STO Guidelines

Many changes are afoot at Star Trek Online (STO). Since it’s release, the STO team has released regular updates to the game, and Season 2, a significant update to the game, is scheduled for release this month. While STO might have stumbled out of the gate, it’s clear the STO team is working hard to improve the game.

Recently, there was also a change to the STO team. Craig Zinkievich, STO’s original Executive Producer, left the helm of STO. MMOGames was fortunate to have an opportunity to interview Star Trek Online’s new Executive Producer, Daniel Stahl. Enjoy.

Interview
Daniel Stahl – Executive Producer – Star Trek Online

1. What’s your favorite thing about Star Trek: Online (STO)?
The ability to level up, customize, and play as both a Starship in space and a Captain on away missions is something I really find fun. Each episode combines a little bit of both worlds and provides a constant change of pace. Going from a big epic space battle down to exploring a planet gives a sense of scale in gameplay that keeps things changing from moment to moment.
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Last time we chatted with Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich, he and Cryptic Studios commemorated the MMO’s three-month milestone with “Season One,” its first major content update. As promised, the developers “addressed players’ concerns” and delivered “new, fresh content in the players’ hands,” as Zinkievich described it, in our “Season One and Beyond” interview.

The three-month release cycle continues in July with “Season Two,” offering more new content and gameplay refinement. In our latest interview with Zinkievich, we talk about some of the significant features and changes that Cryptic has added throughout the past few months, like the Memory Alpha revamp and the new “Accolade System.” We also get details about upcoming content in July’s “Season Two,” which introduces popularly-requested exploration, diplomacy and anthropology-themed missions via the new “Federation Diplomatic Corps.” Zinkievich tells us about the future of ship interiors, mini-games like “Dabo” and more. Read the full interview after the jump!

[Note: The following interview took place earlier this month; publishing delayed due to our E3 2010 coverage.]

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Welcome to the latest installment of Ask Cryptic, where we put your questions to the devs. This edition is specific to Season Two: Ancient Enemies, so read on to see what’s coming in Star Trek Online.

Q: Obsidius: Will there be any additional items available for crafting/improving in Memory Alpha?

A: Not at the launch of Season Two, but we will be adding more items during the course of Season Two.

Q: Obsidius: What sort of new ships can Federation and Klingon players expect for Episode 2? We’ve already seen the Galaxy-X class dreadnought, but what sort of escort and science-ship-related ships are in the pipe?

A: Federation Vice Admirals will have access to one of three new ships: Galaxy with Saucer Separation, Intrepid with Ablative Armor and Defiant with Cloak. Klingon Dahar Masters will have access to a Fek’ihri carrier.
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This edition is a general Q&A, so read on to see what’s coming in Star Trek Online.

Q: Intrepidox: With the level cap increase, will there be a new tier of ships, and if so, will they make the current 5th tier ships obsolete?

A: We do not plan on adding an additional tier with the level cap increase that we are working on currently. That being said we definitely plan on adding in more ships in the 5th tier to offer some additional choices to players.

We have been kicking around ideas for what Tier 6 ships could be and how they would work in the STO universe already. Will they be retrofits of existing ships, “Super Defiants”? Will they need entire Fleets to pool their resources to create? We’ll continue to listen to the community’s feedback and decide as the time gets closer how exactly we will implement the next Tier of starships.
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Questions about the new Star Trek Online Advisory Council? Look no further. We’ll be updating this page with more of your questions in the near future.

Q: What is the STO Advisory Council?
A: It’s a group of individuals from various positions within the Star Trek and Star Trek Online community designed to provide feedback we wouldn’t otherwise receive. The Committee is designed to complement the other feedback collection tools we use, which include the forums, our users polls, in-game data mining and so on.

Q: What is the motivation behind the STO Advisory Committee Program?
A: We’re not hearing all of our current audience nor are we hearing all of our target audience. How do we hear more? We have well over a 100,000 players that never post on the forums. To be a responsible developer, we must approach these people and listen to their feedback too. Polls, direct emails, newsletters and the Advisory Council are some ways we can better tap this segment of our player base.
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