End game info

Some interesting points from the latest chat.

Link to full article: http://www.startrekonline.com/node/453

Some tidbits:

Quote :

There is an endgame for Star Trek Online, and there are multiple options as far as content is concerned. But let us be clear when we say there’s an endgame: Everything we mention is available throughout the game, as well as the endgame. So, for instance, PvP is an endgame activity, but you can PvP throughout the whole game. It’s not like there’s only PvP at the end.

There’s solo and team PvE content available at the endgame if you want to just explore the universe. There are raids throughout the entire game, as well as fleet actions. Raids are instantiated episodes we’re internally calling “raidisodes,” whereas fleet actions are persistent zones that work like massive open missions, which anyone can join.

In terms of how progression works, once you reach Admiral in Star Trek Online, we don’t expect you to have more than half of your skills maxed. You’ll continue to add to your skills. The additional skills don’t necessarily make you more powerful on a linear scale; it’s more about increasing your options and flexibility within the game. Maybe you’ve filled out all your Science skills; now, perhaps you want to explore some Tactical skills, similar to what we mentioned in the previous question.

As you’re playing the endgame content – the PvP, the raids, the fleet actions, the exploration – all of those grant you access to new types of items that can only be found in those types of content. They’re special endgame rewards that differ depending on what you’re doing. So there’s lots of different content to explore while you’re continuing to skill up. Inevitably, yes, it will be possible for someone to max out a character, but by then we’ll likely have added more skills.

Of course, you can always say, “I’ve been flying Science Vessels all my career, maybe I’ll try flying Escorts now,” and spend points in your Escort skills to experience that part of the game.

Yesterdays_Enterprise: Can someone who has already completed a mission still join someone else who undertaking that mission? If they can will they still gain experience?

If you’ve completed a mission, you can join someone else who’s undertaking that mission and play through it again. You will not receive the mission rewards – say, a Bridge Officer or Sword of Kahless – again. You’ll receive skill points and experience, but at a reduced rate.

Because there is a risk from a design standpoint of people finding missions to repeat to powerlevel their characters, after you’ve replayed a mission, you can’t replay it again for a short period of time. This means you’ll be able to complete a mission and then help a friend through it, but will have to wait a bit until you can help another friend. You just can’t play through one mission over and over and over.

I found it both interesting and a relief that max rank ships aren't going to be WAY more powerful than the lower rank ships. I know Cryptic had mentioned something along those lines before, but not in as much detail.