Vic 17 Posted April 6, 2017 Commanding a Federation starship isn’t just a matter of soaring through asteroid fields and blasting enemy vessels into space dust. It takes coordination and communication, two skills that you’ll find essential when playing Star Trek: Bridge Crew. While you can play the VR starship simulator as a lone captain, the complete experience involves up to four online players barking commands and status updates at each other in stressful situations. The full experience is coming to VR-enabled platforms May 30, and the UbiBlog crew recently had a chance to test its teamwork skills by running two missions: rescuing stranded colonists from hostile Klingon space aboard the gleaming, custom-built bridge of the Aegis; and tracking an escaping fugitive on the bridge of the original series’ Enterprise, which was re-created down to the last detail from set replicas and fan-researched schematics. Because we each occupied different roles through the two simulations, we’ll each give a quick rundown of the experience, starting with… Chris Watters: Captain It’s important for any Federation captain to have the confidence to lead, but the confidence to captain the crew on your first time playing Star Trek: Bridge Crew? Well, that’s another matter. Fortunately, the Bridge Crew tutorials provide a great rundown of each role’s responsibilities. In addition to learning what lies within the captain’s purview, you also learn what tasks fall to the helm, tactical, and engineering stations. When you take the bridge solo, you’ll see a command wheel pop up whenever you look at another station, but when you’re playing with other folks, it’s up to them to carry out their station-specific actions. And it’s up to you to tell them what to do. The captain alone can see the objectives and guide the mission, calling on each crew person to do their duty. It helps if you know exactly what those duties are, but as a first-time captain, I found that even my less-than-confident commands were readily interpreted by crew members. Selecting a destination on my map and saying, “We need to warp here,” triggered Engineering to charge up the warp drive while Helm brought us around to the correct heading. I learned that warping was a two-stage process only after issuing a few premature “Engage!” commands, but my enthusiasm was, umm, good for crew morale (they laughed at me). Once we got into a combat situation, I felt the Captain’s chair heat up. It started with the always-enjoyable activation of red alert (good for keeping your crew on their toes in down times), but I soon had my hands full staying on top of the situation. Though individual crew members can see the shield/hull status, the ship’s position in space, and the enemy’s position, it’s up to the Captain to coordinate everyone’s efforts while pursuing the objective. We often had time-sensitive tasks to accomplish while we were engaged with enemy ships, and I soon understood why Picard was always demanding that his team members “Report!” Updates from the crew were crucial as I calculated how close to cut our exit when rescuing people from escape pods as a deadly solar event approached. Marshaling our resources to make that daring last-minute exit was a thrill that made me feel the power of the Captain’s role. Later, as we struggled to maneuver inside an asteroid field and engage Klingon Warbirds, I felt the desperation of not being able to set everything right myself, and the agony of potentially having the ship destroyed on watch (it wasn’t). These emotions are some of the highs and lows that you see represented again and again in the best Star Trek episodes, and feeling them flow through me as I sat on the bridge made me eager to take the con again. Giancarlo Varanini: Tactical Being a tactical officer is a big responsibility on a Federation starship, because all of the ship’s weaponry and shields are at your fingertips along with the controls for scanning, transporting, and system intrusions (shared between other stations). In other words, when your ship gets into a conflict with a couple of enemy Klingon vessels while trying to transport survivors from rescue pods, things can get a little dicey. