Cryptic are very much also solo friendly in their games. I don't know why you're having problems but CoH/CoV are extremely solo friendly MMOs.
from my personal experience with CoH and CoV, they are not solo friendly. i played from lauch of CoH up until about 6 months ago. now, it could be i chose a build that wasnt condusive to solo play (an Emp/Elec defender), but it wasnt easy to take on a single npc my level. sure i could drain their endurance and watch as they try to punch me to death, but i certainly wasnt doing much better taking him down. and that is just one guy... odds are you are fighting several npcs at once (lord help me if i managed to have to fight a Lt. also). it was slow going. the game works when you have a full group. the xp is better and the fights are much quicker and more entertaining. but many builds don't function well on their own.
Almost all classes are designed to be able to work on their own by design of the devs, some will level slower than others however even with my Storm/Elec Defender I could take on at least three NPC's at once. What difficulty setting were you on?
As I recall, defenders were/are mainly a support class, with powers geared toward buffing allies and debuffing enemies. I played a scrapper and didn't have problems soloing. It was easier with a group, sure, but I never felt like I needed one. Oh, right. On topic. Almost everything from that webcast was what I was hoping to hear. Hopefully Cryptic will make it happen.
From reading that Q&A on Gamespot, im very excited about this now. They seem to be making this not just a Star Trek MMO, but hopefully the "good" Star Trek game we've all been waiting for... edit: oh yay! http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38184.html?type=flv
Can you imagine how awesome it would be to spend a couple dozen hours building up a powerhouse Federation starship, like a Defiant or something, just to flip Starfleet the bird and defect to the Romulans, then come back firing on your former factionmates with your ship painted green and a bird of prey decal on the hull? I'm getting shivers just thinking about it! ...I do have to wonder, though. Will Klingon/Romulan cloaking devices unbalance the game?
Well the game is post Dominion War at the start of the 25th century (IRC). So, they could justify having cloaks as a purchasable upgrade for Federation starships-- if they wanted to. As for defecting to the Romulans: Shame on you. The way to do it is defect to you own side and become a warlord of your on little corner of the server <eg> Continually pillaging and raiding other ships while flying Federation colors.
It sounds great. Unlike when Perpetual had the license, I actually think Cryptic has a great chance at making Star Trek Online work.
Sorry if these are already up http://beta.gamespot.com/pages/image_viewer/frame_lead.php?caption=The%2Bgame%2Bwill%2Blet%2Byou%2Bgo%2Bboldly%2Bgo%2Bwhere...well%252C%2Byou%2Bknow.&path=2008%2F220%2Freviews%2F924226_20080808_embed002.jpg&img=2&pid=924226&sid=6195709&popup=1 Should be the art/screenshots for the game
I liked these ones: http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer1.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer4.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer8.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer10.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer11.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer13.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer15.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer16.jpg http://ff.247xs.nl/startrekonline/trailer18.jpg
The first trailer is up and wow this looks great. I downloaded it from Fileplanet but am sure you can find it around the net.
Actually the guy from Reverb Communications, the company that handles the marketing and public relations said late 2009. Not sure how "official" that is but Jack did say that if he announced the game would ship in two or less years people would balk at it. Still it would mean that by the end of 2009 the game with Cryptic would have been in development for nearly two years.
If you sign up for that sweepstakes to win a lifetime subscription, and read the rules, it says the product is estimated to be released a year from now. Of course, there's no telling for sure when it comes to produces games like this.
watching the intro Q&A it made it sound like it was pretty far along. Statesman's claim of under 3 years seemed like he was pushing it out already. and if they are using a lot of their underlying tech, it shouldnt be too bad.
Of course You never know what might snag you down the line, I think that is why there is no official statement about it at this time.
It's possible without any hiccups that the game could be released right at the end of 2009.....but 2010 is looking about right for release assuming the odd hitch here and there, I certainly don't think they would want to delay it any longer then that. Now the game getting released in time with the new movie would be great if they could do it.