Star Trek Online Preview

By Keza MacDonald Published 30 August, 2009

Engage?

Star Trek Online is the stuff of dreams: not only for fans of the series who've dreamed of piloting their own starship since they were six, all tucked up tight in their Next Generation bedsheets, but for the developers at Cryptic. Star Trek presents them with a massive ready-made fan-base which will probably be willing to play the game for a few months regardless of how they treats the license. But there's no laziness or complacency evident here; Cryptic is creating a flexible yet faithful interpretation of the Star Trek universe that stands a good chance of living up to even the unrealistic expectations of the faithful.

Cryptic's aim is to give fans that dream: to be a starship captain. Every player in Star Trek Online is a Kirk or Picard (or a Janeway or Sisko, I suppose) rather than a behind-the-scenes red-shirt working their way painstakingly through the Starfleet Academy and up the ranks. "We didn't think it would be very interesting to sit down in the transporter room and press a button for twenty hours to level up, and then maybe get to work in engineering for a while," says executive producer Craig Zinkievich. "What everybody's really interested in the captain experience, the command experience."

He's not wrong. In a universe as vast and complicated as Star Trek's, the thought of being consigned to transporter-room duty for your first 10 levels would surely fail to enthuse even the least thrill-seeking members of it target audience. You'll be working together with other players, but as fleets, rather than as part of a crew. You don't have to be a Federation do-gooder, either - you can also be a Klingon limb-severer instead, aspiring to be in charge of a war-painted Negh'Var rather than the majestic Enterprise. You can be any race from the Star Trek universe, or create your own. The basic philosophy of the game is to enable you to experience it exactly as you want to. You can wander around in the neutral zone picking up trading missions, you can go out fighting in the great vastness of space, you can follow the story, you can just explore. It's all cool, as far as Cryptic is concerned.

'Star Trek Online' Screenshot 1

Daaaa da da daaaa da da daaaaa...

The game is approximately equal parts space combat, interstellar travel and on-planet missions. As with the TV series (the original one, anyway), the action ensures that you're never in the same place for very long, constantly moving between space and planet surfaces, boarding ships, spacestations and satellites, zipping between systems at warp-speed in search of where no man has ever gone before. Although the Klingon and Federation players will be locked in a war, the game is heavily instanced; all the foes you face will be computer-controlled. It's emphatically not EVE Online.

Space combat is slow-paced and tactical. "If you look at combat in the Star Trek universe, it's not a dogfighter,"says Zinkievich. "These are huge, powerful starships. It's a tactical, strategic experience. It's all about positioning, how you're balancing the energy to your different systems, lining up that final attack and taking them down."

'Star Trek Online' Screenshot 2

... da da da da da DAAA daaa daaa dadada daaaaa...

During a fight with a small fleet of Klingon fighter craft, our demonstrator transfers shield power to the forward shields on approach before beefing up the weapons systems and turning side-on to blast the ships with both forward and rear phasers, then circling round to deliver a fatal flurry of photon torpedoes. Positioning is indeed essential: forward and rear-facing weapons all have different firing arcs, and ships don't zip through space like Star Wars fighters; movement is appropriately slow, calming the pace of the combat to suit the strategic mood.

The Klingon vessels eventually explode, beautifully and silently, leaving the Federation ship to drift triumphantly towards the planet as fragments of metal spin, with balletic grace, into the ether. A slight trajectory-plotting error causes a final explosion to catch the rear left side of the ship, which takes out the shields, but they start to recharge quickly. The bridge officers that you take on board with you determine what you can do in combat - take a good engineer with a shield-recharging skill and you'll be better able to recover from damage.

These bridge officers essentially take the role of skill slots - you equip them, deploy them and level them up in menus, and as you level up you'll be able to use more and more of them. Your crew is a main element of player customisation according to Zinkievich - you'll get to name them, choose their appearance and equip them as you please. When you're not teamed up with other starship captains, they'll also accompany you planetside, making the game relatively solo-friendly.

