loadingreadyrun.com

Hmm, didn't see anybody mention this yet.

http://www.startrekonline.com/

Upcoming Star Trek MMO by Cryptic Studios, the original developers of City of Heroes/Villains (well, the actual team behind that game left Cryptic when NC Soft bought the City of X franchise). Set to be released on Feb 2, 2010 (US), Feb 5, 2010 (Euro) and Feb 11 (Australia ), STO lets you be the captain of your own ship.

STO is available in several versions versions for order:

Retail Regular Edition $49.99 US: (this is what most of the world will get in terms of availability, I assume)
- Open Beta Access (Jan 12, 2010)
- 2-day head-start (Jan 29, 2010)

Retail Collector's Edition $79.99 US:
- Open Beta Access (Jan 12, 2010)
- 2-day head-start (Jan 29, 2010)
- Deluxe Packaging
- Deluxe Manual / 40 page Art Book
- Metal Communicator Badge
- 3 Guest Passes for 10-day Trials
- Uniforms: The Next Generation style
- Uniforms: Deep Space Nine style
- Ship Item: Red Matter Capacitor - short duration, extra energy to ship, long recharge

Digital Regular Edition $49.99 US (Available at Gamestop, Steam, Direct2Drive, Atari)
- Open Beta Access (Jan 12, 2010)
- 2-day head-start (Jan 29, 2010)

Digital Deluxe Edition $59.99 US (Available at Steam, Direct2Drive, Atari)
- Open Beta Access (Jan 12, 2010)
- 2-day head-start (Jan 29, 2010)
- Emote: "KHAAAN!"
- Emote: Klingon Blood Wine Toast
- Uniforms: Original Star Trek style. Includes mini-skirts!
- Joined Trill: Innate exclusive traits. You can create normal trills in other versions, but not joined trills.
- Ship Registry: NX prefix
- Ship Item: Automated Defense Battery - Tactical Module, passive, 360 arc attack power, short range

Gold Edition Various (Namco Bandai only, that means UK, Europe, Australia and probably New Zealand)
- TNG and DS9 uniforms (presumably the ones included in the collector's edition)
- T-shirt
- 5 post cards
- 630x507mm map of the STO universe

Note: Atari Digital Downloads are apparently for North Americans only.

Subscription Options
- $14.99USD monthly recurring
- $41.97USD three-month recurring
- $77.94USD six-month recurring
*Click here for more info, including payment options and other currencies

Special offers (available with preorders only)
- Lifetime $239.99USD
* Lifetime Access to Star Trek Online
* Playable Borg
* 2 Additional Character Slots

- Yearly $119.99USD/per year
* Annual recurring subscription locked in at the discount price
* 2 Additional Character Slots
*Click here for more information

Pre-Order Exclusives information

-Pre-Order page with links to retailers (Click for pics and info for exclusives)

-Pre-Order FAQ page

-Page explaining the exclusives and their uses

North America Retailer Pre-Order bonuses

*Gamestop/EB pre-order with Orignal Series Constitution class cruiser (old USS Enterprise) download. Ship can be chosen after the tutorial instead of the Miranda/Centaur/Soyuz starting ship. Ship's appearance cannot be changed, but has TOS phasers (blue) and an extra engineering slot:
-REGULAR edition preorder
-COLLECTOR edition preorder

*Amazon pre-order with Borg bridge crew member with unique traits and abilities, but apparently is not customisable:
-REGULAR edition preorder
-COLLECTOR edition preorder

*Best Buy pre-order includes pet tribble or targ (klingon pig thing). Targs are purely cosmetic for Klingon players, but tribbles (for Fed players) can increase your healing rate, but cannot be summoned during combat:
-REGULAR edition preorder
-COLLECTOR edition preorder

*Steam pre-order includes "Chromodynamic Armor", Mass Effect-looking battle armour that has 6.1% Physical Resistance, 6.1% Kinetic Resistance, 2.6% Energy Resistance, +15% Critical Damage, +5% Critical Chance, +3% Energy Damage
-REGULAR edition preorder
-DIGITAL DELUXE edition preorder

*Walmart Each character created receives an additional 500 skill points at the beginning of gameplay. That’s a 38 percent increase over what players normally receive through the tutorial:
-REGULAR edition preorder
-COLLECTOR edition preorder

*Target includes TR-116 Ground Rifle, that bullet-teleporting sniper rifle from DS9. Can apparently hit targets without direct line-of-sight:
(No link yet for some reason)

*Direct2Drive both regular and Digital Deluxe editions includes Multi-Spatial Personal Shield, an item that constantly regenerates itself and the health of its user. (See top of post for Digital Deluxe Edition items):
-REGULAR edition preorder
-DIGITAL DELUXE edition preorder


