Summary Judgement: This is a soulless, godless, indecent cash grab of an MMO in the worst tradition of Farmville and its bastard offspring. The bigger tragedy is that I really want to like this game.
Developed by: Bigpoint
Cost: “Free” to Play
Upon its February 8th release, I spent a good nine hours with BSG Online. Despite the best graphics I have ever seen in a browser based game, I find myself so far from impressed that it almost defies explanation. After going through a rather simple character creation system, I was thrown into the cockpit of my Viper. There, a badly drawn rendering of Katee Sackhoff tossed a few text bubble insults my way before, surprise surprise, the Cylons interrupted my training mission. One close encounter with a (sigh) alien McGuffin later and both the Cylon and Colonial fleets are FTL’d beyond the redline and into parts unknown.
Despite the weak character creation and not very accurate renderings of Bill Adama, Lee Adama, Kara Thrace and Galen Tyrol, the game’s early motions seemed decentt. It’s set in my favourite BSG timeline: post Admiral Cain but prior to New Caprica. Also, there is nothing more awesome than shooting up Cylon raiders while listening to Bear McCreary’s killer BSG soundtrack. As an EVE Online veteran, I found the game’s controls quite intuitive. But unlike in EVE, BSG Online gives players manual control over their ships; I could actually fly my Viper. With that in mind, combat in this game is at least as satisfying as what I found in Star Trek Online and almost as pretty. Of course, that’s where the fun kills itself like so many Colonials when the fleet landed on the thirteenth colony.
My biggest complaint about the game is its bullshit free to play structure. BSG Online is likely worse than CityVille as an insult to gaming. In the “finest” fashion of Zynga games, BSG Online has two distinct units of currency: Tylium and Cubits. Tylium is the basic currency for buying ammunition, ship upgrades, ship fuel and non-premium starships. Since everything in the game is powered by Tylium, it is pretty easy to find. Cubits are the game’s premium currency and can be purchased with real world coinage. I could live with two-tier economics if it was just a matter of using Cubits to buy exotic weapons and starships. Cheap bastards, like yours truly, can still get their hands on the fun stuff as killing NPCs and completing missions yields a few Cubits. Of course, the developers don’t mention that it would necessitate playing sixteen hours a day for a few years to get enough money to buy a capital ship through NPC hunting.
The real travesty is that BSG Online lets players buy experience points with Cubits. What the frak is the point of having a levelling system if some dork, armed with his mom’s credit card, can buy a few million Cubits, level up over night and then use the leftover money to buy a ship that can shoot a hole in space-time? Said power player could even get around the time delayed skill development tree by buying buffs that speed up the wait time on learning new abilities. It is as if NBC Universal, Bigpoint and Art Plant are saying, “If you want a fair gaming experience, go play one of those subscription games like Star Trek Online or EVE. We’re the game you want to play if you have an addictive personality, three major credit cards and enjoy being a douche while lording your wealth over those poorer than yourself.” Who makes a game that is so disgustingly overt about its unfairness? I don’t know if it is the inherent injustice that makes me angry, or the fact that they are taking the second best space opera of the last twenty years and using it to push a shitty product.
On a side note, players can’t upgrade the Mark II Viper to the oh-so-sexy Mark VII, even with premium content. As a Viper pilot I upgrade to a Raptor or some ugly non-canon ships. How the hell is the fraking school bus an upgrade from a Viper? It’s like trading Mad Max’s V8 Interceptor for a Ford Windstar.
Some words on game play: the designers might be plugging BSG Online as a “strategic battle for resources and territory between Human and Cylon players”, but I just call it a sadomasochistic spanking. Without wanting to belabour the point, I don’t see how you can have interesting PvP combat when players with the most real world money will do the best in PvP. Levelling doesn’t mean jack when offensive and defensive power are tethered almost wholly to the ship you are flying. The PvE combat is similarly uninspired and boring. Each day, an NPC who looks a little like Jamie Bamber offers up a laundry list of quests. Such quests include “blow up five sensor drones”, “patrol three systems”, “mine 1500 units of Tylium”. The game doesn’t even bother to dress up its “farm or grind” dynamic with the trappings of a story. At least WoW gussied up its pointless farming and grinding with some creative exposition. While Apollo will reward your work with a pittance of ammunition, Tylium and Cubits, once the day’s missions are done, there’s nothing for you to do except farming and grinding on your own. I’m sure it won’t take long for the dev’s to build in a feature where you can spend Cubits for access “black ops” missions vis-a-vis buying more energy in FarmVille.
The only other option for structured play is to visit digital Admiral Adama for story line missions. I managed to play through three of these assignments before the Admiral told me I didn’t have enough experience to help. I know the game is still in beta, but this questing system is so utterly devoid of imagination that it kills my desire to play the game. My pessimism is reinforced when attempts at farming in a seemingly safe sector are met by a half dozen Cylon players in VERY big ships. They might as well give me a self destruct button because in a situation like that there’s no way that I’m going to last the sixty seconds it takes for my FTL drive to spin up.
Much as I’ve enjoyed tearing this game to shreds, it really does pain me to do so. I wanted so much for this to be a fun game. Even as I write these words, I want to jump back into the cockpit of my Viper and blow up some Cylons. But the joke of free and egalitarian gaming ruins any potential for long term fun. I’m not opposed to paying for a product, but doing so shouldn’t prejudice the game in favour of the big spenders. My philosophy is that you charge everybody the same and give everybody the same chance for success. MMOs work because they are libertarian spaces; players have equal chances for success so long as they keep their wits about them. When intelligence fails, there is always a marathon grinding session. Compulsive as they may be, you have to respect the dedication of a person who gives up all other forms of social contact to grind in an MMO. With its venal trade system BSG Online is so much like our world that it makes me long for the lesser injustices of office politics.
Overall Score: -3
You can find the second part of this review here
“MMOs work because they are libertarian spaces; players have equal chances for success so long as they keep their wits about them. When intelligence fails, there is always a marathon grinding session. Compulsive as they may be, you have to respect the dedication of a person who gives up all other forms of social contact to grind in an MMO”
Hmm. So people with more free time are more worthy of respect than those with less free time?
I find it interesting that you seem to have no problem with the idea that players who have far more time to spend playing an MMO will have an advantage over players who have less time to play, but hate the idea that players with money to spend could achieve the same.
