Join the CAG Star Trek Online Fleet!

Star Trek Online is FREE TO PLAY!

To join the CheapAssGamer Star Trek Online Fleet, you may PM the following to manlai (http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/member.php?u=208227):

Real name: (optional)
Location (city and state): (optional)
Email: (required)
CAG username: (required)
Steam username: (optional, if you have a Steam account. You can sign up for Steam for free so there's no reason not to)
Star Trek Online account/user name: (required)

Alternatively, once in game, you can send a message to a current CAG Fleet member. Most will have invite privileges. Here are some member's STO user names:

@manlai (leader)
@metaly (leader) - easiest to find if you're on the west coast time
@eastx (leader emeritus)
@kingdox
@ITDEFX
@Stormnnorm

If you have friends you want to bring with you to CAG Fleet, send their info along with yours. We're happy to take them in.

You do not need to purchase the game through Steam; the Steam Group just functions as our fleet homepage, messaging system, and voice chat room. Since the game currently supports its own voice chat system, joining the Steam group is optional as well.


About the game

Official Star Trek Online site
Star Trek Online is an MMORPG set in 2409, 22 years after the destruction of the Romulan homeworld (as seen in the latest Star Trek movie) and 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis. Both Spock actors - Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto - lend their voices to this game. It came out on February 2, 2010.

WARNING: IF YOU INSTALL THE STO CLIENT FROM THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!


When downloading the game client and files direct from PWE/Cryptic, it uses a system called "Pando Media Booster" which is basically a P2P system for torrenting game installs. Several F2P MMO games use this system, such as League of Legends or LOTRO.

The catch is, after STO finishes installing, the Pando Media Booster continues to run on your system whenever it is booted, seeding the STO game files to others. This hogs your system resources and, importantly, your internet bandwidth. Both your upload speed and data caps will be affected, possibly leading to overage charges on your internet bill. The installer does this automatically and silently, without your explicit consent.

You can check to see if PMB is running on your system by starting the task manager and looking for the process called "PMB.exe". You can manually kill it from there but it will come back every time windows boots. Fortunately there seems to be an easy and permanent fix by simply uninstalling the Pando Media Booster via add/remove programs in the Windows Control Panel. That should get rid of it for good, and has no negative effects on STO once the game has successfully been installed.

Note that PMB is only installed when you initially install STO. Subsequent game patches and updates done via the Game Client Launcher are downloaded directly from Cryptic, and do not use or install PMB, so you should only need to uninstall PMB once. However, this post on the STO forums, specifically the comments by the PWE employee, suggest that Pando may or may not be reinstalled with major game update patches. Therefore, the only safe way to be sure your computer and internet connection are not forcibly enlisted as a free distribution server for PWE is to regularly check your system for the PMB process and software.

If you installed STO prior to the F2P changeover, you should not have PMB running as it was not used before PWE bought Cryptic and converted it to F2P. But I guess it wouldn't hurt for everyone who has or ever had STO installed to check their systems for this program just to be safe.

Check this thread in the STO forums for more information regarding the Pando Media Booster and how it is used with STO: http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=250083

The recommended approaches are to either be sure to uninstall PMB after installing STO, or install STO through Steam, which apparently does not install PMB alongside the game. Also regularly check your computer for the existence of this software, particularly after major updates to the game client.

Subscriptions
There are now 2 kinds of subscriptions: Silver (FREE) and Gold (Paid Premium). Full details on Gold pricing are available here: http://startrekonline.com/gold.

The differences between the 2 are explained here: http://startrekonline.com/f2p_features.

Special in-Game items:

While the game is F2P, you may still purchase old retail copies of the game for the in-game bonus items. Here are what the various editions offer:

Digital Deluxe Edition Bonuses:
DDE copies are hard to find now that the game is F2P. For old times sake, the Digital Deluxe Edition includes the following extras:
TOS Uniform set, NX Registry Prefix, “KHAAAN!” emote, Klingon Blood Wine emote, and Automated Defense Battery.

Collector's Edition (retail) Bonuses:
You may still be able to find retail physical copies in stores. They include:
Physical items:
Deluxe Packaging - Futuristic 3dX holography set in a high quality brushed aluminum finish.
Deluxe Manual - Hardbound, art book, manual, and disc case in a single, elegant package.
Communicator Badge - High quality cast metal design based on the in-game badge model.
Guest Passes - Credit card-style buddy passes entitling friends for a ten day game trial.
In-game items: Red Matter Capacitor, Next Generation Uniforms, Deep Space Nine Uniforms

Admiral Outfit:
The uniform made famous in the TOS movie The Wrath of Khan can be yours in game for free! Simply go to http://startrekonline.com/enter_key, login, and enter JIH MUSHA SOH - that's the code.

Retailer Exclusive Bonuses: some are available for purchase in the C-Store and some are still missing. Note that the retail game is dirt cheap now at every retailer (if you can find it). So if you want these items, either because you don't want to use the C-Store or because they're not available there, you can pick up the game with the item you want in that particular store and add the code to your account at: http://www.startrekonline.com/activate.

Amazon: Borg "efficient" Engineering Bridge Officer (no longer available with newer prints of the game, you can still get lucky and get it if they happened to ship you an older printing that included it)
GameStop: Constitution-class starship
Atari: Standard CE and DDE bonuses, nothing exclusive
Best Buy: Tribble and Targ pets
Direct2Drive: Multi-spatial Personal Shield
Target: TR-116 Ground Rifle (that crazy transporting bullet sniper rifle from DS9)
Walmart: 500 additional skill points (NOT over cap, it's basically like completing a 500 SP mission)

Notes Regarding Gameplay

With the introduction of F2P, many new game mechanics have been introduced and the economy has changed substantially. Periodically, I will update this post with links where you can read about these new mechanics. If there's a useful note you like, simply edit this post and post it (please take care not to delete others' contributions, even if it overlaps or contradicts it).

