Comments on: Why Star Trek Online needs lots of combat

By: Deutsche Sternenflotte: Star Fleet Universe

Deutsche Sternenflotte: Star Fleet Universe — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:18:15 +0000

[...] Why Star Trek Online needs lots of combat [...]

By: /AFK – Proud To Be A Carebear Edition « Bio Break

/AFK – Proud To Be A Carebear Edition « Bio Break — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:02:22 +0000

[...] Spinks makes a case for Star Trek’s trigger-happy state [...]

By: Tesh

Tesh — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:30:30 +0000

DS9 wasn’t all that well received by many “core” Trek fans for precisely those reasons. To be sure, it’s a pretty good show, but it’s not quite what people had come to expect.

What makes me most sad is that gaming in general is mostly based on killing stuff. The 25th Anniversary Trek adventure game showed that you can do the Trek IP without being combat heavy. I keep wishing that they could have ported that into an MMO arena.

By: sente

sente — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:42:28 +0000

Which MMO has more than just a few token missions that require skill or allows for choices?

By: spinks

spinks — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:14:15 +0000

True, but it also usually involved the Enterprise being the only ship within range of the new stuff. Which doesn’t really work when there are lots of PC ships flying around.

I think adding massive numbers of players AND wanting to give them reasons to play together works against the solitary explorer theme. That’s not to say they can’t do it via instancing but it’s a difficult chasm to cross I think, thematically.

By: doofman

doofman — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:24:57 +0000

Apparently none of the Star Trek fans playing ST:O are DS9 fans, cause there was plenty of shady action in that. From O’Brien going undercover with the Orion Syndicate to Bashir’s games with Section 31 and all the way through Sisko involving himself in the murder of a Romulan Senator, there was plenty of “non-diplomatic” behavior.

“That’s why you came to me, isn’t it captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren’t capable of doing. Well, it worked. And you’ll get what you wanted: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant, and all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal… and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that a bargain.”

– Garak

“So… I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all… I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. Garak was right about one thing, a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it. Because I can live with it. I can live with it… Computer, erase that entire personal log.”

– Sisko

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/In_the_Pale_Moonlight_%28episode%29

By: Randomessa

Randomessa — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:08:56 +0000

Longasc: A correction – according to the STO pre-order faq, you cannot get the pre-order bonuses for any item unless you also apply the corresponding retail key, and the pre-order bonuses only become active when the game goes live. So you can’t cancel the Amazon pre-order and still get the Borg officer.

By: Scopique

Scopique — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:07:42 +0000

Anyone who knows Star Trek knows that it’s about “seeking new life and new civilizations” and not “seeking new people to kill”. I that right there is why a lot of Trekkies are upset about the path that STO has taken.

I’m not a Trekkie, or a really big fan of ST in general, but I fall into the camp of those who are a bit disappointed by the tack Cryptic has taken. I can accept it, though, for the same reasons that Pete has mentioned. I’m mainly sad because every single MMO out there uses combat combat combat at it’s centerpiece. Star Trek COULD have stood for much more then just blowing stuff up…it’s PURPOSE is stated at the start of every show and every movie.

Don’t get me wrong: the more I play, and the more I discover, the more I like it, but I’m sorry Cryptic took the easy path when they had a lot of potential opportunity to expand beyond the worn tropes.

By: Arkenor

Arkenor — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:55:58 +0000

My problem is that combat seems all the game is any good at.

Any of the other sorts of missions just involve going to an objective and clicking on it, be it an anomaly, a console, or a person. There’s no choices or skill involved.

By: spinks

spinks — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:55:41 +0000

One of the flaws of star trek as a RPG setting is that the original crew were exceptional. The FASA game really hammered this home so it’s not really the GMs fault for playing as written. So even though you watch the show and think ‘ah, in the game we’ll get to do that’, the actual game punishes you if you try to do that because they were often playing fast and loose with starfleet rules.

But yeah, I get your meaning. On the other hand, my husband commented that he played star trek a bit with his old pen and paper group and they also had a lot of PC court martials.