STO Update: Story and Klingon Videos + Tons of Screenshots & more October 18, 2009
by Joseph Gunnell , Filed under: Star Trek Online , trackback
Today’s update for Cryptics Star Trek Online MMORPG starts off with two cool videos giving you a glimpse into the STO backstory and some Klingon combat. Plus we have a whopping fifteen new screenshots, and lots of new details on game.
The Star Trek Online Backstory and Klingon Combat in Video
Cryptic released a nice little video which recaps what has been happening in the Star Trek Universe since Nemesis. The history is not as detailed as what is revealed in the ‘Path to 2409’ series that Cryptic has released in the past. The video describes the tensions between Romulans and Reman’s and then moves over to the Klingon Empire waging war on two fronts. The video also has about two minutes of new combat footage of the Klingon Empire on the attack.
In the past Cryptic has released a very large amount of information concerning the federation and many have noticed that there has been very little coverage for the Klingon Empire, all that has changed. IGN is hosting a new trailer from Cryptic where Klingon’s are attacking a federation outpost. It’s short but anyone who has been looking forward to seeing more action for the Klingon’s will not be disappointed.
Ton of new Screenshots
Crypitc released fifteen new screenshots recently (11 space based and 4 ground based) between Zam, Massively and Curse.com. The screenshots capture combat with the Gorn, Borg, Federation and Cardassians. [click images to enlarge]
Space based
Land based
New Game Details – one server – player death & more
MMO Gaming – Daniel Stahl answered some questions for the MMOGaming.ru and covers a wide range of topics. Some of the questions have been asked in the past but there is some new information that has been released.
According to the interview there will only be a main server so that everyone will be able to find their friends.
Also in the interview player death is brought up. It wasn’t made clear whether this was for ground combat, space combat or both but when players die they will be brought back to a checkpoint. Go to mmogaming.ru for the full interview.
Full list of Federation ships
Cryptic has put up a list of Federation ships. The ships of the line page was redesigned to show which ships will be available for each rank. From what was released it appears that there will be nine ships available per rank giving three ships available for each ‘class’: Science, Escort and Cruiser. So far the Klingon list only has those that there have been a profile for, but Crytpic tells TrekMovie there are many more Klingon ships that are not listed yet.
PC Gamer Article Online
Last month PC Gamer had an article about Star Trek Online, which recapped the events of a STO mission ‘episode’ in which players have to rescue Lt. Miral Paris; daughter of Tom Paris and B’Elanna Torrez. That article is now online in PDF format. Not a lot of new info, but article includes some amazing screenshots and also shows off the engine to customize your characters and your ship.
COMING SOON: TrekMovie Beta Key Contest
TrekMovie is going to be giving away some beta keys in a contest coming up soon, so keep an eye out for that, plus all the latest news on this upcoming game.
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Comments»
Most of the ship designs still just look off, badly kitbashed… like a “pimp my ride” version of the official classes. Ultimately, though, the gameplay will make or break this game.
Ooh, TrekMovie Beta Key contest! I’ll be keeping an eye out for that.
I’ll revise my last: gameplay AND story are the crux. Fortunately, the story does look like it’s shaping up. The graphics look okay (kind of remind me of Mass Effect). However, compared to how Bioware’s Star Wars The Old Republic is coming along, I’m not sure this will come anywhere near as good. If both are good, however, I’ll probably end up bankrupting myself and playing both.
bring it out on the ps3!!!!!!
The images don’t exactly “enlarge”, they just link to what you see.
Isn’t this exactly what Roddenberry hated? Total militarism. Where’s the cool science and the social commentary? This is a videogame, yes. But, it’s not Trek. Of course, it could be fodder for JJ’s next movie.
*runs like hell*
@6
Lets face it, negotiating a treaty just isn’t the same in a video game. The only *good* Star Trek games have been the heavily action-focused ones.
#1 – all of the official classes are what they were and serve as configurations which players will then customize to their liking…so yeah, you’re going to get a “pimp my ride” feel in the game because people can change the aesthetics of a class of starship to what they want and add any special equipment or parts that they may come across or gain access to throughout the game.
Whoever filmed the guys talking for the back story video did a terrible job with lighting. The guys all look deathly pale. Even nerdy shut-ins don’t look that bad.
#9 – maybe it is so that their image doesn’t distract from the gameplay footage that is going on? Dunno.
Klingons have battlecruisers. Romulans have warbirds. -.-
The updated Miranda looks neat.
