Cryptic recently sent out emails to their players, both current and former, to highlight their new Feature episodes content updates. These mini content updates are meant to be a method of injecting new content into the game on an ongoing and frequent basis since they are currently scheduled to be released once a week!  Read below for the message from Cryptic.

“Greetings, Captain!

In case you haven’t yet experienced it, we wanted to let you know about the new Weekly Episode Series that started in August.

Every Saturday at 11 a.m. PDT, characters level 10 and above of both the Federation and Klingon factions gain access to a new Feature Episode. These Episodes are part of our ongoing commitment to add new mission content to Star Trek Online on a regular basis.

Feature Episodes
Each new Feature Episode provides a unique reward upon mission completion, the first of which was a Breen Cryo Grenade usable by all classes. Each character that completes all missions in the Feature Episode series before the next series starts will also receive a special reward.

The current Feature Episode series involves The Breen, who were a powerful Dominion ally during the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television series. The Breen have been attacking a neutral species, The Deferi, in search of ancient technology that is found throughout Deferi settlements. It’s up to you and your crew to determine what the Breen are after and how to protect the Deferi people from this new threat.

There are still a few weeks left in the Breen series and plenty of time to catch up for the next Feature Episode. So don’t be left out – log in this Saturday at 11 a.m. PDT to enjoy Episode 3: “Cold Comfort”!

To learn more about Feature Episodes, and to see what’s coming up next, visit our Feature Episodes page.We’ll see you in the Alpha Quadrant!
-The Star Trek Online Team”

Related posts:

1. Ask Cryptic: September 3rd, 2010
2. Star Trek Online – Season Two:Ancient Enemies
3. Star Trek Online Open Beta Announced!

Just in time for the release of our next Featured Episode, Star Trek Online Executive Producer Dan Stahl delivers the answers in this month’s edition of Ask Cryptic! Read on to see the answers to your questions about our featured episodes!

Q: DLRevan: Is it a requirement to play previous episodes in an arc to play upcoming ones? For example, I didn’t play the first Breen themed episode, does this mean I’m locked out of the next one? AND DodgeHopper: Will we be able to play these episode missions in two weeks? Three weeks? A month? Will these missions only be playable on the week they are released?

DStahl: Once a Featured Episode is released, it is available for play from that point forward and is not expected to ever go away. It is a permanent part of the game from that point forward. Each series contains multiple (5-6) Featured Episodes that must be played in Order. So if you logged in for the first time when Episode 3 of the series goes live, you’d have to go play Episode 1 and 2 before you could play Episode 3.

Q: Jerot: Will there be accolades attached to these episodes?

DStahl: Each Featured Episode Series is expected to have several new accolades related to the missions or story. For the first Series, there are several new accolades related to encounters with the Breen as well as accolades for helping the Deferi with their defensive tasks.

Q: BlueReaper: I am a level 51 Klingon. Can I play with the Federation players together? Or The two factions will be separated from each other like in the Undine and Borg Sectors?

DStahl: In the first series the Federation and Klingon Empire are still at war and not able to team up for these missions, even though they are both appearing in the same sectors. Similar to episodes such as Friday’s Child, both factions are attempting to interact with the Deferi even though they themselves are at odds with one another.

Q: Tryulis: If the Episodes become a HUGE success, will there be more chance of seeing the major STO arcs (i.e. Undine and Iconians) become a part of these series as opposed to being released in the major patches or will it be a mixture of both?

DStahl: The current plan is to use these weekly released Feature Episodes to advance the overall story of Star Trek Online. This doesn’t mean that we won’t add content outside of these series, but we do plan to get various plots and factions into these episodes in the future, very similar to how the television shows did.

Q: Alecto: How many people, or who is involved in writing the scripts and content for the new weekly episodes and where did their inspiration come from?

DStahl: There has been talk of creating episodic content in Star Trek Online since the beginning of the project. The inspiration was that Star Trek could present episodic content in the same format as the television series did. When we launched the game, many of the primary missions in the game were presented as Episodes with multiple acts. This all came from our desire to have the missions feel like Trek.

It wasn’t until mid-way through developing Season 2 that we proposed the current plan for the weekly series. Once we made the decision to start working on the first series, The Breen, the story writer developed the scripts for the episodes. The various teams then meet and review the scripts to determine all the necessary components that need to be created for the episode. The various teams then start building their respective parts to the story. The mission is completed and hooked up in game, and then the team and qa start testing the episodes for feedback and bugs. We go through story revisions, mission revisions, art revisions, combat revisions, and any other thing we think needs to change before the episode goes live. It is really a team effort. Everyone contributes a small chunk to the puzzle.

Q: LordOfPit: Are Cryptic writers and content-designers using the UGC tool-set to produce the weekly episodes?

DStahl: The Featured Episodes are created with our full blown mission editing tools as they have many complex custom environments that are not hooked up or feasible in the User Generated Tool yet. However, the daily patrol missions that have also been released in the Defera sector were created with the original Genesis tools (the original version of the UGC tool that was only for STO internal use) and then given a little bit of manual tweaking to ensure they have everything in just the right place. All of the Deferi Patrol missions were created by yours truly, and I’m not much of a content designer. So while we still have a long way to go with UGC tools, it gives a hint to the future where anyone with an idea for a mission can create story based content for the game.

