Ask Cryptic Blog Compilation

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Compiling the Ask Cryptic Blogs into the Forums, so they show up on the Search Engine.

Click here for Compilation of Dev Chats (http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=27354#post793247):

Ask Cryptic - September 4, 2008
Posted by Kestrel

Ask Cryptic returns with answers on story, space, psionics, society, ships and logs. Thanks very much to our development team for taking time out of their busy schedules to answer these!

Given that the story and character of Star Trek are almost iconic, how will the story element be delivered? Will there be voiceovers or cut scenes?

Star Trek Online takes place about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Voyager, in the year 2409. Many of the characters have retired, passed on or otherwise evolved. Certainly, some characters have very long lifespans, and many will have had children. Expect to see the descendants of some of your favorite characters, old enemies return and friends evolve. And definitely expect to visit familiar locations like Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, Deep Space 9, Qo'noS, Vulcan and many others, as well as strange and entirely new worlds.

How will psi-capable characters be handled (Vulcans, Betazoids, etc.)?

Expect to see some of these abilities represented in Star Trek Online. Some psi abilities are easier to represent than others. For instance, Ocampan or other telekinetic species present obvious gameplay elements. Others are much more challenging and are often simply used as plot devices on the series. It's not unreasonable to expect a Vulcan to be more resistant to psi attacks and control, or a Betazoid to have a bonus with NPC interaction.

Space is vast. Will it feel vast in STO?

Very vast! As we are constructing Star Trek Online, it is sometimes amazing to experience just how vast space is. We are paying close attention to the fine balance between delivering the true experience of vast space and keeping gameplay fun and engaging.

One inherited flaw that I have found in current Star Trek games is that the ships are not in scale with one another. For example, in Bridge Commander, the Defiant was as large as a Galaxy class saucer section, which is not canon. What will Cryptic's plans be with scaling of the ships?

We have been working on that recently, and we are in the process of defining ship scale and size ratios. Most of the time it is not a problem. But there are a few exceptionally small ships, such as shuttlecrafts, that become problematic. At true scale, they become nearly unperceivable when you are flying a ship the size of a Galaxy class, and that's simply not fun.

We want to deliver a canonical Star Trek experience, but we also want to deliver a fun game, so we have to find a balance. Expect larger starships, from escorts to battle cruisers and Borg cubes, to have their scale represented fairly accurately. There will also be some small ships in STO – take a close look at the trailer and you may see some.

Could we possibly expect to make our own "log" entries? Star Trek just isn't Star Trek without log entries.

Yes – log entries are an awesome idea with many cool applications. We've got a lot of ideas on how we can do this and to what extent you'll be able to view the logs on and offline – but the details are still to be determined. Make sure you tell us what you're interested in seeing out of this feature on the forums!

The Star Trek universe is based fundamentally on "we are better people in the future and work toward peace." Nearly all (successful) MMOs currently have conflict at the heart of the game. How will you balance the (very high) ideals of Star Trek with most people's need to "pew pew" the first person they see?

As we looked closely at the IP and built our story, we realized there were certain truisms we needed to honor. The Federation is an idealistic society that seeks to better themselves and others. It is a fundamental part of Gene Roddenberry's vision – the future will be brighter. Other societies like the Klingon Empire or the Romulans are not evil, but they are different. They are motivated by different values and handle situations very differently than the Federation.

But even in an idealistic society, there will always be conflicts and there will be those who seek to undermine those ideals. Conflict is a vital part of any drama, whether it is television, film or a game. Some of our favorite moments in Star Trek were in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the Dominion War and we want to capture the drama of that type of conflict. But wherever possible, we will offer alternative ways for players to solve conflict – as long as it's fun.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_09-04-08

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Ask Cryptic - August 25, 2008
Posted by Kestrel

In our first round of developer Q&As, we tackle community submitted questions about canon, customization, music, exploration and more. Thanks very much to Al "Captain Geko" Rivera and Craig "Zinc" Zinkievich for their answers!

Will Star Trek Online be considered canon in any respect? How much of the game will stick to the canon?

Al "Captain Geko" Rivera (lead designer): Every series and movie is considered canon, and we are staying very true to this in our development. Star Trek is rich with lore and history, and there is a great deal of material to build upon as we move into the 25th century with Star Trek Online. We are working with CBS to ensure that everything we create is true to Trek and makes sense.

We know that fans want to play Star Trek Online because they want to explore the Star Trek universe, and we are striving to deliver as authentic an experience as possible. Our team has seen all the shows and movies and we're watching them again every single day. We are also studying other soft canon resources such as novels and comics. From those, we are looking for inspiration and references to further enhance our game. Where it makes sense, we will include some soft canon elements in Star Trek Online as well.

Will I be able to trick out my Bird of Prey with green flame decals to show off when I decloak to "pwn Federation nubs"?

Captain Geko: One of Cryptic Studios' hallmark features in all of its games is giving players ultimate customizability when it comes to their characters. We are fully utilizing our character creation technology in Star Trek Online to include customizing both characters and starships. You will be able to customize your ship's geometry, as well as its color, decals and fleet insignia.

Star Trek has had some of the best scores and soundtracks ever made associated with it in the past. Can we expect just as much attention to go into the sound effects, music and ambience as we would hopefully see in the graphics area?

Captain Geko: Luckily, Michael Henry, our director of audio, is a longtime Star Trek fan and an accomplished musician and composer. Trust us when we say that Michael will be creating authentic Star Trek music scores and ambience – and not even a Gorn attack can stop him! We are also working closely with CBS, and its team has provided us with access to a massive library of sound effects from all of the series and movies. So phasers will sound exactly like phasers should.

If I'm not in the mood for ship combat, gaining Starfleet's favor or earning credits doing jobs for Quark, in what ways will I be able to advance my character doing what I want to do most: exploring the galaxy?

Craig "Zinc" Zinkievich (executive producer): Exploration will never take a backseat in Star Trek Online. Heck – in all the series, Starfleet is always sending captains off to chart new systems or classify nebulas. So we don't view exploration as a "break" from other gameplay – it's integral. Expect to be encouraged to boldly go! And as an incentive to explore space, discovering new civilizations is one of the major ways to open up new resources and equipment and make new alien recruits available to you, your fleet and your faction!


My question is whether the universe will be static. For example, if I log off World of Warcraft and then login a week later everything is pretty much still the same. Nothing has really changed. Will the world be dynamic in STO?

Zinc: The universe of Star Trek Online is shaped and changed by the actions of the players. The Federation and the Klingon Empire will be competing for influence and resources throughout the galaxy and players can influence the results through PvP battles and a system we're calling Competitive PvE.

The actions, victories and defeats of you and your faction will affect how the economy and history of Star Trek Online unfolds. Exploration is always happening – expect to see new planets and races discovered that were unknown the last time you logged in. Your actions could be the deciding factor on whether these new planets side with the Federation or the Klingons.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_8-25-08

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Ask Cryptic (September 17, 2008)
Posted by Kestrel

Ask Cryptic returns with answers on ships, customization and PvP content. Thanks very much to our development team for taking time out of their busy schedules to answer these!

