I like the revised sector update, looks so much better and finally makes quantum slip stream worth its value on certain ships.
Issues I noticed:
- The background noise resets when changing from block to block and the sound level and frequency keeps on increasing (not too much just noticeably)
- The waypoints keep you near the bottom of the map and not directly to the point of interest
- The area where you can enter an active zone needs to be increased for some things such as the Iconian gateway to the Delta Quadrant since it is very small
- The zoom out on the ship is too limited and causes graphical issues such as the ship being very dark, being able to zoom into the ship (already addressed by others)
We are still missing some FX and there will be more work done on the Star materials, so they may improve a bit, but I keep hearing people saying they turn off bloom, but then wonder why the stars are just big spheres. . .
people turn bloom off because its too high thru out the game. Like I said in another thread, a surevey I did yesterday, anyone who knew they could adjust bloom had it set between 20-50%
I have to be honest, for a year in this game I thought yall had interns doing the graphics, then someone suggested I turn bloom down and the no more melting suns or completely blown out graphics.
Likely people on tribble have forgotten how bad the default 100% is.
Without bloom turned down, the new suns look more like lava lamps to me, big blobs merging together
I'm finding it difficult to adjust to the bloom settings which flicker on max seemingly depending on what camera angle you look at things like doff nebulas etc. There only seems to be a low med high toggle, vs a percentage bar. Plus the blooms pops in/out too quickly when passing systems.
I actually thought planetary scale was quite good. They seemed to get bigger the closer I was too them, and vice versa.
I hope there is still time to do an art pass on some locations. For instance, Starbase 39 has that broken planet 3d element, but it is very dark, no starbase is visible and it just seems confusing.
SOL being in the Beta quadrant just feels wrong. I assume it was for gameplay reasons though.
Also perhaps the beta quadrant map outer sector coloration should reflect the nearest power bloc. It seems it is all blue, which feels weird at the Klingon Empire edge of the map, and the two Romulan edges.
I had the opportunity to engage in some conflict DSE which had elachi en route to raid a planet. I joined after 1 player had already engaged, so no dialogue short of the UI bar description - but part way through there was a mission BO popup with a Klingon portrait which just read "..."
Can we get a fix for the scanning minigame? I noticed it was still bugged when scanning a comet. There are two wavelengths showing (long time bug). A few different patterns would be welcome given this essentially being a mini-exploration featurette.
We are still missing some FX and there will be more work done on the Star materials, so they may improve a bit, but I keep hearing people saying they turn off bloom, but then wonder why the stars are just big spheres. . .
My Bloom is on and I'm still getting the giant colored ball stars even at 500%. Looks just like what Longasc has below. They look great at range. It is what one would expect for a star shaded by the computer so you don't go blind though.
This said, my bloom is at 20%. Nebulae on Holodeck show nicely this way, and they also do so on Tribble. The new suns are glowing too bright and when entering the system they are just balls without glow. See screenshots.
The same. Perhaps they didn't update when I cranked it to 500%. I ran the test on New Romulus' star.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
I'd actually really like it if the stars looked more like that in the new game space. Though that's not really what a star looks like up close, that's done through filters because it's how we think they look thanks to our atmosphere. For instance our own sun, which most of us think of as a yellow/orange star is actually a large white ball when viewed from space.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
I'd actually really like it if the stars looked more like that in the new game space. Though that's not really what a star looks like up close, that's done through filters because it's how we think they look thanks to our atmosphere. For instance our own sun, which most of us think of as a yellow/orange star is actually a large white ball when viewed from space.
Well yes and no. That's what stars look like when you dim the blinding shine. A raging storm of beautiful fire. It's called yellow scientifically because that's what its spectral class is. When viewed through a prism (or our atmosphere) it produces more yellow light than anything else.
In any event EXACTLY. That's what a star would look like when viewed through the sensors of a Starfleet vessel (and probably any other for that matter). If I were the guy programming the view screen it would automatically tint the star to the appropriate technical color for ease of differentiation. Otherwise all stars above red and orange dying ones would be for the most part white.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Well yes and no. That's what stars look like when you dim the blinding shine. A raging storm of beautiful fire. It's called yellow scientifically because that's what its spectral class is. When viewed through a prism (or our atmosphere) it produces more yellow light than anything else.
