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Hello 44th Members and Visitors!
This year will be my first Risa Summer Event in STO (I started playing this past January 2019), and after reading some information on the past Summer Events I decided I want to do a sort of blog about my experience. Why? Because from just reading and watching videos about it I am SUPER excited for it to start next week! And with any luck, I can make a few of you excited for it as well!
6/25/19 – Pre-Event Thoughts:
When I started playing STO I had heard of the Summer Event and found myself curious, but didn’t want to get too far into looking it up since I knew it was at least 6 months away. Still, as a fan of the shows, I decided to at least visit Risa to see what was there during the off season. I was pretty blown away to be honest. It was a fairly good size map for the main resort, and had a lot of places to explore. The visuals were impressive and made me feel at peace, unlike some of the harsher environments on other planets. I explored what I could and did a few of the year-round quests with the cheapest floater I could buy, and discovered how relaxing it could be not to have to kill things constantly or feel pushed to do the next objective in a mission.
Since I didn’t have any Lohlunat Favors which I read were needed for purchasing event items, I hit up the exchange and decided to purchase some swimwear to get into the feel of the resort. Only after I found the cheapest outfit I could buy on the exchange did I actually find the vendor which sold the event items for Lohlunat Favors. I couldn’t believe the variety they had! It prompted me to scrape together some more EC and go back to the exchange to buy a few more pieces (another suit and some sunglasses). I also made a mental checklist of other outfits I wanted, some of which I’ve bought since then, but some of which I plan on getting during the event. I was slightly disappointed to find I could only wear the swimwear on Risa and the Fleet Colony world, but honestly I thought killing Borg in a bikini would be a bit gratuitous anyway so I accepted the limitation.
I also discovered where I could finally use that hoverboard I bought from the Phoenix Prizes and found a new favorite thing about the game. Those hoverboards are immensely enjoyable to just zoom around the water on. And when I found the hoverboard shop and saw all the other ones available, my first thought was “I’m gonna need a bigger bank”! But again, not having any of the Favors I knew I had several months to wait before I could start any sort of collection. And with all the other things to buy, I also started to get worried about how I was going to ever get enough Favors to afford them all.
Which brings me to today. With the Event only a week away, I finally decided to look up more information on it. This is where the serious excitement began.
Most events I’ve done so far in STO are fairly fun, but both quite repetitive and only require you to do them once a day. Go somewhere, do the thing, go back to whatever else you were doing. Also, much of the game can sometimes feel like an impersonal grind. You never really feel attached to an area since you’re there for a specific objective, then the next objective, then the next takes you somewhere else, until you’re done and back where you started. While there are plenty of areas to see and missions to do with some great story, I always feel like I spend most of my time on Earth Space Dock deciding what the next thing to do is. All the while I’m working towards one item like a mission reward or grinding rep points to get that new rep gear I don’t have yet. Then I get that item, and I’m done. On to the next.
The Summer Event, I won’t lie, looks like a lot of grinding. But what seems like an important difference to me is three main things.
First, it’s all in one place. Finally I can spend time away from ESD in a beautiful setting where other people are there with their characters to enjoy the festivities as well. It even makes it easy to go with friends and fleetmates since you don’t have to say “Sorry, I’m in the middle of a mission/TFO”, and you can show off all the outfits and items you’ve collected.
Second, the “grind” is a variety of little events that rotate on a schedule that you can freely check. No more “do this one thing then done for the day” feel to it. Yes, there is the once-a-day mission for the Event Tokens for the ship, but honestly that’s just the tip of the draw of this Event for me. Now I have a fairly good number of games to play on Risa, all which rotate in an easy to understand way, and all which award me what I need for the last difference.
Third, there is a TON of things to spend the Favors on and you can constantly (very short cooldowns) do the activities to keep amassing them! Granted, many of these thing can only really be used on Risa (or the Fleet Colony world), but for a collector of useless/fun items in MMOs like me, this is a slice of heaven. Outfits, powerboards, floaters, emotes, pets, and even items for use in the combat of the rest of the game like Kit Modules and Training Manuals. I wasn’t kidding when I said my first thought was how I would need more bank space!
So with all that in mind, I leave you for now hopefully looking forward to the Summer Event as much as I am. One week isn’t much time to wait for it, but it’s going to be a long 7 days for me! I’ll give my next thoughts after the Event starts and I get some sweet sun on my character’s face and a few Lohlunat Favors in my inventory. Hope to see you on Risa!
aka @rathemagius
The Summer Event is my favorite as well, for the same reasons you mentioned, but also because there is no pew-pew involved (Winter event has Borg snowmen and snow firefights). So just for that it’s a nice break from the usual grind.
Pre-Summer Event there are a few things you can get done already; you can hit the parrot/hidden views for the accolade and scout out the routes for the board race (minus ramps). There are also a few location accolades (fly under the arches. land atop the volcano) you can hit with and some without the floater.
