Star Trek Online: Exclusive Interview

What are the challenges of developing a new canon for the series at the same time as a new thread is being developed by the films – without potentially confusing your audience?
The films take place in a different timeline – so the co-ordination has been pretty easy. The Hobus supernova and the destruction of the Romulan homeworld were known early enough so that we could work it into our timeline.

Throughout the process, CBS has done a fantastic job keeping us in the loop. They make sure that our game and new comic books or novels set in the early-2400s stay true to one vision and are a co-ordinated effort to tell what’s going on in the Alpha Quadrant.

What can we expect in terns of fan service during the game, ie characters from the television series or films popping up during game quests?
By 2409, many of the characters of the shows and movies will have retired or otherwise moved on. That being said – there are a huge number of crossovers from storylines, ships and settings from the TV series. You’ll get to see children and descendants of characters in the shows. The game is filled with storylines that are the direct results of events within the shows.

Is this the start of a new stage in the Star Trek franchise?
We certainly hope so. We at Cryptic are such fans of the franchise – making an MMO is not like a standalone game. We’re going to be developing and releasing updates and expansions for years. We have so much planned for the game – we certainly hope it’s the beginning of a long stage in the history of Star Trek.

Licensed MMOs have a bit of a turbulent recent history (Matrix Online, Conan) – how do you intend to prolong the life of the MMO, without relying on the brand?
I don’t think you rely on the brand – but if you’re going to make a licensed game, you can’t expect to pay lip service to the licence and have it sell the game. You can’t take an MMO and skin it with Star Trek uniforms and be done.

You focus on making a game that is true to the brand, and make sure that you’re willing to try new and different mechanics to get there and you hopefully get a great game out of it.

The game tends to re-create on-foot action and epic space battles – were there any ideas or game elements that you looked at, but weren’t included for whatever reason?
Plenty. Some of the biggest were allowing players to play as neutral factions (like traders) or play as an officer on other player’s ships. We also knew that we wanted to get the game out in a set amount of time, and that we wanted to make sure that we delivered a deep and rich experience rather than a whole bunch of thin ones. So we focused on making the Starship Captain experience.

Great thing about MMOs, though, is how you get to keep developing them after launch…

Star Trek and Star Wars have had a long rivalry in the fight for fans' affections – has the fact that you’ll be going up against Star Wars: The Old Republic (and other big MMOs like APB, Secret World, Final Fantasy, DC Universe, The Agency) in the MMO space caused you to do anything differently?
In any endeavour there will be competition. But really – since getting the licence, we’ve been focused on making what we think Star Trek Online should be.

We at Cryptic are still, at the end of the day, just gamers. We happen to have a lot of rabid Star Trek fans as well. We didn’t approach the game in a “how will this design decision position ourselves against our competitors;” we just want to make an awesome MMO that we’ll enjoy playing.

The timing is seemingly coincidental, but a lot of big franchises are moving into the MMO space (see above) – what do you attribute this shift to?
The MMO business model is very attractive. I don’t think there are any more games in development than there were in years past.

Does the game include any features that might surprise gamers or perhaps Star Trek fans that aren’t familiar with MMOs?
I think that there are a few departures from MMOs that will really stand out in STO. Space Combat – it’s really something very different. It’s very measured and strategic. Positioning is extremely important, and you have time to take actions such as re-routing power to shields or weapons, or weakening an opponent's aft shields and then manoeuvring to take advantage of that. We want it to feel as much like Star Trek combat as possible.

The flow of the content is a lot different from most MMOs also. All of the content in Star Trek Online is meant to feel as though you’re in one of the TV shows or movies. You constantly move back and forth between space and ground settings – you’re never in one place for very long.

What has the studio learnt from its work on Champions Online that may have fed into Star Trek Online?
We’re lucky. The core technologies that STO is built upon – the database, map servers, CS tools, back end systems – are the same ones that Champions uses. Every performance or stability improvement that was made because of Champs’ launch has benefited STO.

What are your hopes for the game and how do you see it evolving over time?
I just can’t wait to get the game out to the public. You can only do so much with a game before you launch. The most exciting part of MMO development for me is the work after launch. Watching how the community plays the game, listening to what they want, and evolving and adding to the game over time. I look forward to years of live team support for Star Trek Online!