We have had an interesting week in the world of Star Trek Online as Cryptic Studios continue their amazing efforts to keep the community and the world informed about Star Trek Online.

Star Trek Online in Retrospect will be a newsletter and article published once per week and e-mailed out to our entire registered user base to keep everyone up to date with the fast moving development of Star Trek Online and all of the new interviews and information that is being revealed.

First Year of Star Trek Online History Revealed - 2379 - 2380

A short while ago, Cryptic informed us that Star Trek Online would be taking place in the early 25th century and that over the coming months during the development of the game, they would be publishing a history on their website taking us from the end of Star Trek Nemesis, up to the period that Star Trek Online is set in.

The first part of this was posted this week and covers 2379 to 2380:

Following the death of Praetor Shinzon at the Battle of Bassen Rift, the Romulan government fell into disarray. Tal'aura, one of the few remaining members of the Romulan Senate and a former ally of Shinzon, declares herself the new Praetor, supported by Fleet Commander Tomalak as the new leader of the Imperial Defense Force.

However, Tal'aura's leadership is opposed by Commander Donatra, who with the support of Commander Suran and former Admiral Braeg retains control of the majority of the Fifth and Third fleets. Any hope of a reconciliation between the two sides ends after the execution of Braeg, and Donatra vows never to accept Tal'aura's rule.

Donatra's rebellion is not Tal'aura's only concern. The Remans, led by General Xiomek of the Reman Kepeszuk Battalion, demand control of either a continent on Romulus or a planet with sufficient natural resources to maintain self-sufficient settlements as reparations for hundreds of years of slavery and exploitation. In response, Tel'aura cuts shipments of food and needed supplies to Remus and commands Tomalak to blockade the planet.

In Federation space, the USS Enterprise-E undergoes a major repair and refit and resumes its mission of exploration. About half of her crew transfers to other posts during the months-long overhaul, including senior staff officers William T. Riker and Deanna Troi, who are posted on the USS Titan, and Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher, who briefly serves as head of Starfleet Medical before returning to the Enterprise.

Two trials are of note during this time. On stardate 56867.84, the Founder known as the Female Changeling is sentenced for crimes committed against sentient beings during the Dominion War and committed to the Federation maximum security facility at Ananke Alpha. And on stardate 58370.4, Ro Laren surrendered to Starfleet custody. A former member of Starfleet who defected to the Maquis in 2370, Ro plead guilty to charges of desertion and was ordered to report to a penal facility on Earth for rehabilitation.

Federation analysts continue to monitor the deepening economic crisis on Cardassia Prime. The Cardassians were devastated by Dominion bombardment in the final days of the Dominion War, suffering more than 800 million casualties. Large portions of Cardassia Prime remain in ruins and the Cardassian government does not appear to have the resources to recover, although it has rejected most Federation aid.

A notable exception to this stance is the Andak project, a Federation-funded program intended to restore Cardassia Prime's agricultural base. Led by Keiko O'Brien, the Andak project initially faced stiff resistance from xenophobic groups such as the True Way and Gul Macet's conservative bloc of the government. Only the influence of Cardassian governmental adviser Elim Garak, a supporter of the fledgling democracy movement, allowed the Andak project to proceed, and work is now in progress to make the barren desert climate of Cardassia Prime support sufficient crops to feed its population. Experts at the Daystrom Institute predict that without more successful projects like the Andak initiative, the Cardassian Union could fall in as little as three years.

Ask Cryptic #1 Revealed!

Cryptic Studios have revealed the first in what will be several editions of "Ask Cryptic" - Which gives members of the community a chance to post questions on the STO Forums and have them answered by the devs.

A number of interesting topics are included in this first edition including the issue of Canoninity, Ship Customizability, Economy and Universal Fluidity.

Check out the answers to all of this and more by click this link: http://www.hailingfrequency.co.uk/boards/index.php?topic=1024

Interviews Interviews Interviews.....

A bunch of new interviews have been conducted in the last seven days although we are sad to say that alot of them cover the same ground over and over again with just a handful of new tidbits of information.

MMORPG.com conducted an interview at http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?PLAY=1267&VIEW=videos&GAME=352&bhcp=1 where we learned that their will only be humanoid Star Trek Species at launch. The justification for this is that we only rarely saw non humanoid species, but that leaves races like the Tholians, Horta, Organians and a litany of other races out of Star Trek Online at launch. 

You can discuss this interview or post your thoughts on it here: http://www.hailingfrequency.co.uk/boards/index.php?topic=1019.0

Ten Ton Hammer also conducted an interview at http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41253 which covers Character and Ship Customization to a fair extent and we also learn why Cryptic decided to go down the one player per ship road:

I think it would be a challenge to design a game where being a science officer, an engineer, the security officer, the navigation officer... to make that so fun that it would occupy your entire time. I think that would be a real challenge. I think that it would be possible, but it would be like developing 5 games almost in parallel because you would need to develop enough gameplay for somebody as a security officer to enjoy it as much as a captain. I’d think that a lot of people would want to be captains to begin with, so it’s easiest to start there and maybe we’ll expand downwards into other things. I wouldn’t rule that out. But just having to create that gameplay would be very, very hard.

You can discuss this interview or post your thoughts on it here: http://www.hailingfrequency.co.uk/boards/index.php?topic=1029.0

Competition Winners

Cryptic Studios recently conducted sweepstakes in North America and Canada giving members of the STO Community a chance to win a lifetime subscription to Star Trek Online.

They had more than 18,000 entries, but have finally announced the winners!


The lucky winners are:

    * Signalsgt
    * Mr_Spock
    * ST2125
    * devetaki
    * ElijahMrE

Well done to Everyone that Entered the Competition - Especially ElijahMrE who is a member of Lotus Fleet - Hailing Frequency's officially endorsed Star Trek Online Guild!

Thats about it for this weeks newsletter, but keep your browers pointed to http://www.sto-zone.net and http://www.hailingfrequency.co.uk for all of the latest Star Trek Online news as it happens!