[STO] Star Trek Online News & Discussion

[Psia]

In addition to a healthy injection of costume sets to the Foundry UGC system - on the Tribble Test Shard - this gem was spotted:

• It is now possible to tag projects as category: Quarters, for your entire player housing and crew quarter’s needs.

It means that if you want to use the Foundry to make a map that is intended to represent a ship interior, personal quarters, home, etc., you have a category that you can put it under so that people don't mistake it for a mission.

Roleplayer support. I almost fainted. This was in response to a Foundry user's initiative toward player-housing in STO:

As much as I love STO, it is not the only game I play. And as it turns out, another game I play is adding a player housing system. The way their housing system will work is, in a nutshell, you buy a house on the planet you want, you pay to unlock rooms and decoration, and you can list your house in a public directory for other people to come check out whenever they feel like it.

Well, this got me to thinking, and STO’s foundry pretty much offers players that exact same thing, except we dont even have to pay for it! So with all of that in mind, I’d like to start something called The STO Player Housing Project. It works very simply: you create a house for yourself in the foundry, and then you share it with the community!

If you would like to participate in the Player Housing Project, here are the 3 easy steps:

1) Get in the foundry and create your house.

2) Publish the mission.

3) Tell your friends and fleet mates! And be sure to ask them to TAG your mission with the newly added PLAYER QUARTERS tag.

Now, here are a few things to keep in mind when creating your house:

A) make sure you clearly state in your mission description WHERE TO GO to access the house(aka the mission starting point).

B) keep in mind that you are not creating a real “mission”, just a house for people to check out(so no long mission objectives).

C) your project will be under the “review” tab until a certain number of people have “played” the mission(but people can still check it out right away).

Now what would be REALLY great is if some kind soul at Cryptic would add a “player housing” tag to the mission search feature. This would allow people to search exclusively for player houses, or to EXCLUDE them from their search results if they dont want to see them at all.

[Psia]

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I admit that I'm curious as to what story Cryptic is actually planning to tell?

[Psia]

TL;DR version...

Q: How much Zen will it cost to upgrade my starship?

• A: We have not finalized the cost, but it is likely to be somewhere between $5 and $10.

Q: Which ships will be free to upgrade?

• A: All Lockbox and Lobi starships, 1000 Day Veteran Destroyers, Duty Officer promotional starships, and the Dyson, Breen and Risian event starships will all qualify for a free T5-U upgrade.

Q: So, if I pay for an upgrade on a starship, that upgraded starship will be available to all my characters that can fly that ship?

• A: Correct! You only need to pay the upgrade fee once.

Q:What actions give skill points to increase my Starship Mastery level?

• A: Only defeating enemy starships will yield skill points for your Starship Mastery.

Q:Will there be any story content that requires a T5-U or T6 starship?

• A: Absolutely not. Our goal here is to allow players to play through all of the game’s story content without requiring the purchase of a starship. Owning one of these top notch ships will certainly give you an edge, but story content isn’t designed to require these ships.

Q: Are the passive abilities between T5-U and T6 ships of the same ship category the same? Or are the abilities found on the T6 ships better?

• A: Starship Mastery passive abilities are identical between T5-U and T6 starships. The only difference between these ships in Starship Mastery is that T6 ships have a Starship Trait that can be unlocked at Level 5 whereas T5-U ships’ Starship Mastery progression ends at Level 4 and they don’t have a Starship Trait to be unlocked.

• *Upgraded Tier 5 starships and Tier 6 starships both have four passive abilities.
  The fifth Starship Mastery level on Tier 6 ships unlocks the starship’s trait.
  
  **All Tier 6 ships launching with Delta Rising will come with a Specialist Bridge Officer seat.
  However, it should be noted that future Tier 6 ships may not always come with one.
  
  A notable benefit of upgrading a Tier 5 ship is that the upgrade is available across your entire account.
  
  Example: If I upgrade my Avenger Battlecruiser on my Starfleet tactical captain, I can upgrade an Avenger Battlecruiser from T5 to T5-U on any character that also owns this ship for free.

The gory details: Engineering Corp Report LRX-113: Teir 5 Starship Upgrades.

[Psia]

HOT Off the Presses! To be filed under, Ohhhh Myyyy...

We’re pleased to announce that in continuation with the Voyager theme of Star Trek Online: Delta Rising, Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), and Robert Picardo (The Doctor) will join Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) and Tim Russ (Tuvok) to reprise their characters from Voyager when Star Trek Online: Delta Rising launches later this fall.

