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Interview with Star Trek Online's Design Director
eldavojohn writes "In a brief QJ article about STO, the Glen Dahlgren (Design Director of Star Trek Online) mentions a few details about STO:
Dahlgren insists that it's still too early to reveal the game's specifics and in-depth details, but tells that players will be able to choose whether to group in space or join a crewed ship. Gamers will also be able to fly more powerful ships and vessels and the captain will have some incredible abilities that players will surely look forward to. He also reveals that they are currently working on ensuring that new players will get the help they need when faced with unfamiliar terrain. There won't be auto-leveling of characters but they will provide tools to make off-line time valuable to the online experience.What makes this interesting is that there have been a lot of indicators that STO will be aiming to achieve 'high-end content' and not just combat content. It's becoming obvious that MMO's new to the scene need to offer consumers more than just combat content. Will STO be able to coax both the Sims Online and World of Warcraft crowds?"
If the game is mundane and simplex enough to attract your average SIMs players its going to be too mundane for ST fans. The WOW would be fine but they already have their "communities" so why change? It's kind of funny that the biggest franchises in the movie world seem to create the biggest flops in online ones. Look at Matrix online (which sounded like pure mecca for geeks) or Star Wars galaxies. It just looks like some things are better left to the imagination.
If you play a borg does one of the other borgs make all the gameplay decisions for you?
Rah! Today is a good day to______
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Argh.
I'll be happy if it doesn't take 8 months for me to get to a high enough level that Starfleet Academy lets me set my phaser on a setting higher than "5 shots to kill a rat^H^H^Htribble".
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Actually, Perpetual does plan to offer PvP outside of the holodeck. Details are sparse, but it is a priority.
From the Gameplay FAQ:
Will there be player vs. player combat?
Yes. Although PvP is not the primary means of advancement, we are considering several different PvP opportunities. The holodeck will offer a large array of configurable dueling and arena scenarios, and though we're committed to providing PvP gameplay outside the holodeck, we are not yet ready to share specific plans.
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of"-TMBG
The PvP in Eve is about as far away from the holodeck you could possibly get. You have the chance to lose your ship, some/all of the modules install on the ship (the surviving ones will be dropped in a 'jetcan' next to your ship, so will probably be taken by the person who just killed you). Also if your clone isn't up-to-date you have a chance to lose skill points when/if your capsule (escape pod) gets blown up, which take real time to aquire.
The only thing you get if your killed, is the insurance for your ship, if you insured it and it hasn't run out.
RegardselFarto
Im fairly high on the trek geek scale. I use a klingon daqh-tagh knife to open letters with. But I doubt I'll play this. Why?
federation only.
They offer up excuses, but basically its so they can cash in with race-specific expansion packs.
I'd love to be a Jem hadar,Ferengi or a klinogn, but federation? yawnsville.
LucasArts have the right idea, their new lego game covers all 3 original movies in one game, plus its actuaklly fun.
I cant see trek online lasting long.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
You know what might be nice? Assinged shifts on the crewed vessels. So say, once a week from 4:30P - 5:30P you should log on for your "shift", or risk an insubordiantion on your record. Of course, with the time-intensive nature of MMORPG's it may not be a healthy feature, (few will want the 'graveyard' shifts) but none the less interesting. IMHO...
I always thought Star Trek would make a great MMO - why? When the ensign dies, he can respawn and nobody will question it, because nobody cares about poor little ensign Ricky.
... KHAAAAAAAN!
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
Oh so many moons ago, myself and my buddies were pretty heavily into FASA's Star Trek Starship Combat Simulator, a boardgame/wargame similar to Star Fleet Battles. (this is paper, dice, and lead figure stuff kids)
FASA also had a Star Trek RPG that tied into the wargame, so I picked it up to see what it was like. We tried playing it a few times, using mostly FASA's own modules.
For those used to D&D style hack'n'slash, it was a real adjustment adapting to the Star Trek universe. Combat encounters were invariably quick and *lethal* - a phaser (or similar weapon) set to kill - well, it KILLS. Zap, dead, done. Getting into firefights with the bad guys was a sure road to terminal casulties.
The FASA module designers were cognisant of this, and their modules tried very hard to provide a myriad of non-combat resoulutions to problems and puzzles. But that placed demands on players to do a lot more thinking, follow the story with much more attention to detail, and role-play very intensely.
In the end, it was just too much of a commitment to be successful, and we reverted back to pure starship combat.
While well done and well thought out, it just didn't support casual gameplay very well. Anybody can join in on a dungeon crawl at a moment's notice and with little preparation. Attempting to solve a murder mystery wrapped in a diplomatic puzzle takes a whole lot more work.
I'm curious to see how the game designers intend to handle this problem - and I sure hope it isn't via "5 shots to kill a tribble".
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
[Computer]
You have contracted Wesley Crusher.
You: Ah crap, evasive action!!!
[Computer]
Wesley has screwed up your ship. Please wait one episode for the problem to rectify itself.
You: Well, needed a bathroom break anyway.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
i hope they mean it's still too early to talk gameplay because marketing doesn't want to let anything slip yet. it's been 2 years since they announced the game. if it's still too early because they don't have anything designwise firmly in place, this game won't see the light of day anytime soon.
No sig for you!!
While my MMO gaming experience is a bit limited (i didn't jump on every bandwagon to go by); 6 years of EQ, a little CoH, very little DAoC, Guild Wars, Realms, and Eve; it seems that when players are given the option of PvP vs. PvE, the majority will go for PvE.
At EQ's peak, with almost 50 servers, only 4 servers were PvP, and those 4 servers were consistanly in the bottom 5-8 servers for players online (prior to Sony eliminating the ability to see that distinction). Admittedly, EQ was designed to be PvE, and it's PvP was, at best, a dreamland for gankers.
I haven't tried WoW, although I can count. They have more PvE servers than PvP. I'd assume, they running the servers at a certain capacity, as opposed to having far more people on far fewer PvP servers... so it'd follow that there's more PvE players.
With Eve, the only option for non-pvp content is to stay in high-sec(security) space. One of the most common complaints from the pvpers is: there's so few people in low-sec space; the reason given by high-sec's: gankers. If CCP would come out with an alternate server cluster that was PvE only, I'd guess that CCP would find itself with well more than double it's current player base. When you cancel Eve, one of the specific choices of "reasons" is: pvp. Obviously it's a downside for a significant number of people who trial the game.
Any PvE game could be describe to be "You'll be able to adventure and have fun, but only WITH friends. Not against them." and they sell fine. If you can do both in one game, and do them well, you'll have a hit.. but that's extreemly difficult because of the differing mindsets of the two groups.
It's hard to fathom a game that will come close to WoW's marketshare, although it was hard to fathom a game that could come close to EQ's marketshare when they had 500k subscribers. I don't think being PvP will be the defining requirement for any game to come to that, i think it'll simple have to be a good, solid, well developed game and a vast game world.
Peace does sell... it just has to be good peace.
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