Can't seem to find any reactions from folks who saw the webcast with game footage:  anyone see it, any knowledge of how it looked?

space time distortion is in effect.

thats easy enough to explain. the webcast hasn't take place yet. over three hours to go.

okay, my face is red... misread the date.  I may not be able to watch it, so I'll check back on the forums for reactions.

watching it now !

I'm fairly impressed with pre alpha footage.

The demographic just from this interview session shows how the age range and geek factory this game is going to reach. They can have a great launch they can easy pull 1million worldwide subs at launch easy.

Looks pretty good. I'm more impressed than I thought I would be. They're pretty far along considering how long they've had the ip for. Eve's going to be in alot more trouble than I thought. In fact, I didn't think eve would be in competition with this before I saw the vid. This will appeal to the hi-sec dwellers and ex swg players. Exploration, customisable ships and interiors. Customisable as CoH. Your fleet (corp, guild) can build stations in space. Find new races of infinite possibilitys. PvP. Didn't dismiss the idea of one server. My interest went from 5% to 100%.

Absoultely worth watching.  My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw what they have done in so little time.  I have a small synopsis written up on my blog about it if ya want to come check it out HERE

I saw it... It was awesome!!! It looked ten times better than what PE or P2 or whatever had for us.... I CAN'T WAIT!!!

I liked the webcast allot, the first released movie of the game is great too!

The only thing I hope is this game has missions that are not always combat, other then that, looks great! While I can't wait for warhammer, Star Trek is a love and I am definitly more excited about this game then any atm.

I liked the emphasis on exploration and being able to be the first person to find a uniqie planet. I hope exploring will be as dynamic as picking a direction and going into warp speed rather than the typical chop star systems into zones thing you see in other games.

I was there.  They actually cut questions off with the guy in front of me.  Argh!

Anyway, the gameplay graphics were absolutely stunning for the space scenes.  The planetside stuff looked closer to Champions Online without a cel shader effect.  The stuff within the ships didn't look nearly so hot, but that's to be expected at this early stage of development.  There's a ton of texturing, animation, etc. that still needs to be done.  Given that the release date may still be as much as three years out, the graphics are all around amazing for an alpha.

Jack said a lot of really promising things about the game.  It's got tons of potential. 

I do have misgivings about one point, though, which was actually going to be in my question to him if I'd been able to ask it:  They want to be true to Star Trek.  That's great.  But the magic of Trek has always come from the interplay of the command crew.  With the exception of the Dominion War and Wolf 359 you almost never saw or even heard of serious multi-ship activities.  An MMO seems like a prime place for several people to make up the command crew of a ship and re-create that Star Trek magic for themselves.  Yet Cryptic has chosen to go with single player ships with NPC crews and what amounts to the most elaborate player housing you've ever seen in a game.  This to me seems to limit a lot of the potential of the MMO genre, and is my major reservation concerning the game.

Originally posted by aurick

I was there.  They actually cut questions off with the guy in front of me.  Argh!

Anyway, the gameplay graphics were absolutely stunning for the space scenes.  The planetside stuff looked closer to Champions Online without a cel shader effect.  The stuff within the ships didn't look nearly so hot, but that's to be expected at this early stage of development.  There's a ton of texturing, animation, etc. that still needs to be done.  Given that the release date may still be as much as three years out, the graphics are all around amazing for an alpha.

Jack said a lot of really promising things about the game.  It's got tons of potential. 

I do have misgivings about one point, though, which was actually going to be in my question to him if I'd been able to ask it:  They want to be true to Star Trek.  That's great.  But the magic of Trek has always come from the interplay of the command crew.  With the exception of the Dominion War and Wolf 359 you almost never saw or even heard of serious multi-ship activities.  An MMO seems like a prime place for several people to make up the command crew of a ship and re-create that Star Trek magic for themselves.  Yet Cryptic has chosen to go with single player ships with NPC crews and what amounts to the most elaborate player housing you've ever seen in a game.  This to me seems to limit a lot of the potential of the MMO genre, and is my major reservation concerning the game.

I've gotta disagree - and I know a lot of people will be ticked off with this - about the 'player crew' idea.  It would be INCREDIBLE if it would work, but the reality of it is that it would be very difficult to actually get it to work and let people be able to play the game whenever they want.  I mean the players who form 'crews' would literally need to schedule their lives to meet and play together - to have a fluid strong crew element.  I think they were wise in their decision here - as much as it detracts from a feel like the shows/movies.  This way, anyone can just jump in and play right away whenever they have the time.

At least they weren't lame like Pirates of the Burning Sea, and actually allow you to customize your entire crew / appearance / skills for them etc.  Perhaps in time they will figure out a way to accomodate the different player classes/professions so that a group of players can use a single ship - but to start it's really their best option.

