Concept Art for Star Trek: Online released

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2005-08-15 01:59pm

I thought a few people here might be interested in taking a look at this. Obviously, it's just a game, but things are going nicely in who's joined with 'canon experience', Mike Okuda for one, has joined the development staff and himself designed a new LCARS interface for the game (which will be set twenty years after Nemesis).

Any, check it out. Be sure to read the accompanying text from the Art Director (quoted).

There's a good shockwave animation of how the LCARS interface is coming along here.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-08-15 02:08pm

So they're modifiying the uniforms yet again? Bleargh. Not that they look bad, but I do wish they'd stay with the established ones...

And is it just me, or should this be a TOS-era game instead of TNG/DS9/VOY era? TOS has so much potential, after all... all that exploration, merchandisizing, meeting new alien species...

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-08-15 02:43pm

What exactly are those glowing things on their belts supposed to be? Tricorders? Some type of hand weapon? Communicators?

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2005-08-15 02:47pm

Personal Shield Generators... the addition of which are outlined in the quoted text.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-08-15 03:12pm

I don't like the new uniforms and personal shield generators, thank God this ain't canon.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-15 03:25pm

I don't like the new uniforms and personal shield generators, thank God this ain't canon.

I think the uniforms were long overdue for a Modification personally... I just hope you get to at least fly the Defiant.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2005-08-15 03:34pm

Lord Revan wrote:I don't like the new uniforms and personal shield generators, thank God this ain't canon.

I love them really, I think it's good to get back to the TOS Movie idea of customising uniforms per department (Engineering with more robust/protective outfits, security with shielding, away team suiting etc). As for the personal shield generators, well... 20 years after Nemesis, I figure they're to be expected. Phasers look good too, imho.

But indeed, it ain't canon, but it's still going to be the biggest thing in Star Trek in a few years time, we'll see how it goes. With Okuda and the likes on board it should go in the right direction.

I wrote a guide about the game here if anyone is interested in looking into a little more about it, though after lots of recent revelations I need to update it soon.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-08-15 03:38pm

Lord Revan wrote:I don't like the new uniforms and personal shield generators, thank God this ain't canon.

At least the uniforms are better than the pajama jumpsuits of TNG and Voyager. I like the more militaristic look about them myself.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-08-15 04:33pm

Lord Revan wrote:I don't like the new uniforms and personal shield generators, thank God this ain't canon.

Well, it could have a connection to the belt-based personal forcefield things from TAS, but I suppose that would require them to be paying attention for once...

Oh, and that whole LCARS thing looks like a whole lot of nonsense.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2005-08-15 04:52pm

Well, it could have a connection to the belt-based personal forcefield things from TAS, but I suppose that would require them to be paying attention for once...

Okuda pays attention. He's been with the franchise since the movie era.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-08-15 05:02pm

oh man those uniforms look totally EXTREME

I'm not at all optimistic about this game. I don't think Starfleet is conducive to the sporadic availability of MMORPG players (well, except for the fanatically inclined) and I don't see what Star Trek would have to offer non-Starfleet people that you couldn't get elsewhere, and I think there's a good chance they're going to hose the gameplay.

I'm sure there will be those people who would love to do nothing but sit around and open hailing frequencies for a few hours, but I can't see those people as being numerous enough to make enough money to keep this thing profitable.

I'd sure love to be proven wrong on it, though.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-15 05:06pm

They'll probably use some plot contrivance to escalate it into a war between the Beta and Alpha Quadrants...

Which I sorely hope they do...

I just wonder how they're going to manage long range Warp Travel... Maybe, since they're setting it a bit in the future, they'll be using Quantum Slipstream, and we can go visit the Borg!

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-08-15 05:14pm

Warp will probably be like how long distance travel is in SWG and WoW: more or less instantanious.

There will probably also be no actual exploration, and it'll just be system hopping.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-15 05:24pm

Warp will probably be like how long distance travel is in SWG and WoW: more or less instantanious.

There will probably also be no actual exploration, and it'll just be system hopping.

They'll probably make an instanced and uncharted region of space for individual crews to explore, with hidden rewards, which works fine for me... I'm a bit of a Trekkie on the quiet...

