Have you ever wanted to visit Jupiter Station? Or maybe Utopia Planetia Shipyards? I know that we have and if you're a Star Trek Online player, this could be a distinct possibility in the near future. Executive producer Dan Stahl answers questions about this plus playable Hirogen, more pets (like Porthos), and a visit from V'ger in this month's round of "Ask Cryptic". When asked, "Is there a chance to see something like V'ger from The Motion Picture?" Dan answered, "Someday, oh yes. There is a reason my forum avatar is V’ger." Not only V'ger, but also that whale lovin' probe from Star Trek IV. Pretty awesome!

We've gathered a sampling of questions below, but you can check out the full Q&A session here on StarTrekOnline.com

Fractal_Eye - Q: When will we get Porthos pets?

German game company Gameforge is slowly approaching it's summer 2011 release date for the upcoming Trek title Star Trek: Infinite Space. Like we reported last year, the browser based free-to-play game will be set in the Deep Space Nine timeline and already has Trek alumni Mike & Denise Okuda on board. The latest news to come out of Karlsruhe is that composer Chris Hülsbeck is set to create the score.  Hülsbeck is best know for his work on Turrican 2 and The Great Giana Sisters.

“This commission is a great honor, to work on a Star Trek product was a dream that has now come true,” Hülsbeck explains.

Ralf Adam, Gameforge’s Executive Producer, adds: “We are all very proud of being able to enlist such an outstanding artist. Chris Hülsbeck has decisively influenced a whole generation of computer games.”

A brand new series of Star Trek Online Feature Episodes is in full swing, this time centering around the Romulan Star Empire. The new series called "Cloaked Intentions" started February 5th with episode 1: The Vault, were the crew find themselves in a tight situation when they are ordered to investigate an energy surge on an abandoned Romulan starbase. Next up for February 12th is episode 2: Mine Enemy, where the crew investigate claims of illegal weapon use on Hfihar only to uncover evidence of greater atrocities.

Unfamiliar with STO feature episodes? They are weekly released gameplay story arcs that are available on Saturdays at 11am Pacific and are indefinitely playable for any character of any level in either faction. In addition to the standard mission rewards players will receive at the end of each episode, there is a special reward available for completing a Series during its initial release schedule.

Cryptic's award winning Star Trek Online turned one yesterday and celebrates by awarding players with a special sale and some new items in the game's C-Store. From now until February 4th at 10am PST, (act quickly folks...that's tomorrow morning) players can take 20% off all of the store's listed prices on select items. Also included in the new C-Store update are the addition of a brand new Delta Flyer (from Voyager fame) and timed skill point boosts. These point boosts provide the player with a 20 percent increase in the amount of skill points and bridge officer skill points gained during play for your choice of 1 or 8 hours. Check out the full details below.

Cryptic Studios Star Trek Online was the proud recipient of 5 "Best of 2010" awards from Joystiq's Massively MMO blog. Not only did it dominate the category, but STO beat other popular newcomers like Lego Universe & Final Fantasy XIV. 2010 has been a wild ride for Cryptic and STO, starting with the launch in January, an executive producer change, and multiple massive update releases including Season 1 through 3.

According to Massively, Star Trek Online walked away with 47.6% of the vote on this one, while nothing else really came close. In fact, the next-highest vote count belongs to None of the Above (shown as All Other Responses in the graph), meaning the 11,820 people who voted in this one weren't really impressed with anything else in 2010.

In all, Star Trek Online won Best Launch of 2010, Best PvP in a 2010 MMO, Best Capacity for Roleplaying in a 2010 MMO, Biggest Surprise Hit of 2010, and Overall Best New MMO of 2010. Congratulations to the Guys & Gals at Cryptic. We're looking forward to what 2011 has to offer us in the Star Trek Online Universe.

It appears that Cryptic Studios has the holiday spirit. From now until January 3rd, you can take 20% off all of your purchases in the Star Trek Online C-store. This actually could come in pretty handy considering Cryptic has been steadily adding ship & costume updates over the past several months. The most recent editions include the first playable Nausicaan ship for the Klingon faction, plus the federation uniforms from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". (*Update* it appears that these two items are excluded from the holiday sale... LAME) We're kinda fond of the "Motion Picture" duds, since that film was our first experience in the Star Trek universe. It seems some Trek fans claim that the motion picture was "too beige", but we found it extremely fitting for the late 70s / early 80s. Anyway, check out more C-store details below.  

Oh, and apparently, the Nausicaan ship has lots of Guramba....

Just like us, I'm sure you've often wanted and longed for the day that your STO alt could somehow look just like Counselor Troi. Well my friend, rejoice! That day is now upon us. Cryptic just release the real deal, get your very own Counselor Troi uniform for all of your empathic needs. Now if you could just manage to style your alts hair into that long betazoid bouffant it would indeed be a perfect world.  Oh, maybe they'll soon release the "pout" emote.

All sarcasm aside, we think it's cool that Cryptic is making things like this available in there bid to cater to all the different types of Trek fans. Slowly, but sure, STO is becoming the game Trek fans want.

Cryptic Studios just released another installment in their ongoing series "Ask Cryptic". These popular monthly question and answer sessions give Star Trek Online players a chance to ask Executive Producer Dan Stahl questions about the future of the MMO. In this month's edition Cryptic Studios is saying that their new internal motto is "More like Star Trek". Dan elaborates by saying "This includes more story, more locations and factions from the universe, and generally more elements that allow the game to feel like the shows." We can say that this is definitely good news. Players are also asking about crew improvements, delving into the Delta Quadrant, PVP updates, Vulcan & Andorian ship additions, and much more. Check out the question and answers excerpt below.

Q: martinbrayman: Will we ever get too see the current enterprise?

Hot on the heels of other recent C-Store releases, Cryptic Studios aims to please the Star Trek: Enterprise fans that also happen to be STO players. Made available recently, the new items include a full cadre of Enterprise era uniforms as well as the NX-01 class retrofit starship. Both uniforms and ship are available as a bundle (everything for 1215 Cryptic Points) or for the more budget conscious, as individual items. We were excited to not only see the standard Starfleet Enterprise era uniforms, but the mirror universe duds as well. Time to add a goatee to one of our alts. Check out the full details below.

Value Bundle: Enterprise
(1215 Cryptic Points)l