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Building Starships - A Crafting in Star Trek Online Q&A with Al Rivera

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Posted December 13th, 2009 by B. de la Durantaye

New ideas for a new crafting system in STO
Questions by Benjamin J. de la Durantaye, Executive Editor, Ten Ton Hammer
Answers by Al Rivera, Star Trek Online (Cryptic Studios)

To many players, crafting in a MMOG is just as important as any other component and Star Trek Online is no different. This week Ten Ton Hammer had a nice lengthy chat with Al Rivera from Cryptic Studios who revealed all about tradeskills in STO. The crafting is quite unique, going where no MMOG has gone before. We know, that catchphrase is old, but it's true! Read on to hear all about how STO has added new ideas for a fresh crafting system.


Ten Ton Hammer: What sort of tradeskills are available in Star Trek Online?

Al Rivera: Crafting isn't exactly conventional in STO. There are really two forms of crafting that fulfill the crafting. There is essentially bridge officer crafting. The trade skills are really your skills that you are skilling up throughout the game. If you skill up in Photon Torpedo for instance, as you get to the end of that tier, you get the abilitiy to train bridge officers in Photon Torpedo Salvo or Spread or whatever skill it happens to be.  If you are a Captain that is a tactical officer you are going to be able to be the best tactical bridge officer trainer and it you are science officer, you can train the best in science bridge officer trainer and then you'll be able to trade those skills. In order for you to get the best tactical bridge officer skills anywhere in the game you will have to learn those from the player trainer who is a good tactical trainer. The tradeskills are your own personal skills that will unlock abilities to improve your bridge officers.

Bridge officers start off the game with a certain number of skills. You'll find new bridge officers along the way to learn skills, however the best trainers in the game will be players. The idea is that you will be collecting all of these skills, and trying to make the best build, or craft the best bridge officer you can. That is one of the major forms of crafting is the building of bridge officers almost like commodities and you will trade them among other players.



The second form of crafting is more traditional, and that is Memory Alpha. If you are familiar with the IP, Memory Alpha is a planet, or computer, that contains all of the essential core knowledge of Starfleet. So we have that planet in the game. It is a hub of knowldege in the universe. Throughout the universe as you are travelling you'll find harvesting nodes. You'll find space anamolies, pick up some mineral samples, alien artifacts and not unlike you see in other games. You'll scan for these and then collect them. You can bring these back to Memory Alpha and you can use those bits of knowledge to unlock recipes. If you have the right components then you can build a super tachian rifle with whatever stats you need to put onto that rifle. First you'll have to invest in a Tachian Rifle, the samples, and some energy and you'll be able to craft that item. As you craft more items at Memory Alpha you'll unlock more recipes and be able to craft more advanced and exotic items.

Ten Ton Hammer: So there won't be any levels or skill level of crafting?

Al: There are no skill points or levels involved with crafting at Memory Alpha. The levels are simply the recipes available to you. The more samples you bring, you'll gain access to better recipes. After you bring enough samples in, you may gain access to something advanced or exotic such as an advanced Science Officer for a reward for your gathering efforts.  Or they may send you to find something and reward you with a crafting recipe. Through these techniques you are unlocking more and more recipes.

Ten Ton Hammer: Going back to player trainers, they will be able to train other players, will they be able to train them up to their skill or beyond?

Al: I can clarify that a bit. Players can't train other players, they can only train other bridge officers. A player can not have a bridge officer that is a higher rank than the player. So if the player is a Commander, the bridge officers can only be Lt. Commanders or below in rank. If you happen to be a Captain and you have a Commander for a bridge officer I could only train him in skills that are lower than me that would make sense for a bridge officer that I have.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is gathering and harvesting separated into different kinds of things such as weapons, ship upgrades and that type of thing?

Al: Yes, there are all types of things you can craft such as ground weapons, space weapons, ship upgrades, as well as resources you can collect, such as scientific, artifact, biological samples, different components. You could equate those to gold, skins, or flowers or herbs. Those will unlock the different paths such as ship upgrades, weapons, or armors or things like that. There are different paths you can choose and unlock. Depending on whether or not you are doing things more technological or biological then those will unlock different items that you can create.

Ten Ton Hammer: If someone were super eager would they be able to unlock all of the recipes or are they constrained to just a specific type such as ship upgrades or weapons?

Al: You'll be able to unlock all of the recipes, they are not mutually exlusive.

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