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Star Trek Online Previews: Hands-On Preview
MMORPG.com traveled down to Los Gatos to talk to the team and play Star Trek Online.
By Dana Massey on November 30, 2009
Cryptic Studios has a lot to juggle with Star Trek Online and so do the people playing it. During a recent studio visit to their Los Gatos, CA office, MMORPG.com got the chance to play the game and talk to Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich about the title.
The biggest challenge for the team is to juggle what amounts to two games. There’s the “ship” content, where the player plays a tactical battle in outer-space as the ship’s captain, and then there’s the “away missions” where the player controls a squad of avatars.
“The vision is that as you play through the content you feel like you’re in the movies, the TV shows,” explained Zinkievich.
;)
They broke the missions up into mini-arcs that obviously owe a lot to a TV episode. They always begin in space with the player sent off on some kind of mission. Upon arrival, there is some kind of space-based challenge – in my hands-on time that meant combat – and then the story draws the player down onto land or some other kind of away mission.
There are four core “modes” that players experience.
The first is “Sector Space,” which is how people get around at a very high level. They have a small avatar and can fly from sector to sector on a very broad map. Think of this like an interactive version of how people go from area to area in Dragon Age, or perhaps Sid Meier’s Pirates! The avatar is controlled, it’s even 3D (you can go up and down), and there are enemies out there who can draw you into other missions or combat. Largely, though, this is how the avatars get from place to place. They’re in warp.
The second is closer in. This is when the ship has arrived at a location and is out of warp. This is where tactical space combat takes place and a lot of the formative part of missions are presented. The player is a captain in charge of a single vessel. It’s 3D, without the ability to go upside down. People can go up and down, side to side, but never do get inverted. This was perhaps a controversial decision, but for the average player it’s much easier, and rarely did Star Trek ever show upside down ships in the shows.
The third is away missions. Usually as part of a story, the team is called to beam down to another ship, a planet or a moon. Here the player controls up to five avatars. The composition of the team depends entirely on the amount of real people with them. If you’re solo, you control your avatar and four NPCs from your crew. If you’re with a friend, both have their avatars, and split who brings what crew. The number, though, is always five. Theoretically, although I never saw this, a five man group would be all five captains.
Finally, there are ship interiors. In other words it’s the interior of your own space ship. They’ve mentioned this briefly in an AP article a few weeks ago, but we went a lot more in depth. Details on this and the really nitty-gritty of how bridge crews work will follow in a preview later this week.
;)
Space
The most complete and balanced of these systems is easily the ship combat stage. This is a slower, more tactical game that has more in common with Pirates of the Burning Sea ship combat than the average MMO. A lot of the gameplay centers around positioning and shield balance.
Player ships come in three classes: Science, Escort and Cruiser. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages. Escorts are faster, Cruisers more combat oriented and Science more systems oriented. Beyond that, players customize their ships in a few ways.
Devices are consumable items that give a boost to specific area, Consoles are devices plugged into the ships – they suggested thinking of them like the classic RPG “rings” that provide persistent buffs – and weapons can be subbed in and out to customize the role you want to play. Players can also play with their engines and shields.
In combat you have to balance where the energy goes. It can be assigned to weapons for increased damage, engines for speed, shields for defense or auxiliary for secondary things like tractor beams.
Beyond that, the shields must be balanced. Each ship has four fields around it. Fore, aft, port (left) and starboard (right). Combat is extremely position based. Ships do far more damage when they can fire two phaser banks at once, which usually means you want to shoot from the side, and while it is possible to move the energy to different shields to compensate for where incoming fire is hitting, turning about and making sure they never zero in on one section of your shields is also very effective.
;)
The weapons you buy really make a difference too. Different weapons not only change how much damage they do, but also the angles from which they can be shot. My ship, for example, had fore and aft phaser banks that both extended to the side. This allowed me to do the double-shot broad-sides I mentioned before.
At this time, you fly your ship with WASD. W and S control the pitch of the ship. Is it diving down or flying up higher? The A and D buttons turn the ship. Velocity is determined in the UI. Players can run at full impulse or slow right down to really hammer on a target. It’s all in the tactics.
Weapons are fired with the space bar and while they are still tuning them, at the time of our hands-on, one click fired five phaser bursts. Photon Torpedoes and other abilities are fired separately from the default phaser shots.
Like the show, a typical battle is mostly phasers until the shields come down. Then, the players swoop in and fire off a round of photons through the holes in the shields to really take out the enemy.
Bridge Officers also play a big role in space combat. Each ship has a set number of seats assigned to it and you must assign your bridge officers to fill them up. These are tactical, engineering and science. Some ships will have more than one seat for each type. Once plugged in, you then have access to their special abilities. For example, a tactical officer might give you some kind of special attack. These are the closest thing to the traditional MMO hotbar. Again, more details on the Bridge Officers will come in Wednesday’s article.
The Captains have some tricks up their sleeves too. Each one gets up to four active “Captain Powers,” one per rank, plus one passive one. These are earned essentially each 10 levels.
