Last week (1/18/12) was, as you should know, the Wikipedia blackout. However, a lesser known fact is that Star Trek Online went free-to-play the day before. Although STO is nothing new, (their 2-year anniversary is next month) I thought it would be interesting to give it a try. So I downloaded it, hoping it would provide me some entertainment to make up for the time I would usually spend looking up random astronomical phenomena on Wikipedia. Little did I know, it was going to be more than just a little entertainment...
The graphics are dependent on your hardware, but other than that, you are able to run free. You can choose your character's appearance, gender (I would hope so...) and career (Tactical/Command, Sciences/Medical, and Operations/Engineering), and later on in the game, you are able to choose to be a Klingon character. The game's leveling system is fairly simple. There are 7/8 ranks (I'm not quite sure how many Admiral ranks there are), and you gain skill points by completing missions. Each rank has 10 grades, and each rank grants you an additional ship, and a new officer. Your ship is set by default to a Centaur-class, a Miranda-class or a Shi'Kar-class vessel. After advancing to the rank of Lt. Commander, you are able to switch to a Light Escort, Cruiser or Light Science Vessel, and are able to choose between:
Cruisers:
Constitution refit-class (like the movie version of the Enterprise)
Constitution-class (like the Original Series, but this requires Cryptic Points, but I'll get to that later)
Excalibur-class (viewable in the background on the main STO website)
Vesper-class (like a mix between Excelsior and Constitution-refit)
Exeter-class (requires Cryptic Points, a refit of the refit Constitution)
Light Science:
Nova-class (like the USS Equinox, for those who watch Star Trek: Voyager)
Nova refit-class (essentially the same, except for a bit of added armour)
That's pretty much it for Part I, I'll either get Archaen to do Part II, or finish it when I don't have to leave for exams.
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