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STO Season 11 - New Dawn: Interview with Executive Producer Steve Ricossa

Star Trek Online's new Season was just announced. We've sat down with Cryptic's Steve Ricossa, Executive Producer for Star Trek Online, to learn more about what we can expect in Season 11: New Dawn.

By KraziyK Fri 28 Aug, 2015 3:00 PM - Last Updated: Sun 03 Apr, 2016 1:07 AM
Star Trek Online's new Season was just announced. We've sat down with Cryptic's Steve Ricossa, Executive Producer for Star Trek Online, to learn more about what we can expect in Season 11: New Dawn.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

We are coming to the end of a five-year war with the Iconians, and with that Captains must
look towards the future for their next assignments. We wanted to know what is going to keep Captains in the chair. We had the chance to sit down and talk with Cryptic’s Executive Producer for Star Trek Online, Steve Ricossa, who some know as Salami_Inferno, about Season 11 New Dawn, which is set to carry players through 2016.

“There won’t be a new exploration system for Season 11” Ricossa said, but New Dawn will still see a return to exploration for captains. Among other things, Captains will be given the ability to explore new planets, and make first contact with new species. “There is no big bad enemy,” Ricossa said, “but now time travel is out of the bottle, and everyone has access to it, which will cause some problems.” We will also see Chase Masterson reprise her role as Mirror Leeta, who is part of the Terran Empire, “Who just finished their war with the Iconians. We’re not going to say how their war went.” Ricossa said.

Every Star Trek series and film has had a great enemy, Voyager had the Borg, Enterprise has the Xindi. Star trek Online has the Iconians, which Ricossa said the team had created and built off of light mentions and references from the TV series to “tie all of the hints together…” Ricossa said that “[the Iconians] affected entire quadrants.” Ricossa went on to say that we will see the finale for the Iconian war soon, and it will “force players to make a tough decision and tough choices.” That being said will the new canon enemy Cryptic plans to introduce in Season 11 top the Iconians? Unfortunately we won't know until they reveal themselves as Ricossa wouldn’t give us any information outside of the fact that they, like the Elachi, can be seen in the Enterprise series.

Currently there are six missions that will center around the Badlands and Deep Space 9, set to be added to the story arc for Season 11 - two for the new season and four for the Cardassian Episode revamp. More missions will undoubtedly be added as the season development progresses, both pre- & post-launch. Ricossa also confirmed that there will be new ships coming in Season 11.

Season 11 will also include the addition of the Admiralty system. “It’s supposed to make you feel more like an Admiral with ships under your command.” Ricossa said, going on to explain how the Admiralty system will work. “It will be similar to the Duty Officer system,” Ricossa said, “There are moment to moment choices, which are supposed to make for more meaningful choices with larger rewards.” These rewards will be determined by short and long term goals; the short term goals may only take a few hours, while the long term goals will take significantly longer. According to Ricossa, “because it’s a starship and not an officer, the rewards will be great.”

There are also a host of other things Players have asked for, or wanted. While we had Mr. Ricossa we were able to ask him a few of their questions. Such as why haven’t we seen Kate Mulgrew reprise her role as Admiral Janeway? Ricossa said that the studio would love to work with Mulgrew, however they want her missions and interactions to have meaning, as well as to create a strong storyline for Janeway like they did with the crew of Voyager that joined the STO family in Delta Rising.

Player polls have been taken, asking what other races they’d like to play. Ricossa said that the three most popular races were the Borg, Cardassian, and the Dominion. Ricossa said that there is a possibility that other races could be added to Star Trek Online in the future at some point.


I also wanted to know more about the exploration system. While Ricossa stated there won’t be a new exploration system added in Season 11, there is always a chance we see one in the future. “There have been whiteboard discussions about it,” Ricossa said. “In general there were a lot of bugs and issues. It was poor quality,” Ricossa said referencing the original exploration system that was part of the launch of Star Trek Online. “We’ve been working on refreshing and improving the launch content, like we did with the mission arcs.”

Throughout the years Star Trek Online has stayed true to Star Trek Canon, at least to a point. “Our goal is to tie off loose ends or the logical conclusions to stories from the series.” Ricossa said when asked about why Cryptic has tried to stay close to Canon lore, instead of just running wild with their own ideas, “We do have some creative freedoms… We feel like that’s why people are here.”

One thing that is always on the mind of any game developer and in turn, at least a portion of, a gaming community is the state of the game. “It’s the strongest it’s ever been. We’ve maintained its base.” Ricossa also stated that the player base has grown since the change to free to play and has continued to grow.

You can stay up to date on Season 11: New Dawn, by visiting Star Trek Online's website, as well as following STO on Twitter, @trekonlinegame, and Facebook. You can also follow Steve Ricossa on Twitter, @Salami_Inferno.


DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPERS, OR ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO SEE IN SEASON 11: NEW DAWN?
TELL US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
WRITTEN BY KRAZIYK - Callib.Carver@ufplanets.com
EDITED BY KRAZIYK & FLICKY
26 Comments
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 4:31 PM
Very cool stuff, thanks Krazyk and Flicky for bringing this to us.
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 4:40 PM
Could the Xindi be our next threat?....I hope not that issue was put to bed along time ago and they are now members of the federation. I hope they dont just go wham war with the Xindi because there out of ideas hmm lets see how it goes.
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 5:12 PM
More Voyager and DS9 material?Unamused

When are they going to stop rehashing and move onto more original stories with original (not tos) characters? Honestly, why does almost everything in this game have to relate to DS9 and/or Voyager?
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 5:18 PM
Interesting. I felt they are wrapping up the Iconians too fast personally. Thanks for the article guys!
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 5:57 PM
I did ask them about how their content is made. Part of their content is tied into the canon storylines and material from the show. To continue it on as it were, while still creating their own content and having creative freedom. They're not trying to rehash anything, instead they are tieing up lose ends, which allows them to tell a story and then create their own content.
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 6:27 PM
"Player polls have been taken, asking what other races they’d like to play. Ricossa said that the three most popular races were the Borg, Cardassian, and the Dominion. Ricossa said that there is a possibility that other races could be added to Star Trek Online in the future at some point."

There is a huge difference between a "race" and a "faction". You can play a Klingon and be a member of the Federation faction. Likewise, you can play a Borg and be a member of any faction. If you are talking about a faction, please say a faction, because calling something a "race" leads to misunderstanding.
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 6:53 PM
The player poll was about other "races" or "Species" players would like to play as. We didn't get into any other details as to if these would be a seperate faction, or part of a current faction. Simply that players had expressed interested in playing as a Borg, Cardassian, or as part of the Dominion. While there is the possibility of them becoming a faction, the question and poll was specifically directed at "race".

Sorry for any confusion.
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 7:00 PM
Oh, no need to apologize; the confusion is not on your end, it is on Cryptic's. My point was that they need to use the specific language that is talking about whatever it is they mean, and not giving people a wrong impression. If they are just asking what "race" people wanted to play, then make that clear. If they are asking what "faction" people want to play, make that clear. Because the answer to those 2 issues might be completely different, depending on which meaning people are responding to.
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 7:02 PM
Well I wanted to clarify that this was a race not faction question. It was great talkign to them and Steve Ricossa was very clear on all of his answers and information. One of the better interviews I've had.
Fri 28 Aug, 2015 7:07 PM
I see. Thanks for sharing the interview!
Sat 29 Aug, 2015 6:15 AM
Good Interview! I'm just happy that Cryptic is going to be messing with the Cardassian Story Arc finally. Kurland Here!
Sat 29 Aug, 2015 6:43 PM
An interesting read.

I think we can narrow down the next big bad guy, to one of two possible bad guys that appeared in Enterprise. That also have access to time travel, since "time travel is out of the bottle, and everyone has access to it".

The Sphere Builders http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Sphere_Builder
or
The Na'kuhl http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Na%27kuhl

So season 11, build up to the start of the Temporal Cold War maybe?
Sat 29 Aug, 2015 6:49 PM
I hope not. Time Travel has been done to death in Star Trek. Then again it wouldn't be surprising since the "mission" of STO seems to be spending another five years of "Tying up loose ends."
Sat 29 Aug, 2015 8:13 PM
I think that is a bit of an unfair assessment Bond. They are building on a universe that already exsisted. From that they have tweaked and created content to continue the story as it were. However that's my personal opinion based off of what I l've seen and heard from my the game and interview respectively.

I would like to invite anyone that has a specific question for the STO team to please PM me with that question and I will work on getting them answered and doing a follow-up article.
Sat 29 Aug, 2015 9:28 PM
The Sphere Builders http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Sphere_Builder

So season 11, build up to the start of the Temporal Cold War maybe?
Ooh, you know what that might mean if it's true?

We might be able to get a glimpse at the Enterprise-J.
Sun 30 Aug, 2015 5:14 AM
The Na'kuhl would be a fantastic race to go up against.
Sun 30 Aug, 2015 5:20 AM
The Enterprise—J is an interesting design. I don't know how I feel about that design.
Mon 31 Aug, 2015 2:28 PM
The Enterprise-J, a new Fleet Holding? Tongue Out
Mon 31 Aug, 2015 2:39 PM
I'm disapointed that S11 is about Exploration, but there's no actual Exploration system coming.

