See you soon STO

Star Trek Online has been a success, at least in the eyes of Atari and Cryptic Studios. I don't think the same thing would be said by a vast majority of the initial player base, myself included. I don't think it's a failure, but it definitely needs some work!

The game has been launched nearly 2 months now and while Cryptic are still pushing out content updates like the recently released Season One which adds new PvP maps, more missions and a few other things you can find out about here

I've decided to cancel my subscription to the game for a while. My reason is being is that I can't justify the cost of a monthly subscription when there's so little to do. While the first taskforce mission was a lot of fun to play, in reality (for the moment anyway) it's the only real piece of endgame content available.

Another reason, which might not have played a part in my original decision to cancel the subscription, has definitely helped me in not regretting it. Charging real cash for in-game items. Aka - Microtransactions. I've made my opinions clear on the MT subject and they've officially become a reality today. Charging $4 dollars so you can create 2 more character is ridiculous. While I can understand stupid cosmetic things like new uniforms or bridge layouts, charging you to make more characters??

It's always been my opinion for an MMO that the first thing the developer should be concerned about is how they're going to keep people playing the game. Allowing the player to create more characters so they can play as different classes or factions usually does the trick for a while, it gives the developer enough time to build on it's existing end-game content. Cryptic, in their infinite wisdom decided to only give 3 character slots (5 if you bought the lifetime subscription)

I think it's very cheeky to ask a player to pay a fee on top of a monthly subscription for a slot to make a new character, something I think Cryptic (and any other company that does it) should be very ashamed of. I don't care that more characters take up extra server space. This is why you pay a monthly subscription in the first place!

In the end it's the long time/loyal player base who are the ones being targeted here. A new player isn't going to worry about multiple slots, retraining options and god knows whatever other ideas they come up with, it's the end-game players who need to consider them which is eventually what happens. I think as long as Cryptic keep game changing items out of the C-Store, people are most likely just going to accept these charges, but if Cryptic do cross that line...Game Over

I know I sound very harsh, that just goes to show how strongly I feel about it I guess but I don't want to say I'm finished with game forever because it's not true. You'll never see me using the C-Store, if they can continue to add more missions and new types of end-game content I would definitely come back to play them, but until then I'll watch from the sidelines so I don't miss anything and wait for the right time to come back.

STO Suggestions

So STO launched about 2 weeks ago, I was going to write a review but I don't think it's really possible to fully review a game which is never meant to end, so instead of that, I'm going to give my suggestions to make the game better.

Ditch the Memory Alpha Crafting System
I hate to come off like I'm being mean for no reason, but whoever thought that Memory Alpha was a good idea needs a good kick up the arse. Cryptic have never been very good with crafting, Champions Online has suffered the same fate and City of Heroes/Villains is no better off either.

One thing that people have been begging for pretty much since Cryptic took over development was a full and interesting crafting system and while there is Tribble breeding for the Federation, what we really want is to craft consoles and weapons.

More Scripted Episodes
Right now I'm only a second grade Captain in-game and I've heard that content can get very thin towards the Admiral rank, my experiences as a Commander were pretty bad, I found myself with no missions other than the repeatable Cluster and Deep Space Encounter ones. While procedurally generated content is good for filling in gaps, it is in no way a replacement for scripted missions. Some of the "Episodes" have been amazing, it really did feel like being in an episode of Star Trek, while the procedural content is fairly boring. (Does anyone else notice that the Galaxy seems to be overrun by lava bleeding trees??)

Raid Groups and Missions!
I can only speak for myself, but I'm sure there are a lot of other people out there who hate the Crystalline Entity with a passion thanks to being grouped with morons who don't pay attention. Cryptic really need to implement raid grouping, so that Fleets can group together and take on Fleet Actions privately. So far, the only real benefit to joining a Fleet has been to use a Fleet Bank and have the use of a fleet channel. It seems that the new "Raidisodes" being released soon are still only 5-man instances which is very disappointing.

Speed Ground Combat up again!
During Beta, Ground Combat was fast and furious, until they decided to try and slow it down to keep with more traditional MMO pace. I personally prefer it faster, for a sci-fi MMO I think it needs to feel like everything is happening quickly, as it would in a real gun-fight, having to wait for a 1 second cooldown between shots just feels wrong.