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to figure out what you need to do and when on the Aegis. Early missions will ease you into the concept and habit of lowering shields before transporting and scanning ships, which not only gives you information on individual ship systems, but also makes it possible to target them individually for intrusions – in case you need to disable a friendly ship’s engines to prevent them from drifting into an anomaly, for example. As for combat, firing phasers and torpedoes is straightforward, but general awareness and communication both play a key role if you want to be a good tactical officer. When our crew moved from the bridge of the Aegis to the Enterprise, we started a mission that put us in pursuit of a pirate that eventually made their way into an asteroid field. When playing in the tactical spot, your first inclination might be to fire everything you have right away to disable or destroy a ship, but in this scenario, I didn’t realize was that most of my torpedoes were simply hitting asteroids and not the enemy vessel. That’s when I started listening a little bit more to my captain and crewmates as they worked to position the ship out of asteroid clusters, giving me a better chance of actually hitting the enemy ship. Whether you’ve saved stranded survivors or defeated Klingons in the heat of battle, there’s a great sense of relief when everything seems to go right at tactical, but you might take most of the blame if things don’t go your way. Mikel Reparaz: Engineering (Aegis), Helm (Enterprise) The bridge’s engineer is an excellent fit for players who like to take a support role; you won’t be engaging hostiles or steering the ship, but you WILL be in charge of routing power to the ship’s different systems – specifically phasers, engines, and shields, each of which can be assigned up to five levels of power. In the early parts of our first mission aboard the Aegis, this job wasn’t too intense, and mostly meant keeping the engines powered up enough to enable impulse travel – but things quickly heated up once we’d drawn the attention of a few Klingons. Ideally, the engineer’s job is in a dangerous situation is to keep power consumption low enough that the ship stays undetectable – but once you’ve been seen, it’s all about redistributing power on the fly so that shields stay strong and phasers can hit their mark. Interestingly, phaser power isn’t about strength, but range – if a target is, say, less than 10 kilometers away, you probably won’t need more than one or two levels of power, while fully powered phasers have a reach of up to 20 km. If maximum power simply isn’t enough for the situation, you can also reroute power from the other systems, boosting a function beyond its normal capacity – although this can damage the ship if you do it for too long. As the hull absorbs damage, certain crucial systems will take a hit as well. When that happens, the engineering officer has three repair crews that can be assigned on the fly to fix shield emitters, engines, torpedoes, phaser banks, scanners, or the ship’s warp core. And speaking of warp, it’s also engineering’s job to charge the warp core when it’s time to leave a system, creating a narrow window during which the helmsman can line the ship up with its destination and engage the warp drive. When we switched from the Aegis to the original-series Enterprise, I transferred over to the helm and was immediately struck by how different the controls were. In re-creating the original bridge, the developers strove to be as accurate as possible, visiting a replica of the original sets and studying fan-made documentation of the controls and what they (generally) do. As a result, the helm controls I was staring at were a lot like what George Takei saw as Hikaru Sulu: a six-by-six panel of unlabeled cubic gumdrop buttons, with a panel of switches just below them. Thankfully, Star Trek: Bridge Crew lets you pull up an overlay of button functions (on both the Aegis and the Enterprise), making it clear what everything does. The ship was steered through a WASD-like grouping of keys, and switching the camera angle let me see an outside view of the ship that was clearer than the Enterprise’s small (compared to the Aegis, anyway) viewscreen, giving me a better chance of navigating around asteroids and other space debris. The switches, it turned out, activated the impulse and warp drives, both of which allow for faster travel. Both of these also require you to coordinate with engineering, whether it’s to make sure the engines have enough power for impulse, or to charge the warp coils so you can blast off to new systems. Given that the original set was built more for looks than functionality, steering the Enterprise didn’t feel as intuitive as the Aegis’ controls – but the faithfulness and detail of Bridge Crew’s re-creation promises to be a fantastic experience for dedicated fans. Star Trek: Bridge Crew will be available for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR on May 30. For more on the game, check out our previous coverage: Star Trek: