Reilly2040's Blog

When Star Trek Online came out, I first had a trial account (as I wasn’t sure if it’d run on my PC or not). Once that expired and I needed a full retail key, I went to Steam and looked at the options available. There I could get the game, or for an extra tenner, I could get a Digital Deluxe edition that came with various exclusive items such as Classic Trek uniforms and an NX registry prefix for my ship.

I’m a sucker for classic Trek, so I jumped at the chance to get those uniforms and went for the deluxe package.

In this month’s engineering report however, it was announced that coming to the C-Store (the in-game micro transaction store filled with various fluff like extra character slots, extra bridge designs etc) were some of the various “exclusive” items.  So not only would people be able to buy my classic Trek uniforms, but also appearing were items available in other collectors editions like the TNG and DS9 uniforms, Borg bridge officers (think 7of9) and the original Constitution class as a starter ship.

This has sparked a lot of discussion online, with many people feeling betrayed by Cryptic.   After all these items were marked as exclusive, and many spent extra on multiple copies of the game in order to get all the extras.

My own opinion though, is slightly different.  Once I realised there was a micro-transaction store in the game, selling various ship costumes, bridges etc, I kind’ve knew this was going to be coming.  My immediate reaction was that “exclusive” would mean “only for a certain period of time”, and that Cryptic would be throwing away a source of income by not allowing people to purchase these extras.

Now, if the extras had been, for example, a variant Cryptic-designed uniform, then it would be easy to just leave it as exclusive to whatever version of the game.  However we’re talking about iconic things, like the various TV show and movie uniforms.   Of course, people are going to jump at the chance to pay a bit extra to get them.  For myself, I know I’ll be straight onto the C-Store (once my PC is fixed or replaced) in order to get the bits and pieces I’m missing.

I can appreciate that those who spent extra money are upset, and I know I was personally tempted to buy other copies of the game for the TNG and DS9 uniforms, but to me this was something that was inevitable so if I had bought the game, it would’ve been in the knowledge that I was just doing it to get them before everyone else (although I’ll admit I’m surprised it happened quite this soon).   With these kinds of things, I think you always have to assume that you’re only buying exclusivity for a certain period of time.   There’s a long history in computer games of exclusive items eventually turning up for purchase separately.

The exclusivity had been dubious prior to this as well, despite forum posters acting like this is a new thing.  Now, as I said, I paid an extra tenner for my edition, primarily due to the lure of classic Trek uniforms.  Yet not long after I got the game, this thread appeared on the forums.  Yup, my supposedly exclusive uniforms being given away with a magazine, via a website that anyone can access and get the uniforms from for free.  That thread in fact, is periodically bumped to ensure it remains on or near the front page, with other posters ensuring others get their free uniforms.   Cryptic allow the thread and the offer to continue, so it appears they don’t have a problem with it.

And there’s the Wrath of Khan uniforms.  Supposedly, you had to buy the Blueray editions of classic Trek, and yet a quick google will reveal the relevant code to get them.

Should I be shouting about getting a refund?  Possibly, but I got what I paid for, and enjoy just having the classic uniforms.  This way, other people that want to enjoy them, can as well.  To just moan that they’re not exclusive any more has a slight hint of wanting to appear special and better than others within the game.  For me, buying the deluxe edition was just a means to get a uniform I really wanted.

So, I’m not too angry about this, although admittedly that’s largely because it’ll just benefit me, due to the classic Trek uniforms already being freely available.  My items have long since lost their exclusivity, so from my perspective, this is just the others catching up (and I have to wonder, out of those complaining on the forums, how many used that website for the classic uniforms, and googled the Wrath of Khan code).

That all being said, I do think Cryptic could’ve maybe handled it better.  Primarily I do think the exclusives might’ve been better being things that were less iconic.  Cryptic-designed uniforms and starships for example.  The minute recognisable uniforms were in the game, there was always going to be a big demand for them to be more readily available.  However I can certainly appreciate that those same TV uniforms also made for a much bigger draw on the collectors editions.

