Boldly Blow Up New Foes in Star Trek Online's "Ancient Enemies"

[vansau]

Boldly Blow Up New Foes in Star Trek Online's "Ancient Enemies"

​

The new season of Star Trek Online has a slew of new content, but its biggest addition is the new races for players to go to war with.

Cryptic Studios' new trailer for the "Season Two: Ancient Enemies" content update to <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Online-Pc/dp/B002673XJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1279912942&sr=8-1>Star Trek Online has hit the Web, giving players a look at what they can expect to see added to the space-oriented MMOG. Unsurprisingly, the game is set to feature new places to boldly go, and new races and new civilizations to meet and do mighty battle with.

What races qualify as "ancient enemies", anyway? No names are dropped, but one species looks like they're suffering from World of Warcraft envy thanks to their orc-like tusks, spiky shoulders, and chain-wrapped arms. The other race looks even more out of place, since they seem to be floating demonic torsos that can fly through space without the aid of a starship and ... uh ... hang around menacingly while they watch laser battles between different factions, I guess.

Season Two actually contains a huge amount of new content, aside from new enemy species. You can see a full list on the <a href=http://www.startrekonline.com/season_two>game's official site, but highlights include an increased level cap, new ranks, missions into fluid space to learn more about the Undine (AKA "<a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_8472>Species 8472"), and the introduction of minigames to the MMOG.

Source: <a href=http://www.joystiq.com/2010/07/23/star-trek-online-season-two-to-revive-some-ancient-enemies/#continued>Joystiq



Permalink

 

[Supernova2000]

Whoopdy-fecking-do, Cryptic Studios have added another sprinkling of tasty toppings to their turd cake!

Alwasy adding new stuff while stubbornly fixing fuck-all!

 

[Pariahwulfen]

Is it just me or do the fist ships shown look like the Vorlons from Babylon 5?

 

[kerkanka]

I've been testing this update for a few days now and it's very impressive. The new areas are looking beautiful and the diplomatic content is very deep, interesting, varied and best of all: it's fun.
The forshadowing of new villains (which are going to be a great surprise to trek fans) is exceptionally well done too.
Also, the new areas they've adding have far better transitions between zones: you don't get yanked out by the loading screen anywhere near as often: i hope they retro-fit this to the existing areas.
They've really focused on getting what the community has asked for in and they have got a lot of it done, it's still not perfect, but the amount of GREAT quality stuff in this update is impressive.

 

[Jared]

Species 8472...now that could be intresting! Wouldnt mind having a round against them to be sure

 

[kerkanka]

Species 8472...now that could be intresting! Wouldnt mind having a round against them to be sure

In this update you even get to go into fluidic space, with the intent of forming a peace with them... but we can all guess how that turns out

 

[Bretty]

I liked this game for two days. 8)

 

[dcolt]

5 months after release? Is that normal for mmorpgs?

 

[Starke]

Is it just me or do the fist ships shown look like the Vorlons from Babylon 5?

Kinda, they're Species 8472 ships, and they looked like that in Voyager.

Anyway, the new enemies are the Fek'ihr (or Fek'lhr (I'm not sure on the spelling)), basically they're the Klingon equivalent to demons.

 

[kerkanka]

Is it just me or do the fist ships shown look like the Vorlons from Babylon 5?

Kinda, they're Species 8472 ships, and they looked like that in Voyager.

Anyway, the new enemies are the Fek'ihr (or Fek'lhr (I'm not sure on the spelling)), basically they're the Klingon equivalent to demons.

also the iconians for the federation side

 

[NapoleonWilson]

not gonna play till I can play as a proud citizen of the Dominion. I want to be Jem Hadar. And don't give me that, "the Dominion was disbanded" business. The Federation is soft and weak and probably did to the Dominon what the Allies did to Germany after WWI. The time is right for their rebirth.

 

[Starke]

not gonna play till I can play as a proud citizen of the Dominion. I want to be Jem Hadar. And don't give me that, "the Dominion was disbanded" business. The Federation is soft and weak and probably did to the Dominon what the Allies did to Germany after WWI. The time is right for their rebirth.

Dominion members will probably be in the 2nd faction update. Though, Jem'Hadar, Vorta and Changling will probably be rolled in with the Cardassians.

 

[kerkanka]

not gonna play till I can play as a proud citizen of the Dominion. I want to be Jem Hadar. And don't give me that, "the Dominion was disbanded" business. The Federation is soft and weak and probably did to the Dominon what the Allies did to Germany after WWI. The time is right for their rebirth.

they're a pretty major villain at high level, having said that: cryptic are looking for player input about the next faction to introduce: so go to their forums and tell them what you think in case you can't tell i love this game

 

[Starke]

I think the site just ate my last post, anyway:

EDIT: Nope, it didn't, it just confused the hell out of me. Apologies for the double post.

 

[vansau]

not gonna play till I can play as a proud citizen of the Dominion. I want to be Jem Hadar. And don't give me that, "the Dominion was disbanded" business. The Federation is soft and weak and probably did to the Dominon what the Allies did to Germany after WWI. The time is right for their rebirth.

You make me happy. Deep Space 9 is the only series I own, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside

 

[Rythe]

As much as I don't want to sound like a bitter, miserable person who just doesn't like this game, color me unenthused.

