Anyone been following this one? Anyone know if it will be worth picking up?
From what I have read the combat system might be interesting and it wont be subscription based so those are pluses but it is going to have quest hubs and after Guild Wars 2, I dont think I will enjoy that very much.
My workmates were trying to get into the beta yesterday. I was laughing at their futile attempts to connect to the servers all night. :lol:
I have beta invite laying around here somewhere.
I played for a few hours last night and will probably be playing it quite a bit as my GW2 guildies have moved over to it for now.
It is in a completely free open beta so you don't need any keys or spend any money to try it out.
Interesting. The fact that folks are migrating to it from GW 2 says a lot.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 01, 2013, 05:50:45 PM
Interesting. The fact that folks are migrating to it from GW 2 says a lot.
We had done almost everything there was to do in GW2 except make a Legendary Weapon.
Leveled multiple charcaters to 80 (3 for myself), decked them all out in specific Exotics, ran every dungeon too many times. We were getting bored of GW2 and looking for something else.
So far in my ~6 hours in Neverwinter so far, I prefer the gameplay of GW2, but will be sticking with NW for a while. Most of the people I play with seem to like NW more. It's definitely worth a look. The queues were fixed too, no waiting at all today.
EDIT: In the 8 months GW2 has been out I have about 850 hours into it. :blush: And that is with a 2 month break from December and January. The people I play with had similar number of hours or more.
Quote from: sbr on May 01, 2013, 08:03:49 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 01, 2013, 05:50:45 PM
Interesting. The fact that folks are migrating to it from GW 2 says a lot.
We had done almost everything there was to do in GW2 except make a Legendary Weapon.
Leveled multiple charcaters to 80 (3 for myself), decked them all out in specific Exotics, ran every dungeon too many times. We were getting bored of GW2 and looking for something else.
So far in my ~6 hours in Neverwinter so far, I prefer the gameplay of GW2, but will be sticking with NW for a while. Most of the people I play with seem to like NW more. It's definitely worth a look. The queues were fixed too, no waiting at all today.
EDIT: In the 8 months GW2 has been out I have about 850 hours into it. :blush: And that is with a 2 month break from December and January. The people I play with had similar number of hours or more.
Good grief, that's a serious part-time job in playing just the one computer game.
Neverwinter or Elder Scrolls Online seem just like your run of the mill MMOs: lvl up - gear up - run dungeons until your drop then move on to some other run of the mill MMO... *sigh*
Can't they make a game where you *don't* have to fidget to kill as many mobs as possible? I love traveling through GW2's world - it's so gorgeous - but once you're 80 - you're expected to run dungeons and nothing else.
I want to be a merchant, a builder, an architect - in an living world like an MMO. Nothing save Uncharted Waters Online offers anything resembling this.
G.
Quote from: Grallon on May 01, 2013, 08:41:08 PM
I want to be a merchant, a builder, an architect - in an living world like an MMO. Nothing save Uncharted Waters Online offers anything resembling this.
G.
Yeah, that would be interesting. I think Paradox has tried to do something like this with Salem.
Quote from: Grallon on May 01, 2013, 08:41:08 PM
I want to be a merchant, a builder, an architect - in an living world like an MMO.
G.
Doesn't maximize shareholder value. Stop being so selfish.
So far I'm unimpressed. The graphics are not good at all. Enemies just stand there until you get right up next to them. At least have them move around a little. It's difficult (if not impossible) to move except in a straight line while doing anything else (looking at inventory or skills). The questing "on the rails" seems seriously old school after Guild Wars 2. There's a visceral fun in that you get to kill many more enemies in a given time period than GW 2, but that thrill wears off after a while (and is better delivered by Diablo type games).
Do I remember correctly that there'll be tools for players to create their own quests? That was one of the few things that gave Star Trek Online longevity, and some of the user created stories were pretty good.
Yeah they call it the foundry, same name as STO has it. (which is owned by same company)
Quote from: frunk on May 01, 2013, 09:47:29 PM
So far I'm unimpressed. The graphics are not good at all. Enemies just stand there until you get right up next to them. At least have them move around a little. It's difficult (if not impossible) to move except in a straight line while doing anything else (looking at inventory or skills). The questing "on the rails" seems seriously old school after Guild Wars 2. There's a visceral fun in that you get to kill many more enemies in a given time period than GW 2, but that thrill wears off after a while (and is better delivered by Diablo type games).
