Star Trek Online Powered by the Cryptic Engine, Star Trek® Online will be developed for both console and PC formats. With customizable ships and characters from the Klingon Empire and United Federation of Planets, ground, space and shipboard gameplay and unique options for player-generated content set in the Star Trek universe, Star Trek Online is the MMOG that allows you to boldly go where no one has gone before! Visit the official web site: www.startrekonline.com Platform: PC / Console Genre: MMORPG Release Date: TBD
http://www.startrekonline.com/gallery/screenshots it was real iffy for a while...we posted about the work being started a few years ago. Cryptic announced not long ago they have a way of creating content on the fly.This might be the user created content for this game. edit; Cryptic Studios will reveal the first gameplay footage from Star Trek Online on Sunday, August 10, 2008, at the Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas. The presentation will be at 1:30 p.m. PDT in the Gene Roddenberry Theater. We will also have a webcast available for fans who aren't at the convention. Stay tuned for more details.
Sure, if it hits. But you are talking about a ranged weapon system so useless that guys with badly designed blades are a serious threat, instead of just being mowed down long before reaching melee range. And if you build your armor out of packing crates, you will be invincible. Not to mention that the horrible phaser ergonomics lead to everyone being crap shots with weapons that can be dodged after they have been fired in your direction (1:40 onwards). Then again, as long as they have things like cracks in the event horizon of black holes (a bit after 7 mins) then it should be at least interesting.
some more info ... The two factions will be that of the Federation and Klingon Empire. There is mention that Cryptic will be allowing for 'player generated content' and territory and that there will be both ship and land based gameplay. According to the official website, ships will be from The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager eras. So far the following ship classes that have been mentioned or featured are the following; Sovereign, Defiant, Akira, and Nova plus there is a shot of federation ships firing on a Romulan Warbird. What I can't wait to find out is what Star Trek famed races will be featured. Cardassian, Vulcan, Andorian, Ferengi or hey, maybe Gorns? With Perpetual out of the picture Cryptic appears to be changing the nature of the proposed gameplay. Last year we heard that Star Trek Online was attempting to tackle a gaming environment that allowed players the option to take on the role of crew members along side fellow players on a starship. This fascinated all in-the-know gamers as to how that would be possible or even more questionably, enjoyed. How would the role of captain be decided? Who gets to be the ship's janitor? Plumbing is no laughing matter, someone's got to do it, right? Bigger questions that we hope will be answered at the Vegas-con are how much of Star Trek Online will be determined by starship combat and will they still be attempting a playable starfleet crew option? The question I want to ask is "HOW DO YOU INTEND TO MAKE THIS THE OPPOSITE OF STAR WARS GALAXIES?" Not THAT I'm really worried (okay just a little bit. But can you blame me? Every Star Trek game has been a train wreck and good space exploration MMO's are hard to come by, excluding Eve Online. You are fantastic. Don't change a thing). link to source http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/07/cryptic-studios.html
the real question is, how do they make STO not suck? The problem is that there isn't much in the way of individual transport in startrek. While "MMO" is great, every MMO has to have some kind of individual play. Unfortunately this means that most players will never set foot on a Galaxy class ship in the course of their gameplay. Unfortuantely this also means that if they intend to actually allow individual players to captain said ships, there would have to be immensive usage of bots. The only real way to get individual play aspects would be to stray away from the major races of startrek, mostly exhibited on DS9. This causes STO to become closer to SWG. Basically the problem with STO is that the MMO genre thrives on not only the multiplayer aspect but the individual player aspect. This typically is why MMOs set in medieval times with some magic thrown in thrive (citing World of Warcraft, Guild wars, Age of Conan, Warhammer). Startrek by it's very nature wont have much of an individual aspect. Maybe ferengi trading but that's it, Second, the general socio pathological viewpoint of the average MMO gamer vastly conflicts with the chain of command on a starship. "Why dont I get to be the captain?" is the first question ppl would ask when they start the game. Third: The universes in which MMOs are set support some form of ingame economy. For any major race in startrek economy is pretty much abolished. As such there is no mode for loot and there is no drive to grind. Players won't be attached for long if they just grind out creatures on random planets for nothing So, if Cryptic somehow manages to make a successful MMO with no individual aspect, no economy, a chain of command that players actually abide by, and somehow it doesnt suck, then great. I just dont think the startrek universe is compatible with the MMO archetype. Any ideas on how it would actually fit? cause it would be fun to discuss
I just can't see it succeeding. The Star Trek IP is just not setup for this sort of venture. All the movies and tv shows are based on military characters who follow orders. The Star trek universe is too ordered and structured for the chaos that an MMORPG thrives in. Tabula Rasa already tried the 'you are a soldier, now do what you're told' storyline, and it was boring as hell.
/agreed unless they follow more of a Firefly/Babalon5/Farscape build where there are interesting characters and storyline that never enter military life. i think the most interesting that ST could do is to introduce classes of the estranged scientist who is doin' their own thing out in the cosmos that suddenly involves the other races or the secret agent that all the races had that were outside of the main military vein. personally they were the least mentioned but by far the most interesting in any of the TV shows. you knew shit was up in the show when this random agent would show up messing with everyone and it was never really clear what group or organization they worked for but you knew they were super powerful. especially when it was "evil" organizations in the super nice StarFleet of whom may be the real leaders of StarFleet. Good stuff. Personally I don't see how this game would be any different from HellGate, but with space battles.
