There are so many points that I can see both sides of the discussions (one of the things that my wife both loves and hates about me...) with STO.
TLDR Version: I can accept players being just 'Captain's... I can wait for an expansion for Player-Ship Interiors... I want more in-depth coverage of non-combat play possibilities... and I can accept the loss of both Crafting and/or a Crafting-Class in STO due to both limitations of development time and lack of a real purpose to be had from implementing it.
Player Roles: I agree that having different roles for players would be nice. Look at Vanguard... I played 3 completely divergent characters in my time playing the game, and each was enjoyable in his/her own fashion. Player "classes" that I could see implemented in STO: Helmsman, Tactical Officer, Chief of Engineering, Science Officer, Captain. Each would have their own capabilities both onboard the vessel and on away missions. But, wait, they already have this form of setup with NPCs... And, in creating your 'Captain', you can choose to have higher capabilities in different skillsets... thereby leaning toward one range of the spectrum, or another. And, with more 'Captain's out in the universe, space will be a far less empty place to roam about in. And, if they DID go the route of having multiple PCs on a single ship, then you really just have the same old formulaic system as every other MMO. Tank+Healer+Support... And you CAN have more than a single 'Captain' PC on an Away Mission, anyways... This is not a S/P Game, afterall.
Player-Ship Interiors: I'd love to be able to have access to wander my own ship's corridors and visit Ten-Forward, the Holodeck, or other 'vital' areas. (So, those aren't the most 'vital', but I like 'em. Heheheh.) But, I can see this as a non-issue for a first-release. All it would mean, right now, is added workload for the art department for areas that won't have a real impact on the actual gameplay. However, for a later expansion that allows Player-Ship boarding for PvP or NPC combat (the 'excuse' to get it implemented), I'd love to have a basic floorplan created for each of the craft-types and variations, and allow the player to step off of the bridge to stroll a bit, or visit the various chosen officers in their workplace. For the current build, it really isn't necessary.
Playstyles: This does get to me, a bit... But only in how players have been reacting to the lack of solid information. What we've heard is how they've 'justified' mass-combat in the STO universe. What we haven't heard or seen, is how players can have a fulfilling experience while avoiding combat. In Vanguard (one of my biggest disappointments... 1) I just couldn't afford the MMO due to the economy and 2) It just played hell with my graphics card (which is part of why #1 came to a head) from the insane polycount in cityscape areas)) I happily played a dedicated Diplomat with almost zero combat capability. For her, it was all about travel, exploration, and meeting new peoples (the plural is grammatically purposeful). I'd like to see this in STO, with a captain that is mostly skilled in Diplomacy and Inter-Species Etiquette (but has a well-trained Tactical Officer by his side, just in case)... the 'Picard' of his time, if you will. Sure, I'd play a gung-ho combat veteran, too... But, StarTrek will always be the 'Talk first; Shoot only if need-be' genre to me, rather than 'Shoot first; Talking is for woosies' (unless you're a Klingon). Even Kirk and Archer were backed by a crew that helped keep them from shooting anything that moved before letting a round of conversation go badly.
Crafting: I'm afraid to say that Cryptic may just pass over this area of MMO play, just as they did with the initial City of Heros. (I honestly don't know if they ever implemented a form of crafting to it or CoV... I didn't stay past my "free time" due to the initial repetition from one area to another in my week of play.) But, I'm also unsure how they could really DO this, as even with all of the little projects that the various Chiefs of Engineering in each series had, the BIG happenings were always by dedicated research vessels and stations, that were merely the backdrop for different episodes of the show. (Exceptions being a few happenings from DS9 and Voyager... but they were special cases, in both location and plotline.)
I look forward to having a MMO that makes the use of a formulaic group/party be an option rather than a necessity. Sure, I like playing in a group, but not all of the time, and not by force. I have my own life to deal with, and I don't like having to choose between my groupmates or sudden R/L issues from being a husband and a father. But, I do enjoy playing in a persistant and player-inhabited environment, and having the choice to group with others in a joint effort. I've seen it offered up so many times... and in each, the final product failed to deliver. Here is one more time that I wait and watch, and pray I don't see something that will make me completely turn away. (Which I haven't with STO... yet.)
I've always disagreed with the decision to only have captains and not have player bridge crews. A big part of the magic of Star Trek has always been the interaction of the bridge crews. The friendly teasing between Spock and McCoy. Data's quest to become more human, along with the constant "will they or won't they" of the Riker/Troi relationship. Worf coming over to DS9. Paris and Kim with their ongoing friendship and strange fascination for Captain Proton. It goes on and on. My first thought about having a ship was to have it fully player run, but then far to many problem will be created by this, even if you are in a fedaration with friends or people you just came to know, at times when YOU would want to fly out someone else might not want to, that creats finding another person to fill the seat, which will the same partron we see in most MMORPG............LFG but in this case to fill the spot to make you handle your ship. But I do feel there should be a option to either let it be NPC run at several stations or let a player command several station, for guilds sort of speak it great to have full player run ships there for the option should be there as the solo (social) also wants to have fun in this MMORPG and can't always rely on others to fill the seats when wanting to take a flight. What's more, Star Trek has always been about fighting as a last resort. There has certainly been plenty of action, but that wasn't why the Enterprise was out there. The fact that STO seems to be moving more and more toward a space and ground combat game makes me wonder whether the devs really "get" Star Trek at all. Fully agree, it seems these type of IP's are more becoming multiplayer games, or in a way next gen multilplayer games instead of MMORPG in the way I "THOUGHT" this genre would evolve into instead of devolving in many way's. Regarding the matter of ship interiors, the author of this article made a big goof. How can you beam over to your opponent's ship to fight in their corridors if those corridors aren't going to exist until some nebulous point in time? That said, as disappointed as I am to learn that ship interiors have been postponed, I have to be realistic. If everyone is the captain of his ship, then what does the ship interior really become except the most elaborate player housing ever -- mostly consisting of generic and barren corridors with NPC's walking up and down them. Yawn. Don't really agree, I feel ship interiours should be in with launch, why not, if they don't make the deadline then prospone to a later date, of course easy talk, but D*MN why always all these promisis and then back of of them because they for some reason don't have enough time, sorry that';s bullshit, either you creat a product and know what to expect, in the case of a game in this industry by now we definitly know what to expect in time sense, so how come they will toss it out with some expension or update. Perhaps I look for more rpg aspect, and making my ship look unique from the inside is one of the aspect I expect to be especialy with a game named with a IP like this. For my money, the jury is still very much out on this game and will remain so until after the release of Champions Online. That game will show us whether Emmert and company have actually learned from CoX or not. If yes, then there's hope for STO. If not, then I'm going to be even more inclined to give STO a pass. Which is a shame, since I've always loved Star Trek. Same here, kinda more looking forward to SW:ToR due to what company is making the game, as Cryptic never was/is my favorite company, not that the create bad games, cause they do make very great games just their MMORPG's just don't appeal to me. But of course going to give both there games in development a chance as who knows I might enjoy them regardless......but if I enjoy them the MMORPG way as I would like it to be......well.....that I doubt..........