I can't disagree with any of that.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/01/impressions-neverwinter/
QuoteI don't entirely know how to justify why I'm enjoying Neverwinter quite so much. Why I've found excuses to play it nearly the entire weekend, stay up late playing it this week, and even get annoyed that they were doing server maintenance at 8am when I tried to sneak in half an hour before starting work. There's no question that it's very good – it's a superbly made MMO, predictable ongoing server teething problems on launch aside (I'll get to those at the end). It's enormous, jam-packed with so very much to do, extremely approachable, but elaborately complicated if you want it to be. I suppose its biggest crime is to be traditional in its structure, and it turns out that was exactly what I was looking for.
As someone who far prefers to solo MMOs, Neverwinter is gamely supporting my misanthropic ways, while allowing all the more sociable people around me to engage in D&D-style groups of five. With its companions, excellent scaling, and generously capable individual classes (although I hear concerns about Great Weapon Fighter), I'm having a whale of a time bumbling my way through its quests, grouped into separate stories with beginnings, middles and ends. I've even... I've even grouped with strangers to complete 45 minute dungeons. What is becoming of me?!
The structure is as traditional as it gets. You arrive at Neverwinter according to the origin you picked, and then are very quickly meeting Captain Rhix who gives you your first couple of quests. Head on out to the places he sends you and you'll meet a clutch of other quest givers for that area, hoover up the chains they offer you, collect your XP and winnings, and then back to Rhix to be sent off in the next direction. It never feels quite that mechanical – your progress nicely organic, and the carrot dispensing machine attached to the top of your head feeds them to you just often enough to keep you satisfied but with room for more.
The quests are very obviously bulked out with "Kill 10 of those", but these are generally put in areas you'll be crossing anyway to get to a more significant dungeon quest, something to do along the way. They're still a pain in the bum when you're left scouting around for that one last Skellington Commander to ding things and head back, and the other players keep getting to them first – but that's rarely been a big obstacle for me. And while the dungeons rarely offer more than killing lots of mobs on the way to killing a big boss, they tend to be nicely involved, with hidden secrets, buckets of loot, and lore to discover.
The voice acting is rather dubious. Rhix seems to have about three different voices, leaping between them every other sentence, none particularly well delivered. And most others are. clearly. reading. from. the. script. During the beta weekends I had assumed they were placeholders, but now it's live to all I'm a touch disappointed to still hear many of them left in. It's quite a relief that the hilariously bad tutorial voiceover disappears almost instantly, as that one felt like a parody.
The writing is also fairly uninspired. None is bad, certainly, but sitting all the way through a mission's description is pretty unlikely. While a lot of that is because of the D&D setting, Avellone showed in Neverwinter Nights 2 that's not something that necessarily prevents fun or surprise. Here I've yet to encounter either. And while that may seem a strange thing to criticise an MMO for – hardly a genre famed for its compelling storytelling – when you've got the Forgotten Realms license that BioWare has defined in gaming, there are expectations in place. It's never knuckle-chewing, or really anything below average, but average it is when it comes to explaining its motivations.
Combat is much more interesting, thank goodness. Far closer to offline action RPG, as MMOs finally seem to be now achieving, despite the way it limits how many powers you can have accessible at any time, there's a good degree of variation. My Trickster Rogue can mix up the rapid stabby standard attacks with some pleasingly powerful cool-down effects, and most importantly further complicate matters by occasionally being invisible. It's been interesting to learn the most effective methods of stringing all these together, and each time I've mastered it (read: got bored of it) it's offered me a new skill to put in there.
The levelling is decent too, and that's pretty crucial for holding my interest in an MMO. I want a sense of progress, but I don't want it to feel meaningless. The very experienced Cryptic have this entirely sussed, and the pacing is pin-point. There's also far more choice about your abilities as you level up than has been the trend in some MMOs of late. It's nothing like the variation of The Secret World, but by around level 20 you've got an interesting pool to pick from, and indeed to have individually levelled with your favour. Actual stat changes are very rare – every 10 levels I believe – and very limited, as of course they should be for the license. But there's enough else going on for you to twiddle with to not let that make you feel held back.
But what about the begging? It's a free-to-play MMO, so there's got to be some, right? Well, really, no. While the game has the most ridiculously complicated muddle of financial systems (there are at least six different currencies in there, each used for different things, and bemusingly overlapping), but only one of them is a direct conversion of your actual real life cash. That's Zen, and it's not used for a great deal.
