[PODCAST] Priority One Podcast 269 | Agents of Yesterday with Al Rivera

winters83 · May 2016

Greetings, Admirals! You’re listening to EPISODE 269 OF PRIORITY ONE PODCAST, your weekly report on all things Star Trek! Available for download or streaming on Monday, May 9th, 2016 at PriorityOnePodcast.com!

This week we Trek Out that a fourth Star Trek reboot film may already be in the works… also, we have more details about how the new series will be distributed on CBS All Access. In Star Trek Online News, we’re celebrating the announcement of Expansion 3 with an interview with Lead Designer Al “Captain Geko” Rivera. Later, Jake convinces us to open our wallets with some enticing Star Trek Products during his segment – The Promenade.

As usual, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages.

TOPICS DISCUSSED
Trek It Out

Star Trek Online News

The Promenade

This week’s Community Questions:

Is the new Star Trek series enough for you to subscribe to CBS All Access… if not – what could they offer you that would sweeten the deal?
And from our interview with Al Rivera: What characters from TOS do you hope will turn up in Star Trek Online’s new expansion?

Let us know YOUR thoughts on this week’s episode by commenting below!

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!

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mustrumridcully0 · May 2016

That's weird. I just read daveny's summary... And now it's gone? Foul magic!

daveyny · May 2016

I understand they really want people to listen, but there are a lot of folks that don't have the time and this IS a BIG DEAL.
I thought I was doing them a favor.
Oh well...

dragnridr · May 2016

Best way to get me to subscribe to CBS all access is to make the entire thing free. They already show episodes like the Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and iZombie. Why not add in Star Trek to that list? People already pay enough for subscription services include Netflix, Cable/satellite, and others. And why make it CBS All Access and not put it on air? Putting it on air, they can reach those that don't have internet and bring Star Trek back to those that miss coming home in time to watch Trek just like when TOS and TNG first came on.

So, the content is for Feds only.....think I'll pass on the new expansion. We have enough Fed stuff already. We need more KDF and Romulan content 10 times over before we get more Fed content. And it's too much work to make 3 separate factions? Well, yeah. It's work. But it's something half the players want. And not trying to split the community, well, the devs are doing just the opposite very well. It's nice they are making new content, but they need to make new content for ALL factions EQUALLY. A game that knows how to make content for all their factions is SWTOR.

garaks31 · May 2016

the episode was very informative thanks team. hope that the new content will come with the summer event

paxfederatica · May 2016

Re: What characters from TOS do you hope will turn up in Star Trek Online’s new expansion?

My Top 5:

Balok ("The Corbomite Maneuver")
Harcourt Fenton Mudd ("Mudd's Women", "I, Mudd")
Cyrano Jones ("The Trouble With Tribbles"; could be voiced by the same guy who voiced Horace on Nimbus III)
Romulan commander ("The Enterprise Incident", maybe give her a name too)
Atoz ("All Our Yesterdays")

comrademoco · May 2016

Here's the first 30? minutes of the Interview with Al... all Transcribed... The rest of it will be done tomorrow... Best if read while listening to the interview at the same time...

