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Star Trek Online Editorial - Starfleet Academy & The Klingon Defense Force

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Posted August 22nd, 2008 by Cody Bye

By Chris “Spare” Higgins, Guest Columnist

As many gamers can attest, the first ten to fifteen minutes in a MMOG is extremely critical because your interest in a game will diminish fast if a game doesn't meet your particular standards. If they're like me, most players want to login and jump right into the action. So how will Cryptic achieve this sort of "quick action" in Star Trek Online?

My solution: Cryptic should add the Starfleet Academy into the game. While adding Starfleet Academy might seem like a boring step in the wrong direction, I think adding this as part of early game play can really add to everyone’s enjoyment of Star Trek Online.

The addition of Starfleet Academy to Star Trek Online could really help the new player experience.
Imagine you just logged in to Star Trek Online. You are the captain of a starship which has fallen under attack.  You look out the view screen and see two Klingon Birds of Prey ready to fire on you.  While you are deciding how to deal with this situation, you receive information on how to control your ship and why you are being attacked, all in an in-game manner, of course.

You then decide to fire your phasers destroying one ship and wounding the other.  As you circle around to give the finishing blow to the other ship, three more Birds of Prey decloak and open fire.  You give the order to initiate warp drive and escape just as one of the Klingon’s phasers score a direct hit your starboard engine.  You give the order to abandon ship, but you realize it was too late and your starship explodes.  However instead of killing your crew and dying, the simulation stops. You were on a Starfleet Academy simulator the whole time.  The voice booms over the simulator laughing a bit: “Once you finish honoring your dead crew Cadet, report to debriefing!”  You realize you are a cadet in Starfleet Academy working on your training towards being a starship captain.  

Almost all MMO games have their low level area.  In these areas you are told “Go kill 15 boars and bring me the tusks” etc.  In Star Trek Online, a captain's Academy timeframe could be used as this particular portion of player's experience.  Players would run various encounters using holodecks and simulators to progress and learn the game.  You might see other cadets scrambling around the halls, desperately trying to finish instructions given to them by their superiors.

Starfleet Academy could serve as the intial hunting grounds for new players.
An instructor might assign the task of defending bases from attack.  You would go to the simulator (possibly with other cadets) and do this task to earn XP towards skills or level.  Cadets could go through historical encounters from all the movies and the legendary kobayashi maru which would appeal to all Trekkies and Trekkers.  The main purpose of the training simulator is to provide a consequence free environment to learn the game while having tons of fun and progressing.  You would not have to worry about fighting another player on your mission because each simulation is yours and your teammates.  

Since this will all be holodeck combat you can allow cadets to use all manner of ships without throwing off the balance of the game.  I would imagine some ships might be better suited for missions than others.  This also allows everyone to command all the ships right of the bat, so it feels like you are getting everything but in reality you're still going to need to progress to earn your own ship.  In these holodecks and simulators you would also be given the opportunity to fly enemy ships as well.  While players are in the Academy the game can also lay plot foundations to have the player learn enough of the lore so they know what is going on in the universe.  

To graduate from Starfleet Academy cadets will have to fulfill certain criteria by passing courses and completing a few mission tests.  Once Cadets have graduated they will be assigned the duties of a captain on a starship.  Since the two factions for Star Trek Online will be Starfleet and the Klingon Empire you can have the Klingon’s join the Klingon Defense Force and offer similar training using Klingon traditions.  

The Klingon Defense Force could have similar elements as the Starfleet Academy training.
A player creating a Klingon would expect to find themselves on Ty'Gokor in a simulator where, instead of being laughed at for being killed, they are regaled as a hero for dying in battle in such an honorable way.  Running scenarios where Klingon warriors are pitted against such foes as Captain Kirk and Captain Picard would be good ways to really immerse a player in Klingon culture.  Instead of being given a command after you complete your training you should be assigned to a ship under a captain.  Then when you realize the captain is weak and no longer able to perform their duty so you slay them and take control of the ship.  

Overall I think doing early stages of character development in this way leads people to become more attached to their characters and allow people experience the game in a different way.  After three years of Star Trek Online live gameplay, it would be nice to see “When I went through the academy things were different..” or “Remember that Training Scenario in the Academy?” in chat versus. “Remember that mission in the n00b area?”

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