A few months back I started a conversation with Thomas Marrone (@thomasthecat ) on Twitter about the process of starship design at Star Trek Online. I was interested in the details, the backstory and the collaborative effort involved in making vessels for the game.

Unfortunately while Twitter is immediate, 140 character responses leave a little too much to the imagination.

Given my sometimes sharp comments about #STO’s direction, the idea that I could get an official quote, let alone an interview seemed unreachable. So I asked nicely and Thomas pointed me to @LaughingTrendy with the idea of a short Q&A on the process of designing starships.

With Trendy’s amazing help and support, we got a list of complex multi-part questions approved and Thomas agreed to give them a look over on his holidays. I was hoping that we could put together a decent 800 word blog post, to highlight the efforts the team would make in preparing a ship for release.

Thomas sent back a response with thousands upon thousands of words.

As Trendy will tell you, going through a 400 word blog post for editing can take some time. There are multiple stages in the editing process. The amount Thomas sent was frankly unprecedented. It was going to take a lot of time to go through all the edits, so we decided that it might be better to break it up into 2-3 questions per post.

And we’re going to release the first article next Monday, September 28th 2015.

Week one is just a tad over 2000 words. We have the first article ready to go, with another almost ready for release. Trendy is working hard to have the last three edited for late October. So if you’re like myself and love to understand the process that brings our ships to the game, I certainly hope you’ll join us on this five-week in-depth journey.

Oh, and did I mention we’re going to give away some Starships?

How the Contest Works – up to 4 entries per username, per week.

With each blog post on Monday, you will have 24 hours in which to answer 2 questions. One question, based on on Thomas’s blog. The second question is about the community in Star Trek Online.

Correctly answer the first question, you will receive one entry.

Provide a submission for the second question, you will receive one additional entry. Note that your answer must be original, and not a cut & paste answer from another entrant. We will accept reworded versions 😉

Your answers can be in the form of a response to the Lootcritter blog post, or a forum post over at Cryptc (we’ll have a special thread for each week), or in the form of a tweet sent to @Lootcritter.

Details to what the ‘second question’ will be on the official ‘Contest Page’- coming this Friday.

BONUS ENTRIES: Every person who subscribes to The LootCritter blog, AND my Twitter feed will get one additional entry per week automatically. Yes, that 1 for each.

Winners will be announced through a random drawing on the Friday October 30th following the last post.

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Frequently Asked Questions (yup, that’s a thing)

Who can enter? – Anyone with a valid @username handle. That includes everyone except for the official entry keeper, and employees of Cryptic Studios. .

Where did the ships come from? – the ships are part of my personal stash; I was lucky and decided to share the wealth. –

Ships will be awarded in game, after 6 pm PST. I will not mail them . I will take a screen shot of the transaction.

. I will take a screen shot of the transaction. 900 lobi ship will be bought on your behalf and given to you in game. Sorry, no ‘chang-sies’ once you have selected your lobi ship. Ferengis don’t do ‘refunds’ or ‘exchanges’.

Zen will be awarded to you by Laughing Trendy, hence the reason why you need a valid in-game handle.

Can I see how many entries I have? Given the scope of the contest, I will not be making the entry list or an individual’s number of entries public. Sorry, but would be way too much work 😉

This ‘second question’ thing sounds weird. – Yes, it’s meant to be a challenge. But I guarantee you that if ‘you’re into the game’ you’ll be able to answer. I might even hint at it the week before.

Will you use this list of entries for nefarious marketing purposes? – Heck No. At the end of the contest, the @username list will be transported into deep space, but the Answers to the community questions will live on.

Can I have the Cash/EC value instead? – Sorry, but this contest has no cash value – real, or in-game. You’re welcome to sell them on the exchange if you wish. The sale of the Annorax could easily cover your downpayment on a moon.

Will there be a skill testing question? If you are a resident of Canada, I will be required to ask you a skill-testing question for legal reasons. If by chance that @sarcasmdetector is that person, the question will be in the form of an essay with 32 separate parts on the history of gravel and Tim Horton’s Coffee.

How are you tracking all the entries? – Carefully. We will be using a nifty little program used for comparing answers. Please read the contest page (coming Friday) for the rules on answer length and post format. Twitter followers and blog followers will be tabulated separately, and added to the final drawing.

But how will you give out the ships if you’re an anonymous blogger? – I won’t be anonymous anymore 😉 I’ll take off my glasses and my not-so-hidden secret in-game identity will be exposed 😉