So...what alien can I be?

[willriker09]

How many times have you seen this in STO magazine articles, mmo site reviews/previews for STO, this website's FAQ, etc.

Q: What races will I be able to play?
A: The plan is Human, Vulcan, Andorian, Klingon, Orion, Gorn, and several others. You will also be able to create your own race with its own custom look and attributes.

I keep hearing those same six of human, vulcan, andorian, klingon, orion, and gorn. Who decided that those would be the official six samples to answer this question every time it is asked? Are those the only preset alien choices that we will have?

Here is my problem, it is more important to me that I "am" a particular species than that I merely look like one. There is a sense of authenticity to an mmo experience when the text box of an Elf reads "Hello Dwarf! What are you doing above ground? Though I distrust your kind, I fear the threat of these orcs looms over both our peoples."

I want that same level of experience in STO, where my Ferengi is treated like a Ferengi by everyone he meets. When I go to Quark's, I want to have that sense of kinship when old man Quark greets me. If I cannot be a Ferengi, I will probably settle for being a human, vulcan, andorian, klingon, orion, or gorn rather than being just an avatar wearing Ferengi skin.

[JesseH21]

even in what you said... it mentions "AND several others" so other popular trek aces, like maybe ferengi, are going to be included.

[willriker09]

even in what you said... it mentions "AND several others" so other popular trek aces, like maybe ferengi, are going to be included.

How come Craig Zinkievich never mixes it up in any of these video or text interviews? He always says the same six. I honestly don't think there even are "several others" at this point.

[JPJappic]

How come Craig Zinkievich never mixes it up in any of these video or text interviews? He always says the same six. I honestly don't think there even are "several others" at this point.

I agree with this however I do believe they will have an extensive list of preset species to choose from. If they don't it will be totally disappointing I think to the community as a whole. Some people have a set species they want to be and just want to 1-2 click and get it done instead of searching for nose 5 and forehead 10 and then realize it's not the right combination. There's no reason or excuse why Cryptic shouldn't have an extensive list preset with traits / characteristics for that specific species.

[dr_truth]

Who decided that those would be the official six samples to answer this question every time it is asked? .

Probably the marketing dept.? Makes sense to say "Hey, Lets make this common knowledge, and keep that secret" so any time they are asked, they talk about "This" but never about "That".

Same reason why any time Crypic is asked about the release date they always answer "Q1 of 2010 " and continue to do so until told otherwise by their boss/ pr/ marketing/ mothers. It's just their official answer right now

Edited to add:

How come Craig Zinkievich never mixes it up in any of these video or text interviews? He always says the same six. I honestly don't think there even are "several others" at this point.

Same reason why they don't mix it up and say "March" or "Feburary 22nd" (making up these dates btw) Because they are not supposed to.

[willriker09]

Probably the marketing dept.? Makes sense to say "Hey, Lets make this common knowledge, and keep that secret" so any time they are asked, they talk about "This" but never about "That".

Same reason why any time Crypic is asked about the release date they always answer "Q1 of 2010 " and continue to do so until told otherwise by their boss/ pr/ marketing/ mothers. It's just their official answer right now

But "Q1 of 2010" is brand new. It used to be "2009" or just plain "soon." At least we are making progress on that front. We have made absolutely no progress on the species list.

[dr_truth]

Not saying it is Cool, but look how long it took for Klingons to start getting tangible info about their faction. It's going to be the same deal with the Races. People also were saying that Klingons were probably not going to be a playable race and in time were proved wrong (to their relief i am sure, despite other issues relating to klingons).

You just need to be more patient and wait for them to release that info. Yea, it's lame having to wait for more race info but not much else you can do (I'm in the same boat with my race). as far as not having other playable races, you know why they they call the word 'AssUme' right? Hang tight i am positive your anxiety will be relieved, even if not as soon as you'd like.

[Kazzy]

As long as every species mentioned in the TV show is mentioned and also primary species from the novels they are reading (ie new members of crew) are ready for me to choose without having to make anything myself, I'm going to be happy.

[Ellsworth]

Re: What alien can I be?


My mother in law

[eldarian]

Re: What alien can I be?


My mother in law

No way!!!!! that would be far too OP. ;)

[Osias]

As long as every species mentioned in the TV show is mentioned and also primary species from the novels they are reading (ie new members of crew) are ready for me to choose without having to make anything myself, I'm going to be happy.

