1839: These Are the Voyages

Andie and I have been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation recently. We started watching from the very beginning (yes, even the dodgy early ones) a while back, but picked it up again recently. I've been delighted to discover 1) how well it holds up after all these years and 2) how many of the individual episodes I've forgotten about.

I mean, sure, I still remember particularly noteworthy episodes such as any involving Q, Data or the Borg, but I'm finding the episodes in between to be almost as if they're brand new to me. This is a good thing.

One of the big strengths of Star Trek: The Next Generation — and, indeed, many of the other Star Trek series — is the amount of variety there is between the different episodes. One week there might be an action-packed adventure with lots of space combat, zappy phasers and horrible alien monsters; the next there might be something like the one we watched this evening, which was skin-crawlingly creepy without veering into full-on horror; the next still there might be something that proves to be a genuinely emotional tearjerker.

Part of this variety comes from the fact that the series' setting has the whole universe to play with; any time things are getting boring, they can just warp the show to another part of the galaxy and bring in another alien race with their own quirks, variations on the "bumpy forehead" look and even, in some cases, languages. There are recurring cultures that have been around since the original '60s series, of course: the classic Klingons, the insidious Romulans, the devious Cardassians and the proud Vulcans all make numerous appearances. And there are new recurring cultures that have been introduced by The Next Generation: the empathic Betazoids, the symbiotic Trill (explored in considerably more depth in the follow-up series Deep Space Nine) and the deeply spiritual Bajorans (likewise), to name but three. And, of course, the rather upsetting Borg, who remain just as chilling as they did the first time they graced our screens with their biomechanical nature and curious, cube-shaped ships.

This aspect of Star Trek at large is one thing that the ambitious but flawed online RPG Star Trek Online didn't quite get right, despite doing a lot of other things very well indeed. That variety just wasn't there, though it was at least partly due to gameplay constraints rather than an unwillingness to be true to the source material. It's difficult — though not, as we've seen on several occasions, impossible — to make a compelling diplomacy simulator, for example; it's much more fun to give players control of a heavily armed starship and invite them to blow seven shades of snot out of anything that dares to cross their firing arc. (Star Trek Online's space combat is one hell of a lot of fun, if you've never tried it; while it's true Star Trek feel may be a little questionable, there's no denying that it's a fantastically enjoyable space game, pure and simple.)

So, to get back on point: I've been enjoying Star Trek: The Next Generation very much indeed, and when the time comes I'm looking forward to revisiting both Deep Space Nine and Voyager and watching them both through to their conclusions — something I've never done. Yes, even as someone who would consider himself a bit of a Trekkie/Trekker/whatever you want to call it, I've never seen Deep Space Nine beyond the fifth season, and I've never seen Voyager beyond I think the third season. While I know the latter in particular is nowhere near as fondly regarded as its two predecessors, I'm curious to finally explore the entire universe in full detail, and thanks to Netflix, I can now do just that without filling up an entire bookcase with VHS tapes.

#oneaday Day 842: The Captain's Chair

I've started playing Star Trek Online again. It's been a good couple of years since I last tried this game, as I played in the beta and subsequently for about 40-50 hours or so immediately after launch. I liked it a great deal back then, but wasn't playing it enough to justify the monthly subscription fee so, like many other MMOs I've left in my wake, I set it aside, saying to myself that I might check it out again were it ever to go free-to-play.

The astute among you will be aware that Star Trek Online has, in fact, been free-to-play for some time now. I, too, am aware of this and have had the thing installed for quite a while but never got around to picking it up again. Until now.

It's been so long since I last played I ditched my old character and recreated it to play from the start again. I was originally doing pretty well, but I can't remember what the hell I was doing, so I figured it better to start again and re-learn the game mechanics — along with discovering what's been added since I last played. (Quite a lot, as it happens.)

For those groaning at the prospect of yet another MMO with a hotbar, hold it right there. Star Trek Online is worthy of note for several reasons. Yes, it has a hotbar, but no it most certainly isn't World of Warcraft in space. I remember thinking on its original release that, slightly rough edges aside, it's the Star Trek game that I always wanted to play. And my opinion stands today — arguably even more so.

For the uninitiated, Star Trek Online starts with a bang. The Borg are attacking, and the player, a new Ensign serving aboard a fairly pathetic little ship, is tasked with helping out. This process conveniently introduces all the basics of play, including running around inside places, shooting things, talking to things and interacting with things. The player subsequently gets to join a bunch of other Federation vessels in taking down a crippled Borg ship and eventually, thanks to the rest of the crew ending up dead, gets a promotion to Lieutenant and the chance to take command of aforementioned pathetic little ship. Thus begins their grand adventure in the stars.

