Cryptic Studios has been busy lately adding more updates to StarTrekOnline.com.  On top of taking closed beta applications, they have also released a brand new screen shot, a new starfleet ship class, a new addition to the Kobayashi Maru, & a another dev chat. 

Starfleet Discovery Class

The Intrepid class proved its worth as a long-range vessel during U.S.S. Voyager's time in the Delta Quadrant. Voyager successfully completed a 70,000 light year journey with no access to Starfleet supplies or facilities. Its success made the Intrepid class the gold standard for deep space explorer ships.

Inspired by Voyager, the design teams at Utopia Planitia set out to update the Intrepid class with the latest in Starfleet technology and design theory. The Discovery class, along with her sister ships Intrepid and Cochrane, is more than capable of long exploration missions without Starfleet support or assistance, but is equally equipped as a fleet support or solo patrol vessel.

Designed primarily for exploration, the Discovery has expanded science facilities and laboratories, including increased space for science officers on the bridge. Its laboratories are designed to allow its crew to put experiments into stasis during emergencies, meaning that key data will not be lost in the event of an accident.

For maximized engine efficiency, the designers kept the variable-geometry pylons from the Intrepid class, improving them for seven percent less energy loss than other Starfleet vessels of similar size. The Discovery also features warp foils, which extend when the ship is in its warp configuration. The warp foils are designed to increase stability when the ship is a high warp or is using transwarp conduits. The SCE will be doing a long-term study of the warp foil's effectiveness on the Discovery before making a recommendation on whether more ship designs should incorporate the foils.  (source Star Trek Online)

Read the full article here.

Kobayashi Maru No. 28

You are asked to transport a neutral diplomat to a peace conference between two warring solar alliances; the Kresch and the J’Edan.

The core conflict revolves around a fundamental religious difference and has cost billions of lives in the last 3 decades. Both worlds feel that the only way to cleanse a planet of the religion brought by their foes, is causing global tidal waves; created by massive tectonic shifts in the planets’ crusts. Each of these attacks need months of planning; as the material needed to attack a planet in such manner cannot be transported at warp speeds. Each of these “Tidal Convoys” is a fleet of five sub-warp ships; each hosting a crew of 800 who are undertaking these attacks knowing they will die. Both Kresch and J’Edan have invested all their technological advancements into colonizing planets and creating these tidal ships, so neither of these two alliances has defenses against these attacks.

During negotiations, threats are made from both sides against our diplomat; both sides are convinced that they will not be given a fair chance and are ready to be a martyr to their home worlds’ cause; as they expect to be assassinated. Both sides feel that the Federation would kill them and every one of their people for their own goal of peace. After you have hosted the peace conference on your ship for 3 days without mayor incidents; cease fire is negotiated, the first step to peace is forged. Only hours after the diplomats of Kresch and J’Edan leave your ship, you receive a subspace message from a federation colony, bordering the warzone. A convoy of J’Edan Tidal Ships has been spotted and seems to be headed for one of the Kresch outposts and will reach it in three weeks time. The star charts show a region of unstable space which will make use of communication and long-range scanning impossible - just ahead of the convoy. They will cross through this area of space in the next two days. The neutral diplomat has urged you to find a way to destroy the convoy, as the men and women manning these are zealots which will never be convinced to stop their mission. He argues that they have accepted death as a consequence of their attack anyhow and killing them will preserve the cease fire. As a Starfleet officer however, you know that attacking these ships will be murder and an act of war, should your actions become known.

Your orders are to ensure that peace will have the best possible chance, as war has started to encroach into nearby federation worlds.  (source Star Trek Online)

Read the full article here.

Dev Chat 9/22 Transcript

<Bizarro_Rekhan> Hello everyone, and welcome to today's dev chat! With us today is Steven "Snix" Nix, our Combat Systems Designer. He'll be answering your questions about player progression. To ask a question, please join #stoquestions and post it there. You can also discuss the chat in #talktrek.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <SenatorPardek> My major concern is will there be penalties for cross-class skills, especially in Space. Will my Engineer take a penalty for tactical skills? What if I want my Scientist to fly a Galaxy Class or Excallibur Class, will I be at a disadvantage? Is ground and space totally divorced or do costs change depending on your profession?

<snix> Space skills represent your ship and its crew, so they are open to all players. Characters do gain a handful of career specific space abilities (clickable powers). On the ground, skill selection is restricted to the character's chosen career.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <ghost202> More info on Kits plz, what they, are how they unlock, etc.

