MMO Gamers

Missions in Star Trek Online (STO) play out in one of a number of ways. Some missions may only take place in space, requiring you to defeat some enemies in ship-to-ship combat, or to scan some asteroids for minerals or whatever. Other missions might see you warp into a zone and then beam down to the planet/mining facility/communications outpost for some up close and personal combat. And then many missions will have a combination of the two. The Away Team is the ground combat component of STO missions.

Your Away Team can be made up of Player Characters (PC) or Non Player Characters (NPC). You use your Bridge Officers (BO) to complete your Away Team, and these NPC’s are pretty much like pets in other MMO’s. You get to train up their skills, either their ship skills or their ground combat skills or a combination of both.

Graphically, the ground combat part of the game is impressive. The detail on your avatar is quite good, and the locations are quite varied; from lush tropical environments to sand-swept deserts to desolate rock surfaces. You have a limited number of commands for your BO, you can make them passive or aggressive, make them focus their fire on your target, and set rally points for them, where they’ll hold position. Initially I didn’t think much of the ground combat, but like most of STO I’m finding the more I play and the more I discover the complexities of combat, the more I’m enjoying it.

There are some things you can do to improve your combat effectiveness. Squatting will grant you a bonus to damage, though it will make you more vulnerable to melee attacks. You can double-tap your directional keys which will make you do a commando roll which will give you a temporary defense buff. And you do significantly more damage if you flank your enemy. I’ve been setting my BO’s away from me in an attempt to get our enemy in crossfire to try to maximize flanking damage. You also have your kit abilities, whatever they may be, which you can use. As well as that, there are exploits and exposes, though I’m not entirely convinced that I’m doing this right.

The missions themselves do not vary too greatly. They are either outdoors or indoors or both, and involve you scanning, activating, or deactivating something, and killing some enemies. However, having said that, it doesn’t make them any less enjoyable, and there are some novel actions that you are required to sometimes do. For instance, in the screenshot below, I had to rescue some scientists. Sounds easy enough, except the building was on fire. I found a fire extinguisher and equipped it, the same as I would a phaser, and used it to put out the fires. I’m sure I could have just run through the fire; I’d take a little damage and survive, but it was fun having to put out the fires all the same.

If I do have one complaint, and it’s one that I’ve mentioned before, is that STO doesn’t feel like a MMO, and that’s particularly true for the ground missions. As much fun as it might be, it’s hard to justify a subscription for what feels like a single player experience. However, having said that, the game still has its claws in me.

Space. The final frontier. I’ve been negotiating the map and managing to find my way around. At first glance the map is quite confusing, and mission locations seem somewhat vague and difficult to locate. However, once I figured out the map it was much easier to get around. You have systems within sectors within systems, or something like that, and that’s where the confusion lies. Often there’s a need to look beyond the grid you’re in and warp to another sector.

I’ve been spending a bit of time in space. My initial opinion of the graphic style and feel of space was that it felt confined and cluttered. Certainly some of the instances feel like this, with asteroid belts and the different colours in space; the reds and blues and oranges, which gave the feeling of being walled in rather than the great expanse of space. But some of the instances I’ve been in lately do feel epic in scale, having to negotiate large asteroids while passing a huge, huge planet. The screenshot below doesn’t do justice to how epic this instance felt. It truly was an awe inspiring moment.

I’ve gotten to Lieutenant Rank 8 (LT8) and I’m assuming that after LT9 I’ll get to Lieutenant Commander. This will open up the next tier of skills to start training in as well as giving me access to a new and better ship, which according to the manual I get for free. I’m still on the first ship I started with, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the next tier of ship has to offer. As I’ve progressed through the skills and added more points into particular skills, as you would expect, more skills have opened up to me, and subsequently made me more resilient. I’ve gone the engineering path and so far this has given me some pretty nice shield buff/repair skills, and certainly lifesaving.

I’ve also had my first PVP experience, or at least I think I have. I was doing a mission to destroy some Borg cubes, and there were a couple of other Federation guys in the instance, though I was not grouped with them. The Borg cubes seem to have an ability to drain my engines and shields, leaving me dead in the water so to speak. I’d only just recovered from one of these Borg attacks when a Klingon Bird of Prey came out of stealth and started firing on me from behind. I used my shield buff skills which got me out of the strife I was in, and then the Klingon was driven off by the other two Feds, clearly not NPC behaviour. I’m not sure of the requirements for getting into PVP instances, or how frequent they are, so something I’ll have to look into. But first, a new ship is on the cards.

Unlike a lot of the new releases of late I didn’t try Star Trek Online (STO) at launch, mostly due to a couple of bad reviews I’d heard. Instead, I decided to follow the forums and see how the game was going. Well, curiosity got the better of me and so STO is now installed on my PC.