With the Klingon ships vanquished, it's time to beam down. The away team always consists of five people - you, a friend and three bridge officers, five players, or you on your own with your AI pets. The perspective, combat and pace of the game all change completely when you undertake on-planet missions, upping the tempo to an action-game rhythm. The AI can take care of itself, or you can command it directly - warning the red-shirt to stay back, for instance, or putting the poor unfortunate in front of everyone else as a human phaser-shield.

Equipment, rather than stats, dictates the flow of the game on planets. You can equip two weapons - we see a phaser and a plasma rifle, and the Klingons on the planet surface are all packing bat'leths (that tremendously impractical-looking two-handed slashing weapon famous from The Next Generation). There are three careers that determine your skills - science, engineering or tactical - but there's a lot of flexibility within those disciplines. You could follow a warrior or stealth archetype within any of them.

'Star Trek Online' Screenshot 3

"Beam me up, computer-controlled bridge officer!" It doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

The planet we see is a jungle with Romulan-style buildings. "We have hundreds and hundreds of maps in the game right now," claims Zinkievich. "We have invested a lot of time and engineering resources in what we call the genesis system, which allows the game to algorithmically generate new planets, new systems and new alien races to meet." While story content will probably have been designed by the game's artists, other exploration will be generated automatically.

The studio seems full of ideas for the story, perhaps unsurprisingly given the richness of their source material. It's set in 2309, 30 years after Nemesis and 22 years after the supernova that destroyed the Romulan homeworld. It wouldn't be Star Trek without time travel, mirror universes and the Borg, all of which make preposterously unlikely meetings with long-dead characters from the series a possibility.

'Star Trek Online' Screenshot 4

Phasers WILL have a stun setting, it's confirmed. In-game chat-up lines/assaults are saved.

There are already plenty of ideas in place for post-release updates, too - including ground vehicles and the ability to go inside your own ship and use it as a lobby space - but Cryptic wants to make sure you can customise every aspect of your bridge and officer's quarters, rather than just giving players a generic space to call their own. You don't lose access to old ships as you gain new ones, in case you ever fancy taking your starter-class ship out for a spin for old time's sake. Plans for the high-level game are also looking promising; it will offer raid-style Borg battles, and exclusive areas for endgame players

We're getting a beta "really soon", apparently - "I can't tell you exactly or I'll get yelled at," grins Zinkievich - and the PC release in 2010 will be followed by a console release sometime in the future (although we don't know exactly which consoles yet). Star Trek Online is clearly shooting for a broad audience, and though its permissiveness and flexibility might mean it lacks depth for players who like keen specialisation, it's an approach that makes sense when you're trying to fulfil the childhood dreams of a huge number of people.

Picture of Keza.

About Keza MacDonald

Read more articles from Keza by visiting the Keza MacDonald archive page.

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Comments (66) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • George-Roper #1 2 years ago

    Earth And Beyond 2.0.

    And we all know how that panned out...even though I kinda liked it!

  • Felwyn #2 2 years ago

    I'm guessing it will be tough reviving a concept born in the 1960s...

  • Senate #3 2 years ago

    Epic Fail

  • Scimarad #4 2 years ago

    I'm really looking forward to this...

  • Velios #5 2 years ago

    Bet these guys are gutted about The Old Republic.

    It actually looks good though, and I am partial to a bit of Star Trek, it was always a bit more cerebral than Star Wars - I would also LOVE to see a proper Battlestar Galactica MMO!!
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/09 @ 20:26

  • BlitzwingHaz #6 2 years ago

    Sounds a bit sad but the MMORPg I would really like to see is Harry Potter/Hogwarts.
    I've got a feeling this game won't turn out that exciting, I guess most Trek games have just bored me, hope this one is different.
    @TheStylishHobo - But surely you might want to pretend you're Picard or Sisko for a while, point at your telly and say "engage" :D

  • Skurmedel #7 2 years ago

    Felwyn: Reviving? There's been Star Trek stuff in production continuously since the first series. It's still alive more or less.

  • hiddenranbir #8 2 years ago

    Thank you Keza for putting this up on a Sunday.


    This is the only MMO post-LotrO that I'll consider the monthly subs for. Hell, give me a life-sub. I'll do it.

