Star Trek Online

[IPD]

Well it's been free for a couple months now. I just started playing it this week. I'm having a lot of fun. Anyone else on here play?

[Alan92RTTT]

I have an account but have not played much lately. I've been spending my time playing COH and DCUO now that they are free.

IIRC Audiblesilence plays.

[IPD]

there aren't enough hours in the day to play 1 mmorpg, let alone multiples. and i'm still trying to watch the series. :)

[nodoze]

alan you should add me to coh @nodoze

[guido1205us]

Played it and haven't gotten far. I'm now spoiled with voice acting/dialogue in SWTOR that text questing in MMOs seems too retro for me now.

[IPD]

i'm sorry, but swtor is the ghey. :p

[guido1205us]

May be right. So far I'm having fun with the different story lines for my toons. However, it is a huge time sink which is interfering with work on my cars. Plus, I understand end game content is lacking, gear grinding is stupid since non-warzone PVP is not skill based, and no world PVP sucks. I'll be quiting soon enough.

[Alan92RTTT]

The main reason I do not play STO more is travel time. It can take forever to get where you need to be. Need to go 3-4 area away from where you are? Enter area , aim ship, wait wait wait repeat 3 times. with confirmation at each area change. It just takes too flipping long. They need to make that faster. Game play is fine once you enter a system. Combat in ships and off ship is fun when you finally get to your destination.

[Jeremy C]

i'm sorry, but swtor is the ghey. :p

My wife and I just got done with the week trial of SWTOR, and both of us enjoyed it quite a bit. It's very solo friendly with and npc pets you get and we both very much enjoyed the fact that we could see the mission scenes combined instead of each of us having to get them separate.

It was also fun when we had a kill stealer tagging along and we went into my instanced mission and watched the guy run into the door. :D

I'm going to take some time away from MMO's. I've played CoH for the better part of a decade now, have multiple lvl 50's on both sides, and have really done everything the game has to offer. Time to kill some of my Steam backlog and enjoy other games for a little while. I STILL haven't beat Darksiders and started playing it last year. Same for Mirror's Edge, Chaos Rising, Prey, Metro 2033, Serious Sam 3, DNF, Titan Quest, SWKOR, Trine, Hitman (all of them), AvP... Yeah, I really need to focus on actually finishing these games.

EDIT: And also read the dozen or so books I have on the shelf waiting, and do everything I'm supposed to do for housekeeping... I need to win the lotto so I have more time to do cool things!.

[IPD]

The main reason I do not play STO more is travel time. It can take forever to get where you need to be. Need to go 3-4 area away from where you are? Enter area , aim ship, wait wait wait repeat 3 times. with confirmation at each area change. It just takes too flipping long. They need to make that faster. Game play is fine once you enter a system. Combat in ships and off ship is fun when you finally get to your destination.

this is true. STO is definitely the windwaker of mmorpg's; extremely great fun & well put together, but with god-awful travel.

[IPD]

well i'm up to O-6 now. funny how much more responsive my ship feels inside a system--rather than traveling between them. it's also strange that the commander-class escort seems to be better overall than the captain-class escort. bizarre.

[IPD]

nobody else playing? oh, and alan, borg engines make traveling a LOT faster. normal limit is ~warp 9. borg engines on my ship and i'm at warp 17.78.

[Alan92RTTT]

With the death of COH and some personal stresses to work off, I've been playing again. Levelling seems a ton faster. I've run into some cool missions. In a week(less than 10 hours I'd guess) I got from 23 to 29 and should hit 30(captain) tonight if I get time to play.

[IPD]

With the death of COH and some personal stresses to work off, I've been playing again. Levelling seems a ton faster. I've run into some cool missions. In a week(less than 10 hours I'd guess) I got from 23 to 29 and should hit 30(captain) tonight if I get time to play.

i haven't had a chance to play in several weeks. i want to pick it back up hopefully in the coming days. i've just gotten back from my deployment, so hopefully i'll have a bit more time.

[Jeremy C]

With the death of COH and some personal stresses to work off, I've been playing again. Levelling seems a ton faster. I've run into some cool missions. In a week(less than 10 hours I'd guess) I got from 23 to 29 and should hit 30(captain) tonight if I get time to play.

