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Al Rivera discusses his role in Star Trek Online on Reddit
Who is Captain Geko? It was a fairly innocent question posed on Reddit earlier in the week by a user who happened to group with someone using that name in Star Trek Online. The answer is that it's the usual screen name of lead designer Al Rivera, who took the opportunity to respond to the question with a larger discussion of what makes the game what it is and how the game's microtransaction model is set up. Rivera discusses his experience with the franchise and being a longtime fan from the age of 10, as well as the fact that the game's microtransactions are decided upon chiefly based on what will keep the lights on and keep the game fundamentally free-to-play. While he states clearly that not every decision comes down to him, at the end of the day he's proud of what the team has accomplished and the state of the game. If you want a look behind the curtain at one of the people in charge of Star Trek Online, take the time to read Rivera's full answer. [Thanks to Lootcritter for the tip!]
Star Trek's Rivera talks story design and the Delta Quadrant
If you've been wondering why Star Trek Online is going to the Delta Quadrant for its upcoming expansion and what sorts of stories will be available when it gets there, a new dev diary has the answers. Lead designer Al Rivera writes about the game's "story process," which involves examining where the game's already been and deciding what sorts of additions will fit STO's production schedule. "We have to determine how many missions we need to tell this story," Rivera says. "How many do we want? Do we want adventure or battlezones? Ground or space? What about patrols, queues and STFs? Does our story work for the type of content we need to create?" You can read the rest of his thoughts at the official Star Trek Online website.
Captain's Log Supplemental: A look at Star Trek Online's history with lead designer Al Rivera
Star Trek Online is a game that's got some history, not just by virtue of the franchise that's been running for half of forever but because the game itself has a rather madcap development history. Cryptic Studios got the license to develop the game at the eleventh hour, and the caveat was that the game needed to be shipped in the same timeframe as the original developer had promised -- leaving almost no time for development. I sat down and talked with lead designer Al Rivera about the game's history, its development ethos, and where the game is going with the upcoming release of the second expansion, Delta Rising. It's been a long process, but Rivera shed some light on how the game is designed by its modern team, why things launched the way they did, and what players can expect as the game continues toward its five-year anniversary.
Captain's Log: There's no space in Star Trek Online
Being away from a game you love can be both a curse and a blessing. The past couple of weeks I've been cursed with a flu that made it virtually impossible to play any game, let alone Star Trek Online. I've been back for a day or two now, and I've had the opportunity to check out some of the tech that has been pushed into the game since I fell ill. One of the new efforts is the ship-swapping system recently implemented into Star Trek Online, and I have to say, it's a great tool that might be the victim of the game's number one problem: lack of inventory space. There's no space in space The newest system to be injected into STO is the ship-swapping system. The tool allows players to switch ships on the fly as long as they are in a public zone like sector space or spacedock region. Essentially the player brings up his character screen and clicks on the "Switch Starship" button and moves into one of his other ships.
Captain's Log: Gearing up for Star Trek Online's fourth anniversary
We're only a few days away from the release of Star Trek Online's fourth anniversary celebration, and a lot of information about upcoming events is rolling out. As the team prepares for the launch, several new blogs have popped up teasing players with information about upcoming content and changes including news that actor Tim Russ, who played Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager, will reprise his role in Star Trek Online's Fourth Anniversary Featured Episode! It's only logical Last week's announcement that Tim Russ would be providing his voice for upcoming content certainly made a lot of Trekkies happy. Community Manager Brandon Felczer interviewed Russ for the game's video blog and asked a lot of great questions. It was also revealed during the interview that recordings of Russ' voice won't just be used in the upcoming Featured Episode (called A Step Between Stars); it will also be heard in "upcoming content" including "Season Nine and beyond."
Captain's Log: It's speculation time in Star Trek Online
It's that time again, folks: that time when the Star Trek Online playerbase begins to get edgy as we wait for new stuff. It's that "quiet time," although it's never truly quiet at Star Trek Online -- not in the forums, not in the game, and most definitely not at Cryptic Studios. However, we're also at that crucial point in the cycle of content releases when the dearth of real information is all too obvious. So what's a player to do until the next Featured Episode is released? Well, dwell on the teasers, of course! So join me past the jump and we can speculate together on what we will and won't be seeing in the upcoming FE and Season Eight.
