What's up with Star Trek Online? 79
MMORPG.com has a piece talking with Daron Stinnett, producer for the preproduction-phase MMOG Star Trek Online. They discuss the decision to only include the Federation in the game's launch, the gameplay both on starships and planetside, and the many ideas still being nailed down for the title. From the article: "The uniforms are a good example of an area where we've needed to evolve the look of Star Trek to support the game. Star Trek uniforms from the shows tend to be very subtle in their variation, which of course works when you're filming close enough to make the actors themselves the stars of the show. But for an MMO, It's well understood that giving players the ability to customize their look as their character evolves is an important part of any MMO as is the ability to recognize player rank and specialty from a distance. So we have created new uniforms that are still very recognizable as Star Trek, but with recognition and customization features that will work well in our game world."
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An interview with the driving force being Perpetual's flagship title
Daron Stinnett is the Producer of Star Trek Online. This industry veteran was previously the subject of a developer profile on our site. Today, we have an interview with him that focuses in on what you truly want to know: Star Trek Online. To go with the interview we also have two screenshots from the game (which are also included in this article).
MMORPG.com: You're obviously a long way away from retail launch. Can you give us a general update on where you are in production and when in a general sense you anticipated major milestones (alpha, beta, launch) will come?
Daron Stinnett: We are an early phase of development where we are working on our design, prototyping our new ideas, laying down foundation for our tools and technology framework, and doing a lot of planning. We have quite a bit of company technology, tools, and processes to draw upon, so we expect to be in full scale production by this summer and begin our initial public beta tests in the summer of 2007.
MMORPG.com: The Star Trek universe is filled with unique races and passionate fans will undoubtedly be extremely upset if any are skipped at launch. With the realities of a production in mind, obviously you cannot please everyone. What races are you going to concentrate on and why?
Daron Stinnett: Playable races are those that you might expect to see on a Starfleet starship and will likely include Human, Vulcan, Klingon, Bajoran, Bolian, Trill, Tellarite, Andorian. The controversial issue is our decision to have Star Trek Online focus exclusively on Starfleet at launch. The immense scope of MMOs means that if you want to build a multi-faction game, then those factions had better be carbon copies of each other from a game mechanics point of view. But the "coat of paint" approach just doesn't work with Star Trek. Starfleet is very unique, as are the other factions and we didn't feel that anyone wanted a watered down experience in order to achieve a multi-faction game. Starfleet, with its focus on starship life, space combat, exploration, and away missions, presents a challenge to MMO conventions that has pushed us to come up with fresh ideas that will give players a very new online experience. And ultimately, innovative gameplay and respect for our license are the things that will provide the greatest value for players.
MMORPG.com: By choosing to do space and land-based content, you're essentially making two games. Can you talk about your general goals in regards to the land-based aspects of the game?
Daron Stinnett: We're committed to doing both space and ground for Star Trek Online because it is the right thing to do. But you're right to point this out as a challenge for the development team. Building two games at once is hardly a recipe for success, so we've put a lot of effort into figuring out how to unify the mechanics between the two environments, while maintaining the unique flavor of each.
We also want to avoid creating two kinds of games from the player perspective, so we are building a world where players will feel equally capable in either arena. Just as it is in the series, we expect player characters to move freely between the two environments. This will enable us to weave space and ground gameplay together in a single mission. For example, its not hard to imagine mission that takes place within a derelict Borg Cube that allows the player to complete that mission either on foot or by ship, or a combination of both. The possibilities are endless and we're planning on giving players a lot more mission variety than they are used to.
MMORPG.com: And in space?
Daron Stinnett: Both space and ground combat have similar RPG style combat mechanics, but the similarities end there. Like a mount in land-based MMOs, your starship will speed you across the galaxy to destinations unknown. And of course starships are so much more than mounts since they a