GameStreet – StarQuest Online News

The game has changed since my original review, I decided to review it again. This time, rather than give you long paragraphs describing the game in detail, I’m just going to tell you what I did and didn’t like about it.

What I liked about StarQuest Online

Open PvP/PvE

The only places safe from PvP are on the starting core worlds. These are the areas where new people first enter StarQuest, and where you immortrax if killed. PvE is possible to some extent in core worlds, it allows the new player to get a sense of how the combat works, before actually trying to fight something that might turn out to be a player who is much more experienced. Things like cows, butterflies, dinosaurs, the occasional demon cow with spikes, are there to try your hand at before venturing out into the "real" world.

Devilray Squadron 

Devilray Squadron is a Squadron of the 2nd Fleet of the United Systems Alliance Starfleet. It is also the biggest Squadron of the 2nd Fleet with currently four ships in its roster. It is heavily role play orientated and military structure is enforced quickly. Devilray Squadron is offering players a wide range of possibilities, ranging from exploration and PvE up to PvP. The squadrons’ main responsibilities however are the exploration and PvE encounters. PvP encounters do happen once in a while, but however are not a regular occurrence. The squadron is best for players, who are looking for role play as well as for a healthy mix of action and exploration, PvP and PvE. Devilray Squadron has GMT players as well as American ones and thus covers both major time zones. This fact is opening Devilray Squadron for everyone, offering all players interested the chance to find others to play with.

The Icarus class starship was at one time the backbone of the Terran fleet, built in response to fears that the Ryl’Atti in the nearby Beta Centauri system intended to invade Earth. The Icarus class was the first full sized Terran starship to have a hyperspace engine installed. The technology of the time required that the antimatter reactor and hyperdrive system be installed in the detachable pod beneath the main hull on the weapon sail. The last Icarus class ship in active military service, the U.A.S. Hood BCSS-9, was decommissioned in 2201. In 2202, the construction plans of the Icarus were declassified by the Alliance government and sold to several starship construction firms. The Icarus is now seen plying the spacelanes as a light freighter over a century after the first ship saw service. It has also gained notoriety as a civilian battle cruiser. Since they are much cheaper and easier to outfit than most other battle capable ships, they have become the mainstay of many of the pirate factions inhabiting the spacelanes.

Testing and Injecting Chemicals:

Here we start the experimental or administer phase. Usually a good scientist can identify the effects of a compound and know what the outcome may possibly be, but testing always help to ease the mind.

There are a few safety measures when testing chemicals, especially when giving it to a patient. Most test the chemical on themselves, but it is a good idea to have highly skilled medic available and about 4 bottles of tanga juice. When testing on a patient, make sure they are aware of the possible risk and that they volunteered willingly for this procedure. Some chemicals are known to have PERMANENT attribute changes, so keep them informed of such a possibility.

Last month the U.A.S. Yorktown was reactivated after an extended period of inactivity as the first official fleet training ship. The crew of the frigate U.A.S. Gagarin requested transfer to the Yorktown on its own, to help fleet in reactivation of this ship for training purposes, which means that the Yorktown is now manned by an experienced crew, which for sure has the ability to teach new players.

The need for a training ship comes mainly from the fact that the game is lacking a real tutorial at this time. Any new players joining the game will go through short simulator training and are then left alone on Terra, not knowing what to do next. This fact has caused fleet to lose several new players in the past, who got frustrated for being dropped on a planet with nothing else to do. I know how that feels myself, because when I came to the game for the first time, the same thing happened to me and not knowing what to do next, I quit the same day

First, we will start with the equipment requirements. Every scientist needs the proper equipment and without it you can’t complete your job. This is what you will require:

Sampler Probe This is the most vital tool you can have and the most important. The probe allows you to gather samples form different rocks, trees, and plants. Probes can be bought at the ShopMarts located on most major core worlds, for about 5000 credits or 4700 Prestige at Fleet Headquarters. Also when you join a crew, like StarFleet, they may supply you with one.