Q: MalcomZiran: Will new episodes focus solely on the Breen story arc? Or will they be different stories unto themselves? And Ansler: So how many episodes are you looking to get in per season of this weekly series thing?

DStahl: Each Featured Episode series will comprise somewhere around 5 or 6 episodes in a specific story arc. Each series is intended to be playable as an independent chunk of content so that you don’t have to be completely caught up on all the series in order to jump in and experience a new storyline. In addition, each series will give us a chance to focus on a specific species or faction storyline within the game so that we can go back and tell the stories of whatever happened to ? The Breen may still show up in other places, so once they are in game, they are not limited to only appearing in that special series, however they will be the stars of that series.

Q: Bfelczer: Do we need to complete the daily mission as well to get the Uber Series Reward?

DStahl: The daily missions are not required to receive the Special Series Reward, only completing of the primary named episodes are required. The Special Series Reward is granted upon completion of the last episode in the Series. The daily mission are intended to offer more flavor and side-quests that help flesh out the background of the Deferi and storyline concepts introduced in the series. They also provide a nice reason to return to the area once the series episodes have completed.

Q: Keinar: When will the weekly episodes be in the C-store?

DStahl:There are currently no plans to add the Featured Episodes to the C-Store as they are readily available to anyone with a subscription to Star Trek Online. We have discussed whether or not we will make the limited edition Special Series Reward available in the C-Store later for people who missed out on playing the series while it was live, but we want to see how many people are able to claim the reward first and how many people missed out on it. This is primarily in anticipation of down the road when people will be continually asking, “how do you get that cool thing you’ve got!”

Q: Lucky_13_X: Are these weekly episodes available at a level below Captain or Admiral for those of us with lower tiered characters?

DStahl: All content related to the Featured Episode series may be played by any character who is level 10 or higher of either faction. We set the limit at the first rank up because we wanted to ensure players are familiar with the mission progression in the game and have a solid understanding of where to go next for missions before they start flying around the galaxy looking for the next mission. Also, many of the enemies featured in these series are slightly more difficult than the lower tier enemies.

Q: Ashur1: It was mentioned that completing one series of weekly episodes before the next series starts gives some kind of special reward. Is that account wide or do I have to do the weekly missions nine times?! And, any hint on what those rewards are?

DStahl: The Special Series Reward will be given out as a standard mission reward at the completion of the last episode in the series. This means that each character who wants to receive the special reward will need to complete the missions in order receive the reward. This is no different than any other mission reward in the game. Those who pay close attention (aka read dialog) during the series, you will get a hint of what the possible special reward will be.

Talk about it in their forums!

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Feature Episodes
2. Star Trek Online ships February 2, 2010!
3. Star Trek Online Patch Notes Feb 23, 2010

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Feature Episodes
2. Star Trek Online Video – Klingons!
3. Star Trek Online Patch Notes Feb 23, 2010

Cryptic Studios has released their very own test server for Star Trek Online.  The new test only server is available to players with a currently actiev subscription only and is called, of all things, Tribble.  Tribbles being the loving little furballs seen in the original series that purred and ate entirely too much food and then of course they reproduced like crazed bunnies until you had “trouble with tribbles” basically.  Almost like the original Gremlins you might say.  Anyway, back on topic, the test server is a great place to test out the new patches and upcoming content and give th edevs your feedback as well as report any problems/bugs. 

Read below for the official Star Trek Online post:

“Missing the intense days of Beta already? Miss seeing new changes, giving feedback about what isn’t working right, and directly contributing to the health and well-being of Star Trek Online? Well congratulations, Lieutenant. We’re here to announce our new public test shard, Tribble Test Server!

When we have a new patch that we want to test, we’ll push it onto Tribble first in order to allow you to check it out, see what’s different, and provide your feedback before it gets pushed to Holodeck. Just another way we can be absolutely certain our Live service is polished.

Sign up to test on Tribble today – work directly with the STO team via the forums and in-game, and help Star Trek Online’s new content reach the level you desire!

So, how does it work?

Our goal is to push a new build to Tribble before we push it to Holodeck, giving plenty of time to focus on testing new content and systems as they are introduced to the game before they are pushed Live.
Simply copy one of your existing characters on Holodeck over to Tribble, or create a new character all together!
Special play-test instructions will be posted directly to the Tribble Public Test forums, including build information, known issues, and new content.
Supply your feedback and submit your bugs directly to the special Tribble Public Test forums or in-game using the bug ticketing system – we are setting these tickets aside as Test Server Bugs so they get addressed in the right way. The forums are always the best place to let your feedback be heard and to get developer responses to your issues.
You can sign up to participate in the Tribble Test Server right now by clicking the button below. You’ll be able to log-in as long as Tribble is up and running! Please keep up with the Tribble Public Test forums for updates!