I'm guessing we are going to 'explore' during the first FE, discover something important and then exploration will never be mentioned again in the FEs because were going to be busy dealing with what we discovered. Outside the FEs Exploration won't exist, just like the Iconian war did not exist outside of the story missions.

I'm disappointed that nothing really changes, except probably additions to things we already have too much of (rep, holdings, ships, etc.), except for the Armada system. That is the only things described (up to date) that I have any interest in. I'm hoping it won't be a DOFFing clone, as I dislike the DOFF system.
Mon 31 Aug, 2015 2:48 PM
I'm really looking forward to the new admirality system. At least some use for the huge amount of ships taking on only dust.
Mon 31 Aug, 2015 3:35 PM
I don't want storylines that involve any of the old crews. I don't want to be tying up loose ends. With a new century, it's supposed to bring new problems, new challenges. Not cleaning up Voyager's mess because they couldn't be bothered to return to the delta quadrant, or come back with a fleet of ships on their own and handle their own business.

Delta Rising should have been IT for the Voyager fanbase, it's a bit disheartening that Voyager and DS9 continue on into the Iconian War storyline. Voyager gets so much special treatment in STO it may as well be retitled Voyager Online instead.
Tue 01 Sep, 2015 8:26 AM
i believe ds9 should be more important that voy as its still guardian of the worm hole, THAT being said, i think the next lot of baddies are sphere builders Big Grin
Tue 01 Sep, 2015 3:21 PM
If it's the Temporal (Cold) War, not surprising there, especially with the hint with "time-travel is out of the bottle". It's 241x, 25th century. It's the century that time-travel started to spread.

Also. Since time is both linear and not, what we are going to experience in this case will be two-fold. First, what were the wars that "were" fought in this century related to the T(C)W? Second, what were this century's involvement in the "past"?

Yes, T(C)W already "ended" if we view it from a non-linear perspective. But, time incursions 'are' still time incursions. Since all mortals are tied to the linear flow of time, we will, no matter what we do, experience the 25th century "front-line" of the Temporal (Cold) War before we see its end. No doubt too, we are going to see highly confidential materials re-opened just to have an advantage. Since time is also not linear, the 25th century can re-influence it and change the future (to an extent - because CBS is strict) but fewer changes in the past (again because CBS strictly enforces that no licensed materials can change canon).

It is also interesting to know that the Mirror Universe also fought their Iconian War. From what was said in the interview, at least reading between the line, it doesn't look like they used time-travel to defeat the Iconians. Knowing how brutal and war-freaks the races in the Mirror Universe are, it is highly possible they met the Iconians head on and won. Feeling high and mighty, they are now focusing those to the other universes. Since "our" universe is the closest quantum universe to the Mirror Universe, we will be the most attacked.

So:
1. Exploration
2. Temporal (Cold) War
3. Mirror Universe invasion

Hmm… Now that they're pretty much outside of the canon, I can see that they're finally using their literary freedom more. The 25th century is the best place to do this because if we go the 26th, 27th, 28th, onwards, it's canon all over again. Which, even the litverse authors stated, no licensed material can go against the canon, that's the mandate of CBS.

If STO pulls restoring Romulus… then they've proven that they are above all other licensed materials, and is closer to "canon" status, which itself proves that CBS is approving their grand arcs (which would mean, STO is truly canon).

In any case, I think time-travel was also intentionally "released" from the developers perspective. It will allow them to create content that will appeal to the trekkers fanbase, who mostly are the 80s generation and earlier. Imagine being able to visit those episodes yourself. It's similar to what WoW did. Yet at the same time, we can't change anything in the past (again, no one can go against CBS canon) -- not like in WoW.

Very interesting indeed. I just hope they implement phasing on the exploration level though. It's the only way to make the episodes "spill" outside of missions.
Tue 01 Sep, 2015 5:37 PM
And, as I was saying: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/sta...A-counterpoint

Dang... everything is connected. That was one great idea, whoever came up with that twist.
Tue 01 Sep, 2015 7:09 PM
The new Admiralty system looks interesting.
Tue 01 Sep, 2015 7:38 PM
Lack of original ideas from the writers. Instead of trying to do something wholly original it seems like it's now going to be the Temporal Cold War for Voyager and DS9 now.

Seriously, Cryptic should just retitle it to Voyager Online, and if the game is considered canon? Then I'll be rooting for the reboots even more, this stuff is dreck. It's time for Star Trek to venture to Andromeda, not relive past DS9/Voyager "glories".

Delta Rising is a chore to get through, I don't have much hope for The Iconian War, but it's great to know it's the same 'ol, same 'ol with A New Dawn. All DS9...all Voyager....all the time.