By far the most tempting reason to put some money in are the special dropped boxes. These Nightmare Lockboxes occasionally appear when you down an enemy, but can only be unlocked for a Zen payment. They work out to about £1.30 each, although that's all obfuscated by buying Zen in Euro, and then spending it in silly arbitrary amounts like 125 at a time. And they can contain anything, from a decent chunk of loot, to an epic rare mount. They are, essentially, a gamble. But when they're in your inventory, and you know they might have something amazing inside, the temptation is strong.
However, because of the elaborately confusing currency collection, you can't make Zen too easily in the game. It's never dropped, rewarded, or exchanged for in-game goods. If you sell items to the regular storekeepers, you'll get paid in the basic copper/silver/gold currency, used to buy basic goods, weapons, armour and mounts. But if you sell something in the auction house, you get paid in Astral Diamonds. These, also received by worshipping your chosen deity, can be spent via different shopkeepers for more specialist items, as well as the gems for augmenting equipment. But they're also used to speed things up, like companion training, or the Profession doings. (Like I said, it gets complicated if you let it.)
Why an in-game currency is used to expedite such deliberately irritating waits, and not Zen, is peculiar. But welcome! You can generate Astral Diamonds for yourself, so if you don't want to wait for your companion characters to take half an hour to train up a level, you're still not spending real-world cash to have them join you straight away.
There is a crossover, however. Merchants at the auction house (which oddly isn't a house at all, but open air) allow players to buy and sell Zen and Astral Diamonds from each other. It'll be very interesting to see how those exchange rates play out.
And that's not even mentioning the Seals, the weird bar things, and the coins given by gods. I've yet to fathom them all.
What I think really stands out as a shame about Neverwinter at this point is how many of the far-too familiar traits of MMOs have been put in here. The horribly complicated chat system, with eighty-million channels of noise and a muddle to clear it up, or choose which you're talking in. And not being able to cut and paste into it is ridiculous. There's the usual issues with windows popping up in stupid places, and not remembering where you put them, the idiocy of not being able to see your character screen when in a shop, unnecessarily slow character movement, and mounts only adding small incremental changes to this... (Oh, and last night's attempt to set up a guild hit another of its stupid walls. After first being told I needed a party of 5 to form one, once I'd gathered that it then revealed that the entire party had to be level 15+, or a Founder, or have spent Zen – thanks, game.) Its traditional ways are some of its biggest strengths, but also some of its primary irritations.
But none are enough to put me off wanting to play the entire time. I'll be level 30 soon! Something might happen at that point! And if it doesn't, something might at 35! Indeed, I'm hooked in the mouth and through the cheek – but critically, apart from a nosey peak at what those epic chests might contain, I've not felt any inclination nor expectation to spend a dime.
And I haven't even mentioned the Foundry! This is where any player, once they've reached level 15, can start generating content of their own. A single dungeon or an entire chain of quests, this allows the game to become infinitely big, with the means by which they're offered to you allowing the cream to rise to the surface. Clearly it's not so hot just yet, but as the carefully created projects start appearing, Neverwinter could become incredibly special for this alone.
Since it's free, and since it offers quite so much for that low, low price, I cannot think of any reason not to recommend it. But I am quite tempted to suggest waiting a few days before you do.
I have written this entire article while waiting in a queue to start playing this afternoon – a line that began at over 10,000 and has very slowly fallen, although occasionally leaping up to a terrifying 195,435. Clearly a bug, but still. They obviously desperately need to add some more servers to their three shards and significantly increase initial capacity, and they need to do it very quickly. This is a very transient market, and if people hit a wall with a free game, they'll bounce off and find the next one since they invested nothing in that failure. It's pretty dismal that this is happening, and it's an enormous shame that it may put people off a genuinely great MMO.
So indeed, there's still no RPS Guild. I'll post and tweet as soon as it's sorted.
Odd that review doesn't make it sound very good or superbly made.
Which I guess why he says in the first paragraph he isn't quite sure why he enjoys it as much as he did.
Though I don't blame him. I'm similar. "Oh, a new MMO! I'm having fun!" => Week/month later: "Well, this is boring now, let's move on."
