With the most recent Q&A session with Craig Zinkievich, hosted by IGN and Voon,  people were able to get more incite into some of Cryptic's philosophies in their design, and some misconceptions were cleared up.

Here's some interesting tidbits from it

About the economy.

"Q: Are there going to be credits in the economy and is there going to be an auction house or some other mechanism like that?

A: We're right now actually iterating and working on the design for the economy within the game, there's definitely units of trade within the game, we've played with a couple of different thematic themes in order to make it a little bit more digestible.. to make it more closer to the IP, to the universe, but we haven't really narrowed down on things. There'll definitely be an auction house, there is a robust economy designed into the game... of items, of skills, of things that you will find and need for your ship. how you pay for them is something that we're working on right now. "

Regarding ships and ship combat.

Q: How is the ship to ship combat system going to be, is it real time turn based or another way?

A: Ship-to-Ship combat system in space is measured, is paced, it is real time. We looked at it when we got the Star Trek license and sat in the room and started to figure out what we wanted to do, we looked at a lot of previous games and realised that a lot of them fell flat when they tried to make Star Trek space combat into a dog fighter. That really isn't what it is, that's not what it is in the shows and movies, it's all paced, it's strategic, so it is real time, you are flying your ship.. your real time moving energy from your port shields to your starboard shields. So it is real time, there is a lot of strategy, and positional aspects to it.

Q: Seems like everyone always wants the big ships, heavy cruisers, battle ships etc.. what are the small ship options like for Frigates and Destroyers? Will we be forced to move to bigger ships as we level, will we be able to use several small ships instead of one big one?

A: I would disagree that everyone wants the big ship, I don't know how many people here on the team would rather fly the Defiant, that's a pretty cool ship.... I'm trying not to say awesome swear-words while we do this! But I mean the Defiant is an awesome ship, the Voyager is an awesome ship and that's not the hugest ship that's out there. That being said, some of the biggest ships are kind of the high end game ships that you will advance to, but size really doesn't denote everything in the Star Trek canon, so there is definitely smaller ships that are high level ships that you can really really max out.

Nipping in the bud the misinformation some are trying to spread that Cryptic is neglecting the RPers .

Q: How do you plan to support role-playing and corrective play like we have in pen-and-paper games like 'The Dark Eye' or 'Dungeons and Dragons'?

A: Well Star Trek Online is an online roleplaying game and one of the things people get really really excited about is playing these games and coming back to them time and time again is the role playing aspects of it. Obviously the reason anybody wants to make this game, everybody here, is we want to be part of that universe, we want to roleplay within that universe-- so we want to make sure all the tools are there, we want you to be able to write your backstory, you being able to set up your fleet and how you want it and deal with your friends as you'd like to. Cryptic Studios feels that customization across the board is a huge part of the roleplaying experience so making sure that you look the way you want to, your bridge officers are who you want them to be and they have history that you play out. I hope because I want to be there, that Star Trek has a whole lot of different aspects that allow you to roleplay within it.

Cryptic really seems to be on the ball so far in my opinion. I still have nagging worries about some vital decisions yet to come regarding how they will nurture the faction vs faction game play, since that is clearly what now gives games long term viability, but it's very hard not to be impressed with the good thinking going on.

I'm curious how this auction house works since the Federation doesn't use money.I'm sure the members of the Klingon Faction will use gold pressed latinum.
Far as roleplaying goes, some people around hear obviously have a different interpretation of what that word means. I think as long as you can customize your character and develop your own story in a unique universe that you can role play to your heart's desire. I don't need to be strapped inside a starship with other players in order to do it.

All I can say is thank goodness that TOR was announced and we don't have to deal too much with the "make this game pre-CU SWG" crap like most new games have to deal with. You can still see those people littering on the TOR forums.

Sounds like STO is like SWG's "Jump to Lightspeed" just without the rest of the game, lol.

I guess the space combat is going to be similar to PotBS, just 3d.

Originally posted by Elikal

Sounds like STO is like SWG's "Jump to Lightspeed" just without the rest of the game, lol.

I guess the space combat is going to be similar to PotBS, just 3d.

Actualy from what I understand it will be like starfleet command or bridge commander. Personaly if thats the best Cryptic can do for an MMORPG based on such a huge IP. Then they sure in they heck don't have much talent. To make their reputation worse they cant get the interiors done and when questioned about their choices they act like a bunch of Nazi's. They have no imagination or skill in developing this type of game what so ever.

