Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online, often abbreviated as STO, is a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios based on the popular Star Trek series created by Gene Roddenberry, using the Cryptic Engine. The game is set in the 25th century, 30 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis. Star Trek Online is the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game within the Star Trek franchise and was released on February 2, 2010.

Gameplay
In Star Trek Online, each player acts as the captain of his or her own ship. Players are able to play as a starship, controlling the ship's engineering, tactical and science systems by keyboard/mouse or using an on-screen console. Players can also "beam down" and move around as a player character in various settings with access to weapons and specific support and combat skills relating to their own character's class. The two combat systems are intertwined throughout the game: Away-team missions feature fast paced "run and gun" combat, while Space combat stresses the long-term tactical aspect of combat between capital ships, both are offered in concert with the Star Trek storyline and entails your own positioning, your team's positioning in consideration of flanking damage, and finding various weaknesses to exploit.

Setting
Every player is the captain of their own individual ship; The game setting is in a war-time universe in the year 2409 utilizing any and all officers who have access to a ship, which includes your player. In keeping with naval tradition, anyone who commands a ship regardless of his or her actual rank, is considered a de facto "captain". Players can start in Star Trek initially in only one faction as a Federation Captain, but other factions unlock as players level up. Currently the only two factions available are Federation (at the start) and Klingon (upon reaching Level 6). Each ship has a number of crewmen who will all be NPCs, referred to as Bridge Officers. Bridge Officers have a separate progression, including the purchase of skills and equipment, and can be promoted to higher ranks by their ship's captain.

The game features references to several famous storylines, ships, and characters from various Star Trek shows. While the game occurs in the original series timeline (which does not consider the storyline in the recent movie), one confirmed Star Trek film reference was revealed when Zachary Quinto announced at the 2009 Spike TV Video Game Awards that he will be voicing dialog during the game's tutorial. Leonard Nimoy is heard for all of the gameplay and exploration voice-over samples. The LCARS Computer system dialog is voiced by a Majel Roddenberry impersonator.

Genesis system (Exploration missions)
There is a capability to "explore" new star systems in the game. Players will be able to explore inside of uncharted star systems, and might find "anomalies" which opens up new resources and technologies, or uncharted planets offering random diplomatic or combat missions.

Player Customization
The game features a variety of ship classes which can be used by all players. Playable ship classes utilize one of three templates for appearance (additional ones can be unlocked in C-Store and using alternate methods) and can be "kitbashed" together or recolored to make a unique ship. Ship classes are not restricted based on a player's specialty; any class of starship is available using only the player's rank as a prerequisite, however, a player's earned skills often corresponds with one or more ship classes and must be considered carefully before choosing. Re-specialization (Captain Retraining) is available to aid in selecting different abilities, or to change ship classes by spending points on another class. A player can also switch between any of their ships (purchased in-game or earned) at Starbases, even choosing older ships the player no longer uses.

Uniforms can either be created in the character creation phase or via the tailor found on various Starbases. New styles can be used, or depending on which retail copy or C-Store Pack you've purchased, access to uniforms seen on the various TV shows are available. Costume parts are broadly available across all characters, but certain parts have restrictions based on faction played or gender. Player races also mirror TV and Movie choices, granting racial traits that match or correspond to the various races throughout the franchise, or a player can choose "Alien" and create their own species using a selection of two racial traits and all the parts and options earned or purchased thus far.

Advancement
Players will find new officers as they level up with various special abilities who can be recruited to the players' crew, or used to train their existing crew members with a new ability that your character may not have to offer. New Bridge Officers can be recruited in this manner, or hired/released at an appropriate Starbase. Individual combat successes offer Skill Points and Bridge Officer Skill Points as the main reward. Skill Points are the main "Experience Points", which are spent in a skill tree to improve your player. Skill Points are also used to level up your captain, with each rank requiring your captain to spend a fixed number of points to receive a promotion. Bridge Officer Skill Points are spent separate of Skill Points, affecting your Bridge Officers. A captain needs to spend an amount of Bridge Officer Skill Points and Federation Credits to promote a Bridge Officer to a higher rank, but progression of a Bridge Officer is always limited to one rank beneath yours. Increased Bridge Officer ranks add new abilities for your ship that a player can trigger on command while in space, as well as added automatic skills for your Bridge Officers to use in ground combat missions. Skills your captain and Bridge Officers can gain are organized between both systems, with each skill applying to either space combat or ground combat.

