Team Building

[Samuel Firehawk]

While many among us are likely to have played some form of MMO or Previous entries in the Star Trek gaming franchise I think the ability for the fleet to participate in real time fleet actions would be a great asset in helping to build teamwork and skills necessary to have a successful fleet online.

Two games immediately came to mind when thinking about what is currently available to help build these skills. In the Star Trek Universe the game Klingon Academy would help to build skills in 3 dimensional fighting power management and a feel for controls that seem to be very similar to what we will experience inside of STO. The main difference with KA being that it is from a first person view and I'm not certain if online will function.

The second skill building game that may help to prepare the fleet is Navy Field. This is a top down sprite based MMO with limited RPG qualities. It is based off of WWII naval warfare with battle taking place among as many as 128 participants per round. In between battles players must use earned exp, points, and credits to develop their crews and ships into better fighting machines. Eventually players can progress from a tiny underpowered frigate through destroyer, light cruiser, heavy cruiser, and ultimately to either Battleship, Aircraft Carrier or Submarine. The crew building and team play takes a front seat in this game. A high level battleship will not be effective in battle unless the operator is experienced and the crew has been developed in a way that makes the ship a powerful force. Crew training contributes to everything from how fast the ship goes to how much damage it can take to how accurate the guns are to how fast repairs are made to how quickly guns can be reloaded. While these skills may not translate 100% over to STO I believe that learning to develop your crew(equivalent to STO Bridge officers) and learning to outfit your vessel(equivalent to upgrades available in STO) and learning how to fight in fleet actions like a team will help to make the 7th Fleet a mighty force once the retail game hits shelves.

I haven't been on any of our voice chats yet but I am aware that meets have been organized and held with the members of this fleet. Such voice chat is critical to mission success in Navy Field and the fleets that chat together usually win together.

Let's hear opinions. Other alternatives that have similar Multiplayer and RPG elements that I may not be aware of.

Lastly the best part of training on NF is the fact that it is free to download and free to play.

[Lang S]

I would say star trek elite force 2 with the co op mod and where can we view this navy field thing your talking about.

[Deputy Commander Turner]

I looked Navy Field over, I would be willing to give that a shot some time.
http://www.navyfield.com/

Anytime you see us online and wish to talk mr Firehawk, please feel free to do so.

[Samuel Firehawk]

Thank you sir. I appreciate the consideration of this idea. After reading the new developer interviews posted at startrekonline.com I've come to realize that NF is an even better fit than I previously considered. Everything I've heard about the space combat of STO reminds me of a 3D version of NF. The primary difference being that you will not be engaging in many swooping battles where positioning of shields plays an important role. However, in the recent interview ship speed and reload times seem to have a level of importance reminiscent of NF. Your ability to enter and remove yourself from combat at your discretion is the difference between surviving a battle and sinking in NF.

The developer interview also stated that space based gameplay makes up more than half of STO and that combat in space is not geared toward individual ships but rather for multiple players fighting together.

As a precursor to any fleet action on NF I will first offer my status as a moderate high level player to form a fleet for us should the need arise. In order to form and maintain a fleet a player needs an Officer of Naval Operations which is a class available to a radioman of a certain level.

I will try to get online at a reasonable time where I can join in with some voice chat. Doing so has proven difficult for me as I don't usually even get home till 7-8pm. Once I finish with "life" I find little time for entertainment. I'll see what I can do gentlemen and hopefully some training scenarios can be arranged.

[Anton Mercer]

yes ive played NF myself and you are right that is a very good game. But i think the two games that would be most like the starship combat in STO are bridge commander which is a very fun game given its limited ship range and.... and i know some ppl didnt like this gme but star trek legacy also would be a could one now i dont have legacy for the pc but for the 360 but there were some mods for the pc version that rebalanced everything and add more ships and i think either of these games would be beter just in the fact that they are all about ship to ship combat and they are still within the star trek realm. i love playing bridge commander online it is very fun and if most of us have it we could get friendly matches goin between TF's or just plan stragey with the kligon ships given in game ... these are just my thoughts