Set 32 years after the events of Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek Online: Delta Rising will bring Captains into the Delta Quadrant – a mysterious region of space recently made easily accessible through an ancient Iconian gateway. As players explore uncharted worlds and interact with alien species, they will fight alongside legendary crew members of U.S.S. Voyager to investigate an unknown enemy presence.

[Psia]

STO's second expansion has gone live this week.

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[Psia]

One-week following the launch of the Delta Rising expansion, the Community Manager posted the following on patch day:

The development team became aware of a potential leveling exploit on Wednesday morning, and after initial investigation decided to shut down access to the maps that were being used by the exploiters in order to perform a deeper investigation.

We uncovered some bugs in the game that were definitely not intentional and that could be used to level at a rate significantly faster than anywhere else in the game. Fixes to these bugs are going live today that should remove the exploit. Details of the changes can be found in the release notes.

While many players participated a little in the exploited maps, very few really took advantage of it to excessively level characters. We identified this small number of players, and we have removed the excess levels from these characters.

We apologize for the inconvenience of closed maps during the investigation and for the bugs that led to the scramble around those maps.

This created a series of flaming at the forum that I haven't seen there in several years. Not that everyone had the facts or anything. Our poor CM got phaser burns on her ass for simply being the messenger. Many "I Quit" declarations - meaningless, IMO, within any F2P game - from those who share the opinions of a player-base having been wronged.

The next day, the game current Producer chimed in.

The development team became aware of a potential leveling exploit on Wednesday morning this week. After initial investigations, we decided to shut down access to the maps that were being used for this power-leveling to perform a deeper investigation.

The investigation uncovered several different bugs in the game that were combining to allow players to level at approximately 17x the rate that players were leveling anywhere else in the game. This was definitely not intended behavior. Fixes for the various bugs went live with the update on Thursday morning, and we opened up the blocked maps.

During the investigation, we pulled data on every player’s behavior, and then we zeroed in on the players who were gaining levels at unreasonable rates. All of these players were on the maps under investigation. We found that quite a few players dabbled in these maps, but it was really a very small number of players who decided to take advantage of the bugs in excess. In fact, in the end there were around 300 characters (spanning around 250 accounts) that crossed the line from being efficient into taking significant advantage of the bugs. 300 is a very small number from the hundreds of thousands of characters playing.

This raises the question of what an exploit is. I’ll loosely define an exploit is any unintended behavior in the game that a player can use to gain significant advantage over others. How does a player know something is unintended? That is definitely open to interpretation and was a huge focus of the discussion in the dev team. In this case, we feel that the difference in leveling speed between playing other content in the game and playing the content that was singled out this week was so large that it is reasonable for players to think “this is too good to be something the dev team intended to happen”. We find exploits regularly, but it is uncommon to find one that was used to achieve enough of an advantage to require taking action.

Once deciding that there was an exploit, the question is whether action is required or not, which means looking at who dabbled and who took advantage? This was done with an intensive data analysis. In the end, we decided that the vast majority of players were being fairly reasonable in their use of the maps to level, but there was a space in the data between players who gained up to 10 specialization points using the exploit, and those who gained more than 10 specialization points. I decided to make this the cut-off line and anyone who got more than 10 points on those maps had the excess points removed from their characters. For example, a character earning 15 points, 12 of which were on the exploitable maps, would lose 2 specialization points, and a character earning 60 points all of which were on exploitable maps would lose 50 points.

I have looked into the claim that some players were not using the exploit maps, but so far every claim I have come across has not held up under data pulls. If anyone still thinks they lost specialization points when they should not have should please file a CS ticket. CS tickets get a tracking number that can ensure we take care of everyone with a concern.

I’m certain that at least some of the players feel they were acting in the right. 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 player base that wants the game to be fair, and allowing players to be efficient and “game the game”. In this case, a judgment was made and the line was drawn in order to protect the integrity of the game for the hundreds of thousands of players who did not and cannot do this going forward. Reviewing the data further, I still feel it was a good place to draw it.

Our communication on this issue was apparently unclear. I’ll finish up this afternoon by apologizing for not being more clear about what happened. We normally do not post about actions taken to correct exploits, and I did not expect this correction to require more than a simple post. I was mistaken and I hope this clarifies what happened for those that want a more complete story.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Stephen D’Angelo
Executive Producer
Star Trek Online

Just goes to show that MMO's can never please everyone all of the time.

[Psia]

I would like to thank the players who took the time to report problems with the Specialization Point removal last Thursday through the Customer Service ticket system. It really helped in being able to track and take care of everyone.

