I'd love to play STO on my couch with a controller, totally!
I play STO from my couch with a mouse and keyboard. I can't play it in 4k (the GUI just doesn't scale high enough to be comfortable to read in 4k) but it all works fine in 1080p.
So, the integration of the TOS faction has been answered through the last Tribble patch:
At the end of their storyline, you're killed in the Battle of Caleb IV. Daniels rescues you and your crew at the last minute and they invent a cover identity for you in 2409 (upon arrival I kid you not you are mistaken for a cosplayer because of the TOS uniform). You pick up in the Klingon War arc with the identity of a new command selection candidate. Admiral Quinn comments on how you're even more awesome than the default Federation player and says you'll have your pick of any ship in Starfleet.
You know, as long as it's tier 2 and doesn't cost zen.
So, a rundown of how the TOS faction works:
1. You start out with a separate tutorial/origin story spread over 5 missions taking you to level 10, during which you are limited to the starting ship and the TOS Constitution (you can't claim any other tier 1 ships or shuttles from the C-store).
2. You get the TOS uniform and shuttle for free instead of from the C-store, and exclusive access to the Pioneer-class Utility Cruiser (it's not available to standard Fed players, at least right now), which is just a stat-for-stat Miranda clone with a much cooler design.
3. Afterward you are a full Fed member in 2409/2410, including the entire post-tutorial Fed campaign and shared ship pool.
Also separate rank insignia (same rank structure), and the default UI colors are a brighter version of the Voyager template in settings. The TOS transporter effect has been implemented, you see it occasionally, but at least currently all TOS characters use the standard Fed transporter effect, even when they're still in the TOS era.
So a little less robust of a "plus pack" than Romulans offered, 90% of the experience and all of the endgame is still STO as we know it, and it does mean that pretty ship pack isn't limited to a new faction like the Legacy of Romulus pack, but piled into Starfleet's already vast ship gap.
So, the integration of the TOS faction has been answered through the last Tribble patch:
At the end of their storyline, you're killed in the Battle of Caleb IV. Daniels rescues you and your crew at the last minute and they invent a cover identity for you in 2409 (upon arrival I kid you not you are mistaken for a cosplayer because of the TOS uniform). You pick up in the Klingon War arc with the identity of a new command selection candidate. Admiral Quinn comments on how you're even more awesome than the default Federation player and says you'll have your pick of any ship in Starfleet.
You know, as long as it's tier 2 and doesn't cost zen.
So, a rundown of how the TOS faction works:
1. You start out with a separate tutorial/origin story spread over 5 missions taking you to level 10, during which you are limited to the starting ship and the TOS Constitution (you can't claim any other tier 1 ships or shuttles from the C-store).
2. You get the TOS uniform and shuttle for free instead of from the C-store, and exclusive access to the Pioneer-class Utility Cruiser (it's not available to standard Fed players, at least right now), which is just a stat-for-stat Miranda clone with a much cooler design.
3. Afterward you are a full Fed member in 2409/2410, including the entire post-tutorial Fed campaign and shared ship pool.
Also separate rank insignia (same rank structure), and the default UI colors are a brighter version of the Voyager template in settings. The TOS transporter effect has been implemented, you see it occasionally, but at least currently all TOS characters use the standard Fed transporter effect, even when they're still in the TOS era.
So a little less robust of a "plus pack" than Romulans offered, 90% of the experience and all of the endgame is still STO as we know it, and it does mean that pretty ship pack isn't limited to a new faction like the Legacy of Romulus pack, but piled into Starfleet's already vast ship gap.
Sounds like I may need to update my client so I can start playing again.
Haven't played in a while, so probably best that I start a new character to see what's changed. And this sounds like as good a time as any for a new char.
So, not exactly shipwank, but this new map would seem to confirm the JJ-Trek ship set in whatever form it takes, because this sure as hell looks like the JJprise bridge:
Also, kinda shipwank, the Enterprise-J (probably Battle of Procyon V map, the ship exists like the Voth Fortress as map geometry rather than a mobile NPC):
And... Probably a super, ultra, mega, OMG don't click on this spoiler: STO announced that there will be a "huge" announcement at FedCon, and somebody apparently left some promotional material on the table during photos:
Yes, you read that right, The William Fucking Shatner reprising his role as Captain Kirk.
A lot of it hopefully comes down to how they hack into game data to get maps. There's a couple ways, but none of them preserve lighting - you either get lighting from a completely different map or none at all depending on the method. I mean, some of it comes down to the fact that the J was just a shitty design thrown together in an afternoon and never actually shown in its complete form, but I think it'll look better in game.
Anyway, megaspoilers related to AoY and the next lockbox:
There's an undocumented mission hooked up on Tribble in the Delphic Region called Open Door.
