Cryptic posts

Newest Ask Cryptic focuses on Star Trek Online's weekly episodes

by Eliot Lefebvre Sep 8th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, News items, Star Trek Online

The Breen might be backstabbing frozen monsters, but they've been a part of something wonderful in Star Trek Online. Not in the sense that they've stopped being backstabbing frozen monsters, but in the sense that you'd be hard-pressed to find a player unhappy with the new featured episodes. And with the ongoing plan to add a new episode every week, there's going to be a lot more content to enjoy in short order. The most recent Ask Cryptic feature, unsurprisingly, has focused on this new aspect of the game, with Dan Stahl fielding player questions on the weekly feature.

Perhaps most interesting for players will be the fact that Stahl talks about using the prototype version of user-generated content tools to develop some of the patrol missions seen in-game, reminding players that the option to make your own episodes is coming with time. There's also re-affirmation of the episodes becoming permanent features of the game and scaling to all levels, allowing players to take off the rails of the previous leveling structure and chart their own course. View the full article for a deeper look inside the newest part of Star Trek Online, and really, don't turn your back on a Breen.

Tags: ask-cryptic, breen, cryptic, cryptic-star-trek, cryptic-studios, dan-stahl, episodic-content, featured-episodes, q-and-a, st-online, star-trek-mmo, star-trek-online, sto, trek-online, user-generated-content, weekly-episodes

One Shots: Zoom!

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 6th 2010 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, Star Trek Online, One Shots

In homage to the original Star Trek series' weekly episodes, Cryptic Studios is offering up weekly installments of new content in Star Trek Online for players to enjoy. With a rich, deep lore to mine full of all manner of interesting interactions, the company has got years' and years' worth of things it can add in. Today we've got a great screenshot of a recent addition from Jon S., who writes in: "One of the big additions to Star Trek Online is the new weekly episodes, comprising a story arc. This is from the September 4th mission, Out in the Cold. In the foreground is the Stardrive section of my ship, the USS Shackleton, NCC-91912-A. The saucer is following along just behind like a lovesick puppy."

For some, it's all about the beauty. For others, it's all about the play. Others still prefer a bit of both! We'd love to see screens of your favorite MMO, if you'd like to send 'em on in. Just email them to oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll do the rest. Easy, no?

Gallery: One Shots: Gallery II

Tags: cryptic, cryptic-studios, jon-s, one-shots, screenshot, screenshots, star-trek-online, sto

Cryptic celebrates the holiday with a C-Store sale

by Eliot Lefebvre Sep 3rd 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Super-hero, News items, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, Promotions

If there's one feature of games from Cryptic Studios that's generated the most controversy, it's the C-Store. That having been said, it's hard to deny that the development team behind Star Trek Online and Champions Online takes any excuse to cut down the prices for a while. A holiday weekend combined with the one-year anniversary of Champions Online is the perfect opportunity to have a general sale for both game stores, lasting until 10 a.m. PDT on September 7th.

For the remainder of the weekend and well into Tuesday, all items in both stores will be 20% off the listed price on the website. The only exceptions are the newest additions to the store -- the Millennium Costume Set for Champions Online and the Excelsior-class ship for Star Trek Online. If you've been putting off picking up one of the many vanity items for sale, now would be a perfect time to add them to your collection.

Tags: c-store, c-store-sale, champions-online, co, cryptic, cryptic-champions-online, cryptic-co, cryptic-star-trek, cryptic-studios, holiday, holiday-weekend, in-game-sale, microtransactions, promotion, st-online, star-trek-mmo, star-trek-online, sto, trek-online

One full year of being a Champion

by Patrick Mackey Sep 3rd 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Opinion, Hands-on, Champions Online

If you read about Champions Online in its first days, you would not have thought of it as a triple-A title. The game was full of bugs, the community management was not the best, and it just seemed like the devs were intent on shoveling out more broken stuff that barely worked. I think that, in particular, the first three or four months were the worst.

