Star Trek Online – Blog of Heroes

Because I could use some distracting right now

I came to the conclusion this morning that I have the MMO itch again. I just don’t know how to scratch it. Short of going back in time and fixing it so that my beloved City of Heroes doesn’t get canceled (and that never ends well), I’m stuck looking at the old or trying to figure out the new.

(And, yes, my long-time correspondents are probably sick to death of this post, since I’ve repeated it periodically the last four years. Sorry, folk.)

On the “old” side, I’ve tried LotRO enough times to know that (a) it’s an amazing recreation of Middle Earth and (b) its gameplay just drives me nuts.

I’ve also tried WoW in the past, and it never quite gelled for me. Obviously it’s the benchmark for all things MMO, but in the long run we just sort of ran out of gas on it. It might be worth giving it another try.

We tried out WildStar, but for some reason it, too, didn’t the cut.

Star Trek Online? Nicely steeped in Star Trek lore, but more of a ship simulator in the ST universe than a role-playing game. Also not really suited (that I found) to duoing with someone.

DC Universe Online ended up feeling to button-mashing for me. And, again, it really didn’t seem to lend it self to partnered play (almost anytying but).

Is Champions Online still out there? Also a bit button mashy, not very duo-abled, and I found it tonally offputting. Also, the auction house was irksome.

What I am looking for from an MMO? Fortunately, I have some posts whining about that dating back (yeesh) a number of years. In sum (and roughly in order of priority).

1. Duo-friendly. A big part of my gaming life is playing with Margie. A game that makes it difficult for us (and usually just us) to play side-by-side, due to different start points, or poor leveling / sidekicking setups, or advancement requiring guilds / raids, or whatever, is going to be a frustration to us.

A game that actually rewards or scales properly to team-ups is a big advantage.

2. I need to feel heroic. Jogging everywhere in the world? Doing boring grind missions? Imperiled by battling three opponents? That’s not feeling heroic. (Note: this doesn’t necessarily mean “super-hero” or “comic book hero”.) I’m not looking to slay dragons on Day 1. I am looking to feel like I’m triumphing more often than not, and in a meaningful fashion. (This was an area where LotRO failed me.)

3. A variety of content / replayability. I don’t want to feel railroaded through just one course of action. I want parallel ways of gaining experience and exploring the world and so forth.

4. Well-written content. I don’t mind humor, but overall I want to take the story seriously. (One of my problems with Champions Online.)

5. A good resource / loot / crafting mechanic. Yeah, I know. I want to be able to play and advance without spending hours in a crafting room or haunting auction houses. Alternately, if I feel like doing that, having reasonably enjoyable / profitable mechanics for it are to be desired.

6. Soloable. Though we game together a lot, sometimes we like running solo, just to try something new, or because the other person isn’t around or doesn’t feel like gaming. (This tends to be tied a lot to #4.)

7. A reasonable, non-pervasive payment structure. I don’t mind paying money for a subscription (I know, how drolly 00s of me), but I’d like a chance to get my feet wet before I buy. On the other hand, I do not want to end up in a freemium game where it’s in my face all the time that only by spending my own cash on a regular basis am I going to get anywhere. I’ll pay for something special, but if I have to be regularly spending to play and advance, I’d rather have a monthly sub and not worry about it.

8. Alt-friendly. For whatever reason, Margie and I are both alt-aholics. Paper dolls are our friends. We like to try out different character types and combinations. We’d like to play something (in conjunction with requirement #3) that doesn’t require us to delete characters in order to roll up new ones.

9. Optional but available social options. Sometimes you feel like a PUG. Sometimes you don’t. A decent gaming community where there are options to group up when one is so inclined (e.g., when soloing) would be keen.

10. Instanced missions are keen. Because a bunch of PCs standing around waiting for the bad guys to respawn is kind of lame. And frustrating.

I also want a pony and a rocket ship and a Winnebago and peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

With the understanding that I’ll never find everything I want, and the CoH servers aren’t going to magically restart next weekend — anyone have some suggestions?

#gaming #boh

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So, besides mourning CoH, what else game-wise have I done lately?

The extended memorial service for City of Heroes, posted earlier today, aside, what’s new for me and online gaming?

Um … honestly, not a heck of a lot.

First off, it’s been a busy month or two. Margie’s been away on business. I’ve been away on business. Holidays and social butterflying and all that sort of thing. And the next month isn’t looking any better.

Secondly, yeah, I’ve been in mourning. Mercifully, Margie talked me into playing CoH one last time before it went away. But since then … really haven’t felt the yen.

And thirdly … well, I haven’t found … the thing. The game to take its place. I’ve done some World of Warcraft solo and duoed, and likely will some more. But while it’s a decently pleasant passtime, I’m just not feeling the characters as such (something I became very aware of as I was crafting my endless memorials). There’s more variety (if of a less-rich nature) than of Lord of the Rings Online, but, honestly, I don’t feel invested in the characters in either game. With everyone wearing whatever they pick up, and the power/skill selection being fairly categorized, the players are (absent a strong social environment, which we’re not and not likely to get into) pretty much cookie cutter in nature.

(And that, I’m realizing, was one of the geniuses of CoH — that your fundamental appearance could be so different and unique, and the encouragement to have an origin story and a cool super-name to go with it, and that even your power selections could be tailored and tweaked and recombined and enhanced and respecced and recolored to make you completely individual. The focus was more on the characters than on the setting, though the setting was still pretty full of content.)

