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Captain's Log: One year of Star Trek Online
Happy birthday, Star Trek Online! It's your party, and you can cry if you want to! And if you don't, then I will, because the Northeast and I are recovering from another flapping snowstorm! I swear to Pete, I need a mysterious British doctor to show up in a time-traveling phone booth and whisk me ahead to June. So Cryptic Studios' spacefaring MMO is one year old! That means STO is walking more, pooping less often, and not keeping you up all night with its bawling. That also means a lot has happened since STO went live 366 or so days ago. (Yeah, the actual anniversary was yesterday.) It's time to celebrate and lament the first full year of STO's lifespan.
Captain's Log: Newstime grab bag
Hey, everybody. I did four things this weekend: I saw True Grit, I saw The Green Hornet, I tried kumquats for the first time and I went on a blind date with a dyspeptic wendigo. I recommend doing only one of those things. In other news, it's time for another edition of Captain's Log. We covered some helpful resources for creating missions with Star Trek Online's Foundry last week, even as the folks at Cryptic Studios tossed out a whole slew of new information. Dan Stahl and company meted out an update to the feature-episode calendar, a new Engineering Report and the latest Ask Cryptic. So, what'd we learn?
Captain's Log: Foundry-friendly resources and tips
Greetings, readers, and welcome to another installment of Captain's Log. I'm sure many of you live in sunnier climes and don't know such joys, but by the time you're reading this, I should be dealing with the aftermath of yet another darn snow day. I hope it warms your hearts that as you all sit there relaxing, I'm likely outside shoveling snow for what feels like the 17th time this winter. After last week's look at Massively's readers poll, which named Star Trek Online the best MMO of 2010, your friendly neighborhood Cap's Log focuses this week on how to use the Foundry, STO's user-generated-content tools. I'll point out some handy online resources that explain the fundamentals of using the Foundry and then offer my thoughts on something even more vital to a successful mission: storytelling.
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's year in review
Welcome back, Capsloggers! (Note: professional nicknamer here, available for all your mascot-imagining, brand-revamping needs.) I hope you've all had a merry merry and a happy happy so far. And if you haven't, then keep it to yourself, because Massively is no place to be sad. Now the calendar's just one page, and of course I am excited. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and the end of the year means end-of-the-year lists! As we all know, 2010 has been a big year for Star Trek Online, from its release in February to the introduction of Season 3 just this month. Skip away with me down the Memory Brick Road as we recall the biggest STO stories of the year!
Captain's Log: Creating my first mission in the Foundry
Welcome to another edition of Captain's Log, loyal readers! (Disloyal readers and the illiterate are also welcome.) I hope you've been enjoying the ramp-up to Christmas without losing any limbs to last-minute shopping. I ordered everything from the comfort of Amazon this year, though a small, self-destructive part of me misses the Mad-Maxian insanity of the mall right around now. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, or at least a day off from work, and most of you probably aren't primed for a deep discussion of Star Trek Online's future or an in-depth examination of Season 3. Instead, let's play with the Foundry and maybe have a little fun as I try to craft my first actual mission.
Captain's Log: Spending time with the Foundry beta
As Deathwing rages through Azeroth and the inhabitants of other worlds look forward to gift-filled holiday events, members of the Federation and the Klingon Defense Force saw Christmahanukwanzakah arrive early in the form of Season 3. Star Trek Online's third mega-patch brought a fine array of features, including Borg ship pieces and replayable missions, to live servers last Thursday. But the biggest feature (and possibly STO's best) landed on the Tribble test server instead. So let's take a trip to Beta Land and get to know the Foundry a little better by playing a few user-made missions.
Captain's Log: Pros and cons of Season 3
Big-time release news this week, folks! Have you prepared for the biggest, best expansion of game content this side of the Laurentian System? I hope you've battened down the hatches, called in sick and stocked up on frozen pizza, because at long last, the moment we've waited for has arrived. Season 3: Genesis goes live today, and the universe will never be the same. New missions, new loot, a new look and -- I'm sorry, say again? What's a Deathwing? Yeah, you must be thinking of something else. Captain's Log is all over Star Trek Online's latest super-patch, which introduces -- or comes close to introducing -- some seriously welcome changes to the whole of known space.