Will ship roles be analogous to naval combat roles or will they be more like the party roles in other MMOs – will ships be cruisers or destroyers or they be tanks or healers?

Federation ship classes are inspired by the television shows. So, for example, you could have a ship like the Enterprise, the Defiant or the Voyager. We call the different classifications of ships Cruisers, Escorts and Science Vessels.

More details on the exact roles and differences are coming soon, but for now, suffice it to say that the ship roles are a combination of naval combat and traditional MMO gameplay. Klingon ships are different, and reflect their style and culture. And everything will be very customizable and very Star Trek.

Will Starfleet and Klingon uniforms be semi-customizable with extra additions?

Character customization is one of the hallmark features of a Cryptic game. You will be able to modify and customize the uniform of your characters, but it will always have the look of a uniform. The costume options will reflect popular pieces from the show, as well as new concepts and styles.

Will our choice of ships be limited by our chosen specialty as captain? So, for example, Defiants and Akiras are usable only by tactical captains, Nova and Nebula for science, etc.?

No, not at all. You can train and advance in any ship class, or even in multiple ship classes. Certainly your skills and abilities – and those of your Bridge Officers – will affect your ship in many ways, as will your ship modifications. So expect to see lots of permutations.

How customizable will Bridge Officers be? Will players be allowed to choose their race, gender, name and/or physical appearance?

You will be able to fully customize your Bridge Officers' race, appearance, gender, name and physical appearance. It wouldn't be a Cryptic game if you couldn't. You will also train and customize their skills and abilities throughout their career.

Will we be able to play 3D chess?

We are always looking at gameplay elements to enhance the Star Trek experience. 3D chess is a Trek classic, and it's on the list. But it may not be in for launch – maybe an expansion. Should it be before or after the playable Horta?

Space PvP has already been confirmed for the outer most regions and neutral zones, but what about planets in those sectors? Will there be ground PvP?

Where you can PvP in space, you will be able to PvP on the ground. There will be open PvP ground locations, and perhaps instanced PvP locations.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_09-17-08

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Ask Cryptic (October 27, 2008)

Ask Cryptic returns with answers on ship controls, melee weapons and Craig’s goat. Thanks very much to our development team for taking time out of their busy schedules to answer these!

How will melee weapons be used in the game, if Klingons have them will the Federation have access to the same weapons or their own?

Klingons will be more melee-oriented, but both factions will have access to hand-to-hand attacks using either martial arts or weapons. Our plan is to allow all of the melee weapons to be available to both factions, but it may be more difficult for a Federation character to obtain a bat’leth or a Klingon Empire character to acquire a lirpa.

Your skills will determine how effective you are with melee weapons – a Federation character may be able to pick up a bat’leth and use it, but without training he or she will be less effective than a Klingon who has studied the use of the weapon. And certain martial arts may be limited by faction or race – not everyone can perform a Vulcan nerve pinch.

How will ship controls work? Will it be a point-and-click style, like EVE, or will you have full control of your ship?

Players will definitely be given full control. A large portion of starship combat in Star Trek Online is tactical – maneuvering your ship into position so you protect your vital systems as you attack your opponent's weakest side. You need to be “in control” of your ship in order for that to work well and be fun.

Mention has been made of Romulans and the Dominion as future player factions; will we still be encountering these empires before they are added as full player factions?

You will definitely make contact with those two empires. We’re developing content that involves races from throughout the Trek Universe, as well as encouraging players to explore and interact with new races. But how could we call the game “Star Trek Online” and not include the Romulans and the Dominion?

In the Game Informer article it gives a description of the custom species creation process. It says you can take an Andorian - remove his antennae, give him reptile eyes (from the Gorn?), a Bajoran nose and Klingon head ridges. This process seems to rely on taking physical attributes from the pre-made species and combining them for something new. Are there other physical attributes available to use like beaks, tendrils, fur?

You will both be able to “mix and match” the pieces of the “known” races as well as a vast library of other new pieces in order to come up with something truly unique. Fully expect us to stick to the Cryptic tradition of providing unmatched customizability and depth of variety in what you’ll see in the creator!

Can a Federation player choose to be a member of the other faction, like Worf?

Worf is Klingon, but he joined Starfleet at a time when the Federation and Klingon Empire were allies. Races at odds with the Federation, such as the Romulans, have historically not been allowed into Starfleet. Because of the political situation in 2409, it may not be possible for races from one faction to be a part of the opposing one. But with the species creator you will have access to a wide variety of racial pieces so you can create the character you want. How about a person of Klingon-Vulcan ancestry with some telepathic abilities?

Will a mention of Craig's Goat be in STO ether in a rare mob or random quest?

We’re still trying to get in touch with Snowflake to talk about likeness rights. Her agent has not been returning our phone calls.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_10-27-08

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Ask Cryptic (November 26, 2008)

This Ask Cryptic contains answers on power management, exploration and small ship tactics. A big thanks goes out the development team for taking the time to provide these answers!

Can you provide us with any new information regarding shield/weapons systems? For example, will both shields and weapons drain power from the main power supply, and if so, will the main power supply "recharge" gradually over time, or will it be a more instantaneous recharge?

We’re not using anything like a traditional MMO “mana bar” for energy. Your ship’s Warp Core provides power, and you allocate this power to individual systems – shields, weapons, propulsion, etc. But you won’t “run out” of energy and have to wait to fire phasers. That’s not fun. The more power you allocate to weapons, the more effective your phasers become.

Will diverting power to various systems such as shields detract from the ships offensive capability, or reduce the ships handling/speed characteristics, i.e. unable to attain maximum impulse?

You will be able to divert power to different systems, and that will affect how effective those systems are – diverting power to weapons, for example, means that you can fire phasers longer and do more damage. Increasing power to shields makes them stronger. But to get those boosts, you’ll have to reduce power to another system, which will decrease its effectiveness. It’s up to you to balance those systems throughout combat – you’ll never be able to have both shields and engines at maximum power, but you may increase shields to absorb a hard hit, and then boost your engines so you can maneuver quickly for the best counterattack.

Will there be unique items and equipment to find in the galaxy?

Yes! There will be new items to find during your adventures as well as the ability to create new items or improve existing ones. Sometimes you will need to unlock skills to be able to use a piece of technology you have found. Or if you acquire a new kind of alien technology you may need to study it before you can use it. But if you’re asking about super-secret, super-special items of which there is only one in the entire universe, if we have items like that they will be revealed during play.

When one player charted a previously unexplored system, will it be instantly updated in other players' star maps?

Although we’re still working out the details, we’re expecting that players will have to explicitly share their discovered locations.

Will a gang of smaller ships, say, several Bird-of-Preys, be able to take out something like a Warbird using superior tactics and numbers?

Yes. Since we’re not using a traditional level-based system, smaller ships with good tactics and teamwork can take on bigger ships with a solid chance of success.

source: http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_11-26-08

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Ask Cryptic (January 7, 2009)
Posted by Alivet

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!