I’ve given Champions Online another go, and while some of those CoH advantages might seem to pertain, it feels both too mechanics-driven and too arduously neutral / balanced, to the point where every blast power is kind of like ever other blast power, and so forth. And the setting starts to come into play again as feeling uneven and alternately goofy and grim. Plus, the whole game feels like a carnival in so many ways.

I haven’t retried DC Universe Online, or Star Trek Online, but I don’t recall much (or see much in current press) to make me feel they will fit any better.

Maybe we need to try D&D Online again / some more, since that has such character differentiation. There was something vaguely disjointed about what experience we had there, but we didn’t really drive things to any great conclusion.

I keep hearing encouraging words about Star Wars: The Old Republic — and highly discouraging words about it, too. But maybe that’s a possibility.

People keep suggesting to me Guild Wars 2, but aside from my fiery passion to not give another red cent to NCSoft, I hear a lot of trouble in that particular paradise, too.

So … what next? I haven’t the foggiest. And, honestly, given the “firstly” above, I don’t expect to make any great progress until January. At least. At the earliest.

And that’s okay, right? Because it’s not like I don’t have eleventy-dozen other things going on. And while Playing Game with Margie is a lot of fun and doing-stuff-togethery, it’s not the be-all and end-all of our relationship.

I’ll — we’ll — find something that we enjoy together. And (assuming it’s a game), we’ll give it a try. And we’ll have fun. Or not, in which case we’ll move on.

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah,
La la, how the life goes on.

Mr. Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang

Via Doyce, from the Daily Grind a way to frame to your relationships with MMOs the way you frame your … “real” relationships:

I’m sure you’ve heard of the classic “marry/kiss/kill” ranking game (or some not-so-PG version thereof) designed to rank your interest in a trio of human beings. So how about turning that upon MMOs today?

Which games would you marry, would you kiss, and would you kill? By which, I mean:

Marry: You’re in it for the long haul with this title, admiring the devs’ past and present efforts, and are confident that the future will hold great things. You plus this game equals “happily ever after.”

Kiss: You’re interested — or currently involved — with a brief fling with this game, but you’re pretty sure that it’s not going to last. This is a title best left to brief flirtations versus long-term relationships.

Kill: You are done with this MMO — or never wanted to get involved with it in the first place. You abhor the studio’s practices and products, and wouldn’t mind seeing the game thrown into the sun. Metaphorically, of course.

Actually, kind of an objectionable way of framing it, but let’s see if I can tweak it a bit:

Marry:

City of Heroes: A first love, and still a best love. She’s comfortable, pleasant, mature, fun to be with, a great sense of humor, still has plenty to explore … and she eve now manages some new surprises and unexpected presents now and again. My friends know her, which is nice. There have been times we separated, though I always come back. Lot of people think she’s over the hill, but I’m quite happy with her.

Kiss:

Lord of the Rings Online: Old, kind of crazy girlfriend I remember fondly and still occasionally socialize with. Things just never seemed to be going quite the way I was hoping, though, but I’m very glad she’s found other relationships. Still occasionally think about another brief fling, since she’s free now, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Wizards 101: I’m happy enough chatting with her while the kids are capering on the playground equipment. We were never close, but she always seemed good with children.

Kill Don’t Return Phone Calls From:

World of Warcraft: We went on a first date, and I carefully thereafter blocked her on my phone. Never did see what people saw in her.
Champions Online: She was bright and shiny and promised so much but gave back so little. We had some fun times, but ultimately she was never someone I could settle down with.
DC Universe Online: Another try at rekindling an old relationship, but it was just too much of the same old grind. I keep thinking I might give her a call some day, have some coffee, no strings attached, but I can never quite work up the interest.
Star Trek Online: Met her at the con, seemed to share may of the same geeky interests as me, but eventually it seemed like that was all she was about. The repeated conversations grew boring. I still play some of the music she lent me, sometimes.

(Maybe I need to stay away from girls named “Online” … it ever seems to end well.)

Ogle from Across the Room:

Star Wars: The Old Republic: She’s hot, she’s new to the scene, she’s hot, she’s got everyone talking. But she looks like someone who could take over my whole life, and I’m just not ready for that now.
EvE: She’s mysterious, intriguing, and into some wild and different stuff. I know folks who go on and on about how cool she is. Rumor has it she’s a tiger in the sack, but a very demanding mistress. Staying way away from her.

Man, gaming relationships are complicated …

Because occasionally I feel like I should post something other than tweets

Even though there’s not a lot of News or Info or Interesting Stuff to post about.

Um …

Margie and I have been playing CoX (business trips permitting) pretty regularly over the last weeks. We’ve been mostly running the cohort of 20ishes we grew up through Rogues, playing with new Tip missions vs Evil Duplicate missions vs Plain Ol’ Police Band missions vs etc.

For a guy who hates crafting/auctioning, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time at Wentworths (etc.) building up bankrolls by Buying Low and Selling High, mostly Special Enhancements and highly rare Invention Salvage.

By the way, the recent addition of a new Salvage tab that requires scrolling over in order to see the Invention tab? Highly irksome.

So, not much more to tell. Playing CoX. Having fun. Booyah.