Bridge CrewRelease date — May 30, 2017Developer — Red Storm EntertainmentVisit the Official Website Star Trek: Bridge Crew puts you and your friends in the heart of a starship, where- as officers of the Federation- every action and decision you make together will determine the fate of your ship and crew. Developed specifically for VR, Star Trek: Bridge Crew is the only game to offer a true-to-life level of immersion in the Star Trek universe. In Star Trek: Bridge Crew, the Federation dispatches you and your crew to command the new vessel U.S.S. Aegis as part of a critical initiative. Your mission: explore a largely uncharted sector of space known as The Trench, in hopes of locating a suitable new home world for the decimated Vulcan populace. The Trench contains stunning beauty and undiscovered wonders, but also strange anomalies and dangers yet unknown. The Klingon Empire is also active in the region, and their purpose is undoubtedly a threat to the Federation’s plans. It’s up to you and your crew to chart the sector to determine the Klingons’ aims, and to secure a peaceful Federation presence. ESRB Rating: RP View the full article Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vic 17 Posted April 14, 2017 “An epohh never runs so fast as when he has other epohh to catch up to and outpace.” – New Romulus Saying Following the success of the Arena of Sompek training initiative, the Alliance has set up further exercises to prepare its captains for the oncoming challenges that await them. These new competitive PVE War Game scenarios will place teams of 10 players into two teams of five, and challenge them in trials of speed, strength and ingenuity. They must race to complete objectives before the other team succeeds. “Binary Circuit” is a ground-based 5v5 Gauntlet-class War Game Scenario. In a Gauntlet-class Scenario, Captains will not be engaging in direct battle with the opposite team, but racing against them to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. In “Binary Circuit,” two squads of captains will battle and puzzle their way through a converted Borg Cooperative Cube. Various Alliance enemies will be holo-represented within the scenario to provide challenges. The first team to reach the end of the training course wins. The Alliance is concerned with puzzle solving and team building in this scenario, so Captains will not be finding themselves in a direct battle with the opposite team - although you can still trip them up from a distance. This queue is designed for level 50-60 players of all factions, with normal, advanced, and elite versions. Both queues will also reward marks, dilithium, and R&D materials. Check out the “Binary Circuit” when it goes live with Season 13. Good luck, captains, and make the Alliance proud! Ryon “Melange” LevittStaff Content DesignerCryptic Studios View the full article Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vic 17 Posted May 4, 2017 Starfleet has received an unexpected visit from former members of Unimatrix Zero. Their ragtag fleet has come to warn the Federation that one of its greatest fears has materialized. The Borg are on their way. The Unimatrix Zero refugees are seeking both shelter and an alliance, in the hopes that their knowledge of the Collective can help save others from assimilation. But first the quadrant will have to survive the arrival of the Borg, who are targeting some of the region’s fiercest factions in an attempt to cripple any resistance. Disruptor Beam has introduced players to the first-ever mega-event in Star Trek Timelines today. Process of Assimilation is a Borg-themed and month-long series of in-game events that share a continuous story arc exploring the question, “What if a mysterious space-time anomaly was no longer your biggest problem…? The first of these Borg-themed events, Zero Hour, starts today on Thursday, May 4th. and runs until Monday, May 8th. Subsequent events will include Experimental Design starting on May 11th, Contagion on May 18th, and Resistance on May 25th. Throughout Process of Assimilation, new assimilated characters will be introduced to the game including Assimilated Janeway, La Forge, Tuvok and the highly requested Borg Queen. Plus, Disruptor Beam will add the Borg Sphere, an all-new ship for players. In addition to competing in the weekend events, players will be able to participate in Borg-centric Gauntlets, earn Borg-related rewards in the Battle Arena, and purchase Borg packs in the Time Portal. How could you resist? For those interested in participating in the Process of Assimilation mega-event, play Star Trek Timelines via the App Store, Google Play or Facebook. For