Why is a game that gives players with more time an unassailable advantage over those with less time any ‘fairer’ than one that allows players to substitute money for time? They’re both currencies – what makes one more ‘egalitarian’ than the other?
Like I said in the post, if it was a matter of two-tiered game economics, I wouldn’t have a problem. But the game inherently favours players who are willing to spend fuck tons of real world cash on in-game currency. When I was eight hours into the game – a mere 16 hours into its open beta – there were already a significant number of players flying around with level cap starships. Perhaps they are closed beta players, or perhaps they bought their way to the top. How is it fair to all the newbies or level grinders that they are eternally at the mercy of players who skipped to the top?
It’s true that time and money are both currencies, but there’s a difference between the two. Time is given to all in approximately equal portions (on average) and people distribute it over activities as they see fit. The choices they make impact what they are good at, and what they are not good at.
Money is something people inherit.
Furthermore, money is a representation of successful time-distribution. It is, in fact, a consequence of investing time in making money… whether the time invested was yours or not.
For example, you would not expect it to be considered “fair” for teams to be able to buy points in a baseball game with money. What people playing baseball care about is not how much money the players have, but rather how good they are *at baseball*.
To further illustrate the point, let’s pretend you’re an internet startup company with a really, really good product. You pitch your product to a client you really, really need, and he’s extremely impressed. He tells you the following:
“wow. Your product is definitely the best, and most cost-effective product on the market. But this other guy is really good at League of Legends, so we’re going with his product instead.”
Would you walk out of that meeting going “shucks… oh well, I lost that contract fair and square” or would you be really, really annoyed?
“How is it fair to all the newbies or level grinders that they are eternally at the mercy of players who skipped to the top?”
Again, how is it any less far than the newbies or players with less time to play being eternally at the mercy of the players who have 12+ hours per day to spend in-game?
At least in this kind of system there’s a way that the new or time-starved can compete. Doesn’t that make it *more* fair? =)
It makes the game inherently and potentially limitlessly imbalanced in favour of people who can throw wads of cash into xp, gear and ships. Let me ask you this, why even bother playing an MMORPG if you want to skip through everything that defines the genre?
try this one i am waiting in hatir for water mine scanning and waiting and when one pops up i get attacked by a cylon and when i destroy him and go back not a minute later those so called credit card players done stole it and corner the market in the system of all the water mines try that out.
seriously ?
igrinding takes a LOOONG time while paying for ur stuff with a ton of bucks takes meres seconds think before u talk you can got to level 85 in seconds while F2p players wiht plenty of free time need to wait a minium of 3 months to get ANYTHING that does some actual damage.
I agree with Adom. What IS the point of playing an MMO if you can buy your way to max level in one day. It kindof defies the purpose of being a gamer. “Jump into the game and rape end game within half an hour” does NOT spell a good MMO, or ANY game for that matter.
I too like the game mechanics of flight and fight, a good twist from eve’s monotinous “point and click” with a little of the upgradeability and such. But on finding a good belt to farm (finally) and getting a bunch of raw mats, I went to the store to sell my stuff. I found I had over 36K tylium and realized I can’t even buy the entry level ship I want (can’t remember what it is) because it costs 30000 cubits not 30000 tylium. So in my google search for ways to farm out cubits I realized that you get a handful on the rare spawn of an NPC and some “daily allotment”. The other way to get it is to complete daily missions. A bit about that, you have to finish all the dailies from the previous day to refresh the mission and get them again. Have you tried fighting a weapons platform with the viper II.. it’s impossible.
And about the missions, I did notice that udama stops giving them to you after the 3rd one you do. So upon hitting lvl 5 I went back and still no missions. So I agree with the OP. You can’t have a game where people spend money to buy their way to max lvl. What’s the point? That totally defeats the purpose of gaming. With such an out of balance system I have decided to stop playing this game. Thraxxon argues that it’s good for people who don’t have much time to be able to spend their way to lvl 20, but I argue if you don’t have much time then why are you trying to play an mmo. I guess this game caters the paying fans of BSGO. I don’t mind paying a monthly fee to play either, it’s not that, but I can’t justify a game that is totally open to ppl who buy their shit with IRL money and completely closes the doors to those who actually want to play the game and work the system to get to the top. Earning your way to the top is just as valuable imo. The other thing about paying to reach max lvl is that once you are there sure it’s fun to pop shit for a while, but the game will fizzle out for you because what’s there to do. Not much except pvp and make yourself feel cool by blowing up newbs who don’t want to spend irl money.
The other thing about this system is that once everyone buys their way to lvl 20 then all you will have is either max lvl ships and newbs flying their vipers. There will not be much in between. There will be no real fleet battles all you will find is a slugfest of big fat ships and frustrated newbs. So for those of you who like to grind and put your time into gaming this game is NOT for you. I really hate to see this game get tossed aside because I like the fighting system, but the fact that I will be lvl 15 and still flying a viper cuz I got no way to buy anything else is really shitty. You can argue that you can still buy the bigger ships with tylium but they totally suck vs the premium ships. I don’t want to be at a severe disadvantage because I prefer to spend my time in a game and not my time at work to buy my way into the satisfaction of max lvl.
So in my own personal review, this game is EPIC PHAIL.
I think a way to fix this is to simply remove the ability to buy levels and use xp boosts like in DDO. In that game you can purchase a powerup that grants, say, 5-10% extra xp for an hour or so. That way you still have to spend the time to play, but the company gets some $. Next, link specific ship types to level, much like equipment in pretty much every other modern MMO I know of. You know- you can’t buy the ultimate capital ships until level 18 or 20. I haven’t played the game, so if this is already a feature- great!- it’s a very necessary one, IMO.
Level capping the ships is a feature, but I think it’s a bit of a pointless one when you can buy all the XP you need. It makes a lot more sense to just scale XP purchases back to a buff rather than a quid pro quo sale.
I agree with most of the article, but I feel the need to state what most old skool scifi fans wanted from this type of game(not that we wanted MMO anything really but hey).
What were we hoping for? Something of a cross between Tie-Fighter/and I will say STO because their MMO setup is tolerable, barely. We wanted a space combat sim, with good missions, voice overs, decent flow, great feel to the ships and combat, some storyline that would actually give the MMO scenario a reason to exist beyond micropayments to NBCU.