You see, I got into the Episode 1 content about a month ago and one mission was a painful, painful slog fest. The other mission had 4 notable bugs, including 2 that were completely game breaking. Once you hit the ground stage, both simply ceased being fun very, very quickly. This was shortly after figuring out they hadn't added any interesting fleet actions to the Captain area of the game and finding even more sloppy placement problems on exploration missions.

I don't particularly care that they're adding new content if the underlying game continues to be a buggy, half finished mess. The new content just seems like a patch to keep people going for a little longer. Until they fix all the bugs, flesh out their game past level 30, and revamp the tediously generic ground combat, I just don't care about new content for admirals (speaking as an admiral).

Add on to that the part where they seem to be trying to suck every last penny out of the player base and no, just no. You had to pay real money to respec a character last I checked, nevermind that the game's talent tree is a 100% uninspired way to lock yourself into a rut and/or screw up your character's build. A lot of the updates they seem to be adding in are little more than cosmetic purchasables, but then I haven't booted up the thing since shortly before the dreadnought class ships got added to the c-store.

Beyond the pretty spaceships and some genuinely fun space combat, this game is starting to feel more and more like a mediocre, pay-for-perks MMO that gets away with all of its flaws because the damn thing is otherwise free. Except it's still running on a monthly subscription model.

Why, STO? Why did you let me down so?

 

[Liebermann]

As much as I don't want to sound like a bitter, miserable person who just doesn't like this game, color me unenthused.

You see, I got into the Episode 1 content about a month ago and one mission was a painful, painful slog fest. The other mission had 4 notable bugs, including 2 that were completely game breaking. Once you hit the ground stage, both simply ceased being fun very, very quickly. This was shortly after figuring out they hadn't added any interesting fleet actions to the Captain area of the game and finding even more sloppy placement problems on exploration missions.

I don't particularly care that they're adding new content if the underlying game continues to be a buggy, half finished mess. The new content just seems like a patch to keep people going for a little longer. Until they fix all the bugs, flesh out their game past level 30, and revamp the tediously generic ground combat, I just don't care about new content for admirals (speaking as an admiral).

Add on to that the part where they seem to be trying to suck every last penny out of the player base and no, just no. You had to pay real money to respec a character last I checked, nevermind that the game's talent tree is a 100% uninspired way to lock yourself into a rut and/or screw up your character's build. A lot of the updates they seem to be adding in are little more than cosmetic purchasables, but then I haven't booted up the thing since shortly before the dreadnought class ships got added to the c-store.

Beyond the pretty spaceships and some genuinely fun space combat, this game is starting to feel more and more like a mediocre, pay-for-perks MMO that gets away with all of its flaws because the damn thing is otherwise free. Except it's still running on a monthly subscription model.

Why, STO? Why did you let me down so?

And with SUCH potential too

 

[kerkanka]

Rythe, i respect your opinion, but i want to correct some of the points that you've misunderstood:
You do not have to pay for a respec: you get a free one every level and you get ones when they make large changes to skills. You can also pay for one with in-game money: the c-store is only an option for those who don't want to wait for the other methods.
They have added a system where it will now highlight all the skills that affect each power so you can actually plan your skills build now instead of guessing.
The dreadnought class is a fourth type of ship, it was just released a few weeks earlier than the free versions you'll get for playing the game: game breaking for a while, yes: but in the next few days when this update comes out the free ships will be just as powerful so any advantage goes away.
A lot of the ground combat issues start from the fact that you can win by just sitting there pressing a button, but you can be far more effective by using all the small nuances that cryptic built in: it's actually the part of the game i find most enjoyable because of the depth you can acheive if you really look into it- i completely agree that it should encourage this type of play as the more common way of playing is boring and gets old fast.
That said, the rest is opinion and you're more than entitled to have it: i hope the change of dev team will make the game better and you'll be able to enjoy it in future.

 

[Rythe]

Fair enough about the respec, Kerkanka. See, I was told I would be given a token, but it never showed up anywhere I could find. I also missed the part where I had to go to a specific NPC in Sol just to do it. I was digging through the UI looking for any sign of the options, so lack of readily available information lead to that idea. However, I fully realize they finally have a system to show you what skills affect what. Doesn't change the fact that all said skills are a generic percent boost to certain classes of things that, in effect, narrow your options to a very limited number of fits or roles. This specialization gives you very little in return besides bigger numbers on what you already had. The tier 3 officer abilities don't count because they are also just bigger numbers on things you already had. Simply put, the talent tree doesn't expand a role you want to explore, it simply narrows your effective options. That's the opposite of what it should do.

The Dreadnought ship being in the C-Store was just an example of the severe turn towards pay-for-perks business model while still being a subscription game. What you said doesn't change that.

Look, I *know* all the nuances for ground combat. Okay, I haven't explored every ability out there because I'm not interested enough to go through all those motions, but I've seen most of them. I try to flank and stun and roll and expose/exploit and use cover and all that. The problem is it's *still* boring. Your toolkit is simply not that varied or interesting, so you quickly get into a routine that rarely changes beyond hiding more if you've managed to aggro a lot of pain. And yes, I've used stealth packs. At the end of the day, your character only has about 10 or 12 abilities (many of which are % buffs/debuffs) and 4 generic item slots. Let me put it this way: of all my 55 grades playing this game, I never once suddenly found myself in a bad situation that I managed to salvage because I pulled something awesome (for ground combat). If things take a turn for the worst, the outcomes are thus: You run away, you die, you do what you were doing and barely survive. That's *boring*.