Trek novels are not considered cannon.

They are used as reference and such but cryptic is not, never has and never will be obligated in any way to feature anything from a book. Be it Alien, Technology or People/Characters.

That being said how ever, You yourself can create any alien mentioned within the books (except maybe a shapeless mass of neural pathways)

[TygerHawks]

hmmm...starting to get curious about this create your own business. I wonder what mechanics will be in place to prevent the creation of races from Star Wars, Babylon 5, etc... I imagine a Chiss would be easy to make :p

[CandymanCD]

Race ≠ Faction


You can be any humanoid race, any.

[TruthSeer]

They mentioned a whole bunch of races back in the GameInformer article.

Human, Vulcan, Klingon, Gorn, Orion, Nausican, Ferengi, Bajoran, Tellerite (I think), Andorian, and probably some other I can't remember.

[Loekii]

How come Craig Zinkievich never mixes it up in any of these video or text interviews? He always says the same six. I honestly don't think there even are "several others" at this point.

I think there will probably be say 6 Fed 'premade' races a launch, with the Character Generator providing the option to make a bunch others.

Later, as the game gets underway, they might add to that Pre-made list, based upon player feedback (hopefully allowing people the abiltiy to swap out their CG made race for that add race(s).

[Faerlzress]

I want that same level of experience in STO, where my Ferengi is treated like a Ferengi by everyone he meets. When I go to Quark's, I want to have that sense of kinship when old man Quark greets me. If I cannot be a Ferengi, I will probably settle for being a human, vulcan, andorian, klingon, orion, or gorn rather than being just an avatar wearing Ferengi skin.

Except that your Ferengi is a Federation Officer and will be treated as such. I do understand what you are saying though. I don't think there will be much in game to support such bias because of the customization level of characters. These encounters are great for a single player game where the hero is defined and the story is known but doesn't work so well in an MMO beyond a few bubble text npc spam.

[KirksOtherSon]

The following post has the potential to be greatly misunderstood by the "apostles of apoplexy" on these forums ...

... but I'm not posting for them. :)

I'm merely wondering if one unusual way to go with the "premade race templates" idea for each faction, would be simply to make a set of pre-made races available to each side -- and not explain the rationale of their inclusion in the character creator right off the top.

So, Tom Trekfan picks the Cardassian template, creates a Federation captain with it, and starts to play the game.

Does this mean Cardassia is part of the Federation in 2409? Maybe not. Maybe this Cardie captain is a quasi-rarity, analogous to Worf in TNG, or Seven in Voyager -- someone in their position through special circumstances.

The example race used here is unimportant. What's relevant is that the game isn't always prohibiting certain races in certain places arbitrarily. Players can always play the story-driven exception character, if they so choose.

Just a random thought,

KOS

[cowdoc]

The following post has the potential to be greatly misunderstood by the "apostles of apoplexy" on these forums ...

... but I'm not posting for them. :)

I'm merely wondering if one unusual way to go with the "premade race templates" idea for each faction, would be simply to make a set of pre-made races available to each side -- and not explain the rationale of their inclusion in the character creator right off the top.

So, Tom Trekfan picks the Cardassian template, creates a Federation captain with it, and starts to play the game.

Does this mean Cardassia is part of the Federation in 2409? Maybe not. Maybe this Cardie captain is a quasi-rarity, analogous to Worf in TNG, or Seven in Voyager -- someone in their position through special circumstances.

The example race used here is unimportant. What's relevant is that the game isn't always prohibiting certain races in certain places arbitrarily. Players can always play the story-driven exception character, if they so choose.

Just a random thought,

KOS

So I guess this answers the only real "race" question I have had....would I then be able to play a Gorn character in the Federation?....so not all Gorn/Orion/Klingons are relegated to the opposite (Klingon) faction?

[Kazzy]

Trek novels are not considered cannon.

They are used as reference and such but cryptic is not, never has and never will be obligated in any way to feature anything from a book. Be it Alien, Technology or People/Characters.

That being said how ever, You yourself can create any alien mentioned within the books (except maybe a shapeless mass of neural pathways)

I did say that the main extra species from the books. They've read the books, people have read the books, some people like me like characters from the books, and since the books are as much a part of the canon of star trek as this game I would be dissapointed if the characters weren't available for creation.

[KirksOtherSon]

So I guess this answers the only real "race" question I have had....would I then be able to play a Gorn character in the Federation?....so not all Gorn/Orion/Klingons are relegated to the opposite (Klingon) faction?

