A few questions

[firepuff]

I didn't see these in the FAQ, Everything You Need To Know thread, or any other place, so hopefully others know the answers to these questions (or at least know if it's not been set in stone yet):

1) Will there be roleplay servers? I'm a very heavy and strict Trek roleplayer. I'd love to meet up with others who like to do the same. Does anyone know if roleplay servers will be in the works?

2) Can PCs act as bridge crew? Yes, I know, everyone will be a commanding officer, but it says away missions will permit players to group or the NPCs. (Although, I'm not sure how an away mission with just ship COs will look like to Starfleet security. That would be a mess of reports if things go hairy.) It would be great to have PCs on the bridge as well, as some of the greatest times I've had have been amongst others on the bridge of starships, whether it be first contact or battle. Not to mention, the coordination of a well tuned PC bridge crew in a coded environment is a beauty to behold (MU*s are a good example there).

3) Will ICA = ICC be in effect? Will in-character actions give appropriate consequences in the universe? Courts martial, Captain's Mast, letters of reprimand, demotions. (We know promotions and positive rewards will be in place.) How will this affect game-twinks (n00bs to the MMO-oriented folks)?

4) Is the universe a destructable object? Oh, as crazy as that sounds, it's a serious question. Could a couple tri-cobalt devices thrown at the star of a system turn it nova?

5) Non-Game Related: Is off-STO Trek-related game recruitment permitted on the forums?

Thanks in advance! :)

[Tamgros]

1) We don't know yet, but if they do it like Champions Online (their other game), there will not be as CO is under one large shard of servers, and thus you don't have a choice of servers to start. Instead there may be official or unofficial RP instances. CO instances it's zones, even though they are open for everyone and are quite large, 400 or so.

2) In space, each PC will have their ship, but on the ground there will be a total of five members to be made up of PCs and/or NPCs depending on how many PCs are in the group.

3) Uhhhh, no idea? kinda doubt it though

4) Not really sure. The world is said to be persistent, but just how far that goes is unsure. This and the nature of expansion with exploration are big interests of mine. We've also seen planets blowing up in the screen shots..

5) Not sure? If it is, obviously not in the STO discussion ;)

[Interdictor]

1) Will there be roleplay servers? I'm a very heavy and strict Trek roleplayer. I'd love to meet up with others who like to do the same. Does anyone know if roleplay servers will be in the works?
Currently the plan is to have one big server. There will probably be RP-heavy fleets you can join however.

2) Can PCs act as bridge crew? Yes, I know, everyone will be a commanding officer, but it says away missions will permit players to group or the NPCs. (Although, I'm not sure how an away mission with just ship COs will look like to Starfleet security. That would be a mess of reports if things go hairy.) It would be great to have PCs on the bridge as well, as some of the greatest times I've had have been amongst others on the bridge of starships, whether it be first contact or battle. Not to mention, the coordination of a well tuned PC bridge crew in a coded environment is a beauty to behold (MU*s are a good example there).
From what we have been told, PCs will indeed be able to do away missions together. However, no PC bridge crew (at least at launch).

3) Will ICA = ICC be in effect? Will in-character actions give appropriate consequences in the universe? Courts martial, Captain's Mast, letters of reprimand, demotions. (We know promotions and positive rewards will be in place.) How will this affect game-twinks (n00bs to the MMO-oriented folks)?
I imagine no - not unless it is integral to a mission or storyline.

4) Is the universe a destructable object? Oh, as crazy as that sounds, it's a serious question. Could a couple tri-cobalt devices thrown at the star of a system turn it nova?
I doubt it. All it would take is one griefer and the Sol system, and Earth, would be ashes. Though there may be instanced missions where this may be possible, I imagine the "standard" game world will be relatively static.

5) Non-Game Related: Is off-STO Trek-related game recruitment permitted on the forums?
I imagine - one of the other forums would probably be best for that though,

[knightofhyrule730]

I didn't see these in the FAQ, Everything You Need To Know thread, or any other place, so hopefully others know the answers to these questions (or at least know if it's not been set in stone yet):

1) Will there be roleplay servers? I'm a very heavy and strict Trek roleplayer. I'd love to meet up with others who like to do the same. Does anyone know if roleplay servers will be in the works?

2) Can PCs act as bridge crew? Yes, I know, everyone will be a commanding officer, but it says away missions will permit players to group or the NPCs. (Although, I'm not sure how an away mission with just ship COs will look like to Starfleet security. That would be a mess of reports if things go hairy.) It would be great to have PCs on the bridge as well, as some of the greatest times I've had have been amongst others on the bridge of starships, whether it be first contact or battle. Not to mention, the coordination of a well tuned PC bridge crew in a coded environment is a beauty to behold (MU*s are a good example there).

3) Will ICA = ICC be in effect? Will in-character actions give appropriate consequences in the universe? Courts martial, Captain's Mast, letters of reprimand, demotions. (We know promotions and positive rewards will be in place.) How will this affect game-twinks (n00bs to the MMO-oriented folks)?

4) Is the universe a destructable object? Oh, as crazy as that sounds, it's a serious question. Could a couple tri-cobalt devices thrown at the star of a system turn it nova?

5) Non-Game Related: Is off-STO Trek-related game recruitment permitted on the forums?

Thanks in advance! :)

1) nope. Cryptic uses a Shard System for their servers. Basically there is just one server, but it is split up into different smaller servers called shards. Every time you change zones you are given the option to choose a new shard from the list (should some friends come on and choose a different shard, or youre getting ganked by players in pvp, etc etc).

