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Sid Meier's next exploration game has you roving the galaxy
Legendary game maker Sid Meier is clearly fond of exploration on a grand scale -- hot on the heels of the alien world colonization of Civilization: Beyond Earth, he's ready to take on an entire galaxy. He and Firaxis have unveiled Starships, a follow-up title that has you establishing your own galactic empire, forging alliances and (naturally) engaging in tactical starship battles with customizable vessels. The developers aren't revealing much about the exact mechanics, but there will be "cross-connectivity" with Beyond Earth that has one game affecting the other. You won't have to wait long to see how it works for yourself, at any rate, since the game will reach iPads, Macs and Windows PCs in early 2015.
Sid Meier's 'Starships' blasts off this year
The house Sid Meier built, Firaxis, will send out an "interstellar strategy game" for PC, Mac and iPad in early 2015. According to 2K's initial announcement, players will research new technologies and spaceship designs, pierce through the unknown reaches of the galaxy and fight in turn-based combat, all hinged on "distinctive" maps and dynamically created combat missions. "My goal was to create an experience that focuses on starship design and combat within a universe filled with interstellar adventure, diplomacy, and exploration," says Meier. Publisher 2K is also teasing cross-connectivity between Starships and last year's turn-based Civilization spin-off, Beyond Earth.
Star Trek Online details four Delta Rising starships
Star Trek Online fans are eagerly -- and anxiously -- awaiting information about the new Tier 6 starships coming with next month's Delta Rising. Cryptic is beginning to roll out ship details and specs by listing four of the Delta starships in a dev diary today. The Federation will get the new Guardian cruiser, a very durable and flexible ship that can convert enemy fire into a weapons boost, and the Dauntless experimental science vessel, which can project fake copies of the ship to fool enemies. Over on the other side, the Klingons will enjoy the Mat'Ha Raptor, a vessel with an insane amount of firepower. Finally, Romulan characters can snag the Aelahl Warbird Battlecruiser, which can throw out a collapsing singularity for fun and horrible consequences. These starships will be sold on the C-store and accessible by players level 50 and above.
Star Citizen reaches $50 million in space bucks
Star Citizen crossed $50 million in support following the launch of some pricey digital starships. The milestone was reached thanks to the docking of the "2945 RSI Constellation Lineup," a collection of four ships that went on sale over this past weekend. The game reached $48 million in mid-July, at which point Roberts Space Industries introduced the Retaliator ship. The 2945 RSI Constellation line of starships range in price from $150 to $350, the latter being the Constellation Phoenix, a luxury spacecraft in limited production: Just 5,000 of the ships will be made available. As of this writing, 628 of those ships were sold. Roberts Space Industries began its monstrous crowdfunding effort for Star Citizen with a Kickstarter project that hauled in a now-seemingly-puny $6 million in November 2012. One other PC game by its creator, Chris Roberts, is currently free on Origin until September 2: Wing Commander 3. [Image: Roberts Space Industries]
Star Trek Online working on up to 10 new ships for expansion
If a friend tries to make a bet with you that Star Trek Online is out of new starship designs, don't take it. Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo posted a dev diary today stating that the team is working on "between seven and 10 new Tier 6 ships" across all three factions for Delta Rising's launch. The new tier of starships won't necessarily make your old Tier 5s obsolete. D'Angelo promised that, if players desire, they can continue to fly and fight in their favorite ships: "We are dedicated to making sure that players can continue flying the ships they love and still have those ships be competitive at the new level 60 endgame. We do not want players to feel that their investment in the current ships is devalued by the expansion, and this is a very challenging thing to do for a game with four years of history since the last level cap increase." D'Angelo said that more details about Delta Rising will be forthcoming except for the storyline, and that the expansion should be launching in October.
One Shots: Internet spaceships
EVE Online is one of those polarizing games that seems to spark debate at every mention, but even if you're not a fan of the game's mechanics, there's no denying that the game's visuals are breathtaking. Infamous EVE pirate Helicity Boson sent in today's highlighted screenshot with this note: Today I come to you with an amazing screenshot taken during a joint operation with several of Shadow Cartel's friends who happened to have trapped an unsuspecting super capital pilot. The visuals were just... amazing. There are a few more on my site, machine9.net. I hope you'll share this with the world! Helicity's screenshot and two more starship-themed pics are tucked behind the break!
