Falling Debris

Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Boogerface. It's continuing mission, to explore strange out-of-proportion worlds. To seek out new players of varying competency. To boldly spend where most players cannot fathom. This is Star Trek Online.

It was a only few years ago when Cryptic Studios, the team behind City of Heroes and Champions Online, announced that they would be working on a Star Trek MMO. It's a difficult proposition, especially since Bioware has been working on a Star Wars MMO for the same length of time (which won't be out until 2011). But here we are, on the eve of one of the most promising MMO launches since The Matrix Online City of Heroes, and it's quite a game. I got into the open beta with just three weeks until release. By that point, you figure the game would probably be pretty polished, with uninterrupted gameplay. However, on several occasions, even after a patch that took down the servers all night, I experienced a glitch that placed my character in space and my ship (miniaturized) on the ground. After a few seconds, it'll fix itself, but it seems like a fairly important error that should be fixed immediately. At the time of most of this writing, the servers inexplicably went down with no positive outlook. Sometimes it was maintenance, other times it was catastrophic failure that took everything down. Weekends weren't so bad, but Cryptic may have to postpone major patches until the middle of the night so people can actually play between school/work and sleep.

The game has two modes: Ground and Ship action. On the ground, you are your character who can take away missions and engage in battle/exploration with other players. In space, you are your ship, flying through space and traveling at warp speeds across the galaxy. So far, the missions are grind-tastic. Enter a star system, destroy enemy ships blockading access to the planet, beam down and examine 5 glowing items, beam back to ship and destroy reinforcements on your way out. It's a pretty routine, but well balanced formula that places players evenly in space and on the ground. An interesting feature of ground combat is the ability to pause the instance for you and other players involved for up to 45 seconds. It's great for bio breaks and analyzing the situation. AI crew members offer support for both space and ground combat. For example, engineers can provide you with enhanced shielding on both fronts, while tactical officers give you temporary attack boosts. Every ship class has its own combination of bridge crew slots, and you choose your away team each time. Depending on your ship class and crew emphasis, you can use them to emphasize your class or compensate for your flaws. For the extended missions that take you to multiple locations, you'll like this feature. Should you exit the game while in the middle of a mission, you can pick up at the beginning of that event within the mission. You don't lose your progress in the previous events and you won't have to worry about committing to long missions. What I'm not sure on is the effects of dying. In most MMOs, when you die, you are penalized somehow. There's no penalty in STO, you just respawn and continue on like nothing happened. Not sure if they'll change that, but maybe death doesn't need a penalty.

For those that are familiar with Star Trek canon, the United Federation of Planets abolished all currency after gaining access to replicator technology, which renders trade essentially useless. That makes an MMO difficult when players are expecting some type of loot and exchanging less valuable ones for currency so they can buy more valuable items. STO's answer to this is Energy Credits, a replicator currency that is about as believable as it could get. Players will undoubtedly acquire unwanted items, such as hyposprays and inferior ship attachments, then "sell" them to the ship's replicator to receive EC. In turn, that can be spent on acquiring new items through the ship or at a starbase. Astronomical amounts of EC can even buy a new ship (we're talking like 20,000 to 200,000 EC).

I'm not entirely sure how one receives a new ship without grinding until they can afford it (that requires an unreal amount of time), but I've already seen some Constitution-class ships in the beta and even Sovereign, which means there's a way to get one in a few weeks or they really have no life. After two weeks, and just in the nick of time, I was able to reach level 11 (Lt. Cmd rank) and purchase all three Tier 1 ships. It was a long time coming, but definitely worth it. That said, you obviously don't need to buy all ship classes. Focus on getting your first additional ship and modding the crap out of it, as well as your additional crew you'll get with the rank. It leads to your desired emphasis and will prepare you for the more powerful ships ahead. Of course, everyone wants a ship like the various Enterprises, which are Cruisers, but the Escorts are the gunships for those with an eye for big ships and big guns. I was rather disappointed when I couldn't name my additional ships. The first ship in the character creation stage can be named, but my additional ships received random names. I want a theme to my ships, or at least have a choice between a couple of names, much like the design choices. When you receive a ship, it is one of three builds in that class. You can have your ship refit to another design, or mix and match aspects of each of them.

Ship weapons are really the big interest. I've played with standard issue phaser banks, Klingon disruptors and even some kind of Federation equivalent. The big fun comes with quantum torpedoes and other advanced weaponry, when you can destroy Birds of Prey with a single volley. Big honkin' space guns definitely come in handy in recurring combat events, called Fleet Action. It's a repeating instance that ends with a scoreboard - purely a farm; not integral to the story. Common weapons can be purchased at starbases for EC or picked up in dropped loot, but the higher level weapons will need to be purchased along with having exploration badges that are earned with frequent activity in certain areas. I never reached it, so it's hard to say what all is required, but I sure wish I knew.

