Whatever happened to Star Trek licensed games?

[Thors_Alumni]

To elaborate: they introduced P2W into the game with the Delta Rising expansion in the form of tier 6 ships. Previously the most powerful ships in the game were tier 5s, which were attainable through gameplay. But with Delta Rising, they introduced T6s which were cash shop exclusive and way more powerful than the T5s, invalidating people's hard work in obtaining T5 ships and the money spent on cash shop T5s. In addition, the Delta Rising expansion's difficulty was tuned around using T6s. Even if you had the best T5 setup, it was near impossible to complete the content.

Aside from the publisher, STO's main problem is that the game is janky and old. It came out in 2010 but felt like a game from the year 2000. It looks bad and feels bad to play. Ground combat and movement feels really bad; only space combat feels smooth.

which is yet another reason why i prefer space missions in the foundry. Honestly I can't afford any of the top tier ships and am stuck with hoping for a bonus somewhere with better weapons and ships.

 

[bintananth]

which is yet another reason why i prefer space missions in the foundry. Honestly I can't afford any of the top tier ships and am stuck with hoping for a bonus somewhere with better weapons and ships.

Games which are pay-to-win are designed so that the ones at the top of the rankings are either absurdly good or willing to spend a large amount of money to say "I'm better than you."

I don't mind playing against the former. I know I'm going to lose. The only question is the final score.

The latter are often people who can be jealous of you because you have something they don't have. I'd rather not deal with people like that in any way unless I have to.

 

[S'task]

I've been staying out of the STO discussion, but I do have to offer a minor correction.

Cryptic has had multiple events over the years that rewards T6 ships to allow people to be competitive and be able to complete the top end content. And I'm not talking about the fact that you can grind Dilithium and trade that for Zen and buy T6 ships that way, without ever having to spend a dime on the game. No, I'm talking about special event ships where you can get them just from logging in and doing a daily over a period of time. Heck, they're literally having one such event right now.

Add on the fact that there is an exchange that allows you to trade Dil for Zen, strictly speaking everything in STO can, in fact, be ground for if you spend the time and effort doing so.

So don't pretend that STO is pay to win, it's not, it's "pay to not grind". Does it have some predatory things? Yes, because it uses loot boxes. But even the way they use loot boxes is generally better than many other games, as the vast majority of items from the loot boxes are smaller scale items like weapons, which can then sold on the exchange thus ensuring everyone can get them over time, and none of the items are locked to the player who opened the lock box, generally speaking. Considering that it's an otherwise completely free to play game, not charging for their storyline content or even their major expansions, they do have to pay to keep things running somehow.

Of course, it's probably obvious to those who pay attention (Protip: my Avatar isn't the sigil of the Romulan Star Empire... it's the sigil of the Romulan Republic from STO) that I am actually a fan of STO, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. I'll admit it has flaws, the gameplay I've found has long since grown tired and stale, but it's not really pay to win, and it's an honest and good faith effort to reflect classic Trek with it's storytelling, even though it does often have to depend on the shooting and explosions.

 

[bintananth]

So don't pretend that STO is pay to win, it's not, it's "pay to not grind".

"Pay to not grind" is a form of "pay-to-win". If the options are "do a bunch of tedious BS" or "write a cheque" a lot of people will pick the latter option.

Remember, the player's enjoyment isn't a high priority and commercial video games aren't made with that in mind. Getting ahold of as much of a player's bank balance as they can while doing as little as possible is.

 

[ParadiseLost]

Star Trek is in that terrible zone where it's too big and too small of an IP at the same time.

It's too small to get a big budget game, but 'too big' for people to take a gamble on it because the licensing fees would be pretty high.

 

[Battlegrinder]

Remember, the player's enjoyment isn't a high priority and commercial video games aren't made with that in mind. Getting ahold of as much of a player's bank balance as they can while doing as little as possible is.

If that's the goal, STO is doing a very bad job of it. Endgame ships are $30 each, regardless of which ship, they don't even crank up the cost of a famous hero ship from the show compared to a second line or otherwise uncommon ship. And you only need one ship with a halfway sane build (my cruiser holds it's own in PVE raids despite being based around a sub-par weapon type because it's optimized well, a less optimal build based around a better weapon is easily obtained) and after buying that one ship there's no particular push to buy more, unless you just really want another one (there are some ships that are, for one reason or another, better than others, but even a "bad" ship is entirely unable).