STO Update: New Features Video + Preview of Season 2 & Beyond + Guide To Building STO PC + more

Today we check in with all the latest on Star Trek Online. We have a video overview of the recently released Season 1.1 features, plus an overview of what is coming in Season 2, and beyond. Plus a video guide to the ultimate STO PC, and players choose the next ship class to be added to the game.

 

Video overview of latest features

Recently Star Trek Online has gone through some updates, including the Season 1.1 update and Season 1.1 Supplemental update. Inc Gamers has a nice video overview of the new features added to the game.

What’s next for Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online’s Craig Zinkievich has posted his latest ‘State of the Game‘ where he goes over what has been going on, and more interestingly, what is coming next. Here is his overview of upcoming additions to Star Trek Online:

Everything Coming Soon (That Isn’t Part of Season 2)
 

You may have already seen it in d Stahl’s engineering reports, but we have a lot of great things coming in the next several months:

  • The Accolade System – I know how much you guys have been wanting this, and I have to admit, I’m pretty stoked about it, too. Track your achievements. How much phaser damage have you dealt in your career? How many Federation officers have you shuffled off this mortal coil (assuming you’re playing a Klingon. No killing your allies, guys!)?
  • The Squad System – This will let you team up with other players who aren’t in your level, and lets your effectiveness match so you can play together.
  • Balance Adjustments – We have those DPS/recharge/global-ability-cooldown adjustments that many of our high-end players have been requesting. Log into Tribble and check them out. Give us your feedback! We’re testing it out now, so this is when we need to hear from you the most. Also – don’t forget to log into Tribble to “play with the devs” early next week. We’ll be there, will you?
  • UI Improvements – We’re working on a window that will show you when rewards happen during normal character advancement (powers, unlocks, bridge officer reqs, etc.).
  • Bug Fixes and Improvements – We’re always working on fixes and improvements, because a game developer’s job is never done.

But I’m betting a lot of you know this already, because you all read dStahl’s engineering reports, right?

Just so you know, though, we’re going to have to put out those reports without dStahl’s help for a little while, since he’s off becoming a dad right now.

Season 2

Season 2 is nearly upon us, and we’ve been working on a ton of content for that release:

  • Minigames – Yes, ThomastheCat, there really is a Santa Claus. Or, at least, there really will be minigames in STO. As of update 1.3, you’ll be able to play Dabo at Quark’s. And we’ll be adding several more minigames throughout your ship and the galaxy in Season 2. There’s a great thread about minigames on the forums. Jump on board and chime in!
  • Federation Diplomatic Corps – Federation players will be able to focus more on non-combat content and gain rank within the Diplomatic Corps. There are some very cool rewards in there, and some new diplomatic/exploration Episodes and missions. In fact, I played through a new “First Contact” scenario yesterday …

    We see a lot of potential for future diplomatic updates.

  • Faction Free Episodes –The majority of Episodic content we’re adding to STO will be faction-agnostic. Both Klingon and Federation captains will be able to play through this content (although, probably not together – unless you really want to). The Breen Episodes and the high-end episodes in fluidic space will be available to Klingons.
  • Klingon Exclusive Episodes – Because everyone loves Klingons, right? Season 2 has several Episodes just for Klingons. (The Fek’Lhri are scary, but I so want to fly one of their ships …)
  • Bumping the Cap – We’re moving the cap up 6 grades to Vice Admiral 1. There will be more rewards and more content for those of you up at the end of the game.
  • Ship Interiors – I have walked the curved hallways of my crew deck on the way to MY ten-forward …
  • Weekly Content – We’re looking to start rolling out an Episode every week. Like a “STO Tuesdays” sorta thing (it may even happen on Tuesdays, but no promises on that one). We’ll start rolling out weekly Episodes after Season 2 goes live.
  • Fleet Logos, High End Content, and Beyond … all before the end of July.

Season 3 and Beyond

We’ve started taking polls, and we’re going to keep doing it. Right now we’re beginning to work out the major features we want in Season 3, and we want to know what you guys most want to see.

Yes. We’re looking at adding another faction. Which do you want first? Romulan? Cardassian? Borg?

We’re also looking at adding user-generated content to the game. How would you rank that against a persistent sector PvP game? Against Fleet Starbases? Being able to “Alt- your BOff” and call him to fly along side of you?

These are things that we’ll be starting up polls for over the coming weeks – so pay attention and get your vote in! (Man – I was surprised the NX didn’t show up higher in the last ship poll …)

We’ve still got a bunch of people cranking out bug fixes/content/feature updates for the game. As you can see from the list above – this is largely driven by YOU. Keep posting on the forums, keep telling us what you want – I think it’s working well. :)

Players vote for Excelsior

This week Cryptic held an online poll for players to choose the next ‘official’ starship class to be added to the game. Choices were Excelsior, Nebula, Oberth, Enterprise J, NX Enterprise and Ambassador. And it was the Excelsior class (first seen in Star Trek III and later captained by Sulu in Star Trek VI) that won with around 31% of the vote, with the TNG era Nebula coming in second with 23%.


STO players want Sulu’s ship in the game

NEW STO: Building ultimate STO machine

The latest STOked podcast also goes over new features, and also has an excellent guide to building the ultimate PC to play Star Trek Online. 