Captain's Log: Will STO become a sandbox or remain a themepark?
Welcome back from the holiday, readers! I trust everyone has recovered from the excitement of a long weekend, a tasty Thanksgiving and a rabid Black Friday. By now you should have settled back into the slow, miserable slog toward more holidays. I know I have. For this week's Captain's Log, I'm going to discuss themepark and sandbox MMOs. What do those terms mean? And how does Star Trek Online fit into that dichotomy, both in its present form and in its Foundry-expanded future?
Captain's Log: Supplemental on STO's treatment of canon
Welcome to another edition of Captain's Log, everyone's (well, mostly my) favorite column about Star Trek Online. Guess what? It's Thursday, which means Thanksgiving is upon us -- assuming you're in the U.S., in which case I hope you already knew that. At any rate, in the spirit of the holiday, we're going buffet-style this week, talking about a little of this and a little of that. But don't worry; most of you are probably slipping into a food coma already, so I'll keep things light, mostly. For an appetizer, we'll nibble on Cryptic Studios' little preview of Season 3. For a nice second course, I'll revisit my opinion on STO's treatment of Star Trek canon. And for dessert, I'll suggest some Black Friday shopping on the C-Store!
Captain's Log: Nine months of Star Trek Online
Guess who's nine months old? Think red shirts, warp coils and forehead ridges. Think of your favorite Cryptic Studios-published space MMO. That's right! Star Trek Online is celebrating a birthday this week. (OK, it actually happened last week, but who's counting? You there -- stop counting!) We here at Massively like to check in on our games every few months to reminisce about the past, recap the present and ruminate on the future. Let us away!
Captain's Log: Anticipating STO's future in user-generated content
Hey there, folks! Welcome back to another edition of Captain's Log, Massively's rarely-coherent-but-always-fun look at Star Trek Online. I have had just the busiest darn week, you betcha. I spent all weekend at New York Comic Con, where I saw more than a few folks dressed to the nines in Star Trek gear, and then I started a shiny new day job on Monday. Phew! I've been thinking a lot about user-generated content lately. In a recent interview, STO Executive Producer Daniel Stahl offers a few details on the subject, in which we learn a bit about the forthcoming system's abilities and limitations. What do we know about STO's UGC tools? What do we still not know -- mainly, when can we get in there and start crafting our own missions? Why, follow me past the jump to find out.
Captain's Log: Ask Cryptic raises questions about STO's future
The future of Star Trek Online comes up a lot in Captain's Log. Whether imagining cool new features or picking apart comments by Executive Producer Daniel Stahl, I ponder STO's tomorrows fairly frequently. But, hey, it's not my fault the folks at Cryptic Studios talk about the game's near and far future so much, right? Especially with their monthly Ask Cryptic feature, the developers address the game's, er, development all the time. This month's extra-hefty Ask Cryptic offers players a lot of tasty food for thought -- but a forum post I missed last week has given me indigestion.
Dan Stahl highlights more of Star Trek Online's future direction
Star Trek Online's Dan Stahl has been fairly vocal since he took the executive producer post at the beginning of last month. We had our own chance to speak with him recently, where he discussed everything from the then-upcoming Season 2 content to the rumors about the game adopting a free-to-play model. His most recent interview at ZAM covers several of the same pieces of territory, but as one would expect with the time elapsed and the release of Season 2, there are several new pieces of information within. The weekly episodes are one of the major points of discussion, with the first one premiering in late August. Stahl discusses the episodes focusing around the Deferi, a race with ties to both the Federation and the Klingons, but not explicitly allied with either. He also discusses plans for an overhaul to exploration, likening the current system to "a small box where you fly around and go through random doors," something that the team is planning on changing for Season 3. The full interview is well worth a read for what it contains -- nothing earth-shattering, but more signs that Star Trek Online's direction is getting progressively stronger.
