It's fun stuff, and if you've got some time to kill the videos will most certainly help make time fly by more quickly. You can find the two videos embedded after the break.
Phasers set to fun, sit back and bust out the popcorn
by Kyle Horner 
on Jan 14th 2010 8:00PM
Video, New Titles, News Items, Star Trek Online, Humor
33
It's fun stuff, and if you've got some time to kill the videos will most certainly help make time fly by more quickly. You can find the two videos embedded after the break.
Reader Comments (33)
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 8:13PM topdeck said
Guys, the game just isn't fun or in any way ready for launch. Why is there so much Cryptic pimping on this site?
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 8:19PM WhatDeficit said
Seriously... How much money do you get from Cryptic? No site pimped CO or is pimping STO like Massively.
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 8:46PM Serious Table said
Topdeck and Ant, I disagree completely. This game is a lot of fun, and at the rate they've been patching some of the bigger issues, I think they'll be ready for launch.
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 10:24PM Serious Table said
Shining Cloud, they haven't unlocked the exploration yet. It's still set to level 16 max, with only Fed and Klingon space. Give it a bit before they unlock the rest of the game for testing. They're doing server stress tests right now, as far as I can tell.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2010 8:56PM engrey said
Like CO, STO needs more time, another four months would not hurt it at all, I do not see why Cryptic is rushing it out the door. Have they not realized people will not play a bad MMO even if it gets patched? WAR, AoC, CO, FE, all are bad, all have seen patches and improvements but it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
When your combat feels more like Pirates of the Burning Seas then you know you have some bad systems/mechanics.
When your combat feels more like Pirates of the Burning Seas then you know you have some bad systems/mechanics.
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 8:57PM (Unverified) said
If you're referring to ship combat, I think that's something of a compliment. That was one of the very strong points in PotBS.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2010 11:24PM Wensbane said
You'd be surprised at how much Pirates of the Burning Sea has improved over the past year. It is now a pretty decent game all around, and it's a real shame that it doesn't get more media attention.
Also, the good thing about PotBS is that a smart player in a small, maneuverable frigate, can actually destroy a dreaded ship-of-the-line. If he uses the right tactics, that is. Not many MMOs offer such possiblities.
As for Star Trek Online, it has the advantage of offering y-axis movement during battles, which should add a whole other layer to ship combat.
And on a lighter note, "pew pewing" stuff is fun, and you know it! Plus, in STO, there's "pew pew" at every turn.
Not very "trekkie ", I know, but I won't complain. I actually like blowing stuff up. Constantly. Preferably with photon torpedoes...
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Also, the good thing about PotBS is that a smart player in a small, maneuverable frigate, can actually destroy a dreaded ship-of-the-line. If he uses the right tactics, that is. Not many MMOs offer such possiblities.
As for Star Trek Online, it has the advantage of offering y-axis movement during battles, which should add a whole other layer to ship combat.
And on a lighter note, "pew pewing" stuff is fun, and you know it! Plus, in STO, there's "pew pew" at every turn.
Not very "trekkie ", I know, but I won't complain. I actually like blowing stuff up. Constantly. Preferably with photon torpedoes...
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 9:15PM Miffy said
Been playing the beta and I'd buy it for £20 but I'm not paying £50 for the game, which is the version you'll need with all the bonuses and the standard version is £40 on steam so not much cheaper. Also it feels like a Single Player game, I never get any sense of Massive so I wouldn't pay a monthly fee for it. It feels like a game where I want to buy items instead.
The other disappointment is the combat which I wanted to be in the bridge of the ship, I don't like being outside the ship in a Star Trek game, which is basically an inferior version of EVE.
The ground game is pure crap, no point talking about it.
The other disappointment is the combat which I wanted to be in the bridge of the ship, I don't like being outside the ship in a Star Trek game, which is basically an inferior version of EVE.
The ground game is pure crap, no point talking about it.
