Star Trek Online: Here We Go Again!

[Rishathra]

Cannon spread along with quantum torp spread. Mostly meant me dying with everything training on me after that salvo, but it was fun as shit.

I wish to hear more about this "spread" business you speak of - I tried torp spread once or twice, but thought all the spread skills were garbage.

They revamped how Torpedo Spread works in a patch a week or two ago.  The visuals are different, and they now do roughly 85% of the damage of the equivalent High Yield skill, to each target.  Very useful now, even on single targets.

[01101010]

Cannon spread along with quantum torp spread. Mostly meant me dying with everything training on me after that salvo, but it was fun as shit.

I wish to hear more about this "spread" business you speak of - I tried torp spread once or twice, but thought all the spread skills were garbage.

They revamped how Torpedo Spread works in a patch a week or two ago.  The visuals are different, and they now do roughly 85% of the damage of the equivalent High Yield skill, to each target.  Very useful now, even on single targets.

Yeah I was kinda shocked at how amazing the skill actually looks from the profile view. Was in a few Borg things last night and was off trying to throw a heal on someone fleeing from the green pulsating death and the camera snapped back around at the Cube just as an Escort unleash a spread. I gotta say, this game has become fairly well done since its advent. My only gripe is that without the Q xp bonus, the game really starts to feel grindy at times. But all the changes since launch have really been for the better. F2P should work out well for them.

[Surlyboi]

I didn't think it was all that grindy 'til I started playing a Klingon. If you're not into pvp, that's a SERIOUS grind.

[01101010]

I didn't think it was all that grindy 'til I started playing a Klingon. If you're not into pvp, that's a SERIOUS grind.

Klingons have no draw for me. Made one but she is sitting where I left her after char creation. But the Shag and scoob gang are haulin' ass.

[Strazos]

I love PvP, but hate most Klingon players who constantly try to run away. Even worse when they're obviously losing, so then they just cloak and sit there, hoping the Feds will log out.

[Fordel]

Do they lack HONOR DUTY HONOUR?

[Surlyboi]

I love PvP, but hate most Klingon players who constantly try to run away. Even worse when they're obviously losing, so then they just cloak and sit there, hoping the Feds will log out.

Try playing a klingon before you pass too much judgment. They're at a pretty big disadvantage, weapon-wise to go toe-to-toe with most Fed tiers until you get up to general/admiral levels. Then again, I wouldn't PvP as a Klingon OR a Fed though, so hey.

[Strazos]

I dunno, I've seen Klingon ships melt people just fine.

[Surlyboi]

I have too, but generally at lower levels its been wolf pack style where you get gang ganked.

[Merusk]

That's lore-consistent, though.  Which is another reason I'd never, ever play a ST game in a PVP setting.  Too many lore nerds would bitch if your Bird of Prey can solo-gank any fed ship that's not a science vessel.

[Strazos]

The thing that gets me is that they must not realize that PvP is good XP, and it'd be quicker if people would just play the matches out as quickly as possible.

[Reg]

Is there any chance that we could start a new Star Trek thread and let this one die? Not being able to go directly to the first unread post is slowly driving me insane.

[Lantyssa]

I think it's because of a thread merge.  Maybe Trippy can fix the indexing?  (And look into it for future thread mergers?)

[UnSub]

Maybe start a new one around the F2P transition?

I'd do it, but 1) I don't play STO and haven't since beta and 2) I think I started both this thread and the ChampO thread and both broke. I'm not going for attempt #3 to see if I'm just bad luck.

[Modern Angel]

So when does this thing actually go full on free? Or did it already and I'm just not up to speed?

[Rishathra]

They've been cagey about mentioning a specific date, but the consensus is "sooner than you think."

[01101010]

Borg ground adventures rumored to start at the end of the month... fuckers did that because my sub is up on the 27th. Luckily, I have a job to pay for my addictions.

[Stormwaltz]

Dev diary about an unusually thorough quest log revamp.

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2630

[Zetor]

So I don't know jack about star trek (I think I've seen a grand total of two episodes), but this foundry system seems to be relevant to my interests -- I am a huge sucker for player-generated content.

How does it compare to Mission Architect in COH? I read the wiki, which makes it seem similar, if a bit limited in scope.
- Is it viable as an alternate way of advancement through the game (like in COH), or is it just a sideshow?
- Is this kind of content actually played by players?
- If so, are people interested in story-based missions, or just 'farm missions' that give the most rewards in the least time?

[01101010]

So I don't know jack about star trek (I think I've seen a grand total of two episodes), but this foundry system seems to be relevant to my interests -- I am a huge sucker for player-generated content.