<snix> Kits are career specific items that provide a collection of abilities (clickable powers). The abilities are usually grouped into a collection that emphasizes a particular career specialty. The player may only have one kit equipped at a time, but they may swap kits out of combat to change their character's current selection of abilities, thereby changing their current speciality (or spec). Kits are acquired through mission rewards and exploration.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Zeroth> In CO, during the End-Of-Open-Beta event, at level 40, all the powers was quite overwhelming. What kind of tools do you have planned for dealing with not just our own skills, but those of our BOs efficiently?

<snix> On the ground you may set up your BOs to use their abilities automatically or by request, so you can manage how much direct activity you perform. In space firing your ship's weapons occurs often and is your focus, but your BO abilities are used at more discreet moments. Even after you've acquired several officers, activation of their abilities occurs

<snix> at a slow enough pace so as to not be overwhelming.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <Zeroth> What kind of benefit will we gain from levellling up a skill to its max?

<snix> Skills earned at lower ranks cover broad categories of improvement. Maxing out the Lieutenant skill 'Starship Projectile Weapons' offers a slight improvement to any projectile weapon fired. Maxing out the Commander skill 'Photon Projectiles' offers a significant improvement to photon projectiles specifically, but would not improve quantum projectiles.

<snix> Abilities are generally improved by three different skills in combination. For this example, firing a photon torpedo would be modified by a character's 'Starship Projectile Weapons', 'Starship Torpedoes', and 'Photon Projectiles' skills, providing up to 100% more effectiveness over an unskilled character with similar gear.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <herocreator> You mentioned that you will be advancing through the ships. How exactly will the mechanic work to acquire them? Will it be mission based, where you do a big mission for your faction that requires the ship so they give it to you or will it be more traditional, requiring the player to "purchase" them (though without money I am not sure how it would work).

<snix> Characters gain the right to command larger ships by advancing in rank. As part of a rank promotion, they acquire one new ship of the appropriate size. In order to gain additional ships of that size, extra Merit with Starfleet must be expended.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> <flosche95> In the Ask Cryptic #15 it sounds like I can spend my skillpoints as I want to. Let's say I have earned 10 skillpoints. Can I spend 3 in ground skills, 3 in spaceskills and another 4 to learn to fly a new shipclass or are there differnt types of skillpoints for the diffent types of skills?

<snix> You can spend your skillpoints as you like, on skills that are available based on your earned rank. Those include your career specific ground skills, as well as the cross-career space skills that represent your ship and crew.

<BizarroDaeke> <captainbrown> How will BO skills differ from player skills. And will there be some overlap? For example if I choose the tacitcal path for my captain can I still gain access to some of the science path skills by having a well trained science officer?

<snix> Player skills differ in that they influence your personal abilities, as well as the performance of your bridge officers and ship. Bridge Officer skills focus on discreet abilities, like how well they can use the 'High Yield Torpedo' ability.

<snix> Your character's choice of career influences their personal skill selection, but your officers have their own careers and you can spend skillpoints to improve them even if different from your own.

<BizarroDaeke> <JBJeremy> In a skill-based system, there are no levels to indicate the difficulty level of a particular encounter or mission. What steps are you taking to ensure that players will be guided toward participating in content that matches their current skill levels?

<Cryptic_Geko> Although players don't have a true level, we basically extrapolate a level based on Skill Points spent. In a less esoteric way, critters have a level. Basically, we extrapolate the expected effectiveness of a player based on how many skillpoints they have spentand critters will "Con" to them accordingly.

<Cryptic_Geko> So we expect a player with, say, 100 skillpoints spent to be doing "X" dps and have "Y" defense/HP, and we have critters that are build to fight a player with "X" and "Y" - and those critters will con evenly to that player.

<Bizarro_Rekhan> Ladies and gentlemen: Mr. Al Rivera!

<BizarroDaeke> <[LF]NiomoLire> Question: just to get a confirmation, we are allowed to get ALL the space skills from each profession. correct? in the Ask Cryptic there was a bit of restatement from one question to the other.

<Cryptic_Geko> The short answer is Yes. All players get access to all space skill, so if you are a science officer, you still can get tactical and engineering space skills. However, there are some clickable space abilities that are profession specific, and all ground skills are restricted by class.

<BizarroDaeke> <Zoberraz> Q: So, if we understand correctly, most player captain skills are passive abilities, whereas bridge officer abilities as mostly activable powers.

<snix> Player skills that are purchased are passive improvements to their officers' and ship's ability. Players do acquire clickable abilities through rank progression (both space and ground) and augment this by acquiring Bridge Officers for space abilities and Kits for ground abilities. (source Star Trek Online)

Read the full transcript here.