If you were to go back in time and ask me about whether or not I thought CO would make it to its first anniversary, my response would have been: "Maybe, but it'll be bleeding subs if it even makes it that far." Since then, a lot of things have changed. I talked about the first six months of CO, but it's been a full year since that painful launch day patch.

I'm not sure I'm even playing the same game anymore.

Tags: anniversary, anniversary-event, bill-roper, champions-online, co, cryptic, cryptic-champions-online, cryptic-co, cryptic-studios, featured, jack-emmert, major-improvements, one-year-anniversary, one-year-birthday, one-year-later, shannon-posniewski

Behind the Mask: Two layers of toppings

by Patrick Mackey Sep 2nd 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Business models, Opinion, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

"Microtransactions" is almost a taboo word in the MMO community. Everyone has a different opinion on it. Even here at Massively, our ideas on microtransactions vary widely. But perhaps even more frightening than the label of "F2P" is "double-dipping." Some games continue to charge a normal subscription, while still having some content featured as microtransactions.

All of Cryptic Studios' current games support a double-dipping model, and Champions Online is no exception. A lot of players think this is a terrible, terrible thing. As a gamer, I understand that players want things to be free. I also understand that developers have to strike a real balance between content that's given for free and content that is sold as paid expansions or unlocked via microtransactions.

Tags: behind-the-mask, c-store, champions-online, co, cryptic, cryptic-champions-online, cryptic-co, cryptic-studios, double-dippers, double-dipping, f2p, featured, free-to-play, microtransaction, Microtransactions, payment-models, subscription, subscription-model

Captain's Log: Weekly episodes (finally) begin with a bang

by Ryan Greene Sep 2nd 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Captain's Log, Guides

Well, well, well. If it isn't our new friend, Mr. Weekly Episode. You sure took your sweet time getting here. What happened, you get stuck in traffic on the intergalactic turnpike or something? This is why you don't warp anywhere near Bajor during rush hour.

It's true: Cryptic Studios has released the first of Star Trek Online's long-awaited weekly episodes. The shiny new mission, titled Cold Call, introduces new races, new faces and new places. It's new! Read on, intrepid explorers, as Captain's Log plays through our first weekly episode, and we learn whether it was worth the wait.

Tags: cryptic, cryptic-star-trek, cryptic-studios, daniel-stahl, featured, st-online, Star-Trek, star-trek-deep-space-nine, Star-Trek-MMO, star-trek-online, star-trek-online-season-two, sto, sto-ambassador-surah, sto-breen, sto-cold-call, sto-cold-comfort, sto-defera, sto-deferi, sto-dominion, sto-featured-episodes, sto-orellius-sector, sto-out-in-the-cold, sto-preservers, sto-season-2, sto-season-2-patch, sto-season-two, sto-weeklies, sto-weekly, sto-weekly-episodes, trek-online

Play Champions Online for a week without paying a dime

by Eliot Lefebvre Aug 31st 2010 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, News items, Champions Online, Promotions

How much of a game can you experience in a week? Do you think you could hit the level cap? Could you make a full army of alts? Could you make friends and have a reason to keep playing? As part of its anniversary celebration, Champions Online is inviting players to see what they can do with a week of unfettered access to the game. From September 1st to the 7th, anyone can register and play the game completely free, whether or not the player has purchased the game in the past.

All that players have to do to take part is sign up on the official page, which means registering an account if you haven't done so previously. Then, for the whole of that week, you'll be able to access everything in the game as if you were a normal subscriber. To sweeten the deal for existing players, there will also be a promotion running in the C-Store, with nearly everything at a 20% discount. It's hard to say no to a free week of a game, so if your interest is piqued, sign up for a free week's worth of Champions Online now.

