Follow-up on Atari/Cryptic conversation at Massively.com
For sale!

KDF version of the Azura comm
– “Bringing Down The House”
– Nice to see them NOT overlook this useful item for KDF.
– 4 hour cooldown

Caitian and Aenar boffs coming to C-Store in June
– Dev comment: These will be available in-game, too (via Doff missions)

June 23-25: Borg Invasion DSEs
– Stahl comments
* Will no longer auto-zone you!
* Also include special rewards and/or Emblems
* Working on auto-scaling so that all can participate (in testing, no promises)

TWEET LEAKS:
KDF capes & new shoulders:  https://twitpic.com/51lz2v/full
Yet another Jupiter Uniform detail (non-Vet version):  https://twitpic.com/52i4wd/full
Gorn updates:  https://twitpic.com/52wspn/full

COMM FEED:
Is Cryptic’s split from Atari a GOOD thing, or a BAD thing?

POLL Results: 82.56% GOOD THING

COMING UP ON A FUTURE STOOOOOOOKED!

STF THURSDAYS! @ 7pm Pacific, starting June 2nd!

June 2nd:   Infected
June 9th:   The Cure
June 16th:  Khitomer Accord

In an EPIC build-up to the new Borg DSE events. Join us LIVE and be PART of the ACTION on the INTERNET. YEAH.

Email in your guides & tips!

Devidian Series reruns:
– Ground shield reward for “Skirmish”
– GET THE CANE!

Romulan Series reruns coming soon!
– Prize = an attack Horta schematic (must be crafted)

500 day Vet Reward announced
– Includes 250 Emblems (if this trend continues… free ship @ 600 days, and every 200 after)
– KDF Shoulder Cape that they’ve been asking for
– Jupiter Uniform (more info)

DOOTY!
An updated look at the Doff interface
An accompanying thread to explain some of the details
– Can inactive boffs join the duty roster? Not at this time, but maybe someday.
– Why no KDF version leaked? Not done yet (uh oh…)
– 2 depts per division + Civilian
** Civs cannot be placed on active duty, but can be sent on assignments.
– Doffs cannot be promoted or customized – they are what they are.
– Only the lowest quality doffs can die on assignments, the rest go to sickbay to recoup.
– A shuttle cutscene for assignment initiation?

Follow up Thread: There will be several ways of acquiring duty officers; some of these we can talk about now, others are still being investigated.
* Certain “Recruitment” assignments (with no doff slotting requirements)
* Rewards for certain accolades
* Possibly a starting batch of common duty officers will be granted to players, probably modified by player level

Info on Starfleet Academy / Tutorials
When will we see them?
“The zone will become available for Devs to use with S4, then content will slowly trickle into it.”
What about the Tutorials?
“Postponed. New content for EVERYbody takes higher priority.”
What about skipping the tutorial, and starting as a Klingon?
“Still a work in progress. But both are almost finalized.”

Tweet Leaks
– Interior of Starfleet Academy office: https://a.yfrog.com/img612/3747/yxdfg.jpg
– Garden at Starfleet Academy: https://a.yfrog.com/img615/1947/e5dzl.jpg
– 500 day Jupiter Uniform variant: https://a.yfrog.com/img610/9220/ihmfn.jpg
– IDIC Badge! https://a.yfrog.com/img614/8467/kd2nb.jpg
– Peregrine with Breen engine + Reman shield: https://a.yfrog.com/img615/3682/49s2.jpg

[ad#shownotes]

AL RIVERA – RUMOR SMASHING

Ship info link:
https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/

COMM FEED

“What Makes A Good Enterprise?”

Poll feedback:
The Captain  — 28.88%
Warp nacelles/pylons — 24.29%
The Crew — 19.91%
Secondary hull/deflector — 18.6%
The strong neck  — 8.32%

Specific responses:
– Tabmaine: “The secondary hull is where a new design should start. If you change its shape, the rest of the ship has to be changed to fit the new shape.”
– nshepard: “It has to look like an interstellar hot rod. Like it’s doing Warp 10 when sitting still.”
– arm514: “It’s a combo of a saucer, secondary + 2 nacelles.” (Pic of NX + secondary)
– Omega_Glory: Link to Roddenberry’s design rules.
– Capn_Logan: Don’t worry about it!
– Original creator made a new mock-up to show more detail: (PIC)

NEW QUESTION:
“What do you need to know about the Doff System?”

I have no Foundry suggestions this week, because I’ve been busy launching The MMOrgue!

Foundry Picks from the live chatroom:
Rema Donna
Do Dukat
Saving Ensign Ryan
Currents Turned Awry
KDF: 99 Bottles of Ale in the Hall

Season 3 LAUNCHED!
But no Foundry! (Just re-opened on Tribble!)
And no Borg STF parts!
I guess that leaves the big features as:
* Sector Space Revamp
* Super sprint!
* Episode Replay
* KDF sorties
* Crafting revamps
* Contact UI Upgrade
* Earth space looks more spacey
Major bugs:
* STFs didn’t get fixed
* Map transfer delay/errors/disconnects (may be fixed)

Design the Enterprise contest has launched
Contest ends Jan 15th with a winner announced around April 1st
Voting will be done by judges + WEBSITE VISITORS (public voting to find top 25)

KDF UPDATE:  Pi Canis Sorties
They really are just patrols, with an extra “thing” thrown in for flavor.

