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Star Trek Online revamps bridge officers
Your loyal Star Trek Online crew deserves some recognition for its tireless work at raking you in XP, don't you think? Well, even if you don't agree, Cryptic is planning to give some major love to bridge officers in an upcoming patch. The team posted a dev diary today outlining the revamp to players' faithful companions: "From a high-level standpoint, the updated bridge officer training system is focused on allowing players to invest in their bridge officers by training them in any of their class and specialization abilities, which can then be easily swapped in and out on the fly." These changes will allow for a more flexible and customizable crew that can cross-train in intelligence and other potential specializations. The dev diary goes on to detail how officers will be trained going forward and what benefits players will get from these buffed-up buddies.
Captain's Log: More Star Trek Online new user tips - bridge officers
Before I dive into the next installment of my new player tips, I'd like to let everyone know that the Star Trek Online site has issued a few new dev blogs hinting at some of the cool news about the upcoming Season Eight: The Sphere. There are some great new blogs featuring the concept art of the new Dyson Sphere space adventure zone, too. But back to the original topic. Last week's column that provided a basic outline to the Star Trek Online user interface proved to be surprisingly popular and generated far more emails from readers than I had anticipated. Many of the readers have asked that I continue on with the new user tips and I think it's a great idea. So if you've always wondered about the very basics of STO Bridge Officers, join me past the jump to learn more!
Captain's Log: Story takes center stage in Star Trek Online
Now that Star Trek Online's expansion, The Legacy of Romulus has moved into open beta on the Tribble test server, I think it's high time I wrote about one of the biggest changes the game has ever seen. It's not just about what will occur in the game's story; it's how the story is being told. Players who create a Romulan faction character when Star Trek Online launches the expansion on May 21st will experience something that simply hasn't been seen before in the game. Fair warning: I'll be writing a fair amount about what happens within the first dozen levels of gameplay, so if you're holding out to be surprised, know that there are spoilers after the jump!
Making friends and recruiting officers in Star Trek Online's expansion
When Star Trek Online rolls out its Legacy of Romulus expansion on May 21st, you'll be playing a Romulan (or Reman) captain on a Romulan ship. But you will be allying with either the Klingons or the Federation, and so you might worry that you'll be surrounded by distinctly non-Romulan officers. Never fear, as the latest development blog makes it very clear that Romulan characters will be able to access a unique pool of Duty Officers and Bridge Officers unavailable to the other factions. While Klingon or Federation characters may occasionally earn a Reman or Romulan Duty Officer, these are rare recruits that can only be obtained after exceptional effort. Actual Romulans will be able to recruit new officers of these races with unique traits simply by visiting New Romulus. They will also have access to recruitment from their allied factions, ensuring that the ship may have a mix of races while still remaining Romulan at its core.
Captain's Log: Starting anew in Star Trek Online
One of things about Star Trek Online that really differentiates it from most other MMOs is the fact that it appeals to players who have never played an MMO before. STO is a Star Trek game, yes, but it also appeals to those who appreciate general science-fiction as well. Since the end of the Star Trek convention last month, I have been approached by a surprising number of people who are just now trying out STO for the first time. For many of them, STO is also their first experience with any MMO. So I have taken it upon myself to create a brand-new character in the game to see what it might be like for a new STO player. I'll be focusing several future columns on that new-player experience, starting with this one.
Star Trek Online adds a new flavor of cat people
Do you like cats? Hopefully you do, as Star Trek Online has just seen the felinoid Ferasan added to the C-Store. But wait, didn't the game already add Caitians? Yes, but the Caitians are a Federation race, while the Ferasan are exclusive to the KDF, thereby allowing you to play as a kitty on whichever faction you choose. The Ferasan are related to the Caitians but apparently are not quite the same species (presumably akin to the Romulans and Vulcans). The Ferasan possess only one specific trait, Predatory Instincts, which increases jump height, melee damage, exploit damage, stealth, and perception. Unlocking the race costs 480 Cryptic Points and also unlocks new customization options for Caitian characters on the Federation side. On the other hand, if you just want to have one on the bridge, you can place a requisition for a Ferasan bridge officer for 400 Cryptic Points. So if you've felt that there's a distinct lack of feline members in the KDF, you've now got an option to rectify that situation.
STO's latest Ask Cryptic tackles War Targs, weekly episodes and free-to-play
It's the beginning of a new month, and that means another Q&A session between Cryptic and fans. Star Trek Online's Executive Producer Dan Stahl stepped up for a comprehensive Ask Cryptic that looked deep into the eyes of the void and came back all the wiser for it. The questions run across the board, with a large chunk devoted to future content: More bridge officer features? (Season Four.) New weekly episodes? (January, with more to follow.) Better deep space encounters? (The team is overhauling these after Season Three.) The ability to join factions? (Possible, such as a Ferengi trader faction.) Stahl also admits that there are "too many currencies" in the game at the moment, and the team will be paring those down. One of the most requested features by players is the addition of the classic Enterprise bridge layout from the 1960's series, and it looks as though Cryptic will be delivering: "I can see this getting done in the next several updates." And if you are among the crowd predicting that STO will quickly follow in Champions Online's F2P footsteps, it doesn't appear to be in the works (at least, not yet): "We're very excited to see Champs go F2P but this has no direct impact on Star Trek Online. Our subscription and C-Store model will continue forward without changes."
Cryptic answers the 29 most pressing STO questions
Star Trek Online's monthly Ask Cryptic features are always something for fans to look forward to reading, but this month even more so as executive producer Dan Stahl goes well beyond the normal handful of queries to accumulate 29 questions and answers to some of the hottest topics among the community. Included in this Q&A session is a sneak peek at the work-in-progress Tholian race (above left), the revelation that Season 4 will primarily focus on retooling repeatable end game content, fleet starbases, passive bridge officer abilities, Season 3 item sets, Memory Alpha improvements, sector space expansion and much, much more. Stahl even explains why he picks the questions he does to answer -- basically, he likes to get into topics that aren't repeatedly touched upon in interviews. Those hoping for a full-fledged STO expansion shouldn't start holding their breath, however: "It is unclear if we will ever produce a paid expansion as the market is leaning away from expansions and more towards smaller microtransactions. However, if we ever did release a paid expansion, it would be a significant update and add some new functionality to the game that would be deemed worth the price of the release."
Cryptic discusses user-generated content and future improvements for STO
As Star Trek Online concludes its shakedown cruise of the recent Season 2.0 update, players have turned their eyes to the future and pondered, "What's next?" Coming to their aid is STO's executive producer Dan Stahl, who fields a large number of questions about upcoming features and works in progress in the latest Ask Cryptic article. One of the inquiries covered was user-generated content, which Stahl confirmed would be coming -- at least in beta form -- with Season 3. "We aren't discussing our specific plans just yet, but we do want the tools to be easy to use so that players can begin to create their own missions and episodes," he said. "This may or may not be the big secret project we are working on." Other questions into the future development of Star Trek Online included customizable ship interiors, the PvP system, bridge officer promotions, expanding the Sol System, the ability to play as a holographic character, and bridge officer voices. And for those standing at the edge of their captain's chairs, eager to sit down, don't fret: Cryptic is hard at work on the long-awaited "sit in chairs" feature. You can read the full Ask Cryptic over at STO's website.
Captain's Log: Nine more tips for ground combat
Ahoy, space cadets! According to my space calendar, it's Space Thursday again already. That means it's time for another edition of Captain's Log, your weekly peek into Space Star Trek Online. This week marks the final installment of our ground-combat trilogy. First we covered five basics of ground combat, and last week we discussed melee combat in some depth. Now we round things out with some miscellaneous tips for upping your game in a space firefight. After I rant a little first.
Ground combat! Star Trek Online community answers, page 2
Arachnidus: Also, as has been constantly stated, with diplomacy and scientific options being available in space combat, will those possibilities be applied to ground combat as well? Diplomatic, exploration and scientific gameplay can occur in both gameplay modes, ground and space. One Tactical officer might choose a bunch of security skills and focus on defending your allies with abilities like Security Team, a power that beams down a few redshirts to guard a target.
Space combat! Star Trek Online community Q&A answers, part 2
-Drexel-: After we blow up an enemy ship do we have to still deal with the massive explosion of the warp core or is it simply aesthetic? It's a Bridge Officer skill that launches shuttles at a target. If they make it to the target, the boarding party may damage and disable the ship's crew, and systems.
Space combat! Star Trek Online community Q&A answers
It's a little late due to the impending Thanksgiving day gorging, but we've got your second wave of community answers for space combat in Star Trek Online! As this week lands us on a holiday, we'll be putting up the next post for your third wave of questions on Monday, November 30th. For now, we hope you enjoy the answers given by Al Rivera, senior game designer on Star Trek Online.
More details on STO progression and Quarks bar
Ship tiers and player progression were the topics of this week's dev chat for Star Trek Online and it yielded some pretty good results. Most of the new information clarifies some of the areas we were fuzzy on up until now. The piece of news we were super happy to see was the confirmation of DS9 and Quarks bar being in the game. Mmm, space gambling. Getting to progression -- and away from gold pressed latinum -- the rate at which a player gains Bridge Officers should ensure that they always have enough to outfit any ship they're using. We also know that BOs get their own pool of skill points as you complete missions. Additionally, anyone worrying about 'nerfing' themselves as they level shouldn't have to, because the BOs a player brings on a ship will help balance out any missing essential skills for a ship type. That being said, a science captain will always excel the most on a science vessel -- the system merely ensures that anyone can sufficiently fill a role if need be. There's plenty more in the transcript itself and we recommend anyone interested in Star Trek Online give it a look.
Cryptic Studios devs explain ground combat in Star Trek Online
Ask Cryptic is a regular Q&A series from Cryptic Studios that addresses player questions on Star Trek Online and Champions Online. While previous Q&A's answered a random set of questions posed by the fans, the latest Ask Cryptic for Star Trek Online is a bit more focused on one topic: ground combat. Unlike other sci-fi MMOs both on the market and in development, Star Trek Online will have those ill-fated away teams from the Star Trek IP. While things didn't always go smoothly on all those away missions in the shows and films, it could make for some fun gameplay. We're hoping so at least, and what the STO devs have explained about away teams gives us a better idea of what to expect.
