STO Beta Review by Morloth
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:43 pm
Morloths Beta review on the Epic Fail Boards
Well I am going on the assumption that the closed beta NDA is over so I will share what I know and like about the game as well as some dislikes.
First its divided into two different playstyles, space and ground. So with this your character skills are separated into two sets.
Character customization is very diverse once you look at everything you have to choose from that makes up how you approach combat both on the ground and in space.
You can choose a pregen standard Trek race or you can create your own including what traits that race has.
Next you choose one of three specializations: Engineer, Tactical, Science
Engineer is about keeping your ship alive through the use of shield boosts and other power allocation shifts. On the ground they focus on making turrets and mines as well as healing allies shields.
Tactical is straight forward combat through damage increases and modifcations to your weapons. On the ground they get grenades and martial arts moves.
Science is more about using your ships systems in different and creative ways such as shield draining and detecting cloaked ships. On the ground they focus on healing hp and other things (haven't played one yet so can't say much about them).
In a more wow/war sense the engineer is the hunter/engineer (duh), the tactical is the rogue and can do some tanking, and the science is support.
The next step in defining your character happens at level 10 when you are promoted to Lieutenant Commander and get to choose your first ship.
The three ship classes are Cruiser, Escort, and Science.
Cruisers are large with large power reserves and crew complements. They have equal weapon slots forward and aft and tend to do well with broadsiding tactics. They also have the best defenses (hull and shield) Cruisers have more engineering stations than science and tactical.
Escorts are the damage dealing ship, they are fast and maneuverable but have the weakest defenses. They are also the only class of ship able to slot the high damage cannon type weapons. They have more tactical stations than engineering and science.
Science vessels are built for support they are in between cruisers and escorts but have more science stations so they can pull of more tricks that effect other targets rather than straight damage and power allocations.
The next notable thing about defining your character is your bridge crew. You can have any number of bridge officers and up to 4 of them can join you in ground combat. They are limited to use on your ship by their rank and their specialization. Each tactical, science and engineering station on your ship can be manned by a bridge offficer and each station allows your bridge officer to use a specific skill up to the rank of the station. So a lieutenant commander at a ensign station can only use his ensign power, but if put at a Lt. Cmdr. station he can use his ensign power, Lt. power, and Lt. Cmdr. power.
Each bridge officer has 8 skills that are randomly selected from the pool for their specialization. 4 ranks of skills with one ground and one space skill at each rank. So you can promote your officers and they can use their ground skills although their space skills are still limited by station on the bridge.
Bridge officers can be obtained through quests or bought for merits (the abstract standing with starfleet) you then activate a bridge officer and either have him join the crew or train one of your crewman a new skill (replaces the old one). All bridge officers are customizable but unless they are of the "unknown" race you will be limited to what race they are.
There is also equipment that further defines your character as well as your ship. There is a variety of armor, shields, and weapons that you can equip your captain and bridge officers with. Captains get the benefit of being able to equip two weapons at once and they can also equip kits which give you different powers such as some martial arts skills or the ability to make a turret that restores allies shields.
For your ships there are different engines, shields, and other similiar things. There are also consoles which go into the bridge officer stations and provide static boosts such as magnifying powers and providing better damage resistance. Also there are a variety of weapons such as torpedoes that are good versus hulls and beam arrays that do better against shields, weapons have lots of different damage types as well as effects.
So you can make a science officer and put him in an escort and he would play a lot differently than if he was in a cruiser.
Klingons differ from the Federation in that they level up through pvp. Their ship selection is also more limited. Klingons have the advantage of being able to use any bridge officer in any station, doesn't matter their specialization.
So all in all you can make very different characters for any role you want. During CB I played a tactical officer in an escort and was tearing things up really quick. My roomate played an engineer in a Cruiser and was a great tank and also had an ability that restored my shields so if I started to take too much damage he could save my ass.
If anyone has any questions just ask and I will answer to the best of my ability.