it'd hardly be fair for me to take any credit. 

[Barrister]

So far (as far as I can tell) the game is fairly well done for what it is.  The fact that I was able to play at all on the very first day of open beta actually means its fairly stable.

Where I could see the game failing is by not holding my interest long term.  Every MMO is a grind, but some hide that fact better than others.  If the "espisodes" all start seeming the same, if it doesn't capture that 'just one more level' sense of anticipation that WoW does, I could see me playing, enjoying it, and cancelling my subscription after 2-3 months.

[crazy canuck]

So far (as far as I can tell) the game is fairly well done for what it is.  The fact that I was able to play at all on the very first day of open beta actually means its fairly stable.

Where I could see the game failing is by not holding my interest long term.  Every MMO is a grind, but some hide that fact better than others.  If the "espisodes" all start seeming the same, if it doesn't capture that 'just one more level' sense of anticipation that WoW does, I could see me playing, enjoying it, and cancelling my subscription after 2-3 months.

So far the catch isnt just one more level but one more upgrade for my ship components, one more encounter so I can get more bridge crew skill points and more skill points for me etc.

This game is not so much level based as skill point based and you can spend your points between levels as you acquire them after each mission. 

[Tamas]

Well, this could be great, or crap, still.

The immersion factor is very good. The first non-patrol quest you can do after the tutorial was particularly nice. The "boss fight" at the end was perfect for an introductory quest: being the smaller faster ship I was able to stay in the enemy's behind and concentrate on keeping the shield down on that arc, up until near the end when my front damage got untolerable and manouvering made me drift away to an other angle, but still managed to finish it off, altough hull integrity was down to 75% by the end of the battle.

However, there are major bugs. Other languish people report stuff like ground team glitching to death (no problem there for me), and I can't advance my skills for some reason, had to open a ticket about it. This is beta of course, but a month before release these are quite the bugs.

All in all, very promising so far, in fact I am not that worried about bugs, but more about replayability: I hate repeating quests in MMOs, and I will have to do that in a month when the full version will be out, for my new character, as there is only one side to choose.

[Barrister]

All in all, very promising so far, in fact I am not that worried about bugs, but more about replayability: I hate repeating quests in MMOs, and I will have to do that in a month when the full version will be out, for my new character, as there is only one side to choose.

Aye.  I am going to try and take this very easy during beta, maybe even restart a couple of times.  I know if I get one character quite a distance I will be very disappointed to have to restart in 2 weeks.

[crazy canuck]

Now that I have decided that I play the game after release the only reason for continuing to play prior to release is to get a better idea of what my starting character will be.

At first I thought I would go all tactical/escort but after getting some experience with the game I can see how important the science/engineering skills are going to be for things like scanners and shields etc.  so now I am playing to find out how I really want to start out.

[Barrister]

For Kat, CC, or anyone else playing tonight.

With no curling tonight () I'll definitely be playing.  But please don't be offended if I don't group up with you right away.  I'm still trying to just figure out how all of this works, and I don't think I've even finished the tutorial yet.

[katmai]

You have finished the tutorial, but no worries, I'm striving to hit lvl 11.

[Barrister]

Now that I have decided that I play the game after release the only reason for continuing to play prior to release is to get a better idea of what my starting character will be.

At first I thought I would go all tactical/escort but after getting some experience with the game I can see how important the science/engineering skills are going to be for things like scanners and shields etc.  so now I am playing to find out how I really want to start out.

There's quite a bewildering array of different talents and skills (and for many, no way to 're-spec' if you make some less than optimal choices), so yeah I want to plot this out carefully.

Also I think I'm going to try and not do too many scripted missions, but spend more time on fleet actions or PvP or whatever.

[Alcibiades]

Yeah lots and lots of choices.... But I'm afraid I'll get burnt out if I keep playing now.  Level 4 or 5 already, still quite interesting, but very buggy at the moment.

[crazy canuck]

For Kat, CC, or anyone else playing tonight.

With no curling tonight () I'll definitely be playing.  But please don't be offended if I don't group up with you right away.  I'm still trying to just figure out how all of this works, and I don't think I've even finished the tutorial yet.

I dont think there is much point in grouping in the first few levels anyway.  I havent run into anything yet where I thought I needed some help.

[katmai]

For Kat, CC, or anyone else playing tonight.

With no curling tonight () I'll definitely be playing.  But please don't be offended if I don't group up with you right away.  I'm still trying to just figure out how all of this works, and I don't think I've even finished the tutorial yet.

I dont think there is much point in grouping in the first few levels anyway.  I havent run into anything yet where I thought I needed some help.

That tells me what missions you haven't done, cause there are a few that need to be group of some kind.

[Barrister]

Supposedly various encounters will scale if you do them in a group.

[crazy canuck]

That tells me what missions you haven't done, cause there are a few that need to be group of some kind.

I am just that awsome.