Mamy dla Was coś wyjątkowego. W ramach promocji Star Trek Online producent wykonawczy gry, Craig Zinkievich udzielił nam obszernego wywiadu. Oczywiście jego tłumaczenie możecie przeczytać w naszym nowym serwisie STOnline.pl, ale dla tych, którzy wolą oryginał, poniżej zamieszczamy wersję angielską. Życzymy ciekawej lektury.
[more]Interview with STO Executive Producer - Craig Zinkievich.
1. We already know that Star Trek Online will be packed with huge amounts of content. But still, can you predict how long will it take for an average player to "finish" the game completely, or at least the main storyline?
The number we've been bandying about here at work has been 80 hours to complete all the Episode missions in the game. Episode missions are those mission chains that we designed to feel like an episode from the TV shows. Beyond that, we've got PvP, new worlds for people to explore, all sorts of social hubs and so on. And we're continually adding content to the game. So ideally, no one will finish the game because we'll be building upon it.
2. What have you planned for players who will reach the highest possible level in the game, and will complete all story-driven quests? Aside from PvP and repeatable missions, what can you do to keep such individuals playing?
There will be plenty for people to do once they've reached the highest level and have completed all the story driven quests. You can do explore star clusters, take part in fleet actions, and plus we will be adding new content shortly after launch, designed specifically for high-level players. One Raid Episode features a confrontation with the Borg Queen, which should keep Admirals busy for some time.
3. Are you planning any major game expansions in the future? Any new playable factions like Romulans or the Dominion?
That will really depend on the success of the game. There is a lot more we would like to do with STO and we have content we're already working on. As far as what playable faction we do next will largely depend on player feedback, but yes we want to have major game expansions.
4. Will the image of exploration and diplomatic missions develop a little in the final version of the game? We've seen quests such as "scan five alien artifacts", "find four alien lifeform cocoons" or "talk to four miners and answer some questions" - will they get more complex?
One of the most difficult things to do in videogames is design content around things other than violent confrontation. How many games out there just task you with killing stuff, when you really boil everything down? Really, even most single-player games with extensive dialogue options end with shooting someone. And in MMO terms, if you can talk your way out of a situation, that's most surely going to take less time than fighting your way out, at which point you've got a disparity in level between diplomatic players and combative players. It's been a very interesting learning experience designing for both styles of play.
But to answer your question, they will get more complex and we also want to develop more of them. However, we want it to be diverse. Some of the missions should just be you go out and you find some alien artifacts because that is all that is out there. Then some should be more in depth.
5. Almost each and every pre-order copy of Star Trek Online comes with some unique item to be used in the game. Most of them are considered to be exclusive, but will other players be able to get their hands on these rare items (or crewmembers) some time later?
At this point, they're all exclusive offers. We don't yet have plans to expand pre-order bonuses in another manner.
6. Let's assume someone played for two months and then took a break for half a year. Will his or her character(s) still be playable without any penalties or changes in stats? After all, even Federation officers need vacation from time to time. 😉
I would think so! There might be new stats and new things for you to do but your character would be exactly how you left it. You would still be whatever rank you are and you would still have whatever skills you possessed.
7. If someone doesn't have too much time to play games - how much or what experiences would such a person miss if he or she were to get the game some time later, let's say, in a year?
Well it depends. There would still be the same episodes for the people to do. They might miss out on special events that we would do. Most of all they would probably just miss out on seeing how the game evolved and changed. Over the course of a year we would be making improvements to balancing and adding new content. So really they wouldn't see the evolution of the game. They may think that something was in there the whole time when it could of been something we just added recently.
8. What about a console port of Star Trek Online? Is it still in production? If so, when can we expect its release? How different will it be from PC version? Will there be a separate server for console players, or will they be able to play together with PC users?
We would love to get Star Trek Online on the console. However we don't want to rush anything out the door just so we can say it's on the console. So for now the focus is just on the PC.
9. The number of players in one instance. Will it increase in the future or perhaps certain scenarios, such as massive fleet battles, or will it always be max 50?
We might increase it, but it will really depend on player feedback. If they want more people to fit in an instance then it's something we will look at doing. With regards to instancing we wanted it to feel Trek. Often in the TV series or movies they were out there alone or only with another ship or two. We didn't want to have a ton of players all trying to defeat the same bird of prey you are. However we do want people to feel connected and have the ability to team up with friends.
