The next Star Trek MMORPG: Another Epic Fail?

[grumbler]

Kirk trying to dramatically belt out the Preamble of the US Constitution sticks with ya. 

Yes, and the identical wording to the US Constitution was explained as parallel evolution! 

That was commie-planet, as I recall.

[katmai]

Why does grumbler have to come in here and shit on my childhood

[Alexandru H.]

Why does grumbler have to come in here and shit on my childhood

I miss the mini skirts 

[Ed Anger]

Kirk trying to dramatically belt out the Preamble of the US Constitution sticks with ya. 

Yes, and the identical wording to the US Constitution was explained as parallel evolution! 

That was commie-planet, as I recall.

Yes. The Yangs and the whatevers. Not enough klingon killin' in that episode.

[Syt]

if one wants to be pedantic.

Coming from you that's cute. Or, in this thread: Q-t.

[grumbler]

For the most part I don't think even the ST fans are disagreeing with you.  There was some derivative work.  Not that the Roman Empire planet wasn't fan, but yes, they went to that particular well a few too many times.

It could probably be called "serious" sci-fi considering the time and place it was made (what other sci-fi was on network tv back then - Lost in Space?), but that is all.

My point is that saying "it" as though ST were monolithic fails completely to capture what the show was like.  The first season was serious SF by any standards whatever.  Good people died.  Monsters were revealed to be pitiable.  Optimal solutions failed, and there were weeping widows when that happened.

The third season was not serious SF with a very few exceptions.  Stories were derivative and contrived.   Episodes always ended with everyone on the bridge laughing.  Even Roddenberry gave up on it.

These changes were deliberate.  NBC didn't know how to make SF work, so they slowly made it into just another show.  The ST show of the third season was a far different show than the one of the first season.  It wasn't nearly as good, IMO.  Not even DS9 changed so much over the course of its run.

The point is, though, that ST wasn't "sucky" and it wasn't "great."  It was both.  Just at different times.

[katmai]

Just a quick excerpt from MMORPG.COM reviewer who was playing beta test.

One comment I read on the forums is that this game sounds like a "massively single-player game." I am not convinced it is, largely when it comes to these previews that's because I personally tend to solo and thus you don't hear as much about groups and massive content.

While STO is very, very instanced, they have done a good job of making other players part of the world. On starbases, even though you're within an instance, there are always lots of people about and in sector space, other ships are flying around all over the place.

The game has all of the usual grouping bells and whistles out there to find friends and get together. I generally, by default, would play alone but the game constantly offered me chances to play with others.

For example, when you enter some mission areas, you have the choice to play solo or play with others. This matches you with some others to get things done. Also on the map are areas that are not unlike Warhammer Online's public quests. These are giant space battles that are ongoing with specific zone goals.

The game does a good job of encouraging appropriate behavior. Without grouping or even talking to other players, we naturally formed a fleet in one of these scenarios and worked our way toward our goals. The space combat is slow enough (in a good way) that people can see what's going on and stick together to take on targets.

On away missions, when solo, you just bring four Bridge Crew with you. When you're in a group of two, the group leader brings two bridge crew and the other partner brings one, along with their Captains. It continues as such all the way up to a five man group of Captains. The advantage of this system is that they don't have to scale the content, it's already balanced to five avatars, they just give those who group smarter teammates to play with, which makes levels a lot easier to get through.

[katmai]

Oh and for Beeb about Bridge Officers

At first, I felt detached from them. They are randomly generated physically when you activate them and have them join your crew. When you go to a Bridge Officer Requisition Officer or get one as a reward from a quest you only know what type they are and what skills they will have at each level. It lets you make an informed gameplay decision, but it doesn't tell you "who" they are.

Then I discovered the customization NPCs. It didn't fix all of my problems, but it did help a lot. I first changed all of their names. Then, I begin to fiddle with their uniforms, faces and bodies. The controls are exactly like the player creation, save a few decisions are locked. Unfortunately, gender reassignment and race changes were not in the cards at that point. Although, according to my inbox, race changes have been added. Nonetheless, it was enough.

Cryptic did a good job here, although I wish that they gave you the option to create them yourselves from scratch when they joined the crew, rather than auto-generating them and making you go fix them (with constraints) later. A random button could be there for those that don't care, but for me, that would be ideal.

[Ed Anger]

Needs more yeoman rape.

[Barrister]

Yeah I've been reading a bunch of stuff (especially at MMORPG) about the game, and am actually getting fairly jazzed about it.

[katmai]

Oh and just letting folks know, i'm getting the CE which comes with 3 10day guest passes, so if anyone wants to try out the game without buying the whole thing let me know.

[Tonitrus]

Unfortunately, gender reassignment and race changes were not in the cards at that point. Although, according to my inbox, race changes have been added. Nonetheless, it was enough.

Deal's off.

Don't want too many dicks on the dance floor.

[Tamas]

Oh and just letting folks know, i'm getting the CE which comes with 3 10day guest passes, so if anyone wants to try out the game without buying the whole thing let me know.

1 please!

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Oh and just letting folks know, i'm getting the CE which comes with 3 10day guest passes, so if anyone wants to try out the game without buying the whole thing let me know.

that would be most handy...
but only if there's no way to get into the open beta other than via pre-ordering.

[Berkut]

Oh and just letting folks know, i'm getting the CE which comes with 3 10day guest passes, so if anyone wants to try out the game without buying the whole thing let me know.

I would love one kat.