OnlineWelten Artikel zum Onlinespiel Star Trek Online

Onlinewelten: Hello Craig, thank you for your time. Could you introduce yourself to our readers please?

Craig Zinkievich: Hello Onlinewelten readers, I’m Craig Zinkievich, the executive producer at Cryptic Studios for Star Trek Online. I am looking forward to telling you about our plans for our MMO Star Trek Online that will be released in Germany next February.

Onlinewelten: The Closed Beta for Star Trek Online started. How many testers did you invite in the first wave and how is the tester's feedback so far?

Craig Zinkievich: Throughout development we’ve been playing the game: first as a team, then other members of Cryptic Studios, now into closed Beta with our community. I think the best feedback we’ve gotten isn’t suggestions for new game systems, but the little tweaks that make the whole game more accessible and easy to get into. As developers, we spend so much time with the game and, although we can get complex systems implemented, can sometimes overlook the simplest things. “Why can’t I double click that? I didn’t notice that UI indicator at all? I didn’t understand where to go next.” Those are the types of comments that end up being very valuable to us.

Overall I’m really happy with the quality of the feedback so far. Onlinewelten: Can you tell us more about your beta plans? What content and elements do you test first. And when and in how many waves will you invite more testers?

Craig Zinkievich: Yes we just started the closed beta for Star Trek Online and are currently expanding this by inviting new players into experience the game. We hope to go into open beta early next year and then we will go where no game has boldly gone before when we launch in Europe of February 5th. We will be announcing more details on these plans before the end of 2009.

Onlinewelten: The last "Ask Cryptic" editions gave us a lot of information about space combat, ship customization, player progression and so on. But what's about Crafting? Are you able to reveal some first details about Crafting and the Economy in Star Trek Online? Is it comparable to Champions Online or different?

Craig Zinkievich: There are two forms of crafting in STO, but they are a little less traditional. Throughout the game you are crafting Bridge Officers. You will acquire new Bridge Officers, skill them up, and train them in new skills. You can train them in several ways, including training skill, finding other Bridge Officers to train them, or acquiring data resources to train them at planet Memory Alpha. You can then trade Bridge Officers to other players, or transfer them back to Starfleet for reputation.

There is also a harvesting feature in STO where you collect a number of different resources throughout the universe (both in space and on planet surfaces). These resources can be used to unlock special recipes for new items at Memory Alpha. Onlinewelten: A lot of people are eager to play a Klingon character and want to fight for the Klingon Empire. When and how we can join the Klingon faction? And how will PvP generally work in Star Trek Online?

Craig Zinkievich: Shortly after the tutorial, you’ll be able to unlock a Klingon character slot. The Klingon faction is heavily PvP focused, so we wanted to make PvP a compelling activity for both sides of the war. Most PvP takes place in the War Front, which is the borderland area between Federation and Klingon space. We plan on having contested objectives within some of these areas, as well as multi-group PvP content. We really want to provide a broad PvP experience for players.