They did mention that your characters background 'profession' does come into play and I do hope they go somewhere with this idea because a LOT of people want to be able to play together in this way when the opportunity arises.

For the most part, I'd personally see this kind of 'crew play' almost as a single player 'bridge commander' kind of game with a multiplayer element which allows a group of say 6 players to hook up in co-op mode through the campaign missions together.

Perhaps in time, the MMORPG will cater to this style of group play but I'm not at all surprised it doesn't right now, for reasons that are very obvious to me.  Take some time to think about the pros/cons of having to rely on others to play... I think you'll realize why even now solo play is considered so important even in MMORPGs.

I think they've made a lot of wise choices and are headed in the right direction with STO, making it one of the most promising future MMORPG's on the horizon at the moment.

Originally posted by DeaconX

 

 

I've gotta disagree - and I know a lot of people will be ticked off with this - about the 'player crew' idea.  It would be INCREDIBLE if it would work, but the reality of it is that it would be very difficult to actually get it to work and let people be able to play the game whenever they want.  I mean the players who form 'crews' would literally need to schedule their lives to meet and play together - to have a fluid strong crew element. 

I can think of a dozen ways around this off the top of my head. Having guild run ship/crews and interaction/support don't think would be hard to impliment . I think the real issue is that Cryptic is assuming the vast majority of people want to be captains of a ship.

One word awesome

Originally posted by Selencia

I liked the emphasis on exploration and being able to be the first person to find a uniqie planet. I hope exploring will be as dynamic as picking a direction and going into warp speed rather than the typical chop star systems into zones thing you see in other games.

Don't forget they touched on the possibility of being the 1st person to make 1st contact with new races this could be an awesome idea.

Originally posted by DeaconX

Originally posted by aurick

I was there.  They actually cut questions off with the guy in front of me.  Argh!

Anyway, the gameplay graphics were absolutely stunning for the space scenes.  The planetside stuff looked closer to Champions Online without a cel shader effect.  The stuff within the ships didn't look nearly so hot, but that's to be expected at this early stage of development.  There's a ton of texturing, animation, etc. that still needs to be done.  Given that the release date may still be as much as three years out, the graphics are all around amazing for an alpha.

Jack said a lot of really promising things about the game.  It's got tons of potential. 

I do have misgivings about one point, though, which was actually going to be in my question to him if I'd been able to ask it:  They want to be true to Star Trek.  That's great.  But the magic of Trek has always come from the interplay of the command crew.  With the exception of the Dominion War and Wolf 359 you almost never saw or even heard of serious multi-ship activities.  An MMO seems like a prime place for several people to make up the command crew of a ship and re-create that Star Trek magic for themselves.  Yet Cryptic has chosen to go with single player ships with NPC crews and what amounts to the most elaborate player housing you've ever seen in a game.  This to me seems to limit a lot of the potential of the MMO genre, and is my major reservation concerning the game.

 

I've gotta disagree - and I know a lot of people will be ticked off with this - about the 'player crew' idea.  It would be INCREDIBLE if it would work, but the reality of it is that it would be very difficult to actually get it to work and let people be able to play the game whenever they want.  I mean the players who form 'crews' would literally need to schedule their lives to meet and play together - to have a fluid strong crew element.  I think they were wise in their decision here - as much as it detracts from a feel like the shows/movies.  This way, anyone can just jump in and play right away whenever they have the time.

At least they weren't lame like Pirates of the Burning Sea, and actually allow you to customize your entire crew / appearance / skills for them etc.  Perhaps in time they will figure out a way to accomodate the different player classes/professions so that a group of players can use a single ship - but to start it's really their best option.

They did mention that your characters background 'profession' does come into play and I do hope they go somewhere with this idea because a LOT of people want to be able to play together in this way when the opportunity arises.

For the most part, I'd personally see this kind of 'crew play' almost as a single player 'bridge commander' kind of game with a multiplayer element which allows a group of say 6 players to hook up in co-op mode through the campaign missions together.

Perhaps in time, the MMORPG will cater to this style of group play but I'm not at all surprised it doesn't right now, for reasons that are very obvious to me.  Take some time to think about the pros/cons of having to rely on others to play... I think you'll realize why even now solo play is considered so important even in MMORPGs.

I think they've made a lot of wise choices and are headed in the right direction with STO, making it one of the most promising future MMORPG's on the horizon at the moment.

Actually, it is very possible to avoid the pitfall that you describe (which is the same one DDO fell into).  It's also possible to cater to both types of player -- the ones who love the solo ship idea and the ones who'd like to have player-run command crews.

I've actually put a lot of thought into the matter, and your argument against is actually the very thing I wanted to avoid.  Like you, I think that players should be free to play when and how they'd like.  The last thing I want is a situation where I'm stuck waiting for friends in order to do anything.  But it's not that hard to design a system that avoids that problem.

See my post here:  http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=115821