In the final installment of our STO beta preview series, ZAM walks you through the ground and ship tutorial stages.

Once you've completed the ground combat portion of the tutorial, it's time to beam back to your ship, where you'll take command and experience the shorter space combat tutorial. But before you leave, the final mission turn-in rewards you with your first Bridge Officer. For more information about the function of Bridge Officers (who are utilized in both away-missions and ship combat), check out ZAM's aforementioned gameplay previews. You can choose one of three officers; Tactical, Engineering and Science.

Generally, it's better to select a Bridge Officer of a different class than your own (at least for your first officer). Because the three classes represent unique archetypal MMO roles, you'll gain an advantage by supplementing your own abilities with ones that you're missing. If you're a Tactical class, for example, you might receive the most benefits from a Science Bridge Officer, who can heal you and your team and debuff enemy ships.

After making your selection, you and your new Bridge Officer will beam back to your ship, where it's time to begin your space combat training. (Again, for a more-detailed account of ship gameplay, check out our ship combat preview.) Players will immediately switch to space mode; your first task is to learn the basics of flight maneuvering by rescuing a few survivors from damaged ships floating among the debris of the ongoing fleet battle.

Many of the environmental interactions are achieved similar to third-person mode; by using the [F] key once you're close enough to an object, or by right-clicking it with the mouse. (Tip: use the "full impulse" setting to travel significantly faster, but be careful not to enter battle at full impulse; it requires a lot of power that you'll need for other systems, like shields and weapons.)

After beaming up the survivors of a few damaged ships, it's time to learn the basics of ship combat. Similar to the "ground version" of the tutorial, Cryptic eases you into combat by first pitting you against un-defendable objects. Your task is to arm your ship with munitions from a friendly Star Fleet ship, which will equip you with phasers and photon torpedoes. Next, you're off to destroy a few "already-damaged" Borg probes drifting in space.

The automatic communication with mission-giving officers also gives you several walk-through descriptions of ship systems and combat techniques. These instructions are supplemented by help tips that you can access and read in the lower-right corner of the screen. Don't worry too much about the mechanics, though; players aren't in immediate danger at this stage, and you'll want to take a moment to step back and enjoy the view of space. Ship models, debris and even asteroids are wonderfully-rendered and also faithful to the "feel" of the TV series' visuals.

After destroying a few inert probes, the final stage of the tutorial includes combat with hostile probes; these enemies will attack your ship when fired upon, or when you breach their aggro radius. Still, they're not much of a threat; you might be destroyed if you're not paying attention and become overwhelmed but, for the most part, the tutorial is pretty forgiving. It's evident that Cryptic designed the tutorial to be more informative and fun than a grind; it's more of an "interactive intro" than anything else.

After completing the tutorial, players will dock with Star Fleet's space station near Earth, where they walk around, talk to other players, visit shops and upgrade vendors and receive their first starting missions. It's similar to making your way to the first "quest hub" within a city in your average fantasy MMO.

Next Tuesday, thousands of Captains will be beginning their adventure here; accepting the first missions and making their way across the galaxy, going where no gamer has gone before. Stay tuned to ZAM's Star Trek Online portal site for all the upcoming news and information surrounding the official launch, and keep an eye out for our post-release STO preview coming soon!