When you go through, you end up in 2270, but in a different universe. Daniels explains that this is a diverged timeline created by (drumroll) the Narada passing through a temporal rift and destroying the USS Kelvin. It's one of several universes the Temporal Cold War has spilled over into, this one being designated Timeline Kelvin. Currently the Sphere Builders are doing their thing here, with the Klingons as their proxies (they're kind of upset about that whole attempted genocide thing).
The ships don't have their artwork hooked up, but there are ground maps for the JJ-prise bridge (complete with honest-to-fucking-god lens flare, it's subtle and easy to miss except when it clips in front of a character but it is there), Klingon and Starfleet ground units in alternate universe uniforms.
It's a good mission, too. They don't dwell on anything particularly stupid from the movies, just introduce the setting and give you a new kind of Klingon to shoot at. Something about the intentionally over-gaudy bridge and excessive effects of the movies mixed with the modern shows' effect style is surreal. Not quite hilarious like the TOS crossover stuff, but I kind of love that they actually preserve all three art styles and let them live side-by-side instead of blending them together into a single look.
So, TL;DR: Pretty much 100% confirmed that the Kelvin Timeline lockbox isn't just a wink and a nudge like the Tal'Shir lockbox, it's actual literal JJ-movie stuff, and there's story content to go with it.
A lot of it hopefully comes down to how they hack into game data to get maps. There's a couple ways, but none of them preserve lighting - you either get lighting from a completely different map or none at all depending on the method. I mean, some of it comes down to the fact that the J was just a shitty design thrown together in an afternoon and never actually shown in its complete form, but I think it'll look better in game.
Anyway, megaspoilers related to AoY and the next lockbox:
There's an undocumented mission hooked up on Tribble in the Delphic Region called Open Door.
When you go through, you end up in 2270, but in a different universe. Daniels explains that this is a diverged timeline created by (drumroll) the Narada passing through a temporal rift and destroying the USS Kelvin. It's one of several universes the Temporal Cold War has spilled over into, this one being designated Timeline Kelvin. Currently the Sphere Builders are doing their thing here, with the Klingons as their proxies (they're kind of upset about that whole attempted genocide thing).
The ships don't have their artwork hooked up, but there are ground maps for the JJ-prise bridge (complete with honest-to-fucking-god lens flare, it's subtle and easy to miss except when it clips in front of a character but it is there), Klingon and Starfleet ground units in alternate universe uniforms.
It's a good mission, too. They don't dwell on anything particularly stupid from the movies, just introduce the setting and give you a new kind of Klingon to shoot at. Something about the intentionally over-gaudy bridge and excessive effects of the movies mixed with the modern shows' effect style is surreal. Not quite hilarious like the TOS crossover stuff, but I kind of love that they actually preserve all three art styles and let them live side-by-side instead of blending them together into a single look.
So, TL;DR: Pretty much 100% confirmed that the Kelvin Timeline lockbox isn't just a wink and a nudge like the Tal'Shir lockbox, it's actual literal JJ-movie stuff, and there's story content to go with it.
Even though I hate the JJverse stuff, that is a neat way to integrate it into the story.
DarkMecha on
Steam Profile | My Art | NID: DarkMecha (SW-4787-9571-8977) | PSN: DarkMecha
Does anyone have experience dealing with support? I decided to jump back into the game but apparently I need to link my cryptic account to a new ARC account, anyone know how long I should expect this to take?
Star Trek Magazine confirmed that Joseph Gatt will be voicing Lieutenant Weird Guy from Into Darkness for AoY. The character was in the leaked mission on Tribble, but since there's no voices hooked up it's never clear if the original actor is returning or not.
Now that the JJ-Trek mission is officially on the test server, more of the art is hooked up. The Klingons are still flying B'rels, but here's the USS Yorktown:
Just like the TOS-era ships, it has setting appropriate weapons: It has rapid firing turrets that do phaser damage and fire blood-red bolts, and its photon torpedoes leave smoke trails.
And the reward:
The weird looking bat'leth from Into Darkness that you only saw if you could bare to constantly pause the movie looking for easter eggs.
For those who were considering a return, the details of this year's recruitment event are up. First, it only applies to TOS Federation characters, but has some wider ranging rewards than last year:
Temporal probes: like the Iconian tech from last year, but with puzzles attached. Each one gives a mark box, finding half of them gives an account unlock for a trait that reduces your fleet buff cooldown, and all of them gives an improved version.
Missions themselves: Resrouce boxes like last year, and finishing the lot gives a trait that adds a crit buff to all emergency power abilities.
Rank: Free gear choice box each level, just like last year.
R&D: (Big meh here for many, I think) Reach rank 5 in one category and get a free boost to level 10 in another, with some smaller bonuses and the AEGIS doff they've already given away a bunch of times.