Kenna - Priority One Podcast Host
Elijah - Priority One Podcast Host
Winters - Priority One Podcast Co-host
Al - Star Trek Online Lead Designer
Comrademoco - Transcriber xD (I had nothing better to do today soooo... yeah.. You're welcome! xD)
Interview Starts at 16:10mins into the Podcast
16:10 - Elijah: Now it's time to time warp to the 1960's or... *clear throat* the 23rd Century with Star Trek Online's Lead Designer Al 'Captain Geko' Rivera.
16:20 - *Interview music plays*
16:34 - Kenna: Well captains the team at Priority One this week has mostly been squeeeeing over the latest big announcement, HUGE announcement from Star Trek Online. Now if you missed it, they just announced that expansion three is coming, eminently, and it's called 'Agents of Yesterday,' so, to help us out this week and talk about it, we've got a very special interview with Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al Rivera aka 'Captain Geko' Welcome back Al!
17:02 - Al: Hey, Squeeeeeeee!
17:04 - Kenna: Squeeeeeeee!
17:05 - Al: Thank you for having me back.
17:06 - *all laugh*
17:07 - Kenna: Well it's good to have you here.
17:08 - Al: Yeah it's great to be back and talking about this today, very excited, I've been holding this is in for so long.
17:13 - Kenna: Oh I bet you have!
17:14 - Al: Yeah!
17:14 - Kenna: Um, So um... Let's let's just start off, just in case anyone out there hasn't heard of what's going on, can you just give us a quick ten seconds of memory of what 'Agents of Yesterday' is all about?
17:26: - Al: Yeah sure, 10 seconds, soooo, Agents of Yesterday, um, is our latest expansion for Star Trek online celebrating the 50th anniversary of 'Star Trek' and there will be a new uh uh, this expansion will be a new uh I *struggles to think* we're struggling with the word faction but effectively a new faction that is a TOS starting experience (transcriber note: The 10 seconds passed -_- its now 20secs in) where you can play a TOS, in the TOS era as a TOS captain and and we're building all those assets and bringing that experience um sometime this year I don't think we've announced the date.
18:00 - Kenna: Ok, um so, what we've done today is I got a couple of points that were announced in the blog post announcing this whole expansion and I wanted to talk through a few of them, um so, my first question is; So this is an expansion as opposed to like a new season...
18:17 - Al: yes
18:17 - Kenna...and maybe this is a noobie question: What makes it an expansion?
18:20 - Al: That's a good, that's a fair question, difference between an expansion and a season, the first thing is usually sheer volume of stuff that goes into a season. There is always a lot more content in any sea... excuse me, than expansion. I think I got mixed up already! In an expansion there is always a lot more content, and a Season there's usually uh, there's usually one or two major, maybe three, you know episodes within...
18:43 - Al:.. a season...
18:43 - Kenna: Mhm!
18:43 - Al:... an expansion usually has a lot more. So our last two expansions 'Delta Rising' and and uh and 'Legacy of Romulus' had, oh I dont know, about a dozen episodes or so...
18:54 - Kenna: Mhm!
18:54 - Al: Um, I can't even remember exactly how many both were able to get, they're usually heavily themed and in general, about, well we've only had two, this is our third one, but in general uh uh a season or expansion, excuse me, and expansion usually focuses on like a new faction, for new experience and usually targeted for new acquisitions...
19:17 - Kenna: Mhm!
19:18 - Al:... or something really epic end game more like 'Delta Rising' which was a level cap increase and really focusing on retention in existing players.. um.. so there's usually something really big about them that is more than just, more of the same? with a little bit of something new...
19:33 - Kenna: ok!
19:33 - Al:... is something really big and so, uh, indifferent, If you remember 'Legacy of Romulus' was playable Romulans, whole new style of ships that had singularity drives, whole brand new arc, lot of celebrities and and then 'Delta Rising'... umh, huge ammount of celebrities all focusing on voyager and it was a level cap increase, we introduced tier six ships and ships traits and and, uh, and all that, it's a whole new mechanic there...
20:05 - Kenna: Mhm!
20:05 - Al:... the big thing being the level cap increase... and so in this in this expansion the major thing we're announcing is, obviously is, you know, TOS, an entirely different era, uh, for the game, all new ships, right, TOS ships, starting as a TOS, as a character in the TOS era and it's a new player experience, like a new faction, so it's really, so its attractable so anybody can come in and start from scratch and it's, you know, time to... it's really fun when there's a new faction because new players can come in and not be intimidated by: "well everyone's already level sixty and theyre end game so I'm gonna be by myself" that could be intimidating. Everyone get's to start at the same starting experience when you have and expansion like that.
20:42 - Kenna: Ok cool! Well, let's uh, let's talk a little about about the TOS aspect of it, obviously this is, there's a lot of the original series love in the announcement, in the feel of it, the blog post talks about it's being set after the third season of the original series so this is after original series has ended.
20:04 - Al: Yes, that's not before that, it's not during, it's after and so it kinda takes place during the years of the animated series, but it's question whether the animated series is actually canon, if you ask, originally CBS said the animated series is canon but Roddenberry said it wasn't, and so Roddenberry counts in my book but we draw upon the animated series once in a while, but that takes place in twenty two seventy, where the, uh uh eh, the TOS happens and ends in twenty two sixty nine, so we're picking up at twenty two seventy. And the movies actually happened in like twenty two seventy three so so the, surprising everyone really aged and got a lot new technology in three years in in the timelines. A lot happened in that timeline...
21:41 - Kenna: Yeah!
21:41 - Al:... but say, yeah, we're happening right after that so so. All the events Kirk have have, uh, have happened when we start.
21:48 - Kenna: Well well I wanted to talk about how this is gonna fit in with out existing storyline. So, um, first question, has the 'Future Proof' arc ended now?...
22:00 - Al: No!
22:00 - Kenna:... or are we continuing to...
22:00 - Al: 'Future Proof' arc is is just the beginning of of, of this and so if you rememb... and and you know, if you remember, from the end of the the, the end of the last episode which we...*mumbles* blog in my mind, the Na'kuhl episode ended with all the Na'kuhl going back in time and we're gonna need help, right, so that's kinda like kicking off the story, so that story...as a matter of fact there will actually be more episodes added to the 'Future Proof' um um arc, that mission category, there will be more missions added to that, so so they're they're inter-connected.
22:44 - Kenna: Ok!
22:44 - Al: They're separate but inter-connected.
22:45 - Kenna: So presumably, where it says that: 'There's this new thread invading with hopes of overwhelming the past to destroy our future' that's that's the Na'kuhl, isn't it?
22:56 - Al: Probably has something to do largely with the Na'kuhl but maybe not only have anything to do with the Na'kuhl.
22:59 - Kenna: Ok ok ok ok. So you can't tell us exactly but the way it's worded sounds like its going to be Na'kuhl cause you've kinda let us into with the last...
