Star Trek Online plans new faction, UGC

Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich has laid out update plans for the immediate future of the space MMO, and they include minigames, diplomacy gameplay, a raised level cap, ship interiors, weekly content, a new faction and user-generated content.

Star Trek Online fans already know to expect the Accolade stat-tracking system, and the Squad system that will let players of different level team up, in future updates. Also coming are some balance adjustments and general improvements.

However, Zinkievich went on to mention the headline features of the Season 2 update, due "before the end of July". This will raise the level cap 6 grades to Vice Admiral 1, introduce a Federation Diplomatic Corps to rank up in by taking part in non-combat and exploration missions, and add minigames to play on your ship and in space station bars.

Most of the new content in the season will be faction-agnostic, so both Klingon and Federation captains can play, and Cryptic aims to start rolling out new Episodes to play ever week. Ship interiors will also be extended beyond the bridge.

Looking beyond to Season 3, Zinkievich is more vague but says Cryptic is looking at adding a new playable faction - Romulans, Cardassians or Borg, perhaps - and is also examining the possibility of user-generated content. Cryptic will be holding a series of polls of players to see which ideas - also including fleet starbases and a persistent PvP game - are most popular.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/st...ew-faction-ugc