I’ve just started getting past the point I got to in the Open Beta. Since last I wrote, STO has become a great deal more stable, and less buggy. Just in time, I might add!
The new Character Selection Screen for STO.
This time around, instead of going for a Science Vessel, which are the most heavily shielded, and of middling manoeuvrability, I have gone for an Escort. Escorts are much quicker on their toes, and have most of their weapons facing forward, so are a bit better at putting out damage. I’ve not found them to be overly fragile, as yet. STO’s version of public quests, Fleet Actions, only seem to score you for damage done, so playing an escort seems advantageous for now.
The set missions are well put together. Like Champions though, there are not so many of them that you won’t be doing every single one on your journey to Admiral, which does hamper replayability somewhat. You do have the option of doing exploration missions, but as they seem randomly chosen from a list of premade missions rather than being randomly generated at the time, once you do a few of them you start recognising which one you have just from the first couple of lines of mission text.
The vanishing Bridge Officer issue that I wrote about last week seems to have been finally squashed, and today the Klingons have been given access to a bit of extra higher-level content, which is certainly worthy of a toast of blood wine. So my list of gripes with STO is shrinking. I’m still far from convinced I’ll still be playing when my month runs out, but I am enjoying the time I have, and perhaps the first solid content patch, especially if it contains new features, will sway me.
General
* The Admiral promotion mission will now complete if players choose a fleet escort as their reward. This is not retro-active. If you’re an Admiral with a dangling promotion mission because you chose an escort, please submit a ticket to CS.
* Cardassian “Empire Defense” mission maps are now open to Klingon players.
* K7 station has been decloaked and returned to the sector map. Alleged perpetrators are being interrogated.
* The “Abandon Ship” power is now only available while in combat.
* General server optimization to increase performance.
A good bug-squashing attempt, most notable for the research changes. Until now, I don’t think anyone ever managed to get past the first researcher.
Also, the code left over from Champions Online that was allowing people to choose colours for their weapons has been removed. No more being blown up by fuscia coloured disrupter beam wielding Klingons for me!
A lot of folks have been wondering where the playable Klingons and Ferengi were for the Federation side. Well, they’ve just turned up, in time for launch day.
They’re so super-duper awesome that they’re not included in the price of your game. You have to pay extra. Putting an existing Klingon or Ferengi model in a Federation uniform is just such a hard task it couldn’t possibly be included in the 60 dollars, or however much, you paid already.
Cryptic shows Epic Greed in charging for launch content.
I’m disgusted by this. The level of greed Cryptic is showing is extraordinary, and I fear that we are going to be expected to pay over and over again in order to get a fully featured game. If you want any of the other game features that were supposed to be with us at launch, you can expect to pay through the nose for them too. Some people have just laid down 300 dollars for a lifetime subscription to Star Trek Online, and now they must pay further, before the game is even launched, to have full access to everything.
Champions Online just announced that is was going to be charging for a single zone content download, when it had possibly the least amount of content of any MMO at launch in the history of MMO. Recently Cryptic seems to release half-finished games, and then take advantage of any loyal customers willing to stick with it.
Cryptic may be living by The First Rule of Acquisition: Once you have their money, you never give it back.
But they have forgotten the 57th: Good customers are as rare as latinum. Treasure them.
It’s quite an event in it’s own right for an MMO other than World of Warcraft to be advertised on TV.
Because the embedded player is extremely poorly behaved, and will attempt to redirect your browser to IGN after it is done (Please come back!), I’ll put it after the fold. Hopefully it’ll turn up on youtube eventually and I can replace it.
The Star Trek Online headstart has been having a few difficulties. The servers have been rather slow, with zoning times often so long that you get kicked out for inactivity, if you’re lucky enough to not hang on zoning altogether. From time to time the servers crash for a few hours. Such is the way of headstart, which as I am constantly reminded, is just as good an excuse for any game issues as “This is Beta!”. Login queues have been implemented to try and improve ingame performance, but do little to sooth out-of-game-because-we’re-still-queueing annoyance.
A lot of people, myself included, have been finishing missions only to not receive the promised reward. This breaks one of the cardinal rules of MMOs: Never mess with a player’s stuff. While not being a big deal for me in the case of equipment, which I’d outlevel soon enough anyway, it is a problem in the case of rare Bridge Officers. The green and blue named Bridge Officers are superior to the ones you can buy on the station, and are intended to grow alongside you. Losing them has a long-term effect on your character.
My least favourite STO screen.
The obvious concern amongst many is “If the servers are this bad during Headstart, what is it going to be like when we release properly?”
I’m not so sure that we’re going to see all that much difference. Surely anyone who wanted to play from the game’s launch would have pre-ordered, and so been in the headstart? Headstarts are really the true launch of a game, but calling them a headstart provides the developer with a little wriggle-room to excuse early problems.
Of course, I have no numbers to back up my suspicions, but it would feel kind of unlikely that “launchday” would see much of an increase in the number of people playing (or at least *trying* to play) at any one time. Not a massive one, at any rate. I’d be interested to know what other folks, especially inside the industry, have experienced in that regard. I hope I’m right, because if I’m wrong, on Tuesday the queue to log in is going to be extraordinary, and the servers will probably melt.