Viz other games … well, never signed up for DCUO after doing the beta stuff — bright and shiny but annoying non-instanced missions and overly combat-oriented. Haven’t done any STO in ages, either — it didn’t float Margie’s boat, and ultimately felt too repetitive (though what it was repeating was rather cool).

We’re pretty much a CoX shop these days. And, for the time we have to spend, that’s not a bad thing.

To seek out new life, and new … oh, forget it

One of the mission types in Star Trek Online is exploring unexplored sectors — unmapped areas where you find anomolies and either scan them or visit the previously unvisited planets they represent.

Margie and I, duoed, always seem to have problems getting into these planets. If we both show up there, then we end up with each of us having two mission choices — “Explore system,” or “Explore system ([team-mate name]).”

It seemed that no matter which set of options we chose, either only one of us got in, or we ended up at different worlds.

Episode 2 has not improved this any. So we blew it off and did something else (i.e., beat up on a lot of Gorns). But it was irksome. And we couldn’t find any teaming options that might explain what was going on or what we should do differently.

*sigh*

So there was, like, y’know, some actual game being played here

Yes, it’s been a long dry patch. Well, for me at least. Margie’s been busy as a bee playing CoX, as well as [REDACTED DUE TO SOMETHING WE CAN’T TALK ABOUT OR WRITE ABOUT OR EVEN HINT AT, REALLY].

Still, on Wednesday night, we ended up going in and playing some CoX, and I’ll admit I was totally embarrassed at some of the oohing and aahing I made at the New, Improve, Old-to-the-Rest-of-You Auction House interface. Eleventy-zillion percent better.

We ran around with Araware and Fazenda, had a fun time, leveled to 31, looked at the Storm Knights roster and were a bit sad, then whomped on bad guys.

Cue the trials and travails with my laptop. Timing is everything. Rrg.

Sunday afternoon, we spent a goodly chunk of time playing our first STO in a long time. (I think we didn’t play during any of Season 1.1, and now it’s 1.2, crikey!) Finished the City on the Edge of Never arc (which was much easier in a duo than soloing), got up to LC4, good times had by all, etc.

Nothing wild or exciting or mind-bending (though getting eleventy-zillion accolades when we signed onto STO was kind of trippy). Just some gaming fun. About time.

STO: A Table of Captains (the new Captain Database)

Actually, I’m not sure what the collective noun for a group of captains is, but since we have a Captain’s Table in STO, I’ll go with that.

Anyway, as BD pointed out to me this morning, the Captain Database is now online at the STO site, under “Community”. Woot!

Well, mostly woot.

Though the table you start with has Captains and Handles, you can only search by the former. Once you have a captain found, you can click on the @ handle and see all the captains that person has. That display gives a rather dim headshot of each captain, their short name, rank, current command/ship, and a link to their profile.

(You can also go directly to “My Characters“, which looks the same as drilling down to your own handle’s set of toons, except you’ll be asked to choose one as your “main” — what this means isn’t explained.)

The profile page gives a larger version of the headshot, short name, species / gender / class, and their current command/ship name. The biography section gives the online biography for the character, with a sidebar for the current ship (including name, class, registry, crew complement) and a list of bridge crew (but no info on them beyond name, rank, and class).

The captain’s log tab duplicates the online captain’s log, registering (with date stamps) all Missions and significant Activity (e.g., a bridge officer promotion). You can also put in manual Captain’s Log entries, and supplemental entries / comments on all activities.

The system is nice so far as it goes, but could use some improvements:

There’s no searching by @ handle. Hope you can remember your friend’s captain names.
The search is a bit wonky. One of Margie’s toons is “B-47” but that search doesn’t come up with anything (though that’s the name on her profile page, once I manually went to it).
There’s no backlink from the captain’s log to the profile page. Once in a profile, there’s no reference to the @ handle or way to get back to the captain list for that handle. If you’re going around inside your own toons, you can go back to “My Characters” from the Community menu, but, still …
The generated profile photos are awfully dark, to the point of being difficult to see in some cases.
The individual entries and logs and comments do not have their own URLs (let alone RSS), so it’s not easy to incorporate them into a creative activity outside the walled garden of STO.
Given the (creative) importance of Bridge Officers, there’s no reason why we should not be able to pull up more info on them — mug shots, at a minimum.
We should also be able to see a picture of the ship.
CO had a clever (but horribly implemented) profile picture generator/editor. STO should learn from that, rather than just creating a static head shot. We love our uniforms, not to mention stances.
Actually, I’d love to be able to do a “group picture” of my captain and his/her bridge crew, perhaps with the current ship in the background. Yes, I can do that manually. No, I don’t want to.

So, a good start, and an easy way to create a linked reference to your STO captains — but not much more than that. Kudos for what it is, and hopes for what it could be.

(If nothing else, this demonstrates how many bad captain names there are out there. And I’m not even counting the folks who have been forceably renamed “BadName 54123” and the like.)

STO Lifetime Perks

I’ve never been so anticipatorially hung up on a game that I really felt the yen for a lifetime sub (which would have SO paid off with CoX, and been SUCH a waste with CO, so I guess it’s a wash).

STO just announced (or re-announced, or firmly established) the perks for lifetime members. It’s worth a comment or two on what works and what doesn’t. Of course, this is just for me — your ego-boo mileage will certainly vary.

