By Jim Rossignol on August 11th, 2008 at 8:10 am.
Cryptic Studios, they of City Of Heroes and Champions Online, have revealed their new MMO, Star Trek Online. Beyond the jump is the first trailer, which is packed with in-game footage. Borg cubes warp, Federation ships explode, and dudes get phasered in the midriff. Is the trailer set to stun(ning?) Maybe! Oh my aching sides.
11/08/2008 at 08:18 H says:
It doesn’t look awful, anyway. Do we know if it’s supposed to be released to coincide with the new film? According to Simon “Ooh I’m playing Scotty” Pegg, it’s mid-2009. That seems a bit early for this, doesn’t it?
And oh yes, HOW many Borg?
11/08/2008 at 08:20 Five says:
I’m just hoping it isn’t all combat
But the daily life of a federation of officer probably wouldnt make an interesting game…
11/08/2008 at 08:47 davidalpha says:
It looks very shallow somehow. And i dont care for that graphics style at all.
11/08/2008 at 08:59 DSX says:
The website has a pretty lengthy webcast that goes into some detail on the game. Of interest: the EVE-esque style stations you build with friends in order to pool resources for assembling larger ships. Also the idea that you and your “bridge crew” of dependents are yours to control, manipulate skills, and use to make up a dynamic party for away missions etc.
Scary: Graphics, player characters do not level, only gain rank, diplomacy-only solutions to conflict appears tossed out the window.
11/08/2008 at 09:00 Theory says:
It was OK until they started fighting. There’s not that much of that in the telly series, is there?
11/08/2008 at 09:27 MaW says:
The graphics are worryingly inconsistent. I hope this is simply a reflection of the game’s unfinished state, as some parts of that looked great, and other parts looked like they haven’t paid any attention to the lighting.
I do hope it doesn’t turn into all combat. Star Trek is not supposed to be about combat.
11/08/2008 at 09:49 Skalpadda says:
It looks like they’re going more for the charming look than ultra-cool modern sci-fi. I rather liked the visuals, but I’d love to see a bit more of how it actually plays.
11/08/2008 at 09:58 Sp4rkR4t says:
That is the worst depiction of a Borg cube in history
11/08/2008 at 10:00 Pepon says:
What about being able to create your own alien species? Hardcore trekkies will want blood for this!!!
11/08/2008 at 11:26 Bobsy says:
Eh, looks rather tedious, but I guess that’s apt since Star Trek’s been tedious for years. The lack of coop crewing remains a shame (does this mean that multi-chap beamup shot suggests control of several characters at once?) and the space sploding looks both ugly and unsatisfying. The most memorable space battles in the Star Trek canon were always the tense cat and mouse duels between two titanic ships – such as in “KHAAAAAAAAAAN!”. Good times. Or at least, above-average times.
11/08/2008 at 11:57 Cooper says:
As long as it’s not just combat. I want exploration, diplomacy – you know, the things Star Trek is actually about?
11/08/2008 at 12:54 Grey_Ghost says:
I’m pretty sure I remember Jack Emmert mentioning exploration & diplomacy a few times in that webcast. I’ve no idea how they will implement all the ideas he mentioned, but I really do hope they can pull off something amazing here.
11/08/2008 at 13:29 FreezerBag says:
The planet side graphics look better than I expected (or last weeks screenshots led me to expect).
I’ve always felt that Star Trek is the better license for video games (and MMOs in particular) than, say, Star Wars. There’s just been no actual games that proved that assertion accurate.
But the idea of a MMO with a significant focus on exploration and diplomacy made me go ‘Squeeeeeeee…’
There’s also Tom Chick’s write-up.
11/08/2008 at 13:35 Fil says:
At least now we know there’s beaming to planets.
That you can walk around inside the ship (at least the control room)
They better have a holodeck though. and the ship better be big to walk around w/ your own personal quarters. & able to hold a large amount of people. If it’s just 5 ppl per ship that will get pretty lame fast.
I understand how every1 would want to be captain, but if they made the captain a NPC and had a skill system where besides doing off ship missions your characters abilities are useful in boosting the odds in your ships favor. Whether it be navigation, weapons, engineering, repair, etc..
basically if the MMO aspect isn’t pervasive in all aspects of the game (as in you just fly around in your own ship & occasionally cross paths with other ppl flying around in their ships) it might as well be a 1 player game.
You should be able to beam aboard an enemy ship w/ other ppl and attack from the inside too. or do rescue missions.
Considering CRYPTIC made CoH it should be easy for them to do these things as a lot of them are the same. Instances, large maps, Team building (specifically the “Find” feature which makes finding people to team w/ easier as well as the exemplar/sidekick system).
11/08/2008 at 13:40 Cooper says:
Star Trek: TNG – A Final Unity got it right. Felt like playing through 2/3 episodes – well written, with a lot, lot more going on than just combat which has been the focus of most Star Trek games since.
11/08/2008 at 13:47 Dogun says:
Players not leveling is a daring and, I think, necessary choice.
