STO Update: Screenshots, Ship Customization, Neutral Zone + More

It seems every week we learn more and about about Cryptic’s Star Trek Online MMO. This week we have some new screenshots (two land and two space based), details on customization will work, additional NYCC interviews (including a discussion of how the neutral zone works), and more, all below.

 

New Screen shots
IGN got themselves four exclusive new shots of STO (click to see big at IGN)

Star Trek Online Screenshot

Star Trek Online Screenshot

Star Trek Online Screenshot

Star Trek Online Screenshot

 

Q&A – Customization details
Cryptic have put up another one of their ‘Ask Cryptic’ Q&As (click to read the whole thing), and the most interesting part was more details on ship customization:

How will ship modification and customization work? Will we be able to move the position of nacelles and phaser banks, or will we be issued with ‘standard’ vessels of a class into which we can insert equipment of our choice (additional science labs, different impulse engines etc)?

Cryptic Studios has always been the forerunner when it comes to avatar customization, and Star Trek starship customization is no exception. As you progress through the game, you will gain access to new ship configurations. Each new configuration contains several known Star Trek classes that have similar profiles and silhouettes.  For instance, you may start out in a light cruiser.  In this configuration, you will find ships like the Miranda class and the Centaur class.  Both these ships have a prominent saucer section, and two nacelles that hang below the saucer.  Both these classes have a similar configuration that is nothing like, say, a Galaxy class, Defiant or Nebula class ship.

When you have a ship that is a certain configuration, you will be able to modify all the parts – the saucer, the nacelles, the pylons, the primary hull, etc.  You will also be able to modify colors, decals, and other bits. However, the configuration will remain recognizable.  If you are in the light cruiser configuration, you can make it look just like a Miranda, a Centaur, or something completely unique. The combinations are massive, however, you will not be able to have 4 nacelles or make your light cruiser look like a Galaxy class ship.  So your ship will be unique, but others will be able to recognize its general capabilities.  People will be able to look at someone’s ship and say, “Hey, that’s like a Nebula, so I know it’s an advanced science vessel”, or ”Hey, look at that cool Prometheus variant!”

You will also be able to modify the ships systems. You will modify and upgrade primary items like your weapons, shields, deflector dish, impulse and warp engines, etc.  You will also be able to add lots of enhancements to your systems, such as targeting computers for better accuracy, EPS conduits upgrades to improve power transfer rates, better biobeds for your sick bay, etc. Different ships will have different enhancement slots (so an escort vessel will have more tactical upgrade slots). Finally, the primary way you will customize your ship is by what Bridge Officers you assign to your duty stations. Your Bridge Officers will come with unique skills that can only be used if they are at a duty station.

Altogether, ship customization will be an important part of the game – both visually and strategically.”

 

More NYCC Interviews
Last week we showed a bunch of NY Comic Con interviews with Star Trek Online Exec Producer Craig  Zinkievich, and a couple more have cropped up in the last week.

That Video Game Blog – What to do besides combat + talk of the Neutral Zone

TVGB: Are there other aspects to the game other than combat?

CZ: Obviously there are going to be social places like Deep Space 9 where you meet up with your team and see other people. There is the Klingon Front where the Klingons and the Federation are fighting, so there will be social opportunities there as well. There will also be crafting and diplomacy.

TVGB: Tell me more about the Klingon Front. Will that be a constant PvP battle that you can join whenever you like?

CZ: We want to make sure that there is PvP content there, but there is also PvE content along that front. There will also be indirect PvP content, where the things that you do along the Front shift the battle for everyone.

TVGB: I was curious about that. Can you capture territory? Might the Klingons overwhelm Star Fleet or the other way around?

CZ: The neutral zone is going to end up being static and sitting there as PvP, but the areas outside of that, we plan on having fluctuate based on who’s winning the overall battle.

TVGB: Is there an end goal? If the Klingons and the Federation are fighting…what if the players come to an understanding and start singing Kum ba Yah?

CZ: I think the cool thing about MMOs is that you can change the game and add to it depending on what your audience wants. Listening to the community is important, so if something like that were to happen, we have a team of developers who could change the universe as necessary.

…much more at That Video Game Blog

The Review Zoo

Do you have questions for Craig?
This weekend, TrekMovie will be interviewing Craig Zinkievich at Wondercon. If you have any questions for Craig, then post them in the comments below with the note ‘QUESTION FOR CRAIG’.

More STO news and links
Here are a couple of other STO updates:

More STO
For more on STO, see our special Star Trek Online category for our most recent articles and also visit the official startrekonline.com site.

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looks good so far !

Oh nice!

My ship customizations?
-Jungle Room
-Fuzzy Dice
-Aloha Raw Bar
-8-Track
-Hot Chicks

Yeah i’m looking forward to this. It sounds good. Hopefully they can pull it off :D

Why does space in STO always have so many rocks floating around?

5- So you can spend hours farm ore then selling it on the AH, of course.

This game is going to be awesome…!

Hopefully you’ll be able to “modify” your ship into a TOS Constitution-variant. Can the uniforms be modified, as well (say, into TOS versions)?

6:

Crap. My Miranda Class has Skinning/Leatherworking.

Any planets with boars floating around them?

I might be too pessimistic, but this game appears really boring. Go fight against some Klingons. Go hang out at the bar and chat with your friends. The missions to planets seem modeled after “Day of the Dove” style diplomacy. Recruit planets to support your side. Except in “Day of the Dove” the point was that the whole was was idiotic. Isn’t a big part of Star Trek to be anti-militaristic, to find peaceful resolution, not to mention sci-fi themes that go beyond big space battles and knocking back a couple. I remember fondly ST 25th anniversary game, wherein you could run off and fight some Romulans if you wanted a laugh, but the point of the game was to find creative solutions to real dilemmas. Is it too much to ask that someone develop a MMORPG that’s not all about one-upping each others ships and creating armadas.

