Ask Cryptic (January 7, 2009)

[nhamlett]

Our first Ask Cryptic of 2009 brings you answers about art, ship capabilities, and more. Thanks as always to our development team for taking the time to answer these questions!

This is a universe at war, so combat will be a major factor, but there will also be a large component of exploration. You will get to meet new species, some of which you’ll fight against, some of which you’ll protect, and some of which you’ll ally with. There won’t be extensive dialogue trees, but you’ll get to explore and have missions that don’t involve just clobbering everybody.

Read More! (http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_1-07-09)

[Paulo999]

lol awesome

[Rgoodfel]

Thanks for the more info.

[TruthSeer]

The answer here is yes and no. You’ll start with a Tier 1 ship and you can certainly upgrade it and trick it out so that it’s comparable to a mid-level Tier 2 ship. However, a top of the line Tier 2 ship is going to be much better than even the most tricked out Tier 1. It has to do with growth capacity. There’s just more room for growth built into the higher tier ships. Of course, your skills and the skills of your bridge crew also affect how much you can do with your ship.
However, you do get to keep your ships. So, if you find yourself in a situation where an earlier ship would be more useful, you can switch back to it for that encounter. For example, you might want to shift back to a smaller and more maneuverable ship for running a blockade.

So I guess we will be keeping our past ships when we upgrade.

PS Yay my question.

[cv_coco]

Very nice, thanks!

I especially liked the bit about being able to keep our ships for specific purposes :D

[marscentral]

One word: Yay!

Good to see you guys are back at work.

[Bounder]

I am really liking the idea of not losing all the work done on a previous ship when upgrading to another ship, being able to still use the older ship when desired, excellent.

It might feel a bit like being an admiral putting his flag on the ship he needs at the moment, or something. Details can be worked on, I'm just pleased with not having to say goodbye to a faithful ship that served me well completely.

[marscentral]

Very nice, thanks!

I especially liked the bit about being able to keep our ships for specific purposes :D

It does raise another question. How will naming work? Will my next ship have a new name or will it be USS Myship, USS Myship A etc.?

[njdss4]

WE GET TO KEEP OUR SHIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I apologize for the excessive use of capital letters and the exclamation point, but that truly expresses my joy of reading that we get to keep all of our ships.

[blackfx]

:DThis is some pretty good news! I'm glad that they took the seeding idea into consideration!!!

If I had any better ideas i'd throw them out there, but I know the game is going to be great without my blusterous mouth.

About them there polls you have going on Its so HARD to choose one. Frankly without all the Captains Star Trek wouldn't have such a colorful reputation!!

I almost can't vote because I liked all the shows!:p

[Paulo999]

tier ships??

like tier 1 being smaller ships (intrepid,steamrunner,norway) and the larger ships (sovereign,nebula,galaxy) being tier 2 ?

[Buzz_McCool]

tier ships??

like tier 1 being smaller ships (intrepid,steamrunner,norway) and the larger ships (sovereign,nebula,galaxy) being tier 2 ?

I would assume it has to do with the overall size of the ship and its technical abilities and overall technical advancement.

[Waxco]

Cooooooool! Lets play already!

[Scooby]

Nice to see that the physics engine will have an authentic affect on the ships movement.:)

[THORN74]

tier ships??

like tier 1 being smaller ships (intrepid,steamrunner,norway) and the larger ships (sovereign,nebula,galaxy) being tier 2 ?

there is going to have to be much more then 2 teirs ...... at first glance i would guess at least 5, but who knows maybe much more (10?)

what i like is the overlap limit.


Teir 1: ++++++++++
Teir 2: ______++++++++++

[Paulo999]

there is going to have to be much more then 2 teirs ...... at first glance i would guess at least 5, but who knows maybe much more (10?)

what i like is the overlap limit.


Teir 1: ++++++++++
Teir 2: ______++++++++++

tier 10 = bprg cube = evil!

[Dahakra]

tier 10 = bprg cube = evil!

The Borg aren't evil, they just wanna be your friends, I promise :p

And I'm overjoyed at the news we get to keep our earlier ships. Many thanks.
/parks his Defiant in da garage and takes out his Promie.

- Dahakra

[Paulo999]

The Borg aren't evil, they just wanna be your friends, I promise :p

And I'm overjoyed at the news we get to keep our earlier ships. Many thanks.
/parks his Defiant in da garage and takes out his Promie.

- Dahakra

lol in the event of a borg attack you take point i'll sit behind the asteroid yelling stuff like "hit him" and "bbaaaaaaahhhh"

[Qrion]

Great news that you can keep your old ships. However cool it may be to go into a battle in an endgame ship, it will be a lot more fun sometimes to hit and run.

[Hagon]

Oooooo there's a lot of juicy info hiding in this one. Thanks guys. :cool:

[jamel2827]

so would we get more prestege or money if we turn in our ships completely or just half for retiring them and keeping them for future use? cause more money means more resources to get other things and personnel.;)

[LordDave]

There has been discussion on the art direction. Can you tell us why you chose to design your characters and environments with bright, solid shade colors (for lack of a better word "Cartoony") rather than a more realism style like say, Oblivion or Age of Conan?

Woot! My question was answered.
We’re aiming for a fantastical style, not a “cartoony” one. It’s going to look realistic, in terms of planets, environments, and characters, but we want to take it up a notch and make it feel more fantastic. We’re going to give it that sense of wonder and vibrancy that you expect from Star Trek.

See Poseidon, they aren't going for Cartoony....

They're going for bright, vibrant colors using Fantastic Art Style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_art).
Which doesn't make sense from an artistic definition.

Sooo.... bright vibrant colors. That's the style. Highly detailed bright, vibrant colors.

[Paulo999]

Sooo.... bright vibrant colors. That's the style. Highly detailed bright, vibrant colors.

heh star treks always has gone mad on colors lol romulan being green dominion Purple..etc

[cv_coco]

It does raise another question. How will naming work? Will my next ship have a new name or will it be USS Myship, USS Myship A etc.?

From a canon view point you'd get a lot of opposition for this, but from a gaming view point it would make sense. Otherwise you'd get a problem finding a new name that isn't taken yet.

[The_Padre]

Woot! My question was answered.


See Poseidon, they aren't going for Cartoony....

They're going for bright, vibrant colors using Fantastic Art Style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_art).
Which doesn't make sense from an artistic definition.

Sooo.... bright vibrant colors. That's the style. Highly detailed bright, vibrant colors.

When I read that TOS-style planets and and such kept running through my mind.

[Rekkert]

Cartoony, realistic, fantastic, whatever the graphics are, I like them.

[CinC-UFPForces-Cardassia]

I, personally, have never been one who believed that the art design for Star Trek Online - Cryptic's version, in particular - could be described as "cartoony." I felt the art design represented an appropriately realistic environment that I expect I'll be able to immerse myself in.

But - if I did believe the art design is "cartoony," the answer provided in this edition of Ask Cryptic wouldn't dissuade me of that belief, at all. I accept Cryptic's right to install the art design that it desires, fantastic or not, but I would not say that "fantastic" describes something comparable to televised Star Trek.

That's just as well - I was never a great fan of Star Trek's matte-painting style of portraying cityscapes and planetscapes. I'm glad that Cryptic is expressing its artistic creativity. I wouldn't argue that it's either comparable to Star Trek or particularly descriptive of Star Trek Online's artistic design. It's a non-answer.

[Trekkie]

This is definitely one of the best installments of Ask Cryptic yet! I am definitely looking forward to the game more than ever now!

[JMD10222]

Thanks for the info;) Gave some answers I think alot of people were looking for.

[kylejac_05]

I still think it looks like a cartoon and I don't like the look.. Disappointing. :(

[Admiral-Darren-Wright]

The Borg aren't evil, they just wanna be your friends, I promise :p

And I'm overjoyed at the news we get to keep our earlier ships. Many thanks.
/parks his Defiant in da garage and takes out his Promie.

- Dahakra



Haha

Parks it in the Garage, Can i get NPC Cleaners to make sure my Intrepid wont get Dusty when im flying in my NX91001 lol

I was hoping this kind of thing would happen its the same in eve and tiers dont have to do with the size of the ship !! If you have ever played eve there is Tech (TEIR) 1 AND 2 and a tech 1 ship yo ucan only fit med small to med weapons sheilds armour items etc where as a much heavily armoured version of the same ship which is often a little sexier with little differences can house med to heavy weapons sheilds items armour reinforcement etc

My Tech 1 megethrone in EVE is no match against my Tech 2 megethrone its completly outclassed - out muscled !

Im very very excited about this and im looking forward to having my own Voyager kind of ship so intrepid Tech 2 would be amazing and in eve there is onlty tech 1 and 2 and in these techs theres a few differnt versions of the same ship each needing certian things learnt or done to get them !

So having a migty Intrepid would be pretty cool as well my me having the pride of the fleet ship also which more than likely is the NX-91001 at least as far as we know :O)

Great Great info thank you everyone :O)

I just know alreayd i love this game more than eve and its not even out yet haha

[sylvermane64]

Good answers for the most part.

But I'm going to have to say that I'm disappointed with being able to keep ships. There is no precedence in any Star Trek show, book or movie that a Captain can just switch ships at will.

It's not like all Starfleet Captains have a garage where they keep their old ships.

You either were promoted, were ordered, or accepted an offer to move up to a new ship, or you stayed with the ship that you have.

This isn't EVE, this is Star Trek. There IS a big difference.

[Paulo999]

It's not like all Starfleet Captains have a garage where they keep their old ships.



we do now :D

[Powerhelm]

While I like being able to have old ships at my disposal I hope that there's only docked ship swapping at faction stations. Still highly doubting that we'll see any real meaty exploration. I'm starting to fear its just going to be something stuck in on the level of "let the interns deal with that we've gotta make the ship explosion animations look cooler for all the big battles"...

As far as swapping goes we know captains and crew were temporarily assigned to command ships before and at least briefly Picard encountered the Stargazer. Though that's a stretch I guess, it's one of the many aspects of Trek that are being kinda skewed for the sake of gameplay.

This isn't EVE, this is Star Trek. There IS a big difference.

Not for much longer...

[Cyberdurc22]

It does raise another question. How will naming work? Will my next ship have a new name or will it be USS Myship, USS Myship A etc.?

I was wondering the same thing when I read that bit myself. Only time will tell, but that may be a direction they could go in for sure.

[Jayven]

Thanks for the update, Cryptic :) I'm liking the faster updates, even smaller updates over shorter periods is a good thing, keeps us biting :P

[Cyberdurc22]

Good answers for the most part.

But I'm going to have to say that I'm disappointed with being able to keep ships. There is no precedence in any Star Trek show, book or movie that a Captain can just switch ships at will.

It's not like all Starfleet Captains have a garage where they keep their old ships.

You either were promoted, were ordered, or accepted an offer to move up to a new ship, or you stayed with the ship that you have.

This isn't EVE, this is Star Trek. There IS a big difference.

I see your point, but it is fun to have the option, I mean I'd hate to have to be limited to only one ship for a long period of time. Having options allows for re-playability...keeps things interesting.:D

[doam]

I'm so glad that they chose "fun" and "awesome" over canon in this case. Hopefully they continue to keep a nice balance of both. I'm very excited to know that I'll be able to keep my old ships.

[THORN74]

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


question # 3, about the ship physics was my question !!!!!! :D:D:D

Just kind of kool to have them answer my question i guess.... i know none of u care :mad:

[CaptianSquirrel]

Keeping old ships and possible new species seeding...very nice. keep rolling out the new info guys and get that closed beta running ASAP!

[reiththestud]

Well, at least they addressed the graphics issue and I know now the visual style is intentional. Before I just kept hoping it would become more realistic as the game got more polished. Now I can set my graphics expectations accordingly. Thank you for answering this question.

It definitely wouldn't have been my preference, but I'm sure the game will still be enjoyable to play(still looks cartoony to me)

- Side note: From a realistic graphics point of view, I think it's cartoony. From a stylized, artistically derived point of view, I think it looks great.

[Eryxx]

Nice update! Keep them coming, Crypticguys, please!

If you could give us at least one update per week, even a small tidbit, it would keep the majority of us even happier than we already are.

Regarding shipnames, I, for one, hope they will progress from Shipname to Shipname-A, etc. Otherwise a LOT of great names will become totally used up in a hurry, even absconded with by the (inevitable) players who play for a month and ditch the game forever. This is assuming that all ships must have unique names, which I haven't seen listed as fact anywhere that I can remember.

[The_Padre]

Nice update! Keep them coming, Crypticguys, please!

If you could give us at least one update per week, even a small tidbit, it would keep the majority of us even happier than we already are.

Regarding shipnames, I, for one, hope they will progress from Shipname to Shipname-A, etc. Otherwise a LOT of great names will become totally used up in a hurry, even absconded with by the (inevitable) players who play for a month and ditch the game forever. This is assuming that all ships must have unique names, which I haven't seen listed as fact anywhere that I can remember.

I always wondered about this, they said that when you name your ship you also get to choose its NCC number as well, if both are separate fields then it could very well be possible to use the same ship name as another player. You just wouldn't be able to use the same name and NCC number combined.

[Reinkaos]

As much as it feels "wrong" in the star trek universe, I'm really glad we get to keep our past ships :D I'm already lining up my Defiant and Sovereign.. xD

[Swordopolis]

I always wondered about this, they said that when you name your ship you also get to choose its NCC number as well, if both are separate fields then it could very well be possible to use the same ship name as another player. You just wouldn't be able to use the same name and NCC number combined.

I can't wait to enter the Something System and find a dozen different ships named "Enterprise". Naming needs to be unique, at least to a certain extent.

Ditto for the numbers, though this is probably less of a problem. Ought to be some kind of system where the game spits back a short list of currently unused numbers available for you to use.

[Kinneas]

Thank you, folks!

- DUGG : http://digg.com/pc_games/STAR_TREK_ONLINE_Ask_Cryptic_January_7_2009

[The_Padre]

I can't wait to enter the Something System and find a dozen different ships named "Enterprise". Naming needs to be unique, at least to a certain extent.

Ditto for the numbers, though this is probably less of a problem. Ought to be some kind of system where the game spits back a short list of currently unused numbers available for you to use.

Well I'd prefer that to the inevitable means that players will go through to use the name anyway; such as Enterpr1se, Enterpris3, 3nt3rpris3 and so on.

[Aslan_chShran]

I can't wait to play this game but at the same time I just can't help but wonder how much of it just doesn't jive with Star Trek. For example:

The answer here is yes and no. You’ll start with a Tier 1 ship and you can certainly upgrade it and trick it out so that it’s comparable to a mid-level Tier 2 ship. However, a top of the line Tier 2 ship is going to be much better than even the most tricked out Tier 1. It has to do with growth capacity. There’s just more room for growth built into the higher tier ships. Of course, your skills and the skills of your bridge crew also affect how much you can do with your ship.

However, you do get to keep your ships. So, if you find yourself in a situation where an earlier ship would be more useful, you can switch back to it for that encounter. For example, you might want to shift back to a smaller and more maneuverable ship for running a blockade.

From a game perspective, yeah that's awesome that you get to keep all your ships, but from an actual Star Trek universe perspective, that just would never happen. You're the Captain of ONE ship and if you get a better ship its due to promotion... you wouldn't just keep switching back and forth between ships when you feel like it!

[Swordopolis]

Well I'd prefer that to the inevitable means that players will go through to use the name anyway; such as Enterpr1se, Enterpris3, 3nt3rpris3 and so on.

