Star Trek Online Enters Closed Beta

[Tom Goldman]

Star Trek Online Enters Closed Beta

Cryptic Studios' Star Trek Online has just entered the closed beta testing phaser... I mean, phase.

On October 22, Cryptic Studios announced that Star Trek Online has taken the next step in its development and entered closed beta. What this means for you non-MMO gamers out there is that a playable build is now available and some lucky regular citizens get to participate in working out the game's kinks alongside Cryptic Studios' own testing team. For some reason, Star Trek Online always struck me as one of those MMOGs that would never make it through, even with the strength of the Star Trek franchise behind it. The fact that it's entering closed beta is a good sign.

Star Trek Online takes place 30 years after the series' last movie Star Trek Nemesis. Cryptic has already released a video revealing the game's backstory [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95499-Cryptic-Releases-Star-Trek-Online-Timeline-Video], though to summarize it begins with a civil war amongst the Romulan Empire that the Klingons take advantage of to reclaim what they feel is theirs from the Romulans. The Gorn, along with other races from Star Trek, also get involved, while the Federation does its best to try to keep the peace between everybody.

One of Star Trek Online's selling points is the ability to participate in both ground and space combat right at launch. On the ground you lead an away team, of likely all red shirts, while in space you must maneuver your ship while taking out your enemies with various types of weaponry. Cryptic's "Total Customization technology", will play a big part, allowing players to completely customize their ships, and even to create entire alien races. There are also "episode missions" that are supposed to make players feel like they're living through a full episode of the television show. I wouldn't mind if the game provides retro episode missions of assaults on the Borg and such, perhaps in the holodeck?

I know I'm excited about this one, even if it makes me collect 50 the game's website [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferengi].



Permalink

 

[Jonci]

before anyone says anything, Data is dead, he is not coming back, the new movie was proof of it, had he been alive they would have gone and found him like they did spock.


secondly, Im wondering if the space combat would be like Eve, or if your able to walk around in the ships, the away team is pretty easy to guess though, which brings another question, will you be by yourself on the ground or will it be like a "Sword of the New World" setting where you control three people at once.

The new movie takes place before TNG, so what does Data have to do with anything? Plus, it isn't canon so the movies means nothing as far as Star Trek lore is concerned.

As for the game, originally you were supposed to just be assigned to a ship and would walk around in it doing whatever job you had. And you could beam down for missions. That was what the original developer's were aiming for, but they closed doors and eventually sold the assets off.

I have no idea what the new company has been doing with the MMO. I'd rather it not be some MMO where everyone has their own ship and goes around shooting at each other.

 

[Gaderael]

before anyone says anything, Data is dead, he is not coming back, the new movie was proof of it, had he been alive they would have gone and found him like they did spock.


secondly, Im wondering if the space combat would be like Eve, or if your able to walk around in the ships, the away team is pretty easy to guess though, which brings another question, will you be by yourself on the ground or will it be like a "Sword of the New World" setting where you control three people at once.

The new movie takes place before TNG, so what does Data have to do with anything? Plus, it isn't canon so the movies means nothing as far as Star Trek lore is concerned.

As for the game, originally you were supposed to just be assigned to a ship and would walk around in it doing whatever job you had. And you could beam down for missions. That was what the original developer's were aiming for, but they closed doors and eventually sold the assets off.

I have no idea what the new company has been doing with the MMO. I'd rather it not be some MMO where everyone has their own ship and goes around shooting at each other.

The game takes place 30 years after the events of "Nemesis". The link Tom Goldman provided on the lore shows evidence that Data was not destroyed. They recovered his body. LaForge and the Soong Foundation used B-4 to recover his Data Matrix. He's currently the Captain of the Enterprise.

They also mention Mr.Sisko (whether that's Ben or Jake, it doesn't say), and Annika Hansen, otherwise known as 7 of 9. That makes me very happy. They also mention Species 8472, and the possible return of the Borg.

This game's going to be awesome if they do it right.

 

[Raregolddragon]

YEA YEA YEA I might not be in the closed beta but I am still happy there moving the game along.

 

[Jonci]

before anyone says anything, Data is dead, he is not coming back, the new movie was proof of it, had he been alive they would have gone and found him like they did spock.


secondly, Im wondering if the space combat would be like Eve, or if your able to walk around in the ships, the away team is pretty easy to guess though, which brings another question, will you be by yourself on the ground or will it be like a "Sword of the New World" setting where you control three people at once.

