First STO in-game screenshots

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2007-12-13 11:04am

From the pre-alpha build of STO. Beta is expected towards the end of 2008.

Ground based avatar

http://www.startrek-online.net/vgallery ... iginal.jpg

Space based ship scene

http://www.startrek-online.net/vgallery ... iginal.jpg

The screens reveal quite a bit really about what kind of a game STO is shaping up to be. If anyone was hoping for a ship based simulation with realistic graphics and a mould breaking advacement system, well...

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-12-13 11:15am

Even 16x AF and AA (and whatever else they have done to those screens) can't cover up how utterly generic they are. sad.

edit:

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-12-13 11:48am

That is probably one of the most horrifically deformed Federation Starships I've ever laid eyes on. "Hurr hurr, hey let's try and crossbreed a Galaxy and Sovereign class and SEE WAHT HAPENZ!"

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2007-12-13 11:50am

CaptHawkeye wrote:That is probably one of the most horrifically deformed Federation Starships I've ever laid eyes on. "Hurr hurr, hey let's try and crossbreed a Galaxy and Sovereign class and SEE WAHT HAPENZ!"

That was going to be my question...That is...what the hell kind of ship is that?! I would say more like an intrepid/galaxy kitbash. God, I hope they're not allowing people to design their own ships. *hork*

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2007-12-13 12:03pm

Chardok wrote:
CaptHawkeye wrote:That is probably one of the most horrifically deformed Federation Starships I've ever laid eyes on. "Hurr hurr, hey let's try and crossbreed a Galaxy and Sovereign class and SEE WAHT HAPENZ!"
That was going to be my question...That is...what the hell kind of ship is that?! I would say more like an intrepid/galaxy kitbash. God, I hope they're not allowing people to design their own ships. *hork*

lol... the ship was designed by John Eaves, designer of the Sovereign Class 1701-E amongst others. Perhaps it's just a bad angle...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-12-13 12:08pm

So...does this mean that those previous amazing screens of the Galaxy-class conference room and corridors were bullshots?

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2007-12-13 12:12pm

It's silly really, those screens were released to a dev journal on gamasutra as part of the game's 'look development' in pre-production and though 'in-engine' were not flagged as 'in-game', so aye... those images are no longer representitive of the look for the game, they announced about a year ago they were instead going for a 'stylized' look after consultation from CBS.

DarkSilver · Post by **DarkSilver** » 2007-12-13 02:57pm

Wow.....

I was looking forward to STO....

but now...just....wow...

Unless i hear about some completely awesome game play ability, I think this one dropped off my radar.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-12-13 02:59pm

It looks bad, sure, but it's pre-alpha. The graphics aren't representative.

What *IS* hilarious is the utter blandness of the UI. Bets on 'Precision Phaser Shot' and a buff called 'Prime Directive'?

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2007-12-13 03:11pm

Stark wrote:It looks bad, sure, but it's pre-alpha. The graphics aren't representative.

What *IS* hilarious is the utter blandness of the UI. Bets on 'Precision Phaser Shot' and a buff called 'Prime Directive'?

Why "classic" Ground combat, for pete's sake, though? I mean, honestly. Let's focus on Boarding action and...stuff.

Rawtooth · Post by **Rawtooth** » 2007-12-13 03:12pm

It's WoW in Spaaaceeee!

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-12-13 03:14pm

Chardok wrote:
Why "classic" Ground combat, for pete's sake, though? I mean, honestly. Let's focus on Boarding action and...stuff.

Are you saying you don't want to run around Molten Core and A-Q and kill 20 gorn?

ARE YOU?

Because I don't think they know...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-12-13 03:37pm

Rawtooth wrote:It's WoW in Spaaaceeee!

By appearance alone, seems more like Everquest in Space.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2007-12-13 04:39pm

Stark wrote:
Chardok wrote:
Why "classic" Ground combat, for pete's sake, though? I mean, honestly. Let's focus on Boarding action and...stuff.
Are you saying you don't want to run around Molten Core and A-Q and kill 20 gorn?

ARE YOU?

Because I don't think they know...

That is so WEIRD because that's precisely what I'm saying!

WACKAMOLE!

Seriously, though...The first time I see an "epic" phaser or a phaser I'm going to poop.

On myself.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2007-12-13 04:42pm

Chardok wrote:
Stark wrote:
Chardok wrote:
Why "classic" Ground combat, for pete's sake, though? I mean, honestly. Let's focus on Boarding action and...stuff.
Are you saying you don't want to run around Molten Core and A-Q and kill 20 gorn?

ARE YOU?

Because I don't think they know...
That is so WEIRD because that's precisely what I'm saying!

WACKAMOLE!

Seriously, though...The first time I see an "epic" phaser or a phaser I'm going to poop.

On myself.

Psh, you're thinking too simple. You must assemble KIRK'S TORN SHIRT! This ultra rare legendary(that every tank will have after the first year) will grant immense bonuses in hand to hand KirkFu Combat, and grant +10 to lovemaking of your favorite Cyber buddy.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-12-13 05:15pm

This looks stupendously awful. I assume they wanted some sort of 'away mission' thing and this is what they came up with, but it's braindead. People do like to play spaceship games like Eve, and Eve with Star Trek factions and a ground element limited to wandering corridors (or an expansion later, you could even call it 'Away Missions') would sell AND be fun. Star Trek people are not Halo fanboys, and attempting to mine the WoW type crowd for money by offering less of the same with Star Trek smeared across it is pathetic from a marketing point of view.