Admiralty: Level 3 in all three campaigns and get a permanent account-wide boost to experience from admiralty.
Doffing: Various special doffs along the way, with a unique temporal agent for hitting tier 4 in six categories.
Fleet: Like last year, some marks and dilithium vouchers.
And now things get nuts:
Reputation: Various checkpoints for energy credits, dilithium vouchers, and marks, with the big reward being for tier 5 in every reputation except the new one, account unlock to automatically upgrade any reputation reward project from purple to ultra rare.
Specialization (really): Various unlocks for experience boosts and special tech upgrades, big unlock for 3 full specs (90 points) is several improved traits (the command, intel, and temporal capstones) are upgraded another level to superior versions.
TL;DR:
Hard to say if it's less resources than last year, but there's no farming each faction to double dip since it's tied to the new origin story. No neat gadgets, most of the traits are just upgrades of existing ones (that critical emergency one sounds nifty, though). That specialization, though. God that's steep. That really, REALLY sounds like they could have put that after one full spec, not three. Maybe one full and one half, to fill out a build. God that requirement. The reputation one sounds steep, too, but the reward is pretty huge, assuming it carries forward to new reputations in the future. The spec reward is just an incremental upgrade to a few starship traits you may or may not be using.
So I heard this is hitting consoles in the fall. Is it more or less "free" than Neverwinter is? I don't mind throwing money at it if I'm having fun, but I do mind an attempt to hook a vacuum to my wallet. Also, more/less grindy?
Basically if I can have a D'Deridex and tootle around space disruptoring the crap out of things without having to empty my wallet or spend a month grinding currency #120702 to do so, I will probably be happy.
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
Top end ships require Currency (that can be acquired via an exchange similar to Neverwinter) but Cryptic give away 2-3 top level ships a year via Winter/Summer/Anniversary events that require a moderate (~3min a day for a couple of weeks) time commitment. If you are only playing a single character it is very easy to find a ship you like in the store, grind up and just stick with it, while the bleeding edge suffers from power creep, little is needed for the day to day story content.
All the content is free though and without restriction. I don't know if you can actually get a max level DD but someone will probably chime in shortly.
There's one aspect that gets really grindy, and that's specializations. And there's not an especially useful way to money away that grind, because the exp boosts are too small to make a difference. To a lesser extent R&D is a long grind, I've maxed the current reputation system and have some points banked for the new tree, but am only level 17 or 18 out of 20 in most of the R&D schools, but the most useful stuff unlocks at level 10 (including each school's "ultimate" equipment), which isn't much of a grind at all, and the last unlocks are at 15, which is somewhat of a grind but less than specializations and... really you're not missing anything, the top end upgrade packs aren't worth the investment unless you're trying to blast a mk I or mk II item you're really attached to all the way up to mk XIV, since you get multiple quality upgrade chances off one pack - you get more bang for your buck from the level 10 packs once you hit the point where you don't get at least two mk levels out of one.
Some small bad news: The free D'deridex is tier 4. There are endgame (tier 5 and 6) versions, but they're not free...
Edit: Also, upgrading items can be a chore. Loot stops at mk XII purple, as does most reputation gear. Fleet stops at mk XII ultra rare except for kits. Actual progression stops at mk XIV gold, one step up from fleet. Mk level upgrading isn't that bad, but quality upgrading is a huge abyss of wasted resources - and again, no great way to money it away. The Romulan front in the Admiraly system helps, but... Really, quality upgrading is one of those "50% of the effort for 5% of the effect" things.
I did bust my ass for weeks to get mk TR-116 from mk XIV ultra rare to gold. At ultra rare, I could kill an elite tactical drone with one flanking sniper shot and then two normal hits. At gold, I could kill an elite tactical drone with... one flanking sniper shot and two normal hits.
Hevach on
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
The thing is, don't you need to pay money to access a console's online-multiplayer aspect?
Oh, I should be clear, I don't care/mind at all about paying for Live, in this case. I do that anyway for all the other reasons, so consider it a static cost just like "internet".
Neverwinter was just absurd in how much Astral Diamonds basically everything cost (though I hear they rebalanced that), and many things cost so much that they were only technically possible to do that way. Gold was pretty much useless.
This sounds promising. I really just like "shooting things in space", so "bleeding edge" isn't really a concern, and if I can get a ship that'll handle that with a little investment/a little time, I'm happy. (Sounds like you don't need a stable of ships for anything but style/space fashion/pokemoning?)
I haven't played a lot of Neverwinter, but the only place I can compare dilithium to astral diamonds is the fleet system, and if you're feeding a starbase's ever hungering maw by yourself, you might want to shop around for a new fleet (or maybe one that's beta/gamma to fleet with an already complete starbase).