United Kingdom Retailer Pre-Order bonuses

*Amazon.co.uk: Borg bridge officer, same as American Amazon preorder.
-Preorder

*Play.com Silver Edition: Bonus skill points, same as Walmart's exclusive.
-Preorder

*Game.co.uk: TR-116 Ground rifle, same as Target US exclusive.
-Preorder

*Gamestation.co.uk: Starfleet Type 9 Shuttlecraft. Not sure what this does. Maybe it just replaces the runabouts you launch in battle with shuttles?
-Preorder

*HMV: Tribble, same as Best Buy US exclusive.
-Preorder

*Direct2Drive same as American Direct2Drive.
-REGULAR edition preorder
-DIGITAL DELUXE EDITION preorder


French Retailer Pre-Order bonuses
*FNAC: Constitution class starship, same as Gamestop's exclusive.
- (No preorder link yet for some reason)

*Amazon.fr: TR-116 Ground rifle, the same as Target USA and Game.co.uk.
- (No preorder link yet for some reason)

*Micromania: Tribble, same as Best Buy US and HMV UK.
- (No preorder link yet for some reason)

*Game.fr: Borg bridge officer, same as Amazon US and UK.
- (No preorder link yet for some reason)

Australian Retailer Pre-Order bonuses
*EB Games: Constitution class starship and the Borg bridge officer.
- GOLD edition preorder
- COLLECTOR'S edition preorder

I'll probably pick it up, my brothers and I grew up on Star Trek. Combining that with uni will be tricky though.

Yeah, MMOs are an investment of time and some money. Kinda worried about how low-key publicity for this has been. Cryptic/Atari apparently don't have the money to buy much hype from the usual suspects of "compelling" game sites.

I've been following this game for awhile. First it looked okay, then it looked bad, now it looks cool.

Me and my even trekkier friend have been following the development of this game for quite some time. I know she signed up for beta and we have both preordered the game. We *will* be playing it when it is released but for how long depends on how good the game is, though at the moment it does look very interesting.

I actually had my e-mail with my beta invite show up today and as I'm typing this I'm downloading the client. I actually forgot that I had won a key from PCGamer until today.

Yay for surprises ^^

I'll wait until the open beta to see how it is. Unless I get into the regular one before then that is.

I hope it's good but I really liked the ideas behind Perpetual Entertainment's version but I hope this is just as good.

The open beta coming during January for those who wish to give it a bash before investing.

I'd actually forgotten about this for a long time (I figured it would just be plodding along for a couple more years), but I've signed up for the public beta now, and hopefully I'll get into that. I've just gone through everything they've released, and I'm excited once more.

AeroCmdr wrote:I'll wait until the open beta to see how it is. Unless I get into the regular one before then that is.

I hope it's good but I really liked the ideas behind Perpetual Entertainment's version but I hope this is just as good.

As a more "authentic" Trek experience as Perpetual's idea was, it really was quite unworkable going by how I understand most MMO are expected to operate.

From what I gathered, you would have been one of many players on a ship (that functioned as a city) and apparently would have been subordinate to high level players, though I don't recall if they ever explained this very well. I don't think it would have been fun if you were stuck on a ship most of the time with somebody else making all the decisions.

Another unworkable thing was the interiors - fairly early on, Perpetual released some very high-res, almost photorealistic screen shots of a Galaxy class corridor and the staff meeting room. They were obviously mock ups because that would have been beyond the capabilities of single-player games of the time, let alone mere MMO graphics. Evidently Perpetual realized this, as a few years later they switched to a "stylised" look and said that at launch, there would be no ship interiors.

I was at the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in 2007 when they had an official announcement and gave out free t-shirts. I know they were giving them out at every convention they went to, but I still think it's pretty cool to have. They had a Q&A session that was practically worthless, because everything was so early in development that they couldn't say anything. I can't say I was too impressed at the convention, but I'll probably give it a try next year once they've worked out some of the kinks (and if I get a better video card).

One thing I wonder about is how they're going to solve the "lagforge" problem, especially when half of them are Galaxy class ships.

ecocd wrote:I was at the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in 2007 when they had an official announcement and gave out free t-shirts. I know they were giving them out at every convention they went to, but I still think it's pretty cool to have. They had a Q&A session that was practically worthless, because everything was so early in development that they couldn't say anything. I can't say I was too impressed at the convention, but I'll probably give it a try next year once they've worked out some of the kinks (and if I get a better video card).

If what you saw was in 2007, then that was Perpetual Entertainment, the old developers, who worked on it from 2004 until January 2008, when they declared bankruptcy. Perpetual's development cycle was rather infamous for being overly ambitious, and for providing bugger all in terms of concrete information.

Cryptic Studios picked up the slack soon after.

Master Gunner wrote:One thing I wonder about is how they're going to solve the "lagforge" problem, especially when half of them are Galaxy class ships.

