Star Trek : Online is happening OFFICIAL

[bradacus]

Cryptic flacked its upcoming gameplay debut (and webcast) to the Associated Press, and the wire was a taker. Yesterday, the AP moved an interview with Jack Emmert, Cryptic's chief creative officer, and he gives gamers an idea of what to expect, what not to expect, and a little of how the deal went down when they acquired the title from Perpetual Entertainment. Or, well, the license, because there is nothing developed by Perpetual that's going into the game. "We took no assets," Emmert said. "There was nothing to be had, to be honest. We're building everything from the ground up."
Emmert also assures us Sunday will be a bonafide gameplay reveal. "You're going to see the actual game working and functioning," said Emmert. "This isn't renders. This isn't concept art. Everything that people will see on Sunday is going to be taken right from 'Star Trek Online' as it stands today, so hardened people should know that a release date might be closer than they think."
If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are the high points:
• The game will be set a few generations following the last Star Trek film, so no Kirk, Picard or other familiar faces in the game.
• "There might be a ship called Enterprise flying around, but it's probably not the same ship anymore," Emmert said. Worlds and galactic locations familiar to fans will also be in the game.
• Characters can be created from existing Star Trek races, or new alien species can be invented altogether.
• "There's going to be tons of space to investigate," says Emmert "We have a great system for exploration, which will allow for almost infinite possibilities."

[Rat Boy]

Anyone here catch the web cast? Definitely raises my enthusiasm a few more notches.

[Darren2001]

It was a great overview of the game that has made me quite happy for the most part.
Love the idea of you and your ship discovering and making first contact with new races and finding planets that no players have been before!.
You could then end up with a unique and rare skilled crewman from that newly discovered world.

The video from both the webcast and the gameplay trailer itself are available on the official website http://www.startrekonline.com/videos.html

[Tralah]

I'm pretty excited about it having watched the webcast and trailer. I was pretty ambivalent about the idea of everything being a captain, but I really like the idea of being able to control the bridge crew and customize them to a degree. Instead of just having one player character, it sounds like I might be able to enjoy having multiple ones to degree.

I'm also loving the idea of being able to create your own race, but I'm not too enthused at the very stupid races you know other players are going to make as a '"joke" but oh well. The trade off will hopefully be worth it. I'm definitely looking forward to giving the game a try! My only problem is I LOVE the idea of being a part of the Romulan Empire, and they said that will be a playable faction later on, so if I get too attached to my Federation ship, it might be hard for me to start over. Hopefully defection will be an option.

[darthraidr]

i wish someone had asked if the game was going to be solo friendly. that is my biggest problem with CoH and CoV (they are not solo friendly at all).

overall, it sounds about like what i'd expect. you are leveling up your ship, your crew sounds like your 'talent points' from WoW (level up, get a new crew member to place to gain some new skill). ground based stuff sounds like you're playing a mastermind/hunter. building space ports sounds like the super group base building that they did.

it's got potential, i just hope they arent going to try to rush it out.

[Captain_Amasov]

darthraidr wrote:

---

i wish someone had asked if the game was going to be solo friendly. that is my biggest problem with CoH and CoV (they are not solo friendly at all).

overall, it sounds about like what i'd expect. you are leveling up your ship, your crew sounds like your 'talent points' from WoW (level up, get a new crew member to place to gain some new skill). ground based stuff sounds like you're playing a mastermind/hunter. building space ports sounds like the super group base building that they did.

it's got potential, i just hope they arent going to try to rush it out.

Cryptic are very much also solo friendly in their games. I don't know why you're having problems but CoH/CoV are extremely solo friendly MMOs.

[darthraidr]

from my personal experience with CoH and CoV, they are not solo friendly. i played from lauch of CoH up until about 6 months ago.

now, it could be i chose a build that wasnt condusive to solo play (an Emp/Elec defender), but it wasnt easy to take on a single npc my level. sure i could drain their endurance and watch as they try to punch me to death, but i certainly wasnt doing much better taking him down. and that is just one guy... odds are you are fighting several npcs at once (lord help me if i managed to have to fight a Lt. also). it was slow going.

the game works when you have a full group. the xp is better and the fights are much quicker and more entertaining. but many builds don't function well on their own.

[Captain_Amasov]

Almost all classes are designed to be able to work on their own by design of the devs, some will level slower than others however even with my Storm/Elec Defender I could take on at least three NPC's at once. What difficulty setting were you on?

[-Brett-]

As I recall, defenders were/are mainly a support class, with powers geared toward buffing allies and debuffing enemies.

I played a scrapper and didn't have problems soloing. It was easier with a group, sure, but I never felt like I needed one.

Oh, right. On topic.

Almost everything from that webcast was what I was hoping to hear. Hopefully Cryptic will make it happen.

[Idoliside]

From reading that Q&A on Gamespot, im very excited about this now. They seem to be making this not just a Star Trek MMO, but hopefully the "good" Star Trek game we've all been waiting for...

edit: oh yay! http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38184.html?type=flv

[Delsaber]

Tralah wrote:

---

My only problem is I LOVE the idea of being a part of the Romulan Empire, and they said that will be a playable faction later on, so if I get too attached to my Federation ship, it might be hard for me to start over. Hopefully defection will be an option.

Can you imagine how awesome it would be to spend a couple dozen hours building up a powerhouse Federation starship, like a Defiant or something, just to flip Starfleet the bird and defect to the Romulans, then come back firing on your former factionmates with your ship painted green and a bird of prey decal on the hull? I'm getting shivers just thinking about it!

...I do have to wonder, though. Will Klingon/Romulan cloaking devices unbalance the game?

[SeerSGB]

Well the game is post Dominion War at the start of the 25th century (IRC). So, they could justify having cloaks as a purchasable upgrade for Federation starships-- if they wanted to.

As for defecting to the Romulans: Shame on you. The way to do it is defect to you own side and become a warlord of your on little corner of the server <eg> Continually pillaging and raiding other ships while flying Federation colors.

[IDIC]

It sounds great. Unlike when Perpetual had the license, I actually think Cryptic has a great chance at making Star Trek Online work.

[bradacus]

Quick shot to the webcast -

http://kotaku.com/5035480/spock-cryp...ar-trek-online

[Mistral]

Sorry if these are already up

http://beta.gamespot.com/pages/image...195709&popup=1

Should be the art/screenshots for the game