Star Trek Online senior systems designer Geoff “Heretic” Tuffli reveals details about the new Reinforcements Duty Officer Pack in this entry of the STO Season 6 News Dev Blog series.
Since the Duty Officer system was unveiled, we have experimented with a couple of different ways of expanding the system. Some of these ideas included new species, new active roster abilities, Ultra-Rare Duty Officers, new traits, mixtures of random and set Duty Officers, and Duty Officers bundled with bonus items. From that time, we have learned a lot, both about what works and what does not. The Reinforcements Duty Officer Pack is an effort to bring together some of these lessons and evolve them even further.
In particular, one idea we wanted to revive was the idea of including things other than Duty Officers in a pack. The Duty Officer system itself deals with a large number of items that act both as inputs and outputs, and we wanted to reflect that in this design. More info on that in a bit.
The Reinforcements Pack includes the same breakdown as previous packs: one Blue quality or better, two Green quality or better and four White quality or better. These new Duty Officers come from existing species. For Federation players, this means Human, Andorian, Vulcan, Tellarite, Caitian and Betazoid (the last was in order to put more Telepathic Duty Officers into the hands of Federation players to balance out the KDF Ferasan advantage). For Klingon players, this means Klingon, Orion, Gorn, Nausicaan, Lethean and Ferasan.
All of these Duty Officers are of existing specializations, but they all have alternate active roster abilities. In all, thirteen new active roster powers for eleven specializations have been created. In particular, we expect the new Energy Weapons Officer and new Flight Deck Officer active roster abilities to draw a lot of attention, as well as a non-career specific Security Officer variant active roster power and the return of the now-defunct EMH power, this time on Nurses and Medics.
Beyond these, we will also be introducing - separate from the Reinforcements Pack - standard active roster abilities for many non-Civilian duty officer specializations that never had active roster abilities. Existing Botanists, Biologists, Geologists and Research Lab Scientists will be gaining active roster abilities of their own when Season 6 launches. The new Duty Officers are only the beginning of the new Reinforcements Pack, however.
The alternate active roster abilities include:
• Deflector Officer
o Chance to reflect damage while using Polarize Hull
• Flight Deck Officer (Variant 1)
o Increase Carrier Defense while in Recall Mode
• Flight Deck Officer (Variant 2)
o Increase Fighter Accuracy while in Intercept Mode
• Flight Deck Officer (Variant 3)
o Increase Fighter Damage while in Escort Mode
• Tractor Beam Officer
o Drains -10 Engine Subsystem Energy with Tractor Beam Repulsors
• Doctor
o Triage and Medical Tricorder can trigger a second heal
• Geologist
o Create a Gravity Well effect on ground when using Gravimetric Shift
• Gravimetric Scientist
o Create an aftershock Tyken's Rift (same functionality as existing Gravity Well aftershock)
• Nurse/Medic
o Increased Crew Recovery when crew is <75%
• Assault Squad Officer
o Extra Team Heal and AOE Rez on Rally Cry
• Energy Weapons Officer (Variant 1)
o Reduce recharge time on Cannon Rapid Fire and Cannon Volley
• Energy Weapons Officer (Variant 2)
o Reduce recharge time on Beam Overload and Fire at Will
• Security Officer
o Increase melee Crit Chance and Crit Severity (ground)
In addition to any Duty Officers you receive, you also will get one (1) of the following special bonus prizes:
• A stack of Gamma Quadrant commodities (which will be in high demand with the new Fleet Advancement and Starbase system)
• A stack of Gamma Quadrant consumable devices (new devices based on the Gamma Quadrant commodities)
• An Alien Artifact (available in both "Powered" and "Unpowered" versions)
• A random Mk XII Very Rare Console
• or the jackpot prize… a Tuffli Class Freighter Ship Pack
The new Freighter isn't intended for combat, though it actually is functional at that for the earliest part of your captain's career. It can be switched to from your regular ship like a shuttle and is crammed with every Duty Officer system special we could think of. You can buy commodities at merchant ship rates from the interior, it has a Bank, access to the Exchange, a Mail console, Crafting, a Trader with additional Trade Duty Officer assignments, and can even periodically call a Security Ship for Contraband, Tribble Bounty and Prisoner Exchange turn-ins. Here is some more detailed information about this freighter:
Tuffli Class Freighter
Freighters and Transports are large vessels designed for trade and long range cargo hauling. Almost all space-faring races utilize Freighters, and designs created by Ferengi and Cardassian corporations have become standard throughout the quadrant. The Tuffli Class Freighter is arguably the best vessel for managing Duty Officer Assignments, trade, cargo acquisition and transport, and other related commendation tasks.
The Tuffli Class Freighter interior has a number of amenities including a Trade Duty Officer Assignment contact, which is not standard on most starships. Both you and your allies can access the Trader.
Also assigned to the Freighter interior is a Quartermaster. The Quartermaster can sell you and your allies commodities at a discounted rate. A similar discount applies when you make any Energy Credit Purchase while onboard your ship (for instance, from Sector Space Freighter Stores). The interior also include access to the Bank, Exchange, Mail, and Crafting, all of which are accessible to you and your allies.
The Tuffli Class Freighter has access to a secure subspace channel to call in a Security Transport ship. The Security Transport will allow you to access Prisoner Transfer and Contraband Assignments. The Security Transport is not a combat support vessel, and can only be called when in Sector Space. It is accessible to you and your allies.
Finally, the Tuffli Class Freighter comes with a Transwarp Drive that will allow you to access the furthest corners of the quadrant. The Transwarp Drive will allow you to instantly access most Exploration Clusters. Note, like many older Transwarp drives, the Freighter's Transwarp has a small chance to fail.
Tuffli Class Freighters are not designed as combat vessels. They come with minimal armaments designed only to ward off pirates and other would-be threats.
Note: You can switch to your Freighter from any ship interior. Once you're done using it, switch back to any ship from the Freighter interior.
• Hull Strength: 17,500
• Shield Modifier: 0.7
• Crew: 100
• Weapons: 2 Fore, 1 Aft
• Device Slots: 5
• Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Ensign Universal, 1 Lieutenant Universal
• Console Modifications: 3 Engineering
• Base Turn Rate: 6 degrees per second
• Impulse Modifier: 0.12
• +5 Power to Engines
• Onboard access to the Bank, Exchange, Mail and Crafting.
• Trade Duty Officer Assignment contact
• Quartermaster Commodity Broker
• Energy Credit Discount
• Can call Security Transport
• Transwarp Drive
The Reinforcements Pack represents a new level of investment from the Star Trek Online team to the Duty Officer system, and we sincerely hope you enjoy this pack as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. It will be available in the C-Store starting on Friday. We’ll see you in-game!
Geoff "Heretic" Tuffli
Senior Systems Designer