#9 – I didn’t mind the first and third guys, but #2 needs to learn that he can open his mouth to speak.
I guess when they came up with this idea they didn’t know JJ was going to destry Romulus, pretty much destroying the whole concept of this game. Canon?
#13 – This game takes that in to account. Romulus has been destroyed already in this game…and they have storylines to go with that.
JJ and others have stated that there are two timelines now…there is what is known as the Prime Timeline which is the Trek and all the movies and series that we know it…which is where STO takes place…and then there is the new timeline which will now be created in JJ’s universe due to the events in the new movie. The original timeline is still going to exist though, with Vulcan and no Romulus.
I really encourage people to go to the STO website and read the stories and the timeline and become as informed as possible before forming opinions on canon, ships, etc.
Not true. There are three timelines now:
- Prime Timeline (which is continued in the books: Borg wiped out, Typhon Pact formed)
- Altered Prime Timeline (STO and Countdown: Klingon Romulan War)
- JJverse (New movie series)
notice the list on the website has the Luna class down under federation ships. wonder if it will have the same design as on the cover of Damocles.
The shipdesign in STO is really bad. Even fans can come up with better ideas (go over to bcfiles.com and have a look).
The books actually got it right. Look at the Aventine! It does not look like a badly made kitbash, but an evolution of known elements.
The more I see of STO, the more I regret, that it won’t be the game, which was announced a few years ago.
#8 — Fair enough, but there are several predefined classes invented for STO (like the Excalibur and Vigilant classes) that I find wanting, specifically….
^ Oops, I mean the Discovery class, not the Vigilant class, which actually looks pretty decent….
OFF TOPIC, but AOL is reporting NASA scientist have discovered a bright ring of energy surounding our solar system. Great Barrier in Star Trek 5 is a reality after all. Just have to go the edge of the solar system not the edge of the galaxy to find it. They voyager spacecraft sent back the intel on this.
20 – That was in Science Friday, either a few days ago or the week before.
But, it is cool.
So people wearing colors other than the 24th century equivalent of “original series red” die too?
Combat is preferred. A peace game would be silly and boring.
Honestly, these graphics are atmospheric and detailed. I am impressed. The second to last Borg screenshot is totally epic. Can’t wait to see more on this game.
The Images look great, as for story line (thats what it was called before Canon was used) I’ll have to play the game more to discover what most are saying will mess things up.
Glad they’re making Game Box versions, even with multi core computers, kids are a sure test of durability. And PC’s can be far weaker than Game Boxes. Plus game boxes hook to HDTV’s easier than PC’s do. and PCs are 16×10 and HDTVs are 16×9 and has better sound systems in most cases.
Plus 42″ DLP is bigger than 22″ or 19″LCDs
#23) Stormin, Killing games are more exciting but only if your killing electons, If your killing people than your moral values are in need for adjustment. That is as long as where you live is on the front line of the battle field.
Still looks pretty lame, not gonna lie. Weird how we still hardly see anything Klingon here, all Federation. I doubt WoW would have done well in their pre-beta days showing only allie screen shots and nothing horde. If they have a free trial I’ll check it out, but otherwise I seriously doubt I will, just doesnt look that good, or that much like something truly Star Trek.
I dislike most of the ships, but the new Defiant ship looks awesome…and is that a Luna-class starship in the last of the space-based images?
The day I win a beta key for anything is the day the sky falls in. Which, by the waym, will probably never happen so there you go, lol!
I yawn’d. Also, no mention of the destruction of Romulus, eh? Way to not tie in to the most recent and most successful Star Trek movie of all time.
29: Way to not read the comments above.
#30 – go to the STO website and read the timeline stories they have been posting once or twice a month.
Informed comments are smart comments. Non-informed comments are stupid comments :)
^ Everyone can learn a lot from this one lol
I really like this backstory they’ve set up. I know it would be difficult to successfully pull off, but a non-combat section of the game where you can scheme and plot and politick your way through this new Byzantine arrangement of alliances and factions could be really fun.
I noticed the pdf file mentioned the Guardian of Forever. Somewhere, Harlan Ellison’s attorney is making a down payment on a new yacht while the man himself girds his loins for battle….
When is it coming out again?
#7 Lets face it, negotiating a treaty just isn’t the same in a video game. The only *good* Star Trek games have been the heavily action-focused ones.
Really? My favorite ST games are the TOS graphic andventures and TNG’s Final Unity. They completely reflected what ST is all about, up to the point where Final Unity played just like a TNG episode (including showing the name of the game where usually the episode title would be).
