Star Trek Online at Ten Ton Hammer

Ten Ton Hammer: The alternate reality plotline offered up a pretty compelling bridge to the known Star Trek universe established in the original series while still allowing for the material to be handled in new and interesting ways. While STO is clearly grounded in the known timeline, might we see any mission content that tackles the concept of alternate realities in a similar fashion as the film?

Craig: There are definitely “alternate reality” missions in Star Trek Online. I don’t think it would be a very strong Star Trek game without time travel or the Mirror Universe!

Ten Ton Hammer: In the film, space combat remained true to form in that it was equally tactical and epic, while ground combat took on a much more immediate, kinetic feel. Based on this, how would you characterize combat in STO at this point?

Craig: That is how we’ve always described the two different combats in STO. Space combat in Star Trek is tactical, paced and larger than life – it has to do with timing and positioning. Ground combat is faster and more action packed. We're happy that the new movie identified these traits in the license as well.

Ten Ton Hammer: While the overall tone of the film could have remained fairly dark, instead there was plenty of comic relief to break some of the building tension. Will we be seeing more of this lighthearted, humorous side of the Star Trek universe in STO?

Craig: It’s a fine line to tread.

When I met Leonard Nimoy last summer for the announcement of STO, I asked him what was the one thing that we should address in the game that we’re probably were not thinking about yet. What is the one, essential thing about Trek that isn’t obvious?

His answer was humor. Blew me away – it was right there all along. All the best shows have the crew bantering back and forth, and all of the best movies humanize (Forgive me Spock) the characters by putting them in humorous situations.

Of course, we talked a bit about how difficult it is to pull off that “banter” humor in an environment where the player is one of the main characters. We won't put words in the player's mouth, so we have to be careful to make sure that humor isn't misconstrued as satire of the universe. That's a place we don't want to go.
 
It’s hard – but we’re trying.