How much interaction will be allowable with the NPCs representing new life found on strange new worlds? Will it be a case of clobber everybody then a text message providing a clue to the next step (like CoH/ CoV), a series of dialogue selections (Interplay's Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites), or something completely different.

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.

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.

What kinds of physics are governing the movement of ships? Will the physics engine be realistic with the "correct" mass and thrust ratios for each ship? I would like to see this as much as your physics tech allows, so we may enjoy authentic movements during space flight.

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.

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.

Is there a way to keep a ship you like and be able to upgrade it to be the equivalent to your avatar's level? For instance, if I want to stay with a Defiant class but my character is at Sovereign class level - is there a way I can get it to match a bigger ship’s capability?

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.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/dev_blog/ask_cryptic_1-07-09

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Ask Cryptic (January 29,2009)
Posted by Awen

This Ask Cryptic answers a variety of questions from our avid Star Trek Online fans. Will there be joystick control? Will there be non bi-pedal races? You're going to have to read more to find out! And as always, thank you to our development team for taking the time to answer these questions.

Will there be a galaxy wide map which is directly linked to the territories? e.g- If a federation fleet takes over a few star systems, will it show up on the map so everyone is constantly updated with their fleet's boundaries etc?

Yes and no. The star systems that are going to be changing hands are in the Klingon / Federation neutral zone where PvP and indirect PvP will be taking place. The systems within the Neutral Zone will change loyalty between the two factions, and their status will show up on the sector level map. The actual high level map itself is not going to change territory lines.

Would you be able to use the joystick to control your characters and starship?

You should be able to do that. All of the commands may not map, depending on what sort of joystick you have but, since the game is being built for the PC as well as the console, you should be able to hook up a joystick to your PC and play that way.

Since the Federation has evolved beyond money and the need for it, how will the galactic economy work and flow for the Federation and indeed the Klingons? Will there also be opportunities for cross-faction trading?

The Federation may have grown beyond the need for money within itself, but the rest of the galaxy hasn’t. Even within the Federation there is a sense of credits: transporter credits and replicator credits. You can’t simply decide one day that you want a starship and then get one, you have to have enough credits for that. Outside of the Federation, there’s a thriving galactic economy that uses gold pressed latinum. You, as a Starfleet officer, will participate in that economy on behalf of the Federation. As for cross faction trading – we’re looking into how black markets might fit into the game.

Are playable races all going to be bi-pedal humanoid types? Or are we going to have a wide variety of sentients ala USS Titan?

At launch, yes. Most player characters are going to be bipedal, although there will be additional body and costume options (like tails and maybe different leg options) that allow you to push the boundaries of that. Hopefully we can add things in later because we know everybody wants to play the Horta.

What steps is your development team taking to learn real astrophysics? I'm curious to know how much I will learn when exploring, for example when I enter a unknown solar system, and I find that the star is a red star that does not burn as hot as (earth's yellow star) the sun - will the planet that orbets the star (if it containes life) be the correct distance from it to be in that window where life can exist? Or will it be random and not really true all the time? (fantastical like)

There are members of the team with strong backgrounds in science, astronomy and even astrophysics. This knowledge certainly informs the design of the game. That said, our focus is to make sure the game is fun and playable – not to create a simulator. The problem with just modeling real space is that it’s boring: there’s an awful lot of space in space. It’s like watching a movie in which someone packs a suitcase to go somewhere.

We all know that packing a suitcase usually takes longer than five minutes, but a good director is not going to make us sit there watching a character just pack a suitcase for an hour. Likewise, we’re not going to make you go through empty and uninteresting space. Where we can, we’ll make the game match up with real space. For us, though, it’s far more important that the game looks cool and plays cool.

We want you guys to be blown away by the settings and environments; we want the game to make a larger than life impression on you. That’s a much higher priority for us than whether or not the planet has a proper orbit or every space station is perfectly placed in a good Lagrangian point.

Is it possible to purchase, capture, or steal ships of the opposite faction? For example, can a Federation officer acquire a Klingon Bird of Prey, or maybe even a Romulan Warbird or must you be a member of those factions to access those ships?

There will probably be episodes where you get to commandeer starships from other factions. But you don’t get to keep them. You can’t, as a Starfleet officer, get a Klingon Warbird and pimp it and then go jaunting around the galaxy doing your Federation work. You have to use the ships that belong to your faction.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/ask_cryptic_1-29-09

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Ask Cryptic (February 19, 2009)
Posted by Awen

It's that time that you've all been waiting for. Exciting new questions with brand new answers! I bring you, Ask Cryptic Volume 8. Have you ever wanted to now how Ship Modification will work? You're going to have to read more to find out!

Will there be collision detection?

Absolutely. All cryptic games have always had entity to entity collision. Star Trek online will continue to make use of this tech both on the ground and in space.

How is Cryptic going to handle warp in STO? Is warp going to be instantaneous travel or is it going to be more like a sprint with various speeds allocations from 1 - 10?

When traveling within a system, you will not be able to travel at warp. Impulse speed is the norm here, but you can travel impressively fast at full impulse speeds. You can warp to another planet in a system, which is basically instantaneous. However, when travelling from star system to star system (or other points of interest in the galaxy), you will travel at warp speed. You will be able to set your warp factor and the quality of your warp engines and your engineer’s skills will determine your maximum warp speed.

How will ship modification and customization work? Will we be able to move the position of nacelles and phaser banks, or will we be issued with 'standard' vessels of a class into which we can insert equipment of our choice (additional science labs, different impulse engines etc)?

Cryptic Studios has always been the forerunner when it comes to avatar customization, and Star Trek starship customization is no exception. As you progress through the game, you will gain access to new ship configurations. Each new configuration contains several known Star Trek classes that have similar profiles and silhouettes. For instance, you may start out in a light cruiser. In this configuration, you will find ships like the Miranda class and the Centaur class. Both these ships have a prominent saucer section, and two nacelles that hang below the saucer. Both these classes have a similar configuration that is nothing like, say, a Galaxy class, Defiant or Nebula class ship.

When you have a ship that is a certain configuration, you will be able to modify all the parts – the saucer, the nacelles, the pylons, the primary hull, etc. You will also be able to modify colors, decals, and other bits. However, the configuration will remain recognizable. If you are in the light cruiser configuration, you can make it look just like a Miranda, a Centaur, or something completely unique. The combinations are massive, however, you will not be able to have 4 nacelles or make your light cruiser look like a Galaxy class ship. So your ship will be unique, but others will be able to recognize its general capabilities. People will be able to look at someone’s ship and say, “Hey, that’s like a Nebula, so I know it’s an advanced science vessel”, or ”Hey, look at that cool Prometheus variant!”

You will also be able to modify the ships systems. You will modify and upgrade primary items like your weapons, shields, deflector dish, impulse and warp engines, etc. You will also be able to add lots of enhancements to your systems, such as targeting computers for better accuracy, EPS conduits upgrades to improve power transfer rates, better biobeds for your sick bay, etc. Different ships will have different enhancement slots (so an escort vessel will have more tactical upgrade slots). Finally, the primary way you will customize your ship is by what Bridge Officers you assign to your duty stations. Your Bridge Officers will come with unique skills that can only be used if they are at a duty station.