The entire space-combat game seemed to be nailed down pretty well and was easily the strongest part of the game. It’s got a pace that is a bit slower than the average game, but there is so much to be aware of and manage that it felt right. Is it a dog-fight? Of course not, but Star Trek combat has never been about that.
I have to wonder if Cryptic would re-extend that offer to come visit had they known about mmorpg.coms willingness to leave leaked beta footage on their forums for days on end, or the yellow journalism blog pieces that basically called them con artist.
Ship combat sounds like a bit o' fun maybe. The lack of detail in the article on the mechanics of shipboard and away team combat makes for boring reading.
Still I'm wondering if the game will include 'classic' Star Trek scenarios, as that Next Generation stuff gets up my nose.
Actually that's a very informative preview with quite an insight into some game mechanics which - as far as I know - were not revealed before.
Ship combat = awesome
ground combat = not so much
...
I guess i'm a "glass is half empty" kinda guy, but why do i get the feeling that this is going to be space, static ship and multiple missions that amount to like 8 randomly generated maps with different henchmen strewn about like COH? Time will tell i guess.
The more I hear about this game, the more worried I am that I will not like it, which I think is bad PR on Cryptic's part. I should be getting more excited as launch gets closer, not less.
Very informative in my opinion.
I have a very clear picture of how the game would flow and play out of this now. Of course it helps having played games such as Sea Dogs, and Sea Dogs II or Pirates of the Burning Sea, as the Principle of High Seas Travel to Ship to Ship to Ground is the same in a different setting.
I also love the fact Combat will be Tactical and positional in nature!
This article made me excited :)
Maybe there is hope for this game after all. Finally some good info to go on.
On the contrary, you should always approach any new game with the expectation that you won't enjoy it. That way you'll either be pleasantly surprised, or at least not disappointed.
I can't count the number of games I've seen games declared to have "failed" because expectations were too high up front. If instead the game is judged based on what it is, rather than what we want it to be, it's more likely to be successful.
That's not to say high expectations are a bad thing, just that we often kneecap our own enjoyment by demanding specific features or events inside a game instead of understanding that what we really want is for much more general desires to be met (i.e. someone who expects a fully voice-acted mission system vs someone who wants an engaging and involving PVE experience-one places a specific demand on the game, the other is a much more general demand on the design philosophy behind the game, which still gives the devs freedom to meet that demand in any number of creative ways.)
At the end of the day, you won't know whether or not you'll like the game until you play it yourself. But just make sure it's you that's playing it, not your preconceptions.
Though to be fair, Cryptic did clearly acknowledge that ground combat is not where they want it, and they're going to be working on it quite a bit.
Good or bad, I plan on at least trying it. Whether I make it past the open beta however, is yet to be seen...
I always liked it when TNG directly ripped off one of the old Classic episodes / plots. Other than that I agree with you, too many times I remember sitting there just thinking 'don't TALK, just SHOOT 'EM!!!!'
WASD? I thought it would be more like bridge commander. Ennh guess I'll see it when I see it.
I'm glad that flying won't be "click target then orbit at set range". Some actual interactive space flight is what the sci-fi genre needs.
Sounds like an excellent single player game. It would be cool if someone were to take this IP and make an MMO.
I've got to say, this preview is far superior than the load of crap previews we've gotten from several other sites that all iterate on the SAME THINGS. So I've got to hand it to MMORPG.com for doing a more thorough job.
At the same time however, I am not excited about Bridge Officers and such. We have heard Cryptic drone on and on about this for almost half a year now, and its one feature that I'm starting to disdain only because they have nothing else to talk about.
What about the CRAFTING system? People want to know how this would be done since the IP doesn't exactly lend itself to a traditional "MMO crafting system" but still players want something clever and deep, not simply commodity exchange (which is what they've described it to be thus far).
And what about the economy, another thing the IP struggles with. Will energy be able to purchase USEFUL items, or will it all be junk stuff like what they have going on in Champions Online? Will it be a player driven economy like EVE's, or some generic auction house set up?
STO has LOADS of potential, but a whole lot of us are hoping that Cryptic doesn't muff up this monumental opportunity to develop this IP into an MMO (hats off to them, I recognize the difficulty and respect them for taking on the task).
so the whole star trek exploration thing is out the window?
Aside from the names and images, the whole 'Trek' thing is out the window.
yes, missions and combat seems to be it from what i can garner
no free exploration at all
but that would be a bit much for this developer wouldn't it?
Aside from the names and images, the whole 'Trek' thing is out the window.
Yup, and that has a lot of people very disappointed.
Cryptic is taking a deep and rich IP with more lore than you could ever want, and stripping it down to a combat sim.
It is impossible to make a game based on an IP as long running and well developed as Star Trek is and not have some expectations to live up to.
And it looks like Cryptic isn't....