    I hope they do have some sort of PvP area for fleet vs fleet battles. Armada Online has a nice way to do that.
    Edited by 2 at 30/08/09 @ 21:39

  • riz23 #9 2 years ago

    Actually I don't "really want to be a starship captain". I would have been happy being a science officer or medic. Still it's star trek so I'm probably in!

  • Eraysor #10 2 years ago

    *drools everywhere*

  • Ged42 #11 2 years ago

    Sounds better than I thought it would.

    I like the idea of crew members representing different skill sets and sending thousands of Red Shirts to their doom on away missions.

    I'm still hoping you can be assimilated, that would be awesome.

  • WinterSnowblind #12 2 years ago

    This definitely sounds a lot better than I original thought..
    But the subscription fee ensures that I will never play it.

  • BrokenSymmetry #13 2 years ago

    The away parties always consisting of 5, filled up with AI-controlled characters, sounds very much like the Guild Wars system of henchmen/heroes, which I think is a great system, and I think should be in every MMO.
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/09 @ 23:23

  • George-Roper #14 2 years ago

    This definitely sounds a lot better than I original thought..But the subscription fee ensures that I will never play it.

    Never ceases to amaze me that people will happily blow 30-40 quid on a game but as soon as a subscription rate is announced, costing them an earth-shattering 3 quid/week, they get all offended.

    Here's a thought. For each of those 5 days that you work (given a regular 9-5, Mon-Fri gig) for one day, for one dinner...don't buy that extra coffee you might have gone for.

    Passing over that one coffee, in an entire week has just given you 7 days play of an online game which by your own admission you think might be pretty decent.

    And don't even feed me any bullshit about how you don't work or don't earn enough, blah blah blah. If you can afford to buy a 30-40 quid computer game, you have no argument.

  • Spekingur #15 2 years ago

    I would have loved seeing EnB become a F2P MMO right about now.

    And which console? Seeing as it's Cryptic and they are already planning on releasing Champions Online on the X360 then I would hazard a guess that STO would also be released on the X360.

    I just want to know how exploration is going to work in the game. Is it going to be open ended, like Infinity: Quest for Earth promises? Or is it going to be instanced, as the article mentions that the game is heavily instanced (makes sense with teleportation).

  • Miths #16 2 years ago

    If I could I would have hit the plus button at least 10 times on George Roper's last post :).

    As for the game, maybe it's just because it's almost 3 AM and I'm a bit tired, but this article gave me the distinct impression I was reading about a singleplayer game - or at the very least something that's much, much closer to the Guild Wars model than a "proper" MMO?
    Of course that in itself - assuming it's the case - isn't necessarily a bad thing. For now I'm looking forward to Jumpgate Evolution, but in any case it's nice to see we're finally starting to get some new sci-fi MMOs on the market again. I'm a bit fed up with all the fantasy stuff to be honest.
    Edited by 1 at 31/08/09 @ 01:30

  • Bloodloss #17 2 years ago

    Looking goo-

    "Heavily instanced."

    Oh. Next.

  • Bleh #18 2 years ago

    "Beam me up, computer-controlled bridge officer!" It doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

    Good catch :p.

  • hiruu #19 2 years ago

    "...to be a starship captain. Every player in Star Trek Online is a Kirk or Picard (or a Janeway or Sisko, I suppose) rather than a behind-the-scenes red-shirt working their way painstakingly through the Starfleet Academy and up the ranks. "We didn't think it would be very interesting to sit down in the transporter room and press a button for twenty hours to level up, and then maybe get to work in engineering for a while," says executive producer Craig Zinkievich. "What everybody's really interested in the captain experience, the command experience."

    I disagree...TOTALLY! Here's my take on how this SHOULD have been set-up. I'm currently in Champions, and I'm already at lvl 15...after 2 days in the early release, and I'm sure there are other players FAR ahead of me. The reason I'm referencing that is because the first 20 levels could have been you coming into Starfleet as a recruit at the academy.

