In my space battle demo, my ship encountered not one but three Klingon Birds of Prey. I first familiarized myself with the UI, which looks nothing like your standard MMO. Instead the look is distinctively ‘Star Trek’. You can control how fast your ship is going and, while you still use the WASD keys, movement in 3D space is different in that the W and S keys instead control the pitch and yaw of the vessel.
I locked on one of the ships and fired away. It didn’t take long to destroy that first ship but I quickly found myself flanked by the other two. I noticed my forward shield was taking severe damage and diverted power to it from my other shields. Meanwhile one of the agile Bird of Preys positioned behind me. While keeping my forward shields up, I blasted away at the ship behind me and finally blew it up, then fired my photon torpedoes on the final ship.
As exciting as the view is from space, I wondered if there’s a bridge perspective. After all, the bridge of any starship has been a major location in every Star Trek film and TV show. How can you not picture yourself sitting on the Captain’s chair and giving a Picard-like “Engage” command, complete with hand gesture? Although there will be a few bridge scenes, Zinkievich explained that it was not possible to have space POV from the bridge.
“We found that for space combat – we played around with a first-person bridge view – but really how positional it is, worrying about the different shields facing, and worrying about where your enemies are at all times….we quickly found that a third person view was necessary.”
Away team missions are a crucial component to the Star Trek universe. In STO, when you beam down with your away team, the game changes from a third-person view of the ship to a third-person view of your character and your faithful officers. This time they are customizable NPC pets. While they’re autonomous, you can set how passive/aggressive they are, assign them to attack specific targets, and even position them at various points. You can even give them weapons and gear, similar to the Heroes in Guild Wars.
Like Champions Online, combat (space and ground) in STO is played in real time. It’s more complex than just queuing up a few skills and letting them rip. There’s no auto attack. Instead, you have to actively block and duck enemy advances. You have a rifle and phaser, and can switch back and forth depending on the situation. Although both are ranged, what’s cool is that in close combat situations you can use your weapons for melee attack by stunning an enemy and then smacking him in the head with the butt of your rifle.