In any event EXACTLY. That's what a star would look like when viewed through the sensors of a Starfleet vessel (and probably any other for that matter). If I were the guy programming the view screen it would automatically tint the star to the appropriate technical color for ease of differentiation. Otherwise all stars above red and orange dying ones would be for the most part white.
That's not completely correct. Our star is spectral type G (G2 if you want to be precise), which is smack bang in the middle of the white area of the spectral classifications. The reason we call it yellow is because the conventional colour description for type G stars is yellow (conventional colours are based on what the star would look like to the Human eye through Earth's atmosphere). However, our sun actually emits all colours mixed together, which would make it appear white to the Human eye if viewed from space. If you see any unfiltered pictures taken in space you can clearly see this.
It's also a misconception that our sun's output in visible light peaks in the yellow spectrum, it actually peaks in the green spectrum.
The reason it appears yellow/orange to us is because our atmosphere scatters the light waves. Colours toward the blue end of the spectrum have shorter wave lengths than colours toward the red end of the spectrum, so most of those are scattered into the atmosphere. This is the reason the sky is blue. Also, during sunset or sunrise the light waves have to pass through more of the atmosphere to reach us so even more of the shorter wave lenghts are scattered, this is why sunsets and sun rises appear more red.
Sorry, I felt the need for detail haha.
All of that said... Science fiction, and even current world astronomers, usually use filters to make stars look more like we would perceive them with our eyes through Earth's atmosphere. Star Trek was a big fan of stars looking like the image you posted and I would like to see that in game. Even though less realistic, it does fit more with what we perceive stars to look like and they are a little more interesting than the blinding super hot light emitters we'd actually see (which is essentially what we currently have in game on Tribble).
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
That's not completely correct. Our star is spectral type G (G2 if you want to be precise), which is smack bang in the middle of the white area of the spectral classifications. The reason we call it yellow is because the conventional colour description for type G stars is yellow (conventional colours are based on what the star would look like to the Human eye through Earth's atmosphere). However, our sun actually emits all colours mixed together, which would make it appear white to the Human eye if viewed from space. If you see any unfiltered pictures taken in space you can clearly see this.
It's also a misconception that our sun's output in visible light peaks in the yellow spectrum, it actually peaks in the green spectrum.
The reason it appears yellow/orange to us is because our atmosphere scatters the light waves. Colours toward the blue end of the spectrum have shorter wave lengths than colours toward the red end of the spectrum, so most of those are scattered into the atmosphere. This is the reason the sky is blue. Also, during sunset or sunrise the light waves have to pass through more of the atmosphere to reach us so even more of the shorter wave lenghts are scattered, this is why sunsets and sun rises appear more red.
Of course in space it would appear white, it's too bright to appear as anything else. Heck most of the time in the sky from Earth it's white. I would never color it white under any circumstances however (or green). Like I said. If I was programming the the ships viewscreen display I would align it with the technical classification rather than the photorealistic visual.
All of that said... Science fiction, and even current world astronomers, usually use filters to make stars look more like we would perceive them with our eyes through Earth's atmosphere. Star Trek was a big fan of stars looking like the image you posted and I would like to see that in game. Even though less realistic, it does fit more with what we perceive stars to look like and they are a little more interesting than the blinding super hot light emitters we'd actually see (which is essentially what we currently have in game on Tribble).
Of course they do. One of the first things you're told as a child is don't stare at the sun. If you're going to look at the sun then it has to have a filter or overlay otherwise it's just a featureless blinding light that you mentioned.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Since walls will continue to exist between each of the quadrant maps, resolving any canon conflict with placement of Sol System needn't be over-simplified by picking one quadrant map or the other.
Place Sol System on both.
Keep it where it is on the Beta Map. Now place it again. On the Alpha map. Mechanically, this is now two doors to the Sol System map. Which always spawn multiple instances anyway. Now place one dot on the Galaxy map, Right on the quadrant line as depicted in Star Charts. TA-DA! Canon is maintained and all was right with the world.
