Startrek Online (Beta) The New World of Warcraft ? ;)

Hello Peeps,

I was lucky enough to get a key from www.fileplanet.com for the "Open Beta"
of Startrek Online... I didn't really wanna play because it was near my
bedtime... but I decided to play anyway... and I ended up playing about 11
hours non-stop... with a little ****ing and candysnack and lightbulb change
in between !

Yup... that's how addicting this game is at least the first 11 hours ! =D
I am having a pretty sweet time with this game...

I never played WoW because it doesn't interest.... but Startrek I like ! =D

And this game is pretty damn cool... it's not so much that is excels at one
particular point... It's just very very very good overal... it has a very
"social" and "connected" feeling to it...

It can truely be called "Startrek Online" and it truely deserve the name
"Startrek Online"...

This is as "Online" as it gets ! =D

I'll sum it up for you shortly:

1. Massive ammount of players/humans, and bot controlled people.
2. You can walk through starbase and planets and ships and pretty much
anything it seems. Lot's of stuff to do at starbase...
3. The game has team support, fleet support, e-mail support, friend invite
support, search engine for friends... the list goes on and on and on and
on...
4. It has loads of weaks and tweaks...
5. It has ranks...
6. It has ships ofcourse...
7. It has pretty good graphics though I am playing it a little bit lower
settings but it still looks good...
8. Working together is pretty cool and makes some missions more easy...
sometimes it really necessary to otherwise you ll be spending a lot of time
trying to blow those ships up and you might not even succeed with that...
because o-boy... did I already encountered strong ships out there ! Like
Klingon ships ! I look forward to flying big commander/admiral
ships... but I don't know if I will get to play it in the beta... ?!?
maybe/maybe not ?
10. There is a lot's of story going on in the game overal... each mission
has a little bit of story which is real nice... then you know what you're
doing... not too much story... and not too little... it's just right !

11. It has asteroids, it has nebula's, it has space bases, it has planets,
it has a sector map, it has lists of names for easy navigation... it has
auto follow which could be better for the characters but for space ships it
works...
12. It has energy distribution... like shields, weapons, engine, and so
forth...
13. It has reload indicators for the weapons... and special things... and
protons and what not ?!
14. It has collecteable items, and collectable weapons... which can be
used/mounted....
15. It has a sort of third person shooter element where also weapons can be
used/collected etc...
16. Soldiers can be revived/heal and so forth...
17. It has Klingons, it has all kinda of creatures... it has like a dog
creature like doom3 lol but a bit different... more cute
18. I also saw a sandstorm on a planet... it has sensors... it has plots...
it has mining stations, it has jamming devices.

And I only played with tactical so far... which was pretty cool... Other
classes seem to have mines and other stuff... but you must determine your
carrier up front... not sure if it's possible to gain some of those others
traits but maybe...
19. It has character customization.... but it does cost a bit of credits
which is kinda funny but I wish I could have at least colored my clothes for
free but ok It was very much fun coming across other weird looking
players and you ll be like hmmmm... interesting choice and such
20. I came across girls, which also seem to play this game amazing !
21. It has lot's of help information... and libraries and explanations...
22. It has tutorials to tell you how to do things...

It's pretty amazing how big this game is and how much effort has been put
into it ! =D

The result is pretty sweet ! =D

And probably accessible to everybody... I kinda wish their was a hardcode
startrek shooter element in it... but on the other hand... that would
probably ruin it for some folks... especially if annoying cheaters come by


Nope... Startrek is not about "hate" like call of duty 4... it's not about
cheating like godknows how many shooters... Startrek Online is just about
having LOTS OF FUN exploring the galaxy... alone or together with your
soon-to-be-online friends ! =D So the shooter element in it is very
modest... and simplistic sort of... almost childesh... but it's fun ! =D
Really fun... It's kinda fun like Dungeon Siege almost...
If you liked dungeon siege then you gonna like the shooter part in Startrek
Online as well It's less big ofcourse but it's there

This game does have a lot of loading screens... which is less nice... but
fortunately they load pretty fast... and once it's loaded usually you can
just go on and play... especially the shooter and the space combat
sections... especially the space combat sections go nice... the shooter
stuff sometimes has to load when it goes down an elevator... or turbo tube
or whatever it's called =D (No big deal though it's just a door ! )
Which is good I guess nice, simple and fast displacements without getting
lost of the bigger picture (Not like cod6 which is like totally
unrelated )

The game does have some little bugs here and there... mostly little gui
bugs... but they don't really get annoying... only problem is that they
sometimes overlay each other and can get a bit in the way or
cloudly/messy... but for me not really that much of a big deal... I do have
a big widescreen... but even on 800x600 it was playable... it seems to also
have gui scaling so that's nice...

The game did have some issue's with "alt-tabbing"... it would switch from
1920x1200 to 1600x1280 or something... I didn't like that... I hope they fix
that so I can decently alt-tab without having to switch resolution everytime


Overall the game seems pretty cool.