Signing up will add the “Tribble” server to your Star Trek Online launcher – Make sure you have selected the correct server when you are patching. This installs a full separate copy of Star Trek Online, so please verify that you have at least 10 GB of space available on your Hard Drive before patching.

DISCLAIMER

This is a test server and will not be receive Support. We reserve the right to wipe characters and take down the server for maintenance at any time. Don’t worry, your Holodeck character will not be affected!

You must have an active Star Trek Online subscription to play on Tribble – Public Test.”

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Closed Beta
2. Star Trek Online Open Beta Announced!
3. Star Trek Online ships February 2, 2010!

Star Trek Online Patch Notes

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Release Notes – Jan 20, 2010
2. Star Trek Online ships February 2, 2010!
3. Star Trek Online – Season Two:Ancient Enemies

Cryptic announced the new Destiny Class exploration/science vessel. This behemoth is a dream to the exploration types out there captaining their ships. Here are some stats for this Destiny ship:

Weaponry:
Fore weapon slots: 3
Aft weapon slots: 3

Bridge Officer Stations:
Zactical: Lieutenant (1)
Engineering: Ensign (1), Lieutenant (1)
Science: Lieutenant Commander (1), Commander (1)
Total Available Powers: 12

Modification Slots:
Tactical: 2
Engineering: 3
Science: 4

Device Slots: 3

Crew Size: 500

Impulse Speed: 15

Turning Rate: 6

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online – Ship Overview
2. Star Trek Online – Season Two:Ancient Enemies
3. Star Trek Online Release Notes – Jan 20, 2010

Namco’s Log, Supplemental – 15th February 2010: Scores of Star Trek fans turned out on London’s Millenium Bridge on Valentine’s Day as a new world record was set for the ‘largest gathering of Star Trek fans dressed in character’ with 99 fans attending in their fantastic Star Trek costumes.

This is the first time Guinness World Records have been called upon to adjudicate such an event and judges were ably assisted by Giles Aston, a Star Trek aficionado and professional ‘Captain Jean-Luc Picard’ impersonator in determining the authenticity of the participants’ cosplay attempts.

Lee Kirton, Head of PR at Namco Bandai said of the event “The turnout today was nothing short of fantastic. Namco Bandai and Atari are absolutely delighted to have been involved in this record breaking activity and it’s a testament to the Star Trek fans’ amazing dedication that so many turned out on Valentine’s Day.”

Gaz Deaves, editor of the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition said “We’re pleased to kick off this category here in London and hope other star trek fans around the world will come forward to break this record again”

The world record was conducted to celebrate the launch of hit MMO, Star Trek Online which launched in the UK on February 5th. Namco Bandai would like to thank every individual who attended. In the words of Mr. Spock, ‘Live long and prosper.’

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online ships February 2, 2010!
2. Star Trek Online Closed Beta
3. Star Trek Online Open Beta Announced!

The Journey Begins…
Thank you all so very much for making this entire Beta experience as awesome as it has been.

I could look back and reminisce about the downtimes. I could wax nostalgic about the patches. I could even recall every exploit with distaste and still fondly remember the awesome emergent gameplay you’ve shown us… And yet, all that implies an end. Sure, the test is over. But, in reality, this is only the beginning.

We’ve been working without rest for nearly two years to reach this moment — the moment when we can begin expanding Star Trek Online in earnest. The years ahead when we get to work directly with you to figure out what we add next to the game, where we fill out content, and what new systems we might add. That’s real development. That’s live development.

Not a team to just sit back and wait, we’re already working on content additions, bug fixes and ‘quality of life’ improvements that we’re going to roll out over the next couple months. Here are a few of the things we’re working on:

The Borg
The Borg have planned. They have adapted. They have evolved. What the Borg cannot assimilate, they will destroy.

You saw a little Borg action in our End of Beta event – prepare to see more. The Federation have tracked down the Borg staging ground for their assault on the Alpha Quadrant. Join up with Battle Group Omega and take the fight to the Borg. Experience new Federation Episodes, Borg Exploration Clusters, deep space encounters. Also expect daily missions for these tasks to maximize the rewards you’ll be getting for helping out Starfleet in the Gamma Orionis Sector.

“Raid-i-sodes”
These are the high-end episodes you’ve been waiting for. Locked to 5-players, you’ll need every trick and every bit of teamwork to complete these challenges.

A Borg raid-i-sode series culminating in an encounter with the Borg queen is on its way. Expect a couple other “loose ends” to be addressed in the future, as well.

Available for both Klingon Generals and Starfleet Admirals, we’ll be releasing a new one of these every few weeks for the next three months.

First Update
We’re already working on it and it’ll be out before you know it.

The first update is going to have more PvP, Klingon exploration content, more ground fleet actions, more ship costume pieces, more playable species, and then some.

Bugs and Reactions to Them
Of course, like any MMO, we’ll scramble during the first couple weeks reacting to new bugs. putting in quality of life fixes, and closing exploits that weren’t exposed to us during Beta.

We’ll be fine tuning as well, but don’t expect thoughtless or harsh changes to game balance. We’re more than willing to wait and make sure everything we do is measured and calculated.

