Slashdot Mirror
New Star Trek MMOG Announced
jabagi writes "Perpetual Entertainment and Viacom decided to produce a Star Trek MMOG. Not many details yet, but beta will be available in 2006, and the game will be launched in 2007. Here is
the discussion on gamespy."
You are on the bridge of the Enterprise. You can go North, South and DENNIS.
This is almost a given.
Also another given would be an all Star Trek cable channel.
Not that I'm a huge fan, but I'm just pointing out "givens" where Paramount could squeeze yet another dollar out of the Trek world.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
It's due in 2007... Does that mean it will be compatible with longhorn?
As Viacom seeps their demon fangs into the market hoping to suck any of the blood left in the MMO market...
I'm sure it will be as 'good' as star wars galaxies... *sigh*
Paramount hates Star Trek, and is obsessed with ruining the franchise. An MMORPG where everyone insists on being a captain or admiral, where no story can take place, and they can make up more "iso" words.
Aren't they being sued for a Star Trek related game contract gone awry already?
In the area if MMORPG development, where so many projects seem to get canned after months or even years of development, I really don't think "announced" is newsworthy any more.
How about not publishing MMORPG stories until they're "finished" - at least finished enough to alpha test.
As a side benefit, we'll not have to read any of the "cancelled" stories the following year...
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
...is at startrek.com.
Star Trek for the TI99-4a. With the voice synth peripheral.
there will be the same people there than on Slashdot
All I know is that when it does come out, I wanna be one of the nameless landing party guys in the red shirts.
Here's hoping that this game will be better than the las couple of movies.
My
Both Elite Force I and II were good games. Not great, but good.
FAQ on the game
fifteen jugglers, five believers
Then the "talk" command will be disabled for you until about 5 minutes before you get killed.
BigBoI: "hAhAhHhAaaa"
/. 'til after my dinner.
DM0nz: "u r sposd 2b a vulcan u cnt laff"
BigBoI: "/me does vlcn nekk pnch"
Se7en_ov_n9ne: "hi I am female"
chaptin_pick_hard: "zomgzzcripes can I boldly go where no man, err, boy, errr, cripes my mum is calling me"
Yey, can you send me a copy please? Oopps, my mum is calling me, she said no
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
this isn't helping get my older brother out of my parent's basement anytime sooner... =(
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
These are the requirements for a Game Systems Programmer posted on their website.
# BS in Computer Science or equivalent.
# Must have extensive experience working in a senior programming role on a commercial game development team.
# Strong familiarity with PC development using C++.
# Familiarity with Linux programming.
# Experience developing networked game applications, preferably client-server.
# Has developed and documented technical designs.
# Has a love of gaming.
"It seems like the game is about taking command of a starship in the 24th century."
Hmm, to me this doesn't sounds like a game well suited for being a MMORPG. A Lord of the Rings MMORPG does, but not one where you command a (note: a) ship in a vast galaxy. Galaxies are mostly empty. How much socialization will be going on then? How immersive will the atmosphere be?
Will it consist of OMGLOLBBQ we met a Bird of Prey, kill them! OK, done, let's move on, then OMGLOL we must go look at the Borg Cubes? Possibly -- which makes me wonder why this is a MMORPG. Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time seeing how a game like this will make you go "WOW, what a vast cool world" if you'd be mostly just playing in a starship.
When even Star Wars Galaxies (which I think had better potential since SW is traditionally also a lot about the planets -- actual worlds) ended up pretty bad, I don't see how this game will not end up as just a cash cow attempt backed up by a powerful well-known label with no special spirit and immersiveness about it.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
- Galaxy Class Federation Starship or better
- Holodeck Mk 1
- Social skills not required
Name me one decent Star Trek game.
/usr/games/bin/trek on my Linux box.
Just one.
I kind of like
These are Star Trek games we're talking about. In comparison to most of the others, they're pure latinum.
# Familiarity with Linux programming.
At a rough guess I would say that this translates into a Windows client front-end (perhaps linux as well but less likely) and a Linux server backend (more than likely) for its stability and reliability.
That doesn't mean it will be released on Linux - maybe the server software will be Linux based, the graphics tools they used are Linux based etc. It's pretty meaningless, and I certainly wouldn't read anything into it.
Name me one decent Star Trek game.
Elite Force I & II and Star Trek Armada I & II
There. You now have four.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
More than likely their server application will run in linux. I really doubt they would make a linux native client, but hey, it'd be cool!
I can name one fantastic Star Trek game:
Starfleet Command: Volume 2, created by Taldren.
Of course, the first one, Star Trek Starfleet Command was fantastic as well and then there was the third one which was okay at best.
I'll also mention the two Star Trek Armada games.
So yes, there were some very excellent Star Trek games produced. And even Bridge Commander wasn't that bad.
AFAIK they were sued by Activision, although I haven't followed up on it recently (i.e. if the suit is still active)... I think it was concerning the dilution of the franchise by The Powers That Be... a bit rich considering the amount of crap Star Trek games that Activision themselves put out.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
[Thu Feb 10 01:08:09 2007] You have become better at never getting a date! (66)
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
1) This game doesn't make it out of beta
2) This game does make it out of beta and gets slaughtered by EQ and DAOC.