The whole exploration thing is probably just going to be a random mission generator, which isn't really exploration at all. Go to a certain place in a game, get a new space system to "explore." Don't like it? Exit and then get a whole new system to "explore".
At least their trying something, Tell me how they should have done that? Go on, you have a better idea, share. Rember if it's static it will be on Wiki in 48 hours.
One of the first honest write ups I've seen that didn't blow sugar in your face or make you want to hit the writer from their first sentence. Good job, looking forward to Wednesday.
I'd be willing to bet that some sort of exploration thing is in the works...perhaps something similar to the way EVE Online does it?
And have you noticed the people slamming the game/calling it failed/ruining the IP seem to be the same 10-15 people in every post about STO?
After playing at PAX, I am willing to give Cryptic the benefit of the doubt. Space combat alone with just a basic ship and 3 mini-BoP's was a blast. If a little fight like that is that much fun to me, can't wait until the later ones.
I am also starting to get the feeling that the lack of info coming out about this is intentional....almost like they are trying to balance hype building while still keeping bits back to surprise us.
And thank you for the great preview and some real info :D
Oh please, give me a break.
I'll be avoiding this like the plague.
Cryptic's AI for pets in their games has always been terrible. CO's pet AI was worse, WAY worse, than my Necro pets in Everquest um, 10 years ago? And now they're basically giving most every mission "team members" that are basically glorified pets? no way jose!
Yep, nice insight. Thanks Danna, looking foreward to wednesdays installment.
Nice to that cryptic made it tactical in space, very authentic. as you say, "Away" combat is needing some touch up.. I'm looking foreward to see what happens over the next couple of months.
By the Way, Does anyone know if STO will be a world-wide release or a reagional release plan?
At least their trying something, Tell me how they should have done that? Go on, you have a better idea, share. Rember if it's static it will be on Wiki in 48 hours.
I have a better idea -- or at least I can point you to a genius programmer who does: Check out Infinity: The Quest for Earth.
As for the article, a job well done by Dana. All the MMORPG.com journalists should look at this article, study it, and copy its style for future game previews. Objective and thorough.
Having said that...still not jazzed about STO.
I like space games like eve etc, I watched star trek a few times I sorta liked it but tbh I'd have to get a beta invite or free trial before I buy this game as It's too shady on how the pvp system works, if it is going to be a true mmo where you can group with others often.....So much left to explain or I need to read more it did spark a interst tho and I am sure my nerdy neighbors will buy the CE so I can just go over there to watch em play lol.
Where is the MMOPRG gone in this? This just sounds like any bloody single player star trek game u can play atm on the PC. Hell I was playing star trek games based on voyager with away missions where u controlld a squad of avatars 6+ years ago. This whole game sounds bloody bizzare to me. Crytpic have lost their marbles big style.
And I was playing a game with elves and casting spells against orcs 10 years ago, what exactly is your point? The MMORPG aspect is forming fleets to take on the Borg, or the Scimitar-class warbirds, or a wall of Birds of Prey. I don't mean to sound insulting, but your argument makes no sense at all to me, could you elaborate?
Not if the game is profitable. If they sell enough boxes, enough CEs, enough long-term subs, and get enough people to stay subbed for 4-6 months, then the game will be profitable.
If it goes into maintenance mode after a year, the investors will have made their Return On Investment and be satisfied enough to fund the next craptastic MMO-lite Cryptic churns out.
We have seen enough of these MMO releases to suspect that this is indeed the business model in use.
It's not that they have lost their marbles - it's that we and they have totally different ideas of 'success'.
I have a better idea -- or at least I can point you to a genius programmer who does: Check out Infinity: The Quest for Earth.
As for the article, a job well done by Dana. All the MMORPG.com journalists should look at this article, study it, and copy its style for future game previews. Objective and thorough.
Having said that...still not jazzed about STO.
man is infinity still going? I cant wait to see that game
STO will never deliver everything everyone wants in a game, its one reason why they have shifted the concept to a war scenario.Just doing the IP as diplomacy only would have (probably) resulted in a short attention span for gamers.
The only game I know that made Diplomacy fun was Vanguard, with its deck of cards approach, but even that had its limitations.
I am enjoying what STO has to offer so far, like any game, its goning to ahve its naysayers and its fans, some people hate the game because they cant have fully managed Player Crews (just how interesting can you make 'Divert power to shields'?)
The beta is still ongoing atm, why not let them get that complete before everyone starts hating on the game?
And I was playing a game with elves and casting spells against orcs 10 years ago, what exactly is your point? The MMORPG aspect is forming fleets to take on the Borg, or the Scimitar-class warbirds, or a wall of Birds of Prey. I don't mean to sound insulting, but your argument makes no sense at all to me, could you elaborate?
Where has the actual meeting of other players in cities or space or planets gone? Where has crafting gone?, where has diplomacy or some sort of faction wars gone?, where has interstellar diplomacy or treaties gone, where has PVP gone. Id expect this all from a bloody Star trek game, other than flying around space, and then being beamed upon a fuucking mission in a scenario with 4 bloody NPC avatars.
