Star Trek

It'll cost you to open this box. At the winter holiday event. Cryptic dangled a Jem’Hadar starship in front of the players. “Run the race in Q’s Winter Wonderland,” went the line, “and you will win a gift box that could contain this highly desirable ship!” The chance of that race dropping one of the red gift boxes was less than 1%. The chance that the red gift box, once obtained, would have a ship inside was far less than 1%. You could buy gift boxes for $1 each. On the forums, people reported spending between $50 and $200 for red gift boxes until they obtained one of those ships. ...

Who are “the 2800”? They are the 2,800 ships in the Dominion fleet that was swallowed up in the wormhole by the Prophets during a crucial point in the Dominion War. Their elimination gave starbase Deep Space 9 time to complete mining the mouth of the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, and was the turning point to a long, protracted war. Now, they’ve apparently returned to continue the war. This weekend, Saturday, February 12th, the Klingon Empire and the Federation will reluctantly join forces once again to battle the foe that nearly destroyed the Federation once before. ...

Admiral T'pral's crew I noticed today I’d gotten my monthly allotment of C Store points in Star Trek Online (I get some each month for being a subscriber). There wasn’t anything I particularly wanted to buy… I have all the ships I need. Maybe some of the uniform options. There are lots. Most of the time, you’re the only one who sees your bridge officers. How they’re dressed has no effect on the game. But it’s fun. I broke down and bought the Bajoran militia uniforms that Odo and Major Kira wore on Star Trek: Deep Space 9. ...

Most MMOs, if they allow it at all, make changing your avatar’s appearance a time consuming and possibly expensive task. In Star Trek Online, a trip to in-game tailors on any space station allow you to change everything from your uniform, to your hairstyle, to the smallest detail of your appearance. You can store up to five appearances at once which you can swap with a keystroke at will. ...

Infected Space (Elite) Infected (Space) is very simple. There’s only one thing you have to do. And that is all focus and kill the nanite spheres and probes when they pop. That’s all. Infected (Space) is a test of teamwork. If someone goes off on their own, the optional is all but lost. There are two optional objectives. Complete the entire task force in fifteen minutes, and don’t allow any nanite sphere or nanite probe to heal one of the transformers. If any nanite probe or nanite sphere gets close enough to heal a transformer, the optional is instantly lost. ...

Killing the Cube Before Star Trek Online implemented the PvE queuer, getting into special task forces was a matter of sitting in Gamma Orionis, spamming for groups. And the people wanting to fill groups would have insane pre-qualifications, like specific classes and builds, and they would kick you out if you didn’t fit their narrow requirements. You also were obliged to stay for all parts of the special task force, all space parts and all ground parts. ...

Fully functional I had a run of luck; I got the rare borg deflector tech drop which went to replace my Mark XI MACO Deflector with an Omega Force Mark XI deflector; winning just five missions got me the rest of the Encrypted Data Chips (EDCs) I needed, 40 total, for the Omega Force Mark XI engines, and I already had the Omega Force Mark XI shields, so… full Kellerun Infiltrator set. 2 pieces give a boost to tetryon damage, and 3 pieces gives a power that makes enemies unable to turn for five seconds. ...

My lizard, Leapster When you think about it, Fae are just the right size to be eaten in one gulp by the EverQuest 2 jumping lizard mounts. I’m too terrified to dismount, and so I leap from place to place within Lesser Faydark, death from above for the invader Tier’Dal who nonetheless managed to drag me from my mount last night and slaughter me. Experience is slow in the Lesser Fay. Every EQ2 story I read tells of people hitting 60, 70, 85 before they realize it, in just a couple days, but I’ve been working on this zone for months, with breaks to do quests and some seasonal events. Clearly, this hasn’t been my main game. ...

Making M.A.C.O. Star Trek Online may have unique story missions, the genre’s best capital starship battles and a kinda fun “select and dress your crew” mini-game, but the end-game is the same as it is for many MMOs: repeating end game missions on normal mode for tokens with which to buy advanced gear to do heroic mode instances and raids. In Star Trek Online, these are called “Special Task Forces”, “Elite Special Task Forces” and “Fleet Actions”. But they are not dissimilar to the regular instance grinds in modern fantasy MMOs. Except in one, you can blow up space ships on the Internet. ...

Inside the Jem'Hadar bug ship. Update: There’s a thread on the Star Trek Online forums tracking this. Apparently the percentage for winning a ship from a red box is 0.65%, making the average number of boxes to open (and hence dollars to pay) 153. The Jem’Hadar assault ship is one of the most desired ships in Star Trek Online. It has pretty awesome stats for an assault ship, has a unique exterior and interior. The Dominion War was fought on the bridge of ships like these. ...