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-08-15 05:26pm

Dakarne wrote:Maybe, since they're setting it a bit in the future, they'll be using Quantum Slipstream, and we can go visit the Borg!

Then we can transwarp-strafe the new Borg Strategic Dodecahedron with the Ultraphasic Boson Torpedoes and steal their Command Hyper-Sub-Co-Processor for mad subspace loot!

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-08-15 05:28pm

Dakarne wrote:They'll probably make an instanced and uncharted region of space for individual crews to explore, with hidden rewards, which works fine for me... I'm a bit of a Trekkie on the quiet...

Personally, regarding the whole exploration thing, I think they're either lying about it or they're going to just end up scrapping it.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-15 05:33pm

Personally, regarding the whole exploration thing, I think they're either lying about it or they're going to just end up scrapping it.

Or they'll release it as an Addon Pack/Downloadable...

MMORPGs Evolve and Change with time... this one will too.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2005-08-15 05:39pm

I run a rather large fansite about the game (the one I linked to in the first post) and have good communication with the devs, who also post every now and then on our forums, have done for the last 9 months of development- so I know pretty much the ins and outs of where it is at now.

Warp speed will feature, though obisouly realistic times arent going to be entirely represented, who's going to want to spend 9 hours warping to a mission, etc? They will be contracted, but the only 'instant' travel in the game will be via Transporter over short distances.

8000ly of space will be seamed and playable, about 20 sectors, I've seen some detailed plans, it's going in a totally different ditrection to SWG.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2005-08-15 05:39pm

Uraniun235 wrote:I don't think Starfleet is conducive to the sporadic availability of MMORPG players (well, except for the fanatically inclined) and I don't see what Star Trek would have to offer non-Starfleet people that you couldn't get elsewhere, and I think there's a good chance they're going to hose the gameplay.

While I wouldn't be surprised if they started scrapping and kludging features they're promising now (ala SWG), the intended means of dealing with players leaving their posts (is execution!! Hahahahaha! No, I'm bullshitting) is to transport in an NPC replacement. So when [5up4r_Tr3kkI3]'s mother tells him to finish his pre-algebra homework, [Lt Redshirt] pops into his seat and starts handling the phasers with a bit more competence. At least in theory.

I don't think they plan on having non-Starfleet job positions; even the eventual plans of adding Klingon/Romulan opposing side will be purely space military.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-15 06:04pm

I don't think they plan on having non-Starfleet job positions; even the eventual plans of adding Klingon/Romulan opposing side will be purely space military.

Maybe, maybe not... they'll have to include at least some substance to them

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-08-15 07:05pm

No they don't. Just look at what SOE did with SWG. No substance there.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-08-15 07:10pm

Lord Revan wrote:I don't like the new uniforms and personal shield generators, thank God this ain't canon.

Change is good. And honestly, the problem with Klingons being melee grunts is poor execution (if they had energy shields there would be a lot less people complaining about Bat'leths, they would be like Protoss). There is obviously going to be a FPS element in it (unless I'm mistaken and they've changed it since), so unless you want to explain how a phaser to the face can work with "hitpoints", a personal shield is honestly the best way to do it.

Why the hell would you want to be a civilian member of society? You're in it for the fast-paced adventure and combat, unless they want to introduce a crafting system and an economy based around that with civilian freighter captains and crews, which would be cool but frankly one of the complaints about MMORPG's is farming and item whoring, so if they somehow make an interesting game without item whoring that would be cool. However I'll hold my breath, because complain all you want about item whoring, it is fun and taking that away and the item system may be the monumental failure of Star Trek Online. Replicators seem to do away with item whoring intrisincally, but there should be a way to tell between replicated and crafted items, and crafted items should obviously be far superior if only for game balance reasons. No item whoring means much less potential for crafting.

Brian

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-08-15 10:19pm

For the uniform I would have like something like the ENT uniform witn perhaps some add-ons for special departments.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2005-08-16 12:51am

Aha! X-Men costumes for Starfleet, I see.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2005-08-16 06:49pm

I really don't like the new uniforms. They look like somthing out of a comic book or anime. The TRoK-TUC uniforms were great because they looked like something an actual military ship's crew would wear, but they seem to prefer to go in the direction of general cheesy sci-fi-ness.