Tribbles’ late afternoon update this past Friday contained a number of expected and unexpected updates to Star Trek Online. The revamp of the BOFF training system looks surprisingly well thought out and useful.  Major changes include the UI and iconography (reported here earlier), and a new system to train bridge officers.  The general feed back has been overwhelmingly positive. Secondary Deflectors – the much talked … Continue reading Tribble Dump hints at new Hybrid ‘Command’ Specialists, 2ndry Deflectors and more

Kudos to Thomas “ThomastheCrypticCat” Marrone and the advance warning that major changes to the Bridge Officer abilities are coming during the 5th Anniversary Event. Changing icons at any time can be a difficult and frustrating process for developers.  Add to that process a fan-base which admittedly doesn’t take change very well, and can be very vocal that any change is a bad one. While we do … Continue reading Incoming Bridge Officer Icon Updates for the 5th Anniversary

Busy working through another 200 Mk II arrays (’cause it’s cheap to do, and the ever-elusive [CrtD] x3 is so worth trying for) and the RNG Gods decide to taunt me. I’ve done over 600 at this point with only 1 Dx3 result.  *sigh* Continue reading RNG Gods must really like me…

At first read, the new BOFF system for training actually sounds like an improvement.  Yes there will be a small dilithium cost to create the training manuals, but the ability to resell these manuals on the exchange simplifies an already bugged system. If you’ve purchased an Intel ship during the recent expansion, you were quickly dissapointed when you tried to have other captains train them.  … Continue reading New R&D School and New BOFF Training Mechanism for STO

First published by WestEnd111 on Seeking Alpha, a crowd sourced content service for financial markets.  Thankyou to @virusdancer for the clean copy.  Perfect World Going Private: A Perfect Ending Jan. 3, 2015 5:13 PM ET | about: Perfect World Co., Ltd. (PWRD), Includes: MSFT Summary PWRD received a $20/ADR offer from founder Chi that values the company at 9.3x FY15E P/E. Given that PC games face declining … Continue reading Perfect World Going Private: A Perfect Ending?

It’s safe to say that quality issues, and a general disconnect between the EP and the IP itself has lead #STO in a direction that hasn’t been popular. Delta Rising could have been spectacular.  Instead it was mired in QA issues and a management conceit that the players where the people at fault.  The disingenuous manner in which complaints were handled, and the outright ‘spin’ … Continue reading Insiders Views on Working at Cryptic

A somewhat interesting, if embarrassing problem with the Benthan Assault Cruiser was first noticed by @vengefuldjinn and posted on the forums. In STO, the Benthan Assault Cruiser is flying backwards.  Makes you wonder who on the design team actually watches Star Trek: Voyager. From the Wiki page: From in game footage: Now from Star Trek: Voyager – SE04EP20 – Vis à Vis Continue reading Benthan Assault Cruiser is Flying Backwards.

It used to be arguable, the only way to get high DPS was to “cheat”, hitting targets that healed themselves as you went from one target to the next.  Ezri Ryan just disproved that. With a smile. What a way to start the year if you’re a #STO dev. Dear Mr. Gecko, Your game is broken.  It’s official, and there’s no denying you either don’t … Continue reading Dear Mr. Gecko, Your Game is Broken.