The best thing STO has going for it is its difficulty curve. Stay away from advanced and elite difficulties and you'll be a veritable destroyer of worlds before you're even at 80%, the only things that'll really give you trouble on your own will be dreadnoughts or the cyborg T-rex's in the Voth battlezone - and you'll never face dreadnoughts in solo content and the T-rex is meant to take 10+ people with bridge officers in tow. I do find it fairly compelling if you stick with the game to buy a tier 6 ship, but getting the fleet upgrade is reasonably optional (especially if the extra console slot isn't tactical).
So is the new recruitment event up yet? I'm mildly interested in it, but figure it'll be like my romulan something I play for the benefits and then go back to my fed.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I haven't played a lot of Neverwinter, but the only place I can compare dilithium to astral diamonds is the fleet system, and if you're feeding a starbase's ever hungering maw by yourself, you might want to shop around for a new fleet (or maybe one that's beta/gamma to fleet with an already complete starbase).
The best thing STO has going for it is its difficulty curve. Stay away from advanced and elite difficulties and you'll be a veritable destroyer of worlds before you're even at 80%, the only things that'll really give you trouble on your own will be dreadnoughts or the cyborg T-rex's in the Voth battlezone - and you'll never face dreadnoughts in solo content and the T-rex is meant to take 10+ people with bridge officers in tow. I do find it fairly compelling if you stick with the game to buy a tier 6 ship, but getting the fleet upgrade is reasonably optional (especially if the extra console slot isn't tactical).
ADs were for the auction house, Zen exchange, almost all (good) vendors, follower quality upgrades and so on. Foundry (which I don't know ever hit consoles) would tip out in AD as well. By comparison, the refine limit was like 36k or something daily.
So is the new recruitment event up yet? I'm mildly interested in it, but figure it'll be like my romulan something I play for the benefits and then go back to my fed.
I haven't played a lot of Neverwinter, but the only place I can compare dilithium to astral diamonds is the fleet system, and if you're feeding a starbase's ever hungering maw by yourself, you might want to shop around for a new fleet (or maybe one that's beta/gamma to fleet with an already complete starbase).
The best thing STO has going for it is its difficulty curve. Stay away from advanced and elite difficulties and you'll be a veritable destroyer of worlds before you're even at 80%, the only things that'll really give you trouble on your own will be dreadnoughts or the cyborg T-rex's in the Voth battlezone - and you'll never face dreadnoughts in solo content and the T-rex is meant to take 10+ people with bridge officers in tow. I do find it fairly compelling if you stick with the game to buy a tier 6 ship, but getting the fleet upgrade is reasonably optional (especially if the extra console slot isn't tactical).
ADs were for the auction house, Zen exchange, almost all (good) vendors, follower quality upgrades and so on. Foundry (which I don't know ever hit consoles) would tip out in AD as well. By comparison, the refine limit was like 36k or something daily.
I get the feeling it's not half as silly in STO.
Auction house (Exchange) is in-game currency only. Zen exchange is dilithium, hovers around the 300-400 range lately - it's at the high end right now because they just had an event that gave everybody who participated 50,000 dilithium and a ton of marks (which can convert to dilithium if you don't need them). Followers don't have quality upgrades - it doesn't really make much difference in bridge officers, and duty officers and admiralty ships are all basically just cards and not followers. It does go into item upgrades, which I mentioned in by grind post. And the foundry has a tip function but it's optional.
And in more STO news: They've done away with the "all the old lockboxes at once" event in favor of running a special Infinity Lockbox between boxes. These give prize packs instead of prizes themselves, designated as "console" or "trait" or "weapon" and you get to pick from any item in that group from previous locboxes. Ships are split up in four groups: T5 secondary for mirror ships and the like, T5 for the old grand prizes, T6 for the new grand prizes, and T6 ultra-rare for those lockboxes that had a second, extra-rare grand prize ship.
C-store sale combined with a z bonus today only I guess? I'm almost thinking of getting some stuff in advance of the yesterday event which I'm sure is purely coincidence.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Comes with neat beam-cannon things - they fire like single cannons, but have the firing arc of a beam array and work off overload and FAW like beams.
Size is notable, since the JJ-prise has two canon sizes - ILM made it about 20% bigger than the TOS connie, and JJ Abrams just arbitrarily declared it to be slightly longer than the Galaxy (and due to its less sleek design substantially larger in volume). The STO version goes with the Abrams size, since Paramount considers that one "more canon" and they write the rules about this ship rather than CBS, hence also allowing it to be tier 6.
Second, the D4x raptor:
Looks like it's coming right at you, right? It's actually flying away. Ramshackle bolted-together look that actually fits Cryptic's BOP's better than I realized, with unique "bullpup" wing canons where the barrel is at the mounting point with the firing chamber trailing behind the wing.
Third, the T'laru.
