While in San Francisco at the Game Developer's Conference, Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to attend a press event at Perpetual Entertainment, the makers of Star Trek Online. In this article, Jon looks at how the direction of the game fits in with the legend of its IP.

Last night, members of the press were treated to a visit to Perpetual Studios' offices in downtown San Francisco. During that time, we got a hands-on look at Gods and Heroes (the subject of another article) and a look at some of what they're doing with Star Trek Online.

While we didn't get to look at the game itself (they're still in a very early stage of development), we did get a chance to look at the game's assets: race models, ships, planets, and the like. It was enough to get a good idea of the feel of this new incarnation of the Star Trek franchise.

For folks who might not know, Star Trek Online is set about 20 years after the movie, Star Trek Nemesis. Setting the game outside of the direct timeline of the movies and the television show gives Perpetual the opportunity to branch out and put their own stamp on the Trek universe. As with any IP, that can be a risky business. The games industry is full of tales of IPs gone horribly wrong, where the spirit of the original incarnation is lost because the company was more interested in capitalizing on the brand recognition of the IP than they were about making a solid game that would entertain fans and non fans alike.

You can read the whole article here.

Awesome.

That is real great news. I have a lot of faith in Perpetual and I really hope they can pull it off. This just increased my faith :P

We all know the graphics are going to be pretty, but what would be much more helpful and interesting is to know what they are actually planning for the mechanics of the game. Is it going to be level or skill based, is it going to be quest or "sandbox" based, how will combat and ship control work. How will they do "crafting" in a universe where everything can be made for you in the little machine?

These would have been much better questions to ask than "how is the ship going to look".

I doubt that PE is releasing that type of info yet. They could ask until they are blue in the face and they won't give anything out.

I really doubt we will start hearing anything about the mechanics of this game until AT LEAST God's and Heros is released.

Originally posted by jayanti

We all know the graphics are going to be pretty, but what would be much more helpful and interesting is to know what they are actually planning for the mechanics of the game. Is it going to be level or skill based, is it going to be quest or "sandbox" based, how will combat and ship control work. How will they do "crafting" in a universe where everything can be made for you in the little machine?

These would have been much better questions to ask than "how is the ship going to look".

Originally posted by jayanti

We all know the graphics are going to be pretty, but what would be much more helpful and interesting is to know what they are actually planning for the mechanics of the game. Is it going to be level or skill based, is it going to be quest or "sandbox" based, how will combat and ship control work. How will they do "crafting" in a universe where everything can be made for you in the little machine?

These would have been much better questions to ask than "how is the ship going to look".

Oh, wow. The image of the ship approaching the starbase is awesome.

The background has nebula type effects, like a certain other space based MMO.  I would prefer black, but that is just a small niggle.  The station looks great, all blue and glowy.

I can't wait for the real thing now.

Originally posted by jayanti

We all know the graphics are going to be pretty, but what would be much more helpful and interesting is to know what they are actually planning for the mechanics of the game. Is it going to be level or skill based, is it going to be quest or "sandbox" based, how will combat and ship control work. How will they do "crafting" in a universe where everything can be made for you in the little machine?

These would have been much better questions to ask than "how is the ship going to look".

Originally posted by AshleyHunter
What does IP mean?

Originally posted by Sinuous

Originally posted by jayanti

We all know the graphics are going to be pretty, but what would be much more helpful and interesting is to know what they are actually planning for the mechanics of the game. Is it going to be level or skill based, is it going to be quest or "sandbox" based, how will combat and ship control work. How will they do "crafting" in a universe where everything can be made for you in the little machine?

These would have been much better questions to ask than "how is the ship going to look".

At their current stage of concept design they don't have concrete answers for specific game mechanics questions like the one you posed.

And as far as crafting is concerned, when was the last time you saw them cook up anything besides food and drink with a replicator.  You think they make Warp Nacelles with those things?  It won't be an issue.

I want you to think about something for a second please...if you will. When I and many others look for a MMORPG to call home, we look for a MMORPG whose company knows what they are doing and can handle the monetary responsibilities of our demands. It is not encouraging to know that STO doesn't even have the answers to those questions that the earlier poster asked. They have been in development for almost a year now, maybe more (can't remember exactly). Mythic, as we all know, is a good company. When they announced that they were developing WAR, they already have been working on it for 6 months. But even then they knew the mechanics of the game and were able to answer the above questions for their game. That is what I expect from a good solid company, that is likely to finish a MMORPG in a decent amount of time and release it in a finished state, instead of a severely bug ridden state with performance and serious lag issues that plague games released by companies that don't have the budget or know how to do better.

So wouldn't it be reasonable to expect the same amount of information, which is really basic, from Perpetual considering they are about a year into development now? I just thought it's something to think about. If the company is worth a damn, they would know already what they plan to implement, whether it's skill based or level based, quest based or sandbox. Or, they could just be witholding information, which is also fine, since they have a MMORPG that should soon be released this year. But it would be nice to know if they have figured out what they are doing, even if they wouldn't tell us. It would go a long way of telling us how stable of a company they are.

Originally posted by Endemondia

Originally posted by AshleyHunter
What does IP mean?

Have you heard of this thing called the internet? It has a thing called google. A giant leap forward for the intelect of the human race once you know how to use it.

PE probably does know where this title is going. Who really knows how far along they are? We certainatly don't, because they ain't telling us.

Honestly people, I doubt this was an open forum where they invited the people in and they got to ask questions. And instead of asking questions about gameplay, all they asked was "Can we see another screenshot/concept art piece?"

PE released the info they wanted to release. The are probably not trying to show up their original IP MMO game called God's and Heros. If you really want to know how STO is going to be handled, pay attention to GnH. After that is released later this year, I'm sure we will get all sorts of STO goodies :D

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Originally posted by jayanti
We all know the graphics are going to be pretty, but what would be much more helpful and interesting is to know what they are actually planning for the mechanics of the game. Is it going to be level or skill based, is it going to be quest or "sandbox" based, how will combat and ship control work. How will they do "crafting" in a universe where everything can be made for you in the little machine?
These would have been much better questions to ask than "how is the ship going to look".

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Last I read (in an article of MMORPG.COM no less) the game was going to be class/level based (a little fuzzy on that detail), with missions instanced for your crew - the only time you will be likely to run into another player not on your crew will be at starbases - no PvP combat or even playable races hostile to the Federation, and when you get injured, you are always instantly saved 100% healthy via Star Trek teleporter + hypospray magic.

I can see where some of the design decisions came from in order to keep with the theme of Star Trek, but I'm not sure if I'll be wanting to play it. But despite all my negativity, I will say that they seem to have a rather interesting approach to Ship control/flight. Haven't seen any solid details yet, but it look like it will be a crew effort, with each person managing a system in a sort of mini-game.

Originally posted by Endemondia

Originally posted by AshleyHunter
What does IP mean?

Have you heard of this thing called the internet? It has a thing called google. A giant leap forward for the intelect of the human race once you know how to use it.