The 12th Fleet: Starbase Valhalla

Posted: **Mon January 11th, 2010 2:14 pm**

chipset35 wrote:This is why they have BETA tests...no one was supposed to be allowed in, but they were.
So the guy who told the Devs, posted on it.
Its good he told them, and they shut it down, as its not supposed to be allowing access yet.
I just tried it for yucks, saw the news in the launcher thinking ok, just a tease, then saw the button, patched...thinking its just to get everyone staged to go.
Then when I saw the "Engage" button my dog pressed the mouse button with his paw....
Not my fault!
Anyway, played for almost 45 minutes and liked what I saw.
One thing though, be careful setting how high you set your bloom in the video settings in the game, I made my hair white, and i set the shiny option as well, and the back of my guys head practically blinded me depending on where I was and the lighting effects of the room.
Even after lowering the bloom setting it was annoying, so when I remake my character, i wont select shiny as a hair option.
I maxxed my graphics settings and selected the proper resolution, and the game looked good.
I can see some problems with some people not knowing what to pick, as it lists aspect ratio and some other funky stuff.
My initial thoughts are this game is going to be alot of fun!
And could be the BIG ONE we have all been waiting for....we will see....
I wish the game used the "Far Cry" engine like Age of Conan does as those graphics are awesome.
Not that these werent, I loved them! I just was not used to being out of Age of Conan I guess.
I cant wait until Tuesday!
The character customization allows many possibilities....I was impressed by it.

You don't have to remake your character!!

You can just visit the starbase and change your character completely. In WoW they charge you 15 dollar for a service that only costs some energy credits in STO.

I believe the credits are even only charged when changing uniform settings and not your char itself, though not sure about that. Didn't pay that much attention to it yesterday.

Posted: **Mon January 11th, 2010 2:17 pm**

Its really neat the amount of customization you can play around with even after you make your character.

Can't wait for the FULL Version. Earth Starbase will be a busy place bustling with activity and coolness!

Posted: **Mon January 11th, 2010 3:13 pm**

Im really excited just to go around, talking to people and stuff. Its gonna be SOOO awesome, even with bugs...

Posted: **Mon January 11th, 2010 4:35 pm**

Sodah wrote:Its really neat the amount of customization you can play around with even after you make your character.

Can't wait for the FULL Version. Earth Starbase will be a busy place bustling with activity and coolness!

Apart from the traits you can basicly completely redo your character. If you picked a certain race you'll be limited though, Vulcans will still only look like Vulcans and humans only like humans. However if you made an unknown species then you can change everything apart from the preselected traits. ^_^

I also really love how you can change your characters name at any time. Blizzard actually charges 10 euros for that and we get it for free here!

Posted: **Mon January 11th, 2010 6:56 pm**

I was going to remake my character because even with bloom intenssity settings down, the combo of his white hair and my selection of the "shiny" option is causing retina burns!
I dont expect, what I created to be there come official Open Beta launch.
Yesterday was a fluke, no idea why we were let in albiet briefly, before Open Beta Start on Sunday.
But it was worth it! I am even more excited now.
I think if Cryptic does even a B+ job on this game it could end up beating WoW subscription numbers.
The Star Trek License is HUGE.
What I really liked in the 45 mins I played was the endless customization of your character...I guess thats a good and bad thing?
Also, I would rate the graphics as better than Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), but not as good as Age of Conan (AoC), which uses the Far Cry Engine, so thats understandable.
Graphics are much better IMHO than World of War Craft (WoW) too.
There is alot of discussion of the "Cartoony aspects" of WoW graphics.
So for example, depending on what your opinion is of "cartoony", here is my scale:

CARTOONY 10 is least, 1 is most cartoony.

WoW = 1 Most Cartoony
AoC = 10 Least Cartoony
LOTRO = 5
Warhammer Online (WAR) = 3

Posted: **Mon January 11th, 2010 7:33 pm**

Nishka wrote: Apart from the traits you can basicly completely redo your character. If you picked a certain race you'll be limited though, Vulcans will still only look like Vulcans and humans only like humans. However if you made an unknown species then you can change everything apart from the preselected traits. ^_^

I also really love how you can change your characters name at any time. Blizzard actually charges 10 euros for that and we get it for free here!

If something was officially stated, then ignore what I'm about to say...
I would not assume that a feature such as changing your name or completely redoing your appearance (other than the uniform) will remain free after the beta period. Those features may simply be accessible now to test how certain graphical elements work together (and if they don't, allow the user to quickly change them), as well as test the stability of chat communications (and if there's issues with some names and the characters in them, user can quickly change that). It may very well be that once the game goes live, these feature will be removed and turned into premium (pay for) features as they are in other MMOs.

Again, I'm just warning about getting to excited about it unless some official announcement is made about their permanence.

Posted: **Mon January 11th, 2010 10:55 pm**

Sodah wrote:None of you dare make a character like this guy.

You can see my Trill giving him the roll-eyes.

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

Posted: **Tue January 12th, 2010 12:51 am**

Wonder if those of us in Europe will be able to access OB in just over an hour's time?

Posted: **Tue January 12th, 2010 12:54 am**

Dexx2006 wrote:Wonder if those of us in Europe will be able to access OB in just over an hour's time?

I heard thats its Pacific time - which would make sense as if anything happened there would probably be no staff to help sort it out!

Posted: **Tue January 12th, 2010 12:55 am**

Dexx2006 wrote:Wonder if those of us in Europe will be able to access OB in just over an hour's time?

Afraid not.

It starts at 10 AM (GMT-8) Pacific Time.

The 12th Fleet: Starbase Valhalla

The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!

Re: The OPEN BETA is up and working!