SWTOR's shiny, soon-to-be-new tweaks may be hogging the spotlight, but it's not the only space-faring MMO gearing up for a change of pace. Starting today, Star Trek Online is boldly going where, well, pretty much every other MMO has gone before: into the realm of free-to-play. The game now employees a two-tier pricing system, with Silver providing a solid (and free) starting point, while Gold adds all sorts of bells and whistles - including user-created content tools, a larger inventory, and more character slots - for a $15 monthly fee.

Cryptic's released the above trailer to celebrate your space piggy bank's new lease on life. Watch it and revel in slight confusion as generic male Shepard from Mass Effect rises through Starfleet ranks. Or maybe it's his twin cousin. Regardless, mankind may have the technology to live among the stars, but has it lost sight of what matters most: distinctive hairstyles?

While everyone’s going doo-lally about Star Wars, another licensed sci-fi MMO based on a loved franchise is feeling sadly neglected, like an old dog who’s just had to give up his favourite basket because of a new puppy. Star Trek Online was a bit of a failure on release, but it seems that Cryptic still has faith in the MMO, and the “seasons” (read: updates) have added new content and addressed player’s issues.

The latest “season”, numbered five, has been detailed on the official STO blog, and adds the Borg Invasion of Defera (which we inevitably read as DEFRA), Federation and Klingon Academies, as well as a brand new event calendar. Gameplay improvements include a “Duty Officers” minigame (we bet they get shot a lot), the ability to Transwarp to episodes, and a Dilithium Economy.

The new “season” is available now for current subscribers, and will be released for all when the game goes free-to-play on January 17 2012. Hit the jump to see the full list of new and improved content and gameplay.


New and Improved Content

Borg Invasion of Defera – An all new action ground combat map that features multiple play areas, boxes, and a variety of game play.
Re-envisioned Borg Strategic Task Force (STF) maps – These were cleaned up and streamlined to improve play. Then they were given a “Normal” version so everyone can experience the content, as well as an “Elite” version for some seriously challenging play. And finally, we threw in some great new rewards and elite gear that you can earn.
Federation and Klingon Academy – All new academy maps to explore and do non-combat game play.
Lore Missions – A whole new type of non-combat play. Learn about the Star Trek universe while playing these fun little missions.
Patrol Mission Revamp – The patrol missions got a new feel, now requiring some exploration to discover them. They also got better Skill Point rewards.
Event Calendar – A new event calendar that features nearly a dozen new events that happen around the clock.
Threaded Storyline – The whole storyline for STO has been put together in a cohesive way by threading the Episode content. Now it’s easy to know what to do next, and to play through the core storyline.
Tighter Klingon Storyline – The Klingon game play was tightened up to play starting at level 21, so that the whole experience for Klingon play is improved.

New and Improved Game Play

Duty Officers – This is a whole new game play experience within STO. Collect, trade, and manage your Duty Officers as you send them on assignments. It’s a great down-time activity and really fun!
Space Skills Revamp – The whole set of space skills in STO was taken apart and put together in a way that makes it a lot clearer what you’re getting with your valuable skill points.
Transwarp to Episodes – We’ve made it even easier to get around the galaxy to key content. All of the episodes now feature the ability to transwarp to them.
Faster Leveling – The leveling curve has been adjusted through the game, particularly at the earlier levels.
Dilithium Economy – The game now ties together the various daily missions, Duty Officers, and end game play around a new currency called Dilithium. Dilithium adds value to players at all levels from the early game onward. It replaces many of the narrow use currencies previously in the game, such as Marks, Emblems, Badges, and Merit.
Dilithium Exchange – You can trade Dilithium to other players for Cryptic Points, giving you a way to get your hands on Cryptic Points without spending money.
Mission Journal Upgrade – The mission journal UI got an upgrade to make it faster and easier to find that great content you want to play.

Other Improvements

Social Map Facelift – The key social maps in the game, such as Earth Space Dock and Qo’noS, got a facelift. They are now better organized, better performing on lower end graphics cards, and easier to get around.
Tutorial Facelift – The tutorial mission set got a nice scrub and cleanup to make the experience better.
General Game Polish – Many hundreds of bug fixes across the whole game were rolled in to really improve the overall game experience.

