Star Trek Online: Lead designer, Al Rivera is on the bridge...

Star Trek Online is 2010's first big MMO launch (February 5 is the date) and yet, we haven't had a chance to lock the development team in a room and go nerd mental. Until now.

While he was probably too afraid to actually speak to us in a real, physical manor, lead designer, Al Rivera did agree to answer some of our obsessive queries via electronic mail.

Get the shower going, because after reading these fanatical words you're going to feel dirty.


Why have we had to wait so long for a Star Trek MMO? Star Wars has had Galaxies for years.

As a fan I could not agree with you more on the question. I am not sure I can speculate on the details of the license before Cryptic Studios started working on the project. What I can tell you is that when we heard the license was available, we knew it had huge potential and we couldn't wait to get work on it.

A LOT of research must have gone into the game. Have you worked with the license-holder at all to ensure the game's authenticity?

We have a very close working relationship with the license holder - CBS. They review everything from story, to character and ship models, and everything in-between. But honestly, CBS has rejected very little. Once in a while they will comment that a ship's nacelles are too low, or we can't use a certain character for some reason. The simple fact is we have some huge Star Trek fans working here that are relentless at research and fact checking, so it's never been an issue. With the vastness of Trek lore, the real problem is deciding what not to represent in the game.

In the very first 'Ask Cryptic' posted a year ago, Craig Zinkevich mentioned that the universe in STO will be 'dynamic' and not static, but we have not had any information released on that aspect of the game. Can you describe a little more in detail how the universe will be dynamic?

There is both static and dynamic content in the STO. The static content is what you might expect - including instanced content and open zones and raids. But we also have what we call Star Clusters. Star Clusters are a part of the exploration content of STO. They provide endless procedurally generated combat and non-combat missions for both ground and space.

Assuming this game will receive expansions and level cap extensions, why did Cryptic opt to include the rank of 'Admiral' at launch? What comes after 'Admiral' (which is basically seen in Star Trek as being a desk job) in future expansions, and why not include Commodore or have 'Captain' be level cap at launch?

In STO, Admiral is certainly not a desk job. But to answer the question, there are 5 ranks of Admiral, from Rear Admiral to Fleet Admiral, so there is plenty of room for progression.

Is there a 'reputation' system in place that either grants you bonuses with specific NPC factions, or even a 'global reputation' system that dictates whether you are law abiding or a criminal?

Yes, but only with your own faction. Federation earn Merit, and Klingons earn Honor. It's a reputation currency you earn and you can redeem for things like new Bridge Officers. Note, this is not the primary economy of the game.

The Federation is made up of many 'member' races each with their own separate naval police forces. Will players ever get a chance to acquire some of these member race-specific ships? The question also applies to the Klingon Faction, will Klingon players get to play Gorn, Orion, or Nausican ships in addition to the traditional Klingon bottomnal?

Not initially. Although you will encounter many of them, the player will only have access to Federation or Klingon ships. We hope to make some of these available in the future.

Have there been any changes or additions to the development of STO that was initiated by the STO community, and if so, can you give some examples?

Certainly there has been a lot of small changes based on feedback. Ramming speed and boarding parties are some examples of things players really wanted to see so we got them in the game. Player bridges was a big addition. It was something we originally thought about, but we were not sure we could deliver them. Players really wanted to see them, so now they can access their own bridge and invite other players to it.

Why did you opt to design the ship tier list as you did and will particular ship designs have specific capabilities, like planetside landing (intrepid), multi-vector assault (Prometheus), etc)?

This was something we spent a lot of time on. The first thing we did was look at all the Starfleet ship classes. We really wanted to get as many classes in the game as possible. We then matched them up by function. We also wanted players to be able to associate with all the ships, even the ones some fans may not be familiar with. The easiest way to do this was to make each ship similar to the ships fans are most familiar with - namely Enterprise, Defiant and Voyager. All the Enterprise ships were big flagships designed for exploration and protection. The Defiant was, according to Sisko, officially an Escort and unofficially a warship.