Player economy and rewards
Upon completing missions, players gain Skill Points, Bridge Officer Skill Points, Various Credits (Faction currency, Exploration Badges and Marks, and/or the neutral currency known as Energy Credits) and on most assigned missions, players can choose a single prize from a multitude of reward items related to one of the above mentioned ship or personal equipment categories. Equipment is organized in a similar arrangement to skills, applying to either ground equipment (kits, weapons, personal shields, and body armor) or spaceship parts (consoles, weapons, shields, deflector dishes, ship devices, and engines.) Equipment can be purchased from various NPCs inside of Starbases, through the Exchange (A Silent-buy Player Market) utilizing only Energy Credits, or directly from Equipment Dealers at the Earth Space Dock using only Exploration Badges and Marks (gained from the Genesis System or in Special Task Force missions).

Equipment that is rare or uncommon in value may bind to a character on purchase or upon utilizing or equipping the item to limit resale value once used. Equipment not bound to a player can be resold in the Exchange for Energy Credits with other players without restriction. If bound, equipment can be resold to any vendor for a fraction of what it costs at the market, or simply thrown away. Locked items cannot be sold, and include pre-order bonuses and mission-specific items.

Teaming
It is possible for players to pool resources together in a number of ways. Quests are issued from Starfleet Command, and players can join together on the ground or in space. Gameplay is fully co-operative and dynamic events serve as one part of the game. Teaming can be done using "Open Teaming" (which automatically joins up with a team running the same mission you are), or through traditional ad-hoc or search methods used in other MMOs. A Fleet is the term for guilds in Star Trek Online, and are formed among a group of players. Fleets allow access to a central Guild Bank, a chat channel, and allow a Guild Insignia to replace their Faction Logo on their starship.

Special Missions are available that require teamwork as a prerequisite to accomplish a larger task. Fleet Actions are available in-game that require the cooperation of a number of players to complete a ground mission together. Special Task Forces are in later levels of the game and allow multiple factions to unite to defeat a common enemy. Deep Space Encounters are spread across all maps and allow players to team up to clear a field of a number of combatants in open-space battle. A neutral zone exists between Federation and Klingon space that allows Player vs. Player combat between factions. Combatants are queued up on a match map in Space and fight the opposing faction to meet a single objective (defeat all, timed match, capture the flag, etc.)

Development
Initially, Perpetual Entertainment developed the game from 2004 to 2008 until its bankruptcy in January [[2008 in video gaming|2008]. The license to develop the game and art assets were transferred to Cryptic Studios; however, the code remained with Perpetual Entertainment and its Perpetual Game Engine.

Cryptic Studios officially announced the development of Star Trek Online on July 28, 2008, as a countdown timer on Cryptic's web site reached zero and the new official site was launched. A letter was sent out from Jack Emmert, the game's online producer, detailing some aspects of Cryptic's approach.

Cryptic originally announced (and since released) a Windows version of Star Trek Online. During the Las Vegas conference in August 2008, Cryptic announced that there would be neither Linux nor macOS versions for the original launch, though they did not rule out the possibility of later port releases. Console versions were announced several months before the release, with no specific console platform specified, but Cryptic has since announced that all console versions of their games were on indefinite hold due to difficulties "on the business side of things," largely referring to the fees assessed by Microsoft for their Xbox Gold premium online gaming service and the difficulty in asking a player to pay both that and the Cryptic subscription fee to play a single game.

Star Trek Online was released in North America on February 2, 2010, in Europe on February 5, 2010, and in Australia on February 11, 2010. Customers who ordered the game in advance were able to gain access to the game on January 29, 2010 (before the official release date), via a bonus 'head-start' which was included with pre-order packages. Some pre-order packages included access to the 'open beta' running from January 12, 2010 to January 26, 2010.