I find that if a game is surrounded by it's missions ,it will end up being super linear and play exactly like a single player game.
I used to like those types of games,but i guess i am spoiled now,i cannot stand mission oriented games.I like "the game" to be totally open ended with my choice to do missions if i wanted.I really liked the way FFXI did missions,they were not a MUST to level up nor a MUST or to get rich or gain xp or valuable items,,they were designed to be added content,witch is exactly the way i like it.
The way they describe this "breaking the game into episodes" based on the movie,i really feel like it is going to be that mission based game,as boring as playing EVE.
I like the vision that the majority of people wanted and that was "ALL the content"from living on the ship ,to planet exploration/combat/housing,the whole works.Obviously it takes a lot more effort but hey Cryptic inherited 3/4 of the game already,so why couldn't they put in the effort for massive content.
My gut tells me people are going to be very disappointed in this game,too bad,i was a sort of trekky fan back in the day,i would love to see the game turn out great.Anyone that knows the background of this game,knows Cryptic pretty much inherited the entire game,so i highly doubt they sought all the work if they did not plan on using the original work,this is why ,i doubt there was any after effect on this game.By that i mean it is what Perpetual made it,Cryptic is just the cash cow.
If Cryptic was SERIOUS about a trek game,they would have designed it from the ground up with their own vision and creative content,acquiring someone else's work ,is a dead giveaway that it won't be much of a game,especially from a developer that never finished a game.
Aside from the names and images, the whole 'Trek' thing is out the window.
They have said there will be diplomacy and exploration of new worlds and new civilizations.
I have a better idea -- or at least I can point you to a genius programmer who does: Check out Infinity: The Quest for Earth.
As for the article, a job well done by Dana. All the MMORPG.com journalists should look at this article, study it, and copy its style for future game previews. Objective and thorough.
Having said that...still not jazzed about STO.
man is infinity still going? I cant wait to see that game
STO will never deliver everything everyone wants in a game, its one reason why they have shifted the concept to a war scenario.Just doing the IP as diplomacy only would have (probably) resulted in a short attention span for gamers.
The only game I know that made Diplomacy fun was Vanguard, with its deck of cards approach, but even that had its limitations.
I am enjoying what STO has to offer so far, like any game, its goning to ahve its naysayers and its fans, some people hate the game because they cant have fully managed Player Crews (just how interesting can you make 'Divert power to shields'?)
The beta is still ongoing atm, why not let them get that complete before everyone starts hating on the game?
I just checked out Infinity because of Cerion's post and well... holy mother of MMOs!! I guess it may never come to fruition but that IS the kind of vision that science fiction (imho) warrants. It puts things on the kind of mind-blowing scale that some of the stories from Isaac Asimov used to do in my younger years. STO sounds like a mini-game in comparison and like other posters I struggle too to get excited about it. I struggle too to understand why it is an MMO...
They have said there will be diplomacy and exploration of new worlds and new civilizations.
Where is the crafting? They said there would be crafting but nobody talks about it.
Randomly-generated worlds and civilizations. Can you imagine how lame randomly-generated civilizations will be?
I have played single-player games with random content. It tends to suck.
It's because WoW is an MMO, and has made billions of dollars.
Randomly-generated worlds and civilizations. Can you imagine how lame randomly-generated civilizations will be?
I have played single-player games with random content. It tends to suck.
Still better than go kill 10 space rats and bring their space testicles.
I like Cryptic struggling to give an experience as similar to the tv shows as they can, it's admirable.
If some people around here would play a Star Trek MMO more like WoW, instead of one that feels more like an episode, those people are nuts.
I'd rather play a crappy system that is NEW and original(because it can be improved), instead of one that's "good" because it has been used in 20 other games.
Starship combat in STO sounds more like naval warfare then spacecombat to me. Except for the tilting perhaps :) But its odd that you cant roll, because ' rarely did Star Trek ever show upside down ships in the shows' lol. Just because it made a prettier picture in the shows, doesnt make it less effective in tactical combat. And to the writer, there is no up and down in space.
Im disappointed that Cryptic didnt flesh out the ship vs ship combat, but sticked to what they already did in other of their games (tank, spank and healing).
I expected to be able to board enemy ships (npc or playerships), disable subsystems to prevent them from getting away (engine, core etc). Also a team on board, not just one player on a ship. The 'everyone wants to be captain' argument doesnt hold, if you simply make other positions on the ship exciting. Besides you can simply make it like in SWG (but with more depth then that old game of course), where the owner of the gunboat is 'captain'. If there was boarding of other ships outside the missions specifically designed for it, people would also be interested in defending the ship or boarding the enemy's ship.
With the bridge just a social hub, itll be rarely used by others then yourself, just like houses in many MMORPG's that have barely functionality. Its just fluff, nothing more.
I love the fact that i'll control a team of 4 persons in away missions(cause i like those games), altho i would have preferred a team of at least 20 real persons inside a ship, persons i need to know, work with, discuss the next steps of action.
