Star Trek Online Open Beta Starts Today 309
Today Cryptic Studios will begin the open beta of Star Trek Online, opening their test servers to invitees and anyone who has pre-ordered the game. The beta will run through the 26th, and the game will officially launch on February 2nd; head-start players will be allowed in on January 29th. The game is set in the old universe (not the rebooted one from last year's movie), and takes place roughly 30 years after the events in Star Trek: Nemesis. There are two playable factions to start — the Federation and the Klingon Empire — and more may become available later on. There will be conflict between the two factions, but supposedly all PvP will be "optional and consensual." Players will be able to choose from a variety of ships, and they'll see cameos from familiar characters. Eurogamer has a hands-on preview of the game, and fans of the Trek universe will be pleased to hear that "Cryptic is clearly thinking about Star Trek first and MMO convention second." A number of gameplay trailers are available for viewing, and the official forums have a nice collection of facts.
My impression from a long time beta friend (Score:4, Informative)
is that IS Champion's Online with Star Trek star ships.
Away team missions comprise of find the shiny objects (like bombs)
Though he does like the star ship combat currently (I would not mind a B5 game like the older Star Trek simulator)
Open Beta Without Preorder (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A Quote from the "General Gameplay" FAQ (Score:4, Informative)
You can....
If you pre-order the special Digital Deluxe Edition (http://atari.com/games/startrek_online_digital_deluxe_ed/download) one of the bonus features is:
Exclusive “KHAAAN!” Emote (in-game item): An unforgettable moment from the second Star Trek Film. This exclusive emote allows players to relive Kirk’s unforgettable moment of fury, with the timeless cry “KHAAAN!”
Re:*Open* Beta? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My impression from a long time beta friend (Score:3, Informative)
Your friend would be right. The only thing they added to the engine for ship to ship combat is vector shields and power settings, but it's still Champions in Space.
Re:Open Beta Without Preorder (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Level based or skill based? (Score:4, Informative)
I only played this past weekend after I got a beta key, but I have to agree. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Star Trek MMORPG, if your expectations were entirely unambitious. The bridge officers change things up a little, but mostly in a cosmetic way. Gameplay is fundamentally unchanged from the model EQ and WoW set over the past decade. It's sadly typical MMO quest grind, and not half as polished as WoW. The interface, for example, is sluggish, poorly designed, and buggy.
Maybe if you're a big Star Trek fan, it'll still be fun. But if you've had your fill of typical MMOs that do nothing interesting with the whole massively multiplayer thing, I'd steer clear.
Re:Open Beta Without Preorder (Score:1, Informative)
I just registered with a spamgourmet mail address and grabbed a BETA key without having to pay anything or enter any details about myself.
The download is 7.7GB though and fileplanet is only giving me 55kB/s, so this may be a restriction for trying the beta without paying for a fileplanet subscription.
Re:Keep an open mind (Score:5, Informative)
- It has been in development for almost 5 years, the team is completely different than Champions
Yes and no. The game WAS in development since 2004, but by a different company who went bankrupt and kept the code.
Cryptic took over in 2008, without the code but with the license and art.
- Character animation looks pretty good to me, but what a minor thing to complain about. It'll get better over time too. I could personally care less if it uses ASCII graphics, as long as the gameplay is solid
The animations are terrible. Even Everquest animation was less ugly. The gameplay is certainly not good enough to make up for the graphics.
- Klingon faction is currently mostly PVP -- they want to add more content later. Big deal! In fact, some players will like this.
"more content later" is another way of saying "It's not done and may never be unless we maintain a certain level of subscriptions. Which they will not.
- There's a lot more going on than just tank / healer / etc. You can equip modules in any way you want to give your ship a versatile configuration. Seam with team members for away missions. It may not be the most revolutionary game around but, it does do something different. I for one look forward to trying out the strategic space combat.
In short, you can solo. But in a team you're still going to be in a cookie cutter configuration, just like everyone else. Nobody wants a funky ship or a furry speced warrior.
- It's only microtransaction in the same way that WoW is. You can buy items that don't really affect the gameplay. .
- Initial reviews and impressions are much more positive than with Cryptic's previous offerings.
Which isn't saying much really...
Who knows, maybe it will suck, maybe it won't. We don't know yet.
No. We don't know yet, but the outlook isn't all that good and the past products do not create much goodwill for the developer.
Re:Star Wars: The Old Republic (Score:3, Informative)
Star Wars: The Old Republic will crush this game. SW:ToR won't be out until October, but it will be the final nail in the coffin for this game.