Tweak Exchange
I'd like to see more options on the exchange. I think they need to add sub-sections to the weapons tab so that we can search for turrets, cannons, phasers, distrupters individually. As it stands now you need to know the name of an item to search for it. New players specifically aren't going to know whats going on (I know I didn't anyway)

Conclusion
I can't think of any MMO that hasn't suffered from problems during launch (Yes, even World of Warcraft!) so it would be unfair to say that STO isn't living up to my expectations. I plan on giving Cryptic another month or two before I make any final decisions on whether I'll renew my subscription, if they were to implement some of my suggestions above, I think it'd go a long way to making the game as popular as it deserves to be.

What I've been up to

As some of you might know, I'm currently stuck at home with tonsillitis. I've taken the time to overhaul a few things and make some plans to upgrade my home network.

As I mentioned in my last post I've finally figured out that damn problem with the mixed up " and @ keys which has made working on the Mac so much easier. I know it sounds like such a stupid thing but when you've spent 10 years with them that way, it's hard to break the habit!

I used to think Mac's were crap but I've come around to them now and I actually really like the OS but unfortunately there are some Windows only programs that I need to do my work. I was using Bootcamp for a while but it was such a nightmare having to reboot and switch between the both. I'm currently testing out VMware Fusion 3 which so far has been working wonders, I've used Virtual PC before so I knew the drill. The most important thing though is VMware supports 3D acceleration which I need for some of the applications I use for college work.

I installed Windows XP and got each of the programs working without any issues.

I'm currently planning out a home server for the house. I'd like to be able to stream content all over the house without having to leave my computer on, I'm currently leaning towards using Windows Home Server for the OS and using spare parts from old computers I've picked up over the years. From what I've read it will run well (as long as I don't plan on streaming HD content straight away) on the parts I've got. The major thing I need to invest in is storage space for backups and hosting my media.

Last but not least I've discovered two amazing things (one thanks to my cousin, the other thanks to Google) Groove Shark and Mozilla Prism.

Groove Shark is basically the YouTube equivalent for the internet radio industry. It runs much like Last.fm but instead of charging you to listen to the music, they let you listen for free but offer VIP services that gets rid of some annoying ads and offers you a bigger library. So far I haven't had any problems finding a song I like.

One thing I really hate is having to keep Firefox open for web applications so Prism is like a godsend to me. It lets you make a stand alone program out of web applications that can collapse to the taskbar. It means that if your browser crashes (as they do) the radio or game you are using isn't going to crash with it. I highly recommend checking it out.

So that's what I've been up to the last few days. Mass Effect 2 tomorrow and then STO next week. Those plus college is going to keep me very busy!

Welcome to 2010

Hey all. Happy New Year

I know I've been away for a while. As I've said a million times by now, college has had me busy and it hasn't changed so I haven't had the chance to update as much as I'd like to.

Modern Warfare 2 has started to get a bit old which I expected to happen, I've been playing the multiplayer for about 2 months now and it's been fun so I think its run the course.

Mass Effect 2 is coming out in a few weeks which I'm really looking forward to playing. "Santa" brought me a Sony eBook Reader for Christmas and the first book I got for it was the first Mass Effect Novel which is a prequel to the game and has been great so far. I plan on playing through the first Mass Effect again after finishing the book and then if I have time I'll pick up the second novel which is a sequel.

STO's beta is still in full force. Apparently the NDA has been lifted which means we can talk about it and I do plan on talking about the state of the game very soon. I've actually decided to take a break from testing because I don't want to ruin the game for myself at launch.

I ordered a new phone today called the HTC HD2 which should be here on Monday, I'll write up a first impressions on it when it comes.

So I hope everyone had a good Christmas and plan on having a great new year.

Christmas is nearly here!

So Christmas is just around the corner, I wish I could use it as the excuse as to why I've been away but the honest truth is, I've been too busy. I've said this a few times in my last few blogs but it's the truth. I'm having a hard time juggling my time between games, college and having some sort of a social life.

STO is currently chin deep in beta which is moving along smoothly, open beta isn't too far off either. I really wish I could talk about it but as I've said before, the NDA is in effect and I don't want to get on the bad side of Cryptic because I really want to keep playing :P

2010 is looking to be a great year for games we've got Mass Effect 2 in January, Star Trek Online in February, Final Fantasy XIII and White Knight Chronicles in March as well as some that don't have a solid date.

I went to the open day of the college I'm hoping to switch to next year on Saturday and it was really cool. The building, the people and the general atmosphere of the place was awesome. After talking to a few of the people currently in the course as well as the lecturers it just looks like the place for me.