And this leads to the next problem, which is puzzles! For a mission to be interesting, it must offer some kind of challenge. Where exactly will this be? Usually in the episode the crew has to work hard to get informations, and these lead to several courses of action to choose among, actions that may either solve the situation or lead to catastrophy. And this is valid also when the ship is face-to-face with another ship, there's several possibilities, only one is the best, maybe 2 lead to a medium outcome.
We can resume these to violent and non-violent choices, and several grey-areas.
but there MUST be choices, it's the fulcrum of the series, the suspence, the realism imbued to it that got people to love 'em.
Without choices and speculative puzzles(with written historical records to read to get clues, tricorders to examine, panels to search, everything!), the game would end up being mob spam, boring ship battles that have nothing of SCI-FI except the looks. They said it themselves, the battles feel like pirates of the burning sea... that's a shame, SCI-FI is not aesthetical difference, just sea battles and pirates but all in space.
They have said there will be diplomacy and exploration of new worlds and new civilizations.
They can't even give us details about 1 of the 2 playable factions, so forgive us for being skeptical about the game having anything resembling the depth of real MMOs.
Do you realize that when you say "the depth of real MMO's" you're referring to the cloned elements coming from damn warcraft?
That's the whole reason why they don't make original MMO's anymore, because we are scared.
When you said there's nothing of the real MMO's you were scared because you didn't see anything you could recognize and feel comfortable with. You felt in a strange and awkward world you don't recognize, it's frightening.
I doubt STO will actually be different and strange, but it's exactly the fear of exploring newgrounds that keep us from seeing new MMO's, because i repeat, new things feel awkward and inferior.
In a way you symbolize the cause of all our misery.
I'm not sure WTH you are talking about, and I've never even played WoW FYI. At this point in MMO history, I doubt anyone is going to come up with anything new or original...it's all going to be a matter of what combination of existing ideas are used and how they are presented.
Not only is there nothing new or original shown so far, it's lacking anything resembling features people being asked to pay $15 a month expect. Devs have compared leveling your NPC bridge officers to crafting FFS. If that's your idea of original, I'll pass. LOL I'm not "scared" of anything about STO other than maybe it will be a disaster of biblical proportions because it's a shallow pewpew MMO lite like Cryptic's most recent MMO, and that it will be 10 years before someone makes a real Star Trek MMO.
There is when you cannot turn "upside down" ;)
The English language doesn't exactly have words to describe that clearly, so since you're fixed like you would be on Earth, I figured up and down drew the mental picture readers needed.
There is when you cannot turn "upside down" ;)
The English language doesn't exactly have words to describe that clearly, so since you're fixed like you would be on Earth, I figured up and down drew the mental picture readers needed.
You don't want to see my mental picture. Lets just say "up and down" is key to the meaning of life.
Good write-up Dana, and I look forward to more info on STO.
I'm not sure WTH you are talking about, and I've never even played WoW FYI. At this point in MMO history, I doubt anyone is going to come up with anything new or original...it's all going to be a matter of what combination of existing ideas are used and how they are presented.
Not only is there nothing new or original shown so far, it's lacking anything resembling features people being asked to pay $15 a month expect. Devs have compared leveling your NPC bridge officers to crafting FFS. If that's your idea of original, I'll pass. LOL I'm not "scared" of anything about STO other than maybe it will be a disaster of biblical proportions because it's a shallow pewpew MMO lite like Cryptic's most recent MMO, and that it will be 10 years before someone makes a real Star Trek MMO.
Yeah you are scared. You wanna see things you already know, they make you feel at ease and like you own MMO's.
You don't do that with STO at the moment, and you respond with anger and refusal.
You are a puppet in the hands of someone else, and you don't know it.
Yeah you are scared. You wanna see things you already know, they make you feel at ease and like you own MMO's.
You don't do that with STO at the moment, and you respond with anger and refusal.
You are a puppet in the hands of someone else, and you don't know it.
You must be smoking some pretty good stuff there.
Yeah you are scared. You wanna see things you already know, they make you feel at ease and like you own MMO's.
You don't do that with STO at the moment, and you respond with anger and refusal.
You are a puppet in the hands of someone else, and you don't know it.
Oh there is fear but its not from us "Unknowing" players. It the fear of loosing money on an investment.
What the hell are you going on about and why are you attacking posters unprovoked? I take it your thinking along a "superiour mind" process. Ya' better come back to Earth and try to share a little more constructively.
Good read. I am looking forward to your next installment of your STO preview. ^_^
Excellent preview, more new info here then I've seen anywhere else combined.
Yeah you are scared. You wanna see things you already know, they make you feel at ease and like you own MMO's.
You don't do that with STO at the moment, and you respond with anger and refusal.
You are a puppet in the hands of someone else, and you don't know it.
Actually I think Darth is refering to the Depth of Sandbox MMORPG's..such as EVE...he is affraid that STO will not have the depth that EVE offers... (correct me if I am wrong here).