    - Level 1-5: You're cadet and you level towards graduation, and at level 5, you go thru the Kobayashi Maru
    - Level 6-20: You train in one of the main officer fields of Star Trek universe - Science Officer, Pilot/Navigator, Security/Weapons Officer, Chief Engineer, or Medical.

    - At level 20, you are promoted to a Starship Captian, and you are given your first command. A smaller vessel in the scout/escort class.
    - At level 30, you are given a bigger ship in the Destroyer class
    - At level 40, You are in the Cruiser class

    In a further expansion, you get the Command Class Cruiser at level 50, and in another expansion, you are promoted to Flag officer and are allowed to have multiple starships under your command. I'm not sure on this path they are taking....

  • grussbarbar #20 2 years ago

    I'm very much looking forward to seeing this game, ever since they said everyone working on the project had to have seen at least one full series of Star Trek as background. Too often have we seen Star Trek games that were almost exclusively centered around combat and war, even though Star Trek (or at least the Federation) is essentially about exactly the opposite: setting aside differences and working together peacefully to overcome any difficulties.
    We can only hope, but so far it sure seems like they're doing it right this time. Fingers crossed. =)

  • makeamazing #21 2 years ago

    Cant wait. One of the few MMOs I am excited about. Anyone who doesnt like Star Trek and SciFi shouldnt be using computers :D

    But seriously, on the subscription, I am in the same mind as George... I dont mind, as long as it doesnt get too expensive (e.g anything over £12 is starting to push it). But as George says a game might cost you £30+ and you get 8-12 hours fun from it... (unless its a game with online stuff that you play alot of). Of course you also have those people that drink and smoke much more than that away in a night than in a month... so subscriptions are not really a big deal.

  • spekkeh #22 2 years ago

    Like some of the others said "Everyone a captain" just sounds like the easy way out. I'm not a huge trekkie, but part of what makes Star Trek such an interesting series, apart from what William Shatner may have you believe, is that it's a team thing. Every task on the bridge at least, from Ensign on the wheels to the woman that reads everything from the computer screen (okay bar that perhaps) is a job that can be fleshed out and fun to do. Sure, you don't need to populate every mechanic, but Chief Engineer especially would be something I'd be willing to play. Running around, getting the most of the warp drive, preventing it from blowing up and killing all your teammates, piping to the bridge "I cunt du it capn, I jus dun hav the pwrr".

    And then the best team (clan, if you like) would become the most revered starship in the galaxy.

    GOD THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.

    (of course you'd still need AI for in case someone can't be there, but they're already working on that anyway)

  • organica #23 2 years ago

    Sounds really interesting. I'm not a massive Trekkie but I'd definately give it a go. What with my ongoing LOTRO addiction and the (slowly) impending releases of DC Universe and The Old Republic, I doubt I'll end up subscribing. Only so much time in my week...

  • Retroid #24 2 years ago

    /Picard

    (In a good way)

  • dingo75 #25 2 years ago

    Pickard01 received loot "Red Shirt"
    Pickard01: "Shit!"
    Picard01 gets crit for 23000.
    Pickard01 died.
    Edited by 1 at 31/08/09 @ 10:36

  • poopmonster #26 2 years ago

    Looks nice, except for hands and grass. I hate it when artists use prosthetic limbs as modelling reference, and the grass looks like it was borrowed from a 10-year old game.

    Space scenes look good though, if a little busy.

    Ultimately Im nt too sure about the MMO model they're going for. Raids in space? Instances raids in space? As if space wasn't lonely enough already...

    We'll see... question is, will it carry the energy of JJ Abram's interpretation, or be limited to Deep Space 9? ....

  • JahB #27 2 years ago

    how popular is star trek these days? i remember it was massive when i was a kid, everybody and their mum was watching TNG (yes, i'm that old), but haven't heard much of it lately.

    in any case, game looks interesting to say the least. here's hoping for a free trial at launch

  • hiddenranbir #28 2 years ago

    I think the recent movie must have sparked a new breed of interest.

  • Fab4 #29 2 years ago

    I feel old whenever I hear people talking about TNG and suggesting it means they are old.