SWTOR: Starship operator's guide
Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of an actual, factual, interstellar starship! Or you soon will be, assuming that you're planning to play Star Wars: The Old Republic. Starships have captured the imaginations of Star Wars fans for over three decades now, as the Millennium Falcon, Luke's X-Wing, Boba Fett's Slave-1, and Knights of the Old Republic's Ebon Hawk have become geek cultural icons. It's not Star Wars without the stars, after all, which is why BioWare will be handing you the keys to your very own starship as part of your SWTOR journey. But what does that entail? There's a lot of confusion and misinformation swirling about starships, which is unfortunate. SWTOR's starships are part player housing, part combat vehicle, and part story platform, and that combination lacks an easy analogue in other MMOs. That's why you've got this handy holocron with all of the starship "must knows" to aid your initial voyage to the stars! Coordinates for the jump are plotted. Punch it, reader!
Massively's guide to SWTOR's launch and beyond
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we first heard mention of a new Star Wars MMO set in the popular Knights of the Old Republic era. Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare named it, and we've waited patiently impatiently through months years of hope and hype, fanboys and haters, and at least eight million articles about the fourth pillar of story. This week, The Old Republic is the new hotness, and the Massively staffers are right there with you, champing at the bit to get in the head start already! But what if you're not an expert on Star Wars lore or TOR's gameplay? What if you don't know the first thing about purple lightsabers, astromechs, and the Kessel Run? What if you can't decide which class to play? When do you get a starship? Can you really romance your companions? How do flashpoints work? And why are there no bathrooms on Coruscant?! Relax, young Padawan. Put your blast-shield down and let Massively be your guide... literally. We've rounded up a massive collection of helpful introductory guides for each of the eight classes, along with overviews of gameplay mechanics like companions, starships, flashpoints, warzones, and crafting. We've also curated the most illuminating lore essays from our regular SWTOR column, Hyperspace Beacon, in addition to our extensive hands-on previews from the last few years. Take your first step into a larger world...
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...
Captain's Log: More on the economy
Captain's Log, Stardate 65303.9... Hello, computer (and players)! As I discussed last week, heated discussions surround Star Trek Online's change to a F2P hybrid model and planned game mechanics updates. While new updates are being pushed to the Tribble server for testing and feedback, many aspects are in a state of flux as such feedback is collected, evaluated, and implemented. The biggest area affected is the economy. While everyone has his own thoughts on the matter, Cryptic is leaving no feedback forum post unread -- the players will help shape these changes. Last week, we saw the push of another patch that seems to have made some giant strides toward solving some of the biggest concerns, including significant reductions in prices for most items and the return of free ship tokens for most ranks. Stephen D'Angelo, acting Executive Producer and Emergency Executive Producer Hologram (EEPH), explained: "Based on how rapidly we're getting data and revising the game, we're still probably two more weeks away from having the economy in a state that is close to good enough." Since he said a lot more in his recent dev blog post, I thought I should take some time to expound on it. Ensign, warp 10! Let's take a look at what else the EEPH had to say and break it down...
Star Trek Online's free-to-play starships prepare to leave spacedock
As Star Trek Online's free-to-play final frontier approaches, the Cryptic team is fast at work trying to strike the right balance between the standard-issue starships that come with the game and the C-Store options available for purchase. In a new dev blog, Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo says that each rank of gameplay is being shuffled around to offer a regular and premium starship for each class. Because not every tier had enough for six starships, Cryptic is adding a number of spiffy C-Store versions for Federation players, including the new Exeter cruiser, the Sao Paulo escort, and the Bellerophon science vessel. The Klingon Defense Force is receiving a similar restructuring, with new ships like the Norgh Refit and Orion Dacoit Flight Deck Cruiser making their way into the store. D'Angelo admits that C-Store starships are slightly stronger and carry a special piece of gear that can be transferred from ship to ship as the player levels up. D'Angelo also stresses that any C-Store starships are purchased for an entire account, not a single character. Cryptic is also planning to re-instate the free starship token at Lt. Commander and Commander ranks for everyone.
Explore The Old Republic's galaxy (far, far away) in 3-D
While Star Wars: The Old Republic has long since displayed its many, many planets on its Holonet page, BioWare's just released a brand-new map that lets you explore the entirety of the galaxy in three dimensions. The Galaxy Map serves to give players a good feel for how enormous the Star Wars setting is as well as where all of these planets stand in relation to each other. While there are billions of star systems, only a handful support life and will be featured in the game proper. The map is divided up into five major sectors: Coreward Worlds, Unknown Regions, Seat of the Empire, Hutt Space, and Distant Outer Rim. Players can check out the 17 revealed planets within those sectors as well as an up close and personal view of each of the six player starships. It's important to note that the use of the 3-D galaxy map requires the installation of the Unity web player onto your computer.