It’s been a rough ride for Star Trek Online. Many Trekkies lamented that the space combat lacked some punch, and ground combat felt more like watching paint dry than a space-faring sci-fi adventure. Previous updates have addressed the first problem, and the latest patch offers some exciting new enhancements to ground combat.

The “shooter” control scheme is simple to enable: either go into the menu and select it from a drop-down, or hit B on the keyboard. A targeting reticule will pop up on your screen, and the camera will switch to over your shoulder, similar to a third-person shooter. Going into shooter mode also changes the way you enable your abilities. The left and right mouse buttons are your main and alternate attack, and the middle button is your melee attack. Just point at your target and use an ability to activate it. No more Tab targeting for you!



This might seem like a simple change, but it adds a tremendous amount of fun to the ground combat. Running and gunning through Klingon and Romulan outposts seems much more epic when you can dive into a Max Payne–style leap across hallways with your dual phaser pistols. Not very Star Trek, but a hell of a lot of fun!

While the majority of the game remains very solo player friendly, the end of the game leans heavily on fleets, which are STO’s version of guilds. There just isn’t as much to do as a solo player when you reach the higher ranks as there is when you’re leveling your captain through the earlier portion of the game. Klingon content, a lackluster afterthought at the game’s launch, has grown immensely, but it’s still not as vast as the Federation content.

But even with the issues at the end of the game and in the Klingon content, I still have fun when I log into STO. The changes to ground combat have helped to relieve some of the frustration with those missions, and Featured Episodes make me feel like a character in one of the shows. If you were frustrated with the ground combat, and you wanted some more excitement, then you’ll want to jump back in to explore new planets and new civilizations.

Star Trek Online will be go free to play in the new year on January 17. Massively mention that Cryptic are planning to move the current test build to live servers in the first week of December in preparation for the full switch over, and they're starting the monthly in-game currency wage early for gold members.

In the free to play version of Star Trek Online, subscribers will get 400 Cryptic points a month. Even though STO will go free to play in January, subscribers will get some bonus credit in December. "We are starting the Gold member stipend early as a way to thank our loyal customers during this transition period prior to the launch of Free-to-Play," say Cryptic on the Path to F2P blog.

The move to free to play will divide Star Trek Online's player base into two tiers. There's free players, who will have access to every level and zone, but don't get the Foundry mission creation tools. If you become a gold member, you'll get extra inventory slots and unlimited access to in-game chat and mail. For a full run down of how free accounts will differ from paid ones in Star Trek Online, plug yourself into the Free to Play Features Matrix.

We mentioned last week that Star Trek Online will be free to play before the year is out. Cryptic have just released more information about exactly what free players will and won't have access to.

All missions, levels and zones will be available to free players, including daily quests and missions created by paying members using the Star Trek Online Foundry creation tools. The Foundry will be off limits unless you upgrade to gold membership by paying a monthly subscription of $14.99, this will also give you access to more bridge officer slots, the ability to join a guild, unlimited use of in-game chat and email features, and a monthly wage of 400 Promotional Points to spend in the item store.

The full list of features that will be available to non-paying players and subscribers can be found on the new free to play section of the Star Trek Online site.

Star Trek Online has plenty to recommend it. You get to pilot your own starship, for a start, fight enormous space battles and then transport down to planets with your away team to phaser aliens in the face in the name of peace, diplomacy, and the will of the Federation.

My overriding memory, though, involves Tribbles. An icon on the taskbar will let you pet them at any time, even in the middle of a fire fight, whereupon they make an initially adorable noise that quickly becomes the most annoying sound in the universe after about five seconds. If you leave them in your inventory, they eat any food in there and multiply, so there are plenty spare to go around. After a while the entire away team would habitually stop in between fights to stroke their pets, giving rise to a chorus of wibbly "woooo!" noises that would alert every enemy in the vicinity.

Cryptic's Tribble-breeding sim is set to go free to play some time later this year, though there's no precise date yet.