Star Trek Online: Then and Now
I recently found my original post about the MMORPG Star Trek Online from February 2010. I pre-ordered the Steam Digital Deluxe Edition version of the game for £40 a month prior. I remember that I was very excited about the launch of this MMO and I wasn’t at the time au fait with its tumultuous development history. Myself and two friends started playing virtually immediately and I can remember struggling to find the game’s virtues. It was confusing, unfinished and unbalanced. My friends quickly got tired of the situation and returned to The Lord of the Rings Online. I stuck with STO for about a year before moving on. I briefly returned to the game in early 2013 but it was still unpolished. It wasn’t until the Delta Recruitment Event of 2015 that I found that the game had finally hit its stride. I’ve been playing regularly since then. Reading back over my original thoughts is quite a trip down memory lane.
Star Trek Online is a classic example of a product that was released before it was ready. The open beta which ran for several months, revealed multiple bugs and glitches. However, since the February 2nd launch date, the game still feels like it is unfinished and is being patched on a daily basis. This has made progression through the game very hard and where I have persevered, two of my online colleagues have already abandoned it. Discussion boards and forums are filled with comments that support this argument.
Here are just a few of the issues I feel are causing problems. The game does not have any semblance of a manual. There is an online guide but it simply does not tackle the game mechanics in any depth. So, after the standard tutorial you are pretty much on your own. If you’ve played other MMOs then you can draw on that experience to look for similarities, in which there are many. However, if you are a casual player then this game has a steep learning curve.
Now Cryptic Studios have decided not to run region specific servers, so effectively all user traffic is centralised. There have been periods where users have to queue to log on. The game relies heavily on instances to handle the flow of traffic and travelling therefore becomes a sequence of loading screens. The single environment approach means the chat channel is extremely fast moving. It is currently spammed continuously by gold farmers. As a means of in game communication it is redundant.
Certain “episodes” require teamwork and the game uses an automatic system which theoretically groups players of a comparable level. This can be beneficial as you gain from the completion of tasks by other members of your team. However, on several occasions, I have found myself in a team on an away mission, pitched against opponents of a much higher level. There was no realistic chance of completing the task in hand except by quitting the team and hoping that the next random group would be more balanced.
I could list a lot more, but do not wish to sound excessively negative, as STO, despite all its faults, has the potential to be a very good MMO. It looks very impressive and certainly catches the atmosphere of the franchise. Like so many games these days, the soundtrack is extremely good and embellishes the game, especially the space battles. The depth to which you can customise your character is also laudable. The storylines themselves are engaging and have the feel of a classic episode of the series.
Cryptic Studios have taken a gamble with this MMO. It has had a troubled development and if it were any other product, may have fallen at the first hurdle. But due to the good will of the fan base regarding this franchise, they have to be able to make mistakes without too many repercussions. To be fair, they are working hard to address issues and are listening to their user base as this recent statement from Cryptic shows. I shall be continuing with STO and it will be interesting to assess the status quo in the sixth month’s time.
28th February 2010.
All things considered I believe this remains a fair assessment of STO at launch. It certainly was not the most auspicious of beginnings and as Cryptic were contractually bound to deliver a functional game by a specific date and had to rewrite most of the previous developers work. However, a great deal has changed over the last decade and the game has greatly improved. Today STO is a healthy MMO with a wealth of good content behind it. Many of the cast who appeared in the various TV shows over the years, have voiced their characters again in the game. The change is so profound it is hard to reconcile the two versions of the game. Sadly I do not have that many screenshots from this period. If you wish to see how the game was at launch then I would recommend the YouTube channel Hailing Frequency which did much to promote the game in the run up to February 2nd 2010. It shows clearly how rough around the edges STO was at the time and how far the game has come.
