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style="font-style: italic;">More content, Feature Episodes and anniversary celebration on the way to STO.

It's hard to believe that it's already been almost a year since the launch of Star Trek Online. With Cryptic's flagship MMOG just under three weeks away from its first anniversary, Executive Producer Dan Stahl opened up hailing frequencies to relay his first "Engineering Report" of 2011 to players. Cryptic has already started the year off with the launch date announcement for Champions Online free-to-play, and while Star Trek Online doesn't have any plans to make the free-to-play switch (yet), Stahl offered up a look at what the team has in store for players in 2011.

In the meantime, there is a lot of other great things happening around the office. Champions Online has set a date of when they will open the doors for Free to Play - starting January 25th. We will be watching closely to see how the public responds to this offer and evaluate whether or not it is something that would make sense for Star Trek Online.

First up on Stahl's list was the next Feature Episode titled "The Vault", which will feature a continuation of the Romulan storyline that began with the game's launch last February. The next part of the series is set to debut on January 29th, bringing some new features and storytelling tricks with it and will be available to players for five weeks. Additionally, players will be treated to a one-year anniversary celebration event that can earn them some new prizes and feature an "old friend."

Stahl also notes that the first major update for the Foundry beta is about to go live, adding several requested features and that the team is also working towards reworking some of the game's older content. Lastly, the report details some of the changes that will soon be coming to player PVE Queues and Fleet Actions to allow more organized events and private instances. Check out the full January "Engineering Report" for all the latest details.