Star Trek Online.... take 3.

In the slow end to my wow gaming time I've started to take up Star Trek Online again.

It's in game news said at the time that it was having it's 5th Anniversary! 5 years. I must be having time warp issues. I can't believe it's been out for 5 years!

 

This time warp means I really only spent a very short time at it's start, and my last visit would have only been a blink of an eye.

This time round I've spent a lot ,ore time in the game and have enjoyed it without noticing the time put into it.

There are a lot of people playing the game, the space no matter how far flung always seems to be alive with people and ships coming and going.
Thankfully as I was a subscriber and bought a better edition at the start I do end up with a few good perks and rewards. Not that they are amazing but they help. The best one being that I have a Trill character, so can choose other alien factions to play rather than earning that in game or unlocking it.
I've noticed the amount of micro-transactions you need to get ahead, to have shiny ships and gear. But that has not taken away from the "Free to play" version, if you dont' want to put anything into it you don't have to.

Combat (at least in space) is very much about shield balancing and direction. Weapons have an arc of fire so that generally means keeping your forward shield at maximum and always keeping that forward shield facing the enemy. That becomes harder when against multiple enemies.

 

Combat is eased when killing smaller enemy ships first, avoiding large yeild torpedo's or weapons if possible by adjusting speed, shooting incoming slow moving torpedoes and as always with any mmo, teamwork. The effort needed to do well in combat is not overly complex at all, fitting out ships and characters is a simplified version of wow's character gearing. And unlike Eve online death has no consequence as like wow you simply respawn to continue where you left off. For me, that does not take anything away from the game. It's fun. Even if the ground combat is much more of a button pressing mash up.

STO is a melding of all the shows time lines, with older and newer Trek technologies and characters brought together in a way that works. I'm a fan of the franchise but not a die-hard. Purists will be having fits if they don't take the game for what it is.

The vista's are nice and some moments are very impressive in my opinion.

From killing Borg in a daily mission....

 

          

                        ..... to combating wayward Klingons, STO has it all.

The story lines are the best part of STO. I found myself playing through the space and ground based missions (like an epic quest chain) without noticing I was spending time on it. They were interesting and offered a story driven way for your character to interact with npc's effortlessly. Levelling was then not a grind at all.
Every 10 levels you get a new rank and with it a new free ship.
It was so effortless I found myself levelling up,  reaching a new decade level was granted a mission to speak to the admiral for a new ship but in completing the "quest chain" I had levelled up another 10 levels so was granted a second mission to speak to the admiral for an even newer ship.
So was granted 2 free ships and one I didnt' even get to use!
That may sound like it's too easy to level up but all that I've described above has left me at level 33 (of 50) and only halfway through the second of the story lines. there are , with 2 extra top level left to do. That's not to mention the special events and reputations to grind away with. Just like wow and Eve online there are factions that you can get reputation with and those factions offer rewards. Better gear and ship upgrades are they main way to ease life in STO, to do it faster you pay.

STO like wow's garrison's has the option to send Duty officers, your very own crew, off to do missions and look into R&D to upgrade items you have. The mission rewards include XP to level your character and this adds up quickly as well.

Editing your character/bridge crew and ship in both looks and item usage adds to the complexity and makes you feel that you have a more personalised connection to your crew, your officers and your ships.

 

Ship 1

Ship 2

Ship 3

Character look Upgrade

Ship 5

Ship look upgrade

My second Starfleet character also got some extra time.

 

I ventured into the Klingon characters/storyline.

And did the same for the Romulan's

 

All in all I enjoyed all my characters, all the story lines are different and per character there are changes. As a free game it is worth it. More so if you are a fan of the tv shows and movies.
I may spend more time in STO soon enough but I am at a point where I have enjoyed my vacation to the land of STO and it's time to return home. Like any other vacation I've enjoyed I can see myself going back. Maybe not to do the exact same thing again but the Klingon and Romulan verities need exploration. I might then see about the familiarity of the Starfleet alt. My main will stay my main in this game and I'll see if I progress further at some stage but the variety is the first and foremost next step for me and this game has it in spades.