WarCry Exclusive Interview with Daron Stinnett

We have a brand new section as Star Trek Online on WarCry debuts here today. To celebrate, Perpetual Entertainment Executive Producer Daron Stinnett answered a whole bunch of our questions in this new interview.

WarCry Network: You've mentioned in a slew of interviews that you're working on a game, not a simulation of Star Trek. Can you talk about some specific instances where you've run into "realism" vs. fun, what you did and why you went that way?

Daron Stinnett: One of the earliest examples I can think of is when we were thinking about how the player would beam aboard their ship. Naturally, our first thought was that the player would run down to the transporter room to request a beam-out - just as in the shows. But the more we thought about it, we realized that there is no reason a player can't beam directly from wherever they happened to be standing. Forcing players to run to a particular location just because that was the way it was usually done in the shows, was silly and would get really tiresome. So we decided to streamline, knowing that players who still wanted to role play could always make the choice to beam out only from the transporter room without forcing everyone to play that way. That decision marked the day where we decided that we would consider the entertainment value of every design element on its own merits rather than blindly mimicking show mechanics.

WarCry Network: Star Fleet has always been a utopian and uniform society. They wear uniforms, their ships look alike, etc. How do you intend to promote the individuality (both for avatars and ships) people crave in these games without ruining the atmosphere?

Daron Stinnett: The great thing about Star Trek is that it is anything but homogeneous. Sure, we tended to see a lot of the same ships and uniforms in the shows, but that was often more matter of television budgets than fiction. When it served the story, and finances allowed it, you'll find plenty of examples from the shows where the presence of variety and individualism within Starfleet doesn't undermine the notion of Star Trek.

For us, the answer here was easy, a MMORPG must promote a player's ability to individualize in order to be successful. We are creating an environment where anyone and everyone can participate in an interactive online community, and that means we can't attempt to control a player's desire to distinguish themselves within the game world. To do otherwise would be to create an exclusive club for hard core fans that would undermine the franchise in the long term, not to mention our ability to build and support a AAA title.

WarCry Network: Communication in Star Trek was always unique. They hit com badges and bring each other up on bridge screens. How will the game handle communication?

Daron Stinnett: While text chat will remain the dominant means of communication for the remainder of this decade, if not beyond, there is a lot of opportunity to turn voice chat into a more casual and ubiquitous form of communication. And as you point out, the Star Trek fiction pushes us to excel in this area. Our primary goal is to make voice chat more accessible beyond the realm of hard core grouping. Beyond that, we have a number of ideas borne out of the communications we see on the show, but I'll save a more thorough discussion of our communication systems for when we are closer to launch.

WarCry Network: The holodeck was used in the show to sometimes escape and do whatever they wished. That opens a lot of doors for a video game. Do you have any special plans for the holodeck in Star Trek Online?

Daron Stinnett: We can use the Holodeck to go anywhere and do anything, and that's a really exciting prospect for our designers. We also see a lot of unique exploration, trade skills, and social opportunities surrounding the Holodeck, but it is just too early for us to talk specifics.

WarCry Network: The race lineup has changed a few times. Where does it stand today? What races can you confirm and are there any planned beyond those?

Daron Stinnett: As we've explored the nature of Star Trek and pushed the boundaries of the fiction, our notion of which races make for the best lineup has evolved. All I will say at this time is that our set of player races is now locked and we are well into generating assets to support each of these races. In the coming months, we'll be providing hints as to the choices we made on our teaser site.

WarCry Network: While I've heard you answer this a few times, some people seem convinced that they'll be playing a single role on a star ship, like the show. Can you explain the control dynamics of the avatar vs. those of the ship?

Daron Stinnett: The easiest way to explain the dynamic between your avatar and ship in MMORPG terms is to think of your ship as a mount that is an upgradeable combat platform. Early in one's career, you will gain command your first small solo ship to freely navigate the galaxy. As you progress in your career and make alliances, you'll gain access to bigger and better ships to upgrade in parallel to your avatar. And when players decide to group with others in space, the choice is yours, group as individual ships or crew together aboard a single ship. Our design is geared towards providing players with the freedom to choose his or her own path on a journey through the galaxy.