Greetings Lifetime Members!
We just wanted to thank you again for purchasing a Lifetime Subscription from us. As you already know, this entitles you to play the game without paying a monthly fee. But, that’s not where it ends. Later this month, we’ll be releasing special perks for you, just to show our appreciation. Here’s some of what we’re working on, exclusive to Lifetime Subscribers:

Exclusive In-Game Chat Channel:
Talk shop with other Lifetime Subscribers. Share thoughts and ideas about the game, or anything else.

Okay, this is pretty easy and straightforward to do — but are any folks (or any significant number) really going to take advantage of this? Is it worth all that and a bag of chips? The chance to chat with, well, other folks so obsessed about Star Trek and so willing to drop a chunk of money?

Folks who like chat will find this the sort of perk they like.

Front-of-Queue Support
Waiting isn’t fun, and we don’t think you should have to do it. Any time the server is queued, you’ll go to the front of it.

Now this is a very, very cool perk. It’s not life-changing, but it’s very appropriate for a lifetime sub.

In-Game Title
Visibly show off your support.

Some people will think this cool. Other people will find it abhorrent.

In-Game VIP Lounge
Spend time in an exclusive area inside the game. This social area is limited to Lifetime Subscribers only.

From what I was reading (and Tweeting) yesterday, this is the Captain’s Table (as in the ST book series). The question is, just like the chat channel, how many people will actually make use of this?

A Unique Costume Piece
Show off that fancy new title in style.

Without knowing what this is, it’s hard to say, but a very cool costume piece is an appropriate thing to have in this game.

So, some stuff that is pretty nice, some stuff mixed, some social stuff that I really don’t see being used all that much (social interaction is most likely to be based on common interests; the intersection of “social players” and “lifetime subscribers” and “folks who are going to want to socialize with other lifetime subscribers” is, I suspect, fairly small.

Queue-jumping is pretty damned cool, though. Getting high priority on support requests / bug reports would also be along those same lines.

I’m not a lifetime subscriber to STO, and am not likely to be, but I think those who are should get some measure of reward to make their lives easier or nicer without giving them an unfair advantage in the game. Most of these things provide just that. Nicely done, Cryptic.

Coming up in STO …

The STO Season One “Common Ground” update, sometime real soon now (“Mid-March”). Features:

PVP Updates

Wargames – Federation players can now participate in PvP against one another to better prepare for the dangers of the battlefield.

Um … PvP meh. But new PvP map will likely mean a new PvE map to use, so that’s good.

Customization

Off-Duty Uniforms – Experience DS9 in style! Starfleet officers will have the option to change into off-duty outfits to enjoy more casual attire.

On the presumption this will cost extra, meh. I can imagine that if I were doing more RPGing, this would be of value.

New Stances and Hairstyles – Further customize your Captain by changing his or her hairstyle, or adopting two brand new stances: Stern and Relaxed.

New stances always good. Actually, the ability to dynamically change your stance would be welcome.

The Captain’s Log – A web-based application to check in on you and your friends’ Captains and ships.

You mean, a website portal to our characters and their ships? Excellent!

Ships

A New Klingon Battle Cruiser – The K’Tanco Battle Cruiser has been made available to Klingon Lieutenant Commanders.

Klingon Ship Customization – Use the ship tailor to customize your Bird of Prey, Carrier or Raptor.

Fine, fine. When I finally roll up a Klingon, I’m sure I’ll find this cool.

Missions

New Fleet Actions Everywhere!

The Big Dig – Available in Romulan space.

DS9 Under Siege – The True Way has attacked and boarded DS9. Repel the invasion to save the day.

Klingons Can Play, Too – Klingon Captains may now access the Crystalline Entity, Big Dig and Breaking the Planet Fleet Actions

Skills

Respec Is Here – Unhappy with your Captain’s skill point allocation? Use the respec tool to change things up. (Available both in-game and as a C-store item.)

Don’t see a personal need for this, but some folks do. Hopefully Cryptic will have learned some costing lessons here from CO.

New Skill: Starship Attack Vectors – Improve your ship’s accuracy and critical hit chance.

New Skill: Combat Maneuvers – Improve your ship’s evasion and turn rate.

New Skill: Starship Battle Strategy – Improve your ship’s critical hit severity and damage resistance.

All good-sounding stuff, though I’m not sure we need more skills to split our skill points out onto.

In The C-Store

New Bridge Variants – All new ways to update your Bridges’ look, available for a low price in the C-Store for both Federation and Klingon ships.

Federation Ship Variants – New takes on your old favorites, available for a low price in the C-Store.

Respec – Unhappy with your Captain’s skill point allocation? Use the respec tool to change things up.

Character Slot – Purchase an additional character slot if you’d like to have more than three characters on your account.

Rename – Changed your mind about the cool name you chose? Get it legally changed! Recognized across the Alpha Quadrant.

New Federation Playable Species – Become a Tellarite, Pakled or Rigelian.

Well, no big surprises here, though it’s good to see some new stuff finally showing up in the C-Store. Holding out for the Caitian playable species, though …

This is only a bit of the changes, fixes and updates coming to Star Trek Online in March. Season One: Common Ground will be available in mid-March. For a full list of what will be available in Season One, please visit the Engineering Reports forum. Interested in checking things out early? Visit the Tribble test server forums for early release notes.

Leveling up in Star Trek Online

I dinged from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander in STO yesterday with Bierzein, my Trill Science Officer. That’s my first LC — huzzah!

