STO - Interview @ Gamespot

Interview with Craig Zinkievich reveals ideas and types of gameplay planned for STO.

GS: Which classes of ships will players be able to create? Birds of Prey? Deep space exploration ships? Hybrid warships like the Defiant? Shuttlecraft?

CZ: All of the above. Players will have access to many different classes of starships that let them create the look and feel of many of the famous "ships of the line" but also many new and different ones.

GS: Exploration has always been a major focus in Star Trek. How will the game encourage players to boldly go where no man has gone before?

CZ: The game will be filled with hand-crafted Star Trek content that lets players play important parts in storylines active in the game universe. But exploration is key to Star Trek. Players will be able to pick uncharted star clusters of space and "seek out new life and new civilizations." There they’ll find content that will open up new resources, technologies, and even races with special abilities that they can recruit to their ship.

GS: One of the benefits of all that exploration is blowing up hostile new races that you encounter. Could you tell us about the combat system in the game?

CZ: There are two drastically different combat systems in Star Trek Online. The combat on away team missions will be fast paced "run and gun" combat. As for space, we don’t want to fall into the trap of trying to make Starship combat into a dogfighter. That’s not what Star Trek is about. In the shows and movies, space combat is about positioning, shifting power from weapons to shields, analyzing weaknesses, and having your crew come up with a plan at the last minute that can blast your enemy out of the sky! Space combat in Star Trek Online is a much more measured and tactical experience to reflect the spirit of the franchise.