Join the CAG Star Trek Online Fleet!
Star Trek Online is FREE TO PLAY!
To join the CheapAssGamer Star Trek Online Fleet, you may PM the following to manlai (http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/member.php?u=208227):
Real name: (optional)
Location (city and state): (optional)
Email: (required)
CAG username: (required)
Steam username: (optional, if you have a Steam account. You can sign up for Steam for free so there's no reason not to)
Star Trek Online account/user name: (required)
Alternatively, once in game, you can send a message to a current CAG Fleet member. Most will have invite privileges. Here are some member's STO user names:
@manlai (leader)
@metaly (leader) - easiest to find if you're on the west coast time
@eastx (leader emeritus)
@kingdox
@ITDEFX
@Stormnnorm
If you have friends you want to bring with you to CAG Fleet, send their info along with yours. We're happy to take them in.
You do not need to purchase the game through Steam; the Steam Group just functions as our fleet homepage, messaging system, and voice chat room. Since the game currently supports its own voice chat system, joining the Steam group is optional as well.
About the game
Official Star Trek Online site
Star Trek Online is an MMORPG set in 2409, 22 years after the destruction of the Romulan homeworld (as seen in the latest Star Trek movie) and 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis. Both Spock actors - Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto - lend their voices to this game. It came out on February 2, 2010.
WARNING: IF YOU INSTALL THE STO CLIENT FROM THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!
Subscriptions
There are now 2 kinds of subscriptions: Silver (FREE) and Gold (Paid Premium). Full details on Gold pricing are available here: http://startrekonline.com/gold.
The differences between the 2 are explained here: http://startrekonline.com/f2p_features.
Special in-Game items:
While the game is F2P, you may still purchase old retail copies of the game for the in-game bonus items. Here are what the various editions offer:
Digital Deluxe Edition Bonuses:
DDE copies are hard to find now that the game is F2P. For old times sake, the Digital Deluxe Edition includes the following extras:
TOS Uniform set, NX Registry Prefix, “KHAAAN!” emote, Klingon Blood Wine emote, and Automated Defense Battery.
Collector's Edition (retail) Bonuses:
You may still be able to find retail physical copies in stores. They include:
Physical items:
Deluxe Packaging - Futuristic 3dX holography set in a high quality brushed aluminum finish.
Deluxe Manual - Hardbound, art book, manual, and disc case in a single, elegant package.
Communicator Badge - High quality cast metal design based on the in-game badge model.
Guest Passes - Credit card-style buddy passes entitling friends for a ten day game trial.
In-game items: Red Matter Capacitor, Next Generation Uniforms, Deep Space Nine Uniforms
Admiral Outfit:
The uniform made famous in the TOS movie The Wrath of Khan can be yours in game for free! Simply go to http://startrekonline.com/enter_key, login, and enter JIH MUSHA SOH - that's the code.
Retailer Exclusive Bonuses: some are available for purchase in the C-Store and some are still missing. Note that the retail game is dirt cheap now at every retailer (if you can find it). So if you want these items, either because you don't want to use the C-Store or because they're not available there, you can pick up the game with the item you want in that particular store and add the code to your account at: http://www.startrekonline.com/activate.
Amazon: Borg "efficient" Engineering Bridge Officer (no longer available with newer prints of the game, you can still get lucky and get it if they happened to ship you an older printing that included it)
GameStop: Constitution-class starship
Atari: Standard CE and DDE bonuses, nothing exclusive
Best Buy: Tribble and Targ pets
Direct2Drive: Multi-spatial Personal Shield
Target: TR-116 Ground Rifle (that crazy transporting bullet sniper rifle from DS9)
Walmart: 500 additional skill points (NOT over cap, it's basically like completing a 500 SP mission)
Notes Regarding Gameplay
With the introduction of F2P, many new game mechanics have been introduced and the economy has changed substantially. Periodically, I will update this post with links where you can read about these new mechanics. If there's a useful note you like, simply edit this post and post it (please take care not to delete others' contributions, even if it overlaps or contradicts it).
Thanks and see you in game!
-manlai
CAG Players Reviews
Links
Star Trek Online is FREE TO PLAY!
