Congratulations and/or condolences on your promotion! Good luck to you as well. :)

Are the ESO Stonewall guilds still active? Since there isn't much discussed in the forums about ESO I wonder.......

I will be interested in one soon too but want to wait for the 2. I will be a voyager focused theme :D

Glad you like it, Sean :) Enjoy!

Let all feast their eyes on the greatest creation from the signature department and despair, thanks Voleron. Money will be deposited in the Nagh Red fleet bank this evening.

And also they've posted a blog about the T5 to T6 ship transitions:


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When we first discussed increasing the level cap, one of the questions we first asked ourselves was “What happens to Tier 5 ships?”
Players have been invested in this tier of ships for 4 years and we wanted to avoid devaluing the time and money spent in obtaining them.
We wanted a fair solution instead of requiring players to absolutely need to obtain or purchase a whole new suite of starships for a new tier of content as we have in the past.

We’ve approached starships very differently for the level 50 to 60 band.
First, we will allow players to upgrade most Tier 5 starships they own to a “T5-U” version.
This upgraded starship receives many of the perks of a Tier 6 starships minus a few bells and whistles.
More on the specifics of this later.

Second, all existing content, all new story content, patrols and most queues will not require a Tier 6 or Upgraded Tier 5 starship.
Only the most challenging new level 60 content will strongly benefit from using an upgraded Tier 5 starship or a Tier 6 starship, however it will not strictly require it.


[attachment=2475]upgrades2.jpg[/attachment]


Upgrading a Tier 5 ship is easy.
First, you must be level 50 and at a starship selector NPC on a ground map.
When browsing your starships you’ll notice that qualifying Tier 5 ships will now have an upgrade button on the starship’s inventory screen.

Pressing this button will prompt you to pay a Zen cost (or possibly require an item with a Zen cost).
This cost will be significantly lower than if you were to purchase a Tier 6 ship from the Zen Store.
Completing this purchase will then immediately upgrade your ship and transfer any items on the T5 ship to the new upgraded ship.

It should be noted that some ships will be free to upgrade.
This includes things like many event reputation ships (like the Breen and Risian ships), all lockbox ships, all lobi store ships, and duty officer promotion ships like the Jem’Hadar Attack Ship and Voth Bulwark Dreadnought Cruiser.

SHIP UPGRADING PROCESS
As mentioned above, upgraded Tier 5 ships (or T5-Us) will offer many of the same benefits provided by Tier 6 starships minus a few bells and whistles.
T5-Us will feature a sizeable number of additional hit points that will increase as your captain levels up, an additional console slot, and four Starship Mastery levels.


As mentioned in the Tier 6 Starships blog, the Starship Mastery system represents your captain and crew mastering the starship and discovering its full capabilities over time.
All upgraded Tier 5 ships have the ability to become more powerful as the captain gains Skill Points.
This allows the starship to effectively “Level Up”.

T5-U starships start at level 0 and progress to level 4 as the captain plays the game normally.
At each level (up to the max level of 4), the starship gains a new passive ability that provides a sizeable boost to a stat like damage resistance, critical hit chance, or hit points.
These passive abilities are specific to the ship that has unlocked them, and each starship within a given category shares the same package of passive abilities.

SHIP UPGRADE PERKS
As you can see, upgraded Tier 5 ships share many of the benefits of a Tier 6 starship with a few exceptions.
Below is a table that outlines precisely which benefits T5-U and T6 ships receive.


[attachment=2476]Upgrades3.jpg[/attachment]

*Upgraded Tier 5 starships and Tier 6 starships both have four passive abilities.
The fifth Starship Mastery level on Tier 6 ships unlocks the starship’s trait.

**All Tier 6 ships launching with Delta Rising will come with a Specialist Bridge Officer seat.
However, it should be noted that future Tier 6 ships may not always come with one.

A notable benefit of upgrading a Tier 5 ship is that the upgrade is available across your entire account.

Example: If I upgrade my Avenger Battlecruiser on my Starfleet tactical captain, I can upgrade an Avenger Battlecruiser from T5 to T5-U on any character that also owns this ship for free.