more information throughout the month of May, tune in to the Star Trek Timelines Facebook page. Star Trek Timelines merges the characters, stories and settings from Star Trek: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. Gather your favorite heroes -- or villains -- to build your dream crew, explore the galaxy and lead Starfleet through a crisis threatening the very fabric of time and space. View the full article Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vic 17 Posted May 12, 2017 Star Trek Online, from now until Thursday, June 1st at 10AM PST, will be featuring a promotion that will provide an extra bonus when opening a Research and Development Pack. When Captains purchase a Research and Development Pack from the C-store and open it, they will receive either 10 Lobi Crystals or their choice of an Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser with Intelligence or Command seating, in addition to the Research and Development Pack Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser [Command Variant] Few starships are as menacing and massive as the Tier 6 Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser. It has impressive defensive and offensive capabilities. Since they began their campaign of devastation, their vicious hit-and-run tactics, combined with their inscrutable motives and strangely silent nature, have struck fear into the hearts of many species of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. During conflicts with these silent enemies, much of their technology has been salvaged and repurposed for use in the fight against them and their mysterious allies. The Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser comes equipped with a single Oschu Shuttle hangar pet. These maneuverable light craft are larger than standard fighters and are built for damage dealing. They come equipped with a fore Elachi Beam Array, a fore Elachi Torpedo Launcher and an aft Elachi Turret. Ship Details Rank Required: Rear Admiral / Brigadier General / Subadmiral Availability: Elachi R&D Promotion Hull Strength: 42,000 at level 40, 48,300 at level 50 and 56,000 at level 60 Shield Modifier: 1.3 Crew: 2200 Weapons: 5 Fore, 3 Aft Device Slots: 4 Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Tactical, 1 Ensign Engineering, 1 Commander Engineering, 1 Lieutenant Commander Command/Science, 1 Lieutenant Commander Universal Console Modifications: 4 Tactical, 4 Engineering, 3 Science Base Turn Rate: 6 degrees per second Impulse Modifier: 0.15 Inertia: 25 +10 Weapon Power, +5 Shield Power, +5 Engine Power Can load Dual Cannons Hangar Bays: 1 Hangar Bays loaded with Elachi Oschu Shuttles Console - Universal - Sheshar Assault Craft Cruiser Communications Array Command - Attract Fire Command - Weapon System Efficiency Starship Ability Package (Dreadnought Cruiser) Rapid Repairs Enhanced Plating Devastating Weaponry Armored Hull Torpedo Barrage(Starship Trait) Elachi Sheshar Dreanought Cruiser [Intel Variant] The Elachi Sheshar Intel Dreadnought Cruiser [T6] shares all the same Stats as the Command Variant listed above, with the exception of Bridge Officer Stations which are as follows: Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Tactical, 1 Ensign Engineering, 1 Commander Engineering, 1 Lieutenant Commander Intel/Science, 1 Lieutenant Commander Universal Console – Universal – Sheshar Assault Craft The Sheshar comes equipped with the Deploy Assault Vessel console. This allows the Sheshar to deploy its bottom half as an assault craft that can harass foes. This console can be equipped on any Elachi starship, however it will instead summon in the Sheshar Assault Craft if used on a ship other than the Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser. Torpedo Barrage (Starship Trait) After achieving level 5 in your Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser’s Starship Mastery, you will unlock the Torpedo Barrage starship trait. While equipped, your Torpedo: High Yield bridge officer abilities will cause you to queue up a bonus Torpedo: High Yield I. This can occur once every 30 seconds. Elachi Hangar Pets Below is an outline of availability, abilities and equipment found on the Elachi Hangar Pets. Elachi Oschu Shuttles These shuttles are unlocked in their stores listed below as long as you own an Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser. Elachi Oschu Shuttles Availability: EC Store, comes equipped on the Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser by default Weapons: 1x Elachi Beam Array (Fore) 1x Elachi Torpedo Launcher (Fore) 1x Elachi Turret (Aft) Abilities: Torpedo: High Yield I Elusive Target