Cryptic has released the first part of a series looking at the tactical ship combat in Star Trek Online. It’s definitely worth watching, especially if you’ve been following the progression of Star Trek Online’s combat development; in this regards it’s nice to finally see some in-game action as we’ll experience it when STO releases in February.
There are a few points that STO Director of Production Craig Zinkievich, Game Designer Zeke Sparkes, and Producer Daniel Stahl make which are worth noting. We’ve already heard most of it, but the in-game footage demonstrates most of these concepts nicely.
You can watch the video above, or head over to our sister site Big Download to grab the hi res version. The hi res version of this video is worth it.
After the break we’ll take a look at the major points, as well as talk about some of the high resolution screen grabs of the UI shown in the video.
Yes, you read the title right! You’re also not hallucinating the picture off to the side! You can actually sit on the bridge of your ship in Star Trek Online!
It appears Cryptic has decided to add the infamous setting to STO for players to enjoy as a social destination — a hang out for bridge officers and visiting captains from other vessels. The Associated Press has reported that the game will feature 20 bridges at launch, giving even the most discerning captains their own pick on bridge design.
Regarding the addition of bridges, Craig Zinkievich, the executive producer of Star Trek Online, told the AP, “We didn’t want to have interiors at launch. We thought it was just a little bit too much. We really wanted to make sure we delivered a really deep experience, but your bridge not being in the game, it really felt like a hole in the game, and it was just something that we had to put in.“
We’ll try to get you a more high resolution screenshot later, but for now, enjoy this brief glimpse at your future command chair.
With beta now beginning, we shot some relevant questions at Cryptic’s Craig Zinkievich, executive producer on Star Trek Online. He gave us his insight on what the team’s goals are during beta and what some of their toughest challenges were from their point of view. Plus, we even got him to spill the beans on when Klingons would be entering the fray for beta testers — hopefully the rest of us get to see and hear more about the warrior race soon thereafter.
It’s a short interview, mostly because we kept our questions on topic and well, also because we didn’t want to distract Craig from working on his game for very long. Someone’s got to work on fulfilling our childhood fantasies!