I also think Cryptic have perhaps jumped the gun.  As much as I want the TNG and DS9 uniforms, I really didn’t expect to see them like this within the first year of the game.  And perhaps in the FAQs on the website, it could’ve been made clearer that the exclusivity was only going to be for a certain amount of time.

However, nonetheless, I look forward to the opportunity to login to the store and buy these extras.  There’s a lot of complaints online, but I strongly hope that they don’t influence the decision the release them in the C-Store.   After all, for those that got the TNG and DS9 uniforms in your boxset, at least I’m having to pay for them as well.  Everyone got my classic Trek uniforms for free.

Progressing through the game of Star Trek Online, sees you move from different galactic sectors.  Starting out at the heart of the Federation near the Sol system, as you gain levels you move throughout the galaxy encountering the Klingon systems, Romulan Space and others.

Having recently made it past Commander level and to Captain and now Admiral, I’ve moved out from the Romulan sectors and am now in Bajoran and Cardassian space, which means visiting one of the most iconic locations in the shape of Deep Space Nine.

As a big fan of that show, just flying up the DS9 was another of those great moments in the game.  And once docked, while the station interiors are obviously limited, they’ve still recognisable.  Wandering around the promenade feels great despite the limitations and like the Guardian of Forever, and the earlier Deep Space K-7, its nice to have these recognisable locations in the game.

Its an aspect of the game I really appreciate is the feeling of progress.  In all MMOs, as you progress you move into higher level areas.  However what I like about Star Trek Online, is how those areas give you the feeling of moving from the core of the Federation (Earth and Vulcan) to the outer fringes.  Its not just that you’ve moved to a higher level area, but I do get the feeling that I’ve progressed to defending the outer edges of Federation territory.  Of course, that’s probably helped by a lot of the game’s population hanging around the central Hub in the Sol System, so the higher levels don’t have as many Federation ships flying around.

I’ve yet to progress to Borg space, which currently represents the last sector of the game, but I’m really intrigued to see what the developers have done with it.  There’s a real potential to make it a dark, scary place to be, where you know you’re out of your depth and in trouble, and I hope they capture that, and like Deep Space Nine, its an opportunity to create a really iconic location.

So typically, the night after I make a blog post hoping for more Classic Trek fan-pleasing stuff turning up in Star Trek Online, look what I bump into.  Awesome

Sadly it went down a little easy, as long as you avoided the front of it whenever it fired.  You get special torpedoes which when fired straight down its opening, will damage it.  If you miss, you have to refill them, but with your fellow starfleet ships distracting the machine itself, it doesn’t give you too much trouble.   Its a great fun mission, but it would be nice to see the Doomsday Machine as more of a payoff to a questline than a single quest.

Its things like this that make tie-in games great.  Throwing in things that are blatantly fan-pleasing may be an easy move but there’s no denying its also hugely effective

This mission ticks all the boxes.  Miral Paris (daughter of Voyager’s Tom Paris and Belanna Torres) has been kidnapped by genetically-modified Klingons.  Said Klingons then use the Guardian of Forever to travel back in time to the 23rd century where they plan to use her human/Klingon hybrid-ness to cure the flat-head syndrome that’s blighted them since the days of Enterprise season 4.

Needless to say, you’re not standing for this, so promptly chase them to the Guardian and follow them back, where you team up with the original USS Enterprise (under the temporary command of Commander Spock, since Kirk’s elsewhere).

Its great fun, and it helps that this mission is also the payoff for a long running storyline that sees you through most of your Lieutenant levels, building up the motivations and the extent of the Klingons plan over an extended period of time.  All the fanboy buttons are hit, culminating in fighting alongside the original Enterprise (nicely making use of the fact that Cryptic had hired Leonard Nimoy to voice parts of the game).

So far there’s been few moments as great as coming down that hill to see the Guardian of Forever in the distance.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of these kinds of things throughout the game.  Obviously Species 8472 have now turned up as part of the main plot to the game, and I daresay the Borg will appear again, but the Next Generation stuff has been well-served by games over the last decade or so, so the Classic Trek stuff is very welcome indeed and adds something a bit fresher to the game (ironic given how much the Guardian of Forever pre-dates the Borg).