I wanted it seamless, I wanted it to make sense….*(vipers with jump engines? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)
All we got is a crappy half baked MMO, with some SWG like combat(not even that good), confusing setup, confusing layout, difficult to read text on any monitor larger than 19 inches, and a total lack of that BSG feel outside Bear’s awesome music. It’s an insult really, and much as I’ve come to expect from browser games(all total failures at anything but sipping money from millions). This thing will dry up faster than a shallow well in the outback.
Thanks for commenting. Three thoughts come to mind.
1- I completely agree with your old school demands. I suppose I’ve just given up on ever getting a space sim made the way I want it. We need only look at BSG for the PS2/Xbox to see that we’re likely never going to get something that lives up to expectations.
2- Shallow well in the outback, I like that one. And you don’t want to get me started about jump engines on vipers – frakking sacrilege. Also, it’s hilarious, even if tragically so, that we have to look back to the 90s to find examples of how to do space sims properly.
3- Seriously though, I would gladly pay a monthly subscription for something that is a blend of Tie-Fighter/Freespace 2/STO set in the Battlestar Galactica universe.
Aven said: “Thraxxon argues that it’s good for people who don’t have much time to be able to spend their way to lvl 20, but I argue if you don’t have much time then why are you trying to play an mmo.”
So people who have jobs and families shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy massively multiplayer games? =)
“I can’t justify a game that is totally open to ppl who buy their shit with IRL money and completely closes the doors to those who actually want to play the game and work the system to get to the top.”
How exactly does it close the doors? All of the highest level and best equipped guys in the Wing I’m a member of earned their stuff through play (the closed beta testers got to keep their stuff from the last couple of weeks before the open beta started), and they tend to roll straight over ‘wallet warriors’ who’ve bought their way to a similar level.
“The other thing about paying to reach max lvl is that once you are there sure it’s fun to pop shit for a while, but the game will fizzle out for you because what’s there to do. Not much except pvp”
PvP is kinda the point of the game, I think. For me, it plays (and feels) something like a Battlefield or Call of Duty in space with a persistent world. The lack of PvE content never stop me from spending hundreds of hours playing those games (to be honest I never actually played the single player in any of them), and it hasn’t stopped me enjoying Battlestar, at least for now.
I agree that if you’re looking for a WoW-style ‘themepark’ with lots of PvE content, Battlestar probably isn’t for you, though.
Adam said: “Also, it’s hilarious, even if tragically so, that we have to look back to the 90s to find examples of how to do space sims properly.”
I dunno, I think it’s just tragic. Loved those games. =(
I can only assume that they simply don’t make enough money to be viable – it’s the only reason I can think of for the fact that no one is making them (or flight sims, for that matter) any more.
@Thraxxon Don’t get me wrong, I love classic space sims. I’ve had my copy of Freespace 2 on every computer I’ve owned for the last 11 years. Have you played it with the SCP mods? Those people are fantastic programmers.
On the subject of why games like FS2 don’t get made any more: The best rationale I have heard is that the gaming industry made a move toward targeting games to a broader audience, likely in response to rising production costs. Publishers started frowning upon games that depended upon peripherals, like a joystick. Their philosophy was, and I think remains, that if you need more than a mouse and keyboard to play the game you’re going to alienate too many people to make the game marketable. I think that’s crap. But I also hold out the naive hope that Wing Commander will get a reboot.
I hate that BSG Online keeps trying to agressively force me into a corner, where my only choices are to either pay to get the ships I need to win, or continue getting trampled on by noobs who wouldn’t have the strategic finesse to compete in Eve.
It’s not just a case of overpowered enemy fleets ganking young players. The thing that infuriates me most is the lack of restriction on systems clearly intended for newbie use.
I find myself unable to do any of the activities I need to do to get ahead because asshats in my faction, flying capships (lines?! what balls), are mining the ores, wiping out the npcs, and farming the best spawns that were clearly intended for newbies to do. There’s simply no competing, and none of the players I’ve encountered so far, in my 3 to 4 days of gameplay, seem to give a rat’s ass.
I spent last night sneaking into the deepest part of cylon territory to rat where I would have no competition. Sure I died a lot, but I also got some fun 1v1 pvp out of the deal.
Also, there needs to be consequences to losing a ship. Something far more tangeable than a negligible amount of hull damage. Maybe then the jerk-offs that think it’s okay to mine newbie-roids with capital ships will have some sort of justice awaiting them.
@Thieving Monkey So say we all! Well, so say me.
I heard tell that there was a patch yesterday so I jumped on-line last night to see if they had fixed anything. While cruising around I watched a coordinated Cylon fleet drive the colonials out of three systems that had low “threat” ratings. War might be hell but Bigpoint could take a page out EVE set up a system where the lower the threat level, the higher the allied NPC presence. I hear what you’re saying about none of the players giving a damn. Seemingly the only time the colonials cooperate is when they are on the verge of getting spanked. Without that threat, there just doesn’t seem to be enough motivation for people to work together. And even if they do group up, it won’t change the fact that people with escorts and lines always seem to have every resource planetoid capped all the frakkin’ time.
I should say that I did manage to get in a solid hour of ratting and small rock mining before getting driven out of one system. For my trouble I managed to amass about 40,000 Tylium. However, the asteroids in that system had clearly just re-spawned as every other one had minerals. Yet for all my trouble, somebody else is just going to buy in 10 seconds why I ground out in an hour. That, sir, is a piss off of the first order.
Wow, that’s a lot more Tylium than I can make in an hour, I might have to give mining small rocks a go. Tylium doesn’t seem to be my problem though, as you can probably guess; it’s the damn shortage of Cubits.
Even deciding not to go for larger ships, but to simply pimp-out my raptor, costs so much that I could be grinding all day for a week and still not get that 30k ship upgrade. I also need “faction” ammo too, since I take my pvp very seriously.
I was told killing players nets huge cubits rewards, but the joker who suggested this must have been on something. I’ve killed a handful of frigates today, and even when the game decided to give me the reward (instead of giving it to the rat who had been shooting them before I dropped in), the Cubits were miniscule.
I wish all these problems would just go away, because I really, really enjoy playing this game. It captures the feel of BSG so well for me, when I’m in the seat of my raptor, hiding just off their radar, waiting for them to turn their back.
I know, its such a weird feeling. I hate so much about this game, but the game play is still pretty solid.
