It's on steam. It's free to play. It's not pay 2 win. Download it, add me on steam, find me in game. Useful information: STO ID: rbeventhorizon STO Main Character: Earthforce Commander Steam profile: http://steamcommunity.com/id/EventHorizonSoundtracks/ Me and 2 other people currently play through the story together. I need 2 more people to start a fleet with.
My Tholian Recluse carrier would like to beg differ on your "not pay to win" theory. I might log on again (haven't in like 6 months) and see if I can remember my ID. Though I'm already in a Fleet. Though it may be defunct by now lol.
The paid ships have, like, one more console slot. Anyways I am only level 31 so paid ships don't matter at my point. I'm assuming you are level 50 and wanted to get even more power for your level.
You can fight in person as either 3rd-person shooter style or WoW style You fight RTS battles in space ships You can manage your ship's entire crew, hire duty officers, send them on assignments, put them on active duty, etc. You can also acquire bridge officers which are high rank people on your ship that manage Stations. Bridge officers will fight on the ground with you and provide skills for you when in space ship battles There are several story missions, put together in seasons and broken down into episodes. New seasons are released all the time, so you never run out of story missions to do. There is PvP as well as PvE. The universe is very big and there is a lot to explore. You can extensively customize the look of your player character as well as your space ship. As you level up, you are eligible for better spaceships. You can squad up with other players to Co-op missions, and you can create fleets of at least 5 players that are similar to guilds in WoW There are also daily missions that are repeatable daily and offer unique rewards You can play as any race from Star Trek, you can even create your own race I've heard. You can also use The Foundry to create your own missions as well as play other player-made missions That's not everything, but it's what I know so far about STO.
The initial levels are fairly fast to progress, esp with the daily missions. Its once you hit 40 that things start to get a bit Grindy. But the game is enjoyable at all levels, and unllike most mmos have a lot of storyline based quests from beginning to end. It's a steep learning curve, but nowhere near as bad as say EVE.
When playing with a low level, the friend's level can be droped to match to mission at hand, or the player's level can be upped to match the greater level mission. 1st of its kind to Up level someone i believe.
*Cough* I am a pro at this game, I am the one who got event started. What Sinora said is true, you can level match for whatever the mission is at hand. The best part? Even those who are far ahead, coming back to help their lower level friends, can replay the missions their friends are on. This gives leveled exp and item rewards that match the higher levels current rank upon completion, so it gives amazing benefits to both.