WarCry Network: You've said in the past you foresee roughly 50% of the game as an avatar and 50% as a ship. For those so inclined, would it be possible, theoretically, to play their entire careers as one or the other? Maybe potentially not even own a ship?

Daron Stinnett: I think players can be pretty creative when it comes to the path they choose through the game, so I wouldn't rule anything out. But as a rule, we are designing space and ground to be an integrated experience. However we will likely offer opportunities for players to specialize in either arena.

WarCry Network: Greed and money were not a driving force in Star Fleet. How do you envision the economy working in game? Is an ideal like this even something you will try to translate over?

Daron Stinnett: When we originally pondered this question, STO had a more hard-core focus on Star Fleet than it does today. But even then we realized that if we didn't provide a fully functioning economy, players would just come up with other, less convenient means of exchanging goods and services. Fortunately, the Star Trek universe provides no shortage of examples where economy plays an important role - even within Star Fleet itself.

WarCry Network: While the show was primarily about adventure, war and diplomacy, it also had the element of invention. What do you intend on the crafting side of the coin?

Daron Stinnett: As one might expect, we'll have a variety of very unique trade skills. That's all I'm ready to say for now.

WarCry Network: Since everyone can be a captain and won't play crews, how detailed will the presumably NPC crews be?

Daron Stinnett: Actually, players will be able to be crew members for other player captains. There's just no substitute for having a real Klingon at the weapons station...

WarCry Network: Each series has its own villains running around. Without giving too much away, should fans expect to be primarily fighting Romulans, Dominion, Borg, someone new or all of the above?

Daron Stinnett: The familiar and expected foes will be there in addition to many favorites from different eras. And though we certainly have no shortage of enemy races to draw upon, it is true that the galaxy will face a new threat.

WarCry Network: You guys have been very shy about showing off screenshots. Can you explain why this is and give everyone an overview of the art direction?

Daron Stinnett: We will begin showing screenshots when we've entered our final year of launch development. We are really excited about the material we have to show but we're also conscious of the pitfalls of revealing too much, too early.

When it comes to art direction, we've taken a dramatic approach that breaks free of television and film constraints to create a look that while recognizably Star Trek, is much more compelling, great for gameplay, and a better overall fit for our medium. When we reveal our look, it will say loud and clear that STO will be a wholly new Star Trek experience.

WarCry Network: Space is an ever-exciting infinite black void and on TV they can just chop out the flying around part in a way an MMO does not allow. What are you doing to keep things fun up there?

Daron Stinnett: One of the things that we love about MMORPGs is the sense of exploration and discovery that comes from a rich and varied world that is as beautiful as it is mysterious. So when we got started, we realized that space rendered traditionally as 99% vacuum, would not allow us achieve the sense of satisfying exploration that players would expect. Our conclusion was that this was an opportunity to innovate space as a gameplay environment. So while we still have warp to whisk players across vast distances, putting around at impulse speed is now a very rewarding experience. When we start showing screenshots, I think people will get a better sense of just how we've solved this issue by taking space environments to an entirely new level.

WarCry Network: Some might start to grumble that the license has been cursed lately. Despite such high hopes, Star Trek Legacy, a game that came out in December from Bethesda, has received mediocre to poor reviews. Assuming you guys took it for a twirl, what lessons did you learn from this most recent foray into Star Trek gaming?

Daron Stinnett: Having made several Star Wars games and now being involved in the creation of a Star Trek game, I can say that making a Star Trek game is very challenging But it's not because the license is any less compelling; especially for an MMORPG, it is more compelling. With Star Wars, the approach was to pick great gameplay mechanics and wrap them around the franchise's wonderful characters, adventure, and iconic scenes. Do a quality job with that approach and you have a great shot at a successful title. But with Star Trek, there's a constant pull to derive gameplay from the show mechanics because they are such a large part of Star Trek's screen appeal. I think this approach has too often made for muddled gameplay experiences that may be interesting for their clever use of show mechanics, but often fail to deliver a truly entertaining gaming experience for a large gaming audience.

