Ask Cryptic 30th of June 2009

[112310]

THIS IS FOR ALL THOSE WHO MISSED THE DEV CHAT


<Bizarro_Rekhan> Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's dev chat. Craig Zinkievich is here to talk about Bridge Crews. We'll be drawing questions from the forums to answer, as well as taking live questions from the folks here. Please PM questions to either Bizarro_Rekhan or Bizarro_Daeke in order for them to be answered.

14:33 <CrypticZinc> Ok - let's go!

14:33 <Bizarro_Rekhan> <Loyaltrekie> What are the different ways that we will gain access to new crew members? Through missions, "loot", etc? Along that same vein of questioning, are there any "rare" crew members? How will we obtain them?


14:35 <CrypticZinc> You'll get Bridge Officers all sorts of different ways. Starfleet\KDF will grant them to you, you'll have the ability to recruit them from planets you've done missions for. Bridge Officers end up being the "phat lewt" of STO.

14:35 <CrypticZinc> There are rare Bridge Officers as well. Some that you'll only get access to when you do high-end content, some you'll get through luck and exploration.

14:37 <CrypticZinc> They give your character some of the cooler powers in space – and since you level them up, and equip them – they’re a little more complex than armor. : )

14:38 <Bizarro_Daeke> Valeroth: If Bridge Officers are the "phat lewt" do I have to ditch everyone that has followed me through my command.

14:39 <CrypticZinc> No - not at all.,

14:39 <CrypticZinc> If my second in command has been with Ensign Valeroth the whole time - no way I want to ditch them and start fresh.

14:40 <CrypticZinc> If you get a wicked cool new Tactical BOfficer who's got a power or skill you want, you can choose to either recruit them to your crew, or train up one of your existing crew with the new skill.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Red_Shirt_> will the bridge of a given ship have a set number of "slots" (stations), say a defiant will have a max of 5 seats and a sov can accommodate 10 people on the bridge. And will the seats can only welcome a max number of crew mates per specialization. Like crewing the 10 seats on a sov bridge with 10 science officers (even if it's not the smartest strategy).

<CrypticZinc> Yes. The different ship configurations have different number of stations on the bridge. Each station (slot for your BOfficers) has a type – either Tactical, Science or Engineering. Given the configuration of ship – you’ll be able to activate different permutations of Bridge Officers.

<CrypticZinc> For example - the Defiant will have more Tactical stations than an Olympic configuration.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Admiral_Trane> Will be able to trade crewmen with different players?

14:44 <CrypticZinc> Most Bridge Officers will be tradable. Some will probably be bound to you - but you can transfer crew to other captains.

<CrypticZinc> One semantic thing – when we talk about your NPC pets that you level up, we call them _Bridge Officers_. “Crew” is another concept. Your crew is the nameless hundreds who help run and repair your ship. Different gameplay mechanic.
<CrypticZinc> ravenkin> Are there going to be level requirements to be able to use BO's then?

14:47 <CrypticZinc> Not level requirements - but rank requirements.

<CrypticZinc> Each BOfficer has a number of skills that open up as they rank up.

<CrypticZinc> A Captain can only command a BOfficer who's rank is one step below that of the captain.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <BreachAndClear> Will a player be able to have more crewmen then there are positions? For instance, if my ship can accommodate a bridge crew size of 5, will I only have 5 crewmen or can I have a larger pool, with only 5 of them being in play at a time?

14:48 <CrypticZinc> YES!

<CrypticZinc> There's a maximum number (we're thinking around 12 right now) of Bridge Officers you'll be able to have on your ship - but it's more than you can seat on your ship at any one time.

<CrypticZinc> Initially, your Bridge Officers will be used on the Ground AND Space - but over time, you may find that you customize some BOfficers to stay on your ship, and some that aren't seated on the bridge, but always go on your away missions.

<CrypticZinc> Also - we really want to give you guys the freedom to build up a staff of officers that allow you to customize your gameplay.