I like Star Trek and all, but the MMORPG market isn't exactly the easiest one to work in.
The MMORPG market is pretty heavily populated at the moment, but a title like this will obviously be able to break in on the strength of its franchise, if the game is good enough. I'm not actually much of a Trek fan; I find the series fun for a couple of episodes and then incredibly repetative after that. However, here are a few of the concepts that I think would work with the license and which could convince me to buy the game and pay the monthly subs:
1) Don't over-emphasise the combat on planet surfaces. Galaxies made this mistake big-time, to the extent that this was basically the only thing in the game on release. Traditional, Everquest-style MMORPG combat, be it PvE or PvP has been done to death by virtually every MMORPG around. I don't personally see anybody beating FFXI's system for this at any time in the immediate future; it's way ahead of the competition in terms of depth and polish. Better to play to the license's strengths and focus on other areas.
2) From what I've seen, the Universe lends itself pretty well towards a sensible PvP arrangement. The Trek universe always struck me as quite rigidly controlled and policed, albeit with darker fringes. Just make it so that the "core worlds" are non-PvP (or PvP harshly punished by NPCs) and the outer fringes are less restricted. I hear EVE Online already has a vaguely similar system.
3) I want to be able to buy, crew and run a ship with my friends. I'm not saying "I want to be Captain of the Enterprise", but rather that I want to be able to be a crew-member on an independently operating ship, with "real people" as my crew-mates. Maybe they could let people progress through skill-trees in... say... navigation, gunnery, sensor use etc and make it so that you need a balance of skills to run a ship. Obviously, as you make more cash, you should be able to get better ships, as well as bigger ships, which might require a larger crew. There should be the option for very high level players of being able to develop your character and your crew towards running either a battlecruiser or a supertanker. I don't want the game to be dominated by people running around in 1-player fighters or, worse still, 1 player battlecruisers. Boarding operations during ship-to-ship combat could be a fun alternative to planet-side combat.
4) Please, for the love of god, take a fairly distant approach to the license. Put the usual planets and races in there, by all means. Tie it generally to a point in the time-line. But don't get into a situation where you're saying "we can't do this because it doesn't fit wit this stage of the timeline". Galaxies has suffered because of the inevitable tensions created by making the Jedi the most desired class during a time-span where there are only supposed to be a couple of Jedi.
Somebody modded that informative!? Here's a clue - the link doesn't go to a site related to this story and most definitely isn't work safe.
The most popular alien race will be Vulcan-Romulan hybrids a la Saavik, and the second most popular alien race will be that one with the bumpy foreheads.
Ensign 1: Captain, there's another ship approaching. They are hailing us.
Captain: Main screen turn on.
Ship: This is Captain Duder of the spaceship Leet, we're taking this camp site, bugger off.
Captain: WTF? We've been here all day!
Ship: Too bad dude, we want the loot from this easy romulan spawn, and we got 3 photon torpedo banks saying its ours, move to another sector, or we'll KS you biatches.
Captain: WTF!! What about the prime directive!
Ship: LOLz. You RPers crack me up.
as if the market isn't saturated enough.
They can make every player a mercenary taking missions from either major races (humans, klingons...). Land on this rebel planet, kill boatload of rebels or borg, gain xp, loot, fame, women, whatever ...
Crafting would allow the construction of weapons, ship gear, maybe even androids. Lot of possibilites.
There could be trading between different civilizations, exploration missions given to the public (that will turn bad of course with baddies to kill). Ownership could be in the form of space ships. One could trade legally or illegaly. Plenty of choices.
Not to mention, the countless spying agencies could be used as an excuse for PvP. Or archeological dig races or whatnot.
They have lot of good material from wich a good MMOG could be made. Let's hope they avoid the pitfalls of SWG: the total lack of Star Wars feel. They already have the templates for the classes, no need to re-invent the wheel:
Tank - Security guys (Worf).
Ranger - User of phasers (Picard).
Cleric - Medics (Crusher).
Wizard/Mage - Betazoids or other telepaths (Troy).
Some other class - The techie people (Laforge)
They got a very rich universe.
One thing that stands out about this type of game would be the cooperative play needed to run a starship. This could be very interesting if most/all the crew were PCs as opposed to NPCs.
Seems it would require much more cooperation than is normally required by the typical clan on other games.
It would also be interesting aboard Klingon ships if one could advance in rank simply by beating one's superior officer. Hopefully they will allow this sort of flexibility.
I think this one has potential.
I did like Judgement Rites. Of course, I love those old point and click adventure games. I miss the days of King's Quest (Six was awesome) and Quest for Glory (the remake of So You Want to be a Hero? was fantastic.)
I think there was another point and click ST game, but I don't remember the name right now.
Kirk, Spock & Ensign Gomez beam down to the surface. Guess who isn't coming back?
FGD 135
there are basicaly two types of nerds those who like star wars and those who like star trek. there are plenty of nerds who like both, but if you push them they will eventually chose one or the other. now the other half of the nerds will have a mmorpg to play.
p.s. im a star wars nerd.
lose != loose
Linux = Geeks
StarTrek = Geeks as well
if only there was some way to combine the two.
wud
could it be that we are living in a MMOG? http://manishbansal.blogspot.com/2004/08/our-world -as-mmog_13.html
would hours of fun to the game just by making us read the ...travel to ....Ceti ... Alpha ....6, you and your... elite group of nerds ...must... kill ...a man named ...KHANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!
text for longer. Companies like to brag about how many hours are inside a game, this is the perfect chance to go where none have gone before.
