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Interview: Talking Star Trek Online With Senior Game Designer Jesse Heinig | MMORPG.com

SystemSystem Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
edited April 2022 in News & Features Discussion

imageInterview: Talking Star Trek Online With Senior Game Designer Jesse Heinig | MMORPG.com

Star Trek Online has hummed along now for over a decade, bringing players to space and allowing them to explore strange new worlds. But what's it like to create those worlds, especially in the broader universe that Star Trek Online inhabits? We spoke to Senior Game Designer Jesse Heinig about building the MMO and what it's been like working on such a fabled IP.

Read the full story here


Comments

  • foppoteefoppotee Member UncommonPosts: 505
    A really good enjoyable interview. That Heinig as always seemed to be a pretty smart whip. Looking forward to the future storylines (originals hopefully & series following) that Cryptic has in-store for us in STO.
    Agent_Joseph
  • gamerkid78gamerkid78 Member UncommonPosts: 8
    edited April 2022
    Startrek online is not bad. Not great either. I still want to see a Star Trek MMORPG where it focuses on the player being a person and not making the ships the main focus or chaining the ship to the npc. Not sure if I am explaining myself right. Anyways, I kinda like the original vision for Star Trek online before it got sold to Cryptic entertainment and they just went their own style for the game.

    Although the game is not bad, not great either. I feel like another Star Trek Online using modern technology and focusing entirely on the player and fleshing out unique stories would be great. I want to see myself working in a task in engineering with the possibility of becoming captain one day. I don't want to be basically the captain of the whole ship on day one and have it forced down my neck.
    foppotee
  • walkingonsushinewalkingonsushine Newbie CommonPosts: 2
    edited April 2022
    Oh Jess, I'm not expecting you guys to "slow down anytime soon", because you aren't doing anything except popping out promo ship upon promo ship, with some idiotic bundle full of fluff to inflate the price to outrageous amount.
    Story wise, you guys haven't produced anything worthwhile since ViL, with the YoK's arc being one the worst you have produced to date.
    A part from that, you do nothing but remove arcs and episodes, remove systems or otherwise rework them so that you can push even more people into buying Zen.
    The foundry was done away with because you couldn't see a way to monetize it and, tbqh, because y'all were probably incredibly tired of hearing that people were having more fun playing player created content than any of the drivel you try to force down our throats.

    The idea that the fours ships that "appeared" in Picard (3 of which were nothing more than background ships) are even STO's originals is ridiculous, as they are simply reworks and/or remasters of already existing ships. And they were used in the series primarily because CBS wanted to avoid a repeat of the copy-pasted armada from Picard's season 1, and rightfully so.

    In short: this game is nothing but a massive cash grab.
    KaliGold
  • NeblessNebless Member RarePosts: 1,835
     I kinda like the original vision for Star Trek online before it got sold to Cryptic entertainment and they just went their own style for the game.
    I'm on the other side of the fence on that one.

    While I would like to see more character development like you say, I don't think the original version of the game wouldn't have lasted.

    Every server a ship and the players are the crew members.  You know the majority would want to be the Captain and once that got filled the rest would go for the Department Head slots and all the other 'good' jobs and I'd've no interest in being duct cleaner 3rd class by the time I got into the game.


    SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter

  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959

    Nebless said:



     I kinda like the original vision for Star Trek online before it got sold to Cryptic entertainment and they just went their own style for the game.


    I'm on the other side of the fence on that one.

    While I would like to see more character development like you say, I don't think the original version of the game wouldn't have lasted.

    Every server a ship and the players are the crew members.  You know the majority would want to be the Captain and once that got filled the rest would go for the Department Head slots and all the other 'good' jobs and I'd've no interest in being duct cleaner 3rd class by the time I got into the game.





    That vision would have worked as Single player game with multiplayer option where people host their own servers.


    When it comes to STO, the game used to be fun, but ever since PWE bought up Cryptic back in the day, the game has gone downhill.

    The monetization in this game today is outrageous. Story content is minimal and low effort, with vast majority of resources going into fancy/flashy ships for the Cash Shop at outrageous prices.

    Like others already said. They removed Foundry with an terrible excuse, while the real reason was that it was outcompeting their own "shi tty" effort of episode releases and so hurting their bottom line.
  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,739
    Nebless said:
     I kinda like the original vision for Star Trek online before it got sold to Cryptic entertainment and they just went their own style for the game.
    I'm on the other side of the fence on that one.

    While I would like to see more character development like you say, I don't think the original version of the game wouldn't have lasted.

    Every server a ship and the players are the crew members.  You know the majority would want to be the Captain and once that got filled the rest would go for the Department Head slots and all the other 'good' jobs and I'd've no interest in being duct cleaner 3rd class by the time I got into the game.