The new movie takes place before TNG, so what does Data have to do with anything? Plus, it isn't canon so the movies means nothing as far as Star Trek lore is concerned.

As for the game, originally you were supposed to just be assigned to a ship and would walk around in it doing whatever job you had. And you could beam down for missions. That was what the original developer's were aiming for, but they closed doors and eventually sold the assets off.

I have no idea what the new company has been doing with the MMO. I'd rather it not be some MMO where everyone has their own ship and goes around shooting at each other.

The game takes place 30 years after the events of "Nemesis". The link Tom Goldman provided on the lore shows evidence that Data was not destroyed. They recovered his body. LaForge and the Soong Foundation used B-4 to recover his Data Matrix. He's currently the Captain of the Enterprise.

They also mention Mr.Sisko (whether that's Ben or Jake, it doesn't say), and Annika Hansen, otherwise known as 7 of 9. That makes me very happy. They also mention Species 8472, and the possible return of the Borg.

This game's going to be awesome if they do it right.

I really need to Nemesis on my Netflix queue. I don't remember anything from that movie. As for Sisko, if I remember right, Ben is off with the wormhole aliens and Jake didn't join Starfleet. Probably why he is "Mr. Sisko". It would be Jake, but he is just a civilian.

 

[Gaderael]

before anyone says anything, Data is dead, he is not coming back, the new movie was proof of it, had he been alive they would have gone and found him like they did spock.


secondly, Im wondering if the space combat would be like Eve, or if your able to walk around in the ships, the away team is pretty easy to guess though, which brings another question, will you be by yourself on the ground or will it be like a "Sword of the New World" setting where you control three people at once.

The new movie takes place before TNG, so what does Data have to do with anything? Plus, it isn't canon so the movies means nothing as far as Star Trek lore is concerned.

As for the game, originally you were supposed to just be assigned to a ship and would walk around in it doing whatever job you had. And you could beam down for missions. That was what the original developer's were aiming for, but they closed doors and eventually sold the assets off.

I have no idea what the new company has been doing with the MMO. I'd rather it not be some MMO where everyone has their own ship and goes around shooting at each other.

The game takes place 30 years after the events of "Nemesis". The link Tom Goldman provided on the lore shows evidence that Data was not destroyed. They recovered his body. LaForge and the Soong Foundation used B-4 to recover his Data Matrix. He's currently the Captain of the Enterprise.

They also mention Mr.Sisko (whether that's Ben or Jake, it doesn't say), and Annika Hansen, otherwise known as 7 of 9. That makes me very happy. They also mention Species 8472, and the possible return of the Borg.

This game's going to be awesome if they do it right.

I really need to Nemesis on my Netflix queue. I don't remember anything from that movie. As for Sisko, if I remember right, Ben is off with the wormhole aliens and Jake didn't join Starfleet. Probably why he is "Mr. Sisko". It would be Jake, but he is just a civilian.

Nemesis was good. I little to Michael Bay, as opposed to the more cerebral TNG episodes, but good none the less.

You're most likely right about it being Jake, as the log was almost like an interview, and if I remember correctly, didn't he become a reporter or journalist at some point?

 

[Jonci]

before anyone says anything, Data is dead, he is not coming back, the new movie was proof of it, had he been alive they would have gone and found him like they did spock.


secondly, Im wondering if the space combat would be like Eve, or if your able to walk around in the ships, the away team is pretty easy to guess though, which brings another question, will you be by yourself on the ground or will it be like a "Sword of the New World" setting where you control three people at once.

The new movie takes place before TNG, so what does Data have to do with anything? Plus, it isn't canon so the movies means nothing as far as Star Trek lore is concerned.

As for the game, originally you were supposed to just be assigned to a ship and would walk around in it doing whatever job you had. And you could beam down for missions. That was what the original developer's were aiming for, but they closed doors and eventually sold the assets off.

I have no idea what the new company has been doing with the MMO. I'd rather it not be some MMO where everyone has their own ship and goes around shooting at each other.