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 10:32PM ultimateq said
I'll agree with you on one point. Ship combat should take place on the bridge. I think I could have a lot more fun commanding my crew (ala bridge commander) over this style of ship combat.
On the other hand, I actually enjoyed the ground combat... a lot, more than I though I would for sure. It fits with me. I can see how some people may not like it.
One thing I would like on the ground combat is an auto-fire deal, mashing 1 just isn't my cup of tea.
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On the other hand, I actually enjoyed the ground combat... a lot, more than I though I would for sure. It fits with me. I can see how some people may not like it.
One thing I would like on the ground combat is an auto-fire deal, mashing 1 just isn't my cup of tea.
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 9:37PM ultimateq said
Watching it now. These guys are top notch nerds. I love it!
Posted: Jan 15th 2010 5:11PM (Unverified) said
The server stability issues and graphical glitches post load (aka transport) should be worrisome to all. Not only is it only about 2 weeks until live launch but Cryptic has been around this block 2-3 times already with COH, COV, and CO. They should not be having server and file I/O bugs in a game this close to launch. Especially not since this game is very clearly built on, or with the same tech that was used on CO.
The game is kind of StarTrek but just enough off to make the non-ST issues even more glaring than they should be. It's obvious Cryptic didn't want to take the risk to try a new camera system. So, instead they scaled an average height hallway to about 3X what it should be. They then scaled doors back out horizontally to keep their proportions correct. Walking around in a starship with 3 story hallways and doors big enough to fly shuttlecraft through just shows how little thought went into making a true StarTrek title and instead how focused Cryptic was on just getting something out the door.
The new user experience has clearly been designed to fit within some existing mission/narration system (CO's) instead of being crafted to give a new user a solid StarTrek experience. An ensign gets to be a captain after about 10 minutes time, seriously? The new user experience probably shouldn't even happen on a live server. There's too much guesswork and too many interuptions from other new players. If Cryptic had crafted a strong walled-garden new user experience with a reasonable progression and story, and polished it to be 100%+ StarTrek many of the niggling issues with the main game might not seem so glaring. As it is, the game is a chore to get into from the moment you start, which just makes you look at everything even more critically than you probably should.
I'm unclear as to the enemy progression, too. If a new player starts off whacking Borg for their lvl 1 rats what's left? In StarTrek canon the Borg are pretty darned close to the top of the food chain.
It feels like the "Make any alien race you want" character creator was put in as filler." Hey, we've got this superhero creator. Sure we could focus on making a neat ST game with known ST races...but that would require innovation. Instead let's just re-use what we have, regardless of whether or not it makes sense and ship something."
Ultimately there's nothing that shows that the team had a core focus on StarTrek and then built an MMO out and around that vision. Instead it looks like their core focus was "We have CO, let's do a (fairly) quick hack on that and strap on some StarTrek trappings".
The game is kind of StarTrek but just enough off to make the non-ST issues even more glaring than they should be. It's obvious Cryptic didn't want to take the risk to try a new camera system. So, instead they scaled an average height hallway to about 3X what it should be. They then scaled doors back out horizontally to keep their proportions correct. Walking around in a starship with 3 story hallways and doors big enough to fly shuttlecraft through just shows how little thought went into making a true StarTrek title and instead how focused Cryptic was on just getting something out the door.
The new user experience has clearly been designed to fit within some existing mission/narration system (CO's) instead of being crafted to give a new user a solid StarTrek experience. An ensign gets to be a captain after about 10 minutes time, seriously? The new user experience probably shouldn't even happen on a live server. There's too much guesswork and too many interuptions from other new players. If Cryptic had crafted a strong walled-garden new user experience with a reasonable progression and story, and polished it to be 100%+ StarTrek many of the niggling issues with the main game might not seem so glaring. As it is, the game is a chore to get into from the moment you start, which just makes you look at everything even more critically than you probably should.
I'm unclear as to the enemy progression, too. If a new player starts off whacking Borg for their lvl 1 rats what's left? In StarTrek canon the Borg are pretty darned close to the top of the food chain.