23:07 - Al: Sure! I mean, we just had an episode where you know we know the Na'kuhl went to the Enterprise era and try to change TRIBBLE Germany, you know, try to change the journey from from the Star Trek Enterprise and and we just told you that the Na'kuhl all these ships made it through the time portal and are trying to modify the past and so that's our springboard...
23:23 - Kenna: Ok!
23:23 - Al: But we also know that there are events that happened, you know, in the anniversary episode, that were really *mumbles* that were all one arc.
23:30 - Kenna: Well true and then we got, we've had a couple of um, great fiction blogs that have come out, what is it, hehe, one of Sulu's ancestors defeating a Na'Kuhl in the past and a uh uh a couple of things like that, so um, they're all gonna tied together aren't they? Let's be honest!
23:45 - Al: Ah, a lot of stuff is gonna tied together. That's that's that's that's for sure.
23:50 - Kenna: Ok. Now with this um, with this new, quote on quote "Faction" "Semi-Faction" "Sudo-Faction" whatever it is...
23:56 - Al: *interrupts Kenna* it is, it is, it is a new faction...
23:59 - Kenna: Yeah.
23:59 - Al: as much as... we were coy about calling it a new faction in the press release, there were just some marketing concerns about the connotations of it, but it's it's at least much of a, AT LEAST, much as new faction as Romulans was a new faction
24:14 - Kenna: Alright.
24:15 - Al: So, I mean it is it is, it's just, it just technically still Federation, right? You're you're Federation from twenty two seventy instead of Federation from twenty four oh nine, so it's a new faction, new starting experience and its own arc and its own content specifically for them.
24:32 - Kenna: Ok, we'll talk about the faction and all that bits and pieces and what all that means in just a second but I want to focus on the story because its says on the blog we're going to have a new story arc that's available to everyone and then presumably there's a, like a tutorial that is the TOS based one, so there's a two separate thing, presumably?
24:51 - Al: Yes, so the TOS faction will it's own Tutorial, it's own starting experience, it's own sector block, it's own quadrant if you will and its own and its own story arc that will be available to only the...and then there will be additional story arcs that are part of the, that are part of the TOS quest story arc that all players will be able to have access, so all factions will be play it but um they'll probably get different dialogue, different dialogue if you're a TOS faction because its more specific for you but just like the future proof arc its its uh everyone will be able to have access to it and its kinda, they're kinda connected.
25:26 - Kenna: Ok...
25:26 - Al: So little bit fre...something for existing players, something for, you know, content for end-game and and buts its own individual arc for the TOS faction.
25:37 - Kenna: Ok, Can you tell us anything about the storyline that will be coming up, maybe, we'e we've already had announced that Scotty will be there and Chekov as well...
25:46 - Al: Yes! *mumbles*
25:46 - Kenna:.. for s...*mumbles* is there anybody else that we can expect to see?
25:50 - Al: You can expect to see other people but right now there will be just, there's no blog and announcements of other actors, celebrities that will be uh joining, joining the game uh, the uh uh, to be clear, you know, SsScotty will be in the game but its actually voiced by his son, Chris Doohan who does dead-on Scotty so hes and and, you know, I've never been a fan of bringing in sound-a-likes for uh...
26:18 - Kenna: Yeah.
26:18 - Al:... for any of the characters it's something that I always avoided but I think in this case its, uh uh, ok it's acceptable because it is his son and he has passed, you'know James died several years ago and since he's passed and it's his son and his son does a really good job of emulating him I think and I hope that that the community will love and and accept that but normally I wouldn't get a, I wouldn't get a sound alike. So he will be joining and Walter Koenig will be joining and we will have several other, we also announced that Chase Masterson will be returning...
26:48 - Kenna: Yup.
26:48 - Al:... and um will have some other that we'll be announcing, don't think we've announced anybody else yet so, so over the next few weeks you'll you'll see some announcements on that.
26:56 - Kenna: What, what does Chase Masterson have to do with the Original Series era? *laughs* Cause this is something that confused me a little bit but...
27:03 - Al: It is confusing, you'll have to just noodle on that for a little bit. *Kenna Laughs and Elija aaws* I think that if you kinda look back into Trek and and into STO into our trek if you're really wise maybe you can start putting some pieces together, but hopefully we'll just surprise you...
27:17 - Kenna: Hmm, ok well...
27:17 - Al:... but it will makes sense, we're not shoehorning it in, right, *Kenna and Al talk over each other* we've done uh uh no I mean we we we, I mean, we were like *Cylons?* and we were planning this stuff for for *Kenna: "ooh geez"* for over a year, right, and and starting way back with uh with with uh with with nine point, ten, nine point five and you know when when the krenim and then then then we introduced new dawn and we had we had the mirror universe invasion and so we are like setting the little stag, the little pieces up and then um um and er'll they'll hopefully it will be a nice nice payoff and see how it all starts to come together and when we start to put it together with the anniversary episode and now eleven five is Na'kuhl episode and so so it's all little pieces *Kenna talks over Al*
28:06 - Kenna: See this is exciting, um um gonna have to play all of last two years worth of content and write down ... *Al: excelnt* anything seems non-sequitur and go *Al laughs* "Right! What does it mean!" like a big conspiracy theory.
28:21 - Al: Yeah, it'll be hard to find exactly what it is but yeah there's there's its uh nothing has been you know arbitrary, its not like we just "oh this is great, let's just throw in Chase Masterson cause we like her" it's just no it's just, yeah we do like her and when we get an actor who is really engaged with us we want to use them as much as we can but uh ... ok this is ok this is working out, lets see, lets write a good story to make sure it makes sense and we just dont want to squeese her in into a TOS expansion, how did that make any sense, but there's also a lot of clues in you know tv series, everything we do when it comes to story we try to levrege threads or favorite stories from the show and try to put them and try to finish thoes stories or do some sort of prequel or 'sidequel?' or...
*Everyone laughs about the word "sidequel"
29:12 - Al: Sequel, prequel, sidequel, and tide thoes together, so, so yeah so yeah I understand the conclusion about Chase but it's not arbitrary.
29:24 - Kenna: Ok, um, well, um, that seems like a really good time for us to ask a community questions for our listeners, so this week community question is...
29:34 - *community question music queues*
29:35 - Kenna: "What characters from the Original Series or possibly any other series do you hope will turn up in the new expansion"
