Recently, an interview of STO executive producer have released in the Alltern8. Asked a loaded question at one point, Craig battles through the setup and explains why the Cryptic team made the decisions they did. It's an entertaining read with some worthy nuggets of information.

MN: Were you conscious of the fact that, by prioritising combat game play over non-combat game play in the game’s initial release, you were going against the grain of the expectations of a large number of Star Trek fans?
That's funny. The way you asked that question makes it seem that if I were to say no, that would make us look unknowledgeable -- like we didn't know about Star Trek and its fan base. On the other hand, if I were to say, "Yes, we knew this," then it would make us seem like we didn’t care what Star Trek fans thought... This couldn’t be further from the truth. The combat in the game is story-driven and serves a purpose. We have non-combat missions and we will continue to add more. But, there are many different versions of Star Trek, so if we only focused on diplomacy and exploration we would be "going against the grain of the expectations of a large number of Star Trek fans." It's definitely a tricky balance.