You...must
Or better yet YOU could be Kirk and type very slowly to your group of friends! To go one further you could make the game last longer by getting your crew to admit there are infact 5 lights! No experience points until said otherwise!
Jonathanjk.com
You'll be dumped on the Planet Vulcan and spend your first month skinning small animals, surveying for minerals and dancing for other players on a continuous macro loop. The space expansion will follow a year and a half later.
We all get the chance to be Ensign Redshirt!
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
I think warning people about these sort of links may be offtopic, but is a service to fellow slashdotters.
You are probably just annoyed because it stops people clicking on the link you posted. As if that link was on topic.
This is not fair!!
I just got a girlfriend!!!
Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy
I would buy a new star trek game. However, I won't be buying any MMOG since I don't have the time to play it to get any "community" game play sustainable.
I think that these MMOG do more harm than good for gaming - they cause the acceptance of subscription based software (can't play off-line - Can't play unless you play). And they spell the death of many genres of games that really can't be made into MMOG.
Me? I shut off Doom 3 for a bit and have playing X-Com for the past week - To tell you the truth - I'm having a hell of a lot more fun playing X-Com.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
It's clear from the press release and FAQ that it's not going to happen, but I always thought that Star Trek, with its multi-century future history, was perfectly placed to create a MMORPG gaming experience like no other.
... yes, aging could play a part in this game unlike most MMORPGs, or by playing long-lived races like Vulcans).
... the possibilities are virtually endless.
Imagine a game where everyone started out as characters in the ENT (or even ST:FC) era. Imagine them having adventures that took them into the 23rd, then 24th centuries (changing characters as necessary
Imagine players having the opportunity to shape history by partaking in or deciding the outcomes of, key events like the Federation/Klingon wars, Wolf 359, first contact with Cardassians, discovery of the transporter or deflector etc.
Imagine playing the character responsible for introducing TOS-style uniforms into the game, or the character who discovered transwarp, or the character who introduced the Akira-class ship into the fleet, or the character who was responsible for holding AR-558 before Sisko's arrival or
Eventually, sure, the future history would outstrip the "documented" canon but that wouldn't happen for a few years and the servers could either be re-set or the history extended. (Server launches could be staggered so that there would be a choice of eras for people to play in, for those who were determined to stick to one timeline.)
But given that MMORPG game design is based on the principle of maintaining the status quo while only giving the illusion of advancement and change, this isn't going to happen.
a world in progress...
The idea sounds quite good but the problem I have with MMORPGs is that they get boring fast. The last game I played was City of Heroes... didn't take one single month before I got bored. Before that it was Final Fantasy XI. Am I really the only one who can't stick to such games for very long? I always ask myself what exactely I had been expecting when playing gets frustrating. Is there any concept of a MMORPG at all which does not involve killing enemies to get stronger which you'd want to do in order be able to kill stronger enemies, which you'd want to do in order to get a higher level thus more power which you'd want to have in order to kill more enemies.... and so on. Isn't it time for a completely innovative new concept in MMORPGing? Because trying to make a living is what I do on a daily basis... no need to pay 15 bucks a month to do it some more with a 3D character...
NetTrek.
Go ahead, google for it.
-Cyc
/.'s 10 Millionth
> Familiarity with Linux programming.
> Has developed and documented technical designs.
So they want someone who codes for linux and writes documentation? Good luck!
"teh src iz all teh doco j00 need luser!!!!!!"
Name me one decent Star Trek game
I have no clue what it's called, but when I was a kid, there was a local tv channel that hosted "video games" that you could play by touchtone phone after dialing the game number.
Only one person could play at a time, BUT all the games were crappy except a Star Trek game, and it was pretty easy to play late at night or very early in the morning.
It was turn-based, and the ships, stars, starbases, etc, were represented by a letter on a square grid, ie E for the Enterprise, K for a klingon ship, * for a star...
It was a very fun and decent game for the times.
I thought they were called Kenny.
I doubt the machine is hosted IN SOVIET RUSSIA where freedom of speech violates YOU.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
Starfleet command...isn't that the one where it all takes places in 2 dimensional space? And if you read the forums they did that because it would be too difficult for players otherwise? ugh. I have that sitting on a shelf somewhere. If it had been 3D I would have loved it.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
No it does not! Did you even read my reply I posted in the previous thread?
Whenever someone starts posting warnings about my links being NSFW, my hits go up drastically. Why? I'm not quite sure, but I would venture to say that it has to do with curiosity. When there are 4-5 replies to my posts about there being NSFW content in a harmless looking link, people want to know what it is all about!
I always post with the hope that it gets tons of replies and people like you who don't understand trolling.
If you want me to "go away", then ignore me. When I become the only voice in my trolling efforts, I can no longer accomplish my goal of sending thousnads of Slashdot readers to gay porno and wasting time of people like you who think they are one step ahead of me. In reality, you are two steps behind - I've pointed out this fact for years, yet trolling continues to be successful to this day.
