Paid Beta Test

STO in bringing the F2P Conversion over to the live servers today, even though the conversion does not happen until Jan 17th. I am of two minds on this. On one hand, it finally brings some new content to the live servers. There hasn’t been anything since July, the DOFF system was due months ago. On the other, its an incomplete system. The space skills have been revamped, but the ground have not. So that’s half done.

STO for this past 6 months has really fit the old MMO whine about being a paid beta. That’s something MMO players will call a game that has some broken or incomplete features after launch. Normally it’s just whining. But in STO’s case, players are currently paying for the game, while all of the development time is devoted to preparing to make the game F2P. Nothing has been done on the live servers in months.

When Turbine took LOTRO F2P, they gave all subscribers Turbine Points for each month they remained a subscriber from the announcement to the actual conversion. Cryptic is doing that for only the last month before the conversion, not the preceeding 4 months. Just seems kind of cheap to me. Granted, LOTRO was a much better F2P conversion and a much better over all game. There were lots of things worth purchasing with those points. Where as STO, currently, you’ll run out of things quickly (though the prices are going up so might take a bit longer).

I am looking forward to the DOFF system and the revised STF’s sound fun. The game will be worth jumping in and out of, one of the benefits of having been suckered into a lifetime subscription. I can take 6months off, come back and have a bunch of Cryptic points to spend in the game.

I’m looking forward to the next Feature Episodes. It’s centered around DS9, best series, and will include an upgrade to the Defiant interior and maybe the DS9 interior, both desperately needed. Let’s hope they actually follow through with regular Feature Episodes this time instead of one every year like has been the norm.