Altogether, ship customization will be an important part of the game – both visually and strategically.”

To what extent are we going to be able to allocate or re-route our power systems in game? Is this going to be in depth or simplified? IE: Are we going to have main engine power, impulse power and auxiliary power to redistribute amongst our ship’s shields, weapons, life support, impulse engines, warp engines, sensors, deflectors and etc.?

You will be able to transfer power between your weapons, shields, engines or auxiliary power systems. Additionally, you can balance shield power to your fore, aft, port and starboard shield emitters. There is no mana bar. You need to manage these systems depending on your circumstances.”

Will we be able to access stats on how we play the game? Like times we've died, enemies killed, ships destroyed, number of away mission, number of planets first contacted, etc...

There will be a Captains Log which will have a lot of info. We have considered some game stats, like kill counts, but have not given more thought to the matter at this time. It is an interesting idea and we will consider it. How about when you create your ship, you get your registry number, and then we tack on an -A, -B, -C, etc to the end each time your ship gets blown up =).

Cryptic has mentioned there will not be a traditional "mana bar" for ships, but what about a player's individual character? Will a security officer have an energy bar for his equipment? What if he has psionic powers (Vulcan/Betazed/ etc), will their biological abilities be independent from their tech/branch skills?

We are still working with different models for ground combat, but it will not be complex. There will not be separate energy pools for weapons and abilities (like the psionic powers you mentioned). Right now we are experimenting with no mana bar for ground at all, and simply limiting certain abilities with cool-down times alone. Another possible model may be a simple power bar for advanced weapon attacks (like a wide beam cone attack) but no cost for basic shots and no cost for special abilities (except cool-down times where applicable).

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/176

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Ask Cryptic (March 12, 2009)
Posted by Awen

Welcome to the 9th volume of Star Trek Online's Ask Cryptic! In this volume, we talk about Character Customization. Will there be unique races? Will there be limitations? You're going to have to read more to find out.

Are there any unique races that members of the development team have come up with, just in the course of noodling around with the character creator, that might show some of the diversity and flexibility of the Character Creator? What's the most outlandish Awen-original species to date?

Currently we’re focusing on the IP races. There are so many of them in the Universe and we think fans really want to see that. We’re creating as many of those as possible. We’re also creating a handful of races that have been mentioned in the IP but have never appeared on screen before. CBS has been great and allowed us to define what these races look like, so those will be in the game. As we create all those costume bits – facial bits, body bits – we put them into our character creator so we can repurpose them for a new race, or users can repurpose them for a new race. We’ve also created some new custom pieces to throw into the character creator, so players can create completely new races as well.

To date, we’ve mostly made lots of crazy alien mixes for fun. Although it’s most important for us to focus on getting the key Universe races into the game, expect to see all sort of unique and strange new alien races in our exploration content.

Will there be limitations to which faction a player can associate a race with? For example, even though the Orions are nominally associated with the Klingon Empire in-game, might I be able to associate my Orion character with the Federation?

Officially no, unofficially yes. As we’re making all those races, al the pieces are going into the character creator. When you create a new character you’re going to be able to pick from a number of predefined races for that faction. However, you can also create your own. So there will be pieces in there from Klingons, Jem’Hadar, and many more. You can mix and match however you want. You can make a green woman and call yourself an Orion and serve on a Federation ship. The back end of the data won’t show you as an Orion, but you can call yourself an Orion. For all intents and purposes, you’re an Orion. For that matter, you may see pieces in the creator that you could use to recreate a race we don’t even have in the game. Say, a race you saw on Voyager. If you want to, you can create a back story for yourself, saying you’re from that race, from the Delta Quadrant, and you escaped a Borg ship, which is how you ended up in Federation space.

If we create a customized race from scratch, will we be able to add any traits or abilities to that race? Possibly through the use of a skill points system or something? Or if we don't want an ability like empathy or increased strength (such as with Humans) will there be an option for increasing certain other abilities like diplomacy or tactics for example, to compensate for this?

Yes. All the races will have racial attributes and characteristics. When you create your own race, you’ll be starting from scratch. You can make them look like whatever you want and, at some point in character creation, you’ll be able to choose their attributes. Players will have several racial skills or abilities to choose from. You’ll be able to define that race. You can mimic different races out there or create something completely new and unique.

Will there be options for non-organic life? For example, androids or rock people? Can these have game play effects, for instance androids don't get sick but they might suffer the effects of energy dampening like with the planet Sisko and O'Brien were trapped on (DS9, Paradise)?

Definitely in the game there will be non-organic life-forms; androids, rock people, Tholians, and so on. In character creation that goes right back to the previous question. You can create a character who looks like an android, or call yourself a hologram, and give that character abilities and traits in keeping with that choice. For example, if you’re an android, you may be able to choose radiation resistance as a characteristic. Additionally, you’ll be able to add bridge officers to your staff who may be androids or holograms, or something new, and they would have special abilities appropriate for them.However, you won’t be able to look like a Tholian; you’ll have to choose a bipedal humanoid.

If I make a custom race, does it have to be named, and if it is named, does it get entered into the database making it easier for others to actually play as that race?

When you make a custom race, it doesn’t necessarily go into the database, but you will be able to share that information with other players if you want to. If you have a friend who comes in, you can share that race with them. Then the two of you could say, “Hey, we’re this new race, the Cryptonians (with a C!). And we all look like this and we all have these abilities to make awesome games!” And you can share that with all your friends, and they’ll be able to load that as the basis for their character. They can change details – hair, or facial features, or costume – and create another character of that same race.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/ask_cryptic_3-12-09

[Loekii]

Ask Cryptic (April 30, 2009)
Posted by Rekhan

Just in time to wrap up the month is the 10th volume of Ask Cryptic. This is a hodgepodge volume, so the questions span as wide as space itself. Today, we talk about interstellar flight, ground missions and more. Will you be able to delegate ground missions? Will Klingons and Humans work together in harmony? Read on to find out!

It was explained that interstellar flight will basically be a type of "over world" view. Can we get a further clarification on this? Would this mean that gallivanting around the galaxy will be similar to Pirates of the Burning Sea in that when not engaged in combat or other special case scenarios we will be in an over world view that basically is a sped up version of travel time? Will solar systems and planetary orbits be personalized instances or will everyone be able to enter it without an invitation? Will combat with other ships be instanced that others can join in from the "over world" map?

Yes, in some ways it will be similar. We actually have three levels of maps. There’s the sector space map, which you’ll be in when you’re going across the galaxy and traveling from one system to another. It’s not entirely flat, but also not completely 3D. There are dimensions to it. You’ll see sector grids, planets, solar systems, space stations, nebulas, anomalies and all sorts of different points of interest. You’ll see and interact with other players in sector space. You’ll also be doing a lot of your exploration in sector space. For example, you may be traveling across the galaxy when your com officer suddenly says, “Captain, there’s a distress call!” At that point, you get to follow up on that distress call, enter that system and engage in that mission.

