Season 6 Dev Blog #7
By PWE_BranFlakes @ June 20, 2012 at 4:14pm
Reinforcements Duty Officer Pack
Since the Duty Officer system was unveiled, we have experimented with a couple of different ways of expanding the system. Some of these ideas included new species, new active roster abilities, Ultra-Rare Duty Officers, new traits, mixtures of random and set Duty Officers, and Duty Officers bundled with bonus items. From that time, we have learned a lot, both about what works and what does not. The Reinforcements Duty Officer Pack is an effort to bring together some of these lessons and evolve them even further.
In particular, one idea we wanted to revive was the idea of including things other than Duty Officers in a pack. The Duty Officer system itself deals with a large number of items that act both as inputs and outputs, and we wanted to reflect that in this design. More info on that in a bit.
The Reinforcements Pack includes the same breakdown as previous packs: one Blue quality or better, two Green quality or better and four White quality or better. These new Duty Officers come from existing species. For Federation players, this means Human, Andorian, Vulcan, Tellarite, Caitian and Betazoid (the last was in order to put more Telepathic Duty Officers into the hands of Federation players to balance out the KDF Ferasan advantage). For Klingon players, this means Klingon, Orion, Gorn, Nausicaan, Lethean and Ferasan.
All of these Duty Officers are of existing specializations, but they all have alternate active roster abilities. In all, thirteen new active roster powers for eleven specializations have been created. In particular, we expect the new Energy Weapons Officer and new Flight Deck Officer active roster abilities to draw a lot of attention, as well as a non-career specific Security Officer variant active roster power and the return of the now-defunct EMH power, this time on Nurses and Medics.
Beyond these, we will also be introducing – separate from the Reinforcements Pack – standard active roster abilities for many non-Civilian duty officer specializations that never had active roster abilities. Existing Botanists, Biologists, Geologists and Research Lab Scientists will be gaining active roster abilities of their own when Season 6 launches. The new Duty Officers are only the beginning of the new Reinforcements Pack, however.
The alternate active roster abilities include:
- Deflector Officer
- Chance to reflect damage while using Polarize Hull
- Flight Deck Officer (Variant 1)
- Increase Carrier Defense while in Recall Mode
- Flight Deck Officer (Variant 2)
- Increase Fighter Accuracy while in Intercept Mode
- Flight Deck Officer (Variant 3)
- Increase Fighter Damage while in Escort Mode
- Tractor Beam Officer
- Drains -10 Engine Subsystem Energy with Tractor Beam Repulsors
- Doctor
- Triage and Medical Tricorder can trigger a second heal
- Geologist
- Create a Gravity Well effect on ground when using Gravimetric Shift
- Gravimetric Scientist
- Create an aftershock Tyken's Rift (same functionality as existing Gravity Well aftershock)
- Nurse/Medic
- Increased Crew Recovery when crew is <75%
- Assault Squad Officer
- Extra Team Heal and AOE Rez on Rally Cry
- Energy Weapons Officer (Variant 1)
- Reduce recharge time on Cannon Rapid Fire and Cannon Volley
- Energy Weapons Officer (Variant 2)
- Reduce recharge time on Beam Overload and Fire at Will
- Security Officer
- Increase melee Crit Chance and Crit Severity (ground)
In addition to any Duty Officers you receive, you also will get one (1) of the following special bonus prizes:
- A stack of Gamma Quadrant commodities (which will be in high demand with the new Fleet Advancement and Starbase system)
- A stack of Gamma Quadrant consumable devices (new devices based on the Gamma Quadrant commodities)
- An Alien Artifact (available in both "Powered" and "Unpowered" versions)
- A random Mk XII Very Rare Console
- or the jackpot prize… a Tuffli Class Freighter Ship Pack
The new Freighter isn't intended for combat, though it actually is functional at that for the earliest part of your captain's career. It can be switched to from your regular ship like a shuttle and is crammed with every Duty Officer system special we could think of. You can buy commodities at merchant ship rates from the interior, it has a Bank, access to the Exchange, a Mail console, Crafting, a Trader with additional Trade Duty Officer assignments, and can even periodically call a Security Ship for Contraband, Tribble Bounty and Prisoner Exchange turn-ins. Here is some more detailed information about this freighter:
Tuffli Class Freighter
Freighters and Transports are large vessels designed for trade and long range cargo hauling. Almost all space-faring races utilize Freighters, and designs created by Ferengi and Cardassian corporations have become standard throughout the quadrant. The Tuffli Class Freighter is arguably the best vessel for managing Duty Officer Assignments, trade, cargo acquisition and transport, and other related commendation tasks.
