The best advice I can give? Try it out for yourself. Its a cheap digital download from Amazon.com. I paid... $6 for the deluxe download I think? the non deluxe version was $3. Both include the standart month of playing, how can you go wrong with that!

It started rough, launched rough, but the Devs are passionette. So the game will only get better as the years go by.
STO is a long bet but a safe one

Space combat is done better in STO for my tastes.

However, outside of that, STO's noncombat content is minimal.

It's single shard like EVE but doesn't hide instances as well as EVE does (partly due to higher fidelity graphics).

If you prefer more PvE, mission-style content, STO technically has more but the quality varies from amazing to bad.

It's slightly more personal die to having a functional avatar as opposed to just a ship. However, STO lacks the feeling that you impact the gameworld - at all.

If you like the 30 day trial, chances are you'll like the near future direction of the game. If not, wait for thins like territory control or new exploration before re-evaluating it.

If you can handle a high amount of frustration and disappointment , then I say come on over. If you are a true star trek fan , you will delude yourself into thinking this is the best thing since sliced bread. That is the niche this game exploits.

I have had the most fun designing costumes for my bridge officers, that may tell you something.

engaging gameplay space? - yes, if you don't believe in physics.
engaging gameplay ground? - you may as well get engaged to it , it takes longer to finish than most marrages last.
engageing story lines? - if you still read the janet and mark books from 1st grade and find them entertaining , then you will love sto.
Improvements since launch? - you can't go down any further then they were so this is a yes.

My advise is to save your money and play eve for another year. you might find something worth subbing to at that point.

The only point I would make is that UGC (User Generated Content) is coming. From what I have seen, some of it is amazing. Of course, some of it isn't so. UGC has to potential to set STO apart from EVE in a lot of ways, most notably will be a lot more content.

I am not dissing EVE btw. EVE is a great game in its own right.

eve and sto are like polar opposites of each other. thats not to say people cant enjoy both but if eve ticks all of your boxes, sto may not.

but the game is improving and is fun, and quite casual. i recommend trying it out.

If you're used to Eve, the miniverse we have here may seem a little small to you. I played Eve for 5 years until 2 years ago after too many nerfs and TBH, I find STO a little claustrophobic in comparison. Also the lack of variety in ships made me a little sad since I used to enjoy flying the Absolution in Eve but knew that I could jump into a Hulk, Freighter, BS, Dread or even a Carrier at any time if it was needed. I used to like doing lvl4 missions and then going back to mine the goodies with a Hulk before handing the mission in, that paid for my PVP.

If you like Star Trek, you MIGHT like this game but don't expect it to hold to canon. If you're a big time Trekkie, you may feel that this is a small space sim with a Star Trek theme and not much more.