Star Trek Online at Ten Ton Hammer

Ten Ton Hammer: What about the quality of the crafted items, are they going to be among the best in the game?

Al: They will be on par with the top items in the game. They are not necessarily better but they are unique. You won't be able to get these items except through Memory Alpha. They are not better than something you may get from a PvE raid or PvP encounter. They may be the same quality but they are unique. They are mutually exclusive, and you'll never find the top end rewards that are the same from Memory Alpha, PvE raids and PvP encounters.


Ten Ton Hammer: Along those same lines, what about the solo player, would their rewards be better from crafting or solo missions?

Al: Again, the rewards may not be better but they would be unique. In some cases you'll get the best armor for a specific stat from Memory Alpha and for another stat from a mission. We never want to make it so that everyone has to do everything to keep from falling behind the curve. However, we do want everyone to try the different styles of gameplay because you will get different rewards from the different types of game play.  You'll still be able to get rare drop purples. In the end game we really want to give players options whether it's crafting, or PvP or PvE.

Ten Ton Hammer: Players can opt to be just be crafters then? Can players craft right from the start?

Al: You won't be able to train bridge officers right off the bat because you won't have enough skills. Harvesting and collecting though, you will be able to do right from the start (after you find Memory Alpha which is right around the corner from Earth).

Ten Ton Hammer: To harvest the materials, are they relatively simple to get or are the harder tier items in tougher areas?

Al: Yes, there are several different areas and they are kind of overlapped. Some of them are in deeper, much scarier regions. If you are around Earth you will find lots of common nodes and samples and you'll be able to bring those back the Memory Alpha. As you go to new hubs and locations you'll find more exotic harvesting nodes. You'll then bring those back to Memory Alpha and be able to make more exotic items.

Ten Ton Hammer: Speaking a bit more about Memory Alpha, does it have different work stations for crafting the different items, like say, a gun?

Al: Yes, they are basically broken up into science, engineering and tactical stations. For science you'll be looking to harvest biological samples or space anomolies. For the tactical you'll be looking for weapon crystals, or an alien artifact gun. There is overlap though, so certain harvested items are required for all paths. Essentially you'll collect everything, however certain items will be required at different rates depending on the crafted item.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will both the Starfleet Federation and the Klingons be crafting at Memory Alpha?

Al: The Klingons will be doing the exact same thing within the Klingon Empire and not at Memory Alpha. There may be Federation specific items like a Federatin Gun at Memory Alpha versus Klingon specific items in their area like a disruptor. The Klingons like disruptors; the Federation like lasers.


Ten Ton Hammer: Getting down to the nitty gritty. Can you walk us through how to craft an item?

Al:  It's fairly straight forward. You'll bring the components with you to the different stations. Nothing is limited, if you are a science officer you can still go to the other stations. It's a social enviornment and you go to the kiosk. Clicking on it brings up a list of your components as well as the recipes that we are researching currently. If you want to make a special deflector shield, it will show you that you need various components and a certain amount of energy to craft. It's close to a store, there is no chance of failure and there is no real time involved. Once you choose to create an item, boom it's created. After you create more and more of those items, you will unlock more and exotic recipes.

Ten Ton Hammer: Are all the harvesting nodes found in space?

Al: Both space and ground, they will be in places such as asteroids or a nebula and everywhere. They will be indoors such as an alien artifact in a lab.

Ten Ton Hammer: I take it there is no harvesting skill involved?

Al: Nope, there is no harvesting skill.

Ten Ton Hammer: Are there any rares for powerful weapons, for instance?

Al: There are several different levels of rares. Remember each environment will have different components such as Romulan or Borg environments so there will be different rares available it each of those territories. Within those territories some components will be more rare than others as well.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything else you'd like to tell readers as far as crafting?

Al: The bridge officers follow the same rule of rares. Any given skill will also have levels of rarity. Let's take Photon Torpedo Spread--it will have three different versions, Photon Torpedo Spread 1, 2 and 3. Version 1 will be fairly easy to find on a bridge officer but version 2 you'll have to find a fairly exotic bridge officer with that version. Version 3 only comes from a player so you'll have to find a player who has trainded that skill if you want it. So there are rarities in the bridge officer skill as well.

Ten Ton Hammer thanks Al Rivera and Cryptic Studios for their time in sharing this information with us.