Star Trek Online?

Haesslich

Spaceman
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3635210.stm
http://www.perpetual.com/pages/news.html#StarTrek

"Perpetual Entertainment, Inc. announced today that it has secured the exclusive worldwide rights from Viacom Consumer Products to develop and publish a massively multiplayer online game based on Paramount Pictures’ Star Trek franchise.

Star Trek is one of the world’s most popular, longest-running, and beloved sci-fi properties, with millions of passionately devoted fans throughout the world. As Star Trek celebrates its 38th anniversary, Star Trek gaming begins its next evolution.

The license encompasses all live-action motion pictures and television series including, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. “The scope of the content license is extraordinary for a game of this kind, giving us the opportunity to immerse fans and players in the incredibly rich, diverse and exciting universe of Star Trek,” said Joe Keene, CEO of Perpetual Entertainment.

The game will deliver action, adventure and combat mechanics unique to persistent world games. Its design includes a rich array of solo and multiplayer missions set in space, on planets and in starbases throughout the universe. At launch, it will take place during the 24th century timeline in the series with other aspects of the Star Trek universe to be interwoven and added through expansions."

In other words, they're doing TNG/DS9/VOY to start, but look to add TOS in there somewhere. Well, someone's going to be happy. :D



http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/6502.html

And it would figure someone would create 'transparent aluminum' about now... :p
 
Very few Star Trek games were better than mediocre, some outright awful. I'd be surprised if that one was better.
 
Maybe we'll be lucky and the MMORPG will be a giant success, big enough to make EA revisit Privateer Online. Reading the specs reminded me of the expectations I had for Privateer Online back in the day. It sounds like they envision you being able to explore the galaxy on your own (ala being a privateer and doing your own thing), taking missions for Starfleet (guild missions), getting a fulltime commission on a ship (ala joining Confed), having your own quarters (ie renting an apartment on a base somewhere and decking it out), third person (possibility for actual role playing) and/or first person (FPS action - Repleetah style) for exploring planets and bases. Imagine the possibilities...

Perpetual Entertainment is going to piss me off if they blow this.
 
Um, EA already has experience with MMORPGs, particularly of the "failed" variety.

Does "Earth & Beyond" ring a bell?

(And, to put it bluntly, I doubt it'll be skill-based, but based on random number generators like almost every other MMORPG out there. Ooh, yeah, I sure want to roll a virtual 3D6 to find out if my gunnery officer is a completely incompetent boob...)
 
Yeah I'm great at games like C&C or Close Combat where skilled units are involved but I suck at Risk because of the damn roll of the dice (I always get knocked out rather quickly or in some stupid roll of the die just get pummled off the face of the earth)
 
ST does have one of the best universes for a mmog. Intriguing indeed. It'll be pretty interesting to see just how far they take it. Like if a chief engineer can kill off an entire starship if he doesn't stop those annoying red lights in time.
 
Death said:
(And, to put it bluntly, I doubt it'll be skill-based, but based on random number generators like almost every other MMORPG out there. Ooh, yeah, I sure want to roll a virtual 3D6 to find out if my gunnery officer is a completely incompetent boob...)

Yeah, I don't think it will be a game I want to play. I'm just hoping that something comes along and shows real promise for the genre. Granted, this wouldn't be anything like a space shooter, but it still potentially shares a lot of elements I would expect from a Privateer Online. But I guess I was hoping the same thing of an eventual Star Wars MMORPG until it ended up being Galaxies and totally neglected space combat.
 
True, but the new expansion pack aims to correct that.

Anyone else have the urge to serve on a science vessel? Don't know why, but that was first thing to come to my mind when hearing the news.
 
From a buisness position it's what the thousands of crazy play by email people have wanted for years. It would be played by lots of trekkies trying to live out their dreams but I'm not sure it would have the biggest community out there. I think there would be a lot of stigma associated with the game. It's bad enough being a trekkie or an everquest player, but being both in the same place is a bit scary as far as the concept of nerd-dom goes.

Then again it depends on how they go about doing the game. If they make a cheap Everquest clone like Star Wars Galaxies, I'll scoff at it. If they do something different I'll be a little more interested.

So would I play it? No. I really hate Massively Multiplayer RPG's for the ammount of time they require you to put into them and because paying to play a game you already bought is just plain cruel.
 
Wast he 25th anniversary game the one with like...only seven mission? All I remember is shooting a Klingon that appeared out of nowhere and then his hand fell off and I had to use it to open a door.

