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Before this post starts, I am a total Star Trek geek. So be prepared for much geek-ity.

My brother got a hold of one of the beta key giveaways and he's playing it now. I wasn't sure about playing any MMO's at all because my experience with LOTRO threw me off. I don't like automated fighting (should have researched KOTOR before I bought it on Steam). But STO doesn't have automated fighting and the space battles look cool as well. The whole thing really surprised me seeing as most Star Trek games have sucked for the longest time.

For those that don't know, Star Trek Online is a new MMO game coming out on Feb 2nd and takes place 30 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis (the 10th Star Trek Movie). It takes place in the "prime" or "standard" universe rather than the alternate universe created by the newest Star Trek movie by J.J. Abrams, but the events in which --- STAR TREK MOVIE SPOILERS! --- Romulus is destroyed and Spock and Nero are sent back in time, or "disappeared" as STO looks at it affect the outcome of the story in STO. Data is the new Captain of the Enterprise after Geordi LaForge and the Soong Foundation spent 4 years resuscitating Data's consciousness from B-4. That's pretty cool. The Klingon/Federation treaty has broken down (resulting in the choice to be either Federation or Klingon upon character creation).

You can choose to create your character from a number of races such as Benzite, Vulcan, Human, Bajorian, and tons of others or you can actually design your own race. You can also design your own uniform style and ship (to a certain extent). You can also choose from existing ship classes like the Galaxy class, Intrepid class, Defiant class, or even the good ol' Constitution class. It looks pretty good and I might just get it myself if the rumours are true and it comes out for the Xbox 360.

How does the combat take place? You said it's not turn-based or automated, so that only leaves real-time (i.e. twitch skills). I just have trouble imaging a Star Trek version of "Capture the Flag." I realize that's not what this game is supposed to be about, but almost all RPGs (especially MMORPGs) use turn-based combat, simply because RPGs are about the characters and their abilities, not how good the player is at dodging and shooting.

Hell, ST is more about exploration and adventure than it is combat. So how is this going to work? MMORPGs lack a cohesive storyline (and for good reason since those are extremely non-linear games) and even if you get people together to go on a quest, who's going to be the Captain? Everyone wants to be in-charge or at least have some sort of meaningful duty. No one is going to volunteer to be the "red shirt." And let's say someone is the helmsman, okay? He literally controls the ship. While the Captain may give orders, he won't be an active participant and nor will anyone else.

I know it's coming out for the PC (a friend of mine is beta testing it on Steam), but the Xbox 360? Can you buy a separate keyboard for that console? If not, that might make playing very difficult.

Don't get me wrong, this sounds like a cool idea. I just can't see it working or at least, working well.

I imagine it's going to be like the original STAR WARS MMO (Star Wars Galaxies) in that there is no captain per se. You would have classes, no doubt, like Medics (which are the same as the typical Healers/Priests/Clerics type), then probably like Explorer (which is probably maybe like the Rogue type), etc etc - so you'd have classes, no really ranks - I imagine anyway.

I don't know, since I have not followed up on the Star Trek MMO (as I am not a huge fan, by ANY means of Star Trek - except for the movies, I didn't watch the shows religiously - other than the original, and that was only because my father used to watch them from time to time).

I swore off buying into any more MMOs because what happens is - it becomes difficult finding groups, or you don't have a lot of friends in the game, etc - which takes out a lot of the enjoyment for me (although I admit Bioware's Star Wars MMO is REALLY tempting...) - and once you leave an MMO, all you have is a game (with possible expansions) that is impossible to play offline and without a monthly fee. (Granted, I think most monthly fees for MMOs are reasonable - if you have one account for yourself and are not one of those people with like three accounts!) Because most MMO's are like 12 to 15 a month - and if you spend ONLY four hours online in the course of one month - you have effectively seen the equivalent of two movies, which would cost you 15 bucks these days. (Well these days, it's even more... heck, Avatar 3D was 12 dollars a ticket!) At this point, however, I am rambling, but that shouldn't surprise anyone...