Huh? What do you mean? There are 3 (MMO archetype) classes in every tier, and each class has three (cosmetically) different ships (though they basically variants of a canon design.)

To further differentiate them, you are allowed to customize the ships as you see fit, adding in different looking (cosmetic) parts that can significantly change the ship from the stock configuration.

As seen here:
http://www.zam.com/Im/image/128535


EDIT: OH wait, you mean something else. Sorry. Haven't slept in awhile so my mind isn't sharp.

Massively posted a hands-on report of STO's space combat:
http://www.massively.com/2009/12/01/hands-on-with-star-trek-onlines-space-combat/

I am pleased that he found it entertaining enough to enter into the 'gaming trance.'

i remember seeing a trailer where someone who's character looks like picard gets shot with a phaser.
it gave me an interesting idea...

So it's just starships shooting starships. I'm not getting it.

*edit* So I watched some more footage, not just starships shooting starships. I miiight get it.

Yeah there are away missions and junk...
Looks interesting enough.

Starships shooting starships and people shooting people. From what I've read you can actually leave the ship and take your crew members with you on "away missions" and some such.

I'm yet to here if you can shoot the people with the starships, or vice versa. Maybe they'll talk about that later.

As for the "appeal", Pjotr, most of that may be from good ol' fashioned nostalgia factor and nerd appeal in action. Having a space MMO with engaging combat and such that isn't EVE may also be a plus.

Away team missions (you and 4 NPC bridge officers or 4 friends) planetside and such function essentially as instanced dungeons. They said the game will be split 60/40 between starship and away team missions. You can wander around the bridge of your ship and invite friends over.

And in addition to combat, there will be missions where there is no combat whatsoever. Like charting gaseous anomalies or whatever Starfleet people do when they're about to be interrupted by this week's crisis.

From what I've seen over the last couple days, its a Space MMO that isn't[ spreadsheet focused (as is commonly accused of the only space MMO on the market right now), and more focused on fun. You can take away missions of up to 5 people to a planet's surface/space station/etc, that can be a mix of just your crew, or party up with a friend and you'll both be on the same away mission (still limited to just 5 though, hopefully there are areas that allow for larger away missions).

Master Gunner wrote:From what I've seen over the last couple days, its a Space MMO that isn't[ spreadsheet focused (as is commonly accused of the only space MMO on the market right now), and more focused on fun. You can take away missions of up to 5 people to a planet's surface/space station/etc, that can be a mix of just your crew, or party up with a friend and you'll both be on the same away mission (still limited to just 5 though, hopefully there are areas that allow for larger away missions).

Yeah, me too. When I watched a leaked stream of the closed beta, I saw the guy running around on a planet under Borg attack with a couple of his NPC party members and there were dozens of what appeared to be other players and their party

I read about it a while ago, and liked the idea that it took many people to run a starship. Would make for some good team building in game and provide more dynamic game play (I'd have loved to be a engineer like Scotty). As a die hard EVE player, I just see an influx of players about 6 months after release coming to EVE as they find out about it. Cross migration tends to happen a lot after games launch, and thats good for the space ship MMO community. I might jump in the open beta when it comes a long to see how it is, might fill me desire to captain a ship and order around crew members for my own amusement. Just have to wait and see what becomes of it.

The "many people to crew a ship" idea was with the old development studio, and was an unfeasible idea. As FFN explained higher up, it wouldn't be very fun to just be stuck around on the ship with someone else giving orders, and nothing to do until the Captain showed up to order the ship into combat.

After the old studio went bankrupt and the license was given to a new one, that system was discarded. The new way the game works is that you start as a lieutenant in command of a small ship (but keeping with navel tradition, you're still a captain, even though it's not your rank). As you progress through the ranks (5 ranks, 10 levels to each rank), you can take command of larger ships. Crewmembers will be NPCs, split between redshirts (for boarding parties and keeping your ship working at maximum efficiency) and bridge crew (who give you special abilities and powers, and you get to hire).

There are three types of ships you can command: Cruisers (tank), Escorts (DPS), and Science (support). Each have their own pros and cons, and you have to specialize in one type in order to get access to the larger ships of that type. You can individualize your ship through "body mods" (painting, different configurations), as well as different armaments, equipment, and bridge officers (who also have different specialization trees) to augment your chosen ship configuration.

People almost rioted when Perpetual revealed there would be no ship interiors, which begged the question just what the hundreds of other players were supposed to do if they couldn't walk around the ship. What does an engineer do that works in a game context? Does he pretend to repair things by doing puzzles and mini-games all day until the highest ranking player on the ship plucks him from obscurity for an away team mission?

Current developer Cryptic stated that this was their main reason for making every player the captain of his or her own ship in their version of STO, in that it was no fun if your gameplay experience consistent of, well, going to work all day in engineering or the transporter room.