MMORPG.com's Jon Wood recounts his experiences with some of Star Trek Online's missions, giving readers an example of how they function within the game.

One of the most frequent requests that I have heard since we started presenting Inside Beta: Star Trek Online, is for more specific information about the kinds of missions in the game, so I thought I'd use this time to go into a little bit more depth.

First, I should say that I appreciate the way that the STO designers went about creating the missions for their game. They have been put together in such a way as to insure that players don't easily get bored of what they are doing, alternating between ship, space and ground missions.

Read Inside Beta: Missions.

Sounds promising.

I probably would have played the miner mission just as you did, Jon.  What, you mean I have to pay attention? :)

I wonder how quickly they gave you missions while patrolling.  Because knowing Cryptic I will spend a lot of wandering around patrolling before I happen on something that gives me a mission, at least CO was like that.  Other then having to patrol the rest sounded pretty good, I like the fact they are actually requiring you to pay attention during missions.  And not just clicking your way through NPC objectives, however at the same time I hope the quest context info is presented in a much more engaging manor then CO as well.  When that blue NPC dialog box pops up I know my eyes glaze over.

It sounds pretty good.  I can't wait to jump in and start playing.

I can honestly say I have never, ever ,ever, ever had as much fun with a MMO beta as I have had with STO, and I have pretty much beta tested every Major MMo out there. The game doesn’t try to be more than it is nor does it suffer from trying to please too many types of gamers at once. It simply puts you inside a Star Trek episode, thank god they limit the number of hours we can test or I would be divorced now, god help me when the game is actually released.

that's amazing

Well I guess it comes as no surprise that some of the missions described (and hoped for) sound like SWG space missions.  Guess it stands to reason you'd see a limited set of options with what you can do up there.

Patrol missions - hit 1 or 2 waypoints and something happens at the next

Timer missions - be they delay or hold this spot or protect X until it can do it's thing

Escort missions - (his later on wish version) always hated these in SWG as they were the most challenging

I wonder if on his patrol mission where he found a shipyard, if it gives you time to call in other ships to help or if you have to start grouped and hope to find something for the other ship to do

Sounds like he got a good mix of missions.

Any eccentric quests, like some of the really odd ones from early TNG and TOS.  Like getting trapped in a 1920s style Vegas hotel on some alien planet and having to figure out a way to get out, or having some something that just seems completely out of context with the rest of the sci-fi setting.

Ok not quite sure whats happening to allow so much open discussion about a closed beta.... have the rules changed around here ?

But that being the case I will chime and give my take... its not long...

Champions Online Expansion Pack, Star Trek Skins.

thats it.

Enjoyed the article Jon.  It definitely brings out a bit of the imagination many of us had as kids growing up to this universe.  These articles have provided a source of information that I am looking for to determine where to spend my next gaming purchase.

Keep it up bud!

Hmm sounds like Cryptic is doing the same thing as Bioware in thier upcomming Star Wars the Old Republic MMO. Storyline type MMO.  If this indeed the case it will be most welcome change to the usual boring stuff. 

Nicely written article, Jon. Fairly objective and detailed.  The cargo ship mission and diplomacy mission did have an air of Trek about them.

But the Species 8472 mission set off some subtle warning bells and then your comments:

1. Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.

You are describing an emotion more fitting of Star Wars than Star Trek here.  And that is what I've finally realized about STO: it has a cynical interpretation of the Star Trek universe.  With rare exception (the final DS 9 episodes) did the emotion of 'badassery' ever play across the screen for the protagonists. They were almost always loathe to use force to solve a problem, and never gleeful about it as this mission clearly evokes is you.  In Star Wars? Yes. Plenty of 'badassery' and 'yippie' moments of glee at the destruction of opponents.  Star Trek? Yeah, not so much.

If these 'yippie' moments are what STO is going for, then Cryptic really has failed to present Star Trek in a way I find appealing.

Originally posted by Cerion

Nicely written article, Jon. Fairly objective and detailed.  The cargo ship mission and diplomacy mission did have an air of Trek about them.

 

But the Species 8472 mission set off some subtle warning bells and then your comments:

1. Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.

You are describing an emotion more fitting of Star Wars than Star Trek here.  And that is what I've finally realized about STO: it has a cynical interpretation of the Star Trek universe.  With rare exception (the final DS 9 episodes) did the emotion of 'badassery' ever play across the screen for the protagonists. They were almost always loathe to use force to solve a problem, and never gleeful about it as this mission clearly evokes is you.  In Star Wars? Yes. Plenty of 'badassery' and 'yippie' moments of glee at the destruction of opponents.  Star Trek? Yeah, not so much.

