Star Trek Online: Season 8.5 Launches Alongside 4th Anniversary Event

MikeB

Perfect World is celebrating the fourth anniversary of Star Trek Online today with the launch of Season 8.5. Season 8.5 includes a new Featured Episode in "A Step Between Stars", with Star Trek actor Tim Russ lending his talents as Admiral Tuvok.

Additional details below:

Season 8.5 brings many new updates and changes including the brand-new Ship Management system, revamped Federation episodic missions, a small space PvP arena, and much more!  The latest Featured Episode “A Step Between Stars” continues the adventure players began in “Sphere of Influence.” Captains level 10 and above will brave the dangers of flying over the surface of the sun to meet Admiral Tuvok and help him complete his mission.. Additionally, captains will get a chance to fly in one of the new Dyson Hybrid Ships that are being introduced for the first time.

Captains will be rewarded with one of three unique pieces of ship equipment of their choosing (replay to get all 3!), and additionally, on their first playthrough, 400 Qmendations! This will provide a great boost to the start of their Anniversary Event reputation project. Qmendations can be inputted into the special anniversary event reputation project that will reward players with a Dyson Science Destroyer from their character’s faction upon completion.

Learn more Season 8.5 and the 4th Anniversary event here.

Grand_Nagus

Unfortunately the server has been down most of the day, but yeah cool =P

Hariken

Is it true that they are not giving away a free ship at end of story but making you grind for it instead?

skeaser

I don't get how this is still going. I'm assuming it's improved since launch? I tried it out early on and it was glitchy, laggy and just no fun to even try to play.

Grand_Nagus

Originally posted by Hariken
Is it true that they are not giving away a free ship at end of story but making you grind for it instead?

That depends on your definition of "free". The ship doesnt "cost" you anything, but yes you do have to spend time playing to get it. It does take more time than in previous years though.

Grand_Nagus

Originally posted by skeaser
I don't get how this is still going. I'm assuming it's improved since launch? I tried it out early on and it was glitchy, laggy and just no fun to even try to play.

 

The game has improved dramatically since launch. In fact, its surprised me, since I did not have very high expectations. That said, today has not been a good day because there have been ongoing server problems that has kept the game offline most of the day. However as someone who plays regularly, I know this isnt normal. Even so, it is kind of frustrating.

Baxslash

yea, it came up, then 3 hours later, the servers kicked off again, with all this happening, I'm hoping they extend the time required to get the Qmendations to get the ship, as I was on my 4th character when the servers crashed again.

gamerman98

Originally posted by Grand_Nagus
Unfortunately the server has been down most of the day, but yeah cool =P

REally??? was it down at night because I was on all afternoon playing and enjoying the mission with Tuvok. 

Po_gg

Originally posted by Hariken
Is it true that they are not giving away a free ship at end of story but making you grind for it instead?

Yep, that's the case. As Nagus said it's still free, but not an automatic reward for playing through the Anniversary mission like it was in the previous years. Which is a bit sad.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like Cryptic and their games, but when they put this mechanic in game two years ago at the upgraded winter wonderland, I said that following that route will corrupt the festive events... (and since then they inserted it into all 3 games, and in every event they have)

 

Maybe theyre feeling too, that they've gone a bit far, that's why they're giving the headstart of 400. Btw, Qmendations... great one

DijonCyanide

i still think this is one of the better, if not best, free to play mmos out there.  This event is introducing the voicing of Star Trek actor Tim Russ reprising his role as Tuvok.  Years past they granted a free ship option to whomever completed a special mission whereas now they are having players "grind" for it.  The last couple of months they have offered small free items, even from their cash shop, but they've been balancing it out by having players "grind" a lot more too for rewards.  Not terrible but the server has already been down multiple times & many players cannot complete the mission for rewards given a "blacked-out" graphical issue during part of the mission & according to my experience & the forums it is just a certain part of the mission so the problem is b'c Cryptic not the players.  It does seem not as much thought/debugging/testing has gone into this event ... so far.  Cryptic seems to slowly be converting a celebration into a chore for any type of event.  The bad news is with this is that if they don't fix the issue, free to play & subscribing players will lose out on this limited time event.  I am not to keen on some of their 8.5 changes anyways but will wait & see.

Hariken

You have to grind for pretty much anything in this game now. Really to bad they decided to go this route.  Before PW took over the game it was fun to play. Not so much now. The boards are on fire over all this now.