Character Creation is fairly robust. You have a number of different races to choose from; humans and aliens and everything in between, and you are able to modify them a great deal. Not quite to the extent that Aion allowed for individuality, but there’s enough there to keep you occupied for a while. Graphic detail on the character models is quite good as well. However, having said that, there still is a “cartoony” look to the character models, more “Clone Wars” then realism. You also have to choose your profession (class) and the choices are Engineering, Science, and Tactical Officer. Without going too much into the details here, it breaks down to something like this. Engineer is a tanker/buffer, Science is a healer/mezzer, and Tactical is DPS. It’s more complicated then that, but that’s the basics from what I can gather at this early stage.

STO calls itself a skill based system, rather than level based, but that’s not entirely true. Unlike EVE, where you queue up skills to learn, STO requires that you actually play the game and earn skill points, which you can then spend on the skills you want. But at the same time, it is a level based game, starting with Ensign and working your way through the ranks, Lieutenant, Commander, Captain and so on, and it’s only when you reach a new rank that new ships are opened up to you. Once you’ve created your character you enter a tutorial, which covers both ground (Away Team) and space combat. And it is a much needed tutorial if you ask me, because STO is different enough to other MMO’s that there’s some new things you need to learn.

Space Combat is more like Star Wars Rogue Squadron than EVE, and your class choice will determine what ships you can fly and what skills you have. Flying is pretty simple, you use WASD to move around and 1.2.3 to fire weapons. It is a little more complicated than that, but not overly. This isn’t Microsoft Flight Simulator so don’t feel intimidated about flying. The important part of space combat is keeping your shields up, keeping your ship’s strongest shield facing the enemy, and using whatever skills you have to stay in one piece and defeat your opponent, whether it’s a shield repair skill or an increase to damage buff. You also get to choose Bridge Officers who compliment your ship and your away team. Aboard ship they bring some additional stats as well as their class skills, and you use these skills as if they were your own. On the ground they are pets and they will fight, heal, and buff without having to be told. You do get a number of commands you can use, such as a passive or aggressive stance. Your BO also earn skill points and you can improve their skills and level them up alongside your main avatar.

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My very first opinion of STO was one of excitement. It was a new game with a new world to explore and new controls to learn. That quickly turned to one of disappointment as it didn’t seem to do anything overly impressively. However, the more I played STO and the more I got to understand how it works, the more I liked it. Initially I liked the ground combat but didn’t think much of the space combat, then I thought the ground combat was lame and was having a lot of fun with the space combat. Right now, I like them both equally, and it’s this blend of space and ground combat that keeps the game fresh.

What’s bad about STO?
Apparently STO is a Massively Multiplayer Online game, but it doesn’t feel very massive. Everything is instanced, and space doesn’t have the epic feel that EVE somehow manages. Space feels small, confined. I have managed to group with a couple of people for both a space and a ground mission. It’s a little like Warhammer’s public quests (except instanced) in that anyone who happens to be working on the same quest at the same time as you are will be attached to your group. And in spite of the fact that I see dozens of ships loitering outside the space station (or Capital City) and running around inside it, the game feels like a single player game. It is still early and I’m a low level, so this may well change as I get higher in levels.

What’s good about STO?
Without a doubt it’s the blend of space and ground combat. And Cryptic has managed to pull it off. The instances also work for this game. It’s not an open world like Aion, WoW, or other MMO’s we’ve been used to, where you run around killing whatever, finding quest hubs, and then killing more…whatever. Each time you contact Starfleet and get given a mission to do it actually feels important, even if it’s just patrolling a sector. And it’s easy to do “just one more mission”.

So far I’m impressed with what Cryptic has done with STO. Having said that, however, it does feel aimed at the casual gamer rather than any serious hardcore online gamer. The problem I find with games that have a casual focus is that they get boring quickly and you run out of things to do, particularly if you do play a lot. But so far, today at least, STO gets a thumbs up from me.

Another lot of server mergers for Pirates of the Burning Sea, seeing the number of servers go from five to two. I’d pre-ordered PotBS and was in the game for the 15 day headstart, but I found the game tremendously boring. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of things about PotBS that I liked, in particular the crafting system and economy, but the avatar combat was so-so and the amount of loading screens I had to sit through left me scratching my head. So I wasn’t surprised to hear of further server merges. If anything, I’m surprised the game is still going. Sony is also offering free game time to allow former players and non-subscribers to transfer their characters.

Important Information Regarding Pirates of the Burning Sea™ Account

Ahoy, Pirates of the Burning Sea Captains!

