This Saturday debuted a new kind of content for Star Trek Online, and I think, possibly a turning point for the game.

That content was the first of the new weekly episodes.  These episodes are released once a week, and each builds on the last to tell a specific story.  In this case, you find yourself escorting a Deferi Ambassador back home.  Things start to go pear-shaped when the Breen transport into the city and its up to your away team to clear them out.

Broken down, its not that much that much different to the gameplay in other missions.  You escort a ship to a planet, beam down, clear out various spawns of enemies, then beam back up for some ship combat.  There’s dozens of missions throughout the game that have this same structure.

Where it differs greatly though is in presentation.  There’s obviously a lot of love gone into the design of this mission.  Firstly, the new area of sector space for the Defera System uses the new style seen in season 2 where the traditional grid markers and lighting are turned right down, creating a more atmospheric system.  However once you get into the mission, its not all run-and-gun.  The escort itself is largely uneventful, save for an unidentified (later revealed as Breen) ship, warping in and out.  There could have been the temptation here for the developers to make this a ship battle, but instead they wisely left it a mystery, with the ship warping back out before it can be identified.  This nicely builds suspense that something is going to happen later on.

When you beam down to the planet, the attention to detail at atmosphere is similarly evident.  The area you beam into is well designed with buildings, giant sculptures, and is bustling with people.  There’s a real feeling that this is a busy part of the city you’ve beamed into.   It really had the feel of an episode of Star Trek more than just some mission in an MMO, thanks to the pacing.  If this had been a combat mission from the outset it would’ve felt more generic, but the slow build up really had the feeling of getting you to know characters and a race that are going to be part of a larger story, rather than a 20 minute mission.

Another nice thing was how this mission drew on the diplomatic mission at Starbase Sierra 7.  When I found the Trade Discussion mission I had no idea it tied into this weekly series, but it was nice to bump into an Ambassador I recognised, who then referenced the trade discussions.   It added to the feeling that this was an evolving universe, and its a nice idea having these little prequels in the game prior to the main event.

I can’t wait for the next instalment come Saturday.  But I mentioned a turning point above.  Perhaps a rash statement?

And in some ways I do really think this mission has the potential to be.  If the further weekly episodes hold the same quality and atmosphere as this one, then we’ve got some really nice new locations and detailed storylines to look forward to.  But I’m also talking in terms of the community.

The official forums have been a fairly downbeat place for a long time, with the mood verging on outright hostile  at times, especially with some of the big bugs that have been in the game more recently (like the Star Cluster issues I mentioned in a previous post).   However last Saturday, that all changed.   The release of this high quality episode brought a real positive buzz to the forums, as people congratulated the developers on the release and praised the new content.  For the first time in quite a while the forums were actually quite a pleasant place to be as the whole community came across as quite upbeat.

I’m really hoping this mission shows off the kind of thing the developers are now looking to produce.  There’s an interesting tease to future missions hidden away, and it shows that there’s a storyline that’s been thought about as well as a nicely designed area map.   With the likes of ship interiors, a new style of sector space etc now in place, and season 3 promising to bring more polish to the game, Cold Call really shows the kind of thing we could look forward to seeing in the future updates.   And if that’s the case, I think a lot of the people who have been complaining about the game will turn around, and then hopefully the positive “yeah, it had a shaky start, but then they really turned things around and have some really nice content” buzz can start to build.  Its not a short-term hope, but it strikes me as something definitely achievable over the next year.