New Escorts (Caitian, Ferasan,...)

kurumimorishita

New escorts incoming... http://www.arcgames.com/de/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10446283

nightken

1. ships look nice better log on a try to get some zen before the exchange spikes up.
2. I really hope the new heavy weapon thing means they will revist the dyson ships soon.

tarran61

I have to say I like the looks of them all, great job STO..

saurializard

I really like them and the upcoming heavy weapon slot for T6 raiders (my D4x is gonna be even deadlier, yay!).

Though, am I the only one who thinks they switched the Caitian and Ferasan ships? Because the second ship aesthetics look very similar to the Atrox' and stealth fighter's.

EDIT: it seems indeed the EN version of the blog switched the ships compared to the seemingly more accurate DE one.

EDIT 2 : And it's fixed now. Thanks, Kael!

bubblegirl2015

I hate cats...and the only that actually looks better is the romulan version but will pass this one.

antonine3258

English-translated link.

Some new stuff coming for T6 escorts!

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10445563-the-allied-escort-bundle!

shadowfirefly00

Interesting. Aside from the ships themselves, it will be interesting to see how this new weapon type works out. While I am sure there will be others, I am kind of surprised that we're only now in the STO timeline seeing a ship-scaled gauss gun... which, now that I think about it, is what it should be actually called. Or 'coilgun', given the wear-and-tear issues railguns would have. A quick bit of Google-fu will turn up several discussions on the differences between the two flavors of gauss gun, like this.

On another note... this also means that infantry-scaled versions really should exist in the usual range of flavors. Given their effectiveness against the Borg, you'd think TFO would have generated these long ago...

redvenge

Heavy Weapons Slot...

I wonder if they will change the Destabilized Plasma Torpedo from a universal console into a heavy weapon?

I wonder if integral "Lance" weapons will become "Heavy Weapons"?

mustrumridcully0

360° weapons tend to look awkward IMO. Will they have dedicated firing mounts on these ships for the heavy weapons?

And what will the Defiant's heavy weapon be? Canonically, it certainly isn't using rail guns, but the Quad Cannons are already regular weapons.

baddmoonrizin

Would've preferred to a T6 Caitian Atrox and Ferasan equivalent, but happy to see these cat escorts none the less.

nikeix

Maybe quads will be converted to heavies during the swap-over, or new Heavy quads will be introduced.

The interesting thing is cruisers (8 weapons) are categorically ruled out. The Scimitars and Vengeance also get passed over. Carriers are out (alas, poor Narcince, I guess I'll have to keep flinging mobulai frigates ). Seems like a lot of pilot ships are about to see a new lease on life.

Overall its an interesting answer to the prevalence of Cruisers Online. I think the only things I regularly fly that qualify are the TSAD and the Vorgon escort and the D4x. Adding Heavy weapons to those sounds pretty sexy, actually.

lordsteve1

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

360° weapons tend to look awkward IMO. Will they have dedicated firing mounts on these ships for the heavy weapons?

And what will the Defiant's heavy weapon be? Canonically, it certainly isn't using rail guns, but the Quad Cannons are already regular weapons.

Well the Defiant does have that nose-cone warhead last resort weapon.

Basically the whole nose flies off packed with torps and blow up.

seriousdave

Remember how long it took for secodary deflectors to become the norm? It's gonna be a loooong while till the old ships get these new weapons.

wakeroberts

Since there already is a Caitian ship in the game, I feel that it would have been better if another race was represented with this new addition. They could've done a Tellarite or Denobulan ship. Or even better, they could've made a Talarian escort. If and when that ship hits the Zstore, in the words of the Mighty Jingles, shut up and take my money.

questerius

Personally i am not awestruck by the art of the new escorts, but i suppose to each their own.
The heavy weapon slot can be very interesting, but time will have to tell.

redvenge

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

360° weapons tend to look awkward IMO. Will they have dedicated firing mounts on these ships for the heavy weapons?

And what will the Defiant's heavy weapon be? Canonically, it certainly isn't using rail guns, but the Quad Cannons are already regular weapons.

I'm guessing it will just get the slot and some "generic" Common-quality phaser-based Heavy Weapon. Similar to how Warp Core slots and Secondary Deflector slots gained "generic" Common-quality gear when they were first introduced.

novapolaris

I was really surprised to see the announcement, especially the bit about the new heavy weapon slots for escorts and raiders. And those ship designs are fantastic to boot! I'm really looking forward to when all this stuff goes live.

However, I'm wondering about something. Now that they'll be adding a new weapon slot type, with heavy weapons, would this make it possible for torpedoes/mines to get their own slot type eventually, as well?

postagepaid

Pics showing what I assume to be the rail gun make me think its a version of the phaser lance from the galaxy X and others.

Shame they went for an HB pencil rommie ship rather than trying a reman themed vessel or a bigger badder scorpion.

"However, in an upcoming release, many starships will be receiving this Heavy Weapons Slot. Tier 6 Raiders and all Tier 6 starships with a Tactical Commander seat, 7 weapons and 1 or fewer Hangar Bays will receive a Heavy Weapons Slot and access to a basic upgradeable Heavy Weapon."