Don't really agree, I feel ship interiours should be in with launch, why not, if they don't make the deadline then prospone to a later date, of course easy talk, but D*MN why always all these promisis and then back of of them because they for some reason don't have enough time, sorry that';s bullshit, either you creat a product and know what to expect, in the case of a game in this industry by now we definitly know what to expect in time sense, so how come they will toss it out with some expension or update. Perhaps I look for more rpg aspect, and making my ship look unique from the inside is one of the aspect I expect to be especialy with a game named with a IP like this.
I'm guessing you have not been directly involved with very many large projects.
When starting a project you get a general feel for what you want to do and how you are going to do it. People put together timelines and budgets for each part of the project... But at this stage it's all guess work. Heck many times the tech to do some of the things has to be built from the ground up.
And of course as is always true, people guess wrong. Someone will guess that their part of the project will cost $5 Million and take 3 months. But half way through they realise it is much bigger then they had thought and will take $25 Million and a year.
Sure they had a press release where they had said they were planning on this part of the project but at 5x the cost and a huge delay... No way.
People make mistakes. The only choices they have are 1. Spend more money then they have and fail to ever release or 2. Release the product without that part of the project. 3. Remove resources from another part of the project to pay for this part.
Given those choices, would you prefer to 1. Have the game never come out. 2. Have the game come out but without something promised. 3. Come out with who knows how many other things removed so you can get the one thing you want.
WOW! i don't know where to begin....i don't why any of you posted anything, if you have never read anything about STO except for this small review. I have been following this game since it was announced by perpetual and then by cryptic.
PC crew v NPC crew:
this has been discussed in length on the cryptic forums and ultimately lead to closing (not necessarily banning people or deleting threads) any thread about it. basically the system will work like this, since everyone is a captain they can go solo in the game if they choose to...you can form teams or not, its up to you...if you choose to go exploring a planet you bring your npc bridge crew with you or you can bring PC team members that replace your npc crew. its entirely up to you...
yes i understand the arguement about entirely PC crewed or at least PC bridge crew ships. I was one of the proponents for it when it was under perpetuals control, but cryptic has made a good point its like creating 6 games in one...an engineering game, medical, tactical, science, etc. it would take a long time to create not to mention having to come up with new content for each "game" itself continuously... yes i know thats a cop out, but is a sensical cop out to say the least and i'm ok with it. There is only so much to do while pvping, exploring, and spending time between traveling. you can only upgrade a system so much before the upgrades become trivial. there is also the problem of people going l/d on a planet, what happens if the ship leaves where do they respawn at....are they stuck on the planet until another ship comes by or do they have to sit and wait until the ship warps all...the...way...back just to pick up that person. then there are the travel times, are they fast or are they realistic, if they are realistic then what does the captain do all this time while engineering, medical, tactical, etc. are doing their things.
PvP:
It seems as if most people who write about this game concentrates so much more on PvP rather than on PvE. PvP is delegated to PvP areas, so your not going to see PvP everywhere...PvE is very important part of the game, exploring is a major center piece. they have even gone to the trouble of creating self generating content as people continue to go farther out into space. there are goin to raids, dynamic events, PvE space and ground combat, etc. the game isn't centered only on combat
Ship Interiors:
Ok so they are not going to have major ship interiors at launch, with exception to major hubs like DS9...big deal...they said its on the to-do list post launch, besides what are you going to do in those ship interiors, stand around and look at the view....
I am looking forward to STO the game, knowing full well it isn't a ST Simulator. I have faith that Cryptic will do a good job and put out a very entertaining immersive game. Cryptic did a spectacular job adding content very regularly with CoH, so I don't think we will have to wait all that long to hang out on the bridge of our ships. For those that say no ship interiors at launch are a deal breaker, well I think they are going to miss out.
Well said! I am looking forward to STO the game, knowing full well it isn't a ST Simulator. I have faith that Cryptic will do a good job and put out a very entertaining immersive game. Cryptic did a spectacular job adding content very regularly with CoH, so I don't think we will have to wait all that long to hang out on the bridge of our ships. For those that say no ship interiors at launch are a deal breaker, well I think they are going to miss out.
Short and sweet, makes sense.
Star Trek Online Correspondent MMORPG.com
"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?" -Patton
God Bless Cryptic for working on two MMOs at once. I just really wished they put their resources into STo than Champions, and therefore give it the time and money it needs. I get the feeling they will rush this thing and we all get an Earth and Betond Game in a Star Trek skin. If that is what you like ( you haven't played E&B / EvE), then you should enjoy STO for a few months. Unfortunately I was looking for more. ::clenches fists at Jack Emmet::
Just my thought. I mean, bigger companies were burdened with making ONE MMO, but two? Heck, that almost CANT go right.
Either way, Trek fans surely always had it hard. I dont know why anyone at Paramount - or whoever has the Trek copyrights - creates one gaming company which cares for all the Trek games, like Lucasarts did all the years.
My gripe No 1 still is that the idea to make each player captain and thus practically identical with the ship made me lose all interest in the game. I had hoped for a team based game, where I am one person on a ship and my friends are other officers like me on the SAME ship. Star Trek was only very little about space combat, and turning STO into another EVE can only be bad. It just is such a reduction of a big franchise to a space shooter which totally irks me.
It all sounds a lot like PotBS. You are a ship, and space stations/planets are like figleaf exteriors. Sounds like a borefest to me. I have a deep distrust against heavily instanced games, and both the plans for ship interiors and planet missions sound like playing a single player game.
So yeah, I too clench my fist at Emmet.
Oh and the STO official forum mods are all N****! Never seen such a bunch of deletion, and thread-closing idiots like them. EVERY critical thread leads to instant close, an attitude I cant stand.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I am sorry if I trod on your vision of what a star trek MMO should be. Don't blame Cryptic for this, Perpetual made the commitment for no bridges long ago, all Cryptic did was inherit the code and graphics done by Perpetual.
Sure Cryptic could have thrown all that out and started completely new, but you are adding years to the process and upping the cost of making this MMO immensely.
I will grant you it is possible to make a game with a multi player crewed ship, just you better have a backer with deep pockets because they have to make it so that if one player leaves the rest of the party does not suffer. Remember, you are in a ship in space, you can't just fly out a replacement quickly if someone leaves.
I am sure another iteration of Star Trek at some point in time will probably have this feature, just not this one. At least you will get a chance to play this one.
I am sorry if I trod on your vision of what a star trek MMO should be. Don't blame Cryptic for this, Perpetual made the commitment for no bridges long ago, all Cryptic did was inherit the code and graphics done by Perpetual. Sure Cryptic could have thrown all that out and started completely new, but you are adding years to the process and upping the cost of making this MMO immensely. I will grant you it is possible to make a game with a multi player crewed ship, just you better have a backer with deep pockets because they have to make it so that if one player leaves the rest of the party does not suffer. Remember, you are in a ship in space, you can't just fly out a replacement quickly if someone leaves. I am sure another iteration of Star Trek at some point in time will probably have this feature, just not this one. At least you will get a chance to play this one.