With that mission complete, I’m waiting on the next story arc from Admiral Quinn to kick in.  In the meantime I’m considering some sight-seeing.  I may take my trusty USS New Zealand over to DS9 for a look-see.  And I really should go back to K7 and have another wander around it to see what else is there beyond the contacts (who can just be hailed from the ship anyway).  I need some better equipment and I need to find someone who’ll sell me it.

So I’ve been playing the game for around a week now.   With my buddy key expired, I’ve gone straight out and bought the collector’s edition from Steam (since I figured a download retailer was the quickest way to a new key to get me back into the game).  I opted to pay the extra for the collector’s edition, since I can see me playing this game for a good while, and the Classic Trek uniforms called out to me (can’t beat Classic Trek.  Well, maybe DS9).

I’d mentioned in my previous post about how I felt like the game feels like a solid basis to build on.  So I thought now I’ve got a little playtime under my belt, I’d list some things I’d like to see happen in the game.  Now, I’m not that up to date on the developer side of things, so odds are on some of these are already planned, and I’m not by any means saying these are things I’d like in the short term, just as the game develops.

So in no particular order:

The Bridge

At the moment, the bridge doesn’t really do much.  You can select from a few different themes at the Starbase, but otherwise its just a private meeting room where you can chat to your mates.  The bridge for me represents an exciting opportunity for player housing in the game.  Ontop of the themes, allow players to by new (decorative) consoles for example, or select from a variety of Captain’s chairs.  Granted, the nature of Star Trek limits the bridge customisation a little.  You could fine tune the customisation to different colour schemes, chairs, console types etc though.

To open things up,  larger ships could add a Captain’s ready room to the bridge, which could easily be decorated with more personal items.  Throw in a couple of sofas, or fish like Picard had.  Desks, coffee tables, pictures on the walls all become possibilities that would look out of place on a bridge.

Above this, even larger ships could hang a conference room on as well.

Player housing was something I sunk a bit of time into in Star Wars Galaxies, customising my place on Tatooine.  I could easily see myself tweaking and re-tweaking my bridge and ready room in Star Trek Online.

Of course, I’d also like the ability to actually sit on that centre seat

Multiple Uniform Slots

One of the nice features in City of Heroes is the ability to accumulate extra costume slots, and then switch between outfits at will.  The existing uniform designer in STO ticks most of the right boxes for me in terms of the different uniforms that can be created (although I do hope that eventually the exclusive uniforms like TOS and TNG make it into the C-Store and become micropayment fodder).  You can currently save particular looks and reload them at will, although you have to first visit the tailor, and then pay to switch uniform.  It’d be nice to have a number of pre-defined slots for your favourite uniforms (at least for your Captain.  The Bridge Officers could remain reliant on the tailor).  I know you can currently have a second slot for your “fleet” uniform, so presumably this is something that’s in the works (I guess extra uniform slots could be another candidate for micropayments, but a couple of free ones would be nice).

New Races

By this I don’t necessarily mean just new alien types for Starfleet officers (although obviously they’re good too, and easier to implement), but bolstering the existing Federation vs Klingon game with race-specific campaigns and ships (Romulans being an obvious candidate) makes sense.  Saying that, given the development time required to produce a new race, its range of ships, and although the mission arcs related to that race’s plotline, I could see this being more along the lines of a larger, paid expansion.

More Story Arcs

I’m now a Lieutenant Level 10, and the one thing that’s jumped out at me is that only really Admiral Quinn has been offering me missions that build into a story arc so far.  Sulu and the others seem to just give out the more general, easily generated missions that you can use to build up your xp, rather than have an underlying plot you can get your teeth into (although its possible I’ve written those contacts off too early and missed a plot arc coming in later).  So one thing I’d like to see in these early Lieutenant levels is maybe one other Admiral giving you missions that have a storyline to them.  City of Heroes was again quite good at doing this kind of thing, so I’d imagine it’ll be on the cards at somepoint.