The first rendition of the game by the previous game developer had people working as ensign on a ship and working their way up to captain. But this new version by the new game developer (Cryptic) is very different. You're still an ensign and you gain rank but you have your own ship. Something happens in the opening quest (Borg attack) and while you've beamed onto another ship to help them the Borg beamed onto your ship and selectively killed all the senior staff so when you get back you're the only ranking officer. When the quest is over you go back to the admiral of Starfleet and he gives you command of the ship, even though you're still an ensign. So when you play with friends you play as a fleet of ships (in space) and your own group of away teams (on ground) rather than as a crew on one ship or in a group together as a single away team on the ground. "Fleets" are the new "guilds" in STO, incidentally.

As far as on-the-ground combat goes, it's a little bit more like Morrowind than a twitch-tester I believe. It's a little more stat-oriented than a straight up third or first-person shooter. For instance, you can do more damage to somebody based on your position (flank damage if you attack from the sides while they're firing at somebody else) but also at the same time you can dodge and roll around to avoid shots or grenades and stuff like that. You can even get into melee combat. So it is a test in reflexes but in more of a strategy/tactical type of way. It's almost like a squad shooter. But it really is a mixture of multiple types of combat. I doubt your average Counter-Strike player would feel right at home immediately but it's definitely not the same as other MMO's.

Space battles are kind of like Star Trek Legacy gameplay I'd imagine. I haven't played Star Trek Legacy but I've seen gameplay videos and they look very similar in style to STO's. There's the obvious upgrades you can "buy" for your ship through some form of economy (not money as the Federation has done away with it obviously) and you can upgrade to different classes or build your own like I said in my first post. There's also the ability to acquire new bridge officers in different positions to enhance your ship's effectiveness (tactical officer, science officer, etc). Incidentally, you can also buy armour and weapon upgrades for your character on away missions as well.

Just to be clear there are two game modes: 1) Walking around as yourself. This is your character that you designed in the beginning. You can beam onto other ships, planets, or space stations by yourself or with an away team. 2) Flying around in space in your starship (third person view) sort of like a slowed down flight simulator (being in space and all). But you can warp to different sectors (there's only one sector available in the beta) and warp to different solar systems and once there fly around said solar system.

Also, there are 3 "paths" you can choose upon creation of your character. You can choose either the Tactical, Engineering, or Scientific pathways. Tactical is obviously combat-oriented with high damage and mobility abilities, Engineering has a lot of defense and utility abilities (ability to reroute power in your ship to different areas like shields or weapons or even allies), and Scientific is basically the buff/debuff, crowd control (which apparently means if there are people outside of a given fight you can lock them out so they can't join the fight I guess, but you have to pay attention to it or something. I'm going by what my brother is explaining to me right now) and healing type of pathway.

As for 360 support, it's all but verified that it's going to be on the 360. They just haven't given the official word yet. But Cryptic did put another one of their MMO's on the 360 as well and it's been said during development (even near the end) that it would be on both PC and consoles. My computer hasn't a prayer for playing this game so my only choice is a 360 port. I don't mind if controls are hampered. I'll find a way to make it work. My only worry is that I'll have to pay for both the Xbox Live Gold account AND the STO monthly fee. The fee, by the way, isn't even decided on yet. They're looking into different payment methods for buying the game. But the most likely is that it'll be the standard $15/mo deal. I'm interested to see if they can do something a little more innovative, though.

It does look impressive though and looks like it can indeed work well and contend with the other triple-a MMO's that are out there right now. And MMO's don't really impress me that much. But, I AM a Star Trek nerd.