Since I haven’t talked about the leveling process in STO (and the rank promotion isn’t clearly laid out either) … let’s discuss it. If nothing else, it will give me some notes for when I do it with the next toon.

Leveling within a Rank

STO is kind of weird with the leveling bits. Each rank has 10 grades within it (tracked very efficiently across the top). But the grades (at least on the Lt level) don’t make that much difference — there are a couple of skills that come available mid-rank, but there’s no huge power ding.

(Actually, there is a “ding” — a visual effect, and a hearty “Well done, Lieutenant” from Leonard Nimoy. But it’s not a sudden massive and obvious empowering.)

Advancement in STO during a rank is through skills and skill points. The grades, in many ways, serve more to give a short-hand as to where you are. As it stands, every mission you get additional skill points for yourself and for your bridge officers (the latter share a pool). They can be applied at any time, but when they hit some sort of threshold a “Skill up!” small flasher appears in the upper left corner. Click on it and apply the skill points for yourself and for your bridge officers (one or more of them) and you’re done. (Be sure and click Apply!)

It’s very subtle in effect, but it’s a constant advancement, which is kind of nice. While the gaps between levels in CoX can drive one to despair sometimes, the constant application of skill points in STO gives you something regularly to do, even if you’re seeing more obvious changes from kits and drops and other externals.

Leveling between Ranks

It took me a bit of time to figure out what to do with leveling Bierzein between Lt and LC. It’s possible there are difference at other ranks, and, of course, Klingon (native) players will deal with something in parallel but with all the details different.

Actually Getting the Promotion: First off, I was on a mission chain when I got the big glowy-congrats. I decided to finish it up, just becauise of transit time. So I finished those missions as “Lt 11.” Right, until I actually get the promotion, I’m still a Lieutenant.

I knew I had to go back to Earth Spacedock for promotion (and picking up my New Ship!), so I transwarped back there.

No announcement.

I docked and went aboard.

Nada.

I trotted over to Admiral Quinn (putting away my phaser rifle into katana-space first, to be polite).

His tone of voice made it clear that he had no new missions for me and, in fact, was a bit peeved I hadn’t finished the ones still in progress.

I ran around a bit on Spacedock trying to figure out who I had to talk to. Despite the signs on the wall, the place is not as well organized as it might be (it would be handy if the map showed the various areas).

Finally I realized, “Hey, I never applied those last skill points I acquired. I wonder …”

Applied them to Bierzein, and, “Hey!” Admiral Quinn was suddenly hailing me, congratulating me, and summoning me “back to Stardock” (bugged) where I should meet with him personally and give me stuff.

Admiral Quinn has a short memory.

So I ran back to Quinn. Saluted. He congratulated me, and then handed me a plaque to turn in for One (1) Free Starship.

My New Ship: The gal I needed to do that with, Lt Laurel, was upstairs (up the ramp, up the turbolift) from the Shipyard section of Spacedock. I went up to her, got the lecture the different types of ships I could choose from …

… to make a long story short, Escorts are scrapper/blasters, high on lethality and speed and maneuverability, but glass cannons (to hear some) in prolonged combat. Cruisers are tanks/defenders, very tough, able to assist other ships, and pretty unmaneuverable. Science Vessels (Support Ships, some call them) have high shields, specialize in debuffing the bad guys, and are the controllers of the STO universe.

Any type of captain (tactical, science, engineering) can operate any type of vessel (indeed, if you strike it rich, you can actually buy additional ships to swap between, or so they say). The differentiator is less with the captain (who lends some skills to whatever ship they are on) than on intrinsic powers of the vessel class plus the bridge crew (different ships allow added bridge officers off the appropriate type).

Since Bierzein was going to be soloing, I decided to play it safe with a cruiser. (Margie and I have a couple of duos we’re running, and will likely be doing more mixed mini-fleets.)

All that Laurel gave me was a requisition slip for the ship of my choice. The rest of the room is full of educational displays about the ship types, plus guys who could sell me all sorts of ship goodies, but only if you had Yet Another Specialty Currency (one of my minor peeves with STO), or maybe vastly more of a currency I actually had.

From there I had to run downstairs and find the guy who does ship requisitions, Ensign Obin. There I actually received the new ship of my dreams …

… which I immediately renamed (both ship name and registration number) — once, for free. I’d now be commanding the USS Ad Astra, successor to the USS Per Aspera. (The renaming button comes up in the normal window that shows you and your bridge crew.)

I then turned around and talk to the guys (Golos Vell and Dirz Raxx) who let me design what my ship looks like. I love this particular STO feature.

Finally, I went over to Ensign Shalah to buy stuff for my ship. Her selection wasn’t very good, so I took the opportunity to run over to the Auction House Exchange to buy (or sell) some swag. I decided, though, before screwing around with changing the default weapons config on my cruiser (phaser array and photon torpedoes fore and aft), I’d see how she flew.

My New Bridge Officers: My new ship came with some new bridge officer slots. You can requisition officers with Elsa Morel over in Personnel, or check to see if you have some still pending to fill in. With my cruiser, I got an additional engineering station for a lieutenant, so I promoted my existing Engineering officer to LT, and brought in a new ensign who’d been made available to me in the past.