Originally posted by Starbuck1771

Originally posted by Elikal

Sounds like STO is like SWG's "Jump to Lightspeed" just without the rest of the game, lol.

I guess the space combat is going to be similar to PotBS, just 3d.

 

Actualy from what I understand it will be like starfleet command or bridge commander. Personaly if thats the best Cryptic can do for an MMORPG based on such a huge IP. Then they sure in they heck don't have much talent. 

I disagree. I haven't played Starfleet Command in a decade now, but Bridge Commander is still loaded on my system, and I think it would lend itself very well to MMORPG style combat. Rather than the simple "approach, maintain distance, and increase distance" settings you can select, you could replace them (or augment them) with various special attacks (Attack Pattern Riker 1, or somesuch) that you would receive as a result of training, purchasing, or loot drops. The combat system in BC is fairly simple, yet loaded with options, and not even half as complex as Starfleet Command, which would also be a plus for an MMORPG.

Originally posted by DragonShark

Originally posted by Starbuck1771

Originally posted by Elikal

Sounds like STO is like SWG's "Jump to Lightspeed" just without the rest of the game, lol.

I guess the space combat is going to be similar to PotBS, just 3d.

 

Actualy from what I understand it will be like starfleet command or bridge commander. Personaly if thats the best Cryptic can do for an MMORPG based on such a huge IP. Then they sure in they heck don't have much talent. 

I disagree. I haven't played Starfleet Command in a decade now, but Bridge Commander is still loaded on my system, and I think it would lend itself very well to MMORPG style combat. Rather than the simple "approach, maintain distance, and increase distance" settings you can select, you could replace them (or augment them) with various special attacks (Attack Pattern Riker 1, or somesuch) that you would receive as a result of training, purchasing, or loot drops. The combat system in BC is fairly simple, yet loaded with options, and not even half as complex as Starfleet Command, which would also be a plus for an MMORPG.

Actually it isn't going to be like any of the above. Pay no attention to the ignoramus who doesn't read faqs and/or are pissy because their trollish and spammish behavior isn't tolerated on the game's website.
 

The actual gameplay doesn't sound like anything we've played before because you will have combat in space, combat inside ships and starbases and combat on land. I don't remember any Star Trek Game that gave you the ability of all three. Now if by Bridge Commander you mean long ship to ship combat where tactics and management of ship resources are key then you would be 100 percent correct. I do remember Bridge Commander and that WAS the closest any game got to real Star Trek style space combat. It's definetly not going to be like any of the pew pew combat you see in MMORPGs today where fights are over in 5 seconds.

Yes, it is unfortunate that so many just post comments without taking the time to even do a small bit of research about the game.

There are so many features to it to differentiate it from any ST game that's come before, and from most mmos on the market.

Cryptic is doing a good job so far in my opinion. There's of course been some disappointments, like how they've seemed to miss that penalties for defeat in PvE and PvP need to sting a bit. As well as there still being some major aspects where they could drop the ball close to the end zone, like how the faction vs faction game play (which will involve competitive PvE, consensual PvP, and open PvP) will be implemented, and whether they'll actually take the steps needed to nurture it, but so far so good I think.

I dont trust in any MMO dev anymore. I will wait until the game is released. Whatever features they say the game will have before release is subject to change. So, yeah, I love Star Trek lore, but I may not like the game lol

 i would almost expect a city of heroes style money within the federation and whatnot, earn something like infamy for completeing missions for your higher ups and spend it on things they can provide you with or other players can sell you for your points, latinum would come in for the cross empire trade via the ferengi.  havent seen anything about ferengi being players so ild suspect them as an npc and black market setup.  i know the feds def dont use money outside of trading latinum to the ferengi for stuff now and then (riker used to always have a few bars handy, quark also owed him a small fortune in latinum on ds9).  the klingons dont really use cash either, they have their honor and generally take things from those weaker then they are if they dont want to trade them for something said klingon wants to part with hehe.  for the guys that do like money, cardassians persay, they adopted the ferengis gold pressed latinum and so did everyone else from what i can remember from the series'. if you aint trading latinum you aint in buisiness for long outside of the federation.