All these games had teamwork, good story and and a moral dilemma.
Not seeing any of that in the online game. (yet)
Damn you haters.
I think it looks cool! Do you guys dislike this so much that you’d rather wait till 2012 for the next movie? At least the Trek world is still alive through mediums such as MMORPG’s.
Why are you guys so angry?
I’m more covinced than ever.
Borg! Gorn! Akira-Class!!!
They’ve had a long, long time to work on it, here’s hoping … here’s hoping.
After all … Trekkies … computer-games … I can’t see how there hasn’t been a good one yet … Trekkies … computers … it’s like Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, how haven’t they crossed over yet?
Good-looking game! Why is an NX-class in it, though?
Also, couldn’t they make this into a movie?
Never mind my NX question.
I just wanted to say that viewing that Klingon attack on Earth actually made me angry against those purple-blooded bastards. And that’s pretty cool. In a game-playing kind of way.
@ #11
Thank you!
Can’t wait to see more thrilling trailers like that!!! That one really got me pumped for this game!!!
Oh and 11 and 42
The Klingons could have commandeered the Warbirds after the destruction of the Romulan Star Empire
#5 – delete the “-t” from those filenames, then you’ll see a full size. Someone messed up apparently. :-)
Actually, the ship designs aren’t too bad, even a few seem over-worked, but I kind of like the 4 nacelle ship, even though generally I disdain most of the multi-nacelle designs. :-)
#7 “The only *good* Star Trek games have been the heavily action-focused ones.”
Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Star Trek Judgment Rites were excellent games.
They were ‘adventure’ games where you basically solve your through an ‘episode’. An MMORPG could structure the quests so that they take you through this sort of story as well. Even if there wasn’t a single burst of phaser fire it would still be at least as entertaining as some of the World of Warcraft quests like “Gather 25 eggs” or “Kill 20 goats”.
@ 36: Amen
The only three good Trek Games to date are:
- 25th Anniversary
- Judgment Rites
- A Final Unity
The rest… let’s say it says Trek on the package, but what you get only look like Trek… it does not feel like it.
OOoo c’mon… the new film came and went, and so the bashers were left with a void of something to hate, and say wasn’t “trek enough”.. now this comes along, and looks great.. and it’s ahhh now let’s bash this also.. Never has so much talent, been wasted on so many people who don’t appreciate it… people. please!
All Trek games rock. :-)
Star Trek Legacy was decent, at least on the 360. (I have heard the PC version was much worse.)
As for the STO haters….they clearly won’t be satisfied no matter what is done in the end. Particularly in the MMO sphere, combat is of necessity going to have to be a major element. And frankly, particularly in time of war, the very presence of the Klingons as a playable faction means that constant combat and militaristic organization is completely ‘canon.’
(Despite my love of Federation starship design, me and a couple of my buddies are planning on playing as Klingons just to indulge the desire for Trek universe ship-to-ship combat. )
I really liked that opening sequence with the Klingon, I hope boborci is taking note.
Conquer vs Exploration movie, show us why the Klingons hate/fear Kirk so much and vice versa.
I used to really enjoy Trek games! I had them all, even if I didn’t have a computer to play them for a long time. I honestly think my fav was DS9’s The Fallen. That was a game I played over and over. It really held my interest, for whatever reason. I have stayed far, far away from much of the info and story about STO. My brother fell into a baaaad rut with WoW and I know, I just know, that if I start this game, I’m not ever going to want to do anything else…Okay, maybe I’ll play a little bit.
@49: Oh, would that it were so! :)
@47: You forgot Starfleet Command, Bridge Commander, and Elite Force 1 — Starfleet Command especially if TOS is your thing.
Klingon Academy and A Final Unity are two of the most through-and-through Trek feeling games I’ve ever played. Star Trek Invasion on the PSone was good too.
As something of a coinesseur of Trek gaming, I have to say that ever since Cryptic took over development of this game, every single screenshot and gameplay articles has just made me more and more pessimistic.
Perpetual were making a game with a mature approach to the licence, including bringing seasoned Trek vets on board to design and advise. Cryptic are handling the development a lot better, but they’ve completely lost sight of what Trek is. The storyline is shaping up nicely, but that’s the only positive thing I can say.
The graphics look jeuvenile, the game mechanics restrictive and the gameplay videos jerky and annoying. I’d give anything for a game like what Destiny’s Wind was to be. Unfortunately, that fan project’s ambition far outreached it’s potential.
