Star Trek Online

Tombstone said:
Hopefully it fleshes out a little, not sure what level he is in that stream but it looked like all he was doing was targetting an enemy and then spamming the Space bar to fire all weapons. Hopefully there is a little more depth and a variety of different maneuvers and tactics you can use rather than just whacking the space bar repeatedly.
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There are a lot more abilities that you get with your ship and bridge officers as you level up. It is a little bit spammy at lower levels, but a lot less so at higher. Cryptic are also likely to give combat more depth - remember this is beta and there is still a lot not included and still a few big patches to come.

Cavallino said:
Ok cool and final question!

If I purchased this online, I could download it immediately correct?
If I purchased it offline, and wanted to play the open beta, would I have to wait till they dispatched the DVD which is February? Or will they send it out immediately?
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I think D2D have released the client for download now. There will also be a small patch to download, probably tomorrow.

If you purchase offline, I am not sure if any of them will let you into the open beta now. They will however send you the headstart code in a few weeks (most of them seem to have this offer) and then you will have a grace period after release (during which you can continue to play) while you wait for your DVD box with the key inside.
 
Cavallino said:
Yea how does this headstart code thing work anyway?
I thought the Open Beta code is the "headstart code"?
Or are there two separate codes?

At this point in time it looks like D2D is the option I may go for...
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No, you are right actually. The headstart and open beta codes are the same thing.

For people already in the closed beta they will roll straight into the open beta.

Most people would agree that the D2D deluxe offer is the best.

Tombstone said:
Good good, that would be more promising than what I watched on that stream, didnt seem to be much involved in the pvp at all other than click target , whack space bar. Though as I say he could be a low level.

Any idea whether that additional depth will come before release? If theres still a lot not included with it releasing in a few weeks have they said whether they will manage to get it done in time?
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It will get done in time, but will probably be quite bugged. For example bridges have just been added, but there are many bugs with them. As for depth, there is a lot of discussion on adding different ranges to weapons, making them less effective further away etc. Like I said though, higher tier ships have many different abilities. In addition to yourself and the bridge officers there will be a fair amount of depth. Plus, depending on whether you take a science, escort or cruiser the game will play very differently for you.
 
VaderDSL said:
You can download the client now :)

http://www.startrekonline.com/download



Looks like something has screwed up badly! Many people with open beta keys are currently downloading/patching the client, myself included, but by the sounds of it the Dev is saying we shouldn't.
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Weird, because that is the version the closed beta people have. Surely it would just mean that we need to patch...of course so many people patching will cause a huge problem!

I suspect the first day of open beta will get screwed up, but keep in mind it is quite a long beta and that your character gets wiped at the end anyway!

JTrickle said:
Either he has a naff hard drive, or those are some serious load times.

Edit. That amount of loading wait would do my nut in. Someone please say their comp runs faster than that :(
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No more than 4 seconds per load screen with my SSD :). But he probably just has a rubbish computer/fragmented drive.
 
ebilcake said:
Is this available with the steam version? I noticed the beta this morning is still not available, not home now can't check if this has been updated.
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Beta isn't available until tomorrow. Did it say on the page you bought it whether they are still offering open beta codes. They should be.
 
ebilcake said:
I remember reading about the open beta starting 11/01 (at least I remember it saying this date) on the steam page, thats the only reason I pre-ordered the game to be honest but I've not received any beta codes, but i'd hope steam would just automatically associate the key with the beta client.
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Nope, open beta starts officially tomorrow (not sure what time, but probably 6pm GMT).

TheMightyTen said:
Is the downloader utility a peer to peer jobby or directly from the servers?
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Depends where you get it from. I ordered from D2D and you can download most of the game from them. For patching Cryptic have recently introduced P2P patching in addition to their patching server.
 
To be honest I probably won't play the open beta much. Will try out the next patch changes, but will mostly try and wait for the headstart and release. I also gave in last night and ordered the edition from the rainforest. I want the borg bridge officer :)
 
Xenoxide said:
From my understanding there wont be a seperate key for the pre-order extras. You'll get a retail key in the box, and they can apparently tell via the retail key which retailer you ordered from. Supposedly you'll then get the extas automatically.
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Should be tied in with the retail key that you get. Some could be seperate.

TheMightyTen said:
Amazon are saying they'll email the Borg Boff key on release day.
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Yes, annoyingly after the headstart! Stops people getting it and cancelling their preorders though.
 
Pottsey said:
TheMightyTen said “must admit I am shocked by how many stupid people there are on the official forums. How many have not read the T&Cs of their purchase and can't tell the difference between the Beta access key, Retail key, and the extras key they will be emailed at the start of official release “
It’s not the end users that are stupid it’s downright confusing. Someone messed up somewhere and labelled the keys wrong. Unless the Beta access key and Retail key are the same key. I have the same key labelled as different things in different places and I have more then one key. In the end I had to guess which key was for what.

It’s no wonder people cannot tell the difference between the keys when the shops are getting confused.
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The OPEN beta key and headstart key are the same thing. You get the retail key on release day (there is a 7 day or so grace period during which you can apply the key). Simple. There are some dumb people over there mixed with people to anxious to get the game and spreading misinformation.
 
