An Idea for the STO Store

I don’t usually endorse in game stores for MMO’s, especially if I purchased the game for $40 or more, and am currently paying them $15 a month for the right to play the game I payed them $40 or more for. That being said the entire industry is going that way, so I might as well start working at steering it in the direction I want it to go.

With that in mind I had an idea while I was laying in bed this morning. It was partly because I read a bunch of Star Trek Online related blogs last night before going to bed, and partly because I’m still trying to get through The Original Series. So what is this amazing idea you ask? It’s simple, as anything going into the store should be. They have tons of different “bridges” in the game and for sale in the store, but do they have the most important bridge in Star Trek history? No they do not. What is this bridge you ask?

The destroyed bridge bridge. I want bodies strewn everywhere, lights flashing, NPC’s using medical tricorders on my Bridge Officers. I want the ship the shake every few minutes and send people flying, only to land on the floor and have medics come running up to them and check on them. I want debris and rubble to be strewn around the bridge!

Just a small idea I had, what do you think?

Amazing Deals!

Trine

This isn’t going to be a long post. I just got the weekly impulse buys newsletter from Stardock and they’ve got Trine for $4.99 US. Seriously, if you have EVER enjoyed a platform game pick this up. For this price? It’s a must. Me and the wife played it together (support up to three people on ONE COMPUTER! We used keyboard and mouse/XBox controller to play). I can’t say enough about this game, go get it.

Rockstar

From Steam we’ve got the Rockstar Pack. That’s:

Bully: Scholarship Edition

Grand Theft Auto 1, 2, 3, Vice City, San Andreas, 4, Episodes from Liberty City

Manhunt

Max Payne 1, 2

Midnight Club 2

Wild Metal

All that for the special price of 42.49! You pay less than the price of a new console game! If I didn’t own all of those except Manhunt and Episodes from Liberty City I’d buy it right now.

Spring Sale from Direct2Drive

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II for 14.95 (I love this game, and the expansion)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI for 9.95

Saboteur for 14.95

Everquest II: Sentinel’s Fate for 19.95!!! It’s $40 usually! For barely 5 dollars above the monthly sub you can get Everquest II and ALL of it’s expansion packs! Go get this if you have ever wanted to play Everquest II!

There are MANY more deals out there, but these caught my eye as being extremely good.

Ugly? Yeah Probably.

I read MMO Gamer Chicks recent post about her characters and how they all have certain things in common (Adventure Historian made a post on the topic as well!) . It got me thinking and I decided that I would do my own write up with my characters, and man are they ugly.

1. They are all male.

Oh I’ve tried a few females here and there, mostly alts, but I just can’t get into them. I think it’s partly because, while I hardly roleplay in games, I am a roleplayer at heart and I just can’t put myself into the shoes of a female avatar. I know the general excuse guys make, that extreme macho B.S. of “I’d rather look at a girls butt” but I think that’s all to try and clear up any worry of them being “gay” for playing a female toon. Sure, women look MUCH better than men, usually in video games too, and it’s fine to say that you like the aesthetic of a woman toon over that of a man. But when you use the “If I’ve got to stare at a butt” argument it just makes me wonder why you find one or the other sexually arousing. I think MMOGamerChick has it right when she says “I’ll admit the smooth curves of a female avatar are easier on the eyes when you’re staring at a game interface for extended periods of time.” It’s not sexual, or not supposed to be, it’s just fact for some. How did I make this such a long paragraph? Why am I still typing? Oh God this needs to stop.

2. They’re mostly ugly.

Some games require that I play a human, and in those games I generally make myself gruff and “woodsy”. The type of person you probably wouldn’t sit next to on the bus, but choose to stand instead. Others let me pick darker or just strange races, such as giant cow people. The really nice character creation lets me make whatever I want, such as Star Trek Online, and anyone who has seen my character on STO knows that it’s not pretty.

I think the main reason I tend to pick “ugly” races is that I LIVE in this world. I WORK in go to school in this world. I’ve SEEN humans, and they are boring to look at. Give me the option to play something vastly different than the usual and I’m going to jump at the chance.