Depending on what level you are, I find the best thing to do is fly about in a system with a threat level of about 8 or 9 and rat. Something in that neighbourhood gives you lots of high level fighters but no escorts to worry about. Rats tend to drop actual ship upgrades about 5% of the time and high level salvage about 10% of the time; now that I’ve got my Viper kitted out the way I want, it the ship upgrades make for great salvage. While you’re doing that snatch up some salvage from a scrap field; if you’re flying a Raptor you’ll seem them on DRADIS from pretty far out. If you get bored scan a few rocks for shits and giggles. 40k is way more than my usual profit point on a run like that. But for an hour of my life I usually spend about 6000 on Ammo but pull in profits of about 20-25k. Ah profits, I should really just go back to playing EVE.
why dont they set it so you can trade more for cubits its like i have over 200k tyluim and over 55k ty and only way i can get cubits to upgrade or buy ammo is to mine water but there are too many of them on there who will sit and watch you blow up then move in and steal your water mine so they need to let the players trade tylium and tit for cubits also…bullets that do any good are not cheap..
My original statement for this game still stands. I was talking to my room mate who is hell bent on this game and he was all excited that him and his buddies who also play have broken lvl 6 and I was like “wooo woooo not like I could just spend $50 and get there instantly”. The thing is, even if you have all your skills pumped to lvl 10, that’s only a 10% upgrade on all your stuff. So yeah your raptor is 10% better, or you could buy the *premium* raptor for that extra gun slot that gives you the extra 25% firepower. Oh wait, I have to grind for 6 months to farm up enough cubits just to buy that ship. Someone here argued that they roll wallet crusaders. The question is, how many of you are there vs. him, and what ships do you have, are you spending you hard earned cubits on faction ammo, etc.. If there is 20 raptors against 1 lvl 10 ship then yeah you are eventually gonna win. But with a properly fitted premium lvl 10 ship, you could pretty much eat any newbie out there. I don’t care if you spent 4 years training your skills. the 10% isn’t gonna do much for you against my medium weapons that do 8x the damage. Yeah this game is still in beta sure. But the core fundamentals of how that game works makes it no better than a flash game you would find on funny-games.biz. In fact I rate this game 9/10 for flight/game mechanics, 0/10 for economy, and 2/10 for NPC interaction, and in fact I could list a few flash games that have sucked in hours and hours of my time, much more fun and replayable than this kaybotch of a space sim. The only thing this game is good for is to drop in, spend half an hour pvping, another 15 mins mining tylium to replace your standard ammo and that’s it.
For people who grew up with games (starting with NES) you start to get a feel for how games should progress. Each game you play should have a DEFINITE progression. You start small, and earn you way to uberness. Even in the often mentioned FreeSpace 2 you get that “earning your way up” feel. Something has been lost with game dev’s in the last few years. No one has made a game worth noting. The only games I still consistently play are BattleField 2 and WoW. But the art of making a good game is a lost one, lost to the “let’s shotgun some programming out there, make a game mechanic that’s slightly different than the next, and suck in as much money as we can before the game fizzles out”. I challenge gaming programmers out there to make a game that stands the test of time. It was mentioned above in a previous comment here that games that require periferals are not produced because of the smaller market. Well that’s unfortunate. Imagine if FS2 had become an MMO. There is still a huge following to that game. I have played the battlestar galactica mod for that game and the flight mechanics are FAR SUPERIOR to the mechanics of this game. You want a feel for how a BSG should play like, download the BSG total conversion mod for freespace 2. Make sure you go out and get a joystick. You can download that game as a free standalone although if you go to goodolegames.com (gog.com) you can buy FS2 for liek $5. Now THERE is a game.
I really think it’s time for devs to pull up their socks and make a game that plays as good standalone as it does mmo. Time to stop catering to the “everyone” market and make a game that is market specific. Make something that is completely new, and different. A cross between freespace 2, EVE, star trek and (god forbid) Universal Combat would be a good place to start. The problem with the “everyone” market is that you can never really please everyone. There will always be someone that has some complaint that the game isn’t easy enough, or cheap enough, or they want some kind of advantage over someone else because they simply just suck balls at gaming, therefore creating the “purchase your way to awesomeness” standard. Make us a game that plays well, uses a joystick, makes MMO gaming FUN and is DIFFERENT than your standard “let’s copy the similar standard genre of MMO and publish it as exciting new content”.
C:> CD ENDRANT
C:\ENDRANT> RAGEQUIT /R
C:> REBOOT
heh my original comment on this game still stands. I put it down the night I came across this thread as an already frustrated pilot and this just put the final nail in the coffin. I find it totally sad that we talk about games from the 90’s as being industry leaders in their genre’s by todays standards. I think what the deal is that game developers were passionate about their games back in the day. They wanted people to have the total gaming experience and give them the feeling of progression through their game while allowing the player to use the game’s machanics to its limit. Things are a lot different now tho with the race to become the WoW MMO killer that everyone stops playin wow for. I think people will only stop playing wow when they finally shut down their servers which will not happen for like 10 more years imo. Anyway, if anyone wants to check out what a true BSG flight sim feels like then go to the store and buy yourself a $30 joystick and download the BSG total conversion mod for FreeSpace 2. Best of all it comes as its own standalone version and has several missions. It is extremely difficult to beat and you gotta have some serious twitch factor to beat it. I think the best part of that sim is being able to cut your engines and using the slide function of the raptor which you couldn’t do in FS2.
But if there are any game dev’s out there that are reading this thread, what you need to stop doing is making games for the money and start putting the passion back into game development. I have no doubts that certain parts of the BSGO had passionate employees but overall they had the attitude of “let’s make it so that people who don’t drop stupid amounts of money in this game to instalevel don’t get anywhere so they get frustrated after 100 hours of getting nowhere”. No, what we need is a game with the combat intensity of freespace 2 or the BSG total conversion mod, with a hint of Wing Commander Privateer, the absolute openness of the game Universal Combat, and the travel system and economic complexity of EVE. We also need in-ship character interaction (much like the original star trek MMO dev was supposed to be like before cryptic totally destroyed that concept). We need a game that we can play and feel good playing. We need a game that captures our attention and we are happy to pay a monthly fee to play. We need something that is much more on the side of being a IRL sim that takes place out in space.
