Star Trek: Online

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

At least on most missions. I get that there are "Full War Mode" episodes where disable is out of the question, and nobody in their right mind would leave a Borg ship in any shape to regenerate.
But pretty much all criticism toward the Federation and their "Eliminate every ship in your way" policy would be gone if disabling hostile ships would be an option. You could even encourage it by awarding Diplomacy points if you manage to fullfill the no fatalities objective during a mission.
On some missions the result should even be failure if you destroy the adversary.

I like this idea, and it would add a bit more to the scenario instead of shoot them until the blow up. Maybe even have a BOFF skill be target weapons or target engines to disable them.

Some Science officers and the Nebula (off the top of my head) have that as a skill...but it's only used to help make them blow up faster.

The way I would do it is when their health is down to about 30 percent, a button pops up you have to click to target EPS grid or something, and when you hit it, their whole energy system fails... thus disabled. It's gonna be difficult for escorts to do it with their huge DPS load though

 

[Aeolusdallas]

new Info up!

Upcoming Schedule Update - Jan 20, 2011
Greetings!

To keep you up to date on upcoming features and releases, I wanted to take a quick moment to go over some changes that were made since my last Engineering Report.

There is a lot of excitement around the studio at the moment with all project teams cranking on all cylinders. The biggest news is that Champions Online is opening the doors to Free to Play next Tuesday. We are expecting an influx of players to check it out and as much as our operations center has prepared for this, you can never say for certain what could possibly come up. Since STO and Champs run on different servers we do not expect any game related issues, however we do share an account server and so you'll notice that we've been doing some account server upgrades over the last week or so to prepare.

In STO related news, we are quickly coming up on our 1 Year Anniversary, and subsequently our 400 day Veteran Rewards. The Foundry is preparing for its next major update which will add some highly requested storytelling features and if all goes well, we will begin preparations to turn on Foundry on Holodeck. On top of that we also have the launch of our new Feature Episode series – “Cloaked Intentions” which features a storyline related to the Romulan Empire. In addition to all of that we also have some combat updates going into the game, new shuttles being made available, as well as some new costumes and a Vulcan playable ship.

All of this is expected to hit over the next several weeks. As such, I’ve asked the team to make some minor scheduling changes to ensure that things get released without a hitch. The biggest change is pushing back the start of the next Feature Episode Series by 1 week. This will both allow time for a few extra goodies I’ve asked for as well as give STO a week’s space between Champs F2P launch weekend and the start of our series.

I’ve also made it know on the forums that it would be fun to allow the KDF to blow up Earth Space Dock if we ever replaced it with something else. As much as I wanted to see this, we’ve focused our efforts on spending more time on the feature episodes (which everyone can enjoy) instead. Despite shedding a small tear about this, it makes more sense for us to spend the time making more PVP or Fleet Actions maps that are a permanent part of the game. So instead, someone else is going to get rid of ESD (not players).

So with these changes in mind, here is the updated timeline for the upcoming weeks.
Disclaimer: These are tentative dates and may still change.

Jan 25 (Tuesday) – Champs starts Free to Play

Jan 27 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
Minor Combat Updates
Earth Space Dock Interior Update
New Default Font
Remastered “Stranded in Space” (replayable mission that scales to level)
XP Boost Devices added to rare drop tables (20% Skillpoint gain for 1 hour on use. These do not stack)
Open up Psi Velorum Sector Block to KDF
C-Store: Delta Flyer Shuttle (note: free basic shuttles will be given out at the start of the Romulan series)
C-Store: XP Boosts (20% Skillpoint gain purchaseable in 1 and 8 hr increments. These do not stack.)
Foundry Mission Test – We hope to copy over a few player made missions from TRIBBLE for everyone to test on HOLODECK. (this is still very tentative)

Feb 1 (Tuesday) – HOLODECK Update
STO Anniversary Event Preparations
Feature Episode Series Preparations

Feb 2 (Wednesday) –1 Year Anniversary Event
10am Pacific - Start Anniversary Event on Earth Space Dock and Qo’Nos.