Another reason may be that I don’t want to blend in with everyone else. Sure in real life I want to remain as anonymous as anyone else, but in game I want people to stop and say “Woah! Let me get a screenshot of this guy!”

The final reason is that it’s harder to come up with stories for strange species, and I really enjoy doing that.

3. They are tending toward the same name.

In this I am the exact opposite of MMOGamerChick in that, while her characters used to be named the same things and are moving apart, mine used to have unique names, each and everyone one of them contemplated on more than their appearance. Now though they all tend to have Amun or Toth in the name, such as Amuntoth, Amunkodo, Connor Toth, etc. I always try and work it in and make it fit lore-wise, at least a little, but I’m trying to make it easier for people to track me from the blog into the game and say high.

After the break will be pictures from some of my characters, so if that doesn’t interest you then no need to wait on the loading. If it does, click away!

Decision Time

While reloading Fallout 3 for the third time today (a total of six so far!) I stumbled upon the fact that Fallen Earth is on a very nice sale. Let me explain the first part of that. I love Bethesda games, while Bethesda games hate me. They crash usually at a rate of once an hour on any machine I put them on, with or without mods. This has been the case since Morrowind, on through it’s expansion packs, into Oblivion and it’s expansion, and straight on to Fallout 3. I put up with it because they are amazing games and a quick reload once an hour isn’t going to ruin my experience.

On to the sale and the decision. This sale is calling to me. I really REALLY enjoyed my time in Fallen Earth and my body has been craving a return, it’s partly why I am loading up Fallout 3. I love the setting and to be honest I enjoyed Fallen Earth MORE than Fallout 3, though it lacks any single player story of course. I also didn’t experience it’s lack of end game, but that doesn’t bother me as I can just roll alts until I get bored with that and leave the game. I don’t feel that MMO’s begin at the end game. I enjoy the leveling and then usually get bored afterwards.

So what the dilemma? If I buy Fallen Earth I would need to unsub from Star Trek Online until I was done playing Fallen Earth, or maybe swap them out every month if I felt like it. This is because I only have two games ever going at the same time, one I play with my wife and one I play by myself. It’s a financial issue that I refuse to budge on, as $45 a month for MMOs is more than enough for me.

The two games are vastly different. On one hand I love the story missions in STO. They have an interesting story and lots of scripted events that can make them very enjoyable. On the other hand that’s pretty much all the game has going for it at the moment aside from the Fleet. In Fallen Earth I have much more to do, but less people to do it with (and far less that I know, IE nobody). Add onto that the fact that Fallen Earth doesn’t have great story quests, though there are a few, and it’s going to be a tough choice.

I think for the blog it would be more interesting to play Fallen Earth, as there is more to do and even if all of the bloggers I read were writing about it, each of us would be doing something different. In STO it feels like you are on serious rails, and you are, which isn’t a bad thing, just a different feel. Well, what do you all think?

The beauty and quests of Star Trek Online?

Or the grit and adventure of Fallen Earth?

New Rank and the Death Rattle of a Computer

That’s right, Amuntoth is now Commander 2. I only had about an hour to play last night after classes but I managed to get in a really fun mission. It was a raid on a Romulan planet that started with my team infiltrating, taking out some space resistance, transporting to the surface to rescure some Starfleet officers, one of whom you will see at some point on here. We then had to destroy some weapons they were making, then transport back to the ship and join over 15 NPC Starfleet ships against the same number of NPC Romulan ships.

Overall I had a blast with the episode and it reminded me why I am playing Star Trek Online at the moment. I’ve also started playing World of Warcraft again with my wife (probably going to switch between this and LOTRO, which is what we tend to do). I usually have one MMO I’m subbed to with my wife, usually WoW or LOTRO, and then one for myself, which at the moment is STO. You won’t hear much WoW related from me on here, unless it is in relation to another topic, as that is pretty much covered in other blogs and I’d hate to run my readers away.

