Dyson tech enhanced Miranda, T'Liss, and D7 ftw. And balls on you if you don't like it!
I agree with the Miranda actually, but we already have a lot of D7 styled ships.
We need something small and sleek. Especially on the Space Whale side of things. More small, sleek looking warbirds like the Dhelan or some kind of half-sized Valdore. The romulan ships are as gargantuan as they are few in number.
We've been getting a *lot* or cruiser and dreadnought-sized ships, we could use a bit more variety in the small category.
Tim Russ makes a lot of sense. If he has the time.
He's actively pushing a new Star Trek series, so he's still very involved in Star Trek. This could also work against him doing a VO due to schedule commitments, but I suspect they could work all that out.
He has a distinctive voice. You'll know it's him as soon as you hear it.
As Tuvok, he could be the "Voice of the Delta Quadrant". Since this season is leading us into Voyager-themed storylines, this would be especially appropriate. They're really going to prefer a Voyager actor if they can get one, I think, and Tuvok is one of the better choices there.
I suspect that, unlike Sir Stewart, Levar Burton, or Brent Spiner, he can be hired for a reasonable amount of money.
With all of that, my money's going to be on Tim Russ. If I were betting, that is.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Another area we looked at was the hourly event calendar. Our data showed that few of these events were being played often, and so we are re-envisioning the hourly events as weekend-long events with better rewards. You can expect the hourly calendar to disappear with Season 8.5, with the new events showing up on the main calendar. Additionally, a small selection of the existing hourly events are being turned into Daily missions ? we?ll provide more information on this soon.
I was very thankful when bonus mark time became three hrs instead of one hr. BUT...is that being taken away? I know our fleet works really hard to hit those bonus mark times. I don't think taking that away will help. Are you saying no one is mining? I find that hard to believe as well. What so many people have loved about the calender is that it changed times as to when things ran. Some folks can't play on weekends, others can't play during the week, and not everyone is on PST.
I hope this is only an idea and that you are open to listening to the players.
Another area we looked at was the hourly event calendar. Our data showed that few of these events were being played often, and so we are re-envisioning the hourly events as weekend-long events with better rewards. You can expect the hourly calendar to disappear with Season 8.5, with the new events showing up on the main calendar. Additionally, a small selection of the existing hourly events are being turned into Daily missions ? we?ll provide more information on this soon. ~ Stephen D?Angelo
So, you were the one responsible for the original weekly events? Nice.
*thumbs up*
We also will be releasing a new featured episode alongside the update ? it stars a Star Trek actor who will bring their character to STO for the first time. We?re excited to be continuing the storyline for the game with this amazing episode, and we?ll be announcing who this actor is in about a week, when you will get your first sneak peek at the episode. ~ Stephen D?Angelo
Tim Russ makes a lot of sense. If he has the time.
He's actively pushing a new Star Trek series, so he's still very involved in Star Trek. This could also work against him doing a VO due to schedule commitments, but I suspect they could work all that out.
He has a distinctive voice. You'll know it's him as soon as you hear it.
As Tuvok, he could be the "Voice of the Delta Quadrant". Since this season is leading us into Voyager-themed storylines, this would be especially appropriate. They're really going to prefer a Voyager actor if they can get one, I think, and Tuvok is one of the better choices there.
I suspect that, unlike Sir Stewart, Levar Burton, or Brent Spiner, he can be hired for a reasonable amount of money.
With all of that, my money's going to be on Tim Russ. If I were betting, that is.
I do not disagree with you in the slightest on Tim Russ, however Kate Mulgrew would be the more obvious choice as the "Voice of the Delta Quadrant" for me, (or even Robert Beltran)But she has so many other projects going on right now, I think she wouldn't have the time. Maybe one day she could join the ranks of those before her.
All three actors have what can only be described as the iconic voices of Voyager.
I'm pretty sure it's not Mulgrew, because she's probably busy filming Orange is the New Black in New York.
Tim Russ or Garrett Wang aren't unlikely candidates.
But we've already been told that Q will be around at the time of the event. Even though we have Q Jr. in game now, I think it would be an easy swap to bring back everyone's favorite omnipotent entity. So my money's on John De Lancie.
Since the screenshot is from an Orion episode, I wonder if the surprise actor is Cyia Batten.
