Has this game gotten better since launch?

[SlashPatriarchy]

hey, i remember when this game was first released it got fairly bad reviews. however, ive heard that the game has improved a lot since launch and that customization in this game is amazing. simply put, is this game worth playing?

[Avocado Kai]

Since three years ago? Its complete different after the retooling of skills. Tons of new ships have appeared. Good unless you hate seeing ships brought from the past and into the present. A bunch of new content since then and the next big one coming in May.

[Undaunted]

Yes, it's amazingly fun if you're a fan of Star Trek, and the space combat is A++

[oddeyeoval]

Yes, the community has been awesome, and fleets have been improved as well.

[Captain Trump]

It's really awesome, I have 488 hours and many more to come

[Madmatt88]

I agree it is good in the storyline aspect, while still having issues in gameplay...

[6Taylor4]

please see my post: Is this a different game?

[C6Tom]

This is quite simply the best mmo ever made nuff said I mean you can have spock talk to you

[Zalzany]

Its the best F2P around, even with the new grindy updates. Every penny I spent I felt it was becuase I was simply lazy, felt 100% optional to me.

As far as diffrent goes, they changed Klingons around and added tons of new content. Klingons still are lacking from lvl 20 (there new starting level) up to max, but once you hit max level the ships feel entirely unique compared to the FED stuff.

[SlashPatriarchy]

Първоначално публикувано от Undaunted:

Yes, it's amazingly fun if you're a fan of Star Trek, and the space combat is A++

What if you aren't a Star Trek fan. If you're simply a fan of Sci-Fi but your only familiarity with the series is the J.J. Abrams movie, "Star Trek: The Search For Lense Flare," is the gameplay and story enough to keep you coming back for the hundreds of hours mmorpgs generally require?

[Templehoff]

It is simply awsome! If you like sci-fi or star trek universe you can't stop playing.
It changed much but it is the best F2P MMO out there!

[Szeron]

Първоначално публикувано от SlashPatriarchy:

-snip-

What if you aren't a Star Trek fan. If you're simply a fan of Sci-Fi but your only familiarity with the series is the J.J. Abrams movie, "Star Trek: The Search For Lense Flare," is the gameplay and story enough to keep you coming back for the hundreds of hours mmorpgs generally require?

Actually, there is a storyline that explains what caused the hobus supernova that destroyed Romulus.

Even if you're not a fan of the IP, the gameplay is solid enough to stand on its own. There is simply nothing out on the market that strikes such a nice middle ground between fun space combat without becoming completely encumbered by the depth(like, say, EVE Online). Closest thing would be the old Starfleet Command games, but STO's space combat is very much an evolution beyond that.

For the un-initiated, different weapons have different arcs they can fire in and some weapons can only be mounted in the front('dual' weapons, etc.) or back(mines) of your ship. You have different shield facings that can be worn down independently.. and you can route power between them. There's also a plethora of ship abilities through your bridge officers that will allow you to do everything from firing laser beams in all directions to opening gravity wells to trap hostiles. There's plenty to learn, but the game does a really good job of not cramming everything down your throat at once - while also not restricting you.

Outside of space combat... ground combat.. is a bit crude when it comes to responsiveness.. but has a lot of advanced features like being able to play it as a pseudo-fire person shooter, the ability to dodge to avoid damage, crouching to reduce ranged damage in exchange for taking more melee damage, aiming to do more damage, but move slower, etc.

There is also a rather addictive Duty Officer system where you can manage a crew of duty officers, build them up and send them on various missions. It really helps to add to the sense of being a captain of a ship instead of just a lone hero with some tag-along bridge officers.

The Federation story is quite well developed and has some interesting twists at times. The Klingon storylines, sadly, are still fairly basic in comparison(which echos the state of the entire faction). There is also a very active foundry community that creates custom/player-created missions and storylines. There are some real gems to be found amid the sea of 'grinder' missions.

[6Taylor4]

Szeron, if you don't work for STO, you should. Very concise summary. This is the best Space Combat game. Your point of not everything at once is very important, as I just got after 200 hours of play, the ability to target a sub-system; because it took that long, I know where and when to use it. I also just got Bording Party! How cool is that? You launch a shuttle, and it can get through and disable sub-systems; very nice.
However the ground combat is not crude, it is horrible. As a veteran of many FPS, the best is Borderlands 2 and STO is in the last few steps of any list. I could list all the things bad and wrong and illogical about it, but fortunately the combats are usually brief and victorious, they just aren't any fun. My overwhelming criticism of ground combat is the respawn distance - what possible purpose is served by coming back so far away? You have ZERO choices, you have to go back, so why the stupid, useless runback? It is no deturrent to shoot/die/respawn/shoot til you die/etc. as you have nowhere else to go, no alternate choices.
Space combat when I began was a two fingered deal, turning and alternately climbing and diving while circling the enemy; boring; but it got better and keeps getting better, I really enjoy flying into an unknown system and being set on by a half dozen Klingons and emerging victorious; great fun!