Expect a public test shard to become available real soon, too. We’ve named her “Tribble.” This is where the brave Captains (read: addicted testers) amongst you can try out our changes before we push them live. If you’re one of those who can’t get enough of the bleeding edge of development – or have a penchant for finding bugs and balance issues – keep an eye on the forums for details.

So, thank you again for the awesome Beta, but the fun begins now.

We have years of development left in us and a universe of content still to add. Here’s where it gets interesting… Here’s where you help us figure out what comes next.

I, for one, am looking forward to taking that journey.

-Zn

Related posts:

1. State of the Game: Feb 19, 2010
2. Champions Online: State of the Game Feb 9, 2010
3. Champions Online – State of the Game July 20, 2010

Headline Updates!

• Level Cap Removed!
• Cardassian and Romulan Sectors are now open for Federation Players.
• All bridge officer candidates offer a free basic customization option when they join your crew.
• You can now use the scan button on the MiniMap HUD to direct you towards the closest anomaly.
• Bridge Officers will now request transfer to your crew at various levels.
• Leonard Nimoy has provided an audio journal overview as you enter each new Sector Block.

Release Notes and Known Issues

General

• Fixed an issue where the price for training wasn’t accurate
• There have been many updates to video performance and default settings. If the game looks different, go into Video options and update them back to what you prefer.
• Updated the price of guild bank tabs.
• When you unslot an ability from your tray it will now move the item that grants it back to your inventory.
• You can now sell items directly from the paper doll.
• Updated tribble descriptions
• Level up congrats won’t happen until Level 3
• Attempt to fix many bugs with powers not slotting in proper power trays. This may require existing players to reslot powers where you want them
• The following social maps are now availabe: Vulcan, Risa, and Andoria
• Added basic respawn protection power
• Improved loading screens
• Removing a weapon power from your power tray, now removes the related weapon item from your ship to your inventory and vice-versa
• Changed door behavior on Defiant-class bridges.
• Lt. Romaine has departed Earth Spacedock and is now back on Memory Alpha in the Romulan Sector
• Updated civilian costumes to be more random
• Added contest winners to ship tier names
• Fixed duplicate instance of transphasic bomb kit in the store list.
• Fixed bug where players could not move items into their bank or guild bank.
• Federation players now have Guild Uniform options.
• Added PvP and Exploration vendors to: Qonos, Ganalda, K7 and Earth Spacedock
• Armor now shows when equipped on Bridge Officers.
• Fixing default bridge screen so it shows a starflield instead of just a black void.
• Increase cost of renaming ships and bridge officers in conjunction with free costume changes.
• Bridge Officers will no longer pet tribbles constantly
• Tribbles will no longer grow larger and larger.
• Changed starting level of klingons to 5
• Updated Klingon starting equipment. Ground and Space.
• Added Batleths to Klingon, PvP, and normal stores.
• Added very rare items to loot tables
• Fixed a bug where small ground consumables cost more than large ones.
• Updated pricing of consumables to be more in line with progressions.
• Added Consumables to Klingon equpment stores.
• Fixed Exchange searches for Lieutenant rank items.

Missions

• Tutorial has had another polish pass to improve amibient NPC animations and add final costumes for primary contacts
• Bug Fixes for nearly every mission in the game.
• Lowered requirement on deep space and star cluster to level 3.
• Updated enemy behavior in the Gorn Minefield and Starbase 24 Fleet Actions
• Klingon repeatable mission cooldown timers have been set to 6 minutes (the same time as it takes for the deepspace missions to reset)
• Danteri mission should now go to the appropriate planet surface.
• Repeatable star cluster missions can now only be completed in the specific Star Cluster the mission is for.
• Added a Klingon version of the Laurentian Fleet Action
• Updated mission description of the Crystalline entity fleet action
• Improved traffic control around Starbase 39 in Romulan space
• Beaming down to Memory Alpha should be easier now.
• Fixed several issues in the Friend of My Enemy mission.
• Changed all of the unknown system interacts to give players a chance to be able to join Teammates arlready engaged in a star cluster mission.
• Many systems and planets now have maps that previously did not
• Updated the map name of Pve_Competitive_Borghunt_Lt
• The turn in string for a mission now only appears in the mission objectives list if the mission is awaiting turn-in.
• Added free costume change to rank up mission
• Updated reward tables for Exploration missions
• Ranks missions were given additional instructions, sub-objectives, and waypoints in order to achieve maximum clarity regarding the Ship Requisition part of the mission chain.
• Fixed double spawn issue for C’Zann on Qonos
• Added New Sector Space Enemies
• Updated many landmarks in KFR and ROM
• Adjusted Spawn rates for Laurntian Ice Mining Ground Fleet Action
• Fixed many typos throughout the game (just not in the patch notes)
• Added Security guards to Earth Spacedock and Qo’Nos
• Doomday Machine: -Improved AI to be more predictable. -Increased the firing arc and build up time of the main weapon. Has badass FX now too.
• Unknown Alien Races now populate Star Cluster Exploration “unknown” systems.
• Fixing many Star Cluster planets that had objectives that could not be completed.
• Fixed neutral warp to Kerrat
• Disconnected neutral zone and klingon sector warps to iPvP ground maps (Otha, Qayghun)
• Added messages to inform the player when they are being offered a shared/secondary mission.
• Klingon player PvE repeatable missions now require the player to complete the open mission three times and at the end will grant exploration token rewards. These exploration tokens can be turned in to vendors on Qonos (formerly the PvP vendors which were duplicated on Ganalda) for special gear and weapons.
• Scientists can no longer be interacted with early on Researcher Rescue.
• Hostage ship at the end of Researcher Rescue now easier.
• Many many other mission bugs you filed have been fixed.

