a single click. All you need is Adobe Reader.
For use with either a modern browser, or an RSS program.
Star Trek Online Interview: Part 2
Read the second part of our interview with Cryptic's Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich and check the latest new screens...
Written by Dan Hutchinson, 13 November 2009
GamerZines: Player feedback is obviously an important part of the development process. What has been the most successful player-requested feature that you didn't consider beforehand?
Craig Zinkievich: Throughout development we've been playing the game: first as a team, then other members of Cryptic Studios, now into closed Beta with our community. I think the best feedback we've gotten isn't suggestions for new game systems, but the little tweaks that make the whole game more accessible and easy to get into. As developers, we spend so much time with the game and, although we can get complex systems implemented, can sometimes overlook the simplest things. "Why can't I double click that? I didn't notice that UI indicator at all? I didn't understand where to go next." Those are the types of comments that end up being very valuable to us.
GZ: Diplomacy and ship-to-ship negotiating is a key feature of Star Trek - how have you tried to implement such a mechanic in the online game? Or why haven't you?
CZ: We do have "diplomacy" missions within the game - where the point is to figure out a problem, or to locate evidence or a missing person. But it flows naturally through talking with NPCs and exploring the environment. We weren't that interested in making Diplomacy into a minigame with points or cards or whatnot,as we didn't want it to feel like you were playing a different game.
MMOZine Issue 33
For our latest Star Trek Online coverage, click here to download MMOZine Issue 33 for free.GZ: Star Trek isn't known for its vast variety of ships and weapon systems, and the ones designed for Star Trek games have always seemed out of context with the universe (missile launchers in the Voyager: Elite Force for example, pretty much everything in the New Worlds RTS). How are you going to ensure the variety you've had to craft will make sense to Star Trek fans?
CZ: That's where I'd disagree with you. Star Trek has TONs of different ship and weapon variety. All the different energy types - phaser, distruptor, tachyon, photonic... all the parts of a ship that can be fiddled with - shields, weapons, deflectors, sensors, consoles, engines. We've really been challenged by the license to get all of that stuff in! It's been pretty easy to have it all ring true to the Star Trek fan.
GZ: Is the future of the game mapped out more as a story-driven (LotRO's "issues"), or feature-driven (EVE's expansions)?
CZ: Expect both. : ) We plan on moving the storyline ahead with future content additions. But also have a slew of features that we still want to add to the game. We at Cryptic have a general plan for what we want to do with the game, but we really look towards our Beta users and Subscribers to help us come up with the long term plan. Releasing the game and working with the community to figure out "what comes next" is one of the most exciting parts of MMO development!
GZ: In Star Trek big things happen all of a sudden; creatures with god-like powers streaming towards earth, etc. Will big universe-wide storyline events be happening in STO. If so, what can we expect to be doing as players to avert the destruction of Earth or Kronos?
CZ: There are large events in STO that take 30-40 starships to ward off as well as storylines where you as a Captain can rescue civilizations. I don't think it'd be a very good Star Trek game without those sorts of storylines!
Star Trek Online coverage available in MMOZine Issue 33 - click here to download it for free!
»View more Star Trek Online features...