[5n4k3d0cToR]

Having just recently returned to STO (was originally in ALpha & Beta) after about 1.5 year break, I can honestly say that this is one of the best casual MMORPG's on the market, with a great f2p model that other titles can learn from (cough...SWTOR...cough). As for replay value-it's similar to other MMO titles.

[Saturn]

In reality you don't even have to read the "quests" (called Episodes in STO) and it's fairly easy to get through most of them until you are the max level. I've introduced this game to some Science Fiction fans who haven't seen (and some who even disliked) star trek before, and they felt the space combat was superb and not over complicated. The game isn't super new-player friendly as I still find max level players (VA rank) to think that being an 'Engineer' should mean playing in an Engineering Ship (Cruiser). It is new player friendly in the sense that the game is fairly easy and a "single player MMO" meaning you can complete all of the missions by yourself (episode wise, unless there are some I am not aware of that require 2+ people). There are some interesting looking ships for a general science fiction. Star Trek ships end up looking somewhat plain, but the KDF (Klingons) end up having some very interesting ship designs. The true fault of this game is PvP and end-game PvE. PvP can be fun amongst friends or Fleet/Guild members, but doesn't feel right when doing a Queue (However I believe the newest update is revamping this). PvE on the other hand is simply limited by how much content there is. For "Space" (as space and ground are seperated in Queues (Queues are when you join a battle and wait for a 'full team' to play with)) there are 3 "Normal STF" (an STF is comparable to a Instance/Dungeon/Raid in most MMO's) and 4 "Elite STF" (Elite is a harder version of the normal) and you can also do what are called Fleet Actions. STF's give you repuation marks and Fleet Actions give you fleet marks. These are a some-what slow process (depending on how often you play) to get new gear and items ect (and help out your Fleet, which is a guild, if you are getting Fleet Marks). Now having said all that, I do love Star Trek and knowing the show makes some of the moments much more important to the gameplay for a fan, but would not take away from someone who wasn't familiar with the show. If you can stand getting to max level then the amount of content for max level will not bother you for a long, long time (While my steam only has 100 hours in it, my non-steam account had 400+ easily, and so playing the same missions/STF's over and over become more boring than it originally was (the magic was gone, I suppose)) As far as Free To Play content there is both a lot, and little. When I say this I mean they do not often expand upon the Free part. They do give away pretty sweet ships during events, and that's seriously awesome (still have the original Oddy and KDF equivilant) but when updates come they often implement things that are nifty for free players but as far as I've seen they haven't implemented a new way to get "Free" ships. You can earn up Fleet Marks and get Fleet ships (which are actually upgraded versions of other ships) but you can also "Farm" Dilithium (a STO currency) and trade it for Zen Points AKA real $$$ points and buy any fancy ship you want. As far as "Pay To Win" the game doesn't do that so much in the sense that "payed" ships usually get only a few special things about them, like a "console" that has a ability linked to that ship that typically doesn't break balance. Since you get to choose from 1 of 3 ships every 10 levels (to get for free) this makes playing to the max level a lot more worth it. At level 50 (VA rank) you can choose from 6 ships (2 of each type IE a fast attack ship, a large battleship or a science ship) This is worth a shot for a Sci-Fi fan, because even if the Federation side bores you then you can make a Klingon (KDF) character, or just go explore the universe if you want.

[6Taylor4]

I find it illogical (as a Vulcan) that the ships are one of the few things you can't trade/sell. Strange. At my current level I would trade in all 10 of my current ships to get one of those big boys that can outlast repeated attacks; I've attacked ships that I've pounded with what I thought were kick-ass dual polaron cannons/tachyon dual cannons, Quantum torps, etc. and they just sit there and laugh; then tractor me in and have lunch. I've gone through 10 shield boosters in one battle, and still had to call in Starfleet to help finish them off.
After all, what good are the stupid little piss-ships you get in the beginning? Do you ever say to yourself, boy this mission is perfect for my little old two gun lt. cruiser! No. You always take the fastest, meanest, most consoled version you have in stock. So why even keep the old ones? Hell I'd even scuttle them just to get the births, which I don't want to pay for!