Lieutenant Cmdr. Xev, of the U.S.S. Speedbump is born. Bio: 'To boldly go...... where am I?"
Sooo hey. STO would happen to be my first new game in over 3 years. 2nd new game since the shutdown.
I was due!
First off, it's a big deal here to download 10ish gigs of game client. It literally takes months due to bandwidth restrictions of my wireless ISP, which, is the only available broadband here in the bush. So, even though this was a casual choice I felt a little committed.
I had a forehead slapping moment in the beginning of play when I realized that 'I should have gone NWN'... And I still plan to try it. Due to I have CoH Hotrod mentality - which is, to build a hotrod, tune it, paint it, and lovingly place it in the garage with my collection where it can be taken out and rode however I please and whenever I want. Kinda like how I used to do in CO, too, until someone kept sneaking into my garage and stealing my stuff. Now my CO hotrods are more like rentals.
Variety *is* the spice... I'm a Star Trek fan since you could only fantasize about a game like STO. I've been known to get immersed in games similar to STO too. Soo I went in with an open mind and shelved the NWN regret.
The next doubts popped up when I saw the 3D modeling. Hmm. Ouch. What did they do to my precious. I mean, if you judge the game by the early 3d models you see you might think the game is much older than it is.
And then the real and actual Spock gives me some Intro.
OK I'm sold.
I had fun playing STO yesterday. All day and night.. I'm down with an injured hand (mouse hand! eeeeeps! it'll scar but I get to keep my fingers) and the weather isn't wanting me to work anyway so I'm stuck in all nice and cozy for another day of play today.
One of the first things that struck me (that no one else will notice) is that the game used so little bandwidth in the hours I played it. But. In Sol, outside of Spacedock, where everyone congregates with their ships, it's like Netflix streaming in comparison. That had me worried how the PVE queues would go, but, asfaik, the 5-man's I was in were not bandwidth hogs and I hope to be in many more - only thing is: what's up with the 30 minute cooldown in-between queues?
Sooo many currencies... I mean, what game has so many! *ahem*.. *shrug* I'll figure them out.
The pace of the game up to this point (I think I'm level 13?) has been completely different than what I'm used to. I would describe it, at this point, as leisurely. It's pretty easy to come and go with STO, too. This is handy if you have needy animals or children..
I like that they have a separate fadeout for their chat text than their chat window - it's a little thing, just saying.. It's good that I can still see chat channels from CO and I can see what few people still remain in my CO friends list too. It was bad that I couldn't get rid of CO Trade channel spam (they complain a lot over there, ya know) but then I figured out that I just had to remove myself from that channel (vs. just checking a ticbox). I plan to monitor a couple CO channels for when players are doing stuff I want to try and join. Or maybe I won't but I have the option! With STO I can pretty much come and go as I please and pretty much pick up right back where I left off which also helps when game swapping. Until now I've been all STO tho and only using STO channels.
I went with the Escort as my first freebie ship.. It seemed to match my playstyle but now that I have one I probably will go Cruiser next due to I like the broadsides action of trying to get forward and aft weapons firing at the same time. The Escorts seem more optimized for forward fire. Cruisers are also more tanky and I like their combat bonuses and I imagine having a larger group of expendables, errrrr, Crew, is helpful too. Plus, like Thunder Glove I would like my own Enterprise.. ha : ) Escorts are pretty decent looking lil ships too tho and I like the look of mine. I wouldn't mind trying out a Science vessel at some point depending on how things go. All three ships have their draws and the big mommas look interesting too..
Tactical, Science, and Engineering bridge slots add spice to shipbuilding. Not only are the different ships built differently and have different capabilities but they can also handle different crews. For example, Escorts have an extra Tactical seat and Cruisers have an extra (Engineering?) seat and I think Science has an extra Science(?) seat..
I went Tactical with my first Captain. *shrug* Science and Engineering have their draws too.
Ground combat is not my thing in STO to this point. I'm much more into the space combat. The movement and the models are one detraction. Ground combat does have it's X-Comish appeal though and I look forward to fleshing out ground combat skills more. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I'm more into Space combat at this point.
Anywayyyy. It's been fun. It did take me awhile to get into the game. More than a few hours. In the beginning it was a huge change of pace and gameplay to what I've become used to the past few years with CO. The tutorial seemed (as tutorials can) fairly excruciatingly slow and full of those 3d models models that make me cringe. But after giving the game some time it's not that different from other stuff I've played and enjoyed in the past. Really, the main inspiration to give it a fair shake was Leonard Nimoy... ha. His intro perked me up and his attaboy's kept me going.
Another doubt-giver was - I'm a Star Trek fan but what does that mean today? There are soooooo many flavors of Star Trek now. I was a Next Gen fan but to me that series did not age nearly as well as original Star Trek does. I sorta got into DS9 for awhile but I don't even remember it that well now. So I was like, am I gonna be lost in STO? No worries. STO is just fine for original Star Trek fans like me.
The only worry I have at this point is the bandwidth issue. The way things are now it's not a problem at all but seeing how the numbers roll outside of Spacedock has me cautious for what the future may hold.
Oh, and, have to mention... in contrast to the 3d character models I criticized there's some really nice and fairly detailed art work and 3d graphics in the game. (Whew.)