Free Demo

If you want to give Star Trek Online a go without buying it, you can play a demo of the game for an unlimited amount of time (with some restrictions) and includes the “Stranded in Space” mission. More info and demo download at startrekonline.com/demo

Start Playing 

If you want to get into the 25th century and play Star Trek Online it is available at Amazon discounted currently for less than $28 (or $48 for the collectors edition), and that includes a one month subscription.

 

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I’ve tried and just can’t get too excited about this game.

I’ve got the game now. cant wait to try it. Got to wait till the summer though. 1 more month.

I’ve played the demo. I loved the ship-based stuff despite my computer being on the dirt floor of the system requirements. The whole time I was thinking, “I’d really love this game if it was on XBox.”

I’m just a console gamer, don’t mind me.

Crafting @ memory ALpha

Why go there?
THERE IS NO CRAFTING SYSTEM!

Too little, too late. STO has become a ghost of a game and there are several fundamental issues with it that prevent it from being a genuinely immersive experience. I canceled my subscription, like many have. I hope that one day Cryptic starts to seriously look at ways to improve mechanics of STO, rather than making superficial changes that satisfy the portion of the player base that will stay on regardless of how mediocre gameplay is.

I got the game as a gift, but my computer’s graphics card can’t play it. :(

They added a few more starships as well, but when are they going to spotlight any of the Klingon ships?

Or better yet, give us a guide with all the ships?

I can’t wait for the updates, makes the game even better.

I want to play this game but I’d rather not have to upgrade my computer that much just for a videogame. When are us console handed gonna get a chance? I do not want Legacy to be the last of the console ST games. It sucks so much.

I’m told MMOs rarely go to console, mainly because you can’t transfer the text chat, the heart of an MMO for many, to a gamepad. Hotkeying is probably also important, but less so.

What about a Mac version of this game?

Again, the comments seem to be utterly dominated by naysayers, many of whom refuse to even try the game. I feel I must chime in, once more, and say that I continue to greatly enjoy STO and I couldn’t be looking forward to the new content more! It’s a wonderful game and it’s improving all the time. It’s always a thrill to log in after a new patch and see the new features and content. I’m just disappointed that the Excelsior Class beat out the Nebula Class in the last player poll!

#10
At this stage, really not necessary. A Mac that is buff enough to run the game would likely be Intel based, and it’s dead easy to get a Windows installation going if you’re really desperate to play PC games.

As to the article – WOAH, minigames? Can anyone say 3-D chess?? Imma melt your pieces like Charlie X …

Excelsior? Great… I start to be interested in this game.

This game is a major disappointment, and a huge missed opportunity. I couldn’t even last a month.

@#4

No crafting system? Not true. You get to upgrade weapons and equipment, and it doesn’t interfere with the game.
(you don’t spend all your time trying to “craft”)

No crafting system like WOW or Star War’s? – very true. And a good thing.

@3 i was thinking the same thing, personally i think it would run alot better on a console.

I was really looking forward to trying this game, but i downloaded the demo and gave up after ten mimutes!

I got the demo, fell in love with the customization that I could do in the game, the combat, the sheer amount of awesomeness. I can’t wait until the next update when I can visit more than just my ship’s bridge.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaat…no love for the Ambassador Class? IMO lightyears better than the Excelsior, and a much better looking craft than that gaudy, yeah i said gaudy, and ugly looking Galaxy-class.

My son and I have been playing the game, even teaming up with my little sister several states awaya . . . and LOVE IT! Great game, great fun, and the customization and crew building itself are reasons to love the game. The diplomatic missions, being able to do mini-games (like Dabo) and walk around your own ship are just going to make it better.

I’m still thinking about going back sometime. Looks like they’re trying to improve it, so I have to give them a bit of credit.

Honestly, to those that wish to try it, do so, it’s worth the time. I’ve played since open beta and have slogged my way through the bugs and reached rear admiral. There’s still much to add but the game still shines now, give it a shot, I’m glad I did.

I’m a lifetime subscriber, but I have to say I’m seriously disappointed with the lack of intellgence and arcade feel of the game. The scripted missions are all single-path, and the enemies loiter in one spot until you attack. I can’t even tell my comm officer to ignore a hail. When does command style come into play? Why can’t the AI vector in a cloaked ship to attack from your six? Where are the coordinated strikes? Instead of copying the same, tired missions month after month, I’d like to see some real depth integrated into the gameplay. And what the hell’s up with these mammoth interiors? So much attention paid to ship design & scale, but inside I’m walking through two-story doors down hallways built like cathedrals into a bridge designed like an amphitheater. No consistency. At least the PvP keeps things interesting…

STO frustrates me. The ground missions are terrible. The space stuff is simplistic. There’s very little depth overall, really. AND it’s completely combat oriented.

I think it’s hilarious that a near-generic MMO about perpetual interstellar warfare would be called Star Trek Online. I’m sure Gene would have loved that.

It’s more like Anti-Star Trek. It’s as if Star trek died and was reborn the opposite of itself, while still being superficially the same.

Having never played any MMO’s before, I’m still very excited about STO!

After taking forever to download, I tried the demo for Star Trek Online and wasn’t impressed at all. It seems to lack imagination. I’ll pass on this one.

great post.Never knew this, appreciate it for letting me know.