Star Trek : Online is happening OFFICIAL

[Idoliside]

Interesting how they didn't say that Ro went to the Bajoran militia and served on DS9

[IDIC]

On stardate 56867.84, the Founder known as the Female Changeling is sentenced for crimes committed against sentient beings during the Dominion War and committed to the Federation maximum security facility at Ananke Alpha.

It has been a long time since I watched Deep Space 9 but this makes no sense to me at all. I do not see how a Changeling would allow one of its own to be held prisoner by solids. I thought part of the agreement was that all changelings would return to the delta quadrant.

[Idoliside]

IDIC wrote:

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It has been a long time since I watched Deep Space 9 but this makes no sense to me at all. I do not see how a Changeling would allow one of its own to be held prisoner by solids. I thought part of the agreement was that all changelings would return to the delta quadrant.

This was explained in the DS9-RL book, Worlds Of DS9 Book 3: Ferengi and Dominion. A ketracel white free Jem'Hadar goes to visit the Founder.

[Kaijufan]

IDIC wrote:

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It has been a long time since I watched Deep Space 9 but this makes no sense to me at all. I do not see how a Changeling would allow one of its own to be held prisoner by solids. I thought part of the agreement was that all changelings would return to the delta quadrant.

She agreed to stand trial for war crimes as part of the Dominion's surrender.

[Kaijufan]

The next issue of Game Informer is going to have a cover story on Star Trek Online. Link to a picture of the cover.

[Danoz]

James Bond wrote:

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That's great if it's actually happening. The question is will it be any good?

I think that will depend on how much they pay attention to nuance and canon... and the option of playing non-traditional characters and, perhaps, choosing to be an antagonistic race. Also, there will have to be an economic system (which I would choose latinum and various trade). Fighting should be ship to ship, maybe in the same way Continuum functions (but a little more sophisticated).

Who knows. I'll be singing up regardless.

[startrekfiero]

Wow, great news. I will def have to get a copy asap.
I think Game Stop carries those...

[Ronald Held]

I will have to get a copy of that issue.

[Deks]

Kaijufan wrote:

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She agreed to stand trial for war crimes as part of the Dominion's surrender.

Indeed ... and that's Gamma Quadrant.
Not Delta Quadrant.

Following the death of Praetor Shinzon at the Battle of Bassen Rift, the Romulan government fell into disarray. Tal'aura, one of the few remaining members of the Romulan Senate and a former ally of Shinzon, declares herself the new Praetor, supported by Fleet Commander Tomalak as the new leader of the Imperial Defense Force.
However, Tal'aura's leadership is opposed by Commander Donatra, who with the support of Commander Suran and former Admiral Braeg retains control of the majority of the Fifth and Third fleets. Any hope of a reconciliation between the two sides ends after the execution of Braeg, and Donatra vows never to accept Tal'aura's rule.
Donatra's rebellion is not Tal'aura's only concern. The Remans, led by General Xiomek of the Reman Kepeszuk Battalion, demand control of either a continent on Romulus or a planet with sufficient natural resources to maintain self-sufficient settlements as reparations for hundreds of years of slavery and exploitation. In response, Tal'aura cuts shipments of food and needed supplies to Remus and commands Tomalak to blockade the planet.
In Federation space, the USS Enterprise-E undergoes a major repair and refit and resumes its mission of exploration. About half of her crew transfers to other posts during the months-long overhaul, including senior staff officers William T. Riker and Deanna Troi, who are posted on the USS Titan, and Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher, who briefly serves as head of Starfleet Medical before returning to the Enterprise.
Two trials are of note during this time. On stardate 56867.84, the Founder known as the Female Changeling is sentenced for crimes committed against sentient beings during the Dominion War and committed to the Federation maximum security facility at Ananke Alpha. And on stardate 58370.4, Ro Laren surrendered to Starfleet custody. A former member of Starfleet who defected to the Maquis in 2370, Ro plead guilty to charges of desertion and was ordered to report to a penal facility on Earth for rehabilitation.
Federation analysts continue to monitor the deepening economic crisis on Cardassia Prime. The Cardassians were devastated by Dominion bombardment in the final days of the Dominion War, suffering more than 800 million casualties. Large portions of Cardassia Prime remain in ruins and the Cardassian government does not appear to have the resources to recover, although it has rejected most Federation aid.
A notable exception to this stance is the Andak project, a Federation-funded program intended to restore Cardassia Prime's agricultural base. Led by Keiko O'Brien, the Andak project initially faced stiff resistance from xenophobic groups such as the True Way and Gul Macet's conservative bloc of the government. Only the influence of Cardassian governmental adviser Elim Garak, a supporter of the fledgling democracy movement, allowed the Andak project to proceed, and work is now in progress to make the barren desert climate of Cardassia Prime support sufficient crops to feed its population. Experts at the Daystrom Institute predict that without more successful projects like the Andak initiative, the Cardassian Union could fall in as little as three years.

Excellent! Moving forward is the right way to go,instead of dealing with the many issues you get when trying to shoehorn a game into what we've already seen *cough*Star Wars Galaxies bringing in jedi during the Empire Strikes Back*cough* . Very interesting read and if it continues on this path I just might give this one a try. There are tons of interesting stories in the Star Trek universe for them to draw upon and tons of possibilities for fun gaming. As long as they don't try and copy WOW(which is a mistake SWG made) they should do fine.