10. To be honest, travelling long distances in the open beta of Star Trek Online seemed sometimes wearisome and tedious. Will players be able to use some kind of wormholes or trans-warp drives to get from one end of the galaxy to another, not only to the main base?
We do have the Trans-warp back to home base and we might use it in other areas but you have to remember space is big and takes time to get to places. We want space to feel big.
11. Surely lot's of Trekkies were a bit disappointed to know that the only place on a ship they could visit was the bridge. Do you plan on expanding this issue in the future to include other sections of a ship, such as the Engineering, Mess Hall, or Holodeck? Also, do you plan on expanding bridge function into something more than a social place? Perhaps you could give players an option to create their own bridge design, as they do with characters?
It's already something we are working on. We want to have more areas of the ship that you can visit as well as having more functionality in them. It just takes time, and we didn't want to rush it out. It's something that we're looking to add to the game and we already have some ideas floating around about this. We give people a few different options for their bridge for each type of ship they have so I don't know if we'll do something like the character creator. However it's something we may look into adding.
12. Will players be able to meet some familiar characters of the Star Trek universe, like Quark or Seven of Nine? If so, is there a chance they will be voiced by their original actors?
We do have some familiar faces, but many of the classic character have either passed away or retired. We do make references to them though and the ones you do bump into, I don't want to spoil for you. 🙂
13. There are still many bugs in the game, server and login issues, and only a little more than a week to its launch. Is it possible to solve all the major problems in that time?
A lot of the issues players experienced during the beta were server-related. We just maxed out, so it's a problem of success. But we also installed some more servers to help meet demand, which has helped quite a bit. That said, we also implemented a queue system to make sure that players in the game are experiencing content at a smoother rate. It's not an ideal situation, but we'd rather make sure people are having fun when they're in-game, rather than open the floodgates and crash the servers all the time. And we're looking at more ways to get more people in the game without over-expanding, which has destroyed some recent MMOs.
14. Many players reported issues while trying to run the game on their computers. Some of us too have older machines that cannot run Star Trek Online in highest details for best game experience. Is it possible to improve the performance of the game in the future through patches?
Yes and no. We're working with graphics card manufacturers to improve performance as much as we can, but the game is designed to take advantage of top-of-the-line computers. Really, though, as long as you've got a dual-core machine with a graphics card manufactured in the past couple years, the game should run and display fine for you.
15. A question quite important for our Polish trekkies. Do you have any information regarding Polish distributor of Star Trek Online? Also, do you plan on releasing other language versions of the game?
Sorry I don't have information regarding the Polish distributor. For players in regions we don't yet support, we recommend purchasing the game digitally. We do have a list of all our retailers on our website though http://startrekonline.com/retail and you can always download it digitally. Right now it's just in English, German and French but we may add more and more languages if sales do well enough.
16. Star Trek Online music is awesome and it would be great to listen to it, let's say, in a car. Is there any Original Soundtrack release planned for the near future?
Right now, I don't believe so. We do have original music that is the game but as far as I know we don't have plans at the moment to make a soundtrack. But it's not something we would rule out.
17. Will it be possible to visit the Mirror Universe?
Yes!
18. Tribbles can heal outside of combat, but will I be able to use them against the Klingons in some way? Perhaps some kind of quest where you need to use a Tribble to find a Klingon in disguise? *hint hint*
Not a bad idea! We're always trying to come up with new ideas to create missions that feel like Star Trek. Though I'm not sure how much the Federation would approve of using a biological weapon on an enemy, even an enemy as dangerous as the Klingons.
19. The possibilities of creating your own character are countless, and the option surely is admirable. But will players be able to recruit some unique crewmembers, like holograms, androids or half-borg busty females? 😉
As it turns out, we have a Liberated Borg Bridge Officer pre-order bonus in-game already. We don't yet have holographic crew members, but nothing is out of the question, long-term.
20. Which Admiral do I need to sleep with to get a lifetime subscription? 😉 Or more seriously - are you planning any kinds of in-game competitions for players, with prizes like free subscriptions?
We will probably have some in-game competitions and prizes for players. Usually we announce those around a special event. We'll most likely do something like that though. It could range from something in-game like a new costume piece to something like a free lifetime account. We've already done certain prizes like name that ship contest, so look out for more in the future.
21. So far you seem to be extremely faithful to the Star Trek universe as we know it. You included numerous familiar planetary systems, items, creatures, races, characters and events. But there is an issue we think every Trekkie is eager to know... Will it be possible to attend a Betazoid wedding ceremony? 😉
Not if we want to keep our T rating. ;)[/more]
