Getting the right background to play a Fantasy MMO is pretty easy. Read Lord of the Rings? Seen the movie? Okay, you’re in. Rangers, pick up your bows on the left.
It’s a little harder for titles that have some history to them.
In Final Fantasy XI Online, you better know your Chocobos. In World of Warcraft, unless you’ve played Warcraft, you’re going to be wondering who the heck these people are, anyway.
Star Trek Online seems easy. Did you watch Star Trek? Oh yeah? The original series, Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise, the animated series? The books? When would you use the Corbomite Maneuver? Discuss its advantages vs the Picard Maneuver?
Because if you’re a Star Trek fan… a REAL Star Trek fan… you’ve memorized every little detail. And its these people you’ll be playing against in STO… soooo I’m trying to catch up with the back history of Star Trek games. Since it was brought up a couple times, I decided to make my inaugural Star Trek game experience (yes, aside from the 80s arcade game, I have not played a Star Trek game before) Star Trek Armada 2.
STA2 is a real-time strategy game, set in a universe where nebulae are tangible, dilithium and latinum are the most common elements in the universe, and officers the rarest. Each Federation mission leads you further into the fight against the Borg; you meet them in the Alpha quadrant and chase them back to the Delta quadrant and so on.
One element of every mission is the need to protect the Enterprise. Lose that and you lose the game.
Which wouldn’t be so bad if the Enterprise weren’t so durn fragile. I had almost finished a two hour campaign against a vastly superior Borg force. I’d used torpedo turrets to set up gauntlets near Borg resource nodes and, along with denying them their resources, used small, fast ships to lure Borg ships to their doom.
I was setting up for the killing blow when… the game ended.
Usually in missions I keep the Enterprise far, far from the action. This time, I’d brought Enterprise up to the primary fallback position; still very guarded but I just couldn’t bear the thought of such a pivotal ship NOT being involved with the mission. Well, some Borg snuck up behind, the Enterprise pursued, and was destroyed (as it would be by any passing space rock), while I was down at the space dock fitting Defiants with antimatter mines.
The whole idea of making a Star Trek game where the absolute last ship you would ever want to use in any capacity was the Enterprise, bugs me. It should fearlessly be in the front lines. An enemy could disable it, could board or even capture it, but that wouldn’t be the death of it. Come on. It’s the Enterprise E. It’s the FIFTH ONE. They destroy it in EVERY OTHER MOVIE.
What a crappy game mechanic.
I put things in draft for posting later too.
But I’m more ruthless. If they don’t get posted inside a week because I can’t polish it up, I delete it. Mustn’t have been that good if I can’t get it posted.
I am just the opposite. I will keep things in draft states for ages. Usually I am sure there must be a gem in there if I bothered to write it down. (My main problem is good ideas I didn’t write down.)
Ah, Star Trek games… I still play Star Fleet Command II once in a while, but little else in the genre. Star Trek Online though, that I will have to play.