PVP

• KvK Ghostship should now drop rewards correctly
• KvK Hostile Takeover map now grants rewards properly.
• PvP Solar Wind should now grant rewards correctly.
• PvP map names standardized in queues.
• Queues no longer overlap levels, so players won’t have to face ships of incorrect tier.
• Fixed incorrect win condition on pvp areacontrol maps.
• Updated PVP queues to prevent players joining PvP at improper levels.
• Fixed display conditions for PvP scenarios so that players can access instructions mid-match.
• Distentigrated players will no longer remain invisible.
• Players who leave a PVP map prematurely have a wait time to rejoin a queue
• Corrected exploit that allowed Pvp Space Disruptor weapons to be tradable.
• Fix several queue UI/scoreboard issues.
• Updated PvP Arena queue settings
• Fixed the KvK Assimilation (Ground iPvP) map so that it now has enemies and that all the mission contacts are Klingon Houses

Environments

• Fixed some occlusions on the U.S.S. Warwick
• Fixed a few spots where you could jump into space
• Updated sky backgrounds on new planets in Federation Sectors
• There is now a minimap for Qo’nos
• Added 2 NPCs talking about sulu being admiral quinn’s office
• Added mailboxes were added in starbases where you can send receive items via mail
• removed a few patrols on earth spacedock that pathed in front of the admiral’s office – causing traffic jams

Skills, Powers, and Combat

• Improved ground combat balance. Easier at earlier levels, and more balanced at higher levels.
• Letheans – When purchasing the Telekinetic trait, Letheans received an old passive version of the trait that is no longer in use. Fixed so that they now receive the activated knockback ground ability. This will effect old and new characters.
• Saurian – Fixed a bug that prevented most Saurian characters from purchasing skills. This will apply to new and existing characters.
• Increased player ground and ship HP and Shields accross the board. This change mostly takes affect past Lt Commander.
• Cannons are now on a 1 second shared cooldown. They can be chain fired in their recharge timers, but they cannot be simultaneously fired. Previously, some cannons could unreliably fire at the same time and others couldn’t. The behavior should be consistent now.
• Increased crew size for the Tier 1 Bird of Prey to 30 so it works with “Boarding Party”.
• Fixed spawn rank on engineering fabrication objects.
• Strengthened fabricated phaser turrets, but reduced their spawn limit to 1.
• Powers that spawn critters to properly use the caster’s level.
• Restored Evasive Maneuvers to a toggle power to allow for power level adjustment during its use.
• Fixed Tractor Beam so it works better when used against certain ships.
• Adjusted Ramming Speed damage and maximum speed in combination with Full Impulse and other speed enhancement powers.
• Ground Armor Shield Regen mod is now periodic instead of continuous, gives roughly the same benefit over time
• Buffs now display how long they last, and how many times they have been stacked.
• Changed the Crystalline entity’s beam to do Anti-proton damage instead of phaser damage
• Improved Tractor Beam Repulsors repel and damage values.
• Corrected stacking errors in attack pattern powers.
• Enabled stare down on all space enemies. They will no longer instantly aggro at 10k.
• Added info text to skills indicating the requirements for unlocking ability training.
• Reworked Force Field Dome engineering kit power to grant a damage resistance to allies and repel enemies from entering dome.
• Fixed Tetryon Bolt Pistol primary attack short description
• Fixed Tetryon Beam Pistol and Dual Bolt Pistol primary attacks short description
• Reduced the number of torpedo salvos low end cruisers, escorts and battleships fire – both in how many torpedoes they fire, and how often they fire them. A similar change was made to many critter ships to reduce how often they fire off other weapon enhancing abilities (like Overload or fire at will).
• Reduced the number of heal and shield repair abilities low end cruisers, escorts and battleships – both in frequency and in magnitude.
• Fixed item info window to correctly display passive power descriptions.
• Reworked the team powers (Engineering Team, Science Team, Tactical Team) to be consistent with each other and effective. Renamed Medical Team to Science Team. Renamed Security Team to Tactical Team.
• Dual heavy cannons’ basic attack was doing less damage than the baseline. It has been brought back online with the other energy weapons’ basic attack dps.
• Reduced duration and recharge of Photonic Officer. Added duration to Tactical Initiative, which now reduces recharge on tactical bridge officer powers only.
• If you put your ship in reverse for more than 10 seconds, you will start so slowly drain power from all systems.
• Improved the damage improvement per level of activated traits.
• Generic Pacify – Added 10% Expose chance. Added hold resistance on expiration (was missing from this power).
• Gorn Bite – Increased recharge time from 45 seconds to 150 seconds. Doubled the physical damage component. Quintupled the toxic DoT damage. Increased DoT duration.
• Vulcan Mind Meld – Added 10% Expose chance. Increased recharge timer from 120 seconds to 150 seconds. Previously, this was a maintained power that had an extend duration on Hold and Confuse attribmods. Removed the extended component and stacked the entirety of the duration on the first pulse. This makes it show the full effect of the power in the tooltip. Increased the overall duration of the Confuse, and the Hold is for the activation time of the power.
• Vulcan Nerve Pinch – Added 10% Expose chance. Increased recharge timer from 120 to 180.
• Lethean Rapture – Added Exploit ability. Added 20% shield penetration. Increased recharge from 60 to 150 seconds. Increased the damage by 300%. Increased hold to 2 seconds.
• Orion Seduce – Added 10% Expose chance. Increased duration by 33% and increased recharge timer from 60 to 120.
• Fixed Aceton Field. It now properly applies a DoT and visual fx.
• Added stealth debuff to Sensor Scan ability and updated target options to include friend or foe.
• Telepathic and Acute Senses have the same stat bonus, +20% StealthSight
• Combo powers have now have short descriptions in power details lists
• Phaser Cannon Mk II: Text said firing arc was 180′, actual arc is 45′
• Ground Combat Holds – Increased player innate resistance to holds, which effectively reduces the durations of holds against players. Once holds expire, they apply additional hold resistance buffs. When players have this buff stacked on them, the resistance will become complete immunity. This does not affect NPCs.
• Space Combat Space Mines should now detonate more reliably, especially when used against large targets.
• Heavy Torpedoes – If a hostile target gets too close to the heavy torpedo while it is pursuing its target, the torpedo will explode and damage the opportune target.
• Fixed Nadeon Inversion power to work with new energy drain mechanic
• Removed bridge officer powers from Photonic Fleet. Increased recharge time.
• Fixed Tachyon Beam so its shield drain no longer tapers off over distance. The effectiveness is constant over range now.
• Ground Shields – Improved the scale of ground shield regeneration. Now, when your shields pop, they should reliably heal your shields to full regardless of your level and the level of the shield. The time to full heal should be consistent across all levels. Ground Shield Regen Enhancement – Items with this power now heal 2% of your shields every 2 seconds.

