Star Trek Online

[Mark Fox]

... has been confirmed for a release date of February 2, 2010 (subject to change, of course).

I plan to play. Will I be running into any Trekspacers out there in the galaxy?

[Commander Tiberius]

I just preordered my copy from game stop of the collectors edition...

[Mark Fox]

Ahh... i think that's the one offering the classic TOS Enterprise to add to your personal fleet. Nice trophy for the wall. :-) ... or does that only come with the basic gamestop edition? Either way...lots of nice stuff in the collectors' edition, including the First Contact/DS9 uniforms which I would use if I decided to get the CE.

[Joshua McCoid]

Yup, the Enterprise is on both editions. Hoping to get the preorder here pretty soon!

[John Ensslen]

Hey Mark Fox ,
I 'm very avid STAR TREK FAN I met Avery Brooks in Late July. At speaking agagement About blacks and other issues. This was held at Franklin Institute In Philadelphia, PA He claimed he wanted the( STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE) series to last two more years. Yet, he was never asked. They the writers and creators just wanted to end the Series. I did bring my camera,however the batteries went DEAD on me. The new story out there now is STAR TREK is out DVD & on demand Also they are starting Preproduction on the Next New STAR TREK Movie Actually be fiming it in late Spring to early Summer 2010 I have few Collectables Of the New STAR TREK I have many STAR Trek Collectables of all the the movies the 4 series Except for the STAR TREK: Enterprize I only have one it's hallmark christmas decor. If you can afford it Patrick Steward & William Shatner wil bel in SAN Fransico CA for their first Convention in 25 years. in MID January 2010.Also the Frankilin Institute was Hosting the STAR TREK exhibate I did see the orginal customs of the last movie and I was on the Bridge of The Enterprize D the TNG It was something else.

[ugm84]

ALready pre-ordered it, and I am looking forward to beta and launch.

[Mark Fox]

Looks like Zachary Quinto has been tapped for some voice-over work, apparently for an EMH character that your captain meets early on and introduces you to the STO gameplay, among other things.

Ironic choice, in that the game takes place in the original "prime" universe and not the JJ-verse. An actor from TNG/DS9/VOY would have been more appropriate, but I can understand the corporate mentality in cross-promoting both Treks. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoDWLmhMF6M

[Nephila]

His character that he plays in the game kinda merges a whole bunch of pre-existing characters from previous Trek shows. Not sure how I feel about that. But like all thing I'll reserve judgment until I can actually play it. :)

[Mark Fox]

Heh...the "reserve judgment" approach already puts you on a pedestal above some of the Klingon wannabees on the STO forum right now. They are practically rioting. Apparently the Klingon faction is going to be more PvP-based and have less episodic content than the Starfleet side at launch...at least, that's what they are claiming. This could all be just a misunderstanding on their part but that's their "complain complain" for right now. A lot of the Klingon method of leveling up relies on points and rewards scored during PvP, and they are afraid that Starfleet isn't going to be wandering into the NZ enough for their tastes and will have to rely on killing each other. The devs did recently state that certain rewards, weapons, etc can only be earned through Starfleet PvP also, but a lot of the Klingon posters are claiming to be canceling their pre-orders and leaving, including an entire "fleet" that had already formed up in anticipation. (Of course, I don't believe they'll actually quit, but that's the rumbling going on right now.)

I don't have any interest in playing a Klingon at this time so whatever content they have doesn't affect my anticipation for the game. I find the whole thing hilarious myself; all MMO's expand and add things over time and should be supported from the beginning in order to get more stuff later.

Then again, I'm not a "real" Klingon like they are, so what do I know? ;-)

[Nephila]

Well I can honestly understand why they would be upset from a balance perspective of the game. I'm coming from an "I play WoW and need to be extremely impressed to stay for more than a month with this new game" perspective on this. For example my faction on WoW is the Horde. (I like playing scary big green guys) I wouldn't play the Horde side if it was pure PvP with out there own background quests and shared content. I mean why would it be considered a separate faction if you can only PvP with it? The Klingon side honestly does sound more like a "monster play" mode which from what I hear has to be unlocked. And honestly I would be fine with that IF they're weren't saying it wasn't and that they keep talking like it's a fully realized faction, when clearly it's lacking in a lot of areas.

