House Ancora

[Talonmane]

early FAQ

http://www.bingegamer.net/index.php/2008/star-trek-online-details/


trailer

http://www.fileplanet.com/190343/190000/fileinfo/Star-Trek-Online---Trailer-(HD)


Well, it isn't what's best, but not what's worst either. Best starts under the notion that you don't make STO for gamers, but for Trek fans, since they are a ready-made audience of 10s of millions, largely with expendable salaries, and who have been praying for a virtual Star Trek for decades. If it's done right they'll stay and pay alot longer than gamers will.

If someone makes it for gamers though, the best is to begin with the notion that guilds = starship crews. But second best is to do what Mythic is doing as they try to pick up the pieces left by Perpetual. Players will have individual command of ships but will really be running them through NPC command crews backed up by more generic crews making up the mass of the people aboard ship. Like a single player RPG, the player will train up his command crew as his adventuring team. They'll have the main positions aboard ship and go on away teams as well. I'm sure they'll be able to beam down with the requisite number of red shirts too.

It looks a bit primitive since they are trying to advertise that powerful systems won't be necessary to play and they'll want to keep the action from lagging. My greatest concern based on what the movie shows is that they are going to rely too much on PvP. Just because phaser fights, starship battles, and wars occur in Star Trek does not mean you'll be able to keep it feeling like Star Trek if you open it up to MMO PvP players. They'll need to be careful with that. My second concern is that they are sticking to the later work in starship battles that we saw particularly in DS9, where masses of ships are battling all within very close proximity to eachother. They'll do it that way because that's what people saw in the latter Star Trek shows under the direction of the weenies who took over after Roddenberry was gone. But that stuff is way wrong for proper execution in the series which was far better done in the earlier eras where starship combat was much closer to that of the great naval battles of the 20th century.


It's too early to say much more. I'll get a chance to talk to Cryptic at GenCon in a few days, so I'll smack em around a bit and see if I can drill a few things into their heads. I'll probably get to check out a few more details of this and Champions and maybe get a chance for early beta. (hell, I'll probably apply for a job)
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While Life can be cold and thick with mystery...cloaked in honour,
courage your torch, and with companions wielding temperance and
justice, you will shine as the Unconquered Sun...

[Teran]

While I agree that space battles shouldn't necessarily be fought in close proximity, aside from next generation, DS9 was my favorite of all the series >.<
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"I cried when I was born and every day shows why."

[Talonmane]

http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/star-trek-online/preview/star-trek-online/a-2008111391938879074/g-2007073016443240073


Some good (best option would have been guilds as starship crews with NPCs to fill the gaps, but this at least gives good development and control over NPC crewmembers), some bad (open customization will screw too much with a universe that lives and dies by accuracy to canon), and some expected MMO moves (dividing into two factions to have an excuse for running PvP in the WoW style)
_________________

While Life can be cold and thick with mystery...cloaked in honour,
courage your torch, and with companions wielding temperance and
justice, you will shine as the Unconquered Sun...

[Talonmane]

If they've humanized the Gorn I think I might just have to throw up...

http://www.startrekonline.com/gallery/screenshots


And is that a Romulan? I, uh..., well, just don't know what to say...
_________________

While Life can be cold and thick with mystery...cloaked in honour,
courage your torch, and with companions wielding temperance and
justice, you will shine as the Unconquered Sun...

[Talonmane]

http://www.startrekonline.com/fiction

*various painful moans whilst bent over in stomach ache. sickness setting in*

i just....sigh...just...


*heave*
_________________

While Life can be cold and thick with mystery...cloaked in honour,
courage your torch, and with companions wielding temperance and
justice, you will shine as the Unconquered Sun...

[Lucant]

Can you explain for non-Trekkies?
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[giffordsd]

i hope the new movie is well made
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"Do or do not. There is no try"

[Talonmane]

It would take too long, unfortunately. Suffice it to say the writer's knowledge of Trek history, understanding of the geopolitical relationships, and more than anything, the reason for Trek's existence, is completely grounded in the type of thought that spawned about 30% of all modern episodes of Trek - the weakest ones. The easiest way to say this is that they have amateurs writing it, and by that label I refer not just to their knowledge of Trek but their maturity as people. All post-Roddenberry Trek is infected by it. I was hoping to see it kept to a minimum in the game, but this is not encouraging.

Part of it involves making up situations only to force what the author thinks is 'drama'. When much of this is done, the accuracy to what characters or governments would really do in the artificial universe is ignored in favour of supporting the writer's notions of drama creation at the moment. Poor fiction writers try to get away with such things under the foolish idea that since they are dealing with something unreal, accuracy is all subjective and of no real consequence. As anyone with half a brain understands, the best of fiction is made by authors who do not break the accuracy and so-far-achieved 'suspension of disbelief' of their worlds. This is true of all good fiction, not just SciFi or Fantasy. Readers aren't morons, and depend on the established facts of a world to immerse into it most successfully. Trek fans get a bad rap for being too rigid about acceptable 'canon', but it is no different than any fan of great fiction. SciFi and Fantasy fans get criticized for it though since they are in the act of supporting something that isn't 'RL'.