29:42 - Al: That's an excelent question, but you asked one of your other questions I kinda cover over was was what can if there anything about the story that I can tell you and obviously I cant tell you anything about the story other than that they will, if you watch the trailer, um for for 'Agents of Yesterday' you'll see some of the content we are making and and when and when we were planning this um we wanted to make sure what are some of the most memorable things from TOS and there's a lot, right, there's a lot more than we can ever, than we can ever cover, but which ones of these, it was actually really had to write this story because its its everything on TOS wraps up real tightly, nice bow, there's not a lot of dangling threads like they do in the later shows so trying to find ones that made a lot of sense were were was challenging but we wanted, what were the really iconic moments, locations and characters or villans so um we see, if you watch the trailer you see Vasquez rock, Vaquez rock is there...
30:52 - Kenna: That's that's what I was going to say, thats some of the best that I picked up from the trailer, I was like "yaaaaaaay" *kenna laughs*
30:56 - Al: I mean we had to, right, we had to do that so, we need, we want to try and try to capture those moments and and and try to make you feel like you know you're in that era, we could just make up our own story but its just, you know, if its not touching base with that, with with with the show, and revisiting ico...some of those moments or emotions, it's just not gonna work it just feel like we are just doing our own thing, and its like writing a book but different when writing a game, a lot of people want to experience all those... that that that's about all I can tell you about the story, that its gonna be very, its going to resonate with TOS fans.
- - - - -
31:40 - Winters?: So I think we'll go back to the TOS faction idea, what does a TOS faction mean, what species could be expected to be available?
31:48 - Al: Anything that makes sense for TOS is not Federation, so you're not going to see Bajorans or Ferengi, uh uh uh, but you can expect to see any of the, any any race that made sense for that era so you know, your four founding race; Human, Vulcan, obviously, and and probably Andorian and Tellarite. um, but um, you're not going to see Cardassians, we're not going to break the timelines, thats thats who you saw, most of the races back then were very very human-like there werent a lot of nose-bridges or eyebrow pieces back then, they just wore different clothes, but um, so so you're you're, there will be a limited set of starting races. But they will be they TOS like. right if you see if you see in the trailer, where you can see Andorians and Tellarites their dressed very differently. They're dressed like they were on the shows.
32:42 - Kenna: So you wont be able to, in this faction, play as a Klingon or Romulan?
32:48 - Al: No, there's there's some questions about that, we we, can you play the Klingon Emp... well you cant play the Klingon or as Romulan joining the Federation that's just that's just not going to happen and we're not doing three expansions were TOS Federation, TOS Romulan, TOS Klingon... I mean thats thats basically, thats three times the work and TOS was always about Federation, yes we so Romulans and Klingons but they never even started really to dealt deep into Klingon culture until TNG, we don't know anything about what Klingons, we know very little about Klingon Culture, what their home world was like, what anything was like, so were having to make a lot of stuff up. And I get that people might to play in that era, i get that but we already got enough people go don't play Klingons in our 2409 era, so um, but that's why we went ahead and made content that was available for everybody as well in this expansion, so its not just for this Faction, so everyone gets to play but its content that its related to that faction.
33:50 - Kenna: Is it fair to say that we have, probably a blog post coming out eventually that will have more details on exactly who you can play as because I know, there are quite a few players that like to kinda, pre-plan a new toon (character) you know their backstory, who they are and what they look like and what their ship is going to be called etc etc I know that a lot of people would appreciate having some details of what they can expect to create in that new character creation.
34:18 - Al: Yeah, I promise you that we are going to have a lot of details coming out so so so that wont be a surprise and and then its going to go under tribble and people can check it out you know some of the stuff out ahead of time just like we did the last expansions, so uh, so yeah. There wont be, as more and more information, then im happy to come back on and clarify the last remaining details but um uh we will not be shy about releasing some blogs, I think at least twice a week of releasing a blog if not more about uh, about this expansion.
34:54 - Winters?: So going for the mention about new players coming in and starting with everyone else and leveling up to level 60; What happens when these new characters from the TOS get to level 60, will they be able to access the end-game content the same and what about future story content?
35:10 - Al: That's a, that's a really good question, wel... I I I'm not going to get too much into details hows thats going to work uh, I can tell you if you're if you're familiar with 'Legacy of Romulus' thats one way we did it in 'Legacy of Romulus' so we've got way too much content and and this is not a separate game, so I don't want people think that if you're going to play TOS faction that you're just going to be in the TOS world and that we are going to make all our, we're going to make hundreds of hours worth of content for the TOS expansion and and make, and have all its own separate queues and were gonna be bifurcating the community, that's just that's just silly. Thats not viable, its not sustainable, that's not good business, it would be great but then might as well just make a separate game, uh, at that point. We actually thought; "hmmmm should we make a TOS game, uuuh maybe we'll do that " but that's, you know, Star Trek Online is doing way too well to be competing with itself so we're just going to put that here and so uh, but because we're not making a separate game, TOS players will in some form get, at some point able to play most of the content that is available to the rest of the uh the rest of the players, its just its just the only answer to that, um, otherwise we're just splitting the community, were not doing that. So um, um, so if you're familiar with 'Legacy of Romulus' you can you can look at that that is that's a possible way we might do that.
36:35 - Winters?: Well that's just a neat little Segway into sorta the next thing we were thinking, thinking of the fleet system, will this be related to the Romulan faction, will you potentially need to choose a side to access your content, will the players have to be aligned with the twenty four oh nine feds, and what about fleet starbases and sorta things?
36:35 - Al: Well I I I I don't think I can reall y explain it anymore than I just did without getting into more details that im that im prepared to say and I apologize there a there's a end on how we are going to released certain amounts of information but uh uh so I I don't think I can really say say much more than that, you know eventually, you know, TOS players will eventually have access to to uh it it wont be separated from the rest of the community, you know, at at at first they, um, you're gonna be be TOS player and then at some you'll be able to access same content that/of everyone else and be integrated in the community and so that would include queues as well as faction and that's that's about all I can probably say right now.

