Atari Releases Season 2 Of Star Trek Online + Lower Price + New Trailer

As noted in yesterday’s exclusive interview with executive producer Daniel Stahl, Atari/Cryptic has today released Season 2 for Star Trek Online, their biggest update since launch in February. They have also set a new lower price for the game at $19.99 (including first month subscription) and released a brand new trailer. See below for all the details.

 

Season 2 comes to STO

official press release

ATARI AND CRYPTIC STUDIOS LAUNCH SEASON TWO: ANCIENT ENEMIES, THE LATEST CONTENT UPDATE FOR STAR TREK™ ONLINE

– New Star Trek Online Season Launches at the Same Time as a Reduced $19.99 Retail Price – More Content, More Value –

New York, NY) July 27, 2010 – Atari, one of the world’s most recognized publishers and producers of interactive entertainment, and renowned MMO developer Cryptic Studios, have today announced the availability of Season Two: Ancient Enemies, the latest content update for the Star Trek Online universe. Season Two: Ancient Enemies is available at no additional cost to current Star Trek Online players. The content update allows players to encounter and battle even more of Star Trek’s iconic races, and enjoy all new Episodes.  Star Trek Online is also now available for a new low price of $19.99. 

Star Trek Online’s Season Two: Ancient Enemies boasts the following new features:

  • A new level cap: players can now reach level 51. (The previous level cap was 45.)  With the increase come new ranks within the Federation and Klingon factions. 
  • All new rewards and content: including new Tier 5 ships, high-level versions of every Special Task Force mission and Fleet Action, and Mark XI gear rewards.
  • Eight brand new Episodes: tailored specifically for the Klingon Empire, these Episodes star the Fek’ihri, the fabled enemy of Kahless, founder of the Klingon Empire.  In Season Two, the Fek’ihri have returned and have again set their eyes upon Qo’noS.
  • A brand new gameplay option: the Federation Diplomatic Corps. In this new system, players have the chance to meet and peacefully interact with brand new civilizations.  As players progress through the Diplomatic Corps, they earn special ranks and rewards.
  • Feature Episodes: five special new Episodes will debut weekly, beginning in August. These Episodes will introduce a new neutral race: the Deferi.  Players of any level from both factions will be able to aid the Deferi against an adversary new to Star Trek Online.
  • Dabo: a longtime staple of social areas in the Star Trek Universe, the casino game Dabo is coming to Star Trek Online. Players can wager energy credits to earn gold-pressed latinum, which they can exchange for special new rewards.

Season Two: Ancient Enemies also permits players to continue interaction with the Undine, venturing into their native Fluidic space to learn more about the enigmatic species and their struggle with the Borg.  The Undine story continues with five new Episodes, a Fleet Action and all new Deep Space Encounters.

Taking place in the year 2409, Star Trek Online boasts extraordinary features and lets fans both new and old experience unparalleled adventures.  Players have the opportunity to become high-ranking Starfleet officers and participate in missions that take them into the depths of space, across exotic planets and inside other starships. Star Trek Online offers total customization, from a player’s avatar to the ship he captains.

Star Trek Online is a licensed product from CBS Consumer Products.  For more information, please visit: www.startrekonline.com and www.atari.com


New State of the game

For even more, check out executive producer Daniel Stahl’s new "State of the Game" post at the official site.


New Season 2 Trailer "Expanding Universe Part 4"

 

Start Playing  – STO now $20

Atari has dropped the price of Star Trek Online $19.99 it is available at Amazon and other retailers. This price includes the first month’s subscription.

 

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Hi Cryptic,
I signed up for the open beta and paid £45 for the privilege, now, 6 months later the game is available for around £10, the content of STO is still repetitive and there’s even talk of a FREE-PLAY mode.
I am truly thankful that my head overruled my heart and I did not sign up for the lifetime subscription.
Good luck in attracting more players, but this Trekker will no longer be playing & paying for a sub-standard product.

If anyone wants to play I have 4 invites and a 10 day guest pass. Send an email to stochrisbrooks@hotmail.com if interested. If you love Trek its worth checking out if you have a PC that can play it.