I had a roommate last year who played WoW almost constantly. IIRC, they had some way of reviewing new character names to weed out stupid crap like subbing numbers for letters. Why couldn't Cryptic implement something similar?

[The_Padre]

I had a roommate last year who played WoW almost constantly. IIRC, they had some way of reviewing new character names to weed out stupid crap like subbing numbers for letters. Why couldn't Cryptic implement something similar?

Because: A) They haven't in the past and: B) They don't tend to run RP servers, so the need to whittle out stupid names doesn't happen. It is only if it is a name associated with a well established character like Batman for example or offensive names. Cryptic tends to view that if they are paying for their time in an MMO then outside of those two types of circumstances regarding names they are free to do as they please.

[Qrion]

I'm so glad that they chose "fun" and "awesome" over canon in this case. Hopefully they continue to keep a nice balance of both. I'm very excited to know that I'll be able to keep my old ships.

I totally agree. It IS a game, and in order to make a good game, some things have to be overlooked in canon.

[picardalpha2clearance]

this ship information is great, but I want to know how the "Q" will fit into this game!

[Hyperion2206]

From a gameplay perspectiv it makes sense to keep your past ships, but as a Star Trek fan I must say that it doesn't feel right.
But the great thing is that "hardcore" fans like me can just stick with the ship they've been assigned to, while others can change their ships like "a girl changes her clothes".... How I hate this song!:p
All in all I think this is a smart move by Cryptic.

[Duckdee]

I wasn't expecting to be able to keep our ships, but I'm not complaining. (Actually, it appeals to my collecter nature.)

[0wl]

I especially liked the bit about being able to keep our ships for specific purposes

We DO get to keep our ships!

Finally some news on that! :)

I wasn't expecting to be able to keep our ships, but I'm not complaining. (Actually, it appeals to my collecter nature.)

Good to know that i am not the only "collector" out there hehe! ;)

[Peregrine_Falcon]

I'm not really liking the whole "garage full of ships thing." As several people have pointed out this ain't Eve Online. I really get that some things have to be changed because fun trumps canon, but that just doesn't make any sense.

Also I sincerly hope that there is some sort of filter for names. Whether you're a role player or not it's just going to suck the first time you warp into a system and get hailed by the captain of the USS Igankbeyotches!!wurd!!!

And then you pick up the USS PimpSlap on sensors.

And then you dock with the USS n00bstarbase.

And then Captain SlapaTard of the USS BigBo0bez asks you to beam down to assist him with an away mission.

This is the internet, it will happen and you know it. Do we want this game to be Star Trek? Or do we want it to be an unmoderated MySpace chat room with planets in the background?

[doam]

I'm not really liking the whole "garage full of ships thing." As several people have pointed out this ain't Eve Online. I really get that some things have to be changed because fun trumps canon, but that just doesn't make any sense.

Also I sincerly hope that there is some sort of filter for names. Whether you're a role player or not it's just going to suck the first time you warp into a system and get hailed by the captain of the USS Igankbeyotches!!wurd!!!

And then you pick up the USS PimpSlap on sensors.

And then you dock with the USS n00bstarbase.

And then Captain SlapaTard of the USS BigBo0bez asks you to beam down to assist him with an away mission.

This is the internet, it will happen and you know it. Do we want this game to be Star Trek? Or do we want it to be an unmoderated MySpace chat room with planets in the background?



Please, do allow me to paraphrase.

"Do we want this game to be fun for everyone, or do we want this game to be serious business?"

I pick fun for all.




PimpSlapa..... AWAY!!!!!

[Mystica.Shadowheart]

Switching ship is great info. Otherwise it would be a great limit on the fun.

In anycase really hardcore fans can always self-impose no ship switching on them if this is an issue.

In any case I'm reallly thrilled with this Ask Cryptic. Thx!

PS: As stated a few posts above I'm totally for a strict naming policy/filter...if not we all know what we will see flying around ;)

[robtotheb]

Very happy you can swap between ships. Also running a blockade sounds interesting! How about PVP Blockades?!! Good work Cryptic :)

[LordDave]

Good answers for the most part.

But I'm going to have to say that I'm disappointed with being able to keep ships. There is no precedence in any Star Trek show, book or movie that a Captain can just switch ships at will.

It's not like all Starfleet Captains have a garage where they keep their old ships.

You either were promoted, were ordered, or accepted an offer to move up to a new ship, or you stayed with the ship that you have.

This isn't EVE, this is Star Trek. There IS a big difference.

I call it as sacrifices for Gameplay. Even the mighty World of Warcraft had to make some major sacrifices when it created a world based off it's RTS games. If it hadn't done say... ghost resurrection or adding the hunter class then it would have died long ago.

Hell, even books can't translate to a movie well, nor movies translate to games. It sucks, but it's a completely different medium and it needs to be molded accordingly. Even Elite Force, considered a good game for Trek, had little cheats like "Transporter Buffers" for holding stuff and ultra powerful weapons (photon canon).
Sacrifices for gameplay.

[Magmafire2374]

I think it's kind of cool that we can put certain ships we acquire in mothballs for future use.

[Sarevok]

I'm not quickly worried, and I can see it making sense... but I'm not sure of what to think about switching your ships... it's not like they're mine; they're Starfleet's and Starfleet would want to use every ship it has, not have 2/3 of it's fleet sitting in a dock because their captains are out on some other ship...

[SenshiBat]

Sharp eye for the space guy..

urr and space women also.. for if not for them no space guys.

I like the Cell shading Visuals .. they pop off the screen making it easier to identify individuals and structures.

The prob i saw in perpetuals early beta captures was the dull monotones.. even duke nukem 3d had a sharper colour palette.

Your Cryptic Art Director[staff] have advanced the genre'.. I salute you...

I like the ship progression arc.. It is logical to have more capability in the large ship for deep space main ship missions.. Role based ships have always been the career path in service.

Naval companion ships in support of main one would be nice AI support assets.. Escort vessels to protect major ones.. to protect your turn radius and baffles could be a team work multi ship mission...

Say Star Fleet generates a mission but if say 3 PC Captains don't sign on for it or bid a mission then it's scraped or given old AI ships to complete at greater risk reward ratio for prestige points or hero status points?

[Mystica.Shadowheart]

I'm not quickly worried, and I can see it making sense... but I'm not sure of what to think about switching your ships... it's not like they're mine; they're Starfleet's and Starfleet would want to use every ship it has, not have 2/3 of it's fleet sitting in a dock because their captains are out on some other ship...

It makes sense but from a gaming point of view I dont see that the inability to switch ship will actually make my old ships available to Starfleet NPCs.

So for the sake of fun gameplay I totally support Cryptics decision.

[Vicelance]

I kind of like the idea of being able to go back to my old ships, but I hope they make it so you have to return to a friendly starbase or maybe even your factions home world to change so people aren't simply pushing a button and cycling through multiple ships.

One question I have is exactly how many ships will we be able to "collect" will we only have the ability to have one of each tier? or will we be able to have every ship in the fleet sitting somewhere for us?

[pyriel32]

After reading this new Ask Cryptic you have made my day thank you , and yeah i know it might not be cannon to be able to keep your older ships but who cares this is awsome thank you thank you thank you for the new info.

[muttw7]

I'm usually super strict on canon, but I like being able to have multiple ships. There's a number of ways you can rationalize it. You could RP that you're a different captain when you're on one of your other ships, or like in Starfleet Command II you could simply transfer between the different ships under your command as needed, similar to an Admiral or fleet commander who doesn't necessarily have a ship of their own. For Klingons it wouldn't need much rationalization, many ships are owned by individual houses rather than the government, so bouncing around between ships would make more sense. From an IC perspective, the ships wouldn't necessarily be sitting around in mothballs, they just wouldn't be under your command at the moment.

The concern I'd have would be the names as someone else pointed out already. That would be a lot of names for everyone's old ships.

My real concern is the place of smaller ships. As I've posted in this thread: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=13103 I'm more worried than before that in order to be effective in the end game content I'll need to use a huge ship and that going into PvP with a small ship when you have a bigger one at your disposal will only hurt your team.

[belljack95]

It was good to read this latest information provided by the DEV guys. Nice we can keep our old ships and like others have said it does bring up a few questions of naming the ships and how many 'tiers' of ships there are. I hope that we can name our own ships anything we want (so if alot of us choose a favorite ship name we can have it) and that Cryptic uses another option to keep track of users. For example: we have a unique logon name to access the game and Cryptic assigns each "Captain" we create a unique key identifiier (like a SSN number or Service Number - maybe a Alpha/Numeric number) to keep the avator 'unique' in game, so that we can use any Captain name or ship name we want and have fun and Cryptic can still identify us with the unique key.

As for Tiers of ships, i look forward to more information being provided on how many tiers and ship classes available!

Looking forward to the game.

[TheHybrid]

I'm all about keeping previous ships. That will be a nice feature. Keep up the good work Cryptic!

[Ozymandias]

To me, this is an example of gameplay superceding canon to make a better game - and I like it!

Sisko was considered Captain and commanding officer of both Deep Space 9 and the Defiant so that could be given as an example of command-switching being canon.

[AaronH]

Multiple ships in the garage: If you don't like the feature, or don't think it fits cannon, your old ships can just gather dust. I don't think it will really effect you unless you want it to.

[Ensign.Ricky]

I know the devs are only asked a group of hand picked questions but I'm curious, do the devs ever glance at the other questions just to get ideas stirring?

Anyway, solid info passed along in this batch. I like the sound of not all clobbering all day, though I was hoping for dynamic in depth dialogs with NPCs both in mission and in game world. The species seeding is an interesting topic and sounds like it may get implemented.

As for keeping ships. I'm happy either way. I still get to fight and explore in whichever ship I like and it sounds like I won't have to create a whole separate character to see what it's like to play another class. This does fit into the view that they will be limiting the number of alt characters we can have though. Could be a step towards a single server.

[Eidolonael]

Somehow I got this weird image of Grand Theft Auto and the "garage" of vehicles lol... I love the idea and wondered if we were going to be able to upgrade and keep previous designs, but what I don't agree with is older ships not being as good as the next tier. Ships are only as good as their captains/pilots. You can take the latest and greatest battleship in the fleet and have it be taken down by a smaller, older, faster boat armed with a single torpedo (it's really happened...). As long as I can upgrade my warp drives, nacelles, and weapons on an older design and keep it up to date, it should perform as well as any fresh-off-the-line design... it may nothave all the bells and whistles of the Prometheus, but it would still be the angry snaggletoothed bulldog down the block if you know what I mean.

[Kinneas]

Ask Cryptic: Jan 7.... YouTubed

To the music of Ol' Yellow Eyes (Brent Spiner) and the Sunspots (Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton...and of course...Patirck Stewart).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P2de-ywzxg

[1MGSIX]

I'm not really liking the whole "garage full of ships thing." As several people have pointed out this ain't Eve Online. I really get that some things have to be changed because fun trumps canon, but that just doesn't make any sense.

Also I sincerly hope that there is some sort of filter for names. Whether you're a role player or not it's just going to suck the first time you warp into a system and get hailed by the captain of the USS Igankbeyotches!!wurd!!!

And then you pick up the USS PimpSlap on sensors.

And then you dock with the USS n00bstarbase.

And then Captain SlapaTard of the USS BigBo0bez asks you to beam down to assist him with an away mission.

This is the internet, it will happen and you know it. Do we want this game to be Star Trek? Or do we want it to be an unmoderated MySpace chat room with planets in the background?


When I see this /addignore

And I don't mean the OP btw. I mean the names.

[E6ajc]

I like the idea of keeping older ships. My question is would it be possible to loan your ship to another player or a NPC to use in a battle or for a mission that you don't want to do? You gain experience points or whatever payback for the use of your ship. Just a thought.

As far as the style, I don't really mind the style of the planets or characters (although they all look basically the same with different color hair and skin), but my problem is with the look of the Federation ships. They all look so sharp and angular instead of the smooth curves of the ships we are use to seeing. Does anyone think they look kinda blocky like Legos (OK, not that bad, but similar)?. I think I saw a Galaxy class in the video that had the nice rounded saucer, so I know they can do it.

Oh well, I'm still going to play this game even if it is Lego: Star Trek.

[ramjam380]

To all of you folks worried about running out of ship names, do you remember that old (back in Perpetual days) startrek-online.net site that had a running database of ship names based on historical ships, generals, scientists, mythological figures, etc? I recall there being thousands of good names, without resorting to made up Vulcan names or anything like that.

I think there will be plenty of reasonable and unique names per server, without seeing lots of "-K" versions of ships flying around.

Does anyone know if we can still find that list around? The site went out with PE.

[CinC-UFPForces-Cardassia]

To all of you folks worried about running out of ship names, do you remember that old (back in Perpetual days) startrek-online.net site that had a running database of ship names based on historical ships, generals, scientists, mythological figures, etc? I recall there being thousands of good names, without resorting to made up Vulcan names or anything like that.

I think there will be plenty of reasonable and unique names per server, without seeing lots of "-K" versions of ships flying around.

Does anyone know if we can still find that list around? The site went out with PE.

That list, which was a community project that took suggestions from hundreds of individuals and many members of this community, still exists in whole and complete form. Over 10,000 unique names were submitted and approved. There were "no ****** A, B, C, or D" starships, as Scotty would say.

[Reinkaos]

I can't wait to play this game but at the same time I just can't help but wonder how much of it just doesn't jive with Star Trek. For example:

The answer here is yes and no. You’ll start with a Tier 1 ship and you can certainly upgrade it and trick it out so that it’s comparable to a mid-level Tier 2 ship. However, a top of the line Tier 2 ship is going to be much better than even the most tricked out Tier 1. It has to do with growth capacity. There’s just more room for growth built into the higher tier ships. Of course, your skills and the skills of your bridge crew also affect how much you can do with your ship.

However, you do get to keep your ships. So, if you find yourself in a situation where an earlier ship would be more useful, you can switch back to it for that encounter. For example, you might want to shift back to a smaller and more maneuverable ship for running a blockade.

From a game perspective, yeah that's awesome that you get to keep all your ships, but from an actual Star Trek universe perspective, that just would never happen. You're the Captain of ONE ship and if you get a better ship its due to promotion... you wouldn't just keep switching back and forth between ships when you feel like it!
I think it's a great thing they've done allowing us to keep all our ships. It's not very "Star Trek", but it will make for an immense amount of possibilities as far as missions/merely exploring, and so on, and it's sure to make the game that much more enjoyable. :D

[Rebiv4]

Much like EVE Online with the ability to keep ships, which was one of the many things about that game I liked. Stopped playing due to the inadequate missions and goals in the game, otherwise it would have been a good model for STO back in the day.

[casualtrekker]

In my opinion the biggest priority of this game is for it to be fun. If the game is not fun then purist and casual players alike will stop playing it.

Having said that I by no means beleive this game should deviate from "canon" trek to such a degree that it alienates trekkers. I am not an extreme hardcore fan but I am reasonably well versed in the trek universe, enough that large discrepancies would irriatate me greatly.

This game is an MMORPG and as such the purists have to except that not everyone who plays this game wants to submit to the strictist starfleet protocol. Any massive multiplayer game must be big and diverse enough so everybody can do anything, without being limited by annoying rules of the game. I see this game playing out in missions which can only be done with large amount of levelling in between. You level up your ship and your crew so you can do harder missions and gain more rank, bigger ships, etc.

From my experience in MMORPG games (Final Fantasy 11 to be exact), every mission should be designed to be challenging by restricting the levels and the number of players allowed to participate. In this way, higher level players can help the lower levels by doing missions over again in their previous ships that are nerfed to say only a max of three upgrades. Teamwork would be required, different types of ships may be required, strategy and tactics would be required, all to make a fulfilling experience and in the end a fun game.

