STO: Player Movement Dev Chat

Thanks to Cryptic for taking the time out of their schedule to come into #STO and answer a few questions for us. The theme for this Dev Q&A was to talk about character movement. I was on hand so without further adieu here they are.

Question: How extensive is space flight movement? Will I able to run into a nebula and make a 360 loop and end up behind my enemy, Or is ship movement merely restricted to a horizontal level with perhaps an ability to elevate up or down a little without rotating the ship upside down?
Answer: There's no rolling or looping in STO now. There's pretty signifigant up and down movement, but no barrel rolls or looping. Movement and positioning is a large portion of the gameplay, but not all of it by any stretch.

Question: Will ships need to energy or fuel to move?
Answer: Definitely. Although for the most part it’s not consumable. You speed and turning rates are directly tied to the amount of power that you’ve allocated for those systems. You put more energy into engines, and you move faster. You put more energy into engines, and you move faster. You put more towards the auxiliary and you turn quicker. (Amongst other things)

Question: I'm curious about the physics used, I noticed in a previous ask cryptic where it was said that small ships can fish tail, how far is this taken? Could a Defiant, for example, set a course and speed, then rotate the nose away from the direction of travel to engage a target without affecting the direction of travel, or will a ship always move in the direction that the nose is pointed?
Answer: We've said a few times that different ships have different attributes - and that's definitly true... Turning rates, max speeds, etc... However, you do always move in the direction that you're pointing. There’s no strafing, no moving backwards and shooting (kiting).

How am I supposed to back out of star-dock?

Ok, I lied. There IS reverse in the game, but it's not really effective in combat. It's something to use to get out of trouble spots, and in special combat cases - but it's not as fast as forward, so not as useful.

Question: Can you use warp while in combat?
Answer: No. No warp in combat. Combat in STO takes place at subwarp speeds. I know that combat takes place in warp sometimes in the shows and movies - we wanted to be able to give you a sense of place and positioning in combat, I can only theoretically imagine what combat at warp would LOOK like.

Question: In 3D Space view (not mapview) What is the Ceiling/floor Height Size/Scale? Will it be large, like say a ship at the 'Ceiling' will not be able to even see a ship directly below them at the 'Floor' (ie its like +1000' tall), or is it much smaller (like 100' tall).
Answer: Huge. Although we're in space - it's also a video game and that comes with certain limitations. : ) There are "edges" to the maps. However, your example is great. If you're at the "top" and I'm at the "bottom" - we can't detect each other. THAT big (Well, unless we're on the same team - then you'll know I'm there.)

I'm surprised about the reactions to the lack of fuel comment. This goes for a lot of things - and hopefully I don't get long winded or offend anyone. There are a lot of mechanics and features to the game that we at Cryptic imagined when we first started the STO project. Rolling, fuel - things like that.

Once we got the game up and running, and more people got on the team, and we started playing it more... there were things that we just didn't miss from the original ideas that we had, things that the game didn't demand that we put in to make it a richer experience. I know that there's been a lot of speculation about how ship movement works - it's one of the reasons why we're doing this chat.

But I can tell you, that with all that you get to do in space - Bridge Officer skills, power levels, balancing shields, positioning yourself, etc...

Question: whats the learning curve like..
Answer: Kinda big right now. : )

Question: Movement has been described as a sort of 2dimensional map thing, which doesn't really sound all that exciting graphically. Are we at least going to see warp outs?
Answer: If I’ve described it as much, I apologize. It’s definitely 3D. You play the heights, you hide behind space debris in al axis. Not 2D.

Question: Just how tactical will movement and combat be? I know it has be said about balancing shields and power etc.. but how important will moving and positioning really be? or will it be a case of always the biggest ships with the most weapons in a strafe will win?
Answer: I don’t want to say that the class of your ship has nothing to do with combat, but positioning is HUGE. Making sure that you get to your target’s weak side and protect (shift shield energy) to yours is gigantic. Movement and positioning is probably the single most important part of combat. That's not to say that a runabout is going to be able to take out a Vor'Cha just 'cause you're positioned well. : )

Question: Relating to Vorador's question about warp in combat... How will one be able to escape from combat? Will a player be able to warp away from combat? If so, how will this be balanced so that escape is not too easy?
Answer: Ah - that's the trick, huh? You currently can't warp while in combat. We're trying to balance the combat so that, if you get in over your head (like I sometimes do when I didn't expect the cloaked birds of prey) you can still "run away". Escape should be "easy" - but not "game-able".

Question: Will movement be largely forward, left, right, holding down W, A, S, D, or point-and-go like an RTS space game? Or both?
Answer:
W and S pitch up and down.
A and D turn your ship left and right.
E and Q throttle up and down.

Currently, if you hold both mouse buttons down, your ship will go in the direction your camera is pointing. Hard to explain - but you "drive" your ship with the mouse. A lot more intuitive than me typing to explain it. So - those are the default mappings that we have right now... but people on the team have different ones, we'll definitly come up with other variations you can choose before launch. Our game engine is set up to be pretty customizable when it comes to key mapping - so you can do what YOU like.

Question: So it's a matter of getting a certain distance away from your enemies (so you are 'out of combat') before you can warp out?
Answer: Yes. Exactly.

Question: Are we going to be able to use terrain properly? E.g., would climbing on top of a rock create some problems for the enemies or would they magically adjust to it and climb up? In fact, does ground movement affect combat at all, can a player gain significant advantage by actively moving?
Answer: Ah, ground! I think that movement on the ground also provides important strategy. A lot of the weapons that you have on the ground have cones or other direction AoE attacks. Since combat one the ground tends to be group against group. (Away team versus group of enemies, not just one) I often will move my character to the side to “flank” the enemies and try to get as many. It's not as positional as space - there's no "backstabbing" on the ground right now - but it's still there.

Question: How will you make transportation through the vast and barren environment of space, visually appealing and diverse?
Answer: With a lot of art : ) Actually, we’re focusing on the interesting parts – and not really trying to bog the player down in the hours and days of realistic travel through the vacuum of space. You do have to travel, it's not immediate "poof! I'm there" - but it's hopefully not boring or interminable. Sector Space - where you travel between systems and other points of interest - is MORE 2D, but there's still a small (although mostly aesthetic) 3D element.

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So that's that guys, opinions thoughts?

About the only thing that disappointed me was not being able to do a barrel roll other than that though everything else sounded great!

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