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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.
Zachary Quinto in STO as Klingons gameplay is revealed
Today we bring Star Trek Online fans two big chunks of information and a whole slew of Klingon screens, too. First is a short trailer featuring Zachary Quinto laying down dialog for the game. Make sure you watch the video until the very end, as there's a fun extra you won't want to miss. Second -- and arguably much more exciting to specific fans -- is the reveal of Klingon gameplay. Klingons are PvP only, meaning their progression contains no PvE questing of any kind. Just how much information are we talking about here? Well, pretty much all of it. In fact, we're kind of wondering why you're still reading this and not looking below the cut, where vast amounts of Klingon gameplay treasure awaits.%Gallery-28615%
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 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
It's a bit late due to some scheduling issues, but your first batch of Star Trek Online community questions are here and they're all about ships as promised! Of course, we noticed many of you had space combat questions. While those unfortunately weren't answered this week, our new topic (up later today, so be on the look out for it!) will in fact, be, space combat. Still, many of your questions are answered below. As the weeks continue to go by, we endeavor to fulfill your quest for as much information on Star Trek Online as possible. Enjoy!
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.
New Star Trek Online gameplay trailer
There's a new Star Trek Online trailer out from Cryptic, originally released through GameSpot. The trailer features some impressive gameplay footage that illustrates nicely a few aspects of STO we've been hearing about for a while. There's both ground combat and space combat featured, with Klingon, Federation, and Borg ships taking part in the overall action. In one scene we see a fleet of ships attacking a single Borg cube in quite a nice display of firepower, including several (of what appear to be) quantum torpedoes. One of the more impressive aspects of this gameplay footage that we picked up on right way was the tactical maneuvering of what appears to be a mid-range ship of Romulan design. A captured still of the scene is pictured above, and you can clearly see in the video that the ship is moving to direct hits against its "bottom side" after the port shields were taking a significant beating. Note that the two ships attacking the main ship with green phasers are Klingon Vor'Cha class, so we're assuming the ship demonstrating the tactical moves is of Romulan origin. We also noticed that the ship pictured above bares some resemblance to the unidentified "classified" ship listed in the Ships of the Line articles at the official STO website. The above ship can be viewed more clearly in the HD trailer, however the unidentified ship on the STO website doesn't have a clear image -- only a blurry reconnaissance image. The warp nacelles both look similar (espeically if you take the image angles into consideration), both have the same general outline, and both have guns protruding from each wing. An interesting coincidence we wanted to point out. The video after the break.
Star Trek Online lore: 2379 to 2384
It's rare for an MMO to bring with it a history as rich and generational as Star Trek. The Trek universe is as deep and rich with lore as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, and just like both those titles the lore has been passed down from parent to child over generations now. This leaves any game which attempts to encapsulate that lore in a precarious situation of both having to remain close to the canon, yet leaving enough creative room for the player to feel like they're making a true difference in the universe. And while we have yet to see if Star Trek Online lives up to the second part of that criteria, we can take a look at how they are moving the lore forward and dealing with the canocial events of past Trek incarnations. The main conduit for this lesson in lore has been through the sporadic postings of The Path to 2409 on the official STO website. However, there's a lot of information there and it's quite easy to get lost in it all. So, let's take a look at the Star Trek Online timeline Cryptic has released thus far. To begin with, we'll go over the years 2379 through 2384.
Demo impressions of Star Trek Online from Eurogamer Expo 2009
We recently mentioned that Star Trek Online fans would get a chance to play through a demo of the game at Eurogamer Expo last week. One of the first reports we've read about the Star Trek Online demo comes from Oli Welsh at Eurogamer who was uniquely positioned to check out the game (it was their Expo after all.) Welsh begins by writing, "Trekkies can put one fear to rest right now: Star Trek Online feels just like Star Trek." Although this might assuage a bit of the apprehension some gamers have about trying yet another Star Trek game, Welsh is up front about the fact that the demo he played through was a contained single player experience. It's too soon to say what gameplay will feel like when hundreds of other players are thrown into the mix. He writes about the demo's transitions between locations via warp jumps, keyboard navigation of star ships (standard WASD, with additional throttle control), and the pacing of ship combat. Welsh also walks the reader from the bridge of a Federation vessel down to the surface of a planet where Klingon opponents await. Fans of the game should read Eurogamer's hands on with Star Trek Online and may also be interested in the video footage of STO gameplay from Limited Edition, shot at this year's Eurogamer Expo (starting at 02:40. They've also captured gameplay of Global Agenda as well.) We've got a video embed of that for you after the jump.