UPGRADABLE SHIPS

The vast majority of existing Tier 5 starships can be upgraded to T5-U granting the benefits mentioned above.
You can find an exhaustive list of all upgradeable ships here.

Our current plan is to release as many of the ships above as possible when Delta Rising launches.
Any ships on this list that aren’t available by launch will be rolled out in future updates until the entire list shown in the link above is available.

Qi&A

Q: How much Zen will it cost to upgrade my starship?

A: We have not finalized the cost, but it is likely to be somewhere between $5 and $10.

Q: Which ships will be free to upgrade?

A: All Lockbox and Lobi starships, 1000 Day Veteran Destroyers,
Duty Officer promotional starships, and the Dyson, Breen and Risian event starships will all qualify for a free T5-U upgrade.

Q: So, if I pay for an upgrade on a starship, that upgraded starship will be available to all my characters that can fly that ship?

A: Correct!
You only need to pay the upgrade fee once.

Q: What actions give skill points to increase my Starship Mastery level?

A: Only defeating enemy starships will yield skill points for your Starship Mastery.

Q: Will there be any story content that requires a T5-U or T6 starship?

A: Absolutely not.
Our goal here is to allow players to play through all of the game’s story content without requiring the purchase of a starship.
Owning one of these top notch ships will certainly give you an edge, but story content isn’t designed to require these ships.

Q: Are the passive abilities between T5-U and T6 ships of the same ship category the same?
Or are the abilities found on the T6 ships better?

A: Starship Mastery passive abilities are identical between T5-U and T6 starships.
The only difference between these ships in Starship Mastery is that T6 ships have a Starship Trait that can be unlocked at Level 5 whereas T5-U ships’ Starship Mastery progression ends at Level 4 and they don’t have a Starship Trait to be unlocked.

Here's some info about a couple more Delta Quadrant species we'll be running into:


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First encountered by the crew of U.S.S. Voyager in 2374, the Benthans are a species with advanced warp capabilities from Benthos. Little is known about their culture, and for some time even the Benthans’ appearance was in doubt, because this first contact also involved a conflict with a shapechanging identity thief on the run from justice.

The Benthans’ enforcement arm, the Benthan Guard, is fanatically dedicated to the rule of law, and its members see themselves as a force for order in the Delta Quadrant. It is in this capacity that you are most likely to encounter Benthans. According to Voyager’s logs, no Benthan civilian ships have ever been sighted, and it is possible that the Benthans strictly restrict all interactions with alien species, although it is unclear whether this is an attempt to protect the population from negative outside influences or to control their movements.


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Do not, however, assume their guarded civilization makes them backward. Benthan Guard ships can be a match for Alpha Quadrant technology, and cooperating with them when possible may be a far safer course of action than opposing them. As far as we know, the Benthans dedication to law does not spill into tyranny.


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The fierce Hazari roam the Delta Quadrant singularly or in small groups. Unlike the Hirogen, who pride themselves on taking trophies, the Hazari find honor in completing contracts. Once they make a deal, they will complete it, no matter the difficulty. If for some reason a Hazari bounty hunter cannot fulfill a promise, he will take on another task for the contract holder free of charge.

In the past, the Hazari have taken contracts from all comers, concerning themselves with the act of completing a contract, without regard to the politics of who was requesting their services or what the requested task was. This has put them into conflict with many of the powers of the Delta Quadrant. In particular, the Benthan Guard keeps a close watch on Hazari actions, and will actively pursue any Hazari who commit illegal acts.


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The Borg identify the Hazari as Species 4228. Information provided by Seven of Nine indicated that assimilated Hazari make excellent tactical drones, and that the Collective would go out of its way to acquire new Hazari drones.

If possible, Hazari ships team up when in combat, with one ship reinforcing the shields of the other. This makes their defenses almost impenetrable, but is also a weakness that can be exploited by a skilled tactical officer.

Quote by kiddkasper

I remember someone saying about 3 weeks ago...

Uh, that was you.

Wow...

I wondered what happened to Valla

All caught up on the story now. This is truly amazing stuff Narciso.

what happens next!!?