In the process of reviewing each person’s ticket, we did indeed find that there were a few customers who did not take advantage of the power-leveling bug and yet had Specialization Points removed. There were also a few who managed to use the bug and were not penalized.

After considering the situation, we have decided that rather than doing another round of corrections a week after the problem event, that we will restore the points to all characters that had them removed. As of the time of this posting, all characters should have had their missing points restored.

I sincerely apologize on behalf of the Star Trek Online team for both the original bugs and the error of penalizing some customers incorrectly.

Stephen D’Angelo
Executive Producer
Star Trek Online

[Psia]

I re-discovered this original STO image depicting the timelines of Star Trek. So that player' s understand the continuity as related to the game as well as the newer series of films.

[Psia]

Original cast from Star Trek Voyager on reprising their characters for Star Trek Online:

Jeri Ryan

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Robert Picardo

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Ethan Phillips

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Tim Russ

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[Psia]

Personal Log, Stardate xxxx

It’s almost time. The healers tell me all his damage is repaired and that the genetic virus is transforming his DNA. Not much longer now, and he’ll be with us. His family.

I still can’t believe we found him. I knew where he might be, but it had been so many years, and anything could have happened. Just finding him was a miracle. Bringing him back … it’s a dream.

We've decided to name him Keten. It just feels right, you know? I’m practicing using his name now. I've gone to visit him every day since we brought him home, just to see how he’s doing. He doesn't know I’m there, but … I know. That’s all that matters.

I still don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. I know how hard the transition was for me. I fought it for so long, even ran away from my home and family to my old life. But I didn't fit there anymore, no matter how hard I tried. They’d moved on without me.

I don’t blame them. People die. Their friends mourn, and then … then they keep on living. It’s what we’re supposed to do. Me coming back … I don’t know if any of us were ready for that. I certainly wasn't.

I thought I’d just step into my old place on Voyager, and it’d be like I’d never left. But my old place wasn't there anymore, and my new place was here.

Rebirth was bewildering, and infuriating, confusing … all of it at the same time. I didn’t know who I was, where I belonged … and it’s going to be just as bad for Keten. Maybe worse – he was always so close to his family. I remember this one time back at the Academy when I had no place to go for the fall break, so I asked him to come with me to Risa. It would have been great, but … Harry had to go see his folks. No time for fun.

It’s going to be hard for Keten. But his place on Voyager was filled. His life was over. This is his only chance now, and I want to give it to him.

He just has to accept it.

Calling Harry Kim! This won't be uncomfortable for either of them. The galaxy's necromancers - the Kobali - are at it again. Saw this one coming from several light-years away. Sounds like Cryptic got Garrett Wang to voice both Harry Kims. Nice to see the game writers pick up these loose ends from the Trek canon.

• Ensign Lindsey Ballard
  
  Jhet'leya
  
  Deadlock (Voyager Episode)

[Psia]

Pre-patching for the 5th Anniversary game update and events has already begun. Thursday, January 28th will be the day this patch goes live. Here is what we know is coming so far. Though more may yet unfold.

When Captain James T. Kirk took the Enterprise out, it was originally scheduled for a five-year mission, so five years has a pretty big significance in Star Trek lore. Seeing Star Trek Online mark a date of five years of live operations is a cause for celebration unlike any other year, and this anniversary we are pulling out all the stops.

This year, we've got two additions to the Anniversary content that will run from January 29th through February 26th of 2015. The first of which is a new Featured Episode called “Dust to Dust,” and the second is a new minigame where Q has tasked you with stabilizing Omega Particles across the galaxy in an effort to secure the keys to the new Kobali Samsar Cruiser Starship as well as craft some upgrade kits in the process.

In “Dust to Dust”, captains will be teaming up with Captain Harry Kim, voiced by Garrett Wang, to investigate strange happenings on Kobali Prime. You’ll face off against the remnants of the Vaadwaur fleet, see the Kobali’s new flagship, and go deeper into a mystery revolving around Harry Kim that began more than thirty years ago.

In addition to the new episode content, Q is up to his annual shenanigans. This time, in order to acquire Q-mendations, you will be required to stabilize Omega Particles found in various social zones in Star Trek Online. Talk to Q to get the mission “Omega Stabilization (Daily)” and you will be given three zones to visit where you must stabilize an Omega Particle using a new minigame.

The minigame is simple; Omega molecules will fall in from the left in one of four channels. Captains will use either the keyboard or the mouse to move the capture device into the correct channel as the molecule hits the right hand line. The more molecules you capture, the more Omega molecules you’ll safely dissipate, and the more points you will score.

