Greetings 44th !

First weekend of the month, here is your State of the 44th Fleet for May 2018.

 

 

 

 

As always, first a welcome to our newest members who joined in the last four weeks:

 

@Pyromaniac271/Zeetra (Patrick) from Florida, USA
@Justinmusix (Justin) from Kansas City, USA
@guicel (William) from Argentina
@lemonblossom#4439 (Stacy) from Utah, USA
@ishivan (Andrew) on US Eastern Time
@Hylarion (Iorgo) from Greece
@Bazz (Bazz) from London, UK
@Anahydris (Sighion) from Arkansas, USA
@horselord2012 (David) from Mayland, USA
@nocriton (Patrick) from West Virginia, USA
@Thorntongue (David) from Arizona, USA
@Scorch_the_torch (Chris) from the UK
@riverrat#4228 (Chris) from Texas, USA
@G4venor /Nona (Gareth) from the Midlands, UK
@borgington (Tony) from Plymouth, UK
@ewmelzer (Erik), from New York, USA
@locutus316#3386 (Glenn) from Southampton, UK
@Takoyaki#4860 (John) from Japan
@nagamon@0963 (Alexander) from Turkey
@galbraith (Jake) from Vancouver, Washington, USA
@hadron3000#5120 (Shawn) on US Eastern Standard Time
@mcstu2001 (Stuart) from Arizona, USA
@lupy178 (Matthew) from Slovenia

Minor request – if you haven’t already, take a moment and add an avatar picture. The blank spaces look so sad.^^

As you can see in the new and more compact fleet overview above (thanks Palcioz !), we now have 165 players in the fleet right now, with a whopping 98 new characters joining the ranks last month – half of those are new Delta recruits. If you haven’t, or never had one, it is encouraged to start and finish at least one. The extra’s are very worth it, and you don’t even have to fully max it out, just finish the Breen story arc, which is doable in 2-3 days. After that you can park it in the fleet for future use. There’s still time as it runs untill May 17th on PC.

It’s getting boring to report, but we continue to do very well as a STO fleet. We continue to attract new members (welcome!) and we see a steady amount of 44th veterans return to the game again (welcome back!). Our final fleet holding tiers on both 44th main Fleet and 44th Delta progress true and steady. 44th Assault Squadron could use a bit more TLC, but regardless it’s moving forward like a Targ fleeing from a hunter’s Bat’leth. Okay so it’s a fat and slow Targ, but moving forward nonetheless.

It was somewhere mentioned by Cryptic’s Devs that a large fleet wouldn’t be able to complete the new Fleet Colony Holding by the end of this year, and it looks we’re well ahead of that on 44th Main, with 44th Delta not far behind. Thanks to all that have and continue to contribute; keep joining those Colony Sims !

44th Fleet news

Recently we launched the new Fleet Commodore program, and I’m very pleased how that turned out. The extra help running the 44th was necessary as the admin side was becoming an extra job. So a big, wet, sloppy thanks to BreakingForce, Cross, Phoenix, Rune, Stewy and Veratisu for stepping up and helping out.

The Anzac Day fleet event was a great success, with no less than 20 fleeties showing – the largest live gathering of the 44th fleet in quite some time ! That was a nice break from the smaller 5-player STFs, and good fun.
After assembling on the main fleet starbase and a moment of silence at Wolf 359 we conducted a 20-person Breaking the Planet where the 44th steamrolled the Klingons on the ground. As icing on the cake we finished with a hilarious 10 vs 10 space PvP which seemed to complete within 2 mins since everybody was trying to find a target in that great space furball. Good fun !
A big thanks to Veratisu, who not only organized it all but got up at 4am to attend himself. Also a big thanks to Stewy and Balthazar who livestreamed the event.

We want to do more activities like this, including streaming, so if you have any ideas we want to hear them. The only problem is finding a good time that is agreeable with our international members, but as Anzac Day proved there’s always a way.

Paradoxical is continuing his excellent STO mechanics guides, and I encourage everyone to take a look, even if you’re a veteran. You never know there might be something in there you may have missed. STO’s in-depth tools and tricks can be quite overwhelming, and knowing its base mechanics not only improves your fun, but also avoids expensive (dili/zen) mistakes.

Equally, Stompar is churning out good build videos with solid builds you can use as a base to build on.

Much appreciated gentlemen !

new expansion

I think it is no surprise to say that many of us are really looking forward to the new expansion Victory is Life (VIL), which is slated to go live June 3rd. The Deep Space 9 revamp was long overdue but it was worth the wait if what we’ve seen so far is only 3/4 of the visual work done. Check out Zef’s youtube with Tacofangs (minor spoilers). One of the nice things is that unlike now, the new DS9 will be a single map so you can go from the new Promenade, to the new Quark’s (who will be present and voiced by Armin Shimmerman himself), to Ops and back to Garak’s clothing boutique without any map transfers.

Here’s a fun background item by SYFY wire on Deep Space 9.

A nice touch is that unlike the DS9 tv stage which only had about a 220 degree visible “arc”, STO’s DS9 will be a full 360 map and Cryptic has used older tv-season interior visuals to fill in the gaps to stay as true to its orginal. Lighting, dimensions and locations have all been updated – and looking very good indeed. Unfortunately new DS9 won’t be available for foundry missions except for some contact points, but old (current) DS9 will be. Similar to the Earth Spacedock maps.
Apparently the entire expansion was mostly finished last year already, with the Devs just putting the finishing touches in right now, including voice-over work. Scuttlebut is that the Devs are already halfway the next update following VIL, which would again follow Cryptic’s usual cycle.

