In light of putting Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising on indefinite hold, developer Perpetual Entertainment has its phasers set to amaze with Star Trek Online by releasing the first screenshot to the space MMO.
In an accompanied DevLog, Perpetual’s Mike Stemmle explained the game’s Interaction System. As Stemmle put it, "In a nutshell, the Interaction System controls every non-combat, player-to-NPC interaction in the game."
"If you want to talk to a Ferengi shopkeeper, it goes through the Interaction System. Need to get some additional phaser training at the local Starfleet Academy? That’s the Interaction System. Want to beam down to a planet? Interaction System. Responding to a distress call from a crippled starship? That’s the Interaction System, too."
When implementing the Interaction System, Perpetual abided by a few rules to keep it simple.
"1. Keep it Simple – The less clicks and extraneous buttons the better.
2. Keep it Intuitive – The best Interaction System is one the player can figure out without any instruction.
3. Keep it Consistent – No matter where the player is (ground, space, another dimension) or what kind of interaction he’s engaged in (dialogue, buying, training, obtaining missions, etc.) the widgets of the Interaction System’s interface should behave in a consistent manner.
4. Keep it Trek – A blanket goal of STO, but one that bears repeating.
5. Keep if Fun – You’d be surprised how often this gets forgotten."
Star Trek enthusiasts, eat your heart out by looking at the snazzy screenshot below.