Advanced Elachi Oschu Shuttles Availability: Dilithium Store Weapons: 1x Elachi Beam Array (Fore) 1x Elachi Torpedo Launcher (Fore) 1x Elachi Turret (Aft) Abilities: Torpedo: High Yield II Elusive Target Elite Elachi Oschu Shuttles Availability: Fleet Hangar Pet Store Weapons: 1x Elachi Beam Array (Fore) 1x Elachi Torpedo Launcher (Fore) 1x Elachi Turret (Aft) Abilities: Torpedo: High Yield III Beam Overload II Elusive Target Elachi Qulash Frigates These shuttles are unlocked in their stores listed below as long as you own an Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser and either the Elachi Monbosh Battleship or the Elachi S’Golth Escort. Elachi Qulash Frigates Availability: EC Store Weapons: 1x Elachi Dual Cannons (Fore) 1x Elachi Dual Heavy Cannons (Fore) 1x Elachi Torpedo Launcher (Fore) 1x Elachi Turret (Aft) Abilities: Torpedo: Spread I Cannon: Rapid Fire I Elusive Target Subspace Jump Advanced Elachi Qulash Frigates Availability: Dilithium Store Weapons: 1x Elachi Dual Cannons (Fore) 1x Elachi Dual Heavy Cannons (Fore) 1x Elachi Torpedo Launcher (Fore) 1x Elachi Turret (Aft) Abilities: Torpedo: Spread II Cannon: Rapid Fire II Elusive Target Subspace Jump Elite Elachi Qulash Frigates Availability: Fleet Hangar Pet Store Weapons: 1x Elachi Dual Cannons (Fore) 1x Elachi Dual Heavy Cannons (Fore) 1x Elachi Torpedo Launcher (Fore) 1x Elachi Turret (Aft) Abilities: Torpedo: Spread II Cannon: Rapid Fire II Elusive Target Subspace Jump Evade Target Lock I Improved Crescent Wave Cannon Set Bonuses The following consoles are part of the Improved Crescent Wave Cannon set: Console – Universal – Sheshar Assault Craft Console – Universal – Crescent Wave Cannon Console – Universal – Elachi Subspace Tranceiver Equipping multiple Elachi starship consoles will provide set bonuses: 2 pc: Crescent Wave Efficiency Prevents your shields from going offline after using the Crescent Wave Cannon Barrage console 3 pc: Sheshar Assault Craft Upgrade Grants a Crescent Wave Cannon to your deployed Sheshar Assault Craft This starship also features the Elachi Bridge. NOTE: The above stats and systems are subject to change. Phil “Gorngonzolla” ZeleskiLead Systems DesignerStar Trek Online For more Star Trek Online news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/article/stos-temporal-agents-now-recruiting#sthash.2Yl6wwsw.dpuf For more Star Trek Online news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/article/stos-temporal-agents-now-recruiting#sthash.2Yl6wwsw.dpuf For more Star Trek Online news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For more Star Trek Online news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/article/stos-temporal-agents-now-recruiting#sthash.2Yl6wwsw.dpuf View the full article Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vic 17 Posted May 30, 2017 Star Trek: Bridge Crew, the virtual reality game that immerses fans into the Star Trek universe as they assume the role of a Starfleet officer and complete missions that will determine the fate of their ship and crew, is available now for Oculus Rift, PlayStationVR and HTC Vive. The game, developed by the Ubisoft studio Red Storm Entertainment, is playable cooperatively online with a crew, or solo as captain, and it puts players and their friends directly onto the bridge of a new starship, the U.S.S. Aegis, as they are dispatched to explore an uncharted sector of space. Beyond an engaging story campaign, Bridge Crew features an Ongoing Voyages mode offering randomized missions for countless hours of solo and co-op adventures on board the U.S.S. Aegis or the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, with the latter authentically recreated from Star Trek: The Original Series. Created exclusively for VR, Bridge Crew utilizes the powerful sense of social presence possible through virtual reality. Through hand tracking and full-body avatars, including real-time lip-sync, players can live out their Star Trek fantasies as they operate the Starfleet ship as captain, engineer, helm or tactical, with each role crucial to the success of the varied missions players encounter. And, only by working together, can the crew successfully complete their objectives. Further, during an experimental beta period this summer, Bridge Crew will include IBM Watson interactive speech and cognitive capabilities. The addition of IBM Watson will enable players to use their voice and natural-language commands to interact with their virtual Starfleet crew members. Visit StarTrekBridgeCrew.com for more information about Star Trek: Bridge Crew. View the full article Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