As always with a new expansion, keep in mind that the first week will be buggy; if there are no game mechanic glitches then there will be server issue shenanigans – or both. So expect that regular play of VIL will be best after its first (Thursday) patch.

I think it is a given that we will see a new (Dominion?) reputation, a new lockbox (interestingly we already had a Dominion Lockbox back in 2013) and perhaps another short introductory featured episode just before VIL goes live.

It’s no secret, nor a spoiler, that the new expansion will center around a new Jem’Hadar soldier trying to find its own way, chosing either Fed or KDF allignment as it follows at least six new Jem’Hadar-only episodes. It’s nice and new that they start at level 60 from the start, which does take the leveling away and boosts unlocked gear without the need to upgrade it.

More details will follow later. In the meantime, this is how Feds and Jem’Hadar would probably work together.

Packs and perks

A question I often receive is that although the Gamma Vanguard Pack and Gamma Starter Packs have already been released, you do not need either to continue playing STO as normal. Obviously the packs give you access to unique ships, skins/uniforms etc, but if real $ are tight you can get access to VIL items by just collecting dilithium for zen as you continue to play the game. STO is very forgiving and generous – especially for a free2play game – and instead of $ you can invest time in the game instead. These packs and ships will often be released as individual items at a later date.

Personally I will probably only buy the Starter Pack as I have a semi-clear idea where to go with my new Jem’Hadar and Cardassian alt. The Tier 6 ships in the Gamma Vanguard pack are very good (especially the Jem’Hadar Dreadnought carriers are good fun) but I prefer to spend my $ on my new alts who will need things like extra inventory/bank space, ship/Boff/Doff slots, keys for the new lockboxes, and I will just buy the Gamma pack ships seperately via in-game dili/zen. Takes a bit more time, but I need a goal 😉

Speaking of, recently Cryptic removed the monthly sub, and instead introduced the new Elite Starter Pack. This is actually a good deal when starting a new character (read: Jem Hadar), as for 1,500 zen you will receive:

One new Character Slot
20 Shared Bank Slots
5 Captain Retrain Tokens
An Increase on your Energy Credit Cap to 2 billion Energy Credits

Once the initial product is purchased, a new product will appear called Elite Starter Pack Reclaim. This can be claimed on your new character and unlocks:

30 Inventory Slots
60 Bank Slots
2 Bridge Officer Slots

If you have to buy these seperately via the z-store you’ll pay a 1,000 zen just for 10 shared bank slots, or 400 zen for 12 inventory slots. I’m not sure however if non-gold/non-lifetime members have a cap on those shared bank slots as they do now.

Note: If you currently have a monthly sub, nothing will change. Only new sign-ups will only be able to choose Free2play or lifetime from now on.

Alts, alts and moah alts

Regarding the coming extra jem’Hadar /Cardassian alts, as you know there is no limit to the number of alts you can have in the 44th. However we do ask you don’t go overboard – don’t enlist 20 alts if all you use them for is banking or doffing (and yes, we have fleeties with 20 alts). A fleet in STO can have a maximum of 500 characters, and since both 44th Main and Delta continue to hover between 450-490 the new Dominion invasion will be massive.

Cryptic kind of threw us a curveball as the new Jem’Hadars will start at level 60. This means that many of them will want Elite Fleet gear to outfit them properly, and that means immediate access to our current maxed fleet-stores. We will try to incorporate your new JH/Cardie alts into the 44th Fed and KDF fleets, but it will be tight ! If just half of our active players roll an average of one new Jem’Hadar, and one new Cardie, we’re looking at a possible influx of +80 new characters – that’s an entire fleet’s worth of toons !

But not to worry, the Might 44th is prepared. Fleet Admiral Sargon and I have already created a fourth 44th Fleet – working title; 44th Gamma Fleet.

We plan to move the majority of the current Main and Delta Fed toons over to this new Gamma fleet, so Jem’Hadars and Cardies can take their spot and have immediate access to fleet Adv/Elite gear (weapons, pets, consoles, Boffs/Doffs etc etc) on Day One. New fleet members (Ensigns and Lieutenants) will be limited to no more than 2 alts in Delta and their remainder in Gamma, while Commanders and above can have 2 alts in Main, 2 in Delta and other Fed alts in Gamma. There is not that much difference between Main fleet and Delta fleet, except for Fleet ships and other Tier 5 items. As it stands now our KDF fleet has sufficient space.

Important: this is still subject to change. Full and final details on this will be posted later. We will work to make any move as simple and painless as possible. I’m working to get this new 44th Gamma in our Armada so it can benefit from the gamma-position Armada bonuses, and hope to have that done next weekend.

Here’s a question for you: what would you call our potential third Federation fleet ? One rule: it must have 44th in the title. Post your proposal and we will have a fleet poll to pick a winner !

That’s it for now fleet, expect some extra sales and promotions in the run-up to VIL too, something Cryptic always does.

Finally, I wish a clear head and good luck to those fleeties doing their exams this month !

Smooth sailings captains ! See you, out there.

Marcase

Zen rate: 257

Calendar:

May 10th – End of Phoenix prize Event
May 17th – End of Delta Recruit Event
May 18-21 – Bonus Marks Weekend
May 23-27 – Bonus XP Weekend
June 3rd – new Expansion Victory is Life

Links

Podcast: Priority One (interview withAl Rivera on Victory is Life)
Previous State of the Fleet: April

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