Regardless of what happens people will beeline to the top, after you get there you should be able to go back and finish other tasks you've missed, not limited to playing in the largest ship fighting some open ended war. This is a game which should tell a story from start to finish, with missions that once completed can still be done by every other player to create a story like a rich tapestry which, is what the star trek universe really is known for. When finished maybe you want to go through it again with a different type of ship (instead of attack class, maybe science or medical), or maybe even a different race offering different perspectives and a more fulfilling experence.

[LordDave]

Somehow I got this weird image of Grand Theft Auto and the "garage" of vehicles lol... I love the idea and wondered if we were going to be able to upgrade and keep previous designs, but what I don't agree with is older ships not being as good as the next tier. Ships are only as good as their captains/pilots. You can take the latest and greatest battleship in the fleet and have it be taken down by a smaller, older, faster boat armed with a single torpedo (it's really happened...). As long as I can upgrade my warp drives, nacelles, and weapons on an older design and keep it up to date, it should perform as well as any fresh-off-the-line design... it may nothave all the bells and whistles of the Prometheus, but it would still be the angry snaggletoothed bulldog down the block if you know what I mean.

As was stated, your tier 1 ship isn't going to be able to compete with a top level tier 2 ship. This is to be expected. If I have a type XI phaser bank that requires 500 GigaJouls of energy then I'm limited to what ships I can put it on. Obviously some ships won't be able to produce enough energy as well as some ships being simply too small physically. Imagine putting full quantum torpedo launchers on the Defiant? It can't be done. That's why they use Micro- Torpedoes.

So the limit really is power and space rather then "level".

[nicah64]

I'm excited by the prospect of keeping our old ships, we could use components from that previous ships to outfit the new ones or vice versa, anything that adds more depth and customization to a game will keep it interesting and different and prolong its lifespan.

[Posideon]

thanks for the update, loving it so far.

just would like to know how the boarding of other ships would work... (not sure if the answer has already been mentioned)

keep up the great work!

[clearymonkey]

Wow! For a moment there I was scared that everyone would be playing with the same class of ship the entire game (once you get to a higher level). But having the abilitiy to switch back to other ships that you have makes it sound much more enjoyable. Having the choice of which ship to use for which mission really makes the game more wider and more fun for everyone. As much as you want to spend all your time on, oh lets say a Nova class starship, you can switch things up at almost any time to try out and use other ships!

Thanks for such an informative update! :)

Keep up the awesome work Cryptic!!

PS. Come on MONKEY Species Creation! Its all about the Monkey's flying a huge starship! :D

[Loekii]

Well, at least they addressed the graphics issue and I know now the visual style is intentional. Before I just kept hoping it would become more realistic as the game got more polished. Now I can set my graphics expectations accordingly. Thank you for answering this question.

It definitely wouldn't have been my preference, but I'm sure the game will still be enjoyable to play(still looks cartoony to me)

- Side note: From a realistic graphics point of view, I think it's cartoony. From a stylized, artistically derived point of view, I think it looks great.

For myself, I was hoping that it be less 'Bright', and more a 'darker' form of the art. In the Link Dave listed to the artistic style, they have examples in more muted color tones, instead of the load colors -- as if your monitor tones were skewed.

If they can over come the 'chartoonish' style with content, then good. However, the artistic choice adds another hurdle imo --- it makes the game appear less professional, and more 'rushed', rather than polished. I don't intend that as an insult, nor a rant, but just a comment. The Style does not present a polished game, with in depth gameplay and quality, but rather appears to be a simple stand-alone game, with not much to it.

[Xbox360_Raven_247666]

Cryptic, I would be most intreagd to find out more about this team set up sinaryo you have pland.

Will one person be able to form a large fleat for instance and also be able to call apon those people in your fleat if needed?

Also as a faction, can I call apon others in the Federation for help... even if I donot yet know them?

Like in some insadince on the movies Enterprice was the nerest ship close enulf to a desres call therefor she was obligated to anser to that call.

Will there be a Fleat to Fleat camunications link is my main question wile plaing the game?

Raven 247666 of Stare Fleat 360

[LordDave]

For myself, I was hoping that it be less 'Bright', and more a 'darker' form of the art. In the Link Dave listed to the artistic style, they have examples in more muted color tones, instead of the load colors -- as if your monitor tones were skewed.

If they can over come the 'chartoonish' style with content, then good. However, the artistic choice adds another hurdle imo --- it makes the game appear less professional, and more 'rushed', rather than polished. I don't intend that as an insult, nor a rant, but just a comment. The Style does not present a polished game, with in depth gameplay and quality, but rather appears to be a simple stand-alone game, with not much to it.

The lightness and saturation of the color is really the only thing people seem to have as an issue. Everything else is a branch off of that. I've spent hours analyzing the images and manipulating them and found that they improve in "quality" if they're darker and the colors are less saturated.
Unfortunately, if you try to make it TOO real, all that detail is lost. Remember Doom 3? Biggest complaint was that it was too dark, yet it's light levels were realistically accurate.

But to bring by point to a close: The style is just that, a style. You can have the most professional, realistic rendering artist in the house, but if he's told to make it bright and vibrant, you can bet it'll be incredibly detailed and well done, but still be hated by people who don't like the bright and vibrant scheme.

Then again, the best way to fix this is to....

Turn down the gamma and brightness in-game. Seriously, when the game comes out and you play the demo turn the settings down or change your monitor settings. I can almost guarantee that you'll think it looks better.

[Sythian]

I, personally, have never been one who believed that the art design for Star Trek Online - Cryptic's version, in particular - could be described as "cartoony." I felt the art design represented an appropriately realistic environment that I expect I'll be able to immerse myself in.

But - if I did believe the art design is "cartoony," the answer provided in this edition of Ask Cryptic wouldn't dissuade me of that belief, at all. I accept Cryptic's right to install the art design that it desires, fantastic or not, but I would not say that "fantastic" describes something comparable to televised Star Trek.

That's just as well - I was never a great fan of Star Trek's matte-painting style of portraying cityscapes and planetscapes. I'm glad that Cryptic is expressing its artistic creativity. I wouldn't argue that it's either comparable to Star Trek or particularly descriptive of Star Trek Online's artistic design. It's a non-answer.

I believe a better description for their art direction was stated before as "Stylized" which seems to fit more appropriately.

[phifur]

OMG YES!!!!!! I love that we can keep other tier 1 ship and still get new and bigger ships too. We can swap ships for different mission. I know alot of hardcore fans may not like this because a Captain should only captain one ship. But..... it a game and cryptic wants to make it fun people may want to fly a different ship once in a blue moon.

[JeanNYGUARD]

Running a Blockade... I like the sound of that mission


Me and my Runabout vs. 3 Galor Class warships.... ;) Now thats what I call... COOLZ

[Bamf]

So I guess we will be keeping our past ships when we upgrade.

PS Yay my question.

Thank you thank you thank you, this is great to hear. I was worried I would be forced into something before i knew if it would fit my style

[Opus_Penguin]

I would like to know if there will be hazards to explore. I just watched TOS episode "Court Martial" and I was wondering if we could encounter Ion Storms that can damage ships or other hazards? Also, how do we submit a question for the "Ask Cryptic" updates?

I would also like to know if we play with other friends online, if they can help out in missions, or if you can send "Distress Calls" to get other players to come in and help you out. Could you "beam" over to a friend's ship to have a briefing?

[Whisky]

I kind of like the idea of being able to go back to my old ships, but I hope they make it so you have to return to a friendly starbase or maybe even your factions home world to change so people aren't simply pushing a button and cycling through multiple ships.



That would appeal to me.

I have to say my immediate thought was i don't like the idea of keeping your ships, but i would be happier if you had to go to a Starbase/homeworld before you could change ships.

Anyone know when they plan to release STO?

[LordDave]

I would like to know if there will be hazards to explore. I just watched TOS episode "Court Martial" and I was wondering if we could encounter Ion Storms that can damage ships or other hazards? Also, how do we submit a question for the "Ask Cryptic" updates?

I would also like to know if we play with other friends online, if they can help out in missions, or if you can send "Distress Calls" to get other players to come in and help you out. Could you "beam" over to a friend's ship to have a briefing?

To submitt a question to the ask cryptic, head to the game development sub-forum and post int he "Ask Cryptic" thread. It should be at the top. (#7)

[Urantia]

I'm not really liking the whole "garage full of ships thing." As several people have pointed out this ain't Eve Online. I really get that some things have to be changed because fun trumps canon, but that just doesn't make any sense.

Also I sincerly hope that there is some sort of filter for names. Whether you're a role player or not it's just going to suck the first time you warp into a system and get hailed by the captain of the USS Igankbeyotches!!wurd!!!

And then you pick up the USS PimpSlap on sensors.

And then you dock with the USS n00bstarbase.

And then Captain SlapaTard of the USS BigBo0bez asks you to beam down to assist him with an away mission.

This is the internet, it will happen and you know it. Do we want this game to be Star Trek? Or do we want it to be an unmoderated MySpace chat room with planets in the background?

Many, including myself, have shared this concern (and discussed it ad nauseum)...I lost faith a long time ago that this game would implement certain restrictions to limit these types of psychologies, but as long as they add an ignore feature I will be happy. This way the very second I see these "names" I can imediately add them to ignore.

So unlike yourself I will not be docking with them or helping them et cetera. Obviously the game is a bit out and we cannot be certain about naming conventions, but I will stand by hoping I am wrong about my concerns. Names are not everything, but they do and can say something about the individual....use your gut and act accordingly.

[ToadMonkey]

Thanks for the latest info. :D

[Stonez]

Many, including myself, have shared this concern (and discussed it ad nauseum)...I lost faith a long time ago that this game would implement certain restrictions to limit these types of psychologies, but as long as they add an ignore feature I will be happy. This way the very second I see these "names" I can imediately add them to ignore.

So unlike yourself I will not be docking with them or helping them et cetera. Obviously the game is a bit out and we cannot be certain about naming conventions, but I will stand by hoping I am wrong about my concerns. Names are not everything, but they do and can say something about the individual....use your gut and act accordingly.

Art... I like the style, so good to know this is the direction they're keeping.
Ship garage... M'eh! I'm not so keen on that. Calling up support, or having to captain a new ship for a mission is fine, but we'll see.
Ship physics... Yay! As long as it's not like flying in "Frontier:Elite 2" tho please!!! e.g. "Hard to port... Hang on I'm still moving forward...WTF?!?!?"
Ship/Captain names...I know for a fact I'm gonna have a very active "Ignore List". Sad but true!

Glad for Cryptics response tho! :)

[Cpt.Medo]

I don't think Cryptic is being clear about the mission portion of the game. Do players take on the mission's them self or are we going to encounter other online players when working on a mission???????

[Kinneas]

I... Also, how do we submit a question for the "Ask Cryptic" updates?


I think they just pull questions from the forum.
(( edit ))

No, there's a stickied Ask Cryptic thread in the STO Discussion board.
-----


I would try and tempt them into answering with some pickled herring snacks. Or maybe a bushel of old man farmers corn that Senator Bedfellow liked so much. Mmmmm. Last resort...prayer pimples for hairy fishnuts.

-- big fan

[otterlord]

Running a Blockade... I like the sound of that mission


Me and my Runabout vs. 3 Galor Class warships.... ;) Now thats what I call... COOLZ

getin half blasted away in the process lol

[aelius]

Haha

Parks it in the Garage, Can i get NPC Cleaners to make sure my Intrepid wont get Dusty when im flying in my NX91001 lol

I was hoping this kind of thing would happen its the same in eve and tiers dont have to do with the size of the ship !! If you have ever played eve there is Tech (TEIR) 1 AND 2 and a tech 1 ship yo ucan only fit med small to med weapons sheilds armour items etc where as a much heavily armoured version of the same ship which is often a little sexier with little differences can house med to heavy weapons sheilds items armour reinforcement etc

My Tech 1 megethrone in EVE is no match against my Tech 2 megethrone its completly outclassed - out muscled !

Im very very excited about this and im looking forward to having my own Voyager kind of ship so intrepid Tech 2 would be amazing and in eve there is onlty tech 1 and 2 and in these techs theres a few differnt versions of the same ship each needing certian things learnt or done to get them !

So having a migty Intrepid would be pretty cool as well my me having the pride of the fleet ship also which more than likely is the NX-91001 at least as far as we know :O)

Great Great info thank you everyone :O)

I just know alreayd i love this game more than eve and its not even out yet haha

Actually I think that in this case Tiers do refer to size instead of tech level. From the context of the answer they seem to be talking about ship classes, and I don't think they are going to have base classes at a wide variety of tech levels. I get the impression that tech improvements will be done by players in the game to their particular ship.
I could be wrong on this, but I don't think so. I hope not, because I like that method more. Bigger ships have more room, and it seems the Feds would hardly be giving commanders inferior versions of ships. Classes tend to be uniform, that's why they are called classes.

[KirksOtherSon]

Because: A) They haven't in the past and: B) They don't tend to run RP servers, so the need to whittle out stupid names doesn't happen. It is only if it is a name associated with a well established character like Batman for example or offensive names. Cryptic tends to view that if they are paying for their time in an MMO then outside of those two types of circumstances regarding names they are free to do as they please.

Respectfully, Padre, Cryptic had one of the better systems for weeding out illegal and offensive character names (at least after the first year or so) that I've seen in all my years of playing MMORPGs. Their anonymous auto-reporting system for illegal/anti-EULA/offensive names was quick and easy to use, and my friends and I used it, and saw it implemented numerous times.

Perhaps your server was less well-staffed? Or you were playing in the earlier days of CoH/CoV? I don't know.

Certainly, Cryptic didn't try to arbitrate _taste_ -- people could (and often did) have totally stupid character names -- but so long as they didn't violate EULA, or copyright, or offend -- they had to pass.

All Cryptic has to do is add a more rigorous EULA to Star Trek Online, and then even a lot of the foolish stuff would be weeded out. Since they're working with a licensed property, the rigor could be justified as "protecting the integrity of the IP". Thus, no "near versions" -- no "Zappp Branigens" no "USS Secondprize" These would fall under EULA violations and would be reportable by other players.

Take a look at the WoW EULA and Terms of Service documents sometime -- some of the most restrictive I've ever seen -- and yet, WoW became so popular, so quickly, Blizzard literally can't (or won't) hire the necessary staff to enforce it.

I'd give Cryptic a touch more credit at this early stage, is all I'm saying. It reads like you've already hanged them and damned them, sight unseen, and padres are supposed to be merciful, yes? ;)

If you're right, and STO turns out to be a dumbass-naming free-for-all, I suggest you do what I always do in such cases: go into the game options and turn off all the "other player labelling" in the game. If you can't see their idiot character names, or read their stupid ship names, they can't so readily spoil one's fun.

Cheers!

KOS

[KirksOtherSon]

It does raise another question. How will naming work? Will my next ship have a new name or will it be USS Myship, USS Myship A etc.?

Since the process of swappable starships is unrealistic on the story level anyway, it may be simplest to tag them all with the same name and registry. They're all assigned to the same captain, and you can only ever use one of them at a time, so every time you take out one of your ships, it will be marked as USS Myship, NCC nnnnn.

It's what I would do, anyway. Less coding work for what is essentially a gameplay conceit.

Malcolm

[The_Padre]

Respectfully, Padre, Cryptic had one of the better systems for weeding out illegal and offensive character names (at least after the first year or so) that I've seen in all my years of playing MMORPGs. Their anonymous auto-reporting system for illegal/anti-EULA/offensive names was quick and easy to use, and my friends and I used it, and saw it implemented numerous times.

