Since
Star
Trek Online
launched four
months ago, the initial shakedown cruise for the MMOG has not been
smooth sailing. To be honest, there are a lot of things broken in style="font-style: italic;">STO,
but I’m not here to beat a dead horse. Sadly, like every MMOG
on the market, the game was released before it was finished baking in
the oven. However, it does appear that the cries of the players are
being heard in Cryptic’s orbital space station. Recently, in
their state of the game letter, they discussed upcoming changes in
seasons two and three.



Some of the suggested expansions and changes are things that should
have been in the game at launch, but at least it seems that
they’re finally being worked into the live game. Hearing the
details of what’s in season two has been heartening for me.
To that end, let’s take a look and muse over what’s
coming in season two. For most of the additions announced by Cryptic,
I’ll first list what Cryptic states from their website and
then examine how that addition can enhance the game.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/85181"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/85181"
alt="star trek dabo picture"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;">

Who wouldn't want to play Dabo in this environment?

Minigames

Yes, ThomastheCat,
there really is a Santa Claus. Or, at least, there
really will be minigames in STO. As of update 1.3, you’ll be
able to play Dabo at Quark’s. And we’ll be adding
several more minigames throughout your ship and the galaxy in Season 2.



I’m always in favor of minigames within MMOGs. Having
something that you can play in a really quick time period and is also
fun can really help enliven a game and enhance the social atmosphere.
Cryptic mentions that you’ll be able to play Dabo at
Quark’s. How long do you think
it’ll take before
players start organizing tournaments? Not long at all. Events like
minigames just cry out for players to take advantage of to throw down
against other players in a fun, non-combat setting. Heck, Cryptic could
even run sanctioned tournaments where they give out unique titles or
costume pieces for the overall winner. Personally, I’m
looking forward to Horta Twister!



Ship
Interiors

I have walked the
curved hallways of my crew deck on the way to MY
ten-forward …



Also announced for season two is that players will be able to fully
travel throughout their ship and not just be imprisoned on their
bridge. Personally, I’m pretty stoked about this, but
I’m a huge geek, so sue me. Being a life-long fan of style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek,
I’ve always liked the ship designs that they’ve had
over the various shows and for the different races. When style="font-style: italic;">STO
was announced and it became common knowledge that everybody would have
their own ship, my reaction was, “Cool! I can’t
wait to walk around my own ship like Kirk or Picard used to do in the
show.” I wanted to go to the engine room, the medical bay,
the shuttle bay, and even a lounge area like Ten Forward (just as long
as there’s no annoying Whoopi Goldberg character hanging
around!).



Of course, with the addition of ship interiors, we could always hope
that there will be missions that take place onboard your ship.
I’ve always dreamed of having some bad guys try to commandeer
my ship and make the fatal mistake of trying to take control of
engineering first. Naturally, I would have style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek: TOS
engineers where they seemed to be trained in both engineering and
brutal hand-to-hand combat! Just think of random events such as
you’re walking around and suddenly you see Borg appear and
start assimilating your crew. What fun! Not for your poor crew, but for
you.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/85182"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/85182"
alt="star trek mugato picture"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;">

Mugato attack!

Wildlife

Finally, there’s going to be wildlife in the game. I
can’t tell you how disappointed I was to discover that
you’ll encounter nothing but various enemy factions
(Klingons, Orions, etc.) when you beam down to a planet. Star Trek is
full of dangerous creatures that attack any unwary Red Shirt who has
sentry duty. Hopefully, your away teams will now be swarmed by hordes
of vicious Mugatos! Having alien creatures, including carnivorous
plants if we’re lucky, will greatly add to the thrill of
exploration on a new planet.



Love
for Klingons

Because everyone loves
Klingons, right? Season 2 has several Episodes
just for Klingons.



For Klingon players, it looks like they’re going to get some
long overdue love in season two. First, there’s going to be
more Klingon episodes and episodes created that can be played by both
Federation and Klingon players. Right now, we have to admit that the
content for the Klingon faction sucks. I’m hoping that
there’s a good deal of episode content for Klingons to keep
them happy.



Second, Cryptic has announced that they’ll be updating the
clothing options for the Klingon faction. Finally! Currently, no matter
what race you play within the Klingon faction, you have a choice of a
couple of variants of the standard Klingon battle dress. I want my Gorn
to wear Gorn clothes! Or have my Orion woman look so hot and seductive
that she should get bonuses in combat versus Federation males.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there’ll be
more than a couple of token outfits thrown our way.



Federation
Diplomatic Corps

Federation players
will be able to focus more on non-combat content and
gain rank within the Diplomatic Corps. There are some very cool rewards
in there, and some new diplomatic/exploration Episodes and missions.



This new content is both intriguing and frightening at the same time.
I’m intrigued by what kind of episodes they make to showcase
diplomacy in Star Trek. As of now, the experience of First Contact with
a new species hasn’t been part of style="font-style: italic;">STO,
but is a big part of the lore of style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek.
It could be very interesting to see how Cryptic handles first contact
situations within style="font-style: italic;">STO.
However, I do admit that I’m a little frightened because
it’s a real possibility that the diplomatic missions could be
as boring as forced to watch a marathon session of Voyager episodes. If
the missions revolve around just running back and forth and clicking on
some mundane things, then the diplomatic corps are not for me. Sadly,
there are no game skills for your character to reflect diplomacy, so
I’m not sure how Cryptic is going to handle it in the final
version.



In the end, any new content is good for style="font-style: italic;">STO
and the players. Cryptic has announced some interesting tidbits for
season two, and thus my hopes have been raised. I’m looking
forward to playing the various minigames that will make an appearance,
as well as enjoying walking around my starship and checking out the
various sections. With the content additions to the Klingon faction, it
might actually get more players interested in playing the blood-wine
swilling warriors. The addition of wildlife should really enhance away
team missions and add a needed element of danger. Finally, the
Federation Diplomatic Corps could be a good thing or a really boring
one. Since I’m a glass if half-full kind of guy,
I’ll keep my fingers crossed and see what happens!


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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