Season 2 is definitely an improvement and if anyone wants a chance to play I have some invites too, my email is Terran_Guy@mailinator.com. If you just want to check it out or try out the new stuff, just send me an email.

I just want to echo what Olley said, and add the following: the shows spent 80% of their time in the ship, and the remainder on planets or in space battles. STO spends 100% of the time on planets and in space battles — in-ship time is just a 3D photograph, and doesn’t count.

BZ – This is a video game not a holodeck. Please name another video game that exists and is profitable where you sit around and chat with counselor Troi 80% of the time. Wake up to reality.

Really, my only complaint is that there is not enough voice acting. I think the writing is pretty good and is very rewarding if you are familiar with little details in the series and the books. I’m so addicted to customizing my ship and respecing my characters to try out the different skills. And I’ve barely tried science and engineering classes so I’m about to roll a few more characters. And good Klingon content is finally coming out so I can finally level my neglected Klingon character. Now that they have decent ship interiors and more in ship content coming, I think I will be able to make some awesome Trek machinima. Also, user generated content is coming too. I have 3 invites left if anyone wants to try it out. stochrisbrooks@hotmail.com. My handle is Neorith if anyone wants join up and take on some of the STFs with me :)

I said it before, and I’ll say it again. If the corridors are that big, then the Enterprise was 725 metres long.

Man, its game, you can even ask to have a ship interior for each ship or for each player designe!
Game was grate, and now patch make it exelent.
Like i said, for criste sake, its a game! This is not game in the world that if you play to the end, it dont get repetitive!

Just got done playing a very satisfying round of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary from 1993 (the PC game, not the the NES version).

It’s an adventure game where your primary goal is problem solving, diplomacy, and exploration. You use various tools (tricorders, medkit, etc.) in conjunction with characters and their individual strengths and abilities (Spock, McCoy, and a Redshirt) to solve puzzles and explore planets.

Anyone else played this game and wish that there was a modern equivalent? STO certainly doesn’t seem like much more than a clunky shooter.

I second that Lukas, I was utterly disappointed when I first played STO, it let me down on so many levels and did not even come close to 25th anniversary, its hard to imagine that game is already 17 years old and it still beats STO hands down.

Too bad vulcan fury was cancelled, would have made a hell of a game.

For all the negative people (#1, as usual, again).

Go away and play WOW and leave this game alone if you don’t like it. You’re never going to like this game anyway, so quit you’re crying.

From day one I have been having a BLAST. You get to customize and control your own ship and crew. Ship combat is AWESOME. The visuals are AWESOME.

You see, I don’t grind my way through video games, I sit back and enjoy them. Maybe I’m all alone in this world. Now they have added non combat missions, much more to enjoy.

I don’t get to sit at home playing games all day either, so I am nowhere near finished with the content they already have. Very fun missions and a blast to play.

If you find it boring and repetitative, I think it’s because you play too many games as it is and should go outside anyway.

If you have time to play a really fun Star Trek game, give this one a try. Don’t listen to the negative people, they are never going to like it unless it’s something else all together.

I was going to write the exact same thing as MagicDan

11 – You shouldn’t make assumptions about the negative people, MagicDan. I’m one of them, and I’m a lot like you. I don’t grind my way through games either. I’m not a power leveler, and I don’t spend all day playing games.

So when I played STO, I played for a few hours at a time, a few times a week–very casual playing, not obsessed.

And I think it’s a boring, repetitive, non-Trek feeling game in nearly every aspect. The missions are repetitive and unimaginative: Exploring new planets usually means you:

1. Enter system.
2. Beam to planet.
3. Run around buildings and locales that are virtually identical from planet to planet, ship to ship…
4. Mission objectives: Usually either running around to click on 3 or 4 computers and then read the text, which has no real value at all, or running around to kill off all the baddies, or running around to pick up icon-highlighted items or “energy samples.”
5. Beam up, ship battle with aliens, blahblah.
6. Repeat in new system with different name but the same crap over and over and over…

When I can only play for a short time, I expect to get more out a game. A two-hour session of STO is pretty brief, yet I encountered endless repetition and sameness almost instantly.