It feels like the "Make any alien race you want" character creator was put in as filler." Hey, we've got this superhero creator. Sure we could focus on making a neat ST game with known ST races...but that would require innovation. Instead let's just re-use what we have, regardless of whether or not it makes sense and ship something."
Ultimately there's nothing that shows that the team had a core focus on StarTrek and then built an MMO out and around that vision. Instead it looks like their core focus was "We have CO, let's do a (fairly) quick hack on that and strap on some StarTrek trappings".
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 9:27PM Rich said
it would be nice if the game didn't crash every time I zone in from the character loading screen.
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 9:36PM phobic99 said
I posted on another forum saying STO really feels like a single player game with a tacked on chat client and I got flamed to hell and back. Nice to see I'm not the only one that thinks this.
Honestly, the game isn't bad but I don't think it's worth $50 for the initial price of entry. It probably won't be long before the price on this drops. I remember Champions Online dropping to $30ish shortly after release. You can pick it up for about $20 now.
I wonder if these Giant Bomb guys are gonna buy the game.
Honestly, the game isn't bad but I don't think it's worth $50 for the initial price of entry. It probably won't be long before the price on this drops. I remember Champions Online dropping to $30ish shortly after release. You can pick it up for about $20 now.
I wonder if these Giant Bomb guys are gonna buy the game.
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 10:15PM (Unverified) said
Went into game after playing champions for 1 month.. and being a non fan of star trek lore.. So with all that i could fault with this combo i couldnt help but enjoy myself when i played sto.. the server issue is the only thing ive encountered to be a serious problem for me but if you have the cash and love the game i doubt there will be lack of content with this game like in champions, seeing as its star trek after all...
Posted: Jan 14th 2010 10:19PM (Unverified) said
Giant Bomb is my favorite gaming site. This set-phasers to fun is their extended take on what are normally called Quick Looks. I would liken this to MST3K for videogaming, and Jeff, Vinny, Brad and Ryan (and in this case, Dave as well) are all hilarious.
That being said- STO so far feels pretty repetitive... even for an MMO. My biggest gripe is that the quests have no real epic-ness to them, since they are all randomly generated. Even Wow's defias brotherhood line was fairly interesting in early content.
I personally don't think that Cryptic has found a good UI or inventory that I can get behind.
That being said- STO so far feels pretty repetitive... even for an MMO. My biggest gripe is that the quests have no real epic-ness to them, since they are all randomly generated. Even Wow's defias brotherhood line was fairly interesting in early content.
I personally don't think that Cryptic has found a good UI or inventory that I can get behind.
Posted: Jan 15th 2010 8:46AM (Unverified) said
All randomly generated? The second mission, and most memorable I've experienced so far, has you:
-talk to a senator in spacedock
-escort him to a planet
-destroy the Klingon blockade around the planet
-beam down and escort him to a temple
-defend the temple from Klingons for a time
-turns out the senator is a shapeshifter so chase him through some other mobs
-beam back up to your ship and try to stay alive for 2 minutes until reinforcements arrive
-team with reinforcements to take down the massive alien ship.
Yep, that sounds like a randomly generated kill 5 boars mission that is in any MMO, that's for sure. :-) No doubt there are random kill and fetch quests in STO, but if you say there aren't good storylines mixed in, you haven't really played.
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-talk to a senator in spacedock
-escort him to a planet
-destroy the Klingon blockade around the planet
-beam down and escort him to a temple
-defend the temple from Klingons for a time
-turns out the senator is a shapeshifter so chase him through some other mobs
-beam back up to your ship and try to stay alive for 2 minutes until reinforcements arrive
-team with reinforcements to take down the massive alien ship.
Yep, that sounds like a randomly generated kill 5 boars mission that is in any MMO, that's for sure. :-) No doubt there are random kill and fetch quests in STO, but if you say there aren't good storylines mixed in, you haven't really played.
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