Sadly though her computer is having some serious issues and may not be around much longer. I’ve done most of what I could and it MAY or MAY NOT be fixed, depending on the whims of whatever spiteful deity that has decided to house itself in our computers and cause all kinds of problems.

In the past three years I have had two different computers ignite in flames, both in different houses with different power cords and different everything. Hopefully that’s not going to happen this time. We’ve done all the usual and it appears it might be here graphics card. I currently have hers in my computer and mine in hers. I’m hoping that it’s just some weird conflict with her other hardware, but I’m pretty doubtful. I expect the dang thing to die any minute now so if you don’t hear from me for a day or two and then I upload a huge rant, that’s probably what it is.

That or the penguins HAVE risen up and started their invasion of human occupied lands. In that case may God have mercy on our souls, and our computers.

This is the only thing I see when I close my eyes…

Some STO Wallpapers

I decided to make myself a wallpaper and ended up making several, so I thought I’d share them with you all. I hope you enjoy!

***EDIT*** Things seem to be fixed. Enjoy your STO Wallpapers :)***EDIT***

Ding Ding! Commander…Arriving.

That’s right, Amuntoth D’Teklik is now Commander 1! Also I managed to snag some Original Series uniforms and now my entire crew is sporting them. You can expect a new Captain’s Log update this weekend with some amazing turns of events, in my opinion in any case.

I did want to touch on some interesting Episodes I went on today in my attempt to make it to Commander.

Divide et Impera

First I just want to say that I had to try the mission three times before it would complete. There seems to be a bug in it and I will warn you now, if you beam down to the station and start moving, and the NPC that is with you just stands there, you should beam back up and restart that part of the mission.

Aside from the technical difficulties associated with the episode I really enjoyed it. Sure it wasn’t completely unexpected but I had a lot of fun. Because it was borked, my first really borked episode since launch, I went to the forums to see if it was a common thing and yes, yes it is. I also discovered that it is a mission of some controversy.

Many people seem to feel that they should be able to do something different than what the game forces you to do. They know what’s coming and they want to avoid it because their character would never do what he does. I’m sorry I’m being vague here but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

The problem I have with this is the same problem I have with all these types of arguments. Just because YOU know something does not mean your character knows something. Just because YOU know the super item is in the desert dungeon because you looked it up doesn’t mean your character has any reason to go to the desert, let alone to go grave robbing in the desert.

“But Amun! It’s so painfully obvious what is about to happen my character should know!” You might be saying and yes, to you, sitting back in your house playing a calming video game, it might be painfully obvious. To your captain however, a man who has lost dozens of people he knew, some he possibly cared for in a multi-front war with former allies, Borg, Romulans, Klingons, shape-shifters and more, a man who went from having no authority to being responsible for the lives of hundreds of people in the span of a day, a man who has been shot and stabbed multiple times in the short time he’s been captain, well a man like that might have a lot on his mind.

The Crystaline Entity

The basic premise here is that a large Crystaline Entity is floating around the galaxy and being a danger to planets. It is your job, along with however many other random people that show up, to destroy this entity. As you attack it it will release dozens of crystal fragments that home in on ships and try to collide with them. If they do they explode and can destroy a ship quickly. If a fragment is destroyed, either by colliding with a player, a mine, or by being attacked, it heals the Entity for a drastic amount of HP.

I fought this Entity on four separate occasions and I never saw it’s health drop below 98%. Sure the mission premise is interesting but let’s be honest with ourselves here: This mission requires you to have enough people, to avoid incoming mobs or CC them without hurting them, and to DPS the big guy down while you are doing this. This requires the same amount of coordination required of a guild for a raid, but without any of the benefits such as KNOWING AHEAD OF TIME YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN A RAID.

So as I said we could never even hurt the thing. One time, no matter what was said in zone, local or in private messages, one player simply flew around shooting fragments and not responding to anything else. This kept the Entity’s health at 100%. The other times we just could not get coordinated. Someone would always get hit by the fragments resetting the boss to 100%.

