Ever want to take a long walk on Betazed?  Or, maybe visit a specific part of Bajor?  Well, apparently, that's something you'll be able to do in Star Trek Online.  The contents of the latest Star Trek Online dev chat have been made available to us who missed out on the 14th.  This time the cryptic crew takes questions about away missions.

Q: t has been said that when you beam down it is only to a specific area. Can I fly to any of the canon planets, like Trill or Bajor and explore, or can I only do it if I am on a mission?

A: That's a good question. The answer is really a bit of both. There are an awful lot of planets in the game and some of them are tied directly to story lines or missions so you can't always get to them. But we absolutely have planets that you can (and will want to) visit whenever you want. You should definitely expect to be able to walk around on familiar...

...starbases and planets. (that was worth a continue line wasn't it?) :)

Q: Can you explain a little better how personal shields work? Do they stop everything or only energy weapons? Do they completely stop damage or only reduce it by a certain amount / percentage? And will they ever get so tough that we'll see characters tank repeated phaser hits?

A: Personal shields stop most incoming energy damage. About 10% bleeds through and the rest is absorbed by the shield. However physical attacks, like punched and knives, will penetrate shields more - so they can be more dangerous.

Some energy types can bypass low level shields entirely, so if you expect to go up against polaron weapons, you will need better shields. This is more or less how space works too.

Q: when you beam down to a planet would your ship still be in space or would it disappear?

A: Your ship will clean up, so other players would see it disappear. We want to make sure nothing bad can happen to you when you're actually on another map.

Q: 'd like to know about bridge officers during away missions and howthere xp is earned. I've read a cpl times that our bridge officers will lvl jus like our character. During away missions where you have other player characters will the bridge officers not used get xp...or will we have to flip flop what BO's we use in order to lvl them up if we're grouped more than soloing. Or are there xp/lvls earned a different way than our ma in character?

A: You will earn skill points for you Bridge Officer. These skill points are a pool that you can give to any of your Bridge Officers - even if you don't take them on missions. A Bridge Officer must have a certain amount of skillpoints in order to be promoted. (source Star Trek Online Forums)

Read the full post here on the Star Trek Online Forums.