Star Trek Online goes Free To Play

[Hovis]

It's free to play, it's on Steam. It's vastly improved from the pre-launch version I played (and dropped like a hot potato). Am not sure if it technically qualifies as a good game, but it's kind of enjoyable. I like it being free to play instead of on a sub, because it's very much a dip-into kind of game, I wouldn't want to have to pay to play it.

It's hard to put my finger on what exactly is changed, I'm guessing there's been at least a year or so of patching, content added and fixes, so that'll help it be generally smoother and more fleshed out. The ground missions definitely feel a lot better than they used to.

But yeah, for anybody who doesn't fancy shelling out on a new game, but feels like they might want to kill a week or so, I reckon this is worth a punt.

[Lyoth]

Steam seems to have gone free to play crazy.
Loads of titles on there to waste a weekend on.
Also... just to plug an outrageously good game that's not quite FTP.
I saw psychonauts on steam for £3!

[Hovis]

Steam seems to have gone free to play crazy.
Loads of titles on there to waste a weekend on.
Also... just to plug an outrageously good game that's not quite FTP.
I saw psychonauts on steam for £3!

Plug acknowledged. Purchase made.

Word to the wise though kids, the new Duke Nukem is also on sale for about £3, and it's still worse than a hot vinegar enema.

[Hovis]

Out of interest, did any of you guys who might have played this see the Duty Officers system? Cos I really like this. Basically you have your own little crew of minor characters and you can send them off on trips, and you get stuff for it and you have to pick the right men for the job or they get got and so on and so forth. It's hardly a critical mechanic to the game but it adds a nice bit of flavour to the game.

Also it has player made missions. You can make your own missions for people to play, and play the ones that people have made. I got to be honest, that sounds like a pretty fricking good idea. Especially considering how nerdy people are when it comes to Star Trek. As long as I don't accidentally wander in a bit of Spock/Kirk slash fiction I think it's all good.

[Lyoth]

As long as I don't accidentally wander in a bit of other people's Spock/Kirk slash fiction I think it's all good.

fixed

[Hovis]

Well obviously.

[P3taloudas]

I've been playing for the last 10 days or so and i think that the free to play content is quite ok (i'm level 40 now so in a few days i will check out end-game content)

If you want to go full into the game however (and i don't know why someone would want to do that since it's not really an A+ game) you get various improvement by spending money on the Cryptic Store (ie get the best available ships, get extra character slots, extra customization options etc)

The game seems balanced though when it comes to normal ships and ships you can access by spending C-store points. The major specifications are the same. That is same number of weapon hardpoints, same number of consoles, same number of bridge officers. The differences are minor, eg bridge officer composition.

The big money sink is various utility perks (that most players could probably go without) and a huge collection of customization options (mainly uniforms and bridge interiors) and even if someone wants to spend on C-store stuff you really have to go over the top to exceed what you would spend if you had say 12 months worth of subscriptions.

Hovis: I enjoy the Duty officer system as well, assignments take a big part of my routine. Good design, satisfying variety but definitely room for improvement (there are a few bugs here and there, most notably the Diplomacy duty officer vendor) but other than that it adds a lot to the game experience (for Trekkies at least)

handler is PetaloudasP3taloudas i play a Bolian Engineer and fly Escorts so far for damage but come end-game i'll probanly grab a Cruiser (the match for engineers) and a Science Vessel to check them out.

[Hovis]

I've got an escort but I was tempted by a cruiser on my tactical officer. I just like the idea of a cruiser more. I forgot tactical officers get stupid little ships. D'oh.

[Ludicrouse]

The Tactical Escort is in no way a dumb little ship, it is a pure fucking glass cannon of epic.

[Tapja]

I've got an escort but I was tempted by a cruiser on my tactical officer. I just like the idea of a cruiser more. I forgot tactical officers get stupid little ships. D'oh.

Dual Heavy Cannons, thats whats on those stupid little ships.

Oh, and anyone planning to play this might as well create a character, get to level 5 and get the free ship this weekend. While you need 50 to fly it, its chance to grab a decent free ship.

[Hovis]

Yeah firepower is nice. But you also have to actively fly it. I kind of like sitting in my captain's chair like Zapp Brannigan, occasionally pressing a button and watching things explode. Flying an escort by contrast is dangerously close to exciting. It's all attack patterns and dogfighting. How very unseemly.

[Bagpuss]

real men use Runabouts ...








seriously get to 50, grab a runabout, fit seriously op single gun to it..then go back to the first public fleet action thing. Now that a hoot ... me and ludi did it shortly after release..

[Hovis]

Have decided that it actually kind of works as a game. I'm not playing it as an MMO, have barely spoken to any other players, but it's kind of fun. The bits on foot feel like Mass Effect would have done if it had been made a couple of years earlier, and the space bits are good. Without the pressure to dive in and Must Play Now Before Sub Ends it's pretty laid back and fun.

[P3taloudas]

what are your handlers?

[Hovis]

Had to start again cos my account was crocked. Currently playing as Case@kifkroker a human engineer but I'm just a meganewb again. I found it's more fun to play as an engineer than a tactical officer because it doesn't feel so DPS focussed. Also I've found that ditching torpedoes and cannons in favour of a rear turret and a couple of phaser banks is, at least in the early levels, much easier. Just go to maximum damage and pootle around melting stuff. Not that it is particularly hard to keep a small ship on one target, but it's a major time saver when switching between targets in bigger battles.

[Kampf]

me and james bought that shit when it came out, and it was the worst game ever.
i do not even care if it is supposed to be good now.

i can't take it when companies give me stuff that doesn't work.
maybe that is the german in me, but i want the stuff i bought to do what it was supposed to do.

for me that is not a reputable buisness strategy.

[James24]

me and james bought that shit when it came out, and it was the worst game ever.
i do not even care if it is supposed to be good now.


seconded

Have they fixed the monotony that every mission is exactly the same?

[P3taloudas]

X6oUz1v17Uo

[James24]

that made me remember why I love star trek :(

but there is not enough love in the world that can make me forgive sto.

[Hovis]

See that's why I binned it before it came out. But whatever. It's not the best thing in the world ever, but it's killing time before ME3.

The community authored missions is a good system to fix monotony on the missions, but I haven't given it much of a go yet.

[P3taloudas]

James you should check out the Duty Officer system. Your OCD will love them.

[RandomAlien]

I downloaded this last weekend and I'm loving it so far! I think the micro-transaction thing is really well done, apart from the Cardassian lock-box thing where you'd essentially need to spend £1 to open a little box of random goodies (I think I have over 100 sat in my bank now)... The missions are pretty varied, but then you could argue that every mission in every game is the same as the last! The PvE volunteering system is great to jump in to a little raid/dungeon party of players your level to kill 30 minutes too...

All-in-all, it's a great game since it's FTP, and I may even spend a little cash on it when I hit the end-game stuff to buy a slightly nicer ship!