Q doesn’t care how many points you score, just that you completed the minigame in order to receive credit for his mission, but the points do matter. The more points you score, the better chance you have at scoring better quality Omega particle remnants which can be used with the R&D system to craft special Omega Upgrade Kits.

Omega Traces come in the three different colors of the Omega nodes themselves. Using the R&D system you can combine 1 of each Trace into an Omega Sliver. You can them combine three Omega Slivers into an Omega Shard, and three Omega Shards into an Omega Fragment. Three Omega Fragments can then be combined into an Omega Upgrade Kit.

Completing the minigame will score you at the very least a single Omega Trace. The better you score, the greater your chance to win Omega Slivers, Shards, or even Fragments.

Even if you don’t have the daily mission from Q, you can still find and stabilize Omega particles across the galaxy. In any social zone there will always be two Omega particles up any given time. You might have to hunt them down, but they are out there. If you have the daily mission, a Waypoint will appear on your map where the two particles are currently found, to help narrow your search.

Completing “Dust to Dust” will earn you 400 Q-Mendations, and each run of the Daily mission will earn you 40. For 1000 Q-Mendations you can purchase the Kobali Samsar Cruiser Starship in the “Collect 2015 Anniversary Event Rewards” project found in the Events section of the Reputations tab. More details on the Kobali Samsar Cruiser Starship will be fully described in a future blog post.

[Psia]

Hanchon’s Log, Fifth Day of the Month of Giving

Final testing of the Samsar is progressing as expected. We’re still having some trouble with the plasma relays, half the EPS conduits are down and my engineers absolutely refuse to have anything to do with those Federation replicators, but those are all problems that can be successfully resolved.

Captain Kim is returning to the system in three days. I’ll ask him to send over a team to deal with the replicator issue.

My people are a spacefaring species. We are accustomed to building and maintaining a fleet. We did so without support for decades before we settled on this world, and we will continue to send out survey ships, trading expeditions, and, most importantly, the collection vessels which allow us to continue our species.

The collection vessels will be more important than ever now. We’ve lost so many, and replacing them with those in the Temple is now no longer as straightforward a choice as I once thought.

But the Kobali are not warriors. This conflict has forced us into those roles, and it is an uncomfortable fit at best.

The Samsar is the first of our warships. A cruiser designed for defense with the help of our friends from the alliance, it is unique for a Kobali vessel. The Regenerative Integrity Field will help us greatly during an attack, but it is not the ship that concerns me.

It is her crew.

My people are a gentle race. Kind. Compassionate. When they are confronted by an enemy, their first response is not to fight. Our friends have helped us in this regard, but … the Alpha Quadrant must be a very dangerous place. As friendly and accommodating as the officers from the alliance are, they are … harder than we are. It is to their advantage, as they have been able to do much we could not, but I do not know if I would ever wish to be like them.

This war has taken much out of my people. I pray it does not harden our hearts as well.




During Star Trek Online’s 5th Anniversary event you will be able to obtain Anniversary Q-mendations by participating in the event. These Anniversary Q-mendations can be spent on an Event Reputation project to obtain the Kobali Samsar Cruiser!

This project requires 1,000 Anniversary Q-mendations.

Kobali starships are known for their exceptional ability to provide support to their allies in large scale starship combat. The Samsar Cruiser is a durable Kobali Tier 6 cruiser that was outfitted to fill the role of a mobile command center.

This new starship features a universal console that can be used on any ship, a very rare Mk XII warp core that is part of the Kobali space set, a Lieutenant Commander Command/Engineering seat and a brand new starship trait!

Kobali Samsar Cruiser Stats

Tier: 6
Faction: All
Required Rank: Vice Admiral
Availability: Event Reputation Project (2015 Anniversary)
Hull Strength: 43,500 at level 40, 50,025 at level 50 and 58,000 at level 60
Shield Modifier: 1.15
Crew: 650
Weapons: 4 Fore, 4 Aft
Device Slots: 4
Bridge Officer Stations:

• 1 Lieutenant Tactical
  1 Lieutenant Commander Command/Engineering
  1 Command Engineering
  1 Lieutenant Commander Science
  1 Ensign Universal

Console Modifications:

• 3 Tactical
  5 Engineering
  3 Science

Base Turn Rate: 7 degrees per second
Impulse Modifier: 0.15
+5 to all power levels
Console – Universal – Regenerative Integrity Field
Kobali Field Stabilizing Warp Core Mk XII (Very Rare)
Starship Ability Package (Cruiser)