On the other hand, I am not expecting EVE's Depth from STO, all I know is that I will get to immerse myself in the Universe of ST in some form and shape, which is already a good element, and second, I will be able to enjoy the tactical Combat system, which I prefer to EVE's non Tactical Combat system ten fold.
Other than that the rest is dressing for me.
What will make or break it eventually down the line, is the RvR possibilities between Federation and Klingons and PvP opportunities and how well PvP is implemented in the overall Design, this will determine the long haul. For the short term the dressing will suffice.
Absolutely no interest in playing Pirates of the Burning Space!!!!!
To bad
If this is going to have a part 2, you really should try to focus on group dynamics for part of it. MMO previews or reviews that don't go over group play don't really tell you much about the game, imho.
At least their trying something, Tell me how they should have done that? Go on, you have a better idea, share. Rember if it's static it will be on Wiki in 48 hours.
Not at all, They already have a system for randomly generating systems. From that base you could easily have 1,000,000+ solar systems all randomly generated, presumably this system has something to randomly generate a race (or none) and if not it could be modified to have this. Then you just need to decide on some way to distribute these systems throughout the galaxy (or just the Alpha Quadrant), With that many systems (and presumably many that are NOT friendly and others many fairly far away) it would take a good while to investigate all of them. Potentially, of course, you could just have a billion systems or something (if it is all procedurally generated then storing the random seed(s) would be most of the work, then perhaps a few notes on anything that was there such as if the players got a Starbase built there or the like and anything added to the planet. More of a server load as time went on, but they could work on making that efficient and run while since it would take quite a while before it could become a problem.
Or you could have explored systems essentially be temporary and instanced and not give the players the ability to go back to them (from what I can tell). Pretty lame, imho. That makes exploration pretty shallow.
They seem to just cover some basics of the game here and hint at a few things.
As a poster said above, I feel like the balance of hype and negativity may help this game out a lot. The last 3 games that were extremely hyped and didn't live up to the hype IMO that I played, AOC, WAR, and Aion.
My brother is a huge ST fan, and I am sure he will play it and enjoy it. The question is how long will he play and how enjoyable. Another poster commented on how puzzles and choices need to be an integral part. If player X of Starfleet pisses off Race Y in Galaxy Z, the next player of Starfleet to come to Galaxy Z should expect a fight or some hard case/mission of diplomacy.
I just have this feeling STO will come out pretty good and will just need to have expansions ready soon in case players finish all their content or the content gets stale.
I just can't see this being able to compete with SWTOR.
It is completely different. SWTOR will not even have Space Flight...not the same focus, and will not be the same experience,
But I would be trying both, I am a fan of both ST and SW, albeit I can't see the Long Term in SWTOR after having played SWG...
Great article and I have a feeling that this game will do well. This will probably attract a lot of players that wishes to just have some great fun in the world of Star Trek.
I'm also thinking that players that wanted a space mmo but got turned away from the overwhelming beast that is EVE will find their home with STO.
That is exactly what I have expected ever since they started describing the game. It is Cryptic after all...
And that would explain why it only took them two years to finish the game.
People keep saying this, but AFAIK, that's not been confirmed or denied. Sure, I'd like a space component similar to or better than SWG's, but I can live without it, at least at launch.
WOOT a Star Trek IP that doesn't lend itself to traditional crafting.........?
Personaly I feel this IP would or should have awesome in depth crafting, with a IP like ST it could go beyond that I knew of SWG......how many turrets have you seen Geordi build? I must say I am very disappointed hearing how Engineer seems to be turning out. Actualy so far disappointed with the overall classes...
There is simply so much they could do with a IP like Star Trek, yet they seem to follow a very narrow route for the game, Star Trek is everything but narrow.
Props to OP as it was a very informative article, but it definintly once again lowerd my excitement for the game.
Overall it sounds like the game is more a Multiplayer/Co-op game than I got a MMORPG fibe from what was written and from the info known so far about STO.
I am wondering how much will be left ingame of what was said>> Star Trek Convention Presentation though I will admit watching it a second time it already showed the game might turn out to be somewhat narrow.......
I am sure I will get to play the game and still hope Cryptic can proof me wrong and atleast deliver a great game experiance, regardless what my expectations are for a IP like Star Trek.
Battlef should be Bat'leth.
Geek!
Joke bud, Im with ya' on that.
This was similar to my initial thought as well. Star Trek away missions were not always about pulling out a phaser and blasting (and/or saving a victim). Sometimes it was about pure politics and intrigue (that could lead to pulling out a phaser if not handled properly). Sometimes folks had to use their brains and their ingenuity (i.e., charisma, technical ability, etc.) to succeed in a mission, not just try to shoot straight and dodge...and sometimes, heck, no matter WHAT they did it wasn't always a 100% success.
My biggest fear for this game is that they are going to use a the same formula over and over again for missions.
1) Travel to X point in space.
