Gamespot recently got an exclusive look at 3 new screenshots for Star Trek Online and more in depth detail about character creation and gameplay.

Apparently, there will be a bit more to creating a new character than just choosing starting clothes and how big your character's eyebrows will be. All new characters will be able to choose from an array of low-ranking starter ships to command, as well as a bridge officer and crew. Your bridge officer will be a computer-controlled character--not unlike a "pet" in other massively multiplayer games--which will, like your character, gain experience levels and new items over the course of your career.

When you decide to beam down, it'll always be in an away team of five characters--yourself and any combination of up to four computer-controlled crew members and/or up to four other player characters. Depending on the mission, you may wish to vary up your away team composition to include officers with different specialties, such as field medicine, tactical operations, or engineering (though there's no word yet on whether computer-controlled crew members will all wear red shirts).

And for your own character, and your crew, the game will offer what executive producer Craig Zinkievich refers to as "total customization" for each character, including each one's appearance and away team equipment. This isn't surprising coming from a studio that made a name for itself with the powerful character customization tools of City of Heroes. Among other options, you'll be able to create characters from such races as humans, Vulcans (the race of Mr. Spock's father), Bajorans (the race to which Major Kira Nerys from the Deep Space Nine TV show belonged), Klingons, and Gorn (a race of tall, lizard-like humanoids--William Shatner's Captain Kirk character grappled with one in the original Star Trek episode, Arena). To make allowances for the fact that the universe is indeed enormous and that other, undiscovered life forms exist somewhere out there, the game will also feature an "alien race creator" tool that will let you create your own alien species to which your character can belong. (Source Gamespot)

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