CAPTAIN'S BLOG

Duty Officers and Klingons

Captain's Blog Stardate 89378.03

This whole week I have been playing around with the Duty Officer (DOff) system and I must admit that it is addicting. I already find myself wanting to trade with other players in order to get certain types of Duty Officers. Its a fairly simple system which adds a whole new dimension to the game. The Commendations is a really nice feature. They basically replicated the idea of the Diplomatic Corps and extended it to other "sub-careers" such as trade, military, espionage, and much more. Yes the Diplomatic Corps is part of this now. Each commendation has its own set of rewards (which as of this post have not been implemented yet). Overall I can't complain about the system other than its a bit difficult to get recruiting assignments to get more DOffs. You are supposed to hang around Earth Space Dock and Starfleet Academy to get those assignments. It�s a great way to gain skill points and earn a little extra. This has definitely brought us one step closer towards feeling like Starfleet captains. Now on to the Klingons which were opened up this week. I created a new character and by the time I finished all the preliminary missions (before starting the first episode) I was already at Lt. Commander 9. I must say that Cryptic had the right idea by starting off Klingons at a higher level. I don't agree with the fact that they will be unlocked once you reach level 20 something in the Fed faction, but I guess it works. Other than that, it plays pretty much the same as the Federation side. As promised I'll give you an update of my progress in the game and what I think so far. I have managed to reach Rear Admiral Lower Half 5 within about a week which is pretty good. Overall I find it to be a very nice and smooth experience. By which I mean that I easily progress from episode to episode, gain my experience and level up. The Duty Officer system is a big help. I have been using it for two main purposes: 1) to get the highest tier in the Diplomacy Commendation (a.k.a. the Diplomatic Corps), and 2) to gain skill points in order to level up quicker. I can say that it works very well. The one thing that has bothered me is the new ship purchasing setup they have at each rank. Instead of being given a free ship you are given Dilithium and a Discount Token (which lowers the prices of ships). Unfortunately you'll still need to do a few missions in order to get enough Dilithium to buy a new ship. I'll get into Dilithium some more next week. There is still much that needs to be worked on before F2P is ready for prime time, but I think the devs are working hard to fix it. As they have said many times, what we see on Tribble is by no means the final product. I'll try to get as much information to all of you as possible and give you my feedback of it. In the meantime use the comment area below to let me know what you think.