Tags: anniversary, anniversary-celebration, c-store, champions-anniversary, champions-online, co, cryptic, cryptic-champions-online, cryptic-co, cryptic-studios, free, free-play, free-weekend, in-game-event, unfettered-access

Exploring Eberron: Neverwinter nightcaps

by Justin Olivetti Aug 27th 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Business models, New titles, Free-to-play, Exploring Eberron

Depending on how much stock you put in the rumors or in Cryptic in general, this past week's announcement of a second Dungeons & Dragons MMO -- pardon me, an "OMG" -- either rocked you back on your heels or cooled off your heels. Something to do with heels, at any rate.

In a Daily Grind this past May, I asked readers how they would make another D&D MMO. There were a lot of thoughtful responses, a few instances of keyboard gibberish, and a contingent adamant that the D&D license was locked up in DDO and couldn't be handed out elsewhere. I guess the latter argument is a moot point right now -- obviously, Turbine doesn't have a monopoly on an online D&D -- although its existence brings to mind not just a few questions.

Is the world big enough for two online D&D titles? What does this announcement mean for our beloved DDO? Is Neverwinter positioning itself to be direct competition, or a different entity altogether? Has the Cryptic crew learned its lessons? In my final Exploring Eberron (Rubi returns next week, so you may start doing your happy dance... now), I'm going to answer all of these queries in such a way that your world will forever be rocked. On its heels.

Tags: 3.5, atari, champions-online, co, co-op, cryptic, cryptic-studios, ddo, dnd, dont-be-a-heel, Dungeons-and-Dragons, dungeons-and-dragons-online, eberron, exploring-eberron, f2p, faerun, featured, forgotten-realms, fourth-edition, free-to-play, ftp, guild-wars, jack-emmert, lawsuit, neverwinter, Neverwinter-Nights, neverwinter-nights-2, neverwinter-nights-mmo, omg, planescape, player-generated-content, so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish, star-trek-online, sto, the-return-of-rubi, turbine, turbine-vs-atari

Behind the Mask: The keyboard is mightier than the text bubble

by Patrick Mackey Aug 26th 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Culture, PvP, Roleplaying, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

In roleplaying, everyone has his own preferences. Some people like simple, character-to-character interactions without a lot of heavy plot. Others love in-depth storylines and lots of character drama. One of the most heated preferences in roleplaying, however, is the way that characters should resolve conflict.

Roleplaying is strange in that player characters get into fights about 3000 times more often than people do in real life. I'm a former US Marine, and I've been in less than a half dozen fights (including the kind involving guns) since I turned 18. On the other hand, my roleplaying characters tend to get into serious, earth-shattering battles involving guns, high-voltage electricity and psychic strangulation powers on an almost-weekly basis.

Because I play Champions Online, this should be sort of an oddity. There are no playable villain characters in CO, so most characters should be do-gooding champions of love and justice. Even in comics, we rarely see heroes go up against other heroes except in strange circumstances. Isn't it a little odd that heroes would beat the heck out of each other all the time for no real reason?

Tags: always, behind-the-mask, champions-online, co, cryptic, cryptic-champions-online, cryptic-co, cryptic-studios, erasure, featured, gerard-nierenberg, harmony, jin-yong, johnathan-wendel, pvp, role-playing, roleplaying, RP, rpvp

One Shots: Lots of space on this ship

by Krystalle Voecks Aug 26th 2010 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, Star Trek Online, One Shots

While One Shots is normally all about the stories that can be told in just one picture, every so often we like to mix it up a bit because a particular two-picture series will convey a story far better than only one image could. Such is the case with today's Star Trek Online screenshot that's come to us from Andrew (also known as Pojoh). Since this is a one-two punch of pictoral peculiarity, we're going to turn the rest of today's column over to him. Remember if you'd like to show off what's going on in your world, just email your screenshots to us at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description. And now, a Star Trekkin' day in the life of Andrew, which continues beyond the break:

"The scene: My Ferengi Captain, Pojoh, beamed onto a Federation ship that was worse for wear. In fact the only things holding it together were the containment fields. I wanted to test the containment field -- in this case open space was on both sides of a doorway. I jumped through...."