You do realize that the planet is Kassae IV, I'd imagine (therefore not an Orion episode)? I know because it's the Revamped Researcher Rescue mission. It's got nothing to do with the new Feature Episode.
Robert Picardo makes a lot of since in that The Doctor doesn't age.
One thing to consider is that the story actually takes place IN the Delta quadrant. Which Voyager crewmember was left behind the Delta Quadrant? Neelix. It would not be difficult to introduce him into the story.
For those who are a little concerned about the immersion factor of the insta-switching between ships, I can't help but feel a little parlance might help people feel a little more at home with it...
First, look at all your duty officers. They go a lot of places without you, thus they need to be travelling. Obviously your ship is not going to have enough shuttles, so I personally look at it as your other ships are not actually in dock, but are doing their own thing as a part of your personal fleet. They might just be flying around out there without you, carting your people around, doing the jobs you aren't. It makes more sense, then, that you CAN switch in sector space. (This is one of the reasons I'd love to be able to bring other ships from my personal fleet into space battles with me. Even more immersion that way.)
Second, it helps to think of your main ship you have selected as the flagship of your fleet, because a flagship literally means 'where the Admiral of the fleet is'. In Naval terminology, the flagship is a temporary designation that involves any ship that the Admiral of the fleet currently has command of. Flagships are typically the largest, best armed and most well known, so, naturally, they would be doing the particularly important things while the other ships in the background do less visible, but still important things.
So, there ya go, immersion people! Switching ships in space is as easy as your Admiral having ordered them there so they could switch flagships for different situations.
As for the rest of the changes, they sounds interesting and fun! Can't wait to see more clarifications on everything, particularly the new ships!
Kind of hoping the VO actor will be Wil Wheaton. Wesley Crusher has escaped from the Traveler's basement, and, cautious of another "panel van that says FREE CANDY" incident, has returned to Federation space for safety...
Haven't read through the whole thread, but wanted to say bravo to Cryptic. Many of the things listed in this update, such as pre saved ship fittings and updates to Federation PvE content are things I've been hoping would happen for a while. Can't wait to see what the new ship is and happy to see more Trek actors making appearances!
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
Well like others I do not have Boff tray powers nothing, When I press U where everything relating to Boffs should be it is blank
You mean the ship station bug where your stations tab would show 1 or more ship stations blank and clicking on a blank station will suddenly reset them to the proper boffs?
That was fixed, at least for me.
Workaround: Set all ship stations to 'None', including your shuttle if you have 1, then reassign all boffs.
The problem I'm currently having isn't my ship stations resetting, or the doff department heads, as those were fixed. What happens is whenever I go to a ground map with bridge officers, I wind up with all boff abilities on my space trays. After removing the abilities they return on the trays with the next space map I go to. The workaround fixes it until I go to another ground map with boffs. But this is supposedly fixed on Tribble server now.
Whatever your problem is, it might be fixed on the test server right now, and it might not be.
Another issue I'm having: for at least 2 of my characters, the bottom 1 or 2 away team slots in the stations tab has the same problem the ship stations use to have, i.e., they will be set to security/bekk/ulhan and clicking them will fix it. But it resets itself every time I change maps. The characters this happens to are once I've bought a bunch of boff slots for from the c-store. Unassigning and reassigning boffs, several times, doesn't seem to fix it, even if I unassign boffs from all ship and away team stations.
God I hope its not Tuvok. Not only was Voyager my LEAST fave Trek, but I have Tim Russ 'burnout' from all of the low budget 'After-MASH-er-Trek' projects he always seems to be in/directing/writing/producing/whatever.
Please, please, pleeeease be a Weyoun clone or Garak - or BOTH!
Concerning the foundry; will this patch cause the missions to be republished again, like with the usual big updates?
At this this time we don't believe we'll need to republish, nor bring down editing/ playing/ reviewing at Season 8.5's launch. If plans change, we'll be sure to let you know.
anyone stop to think it might be O'Brien or B'Lanna they could easily be coming back and they both are engineers and yes Mr. Burton would be wonderful to have on STO as well
I kind of hope it's an Emergency Engineering Hologram Barclay. If the studio is REALLY clever, they'll even throw down a subtle A-Team shout out in scripting.
Sadly - I'm thinking its probably Tim Russ. IMO the only thing more annoying than his cookie-cutter portrayal of a Vulcan would be . . . *drum roll* . . .
