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Jukebox Heroes: Top 40 MMO themes, #10-1
We're finally here: my top 10 MMO theme tracks. I anticipate that out of all of the weeks, this will be the most controversial, since not only am I proclaiming the 10 best, but you'll realize which of your favorite games I've left out of the top 40 entirely. A final reminder as to my self-imposed rules for this list: I limited myself to just one theme from a particular title, even if there were multiple themes in a game. Entries had to be a main theme or the closest equivalent of that; they had to be from MMOs, not from MOBAs; and I had to divorce my weighting of the track itself from the popularity of and my experience with that game. So there were no points added or subtracted based on my love of the game. I'm counting down the best music, period. If you missed earlier parts of this series, check out themes #40-31, #30-21, and #20-11. Otherwise, hit that continue button and get listening already!
Collision alert: Star Trek Online's Season 9 coming in late April
Player captains have mere weeks to prepare themselves before Star Trek Online's Season 9 arrives in late April with one of the biggest challenges to the galaxy to date. Cryptic Exective Producer Stephen D'Angelo posted an overview of Season 9 today on the official site. He said that players will have plenty to anticipate, including a new Undine feature episode, a space battlezone, updated episodes, a re-envisioning of kits, and a reworking of Earth Spacedock. "I challenged the STO team to come up with a new vision of ESD that would be so Star Trek that Trek lovers couldn't help but drool over it when arriving there," D'Angelo said. "The team did not disappoint!"
Star Trek Online now available for Macs
Apple fans, you can stop using Bootcamp to play Star Trek Online on your Mac. Cryptic and Perfect World have just announced the sci-fi MMOs availability via a press release. "Star Trek fans have been asking for Star Trek Online on Mac since we launched in 2010. Thanks to the tremendous success we've had with the game, we're excited to be expanding the galaxy again" Cryptic CTO and Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo explained. "We know there's a large gaming community that thrives on Mac and we're thrilled to finally be able to let them experience Star Trek Online. It simply looks amazing on Mac widescreens." Click past the cut for the full press release. [Source: Cryptic and Perfect World press release]
One Shots: Moons over Bajor
Outer space: It looks cool whether it's in color or black and white. Case in point? Check out both varieties of today's headlining screenshot, submitted by reader Chris. "Here is the deep space science vessel USS Aurora passing over one of the moons of Bajor in Star Trek Online," Chris writes. Personally, I think the light and dark contrast looks so much cooler in black and white. That's of small consolation to the crew of the Aurora who went blind sailing directly into the sun, but hopefully their families will find some solace in my admiration.
Star Trek Online exceeds bonus XP barrier this weekend
Star Trek Online has a super-sized bonus weekend lined up for its players, doubling all skill points and expertise earned from tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. EDT through Monday, March 10th, at the same time. The bonus XP isn't the only incentive to log in, as Cryptic is also activating all previous starbase, spire, embassy, and dilithium mine featured projects tomorrow for a limited time. This will open up 37 "rerun" projects in case fleets missed out on them the first time around. Finally, a recent dev blog delivered the specs and visuals for the new Fleet Galaxy Dreadnought, which will also become available on the 6th.
MMO Mechanics: Predicting the future of MMO game mechanics
I've been thinking heavily about the future since our parent network's budget cuts were announced, so I decided it would be very apt to pen my last edition of MMO Mechanics with that same train of thought. The industry has changed remarkably over the last decade with trends like the free-to-play revolution and innovations in everything from loot distribution to quest design. In my previous article, I looked at the trend toward using procedural generation and what that might mean for the future of MMOs. In this article, I'd like to give a better overview of where I think the genre is headed in the coming years and what that means for game mechanics. My predictions are based on market patterns and technology developments, including the great indie revolution, the effects of declining subscriptions on investment, and upcoming virtual reality technology. Pie-in-the-sky fantasy or an accurate predictor of things to come? Let me know what you think.
Captain's Log: There's no space in Star Trek Online
Being away from a game you love can be both a curse and a blessing. The past couple of weeks I've been cursed with a flu that made it virtually impossible to play any game, let alone Star Trek Online. I've been back for a day or two now, and I've had the opportunity to check out some of the tech that has been pushed into the game since I fell ill. One of the new efforts is the ship-swapping system recently implemented into Star Trek Online, and I have to say, it's a great tool that might be the victim of the game's number one problem: lack of inventory space. There's no space in space The newest system to be injected into STO is the ship-swapping system. The tool allows players to switch ships on the fly as long as they are in a public zone like sector space or spacedock region. Essentially the player brings up his character screen and clicks on the "Switch Starship" button and moves into one of his other ships.