FX and Animation

• Added FX to Jam Sensors, and Scramble Sensors.
• Updated Tribble FX
• Updated explosions for several enemy ships
• Added FX to Generic species trait Telekenisis.
• Civlian no longer fast walk on Memory Alpha
• Fixed Phaser lighting issue. Light was appearing at the target and not at the source.
• Added FX to Extend Shields. The beam will now last for the duration of the power.
• Added fx to Nanite Health Monitor.
• Male characters should now use run and gun animations appropriately.
• Added FX to Science Boff Viral Matirix
• Added FX to Emergency Power to Auxiliary, Auxiliary Power to Structural Integrity Field, Aceton Field, Hazard Emitters, Tachyon Beam, Tractor beam Repulsors.
• Added bloodwine cup FX for emote.
• Added New FX for Deep space encounter markers.
• Klingons should no longer use starfeet tricorders.

Characters and Costumes

• Players can now Save/Load costumes.
• Clicking random when creating a character of a specific species is now more defined.
• Added more color options for uniforms.
• Updated character creation presets.
• Fix a visual problem with Klingon Assault weapons
• PVP Vendors are now wearing cooler gear.
• Random: reducing chance of AlienGen getting hair or eyebrows.
• Humanoids always get eybrows.
• Bajorans now always recieve earring.
• Andorians always get antenna When making new costume
• Characters always start with a badge and ensign pips
• Adding Ferengi and Starfleet Klingons to Bridge Officer Requisitions
• Reducing frequency of “old age” faces
• Updating uniform colors to have all colors, in all zones
• Pointing the short-curly-hairstyles to use the fuzzy material shader
• Removing dreads hair from most “human” species (these are a klingon specific part)
• Fixing Uniform category selections
• Klingon security officers now use more appropriate Klingon faction costumes.
• Added name generation data for Gorn, Lethean
• Added Bar Patron costumes.
• Added Asian faces to character creator

Audio

• Removed placeholder sound for Bridge Officer VO placement.
• Updated ambient audio on some Cardassian sector planets
• The interaction sound for setting the away team rally point should now correctly play when left clicking and right clicking the button.
• Lots of audio updates for bridge officer and kit powers
• Many adjustment to sfx volumes