And somethinga bout Qetzquotl and falling into a river and my Redshirt died....hmph!
 
yep, that's the one. I prefer Judgement Rites, its sequel.

and I predict that this one will go down badly.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
Wast he 25th anniversary game the one with like...only seven mission? All I remember is shooting a Klingon that appeared out of nowhere and then his hand fell off and I had to use it to open a door.

And somethinga bout Qetzquotl and falling into a river and my Redshirt died....hmph!

You can actually make it so in each mission your redshirt guy doesn't die. It just took me a couple of times playing it. Just like in that first mission where you come across the door blocked with boulders if you don't shoot the top one first then it comes crashing down at Kirk and redshirt pushes him out of the way and gets killed.

Yeah I think it did only have about that many missions but they were a pretty good length and then of course you had to do battle before and sometimes right after each one.
 
In real life, it'd probably be fun to serve on a science vessel. On a game, it always sucks because you never really discover anything, which is all the fun of exploration. Considering how MMOGs attract power gamers like mad, usually everything gets explored before you ever have a chance to discover anything new. The problem is that there isn't an infinite supply of novelty, as there is in the real universe.

I think this game could be interesting if it had a space shooter component. Star Trek's style of space combat diverges significantly from Star Wars or Wing Commander (think Bridge Commander... hrm, wonder where they got the inspiration for that name from...).

Also, random rolls might make a lot more sense if most of the action takes place on starships with large number of NPC crew members. After all, if your chief engineer makes rolls which end up making him look like a bonehead, that's perfectly realistic. Making a roll that shows you're a bonehead is rather more frustrating.

Anyway, the starship component is what I thought of first when I heard about this. However, the company doesn't appear to have any track record, so it could end up being like those "MMOGs" which are glorified Web pages. Probably not quite that bad, but it could be very mass market-y.
 
Here's to hoping that Perpetual Entertainment can develop a decent game, because I'm tired of crappy Star Trek games. Dextorboot mentioned this too, but what better universe to create an MMO for? Huge, aging fanbase (whcih means $$$), and nearly limitless gameplay options. I would love to captain a starship, battle the Borg, go on away missions, etc. Anyone ever played DS9 The Fallen? My favorite ST game. If the MMO could even come close to that level of 1st/3rd person action, plus throw in some Elite Force and Bridge Commander elements (among others), they might have a real hit on their hands.

Given the history of Star Trek games though, I remain cautiously optimistic.
 
Personally, I was thrilled to find out that someone else was making a new Star Trek game... until I found out that at least one was of the Everquest- or World of Warcraft-style. A guy I used to live with played the latter for hours every day, and it scared me to see what a time sink that was. In addition, I do find it tough to justify the price of the game plus the monthly subscription fee, and considering that fee is aimed at supporting a potential time sink....

I loved Bridge Commander and Armada 2 (original Armada was OK and its gameplay tighter, but my heart is with Armada 2), and I would love to see a major, well-known game studio make BC2. Since Activision threw in the proverbial towel, and high-quality Star Trek games seem to be difficult to come by for probably several reasons, I remain cautiously optimistic at the very least. :rolleyes: I would guess I am also somewhat burned out with Star Trek after watching it continuously for 12 years (1990-2002: TNG, DS9, Voyager). :(
 
nchrisb said:
Personally, I was thrilled to find out that someone else was making a new Star Trek game... until I found out that at least one was of the Everquest- or World of Warcraft-style. A guy I used to live with played the latter for hours every day, and it scared me to see what a time sink that was. In addition, I do find it tough to justify the price of the game plus the monthly subscription fee, and considering that fee is aimed at supporting a potential time sink....

This seems pretty contradictory. You can't justify $15 a month.. but then you also can't stand how the game occupies so much of your time. All good games are "time sinks." And why would it bother you that "at least one" of the new Star Trek games was an MMO? There's other new Star Trek games coming out, and you don't have to play this one if it bothers you so much.

nchrisb said:
I loved Bridge Commander and Armada 2 (original Armada was OK and its gameplay tighter, but my heart is with Armada 2), and I would love to see a major, well-known game studio make BC2. Since Activision threw in the proverbial towel, and high-quality Star Trek games seem to be difficult to come by for probably several reasons

Are you stuck in 2004 (when this thread was last replied to)? There are some great Star Trek games in the works right now. Bethesda has the primary license these days, and they're putting in a great deal of effort and support for it. The next batch of Star Trek games look really fantastic. The best one is ST Legacy, which comes out in just a few weeks. https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/7156
 
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