The second biggest Trek project behind the new Star Trek movie is the massive multiplayer role playing game, Star Trek Online. Over the summer this game was taken over by award winning game-maker Cryptic Studios who hope to release it in late 2009. This week they have released some new information and screenshots on this exciting new Star Trek game.
New Screenshots:
Federation vessel in dry dock
Federation Science Officer
Outside a Klingon Outpost
There was also an update we missed last month that included three new images including one showing character customization.
Character customization in Star Trek Online will allow numerous options
All screenshots in large sizes can be seen at the STO Gallery.
New game details
This week Cryptic has also added a new ‘ask Cryptic’ giving over new details on how the game will work
From the November update:
Q: Can you provide us with any new information regarding shield/weapons systems? For example, will both shields and weapons drain power from the main power supply, and if so, will the main power supply "recharge" gradually over time, or will it be a more instantaneous recharge?
A:
We’re not using anything like a traditional MMO “mana bar” for energy. Your ship’s Warp Core provides power, and you allocate this power to individual systems – shields, weapons, propulsion, etc. But you won’t “run out” of energy and have to wait to fire phasers. That’s not fun. The more power you allocate to weapons, the more effective your phasers become.A lot more at startreklonline.com
And again there was one in October with even more details
Q: How will melee weapons be used in the game, if Klingons have them will the Federation have access to the same weapons or their own?
A: Klingons will be more melee-oriented, but both factions will have access to hand-to-hand attacks using either martial arts or weapons. Our plan is to allow all of the melee weapons to be available to both factions, but it may be more difficult for a Federation character to obtain a bat’leth or a Klingon Empire character to acquire a lirpa.
Your skills will determine how effective you are with melee weapons – a Federation character may be able to pick up a bat’leth and use it, but without training he or she will be less effective than a Klingon who has studied the use of the weapon. And certain martial arts may be limited by faction or race – not everyone can perform a Vulcan nerve pinch.
More history of the future
Cryptic have also continued their ‘Path 2409’ article series which is their history of the Star Trek universe between Star Trek Nemesis and the setting for their game in 2409. The second entry covering the year 2381 again seems to be drawing from the post Nemesis book series, including the novels "Articles of Federation" and "Taking Wing"
Starfleet is monitoring the deteriorating state of the Romulan Star Empire, which appears to be moving toward open civil war. Federation ambassadors are consulting with representatives of the Klingon Empire and other Alpha and Beta quadrant powers about a proposed course of action to either bring peace to the Romulans or control any conflict that spills out of Romulan space.
The imperial forces led by Tomalak have skirmished repeatedly with Reman ships in the space between their two worlds. The Romulan blockade of Remus is holding for now, leading to concerns that the Remans are suffering from shortages of food and supplies. The United Federation of Planets has offered humanitarian aid to both Romulus and Remus.
The Cryptic updates are almost to the end of the line of Pocket Books novels and soon they will be charting their own history which is universe with an expanded Federation pitted against a Klingon Empire and its allies in 2409.
Actors reprising their roles?
Cryptic Exec. Producer Craig Zinkeivich was interviewed by sknr.net and was asked if we will hear the voices of any famous Trekkers.
Q: Will anyone from the series of films show up and provide voices?
A: In 2409, most of the major characters have retired or moved on.
We’re exploring ways to involve some of the actors from the films and series in the game, but they might not be playing “their” characters.
More regular STO coverage at TrekMovie
Star Trek Online is a very exciting project and TrekMovie will be devoting more coverage to it between now and its release (which should be in the latter half of 2009).
If you want to learn more about the game, click the links above and also check out the STO FAQ at startrekonline.com.
Sounds (and looks) pretty cool… maybe my first MMORPG? We’ll see!
Certainly sounds interesting… although since I haven’t been paying attention to post-Nemesis plots, I can’t say the storyline intrigues me that much. But hey, at least it’s not canon! :)
Oh dear the cannonist will have ANOTHER FIT…OH NO..MORE ALIENS IN STAR TREK..WTF ARE WE GONNA DO>??> NOT CANNON!!!!<<<<< shut up…
So, do you get your own ship?
Im not sure im liking the redesign of Star trek online. I remember when Star trek online was first mentioned a couple years ago they showed some incredibly detailed interior shots of a federation ship. For a while i was excited and awestruck on how good it looked. However after Cryptic took over the project, they have seemed to of downgraded the graphics and whatnot. However i will still buy he game since it is Star Trek.
Too bad it won’t work on a Mac :(
RE: 4
everyone starts with a ship. That question and more here:
http://startrekonline.com/faq
RE: 5
Bear in mind all the images released by Perpetual were concept drawings. All those beautiful images were not from an actual game, but were painted. Cryptic are showing off the real thing, which are very much in line with the state of the art of modern MMORPGs
NO MANA BAR THIS IS A DISASTER I NEED MORE MANA HEALZ PLS LOL
I guess late next year I am going to be playing 2 mmo’s again. It worries me though that it might go the way of star wars mmo. From the looks of it (especially with the power management) that they are trying to make it to easy (not requiring strategy) but at the same time over-complicating things.