Gamers are ready for the next level of gaming. We are sick and tired of companies producing a game simply for the “newness factor” and getting money out of it while they can. Cryptics whole take on STO was “well if we can run the server for 2 or 3 years and get our money out of it that is all we want”, and they were actually up front about that right from the getgo. They don’t even care about their gamers. They just want the money. And SOOOO MANY game developers out there have the exact same attitude. It’s a real shame that the modding community for so many of these crappy games that come out don’t ban together and make a game like the one I just described where it’s totally open, totally awesome, and completely dependant on the twitch factor. Yeah you can drop $500 on a game like BSGO and buy your way to max level, but it’s still just a mouse and keyboard game. Why not put $150 into an AWESOME joystick for the game that gets developed that everyone wants to play? I hear the argument in the previous thread about having to use specialized hardware and I say game developers actually NEED to produce games that are MARKET SPECIFIC. Building a game for the “everyone” crowd is stupid. It turns great gaming concepts into games that are for the “casual market” which is basically everyone that is old enough to use a keyboard to people who can barely afford their internet connection, to hardcore gamers that have no other games to play that are any good. Look at STO’s EPIC FAIL of a platform because they wanted to cater to the casual, non-hardcore gaming market. It’s the hardcore gamers that want something new that are the ones who are willing to spit the money into the game that finally kicks the crap out of all other MMO’s. It’s the ones who have the money to spend on that specialized hardware to play a game that is so out of this world a person would have to be stupid not to buy a cheapie joystick to play.
Anyway, back to the BSGO, yeah that game got me for about 8 hours of gameplay and then I realized what a piece it is. Sorry for all you supporters out there. Also I have been thinking about the game mechanics of this game. This game has the same flight system for a rapter as it does for a battleship. Why can’t game developers make a unique system of flight for each vehicle type they put in their games. Wouldn’t it give you so much of a better feel to the game if you in your battleship had to “tell” your ship where to go, as a real commander would, instead of pushing the W key to fly upward. If any of you have ever played Nexus: Jupiter Project, that game had an awesome system for what I am describing. You start off by flying your small twitch based starship and then you work up to big battleships that you have to actually control in a different way. So all in all, not even the flight mechanics for BSGO are that great as compared to other games. Overall when you compare certain parts of the game against other games that did so much of a better job, this game is fail all the way around. There is nothing about this game that some other game out there hasn’t totally destroyed BSGO for.
C:> CD ENDRAGE
C\ENDRAGE:> RAGEQUIT.EXE /R
Please wait, processing your request……..
Request complete, rage mode enabled.
System is shutting down.
Aven, which BSG FS2 Mod were you talking about?
Aven, awesome rage rant. I’ve played every game you talked about and I agree with you on all fronts. My only concern is a recent article on Kotaku where some titans of the industry in the 90s and 2000s talk about how games like Farmville and its bastard offspring are the gaming wave of the future because of the sheer volume of people that they can target with their games. That chills me to the frakking core. Have a read for yourself – http://kotaku.com/#!5763005/if-this-is-how-pc-gaming-will-live-maybe-it-should-die
ekk sorry for the double post. the first one didn’t show up for a bit so I thought it didnt’ process and I wrote the second one. sorry 😀 anyway, farmville .. the future of gaming? 🙁 I would love to put a team together and make a game worth playing 😀 if only I had that kind of resources
You are a true champion.
(For rewriting the post, but also just in general)
I’ve been playing BSG endlessly, actually skipping sleep on friday night to get more gaming done. Mental, I know.
I’m almost half way to upgrading my Raptor to an uber-Raptor. As an Eve player, I’ve learned how to spot a good deal and what you mentioned about the skill levels being a time waste was quickly apparent to me too. One percent per level?! Balls my friend! Just slap on the modules you need for the job at hand and upgrade that a little, avoiding using cubits where possible.
My trusty Raptor took on some level 11 in a heavy raider with suprisingly low hitpoints. He dropped some juicy module for me when he died and I was sad that I couldn’t smacktalk him in local. That’s exactly one of those “your exp means nothing to me” scenarios.
I’ve had more fun playing this game over the past few days than I’ve had frustrations with it. There’s unrealised potential in this game and I want so bad for it to improve.
hey I got an e-mail from this post and it was someone who was asking about the BSG FS2 mod. I don’t see the post here but it did say it came from this thread. Anyway, for all those who want to check it out, it is a standalone playable mod of FS2 and it’s AWESOME. For those who want to check it out here is the link:
http://www.beyondtheredline.net/
WARNING: Playing this will utterly destroy your views of BSGO
p.s. also check out the Babylon 5 mod for FS2 🙂
You know whats really funny is that Adam here complains on the only thing well probably the only thing is the Currency for cubits. In technicality hes just talking about paying to play which halves the users playing the game and ENJOYING the game itself. Of course I myself do agree that it is not fair that users pay to lvl up to 20 in just one day by buying those XP upgrades and shiz but look over that. Most of them get bored of the game by a few weeks because they were dedicated to the game or even devoted. If you arent patient then hell go buy cubits and waste ur money like a stupid moron you are. Eve is just another game so you are comparing a Game that PAYS to PLAY with a GAME on BETA thats FREE to PLAY. Hey its still in BETA why are you already giving the game such a bad name on one topic. Give it time to fix itself then you can complain all you want because right now im just laughing at this article itself. I understand that id be frustrated too, that a nooblet manage to lvl up from 2 to 200. But hey he cant hurt u when ur on the other side of the system right? So hes no biggy doesnt matter. Like those ships the GLAVIE cost 35k cubits Easy to get 10 minutes killing drones and them maybe half an hour u get up to 10k cubits (if ur lucky) and if u want better ships that u can buy with tylium use ur cubits to spend to buy tylium 10k= 100k cubits and the tylium ships are just 600k. And also there arent Unique weapons those weapons become unique when you upgrade them. All I say is if you are comparing a BETA game to a game that is already in a very stable state the beta doesnt stand a chance right? And note if you are really pissy against noobs that are lvl 20 in just one day why are you in the PVP area in the first place? DUH. A player that works gets the experience.
@Rawr I’m sorry my friend but there’s just no way to get 10,000 cubits in an hour. I’ve probably sunk a good 20-30 hours of my life into this game and while I can pull about 30k in Tylium per hour if I am ratting/mining, the most I’ve seen in cubits is around 1,000 in an hour.
Also, I’ve given the game two posts and I think I’ve been more than fair to the game’s strengths and its weaknesses. The simple fact is that there is more wrong with this game than there is right, hence its low score on the Shaftoe Scale.
