Star Trek Online preorder TRIBBLE!

[White Haven]

The question that springs to mind... does the crafting system allow for failed crafting attempts, and if so, do crafting recipies involving antimatter destroy the crafter's vessel?

[PREDATOR490]

The question that springs to mind... does the crafting system allow for failed crafting attempts, and if so, do crafting recipies involving antimatter destroy the crafter's vessel?

Crafting is done in station from what I have seen, so I doubt it, although wether or not attempts fail is unknown. I'm guessing not but the consesus is that upgrading is not worth it due to the cost.

[Bounty]

There's crafting? I really should start reading manuals.

Anyway, server's down for 'emergency maintenance'. I'm partway through the Orion patrol mission but it's not half as good if you're playing with strangers who refuse to cooperate on anything.

[General Zod]

So I thought it over some more and pre-ordered again anyway, bah. Looks like I'll finally be breaking my MMO abstinence. Just got the beta key so I'll be downloading the client as soon as I get home.

[Oskuro]

Zod NOOOOOOOOOOO! (as in "stop making me want to play it too")

[Blayne]

Sigh. I had a corrupt patch which corrupted my game so it crashes spectacularly now when I load it.

Sigh. Just when the game was getting fun as well.

[Gramzamber]

It's a lot of fun really, I'm having a blast.
Some of the bugs are pretty hilarious too, observe:

The numerical peril of invoking the Time Lords

"Someone hail Starfleet and ask if our insurance covers this."

[White Haven]

Are you running at low settings, Gram, or are the models actually that ridiculously low-poly?

[Gramzamber]

Are you running at low settings, Gram, or are the models actually that ridiculously low-poly?

Highest settings, so I'd say yes.
They don't look that bad out in space, that first one was from the customisation screen, plus is was glitching out.

[General Zod]

My loading screen got stuck on the Vega Colony ground mission and I had to force-quit. Is it supposed to take several minutes to load? I'm not exactly using a low end rig.

[Kamakazie Sith]

My loading screen got stuck on the Vega Colony ground mission and I had to force-quit. Is it supposed to take several minutes to load? I'm not exactly using a low end rig.

No, it's not. It's probably the servers. One mission I was forced to replay around four or five times because of the d/c and other hiccups. Again, I don't let it bug me because it's a beta...

[Gramzamber]

My loading screen got stuck on the Vega Colony ground mission and I had to force-quit. Is it supposed to take several minutes to load? I'm not exactly using a low end rig.

It's an issue with the beta, sometimes it can take a looong time to load, sometimes it gets stuck loading.
Be glad you weren't playing on the first day. Every single area took like 5 minutes to load, minimum.

[General Zod]

The in-game graphics are also a bit disappointingly low res.

[GuppyShark]

I hope you're not referring to the overall image size, since that's a setting in the video options

[General Zod]

I hope you're not referring to the overall image size, since that's a setting in the video options

I was more referring to the jagged looking ships.

[GuppyShark]

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~bcarlet ... -24-23.jpg

Eh, curved surfaces are typically pretty processor intensive. Also, nice ship name

[GuppyShark]

I'm starting to think this could really be one of the breakout MMOs. Although it seems a little MMO by number it's got a large, well known franchise, an interactive combat system which is fairly lag-proof, and it appeals to all the casual gamers that have made WoW such a success.

I think the real decider will be whether Cryptic have learned from the issues they had with the launch of Champions Offline and when they will learn that a UI needs to give feedback when you push buttons.

Additionally it taps a possibly large reserve of people for whom this will be their first MMO.

I've noticed that the people I've met so far (admittedly a poor sample) have been nice but generally clueless. I made my character John Sheppard and called his ship the USS Normandy-Atlantis mainly because I wanted to troll Trektards but now I regret having such a ridiculously bad character/ship name every time I get autogrouped. Oh well, it's just a dicking about character anyway, since I already did Closed Beta there's no point repeating the content until the Head Start begins and we can make our live characters.

I imagined they would be like the filth that used to infest Silvermoon City but so far that hasn't been the case.

[Bounty]

I'm actually glad they kept the models low-poly; I've seen some pretty big space battles early in the game and it's all run butter-smooth. In an MMO I'd gladly trade useless glitz for performance.

If you want, there's an Advanced settings tab that unlocks extra filter and lighting options.

My loading screen got stuck on the Vega Colony ground mission and I had to force-quit. Is it supposed to take several minutes to load? I'm not exactly using a low end rig.

They're tweaking the servers so loading is all over the place. For most areas I get five seconds or less of load time; sometimes it hangs for a good thirty seconds, occasionally the server just disconnects me. It's a beta, after all.

I've noticed that the people I've met so far (admittedly a poor sample) have been nice but generally clueless.

Ooh yes. It's probably because the people desperate enough to get into the beta are likely Trekkies to begin with. Fans first, gamers second. It'd explain why half the people I've run into are really into the role-playing bit but can't figure it it's a bad idea to park in the middle of an enemy fleet.

[charlemagne]

I'm actually glad they kept the models low-poly; I've seen some pretty big space battles early in the game and it's all run butter-smooth. In an MMO I'd gladly trade useless glitz for performance.

Exactly, most of the time you won't be zooming in that far anyways, and I'd rather have blocky saucers and huge stutter-free space battles than the other way around.

So far it's really fun, even standard "patrol system" missions, probably because blowing up stuff in space with pew-pew lasers and huge explosions together with other people is a nice change from hitting orcs with swords and pew-pew arrows

[Bounty]

The only thing I'm really struggling with is the chat system. Would a PM window have been that hard? Or at least an explanation of what those 14-odd filters even mean?

[charlemagne]

You can just make new tabs including only the filters you want, e.g. I made a "team" tab only showing team channel. I didn't mind it that much, because AoC's chat system was equally confusing at first, so I kinda was used to it You can also make a tab only showing "tells" - which are PMs - for example. The only thing missing is some kind of flashing or maybe an "*" attached to tabs with new messages, so you won't miss any tells.

[Bounty]

See, I don't play MMO's, so I thought "tell" was only the stuff you say yourself.

[charlemagne]

Yeah, it's easier when you're used to the lingo.

[PREDATOR490]

Finally, I got my hands on my escort. Sadly, I went and booted my officers for some better ones that will do better in ground combat which means I need to retrain and skill these new guys so I can eventually promote the tactical officer and get his phaser strike ability. Betazoids are good science cause they naturally buff team resistance, Klingons are good tanks because they have a natural bonus to drawing fire and do more damage. For what it seems, the Escort dosent seem THAT bad, but I havent been taking much fire. Its firepower is pretty good though.

My major gripe is the fact that the exploration badges are the only way to get consoles and higher tier weaponary. As it is, MKII is the best you can get without praying for lucky loot drops. Additionally, the ground pounder weapons are far too similar and unexpanatory in what they actually offer which kinda irritates me. I went to the 'shady dealer' and got a nice pulse phaser rifle which dosent seem to do anything better than the normal phaser rifles.
I gave all my crew rifles, the stats dont say if they are better or worse with pistols or tactical assualt weapons which again is a bit confusing. I suppose its going to become more important when you get to MKIII + which is where character specialisation comes into play.

[Kamakazie Sith]

My ship...