To join the CheapAssGamer Star Trek Online Fleet, you may PM the following to manlai (http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/member.php?u=208227):
Real name: (optional)
Location (city and state): (optional)
Email: (required)
CAG username: (required)
Steam username: (optional, if you have a Steam account. You can sign up for Steam for free so there's no reason not to)
Star Trek Online account/user name: (required)
Alternatively, once in game, you can send a message to a current CAG Fleet member. Most will have invite privileges. Here are some member's STO user names:
@manlai (leader)
@metaly (leader) - easiest to find if you're on the west coast time
@eastx (leader emeritus)
@kingdox
@ITDEFX
@Stormnnorm
If you have friends you want to bring with you to CAG Fleet, send their info along with yours. We're happy to take them in.
You do not need to purchase the game through Steam; the Steam Group just functions as our fleet homepage, messaging system, and voice chat room. Since the game currently supports its own voice chat system, joining the Steam group is optional as well.
About the game
Official Star Trek Online site
Star Trek Online is an MMORPG set in 2409, 22 years after the destruction of the Romulan homeworld (as seen in the latest Star Trek movie) and 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis. Both Spock actors - Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto - lend their voices to this game. It came out on February 2, 2010.
WARNING: IF YOU INSTALL THE STO CLIENT FROM THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!
When downloading the game client and files direct from PWE/Cryptic, it uses a system called "Pando Media Booster" which is basically a P2P system for torrenting game installs. Several F2P MMO games use this system, such as League of Legends or LOTRO.
The catch is, after STO finishes installing, the Pando Media Booster continues to run on your system whenever it is booted, seeding the STO game files to others. This hogs your system resources and, importantly, your internet bandwidth. Both your upload speed and data caps will be affected, possibly leading to overage charges on your internet bill. The installer does this automatically and silently, without your explicit consent.
You can check to see if PMB is running on your system by starting the task manager and looking for the process called "PMB.exe". You can manually kill it from there but it will come back every time windows boots. Fortunately there seems to be an easy and permanent fix by simply uninstalling the Pando Media Booster via add/remove programs in the Windows Control Panel. That should get rid of it for good, and has no negative effects on STO once the game has successfully been installed.
Note that PMB is only installed when you initially install STO. Subsequent game patches and updates done via the Game Client Launcher are downloaded directly from Cryptic, and do not use or install PMB, so you should only need to uninstall PMB once. However, this post on the STO forums, specifically the comments by the PWE employee, suggest that Pando may or may not be reinstalled with major game update patches. Therefore, the only safe way to be sure your computer and internet connection are not forcibly enlisted as a free distribution server for PWE is to regularly check your system for the PMB process and software.
If you installed STO prior to the F2P changeover, you should not have PMB running as it was not used before PWE bought Cryptic and converted it to F2P. But I guess it wouldn't hurt for everyone who has or ever had STO installed to check their systems for this program just to be safe.
Check this thread in the STO forums for more information regarding the Pando Media Booster and how it is used with STO: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=250083
The recommended approaches are to either be sure to uninstall PMB after installing STO, or install STO through Steam, which apparently does not install PMB alongside the game. Also regularly check your computer for the existence of this software, particularly after major updates to the game client.
The catch is, after STO finishes installing, the Pando Media Booster continues to run on your system whenever it is booted, seeding the STO game files to others. This hogs your system resources and, importantly, your internet bandwidth. Both your upload speed and data caps will be affected, possibly leading to overage charges on your internet bill. The installer does this automatically and silently, without your explicit consent.
You can check to see if PMB is running on your system by starting the task manager and looking for the process called "PMB.exe". You can manually kill it from there but it will come back every time windows boots. Fortunately there seems to be an easy and permanent fix by simply uninstalling the Pando Media Booster via add/remove programs in the Windows Control Panel. That should get rid of it for good, and has no negative effects on STO once the game has successfully been installed.
Note that PMB is only installed when you initially install STO. Subsequent game patches and updates done via the Game Client Launcher are downloaded directly from Cryptic, and do not use or install PMB, so you should only need to uninstall PMB once. However, this post on the STO forums, specifically the comments by the PWE employee, suggest that Pando may or may not be reinstalled with major game update patches. Therefore, the only safe way to be sure your computer and internet connection are not forcibly enlisted as a free distribution server for PWE is to regularly check your system for the PMB process and software.
If you installed STO prior to the F2P changeover, you should not have PMB running as it was not used before PWE bought Cryptic and converted it to F2P. But I guess it wouldn't hurt for everyone who has or ever had STO installed to check their systems for this program just to be safe.
