Sneak Peak into Season 8

[Athos]

We've all heard about Season 8 from Cryptic, but no firm details except that Season 8's focus will be on the Dyson Sphere and the introduction of the Voth.  I happened to come across the below tid-bit on the STO Wiki:

Admiral (for Federation players) and General (for Klingon faction players) are suggested ranks that cryptic have said will be introduced into season 8 of Star Trek Online. It is said when a player reaches this rank, they will be able to control up to 5 of the ships they own under their active starships,including the ship the player is flying (the primary ship), however this doesn't count for shuttle-craft or fighters. While using 5 ships at a time, the player will have the ability to allocate their remaining spare bridge officers to the other ships they control. Players will also be able to promote their first officer (under Doff Duty assignments) to the rank of captain. the active ships the player chooses will be able to follow and attack the players targets, as well as targeting opponents on their own. The active ships will also have the ability to have weapons and consoles equipped onto them as well. If a Player joins another player forming a team, the leader will be able to select what ships can be set active from each players list, this is similar to ground teaming. When a team is formed the leader will lose a slot out of their active starship list and the invited player who's joining the team will take its place, the leader gets to choose which starship on their active list is removed from the team so the invited player can join. Upon reaching this rank players will also be granted 2 extra weapon slots (1 forward and 1 aft) to their current active ship they choose to fly, when the player switches ships the 2 extra weapon slots will be removed from the ship they were flying and added to the ship they set active, this is not included on shuttle-craft or fighters.

http://sto.gamepedia.com/Player_ranks#Admiral_and_General


If true, this will certainly shake things up and add a new dynamic to the game.  I'm actually looking forward to it; I've got my ships selected that will be part of the Fleet and I've started equipping them from what I've had in inventory this whole time.  It also begs the question of just how much you'll spend on those other 4 ships in your little fleet.  Will you go all out and get Fleet-level consoles, warp cores and weapons or will you just equip with standard items?

[Athos]

While this post doesn't directly relate to my first post above, it does have everything to do with Season 8. 

Season 8 Dev Blog #10: Fleet System Expansion Spire Outpost

I'm personally looking forward to the launch of Season 8.  I think adding the Dyson Sphere along with the mighty Voth will add a new and interesting dynamic to gameplay.  Along with this new environment will be a new Fleet Holding, the Spire Outpost.

Cryptic describes it as similar in structure to the Embassy and Dilithium Mine (3 levels of upgrade; 3 tracks - main and 2 sub-tracks).  As I'm running point on coordinating our Fleet's efforts in-game, especially when it comes to building up our Fleet Holdings, this adds a new element to consider.

The first thing to consider is what are the benefits to the Fleet that this new holding offers if/when we build it up?  To me, the benefits are mostly "nice-to-haves" but not earth-shattering.  In my opinion, the following are the biggest benefits:

• Mk XII Fleet Tactical Consoles
• Six Mk XII Fleet Ground Kit variants (2 for each profession)
• +1 Ground Active Roster Slot
• +1 Space Active Roster Slot

Giving the option of being able to buy new Fleet Ships is great, but the Fleet needs to have the infrastructure to be able to support those (i.e. tier 4 ships, tier 5 ships).  The Dilithium Mine will provide Ultra-Rare Mk XII Warp Cores once we get it to tier 3.  These are just different types of UR Mk XII Warp Cores.  Again, all nice-to-haves, but upon evaluation, I think that these things can wait, especially since the option of building this up will not just disappear.

Not to cut into my "STO Fleet Holdings Current Strategy" thread, but the following is the long-term strategy that I see, given this new Holding.


1. Get the Dilithium Mine to Tier 3 - by fully upgrading the Di Mine, we will get the maximum (15%) discount on building all future holdings.  Additionally, at Tier 3, all Fleet Members will have the option of a daily Rich Dilithium Mining mission which might be worth 5K Di/day.  That would go a long way towards helping to build our future holdings.

2. Finish upgrading the Embassy to tier 2.  That project is almost finished and might be finished before we finish with the Di Mine.

3. Get our Starbase to Tier 4.  At Tier 4 we will have more powerful Fleet weapons that we can procure, new Fleet starships will be available, etc. etc.

4. Focus on building The Spire holding with a secondary goal of working towards a tier 5 Starbase. 


Everyone is doing a fantastic job working towards the Tier 3 Dilithium mine.  I think if we keep this level of effort up, we will have a Tier 3 Di Mine by 1 Jan 2014 (which would be a great birthday gift for Lotus Fleet).  The Embassy will take little time if we all help (it only requires Fleet Marks and Dilithium).  And after that, we are working towards a Tier 4 starbase.


So that is my strategy and way-forward.  Of course, everyone is allowed donate towards however they see fit, however, by concentrating our efforts like we have been, we are better able to see tangible results in a shorter time period. 

Thoughts?  Do you agree?  Do you disagree and, if so, what is your suggested strategy and why?

[Jureth]

I think your strategy for our fleet holdings is sound Admiral Athos. The spire sounds like it will have some nice benefits, but forging on with the Starbase and the Mine will give the most immediate benefits I think.

As to the other features, and I too hope they go forward as the wiki suggests, I don't what I will spend on my other ships...on a couple of my characters I have several fully equipped ships as it is because I jump around so much so I'm hoping not to have to spend a lot, but at the same time if you're going to use the dynamics they are describing I would guess you would want to have a fully equipped fleet with at the very least mk 11 purple consoles and weapons...

[Athos]

Yeah, unfortunately I have not seen any mention of introducing the Admiral/General player ranks in any of the Dev Logs or anything about Season 8.  Perhaps it will be a surprise?  Perhaps they'll release it later?