More Ships From the TV Series

In fairness to the devs, this is already pretty well catered for.  The Constitution class was a pre-order option, and the Constitution class refit, Danube, Miranda, Defiant, Intrepid, Galaxy, Akira, Nova and Sovereign are all in the game (can’t remember if I’ve forgotten any).   So a hopefully easy win for the devs would be including a few of those ship classes that didn’t make it in currently.  Excelsior’s an obvious one, the original Stargazer, Steamrunner and heck even the NX-01 are candidates.  They could easily map to existing class tiers, although players would maybe have to turn a blind eye to an NX-01 holding its own against a Miranda but there’s no reason they couldn’t be added to add a nice bonus into an update package (regarding the NX-01, the in-game canon could just say its a new ship based on the old hull for nostalgic reasons or something).

That’s all just a random wishlist.  Of course, there’s various other tweaks I’d like: bugs fixed, elements of the interface cleaned up, but I know these will all happen with time, especially as its early days yet for the mmo, with patches turning up every few days to fix the gameplay issues as their found.  From playing City of Heroes, I know some of this kind of content is very much a long term (first few years) type of thing, but that’s fine.  I’m having fun playing the game and figuring it out as it is, so the point is more to bring in interesting new features as the game matures in order to keep the existing player base interested.

I’ve followed the development of this game for a while.  Regular readers will know that I do like:

a) Star Trek

and

b) MMOs

so really, Star Trek Online was a no-brainer for me.

Sadly, then the minimum specs came out, and I realised my PC was very much scraping the bottom of the barrel and may not run it (AMD 64 3800, Nvidia 7900 GS, 2Gb RAM).  Fortunately a friend came to the rescue and passed on one of his 5 day demo keys so I could see if it would run.

The initial game download was a hefty 8Gb, however once that was done, I was able to get the game up and running.  Despite my iffy system spec, with all the settings at minimum (barring resolution which I’ve got at the lowest 16:9 setting rather than the lowest 4:3), the game runs surprisingly well.  Granted, there’s the occassional thing that takes a second to render, but so far its playable.  I wouldn’t want to head into too busy an instance though as that might push my luck.   I do have a better graphics card on order however, so that might let me make things a little quicker (and a shade prettier).

The game itself, I’m really impressed with so far.  It combines ship-based action with ground-based away teams.  So you’ll find yourself embroiled both in starship combat in outer space, and then beaming down to talk to colonists or beaming over to a ship you’ve just rescued to mop up straggling boarding parties.  It really adds something to the game, and I love having these two separate aspects to the gameplay.

The starship-based stuff reminds me a lot of a simplified Starfleet Command.  The ships are presented as slow-moving, with you having to take into account your different shield sections and weapon arcs when in combat.  You get control of your power balance, allowing you to favour your shields, weapons or engines as appropriate, and your bridge officers (as you recruit them) give you special abilities which can employ in combat such as a more powerful torpedo blast, or jamming enemy sensors.  As a big fan of Starfleet Command I’m enjoying these sections a lot.

Beaming down, you assemble an away team of your bridge crew and assorted redshirts and find yourself in familiar MMO territory running around maps, collecting items from boxes and crates, and using your weapons and special abilities to combat whoever might be in your away.  The advantage here is you have your AI away team for support, and they’ll use their own special abilities, or attempt to move into flanking positions as appropriate to give your side an advantage in combat.

For a Star Trek MMO, to be honest, the Starship sim side of things would’ve been enough for me.  But by adding in the ground-based stuff Cryptic have worked hard to capture the complete feel of a Star Trek adventure.  By adding it in, it allows you to explore colonies, and when visiting Earth you can dock in the main Starbase, and wander around purchasing upgrades and acquiring new missions.   The two styles of play feel well integrated to me and help make the MMO stand out (although I know that starships and their combat were also in Star Wars Galaxy, and its aspect of multiplayer ships is something I’d quite like to see added at some future point as the ship-based side of things becomes more developed).

