it is true that you only need 1 person to fly a Galaxy class ship, because the player takes on the role of the captain of that ship, while the other roles are performed by NPC's.

TBH I don't think I would like to play a game where all I do is pay attention to a screen that says if the warp core reactor output is optimal or not. I think this is the main reason Cryptic made the game the way it is.

I can understand your point of view though, because roleplaying in the Star Trek universe would be fun, but I think it would be a very niche game, and although niche games tend to have a steady hardcore playerbase, it still is a gamble for the developer to make one, and I've learned that big developers and gambles don't really mix.

The above is also one of the main reasons I like Indie games as much as I do. Although the graphics mostly aren't the same as "mainstream" games, they usually make up for this by having great gameplay. Currently over two thirds of the games I play regularly are Indie games and the other third are those that have earned my respect by just being plain fun to play...

Well, if Beverly Crusher can do it, anyone can... 😆

^^^ Good one 🙂

Here's my only real gripe:

Let's say you "pull up" when in deep space. There is a point where you can't continue on your arched path.

Once your ship is pointed "straight up", you can't continue pulling up to eventually be "backward and upside down" - you simply continue "upward".

Is what I'm saying making sense? I mean, there is no "up" or "down" in outer space, so why can't I pull some crazy move in a dog-fight by doing a loop-de-loop and roll onto my back? There is a definite, predefined, unbreakable sense of "up" and "down" in STO space. Dumb. Very dumb. The outer space flights should be free and fully 4-dimensional. Like they were in The Precursors or Dark Void (I know that one's not in space).

That's all I have to say about that. Other than that one little thing, the game is epic in my eyes. I am a Trekkie and I love this game. 🙂

I played STO for 60 days a long while back. Probably three months after it came out. I liked the space stuff a lot, REALLY enjoyed the Starbase 24 (?) fleet action. Loved fighting alongside other players in a huge battle without having to join a group, you could help each other out and travel in packs, share rewards etc.

Last week I started to really miss it. My wife made my play WoW again (Cataclysm) but once I got a Goblin to 62 (repeating Outland for 10,000th time) I just got sick of it. Decided to give STO another shot.

Man, they've improved some things! I loved that they have the Excelsior. I have two characters at Commander-2 right now, so I grabbed the T3 Excelsior to play around with. Also noticed that you can really walk around inside the ship! Love that! It's a bit dead (lots of NPC crewmembers though), but way better than before. Decorated my ready room. Awesome.

The upcoming player-built mission thing sounds just incredible. Trekkers making missions ... this is going to be great.

We'll see how it goes. I haven't tried PvP yet, though I'd like to at some point.

Things I still don't like: ground combat feels clunky and slow (how many times do I have to shoot a guy with my rifle before he dies!?); some of the missions are very repetitive feeling.

Edit: Oh, and I hate not being able to angle my ship straight "up" or "down" -- which is why I got tired of flying escorts in a real hurry. Sometimes the enemy would be directly beneath me, shooting me, but I couldn't angle my guns at him. That irritated the crap out of me. Just gave up and started using a beam-boat cruiser for my Tactical Officer character.

and the waiting to load the location is annoying they are cutting down server running costs

OK, here's my writeup after playing STO for another month. Warning, wall of text incoming...

First of, there are a whole bunch of minor improvements that don't seem obvious at the start but they add to the "realism". For example, when leaving a sector using warp, you won't warp through objects anymore. There's a bunch of these small improvements and they make the game feel allot more polished.

Second big thing is the difficulty setting. Before, all combat was just easy. I never died against NPC's with the 5 characters I levelled to RA5 (max level at the time), with the exception of the endgame raids (STF's), they were dificult then and are still difficult now. This was not because I'm that good, but if yer even a little bit cautious that was easy.

Now, there are 3 difficulty settings: Normal, Advanced and Elite. The normal setting is the one they had at launch (eg. Easy as hell). If you change the setting to either Advanced or Elite, the difference is quite noticeable, especially on the Ground. I've now levelled a new toon to VA1 (the new Max level, 6 levels higher), and I've been playing on Elite for the most part. I have died more times then I can count. YAY!!! Some missions are just bloody difficult.