• Absorptive Plating
• Rapid Repairs
• Enhanced Plating
• Armored Hull
• Emergency Response (Starship Trait)

Cruiser Communications Array

• Command – Strategic Maneuvering
• Command – Shield Frequency Modulation
• Command – Weapon System Efficiency
• Command – Attract Fire

Kobali Warp Cores

The Kobali Samsar Cruiser comes equipped with a special Kobali Field Stabilizing Warp Core Mk XII. This warp core cannot be equipped on Warbirds. However, Romulan players that open the Kobali Samsar Cruiser’s reward pack will also receive a Kobali Field Stabilizing Singularity Core Mk XII (Very Rare). Below are descriptions for each of these items. These Warp Cores are also part of the Kobali Regenerative Circuitry. This set will be revealed in the Anniversary Episode Rewards.

Kobali Field Stabilizing Warp Core Mk XII (Very Rare)

Field Stabilizing Warp Cores increase maximum Shield power by 5.

This warp core was built with fleet support in mind. Its standard battery capacitor has been significantly upgraded to provide a large shield heal to nearby allies.

This Warp Core cannot be equipped on Warbirds.

Kobali Field Stabilizing Singularity Core Mk XII (Very Rare)

Field Stabilizing Singularity Cores increase Shield power level by +5 to +15, based on your Singularity charge level.

This warp core was built with fleet support in mind. Its standard battery capacitor has been significantly upgraded to provide a large shield heal to nearby allies.

This Warp Core can only be equipped on Warbirds.

Emergency Response (Starship Trait)

After achieving level 5 in your Kobali Samsar Cruiser's starship mastery, you will unlock the Emergency Response starship trait. While this trait is slotted, your hull and shield heal bridge officer abilities will have their recharge times reduced by 10% if you suffer damage while below 50% hull health. This can occur once every 4 seconds.


Q&A

• Q: How do I acquire Anniversary Q-mendations?
  • A: There are two ways to gain Anniversary Q-mendations:
  • Complete the new anniversary featured episode “Dust to Dust” for a one-time reward of 400 Anniversary Q-mendations.
  • Complete the daily Omega Molecule Stabilization mission. Start this mission by speaking with Q in your main faction social zone (Earth Spacedock, Qo’noS or Romulan Command).
  
  Q: Will I get a discount on my other characters if I complete the Event Reputation project for the Kobali Cruiser?
  • A: Yes. It will be reduced to only require 40 Anniversary Q-mendations on your other characters.
  Q: How do I get a Command Specialist Bridge Officer to slot into this ship?
  • A: You can purchase white quality command bridge officers for energy credits in any major hub at the bridge officer requisitions. Alternatively, you can train your existing bridge officers to be Command specialists via the Officer Training R&D school once you have spent 10 points in the Command specialization tree.

The Kobali Samsar Cruiser also features its own all-new Kobali bridge.

NOTE: The above stats are subject to change.

Phil “Gorngonzolla” Zeleski
Lead Systems Designer
Star Trek Online

[Psia]

Our 5 Year Mission

I'm unbelievably proud and humbled to announce that Star Trek Online has just shipped its five year anniversary celebration. This amazing journey wouldn't have been possible without the fantastic, dedicated, and collaborative community we have, as well as a significant amount of work from the development team over the years.

The growth and success STO has realized over this span is an incredibly rare achievement, and we're excited to share it with everyone in the community and the development team that made this possible. In addition to our annual anniversary event, I'm excited to present the additional breadth of features this release involves.

The 5 Year Anniversary Update

We've put together a feature-rich update that introduces exciting content and an expansion of existing systems that should make the game more fun and more player friendly. Our 5th-year anniversary episode features Garrett Wang and Kim Rhodes and closes out a story started in a Star Trek: Voyager episode and continued in Delta Rising. We added a new anniversary event that has players pitting their wits against Q in a race to stabilize Omega particles he has released throughout the quadrant.

Our content team remastered the Romulan Federation arc, adding four new episodes and tying the story more closely to the Romulan featured series and the events of Legacy of Romulus. A brand new primary specialization - Command, will now offer players a choice of how to customize their primary tree and add yet another layer to the Specialization system. Along with the new Specialization, a full suite of Command ground and space bridge officer powers add another layer of depth to our ground and space combat.

