STO Update: New Screenshots + First Pre-order + More

Cryptic has released five new screenshots (two land and three space based) as well as explaining the idea of Episodic Content within Star Trek Online, the upcoming Trek MMORPG. Also the first pre-orders for STO are now available, which may be the first reveal of a price and release date for the game.

 

New Screenshots and ‘episodic’ details
Game site Zam.com (formerly allakhazam.com) has some new exclusive screenshots, and also some details on how the episodic content works. It is wroth noting that these shots include the Akira class, which had been spotted briefly in the first STO video trailer shown when the game was first announced. So it seems that the ship class, which first appeared in Star Trek First Contact, will be alive and kicking butt in 2409 (28 years after Nemesis).

click on images to see the large versions at zam.com


Akira class ship escapes as the planetoid explodes.


Another shot of the Akira class starship


The marauding Klingons stand at the ready, waiting for the locals to discover their nefarious sabotage.


Orion Syndicate raiders lie in wait for unprotected ships. Heavily armed Orion battleships in search of plunder.


Every Starfleet officer has to get his hands dirty sometimes

One of the more interesting elements of STO is the episodic content nature of the game. The designers want to avoid the usual MMORPG ‘grind’ giving players a diverse experience during a single gaming session. Cryptic provided Zam.com with a ‘for instance’ some of which is illustrated in the shots above:

For example, you may be assigned to visit a planet within Federation protected space. When you arrive in orbit, you find yourself in a tense standoff with a heavily armed Orion Syndicate battleship. After dealing with the Orions, you send an away team to the planet’s surface and discover that the Orions were providing cover for a Klingon force that has beamed in to break up a diplomatic conference. You stop the Klingons’ sabotage and then go into the embassy, rescue the diplomats and confront the Klingons’ commander, who has information about a second Klingon attack already in progress.
Beam back to your ship and warp to another planet, where you face a Klingon fleet in a climatic space battle. Millions of lives are depending on you — can you avert a galactic tragedy?

First pre-order appears – price & date set?
Retailer Gamestop is now taking pre-orders on Star Trek Online (online and in stores). The release date given is January 26, 2010 and the price is $49.99 (which is typical for a MMORPG). Although most MMORPGs come in both a collectors and standard edition, Gamestop is only listing a single edition. Cryptic have yet to make an official announcement about a date or a price, so it should be assumed that this listing is subject to change. It is possible that Gamestop is jumping the gun (without authorization from Crytpic) to get an edge. Also remember that STO, like almost all MMORPGs, is expected to have an additional monthly fee.

Gamestop also has a description of the game. Again, it is unclear if this is an official marketing blurb, but here it is:

Become part of Star Trek: The Star Trek universe will appear for the first time in a massively multiplayer online game. Everything from the elegant domes of Starfleet Academy to the ancient temples of Vulcan, from the towers of Qo’noS to the Fire Caves of Bajor, from the mysterious Mutara Nebula to the unexplored voids of deep space, all will be represented in stunning 3-D graphics. Immerse yourself in the future of the Trek universe as it moves into the 25th century: a time of shifting alliances and new discoveries.

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

Coming up – interview with STO Producer
Look for Anthony’s exclusive interview with STO Producer Craig Zinkievich, and hopefully some new images as well.

 

TrekMovie’s new game editor Joseph Gunnell is a life-long Star Trek fan and avid Trek gamer. Joe is also a contributor to The Chronicle, the newspaper for The College of Lake County.

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At least, the fine Akiras are still around in the year 2409. And unchanged (!!) as far as I can see.

I guess STO is the last possibility to experience some new adventures in the “Prime-universe”. Too bad, I don’t like Online-Games, but perhaps I will try this one.

I love the Akira class ship! Very Enterprise-ish!

So will there be
A monthly fee?

I’ve never played a true online game before. My closest experience was playing Mech-Warrior with friends all logged in together. But, being an avid Trek fan and seeing as I’m experiencing a bit of a mid-life crisis, I may have to give this one a try. You know…for the kid in me. ;-)

I would like to welcome Joe to the TrekMovie family

RE: monthly fee
it is expected that STO, like almost all other MMORPGs, will also have a monthly fee. I have noted that in the article.

Looking forward to Anthony’s interview with the producer.

Need those system requirements so I can make the necessary upgrades!

is that klingon on the left getting himself a drink of water?

Oh good! If they’ve got the Akira in the game, they can flip the nacelles, give it a coat of paint, and I can have an NX class to tool around in.

:D

Fantastic! I’ve been waiting for this game forever!

I have been following this game for years, FINALLY it’s within sight!