UI

• There are now context sensitive cursors for when you can perform actions as you mouse over objects
• MiniMap update. New buttons. Help is integrated into the menu as well as status, inventory, menu, and captains log. There is a dropdown arrow button that will allow for more buttons. Large Warp/Beam and Hail buttons are now added to side for ease of click and a consant Scan button added to the frame.
• Added info button to HUD target status window
• Updated Mission Windows. Opacity never drops below 45%.
• Updated the mission objective tracker
• Added tooltip to Throttle UI
• Added distance numbers to ground team status HUD
• Access Library Computer option on minimap menu should now function again
• Reorganized the “Skill-Based Stats” section of the status window
• The Target of Target indicator will now display the correct life for the life bar.
• Social search menus all properly reference Level now.
• Item counts show again on various item UIs.
• The trade UI no longer cuts off item names and generally looks better
• Dragging and dropping items has improved
• Many updates to the Klingon HUD
• interact buttons no longer have bright white selected states on by default
• Klingon character select screen is no longer off-center
• Chat popup button uses a new and hopefully a more understandable icon.
• All Food icons have been updated
• Contact window header now matches the chat window border style.
• Updated the backdrop for the contact window so it’s 150% sexier than the plain blue gradient.
• Fatigue, Recovery, and Held bars are now movable via HUG rearrange mode.
• Added new Galaxy Map arrows to denote map connections
• Change disable camera shaking to enable camera shaking in the options menu
• Target reticles now show up on entities even if they are dead.
• The size of buff icons has been increased.
• Item info window will now appear when right clicking items in stores.
• Crew bar tooltip to show crew levels and hull regeneration rate.
• Updated icons for end game pvp, exploration and raid rewards items
• The Skill selection winodow now shows the cost of the next level rather than the current level – which is important for Bridge Officers.
• Fixed a bug that was causing incorrect information to show up on certain item tooltips.
• Updated the Power Store UI
• Map names now truncate if they are too long to properly display and instead display the full map name in the tooltip.
• Now when the character status window is opened in space (U), your ship is selected. When it’s opened on ground, your captain is selected.
• Added UI for displaying mission rewards which have been given directly to the player (not dropped).
• Completed submissions are no longer displayed on the mission helper.
• Updated icons for all the “Unique” items in the game.
• Random buttons now work much more reliably in the character creator.
• Weapon icons now correspond to their different type of attack.
• Added “Value:” label to item tooltips to clarify the meaning of the item’s value in the lower right corner of the tooltip.
• Double clicking on a mission in the mission tracker now opens that mission in the mission journal
• Clicking on the minimap’s title now gives the option to change instances (it no longer shows in the minimap dropdown) – Fleet option now only shows if you are in a fleet (same as the chat popup menu)
• The team right click menu now appears correctly if they are in different systems.
• Player titles now show over the player’s name on ground maps
• System map now shows labels all the time.
• Names are now truncated on scoreboards if they are too long
• Fixed checkbox flickering in chat UI
• Made a bunch of visual improvements to the character creator
• Added badge display in captain’s “Progress” tab.
• Added title selection dropdown to Character Status UI
• Ship weapons will only show the slots for the areas they can be slotted in.
• Fixed a bug where the ship item comparison tooltips would appear when looking at players rather than the ship on the status screen.
• Starfleet/Klingon hail no longer flashes when disabled
• Double-clicking a character model at the character selection screen now enters game.
• Added icons for engineering/science/tactical in “Choose your Career” UI
• Fixed “friends” command to actually open friends list
• Updated the Team Window. Controls and feel.
• Journal – Made “Episodes” display Rank/Grade instead of level as well as several other cosmetic changes
• Added info to blank officer slots to make it clearer what they are.
• You can now use the Control key to drag stacks of items rather than the Shift key so that there is no conflict with the run key
• Fixed flickering and list row height problems in guild UI
• Remove auto-attack from ground inventory/control scheme.
• “remove” now shows correctly on trade UI to remove a given item + cosmetic tweaks
• Update message for when the shard is full.
• The galaxy map now shows which sector you are currently in as well as your approximate location.
• Updated Team window buttons, added missing button states like ‘has target’ and ‘stay’. Also fixed a broken alpha channel on the rally button.
• Updated passive admiral team powers (space and ground) to use proper icons and team affect area.
• Added faction icons to the target status HUD window
• Added new Faction Icons and Klingon Pips
• Item slots will now turn red when attempting to move a Boff into them
• Fixed bug where all inventory slots would be highlighted red when dragging certain items.
• Updated the CONNING pips to reflect up to 8 levels now.
• Removed the greeting dialog so that players are immediately presented with the replicator store.
• Switch Active Weapon will queue up the swap if the primary weapon is in use