You also have to consider that within the Klingon "faction", other than the Klingons themselves not a lot is known about the Gorn, Naussican or Orions. They could have come up with some really exciting new lore for these races. Other than the fact that they're Hostile and in some cases there woman are sexy she-devils what do we really know about the other three races? Like WHY are they hostile? We've never really seen a whole lot of what there Architecture looks like either so yeah more room for creative minds they could have taken.

Any way...Is there any word about the economy or a crafting system? Other than exploring for resources, which I can only assume is like a gathering skill at this point. I would really like to hear more about the game other than "you can make your ship go pew pew in many numbers of ways and defend from the pew pew too!" To me Star Trek wasn't about the space battles they're putting so much emphasis on. It was more of a social character development of the crew and away missions. After hearing that they were still improving on the ground battles away missions I kinda started getting hesitant. Also I don't know if I like the idea of managing a crew.

It's hard to reserve judgment with such high standards on what both an MMO should be and what Star Trek is. BUT I'm still going to try it and keep my fingers crossed and an open mind that it is somewhat what I hope for.

[Mark Fox]

You're right...there is a wealth of stories that could be told from the Klingon POV, quests for personal honor and glory that could be had through PvE as well as PvP. I do hate that Cryptic went the longest time making it sound like the Feds and the Klingons would be equal content-wise, but I also hope that the Klingon players do not give up so quickly because Klingons have actually had some of the best story potential in the various series.

There's not been much regarding economy or crafting that I have found as yet, except for references to Credits that can be used for equipping your ship and so forth. It looks like we could also "transfer" our bridge officers to other ships and have new ones assigned to ours if they have skills we need. The new officers could even "train" the old ones!

It does seem like a lot of work managing your bridge crew, having to design from scratch at least four or five of them. Compared to playing a "Mastermind" from City of Villains, I guess you will start off with one "pet" and then acquire more as you level. It was hard enough trying to keep all the minions under control when all they had to do was "attack"; I can't imagine trying to keep track of team members who specialize in different fields and performing different kinds of tasks on the ground. :-) I'm hoping they will be somewhat self-sufficient without being told what to do all the time. If they each have distinct personalities, that would be icing on the cake...but I shouldn't get my hopes up too high. :-) One advantage to teaming up with other ships is that your Away Teams will consist of all the captains up to five; if your team has less that five members then Bridge Officers fill in the gaps. That would make for a ridiculous-looking episode if one landing party beaming into a hostile situation consisted only of Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Riker, and one Redshirt...but within the game, that means less of your Bridge Officers to micro-manage.

I too wish all the trailers and videos wouldn't focus just on combat. I know it's a major selling point to attract non-Trekker customers, but still... It has been said that there will be plenty of diplomacy and exploration; I would want them to advertise it a little more to let us know that even an innocent survey of a new planet isn't going to end with a surprise space battle. That was one thing I loved about "Starfleet Academy": players were given dialog trees to choose responses and some of those responses might spark a hostile or peaceful outcome. If it were up to me (which it's not, I know...), I would play up the peaceful aspect of Starfleet's mission and offer a reward system where *not* firing a shot would yield rare and more rewarding accolades. If a fight ensues and the player wins, there would definitely be rewards, but higher rewards if the situation is resolved peacefully. And of course there would be the determined adversary who refuses to listen to any reason and Starfleet would have to fight.

I guess it's just more choices in the stories that I would look forward to the most. Investigations, experimentations, and the occasional boring negotiation is more Star Trek than combat, and those are the kind of things I would want to experience also. To that end, I would also play the game in hopes of one day finding that they have added a system for players to write their own missions, just like what recently happened to City of Heroes. Some of the best stories came out of that system (buried under tons of crap, but that is to be expected) and you can bet the story quality would increase exponentially if Trek players got the same opportunity. I would even take a crack at that myself. ;-)