STO News

[Majestic]

Always the way when new content is released.

I've been up since 2am, been on the road since 3am to Sydney and back so I haven't been on yet to see how much they have screwed up.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

It was down for a while but went back on long enough for me to sink fifty bucks into the game, get the ship, and two of the pieces of gear and env suits. Half way through the third, it crashes again

 

[Majestic]

And it's again back up, but be quick before it goes down again!

 

[Majestic]

A little sneak peak for those who are interested in the new season 9 Undine Reputation grind.

http://i.imgur.com/K6nbtRU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OxYf5Q3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/a29tQX2.jpg

 

[SciFiFan]

Season 9 is live!!

Howdy everyone. Season 9: A New Accord is live on Holodeck. There are some changes and some new content with this release.

The kits have been revamped and now you can customize your kits. There are still some limitations to how much they can be customized but, this new system allows for more versatility. The tailor has also had some changes. You can now use the old kit visuals in the tailor. Also of important note, making changes in the tailor no longer costs you EC. I have not tried it yet so I can not confirm this but I will soon.

There is a new Rep. I know the rep systems are a love hate kind of thing as some players like them, and some don't. Personally, I don't have a problem with them. The new rep is geared toward the Undine.The best part of this new rep is that the sets in it actually boosts Phaser and Disruptor type weapons. This is something that has been asked for for a long time. Also with the rep system, you no longer have to use consumables for the projects. It now costs skill points, ec, and marks. All reps have been made this way. Also the costs of the other item projects have been reduced.

New content have also come. New PvE queues are now available. These are missions that again involve the Undine. Also, the old Borg/Undine missions have been revamped. They are now supposed to flow more fluidly and make more sense. I will play through them at a later time to see for myself. Also the new Feature Episode that continues the Dyson story is live. I have had the chance to play through this mission and all I can say is WOW! The story is EPIC. By far the best story they have done. If you get a chance to play through this story, I highly recommend that you do.

That is all for now. I am taking a semi-break from STO and I am playing The Old Republic but I will be getting back into STO soon. See you all among the stars and Happy Hunting.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I think I'll wait about a week for the rush of people to die down. That way I can actually play through things without STO crashing every hour

 

[Majestic]

I think I'll wait about a week for the rush of people to die down. That way I can actually play through things without STO crashing every hour

It's always best for the hype to wear down. A couple of weeks does that. Otherwise you'll get so frustrated and annoyed with the game.

Oh btw, I sent you a friend request like more than a month ago.

 

[Terradyhne]

i tryed it the first hours it was on and there was no crash for me, but the last two days there have been two patches of arround 70 MB each. the trait-system change is imho totally stupid as most of the changes these idiots made, they once more changed a good game to a stupid nonsense grinding party. there are only MKII set items available via the reputations, that take to long and to much resources and give to less back. Those Undine PVE's are stupid and borring and one is only good for loot. they downgraded so much Item sets that those became half as effective as before, maybe its even because of the changes in the trait system. the only real good thing i see with this season, are the changes in the settings options.
they promised that much and i think they are the only who find this release that exciting.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Ok, I'm impressed with what the STO team came up with for the Iconians

 

[Majestic]

To be honest I haven't be in-game for close to 3 weeks now I think. I always take close to a month break when a new season comes out to allow them to fix their famous bugs and let the hype settle down and the lag to subside.

To be honest season 9 apart from the kit revamp hasn't really held my interest much. The new lock box is totally stupid, Undine ships, that is just as bad as Tholian and Voth ships, not very realistic for Starfleet and Klingons to be flying around in those. I still feel that the production team has very little grasp on what Trek truly is, and only look at is solely as a revenue stream rather than having any sort of real passion for the franchise.

Still it keeps some people happy for the long term so I suppose that is something positive.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Hopefully the storyline might get a bit better with a new person running the production team.

 

[Majestic]

Hopefully the storyline might get a bit better with a new person running the production team.

There is another new Executive Producer? Steven De'Angelio (or however you spell his last name) came on board late last year, has he moved on already?