Perhaps your server was less well-staffed? Or you were playing in the earlier days of CoH/CoV? I don't know.

Certainly, Cryptic didn't try to arbitrate _taste_ -- people could (and often did) have totally stupid character names -- but so long as they didn't violate EULA, or copyright, or offend -- they had to pass.

All Cryptic has to do is add a more rigorous EULA to Star Trek Online, and then even a lot of the foolish stuff would be weeded out. Since they're working with a licensed property, the rigor could be justified as "protecting the integrity of the IP". Thus, no "near versions" -- no "Zappp Branigens" no "USS Secondprize" These would fall under EULA violations and would be reportable by other players.

Take a look at the WoW EULA and Terms of Service documents sometime -- some of the most restrictive I've ever seen -- and yet, WoW became so popular, so quickly, Blizzard literally can't (or won't) hire the necessary staff to enforce it.

I'd give Cryptic a touch more credit at this early stage, is all I'm saying. It reads like you've already hanged them and damned them, sight unseen, and padres are supposed to be merciful, yes? ;)

If you're right, and STO turns out to be a dumbass-naming free-for-all, I suggest you do what I always do in such cases: go into the game options and turn off all the "other player labelling" in the game. If you can't see their idiot character names, or read their stupid ship names, they can't so readily spoil one's fun.

Cheers!

KOS

Played for four years on Virtue, the second highest populated server and currently also beta testing Champions Online. I see your point however my answer is exactly the same as the one you have just given, unless the names a player is using violates the EULA (such as offensive or trademarked names) then the name is allowed. Though I'm sure all names based off variants of Enterprise, Voyager, Defiant will be handled like much like it was in CoH/V. What people here are worried about is seeing names like USS Leet or USS Boom and such which would be allowed if more than a little irritating from a personal taste perspective.

[pturley]

"We’re aiming for a fantastical style, not a “cartoony” one. It’s going to look realistic, in terms of planets, environments, and characters, but we want to take it up a notch and make it feel more fantastic. We’re going to give it that sense of wonder and vibrancy that you expect from Star Trek."

Nonsense.

To start off with, let me say I've played CoH and CoV from beta, and loved them both. I have a very high opinion of Cryptic.

But, still, nonsense.

You're using the CoV engine, and that's just what it looks like.

It doesn't look "good" or "fantastical" - it looks like a comic book engine.

I'll play STO, for sure, but I won't like the graphics.

[The_Padre]

"We’re aiming for a fantastical style, not a “cartoony” one. It’s going to look realistic, in terms of planets, environments, and characters, but we want to take it up a notch and make it feel more fantastic. We’re going to give it that sense of wonder and vibrancy that you expect from Star Trek."

Nonsense.

To start off with, let me say I've played CoH and CoV from beta, and loved them both. I have a very high opinion of Cryptic.

But, still, nonsense.

You're using the CoV engine, and that's just what it looks like.

It doesn't look "good" or "fantastical" - it looks like a comic book engine.

I'll play STO, for sure, but I won't like the graphics.

They're not using the same engine as CoH/V actually.

[Sorbek]

Not a lot of questions, but a lot of good answers. Thanks for the information and I too am pleased to hear that it will be worth while keeping an eye out for good gear to keep outfitting older ships in our personal fleets.

Now just hope we will be able to use the ships cargo bays as a sort of storage area when they are not actively in use :-)

[Doug3575]

It all sounds great!

[Calid]

Great questions and answers.

I really like the idea of possibly encountering a race that a player created. I'm not sure if personality traits and racial background would be figured in but that could reallly open up lots of content for exploration and diplomacy.

I'm excited I can keep my ships and not be affraid to step out of one ship I have fallen in love with in order to upgrade to a new one.

I'm very giddy.

[bouncingboredom]

Maybe I'm a little off mark here, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but there seems to be mini debate developing of fun vs. canon, and I was just thinking; when you take a franchise as big and well supported as Star Trek, doesn't canon=fun for a lot of the fans?

I understand that the game needs to be accessible to casual gamers, but shouldn't it lean more towards the true Star Trek fans and what they want? Is not their love for the franchise the primary reason why this game is being made and expected to be successful?

And thus on that note, I suggest the following:

1) For NCC registry, surely the numbers just go in ascending order depending on when the ships is commisioned.

2) For ship names, just create an authorised database from which people may select a name. It's really not that hard to find resource materials to generate tens of thousands of ship names. Hell, you pay me and i'll do it. Players can choose one of them personally or ask for a random suggestion.

3) As for character names, again, just have an authorised database of first and second names for the various species. You then either keep asking for a randomly generated name until you're happy, or pick one from the list. And again, not really that hard to do and will save a lot of complaints and hassle in the long run.

4) Keeping hordes of ships in a garage? I can just see the scene now as a Lt. Commander asks his Captain: "So sir, will we be taking the Galaxy class today, or maybe just the Intrepid?". Would it not be more feasible that when you require a new ship, you purchase it in whatever manner is used, and your old ship is made available to other players who need an upgrade. I can see it being quite nostalgic to roll up at a Starbase only to find you're docked next to a ship you used to own many moons ago, then catching up with it's current Captain so you can drunkenly tell him about the time you brilliantly beamed a brace of Photon Torpedos onto a Borg cube.

5) A lot of people seem worried about the nature of upgrades for their ships etc. My theory? Why not just upgrade your bridge crew and take them with you. Hopefully this would serve as a sufficent compromise between fun and canon. Then, no matter what ship you're in charge of at any time, your bridge crew will be there with you to enhance your Phasers, squeeze that extra bit of speed from the engines, or just simply to make the replicator understand 'Deep Fried Mars Bar'. This way your affinity (or hatred) with your crew will develop over time, which has consistently proven to be one of most enjoyable features of the Star Trek franchise: a crews collective voyage through the stars.

Just my two pence worth. Suggestions?

[Blackfire2]

I think the answers we were given from the devs in this latest installment was extremely dissapointing and I'll leave it at that.

[SenshiBat]

Aim high expect low meet in the middle... ? I am sure the concept of ships[s] would mean a trade in to upgrade economy.. As a player progresses.. in Tiers the old ships could be assigned to a 'fleet' or sector pool..
but on the idea of customs ships...
ones custom paint job my not be another's causing re re trick outs for new 'owner' But i did like the idea of a stable of ships... each mission could have a aspect that favours a different class of ship? so that old dingey Norway class DD may just be a good idea in a asteroid belt mine scouting mission?

Treat it like Hertz.. Sorry Mr.Bat The XJ8 is gone would you like a SLK instead... maybe a REd XKE?

[jdankanyin]

Hello I Watched All The Original star trek and next generation and deep space nine and voyager series.And i Think When You Start The Game You Should Start At The Bottom And Work Your way Up To Captain Meaning Getting Into Star Fleet Or Getting Into The Klingon Allience Or Becoming a Ferengi Captain.Then Have Different Classes Like Medical Field Or Enginerer Or Artifical Intellegence Or Trader.Then I WOuld Have it So You Could Get to rank Captain And Build A Ship Or Buy One Or Trade For One Or Be Assigned One.Then You Could Go Explore Planets Or Do Ship Battles.Also Have Quests In It Or Missions To Get You Better Parts Or Better Crew Mates Or Give Access To Privledge Places.If The Game Is Just Going To Be Ship Battleing Not mUch Fun And Gets Bord Real Quick.I,ve Played Everquest when it first Came out for 7 Years Ive also played e.v.e, wow,swg,everquest 2, Lotrol and What ive Learned Over The Years Of Playing Them Is listening To The Public Other Wise You Loose Your Community Like When swg Changed The Game drasticly And they Lost everyone Or Like When They Changed everquest And Made Everyone Very Powerfull With The New Expansions Past Plane Of Power. Well Good Luck With The Game And Make Sure You Listen To Everyone About How The Game Should Be Before Making Any Major Mistakes That WOuld Loose The Community. If The Game Is Just Going To Be Ship Battleing And Just Some exploration You Can Count Me out Of Playing The Game

[Duckdee]

I think they just pull questions from the forum.
No, there's a stickied Ask Cryptic thread in the STO Discussion board.

[amb]

This is a universe at war, so combat will be a major factor, but there will also be a large component of exploration.

I'm not against combat in STO but I don't like that combat is set as a "major factor" and exploration is set as "component".
I thought those surveys on the front page serve a more complex purpose and one of those surveys showed that the majority of users prefer exploration over combat. I'm aware of that this is no democratic party at Cryptic's. But why are you choosing combat over exploration when it was shown so obviously that most people would like to have a "major factor" on exploration and a "component" of combat? Cryptic should put more efforts into exploration.

Exploration > Combat it's like game play > graphics

To end my negativity here, I like the rest of what I read in this Ask Cryptic and I'm so keen on getting more information on the Klingons.
How far are you in development with them Awen?

[WarpVis]

I am just glad they answered my question about the interactivety of NPCs, and about the amount of combat versus other kinds of missions.

I am glad that they intend to have missions where you don't simply clobber your way thru evil alien hordes.

Dispatching alien hordes may be fun, but it would be nice to have the occassional exploration, diplomatic, or puzzle mission where talents other than combat were key.

It will all come to how they balance this all out, and I am willing to wait and see.

[Kinneas]

No, there's a stickied Ask Cryptic thread in the STO Discussion board.

Thank You! I did not look for it hard enough.

[bouncingboredom]

Personally, exploration/diplomacy strikes me as being much more of a significant factor in the life of a starship Captain than combat. I also like the suggestion someone made of puzzles. Maybe one day you're cruising along when the engines cut out, and it's down to you and your intrepid crew members to diagnose and then resolve the problem. Just a bit of variety compared to the monotonous implementation of combat/mining boredom offered by games like EVE.

[DanielLutrin]

It does raise another question. How will naming work? Will my next ship have a new name or will it be USS Myship, USS Myship A etc.?
Not a bad idea

[Whisky]

Personally, exploration/diplomacy strikes me as being much more of a significant factor in the life of a starship Captain than combat. I also like the suggestion someone made of puzzles. Maybe one day you're cruising along when the engines cut out, and it's down to you and your intrepid crew members to diagnose and then resolve the problem. Just a bit of variety compared to the monotonous implementation of combat/mining boredom offered by games like EVE.

Yes i like the sound of that. That would be much better that just ship to ship combat. I want puzzles to solve, i want to explore, i want to interact on starbases / planets, and i want ship to ship combat but not as a major factor.

If you are at war with a particular race then so be it, but i don't want to have to just try and destroy every ship i encounter.

Also i like the idea of a Star Fleet Academy where you learn about different aspect of command, medical, engineer etc so that you can make a better judgement as to watch career / direction you want your character to go.

Having said that, i still want this any shape or form:D

[Peregrine_Falcon]

I'll play STO, for sure, but I won't like the graphics.
Personally I like the cartoonish or "fantastical" graphics or whatever they call it. Sure they could crank the graphics up to photo-realistic level. Wouldn't that rock? Wouldn't having to spend $2,000 or $3,000 to buy a brand new computer just to play this game rock too? Wouldn't it just rock?

Yeah, it would suck.

It would also be stupid on Cryptic's part to automagically block a big portion of their market from being able to play. Most people can afford $15/month if they really want to. Not everyone can afford to buy a brand new computer. That's why I'm happy that the graphics are going to be the way they are. Photo-realistic graphics just don't contribute enough to game-play to be worth the extra computer power needed.

[TheDart]

Personally I like the cartoonish or "fantastical" graphics or whatever they call it. Sure they could crank the graphics up to photo-realistic level. Wouldn't that rock? Wouldn't having to spend $2,000 or $3,000 to buy a brand new computer just to play this game rock too? Wouldn't it just rock?

Yeah, it would suck.

It would also be stupid on Cryptic's part to automagically block a big portion of their market from being able to play. Most people can afford $15/month if they really want to. Not everyone can afford to buy a brand new computer. That's why I'm happy that the graphics are going to be the way they are. Photo-realistic graphics just don't contribute enough to game-play to be worth the extra computer power needed.

A major reason I don't like photorealistic graphics in my games - any games - is that we see photorealistic humans all the time. Modeling, texturing and animating a 3D model that looks photoreal is HARD - they will always look "off" and "wrong", and that will take you out of a game a million times faster than bright colors and stylized graphics ever will.

Also, I just really, really like this art style, and - yes - have no money to upgrade even though I want to. VIVA LA FANTASTIQUE

[bouncingboredom]

Yes i like the sound of that. That would be much better that just ship to ship combat. I want puzzles to solve, i want to explore, i want to interact on starbases / planets, and i want ship to ship combat but not as a major factor.

If you are at war with a particular race then so be it, but i don't want to have to just try and destroy every ship i encounter.

Also i like the idea of a Star Fleet Academy where you learn about different aspect of command, medical, engineer etc so that you can make a better judgement as to watch career / direction you want your character to go.

Having said that, i still want this any shape or form:D



You've just reminded me; think about the amount of times that Picard, Janeway, Sisko etc have encountered an unknown ship. What was the first thing they did? Open a hailing frequency or charge the Phasers?

That's right, the pen can be mighter than the sword.

[Ensign101101]

Will we see complete new aliens/races/planets made for the game to expand oh the myths/legends of ST

[SenshiBat]

UnContre mon cher...

First you must find something.. before thee combat she star.. ahhhaah.. So Exploration is importante. Oui?

[KirksOtherSon]

Played for four years on Virtue, the second highest populated server and currently also beta testing Champions Online. I see your point however my answer is exactly the same as the one you have just given, unless the names a player is using violates the EULA (such as offensive or trademarked names) then the name is allowed. Though I'm sure all names based off variants of Enterprise, Voyager, Defiant will be handled like much like it was in CoH/V. What people here are worried about is seeing names like USS Leet or USS Boom and such which would be allowed if more than a little irritating from a personal taste perspective.


Thanks for the reasoned reply, Padre. It's much appreciated. These days, around here, I never know when I'm going to get randomly screamed at or villified, just for offering an opinion. I appreciate people who can still speak intelligently and with civility, especially when they disagree.

Regarding the spectre of ships named USS Leet and USS Boom, I would once again point you to the EULA and TOS (Terms of Service) for World of Warcraft. As I mentioned, those documents are two of the most rigorous I've ever seen. They expressly forbid "leetspeak" (so USS Leet would be reportable) and they also expressly forbid what amounts to dubious or suspect slang, on the grounds that using "coded slang" opens the door to abuses which cannot readily be detected or arbitrated.

Thus, USS Boom goes. Same for Headshot, or what-have-you.

While WoW seems to do top-down policing, I imagine Cryptic will rely heavily on community policing and reporting, as they did with the City of ... games.

I don't know what it was like on your server, but on Victory, the policy tended to enact as "better safe than sorry". If someone reported you, you were generic-renamed automatically if there was even the possibility of validity to the complaint -- the onus then fell on the accused player to make their case to the GMs, if they felt they'd been wrongly accused ...

So, if STO adopts some of the clauses found in the WoW EULA and Terms of Service, yet enforces them with the same systems as seen in CoH/V, a lot of the things you fear for Star Trek Online will also be put under the gun.

Hope this helps,

KOS

[jonleach]

Awesome information Thanks!!

