If you’re wondering what I was so upset about the whole damn video…

The main plot of the game has been hanging since mid 2010. We’re going to be coming on the 2nd year anniversary of the date the game’s plot just ended, and now we get this statement saying that the Featured Episodes, the intended draw for both new and veteran Star Trek Online players, are likely a thing of the past.

The problem is, his statement implies that making FEs is prohibitively expensive, but he says this in the middle of a massive lottery promotion after stating that the previous such promotion brought in truckloads of money. So where the hell is the money going? What are players paying for if not the cost of the development and maintenance of Cryptic Studios online titles?!

And under these circumstances, how could the development staff at Cryptic possibly even still be considering a third playable faction, with all the content that would entail, when they allegedly can’t even afford to make faction agnostic content. Why not give people playable Romulan races or Romulan BOFFs?

It has been said that the development staff at Cryptic is focusing on Star Trek fans first and foremost, but what Star Trek fans want more than anything else at this point is a reason to continue playing. They don’t want time-gated events or more shiny stuff, they want to be told a compelling and entertaining story. And that seems to be the last thing Cryptic is willing to do.

Yes, the latest, and likely final, Featured Episode Series “The 2800″ was a fantastic and very personal story told through an engaging series of missions, and after the Year Of Hell, it felt like a godsend. But will it be another summer like 2011? Another massive content drought while the developers essentially plug their ears and hum to themselves while baiting legions of players with the promise that the game’s main plot will someday actually go somewhere?

I don’t know, and in all honesty, that sort of worries me.

You see, Star Trek Online isn’t the first Trek game I’ve played, there have been many, including a game called Bridge Commander. This game was loved by its modding community, despite throwing one hell of a temper tantrum whenever something was even the slightest bit out of place. Eventually, a group of BC’s best modders decided to start a little project.

It started as a total conversion of the game, but that eventually hit a massive snag. Literally half the things they wanted to do in the game were impossible to accomplish with what they had. But instead of calling the whole thing a wash, they instead decided to build their own game from scratch. Code, graphics, art assets, everything. That project was, and still is, called Star Trek: Excalibur.

Excalibur is intended as more than just a fangame, it’s purpose is to serve as an easily modable framework that won’t throw the hissy fits Bridge Commander would, that makes creating and integrating custom made models and assets far simpler. It’s intended as a fully customizable Star Trek experience.  In particular for those who decide to learn 3D modelling/texturing just to add their own creative vision, be that a new ship or other art asset, to the game, as I did for Starfleet Command back in the day. And even those who don’t have time to self teach these skills will soon find entire websites filled with converted community assets from games like Bridge Commander all the way to Star Trek Legacy. The sky will literally be the limit.

But what about the multitude of ships designed by Cryptic, ships like the Exeter, Odyssey, or Noble? Well here’s the thing, the Star Trek modding community is an enterprising lot, and re-imagined recreations of these ships are already finding their way into Bridge Commander. These are not straight ports of these models, they are scratch built models created by the incredibly talented BC modding community, and a mere conversion process away from being usable in Excalibur. For free.

And word on the grapevine is that Excalibur is finally nearing completion, with it’s release set for third quarter 2012.

The truth of the matter is simply this: the first timultuous months weren’t STO’s defining moment by far, neither was the first FE series, nor the Year Of Hell, or even the transition to Free To Play. Star Trek Online’s defining moment will come when Excalibur is released.

Many of STO’s audience arrived after long years of playing Bridge Commander and Starfleet Command, Elite Force and Armada, and many of them have at least some experience with modelling or texturing. When Excalibur debuts, a graphically gorgeous game that is not only free to play but free period, Cryptic will have to find some way to hang on to all of these Trek gaming veterans.

Even under the best of circumstances, Excalibur was always going to be a rough moment for the devs at Cryptic Studios.  And according to a poll taken during STOked’s live show on May 5th, which indicated great discontent with the current direction of the game, the circumstances are far from ideal.