I'm going to go out on a limb and start the "based off nothing" speculation but considering the Sphere is in the delta quadrant I'll go ahead and presume the character coming into STO is from Voyager. I'm also going to stick my neck out and guess that the character will be (dun dun dun) Tuvok.
Whoever it is, I'm sure it'll be really fun. I can't wait. Long live STO
Amanda Rodgers was mentioned by Tacofangs on Twitter.
Participating in the usual fun and games with Q will let you earn a cool new starship (or three!). Federation, Romulan Republic, and Klingon Defense Force scientists have been hard at work adapting Dyson technology to their standard ship designs, and you can be among the first to try out these new hybrid starships.
More ships are good.
We also will be releasing a new featured episode alongside the update ? it stars a Star Trek actor who will bring their character to STO for the first time. We?re excited to be continuing the storyline for the game with this amazing episode, and we?ll be announcing who this actor is in about a week, when you will get your first sneak peek at the episode.
A new mission is good.
The STO team is always working to improve the game. In Season 8, we updated the Federation tutorial to improve the initial experience. In this update, we have made a pass at 12 episodes in the early Federation experience, updating the episodes to hit a higher quality bar with both art and gameplay improvements throughout.
My priorities would have been different, and would have focused on Fed ship interiors to reflect the Origin bridge. But I am pleased to see the older episodes are getting a facelift to reflect current art trends in the game.
Our data showed that few of these events were being played often, and so we are re-envisioning the hourly events as weekend-long events with better rewards. You can expect the hourly calendar to disappear with Season 8.5, with the new events showing up on the main calendar. Additionally, a small selection of the existing hourly events are being turned into Daily missions ? we?ll provide more information on this soon.
I don't need to look at your data to tell you that the hourly time-gated events shifted from extremely worthless to extremely valuable. The Multi-Phasic Event was a horrible idea because Data samples are still oversaturated in the game and they always will be until given a proper sink for them. Few people craft. Few people have the desire to craft. Fleet projects are easily filled by them and there are still more left.
There's no point in having the Multi-Phasic Event. Likewise with the Crafting event considering Crafting still exists in limbo for STO, with Cryptic having no idea what place it has in the game or long-term sustainability when the rep systems outclass it entirely.
The only valuable events are the Mirror Invasion because of the large amounts of dilithium to be gained, the Tour the Galaxy event because of the payout of energy credits, and the Bonus Marks event, for obvious reasons.
What does that data tell you? That we don't like some of the hourly events?
No. It tells you that systems in the game (data samples and crafting) are worthless until you decide what place they hold in the game, and Cryptic has unreasonable expectations for grinding marks and dilithium.
Despite the fact it took you guys this long to realize this 'data trend' was not temporary, I'm glad to see this removed and something more sensible replacing it.
And there's something exciting for players that have many starships in spacedock! With the Season 8.5 update, you will be able to easily switch between your starships in sector space and social zones ? we want to make it easy to quickly get to the ship you want to fly. Not only that, but each of your starships can have multiple pre-made build-outs saved, and you will be able to switch between them quickly and easily. Now you will be able to prepare separate PvE and PvP builds, or have a special anti-Voth spec for your ships waiting to quickly be swapped in. Equipping ships also gets easier with the new ?easy equip? feature coming in the update. In addition, we?re going to be increasing the current ship slot limit. You?re going to love it!
This is a good thing, and you should feel good for doing it.
All of the features above and more will be covered in depth by the team.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the dev team will passive-aggressively blame the players for not wanting to play in the Multi-Phasic or Crafting Events despite the fact both are relatively worthless in STO.
I also predict that in the dev blog covering the removal of the hourly events, that Cryptic will feign ignorance to not knowing players don't want to play in worthless time-gated events for worthless rewards that have an ambiguous existance in the current game, and they will also feign ignorance that players are "somehow" attracted to the events which make the grind less painful. Despite the fact this has been in the game for several months.
At this this time we don't believe we'll need to republish, nor bring down editing/ playing/ reviewing at Season 8.5's launch. If plans change, we'll be sure to let you know.
Sorry, I'm already happily engaged and getting married this July :P
Comments
I've been swapping between ships on my Rom lately so the new loadout deal will be a godsend.
Like the hourly event revamp too. The only ones I ever used were bonus marks and MU. Just turn MU into a normal queue and I'm set.