The combat seems a bit too much like an old school arcade game - it seems combat boils down to targeting an enemy with your sights and clicking - a lot. Also running from quest to quest on a linear line is boring after playing GW2. Simply have to pick up quests before doing anything meaningful seems like a huge step back now. Still in the early game so I am not sure if all of it is like this. But if it is I would get bored very quickly.
Lastly there is no real challenge to this game. I keep getting health potion drops but I have yet to have any need to use them. Come to think of it the concept of health potions and not instantly healing after battles is a bit odd after playing GW2.
Anybody else find it weird that you stand in a fire to get healed? At first I thought I was taking damage with those numbers popping up.
so it turns out characters are not going to be wiped when the game is formally launched. This is more like an early open soft launch for people willing to put up with the early problems all MMOs go through with servers etc.
This is starting to grow on me a bit. Only played a few hours and I am only up to level 10 but once you get used to the combat movement and the double tap/shift keys to avoid attacks/kite it starts to bet more fun. Also I was doing too much clicking. You can hold down the attack button. Unless you want to move - then it gets more involved.
I, of course, rolled a cleric, and after reading through the posts on how the healing mechanics work I think this could be fun (ie no fixating on health bars in this game).
Also, a word about generation your beginning stats - this isnt like DnD where only a couple really matter. All stats are going to be beneficial to you in some way regardless of your class. A stat of 10 is no bonus. Anything below gives negatives. anything above gives a bonus. The bonuses and penalties are a multiple of the amount over (or below) 10.
So when you are rolling stats keep in mind that having a 20 in one stat may not be worth it if it costs you penalties in other stats.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 02, 2013, 08:53:56 AM
I keep getting health potion drops but I have yet to have any need to use them.
You obviously didn't pick Great Weapon Fighter. :P
As for my general opinion, I agree with pretty much all said (especially the first paragraph of the RPS review).
I can also point at the one thing that will kill this for me: €6 to respec your char.
Quote from: Iormlund on May 06, 2013, 02:01:44 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 02, 2013, 08:53:56 AM
I keep getting health potion drops but I have yet to have any need to use them.
You obviously didn't pick Great Weapon Fighter. :P
As for my general opinion, I agree with pretty much all said (especially the first paragraph of the RPS review).
I can also point at the one thing that will kill this for me: €6 to respec your char.
Yeah, I read the forums and stayed well away from that.
So far I have played a cleric, wizard and Guardian Fighter to 11-14.
The Cleric is a bit uninspiring. The healing is all hot (its impossible to actually target the guy who needs a direct healing spell). As a result healing in this game is in the background rather than the "oh my god you just saved me" sort of reaction in other games. On top of that the dps is week. So, like the bad old days of WoW (before dual specs) the healer is hard to kill but takes for ever to kills stuff.
The wizard is a hoot but it takes a while to get the game play down. Lots of cast, teleport, cast, teleport and making sure you are teleporting in the right direction. But dps is high and the controlling spells in pvp are a lot of fun (until a rogue targets you and then its not so fun...)
The Guardian Fighter can do some good dps and cleave is a great tool for aoe clearing of trash. Pvp was fun too. Putting up block while a rogue burns all his encounter skills on you and then killing him at leisure is fun. So is putting up block to guard the team members behind from range attacks while they burn down their targets. Less mobility and control then the rogue and wizard but with a little situational awarness this class can make all the difference in pvp battles. There is a lot of qq on the forums about people not being able to maintain aggro as a tank. I think that is mainly because they dont understand how marking works. In this system aggro is not generated for tanks by attacking - but rather defending and allowing their marks to tick away. Tanks cant out dps wizards and rogues so if they try to build aggro doing that it is a losing proposition.
There is a lot to do in this game other than grind out quests (my least favourite part of the game). You could level just by doing skirmishes (special instanced quick dungeons), adventures written by other players accessable through the Foundry and running regular dungeons.
It also looks like you go do most everything you would want without having to pay a dime. I paid 5 bucks to get my third character slot. Other than that I didnt feel the need to pay for any of the other perks.
I would gladly pay for more character slots. I've got all 5 Diablo III classes at 60 and had like 6 classes at 85 in WoW. I'm an altoholic.
I don't mind the Cleric style in principle. I loved my smiting priest in WoW. The complexity of juggling damage and healing, all those CDs and buffs really kept me from getting bored as it happened with the shaman.
