A nice thing Cryptic Studios has been doing across their MMO titles in development is "Ask Cryptic", where fans of Star Trek Online (and Champions Online) pose questions to the developers and get answers. The latest (and tenth) Ask Cryptic for Star Trek Online covers a wide variety of topics.
Cryptic explains a bit about space navigation in Star Trek Online, done via three levels of maps -- sector space maps (planets, solar systems, space stations, nebulas, anomalies), system maps (3D), and ground maps which include the surface of planets for away missions as well as space station interiors. They also address a strength of Star Trek Online that not all MMOs have -- entity into entity collision. What does this mean for STO players? Ramming speed! In fact, that will be one of the skills players can select. Cryptic explains the advantage to this, with one caveat: "Keep in mind, if your ship is already badly damaged, you may not want to ram into a fully intact Borg cube, for example. That would be a bad idea. On the other hand, if you know you're going to lose, you could ram into them, hit the self destruct and take them out with you."
Cryptic Studios also explains how tractor and repulsor beams can be put to use in Star Trek Online: "Say the warp core of an enemy ship has gone critical and the whole thing is about to explode, you may want to slap a repulsor beam on that ship and push it far enough away that it won't do any damage to you. Or you can slap a tractor beam on something to lock it down, so you can keep hitting it and it can't turn or get away."
As we stated, this tenth Ask Cryptic doesn't stick to one particular theme so there's plenty more information there, including events that bring together the Federation and Klingon Empire to face common threats, as well as balancing strengths and weaknesses of the various playable races. You can check it out on the official Star Trek Online site.