Also, dying on any difficulty besides Normal gives you injuries. These are persistent debuffs that can be removed using items, or by talking to certain NPC's. Your bridge officers can receive injuries as well, and so can your ship if you get killed in space combat.

Playing on the higher difficulties gives you more experience (boo, you reach max level faster) and it gives better loot. (yay, w00t). I have gotten more purple gear (the extremely rare gear) with this one toon then I found with the 5 toons I played at launch. But the best thing with this difficulty is the fact that it is challenging as hell, which is a big plus IMHO...

There is also more content in the game. Currently there are 2 extra midgame quest chains and a bunch more endgame content. The two midgame quest chains are very well written, consist of at least 5 missions, which are easily 1.5hr or more each. Some are a bit like the old text adventure games, in which you have to make choices in conversation, and you can even fail some of the missions if you say the wrong thing, or blow the wrong thing up. Yay again. Only downside from the extra midgame content is that there is now more content then necessary to reach the max level, which means you will have to skip content or be content with shooting NPC's that are below your level. To keep the game challenging, choose the first.

Crafting has been redesigned completely. There are hundreds of items you can craft now, in comparison to the dozens before the change. You can now craft extremely rare equipment now as well, and the weapons I use on my ship for the endgame content are crafted.

There are also quite a few new ships available, sadly some are only available for real money. This is something I really don't like, a real money store for a game that also has a monthly subscription...

A word about the endgame raids, called STF's (Something Task Force). These are long and difficult as hell, you do NOT want to play these on anything but Normal difficulty, unless you have an experienced team and use voice communication software like Teamspeak or Ventrillo. They can last 4 to 5 hrs easily. You can eff up and make them last even longer. They require teamwork. Allot of teamwork. Allot of coordinated teamwork. I hope you get what I'm saying here, which is that they require a whole lot of coordinated and well executed teamwork. And I like it 🙂 The best set items, which is the Borg set (for your ship), can only be acquired by doing all the STF's (there are 4, and they can be played on two level settings, besides the difficulty settings)

My only real gripe with the game is the fact that the Foundry (the player made content) is only available on the test server for now, but the best 5 missions will be added to the "real" server very shortly, and the Foundry itself will also become available in the near future. (I returned to STO under the assumption that it was already available...)

All in all, I like the changes that have occurred since launch, and I will continue playing this game for a while. From the looks of it, I will not get bored as quickly as I did before...

Also, if you plan on going to play this, please send me a message, so I can give you an invite. This will give me some free ingame stuff, and I will give you some free ingame stuff as well 🙂

/end wall of text

OK. the first five player made missions made it to the "live" server. Very good stuff. I was correct in thinking that trekkies + content creator == fun 😀

Also, the first non Starfleet ship will make it to the Starfleet side very soon. It is the Vulcan D'Kyr and it looks pretty sweet. It's currently on the test server. And lucky me, it's a science wessel and my main is a sci-guy 🙂

Nice pic:

The D'Kyr does indeed look awesome. Always liked that design.

I've been having fun so far; got my LtCmdr Tac officer to Rear Admiral (Lower Half) - 2 in fairly short order, flying around in a Sovereign like a boss.

Been playing a Klingon lately (Engineer) and having fun, though the huge dearth of Klingon content is crummy. Hoping to jump into some PvP once I hit LtCmdr or Cmdr level on him.

Klingon exploration missions on the ground range from boring to ludicrously bad. (Like running through a massive base that is totally empty just to shoot a single tribble way in the back.) I generally skip 'em and just blast stuff in space.

Ground combat is still terrible. The old method of just taking nothing but engineers with you still works to speed things along (each engineer summoning multiple turrets and mortars / drones).

Enjoying myself overall. Plan on making my Klingon a crafter.

Edit -- I do love the featured episodes. Glad Klingons can do them, too, that's a massive help.