Some interesting reading from today, that I wanted to share.

Great STO Blog

The Engines Cannae’ Take It is still pretty new, but is already an excellent resource for any Starfleet captains interested in the details of how best to command their ships and plan their careers. An excellent example is BigBadB’s latest article about Skills, and some very detailed analysis of how to get the best use of your skill points.

Check out his blogroll for some other good STO focused blogs.

Van Hemlock STO Episode and Zink Interview

Randomessa mentions two things that I wanted to highlight.

First, Van Hemlock has an excellent episode about Star Trek and Star Trek Online. They talk about the different series and how each set a different tone, and some of the most popular episodes in the franchise and whether or not they would make good missions in the MMO. It is a good in-depth discussion of the IP and the different strengths of the mediums (television, movies, and games).

Second, there’s also an interesting interview up on Fidgit.com with Craig Zinkievich. These were some of the things I found most interesting in the interview:

  • The team is planning to add more exploration and non-combat activities (like diplomacy) over the next year, specifically mentioning first contact missions.
  • Some bridge officer AI quirks, “don’t give your bridge officers food, because right now they eat it right away. That’s disappointing if you’re trying to use them as extra storage bags.”
  • Acknowledgement that the skill system could use more in depth explanation.
  • Respecs should be out in the next one to two months and available through the C-store and earnable in-game.

Most of the interview is stuff I’ve already seen asked and answered other places, but this is the first interview where I’ve seen Craig talk about plans for non-combat missions.

Star Trek Miscellany
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4 thoughts on “Star Trek Miscellany

  • February 11, 2010 at 6:11 pm
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    You know that the respec by C-store and ingame is just like CO and a real downer. They will make sure that people rather pay than play… wah. 🙁

  • February 11, 2010 at 8:27 pm
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    See my take on the respec in CO is that you can easily correct recent choices for a normal amount of resources. If you want to do a full respec, which would allow you to basically reroll you character without losing any experience, then you have to pay a pretty large amount of resources or pay $12.50 through the C-Store. You also get a free one when you hit level 40. Despite what some people feared, they’ve continued to give out respecs anytime they’ve made changes to the powersets. The price on the C-store respec may be a little high, but I see that as a disincentive to keep people from constantly respecing to the flavor of the month builds.

    The skill system in Star Trek is quite a bit different, so I’m not sure that respecing will work the same way, but I do think that you’ll get access to respecs the same way. I’m guessing: a full one bought through C-store, partial paid using merit points, free full respsecs anytime skills are altered, and maybe one for reaching Admiral.

  • February 11, 2010 at 8:33 pm
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    “Respecs should be out in the next one to two months and available through the C-store and earnable in-game.”

    Sigh…this leaves me a bit disheartened, but I also agree that the skill system in STO is a lot different than the one in CO, so I’m just going to wait and see how they will handle this before freaking out. I’m just hoping the method provided in-game will not be too unreasonable, since I already know there’s a few things I would like to change in my current set up.

    • February 11, 2010 at 9:13 pm
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      I would try to stay optimistic. The original respec pricing in Champions was way too high and has been corrected for quite a while (so hopefully they’ve learned from prior experience). I was able to start a new hero and pay for a complete respec around level 12 with in-game resources without having to go out and grind for the globals.

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