Star Trek: The Revitalised Country.
Ahead of the launch of Star Trek Online Undiscovered on Windows PC today, Cryptic took Stevivor through an hour of hands-off time with the MMO to detail what’s new, what’s changed, and what captains can expect.
Executive producer Thomas Marrone and lead designer Jeremy ‘Borticus’ Randall took the time to explain Undiscovered’s revised Klingon story arc, changes to the Lobi Store and a new mini-bundle microtransaction, Undiscovered’s first set of revised rewards, and changes to Deep Space Encounters.
Old friends, new(ish) mission
Undiscovered’s new mission is titled ‘The Kuva’magh’, a direct reference to Tom Paris and B’Elanna Torres’ child, Miral Paris, as first seen within the Star Trek Voyager episode ‘Prophecy’.
“In Star Trek Online, we had a story arc about that around the game’s launch [in 2010], and then in 2016 or so, we touched that up a little bit and added Lisa LoCicero to voice Miral Paris,” Marrone explained.
While LoCicero didn’t play the role in ‘Prophecy,’ she of course took on the grown-up Miral Paris — a Starfleet ensign circa 2404 — in Voyager’s final two-part series finale, ‘Endgame’.
The trouble is, Star Trek Online was evolving at a decent clip by that point, and it was eventually decided that the larger Klingon story arc that dealt with the Kuva’magh wasn’t up to snuff. As such, it was pulled from the game entirely.
“Originally the plan was to do another Kings and Queens episode,” Marrone said, referencing the current story arc playing out in Star Trek Online – and which he confirmed the team will turn back to, “and then we were also going to touch up the Kuva’magh story arc, the ultimate Klingon story arc.
“As we started talking through it and thinking about it, Jeremy and I both realised that to do this right, it really had to be a brand-new episode with new cut scenes,” Marrone continued. “We decided to double down on that because this is so important to the history of Star Trek in our game, and it’s something that players have been very vocal about wanting for a long time.
“This seemed like the right time to do this.”
Undiscovered provides a perfect second chance
The new — yet familiar — content provides Cryptic a second chance at one of its classic story arcs using modern tools and evolved skillsets. It also allows for small retcons that let Cryptic add The Undiscovered Country’s iconic Khitomer, which was integral to the Federation-Klingon alliance, and wasn’t available inside Star Trek Online at the time, into the mix.
“It’s a brand-new mission — when people play it, they’ll understand there’s nothing really left over,” Marrone said. “We’ve changed a lot of maps. We’ve rebuilt maps entirely, [added] entirely new cut scenes, entirely new dialogue. We’ve added Robert Picardo [as The Doctor] to the mission. We’ve recorded all new dialogue for Lisa LoCicero.
“We’re doing a love letter to the history of Star Trek Online and Star Trek,” Marrone said. “The very first thing we did when we started [developing this new content was to] play those old missions. They were produced under very tight time constraints with a very limited set of tools.
“We’ve come a long way as a team and a company since then,” he continued. “I hope that people can see that and to see how far the game has come by playing the new version of this story.”
“This particular mission story arc has ties to Voyager, but also to Enterprise,” added Randall. “It talks about the Augment virus that they run into. It talks about the Gorn from TOS,” he continued. “Undiscovered is a reference to Star Trek VI [The Undiscovered Country]. Some of the tense peace negotiations are very much an homage to Star Trek VI; there’s a Klingon renegade that you’re tracking down. There’s references to Khan Noonien Singh.
“There’s so much Star Trek DNA just laced throughout this entire story,” Randall concluded. “It’s not just us bringing back something to celebrate our own place in the Star Trek IP, but to celebrate the IP itself alongside its 60th anniversary.”
While Cryptic wants to keep most of the new story of ‘The Kuva’magh’ close to its chest, Marrone and Randall did confirm that Augmented Gorn will appear as part of the narrative – something that may not surprise those who’ve played through STO’s original Klingon story arc – but we’ll get to that in more detail later on.
A new reward simply by playing the mission
Undiscovered will offer up a host of new rewards to starship captains, alongside new options for (optional) paid content.
First — and as part of a new mechanic tied to each new episode of Star Trek Online — players will get a reward simply through playing through the new episode. This time around, captains will receive a new ground kit module that will allow them to pick up and throw boulders just like the Gorn can.
“The boulder kind of explodes, doing a bunch of damage; it’s nice and primal,” Randall said of the kit module. “It’s something that the Gorn in STO are known for – we have encounters on Nimbus where the Gorn are guarding a canyon and they’re just pelting you with boulders from up on high.
“Now, we’re finally putting that power — that highly technological, classified power — into the hands of others,” Randall added with a laugh.
The new, yet familiar, K’Vort
The larger reward – earned through the completion of a majority of daily event completions in missions, select Task Force Operations, and even Deep Space Encounters – is the Klingon K’Vort Temporal Flight Deck Raptor, as seen on both The Next Generation and Lower Decks. Well, kinda — like this storyline is Cryptic’s second chance at revising an old storyline, the K’Vort itself is an attempt to revise on-screen Klingon starships.
Long story short – and in what took approximately ten minutes of what was originally a thirty-minute appointment – Marrone and Randall explained that the K’Vort was Trek’s attempt on explaining how Star Trek III The Search for Spock’s original B’Rel-class Klingon Bird of Prey magically sized itself up for The Next Generation’s much larger Enterprise.
“It was just like the same studio model [of Search for Spock’s Bird of Prey], shot to make it look larger. Composited to be bigger,” Marrone explained. “I think [TNG episode] ‘The Defector’ is one example of this, and then ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ is another big example of this.”