I think everyone recognizes that Star Trek is an incredibly rich and appealing setting for truly great games. Getting it right will take dedicated focus on those elements that translate well to our medium and the willingness to leave the rest behind.

WarCry Network: While Perpetual is a new company, the people there are hardly inexperienced. What lessons have you and the team learned from other projects that you hope to use to your advantage in STO?

Daron Stinnett: The path to creating a triple-A title starts with assembling a team of individuals with triple-A standards and experience. The Star Trek team is comprised of people who are gamers that have worked at top-shelf developers and publishers building games such as Godfather, Monkey Island, The Sims, City of Villains, and World of Warcraft. We've worked hard at recruiting the industry's best who believe that high production values, great gameplay, and authenticity matter.

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Wow, this one sure had lots of information. Nice work WarCry! Good to see you guys have joined the fray of coverage ;)

Glad to see a new interview! I just hope STO does not get delayed as much as G&H has.

one quick note on a typo: Its Daron "Stinnett" not Sinnett. :)

I am encouraged by what I have read in this interview. The direction the design team looks to be taking for STO sound right. I am especially excited to get a greater insight in to the way one will advance through STO. I hope to hear if there will be mysteries to solve and how leaning a trade will work in STO verses say Star Wars.

Sorry about the typo... Fixed now.

Fortunately, the Star Trek universe provides no shortage of examples where economy plays an important role - even within Star Fleet itself.

"Replicator rations" was Voyager's loophole around it and "gold-pressed latinum" was the main currency on DS9, so using a form of those or making up something new isn't really a stretch.

(An exhaustive article on latinum here. With slips, strips, bars and bricks of latinum, there's their whole economy laid out for them right there, heh)

WarCry Network: Since everyone can be a captain and won't play crews, how detailed will the presumably NPC crews be?

Daron Sinnett: Actually, players will be able to be crew members for other player captains. There's just no substitute for having a real Klingon at the weapons station...

maj! This confirms that Klingons WILL be a PC race after all...even if they DO have to start out in the company of tera'ngan petaQpu'.

Power Play:
maj! This confirms that Klingons WILL be a PC race after all...even if they DO have to start out in the company of tera'ngan petaQpu'.

This enthusiasm is beyond awesome. And I hadn't thought about that. Cood catch.

Hi everyone,

I'm expecting not only Klingon but Vulcans and a third race as minimum for the release of the game, probably more. Considering what other games are doing, I would expect 4-6 races and 4-7 classes to be playable at the beginning.
If the classes are to be the standard ST roles, they will be:
tattics & security, ops, medic, scientific, commander, enginer, conselor(?) (I hope no comunications, sorry Uhura).
So if all roles will be available I think there will be only 4 races, with other playlable after expantions:
Humans, Klingons, Vulcans. I have no idea which one can be the 4th race, Andorians can be a good idea since gives a lot of space for development but there wasn't any andorians as major character in any series. May be Ferengi, Trill or Beyorians are more known by people. Any idea?
I have great hopes from this game, good work to all the team!

Hi MicheleFG

On the old startrek.perpetual.com Site was a FAQ Sektion. There was a List of playable races. Sadly i can not find the old Site. But races was:

Human
Trill
Bajoran
Vulcan
Bolian
Andorian
Tellarite
Klingon
Ferengi

Greetings
Flogge Cendric

Hey guys.
i have been keeping an eye on STO for a year and longer now and i really cant wait to see if i can get into beta testing:) before u ask no there is no beta but like every mmo there will be.. im a SWG vet.. sit back and wait for 2008:)

Great news, Mr. Sinnett. Now, I will have to up my order of downers to keep me calm and in a tranquil state of mind until the news of the first beta comes in, then all bets are off.