This might apply to some people here - http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=54098

Direct2Drive Open Beta Customers

We are aware of an issue where Direct2Drive Open Beta Keys were granted access to begin downloading and patching for the start of Open Beta today, however doing so will require you to repatch when we post the final Open Beta build on Tuesday. We've corrected this issue, but in the meantime you will want to stop patching.

How to tell whether you're going to need to repatch.

If you are patched up to ST.0.2010108a.0 you are good for Open Beta.

If you are patching up to ST.0.2010108a.1 STOP PATCHING - this will require a repatch.

The FULL open beta build will be posted on Tuesday.

If you are in doubt about what you are patching - stop patching. You will not be able to get into the game until Tuesday once Open Beta starts.

Sorry for the confusion.
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flibby said:
1. You choose between a Engineer, Science and Tactical officer as your own personal character. Are the types of ships you get linked to what type of officer you are? Such as are science officers linked to scienced vessels? Or can you pick whatever ship you want and the type of officer you are just defines what type of skills you'd get as a bonus.

2. The starting ship you get - is that of any classification of ship type or is it just a random ship as it doesn't seem to have any class as I can't remember ever having to say during the first few levels "Okay, I'll have an Escort class ship".

3. I read can you save the configuration of your character (such as how you designed them) and share them with friends so you can have the same race if you picked to create a new race, where's the option to do this or has it not been implemented?

4. Are all quests repeatable? As I did a bunch of quests then appeared to get the same quests again. I must have had the same bunch of quests about 3 times over.

5. What are "Commodities" items for? I gathered a bunch of them but they seem to have no use what so far. I can't attach them to anything in my ship or on my character so there just sitting in my inventory.

6. How do you train Bridge Officers? There's a guy at the spacedock that sells new skills for Merit's and when you click to view his store it lists a lot of new skills. Each you choose however says "Select an eligable Bridge Officer to train this skill" yet there doesn't appear to be any way to select the Bridge Office to train it.

7. Do you have any info on the personal skills tab? There's just so many skills there and most of them are very confusing. I'm guessing each column is divided into which rank you can access them at and that you don't necessarily need the previous skill on that row to get the next if you have the rank able to get the second skill? ... any other info on the skills would be beneficial though :)


Really hope they add better controller support at some point as well. The controller support seems to actually work and I can use my Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers with no problems other than half the buttons aren't bound and there is no way to map the controllers without using something like Xpadder. This is probably the only MMO I've played that I'd actually prefer to play on a controller as the ground system play seems like it's just been ripped straight from Mass Effect and the space playing just seems like it would be easier with a controller.
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That is a lot of questions! I will answer the best I can.

1. No, the type of character you decide to play is not linked to the ship you decide to pick. However, it can be useful. For example, there is a high level cruiser that doesn't have any room for tactical officers, but can fit in lots of engineers. It goes without saying that being a tactical officer is useful in this case. The ship you choose depends on where you spend your skills - e.g. I may spend all my skill points on a cruiser, then into the heavy cruiser skill. Since there is no cap in the number of skill points, I guess you could keep playing at the "endgame", spend points on a different ship class and buy one of those. You can own multiple ships, not sure how many in total.

2. Your starting ship is a Miranda - just a rounded, basic ship. Visually in can be customised after the tutorial. Takes quite a while to get your next ship, so I hope you like the Miranda class :). At this point I will say that levelling is quite slow. About 100 hours to Admiral rank, 300+ to get all the skills available.

3. You can save your character, but it was greyed out (then removed altogether) in the beta. You should be able to share your character, you can in Champions Online and it uses the same engine.

4. Some quests are repeatable e.g. exploring uncharated star systems in star clusters and some patrol missions. Of course, this is still the beta and much of this can change. But they will be there, just don't expect all of them to be repeatable. Story missions won't be.

5. Commodities will be sold for some kind of currency. Not sure myself what they are planning with these.

6. He was bugged and should be working soon :).

7. This has changed so many times now. I like the layout, but no idea what +14 startship command REALLY means in-game and how it affects my gameplay. There seemed to be 5 columns, so I can only assume one for each rank when you level up. Tbh most of the skills seemed useless to me - weapons, ships, skills that I never plan to use. But there are lots there like torpedo damage modifiers, ship power modifiers, phaser bank modifiers etc.

Hopefully they extend controller support. The xbox360 controller was one of the plus points of Champions Online and if implemented correctly I could see me mostly using the controller for STO.
 
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flibby said:
Thanks matey, appreciate you taking the time to answer them, has cleared some things up for me.

So I guess I'll just save any "Commodities" items I get until they figure out what they are doing with them. Shame I can't save the character, just had to write down where I had every slider on the character, uniform and body advanced options which was a nightmare. Oh did have one last question I forgot to ask - how do you get to your bridge on your ship? I saw people mentioning it and couldn't find the button to get there... is it only available in some areas or something?
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Firstly, take a screenshot of all of your character slider settings. Mine was pretty simple, so I just took a picture of my character.

The bridge can be accessed by an icon on the right of the minimap. I think there is a sort of upside down triangle icon. If you cant see that there is also a drop down box near there with the option to go to your bridge (just try all of the buttons on the bottom right hand side of the minimap). I hope Cryptic either update their manual or make this more obvious because this is one of the most frequent questions I see in the chat window. I think bridges are only available in sector space.
 
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