Captain's Log: Stepping between stars in Star Trek Online
There's one thing that Star Trek Online players crave: story-based missions. And when we get them, we devour them like starving locusts. After what can only be described as an incredibly frustrating first day, the new anniversary events are now live on Star Trek Online. Community Manager Brandon Felczer had his hands full during multiple game crashes last Thursday that were blamed on "network issues" as opposed to server overload. I was able to ride out the network issues long enough to play the most recent mission, which highlights the voice talents of actor Tim Russ as he reprises his role of Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager. There are a lot of spoilers ahead; you've been warned! But I won't make any mention of the specific story choices that can be made during the mission. I want to leave some things a surprise.
Star Trek Online posts a four-year infographic
Space -- it's not really much of a frontier any longer. These are the voyages of a large number of different ships in Star Trek Online. Their continuing missions: To complete reputation projects. To seek out new ships and new duty officers. To boldly go where a lot of people have gone over the past four years -- specifically, 3.2 million captains -- but it's still worth exploring just the same! With the official four-year mark for the game just around the corner, Cryptic Studios has put out a new infographic detailing stuff like exactly how many captains are currently exploring the final not-so-much-a-frontier. It also contains a handy timeline of the game's major content releases over the past four years and all of the former Trek actors now providing voices to iconic characters in the game. If you want a quick look at the game's history for yourself, check out the infographic on the official site.
Star Trek Online celebrates its fourth anniversary with a look back at the previous year
This year, Star Trek Online turns four years old. So how do you celebrate four years of operation on a single game? Well, in this case, you start with a look back over the past year. The newest trailer from the team at Cryptic Studios, embedded just past the break, shows off the highlights of 2013 in Star Trek Online for players who've been away from the game or those who would just like a quick refresher. So what happened? Lots of stuff. The game launched its first full expansion with Legacy of Romulus, players took on the Voth and met up with Worf again, and a whole lot of seasonal fun was had with jetpacks and animated snowmen. But you don't need us to tell you about all of that, do you? The trailer's ready to show you all of that and offer a few glimpses into the future. Why not take a look?
Captain's Log: Gearing up for Star Trek Online's fourth anniversary
We're only a few days away from the release of Star Trek Online's fourth anniversary celebration, and a lot of information about upcoming events is rolling out. As the team prepares for the launch, several new blogs have popped up teasing players with information about upcoming content and changes including news that actor Tim Russ, who played Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager, will reprise his role in Star Trek Online's Fourth Anniversary Featured Episode! It's only logical Last week's announcement that Tim Russ would be providing his voice for upcoming content certainly made a lot of Trekkies happy. Community Manager Brandon Felczer interviewed Russ for the game's video blog and asked a lot of great questions. It was also revealed during the interview that recordings of Russ' voice won't just be used in the upcoming Featured Episode (called A Step Between Stars); it will also be heard in "upcoming content" including "Season Nine and beyond."
One Shots: Sweaty navels
As we all well know, the navel -- or "belly button" in layman's parlance -- is the sweatiest organ of the body. So much so, in fact, that the navel must either be exposed to air at all time or be equipped with a specialized "tummy diaper." Here we see reader ThorHal getting it right with his character in TERA. "I was one to complain when One Shots vanished a while back, now here to contribute!" ThorHal exclaimed. "I was traveling along the roads, exploring and helping the local populace. Transitioning into this beautiful place called Heartwood left me stunned. This game keeps impressing me with its art, be it dry deserts, lush forests, or this magical place." Despite what you might assume, this week's collection of player-submitted screenshots isn't just about our "tickle dimples." It's a treat for the eyes and a balm for the soul, all after the jump!
Star Trek Online event system to feature more rewards, less frequency
Star Trek Online lead content designer Charles Gray says that Cryptic is revamping the sci-fi MMO's events system. "Very few of the hourly events are being played regularly," Gray explains, and Cryptic's solution is to "increase the rewards dramatically" and run the events less frequently. The announced changes are "the first step in a new system that we hope to add to," Gray says. "We will be taking a close look at how each of these events performs and community feedback -- we'll take both into account when making new events or updating existing ones."
