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Captain's Log: Pondering Star Trek Online's executive shakeup
Lieutenant, take the helm! It's time for another edition of Captain's Log, our regular foray into the farthest reaches of Star Trek Online. The big bombshell of the week -- no, not that one -- has left your humble captain with a serious case of the vapors, so allow me a moment to collect myself. Unless you've been hiding on the holodeck for days -- a wise choice, given the circumstances here on Earth -- you surely have heard the news: STO Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich is gone, baby, gone. According to Zinkievich's farewell letter, Daniel Stahl, formerly a producer on STO, has taken the helm in his place. I thought we'd briefly discuss Zinkievich's departure before moving on Stahl's recent video interview with the STOked podcast crew, where he dropped some delicious hints about future content and provided insight into his mindset as STO's head honcho.
Captain's Log: A look into the future of Star Trek Online
Hello again, everyone! Welcome to another installment of Captain's Log, our weekly dose of Star Trek Online goodness. I trust you all had a fine time with Captain Trout last week, learning about the Klingon beginner's experience. While you were gone, the lovely engineers on the U.S.S. Bob Wiley have installed a brandy new graphics processor, so we're back up and running! Cryptic Studios have had a busy week or so with STO. First came their big push to welcome back players, which included a free weekend for lapsed subscribers. Then came the exciting news of Cryptic's development plans for the next three months. And today saw the release of an update to Season 1.1, which includes much-needed Memory Alpha improvements and the somewhat-delayed fourth Special Task Force mission, Undine Terradome. I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the incoming content that could make this the summer of STO -- and to ponder a few roadblocks that might get in the way.
Captain's Log: Guide to the Klingon tutorial
Captain to engineering! We've been hit! How bad is it? Our graphics card is shot to oblivion, you say? Of all the dratted luck! Divert auxiliary power to onboard graphics processors. Oh, no, you're right, that's awful. Wow. Yeah, no, it's like an old-school Lucasarts game up in here. Oh, hey there, everyone. Welcome to a woefully damaged edition of Captain's Log, Massively's weekly column on all things Star Trek Online. Sadly, a Terran Federation attack knocked out our graphics card, and the U.S.S. Bob Wiley has seen better days. So while we limp to our nearest starbase for repairs -- Lieutenant Newegg assures me we'll have a new card replicated within three business days -- I'll hand this week's column over to our Klingon ambassador, Captain Trout. As we've already covered the Federation tutorial, he'll explain the basics of the Klingon beginner's experience.
Captain's Log: Three months of Star Trek Online
Welcome, one and all, to another edition of Captain's Log, our weekly column on everyone's favorite Star Trek MMO, Star Trek Online. I'm afraid I must renege once again on my promise to tackle the Klingon beginner experience. But I forgot that Cryptic Studios' latest MMO will be 3 months old this Sunday! That's right! STO launched a whopping three months ago, on Feb. 2, 2010. Why, it feels like just yesterday that my newly created Bajoran Science Officer took his first laggy footsteps on Earth Starbase in search of Commander Sulu. As we are wont to do with our favorite games here at Massively, let's look back at STO's first few months and take stock of its past, present and future.
Newest responses to Ask Cryptic for Star Trek Online talks Klingons
There's a certain mystique that Klingons hold for Star Trek fans, having shown up for many different stories in every show and even several movies. That's not even counting the fact that they have an entire language to back them up. So it's probably not a huge surprise that the most recent Ask Cryptic has been dedicated to questions about the Klingon Empire in Star Trek Online. Players have enjoyed the concept, but there have been more than a few expressions of disappointment at the lack of non-PvP options for the faction and the customization available (or not available) to the participants. The short version is that many of the things being asked for by Klingon players are coming -- more customization, more ship types, and more options to advance oneself without blasting honorless Federation ships out of the sky. There's even a promise of opportunities for the two factions to interact outside of combat, although the question of capturing landmarks via PvP is met with a negative. One of the responses also hints that there may be yet more factions in the game. All of the questions may be found here, which promise an interesting future for Klingons and Federation players alike in Star Trek Online.