The story, however, is quite interesting. It takes place 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and heavily relies on Voyager. The Klingon Empire has backed out of the Khitomer Accords and begun aggressive actions against the Federation. That creates the two first factions of the game. Federation players can choose from Terrans, Vulcans, Andorians, Bajorans and others, while Klingon players can choose Klingons (obviously), Nausicaans and Gorn. Players can also create their own species and choose their own perks. Future factions will be Cardassian Union, Romulan Star Empire and Liberated Borg. It could definitely lead to some interesting PvP action if all factions share common ground. Just in case you're wondering, this game is in no way affected by JJ Abrams abomination of a film from last year, even though there are plans for a sequel. That... film, creates an alternate timeline, effectively destroying canon as we know it, and is thus ignored by anyone considering themself a Trekkie. This is where I mention that I am a second generation Trekkie (that means my father is a Trekkie) who has not only watched, but marathoned all Star Trek series and movies, committing the franchise's continuity to memory. That said, I'm interested in the possibility that STO could be a way to progress main Star Trek continuity, since TV series are nigh out of the question and movies will be going in the "popular" direction. Veteran Trek writers could get involved and add that fan appealing flavor that's found in the Ultimate Spider-Man game written by Brian Michael Bendis.

After my experiences with City of Heroes, I'm accustomed to, and even expectant of, player interaction. By level 5, CoH/CoV players should be regularly interacting with others and forming teams to complete missions with the intent to gain more XP. Players can even form permanent groups for regular activities. STO, however, does not force players to interact that much. You may pass others on starbases or out in the black, but there's nothing that compels you to create a team, invite people and draw them to your location to do a mission. After all space is big. But it isn't so big that people shouldn't be running into each other. In fact, there should be an emphasis in the game for players to just hang out. The Federation doesn't exist solely to kill Klingons; it exists to exchange culture and ideas. I want to see a Second Life experience for players to just share a common space and "be themselves". Maybe work on custom holodeck programs for entertainment and experience.

Speaking of big, traveling in space is not exactly what I would expect. The interstellar map is an out of proportion grid, much like a gameboard, with your ship traveling between systems. Up until the end of the beta, speeds were measured in lightyears per second, but that was finally changed to Warp factor. You can argue that it abandoned continuity, but it's just an alternate measurement unit, which is corrected anyway. Your maximum speed increases with level and ship type, presumably right under Warp 10 somewhere (Intrepid-class is 9.975, of course). The fastest I got was 7.77, which applied to all my ships at the time. So, you have no control over your warp engine, but Impulse drive is moddable (note: do not remove/sell your Impulse drive while in space, you can't go anywhere). The unfortunate, but sensible, thing is that space is broken up into sector blocks, containing several sectors and systems within them. That's the equivalent of traveling any other map in a game. You can fly manually, but odds are you will click on a system on the map and let your ship fly itself (bio break). A couple sector blocks out of Federation space will lead into Klingon, Romulan and Borg space like you would expect, and the farther you go out, the more dangerous it gets. It makes sense, and I like that the "outlands" will force you into enemy contacts should you be intercepted. You can probably escape before the battle actually begins, but it adds that risk found in wild Pokemon battles.

Star Trek Online is set to release February 2, with pre-orders getting a headstart on January 29. It's available for pre-order now in retail, Digital Deluxe, and Collector's editions. Pre-orders can pay for 12-month and lifetime memberships for $120 and $240, respectively. If you enjoyed the beta and plan on playing long-term, you might want to consider this. Unfortunately, the offer is only good for pre-orders and will expire on February 1, the day before the game comes out. It's a gamble, to say the least. If you didn't get to play the beta, it's hard to determine how much of a value it would be, but you can save $60 over the course of a year if you pay in advance. I've already purchased the CE and lifetime membership, totaling at $340. That gets me real and virtual swag, a headstart, lifetime access and early access to the Liberated Borg faction. It may not seem logical, but then again, most MMO players aren't, either.

After almost 2 weeks with the beta, I'd have to say that, aside from the technical difficulties that frequently take the game offline, it's an enjoyable experience. The story is rich and involves existing canon that Trekkies will be familiar with and has the promise of continuing the franchise in a new medium. I'm looking forward to the headstart tomorrow and playing whenever I want, so hit me up @ranhalt in the game if you want some fleet action. Oh yea, Leonard Nimoy makes regular voice appearances throughout the game. Live long and prosper.