Vials – Here I must stress the importance of these items. In terms of a scientist, they are VERY IMPORTANT! They are the equivalent of money in the science community and without them you can’t gather samples nor create chemical compounds. They can usually be found at the mart for 124 credits.

Following the victory of the United Systems Alliance in the war against the Klinshaya Empire in 2184 S.T.Y. , the newly formed Alliance Starfleet felt the need to both modernize and enlarge the fleet. Learning numerous lessons from Terra’s aging Icarus class battlecruisers before, during and after the war, a new starship design was envisioned incorporating the newest technologies of the Alliance worlds, a design as powerful as any in known space. The keel of the first of this class of starship was laid down in Mars Orbit in June of 2187, and would be christened U.A.S. Ticonderoga in honor of the starship that turned the tide of battle during the Klinshaya attack on Terra in 2180. Currently U.A.S. Ticonderoga serves a dual role as a fleet training vessel and is attached to the Sol System defense fleet.

Amid a flurry of almost non-existent hype, StarQuest Online launched on September 21, 2007. People had never heard of it, and comments of "This looks like something I could play on my Armstrad 464" were rampant. No one had ever heard of CastleThorn Software. Now, almost a year and four months later, the game is pretty much in the same boat. The graphics have improved drastically, but are still not DX10 material or even close. So what does the game have fully in its favor.

The universe of StarQuest Online is highly realistic. It was built from real star data. It contains over 10,000 unique star systems and 100,000 unique planets. It is the biggest game universe in MMO’s. It is roughly 3 times bigger than the universe of EVE who was the previous holder of this record. The controls of the starships used to pilot this universe are no less immersive and real. I have compiled this documentation of six consoles. There are several more, but they are not necessary for the basic starship operation.

This part of the galaxy was once civilized. It was ruled by one god-like race, the Alshaya. The Alshaya were the creators of all known things. They seeded the races among the stars. They created the artificial Quantum V layer of hyperspace. They were more technologically advanced than any known race has ever gotten. They have disappeared with hardly a trace. Caph is believed to have been their homeworld. The center of Quantum V hyperspace was found to be Caph. How or why the Alshaya disappeared we do not know. The Alshaya are not playable.

The Therataa claim to have been left behind by the Alshaya to be the protectors of this area of the galaxy. There is no data about the early days of the Therataa. They have been capable of space travel for as far back as their calender exists. They are either a very old race, or they were left by the Alshaya as they say. Therataa has the most advanced starships in game. Their ships seem to gather power from the vacuum of space itself. Their religious beliefs lead them to found a galactic law, that every underdeveloped race should be left alone to evolve at its own pace. It was this law that kept the early Terrans from being destroyed. Therataa are currently not playable, but the developers have hinted at them being so in the future.

While Fleet is great for getting started, teaching the ropes of the game, and having a lot of PvP action, sometimes you just want to build your own empire. The civilian side of StarQuest Online is much more complex than Fleet. You can do anything: exploration, colonization, bounty hunting, pirating, corporation, even empire building. Everything in the game is player owned, mainly by civilians, including the main game factions. This second part of the getting started guide will help you get your feet wet in the civilian side of the game.

All right, so you read my original review of the game and registered for a trial. Now what? The game has a small player base, and a very steep learning curve. The UI seemed basic, and in some cases hard to use. I got a lot of comments on these issues, and so decided to help out where I could.

The admins over at StarQuest Online put upgrading the UI on the top of their list due to the new players’ complaints from my last review. On the 12th, they released the updated UI. They got so many different suggestions on how to upgrade the controls, that they decided to let you decide! The UI is now customizable from the Options menu. There are five different settings that you choose. You can turn on/off rotating the view by clicking and dragging with the mouse, turn on/off dragging items between inventories, choose one of three functions the mouse wheel can have (zoom, rotate view, rotate avatar), and switch the left and right mouse button functions. All of the hotkeys can be changed to whatever you want. They let me know that even more upgrades are on the way that will allow us to customize it even more!