[Otto]

good and soft New Year's Day with you all! ! ! while hoping to be
able to only discover and play and in group with l' universe making
me beat the heart since very small since my small world locates in
the federation

[nicah64]

Personally, I think it would be great if the names aren't too limited. I mean there is only so many names you can think of that would suit a starship. The only thing I think there should be is a naming convention, preventing anything but letters in the name so you don't have the USS V0Y@g3r or some crap like that. Other than that, I think people should be free to express their own individuality on their ships, of course if the name is offensive or abusive like say USS UpYours then that of course is a no go.

[achaney23]

I like the keeping your previous ships. I'd like to be able to invite other players on my ship when in space dock. Can I do this? If you watch the original series. The lighting and uniforms and walls and just about everything about how the series looked from an art style point of view was very flat single colors and very very bright colors. So there is a justification for this kind of "fantastical" art style. But please don't take it too far.

Over all. Good job so far. Much better IMHO than that other space MMO that begin with an S that is being developed. Much more sandboxy then I was expecting. I hope it continues in that direction.

[amb]

Will we see complete new aliens/races/planets made for the game to expand oh the myths/legends of ST

In matter of aliens and races this is up to us to creat new ones. Of course, you will be able to take a myths/legend to form a whole new race. Especially by founding a Fleet (Guild) you might take a myth or legend as funding stone and build on it RPG-like. In fact you'll have lots of possibilities with the alien creator technology. I just hope this will not turn into a Spore II clone!

I like the keeping your previous ships. I'd like to be able to invite other players on my ship when in space dock. Can I do this? If you watch the original series. The lighting and uniforms and walls and just about everything about how the series looked from an art style point of view was very flat single colors and very very bright colors. So there is a justification for this kind of "fantastical" art style. But please don't take it too far.

Over all. Good job so far. Much better IMHO than that other space MMO that begin with an S that is being developed. Much more sandboxy then I was expecting. I hope it continues in that direction.

I really, really hope Cryptic is going to enables my ship to fill up with human players being replaced by NPC Crew as soon as a Fleet mate leaves the game (position on bridge). If they could do this (even in another future addon) this would freak me out!

[Mlgarth81]

Good info, keep it up

[Qnaz]

I hope the Bird of Prey is a high tier ship. If its an early tier it doesn't sound like it will match up well later in the game. In fact it sounds only ships within two tiers of each other will be able to compete. I'm not sure what to think of the ship swapping either. I hope theres a wait time on switching ships. The last thing I want to see is me tearing apart a defiant in my BoP then he rolls back with a Sovereign just like that.

[bouncingboredom]

I hope the Bird of Prey is a high tier ship. If its an early tier it doesn't sound like it will match up well later in the game. In fact it sounds only ships within two tiers of each other will be able to compete. I'm not sure what to think of the ship swapping either. I hope theres a wait time on switching ships. The last thing I want to see is me tearing apart a defiant in my BoP then he rolls back with a Sovereign just like that.


I'll second that.

[SenshiBat]

Interesting KOS... brings to mind the old VW Beetle.. being used as an AD board..via custom painted Corporate logo.... I can see it now a Fleet of Ships Sponsored By HANJIN KIA flooding the asian servers..
With Football [soccer] Team shirts for Bridge uniforms Advertising Best Buy and Target.. samsung
You must have some fair control.. to prevent Gold Mining..off your intellectual property.. to protect the integrity of the game.. No every one can have CPt Pike's Green Orion slave girls crewing the bridge..

"We revel in and Highlight the base absurd to make a point" Don'T take fun too seriously..

[TooFast4Radar]

I would also think it would be fun to have a more civilian role in the game. For instance I want to be Quark, the local bar owner who buys, sells, and trades out of his establishment. He might have a small ship for running his trade route to get more supplies or run contraband, acquiring it from another player or depot, and selling it to players in the game. New wardrobe, food, specialty equipment that may be useful to a landing party (such as an item that another race might find valuable and could help you complete your mission by gaining their support and trust). The bar or shop is run by paying a nominal rent fee to the station. Your player can buy upgraded living quarters, an upgraded trade ship, even stolen ships from another race.

Even in times of war, there is still an economy and exploration on the non-military front.

Personally I could see this as being just as much, if not more, enjoyable.

[Rigost]

I would be curious to see if technology or artificats gather from others races established within the game or created by other people can be researched and developed by the race you are playing or created for further growth and development within the game?

Also, what if we create our own race and it expands to the point were we could possibly have our own planet or even control our own section of a galaxy and so on. I wonder if there is any ideas on that development or even possabilities within the server environment the game is going to be in to handle that?

[bouncingboredom]

I would also think it would be fun to have a more civilian role in the game. For instance I want to be Quark, the local bar owner who buys, sells, and trades out of his establishment. He might have a small ship for running his trade route to get more supplies or run contraband, acquiring it from another player or depot, and selling it to players in the game. New wardrobe, food, specialty equipment that may be useful to a landing party (such as an item that another race might find valuable and could help you complete your mission by gaining their support and trust). The bar or shop is run by paying a nominal rent fee to the station. Your player can buy upgraded living quarters, an upgraded trade ship, even stolen ships from another race.

Even in times of war, there is still an economy and exploration on the non-military front.

Personally I could see this as being just as much, if not more, enjoyable.

On that point, I think you may very well be spot on.

[redemption58]

Very nice, that was a big question I had in the back of my mind as well "are we going to be able to keep our ships?" Beautiful!

[Denzen]

I hope all the tier 1 ships are shuttles, lol.

I am happy with everything except that its not out yet.

Luv ya game-makerz

:D

:eek:

[funkyone]

First of all, let me apologize if any of this has already been previously mentioned. Didn't have the time to read each and every post, so if this is redundant, I sincerely apologize.

The first question/idea, stems from games such as Fable, where you can evolve your storyline based on your actions, wether you do good things or bad things. Will this MMO have the ability to be an evil-doer, like conquering races, or overthrowing ships... if so, will the story evolve as that of a "space pirate" or rogue of sorts? :D

Second question/idea, when attacked by the Borg, will it be possible to be assimilated to the Borg and actually serve upon the Borg crew, and go along with them as they attempt to conquer others? If so, will it also be possible to be liberated from the Borg and turned back into what you already were (like Jean Luc Picard in Next Generation)?

Third question/idea, will there be random encounters with Que? Not so much a whole storyline wrapped around an encounter (though that's possible as well), but like in the middle of another storyline that never intended to have Que, could there be a random encounter with Que, like how in some MMOs they might have a random merchant or random NPC that shows up to interact with you while there's currently another storyline that was never originally made for it to happen. So in sorts, could Que just be a universal NPC that kind of free-floats throughout the game? :rolleyes:

Fourth question/idea, any chance the buddy-list/friends might be worked into an interface in the actual game? Like when triggering an IM with a buddy, any chance it could trigger a "opening hailing frequency" on the video screen with them? (Since it's an MMO, figuring their character's face can be shown on the screen or something with lip-syncing either to typed text or voice chat... if this was a virtual world like Second Life, might suggest the ability to have video conferencing and actually show ourselves on the screen, heh.)

Fifth question/idea, should the head guy, believe his name was Jeff, actually nerf our characters, as said in the webcast, will we have the ability to take his godly character, shove it in a photon torpedo tube, and launch him out into an uncharted nebula somewhere? (this one is said just in jest, sorry, couldn't resist!) :p

Think that's it for now, but if I think of anything else, will be sure to post/ask it! Thanks in advance for any enlightenment on any of this!

[melangley]

My question is how closely the command and combat ship-side controls will play? Will they look/act like the command controls for Starfleet Command? (I ask because the mass to accelleration ratio in those games seems similar to what you describe.) If not, is there an existing analog to your control systems?

[djnattyd]

Although no solid details have been given regarding platforms, judging by your other MMO; Champions Online, it's common concensus among forum members that STO is going to be released for the Xbox 360. If i purchase the game for the Xbox (as i am planning on doing) and then decide to move to PC for whatever reason, will i need to make another purchase or can i just download the client and play using my existing log-in details?

[daadamo]

It seems I am in the minority. I don't like being able to keep past ships. Move on, grow, evolve. Certainly breaks immersion and makes little game sense. Seems silly, like you have entire ships in your pocket, what happens to the crew compliment of a Sovereign class ship when you magically switch back to your tier one ship for a specific mission? Been following STO for a long time, sounds like they are going the video game route, not the MMORPG route. Dissapointing to me.

[Spawk]

well i have seen everyone here ask about the game, but lets talk hardware.. i really hope this isnt going to turn out like blizzard when world of warcraft burning crusade came out.. there were server crashes for about a month before they "fixed" the issues, so my question is considering the ST community is much larger and extremely more vast than blizzard, are your servers going to be able to hold, the hundreds of thousands or even possibly millions of people logging on at the same time? will you have multiple servers? or is it going to be just one server?

[nedonedonedo]

a wile ago i played a game called flashtrek on "maxgames.com" if someone could take a look at it, its a fun game, and it might help, or you could just play it for fun while your waiting for this to finish

[Ca12nag3]

I hope all the tier 1 ships are shuttles, lol.

I am happy with everything except that its not out yet.

Luv ya game-makerz

:D

:eek:

well wouldnt it be better if the tutorial part is shuttles?

and tire 1 be like sabre class ships?

shuttles are way to limited and are actualy part of either a base or starship and dont realy operate solo
solo missions with small craft started with the runabout ships that are actualy bigger then regular suttles

about the ship tiers id rather have a fast smaller ship all the game for maneuvring and attacking but i asume you put a lot of effort in making your ship and crew better thrueout the game.
you might have the battleships like galaxy-class/sovreign class your * tanks*, sabre class/defiant class dps that do all the fast attacking. perhaps even nebula/oberth class as healers?

its a mmo so you need to play together some might be good at attacking but some will need to do the pwning and others sit back and heal while others take all the big hits. i just hope the game will be diverce so not only trek players will play the game but that the game atracts more players and different styls to play the game.

[Rekkert]

well wouldnt it be better if the tutorial part is shuttles?

and tire 1 be like sabre class ships?

shuttles are way to limited and are actualy part of either a base or starship and dont realy operate solo
solo missions with small craft started with the runabout ships that are actualy bigger then regular suttles


I guess that tier 1 ships would be runabouts, tier 2 small ships and so on.

[bouncingboredom]

It seems I am in the minority. I don't like being able to keep past ships. Move on, grow, evolve. Certainly breaks immersion and makes little game sense. Seems silly, like you have entire ships in your pocket, what happens to the crew compliment of a Sovereign class ship when you magically switch back to your tier one ship for a specific mission? Been following STO for a long time, sounds like they are going the video game route, not the MMORPG route. Dissapointing to me.

I'm with you on this one dude, I just can't understand how anyone could justify a player having an intrepid class, sovereign class, defiant class and god knows what else tied up in a dock somewhere. I think we should just have our ships and when we are ready to move on, our ships are opened up for other players to use, like a hand me down system.

I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but I just think that if you had a slider with "arcade fun" at one end and "star trek canon" at the other, I'd rather see the slider move more towards the "Star Trek Canon" end. Maybe it's just me (and presumably daadamo), but the more information I discover about this game, the more I fear it's just going to be more of the usual same old, same old MMO; with ST decorations on it to draw people in.

And if it turns into another EVE online........ god help us.

[treskelion]

i'm just wanting to find out if star trewk online is available to xbox360 and if it is can you only play it if you got xbox live??

[muttw7]

A major reason I don't like photorealistic graphics in my games - any games - is that we see photorealistic humans all the time. Modeling, texturing and animating a 3D model that looks photoreal is HARD - they will always look "off" and "wrong", and that will take you out of a game a million times faster than bright colors and stylized graphics ever will.

Also, I just really, really like this art style, and - yes - have no money to upgrade even though I want to. VIVA LA FANTASTIQUE

I've got to strongly disagree with you here. For me the more realistic the game looks the better. I don't know about you, but if I want immersion I'll play Oblivion rather than WoW. Granted there's a lot more that goes into it, but from a purely graphical standpoint IMO the more realistic the better. I've never understood people who say "if you can't make it perfect don't try" (not referring specifically to you, I've heard those exact words in similar discussions).

As far as system requirements, I don't see why you couldn't just make a huge difference between the top and bottom settings like LoTRO did. You can muddle through on a 6 year old laptop with 512mb of RAM and a P4 1.8 processor or you can crank the graphics way up if you've got a good system. That game isn't the best example for realistic graphics, but it's a huge jump up from the WoW style.

My personal feelings on the graphics in STO from the screenshots I've seen so far is that they're fine. I'm not excited about them, but I'm not complaining either.

It seems I am in the minority. I don't like being able to keep past ships. Move on, grow, evolve. Certainly breaks immersion and makes little game sense. Seems silly, like you have entire ships in your pocket, what happens to the crew compliment of a Sovereign class ship when you magically switch back to your tier one ship for a specific mission? Been following STO for a long time, sounds like they are going the video game route, not the MMORPG route. Dissapointing to me.

As I've said before I'm usually on the side of canon, but this time I'll have to side with Cryptic. This means I won't have to create and advance a platoon of alts to be able to play the different ships, I can just RP as a different captain on a different ship with my main character. An idea I had in another thread is that they could tie in death penalties with this. If your primary high tier ship gets disabled it'll have to spend some time in space dock getting repairs while you move to your next ship. It's probably not going to happen based on what they've said about death penalties, just throwing it out there.

[NCC24656]

wow nice Q&A

[The_Padre]

I'm with you on this one dude, I just can't understand how anyone could justify a player having an intrepid class, sovereign class, defiant class and god knows what else tied up in a dock somewhere. I think we should just have our ships and when we are ready to move on, our ships are opened up for other players to use, like a hand me down system.

I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but I just think that if you had a slider with "arcade fun" at one end and "star trek canon" at the other, I'd rather see the slider move more towards the "Star Trek Canon" end. Maybe it's just me (and presumably daadamo), but the more information I discover about this game, the more I fear it's just going to be more of the usual same old, same old MMO; with ST decorations on it to draw people in.

And if it turns into another EVE online........ god help us.


Many months ago a good number of people expressed concerns that all we're eventually going to see is fleets comprised mostly of capital ships like the Sovereign and Galaxy-class. This method, at least when you're in groups, would allow for a more diverse set of starships to be used, when you solo you can go about using your most powerful ship. There is no way they'd allow something like a Nova-class, for example, to be upgraded to Sovereign-class level. This at least seems like a good compromise.

[bouncingboredom]

Many months ago a good number of people expressed concerns that all we're eventually going to see is fleets comprised mostly of capital ships like the Sovereign and Galaxy-class. This method, at least when you're in groups, would allow for a more diverse set of starships to be used, when you solo you can go about using your most powerful ship. There is no way they'd allow something like a Nova-class, for example, to be upgraded to Sovereign-class level. This at least seems like a good compromise.

I can see the point your making, but I'd have thought that Galaxy and Sovereign class starships would have been made quite hard to come by, as in putting them right at the high end of the ship accquisition tree. These are vessels that have like 1,000 crew members, so I wouldn't have thought they would be dished out lightly. I guess a lot depends on how they plan to distribute the ships and the number of levels we are talking about here until we get to those big beauties.

[The_Padre]

I can see the point your making, but I'd have thought that Galaxy and Sovereign class starships would have been made quite hard to come by, as in putting them right at the high end of the ship accquisition tree. These are vessels that have like 1,000 crew members, so I wouldn't have thought they would be dished out lightly. I guess a lot depends on how they plan to distribute the ships and the number of levels we are talking about here until we get to those big beauties.

I used those classes as an example, we already know that there are certain ships that you can only get by joining a fleet for example.

