MMO BinA Geek's Look at Massively Multiplayer Online Games

There have been two updates to the Path of 2409 series that Star Trek Online is running. Years 2388 and 2389. Neither update does too much for the story, other than move forward some story lines they are working on. The basic premise is “the universe is a mess”. Klingons want to fight. Romulans want to heal their wounds and consolidate. Vulcans are looking a bit like bad guys. The Federation is trying to support the right races in their attempt to be friends with everyone.

The supplemental logs are a great bit of story as well. The latest one includes Jake, Captain Sisko’s son, who is still working hard at being a reporter. In it, he interviews Worf, who has mostly healed from his wounds in the Star Trek Countdown comic.

I meet with Ambassador Worf in his home on Qo’noS. He hasn’t spoken with any reporter since the events surrounding the Hobus explosion. The Ambassador is an old friend of my family, which is why I thought I might be able to speak with him. It appears that I was right.

Ambassador Worf is a warrior. He is clearly still recovering from the near fatal injuries he took while fighting the madman, Nero. Just as clearly, he refuses to allow those injuries to slow him down.

He is also furious with me.

When taking an established “universe” like Star Trek, it is very cool to see the game makers working so hard at feeding fans interests.

The Path to 2409: 2388
The Path to 2409: 2389

I usually love the Path to 2409 posts on the Star Trek Online site, but this weeks edition, 2387, was just a repeat of what I’ve already read in the Star Trek Countdown comics, and just let’s us know that they are considering the comics and the upcoming movie part of the canon of the game.

Lots of people, including me, aren’t entirely impressed, but I will reserve judgement until they do the next update and go to the next year beyond this current “movie launching” story.

Some fans have been freaking out over the loss of the Romulan Empire, but I love when the Star Trek Universe is shaken to its core. Will the Romulans not be playable as their own faction? Who knows. It could make for a really interesting game experience, or if nothing else, as great material for both the Federation and Klingon stories in the game.

I am also looking to see what kind of technology we can expect in Star Trek Online. They’ve given us sneak peaks of ships, but without video to show off their “abilities”, we have to wait and speculate. I do like Geordi La Forge’s Jellyfish concept, though it doesn’t look like a Federation ship, hearing that he’s involved in some new “treknology” should be interesting.

One last detail worth mentioning is the return of the Orions as an interstellar race.

Starfleet Intelligence recommends that the Federation keep a close eye on activities of the Orion Syndicate. A multi-year crackdown on criminal activity in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants has been successful in curbing the threat of the Syndicate for Federation citizens, but on Stardate 64163.8 Hassan the Undying assassinates top Syndicate boss Raimus on Farius Prime.

Raimus’s death opens the door for Hassan’s employer, Melani D’ian, to take over Raimus’s Syndicate operations. Starfleet Intelligence estimates that Melani D’ian now controls as much as 30 percent of the Syndicate’s operations, and that other Syndicate bosses may seek to topple her before she seeks to expand her powerbase even more. Analysts note that Melani D’ian is the first Orion to rise to a top spot in Syndicate leadership in more than 20 years, and speculate that this could mark the return of the Orions as an interstellar power.

Anyways… I guess I have to wait until the next update for my real Star Trek Online excitement. If you haven’t read the Star Trek Countdown comics, the 2387 update will pretty much get you up to speed.

My favourite posts on the Star Trek Online blog are the Path to 2409 ones where they are continually updating us about the Star Trek universe and what is going on, to prepare us for the eventual release of the game. With twenty three such posts left to go, even at two a month, the game wouldn’t be out until ten or eleven months from now, but I still love reading them.

Today, year 2386 came out, and it sums up more of what we can expect the universe to be like when we arrive.

If you have been reading the Star Trek movie prequel comics called Countdown, you’ll understand much of what is going on in this Romulan focused update. Three major things happen outside of the Romulan parts: the Federation re-instates Data, and makes him a Captain, the Federation gets new uniforms, and Gorn are gearing up for a fight with the Klingons. It should make for an interesting time, as we get closer and closer to the 2409 year that starts the MMO.

A surprise guest at the wedding of Worf and Grilka is Data. With his upgrades at the Soong Foundation complete, Data requests that his commission in Starfleet be reactivated. While there are some initial questions because the Data persona is in the body once used by B-4, after Jean-Luc Picard, William T. Riker and several other current and former members of the Enterprise crew testify on Data’s behalf, Starfleet Command agrees to reinstate Data. He is promoted to captain and assigned to supervise the completion of the Enterprise-E’s refit.

On Stardate 63894.06, the refit of the Enterprise-E is completed and the ship, helmed by Captain Data, leaves the Utopia Planitia shipyards. “We are introducing a new era of exploration and peace,” said Starfleet Command spokesperson Commander Marie Durant.

Is it just me, or is it nice to have Data back in action, even if the path of his resurgence is sort of silly?

In the early days of Star Trek, the ship to ship battles were about large ships, slowly moving, much like battleships in the sea, but as we move forward, it seems agility, speed, and other tactics have become much more prevalent in star ship design. Proof of this can be seen in the Oslo, a new ship that has been released for the upcoming Star Trek Online MMO.

Class Specifications

Overall Length: 371 meters
Overall Draft: 54 meters
Overall Beam: 228 meters
Displacement: 625,000 metric tons

Defensive Systems:

• Advanced Deflector Shield Generators
• Rodinium-Alloy Hull Plating

Offensive Systems

• Six Type XII Phaser Arrays
• Fore and Aft Torpedo Launchers

Velocity

• Cruising: Warp Factor 7
• Maximum: Warp Factor 9.75

The Oslo is a heavy escort class with modules and parts that are interchangeable with its counter-parts: the Akira and the Zephyr.

This ship, and most likely a few others that we will see in the Star Trek Online experience set up the user expectation that replacement parts and upgrades for the ships will be found and salvaged out on the frontier of exploration.

The modular design allows ship’s crews to be able to make more repairs in the field and enables salvaged components to be reused on a variety of ships.

What really interests me about these newer ships is the assault aspect of their design. The Oslo was created with limited defensive capabilities, set up more for hit and run attacks, missions against smaller targets, or in numbers to take down a larger foe.

The Oslo is favored by captains who prefer fast, maneuverable ships that can end a battle quickly. It does not have the armor plating and redundant shielding of starships designed for withstanding sustained attacks, but its state-of-the-art weaponry allows the Oslo to disable its foes with rapid-fire, hard-hitting assaults.

I think this is the perfect type of ship for the masses that are looking forward to taking advantage of Star Trek Online’s ship to ship combat system.

I am really enjoying all of the information being supplied to the fans of Star Trek Online, long before the game is released. It keeps me hooked to their site, continually checking back, but as of now, I think I found the ship I will want to use when the game begins. The Oslo class is my type of ship.