thetanine · May 2016

REPOSTING to get RID OF the HORIZONTAL SCROLL BAR in the SPOILER.

Kenna - Priority One Podcast Host
Elijah - Priority One Podcast Host
Winters - Priority One Podcast Co-host
Al - Star Trek Online Lead Designer

Comrademoco - Transcriber xD (I had nothing better to do today soooo... yeah.. You're welcome! xD)

Interview Starts at 16:10mins into the Podcast

16:10 - Elijah: Now it's time to time warp to the 1960's or... *clear throat* the 23rd Century with Star Trek Online's Lead Designer Al 'Captain Geko' Rivera.

16:20 - *Interview music plays*

16:34 - Kenna: Well captains the team at Priority One this week has mostly been squeeeeing over the latest big announcement, HUGE announcement from Star Trek Online. Now if you missed it, they just announced that expansion three is coming, eminently, and it's called 'Agents of Yesterday,' so, to help us out this week and talk about it, we've got a very special interview with Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al Rivera aka 'Captain Geko' Welcome back Al!

17:02 - Al: Hey, Squeeeeeeee!

17:04 - Kenna: Squeeeeeeee!

17:05 - Al: Thank you for having me back.

17:06 - *all laugh*

17:07 - Kenna: Well it's good to have you here.

17:08 - Al: Yeah it's great to be back and talking about this today, very excited, I've been holding this is in for so long.

17:13 - Kenna: Oh I bet you have!

17:14 - Al: Yeah!

17:14 - Kenna: Um, So um... Let's let's just start off, just in case anyone out there hasn't heard of what's going on, can you just give us a quick ten seconds of memory of what 'Agents of Yesterday' is all about?

17:26: - Al: Yeah sure, 10 seconds, soooo, Agents of Yesterday, um, is our latest expansion for Star Trek online celebrating the 50th anniversary of 'Star Trek' and there will be a new uh uh, this expansion will be a new uh I *struggles to think* we're struggling with the word faction but effectively a new faction that is a TOS starting experience (transcriber note: The 10 seconds passed -_- its now 20secs in) where you can play a TOS, in the TOS era as a TOS captain and and we're building all those assets and bringing that experience um sometime this year I don't think we've announced the date.

18:00 - Kenna: Ok, um so, what we've done today is I got a couple of points that were announced in the blog post announcing this whole expansion and I wanted to talk through a few of them, um so, my first question is; So this is an expansion as opposed to like a new season...

18:17 - Al: yes

18:17 - Kenna...and maybe this is a noobie question: What makes it an expansion?

18:20 - Al: That's a good, that's a fair question, difference between an expansion and a season, the first thing is usually sheer volume of stuff that goes into a season. There is always a lot more content in any sea... excuse me, than expansion. I think I got mixed up already! In an expansion there is always a lot more content, and a Season there's usually uh, there's usually one or two major, maybe three, you know episodes within...

18:43 - Al:.. a season...

18:43 - Kenna: Mhm!

18:43 - Al:... an expansion usually has a lot more. So our last two expansions 'Delta Rising' and and uh and 'Legacy of Romulus' had, oh I dont know, about a dozen episodes or so...

18:54 - Kenna: Mhm!

18:54 - Al: Um, I can't even remember exactly how many both were able to get, they're usually heavily themed and in general, about, well we've only had two, this is our third one, but in general uh uh a season or expansion, excuse me, and expansion usually focuses on like a new faction, for new experience and usually targeted for new acquisitions...

19:17 - Kenna: Mhm!

19:18 - Al:... or something really epic end game more like 'Delta Rising' which was a level cap increase and really focusing on retention in existing players.. um.. so there's usually something really big about them that is more than just, more of the same? with a little bit of something new...

19:33 - Kenna: ok!

19:33 - Al:... is something really big and so, uh, indifferent, If you remember 'Legacy of Romulus' was playable Romulans, whole new style of ships that had singularity drives, whole brand new arc, lot of celebrities and and then 'Delta Rising'... umh, huge ammount of celebrities all focusing on voyager and it was a level cap increase, we introduced tier six ships and ships traits and and, uh, and all that, it's a whole new mechanic there...

20:05 - Kenna: Mhm!

20:05 - Al:... the big thing being the level cap increase... and so in this in this expansion the major thing we're announcing is, obviously is, you know, TOS, an entirely different era, uh, for the game, all new ships, right, TOS ships, starting as a TOS, as a character in the TOS era and it's a new player experience, like a new faction, so it's really, so its attractable so anybody can come in and start from scratch and it's, you know, time to... it's really fun when there's a new faction because new players can come in and not be intimidated by: "well everyone's already level sixty and theyre end game so I'm gonna be by myself" that could be intimidating. Everyone get's to start at the same starting experience when you have and expansion like that.

20:42 - Kenna: Ok cool! Well, let's uh, let's talk a little about about the TOS aspect of it, obviously this is, there's a lot of the original series love in the announcement, in the feel of it, the blog post talks about it's being set after the third season of the original series so this is after original series has ended.

20:04 - Al: Yes, that's not before that, it's not during, it's after and so it kinda takes place during the years of the animated series, but it's question whether the animated series is actually canon, if you ask, originally CBS said the animated series is canon but Roddenberry said it wasn't, and so Roddenberry counts in my book but we draw upon the animated series once in a while, but that takes place in twenty two seventy, where the, uh uh eh, the TOS happens and ends in twenty two sixty nine, so we're picking up at twenty two seventy. And the movies actually happened in like twenty two seventy three so so the, surprising everyone really aged and got a lot new technology in three years in in the timelines. A lot happened in that timeline...

21:41 - Kenna: Yeah!

21:41 - Al:... but say, yeah, we're happening right after that so so. All the events Kirk have have, uh, have happened when we start.

21:48 - Kenna: Well well I wanted to talk about how this is gonna fit in with out existing storyline. So, um, first question, has the 'Future Proof' arc ended now?...

22:00 - Al: No!

22:00 - Kenna:... or are we continuing to...

22:00 - Al: 'Future Proof' arc is is just the beginning of of, of this and so if you rememb... and and you know, if you remember, from the end of the the, the end of the last episode which we...*mumbles* blog in my mind, the Na'kuhl episode ended with all the Na'kuhl going back in time and we're gonna need help, right, so that's kinda like kicking off the story, so that story...as a matter of fact there will actually be more episodes added to the 'Future Proof' um um arc, that mission category, there will be more missions added to that, so so they're they're inter-connected.

22:44 - Kenna: Ok!
22:44 - Al: They're separate but inter-connected.