Gallery: One Shots: Gallery II

Tags: andrew, cryptic, cryptic-studios, glitch, one-shots, pojoh, screenshot, screenshots, star-trek-online, sto

Captain's Log: Say hello to my minigames

by Ryan Greene Aug 26th 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Captain's Log

C'mon, no Whammies, no Whammies, STOP! Argh, I got a swirly thing and some squigglies. That means I, uh... won two bars of gold-pressed latinum? I wish the Dabo girl would stop flirting with that Klingon -- I have no Bajorly clue what I'm doing.

Hiya, readers! Pull up a barstool and get comfy. This week's Captain's Log, your Thursday fix of Star Trek Online news and views, is all about minigames. With the recent release of Season 2: Ancient Enemies, the folks at Cryptic Studios introduced a pair of minigames to STO, and they say they have more in the works. I thought it might be fun to check out the new diversions and maybe suggest a few of our own for future updates.

Tags: anomaly-gathering, cryptic, cryptic-star-trek, cryptic-studios, daniel-stahl, drozana, featured, gold-pressed-latinum, no-whammy-no-whammy, press-your-luck-references, st-online, Star-Trek, star-trek-3d-chess, star-trek-deep-space-nine, star-trek-dom-jot, star-trek-domjot, Star-Trek-MMO, star-trek-online, star-trek-online-dabo, star-trek-online-minigames, star-trek-online-season-two, sto, sto-3d-chess, sto-anomalies, sto-crafting, sto-dabo, sto-dabo-girls, sto-dabo-minigame, sto-darts, sto-dom-jot, sto-ds9, sto-gambling, sto-latinum, sto-leeta, sto-memory-alpha, sto-minigames, sto-poker, sto-quarks, sto-resources, sto-scan-anomaly, sto-season-2, sto-season-2-patch, sto-season-two, sto-starship-interiors, sto-waveform-minigame, trek-online

Champions Online unveils plans to celebrate one year since launch

by Eliot Lefebvre Aug 25th 2010 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, News items, Champions Online, Promotions

While it was discussed in passing with the last State of the Game address, it's well worth reiterating that Champions Online is going to be a year old in September. With the uncomfortable number of games who've fallen on hard times over the past year, it's well worth celebrating an anniversary in style. And Cryptic Studios plans to do precisely that, with their recently-unveiled anniversary plans running from August 27th to September 6th for all of the game's players.

During the duration of the celebration, the Renaissance Center area will be decked out in all the celebratory finery, complete with contact NPCs wandering about. These NPCs will offer characters one gift per day, with more gifts available from defeating enemies in certain areas. Each gift works as a useful consumable item, and on top of those gifts there are new perks to collect and special anniversary costume pieces to collect. Champions Online players should take a look at the full rundown of events and take part in the near future.

Tags: anniversary, anniversary-celebration, celebrations, champions-online, co, cryptic, cryptic-champions-online, cryptic-co, cryptic-studios, game-events, gifts, in-game-events, special-events, special-rewards

Massively Exclusive: Jack Emmert speaks (about Neverwinter and a whole bunch of other stuff)

by Jef Reahard Aug 23rd 2010 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Interviews, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online, Champions Online

It seems everyone's got an opinion about the new Neverwinter online RPG recently announced by Cryptic. Whether you're a fan of the venerable Dungeons and Dragons franchise, a veteran of the classic single- and multi-player Neverwinter Nights titles, or just a fan of online games in general, you'll want to check out Massively's exclusive interview with Cryptic Studios COO Jack Emmert.

Our own Sera Brennan sat down to quiz the Cryptic mastermind about everything from the new title, to Cryptic's evolving business model, to some candid insights into the making of both Champions Online and Star Trek Online.

Roll your d20 and advance past the cut for more.

Tags: breaking, champions, champions-online, city-of-heroes, City-of-Villains, COH, CoV, cox, cryptic, cryptic-studios, featured, forge, forge-toolset, interview, Interviews, jack-emmert, neverwinter, Neverwinter-Nights, online-multiplayer-rpg, player-generated-content, star-trek-online, sto

Cryptic and Atari announce Neverwinter

by Rubi Bayer Aug 23rd 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, News items

The speculation has been going on for quite a while, and it's finally been confirmed: The Neverwinter Nights MMO is coming.