RIP CoH :(

Been playing SWTOR again. The F2P is gimped more than I could ever imagined. Good going EA - block even mission reward choices unless you pay up, 25% XP reduction. We paid for a 2 month sub to give it a spin and see how the overall game was. It's World of Star Warcraft, but it's not bad. Doubt I'll pay for another sub when mine is up, but it's cheap fun while waiting for the Steam winter sale to give me more single player goodness.

[whitedragon]

RIP CoH :(

Been playing SWTOR again. The F2P is gimped more than I could ever imagined. Good going EA - block even mission reward choices unless you pay up, 25% XP reduction. We paid for a 2 month sub to give it a spin and see how the overall game was. It's World of Star Warcraft, but it's not bad. Doubt I'll pay for another sub when mine is up, but it's cheap fun while waiting for the Steam winter sale to give me more single player goodness.

My experience as well. I play every now and again, and I essentially have to "pay up" to run some high level raiding/instancing once every few weeks or so. Definitely not that exciting. Although I've never been a really hardcore MMO player anyway, I'm too busy with tabletop Warhammer, lol.

[IPD]

you really should try STO. you don't have to pay for anything. ever.

[whitedragon]

you really should try STO. you don't have to pay for anything. ever.

Eh, my gaming time is limited enough....lol.

I really enjoyed Single Player SWTOR though. Would have enjoyed it more on my couch though.

[Alan92RTTT]

Finished the mission arc and got captain.

I now have my own Defiant class Tactical Escort.

[Alan92RTTT]

Eh, my gaming time is limited enough....lol.

I really enjoyed Single Player SWTOR though. Would have enjoyed it more on my couch though.

Get a wireless keyboard and mouse :)

[IPD]

Finished the mission arc and got captain.

I now have my own Defiant class Tactical Escort.

are you tactical? my main toon is engineer.

[Alan92RTTT]

Yes, Tactical. I have a secondary thats an engineer but I have not played him much and he's still on his 1st ship.

[whitedragon]

Get a wireless keyboard and mouse :)

Lol, or just play any other of the amazing Bioware games on console? I'm still playing Mass Effect 3!

C'mon man you know it's not that simple though. I'm not going to build a separate computer to sit next to my TV for when I want to game, or lug my computer from room to room for when I want "couch gaming" or "studying". SWTOR was/is still a cool game though, but I don't play frequently enough to warrant a subscription.

I may get more mileage out of STO if I actually were to start, but eh.

[Alan92RTTT]

@whitedragon, laptop?

I think my favourite thing about STO is the mix of ship combat and standard MMO missions. Either would get boring fast. Most of the missions I am getting now are a nice mix. Do ship based things, beam down to ship/planed/station do stuff, go back to ship and do stuff, repeat.

[Jeremy C]

The thing that's keeping me playing swtor right now is it's story arcs. I will say that if they had released this game as a single player RPG with multiplayer co-op, I would have considered it one of the best RPG's every created. The story lines are extremely well done, second to none voice acting (Tara Strong for crying out loud!), and enough differences between characters to make you want to level each one up just to see their specific stories. The options you get in the dialog sequences truly make me feel like the character is mine. From the single player perspective, swtor is probably my favorite Star Wars game since KOTOR.

They just botched the MMO part... real bad.

[Alan92RTTT]

I've considered tryont SW now that its f2p

[whitedragon]

I've considered tryont SW now that its f2p

It's really good for Single Player...especially if you liked KOTOR 1 and 2, or Mass Effect 1-3.

Also, I started STO, lol. It's pretty sweet so far.

[Alan92RTTT]

My new Defiant class ship. I think they are called Heavy Escorts.

[IPD]

they're doing a special-rewards replay right now. if you have the character level, you can get the ophidian cane and the shard of possibilities...both of which are VERY useful gear for ground missions.

[athamay]

I play STO, I am in OMEGA ARMADA guild, I currently have a Klingon I'm leveling up, he is still lv30 and a federation engineer LV50 with a Dominion heavy cruiser all decked out with Phased Polaron cannons phased dual polaron beams up front (phased goes right through shields) it's my pvp ship but I hear they are coming out with polarized phasers that sounds scary

[FeaRpb]

Is a Klingon like a dingle berry?