<CrypticZinc> Maybe today you're outfitting your Sovereign class ship with a lot of Tactical guys - but tomorrow, you'll play more of a support role. Depending on what BOfficers are on the bridge - your role and gameplay experience will change.

[112310]

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <oleum> Will you be able to lose bridge crew by having them killed in battle?

14:52 <CrypticZinc> No.

<CrypticZinc> It is a game - your Bridge Officers will always get "saved" right at the last minute. (Beamed to sick bay, etc...)

14:53 <CrypticZinc> Just like in the shows. : )

<CrypticZinc> If your BOfficers are a very important part of your "character" - you'll invest a huge amount of time developing these guys - we don't want to be killing them on you. : )

<CrypticZinc> 3 months or work gone in a minute - yeah, not fun for most

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Alien_de_jour> How many bridge crew will we start the game with? Do we start off alone?

<CrypticZinc> You start off by yourself - but you'll get your first Bridge Officer very early on.
<CrypticZinc> Within the first hour or two.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> Kinneas> how is any battle to be decided if nobody can die on either side?

<CrypticZinc> Oh - don't get me wrong - people get removed from battle. There's just no Bridge Officer permadeath.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <G. Cockburn> Does customisation for our bridge crew extend beyond facial features and species, for example, can we alter their uniforms? Can we decide what rank they hold? Can we dictate what position within the crew they hold? For example, could I create; Commander "X", First Officer and Chief Tactical Officer, a hologram with the appearance of the EMH MK1, and have him in a standard Command Red uniform? Could I also create; Master Chief Petty
14:58 <Bizarro_Rekhan> Officer "Y", Security Chief, human female, wearing an all-black version of the standard uniform with militaristic embellishments?

<CrypticZinc> Yes. You'll have control over the appearance, species and uniform for each officer.

<CrypticZinc> 224 people here for the chat - does this time work better than the last one for people?

<Bizarro_Daeke> We've got about 15 minutes left for this dev chat. If you still have questions, PM them to either Bizarro_Rekhan or Bizarro_Daeke only.

<Bizarro_Daeke> JoJimGregory: What sort of actions can we have Bridge Officers take on away missions, and can they be commanded individually, or only as a group?

<CrypticZinc> Both. You'll be able to give them individual commands as well as the same commands to the group.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Kade> Are you saying that, through cross training BO skills, it is possible to maintain, as an example, a full Klingon race only crew yet still have access to unique skills found in other races?

CrypticZinc> Yes.

<CrypticZinc> <oleum> Will your bridge crew be able to level up independently of you as the captain, and will you have the ability as captain to award promotions at some point to control this advancement?

<CrypticZinc> Yes - your crew will level up with different skill points than your captain. You can promote them, but only to levels one below your current rank.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Thunder Child> Klingon officers tend to get their promotions via killing their direct superior, surely my Klingon captain won’t be replacing officers every week because they keep picking fights with each other. Though with the Klingon faction being said to provide a different play experience, are there any differences in how Klingon faction officers work versus their Federation counterparts?

<CrypticZinc> The "different play experience" is that you get killed every week by your BOfficers. : )

<CrypticZinc> Klingon Officers work in pretty much the same way the Federation ones do.

<Bizarro_Daeke> Valeroth: What's to stop you from promoting all your bridge crew to just one rank below yours?

<CrypticZinc> There's a cost in Starfleet Reputation to recommend someone for promotion. You'd be a pretty poor manager if you handed out promotions left and right.

<CrypticZinc> <Alien_de_jour> Will the crew be directly involved in mission plots? Will we ever be saving our science officer from an alien parasite?

<CrypticZinc> Your crew will be involved in mission plots - but we're still playing around with how much they can be incapacitated.

<CrypticZinc> One of the main ways that information gets to you as captain will be through your Bridge Officers. The majority of episode text is "spoken" to you by your crew, they always scanning, contacting other ships or otherwise helping to move the story along.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <tenorman2222> will you be able to "respec" your BO

<CrypticZinc> Current "respec" for BOfficers is having another potential Bridge Officer "train them up" with a new skill.