  • WinterSnowblind #30 2 years ago

    @George Roper
    It has nothing to do with not being able to afford it. I prefer playing games at a more relaxed pace, I'm not a super hardcore gamer that spends all my free time playing games, but when I do I want to play something I genuinely enjoy, I don't want to be playing something because I feel like I'm wasting money if I don't.

    I'd prefer to see them go the DLC approach. Make it free to play, but if you want access to new ship types, new planets with better gear, etc, you have to buy them every so often. That way I can play the game at my own pace and buy new content when/if I want it.

  • gmmonkey #31 2 years ago

    They kind of lost me at "heavily instanced".

  • Sharzam #32 2 years ago

    I like star trek i like mmos, so sounds pretty much a win however they said heavily instanced.

    Sorry dont do that , i want a open galaxy to explore and EVE proved that can have a whole universe open. I want to be able to cruise around find new planets and generally i like to explore in mmos. If this is instanced as in you set point B from a menu and then your there do your thing then open another menu to select point c. will loose the whole point exploring.

    @ poopmonstor. DS9 had some amazing scale battles in last few series with the dominion war, most people think of the early ones where was alot more political but DS9 has some the best story lines out there.
    Edited by 1 at 31/08/09 @ 12:08

  • Retroid #33 2 years ago

    It shocked me recently when I realised the pilot of TNG is now 22 years old.

    22 years old

    It's still "the new thing" in my mind ;_;

  • George-Roper #34 2 years ago

    It has nothing to do with not being able to afford it. I prefer playing games at a more relaxed pace, I'm not a super hardcore gamer that spends all my free time playing games, but when I do I want to play something I genuinely enjoy, I don't want to be playing something because I feel like I'm wasting money if I don't.

    I'd prefer to see them go the DLC approach. Make it free to play, but if you want access to new ship types, new planets with better gear, etc, you have to buy them every so often. That way I can play the game at my own pace and buy new content when/if I want it.

    The solution still stands, though. Don't buy that coffee for a single day in a week and even if you don't play the game for the entire week, you've not lost anything

    Subscription-based games are the best kind because the game should continue to get ongoing development coverage. That's why F2P games are invariably shite (with the rare exception, of course) and riddled with micro-transactions that are required in order to get the full experience anyway.
    Edited by 3 at 31/08/09 @ 12:19

  • Scimarad #35 2 years ago

    Looking forward to messages like "HOW D U RVRS THE POLARITY???" :)

  • ctrl-k #36 2 years ago

    While I agree that instancing in MMOs should be something of the past (imho this is WoW's greatest accomplishment)I don't see how "heavily instanced" can be something to worry about in a Star Trek universe, with its' very particular and specific set of rules for travelling.

    Sure, it would be cool to be able to beam down anywhere on a planet, but how practical/useful/fun? You have your mission coordinates, you're beaming down, you've got a job to do and no time to waster. Sure, sightseeing = great, but why would dropping into an empty place anywhere on a planet make the game experience more immersive or fun?

    Same for interstellar/interplanetary travel - in my view of the ST world, the universe is actually pretty much instanced in the way you travel - why would you want to drop out of hyperspace between origin and destination?

    Or am I missing a point here?

  • hiddenranbir #37 2 years ago

    It makes sense for the planets to be instanced.

  • Retroid #38 2 years ago

    TheStylishHobo: "Retroid's about to have a mid-life..."

    GET OFF MY NEUTRAL ZONE YOU DAMNED ROMULAN KIDS. DAGNABIT

  • poopmonster #39 2 years ago

    "It makes sense for the planets to be instanced."

    If they're mini self contained storylines then yes (anyone remember Star Trek on Atari ST? I have the box & floppies right here :))

    Space should be at least handled the way open areas in WoW are - you wander in, help out (c'mon, help out your faction!) and move on.

    I'm bored with hearing terms like PvE and PvP and the endless tossing of rocks over which is best. The neutral zone should be there for a good reason: Anyone straying beyond it should be fair game, and diplomacy should be rewarded so it's not as dull as just shoot-on-sight.

    Star Trek isn't a killfest, it's an exploration of space, ethics and approach; and besides Stargate (oh god that's going to be awful, you know it, and such a shame), it's the best chance for a massively popular cult franchise to break the MMO mold once and for all.

