I never felt sorry for Captain Smirk at times like these. He was largely ineffectual as a community mod and had become the whipping boy for player frustrations. Laughing Trendy on the other hand deserves a big warm hug after having to put up with another set of poorly planned changes to the game.

My idea is this: Star Trek Online has always been evolving.  Its part of the fabric of the game that from time to time whether we want it to or not, substantive and recognized game mechanics are changed for the benefit of the company.  Lets not kid ourselves with platitudes that the improvements are meant to increase performance, or provide a perfunctory experience in leveling.  Each and every change is designed to encourage us to spend money.

The redaction of Lohlunat Pearls is no exception. 325 overwhelming negative comments on Reddit in less than a day says everything.

The original reward system for the bi-annual free ship was never intended to be something that was long term.  The design of the system was extremely poor, and had flaws visible from day one.  While players had a lobi alternative to finish these events, many full-time players went far beyond that, stocking up on the rewards to get the ship next year – or if carefully planned out – get a jump start on the next new shiney ship.  This was grossly amplified in terms of a problem when the alt discount system was added.  As long as one alt had enough to buy the ship outright, there was no need to participate in the events more than once.

Make no mistake: Losing Lohlunat Pearls is just the beginning.

In my case, every alt of mine has between 480 and 1100 Qmendations.  I can’t even begin to count the number of Crystalline shards or other reward mechanisms that line my banks.  Pearls are no exception.  And I knew fully well that by stockpiling these items, I was risking losing value from them at some point in the future.  Cryptic loves closing loopholes., and as we’re all familiar with now, they handle these events with the subtlety of a MAC truck driving through your living room.

Suggestion:  At least allow us to convert them to something useful like dilithium.  Or lobi. (yeah, yeah… I’m smoking something.)

I’m not mad.  I’m not frustrated.  I’m indifferent.  I can’t complete my Delta Recruit cycles, because of new bugs introduced  – and ignored – by those who control the pursestrings.  The game routinely crashes on various zones and maps.  But that’s not as bad as the complete decimation of the player base for oh-so-many-long-running-issues.  The new ships are fun, but I can’t share their goodness with my fleetmates because they’ve left the game.

Heck even Elijah is moving on.

I thought Salami Inferno was supposed to improve things. Tick, Tock. Tick, Tock.

Speaking of improvements, they did manage to squeeze in a few with this weeks Update to Holodeck.  Shame it had to get lost in yet ANOTHER poorly planned redaction of fun.

Tribble Update:

• Implemented the new Lohlunat Pearl Buyback store.
  • For details, please visit the Retiring Lohlunat Pearls blog at: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9232203-star-trek-online%3A-retiring-lohlunat-pearls
• Resolved an issue which was causing some players to crash when loading in to the login screen or certain maps.
• Pilot Training Manuals have been added to the Exchange filter.
• Resolved an issue where helmets for many costume sets were not available to use in the tailor. [Good]
• Added a Holographic FX option for Photonic Bridge Officers. [Good]

Systems:

• Command Ships: Resolved an issue which was causing the Inspiration mechanic to heavily impact server performance.[Good]
  • Inspiration will now always be generated at an improved base rate.[Good]
  • Inspiration gain rate improvement is no longer influenced by team size.[Good – but like any fix, I’ll believe it when it works]
• Pilot Ships:
  • Resolved an issue which was allowing players to break out of the forced pathway through system space with Tactical Maneuvering powers during the episode “Surface Tension”.
  • Resolved an issue which was allowing players to break out of the starting point of space STF Queues with Tactical Maneuvering powers.
  • Enhanced Inertial Damper Field can now be equipped on all pilot ships including Romulan Pilot Warbirds.
  • Resolved an issue where Gravity Well was not blocking Tactical Maneuvers.[Good]
  • Resolved an issue where in default setup, the Singularity UI overlapped with the Maneuvering UI for the Romulan Pilot ships.
  • Resolved an issue which occasionally caused the default settings of Tactical Maneuvers to reset.
• Clicking on the “Finish Now” button in the R&D system while a project is running will now open a confirmation window to spend Dilithium instead of immediately spending the Dilithium.[Good – About frakkin time]
• The Upgrade Window text will now say “Result” under the upgraded item slot.
  • The text will change to “Possible Result” when a max level item is slotted for a quality upgrade.
  • This is a text change only as no functionality has changed.

• Resolved an issue with the Hazari Space Set where the 3 piece Cooldown Reduction was affecting all powers instead of only Shield Heals.
• Resolved an issue that would cause Subwarp Sheath to apply its armor penetration to powers other than directed energy weapons used against the owner’s targets.

Content:

• The daily mission “Sh’mar – Distress Signal” is now available again from the Sh’mar freighter near the Zibal system.
  • Updated minicontacts in the mission so that they use a corrected headshot, and do not disrupt cloak.
  • Contacts with the freighter now use an updated background instead of a blank background.
• The daily mission “Defense Contract” is now available once again at the Alhena System for players who have completed the mission “Skirmish” from the “Spectres” mission arc.
• The Ocampan Freighter has been returned to the Delta quadrant.
• Returned Breen and Deferi patrols to areas of the appropriate space in the Alpha quadrant.
  • These should once again offer their respective daily missions.
• Sector Space:
  • Resolved an issue where duplicate interacts appeared on some system interacts.
  • Landmarks are more visible on Sector Maps.
    • This is not in Sector Space itself but the mini map and standard map when opened.
  • Sector Space Civilian Freighters no longer have beam in animation.
• “Sphere of Influence” should now appear in the mission journal as located in the Dyson Sphere.

Known Issues:

• Occasionally, when accepting a new Episode, the sub tasks under the episode name will not initially appear in the mission tracker.
• The Syndicate Operative that can be escorted for an optional task in “Brotherhood of the Sword” can die too quickly an fail the task.
• Many of the Herald Squad NPC Groups are actually Bluegills in the Foundry.
• Some Reman Captains and Bridge Officers are missing their arms and chest.