I love that it’s in the TNG era, “beyond Nemesis and Countdown”, it makes for a hugely anticipated game for all TNG, DS9 and VOY fans.

I’ve never really got into the MMORPG thing but I’m thinking of getting this when it’s released. Is it purely online or can you play around offline too? If I get it I’ll be sticking it on my laptop which means I won’t have access to the internet a fair amount of the time while travelling etc.

Gamestop should be sued for jumping the gun!

So the Mutara Nebula is still around in the 25th century, huh? I’m pretty sure that some random nobody named Kahn detonated the Genesis device in the middle of that nebula thus creating the Genesis planet from the particles and gases that WAS the Mutara Nebula. So even though the planet was unstable and exploded, the debris from that planet was most likely floating around as asteroids…not reforming a nebula that is no longer there. Maybe Cryptic should take note of this.

The Commander in Chief welcomes you aboard, Joe and so do I for what its worth!

I wish you success with this website. Obviously you are on you game.
Looking forward to future articles

#13

There have been other “Mutara Class” nebulas, though. Wasn’t there one in an episode of Voyager?

#3 – there is always a monthly fee with an mmo…it is how they continue to make money to continue development of the game over time.

#12 – as a legal professional I can tell you that you can only sue for real damages. Jumping the gun is not considered “damage” according to the various definitions within the litigation world.

#13 – keep in mind that that is wording from gamestop and likely not sanctioned yet by Cryptic/STO. There was definitely mention of Mutara Class nebulae in Star Trek after TWOK. I wouldn’t take what Gamestop says at face value yet. That being said, we shouldn’t believe that the actual Mutara Nebulae as seen in TWOK is in STO as Cryptic has not said anything about it.

After the trailer: NEW STAR TREK (?) MUSIC:
http://www.startrekmovie.com/

#13: nebulas are pretty big places. It would be pretty likely it survived the genesis explosion somewhat intact.

Sure would be nice to get a console port of this that doesn’t require you to be online. Paying for a game and then paying again just doesn’t seem right.

I’m sorry, I just had to laugh at the caption under the last picture…

Why would the caption read “Every Starfleet officer needs to get his hands dirty sometimes” when the picture is depicting a bunch of Starfleet officers clustered in a corner? What are they doing?? XP

for those people still trying to find the trailer music here it is….
Freedom fighters – Two Steps From Hell

http://www.zshare.net/download/568112058ac4aea8/

#16: There are some online games that don’t have a monthly fee… Aka Guild Wars.

I’ve been interested in this for a while now but I have to say that when it became obvious the new movie was going to be based in the Kirk/Spock era, they should have gone back to the drawing board and based it in that time or maybe even slightly before.

If the new movie does what it’s expected to do – bring a whole pile of new fans into the franchise – how interested are they going to be in an Online RPG set several hundred years later with different uniforms, ships etc. steeped in the history of “that old Star Trek that sucks”. It’s not like this new film will suddenly open their minds to all Trek, it’ll be “their” Trek. Sure, they might find new appreciation for the films, and almost everyone grudgingly agrees that First Contact was great, but that’s about as far as we can expect it to go on a large scale.

I suppose the movie isn’t a guaranteed success so maybe they didn’t want to put all their eggs in the reboot basket, but lets face it – it WILL be a massive success. These films always are. Populist, big-budget summer flick… it can’t fail. So why then have the only other major Star Trek property in developement right now focus on the TNG universe?

Wait – there shouldn’t be a Mutara Nebula anymore, right? That’s the nebula that was destroyed by the Genesis device detonation at the end of Star Trek II, forming the Genesis planet.

If I’m wrong, I’m sure my fellow Trekkies will pile on. :)

Mutara nebula is just a class of nebula. But they kinda are using that as a play to twok

I love the idea that players can engage in space missions as well as planetary missions. In the past, it was usually just one or the other.

It’s a Vulcan term, just like Minshara class planet. ;)

#21 Gilligan, we’re not talking about the trailer music, it’s the music that recently begun playing in the background of http://www.startrekmovie.com
It appears to be a snippet from a sort of “overture”, much as Ilia’s Theme served for ST:TMP. At least I’m thinking that if this *is* Giacchino’s work, he’d be parallelling the music styles of the best of the Trek movies, and having similar orchestral selection of instruments as Courage, Steiner, Goldsmith, and Horner set forward as “Star Trek”. But you’re right about the “trailer music”–that’s been identified previously. So, identify the website’s new background music for us and come back and tell us. (And no, it’s not from the Bollywood comedy Masti.)

Why is Atari listed as the publisher and developer on the Gamestop site?