One aspect of the game I’ve quickly come to love is that it feels more cooperative than a lot of MMOs I’ve played.  By this I don’t mean forming teams or parties, but more generally.  In most MMOs I’ve played there’s been the aspect of killstealling, whereby a player interferes in anothers combat, resulting in the XP being much lower for the player that started the encounter.  Its generally frowned upon as it slows the rate of levelling up for the “victim”.  Here random players taking part in each other’s missions and combat seems actively encouraged.  For example, two players entering a sector on the same mission will find themselves automatically sharing that mission.  So if the mission is to blow up 7 Klingon ships, a Klingon blown up by either player will count for both.  Similarly when beaming down you will find away teams can seemlessly consist of several real players and not just your usual AI bridge crew (although you do get a choice to refuse).  Its a system that I’ve so far found quite successful and adds to the feeling that its all one, big, happy fleet.  Granted it could be open to abuse, by players entering a mission and hanging back, letting others do all the work and reaping the rewards, but overall I think its a good idea, and the prospect of the odd player abusing it is less important than the cooperative feel it adds to the game.

Overall, while admittedly I’m not that far into the game, so far its striking me as having a lot of promise, and I can see myself getting really hooked on it, as I get into it and start figuring out the various aspects of the gameplay.  I also think, importantly, it seems like a solid basis.  To an extent, on launch it can be a little early to judge an MMO, and its only really after the first few updates have tweaked things, and added in the content that they couldn’t quite get ready in time that you start to get a bigger picture for where the game is going, however my feeling is that so far this game is offering a lot of fun, while also showing plenty of options for expansion in the form of new playable races, the obvious new sectors with associated missions, new ship classes and abilities.  There’s a lot of promise here, and I think I’ll definitely be sticking around for a while.

The latest City of Heroes release has hit, and unlike usual, wherein we tend to get some kind of new mission content, this release seems to target more the quality of life, and some of the game mechanics getting attention.

The big feature that’s caused the most excitement in this issue has been power customisation.  The character creator has received a bit of a revamp, and now there’s a separate screen where you can go in and depending on the powerset either recolour the power, or pick a different look or animation for it.   I’ve not played with this a lot, but I have used it to change my fire controller’s powers to a blue flame from the normal one, and its a neat visual effect that further lets you refine your character and add your stamp to them.

The other big change is the new “super” sidekick feature.  Out goes the old system, and now players are automatically level-adjusted appropriately to the team lead.  This isn’t limited by range like the old sidekicking, and seems to be much more flexible, in that there should be no more scrabbling to match low level team members to higher level members.  It should also provide more incentive for high level characters going back to play lower level content with their friends.

Of course, Mission Architect itself has also been subject to some changes.  With the farming and bubble missions attracting so many players desperate to hit level 50 quickly the rest of the content in City of Heroes had been suffering.  I know that during the week I’ve struggled to find a team for general door missions.  The XP changes being introduced should hopefully look to redress that and get people back out of MA and back into the main game.

With City of Heroes now facing competition in the superhero MMO genre in the shape of Champions Online, and next year DCU Online its really nice to see the devs taking time to continually improve the gaming experience and freshen up the game.  Between this and Mission Architect providing user-generated content, there’s definitely a lot of life left in this game.

So, for my sins, the last couple of days I’ve ended up in AE running farming missions.  I blame the relative lack of normal mission teams during weekdays (or if they’re out there, I haven’t found them yet).  I’ve played through the low and mid-level part of the game so much though, that outside of Task Forces, I’m more interested in getting my characters into the 40s, as I’ve not really seen as much of that end of the game in comparison, so I’m not hugely complaining about the level bump (although even then I only gained a couple of levels).

To be honest, I quite enjoy some of the farming missions.   Some of them are pretty evil, with powerful mobs and a tendancy to spawn ambushes that can really catch you out if you’re not on your toes.  Yes, the missions allow you to leap through levels in a way the game designers didn’t really intend, but with a good team I can still find a good farming mission fun.

Last night though, I ended up on a “Bubble Mission” team though.  I’d heard about Bubble missions from the ingame chat and forums, but I’d never actually seen one, so I must admit my curiousity got the better of me.