Season 2 might fix my biggest complaint–that it’s a combat-and-kill game, NOT an exploration-and-encounter game at all. Star Trek is more than just combat, but so far the STO gameplay hasn’t reflected that.

So feel free to make you sneering generalizations (“they are never going to like it…”), but understand that some of us are negative because the game simply does not provide a fun, interesting, exciting, imaginative Star Trek experience for us.

I’m glad that it satisfies you. Enjoy it. I hope that someday it becomes a game that all of us “negative people” can enjoy more, too.

13 – I think the reason for the attitude towards the rampant negativity is that it never seems to relent, even as the Cryptic team continues to update and enhance content that their players have been asking for. The game has already developed well beyond what it started as and it’s not even a year old, yet the naysayers – most of whom have not even touched it since the day they stopped playing it out of disgust – continue to whine and bellyache about it.

Yes, there is a lot of repetition in mission content and layout; I won’t try to argue that. It does annoy me, because when you’re dealing with the Star Trek universe, I really can’t abide any excuses for not being able to come up with new planetary and ship settings. You’ve got a virtually limitless digital canvas to work with; there’s no need to use the Memory Alpha set recolored and rearranged over and over again for alien bases. Also, the mission variety is lacking when you’re not doing storyline-specific missions. It’s a lot of run-and-gun, fly-and-gun, investigate this, scan that…but look at any MMO out there right now; how are they any different? Talk to this person, collect 10 of this, kill 10 of that, go here, go there, talk to these people, collect reward, etc. Star Trek Online should be a step above, true…but some MMO standards are bound to remain.

But, on the same token, it at least SEEMS like Cryptic has heard the cries of dissent and is making efforts to change the tedium of the run-and-gun dynamic with more diplomatic missions.

I would just like to see the naysayers and whiners give it a go again, and I mean, REALLY play it, rather than just play for a couple of hours and dismiss it out of hand. You can’t begin to experience all of the potential content hours.

#14, I am what you might consider a “naysayer” and I play it a lot, I try to enjoy it but, I agree with number 13, the game is still very poor and undeveloped. While they are working at it, the game probably won’t be at the point that it should have been at launch by Season 4.

I find little joy in doing the same mission, over and over and over again, with very little difference. The whole thing would be a little better if it made sense and were more mysterious. When I pop into a “investigate True Way Base”, make it look Cardassian not Federation and instead of “Kill 5 Groups”, simply put Secure the Area and randomize how many groups there may be, throw in a little mystery.

That, I think is the problem. It is rushed and at the moment, still poor. But Season 2 is a step in the right direction for sure.

Most ppl that cry here not even give the game a tray, they just enter, dont like it, and cry about how the game its bad.

But a lot of ppl are happie with the game, it has a lot of potentian, so, STO its here to stay, you have 3 options: you cry and gain nathing, you give a second chanse, or you move on and forget about the game.

Imo, it’s the format that’s wrong. MMO and Star Trek don’t go well together.
Star Trek stories are adventures, and adventure games are what Star Trek computer games should be. Single player and story driven.
Personal opinion.

#5: “Please name another video game that exists and is profitable where you sit around and chat with counselor Troi 80% of the time. Wake up to reality.”

Please point to one post where anyone has requested or wished for a game where “you sit around and chat with Counselor Troi 80% of the time.”

#16: “you have 3 options”

You’re incorrect.

I tried the Vulcan diplomatic mission. Here were my results:

http://yfrog.com/20nwknj

For my ‘two penneth’ worth… I love what this game is all about.. the building of a huge community allied to the star Trek ethos.

I know the game may be all about making money and all that, but the getting together of like minded Star Trek bods like us for fun shouldn’t be a convention only experience or restricted to forums and the like.

I’m all in favour of being able to blast the back of some Klingon scum-bag’s ship, whilst rubbing a tribble, smoking a tab, drinking whisky and chatting with fellow trek[insert happiest title for you here]s!