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[IPD]

Is a Klingon like a dingle berry?

Post via Tapatalk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

[whitedragon]

IPD, I just contributed to the fleet starbase projects. Not much, but every little bit right?

Also my Federation char is Lvl 31 and I just got my Galaxy Class Cruiser! I got 99 problems but the Enterprise-D aint one of 'em!

[IPD]

IPD, I just contributed to the fleet starbase projects. Not much, but every little bit right?

Also my Federation char is Lvl 31 and I just got my Galaxy Class Cruiser! I got 99 problems but the Enterprise-D aint one of 'em!

nice! what beam arrays are you using?

[whitedragon]

nice! what beam arrays are you using?

I'm running all disrupters right now.

Fore Weapons: 2x Single Disrupter Bank, 1x Dual Disrupter Bank, 1x Quantum Torpedo
Aft Weapons: 1x Disrupter Beam Bank, 1x Disruptor Turret, 1x Quantum Mines

I also have 2x +15% disrupter damage for my Tactical Consoles. I basically fly around in the middle of a scrum and just spam "Beam Fire at Will". I've been consistently getting 2nd and 3rd places and before I hit level 30 I got 1st places all the time in the PVE queue's like Starbase 24. I think I have a decent build, I just need to get MK VII and MK VIII gear for my level now.

[IPD]

i tend to recommend beam arrays for crusiers, since they give overlapping damage broadside. you tend to need a LOT of weapon power though.

[whitedragon]

Yea...I'm not sure if the turret is better than a beam array in back. It gives me a little more DPS up front at the expense of a little from behind. The mines are clutch though. I may swap my dual beam bank for another array.

[Alan92RTTT]

Anyone still playing?

I just started a Romulan character and its the best story arc for starting a race.

I played the new sphere story line with Tuvok(tim russ) and it was well crafted and interactive.

[Alan92RTTT]

If you play or were thinking about it, now is a perfect time. They are doing double XP until October 18th.

[whitedragon]

Anyone still playing?

I just started a Romulan character and its the best story arc for starting a race.

I played the new sphere story line with Tuvok(tim russ) and it was well crafted and interactive.

My favorite parts of the game are the ship battles. I just grinded double XP weekend Mirror Universe engagements til Lvl 50 lol. If anybody wants to do a scrum or whatever, I still have a lvl 50 Fed character, but I'm probably under specced or geared or whatever since I haven't played in a while.

[Alan92RTTT]

They next episode has new ships and stuff for 50+ players.

With the current double XP I got a lvl 13 to lvl 30 in just a few hours.

[IPD]

well i'm back online!!!

level 2 starbase is in the que. please feel free to contribute. any help is appreciated!

i'm excited because i have just about enough EC to buy an upgrade for my fleet recon sci to tier 6. it should be awesome. extra science console means that i can boost my max shield capacity by a stupidly high amount.

looks like i won't be able to get a cochrane shotgun, but my fleet pulsewave should be very, very nice once i upgrade it to epic class XIV weapon.

[Alan92RTTT]

I have 4 lvl 40's now.
2 federation
1 Gorn(Klingon)
1 Romulan

[IPD]

I don't know if you're still in my fleet or not. I can send you another invite to your 2 fed characters if they're not.

The cap is now level 60, gear is up to mk XIV, and they've added "epic" class gear to the game. :)

[Alan92RTTT]

Fed characters are still in the fleet.

[IPD]

q's winter wonderland is open!

[IPD]

Lifetime Subscription is on sale! 2nd week of summer event on Risa is underway.

[whitedragon]

I still have my chars but I don't remember anything about any strategies or skills. Gotta relearn and respec I guess.

[IPD]

what was the last season you played? i can help you out with some of the details. there have been SIGNIFICANT changes since season 6.

[whitedragon]

Last time I played was before the Romulus expansion I think

[IPD]

romulus was s7.

FYI, i bought my lifetime subscription. it's supposed to be $199, but thanks to the exchange rate & the system registering me in europe, I ended up paying $168.60; nearly half-off the regular price of $299. So I dunno if VPN use in the states will get you the same results, but it might be worth a shot to save a few bucks.

