Space, the final frontier...
So the Star Trek Beta is over and I'm back in Azeroth like I never left. This is telling. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. So much that unlike my normal habits, I'm going to get a 6 month sub and if I'm still not happy, then that will be it and that bothers me. You see, I WANT to like this game. Really. I like Star Trek. I like Star Trek enough to have watched Voyager. Not religiously or anything, but I caught more of it than I did DS9 or Enterprise (though to be fair, Enterprise was simply a matter of not being at a good time and not having a DVR).
Of course when I review my time, I can see that the Star Trek aspect is NOT the problem. No, they did a good job with the Star Trek part. You work for the Feds (or the Klingons), you patrol space, you fight off pirates and hostile aliens, and occasionally you scan a planet or system. It's very Star Trek if you're not a total Trek fanboi or someone who can actually calculate how long 1 Dilithium Crystal can power a starship. No, ultimately, my problem is with the actual GAME. I logged more bugs in this game than any other beta I have ever been in. Mind you, I'm not in all of them, or a professional tester, but I've done my fare share and I have never seen a game less ready for Prime Time.
The worst part is it's not the big things that are the problem. Like I said, the Star Trek part is great. They learned from Champions and blocked off (most of) the content gaps with repeatable exploration quests, system patrols and repeatable system protection quests. No, it's the things in the background that are like a ship's wheel in my pants. Things like quests not counting objectives. Quests not releasing you when you've finished. You beam down with your away team and half of them get teleported into solid objects, or below ground with no way for you to get them back. Respawn points that are completely surrounded by aggressive enemies. Quest NPCs that can outrun you leaving you unsure of which way to go.
Then there are still a couple of things I consider to be design flaws. For example, there's a type of quest you can get when exploring (that's the only time I've encountered it) that I consider to be poorly thought out. The main currency in the game is energy units. That's what equipment costs. You get it by selling dropped loot. That's the only way you get it. Quest rewards are skill points, Bridge Officer skill points, Starfleet (or KDF) Merit, PvP badges or Exploration badges. In this quest you happen upon individuals who need something. These various somethings are called commodities. Once upon a Beta you could go to the replicator on your ship, spend some energy, and produce these commodities. By the EoB you could not do this. In fact, the only way to get said commodities was to get them as loot drops, buy them at a starbase (Sol or K7 to be specific in the early game) or get lucky enough to find a cargo ship you can trade with. So then, if you were to get this quest, you would not only need to leave the instance, but the entire sector, buy these commodities on your own and then return to the instance. Now couple this with the fact that completing this quest is merely a step in the quest that actually rewards you (and doesn't give you energy) and the fact that there is no penalty for abandoning a quest. Yeah, I don't see even the GREENEST player doing this quest more than once.
The other thing may just be my preference for class-based MMOs showing. I don't like the fact that your character type really doesn't matter except in very narrow circumstances. Lets face facts, any Academy nub can pilot a starship. Anybody can pilot ANY KIND of starship. Sure, the ship may take some skills in later levels, but anybody can take any ship skill. The only thing your character type makes a difference in is any combat situation where you are having a direct effect on the outcome that doesn't rely on your weapons. For example, a Tactical character may buff your damage and crit chance and amount during ground combat. An Engineering character may buff your personal shields during the same encounter while a Science character may debuff an enemy's damage resistance. None of this in any way affects your ability to blaze away with a Phaser Sniper Rifle. It's the pretty much the same with space combat, except your abilities seem a little cooler because you're affecting the ship. Unfortunately none of your abilities are as useful as a Dual Heavy Phaser Cannon (Yeah, Orion Pirate Corvette? No worries). So, ultimately your character choice isn't quite as important as your skill choice. At least your skill choice would be important if there was any idea what the skills were good for. Therein lies my last problem. Exactly what is Starship Captain good for? Oh, it can help speed, weapon power, and turning speed? It can? So it might not? And maxed out at level 9 it's +18. Er, +18 what? Percent? Skill level out of 30? 50? 1000? I'd appreciate a manual Cryptic.