My New Dress Whites: I also get a free costume token when I got promoted. That’s nice, too. I could get the new costume from Ghemik Telur (a simple tailor) in Requisitions, but decided to stick with what I had. Bierzein is not much of a clothes horse.

The Ceremony: After all the above (though you can do it at any time after the promotion, if you want), I ran over the Stateroom (auditorium) and talked to Commander Menn Hilo, the guy at the podium who’s usually droning on and on about astrophysics. He offered me formal congratulations and give a nice salute, as did other folks in the room. Pictureworthy (hence the picture at the top of the post).

And that’s it! I was now a Lieutenant Commander, and when I next beamed up to my ship — it was my new ship, but with all the familiar faces (and one more) around me. Ready for the next adventure! Huzzah!

Transitions

I just came the the realization that I have next to zero interest in ever playing Champions Online again. Which ticks me off to no end since (as I’ve said a dozen times) there are so many things about the game I like. I just find the overall experience an awful, not-terribly-fun grind.

On the other hand, we put in our pre-orders for City of Heroes‘ “Going Rogue” expansion, which in theory means we immediately get Dual Pistols to play with. Woot!

(Interestingly enough, as I was watching the DP trailer, it occurred to me that the power just looks a bit goofy, given that in CoX animation, the bad guys aren’t being immediately knocked back / down / dead in in all directions due to the shooting. I’m not sure why that feels more wrong for pistols than for, say, fireballs, but it does.

So I still need to get onto CoX and do my server transfers before they (finally) stop extending the free server transfer service.

On the gripping hand, I’m still busy playing Star Trek Online whenever time permits, so no time for supers.

STO: State of the game and upcoming awesomeness

Some very cool stuff upcoming in Star Trek Online, beyond just “We’re doing a lot in customer support and stabilizing bugs”:

Now that the game is out and in your loving hands, we’re taking long, hard looks at everything each and every one of you is interested in seeing changed. Cruiser turn rates? Death penalties? More open auto-fire? All those topics and more are being scrutinized by the all-seeing eye of… um, us!Some of the few things on the way:

Respec

Death Penalty

Difficulty Slider

More open auto-fire

Replayable missions

Improving Memory Alpha

Some good stuff there, though, honestly, not enthused about the whole Death Penalty thing …

We’re in the final stages of testing the first STF (the five-man raids we internally referred to as “Raidisodes”). STF: Infected is just about ready to release.You know, I might actually record one of our internal play sessions. The excited cries for more shielding and healing get the blood pumping. Although, once our testers reach the end room and the action really heats up… Well, it’s not exactly “family friendly” in there. Definitely going to be an exciting, thrilling mission for our players, though.

After Infected, we’ll roll out more STFs. “The Cure”, “The Khitomer Accord” and “Into the Hive” are all coming along nicely. We look forward to regularly releasing these and seeing what everyone thinks.

Given that I’m pretty much content in my duo-ness, this part isn’t nearly as exciting … though, y’know, y’never know …

We haven’t set the future of STO’s content into stone because so much of it will be determined by you, but we’re laying out what we’d like to focus on for the next 6 to 12 months.

Who are the Undine and what drives them?

How can we better exploit the Genesis System to create even more compelling content?

Where can we boldly go next? Where shall we take exploratory missions, as there’s so much potential there?

Which faction should be playable next? Romulan? Cardassian? Pakled? Dominion? Horta? Okay, not so much the Pakleds.

And that’s not even the start of it! Ship interiors, more bridges, crew quarters, First Officers, Fleet advancement… You have subscribed to a service that delivers a universe unending, and we shall see that universe populated with compelling content or, by the Prophets, we will die trying.

Some people get that. Some people don’t. We’re here for those that do.

Interesting idea, that future development might be (at least partially) focused on more playable factions. That might provide some frontiers in playability over time.

RTWT.

STO: No retreat, no surrender

Why is every battle in Star Trek Online to the death?

That’s not quite true — there are (in my up-to-LT9 experience) a couple of canned cases where folks surrender (rescue the scientists from the Gorn ship, for example). But 99% of the guys you encounter fight a Bitter Battle to the Death. Klingons, Gorn, Undine, Orions … they’re all totally into fighting until you blast them into a flaming hulk whose warp core shortly goes boom.

Why?

I think it would be interesting if at least some of the “Bad Guys” were willing to try and flee. Yeah, the Klingons are all about honor and that, but even there, “Only a fool fights in a burning house.” Some of these guys should be willing to wild-weasel their way out of combat, to live and fight another day. Even moreso Orion pirates, and Undine with added info about the Federation.

And, in some cases, people should be willing to surrender. And then the Feds have to decide whether they can afford to just leave the shattered hulk behind (to perhaps escape), send over a prize crew (reducing overall ship efficiency), or blow the bad guys to anti-matter flinders.

But every fight to the death (except when the Fed ship manages to break away)? Not quite believable.

STO: Loot modes

Flagging this forum thread as having a good explanation (as it’s not tool-tipped) of the various looting modes.

Everyone can, in their Social options, set up their preferred Loot Mode, which controls how drops (candy, globes, chicklets) get handled during combat. The actual control for what happens on the team, though, is with the team leader.

The options:

Here are the basics:

Round Robin – Everyone gets a turn at looting, whatever drops on their turn is what they get, then it’s the next person’s turn. [This is what Margie and I run on.]

Free for All – Everyone can loot everything, first come first serve.