MusicallyInspired wrote: As far as on-the-ground combat goes, it's a little bit more like Morrowind than a twitch-tester I believe. It's a little more stat-oriented than a straight up third or first-person shooter. For instance, you can do more damage to somebody based on your position (flank damage if you attack from the sides while they're firing at somebody else) but also at the same time you can dodge and roll around to avoid shots or grenades and stuff like that. You can even get into melee combat. So it is a test in reflexes but in more of a strategy/tactical type of way. It's almost like a squad shooter. But it really is a mixture of multiple types of combat. I doubt your average Counter-Strike player would feel right at home immediately but it's definitely not the same as other MMO's.

Sounds pretty much like CITY OF HEROES... which is no surprise since it's from Cryptic. It's pretty much like every MMO's combat system (well except for the original Star Wars Galaxies). But it's the same idea as EverQuest, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes.

MusicallyInspired wrote: As for 360 support, it's all but verified that it's going to be on the 360. They just haven't given the official word yet. But Cryptic did put another one of their MMO's on the 360 as well and it's been said during development (even near the end) that it would be on both PC and consoles. My computer hasn't a prayer for playing this game so my only choice is a 360 port.

Just be aware that folks playing on X360 probably will not be able to play with folks on PC... so if your friend is on PC and you're on X360... I am more than certain you will not be able to group with one another. PC and X360 will undoubtedly each have unique servers.

Tawmis wrote:I imagine it's going to be like the original STAR WARS MMO (Star Wars Galaxies) in that there is no captain per se. You would have classes, no doubt, like Medics (which are the same as the typical Healers/Priests/Clerics type), then probably like Explorer (which is probably maybe like the Rogue type), etc etc - so you'd have classes, no really ranks - I imagine anyway.

Yeah, but Star Wars Galaxies sucked. I tried playing and the combat system was screwed up (you know something is wrong when blasters are used as melee weapons), the Jedi class had to be somehow unlocked in a mysterious manner (you couldn't choose to be a Jedi), there were classes that made no sense (like a dancer) and overall, the entire game was simply terrible.

It's weird, but you would THINK that an MMO based on Star Wars would be great, right? Somehow they managed to screw it up.

I hope STO will have learned from SWG's failures and create a much better game.

MusicallyInspired wrote:The first rendition of the game by the previous game developer had people working as ensign on a ship and working their way up to captain. But this new version by the new game developer (Cryptic) is very different. You're still an ensign and you gain rank but you have your own ship. Something happens in the opening quest (Borg attack) and while you've beamed onto another ship to help them the Borg beamed onto your ship and selectively killed all the senior staff so when you get back you're the only ranking officer. When the quest is over you go back to the admiral of Starfleet and he gives you command of the ship, even though you're still an ensign. So when you play with friends you play as a fleet of ships (in space) and your own group of away teams (on ground) rather than as a crew on one ship or in a group together as a single away team on the ground. "Fleets" are the new "guilds" in STO, incidentally.

Other than the fact your character remains an Ensign (instead of a promotion to Lieutenant), I like the idea. It seems a little far-fetched, but it's an MMO, stuff like that is par for the course.

MusicallyInspired wrote:As far as on-the-ground combat goes, it's a little bit more like Morrowind than a twitch-tester I believe. It's a little more stat-oriented than a straight up third or first-person shooter. For instance, you can do more damage to somebody based on your position (flank damage if you attack from the sides while they're firing at somebody else) but also at the same time you can dodge and roll around to avoid shots or grenades and stuff like that. You can even get into melee combat. So it is a test in reflexes but in more of a strategy/tactical type of way. It's almost like a squad shooter. But it really is a mixture of multiple types of combat. I doubt your average Counter-Strike player would feel right at home immediately but it's definitely not the same as other MMO's.

Okay, I get it. In a sense, it's also like the QFG series or Deus Ex. Combat and other actions were real-time, but how effective you were was the result of your stats.

Tawmis wrote:Sounds pretty much like CITY OF HEROES... which is no surprise since it's from Cryptic. It's pretty much like every MMO's combat system (well except for the original Star Wars Galaxies). But it's the same idea as EverQuest, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes.

