Hi all,

with a lot going on in my RL these days, I didn’t have a luxurious three months to prepare something epic for this year’s tribute video. However, something is better than nothing. Here comes 366 days of Star Trek Online, compressed into two minutes. So please, shut the blinds, crank up the volume, and enjoy!

Just like last year, I’m publishing all the raw clips I recorded for the video for remixing (and of course for everyone else who just wants to see deleted and extended scenes):

With that, let’s gear up. I’ve got the feeling, Lily needs to get going, if she wants to save her grandmother’s ship from the hands of the Tholians.

Happy anniversary!

Rachel

P.S.: Please Cryptic, for the love of Q, fix demorecord! For a lot of missions I could not record any scenes for various bugs…

Hi everyone,

thank you all for lots of love, encouragement and support over the last coup0le of months. I’ll see you out there.

Good night and good luck,
Rachel

Hi all,

this week we take a look at season 7 news, revisit the Temporal Lock Box chance table, and disect the buffedd Lifetime sub.

Regards,
Rachel

Hi all,

in this show we detailed cover the chances of you getting something nice from the lock boxes.

Regards,

Rachel

Hi all,

here comes Captain’s Log episode 12.

Regards,

Rachel

HI,

here comes episode 11. Enjoy!

Regards,

Rachel

Hi all,

while Stormshade is busy cleaning the forums from anything related to some new leaked starships, let’s see if that Streisand effect still works.

As a bonus, the new mic is there! But don’t expect any miracles.

Regards,
Rachel

Hi,

this Weekend was pretty rough on my ISP. Still don’t have Internet at home, so my employer was kind enough to let me upload this week’s episode. Enjoy!

• YouTube-Link (sorry, no shiny custom thumbnail this time )

Regards,

Rachel

Hi,

as requested, here comes a largely unedited episode of the podcast. Tell me if that’s easier on your ears.

Regards,

Rachel

Hi all,

sort of a short show this week, not much to cover. Enjoy!

Regards,

Rachel

Hi all,
this week, I’ll revisit the Fleet Advancement System, the Nukara Ground Invasion, and the C-Store EV Suits.

Regards,
Rachel

Hi all,

back from vacation, and heck there’s a lot to talk about. Check out episode 5 of “Captain’s Log”:

Best Regards,
Rachel

continue reading…

This week: PWE nukes the forums, new Terms of Service, and the community is in justified nerd rage mode.

Shownotes:
- Simple, honest nerd rage
- PWE/Cryptic shitstorm – they deserve it
- Outrageous Terms of Service:
- Non-Optional soon (http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=570451)
- Lots and lots of practical problems

Hi Internet,

the second episode of the Captain’s Log video podcast is available:

Shownotes:

This week: Community Q&A with dStahl, Star Trek 2 in IMAX, another indie game bundle, a documentary about making indie games.

Full show notes:
Show
- Thanks! 500 viewers, lots of love
- To-Do:
- Mic –> new Camera, give me some suggestions!
- Will try to digitally clean up the audio ’til then
- Get out of the way for background!
- Sit down (not so much…)
News
- Heavy Escort Carrier aka Armitage
- WIP Klingon Starbase Interior
- WIP 900 day Vet reward
- New stuff on Tribble Foundry:
- Objects now can be used like NPC Contacs
- 3d Previews
- Timid Behaviour
- dStahl appears as Morn for Community Q&A at Quarks
- http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=4261337#post4261337
- Season 6 on Tribble over the next three weeks
- New Gozer PvP maps after Season 6 due to tech
- First Contact Space Suits coming
- Fleet Projects might unlock SB decorations
- Some new VO and Music in Season 6
- No Lockbox with D’Deridex, but future Romulan faction
- Foundry Spotlight is getting formal with S6
- No Crew Uniforms in S6
- Crafting update somewhere between S7/8 in Feb
- Binding changes for some items with Account Bank
- No plans for KDF levels 1-18
- No fixes for demorecord
- New tech guy looking at DX11 mesh errors
- New ship release via “Reinforcement” Doff Pack
- New sectors over the next year, but not Gamma Quadrant
- Morn will be back shortly after Season 6
Trek
- Trek 2 was partially shot with IMAX cameras.
- Will be available in 3d, but converted, because JJ wants the film look (incl 3d lensflares!)
Games
- The Indie Royale Bundle
- Eden (Puzzle Platformer, mc 81)
- Escape Goat (Puzzle Platformer)
- Noitu Love 2: Devolution (2d shooter, mc 80)
- Auditorium (Particle-system puzzle game, mc 79)
- Indie Game: The Movie
- 10$, DRM free, Full HD
- Follows the developers of Braid, Super Meat Boy and FEZ

Hi everyone,

when STOked went off the air, I decided to get a greenscreen and make a fool out of myself. You can check out the result below:

Please leave me some input, even if it means to tell me to shut the frak up and stop congesting the tube . Shownotes follow after the break.

Best Regards,

Rachel

continue reading…

Hi, STO Community and happy birthday to us all!

As promised, I’ve prepared a little celebration video to get us all in the right mood before we join Q on ESD for the party.

It’s different than the video from last year, more like a “end-of-the-year-review”. But I hope you like it nevertheless. I’ve also prepared a “No Frils Edition” which is 100% pure in-game graphics, for those of you who don’t like the overlays and inserts. Cutting the video together made me throw away lots of great footage. I could not bear to burrow that on my hard disk, so I’ve assembled 18min of unedited material out for you to enjoy, grab, and/or cut together to create new and better clips.

So in a nutshell, here are all links in one place:

• Year Two Anniversary Tribute
• Year Two Anniversary Tribute (No Frils Edition)
• Raw In-Game Footage
• Year Two Anniversary Tribute Teaser
• Year One Anniversary Tribute

Live long, prosper, and party hard,

Rachel

Hello everyone,

this is a shameless plug to make you all aware of a project I’ve been working on and off for the last three months. It’s the successor to the “One Year Anniversary Tribute” video that generated  a lot of views last year. So I decided to go big for this year. The UGC-related news is, that the foundry will be featured prominently in the five-minute clip. Enjoy the teaser. See you on February 2nd!

For two weeks the remastered “The Longing” is now up on Holodeck. I used some early feedback for the final release trailer for the mission. This is probably going to be the last PR-stunt I’ll pull before turning to newer and better things (STO related, of course).

On a more serious note, I got a lot of critical feedback that I value as much as the praise. Especially the review of Starbase UGC got me thinking: If two out of three foundry pros have serious trouble figuring out a puzzle, with one quitting out of frustration, then there is something really, really wrong. I got several reviews of the kind. Although the big majority is obviously able to figure it out, it is a big bummer for the rest. Today I’ll give you a write up of how this became a serious problem and how I initially failed to solve it.

continue reading…

After a week of testing and crowd sourced spell-checking, I re-release the classic Foundry Spotlight mission “The Longing”. I’m humbled by the feedback and reviews the original mission received. So, those of you who know the original mission will notice some enhancements and changes. These are based on what I personally liked and disliked about the mission, but also the reviews by PodcastUGC, PriorityOne, and player comments.

Here comes the trailer:

• Vimeo (logged in members can download video)
• YouTube (provides 1080p version)

Mission outline:

• Duration: ca. 45-60 min
• Language: English
• Gameplay:
  • Dialog: 40%
  • Combat: 30%
  • Puzzles: 20%
  • Optional/exploration: 10%
• Level: 41+
• Start: Noro System, Gamma Orionis Sector Block
• Critters: Borg (ground & space)

continue reading…