Christmas break is coming up soon which means I'll be able to chillax and get my gaming on. I plan on replaying Mass Effect and going through all the side quest content just in time for Mass Effect 2's release and maybe I'll even finish Dragon Age, you never know!

Cya all later and again I'm sorry for not writing too much lately!

Bit late to the party

So Star Trek Online gets it's release date! I'm a bit annoyed that the EU has to wait 3 more days to play but I guess I'll survive.

February 5th!

I'm going to have a few projects to work on around that time so my playtime could be restricted until I get my midterm and then on to the summer holidays.

Modern Warfare 2 came out two nights ago and it's probably the reason why I haven't written this earlier. It's so damn addictive I can't stop playing it. Even when you ragequit, you find yourself back playing again within 5-10 minutes.

[SPOILERS]

It's been getting a lot of publicity because of it's violence, more specifically I think people are getting "upset" about the airport level. It is a bit on the nose and I'm sure there could be people who would take offense or be very upset by it but Infinity Ward gives you the opportunity to skip the level when you start the campaign and even warns you twice.

Basically you play as a terrorist. You get to shoot up an Airport of innocent people as an undercover CIA agent. You don't actually have to shoot anybody, you can just walk through the airport and let your terrorist friends do the dirty work so you can always say you didn't kill anyone.

Me on the other hand, I killed every last person and enjoyed it. It's a game and no I don't have any homicidal thoughts and no, I'm not a terrorist. The game has an 18's (mature) rating for a reason. Infinity Ward do cover their asses at the end of the level though and the bad guy actually shoots you dead for your "bad deeds"

[END OF SPOILERS]

The multiplayer is fantastic and is a lot more fleshed out than CoD4. Better balance, more perks, more levels and loads of maps to play on. It will definitely keep people playing for years.

On a more personal level, I've handed in a few assignments and done a programming test, things are going good.

Cya later!

Been a while....

I just don't seem to have the time to update the blog anymore! I'm all over the place with the STO beta in full whack and college projects coming in left right and center it's been tough!

I got some feedback on my character design assignment from my teacher, just a few tweaks and a bit of padding and it's good to go. We got our first 3D assignment today, we've to replicate the Saturn V rocket (aka Apollo 11) as close as possible to the real thing. I spent 4 hours working on it today and it's looking close. Once I add a bit more detail and work on the texture it'll be cool.

I got bored during my Midterm and decided to play around with a very small website based on the LCARS system in Star Trek and it came out pretty well.

It got me thinking about redesigning my web design project to incorporate it but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed. We have to copy a magazine article as close as possible.

I'll ask the teacher when I get a chance but I've a feeling the answer is going to be no :(


I've been playing a bit of Borderlands too. I have to admit the first time I played it, I didn't think much. It really felt like a single player MMO grind fest which it is, it also made me feel motion sick (which happens to me sometimes with FPS games for some reason) so I thought enough was enough. I played again today with a few friends from AoA and really had a blast. For some odd reason playing the game in windowed mode stopped me from getting motion sickness playing it

The game was still a grind fest but it was fun playing with other people.

I'm still playing Urban Dead (usually in class) and I'm finally getting to grasps with the whole thing. It really starts off slow, but once you get enough experience to get some skills things start to kick off.

I've also been testing STO and I really wish I could talk about it because there's so much to say! As soon as the NDA is lifted I'll have everything ready to go!

Modern Warfare 2 is also just around the corner. I'm thinking about picking it up on PC instead of the Xbox, I'm not sure though. I'll have to think about it.

I think that's all I got in me for now. Later!

Star Trek Online goes into Closed Beta!

So I couldn't officially say it earlier but now I can. STO has officially gone into Closed Beta today and yours truly was lucky enough to get his hands on a first phase beta key.

As expected I "signed" my NDA which means I can't really go into much detail but I do intend on taking a lot of videos and screenshots over the coming months which will be posted online as soon as the NDA is lifted.

Until then, anyone who is looking for a Fleet of mature, fun loving gamers make sure you check out AllOutAssault.net as we are currently accepting applications for our STO division.

Awen is gone! GONE! HUZZAH

So anyone who followed Awen on twitter knows this already, it looks like the big dawg (pun intended) has either been fired or quit Cryptic, which means STO just got a whole lot better.

