Star Trek online vs TOR (READ)

[Klannad]

Hrm...Alright fair enough. I suppose I can see where you are coming from. A bit. I like the stories though for each class. As I said I did play WoW for a bit but it got boring to me cause all it turned into was as you said that TOR is repetition. Granted, TOR there are aspects. When you do a certain class, say..Sith for example. You do missions, and some are specific. Then if you do say a bounty hunter, you get off Hutta, then you have the same areas as the Sith do. Like the Revan initiation, and going to the Estate.

 

However, they aren't all the same missions. The focus for the Sith is completely different than the BH. Its just the side quests that are the same. What I saw in WoW was EVERY quest was exactly the same no matter what class/race you picked. That's where my gripe lays. It only gets interesting if you buy the expansion which at that point costs you as much as the original game. ALL of them is yeah..kill kill, weeeeeeeee. There's no avoiding that.

 

At least TOR gives you choices, light, dark, for example, Black Talon. I never knew until recently if you pick light, and let the captain live, the entire rest of the flashpoint is different(until you board the republic ship) Can you say that WoW offers that kind of option?

 

 

 

It's true that WoW doesn't offer a different option, but the general quests in WoW have depth and meaning. You weren't given a quest that had no connection to the mission, like:

 

The sith are on tython! attacking the temple!

quest: Kill 10 imperial agents

 

Ok, thats a rough example, but the quests in TOR generally feel like the mission isn't related to the big story.

[DaftMule]

Funnily enough, when I got the email from Bio saying "please give us some feedback" part of my response to them included a mention of STO and what I feel it does right.

 

In summary, what I basically said was:

 

1) STO has great spaceship content and pretty rubbish ground content.

 

2) tOR has pretty rubbish sapce content and great ground content.

 

I too have just started playing STO since it went F2P. The chr customisation is awesome and the space combat is everything tOR is not....even though on the face of it, the graphics and "style" of the space element of the games are not too dissimilar. The space combat in STO is slick, fun, engaging, heart-poundingly hectic and keeps me coming back for more. The ground combat in STO is, IMHO, pants. Its clunky as hell, feels very dull and repetitive, and is pretty unsatisfying.

 

The space combat in tOR reminds me of the sort of space games I used to play on the machine in the local chippy 20 yars ago. It linear, you basically have no control other than "do I press fire or not" and after a few runs it's just DULL! It feels like a total after thought. The ground combat though is excellent and all the things I hoped for so far.

 

If they could combine the two they'd have one hell of a game!

[dazednconfuzed]

It's true that WoW doesn't offer a different option, but the general quests in WoW have depth and meaning. You weren't given a quest that had no connection to the mission, like:

 

The sith are on tython! attacking the temple!

quest: Kill 10 imperial agents

 

Ok, thats a rough example, but the quests in TOR generally feel like the mission isn't related to the big story.

 

I don't think I ever saw a quest in WoW that had any form of depth or meaning. And what variation do you get in WoW's quests? Like TOR, they are all "Go here, kill X of those", or "Go there and collect X of these".

 

If you are referring to the extra quests in TOR, the 'Kill X Agents' bonus objectives, I quite like those. They are kinda like you going on the mission, then when you arrive at your destination, you say to yourself 'While I'm here, I'll thin out the enemy numbers a little'. And given that you are already in an area where youi need to get through those enemies to get to your objectives anyways, I don't see how you can say they are unrelated to the story.

 

I'll agree with you that some of the side missions you can take feel like they have nothing to do with your class story, but those missions are for everyone to do, and they each have their own little stories behind them.

[Klannad]

I don't think I ever saw a quest in WoW that had any form of depth or meaning. And what variation do you get in WoW's quests? Like TOR, they are all "Go here, kill X of those", or "Go there and collect X of these".

 

If you are referring to the extra quests in TOR, the 'Kill X Agents' bonus objectives, I quite like those. They are kinda like you going on the mission, then when you arrive at your destination, you say to yourself 'While I'm here, I'll thin out the enemy numbers a little'. And given that you are already in an area where youi need to get through those enemies to get to your objectives anyways, I don't see how you can say they are unrelated to the story.

 

I'll agree with you that some of the side missions you can take feel like they have nothing to do with your class story, but those missions are for everyone to do, and they each have their own little stories behind them.

 

I guess what I meant is that there was always an objective leading you further into the story in WoW. the quest writers were influenced heavily by Tolkien-The quests, were, well, Quests! You didn't have to wait till lvl 50 to partake in something really epic. In TOR, the main class story is OK, but everything else...it's just filler for you to level up to get to the good stuff

[Tekkoclarky]

Can copy it's space combat, everything else in STO sucks.

[Dibdabs]

The big sell point was space battles. They are hetic, fun, and beautifully rendered. You really do feel like your actions have an impact in the galaxy, you are given missions that arent all the same and are against many different enemies.