It's "sod off" not "sod of".
Noooooooooooo!!!
:(
It's going to be so sad... probably sadder than Star Wars Galaxies
I called it first! nyah nyah. see you in Borg-space, mortals!
There was also DS9: The Fallen based on the Unreal engine. Three characters and 3 different endings depending on who you played as: Sisko, Kira, or Worf. Too bad it came out after the series ended.
I think the Linux programming would be for the server side part - a fair number of MMORPGs use Linux to run the servers, DAoC does at least. Would be nice if they made a linux client tho.
Linux Wireless Hardware in the UK
Only on Slashdot do you see the hypocrisy of people decrying the loss of civil liberties online and then crying for censorship when it suits them.
Huh? If they are a forward looking company (not sure), I would say that this more likely translates into a Linux client as well. We're talking about almost 3 years from now. Given that many companies have already released Linux clients over the past 3 years, I would say that its only going to increase. Especially given Linux's growth on the desktop.
Censorship? Only governments can censor--your free webhost is a private company, as is your registrar, as is the company hosting your DNS. You can cry censorship all you want, but for violating their TOS, they can kick you at will.
I hear that you are going to be able to use your phaser and your flashlight at the SAME time.
YHBT YHL HAND, doofus.
Ok I admit I'm not a fan of Star Trek and haven't seen much, but how the flock do you have a Massive Multiplayer game on a fricken space ship? Would they just have a fleet and people can get beamed from one ship to another? Would an entire fleet land on one planet to find it inhabbited by a bunch of typical MMO creatures for slaughtering? Should I post this anonymously because I'm a stupid head?...nah
Trust Your Technolust
Kirk: Alright men, this is a dangerous mission. And its likely one us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr Spock, Doctor McCoy, and Ensign Ricky.
Ensign Ricky: Ahh crap
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
DELETED!!!!!
(or at least modded down)
EF 1 was great, but far too short. EF 2 was a great game smothered by story telling drivel. STA was awful so I never played STA2 but my nephew loved it.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
That sounds a lot like Super Stellar Trek for the Apple //. Perhaps there was a port for whatever system that service ran?
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
"Get a life, this will show Shatner!"
"Star Trek: 25th Anniversary", the precursor to Judgement Rites. It was very nice as well, except for the quite difficult and unavoidable battle against 3 Bird of Prays near the end.
Donate free food here
Screw that, I would much rather a mercenary / smuggler MMORPG set in Firefly's 'verse than Star Treks.
:-)
Star Trek is all about the federation and the SHIPS. At least the Star Trek I remember. sure let someone start out as a lowly red shirt ensign, and make their way up to Captian, and Admiral.
I personally would love it if Universal (who now owns the rights to Firefly, errr, or do they just own the rights to Serenity?? ), would out out a MMORPG of Firefly, and what would be even cooler is if that did well, they could use that as a basis for bringing the show back to TV! Ok Ok Ok I know that is wishful thinking, but it could happen!
Not only governments can censor, ANYONE can censor.
You are correct that those companies can revoke his service if he is violating their TOS, but that still falls under the definition of censorship.
I'll admit EF1 was too short, but EF1 and 2 did make for some really great Deathmatches. =)
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
You play as Worf. Son of MMOG.
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
Starfleet Command 3 was 3D, at least partialy.
:P
Actually a halfway decent game, except for the fact that the online code was horrible, they took/are taking aeons to get an official patch out for all the bugs, and Activision's official online play servers seemed to be running on old TI calculators
For me, the problem with swg wasn't the lack of ambiance, rather, it was the lack of any meaningful content in a static world. All NPC missions boiled down to kill this, or escort that. The civil war mean't nothing. You could literally kill 10,000 rebels but it would make no difference. Everything felt generic. Worlds were huge with nothing in them. The profession based character system sucked cause you capped out after a short amount of time. So you mingled with different classes which turned out to be "grind 100 components" or "kill 50 worts". My personal favorite aspect of the game was group hunting but that died with solo groups (aka - people grouping for higher mission payouts, but doing it by themselves) At the end of the day, all that SWG boiled down to was PvP clusterfuck with Jedi being the trump card. Everyone wants Jedi so they can kick everyone else's ass. Sony knows this. It's all they ever advertise.
</rant>
Please. Now if you got me to burn some karma, you might have something. But you didn't.
Ooo! I'd forgotten all about those. Don't forget "Star Trek TNG: The Final Unity". Now that was the height of entertainment!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I had BASIC code for this game as well... it was common and ported to many platforms/languages. Google "trek game" with "do you need instructions"
And watch out, there's a K in sector A,1
I'm a big Star Trek fan, but I just don't see how there is any room left in the MMORPG market for this game. After all of the disappointment of Star Wars Galaxies and the cancellations of numerous online games, I think the market is saturated. The only thing left is to cannibalize current MMORPG players.
As far as business goes, if they plan ahead for a high level of member churn and keep the game fun for newcomers, then maybe there is a chance. But if they think that in today's market they'll get and keep say 500000 players, they're crazy! The people who would play this game are probably already playing an MMORPG. After EQ and SWG, I've settled on FFXI as my MMORPG home and have no plans to leave. I also have no plans to add another fee based game to the budget.