There has been a lot of dissatisfaction that most pre-order goodies are not available during headstart, and it is easy to understand why. They are mostly low-level equipment that is only useful in the early phases of the game, or like the joined trill, a race that you have to start as. As, with so few character slots, we are not going to be levelling a lot of alts, it seems very poor planning to not have the pre-order items available when they would be most useful.
I’m waiting on a joined trill, myself, but with the vanishing Bridge Officer issue I’m not all that sorry that I’m being forced to wait.
Update, 1st of February.
The servers are still collapsing constantly, and if anything it is getting worse. I am beginning to dread the morrow.
There are bizarre reports that Amazon.uk has cancelled all pre-orders of the gold edition of STO today, right at the last minute, leaving folks without their Borg Bridge Officers. Something very strange going on there. Possibly a result of large numbers of people cancelling their own orders, or maybe a supply issue?
Just in, a post from Zinc:
Whoa! You guys continue to blow away all our expectations. We had so many people playing Star Trek this weekend… It’s incredible! Of course, whenever we break population records, we find more room for improvement, as well.
We had some issues this weekend that brought the servers down a couple times. This was due, in large part, to lots of people claiming items from the C-Store and an unrelated bug on the back-end. We’ve been working all weekend to sort these issues out and we should have some fixes rolled out later today.
We’re continuing to work on server performance and stability, too. We’re constantly squeezing more and more out of every little bit of processor power we have.
These fixes will go a long way in better preparing us for the inevitable rush tomorrow and this coming weekend. Thanks for bearing with us during this time.
I know this weekend was rough, but be sure that the team here at Cryptic is entirely focused on getting any issue we find resolved and fixed as soon as possible.
Thanks again for your patience.
Another patch. We’re now up to version 20100123a.14, but we’ve had no release notes since 20100123a.1 back on the 23rd of January.
Ahh, the hours before a game launches. Around the world, people are attempting to log in, just to see if somehow the servers have come up earlier than expected. They haven’t, and they won’t, but we can’t resist checking every few minutes anyway. Theoretically they should be coming up at 6 pm GMT.
We’ve also had some extra information about what additions to STO are planned over the next couple of months. The Klingons amongst us will be the happiest, with their lack of content being thoroughly sorted, by the sound of things.:
Just because we’re about to launch Star Trek Online doesn’t mean we don’t have some great updates ready for you in the coming weeks. From endgame raid Episodes, to more PvP maps, to more Klingon content, no matter what you love about STO we’ve got something you’ll love even more. Here’s a taste what we have planned over the next two months. And just in case you were wondering, everything listed here is free!
The Hive Mind Is Everywhere
The Borg are invading! Just in time for many of you to reach the rank of Admiral, we’ve got three new high-level Episodes centered around the classic Alpha Quadrant menace, the Borg. Here’s what you can expect:
* Collateral Damage – Help save civilians caught in a battle between the Borg and Undine.
* Recovery – In this follow-up to Collateral Damage, Rescue colonists infected by the Borg virus and fight Undine determined to destroy them!
* State of Q – Q transports you back in time to do him a special favor.
* More to come!
In addition to our compelling scripted content, you’ll be able to check out a brand new, Borg-themed Deep Space Encounter. Can you and your friends hold off the coming invasion? It won’t be long until you’re called upon by Starfleet to save the galaxy!
Don’t forget to check out the new exploration content included in the Borg content pack, too. When you find some respite from the Collective, seek out new life and civilizations at your own pace. The universe is just waiting to be discovered.
Raid Episodes Coming Your Way
If you’re looking for a challenge, look no further than our upcoming Raid Episodes, which combine bold storytelling with our toughest five-man missions yet. These are just a few of the Raid Episodes we’ll be rolling out over the coming weeks, beginning a week after launch. Raid Episodes are available to both Federation and Klingon players.
* Infected – Investigate a federation station that Starfleet has lost contact with.
* The Cure – A planet has been completely taken over by the Borg. Fight them for control of the planet.
* Khitomer Accord – Travel back in time and uncover and participate in the events that led to the release of old Borg you encountered in the Tutorial Episode.
* Into the Hive – Track down a missing Starfleet captain and come face to face with the new Borg Queen.
More Action in the Alpha Quadrant
We’ve got even more great additions planned for Star Trek Online. Here’s just a bit of what’s coming:
* Klingon Fleet Actions – Form up with your closest friends and do battle in large engagements.
* A New Klingon Ship – You asked for it, we made it: A Tier 2 Klingon Battle Cruiser.
* Klingon Star Clusters – Seek out new life and civilizations … and subjugate them! Additional PvE content for the Klingon faction.
* Federation vs. Federation PvP – Practice against your allies before engaging your enemies.
* New Ground Maps – We’ll be adding a new Ground Assault PvP map, as well as a new ground Fleet Action.
* More IP Locations – Check out Rura Penthe and our whole solar system, from Mercury to Pluto.
While we’re waiting, here is DarkMateria’s Worf song. He’s the same chap that made the more famous Picard song, but this one is just as good in my book. But then I like Klingon opera!