But seriously, I have been following the news of STO for a long time as well, and each little tidbit or screenshot has sent my hopes up at Warp Factor 9.9. I do so hope that the beta goes live later this year, so that I can begin 2008 zipping around the galaxy, zapping bad aliens and makin' out with Green Orion Slave Girls (Hmmm, hmmm.)

Set course for adventure, Warp Factor 5...Engage.

As you must know, they'd never enter "adventure" Warp Factor 5, they always use 8! (even though, yes, the standard federation limit is 5 due to the effects of constant high warp creating subspace tears etc)

I remember seeing that list (or at least something similar) on the old perp site, but I also remember them NOT (I'll repeat that... NOT) including medical as a career path, they only seemed to be suggesting three (the red, yellow and blue paths of command, engineering and science). It's a shame because I've spent years playing a Monk in Guild Wars and months in City of Heroes as an Empath Defender and enjoy the challenge not of killing others, but keeping out side alive to kill them, especially inept players who wouldn't stand a chance without it.

Medical crew are integral to the script and just because they're not all action and glory, it's sure fun to lecture the stupid engineers who blew themselves up trying to create Exocomp 2.0

I'd love to get into the Beta because, whilst not a Trekkie, I do enjoy Star Trek and would probably be unique in wanting to play CMO of a Starship instead of the Captain (and hope to relieve said captain at the earliest opportunity on medical grounds mwuhahaha)

Getting back to the post, I'd be interested to find out why they put in Bajoran and Trill (will we find Trill players being randomly selected for joining to gain super boosts?).

Before I forget, i'll add something else. I hope that "Captain" is not the highest experience level, but the highest in the Command Chain.

Sure, Captain is a great job and controlling the ship is cool, but let's face it you don't become Ensign Lefler with the aim of sitting in a squeeky chair and saying engage all day long.

I'd like to see three something like this as the experience tables:

0: Cadet
1: Ensign
2: Lieutenant (junior grade)
3: Lieutenant
4: Lieutenant Commander
5: Commander
6: Chief (see below)
7: Captain
8: Admiral

Number 6 would be career specific depending on your chosen speciality:
Medical - Chief Medical Officer, Security - Head of Security, Science - Head of Stellar Cartography, Navigation - Chief Navigator, Command - First Officer, Engineering - Chief of Engineering.
Medical and Science would be Blue Shirts, Engineering and Security Yellow Shirts and Navigation and Command are Red Shirts. As a Cadet you receive nothing until you reach Ensign stage, at which time you choose which "shirt" to wear. After reaching level 3, as a lieutenant, you then specialise between the 2 categories in your shirt.

Abilities could be split into Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and General. If you chose to be a Security Officer you might have Hand to Hand as a primary, Repair door as a secondary (as it's a yellow shirt - engineering ability), Botany (blue shirt - science) and running, jumping, swimming as general. Star Trek characters tend to have three things about them: Kick ass at their main profession (Scotty the Mr Fix-it), cope well with their similar shirt abilities (Picard is a great navigator) or have abilities you think WHY GOD WHY! (The Dancing Doctor Ms Crusher)

Hi Bmnqwk,

I like the idea of progressing through rank as in ST! But I have no idea if it can match the idea of having a ship to command from the start. I really don't want to see a cadet to be the captain of a vassel. I hope they will use the rank for the career and people at the beginning will use ships that are assigned to, not owned by the cadet.
IE: mission 1 in space can be take the shuttle and find the asteroid behind the moon. You use the ship but it is NOT your ship.
I would like to own a ship from commander level, not erlier in the game. This will not avoid the played to have ship dedicated abilities or equipment to use with different ships.

I like very much the idea of having abilities divided in 4 groups, one for every color plus one generic. In this way you can cover almost all the aspects of ST lore as a good captain is supposed to do. Plus you can have good chances to personalize your character.

For level 8, the Admiral level, I think you will not reach this level unless they are planning to have multi-ship leaders with multi-ship abilities. In this case, probably there will be more than one admiral rank, it's likely that there will be all 4(?) ranks, each of them allowing more and more ship to command. But this is only my idea (suggestion?).