The basic structure remains the same as some of the farming missions.  Large groups of powerful, high-level mele mobs that you can pound into the dirt for quick XP gain.   However, unlike normal farming missions, these missions include various NPCs that assist the player team.  These NPCs all contain variations on defender forcefield powers, with the idea being to collect a load of them to run around with your team.   Your team then ends up surrounded by dozens of forcefield bubbles, which maxes out your defense, making you nigh-on unkillable as long as the team sticks with the bubbles.

Its hugely dull.   There’s zero threat to the team and you end up just sitting there cycling your main attack powers until either you fall asleep, quit the team, or you’ve killed everything in sight.

Its pretty much the opposite to the Task Forces.  Both give you a large amount of XP, but with Task Forces there’s a storyline to get your teeth into.  Heck, even in the farming missions, there’s still the risk of planting.  Granted, once you rez, you quickly wipe out any accumulated debt, but there’s still that element of needing a good team, and staying on your toes.

As a tin lid on things the other night, once the team leader had levelled in the mission, he quickly announced he was off and quit the team.  Of course, as the player who had amassed all the bubbles, they all went with him, and we all planted immediately.  The mission now unplayable, everyone quickly quit, and in my case resolved to put a “No Bubble Missions” comment in my team search box.

I’ve been playing City of Heroes for years now, having originally played on the US servers prior to the UK edition’s release, however one aspect of the game I always avoided was the Task Forces.

While I appreciated that a lot of the players would be really into the longer story lines, the idea of having to commit myself to 4 hours of play to complete one always put me off. However, recently, having joined a new Supergroup (The Power Corps), I’ve started joining in their Sunday night runs at Task Forces.

Doing them from within the framework of a Supergroup helps make things easier, at least in terms of the recruitment stage, as Task Forces need a minimum team size to start, and from experience, when putting together a large team, patience is a virtue as it can take the best part of an hour on a bad night.  Not to mention you’re more confident of getting a good team, rather than risking getting a bad Tank or Defender in a pickup group.

What has been nice, is that the Task Forces so far haven’t taken much longer than an hour or two to run.   It helps that we don’t seem to be running them at the maximum difficulty, but they’re very rewarding to run.  Not just in terms of XP gain (although they are), but also just in terms of game experience.   Big groups can always be a lot of fun, with different archetypes performing their own functions in the team, and there’s nothing quite as rewarding as being on a good team.

But they’re also rewarding in terms of the zones.  Some zones in the game seem specifically targetting towards their Task Forces.   This weekend for example, I ran one of the Striga Isle task forces.   Striga Isle is one of the main bases of a villain group known as the Council.  Its a great zone with lots of character.  As you get towards the main Island you find yourself under attack from guard posts and automated turrets.  Groups of Council baddies can be seen exercising on the grounds, and in the middle there’s a classic supervillain cliche, in the form of a volcano.

So, what of the Task Force?  Well, it allows you a tour of the zone, but also involves you in a main storyline linked to the zone.  In this case, you uncover a plot to launch a giant robot against Paragon City, which as it turns out, is being built inside the hollowed-out volcano.  Classic

I’m looking forward to running more such task forces with my Supergroup.  They provide a great chance to get involved in a more detailed storyline, get a feel for the varied zones in the game (the Imperious task force was another favourite.  Love the Roman theme), and encounter some of the Arch Villains that you hear about throughout the game’s mythology.   Granted, there are some which still have reputations for being quite long and difficult, but with an experienced Supergroup, the members should know which Task Forces will be most appropriate.

I’m aware I’m very late into these things. A lot of my CoH experience has been soloing sadly, but I’m very much enjoying this new aspect to the game, and its really opened up content and zones that previously I had little real use for beyond sight-seeing.

To say this looks awesome would be a huge understatement.

I enjoy MMOs, I love Bioware (although I personally found Mass Effect a bit disappointing), I love Star Wars. I even enjoyed Star Wars Galaxies, despite its reputation. So the signs are pointing to this game being something special.

The only problem is that with The Old Republic, Star Trek Online and DCU Online all due out next year I doubt I’ll have time to play them all properly, and I certainly won’t be able to afford/justify subscriptions for them all.