That’s the second level of map. When you go into points of interest the game opens up a 3D space map (or system map) where you can engage in combat. Many of these will be instanced just for you. Some of them will be persistent so that you can go in and other people can join you. For example, there will be a persistent Klingon battlefront where the Klingons are fighting the Romulans. Something will always be going on there and anyone can join in. In instances you can go in alone or your team members can join you.

From system space (either persistent or instanced) you can transport to a ground map, like the surface of a planet or the inside of a space station.

Is it possible to leave your captain on the bridge of your ship during a ground mission, making an away team with only your bridge officers?

No. That will not be possible. If you’re on an away team you must go, as your captain. You get to bring four other crewmembers, or players, with you. It could be players, crew members or other player’s crew members (the player must come with you as well – you can’t just kidnap their crew members without them).

Will there be events that will require the Federation and Klingon empire to work together in a common cause? (e.g. a particularly massive Borg invasion.)

Yes. Star Trek is not about black and white. Both in PvE and non PvE, you’ll see a variety of different alliances. There will be times in PvE where you will make alliances with critters because of a particular mission or particular events. There will be plenty of faction-based alliances; for example if you’re Klingon and your friend is Federation and the Borg are attacking, you’re probably going to form an alliance against them. You’re going to see all kinds of weird alliances within the game.

How realistic will collision detection be? Will you be able to use a ramming as a last ditch effort or use a tractor beam to pull an asteroid towards your enemy and damage him? Or will deflectors and shields keep you from running into anything?

All of Cryptic Tech has always had entity into entity collision, which not all MMOs have. So ships will bump into each other, and, on the ground, players will bump into each other. However, that’s not going to cause damage. Ramming speed will cause damage.

You can select ramming speed as one of your skills. In which case, you can execute a ramming speed attack maneuver to ram into a target. Keep in mind, if your ship is already badly damaged, you may not want to ram into a fully intact Borg cube, for example. That would be a bad idea. On the other hand, if you know you’re going to lose, you could ram into them, hit the self destruct and take them out with you.

There are tractor beams and repulsor beams and you can use them on other ships. You can’t use them on asteroids except possibly in some special case missions. There will definitely be destructible asteroids that you’ll need to blow up, but you won’t be able to use tractors or repulsors on them. However, say the warp core of an enemy ship has gone critical and the whole thing is about to explode, you may want to slap a repulsor beam on that ship and push it far enough away that it won’t do any damage to you. Or you can slap a tractor beam on something to lock it down, so you can keep hitting it and it can’t turn or get away.

Compared to a human, a Vulcan is superhumanly strong, extremely intelligent, pretty darn fast (according to Sisko), possesses superior stamina and has telepathy powers to boot. How will the various "superhuman" races be balanced against, well ... humans?

In the early TOS days of Star Trek, Vulcans got all the love. In addition to the bonuses described above, Vulcans had superior vision, hearing, feign death, mind meld, a nictitating eye membrane, resistance to low oxygen and heat, and the list goes on and on. I don’t think Rodenberry has an MMO in mind when he created Vulcans. But as the shows evolved, I think you started to see the writers downplay the overwhelming physical superiorities of Vulcans quite a bit.

We’re going to have to tone it down and balance it a bit for Vulcans, and some of the other superhuman races, because we need to make sure that the game is fun and playable. We’re going about that a few different ways.

The different races you’ll be able to play or make will all have access to different racial benefits. Both for you, as a playable character, and for your bridge officers. So a Vulcan bridge officer will come with specific abilities or traits. Like advanced logic, which may translate into faster cool down times for their bridge officer powers. Or they may come with some racial traits like the Vulcan nerve pinch or telepathy or they may come with some more common abilities like a bonus to engineering skills or science skills. As a player, you’ll find that different races have different skills. We’re still working on what humans will have. It will probably be something like versatility: jack of all trades, master of none.

No race will ever be particularly better at any profession, because we want crews to have diversity. Vulcan logic isn’t going to make them better as science officers, but it may shorten their cool down times in general, which makes them valuable bridge officers. Andorians may have battle rage, which may mean that you do bonus damage under specific conditions. And so on. Different races will also have weaknesses, to balance it all out.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/ask_cryptic/4-30-09

[Loekii]

Ask Cryptic (June 23, 2009)
Posted by Rekhan

Welcome to the 11th volume of Ask Cryptic, where we put the questions you ask to our development team. In this edition we talk about spontaneous missions, ship classes, cloaking and more. Read on to learn more about Star Trek Online!

BreachAndClear: Will there be any missions that come up spontaneously? For instance, will Starfleet or the Klingon High Council contact me with work that needs to be done that is unrelated to missions I actively seek out?

Absolutely. Star Trek mission development is not like a standard MMO. You’re not going to go to a town and see an admiral with an exclamation point over his head, and when you click on him he tells you to go out and kill 10 Klingons and come back. That doesn’t happen in Star Trek.

Star Trek is about exploration. You’ll be going out to space and exploring the galaxy, and you’ll be going to points of interest. You’ll see nebulas, you’ll see ships in distress, you’ll see planets and other anomalies. You’ll uncover missions and mysteries along the way. And yes, Starfleet will contact you as you traverse space.

You’ll have a communication system, and your science officer can say, “Hey! I got a distress call!” and it’s over in a system you just passed. You have the option of investigating the call further. And Star Fleet can contact you saying, “The Borg are attacking this system. Could you take care of it?” That’s a large part of the way our missions are directed in Star Trek.

iceman22503: I know it was said before that players start out with a small ship and then work their way up to bigger ones. My question is this: regardless of size, will we be able to command older ships such as the connie refit and so forth?

First of all, the Constitution is in-game and playable. It’s an older ship, so it’s no match for a Galaxy class ship, but it’s in there. You’ll be able to command older ships, but as you get access to bigger ships like the Galaxy and the Sovereign classes, the Constitution will be outperformed.

But it’s not like the difference between a level 10 and level 20 player. The disparity isn’t that huge, and that’s specifically because we want players with less advanced skills to be able to compete in fleet actions with people in larger ships.

In general, the higher up you go, the less disparity there is between ships. When you start off, you’ll fly a Miranda or Centaur class ship, and you’ll always be able to go back to that ship, but it’s not especially powerful. As you start advancing into bigger ships and going into different paths, the power difference between ships lessens as you get toward the top tier.

The difference between a Defiant and Prometheus isn’t really that much. You can play either one and be just as effective in the endgame. The difference is some of the higher-end ships give you more options. The Prometheus class ship has access to all different types of items and weapons and technologies that the Defiant doesn’t have access to. That doesn’t necessarily make it better; it just gives you more options to choose from. So if you’re not interested in anti-proton weapons or certain technologies, you’ll be fine staying in the Defiant class ship.

And as we add more ships into the game, we’ll be sticking to this approach. The ships will broaden out rather than get prohibitively deep. We’re trying to do that so people can hold onto their favorite ships.