Good luck – Star Trek Online, you’re gonna need it, but I’m with you all the way!

Keep up the good work (and the bad, as it’s all good to me!) :)

also, I am 38 and have decided I must attend a con before I’m 40! So hopefully see some of you in the next year or two! :)

Wondering why my original post didn’t go through…

Anyway, I think I’m becoming addicted to Dabo. @_@

I tested the game thru the beta stages and played it quite a bit after launch, i have banged on in previous posts about the pro’s and cons of it, fact is, i stopped playing, i gave it a break.

I’ve kept an eye on it and followed what the devs are doing and now that the SEASON 2 update has gone live i’ve decided to patch up and pay up. Re subscribed today and have started a new character.
I still have my old one but to get an idea of the improvements that have come in i feel i need to start from scratch.

So far from what i’ve seen the general mission structure is the same, however there have been some good improvements to the ui and stability. I’ve also noticed the Ground Combat appears slightly tidier and slower paced which i like. :)

Daniel Stahl has already come out and said he wants to go back and focus on aspects that people ain’t happy with as oppose to churn out new material. Its about finding the balance i guess. I’m optimistic about the future of the game even if a lot of people aren’t.

People are always gonna piss and moan about the game cos ‘its not what THEY want’ from a Star Trek game. My outlook is that, i’ve paid my £30 for the game, i’m damn well gonna give it a chance. Even if it means cancelling it again in future and giving it another couple of months break.

So far however i’m happy with my choice to resubscribe.

#5
“This is a video game not a holodeck. Please name another video game that exists and is profitable where you sit around and chat with counselor Troi 80% of the time. Wake up to reality.”

I spent a lot of time talking with my crew in Mass Effect 2, an aspect of the game I really, really enjoyed. :)
It’s certainly not 80% of the time but I think it still meets your criteria. Welcome to reality! :D

@13 (and all the other negative people)

You will never enjoy this game because you are always going to make it boring (take notes please):

1. Enter system.

What system? what area? how many planets/moons in system? For me it’s usually a beautiful and different view. It never does matter to the negative people though. Why are you playing if it’s not to see beautiful new worlds? They are not all the same either, so quit saying that.

2. Beam to planet.

What type of planet, How beautiful was it? Not beautiful? The look and feel of the planet is part of what makes it.

Which of your (totally customized) crew did you take down with you? Again, a big part of this game that you sum up in 3 boring words. I think I know now where the boring comes from.

3. Run around buildings and locales that are virtually identical from planet to planet, ship to ship…

I guess you can find similarities in all the worlds and ships if that’s what you are looking for. Myself I have run into very different worlds thru different missions. Also, as you are running around buildings and ships, you have very different types of weapons and equipment to use and try out, as well as different skills for you and your crew. They all act diffrently on different types of enemies. Again, it’s not just running around. Unless, of course, you want to only see the negative aspects of anything.

4. Mission objectives: Usually either running around to click on 3 or 4 computers and then read the text, which has no real value at all, or running around to kill off all the baddies, or running around to pick up icon-highlighted items or “energy samples.”

I agree, to me about 70% of the missions outside of the really cool ones can be this way. That part is changing over time. Not a game killer for me, and I still have way too many completely diffrent and new mission to finish in this game.

5. Beam up, ship battle with aliens, blahblah.

Blah? You missed the best part of the whole game here. I think this statement sums up why the negative people will never like this game and always trash it.

You fight with your customized ship and crew, using different weapons and skills earned to the best of your abilities. Some of my fights have been glorious, tough battles where when the enemy was finally destroyed I felt a real thrill of victory! If that is “blah” to you then you can’t be helped.

6. Repeat in new system with different name but the same crap over and over and over…

If you want to generalize the game, then this statement is true. I feel the same way.

I repeat in a NEW system with a DIFFERENT name but the same (really cool and fun) crap over and over.

It’s kinda the same I guess……….

But I’m not trying to be negative either, I just really like the game for what it is.