STO Guidelines

When Cryptic (developers of the excellent superhero massive multiplayer online game, Champions Online) released Star Trek Online earlier this month we drew a sharp breath. A game that promises full space/ground combat, player versus player (PVP) combat and a metric tonne of customisation options…these are all grand ideas indeed even before you take the subject matter into account: Star Trek; possessing a ravenous and loyal fanbase for decades, satisfying them is surely a task too great for even an established MMO dev? Well, minus some bugs, we can safely say that Cryptic have done a bang-up job!

For a start, the amount of lore in this game is pretty ridiculous, and easily comparable with the heavyweight MMO games around today. Whilst it doesn’t quite match the millions of pages of text found in books across Oblivion’s world, there are many moments during STO where nostalgic memories are sparked due to some text or the appearance of a friendly face. Without offering spoilers, it’s safe to say that some familiar (and highly enjoyable) locations will be visited during a play through Star Trek Online.
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Our latest content update, Season One: Update Two, is available now! Here’s just a bit of what’s included in the update.

Accolades
Looking for more ways to challenge yourself in Star Trek Online? Do we have a system for you! The Accolades System is a brand new way to track your stats, show off your tactical skills and advance in Star Trek Online.

Accolades in Star Trek Online are special missions that track various achievements throughout a player’s career in the STO universe and unlock various rewards at certain milestones. Players can earn Accolades for many different actions, such as defeating a certain number of enemies from a certain species or faction, completing main storyline missions, dealing damage of a certain energy type and many more. There are hundreds of Accolades to earn, and we’ll be adding more and more as we go!

To learn more about Accolades, visit our Accolades informational page.

Squad Support
Want to team up with a friend who’s new to the game? You’re in luck! In Season One: Update Two, we’re happy to introduce the Squad Support System. Now, players of any level can team with each other using our special level scaling technology. This is a great way to spend time with your friends and fleetmates of differing levels, and to enjoy Star Trek Online in a brand new way.
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This edition is a general Q&A, so read on to see what’s coming in Star Trek Online.

Q: Intrepidox: With the level cap increase, will there be a new tier of ships, and if so, will they make the current 5th tier ships obsolete?

A: We do not plan on adding an additional tier with the level cap increase that we are working on currently. That being said we definitely plan on adding in more ships in the 5th tier to offer some additional choices to players.

We have been kicking around ideas for what Tier 6 ships could be and how they would work in the STO universe already. Will they be retrofits of existing ships, “Super Defiants”? Will they need entire Fleets to pool their resources to create? We’ll continue to listen to the community’s feedback and decide as the time gets closer how exactly we will implement the next Tier of starships.
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Preface
Who would ever want to fly virtually to the stars should take a look at Star Trek Online throwing. But first, of course, do not forget to read through my review. STO I could play in the Open Beta and play now since release. The review is also why only now, I just wanted to gather enough impressions of the game.

Story
Star Trek Online STO or is an MMORPG that plays in the well known – created by Gene Roddenberry – Star Trek universe. The game puts it about 30 years after the return of the Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. Romulus and Remus were destroyed as the Romulans themselves a little aggressive and the Federation does is again just before a war with the Klingon Empire. All this makes life in the Alpha Quadrant not easy to be added that the Borg vigorously try to put foot to Federation space. In these hard times, new officers are needed, which provide for law and order in the quadrant and that’s where you come into play.
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Back in 2004 an announcement was made that Star Trek Online was in development and geeks around the world rejoiced (this reviewer included). News releases after that were sporadic at best until in January 2008 it was announced that the developer was closing its doors and the game development (not including code) was being passed to Cryptic Studios. Given their experience with MMO games, Cryptic seemed an ideal fit and just over two years after taking on the IP, we have the official release of Star Trek Online.

After launching Star Trek Online our first task is to create a character, at launch this is limited for most players to a Federation Officer and we are given the choice of Tactical, Engineering or Science as our career path. Each has its own benefits, for example Tactical Officer rates well in combat, stealth and squad tactics. Next we choose our species and gender and once again the choice has a bearing on our gameplay experience. Trill for example have improved health regeneration as well as radiation and toxic resistance. The skills for each species are not set in stone though and the game allows us to choose additional traits (from a list of at least 10 for each species) which we feel will be beneficial. Should we wish to improve our engineering stat we would choose Techie at this stage.
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