Star Trek Online

Hey MMO Trekkies, are you beaming down to Las Vegas for this year's Official Star Trek Convention? If so, we've got one event that you won't want to miss: a Q&A panel with Star Trek Online's developers co-hosted by Massively and TrekRadio.net!

We'll be on the scene as Cryptic Studios fields a wide variety of questions from ardent fans of the game. If getting that burning question you've had off your chest isn't enough of a reason to attend, the developers will also show a few trailers and sneak peeks of upcoming content.

The panel will take place on Saturday, August 11th, from 2:00 to 3:00 EDT (11:00 a.m. to noon PDT) at the Rio Suites Hotel in Las Vegas.

It was a cold, dreary Saturday morning in January 2010 when I told my wife that we had a quest to accomplish. It was absolutely imperative that we drive into unsafe areas of Detroit to locate one of the very few Del Tacos in the area in order to buy cups. On these cups, as I explained to my increasingly incredulous spouse, were codes for shuttle pets in the upcoming Star Trek Online. I had to get some, I insisted; Captain Kirk was depending on me.

An hour later, our mission was accomplished, and my wife had another tale of husband-geekery to share around the office. To her credit, the very next week she happened to be driving by another Del Taco and purchased me six additional cups to give away to fans who otherwise couldn't get one. That's how awesome she is.

I tell you this story because it is indicative of my relationship with Star Trek Online: silly yet passionate, excitable yet frivolous, and flawed yet fascinated. I've played this game off and on for the past couple of years and have become convinced that while it's clunky and lacking in areas, it's an MMO gem that deserves much better than the slander it's endured.

This is why I play it.

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I first asked Stahl to give me an overview of his responsibilities as Executive Producer, as there are many people who are either new to STO (or even to gaming overall) who may not have a clear understanding of his role entails.

He stated his job is "similar to making movies." He has several direct reports, the first being the software person or the person responsible for the team of people who actually create the code for the game. The second is the Content Lead, who is responsible for new missions, new features, and anything to with player experience. Finally, the Quality Assurance team also reports to him.

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EVE Online is one of those polarizing games that seems to spark debate at every mention, but even if you're not a fan of the game's mechanics, there's no denying that the game's visuals are breathtaking. Infamous EVE pirate Helicity Boson sent in today's highlighted screenshot with this note:

Today I come to you with an amazing screenshot taken during a joint operation with several of Shadow Cartel's friends who happened to have trapped an unsuspecting super capital pilot. The visuals were just... amazing. There are a few more on my site, machine9.net. I hope you'll share this with the world!

Helicity's screenshot and two more starship-themed pics are tucked behind the break!

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Thought that the Cardassian lock boxes and those ever-present "So-and-so opened a lock box and got a Galor-class cruiser!" messages were the end of Star Trek Online's foray into pay-for-treasure items? Think again! As of today, STO players will begin to see Ferengi lock boxes dropping in the game.

As with the Cardassian boxes, the Ferengi boxes can only be unlocked with a special key that must be purchased in the C-Store. The contents of the boxes contain a mystery prize that ranges from the D'Kora Marauder Class starship to combat pets to Lobi Crystals. Gold lock boxes have a higher chance of delivering a better prize.

In addition to proliferating lock boxes across the galaxy, STO's Ferengi are opening a store on Drozana Station that will sell a variety of fun items in exchange for Lobi Crystals. The store will offer Ferengi shuttles, photonic tactical bridge officers, costume pieces, and pets.

Rivera and I picked up the conversation and talked briefly about the Why I Play STO column that I wrote several weeks ago. I informed him that because of that column, I had received a few emails from brand-new MMO players who expressed frustration over the fact that as new free-to-play players, they weren't immediately allowed into the parts of the game that would give them access to the community, especially fleets, right off the bat.

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There's a great big galaxy out there in Star Trek Online, so much so that some things occasionally fall through the cracks. The latest installment of Ask Cryptic focuses on a few of these elements, like the Andorian ship and the addition of a playable Romulan faction. Neither of these elements is on the table for immediate inclusion, but both are in the pipe for future updates; the former is planned for sometime the next year, while the Romulans are on the more distant horizon.

Not everything comes down to a simple "not right now," however. The KDF, for instance, is slated to continue receiving new updates and additional features to bring the faction more in line with the Federation's content level. The development team is also hard at work trying to allow older ships to be retrofitted into higher-level content, letting players take classic designs into modern engagements. It's certainly not a question of whether the development team has a plan or not, just a matter of how soon all of these fabled upgrades will be implemented.