Need or Greed – When an item is looted you decide whether you “need” the item, meaning you’re actually going to equip it and have a use for it, or “greed” the item, saying that you don’t need it but you’ll take it to sell if nobody else wants it. After everyone on the team has picked need or greed the following happens:

If one or more people have picked Need, they all roll random numbers and the highest roll gets the item.

If, and only if, nobody picks Need, all the Greed team members roll in the same manner to determine who gets it.

Rolling Need on an item you’re not planning on using is generally frowned upon.

Master Looter – The team leader loots everything and (in theory) distributes loot as he sees fit among the team.

The Loot Threshold is what level of item should have the above done to it. I.e., if “Common” then every drop will be subject to the above. If “Rare” then only rare items and above will be; all else will be Free for All.

Honestly, I’d love to see some added options/features:

Autograb. Breaking attention in battle to grab candy is irksome. Circling back after combat is also a pain. If it’s mine, it should just go in my inventory, and I’ll look at it later.
Lion’s Share. Give the drop to the person who did the greater percentage of the damage, or tilt the die rolls above to that person. It’s irksome as well when you’ve tackled a ship all on your own and the drop goes to someone else on the team (who, to be fair, was tackling something else without your help). This would also impact folks who don’t engage in combat quite as vigorously.
Smart Need-Greed. Allow users to set options (I really am not interested in X) and/or do some smart examination of what the (for space combat) ships already have — if someone is missing a component (a Tac console), or only has something of a lower value or rarity, then they should get priority for the drop of that item.

If the Loot Threshold actually defaults to Free for All, I’d rather have that smartened, too — e.g., be able to choose Need/Greed, with stuff below the threshold going to Round Robin (it’s worth credits, even if not all that interesting).

Not surprisingly, this setup is much like CO’s (and many other games). I still prefer CoX’s mechanic, where it’s personal and automatic. Looting ships/debris is ghoulish, in some ways, not to mention time-wasteful. But at least now having read the options, it gives me a better idea of what’s going on.

STO: More “death penalty” thoughts

Craig Zinkievich was interviewed again, and raised an interesting point about a “death penalty” in Star Trek Online (Emphasis mine):

Why isn’t there much of a death penalty? There are a few suggestions around that could be introduced to stop players from carelessly throwing their ships into battles; Your Bridge Officers could be incapacitated for a minute or two after a defeat while they’re healed in sick bay or, after a number of deaths, you may have to return to a star base to get repaired before certain modules stop working.

We currently have a death penalty in-game. When you die, your crew comes back depleted and has to slowly build back up. This means your hull and other systems don’t repair as quickly as if they were at full capacity. And on the ground, you’re forced to retreat to a respawn point behind where you expired.

In terms of traditional death penalties, think about what a death penalty really is: It’s a time penalty. You died; therefore we’re putting you in time out for X amount of time. Or, you died, therefore we’re forcing you to spend X amount of money, which takes Y amount of time to earn. Why would you force people to stop having fun, and sacrifice their free time, just to disincentivize behavior in a videogame? I get that people want to feel a sense of risk when they’re fighting in battles, but if the only emotion you feel when you’re playing a game is fear that you’re going to lose some time due to an arbitrary gameplay mechanic, we’re probably not doing something right. It’s like asking why single-player games have quicksave options. But that said, we are looking into finding a meaningful way to give players a deeper sense of loss when something bad happens. But we want it to feel right, rather than just like an arbitrary penalty.

That actually makes a lot of sense.

Does STO need a “meaningful” cost of dying?

In a recent interview, Star Trek Online’s exec producer Craig Zinkievich indicated that STO might need a more significant “death penalty” than just going back to the nearest respawn point. Or at least, that’s what some players are clamoring for.

Zinkievich explained Cryptic’s feelings on death penalties, saying that they are usually just a time penalty, preventing players from getting straight back into the game and having fun.

“I get that people want to feel a sense of risk when they’re fighting in battles, but if the only emotion you feel when you’re playing a game is fear that you’re going to lose some time due to an arbitrary gameplay mechanic, we’re probably not doing something right, ” he said.

However, the game’s developers aren’t against the principle entirely; “we are looking into finding a meaningful way to give players a deeper sense of loss when something bad happens. But we want it to feel right, rather than just like an arbitrary penalty.”

I’m of two minds here, of course. I don’t know about anyone else, but seeing my beloved ship blow up and suffering for 30 seconds of cooldown before getting back into action does feel meaningful.

And what are the alternatives? Thinking of CoX and CO and (I believe) WoW …

Loss of experience or slowdown of experience gain (CoX): You could justify this as saying that Star Fleet looks askance on ships being driven to (“near”) destruction, and so your meteoric rise to the admiralty is slowed for a bit. I find this irksome, but not horrifically bad. (By the way, when is STO getting a “Level Pact” feature?)
Loss of capability (CO): As you succeed in CO missions, you get stars, up to five, which provide a buff. As you get killed, you lose the stars. This has the paradoxical effect of making you less effective against the things you have to go up against again. I don’t like it.
Loss of swag (WoW): I’m thinking here of the mechanic of having your body looted, etc. This is perhaps the most realistic — a finite chance of some system or feature on your ship getting wiped out, or inventory lost — even (perhaps with successive failures) the death of a Bridge Officer. Eek. Most realistic, but I’d be seriously hating it. It suffers from the disadvantage of #2 (making you less effective against a foe you’ve already established is dangerous), unless you delay it until after the battle/mission is over (you survived, but those great twin disruptor cannons that your engineer kept together with spit and baling wire have finally given up the ghost — time to return to Star Fleet for a refit). Losing a BO, though — yeah, I can see it game-wise, but I’d hate it play-wise.

