http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=17843

"At Cryptic, we believe in Total Customization. It's our buzz word, one of our bullet points, and a basic pillar of our greater design philosophy... Total Customization.

In Star Trek Online, players will be able to change the appearance and the functionality of their starships to create the vessels they want to explore the galaxy with.

So, how does this Total Customization work? Let's start with the appearance of your ship.

You will begin the game with a small starship, but as you progress through Star Trek Online you will gain access to many other starship configurations. There are more than a dozen basic types on the Federation side. Within each of these configurations you can customize your ship's appearance.

You can swap out the saucers, change the pylons, modify the hull structure, or alter the nacelles. You can choose different materials for your ship - you might want something sleek and modern, while your friend loves the look of the ships from the original series. Both are possible. You also can choose the color of your ship (within a range appropriate to your faction), the color of various ship highlights, and what you want your details and trim pattern to be.

THREE POSSIBLE VERSIONS OF A MIRANDA CLASS STARSHIP

That's a lot of flexibility, but there are some limits to what you can do. Our goal is to let players have the ship they want, but also to help other players know what kind of ship someone has at a glance. You will be able to look at a ship and say, "That's a Galaxy configuration, so I know about how powerful that ship is." Or, "My opponent has a Raptor, so I know he has powerful frontal attack."

It's not all about looks, though. STO allows you to customize the functionality of your starship as well. There are two main ways to customize the operation of your ship - equipment and crew.

You will be able to get equipment that enhances the performance of your ship. Do you want to upgrade your medical facilities, or add improved phasers? How about replacing your deflector array or enhancing your sensors? You choose what works for you.

But, all equipment is not one-size-fits-all. An escort like the Defiant will have the slots and power needed for advanced weapons, but it might not have the room to have top-of-the-line science labs. So, the configuration of ship you choose is important.

Also important is your crew. Your Bridge Crew will have the biggest impact on what you can do, because they have skills and abilities you can call on that will help define your role. If you select a tactical officer who can load spreads of photon torpedoes, you will have different options than a Captain who picked an engineer specialized in shield modulation and efficiency. The number of your Bridge Crew active at any given time depends on your ship configuration.

You'll be able to upgrade your equipment and train your crew throughout the game, so there's always room to improve or change your ship.

You're the Captain in Star Trek Online. It's your ship, your crew, and your choice.... Total Customization."

this is an aspect of the game I am very much looking forward to exploring ^_^

 This is an aspect of the game that makes me cringe.

With the time period they are setting the game in I can see having htis feature, and think it is a great idea.

This is cool,

The only thing cooler would beer ..um..be ....yes be, Parting with your crew and hearing them yell stuff during battle or even just in peace time.

Originally posted by nubadak

This is cool,

 

The only thing cooler would beer ..um..be ....yes be, Parting with your crew and hearing them yell stuff during battle or even just in peace time.

 

 

Well you wouldn't be hearing your crew yell stuff I don't imagine. Since they'd not be seeing what's going on outside the ship, and all they'd be doing is monitoring some meter or maybe playing some mini game, chances are your crew would be asleep (if you could even find people that would want to be part of your crew and be relegated to such a boring game play experience).

On the other hand, I see ship captains in ships that they love because they got to customize them just the way they wanted to, all incredibly excited and talking or yelling to each other amidst fierce battles as they try and come up with strategies, help each other survive, etc etc etc etc etc.

Originally posted by nubadak

This is cool,

 

The only thing cooler would beer ..um..be ....yes be, Parting with your crew and hearing them yell stuff during battle or even just in peace time.

 

I bet you'll be able to part with your crew if you want.  The Devs have also said you can keep them and level them, so you kind of have your choice here.  They also said that your NPC crew would perform tasks and give you input, so you'll hear them.

If you meant "Partying with your PC crew" then I have to firmly disagree.  I want the whole ST experience, not just one crewman's perspective.  I want to feel like I'm participating in the whole show, not just part of it.  

If you want to work with people, just group with them.  Cryptic is known for making grouping and quest sharing.  Grouping is sure to be a huge part of the game.  Oh, and they also will have a free, in game, voice serivce so you can talk to your friends and hear them :)

Originally posted by DragonShark

 This is an aspect of the game that makes me cringe.

As a Star trek fan it does me as well but as a MMORPG fan I can understand why they are doing it. Individuality is important in MMOs as people want to look different than everyone else. Cryptic took this to new heights with CoH so they will do the same with STO. I do like the fact that they are allowing a certain degree of customization without going as far as allowing people to make totally new designs. Even if every ship looks a little different it will still have the basic style of the class that it belongs. For a Star Trek MMO I see this as the best possible compromise that Cryptic could make to keep the basic look of the original designs while still allowing for every ship to appear unique.

