Klingons cannot be called a full fledged faction because everything released to date says they don't have episodic content.  If faction B has all the content faction A does except X, it's not a full faction within that game.

Originally posted by trnqlChaos  

Me too, and I agree. With PE's direction it would have been a total disaster if it ever launched; they seemed more interested in Gods and Heroes than a well-known IP with a huge following. Cryptic has benefited by being able to use the same engine in Champions Online and STO. The time they saved building the engine went into design. I have to imagine that extra time will translate to more content at launch than most MMOs.

I'm not sure benefitted is the right word.  It will help them get it out the door faster and that's it.  Rather than take the time "saved" by using a pre-existing engine to better the game they just seem to want to release it.

Hmm.  I wasn't aware watching Adult Swim makes me a stoner.  *shrug*

Battlef should be Bat'leth.

I think if they do LT subs that the cost will be higher than $199 because CBS needs a chunk of that.  The licensing is why I think it's possible they wouldn't do LT subs.  So I'm 50/50 on whether they will do LT subs.

Originally posted by erictlewis

The ships look cool, however the player models really lack something or at least in this shot they just look so skinny and out of wack.  Possibly a bad screenshot.

 The medical officer on the front lines wow the face is all out of wack, and what up with 2 andorians in star fleet uniforms, I did not know they were in the federation.  Maybe 1 transfer officer but 2?  

Yea they need to do some tune up on the character faces,  now like I said they done a good job on the ships.

It's that 8 ½ heads tall design crap.  It's supposed to make figures look more heroic.  I think it looks out of place and crappy.  Design is subjective. *shrug*

Originally posted by Pedrob

Well Cryptic is located in California, and to this point it's going to be one huge server for everyone. 

Sadly, yes, STO will undoubtedly use the same method as CO.

Originally posted by ktanner3

Originally posted by TookyG

Originally posted by ktanner3

As technology and software  gets faster development time will naturally get quicker. You can't expect a game that comes out in 2010 to take the same amount of time to develop as one from 2000.

What is your basis for this statement?

Common sense.

OK, so then using your "common sense" you believe that triple A titles released in 2020 will only have been in development a year?

Originally posted by vmoped

I really dont understand how many posters can honestly believe that Cryptic is going to release this game with lots of content and a working Genesis system. Look at CoH and CO within their first year. Lots of promises for release and features end up being added in over time that were supposed to be in at launch. Im sorry, but this company has burned many others and I twice already. I sincerely hope I am wrong here for all the fans, but Cryptic has a pattern or deceit and failure to deliver.

Cheers!

Agreed.  That's why I highly doubt there will be a good amount of content.

Originally posted by Trowa_Barton

Originally posted by TookyG

Originally posted by Trowa_Barton

You do know they gonna have more then just episodic content and what the genesis system does in the game.

 

Yes.  I sincerely hope that there's tons of content to keep replayability high...but I doubt there will be.

 

Well they said they gonna have raid/fleet action content and there is pvp stuff to do.

Indeed, they did say that.  That is end game content though.  I'd like there to be enough content that, at least for the first quarter of character progression, you could level half a dozen characters and not see repeated stuff.  Seeing as many games have dozens of quests in a starting zone and a half dozen or more starting zones it's not asking for too much I don't think.  Particularly because with Star Trek Online the quests would only have to be sprinkled in 2 starting areas as opposed to, say, WoW's 8.

Originally posted by Trowa_Barton

You do know they gonna have more then just episodic content and what the genesis system does in the game.

Yes.  I sincerely hope that there's tons of content to keep replayability high...but I doubt there will be.

Originally posted by ktanner3

PS:Before any of the usual suspects go pouncing on this post, I'm not knocking anyone that enjoys playing games for purely social reasons. Just saying that there isn't enough of an audience to sustain an MMO that makes money because in the end that is why developers go thru all the trouble in the first place. 

63 million people play FarmVille.  There's a large enough audience for anything if done properly.  That's the key though.  You have to do it right.

Originally posted by Raltar

From the sound of the interview, I would assume that the five person limit on instances applies to episodes (the "quests" of the game).