His doublespeak skills are impressive, but if you look at these quotes

"we can't attempt to control a player's desire to distinguish themselves within the game world. To do otherwise would be to create an exclusive club for hard core fans that would undermine the franchise in the long term, not to mention our ability to build and support a AAA title."

"we've taken a dramatic approach that breaks free of television and film constraints[...] it will say loud and clear that STO will be a wholly new Star Trek experience."

"Getting it right will take dedicated focus on those elements that translate well to our medium and the willingness to leave the rest behind."

they clearly translate from marketing-speak to "We were employing some Star Trek geeks, but we kicked them to the curb and got started on Everquest With Spaceships so we can rake in the big $$$".

It's the same as what happened to Star Wars Galaxies and Lord of the Rings Online. Heck, it's the same as happened to the show "Enterprise". If you let the suits get ahold of any franchise, the first thing they will want to do is to make it "appeal to a larger market" which means dilute everything meaningful that made the franchise appeal to anyone in the first place.

I liked Enterprise.

The original series was a trail blazer for numerous things, Next Generation didn't do much except give a new generation their own star trek. Ds9 gave Star Trek a base of operations, similar to "a day in the life of" episodes aboard ship. Voyager threw them into the unknown, almost making them feral. I despised Enterprise originally, but then I decided it's not Star Trek, sat down and watched it... and wow, it became a good sci-fi show!

I agree, a lot of hype being thrown out to generate the buzz, but let's face it... I just hope they're prepared to read it as I'm sure many people will have great suggestions for them to use to improve things! For the People, By the People, Bought by the people!

I want the rank thing because I don't give a crap about owning my own ship, I might as well go reinstall Dos 6.0 and fire up Elite 2. I want the ship to ship combat, I want the away missions where the red shirts die, I want the "secondary plot line" of Tng that ran every week.

In World of Warcraft (I've played about 10 minutes of it, so i'm pretty much going on second hand info) you dont get a horse until higher level. Guild Wars - Gotta ascend to do Fissure of Woe... Want wings in City of...? Play for 15 months! Every game needs rewards, and I feel Command of a Ship becomes moot and boring if you get it straight off the bat.

Quick aside, there are only 3 shirt colours in Star Trek. Red, Yellow and Blue, and splitting those down into 2 specialisations each would give 6 "professions", which is plenty in the way described above.

With regards to "Captain", you don't have to be of the rank to Captain a ship. Notable examples are Lieutenant Commander Data with the Uss Sutherland during the Tachyon Detection Grid was temporarily assigned as "Captain". The Defiant's Captain was Commander Sisko for a long time. Captain and "Captain" are two different things to confuse people, one signifies the rank and priviledges of having four pips on your sleeve whilst the other gives you the duties and responsibilities. Of course, sometimes an Admiral comes along and makes you act as both Executive Officer and Science Officer just because an ancient probe is annoying your galaxy.

To Summise. Rank 7+ to Captain a Galaxy or similar Size vessel, Commander would allow Nebula and Excelsior sized vessels while science vessels and other smaller craft might have Leiutenant Commanders at the helm if they've the right qualifications and skills for the assignments. (But yeah, too right Ships shouldn't be given out willy nilly to any bloke who can type in Cpn Kerk for an id!)

I still intend to become a CMO purely to see how many different I'm a doctor not a... whines I can fit in each day!

Chief is not a rank, unless you count the enlisted. Transporter Chief O'Brien being the most noteworthy. Chief Medical Officers and Chief Engineers are department head titles and those with those titles had actual ranks besides the title. Geordi was Lieutenant in season 1 and later when he became Engineer was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Same with Beverly, she was Lieutenant Commander until she took the Commander's test so she could take a command shift on the bridge now and then. That is what precipitated Deanna taking the Commander's test in season 6.

