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[Andir]

Sounds exactly like the Champions Online release fiasco

...funny you should mention that. Champions Online is the game that beta testers are reporting that they're finding leftover graphics from in STO. Some people re claiming the game play is very similar too...except that it's in space sometimes.

That's because, IMHO, they just re-skinned Champions with Star Trek and are trying to call it a new game.

[Soulwynd]

It uses the same engine. So the UI is exactly the same. With... different colors and icons and shapes... But same thing.

I just went back to playing champions and it's much better than beta/release right now. Except for a few bugs they never got around fixing.

I think cryptic's new strategy is to simply get IPs and release a game from it using their engine so they don't have to change a thing. So expect every cryptic game from now on to be the exact same thing.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Well if you have a perfect engine, I wouldn't see a problem with it. After all, you'd just spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel.

Then again it's pretty far from perfect. This engine waves a kerchief at perfect from shore with a tear in its eye while perfect sails into the sun-drenched Caribbean with a drink in each hand and its arms around its mistresses.

[Fikes]

I do not see very many simiulaties between Champions and STO at all. Different skill system, a group system, space, ect.

You can tell it is built on the same engine, the same way that Doom and Hexen (I think it was Hexen) were built on the same engine, but the game plays way differently. Who cares about left over graphics?

I will say the game is Meh but it will be something stupid you can turn on for a couple of months of fun.

I don't predict release will be terrible.

Space combat is actually fun. Positioning your group around a tough enemy to take advantage of focused fire and weak shields adds at least some depth to a rather bland aspect of most MMOs.

Ground combating isn't interesting at all.

[Lightning4]

Yeah, the game definitely has its flaws. It seems pretty unfinished for open beta, going on release next month. Hopefully they get some polish on it before it goes live.

Space combat is actually fun. Positioning your group around a tough enemy to take advantage of focused fire and weak shields adds at least some depth to a rather bland aspect of most MMOs.

Agreed, this is one area the game did well. Multi-ship combat against ships on par with you is quite challenging, and quite fun. Combat can get pretty frantic sometimes, but in a good way.

[Virtz]

Space combat is actually fun. Positioning your group around a tough enemy to take advantage of focused fire and weak shields adds at least some depth to a rather bland aspect of most MMOs.

How does it compare to Starfleet Command 2? Simpler? More complex?

[Soulwynd]

From my experience with Champions online alpha -> beta -> release, they really really work hard on the final month. A lot of things changed all of sudden on champions before release. All the stuff people complained about. Or at least most of it.

[Fikes]

Space combat is actually fun. Positioning your group around a tough enemy to take advantage of focused fire and weak shields adds at least some depth to a rather bland aspect of most MMOs.

How does it compare to Starfleet Command 2? Simpler? More complex?

Never played Starfleet, sorry. I would say it is similar to, but more complicated than, any pirate game that had hulls on both sides (such as Pirates of the burning sea).

[Tilla]

From my experience with Champions online alpha -> beta -> release, they really really work hard on the final month. A lot of things changed all of sudden on champions before release. All the stuff people complained about. Or at least most of it.

Yah I'll agree with that. The changes between closed beta end and what Champions is now were pretty huge.

[Synzig]

I'd really like to see a poll added to this thread..

"To buy or not to buy, that is the question!"

[Andir]

From my experience with Champions online alpha -> beta -> release, they really really work hard on the final month. A lot of things changed all of sudden on champions before release. All the stuff people complained about. Or at least most of it.

Yah I'll agree with that. The changes between closed beta end and what Champions is now were pretty huge.

Yeah, before release, Champions was really fun... then they nerfed everything and it started to take you twice as long to level.

[fenrif]

I was really excited for this game too, had such potential.

[Virtz]

Never played Starfleet, sorry. I would say it is similar to, but more complicated than, any pirate game that had hulls on both sides (such as Pirates of the burning sea).

Well, in Starfleet Command, you've got ships with shields on 6 sides (2d hexagonal layout). These shields can have different strengths, can be reinforced, etc.. All ships have multiple weapons including phasers, torpdoes, missles, plasma, etc. with different firing arcs and recharge rates. Some weapons are limited in number and must be refilled in between missions like torpedoes and missles.

There's also things like risky maneuvers, which allow you to, for example, make a rapid turn at the risk of suffering hull damage. Ship damage is locational and affects different subsystems.

You can also utilize various more cunning tactics such as beaming marines onto enemy ships, laying mines, sending out probes and refitting shuttles for various purposes and sending them out. Various subsystems could also be turned off or under-powered to better power other systems.

So how does STO space combat compare to that?

[Servant Corps]

The fact that you can create your own race made me scratch my head when I heard it.  First of all, I thought that seemed totally dumb.  Why would I want to see a Poopman_3 running around instead of the standard Star Trek races?

The more I think about it though, they may be doing this to help populate the galaxy, a-la Spore style.  If users are hand-crafting their own race, they could easily clone the prototype and populate another world.

Would these new custom races be canon? Meaning, if somebody made a custom race, that race exist in the entire Star Trek universe?

[Soulwynd]

At the moment not really, but later it should be canon in the game. As in, people might find a planet with your race. You can't name it as of now and I have doubts you will be able to name the race. It's not as customizable as spore, so you wont see dicks running around, nothing to worry there.