A Quick Peek at Star Trek Online

Early next month the long awaited, much anticipated release of Star Trek Online will finally happen.

The good news is that this is probably the best Star Trek game ever, but as anyone who has played Star Trek games will tell you, that’s not saying much.

38 years ago there was a game of Star Trek that was played on big mainframe computers where you had your ship with x,y coordinates and star systems with their own x,y coordinates.  The object of the game was to jump from star system to star system using your warp drive to find Klingons.  In each star system you would use Phasers to do some damage, but photon torpedoes did the most damage,  You then has to use impulse engines and shields to avoid getting destroyed by the Klingons. This was all text based. To move and fire, you had to convert x,y coordinates to polar coordinates in your head. The game was hugely popular back in the 70′s with anyone who had access to a computer. Ports were made for pretty much every single computer out there.

10 years later the first arcade version came out. Gone was the figuring out cartesian coordinates to polar coordinate, replaced by a joystick. The object of the game was to jump from star system to star system using your warp drive to find Klingons.  In each star system you would use Phasers to do some damage, but photon torpedoes did the most damage,  You then has to use impulse engines and shields to avoid getting destroyed by the Klingons.

28 years later we have Star Trek Online.  The object of the game is to jump from star system to star system using your warp drive to find Klingons.  In each star system you use Phasers to do some damage, but photon torpedoes do the most damage,  You then have to use impulse engines and shields to avoid getting destroyed by the Klingons. Its a little more involved than that now actually, its not just the Klingons anymore.

So what has changed in 38 years?  The graphics are way better, though since it took so long for this game to come out, the graphics are not top of the line.  Five years ago when the game was originally drafted (about 2 owners ago), the graphics would be considered “cutting edge”, but today they are “decent enough”.

The game itself is interesting. There are various kinds of missions besides search and destroy, though in the end, they all kind of feel like search and destroy missions.  There are landing party missions, some in mapped out “dungeons” with enemies to fight along the way, some in open environments with non shooting things objectives.

Part of me wishes there was more of the latter. The biggest negative of the game is the monotonous combat, which unfortunately will take up around 70% of your play time.  Another 20% is sitting around watching your ship “warp” as it navigates a 3D star chart, which could just have easily been a 2D chart.  I almost wish I could go back to the days of typing in polar coordinates for this part if it would allow me to travel faster.

The last 10% is exploring new places, which is the part I most enjoy.

This being an MMORPG, a lot of the combat happens in groups.  There is a system in place to generate groups automatically if people just happen to be in the same system at the same time.  Group combat is less tedious than individual combat, but as you get further in the game these auto grouping events seem to happen less and less, and unless you are willing to spend a lot of time in group chat waiting for a team to form, you are probably going to be playing solo a lot.

So what can I say about the combat?  If you played City of Heroes, City of Villains or Champions Online, then you have seen the combat system of Star Trek Online.  It makes me want to tie Jack Emmert (the lead design guy at Cryptic Studios) to a chair and force him to play Guild Wars or better yet Dragon Age: Origins, and say:

“You see Jack, this is how combat should be done.  Repeatedly pressing a button over and over to fire a weapon, or swing a sword, is boring and monotonous.  What is a lot more fun is to select an enemy and let the computer handle the monotonous battle moves, while you engage special skills/talents/magic etc. to CONTROL the battle.  The battles become much more interesting this way, much more involving, and doesn’t ruin your keyboard or lead to wrist damage.”

It is because of this annoying combat system, that I have no desire to play this game long term.  I will not become a lifetime member, or subscribe a year in advance, despite good deals being offered.  I’ll probably just pay to play when I’m in the mood until I’m sick of it.

Or better yet, I’ll move to Mass Effect 2, until the new Star Wars Online shows up.

Date Simulator 6.2 replaces the buggy 6.1

6.1 had some major bugs, and as a result there is now a 6.2, but that is not all.

For the first time in a long time, I dropped something.  Specifically the parking lot sex scene. I’ve been meaning to drop it for a while, but kept it around until I could add something else as a replacement, which I also did.  No spoilers here, you will have to find them yourself.

I have a list of about 8 scenarios I have considered adding. I haven’t added them due to one or more plot reasons: 1) there is no good point in the current game to branch off to them, 2) even if I have a good branch point I have no smooth way to bring the post-scenario plot back, 3) the scenario does not fit the first date/first person theme of the game, or 4) the scenario is too similar to something already in the game.

There are scenarios already in the game that violate some of these rules, but the parking lot scene violated 3 of them, was a rare minor scenario, and had one of the largest files (a 1MB gif animation) in the game, thus it needed to go.  It was replaced by a new plot twist that used to end abruptly, but now has an entertaining loop. I also fixed two more major bugs not covered in the 6.11 patch.

I’m pretty close to saying, “I’m done, no more tinkering.”  There are some pictures I’d like to redo, maybe some text to change, but otherwise it is fine.  Every time I tinker I seem to create new bugs anyways.

Maybe it is time to take  all these unusable scenario ideas and create a second game.

If you find any more bugs, feel free to post them in the comments.

Signs of the Economy in Virtual Worlds

I predicted a year ago how economic troubling times would affect virtual worlds: Those profitable ones are likely to be even more profitable as people seek out cheap entertainment.  Those relying heavily on VC money will likely be hurting as VC money dries up.

The economy is apparently good enough in Entropia for someone to pay over $300,000 of real currency for a virtual night club in world.  Another night club made headlines a few years ago for selling for over $100,000.

Its not so good for Metaplace, the 2D virtual world preferred by the SL crowd for its flexibility in building.  Metaplace closed its doors to the public on Jan 1.