Now, first thing you might say: "Wait, that's not the Narada. that doesn't even look like it could borgify into the Narada. WTF?
Yep, the leakers dropped the ball on this one. This isn't a canon ship, but Cryptic's first and currently only original JJ-verse design. It does sport the Narada's mining laser, but it isn't the Narada in any form.
And it's motherfucking HUGE, as you can see. That little thing on the side there? That's the T6 Excelsior variant. It *might* just edge out the biggest player ship ever, at least as wide as the Scimitar but with thick wings and a broad, bulky body.
And the big bad boy, USS Vengeance
And while the T'laru might take biggest playable ship, this one might take biggest Starfleet ship, because holy fucking shit it is a gigantic beast, just to hammer home the silliness of JJ Abrams' decision to arbitrarily declare the Enterprise to be twice as long as its model was made to reflect. This thing dwarfs the Odyssey, the Atrox, the Jupiter... even the old NPC Jupiter has nothing on the Vengeance.
How this lockbox works is sure to be controversial. The first three above are the lockbox grand prize, and are faction specific (Not the first time factions get different ships, but the first time they weren't stat matched). Their consoles work on any ship, not just any Kelvin Timeline ship, and separate prize boxes let you get the consoles and traits from the other two faction's ships. The Lobi ship is the Vengeance, and is Fed ONLY, KDF and Romulans can buy a cheaper lobi box with its console and trait but cannot buy the ship.
Shame the JJ prise is a lock box ship, I'd almost want to have it for the weird phasers alone.
It is technically out-of-faction, just like the Mirror Universe ships, so it makes sense. There's game data for the Kelvin-class, as well, but it's not included here, so who knows how that'll figure in.
As for the weapons, you can have them without the ship. The lockbox weapon packs give them, and also a special photon torpedo with fast reload. The full kit should give a pretty fair feel of the new movies' combat style.
I've always argued for the ILM-canon size for just this reason, but combining it with prime timeline ships really drives home how patently absurd the JJ-canon size is.
The crappy thing is, nearly all of Star Trek and all of Into Darkness were shot using the ILM size, this larger size is just to make the interior shuttlebay scene work (but breaks the exterior shuttlebay scenes). But since they're using this size, it's good they didn't make the Romulan ship the Narada as the leakers predicted. The Narada would be larger than the Borg cylinders, and mobile, which is just pants-on-head crazy, even in light of how huge the ship we did get is.
Still, Paramount makes the rules here, and it's pretty clear that Cryptic's still writing the alternate universe as the red headded stepchild of the game, needing rescue by the prime timeline from a mediocre Enterprise villain.
On the subject of crazy big ships, it would also be larger than the Enterprise-J, and some new data files suggest that it won't be just map geometry, but a mobile combatant in the Battle of Procyon V mission.
A good scale comparison for the JJ-prise. Compares well to the Sovereign's length, but those nacelles and secondary hull give it a raw bulk closer to the Odyssey. The relative scale between the JJ-prise and the Vengeance is approximately in line with Into Darkness, making it as bulky as a Jem'hadar or Voth dreadnought cruiser, if not more.
A good scale comparison for the JJ-prise. Compares well to the Sovereign's length, but those nacelles and secondary hull give it a raw bulk closer to the Odyssey. The relative scale between the JJ-prise and the Vengeance is approximately in line with Into Darkness, making it as bulky as a Jem'hadar or Voth dreadnought cruiser, if not more.
Private link, that. Wants logins and stuff.
-So guddamn big. Stuff a few connies into those nacelles, eh?
Oh, not sure if you PC guys are following it, but they've been doing a before/after comparison of the reworks to the lighting etc that go along with the console release. As far as I know, those show up on PC as well, and while I obviously haven't played it yet, the comparisons are kind of startling. Might be interesting to check out.
Started the agents of yesterday quest line, it wasn't bad, end mission was kind of a bitch on a cracker, but still decent set up for the temporal story line, got my person to level 13 before my baby decided I'd played enough today.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
So, I literally haven't played this game since....a few months after release?
How the hell do I STO now? I have a Science Commander and a Escort Lt. Commander, so both really low level, is there anything new I should be doing to level? Or just pick up and do my old missions from literally 2012?
Well the tutorial missions for Feds and Klingons have been revamped considerably (to the point that Klingons actually have one now) so you may want to try a new character there to shake off the rust as well as learn any new controls and gameplay features. There's also the Romulan faction which gives you the choice to access stuff from either Feds or KDF once you complete their first story-arc. And just recently they introduced a new mini-faction in the form of the 23rd Century Starfleet officer which gets their own story-arc set in that time before being brought to the future to do work for both the Starfleet of the game's present-time and I believe Starfleet's future time-cops division.
There's a special Temporal event going on too that I think is a sequel to a similar event they did last year which involves completing special objectives in missions to earn unique perks and items but I think it might be limited to the 23rd Century Starfleet officer.
