The Star Trek Online site has been updated with the November edition of the State of the Game letter penned by Executive Producer Dan Stahl. The letter is jam packed with tons of exciting news including the impending arrival of Season 7: New Romulus, a new zone that allows players to assist Romulan leader D’Tan.

Overview

• Designed for max-level captains of both the Federation or Klingon Empire
• Zone challenges balanced for captains plus one away team member
• Earn Reputation tier to unlock full away-team missions to help uncover the planet’s troubled past
• Area events provide quick Reputation gains for cooperative groups
• Obtain new special rewards and gear sets as a benefit for aiding the people of New Romulus

Read the full letter on the Star Trek Online site.

Thanks, Rohn, for the tip!

Looks like some good changes, and Romulans!

Ill be dropping by to check things out :)

Originally posted by Sciva
I check out STO every now and again. IMO it's the best F2P game out there where i can pay nothing and still have have tons of fun without a crapton of annoying restrictions. Yeah, your favorite ship being put in a lockbox is crappy but what can you do? Atari selling Cryptic to PW was the best thing to happen to STO and CO imo.

I agree, I hate to think of where STO would be now if it wasn't in the hands of PW and F2P. I'm a lifetime sub, and before they moved to F2P the population was dwindling at a rappid rate. Now that its F2P it has more people than most P2P games. You can't go anywhere outside of an instance and be alone in STO anymore, which for a MMO is a good thing.

Originally posted by aligada87
was checking this game out since i have never tried it, well except for the trial version. my question is, is it possible to achieve everything in the game fully free? some people i asked tells me this game has become a pay to win game, and it kinda drifted me away. but even with the bad reports it's probably isn't as bad as swtors cartel shop and f2p model. anyways can anyone clarify with me if it is possible to achieve full endgame with the f2p model of the sto. also was wondering what am i restricted to with f2p model. who knows maybe i'll like the game and spend money on it.

You can actually convert game currency to shop currency, but you don't really need anything from the shop becuase STO doesn't bar you from its gameplay features if you're a F2P player. Only major thing you cannot do as a F2P player is use the Foundry to create content, even though you can obviously still play missions created in it.

Check the comparison matrix.

http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/freetoplay/features-matrix

Originally posted by Methos12

Originally posted by aligada87
was checking this game out since i have never tried it, well except for the trial version. my question is, is it possible to achieve everything in the game fully free? some people i asked tells me this game has become a pay to win game, and it kinda drifted me away. but even with the bad reports it's probably isn't as bad as swtors cartel shop and f2p model. anyways can anyone clarify with me if it is possible to achieve full endgame with the f2p model of the sto. also was wondering what am i restricted to with f2p model. who knows maybe i'll like the game and spend money on it.

You can actually convert game currency to shop currency, but you don't really need anything from the shop becuase STO doesn't bar you from its gameplay features if you're a F2P player. Only major thing you cannot do as a F2P player is use the Foundry to create content, even though you can obviously still play missions created in it.

 

Check the comparison matrix.

http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/freetoplay/features-matrix

what is the foundry content you speak of? sounds very important lol

I lets you create custom instanced missions in the game and some of them are really damn good putting the regular game to shame with their writing and structure.  There are of course limits so you can't exploit the game, but that's the gist of things.

http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-main

Originally posted by Methos12

Originally posted by aligada87
was checking this game out since i have never tried it, well except for the trial version. my question is, is it possible to achieve everything in the game fully free? some people i asked tells me this game has become a pay to win game, and it kinda drifted me away. but even with the bad reports it's probably isn't as bad as swtors cartel shop and f2p model. anyways can anyone clarify with me if it is possible to achieve full endgame with the f2p model of the sto. also was wondering what am i restricted to with f2p model. who knows maybe i'll like the game and spend money on it.

You can actually convert game currency to shop currency, but you don't really need anything from the shop becuase STO doesn't bar you from its gameplay features if you're a F2P player. Only major thing you cannot do as a F2P player is use the Foundry to create content, even though you can obviously still play missions created in it.