Also problematic is life over at Forterra, a platform provider that gets most of its money from military contracts.  They recently laid off more than half of the staff and are probably looking for someone to buy them out.  Their principle product, OLIVE, is a nice flexible 3D platform with text, voice, and video capabilities that runs on inexpensive computers.  Their lack of success lately is probably due to stiff competition in the platform market: Unity, Torque, Multiverse, and Open Sim are all available for cheap or even free.

Meanwhile, Blue Mars is slowly adding user created content and additional features.  Recently the makers of the steampunk region Caledonia in SL have built a city in Blue Mars.  I wonder if anyone has done a “Mirror World” of a virtual world before?  (I’m pretty sure it has been done, just sounds funny)

I foresee the next year doing the same thing.  Profitable Virtual Worlds will remain so, maybe even becoming more profitable.  Meanwhile I would not be surprised to see another 3 to 5 virtual worlds shut down operations.

What Tech Will be Gone in the NEXT Decade

I saw an article last week on a list of things that have nearly disappeared over the last decade. The list consist of:  calling, newspaper classifieds, dial up internet, encyclopedias, CDs,  land line phones, film photography, yellow pages and address books, catalogs, fax machines, wires, hand written letters.  All of them are still around, they are just becoming archaic or obsolete.

I suspect that over the next decade, there will be other things that are common today that will become archaic and decline over time.

Broadcast Network Television – Rupert Murdoch who runs Fox is already trying to kill the Fox broadcast network and turn it into a cable/Satellite only network.  He also has plans to turn all of his news sites into subscription only, which is likely to fail miserably, but his plans for TV actually make financial sense.  If so, NBC, CBS, and ABC could follow suit, and Broadcast TV as a mainstream media outlet will be dead.  Now if AM Radio can survive for 100 years, so can Broadcast TV. It will just have a lot more infomercials and pointless talk shows (just like AM radio) to fill in the gap.

Satellite Television – You are probably wondering why I would predict the downfall of Satellite after predicting the end of broadcast.  It is quite easy: The future of TV is instant access.  This is doable on internet based TV services like Uverse and FiOS, and even possible with cable services via broadband internet if you have a receiver that can buffer the show as you download.  It is not doable on Satellite. This plus the huge overhead cost of Satellite TV services will spell doom for these services.  I’d even go as far as to predict that one of the two major satellite services (Direct TV or Dish Network) will  stop satellite operations and close, or jump to the IP TV market instead.

Multiplex Theaters – Multiplexes with their 24 small theater screens are likely to head to the scrap heap. Large theaters with big (or IMAX) screens capable of 3D and digital projection will replace them. The multiplex experience is too close to home theater, and with high costs of going out to the theater, it is likely to decline in popularity.

DVDs – Just as CDs started to disappear last decade, DVDs are likely to disappear this decade with widespread On Demand TV and game download services.  BluRay will never be more than a niche market as well. This will also include video games on DVD media. Not only will places like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video start disappearing, but those Red Box dispensers will too eventually.

Printed Newspapers and Magazines – Between the Internet, and the Kindle, print is dead.  Online news papers will still exist, some may even thrive via online delivery options, but papers you read by spreading it out on the kitchen table will disappear.

Big Box Bookstores – Just as the giant chain record stores have disappeared with the demise of the CD, the giant chain bookstores will disappear with the demise of print.  Small specialty shops will still be around (rare book stores and comic book stores), as will book departments in department stores. But as more people convert to tablets, like Kindle and the Nook, and access to online libraries to go in them, the market for printed books will be dead.

Libraries – Between budget cuts and new technology, libraries will get rarer and rarer. All the major cities and universities will still keep them around, but with the primary use of the libraries being free internet sources these days, providing free “hot spots” around town is cheaper and can promote commerce in those designated areas.

Gas powered vehicles – Over the next decade, oil production is going to be level or in decline. We are going to be forced to find ways to use less oil, or live in a new Great Depression. Considering the sheer number of gas powered vehicles there are, it seems quite bold to predict their demise, but I foresee natural gas powered hybrids, plug in hybrids and pure electric vehicles (including electric bicycles) dominating the road within a decade… either that or $20 a gallon gas.

Incadescent bulbs – CFLs and LEDs for the win! This one’s a no brainer.

Hard Drives – The one weak point in computers today are the hard drives. They are physical devices with high RPM spin that are almost guaranteed to fail within 5 years. Average life span is around 3. The thing that has kept them around for so long is that solid state drives are still slower, hold less data, and more expensive.  I believe hard drives are at their peak right now.  There is little need for faster or bigger hard drives than what we have now.  If solid state drives can catch up to where hard drives are today, and that is a very likely scenario in the next decade, hard drives will become obsolete.

Desktop computers – You know those big boxes with 2 or 3 DVD burners and 2 or 3 big Sata drives powered by 500 watt power supplies sitting under your desk like the one I am using right now? Archaic dinosaurs by the end of the next decade! I think the 10s will see the end of Moore’s law of bigger and faster, replaced by smaller and more energy efficient. The big desktop computer under my desk is likely to be the size of my ipod touch in 10 years powered by a 30 watt power adapter — and just as powerful.  Its tempting to just predict everyone will use laptops, as that trend is already coming to pass, but the primary attraction of desktops is gaming, which is doable on laptops but it is awkward.  The primary components to the desktop is the full size monitor and the full size keyboard.  Monitors won’t be shrinking in size any, and LED backlighting, touch screens, and 3D capabilities will become more common place.  This pretty much guarantees there will be a place for non-mobile computing, it is the CPU part of the computer that will be getting smaller and more energy efficient.  It may even get small enough to carry around with you to move to different keyboard/monitor “terminals”.

The key to the next decade is energy efficiency.  All signs point to energy being a major concern in the next 10 years.  The more energy efficient our tech, the less impact energy shortages will have, and the cheaper it will be to live.