Executive Producer Dan Stahl takes to the comm this week to answer another massive round of 51 community questions for Star Trek Online (STO). The latest round of questions ranged from cosmetic clothing, rebalancing of Transphasic Torpedoes to improvements to zone loading times and maybe even a decrease in how much you actually zone. The team is also looking at ways to condense the various forms of currency within the game to help simplify the economy.

This will happen slowly over time. While I think we'll always have a few different currencies to represent various game mechanics (such as the difference between merit and energy credits), we can collapse many of the Marks and Emblems into a single scaling currency that would go a long way towards simplifying the economy. We have a system designer looking into this as a possible Season 4 update.

If you're feeling generous, Cryptic also plans to allow gifting of Cryptic Points sometime during the first half of 2011. So if you've wanted to offer up a gift to a Foundry creator or an in-game friend, that option is on the way.

Check out more from Dan Stahl in the latest STO Ask Cryptic.