The Tuffli Class Freighter interior has a number of amenities including a Trade Duty Officer Assignment contact, which is not standard on most starships. Both you and your allies can access the Trader.
Also assigned to the Freighter interior is a Quartermaster. The Quartermaster can sell you and your allies commodities at a discounted rate. A similar discount applies when you make any Energy Credit Purchase while onboard your ship (for instance, from Sector Space Freighter Stores). The interior also include access to the Bank, Exchange, Mail, and Crafting, all of which are accessible to you and your allies.
The Tuffli Class Freighter has access to a secure subspace channel to call in a Security Transport ship. The Security Transport will allow you to access Prisoner Transfer and Contraband Assignments. The Security Transport is not a combat support vessel, and can only be called when in Sector Space. It is accessible to you and your allies.
Finally, the Tuffli Class Freighter comes with a Transwarp Drive that will allow you to access the furthest corners of the quadrant. The Transwarp Drive will allow you to instantly access most Exploration Clusters. Note, like many older Transwarp drives, the Freighter's Transwarp has a small chance to fail.
Tuffli Class Freighters are not designed as combat vessels. They come with minimal armaments designed only to ward off pirates and other would-be threats.
Note: You can switch to your Freighter from any ship interior. Once you're done using it, switch back to any ship from the Freighter interior.
- Hull Strength: 17,500
- Shield Modifier: 0.7
- Crew: 100
- Weapons: 2 Fore, 1 Aft
- Device Slots: 5
- Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Ensign Universal, 1 Lieutenant Universal
- Console Modifications: 3 Engineering
- Base Turn Rate: 6 degrees per second
- Impulse Modifier: 0.12
- +5 Power to Engines
- Onboard access to the Bank, Exchange, Mail and Crafting.
- Trade Duty Officer Assignment contact
- Quartermaster Commodity Broker
- Energy Credit Discount
- Can call Security Transport
- Transwarp Drive
The Reinforcements Pack represents a new level of investment from the Star Trek Online team to the Duty Officer system, and we sincerely hope you enjoy this pack as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. It will be available in the C-Store starting on Friday. We’ll see you in-game!
Geoff "Heretic" Tuffli
Senior Systems Designer
Star Trek Online
lincolninspace @ Nov 5th, 2012 5:37PM
Andorian antennae animations? Se eing ships outside the windows? The ship docks inside esd. You guys a whining too much! I would have liked this better if you were guaranteed to get one of the ships either the freighter or the plastic toy like Jemhaddar ship. it would have been worth more zen to me to have a guarantee like that.
timmy2shoes @ Jul 27th, 2012 7:40PM
I like th freighter Idea. I need to cram stuff onto it about now. But I can't believe that you can't access a bank, mail, or the exchange on your own starship? Really, I mean c'mon. lets be reasonable about it. You can make it to where you have to be a certain Rank to gain access. Or make it progressive, such as Leutenants can access mail, commanders the bank, and admirals the exchange. just a thought. But, again, the freighter thing will work, especially when you can use it for storage. ;) Thanx.
rattatman @ Jul 5th, 2012 8:12PM
OI forgot. Where is the dabo table? you did say the most common freighters are Frenegi and cardasion. This seem a natural inclusion to the cargo bay. besides i love flying my Frenegi ship to play dabo and chat with fleet. Sometimes you just want to relax without some do-fuss spraying a fire extinguisher in your face.
rattatman @ Jul 5th, 2012 8:01PM
You want me to spend real money. Have a BIG sale with this as well! I can never resist a sale. Its a little unmanly but when you consider i an spending the money on a GAME :) lol it just don't seem to matter that much.
homotrollicus @ Jun 26th, 2012 9:33AM
Instead of this DOff crap (which gets rather pointless after maxing out the commendations), release the special ships for CPoints. I'll be the first to buy the bug ship.
nyiad @ Jun 25th, 2012 9:05PM
So.......instead of the plan to have a "trader" mini faciton...once more a lockbox in disguise...now in doff pack form! Yes it is cool, but....if that ship can have all that crap in it...why not the ships we have...oh wait...yeah less profit... :P
chaz85 @ Jun 22nd, 2012 5:29PM
Here's an idea ...... Make it so we can go to the Bank or Exchange from our own ships crew deck . You could get rid of the call trade freater and reduce trafic at Esd and the klink homeworld at the same time.
