Coming up in STO …

The STO Season One “Common Ground” update, sometime real soon now (“Mid-March”).  Features:

PVP Updates

• Wargames – Federation players can now participate in PvP against one another to better prepare for the dangers of the battlefield.

Um … PvP meh.  But new PvP map will likely mean a new PvE map to use, so that’s good.

Customization

• Off-Duty Uniforms – Experience DS9 in style! Starfleet officers will have the option to change into off-duty outfits to enjoy more casual attire.

On the presumption this will cost extra, meh.  I can imagine that if I were doing more RPGing, this would be of value.

• New Stances and Hairstyles – Further customize your Captain by changing his or her hairstyle, or adopting two brand new stances: Stern and Relaxed.

New stances always good.  Actually, the ability to dynamically change your stance would be welcome.

• The Captain’s Log – A web-based application to check in on you and your friends’ Captains and ships.

You mean, a website portal to our characters and their ships?  Excellent!

Ships

• A New Klingon Battle Cruiser – The K’Tanco Battle Cruiser has been made available to Klingon Lieutenant Commanders.
• Klingon Ship Customization – Use the ship tailor to customize your Bird of Prey, Carrier or Raptor.

Fine, fine.  When I finally roll up a Klingon, I’m sure I’ll find this cool.

Missions

• New Fleet Actions Everywhere!
  • The Big Dig – Available in Romulan space.
  • DS9 Under Siege – The True Way has attacked and boarded DS9. Repel the invasion to save the day.
  • Klingons Can Play, Too – Klingon Captains may now access the Crystalline Entity, Big Dig and Breaking the Planet Fleet Actions

Skills

• Respec Is Here – Unhappy with your Captain’s skill point allocation? Use the respec tool to change things up. (Available both in-game and as a C-store item.)

Don’t see a personal need for this, but some folks do.  Hopefully Cryptic will have learned some costing lessons here from CO.

• New Skill: Starship Attack Vectors – Improve your ship’s accuracy and critical hit chance.
• New Skill: Combat Maneuvers – Improve your ship’s evasion and turn rate.
• New Skill: Starship Battle Strategy – Improve your ship’s critical hit severity and damage resistance.

All good-sounding stuff, though I’m not sure we need more skills to split our skill points out onto.

In The C-Store

• New Bridge Variants – All new ways to update your Bridges’ look, available for a low price in the C-Store for both Federation and Klingon ships.
• Federation Ship Variants – New takes on your old favorites, available for a low price in the C-Store.
• Respec – Unhappy with your Captain’s skill point allocation? Use the respec tool to change things up.
• Character Slot – Purchase an additional character slot if you’d like to have more than three characters on your account.
• Rename – Changed your mind about the cool name you chose? Get it legally changed! Recognized across the Alpha Quadrant.
• New Federation Playable Species – Become a Tellarite, Pakled or Rigelian.

Well, no big surprises here, though it’s good to see some new stuff finally showing up in the C-Store. Holding out for the Caitian playable species, though …

This is only a bit of the changes, fixes and updates coming to Star Trek Online in March. Season One: Common Ground will be available in mid-March. For a full list of what will be available in Season One, please visit the Engineering Reports forum. Interested in checking things out early? Visit the Tribble test server forums for early release notes.