They're saying some things have occurred without proper backstory. For example, you can't make Ro head of security for DS9 in the way they wrote it. There's too much unaddressed. They did it because it's a character they know and one that fans liked, but they can't simply spit an idea onto the ground and think it's enough. And that's a minor example. They are only working with the leftovers of what previous writers have done in modern Trek. And nearly no time (in this timeline) is being spent on the single most important piece of Trek: exploration...to boldly go.

To be a little fair to Cryptic, these criticisms I have are no different than what I've given all post-Roddenberry Trek.
_________________

While Life can be cold and thick with mystery...cloaked in honour,
courage your torch, and with companions wielding temperance and
justice, you will shine as the Unconquered Sun...

[Hurakan]

Somebody needs to check Roddenberry's grave, He must be turning right now. So sad game company's are not interested in the creators vision only in the use or their name to create something totally different. I'm not talking just about Trek Online it seems to be happening across the board.

PS: Thank you for the updates TM.
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Urakan - Orc Shaman - World of Warcraft - Retired
Torre - ? - Aeion:The tower of eternity

[Kestra]

Current release date: 02/02/2010. They are accepting beta applications.
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[Riks]

So, I took the plunge and bought STO - the preorder grants beta access so I've been trying it out. Since they said it was an 'open' beta and I didn't see an NDA anywhere I think I'm free to dish out details here

While I find STO an entertaining game (entertaining enough to have spent 65$ on preordering it and not regret it), I have to agree with Talonmane's assessment: check your love of Roddenberry's creation at the door, or if you are unable to do so, stay away else you will bleed from your eyes and dissolve into a gibbering mess.

First off, I know technically this isn't a problem with the game itself but, within my first few hours playing I was groaning at Captain Lol of the USS Kkthxbye, Tuvok Shakur, the USS Enter a name, and other ridiculousness typical of the MMO community. For the game itself, it feels very much like the post-Roddenberry pre-Abrams Star Trek -- the crappy stuff. I find the liberal name-dropping (one of my first contacts is a Commander Sulu) to be cheap and clumsy. The 'quests' are standard ho-hum MMO fare, go here and kill things, talk to these disgruntled miners, fedex this dilithium. The graphics made my computer cry; so much for an 'accessible' game. Don't even bother if you don't have a fairly-fast dual-core or better and a gf9800 or better video card. For all I know a lot of this could be beta woes however, so I will refrain from final judgement until the game goes live in a few weeks.

The space travel and combat are a little awkward at first - if you've played the games Bridge Commander and Starfleet command, picture STO's space component as the bastard love-child of the two. Though that's not such a terrible thing, for me at least. The ships maneuver relatively slowly, so the combat is a little tactical - avoid being flanked, keep your strong shield on the enemy while pounding their weak points, manage your power levels to avoid going dry in the heat of battle. Your ship has 'bridge consoles' which slot like equippable items up to the maximum your ship can hold (my USS Piece of Crap has 1 slot for each type, engineer, tactical and science), which allow your bridge officers to use their tactical abilities in space combat (my engineer has Emergency Power to Shields, while my science officer has a shield-weakening Tachyon Beam and my tactical officer opts for High-Yield Torpedoes).

The ships themselves are arranged by class (you can choose to captain cruisers, escorts, or science vessels) and by Tier (a Constitution-class is a tier-1 cruiser available at grade, or level, 11, a Sovereign is a tier-4 cruiser available at .... much higher). You start with a basic light cruiser, currently either a Miranda, Centaur, or ShihKahr (sp?), or you can kitbash the three into your own unique vessel (you only get to do this for free once, then it starts costin' ya). The level to which the ships can be manipulated is staggering - I'm currently flying a Centaur/ShihKahr hybrid, which IMO looks great but to each his own. Each Tier consists of 3 or 4 ships you can choose from or maul into your own USS Frankenstein.

Groundside feels a little silly, the animations are 'floaty' and a little cartoonish, and the *cough* "uniforms" *cough* are anything but, because of the game's customizability. I can understand and even relish the crazy volume of options for tailoring your character's face and body (you can pick one of several canon races or make an 'unknown' alien of your own creation), but the Starfleet uniforms should be a little more ... uniform, no?

All in all, I find it to be an enjoyable game. However, trekkers will have to continue to wait for that definitive, immersive Star Trek universe. I'm going to keep playing it, but YMMV.

edit: Oh, forgot to mention the klingons. They become playable after you level a Fed character to grade 6, takes a day or two depending.
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It's not the size of your FWOOSH - it's how you use it. -- Richard 4:12

[giffordsd]

keep us posted
im tempted to get it
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"Do or do not. There is no try"

[Riks]

So yeah, it's live now ... I'd be playing it right now, but I've recently moved back into the college residence which seems to have a block on games (I can't even load Steam or the Cryptic launchpad) I'll update on STO if I can get my own modem or a tunneling program, whichever comes first. ^^
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It's not the size of your FWOOSH - it's how you use it. -- Richard 4:12

[Salvorah Balmuse]

I was wondering how that one would turn out.
Thank you for the continued insight
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Geobe "The PeacePipe" Greyore
"Life is a Candle in the Wind-
Easily Blown Into Oblivion or
Fanned into a Raging Inferno!"