 

[dvatreknerd314]

That might be the person I'm thinking of. Also, they've redone the Borg and Undine episodes and they now make a bit more sense

 

[Majestic]

That might be the person I'm thinking of. Also, they've redone the Borg and Undine episodes and they now make a bit more sense

Yeah I knew they were re-doing those episodes. Unfortunately Steven De'Angelio likes excessive grind, so while somethings will improve others such as the grind will get worse. It was his idea to turn the anniversary event into a grind when it's always been a celebration a way for the dev's to say thank you for continuing to support the game. Now I was rather disappointed with the ship so the grind to me was a total waste of my time, if it was a decent ship I might not had such a problem with it personally.

Anyway I am interested to see what the end of year expansion is going to be, they have ruled out another faction which is good.

 

[SciFiFan]

It is time for yet another grind!!!! The Summer event is live in STO. This year they added a couple of new events (Waveboard Race and Sandcastle building), Added swimwear (though they can only be used on Risa), new pet (Feathered Monkey), and you can claim a new ship (Risian Cruiseliner). A note on the Risian ship: One character will have to collect and use 1000 Favors to get the ship. After the first character gets the ship, all additional characters only need to spend 40 (which is one race). The waveboards are cool and kinda fun. They can only be used over the water though.

 

[Majestic]

If the swimsuits could be used elsewhere I could have been interested. But it really doesn't offer anything to interest me.

Thanks for keep us update mate.

 

[SciFiFan]

If the swimsuits could be used elsewhere I could have been interested. But it really doesn't offer anything to interest me.

Thanks for keep us update mate.

Yeah, a lot of players are upset over the swimsuit restrictions. Me, I am kinda meh, whatever. I mean, I know I wouldn't be wearing a swimsuit while fighting Borg....

The game really needs more places where the players can really take advantage of having these off-duty uniforms. Right now, we only have Risa that the KDF and KDF aligned players can only access during the summer event.

 

[Majestic]

For me it's mainly due to the lack of uniforms for the KDF faction, otherwise I wouldn't be too worried. The KDF needs the Orion homeworld for their version of Risa, that would solve the problem.

I am hoping the rumoured expansion that I heard is coming later this year will fix the uniform issue and all uniform clipping issues. Would be nice to have more uniforms for KDF characters.

 

[SciFiFan]

Yeah, they are keeping a tight lid on the expansion at this point. No telling what they are working on.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Sucks that there are still problems with the swimsuits for a lot of Romulan characters. My Reman alt can't use a swimsuit I bought.

Also, they need to get more straight women or gay men programming at Cryptic. Tons of skimpy options for women but not much for men

 

[Majestic]

Yeah, they are keeping a tight lid on the expansion at this point. No telling what they are working on.

It's my guess that it will be new missions, ships and uniforms. Perhaps some long await features like career and species change tokens. I think the expansions are going to be the releases where they cater to player wishes, big things that aren't viable for a season release, with the season releases being as they always have been, a new rep grind, some new enemy to fight etc. Basically the seasons will be there to keep players busy while the expansions are there to progress the STO storyline and bring in some faction unique content, at least that is my hope.

 

[SciFiFan]

Time for more STO news.

Season 9.5 is being released next month and the focus on it is Crafting. The crafting system is getting a complete revamp. The system is now on Tribble for testing in a limited fashion for now. I say limited because Memory Alpha has been disabled from the game. There is no word at this time what will become of MA. Also of note, the star clusters are being changed. They are all now locations on the map like they did with the Arucanis Arm and Hromi Cluster when Tau Dewa Sector Block was added. You will no longer be able to go into these exploration zones (for now at least) but the Doff assignments associated with them are still available. The crafting system will utilize the doff system (which is getting an UI overhaul). Every character will have to start from scratch with this new system. Every time you craft, you get XP points for that particular "school." The quality of the item you get will be random but, the chances of getting better gear increased the higher you experience is. Eventually, you will be able to completely eliminate the chance of getting common items. The materials are also changing. The materials we have now will no longer be able to be used for crafting but, you will be able to exchange them for the new type of materials. I think they said they will be keeping the traces however. I am as yet uncertain of the dilithium costs but from the comments on the forums, they are not good. They are posting the details in Dev Blogs on the game's website.