Five exclusive Star Trek Online screens
Romulan and Klingon love anyone? That's what you'll find in our five exclusive Star Trek Online screens, one of which you can see above in all its sleek sexy glory. If space isn't your thing -- although if that's the case, you may want to reconsider your interest in space MMOs -- Cryptic is showing off this view of a tropical environment that's making us long for warmer weather. Although, we're much more interested in shots that feature the glory of the Klingon Empire. Well, okay maybe that last one wasn't exactly glorious insomuch that nobody was being blown up. Let's just pretend that all the rubble was the remains of a powerful enemy brought to its knees... yeah. Check out all the new images in the gallery below. You'll find all new images at the end.%Gallery-28615%
Massively's Star Trek Online beta interview
With beta now beginning, we shot some relevant questions at Cryptic's Craig Zinkievich, executive producer on Star Trek Online. He gave us his insight on what the team's goals are during beta and what some of their toughest challenges were from their point of view. Plus, we even got him to spill the beans on when Klingons would be entering the fray for beta testers -- hopefully the rest of us get to see and hear more about the warrior race soon thereafter. It's a short interview, mostly because we kept our questions on topic and well, also because we didn't want to distract Craig from working on his game for very long. Someone's got to work on fulfilling our childhood fantasies!
Cryptic isn't spreading Klingon propaganda, but it's still awesome
You there! You look like the kind of aspiring individual who knows what's best for him or her. Why, we bet that if you had to choose between the cowardly Federation or mighty Klingon Empire, you'd make the right decision. Would you? Of course you would. That's right, you're a proud and courageous warrior, it's so obvious now. We asked Cryptic if they were involved, but their official response was that, sadly, they weren't. Even still, the video is nothing but pure awesome and we hope that whomever is responsible makes a Federation variant at some point -- or even a Borg version! Check out the video after the break, and afterwards you will come to love Qo'noS as much as we now do.
Players to get hands-on time with Star Trek Online at Eurogamer Expo
Some people have already gotten into the closed beta for Star Trek Online, but for the rest of us it's going to be a waiting game. There may be good news for some of our UK-based readers, though. Those in attendance at this week's Eurogamer Expo will get to experience both ship-based action and ground combat firsthand in a Star Trek Online demo Cryptic Studios has set up. According to Eurogamer, Cryptic will allow Expo attendees to fight a fleet of Klingons and follow that up with an away mission on a planet's surface, where they will encounter the "Guardian of Forever." Eurogamer Expo will run October 27-28 in Leeds, and October 30-31 in London. You can check out the full details of this public hands-on of Star Trek Online in the Eurogamer announcement. %Gallery-28615%
Star Trek Online player progression dev chat October 20th
If you've got any additional questions on player progression in Star Trek Online, Cryptic will be holding a 30 minute dev chat next Tuesday, October 20, at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time. The topic's been covered previously -- particularly in the ongoing Ask Cryptic feature -- but as always the developer is more than happy to open itself to follow-up questions from the community.There's a Java client you can access from the web right here, just make sure to type "/join #STO" in the text input field. If you've got IRC, simply point it at #STO on coldfront.net and you're in business. Also, anyone who'd like their question answered but can't make it should post it in this official thread on the Star Trek Online forums. Cryptic will be selecting questions from there as well.We hope you guys have questions, because we're kinda stumped on anything but Klingon specific stuff, which we're sure they're not going to answer right now.
Five new Star Trek Online screenshots
We've got five new Star Trek Online screens for you, hot off the computers at Cryptic Studios. Usually we have an exceedingly difficult time picking a favorite, but the above image contains Klingon warbirds and so it wins our hearts. Our love of the Federation isn't gone, but if you hadn't been able to tell yet, we're very happy to finally start seeing more of the Klingon side of Trek -- even if it's only a screenshot and video.Telling you how the other screens show off amazing space battles and cool interiors is probably unnecessary. So in lieu of that, we'll mention that we can't wait to see Klingon interiors and all their angular, red and green glory.%Gallery-28615%