Even as a fan, at least three things would have to happen for me to look at a Star Trek MMORPG.
1. Fee must be very low, or some entirely new and palatable fee model. No fee would be great, but not likely.
2. It'd better have content and be a generally kick a*s game. In other words, I won't be there on day one and will wait for player reviews. So they'd better have learned for the SWG fiasco.
3. The system requirements must be reasonable. I won't spend $100 or more to upgrade my rig. I know my 1GHz PIII is pokey by todays standards, even with a fast video card and 512MB of RAM, but it runs most things just fine. No I wouldn't even think of Doom 3 on this box!
Don't gag, but I'd be more likely to try this game if there were an XBox version, or PS2 with HD. So I hope they're at least least thinking about tapping the console market.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Granted you aren't very familiar with Star Trek, nor am I. But, your post reminded me of something that will pose a unique challenge to this game---
Obviously, as you make more cash, you should be able to get better ships
In ST:Next Generation, there are a few episodes where they talk about how human society has developed in tandem with technology to the point that resources are no longer a problem. As a result, there isn't a place for money or wealth as a motivation for human characters in the series. I wonder if the game could be similarly inspired such that players aren't trying to simply horde dubloons or whatever.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I say, I say, I say he's dead, Son.
I liked Shattered Universe (I think that was the title). It wasn't very Trek-ish, but it was interesting in that it was based in the alternate universe where the Federation is the big bad guy going around kicking everybody's ass (featured in one episode of the original series, and several of DS9). Since it's a much less explored aspect of the Star Trek universe, it leaves more room for new (and fun) things that don't fit in the main universe.
Actually, it's Netrek. And it's not necessary to google for it as that's pretty much the domain (www.netrek.org), last time I checked.
Of course, all the assholes that play Netrek or the hockey variant may have succeeded in killing off the last populated, played server by now. Sad, really, because Netrek was an absolute blast to play.
Since when does karma have to be burned? I made a troll reply that baited you into replying with something inaccurate.
YHBT! YHL! HAND!
Turn the saturation, brightness and contrast all the way up on your monitor. You can see them against the starfield then. :D
+++ATH0
for great good or great evil... Depending on how they make it the game could be quite good, but the license can be a double edged sword. Look at Galaxies. Half the time what they do doesn't make sense from the fiction point of view (The whole Holocron grinding bit), and the other half the fiction "gets in the way" like Battledroids. Lots of ppl wanted them when I stopped playing, but last I heard it was a "sorry the fiction doesn't allow that, so your not getting what would make the game fun for you" line. Had they made the game say take place in the KOTOR timeline they could have had a lot more freedom (aka more Jedi's) instead of this very short and highly scripted timeline they chose. Just my two cents though. I HOPE they can make the game both fit the fiction and an enjoyable experience, but some MMO's have a way of leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
Star Trek: The Next Generation "A Final Unity" kicked ass. Old school point and click adventure game with the original actors voices. Damn good game.
can revoke his service if he is violating their TOS, but that still falls under the definition of censorship.
So? If media can be forced by government to propagate information they don't choose to propagate, that may not be "censorship", but it's a massive violation of individual rights. Individual rights are out of fashion on Slashdot these days (remember during the boom years, when the stupid teenage libertarians around here outnumbered the stupid teenage leftists?), having been replaced by group rights (which are inevitably unjust), but fashions on Slashdot ain't exactly an indicator of anything much.
Bottom line, if the government tells you what you can must say and/or what you must not say, that's a problem -- unless, of course, the government is forcing people to say things you happen to agree with. That's Different (TM). Heh.
There are a couple of free (as in open-source) ST-based games that could be taken in a similar MMOG direction:
Vega Strike has a mod called Vega Trek which is basically porting Star Trek models and thematic elements to this open space simulator engine. It's also got a bit of Trek-specific gameplay tweaks (such as ships stretching out as they go to warp). I think once it's more polished it could be a reasonable alternative controlled by the community (barring lawsuits of course).
Star Voyager has been rather stagnant in development for a while, but it's basically a 2D top down space shooter with an expansive universe. I always saw this as having great potential, since one could start out commanding a small fighter or freighter, but eventually upgrade to the point where they control a bigger starship like Galaxy or Vor'cha, a starbase, or even a whole fleet. It would be similar to Escape Velocity or Elite, but with multiplayer. Sadly my programming skills are anemic.
Has anyone ever done Star Trek Simming on IRC? I used to be pretty into this a number of years ago (looking back on it, it seemed incredibly goofy, but damn if it wasn't fun). From doing a Google search on the topic, it looks like there are still a number of groups doing this kind of thing.
It was basically just pure role-playing, with people taking on the roles of different members of a crew on a starship (creating new characters though..... I don't know if there are any sim groups that acted out the roles of existing star trek characters).
I haven't done it in years, but it was an awful lot of fun at the time just role-playing being a character on a starship and all of that. If this Star Trek MMOG could somehow capture some of that fun, I could definitely be into it.
-Tom
all those people who learned Klingon will have somethind to do.
WorfSonOfMog: Hey guys, can I join your group?