22:45 - Kenna: So presumably, where it says that: 'There's this new thread invading with hopes of overwhelming the past to destroy our future' that's that's the Na'kuhl, isn't it?

22:56 - Al: Probably has something to do largely with the Na'kuhl but maybe not only have anything to do with the Na'kuhl.

22:59 - Kenna: Ok ok ok ok. So you can't tell us exactly but the way it's worded sounds like its going to be Na'kuhl cause you've kinda let us into with the last...

23:07 - Al: Sure! I mean, we just had an episode where you know we know the Na'kuhl went to the Enterprise era and try to change **** Germany, you know, try to change the journey from from the Star Trek Enterprise and and we just told you that the Na'kuhl all these ships made it through the time portal and are trying to modify the past and so that's our springboard...

23:23 - Kenna: Ok!
23:23 - Al: But we also know that there are events that happened, you know, in the anniversary episode, that were really *mumbles* that were all one arc.

23:30 - Kenna: Well true and then we got, we've had a couple of um, great fiction blogs that have come out, what is it, hehe, one of Sulu's ancestors defeating a Na'Kuhl in the past and a uh uh a couple of things like that, so um, they're all gonna tied together aren't they? Let's be honest!

23:45 - Al: Ah, a lot of stuff is gonna tied together. That's that's that's that's for sure.

23:50 - Kenna: Ok. Now with this um, with this new, quote on quote "Faction" "Semi-Faction" "Sudo-Faction" whatever it is...
23:56 - Al: *interrupts Kenna* it is, it is, it is a new faction...
23:59 - Kenna: Yeah.
23:59 - Al: as much as... we were coy about calling it a new faction in the press release, there were just some marketing concerns about the connotations of it, but it's it's at least much of a, AT LEAST, much as new faction as Romulans was a new faction
24:14 - Kenna: Alright.
24:15 - Al: So, I mean it is it is, it's just, it just technically still Federation, right? You're you're Federation from twenty two seventy instead of Federation from twenty four oh nine, so it's a new faction, new starting experience and its own arc and its own content specifically for them.

24:32 - Kenna: Ok, we'll talk about the faction and all that bits and pieces and what all that means in just a second but I want to focus on the story because its says on the blog we're going to have a new story arc that's available to everyone and then presumably there's a, like a tutorial that is the TOS based one, so there's a two separate thing, presumably?

24:51 - Al: Yes, so the TOS faction will it's own Tutorial, it's own starting experience, it's own sector block, it's own quadrant if you will and its own and its own story arc that will be available to only the...and then there will be additional story arcs that are part of the, that are part of the TOS quest story arc that all players will be able to have access, so all factions will be play it but um they'll probably get different dialogue, different dialogue if you're a TOS faction because its more specific for you but just like the future proof arc its its uh everyone will be able to have access to it and its kinda, they're kinda connected.

25:26 - Kenna: Ok...
25:26 - Al: So little bit fre...something for existing players, something for, you know, content for end-game and and buts its own individual arc for the TOS faction.

25:37 - Kenna: Ok, Can you tell us anything about the storyline that will be coming up, maybe, we'e we've already had announced that Scotty will be there and Chekov as well...
25:46 - Al: Yes! *mumbles*
25:46 - Kenna:.. for s...*mumbles* is there anybody else that we can expect to see?

25:50 - Al: You can expect to see other people but right now there will be just, there's no blog and announcements of other actors, celebrities that will be uh joining, joining the game uh, the uh uh, to be clear, you know, SsScotty will be in the game but its actually voiced by his son, Chris Doohan who does dead-on Scotty so hes and and, you know, I've never been a fan of bringing in sound-a-likes for uh...
26:18 - Kenna: Yeah.
26:18 - Al:... for any of the characters it's something that I always avoided but I think in this case its, uh uh, ok it's acceptable because it is his son and he has passed, you'know James died several years ago and since he's passed and it's his son and his son does a really good job of emulating him I think and I hope that that the community will love and and accept that but normally I wouldn't get a, I wouldn't get a sound alike. So he will be joining and Walter Koenig will be joining and we will have several other, we also announced that Chase Masterson will be returning...
26:48 - Kenna: Yup.
26:48 - Al:... and um will have some other that we'll be announcing, don't think we've announced anybody else yet so, so over the next few weeks you'll you'll see some announcements on that.

26:56 - Kenna: What, what does Chase Masterson have to do with the Original Series era? *laughs* Cause this is something that confused me a little bit but...
27:03 - Al: It is confusing, you'll have to just noodle on that for a little bit. *Kenna Laughs and Elija aaws* I think that if you kinda look back into Trek and and into STO into our trek if you're really wise maybe you can start putting some pieces together, but hopefully we'll just surprise you...
27:17 - Kenna: Hmm, ok well...
27:17 - Al:... but it will makes sense, we're not shoehorning it in, right, *Kenna and Al talk over each other* we've done uh uh no I mean we we we, I mean, we were like *Cylons?* and we were planning this stuff for for *Kenna: "ooh geez"* for over a year, right, and and starting way back with uh with with uh with with nine point, ten, nine point five and you know when when the krenim and then then then we introduced new dawn and we had we had the mirror universe invasion and so we are like setting the little stag, the little pieces up and then um um and er'll they'll hopefully it will be a nice nice payoff and see how it all starts to come together and when we start to put it together with the anniversary episode and now eleven five is Na'kuhl episode and so so it's all little pieces *Kenna talks over Al*
28:06 - Kenna: See this is exciting, um um gonna have to play all of last two years worth of content and write down ... *Al: excelnt* anything seems non-sequitur and go *Al laughs* "Right! What does it mean!" like a big conspiracy theory.