8> Unfortunately, the MMO is grounded squarely in the post-Nemesis timeline. While making a Constitution *might* be a possibility, I think the uniforms will be pretty standardized.

However, when Perpetual was helming the operation, they mentioned that there would be a series of training missions on the holodeck which took place in the ENT or TOS eras. I don’t know if Cryptic is still holding on to that or not.

9> HOW I MINE FOR BOARS?

11:

Use the transporter, wide field. Only 2876 more to go…

One of the few new new MMOs I’ve been looking forward to. Cryptic gets much love from me for City of Heroes :)

They had better make it for Mac… I’m getting tired of rebooting my computer into Windows… :-p

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

This is definately something that has been nitting at me and its regarding the association of Star Trek: Online and the new Trek Movie.

The comic series, Star Trek: Countdown features 24th Century characters clearly wearing the uniforms of Star Trek: Online in what can only be presumed as in one of the years yet to be covered in the lead to 2409.

Can you say whether this is going to be rooted in the history of what you’re trying to establish in the leadup to 2409?

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

Any chance of this coming out on consoles (like Xbox 360) and not just PC?

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

Will the game have time travel capability? If so, can players visit the TOS era?

i have heard the 360 and wii are incapable of running mmorpgs but the ps3 allready has 3 or 4 mmorpg games out so it will most likely be on the ps3

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

World of Warcraft boasts 11m users worldwide, and over 60% market share. Considering the nature of MMORPG’s, i.e. it’s rare that a player plays more than one, does Cryptic see itself stealing consumers from WoW, or creating new ones via the unique selling proposition of the TREK product?

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

What about Mac Users?

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

I’m an avid collector of vanity pets in WoW. Can you give us any tidbits about what we can expect to waste our time gathering in STO?

QUESTION FOR CRAIG:

How will communication work, and how will computer data work? In otherwords, can I open a “hailing frequency” to try and contact buddies online, or anyone for that matter? Also, any areas I map, will they be logged in a larger database for other ships to access? I would also like to know how to submit more questions on the ST:O site to be answered in your “Ask Cryptic” blogs.

“You will also be able to modify colors, decals, and other bits”

…I fully expect someone to make their ship all pink and flashy, and name it The Raging Queen :-) :-) :-)

QUESTION FOR CRAIG:

Will the game have any TOS content, either related to the old TV show or the new movie, such as uniforms, ships, weapons, locations, or technology? Since modification is an option in the game, can players make TOS-related modifications?

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

Star Trek Online has always had a humor aspect how will that be implemented into Star Trek Online?

If fan-made Star Trek deck-plans are anything worth paying attention to, then the most important part of ship-customization is LOUNGES. Lounges off EVERY room, even the lounges need lounges so when the crew gets bored with lounging, they’ll have a place to go to lounge.

#27 – LMAO. Sounds like my kind of ship!

I haven’t been following the development of this game too heavily, but I sure hope that Tribbles are involved in some capacity.

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

Will there be any Tribbles in the game?

QUESTION FOR CRAIG

Who are my biological parents?

The ship on the 4th picture looks very B5ish.

they should incorporate and integrate races and forces from all eras of star trek in this game…like if you’re playing as starfleet you could ally with the xindi and/or the tholians and/or the remains of the dominion against the klingons, and if you’re the klingons you can ally with the suliban or the breen or the gorn and if a new treaty is signed, ending the war, that could trigger a secret invasion by the Voth (the transwarp-capable dinosaur species from Voyager that was revealed to be from Earth), who could create a Reptillian Empire between them, the Xindi reptillians and The Gorn and launch an all-out invasion of The Alpha Quadrant…or a Celestial War could break out between the Prophets and The Pah-Wraiths, corrupting the most unexpected races….or maybe there could be a Quantum War where a revived Terran Empire in the form of an evil Federation Empire invades our universe and starts a war that way…

#27–don’t forget the orgy lounges xD

#24… xD… THE USS RAGING QUEEN… LIBERACE CLASS xD

and 10 to 1 some doctor who fan will pimp his/her ship out to look as much like the TARDIS as possible LOL

‘QUESTION FOR CRAIG’

Any idea on system requirements yet?

I want to be ready!

Thanks

It’s the “aliens” that bug me. I can forgive “aliens-that-look-just-like-humans-with-bumpy-heads” on a TV show with limited effects tech & budget, but in a computer game there’s no excuse for that. It kills my suspension-of-disbelief. In a game, it takes precisely the same amount of effort to model an alien-looking-alien as it does a bumpy-headed person, so why aren’t they doing it?

The answer, of course, is “canon”. I hate canon for precisely this reason. It limits creativity to options that have nothing to do with creativity. The ONLY reason we never saw truly alien-looking creatures on Trek was budget & technology, but surely we would have seen some crazy, cool aliens if they had the resources to do so. But they had to make due with what they had, and since so many ST fans have this unhealthy, unimaginative fixation on “canon”, we HAVE to have the insultingly stupid-looking aliens when there’s absolutely no reason for it. (other than canon.)

#19: The Wii, probably, but not the 360. Final Fantasy XI being a prime example of an MMORPG on the 360. Personally, I’d rather see STO on the 360 than the PS3 (and probably will be the case, since the PS3 is infinitely harder to program for).

This game is looking better and better each week! Looks like we are going to finally get the ultimate star trek game!

Keep up the great wrok Cryptic!!!