In releasing the new mission, Cryptic decided to take advantage of a community-based effort called Klingon Awareness Week (KAW) and set the release date to occur right in the middle of the event. This week also sees the return of First Contact Day events for the Federation side, which will showcase its own unique rewards. Let's dig in to each of these great events!

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Last week I received a bit of feedback regarding the state of Rivera's desk. I withheld taking pictures of the interior of the office space for fear of inadvertently capturing information that I wasn't free to share. Happily, though, Rivera himself decided to tweet a few photos of the ships and Trek paraphernalia that graced our visit to his office. Yes, it also included a picture of what I had described in my last column as a "funky purple monster." Apparently my comic book naiveté has kept me from recognizing what Rivera informed me is The Maxx.

Sorry, but it will always be that funky purple monster to me.

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Star Trek may feature universal translators, but the crew at Cryptic has to make do with old fashioned techniques until the future catches up with us. As such, the studio has announced that it is relaunching Star Trek Online in Europe to support its French- and German-speaking players.

Starting right now, the game, website, forums, and game support will be available in all three languages. To further cater to European players, Cryptic has vowed to add more EU-friendly event timeslots.

Executive Producer Dan Stahl hopes this will spread STO across the world: "The launch of Star Trek Online in Europe is the culmination of our efforts over the past several years to bring gamers the Star Trek universe on a truly massive scale."

All players can benefit from this European relaunch, as Q's coming back to celebrate with a double-XP bonus weekend. Anyone who logs in from today through Monday, April 2nd, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, will not only benefit from the a skill point and bridge officer point boost but can claim a free IDIC Tribble of his or her very own. The Tribble provides a unique buff to your character based on his, her, or its class -- and if you manage to get all three buffs on you at once, you'll be granted an additional boost to damage, resistance, and health regen.

[Source: Cryptic press release]

Massively Speaking Episode 194 welcomes aboard resident Star Trek Online expert Terilynn Shull to talk about Tribbles and bits and why Star Trek doesn't have more "The Fly" incidents involving the transporter and local flora or fauna. Captain Archer would have been vastly improved by beaming him into a badger.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
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Read below the cut for the full show notes.

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Last week, I headed to Cryptic Studios to meet with several of the folks responsible for the development of Star Trek Online. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing what I learned from those individuals and from the team on the whole!

This week, I will begin my coverage of a lengthy interview with Al Rivera (@CaptainGeko), the lead designer for STO.

If I had any doubts about the team's love or understanding of our beloved franchise, those doubts were dispelled the moment I walked into the STO work area.

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Loot's not something that I see discussed much these days among MMO players. It's probably because loot's been around since the beginning of online time and is such a staple that we'd only really notice it if it went away completely or if the object in question were a major game-changer for us.

Random loot from mobs is a reward mechanic that is bordering on archaic, having been supplanted by dependable quest rewards and barter vendors that give us the gear we so desire. Of course, now we've come around the weird circle to the point that dropped lockboxes hold interesting loot, but we've got to pay for the privilege of seeing what's inside.

But let's not go there today! Instead, I'm going to share with you the 10 general types of loot that still get me excited while playing. They will shock, amaze, and radically reshape your life, as long as you've had a recent brain wipe and are awaiting brand-new neural instructions.

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It's easy to forget from time to time, but no matter what level you're at in Star Trek Online, you've got a pretty big ship under your command. That means there are all sorts of people who need help, all manner of different departments to address, and generally enough running around to fill an hour of programming every week for seven years. The game's newest patch, which rolls out this week, aims to address that feel by adding several assignment contacts to your ship interior, fleshing out the ship and offering you another set of content to explore.

Some of the assignments offered within your ship are new, while others allow you to further focus your efforts on a given commendation category. Almost all of them involve seeking out and speaking to the appropriate part of your duty roster, meaning that your Engineering officer will be in charge of a plethora of Engineering-related assignments. It's a great chance to get to know your crew as more than just piles of stats, and it should give you just a bit more of that ever-important Star Trek feel.

The Foundry is Star Trek Online's user-generated content tool, one that allows players to create their very own playable missions in the game. Those missions also become available as content to the rest of the playerbase. It's a tool that differentiates STO from most other MMOs and encourages fans to expand on the universe of STO and Star Trek in general. Join me as in this Captain's Log, I focus on the Foundry, some of its missions, and the community that keeps it going.

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