Ok, this is the list of details for the game itself:
General gameplay:
There will be a lot of references to familiar storylines and characters, and certainly some familiar locations, but mainly this is supposed to be your experience.
At launch, you'll be a member of either Starfleet or the Klingon Defense Force, but other factions may be added later on, such as "the Dominion and the Romulans". Privateering may be possible later on.
You might not be able to play a Klingon Starfleet officer or a Human fighting for the Empire, but the character creator will allow you to create something similar.
With Starfleet, you start out with a ship of the Miranda configuration.
If your whole party is wiped out while you're doing a mission, you should be able to pick up where you left off. You won't lose your ship when it's destroyed.
You shouldn't have to play for hours on end to be competitive.
You don't have to be a Trek-fan to enjoy this game, but you'll learn a lot about Star Trek in the process.
Where possible, the game will provide non-violent ways to resolve conflicts.
Time travel may be in the game, but because each era requires a lot of work, it will be limited.
Crafting will be present in the sense that you can tinker with your systems.
Story:
The game takes place in the classical timeline, not in that of the 2009 movie. Source]
The game takes place in 2409; roughly 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis.
The Khitomer Accords are "long past". The Federation and the Klingons are at the verge of war with each other.
Gorn, Nausicaans and Orion are on the Klingon side. Humans, Vulcans, Bajorans, Andorians, Ferengi, and Tellarites are playable Federation races.
An ancient threat out of Star Trek canon will reemerge.
On top of being at war with the Federation, the Klingon Empire has annexed Romulan space, reclaiming Khitomer, and apparently entering into hostilities with the Gorn Hegemony.
The Romulan Empire is crumbling, as is the Cardassian Union. Romulus and Remus have been destroyed in an event that also killed the contemporary Praetor along with the ruling council of the Senate.
Bajor is on the way to Federation membership.
The production of mobile emitters and Soong-type androids is being researched into.
Combat:
Starship battles are tactical and slow-pace ("like tall ships"
; you will be able to give commands such as "Repair a hull breach on deck X" or "Reroute energy from engines to weapons".
Ground-based combat will be more fast-paced, with both melee and ranged attacks. Defensive options like using personal shields and ducking for cover will be available.
Tactics will probably not be just like traditional MMOG tactics, with tanks and buffers and so forth.
You can move around and fight in three dimensions, but often players will just naturally choose to keep fairly "level" during combat. Cryptic doesn't "want it to be a dogfight".
Customization:
There are familiar races to choose from, but you can also create your own.
You'll be able to edit "everything" about your character; check out the Character editor video!
You can "mix and match" features from already existing races when creating a new species, but there will also be a lot of original body parts available.
The species will be balanced, even when some would argue that canon suggests they should not be. So, for instance, Vulcans won't be just plain superior to Humans in every measurable sense.
When you select a faction, you cannot select a species from the other faction (for instance, playing an Orion in Starfleet will not be a pre-defined option). However, you can create that race in the character editor and call it whatever you want, no matter what faction you're with.
The character editor does not only allow you to determine what your species looks like, but also what abilities come with it.
At launch, all characters created will be humanoid.
When you've created the blueprint for a species, you can share it with your friends, so that they can create a character based on your design.
The three major careers are Engineering, Science and Tactical. There is a lot of customization within the career.
You will unlock different starship configurations that encompass several ships of similar design (for instance, the Miranda-class and Centaur-type ships have design traits in common that separate them from many other ships). You can modify all the different parts of the ship, and upgrade the various systems, but you will always be able to tell roughly what configuration it is based on (a Miranda-class variant always looks like a Miranda-class variant, as opposed to a modded Defiant). Here is a demonstration of this.
There are over a dozen of these configurations.
Your ship configuration determines which of your bridge officers can be active. For instance, an escort-type ship may have more Tactical officers on the bridge than a science ship.
There is additional diversity in ship customization on the Klingon side because the different species' (Klingons, Gorn, Orion, etc.) ships are very different from each other.
You can pick your ship name and registry number.
Uniforms can be customized to some extent.
In the future, players may get access to more of the tools, allowing them to create missions and the like.
Canon vs. Apocrypha:
The shows and films are law.
Non-canon sources - such as novels and comic books - will also be looked to for inspiration.
Every member of the team has to watch an entire series; some are reading the books.
Diplomacy:
A "vital part"; certainly something they're discussing.
Economy and crafting:
Trade will be flowing within the various factions and between them; the players will be "expediting this".
You will be competing for resources more than outright fighting other players for them.
Exploration and locations:
Space exploration takes place on different scales: Galaxy, sector and system.
On the galactic map, you can see what different sectors you can visit.
Upon selecting a sector, you will be taken to the sector map, where you will see a tactical overview of the sector, with information on the various systems you can visit. Click here for more details on this.
Once you have entered a particular system, you control your ship through 3D space from a third-person point of view.
Ship interiors will probably be limited to missions, at start, but hopefully at some point in time you'll be able to bring other players aboard to socialize with them.
The game takes place in outer space, onboard ships and planetside.
"Infinite exploration", with new worlds constantly being created by sophisticated software.
Technology and knowledge acquired through exploration will be "funneled back" to your faction. What faction benefits more from a civilization depends on how much "favor" they have with it.
Travel time will be "semi-realistic". There will be transwarp conduits and wormholes to help you traverse long distances faster.
You cannot enter warp at a whim within a star system; impulse is the norm. You can warp between planets within a system, however.
In the sector view, you will be able to choose a warp factor based on your Engineer's skills and the quality of your warp engines.
The environment will be built to encourage socialization; for instance, some travel routes will be better than others, thus increasing player density through those.
Many planetside environments will be instanced.
You can name stars and planets you discover.
TBC...
