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Star Trek Online: April/May Calender Update Reveals New Species, Sidekicking
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
Cryptic Studios has updated the official Star Trek Online release calendar with a number of interesting additions including several new species to be added to the C-Store and a new feature called the "Squad System," which is essentially sidekicking a'la Champions Online or City of Heroes.
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The calendar also marks the imminent release of the new Special Task Force: Khitomer Accord, which is set to release sometime within the next week. Players can look forward to a slew of new C-Store items over the next two months as well, including several new ships and bridge packs, new species such as the Caitian, Joined Trill and Pakled, and more.
We're also given some insight as to when we can expect both Update 1.1 and 1.2, the former is set to arrive sometime between April 22 and April 30, while the latter will be hitting live servers between May 20 and 28.
Read below for a full breakdown of what's coming to Star Trek Online within the next two months:
April:
8TH-14TH STF: Khitomer Accord
8TH-14TH C-Store Items
C-Store: Klingon Bridge Pack "Bird of Prey"
C-Store: Fed Escort Variant "Hephaestus"
15TH-21ST C-Store Items
C-Store: Fed Bridge Pack "Destiny"
C-Store: Fed Science Variant "Nimbus"
C-Store: Emote Pack 1
22ND-30TH STF: Undine Terradome
22ND-30TH Season 1.1 Update
Joined Trill – Klingon Faction
TOS/MirrorU – Female Outfit Updates
Difficulty Slider and Death Penalty
Commodity / Memory Alpha Update
Exchange Improvements
Space Auto-Fire
C-Store: Klingon Bridge Pack "Carrier"
C-Store: "Pakled" – Playable Fed Species
C-Store: Fed Cruiser Variant "Nomad"
May:
13TH-19TH C-Store Items
C-Store: "Caitian" – Playable Fed Species
C-Store: Fed Bridge Pack "Prometheus"
C-Store: Fed Escort Variant "Maelstrom"
20TH-28TH Season 1.2 Update
Accolade System
Squad System (Sidekicking)
Episode Replay
C-Store: Fed Science Variant "Comet"
C-Store: Emote Pack 2
Check out the full release calendar here.
[Thanks Thorgrimm for the tip!]
Comments
In vanilla wow i had the choice of 8 races, 4 alliance and 4 horde. War i had a choice of 6. EQ2 you had more choices than you knew what to do with it.
Star Trek to begin with you have 1... uno... one... human federation (until level 6 where you could play as klingon) anything else requires you to spend money.
All i've really seen in this articles is c-store, c-store, c-store, c-store...
People wonder why STO is failing, it really is... you compare registered accounts to subscriptions that even the devs say is just over 100,000 to other means (those graphs, and xfire et al)
it will fail... doesn't help you can level in 2 weeks as a casual, and then bore yourself to death on the same basic PvP maps you played at level 6. (harder to get in at that level, queue is.. oh gawd).
Game, like CO before it, is a fail... cryptic should have concentrated on ONE MMO.... instead of being the happy meal at mcdonalds.... i hear they have a 3rd one in development.. anyone else wanna facepalm with me?
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
Interesting. In that release schedule posted above... half the content listed is C store items. LOL.
1. No. You start out with more than a half dozen different races for the Federation faction (and another half-dozen for the Klingons). That doesn't even count "Alien" which is essentially a built-your-own wildcard race.
2. You can get access to the Klingon faction at level 5... it's essentially a tutorial period up 'till there. Doesn't take that long.
3. They're adding a few new ships and bridges (which don't do squat for gameplay or stats, just cosmetic) to the c-store. They're also adding a couple more playable races... which is a short-cut for customizing an Alien toon.
4. The joined trill is not being added to the c-store but being added to the Klingon faction which is something that people with the joined-trill prerelease bonus have been asking for.
5. I think it's premature to say STO is failing. A lot of people are still playing it and enjoying it. Even more importantly, a lot of people are complaining about it, which means: A) they're playing it, or
[mod edit]
Something like half of that list is C-Store items, that's it I've waited as long as I said I would (until I heard what there next update would be) now it's time to cancel and move on STO gang enjoy but I can't support such a shallow and lifeless product......
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Episode replay is a smart plan. Should add a bit more longevity to the content that already exists.
Far as the rest... Wow... content is just flowing endlessly, like Picards hair.