28:21 - Al: Yeah, it'll be hard to find exactly what it is but yeah there's there's its uh nothing has been you know arbitrary, its not like we just "oh this is great, let's just throw in Chase Masterson cause we like her" it's just no it's just, yeah we do like her and when we get an actor who is really engaged with us we want to use them as much as we can but uh ... ok this is ok this is working out, lets see, lets write a good story to make sure it makes sense and we just dont want to squeese her in into a TOS expansion, how did that make any sense, but there's also a lot of clues in you know tv series, everything we do when it comes to story we try to levrege threads or favorite stories from the show and try to put them and try to finish thoes stories or do some sort of prequel or 'sidequel?' or...

*Everyone laughs about the word "sidequel"

29:12 - Al: Sequel, prequel, sidequel, and tide thoes together, so, so yeah so yeah I understand the conclusion about Chase but it's not arbitrary.

29:24 - Kenna: Ok, um, well, um, that seems like a really good time for us to ask a community questions for our listeners, so this week community question is...
29:34 - *community question music queues*
29:35 - Kenna: "What characters from the Original Series or possibly any other series do you hope will turn up in the new expansion"
29:42 - Al: That's an excelent question, but you asked one of your other questions I kinda cover over was was what can if there anything about the story that I can tell you and obviously I cant tell you anything about the story other than that they will, if you watch the trailer, um for for 'Agents of Yesterday' you'll see some of the content we are making and and when and when we were planning this um we wanted to make sure what are some of the most memorable things from TOS and there's a lot, right, there's a lot more than we can ever, than we can ever cover, but which ones of these, it was actually really had to write this story because its its everything on TOS wraps up real tightly, nice bow, there's not a lot of dangling threads like they do in the later shows so trying to find ones that made a lot of sense were were was challenging but we wanted, what were the really iconic moments, locations and characters or villans so um we see, if you watch the trailer you see Vasquez rock, Vaquez rock is there...
30:52 - Kenna: That's that's what I was going to say, thats some of the best that I picked up from the trailer, I was like "yaaaaaaay" *kenna laughs*
30:56 - Al: I mean we had to, right, we had to do that so, we need, we want to try and try to capture those moments and and and try to make you feel like you know you're in that era, we could just make up our own story but its just, you know, if its not touching base with that, with with with the show, and revisiting ico...some of those moments or emotions, it's just not gonna work it just feel like we are just doing our own thing, and its like writing a book but different when writing a game, a lot of people want to experience all those... that that that's about all I can tell you about the story, that its gonna be very, its going to resonate with TOS fans.

- - - - -

31:40 - Winters?: So I think we'll go back to the TOS faction idea, what does a TOS faction mean, what species could be expected to be available?

31:48 - Al: Anything that makes sense for TOS is not Federation, so you're not going to see Bajorans or Ferengi, uh uh uh, but you can expect to see any of the, any any race that made sense for that era so you know, your four founding race; Human, Vulcan, obviously, and and probably Andorian and Tellarite. um, but um, you're not going to see Cardassians, we're not going to break the timelines, thats thats who you saw, most of the races back then were very very human-like there werent a lot of nose-bridges or eyebrow pieces back then, they just wore different clothes, but um, so so you're you're, there will be a limited set of starting races. But they will be they TOS like. right if you see if you see in the trailer, where you can see Andorians and Tellarites their dressed very differently. They're dressed like they were on the shows.

32:42 - Kenna: So you wont be able to, in this faction, play as a Klingon or Romulan?

32:48 - Al: No, there's there's some questions about that, we we, can you play the Klingon Emp... well you cant play the Klingon or as Romulan joining the Federation that's just that's just not going to happen and we're not doing three expansions were TOS Federation, TOS Romulan, TOS Klingon... I mean thats thats basically, thats three times the work and TOS was always about Federation, yes we so Romulans and Klingons but they never even started really to dealt deep into Klingon culture until TNG, we don't know anything about what Klingons, we know very little about Klingon Culture, what their home world was like, what anything was like, so were having to make a lot of stuff up. And I get that people might to play in that era, i get that but we already got enough people go don't play Klingons in our 2409 era, so um, but that's why we went ahead and made content that was available for everybody as well in this expansion, so its not just for this Faction, so everyone gets to play but its content that its related to that faction.

33:50 - Kenna: Is it fair to say that we have, probably a blog post coming out eventually that will have more details on exactly who you can play as because I know, there are quite a few players that like to kinda, pre-plan a new toon (character) you know their backstory, who they are and what they look like and what their ship is going to be called etc etc I know that a lot of people would appreciate having some details of what they can expect to create in that new character creation.

34:18 - Al: Yeah, I promise you that we are going to have a lot of details coming out so so so that wont be a surprise and and then its going to go under tribble and people can check it out you know some of the stuff out ahead of time just like we did the last expansions, so uh, so yeah. There wont be, as more and more information, then im happy to come back on and clarify the last remaining details but um uh we will not be shy about releasing some blogs, I think at least twice a week of releasing a blog if not more about uh, about this expansion.

34:54 - Winters?: So going for the mention about new players coming in and starting with everyone else and leveling up to level 60; What happens when these new characters from the TOS get to level 60, will they be able to access the end-game content the same and what about future story content?

35:10 - Al: That's a, that's a really good question, wel... I I I'm not going to get too much into details hows thats going to work uh, I can tell you if you're if you're familiar with 'Legacy of Romulus' thats one way we did it in 'Legacy of Romulus' so we've got way too much content and and this is not a separate game, so I don't want people think that if you're going to play TOS faction that you're just going to be in the TOS world and that we are going to make all our, we're going to make hundreds of hours worth of content for the TOS expansion and and make, and have all its own separate queues and were gonna be bifurcating the community, that's just that's just silly. Thats not viable, its not sustainable, that's not good business, it would be great but then might as well just make a separate game, uh, at that point. We actually thought; "hmmmm should we make a TOS game, uuuh maybe we'll do that " but that's, you know, Star Trek Online is doing way too well to be competing with itself so we're just going to put that here and so uh, but because we're not making a separate game, TOS players will in some form get, at some point able to play most of the content that is available to the rest of the uh the rest of the players, its just its just the only answer to that, um, otherwise we're just splitting the community, were not doing that. So um, um, so if you're familiar with 'Legacy of Romulus' you can you can look at that that is that's a possible way we might do that.