The disheartening news is that they are making a game. Star Wars Galaxies started off well as an online universe, and it was only when Sony decided to turn it into a game that it began it's downfall. If Gene Roddenberry were here he'd explain why you don't transport right off the bridge except for emergency reasons only. In fact, why bother having Turbolifts, corridoors, or even doors when you can be transported everywhere.

What you see in most Star Trek episodes is the extraordinary. Only through the magic of television and dramatic license do you get to skip over the rest of the stuff that's far more mundane. But it's indeed those mundane elements that make all the episodes so extraordinary. It's our lives in their ordinariness that makes that episode of Star Trek once a week so interesting and entertaining. Sure walking to the transporter room might be mundane, but if there isn't anything mundane, then there can't be anything extraordinary.

For me as a wannabe Chief Engineer some of the most interesting things will be learning the insides of a Galaxy or Sovereign class starship, and what makes it tick, even if it's only fictional science theory. To me fun is not, "Computer 4 to transport to the conference room."

I wanted to say something on transporters, but I took few days to think about them.
My small suggestion for those who are making the game is: do not allow beaming from anywhere, not at least for the first levels. Than, let's say at leutenant rank, give the player a "master of the transportes" ability so he can start away mission from every where on a ship. I think players have to fill they are in ST by going to the transporter room for a while. Than, when things start to get boring, allow the use of transport in a more playable way.

For the movment inside a big ship probably there will be turbolifts, and probably they will act exactly as transporter. Anyway, having a full galaxy-class ship to explore wuold be fantastic!

For the ranking system, probably we are saying the same :). If you have assigned a ship for a short mission you can be it's "captain". To be a permanent commander of any ship you need at least commander rank. The Data example is really extraordinary, it's shirt term mission and the fleet was destroyed one year before at Wolf, so no senior crew was available.
By the way, I never see a Nebula ship captained by a commander. I consider Nebula ship as big ship....

What's your idea on holodeck? Nice for training, tutorial and similar stuff but I doubt it can be used for much more. Any idea?

Actually, Sean has a good argument there regarding transporters. Why allow personal site to site transport by any player? A good trade off would be to allow Site-to-Site transportation ONLY through a player actively controlling the ship's transporters on the ship. That way it's still possible, but someone has to authorise it.

As for turning Department Head into a Rank, I am fully aware of how La Forge began as a rank below his expertise (let's face it, Reginald Barclay made lieutenant on his abilities with no actual personality traits!) Department Head's are not going to be required on 90% of ships from the sounds of it, so I think turning them into a rank would be a better idea, granting bonuses to people for it (Extra healing, for example, as CMO... quicker repair times as a Chief of Engineering). If you want to make it exactly like the show, tell the show not to have so many discontinuities... then jump off a cliff because it's a game for people to play, not to remark how close it is to Star Trek.

Also, Roddenberry would inform you he had Turbolifts as "2 guys behind it pulling on cue". The Tv Show had things for it which they'd have never done with the money.

MicheleFG
[I like the idea of progressing through rank as in ST! But I have no idea if it can match the idea of having a ship to command from the start. I really don't want to see a cadet to be the captain of a vassel. I hope they will use the rank for the career and people at the beginning will use ships that are assigned to, not owned by the cadet.
IE: mission 1 in space can be take the shuttle and find the asteroid behind the moon. You use the ship but it is NOT your ship. ]

or they could use rank as like how high a level a ship you can command. like a cadet having a Venture class scout ship, and an admiral having like a Hutet, or Galaxy size, from which they can send commands to every allied ship in the area, and carry far more consumable weapons (torpedoes) and people who don't have/use their own ship. as well as possibly using larger ships to ferry things like resources needed in ground/planet battles.

Hi all,

I'm extremely excited about this game. I've never ventured into the world of MMORPGs but I will definitely have to once this game comes out. I plan on applying for beta testing, if at all possible.

A note about Cadets as Captains: remember Red Squad? ;-) It's a believable way to get Cadets to captain their own ship without hurting Star Trek continuity. Man, there's an explanation for just about anything in the Trek universe to compromise for MMORPG standards!