Like all events, some actions are repetitive or just not worth it due to the prize being mediocre (sandcastle building, the biathalon). The most lucrative ones are the flyer daily, the powerboard race and the dance off – the latter because it’s so easy (pin the dance emote menu and you can just click away sipping your Risan cocktail). The powerboard race can be won (1st place) when you time it right and simply swap to a low populated instance and/or log in during low populated game time(s). The fun of the board race is that the winner is often determined by the player who can stop the closest to the finish flag – too many fast boards overshoot (which causes regular curse volleys in zone chat).
The Lohlunat pearls are also account bound so you can have multiple alts do a quick and easy mini-game and collect all pearls on your favorite toon.
Btw we really need to make some new fleet Risa summer pics – I finally rolled my own Gorn just so he can dress up as pink flowery Gorn Tim. 😛
Oh, and breed birds and monkeys ! turning those in gives you a good chunk of Reputation marks of choice which will help you complete those hard to fill ones, or just to stock them up for Rep gear or dilithium.
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."I’m looking forward to it as well. It’s a great change of scenery and – while technically still a grind – a different kind of grind. Plus the atmosphere is great. I like it.
I’m not too enthusiastic for the ship though. Didn’t we have this one quite some time back? T5 then, of course.
@baldrick8
I will be bumping my risa event guide close to when it starts but you can find it here https://startrek.44thfleet.com/forums/topic/risa-accolades-guide/
Well, after doing some self testing I found out I should be able to do the Mission: Flying High and try to get the corvette it is the only part I am really interested in (no offense to anyone), I am not a dance person in R/L and I have not been on a beach since 1986.
But the ship now that is something, I have been reading the stats on STO Wiki for the T5 version and it was like wow!!!!
I am thinking of putting on my Baby Reman Captain on it, with a Nausicann Crew and Disruptor Cannons 🙂
But good luck to everyone during the event, I hope I will see some of you there. Just give me time to type when you chat to me LoL.
07
aka @sgtken60 "AKA Grumpy Old Klingon/Andorian
7/3/19 – Day One!
Seeing everyone on Discord and the Facebook group I follow start talking about the event after it started, I sat impatiently at my desk at work just waiting for the hours to go by so I could head home and check everything out for myself. Finally, that time came and I raced home, sat down, and signed in with hope in my heart, ready to do a bit of relaxing and lots of silly costume/item buying on Risa. And boy did I…
The first event starting soon after I signed on was the dance competition, which I had already been given the tip to pin my emote bar to the screen to make switching dances easier. And easy it was, as well as incredibly fun and satisfying! Sure, there are a lot of NPCs on the dance floor with you, but seeing all the other players was pure joy. We all switched dances as instructed, performing the silliest of motions at times, and sometimes changed outfits to fit the activity we were doing (gotta have a club outfit for some club dancing, right?). It was simple and at times repetitive, but also quite relaxing and enjoyable to watch.
Then, if memory serves, came a hoverboard race. I thought, though the speed of my phoenix box hoverboard wasn’t as high as the top end ones, the higher turn rate would serve me well enough. I… was kinda wrong. I had plenty of practice going around the island from the days leading up to the event, but when you’re in the moment, racing against other players, hitting jumps and boosts, and trying to stay inside the boundary markers I found myself making stupid mistakes and taking silly risks. This resulted in my missing a turn and going WELL outside the course boundary, which fails the race. But here’s the thing. I still had a blast with it! I used the remaining time to run the course again just to get a better feel for it, and found some ways to improve my run for next time. I was determined to win next time! Though I wasn’t quite prepared for the flag at the end I found out later…
While I had read about this part, I again wasn’t quite prepared for it. At the end of the race is a “flag” with the resulting place you’re currently in. And you have to hit it before it counts you as finishing in that place. And by hit it, I mean get close enough to it to interact with it… without blowing past it since you’re probably traveling at full speed… and knowing that if you don’t hit it before someone else, the flag will move to a different place, which will cause you to have to reposition to interact with it. Honestly, it’s a mess of a system that kinda takes that rush of flying through the finish line away. And since there are boundary markers right past the finish line, you also have to NOT be going so fast that you go past the boundaries, which is something I did often throughout the night sadly. Still, as I got better at the race and at hopefully not failing at the finish line I found it to be challenging and fun. But that end kinda killed it sometimes for me.
But flying… now that is just a good time! I found it quite necessary to purchase a good floater if you plan on doing the Biathalon (even the top of the line Impulsive type, since honestly it’s noticeably faster than even the Superiors), but I think even the regular cheap ones can be used to do the basic “Flying High” mission needed for the event tokens. You’ll just be able to complete it much faster with a better floater though.