Umm... As a blue, you really should know to check your facts before spouting off.
Jack Emmert stated at the convention last year that they inherited next to nothing from Perpetual, which hadn't even gotten to the point of writing code yet. Cryptic got the rights to the IP, some concept art, and design docs. That's about it.
What has taken years off the development time is the fact that Cryptic already had a game engine built and ready to go -- the one that they're using for Champions. So Cryptic could focus on adapting the engine to STO (minor task) as well as creating content (major task).
And did you actually READ what I or pretty much anyone else wrote on the player crew subject? We've been advocating allowing it to be played either way. Players in the roles if players are available, and NPC's in the roles if a player isn't available or isn't wanted. How does a mechanism that lets NPC's step in at a moment's notice result in your doomsday scenario of twiddling one's thumbs while waiting for an alternate player to travel to you? And again, did you read my initial post about how waiting for replacements isn't even remotely new to the MMO genre? I've long since lost count of the times I've been in a dungeon or raid and then been stuck waiting for a new player or two to come in. The idea of NPC's being able to step in to replace a lost team member eliminates that problem just as effectively as removing PC bridge crews from the game did.
The player crew idea is a moot point because the devs have made it so. That doesn't mean that the potential player base has to step back and sing "All hail the all-wise Jack Emmert". We have the right to disagree with his decision and voice our disappointment. Maybe Cryptic will indeed put out the Trek game that the fans have been hoping for. But from the very vocal dissatisfaction in this thread alone it's pretty obvious that there are going to be a lot of unhappy players. I'm glad you're perfectly content. For my part, I'm ambivalent and need to see more before I can make a decision. I simply know that I'm disappointed with many of the decisions I've heard about so far.
God Bless Cryptic for working on two MMOs at once. I just really wished they put their resources into STo than Champions, and therefore give it the time and money it needs. I get the feeling they will rush this thing and we all get an Earth and Betond Game in a Star Trek skin. If that is what you like ( you haven't played E&B / EvE), then you should enjoy STO for a few months. Unfortunately I was looking for more. ::clenches fists at Jack Emmet::
Just my thought. I mean, bigger companies were burdened with making ONE MMO, but two? Heck, that almost CANT go right.
Either way, Trek fans surely always had it hard. I dont know why anyone at Paramount - or whoever has the Trek copyrights - creates one gaming company which cares for all the Trek games, like Lucasarts did all the years.
My gripe No 1 still is that the idea to make each player captain and thus practically identical with the ship made me lose all interest in the game. I had hoped for a team based game, where I am one person on a ship and my friends are other officers like me on the SAME ship. Star Trek was only very little about space combat, and turning STO into another EVE can only be bad. It just is such a reduction of a big franchise to a space shooter which totally irks me.
It all sounds a lot like PotBS. You are a ship, and space stations/planets are like figleaf exteriors. Sounds like a borefest to me. I have a deep distrust against heavily instanced games, and both the plans for ship interiors and planet missions sound like playing a single player game.
First off, you can customize your ship how you want for the most part, so not every ship is going to be identical...Second, since STO will be using the same engine as champions online, it will hardly be a transition from one MMO to another using the same tech...Third, the average episode took place in space and on the ground, also about half had some combat in them whether on the ground or in space.
So yeah, I too clench my fist at Emmet.
Oh and the STO official forum mods are all N****! Never seen such a bunch of deletion, and thread-closing idiots like them. EVERY critical thread leads to instant close, an attitude I cant stand.
I'm guessing you're one of those people that start the same thread over and over again and finally got warned and/or banned because of it. I'm glad they ban those people, i'm tired of see 6 threads on ship interiors not being in at launch just on one page. it was ridiculous, seriously limiting yourselves to one thread would have been more than sufficient.
What it comes down to is that Jack could have taken two roads: Road 1 was to bring MMO's to the Star Trek crowd by giving them the things that they love about Star Trek, but in an MMO format. Road 2 was to bring Star Trek to the MMO market by dressing up a standard boring MMO in a Star Trek costume. Option one would have grown the MMO market, but taken longer to really do right. Option two is quick and cheap, but ultimately only adds to the competition within the existing MMO market without actually bringing anything new to it. Cryptic chose the low road, and I think it's going to hurt them.
Nice analysis, and unfortunately probably correct .
"...intense PvP on the ground and in space,..."
Godammit does every mmog developer have his head up his ass these days??? Don't they look around and see what players are actually Playing and Paying for by the Millions?! It sure the fck isn't PvP! Fools. Epic fail Pew Pew in space, Great.
I've made all of these same points in the official game boards; our only hope is that Cryptic sees the validity of the argument and builds the game with the possibility of adding these features/functions. Player ship interiors they say they "want" to add, but as far as I know we haven't gotten any statement of commitment yet. Player crews.... who knows. I for one am done with this topic; A year after the game launches, we'll see whether or not we were right all along.
I do hope they'll implement some classes, or at least a function makes you stand out of the crowd. Some exploration would be cool to (like to land with your ship and then explore the planet)
Don't really agree, I feel ship interiours should be in with launch, why not, if they don't make the deadline then prospone to a later date, of course easy talk, but D*MN why always all these promisis and then back of of them because they for some reason don't have enough time, sorry that';s bullshit, either you creat a product and know what to expect, in the case of a game in this industry by now we definitly know what to expect in time sense, so how come they will toss it out with some expension or update. Perhaps I look for more rpg aspect, and making my ship look unique from the inside is one of the aspect I expect to be especialy with a game named with a IP like this.
I'm guessing you have not been directly involved with very many large projects.
I'm guessing you work for city or goverment planning as I know they make so many mistakes on project, spending money they don't have. Oh and sorry I do have very big project and have made very big project, and sorry they never ended up as with most games, I really feel it's time that developers need to re-think the type of business they are in, make a product and make sure you know your ins and out of a project. Seeing all these MMORPG's come out with feature's missing cause they couldn't make it in with release, then these company need to learn to shut their mouth about things they might not be able to handle.
I don't mind people making mistakes, I do mind if it's a mistake that has been made countless of times, at one point I feel it's fair to believe that someone will have learned somehow, yet I am not seeing it yet.
When starting a project you get a general feel for what you want to do and how you are going to do it. People put together timelines and budgets for each part of the project... But at this stage it's all guess work. Heck many times the tech to do some of the things has to be built from the ground up.
And of course as is always true, people guess wrong. Someone will guess that their part of the project will cost $5 Million and take 3 months. But half way through they realise it is much bigger then they had thought and will take $25 Million and a year.
Sure they had a press release where they had said they were planning on this part of the project but at 5x the cost and a huge delay... No way.
People make mistakes. The only choices they have are 1. Spend more money then they have and fail to ever release or 2. Release the product without that part of the project. 3. Remove resources from another part of the project to pay for this part.