mall405a @ Jun 22nd, 2012 3:03PM
i have a very rare flight deck officer who just stays in my roster. i cant use it for anything. cant put it on active duty or use it on a mission. so what up with this. @davidnalloy
mikelandrews @ Jun 22nd, 2012 8:26AM
Here's my nit-picking "want" for this game". It'd be really cool, if on the missions where you beam down to a space station or a ship, that you could see your ship outside the window.
xastirx
Its doable in theory, but it could cause considerable server strain. After all, if done to its maximum potential, everyone would see their unique ship outside. Considering how many variations on paint jobs there are and part combinations, the game would have to constantly generating new models on the fly for everyone. That could cause considerable lag for everyone for everyone near a window.
kubagucwa @ Jun 22nd, 2012 8:05AM
Anybody knows why the andorians still haven't got animated , moving antennas ?
scottaprice @ Jun 22nd, 2012 7:27AM
The only thing THIS is missing is "Cargo Space" - additional bank space for the owner !
zeuxidemus001 @ Jun 22nd, 2012 2:37AM
I would have to say though we did ask for these type of modifiers with new doffs like cannon recharges etc... So I can't really jump on the bandwagon of nickel and diming on this because I did personally request months ago for a cannon rapid fire reduced cd with doffs and a tykens to work like gw... So I might start playing again for these I'd just rather I have something new and fun to actually play to get the dilithium with to get these packs.
xastirx @ Jun 21st, 2012 11:42PM
I know that the scale seems wrong, but its a camera accomadation. See, if the bridges were made to scale with the player, the camera couldn't possibly go anywhere than the level of your characters backside. This is because the camera cannot move through walls in ground mode, or at least isnt supposed to. The reason for the grandious scale is so that the camera has room to move around the environment while zoomed out to long distances. Other than that, id have to say i agree about the freighter textures. Something a little more unique, like maybe the USS Raven class. while that ship was only used as a survey vessel with a crew consisting of one workaholic man, his panicky wife, and skiddish 4 year old daughter, the ship did have expansive cargo space. Why not go with that design?
dr45ath @ Jun 21st, 2012 8:21PM
interesting but didn't give any idea what kind of weapons the freighter has. it my first time to post on the blog for anything.
meurik @ Jun 21st, 2012 2:49PM
And now apparently, Heretic is leaving Cryptic. I suppose it's true what they say, rats leave a sinking ship... You will be sorely missed Heretic.
stoleviathan99
I don't know what your opinion of rats is. Call Cryptic what you want but Heretic is the hardest working guy in game development. I hope he got poached by a company that offered to double his salary. :-) His work here remains amazing and a testament to what (mostly) one dev can do.
n0vastarone @ Jun 21st, 2012 12:43PM
Look another bullcrap cash scheme. gg PWE
izdan @ Jun 21st, 2012 10:24AM
Please get rid of the bouncing frame on the side of the page it's REALLY annoying
cers001
I support that from the bottom of my hart
veruler
I agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
abrahamjohnson83 @ Jun 21st, 2012 9:37AM
Nice that trading get more focus!
obiwonko1 @ Jun 21st, 2012 9:09AM
Energy Weapons Officer (Variant 1) Reduce recharge time on Cannon Rapid Fire and Cannon Volley sounds expensive and probably the most useful can free up slots for orders if you equip enough of them.
diogene0 @ Jun 21st, 2012 8:28AM
We all know why we love Heretic so much. :D
ygyhuu @ Jun 21st, 2012 7:20AM
So much win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
jg2112 @ Jun 21st, 2012 7:08AM
The first thing I'm going to do if I get this is use it in an elite STF.
kvet @ Jun 21st, 2012 6:01AM
I like this freighter idea, and I think whiny babies (that aren't mine anyway) are annoying and should probably need a nap or a time out. So... go take one. A long one. and stop complaining that you (among, what, hundreds of thousands, or millions of players) didn't get what you personally wanted, as if you're so bloody important. What? you're quitting the game over this? Sweet, less lag and annoying complaints for me... I say good riddance to bad rubbish.
chairmanmeowmix
I'm so happy you get off on your own smug self-importance. People are allowed to state their opinions about the game. You however are complaining about players having opinions and are, in my opinion, worse than the so-called "whiners" because you're basically saying that no one is allowed to have an opinion adverse to your own. Well, you sound like a spoiled child...please seek therapy and/or medication for your issues.
realuniqueone @ Jun 21st, 2012 4:39AM
Just a thought... Why not give the player extra inventory space while flying a freighter? That might actually be useful (and could definately be made useful with future updates).
michaelp1989 @ Jun 21st, 2012 4:17AM
*azura...
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