 

Check the comparison matrix.

http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/freetoplay/features-matrix

+1 for Methos, it's definitely not TOR's cartel shop :) I have an f2p acc as well, started as a DOff deposit, but later I got curious and played with it to VA. There's absolutely no hard bar or restriction in game. (except the Foundry mission creating part)

There are a few things of course which are acting as a 'soft limit' though. Like you have less inventory and bank space, but it's only effect you if you plan to be a huge crafter, and hoarding a lot of samples (mats for crafting). Even then you can make a second f2p acc and use it as a mule. Ok, maybe it's not an advice PWE is happy with, but it's a working solution :)

A second soft limit is that as an f2p acc, you get only 6 BOff slots until you reach VA. But it's also only affect you, if you plan to play multiple roles. If you stick with only one, 6 officers is enough.

There's the currency cap, also not a concern up until level cap, and then you'll have more than enough dilly to convert it Zen and buy a currency cap remove from the store (as Methos said you can get Zen in exchange of ingame currency)

There's no restrictions at endgame either, so no 3/week stuff like they planning in TOR :)

So to your main question "my question is, is it possible to achieve everything in the game fully free?" the short answer is yes. The longer is yes, most of it is free by default, and what's not, those you can buy from the store and you can grind the currency for it in-game.

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Originally posted by atticusbc

wasn't there something about only being able to buy the most powerful ships from the store a while back?

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C-store ships indeed have some perks over regular ships but I wouldn't seem them getting as much advantage.

They are more of different than better.

Originally posted by atticusbc
wasn't there something about only being able to buy the most powerful ships from the store a while back?

Thats not true, you can still do fine with the ships you're given. The ships on the C-Store usually have some sort of abillity but from my experience they've never been p2w, and the fact you can earn them by using dillithium doesn't really give the people who are saying that they are is kinda moot.

So after waiting for about 2 years now they are finally catching up I suppose. Still relying so heavily on the foundry isn't such a good idea.

Some good things coming apparently. They hired some regular star trek fans who have played the game (and mmo's in general)  to help in the process of improving the game apparently: (definitely a step in the right direction)

New Captain Skills can be selected at each Reputation Tier (It's most definitely about time for this! They needed to expand on the ground abilities like there's no tomorrow.  Combat on ground has been so lacking since launch)

Acquire special gear sets and end game rewards through Reputation projects (closer to the gear grind fest games people seem to love so much ie, WoW.)

"Into the Hive" and "Mine Trap" two new STF's, it's about time.

Foundry Spotlight missions now receive special billing in the Mission Journal as well as improved rewards (This is the only thing I'm not so sure about because it's worded so oddly. Does billing mean you pay for the missions or does it mean that it's a new publicity system? Not the best choice of words for a company well known for trying to be greedy.)

"Grinding is well disguised" "It was fun" "I'm All for 'seeing' progression and not relying on loot tables" "Season 8 is playable Remulan faction, that's why New Remulus (Reman and Romulan = Remulan) is a central place also in Season 8. In Season 9 the level cap might get raised, so we can eventually wear our full pippies. :)"

Are just a few of the comments on the page. I hope they hold true to form. the people they hired to rough them up a little and get the fire back in the developement dept hopefully have enough say to keep them from making those horrible post launch mistakes they made.

Originally posted by Gdemami

 

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Originally posted by atticusbc

wasn't there something about only being able to buy the most powerful ships from the store a while back?

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C-store ships indeed have some perks over regular ships but I wouldn't seem them getting as much advantage.

They are more of different than better.

there's only a couple with an advantage in combat, the enterprise galaxy X and one other. the rest had some interesting doo dads but really nothing to write home about. Possibly the antimatter spread causes some issues with pvp but most don't really play pvp in this anymore.

Originally posted by atticusbc
wasn't there something about only being able to buy the most powerful ships from the store a while back?

Despite what people are telling you, yes the biggest and best ships a cash shop ones.

I will point out that the game is also very gear orientated meaning that a tier 4 ship(cs ships are tier 5) geared up will usually defeat a tier 5 that isn't.

Whilst these ships are cs only it doesn't mean the game is p2w since there doesn't seem to be many people wanting to pvp in the first place.

You can quite easily complete the pve content without buying anything from the shop.

You can exchange dilithium for shop points but there is a cap on how much dilithium you can get per day and you will likely need to meet this cap every day for 2-3 months if you want to buy a tier 5 ship(depending on exchange rate and ship cost).

To my mind, whilst tempting to buy a ship it seemed pointless as there didn't seem to be much to do with it once you got it.