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Star Trek Online adds Ferengi lock boxes and in-game store
Thought that the Cardassian lock boxes and those ever-present "So-and-so opened a lock box and got a Galor-class cruiser!" messages were the end of Star Trek Online's foray into pay-for-treasure items? Think again! As of today, STO players will begin to see Ferengi lock boxes dropping in the game. As with the Cardassian boxes, the Ferengi boxes can only be unlocked with a special key that must be purchased in the C-Store. The contents of the boxes contain a mystery prize that ranges from the D'Kora Marauder Class starship to combat pets to Lobi Crystals. Gold lock boxes have a higher chance of delivering a better prize. In addition to proliferating lock boxes across the galaxy, STO's Ferengi are opening a store on Drozana Station that will sell a variety of fun items in exchange for Lobi Crystals. The store will offer Ferengi shuttles, photonic tactical bridge officers, costume pieces, and pets.
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."
Captain's Log: Impressions of diplomacy in Star Trek Online
Peace be with you, readers. Today, we convene once again for a new edition of Captain's Log, in which we discuss, with mutual respect for all opinions, Star Trek Online. Begging your pardon if you disagree, but I thought it appropriate that we explore one of the game's brand-new features: diplomacy. With the advent of Season 2: Ancient Enemies, Treksters and STO fans the world over may breathe a sigh of relief. Cryptic Studios finally introduced a dedicated system for being all peaceable and stuff, like on the teevee. So how does this diplomacy business work, and is it any good? Read on to find out.
One Shots: A little rest, relaxation, and ear rubbing
Here in the states we're celebrating Memorial Day -- a day to honor those who are serving in, or have served in the military. With that said, since we here at Massively deal in made-up worlds, we thought it might be nice to show off a few Starfleet officers enjoying some R&R in Star Trek Online! If given our choice, we'd probably pick a nice sandy beach as a great place for a party too -- but we'd ditch the heavy uniforms. Those have to be hot and itchy. Today's One Shots comes to us from Andrew, or Pojoh Findil Orthalle, as he's known in Star Trek Online, who writes in to give us the scoop on this fun scene: "I thought I'd send a picture of my Ferengi Captain, Pojoh, relaxing from a hard day of keeping the Federation safe. What better place to get one's ears rubbed, than on Risa. As you can tell, there were some other Captains 'gettin' down' in the background as well." What's your favorite place to relax in your MMO of choice? Why not grab a screenshot of your favorite downtime activity and send it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Be sure to include your name, the name of the game, and a note telling us about the screenshot. Your image could be the next we showcase here on Massively! %Gallery-85937%
Anti-Aliased: A Cryptic opinion
So, wow, what a set the last week and a half has been. There seems to be a very strong theme going on in my inbox recently, and that's, without a doubt, Cryptic Studios. I've read unflattering comments about my integrity as a journalist, the usual statements of how this site is Cryptic's lapdog due to all of the Star Trek Online and Champions Online coverage, and, even more oddly, people want to know my opinion of Cryptic's recent actions -- specifically Star Trek Online and Vibora Bay. Well, I was never one to shirk from the truth. I've been wanting to give my personal opinion on these events since Vibora Bay hit, so I might as well dedicate this column to my evaluation of Cryptic Studios. But, before we get to Cryptic, I have a few ground rules that I want to go over with you guys. Some facts that I'd like to set straight for, oh, I dunno, the fifth time.
Pay to become a Ferengi or Federation Klingon in Star Trek Online
Are you somewhat satisfied with your Star Trek Online avatar, but wish he or she possessed more unsightly forehead ridges? Perhaps you desire a pair of ears shaped and sized like funnel cakes? Do you wish it looked like your brain was attempting to escape out of the top of your head? Good news -- the Federation Ferengi race can now be downloaded in-game for 80 Cryptic Points, which translates to a shiny half-dollar in real-world funds. Federation players also have the option to download what we can only assume to be a reformed species of Klingon for 240 Cryptic points, or $1.50. We're still unsure as to why anyone would play Star Trek Online and not make their own race, since we wouldn't find the game so compelling without the adventures of Barbicane, the only surviving Bonerian in the galaxy.
Star Trek Online offers two new races in online store
Many Star Trek Online players were surprised to find a couple of new additions to the C-store after launch in the form of two new playable races. For 240 Cryptic Points, you can purchase the Klingon race, and for only 80 Cryptic Points you can purchase the Ferengi race. Each race comes with a few race-specific traits -- Warrior and Honorable for the Klingon, Immunity and Acute Senses for the Ferengi -- and the ability to choose two more. Purchasing the race unlocks it for every character slot on the account. Most pre-order packages included Cryptic Points, so the races will essentially be free for many players, but fan reaction was mixed regarding the addition anyway. Many players felt it to be a bit of an underhanded move, with the phrase "nickel-and-diming us" being batted about frequently. Meanwhile, a similar number of players pointed out the free points that came with pre-order as well as the increasing frequency of microtransactions in MMOs these days, and moved on. No matter which side of the argument you fall on, if you are interested in learning more about these two new races, you can take a look here.
The hidden art of Star Trek Online
There is much buzz in the MMOG universe this morning about the upcoming title Star Trek Online. Being absolute fanboys and fangirls of Star Trek ourselves (much like our friends at STO Zone who had the same idea) we wanted to show you a couple of nuggets of interesting art that we've extracted. These two images were taken from the backgrounds of the Cryptic Star Trek Online site that was unveiled last night. The top image shows an Andorian female in the foreground of what appears to be an away team. Some of the staff think that may be either a Bolian, Benzite or an Orion male to her left, but it's very hard to make out. (Not that many people remember the Orion males anyway.) Below that is a Klingon at the helm of what appears to be a Bird of Prey with a Human, Ferengi, Cardassian and Vulcan manning the controls, dressed in Federation uniform, or wearing Federation insignia. Speculation from some blog sites suggest that Cryptic is likely looking at a period of time post-DS9, tied to the Officer Exchange Program that started in the episode "A Matter of Honor" during the TNG series. It seems like an excellent spot in the continuity to place an MMO, we think.
The Daily Grind: Which Star Trek races do you most want in the MMO?
There are many races within the Star Trek universe to choose from when it comes to your favorites -- and we say that in plural form because lets be honest, you can't pick just one -- so of course we're curious about your personal choices. If you had the power to choose four or five races for Star Trek Online, what would they be? Vulcan? Cardassian, Bajoran, Ferengi, Klingon, or Romulan? Or maybe something less expected like the Voth? We'd totally roll some bipedal hyper-dinosaur characters. Obviously we're assuming that Humans are included in this list, but hey if you want to exclude them feel free.There's certainly a lot of room for discussion on this topic, seeing as there have been six Star Trek series (if you count the animated series) and ten -- but soon to be eleven -- movies. One thing we personally thing is that all Game Masters should be forced to be the Q race, because come on... that just makes too much sense!