<CrypticZinc> <Tamgros> Bridge Officers are the ones who perform the ship's special abilities, do they have special abilities on the ground, or they just act like drone pets with buffs/debuffs? It sounds like the captain has abilities on the ground and general buffs for ships, so this question is basically is it flipped for bridge crew?

<CrypticZinc> The BOfficers have special skills on the ground - but that's a nice observation. In space - your Captain provides most of the buffs, and your BOfficers provide most of the "powers". On the ground - that's reversed.

<CrypticZinc> Still - on the ground, your BOfficers need to be outfitted with weapons and other equipment, so they're not inactive in any sense. But the majority of your "role" as a player comes form your Captain on the ground.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Zepath> Do we name our BOfficers, or is that assigned by the game?
<CrypticZinc> They're all named Craig Zinkievich by default.


<CrypticZinc> No - they'll come with pregenerated names - but you'll get the opportunity to rename them.
<Bizarro_Daeke> BreachAndClear: Will there be any general hubs at which new bridge crew members can be recruited? For instance, will there be a pool of available recruits available for commission at starbases?

<CrypticZinc> Yes - you'll be able to visit the StarFleet (or KDF) recruitment office at the hubs in order to recruit new bridge officers

<Bizarro_Rekhan> And with that last question, our time is up. Thanks a bunch for attending the chat, everyone! We'll see you all again very soon. Be sure to check out StarTrekOnline.com for updates about the game and notices on when our next dev chat will be.

SECRET QUESTION NEVER ASKED IN THE DEV CHAT

[OF]Neowolf06 Can we customise our Bridge Crew like we do our own Character?

19:42 Bizarro_Daeke I'm not sure if Zinc's going to be able to answer it in chat, but I can answer it for you: Yes.

[Captain.Hunter]

Originally Posted by 112310

<reserved for transcript>

Wow, I can't believe they said that! Its the best thing ever to happen in STO.

Heck, it's the best thing to happen in any MMO ever!!!

[Karik]

Originally Posted by Captain.Hunter

Wow, I can't believe they said that! Its the best thing ever to happen in STO.

Heck, it's the best thing to happen in any MMO ever!!!

Hur hur joo is funnyz

[Paulo999]

i cant belive its only a commerical

[pablo_fiasco]

Originally Posted by Paulo999

i cant belive its only a commerical

I cant belive its not butter!

[Tomcatt]

Only if you'd tossed in an MJ reference.

[USS Parallax]

<Loyaltrekie> What are the different ways that we will gain access to new crew members? Through missions, "loot", etc? Along that same vein of questioning, are there any "rare" crew members? How will we obtain them?


<CrypticZinc> You'll get Bridge Officers all sorts of different ways. Starfleet\KDF will grant them to you, you'll have the ability to recruit them from planets you've done missions for. Bridge Officers end up being the "phat lewt" of STO.

There are rare Bridge Officers as well. Some that you'll only get access to when you do high-end content, some you'll get through luck and exploration.

[USS Parallax]

I wonder if they'll answer my trick question.

"Could I have a Starfleet bridge crew member be a Cardassian in Cardassian uniform?"

[Galv]

Originally Posted by USS Parallax

<Loyaltrekie> What are the different ways that we will gain access to new crew members? Through missions, "loot", etc? Along that same vein of questioning, are there any "rare" crew members? How will we obtain them?


<CrypticZinc> You'll get Bridge Officers all sorts of different ways. Starfleet\KDF will grant them to you, you'll have the ability to recruit them from planets you've done missions for. Bridge Officers end up being the "phat lewt" of STO.

There are rare Bridge Officers as well. Some that you'll only get access to when you do high-end content, some you'll get through luck and exploration.

Perfect, that's exactly what i was hoping for. Great question too.