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The Daily Grind: Do you like ordering NPC minions around?
Buried among the announcement of RIFT: Nightmare Tides was the addition of collectible minions to the game. Players will supposedly be able to order minions around on various tasks to benefit their characters, which sounds pretty awesome to me. It also seems to be the latest entry in a growing movement of player-controlled NPC minions in MMOs. Star Trek Online has the duty officer system, Neverwinter has a cool web game that uses one's companions, SWTOR allows you to boss around crew members, and Warlords of Draenor looks to have something similar with its garrisons. Do you like this type of feature? Is it enjoyable to send your loyal subjects out to do your bidding even if you're not in the game? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
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.
Star Trek Online releases a development blog on the new duty officer packs
At times, playing Star Trek Online can feel like the strangest possible variant on Pokémon as you shuffle duty officers. The development team has worked on several methods to help players acquire new duty officers and find more uses for existing specializations, and the latest developer blog paints the new Reinforcements Pack as the culmination of several lessons. It's certain to contain officers from existing species with a familiar distribution of rarities, but these new officers are meant to add a little more spice to the system. Each of the officers acquired from the new pack will have alternative active roster abilities, resulting in a grand total of 13 new abilities across 11 specializations. New abilities will also be added to officers without active abilities across the game, even non-pack officers. The Reinforcements Pack also contains other rewards, including a chance at a civilian cargo hauler that functions akin to a shuttle with merchants, bank access, and crafting stations. It's certainly a tantalizing potential reward for regular players -- and the new officers that come along won't go unused either.
Star Trek Online puts you in contact with your duty officers
It's easy to forget from time to time, but no matter what level you're at in Star Trek Online, you've got a pretty big ship under your command. That means there are all sorts of people who need help, all manner of different departments to address, and generally enough running around to fill an hour of programming every week for seven years. The game's newest patch, which rolls out this week, aims to address that feel by adding several assignment contacts to your ship interior, fleshing out the ship and offering you another set of content to explore. Some of the assignments offered within your ship are new, while others allow you to further focus your efforts on a given commendation category. Almost all of them involve seeking out and speaking to the appropriate part of your duty roster, meaning that your Engineering officer will be in charge of a plethora of Engineering-related assignments. It's a great chance to get to know your crew as more than just piles of stats, and it should give you just a bit more of that ever-important Star Trek feel.