Bren

Originally posted by Brenelael

Originally posted by DragonShark

 This is an aspect of the game that makes me cringe.

As a Star trek fan it does me as well but as a MMORPG fan I can understand why they are doing it. Individuality is important in MMOs as people want to look different than everyone else. Cryptic took this to new heights with CoH so they will do the same with STO. I do like the fact that they are allowing a certain degree of customization without going as far as allowing people to make totally new designs. Even if every ship looks a little different it will still have the basic style of the class that it belongs. For a Star Trek MMO I see this as the best possible compromise that Cryptic could make to keep the basic look of the original designs while still allowing for every ship to appear unique.

 

Bren

I was pleasantly surprised when this article came out. I thought a few changes here and there were possible, but geez, those are three completely different looking Miranda class ships.I think I prefer the one on the bottom that has plating like the NX-01.

Originally posted by Brenelael

Originally posted by DragonShark

 This is an aspect of the game that makes me cringe.

As a Star trek fan it does me as well but as a MMORPG fan I can understand why they are doing it. Individuality is important in MMOs as people want to look different than everyone else. Cryptic took this to new heights with CoH so they will do the same with STO. I do like the fact that they are allowing a certain degree of customization without going as far as allowing people to make totally new designs. Even if every ship looks a little different it will still have the basic style of the class that it belongs. For a Star Trek MMO I see this as the best possible compromise that Cryptic could make to keep the basic look of the original designs while still allowing for every ship to appear unique.

 

Bren

Never said I didn't understand it. Since this game still appears to be basically the PE version with some Cryptic rolled in, the old rationalizations that PE made still seem to apply. The thinking is that avatars have to be customizable to keep people interested. And the spaceship is your avatar for a good portion of the game.

 im looking forward to stripping all the useless junk like science labs and universal translating com gear off my klingon battle ships so i can pack on even more armor torpedoes and launchers muahahahahahahahaha

Originally posted by DragonShark

 This is an aspect of the game that makes me cringe.

and why is that?

sounds great except for the 'recognise your abilities at first glace' crap, that dissapoints me.  Surely half of the battle in ANY space/naval game is fooling your opponent on what assets you have.

Why can't i make an attack ship disguised as a mining vessel?

Oh well, so long as there is plenty of customisation (buzz word woo!!!) then it might make up for the lack of other features (walking on ships, multiplayer crews...ect)

 well i dont know about all that recognizing, i mean sure you might be able to peg a ship as a science vessel due to lack of phaser banks/launchers and alot of sensor antenae, but then again the feds hulls are all multipurpse, they dont have many pure attack ships i can think of other then say the defiant, a kick ass lil attack ship at that.  you klingons have similar setups except that all their ships are attackers and they lack much in the way of unarmed transports or science vessels although im sure they have a few ships capable of good sensors to find their prey for the fleet and whatnot.  your romulans are all just a bunch of deceptive pricks so who knows what theyll have for options, they never like you to know what theyre up to.

This is the first aspect of this game that actually has me interested in playing.

This has caught my eye.  I've always been a big Star Trek fan and one thing that has always interested me the most about it was no doubt the ships.  If a player can build make their ship their own they will definitly have a little more pride in it.  If everyone in the game all had cookie cutter designed ships, how boring...

With a feature like this, you would be able to add exterior modifications to ships as you progress; so, you wouldn't necissarly be forced to upgrade to a new ship every time you progressed your character.

As long as they don't allow people to modify a ship to a point where it looks nothing like the class of ship it is I'm all ears or eyes I should say.  One little catch would be ships of other races outside of the federation, how many times have you seen a modified bird of prey or a Vor'Cha battlecuiser that looked different than the others?  Most of the other factions in Star Trek usually kept their ships fairly uniform; so, I am curious to see how the modifcation feature would work on other ships of other factions. 

Originally posted by nubadak

This is cool,

 

The only thing cooler would beer ..um..be ....yes be, Parting with your crew and hearing them yell stuff during battle or even just in peace time.

 

 

No you were right the first time. The Beer Cooler Captains Chair would be a very cool addon to any Starship. Now if you could just get one with an installed toilet also you'd never have to stop playing!!!

Bren

 its looking more like the ship class chasis is a skeletal frame that you can plate in various materials capable of being used on that veseel, engine choices the same way based on the ship, weapon loadouts ect and so on.  it leaves a good variety of potential combinations and possibly some superficial visuals such as coloring may be available as well that would affect stats or combat but just color appearence, its a very interesting and potentially awesome way to do it, i cant wait to play im just so bored with the current space games that have come out recently (legacy was fun but way to short for a bethesda title, i was expecting oblivion esc amounts of missions and beat it in 20 something hours arghhhhh).