ST: Online, back from the dead

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-07-28 06:46am

Los Gatos, Calif. – Cryptic Studios™, a leading developer and publisher of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), announced today that it has secured the global rights to develop and publish Star Trek® Online, a massively multiplayer online game based on the legendary Star Trek franchise, from CBS Consumer Products.

Cryptic will unveil the first Star Trek Online gameplay footage as well as details about this highly anticipated MMO at the annual Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 10, 2008. Trek fans from around the globe can also view the event live via webcast at http://www.startrekonline.com/.

Oh dear. On the one hand, this is Cryptic, and the City Of... games seem to be doing well. But a Trek MMO? One that's been cancelled once already? They'll need some impressive voodoo to make this corpse walk again.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2008-07-28 10:40am

The CoX formula would be terrible. I think...this is bad. I'm afraid we will end up with Auto Assault in space (I know cryptic did not do AA, I'm just saying)

CaptainZoidberg · Post by **CaptainZoidberg** » 2008-07-28 04:44pm

I personally think it looks awesome, but I wonder if they'll create a currency for the Federation.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-07-28 05:06pm

CaptainZoidberg wrote:I personally think it looks awesome, but I wonder if they'll create a currency for the Federation.

They don't have to, the series already has credits.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-07-28 05:13pm

Bounty wrote:
CaptainZoidberg wrote:I personally think it looks awesome, but I wonder if they'll create a currency for the Federation.
They don't have to, the series already has credits.

Between credits and latinum introducing yet another currency is unnecessary.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-07-28 06:43pm

Bounty wrote:They don't have to, the series already has credits.

Surely it needs bronze-pressed latinium and silver-pressed latinium? For some reason MMO's generally have that, even when it doesn't make sense. EVE is about the only one that just has 'dollars', although that is a space one as well.

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » 2008-07-29 10:32am

Stark, in my experience, WoW is the only one that doesn't have just "dollars." Anarchy Online, Earth & Beyond, and Pirates all use just a single generic currency. Maybe retarded currencies are something unique to fantasy MMOs, I don't play those much.

DarkSilver · Post by **DarkSilver** » 2008-07-29 11:05am

Ultima Online has only the gold peice. Unless you in factions, then you have a seperate Silver Piece for Faction purchasable items.

EQ started off with the Copper Bronze Silver Gold thing, taking off from the old style D&D money tables, if I'm not mistaken.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-07-29 06:38pm

Losonti Tokash wrote:Stark, in my experience, WoW is the only one that doesn't have just "dollars." Anarchy Online, Earth & Beyond, and Pirates all use just a single generic currency. Maybe retarded currencies are something unique to fantasy MMOs, I don't play those much.

Wierd; all the ones I've played have done it (mostly fantasy though). Conan, Guild Wars, even the Auto Assualt beta. Waste of fucking time, but players seem to like it.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2008-07-29 11:06pm

For Puzzle Pirates, there's pieces of eight (PoE), but on non-subscription servers there's the doubloon currency, which can be bought with real-life money (US$0.25 each I believe) or PoE can be traded for doubloons at a fluctuating rate, usually around 800-100 PoE to 1 doubloon at last check months ago.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2008-07-30 01:43am

Stark wrote:
Losonti Tokash wrote:Stark, in my experience, WoW is the only one that doesn't have just "dollars." Anarchy Online, Earth & Beyond, and Pirates all use just a single generic currency. Maybe retarded currencies are something unique to fantasy MMOs, I don't play those much.
Wierd; all the ones I've played have done it (mostly fantasy though). Conan, Guild Wars, even the Auto Assualt beta. Waste of fucking time, but players seem to like it.

Not sure about the others, but it only happens in Guild Wars because ANET limited the amount of gold you could hold (and therefore trade) at one time to well below what some items sell for. Since players still want to trade these items, the players agreed about which items make up the secondary currencies. And I haven't run into any GW player who said that they liked it.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-07-30 03:04am

No, GW still has tiered currencies. I'm not talking about ecto, I'm talking abot plat.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2008-07-30 10:12am

CaptainZoidberg wrote:I personally think it looks awesome, but I wonder if they'll create a currency for the Federation.

Logically, the UFP's system should work just fine for an MMO. If you're a Federation/Romulan/Klingon/Other Developed Race That's Not Ferengi citizen, you can get most things free - but you're going to need to be in the military to get guns and military gear, and that'd be determined by what you do. If you want military gear beyond your rank, then it's time to go get the gold pressed latinum and buy on the black (well, big ears) market. And of course, no self respecting black marketeer is going to give you money for anything that he can just get from a replicator...

Why should mundane stuff that could come out of a replicator cost players? Beyond the limits of the game (presumably the actual ship's computer would put a stop on anyone who does something outright wasteful like request five thousand bricks of gold, so the game can too) to produce, why bother limiting items that don't actually make the game easier?

It shouldn't really be a problem - who plays a computer game to have their virtual self be a layabout who does nothing but play with replicators and holodecks?

Oskuro · Post by **Oskuro** » 2008-07-30 12:17pm

Here I am, naively wishing for the game to follow the spirit of the original Star Trek concept, namely, "to boldly go where no one has gone before".

It'd be nice to have an MMO centered around exploration, with maybe the option to solve encounters with diplomacy, rather than just shoot anything not wearing your badge.... Maybe an MMO version of the 25th anniversary game?

Because, if the game ends up being a "create an über guild to fight other players", then I'd stick with EvE Online.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2008-08-09 12:45am

Ehh... in MMOs, I tend to be a "merc," a "freelancer," or alternately an "independent contractor."

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2008-08-11 06:20pm

First gameplay trailer:

Hi Res Download;
http://www.startrekonline.com/videos

Youtube;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Ug52fz5_k

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-08-11 06:28pm

Oh dear. It all started well, nice space shots, alien worlds, "new lifeforms", and then... hey, let's all forget about this "exploration" stuff and focus on shooting some Borg.

If I want to play a subpar Trek shooting gallery, I'll look for my Bridge Commander disc, thankyouverymuch. Call me when there's a Trek MMO with procedurally generated worlds and a reward system for exploration and mapping. You know, like that guy from Noctis has been doing for seven years out of his basement.

Oskuro · Post by **Oskuro** » 2008-08-11 08:14pm

Darn... somehow I'm reminded of a line from Gnarl the Minion Master in Overlord: "See new places, meet new people... and kill them!"

If that's the marketing angle their giving the game, it is so going to suck.... and the in-game footage wasn't even that impressive..... We'll see how long it takes for an expansion to add the Borg as a playable race.

Darmalus · Post by **Darmalus** » 2008-08-11 08:20pm

I like the apparent ability to switch between ship and personal combat. I wish there was more of that in games.