Leonidus: The Star Trek galaxy is our galaxy. That being said, do you plan to include in the game universe other locations that also exist in the actual "real-life" universe like: the Orion Nebula; the Helix Nebula; the Pleiades; the Eagle Nebula etc...?

It’s an interesting idea, but we’re focused more on making a game map that flows well and is faithful to the Star Trek IP. We’re not building a simulation. Maybe we’ll see real-life celestial bodies, but it’s not on the schedule. We’re more interested in reproducing iconic Star Trek locations like the Briar Patch from Insurrection, or the Badlands from DS9. Crazy things like you’ve seen on the show or always imagined visiting; we’re spending a lot of time trying to capture those. They just seem more interesting from a gameplay point of view.

Whenever we see ideas like this we get excited because we hadn’t really thought about it. So it’s one of those things that may make its way into the game, but we don’t have a plan to add it to the game yet.

Elboulevardo: One thing that can add tactical strategy to space combat will be path based weapons. Will we see this in STO? I'd love to see a situation where a friendly captain can come to the rescue and place his ship in the line of fire so his friend can escape destruction.

You won’t see path-based weapons. Star Trek Online isn’t going to be a twitch-based game, either in space or on the ground. You won’t be able to jump in front of bullets or rockets, like in a first-person shooter. It’s still an MMO – it’s a "click 'Fire' and go" game. But there will be mechanics that emulate the drama of interacting with dangerous objects in the game. For instance, a slow-moving, large plasma torpedo is something you’ll be able to shoot out of the sky. You won’t be able to shoot smaller photon torpedoes; you can’t dodge standard projectiles.

But you’ll be able to rescue your friends in other ways. You will be able to eject your warp plasma and ensnare the people that fly through it, which means people will be able to fly around it to avoid it. You’ll be able to repair friendly ships, transfer shield power to another ship or capture foes in a tractor beam.

Rgoodfel: I have noticed there are some issues about STO that the community has debated to death. Examples being cloaking, PvP and civilian factions. My question is: have these been debated a lot by you all and care to share any of the ideas you have had?

There are no playable civilian factions in the game. You’re not going to be able to be a cargo captain or a colonist. You will be able to make your own teams or guilds, but you’re choosing between Starfleet and the Klingons.

However, if you’re a Klingon, you’ll be able to have houses, and Klingons can squabble between other Klingons.

As far as PvP, we’re still working out details. What we can say is we’ll have Klingon vs. Federation PvP, and within the Klingon Empire, separate houses will fight between themselves. That’s just what Klingons do. In general, there’s more PvP involvement on the Klingon side of the game.

However, PvP will always be consensual. You won’t just be meandering around and get attacked. You can choose to flag yourself for PvP, and traveling into certain areas in the game is in effect choosing to engage in PvP. Most of the PvP takes place in the Neutral Zone; if you’re in the dead center of the Neutral Zone, you’ve consented to PvP.

And in regard to cloaking, the Federation will not have free access to the technology. If we gave the Federation access to cloaking, it’s all anyone would use, and that’s not the type of gameplay we envision when we think of Star Trek. Klingons, of course, will have access to cloaking, and the Federation will have access to cloak detection. Science vessels will be very good at detecting cloaked ships, so if you’re in a PvP situation, you’re probably going to want really good science vessels on your team. You won’t feel like you’re missing out on the Federation side just because you can’t cloak.

That said, there probably will be circumstances where Federation players will receive limited access to a cloaking device. But it’s not going to be something Federation players can hold onto.
And yes, these are things that we also debated a lot internally. : )


Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/294

[Loekii]

Ask Cryptic (July 21, 2009)
Posted by Awen
Welcome to the 12th volume of Ask Cryptic, where we put the questions you ask to our development team. In this issue we discuss ship combat, Klingons and high end game play. Read more to learn about Star Trek Online!

Lt.Goranov: Can we target, different parts of the ship? Like the warp core or the impulse engines, or warp nacells?

You’ll be able to target subsystems and disable certain devices, and people will be able to repair them and get them back online. But right now we’ve just begun working on this system, so it’s still in the “making it fun” stage.

Certain weapons are better at taking out subsystems. For instance, phasers are very precise, so they will be able to hit subsystems rather easily. Disruptors aren’t precise; you can still take out a subsystem with a disruptor, but it won’t work as reliably as a high-accuracy weapon. And explosive devices, like photon torpedoes, have poor subsystem accuracy. They’re blunt instruments and are more effective at taking out large areas of a ship, like its hull.

Tamgros: How will partially damaged ships be handled in STO (ie: 1/2 hull dexterity)? Will it be like a typical MMO where everything works great until dexterity goes zero, or will you get debuffs/systems going off line?

Your ship and your items will not underperform as they get damaged. Your ship has hull integrity – or hull hit points – and your items, your subsystems, have durability. They’ll continue to work at full capacity until they’re destroyed. We don’t want to force people into a downward spiral in combat where you just keep getting worse and worse. Your shields get weaker, but performance doesn’t degrade until something goes offline.

There is another axis to this, though: You have crew on your ship. We lovingly refer to them as your redshirts. Different ships have different crew complements. The Defiant class staffs 50 people, and the Galaxy class staffs 1,000 people. Your crew help keep your ship running, and will do things like affect the repair rate of your ship and affect certain actions you perform, such as assembling boarding parties, repair teams or medical teams.

In combat, crew can die or get injured. As you lose crew from explosive devices like photon torpedoes, those abilities will weaken. So you may be less effective at repairing your hull, or launching boarding parties. You can revive some crew based on how good your medical skills and medical officers are, but inevitably, you will need to replace some of them.

marscentral: We know it's Science, Tactical and Engineer for Starfleet types, but what about the Klingons?

The simple answer is they’re exactly the same. No one ever said Klingons don’t have scientists or engineers; somebody built those ships. Klingons will probably have a few distinctions in skills and certain other areas, but the classes will be the same.

Manx: Will there be ways for solo players to get the high end ships, or will they be strictly for fleet members only?

Solo players will be able to access highest-end ships in the game. Everyone will be able to fly a Sovereign class ship or a Prometheus class ship once their skills and rank allow them to do so. That’s not to say there won’t be endgame rewards and things only guilds can do. But ships will remain available to everyone.

MagnusTyrel: We know the Klingons and Federation will be the Primary playable Factions and the Romulans will be one of the Main villans in the game, how exactly have you come about balancing the Federation ships with the Klingons giving that most Federation ships seem to be like flying Fortresses and are usualy seen disabling Klingon ships in a couple of easy shots, I know ofcourse that most of this is due to the Hero Ship/Crew factor but looking at online sources for ship specifications its seems the Federation has a large advantage... Any Information on this would be Appreciated.

First and foremost, we’re trying to build a balanced game. We are trying as hard as possible to remain accurate to the IP, but when it’s not fun and balanced, we take liberties. We have to. It’s the same as a question we had a couple weeks ago about Vulcans having what amounted to super powers in the series – we have to balance that, and we’ll do the same thing here.