[Eagleheart]

WE GET TO KEEP OUR SHIPS! AWESOME!!! <--Yeah i think that is sexcellent,but It feels kinda weird to change a ship for a battle..thinking if you are far far away in some distant part of the space and facing some trouble and then you are able to change the ship even if you would be travelling with 1 ship..hmm..i mean if understood it in the right way that can change ship whenever wants..Please correct me if i'm wrong..Of course keeping other ships than just one is awesome :)

I'm soo excited about this game..woof! Almost every day mentioning about this to my cousin and living with him at the moment..Words what i say go through his ears,but he understands my love towards Star Trek Universe =) Just watched the 25th episode from 2nd season of Star Trek Enterprise and darn Jolene Blalock is soo awesome Vulcan Science Officer.. :) Scott Bakula is so goodie in the role of a Captain :)

[Wikid]

i have one question that has been plaguing my mind since i have heard about this game, what is group content going to be like in this game ( i understand this may have already been covered but forgive me for not wanting to read 11 pages of forum posts) as when i say group content i mean space battles, lets say the federation is invaded by the Borg or whatever faction will the fleets online have to report back to earth to defend or is it going to be more instance based like wow for instance where you choose when you wish to enter battle. I would love to see a game where events happen server wide, and the people online have to respond accordingly or face destruction.

Also am i right in thinking that the space battles are going to be very teamwork based, like making formations with other people. Target these coordinates and fire is something i really want to hear when defending the earth from possible annihilation.

[The_Padre]

i have one question that has been plaguing my mind since i have heard about this game, what is group content going to be like in this game ( i understand this may have already been covered but forgive me for not wanting to read 11 pages of forum posts) as when i say group content i mean space battles, lets say the federation is invaded by the Borg or whatever faction will the fleets online have to report back to earth to defend or is it going to be more instance based like wow for instance where you choose when you wish to enter battle. I would love to see a game where events happen server wide, and the people online have to respond accordingly or face destruction.

Also am i right in thinking that the space battles are going to be very teamwork based, like making formations with other people. Target these coordinates and fire is something i really want to hear when defending the earth from possible annihilation.

They have a dev blog here that answers some of the more commonly asked questions: Dev Blog (http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog)

[Wikid]

well i read through that and it answered some of my questions, but still the server wide events, is this a possibility?

[Fluxion]

I don't know how worked up people should get over the notion that you can keep all your old ships. That seems rather unimportant when compared with issues like allowing players to customize their ships with special parts, colors, decals, etc.

If you're getting upset because someone has a garage of ships, you should lose your mind over someone being able to "hotrod" a military ship. :)

[Ca12nag3]

i dont see anything in a few thousand sovreign class ships and nothing else around 1 it gets boring 2 it might destroy overtime gameplay.

might be fun for a few weeks but would be totaly boring.

i hope the game itself will function more as a mmo then a online shooting gallery with massive ships.

id prefer if the game has more diversity with fast maneuvrable sabre class cloaks with the defiant class massive hp with the galaxy class but less maneuvre.

only thing that might give a problem that other mmo's dont have is that the bigger the ship in the series the stronger it is over all the tiny ones.

only way to compensate that is if the smallers ships have the abilty to take out engine power of the bigger ones so they become sitting ducks

well it would be very difficult to make a mmo in this genre working and i hope it will :)

[daadamo]

I don't know how worked up people should get over the notion that you can keep all your old ships. That seems rather unimportant when compared with issues like allowing players to customize their ships with special parts, colors, decals, etc.

If you're getting upset because someone has a garage of ships, you should lose your mind over someone being able to "hotrod" a military ship. :)

How about "all of the above"?

Just think, your ship and crew are far out in uncharted space, any communication with Starfleet would take weeks...you are forced to navigate through an ancient alien minefield. How can you possibly manuever through it safely with your current huge ship? No problems! You just pull out that tricked out Sabre Class light cruiser with the pink and yellow flamed decals out of the stable of ships you keep in the glove compartment. Sounds just like the game I have been waiting for. Ugh.

[SenshiBat]

Realisem v Playability...

REalisum a 3d Cad cutaway Borg Surgeon Assumilating some poor chap...
fit for a CAT SCan Van lab..

Playability.. Frame rates and uniform apperiance and lighting.. thsi wont be Quake Glide on a Voodoo II..

ITs been done... How many times do you need to be chased down a corrodor by a zombie with only a flashlight and a fire axe.. I want something new.. Tastey.. Brilliant... no kids in a nike factory.. I want kids in a sci computer lab... with a coffee and donught fund.. an great office LAN Beta before it moves to closed then open beta... Cause i take notes on a long yellow legal pad.. when i beted... and i used a pencil with a good eraser....

Hard Testing Now Hard Critical Testing now.. Prevents
Bug Hunts later...
liek good training prevents blood on the battlefield...

[daadamo]

Realisem v Playability...

REalisum a 3d Cad cutaway Borg Surgeon Assumilating some poor chap...
fit for a CAT SCan Van lab..

Playability.. Frame rates and uniform apperiance and lighting.. thsi wont be Quake Glide on a Voodoo II..

ITs been done... How many times do you need to be chased down a corrodor by a zombie with only a flashlight and a fire axe.. I want something new.. Tastey.. Brilliant... no kids in a nike factory.. I want kids in a sci computer lab... with a coffee and donught fund.. an great office LAN Beta before it moves to closed then open beta... Cause i take notes on a long yellow legal pad.. when i beted... and i used a pencil with a good eraser....

Hard Testing Now Hard Critical Testing now.. Prevents
Bug Hunts later...
liek good training prevents blood on the battlefield...

Wtf? I didn't understand a thing you just said.

[justicenic]

kool kant wait for game very interesting

[Ca12nag3]

well count me out if people got pink birds of prey and a flare at the side of their federation ships.

realistic as much as possible is what i hope for , people having a garage full of ships sounds crazy to me also the finetuning should be in the components of the ship not the exterior, id say to all who like to deco go buy a barbie game ;)

picking a ship should be a delicate thing you want manuvrability or stronger hull? or perhaps you chose firepower over structural integrity. that should be the question not the paintings on the hull.

sabre class would be maneuvrability but can take less hits

galaxy class might take a lot of dmg but less maneuvring.

defiant class more firepower somewhat less maneuvring and takes more dmg

perhaps oberth class or nebula providing heal abilities like strengthening shields over the fleet?

im just making things up but that would be a combined fleet with a lot of diversity not 10 sovreign class ships roaming the area. if so id rather have the borg introduced and lets all have borg tactical kubes that would be the same idea *we are the borg we are one*:D

[Fluxion]

Wtf? I didn't understand a thing you just said.

Can you say, "online translation"?

[Fluxion]

well count me out if people got pink birds of prey and a flare at the side of their federation ships. realistic as much as possible is what i hope for , people having a garage full of ships sounds crazy to me also the finetuning should be in the components of the ship not the exterior, id say to all who like to deco go buy a barbie game ;)


I can live with the garage of ships...I only have to see one at a time. As far as all the crazy ship customization goes...I'm holding out hope that there will be an option in the video settings to turn off viewing of customizations so that ships look stock. :o

[callsign11b]

Was wondering if the dev. will develope codeing to have multi screen applications.
being able to run the game on multi monitors for the PC version of this game.

[Drunk1n]

I have much to catch up on. I am glad that Cryptic has taken on STO. I followed its development religiously until PE dropped it and then lost touch with STO due to the fear it would be bounced around for many years, before someone would finally but out a very rushed and disappointing version. I got off work today realizing I hadn't received , or ventured for any information about STO in... well far to long for me to mention.

So yay for Cryptic! :D

After many hours of speed reading and catching up with what seems to be a quickly developing, and well designed game - I now feel I have educated myself enough to remark in at least a moderately logical way about the most recent release of "Ask Cryptic". So here it goes my first post with many more to follow:

This is a universe at war, so combat will be a major factor, but there will also be a large component of exploration. You will get to meet new species, some of which you’ll fight against, some of which you’ll protect, and some of which you’ll ally with. There won’t be extensive dialogue trees, but you’ll get to explore and have missions that don’t involve just clobbering everybody.

I feel that this is an unfortunate demise to a potentially very engaging and grasping plot line. I do see why Cryptic would not want to do this though, they have given themselves, and there fans, a very quick and difficult timeline to adhere to, although none of use truly know when it is, we have been promised it will be guaranteed to be released before three years. [end quote] I know this sounds like a long time but for an MMORPG to be released it is very quick! It also sounded like he could have shortened that quite a bit, and even wanted to, but alas due to many reasons was not. I am definitely hoping for a 2009 release; Back on topic, with a short release date some things need to take a side burner, one of them being a massive story line, with intricate details, as though this was an addition to the last movie/series/book. It also sounds like they will be designing this game to be ever developing and constantly changing which also means that a solid plot line as story to follow just isn't logical so in the end I tend to agree with the shortened dialogue tree.

[QUOTE]There has been discussion on the art direction. Can you tell us why you chose to design your characters and environments with bright, solid shade colors (for lack of a better word "Cartoony") rather than a more realism style like say, Oblivion or Age of Conan?
We’re aiming for a fantastical style, not a “cartoony” one. It’s going to look realistic, in terms of planets, environments, and characters, but we want to take it up a notch and make it feel more fantastic. We’re going to give it that sense of wonder and vibrancy that you expect from Star Trek.

This sounds like people whining because they want to play the movie/series of there choice. Watch the "Star Trek Online Gameplay Trailer." I am not disagreeing with anyone who says they do not look real. This is a video game. Think about the graphical requirements that every computer would have to have to be able to play that game. It would require terabytes of storage to make a truly realistic visual game. Yes once again they could tweak the coloring and make it seem slightly more realistic without hampering video performance or requirements, this like everything in this world has its pros, and its cons. The reverse side to this coin as already pointed out would make lots of the detail fade away, and I can promise you more people would dislike a destroyer class vessel with little to no detail more then one with abundant coloring and lighting. Once again I am in favor of the art, I would say more then favor I actually think it is very aesthetically pleasing.

Turning radiuses, acceleration, deceleration, and general maneuverability will all be dependent on the size of each ship. Smaller fighters will be able to fishtail and maneuver quickly, while larger ships will have gradual turns, slower acceleration, and slower stops.

For those that are worried about not being able to turn for an excessive amount of time I have two things to say. First is for anyone who has played Star Trek Legacy: Smaller ships turned faster, following applied physics to the mechanics of the game. Some people did find that the game turned the ship slowly, I tended to agree if you let auto-pilot do all the steering and directing. If I took the helm, although it was harder to aim, I could steer much faster, so it was up to the pilot to determine what was more important at that moment trying to turn about while still aiming at a faster maneuvering ship that is running circles around you or turn quicker while taking "pot shots" and hitting with less accuracy but more often due to being able to apply your sights to the more agile ship more often. Secondly this game will be designed with fun in mind so I would imagine that Sovereign Class will not be to aggravating to navigate.

Will my custom species be one-of-a-kind or will the species be taken and seeded on other planets for other players to encounter?
At Cryptic, we really like including user generated content into our games. This, for example, is a great idea and we’ll look into it.

I think this is one of the best Ideas I have heard of, and will help Cryptic keep there idea of an ever-developing universe with out the need to employ a large group of staff to build and design characters. I hope they employ this idea within STO and look forward to inventing a few species myself.

The answer here is yes and no. You’ll start with a Tier 1 ship and you can certainly upgrade it and trick it out so that it’s comparable to a mid-level Tier 2 ship. However, a top of the line Tier 2 ship is going to be much better than even the most tricked out Tier 1. It has to do with growth capacity. There’s just more room for growth built into the higher tier ships. Of course, your skills and the skills of your bridge crew also affect how much you can do with your ship.
However, you do get to keep your ships. So, if you find yourself in a situation where an earlier ship would be more useful, you can switch back to it for that encounter. For example, you might want to shift back to a smaller and more maneuverable ship for running a blockade.

This is a very controversial question for everyone, myself included. At first I was opposed to the idea but as I thought more about it I remembered "STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: "The Visitor"," for those of you who have forgotten what episode this was a very quick synopsis - Nog as captain brings the Defiant out of the "mothballs". This means that the game CAN be cannon and bring out more options for those interested in going back and helping friends level with similar ships. This means to get one of the smaller ships wouldn't be switching by hitting a button, but similar to a captain going to star-fleet and requesting to borrow there ship for a mission or two. Seeing as they have the garage and we do not, this does make more sense. This is also giving us the ability to re-use ships we have built designed and fallen in love with, but on that note they are not in OUR garage but that of star-fleets [or the Empire, etc.]

Tiers for ship class sizes is a great idea - referring back to the defiant although it was a very capable ship and was able to destroy many ships a class size (or two) larger then it was possible. This was based off of great crewman-ship, knowledge of her capabilities, and well some of her capabilities alone. Let us be honest though like they showed within the series [refer back to "STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: "The Visitor""] there comes a point you have to stop upgrading a ship and move onto a newer, faster, more powerful design. Although for game mechanics it does seem more feasible to be able to continuously upgrade your ship to the constraints of the class [or tier.] Let us also be honest in looking at the design that people are worried about a lesser tier in PvP or PvE not being viable. Once again the Destroyer was a very capable ship and could destroy ships above its tier or class level, it wasn't easy but it was possible, that alone says a lesser class will be feasible. Let us also be honest a well equipped destroyer is no match for a well equipped Sovereign - the size and power of the Sovereign dictates that in the laws of physics, as well as logic. This does not mean that it will be a walk in the park for the Sovereign or that it will not see its fair share of damaged systems but it will eventually win a one on one battle.

Whew, there we go I believe I have covered all contingencies, I will also try to post more frequently and less ... lack of a better term long winded. That is my two bits on this matter and hopefully it isn't ripped apart to badly. :o

See you in the Skies,
Ensign Zott

[Ca12nag3]

i dont think there will be much 1v1 in the game at all also i wont enjoy looking in the mirror at all * as in me having a sovreign and everyone else has* that would be the most dull game ever.

wouldnt it be better to be able to earn a promotion? also you could finetune a lesser tire ship so it becomes more effective and a greater asset to a fleet then a fresh galaxy class. i just say that ships of all tires should be somewhat limited or else everyone would have the same ship * the one that outranks the rest*

mmo's with starships will always be difficult due to the outranking power the big battleships have over the smaller raiders. tho we have seen on screen that the defiant no matter its size can outblast bigger class ships due to its maneuvrability and its front fire power. it disabled a keldon class ship with ease as i remember.
so dont underestimate the little ships!

[twiztedclown]

It does raise another question. How will naming work? Will my next ship have a new name or will it be USS Myship, USS Myship A etc.?

Good question. I personally would like that, it would definately limit all the names being used and allow you to keep your name that you've built a rep with. Picard's enterprise had quite the lore after Kirk finished with the name.

[twiztedclown]

This is a very controversial question for everyone, myself included. At first I was opposed to the idea but as I thought more about it I remembered "STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: "The Visitor"," for those of you who have forgotten what episode this was a very quick synopsis - Nog as captain brings the Defiant out of the "mothballs". This means that the game CAN be cannon and bring out more options for those interested in going back and helping friends level with similar ships. This means to get one of the smaller ships wouldn't be switching by hitting a button, but similar to a captain going to star-fleet and requesting to borrow there ship for a mission or two. Seeing as they have the garage and we do not, this does make more sense. This is also giving us the ability to re-use ships we have built designed and fallen in love with, but on that note they are not in OUR garage but that of star-fleets [or the Empire, etc.]