Now I know some people might look at that last statement and think "that's not very nice" but let's look at the facts

• She rarely engaged with the community
• She made some terrible decisions
• Very clumsy
• Very dipsy

A lot of AoAers know very well my hatred for her and now shes gone which makes life so much sweeter.

Hopefully Rekhan gets a chance to step up to the plate (if he wants that of course) and show the world how it's done, I think he deserves the chance and he'd do a hell of a job.

So bye bye Awen, don't let the door hit you on the way out and please don't come back

Impressions from PAX: STO Ground Combat

Unfortunately for Cryptic I can also sum the ground based play of STO up in one word too "boring"

As a lot of you might know, I've had my fair share of complaints about STO and as more information has come along a lot of them have been put to rest, others I'll just have to deal with and many that weren't really problems at all. The ground based play of STO on the other hand seems to get a unanimous decision from everyone, it needs some serious work.

Graphically, it's as beautiful as the space combat, the planet in question looked like some kind of desert, we've seen space station, jungles and ship interiors through screenshots too. The animations still need a bit of work. I noticed on some videos the knock back effect of being thrown to the floor had them sliding down slanted geometry or being very jerky just in general.

Due to the lack of source footage, I only have the "shaky cam" versions to work with. I couldn't see the use of skills as such during the ground combat, it seemed just as effective to stand still and shoot, if an enemy gets close you can smack them to the ground, move back a step and repeat until someone dies.

I don't think I've seen enough of the ground combat to really do it any justice but for the time being Cryptic may have over extended themselves in trying to make a fully playable space game as well as a ground game. I'm pretty sure they're going to sort it out by launch but once I get into beta, I'll be making sure to report my thoughts on it straight away.

With the release of Champions Online just passed us, Cryptic are switching priority over to getting the beta train rolling for STO which should happen in the next 4 months.

Impressions from PAX: STO Space Combat

I could really sum this up in one word, "Fantastic" but I should really go into a bit more depth since some people might prefer that (you know who you are)

We've had leaked video which we could see a tiny bit of in-game footage but nothing that had a camera pointed directly at the screen. Thanks to Tamgros and Vmann we've had loads of screenshots to check through and a video showing off the space section of the game as well as some ground combat.

The main source of information for the game has been the Dev chats that Cryptic have held in IRC and unfortunately for them (at least from my perspective) they didn't really speak well of the game. The information was there but not with any excitement or interest which really carried over and made me lose interest. Thankfully what they lack in PR skills they make up in games design and the videos really explain what I think they were trying to do in the chats.

I quickly noticed how familar it looks in MMO terms, we had the quest helper on the right hand side, our skill bars down the bottom and of course we had enemies to kill. One Starship versus a few Birds of Prey. From a graphical point of view it was gorgeous just watching the ships fighting it out. It had a real cinematic quality to it even though a fan was playing, nothing staged. I hope combat will stay that interesting throughout the game because it is usually one of the first things that gets old very fast.

The actual mechanics to combat was great too. I liked the way you charged or loaded each weapon and had up to 30 seconds to use it before it had to be charged again and you can really see how positioning is going to be important in larger scale battles or even against a "higher level" ship.

Exploration is looking like its going to be fun, one thing which is easy to forget (and I do it quite often) in reality the size of your ship is really the same size as a character in Champions Online graphically so the scale of each sector could be massive and judging by the demo on show at PAX it's definitely going to be like that. I know Zinc has said on record that you won't be able to see players on the other side of a sector and I fully believe it now.

There was a quick glimpse of traveling through a sector at full impulse which seems to be fast enough to get through each sector in a reasonable amount of time. They also showed off the animation for warping to different sectors which was cool, it's very true to the TV shows.

It was nice to hear the Cryptic rep in the background of one of the videos speaking of the game telling you when an enemy might be out of your league. I know it's an expected feature in MMO's these days but it unintentionally might have answered a fear that I've been having for the game.

So far STO is looking to be a single player experience. Cryptic have gone above and beyond to make the game as enjoyable as possible for the loners of the galaxy as it will be for everyone else which is great but I really want as many opportunities to have massive space battles as possible where players have to work together to take down a stronger enemy.

Even the ground combat lets you bring your bridge officers who replace real players when there is space on missions with you but I'm saving ground combat for another blog!

Overall the space sections of STO is insanely polished for game that isn't even in beta yet. It could be released as a stand alone game and it would still do very well.

Tamgros Interviews Craig "Zinc" Zinkievich at PAX!