Known Issues

• Recipes are showing in the Exchange, but there are currently no recipes in game
• PVP Queue issues are still be worked on.
• Presets don’t work for tailoring your bridge officers
• Status FX are sometimes displaying as bright squares.
• Cargo ships and space traders do not bring up a store interface, even though they have interact options.
• The number of items in a stack in the Exchange is black and hard to read
• PVP and Exploration vendors do not explain how to get the badges and currency needed to claim rewards
• Some civilians are illegally using Starfleet uniforms.
• Brige Officers cannot be traded at this time
• Some rifles can cause arm animations to look odd
• Left clicking targets will often select someone behind you instead of what you were clicking on
• Some test VO for bridge officers is playing unexpectedly.
• Many headshots will camera pan unexpectedly
• Shield indicators can sometimes go away on the HUD and never come back
• There is non-existant ‘dueling’ zone on Andoria. This is not intended to be a PVP area and is being removed.
• Power Trays can sometimes be blank and not display your tray. To fix this, change the row number back and forth to display the tray again
• Free Fleet Escort ship is missing from the store. If you reach Rear Admiral Rank, you will not be able to get a free Fleet Escort (you can purchase it). All other ships are available as a free reward choice at that Rank (There is a free Advanced Escort available).
• If you have multiple cannons (Player and Critters), sometimes hitting fire all will allow all your cannons to fire one pulse – adding bonus damage. Only one cannon should be able to be fired at one time. This bug applies to critters with multiple cannons as well.
• Rapid fire is disabling as soon as you fire one cannon. It is supposed to last 15 seconds and allow you to fire all cannons in Rapid Fire mode for that time. A fix is on the way very soon.
• Mid-range level ground critters (low teens) are hitting too hard. We will be reducing their damage slightly.
• Chroniton Torpedo Tuning. They are doing too much damage and not enough debuff. This is getting tuned. They will do slightly less damage then they are doing now, but will have a significant slow and turn radius debuff. This affects players and enemies.
• You can fire too many Tri-cobalt devices in a row. They will be put on a global cooldown. This affects players and enemies
• Metreon Gas Clouds are doing too much damage
• There is no current way to now display armor equipped on your Bridge Officers

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Patch Notes Feb 23, 2010
2. Star Trek Online ships February 2, 2010!
3. Star Trek Online – Season Two:Ancient Enemies

Cryptic released the details on their Lifetime Subscription plan for their upcoming MMO release, Star Trek Online.   Unlike the Lifetime Subscription package they put together for their other MMO title of interest, Champions Online, this deal is a bit lackluster.  The chance to play a toned down version of the borg race and 2 extra character slots.  meh.  The slots you’ll be able to buy through their micro-transaction system I am certain so where is the real benefit?  Hook me up with Kirk’s play book or better yet his little black book and I might bite

So you decide, is a quadi borg and 2 slots worth a $ 239.00 investment on your part?  Do you think you’ll be playing the game for at least 16 months really?  if not then it’s cheaper to just pay the $ 14.99 a month

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Beta Applications!
2. Star Trek Online Test Server Released, called Tribble
3. Star Trek Online Deluxe Collections Big bucks edition announced!

In what I’d have to call a fairly innovative marketing ploy the folks over at Cryptic Studios came up with a fun way to promote their upcoming mmo, Star Trek Online.  They created a site ( http://tweetinklingon.com ) that allows you to type in a phrase and it instantly transforms that phrase into proper Klingon.  While I am sure many of you will think to yourselves “of what practical use is this really?”, this little ploy will be a neat viral way of getting some attention for this mmo.

Give it a shot folks!

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Video – Klingons!
2. The Deal with The Secret World
3. Star Trek Online Release Notes – Jan 20, 2010

Well Cryptic has released the specifics for their “collectors edition” of their upcoming MMO Star Trek Online.  Below are the details of the higher priced version of the game.  Break out the wallets folks!  ZOOOOM goes your dollars.  You can expect to pay $ 79.99 USD for this little package of Trekkie goodness.

# Deluxe Packaging: Futuristic 3dX holography set in a high quality brushed aluminum finish. Heavy duty construction with magnetic closures and nested compartments for all components.
# Deluxe Manual: High end, hardbound, art book, manual, and disc case in a single, elegant package. “HD Printing” on over 40 glossy pages of exclusive art from the Star Trek Online Universe.
# Communicator Badge: High quality cast metal design based on the in-game badge model. Fully 3d Sculpted with recessed burst and curved contours.
# Guest Passes: Credit card style buddy passes to invite three of your friends for a ten day trial of Star Trek Online.
# Red Matter Capacitor: A unique item that charges up and delivers extra energy to all of your ship’s equipment for a short time. A device that, when used, gives you a small bump in energy, has a long recharge.
# Next Generation Uniform: Uniform Options from and the Next Generation. The timeless look worn by Picard, Data and Riker.
# “Deep Space Nine” Uniform: Uniform Options from the “Deep Space Nine” Series. Grey shoulders, on a black uniform, just like Sisko, Worf and Dax.

Reserve Star Trek Online and receive beta access, and 2-day early head-start access. Beta begins January 12, 2010 and runs through January 26, 2010. Early head start will begin on January 29, 2010. Available online and in-store while supplies last.

And for the Gamestop shoppers out there, their pre-order bonus item is… the Enterprise?!?!

“Reserve Star Trek Online and receive a GameStop exclusive in-game Starfleet Constitution Class Starship. This unique, upgradable starship comes equipped with blue phasers and an extra engineering station mod slot. Available online and in-store while supplies last.”

get the Enterprise, well a sister ship anyway

Related posts:

1. Star Trek Online Open Beta Announced!
2. Star Trek Online ships February 2, 2010!
3. Star Trek Online Closed Beta