Star Trek Online Highlights the Romulan Apocalypse

[Fanghawk]

Star Trek Online Highlights the Romulan Apocalypse

A new Star Trek Online expansion introduces playable Romulans, Warbirds, and the fallout of a homeworld's destruction.

The Star Trek reboot may have wiped its slate clean with a conveniently-placed parallel timeline, but that doesn't mean the old universe had no stories left to tell. In fact, the latest film hinted at a major development for pre-Abrams Trek: a 24th Century disaster that completely destroyed Romulus and Remus, central planets of the Romulan Empire. The new Star Trek films can't really explore the implications of a Romulan apocalypse since technically it never happened in the new timeline. Still, the premise holds merit, so fans will get the chance to play through the disaster's fallout in an upcoming expansion for Star Trek Online.

Star Trek Online: Legacy of Romulus will be the first major expansion for the free-to-play MMO, adding Romulans as a playable faction and Warbird Starships to the game's available spacecraft. Players will take part in a Romulan-exclusive story campaign where captains discover that their oppressive government may be responsible for Romulus's destruction. The expansion also sees the return of <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Crosby>Star Trek: TNG actor and Trekkies host Denise Crosby, who will be acting as the half-human, half-Romulan Empress Sela.

Star Trek Online <a href=http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-trek-online>had a shaky start during its first year, but seems to have found solid footing as a free-to-play title. Cryptic Entertainment has since developed seven "seasons" of additional content, with this expansion looking to be the largest in scope. Ferengi readers will also be glad to hear that <a href=http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=8703331&postcount=22>Legacy of Romulus is completely free, and can be downloaded just like any other update. Free or not, fans have been looking forward to playable Romulans for some time now, so hopefully the expansion won't disappoint.

Star Trek Online: Legacy of Romulus will launch on May 21, 2013.

Source: <a href=http://sto.perfectworld.com/legacyofromulus>Legacy of Romulus

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[mattaui]

I've really been enjoying my time in STO. It's got one of the least offensive F2P implementations out there, unless you just can't stand the idea of running across a lockbox now and then. The feature episode content model might have ceased, but there's still a whole lot of it there for anyone to play through, and you've got access to all of it right out of the gate.

 

[Zipa]

Lets hope that Cryptic/PWE support this new faction in the game better than they have the KDF (Klingon Defence Force) over the last 3 years.

 

[jollybarracuda]

It seems like a lot of these once lost-cause F2P MMOs are actually starting to carve out their own niche and gain some real footing in the market, it's actually really nice to see. I really wanted to enjoy ST:O a lot more than I did, which doesnt mean i didnt like it, it just got a bit tedious for me, dealing with the wonky interface and stuff. I never really, completely understood exactly how to handle questing. Like...some quests were called in, others were gained from talking to people...but then others were just kind of...given to you? I don't know, maybe i'll redownload it again (for the third time) and give it another chance, because the space battles were definitely really fun.

 

[Worgen]

I didn't really like the ground combat but the space combat was allot of fun. Tempting to reinstall.

 

[Fanghawk]

The Star Trek reboot may have wiped its slate clean with a conveniently-placed parallel timeline, but that doesn't mean the old universe had no stories left to tell. In fact, the latest film hinted at a major development for pre-Abrams Trek: a 24th Century disaster that completely destroyed Romulus and Remus, central planets of the Romulan Empire. The new Star Trek films can't really explore the implications of a Romulan apocalypse since technically it never happened in the new timeline.

Nitpick;

Its not that it never happened. It did happen, thats why the Romulan ship went back in time, it just hasnt happened yet in the new timeline because we are still back during the time of Kirk.

If you think about it, it is almost guaranteed to happen again, because the only ones that seemed willing to help the Romulans when their sun was going nova were the Vulcans, who are now scattered to the wind and knowing the Romulans are the reason why.

Depends on what caused it. If it's caused by an intelligent race, the events causing it may have completely changed. Even "natural" causes may be altered because everything's fluid now.

Except for Star Trek: Enterprise, which is still canon across two timelines.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Oh wow.

I remember this as a quickly failing MMO. Now they're actually fulfilling promises and releasing expansions.

The dev team has come a long way.

I'm constantly surprised every time I log on just how busy it remains. I mean, I'm listed as a 1200 or 1300 day veteran or something just for having a lifetime sub...

Which doesn't mean much for me personally since I barely play it, but it does show it's been going strong with no obvious signs of faltering just yet for more than 3 years...

As much as it might've looked as though it was going to fail, it doesn't look that way if you log on...

 

[LordMonty]

Enjoy this mmo a lot and its free to play nature really works for me. Recomend it to everyone for the character creator alone(oddly its probally better that neverwinter's - cryptic's new mmo) its easy gonig laid back fun. Ground combat is is a bit iffy but space is very fun. This is a free to play model EA need to look at some time as pretty sure there star wars mmo would do better for it.

 

[Fapmaster5000]

Depends on what caused it. If it's caused by an intelligent race, the events causing it may have completely changed. Even "natural" causes may be altered because everything's fluid now.

Except for Star Trek: Enterprise, which is still canon across two timelines.

... and that is a crime beyond our comprehension.

 

[thiosk]

Ok, I had to look this shit up because I had no idea anything related to roman (ahem, romulan) lore.

ROMULANS ARE VULCANS? What the hell. They only colonized Romulus and Remus in AD 400.

Also, my research showed that these are klingons.