[Thespeckledkiwi]

After reading some information on this MMO, I am torn. I love Star Trek, I love how open and vast the entire series is and that it has the potential to be not only a strong franchise for an MMO but a groundbreaking one at that. However, the approach that Cryptic is taking toward it makes me a little bit -- hesitant.

My biggest issue with this isn't the playable races or anything of that nature. I think they will have a great character engine and some wonderful graphics. The screen shots released are gorgeous. It's the game play that I am having the hardest time swallowing.

As much as everyone wants to fly their own starship, I find the concept a bit preposterous. Thousands, tens of thousands of starships flying around in space, if I remember correctly.

To me, I think this all starts at the academies. I don't know if the Klingons have an academy (they must) but I do know that the Federation has an academy. I think that would be best and instead of commanding your own starship outright, you got to move up through the ranks (leveling) until you can command your own starship. Have it as a quest or something or a mission from commander to captain.

I'll write on this more when I can wrap my head around the concepts.

[Herkimer Jitty]

theBoilingChef wrote:

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As much as everyone wants to fly their own starship, I find the concept a bit preposterous. Thousands, tens of thousands of starships flying around in space, if I remember correctly.

Sounds about right to me, 25th century, Federation hasn't been decimated by anything since the Dominion War

theBoilingChef wrote:

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To me, I think this all starts at the academies. I don't know if the Klingons have an academy (they must) but I do know that the Federation has an academy. I think that would be best and instead of commanding your own starship outright, you got to move up through the ranks (leveling) until you can command your own starship. Have it as a quest or something or a mission from commander to captain.

Well, I'd like to point out that this is a rather common misconception, stemming from the confusion Star Trek can cause sometimes. You don't have to be a Captain in rank to captain a ship. A Lt. Cmdr. commanding a frigate is still called "Captain", but does not possess the rank. It seems clear to me that Cryptic is tryign to make solo play and group play both fun. Solo usually stinks in MMOs. Imagine if you had to have your whole crew to do a single mission. You'd hardly get anything done. I think it's for the better that we each command our own ships. The immersion factor is lost, but this is a computer game, gotta make a few sacrifices for gameplay.

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

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Sounds about right to me, 25th century, Federation hasn't been decimated by anything since the Dominion War...

Except the Borg. We're currently at right now the late 24th century (2381 I believe).

theBoilingChef wrote:

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To me, I think this all starts at the academies. I don't know if the Klingons have an academy (they must) but I do know that the Federation has an academy. I think that would be best and instead of commanding your own starship outright, you got to move up through the ranks (leveling) until you can command your own starship. Have it as a quest or something or a mission from commander to captain.

Well, I'd like to point out that this is a rather common misconception, stemming from the confusion Star Trek can cause sometimes. You don't have to be a Captain in rank to captain a ship. A Lt. Cmdr. commanding a frigate is still called "Captain", but does not possess the rank. It seems clear to me that Cryptic is tryign to make solo play and group play both fun. Solo usually stinks in MMOs. Imagine if you had to have your whole crew to do a single mission. You'd hardly get anything done. I think it's for the better that we each command our own ships. The immersion factor is lost, but this is a computer game, gotta make a few sacrifices for gameplay.

That's true BUT you can have NPCs flesh out everything else. I've played Guild Wars and what they did with the heroes was pretty damn good. Yes they aren't the best of things but they do a good job on what you need to do.

And yes, a lieutenant commander can command a starship more than likely an emergency situation (the Klingon Civil War) but it would be nice to move up rank to rank. Get a specialty (like science, tactical/security, engineering, ops) and then move up that way.

[sojourner]

Actually, if Starfleet follows Navy command structure, Captain is a position and not just a rank. As Hur-timer Jitty said, it is not uncommon to find Officers below the rank of Captain commanding a ship as the assigned Captain.

[Tralah]

At first I was disappointed in how Cryptic chose to do this, but the more I think about it the more I'm excited. Most MMOs you pick one character, then one profession/class/role to play, and that's all you can do in the game is that one profession, unless you're willing to start from scratch with another character which can be annoying to do or juggle multiple accounts at the same time (which costs twice as much money)

STO as I understand it, is going to allow you to create and customize your entire bridge crew. So instead of just one character playing one role, I'm going to get five characters to name, five characters with different roles to play at once, five characters to customize to my heart's content. Personally I think that sounds like a lot fun. (I'm not 100% sure if that 5 number is 100% correct, but you'll definitely have multiple characters to customize with your bridge crew).

I don't think everyone getting a ship will seem as silly as you think. Klingon faction is going to be available too so you'll have some people playing on Klingon ships and some people on Federation ships. Then not everyone playing on the game is going to be logged on at once, so you're not going to be constantly seeing thousands of ships about. And since space is endless, it shouldn't be difficult for Cryptic to generate place of "space" so that you can take off and be on your own and not constantly bumping into other ships unless you want to. In addition the number of ships in the Federation is going to be even less than you think if they choose to split up the playerbase on different servers.