Tag: Star Trek Online

Raptr: Star Trek Online Bundle Coming 9/4


Raptr is one of my favorite apps to have running in the background, next to xfire. Essentially it is a simple program which tracks how much time you spend in games on your PC, Xbox and PS3, tracks your achievements, and ranks you in each game based on time played and achievements earned. It also has a host of other features, including chat and suggested/featured games to check out. But what I love most about Raptr are the coupon codes that the game hands out on a pretty regular basis.

Currently in beta, the Raptr rewards is pretty basic. The list is mostly populated with item bundles for Blacklight: Retribution and Lost Saga, but every once in a while the program has pulled in some great rewards. We’ve seen giveaways for Mists of Pandaria beta keys, 50% off TERA coupons, and free copies of Rift. The next bundle, set to go live September 4th, involves Star Trek Online. By achieving “newbie” rank or above in Star Trek Online, players will be able to claim the Bridge Officer Bundle. By achieving experienced or above, players will be able to redeem an exclusive cosmetic pet.

The Bridge Officer Bundle contains:

  • Consumable item that grants 2,500 EXP
  • Pack of 5000 Raw Dilithium
  • Random Rare ‘Purple’ tiered weapon (space or ground)
  • Pack of random ‘self’ dual consumables
  • Pack of random ‘team’ dual consumables

Raptr costs absolutely nothing and neither to the rewards. The only catch is that each reward is limited in quantity, so you’ll have to act fast once the giveaway starts September 4th.

(Source: Raptr)

Cryptic Introduces Account Guard


Since the days when people began storing things in secret locations, there have been others waiting to pick the lock, steal the combination, and steal whatever was being hidden. In the age of the internet, keeping your personal data hidden becomes more difficult as the days go on, and developers have been on the assault against account thieves.

Cryptic is beefing up their security with Account Guard. When the user attempts to log in from an unidentified computer, the system will send a key to the email address associated with the account. The key must be entered, otherwise the user will be unable to log in. If there is a failed attempt at logging in, the user will be notified by email.

The system can be opted out of if the user prefers not to enroll.

(Source: FAQ)

Lockboxes Illegal? Cryptic Would Rather Dump Your Country


It’s been almost two years since Bill Roper has had anything to do with Cryptic Studios, but with some of the recent money-related decisions made by the developer, you would never know he’d left. Not long ago, Cryptic introduced lockboxes, cash shop items that have the chance at offering valuable items to the players who buy them. Apparently the lockboxes constitute gambling in some countries, including the Netherlands, and according to several users on the Star Trek Online forums, are being investigated by various government bodies.

And if your laws do prohibit such gambling, Cryptic’s Borticus wants you to know that Cryptic is listening. Not so the company can react, just so they know which country to ban.

I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.

And I know what you’re thinking, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about for Cryptic’s bottom line. Your money wasn’t really that significant anyway.

Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.

And sure, some people might point out that Cryptic’s past monetary decisions didn’t prevent the company from posting six to seven figure losses, leading to them being dumped on the streets by Atari, but those people are missing an important point: Cryptic asked for your money, not your opinion.

(Source: Jupiter Force forums)

Star Trek Online's PvP Sucks, Could Be Removed, Says Cryptic


I don’t think I can be any clearer on this point. You the players don’t like it, we the developers don’t like it and all the data we pull from the servers backs up the statement as well. Now, we could start discussing why PVP is the way it is. There are lots of reasons, some you as players know and some you don’t. Discussing that particular topic wouldn’t move us forward, now is not the time to figure out who is to blame for what and why.

Can the player vs player element of Star Trek Online be saved? Literally. PvP has never been a major focus for Star Trek Online, in fact the section of the game is so unpopular that Cryptic is willing to remove it completely without impact to the overall player base. Cryptic’s Gozer is on the forums to discuss the bad news, noting that he is now the only resource standing between PvP and total death. In the weeks to come, he shall decide the fate if Star Trek Online’s PvP continues in a new form, or dies completely.

This situation is reminiscent of the Klingon faction support. Cryptic reported last year that they would not be supporting the Klingon faction due to low resources and low player interest, however the low player interest was due to the fact that the Klingon faction was released in a very unfinished state. So this seems to be another case of Cryptic releasing a portion of the game unfinished, only to cite low interest as a reason that they aren’t able to put resources into fixing it.

More on this as it appears.

(Source: Star Trek Online forums)

Star Trek Online’s PvP Sucks, Could Be Removed, Says Cryptic


I don’t think I can be any clearer on this point. You the players don’t like it, we the developers don’t like it and all the data we pull from the servers backs up the statement as well. Now, we could start discussing why PVP is the way it is. There are lots of reasons, some you as players know and some you don’t. Discussing that particular topic wouldn’t move us forward, now is not the time to figure out who is to blame for what and why.

Can the player vs player element of Star Trek Online be saved? Literally. PvP has never been a major focus for Star Trek Online, in fact the section of the game is so unpopular that Cryptic is willing to remove it completely without impact to the overall player base. Cryptic’s Gozer is on the forums to discuss the bad news, noting that he is now the only resource standing between PvP and total death. In the weeks to come, he shall decide the fate if Star Trek Online’s PvP continues in a new form, or dies completely.