Feb 5 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 1
11am Pacific – Feature Episode Series “Cloaked Intentions” begins with the episode “The Vault”
Free Basic shuttles are given out at the start of this mission

Feb 8 (Tuesday) – 1 Year Anniversary Event
10am Pacific – End Anniversary Event

Feb 10 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
Feature Episode Preparations
C-Store: Vulcan D’Kyr Class Science Vessel

Feb 11 (Friday) – TRIBBLE Update
Foundry Update (tentative)

Feb 12 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 2
11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Enemy Mine”

Feb 17 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
Feature Episode Preparations
400 Day Veteran Rewards Available

Feb 19 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 3
11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Frozen”

Feb 24 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
Feature Episode Preparations
C-Store: Open Jacket Uniform
Foundry Beta on HOLODECK (very tentative)

Feb 26 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 4
11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Coliseum”

Mar 3 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
Feature Episode Preparations

Mar 5 (Saturday) – Feature Series 3 – Episode 5
11am Pacific – Feature Episode “Cutting the Cord” (Series 3 Finale)
Species Series 3 Reward available upon completion of “Cutting the Cord”

Mar 10 (Thursday) – HOLODECK Update
C-Store: Prometheus

Mar 24 (Thursday) - HOLODECK Update
C-Store: TOS Bundle Pack (New Costumes, New Bridge, New Ship Interior)

note: I'm still working on more details for March - but for now, count on more Remastered Episodes and continued game updates in addition to the C-Store items listed above.

I’ve asked the web team to update the Calendar to reflect these changes, so it may be out of synch with this post for a short bit.

I'll keep you posted as things change (which they always do).

dstahl
Star Trek Online Team



Join Date: Aug 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoberraz
I wonder how the present runabouts and the Veteran Captain's Yatch reward are going to figure in the shuttle mechanics.

...if you already have a runabout, will you be able to play it in the place of the new playbl basic shuttle for the purposes of the mission?
Well, I feel like I keep giving away secrets

Hypothetically speaking, there could potentially be space systems that would require the player to be in a shuttlecraft in order to enter. So long as the ship you are currently piloting is considering a "Shuttle" class, then you would be able to use any of the Shuttlecraft you own to enter that system.

TODAY, 08:03 PM #18
dstahl
Star Trek Online Team

Join Date: Aug 2008
Even better than that... I'd eventually like you to be able to go down to your Shuttle Bay - see the shuttles you own and pick which one you want to fly and hop in.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I like this idea, and it would add a bit more to the scenario instead of shoot them until the blow up. Maybe even have a BOFF skill be target weapons or target engines to disable them.

Some Science officers and the Nebula (off the top of my head) have that as a skill...but it's only used to help make them blow up faster.

The way I would do it is when their health is down to about 30 percent, a button pops up you have to click to target EPS grid or something, and when you hit it, their whole energy system fails... thus disabled. It's gonna be difficult for escorts to do it with their huge DPS load though

That'd be an awesome option to have. I love it!

 

[Commodore_Rook]

Thanks for that Aeolusdallas, I did manage to read all that today! Good stuff! I may pull the trigger and get the lifetime sub with all this good info! (And this is only now till March! imagine what the other nine months offer! That Hanger deck idea is what I have been wanting since day one!)

 

[Rat Boy]

Mar 24 (Thursday) - HOLODECK Update
C-Store: TOS Bundle Pack (New Costumes, New Bridge, New Ship Interior)

They are hell-bent on getting me to buy Cryptic Points, aren't they? I wonder what the new costumes entail: dress uniforms, Kirk's wraparound tunic, McCoy's sleeveless medical shirt, Scotty's kilt?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Yay, TOS bridge and interiors.