Thanks and see you in game!

-manlai

CAG Players Reviews

manlai's recommendation: New players: YES, try it out. Former/Current account holders curious about returning: NO, STAY FAR AWAY!
Why: For new people, it's free to play. It's kind of Trek-y with standard MMO mechanics. All mission relevant content is available to f2p'ers. The space portions can be fun and you get your own starship. For old members, you will find STO a super grindy, shameless, embarrassing, and money-grubbing shell of its former self. A single new grindy currency has infected every aspect of the game and "Gold" member benefits are nothing of note. You will be angered, but mostly saddened, at the horrible state of something that bears the name Star Trek.



Links

Release Notes straight from the devs: http://forums.startrekonline.com/forumdisplay.php?f=118
Skill Tree Planner:
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/

am i reading this right? if you buy the lifetime subscription you don't get the game included in that? you have to buy the game separate?

Yeah, you do have to buy the game separately. It's a lot of money to spend off the bat, but you also save lots over time.

i would never trust a lifetime subscription on any mmo besides a blizzard based game. hell, look at hellgate london =\.

There is a risk of the game closing, but it's probably not too high. Most MMOs by major publishers last more than 2 years. Lord of the Rings Online offered a lifetime subscription model and it's still going strong. Even The Matrix Online, a crappy licensed MMO lasted 5 years.

Games usually die a long time before their servers shut down for good.

What gets me about this is you have to sign up for the Lifetime/Annual subs before the game is released. $240+$50 is a lot of money to plunk down on a game. The decision will be based entirely on the Open Beta, which is both very bug-filled and lagged-out at the moment. In the Open Beta, you're constrained to only the beginning zones with a level cap of 16. I'd fear that they could present a Conan-type problem to us....the starter zones are awesome, but once you hit lvl 20 or so, everything goes down hill.

considering it's Star Trek, I have a hard time seeing Trekkies letting this die till a new one comes out

I still don't get MMOs. Why pay $15+/month when you can get a full game for that price (like Mass Effect this week).

I'd buy a lifetime subscription to TOR but I'm not too sure about Star Trek .. it's fun from what I've played but I'm not sure it brings anything new to the table. Plus it's rough around the edges, granted it's a beta but after playing the final version of Champions Online, it seems like Cryptic doesn't polish their games prior to release ... Bioware on the other hand tends to take bit more time with their work.

Originally Posted by sukru I still don't get MMOs. Why pay $15+/month when you can get a full game for that price (like Mass Effect this week).

it's not "just" a game, its the whole social aspect to it.

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Originally Posted by fart_bubble it's not "just" a game, its the whole social aspect to it.

But isn't the "social" aspect a way to kill your real social life?

there's going to be infinite trekkie support behind this game, it's pretty safe to pay for the lifetime if you're an mmo type-of-guy

Originally Posted by sukru But isn't the "social" aspect a way to kill your real social life?

Aren't there people out there that wish to kill themselves rather than experience a "real social life"?

You can play an MMO and maintain a social life. Many people go overboard, but it doesn't have to be that way. That's one thing I like about the lifetime subscription deal - you don't have to play a certain amount of time every month just to justify a monthly fee. You can take a break and come back whenever you feel like it.

I used to play free MMOs, but gave up because they easily become very competitive and you have to spend more and more time to keep up.

MMO designers make it so that you have to do lots of chores to access "fun" parts. For example (I did not play, but from what I read) you have to mine gold a lot in WoW. For free ones (like Facebook/Zynga) it limits you for a day, until your some kind of meter (e.g: energy) refill, or you pay some amount of money to fill it quickly.

So you either lose time (1000s of small clikcs), or money, or even worse both.

Shit, Cryptic charged $199 for Champions lifetime subs. I guess that ST license will cost you another $40. I dunno, I played the beta a bit and just couldn't get into it. Plus all the heavy handed nerfing and wholesale changes that went on right on the opening day of Champions left a sour taste in my mouth. I guess I will just hold off for Old Republic. I'd be willing to pay a lifetime sub for that one for sure.

Originally Posted by sukru I still don't get MMOs. Why pay $15+/month when you can get a full game for that price (like Mass Effect this week).

Some people see it differently. Like why bother paying $20+ on new games that come and go when you can spend a small amount of money each month playing a seemingly endless game?

I'm still waiting for Avalon to become real (under-rated flick though I'm in the minority)

Originally Posted by PikaPichu Some people see it differently. Like why bother paying $20+ on new games that come and go when you can spend a small amount of money each month playing a seemingly endless game?

I prefer to think of it in terms of money I'll spend on the monthly fee vs how much time I'll get out of it. For fifteen bucks, it's quite easy to get 20+ hours in a month out of an MMO. I can think of a large number of games that I beat in far less time and (foolishly) paid far more for.

Originally Posted by PikaPichu Some people see it differently. Like why bother paying $20+ on new games that come and go when you can spend a small amount of money each month playing a seemingly endless game?

But how many of those people just stick with and play with one MMO for years, not buying any other games? Usually they are addicts and hop from one to the other, maybe going back and forth to several different MMOs a year.

Nowadays, I just buy games on the cheap, like the deals from steam and before that the $5 games from Direct2drive. Probably cheaper than paying full retail than a monthly sub for a MMO, and for me, a lot more fun, rewarding. I stay away from MMOS now. (Ironically, thanks to Champions Online)

Now of course, people who buy games as soon as they are released at full retail (You are deemed not a Cag! , playing a couple MMOs exclusively is a lot cheaper than that.