In addition, we have completely overhauled the bridge officer training system in a way that will fundamentally change and improve the way players utilize their bridge officers. We have implemented a new system into the Foundry that will show a random assortment of the top-rated Foundry missions for every Foundry-enabled starting system in every sector, making the best Foundry content instantly visible to anyone flying through sector space. Last and certainly not least, nearly every player power icon in the game has been remade in a new art style in order to improve readability and aesthetics.

This release is only the latest addition to Star Trek Online, and represents the first of several major release in 2015. Along with listing these brand new features, I'll be taking you on a quick trip through the last half decade to see how far STO has come.

Ever-Expanding Galaxy

Over the past five years Star Trek Online has released two full expansions and 12 major updates. As a team we've left practically no stone unturned in our quest to improve the game and refit our launch content. We've added the voice acting talents of Trek stars Leonard Nimoy, Michael Dorn, Jeri Ryan, Garrett Wang, Ethan Phillips, Tim Russ, Robert Picardo, Denise Crosby, Chase Masterson, Kim Rhodes and Zachary Quinto.

In Legacy of Romulus, we added the Romulan Republic faction as well as fully fleshed out the Klingon Faction, each with a full faction specific tutorial and a complete episodic progression arc. Delta Rising featured not only the introduction of the Delta Quadrant itself but a level cap increase from 50-60, which was our first level cap increase since the launch year of the game. Our core team implemented "The Foundry," which allows the community to tell their own stories in the Star Trek universe and share them with friends and strangers alike. This powerful tool has added limitless options for story based gameplay and the team is constantly impressed at the quality and quantity of missions that are created.

We executed a complete revamp of ground combat that improved the overall speed and feel of combat, and also introduced a third-person shooter option to our existing combat. The Duty Officer System brought that true Trek command experience by allowing players to send the rank-and-file crew members on missions that sometimes let them come back with rewards, or sometimes with one less red shirt than you sent. We significantly improved the fleet experience by adding fleet starbases and other fleet holdings that give players a group endgame experience, fleet specific housing, and access to powerful items. We also added a true solo end game in the form of the Reputation system, where players can earn powerful gear, and the Specialization system where players can earn special abilities.

The concept of episodes was taken to the next level in the form of four featured episode series that set the quality bar for all content we've made since. In a departure from our standard episodes a new type of content in the form of adventure zones and battlezones adds a persistent level of large scale action to space and ground combat. Our launch crafting system was completely replaced with Research and Development, and we also implemented an item upgrade system that gives players total control over what items they want to create and what they want to improve. The UI was completely revamped for flow, usability, and to ensure it was as close to Star Trek canon as it could be.

This list doesn't come close to covering all of the exciting and game changing updates we've made to the game, but it definitely shows the range of features and quality improvements that represent STO after 5 years of live development.

Our Continuing Mission

As a team, we strive to provide the most exciting and engaging Star Trek experience every time you decide to log into the game. That has been our goal up through 2014 and will continue to be our goal in 2015 and beyond. We have a variety of features and updates planned for the coming year that will add more content, more systems, more celebrities, and more retrofitting of original content. We're dedicated to making this the definitive Trek experience and I'm glad we're on this voyage together. Live long and prosper!

Stephen Ricossa Jr.
Lead Producer
Star Trek Online

[Psia]

Admiral, we have a situation on Kobali Prime. You and I were both asked by name to help.

All that I’ve been told is that Vaadwaur have launched a large offensive and have retaken the area in front of their “temple” … the place where they keep unconscious Vaadwaur stored.

They need our help retake the area, though I have a feeling something else is going on. Can you help with the situation?

We need you to go to the Solonae Dyson Sphere to access the gateway to Kobali Prime. There, you and Captain Harry Kim can get to the bottom of this recent Vaadwaur incursion and the significance of this temple. What lurks below the surface, Captains?

Each week we'll be rolling out an additional reward for the Dust to Dust featured episode, for a total of four distinct reward options at the end of its four-week run. The first week is the Kobali Uniform costume set. Details on the next 3 rewards will be in future blogs.

--

Jet'leyha Returns!

When we first started working on a concept for the Fifth Anniversary Featured Episode, we knew we wanted to do a Harry Kim story and bring Garrett Wang back to STO. This was a story we’d been talking about for some time, and we even seeded a tease to it in the Kobali Adventure Zone in Delta Rising.

But he couldn’t come back alone.



“Ashes to Ashes” is a favorite Voyager episode for several members of the STO team, and one of the things that makes it great is the performance of Kim Rhodes as Lyndsay Ballard/Jhet’leya. She brings heart and strength to a part that could have been another “alien of the week,” and we hoped she’d agree to do the same for Star Trek Online.