Population density has been the topic of much debate in the community over the last few months. What we’re hearing is that Pirates is an awesome game that you really enjoy playing, but that it’s a lot more fun when there’s a critical mass of other players around to play alongside or against. Through feedback from the players and evaluation of server populations, it has become clear that key game features require higher density in order to function at optimum levels.

To push things in the right direction, we’ve decided to condense the current population onto two servers. On March 5, 2010 at approximately 12:01 AM PST, we will close the following servers: Blackbeard, Defiant, and Rackham. Beginning on February 5, 2010 at approximately 12:01 AM PST, you can transfer your characters from the affected servers onto one of the two remaining servers, Antigua or Roberts. At this time, character creation will be disabled on the Blackbeard, Defiant, and Rackham servers. We hope these changes will provide you with an even more enjoyable Pirates experience.

Important Dates

* 2/2/2010 05:00AM Patch 1.22 Goes live
* 2/5/2010 12:01AM Character transfers open.
* 3/5/2010 12:01AM Blackbeard, Defiant and Rackham servers are closed.

When can I start transferring my characters?

* You can transfer your characters beginning at approximately 12:01 AM PST on February 5, 2010 using our character transfer service at: http://www.burningsea.com/pages/transfer/.

What if my Pirates of the Burning Sea subscription isn’t currently active?

* Between February 5, 2010 at 12:01 AM PST and March 5, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST, accounts of former players that were closed between January 22, 2008 and January 15, 2010 will be reactivated for up to twenty-nine (29) days of free play*, which will allow you to transfer your characters to the Roberts or Antigua server and try out new features that we have implemented since you last set sail.

To learn more about the closure of the servers and character transfer, please click here.

*This offer, and the period of free game-play described in this offer, expires on March 5, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST. This offer is only available for Pirates of the Burning Sea accounts that have been closed and inactive between January 22, 2008 and January 15, 2010 and is not available for accounts closed after January 15, 2010, current Pirates of the Burning Sea or Station Access accounts or for accounts that were banned or were not in good standing when its Pirates of the Burning Sea or Station Access subscription previously expired.

Entering billing information before expiration of the free play period on March 5, 2010 will terminate the free service and you will lose the balance of any unused free play period game time. In addition, if you re-subscribe to Pirates of the Burning Sea , you will not be entitled to any game time that may be included with the purchase of certain versions of, or other offers related to , Pirates of the Burning Sea . Sony Online Entertainment and Flying Lab Software do not ensure continuous or error-free access, use or availability of any game content, feature, game-play or server and may change, modify, disable, suspend or remove any such content, feature, game-play or server at their sole discretion.

A quick check of my available character transfers shows that I already have three characters on Antigua and one on Roberts, which will be the remaining two servers as of March 5, so no need to transfer and characters. For a month of free play I think I’ll reinstall the game and see if it’s any better. Ahoy!

I tried City of Heroes back in 2006. I played it for a couple of months, thought it was pretty cool, but it didn’t really hold my attention. I was playing Everquest 2 at the time and I decided to devote my time to that game instead, so CoH got relegated to being another pretty box on the shelf. Fast forward to 2010 and I find myself staring at the screenshots and wanting to play at Superheroes. Sadly, that required an install and some patching, so there was no instant satisfaction, but the game takes up not even 3GB on the hard drive, so not as bad as say, patching Age of Conan for instance.

I finally got into the game and decided to pick up where I left off on my Defender. He was at level 13, which was my highest character and my healer class. CoH is very much a same old, same old when it comes to MMO design, but it’s different enough that I had to relearn everything. Groups are called Teams and Guilds are Supergroups. The interface is similar to other MMO’s but also different. Once I figured out how it all worked again I went out to do some missions (quests). While some missions are outdoors in the public space, many are in indoor instances, and many require a team to complete. Think of each mission a bit like doing a dungeon run with a group, which really suits my play-style, but they do get repetitive because many of the mission instances look identical to others you have already completed. I’m not sure how instances are generated in CoH, whether a zone all has the same looking instance or whether it’s randomized, but I’ve seen perhaps 7 or 8 different instance designs while having done dozens of solo and group missions.

RG-6. Defender of Paragon City

Combat is much the same in CoH as in other MMO’s. I play a Defender, which is the healer class in CoH. The classes are Tanker (tank), Blaster (ranged DPS), Scrapper (melee DPS), Controller (Mezzes, Roots etc) and the Defender. There are also two other classes, the Warshade and another whose title escapes me, but there are restrictions to creating one of these, such as having a level 50 character already. Teams can have up to 8 players and since many of the missions require a group it’s quite easy to get one. It wasn’t long before I received a whisper asking if I wanted to join a team and run some missions. CoH has a sidekick system, so you can join a team of higher level players and get bumped up in level to one below. I took my (now) level 14 Defender into a team of level 23 players and ran a few missions. I was getting a level with each mission I completed, and the next day I ran some more mission with players around the same level and found myself hitting level 20. Needless to say, it was fun. In fact, playing a Superhero is fun, and I can see why this game has such appeal and is still going strong.

