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Star Trek Online
- Thread starter Prongle
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I'm playing it on a 2.53, 9600GT 512MB, 4GB RAM MacBook Pro. Works well, especially as I'm pushing it onto a 1920x1200 external monitor.
Well I was able to get this game to run via BootCamp, a friend provided a key I could use.
I doubt I will buy it. The graphics look "wrong". By that I mean, its like someone was making paper doll cut outs and pasting them onto the scene. That is how the character models look and feel to me.
Ship movement and combat is, meh. Complex isn't there . They are slow to turn no matter the speed which seems odd, why cannot I pivot quickly? Press 1 for phasers press 2 for photon torpedoes, press space bar for all your phasers.
Ground combat, is more of "follow the arrows" and "press F to interact with the very very VERY shiny obvious character/item/etc". I mean, its as damn close to a rail shooter as you get. Want to go left in that hall instead of right? Sorry - blocked.
Did play with a friend, did a few missions together and the number one glaring problem with this game is
LOADING....
Ran it on my i5 at 2560x1440 without any issues, no graphics lag/etc
I doubt I will buy it. The graphics look "wrong". By that I mean, its like someone was making paper doll cut outs and pasting them onto the scene. That is how the character models look and feel to me.
Ship movement and combat is, meh. Complex isn't there . They are slow to turn no matter the speed which seems odd, why cannot I pivot quickly? Press 1 for phasers press 2 for photon torpedoes, press space bar for all your phasers.
Ground combat, is more of "follow the arrows" and "press F to interact with the very very VERY shiny obvious character/item/etc". I mean, its as damn close to a rail shooter as you get. Want to go left in that hall instead of right? Sorry - blocked.
Did play with a friend, did a few missions together and the number one glaring problem with this game is
LOADING....
Ran it on my i5 at 2560x1440 without any issues, no graphics lag/etc
Space combat below Lvl 10 is a bit boring, I'd agree. I've been flying an Escort ship for the last few hours and finding it a great improvement - faster turns, more complex weapon loadouts and by that stage, a selection of buffs and debuffs (including a speed turn...). I'm enjoying space far more than ground, where I agree, the missions are too linear and obvious.
The graphics when you're in the space station do look a little "wrong" much better in certain ground missions. Like the first time you escort an ambasador to P'jem, those planet side graphics were much better.
Space battles are supposed to be a little slower and more tactical. These are big ships, they shouldn't turn on a dime. I've found space combat to be quite fun, especially going into the little "deep space encounters" part and getting a group of 3 or 5 players to go and take down the squadrons of ships.
At first we would sorta run in and get killed, but then we figured out it worked better to go "around" to the squadron's back side and pick an escort that was far away from the big crusiers and break them away from the fleet. We were able to take down some pretty daunting clumps of ships in our little starting ships.
Oh and get the ability "Evasive Maneuvers" its a practical turn on a dime on a cooldown.
EDIT:
My current tactic is basically to fly around a ship, utilizing my overlapping phaser arcs, till I bring down a shield or two, pop my "high yeild torpedos" and "evasive maneuvers" to turn and torpedo them right there. If you can keep the enemies on one side while you circle them, you can obviously reinforce that side's shields.
$239 Lifetime before 02Feb.- represents 16 months of play.
$299 Lifetime after 02Feb.- represents 20 months of play.
The longest I've played a (2) MMO is 18 months- WoW, Planetside. The shortest is 1 month of beta for 4 different MMOs- Tabula Rasa, LOTRO, Vanguard, Sord of the New World.
If, no opportunity to play the beta, it's quite a commitment to an unknown game.
I've been playing some Open Beta (not too much, don't want to get too far in the game before it gets reset), and I have to say I genuinely like the game. It's not perfect, but I enjoy it.
That said, I'm not going to be plunking down $300 (lifetime and game purchase) for it out of the starting gate. Now if WoW came along with some kind of lifetime purchase agreement, maybe. But not some new upstart MMO.
Hah, boring! Just wait until you can throw some cannons into the mix on an Escort class. You then have to get very tactical, as you can't get hit too many times on your front shield, but your heavy weaponry is front-firing. You then start using speed to your advantage and try to perform strafing runs, rather than the endless circling that is common in the Light Cruiser/Cruiser/Science vessels.