Given those choices, would you prefer to 1. Have the game never come out. 2. Have the game come out but without something promised. 3. Come out with who knows how many other things removed so you can get the one thing you want.
What you people fail to realise is that development time of an MMO used to be 5 years at least.
Back then companies took the time to actually finish it and release it as much feature complete as possible.
These days they just try to crank out MMO's within 2-3 years of development time!!
Result is that you get a shalow, bland MMO thrown on your lap and expect you to pay AAA price and monthly sub for it.
No one here said STO was to be a simulator. Thank god no. That's just boring!
Having a player crew. Having different classes in form of roles. (Captain, Chief Tactical, Engineer, Medic, etc). Ship interiors. Starbase, HQ interiors. etc. Are vital elements to make this game an MMORPG.
What we will get now at release is just a shooter in space!
Sorry tho. But that's just insultive to the Star Trek IP.
If they don't have the time and money to do better, well maybe they shouldn't have bothered picking up the IP in the first place.
Too many great IP have been ruined and crewed up already.
Again why are so many people so focused on space combat...the game is about exploration (ground and space) and customization (player customization, bridge crew customization, and ship customization)....IT'S THE MAJOR FOCUS OF THE GAME...sheesh. no one listens they just spout half truths without actually paying attention to details.
Guys the simple fact is they need to get the game out before the money runs out. Thats what it always boils down to. If they tried to release the game with Ship Interiors and building crew roles so groups could play 1 ship. Then do all the balancing for that. Then add in enough content so that combat is rare.... Well the game would come out sometime in 2012 and cost about 10x as much as they can afforde to put into it. However if they release the game without some of these features, they can be added in later. Heck Cryptic is well known for adding in major core functions to a game as part of free expansions. If the game can grab the public market and thrive then we will see all of these other bells and whistles come out. If it can not grab the general market... Then its dead no matter what. And adding the level of complexity some of the people here are asking for would mean that 90% of the potental player base would be run off before they could get a grip on the game. Shrug, I think they are doing fine and am looking forward to the game. Does it have everything I want? No not even close. Does it look like a Star Trek MMO that is at least trying to follow the Star Trek universe? Yes. So far its worth my $60 +$14.95 a month.
- I also agree with the poster below this post it seems to be the classic Star Trek purist vs. The Sci-Fi fan
As that poster stated this is NOT supposed to be a Star Trek Sim. It is also not a heavy PvP game (NOT EVE). It is a Heavy PVE game with pvp. As far as player crews go see previous sentence... . Those who are fuming over that issue you should re-read the above quoted post. This is a game aimed at Star Trek and Sci-Fi fans who want a Space Ship MMO that is NOT EvE. It is NOT a purist's Star Trek sim.... (aka a day in the life of Captain Kirk, Picard, Cisco,Janeway etc...)
Having said that i would be interested in a Star Trek sim. If any dev out there reads this i think there is a small niche market for that type of game.
WOW! i don't know where to begin....i don't why any of you posted anything, if you have never read anything about STO except for this small review. I have been following this game since it was announced by perpetual and then by cryptic. PC crew v NPC crew: this has been discussed in length on the cryptic forums and ultimately lead to closing (not necessarily banning people or deleting threads) any thread about it. basically the system will work like this, since everyone is a captain they can go solo in the game if they choose to...you can form teams or not, its up to you...if you choose to go exploring a planet you bring your npc bridge crew with you or you can bring PC team members that replace your npc crew. its entirely up to you... yes i understand the arguement about entirely PC crewed or at least PC bridge crew ships. I was one of the proponents for it when it was under perpetuals control, but cryptic has made a good point its like creating 6 games in one...an engineering game, medical, tactical, science, etc. it would take a long time to create not to mention having to come up with new content for each "game" itself continuously... yes i know thats a cop out, but is a sensical cop out to say the least and i'm ok with it. There is only so much to do while pvping, exploring, and spending time between traveling. you can only upgrade a system so much before the upgrades become trivial. there is also the problem of people going l/d on a planet, what happens if the ship leaves where do they respawn at....are they stuck on the planet until another ship comes by or do they have to sit and wait until the ship warps all...the...way...back just to pick up that person. then there are the travel times, are they fast or are they realistic, if they are realistic then what does the captain do all this time while engineering, medical, tactical, etc. are doing their things. PvP: It seems as if most people who write about this game concentrates so much more on PvP rather than on PvE. PvP is delegated to PvP areas, so your not going to see PvP everywhere...PvE is very important part of the game, exploring is a major center piece. they have even gone to the trouble of creating self generating content as people continue to go farther out into space. there are goin to raids, dynamic events, PvE space and ground combat, etc. the game isn't centered only on combat Ship Interiors: Ok so they are not going to have major ship interiors at launch, with exception to major hubs like DS9...big deal...they said its on the to-do list post launch, besides what are you going to do in those ship interiors, stand around and look at the view....
I am hoping this is going to be the title that I think it can be. I agree with the choice to be a Captain of your own ship. The customization idea is also brilliant. Good article, if a bit one sided. There are some potential issues here, which I am sure they will find solutions for. All in all, I am looking forward to this game!
man, did Cryptic write this article for you guys? Talk about PR fluff. Did yal get a trip out tot he studio for a behind the scenes tour in exchange? lol more spin then a neutron star, but I'm getting used to it
OK, to the game. I agree that we should be captains. Who wants to not be able to play because half your crew is still at work? HOWEVER, i also agree with player crews, as well. I don't think it needs to be an all or nothing situation. You should be able to invite players to your ship for some crew-based co-op questing. I remember that in SWG teh falcom was a lot of fun to play with a full crew, even if the combat was painfully repetitious.
Of Course, allowing player crews would likely necessitate some ship interiors. I mean, it could be done, with everyone watching the combat from the 3rd person, but everyone has different skill commands etc, depending on their assigned role. I guess this would give crewed ships an advantage over single-captain ships,,,,but then if all of the crew simply showed up in their own ship, they'd all have an advantage anyways.
I don't know how many of you have played the game starfleet command, which is based of starfleet battles. It was a very cool setup for ship to ship combat,, as far as its combination of simplicity and depth. I am hoping that this games combat is something similar.
Having ship and star-base interiors just to have then, with nothing to do in them, is a waste of art and dev time, imho. Starbases would be like cities in space, so you could shop, etc. maybe having a section of your own ship like 10-forward or something available to invite guests into your ship would be cool...but do I really have to navigate my way through repetitious hallways to get there? Yes, teh first time would be cool, like always...but after then 10th time.....uggg, no thanks.