Is it my imagination, or is starfleet of the 25th century run by women only? All of those images look female. It’s fine with me, I’m just curious.
#10 its the ultimate evolution of nerds, too much estrogen in the system ultimately turns them into females..meow
no game until late 2009 huh! waste my time…
Bear in mind they are making this for a WIDE range of system specs, so it has to cater to the lowest common denominator..hence the graphics will not look so sharp..
What are they shooting for in terms of release? 2009? 2010?
This game looks really cool. I’ve purposely stayed away from MMORPGs as I know I’d get addicted to them like heroin. I’ve watched friends get WAY into these–WoW to be specific. But I’m sure I’ll play this one.
The ship in the dry-dock looks like the USS CENTAUR from DS9,
I mean the federation-ship that attack the Jem’Hadar-Bugship with Sisko aboard. (Season 6)
Please excuse my stupid question at the start of my post #14. I missed that info in the article because I skipped ahead to the photos. D’oh!!
I’m not into gaming like I used to be, but I might have to check this out. I’ve been waiting for a quality Star Trek game for years now.
Looks good! I really wish some more Trek games would come out for PS3’s and X Boxes.
6. Bones, Thugs and McCoy – November 29, 2008
Too bad it won’t work on a Mac :(
AU CONTRAIRE MON CAPITAN
If you have an intel mac and a copy of windows, you can most certainly run BOOTCAMP
Well, hopefully I’ll have a better computer by the time this comes out. Mine is getting up there in years…
I want to play a Farian!
As one of those that would probably be considered a “canonist”, I want to state that I have no qualms with this game at all.
Why?
Because it’s going forward instead of going backward. That, to me, is the problem with EVERYTHING being made these days. No one is going forward with a story/universe, they’re just going back and rehashing or flat out rebooting things. Oy.
Also, I know that MMORPG’s are “where it’s at” these days, but does anyone else wish that another Trek game along the lines of the Elite Force series would be made?
Re: 7
Anthony, are you sure that *none* of the images released were in game(albeit probably not of *actual* gameplay, but in engine at the least)? I’m fairly certain of at least 2 that were rendered with game models(can be found at memory-alpha’s article on Perpetual’s version).
Perpetual did release two screenshots, but everything else was concept art.
I doubt we will see this game in 2009.
fannys
#6: “Too bad it won’t work on a Mac :(”
It might after about four years. Cryptic’s previous game, City of Heroes, is now in beta for the native Mac version.
#19: “If you have an intel mac and a copy of windows, you can most certainly run BOOTCAMP”
Ugh. The whole point of having a Mac is to get away from Windows.
RE: game images from Perpetual
as noted, shortly before Perpetual went belly-up they released one space image and one ground image which were supposedly ‘in game’ Although some I have spoken to question if they really were. Regardless, neither showed the level of detail of the tons of concept art they showed. I think Perpetual made a mistake by releasing so much concept art (including CGI concept art). I remember shortly before they went under I was speaking to the producer and I remember saying ‘please stop with the pretty paintings and give us a real image from the game’
We first reported that Cryptic were involved back in January but they didnt release a single thing until it was ‘real’ and that was in August, which is a smart move. Your comment clearly shows that those kind of high res images are unrealistic, especially to people who are not regular players of MMORPGs. The graphics for these types of games tend to not be as cutting edge as single player games or even basic multiplayer games. So far the images released look at least as good if not better than World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies. The way these games work do not allow for the most cutting edge graphics
that being said, I do hope to see a traditional Star Trek game come out for PC and next gen platforms that can push the limits on graphics and realize an even higher res Trek universe.
# 5 Im not sure im liking the redesign of Star trek online. I remember when Star trek online was first mentioned a couple years ago they showed some incredibly detailed interior shots of a federation ship. For a while i was excited and awestruck on how good it looked. However after Cryptic took over the project, they have seemed to of downgraded the graphics and whatnot. However i will still buy he game since it is Star Trek.
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I totally agree. The projects art work was awesome before. The ship designs by John Eaves were top notch. I think the new site is just mediocre. The ship designs now are like they were done by kids. I am very disappointed.
Just wrote an article on our site about the game. And in the middle of it i realised that this game is going to ruin my life. :))
Never played an online game once in my life.
Oh, I get it.
World of Warcraft for Trekkies.
I wonder how much this will cost per hour?
100 bars of gold pressed latinum.
I never played an online game in my life either, but there also has not been a professionally released Star Trek Computer Game that I didn’t buy.
I guess I’ll be playing my first Online Game!
Eh, that Klingon outpost shot looks ten years old. I’ll still get it if it’s available for Macs.