I also hope the free ships are some sci ships. Especially the Fed one. Bored to death of my Vesta. Could use something more spicy there.
Mine Trap Supporter
I agree with the Miranda actually, but we already have a lot of D7 styled ships.
We need something small and sleek. Especially on the Space Whale side of things. More small, sleek looking warbirds like the Dhelan or some kind of half-sized Valdore. The romulan ships are as gargantuan as they are few in number.
We've been getting a *lot* or cruiser and dreadnought-sized ships, we could use a bit more variety in the small category.
Or at least customization options to that effect.
He's actively pushing a new Star Trek series, so he's still very involved in Star Trek. This could also work against him doing a VO due to schedule commitments, but I suspect they could work all that out.
He has a distinctive voice. You'll know it's him as soon as you hear it.
As Tuvok, he could be the "Voice of the Delta Quadrant". Since this season is leading us into Voyager-themed storylines, this would be especially appropriate. They're really going to prefer a Voyager actor if they can get one, I think, and Tuvok is one of the better choices there.
I suspect that, unlike Sir Stewart, Levar Burton, or Brent Spiner, he can be hired for a reasonable amount of money.
With all of that, my money's going to be on Tim Russ. If I were betting, that is.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I was very thankful when bonus mark time became three hrs instead of one hr. BUT...is that being taken away? I know our fleet works really hard to hit those bonus mark times. I don't think taking that away will help. Are you saying no one is mining? I find that hard to believe as well. What so many people have loved about the calender is that it changed times as to when things ran. Some folks can't play on weekends, others can't play during the week, and not everyone is on PST.
I hope this is only an idea and that you are open to listening to the players.
*thumbs up*
:: Link ::
[STO] Season 8.5: Coming Soon
*scratches chin*
Since the screenshot is from an Orion episode, I wonder if the surprise actor is Cyia Batten.
Q's game, eh? John De Lancie replaces Q junior.
But if Q junior remains, and we're dealing with the Delta Quadrent I'd say godmother and admiral Kate Mulgrew would know best how to proceed.
But with a new ship in the works, perhaps LeVar Burton or Roxann Dawson was working on it? Not Colm Meaney, of course; he's on the Enterprise.
On the other other hand (there are different fingers), there's no reason this couldn't be a Klingon or Romulan.
I do not disagree with you in the slightest on Tim Russ, however Kate Mulgrew would be the more obvious choice as the "Voice of the Delta Quadrant" for me, (or even Robert Beltran)But she has so many other projects going on right now, I think she wouldn't have the time. Maybe one day she could join the ranks of those before her.
All three actors have what can only be described as the iconic voices of Voyager.
Tim Russ or Garrett Wang aren't unlikely candidates.
But we've already been told that Q will be around at the time of the event. Even though we have Q Jr. in game now, I think it would be an easy swap to bring back everyone's favorite omnipotent entity. So my money's on John De Lancie.
He'd be the best Voyager actor. More likely, though, is Jeri Ryan or Kate Mulgrew.
The ships will most likely be completely new designs.
You do realize that the planet is Kassae IV, I'd imagine (therefore not an Orion episode)? I know because it's the Revamped Researcher Rescue mission. It's got nothing to do with the new Feature Episode.
One thing to consider is that the story actually takes place IN the Delta quadrant. Which Voyager crewmember was left behind the Delta Quadrant? Neelix. It would not be difficult to introduce him into the story.
First, look at all your duty officers. They go a lot of places without you, thus they need to be travelling. Obviously your ship is not going to have enough shuttles, so I personally look at it as your other ships are not actually in dock, but are doing their own thing as a part of your personal fleet. They might just be flying around out there without you, carting your people around, doing the jobs you aren't. It makes more sense, then, that you CAN switch in sector space. (This is one of the reasons I'd love to be able to bring other ships from my personal fleet into space battles with me. Even more immersion that way.)
Second, it helps to think of your main ship you have selected as the flagship of your fleet, because a flagship literally means 'where the Admiral of the fleet is'. In Naval terminology, the flagship is a temporary designation that involves any ship that the Admiral of the fleet currently has command of. Flagships are typically the largest, best armed and most well known, so, naturally, they would be doing the particularly important things while the other ships in the background do less visible, but still important things.