Here's some tutorial videos showing the first twenty minutes or so for each major faction.
So far at level 45 for my temporal agent dudette and outside of the initial run of missions you get at least 2 more missions to do time stuff which is cool. I'm actually enjoying her more than I did my delta romulan if only because my prime is a fed and I have access to all the fed toys I'd accumulated.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Like I've never used the Chimera but since its available at 40 as one version I'm out there blowing shit up with it and its fun (I like to think of the phaser lotus ability as a mini death lotus from last star fighter). I do have to say anytime I see someone "testing" a new ship I'm sad they use all beams and ridiculous gear because good lord what a boring ship. You can have my torpedoes from my under performing scrub hands!
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Posts
I play STO from my couch with a mouse and keyboard. I can't play it in 4k (the GUI just doesn't scale high enough to be comfortable to read in 4k) but it all works fine in 1080p.
You know, as long as it's tier 2 and doesn't cost zen.
So, a rundown of how the TOS faction works:
1. You start out with a separate tutorial/origin story spread over 5 missions taking you to level 10, during which you are limited to the starting ship and the TOS Constitution (you can't claim any other tier 1 ships or shuttles from the C-store).
2. You get the TOS uniform and shuttle for free instead of from the C-store, and exclusive access to the Pioneer-class Utility Cruiser (it's not available to standard Fed players, at least right now), which is just a stat-for-stat Miranda clone with a much cooler design.
3. Afterward you are a full Fed member in 2409/2410, including the entire post-tutorial Fed campaign and shared ship pool.
Also separate rank insignia (same rank structure), and the default UI colors are a brighter version of the Voyager template in settings. The TOS transporter effect has been implemented, you see it occasionally, but at least currently all TOS characters use the standard Fed transporter effect, even when they're still in the TOS era.
So a little less robust of a "plus pack" than Romulans offered, 90% of the experience and all of the endgame is still STO as we know it, and it does mean that pretty ship pack isn't limited to a new faction like the Legacy of Romulus pack, but piled into Starfleet's already vast ship gap.
Sounds like I may need to update my client so I can start playing again.
Haven't played in a while, so probably best that I start a new character to see what's changed. And this sounds like as good a time as any for a new char.
Also, kinda shipwank, the Enterprise-J (probably Battle of Procyon V map, the ship exists like the Voth Fortress as map geometry rather than a mobile NPC):
And... Probably a super, ultra, mega, OMG don't click on this spoiler: STO announced that there will be a "huge" announcement at FedCon, and somebody apparently left some promotional material on the table during photos:
Yes, you read that right, The William Fucking Shatner reprising his role as Captain Kirk.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Anyway, megaspoilers related to AoY and the next lockbox:
When you go through, you end up in 2270, but in a different universe. Daniels explains that this is a diverged timeline created by (drumroll) the Narada passing through a temporal rift and destroying the USS Kelvin. It's one of several universes the Temporal Cold War has spilled over into, this one being designated Timeline Kelvin. Currently the Sphere Builders are doing their thing here, with the Klingons as their proxies (they're kind of upset about that whole attempted genocide thing).
The ships don't have their artwork hooked up, but there are ground maps for the JJ-prise bridge (complete with honest-to-fucking-god lens flare, it's subtle and easy to miss except when it clips in front of a character but it is there), Klingon and Starfleet ground units in alternate universe uniforms.
It's a good mission, too. They don't dwell on anything particularly stupid from the movies, just introduce the setting and give you a new kind of Klingon to shoot at. Something about the intentionally over-gaudy bridge and excessive effects of the movies mixed with the modern shows' effect style is surreal. Not quite hilarious like the TOS crossover stuff, but I kind of love that they actually preserve all three art styles and let them live side-by-side instead of blending them together into a single look.
So, TL;DR: Pretty much 100% confirmed that the Kelvin Timeline lockbox isn't just a wink and a nudge like the Tal'Shir lockbox, it's actual literal JJ-movie stuff, and there's story content to go with it.
They actually got back to me in about 24 hours and hooked them up on Saturday evening. It was surprisingly quick and easy.
Just like the TOS-era ships, it has setting appropriate weapons: It has rapid firing turrets that do phaser damage and fire blood-red bolts, and its photon torpedoes leave smoke trails.
And the reward:
The weird looking bat'leth from Into Darkness that you only saw if you could bare to constantly pause the movie looking for easter eggs.
Missions themselves: Resrouce boxes like last year, and finishing the lot gives a trait that adds a crit buff to all emergency power abilities.
Rank: Free gear choice box each level, just like last year.
R&D: (Big meh here for many, I think) Reach rank 5 in one category and get a free boost to level 10 in another, with some smaller bonuses and the AEGIS doff they've already given away a bunch of times.