I like the ideas of site-to-site transporting only available for certain levels and up, but how about this: site-to-site transporting could be an ability or an item (a personal transporter, very feasible in the 2380's), earned with rank, and not just a feature that pops up when you're promoted to a certain level. I think having it as an item would work even better. It fits the MMO standards while keeping true tot he Star Trek universe. It's all about compromise, is it not? Why should one side (MMO vs. Trek) give way completely to the other?

I agree that ranks should be a factor in what class ship you get. Cadets could get scouts (like the Peregrine class or something like the Delta Flyer), progressing up to Oberth class, Miranda class, Excelsior class, Akira/Steamrunner/Saber class, Defiant class, Galaxy class, Sovereign class, and a few more in between.

Dmnqwk:

Quick aside, there are only 3 shirt colours in Star Trek. Red, Yellow and Blue, and splitting those down into 2 specialisations each would give 6 "professions", which is plenty in the way described above.

There was actually four shirt colours (Marines were green, as they don't fall into Security).

SeanBlader:

For me as a wannabe Chief Engineer some of the most interesting things will be learning the insides of a Galaxy or Sovereign class starship, and what makes it tick, even if it's only fictional science theory. To me fun is not, "Computer 4 to transport to the conference room."

Agreed, I personally see myself with a red duty vest myself (Minus the balding and grey hair, no offense Patrick Stewart), or a medical lab coat, but being down in an Engineering Geoffrey's(sp?) Tube working on a random relay would be very fun.

Okay, I can see how there are so many skeptics, and I respect that, but we have to keep in mind, they are working on something post ST: Nemesis, right? They've got a half-painted canvas (I hate that line, see what you made me do?) to work with, I think it's good they're trying to appeal to the more casual fans of Star Trek, but I prefer the idea of it being "Hardcore Trekkies Only", would mean the game is alot more roleplay-friendly, and much more canon, which of course, means more fun!

We've just gotta wait till beta to make proper judgement. I for one will definately be applying, especially after reading this interview.

Judgement, bah! If we wait to make judgements, the people who are designing the product wont receive valuable (read ten thousand complaints/arguments by us) input they can trawl through to find the one or two cool ideas.

The idea the canvas is "half-painted" is intruiging, however, it's more that the entire canvas is painted and they've got enough whiteout to cover a small area to add in their own designs. Setting it post Reman appearence allows them to what, enjoy a more peaceful relationship with the Romulans? BAH! I say BAH! I want to kill the pointy-eared scum! Ferengi on the bridge of the enterprise... surely only in Riker's head!

See, now that's valuable insight, to which they'll receive millions of similar threads and maybe 1 in 10'000 will be of use to them, but that's still a lot of use.

I look forward to the Beta, and applying, purely so I can go about and look from a "non combatants" point of view (ie, the one who wants a role play aspect and life in Medical)

Oh, P.S. Green shirts as an idea died a harsh death like Mud's Women, please dont bring them into this or we'll have the kind of players who believe Oblivion (Eldar Scrolls IV) was the way to take it, rather than a pesky rpg that Daggerfall was.

If they realy want suggestion here it's mine.

Change the start of the game and do not let player choose their "class". When you start are a cadet, right? so you have to learn the basic of EVERY role. So do that, it's a good tutorial to explain all mechanism of the game. Than player make the choice of which color to wear. It's something different from many MMORPG and I'm sure many will appreciate the news.

On commanding, again, I'm against this idea. You can have rare single mission in which you command a ship but the STANDARD mission should be "you are the science/eng/med/etc officier under captain XXX of starship YYY: do ...".

Another idea for who is developing the game to make me and the others happy.

Starbases and big ship works as hub. Let assign bigger and bigger ships to starbases as far as you progres in the game. So every time you have a mission "take the ship and do something" you will have an appropriate ship for your level (you use it but you are not the commanding officer). Of course a starbase can have assigned more than one ship so you can use the hub at different levels.