Sounds like a more interesting option for myself.

jaredza

So for a current ship to get this heavy weapon slot added, it needs to have 7 weapons, and less than 2 hangar bays? So no carriers?

nightken

jaredza#2872 wrote: »

So for a current ship to get this heavy weapon slot added, it needs to have 7 weapons, and less than 2 hangar bays? So no carriers?

no carriers. heavy weapons seem to be a smaller ship thing and carriers are very much a big ship type. on the brightside they may be taking another try at making carrier pets work, so carriers may be getting a buff soon any way.

tmrrc

jaredza#2872 wrote: »

So for a current ship to get this heavy weapon slot added, it needs to have 7 weapons, and less than 2 hangar bays? So no carriers?

That's what it sounds like to me so far. By that definition, sounds like my Vorgon Xyfius will get the slot, as well as this last years winter ship.

nightken

tmrrc#4046 wrote: »

jaredza#2872 wrote: »

So for a current ship to get this heavy weapon slot added, it needs to have 7 weapons, and less than 2 hangar bays? So no carriers?

That's what it sounds like to me so far. By that definition, sounds like my Vorgon Xyfius will get the slot, as well as this last years winter ship.

actually if I'm reading the blog right the breen warship will not, too many weapons. next years, assuming their updating the raider which I can't see why they wouldn't be, will.

jaredza

tmrrc#4046 wrote: »

jaredza#2872 wrote: »

So for a current ship to get this heavy weapon slot added, it needs to have 7 weapons, and less than 2 hangar bays? So no carriers?

That's what it sounds like to me so far. By that definition, sounds like my Vorgon Xyfius will get the slot, as well as this last years winter ship.

Yes, it does sound like that, and I use one of each of those on Alts, although I don't play them very often. Would be cool to have a heavy 360 degree firing weapong on my Vonph carrier though, since it's so slow to turn something that can hit from any direction would be awesome, but 2 hangar bays rules it out.

postagepaid

I'm actually a bit surprised they're including the single bay ships at all.

Not found the vonph to be all that barge like but that may be down to my choice of consoles and build as I don't go the dps junkies cookie cutter route on any of my ships or captains.

rmy1081

postagepaid wrote: »

I'm actually a bit surprised they're including the single bay ships at all.

Not found the vonph to be all that barge like but that may be down to my choice of consoles and build as I don't go the dps junkies cookie cutter route on any of my ships or captains.

It's single bays with only 7 weapons and commander tac, so not all single bays will be getting the heavy weapons.

szim

I'm surprised they're adding a heavy weapon slot to escorts. In my opinion this would make much more sense on a heavy cruiser or dreadnought (upgradeable spinal phaser lance!), maybe even tied to an engineering career. That would not only make engineering chars more interesting but also bring them up on par with tactical and science captains.

markhawkman

postagepaid wrote: »

Shame they went for an HB pencil rommie ship rather than trying a reman themed vessel or a bigger badder scorpion.

>_> what makes you think it's ISN'T Reman? It def doesn't look Romulan. It has the same sort of ugly as the original Scimitar.

nightken

szim wrote: »

I'm surprised they're adding a heavy weapon slot to escorts. In my opinion this would make much more sense on a heavy cruiser or dreadnought (upgradeable spinal phaser lance!), maybe even tied to an engineering career. That would not only make engineering chars more interesting but also bring them up on par with tactical and science captains.

my guess their trying to generate interest in escorts and raiders for the next spec. which I'm betting is a a raider focused one.

asuran14

Also it is even stated to be a Reman ship, and not a romulan ship. I had hoped that we might see them add a caitian/Ferasan like race given t the romulan faction. An hoping that we see them kick out a tier six atrox update that also gives access to a Ferasan counterpart that is either heavily science or engineering boff-layout wise, while also allowing both ships to be claimed by either side if you own both ships.

baddmoonrizin

asuran14 wrote: »

Also it is even stated to be a Reman ship, and not a romulan ship. I had hoped that we might see them add a caitian/Ferasan like race given t the romulan faction. An hoping that we see them kick out a tier six atrox update that also gives access to a Ferasan counterpart that is either heavily science or engineering boff-layout wise, while also allowing both ships to be claimed by either side if you own both ships.

You're right! I totally missed the Reman reference.

I'd love to see a cross-faction T6 Atrox with Caitian and Ferasan skins.

saurializard

asuran14 wrote: »

Also it is even stated to be a Reman ship, and not a romulan ship.

It was added very recently in an update because at first, it was only "Hathos Warbird" and the Ferasan and Caitian escorts images were switched.

Also, it's kinda funny: the Scimitar's construction was hidden, mostly made with what they could find and only known from Reman slaves under Shinzon, yet it was a huge, devastating ship with an advanced cloak.
And now, the Reman are free, respected and given funds and shipyards by the Alliance, yet they only make a tiny escort. With what they could do in Nemesis, I'd have expected them to build a Super Star Destroyer-like ship that'd put the Narada to shame.