Conference in Las Vegas
On August 10, 2008, a conference was held in the Hilton hotel in Las Vegas. Leonard Nimoy and the leader of Cryptic studios revealed the first gameplay trailer, featuring various Federation and Klingon starships in combat with each other and Borg vessels, as well as footage of a Klingon squad boarding a Federation ship's bridge. The release date was not publicly revealed except that it would be less than three years.

Beta releases
Closed beta for Star Trek Online officially began when it was announced on October 22, 2009. Cryptic Studios offered guaranteed beta access to users who bought 6-month and lifetime subscriptions to Champions Online. However, the offer did not explicitly state how early in the beta process the access will be granted.

Additional content
Updates to the game are called "Seasons" and are issued to current subscribers free of charge. Season releases are versioned, with major releases offering broad changes, and minor versions that add simpler features, "Quality of Life" changes, and bug fixes. Seasons fall broadly under expansion packs.
 * Seasons

Additional content for Star Trek Online is available through Cryptic Points, which are purchased at the game website in fixed amounts. They are also usable in other Cryptic games including Champions Online. Additional items available for purchase include added TV and Movie costumes, additional ship designs, new player and bridge officer races, pre-order bonus items, and account services.
 * Micro-transactions

Release
Cryptic Studios partnered with several retailers for distribution of pre-order copies. Each retailer had a version with unique and exclusive content, such as a Borg Bridge Officer (Amazon.com), a classic Constitution Class starship (GameStop), Chromodynamic Armor (Steam), 500 bonus skill points (Wal-Mart), Neodymium Deflector Dish (SyFy) or a Tribble/Targ pet (Bestbuy). In the United Kingdom, players who purchased through GAME obtained the Red-Matter Capacitor as a pre-order bonus. All versions of the game came with access to the Open Beta and Head Start launch date. These are on a limited basis, but may still be found after launch, depending on stock.
 * Promotions

In addition, the code for a "Wrath of Khan" Admiral's uniform is included in the DVD release of "The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation Volume 2" and the Blu-ray release of "Star Trek: The Original Series -- Season 3."

Also, Cryptic partnered with Del Taco to offer codes with collectible cups (Macho size drinks) that come with a Type-8 Shuttlecraft non-combat "pet", as well as two days of trial time per code that allowed a total of 10 days of trial play time when a player uses all four available codes.

Two subscription plans were available on launch: A Monthly Subscription (termed a ''Gold Subscription) was available for $14.95 (£7.99) a month with price breaks available for 3, 6 or 12-month payments; Gold Subscriptions conferred bonuses such as an increased energy cap, and additional inventory slots. a Lifetime Subscription was offered during the beta release as a promotion for $249.99 which waives the monthly fee as long as the account is not cancelled. Lifetime Subscriptions also granted two free character slots and a Liberated Borg Bridge Officer, both of which were not offered to players buying Lifetime Subscriptions after the Beta Test and Head Start access ended. After launch the Lifetime Subscription price rose to $299.99. In Season 1, a number of perks were added to all Lifetime players, including access to "The Captain's Table", a private joint-faction Starbase exclusive to lifetime and veteran subscribers.
 * Subscriptions

On February 25, 2010, Atari announced that they would be reducing the cost of Star Trek Online on their online store by $10 and including an extra sixty days of free game time, as a limited time offer that expired on March 3, 2010. During the release of Season 2, Cryptic announced that the standard edition copy of Star Trek Online would be priced at $19.99, and added a majority of the pre-order items available at launch to the C-Store.
 * Price Reductions

Season 4 saw the transition of the game to a free-to-play model. The monthly subscription was removed, although the Lifetime Subscription continued to be offered with occasional price discounts. The C-Store was expanded and became the primary location to acquire ships.
 * Free-to-play

Reception
Star Trek Online has received mixed or average reviews, garnering a 65 on Metacritic. GameSpot praised the game's space combat as entertaining, but found the other aspects of the game to be "bland and shallow". An IGN reviewer described the game experience as feeling like "two games" which didn't mesh together well, and although visually it was "quite a gorgeous game", found much of the gameplay to be repetitive in nature.

Community
Before Star Trek Online was even released, there was an active community forming on the developer's official website forum. The development team, including the Lead Online Community Representative and the Executive Producer, also post regularly on Twitter.