36:35 - Winters?: Well that's just a neat little Segway into sorta the next thing we were thinking, thinking of the fleet system, will this be related to the Romulan faction, will you potentially need to choose a side to access your content, will the players have to be aligned with the twenty four oh nine feds, and what about fleet starbases and sorta things?

36:35 - Al: Well I I I I don't think I can reall y explain it anymore than I just did without getting into more details that im that im prepared to say and I apologize there a there's a end on how we are going to released certain amounts of information but uh uh so I I don't think I can really say say much more than that, you know eventually, you know, TOS players will eventually have access to to uh it it wont be separated from the rest of the community, you know, at at at first they, um, you're gonna be be TOS player and then at some you'll be able to access same content that/of everyone else and be integrated in the community and so that would include queues as well as faction and that's that's about all I can probably say right now.

comrademoco · May 2016

reason I posted in code and spoiler was because it wasn't fully transcribed and thus I needed more editing and more time... they bloody take for ever took me around 6hrs to transcribe all that... 0.0 its probably gonna take me another 8-10hrs to transcribe the rest...

Hardest part to transcribe is when Geko talks... oh my...

tylermaxwell · May 2016

Is the new Star Trek series enough for you to subscribe to CBS All Access… if not – what could they offer you that would sweeten the deal?
Probably nothing. Really, as much as I'm looking forward to the new series, it's still only one show on their platform; I'm not gonna subscribe to yet another on demand subscription service for just one show. And the draw of the CBS back catalog of current shows and oldies isn't enough to tip the balance back in their favor; either I already watch said show on the TV or don't care. It just feels like CBS is expecting consumers to treat All Access like Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu/etc. as they are now, instead of when they were in their infancy. Except those other services didn't just start out as big successes, they had to build up their audience base over years. Take Hulu for instance: Hulu, championed by the other 3 major U.S. networks (ABC, NBC, FOX) was available for free for years before they even starting offering a subscription model.

I think that's the only sensible way forward for All Access: make it free/only ad-revenue for a number of years while they build up a catalog of original-content shows that gradually generate a dedicated viewer base; it's not like CBS couldn't afford to do that if they really wanted to. Then, when the platform shows that it can sustain a sufficient audience, phase in a modest subscription model; consumers are happy to pay for their favorite content, once the product has proven that it is worth the cost.

And from our interview with Al Rivera: What characters from TOS do you hope will turn up in Star Trek Online’s new expansion?
OK, now I have to say it: Where's Sulu? And don't say "On Earth Spacedock", that's just one of his many great-great-grandsons (Where did he find the time?). I'm talking about Hikaru Sulu, the scientist, the helmsman, one day captain in his own right, that lovable D'Artagnan-emulating swashbuckler. We'll likely be visiting the bridge of the Enterprise at some point, and it just won't be the same without him at the conn.

I also wonder if we might be able to get Lieutenant M'Ress ("PURR-rr-rrRR!") and the Edosian Lieutenant Arex from The Animated Series, which should probably take place around the same time as the new expansion anyways. It may not necessarily be canon, but enough of it has been referenced in canon (Caitians and some of the Vulcan stuff for example) that it might as well be. Except for the Megas-Tu stuff...maybe leave that out. *Cue 'Magic Hands' emote*

TOS Tactical/Security Uniforms - Red or Gold? (Confusing web picture not included )
A note on TOS uniforms: I think "Tactical Department" personnel are treated differently from "Security" personnel, at least as far as outfits go. Now obviously the "Security" guys wear whatever the Engineering/Operations uniform is (Red in TOS/Gold in TNG), so the "Command" uniform should only be seen on Command personnel (namely the Captain and some of the bridge crew), right? But we see a bit of a disconnect with this in the series': TOS had plenty of Gold shirts walking around who weren't Kirk or the helmsman or navigator, while the TNG-era had lots of Red "Command" shouldered personnel on-board even though technically those should only be the captain, first officer, and maybe the pilots. Heck, even DS9 had plenty of 'Red shoulder' extras on-board despite there being next to nothing else to pilot or command; so what are all those other Command people doing?

My thought is that the other "Command" guys are actually "Tactical" personnel, those not responsible for ship security, but instead in charge of the ship's own spaceborne offensive/defensive systems. (Sure, Worf and Tuvok were Tactical officers, but they were "Security Chiefs" foremost, so they wear the Ops uniform.) This is kinda reflected in TOS: In one of the episodes where the Enterprise is taken over, I think either "Space Seed" with Khan or the one with the hippies, the Phaser Control room was shown along with a number of 'Command Gold' wearing personnel, presumably the Phaser operators who would actually align and fire the weapons on orders and targeting information from the bridge. There are likely a number of Phaser and Torpedo Control rooms aboard a starship, probably all manned by "Tactical" crew members.

So that's my solution to the uniform situation: "Tactical" wears what Command wears, while "Security" personnel wear the Operations uniform. As far as that goes for the new TOS-themed expansion, that would mean that explicitly labeled Security Guards NPCs, as well as the NPC spawns from the Security Team power, should be Redshirts, while "Tactical" personnel, including the Captain and anyone involved with the ship's weapons and defenses like Tactical Bridge Officers, wear Gold shirts.

[PODCAST] Priority One Podcast 269 | Agents of Yesterday with Al Rivera

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