Admiralty: Level 3 in all three campaigns and get a permanent account-wide boost to experience from admiralty.
Doffing: Various special doffs along the way, with a unique temporal agent for hitting tier 4 in six categories.
Fleet: Like last year, some marks and dilithium vouchers.
And now things get nuts:
Reputation: Various checkpoints for energy credits, dilithium vouchers, and marks, with the big reward being for tier 5 in every reputation except the new one, account unlock to automatically upgrade any reputation reward project from purple to ultra rare.
Specialization (really): Various unlocks for experience boosts and special tech upgrades, big unlock for 3 full specs (90 points) is several improved traits (the command, intel, and temporal capstones) are upgraded another level to superior versions.
Hard to say if it's less resources than last year, but there's no farming each faction to double dip since it's tied to the new origin story. No neat gadgets, most of the traits are just upgrades of existing ones (that critical emergency one sounds nifty, though). That specialization, though. God that's steep. That really, REALLY sounds like they could have put that after one full spec, not three. Maybe one full and one half, to fill out a build. God that requirement. The reputation one sounds steep, too, but the reward is pretty huge, assuming it carries forward to new reputations in the future. The spec reward is just an incremental upgrade to a few starship traits you may or may not be using.
Basically if I can have a D'Deridex and tootle around space disruptoring the crap out of things without having to empty my wallet or spend a month grinding currency #120702 to do so, I will probably be happy.
All the content is free though and without restriction. I don't know if you can actually get a max level DD but someone will probably chime in shortly.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Some small bad news: The free D'deridex is tier 4. There are endgame (tier 5 and 6) versions, but they're not free...
Edit: Also, upgrading items can be a chore. Loot stops at mk XII purple, as does most reputation gear. Fleet stops at mk XII ultra rare except for kits. Actual progression stops at mk XIV gold, one step up from fleet. Mk level upgrading isn't that bad, but quality upgrading is a huge abyss of wasted resources - and again, no great way to money it away. The Romulan front in the Admiraly system helps, but... Really, quality upgrading is one of those "50% of the effort for 5% of the effect" things.
I did bust my ass for weeks to get mk TR-116 from mk XIV ultra rare to gold. At ultra rare, I could kill an elite tactical drone with one flanking sniper shot and then two normal hits. At gold, I could kill an elite tactical drone with... one flanking sniper shot and two normal hits.
iirc some mmos do special deals to get around that? I dunno though because I'm not hooked into the fine detail of consoles.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Oh, I should be clear, I don't care/mind at all about paying for Live, in this case. I do that anyway for all the other reasons, so consider it a static cost just like "internet".
Neverwinter was just absurd in how much Astral Diamonds basically everything cost (though I hear they rebalanced that), and many things cost so much that they were only technically possible to do that way. Gold was pretty much useless.
This sounds promising. I really just like "shooting things in space", so "bleeding edge" isn't really a concern, and if I can get a ship that'll handle that with a little investment/a little time, I'm happy. (Sounds like you don't need a stable of ships for anything but style/space fashion/pokemoning?)
The best thing STO has going for it is its difficulty curve. Stay away from advanced and elite difficulties and you'll be a veritable destroyer of worlds before you're even at 80%, the only things that'll really give you trouble on your own will be dreadnoughts or the cyborg T-rex's in the Voth battlezone - and you'll never face dreadnoughts in solo content and the T-rex is meant to take 10+ people with bridge officers in tow. I do find it fairly compelling if you stick with the game to buy a tier 6 ship, but getting the fleet upgrade is reasonably optional (especially if the extra console slot isn't tactical).
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ADs were for the auction house, Zen exchange, almost all (good) vendors, follower quality upgrades and so on. Foundry (which I don't know ever hit consoles) would tip out in AD as well. By comparison, the refine limit was like 36k or something daily.
I get the feeling it's not half as silly in STO.
No, it's up when the expansion goes live July 6.
Auction house (Exchange) is in-game currency only. Zen exchange is dilithium, hovers around the 300-400 range lately - it's at the high end right now because they just had an event that gave everybody who participated 50,000 dilithium and a ton of marks (which can convert to dilithium if you don't need them). Followers don't have quality upgrades - it doesn't really make much difference in bridge officers, and duty officers and admiralty ships are all basically just cards and not followers. It does go into item upgrades, which I mentioned in by grind post. And the foundry has a tip function but it's optional.
And in more STO news: They've done away with the "all the old lockboxes at once" event in favor of running a special Infinity Lockbox between boxes. These give prize packs instead of prizes themselves, designated as "console" or "trait" or "weapon" and you get to pick from any item in that group from previous locboxes. Ships are split up in four groups: T5 secondary for mirror ships and the like, T5 for the old grand prizes, T6 for the new grand prizes, and T6 ultra-rare for those lockboxes that had a second, extra-rare grand prize ship.