But Kim is a busy actress, with a reoccurring role in “Supernatural,” movie work, and a long stint on the Disney Channel show “Zach and Cody.” So we crossed our fingers, contacted her agent, and waited.
Luckily, Kim was interested in our story and more than willing to return to the role. We’re pleased to add her to Star Trek Online’s stars in “Dust to Dust,” our anniversary episode.

We had a wonderful experience working with Kim, and we hope you enjoy the episode. Stay tuned for more news about Trek stars returning to STO (and some new ones joining us, too) throughout 2015 and beyond.

A few minutes with Kim Rhodes

Kim was kind enough to answer a few questions from STO Lead Designer Al Rivera after the recording session.

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[Psia]

[Lyah]

All this extra background, the interviews, getting back the old actors. It's a real sign of quality. You could just grab anyone and toss them in the role, but they go that extra mile.

[Psia]

From Cryptic Studios today:

The Star Trek Online team is saddened to hear of the passing of Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy.

As an actor, Mr. Nimoy helped define Trek from its first days. Spock was simultaneously an outsider and a member of the inner circle, an alien and the most human of all. As a writer and director, he shaped some of the Enterprise's most memorable adventures. Outside of Star Trek, he was a teacher, a poet, an artist and a father.

We were honored to have Mr. Nimoy as part of Star Trek Online. He helped us announce the development of STO at the Las Vegas convention in 2009, and returned to portray Spock again in the game itself. The few hours we were able to spend talking to him about Star Trek, its meaning and the impact Trek has had on its fans are something we will always treasure.

Today we honor Mr. Nimoy's legacy and extend our condolences to his family, his friends and his fans.

To absent friends …

For anyone who wasn't aware, from the start of the game through your first visit to a new space sector block, you experience a voice-over from Spock. As recorded by Leonard Nimoy. Who sets up for you the story mission you are about to experience in that particular region of space. Upon playing of the Federation mission Diplomatic Orders, one of the rewards is a Data Recorder item. Which holds all the voice-overs recorded by Leonard Nimoy for the game. For each sector block that you previously visited the voice-overs are unlocked for us to replay at will.

I'm reading this evening how Nimoy's passing is impacting the STO player's specifically. As Robin William's passing inspired World Of Warcraft devs to memorialize his characters in their game, STO player's are debating how best to do something similar. Emotions are high and not everyone agrees as to the best suggestion. I suspect that the dev's are already on top of this. I hope they can glean some thoughtful ideas from the player base.

My initial thought was that a statue of Ambassador Spock be displayed on the New Romulus social map. As the character inspired - and for a time, lead - the Unification Movement. To reunite the Romulan and Vulcan peoples. I believe this would be consistent with the Legacy of Romulus storyline. That will be my suggestion when I get around to posting it there. Other's want a Spock statue on the planet Vulcan social map. While Spock is legendary on his home world, the Vulcan's have yet to truly embrace Unification. So I don't think that a statue honoring him would make sense there.

[Psia]

I want to once again express my heartfelt condolences to the friends, family, and fans of Leonard Nimoy. Everyone at Cryptic Studios was saddened to hear of his passing and we want to make sure we never forget the cultural impact of the man or the character he played. To that end, the Star Trek Online team will implement a standing in-game memorial to Spock and Leonard Nimoy this Thursday March 5th with our regular weekly maintenance.

In this way, we hope to keep his memory as alive in our game as he is in all of our hearts.

LLAP

Steve Ricossa
Executive Producer

I replied to that with my previous suggestion. I'm curious what will appear next week?

[Psia]

• Created a memorial for Spock as well as a tribute to some Star Trek icons no longer with us:
  • We have replaced the central structure on the fountain on Vulcan with a stone statue of Spock with the inscription “Live Long and Prosper."
  • We have added the same statue to New Romulus with the inscription “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”.
  • We have added a memorial plaque to ESD, Qo’noS, and New Romulus Command for those of the Star Trek family who have passed.
    • Players will be able to interact with this memorial and read the names, the dates of their birth and passing, and a personal quote where possible.
  • Through the next week there will be black flags of mourning in Earth Spacedock, Qo'noS, and New Romulus.

That's actually a lot more than I would have done. That said, this may be one moment where the game devs may have actually satisfied all concerns expressed over the past weekend.