I do wish the game was less cartoon-like, as space is very easy to make look awesome...lets face it, its mostly empty...so the ships and combat effects wcould be really georgeous and not be absurdly taxing on your PC. /shrug not as important as teh other point, but que lastima
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone www.spankybus.com -3d Artist & Compositor -Writer -Professional Amature
WOW! i don't know where to begin....i don't why any of you posted anything, if you have never read anything about STO except for this small review. I have been following this game since it was announced by perpetual and then by cryptic. PC crew v NPC crew: this has been discussed in length on the cryptic forums and ultimately lead to closing (not necessarily banning people or deleting threads) any thread about it. basically the system will work like this, since everyone is a captain they can go solo in the game if they choose to...you can form teams or not, its up to you...if you choose to go exploring a planet you bring your npc bridge crew with you or you can bring PC team members that replace your npc crew. its entirely up to you... yes i understand the arguement about entirely PC crewed or at least PC bridge crew ships. I was one of the proponents for it when it was under perpetuals control, but cryptic has made a good point its like creating 6 games in one...an engineering game, medical, tactical, science, etc. it would take a long time to create not to mention having to come up with new content for each "game" itself continuously... yes i know thats a cop out, but is a sensical cop out to say the least and i'm ok with it. There is only so much to do while pvping, exploring, and spending time between traveling. you can only upgrade a system so much before the upgrades become trivial. there is also the problem of people going l/d on a planet, what happens if the ship leaves where do they respawn at....are they stuck on the planet until another ship comes by or do they have to sit and wait until the ship warps all...the...way...back just to pick up that person. then there are the travel times, are they fast or are they realistic, if they are realistic then what does the captain do all this time while engineering, medical, tactical, etc. are doing their things. PvP: It seems as if most people who write about this game concentrates so much more on PvP rather than on PvE. PvP is delegated to PvP areas, so your not going to see PvP everywhere...PvE is very important part of the game, exploring is a major center piece. they have even gone to the trouble of creating self generating content as people continue to go farther out into space. there are goin to raids, dynamic events, PvE space and ground combat, etc. the game isn't centered only on combat Ship Interiors: Ok so they are not going to have major ship interiors at launch, with exception to major hubs like DS9...big deal...they said its on the to-do list post launch, besides what are you going to do in those ship interiors, stand around and look at the view....
QFE. The community at the offficial website is ten times better than the one here at MMORPG. This site seems to be the last refuge for disgruntled players that hate the fact they can't troll and flame over at a game's website.So they come here and cry about how they are being "censored." Anyone that has spent any time at the official website knows the facts and those that troll here know nothing. Hence why the trolls refuse to acknowledge this post that refutes every bit of garbage and lies they have been spewing.
Wow. I can't even begin to list the blatant inaccuracies here that have been spouted by some of you guys. (To the point that I had to create an account and say so.)
To start off, the reviewer Troy Hammers is fairly dead on in his statements about the game. In fact, the only things that he posted that I can find fault with are:
meeting their foes with rapid phaser fire or pulling a Worf maneuver, RAMMING SPEED!
-- We actually don't know if this will be possible, as they're still deciding how the collision systems will work; and in his follow up statement where he says:
There may be a misconception, ship interiors will not be avilable at launch. Cryptic has said you can beam to enemy ships, which I'm guessing are NPC ships and will have limited use. These are not fully function player ship interiors.
-- Craig Zinkievich has stated that specific interior spaces will be available at launch as instanced areas. So we will have missions that include both ship and starbase interiors, but they will not be "free roam" areas at launch. Indeed, we have seen actual gameplay video showing combat on a ship's bridge and a screenshot showing a starbase's warp core.
I invite you guys to check out the STO forums, or at least read some of the "Ask Cryptic" articles, found on STO's main page before bashing Cryptic for things that you clearly don't know anything about.
Ok i just skimmed over this and i seen that alota people are disgusted about everyone being a captain.... from what ive read that being not much is that YOU are Technicly a captain..... But that is not your actual rank. you have to earn your rank from acadamy Up. Sorry if this is incorrect but if your going to say its not provide me with proof.
Really if people are judging it this early they are way off things can change right up to the last day.
I also think that it will appeal to non ST fans because of its Custermization features, Exploration and Mild but not based on PVP.
Overall i think it has great potential even if it isnt what we want on release they will get feedback and than they can improve it in the Expansions.
(sorry for my bad spelling)
And if someone wishs to prove me wrong provide proof not your opion
Ok i just skimmed over this and i seen that alota people are disgusted about everyone being a captain.... from what ive read that being not much is that YOU are Technicly a captain..... But that is not your actual rank. you have to earn your rank from acadamy Up. Sorry if this is incorrect but if your going to say its not provide me with proof. you are not wrong, you start out at the rank of ensign but are in command of a small vessel probably a shuttle then as you perform deeds throughtout the universe you gain a higher rank...i don't know how thats not leveling, cryptic tries to distinguish that form leveling, but i don't see the difference
Wow. I can't even begin to list the blatant inaccuracies here that have been spouted by some of you guys. (To the point that I had to create an account and say so.)
To start off, the reviewer Troy Hammers is fairly dead on in his statements about the game. In fact, the only things that he posted that I can find fault with are:
meeting their foes with rapid phaser fire or pulling a Worf maneuver, RAMMING SPEED!
-- We actually don't know if this will be possible, as they're still deciding how the collision systems will work; and in his follow up statement where he says:
There may be a misconception, ship interiors will not be avilable at launch. Cryptic has said you can beam to enemy ships, which I'm guessing are NPC ships and will have limited use. These are not fully function player ship interiors.
-- Craig Zinkievich has stated that specific interior spaces will be available at launch as instanced areas. So we will have missions that include both ship and starbase interiors, but they will not be "free roam" areas at launch. Indeed, we have seen actual gameplay video showing combat on a ship's bridge and a screenshot showing a starbase's warp core.
I invite you guys to check out the STO forums, or at least read some of the "Ask Cryptic" articles, found on STO's main page before bashing Cryptic for things that you clearly don't know anything about.
The ramming speed joke was from Worf during TNG movie First Contact, when his ship was busted up and had no more options against the Borg Cube. I always thought to myself, "Wow, that could be called the Worf Maneuver"
But you are correct sir, that was not stated by Cryptic to be put into STO.
Star Trek Online Correspondent MMORPG.com
"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?" -Patton
Comments
There are so many points that I can see both sides of the discussions (one of the things that my wife both loves and hates about me...) with STO.
TLDR Version: I can accept players being just 'Captain's... I can wait for an expansion for Player-Ship Interiors... I want more in-depth coverage of non-combat play possibilities... and I can accept the loss of both Crafting and/or a Crafting-Class in STO due to both limitations of development time and lack of a real purpose to be had from implementing it.
Player Roles: I agree that having different roles for players would be nice. Look at Vanguard... I played 3 completely divergent characters in my time playing the game, and each was enjoyable in his/her own fashion. Player "classes" that I could see implemented in STO: Helmsman, Tactical Officer, Chief of Engineering, Science Officer, Captain. Each would have their own capabilities both onboard the vessel and on away missions. But, wait, they already have this form of setup with NPCs... And, in creating your 'Captain', you can choose to have higher capabilities in different skillsets... thereby leaning toward one range of the spectrum, or another. And, with more 'Captain's out in the universe, space will be a far less empty place to roam about in. And, if they DID go the route of having multiple PCs on a single ship, then you really just have the same old formulaic system as every other MMO. Tank+Healer+Support... And you CAN have more than a single 'Captain' PC on an Away Mission, anyways... This is not a S/P Game, afterall.