Five decidedly cool Star Trek Online screens
Fleets of Klingons! Super-massive space ships! Klingons in mid-disintegration! These are some of the things you can find in our five new exclusive Star Trek Online screens. Sure, you can play open beta and take screens yourselves, but some of these babies aren't the sort of screens most beta players would be able to nab -- at least we think. That's not a challenge, although if you do think your screenshotting capabilities are rather impressive, you could always send some to our daily One Shots feature email! That's oneshots AT massively DOT com for all of you who suspect that, perhaps you too, are screen-taking gods.%Gallery-28615%
Captain's Log: A non-trekkie guide to Star Trek Online
Perhaps you've been hearing a lot of buzz about Star Trek Online lately. Or, perhaps you're reading this article in the year 2018, after the robots have begun their bloody revolt. Either way, you've never been way into Star Trek, but find yourself curious about this new MMO based on the franchise. In that cast, this iteration of Captain's Log is just for you. As a side note, this will be the last week you'll find this feature going live on Friday. Henceforth, a new Captain's Log will appear every Thursday -- so keep an eye out!
Player rewards versus character rewards
Rewards have, more often than not, been things that make your character better. You complete a quest and you get a new piece of equipment, or access to a new area, or even just a nice handful of experience toward the next level. But we've recently talked a bit about how leveling, and progression by extension, can get rather tedious. Spinksville also talked about this, discussing the differences between player rewards and character rewards, with the former being general rewards that stick with the player and aren't contingent upon or related to power level. An excellent example is that of Klingons in Star Trek Online. The race has been a staple of the series ever since it began, and the Klingon Empire is one of the major political factions in the game... but it's not initially accessible to players. You have to complete a mission or reach Level 6 in order to unlock the option of playing a Klingon. Similarly, World of Warcraft gates its first hero class, the Death Knight, by requiring a level 55 character before one can be created. Player rewards contribue less to a sense of avatar progress, but they also help keep the power level slightly lower, as well as providing benefits that you can take with you, so to speak. On the other hand, they're vulnerable to feeling less like rewards because they're unrelated to the character who obtained them. We've all been well-versed in the endgame grind for gear acquisition, however, so the post's call for more player rewards might be a welcome change for many of us.
STO website adds faction page, hints at future factions
Open beta is here and launch isn't far behind, which is of course why we're starting to see stuff like the recently revealed faction page for Star Trek Online. While you can't look (or click) on them now, it's quite telling that Cardassian and Romulan faction symbols are there for the looking. Cryptic has been pretty open with the fact that they plan to add new factions in the future, but the upfront listing of them causes us to wonder what the schedule is for the launch of faction number three. We really love the approach to this faction page, too. Why? Selecting a faction gives you the perspective of said faction, but from each side. That is to say, you get a Klingon's point of view of their own Empire, as well as the Federation. It's a nice touch of Trek that shows the men and women at Cryptic are keen to stick to the spirit of the series, even when outside of their own game.
A quick Star Trek Online PvP interview with Jack Emmert
We recently had the opportunity to ask Cryptic's Jack Emmert a few questions regarding Star Trek Online and its PvP elements. With the looming open beta (tomorrow!) and similarly imminent February 2nd launch, we consider ourselves lucky to get some fairly definitive answers on topics like the game's Cryptic Store and the Klingon faction's future -- including if deeper customization is in the wings or not. It's a quick read, but with less than 24 hours until open beta kick starts, that's probably a good thing. We wouldn't want to take away from anyone's Star Trek movie marathon, which is obviously what everyone is doing the day before, right? Khan!
Hands-on with Klingons and PvP in Star Trek Online, page 2
The current beta offered space and ground PvP instances to queue into from the sector map, which is essentially the game's world map where you warp around in real time. PvP can be entered by approaching a planetary system on this map, or simply via a menu on the UI. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to try out the open PvP Warzone maps, although I'm not entirely sure Cryptic has them in for beta testing right now.
Hands-on with Klingons and PvP in Star Trek Online
If there's one thing that's almost more synonymous with Star Trek than classic catch phrases, it's the Klingons. They are the Captain Hook to the Federation's Peter Pan and thus it's important to several potential players that Star Trek Online do them justice. Understandably, when Cryptic made the announcement that Klingons would be primarily a PvP focused faction, people were concerned. Players don't want their beloved gruff 'n tough warrior race to become a second-tier faction. My time with the Klingon side of Star Trek Online has given me a pretty good sense for what Cryptic is trying to do with the game. It's not exactly what you may be thinking. It's most certainly not anything like Lord of the Rings Online's PvMP, as the Klingons have a substantial chunk of the galaxy map to themselves.%Gallery-81020%
Ask Cryptic answers your Klingon questions
Late last week we gave you a heads-up that Cryptic was going to begin answering your questions about all things Klingon in Star Trek Online, and the first round of answers is up. This installment of Ask Cryptic focused heavily on customization, with questions answered about how far characters can go when customizing and creating ships and characters. The Cryptic development team reiterated a theme that we've heard before: they'll start with a solid foundation and plenty of room to grow, and add things in the future according to what the player base responds to. It's a process that could serve them very well if done right. The final question went in a slightly different direction and holds the potential for a lot of fun and debate in the Star Trek Online community. One fan asked if there were plans for Klingon language content. The answer? "We've been looking all over for someone to help us out with Klingon Localization. However, at this time there seems to be a shortage of Klingon linguists. We're hoping that as the Klingon language becomes more prominent we'll be able to find someone to help us out with this. We're also looking into ways we can farm this out to the community. Any volunteers?" Those of you that speak KIingon, hop to it, and for the rest of you the full Ask Cryptic entry can be read here.
