Star Trek Online: Impressions From a WoW Player

Posted 2010/02/02 at 2:43 PM by TheOnyx

I didn't know many people playing any particular game.

I didn't know the game's lore.

it was requestedOverviewblog poststwo-partvideoFactionsfaction pageClasses

Engineering Officer: Tank. Engineering officers excel at taking a beating. They bring to the party abilities that increase shield or power output of a vessel as well as enabling themselves to take more damage when on a planet's surface.

Tactical Officer: Damage. Tactical officers excel at putting out more damage either by boosting ship weapon systems or by bringing additional damage abilities to the away team. Tactical officers also except at ranged and melee combat.

Science Officer: Healing/Support. On a ship, a science officer will have powers that buff allies, debuff enemies, or help recharge shields. In an away team, you'll see science officers with abilities that perform similar functions.

points outRacesVesselsTypes

Cruisers: Tank. Cruisers are large capital ships with huge crew compliments and large power cores. These vessels repair quickly and can take a beating.

Escorts: Damage. Escorts are maneuverable ships with large weapons loadouts that are capable of supporting more powerful weaponry than the other vessel types. Their crew complements are small and as such the ability for the crew on an escort ship to repair itself is not as good as that of a cruiser, but they are capable of dealing out much more punishment.

Science Vessels: Support. Science vessels typically have special equipment on board that allow them to buff teammates, debuff enemies, and help allies regenerate their shields. Their crew complement is of average size, thus allowing a moderate degree of self-repair. These vessels are also quite capable of dealing damage, although they're not going to out-gun the other vessel types with their standard loadout.

InteriorBridge Consoles & OfficersOfficer Type vs. Ship TypeCombatGroundSpaceLootDeathResource Nodes & CraftingCharacter AdvancementPvE

Read a wall of text.

Fly somewhere.

Fly near something.

Kill it or hit "F" to interact with it.

Fly near something else.

Beam down.

Walk near something.

Kill it or hit "F" to interact with it.

Beam up.

PvP

No PvP: As the name implies, these are areas devoid of PvP. These areas are dedicated toward PvE advancement.

Consensual PvP: Realm borders such as the neutral zone will be areas that behave like contested zones in PvE realms in WoW. If you're flagged for PvP, you can be attacked by anyone, which will flag them for PvP. These ares will have objectices wherein you will compete for territory and resources.

Open PvP: Unclaimed territory in the distant regions of space will allow anyone to attack anyone else.

PvP can occur between players of the same faction. I'm unsure if you can attack anyone who in is your fleet (guild), but as a Federation officer, you can certainly fire on another Federation vessel in you're in the right sector.

Via PvP, you can raise in rank from Lieutenant to Admiral without ever touching PvE content.

User InterfaceInfrastructure

Solo Maps: These are maps where no one else joins you. My ship was one such place I saw this method employed. You start your journey in the mess hall of your ship (to which you never travel again). Later on, you can walk round your bridge. The bridge serves as sort of a meeting place for your teamwhere things can be discussed privately (although you can do that from team chat as well). At the moment, the only other thing you can do from your bridge is return to the 'Space' view of the game. Beyond that, some of the quest systems have content that is designed to be soloed (although you can have friends join you as well).

Team Maps: Some quests lead you into star systems instanced as team maps (think of a team as a WoW party with the same player limit). If you have a full team, that team flies around and performs your various mission objectives. If you are short one or more players, STO's infrastructure will try to fill the remaining spots on your team with other players who are currently trying to achieve the same objectives. When this happens, it usually means you wouldn't be able to handle the mission objectives by yourself.

Fleet Maps: Areas like Earth Spacedock, the sector map (which is your 'warp' travel between systems), and certain other areas allow many more people to join. This is how they support cities as well as large battleground-type areas.

SummaryThe GoodThe BadWeakbadThe UglyFinal WordsstarscraftsFor More Information

Official site

ZAM's Star Trek Online info site

ZAM's Star Trek Online news coverage

BFF Report covers STO, Part 1 and Part 2

editorial review

Comment by CambinI played the beta as well and you hit the nail on the head. Having seeing Cryptic's past work (Champions Online/City of Heroes, which also felt very unpolished upon release and were slow to be updated); I don't doubt that STO will spin to it's doom. Fast money always wins in the big CEO eyes, thinking they can 'fix' the issues over time. Customers don't want to wait, look at all the failed MMORPG's in the past 2 years, there is a very common flaw; the game wasn't ready for release and felt like beta for far too long.

You know, a game that takes place among the stars and involves masterful expertise in related crafts.Comment by WasselinI want to play this game... but I'm afraid because I beta-tested and then played release version of Champions Online and it wasn't fun and in my opinion the game never really got more polished or any better. I really don't want to play reskinned Champions Online.

Also I want the rank of Ship's Counselor. Why can't their be a Freudian mini-game where I deal with my shipmates psychological problems!Comment by 166838This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by ShigyI'm really enjoying STO...already Lt Commander.Comment by 256661This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by 149668This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by 449907This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by OscarDivineDespite your general feelings of the game being unpolished, I would still love to try out this game. I am, however, quite disappointed that the system requirements are so high! I think I need to go buy myself another bigger HDD.Comment by MobusAh, very very very good review. It confirmed many of my fears about this game. I was highly disappointed to see the game's focus on war rather than the many other things that Star Trek was about. And I had not heard of the Federation - Klingon split - that put the last nail in the coffin of me ever playing this game. This is not Star Trek and I don't think I'll have a whole lot of fun playing this game. TY for saving me the $50 :D

That said, I also said "OMG Warcraft III ruined the entire Warcraft series and it is terrible compared to what is was with Warcraft II - I refuse to play WoW as it continues the crap that WC3 started!"

and look at me now x.x

So who knows =\Comment by InterestAh, very very very good review. It confirmed many of my fears about this game. I was highly disappointed to see the game's focus on war rather than the many other things that Star Trek was about. And I had not heard of the Federation - Klingon split - that put the last nail in the coffin of me ever playing this game. This is not Star Trek and I don't think I'll have a whole lot of fun playing this game. TY for saving me the $50 :D

That said, I also said "OMG Warcraft III ruined the entire Warcraft series and it is terrible compared to what is was with Warcraft II - I refuse to play WoW as it continues the crap that WC3 started!"

and look at me now x.x

So who knows =\