The game world itself doesn't sound like it will be broken up the way Guild Wars was. Instead of going from one "zone" to another "zone" like in guild wars, this game seems to have a few main social hubs (Starbases and the like) and then when you are traveling through space you will be on a "world map" type of screen where you will see locations like star systems, star bases, points of interest and such. Entering one of those locations will then take you into a specific type of area based on what it was you entered. Some areas will be randomly generated instances and some will be common areas where you can run into other players. What portion of the game will end up being instanced isn't known at this point really.

That is my understanding based on what I've read about the game. I make no promise that I'm correct in any of what I said.

I think this is how it will be also.  There will be no "space" in Star Trek Online just hot spots where things occur.  Forget just warping out into the middle of nowhere.

Why would you want to do that anyway?!  Wouldn't you rather just warp in on top of a Klingon Vor'cha-class attack cruiser and blow it up?!  Then, you could warp to another system and blow up a Breen warship...but don't forget to alter your shields so their energy dampening weapon is nullified!  See, you can do more than just fight in this game!  You have to modify your shields for that fight or you'll lose!

Originally posted by ktanner3

As technology and software  gets faster development time will naturally get quicker. You can't expect a game that comes out in 2010 to take the same amount of time to develop as one from 2000.

What is your basis for this statement?

I feel that given what we know about the "episodic content" they've made, mainly, the number of episodes--it's likely there will be a lack of content in my opinion.  Clearly the "genesis system" they keep pimping will be used to round out the content they have but I find it unlikely that the system will be robust enough to provide content that doesn't get repetitive.  I'm beginning to think that many developers who started working on their games a couple years back decided that to get the level of polish people expect from MMOs now that they needed to drastically scale back their designs so they could launch within their budget.  The problem there is that now we're seeing shells of MMOs--nice and shiney shells--but shells non-the-less.

Originally posted by NovaKayne

Nice but, I hope they get the scale right.

 

Looking at that pic it seems like the characters are very small and the bridge.... even the captains chair looks like it was made for a giant!!!!!

 

Scale people.  Get the scale close to what a ship's bridge looks like.  If THAT is an issue I can only assume there will be a lot more problems with this game......

Indeed.  It's not just the chair that's giant compared to the characters it's the entire bridge.  I can't understand why people take beloved franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars and pull this cliched artistic design crap.  8 ½ heads tall blah blah blah.  NO!  Make it proportional.  Proportional design will never go out of style like the garbage of a giant lightsaber in a tiny hand will!  MMOs aren't games you just toss on the shelf and that's it.  It will be played by people for a decade plus if you're lucky and the artistic choices you make now will reflect on your game forever.

While I applaud this decision I don't believe for a moment it will keep me playing longer than I would have otherwise.  Now if this was a real star trek experience wrapped in a game, then I'd play until the servers went offline...since it's not...I'll sub for a couple months most likely.  And that's being generous because while the game is likely to be bad...it is star trek.  I owe it at least 2 months.

The game won't "fail" in that it will be closed but as is the norm for major MMORPG releases now it will see an initial surge in players after launch and then drop like a rock.

If February 2nd is indeed the release date, I'm simultaneously pleased and disappointed. I'm pleased because it will be a birthday present to myself and I'm disappointed because I know that there's no way it will be a solid product. I already have many misgivings about the game, and indeed I'm only going to try it because I'm a huge Trekkie, but launching just a few months after the start of closed beta doesn't sound promising.

Let's see, my post launch sub crash predictions for AoC and WAR were both about 100,000 players too high so taking that into account...Hm, I'm torn. This is a hard game for me to judge. I can't nail down my prediction. On one hand I see it having about 250,000, on the other hand I can see roughly 150,000 (keep in mind these are numbers for about 3-6 months after release). I guess I'll just have that window as my prediction: 150-250K.

Originally posted by Xondar123

What a surprise. More battle scenes.

The last screenshot is Earth. I can see the Great Lakes, the St. Lawerence, and Newfoundland.

Indeed.  I wouldn't have known that our star system has a clearly visible blue cloud around it!    I realize it's just a video game but for crying out loud, not all space needs LSD inspired backgrounds, particularly not the space around our system...