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First, the JJ-prise, player model:
Comes with neat beam-cannon things - they fire like single cannons, but have the firing arc of a beam array and work off overload and FAW like beams.
Size is notable, since the JJ-prise has two canon sizes - ILM made it about 20% bigger than the TOS connie, and JJ Abrams just arbitrarily declared it to be slightly longer than the Galaxy (and due to its less sleek design substantially larger in volume). The STO version goes with the Abrams size, since Paramount considers that one "more canon" and they write the rules about this ship rather than CBS, hence also allowing it to be tier 6.
Second, the D4x raptor:
Looks like it's coming right at you, right? It's actually flying away. Ramshackle bolted-together look that actually fits Cryptic's BOP's better than I realized, with unique "bullpup" wing canons where the barrel is at the mounting point with the firing chamber trailing behind the wing.
Third, the T'laru.
Now, first thing you might say: "Wait, that's not the Narada. that doesn't even look like it could borgify into the Narada. WTF?
Yep, the leakers dropped the ball on this one. This isn't a canon ship, but Cryptic's first and currently only original JJ-verse design. It does sport the Narada's mining laser, but it isn't the Narada in any form.
And it's motherfucking HUGE, as you can see. That little thing on the side there? That's the T6 Excelsior variant. It *might* just edge out the biggest player ship ever, at least as wide as the Scimitar but with thick wings and a broad, bulky body.
And the big bad boy, USS Vengeance
And while the T'laru might take biggest playable ship, this one might take biggest Starfleet ship, because holy fucking shit it is a gigantic beast, just to hammer home the silliness of JJ Abrams' decision to arbitrarily declare the Enterprise to be twice as long as its model was made to reflect. This thing dwarfs the Odyssey, the Atrox, the Jupiter... even the old NPC Jupiter has nothing on the Vengeance.
How this lockbox works is sure to be controversial. The first three above are the lockbox grand prize, and are faction specific (Not the first time factions get different ships, but the first time they weren't stat matched). Their consoles work on any ship, not just any Kelvin Timeline ship, and separate prize boxes let you get the consoles and traits from the other two faction's ships. The Lobi ship is the Vengeance, and is Fed ONLY, KDF and Romulans can buy a cheaper lobi box with its console and trait but cannot buy the ship.
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It is technically out-of-faction, just like the Mirror Universe ships, so it makes sense. There's game data for the Kelvin-class, as well, but it's not included here, so who knows how that'll figure in.
As for the weapons, you can have them without the ship. The lockbox weapon packs give them, and also a special photon torpedo with fast reload. The full kit should give a pretty fair feel of the new movies' combat style.
I've always argued for the ILM-canon size for just this reason, but combining it with prime timeline ships really drives home how patently absurd the JJ-canon size is.
The crappy thing is, nearly all of Star Trek and all of Into Darkness were shot using the ILM size, this larger size is just to make the interior shuttlebay scene work (but breaks the exterior shuttlebay scenes). But since they're using this size, it's good they didn't make the Romulan ship the Narada as the leakers predicted. The Narada would be larger than the Borg cylinders, and mobile, which is just pants-on-head crazy, even in light of how huge the ship we did get is.
Still, Paramount makes the rules here, and it's pretty clear that Cryptic's still writing the alternate universe as the red headded stepchild of the game, needing rescue by the prime timeline from a mediocre Enterprise villain.
On the subject of crazy big ships, it would also be larger than the Enterprise-J, and some new data files suggest that it won't be just map geometry, but a mobile combatant in the Battle of Procyon V mission.
Ah, well. Red Headed timeline, indeed.
A good scale comparison for the JJ-prise. Compares well to the Sovereign's length, but those nacelles and secondary hull give it a raw bulk closer to the Odyssey. The relative scale between the JJ-prise and the Vengeance is approximately in line with Into Darkness, making it as bulky as a Jem'hadar or Voth dreadnought cruiser, if not more.
Private link, that. Wants logins and stuff.
-So guddamn big. Stuff a few connies into those nacelles, eh?
Still pretty.
Edit: Should be fixed now
https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/tag/sto-xbox (ignore the tag, it was just easiest to find the before/after entries)
pleasepaypreacher.net
How the hell do I STO now? I have a Science Commander and a Escort Lt. Commander, so both really low level, is there anything new I should be doing to level? Or just pick up and do my old missions from literally 2012?
There's a special Temporal event going on too that I think is a sequel to a similar event they did last year which involves completing special objectives in missions to earn unique perks and items but I think it might be limited to the 23rd Century Starfleet officer.
Here's some tutorial videos showing the first twenty minutes or so for each major faction.
Federation:
Klingon:
Romulan:
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
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