I also like how the Federation doesn’t have a monetary system, thank goodness, so this could be the relatively grind-free MMO.
I hope they figure out how to make it successful.
11/08/2008 at 13:55 SwiftRanger says:
“diplomacy-only solutions to conflict appears tossed out the window”
Euh, did you see that webcast? They’re discussing it and know it’s an important part of Star Trek, that doesn’t sound like it’s tossed out. to me. The trailer looks okay but the webcast is a lot more comforting.
11/08/2008 at 14:08 Noc says:
Procedurally generated worlds sounds interesting, I think, provided you have interesting and meaningful ways to interact with them. You know, in classic Star Trek’ly fashion: you end up on a world where the culture has some huge idiosyncrasy. The procedurally generated shenanigans of Dwarf Fortress come to mind.
The big ‘ole space battles didn’t look particularly interesting. I know that stuff tended to happen offscreen mostly due to budgetary reasons, but as Bobsy said, the really interesting space-fights were the ones that felt more like submarine battles.
On-foot fighting looked a bit boring, but it was boring in the show, too. Which brings up another point: most of the show was always about problem solving with psuedo-science. You wouldn’t lose a fight because the other side had bigger guns and you weren’t tanked properly, or because your fellows weren’t particularly good shots with phasers . . . you’d lose it because the other side was employing some exotic technology that you had to find a way to circumvent. Usually by reversing the polarity of something.
In conclusion, I think that the more opportunities you’ll have to reverse the polarity of things, the better.
11/08/2008 at 15:31 Sal says:
pew pew pew….
11/08/2008 at 17:46 Camden says:
This game needs Q.
I think as long as the devs include the machinations of the Q continuum, this game will win. Actually, the Q provide a great method for the GMs to alter the state of the game, without breaking canon.
Just have John de Lancie do voiceovers for the patch notes in that terribly dismissive voice of his.
/fanboy
11/08/2008 at 18:13 The Shed says:
Heh, everyone seems to be throwing hate at this. I wasn’t expecting anything good, but I was impressed- I’d play this shit.
^Yeah Q could be the admins. That’d be awesome.
And as Fil said, the beaming around could be oh so satisfying. Mmmmm, squad action.
11/08/2008 at 18:46 Camden says:
Point-to-point transporting could be a very excellent strategic option.
In fact, point to point transport is grossly underutilized in the series. Seems like a Federation Special Forces squad would have some kind of man-portable transporter array that could… well hopefully the devs are as much of a Star Trek nerd as I am.
11/08/2008 at 19:52 Alex Taldren says:
Did anyone else laugh when the narrator said war?
Haha, those who strive for peace must be prepared for wwwwwurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
11/08/2008 at 19:56 DSX says:
@SwiftRanger
I hope I’m wrong in the final analysis, but that’s my impression based on the way Emmert glossed past the pointed questions about diplomacy, and the way the trailer seemed tilted toward warfare rather then diplomacy/exploration.
My hope is that should you choose, you could play almost entirely from the point of a negotiator with very little actual warfare. However, that would require scripting events and AI pretty uniquely for each interaction like with bioware-esque charm/intimidate options in all chat dialogues that can be employed based on player skill lvl.
11/08/2008 at 20:53 Rath says:
Sudden urge to look for an XP patch for Birth Of The Federation.
12/08/2008 at 00:11 Erlam says:
“In conclusion, I think that the more opportunities you’ll have to reverse the polarity of things, the better.”
This is so very, very true.
In terms of the war-ness of the trailer, keep in mind companies are often forced to show the combat, because that’s what sells most games. Also, it’s easier to make 5, 10 second clips of combat than of dialogue. Imagine just a fast-forward of alien talks, reply, alien talks, reply, GESTURES AROUND, reply…
12/08/2008 at 03:10 Derek K. says:
I was left feeling “eh” but then I basically had the same thought as Erlam. The non-combat bits wouldn’t be very exciting in the first trailer, just like the Fallout 3 trailer is nearly all combat. I’m hoping there’s more, but I think I’ll stick with the KoTOR MMO unless something huge happens.
12/08/2008 at 10:52 Anthony Damiani says:
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.
12/08/2008 at 12:12 alphaxion says:
something that I have always wanted to see in space based games has been a dynamism where events such as ancient races being awoken every so often to spread chaos, ancient artifacts turning up, new races bursting forward and either turn into a race against time to bring them into your “empire” and get exclusive tech to either sell or share or they could be murderous and try to rampage across the galaxy…
I loved the silithid and the undead invasions during the AQ and naxx openings in wow, why can’t an mmo bring these in to make your gameplay that little bit uncertain.
12/08/2008 at 12:26 mpk says:
What about being able to create your own alien species? Hardcore trekkies will want blood for this!!!
You’d end up with a character creator that only let you edit your avatars nose.
12/08/2008 at 13:21 Myros says:
Wondering how they handle ‘death’. Eve-like where you lose your whole ship or like the standard MMO crud where your ship is magicly restored.