I've set aside my GWF for now. I ran the Mad Dragon dungeon with a pug last evening with disastrous results (lots of fun for me but people don't like to wipe). So I'll be waiting for my mates to reach level 30+ to try again with them. The class itself is beginning to grow on me. My only gripe now is that I can't get out of crap in time because I'm often stuck in a seemingly never-ending animation (plus maybe high latency). This really hurt with all the Magi in the Dragon.
Meanwhile I've created a tank as well. It's much better than GWF in everything. More DPS, faster questing, blocking overrides at-will animation and to top it off it is ridiculously fun in PvP as you point out.
I would really like to try the vaguely worded Tactician capstone feat (Martial Mastery). Alas, with ZEN respecs I'll probably go with a tried and tested DPS/PvP build and move on when I get tired.
Things I've liked so far:
Professions (crafting) is more fun than in GW2. I like that I put my hirelings to working making things (or guarding things with the mercenary) and I get stuff after a while.
Zen (the real money currency) is purchaseable with in-game currency. Just like in GW2 you can buy the real money stuff with money or effort, or a combination of the two.
The player community is coming up with some fun adventures with the Foundry. I've been disappointed by GW2's post release content, but something like this breathes a lot of life into a game.
Things I haven't liked:
Not being able to change movement direction (or react in combat) when inventory or character browsing is thoroughly annoying and isn't getting less so. Particularly since...
There's a lot of walking. I haven't found a way to teleport unless you buy/have scrolls, but managing that is so much more troublesome than just popping up the map and jumping/paying where you want to go (ala GW2).
Attack skills seem to root you while you use them, which is another letdown after GW2's fluid combat.
Both this and GW2 have a blizzard of currencies, half of which appear to be pointless or at best a needless complication. Neverwinter lets you track them all in a single screen, but that doesn't make it any less of a pain. They should be kept to a manageable and clearly understandable set:
Real Money (Gems in GW2, Zen in Neverwinter)
In Game Cash (Gold/Silver/Copper in both, Astral Diamonds in Neverwinter)
Experience (Same in both)
Non-Transferable "Achievement" awards (Karma, Laurels, Glory, Skill points, Achievements in GW2, Glory, Seal of the Drake, Celestial Coins and many others in Neverwinter)
I'd really rather not have this ridiculous number of non-transferable award currencies running around. Maybe one for PvE, one for PvP and that should be it. They are effectively saying they don't trust the market mechanisms for certain key aspects of the game, and want to wall them up into their individual areas. Fine, but don't subdivide it into a bunch of confusing and messy different currencies.
Quote from: frunk on May 06, 2013, 03:02:43 PM
Attack skills seem to root you while you use them, which is another letdown after GW2's fluid combat.
That is the biggest issue for me playing a wizard but the mechanic is different with guardian fighters who can move while blocking and attacking (although at a slower rate).
I think the Neverwinter economy has the same mistake that GW 2 has. Earlier this year GW 2 added laurels. They let you get the best equipment by doing dailies and instantly made it one of the most important currencies in the game. Neverwinter has Astral Diamonds, which is generally the most flexible and valuable currency in the game. This is primarily earned by doing dailies, having your professions earn them or buying them with real money (Zen). So, I can get most of the daily maximum of that currency by running a few dailies and checking up on my professions.
I know both are meant to let casual players compete with the hardcore, but I think it's a mistake that arises from trying to limit access to the best possible equipment. I'd prefer if both went the GW 1 route, where max equipment was pretty easy to acquire, and what differentiated players was their builds (and what specific equipment they chose). That lets you experiment with the best, see what you like and switch to different builds relatively easily. Now, I'm not that interested in doing much other than the dailies and then logging out because extra effort isn't going to get me that much closer to the best unless I start spending real money. When I do earn enough I'll have to make permanent and irrevocable (at least until I earn enough to rebuy) decisions on my build.
Effectively the supposed casual friendly system actually makes it that much more hardcore.
I agree completely. The number one thing that turned me off this game is the realization that I would have to grind dailies to get good equipment. As you quite rightly pointed out, this does not appeal to casaul gamers like me but rather it appeals most to the people that can spend hours a day grinding out the rewards - and still play the rest of the game.
As a casual player, I would rather just play through the game.
I have mostly lost interest in the game too, which sucks because my friends are still playing it and liking it.