13> I’m pretty sure that some random nobody named Kahn

Khan. Kahn was Dax’s ex-wife :p

Gid Article Joe! :D

Welcome tae the jungle! lol

I love any form of updates on STO. I cannot wait for this game!

Having played ‘City of Heroes/Villans’ I think that STO is in great hands with Cryptic.

COH/V was different to the online games i’m used to (MMO’s like World of Warcraft or Lord of the rings online) as it wasn’t as hardcore. Ye didnae have to spend hours on end slaughtering boars/wolves/lepoards. Which does get a bit annoyin! I think this will appeal to more casual gamers.

Ye were actually doing somthing that matters like raiding drug dens, or stopping crime in the streets.

The customization aspect withing COH/V was brilliant, ye really could create pretty much any form of character.
From the looks of it that kind of character creation is being carried over into the STO game (judging by the video published last month)

If ST09 and STO are successes who knows where that might lead next.

Cannae Wait!!

question:

Being a non-gamer but anxiously awating Star Trek: Online will a person have to have the latest in state-of-the-art system to play this???

#31

“question:

Being a non-gamer but anxiously awating Star Trek: Online will a person have to have the latest in state-of-the-art system to play this???”
—————————————————————————————————-

hey paul

From the looks of the Graphics, ye might need tae have something reasonable. So far i dinnae think there has been any official ‘System Requirements’ Published yet. I’m in a similar boat, i dunno if my bucket will run it either :(

Fingers crossed though :)

Re # 31 + 32

I’ve just checked the official site and the comment from the FAQ was

“Q: What are the system requirements?
A: We haven’t finalized this yet. Suffice to say, we want to make a game that looks great and can run well on a wide variety of systems.”

The full FAQ can be found at http://www.startrekonline.com/faq#19

Can’t wait for January, when I can get my hands on a copy of the “Star Trek Online” MMPORG! It’ll be my first, and I’m excited about it.

God bless!

I’ve played quite a few MMORPGS (getting redundant) and the only thing that really had me interested in STO was the onboard ship experience like with Star Wars Galaxies.

Has all that been removed?

The old interior artwork for the Galaxy class had me on the edge of my seat and credit card in-hand. :)

35, no, it hasn’t been removed. According to Cryptic’s FAQ page there will be onboard experiences. The game will consist of onboard your, and other, starships, space adventures, and away team missions.

1, I personally am tired of all that “Prime universe” BS. The new film takes place prior to TOS. Did the makers of the new film change things, yes (as was expected), but to me it will always be one universe. I believe the writer who discussed the “prime universe” stuff was merely using Quantum Mechanics and alternate universes to justify those changes to geeks like us without calling the film a “reboot.” A reboot is exactly what it appears to be but we’ll see in May. The film certainly looks excellent, especially after the last trailer.

#2: “I love the Akira class ship! Very Enterprise-ish!”

That’s because they cannibalized the Akira to make the Enterprise.

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/enterprise_design_comment.htm

To #35:
Sorry, Gary . it indeed has. I also was looking forward to ship interiors.
But there will NO SHIP INTERIORS at release.
They say maybe for an expansion but you know how it goes with those things.

Having played MMORPG’s for years, I would caution everyone to take this January 2010 release date from Gamestop with a large pile of salt. Until Cryptic announces something officially, all release dates are pure speculation.

But I am still looking forward to trying this one out!

Ship Interiors are boring. What did you want to do, RP walking down a corridor into a turbolift?

Still almost a year out? Was hoping it would be released around the movie.

#37 – I like the site, but the writer can be a crank.

Pre-WWII carriers have many of the same surface features as state-of-the-art 21st Century aircraft carriers. Mojo (who’s done FX work for TREK and BSG) had a great article about that.

Ex-Astris also didn’t not that the Akira bears a lineage with the 23rd century Miranda class (slung nacelles, rollbar with torpedo launchers, rear bay doors, hatches on saucer, etc.)

Dont complain about the business model for an MMORPG, people.

You are not paying for the game, and then paying for it again. You’re paying for the game, and then paying for the continual content upgrades and online service you receive.

If you dont like it, then don’t buy the game. That simple.

Oi!!!! Fifty bucks?!?! Meh. Well… maybe I should start looking for places that hire 16-year-olds again. …. To the Burger King website! :D

Ughhhh, monthly fee???
*Sighs*

To be more accurate: “…Joe is also a contributor to The Chronicle, the [student-run] newspaper for The College of Lake County.”

The Chronicle is the student run newspaper for the CLC community. Students can participate in the newspaper as staff writers or editors.

http://www.clcillinois.edu/activities/chronicle.asp