Voyager has the latest technology and her captain, Janeway, was a science officer. So it became clear the best way to categorize all the ships were big tough Cruisers (like Enterprise), fast ships Escorts (like Defiant), and advanced Science Vessels (like Voyager). From there it was very easy to find a place for each IP ship. So the Nova, Olympic, Intrepid and Luna are all Science Vessels; Saber, Akira, Defiant and Prometheus are all Escorts; and Constitution, Cheyenne, Galaxy and Sovereign are all Cruisers. We are also working on several completely new ships of our own design.

When we designed the Klingon ships, there was much less IP reference to work with. In the shows, Klingons typically have either a Bird of Prey or a large Battle Cruiser. So we expanded on this a bit, and made several versions of each, and added a new Super Carrier. We also took the Raptor design from the Enterprise series, and modernized it. Raptors are a lot like Federation Escorts - they are fast and hit hard. Birds of Prey are sneaky hit and run ships, utilizing cloaking a lot in combat. Klingon Battle Cruisers (like the Negh'Var and Vor'cha) are huge, tough and have massive forward guns. And the new Vo'quv Carrier is, well, a carrier - launching fighters and other small crafts.

As far as unique capabilities, certainly each ship configuration is different - each with their own bonuses, item slots, and manoeuvrability. However there is no planet landing or multi-vector assault mode.

Most MMOs are combat centric, yet it seems the community is very excited about non-traditional aspects of the game, such as exploration. Can you tell us a little bit more about how exploration will play a part of the game, and how it is implemented?

You can explore Star Clusters, and discover brand new systems that no one has ever seen before. These systems are procedurally generated, so there are endless planets and worlds to explore. Some of the systems you discover will have combat and others some will have non-combat missions. Many involve acquiring and delivering certain commodities like industrial replicators or medical supplies. There are also thousands of points of interest throughout space and on planet surfaces that can be scanned. You can bring this data back to planet Memory Alpha. Collect the right data, and you may learn how to create something new, or you may peak the interest of a prominent Bridge Officer who may offer to join your crew.

A unique feature of STO are its pets (Bridge Officers). As in the series, many stories sometimes are character centric. Will there ever be any special episodes or quests that are initiated by particular bridge officers?

What you can expect is that your Bridge Officers will often work something like mission Contacts. For instance, if you fly by a spatial anomaly, your science officer may speak up and say he detected some unusual activity, and prompt you to explore it. We want the majority of the content to be delivered in this manor so your Bridge Officers seem more alive than just pets.

Many of the races in Star Trek have special abilities, such as super strength, telekinesis, empathic abilities, etc. What are some of the exciting 'race-specific' abilities will you be including in the game, and how will they be implemented?

There are about 60 species traits. Most are passive, but a few can be activated. Some are obligatory to the IP like Vulcan Nerve Pinch, Mind Meld, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Empathy, etc. Others are more implied by the IP or simply make good MMO mechanics, like Improved Strength, Logical, Warrior, Soldier, Stubborn, Spiritual, etc. Some traits are unique to certain species, and some are generic. The way it works is you first pick a species. Every species gets 4 traits. If you choose a specific species you will get 1-3 traits that are auto assigned to that species, and you can choose the remainder from a generic pool. Species specific traits are typically better than those in the generic pool, but the more species specific traits a given species has, the less generic traits the species has access too. If you choose to create your own species, you do not get any species specific traits, but you can choose all 4 of your traits from the entire generic pool, so you can make some interesting combinations not available to any specific species.

Star Trek has been identified as being singularly unique in terms of its content due to the specific philosophical or moral dilemmas which it's characters face. Will STO has such content in the game where moral and ethical choices are present? And will the choices the characters make have long term affects either in reputation or perception of that character?

The player will encounter a few interesting situations where they wont know who to trust or where their actions will lead them. There are not, however, a lot of mission branching where one decision leads you one way, and another choice results in something different. The simple fact is those sorts of missions take almost twice as long to create, and then many players only see half the content. It's not a bad design strategy, but it is an expensive one.
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