Also to note, the EC you get from selling items to vendors will be "normalized" in that some items will net you less EC while a few other will net you more. Overall, this change will actually take EC gains down. One player is testing on tribble and so far it seems to be about aprox 40% reduction in EC gain.

I have yet to be able to test this system on Tribble but, I do plan to.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

So the exploration clusters are gone? Including any diplomatic XP missions?

 

[Majestic]

Thanks for the update mate, I don't what I heard about the EC loss. I can understand that things must change for the crafting as the system is being revamped, but the EC loss to vendors makes no sense. It's expensive enough trying to level a base making the return less by selling stuff to vendors to me seems to hurt players more as a lot of stuff that doesn't sell on the exchange or sell high enough is usually sold to vendors.

It seems everytime they release expansions or seasons they take something away and try to sweeten it with something else.

Oh well it's not like a play the game much anymore due to all these backward changes Cryptic has been doing.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

If the First Contact missions are gone, I'm probably done playing the game for a good three months or so. Been spending a good deal of time trying to get a toon's diplo CXP up high enough to get first contact misisons

 

[SciFiFan]

There have been rumblings of a exploration system revamp somewhere down the road but nothing concrete.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Really don't like the nothing concrete part. Nothing concrete usually means "whenever we have absolutely nothing else to do or need to cover the bugs up with a shiny new feature"

 

[Majestic]

There have been rumblings of a exploration system revamp somewhere down the road but nothing concrete.

Yeah they don't like to commit to a lot. They'll mention they plan to do this feature and that feature but don't seem to be organised enough to say it's coming in this season or that expansion until the said release is only a month or so away.

Well you more than anyone knows my opinion on STO and Cryptic/PWE, however to be honest since LOR I feel each release/season has really taken more away than it has given. They seem to be using this new features to try and sweeten the pot on what they have been taking away from players. While a MMO is forever evolving and changing I feel the Cryptic's ultimate goal isn't to make the game better but find ways (new and old) to keep people playing and unfortunately it rarely means new quality content but by making things harder and more expensive for players.

 

[SciFiFan]

Yeah they don't like to commit to a lot. They'll mention they plan to do this feature and that feature but don't seem to be organised enough to say it's coming in this season or that expansion until the said release is only a month or so away.

Well you more than anyone knows my opinion on STO and Cryptic/PWE, however to be honest since LOR I feel each release/season has really taken more away than it has given. They seem to be using this new features to try and sweeten the pot on what they have been taking away from players. While a MMO is forever evolving and changing I feel the Cryptic's ultimate goal isn't to make the game better but find ways (new and old) to keep people playing and unfortunately it rarely means new quality content but by making things harder and more expensive for players.

There is very good reason they don't like to commit anymore. They used to be really open about what they had envisioned for the game. When what they said didn't happen for whatever reason, the forums would blow up about broken promises. Really, they would say "We would like to" or "We have this idea" but the players would read "We are going to" and then rage when it didn't happen. Rather quite sad if you ask me.

Being that I have been playing this game since Cryptic was owned by Atari, a lot of the changes made really stinks of PWE more than it does of Cryptic. PWE has done a lot of good things for the game but, they have done a lot of bad things too. That being said, if Atari had not sold Cryptic, I am afraid this game would not still be around.

 

[SciFiFan]

Here is an update to season 9.5. The dilithium costs associated with the crafting has been reduced and could be reduced even more by time for launch. Also, as a sort of reward for players that have maxed crafting with the current system, if a character has reached max crafting and has the Aegis set, that character will be getting the Aegis Doff for free. This doff is required to craft the Aegis set (from what I have read, I have not seen it myself). Also, the dilithium costs for fleet gear will be standardized. This means that for most of the gear, the costs will go down though some will go up. Also, the Odyssey and Bortasq uniforms are being removed from the fleet store and will be made available for free to all players. These are the new "standard" uniforms for the game and all NPCs will be wearing them. They are releasing two new Odyssey variants to the fleet store, these will cost about 1/2 of the original Odyssey and three new Bortasq variants for the KDF, these will cost about 1/3 the cost of the original uniform. They said that players who already purchased the Odyssey/Bortasq uniforms will be getting the equivalent uniform for free (whatever that translates to).

I will keep you all up to date as more information becomes available.