TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

"Perpetual Games gears up for a Trek-themed MMO, and Starfleet will soon be looking for a few good gamers."

Game Developers Conference 2006, which occurred last March in San Jose, CA, gave us a wealth of great information regarding some of our favorite upcoming games. However, sitting down with Perpetual Games’ Daron Stinnett (Executive Producer) and Glen Dahlgren (Lead Game Designer) to talk about Star Trek Online was one of the highlights. I learned many things about this game in the short time that I was able to talk to them. As Star Trek fans, we can expect more than a SIM from this game.

They wouldn’t give up the central conflict of the game. No amount of begging and pleading on my part would reveal that secret. However, they had plenty of other goodies to give me.  As you may already know, STO will be taking place after The Next Generation.  The licensing deal with CBS (who now owns the Star Trek License) spans the entire Star Trek Library. They have the ability to use material from a broad range of sources extending from Star Trek (the series) to Deep Space 9 to Voyager.  They’ve even gone as far as giving Perpetual scripts, footage, and production notes to enable them to create a solid Intellectual Property (or "IP" - an industry buzzword for the rights to the entire body of work, including patents and business methods, surrounding an idea that has commercial value, e.g. a game, motion picture, television series, etc.).  While they haven’t been in touch with writers yet, they have been able to work with production designers for the shows. These meetings should allow the Perpetual team to integrate some really great content into the game.

Although they are working with CBS, there are no specific plans to overlap the MMO and any future television series.  When I asked if there was a possibility for game / show crossover, Daron gave me the news:

“We're not aware of any series plans at the moment, but if they do get a series going, we’ll be looking for tie in opportunities.”

You will be heavily entrenched in the Star Trek lore and you will live the Star Trek experience. However, it will be different.  Perpetual leaves the design open for so many possibilities. Obviously in the Star Trek Universe, there is a very linear progression. A character attends the Star Fleet Academy, is assigned to a ship, and spends years on a single ship. They move up the ranks on that ship before being transferred to another ship. The goal is to obviously advance your career to a Captain or Admiral rank.  Perpetual, however, is giving players the chance to diversify. 

What’s the basic tenet of this game? To understand what you'll be doing as a player, you must first understand the concept of STO's "player hubs." Player hubs come in the form of stations, capital ships, or ground bases. Players will be stationed throughout their career at these hubs. However, they aren’t stuck at any single hub.  Like any other MMO, players can freely move throughout the galaxy to accomplish their tasks.

“There will be the sense of being stationed as you move up in rank and you will be assigned to different ships or certain facilities, but we’ll allow players to request transfers.” Explained Daron. “We realized early on that sticking players on a ship where they’d be taken around the galaxy would be too limiting. A great MMO gives players a lot of choice about how they move through the game world, not to mention the fact that players will want to hook up with their friends - no matter where they are”

The designers want players to be able to adventure freely within the galaxy. Obviously there are places that you don’t want to hit as a low level character but it’s about freedom of choice here. So how does this whole gig work? I want to level, I want to gain rank. What will I be doing to obtain this goal?

“When you take out a ship, you’ve got lots of options. While crews can fly together—and there are some great benefits to working within a crew—lots of people will also be piloting solo ships. And even within crews, the focus is on making the player interaction fun and powerful, and not on punishing the group if one participant isn’t contributing. You don’t have a science officer in your crew? You won’t have access to some of the cooler science abilities, but the ship will still function well. Players are purely additive,” said Glen. "You’ll pull your friends on board without the need to have someone manning engineering just to keep the ship running. “Our intention is to pay off on the Star Trek fantasy without making the experience unapproachable. We’re looking to be fairly casual-friendly.”

People want the ability to solo, so to give the casual player the maximum experience, they’ve put in the design to make it easy for someone to log on for fifteen or twenty minutes and have a great time.  However, they’ve also developed content that will require groups to achieve the goals. 

What about guilds?  There will definitely be guilds, (or "fleets," as Perpetual has named them).  You will be able to group with your friends and eventually form a fleet. It will be similar to guilds in the traditional sense with a few twists.  They are thinking of letting fleets own their own space stations or capital ships (think: Star Trek: Enterprise series).

“Why are our guilds called fleets? Because pretty early in your career, you’re going to get a ship. It won’t be the bigger, cooler ships that require crews to fly them, but it’ll be yours. And the kind of content that a gathering of higher-level players will be interested in will involve all of these ships in an armada. At that point, you’re talking about a fleet. The larger fleets might even earn bases of their own, like a floating clubhouse or guildhall. These could be capital ships, likely not available to individuals, but also not necessarily used in the same way as other ships—mostly great places to live and interact with your other fleet members.” Glen told me.

Above everything, they want Star Trek Online to be an enjoyable experience.  Whether you want to log on and complete a few missions or you want to advance your career in leadership and captain a large ship, there will be something in this new game that will appeal to you.  The concept is adventure, the groundwork is based on fun.