Interview with Executive Producer Dan Stahl

We have collected questions from French players of STO, many thanks Dan for your answers.

Read the French translated version

Crédit photo: STOked

JOL: STO is defined as a MMORPG, and meanwhile, Cryptic also uses the term 'OMG' (Online Multiplayer Game) for its next game. According to you, what are the main differences between these two concepts? ... And finally, can we say that STO is more a 'OMG' than a 'MMORPG'?

Dan: In my opinion, what Jack Emmert refers to as an Online Multiplayer Game is akin to what I would call a Co-op Online game. Halo 3 for example, is a co-op game with a specific campaign mode that you can play with a group of friends online, but is not considered an MMO even though it has massive PVP battles. I would not consider STO a co-op game, and is instead a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game since thousands of players can be in the same world at the same time, join Fleets, and share a global economy. 

JOL: During the development of the game, you said that players could visit Star Trek places or cities such as Ferenginar, Dakhur on Bajor or Vulcan... Is it still on your projects?

Dan: Bajor and Vulcan are both available for players to visit in game, and we still plan to get to Ferenginar and Betazed in the future as well. We are also ensuring these locations are available for players to use in player authored missions they create using the Foundry.

JOL: You wrote in the last "Ask Cryptic", there will be some change in the beginning sequence. Could we imagine players starting the game at the Starfleet Academy, or having a chance to access 'Starfleet Command' to improve some skills for example? 

Dan: We have been taking a closer look at our Tutorial and recognizing that while it is a fun and exciting mission, it doesn’t do enough to explain key concepts or touch on some of the more complex combat systems in the game. We have a strong desire to revamp our Tutorial to provide more guidance and training on how to use all the various systems in the game. When we do that update in the future, we have also considered moving some of the tutorial to Starfleet Academy, so it is a possibility to see this in the future.

JOL: There has been few information about Jesse Heinig joining the team. Can you tell us about its work for STO as a RPG specialist?

Dan: We have several RPG veterans on our content team and Jesse is the newest addition. We’re very lucky to have a talented group of designers who work with our scripts and development tools to create the exciting missions you experience. You can see their hard work in our recently released Feature Episode series featuring the Breen and the Devidians. Members of our content team have claims to fame such as working on the original Fallout, to creating expansions for Oblivion, to creating the “simlish” language featured in all the Sims games.

JOL: Can you describe how a serie of weekly episodes for STO is made? What are the steps? How much time does it takes? and how many people are involved?

Dan: It starts with a discussion about what antagonists, locations, and special features the series should have. From there a script is written and the designers and artists review the script and discuss the details of creating the locations. We also come up with a list of nice to have props or sets that would be needed for the episode. The designer creates the basic layout and flow from the episode and then the art team goes to work making it look brilliant. FX, lighting, and audio are added next while the designer begins play test sessions of the mission flow. Independently another team focuses on testing any new rewards or items being given out. Once the episode is in a complete state, we have the team leads playtest the mission several times and provide feedback. That feedback is then implemented and then the episode awaits its final airdate.

JOL: There are a lot of possibilities to solo play in STO. In the future, will you stop to develop that type of content and do you looking for options for players to play more into groups? 

Dan: This ultimately depends on what the players want. Most players enjoy the type of gameplay that we have created now with new small team missions being added to the game on a regular basis. We have discussed adding more Fleet Actions and battles to the game, but we really see the game continuing on with the mix of content it has now.

JOL: With "unique" items coming and crafting overhaul at Memory Alpha, can we imagine that, someday, players could play civilian characters such as merchants / traders (ferengi or other) in STO?

Dan: We have talked about a long term goal of getting smaller factions such as the Ferengi in game as a trader class. It will depend on how much content we can create to make that type of gameplay faction become viable. More than likely we will work on adding more crafting and collection gameplay to the existing factions before we tackle something big like the Ferengi.

JOL: When does the next playable faction will be released in the game? And do you plan to propose new species avalaible to play at start of the game? 

Dan: We have talked about adding a Romulan faction sometime within the next year. We have been making big strides towards addressing the Klingon Faction content issues and with every update were are bringing them more and more content. Once we are happy with how the Klingon faction plays, then we can start to think of how to tackle making the Romulan faction available in game. To the second part of the question, we do plan to add more species to the game over the next several updates.

JOL: When will we be able to have more interactions inside our ships (hostile entity encounters, counter-boarding fight, repairing damages in the engineering room, healing crew at the sick bay, etc...)?

Dan: With the exciting potential of the Foundry, we are now looking at the possibility of allowing players design their own ship interiors. Once we get that working, then the next natural step will be to allow players to create missions that take place on their ships. That is where our energy lies for creating ship interior progress. We want to open it up and create unique and functional items you can place in your own ship.

JOL: Do you plan to develop that typical Star Trek communication interface using the "on screen" mode in ships, such as seen in the Breen storyarc teaser video for example? 

Dan: It would be nice and is something we all want to see, but requires the ability to have missions that take place on your personal bridge which is something we want to get working first (see above)

JOL: Will there be some other famous Star Trek voices in STO?