(/\) Exploring Star Trek Online Since July 2008 (/\)
Since walls will continue to exist between each of the quadrant maps, resolving any canon conflict with placement of Sol System needn't be over-simplified by picking one quadrant map or the other.
Place Sol System on both.
Keep it where it is on the Alpha Map. Now place it again. On the Beta map. Mechanically, this is now two doors to the Sol System map. Which always spawn multiple instances anyway. Now place one dot on the Galaxy map, Right on the quadrant line as depicted in Star Charts. TA-DA! Canon is maintained and all was right with the world.
That whould be possible and when you want to warp out to sector space from sol you get the option to choose wich side
but on the other hand the questing system whould get confused with having to 2 door leading to 1 system
You know, I had this nagging suspicion you'd comment on my choice to leave the V out, though I did that because it refers to it being main-sequence which about 90% of the stars we've observed in the universe are.
I still disagree on that point. The classification is G, it's just that the common colour description for Class G stars is yellow, though they are not actually yellow. Though throughout history people have used yellow/gold to depict the sun. Even ancient Egyptians used gold to represent the sun. It's just not scientifically correct.
But I'm happy to go back on topic since we more or less agree that more detailed suns would be better from a game point of view.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Well I hope the change to Sector Space means that the Omega Impulse Engine's 100% cool down on Slipstream will get fixed to actually give a cool down on Slipstream.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
supposedly its green spectrum, supposedly it is G type. whatever, we are not even close to understanding our universe and you got two supposed know it alls who are arguing about something that in a few hundred years will be elementary grade material for 5 year old kids or something to that effect. does it really matter? leave it to the untrained for sc-fi purposes as it is meant to be for entertainment purposes, it is yellow/gold.
i was half expecting to see a few updates to sector space with new tribble patch notes as of a few days ago, was hoping that with the new ep he may change a few things, so far i have not seen anything that would show the ep doing anything new to the previous one.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
supposedly its green spectrum, supposedly it is G type. whatever, we are not even close to understanding our universe and you got two supposed know it alls who are arguing about something that in a few hundred years will be elementary grade material for 5 year old kids or something to that effect. does it really matter? leave it to the untrained for sc-fi purposes as it is meant to be for entertainment purposes, it is yellow/gold.
We weren't arguing, we were having a discussion. Just because two people disagree doesn't mean they are arguing. :P
i was half expecting to see a few updates to sector space with new tribble patch notes as of a few days ago, was hoping that with the new ep he may change a few things, so far i have not seen anything that would show the ep doing anything new to the previous one.
What are you on about? This Tribble patch was all about the sector space update...
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Since walls will continue to exist between each of the quadrant maps, resolving any canon conflict with placement of Sol System needn't be over-simplified by picking one quadrant map or the other.
Place Sol System on both.
Keep it where it is on the Beta Map. Now place it again. On the Alpha map. Mechanically, this is now two doors to the Sol System map. Which always spawn multiple instances anyway. Now place one dot on the Galaxy map, Right on the quadrant line as depicted in Star Charts. TA-DA! Canon is maintained and all was right with the world.
That's what I say, it would be the same effective thing as the gateway to Battlegroup Omega. You have one entrance in Gamma Orionis and one in Sirius and both lead to the same "system" map.
The only difference on the Sol System - Earth Orbit map is that you have one more button. Beam to Starfleet Academy, Dock at Spacedock, Exit to the Alpha Quadrant or Exit to the Beta Quadrant. You might just disable the Alpha Quadrant until the appropriate part of the story I guess. Funny enough, technically according to Star Charts and the general canon, the Sol Sector is in the Alpha Quadrant (up on the Galactic plane and towards the core.) yet by the game's set up your first mission goes to the Beta Quadrant making it more logical to place the Sol System in the Beta Quadrant. Even though we fly into the Andorian Sector (which is above the Vulcan Sector).
You know, I had this nagging suspicion you'd comment on my choice to leave the V out, though I did that because it refers to it being main-sequence which about 90% of the stars we've observed in the universe are.