I don't mind the ship as much as much as some (uglyness aside), but really, the old nintendo and PC Star Trek Anniversary game had a better Trekky feel than this garbageheap seems to be headed towards.

They could have made the game primarily a space game with a focus on doing solo missions with your crew--IE, filler episodes and such--that lead you along a path that helps bring your crew together, allows you to lose some, add more, diversy and explore a few main characters... and end up eventually with a movie-quality assortment of past-their-prime ubermen. Instead of making me do missions with Mr. Spock420 where I gun down Gorn I could have been doing quests aboard my own vessel much like the retarded Trek episodes we all hate (but might enjoy playing for ourselves--especially with the option of shooting Neelix) and benefitting from them in the way KOTOR type games do. Not advocating a 'Renegade' and 'Paragon' system, but there's an obvious linear scale between Guns and Diplomacy that Federation Captains tend to fall into. Integrity versus Pragmatism. It'd be interesting to explore the idea of alignment in Trek atmospheres...

But regardless, this is not that game. This looks like my 'Ride a Kodo' button has been replaced by 'Beam me Up' and that I buzz around a big wierd space filled with annoyed slugmen and level up my fphazors.

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2007-12-13 05:31pm

That first screenshot has a health bar at the top labelled "Elephant".

I don't care what the rest of the game is like. I will play any game that lets me zap elephants with laser beams.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2007-12-13 05:47pm

Manus Celer Dei wrote:That first screenshot has a health bar at the top labelled "Elephant".

I don't care what the rest of the game is like. I will play any game that lets me zap elephants with laser beams.

Though bottom right it has "Elephant hits Gorn Soldier...", so it may just be the character name.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-12-13 05:50pm

Going by the MMO-standard interface they're using, the character's name is clearly Elephant. Probably so named due to the coarseness of his textures, AM I RITE.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-12-13 06:08pm

I'm going to assume it's because he handles like one, or has a habit of plodding.

The textures, if you zoom in on them, have absolutely no texture at all! Nary a bump or anything, it looks like you spraypainted an action figure. Depressing. I was really excited about the shots before--even if they were only MYST-esque stationary 'look around' rooms that you don't actually have to vault through, a ship looking all gorgeous and such would have been great fun to explore, especially if it was my ship.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-12-13 07:52pm

I really think people might be bagging too hard on the graphics if this is pre-alpha. Focusing too heavily on getting graphics polished up early-on can be detrimental to overall development; better to have a solid gameplay engine fleshed out first so that all the content developers can be attacking the thing while the graphics engine gets refined.

this post authored in conjunction between Stark and Uraniun235

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-12-13 07:53pm

dude mang i already said they weren't representative you be stealin thunder from up here

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-12-13 08:28pm

Yeah, but I added the extra twist of "shut up guys". Because seriously, it's this kind of reaction that spurs managers to shout "what the fuck dudes you need to get this shit looking pretty ASAP". Here's a quote from the "fall of Klingon Academy" article I posted some time ago:

We proceeded, full steam ahead, through 8 months of development until the KA team’s first Christmas season together. It was at this time that John Panetierre and I approached Raphael with a growing concern. At that point, much of John's work was focused on improving the graphics engine with little or no time devoted to implementing the functionality of the various rules systems Brent and I were designing, and we began to realize this was a growing problem. We felt that we needed to put the bones into the game before working on fleshing it out and giving it a pretty skin. Now that the issue was out in the open, Raphael was faced with a dilemma. One symptom of Interplay's chronic mismanagement is the inability of Brain Fargo and those he placed in positions of power to recognize any progress other than the visual. Basically, unless you could show them something that visually looked finished, they didn't recognize that progress had been made. If you had a fully functional starship with working weapons, fully functioning AI, and all the other core gameplay systems implemented, but the 3D engine was using flat shaded cubes for the ships and 2D line draws for the beam weapons and flat polys for the torpedoes and showed that to them, they would’ve jumped down your throat for lack of progress even though the underlying engine jumped from pre-alpha to almost beta. Given this, Raphael made a fateful decision, a decision that in hindsight cause far more damage to the careers of the dev team, the reputation of KA as a game, and to Interplay in general than anybody would have recognized. He decided to keep the focus on the graphics, forgoing gameplay system implementation.

but look man we're buddies and i want to keep things cool so i will amend my previous post to reflect your input

are we still cool

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-12-13 08:31pm

man you got bigass quotes i can't argue with your depth in understanding this issue

we be cool

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-12-13 10:52pm

The fact that the graphics are shoddy is only a sidebar issue to the fact that it looks like it's gonna be crud--which is what most people were reacting to. People said it was generic and stupid and were horrified to see people on the ground shooting people with phasers and the only ship stuff was this horribly mutated reject of a Star Trek ship shoehorned into some kinda funky space setting. Especially when we consider the other pics:

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:So...does this mean that those previous amazing screens of the Galaxy-class conference room and corridors were bullshots?

Compared to those, this shows a massive departure in terms of where they want to go with the game. It's not just a less 'pretty' setting, it's that the entire game seems destined to slide down into WoWclone mediocrity. I don't care how good the graphics are, if the game sucks, it's a piece of shit. I'd rather play a multiplayer version of Starflight or Star Control than yet another game where I wander a bland, sparse wilderness populated with reappearing, unintelligent killbait.