SWTOR says BAM! is the word for today's update
Big news exploded from the Star Wars: The Old Republic camp today. We knew BioWare was going to be at PAX East this year, but we knew nothing of the team's specific plans. In today's updates, the SWTOR devs not only revealed more about the Bounty Hunter profession as we predicted from yesterday's IGN video reveal but also told us that visitors to their PAX booth would be the first of the general public to play the Taral V flashpoint. The Bounty Hunter page has been overhauled to reflect the advanced classes of Powertech and Mercenary. On the starships page, catch the detailed specs of the Kuat Drive Yards D5-Mantis Patrol Craft -- or the D5-Mantis, for those who think KDYD5MPC is a silly acronym. Mako, the Nar Shaddaa slicer, was officially revealed as a companion for the Bounty Hunter. Also, don't forget the Rattataki species on the inhabitants page. SWTOR fans who were waiting on endgame reveals will hopefully be going to PAX East this year. You will be able to play a Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, or Jedi Consular in the Republic Taral V flashpoint, with Lead Designer James Ohlen and Lead Writer Daniel Erickson in the booth to answer all your questions. While you're at booth 912, don't forget to ask for your invitation to the Community Meet and Greet, which starts directly after the booth closes Saturday night -- the event's at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel right next to the convention center. %Gallery-118438%
Massively's exclusive SWTOR interview: Starships, PvP, and crafting!
E3 has been abuzz with the latest news about LucasArts' and Bioware's new MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yesterday, they teased us with an exciting fully rendered trailer called "Hope." The trailer showed a battle which is a precursor to one the players will be able to experience in game. Unfortunately, this trailer didn't have many answers. In fact, it seemed to present us with even more questions. So we at Massively sent our own Sera Brennan to talk to the designers of SWTOR to see about getting some answers. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Massively_interviews_SWTOR_s_Rich_Vogel_at_E3'; Rich Vogel, the executive producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, was kind enough to sit down with Sera for a few minutes in EA's gameplay booth in the LA convention center on Tuesday. Perhaps we could get some of our burning questions answered about PvP, groups, space, ships, housing, and crafting. Follow after the jump to see what they had to say!
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!
Star Trek Online introduces Associate Producer Andy Velasquez
Star Trek Online has to be the sci fi MMO that has everyone interested, not just because you get to be a starship captain but also because of the lore aspect. Well the game is still in development but the official site is continuing to pump out articles relating to the game, it's development, more shiny screenshots than you can shake a stick at and glimpses into the fascinating future history of the Star Trek Universe.This time it's a 'meet the team' interview with Associate Producer Andy Velasquez. It's a nice way to get to know the minds behind the game. The piece focuses more on Velasquez's favourite computer games and Star Trek characters than the game he's producing. However he does shed a little light on his role within Star Trek Online, his background and proffers a little advice for anyone thinking of entering the games industry. So if you're not just interested in the lore and shiny ships, you might want to check this out.
Diverting information from shields to weapons in newest STO Ask Cryptic
This edition of Ask Cryptic is especially interesting for Star Trek fans wanting to know how combat is going to play out in Cryptic's Star Trek Online. We now know that it will be possible to divert power from one system in the game to another. So a player will be able to drop engines by 40% and boost weapons with that diverted power, allowing them to make a heavier attack.Related to this is the new knowledge that there won't be a "mana bar" style power system in the game. Players will never have to worry about being able to fire their phasers because their energy is too low, but of course if they divert too much power from said phasers they won't be hitting very hard with them. Another possibility -- although unconfirmed as far as we know -- would be if your phasers were damaged too much from concentrated fire.Finally, we're happy to hear that Cryptic is certain that a grouping of smaller ships will definitely be able to take down a larger battleship. This means that Star Trek Online's leveling system will not be the norm, another plus for anyone hoping that the game won't be "WoW with starships" or anything of the sort.
Ask Cryptic explains how Star Trek Online will handle canon
The latest Ask Cryptic focusing on Star Trek Online addresses a number of questions sci-fi fans have about where the IP is heading in the MMO space. Not surprisingly, many of the questions asked of Cryptic deal with how well they'll adhere to Star Trek canon. The Cryptic Studios devs were asked about how they would handle the iconic story and characters of Star Trek, namely with voiceovers and cut scenes. The devs state that Star Trek Online avoids issues of tampering with Trekkie canon by setting the game in 2409, a good 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Voyager. So while some of the locales familiar to Star Trek fans will be present in the game, players shouldn't expect to bump into any (or many) familiar faces.