They can indeed be fun, but are pretty simplistic for the most part. I bought STO when it was released, but I've never yet felt like I'm making an impact in the Galaxy and, to me, the missions ARE all the same. I play STO as a coffee-break game usually, and might spend an hour on it on occasion, but the game feels so flat and un-immersive that I don't regard it that highly.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Dibdabs

[Kubernetic]

Funnily enough, when I got the email from Bio saying "please give us some feedback" part of my response to them included a mention of STO and what I feel it does right.

 

In summary, what I basically said was:

 

1) STO has great spaceship content and pretty rubbish ground content.

 

2) tOR has pretty rubbish sapce content and great ground content.

 

I too have just started playing STO since it went F2P. The chr customisation is awesome and the space combat is everything tOR is not....even though on the face of it, the graphics and "style" of the space element of the games are not too dissimilar. The space combat in STO is slick, fun, engaging, heart-poundingly hectic and keeps me coming back for more. The ground combat in STO is, IMHO, pants. Its clunky as hell, feels very dull and repetitive, and is pretty unsatisfying.

 

The space combat in tOR reminds me of the sort of space games I used to play on the machine in the local chippy 20 yars ago. It linear, you basically have no control other than "do I press fire or not" and after a few runs it's just DULL! It feels like a total after thought. The ground combat though is excellent and all the things I hoped for so far.

 

If they could combine the two they'd have one hell of a game!

 

As a veteran of both types of space combat, I'm gonna have to disagree here, although I agreed with you when the game first started.

 

STO space combat looks beatiful, but the reality is it is simply space bar, space bar, wear down a shield quad, fire torpedoes, space bar, space bar, fire torpedoes.

 

TOR control mechanics are similar, it's the mouse button for blasters and the right button for missiles, but I'm having to direct the weapons fire in ways STO cannot deliver. I'm having to switch between taking down fighters and destroying turrets on star destroyers, running multiple extended attacks on space stations (rather than space bar, space bar, space bar) and even though I've got a VA Engineer -- which is still a Mon Calamari in a Starfleet uniform, if that says anything -- I am finding I enjoy the space combat in TOR a lot more.

 

There's something more viscerally entertaining about taking out the engines on a star destroyer and watching them explode and the vessel start veering off. I don't care if it's on a rail, it's delicious to watch.

 

And I much prefer the mechanics of my vessel knowing how to careen close to rolling asteroids while I'm busy taking out ships as opposed to my big ship crashing into an asteroid and getting hung up in it while I'm trying to space bar the other ship with antiproton beams.

 

And if I make a mistake and crash into the asteroid in TOR, my ship gets hit pretty badly for damage. I can run an Excelsior class vessel aground against an asteroid and take zero damage... which is weird.

 

But that's just my two cents.

[DjDangle]

Sto is an absolutely dreadful game.

 

The end.

[Toxen]

I read this because the subject line told me to

[Whitelightr]

I'd be willing to bet a large amount of credits that you didnt play STO when it launched. The game was horrible then. Every once in a while you'd get a cool mission but nearly every mission was just a reskinned version of another. And my god so many bugs, it had atleast as many as TOR; possibly more seeing as STO lacked any decent content.

 

STO had a handful of nice features, character creation and one or two missions stood out. Other than that it was nearly a Korean grindfest-MMO style.

[ArtMonster]

my view of swtor and sto?

 

I quit sto to play swtor..... and I have yet to log into sto since I started playing here.

 

.

[FAAmecanic]

It took me a while to stop laughing, seriously tears down the face and everything, with this comparison. I mean..>OMG!!! STO was about the worst game I've ever played. The only thing they got right with STO is the space combat, which is fun and exciting. HOWEVER, after you go do the same mission for the billionth time, even though its a different system even that gets dull.

 

STO was simply just horrible! If you thought lvling was easy here to 50, I did STO in a week. If you thought there was nothing to do here, you were about ready to kill yourself looking for things to do in STO at this same time frame. Oh..and crafting in STO? uhm..nevermind I really don't have the time to go into the abomination that it was/is. TOR's is by far better!

 

Ground battles...oy vey. their big instances....i stayed for the first three. About the worst designed dungeons I've ever played. Oh and for people who complain about the running in TOR; how about dying at the end of the maze in the dungeon and having to make the 5-7 run back from the beginning of the dungeon and by the time you get back things are respawning around you. Oh and top that off with horribly designed mechanics that make battles ridiculously irritating and if you finally get to the end of it and win...you get...wait for it....ONE...exactly one...no more...no less....but ONE item that you have a 1in 6 chance to win. yah..so 2-4 hrs/dungeon, die a ton of times and win...nothing. Great fun.

 

 

Anyway, I could go on and on and on and on and on but please don't bring up STO here and make comparisons you'll be laughed off the forums.