I read last night that it's been delayed until Spring 2011.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Open Beta Without Preorder (Score:2, Informative)
Are you assuming or have you actually tried? I got my beta key just now using my free Fileplanet account. Maybe it's cos I've had the account for ages, I only ever use it to get freebies :)
Re:No thanks. (Score:3, Informative)
Has any MMO ever launched with the high end content in place?
WoW did, actually. Scholomance and UBRS were both 10-mans, and it had a large raid in the form of Molten Core. Not that I'm a big WoW fan anymore, but they had a strong launch.
Re:Awesome. (Score:1, Informative)
There will be conflict between the two factions, but supposedly all PvP will be "optional and consensual."
So it's a game for pussies? Thanks, I'll stick with Eve Online. Let me know when they grow some balls and make it reasonably realistic. If you want safety, park your ass in a station and go play WoW.
A Star Trek MMO deserves more than this.
My Beta Impressions (Score:5, Informative)
Your Character: You start off as a junior officer in the position of ship's captain. Your character can be Tactical (tank/dps), Engineering(utility) or Science(buff/heal), and this largely determines your ground combat role, but your space captaining is seperate. Standard races are included as packages for character look, but you can do all sorts of things to your appearance and I've seen some strange things/people in spacedock. You also can customize your uniform to a degree. XP are invested in skills, which give you powers.
Bridge Officers: BO's are pets on a planet, and powers in space. They level up and can be given specific training. You can get new BO's in the same way you can get gear, buy, mission reward and so on. Not all BO's have the same capabilities. They come in three general flavors, Tactical, Engineering, Science, with similar functions to the PC versions. In space, BO’s allow you to do special things with your ship, like fancy photon torpedo spreads and emergency power to shields. BO’s may be equipped with gear just like your main character.
Your Ship: You can customize your ship’s look a good deal. Depending on your preference you can have a Miranda from WoK, something more TNG, or mix and match because you really just like the way those particular nacelles look. There’s also gear for your ship. You can install that disruptor array on your Fed ship if you like.
Ground combat: It’s okay, but not great. However, if you’re ST fan the words “phaser rifles” will probably do it for you. The little phaser has a stun attack. Also, the default unarmed attack seems to be that palm-strike-to-nose thing.
Space Combat: It’s ship combat, not fighter combat. Firing arcs, weapon charge, shield regeneration. Battling a single comparable ship is not intended to be quick in this game. You’re intended to fight an enemy that will try to shelter it’s weak shields and you’re expected to do the same. Many fights are against more numerous small opponents (the Orions deploy fighters), and the management of your weapons and powers is where your time is spent. It’s not about movement, it’s about management. This appeals to me for ship combat of this type.
Quests: The training mission above is what it is, newb training. I never really felt like I was taking on the Borg, but rather like I was helping out after the fight, then joining the big ships to push them out.
The other missions seem much more like ST episodes. Travel to a system that's having a labor disptue as the Fed representative. Discover pirates in the system and clear them out. Beam down to resolve the differences. While the diplomatic options are too simplified and need serious work, I think they've done a good job of replicating the ST episode in game. Things begin "Stardate bla...we are escorting so and so to a Vulcan monastery..." and end with the ship warping out of system or the crew beaming off planet.
It feels like the game will have a story, with missions that are a part of it.
Kirk vs. Picard: Definitely more Kirk. Myabe you could call it “Enterprise-E Picard”. In the Sol area there are public quests that involve Klingon incursions, and I killed a whole lot of Klingons in that Vulcan monastery. Sure, you’re expected to talk to people. Angry Federation workers are an example of people to whom one is expected to be diplomatic. The pirates in orbit you’re expected to explode. It’s a post-Dominion War post-Wolf 359 Federation.
GOOD: It’s Star Trek. Travel around. Meet new folks. Talk to some. Blow up Klingons. Uncover strange anomalies. Meet the alien of the week (probably a PC). Beam in, beam out. Go to warp. Cue music. I also like the ship combat.
BAD: Load screens. Too many load screens. It’s a major failure of the game. Combat pacing and dynamism needs work, but the load screens are a much bigger hurdle. Also, t
Re:That makes sense (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Already a disappointment (Score:3, Informative)
EVE Online has an officially supported Mac client and unofficially supports running the Windows client through Wine (they distributed a Cedega-wrapped Linux client for a while, but it was actually lower quality than just using Wine and the Windows client, both of which are free downloads and don't place any extra cost on CCP).
I'm sure there's at least one other non-trivial MMO that has made an effort to be cross-platform, even if I can't think of one. EVE certainly wasn't at launch, and I think it was largely due to the fact that a section of the forums had already become unofficial support for people running the game via Wine that they released the non-Windows official client(s).