Player-Ship Interiors: I'd love to be able to have access to wander my own ship's corridors and visit Ten-Forward, the Holodeck, or other 'vital' areas. (So, those aren't the most 'vital', but I like 'em. Heheheh.) But, I can see this as a non-issue for a first-release. All it would mean, right now, is added workload for the art department for areas that won't have a real impact on the actual gameplay. However, for a later expansion that allows Player-Ship boarding for PvP or NPC combat (the 'excuse' to get it implemented), I'd love to have a basic floorplan created for each of the craft-types and variations, and allow the player to step off of the bridge to stroll a bit, or visit the various chosen officers in their workplace. For the current build, it really isn't necessary.
Playstyles: This does get to me, a bit... But only in how players have been reacting to the lack of solid information. What we've heard is how they've 'justified' mass-combat in the STO universe. What we haven't heard or seen, is how players can have a fulfilling experience while avoiding combat. In Vanguard (one of my biggest disappointments... 1) I just couldn't afford the MMO due to the economy and 2) It just played hell with my graphics card (which is part of why #1 came to a head) from the insane polycount in cityscape areas)) I happily played a dedicated Diplomat with almost zero combat capability. For her, it was all about travel, exploration, and meeting new peoples (the plural is grammatically purposeful). I'd like to see this in STO, with a captain that is mostly skilled in Diplomacy and Inter-Species Etiquette (but has a well-trained Tactical Officer by his side, just in case)... the 'Picard' of his time, if you will. Sure, I'd play a gung-ho combat veteran, too... But, StarTrek will always be the 'Talk first; Shoot only if need-be' genre to me, rather than 'Shoot first; Talking is for woosies' (unless you're a Klingon). Even Kirk and Archer were backed by a crew that helped keep them from shooting anything that moved before letting a round of conversation go badly.
Crafting: I'm afraid to say that Cryptic may just pass over this area of MMO play, just as they did with the initial City of Heros. (I honestly don't know if they ever implemented a form of crafting to it or CoV... I didn't stay past my "free time" due to the initial repetition from one area to another in my week of play.) But, I'm also unsure how they could really DO this, as even with all of the little projects that the various Chiefs of Engineering in each series had, the BIG happenings were always by dedicated research vessels and stations, that were merely the backdrop for different episodes of the show. (Exceptions being a few happenings from DS9 and Voyager... but they were special cases, in both location and plotline.)
I look forward to having a MMO that makes the use of a formulaic group/party be an option rather than a necessity. Sure, I like playing in a group, but not all of the time, and not by force. I have my own life to deal with, and I don't like having to choose between my groupmates or sudden R/L issues from being a husband and a father. But, I do enjoy playing in a persistant and player-inhabited environment, and having the choice to group with others in a joint effort. I've seen it offered up so many times... and in each, the final product failed to deliver. Here is one more time that I wait and watch, and pray I don't see something that will make me completely turn away. (Which I haven't with STO... yet.)
I'm guessing you have not been directly involved with very many large projects.
When starting a project you get a general feel for what you want to do and how you are going to do it. People put together timelines and budgets for each part of the project... But at this stage it's all guess work. Heck many times the tech to do some of the things has to be built from the ground up.
And of course as is always true, people guess wrong. Someone will guess that their part of the project will cost $5 Million and take 3 months. But half way through they realise it is much bigger then they had thought and will take $25 Million and a year.
Sure they had a press release where they had said they were planning on this part of the project but at 5x the cost and a huge delay... No way.
People make mistakes. The only choices they have are 1. Spend more money then they have and fail to ever release or 2. Release the product without that part of the project. 3. Remove resources from another part of the project to pay for this part.
Given those choices, would you prefer to 1. Have the game never come out. 2. Have the game come out but without something promised. 3. Come out with who knows how many other things removed so you can get the one thing you want.
WOW! i don't know where to begin....i don't why any of you posted anything, if you have never read anything about STO except for this small review. I have been following this game since it was announced by perpetual and then by cryptic.
PC crew v NPC crew:
this has been discussed in length on the cryptic forums and ultimately lead to closing (not necessarily banning people or deleting threads) any thread about it. basically the system will work like this, since everyone is a captain they can go solo in the game if they choose to...you can form teams or not, its up to you...if you choose to go exploring a planet you bring your npc bridge crew with you or you can bring PC team members that replace your npc crew. its entirely up to you...
yes i understand the arguement about entirely PC crewed or at least PC bridge crew ships. I was one of the proponents for it when it was under perpetuals control, but cryptic has made a good point its like creating 6 games in one...an engineering game, medical, tactical, science, etc. it would take a long time to create not to mention having to come up with new content for each "game" itself continuously... yes i know thats a cop out, but is a sensical cop out to say the least and i'm ok with it. There is only so much to do while pvping, exploring, and spending time between traveling. you can only upgrade a system so much before the upgrades become trivial. there is also the problem of people going l/d on a planet, what happens if the ship leaves where do they respawn at....are they stuck on the planet until another ship comes by or do they have to sit and wait until the ship warps all...the...way...back just to pick up that person. then there are the travel times, are they fast or are they realistic, if they are realistic then what does the captain do all this time while engineering, medical, tactical, etc. are doing their things.
PvP:
It seems as if most people who write about this game concentrates so much more on PvP rather than on PvE. PvP is delegated to PvP areas, so your not going to see PvP everywhere...PvE is very important part of the game, exploring is a major center piece. they have even gone to the trouble of creating self generating content as people continue to go farther out into space. there are goin to raids, dynamic events, PvE space and ground combat, etc. the game isn't centered only on combat
Ship Interiors:
Ok so they are not going to have major ship interiors at launch, with exception to major hubs like DS9...big deal...they said its on the to-do list post launch, besides what are you going to do in those ship interiors, stand around and look at the view....
I bet Batman would have some kind of awesome Bat-taunt that could let him hold aggro. - Atamasama
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Well said!
I am looking forward to STO the game, knowing full well it isn't a ST Simulator. I have faith that Cryptic will do a good job and put out a very entertaining immersive game. Cryptic did a spectacular job adding content very regularly with CoH, so I don't think we will have to wait all that long to hang out on the bridge of our ships. For those that say no ship interiors at launch are a deal breaker, well I think they are going to miss out.
Short and sweet, makes sense.
Star Trek Online Correspondent
MMORPG.com
"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?"
-Patton
Just my thought. I mean, bigger companies were burdened with making ONE MMO, but two? Heck, that almost CANT go right.
Either way, Trek fans surely always had it hard. I dont know why anyone at Paramount - or whoever has the Trek copyrights - creates one gaming company which cares for all the Trek games, like Lucasarts did all the years.