Ghertlak: Ark Moog, Nak Flag, Khi-Tohk!!!
(roughly translated: we only speak Klingon you n00b)
MORTAR COMBAT!
wait for brother to step away from the basement, then move in and camp it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Well, if SWG is any indication, your name won't work! So I've got Quu Continuum!
Nyah nyah on you!
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
"Star Trek Armada I & II"
Preferred Starfleet Command I & II for the 'Starfleet Battles' appeal, then they went and titsed it up for SFC3. Tactically your game goes out of the window when they reduce six shields to four.
Armada was RTS without the fun.
Oddly Draconis
Too cynical to live, too stubborn to die.
I used to work for a company that did CGI. We heard by word of mouth that Paramount were looking for tenders for the CGI for a licensed Star Trek game, including a short demo movie. But the catch was, there would be no contract, and nothing could be done in writing.
When we eventually got someone on the phone (really, they wouldn't talk about this in email) and asked why, they reluctantly explained that it was because when Paramount's legal team gets a whiff of something like this going on, it becomes their job to kill it. They tend to refuse anything that gives even a suggestion that $NON_PARARMOUNT_EMPLOYEE is licensed to create Star Trek content. In practice, this makes anything but a full, final contract for the winning bidder simply impractical. The best that our contact could promise was that he would try and ensure that we weren't sued for putting in a tender.
And so we did the demo movie (quite nice, actually), and delivered it, by hand, in a face to face meeting that never happened. We didn't win the bid, but it certainly opened our eyes.
What's the relevance to this? It's that MMORPGs necessarily involve ordinary $NON_PARAMOUNT_EMPLOYEE people creating content. Paramount were killing this stuff while it was still in its infancy. Even if they do manage to license the whole kit and kaboodle, can you picture the tortous EULA and T&C's for a Star Trek MMORPG? Try and imagine the limitations that will be placed on players, and the atmosphere of fear and mistrust that will spring up. If you think Sony Online have poor customer relations, just wait until you meet a Paramount Intellectual Property Protectorate lawyer in game. The Borg are a pale shadow of these guys.
Sure, it could go differently, but years of history says otherwise. Best not to get your hopes up over this one.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Isn't that WWorf's father???
As long as this ST mmorpg is more fun that getting hair ripped out of the skin of your genitals, it should do okay.
What we need is a SciFi MMOG it can blend elements of various scifi shows, books, and movies. You should have free reign in the world to develope your charecter anyway you see fit. Rather than just going out and doing batlle, you could build skills and become a weapons maker, or a trader, or work your way up to having a small ship that you charter out (obatined either by saving credits, performing tasks, discovering abandoned, or taking over). NPC's, at least some in positions of power should be partly controlled by staff from the maker so it becomes possible to make deals to advance yourself, for example space and manufacturing cartel A is trying to crush an uprising at a minining/manufacturing site on some asteroid- you offer to go in as negotiator in exchange for a small, well shielded shuttle with a basic navigation chart of the system. On the asteroid you realize that MegaCartel didn't tell you the full story and negotiations won't be succesfull, so you zip off to a main port on a nearby planet where charecters who don't currently have a ship or mission of their own wait, and you do some recruitment. You head back to the the asteroid with crew in tow and quash the uprsising, your crew carriers off the loot as payment and you get to keep the shuttle. Or perhaps, you show up on asteroid and in exchange for goods and shuttle modifications you smuggle miniers off the surface and become a target for megacorp....so many different options.
There would have to be 24hour GM's (or automated ones, I suppose) making new events happening all the time. Or perhaps, one time events that are triggered by entering certain areas or doing certain things. Random events would be nice as well (temporal anomalies, unstable wormholes, mysterious aliens popping in from other dimensions, perhaps encountering a duplicate of yourself from another timeline, possibilities are endless)
None of this preset adventures that anyone can go through at anytime stuff(aside from maybe training for noobs).
Also, giving a player complete control of a starship seems ridiculious. They should make them have to have an entire (bridge) crew to run a big ship. Shuttles could get away with a one or two person crew.
Then there's the concept of logging in/out. How will that work? You can't have your Captain or some other vital crewman suddenly falls asleep. Would you have command automatically goto the next ranking officer? What happens if the ship you're on gets destroyed while you are logged off? Do you die or do you automatically end up in an escape pod?
If your character does get killed, what happens to your character? This isn't a D&D type world, there isn't resurection in this environment. I could understand the concept of having auto-escape pods for destroyed ships, but what happens if you are vaporized by a phaser or decapitated by a klingon's blade? Do they just have you wake up in some infirmiry or do they make you start from scratch?
Anyways, I'm done rambling. There's something to think about.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
The bigger the guild crew for a ship, the bigger the ship the guild gets to fly. Guild leaders would command the ship. Solo players can warp from place to place in shuttles and runabouts.
#1 bbs door (boy, that's a word i ain't
used in a while) of all time in my book. ^_-
a webpage ever made it past beta. not sure.
http://www.classic-games.com/tradewars/
-g
Second step, don't allow people to have stupid names and ban the ones who do it more than once. Let them buy another box if they want to try again.
