The Star Trek Online team has posted an interesting update to the game's timeline that details the events of 2381. While it's a highly interesting read as far as lore is concerned, it also contains some information regarding a new class of starships.

On stardate 58839.03, Starfleet celebrates the start of construction of the USS Stargazer-A at the San Francisco Fleet Yards. The Stargazer-A and her sister ships will be the first of a new class of starships designed for scientific research and exploration.

The full post can be found here or below.

The "Ask Cryptic" column has returned to the news page of the Star Trek Online Web site with developers' answers to six questions.

Through the answers, we learn that melee weapons will be available to both factions, but Klingons will be more melee-oriented; players will be given full control of their ships in combat; players will definitely make contact with Romulans and the Dominion, as well as new races; players will be able to "mix and match" pieces of existing species and new parts to create custom species; and due to the political situation in 2409, it may not be possible for some races to be associated with both factions.

The full post can be found in its entirety here or below.

With Entertainment Weekly publishing a story and photos about J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie, the franchise is getting a lot of attention. While I'm very curious on the direction the Lost co-creator will take with the young Enterprise crew, I'm just as interested in Star Trek Online updates.

Cryptic Studios has posted an interview conducted by Star Trek Online.info with lead designer Al Rivera. Originally posted in German, STO.info has translated the interview into English. The questions focus on various topics, such as transportation, socialization and playable races.

Some planets or locations may be only accessible via a shuttle, but if you are asking if you will manually fly the shuttle through the atmosphere and land on the surface, then no.

The full interview can be found after the jump.

We reported late last month that the developers of Star Trek Online were focusing on character customization as a "hallmark feature" of the game. Well, Cryptic Studios has released three new screenshots, and one of them shows that the devs are true to their word.

The screenshots cover three major aspects of the game: space, land and characters. The space and land shots are nice, but don't really put the "Star Trek" in Star Trek Online. They're teasers, and that's fine. But the third one, simply put, makes me excited to play the game just to create a bridge full of unique characters. Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

View all the screenshots in our gallery or on the official Star Trek Online page.

Space may have been the final frontier when Gene Roddenberry's original "Star Trek" first aired in 1966, but Cryptic Studios' upcoming MMORPG will provide a new undiscovered country for Trekkies and Trekkers alike to explore using fully customizable characters.

In the newest "Ask Cryptic " dev blog, the development team focuses on character customization as a "hallmark feature" of the game. Players will have the ability to modify their characters' uniforms, as well as change their Bridge Officers' race, appearance, gender, name and physical appearance. I suggest refraining from dressing your characters in red shirts or your gaming experience may be short-lived.

Also, the team discussed the roles of Federation ship classes in the game.

Will ship roles be analogous to naval combat roles or will they be more like the party roles in other MMOs - will ships be cruisers or destroyers or they be tanks or healers?

Federation ship classes are inspired by the television shows. So, for example, you could have a ship like the Enterprise, the Defiant or the Voyager. We call the different classifications of ships Cruisers, Escorts and Science Vessels.

Cryptic has released another one of their "Ask Cryptic" dev blogs, this time answering your submitted questions about Star Trek Online .

Ask Cryptic returns with answers on story, space, psionics, society, ships and logs. Thanks very much to our development team for taking time out of their busy schedules to answer these!

Given that the story and character of Star Trek are almost iconic, how will the story element be delivered? Will there be voiceovers or cut scenes?

Star Trek Online takes place about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Voyager, in the year 2409. Many of the characters have retired, passed on or otherwise evolved. Certainly, some characters have very long lifespans, and many will have had children. Expect to see the descendants of some of your favorite characters, old enemies return and friends evolve. And definitely expect to visit familiar locations like Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, Deep Space 9, Qo'noS, Vulcan and many others, as well as strange and entirely new worlds.

You can read the whole thing right here .

The greatest podcast dedicated to Star Trek gaming, Hailing Frequency , has interviewed Cryptic Community Manager for STO, JR "Razor" Sutich , as well as Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert !

These interviews come just after the STO game play trailer and intro from Las Vegas !  If you'd rather read the info, then watch the video, you can check out the fact sheet posted at Binge Gamer .

Cryptic has posted three new screenies direct from the Star Trek Online gameplay trailer in their STO screenshots gallery .  Screenshots get you all excited? Start talking about them (or anything else STO-related) in our forums .

The folks over at Cryptic have blessed us with a beautiful gift; the first official trailer for Star Trek Online . Behold, after the jump, over a minute and a half of pure gameplay footage.

In case you missed it in the webcast, Cryptic is holding a sweepstakes where you can win a copy of Star Trek Online , as well as a free LIFETIME subscription to the game. The contest ends August 17th, so head on over and sign up right away. You can enter the contest at the official Star Trek Online website .