“I might be wrong,” Randall added, “but I think ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise is the first time they call it by name as a K’Vort.”
Marrone believes a new, larger, and visually distinct Bird of Prey – as commanded by Relga in Star Trek Lower Decks and sadly unnamed during episodes – is truly the K’Vort class. As such, the design of the Bird of Prey shown on Lower Decks is exactly what Star Trek Online’s K’Vort looks like.
The K’Vort is a powerhouse, with a Hunting Pack escort ability that spawns two additional K’Vort-class ships to help out in combat. Randall described the ship as a gunship with a strong, rapid-fire disruptor heavy emitter, and an Imperial Pressure trait which will be useful against enemy armor. Additionally, Cryptic has allowed the K’Vort to launch hangar pets, and its inclusion also means other owned carrier ships will be able to launch the Bird of Prey from their holds as well.
The ship is also Cryptic’s way of showing love for Klingon captains.
“I like to, every once in a while, remind the Klingons that we care about them,” said Randall. “Star Trek as an IP is very Federation-focused.
“I do like when you get the opportunity to remind Klingons that we know that we know you’re out there,” Randall continued. “We know you want toys.”
Finally, those wishing to change their K’Vort to look like a classic Bird of Prey (just, you know, larger) can do just that using the in-game ship tailor.
New paid content, including a revitalised Lobi Store
Undiscovered will also bring new items to the Lobi Store alongside a new “mini-bundle” that’s decidedly Gorn-themed.
First, the Lobi Store will be updated to include a modified phaser pistol that looks and sounds like the original laser pistol (not phaser) as seen in Star Trek’s original pilot episode, ‘The Cage’. The ground-based weapon has standard and alternate fire modes, which when used will build up a special ability: an overcharge that takes out enemies via an area of effect impact.
Marrone explained that Cryptic is also offering a type of microtransaction, called a “mini-bundle”, that will launch at a sale price of around $14 USD.
“It includes three Augmented Gorn bridge officers, a vanity pet, two outfits inspired by characters in the episode, and a Rebel Gorn distress call space device that summons Gorn ships to come help you in combat,” Marrone said.
“We’re trying different things,” he continued. “This is a great time for us to experiment and give players different ways to engage with the content we make. We’re going to put it out there and see if it’s something that people are interested in or not.”
Big changes to Deep Space Encounters… including reasons to try ‘em
If new episodes like ‘The Kuva’magh’ are akin to actual episodes of your favourite Star Trek TV show, Deep Space Encounters are the bits in-between episodes, Marrone explained.
Star Trek Online’s Deep Space Encounters have been reimagined to be more enticing to captains, offering up less demanding content to dabble in.
“Our Exploration Clusters from very early in the game’s history were a great way to just be online,” Marrone explained. “I just want to zone out and fly my starship, right?”
Exploration Clusters, like the original Klingon story arc, were removed from Star Trek Online because their “quality was very uneven,” Marrone continued.
“Now, with Deep Space Encounters, we’re trying to bring that kind of gameplay back, but with a much, much higher quality bar,” he said. “A much tighter coat of paint.”
Deep Space Encounters can be spotted in sector space, or via a new HUD element that functions like a compass (and like a similar HUD does in ground-based play). As you travel to one, you can also pick up new power-ups that will appear in sector space; each power-up provides a buff that can be used inside any Deep Space Encounter that you access.
“We have three different types of Deep Space Encounters,” Randall explained. “A total of fifteen different mission variants, all with new voices, new voiceovers, new actions, new mission objectives.
“Those fifteen variants also have an additional layer of randomisation on top of that, which is that allies and enemies can also be randomised from lists that are appropriate to each quadrant that you’re flying: the Alpha Quadrant, Beta Quadrant, or Delta Quadrant.”
The best bit about Deep Space Encounters is that they’ll offer progress across a number of Star Trek Online’s different systems. First, completing three Deep Space Encounters in a day will your day’s work in an in-game event. Perhaps better for endgame players, Deep Space Encounter completions will also provide Endeavour XP to increase your captain’s stats.
“This is actually a common player request,” Randall explained. “They wanted a way to be able to get more progress than just those personal Endeavour [bounties] can give us in a single day.”
Finally, Deep Space Operations will offer up something akin to a Public Events system in that each quadrant that offers the tasks will become featured for an hour at a time. Players who complete operations in said quadrant will work together to increase the tier of that featured quadrant, and in turn will be able to earn greater rewards corresponding to that tier. The featured quadrant will rotate between the Alpha, Beta, and Delta quadrants, completing a full cycle every three hours.
Undiscovered has more reimagined missions to come
‘The Kuva’magh’ is only the first part in a reinvigorated Klingon story arc, as both Marrone and Randall teased.
“Something that Thomas and I went over in detail, was take stock of the important story beats, the important canon references, and make sure that whatever we did with revamping stayed true to those important facets of it,” said Randall. “So even though somebody that is familiar with the old will, I think, still experience this as new.”
“There are more parts of this story that will be released in the future,” Marrone added, “and there are things that we had to cut from the game that we really wanted to put back into the game that we will be putting back for part two.
“You can probably connect the dots there pretty easily,” Marrone said, practically winking at those of us who’ve played through the original storyline.
Players can expect Undiscovered and its new content inside Star Trek Online on Windows PC from 7 July. A console release will follow.
Star Trek Online is currently available on Windows PC, Xbox One, and PS4, also playable on Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 through backwards compatibility.
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Star Trek Online2 February 2010PC PS4 Xbox One
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