    You would have been my boss I am sure........
    Nebless
  • jaymesbondjaymesbond Member UncommonPosts: 50
    Feels like the entire game is on cruise control until there's some regulation on loot boxes, and then the game will just shut down.

    New content is incredibly sparse compared to how often they release new loot boxes or new $30 or $120 ships.  When new content does drop, it's some variation of shoot enemies while some timer or progress bar counts down before you can move on to the next objective, which happens to also be shoot enemies until some timer counts down.
    Scot
  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959
    Feels like the entire game is on cruise control until there's some regulation on loot boxes, and then the game will just shut down.

    New content is incredibly sparse compared to how often they release new loot boxes or new $30 or $120 ships.  When new content does drop, it's some variation of shoot enemies while some timer or progress bar counts down before you can move on to the next objective, which happens to also be shoot enemies until some timer counts down.
    Not only that. Seems they removed a lot of the old(er) episodes?

    I just logged in to check out my old char and maybe start a new char again, as the old content is really fun with some great stories, but it seems a lot of it has been removed??
  • NeblessNebless Member RarePosts: 1,835
    JeroKane said:
    Not only that. Seems they removed a lot of the old(er) episodes?

    They did a while back.  Something about streamlining and cleaning up the episodes that now didn't fit in with the over all story arc.

    Some can still be found as stand alone missions using the PvE missions tab.

    SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter

  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959
    edited April 2022

    Nebless said:


    JeroKane said:

    Not only that. Seems they removed a lot of the old(er) episodes?



    They did a while back.  Something about streamlining and cleaning up the episodes that now didn't fit in with the over all story arc.

    Some can still be found as stand alone missions using the PvE missions tab.



    Absolutely nuts really. A lot of these old storylines were actually amazing and fun to play. Way better than the new boring repetitive crap they've put out.

    I just cannot phantom how they think its a good idea to remove all that content just for streamlining purposes. That is just a joke, when their Cash Shop is so full of "overpriced" ships.  Maybe they should start streamlining that instead!


    Well, good to know I can uninstall again and just start forgetting about this game.
    Scot
  • KaliGoldKaliGold Member UncommonPosts: 130
    I am currently playing No Man's Sky and was considering playing STO after reading the article. The comments here set me straight and it appears they did the same thing to this game that they did to Neverwinter.

    I may be wrong, but I think they might be paying MMORPG for favorable write-ups, or at least it seems that way.

    Someone please give me a reason to play this beyond that its initially FTP.
  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,825
    JeroKane said:

    Nebless said:


    JeroKane said:

    Not only that. Seems they removed a lot of the old(er) episodes?



    They did a while back.  Something about streamlining and cleaning up the episodes that now didn't fit in with the over all story arc.

    Some can still be found as stand alone missions using the PvE missions tab.



    Absolutely nuts really. A lot of these old storylines were actually amazing and fun to play. Way better than the new boring repetitive crap they've put out.

    I just cannot phantom how they think its a good idea to remove all that content just for streamlining purposes. That is just a joke, when their Cash Shop is so full of "overpriced" ships.  Maybe they should start streamlining that instead!


    Well, good to know I can uninstall again and just start forgetting about this game.
    Streamlining is a fluff word for removing content so the game concentrates on grind. I am not surprised "leveling" was put before good story, that's where MMOs are now.
  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,739
    KaliGold said:


    Someone please give me a reason to play this beyond that its initially FTP.
    The janky engine, even jankier animations, combat in general, and the writing will provide minutes of laughter before you uninstall.

    It was a hard game to get into...
  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959

    Scot said:


    JeroKane said:



    Nebless said:




    JeroKane said:


    Not only that. Seems they removed a lot of the old(er) episodes?





    They did a while back.  Something about streamlining and cleaning up the episodes that now didn't fit in with the over all story arc.

    Some can still be found as stand alone missions using the PvE missions tab.






    Absolutely nuts really. A lot of these old storylines were actually amazing and fun to play. Way better than the new boring repetitive crap they've put out.

    I just cannot phantom how they think its a good idea to remove all that content just for streamlining purposes. That is just a joke, when their Cash Shop is so full of "overpriced" ships.  Maybe they should start streamlining that instead!




    Well, good to know I can uninstall again and just start forgetting about this game.


    Streamlining is a fluff word for removing content so the game concentrates on grind. I am not surprised "leveling" was put before good story, that's where MMOs are now.



    Yep. The whole current game revolves on replaying the same handful Story Arcs, that are left, over and over again.

    I had really fond memories of some of the old Story Arcs in STO that have been removed.
    Even the older Story Arcs that are still there, have been modified/simplified (cough... streamlined). /facepalm !

    It's all about buying new shiny ships in the Zen store, which are ridiculously overpowered compared to what you can earn for free In-game. Just sick really. /ugh
    Scot
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