My gripe No 1 still is that the idea to make each player captain and thus practically identical with the ship made me lose all interest in the game. I had hoped for a team based game, where I am one person on a ship and my friends are other officers like me on the SAME ship. Star Trek was only very little about space combat, and turning STO into another EVE can only be bad. It just is such a reduction of a big franchise to a space shooter which totally irks me.
It all sounds a lot like PotBS. You are a ship, and space stations/planets are like figleaf exteriors. Sounds like a borefest to me. I have a deep distrust against heavily instanced games, and both the plans for ship interiors and planet missions sound like playing a single player game.
So yeah, I too clench my fist at Emmet.
Oh and the STO official forum mods are all N****! Never seen such a bunch of deletion, and thread-closing idiots like them. EVERY critical thread leads to instant close, an attitude I cant stand.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I am sorry if I trod on your vision of what a star trek MMO should be. Don't blame Cryptic for this, Perpetual made the commitment for no bridges long ago, all Cryptic did was inherit the code and graphics done by Perpetual.
Sure Cryptic could have thrown all that out and started completely new, but you are adding years to the process and upping the cost of making this MMO immensely.
I will grant you it is possible to make a game with a multi player crewed ship, just you better have a backer with deep pockets because they have to make it so that if one player leaves the rest of the party does not suffer. Remember, you are in a ship in space, you can't just fly out a replacement quickly if someone leaves.
I am sure another iteration of Star Trek at some point in time will probably have this feature, just not this one. At least you will get a chance to play this one.
Umm... As a blue, you really should know to check your facts before spouting off.
Jack Emmert stated at the convention last year that they inherited next to nothing from Perpetual, which hadn't even gotten to the point of writing code yet. Cryptic got the rights to the IP, some concept art, and design docs. That's about it.
What has taken years off the development time is the fact that Cryptic already had a game engine built and ready to go -- the one that they're using for Champions. So Cryptic could focus on adapting the engine to STO (minor task) as well as creating content (major task).
And did you actually READ what I or pretty much anyone else wrote on the player crew subject? We've been advocating allowing it to be played either way. Players in the roles if players are available, and NPC's in the roles if a player isn't available or isn't wanted. How does a mechanism that lets NPC's step in at a moment's notice result in your doomsday scenario of twiddling one's thumbs while waiting for an alternate player to travel to you? And again, did you read my initial post about how waiting for replacements isn't even remotely new to the MMO genre? I've long since lost count of the times I've been in a dungeon or raid and then been stuck waiting for a new player or two to come in. The idea of NPC's being able to step in to replace a lost team member eliminates that problem just as effectively as removing PC bridge crews from the game did.
The player crew idea is a moot point because the devs have made it so. That doesn't mean that the potential player base has to step back and sing "All hail the all-wise Jack Emmert". We have the right to disagree with his decision and voice our disappointment. Maybe Cryptic will indeed put out the Trek game that the fans have been hoping for. But from the very vocal dissatisfaction in this thread alone it's pretty obvious that there are going to be a lot of unhappy players. I'm glad you're perfectly content. For my part, I'm ambivalent and need to see more before I can make a decision. I simply know that I'm disappointed with many of the decisions I've heard about so far.
Just my thought. I mean, bigger companies were burdened with making ONE MMO, but two? Heck, that almost CANT go right.
Either way, Trek fans surely always had it hard. I dont know why anyone at Paramount - or whoever has the Trek copyrights - creates one gaming company which cares for all the Trek games, like Lucasarts did all the years.
My gripe No 1 still is that the idea to make each player captain and thus practically identical with the ship made me lose all interest in the game. I had hoped for a team based game, where I am one person on a ship and my friends are other officers like me on the SAME ship. Star Trek was only very little about space combat, and turning STO into another EVE can only be bad. It just is such a reduction of a big franchise to a space shooter which totally irks me.
It all sounds a lot like PotBS. You are a ship, and space stations/planets are like figleaf exteriors. Sounds like a borefest to me. I have a deep distrust against heavily instanced games, and both the plans for ship interiors and planet missions sound like playing a single player game.
First off, you can customize your ship how you want for the most part, so not every ship is going to be identical...Second, since STO will be using the same engine as champions online, it will hardly be a transition from one MMO to another using the same tech...Third, the average episode took place in space and on the ground, also about half had some combat in them whether on the ground or in space.
So yeah, I too clench my fist at Emmet.
Oh and the STO official forum mods are all N****! Never seen such a bunch of deletion, and thread-closing idiots like them. EVERY critical thread leads to instant close, an attitude I cant stand.
I'm guessing you're one of those people that start the same thread over and over again and finally got warned and/or banned because of it. I'm glad they ban those people, i'm tired of see 6 threads on ship interiors not being in at launch just on one page. it was ridiculous, seriously limiting yourselves to one thread would have been more than sufficient.I bet Batman would have some kind of awesome Bat-taunt that could let him hold aggro. - Atamasama
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Nice analysis, and unfortunately probably correct .
"...intense PvP on the ground and in space,..."
Godammit does every mmog developer have his head up his ass these days??? Don't they look around and see what players are actually Playing and Paying for by the Millions?! It sure the fck isn't PvP! Fools. Epic fail
Pew Pew in space, Great.
I've made all of these same points in the official game boards; our only hope is that Cryptic sees the validity of the argument and builds the game with the possibility of adding these features/functions. Player ship interiors they say they "want" to add, but as far as I know we haven't gotten any statement of commitment yet. Player crews.... who knows. I for one am done with this topic; A year after the game launches, we'll see whether or not we were right all along.
I do hope they'll implement some classes, or at least a function makes you stand out of the crowd. Some exploration would be cool to (like to land with your ship and then explore the planet)
I'm guessing you have not been directly involved with very many large projects.
I'm guessing you work for city or goverment planning as I know they make so many mistakes on project, spending money they don't have. Oh and sorry I do have very big project and have made very big project, and sorry they never ended up as with most games, I really feel it's time that developers need to re-think the type of business they are in, make a product and make sure you know your ins and out of a project. Seeing all these MMORPG's come out with feature's missing cause they couldn't make it in with release, then these company need to learn to shut their mouth about things they might not be able to handle.
I don't mind people making mistakes, I do mind if it's a mistake that has been made countless of times, at one point I feel it's fair to believe that someone will have learned somehow, yet I am not seeing it yet.
When starting a project you get a general feel for what you want to do and how you are going to do it. People put together timelines and budgets for each part of the project... But at this stage it's all guess work. Heck many times the tech to do some of the things has to be built from the ground up.
And of course as is always true, people guess wrong. Someone will guess that their part of the project will cost $5 Million and take 3 months. But half way through they realise it is much bigger then they had thought and will take $25 Million and a year.
Sure they had a press release where they had said they were planning on this part of the project but at 5x the cost and a huge delay... No way.
People make mistakes. The only choices they have are 1. Spend more money then they have and fail to ever release or 2. Release the product without that part of the project. 3. Remove resources from another part of the project to pay for this part.
