Day One:impulse

So once I was in , I was prompted to create a character , name it etc .
Theres an option for nickname , first name surname etc : I used the nick drbob in wow so I went with that , I gave the character a full name of bob moylan (an Irish sounding name I thought) and went down the human engineer route . I usually start out by creating an avatar that looks a bit like me (later alts tend to look waay different though) , so I faffed about with the creator to try and make "myself" .The end result wasnt too far off , although the beards look a bit weird for some reason ( half beard half black designer stubble seemingly) , so it looked like my engineer was a bit vain and dyed his face fuzz a different colour from his hair.) So a few more clicks and I'm into the tutorial.
Actually no , I'm in the intro , its Spock (Nemoy spock) talking us through the events of Star trek (the new movie) and then ...hey he's telling us about what happened in the Original Trek universe after he went back in time and ended up in the new timeline How he knows what happened since he left is a mystery but hey! anyway on with the tutorial.
Its 30 years after star trek nemesis , (i.e. about 45 years after TNG) and the federation are pretty much at war with everyone.
So you're basically given a few basic levels killing a gimped borg invasion fleet , first on foot , then in your ship , then on foot again.The "land" parts are similar to Wow , although they feel a bit more like Cryptics other games such as city of heroes/villans .WASD to move , space to jump , abilities on a taskbar down the bottom.After some resizing and movement of the various bars/maps/chatboxes and huds I had things to my liking.There was some chat going on in the zone (more on that later in the blog) and most of it seemed intelligent enough (i.e. not Barrens chat/trade level stuff) , although if dips after full launch I wouldnt be suprised.A lot of chat was about getting the perks mentioned earlier.After a few minutes you're given a science officer who seems to be analagous to a preist in say WoW/W.H.O. , in that he heals/buffs you.The AI isnt bad , and you can give him different stances etc similar to a pet in Wow , although the game is a bit vague about these.The combat feels a bit more "actiony" than wow you can dodge blows/shots etc , and positioning can increase damage done (i.e. shots from the side/back hurt more).Its not bad but it doesnt feel as solid as WoW's controls and movement , at least not yet
The Space combat is similar to the older ST:Bridge commander or ST:Academy games , W&S basically point the ship up or down , A&D turn it left or right. Q&E control speed.Your initial quests unvolve beaming survivors from damaged ships and I had a hard time finding ships at first , and the ship seems to handle very poorly .Apparantly later ships in some classes handle a lot better though.Further missions had me destroying probes , culminating in a fleet battle against the Borg.The problem I found with this was that by the time I'd fly to a ship , get within weapons range and fire , the AI Federation ships had destroyed it! so I ended up floating in space waiting for one to spawn near me and then attacking that.Finally I was given orders to return to Earth for a pat on the back.
Rather than Earth though , you actually end up in a generic space station, which could really be part of any space game.Why you dont get to go somewhere icon like Star fleet in San fransisco or Deep space nine I dont know.After a "we're screwed for captains at the moment so you'll do , even though you rank below wesley crusher, heres the keys to billion gold press latinum worth of ship , toodles" speech you're free to wander the station.What bugged me though is that I was addressed as Ensign Doc Bob! (the nick name I'd chosen), rather than ensign moylan.Why bother asking for all those details if you're going to have the NPC's call me something as immersion breaking as that! Now in Wow I dont mind that kind of stuff , but its really a deal breaker for a game that uses the star trek IP..So ..name change ...except ...you cant! Its greyed out and tagged with something about it being bought from the N-store (the in game shop)which isnt supported yet.

So I give up , and create a new character whose nick is the same as his surname ..except I now have to go through all the tutorial missions again...doh!
So 40 or so mins later I'm back , on generic space station alpha , being called Ensign Moylan...better.
So first impressions ..well I'm undecided...
It feels a bit rough , and it doesnt feel like star trek yet (the borg who barely damaged me , the lack of any iconic characters or ships at the start.hopefully this'll change.
We'll see how it goes over the next few days....