I beta-tested City of Heroes. It was cool, but way too expensive. I remember thinking thinking Ultima Online had a hefty monthly price tag at $9.99. I couldn't believe it when MMOs stated charging $15.00 per month.

It makes me wonder why and how Guild Wars can operate (and even has a sequel coming out soon) with no monthly charge at all. If that game can do it, why can't other MMOs? Hell, GW had a number of fantastic improvements over the rank-and-file MMO, like the ability to edit your stats whenever you want or how you can jump to any server at any time, so you could join your friends anywhere.

Tawmis wrote:Sounds pretty much like CITY OF HEROES... which is no surprise since it's from Cryptic. It's pretty much like every MMO's combat system (well except for the original Star Wars Galaxies). But it's the same idea as EverQuest, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes.

I haven't played any of those but I thought those were automatic attack style combat? Either way, STO isn't automatic.

Just be aware that folks playing on X360 probably will not be able to play with folks on PC... so if your friend is on PC and you're on X360... I am more than certain you will not be able to group with one another. PC and X360 will undoubtedly each have unique servers.

They already said that PC players won't be able to play with 360 players. Not for technical reasons, seeing as there's nothing really keeping them from doing it (Cryptic's own words), but for business reasons. There is already many games on the 360 that can play with PC players after all. It's sad in STO's case, but that's ok. I'll live.

DeadPoolX wrote:Other than the fact your character remains an Ensign (instead of a promotion to Lieutenant), I like the idea. It seems a little far-fetched, but it's an MMO, stuff like that is par for the course.

Actually, my brother just informed me that after the initial tutorial beginning quest, they DO actually promote you to lieutenant. But after that you've gotta earn rankups.

What do you mean not automatic?

As in - you click attack on the Borg. You keep attacking until the borg or you is dead (the game automatically doing attacks).

Or do you mean you do EACH attack on your own? Like attack. And if you walk away for five minutes, your character will not attack the borg again?

It's like an FPS. You press a fire button and he attacks once wherever you're currently aiming. He doesn't continue to attack until the enemy is dead (automatic).

MusicallyInspired wrote:It's like an FPS. You press a fire button and he attacks once wherever you're currently aiming. He doesn't continue to attack until the enemy is dead (automatic).

OoOoooOoooO. So then it's not like typical MMOs.

Tawmis wrote:

MusicallyInspired wrote:It's like an FPS. You press a fire button and he attacks once wherever you're currently aiming. He doesn't continue to attack until the enemy is dead (automatic).

OoOoooOoooO. So then it's not like typical MMOs.

Yeah, it sounds a lot like Oblivion or Fallout 3 in the sense that it's an FPS based on stats. So your "twitch" skills obviously matter, but to what extent is dependent on your character's statistics.

This may interest you:

http://www.atari.com/games/startrek_onl ... _deluxe_ed

Wow. I couldn't imagine trying to download a 10GB game.

What bugs me is the Retail Collector's Edition and the Digital Deluxe Download edition both have different exclusive content. And you can't have both. For instance, one has TOS uniforms and the other has TNG and DS9 uniforms and also a collector's pin. Other exclusives are a playable Borg race among others.

Ah well. Probably won't get it anyway seeing as I can't justify the expense just yet.

So I've tried the demo to see if it would work on my computer. Which it does, barely, in stick-man mode. It recommends at least an ATI X1800 and a dual core processor and I have a Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz and an ATI X1650. But I have 3GB of RAM which seems to make up the difference everywhere on all the games I play. Anyway, it lets you play through the tutorial and the first mission. Then you can't progress any further than that. You get a level 3 cap and then you're just wandering around doing nothing....pretty bad for a 5-day demo with all of 2 hours of gameplay content if that.

And all those exclusives that were only available with different releases are now all available at the online Cryptic Store. Lol. I've heard that 5/10 day buddy keys offer unrestricted play but I've also heard that they don't work anymore...

Those TNG uniforms and the Galaxy Dreadnought class starship (from the TNG finale episode "All Good Things") look tempting, though.