I've played SFB and SFC 1+2 from way back in the day. If anyone has experience with those games, I'd like to know how STO stacks up.

Space combat is actually pretty similar to the SFC games (I've only played 3, but I can't imagine 1 and 2 being much different).

1 and 2 were totally different from 3. SFB was about the most difficult boardgame ever made with a filling cabinet needed to house all the rules and pieces. A game between 2 ships making 2-3 passes could take an hour. Of course this is before PC's were able to run complex games. I liked it, but was very happy when the game was translated into a PC game, dropping the same fight to about 3-5 minutes. Basically, it was careful power/speed management and timing that would determine the victor. I guess my question is more... Is STO more of a space combat game, or an EQ style game where you have ships instead of trolls with clubs? The last 'space' MMO I played was Eve which I liked very much, but unless you're in a huge Zerg alliance you end up getting pounded by 20 to 1 odds. Conan was ok, but I got bored with it as my server became too depopulated to get any big actions going.