So, there ya go, immersion people! Switching ships in space is as easy as your Admiral having ordered them there so they could switch flagships for different situations.
As for the rest of the changes, they sounds interesting and fun! Can't wait to see more clarifications on everything, particularly the new ships!
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
You mean the ship station bug where your stations tab would show 1 or more ship stations blank and clicking on a blank station will suddenly reset them to the proper boffs?
That was fixed, at least for me.
Workaround: Set all ship stations to 'None', including your shuttle if you have 1, then reassign all boffs.
The problem I'm currently having isn't my ship stations resetting, or the doff department heads, as those were fixed. What happens is whenever I go to a ground map with bridge officers, I wind up with all boff abilities on my space trays. After removing the abilities they return on the trays with the next space map I go to. The workaround fixes it until I go to another ground map with boffs. But this is supposedly fixed on Tribble server now.
Whatever your problem is, it might be fixed on the test server right now, and it might not be.
Another issue I'm having: for at least 2 of my characters, the bottom 1 or 2 away team slots in the stations tab has the same problem the ship stations use to have, i.e., they will be set to security/bekk/ulhan and clicking them will fix it. But it resets itself every time I change maps. The characters this happens to are once I've bought a bunch of boff slots for from the c-store. Unassigning and reassigning boffs, several times, doesn't seem to fix it, even if I unassign boffs from all ship and away team stations.
Please, please, pleeeease be a Weyoun clone or Garak - or BOTH!
At this this time we don't believe we'll need to republish, nor bring down editing/ playing/ reviewing at Season 8.5's launch. If plans change, we'll be sure to let you know.
Sorry, I'm already happily engaged and getting married this July :P
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
BranFlakes, congratulations! I hope that you'll take a little time off for a honeymoon with your husband/wife. You deserve it (and so will he/she).
Calling it.
Post #137 - Beat ya!
Sadly - I'm thinking its probably Tim Russ. IMO the only thing more annoying than his cookie-cutter portrayal of a Vulcan would be . . . *drum roll* . . .
TUVIX!!! Ahh Nooooooooos!!!!!
Amanda Rodgers was mentioned by Tacofangs on Twitter.
More ships are good.
A new mission is good.
My priorities would have been different, and would have focused on Fed ship interiors to reflect the Origin bridge. But I am pleased to see the older episodes are getting a facelift to reflect current art trends in the game.
I don't need to look at your data to tell you that the hourly time-gated events shifted from extremely worthless to extremely valuable. The Multi-Phasic Event was a horrible idea because Data samples are still oversaturated in the game and they always will be until given a proper sink for them. Few people craft. Few people have the desire to craft. Fleet projects are easily filled by them and there are still more left.
There's no point in having the Multi-Phasic Event. Likewise with the Crafting event considering Crafting still exists in limbo for STO, with Cryptic having no idea what place it has in the game or long-term sustainability when the rep systems outclass it entirely.
The only valuable events are the Mirror Invasion because of the large amounts of dilithium to be gained, the Tour the Galaxy event because of the payout of energy credits, and the Bonus Marks event, for obvious reasons.
What does that data tell you? That we don't like some of the hourly events?
No. It tells you that systems in the game (data samples and crafting) are worthless until you decide what place they hold in the game, and Cryptic has unreasonable expectations for grinding marks and dilithium.
Despite the fact it took you guys this long to realize this 'data trend' was not temporary, I'm glad to see this removed and something more sensible replacing it.
This is a good thing, and you should feel good for doing it.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the dev team will passive-aggressively blame the players for not wanting to play in the Multi-Phasic or Crafting Events despite the fact both are relatively worthless in STO.
I also predict that in the dev blog covering the removal of the hourly events, that Cryptic will feign ignorance to not knowing players don't want to play in worthless time-gated events for worthless rewards that have an ambiguous existance in the current game, and they will also feign ignorance that players are "somehow" attracted to the events which make the grind less painful. Despite the fact this has been in the game for several months.
Anyone want to take bets on my predictions?
Congrats!
10 characters.
Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
Regarding the Trek actor coming into the game to reprise their role, my money is on Garrett Wang.
Commander, Starfleet Corps of Engineers • 7th Fleet
Commanding Officer, U.S.S. HEART OF OAK • NX-1759-B • Odyssey class Star Cruiser ( Lexington Tactical Configuration))
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Thank you, and congratulations!!!