Once the player is out of the introductory tutorial series of missions, they're able to explore the galaxy and take on a wide variety of missions, ranging from story-heavy "episodes" to exploration missions where uncharted sectors have to be, well, charted. Along the way, they'll engage in space combat, beam down to places and investigate mysterious goings-on, reconfigure the tachyon pulse emitters to scramble the grub-nuts frequencies and generally do all the things that Star Trek people do.

It's a deep game that has only grown and changed for the better since launch. There is always something for the player to do, be that pursuing a mission, participating in a multiplayer "Fleet Action" cooperative event, taking on the Klingon Empire in PvP combat, taking part in any of the nightly special events, exploring the stars looking for research material which may be used to develop better equipment or simply chilling out in some recognisable Trek locales like Deep Space Nine or Starfleet Academy.

The space combat is worthy of special note. It's often said that the space combat genre is all but dead, but it's most certainly alive and well in Star Trek Online, though X-Wing this ain't. Since pretty much all the ships in Star Trek are what other games would refer to as "capital ships", combat unfolds rather more like a naval skirmish than a fast-paced dogfight. It's all about manoeuvring around your opponent, flying alongside them, then letting rip with a broadside of phaser fire from both arrays, punching a hole in their shields and filling them with hot torpedo death.

If it were just a basic space shooter, it would be quite fun, but there's plenty of depth there, too. You can tweak the power systems to prioritise attack, defense, speed or whatever, rebalance the shields to provide more protection in a particular direction, use your three bridge officers' special abilities to aid yourself or hamper the enemy, and use your character's own personal specialisms to turn the tide of the battle in your favour. At times it's like being in the middle of a battle from something like Homeworld, particularly when taking part in the cooperative "Fleet Action" events or flying with some companions.

As you progress through the game, you get new ships and equipment with which to customise them, including some recognisable models from the Trek series. Yes, you can essentially fly Voyager, Defiant or the Enterprise if you want to. A bunch of alternative ships are available for real-money purchases, including some absolutely hulking behemoths that look very impressive — particularly when you're still in the pathetic little starting ship.

And this isn't even getting into the flourishing user-generated content community. Star Trek Online features the ability for players to create their own missions using a tool called The Foundry (that will also be seen in Cryptic's upcoming D&D MMO Neverwinter) and then publish them for the community to play at any time. I haven't yet delved into this side of things, but it's a big part of what drew me back in. The Architect facility in City of Heroes was a source of considerable entertainment for me, so I'm looking forward to something similar here.

Above all, Star Trek Online is a great example of how to get a free-to-play MMO right — and a truly excellent sci-fi game to boot. You can have a completely satisfying experience right up to the level cap without paying a single cent if you want to, or you can pick and choose how you want to customise your experience. So far as I can tell, none of it unbalances the game — always a big concern in titles like this — and is primarily there for bragging rights or visual customisation.

Check it out on Steam. No, there's no Mac version. (Boo!)

One A Day, Day 8: Success!

I have successfully managed to arrange my escape from my job! Went to see my boss today and, as it turns out, I was only obliged to give one week's notice to quit. As tempting as it was to say "Well, I'll bugger off next week then. Ta-ra!" I decided against it so I can actually have a bit of money on hand in order to go to PAX.

Because this exciting news means that I will definitely be going! I'm stoked. The last time I went to a big industry event was when they still did them in Europe. I attended ECTS (the European Computer Trade Show, if I remember rightly) with my bro, and that was a long time back now. I've heard my buddies in the Squadron of Shame wax lyrical about PAX in the past and have been incredibly jealous. Now I get to join in the fun. It's going to be an awesome time, and I can't wait to finally meet some of the guys I've only ever spoken to on Skype before… or in some cases (Mr Bowlissimo!) only ever typed things to.

Also, my Bayonetta article got promoted to the front page on BitMob. People dig the IF thing, so I wrote another one. I also downloaded the Inform interactive fiction toolset to have a play with. Inform is bizarre – it's a programming language that works very similarly to plain English. I'm going to knuckle down and have a good go with it this week – probably at the weekend.

So – two good things in one day. It's a nice change. It even managed to distract me from the fact that the kids in my class were being stupid noisy bastards all day and the meeting we had after school was beyond pointless. Now I have a countdown (which I haven't calculated yet) I can relax a bit more. Except for the fact I don't have a new job to go to yet. Still, I have a couple of applications in for some exciting jobs, the closing date for one of which is this Friday, so I'll have to wait and see if anything comes of that.

Then there's the possibility of doing some freelance work. This would be ideal, especially if I could combine it with some music teaching work. I like music teaching. People pay you and you work with them on an individual basis. You don't have thirty annoying children all talking to each other and not listening in front of you. Much more pleasant and less inclined to make you want to throw things.

That's that for today. I'm going to go play some Star Trek now.