Star Trek: Online Beta Preview: Part 2 : Dammit Spock I'm a Reviewer Not a Critic

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Star Trek: Online Beta Preview: Part 2

 

So when you left me last I had a full crew, a ship to use and a whole galaxy of space to explore. After doing some of the simple ensign missions it soon became apparent that I was moving up the ranks quiet quickly. You see in each rank there are ten levels and once you have done all the levels within a rank you'll get promoted. This works out nicely as you are always levelling up your character quiet quickly and it's not having one massive slog to get to the next rank.

The way the levelling works is that you're rewarded with points which you can use to level up your character. And as well as giving you points to level up, your character you also get points to level up your bridge character but the problem starts when you only get some many points to split between three bridge officers. Each time you level up the character it boosts up those special skills you use throughout the space combat and ground combat. Again this is pretty much up to your personal tastes as if you are finding that you're using a skill more than others then this is probably what you want to boost.

Once you are a certain rank and you have spent enough points on a Bridge officer, you can then promote them to a higher rank. This allows you to unlock more skills for them to use and also for you to upgrade. Speaking of upgrade, you can find parts for you and your ship by killing enemies or completing missions. A lot of the equipment that you will need to get started in the game will come via the missions, so don't go off on a spending spree as the things that you need will be given to you through the course of the game.

If you do feel however, that you need a little something extra then the best place for you to go would be one of the many space ports that are around the galaxy. These give you all the basic shops you find in MMO's, from allowing you to buy weapons for both you and your ship as well as redesign the uniforms of your Bridge officers so you all match. They also allow you to bank items so you don't have to carry them around.

These shops also serve to trade weapons and items that you have found using the trade system. However when I was trying to use the trade system there wasn't anything to buy on the system already. I suppose this could be because of the game is still within beta or the fact that most people will be keeping everything for themselves as everyone doesn't know what will be needed in later missions yet. As well as customising your characters again, you can also customise you ship allowing you to pick three default ship styles or you can create your own using the pieces of the ships you have already purchased (In my case, the three default styles that are given to you at the start). You can also have different colour styles and finishes to your ship which really allow you to give your ship that custom feel.  If everything gets a bit too much for you there is also a bar which you can pop into and just sit, relax and watch space go by.

As far as playing, I've notice a few awesome features as well as some I don't like. I am going to say now that at the current levels, some of the features that are getting on my nerves but I may come back and say that they are useful in later level. This can be because I am not seeing the true potential of the feature. A major example of this is once you get to the Space Docks, you are not sent directly inside the dock but you are left outside to sit, while you fire up your engines and move for about 30 seconds before you finally dock and get into the port. This, at the moment, is quiet annoying as all I really need the space port for is to sell items or take new missions. However I can see how this could be useful if you are doing missions which require you to go from one side of the galaxy to the next, this would save you time as it could jump you straight to the port rather than having to travel back and forth.

I have also noticed bugs and glitches within missions that make them impossible to complete. I have also had issues with ships clipping in an asteroid which makes them impossible to kill but they can still attack you. While these bugs have been reported and it should be noted that we are still in beta, these are some of the bugs which have been bugging me.

So for this part of this section, this is all from me. In the next part I will be speaking about the missions I have been undertaking as well as how the combat system works.

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