Overall I’m having a blast in STO and I’ll be playing for some time still.

Let’s Play Star Trek Online: Captains Log 2

Captains Log, Stardate 87863.07.

My name is Captain Amuntoth of Clan Teklik, Ensign in the Federation. I’ve been ordered to return to Earth Spacedock 1 as quickly as my warp engines can get me there. I’ve just had one quick stop to make on the way.

Ensign Selvok: “Sir, we’re approaching Javus IV Sir.”

“Of course we are Selvok, of course we are. Tell me, how goes the skin grafting?”

Ensign Selvok: “Well Sir, though I’m still not certain that this is within Starfleet regulations…”

“Selvok what did we talk about?”

Ensign Selvok: “That my Vulcan heritage counters my emotions, thus making me a genetic freak in need of purification Captain.”

“Precisely, and that is why we grafted some of my skin onto you, in order to purify your flesh as we are working to purify your mind.”

A Few Good Stories

 

I have been known to post a few stories based on my game characters. It’s really gun and if I keep up on it really makes me enjoy the game more. Not only that but I hope at least a few people out there receive some kind of enjoyment through reading them.

I’ll have the next installment of my Star Trek Online story up soon but I’ve been a little busy. Partly with college classes starting again, partly with playing Star Trek Online, and partly with reading OTHER peoples stories. I thought I’d take the time to include two of my current favorites:

First up we have Captain Nezi over at Warp Core Breach. Adventure Historian, as the writer and Fleetmate calls himself, is a wonderful writer. In the first episode he has crafted so many interesting and compelling characters that I can’t wait to come back for more!

But Star Trek Online, and indeed fantasy MMOs, aren’t the only stories I read. My tastes in almost everything are what you might call…eclectic. This next story is a Sims 2 Legacy done by the ever amazing Yams over at her Livejournal.

The Breckenridge legacy is not her first (her last one ended with the death of her old computer) but it is the current family. It’s still on the first generation but I am loving the characters, especially one named Galen who you can’t help but enjoy.

I’m looking forward to more updates to both of these stories in the coming days and you should be too. Go check them out and you’ll see why I don’t want it to ever stop.

A New Fleet = A New Game

That’s right, I’ve officially joined the Starfleet News Service fleet in STO. I wasn’t playing the game very much before this, just messing around really, but ever since I joined it’s like an entirely new game. The fleet chat is flying by on busy nights and still pretty active in the mornings.

This has got me to log in more and kept me logged in. It’s allowed me to get up to Lieutenant Commander rank 6 and also to delve deep into the great parts of the game, of which there are many. Sure there are negatives but they have been covered elsewhere and they aren’t big enough to dampen my enjoyment.

Graphics wise the game is beautiful, even if the bloom can be a little much sometimes (they have a slider to lessen or heighten it in game). The ‘classes’ are each interesting and being able to respec now and try out different ship styles is a blast.

Cryptic has included some really amazing tools to mess around with in here, not the least of which is the ability to talk to friends who are logged into their other game Champions Online. Blue Kae of Blue Kae fame plays both and it’s great to be able to continue talking to him. The bridge customization is lacking but still kind of fun and the ability to “clone” yourself and send it to a friend so they can use it as one of their Bridge Officers.

Well with all this playing you can expect another Let’s Play real soon, schedule permitting.

Disclaimer: While most of the fleet may be bloggers, twitterers and the like anyone is welcome. You do not need to be anything but friendly. Other members of the fleet are: Adventurer Historian, Blue Kae, Tipa, MMOGamerchick, Longasc and many more now that I will add when I remember to copy down their websites, twitter links or just names.

On a side note I’ve taken a page from Caylinn’s (MMOGamerChick) playbook and started watching Star Trek The Original Series. I’ve only ever seen the odd episode of any Star Trek, and two or three movies in passing. I know almost nothing about the Trek universe. Thankfully my wife is a Trek fan and she’s helping guide me through it. Oddly enough she’s not the biggest fan of the game, but the game is finally making me appreciate Star Trek, which is what she has always wanted.