The next Cryptic Studios MMO Star Trek Online should be an interesting mix of avatar 'away mission' gameplay with the ship-based combat that existing sci-fi titles like EVE Online offer, as well as what's on the way with Jumpgate Evolution and Black Prophecy. We'd mentioned that the STO devs would be answering questions from Star Trek fans for their dev chat yesterday. If you missed it, however, you can still read the transcript on the official Star Trek Online forums.
Cryptic Systems Designer Steve Nix (aka "Snix") was on hand to field questions from the fans about player progression in Star Trek Online. Snix discussed a number of aspects of how players will interact and progress, from race selection/Species Traits that allow for character customization beyond aesthetics to STO's take on a sidekick system, which will allow for grouping of players at different levels. He also mentioned some of the tactics involved with avatar ground combat as well. If you're following the development of Star Trek Online, be sure to check out what Cryptic's Steve Nix revealed about the upcoming title in the latest dev chat transcript.