I will say that you are right in one area, the game doesn’t play with premium items, just premium ships. The buff that you get from upgrading an item is so minimal that that particular mechanic doesn’t really off set the balance of gameplay between paid players and non paid players.
On the issue of the game being in Beta: The whole point of a public beta is to work out the final bugs before going into production. A game in beta should, more or less, be a finished piece. If Bigpoint is going to add a pile of new content when the game leaves beta then they aren’t really getting an accurate reflection of bugs, exploits and flaws with this beta test, are they? So I don’t really subscribe to the notion that this is an incomplete game, despite it’s Beta title. Show me something from Bigpoint that says otherwise and I’ll happily eat my words.
On PVP: I think my point is self evident. There can’t be a balanced PvP environment if some players are buying their way to the top while others are trying to grind. It leaves the grinders feeling frustrated and more likely to just say “fuck it” and buy their way to the top like everybody else.
@ Aven, Beyond The Red Line has been around for a long time, well, the demo for it anyway. I don’t know if it’ll ever see full completion. It is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also far too fiddly to play. I don’t like flight sims that feel like a chore to configure the controls, let alone actually fly the damn ships.
@ Rawr, I don’t think I agree with a lot of what you’re saying, although it could well be a communication barrer problem. You’re certainly wrong about the rate of cubit earning, as well as the cubit cost of the Glaive. 35k cubits will net you a Rhino or Marauder. The Glaive is 60k cubits.
With as much modesty as I can manage, I’m pretty awesome at grinding and I can only manage about 3-5k cubits an hour at lv 11.
If you can magic up over 35k in under an hour then please feel free to reveal your secret method. Otherwise I’m going to pick up this flag here, with “bull****” written on it, and start waving it whenever I read one of your posts.
@ rawr: you see that is the point. you make the argument that the game is free to play and that we shouldn’t complain because it’s free. We as reviewers are arguing that it’s not worth wasting your precious life playing this game for the F2P aspect. If you want to dump a bunch of your money into the game then that is great for you, but then the other argument is that if you want to PAY, then there are MUCH better games out there. The sad fact with gaming companies lately is that during their beta’s the players are promised with this that and the other thing, promises of fixing bugs and glitches, of improving the gaming engine, of all these big great things, but then people start paying into their game and they do nothing to actually improve the content of the game. The only content that gets added are better ways for the player to feel like they should dump more money into the game. In Star Trek Online, the player base quickly referred to this as “fluff”, and adding more “fluff” to the game in their “updates” was sadly taken as being the norm after a while. The crew of STO did nothing to improve that game at all and sadly most gaming companies are going that route now. “Let’s release a F2P game where people have to buy our content”. The same thing was in LOTRO, D&D Online, and many other games that are now coming out as F2P. So your whole argument of “it’s in beta and F2P and don’t complain till more content is added” is great and well for now, but how do you think you will feel when the game has its official launch and it’s the same now as it will be then, except this time with even more premium content that you have to pay for to unlock. You see the thing is, games are being developed these days by companies who are trying to aim at a certain market, and that market is “everyone”. The idea is to make a game that doesn’t exclude anyone as a market, and then when they are hooked enough with your game, hit them with the “paid premium content”. It’s these new ideals by the gaming companies that gives us our attitude. If a game is finished enough to put on an open beta do you really think they are going to make any majour changes in the near future? no. Let me ask you something else. If it was really as beta as you say it is, do you think they would be taking people’s money for a half finished project? Probably not. So unfortunately, this game is in its nearly finished state, and we can’t expect much more to change except minor bug updates and more premium content. nuff said.
@thieving monkey: yeah that game is a little hard to tweak around with at first but once that is done I thought it played out nicely. I do have a joystick tho which made all the difference. Getting past the first mission is actually one of the harder parts of the game but that also has to do with getting twitchy enough to take down the cylons.
Hey guys some awesome comments here to follow and discuss a very thought provoking article. I’m a bit of an eve player but I’ve always found the PVP side of things quite difficult to get into and enjoy, mainly because I always feel like I have to dedicate an entire evening and as much of the early hours of the morning to it and spend much time waiting around. After about 5 hours of gameplay (doing the missions) I jumped into one of the cylon systems that was under attack and within 2 minutes I was in the middle of a mixed PVP/PVE battle which had me hooked for a couple of hours. Having said that I think I’m gonna end up agreeing with those on here who are frustrated that while it starts out really cool and is great for a “free game” the reality is that it’s really a paid for game that really offers none of the depth that Eve does… I just wish that Eve could incorporate some of that dogfight aspect and some simpler options for those of us that want to jump on and PVP like mad for an hour or so and then do something else or go to bed on time :-P. Guess that’s sort of what I was hoping this game was going to be. Still I’m gonna keep playing it until it starts pissing me off:-)
Hi Matt,
I think on the larger issue at hand, you and I are on the same page. At the end of the day, I want a game that has the satisfying combat model of BSG Online paired with the economy, even if a lighter model, of EVE. Essentially, I want Wing Commander Privateer Online, that’s really the long and the short of it. If BSG Online had an open market within the game, I would probably withdraw some of my criticism. Let me trade 250k Tylium for some cubits and I’d be better off with the fact that some people can pop in and buy a fuck ton of buffs and exp with real world money. It would at least give the grinders a bit more reward for investing their time in the game.
PS: Do let me know when and how the game pisses you off such that you quit playing.
I’m amazed. Give someone something for free, and they complain that it’s not free enough.
You do realize that this game is still in beta right?
Do you also realize that the dollar cost of buying a capital ship in this game is less than what you would pay for a single month’s “subscription” for a pay-to-play game? Personally, I never agreed with the idea of paying a monthly subscription. You are in essence renting the game, but never owning it.
This really is just a case of powergamers and elitists complaining because they can no longer dominate the noobs who now have a fighting chance.
Just a bit of an update, after 2 weeks playing the game for an hour or 2 most nights with a whole day one weekend I’m actually liking it more than I thought I would at this point. I now have enough cubits to buy an upgraded raptor (1st upgrade ship), and that’s half way to what I’m actually saving them for which is one of the shiny escort class ships the spectre. Now while that may seem a little slow to some I actually feel like it’s giving about the right amount of time to play, get used to the starting ship and then really build some anticipation about how good my spectre is going to be 🙂 – and it’s definately a far cry from the 6 months that someone else estimated in their post earlier!