2) Space battle
3) Away mission where the only skill needed is a good phaser and some buffs
4 ) Kill enemy/save captives
5) See #1.
I don't see any kind of "talking your way out of a conflict" kind of things in the away missions. Since this is the 1st hands-on preview I've seen/read about missions perhaps I'm jumping the gun on my assumptions, but this video didn't give me the warm and fuzzies on the away missions.
Not at all, They already have a system for randomly generating systems. From that base you could easily have 1,000,000+ solar systems all randomly generated, presumably this system has something to randomly generate a race (or none) and if not it could be modified to have this. Then you just need to decide on some way to distribute these systems throughout the galaxy (or just the Alpha Quadrant), With that many systems (and presumably many that are NOT friendly and others many fairly far away) it would take a good while to investigate all of them. Potentially, of course, you could just have a billion systems or something (if it is all procedurally generated then storing the random seed(s) would be most of the work, then perhaps a few notes on anything that was there such as if the players got a Starbase built there or the like and anything added to the planet. More of a server load as time went on, but they could work on making that efficient and run while since it would take quite a while before it could become a problem.
Or you could have explored systems essentially be temporary and instanced and not give the players the ability to go back to them (from what I can tell). Pretty lame, imho. That makes exploration pretty shallow.
In reality we can already tell which star systems have planets and what size the planets are. We can't yet see Earth size planets and smaller, but it's just a matter of time before we find plenty of those (IIRC, the smallest extrasolar planet yet discovered is three times Earth's mass.) In the Star Trek future, we would already know where every planet and star is, we'd probably be able to tell which systems have asteroid belts. It might even be possible to guess which planets already have life based on the shift in the spectrum they put out. All this would be possible with Earth based orbital and ground based observatories.
A good exploration system would have every star in the galaxy already mapped and rendered procedurally just like the "Infinity: The Quest for Earth" guy is doing (watch his galaxy render video on YouTube, it's amazing.) Then ships can visit each star and maybe discover new lifeforms and new civilizations, dead civilizations, new threats, anything of that sort. I seriously think the STO devs should have licenced the Infinity: The Quest for Earth's galaxy rendering engine (and maybe planet rendering engine too.) Actually, considering they are a fully funded development house with a huge development team, they could have designed and built such a system by scratch. It only took one guy to build it for Infinity.
Not at all, They already have a system for randomly generating systems. From that base you could easily have 1,000,000+ solar systems all randomly generated, presumably this system has something to randomly generate a race (or none) and if not it could be modified to have this. Then you just need to decide on some way to distribute these systems throughout the galaxy (or just the Alpha Quadrant), With that many systems (and presumably many that are NOT friendly and others many fairly far away) it would take a good while to investigate all of them. Potentially, of course, you could just have a billion systems or something (if it is all procedurally generated then storing the random seed(s) would be most of the work, then perhaps a few notes on anything that was there such as if the players got a Starbase built there or the like and anything added to the planet. More of a server load as time went on, but they could work on making that efficient and run while since it would take quite a while before it could become a problem.
Or you could have explored systems essentially be temporary and instanced and not give the players the ability to go back to them (from what I can tell). Pretty lame, imho. That makes exploration pretty shallow.
In reality we can already tell which star systems have planets and what size the planets are. We can't yet see Earth size planets and smaller, but it's just a matter of time before we find plenty of those (IIRC, the smallest extrasolar planet yet discovered is three times Earth's mass.) In the Star Trek future, we would already know where every planet and star is, we'd probably be able to tell which systems have asteroid belts. It might even be possible to guess which planets already have life based on the shift in the spectrum they put out. All this would be possible with Earth based orbital and ground based observatories.
A good exploration system would have every star in the galaxy already mapped and rendered procedurally just like the "Infinity: The Quest for Earth" guy is doing (watch his galaxy render video on YouTube, it's amazing.) Then ships can visit each star and maybe discover new lifeforms and new civilizations, dead civilizations, new threats, anything of that sort. I seriously think the STO devs should have licenced the Infinity: The Quest for Earth's galaxy rendering engine (and maybe planet rendering engine too.) Actually, considering they are a fully funded development house with a huge development team, they could have designed and built such a system by scratch. It only took one guy to build it for Infinity.
Yup, pretty cool stuff. I doubt that game will ever come out, but some great ideas are in it. Too bad no one seems to be using them.
I'd rather keep waiting another year or two until EvE getsavatars to walk around with and planetary interaction.
STO just won't deliver. No MMO without open world FFA PvP ever will in my books.
What makes a great MMO is playerdriven content, not scripted and randomized missions. There's tons of single-player-games outthere, if I want to play a scripted storyline or slaugther through tons of NPCs.
There's only one single other MMO then EvE Online atm that is even worth looking at, which is Earthrise. And no, I wouldn't consider games like APB or Global Agenda etc beeing a MMO. These are online-shooters.
When STO was announced first there were alot of good things to it... then Cryptic bought the IP.
PvP? PVP? PVP?????????????????????