Tiers for ship class sizes is a great idea - referring back to the defiant although it was a very capable ship and was able to destroy many ships a class size (or two) larger then it was possible. This was based off of great crewman-ship, knowledge of her capabilities, and well some of her capabilities alone. Let us be honest though like they showed within the series [refer back to "STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE: "The Visitor""] there comes a point you have to stop upgrading a ship and move onto a newer, faster, more powerful design. Although for game mechanics it does seem more feasible to be able to continuously upgrade your ship to the constraints of the class [or tier.] Let us also be honest in looking at the design that people are worried about a lesser tier in PvP or PvE not being viable. Once again the Destroyer was a very capable ship and could destroy ships above its tier or class level, it wasn't easy but it was possible, that alone says a lesser class will be feasible. Let us also be honest a well equipped destroyer is no match for a well equipped Sovereign - the size and power of the Sovereign dictates that in the laws of physics, as well as logic. This does not mean that it will be a walk in the park for the Sovereign or that it will not see its fair share of damaged systems but it will eventually win a one on one battle.

nsign Zott

When I played Starfleet Command 3 or Legacy I could take out any ship(besides a borg cube) 1 on 1 with the Defiant. It made me feel great to use my favorite ship the way I'd seen it used in the series. My friend tried to do the same but fell short at destroying the larger ships(Galaxy, Soveriegn, Warbird, etc...) which proved that it was possible but not likely that a smaller tier ship could hang with the big boys. I at least want that same chance in this game. I want it to at least be a possibility with great crew and skills for a smaller ship to take on a big boy. If they make it an impossibility then I will be disappointed because that won't hold true to the series(where a Defiant class ship took out Galor class ships, Galor being an eqaul to a Galaxy class ship). Hell, Voyager was midgrade at best and that thing locked horns with many over powered ships.

[Drunk1n]

When I played Starfleet Command 3 or Legacy I could take out any ship(besides a borg cube) 1 on 1 with the Defiant. It made me feel great to use my favorite ship the way I'd seen it used in the series. My friend tried to do the same but fell short at destroying the larger ships(Galaxy, Soveriegn, Warbird, etc...) which proved that it was possible but not likely that a smaller tier ship could hang with the big boys. I at least want that same chance in this game. I want it to at least be a possibility with great crew and skills for a smaller ship to take on a big boy. If they make it an impossibility then I will be disappointed because that won't hold true to the series(where a Defiant class ship took out Galor class ships, Galor being an eqaul to a Galaxy class ship). Hell, Voyager was midgrade at best and that thing locked horns with many over powered ships.

I agree, but I also don't want a fully loaded Galor, taking on (this is saying both payers are equally skilled) and beating a Loaded Galaxy just due to luck of the draw. I do want it to be a good fight and if the Galor gets the draw, a few luck shots, player is better, or it is better geared I do want it to be able to take it down. All I want is if a smaller ship is getting a 1 v 1 on a larger ship I want it to be a good fight and the better capt'n should win. As long as both are equally specced for there class.

[twiztedclown]

All I want is if a smaller ship is getting a 1 v 1 on a larger ship I want it to be a good fight and the better capt'n should win. As long as both are equally specced for there class.


AMEN !!!!!!!! :)

[SenshiBat]

They should order the History channels "The Universe on DVD" review the exoplanetary episope from U of Washington specificly.. planet scouting models.. Awsume!

[otterlord]

i think there should be a feature that u can land a runnabout in a large ship (such as a galaxy or exelser) for repairs and u can land it in a enemy ship with an away team to have a battle and capture it but of course with the shield down.

[slypher2005]

I was wondering can we create custom ships to our liking, something similer to Strar Trek Starship Crator.

Why I ask this is cause I have a partal Ship Desing in progress and if we can do Custom Made Ships then this would go a long way for the players/users.

[twiztedclown]

i think there should be a feature that u can land a runnabout in a large ship (such as a galaxy or exelser) for repairs and u can land it in a enemy ship with an away team to have a battle and capture it but of course with the shield down.

that would be awesome. I just hope they have runabouts or at least there future equivalant. that would be a great pre order prize, your very own runabout!! hehe:D

[twiztedclown]

I was wondering can we create custom ships to our liking, something similer to Strar Trek Starship Crator.

Why I ask this is cause I have a partal Ship Desing in progress and if we can do Custom Made Ships then this would go a long way for the players/users.

from what I understand, customizing will be limited to upgrading already preset models. i don't believe they will have the starship creator feature, but don't quote me. I'm just going off what they have released so far. think of CoH/CoV when it comes to the costumizing. you have 3 base models in those MMORPGs but you can customize them in many different ways but you have to start with the base that they supply for you.

would be nice though. it would definately get rid of the "mirror effect" of seeing a bunch of ships that are copies of yours. but then again, in star trek there are tons of ships exactly the same. the differences come down to the crew and personal upgrades you make. take geordi for example, he customized the warp core of the enterprise in a way he said worked best. when the creator of that warp drive visited the ship she was totally ****ed about the changes. I think that would be the extent of changes available to certain ship classes.

[CaptEdwards]

well if they do put the starship creator feature in i would think it might b a gd idea alot more down the line like an expansion CD with that & more but the info there is all sounding brill & im sure theres more 2 come lol

[Drunk1n]

My opinion about the ship design, I think it should be exclusive to the ship engineer class. Sort of a talent you spec in or learn over time. If you want to design faster ships, redesign the warp core - etc. You need to be an engineer.

[twiztedclown]

My opinion about the ship design, I think it should be exclusive to the ship engineer class. Sort of a talent you spec in or learn over time. If you want to design faster ships, redesign the warp core - etc. You need to be an engineer.

good point. they do need to limit what players can do so that not everyone can do everything, you have to be specialized. it would make for a more realistic feel and a funner experience. otherwise what would be the point of having a fleet if you didn't need others special talents to accomplish missions. like they said, each captain can train in certain areas. the examples they used were janeway and her science background and picard with his diplomacy techniques. I appreciate what they are trying to do and hope it becomes a very crucial game play idea. like in the voyager episode were Geordi is a captain, I bet his ship is one of the fastest and operates at peak efficiency. a ship witha klingon as captain would be armed to the teeth and have hella attack manuevers. Sisko had a knack for planning manuevers and attack stategies. that could come into play when you are facing a fleet and need to take down ships ASAP.:D

[Drunk1n]

Exactly, I can understand why Cryptic doesn't want to have specific class roles for say Medics, or Engineers, but they should have unique bonuses, as we have mentioned =D

Like say medics have more HP (ship and personnel... the longer an engineer doesn't need to go to medic the longer the ship can fight so it DOES make sense to give ship more HP)

[Wikid]

You could give certian parts of a ship and have them meld togeather, almost like Spores engine... but a little less advanced. Like you could pick a saucer section, a style of engine, a style of the engineering section and put them togeather to create a truly unique ship. Now that would be really cool.

[callsign11b]

have the dev. ever looked at the game on this site.
http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/
could give you ideas on warfare map play.
PVE areas behind frontlines. PVP areas the whole map. a 3d x,y,z map instaed of 2d
a floating movable frontline instead of a nutral zone.

[Drunk1n]

have the dev. ever looked at the game on this site.
http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/
could give you ideas on warfare map play.
PVE areas behind frontlines. PVP areas the whole map. a 3d x,y,z map instaed of 2d
a floating movable frontline instead of a nutral zone.

A moveable PVP realm is c great idea! I believe there will always be a form or Neutral Zone though. It just wouldn't be the same without it. Although a moving PvP zone between actual warring races.

Either way neat idea.

[twiztedclown]

hell yeah, very nice thought. would make you have to pay attention to local news to find the warring races and where to go to PvP.

[Drunk1n]

Once again it would give that completely different feel, and create a constantly changing game for all to enjoy.

[Oakes]

Some of this is very disapointing to me. See I went looking for an RP - MMO a while back, didn't find anything Start Trek, so I ended up on City of Heroes. I have been playing City of Heroes on and off nearly right from its begining. The customization has always been cool, combat works well, everything looks really good, but the big problem has been providing players with content. I was excited to hear about the aquisition, but I had hoped that Star Trek Online would feel less like a video game and more like online universe. Star Trek offers up decades of content and a very loyal fanbase. My biggest fear is that 'Fun for all' will win out and possibly alienate this loyal fanbase.

I'm not a Trekkie. I do not speak Klingon. I have never been to a convention. But I am a successful, professional 20 something with money to spend who really enjoys the concepts, the stories, and the world of Star Trek. I'm afraid that 'fun for all' at 15 bucks a month will last a short while and the game will die. I can't help but wonder if a game made for the loyal fanbase at 25 or 30 bucks a month (Realistically I'd spend $50 a month on a game I really enjoyed) would be more likely to survive.

"This is a universe at war, so combat will be a major factor, but there will also be a large component of exploration. You will get to meet new species, some of which you’ll fight against, some of which you’ll protect, and some of which you’ll ally with. There won’t be extensive dialogue trees, but you’ll get to explore and have missions that don’t involve just clobbering everybody." Quote from latest ask Cryptic (Jan. 7/09)

Even in times of war, Star Trek seemed to focus on culture, exploration, diplomacy, ect. This quote seems to elude to the fact that while these things will exsist in STO, it will be minimal and have little bearing on gameplay.

I know I would prefer a game where my interaction with a small unknown race or my ability to use diplomacy effectively with a hostile race would actually have just as much bearing on gameplay as blowing up a Borg Cube would. Don't get me wrong I'm all about blowing things up. But combat should be an equal part to the game, not the main part of the game.

For example, if you want to create a character with the "Class" Medical Officer purhaps your role (during earliy levels) isn't to take part in the fighting but to avoid the blasts while you take on the wounded and transport them to a starbase, as you develop more 'Reputation' in the Federation you are given more delicate missions like helping a dying race devolop and produce a cure for a fatal disease. Only when a Medical Officer is of a high enough level and has enough reputation would they command a ship into the heart of battle.

Anyways, I'm very excited for the launch and look forward to all the discussion leading up to that point. I really hope that Cryptic can use the rich history and loyal following of Star Trek to create something completely new in the gaming industry. If anything is going to do it, something with 'Star Trek' in it is a very likely candidate. lol

P.S. - Doesn't the Garage sound more video game than Online Universe?

[miketoker]

I would like to know if anybody will be able to play as the BORG?

[Drunk1n]

Some of this is very disapointing to me. See I went looking for an RP - MMO a while back, didn't find anything Start Trek, so I ended up on City of Heroes. I have been playing City of Heroes on and off nearly right from its begining. The customization has always been cool, combat works well, everything looks really good, but the big problem has been providing players with content. I was excited to hear about the aquisition, but I had hoped that Star Trek Online would feel less like a video game and more like online universe. Star Trek offers up decades of content and a very loyal fanbase. My biggest fear is that 'Fun for all' will win out and possibly alienate this loyal fanbase.

I'm not a Trekkie. I do not speak Klingon. I have never been to a convention. But I am a successful, professional 20 something with money to spend who really enjoys the concepts, the stories, and the world of Star Trek. I'm afraid that 'fun for all' at 15 bucks a month will last a short while and the game will die. I can't help but wonder if a game made for the loyal fanbase at 25 or 30 bucks a month (Realistically I'd spend $50 a month on a game I really enjoyed) would be more likely to survive.

"This is a universe at war, so combat will be a major factor, but there will also be a large component of exploration. You will get to meet new species, some of which you’ll fight against, some of which you’ll protect, and some of which you’ll ally with. There won’t be extensive dialogue trees, but you’ll get to explore and have missions that don’t involve just clobbering everybody." Quote from latest ask Cryptic (Jan. 7/09)

Even in times of war, Star Trek seemed to focus on culture, exploration, diplomacy, ect. This quote seems to elude to the fact that while these things will exsist in STO, it will be minimal and have little bearing on gameplay.

I know I would prefer a game where my interaction with a small unknown race or my ability to use diplomacy effectively with a hostile race would actually have just as much bearing on gameplay as blowing up a Borg Cube would. Don't get me wrong I'm all about blowing things up. But combat should be an equal part to the game, not the main part of the game.

For example, if you want to create a character with the "Class" Medical Officer purhaps your role (during earliy levels) isn't to take part in the fighting but to avoid the blasts while you take on the wounded and transport them to a starbase, as you develop more 'Reputation' in the Federation you are given more delicate missions like helping a dying race devolop and produce a cure for a fatal disease. Only when a Medical Officer is of a high enough level and has enough reputation would they command a ship into the heart of battle.

Anyways, I'm very excited for the launch and look forward to all the discussion leading up to that point. I really hope that Cryptic can use the rich history and loyal following of Star Trek to create something completely new in the gaming industry. If anything is going to do it, something with 'Star Trek' in it is a very likely candidate. lol

P.S. - Doesn't the Garage sound more video game than Online Universe?

You are right, and for this reason I am glad cryptic has acquired the licence for STO. Although it does appear that battles will be a very large part of the game my research shows that it isn't the be all and end all. No one is really sure yet how the diplomacy and exploration part of the game will play out but it will be a large part of the game. It sounds like the only way to truely advance your ship, and civilization (whether you are Klingon, Romulan, Federation, etc.) will be through exploration.

I think your Idea for 'classes' more or less is great. Cryptic has said once the game is out, and is starting to develop they will be able to look at additional things to add like that with the first expansion, but to encompass everything trek is, and stands for on first release is not only going to make the game get pushed bac so far into the future we might as well all grab Bat'leths and train for the real world version.

So the first release sounds like it will be good but not have everything but more will come, they just need to let the game make them some money before they can poor ALL there resources into STO.

I would like to know if anybody will be able to play as the BORG?

Short answer: No

Long Answer: One first release it will only be the Federation and Klingons, more will be coming. The Borg are too strong a faction for anyone to be able to play, you may be able to ad Borg attachments to your character because of the modifications that can be made to TO characters (think 7 of 9.)

The Borg as I understand will randomly show up in a sector and it will be every players responsibility to help irradiate them from that sector.

So long answer is no as well but at least you now know why.

[Trpko_62]

Look folks,

I'm new on this pages, so please don't take me wrong if I repeat questions previously asked.

As far as I understand it will be two playable fractions (Federation & Klingons) and six races. How can people mix fraction and race, for instance Orion - Klingon Warior.

Second thing is can I know little bit more about basic idea of game dinamics. Could I for instance as Orion race, Klingon warior, tactical background recrute Betazed doctor in my crew?

Third thing: When can we expect to know which starship classes will get in what tier, for instance K'Pak for tier1, Bird of Pray for tier2, and so on.

Best regards,

Trpko

[pops64]

Thx so much for the info :)

[Drunk1n]

Look folks,

I'm new on this pages, so please don't take me wrong if I repeat questions previously asked.

As far as I understand it will be two playable fractions (Federation & Klingons) and six races. How can people mix fraction and race, for instance Orion - Klingon Warior.

Yes, this is true, because of the time space in between the last movie and STO new alliances will have been forged. SO I imagine like an Orion, and Klingon relationship would be similar to the Federation, mixung just happens.

Second thing is can I know little bit more about basic idea of game dinamics. Could I for instance as Orion race, Klingon warior, tactical background recrute Betazed doctor in my crew?

In theory yes.

Third thing: When can we expect to know which starship classes will get in what tier, for instance K'Pak for tier1, Bird of Pray for tier2, and so on.

Best regards,

Trpko

This hasn't been released.

