Fleets - the "guilds" of STO:
You do not have to be part of a Fleet to gain access to the best ships in the game. [AC12]
The rank of Admiral will be attainable. [CZ15]
Fleet-owned ships and facilities will not be in the game at launch. [Dc5]
Although players in Fleets will likely end up establishing some sort of chain of command, there will probably not be game mechanics in place for ordering other players to perform certain tasks. [CZ8]
Fleets will have "basically any of the guild mechanics that you are used to". [Dc2]
Missions and events:
Missions in Star Trek Online will feature a mix of scripted and randomly generated content. [CZ6] These procedurally generated missions are "designed to take you to a number of widely differing environments during a single gameplay session." [EL1]
You can do away missions with your NPC crewmembers or with other players. Your away team will consist of five characters (PCs or NPCs). [NYCC09] The Captain is always a part of the away team. [AC10]
You'll receive missions and instructions from central command, but also discover them while out exploring. [AC11]
Missions are "fully cooperative"; sometimes you'll have to team up with other players to accomplish your goals.
Select your away team well; you'll be able to make use of the different members' abilities to secure success.
There are "tours of duty", consisting of several missions.
There will be dynamic events (such as Borg invasions and the like) on top of pre-scripted missions. [LVWc]
Starships and crews:
You can keep your old ship when you get a new one. You can keep on upgrading one of your old ships to make it more powerful, but in the end higher-tier ships have greater potential. [AC6]
Some of the older ship classes, such as the Constitution-class, will be represented in-game. They'll be weaker than some of the more modern ones, but they won't be push-overs. [AC11]
You will be in control of your own starship, but you will not start out with the rank of Captain. [LVWc]
You will have a fully customizable and partially controllable Bridge Crew, similar to "pets" in many MMOGs.
You will also have hundreds of nameless, lower ranking officers; your "redshirts".
You will receive bonuses depending on your crewmembers' (bridge officers and redshirts) races/species.
Bridge officers with one ability can train other bridge officers in using that ability.
Members of the alien races you encounter may join your crew.
As a general rule, bridge officers can be traded, although there may be exceptions.
You control how your NPCs progress, and can modify their appearances. You decide when to promote them, but promoting them comes at a cost. [Dc3] [Dev comment]
No cooperative bridge play, at least not at launch. [GCI08]
While there probably won't be much conversation with your NPC crewmembers, they'll be the ones keeping you up to speed on what's going on around you. [CZ3]
Cryptic is looking into how involved your bridge officer will be in mission plots. [Dc3]
You can transfer power between a ship's various systems, and do things like balance shield power.
There will probably not be a traditional "mana bar" that controls your base abilities (such as firing phasers and photon torpedoes), but rather a number of cool-down timers. More advanced abilities may have something like a mana bar associated with them. [AC8]
There may be occasions when you can commandeer a ship of a different faction than your own, but you won't get to keep it. [AC7]
Although there will be consumables that you can stock up on at starbases, you will not need fuel to keep your ship running.
You can hit reverse, but it's quite slow. Furthermore, there is no kiting; usually you "move in the direction that you're pointing." [Dc2]
Combat:
Starship battles are tactical and slow-pace ("like tall ships"); you will be able to give commands such as "Repair a hull breach on deck X" or "Reroute energy from engines to weapons".
Ground-based combat will be more fast-paced, with both melee and ranged attacks. [LVWc]
You can issue commands to the individual NPCs in your away team, or manage them as a group. [Dc3] NPCs have different "modes" that determine their behavior.
You can equip your captain with various kits that give him/her access to different abilities.
Defensive abilities include taking cover and using personal shields. [Gco]
There will be subsystem targeting.
Your systems will function at full capacity until they're disabled. However, your "redshirts" can be killed when your ship is damaged, and this will hamper your abilities. [AC12]
You can move around and fight in three dimensions, but often players will just naturally choose to keep fairly "level" during combat. Cryptic doesn't "want it to be a dogfight". [CCMG]
There is also no "rolling" or "looping". [Dc2]
Positioning is a part of ground combat; you can "flank" your enemies and so forth.
Positioning is very important in ship-to-ship combat; you don't want to have your weak side exposed to a Raptor's powerful front-on attacks. Diverting energy and balancing shields is part of it, too. [Dc2]
For this reason, weapon arcs are also very important. Weapons can be placed only in the front and rear of your ship, but can have weapon arcs of over 180°.
Wider firing arcs typically mean less damage dealt. [Dc5]
Fleeing from combat will be possible; it involves putting some distance between you and your enemies and then warping out.
All combat takes place at subwarp speeds. [Dc2]
Weapons are not "path-based". [Explanation]
PvP:
Yes; definitely. [LVWc]
Open PvP only in designated areas (both space and planetside). [AC3] Consensual PvP in contested areas. [OFAQ] [Dev comment]
PvP is in-between the factions, but there may be wargames/dueling within factions. [JE1]
The Federation-Klingon Neutral Zone will be "static", but areas near it will change affiliation depending on who's winning. [CZ7]
You can be a member of a Klingon house, and these houses can fight each other. [AC11]