Im so sick and tired of reading previews without mentioning PvP. Or is STO a PvE game?
I agree. MMORPGs who think they are single player games rarely turn out good.
I originally thought that STO would be a contender to Eve but the more I read about it the more I realise it wont be. The reason is simple, a single player game (even though it is labeled as an MMORPG) will not compete with a persistant, non instanced MMORPG with faction and FFA PvP.
It's a shame though since the combat in Eve is quite dull and STOs combat looks much more fun. But combat alone does not make an MMORPG.
So from what I gather you can't even explore planets? They are only there for instanced away missions for possibly up to 5 people? So much for being able to explore things. I guess if you want to play a single player rpg with a chat bar this game will be good.
Don't forget the cash shop.
Don't forget the cash shop.
Sometimes I almost think the game might be fun to play a little as a single player game. Then I remember the cash shop and monthly fee together. I think the CE of the game indicates the sort of things we might see in a cash shop. CE gives you a Constitution class ship with an extra seat for an engineering officer (IIRC, might have been tactical). In other words, you get something that is just BETTER than what other people at your level could get. They have explicitly said the Cash Shop isn't limited to cosmetic stuff, but will have things that "enhance gameplay" (wording was something like that). Pretty atrocious.
Here again is the exact quote on what the cash shop items will cover:
"Some will augment gameplay, but won’t replace any gameplay."
Wow just wow.
1) Sector space will ruin the feel of this game, Star Trek can not look like sid meirs pirates. Period. I am beyond supprised at this, it just boggles my mind. As testament to this look at Start Trek onlines new rating on this website alone. Wow.
2) As a personal opnion I acually suport in game advertising in mmo's and shooter's, but to open the game with a cash shop!!!!!!! Holly hell did I understand this right pay to play and cash shop?! This benines the idea that this will already become a free to play mmo. Your fired cryptic.
Time to cool my jets, what are they thinking?!
Nub's
You know,I really do not believe this game to all be Cryptic's creation.Everything still looks and has the feel Perpetual had going for it.For this game to be releasing so fast (Since Cryptic took over the project) I think what really happened is Cryptic took what perpetual had already developed and finished the game.I remember Gods n Heroes as having a Minion system and now I read that alot of the ground missions here will have the same sort of system which reminds me of Perpetuals style.The game not having Starship interiors is another thing Perpetual was not going to go with either.I am not flaming the game mind you,I plan on playing it day 1,but the similarities to perpetual's game are huge evan some of the screenshots still look like what Perpetual had released in limited number.Now the excuse of we already had an engine and thats how we are doing it so fast excuse does not Jive for me.I think Cryptic is doing what SOE did to Vangaurd only thye got the game before it released. I am still real skeptical of this game ,but will try it hjust because its Star Trek. Sorry for the Huge wall of text that just critted your for 999999999 lol.
Perpetual had a DRAMATICALLY different game (player-based crews, etc -- I thouht they were going to have Ship Interiors too) and Cryptic themselves said they basically had to dump everything Perpetual had done. Fast development time is largely because Cryptic has and does make fairly shallow games in terms of varied gameplay and they also used the same engine that Champions Online used. Both of those things cut out a lot of development time.
I don't expect this game to be good at all. I'll wait and see what things are like 6 months after launch, but so far I doubt I will ever buy it. I do not give my money to BAD Star Trek games even though I love Star Trek (indeed, I think it is better to be picky so they learn that good games give them good ROI).
Where has the actual meeting of other players in cities or space or planets gone? Where has crafting gone?, where has diplomacy or some sort of faction wars gone?, where has interstellar diplomacy or treaties gone, where has PVP gone. Id expect this all from a bloody Star trek game, other than flying around space, and then being beamed upon a fuucking mission in a scenario with 4 bloody NPC avatars.
You obviously know very little about this game if you think those things won't be in the game. Why don't you go over to Startrekonline.com and read up on the game a little so you can come back here and discuss the game intelligently before you start spouting off nonsense.
Bren
Perpetual had a DRAMATICALLY different game (player-based crews, etc -- I thouht they were going to have Ship Interiors too) and Cryptic themselves said they basically had to dump everything Perpetual had done. Fast development time is largely because Cryptic has and does make fairly shallow games in terms of varied gameplay and they also used the same engine that Champions Online used. Both of those things cut out a lot of development time.
I don't expect this game to be good at all. I'll wait and see what things are like 6 months after launch, but so far I doubt I will ever buy it. I do not give my money to BAD Star Trek games even though I love Star Trek (indeed, I think it is better to be picky so they learn that good games give them good ROI).
The last Star Trek game I played that was good was Star Trek Armada strategy game (1st game mind you Star Trek Armada 2 was sorry).That and maybe Bridge Commander was not too bad. I do remember seeing an outcry to perpetual for leaving out the ship interiors tho. I am afraid that the Star Trek I grew to love is dead and buried,ever since Star Trek Enterprise came out everything went to pots from there.