Villain Pwnage. I haz it

Spells are done a little differently in CoH. You choose two spell lines (for wont of a better description) a main and a secondary. At each second level you get to learn a spell from either one or the other of your lines, and at each level in-between you get to add a slot to your spells which you can then make more powerful using enhancements. CoH has all the things you’d expect from a MMO, such as crafting, which I tinkered with and made myself an enhancement. The player crafted enhancement was far superior to the ones you can buy from the merchants. Crafting is also a little different. Recipes are gained from mob drops, as are the required materials. Once you use a recipe it’s lost to you, so they only have a one-time use. However, basic recipes can be memorized after they are done enough times. There’s also an Auction House if you can’t be bothered crafting and just want to buy enhancements.

Graphically CoH is dated. While your avatar looks quite detailed the surrounding world is not overly impressive, nor are the NPC’s or indoor environments. Still, the world does suit the game style and lack of pixels and bloom effects didn’t really bother me. On a positive note, I can run this game on max settings and not suffer any lag. While it may be lacking in graphics it’s not lacking in emotes, and CoH has some really cool, fun emotes. You can pull out a huge beatbox and start rapping to the tunes, make a cup of tea, and dozens of others; some cool and others just funny. One of my favourites is just reading the paper.

Hmm, return of the Page 3 girl

I don’t know how long I’ll stick with CoH, there’s still a lot for me to discover and I certainly intend to play it some more. However, I have three subscriptions going at the moment, and it’s not so much the cost that concerns me, it’s finding the time to play them all.

Age of Conan has some good deals on subscription prices at the moment. I took advantage of the discounts and subscribed for three months for $36. That’s practically a “buy 2 months get 1 free” deal. There’s even better deals for longer subscriptions, and you can get a years worth for the price of six months. I’ve been missing AoC and was a little disappointed that I didn’t quite make it to 80 on my Priest of Mitra; managing to get to 76 before deciding to move on. The discounted subscription prices pretty much sold me and now I need to get my PoM to the level cap. I also have a 61 Tempest of Set, 50 Ranger, and 45 Guardian (one of my favourite classes) to work on. If I can get my PoM to the cap I’ll start working on the Guardian next; AoC combat mechanics are more rewarding for the melee class in my opinion, and fatalities rock.

There will also be some server merges, reducing the number of US servers from 8 to 4. There’s no denying that AoC has taken a big hit in population, and I noticed it even when I was still playing back in July of last year. Even when we started with three or four members in a group we often found it difficult filling the last two spots for a dungeon run. But I applaud the actions Funcom is taking. The merges will give the illusion of a larger population and the subscription deals should keep the population steady for a while; not to mention we have the soon to be released Rise of the Godslayer expansion to look forward to.

There’s still life in the old barbarian yet.

Well, I’m back from an extended break and decided to do the rounds of MMO’s I have on my PC. One of these games, of course, is Wizard 101. I was pleasantly surprised on entering the game, after such a long time away, to see players riding around on mounts. A quick search on the interwebz and I found out who I had to go see to buy one. You can purchase your mount from Prospector Zeke in The Commons at a cost of 2,000 Gold. Sadly, this mount only seems to last a day, and I couldn’t find a permanent mount. This makes it get quite expensive after a while and a total waste of money, as it’s not really all that difficult to get around anyway. Still, I must say I am continually impressed by what Wizard 101 provides to gamers; absolutely free or at very little cost.

Anyway, I still had some gold left, even after my previous house purchase, so I forked out some cash and got myself a nice pony. Giddy Up.

Like every other MMO I’ve played, Aion has its own celebrations for the Christmas period, known as the Solorius Festival. Decorations can be found throughout Atreia, though mostly in the cities of Sanctum and one would assume, Pandemonia. One very nice touch I found today on entering Sanctum was the playing of Christmas carols. There is also some new outfits to buy if you like to dress up; Santa costumes along with some other nice outfits for “hitting the town”. It’s always a good thing when the developers go to the trouble of adding all this extra stuff in, be it quests, outfits, competitions, or whatever. EQ2 was really good at it, and I loved their Haunted Mansion questline that I remember doing for Halloween. Anyway, here’s me looking dapper in a tux.

Dressed for dinner