Ask Cryptic about Klingons in STO
Do you have burning questions about Klingon play in Star Trek Online? Cryptic is more than aware that people are going to have questions, and so they've put up a new thread (hit it up right here) where you can use a Cryptic account to post all the questions your heart could ever possibly desire to ask. We're sure to see the answers sooner rather than later, but with holidays occurring next week, it may take longer than usual. Also, in case you need some help with your questions, here are some keywords we'd suggest you consider using when asking questions about Klingons: booze, battle and bat'leth.
Slipping through space majestic in five new Star Trek Online screens
Romulans! They're pretty prevalent in today's exclusive Star Trek Online screens, although they're not the only antagonists fighting against the Federation. You've got to remember never to underestimate the Borg in their ability to frustrate and terrify the Feddies into tossing up shields and blaring red alerts ship-wide. Plus, there's the Klingons, whose very name just sounds sharp and dangerous. We're getting off topic, though. If you like phasers, explosions and majestic Trek style space ships then we're certain you'll enjoy feasting your eyes on these five new screens.%Gallery-28615%
Space combat! Star Trek Online community Q&A answers
It's a little late due to the impending Thanksgiving day gorging, but we've got your second wave of community answers for space combat in Star Trek Online! As this week lands us on a holiday, we'll be putting up the next post for your third wave of questions on Monday, November 30th. For now, we hope you enjoy the answers given by Al Rivera, senior game designer on Star Trek Online.
The Digital Continuum: Federation stands for 'fighting' part 2
But in a time of increased hostilities with the Klingon Empire, the universe of Trek is reminding me more and more of how things were in The Original Series where asking Federation officers to trust a Klingon was akin to pulling teeth -- lots and lots of teeth. Some may claim that Cryptic is forcing the lore to work for them, but even during Deep Space Nine the Klingons withdrew from the Khitomer Accords and attacked the Cardassians.
The Daily Grind: You or not you, in Star Trek Online?
This isn't often a question we find ourselves asking others when it comes to character creation in an MMO, but, well Star Trek Online is different in this regard. Considering the very specific sort of wish fulfillment Cryptic's next game offers, do you plan to first create a fictional captain or in-game version of yourself to captain a starship? You see, we began thinking on this very subject not too long ago and a dilemma struck. While being a Vulcan or some odd new species is undoubtedly a tempting concept, seeing ourselves sitting in the captain's chair is nearly as exciting. Considering Cryptic's knack for powerful character creation tools, we've no doubt that coming up with a close approximation of our likeness wouldn't be too difficult. We know that every Star Trek fan is going to create themselves at some point but your first "main" is so very important. Since creating a Klingon-sided character is unlocked after some initial Federation play, we're thinking of making ourselves first, and then, wait for it... a Gorn second. Yes!
These are the box arts of Star Trek Online
Okay, well there's only one of them, so saying, "these are the box arts" was more of an excuse to make a Trek reference. However, we do find ourselves wondering if there should be more than one cover here, since half the game is dedicated to Klingon play. Sure, you've got some Birds of Prey in the background, but the iconic Federation logo, Constitution-like ship and Captain are most obviously the center of attention. Then again, so long as the game is fulfilling our deepest Star Trek desires, we suppose it's all a moot point. Plus, we're sure many of you are just going to buy this on Steam or some similar magical online store. That's been our prerogative at Massively as of late, especially since it cuts down on unwanted PC games box clutter that turns into a mountain of excess over several years. You can check out a much larger version of the image right here in our gallery.
Ships! Star Trek Online community Q&A answers, part 2
Ryan: Why are there ancient starship classes like Constitution, but not older classes that were still around during the Next Gen and DS9, like Excelsior? There have been notable exceptions to this rule, and the same holds true for the current state of the Federation.