I really don’t care about their profits and bringing in new fans, if STO is what we have to stoop to. I want an awesome game where I can live in the TNG universe that I grew up in, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’m doubting that I’ll even try this out now, to be honest.
To clarify:
I want the game to look like the TV show. Get rid of the ever-present background nebulae and rocks and debris everywhere in space – show me one screenshot that just has a bare starfield.
Pull in the field of view on the cameras to something more sensible (it looks like you can see 70*), so that ships and planets won’t look so badly distorted.
Get people who can actually model decent looking ships (like people from the Bridge Commander community – just go in there and hire them up!), and look at your source material for five minutes before texturing the ships.
Use more polygons in the curves of the ships, and us less of this technopunk aesthetic you’ve got going on the ship customisation. Introduce an actual physics engine.
Tone down the silly sparkly effects on the weapons. Look at the show and try to duplicate what the weapons and shields look like. Don’t colour code them to show shield strength, use a graph, we can read.
Use modern graphical advances like Volumetric explosions. Use deformable geometry to damage the ships. Use modern pixel shaders to render character skin to look like something other than polyeurathene figurines.
Remove the hint of Anime Styling I can see. It’s wholly innapropriate.
Slow the pace of the combat, it’s Star Trek (Prime), not Star Wars. Ships should feel like behemoths that can fly at fantastic speeds in straight lines, but take many seconds to haul their asses around. Right now, it’s like watching R/C ships fight in a pond.
Allow 3-dimensional movement and navigation – it would open up a huge variety of tactical maneuvers. Not as buffs or buttons to press, but with direct input on the WASD keys.
Let me point my ship in any direction and engage warp drive at whatever speed I want. Do not show me a loading screen. I want to seemlessly transition from one place to another as part of one huge galaxy.
I want to walk from the bridge to the shuttle bay, get into a shuttle and fly down to a planet’s surface, get out of the shuttle and carry out the mission down there with out a single cut.
Don’t instance anything. Every battle, every diplomatic mission should influence the whole political and economic sphere of the game. You don’t make a gamer feel part of the world by giving them what is essentially a single player experience while chatting to their friends’ avatars. You make them feel part of the world by MAKING them part of the world, by letting them see the consequences of their acts, within certain sensible limits.
If I commit an act of aggression towards an ally, discharge me from Starfleet, make me run to the criminal underworld for protection, don’t write “Mission Failed” on the screen and give me the chance to retry, don’t just respawn me! Make me feel part of the world by giving my actions weight. That’s what modern gaming is capable of!
It’s far from impossible to fulfill any of these wishes these days. I can understand some are less likely than others, since they are trying to attract a younger audience, but others are just lazy adherence to outdated ideas of technical limitations, and worse, a lack of respect for the intellect of the gamer.
Try, damn you, to make an exceptional game. Don’t just rest on your laurels due to the fact that the Star Trek Licence guarantees a fanbase. Make me believe I’m there. The draw for a Trek fan to an MMO is a chance to inhabit their favourite fictional universe, not to play a huge arcade game with everyone else.
What I want is an incredibly awesome Trek MMO. That’s not what I see here. I’m not ashamed to outline what I want, even if my wishes are very individual and unrealistic. This is personally how I think a Trek MMO should be handled, in short, cleverly, innovatively, immersively, maturely.
The path to 2409 is awesome, though, nice work on that.
I agree with everything Bren says, especially:
“Get people who can actually model decent looking ships” — Yes!
“Use more polygons in the curves of the ships” — OMG, YES, YES!
“Use modern graphical advances like Volumetric explosions. Use deformable geometry to damage the ships.” — that would be great!
“Allow 3-dimensional movement and navigation” — this is a sine qua non, really…
“Let me point my ship in any direction and engage warp drive at whatever speed I want. Do not show me a loading screen. I want to seemlessly transition from one place to another as part of one huge galaxy.” — This is frankly more than I expect, but would break new ground in the Sci-Fi RPG genre.
“I want to walk from the bridge to the shuttle bay, get into a shuttle and fly down to a planet’s surface, get out of the shuttle and carry out the mission down there with out a single cut.” — Yes, please. This would contribute toward a suspension of disbelief necessary to engross the player in the story.
“If I commit an act of aggression towards an ally, discharge me from Starfleet, make me run to the criminal underworld for protection, don’t write “Mission Failed” on the screen and give me the chance to retry, don’t just respawn me!” — This is, indeed, asking only what RPGs are supposed to do. Your choices must matter, and have consequences.