My current space strategy is this:
Escort ship, with Mark III Quantum Torps, Dual Heavy Phaser Cannons & Mark III Phaser Bank on the front, with a Mark II Phaser Turret on the rear slot. This loadout means I can hit you incredibly hard in the front 45 degrees with every single weapon, the front 90 with phasers and torps, front 250 with phasers, and a full 360 with the turret.
I then use a stack of buff/debuffs (Shield boost, weapons/speed boost, shield killer, high yield torpedo, polarised hull & speed turn to get out of firing arc) at 11.5k-10.5k, open fire at 10k. Opponent's shield usually goes down in one salvo, or sometimes two. I then unload into the hull, and spin away to take their return on the lateral shields, get behind and repeat.
Yeah, that certainly seems like a plan. However I've only played to Lieutenant 3 or 4, and I have mkII shields, and disrupters I've looted from my conquests. I haven't seen anyone with anything but the starting ship so far. Obviously I've been against some much heavier Klingon stuff, some of which can kill me very fast.
I really want to love this game, but it seems as if its going down the same path at LOTRO. I was desperate for that to be a great game and one I could really immerse myself in, but after reading reviews similar to these I'm starting to feel a little worried.
Here's hoping they run a trial so we can see if it suits us.
Thanks for the reviews and comments guys, keep 'em coming.
Here's hoping they run a trial so we can see if it suits us.
Thanks for the reviews and comments guys, keep 'em coming.
Frankly if they would get rid of the ground missions then I might get it to play the space combat portion. I found the ship movement controls to be just annoying. I wish there were a click to option, letting me drive the ship either with keys or clicking towards the direction I want it to turn.
Customization of the ships is nice though.
At least the NPCs show more life than LOTROs night of the living deal modeling
First, I'm glad there is a thread about STO here! Of course it is extremely disappointing there is no Mac version. I don't know why companies insist on only having a Windows version, especially with the growing Mac user base. If anything, they should look at the extreme success of WoW; gee, they have a Mac version, maybe it's a good idea if we do, too! What idiots.
I wanted tolike love this game. Before I even started BETA play, I was figuring out how to justify the $239 lifetime membership.
Unfortunately, Shivetya is correct. I fully realize that my latest generation 21.5" i5 iMac doesn't have a dedicated video card; however, I thought it would at least get along smoothly with some jagged edges here and there. The performance was really disappointing. That combined with the ultra-super-shiny obvious character/control panels just made it unpleasant.
Running it on a slimmed down version of XP via Boot Camp with the latest drivers, I thought the game would fly; it didn't. Moving around on the ground was awkward at best. Space flight was... meh. Because the graphics had to be turned down to a minimum level to play smoothly, ships were not visible far away; this presents a problem in a space flight game.
Basically, the lifetime membership is definitely a gamble, and at this time, the odds don't appear to be in our favor. Do I think the game has potential? Absolutely. Do I think it will be awhile before 11-year olds will take over and run amok? Yes, there appears to be a lot of intelligent players. Will the game be improved beyond BETA? Obviously, yes... they will likely make great improvements. However, the fact is the game isn't in great shape right now (a bug ticket I submitted was #264,342). Although I have grown bored of WoW, this makes me want to return pretty quickly.
I sincerely hope STO gets its act together, because I would love to play the game. However, I won't be buying a Mac Pro just for the sake of playing it.
Hope that helps.
What idiots.I wanted to
Unfortunately, Shivetya is correct. I fully realize that my latest generation 21.5" i5 iMac doesn't have a dedicated video card; however, I thought it would at least get along smoothly with some jagged edges here and there. The performance was really disappointing. That combined with the ultra-super-shiny obvious character/control panels just made it unpleasant.
Running it on a slimmed down version of XP via Boot Camp with the latest drivers, I thought the game would fly; it didn't. Moving around on the ground was awkward at best. Space flight was... meh. Because the graphics had to be turned down to a minimum level to play smoothly, ships were not visible far away; this presents a problem in a space flight game.
Basically, the lifetime membership is definitely a gamble, and at this time, the odds don't appear to be in our favor. Do I think the game has potential? Absolutely. Do I think it will be awhile before 11-year olds will take over and run amok? Yes, there appears to be a lot of intelligent players. Will the game be improved beyond BETA? Obviously, yes... they will likely make great improvements. However, the fact is the game isn't in great shape right now (a bug ticket I submitted was #264,342). Although I have grown bored of WoW, this makes me want to return pretty quickly.
