Star Trek Online Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich has put out a new State of the Game letter loaded with juicy information on the game's future, as well as an overview of what's been added to the game thus far.
A number of the upcoming features mentioned in the letter are already known by most players of the game, at least those who pay attention to dStahl's Engineering Reports, but for the lazy, read below:
- The Accolade System – I know how much you guys have been wanting this, and I have to admit, I’m pretty stoked about it, too. Track your achievements. How much phaser damage have you dealt in your career? How many Federation officers have you shuffled off this mortal coil (assuming you’re playing a Klingon. No killing your allies, guys!)?
- The Squad System – This will let you team up with other players who aren’t in your level, and lets your effectiveness match so you can play together.
- Balance Adjustments – We have those DPS/recharge/global-ability-cooldown adjustments that many of our high-end players have been requesting. Log into Tribble and check them out. Give us your feedback! We’re testing it out now, so this is when we need to hear from you the most. Also – don’t forget to log into Tribble to “play with the devs” early next week. We’ll be there, will you?
- UI Improvements – We’re working on a window that will show you when rewards happen during normal character advancement (powers, unlocks, bridge officer reqs, etc.).
- Bug Fixes and Improvements – We’re always working on fixes and improvements, because a game developer’s job is never done.
Not content to simply rehash information fans already know about, Craig goes on to reveal the full details of Season 2, and even some early details on Season 3. Wowza!
Season 2 will include the introduction of mini-games, the Federation Diplomacy Corps (oh yes, diplomacy!), new "faction-agnostic" episode content, as well as a few Klingon exclusive episodes for you Klingon lovers out there, ship interiors (yes!), a raise in the level cap (6 levels) to Vice Admiral I, Fleet Logos, high end content, a new weekly episode schedule, and more. Season 2 is set to go live by the end of July.
If that's not enough, Craig also shared details on Season 3 with us, mentioning that we'd be seeing the addition of a new as-of-yet undetermined faction (Borg? Cardassian? Romulan? Let them know!), user generated content, a persistent PvP sector, Fleet Starbases, the ability to call your Bridge Officers out to fly alongside you, and tons more.
Read the full State of the Game letter for all the juicy details!
