They didn’t pick me to be on the beta, so I’ve classily chosen to be a sarcastic Star Trek nerd (I know, a devil with the ladies!) and wrote a quick little thing about it after chatting with a friend who HAD played it:
I figured I’d pull this out of the original ST:O thread because it’s a little less kumbaya about the game and I’d like to segregate the whole ‘being a jerk’ from all these positive experiences people are having over there. 
I have to agree about some parts of the game. Though I am enjoying it very much. This is WOW and EQII, but instead of talking directly with npc in dialog bubbles. We have these big com screens to interact with a non talking head. That’s a design choice and not a deal breaker for me.
Originally I was tempted to go for the lifetime sub. Playing a borg ect. Then reason took over and said after 3 months I might just drop this from boredom. Personally I’m hoping that I stay for along long time. This could be great but i still have reservations.
Thanks for this thread. I keep feeling guilty complaining about the graphics in the other thread.
All part of the service. 
Thanks for the post. I agree with some of that but overall I’ve actually enjoyed what I’ve been able to do in the Open Beta and have signed up for a membership at this point. I’m a very casual online gamer so I play when I have time and find that I have fun even if its just for an hour. I agree that there are some limitations and some items I hope they fix. I mentioned to my fiance this weekend that I hope we have the opportunity to explore far away galaxies and meet new races not just blow up Klingons, Romulans and Borg oh my! The space combat has been interesting as I figure out how to steer, shoot and watch my shields all at the same time. I also feel like I’m on choice overload. I don’t have a manual so I don’t always know how to find X and randomly mashing buttons doesn’t really appeal to me. But thats to be remedied soon once Amazon ships my game. 
I have so many choices of what to do with Bridge Officers, which one should I pick, if I pick this skill am I royally messing up my character for life? Those are all things that float through my head everytime I tweak my toon.
But so far I am having a good time with the game. It hasn’t been the hugely addicting presence that WoW was when I first started that. I love WoW and I will say I’m finding it hard not to compare Star Trek and WoW and complaint about the things I love in WoW that aren’t in Star Trek. But I’m doing my best.
There is a brief manual on their website. I don’t think it delves into all the gears and linkages of the game but, like most other MMOs out there you can learn quite a bit from the forums, particularly the Starfleet Academy forum. About the only skills I’ve heard complaints about are the Tier 3+ ship class specific player skills, as they’re supposedly not upward compatible with the higher tiers. Bridge Officer skills are mostly a matter of preference on what you want available in space and on the ground. Keep in mind that in space your available Bridge Officer skills are limited by your ship’s console slots and thusly your ship type. A player by the name of Suricata posted an excellent chart that describes the various ships, well worth the read. (Direct link, although it may become dated.) It is still a work in progress. In that line of thought, the game itself is still new and I’m sure there is yet to be more tweaking on the various powers, but you’re welcome ti read the various opinions on them in STO’s forums.
And if that’s not enough there are already a couple of wiki sites for the game: STO Intel, Star Trek Online Stuff, and of course the IP oriented site - Memory Alpha.
That is the first thing in ages that makes me want to play that game…
If only their graphics were comparable to EVE or a Bioware game (The Old Republic not with standing).
I gotta say, I like the idea of flying a Miranda. But… is there room in the game for people who want to be private entities? Or is affiliation (and “missions”) with an empire required?
I like the Booster Terrik model: Buy^h^h^hAcquire a capital ship, then use it for personal purposes. Get a Miranda, tear out all that useless ‘science’ stuff, replace the round CRTs with some sweet LCD monitors, maybe put in an XBOX, recliner chair, maybe a Holosuite in one of the cargo holds…
And it doesn’t have to be all about just comfort. I figure that by the 24th century, picking up a surplus Excelsior warp core should be cake, right? Get rid of that old stock engine, maybe put something in with one of them new regenerative Dilithium setups…
Also, those old Duotronic jobs were pretty sketchy as far as computer cores went. You could probably replace them with the 24th century equivalent of a Netbook and end up getting Onstar thrown in for free!
Upvoted for correct use of unixy backspace. (Yeah, I’m looking at you Lev Grossman, you ego-surfer)
That last bit was an in-joke. He never gets that right and it makes me nuts.
I could tell because I didn’t get an orangered envelope when you replied.
I can also make inside jokes that are immune to being deciphered.
The folks at ‘Trekkast’ have been playing the beta for a couple of weeks and they are pretty excited, but very confused too. The beta did not come with a manual, so they have been learning everything the hard way.
They keep comparing it to WOW-
Escorts are DPS (Damage per second) units, fast manuverable and deal lots of damage, but have low sheilds and armor.
Cruisers are Tanks, They are less manuverable and don’t do as much damage per hit, but can soak up tons of damage.
Science vessels are Clerics, they buff and heal their fleet.
And instead of forming your friends into Guilds and conducting raids, you form fleets and go on missions.
You have space missions and planetary missions, and you can shop and trade goods at the stations. And apparently you can earn credits and prestige upon completion of missions, and use those to modify your ship and to recruit crew members to staff your ship.
I posted this in the Online gaming forum as well. I have a few free 10-day passes for anybody interested in the game. They are VERY LIMITED so if you want one pm me ASAP. First come first serve.
I’m not sure I would immediately equate Escort=DPS, Cruiser=Tank, Science=Support. Escort’s definitely a one-trick pony, but the other two are a bit more versatile. Your class and role boils down more to your officers and your own captain’s skills than anything else. Think of it more as the ships are armor & weapons combos than they are your role. Until the higher tier ships, even the science vessels have more weapons capacity than Escorts, and with a cruiser, you have more power you can load into your beams than you do with an escort, so you may not be as maneuverable, but your beams will hit for more than an Escort’s.
The ships fit some roles better than others, but your own abilities and your choice of bridge officers can bend your role way more than your choice of ship, I think.
http://forum.galacticwatercooler.com/showpost.php?p=263758&postcount=52
I’m not picking on tanstaafl at all. This is purely on the developers. I just want that clarified.
But I have to say, if I randomly saw that picture on the net, I’d swear that screenshot was a fan made picture… Unpolished at that because I’ve seen a lot of fan made Star Trek pictures that puts their graphics to shame.
And, compare EVE’s in game graphics to STO…
http://zapatero.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/intro-admin.jpg
http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/images/06/31/63102_EVEOnlineDominion-19.jpg