Spoiler

Klingons

 

[DarkArk]

Except for Star Trek: Enterprise, which is still canon across two timelines.

So is most of First Contact as well. I'm going to try and not think about that one too hard.

Also I never liked the whole destroyed Romulus thing. Maybe because they were always my favorite Trek faction.

 

[saintdane05]

Ok, I had to look this shit up because I had no idea anything related to roman (ahem, romulan) lore.

ROMULANS ARE VULCANS? What the hell. They only colonized Romulus and Remus in AD 400.

Also, my research showed that these are klingons.

Spoiler

Klingons

They are... kind of...
In the year 2154, the Klingons gained access to the genetic material of Human Augments and tried to adapt this genetic engineering to improve themselves. The test subjects did gain increased strength and intelligence, but then their neural pathways started to degrade and they died in agony. One of the subjects suffered from the Levodian flu, which was modified by the Augment DNA to become a fatal, airborne, mutagenic plague that spread rampantly among the Empire, from world to world. In the first stage of this plague, Klingons lost the ridges on their foreheads and began to look more Human. With the help of a Klingon scientist named Antaak, Dr. Phlox of the Earth starship Enterprise was able to formulate a cure that halted the genetic effects of the virus in the first stage. This retained the changes in appearance along with some minor neural re-ordering. The neural ordering caused changes in the emotional make up of the Klingons. For example, the infected started to feel fear. Even though the infected did not develop any stage-two characteristics, such as enhanced strength, speed, or endurance they did not die from it. This left millions of Klingons changed. These alterations were even passed on to their children.

 

[Gatx]

On the one hand I think it's cool that they're going to continue the original storyline sort of, on the other hand it's being done in an MMO...

 

[mew4ever23]

It's about time we get romulans. Let's hope that they support them better than they did the klingons.

 

[Zipa]

The Star Trek reboot may have wiped its slate clean with a conveniently-placed parallel timeline, but that doesn't mean the old universe had no stories left to tell. In fact, the latest film hinted at a major development for pre-Abrams Trek: a 24th Century disaster that completely destroyed Romulus and Remus, central planets of the Romulan Empire. The new Star Trek films can't really explore the implications of a Romulan apocalypse since technically it never happened in the new timeline.

Nitpick;

Its not that it never happened. It did happen, thats why the Romulan ship went back in time, it just hasnt happened yet in the new timeline because we are still back during the time of Kirk.

If you think about it, it is almost guaranteed to happen again, because the only ones that seemed willing to help the Romulans when their sun was going nova were the Vulcans, who are now scattered to the wind and knowing the Romulans are the reason why.

Depends on what caused it. If it's caused by an intelligent race, the events causing it may have completely changed. Even "natural" causes may be altered because everything's fluid now.

Except for Star Trek: Enterprise, which is still canon across two timelines.

The games story so far hints that a intelligence race orchestrated the destruction of Romulus on purpose to cause strife and conflict in the galaxy. They haven't really explored it too much yet which I imagine will change with the Romulan themed expansion.

 

[Fanghawk]

Also, my research showed that these are klingons.

Spoiler

Klingons

snip

I like the DS9 explanation better.

 

[mattaui]

I've really been enjoying my time in STO. It's got one of the least offensive F2P implementations out there, unless you just can't stand the idea of running across a lockbox now and then. The feature episode content model might have ceased, but there's still a whole lot of it there for anyone to play through, and you've got access to all of it right out of the gate.

I got the impression that it was periodically doing a multi Gig download. At least early on. Is that your experience? It happened on Planetside 2 and Star Wars on me, making me wonder if I should stay away from this genre entirely.

I haven't really had it do anything more unusual than the typical MMO patching behavior, though sometimes there will be patches that are a gig or two in size. If you're running it via Steam I suggest not having Steam autoupdate and just rely on the patcher itself.

 

[SajuukKhar]

The games story so far hints that a intelligence race orchestrated the destruction of Romulus on purpose to cause strife and conflict in the galaxy. They haven't really explored it too much yet which I imagine will change with the Romulan themed expansion.

That race that is causing all of this is the Iconians.

As I recall, they were only mentioned a handful of times in the TV shows as a race that ruled a vast galactic empire 200,000 years ago, and were believed destroyed when the races they had enslaved/oppressed rose up and bombarded their homeworld.

They are notable for making the Iconain gateways, portals that could transport someone across the length of the galaxy in an instant.

 

[Zipa]

The games story so far hints that a intelligence race orchestrated the destruction of Romulus on purpose to cause strife and conflict in the galaxy. They haven't really explored it too much yet which I imagine will change with the Romulan themed expansion.

That race that is causing all of this is the Iconians.

As I recall, they were only mentioned a handful of times in the TV shows as a race that ruled a vast galactic empire 200,000 years ago, and were believed destroyed when the races they had enslaved/oppressed rose up and bombarded their homeworld.

They are notable for making the Iconain gateways, portals that could transport someone across the length of the galaxy in an instant.

Yeah I know ive played the story, a couple of times . As I recall the story finishes with you blowing the crap out the Romulans been manipulated by the Iconians into doing their dirty work.

 

[The Forces of Chaos]

Also, my research showed that these are klingons.

Spoiler

Klingons

snip

I like the DS9 explanation better.

I really like that DS9 episode. That said, I think the klingons and the federation would really like to forget Captain "Crazy Genocide" Archer. I may give this a go. Never tried star trek online before.