Captain's Log: Around round of Star Trek Online potpourri
Over the course of the last few weeks, Captain's Log has chronicled a series of interviews with various members of the Star Trek Online development team. Today, I think it's time to take a break and bring everyone up to date and outline some of the interesting things that happened in Star Trek Online in the past month. STO Lead Designer Al Rivera issued a special dev blog outlining the new changes to security for fleets, and Executive Producer Daniel Stahl also posted about the integration of material from Star Trek: Voyager into the game, so join me past the break as I cover what has happened in STO since we got back from Las Vegas!
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online Las Vegas recap
It's been a couple of weeks since my last entry, and to be honest, I'm still recovering. The Official Star Trek Convention was an absolute blast. Thousands of Trek fans descended upon the Rio Suites and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, for four solid days to celebrate all things Star Trek. One of those things, of course, was Star Trek Online. Contrary to its showing in 2012, Star Trek Online was the focus of not just one but two complete formal panels this year. The first featured two of the STO devs in a discussion with actress Denise Crosby, who voiced the characters of Empress Sela as well as Lt. Tasha Yar. The second panel was co-hosted by Massively and Trek Radio and featured a panel of STO devs who talked about the game and gave us some great sneak-peeks at Season Eight works in progress!%Gallery-196194%
Captain's Log: Interview with Star Trek Online's Al Rivera, part two
Last week I began a series of columns based on the numerous interviews I conducted while I visited the Star Trek Online team at Cryptic Studios. I continue today with part two of my interview with Star Trek Online's Lead Designer, Al (CaptainGeko) Rivera, who had lots of things to say about his hopes for the future of the game, including its duty officer system and how the "JJverse" affects the things we see in the game. So join me past the jump and let's get to it!
Captain's Log: Interview with Star Trek Online's Al Rivera, part one
Late last month, I had the opportunity to drop into the offices of Cryptic Studios to talk with the Star Trek Online team members. While they were still recovering from the intense work required to bring the Legacy of Romulus expansion to bear, they were all still very busy working on new material being produced for the game. New ships, UI changes, fleet holdings, and events were all being worked on. I even got the opportunity to play a bit of the summer event before it went live in the game. However, I was really there to talk to the developers themselves, and I interviewed several different people. This week I begin my series of interviews with the team of Star Trek Online with a synopsis of my discussion with Lead Designer Al "CaptainGeko" Rivera.
Captain's Log: Playing with Legacy of Romulus characters in Star Trek Online
In just over two weeks, Star Trek Online's first expansion, The Legacy of Romulus, will be released. The developers at Cryptic Studios have been working furiously, and we'll all get to see the results of all of the hard work on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013. I've had the opportunity to jump into the Star Trek Online's test server, Tribble, to catch a few glimpses of some of the character works in progress. With more material being pushed to Tribble on almost a daily basis, there should be lots to see in the next couple of weeks!
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online enlists Denise Crosby for secret project
Sometimes it's a little tricky to write about an MMO right before content releases. There's usually a definite slump in developer interactivity as the team prepares for what will inevitably be a very busy time. Star Trek Online is no exception to this rule, and this is one of those weeks. We're still about two weeks away from celebrating Star Trek Online's third anniversary. To date, we have only a few ideas about what the anniversary celebration might entail, but not much else has been revealed by the team at Cryptic. However, that doesn't mean nothing has happened. Quite the contrary! There are a few things to talk about this week, including some fun news that actress Denise Crosby has been tapped to participate in the game. So join me past the break as I touch on some of the fun stuff in STO that we're hearing about!
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's PvP community steps up
Three weeks away from home and any legitimate connection to the internet can certainly make one feel a bit disjointed. However, I've discovered it can actually be a bit more disconcerting trying to reintegrate into the previous patterns that existed before the break was taken. When I left on my vacation, I seriously anticipated that very little news about Star Trek Online would occur. I expected the news about the 2012 Winter Event to come out, sure, but what I didn't expect was all of the other little bits of news that seemed to blindside me when I got back last week. Join me while I go over a few of the more interesting tidbits -- from the grassroots effort to reinvigorate PvP in Star Trek Online to the changes made to Foundry rewards.