So as promised Tamgros and Vmann were fortunate enough to interview Craig Zinkievich the executive producer for STO. It's cut into 2 parts thanks to YouTube but here you go!

I'd like to thank Kinneas of Hailing Frequency for setting the interview up for us and make sure you check out HailingFrequency.com too





PS - Thank you Tamgros for asking my macro question :D

STO at PAX!

While Vmann and Tamgros are still rooting around PAX, Vmann was awesome enough to take some pictures of the STO booth. Some of them are a bit blurry but with any luck we'll get some good quality stuff once he gets home :)

It's worth mentioning that I was so entranced by Vmann's beard in his picture that I completely missed the fact that he is wearing a t-shirt that I designed. *sniff*

AOA Promotion at it's best!

For those of us who can't be at PAX we only have our friends Tamgros and Vmann to syphon information to us as best as possible but this has to be the best promotion for AoA you can get.

All Out Assault is at PAX!

Just a quick reminder to everyone that AoA's Tamgros and Vmann will be at PAX where they'll have a chance to get a hands on demo with Star Trek Online. They are also lucky enough to get an interview with Cryptic for our All Out Insider Podcast in association with Hailing Frenquencies.

Star Trek Online Closed Beta Signups

The one night I decide to go to sleep early is the night that Cryptic put up the application forms for the Star Trek Online beta. So there you go click here and good luck!

All Out Assault is heading to PAX!

AoA's Tamgros and Vmann are going to be on hand at PAX where they will have a chance to check out a playable demo of Star Trek Online. They will also be interviewing Cryptic for our All Out Insider Podcast in association with Hailing Frequencies so make sure you check them out this weekend!

STO: Server Shards

I have been trying to avoid the STO forums for a while now. I started to notice that the more I read each thread, the more I upset or disappointed I'd feel about the game in general, after seeing the recently leaked videos I decided to check back at the forums and see if others felt the awesomeness of it, unfortunately being Trekkies everybody sidestepped that and went onto the next problem instead.

Champions Online uses a system where instead of having multiple servers, they have 1 server with multiple instances of each area. STO is to use this system as well. Apparently people are very upset about this, breaking immersion, loading and gay seem to get thrown around a lot on the 100 different threads that are plaguing the forums.

With it being such an issue I decided to have a think about it to myself and I came to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter in the end. "What did he say?" I hear you ask, yes I know I'm usually the first person to complain about these things but in all honesty I'm not really bothered about it.

Each instance of CO had a 50 player population limit (during beta, could change) which for an area is plenty if it's full. Except for the likes of a social hub or quest center or raid I don't think I've ever seen more than 50 players in one area at one time in any other MMO, probably 10-20 at max. I don't know how many times in WoW I'd have loved the option of going to an empty instance of that area so I could finally grind those 10 Kobold Candles I needed for that quest without the competition.

The only major downside I have with each area being multi instanced is the loading between them which is annoying but not game breaking.

STO: Interview with Video

Somebody was kind enough to post up a "behind closed doors" interview with Zinc showing off STO in motion in space and on the ground. I've said this on twitter, in IRC and on the STO forums, all my doubts for the game are gone and I'm 100% devoted to it.

The main reason for this is, I saw how the galactic map is going to work and it's such a brilliant idea, its the best thing they could have done to make the game fun. They also show a bit of ground combat and you can see some space combat. The only disappointing thing for the video is that it's not centered on the screen, rather it is looking at Zinc, apparently the audience were told this was how it had to be.

Anyone who hasn't already seen it should watch it, if you were like me and worried that the game wasn't going to be what you wanted these videos should sooth the tension.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

So much information!

I know I haven't been updating the blog as much as I usually do, this is half in part to the huge amounts of information coming in for STO, FFXIV and even the likes of EvE and WoW that I can barely keep up with it.

So instead of writing a separate article for each part, I'm just going to post all the info here.

Final Fantasy XIV: 4-5 videos have made its way online, most of which you can find on Zam by clicking here

Star Trek Online: Vmann was awesome enough to link me to a new video of STO which shows us some space and ground combat with a voice over from a Cryptic rep, this can be found here

I think I've spent most the day looking over those videos in awe.

FFXIV's animations are absolutely brilliant, very fluid and a treat to watch, there was some clipping and collision detection issues but overall the game is really looking great.

STO is looking good too, there are some issues with the graphics which have been brought up already but overall it is looking very nice and lets hope it can only get better with time.

I hope to go into a bit more detail later on but right now, I'm still drooling.