I sincerely hope STO gets its act together, because I would love to play the game. However, I won't be buying a Mac Pro just for the sake of playing it.
Hope that helps.
I play it on my MacBook Air with a 9400M and it runs fine.
I also play it on the iMac whenever it's not being used and that thing runs it at 1920x1200 with high settings with only a ATi X2600XT video card.
Something seems wrong with your settings. I have seen a MBP with the 9400M play it acceptably. Either you're using too high resolution, or something else is affecting it. Maybe its winXP or your graphics drivers, or maybe you just have things generally too high.First, I'm glad there is a thread about STO here! Of course it is extremely disappointing there is no Mac version. I don't know why companies insist on only having a Windows version, especially with the growing Mac user base. If anything, they should look at the extreme success of WoW; gee, they have a Mac version, maybe it's a good idea if we do, too!
I wanted tolikelove this game. Before I even started BETA play, I was figuring out how to justify the $239 lifetime membership.
Unfortunately, Shivetya is correct. I fully realize that my latest generation 21.5" i5 iMac doesn't have a dedicated video card; however, I thought it would at least get along smoothly with some jagged edges here and there. The performance was really disappointing. That combined with the ultra-super-shiny obvious character/control panels just made it unpleasant.
Running it on a slimmed down version of XP via Boot Camp with the latest drivers, I thought the game would fly; it didn't. Moving around on the ground was awkward at best. Space flight was... meh. Because the graphics had to be turned down to a minimum level to play smoothly, ships were not visible far away; this presents a problem in a space flight game.
Basically, the lifetime membership is definitely a gamble, and at this time, the odds don't appear to be in our favor. Do I think the game has potential? Absolutely. Do I think it will be awhile before 11-year olds will take over and run amok? Yes, there appears to be a lot of intelligent players. Will the game be improved beyond BETA? Obviously, yes... they will likely make great improvements. However, the fact is the game isn't in great shape right now (a bug ticket I submitted was #264,342). Although I have grown bored of WoW, this makes me want to return pretty quickly.
I sincerely hope STO gets its act together, because I would love to play the game. However, I won't be buying a Mac Pro just for the sake of playing it.
Hope that helps.
That said, ground controls are a little awkward. The tutorial says you should take cover to avoid damage, but enemies just shoot me through walls if I try to do so. I generally just shoot my target until it is dead, and if it walks up on me, either back peddle or try to time a melee strike then back peddle.
Tutorial should say "If you're taking damage, try to kill the thing killing you first."
Am I the only one who feels weird when you come into a system, and the enemies orbiting the shipyards you're there to destroy don't bother swarming all over you. They are content to let you engage them one at a time. I realize this is a game, and they have to have enemies not attack you all at once, they need some kind of "agro radius". HOWEVER why not just make it so there is ONE (vs 3 spread out) shipyard to destroy protected by TWO (vs 6 spread out) defending ships. I don't feel like it is "more fun" to do the exact same thing 3 times for 1 mission to be complete. Plus, how did the "Orion Syndicate" setup setup so many shipyards/stations inside the Federation home sector anyway? If they can build shipyards so fast, why can't they make like 20 ships to defend them?
There isn't much else to say except it's a brand new copy of XP w/ SP3 and drivers supplied by Apple. The game's resolution starts low, and I've tried higher resolutions while keeping the 16:9 ratio. Even between posting my message and reading yours, I've tried other settings. Maybe this, along with your problem of being hit through walls will be fixed via this BETA trial. Time will tell.
It's posted on the STO website. Basically says that the next patch has a stack of UI fixes, along with a host of other things. However, I think that from the sounds of it that the patch will be issued before launch.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/21/star-trek-online-beta-gets-huge-update-adds-more-nimoy/
Blam, and the massive patch lands as I said. Eat your words
Blam, and the massive patch lands as I said. Eat your words
The new patch is great! The best thing about it is that it lets me train skills so that I'm not stuck at Ensign!
Eh? I got up to Lt Commander on the older release, how come you couldn't train skills?
Ditto. I was doing that before the patch as well. I'm confused as to why so many people were struggling.
Not a bug, Saurians have been evolutionally stagnant for millions of years.
True story.