Ships, NPCs and art direction in newest Star Trek Online Ask Cryptic

The first Star Trek Online Ask Cryptic for 2009 is out now, and with it comes information on some essential information about ships and NPC interactions. What we've now learned about ship progression is that while trekking across space, seeking out new life, players will be able to upgrade tier 1 ships to compete with tier 2 ships. However, the caveat here is that a fully upgraded tier 1 ship may not always be a match for a fully upgraded tier 2 wessel- er, vessel. As a side note, certain ship types will probably be better at things like blockade running anyhow. So a tier 1 Defiant would be better than a tier 2 Excelsior class.
As for NPC interaction -- namely as to whether or not there'll be anything beyond killing them -- Cryptic has assured the community that we'll get the chance to both fight, help and sometimes even ally ourselves with strange, new alien lifeforms.

Much more is discussed in the article, but the one thing we wanted to leave you with was the topic about Star Trek Online's art direction. A question Cryptic was asked, and one we see popping up from time to time, is about the "cartoony" visuals. The response given by Cryptic is that they're aiming for a "fantastical" style where planets, environments and characters look like they're mostly real, but with an wonder and vibrancy from Star Trek, as evidenced by the image above. And as far as this blogger is concerned, it's a good decision.