Without going into too much detail, we know that Federation ships will be able to choose between escorts, science vessels and cruisers. Those three different paths represent the different shows. Escorts represent warships like the Defiant in DS9, science vessels will feel more like the science ships in Voyager, and the cruisers will represent the Enterprise-like ships from TOS and TNG. Klingon ships will be distinct and each will feel entirely different. You can expect to see your favorites like the Bird of Prey, Vor’cha, Negh’Var, and more, plus maybe a few surprises.

But the bottom line is there will be balance. There will be ships that are tougher than other ships. That will exist on both sides. Federation and Klingons will have different specialties that’ll counter each other.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/316

[onesoul1982]

This should be stickied =)

its a good post

[Loekii]

Ask Cryptic (July 30, 2009)
Ground Combat
Posted by Rekhan

It’s time for another edition of Ask Cryptic! Previously, Ask Cryptics were general Q&As without much focus, but as we move forward, we’d like to make our interactions with the community more comprehensive and targeted. So this time, we’re focusing on one particular part of the game, ground combat, and asking you to put a bunch of great questions to us.

Here is a basic overview on ground combat.

Players beam down to a planet with a five-member Away Team. If you have less than four other player captains with you, the remaining members of the away team are made up of your Bridge Officers. But if you only have two other captains on your team, two Bridge Officers from the pool of the three player captains’ Officers can be selected and beamed down with the team.

You control your officers’ actions, and have several different modes to employ. Some of those modes include: Aggressive, meaning they’ll pursue and engage enemies; Defensive, meaning they’ll wait for your orders to attack enemies; and Target Your Target, meaning you can command your officers to focus fire on your chosen adversary.

Each captain can equip a Kit. Kits work like a special inventory slot, and grant up to four special abilities to your character beyond what your normal skills provide. These abilities range from heals to force fields, stasis fields, holographic soldiers, turrets and lots of different buffs and debuffs. There are nine different Kit Categories, three for each profession (Science, Tactical and Engineer), but hundreds of different ability combinations. However, Kit use is restricted by your profession and rank – a tactical officer can’t equip an engineering Kit. Skills improve your use of your Kits. If you want to be the best physician in Starfleet, you’ll need to be a Science officer with medical skills and an advanced medical Kit.

The more advanced you become in certain skills, the more abilities become available to you. As you continue to advance in hand-to-hand combat, for instance, you’ll be able to use more damaging strikes and maneuvers. If you’re more of a fan of phasers or bat’leths, characters can equip two different weapons at a time and switch between them, on the fly, during combat.

But it’s not all about offense. Captains and Bridge Officers have personal shields, which offer some protection against attacks but are diminished as they take damage. However, if you take cover for a brief period of time your shields will recharge quickly, providing an additional tactical element to the ground game.

Please submit your questions in this post’s comment thread. We look forward to your questions!

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/326

[Loekii]

Ask Cryptic (August 10, 2009)
Ground Combat, pt 2
Posted by Rekhan


Welcome to the 13th installment of Ask Cryptic, where we put the questions you ask to our development team. In this issue we discuss ground combat. Read more to learn about Star Trek Online!

Numerous: Can players beam anywhere on the planet, or only to specific places?

When you beam to a planet, you only beam to a specific location. This is to help retain the flow of our Episodes, which link missions between ground and space.

However, we’re looking into site-to-site transporter powers, which would allow you to “beam” across short distances for tactical purposes and allow you to get to places you couldn’t normally reach. But that’s still in the works.

Numerous: Will different places have different environmental conditions that some races are more capable of withstanding than others?

Currently, no, but that’s a great suggestion we’d like to look into. For instance, some cold environments where Andorians would get a bonus and other races would receive a penalty. We’re spending more time looking at racial bonuses right now, so it’s a good time for us to talk about it internally.

ExAstris: Will all ground missions be 5 individuals, or will some of the more epic things you encounter at "end game" require 10+ away team members?

The team size is always five. There are maps that require multiple teams to make your way through. Think of a front-line situation where numerous players bring down their away teams to work together with other players to fight against multiple teams of other players or NPCs. But your away team is always five members.

Shatterhand: Will these "kits" be supplied to your character automatically upon creation, or will there be a mission or procedure through which they'll be unlocked and ready for use/enhancement?

Kits are basically items that make special skills available, and you’ll be granted two Kits at character creation. So if you’re a Science officer, you’ll receive a Science Kit and a Medical Kit. If you’re an Engineer, you’ll receive a Shield Generator Kit and a Weapons Malfunction Kit. (The different Kits make different skills available, so you’ll be able to choose how you want to play your character from the very beginning.) We may increase the starting Kits to three, but it’s currently two. However, you’ll be able to acquire more Kits through missions and rewards.

Welsh_Knight: Will there be a disengage option? For example, if I'm in a fight I cannot win what are my options? Can I run away to a different part of the planet? Will what ever's trying to kill me persue me? Can I beam out? If I can beam out do I need to get clear of the combat before I can? Do we need to stand still to beam out? Can I call for beam out while shooting?

There’s no direct “I quit” button; that’s not fun, and it’s super lame for PvP. But there are ways to escape. On the ground, if you’re losing, you can run for cover around the corner, and your shields will replenish quickly. That will give you a breather before jumping back into the fray.

If you really want to get out of Dodge, you can run from your enemies. If you get out of combat long enough, you’ll have the option to beam back up to your ship and regroup there. But there’s no way to leave during combat.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/336

[redleader]

Very useful thread.

Thanks.

[USS_Parallax]

Idunno man... they have an "Ask Cryptic" button on the main wesbite.

[Loekii]

Idunno man... they have an "Ask Cryptic" button on the main wesbite.

Which is not included in the forum search function. ;)

[andrewprofit]

holy alsomesauce batman

[Tamgros]

I would suggest reserving some more slots for the future ask cryptics.

Another thing, does the 'search' feature pick up quoted text?

Walla wall washington search test

Edit: yes! quoted text totally is in the search. I'm happy to report that this thread is now the only thread that pops up when you search 'walla washington'. I know, you are welcome...

[Varrangian]

I would suggest reserving some more slots for the future ask cryptics.

Another thing, does the 'search' feature pick up quoted text?



Edit: yes! quoted text totally is in the search. I'm happy to report that this thread is now the only thread that pops up when you search 'walla washington'. I know, you are welcome...

hahaha well if it doesn't get stickied at least I'll always know how to find it.

[Loekii]

I got tired of constantly having to re-read through the AskCryptic blogs to find something. This makes it easier to search through.

[edit - responding to the post below]

Here a link to a compilation of all the Dev Chats:


Compilation of Dev Chats (http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=27354#post793247)

[Varrangian]

This is a great post is there something like this for the Dev chat transcripts?

[Kayos]

Thanks for doing that, nice to have them all in one place. This should be stickied and kept up to date.

[Loekii]

EARTHDATE 2009.09.16
Ask Cryptic: Player Progression
Posted by Rekhan

Good news to our forum veterans: For this upcoming Ask Cryptic, we’re not talking about combat! Instead, we’ll be focusing on player progression. We’ll be focusing on how your character becomes more powerful and the systems behind that, rather than content or story progression, at least this time around. If you have a question you’d like to ask, just ask it in this post’s comment thread.

