Today we learned that Cryptic Studios, the company behind the original City of Heroes and now Champions Online is the studio now behind the development of Star Trek Online. In this feature, we bring you a letter to the community from Jack Emmert as well as a promotional list that is meant to give players an idea of Cryptic's vision for the game.

Star Trek® has been a part of my entire life. Few other of my geeky obsessions can make that claim.

I started watching the original Star Trek when it reached syndication and cult status. I can remember even more vividly where I was for the premiere of every subsequent Star Trek series. For Star Trek: The Next Generation, I watched "Encounter at Farpoint" lying on the floor of my childhood apartment. When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine rolled around, I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. I watched the first episode in the basement of my dorm with a dozen other students. A few years later, I was at Ohio State and saw Voyager travel to the Delta Quadrant while sitting on a friend's couch in Columbus, Ohio. And I was thrilled to see the beginnings of Starfleet in Star Trek: Enterprise. At the time, I was just starting out as a game designer, with little to no idea that I'd be jumping into that very universe within several years.

Check it out here.

it already sounds better than what Perpetual was doing.

Good luck Jack

I was looking forward to this but I just hope for the love of god it feels nothing like the city of heroes gameplay.

i dont see why it would...its not fair to base their developing style on one game...

They said it's being developped for PC AND Consoles.... I sure hope they don't make the same mistake as Age of Conan and force the PC user into a zoning wonderland because of it

I am one happy geek...

though mostly a ST:TNG fan I am highly anticipating how this game will unfold....

Yeah, that was my only concern, the release for PC and console.  Still, can't help but feel excited, especially considering that it mentions opportunity to play as a Klingon, which if I remember correctly the Perpetual version wasn't going to have (I could be wrong, been a while since I paid any attention to that version).  Keeping my fingers crossed that this is done well.

Im a little disheartened, as soon as I seen him say towards the very end, "It is being developed for both the Console and  the PC." I lost all hope.  Good luck to Cryptic, I cannot name one good MMO that has been released with both platforms in mind.

The Perpetual version only had Federation pilots.  They also had no bridge you could walk on.  It looks like Cryptic is changing that.  Sounds like they have a good understanding of the genre and intend to design the game around that.

I wish Cryptic a lot of success, the genre is certainly in better hands than it was in with Perpetual.  Daron Stinnett for Perpetual was probably one of the more clueless developers out there.

I just hope its not all "instanced missions" like in CoX.I want to beam down to planets and actually explore and see other players there, and not just see a little instanced mission area like the missions in CoX.I have a feeling that's what they will do tho, which is too bad. Would be cool if there was pvp, and you could be Romulans and Cardassians etc. but thats asking for too much I guess.I hope you can at least explore the inside of your ship and other planets/space stations and design the look of your ship and upgrade it.Anyways, despite my predictions, I'm looking forward to this game big time.

Originally posted by sinjin

Im a little disheartened, as soon as I seen him say towards the very end, "It is being developed for both the Console and  the PC." I lost all hope.  Good luck to Cryptic, I cannot name one good MMO that has been released with both platforms in mind.

FFXI?

If you're a gil farmer bot, FFXI is a huge success. Otherwise, no.

Console/PC issue:  this is something that some company sometime will figure out how to do well, Cryptic has as good a shot as any.  It can only be good news for fans of both ST and mmos that Cryptic has this license.  It already sounds more in touch with the possible, and in the spirit of the IP, than what had been in "development" at Perpetual.

Sounds interesting but how can potentially everyone be a captain?

Will the crew they mention be other players who operate the different stations or just a bunch of NPCs?

If everyone has their own ship, won't that make grouping a bit odd or will it be solo all the way?

Ah well, I suppose I shall just have to wait & see.

Originally posted by LondonMagus

Sounds interesting but how can potentially everyone be a captain?

Will the crew they mention be other players who operate the different stations or just a bunch of NPCs?

If everyone has their own ship, won't that make grouping a bit odd or will it be solo all the way?

Ah well, I suppose I shall just have to wait & see.

Yeah, I have to agree. I would rather see classes, where Captian, Engineer, Pilot, Medic,Comm Officer etc are classes used for group controlling a vessel, rather than everyone being Jean Luc Picard. So, you replace 'Guild' with 'Crew'.

Hopefully they're early enough in the design phase to revisit that decision.

Sounds like this will be the first scifi game to rival Eve, lord knows that game needs soem competition. That game is like the wicked stepkid throwing rocks at the house and nobody says anything because his mom just remarried and he is readjusting....

Might actualy follow this game, though i prefer star wars, cryptic has done a decent job making mmos.

Originally posted by pfloydguy84

I just hope its not all "instanced missions" like in CoX.I want to beam down to planets and actually explore and see other players there, and not just see a little instanced mission area like the missions in CoX.I have a feeling that's what they will do tho, which is too bad. 

In ST:TOS, ST:TNG, ST:V, and ST:E, the majority of the time, the ship was on its own. If Cryptic stays true to this, it's going to be a very solo-heavy game. So you're going to have to have some instanced missions. Can't really  have a First Contact mish with a hundred other Starfleet ships in orbit. Why would a whole armada be sent to map a star cluster?

ST:DS9 was an exception - as a space station, ships came to it, and it was in constant proximity to Bajor. The Defiant was really nothing more than a glorified runabout. I wonder if we'll be able to command a station instead of a ship all the time...

This game is gonna be so bad.

I can see the combat now.

MobA:standing toe to toe with character A,Continuously firing and hitting character A with his phaser...

Mob B:Using cover (snicker),yet still continually hit as phaser fire travels thru solid objects....because its all about the roll and the to hit system...

Character A: standing toe to toe with mob A,has been hit 14 times by mob A's phaser,but since it only does 4 hps of damage,even combined with the 10 other hits taken so far from mob B's phaser,Character A  will continue to stand there all day..... also firing his phaser continuously til the mobs fall

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Weapon customization : OOOOOO ,people will be able to make their weapons fire in different colors.... Pink phasers conquer the universe....

And ohhhh the stat raising mods for weapons....oooooo...i just added a vulcan brain cell to my phaser... i are so much smarter now !..........

Good luck Cryptic :)

Not everyone can be the captain though ?

I am hoping this does not become an Earth and Beyond system, where everyone gets a ship to zip around the universe.

Instancing : Yes,  it should be in this game. Holodeck missions, Starfleet Academy, beaming into dangerous areas of planets. This game needs immersion.  Don't make an EVE either.

Good News that Cryptic is going to take on the task.  Not so good news that It is already working on Champions Online as well. Star Trek Online needs a lot of attention and dedication. Is Cryptic big enough to handle it or will the Black Hole of SOE or NC Soft gobble it up?