And the floaters are QUITE handy during the Horga’hn Hunt and Artifact finding missions. Horga’hn Hunt is quite simple, since you just go to the place marked and “collect” the idol there. Do that 10 times and you beat it. I know many people will have multiple characters on the island and will jump from one to the next to maximize their Lohlunat Favor collection, but I found finishing fast meant I had some extra time to go shop in game or go afk to get a drink before the next event. And for the Artifact finding mission, make sure to check out Chanfron’s guide. The map of where they can be is EXTREMELY useful! https://startrek.44thfleet.com/forums/topic/risa-accolades-guide/
On top of that, I was able to hit a couple of the remaining Accolades I had to wait for the event to start to complete, and also did the minor mission of Sandcastle building (complete with all the Accolades as well). And with the fast paced schedule of events, the Lohlunat Favors just kept rolling in.
But my favorite part by far was switching over to an instance of Risa where many of the Fleet members were. It felt like hanging out with friends, playing games, and showing off cool stuff. We’d say hi to each other, dance in a group during the Dance Off, show off outfits, and just relax. I know I plan on always trying to find an instance with other members since it just made the whole event feel more real for some reason. A HUGE thanks to all who stopped by and interacted with me and others to make my first day of my first Summer Event rock!
As I expected, it felt like a lot of grinding. But since much of this game can feel like that, this was a very welcome change of pace! Staying in one place, no load screens to worry about, and nothing but silly activities and silly outfits made it just as fun as I had hoped it would be. I’m greatly looking forward to getting back to Risa tonight after work! Hope to see some of you there!
aka @rathemagius
Glad you’re enjoying it 🙂 Yeah we need to get together soon(tm) for some new website pictures for one, and we can have our own races/marathons just for funsies as well.
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."RatheMagius, this was an exciting read, thanks for sharing your impressions. After several years, doing some of those activities isn’t as exciting as it used to be (for me), but roaming around the island is nice change of pace and I’m always looking forward to it.
Yeah, I’m definitely for a group photo – meetup on the Risa this week? I want to see what everyone chose as their summer costume, it was enough time to buy one. 😀
Hey again 44th and guests!
I wanted to post this earlier, but got busy with work and other life stuff. So better late than never!
Summer Event Final Thoughts:
With the Summer Event on Risa now over, I look back at the weeks spent grinding out Lolhunat Favors, dancing the day away, and generally relaxing in my now myriad of swimwear outfits and can’t help but feel sad it’s gone for another year.
When I first looked into the Summer Event in STO, as I originally posted about, I was very excited for something fun and different from the usual “shoot stuff” grind of most of the rest of the game. And I’m happy to say this event did not disappoint, despite the grind that it can be if you’re like me and want all the things!
Certainly there were a few of the activities that I stopped doing after a while, choosing to enjoy my time on Risa or browse the Exchange instead of hunting for artifacts, and I found that to be quite alright in the long run. The nice thing about having so many different activities to partake in constantly in rotation is you honestly just don’t have to do everything all the time. Pick the ones you like most, or are the best bang for the time they take, or the ones that make you smile while you do them (dance contest for instance, which is the most time intensive but enjoyable to people-watch or torture yourself with reading general chat). Eventually you see the patterns and know what to expect coming up, which helps as well. I knew if I did the Biathalon, I could skip the Artifact Hunt afterwards and have 15 minutes to myself to go lounge on the beach (aka grab a drink or some food from the fridge). This helped break up the threat of monotony that comes with a constant grind of any type.
I also found myself get better over time at the races, which I absolutely adored. They were by far the highest grossing for the time spent provided you came in 1st or 2nd, which I was able to do the majority of the time. Those hoverboards are just super fun to go zipping around on, and the floaters made traversal easy and enjoyable. Granted, you really need to get the highest end ones to be competative, but that just gave me good goals for my characters.
In the end, I found the entire event to be absolutely fantastic and a welcome and fun change of pace. It’s handled fairly well from a design standpoint, finish line flags withstanding, and gives you both a good number of activities to do for favors and an absolute ton of things to buy with them. The whole atmosphere of Risa is pleasant and relaxing, and I now can’t wait for next summer to arrive!
Hope you all had a fun time on Risa as well!
Rathe
aka @rathemagius
Like you I also used the pick and choose method from time to time. In between some of the events like Hoverboard race and Artifact Hunting I’d build sandcastles or explore Risa itself. I did most of my hard grinding through all the events at the start to get the high end Hoverboard and Floater but after that I mainly did the races and the Horga‘hn Hunt when I wanted a new bird egg to hatch. The Favors I got after the hoverboard and floater went towards bathing suits. I just wish I had completed the part of the event for the ship.
Mysticor ~ Female Vulcan Fed Tac (65) ~ NCC-122822 U.S.S. Stan Lee (Fed Heavy Fleet Escort Carrier (T6))
Varok ~ Male Klingon Fed Eng (65) ~ NCC-72090 U.S.S. Harley Quinn (Odyssey Operations Cruiser)Hey 44th!
I was reminded in Discord of this write-up I did last year for my first time through the summer event, and I thought I’d give it a bump with a new summer event looming around the corner. Once again, I can’t wait for some relaxation on Risa!
And now that my computer is working again and life/work chaos is possibly dying down a bit, I’m hoping to do another Summer Fleet event. We’ll see how that goes!
Rathe
aka @rathemagius
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