 

[Commodore_Rook]

Mar 24 (Thursday) - HOLODECK Update
C-Store: TOS Bundle Pack (New Costumes, New Bridge, New Ship Interior)

They are hell-bent on getting me to buy Cryptic Points, aren't they? I wonder what the new costumes entail: dress uniforms, Kirk's wraparound tunic, McCoy's sleeveless medical shirt, Scotty's kilt?

Yeah, it constantly amazes me they keep cranking out TOS stuff for a game that is set in 2409!!! I am more than happy to oblige them and get ANYTHING TOS related, but realisticly, it is silly to keep catering to the TOS fans for this game set in 2409. If they want TOS stuff, set the game in 2265!!!

And I am wondering myself what the "new" costumes from TOS could be?? I DO hope it is the command wrap-around shirt, and dress uniforms. I really wish they would give us different assignment patches/insignia for the other ships, instead of JUST Enterprise! If that was part of it, I would pay almost ANYTHING for it!

 

[syberghost]

Yeah, it constantly amazes me they keep cranking out TOS stuff for a game that is set in 2409!!! I am more than happy to oblige them and get ANYTHING TOS related, but realisticly, it is silly to keep catering to the TOS fans for this game set in 2409. If they want TOS stuff, set the game in 2265!!!

We've been wanting this stuff since before you were born, there are a lot of us, and we have more money than you.

 

[Aeolusdallas]

Mar 24 (Thursday) - HOLODECK Update
C-Store: TOS Bundle Pack (New Costumes, New Bridge, New Ship Interior)

They are hell-bent on getting me to buy Cryptic Points, aren't they? I wonder what the new costumes entail: dress uniforms, Kirk's wraparound tunic, McCoy's sleeveless medical shirt, Scotty's kilt?

Yeah, it constantly amazes me they keep cranking out TOS stuff for a game that is set in 2409!!! I am more than happy to oblige them and get ANYTHING TOS related, but realisticly, it is silly to keep catering to the TOS fans for this game set in 2409. If they want TOS stuff, set the game in 2265!!!

And I am wondering myself what the "new" costumes from TOS could be?? I DO hope it is the command wrap-around shirt, and dress uniforms. I really wish they would give us different assignment patches/insignia for the other ships, instead of JUST Enterprise! If that was part of it, I would pay almost ANYTHING for it!

They want to please the fans of all the shows. Particularly sense Dstaal took over. He has been pushing really hard to make the game as Trek as he can and win over the fans of the shows.

 

[Ronald Held]

Why not TOS interiors if you own a Constitution Class vessel? I still have mine.

 

[Rat Boy]

Why not TOS interiors if you own a Constitution Class vessel? I still have mine.

And if they go forward with this refit thing, it could be useful again down the road. Probably means increasing the hull strength and/or upgrading the bridge consoles, which is really the thing that's holding the lower tier ships back in comparison to the upper ones.

 

[Commodore_Rook]

Yeah, it constantly amazes me they keep cranking out TOS stuff for a game that is set in 2409!!! I am more than happy to oblige them and get ANYTHING TOS related, but realisticly, it is silly to keep catering to the TOS fans for this game set in 2409. If they want TOS stuff, set the game in 2265!!!

We've been wanting this stuff since before you were born, there are a lot of us, and we have more money than you.

Whoa! I am a TOS fan first and foremost, don't get me wrong. I would rather have this game be set in TOS timeframe and forget all this crazy 2409 jazz, and own all TOS stuff and operate as if it is set in TOS, but the reality is, it is NOT set in TOS time frame. I wasn't shooting Ratboy down at all. I am SUPER happy they are doing more TOS stuff, and will snap up ANYTHING TOS related. I was merely commenting that they (the Devs) as much as they desire this game to be set in 2409, they constantly cater to US TOS fans and give us TOS stuff to make us happy.

No other game has had all the eras represented SIMIULTANSLY (Legacy was the closest, but it was all chronological, not at same time).

I just wish they would pick a timeframe, and stick with it. Now they are adding Vulcan Pre-TOS ships to the game!!! Those should NO WAY be able to stand up to any ship in 2409!!!