However I don't believe the haxor speech is prevalent in MMOGs but I do see it a lot on MMOG message boards, especially those that are PVP.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
finally a place to trade nude trek celeb fakes!
a place to discuss warp drive theory!
a place to tell people about my fan fiction!
a place to pick up hot trek fan chicks!
a place to pay $30 a month!
a place to talk about Klingons on Uranus!
thank Kroog the god of the Andorians!
I sorta liked klingon academy
Nichols: He did give us eternal youth.
Koenig: 24 hour laundromat.
Takei: A full assortment of rum both spiced and regular.
Nimoy: Truly, it was a paradise.
Fry: And all you had to put up with was one really annoying Star Trek fan.
[The heads look worried.]
Shatner: Let's get the hell outta here!
Except here it will be THOUSANDS of them.
"CEO! I can see millions of geeks wanting a Star Trek fix!"
"Beam them up MMOGstyle!"
What character would be best at soloing and power leveling. Hmmmm tough one.
Guess we'll have a million Data's around.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
a simple Star Trek game on internet (or how it was called then), in the end of the 80's, early 90's? I remember playing such a game in the computerrooms at uni, with quite a group of people worldwide. Wasn't it called something like Net Trek or so??
... just kidding, it were those papers and essays ... and the tests, certainly the tests and of course those two ... ju ju ... eh ... jobs...
I mean, I'm absolutely no fan of Star Trek (I prefer war over logic, you know the type... America has one similar in the Whitehouse), but that game, no matter how simple, absolutely beat everything I had on my Atari ST (well, maybe except for Midi Maze, with 16 players). It offered enough to ruin my first and second semester, maybe even my third.
After that I discovered the rest of Infocom (I had already played Zork I and II) and that basically got me out of uni, ahum.
Oh, is that you mom? Eh
Now, what does that mean? "Your" ship could be one you own or one you work on as part of it's crew. Though, I do not believe there should be an absolute requirement for all stations to be manned by real players. The crew could be a mix of NPCs and players. You're home point would be your personal quarters. When you log in you could "relieve" the NPC that was running your station and when you log out the NPC relieves you. That way, you ship can still function when only a few of your buddies are available. Or better yet, let the captain do some grunt work and get the ship to a certain point before you log on. :) You could run the ship with just one person, but not well. Through abilities your character can eventually do the job better than the NPCs.
What about captain? Do we just let anybody be a captain? On civilian ships, sure....why not?? However, if you want to be a Captain in Starfleet.....that's another matter. It definately needs a ranking system of some sort, at least for the military ships. Obviously, it would be different between the empires. I think any Klingon can gain command of a ship simply defeating the current captain in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat.
However, there are some serious things to decide. What do you do when your ship is destoryed? Oh, you just respawn the ship at the last starbase? Are you and your crewmantes cloned? And in point 4, what part of the timeline is the game set in? Here is where you run into problems if you allow ships to explore the galaxy. Eventually, it will all be explored. Or one empire will be destroyed or something like that. If the system is inflexable, the players actions do not matter, then why bother making a MMO game when a single player game will suffice? Like Starfleet Academy. (BTW, Starfleet Academy was a great game. I'd like to see a new version of that with updated graphics, more multiplayer support, more interactive environments in space. Nebula, solar flares, asteroids. Maybe some kind of "away mission" support.) Anyway, there are a bunch of dangers that could easily make a StarTrek MMO game stink. I wish them Good Luck.
if this actually reaches the PCs (or what passes for PCs in distant future when this might be released) is that you'll be able to spot the losers right off the bat. They're the poor fools who took up a Security Officer character.
They're destined to die within their first hour of play.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
they're not talking about a game like galaxies or everquest.... "massive" merely referrs to the girth of the trekkie gamers.
Huh? If they are a forward looking company (not sure), I would say that this more likely translates into a Linux client as well. We're talking about almost 3 years from now. Given that many companies have already released Linux clients over the past 3 years, I would say that its only going to increase. Especially given Linux's growth on the desktop.
I find it difficult to believe that Paramount is interested in supporting a Linux client, due to other companies' past failures to make it in that arena, (e.g., the late, lamented Loki). While there's no technical reason why they couldn't, it seems that it's simply better for a company to spend its resources elsewhere. Comments were made in a recent Slashdot thread that even id Software considers their Linux conversions a labor of love, more than a way to directly* generate revenue.
(* Of course, a Linux conversion of Doom III means more buzz.)
I mean, that's kind of like being a Jedi in the Star Wars MMORPG -- the one who gets to do all the cool stuff that saves the ship.
Although I think the role will probably be taken by another Slashdotter. Dammit.
...in the character creation screen, I recommend against the "red shirt" option, as it will gimp your character.
It needs to be a space-based game above all else. IMO each player should play as an entire ship. You start out as a tiny ship, work your way up the chain of command by doing missions and shit so you can get upgrades, and every milestone you can get a bigger and better class ship. I'd like to see at least some micromanagment aboard the ship, not just point-and-click battles. I think it has a lot of potential. You can include all the familiar races in their respective roles. With any MMPORPG, you can imagine a lot of cool features. Instead of resting you'd have to give the crew shore-leave, get damaged too much and you have to go to space-dock to get repairs. Meeting places can be space stations or planets. You can get items from aliens you defeat (or save if you're federation) to upgrade your ship. I wasn't able to read all the posts, but this is the best concept they can take advantage of.
