I am just curious how ship interiors would work?  Would we have an NPC crew?  Or real people?  If its real people what happens when we log off?  I think having interiors would also limit the amount of ships the game starts off with.  Don't get me wrong, I would love to see some interiors as long as it doesn't effect the game too much.

There would no doubt by NPC and real crew. When you log off, your character will be replaced with a NPC crew. I think there are problems making the game centered on PSIs. but I think they can be put in for guild-run ships for role-playing. I don't expect a game centered on player ship interiors, but I would think they should be available for guilds or groups of players who just want to role play.

I hope Cryptic handles it better than Perpeutal.

Here's my short list, in order of importance, for the Top Ten Things I'm Hoping To See In Cryptic's Star Trek Online (with a special bonus zeroth item):

0. POLISH: No major bugs at launch; no new bugs introduced with new features.

1. Star Treky-ness: "Ethical Exploration" as the primary theme and majority of gameplay, with combat as an important secondary element, and that balance preserved over the lifespan of the game.

2. Gameplay features derived directly from iconic elements of Star Trek -- not merely Star Trek art and sound effects wallpapered over conventional MMORPG gameplay (i.e., not just "World of Warcraft with a Star Trek skin"), but a strong use of the technologies, planets, cultures, and characters that are uniquely representative of the franchise.

3. Starship-centered gameplay content, with player ships detailed enough -- not just in appearance but in functional systems and player crewing features -- to be the primary tool used to support gameplay.

4. An epic overarching storyline in which the majority of the game's content will be integrated, and a good plan for regularly (i.e., no less than once a month) adding content that reveals major new elements of the ongoing story.

5. A huge universe designed to give all players opportunities to discover (maybe through travel, maybe through creation) things that are new to the gameworld.

6. A character rank/progression system designed to allow players to find the kind of gameplay they enjoy and specialize in it.

7. Support for both solo and group play to the detriment of neither.

8. A reasonably thorough recreation of physical reality: planets, interstellar phenomena, particles, energies, new forms of plant and animal life, highly varied cultures, interesting aliens.

9. A highly RMT-resistant economy.

10. A context-sensitive orchestral soundtrack.

...

Side note: Before STOnet shut down, I made copies of what I thought were some of my better posts. Along with a bunch of other things I've written about computer games, I've since added my Star Trek Online-specific posts to my blog. Those Star Trek Online posts are now available at http://flatfingers-theory.blogspot.com/search/label/Star%20Trek%20Online if anyone's interested.

--Flatfingers

Indeed this is great news :)

Hey, Flatfingers! Nice to see your still alive and well (obviously alive, hopefully well too).

I just can agree with all of Flatfingers points, especially the ethical exploration part. While my optimism this will become a reality dropped drastically during the long, long... long history of the games development I still hope for at least a little bit of this. Perhaps some of you remember my constant nagging that I want MMORPGs to tell more stories and to include more options for solving a conflict. What other IP is better for doing this then Star Trek?

Quote from: Falin on 28 July 2008 12:59 PM

sofar what i'm seeing of this game from them is a far cry better than what PE was doing, 2 factions to start with and space and ground exploration. now the only question is, what era and what details are they going to standardize on?

According to the STO site Falin, the timeline is going to be late 24th century early 25th.

Quote from: STO Official Site

Become part of Star Trek®: The Star Trek universe will appear for the first time in a massively multiplayer online game. Everything from the elegant domes of Starfleet Academy to the ancient temples of Vulcan, from the towers of Qo’noS to the Fire Caves of Bajor, from the mysterious Mutara Nebula to the unexplored voids of deep space, all will be represented in stunning 3-D graphics. Immerse yourself in the future of the Trek universe as it moves into the 25th century: a time of shifting alliances and new discoveries.

I'm ready for STO's launch no matter what. I'm looking forward to it's release. :D