2) No. PCs will not be able to step foot on your ship. however, if you are in a group, you can all beam down and ground combat together.

3)No. no court marshals or anything of the sort. its a game, not a simulator.

4) Nope. you cannot destroy a star. however, they may have a server wide event that will eventually lead to the destruction of something at the end (like how wow did the opening of the AQ gates)

5) not on this forum, check out the Non-Sto one down in the middle.

[firepuff]

Thanks for the replies so far. :)

My responses:

1) That's unfortunate. Finding a roleplay fleet is one thing, but I love games wiith immersion and if I have to hear LFG over the in-character comms, I'm going to cry. (On that note, I hope there's OOC comms/channels included for those types of interactions.)

2) Without other PCs on the bridge/ship, it feels like this is going to be more of a single player game with multiplayer elements? Maybe it's just the background of Trek where (on-camera) a ship is a unit rather than a fleet as a unit. Counter that with the games I play (coded, not IRC) where 5-15 players make up a ship complement, I suppose I just can't picture it. Maybe I'll understand once I get a chance to play in the environment.

3) ICA=ICC... Again, that goes down to the immersion earlier. What will be the consequences, then, if someone decides to shoot a civilian trade vessel?

4) I can live without it. Just was curious considering the previous environments I've played in Trek have had it, but they've also had strict ICA=ICC.

5) I figured it'd be the off-topic. Was wondering for the forums in general. ;)

[Tamgros]

Thanks for the replies so far. :)

My responses:

1) That's unfortunate. Finding a roleplay fleet is one thing, but I love games wiith immersion and if I have to hear LFG over the in-character comms, I'm going to cry. (On that note, I hope there's OOC comms/channels included for those types of interactions.)

2) Without other PCs on the bridge/ship, it feels like this is going to be more of a single player game with multiplayer elements? Maybe it's just the background of Trek where (on-camera) a ship is a unit rather than a fleet as a unit. Counter that with the games I play (coded, not IRC) where 5-15 players make up a ship complement, I suppose I just can't picture it. Maybe I'll understand once I get a chance to play in the environment.

3) ICA=ICC... Again, that goes down to the immersion earlier. What will be the consequences, then, if someone decides to shoot a civilian trade vessel?

4) I can live without it. Just was curious considering the previous environments I've played in Trek have had it, but they've also had strict ICA=ICC.

5) I figured it'd be the off-topic. Was wondering for the forums in general. ;)
My responses to your responses :p

1) Yeah, i don't really know how this is going to play out. Like I said in my other post. With the way Cryptic is setting up there servers, there is potential for having unofficial RP instances (actually, perhaps even official). The main distinction here is that you can switch from instance to instance with your character freely, whereas if there were separate servers you could not. I'm not sure if this will help or hurt RP, but it will surely make other things easier... But it also may make the FvF element harder. It really depends on the way they implement the one shard system. It's obviously an important issue from a lot of angles.

2) Even in MMOs they must give you the ability to play solo (in order to be profitable anyway). But, it seems that everything you do in STO, except for maybe the beginning tutorial, will be able to be done with a group. So STO can be very much a group game if you want it to be. Also, not being confined to one ship and being free to go where you please,, you have the potential to meet a lot of other people much more frequently.

3) Not sure if you'll even be allowed to target them? This is one of those things where it's really hard for them to make consequences for a bunch of different alternatives and have it work out in a good way. Instead, they just simplify things and concentrate on other gameplay.

[knightofhyrule730]

Thanks for the replies so far. :)

My responses:

1) That's unfortunate. Finding a roleplay fleet is one thing, but I love games wiith immersion and if I have to hear LFG over the in-character comms, I'm going to cry. (On that note, I hope there's OOC comms/channels included for those types of interactions.)

2) Without other PCs on the bridge/ship, it feels like this is going to be more of a single player game with multiplayer elements? Maybe it's just the background of Trek where (on-camera) a ship is a unit rather than a fleet as a unit. Counter that with the games I play (coded, not IRC) where 5-15 players make up a ship complement, I suppose I just can't picture it. Maybe I'll understand once I get a chance to play in the environment.

3) ICA=ICC... Again, that goes down to the immersion earlier. What will be the consequences, then, if someone decides to shoot a civilian trade vessel?

4) I can live without it. Just was curious considering the previous environments I've played in Trek have had it, but they've also had strict ICA=ICC.

5) I figured it'd be the off-topic. Was wondering for the forums in general. ;)

1) I do not believe that there will be an RP chat at all. The general chat will be for the usual MMO conversations. As stated above, if you are looking for hardcore RP, join a fleet and just stay on that chatbox.

2) The reason that there is only 1 player per ship is because it would was not possible for Cryptic to create an engaging game for all the positions. In all of their attempts one player was left out of the mix, because they were not involved in the ship battle, or that there was just nothing for them to do at the time. By allowing every player to have their own ship, Cryptic is allowing every player to be the Captain, Security chief, chief engineer, doctor and science officer. Cryptic has said that they are still trying to figure out how to get multiple players on the bridge doing things, but it will not be at launch. Before you ask, yes, you control all of the bridge officers and their abilities.

3) You will not be able to target anything that will not attack you back. Eg: hostile or semi-hostile targets. You will not be able to fire upon your allies or civilians.

4) I'd suggest to not think about other ST games youve played. This game is not a simulator and will sometimes throw canon to the wind in order to make a game playable.