Is considering both, and potentially considering both, kinda like having tea and no tea?
Are they hiring any editors?
I can't wait to begin the endlessly repetitive sludge of killing and resting and repeating... in the Star Trek universe! It'll be like nothing you've ever seen!
Like how a Hello Kitty toothbrush is a hundred times more exciting than a regular one, or how a hamburger at the Hard Rock Cafe blows themeless burgers out of the water, I'm sure the Star Trek MMORPG will be far and away the best ever! I'll NEVER get tired of playing!
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?
I guess we're stuck in the Delta Quadrant with SWG until this game comes out.
If you are reading this, then you are one of those people whom I just can't take seriously.
Missed the Turn basied game "Birth of the Federation". God I loved that game. I just wish it wasn't so buggy.
Q, make Wesley love me!
both the Elite Force and Armada series' are excellent. What are you talking about?
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
Obligatory Penny-Arcade strip
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
So, let me guess. You spend the first ten hours gaining "experience points," by having your ass kicked by a space-rat. After you've finished with that, you can start kicking around the large-space-rats...
Before you know it, your monthly bill arrives!
People discover the meaning of life between getting piss drunk and the following hangover.
I agree -- I'm more of a Star Wars fan than a trekkie, but I think Star Trek has more well-understood races than Star Wars, thanks to all the shows. It would be pretty cool to be able to play as RPG in 3 environments: on planets, on space stations, and on large ships -- all 3 are large enough to have full economies of their own. And compared to Star Wars, Star Trek offers many more factions: instead of just Empire and Rebel, there are each of the separate races, as well as the Federation and everyone else. Plus there's more content to draw on than Star Wars (SWG didn't do much of anything interesting content-wise). All-in-all, the idea has potential, and I hope they do a good job with it!
(Ferengi would make the perfect merchant class, btw)
This reminds me of the "Late Night" wars about a decade or so ago (maybe more). Letterman had one. Leno had one. Arsinio had one (whoo whoo whoo). Dennis Miller had one. Chevy Chase had one. There just wasn't enough interest to sustain them all.
Despite the bizarre belief of executives to the contrary, I don't see more than three (probably only one or two) becoming truly long-term. I don't know which since I have never actually shelled out the dough for any of them.
I think the real name of the game is content. A rich world is a good starting line, but to keep your players interested in logging in over and over again, you need an immersive world and an engaging plot, something the ST world has always lacked (oh no a horrible disease/energy field/creature has immobilized all of the crew except for one member who managed to resuce them all. Whew! It's a good thing there was a vulcan/borg/telepath/android on board. Vary situation and rescuer at will).
[Meg just hit William Shatner with a car]
Shatner: Beam me up! God! [Dies]
[Ensign Ricky is standing there]
Ensign Ricky: Whoo, I did NOT see that one coming.
503 Sig Unavailable
The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
do it. mod him bitches.
Star Trek: TNG - A Final Unity was supposed to be quite good. The 25th Anniversary adventure game I've heard was above-average as a graphic adventures go.
The first two Starfleet Command games were interesting (if too blinkin' hard). What I played of Bridge Commander was very good (but I was distracted by some other game - story of my life).
Klingon Academy (or whatever they called it, the Klingon version of Starfleet Academy) was also said to be OK. What I played of it was pretty good, if a little too heavy on the cut scenes.
Then there are a very large number of Star Trek games which varied from atrocious (ST: Klingon) to merely mediocre (into which category I would place Armada). However, there is a small set of Star Trek games that are actually worth playing.
Here is another one -
Star Trek: The Next Generation's A Final Unity
This game really captures what star trek is all about.
Thick-framed glasses and eternal virginity?
holy crap this site has majorbbs thru telnet especially to serve up tradewars!
telnet://thestardock.com
this is possibly the only text-based game
that could have me seriously considering
replaying like i am right now... ^^
-g
Elite Force (and it's expansion) - Hella fun single player, best multiplayer ever using the Q3 engine. A lot of innovative gamestyles, superb multi-player maps.
ConQuest Online - run of the mill online collectable card games. Not bad.
Dominion Wars - AWESOME DESIGN ruined by INCREDIBLY BAD BUGS.
Birth of the Federation - ST game most in need of a sequel that fixes all the problems. This is my favorite 4x game - SO MUCH FUN. Especially online with real people.
Armada - Stank. Buggy, boring RTS, but it had some novel concepts for an RTS which I forget. MAybe Armada II fixed them.
The Fallen - Incredible implementation of the Unreal engine. I mean, shockingly good. Great story line. Only downside - sub voice acting for Cisco (but we did get the real Kira and Worf).
Klingon Acadamy - Worth it just for the movie-grade cut scenes. I mean, they really went all out. Combat wise, very complex so if you are a fan of detail and really want to control every aspect of a Bird of Prey, this is your game.
Star Fleet Command - Like Klingon Acadamy, great tactical captaining of ships and fleets. The metaverse was something I hoped they worked on in the next few editions that I didn't get to play.
Bridge Commander. Too slow. Game was on rails, so not so fun. Had high hopes for this one.