Following the death of Praetor Shinzon at the Battle of Bassen Rift, the Romulan government fell into disarray. Tal'aura, one of the few remaining members of the Romulan Senate and a former ally of Shinzon, declares herself the new Praetor, supported by Fleet Commander Tomalak as the new leader of the Imperial Defense Force.

However, Tal'aura's leadership is opposed by Commander Donatra, who with the support of Commander Suran and former Admiral Braeg retains control of the majority of the Fifth and Third fleets. Any hope of a reconciliation between the two sides ends after the execution of Braeg, and Donatra vows never to accept Tal'aura's rule.

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.

In our first round of developer Q&As, we tackle community submitted questions about canon, customization, music, exploration and more. Thanks very much to Al "Captain Geko" Rivera and Craig "Zinc" Zinkievich for their answers!

Will Star Trek Online be considered canon in any respect? How much of the game will stick to the canon?

Al "Captain Geko" Rivera (lead designer): Every series and movie is considered canon, and we are staying very true to this in our development. Star Trek is rich with lore and history, and there is a great deal of material to build upon as we move into the 25th century with Star Trek Online. We are working with CBS to ensure that everything we create is true to Trek and makes sense.

We know that fans want to play Star Trek Online because they want to explore the Star Trek universe, and we are striving to deliver as authentic an experience as possible. Our team has seen all the shows and movies and we're watching them again every single day. We are also studying other soft canon resources such as novels and comics. From those, we are looking for inspiration and references to further enhance our game. Where it makes sense, we will include some soft canon elements in Star Trek Online as well.