 

 

^^^ this ^^^

 

And after the most recent changes where you have to run THE SAME Special Task Force (read flashpoint) at least 20-50 TIMES just to get one piece of elite gear... I unsubbed (and I was a beta tester). It was bad enough when you had to play the same STF 5 or 6 times to get a good drop (ONLY ONE drop every time you played as the poster stated above). And the way they set these STFs up...if you died (and it was a ZERG fest every time) you had to try and run back from the beginning (very few respawn points) and HOPE the elite enemies didnt respawn or you had to start all over.

 

Been playing SWTOR ever since and not looking back.

[Phaedrynn]

Played STO at launch, lasted less than 2 weeks. Cryptic is a niche, mmo-lite, developer at best. Since I'm not a trekkie there was no reason for me to stay around. Haven't seen anything to change that.

 

TOR I have played from launch and play 3-4 hours nightly during the week. Much more than that on weekends. I'm still thoroughly enjoying my play time is TOR.

 

No comparison really.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Phaedrynn

[Phaedrynn]

thing is nothing about STO was ever worth $15 a month. it is was and always will be a corpg trumped up as an mmmo with a AAA mmo sub price. the relentless cash shop development was insult to injury. the content development has always been a joke and still is.

 

teh foundry? it's down more than it's up.

 

conintual combat revamps? each one a half assed joke, i thinkt eh last one for ground combat added fps mode and bazookas/RPGs to a freakin star trek game.

 

 

i like to joke that PWE/cryptic might as well add ships from andromeda/firefly/babylon 5 to teh cash shop at this point because they can't make it any less star trek ish.

 

it should've been gw1 model from the start, or $10 sub price for what is was back then, has been since, and has become. teh fac *** took so long to get to f2p status is laughable,a dn the f2p model they are going with is even more lulz.

 

don't get me wrong, for about 6 weeks for 1-3 hours a night, i ahd a lot of fun playign the game at launch. i liek their random auto PUG system on normal missions, i liekd hte ship combat. i liked leoanrd nimoy's voice over bits even though eh was totalyl slackign on them. i liked the 2 or 3 missions that had anything to do with the tv/movie lore instead of comics and novels teh entire game continually dry humps.

 

they've added i beleiv eabout another month's worth of very casual game play time in term sof missions. in around 2 years of post launch development. this is because they've mostly been focused on pumping out $25 auto win ships and $5 rp clothign packs or autowin crew member packs.

 

i was thinking for a long time i shoudl resub for a month but always been too busy, and now that it's f2p, the restrictions on my account are so hilariously dimwitted compared to a normal f2p game(of which i've played a number and spent money on a couple due to being worth it- not just for pay2 win, but because the games were fun and worth spending money on).i figured i'd play it for a month, bang out all the content they've added to the game or until i got bored of the 2 dimensional repeitive game play.

 

i mean as a dumbed down sequal to SFC series, it's a lot of fun, if you can ignore the ground stuff as much as possible, but if you were looking for an mmo worthy fo the star trek IP than it's pretty lacking. given that it's pretty medciore overall in terms of the often just awful star trek games to begin with(star wars suffers from this too).

 

swtor on the other hand... great levelign experience, small con here for overtuning of mobs of equal level to players to and increasing degree on solo content. the crafting is fun to learn and does try somethign a bit new which is nice, btu falls flat on endgame, and has issues that naggle you so much with ui and interaction and such that over time they wear you down. but overall this is a game that deserves a $15 a month sub, though i think the box price tag was too high in retrospect.

 

th difference is, i was subbed to both for roughly 2 months(well i'm paid for a 3rd month in swtor), but i got a **** load more /played hours in swtor and never had to spend a 3 hour night grinding out suicide pvp matches with no chance of winnning or scoridng a single kill because of massive content gaps to teh tune of 4/10 levels only being covered by actual content in some tiers liek i did in STO.

 

 

STO fun? sure for a while, but too lite to be an mmo. swtor? mainly lackign in fun/fresh endgame stuff or well thought out endgame crafting, too many naggling issues. but overall swtor wins hands down as an actual mmo that's worth a sub while you play it.

 

I might play it if I could get a White Star!

[anaz]

STO has a couple of very nice features that should be ideally in every game. The shooter controls which takes away auto targeting and gives a cursor to fire instead and the foundry where players can create their own missions (some of which are even better than Cryptics).

 

But generally the game is lacking. It was released with one half built faction, total lack of content, repetitive and clunky gameplay and still suffers from these problems today.

[Jett-Rinn]

Played a lot of STO before TOR launched... now I can't bring myself to log into STO. That isn't to say that STO hasn't continually improved their game because they have but it's kinda like riding a skateboard and then being given the keys to a Corvette.

[ferroz]

3. 3 Warzones is fine currently, Rift was the same when it launched, wow had none when launched.

actually rift had 4 at launch...