You can also read on to learn more about player progression.

When you think of progressing in Star Trek Online, it’s best to picture an inverted triangle. You begin the game with broad skills available to you – the wide part of the triangle – and as you progress in rank, the skills you select become more specialized as the triangle narrows to a point.

There will be five ranks through which to progress at launch:

* Lieutenant
* Lieutenant Commander
* Commander
* Captain
* Admiral

Star Trek Online is a skill-based game, meaning the experience you receive for completing missions and finishing episodes awards you skill points, which you use to directly improve the skills available to you. There’s a set number of skills available to you, depending on your rank. For instance, there’s a group of broad skills available at the Lieutenant rank; when you reach Lieutenant Commander, more refined skills become available to you.

The skills available in the early game affect the skills you take later on, and provide blanket bonuses to the more refined skills you select. Again, think of that inverted triangle.

For example, an Engineering officer has the option at lower ranks to decide between focusing on Maintenance or Modification. (He could also generalize in both, if he were to choose to do so.) Let’s say he decided to work exclusively on Modification, and maxes his Lieutenant Modification skill. When he becomes a Lieutenant Commander, new, more refined skills will become available. By the time the officer reaches the rank of Commander, he can choose to spend his skill points by specializing in one of three branches in his Engineering career.

All of a character’s skills influence their potency with their career abilities, as well as their equipped Kit (which grants additional abilities suited to a particular specialty of their chosen career). A character will collect several Kits as they advance in rank, allowing their role or ‘spec’ to change by equipping the Kit that contains the abilities they currently need for the mission.

In order to advance in rank, you’ll need to spend a specific number of skill points in your currently available skills. To advance from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander, you’ll need to have invested a certain number of skill points before you’re offered a promotion. Were a player to invest the minimum-required skill points to reach Admiral, he’d be about half-developed in terms of a maxed character, though in terms of time it’d take significantly longer to completely max out each available skill.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/396

[Loekii]

EARTHDATE 2009.09.17
Ask Cryptic: Player Progression (Sept. 17)
Posted by Rekhan

Welcome to the 15th installment of Ask Cryptic, where where we put the questions you ask to our development team. In this issue we discuss player progression. Read more to learn about Star Trek Online!

Sklarz: Are we limited to one branch? say I'm Engineering and I go down maintenance and then later I decide I also want to do some in Modification. Are we limited to one branch or can we go all out and get them all?

You’re not limited to any branch; you can acquire all the skills within your profession. You can start going down the Maintenance branch, but it’s not really a branch in the traditional sense. You can pick and choose any skills you want. But different tiers of skills become available as you rank up. The skill system isn’t technically a skill tree – lower-rank skills affect higher-rank skills, but there aren’t any prerequisites for the most part (more on that later).

For example, if you’re a Tactical officer, you can take Starship Energy Weapons training, or Starship Projectile Weapons training. You gain access to both of those skills as a Lieutenant. When you become a Lieutenant Commander, Beam Weapons, Cannon Weapons, Torpedo Weapons and Mines become available. At that point, if you put all your points into Starship Energy Weapons, you can go back and put points into Projectile Weapons training, or you can put it into Torpedoes.

At the next rank, Commander, there’s Phaser, Disruptor, Photon and Quantum skills. What you’re getting is more specialized skills. So if you put all your points into Energy Weapons, then Beam Weapons, then Phasers, you’ll be really good at phaser beams, generally good at all beams and OK at all types of energy weapons. You’d be not so great at disruptor cannons at that point, because you didn’t put anything into Cannons or into Disruptors, but you did put some points into Energy Weapons.

There is one true skill tree in the game, and that is the ship trees. Some of your skills govern your ability to captain certain types of vessels. You start off in a light cruiser based on the Miranda class, but from there your decisions will affect what ships become available to you. For instance, the tier 1 Escort is based on the Saber class. In order to fly the tier 2 Escort, you’ll need to have spent points to learn how to fly the Saber. You can put points you want into Science, Cruiser or Escort, but you can’t fly a tier 4 Cruiser just because you can fly a tier 4 Escort. You’ll need to learn how to pilot the previous Cruisers first. But you can fly every ship in the game on one character, if you invest the points.

Mach789: By the time I reach Admiral, will my skills be locked or will I be able to max out every skill eventually?

You can max out every skill eventually. We plan to keep adding skills to keep ahead of people, and by the time you’ve progressed through the endgame content, you’ll only have about half of the total skills you can acquire anyway.

We do need to clarify one thing, which is in regard to this question and the previous one: The profession you choose – say, Engineer – will limit the ground skills available to you, but not the space skills. So as an Engineer, you can still buy Photon skills (Tactical) or Sensor skills (Science) in space, but on the ground you only get access to Engineering skills. The ground game is more traditionally class-based, whereas in space you’re more limited by the type of ship you fly. We want you to be able to go into different ships and mix up your skills as much as possible.

Liquidblaino: if I'm a Lt Cmdr and I need to spend X skill points to be offered a promotion, does it count if I spend those points on Lt skills or just Lt Cmdr skills? Can I even go back and spend points on skills in the lower ranks?

You can go back and spend skills in lower ranks. You don’t need to spend X skills in a particular rank to be promoted; it’s just X skills total. For the sake of discussion, let’s say as a Lieutenant you need to spend 100 skill points (this is not the real number) anywhere to become a Liuetenant Commander. When you’re a Lieutenant Commander, it’ll take 300 skill points (again, not the real number) to rank up to Commander. It doesn’t matter where you spend those points; you can spend them on the ground, in space, in Lieutenant skills, in Lieutenant Commander skills.

That formula is true for you and your Bridge Officers. Bridge Officers follow the same path as you. They have much smaller skill sets, but their progression works the same.

Liquidblaino: What is the primary mechanism for earning skill points? Will these be awarded by Episodes and kills like experience in CO? Or will these be awarded for acting in a fashion in accordance with my faction?

They’re primarily rewarded by mission completion and kills, but there are other ways you can gain skills, too. There are “missions” like “Protect the Ambassador” or “Explore this Sector” or “Discover this many systems/special anomalies,” which don’t feel like a traditional MMO mission. So it’s missions, but the missions aren’t just “go here and kill 10 guys” or “go here and clean out this dungeon.” Star Trek missions are about exploration and doing things. You go out and look for things and go on Tours of Duty, which require you to go out and discover things, or explore sectors of space.

Numerous: Will there be a respec option?

It doesn’t exist yet, but we’re figuring out how to do it.

Numerous: Will PvP award experience?

Yes! You can rank up entirely just by participating in PvP.

Source: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/397

[Swea]

Thanks for doin this Loekii, nice to have em all in one place. Do agree there is entirely too much hunting required. Ihad readthroughthese a cpl times anddecided to post this time around sence i was looking for it to show a new fleetmate that hasnt really been following.

[Dondead]

Again a job well done Loekii, thank you! :)