It looks like Bioware’s upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to get a lot of these things right. STO must compete, or wither on the vine. In closing, I second this thought: “Don’t just rest on your laurels due to the fact that the Star Trek Licence guarantees a fanbase.”
Thanks for making me feel justified, 4 8 15 16 23 42, I felt like a bit of a kook after writing that. The passion just took me, I really feel like STO’s heading in the wrong direction, design-wise. The story is shaping up great, I love the detail, but nothing else is right.
=“Let me point my ship in any direction and engage warp drive at whatever speed I want…” — This is frankly more than I expect, but would break new ground in the Sci-Fi RPG genre.=
– Actually, you could effectively do that in A Final Unity – a game released in 1995, and to a more limited, 2D extent in Klingon Academy (1999).
Granted, there were cuts and loading screens respectively in both of those examples, but with modern streaming techniques and good memory management, it’s very possible. I’m sure there’s a recently-released game or two with examples of that kind of scale.
In AFU, if you crossed the neutral zone, a patrol of warbirds had a chance of intercepting you. There was no part of the story that I recall requiring you to cross the zone, but it was there to be explored. There were literally thousands of star systems to explore, you could meet all sorts of ships and races in the back waters. There’s even a persistent rumor that there’s a one-in-a-million chance of encountering the Borg.
In the early, buggy demos of KA, you could initiate an in-star-system warp, then cut power to your nacelles. Your warp field would collapse, but you’d maintain light-speed. You could coast right into the next sector that way if you left it long enough and cut power to all engine systems. I did this a few tmes. Now THAT was immersive. Not 100% canon, but it showed the level of consistency in navigation.
The free program Celestia supports planetary-surface-level detail, from which you can seemlessly zoom out to Galactic scales. I know it’s not a game, but the techniques required are relevant.
My point is, if they could make me feel physically placed within that universe ten and fifteen years ago, it should be very possible to take that to the next level nowadays.
I keep meaning to tip the hat to Infinity: The Quest For Earth.
It’s an indie sci-fi game which stunningly realises many of the features I’ve mentioned, most spectacularly, planetary landings and realistic scale.
hey did anyone notice the NSEA Protector from galaxy quest in the klingon trailer at 0:38
Can’t say I see it. For one frame some of the wreckage in the top right of the viewscreen looks a little like it, but I think it’s a coincidence. Can you post a screenshot with it circled.
Have you noticed that the ship that drops out of warp in the pre-rendered cinematic (which is how the game should look) at the beginning is a TMP-refit JJprise? What do you suppose is the rationale for that design showing up in the Prime universe’s 24th century? It doesn’t appear to be the Constitution-alike they showed before.
Wow, there is an over-abundant amount of micro-minuteae nit-picking going on here! Sheesh!
To me, the real test will be in the actual game play itself. If the controls are awkward and clunky with a high degree of learning curve that takes you out of the game play, will be the biggest letdown for me.
So I can’t wait to get my hands on my own ship, and take her out “that-a-way!”
#53 and #47 — Starfleet Academy. Best game ever invented.
BTW, Am I the only one who actually really liked Elite Force 1? I even enjoyed Elite Force 2, though it clearly was inferior. Also, I rather liked Starfleet Command III….
63:
I enjoyed SFA, but KA (It’s sequel) was far superior. SFA was arcadey, Ships moved like fighters.
KA featured the heftiest, vastest feeling ships in a Trek game to date. That combined with deeper micro-management abilities, fleet orders and better graphics make it the better game if you ask me.
#64: Elite Force 1 was brilliant, no question. I just haven’t seen enough of the 3rd person play aboard ship to make a comparison. For all I know, that element will be very satisfying, though I don’t hold out hope for satisfaction in any element of this game. I dearly wish to be proven wrong.
#63: SFA was good, but doesn’t touch KA, a far more refined take on Starship Simulation
#62: What more do you expect from a bunch of gaming Trekkers? Sometimes the stereotypes are true; I’m a glorious nerd, and proud of it. The gameplay matters a great deal to me too. It concerns me just as much as the style of the game does. That’s why I ranted about the physics of the ship movement and navigation. Those are, to me, integral gameplay elements that need to be handled correctly.
However, whether the gameplay is good or bad, unless I see some glimmer of hope for this to be more than a second rate MMO with a skin-deep Star Trek licence, I don’t see myself spending money on it.
Apologies for egotistically thinking all of you were talking to me, but you must be, I am seriously awesome.
oh, I thought the first comment was lost by the system, took a while to show up. wouldn’t have written the second one (or this one)