I remember someone saying about 3 weeks ago...

That's like saying the NX-01 isn't obsolete. But how mad would you be at someone for showing up to a STF in one?

I'm sure your "not obsolete" T5 and 5.5 will be just fine after DR is released.

BOUND to character! lol :P :P :P :P

Quote by DilenXichetSTO

def right about that..! and all of the fleet gear people have bought as well

Gear, I fear, is probably the one thing we all accept, however begrudgingly, that we're just going to have to eat.

Quote by NicholasJohn16

I really hope they do this smart. People love the classic ships, besides the time and money people have put into them. To suddenly make all of outdated wouldn't be good.

I've been increasingly nervous over the last several seasons - as the Devs continue to incentivize their own designs, I can't help but wonder if CBS has been pressuring them to wean players away from canonical designs towards novel Cryptic ones. Which I've repeated ad nauseum that I don't care for.

Alternately, one fears that maybe the licenses might include riders for having to pay artists points off the backend for uses of designs they own some rights to - like say, Mark Rademacher's Vesta. Or maybe even as far back as Andy Probert or Rick Sternbach.

A bit of a paranoid fantasy, maybe.

def right about that..! and all of the fleet gear people have bought as well

Quote by Rasilek

Sweet new mechanics! Though I'm really hoping there' s a tier 6 version of the reagent and/or odyssey. Not big on the models they've given us a peek at thus far, aside from the Romulan birds that are rather sleek!

This is a big concern of mine. The models I've seen of the new ships aren't really my style. I'd love to be able to keep using my Regent class, but it'd suck if that meant missing out on a big feature of Delta Rising.

I really hope they do this smart. People love the classic ships, besides the time and money people have put into them. To suddenly make all of outdated wouldn't be good.

Quote by Dralthcaan

And what about that Ship Leveling! So, the quicker you spend the skill points on ships the more they level up(to T5)... soo the real question will turn into Which do you want to spend you SP on, making the ship better, you better, or a balance @_@

It's an interesting choice.

The trope for many seasons now, essentially since F2P, has been to incentivize newer, faster, better shinies - whether than be through Lockboxes, Lobi, or even the ole' fashioned Z-Store.

Plenty of players (and in this Fleet, of course) are happy to ride that carousel. It's how Cryptic makes their money, and I'm all for it, even if I largely choose to not participate.

Ship advancement and customization is something I could be super-into; but with the caveat that I'm nervous how that doesn't run contrary to Cryptic's essenial monetization priorities.

Put another way, it's been in Cryptic's interest to make ships essentially interchangeable and disposable. It's what keeps players buying the new shinies. So choosing to now incentivize sticking with, and investing in a ship. It just strikes me as cause for concern that there are going to be layers that keep Cryptic's income stream through that system, that we haven't yet been introduced to yet.

Quote by Kasandaro

Nah, they've still got the "but what does this mean for my T5 ships" sickles and handaxes.

I'll admit it remains my key concern for DU. Money and time and sweat and blood and tears poured into some of those ships down the drain is integral in some ways to a cap raise. Though it clearly won't jive with Cryptic's monetization model.

Only speaking for myself, natch, I suppose it would help if Cryptic was capable of designing ships that weren't so gosh darn fugly.

So we can gain Starship Traits, which in turn can be used on any ship. These gonna be something that override the genetic sequencer packs that have been available in LBs?
And what about that Ship Leveling! So, the quicker you spend the skill points on ships the more they level up(to T5)... soo the real question will turn into Which do you want to spend you SP on, making the ship better, you better, or a balance @_@

Quote by Seannewboy

. Even better is that it should shut up all those yabbos in the sto forums, the ones with the pitchforks and torches. B)

Nah, they've still got the "but what does this mean for my T5 ships" sickles and handaxes.

And I have to admit, the MSD of the Fed ship is making it grow on me. (It's the nacelles that bother me, mostly.)

Sweet new mechanics! Though I'm really hoping there' s a tier 6 version of the reagent and/or odyssey. Not big on the models they've given us a peek at thus far, aside from the Romulan birds that are rather sleek!