Check this thread in the STO forums for more information regarding the Pando Media Booster and how it is used with STO: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=250083
The recommended approaches are to either be sure to uninstall PMB after installing STO, or install STO through Steam, which apparently does not install PMB alongside the game. Also regularly check your computer for the existence of this software, particularly after major updates to the game client.
Subscriptions
There are now 2 kinds of subscriptions: Silver (FREE) and Gold (Paid Premium). Full details on Gold pricing are available here: http://startrekonline.com/gold.
The differences between the 2 are explained here: http://startrekonline.com/f2p_features.
Special in-Game items:
While the game is F2P, you may still purchase old retail copies of the game for the in-game bonus items. Here are what the various editions offer:
Digital Deluxe Edition Bonuses:
DDE copies are hard to find now that the game is F2P. For old times sake, the Digital Deluxe Edition includes the following extras:
TOS Uniform set, NX Registry Prefix, “KHAAAN!” emote, Klingon Blood Wine emote, and Automated Defense Battery.
Collector's Edition (retail) Bonuses:
You may still be able to find retail physical copies in stores. They include:
Physical items:
Deluxe Packaging - Futuristic 3dX holography set in a high quality brushed aluminum finish.
Deluxe Manual - Hardbound, art book, manual, and disc case in a single, elegant package.
Communicator Badge - High quality cast metal design based on the in-game badge model.
Guest Passes - Credit card-style buddy passes entitling friends for a ten day game trial.
In-game items: Red Matter Capacitor, Next Generation Uniforms, Deep Space Nine Uniforms
Admiral Outfit:
The uniform made famous in the TOS movie The Wrath of Khan can be yours in game for free! Simply go to http://startrekonline.com/enter_key, login, and enter JIH MUSHA SOH - that's the code.
Retailer Exclusive Bonuses: some are available for purchase in the C-Store and some are still missing. Note that the retail game is dirt cheap now at every retailer (if you can find it). So if you want these items, either because you don't want to use the C-Store or because they're not available there, you can pick up the game with the item you want in that particular store and add the code to your account at: http://www.startrekonline.com/activate.
Amazon: Borg "efficient" Engineering Bridge Officer (no longer available with newer prints of the game, you can still get lucky and get it if they happened to ship you an older printing that included it)
GameStop: Constitution-class starship
Atari: Standard CE and DDE bonuses, nothing exclusive
Best Buy: Tribble and Targ pets
Direct2Drive: Multi-spatial Personal Shield
Target: TR-116 Ground Rifle (that crazy transporting bullet sniper rifle from DS9)
Walmart: 500 additional skill points (NOT over cap, it's basically like completing a 500 SP mission)
Notes Regarding Gameplay
With the introduction of F2P, many new game mechanics have been introduced and the economy has changed substantially. Periodically, I will update this post with links where you can read about these new mechanics. If there's a useful note you like, simply edit this post and post it (please take care not to delete others' contributions, even if it overlaps or contradicts it).
Thanks and see you in game!
-manlai
CAG Players Reviews
manlai's recommendation: New players: YES, try it out. Former/Current account holders curious about returning: NO, STAY FAR AWAY!
Why: For new people, it's free to play. It's kind of Trek-y with standard MMO mechanics. All mission relevant content is available to f2p'ers. The space portions can be fun and you get your own starship. For old members, you will find STO a super grindy, shameless, embarrassing, and money-grubbing shell of its former self. A single new grindy currency has infected every aspect of the game and "Gold" member benefits are nothing of note. You will be angered, but mostly saddened, at the horrible state of something that bears the name Star Trek.
Why: For new people, it's free to play. It's kind of Trek-y with standard MMO mechanics. All mission relevant content is available to f2p'ers. The space portions can be fun and you get your own starship. For old members, you will find STO a super grindy, shameless, embarrassing, and money-grubbing shell of its former self. A single new grindy currency has infected every aspect of the game and "Gold" member benefits are nothing of note. You will be angered, but mostly saddened, at the horrible state of something that bears the name Star Trek.
Links
Release Notes straight from the devs: http://forums.startrekonline.com/forumdisplay.php?f=118
Skill Tree Planner:
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/
Skill Tree Planner:
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/
Last edited by a moderator: