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Star Trek Online restores players flagged for exploits
Star Trek Online recently launched a new expansion with a level cap bump, and unfortunately some people decided to quickly exploit the mechanics to race up to the renewed level cap via exploits. Unfortunate, but not totally surprising. Cryptic Studios, needless to say, rolled back the gains made by those players. Unfortunately, as can happen, a few innocent players were caught in the crossfire, but what can you do about that? Well, in this case you can re-examine players who were erroneously rolled back and restore their points. Producer Stephen D'Angelo made a post on the official forums stating that instead of trying to make another adjustment, all players will have the points that were removed restored to them. So it's back to how things were before, and if you lost out on points through no real fault of your own, you have them back. Or even if it was through direct fault of your own. [Thanks to Some_Guy for the tip!]
Star Trek Online introduces playable Talaxians, discounts lifetime sub
Big things are afoot in the Delta Quadrant, as Star Trek Online has not only added the Talaxians as a playable race but thrown them into the lifetime subscription package and then discounted that sub by $100 for a limited time. From now through November 20th, the Star Trek Online lifetime sub can be bought for $199. This marks the player as an eternal gold member, with the Talaxian race, a ship upgrade token for Delta Rising, a monthly ZEN allowance, and other veteran rewards. As for the Talaxians, players who pick one as a captain will not only have the honor of looking like Voyager's resident space hedgehog but also get access to two unique traits: salvage specialist and loyalty.
Neverwinter: Rise of Tiamat coming November 18th
Neverwinter has been building to an epic showdown with its "season of dragons" storyline, and now with the advent of the game's fifth free module, it looks as though the final battle is about to begin. Rise of Tiamat will release on November 18th with an all-new series of quests and dungeons. Players will find out that the Cult of the Dragon is trying to bring back the titular five-headed goddess and destroy the town of Neverwinter. Naturally, the characters cannot let that happen. We've got the quick story trailer for Rise of Tiamat after the break, so give it a watch and prepare your hearts and souls for this conflict. [Source: Cryptic press release]
Star Trek Online tackles power-leveling exploit
Star Trek Online Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo has given players a rare explanation about a power-leveling exploit that some players had been using and the difficulty the team had in dealing with it. The exploit took place on certain maps and allowed players to advance 17 times faster than normal. D'Angelo said that only around 250 players were engaging in these actions and that "intensive data analysis" was used by the team to determine who was abusing the exploit on purpose and who had accidentally triggered it. "I'm certain that at least some of the players feel they were acting in the right," D'Angelo wrote, "that errors the dev team makes should be fair game. There are likely some others who feel that I drew the line in the wrong place, either too high or too low. It is challenging to walk the line between protecting the playe base that wants the game to be fair, and allowing players to be efficient and 'game the game.'"
Massively Interview: Spinning Neverwinter's tall tales
Massively: Today we're joined by Neverwinter Senior Content Designer Randy Mosiondz to talk about the game's story. So Randy, how does the story of Neverwinter run parallel to the pen-and-paper campaign and how does it differ? In the cases of its divergeance, why did the team take those paths? Randy Mosiondz: In Neverwinter we usually try to parallel a lot of the Forgotten Realms story development that Wizards of the Coast has been doing over the last few years. At launch, the majority of our adventure zones were based on stories were being told in the Realms, primarily focusing on Valindra, the Crown of Neverwinter, Gauntlgrym, and the aftermath of the Spellplague. One of our main sources of inspiration was the D&D 4th edition Neverwinter Campaign Guide, which had a number of great story seeds. We did add a number of new zones that were not directly connected to that book but were still drawn from Realms lore. In a lot of these cases we simply wanted to make sure there was enough variety in storylines, environments, and monsters you encountered to ensure we covered all of the high points of the D&D adventuring experience. Whenever we do this, we consult with Wizards of the Coast on a weekly basis to ensure these storylines match up to their expectations of what fits in the Forgotten Realms.
Star Trek Online's Delta Rising cinematic has... arisen
Star Trek Online's Delta Rising expansion technically went live yesterday, but today's the official launch, and that means a brand-new cinematic and fresh screenshots. The update bumps the character level cap to 60, ushers in a partial Voyager cast, and adds a new tier of ships, gear, and officers to the roster. Enjoy the trailer and pics!
Captain's Log Supplemental: Exploring the story of Star Trek Online: Delta Rising
If you think about it, Star Trek: Voyager is basically a remake of Gilligan's Island. Ship goes out for a routine trip and gets stranded, and for the next several years the crew of that ship tries to get back home and repeatedly fails. I bring this up because I recently had a chance to to on a tour of Star Trek Online: Delta Rising, and I kept thinking that "going on a tour" was just the first step before being stranded in the quadrant myself. Well, maybe not, but it's as good a segue as anything. Lead Designer Al Rivera and Senior Producer Stephen Ricossa took me on a trip through all of the various systems of Delta Rising and several of the upcoming story elements. If you don't want to be spoiled on the expansion before it goes live, you might want to steer clear, but there are some fascinating developments awaiting otherwise. When players finally warp into the Delta Quadrant, they're going to be seeing familiar faces and facing some old problems -- very old, in one case.
Star Trek Online hypes a time-limited (but is it really?) lockbox
Cryptic's latest news post details a new promotion involving Star Trek Online's Xindi lockbox. What's inside the Xindi lockbox? How the heck should I know? And isn't that fun! The Xindi lockbox is time-limited because as of October 14, it will no longer be offered as a drop or a reward in STO, according to the blurb. Or will it? After hyping the Xindi, Cryptic uses the very next paragraph to explain how it is unretiring a bunch of supposedly retired lockboxes (including Cardassian, Ferengi, Tholian, Temporal, Dominion, and more). So, be sure and grind hard in order to get your hands on one of those time-limited Xindi lockboxes before they disappear! Or just wait for the next unretirement party, I guess.
Star Trek Online's Kobali hijack corpses to stay alive
Out of all of the races that players will encounter with this month's Star Trek Online: Delta Rising, the Kobali might be the most skin-crawling. According to a new dev diary posted today, the NPC race reproduces by taking corpses and injecting their DNA into them for a twisted "rebirth." Even though they reappropriate dead things, the Kobali are peaceful, nomadic folk who have recently settled down on a new homeworld of Kobali Prime. It's on this planet that players will get to visit the capital city and go on several adventures through the surrounding landscape.
See Star Trek Online: Delta Rising's feature briefing
"The biggest and most inspired expansion" for Star Trek Online has Cryptic thrilled to show it off. So thrilled, as a matter of fact, that you can hear the narrator of this new features video quivering with excitement as he talks about encounters with new worlds, returning aliens, "and even Seven of Nine!" This Delta Rising trailer discusses the new open world adventure zone that includes elite challenges, the reunion of the bulk of the Voyager cast, the Tier 6 intelligence starships, and the races of the Delta Quadrant. You can catch the excitement by watching it after the jump!
Star Trek's Rivera talks story design and the Delta Quadrant
If you've been wondering why Star Trek Online is going to the Delta Quadrant for its upcoming expansion and what sorts of stories will be available when it gets there, a new dev diary has the answers. Lead designer Al Rivera writes about the game's "story process," which involves examining where the game's already been and deciding what sorts of additions will fit STO's production schedule. "We have to determine how many missions we need to tell this story," Rivera says. "How many do we want? Do we want adventure or battlezones? Ground or space? What about patrols, queues and STFs? Does our story work for the type of content we need to create?" You can read the rest of his thoughts at the official Star Trek Online website.
Star Trek Online: Delta Rising exposes androids and isolationist aliens
We're mere weeks away from entering the delta quadrant in Star Trek Online, but there is so much more left to learn about this new space and its inhabitants. Cryptic posted an intelligence briefing today about two additional races that one might encounter in Delta Rising: the Automatic Personnel Units and the Turei. The APUs are androids built by a long-dead civilization to wage war by proxy. The androids turned on their creators, continued fighting with each other, and searched for a way to reproduce (pro tip: Newegg should have some in stock). In contrast, the Turei are reptilian, isolationist aliens who use the Underspace corridors to traverse the delta quadrant. They're kind of jerks but have been known to engage in trading in their journeys.
Captain's Log Supplemental: Exploring the art design of Star Trek Online's Delta Rising races
If you asked me about my favorite antagonistic race through all of Voyager's seven-year run, my answer wouldn't have been any of the regular suspects. It would have been the Vaadwaur, and not just because of their funky appearance; the race really twisted the usual formula of a Star Trek one-off villain, and besides that, they had a culture that hinted at something very unusual in the show. I was kind of sad that they never showed up again after their one episode. Obviously, I was happy to see one of my favorite races get the upgrade treatment in Star Trek Online. But that poses a problem just the same because it's not as if the producers on the show detailed dozens of ship classes and a huge amount of culture for a race that showed up for 50 minutes. I chatted with art director Brad Stokan about bringing these smaller races of Star Trek into a fully fleshed-out form in Star Trek Online, discussing both the Vaadwaur and the Kobali and how his team took a one-off guest appearance and made a full race out of it.
Star Trek Online updates Seven of Nine's backstory
Seven of Nine, former tertiary adjunct to Unimatrix 01, is being added to Star Trek Online with the launch of the Delta Rising expansion. It was imperative that Cryptic Studios update the character's backstory to explain where the character has been since the conclusion of the Voyager's eponymous television series and the commencement of game services. To that end, the development team has posted a dossier explaining her activities in full as well as what brought her back into active duty. At the beginning of Star Trek Online's storyline, Seven of Nine was working as a researcher for the Daystrom Institute. She declined to return to Starfleet service after the Borg attacks on the Alpha Quadrant, but following Admiral Tuvok's request for experienced personnel to explore the Delta Quadrant, she accepted a non-commissioned position aboard the USS Callisto as a scientific consultant for the fleet. More details on the character and creating her in-game model may be found in the official entry; you will comply.
Star Trek Online explores new Captain Specializations
There are only three classes for players in Star Trek Online, and they all cover broad fields of potential abilities. That's part of the charm of the game. When Delta Rising launches, however, players will be able to specialize their characters a bit more with the introduction of specializations. Specialization trees allow characters of all disciplines to become a little more focused on a specific area of play, unlocking new traits and abilities for use in various scenarios. Players can have one primary specialization and one secondary specialization active at any given time; while abilities can be bought for inactive specializations, they cannot be used until that specialization is made active. At launch, the game will have one primary tree (Intelligence) and two secondary trees (Pilot and Commando), all of which provide different functions and can allow a character to focus in on unique areas of play. Take a look at the full rundown for more details on how the new powers will work when the expansion goes live in mid-October.
Jukebox Heroes: Chatting with Neverwinter's Kevin Manthei
This week on Jukebox Heroes, we're sitting down with Cryptic Studios Composer Kevin Manthei to talk about his work on the studio's most recent title, Neverwinter. So Kevin, Can you introduce yourself and give us a little background on you and your history with the company? Kevin Manthei: Hi! I am Kevin Manthei, a Minnesota-born, California-living composer. I write music for film, TV and games. I have been doing this for over 20 years and have worked with most of the big publishers in the gaming world and have scored music on feature and indie films, television shows, and animated projects. Currently I just finished scoring the Guardians of the Galaxy section of Disney's Infinity 2 video game and am in the middle of scoring Season 3 of the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series for Marvel/Disney XD. I also recently started work on the animated series Transformers: Robots In Disguise for Hasbro/The Hub network. I have been working with Cryptic on music for its games since City of Villains. I have scored music for City of Villains, Champions Online, Star Trek Online and Neverwinter. Each project I worked on for more than a year, and each game has about 100 minutes of music I scored.
Neverwinter announces Rise of Tiamat module
Perfect World Entertainment has today announced Neverwinter: Rise of Tiamat, another chunk of the Tyranny of Dragons plotline that just so happens to coincide with the story in new Wizards of the Coast tabletop series of the same name. The module "brings a new paragon path for the recently released Scourge Warlock class" with both solo and group play. Highbies can hunt for artifact gear as they prep for the resurrection of the goddess Tiamat and the epic battle being so heavily foreshadowed. We've got screenies and the new trailer below.
Star Trek Online details four Delta Rising starships
Star Trek Online fans are eagerly -- and anxiously -- awaiting information about the new Tier 6 starships coming with next month's Delta Rising. Cryptic is beginning to roll out ship details and specs by listing four of the Delta starships in a dev diary today. The Federation will get the new Guardian cruiser, a very durable and flexible ship that can convert enemy fire into a weapons boost, and the Dauntless experimental science vessel, which can project fake copies of the ship to fool enemies. Over on the other side, the Klingons will enjoy the Mat'Ha Raptor, a vessel with an insane amount of firepower. Finally, Romulan characters can snag the Aelahl Warbird Battlecruiser, which can throw out a collapsing singularity for fun and horrible consequences. These starships will be sold on the C-store and accessible by players level 50 and above.
Champions' Steel Crusade now live with new instances and more
Champions Online's newest content update is now available. Steel Crusade finds Millennium City under attack by Mechanon, "a robot supervillain determined to eradicate all organic life." The drop includes three new instances, a new mission hub (the United Nations Tribunal on International Law space station), and a Reawakened Automaton Archetype. [Source: Perfect World press release]
Star Trek Online explains the Voyager MSD redesign
If you're even passingly familiar with the various Star Trek shows, you'll recognize the MSD. It shows up on the bridge of every single Federation ship, offering a detailed breakdown of what is where for eagle-eyed viewers. Star Trek Online's next expansion is bringing the game into the Delta Quadrant, the stomping grounds of the eponymous USS Voyager, so it was only fair that the Intrepid-class MSD could get a nice new redesign to reflect the years of upgrades that the ship has received. The new MSD represents a much clearer picture of the ship from the series, with several elements improved to more accurately reflect in-show layouts and incorporating modifications made after Voyager's maiden flight such as the airponics bay. Take a look at the full development blog for a closer look at how much work has gone into what seems like a little detail but still forms a vital part of the aesthetics.