This situation is reminiscent of the Klingon faction support. Cryptic reported last year that they would not be supporting the Klingon faction due to low resources and low player interest, however the low player interest was due to the fact that the Klingon faction was released in a very unfinished state. So this seems to be another case of Cryptic releasing a portion of the game unfinished, only to cite low interest as a reason that they aren’t able to put resources into fixing it.

More on this as it appears.

(Source: Star Trek Online forums)

Cryptic Studios Was Hacked…In 2010…


MMO Fallout's reporter in the field fails us once again...

In case there is any confusion, you are indeed reading an article posted on April 25th, 2012, for an announcement that was posted on April 25th of the same year. Cryptic Studios has announced via their corporate website that an unknown user gained unauthorized access to their servers in December 2010, analysis of which has only just come back recently.

The unauthorized access included user account names, handles, and encrypted passwords for those accounts. Even though the passwords were encrypted, it is apparent that the intruder has been able to crack some portion of the passwords in this database. All accounts that we believe were present in the database have had the passwords reset, and customers registered to these accounts have been notified via e-mail of this incident.

If you have  a Star Trek Online or Champions Online account dating back to December 2010, it is strongly suggested that you secure any other accounts that share the same email address/username/password.

(Source: Cryptic Studios)

Star Trek Online Early Access Begins January 5th


Set your sonic screwdriver to maximum extermination! Sorry, wrong franchise. As announced last year, Star Trek is Cryptic’s second title to make the transition to free to play, although the wait may feel like forever and a day. If only there was a way for Cryptic to allow past subscribers a chance to get into the game before the full launch and before all the new free players mob the server, so perhaps jaded ex-subscribers can get a decent look at how the game has evolved without server queues, crashes, and lag.

Well I have an answer to your oddly specific request: You can. Starting January 5th, Cryptic will reactivate all existing accounts to enjoy the splendor that is travel across the galaxy. You have to have purchased the game at some point, however. Trial players are not included in this offer.

You can check out the free to play matrix to see what will be available when the update goes live tomorrow.

(Source: Dev Blog)

(Free to play matrix)

Atari: Star Trek Online Free To Play? Over Our Dead Bodies


Atari and I have never been on the best of terms.

 I believe I referred to Atari on a website that is not MMO Fallout, as an empty shell of a company that not only couldn’t keep itself on the NASDAQ stock listing, had a failed European branch, and has undergone more cosmetic surgery to change face than any other company in the business. Despite being relegated to the position of publisher for any notable title over the past decade, Atari has been downsized to the elderly man who keeps talking about his youth, and he buys up the younger crowd so he can live through them, even though his limbs are falling off from years of mistreatment.

Turns out John Smedley wasn’t the only creator desiring free to play, cut back by an unseen foe. In an interview, Cryptic’s Executive Producer on Star Trek Online Stephen D’Angelo stated that,  “We’ve always wanted the game to be free-to-play,” he says, “in fact we tried to make it free-to-play at the original launch, but our publisher [Atari] didn’t want us doing that so we didn’t do that.” You mean to tell me I could have obtained the entire Original Series cosmetic series without buying multiple copies of the game? What a kick in the teeth.

Of course Cryptic shares no blame in this, after all they were an owned subsidiary of Atari at the time and what Atari said was law. The article goes on to talk a bit about how Cryptic is handling the free to play switch, drastically different than the Champions Online conversion which was met with “mixed results,” according to the article.

Atari publicly dumped Cryptic Studios earlier this year, selling the studio to Perfect World Entertainment. The game is set to switch to free to play in January 2012.

Cryptic Rushed Star Trek Because Of Strict License Deadlines


Good news, fervent defenders of Star Trek Online. The guys over at the STOked podcast managed to snag an interview with Stephen D’angelo, Executive Producer of Star Trek Online at Cryptic Studios. In the interview, which you can view below (it starts at 11:20), D’angelo talks about the deadlines that Cryptic faced when developing the MMO, most notably the fact that when Cryptic acquired the license from Perpetual Entertainment (the previous developer that had gone under), they also inherited the game’s due date for completion. For Cryptic, this meant starting several years behind schedule.

So now when time someone tells you that Star Trek Online was rushed because Bill Roper loves money, you can strike them with facts.

What Star Trek Online Will Offer For Free


Star Trek Online heads free to play later this year, leaving players wondering what will be available with no cost attached, and what players will be expected to cough up some Cryptic points to enjoy. Well, thanks to some much needed love from Cryptic Studios, I can tell you exactly what will be made available:

  • All sectors and missions are available for free. This includes fleet actions, events and dailies, featured episodes, special task forces, and Klingon play.
  • All classes are available for free.
  • Races have the same availability to free players as with members.
  • All ships are available (barring premium ships, which members have to buy as well)
As for limits:
  • Limited to 2 character slots (out of 3)
  • Limited credit storage (unknown amount)
  • Limitations on fleet (guild) creation.
  • Maximum 48 inventory and 48 bank space (out of 72 and 96 respectively)
  • Cannot create foundry projects (can play other player’s creations)
  • Cannot obtain veteran rewards.
  • Will wait behind subscribers in the case of server queues.
  • Limited access to mail and chat (this limitation is waived after 20 hours of gameplay or if the account has ever been a subscriber/made a c-store purchase)
  • Limited forum access (waived for past subscribers)
  • Limited customer service access.
  • Advertisements in vivox voice chat.
You can read the entire list here.