Anyway, I really would like to have the possibility to perform a career as an officer on different ships, starting from helm than moving to higher responsability throught the game. Ie:
rank role
ensign helm (small ship)
lt junior ops(small ship), ops(medium ship),
lt ops(big ship), 1st officer (small ship),
lt commander 1st officer (medium ship), 1st officer (large ship),
commander captain (small ship), captain (medium ship),
captain captain (large ship).

And in this case I'm still giving more to the game than to ST; Picard was captain of the Stargazer, a constellation class ship, that is not a big ship (and probably not even a medium one). Since in MMORPG at beginning the progression is fast, probably is better to have lt.junior with only one role and shift every role by one rank. So you have captain rank for both medium and large ship that I find more appropriate.

On transporters, I understand why they do not want to use transport room, it creates a huge concentration of players in the same area and this is not good for the server perfomances (ever been at a busy action house in WOW? any lag???). If you have to multiply by ten the number of teleportation room in a ship to make it work, than I prefere to teleport from everywhere. Moreover this will make more sence if you realy are the commanding officer of a ship, transportation at command should not be a problem! Since, at the end, 90% of the use of teleport will be to switch from avatar to ship mode (and you will want to do it at wish) it's perfectly comprehensible why they did this choice.

One last word on been captain. One of the best thing of ST is team work; you need good fellow officers to complete a mission (or to survive) and this idea of beeing captain since beginning will not help the original concept. I want to be part of a team to solve a mission, not just doing a lot of solo as "captain" of a shuttle.

Finally one question: does anyone know if we will be able to play only federation or if we will be able to play other MAYOR races? (ie. a klingon doing a career in Klingon fleet)

I run a huge online guild in COH. Some of the main problems that arose from this was the following....

Limitations on how many members you can have, How does STO plan to solve or work around this issue?

Limited Ranks, How many ranks does STO plan on integrating into its "Guild" planning. I personally think a minumum of 7 ranks are needed in any online game. CoH currently has only 5 and there are issues with hurt feelings when certain privledges can not be attained due to lack of permissions. If a limited amount of ranks is set for STO then there should be wide spanning privledges so that each rank can have certain permissions set. This "Permissions" problem came into its own when several guilds were infiltrated and several items of great value were robbed. I would hate to have this problem in STO when i come over.

End Game content, this has been and probably will always be a problem. CoH is a very Skill based game with Some items that can help the skilled players reach maximum potential. WoW is almost completly Item based and even truly skilled players can get thier asses stomped by an 8 year old who logs into thier fathers lv 60 warrior that is all decked out. Reaching the highest level possible as fast as possible is the driving focus for a LOT of players. How will you address this issue and keep it interesting for those players who make to the highest level attainable in STO? I would HIGHLY suggest that Ship Cutomization be the order of the day. The one driving focus that kept me coming back on Starfleet Command III was that I could customize my ship any way I wanted to and I played it religiously. Once I ran into CoH I began enjoying the "skill based games" more then the "Item based games". SFC III was very PvP oriented and so is CoH that is what keeps me coming back. I hope to see a very skill oriented game vs An item based game such as WoW.

Class Diversification. This is one of the best things in any online game in my personal opinion. In STO I would imagine that there would be a "Fighter class" a "Healer class" a "Scientific Class" and maybe a "Rouge class". Each "Class" would help to offset the others weakness and FORCE player to work with one another. The developers in CoH have made such a game and thats what makes it so much fun.

In closing I want to be able to log in my first time into a wonderous new game and say... what do I do now. I want to walk around and do my homework. I want to be able to have a place for me and my friends to come together and work as a team to become the best players in the server/galaxy that I choose to play on. I want to be able to lead troops in battle against a far superior force and know that our skill can overcome those players who have for far too long relied on "Item based" games. Let the player have the power... dont let the items have the power. If that is accomplished.... many people will be happy, and they will always return the next day to play some more.

Lord Stryker
Leader and Founder of Strye-Force (Champions Server CoH)
www.stryke-force.com