[Psia]

The memorials are in. Something like this had potential to be all manner of tacky. Serious kudos to Cryptic Studios. The plaques have five names on them. With a button on the UI to Continue. Which reveals a simple, pop-up window displaying most names of those associated with Trek in some way, who had previously passed. I must say that all of them are classy and respectful. Plus, the devs did have the forethought to include collision around the statues and plaques. While disabling effects from player gear within immediate vicinity of them. The trolls can't dance on them.

[Psia]

The sector space map for this game is getting a serious overhaul for the Season 10 game update. These suns haven't made it to the testing shard yet. If you click the images, you can see gas ejection effects as well.

The map changes at the edge of a sector block will be no more. There will, however, be map changes from one galactic quadrant to another. Warp speed travel has always looked nice in the game. Now we can enjoy that trip mostly non-stop. Player's familiar with Eve Online always boast that space is more vast and immersive there. I suspect that will remain the case. Though these new STO space maps are better than the old ones by several orders of magnitude. Astrometric view - the grid lines seen in the images - will remain optional. Light-years of warp travel can be measured with the Astrometric view.

Cryptic has returned to using the official Star Trek Star Charts book more closely for reference. Star systems - including those original to STO - are now being placed a bit more accurately to where they should be within the Trek canon. There will be minor exceptions. Solar orbits will no longer be a moving display. So that Dev and Foundry mission doors may be hooked up to a stationary location. I'll miss the revolving systems. But the trade off will make the game more interesting.

[Psia]

Star Trek Online is pleased to announce that Lisa LoCicero will be joining the cast of Star Trek Online to reprise her role as Miral Paris.



LoCicero played the adult Miral in Star Trek: Voyager's "Endgame." In addition to her trip into space, she is a veteran actress known for her roles in Rush Hour 2, General Hospital, One Life to Live, and Reno 911, as well as guest appearances on Bones, Chuck, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Rizzoli and Isles.

Miral has to walk a delicate balance in her life. Her status as the Kuvah'magh makes her revered by some Klingons and reviled by others. But all she wants to be is a good Starfleet officer and live up to the standards set by her parents, grandfather and all of her surrogate family from Voyager.

Lieutenant Commander Miral Paris (newly promoted after her adventures through time!) will be joining you to face off against the Iconians and their Heralds beginning in Season 10.

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https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Miral_Paris

[Psia]

Star Trek Online is pleased to announce that Star Trek: Voyager star Robert McNeill will be joining the cast of Star Trek Online and reprising his role as Tom Paris.

The quintessential pilot, Paris was always the risk taker on Voyager. His rebellious streak would get him in trouble (and occasionally busted in rank) but it also got Voyager out of more than one tough scrape. Without him, the ship would have never made it home.

Star Trek Online is pleased to announce that Star Trek: Voyager star Robert McNeill will be joining the cast of Star Trek Online and reprising his role as Tom Paris.

The quintessential pilot, Paris was always the risk taker on Voyager. His rebellious streak would get him in trouble (and occasionally busted in rank) but it also got Voyager out of more than one tough scrape. Without him, the ship would have never made it home.

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https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Tom_Paris

[Psia]

Wow. Player's speculated May or June. We were wrong.

Season 10 of Star Trek Online begins the conclusion of a conflict that has been brewing in Star Trek Online for more than five years. The newest season reintroduces the Iconians – an ancient race that has remained dormant for years waiting for their time to strike. As the war approaches, new captains will emerge from Delta Recruitment to bolster forces in defense of the galaxy. It is up to Star Trek Online players to push back the forces of the Iconians. If they don’t succeed, there might be no galaxy left to fight for. Captains will be joining forces to fight back the Heralds and the Iconians this coming April 21st, 2015!

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[Psia]

Shaka, When The (Sector) Walls Fell

Season 10: The Iconian War is right around the corner! Along all the amazing changes coming, we’re celebrating bringing down Sector Walls with our new “Shaka, When the Walls Fell” promotion! From April 21st at 9:00 AM to April 28th at 10:00 AM, Captains will be able to get a multitude of free rewards including badges and titles.

The first reward we’re unlocking is the “Shaka” emote! This old legacy emote allows Captains to perform the “Shaka” emote on any character on their account. Please note: if a player has already claimed this through the old Legacy unlock, they will not be able to claim it again.

The second set of rewards we’ll be giving away are a set of coveted badges and titles! We’ll be giving away the Badge of Temba and the Medal of Tanagra. As well as these badges, we’ll be giving away the titles “Hero of Tanagra” and “Tamarian Envoy”. These ancient set of badges and titles will be given away once again, with the release of our 10th Season!

We look forward to celebrating Season 10: The Iconian War alongside you, Captains!

I found this meme just in time for the occasion!