A new addition to STO as of yesterday: Dilithium mining. The mission involves travelling to an asteroid field near DS9 which is owned by a Ferengi, putting on a space suit and heading out to find 5 areas with “deposits” to mine. The actual mining is a mini-game where you align a triangular reticle over a dilithium deposit and adjust it until it fits the correct size and orientation of a red target shape. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The mining game is kind of fun to do, and bouncing around an asteroid in low-gravity is quite cool. Unfortunately, it’s more of a time-waster than a real benefit to your dilithium supply.
Fun but frivolous.
Hmm, I think I just described MMORPGs in general, didn’t I?
I lost one of my oldest friends to cancer this week. He was the person who I considered my best friend, although he had so many friends in this world I know he had better ones than me. I want to say I’m devastated, but I don’t really feel that way. I was devastated back when he got his diagnosis, I was devastated when I learned he wasn’t likely to recover, and I was pretty depressed when I couldn’t talk to him for the last few months due to his treatment and need to rest and heal - but he fought his battle hard and long and he damn well earned a rest.
I’ve lost a dear friend, but I feel fortunate for having known him. I’m glad of the many happy memories I have of shared laughs, and grateful I had a chance to say goodbye. My heart aches for his wife and family. He was one of those people who always made everyone smile, all the way back to our days running BBSes over 20 years ago.
One of the clearest memories I have is of June 18, 1990 when many of our BBS friends gathered at his house for a party, and to watch The Best of Both Worlds, the Star Trek:The Next Generation episode that had the Enterprise-D taking on the Borg, and Captain Picard being abducted and turned into Locutus. Although we shared many common interests such as Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Douglas Adams, Alien, and many more, my most powerful association with him will always be with Star Trek.
I don’t have any means of paying tribute to my friend but this one: I’ve named a starship after him in Star Trek Online. My Liberated Borg Admiral’s Fleet Escort is now the USS Michael Dines. As long as this game exists, I will have at least one ship named after him at all times.
I miss him.
Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most… human.
What, me? Oh, just hanging out at Deep Space Nine with the Enterprise-F…
OH NOES MORE STAR TREK ONLINE STUFF! Unfollow.
Took a new screenshot tonight to make an updated signature… I decided given the nature of STO I’d add a little something from a little tune by The Firm.
Had to hang around waiting for quite a while for that damn wormhole to open at DS9.
Look, more Star Trek Online pics!
Today was the 2nd anniversary celebration (which continues until Monday at least), and they held a commissioning ceremony for the Odyssey-class. A brief speech was given by the original designer/contest winner Adam Ihle via the Subspace Radio podcast, and then…. nothing else happened. But hey - it was an opportunity to help the kid make herself a nice set of dress whites for her character. I can’t believe it’s been a year since this one.
I took the Odyssey out for a spin on the shakedown flight mission around Utopia Planetia. For my non-Vice Admiral characters, it was a bit of a daunting task to man all the stations. I guess the rest of the crew will arrive with the tractor beam on Tuesday.
It’s a cruiser, and a big’un, and it fights as such: slow turns, hella nasty broadsides from beam arrays, hull thicker than bread slices cut by a 10-year-old. The universal bridge officer slots will allow for a lot of diversity in how it is used, which is kind of nice. This free one is nerfed, though… so I’ll probably stick with my dreadnought, excelsior retrofit and escorts for the time being.
And yeah - I’m posting more Star Trek Online stuff than usual lately. If you don’t like it, you can su<remainder of this post has been edited to remove content which violates the Perfect World Entertainment Community Rules and Policies.>
The U.S.S. Enterprise-F is now live on Star Trek Online.
This is one of the new Odyssey-class vessels inside Earth Spacedock. I don’t know if she’s the Enterprise herself as I can’t see a registry number on the hull, but starting today - the 2nd anniversary of Star Trek Online - this ship has officially entered into (soft?) canon as the flagship of Starfleet and the Federation.
I wish I could get it into the screenshot better, but it’s huge. They’re holding a commissioning ceremony tomorrow at 4:30 and again at 8:30 EST. I don’t think they’re going to be hitting it with Dom Perignon bottles, but I’m still bringing the kid and attending.
Happy 2nd Birthaversary, STO!
Sort of a silly STO in-joke I made. Although, it is a matter of pride (if one can be proud of an achievement in a video game).
You see, in the process of converting Star Trek Online to free-to-play they changed the entire economy. There used to be level specific “currencies” in the game - they were called Marks, Emblems, Medals, Badges and Merits. Yeah, it was ridiculously complicated, plus - once you’d passed a level, you had no use for the currency for that level - equipment bought with it was not powerful enough to be used as a Vice Admiral, and it was bound to your character so it could not be sold or swapped even with your own alternate characters. They changed all that by making one universal currency for buying equipment for your character: dilithium.
When they launched “Season 5” all the old marks and stuff had to be converted. The problem was that there were a small number of people that if given the full amount in dilithium they could have potentially screwed up the new economy… so instead they discarded some of the excess and gave us☨ a unique Veteran Bridge Officer with very elite equipment, and some Holiday Gift Boxes. The total number of players who got this treatment? About 0.77% of those playing the game.
I’m happy that the character that I’ve played for a year and a half is among the top 1% in the game. I put a lot of time and effort into it, even if it’s “only a game”. I only wish I’d put in more time into my alternate characters as well.
So here she is on my bridge. I call her Buffy the Romulan Slayer.
☨Of course, this has led to a certain amount of whining among the have-nots, but considering the amount of whining that already goes on in the STO forums it doesn’t make me feel bad in the least.