 

If these 'yippie' moments are what STO is going for, then Cryptic really has failed to present Star Trek in a way I find appealing.

I don't agree.

One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)

Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.

Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)

Originally posted by Scrogdog

Originally posted by Cerion

Nicely written article, Jon. Fairly objective and detailed.  The cargo ship mission and diplomacy mission did have an air of Trek about them.

 

But the Species 8472 mission set off some subtle warning bells and then your comments:

1. Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.

You are describing an emotion more fitting of Star Wars than Star Trek here.  And that is what I've finally realized about STO: it has a cynical interpretation of the Star Trek universe.  With rare exception (the final DS 9 episodes) did the emotion of 'badassery' ever play across the screen for the protagonists. They were almost always loathe to use force to solve a problem, and never gleeful about it as this mission clearly evokes is you.  In Star Wars? Yes. Plenty of 'badassery' and 'yippie' moments of glee at the destruction of opponents.  Star Trek? Yeah, not so much.

 

If these 'yippie' moments are what STO is going for, then Cryptic really has failed to present Star Trek in a way I find appealing.

 

I don't agree.

One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)

Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.

Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)

   The setting of this game is in a time of open war with the Klingons.  So with that in mind, I can understand a more agressive stance from the Federation.

Originally posted by Scrogdog

Originally posted by Cerion

Nicely written article, Jon. Fairly objective and detailed.  The cargo ship mission and diplomacy mission did have an air of Trek about them.

 

But the Species 8472 mission set off some subtle warning bells and then your comments:

1. Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.

You are describing an emotion more fitting of Star Wars than Star Trek here.  And that is what I've finally realized about STO: it has a cynical interpretation of the Star Trek universe.  With rare exception (the final DS 9 episodes) did the emotion of 'badassery' ever play across the screen for the protagonists. They were almost always loathe to use force to solve a problem, and never gleeful about it as this mission clearly evokes is you.  In Star Wars? Yes. Plenty of 'badassery' and 'yippie' moments of glee at the destruction of opponents.  Star Trek? Yeah, not so much.

 

If these 'yippie' moments are what STO is going for, then Cryptic really has failed to present Star Trek in a way I find appealing.

 

I don't agree.

One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)

Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.

Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)

I never 'yippied' in the classic pulp sci-fi sense of revelry that Lucas tries to capture with Star Wars.  That is decidedly different than what Roddenberry was going for, and an even a more stark departure for the more recent series. Kirk and Piccard certainly approached leadership differently. But neither reveled gleefully in combat (unless possessed, which further proves the point) that is so prevalent in Star Wars. Star Trek nearly always presented a more serious tone regarding conflict.

So while the defeat of the Borg offered a very satisfying end to the conflict, there was no glee in it, nor was such expressed by the characters or myself in the theater.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy those gleeful feelings in Star Wars. When Luke blows up the Death Star, or Anikin destroys that Nemoidian Mothership, there is certainly some revelry to be had.  That is pulp fiction. That is the universe of Star Wars.

Originally posted by Cerion

Originally posted by Scrogdog

Originally posted by Cerion

Nicely written article, Jon. Fairly objective and detailed.  The cargo ship mission and diplomacy mission did have an air of Trek about them.

 

But the Species 8472 mission set off some subtle warning bells and then your comments:

1. Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.

You are describing an emotion more fitting of Star Wars than Star Trek here.  And that is what I've finally realized about STO: it has a cynical interpretation of the Star Trek universe.  With rare exception (the final DS 9 episodes) did the emotion of 'badassery' ever play across the screen for the protagonists. They were almost always loathe to use force to solve a problem, and never gleeful about it as this mission clearly evokes is you.  In Star Wars? Yes. Plenty of 'badassery' and 'yippie' moments of glee at the destruction of opponents.  Star Trek? Yeah, not so much.

 

If these 'yippie' moments are what STO is going for, then Cryptic really has failed to present Star Trek in a way I find appealing.

 

I don't agree.

One of the early knocks on TNG was that in situations where Kirk would "kick ass", Picard would instead have a meeting. :)

Kirk was most definitely a swashbuckling kicker of behind, in my opinion.

Though I might agree with the idea that Trek evolved over time to sometimes be other than that. Still, you yourself "yippied" when the Federation fleet destroyed the cube in First Contact, no? :)

I never 'yippied' in the classic pulp sci-fi sense of revelry that Lucas tries to capture with Star Wars.  That is decidedly different than what Roddenberry was going for, and an even a more stark departure for the more recent series. Kirk and Piccard certainly approached leadership differently. But neither reveled gleefully in combat (unless possessed, which further proves the point) that is so prevalent in Star Wars. Star Trek nearly always presented a more serious tone regarding conflict.