In conclusion, I'm kinda down on the game right now. If you want to play a Federation Officer (or a Klingon Warrior) and you don't care about the game play, but the experience? Then this is your game. If you want a space game that let's you do your own thing, go play EVE. If you're looking for a finished Star Trek game... Wait a while.
Of course when I review my time, I can see that the Star Trek aspect is NOT the problem. No, they did a good job with the Star Trek part. You work for the Feds (or the Klingons), you patrol space, you fight off pirates and hostile aliens, and occasionally you scan a planet or system. It's very Star Trek if you're not a total Trek fanboi or someone who can actually calculate how long 1 Dilithium Crystal can power a starship. No, ultimately, my problem is with the actual GAME. I logged more bugs in this game than any other beta I have ever been in. Mind you, I'm not in all of them, or a professional tester, but I've done my fare share and I have never seen a game less ready for Prime Time.
The worst part is it's not the big things that are the problem. Like I said, the Star Trek part is great. They learned from Champions and blocked off (most of) the content gaps with repeatable exploration quests, system patrols and repeatable system protection quests. No, it's the things in the background that are like a ship's wheel in my pants. Things like quests not counting objectives. Quests not releasing you when you've finished. You beam down with your away team and half of them get teleported into solid objects, or below ground with no way for you to get them back. Respawn points that are completely surrounded by aggressive enemies. Quest NPCs that can outrun you leaving you unsure of which way to go.
Then there are still a couple of things I consider to be design flaws. For example, there's a type of quest you can get when exploring (that's the only time I've encountered it) that I consider to be poorly thought out. The main currency in the game is energy units. That's what equipment costs. You get it by selling dropped loot. That's the only way you get it. Quest rewards are skill points, Bridge Officer skill points, Starfleet (or KDF) Merit, PvP badges or Exploration badges. In this quest you happen upon individuals who need something. These various somethings are called commodities. Once upon a Beta you could go to the replicator on your ship, spend some energy, and produce these commodities. By the EoB you could not do this. In fact, the only way to get said commodities was to get them as loot drops, buy them at a starbase (Sol or K7 to be specific in the early game) or get lucky enough to find a cargo ship you can trade with. So then, if you were to get this quest, you would not only need to leave the instance, but the entire sector, buy these commodities on your own and then return to the instance. Now couple this with the fact that completing this quest is merely a step in the quest that actually rewards you (and doesn't give you energy) and the fact that there is no penalty for abandoning a quest. Yeah, I don't see even the GREENEST player doing this quest more than once.
The other thing may just be my preference for class-based MMOs showing. I don't like the fact that your character type really doesn't matter except in very narrow circumstances. Lets face facts, any Academy nub can pilot a starship. Anybody can pilot ANY KIND of starship. Sure, the ship may take some skills in later levels, but anybody can take any ship skill. The only thing your character type makes a difference in is any combat situation where you are having a direct effect on the outcome that doesn't rely on your weapons. For example, a Tactical character may buff your damage and crit chance and amount during ground combat. An Engineering character may buff your personal shields during the same encounter while a Science character may debuff an enemy's damage resistance. None of this in any way affects your ability to blaze away with a Phaser Sniper Rifle. It's the pretty much the same with space combat, except your abilities seem a little cooler because you're affecting the ship. Unfortunately none of your abilities are as useful as a Dual Heavy Phaser Cannon (Yeah, Orion Pirate Corvette? No worries). So, ultimately your character choice isn't quite as important as your skill choice. At least your skill choice would be important if there was any idea what the skills were good for. Therein lies my last problem. Exactly what is Starship Captain good for? Oh, it can help speed, weapon power, and turning speed? It can? So it might not? And maxed out at level 9 it's +18. Er, +18 what? Percent? Skill level out of 30? 50? 1000? I'd appreciate a manual Cryptic.
In conclusion, I'm kinda down on the game right now. If you want to play a Federation Officer (or a Klingon Warrior) and you don't care about the game play, but the experience? Then this is your game. If you want a space game that let's you do your own thing, go play EVE. If you're looking for a finished Star Trek game... Wait a while.