Captain's Log Supplemental: STO's Stephen D'Angelo speaks
Last week we reported on the announcement that Star Trek Online has a new Executive Producer. Daniel Stahl, who held the position for the past several years, has moved on to another "secret" project at Cryptic Studios. The game's new (and returning) EP, Stephen D'Angelo, has taken the chair once again and has already posted his first blog outlining a few of his desires for the future of Star Trek Online. We had the opportunity to interview D'Angelo and ask him a few more questions about the game and what direction he sees the ship heading. Massively: Congratulations on your new position as Executive Producer of Star Trek Online! Of course, this isn't your first time in the command chair. What's the first challenge you were faced with when you finally took the seat, and how is it different from the challenges you faced the last time you were at the helm? Stephen D'Angelo: Any time there is a change in leadership, there's a period of learning how the team operates. This time it was a pretty smooth transition, with no significant challenges. I've got a great working relationship with the team, and because there was nothing eminently shipping, I was able to ramp up at a reasonable pace. The last time was much more challenging. I was given the team without warning, and it was only weeks before converting the game to free-to-play. That was a pretty mad scramble.
Star Trek Online adds small craft arena PvP
Fans of flying around in small spaceships and shooting at other, equally small spaceships are due for a treat in Star Trek Online. Cryptic Studios has just unveiled a new PvP arena mode for the game that focuses on pitched small craft combat. Due to the popularity of small craft PvP via community events and Star Trek Online's private PvP queue, the development team designed to go ahead and implement an official queue into the game. The arena is available to level 50 players and takes place in the Cracked Planetoid map. Each match lasts until one team earns 15 kills. Expertise and energy credits will be awarded to all teams, as will credit toward daily arena missions. To be eligible, you must select a default small craft at the nearest shipyard. Small craft PvP is set to launch with Season 8.5 on January 30th, 2014. You can check it out now on the STO test server.
Star Trek Online beams aboard Voyager actor Tim Russ
The big secret surrounding Star Trek Online's mystery guest in the upcoming Season 8.5 featured episode is out: Tim Russ, who played security officer Tuvok on Star Trek Voyager, will be lending his voice talents to reprise the role. Russ' Tuvok is now an admiral and will be encountered by players in the episode A Step Between Stars. He said he's thrilled to see where the franchise has taken the character: "I like the fact that it's a future story, that it's picked up from where we left off." Tim Russ is the latest of many Star Trek alumni who have provided voice-overs for the game, including Denise Crosby, Michael Dorn, and Leonard Nimoy. You can check out an interview with Russ about his recording session after the break.
Star Trek Online brings Undine up to par
Cryptic Systems Designer Jeff Hamilton is on tap for today's Star Trek Online dev blog, talking about the updates being made in Season 8.5 to one of the game's most fearsome foes: the Undine. Hamilton warns players to expect a more scrappy Undine race when the update lands on January 30th: "We felt that the Undine in Star Trek Online were not on par with the Borg in terms of their toughness and challenge rating –- so we've decided to go back and make them a little bit smarter, a little bit faster, and a little bit tougher." To accomplish this, the team has given Undine ships better AI, faster engines, more weapons, summonable reinforcements, and the preference for strafing attacks during combat. The Undine Vila-class battleship will even have a new ability to open rifts to fluidic space as part of its arsenal.
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 changes
Last week I wrote about a few of the revamped Federation-Klingon war missions in Star Trek Online's upcoming Season 8.5. This week a few more notable changes and teasers were released, including the news that Star Trek Online has a new Executive Producer and a Star Trek actor's voice will be featured in during the upcoming anniversary event! Pardon me sir, but haven't we met before? The game's new (and returning) EP, Stephen D'Angelo, posted a blog last week announcing his return to the command chair, along with the news that former EP, Daniel Stahl, has been reassigned to another top-secret project. Many of us had already heard about the existence of another game in development at Cryptic, so it's not so much of a surprise to hear of personnel shifts in this regard.
Cryptic toughening up Star Trek Online's Undine
Cryptic is tweaking Star Trek Online's Undine, otherwise known as species 8472. You might recall from Star Trek: Voyager that the Undine were powerful enough to give the Borg fits, so Cryptic has "decided to go back and make them a little bit smarter, a little bit faster, and a little bit tougher." The latest STO dev blog, penned by systems designer Jeff Hamilton, has all the details.
Star Trek Online updates Klingon War episodes
As we heard yesterday, part of Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 will be devoted to revamping a dozen early episodes from the game in order to bring them up to par with later efforts. Cryptic Designer Jesse Heinig wrote a dev blog explaining what these changes will entail for the Federation's Klingon War story arc. "Rather than turn one or two more episodes into feature episodes, though, we've chosen to go through and make noticeable improvements on all of them," Heinig explained. "The stories remain the same and much of the gameplay is still there, but we've tweaked the missions to be faster, more dynamic, and more visually interesting." The revamped episodes will take advantage of better encounter pacing, removal of unneeded encounters, accomodation for player ships with cloaks, additional art and environments, cleaned-up dialogue, career-specific options and rewards, and fly-out messages from NPCs to enhance storytelling.