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online potpourri
This week, Cryptic Studios continued its preparations for Star Trek Online's Season Six release. Many of the anticipated features have been made available on the game's test server, and lucky for you, I've had the chance to jump in and try out a little bit of the new fleet advancement system and the affiliated starbases. After the initial phases of Season Six were pushed to the test server, Cryptic announced the 900-day veteran rewards as well as information on the impending implementation of the new Account Guard system. Even better, more information about the starbase features, especially the ships players will soon be crafting, has been revealed by Star Trek Online's Lead Designer, Al Rivera. It's all after the cut!
Captain's Log: STO's loaded for bear
In continued preparation for the coming release of Season Six, this week Star Trek Online players saw the reemergence of the State of Game letters from STO Executive Producer Daniel Stahl as well as the launch of the new tier five ship, the Armitage class. We still await the official release date for Season Six; it hasn't been released to the Tribble test server, but Stahl's letter gives additional insight into what players can expect from the new season and gives a few hints at what can be anticipated in Season Seven, due out later this year. So join me as I go over both the letter and the specs for the new ship!
Captain's Log: Interview with Cryptic's Al Rivera, part three
Today Captain's Log continues with the third and final installment of my interview with Al Rivera, Star Trek Online's Lead Designer at Cryptic Studios! Rivera and I picked up the conversation and talked briefly about the Why I Play STO column that I wrote several weeks ago. I informed him that because of that column, I had received a few emails from brand-new MMO players who expressed frustration over the fact that as new free-to-play players, they weren't immediately allowed into the parts of the game that would give them access to the community, especially fleets, right off the bat.
Captain's Log: Interview with Cryptic's Al Rivera, part two
Today Captain's Log continues with part two of my interview with Al Rivera, Star Trek Online's Lead Designer at Cryptic Studios. Last week I received a bit of feedback regarding the state of Rivera's desk. I withheld taking pictures of the interior of the office space for fear of inadvertently capturing information that I wasn't free to share. Happily, though, Rivera himself decided to tweet a few photos of the ships and Trek paraphernalia that graced our visit to his office. Yes, it also included a picture of what I had described in my last column as a "funky purple monster." Apparently my comic book naiveté has kept me from recognizing what Rivera informed me is The Maxx. Sorry, but it will always be that funky purple monster to me.
Captain's Log: Interview with Cryptic's Al Rivera, part one
Last week, I headed to Cryptic Studios to meet with several of the folks responsible for the development of Star Trek Online. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing what I learned from those individuals and from the team on the whole! This week, I will begin my coverage of a lengthy interview with Al Rivera (@CaptainGeko), the lead designer for STO. If I had any doubts about the team's love or understanding of our beloved franchise, those doubts were dispelled the moment I walked into the STO work area.
Captain's Log: Cryptic's Lead Designer responds to questions
The weekend before Star Trek Online launched its free-to-play format, Cryptic Studios' Lead Designer, Al Rivera, responded to a lengthy list of player concerns, rants and questions via the STO community podcast PodcastUGC. PodcastUGC usually focuses its broadcasts on issues revolving around the game's user generated content tool, The Foundry, but as of late the co-hosts of the show (including me!) have been desperate for specific Foundry issues to discuss due to the lack of changes since last year. In the previous week's episode, I let my opinions fly along with my frustrations about what I felt was a severe lack of story-based content. I asked aloud, "What the hell have they been doing the past year?" To our surprise, we were contacted by Al Rivera, who set aside his day off to talk with us about just that.
Captain's Log: A two-minute read could save you 15% or more on nerdrage insurance
Captain's Log, Stardate 65340.3... Hello, computer (and players)! Welcome to this week's edition of Captain's Log, brought to you by "Geko" Insurance. (And let's just say, you may want to purchase a policy). If you are a Star Trek Online player who watches Cryptic's official forums, you know that the game experienced an Occupy movement of its own this past weekend. Even if you don't frequent the forums, you may have seen some of the concerns raised through the #STO Twitter feed. Over the weekend, players lashed out against some of the recent changes that have made their way to the Tribble test server. It may be surprising to some of you reading this, but the commotion was not related to the economy changes. The main concern is that some of the items for purchase in the C-Store are going to be changing from account-wide unlocks to per-character transactions. While I was a little perturbed at the thought too, I was happy to see that some of the misconceptions were cleared up once we got an official statement from one of the devs. But since there is a lot more to the story, let's take a look. Ensign, warp 10! And don't forget to buckle your seatbelt...
