I wouldn’t call myself a hard-core Trekkie, but I’ve watched my fair share of Star Trek over the years. I love ST:TNG and own all the seasons on DVD. I also own all of Voyager (I was never into DS9 much). As far as the original, I loved the movies they were in but was never a huge fan of the original tv series. So there you go - I’ve laid out my Trek cred for what’s it worth on the table.
I do have enough Klingon blood running through my veins that I’m excited about what Star Trek Online could be someday. I honestly haven’t heard a heck of a lot about this title except that it’s in development, but that’s mostly because 2008 will really be the year they ramp up into real production. So there hasn’t been a lot to say about it yet, but a recent article by MPOGD.com gives us more insight into what developer Perpetual is up to. They were fortunate enough to interview Daron Stinnett, Executive Producer of Star Trek Online. Through this interview I learned several things about what they have planned for the game such as:
1. Star Trek will have defined classes called “professions” - science, tactical, engineering, security, etc. as broad categories which can branch into more specific roles.
2. Everyone will get a ship, starting out with a shuttle and working your way up. You won’t, however, be flying the Enterprise.
3. The largest ships and also space stations will be the equivalent of player run cities, having all the services you’d expect in a typical MMO city.
4. Player models have a unique, stylized look to them that apparently is pretty appealing, differntiating different races quickly based on body type, etc.
5. There will be seven playable races.
6. Group size will likely be the typical 5-6 people, with larger groups for raids (called Armadas). There will also be guilds (called Fleets).
7. PvP? Yep - consensual PvP in the Holodecks (where things like arena and specific matches can be fought) as well as world PvP. There will also be special free-for-all PvP servers set up.
8. The game will take place 25 years past Star Trek: Nemesis. So it’s the future of the Trek Universe, after Picard’s time.
9. Holodecks (can and probably will) serve as portals to missions in any conceivable era of time, much like the show. So in a way you almost have the Star-Gate-esque thing going on there.
So there are a few choice pieces of information for those of you, like me, who had not heard a lot of detail about this game yet. How will this game ultimately turn out? Time will tell, but it’s got definite brand recognition and a huge following. I’ll be very interested to hear more detail on specific game mechanics as time goes on. Live long and prosper.
Tags: Developer News, MMO News, Star Trek Online
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September 29th, 2007 at 8:19 am - Edit
It is hard to find good space games these days.
September 30th, 2007 at 9:07 am - Edit
I’ll be pleased if Perpetual proves me wrong, but I feel Trek is too big of an IP to take many risks with. STO will most likely be a very “safe” MMO just like LOTRO is, not taking risks, not pushing things forward and much like SWG once you take away the graphics and audio, we’ll be left with interplanetary Fedex quests and Kill Ten Klingon Rats quests.
September 30th, 2007 at 12:55 pm - Edit
Yep I haven’t been overly impressed with what Perpetual is doing with G&H, so that fact that they have the Trek IP kinda makes me go “meh”. But, it’s very, very early on so I’ll definitely give it the benefit of the doubt and see what they come up with. I think it’s main competition will be Stargate Worlds, which I honestly think will probably be the better game, even at this early stage.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:39 am - Edit
I haven’t kept track of SGW either but what really concerned me was their sentiment (or focus) on creating new characters. They’d already said it was easy and fast to reach level cap then they encourage new characters to do it again. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, but to me that smacks of “we don’t have much content, not much to do, so just keep repeating the leveling process.”
I love the Stargate IP but… I just don’t know about the direction Cheyenne Mountain is taking it. But again, I’m not keeping up with it at all. Until something tangible actually exists, SGW is vapor and rumors as far as I’m concerned.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:38 am - Edit
Sounds interesting. I didn’t know they were making a Star Trek game, though in retrospect I should’ve seen it coming.
October 1st, 2007 at 11:29 am - Edit
You know this is one of those that can be very, very good or very, very bad.
It’s been in development for ages I think, right?
October 1st, 2007 at 1:33 pm - Edit
Listening to Brent discuss STO on VirginWorlds #88 just made me lose a helluva lot of interest in the game, and as I noted above I really didn’t hold much hope for it to begin with.