2011 PREDICTIONS from STOked 63

Jeremy:

• Cryptic will acknowledge the positive impact the Foundry can have on their game, and embrace it by appointing a point of contact (or team) that will focus on publicity for the best-made and highly-reviewed player missions on a regular basis. Maybe a secondary weekly spotlight?
• We will see an announcement toward the end of the year for a Romulan expansion. Including the new faction, 3–4 new sectors complete with PvE stories. The unique Romulan mechanic will be “espionage” and will be similar to Fed DXP.
• More voice overs and cut scenes for episode content.

Chris:

• Voice Overs + Cut Scenes (Demo record fly through)
• More Star Trek
• Slow Down
• UGC will snowball into requiring a more robust out-of-game experience to discover and discuss new player created content.

2012 Predictions:

• The possibility of failure lumes over STO. The price of failure may be too low.

• The Foundry make it or break it time. DStahl has a big task on his hands. .

• SW:TOR will help STO find it’s identity. SPACE COMBAT.

• The next feature episode will be revealed to the community with the biggest fan fare yet.

• D’angelo is replaced? The lack of transparency will turn the community even more angry. Anyone who takes the figure head spot, and does not chant “content, content, content” they will be flamed.

• Foundry created episodes will take a larger role in the game. Cryptic will acknowledge them, and make efforts towards driving players towards them. After they get over having to admit they need the players to help them create content.

• Crafting revamp replaces the current “vendorised” system with something spectacular and player skill based.

• Additional writing staff, preferably with Star Trek experience, will be hired (possibly temporarily).

• Cryptic will assign / hire a staff member to produce content using the Foundry toolset on a regular basis

• STO will face it’s own “NGE” crisis and will only survive it by shifting focus to delivering content rather than game systems

Community Feedback

New STF Gear Sets:

Set feedback thread

Borg set (3 set items for 5 edc each from a vendor, console from the mission ‘Assimilation’).
Shield – The most regenerative shield of all the sets along with the lowest shield capacity and has a bonus resistance to plasma damage attacks to the shields by 15%. A bonus to shield power improves shield regen and resistance.

Engine – one of the slower impulse engines but a standard agility and a power bonus to engines, the greatest bonus of this engine is the ability for transwarp speed in sector space (minimum speed of warp 14).

Deflector geared towards (in order of magnitude) – Resistance – (geared towards greater hull boost, moderate restistance to shield/energy/movement debuff and a boost to auxillary power.
Hull Strength – change to an offensive debuff like power drain or exotic damage? Make it more offensive/adaptive deflector?
Resistance to shield and energy drain abilities
Resistance to hold, disable, repel, knock and slow effects
Knock, repel and slow abilities
Aux power (improve aux based abilities)

Aegis – a craftable set
Shields – highest capacity (for the feds) covarient shields with one of the lowest regenerations but grants a boost to shield power and shield strength.

Engines – geared towards speed and defense (performing better at higher engine speeds).

Deflector – Shield defense (geared towards shield strength, buffs and resistance to debuffs and a small boost to shield regen/resistance).
Shield strength – Boost to placate/confuse? Make it a more evasive deflector?
Shield repair/healing
Resistance to energy/shield drain abilities
Resistance to hold, disable, repel, knock and slow effects
Shield power (improves shield regen and shield resistance)

MACO – FED only
Shield – while the capacity is lower than a covarient, resilient shields regenerate slightly better and allow less damage to impact the hull. In addition for each attack you receive you gain a stacking 10 second bonus of +1 to all power settings. Shield grants a standard 20% plasma damage resistance to the shields.

Engine – while a tiny bit slower than the Aegis engines there is no bonus to having a high engine power. In addition, ships in sector space can travel at 9.99 (so we aren’t all going to turn in to amphibian beings  ) and in the eventuality that your engines are disabled, you’ll still have some maneuverabilty.

Deflector – Defense orientated (geared towards hull strength, shield strength buffs, resistance to movement debuffs and transfering power between subsystems).
Hull strength
Shield repair/healing
Resistance to hold, disable, repel, knock and slow effects
Shield strength
Power transfer rate

Omega Force – FED/KDF
Shield – A less regenerative capacity version of the Borg shield. In addition though for each attack you receive you gain a bonus 5 flight speed and 30% turn rate for 5 seconds. Shield grants a standard 20% plasma damage resistance to the shields.

Engine – The fastest engine available to both factions and one of the most agile with a greater bonus when using a high engine power.

Deflector – Debuff orientated (equally passive and damaging debuff boost with a small boost to cloak detection and shield repair).
Cloak detection and sensor debuff resistance
Resistance to hold, disable, repel, knock and slow effects
Resistance to energy/shield drain abilities Change to hold, disable, repel, knock and slow effects? Make it a more ambush/hit and run deflector?
Improved accuracy
Damage from ‘exotic’ attacks

KHG – KDF only
Shield – the highest shield capacity covarient shield and one of the lowest regenerations, however, there is a 25% chance when hit by energy damage to debuff the enemy’s accuracy by 25% for 10 seconds and placate for 1 second. Shield grants a standard 20% plasma damage resistance to the shields.

Engine – the slowest engine overall but the most agile especially at low power levels with an added bonus of being able to restart disabled engines after only 1 second and a flat bonus to all power levels.

Deflector – strength and offense orientated (geared towards boosting hull strength and offensive debuffs with a bonus to transferring power).
Hull strength
Damage from ‘exotic’ attacks
Knock, repel and slow abilities
Power transfer
Improved cloak