I still disagree on that point. The classification is G, it's just that the common colour description for Class G stars is yellow, though they are not actually yellow. Though throughout history people have used yellow/gold to depict the sun. Even ancient Egyptians used gold to represent the sun. It's just not scientifically correct.
But I'm happy to go back on topic since we more or less agree that more detailed suns would be better from a game point of view.
Done. Let us stop. With the ridiculous arguments over that blue and black dress this weekend this debate over a minor detail of something we agree on is increasingly absurd.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
We are still missing some FX and there will be more work done on the Star materials, so they may improve a bit, but I keep hearing people saying they turn off bloom, but then wonder why the stars are just big spheres. . .
people turn bloom off because its too high thru out the game. Like I said in another thread, a surevey I did yesterday, anyone who knew they could adjust bloom had it set between 20-50%
I have bloom intensity set to 20%. Another reason people turn off bloom is that the game has had bloom problems in the past. It took six months to fix this bug:
I reported it on Tribble before Season 9, and it wasn't fixed until Delta Rising. There's also the overly bright bloom effect around the boss in Klingon Scout Force, but I guess that doesn't matter since nobody plays that anymore. Users will turn off bloom if it makes things hard to see. You can't really blame them for that, especially when it takes so long to fix the bugs. The fix for the bloom bug from Season 9 wasn't even mentioned in a patch note, so how are users supposed to know to turn bloom back on?
I tried to get on tribble, I have a windows 8.1 os with 64bit, every time the game crashes including graphic driver, only happens on tribble
need help, fast
But I'm happy to go back on topic since we more or less agree that more detailed suns would be better from a game point of view.
Pursuant to this conversation when I got on today, I took a closer look at the stars.
I don't know if the in-system level sector space view is actually supposed to have "shine" anymore. Looking at it, there are moving swirls on the surface of the stars. I'm thinking this is the first draft version and maybe the detail we were thinking of will come later. In sector level space the stars all shine brightly and it's really cool watching them compact down to points of light. It has shades of the original series when the planet would shrink as the Enterprise boosted out of orbit. Overall though for the initial offering this looks really good and thanks Taco and company.
In other news, I can't craft any Bridge officer school equipment on my tribble character Ori@Amahino. There's nothing in the BOFF skill crafting school even though she's level 53.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Got on to tribble for an hour the other day and flew around everywhere. I love it! I know its at its limit, but I still wish it could be a little bit bigger. I also like how deep space encounters were re-made. They seem to level with you almost, but the loot rewards are still low level.
Got on to tribble for an hour the other day and flew around everywhere. I love it! I know its at its limit, but I still wish it could be a little bit bigger. I also like how deep space encounters were re-made. They seem to level with you almost, but the loot rewards are still low level.
The crafting mats added in is a nice little addition even if they're only uncommons. That will give lower level players the chance to grab up the mats for PADDs to captain train their boffs.
I'm also eager about the additions to the map going forward.
For instance it appears that in the near future we're going to see Krenim space so that's a new sector block of the Delta Quadrant. And there are now unused portions of the Alpha Quadrant. LOTS of potential for expansion. The table is set.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Comments
Issues I noticed:
- The background noise resets when changing from block to block and the sound level and frequency keeps on increasing (not too much just noticeably)
- The waypoints keep you near the bottom of the map and not directly to the point of interest
- The area where you can enter an active zone needs to be increased for some things such as the Iconian gateway to the Delta Quadrant since it is very small
- The zoom out on the ship is too limited and causes graphical issues such as the ship being very dark, being able to zoom into the ship (already addressed by others)
people turn bloom off because its too high thru out the game. Like I said in another thread, a surevey I did yesterday, anyone who knew they could adjust bloom had it set between 20-50%
I have to be honest, for a year in this game I thought yall had interns doing the graphics, then someone suggested I turn bloom down and the no more melting suns or completely blown out graphics.
Likely people on tribble have forgotten how bad the default 100% is.