I was going to comment on half the list being C-store items when they should be worrying about adding ACTUAL content before all that's left is lifers, but then I thought...
/Vader voice on
All too easy.
/Vader voice off
1. Oh the great customisation, i play as any alien i want, but since i have no real traits for that alien i'm just a "wicked imagination" of that particular race. Yeah i'm not a superhero i'm a federation captain.
2. Level 6 for Klingons, yes patch notes once said 5, i assure you IT IS 6 (don't you even know the game your supposed to be defending?
3. Cosmetic changes happen in any P2P MMO, difference is, THERE ARE FREE
4. not even going to comment.
5. nope i'm right here, check the numbers their OWN DEVS say compared to their OWN PR STATEMENTS.
i mentioned WoW once, to start with and a few other MMO's because i felt i didn't need to list them all and you can't really call Klingons a faction, they have no PvE.. oh wait they have star clusters now.. wo0o ho0o... same missions repeated for 45 levels.. wow thats fun, stick to PvP klingons and prepare.. for... "fun".
-pats you on head-
=]
if i wanted to rip apart STO it would be easy, there's very few story missions (compared to ANY MMO even free ones), the actual missions are repetition, and lets not talk about the grind in star clusters and PvP maps (you'll see those maps a lot, there's not very many.
i know... i've played, done and dusted.... ran out of content within 2 weeks... 3-4 hours per day (not playing at weekends)
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3554/screenshot2010031023542.jpg
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
I also mentioned WAR and EQ2... really some of the CO and STO fans hate WoW.... maybe because it took 5 years of development, rather than what 12-18 months and actually had enough content in vanilla WoW to surpass CO and STO together.
Oh and unlike WoW, STO can be played totally solo, hell you can switch off groups which is funny and play through the game solo since the missions scale on how many people there are. It's a solo PvE game with 2 end game content with groups. THAT IS FUNNY.
tell me do you defend CO, a game where at it's launch they changed the XP and basically realised they hadn't enough quests to fill the gap. haha.. cracked me up
£2.99 from play.com, it was once £35 for one day, then £30.. it fell fast.
STO will fall as fast, i've yet to see a store in Scotland actually stock it... :-p
don't worry i'm sure "steel balls" and "this game will survive honest guv" titles will be available on the C-store soon
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
I'd like to know what you call superior to WoW... Cause Sto can't be one of them
I have a Lifetime sub to STO, and I like the game, even with it's flaws... but WoW beats it in many ways.
Disclaimer: Never played WoW, not even a free trial.
I'm sorry, but someone named "championsfan" saying they moved on to superior products from WoW literally made me LOL. Thanks.
It's level 5. I know becaues I've done it. Twice.
Sorry for derailing the thread with inflammatory comments, I was mostly doing so at the provocation of the second post that compared CO to McDonald's in favor of WoW. Just because an opinion is popular among conformists, doesn't mean it is immune to challenge.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
When half the stuff on your "upcoming" list is payable store items, then you know your company has most definitely crossed the line from "trying to make money" to "all-consumed with the burning need to squeeze every nickel and dime from our customers as we can with no regard to ethics or the impact this has on our game."
If the Prometheus class is in the damn game (and it is) then the Prometheus class bridge should be free for anyone to use. Charging for it is absolutely the lowest money grubbing move I've ever seen. Catians are a fan favourite race, and Cryptic knows this. They're happy to reach into the wallets of all those cat-girls and take their money.
This C-Store is an absolute joke. They've gone far beyond just charging for a few cosmetic items and have started charging for stuff that should be free for all players. You're pathetic Cryptic. You ought to be deeply ashamed of yourselves.
If I was a STO fan, I would be livid at this treatment (as a Star Trek fan, I'm livid that Cryptic is treating Trek like a cynical profit cow. How can I trust greedy bastards like this with my favourite TV series?) Cryptic has taken a franchise you like (Star Trek) and made a game you enjoy out of it (STO) and now they obviously only see you as a walking wallet. My advice to STO fans: cancel your accounts, don't ever buy one single C-Store item, if you love Catians, play any MMO that allows you to make a humanoid cat character to get your Catian fix (City of Heroes and Final Fantasy XI come to mind.)
