Today
marks the first episode of the Captain’s Blog, chronicling
our voyages through the universe of Star Trek Online. Within these
columns we
will review what’s hot and what’s got us hot and
bothered. So join us each week
as we review what’s happened and turn an eye toward the
future to see what’s
coming down the line for Star Trek Online.

style="">Ten Ton Turbolift: All
things Ten Ton Hammer from the last week.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80328" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" alt="STO - USS Hammer"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80328">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80303">Your
First DAys as a Starfleet Officer

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80108">Ready
to Launch: A
VIP Star Trek Online Q&A with Cryptic Studios

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/news/newraces">Two
New Races to Star Trek Online

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/news/newraces">Star
Trek Online Ground Combat Video

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80191">Ground
Combat: Beam Down it’s time to rock and roll.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80112">Star
Trek
Online Ground UI Guide

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80092">Updated
Information on the Liberated Borg

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80027">Star
Trek
Online: Klingon Racial Traits

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79990">New
Star
Trek Online Intro Movie

 

style="">Nebula News Agency: News
from the galaxy about Star Trek Online

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80068">Head
Start
and Pre-Patching

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80061">Executive
Producer Talks about Post-Launch Plans

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80056">SyFy
Offers
New STO Pre-Order Bundle

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80053">State
of
the Game Reveals Details on the Game’s First Update

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79932">End of
Beta
Event

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79726">Del
Taco
Offers Exclusive Star Trek Online Shuttle

class="MsoNormal">

  style="width: 433px; height: 368px;" alt="STO Loading Screen"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80325/preview">

style="">Prepared for Launch: This
is where Medeor takes artistic license and discusses all of the hot
topics or
at least the ones he fancies.

style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> style="">    The launch
that came in like a kitten and roared like a lion.

style="">               
Typically
launch day discussions center on the server instability, registration
issues,
login queues, and you name it. This launch has been surprisingly
smooth. Of
course I’m sure some people had issues, but I would hazard a
guess that people
with issues are the exception not the rule this time. How refreshing is
that?

style="">               
style="">Klingons added along with some other race.

style="">              
Today
Cryptic announced and
launched the option for players to roll a Klingon or a Ferengi as
Federation characters.
This is great news that many fans have been clamoring for, and
it’s a great way
to add to the furor of launch day. Of course it throws a curveball to
those of
us who started our other characters during head start. Now what do I
do, go
back or marshal on with my second class citizen?

style="">               
style="">Twenty minutes not four hours.

style="">               
It’s
been quite a while since I’ve played a game where I can get
something done
inside of twenty minutes and feel rewarded. Oh I’ll sit down
for the multi-hour
marathons, but sometimes I only get small windows of time. In Star Trek
Online,
I can log in and get something accomplished in about a half hour and
complete a
mission, be rewarded and generally feel good about myself. Not many
other games
offer a balance between quick rewards and long-term options.

style="">               
style="">No agriculture?

style="">               
This
is not what it seems.
I’m referring to the fact that there are no farmers in this
game to speak of
(yet?). Since players can only go into zones in which they have quests,
farming
really is not a viable option. I have not had to even figure out if
there is an
ignore feature. As of this writing, I have to say bravo. Has Cryptic
found some
game mechanisms to alleviate the strain of the
“gold” farmers? All I can say is
that this is a welcome change for a new MMO not to be inundated with
gold spam.

style="">               
style="">It’s not all roses and puppy dogs.

style="">               
While I
appreciate that the chat channels aren’t filled with gold
spammers, I have to
continue my tirade against the abhorrent chat. I had hoped that the
wing nuts
would stay on their Xbox live accounts, but apparently their parents
bought
them Star Trek Online and told them to use the chat channel like
MySpace. I did
create a new chat window that filters the general chat though, and the
game has
become much more serene.

style="">               
Exploration and landing in a
new
world, or Zoning in is like a box of chocolates.

style="">               
The
jury is still out, but so far I like the exploration phase of the game
and
having that slight thrill of zoning into a new system. Sometimes I zone
into a
battle already taking place, other times it’s a nice serene
mining colony
wanting a little protection. For me it’s like the opening
scene of the show as
the ship is cruising along and we know something is about to happen,
but we’re
not sure what. I know some people have issues with all of the
instancing but so
far I’ve enjoyed the population of sector space but know that
I can get my
missions completed when I zone in. There is nothing worse to me than
starting a
new game and having everyone standing around waiting to kill a named
enemy. I
have not had this experience in STO.

class="MsoNormal">

  style="width: 242px; height: 270px;" alt="STO-Map"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80327/preview">

style="">Tips and Tricks: This
week we look at the currencies and point rewards of the game.

There
are two types of non-item rewards that players gain
while captaining a ship. The first type is skill points for the captain
and
crew. These come in the form of skill points (for the captain) and
officer
points (spent on crew and crew skills). Skill points advance a
character among
several different skill trees. These are the points that players spend
on
specific skills that enhance their character’s abilities.
Skill points can only
be spent on the character who achieved the points (they are
non-transferrable).
Officer points are used to add to the skills of bridge officers
(essentially
skill points for your officers).

The
second type of currency/reward that players will receive
are Energy Credits and Starfleet Merits. Energy Credits are the
universal
monetary credits for the game. Energy credits are used to buy items,
consumables, upgrades, etc. Starfleet Merits on the other hand are used
to
purchase bridge officers, training for bridge officers (upgrades).

Within
the four categories of rewards you’ll rack up quite a
few thousand points, credits and merits so keep an eye on them.
I’m no
spend-thrift but I seem to have squirreled away a decent amount without
trying
too hard. I haven’t really found anything worth buying just
yet, but my
mentality is to make due with what I have until I hit a roadblock and
get
forced into upgrading.

style="width: 238px; height: 78px;" alt="STO-Officer Points"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80329/preview">

Speaking
of which, I have not spent one Officer Point yet. I
haven’t found a skill within my current crop of officers that
I want to
upgrade. Now I’m on a mission to see how far I can go without
spending
anything. I’ve always wanted a game where money really is no
object. What are
you spending your hard earned credits/merits on these days?

style="">Star Trek Online Drink of the Week:

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80326" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" alt="STO - USS Hammer"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80326">

style="">  style="">Beam Me
Up Skotchie

style="margin-left: 0.5in;">2 oz. Glenfiddich Scotch

style="margin-left: 0.5in;">1 oz. Vanilla Liquer

style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Figs

style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Muddle the figs, vanilla
liquer and
scotch. Strain out the fig seeds, serve in a cocktail glass over ice.
Garnish
with figs as appropriate.

 



So that’s it for this week. Enjoy Star Trek Online (and
maybe a wee bit of scotch) and I’ll see you on the other side.

Thanks
for reading.

-Jay
“Medeor” Johnson


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Trek Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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