If it is a fight for territory then it can be a player run command structure..no crafting..no trade. It can be based on production points..which are spent for resupply of destroyed equiptment..development of new equiptment..upgrades. Each side has LIMITED resource..limited number of ships..tech..etc. No endless supply of ships and men to throw at the enemy..this keeps suicide attacks to minimum...It makes people more tactical. The ships are provided by each side to the players free... The players can gain rank and levels for reward...higher rank..better toys. The rank based toys keep newbs from hopping in the most resource expensive ships and wasting them. You need to make it to rank of captain to get the enterprise class..etc.. It works exactly this way in WW2OL.....a player run command structure..both side axis and allies are run by the players..there is a leader in each side...the CnC commander in chief.....and leaders all the way down to the regiment level. ALL leaders are rotated out and new officers selected from the player base by the current officers.. Players go thru an application process..then they to officer training. I was in the allied high command..french army..I ran the 43rd inf REG...It was comprised of 6 guilds...each an independent guild..such as is XoO. There were 2000 players in my regiment from 6 guilds that had to work together as a team.... ..They refer to us the officers as "Cat Headers" It is about as easy as herding cats...but surprisingly it works well....I have led over 1000 men at a time into battles the lasted for weeks 24 hours a day.. there are times slots for officers of Regiments..armys.... we rotate in and out during the day and night. If for some reason an Officer dont show up at his time..another officer assumes command. A few nights I ran the whole show..I was the highest level officer online....having 6000 players looking to you for commands in nerve wracking. I did good..got a medal.. I have been playing this for 8 years..a player run command structure works.
deja vu.... The game genre of WW2OL can basically be classified as MMORTS/FPS, and in that design Star Trek Online can work. The Star Trek universe in general is incompatible with MMORPG because of what players expect from a RPG. The general mode of character advancement isn't well defined unless its onboard a starship and in that case the players aren't as free do do what they will with their character.
i meant deja vu in that this post-sish was made prior to the wipe and i agreed with it then as i do now. incompatible universe: i disagree if they make the classes independent of ships. sure ships can be in the game, but they should not be the prime focus of the game. in other words if most of your adventuring took place on the enterprise that would be a very boring game indeed as you occasionally get to a planet/station are are generally at the whim of the NPC captain. if the game instead had you as an average schmo who either occasionally charters a ship or has a small one of their own then the whole universe is open to you as seen in a MassEffect sorta way. As for WW2OL, as far as I am concerned this model works well in nearly any war based game especially if you have the option to join a campaign (mulit) or do your own thing (solo/multi) in the same world. The solo/multi's objectives, missions and economy could be affected by the multi war and would allow for a much more dynamic story. The ST universe is chalk full of toons that had nothing to do with any of the empires main objectives; sure they weren't the main storyline, but if you think about it they would be BY FAR the majority of the population.
There maybe different classes you can spawn into..you may have one for all the classes..as you use each one...you advance in that class to better weapons..higher skill at what you do...better bonuses you give to the "crew". You may be captain one minute..then after space battle you spawn in as a redshirt phaser in hand ready to storm the supply room/frozen landscape/green babe. If a ship can be multi crewed it would make sense it would be more effective....using ww2ol as example again...all vehicles can be multi crewed or used solo. just a simple tank..3 man crew...steering...aiming...firing...2 machine gun positions..you can switch between them. That tank is a lot deadlier in real time combat than one man in same tank....just the twitch factor makes a difference in real time battle..thats with no player stat given bonuses...which will probably be part of STO. Something as complicated as a space ship should be difficult to use...but possible for solo use...but made much more responsive..and deadly with a crew...crew bonuses maybe...a ship full of 4 star admirals..more deadly than one full of captains. Different loadouts selected by the captain would greatly affect the battle...fleets of defensive ships..offense..repair..resupply..etc..that could be fun..making those plans. Maybe having a more advanced gunner and you can load "his" guns..Shield..engines etc with just a solo captain he might not get as powerful as a crew can be. If there are not major bonus to having a crew..no one will wait for one. .
As a side note they said they are going to reveal gameplay footage ate the vegas con on Aug 10th. I'm gonna scrounge up some mola and try to make it. I'll let you guys know what I hear.
New Info Sounds fun! Also a gameplay trailer is out. http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/352/view/videos/play/1258
I know it's early, and I know things can change, but this "enterprise" (pun intended) seems like a disaster of Praxis proportions. (I wanted to prove that I can nerd-out like a true trekker.) IMO (humble, meek, unworthy, etc.), the ST universe has always been about teamwork and exploring the human condition. The notion that the first flawed, and ultimately doomed, development team had of integrating a "crew" of players into a larger ship would have been very interesting. Of course, it would fail, since every mother, father, son, and daughter would want to be Captain. But, there is only one James T. Kirk. One Jean Luc Picard. One Benjamin Siko. And one, thank god, Kathryn Janeway. But there were cast members that were every bit as cool, from Spock, to Enisign Ro, to the Red Shirts (god rest their souls), and essential to make ST feel like ST. I get the feeling that the devs are using far too much of their MMO experience making CoH and trying to dovetail it into ST. Sci-Fi MMO's have a hard enough time when they don't have legions of rabid fans ready to pounce when you screw with a popular franchise. I just get the feeling that this MMO will crash and burn like the Enterprise on the Genesis planet. (Hah! Didn't think I'd fit that one in, did ya?) EDIT: Oh, and since the Romulan Empire isn't in this, *middle finger to Cryptic*.
Looks like boarding parties will be part of the space combat. So instead of making a landing party that consists only of red shirts who are trained only for ground combat, I have to send down members of the bridge crew who had to split their training between ground combat and shipboard operations. Good to see that the Federation hasn't changed how they operate.