Star Trek Online: Checking in on the state of the galaxy
In the first installment our Star Trek Online news roundup, we recap what’s been happening in the month of July as well as many exciting things to come.
Despite its age, the developers of Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment‘s Star Trek Online continue to surprise with exciting, new weekly updates. This month was no exception, with the sixth annual Risian Lohlunat Festival kicking off in late June.
This year, new rewards included of consumables featuring foods as seen in Star Trek: Discovery, and fun additions to last year’s baseball gear based off of the fan favorite Deep Space Nine episode, “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”, such as a Baseball ground item that “can give you and your chosen partner a boost to morale that acts as a combat buff for some time”.
Players also spent the month earning vouchers to claim the powerful Tier 6 Risian corvette – a fast moving starship capable of sustaining extreme velocities while in the heat of combat. I’ve yet to play around with this speed demon, but at first glance it’ll easily be the fastest ship in my entire armada.
Image: Arc Games
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In addition to the festival, a new batch of premium “Zen-Store” starships was released earlier this month after a brief tease via a lore blog. The Temporal Warship Bundle is comprised of an eagerly anticipated new Dominion and Romulan design, a sleek 25th-century variant of the Federation Hoover-class named the Edison, and the Klingon Chargh-class originally featured in Star Trek: Discovery. New to this pack is the ability for Captains of all factions to fly the Kholhr Temporal Warbird, which was previously a line of vessels previously exclusive to Romulan Republic characters. For those wanting to fly a Scimitar on a Klingon character, there’s no word yet on whether or not this ability will be backported to other ships.
A partnership with Tribble Toys was also announced. Players can now purchase real-life versions of the Gamma Quadrant, Radan, Trolic, and Winter Tribbles as featured in the game. Any one of these STO-branded Tribbles comes with a code for an in-game Discovery-inspired Black Alert Tribble on PC. Even going a step forward, it is possible to breed a special “Mycelium” version of this Tribble through an additional purchase from the Lobi Crystal Store.
Image: Arc Games
Finally, many are eagerly anticipating big announcements at this year’s Star Trek Las Vegas convention. Several panels and a developer meet & greet are planned, including one this Sunday regarding the future of the game hosted by the game’s developers and “a very special cast member from Star Trek: Discovery“. Anyone headed to Las Vegas this week can pick up or win convention exclusive iron-on badges, enamel pins, prizes from Tribble Toys and Eaglemoss, and “STLV-exclusive Landry and Lorca Holographic Bridge Officer codes”.
Next. Robert Picardo may appear in Picard Season 2. dark
With all this excitement, it’s easy to see that it’ll be a very eventful weekend indeed for fans of Star Trek Online, myself included. Personally, I’m expecting a roadmap with plans for the rest of the year, and another segment of the game’s Discovery “expansion over time”. Regardless, we’ll be covering the upcoming news in our next column.
Star Trek Online is available for free at http://www.playstartrekonline.com.