The thing I’m loving about it in comparison to Eve is that when I get into a PVP battle there is the fun of trying to win without the thought that “I’ll have to grind for hours to replace what I’m gonna lose here” it’s just go find and pop a couple of titanium ‘roids and she’s all good.
Only small annoying thing I’m finding with it is the lag on the controls really makes using the keyboard not that easily usable for me… I’m thinking maybe it’s the in-browser implementation but could just as easily be that I’m in Aussie miles from the server so that’s just the nature of the beast. Besides I’m slowly learning to compensate for it.
And finally on the noobs spending up to buy big ships – I don’t feel so bad now that I know that in a couple or 3 months I too could have the biggest meanest ship in the game and it wouldn’t have cost me a cent plus they get to pay for my free gaming so that suits me fine.
So all in all I think that this is a very clever implementation with probably the right balance of content, mechanics and quality for it to be a good free game with the option to pay for upgrades if you just can’t wait to lay the smack down in a big way – I LIKE IT! 🙂 it now gets a 9/10 from me for being free for what it is.
I’m taking a few days off BSG because I was spending way too much time playing it, but I have to say I’m loving it too. The game, the progression, the grinding, it’s all growing on me. Bigpoint are clearly taking measures to balance the gameplay right now too, such as making the 2/3/4 systems off-limits for pvp.
Matt, if I can suggest one thing to make it easier for you to compensate for lag, I would say use the keyboard solely for shortcuts to control ship speed, targeting, and module activation. When you use the target-camera to keep focus on your current target, and your mouse to click where you want your ship to face, you can predict the target’s movements and instruct your ship to face him ahead of time. Enough agility and you’ll find yourself tracking perfectly even with a red connection to server.
good review adam and totally agree with you regarding the “free game” that is a lie of course just the same with bigpoint’s other games especially darkorbit!!
Cheers. Thanks for the support.
to all! you will allways be a step (or many steps) behind if you don’t put real money and there’s allways other freaks (putting a lot of real money) – that kill you in a half of a second! 😉
Sorry, but BSG online is the best game i’ve play yet. I don’t spend any money on it and only a few hours a week. If someone wants to get ahead by spending money on a game so be it and best of luck to them. Unlike other games at least in this one cowards cant kill players of the same affiliation. It just a real shame your own biggited opinions have been vomited out into cyberspace. What is it you want, free ride and a free lunch. I just glad you not still playing the game and clogging up the systems with you bitter pills.
But hey everyone is intitled to their own opinions, even if they are wrong.
Well, right or wrong, especially in this case, is a matter of perspective. If anything, the game has become a tougher grind, since Adam wrote this article. Significantly tougher, actually, with it taking over five times as long to grind cubits, but with more powerful and expensive ships available to spend them on.
Lots of people flying around in the Liche on Tauron and I’m pretty certain the majority of them didn’t grind those 75k cubits.
Saying that though, BGO is still what I spend most of my time playing lately, and it is fun.
The game’s engine is fun; I don’t think I ever indicated otherwise. My beef remains with the fact that an individuals purchasing power can be a source of limitless imbalance to the game. I’d rather pay a subscription for something and know the game mechanics are even than have to wonder if all of my grinding is undone by another player’s deep credit limit. If that’s not a deal breaker for you then all the power to you.
I’m having a ball with it. Haven’t spent a dime.
hey…i pretty much like the game…even thou, i didnt spent a cent for it….(well maybe i`m just big BG fan :D)…..but yes….even i can feel depressed by the lamers who spent like bazillion euros in exp & eqip……
Came accross this review and thought i would add. I don’t know what it was like back when it first launched, but I have been playing for about 3 weeks now. The more i play the more i have been hooked. out the gate i seen an inexpensive offer for cubits and i jumped on it, i mean hell whats 12 bucks. that let me get a viper VII that i love and has helped me reach lvl 21 and do enough grinding to get that 600,000 Escort. I wish i would of never caved in the begining but whats done is done. what I won’t do is pay 60 bucks for more, no point. With dedicated systems of water to mine I can do pretty good if i want some extra cubits to upgrade my ship’s, it’s a slow, slow process yes but I just can’t seem to walk away from it. the fleet battles are intense and though i am mostly solo, i have started getting 2 or 3 other wing mates together and we go mine busting which is just a ball. in the three weeks i have played i must say that untill today i never even put any thought into buying exp or others buying it. And i can honestly say that doesn’t bother me at all. in fact i love rolling a line with a few other strikes because they owner has no idea what there doing since they have not invested the time or energy to learn stratagy at all. just now discovered the arena and looking forward to moving up on it. I grew up with X-wing vs tie fighter and Wing commander privateer. I miss those games and have been waiting years for them to be revisited. I have never played EVE, big fan of Homeworld and Sins of a solor empire. BSGO is the only thing I have found in a while that at least takes me back. If they keep working the bugs and do a bit more twiking i think they will have a solid game that i will continue to enjoy.
I won’t deny there is a wing commander/tie fighter feeling about this game. I also won’t deny that I haven’t touched BSGO since I wrote my follow up article. In the spirit of fairness I should probably give the game another look and see if they have improved things. It is nice to hear they put the Viper Mk 7 into the game. I don’t recall seeing it when I started.
Hi,
I noticed many people hear saying there isn’t a good space sim out there. I suggest you take a look at x3 terran conflict by egosoft. Their web site is http://www.egosoft.com. Just a suggestion. There is no multiplayer but the freedom in the game is awsome and the mods the community puts out rule. Also some of the mods change everything all BSG and there are BSG ships to download.
I agree. There’s also a solid Babylon 5 mod for it in case people want to strap on a Starfury.
I like the game (parts of it anyway), considering it’s a browser. It has the elements required. upgrades, lvls, PVP etc. The biggest problem is the one that has been stated ad nauseum. Free to play? Yes, but not free to play if you want to compete at all without spending every waking hour grinding. (not kidding, even then some kid with $20 usd is ahead of you)
The only solution I have found, is kind of sad. I bot it. I go to sleep turn on the bot and when I wake up I have around 5k-10k cubits farmed and more than 200k ty farmed (counting salvages). Ty is hardly even useful, everything requires cubits (and lots of them).