Well, sort of. Neverwinter will be developed by Cryptic, and Gamespot was lucky enough to get a little one-on-one time with COO Jack Emmert. Something that he was careful to point out was that this is not a full-blown, persistent MMO: "I wouldn't say MMORPG at all -- Neverwinter is a cooperative RPG."

The Neverwinter site is up and running, with plenty of interesting details about the game. It's based on 4th edition D&D, set for launch in 2011, and is inspired by R.A. Salvatore's upcoming trilogy. The first book in that series arrives in October, so by the time Neverwinter launches, the world should be fully established.

For the time being, Cryptic and Atari have provided a fair amount of resources for hopeful (and skeptical) fans to keep up with development. The official site contains a newsletter signup page, some brief backstory, and the full press release. You can also follow game news on Twitter and Facebook.

Tags: 4th-edition, atari, breaking, co-op, corpg, cryptic, cryptic-studios, dnd, Dungeons-and-Dragons, faerun, forgotten-realms, jack-emmert, neverwinter, Neverwinter-Nights, neverwinter-nights-mmo, nwn, nwn-mmo, playneverwinter, r-a-salvatore, r.a.-salvatore

Champions Online looks to its one-year anniversary and beyond

by Eliot Lefebvre Aug 21st 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, real-world, Previews, News items, Champions Online

It might be hard to believe at times, but it's true: on September 1st, Champions Online will hit the one-year mark. The development team has been fairly quiet of late, but judging by the latest State of the Game address, it's just been focusing on several updates and improvements. The Summer Update, with several new costume pieces, bug fixes, and visual treats, is scheduled to go live on Monday, but there are even better things coming around the bend, including the game's second adventure pack.

Dubbed the Demonflame and aimed at a late September release, the newest adventure is meant to incorporate several pieces of feedback from the Serpent Lantern adventure. The goal is to make the adventure less repetitive and easier to follow from point to point for all players. Beyond that, the team has a long list of issues they're looking into and planning to work on, starting with pet improvements and stretching to scaling instances and better difficulty slider integration. Champions Online fans should take a look at the full update, and while the first year has had ups and downs, the future seems to be on the upswing. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our one one-year retrospective of the game around the anniversary, which should be coming right around the first of the month.

[Thanks Clinton and Faryon for the tip!]

Tags: adventure-pack, anniversary, atari, champions-online, co, cryptic, cryptic-champions-online, cryptic-co, cryptic-studios, demonflame, difficulty-slider, future, future-changes, future-updates, improvements, looking-forward, one-year-anniversary, serpent-lanter, state-of-the-game, summer-update, the-demonflame

Massively Features

Events Calendar

Name	Date
Clone Wars Adventures Launch	Sep 15, 2010
Final Fantasy XIV Launch	Sep 30, 2010
GDC Online	Oct 5-8, 2010
NY ComicCon	Oct 8-10, 2010
LEGO Universe Launch	Oct 26, 2010
DCUO Launch	Nov 2, 2010

Massively Staff

Name	Title
Shawn Schuster	Editor-in-Chief
Seraphina Brennan	Senior Editor
Brianna Royce	West Coast Editor
Brendan Drain	Contributing Editor
Eliot Lefebvre	Contributing Editor
Jef Reahard	Contributing Editor
Justin Olivetti	Contributing Editor
Krystalle Voecks	Contributing Editor
Rubi Bayer	Contributing Editor
Tateru Nino	Contributing Editor
Beau Hindman	Columnist
Edward Marshall	Columnist
Greg Waller	Columnist
Jeremy Stratton	Columnist
Larry Everett	Columnist
MJ Guthrie	Columnist
Patrick Mackey	Columnist
Ryan Greene	Columnist
Lisa Poisso	Columnist