    @Sharzam, I agree the build-up and climax to DS9 was fairly well handled, and actually pushed the characters to make tough decisions, instead of follow the soap opera plot.

    btw I'd be quite happy being a teleporter engineer for 10 levels...;)

  • DFawkes #40 2 years ago

    I love Star Trek. All of it, every series, every film (even the odd numbered ones, though maybe less so for Star Trek V) and even every game. Even Star Trek Conquest on Wii. I can't see me not loving this, even if I don't and just kid myself I do because it's Star Trek :)

    They took the easy route and did Starfleet Command as an MMO, or an Eve clone, or a Freelancer MMO (which I would buy without question), but they've really tried to make it as Trekkie as possible. I just hope it's welcoming to new fans too.

  • AphoticCosmos #41 2 years ago

    It does sound pretty good.

    However, I'm still looking forward to TOR more than this, and I don't play more than one MMO at a time.

  • Walshicus #42 2 years ago

    "It's set in 2309, 30 years after Nemesis and 22 years after the supernova that destroyed the Romulan homeworld."

    I don't want to be *that guy*, but that year is wrong. Isn't it supposed to be 2509?

  • DFawkes #43 2 years ago

    Nope, it's 2409. Nemesis was set in 2379. Next Gen was set 2364–2370. And you might be surprised to find out that I'm currently single :(

  • sneetch #44 2 years ago

    When you're not teamed up with other starship captains, they'll also accompany you planetside, making the game relatively solo-friendly.

    So we're going to duke it out with the Cardassian skirmishers on Oomegawd 5. The landing party will be Captain Catz of the USS Lawlcats, Captain Scrote of the USS B1gb4lls, Captain Picarde of the USS Entreprise, Captain Pikémon of the USS Interprice and me. Security teams? No, we won't need any of those; Captains are the best thing to send into close combat.

    That'll be weird. I'd like the option to play roles in a friends crew too, be nice for co-op sessions. :)

    Otherwise it seems good and promising. It doesn't sound too much like an MMO to me though, with WoW and games like it you have a great sense of being in a MMO, you come across other players all the time but if the game is "heavily instanced" then you'll probably rarely encounter other players at all except on space stations or friendly planets (can you send a distress signal?). That was a problem in DDO for me, I never bumped into anyone in the "field" so it might as well have been a single player game most of the time.

  • Spekingur #45 2 years ago

    Technically Eve is actually semi-instanced. Every starsystem is an 'instance' and each stargate is point between instances. Technically.

    Also, it's Star Trek. Years and dates don't have to be correct since you can claim 'subspace temporal field accidents' caused something weird.

  • StooMonster #46 2 years ago

    Retroid: yeah I remember when a mate bought round a video of TNG Pilot that had been transcoded to PAL from a VCR recording of the original NTSC broadcast by a friend of his,the adverts were badly edited out. There was a bunch of us sat round a tiny 1980s television, we all thought it was terrible and vowed never to watch TNG when it came over to UK ... although we did of course, must've had our fingers crossed :)

    I think this looks quite appealing, I especially like the idea of strong single player elements.

  • Alkeno #47 2 years ago

    Looks good, sounds nice... but I've never gone into the realms of MMO, never dared, I'm pretty scared of getting sucked in and losing my social life for good.

    Being a Star Trek fan, it will be hard to skip this. I'll try nonetheless. My girlfriend may quit pon farr if I get abducted any more into science fiction...

  • George-Roper #48 2 years ago

    Technically Eve is actually semi-instanced. Every starsystem is an 'instance' and each stargate is point between instances. Technically.

    I don't recall there being multiple instances of the same systems in EVE. I think you're mistaking 'zones' for instances but i've not played EVE for a very long time, so may be wrong.

  • hiddenranbir #49 2 years ago

    Let's keep in mind this will also want to attract people that aren't necessary gamers and won't be so appreciative of being attacked willy nilly.

    Sort of like LotrO, I know plenty that don't play games but like LotR being the draw to the MMO. I imagine quite a few ST players won't have been much into gaming before.