[IPD]

Well the fleet is up to level 47 now. Game looks completely different from when it went F2P in 2012. In fact, if you left before Legacy of Romulus--you'd probably be bewildered by all the new content/changes/system-overhauls. Game feels MUCH more fleshed out than it has previously. I'm up to 8 toons now.

Yes, you can play it on a console now. Console has probably less than 1/5th the playerbase of PC, and there's no server overlap, so your account won't carry over; everything on console you'd have to re-buy new. I'm sticking to PC.

FYI, even playing just the single-player content in 1 faction--would likely take you a few weeks of regular gameplay to accomplish. Longer for casual players. The total number of story arc's has DOUBLED since I started at F2P (season 5; it's season 11.5 now).

If anyone is interested, or debating coming back to the game, hit me up. (pm me for my handle). I'm always glad to help out any and all.

[IPD]

That moment when you see Alan log in, and he doesn't respond to your PM's to say "hello".

:(

[Alan92RTTT]

I never saw it. I have not logged in in a long time and I'm getting caught up on changes.

[Alan92RTTT]

$200 for lifetime..... tempting. But is it worth it?

[IPD]

I bought mine in 2015. It has since given me rewards sufficient to be > the cost of the purchase--assuming I were to pay for all of those things individually.

I wish I'd bought it sooner. If you were subscribed BITD, then you already have some of these things unlocked. If you weren't, then lifetime sub is even better. 500 zen per month is 6000 per year. If you are modest about earning/refining dilithium, you can probably eek another 3,000 out over the course of a year--meaning that you can buy 1 mega ship bundle per year--without doing much. You'd basically need around 75,000 dil you earned per month to get that 3,000 zen over the course of a year. Since you can refine 8,000 per character per day, you'd need only 10 days of refining dilithium on 1 character to do it.

Now besides the benefits for lifetime (which are on their website) here's some considerations.
1. There's a new Trek TV show. Odds are the game isn't going anywhere for several more years--especially with the JJ-verse movies around.
2. Lifetime gives you all veteran rewards instantly. One of the handiest is the fact that you don't have to log in to each character daily to refine dilithium. You can simply log in to each about once per week, and it will automatically refine up to a week's worth of dilithium for that toon. Quite handy & saves time.
3. Account bank is a must. If you don't already have one, lifetime gives you one. This allows you to sponsor other characters with reputation tokens (very useful), pass account-bound gear back and forth, and upgrade gear for other characters on your account, as well of a host of other things that are impossible w/o an account bank.
4. Admiralty works off the ships that you have unlocked on that character. Since veteran rewards give you a free t6 ship for each faction, plus a free shuttle, you're increasing your capabilities for doing admiralty on all your characters. And admiralty is one of the easiest/best ways to earn dilithium.
5. Lifetime means that your new characters automatically get increases to bank/inventory space that only comes to subscribers. For regular subscribers, if you aren't subscribed when you make new characters, or when those characters level up--those new characters don't get the subscriber-sized bank/inventory.
6. If you use ARC for the daily quests, this doubles your zen from lifetime. True, you don't need to be a subscriber to use ARC. Also true that ARC is a bit of a pain to set up, and it's not for everyone (it does require a fair amount of hard-drive space to install the games' files). But when you combine the zen from ARC and from lifetime sub, you can easily clear 12,000 zen per year while barely breaking a sweat. To put this in perspective, I'm a daily player (and use ARC daily)--and I'll probably have over 30,000 zen easily by the time the black-friday sale rolls back around; just in the last year. I plan on purchasing 3x mega bundles (9 total ships, 3 per faction) with my zen. Since those are always account-wide ships, that will give each of my characters 9 more ships to do admiralty with--regardless of faction. Not to mention the ship traits & just having good ships to fly. Plus the fleet versions will now cost only 1 Fleet Ship Module, since I own the basic zen ship.

Hope that helps.

p.s.

I also look at it from a cost/benefit standpoint. What would I be paying for other games that I would have been playing in the same period of time? It's hard to argue that after playing this game free for 2+ years--that I wouldn't have gotten sufficient benefit out of it already. Now that I've been here for 5+, it's a no-brainer that even though it's technically free-2-play, the developer has delivered enough gameplay to arguably justify the $200 lifetime subscription cost (especially in light of the above-mentioned rewards).