The more time they spent on it the better it will probably get... I would
consider it almost release ready... but if they push it a bit harder and
make it even more cooler and better they could have a very big winner on
their hands here !

So far I have only really seens "Humans" vs "AI/BOTS" combat... I hope to
see "Humans" vs "Humans" fights... and preferably very big fights ! They
actually have a "term/name/mechnisme for it, called: "fleets"
That could be cool in the future...

I hope they can keep this game interesting with new ships, new content, new
planets, new distarous maybe, new drama, new big fights... invasions...
stories... plots... whatever... that's what would be driving this game
I wonder if they can and will pull it off/do it ?! Ya never know

For me (let's pretend I buy games) I would feel risky about this... because
a massive roll playing game like this might someday just stop... I would
feel more secure with "what you see is what you get" then at least you know
what you get... but the promise is also there... but it just a promise so
far !

Do you believe in promises... do you believe in this company... that's what
a gamer will have to ask himself before he thinks about buying this game


It will be interesting to see how it turns out... I think this game has WoW
potential LOL...

But will Startrek get boring after a while... even for the most diehard fan
?!? I don't know... only time can tell

I know one thing for sure: "I am not done with the beta yet.... so I hope
they keep it running for now ! "

Bye,
Skybuck =D

The last mission of "patrol the orien sector" has a system/planet with many
asteroids around the planet... I/my spaceship "warp jumped" into the map...
and the spaceship got stuck right under an asteroid ! and I/my spaceship
could not manouver out of it... finally I decided to give the warp jump a
try... and it worked... it jumped out of it.

I reported the bug yesterday... but I forgot to mention it in my story...
yes at least one major bug found and reported ! It was kinda shitty
because I was in a team... and they had to go ahead and complete the mission
without me... and so then I reported the bug first... and scouted that
asteroid field... it was kinda intrigueing... because I saw something in
it... when I warped jumped into it... "alien artifacts"... somebody else
told me not to do that... stay with the team... by then we were only 2...
the others had completed it... one dude came back and was nice enough to
help me complete the last mission... it was an easy mission... I just had to
activate some sensors... at first I couldn't do it... because they already
did it I think... and there was a very heavy sand storm on the planet...

But then when I tried with the dude... and jumped in/out of the system...
the sand storm was gone... and we finished it... Before that we had lot's of
big fights in the other sectors of that 4-part mission ! cool !

So there ya... another little Startrek Online story for ya... just a little
one... about a bug, a sandstorm, an asteroid field, an alien artifacts and a
nice dude !

I also saw a blond blue woman on the starbase ! Very rememberable !
Maybe she was blue because of avatar ?! LOL. I also saw a blue guy... or
maybe the woman wasn't blue and I am just imaging it... but I bet there will
be lost of blue people walking around !

Bye,
Skybuck =D

After 6 days of playing I got bored with this game... thank god for that..
it eating up my life ! =D

It takes too long to level up... all I want is a big ship so I can be mister
big guy saving the day ! =D

Actually I was already saving the day thanks to big torpedo bonuses !

Maybe I will turn some video recordings into a youtube movie But then
again do I really want to be associated with "morphs" or whatever they
called "massive only multiplayer games" "momg" 's

WoW players are known to be losers ? LOL... like really big losers
!?!? LOL.

I haven't made up my mind yet... but if I put in big capital letters: BETA
movie... and "I DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME" then maybe it's ok lol

Movie was kinda exciting to watch... but just that one I guess... couple of
files... since avi's limited to 2 gb's...

Anyway here is my final recommendation:

Do not buy this game for two reasons:

1. It's too addictive for true startrek fans... though maybe after a few
days you might get bored.
2. There are still a shitload of bugs in there... looooooaddddsss of bugs.

Developers could make the game better by:

1. Making ships explode when they crash into asteroids or other ships.
2. Making ships get team damage from other players.
3. Making ships explode when they go to warp and crash into something.

Well at first these additions would seem and make the game annoying... I am
pretty sure that after a while, maybe even from the start for some players
it will be most amuzing... and fun... and it will make the game more
challenging...

So my advice would be:

For newbies these 3 points would be disabled... after a certain level these
points get enabled making the game more difficult and more challenging !

Also much more weapons need to be added... especially special effects
weapons...
The beams, phasers, and mines get pretty old pretty quickly

Also maybe the ground battles would be better if it was in first person
mode... again here the same could apply:

Newbies play in third person mode, better players play in first person mode
!

Bye,
Skybuck.

Also the respawning is kinda lame....

Players should pay a hefty price for losing their ship... like losing
everything or so... that would make game more funny... and players will be
more carefull to loose stuff...

Also I wished the game had more of a "big plan" for everybody... so
everybody needs to work together to survive... now everybody is just off to
single player missions... which is a bet strange in a multiplayer
universe...

Some secret special missions could be done for that... but now I just has
way too many single player missions...

Bye,
Skybuck.