News on Fleet Starbases

[Christian M. Hanson]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/22/exclusive-star-trek-online-season-6-reveal-fleet-starbases/

(click the link above for the full article)

Tiers

Starbases come in five tiers, so the base gets bigger over time. It's actually five bases, with each base feeling like an extension of the previous one.

While designing this I was thinking modular construction. I pictured crews of workers and workbees disconnecting sections of the base, using tractor beams and boosters to shift their positions to make room for the next modular section as the base grew. The first time a player sees a starbase, it's under construction. This stage is mostly exposed framework and paneling. The Death Star was our inspiration here. I know, wrong IP but impossible to not think of when you're trying to figure out what a starbase under construction will look like. It's like saying don't think of a blue elephant.

The first tier is a tiny little base -- but it's your tiny little base. Over time, your Fleet can upgrade the base, and it grows and grows until finally at it arrives at tier five, big and majestic. Not too big and majestic though; we didn't want player fleets to actually out-do Starfleet.

This actually became a bit of a debate later on when Nick Duguid began working on the actual game art. The first tier five base we made felt too small. Technically it was sound, it was big enough to be a starbase, but it just didn't feel right. We were worried that players would spend all this time building their base and not think it was a big enough reward. So we made a few different sizes and flew around the bases with different-sized ships, then picked the one we felt was appropriate for the game design goals.

Hustle and bustle

We wanted starbases to be more than just simply a base floating in the blackness of space; we wanted them to feel like a hub of activity that is constantly growing and evolving. So around the main station there are other science stations with comm arrays, fabrication facilities, shipyards, and ship traffic. These all get larger and more complex over time as well.

Denis Osmanbogovic and Jeff Miller have both done a great job building the different tiers of support structures that surround the base. We've payed a lot of attention to detail adding little touches like animated solar panels, shipping containers, and blinking lights. Then of course there's the player traffic...

Real experiences

Which leads me to another thought: As I was doing research for Season 6, I was thinking about the other artists and designers and model makers that have contributed to Star Trek over the years. Those people that have created art for the various movies and TV shows, artwork all designed for a fictional universe. I was reminded of what I feel is the most rewarding aspect of making games.

It's that the work we do is meant to be experienced first-hand by people. We're making a new place where multitudes of real people are going to be playing, socializing, and making friends. These are places that people are actually going to work together to build, not to mention fight alongside each other to defend. This isn't a fictional place that's only seen on-screen, it's a virtual space station that people will experience for themselves.

It makes me happy to think about that.

[Christian M. Hanson]

[Ryo Himura]

Ty for the post sir! Man, I want this so bad, afraid I'm going to be spending all my time at our Starbase instead of doing other things LOL

[Bert6583]

I feel the same way I can't wait for it!

[Thunor Stryker]

Finally. We have been waiting for this for a long time!

[Jason32]

Have this built immediately!

[VADM Kor]

Looking forward to this update, for sure!

[CAPT Huckabee]

Dibs on a office with a view and next to my buddy Fleet Captain Shackster....haha

Seriously if they have that, win

[Ryo Himura]

HuckabeeNC wrote:

Dibs on a office with a view and next to my buddy Fleet Captain Shackster....haha Seriously if they have that, win

This. Do want!

[Cleo Mavendorf]

I'd just settle for an office period LOL

[VADM pRett]

Cleo Mavendorf wrote:

I'd just settle for an office period LOL

With the way things go, you'd have the office next to the garbage reprocessing center.

[Anton Mercer]

What I would like to see is them bring back the SB1 they had when STO first launched and have everything build off of that. I mean it already looked like it was in sections in the first place...

[xlxMAVERICxlx]

I can't wait to check it out myself. Will this update also allow for user-created images? I know quite a bit of Photoshop and would love to help make it look like home for the fleet!

[Lang S]

My fear is it will be an unfinished product and all starbase will be the same. we will see