[Cancrizans]

Man, you are so way off OP...and it is because you just started playing STO. I will agree that STO does have some fun things, and has certainly improved a LOT since it launched. But it isn't even remotely in the same ballpart as SWTOR when it comes to content and quality. The ship is basically there so you grind out ultra repetitive missions and do some Space Combat...which while fun grows old fairly quickly.

 

Yes it has a decent character creator and running around with 4 other crew members is amusing at first, but these things are very minor when you discover how boring the endgame is. What STO does best is the story missions, which can be a lot of fun...and the fact that they have a mission creator that lets players make their own missions is a damned cool thing.

 

STO is a nice game in many ways, and it is a fun game to play casually or as a second MMO, but trust me once you have played for a while, you will start to see a LOT of shortcomings.

[Darianth]

If you don't agree with me, then fine, and true, it has taken a long time for the improvements to be made. Regardless of your opinion, it cannot be argued that they have worked on the game. TOR needs to make the same improvements, or atleast SHOW that they care somewhat about their playerbase. They expect us to drink the star wars flavored kool aid and just play the game and accept it's awesome because x-play gave it a 5/5.

 

STO was able to make a fun game after they improved. We may have different ideas on what makes a good game, but you cannot disagree when I say that TOR was rushed, and depended on the ip to sell copies. Regardless, I do enjoy TOR, and I am patient to wait for improvements. The question is this : Will they improve the game? or will they let it sink?

 

Of course they are improving it I mean why else would they have the weekly patches and the big patches that bring more content and features? Are these not improving the game?

[Cancrizans]

I've found that the cons in STO aren't gameplay related, but more of "free subscriber" related. The limit they put on characters and chat is redonk. But still, I find it...I don't want to say better. but more finely crafted game. Like I said, SWTOR isn't bad, I just don't feel inclined to play it. With improvements, It could be great. I just hope that Bioware doesn't get complacent. The bugs needs to be fixed. Everything needs to be improved.

 

Ya give it a month or two.

[Derekloffin]

I couldn't even get past the first few hours of STO, it was so poorly presented. I wasn't expecting much, and I didn't even get that much out of it. Maybe it gets better later once you're used to things, but it starts so poorly I just could get into it. I was pretty much lost right away. I've tried quite a few MMOs now, and STO is near the bottom of the pack.

[Azumio]

I couldn't even get past the first few hours of STO, it was so poorly presented. I wasn't expecting much, and I didn't even get that much out of it. Maybe it gets better later once you're used to things, but it starts so poorly I just could get into it. I was pretty much lost right away. I've tried quite a few MMOs now, and STO is near the bottom of the pack.

 

Where does SWTOR rank?

[Jmannseelo]

If you don't agree with me, then fine, and true, it has taken a long time for the improvements to be made. Regardless of your opinion, it cannot be argued that they have worked on the game. TOR needs to make the same improvements, or atleast SHOW that they care somewhat about their playerbase. They expect us to drink the star wars flavored kool aid and just play the game and accept it's awesome because x-play gave it a 5/5.

 

STO was able to make a fun game after they improved. We may have different ideas on what makes a good game, but you cannot disagree when I say that TOR was rushed, and depended on the ip to sell copies. Regardless, I do enjoy TOR, and I am patient to wait for improvements. The question is this : Will they improve the game? or will they let it sink?

 

The funny thing is you're answering your own question and then ignoring yourself. TOR is a new game. Give it time. All we have right now is the foundation. Improvements are on the way and will continue indefinitely. This is not unique to TOR. It is the industry standard. Your own comparison to STO supports this fact.

 

I'm a longtime CoH player. I think it's one of the best MMOs out there, despite signs of age. But let me tell you, when it started out it was so unpolished it made current TOR shine like a diamond. There weren't even enough missions to get you to level cap. That's how underdeveloped it was. You reached level 20-ish and suddenly you either had to PvP or just grind random mobs with no quest xp until you made it to your mid-late 20s and quests resumed. It was awful, and only after a lot of forum rage did they institute newspaper missions (essentially, randomized repeatable quests) as a quick fix.

 

Really, I don't think a lot of people here realize how spoiled they sound when they gripe about the state of TOR in it's infancy. Things can and have been much much worse in a ton of other MMOs. TOR definitely needs work, but considering how long it's been out and compared to other games when they were in the same stage of development it is doing very very well.

 

Patience people, seriously. If it bothers you that much, take a break and come back when you're ready. But Bioware is in no way behind the curve. This is just the way MMOs work, that's all.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Jmannseelo

[Asavar]

Not even worth a read.

[Derekloffin]

Where does SWTOR rank?

 

So far I'd put it at about 3rd although that is ranking every MMO as they were at their best for me, not currently. I still would place FFXI at the top, but that's mostly due to nostalgia goggles I think.