MMORPGs And YOU! - Part Five - Star Trek On Line

           

In Game Screenshot of my Starship With Shuttle Behind)

          Welcome back, My Dear Readers, to the Fifth edition of ‘MMORPGs And YOU! – Part Five – Star Trek On Line’. This edition, based on the Star Trek Intellectual Property seems to be timed by a larger force. Perfect Worldis the current keeper of this storied franchise. This title saw several hands during its creation and birth, but Perfect World finally brought it to the world, and spent the last two years refining STOL.

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(Enzomatrix/Danny - Frontal Close-Up in Deep Space Nine)

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I had the opportunity to be a part of the beta of STOL, and it was a rough beta and an equally rough release. The game I purchased, and first installed and played? Is not the game that I played earlier today. Since I played the last time the game has gone to version 4.0 Legacy Of Romulus. First, when the game was in initial release it was a bug-ridden engine with stilted ground movement and combat. The space combat and travel was nothing to look at or play, either.

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(My Starship Docking @ Deep Space Nine)

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So, why did I play? The year was 1966 and Danny was eight going on nine Then this space drama started on CBS and I had found my second television love. (My first would have either been Lost In Space or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) It was on a school night, but I begged, pleaded and prodded until my mother relented and my father smiled. No one else was up, by the end of each episode.

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So here there was this eight-year-old boy watching Kirk, Spock, Mc Coy Uhru, Scotty and Sulu wander the depths of space battling aliens of every imaginable race. I was in space race-baby boomer-American Boy Heaven. Oh, let me tell you that one more than one occasion, it was very difficult to walk down that long hall to my bedroom after an hour of that all alone. Sometimes I would close my eyes and just run as fast as I could, down the hall. Jump into bed and pull the covers over my head. Safe!

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(My Starship Healing a Smaller Ship)

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So, when I heard that this game was actually going to be a real game. (There were three different entities that hand a hand in STOL before it made it Live) Well, I purchased the Collector’s Edition – Preorder – beta Key – Early Game Intro ­version of the game. This was a marriage made in heaven. My boyhood dream-world meets adult boy’s hobby – PC Gaming. I had to enjoy this game, no matter how bad it really was, and it was.

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I played STOL for about six months, and then I made Rear Admiral and I left the game. About six months ago Perfect World took STOL from a subscription service to (my favorite service model) Free To Play. You can purchase a subscription plan (Going to Gold), expansions and add on content, but you can play the game in whole all for no money at all.

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(Enzomatrix/Danny Walking In Earth's Space Station)

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I was going to start with this game, in the first edition. However, some technical difficulty prevented me last month, but it works out that it has come last. Just a few weeks ago, the game went to the newest version and added Romulans. However, Perfect World did much more than just that, the rebuilt the engine and game and made it look like spun gold.  

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This engine runs a smooth as silk, no more hitching and glitching that plagued this game before. Ever better they refined the ‘look ‘of the whole game from walls and hallways down to the User Interface. I was completely awestruck (once the update of six gigabytes finished and I started the new version of STOL) and I am really happy that I was forced to wait. Here I was, with the game of my dreams and five huge hard drives full of space and a in game video recorder at hand. That is why this, the very last one of the series, edition of MMORPGs And YOU! has seven to eight screenshots and three or four long in game videos. This is the most in game content of any two of the previous editions. In reality I have a half-dozen videos and more than a dozen images in all, but it looked just too crowded with all that media. ;)

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(EnzoMatrix/Danny @ Starfleet Headquaters On Spacestation )

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I got into a Brog Fight instance and every moment I wanted to record. Then I made it back to the space station and it was greatly improved, too. I did not expect a complete upgrade of my game, but that is exactly what I got today with a six gigabyte download. A whole new and completely redesigned game and interface. Star Trek On Line runs faster, smoother and looks ten times nicer than ever before. The camera moves flawlessly and smooth as silk, the indirect lighting and shadows are just brilliant.

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(My Enterprise Scanning An Anomly In Space)

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 The action bar at the bottom and sides of the screen were even redesigned, and look better and are easier to see and use. The color theme is greatly improved and is, now, color coordinated, too. Walking down the halls of your ship or at Starfleet Command or Deep Space Nine (Yes, they have built the actual space station from the television show in the game) the walls and textures and people all look more realistic and detailed.

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I am overwhelmed just how much time and effort Perfect World has put into the expansion and upgrade of this game. Therefore, I have added more content than planned, and I am going out on a limb. If you are ever thinking of playing an MMORPG (and you might be a Trekie, too?), let me suggest Star Trek On Line as the game that you buy. The game has made such a huge improvement, in just the past six months, I feel completely confident in making this my pick of the starter MMORPG game.

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(My Starship In a PvP Battle With A Borg Mothership)

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Now on to the rest of what I have to share about this game. STOL does not have mounts or Flight Points or even Flying Mounts. The walking around with people part of STOL is not the biggest part of this game. Blasting other ships in space is the real draw to this game. Now, half of the people who were thinking of playing this game just lost their nerve. Don’t worry, it is really easy to control; the small planet sized ships. Scattered through out this article are at least two (more like thee) videos of my ship, and others, blasting away at Borg ships. 

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STOL has everything else that I have told you about in this series. You can learn trades and professions; you can make things and sell them in an Auction House. There are merchants for everything that you could ever want everywhere you go. There are banks to store your items and even Guilds here, too. New types and sizes of ships to buy, and you can spend coin to buy improvements to existing ships. The range of ships is nearly limitless, and that is where your major class is determined.

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((My ‘Enterprise’ Star Ship From the Third Movie)

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Your toon has a specialty, like healing or explosives, ranged attack or close combat. AS well, your ship(s) can have a specialty, supported by a specially trained bridge crew. You have talent points that you spend to train yourself, and another set of points to spend on your bridge crew and your Away Team. Now, you can make them one in the same, in the beginning, to make things easier. It does take some time to build up yourself and your crew. Just keep playing through the story line missions and you and your crew will move right along.

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(My Starship Docking with Earth's Space Dock)

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In STOL there are Guilds they are just called Fleets. You have matching nautical ranks to go right along with the Star Trek and Starfleet. The fleets have the same dynamics and reasons to be as WoW or Rift or Aion. There are personal banks and Fleet Banks, just as in all the other MMORPGs. There are cut scenes for plot based quests and introduction movies at the beginning of the game. There is everything that comes with being an MMORPG game, with all the spectacle and beauty of it taking place in space.

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‘Space, the final frontier…’ Makes my have a chill, every time I hear those words. To combine those feelings with the wonder of MMORPG… well it is a wonder that I have been away from this game so long. In just playing for a couple of hours today, to get in game video footage and images. I was struck, all over again, with the beauty and wonder of this game. I hope that by including so many more videos and images you, My Dear Readers, clearly see just how brilliant this game has become.

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(My Starship Outside Earth's Space Dock)

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 Comparisons with the original game, and the game that I just played, would parallel comparing Quake to Crysis. Time, at least in this, has been my friend. That I did not make this game the premier game of the series is nothing less than a Godsend. Sorry, I had a singularly wonderful experience preparing for this article. I just came to the blank page with all these emotions and energy. If you have the chance, please watch all the movies, that way you have a complete picture of what this game has to offer.

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That brings us to the end of this, the fifth edition of ‘MMORPGs And YOU!’. It has been my singular honor to share these games, my hobby, with you. And, as always, I would like to thank you for coming by The Other Shoe.

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