• How it breaks down:
  • Each system has a specific task, which you will be rewarded for.
  • Each set of 3 systems has a “wrapper” reward, which will also reward you.
  • All of the systems combined have a “wrapper” that is to complete the optional steps in every single map.  Many of these optional objectives are hard as HELL and require massive firepower to accomplish, as they are timed.  Extremely un-friendly to low-level KDF, and solo’ers.  Bring friends, preferably big ones.
• Specifically, the “Federation Freighter Assault” system mission is an absolute pain in the ass, and I failed it 3x in a row without even coming close to success.
  • Freighters fly too quickly away from you, and are too resilient to take out before the ‘timer’ runs out.
• The Jam communications optional task is a neat idea however, in the sense that it gives a twist to game-play that feels uniquely non-Fed.

DSTAHL SAYS STUFF:  Long-term Foundry Goals
https://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3207339&postcount=2

COMMUNITY FEEDBACK WILL BE DELAYED

• Due to the Foundry being shut off, and holiday MADNESS, we’re behind schedule.
• We’re specifically trying to choose the best missions that CAN be made using the Foundry’s current capabilities.  Without having the Foundry, it’s difficult to figure out which make this list.
• Have some MATH instead.  And like it.

MATH:

The New Crafting — Tips & Tricks

With the most recent changes made to STO’s crafting system, it is finally beginning to resemble … well, crafting. And as a result, many established players will be digging into the overhauled system for the first time.

You should knowthat the system has been balanced for characters that invest in crafting alongside their usual leveling process from start to finish.  For characters that are already at or near the leveling cap, be prepared to return to your old stomping grounds.

There are 6 “ranks” of anomalies, each with 3 separate variants. As you level, you’ll move up from one rank to the next. But due to “schematics” requiring Rank 1 data samples, and being used in every single item recipe, you’ll need to have a stockpile of them standing by.

Rank 1 Harvests:
Delta Volanis — Fed
Arucanis Arm — Fed (also contains Rank 2)
T’Ong Nebula — KDF

Link:  https://www.stowiki.org/Data_Samples

Can you level to max on Schematics Only?

Yes.  But you are going to have to obtain a whopping 1650 anomalies, at a rate that ranges between 2 and 5 about every 30 seconds.  On average, this will take you around 4.8 hours just to harvest the supplies.  Plus the time investment of actually crafting the items.

But in the end, once you reach max skill, you’d have nothing to show for it and would still have to go out and harvest junk to make the new high-end toys available to you.

Is there a better alternative?

Not really. Since the majority of recipes give just as many skill points as the amount of data samples it took to craft it, efficiency is more-or-less moot. Except that crafting higher-skill recipes require fewer schematics, which will translate to less low-end grind-harvesting. But that’s really just a time trade-off, as you’ll then have to travel from cluster to cluster picking up anomalies of variance ranks.

If you’re just going to sell the products to NPCs as you level up, focus your crafting efforts on engines, shields and deflectors. They’re worth a lot more to NPCs than ground-based equipment.

Win the Harvesting Mini-Game Every Time:

As soon as you begin the scanning animation, cut your engines and shift your hand over to your arrow keys and prepare to use them.  Once the wavelength shows up, use the up/down arrows first to line up the top and bottom of the wave.  Once you’ve set this portion of the wavelength, adjust the left-right axis until it matches up.  Left makes the waves smaller, right makes them larger.

If you have no interest in the rare particle traces (which can only be obtained by successfully completing the mini-game) you can simply press F as soon as the mini-game launches, to quickly “fail” and get your base harvest.

Crafting – A Community Effort

Tell your buddies of your interest in crafting. Odds are that most people do not share your interest, and will happily funnel their surplus sample harvests in your direction. Skilling up is much easier when you don’t have to spend time harvesting. Fleets obviously have a leg up in this regard, as their bank space can be utilized as a central depository.

AWESOME CRAFTING LINKS:

STO Wiki
https://www.stowiki.org/Crafting

Aegis Set Stats
https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=192874

Dstahl’s Cheat Sheet
https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3214238#post3214238

Anomaly Guide
https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=115026&highlight=crafting+guide

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

When we return the following week, we’ll be doing a “Gift Giving Guide” for the Trek fan in your life.

Additional Easter Egg rumored to be hidden within the alcohol puzzle
* If you drink the Nerve Tonic as a female captain, it makes you do a dance.
* Also rumored to work with female boffs.

Changes to last mission (must’ve gotten a lot of negative feedback?):
* KDF now remain closer to the comet fragments (you can no longer kite them away)
— This makes the end combat MORE difficult, but they’ve also said that a new alternative method will open up if you fail twice.
* Due to complaints about folks missing the rings on the slingshot, an autopilot option will open up if you fail twice.

Season 3 Tribble Updates:
* KDF Crafting fixed (you’re able to get anomalies below your level now)
* Many, many, many more Replay rewards
* Sit in your Captain’s chair. And EMOTE!
* Traffic Control replaced with your boff/helmsman
* PvP points given to shield healers
* Fleet Names are now displayed
** Not mentioned, but the “Barn Doors” in ESD have been changed/shrunk

Design the next Enterprise contest
– US Only (doh!)
– We wanna see your ships!  Send your creations to the usual email address, or post on jupitercolony.com

Big C-Store Sale coming up this weekend!
* Will not include items added in November (Enterprise bundle)

THE STAHL RANT

KDF PvP Tips from Stormshade

Ten Ton Hammer Article:  “What STO Can Learn From CO”

COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

We’re doing it again!

Send us your absolute best story ideas for a mission you’d like to see created using The Foundry.

We’ll pick a few of our favs over the next few weeks, then put the finalists up for a vote!

The winner will have an EPIC TRAILER made for their mission, and when The Foundry lands on Holodeck, members of Jupiter Force will help make it a reality!