Caitians were consistently asked for in beta, but Pakled? I realize that some of the people playing may bear a resemblance to these slow-witted schemers, but does that make them good starship Captains? I don't even recall seeing many Bolian or Saurian Captains during my brief time in the game. Starfleet must be getting desperate.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Pakled captains make no sense from an in-universe perspective. But Cryptic doesn't care about that! As long as you pony up as much money as you can, they are happy.
this is ridiculous... more than half of the schedule is C-Store stuff... the mere existence of the C-Store is more than questionable but... hey, this is becoming a joke!!
The Pakled species should be released with a Riker bug-eyes emote.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Not gonna comment on the bashing. I'm trying to be impartial.
I can also personally confirm you can unlock Kling faction at level 5, since I've done it. The way it works is either you level up to 6 on other things then change zones and it unlocks, or complete a mission at level 5 then change zones and it unlocks.
New races being CStore is bad business? Well think about it like this. The average player will only want one race, the one they actually want to play and main, and will be able to afford like 5 dollars max for points to get it. The average big fan will buy all the new races/ship skins and make Cryptic some nice money. STO is a business, but not everybody will buy everything right? Don't look at it as everything being microtransaction, but as options for what to get.
You can generally make an Alien that looks like the race you want, and sometimes the racials are not too good compared to what else you can get. Until Caitians are in, I personally am using an Alien made to look like a Human but with Alien racials because I didn't like the Human ones.
When new races are in, realistically, we should be allowed to make an Alien that looks like any race we choose. Those who like the racials of the race can buy the template, and those who don't might still need to buy it to unlock the race pieces. Either way, races are mostly for just your character sheet saying you're a particular race. If you don't like the racials, a line in your Description for any curious reader of what the Alien is should suffice.
Now about new races being CStore only? Well unless they go crazy on the price, which I doubt they will, it can't be more than 5 dollars, and the average P2P player would be okay with paying that once in microtransaction. Considering how inexpensive Fed Klingons (240), Ferengi (80), and Tellarites (200) are, new races probably will not be more than 500 points. Any higher than that and I'd say that's too much.
As a cat people fan I am personally sad about Caitians being pushed to May, but at least it will be done right instead of early with the potential for being badly done.
They also gave out 240 points for answering a survey, which basically makes for Fed Klingons being free for those who participated and want one. You also get some points for registering your game, so those who are not big into microtransactions can still get one or two things they consider essentials without paying any more money out of pocket.
As a lifetimer I have time and I've been mosly just sitting back to see how it turns out in the coming months while I concentrate on school and other games in the meantime.
I'd say CO is nothing like McDonald's, it has too little prevalence for that! In Istanbul, I can find a McDonald's right at the corner, 2 minutes from my home. As far as I know, CO does not even have servers on the two continents I live on (being that I'm in Istanbul
It's almost inherently niche, which I'd say is pretty much the antithesis of what McDonald's stands for. Also, to me CO was fun but did not last long, whereas McDonald's is for life :P (OK, joking here)
By the way, from where I'm stanting WOW does not feel like McDonald's, either. Yep, McDonald's is international, but it's also relatively cheap. In terms of monthly subs, WOW cost me more than any other MMO I've been subbed to in the last ten years.
As for STO: I'll give them a few more months and reactivate to look and see for a month - whether there's enough change and of course whether there are still people playing. I have no illusions about what the game is, but at least it can be turned into a fun online space arcade game, with the right decisions.
What is bat-**** crazy is that cryptic has to do work to remove stuff from the game so they could reach deeper into players' pockets. When you take steps to block specific features, I consider that complete disdain towards your customers.
Cryptic. Charge a montly fee OR charge microtransactions. If you had just selected ONE, I bet you could have at least quadrupled your playerbase. I definitely would not have cancelled my CE pre-order. But your greed is as boundless as the gaps in your content.
More cstore items I am like the don't learn. No thank you.
Or you can just play an MMO that gives you almost all these options for free via free updates. Why waste your money when you don't have to?
Pakled is about the dumbest (no pun intended) race they could have implemented.
They were in 1 episode out of 178 episodes spread over seven seasons.
IMO Cryptic is the Pakleds of the MMO Development universe.
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
The funny thing about all this is the more hate the cryptic is generationg, the les hate SOE is getting , and you know soe is going to love that to actually be replaced by another company for doing stuff so totaly crazy.