I know people hate bots, but you know why people bot? Because they don’t like to grind, but still want to compete (progress). Grinding is fucking boring. IF pvp (the fun part of the game) paid out cubits (not sure it even does anymore, if it does very little) botting wouldn’t be necessary or, alternately, not every damn upgrade past the first one required cubits.
So, unless you are ok with botting or have tons of money to spend, I wouldn’t play the game.
Ah bots. I’m surprised nobody has brought this idea up sooner. I would have figured that BigPoint would have taken measures to prevent players from doing just that.
The game itself is pretty fun,,,if you can ever log on or get their unity player to work right. The support staff is nonexistant in fact in 2 months of playing I have missed all but 7 daily rewards im supposed to be getting. The forum says they are working on it. The game economy is a joke and you cannot resell any upgrades you bought and dont need anymore so be prepared to spend thousands to play or be ready to get killed on a regular basis y those who did…free game my ass. Save yourself several lost hours of trying to play and getting the message their player isnt working again and try something else
Yeah the game does have flaws but actually if you want to get any progress on the game you have to play it because money doesn’t buy skill. I have played for the last 5 months and learned how certain players fly and the people who buy there way suck because i faced a lvl 17 guy in a halberd who was a lvl 3 the day before and i kicked his ass every time i dueled him because he didn’t know how to fly and his ship had huge blind spots, and also if you want to get ahead in the game go for asteroids because you can earn 540 tyluim every 5 minutes by mining a plantoid or earn 3000 in 3 minutes by mining asteroids. I once got 50k water in a hour which is 10k cubits just by heading to Hatir and mining just the water asteroids and i passed up like a hundred tyluim and titanium asteroids. So you dont need real money to become a big baddie in the game it just takes skill and time and then it doesn’t matter if you got a viper mk2 you can out turn anything in it and just stick behind the person you are following and kick his ass.
Ok I am going around a looking for what you call wallet warriors so take a guess out of the two which is a wallet warrior and both are real players. There is a lvl 103 player and he has a Gungir,Jothun,Maul,Viper,and Raptor(all upgraded except the Gungir) and has only played since late June. The other player is a lvl 118 but only has a Fenrir, Hel and Raider (none Upgraded) and has played since early April. Both claim that haven’t spent any money on the game but which do you think probable did.
Many blablabla over a actually small browser game . They are just very lucky that millions of people tried BGO and spend some mony on it . Most of the people will leave after a few weeks because BGO is getting boring fast . No storyline missions only you get a prophecy / objectives every day . These are not real missions .
This is actually a small browser game of maybe 300 MB ,
Anyway BGO proves that people dont care to spend real cash for a spaceship in a online game . They make lots of money now with BGO , hope they spend it for huge updates for BattlestarGalacticaOnline aswell .
BSGO sucks. It is plagued by horribly unbalanced ship classes, no real content aside from combat and mining, a soundtrack that repeats 30 minutes of audio from the series 3 hour soundtrack on loop, overpriced upgrades that take 1/3 of a year to grind out towards endgame(no it doesn’t become easier to gather resources at later levels I was 60/255 when I quit), overpriced premium cash where spending $100 is the best option which is an issue of every FtP on the Internets but BSGO delievers the least bang for that buck because $100 will only buy you 1 piece of equipment to the max level(10) and every ship has 10+ slots with items that can go too 10 making each ship over $1000 to max, horrible support staff that is basically just there for show till something comes up then its “sorry we cannot help you have a nice day”, chat server breaks at 11:30 PM EST every night and is down for anywhere between 1-5 hours, lag issues where your ship will get stuck in a turn, Mac users can only play on firefox but that isn’t something to rage about, a bunch of shady things like taking the game out of open beta with all the bugs that had been in game since day one and saying that it was finished and ready too go despite the entire community saying that it shouldn’t be called a “finished product” for at least another year minimum, scam after scam to make buying $100 in cubits every two weeks look like a good move then they nerf the ships that those upgrades were for the next month, and the biggest issue of all: the fact that BP has never made a game that is worth a single fuck from anything in all of creation too play and that BSGO is no different.
it rocks
BSG is great. You can do it alone you need to be in a wing. A wing is key to everything in that game cubits thy debits everything. This a dog eat dog game unless your in a tight pack where someone always has your back. i earned my debits because my wing took over 300,000 watermine. You can get debits its hard but not impossible. The debits increases the games intesisity. I think its the best thing since Xwing VRs Tiefighter.
Most of what has been mentioned is valid concerns with the game. But if people dont pay ther isnt a game. The biggest issue with the servers is the population balance of the factions 10 to 1 odds is rediculouse and until this is resolved nothing else really matters. Fix the population than resolve other issues.
I haven’t logged in to the game in about a year or so – I assume that the ratio of Cylons to Colonials is still fraked up?
I hear you guys about this game….I remember trying it out and I didn’t even last thirty minutes before I ragedquit because I immidietly recognized the signs of “use your credit card to…” when I saw the “purchase XP.” I don’t care if you can purchase things with a credit card in the game as long as you can not directly purchase a level up. I also didn’t like the slight blocky feel the game had to it.The thing that got me hooked on STO was that I saw the graphics and fell in love. Even on minimum quality the graphics are still good. And I only started playing it after it got released in F2P.
Yeah sure you can purchase things with a credit card but if you like to grind like I do, you can earn them for free (eventually). But I’m not talking like years and years. And the thing is, you have to earn your levels as you play not pay. True you can purchase boosts to increase your leveling speed but those are only small boosts. It only took me a couple weeks of grinding to get to the maximum level.
I got turned off of BSG the moment I saw those “purchase level ups and secondary currancy that was essential for higher level stuf…So bad game…
Game truly sucks in the documentation on how things work and unbalanced issues referred to in previous posts. Documentation (such as it is) is provided by forum, very hit and miss. You MUST have teamspeak or some other lame program in order to participate in most wings (read guild/alliance). This is NOT offered by BSGO as the in-game chat sucks more than the game. Graphics are intense and flight controls are reasonably well done. Do not try if you are looking for individual game, if you are not a member of a wingthen you are deadmeat.
the game is shit now, too un balanced full of bugs and too fustrating , the server is poison the dev team is shit, dont waste your time with it unless you can pay £4k to it for the gears of ONE SHIP.
Its not worth your time and effort now.
I was a dedicated pilot for 3.5 years spending over 3.5k on it over that time, its all a big waste of time and effort and money.