So while the defeat of the Borg offered a very satisfying end to the conflict, there was no glee in it, nor was such expressed by the characters or myself in the theater.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy those gleeful feelings in Star Wars. When Luke blows up the Death Star, or Anikin destroys that Nemoidian Mothership, there is certainly some revelry to be had.  That is pulp fiction. That is the universe of Star Wars.

 

Well, I don't see how a design decision promotes that. I'm sure when you play that scene that you'd be very calm in victory. :)

Of course, maybe you just read a little much in to what Jon said. After all, HE isn't in Starfleet. :)

I'm interested in knowing if there's multiple ways to complete a mission. For instance, could you have navigated to the same side of the Azura as the Orion battleship, dropped just the shield on the Azura's side and beamed them out, then fled for partial credit? Or were you railroaded into fighting the battleship whether you wanted to or not?

Things like that turn a game from "just another MMO" to a really cool one, because you can adapt your strategy to your abilities and get over humps that you're not really suited to handle at that point in the game.

Originally posted by Cerion

Nicely written article, Jon. Fairly objective and detailed.  The cargo ship mission and diplomacy mission did have an air of Trek about them.

 

But the Species 8472 mission set off some subtle warning bells and then your comments:

1. Miners came to the forefront again in a quick combat mission as they were being attacked by Orions. Being my badass self, I popped in with my ship and blasted 'em out of the sky.

You are describing an emotion more fitting of Star Wars than Star Trek here.  And that is what I've finally realized about STO: it has a cynical interpretation of the Star Trek universe.  With rare exception (the final DS 9 episodes) did the emotion of 'badassery' ever play across the screen for the protagonists. They were almost always loathe to use force to solve a problem, and never gleeful about it as this mission clearly evokes is you.  In Star Wars? Yes. Plenty of 'badassery' and 'yippie' moments of glee at the destruction of opponents.  Star Trek? Yeah, not so much.

 

If these 'yippie' moments are what STO is going for, then Cryptic really has failed to present Star Trek in a way I find appealing.

That is an excellent point. Even if he was really proud of having the flagship, JTK only kicked @ss after he'd exhausted the available alternatives. Picard's meetings were merely a group-oriented way of evaluating the alternatives that JTK and Cisco pretty much did on the fly with their bridge crews, so the approaches only differed in method, not purpose.

I'm really impressed by the descriptions of the missions in this article.  My biggest issue with Champions was the missions barely made any sense or at least seemed like thinly disguised missions from WoW or other fantasy MMOs.  The beat X enemy and collect Y item drop was the mission type I found most guilty of this.  City of Heroes had similar issues but it used instancing much more which made a mission easier to follow.

This is a really big piece of evidence that the devs "get Star Trek", something which they've often been accused of not doing.

It probably still has some tried and true MMO tropes, but as long as they're thinking out of the MMO box and trying to innovate a little I can give that a pass.

As for Starfleet "Men of Action", the Next Generation movies always tried to turn Picard into an action hero which frankly was always odd.  Granted Picard had episodes like "Starship Mine" where he got to play the action hero, it was very different from the elaborate stunts he did in the movies.

As for Kirk, yeah he wasn't exactly "Shoot first, and ask questions later" but how many episodes featured Kirk busting-out the "Shatner-Fu"?

I'd be very suprised if there were many "Planet full of 'I can't believe they're not Humans!' in what looks like X time period"-story arcs.  Mobster-planet, Nazi-planet, and 20th-century Roman-planet were cute, but let's be honest the stories came more from the fact that they had access to 1960's Hollywood Wardrobe and Sets.  Every so often they'd get really creative with the budget and have an episode like the with the Half-finished Wild West town on an Alien planet.

I love the original and the newer Star Treks, but after a while inconsistancies creep in and you end up with "Nitpickers guide to Star Trek".  I do think Trek in general has been missing a certain sense of "fun" the original series had.  The only thing I can think that might be a symptom of the fandom taking itself too seriously.

Originally posted by Razorback

Ok not quite sure whats happening to allow so much open discussion about a closed beta.... have the rules changed around here ?

But that being the case I will chime and give my take... its not long...

Champions Online Expansion Pack, Star Trek Skins.

thats it.

Umm, people under NDA are still under NDA. I suggest not discussing it as our rules haven't changed.

I have special permission as a member of the press... Just a warning.