Enjoyed this at launch, how is it now?

[Oppenheimer]

I did enjoy this game, however there were some things that really drove me off. One thing inparticular that I'm curious about, is if skill/stat selection is more descriptive. You could put points in these skills, but there really wasn't any description of how they affected anything. You were forced into researching online. Is this more refined now?

[Brigandine]

They revamped the skill system several years ago, got rid of a lot of poor performing, redundant abilities, and they done much better explaining what each skill does -- also what console/equipment/ship part affects what list of skills. It's much, much easier to understand now.

[Szeron]

The game has expanded several fold in just about every aspect since launch. PvP is probably in worse shape now, and Crafting has been neglected for quite a while(conjecture is that it is getting a revamp later this year with either season 9 or expansion 2).

There are some thing that are still a little under-explained, but there have been a lot of advancements with more interactive tutorials and more displayed information(item tooltips will even auto-update to display procs and other bonuses you get from other things).

Furthermore, there are well over 200 ships in the game now and Klingons are an actual faction - plus the addition of the Romulan sub-faction(who get their own stuff, but side with either the 'red or blue team'). Endgame has a lot more depth to it, but there's also a lot of time-gating with that progression - instead of it being pure luck based.

The transition to Free to Play has probably been the best in MMO history. The system is very generous, but are some borderline gambling additions(lockboxes) as a compromise. Financially, the game has gone from being in a place where it was about to be shut down.. to being profitable enough for them to expand the team, put out a full fledged expansion with a new faction and hire people like Michael Dorn(Worf) and Tim Russ(Tuvok) to come voice-act their characters in the game.

[Gimp_Gamer64]

They are talking about revamping the skill tree again:(

[Oppenheimer]

Dang Szeron that was quite informative, thanks!

[chieftempo]

Give Szeron a cookie, for that man deserves it.

[angel of derp]

There's still a ton of little stuff that's broken in KDF. Not being able to use a second outfit slot, not being able to modify uniforms on cross-faction BOFFs, no visible kits on KDF-side Romulans (while Fed KDF looks like they wear kits & such).

The same old "Hailing Frequency Breaks Cloak" bug is there, although now it affects the new Battle Cloak guys (LULZ Romulans).

It has come a long way, though.