[evilweevil]

Ever so sorry if this has already been asked, theresalot of pages and little time, but will the Prometheus class be a ship be avalble, if so can you go into multi vector attack mode. and will the cheyenne class be avalible. and one last question will the steamrunner class starship be avalible. also can a shuttle be equiped to the ships, and can we launch them.


many thanks

Stephen Gray

[Drunk1n]

Ever so sorry if this has already been asked, theresalot of pages and little time, but will the Prometheus class be a ship be avalble, if so can you go into multi vector attack mode. and will the cheyenne class be avalible. and one last question will the steamrunner class starship be avalible. also can a shuttle be equiped to the ships, and can we launch them.


many thanks

Stephen Gray

We don't know all of the classes yet. I'm not sure about the Prometheus, Cheyenne, or Steamrunner. Shuttle crafts will be available, but not for us to pilot.

[Wikid]

Why dont you guys release a Starship creater/editor so we can play around with what you have come up with. Just a thought

[muttw7]

Look folks,Second thing is can I know little bit more about basic idea of game dinamics. Could I for instance as Orion race, Klingon warior, tactical background recrute Betazed doctor in my crew?

I don't think you'll be able to have a race from an opposing faction in your crew. Cryptic has stated that we'll be able to create our own races, so you'll probably be able to create a doctor with the same appearance and abilities as a Betazoid.

Personally, I'm planning on going with an all Klingon crew on my Klingon Empire faction ship. It just doesn't make sense to me to have non-Klingon bridge officers on a warship in the KDF. As Martok said, "We are Klingons. We don't embrace other cultures, we conquer them." I just hope we don't get penalized for having only one race on our ship.

[brianiangoodman]

I have several questions to ask.

First of all, when is they beta coming out, and how will we know about it when it arrives.

Next, will I be able to visit place like Deep Space Nine. Will I be able to get on board ships from different races like the klngons, Ferengi, Romulan, or Cardassians.

Finallly, does the players actions have an effect on the future of the galaxy, or will the story unfold infront of us. Personallly, having an impact on the story makes it more fun.

This is a wonderful forum, and I'll have more questions in the futture.

Sincerely,

Brian Goodman

[Major-Opale]

Hello devs ! Happy new year from France !

Few questions here :

Did you plan a slot costume system like CoX or similar ?

What about Risa, did you plan some entertainment for tired warriors and explorators ?

How about teaming a pc when your starship is alone far away from ?

Will we be able to swim or climb ?

[Drunk1n]

I have several questions to ask.

First of all, when is they beta coming out, and how will we know about it when it arrives.

Next, will I be able to visit place like Deep Space Nine. Will I be able to get on board ships from different races like the klngons, Ferengi, Romulan, or Cardassians.

Finallly, does the players actions have an effect on the future of the galaxy, or will the story unfold infront of us. Personallly, having an impact on the story makes it more fun.

This is a wonderful forum, and I'll have more questions in the futture.

Sincerely,

Brian Goodman

To answer your questions - 1) they will let those on this forum know first, when we will have to all turn our eyes to Cryptic and hope for a soon release!

2) Yes you will be able to visit a) key places in previous ST shows b) star bases, and you will be able to go on ships, but to what extent we are not sure yet. We do know it will most likely not be to bored enemy ships.

3) We are not sure - Cryptic hasn't released that Information yet - but I hope so.

[crazyhooligin]

I just was wondering if we will be able to buy ships and technology from all eras (or at least somewhat of a time span) such as buying one of the NX series ships, or buying the Enterprise-J (that would have to be expensive because of the power of future weapons). Or possibly you could start out at just after the NX era and continue on in an accelerated fashion as you aquire newer ships. thanks

[critch]

Hmm, questions...

1. Will the expanded universe, i.e. the novels be taken into consideration in the places we'll be able to go? Some of the places in, just for example, the New Frontier novels would be neat to see. And I'd love to match wits with a returned Tiberius.

2. Along those lines, will be seeing versions of the Luna-Class that has only appeared in the Star Trek Titan novels?

[SenshiBat]

Greetings,

I would enjoy a Diplomatic Transit on anothers Star Ship.. then meet my new ship at their planet..


Would this be an option.?

Regards.,,

[A romulan in Vulcan clothing]

[Elanel]

Are we going to have skill points that we earn as the game progresses, or more of an Eve approach (which is arguably more long-winded and laborious).

[Skia]

Quite frankly, the Star Trek universe is far to unwieldy vast to accommodate an MMO successfully. Parts of THE GAME will be overworked while others will cheated over and left out because they know the limits of what you expect to expect from them.

Now about those visuals...
Space combat, thumbs up on that one, looks fairly descent. Third-person/Away mission/Ground exploration on the other hand, not so good. You can obviously see they don't care about the successfulness of this game with the response to the "Cartoony" Graphics question. Sure a "fantastical" style would be great, which is NOT a correct artistical term so cartoony will do just fine, for the 50-60 year old men and women today who used to watch Star Trek, STAR TREK.

This is a new generation, most people who play MMOs play to try and be part of the specific world or universe. Realism would have been a far better approach as it would have appealed to a far greater mass of the world population, even to people who have never been interested in Star Trek before.

But hey, to all you old people out there who actually understand how to use a computer enough and/or have enough interest to play a low rate MMO from a show you watched back in your 20s, no disrespect, rock on.

Otherwise, game on Cryptic.

[robgomm]

Hi Cryptic,

Do you have an estimated release date yet? And when can we expect to start seeing more videos of gameplay?

Thanks.

[crazyhooligin]

Hi Cryptic,

Do you have an estimated release date yet? And when can we expect to start seeing more videos of gameplay?

Thanks.

sorry to be mean but

OMG

look it up on google people


just cant do anything for yourselves



i'm just kidding but seriously,



GOOGLE!!!


so anyway


most people think it will come out Fall 09

[Slycon]

IF its not alredy out when well beta be availible.

[Lowa]

Hello team.

I will not ask about the BETA.......I'm a patient man. :)


We all know, that we will be able to play only with the Federaton and the Klingon Empire.
My question is: Will we be able to at least MEET with NPCs from all the other major powers (CARDASSIANS, Ferrengi, Breen)?

[A.ANTHANY]

hi this is my first time in a form of any kind so i dont know if this is the right one to do it in but i just wanna say that i wuld very much like some kind of voice command like the headset on the 360 or a normal mic for pc players for haling other ships like they do in star trek for example target a ship and do a command saying (open a channel) wait for the other player to activate then chat to them just like in star trek i just think that be prittiy cool
let me know what you guys think

and mabie direct me to the correct form for asking questions
A. ANTHANY

[DGhor]

sorry if someone has already asked these

On other MMOs you're able to run/walk/fly through other objects like there not even there. Will it be like that in STO, or will we actually crash into planets, asteroids and ofc, other ships?

I know someone has already asked about travel, but it didnt give alot away. Is it going to take a few seconds to travel from Earth to Qo'nos for example. Can we set warp factors when travelling long distances or is it going to be loading screens between sectors of space?
Transwarp gates and such may exist, but are they optional to use. Could, if we wanted to, just fly out at warp for a few weeks to get to a planet?
Can we engage enemy ships whilst at warp?

Can you release any more information on Klingon ships, can you confirm whether the B'rel, K'vort, Vor'cha class ships are going to be used aswell as any new designs?

As far as im aware, there are alot of options availible for players when encountering new races. Does this include conquering them, stripping them of resources and using it for personel gain? [evil grin]. Very Klingon like :p

Thanks in Advance
D'Ghor

[twiztedclown]

sorry if someone has already asked these

On other MMOs you're able to run/walk/fly through other objects like there not even there. Will it be like that in STO, or will we actually crash into planets, asteroids and ofc, other ships?


It is assumed that you will NOT be able to just phase thru solid matter like ships or planets. That would take some gameplay out of the game such as last chance ramming an enemy to kill them.:D Friendly ships are unknown, you may be able to fly thru them do avoid "friendly fire" situations. WoW has servers for PVP damage were all damage is felt even by friends or comrades. Unknown if STO will offer this as well


I know someone has already asked about travel, but it didnt give alot away. Is it going to take a few seconds to travel from Earth to Qo'nos for example. Can we set warp factors when travelling long distances or is it going to be loading screens between sectors of space?

Again, unknown as of yet. It would seem that entering warp to a specific place would be a load screen of sorts but they havn't said anything about it yet. Warp factors and the like have not been given attention during the Ask the Dev. segments.

Transwarp gates and such may exist, but are they optional to use. Could, if we wanted to, just fly out at warp for a few weeks to get to a planet?

Lets hope so, otherwise exploration may not apply very much at all...

Can we engage enemy ships whilst at warp?

Hopefully, yes. It was a main focus in the show and makes a ships speed very important during gameplay.

Can you release any more information on Klingon ships, can you confirm whether the B'rel, K'vort, Vor'cha class ships are going to be used aswell as any new designs?

As far as ships go, let go of any assumptions you have about seeing your favorite ship in use here. The game takes place 30 years after known ST history so many ships will be altered/refit or simply decommissioned in this time. The Klingons are known for sticking with what works, after all, the Bird of Prey and K'ting'a have been in use for the Empire for centuries so I would think you would still see them around, maybe with upgrades to systems but basic look still intact. So far they have only released pics of new Federation ships so I have no clue what to expect from the Empire. These are all assumptions and educated guesses.


As far as im aware, there are alot of options availible for players when encountering new races. Does this include conquering them, stripping them of resources and using it for personel gain? [evil grin]. Very Klingon like :p

YES!!! :D The Federation may not have this ability because they are passive so they must befriend new civilizations and hope to gain their resources that way. But the Klingons CONQUER! So one would expect that the difference in gameplay between the two races would be that the Federation makes 1st contact with a helping hand and the Klingons do it with a phaser!

Remember, these are just resonable assumptions based off what they have released to us all so far. I would suggest you go to the main page and read all the articles posted so far to catch up. And definately read the Path to 2409. The interesting things located there will help you when assessing what will be capable of the game, in some cases.

And yes, this is a good place to ask questions. You may find a more suitible forum thread for more precise answers in the forum main page but any thread is a good place for questions.

Take care and I hope to see you in battle you smelly Klingon targ!:p

[twiztedclown]

hi this is my first time in a form of any kind so i dont know if this is the right one to do it in but i just wanna say that i wuld very much like some kind of voice command like the headset on the 360 or a normal mic for pc players for haling other ships like they do in star trek for example target a ship and do a command saying (open a channel) wait for the other player to activate then chat to them just like in star trek i just think that be prittiy cool
let me know what you guys think

and mabie direct me to the correct form for asking questions
A. ANTHANY

THAT WOULD ROCK!!!:D but I doubt it.:(

That would require to much for usser systems and I think they want to make this game axsessable to more people then just the ones with a killer lay out.

[twiztedclown]

Hello team.

I will not ask about the BETA.......I'm a patient man. :)


We all know, that we will be able to play only with the Federaton and the Klingon Empire.
My question is: Will we be able to at least MEET with NPCs from all the other major powers (CARDASSIANS, Ferrengi, Breen)?

I hope so, I am a Cardassian lover and I want to at least battle a few Guls before bed each night.:D

[XratedEvo]

Does Anyone know the release date?????????

[twiztedclown]

Does Anyone know the release date?????????

NOPE, welcome to our hell!!!:D

[omgthename]

How do i put questions forward to be asked to the cryptic people? Ill just ask you guys in case you know something i don't, Will the movement be a "Click to move" like EVE or will it be free movement, like WoW style, (I hate click to moves lol)

[Hagon]

How do i put questions forward to be asked to the cryptic people? Ill just ask you guys in case you know something i don't, Will the movement be a "Click to move" like EVE or will it be free movement, like WoW style, (I hate click to moves lol)Periodically a thread is started in the main discussion section for people to pose their questions for the next "Ask Cryptic" instalment. Not all questions get selected to be answered though, but the ones that do are usually good ones, and one can submit their question again the next time if it's not answered.

[Fencer8]

This is interesting. If we keep our older vessels can they be up graded again with changes even if we have gone to a different size class?

[StephenK]

Before entering into PvP combat, might you devise a "practice area" where we can work with stationary and moving drones? How about an obstacle course for maneuvering practice?

[ronaldheld]

For those without "unlimited" data, how much data per hour of play will be exchanged?

[swalmy]

Hi everyone.

[Gates440]

I was wanting to know since i saw the answer cryptic gave about keeping old ships. but i was wondering are you going to make small ships useful so that say end game you wont see every federation player in a Sovereign class ship or warbird / neghvar depending on race,

because if you go through the star trek series/movies you saw even a small bird of prey give the enterprise trouble and the defiant take a beatin from other encounters.

because i hope STO will keep the smaller ships desireable at the top and not leave out smaller ships because the bigger ones are there and the best at everything the small ones must be better at something or there would be entire pvp fights with like 40 sovereign ships vs like 40 klingon neghvars and not mixed like the tv shows you to add "flavour" the game.

i'm also curious to know will i be able to board a friends ship who plays the opposite faction and steal stuff to sell :) or to annoy him in general

[muttw7]

I was wanting to know since i saw the answer cryptic gave about keeping old ships. but i was wondering are you going to make small ships useful so that say end game you wont see every federation player in a Sovereign class ship or warbird / neghvar depending on race,

because if you go through the star trek series/movies you saw even a small bird of prey give the enterprise trouble and the defiant take a beatin from other encounters.

because i hope STO will keep the smaller ships desireable at the top and not leave out smaller ships because the bigger ones are there and the best at everything the small ones must be better at something or there would be entire pvp fights with like 40 sovereign ships vs like 40 klingon neghvars and not mixed like the tv shows you to add "flavour" the game.

i'm also curious to know will i be able to board a friends ship who plays the opposite faction and steal stuff to sell :) or to annoy him in general

This was discussed in this this thread (http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=13103) a while ago. I'm of the same opinion as you, I think small ships should have specific advantages over large ships that make them viable and necessary in end game content. I don't want to be hurting my side in PvP if I choose to participate in a Bird of Prey when I have a Negh'var available. I'm not saying small ships should normally be able to take down much bigger ships one on one, but they should have a vital role to fill.

One thing I didn't like about Starfleet Command that I don't remember if I posted was that the phasers/disruptors on the smaller ships were so much less effective than the ones on large ships. I think that small ships like the Sabre class should be using the same class of phaser that the Sovereign class would be using, just not be able to have nearly as many of them.

[wiserau21]

was wondering if you could still sign up for beta just heard about this game and was wondering and if you can how can you

[CherryTerri]

was wondering if you could still sign up for beta just heard about this game and was wondering and if you can how can you

Do a Search first ..

There is NO BETA announced yet ...

There is NO SPOOOOON!

[TouffDog]

Our first Ask Cryptic of 2009 brings you answers about art, ship capabilities, and more. Thanks as always to our development team for taking the time to answer these questions!

This is a universe at war, so combat will be a major factor, but there will also be a large component of exploration. You will get to meet new species, some of which you’ll fight against, some of which you’ll protect, and some of which you’ll ally with. There won’t be extensive dialogue trees, but you’ll get to explore and have missions that don’t involve just clobbering everybody.

Read More! (http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_1-07-09)

HOW DO U PLAY STARWARS? I DONT KNOW WHERE TO GO TO ACTUALLY START THE GAME PLEASE HELP ME!!

[DarkExcalibur42]

It seems I am in the minority. I don't like being able to keep past ships. Move on, grow, evolve. Certainly breaks immersion and makes little game sense. Seems silly, like you have entire ships in your pocket, what happens to the crew compliment of a Sovereign class ship when you magically switch back to your tier one ship for a specific mission? Been following STO for a long time, sounds like they are going the video game route, not the MMORPG route. Dissapointing to me.

Just pretend you're playing through a flashback.

Honestly, though? This is excellent. It means I can advance as quickly as I want and still go back to gaming with my lower tier friends without being over-powered. That's nice!