Is it true each player is going to be a Captain? I think it would have been more fun to really have starship crews – at the very least bridge, engineering and sickbay. Even cooler would have been sensor crews, phaser crews, etc. Oh well.
Meh. I’d love to explore a well constructed trek universe that would allow me to role play the situations and decisions I see in the series, but this looks more and more like an unimaginatively designed MMO graft with nothing unique or compelling beyond the license. I mean, Star Wars The Old Republic is saying that your will have an individual storyline, and that the gameplay will involve making difficult moral choices that lead your character down a developmental path. That’s interesting. If anything, this take on the material seems to dumb down the source material, not elevate it as in the previous case. On top of that, the art design is PAINFULLY bad. Not that they care. They’re just desperately hoping they can capture a market, and they think they can best do so by making it just like every other MMO with Trek visuals and back story. This game is a loser, at least as far as I can tell.
the only way for a game like this to work is to do one player/ship
lets say that whole crews were players, then what happens if somone is AFK and who wants to have to work their way up as a lowly officer taking orders from a 12 year old who lives on the game, and of course you have the Leeroy Jenkins issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU
sure it isn’t an accurate simulation of starfleet life, but do you want to scrub conduits for years before you make captain?
RE: Mike ‘this game is a loser’
what are you basing that on?
They are going out of their way to allow multiple different paths in this game so that you can focus on either combat or science and exploration. You can fight or do diplomacy. Of course the proof is in the pudding but I have a lot more faith in the new team than I did with Perpetual.
This game will be a lot of fun. I’m not quite sure yet if it will be a niche game or appeal to a larger audience, but if it has Star Trek ideals at its core, expect me to be the first in line to play it.
I don’t know if I will play Star Trek online, as Bioware is releasing The Old Republic next year and it’s looking good. From my perspective, everything is Warcraft. If it’s in space, it’s Warcraft in space, so it boils down to the genre you wish to immerse yourself in. I’ve played enough MMO’s to understand the templates of online gaming, so for me, it’s about melee with a lightsaber and owning an X-Wing. HOWEVER, were the Star trek MMO taking place in TOS-time, I would seriously have to reconsider my choice.
Can’t explain how lost i am on the net and how many messages i’ve wrote (in the wrong places) and how much i love janeway, yet respect picard more (see previous notes) ha ha! If you knew me u’d laugh! I know my grammar’s probably going to get on somebodies nerves, but if you can correct it aswell as widening my knowledge of all this (online) joy, then thanks just wont cover the appreciation felt!!
Its a game, not a movie, it doesnt have to be cannon. If this new movie’s a big enough hit and they decide to give trek tv another shot, i think it will be easy enough to just ignore the game and treat it as…well a game.
I’d love to see a Trek game where the “explore strange new worlds is emphasized” (or a movie for that matter). I see aspects of that here, but plenty of Borg battle shots seem to be the emphasis. As much as I love the Borg concept I hate the way it ushered in the uber big, bad alien adversary of the season Trek formula. Of course, writing truly compelling movies or games about exploration would be a challenge and take real talent. I’d like to see the new crew Trek adventures attempt this, though I have my doubts. Hopefully the exploration stuff can be give some emphasis in this game. Then I might be interested (and I am not a gamer at all). If not, why not just thrill to Star Wars, where the at least the militarism is honest and in your face and in the bloody title.
Anyone see Master and Commander? That, with modifications, would have been a wonderful Trek film: action, characterization, and exploration all roiled into one (provided it could be done without the cheap trick of introducing yet another uber big, bad alien adversary.
P.S. I like the hint of new Trek uniforms on the aliens. Those look like they could be a wonderful blend of TOS and TNG styles.
I cant wait to see SOUTHPARK’s take on this… :)
“You killed Kenny….you Klingon Bastard…..you killed Kenny.”
I liked the original concept for the uniforms better than a reimagined recall of a DS9 uniform.
CENTAUR CLASS SHIP! yay
meh..
This is a huge commercial risk. World of Warcraft dominates the MMORPG segment with its huge market share.
Due to the nature of the beast, players generally stick with one MMORPG, so this one will have to be terrific to get players out of WoW. Hopefully, it’ll get released while Trek XI is still getting positive post-release coverage.
Here are the main reasons why I am not into MMPGs: Monthly fees that either make you spend an enormous amount of time on the game to feel you are getting your money worth or make you feel like you wasted money because you hardly play it. Hardly existing story, usually largely based on a Pavlovian ‘go into dungeon, slay dragon, get XP reward, repeat’ variety.
So for nothing tells me this game is going to be different, so I’ll probably pass.
As a single player gamer, I understand the financial draw of these MMORGs, but as someone who doesn’t enjoy them much I’m sad that this seems to be where the industry is going. I’m left out in the cold.
Can anyone tell me exactly how this game will work, I am excited about it but to be honest I’ve never played anything this big so I’m not really sure how it will work on the player level.
Thanks