Now, for those that have been checking out the site on a normal basis, we've picked up that each gamer will have their own ship to pilot. Now, you only get two different options of ship to choose from right now, Federation or Klingon, but it has been said in a couple of gaming confrences that you might even be able to create your own completely new race of being (which, let's face it, would be super sweet). From your ship, you'll be able to explore the universe, including the ability to beam yourself and an away party down to a planet's surface. Although, be warned, you will sometimes find yourself in combat when you are on another planet. And what space adventure in Star Trek Online would be complete without the ability to explore your own ship? (Yeah, I can't wait for that part either to see just how interactive the players are with the ship itself.)
Players will have to keep up with their own rank as a captain of their ship in either army, and while you will be considered a "captain" when you are at the helm of your own ship, you will still have a normal rank to move up. On your ship, you will have several crewmen that are NPC's that you can interact with to help your ship run smoothly. While you won't be able to pilot or own any of the famous ships from the movies and television shows, it's rumored that you will come in contact with several of them during the game play, as well as famous characters to brighten up your game time. You will also have the ability to recruit different races to your crew that will help bring special abilities to your ship and crew.
To raise your rank, you will have to complete quests - just like in other MMO games. These are all to be issues from a central command post for either army that you choose. Of course, you will also be able to gain experience and ranking from exploration of unchartered planets. And, you will have a wealth of different ships to choose from as you rise through the ranks of the game.
As far as combat goes, you'll have two different ways to fight. One is through the away team missions where you are actually down on a planet, fighting with phasers or hand-to-hand combat with another race of beings. The other is ship-to-ship combat with NPC's and other players. In ship-to-ship combat, you will be using your navigational system, positioning, sheilds, and so on - just like in the Star Trek movies and TV series.
Also, you should have access to a Galactic economy, such as the Auction Houses in other MMO games. This will fluctuate on market prices, trading alliances, and more and should be very interesting to see how this part of the game is worked out.
It's also rumored that players will have the ability to form alliances, either in the form of fleets or guilds. This will help gamers pool together their resources and build spacestations, mining areas, shipyards, and more. With this new aspect of the game, it should be very interesting to see just how powerful fleets or guilds can become and the different abilities that they gain as they grow.