PS I doubt you have been wanting TOS stuff since before I was born, especially since I was born when TOS first came out! And I can see how you got I was attacking the TOS fans with my comments, they were NOT directed at them (us), but at the DEVS for not being able to pick an era and stick with it. Right now, it is a hodgepodge of ALL areas flying around. If they would just say there was a temporal explosion and ships thru-out history (and future) have been appearing, then that would explain it all!

 

[Aeolusdallas]

Yeah, it constantly amazes me they keep cranking out TOS stuff for a game that is set in 2409!!! I am more than happy to oblige them and get ANYTHING TOS related, but realisticly, it is silly to keep catering to the TOS fans for this game set in 2409. If they want TOS stuff, set the game in 2265!!!

We've been wanting this stuff since before you were born, there are a lot of us, and we have more money than you.

Whoa! I am a TOS fan first and foremost, don't get me wrong. I would rather have this game be set in TOS timeframe and forget all this crazy 2409 jazz, and own all TOS stuff and operate as if it is set in TOS, but the reality is, it is NOT set in TOS time frame. I wasn't shooting Ratboy down at all. I am SUPER happy they are doing more TOS stuff, and will snap up ANYTHING TOS related. I was merely commenting that they (the Devs) as much as they desire this game to be set in 2409, they constantly cater to US TOS fans and give us TOS stuff to make us happy.

No other game has had all the eras represented SIMIULTANSLY (Legacy was the closest, but it was all chronological, not at same time).

I just wish they would pick a timeframe, and stick with it. Now they are adding Vulcan Pre-TOS ships to the game!!! Those should NO WAY be able to stand up to any ship in 2409!!!


PS I doubt you have been wanting TOS stuff since before I was born, especially since I was born when TOS first came out!

The thing is. The old production crew was the one he'll bent on making the game take place in the future of the trek time line. The new crew wants to let the players have what they want. Particularly with the foundry it will be possible for players to pretend to be at anytime they want. Besides it's not like the engineers in the 25th century couldn't make advanced ships that look like ships from earlier periods.

This new design philosophy is the only way to keep the majority of fans happy. I know for certain if they took all of the actual ships and uniforms that were actually in the trek shows out and made us stick to some arbitrary time I would quit the game

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I heard we are gonna get lirpas for melee fighting soon.

 

[Commodore_Rook]

All I am really interested in is TOS. I really wish they had seperate servers for each of the eras. But truthfully, I always play solo, and the only time I encounter another player, is either on Starbase or DS9, so it really doesn't bother me much. What DOES bother me is the fact I can't make my crew wear the same uniforms as me and my BO's!

 

[Rat Boy]

I heard we are gonna get lirpas for melee fighting soon.

Would be nice to hit back at the Klingons with something other than an open palm or back of a rifle. Heck, pistol-whipping could cause more damage than a glorified slap to the face.

 

[Aeolusdallas]

All I am really interested in is TOS. I really wish they had seperate servers for each of the eras. But truthfully, I always play solo, and the only time I encounter another player, is either on Starbase or DS9, so it really doesn't bother me much. What DOES bother me is the fact I can't make my crew wear the same uniforms as my and my BO's!

They have said they are working on that.

 

[syberghost]

And I can see how you got I was attacking the TOS fans with my comments, they were NOT directed at them (us), but at the DEVS for not being able to pick an era and stick with it.

Oh, I'm sorry I created the impression I thought you were attacking them. I put the smiley in to show I wasn't in earnest.

 

[syberghost]

I heard we are gonna get lirpas for melee fighting soon.

Would be nice to hit back at the Klingons with something other than an open palm or back of a rifle. Heck, pistol-whipping could cause more damage than a glorified slap to the face.

You know, you can buy Bat'leths on DS9 or the Exchange.

The combos you can do with them are quite effective.

 

[Kaziarl]

The bat'leths seem to work really well against the borg too. ignores shields