I played the beta. They were still ordering servers on the fly to handle load. That was only a few weeks ago, and for only about 10,000 active keys. I can't imaging in a few weeks that they were able to install enough additional servers to handle over half a million logins.... I fully expects a day-one onslaught of epic proportions.
Thankfully, I don't have to suffer with it, as the Beta period was enough for me to know this is a game I have no further interest in.
Gripes:
1) flying a starship in combat is about as exciting as watching 2 aircraft carriers do a circle. It's excruciatingly slow. These ships are not fighter planes.
2) These are not fighter planes! WTF do they fly as if there's an atmosphere in space? No momentum, can't rotate on all 3 axis, it only moves in the direction the nose of the craft is pointing, shutting down engines does not allow the craft to continue course.
3) Cooperative FPS mode ("beamed down"), is another god awful engine. Slow, dated by modern standards, limited controls. ANY current MMO that uses minions/henchmen has a far superior engine. After a few hours bored in space combat, I was hoping for a more exciting ground scenario, but no, it's also painfully slow.
4) The interface. It;s horrible. It has a vaguely Trek-like feel, but it's all pastels. i expected sharp colors and clear, readible displays, similar to what's on TV, but the UI feels almost childish this way. It;s also difficult to read many screens, and some real-time indicators, even on a 1900x1200 resolution which most people won't have.
5) The camera engine and flight controls. Ships perform best in combat when you have multiple firing arcs overlaping between you and the target (aka, usually the target was to be to your port or starboard), yet the flight controls work best when the camera is directly behind the ship (as turning is accomplished by clicking both mouse buttons in the direction you want to turn). This means, most commonly, your target is very difficult to keep ON SCREEN while fighting. One of the most common combat scenarios in Star Trak had someone at the chair scream out "Attack pattern Delta!" yet there are no automated controls for ship movement while you control the camera. The game SERIOUSLY needs function to say "circle target" "maintain x distance from target" "roll to present strongest shield to target" etc.
6) Another common statement "take out their engines" or "take out their shield generator" Once their shields are weak, all you do is beat on the hull. You can't target specific subsystems, there's no strategy in combat outside of focussing on bringing 1 shield quadrant down by simply being in the right place while firing.
This game SUCKS. It needs a complete UI overhaul; a major upgrade to space combat including ship controlls, targeting, and more; and a completely seperate ground combat engine and UI from the ship (they tried, and failed, to use the same 3D engine in both areas, often when beaming down I'd find myself in a room with lots of people, but I was still a ship, and moved like a ship, for 30 seconds or so.) It's 2 completely different game play experiences, they should look and work different.
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