How does it compare to Mission Architect in COH? I read the wiki, which makes it seem similar, if a bit limited in scope.
- Is it viable as an alternate way of advancement through the game (like in COH), or is it just a sideshow?
- Is this kind of content actually played by players?
- If so, are people interested in story-based missions, or just 'farm missions' that give the most rewards in the least time?

There is an actual mission given out by an NPC to take on 3 player-driven missions, which I also believe is repeatable daily. So Cryptic actually does funnel people over there. Having played a few, maybe 5 or 6, I can say it is fun and some of the missions are incredibly well done where others are meh. I can't recall quest rewards or anything like that, but the xp was roughly the same as development written quests.

[Stormwaltz]

A dev diary and screenshot of the long-percolating duty officer system.

http://startrekonline.com/node/2631

[Mrbloodworth]

MORE to manage. TBH, id rather they work on allowing friends to man bridge officer slots.

[Stormwaltz]

I want a full fledged Sims 3: Lower Decks in my STO. 

[Mrbloodworth]

No, I just think it would be fun to allow other players to take bridge spots and use personal skills.

[01101010]

No, I just think it would be fun to allow other players to take bridge spots and use personal skills.

I can't even wrap my head around how this would work in this game given its layout. I have the idea of a bridge commander simulation where I would be sitting at a panel and looking at the battle screen but wtf fun is that? And I don't mean that with any malice... I just don't see it fitting in with how they constructed this game.

[Mrbloodworth]

Have your friend take up a bridge officer slot in the officer tray. He sees what you see and can fire weapons, use his buffs ETC.. I thought they had talked about it before.

[Tyrnan]

Have your friend take up a bridge officer slot in the officer tray. He sees what you see and can fire weapons, use his buffs ETC.. I thought they had talked about it before.

Wasn't that the original design idea that Perpetual had for it? I can see it having a certain appeal to proper, full on Trekkies but I'm not sure about the rest of the gaming population.

[Shatter]

Have your friend take up a bridge officer slot in the officer tray. He sees what you see and can fire weapons, use his buffs ETC.. I thought they had talked about it before.

That sounds...how should I put this....not fun.

[Rishathra]

I can see it having a certain appeal to proper, full on Trekkies but I'm not sure about the rest of the gaming population.

[UnSub]

Have your friend take up a bridge officer slot in the officer tray. He sees what you see and can fire weapons, use his buffs ETC.. I thought they had talked about it before.

Wasn't that the original design idea that Perpetual had for it? I can see it having a certain appeal to proper, full on Trekkies but I'm not sure about the rest of the gaming population.

Perpetual's (and I always get a laugh out of that name at this point in time) design was the officers-as-pets, which is pretty much what Cryptic ran with.

They may have said, "Oh, and if you want you can swap out those pets for other players," but given their game never launched, we won't know if that decision would have made it out of the alpha.

We had this discussion (about multi-player ships) and it wouldn't work outside of 1) the player crew is a crack team who play with military coordination, or 2) like Puzzle Pirates, there is lots of busywork that various team members can do, but they are mostly optional.

Can anyone imagine what raiding in WoW would be like if it took 5 players to control one character? One gets the head, another the left arm, another the right etc and they all have to coordinate at the right time for anything to get done. 99% of characters wouldn't be able to take one step forward without collapsing like an epileptic at a rave. Same with ship control. All it takes is for your weapons man to go on biobreak and the rest of the team finds themselves in explosive decompression.

[UnSub]

Interesting (to me) tidbit: in order to keep the STO license, Cryptic had to deliver the game on the same schedule that Perpetual promised to CBS.

[Zetor]

Well, SWG had the entire "spaceship controlled by x people" thing going (pilot, 2-6 gunners, operations officer, engineer)...

[Count Nerfedalot]

Interesting (to me) tidbit: in order to keep the STO license, Cryptic had to deliver the game on the same schedule that Perpetual promised to CBS.

Interesting, if true.  I wonder what their excuse is for releasing CO in a nearly identical unfinished-and-obviously-rushed state?

[Mrbloodworth]

Well, SWG had the entire "spaceship controlled by x people" thing going (pilot, 2-6 gunners, operations officer, engineer)...

And it was hella fun.

[Tyrnan]

Interesting (to me) tidbit: in order to keep the STO license, Cryptic had to deliver the game on the same schedule that Perpetual promised to CBS.

Interesting, if true.  I wonder what their excuse is for releasing CO in a nearly identical unfinished-and-obviously-rushed state?

Losing the Marvel license and Microsoft pulling out wasn't it?