  • dagas #50 2 years ago

    This makes it sound quite good IMO, but I'm still waiting for reviews.

  • TheJuriel #51 2 years ago

    Damn, now I'm interested in this. It seems like they're taking the right approach with it, rather than just doing a cheap MMO-copy job.

    Also, randomly generated planet-side maps? Finally someone does that!

  • George-Roper #52 2 years ago

    Also, randomly generated planet-side maps? Finally someone does that!

    Don't be so sure it's a good thing. Randomly generated maps help to some degree, to keep at least some points of the environment different but at the same time it kills any kind of association you might build with a location.

    If a game it too randomly generated, it can really hurt the quality of the product. I remember the randomly generated 'dungeons' in Anarchy Online which were hardly groundbreaking. Randomly generated missions in SW:G descended into a horrible go to X, find game_asset Y, kill Z, return for credits. The random asset being the 'nest' or 'lair' sat on the landscape, surrounded by mobs.

    In comparison to well written, static quests they were nowhere near the same level of imagination and got very boring, very quickly.

  • Bravestinsane #53 2 years ago

    Enters supernerd mode....

    Looks great i love the level of customisation my very own bridge quarters, even the fact i can customise names actually no i hate that when ever i let my imagination go i can never think of names, they will probably be called Dave, John, Rob.... you get the picture.

    But im loving the look of this though and hope you can customise ship designs, looks where the weapons are etc.

    Roll on beta already applied.

  • Alkeno #54 2 years ago

    George Roper, there is some hope the random generation can be a good thing... Diablo did quite a good job at it :-)

  • Spekingur #55 2 years ago

    George Roper; yes, it's true that Eve isn't exactly instanced. It is divided into zones which you port between through stargates. It's not one big open world in space. So it's zoning but as some have been commenting here about STO they were complaining about non-open worldness. So, I'm sorry using the word instance in a confusing manner where another word might have explained it better ;D
    I might also point out that Champions Online seems to have instanced zones as well, similar to Guild Wars and AoC.

    As for randomly generated part, somehow I think those are only going to be during exploration. What I'm wondering though, what happens if I find a planet in exploration that no one has found before? Can I settle there? Will it still be there when someone else goes past? Can I upload a starchart at a Federation/Klingon base? Can I get stuck out in the middle of nowhere?
    My biggest concern is how exploration is going to be handled. I really would like it to be similar to Infinity:QFE but that's just wishful thinking.
    Edited by 1 at 31/08/09 @ 22:54

  • TheJuriel #56 2 years ago

    You cannot lay a claim to new planets, of course. Otherwise there would either be nine million 'new' planets one week after release, or every available 'new planet' spot on the list would already be taken within five minutes of release. This is an MMO, after all.

    On random generation: Me, I'd rather take generic randomly-generated boring areas than 'explore' one of the three 'forest planet location' maps that I have already seen a million times (I'm looking at you, CoH, Mr. I-Have-Two-Different-Warehouse-Maps).

  • mcmonkeyplc #57 2 years ago

    I really do hope this is Jizztastic. This has the potential to be my best game ever! DONT LET ME DOWN!

  • Spekingur #58 2 years ago

    "...never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down..."

  • George-Roper #59 2 years ago

    On random generation: Me, I'd rather take generic randomly-generated boring areas than 'explore' one of the three 'forest planet location' maps that I have already seen a million times (I'm looking at you, CoH, Mr. I-Have-Two-Different-Warehouse-Maps).

    Both are clearly the wrong way to approach it. To choose one is choosing the less-wrong way, which isn't really a glowing positive mark.

    Randomly generated environments often come across as intensely sanitized, which is exactly what they are. A bunch of game-assets placed in some variance of logical order. That will never challenge sculpted, original content and is for the most part put in place to make the developers jobs easier, not to enhance the game experience. Classic mistake.

  • doser #60 2 years ago

    EvE really is quite appauling. Probably the worst MMO i've ever played.

    Star Trek Online and Jumpgate Evolution are going to have a big battle for "king of space MMOs", because it's looking more and more like the release dates are going to be pretty close together.