Given those choices, would you prefer to 1. Have the game never come out. 2. Have the game come out but without something promised. 3. Come out with who knows how many other things removed so you can get the one thing you want.
What you people fail to realise is that development time of an MMO used to be 5 years at least.
Back then companies took the time to actually finish it and release it as much feature complete as possible.
These days they just try to crank out MMO's within 2-3 years of development time!!
Result is that you get a shalow, bland MMO thrown on your lap and expect you to pay AAA price and monthly sub for it.
No one here said STO was to be a simulator. Thank god no. That's just boring!
Having a player crew. Having different classes in form of roles. (Captain, Chief Tactical, Engineer, Medic, etc). Ship interiors. Starbase, HQ interiors. etc. Are vital elements to make this game an MMORPG.
What we will get now at release is just a shooter in space!
Sorry tho. But that's just insultive to the Star Trek IP.
If they don't have the time and money to do better, well maybe they shouldn't have bothered picking up the IP in the first place.
Too many great IP have been ruined and crewed up already.
Sorry tho. But that's just my 2cents.
Again why are so many people so focused on space combat...the game is about exploration (ground and space) and customization (player customization, bridge crew customization, and ship customization)....IT'S THE MAJOR FOCUS OF THE GAME...sheesh. no one listens they just spout half truths without actually paying attention to details.
I bet Batman would have some kind of awesome Bat-taunt that could let him hold aggro. - Atamasama
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
- I also agree with the poster below this post it seems to be the classic Star Trek purist vs. The Sci-Fi fan
As that poster stated this is NOT supposed to be a Star Trek Sim. It is also not a heavy PvP game (NOT EVE). It is a Heavy PVE game with pvp. As far as player crews go see previous sentence... . Those who are fuming over that issue you should re-read the above quoted post. This is a game aimed at Star Trek and Sci-Fi fans who want a Space Ship MMO that is NOT EvE. It is NOT a purist's Star Trek sim.... (aka a day in the life of Captain Kirk, Picard, Cisco,Janeway etc...)
Having said that i would be interested in a Star Trek sim. If any dev out there reads this i think there is a small niche market for that type of game.
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Quoted for Yessatude and Exactlyness 
I am hoping this is going to be the title that I think it can be. I agree with the choice to be a Captain of your own ship. The customization idea is also brilliant. Good article, if a bit one sided. There are some potential issues here, which I am sure they will find solutions for. All in all, I am looking forward to this game!
T
man, did Cryptic write this article for you guys? Talk about PR fluff. Did yal get a trip out tot he studio for a behind the scenes tour in exchange? lol more spin then a neutron star, but I'm getting used to it
OK, to the game. I agree that we should be captains. Who wants to not be able to play because half your crew is still at work? HOWEVER, i also agree with player crews, as well. I don't think it needs to be an all or nothing situation. You should be able to invite players to your ship for some crew-based co-op questing. I remember that in SWG teh falcom was a lot of fun to play with a full crew, even if the combat was painfully repetitious.
Of Course, allowing player crews would likely necessitate some ship interiors. I mean, it could be done, with everyone watching the combat from the 3rd person, but everyone has different skill commands etc, depending on their assigned role. I guess this would give crewed ships an advantage over single-captain ships,,,,but then if all of the crew simply showed up in their own ship, they'd all have an advantage anyways.
I don't know how many of you have played the game starfleet command, which is based of starfleet battles. It was a very cool setup for ship to ship combat,, as far as its combination of simplicity and depth. I am hoping that this games combat is something similar.
Having ship and star-base interiors just to have then, with nothing to do in them, is a waste of art and dev time, imho. Starbases would be like cities in space, so you could shop, etc. maybe having a section of your own ship like 10-forward or something available to invite guests into your ship would be cool...but do I really have to navigate my way through repetitious hallways to get there? Yes, teh first time would be cool, like always...but after then 10th time.....uggg, no thanks.
I do wish the game was less cartoon-like, as space is very easy to make look awesome...lets face it, its mostly empty...so the ships and combat effects wcould be really georgeous and not be absurdly taxing on your PC. /shrug not as important as teh other point, but que lastima
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
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QFE. The community at the offficial website is ten times better than the one here at MMORPG. This site seems to be the last refuge for disgruntled players that hate the fact they can't troll and flame over at a game's website.So they come here and cry about how they are being "censored." Anyone that has spent any time at the official website knows the facts and those that troll here know nothing. Hence why the trolls refuse to acknowledge this post that refutes every bit of garbage and lies they have been spewing.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Wow. I can't even begin to list the blatant inaccuracies here that have been spouted by some of you guys. (To the point that I had to create an account and say so.)
To start off, the reviewer Troy Hammers is fairly dead on in his statements about the game. In fact, the only things that he posted that I can find fault with are:
-- We actually don't know if this will be possible, as they're still deciding how the collision systems will work; and in his follow up statement where he says:
-- Craig Zinkievich has stated that specific interior spaces will be available at launch as instanced areas. So we will have missions that include both ship and starbase interiors, but they will not be "free roam" areas at launch. Indeed, we have seen actual gameplay video showing combat on a ship's bridge and a screenshot showing a starbase's warp core.
I invite you guys to check out the STO forums, or at least read some of the "Ask Cryptic" articles, found on STO's main page before bashing Cryptic for things that you clearly don't know anything about.
Ok i just skimmed over this and i seen that alota people are disgusted about everyone being a captain.... from what ive read that being not much is that YOU are Technicly a captain..... But that is not your actual rank. you have to earn your rank from acadamy Up. Sorry if this is incorrect but if your going to say its not provide me with proof.
Really if people are judging it this early they are way off things can change right up to the last day.
I also think that it will appeal to non ST fans because of its Custermization features, Exploration and Mild but not based on PVP.
Overall i think it has great potential even if it isnt what we want on release they will get feedback and than they can improve it in the Expansions.
(sorry for my bad spelling)
And if someone wishs to prove me wrong provide proof not your opion
I bet Batman would have some kind of awesome Bat-taunt that could let him hold aggro. - Atamasama
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
-- We actually don't know if this will be possible, as they're still deciding how the collision systems will work; and in his follow up statement where he says:
-- Craig Zinkievich has stated that specific interior spaces will be available at launch as instanced areas. So we will have missions that include both ship and starbase interiors, but they will not be "free roam" areas at launch. Indeed, we have seen actual gameplay video showing combat on a ship's bridge and a screenshot showing a starbase's warp core.
I invite you guys to check out the STO forums, or at least read some of the "Ask Cryptic" articles, found on STO's main page before bashing Cryptic for things that you clearly don't know anything about.
The ramming speed joke was from Worf during TNG movie First Contact, when his ship was busted up and had no more options against the Borg Cube. I always thought to myself, "Wow, that could be called the Worf Maneuver"
But you are correct sir, that was not stated by Cryptic to be put into STO.
Star Trek Online Correspondent
MMORPG.com
"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?"
-Patton