Kazzy, I was just wondering IF that's how they will handle things, so please don't take my words as fact.

Cryptic hasn't said much of anything on this issue yet; about all we know for certain right now is that players will be able to play Klingons who are a part of Starfleet.

Sorry if I accidentally misled you,

KOS

[TruthSeer]

So I guess this answers the only real "race" question I have had....would I then be able to play a Gorn character in the Federation?....so not all Gorn/Orion/Klingons are relegated to the opposite (Klingon) faction?

From what we know you most likely won't be able to pick "Gorn" from the choices when playing Federation side. But you can choose "Custom Species" and create a species that looks exactly like a Gorn and possibly with the same attributes/abilities. The only difference this would make is any time the game does a species check that character would come up as "Custom" and not "Gorn".

[marscentral]

So I guess this answers the only real "race" question I have had....would I then be able to play a Gorn character in the Federation?....so not all Gorn/Orion/Klingons are relegated to the opposite (Klingon) faction?

Yes. I recall hearing that you can play as a Klingon in the Federation. Whether the template is available or you have to use the species creator to do it, I don't know.

The demo video had a Cardassian and a Vorta, so there may well be templates for them. I think Craig keeps mentioning the same species because a) they are well known and b) he's probably memorised stock answers to the common questions.

[Zepath]

Yep, unless I totally missed something ... the Gorn is a KDF race, and you can't cross factions with races.

[Rangerrob]

I'm looking forward to making a half Ferengi / half Bajoran woman as one of my Bridge officers.

Figure Rom and Leta might have had kids. :p

Will probably have to do it manually, but would l be nice if there was the ability to "blend" the two race templates.

[cowdoc]

From what we know you most likely won't be able to pick "Gorn" from the choices when playing Federation side. But you can choose "Custom Species" and create a species that looks exactly like a Gorn and possibly with the same attributes/abilities. The only difference this would make is any time the game does a species check that character would come up as "Custom" and not "Gorn".

Thanks for all the replies on that...looks like we still aren't 100% sure. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I was really really looking forward to playing a Gorn captain ordering around the "hairless monkeys" on my bridge.

[KirksOtherSon]

The demo video had a Cardassian and a Vorta, so there may well be templates for them. I think Craig keeps mentioning the same species because a) they are well known and b) he's probably memorised stock answers to the common questions.

Hey Mars -- hope you've been well, man,

This is where my wondering has led me also -- I've been wondering just how many race templates we might see in the character creator, and just how freely we might use them.

If Cardassians and Vorta are templates in the character creator (which, as you say, seems to be true) can players use them at will?

Even if Cardassians and Vorta are "independent factions" at game launch, are players allowed to have "special circumstance" characters in either game faction?

Likewise, could there be a minority of Gorn serving in Starfleet, or a minority of Humans in the KDF? Does it seriously hurt the game-lore or immersion to allow such exceptions for players? I'm not certain.

As for templates in general, I do hope we'll see templates for alien races which were "main cast aliens" on the shows. Having to create a Denobulan (Phlox from ENT) or a Talaxian (Neelix the Annoying from VOY) would be a laborious process by hand.

I presume these aliens' "cast status" might earn them a template?

Cheers,

KOS

[ussequinox]

I sure hope they do, Denobulans and Talaxians are my favourite races.

[Borticus]

Yep, unless I totally missed something ... the Gorn is a KDF race, and you can't cross factions with races.

This isn't entirely true. Though you have to put some work into getting around it.

From what we've been led to believe, here's sort of a rundown of how it works... I'm gonna use WoW as an example, since it's a game most people are at least familiar with.

Say you wanna be a Blood Elf, but you wanna play on the Alliance. So you pick your faction, and then pick the basic race template "Night Elf". Then you slide the skin tone slider toward a pale pink, change your hair color to blonde, alter your eye color, and slim down your body's bulk. Ta da! Alliance blood elf.

Using a similar set of steps, we have been led to believe that KDF can create humans and other Federation races as their avatars, as well as allowing the Feds to create Orions, Gorn, etc. You just have to find an acceptable 'base' template, and then get to work on modifying it to suit your needs. However, once you've done that, you cannot name your new custom-made Federation race a "Klingon" ... you'll have to name it something like "Traitorous Ridgehead" ...

[KO_Gilligan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9H_cI_WCnE