    However, after seeing some of the strange videos of Star Trek Online when being on planets in 3rd Person, i'm not as excited as I should be.

    Jumpgate Evolution on the other hand requires aim, and therefore skill, and is therefore more worth playing - unlike Eve and STO.

  • Spekingur #61 2 years ago

    Jumpgate requires twitch skill, which not everyone has. Twitch based skills make sense when you are flying small spaceships, such as fighters, but not when you are flying big ones, like star destroyers.

    @George: So, your suggestion would be to handsculpt every planet you might find in the universe? The amount of work hours that'll take would be immense. Certain locations will no doubt be handsculpted but the majority of exploration finds should be randomly or procedurally generated.
    Edited by 1 at 02/09/09 @ 09:27

  • ExplodingClown #62 2 years ago

    Can't wait til the folks who write Kirk/Spock erotic fiction get online...

  • George-Roper #63 2 years ago

    So, your suggestion would be to handsculpt every planet you might find in the universe? The amount of work hours that'll take would be immense. Certain locations will no doubt be handsculpted but the majority of exploration finds should be randomly or procedurally generated.

    Yes.

    It's not my problem that the devs took it upon themselves to create a universe with countless planets. Either they're prepared to put the work in, or they take the easy way out. Which they have done.

    The easy way out doesn't equate to quality.

  • OkamiKidd #64 2 years ago

    From what I've seen on the forums from the Devs themselves, the "heavily instanced" thing works like this: instead of seperating people into different shards aka servers, there will be one big server. However, to keep it so it's not all million people in one place, they're making multiple "instances" of each common location, for example, Rigel. So, let's say a thousand people go to Rigel. They won't all see each other. Instead, there'll maybe be a hundred people in each instance of Rigel. And they have said that if a friend goes to Rigel and they're in a different instance, you can seamlessly switch over to their instance, or vice versa. Planets will be similar, but with a lower cap, like maybe 5 or 10.

    As for the "I want to be Scotty-type" people... you can. People are not going to just be generic captains (title, not rank). They will have a career that they are in as well, so there will be Engineer captains, Tactical captains, Doctor captains, etc. So, getting a group of 5 captains won't disadvantage you unless you're all from the same career choice... just like any other MMO when you group together... you don't get 5 healers together, you don't get 5 mages together, you get one mage, one healer, one or two tanks, etc. Get the picture?

    Oh yeah, and the "randomly generated" stuff... they've discussed the "Genesis System" on the boards as well. Instead of the Devs taking time away from programming content to make planets, they made the Genesis System. It will randomly produce a planet, yes... but as far as we can tell from their cryptic (they got their name for a good reason) messages, once the Genesis System makes a planet, it's there for everyone. It'll be instanced just like everything else (see above), but it'll be the SAME planet for everyone who goes there.

    I hope this clears up a little bit of the misunderstandings. The biggest concern I've seen mentioned here that I'm not sure of an answer for is travel between systems. They've said they will include EVERYTHING seen in the shows, and we've seen in the shows going at Warp Speed and being confronted and having to drop out of warp. Presumably, this will also be in STO, but the Devs have not talked about this yet.

    One last thing... consoles. Currently, Champions is on PC and XBox 360. Therefore it is very likely that STO will also. The Devs refuse to say. However, they have advertised for and hired a PS3 programmer. What this means is anybody's guess, but the most popular guess is that CO and STO will (eventually) be on PS3 as well.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 03:46

  • bratmandu #65 2 years ago

    Darmok, and Jalad, at, Tanagra.

  • jkerr91 #66 2 years ago

    When the walls fell!

    In all seriousness, i reckon we should give cryptic some kudos. They have the balls to try and do a Star Trek MMO, They know they aint gonna please everyone, they aint gonna please Trekkies for sure, I should know, i am one lol. We nitpick far too much! But ya know, its been so long since trekkies had a decent adventure game. (Star Trek: TNG 'A final unity').Lets give the guys at cryptic a bit of support and maybe, just maybe they might pull of a decent enough game that not just trekkies like but gamers as well :)