Fighting the Fek’Ihri

Recently my KDF captain picked a set of missions about fighting the threat of the Fek’Ihri towards the Klingon empire. This was among the best missions I have played in the game so far! These missions are part of the Klingon side PvE content which becomes available when one reaches Captain rank it seems.

The Fek’Ihri is an ancient enemy of the Klingons, which Kahless fought 1500 years ago. Now they are back, in a way.  The Fek’Ihri themselves are a real creepy faction, very well made – very much something that you could expect to come from someones nightmares, or noit quite of this world – which is true in a sense.

These guys (Slave Masters) have picked up some of Champion Online's Supernatural powerset it seems

There is a nice flow through the missions and they do provide a bit of Klingon lore and history. The story buolds up well and the final mission does really top it off well with a pretty epic last part. Very good work, Crypic!

It is interesting to observe while there is not that many missions in the Klingon side PvE content in the game, the missions that are there have generally been very good. Federation side has much more mission content, but of varying quality. The Klingon side certainly has a content gap if you do not want to repeat missions, but the missions so far plus the featured episodes they have been running are content that I do not mind repeating. To a certain extent at least, I would not want to run though the same things week after week after…

I think Star Trek Online has found a nice niche with its rather story-oriented focus, but that does not mesh so well with the traditional MMO view. I see Star Trek Online as kind of a TV/video MMO – you sit down to experience a new episode in a defined setting, with some familiar characters. But while it is more interactive than just watching a movie or TV episode, it is not really a virtual world where you spend time just doing stuff. You turn it on, have a bit of entertainment and then turn it off.

Since I pretty much play the game 1-2 sessions per week the progression is somewhat slow, but every session typically feels quite good. I have had a lot of fun with my Klingon side character and her crew, so I may end up focusing just on this character – she is pretty much at the same level as my Federation character now.

I also wonder if they will change the payment model for the game. I would certainly not mind paying explicitly for access to episodes when I want to play them rather than the subscription fee that is used now. I am quite happy with playing once per week roughly, but get into thinking whether I should stop the subscription and only subscribe when there are new episodes/content available.  Paying explicitly for new content instead of the subscription fee would be nicer I think – I don’t care much for the rest of the sometimes grindy stuff in the game.

In the end I think the MMOs which may work out with subscriptions are the ones which you may feel there is a virtual world with stuff to do in it. You rent a place in this worls so you can spend time there. For other types of MMOs that provides various forms of entertainment, then it may be nicer to pay an entrance fee and for the rides.