December “Ask Cryptic”
* Hints of Season 4 content:  Crew System
* More voiceovers coming! hurray! (I think? Be careful what you wish for.)
* When asked about PvP improvements, references were made to ground improvements only and no discussion of territorial conflicts, player-run starbases, etc. This has me worried.
* ThomasTheCat has joined Cryptic’s staff, and may be helping with UI refinements.
* Cut-scenes are planned to eventually replace some loading screens (turbolifts, e.g.)
* Adding dailies to Romulan and Cardassian space, and maybe a Betazed sector.
* The next weekly series will take place in either Romulan or Cardassian space.

Official Launch Date of Season 3 = Dec 9th

In-Depth Details of the crafting improvements
* First of all, MORE CHANGES are coming, and this may all be different on Holodeck.
* And then THE REAL CHANGES came.
* As mentioned previously, KDF now have access
* Adding nearly 100 new items
* “Base” items previously required (like a Mk IV Photon Torpedo Launcher, common) have been replaced with Schematics that are mark-agnostic and crafted using basic ingredients.
* Skill-ups & material requirements have both been standardized per rank.
* Harvesting has been tweaked so that it is more likely that you’ll find the materials you are looking for — the level range has been reduced on all clusters, etc.
* New consumables on their way, unique to each tree.
* UI Pics:  #1 … #2

Borg Ship Pieces
* Details on obtaining from Gozer
– “Assimilation” replay, then STFs (Infected, Cure, KA)
* Pictures:  Kar’fi Carrier, NX-01, Runabout
* To answer a few questions that have been floating around:
1. These will work on every ship, fed or klingon
2. You can turn off all the borg bits and maintain the powers if you don’t like the look
3. You get set bonuses the more pieces you have, with a special click power for having all pieces equipped
4. There are 4 pieces to the set
5. 3 pieces will drop off of the borg themed STF’s
6. 1 piece will drop off a regular old borg mission on replay or on your first play if you havent played it yet.
7.Everyone on the STF will get the piece as a mission reward

THE FOUNDRY LAUNCHED!  … and then, un-launched
starbaseugc.org — tutorial videos

UPDATE on the KDF experiment:
– I’ve reached Lt Comm 10, and run out of non-grindey content, waiting for the Pi Canis sector.
– Dailies are a great alternative to exploration, pvp or sector defense.
– There are a lot of options, but all are basically the same thing — killing time in non-story content, to reach the next story.

GIFTS

Replica Captain’s Chair

JJ Trek:
Hand Phaser (with flippy front)
Enterprise from the 2009 Movie
Electronic Tricorder

Star Trek TOS:
DVD Edition
Blu-Ray Edition
Tricorder Old School Toy
TMP Wrist Communicator

Star Trek TNG:
Transwarping Enterprise D (very rare)
MicroMachines collector set

Game Enhancers:
Wireless N Router
Logitech G7 Mouse
Microsoft Sidewinder X6 keyboard