Without bloom turned down, the new suns look more like lava lamps to me, big blobs merging together
I actually thought planetary scale was quite good. They seemed to get bigger the closer I was too them, and vice versa.
I hope there is still time to do an art pass on some locations. For instance, Starbase 39 has that broken planet 3d element, but it is very dark, no starbase is visible and it just seems confusing.
SOL being in the Beta quadrant just feels wrong. I assume it was for gameplay reasons though.
Also perhaps the beta quadrant map outer sector coloration should reflect the nearest power bloc. It seems it is all blue, which feels weird at the Klingon Empire edge of the map, and the two Romulan edges.
I had the opportunity to engage in some conflict DSE which had elachi en route to raid a planet. I joined after 1 player had already engaged, so no dialogue short of the UI bar description - but part way through there was a mission BO popup with a Klingon portrait which just read "..."
Can we get a fix for the scanning minigame? I noticed it was still bugged when scanning a comet. There are two wavelengths showing (long time bug). A few different patterns would be welcome given this essentially being a mini-exploration featurette.
My Bloom is on and I'm still getting the giant colored ball stars even at 500%. Looks just like what Longasc has below. They look great at range. It is what one would expect for a star shaded by the computer so you don't go blind though.
With the stars at that size are you guys thinking about making them look like actual stars up close. Like this....
http://www.redicecreations.com/ul_img/2658sun.jpg
Hang on...TACO?????? Are you working on a weekend??? :eek: The same. Perhaps they didn't update when I cranked it to 500%. I ran the test on New Romulus' star.
Mine is 6622 Mb. :eek:
BTW: LOVE the new galaxy map!
:cool:
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
I'd actually really like it if the stars looked more like that in the new game space. Though that's not really what a star looks like up close, that's done through filters because it's how we think they look thanks to our atmosphere. For instance our own sun, which most of us think of as a yellow/orange star is actually a large white ball when viewed from space.
Well yes and no. That's what stars look like when you dim the blinding shine. A raging storm of beautiful fire. It's called yellow scientifically because that's what its spectral class is. When viewed through a prism (or our atmosphere) it produces more yellow light than anything else.
In any event EXACTLY. That's what a star would look like when viewed through the sensors of a Starfleet vessel (and probably any other for that matter). If I were the guy programming the view screen it would automatically tint the star to the appropriate technical color for ease of differentiation. Otherwise all stars above red and orange dying ones would be for the most part white.
That's not completely correct. Our star is spectral type G (G2 if you want to be precise), which is smack bang in the middle of the white area of the spectral classifications. The reason we call it yellow is because the conventional colour description for type G stars is yellow (conventional colours are based on what the star would look like to the Human eye through Earth's atmosphere). However, our sun actually emits all colours mixed together, which would make it appear white to the Human eye if viewed from space. If you see any unfiltered pictures taken in space you can clearly see this.
Image courtesy of NASA
It's also a misconception that our sun's output in visible light peaks in the yellow spectrum, it actually peaks in the green spectrum.
The reason it appears yellow/orange to us is because our atmosphere scatters the light waves. Colours toward the blue end of the spectrum have shorter wave lengths than colours toward the red end of the spectrum, so most of those are scattered into the atmosphere. This is the reason the sky is blue. Also, during sunset or sunrise the light waves have to pass through more of the atmosphere to reach us so even more of the shorter wave lenghts are scattered, this is why sunsets and sun rises appear more red.
Sorry, I felt the need for detail haha.
All of that said... Science fiction, and even current world astronomers, usually use filters to make stars look more like we would perceive them with our eyes through Earth's atmosphere. Star Trek was a big fan of stars looking like the image you posted and I would like to see that in game. Even though less realistic, it does fit more with what we perceive stars to look like and they are a little more interesting than the blinding super hot light emitters we'd actually see (which is essentially what we currently have in game on Tribble).
If I wanted to be specific I would've said G2V.
The classification is still yellow.
Of course in space it would appear white, it's too bright to appear as anything else. Heck most of the time in the sky from Earth it's white. I would never color it white under any circumstances however (or green). Like I said. If I was programming the the ships viewscreen display I would align it with the technical classification rather than the photorealistic visual.
