Star Trek Online at Ten Ton Hammer

When a game releases, there's no reason to think there aren't certain things that will need to be added as time goes by and the game progresses. There are some features though, that should have been planned while the game in question was little more than a scribbled doodle on a napkin at your local coffeehouse. It's this type of feature that has gotten *so* much attention from the community recently that the development team has stood up and taken notice.

Star Trek Online actually shipped without an easy way to participate in a fleet action as a fleet. How this slipped under the cracks of development completely baffles me. Someone, somewhere, apparently decided that being part of a fleet wasn't supposed to mean more than hanging out in a chat room. Whoever thought *not* including the functionality to enter a fleet action as a fleet was acceptable, despite the fact that the name of said action contains the word "fleet" in it, was obviously having an off day.



To be fair, STO actually does contain a lot of cool tools for fleets and their members as evidenced by our recent Guide to Fleets, but you can't call something a fleet action if a fleet of players (not random players thrown into a group action) cannot complete it together. In other words, I want to have the ability to actually play together as a fleet. If I didn't, I wouldn't have joined a fleet in the first place. I don't know about anyone else, but I spent a long time looking for a guild/fleet that would be conducive with not only with my schedule, but also my play style and general attitude. I didn't join just so I can have a cool tag over my head or so I don't feel lonely in the cold reaches of space.

We've all been in a guild we know we shouldn't have joined on our first day in a new game, but we did anyway. You know the one. Ten minutes after you join, Imatot Aldouche (your guild leader) is spamming the chat channels with a rant about how awesome he is, how big his family jewels are because he beat the level 6 mob boss before anyone else, and how your mother blows. Yeah… there's a reason I don't join guilds without a decent application process. All that time and effort I spent looking for a solid fleet that’s a good fit is essentially wasted if we can’t do any massive fleet actions together though.

"Well that's great, Dalmarus. I’ve listened to your rant, but what do you want me to do about it besides jump on the bandwagon and commiserate with you?"

Believe it or not, there actually is something you can do and a special thanks goes out to our Ten Ton Hammer forums member, Stefman123, for bringing it to my attention yesterday. There's a thread on the official forums seeking to address this horrific oversight. The thread was started by a member of the community, but Cryptic has taken notice. This week, Falkoren (a Star Trek Online developer) came through with a workaround plus more. The "fix" is rather convoluted, but at the moment, it's the best they can do. Per his instructions though, you can help make the ability to start a fleet action with your fleet a new feature.


To show your support (and read the workaround), click here, hit reply, and paste the following statement in your post: "I fully support this and would like to see it become a feature +1." Just to reiterate, this isn't some crackhead with a harebrain idea who thinks signing an online petition is going to solve anything. This is a direct request from the development team. It only takes a few seconds to do and could help to make a big difference for all fleets in the game.

Personally, I'm still having a hard time believing something like this wasn't implemented while the game was still just a twinkle in Cryptic's eye (after they acquired the rights from Perpetual Entertainment). On a positive note though, I am glad to see it finally get some attention. If you want to see this oversight fixed, do your part and follow the instructions I listed above. Spreading the word some more won't hurt either, so get out there and start making some noise!