4th Anniversary and Dyson Hybrid ships

[Jureth]

Today began the 4th Anniversary for Star Trek Online and part of the celebration is the usual anniversary event involving Q. The catch this year is that instead of giving players a ship, or having us complete a mission to get one the new Dyson Science Destroyers can only be claimed by completing a daily mission and Qmendations. 1000 of which can be turned into a shiny new ship.

This of course is reminiscent of the Winter Event grindfest which offered Breen ships this year and last year.

Season 8.5 also went live today with several new changes including the ability to hot swap ships from any sector space, as well as the absence of the hourly events which are being turned into 5 day events centering around a weekend.

I have to be honest, I'm considering not even bothering with the ships...they are going to be releasing them as a c-store pack later in February, (minus some one time only bonuses) and I'm a bit annoyed with the direction they've chosen to go. I think someone on the forums referred to it as being invited to someone's birthday party but having to bake your cake before you can have any.

I also don't like the elimination of the hourly events, I quite enjoyed several of them every day and my preference would be able to earn extra marks and dilithium once every day instead of a few days every month. I have a feeling I may find myself logging in less or my play sessions becoming shorter because of this particular change.

My purpose here was both to inform and to gather opinions as right now I can't even stay connected to the game server. So...energy credit for your thoughts...

[Kheren]

I quite agree with your disappointment. Another grinding spree for some ho-hum ship and less playing opportunities in a game still lacking meaningful content?

Happy 4th birthday?

And to think that this is the same guys that brought up the now defunct City of Heroes were you could play (in a totally original setting) with no less than fourteen starting classes switchable to any three playmode (hero, villain and in-between vigilante) each witn about a dozen or so customizable powersets (down to their looks and colors) and each with it's own distinctive storyline and enemies above and beyond those that were accessible to anyone in street patrols, instanced missions and zones, task forces and so on in about twenty different zones and two distinct worlds with their own feel, dangers, looks and challenges... not to mention PvP zones in- and out faction, totally customizable bases with fully functional stuff and NO grinding whatsoever! All that (and more) in a game made ten years ago...

Yeah I miss that game... more so when STO starts to let you down like this when it's not even truly a Star Trek game yet...

Well, let's grab the anniversary gifts while they last... and let,s hope more and especially better is to come our way this year.

EDIT: Well there is a new one-shot episode at least (with Tim Russ voicing and for once the avatar does look like the actor) and the ships aren't all that bad... although their shapes and color schemes make them look like candies LOL But oh, the grinding...