General Zod wrote:ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Havok, I hate to say this.
The game you want exists, but not for consoles. It's a PC game, and it is Star Trek Online. If you want less ship customization and arguably more/easier character customization, you can also look at Star Wars Galaxies.
The key word in the op is "good" space-based RPG.
Please note that Havok's requirements for storyline is "it doesn't have to be great."
I won't say STO is a great game by any stretch, but it
does have (most of) what he's looking for:
Req 1: Lots of quests.
STO: Um... No, but you level pretty fast off of all the quests, and if/when they get the UGC running I and god-knows how many other Trekkies will be doing our best to remedy lack-of-content the situation.
SWG: Well, yes, but if you pick a non-combat class you're pretty much going to be playing a tagalong while combat players run through them, or else not seeing them. This changes entirely in space, of course, as even an Entertainer or a crafty domestics engineer can be as terrifying as a Jedi Master in a starfighter, since space combat is divorced from your ground stats.
Req 2: Deep backstory.
STO: C'mon, it's
Star Trek! They have forty years of backstory to draw upon, and they
do use it. The Featured episodes, especially the Devedian arc, are really great about this, as is the Guardian of Forever arc. They draw upon everything from early TOS (though thankfully not the horrible episodes) to VOY. Not always with the best of results, mind you, but oftentimes great.
SWG: Same as with STO, it's
Star Wars! If you're on
Stardestroyer.net you almost certainly know the backstory here, and they do try to use it; though they can't always keep up with the EU, such as Grigor Panaka making a mysterious appearance sometime after Vader supposedly killed him andall.
Req 3: Lots of leveling as well as skills and such.
STO: Well... There are 51 "levels," but the advancement is actually wholly tied in to spending skill points you earn from questing and killing and such. Levels are divided into ranks; Ensign/Lieutenant (same thing, you get promoted to Lieutenant almost immediately and Ensigns can use anything a Lieutenant can,) Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, Rear Admiral (Lower/Upper half) and Vice Admiral. You get new ships and usually new toys upon ranking up, so it almost feels like there's only six levels, but you are getting special skills on the tiers between them.
SWG: Lots and lots of levels, most of them empty. I never played a combat class but reportedly it's a motherfucker to level, say, a Jedi, not so much a soldier, scoundrel or smuggler. I played an Entertainer, and I leveled her to 90 or 99 or whichever is the end level by rigging her to macro-dance her way across the basement of an empty house, which they don't even care about. Didn't even have to go outside the UI to do it.
Req 4: Costumes and gear.
STO: Oh yes, but you're going to
pay for it. I have every customization option unlocked on my Federation character, and there's a
lot of things to choose from. Combined with that is the fact that they give you control over the color "zones" of each garment... Well, let me illustrate:
This is my Captain, my Orion boff, and my Half-Romulan, Half-Trill boff. (Boff meaning Bridge Officer.) They're travelling to the past, to the year 2265, hence my Captain is wearing a uniform appropriate to the time, my Romulan-Trill hybrid is wearing a generic outfit, and my Orion is wearing what Orions always wear.
Technically, you can't make a half-anything; the Romulan-Trill hybrid and my Captain were both made as "Unknown Aliens," which gives you a
tremendous amount of lattitude; a six and a half foot tall black-skinned space-elf is really rather tame compared to what you
can do with it.
A full landing party, in our usual uniforms. As you can see, they're not typical uniforms; I follow the theory that if we're a science ship (or the crew of what once was a science ship, even if we're now testing a refit tactical escort,) we should look like scientists, at least. Again, the Orion and the Romulan-Trill hybrid are out of uniform; the Orion is a boff I got from getting my Diplomacy up to Ambassador and got to pick a KDF bridge officer and actually
can't wear Federation uniforms. I didn't want her walking around in Klingon armor or rags; and let's face it, everybody takes the Orion female for just this reason.
The Romulan-Trill hybrid is out of uniform because I consider her an infiltration specialist and it won't let me store more than one uniform for my boffs without going back to the tailor.
The others, including my Captain, are in white science officer duty uniforms. If you look, you can see the differences; my Captain and the others are both Science officers, so they have the same pattern, but the Captain's shoulders are gold with blue underline instead of vice-versa. You customize everyone individually.
Req 5: Spaceships and spaceship customization.
STO: If you want an RPG with which to play dress-up in space, this could be your game. You can even dress-up the ships:
This, for instance, is one of mine; a
Reconnaissance Research WVessel made up of parts from several of them. Don't think about it too hard.
Other than playing "pick the parts," with the hull and applying a paint job or two (not shown on the
U.S.S. Grace Augustine there, since I liked bare hull on it), you can also choose from a fairly widely selection of
Bridges, most of which you have to pay Craptic for the right to install on your ship (and you can thank me spending a hundred and twenty bucks on Craptic for having screenshots of all the bridges, so you may spend your money more wisely,) but my favorite is free, you get the Diplomat series bridges just for getting your character to Ambassador. You can also choose the size of your ship's internal layouts, but it doesn't change much.
Aftermarket additions to the ships are currently limited to the Aegis set and the Borg set; the Aegis set is nifty glowy TRON stuff on your ship's hull, and it's crafted by players. The Borg set is wrested from the Borg as victory rewards for some very difficult missions, and by difficult I mean tedious. It looks like your ship's been Assimilated, except it was you doing the Assimilation.
Personally, I favor the Aegis set as it's more powerful and cooler looking, with the Borg Console added. You can hide any of the parts you wish, or not hide them, just like you can hide your character's armor and "kit" item if you'd rather see your uniform.
SWG: as far as external customization goes, you're limited to modifying the paint job, unless you're flying an Imperial vessel in which most cases you can't even do that. Some external parts (engines, afterburners, guns) might change model if you install different guns, but not on Imperial ships. Don't fly Imperial! However, internal customization blows STO out of the water if you're flying a ship with an interior, since they function like houses in that they let you put down objects and manipulate them around the axes and all such. I had a Nova Courier with an inside dressed up in furniture like I was making a Firefly-style "your family's your crew" ship.
