Star Trek Online Update From Live Webcast

Star Trek Online Las Vegas Webcast from Cryptic Studios on Vimeo.

I just finished viewing the live webcast from the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention, hosted by Cryptic Studios, the Developer of the newly rescued Star Trek Online MMORPG. Complete with a professional and witty introduction from none other than Mr. Spock himself (Leonard Nimoy), Jack Emmert, the games Chief Creative Officer, spent about 30 minutes discussing what STO is about.

Jack discussed the important aspects of the game including exploration, diplomacy, combat, and socialization. He also stressed that in regards to his game, the original series, the long list of movies, and novels written in the same time frame are considered "absolute canon", and that STO will NOT deviate from what we all know and love as "Star Trek". He also mentioned (during the Q & A) that the alternate, parallel universe novels will be used as secondary canon, mainly for reference but not game-based canon. Apparently, the game will take place about 30 years after the last STTNG movie.

And for the MMO players out there, it appears that we will have explorable player ships, commanded by the player, along with a crew of intelligent NPC's that will grow and level up with you. And I couldn't quite infer if the game is level driven or skill driven, however I believe it may be the ladder.

When asked about player character death and how the devs intend on dealing with it, Jack stated that there will be permadeath, and that they will ding your credit card for another subscription each time you die. Of course he was joking, but it was funny none-the-less. He said in all seriousness that death is becoming less and less of a huge penalty in MMOs these days, and that the game should just be fun to play, and not a chore if you make a mistake. It is after all, just a game.

Then Jack introduced the very first "In-Game", non-rendered, "player-controlled demo style" trailer...to wit I cheered and applauded...wow it is really amazing what they have done in so little time. The footage showed space battle, a phaser fight on board a ship's bridge, the Borg, Andorians, beaming down to a planet and all kinds of eye candy - and all I can say is - you gotta see it.

And the reason Jack states that the game will be out "Sooner than you might think", is that Star Trek Online uses the same game engine that Cryptic used for CoX and Champions Online - just re skinned for Star Trek. The system is in place, and they do not need to develop an entirely new game engine to make the game work. This aspect usually adds at least 2-3 years to the dev cycle, making the tools to make the engine, so to speak. Since Cryptic is an already established MMO company with a couple games under their belt it was easier to just start adding new art and content to an existing system, thus reducing the dev cycle of this game. He stated that although he knows the release date/time frame, he cannot tell us...but what he did say is that to expect it in perhaps less than 4 years, maybe less than 3.

Keep your MMO eyes peeled on this one folks, it is gonna be big. And I think from what I've seen, all Star Trek fans who also play video games will want to pick this one up for sure. It's kind of reminiscent of when Star Wars Galaxies was announced- the anticipation is killing me.