The game takes place 30 years after the events of "Nemesis". The link Tom Goldman provided on the lore shows evidence that Data was not destroyed. They recovered his body. LaForge and the Soong Foundation used B-4 to recover his Data Matrix. He's currently the Captain of the Enterprise.

They also mention Mr.Sisko (whether that's Ben or Jake, it doesn't say), and Annika Hansen, otherwise known as 7 of 9. That makes me very happy. They also mention Species 8472, and the possible return of the Borg.

This game's going to be awesome if they do it right.

I really need to Nemesis on my Netflix queue. I don't remember anything from that movie. As for Sisko, if I remember right, Ben is off with the wormhole aliens and Jake didn't join Starfleet. Probably why he is "Mr. Sisko". It would be Jake, but he is just a civilian.

Nemesis was good. I little to Michael Bay, as opposed to the more cerebral TNG episodes, but good none the less.

You're most likely right about it being Jake, as the log was almost like an interview, and if I remember correctly, didn't he become a reporter or journalist at some point?

Ah, yeah. I remember now. Ben wanted him to join Starfleet, but he decided to be a journalist. I recall him going around, in the later seasons, looking for that breaking story.

 

[Stu1701]

before anyone says anything, Data is dead, he is not coming back, the new movie was proof of it, had he been alive they would have gone and found him like they did spock.

Clearly you didn't read the Star Trek Countdown comics that were released as a bit of back story for the new movie. Data is alive. His consciousness, what they had started calling the "Data Matrix" had finally surfaced in B4, basically making B4 into Data.

Data had downloaded all of his memories into B4 before he died, but it seemed like B4 wasn't able to process all the new information. After Data died it became evident that some of Data's memories were beginning to surface in B4 (he started singing in the Captain's ready room). The comic explains that that over time more of Data's memories surfaced eventually turning him into a new Data.

Yeah, I know it's pretty cheap, but I don't really care. Data's been my favorite character since I was 4 so I'm glad to see him back.

 

[Theissen]

One word in regards to the article:

Crytpic.

You made a spelling error in the first word.

 

[KarmicToast]

The real news here is this:

Cryptic came out and said that people who paid for access to the STO closed Beta (via lifetime subscription to Champions) will NOT be getting into the Beta first. This follows statements from the devs that made it clear this was not the case... conveniently during sales.

My coworker for example paid just to get into the beta (he had ZERO interest in Champions) and now is being told he will get in at some point but not first...even though he paid and the devs said he would. Regardless of whether he "is stupid for doing this" or not, the fact remains that he did it to get first access and now he doesn't have it and might not even get in until its just about over.

I'm calling shenanigans. Hopefully Cryptic will fix this since if you check out their own forums on their announcement, people are flipping out about this big time. And I agree with them.

 

[mattttherman3]

I'm glad that Data is still "alive", that was a major bummer at the end of Nemesis.

 

[samsonguy920]

Considering Nemesis is a clone of Wrath of Khan, it was pretty obvious there was a plot to bring Data back, as evidenced to B4's singing at the end. And considering though Data is sentient, he is still an Android with, let us say, copy/paste technology. One can argue that B4 isn't Data, but he is still a Soong Android, with potential to becoming more than he is, as a human has. I am glad he got the command of the Enterprise, since that means there are good odds we might get to hear Brent Spiner's melodious voice in the game. I hope.
I haven't played either City of Heroes or City of Villains, but I have yet to hear any crap about it, as crap has been thrown at the likes of Age of Conan and even Warhammer (which is a shame for that franchise), so I have optimism that Cryptic has a sound plan for STO, and if even a third of their developers played Star Trek Battles, or Starfleet Command, then I am very much looking forward to flying a starship in that game. I read the timeline from the year of Nemesis to 2409, and their writers have a strong faith to canon, and the cusps that lead to the Klingons breaking their alliance with the Federation is quite....logical.
I am sad I won't be getting in on the closed beta, but considering the other franchise I was looking forward to playing is now in limbo: Stargate Worlds, I am tickled it has made it. There really isn't much to stop STO from coming online, to let us seek out new worlds, and new civilizations, to boldly go wherever we want to go.
Make it so.

One word in regards to the article:

Crytpic.

You made a spelling error in the first word.

Nytpick much?

 

[Tom Goldman]

I fail at spelling. That's what I get for writing late at night!