A couple of weeks ago, Cryptic Studio attended Europes first ever "GamesCon" out of Cologne, Germany and news on the Star Trek Online Front poured out all over the place.

We got a new trailer, a thirty minute press demo of our beloved game and a blurry first look at the User Interface for Star Trek Online.

Now, courtesy of ZAM.com, we are getting a more detailed look at the UI from a photograph that they took at GamesCon and released on their website just yesterday!


While this image is still a bit blurry, its now possible to see the entire UI in detail, with areas for your weapons systems, shield status and other ship information, speed control, your bridge officers and more!.

Of course, the UI is still very much in development like other areas of the game, but at the second glance, it does indeed appear clean and very functional, especially when compared to some of the poor UI choices that Trek Gamers have been subjected too over the years!

Some even better news now, is that Hailing Frequency is attending the Penny Arcade Expo in downtown Seattle starting tomorrow, where we will get our first on hands look at Star Trek Online and in addition to this, we will be bringing you a thirty minute VIDEO interview with one of the game producers, so be sure to stop back here tomorrow for that video folks!

You can check out the full ZAM review of Star Trek Online at http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=19483

EuroGamer also posted their review/preview of Star Trek Online, so be sure to check that out too at http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/star-trek-online-hands-on

UI seems to be, in order:
Speed, Shields, Power distribution, Weapons, Special powers(?), Bridge officers(?)

It looks like the power distribution has some pre-set options: Attack, Defence, Speed and Balanced, but I think you can probably manage the individually, too.

Also note there's a line at the top saying "Under Attack!"

It's the system requirements that worry me. When I see asteroids, I see frame rates dropping like a rock.

I do have one question, although it  may sound a bit stupid -

Why are two Federation ships shooting at each other?
If you look in the bottom-right corner of the UI, you can see what I'm pretty sure is an New Orleans class starship. Presumably, this means that you're flying a New Orleans.
The ship in the center of the screen, with the highlight-targeting-thing around it, is Miranda-class.

As for the asteroids, Jatal: It depends on how they're set up. I know in Lord of the Rings Online, I was once in a raid where  six different people were doing a boss fight, and kept getting knocked back into a lake. Eventually, the entire raid was swimming around the lake, still fighting. Despite the added weight of rendering the water effects (on top of all the attack and healing animations that were going on at the time) my small computer (which isn't very good) never slowed down.

I do have one question, although it  may sound a bit stupid -

Why are two Federation ships shooting at each other?

Well, in Wrath of Khan, the Enterprise (no bloody A, B, C, D, or E ;)) and the Reliant were pounding on each other like heavyweight boxers, so it's not past the realm of possibility.

Oh, and to quote Mr. Garrison from South Park:

"There are no stupid questions, just stupid people." ;D

Just kidding.