So the variation on #3 perhaps makes most sense if you have to do something about deaths. And, yes, it adds some “realism.” I’m still not convinced it’s necessary, or that folks who take untoward risks now will be all that much less likely to do so even with penalties.

Thoughts?

Wanna be my STO Buddy?

Note from Cryptic this evening:

Have a friend interested in Star Trek Online? Maybe he or she saw you vanquishing a Borg cube and was interested in more? Now, with the Star Trek Online Buddy Key, you can invite them along on your adventures, unrestricted, for five whole days.

Here’s how it works:

Visit the Star Trek Online Buddy Key claim center to claim your key.

Click “Claim My Buddy Key.”

You’ll be redirected to your account page. In the upper-right corner, you’ll see a section labeled “Unused Keys.” Your Buddy Key will appear there!

Send your friend the Buddy Key, as well as a link to the Star Trek Online key registration page. (To claim the Key, your friend will need to create a Cryptic account if he or she hasn’t yet.)

Your friend is ready to enjoy Star Trek Online. He or she can download the client at our download page.

After five days, your buddy will need to purchase a retail copy of Star Trek Online (and apply a retail key to his or her account) to continue playing.

Thanks again for your continued support, and we can’t wait to see you and your buddy in game!

– The Star Trek Online Team

Fiendishly clever.

So if anyone out there is interested in giving STO a spin for five days for free, let me know. (Amanda, I’ll hold onto one of those for you. 🙂 )

So how’s that Star Trek Online working for you, Dave?

Pretty darned well.

Both our duo and my solo are LT7. I’m enjoying each new zone as I go into it (I’ve just started to scratch the Neutral (PvP?) Zone stuff with my solo).

It’s fun enough that I keep waiting for the next time I can hop on and play. That hasn’t happened for a long while with CoX, and never really did happen with CO.

I do wish some of the social stuff that currently works in CO — auto-Tweets and a “portal” page for my toon — were working in STO. And I wish the zoning with team mates worked a bit more solidly. And I wish the documentation were better.

But aside from that, I don’t have much to complain about. Except not enough hours in the day to play as much as I want to.

STO: Starting out pretty well

I don’t have a lot imaginative to say about STO. I’m quite pleased with the game thus far, though — it feels more polished in many areas than CO did on launch.

Some items for improvement (of course):

It feels like there’s a vast array of both options / powers / skills and places and ways to display them. That’s gotten me confused so far more than once. “Wait, hey — where was that power lurking? And why can’t i drag it within the tray?” An example of that is the “hidden” Transwarp power.
Some of the peripheral mission content is still a bit wonky. Contacts that don’t glow when you approach them. Unreachable anomalies (ground and space). Bits like that. Still early days and all, but it’s a rough spot that needn’t be there. Plus, no explanation, to date, about what to do with all those samples being swept up.
While far, far better than CO, there are still plenty of places where it isn’t clear the distinction between different gadgets one picks up. Is X better than Y? If it’s just different, how is it different? There doesn’t seem to be a lot of room to figure that out other than picking up X and seeing how it works.
It’s great that they’ve added sensors (V) to find anomalies. It would be even greater if they could spot the nearest one and the one after that, so that our duo could clean things up better.
“Pick up items” is not always clear, persistent enough on screen, etc. Indeed, a lot of those screen prompts tend to flit past too quickly.
Contacts sometimes come back, over and over again, to get you to listen to something.
They seriously need to do something about the spamming on the chat channnels.

On the other hand:

It is so nice that you don’t have to trot back to Starbase Earth all the time to do stuff. You can contact contacts (Hail Starfleet) immediately, you can level when you get the points while still in space, you can sell through the Replicator if your trays get full. There are things that have to be done back at Earth, but it’s a lot less inconvenient.
The game remains very pretty and fun, with an array of ground and space combat scenarios. I don’t know if it’s balance or if we’ve gotten a lot better, but the space combat seems a lot less lethal than it was in Beta.

We’re up to Lt. 4 with our duo. I’ve also started a solo character just for those occasions when it makes more sense. I’m pleased by the amount of individual detailing and configuration you can do with your lead toon and his/her crew; I’m wondering how much of that will translate into personal RPGing (in my head, if nothing else). I’m also wondering whether the 2 slot limit (more slots available, doubtless, at the C-Store) will feel like a limitation at some point, or when/if we’ll want to see a respec sort of mechanic.

Overall, good stuff.

Not a good Friday evening over in Cryptic-land..

From CO:

Currently, the Champions Online Server is down. We are aware of this issue and are currently working to bring the server back online as soon as possible. Please keep an eye on this page for updates, and notification when Champions Online is available again. Thank you, The Champions Online Team

From STO:

Currently, the Star Trek Online server is down. We are aware of this issue and are currently working to bring the server back online as soon as possible. Please keep an eye on this page for updates, and notification when Star Trek Online is available again. Thank you, The Star Trek Online Team

Man, someone’s weekend just went in the crapper.