Of course they do. One of the first things you're told as a child is don't stare at the sun. If you're going to look at the sun then it has to have a filter or overlay otherwise it's just a featureless blinding light that you mentioned.
Place Sol System on both.
Keep it where it is on the Beta Map. Now place it again. On the Alpha map. Mechanically, this is now two doors to the Sol System map. Which always spawn multiple instances anyway. Now place one dot on the Galaxy map, Right on the quadrant line as depicted in Star Charts. TA-DA! Canon is maintained and all was right with the world.
That whould be possible and when you want to warp out to sector space from sol you get the option to choose wich side
but on the other hand the questing system whould get confused with having to 2 door leading to 1 system
So if our ship takes up 3/4ths of the screen on max zoom, that is a bug, right?
You know, I had this nagging suspicion you'd comment on my choice to leave the V out, though I did that because it refers to it being main-sequence which about 90% of the stars we've observed in the universe are.
I still disagree on that point. The classification is G, it's just that the common colour description for Class G stars is yellow, though they are not actually yellow. Though throughout history people have used yellow/gold to depict the sun. Even ancient Egyptians used gold to represent the sun. It's just not scientifically correct.
But I'm happy to go back on topic since we more or less agree that more detailed suns would be better from a game point of view.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
i was half expecting to see a few updates to sector space with new tribble patch notes as of a few days ago, was hoping that with the new ep he may change a few things, so far i have not seen anything that would show the ep doing anything new to the previous one.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
We weren't arguing, we were having a discussion. Just because two people disagree doesn't mean they are arguing. :P
What are you on about? This Tribble patch was all about the sector space update...
The only difference on the Sol System - Earth Orbit map is that you have one more button. Beam to Starfleet Academy, Dock at Spacedock, Exit to the Alpha Quadrant or Exit to the Beta Quadrant. You might just disable the Alpha Quadrant until the appropriate part of the story I guess. Funny enough, technically according to Star Charts and the general canon, the Sol Sector is in the Alpha Quadrant (up on the Galactic plane and towards the core.) yet by the game's set up your first mission goes to the Beta Quadrant making it more logical to place the Sol System in the Beta Quadrant. Even though we fly into the Andorian Sector (which is above the Vulcan Sector).
Done. Let us stop. With the ridiculous arguments over that blue and black dress this weekend this debate over a minor detail of something we agree on is increasingly absurd.
I have bloom intensity set to 20%. Another reason people turn off bloom is that the game has had bloom problems in the past. It took six months to fix this bug:
Excessive bloom since Season 9
I reported it on Tribble before Season 9, and it wasn't fixed until Delta Rising. There's also the overly bright bloom effect around the boss in Klingon Scout Force, but I guess that doesn't matter since nobody plays that anymore. Users will turn off bloom if it makes things hard to see. You can't really blame them for that, especially when it takes so long to fix the bugs. The fix for the bloom bug from Season 9 wasn't even mentioned in a patch note, so how are users supposed to know to turn bloom back on?
need help, fast
Pursuant to this conversation when I got on today, I took a closer look at the stars.
I don't know if the in-system level sector space view is actually supposed to have "shine" anymore. Looking at it, there are moving swirls on the surface of the stars. I'm thinking this is the first draft version and maybe the detail we were thinking of will come later. In sector level space the stars all shine brightly and it's really cool watching them compact down to points of light. It has shades of the original series when the planet would shrink as the Enterprise boosted out of orbit. Overall though for the initial offering this looks really good and thanks Taco and company.
In other news, I can't craft any Bridge officer school equipment on my tribble character Ori@Amahino. There's nothing in the BOFF skill crafting school even though she's level 53.
The crafting mats added in is a nice little addition even if they're only uncommons. That will give lower level players the chance to grab up the mats for PADDs to captain train their boffs.
I'm also eager about the additions to the map going forward.
For instance it appears that in the near future we're going to see Krenim space so that's a new sector block of the Delta Quadrant. And there are now unused portions of the Alpha Quadrant. LOTS of potential for expansion. The table is set.