R-R-Romulans have r-r-ridges. Perfect World Entertainment's is gearing up to launch the most ambitious Star Trek Online expansion to date in May, giving players tired of making excuses for their Vulcan characters to roleplay space sex a more passionate alternative with Legacy of Romulus. And hey look — Tasha Yar is back!

Or at least Denise Crosby has signed on, reprising her role as Empress Sela, created after her more Federation-minded character was killed off, making Mr. Roboto sad. Crosby will voice Yar's half-Romulan daughter in the expansion, which will see players involved in an uprising against the Tal Shiar regime.

Me? I'm just keen to pilot a Warbird. Never was much of a Romulan fan, but I really dig their rides.

Star Trek Online's Legacy of Romulus expansion hits the free-to-play MMO on May 21.

While being forthright with his community about the woeful state of Star Trek Online's player-vs-player combat, a developer at Cryptic Studios also admitted to something of a self-fulfilling prophecy: PvP in the game is so bad, no one's participating in it. Participation is so low, the studio has seriously considered removing PvP altogether.

"Something has to be done, PVP cannot stay the way that it is now. We either have to try to save it, or take it out of the game completely," writes Dan Griffis in the game's official forums, adding that right now, he is the only developer currently working on PvP.

But Griffis is going to give this his best shot, warning the community that, "there are big changes coming to PVP, some I think you are going to like, others not so much because no one likes change.

"Some are not going to make a whole lot of sense at the time because you won't be seeing the whole long term plan I have in store for PVP over the course of the next year or so," he adds. And specific complaints in the near-term may go unaddressed because they'll be made moot by a long-term change that's planned. For example, Klingons having access to gear that Federation players don't. "This isn't going to be a problem in the new system since their will not be any [Federation] vs [Klingon] PVP. All PVP in the new system will be cross faction queues."

Nearly every MMO faces criticism of its PvP, making this one of the more thankless jobs in an industry full of them. At least the guy's being straightforward with his community.

Cryptic developer: Star Trek Online PvP is 'fail' [Massively]

Cryptic, the guys behind Star Trek Online and Champions Online, have found out this week that they've been hacked. User details have been stolen, and some "portion of the passwords" present in a database were even cracked. Which is bad. What's worse is that the hack took place in December 2010.

With Cryptic only finding out about this now, that's a long time for hackers to have had access to user's information, especially when Cryptic concedes "If they did [crack password], the first and last name, e-mail address, date of birth (if provided to Cryptic Studios), billing address, and the first six digits and the last four digits of credit cards registered on the site may have been accessed."

What follows is the usual stuff: there's no guarantee your stuff was stolen, change your passwords anyway, etc etc.

IMPORTANT CUSTOMER SERVICE NOTIFICATION REGARDING UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS [Cryptic]

Set your phasers on stupid Trek reference, as Cryptic's Star Trek Online opens its free-to-play docking bay and invites the world inside following a brief subscriber-only period. To see what players get for free, hit up the official Star Trek Online web page.

Since running a big, enjoyable feature on Duncan Harris, the "video game photographer" behind the website DeadEndThrills, I've been sharing some of his work each week here.

This week has some great stuff. Here we go!

First up, at top, we've got one of several shots from Star Trek Online, this one titled:

"Harbour Lights."

Woah. Gorgeous shot of a Federation station (correct? I'm not a huge Trek knowledge-haver), the kind of shot you'd expect to see in a Star Trek movie, not a Star Trek MMO. Here, as usual, are Harris' "Tools and Tricks":

Tools and tricks: Cryptic demo recorder, 2160p rendering, free camera, custom FOV, timestop, offline antialiasing.

"Next-Gen"

A very cool shot of the Starship Enterprise.

Tools and tricks: Cryptic demo recorder, 2160p rendering, free camera, custom FOV, timestop, offline antialiasing.

"Canopy"

Another very nice one.

Tools and tricks: Cryptic demo recorder, 2160p rendering, free camera, custom FOV, timestop, offline antialiasing.

"Factor 5"

Yesssss.

Tools and tricks: Cryptic demo recorder, 2160p rendering, free camera, custom FOV, timestop, offline antialiasing.

"The Killing Fields"

The first of a series from the online PC hunting game Hunter. I gotta admit, Far Cry 2 junkie that I am, that these shots make me want to play this game a whole lot.

Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (FXAA injection w/ texture presharpening).

"Shoot"

Very Far Cry 2, this one.

Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (FXAA injection w/ texture presharpening).

"Hinterland"

See what I mean? Doesn't this just make you want to climb up that hill and see what's on the other side? It does me. As Harris puts it, "I could post scenes from The Hunter until the cows come home – but then I'd have to shoot the cows and have them stuffed." He's even put a bunch more of his Hunter shots on Flickr. So there.

Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (FXAA injection w/ texture presharpening).

Players with a lapsed subscription to Cryptic's Star Trek Online can come back an play the game at no cost today as part of the free-to-play early start program. Everyone else can play for free come January 17.

Late last week it was revealed that Cryptic Studios' massively multiplayer Star Trek Online would be going free-to-play later this year, swapping required subscription fees for an active player base. Today we find out what's free and what'll have players reaching for their gold-pressed latinum.

The free-to-play model being applied to Star Trek Online really isn't all that restricting to free (silver) players, something that might annoy those that plan of shelling out $14.95 a month for gold status. Free players are limited to two character slots instead of three; 48 inventory and bank slots as opposed to 72 and 96 respectively for paying players; and they won't be able to create new missions using the game's Foundry system, though they'll still be able to play player-created content to their hearts' content.

Free players also get limited access to forums, in-game mail, in-game chat, and customer service, are not eligible for priority login or veteran rewards, and have to deal with ad-supported in-game voice chat.

It seems restrictive, but looking over the full list it looks like free players will have access to just about everything Star Trek Online has to offer, without having to drop a dime. That should boldly go a long way to repopulating a universe that's steadily declined since launch.

Star Trek Online Free-to-Play [Official Website]

Star Trek Online, the MMO picked up by new owner Perfect World when it acquired Cryptic Studios back in May, will be taken to a free-to-play format by the end of 2011, says the new ownership.

Perfect World's chief financial officer told investors during a call today that it's looking to a free-to-play Star Trek Online to "have a bigger potential in US market and also in China market."

Star Trek Online launched in February 2010. Champions Online, Cryptic's other MMO, already is free to play.

Star Trek Online Goes Free to Play [Industry Gamers]

Publisher Atari is "divesting" itself of MMO specialists Cryptic Studios, which it snapped up in 2008. It's trying to sell the creators of Star Trek Online and Champions Online after losing Atari millions. [Atari Results (PDF)]

It's been a year since Cryptic Studios boldly went and released a massively-multiplayer game based on Star Trek, and it's come quite a long way since then. See what's changed and what's next for Star Trek Online.

Star Trek Online is a different game from the one I reviewed a year ago. Back then I said the game wasn't finished, and while it hasn't stopped developing since then, the developers have added level upon level of polish to the already solid Star Trek experience.

Some of the major additions to the game over the past year include a level cap increase from 41 to 51 complete with a new tier of ships, new mission types further emphasizing Trek's knack for generating drama without resorting to violence, and the beginning of the Foundry system, which will allow players to craft and share their own missions.

Cryptic is holding celebrations in-game to celebrate the anniversary as we speak, with in-game prizes to be won via developer-driven trivia contests. Everything in the game's real money C-Store is on sale, and there's a fresh Romulan-themed set of weekly episodic missions - "Cloaked Intentions" - kicking off this weekend.

There's enough going on to get me curious enough to boldly go one more time. Anyone else pondering heading back into space?