I'm not too concerned with grinding for best gear, I just really wanted to hit 60 so I could play with my friends, most f whom are already there. I just can't seem to get past level 38 though.
And I bought Skyrim and played that all weekend instead of NWO.
I am not sure about all this completition talk. Why on earth would you want to PvP this game? There are countless PvP-focused options out there.
For PVE? What kind of competition is there? You don't need blue and purple itesm to defeat the mobs.
The PVP us actually pretty fun, 2 of my friends have leveled almost the entire way to 60 only doing PvP.
Outside of the limited number of maps (like 2), game modes, and the fact that cash store mounts and enchantments can be used in PvP.
Quote from: Tamas on May 13, 2013, 02:36:01 PM
For PVE? What kind of competition is there? You don't need blue and purple itesm to defeat the mobs.
I'm not talking about PvP, I'm talking about the eventual endgame PvE where you might want to experiment with different builds with the best possible equipment. You won't be able to do that cheaply.
The Astral Diamonds in Neverwinter are used for not just the top level items, but all items bought on the trading post and can be converted to Zen to buy the real money stuff. Effectively it is the most useful and important currency in the game, and the easiest way to collect it without paying cash is to do the dailies and manage your professions. All the other adventuring stuff is nice and fun, but it doesn't do much for your in game wealth accumulation.
Quote from: Tamas on May 13, 2013, 02:36:01 PM
For PVE? What kind of competition is there? You don't need blue and purple itesm to defeat the mobs.
Apparently all you need at end game are two clerics dropping Astral Shield.
It is basically STO in D&D skins, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
What I liked about STO is the ability to earn XP and rewards while I was sleeping or at work and Neverwinter allows you to do the same. I love the crafting system.
The gameplay is meh. I did roll a GWF, but haven't experienced many of the issues people are complaining about on the NW forums. I just followed one of the DPS build guides and am an AoE machine. As several have mentioned, it is annoying not being able to move with your inventory opened.
I started playing after reading about it on RPS (playing on Dragon in the RPS guild). I enjoyed STO, and this is basically the same game. I am only lvl 30 and am still enjoying it. That might change come 60 and run out of things to do.
I gave up on STO within a few weeks. I gave up sooner with this game.
STO is much better than the mess they released it as, only played NW one night as it didn't capture me at all.
I've stopped playing, wandered back to GW2 for a bit.
Quote from: katmai on May 15, 2013, 09:29:39 AM
STO is much better than the mess they released
I will give it another try when I get some time.
Quote from: frunk on May 15, 2013, 09:49:12 AM
I've stopped playing, wandered back to GW2 for a bit.
Me too. I am now trying to level a Necromancer only through WvW. I started at level 7 and am now level 19.5.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 15, 2013, 10:12:14 AM
Quote from: katmai on May 15, 2013, 09:29:39 AM
STO is much better than the mess they released
I will give it another try when I get some time.
It depends what you didn't like about the game. but yeah - it is improved. Much more stuff to do, few nifty new gameplays implemented.
Quote from: Barrister on May 15, 2013, 12:00:52 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 15, 2013, 10:12:14 AM
Quote from: katmai on May 15, 2013, 09:29:39 AM
STO is much better than the mess they released
I will give it another try when I get some time.
It depends what you didn't like about the game. but yeah - it is improved. Much more stuff to do, few nifty new gameplays implemented.
Did you try the open beta/test server stuff Beeb?
They are adding playable Klingon from lvl 1, vo for missions quest givers. And of course the Romulan faction with own quests from lvl 1-40.
Quote from: katmai on May 16, 2013, 08:05:34 AM
Quote from: Barrister on May 15, 2013, 12:00:52 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 15, 2013, 10:12:14 AM
Quote from: katmai on May 15, 2013, 09:29:39 AM
STO is much better than the mess they released
I will give it another try when I get some time.
It depends what you didn't like about the game. but yeah - it is improved. Much more stuff to do, few nifty new gameplays implemented.
Did you try the open beta/test server stuff Beeb?
They are adding playable Klingon from lvl 1, vo for missions quest givers. And of course the Romulan faction with own quests from lvl 1-40.
Nah - just waiting for it to go live.
I played through first 15 or so levels as wanted to see the 2nd ship you get. Stopped as didn't want to spoil the story as been fun so far.
Joined a fleet of like minded Romulan fans and learning the fleet/starbase aspect of game now.