I am very excited to finally be writing this announcement: We are moving the events to a new home in the UI! Moving and updating the event system is something we have been discussing internally for quite some time. As you all know, the events used to live as a single tab within the reputation section of the UI. This was fine but always felt like we had hijacked another (more complicated) system for what should be a fun and simple part of the game. I am incredibly happy that we are finally updating this system.

Seasonal Events are one of my favorite things about MMOs. The best part is all the hype and excitement; “The Winter event starts today! Wee!!! Everyone log in and let’s go /dance in the snow!” I always felt that the STO events were lacking this extra bit of presentation, they never felt “special” enough. I am happy to say we have finally carved out a space to make them feel more special.

The Events now live on their own tab in the Mission Journal. There can now be multiple types of events, each tailored to their own specific goal and rewards. An added benefit of relocating the UI is that we will be able to do more things with events and rewards moving forward! I can’t say too much about it but the first event to go live with this overhaul is a great example of the type of thing we simply could not do before. Stay tuned for more info on this but for now I will just say it is a new way of providing options to players wishing to participate in an event on their own terms.

It is worth noting that this will not change the way our seasonal events work but it is now easier to track progress and claim your rewards. Progress will now work like earned XP where you simply gain it until you reach your goal and then you can claim your reward. There is no need to remember to slot the event project and claim the item. Simply play the event and watch as your points accumulate! All progress for upcoming Events will also now be truly account-wide, allowing you to participate in any of the new activities on any of your characters without having to worry about who had how much progress toward which reward on your account. They are all one big, happy, unified progress bar now!

The Meta Event progression was actually the first phase to the Event UI overhaul. It will also now live in the events tab where you can track your progress for any eligible TFO events and keep an eye out for new and exciting Meta Event rewards.

Probably the most exciting part of this UI is the ability to give players more benefits for participating in events. Any progress you accumulate won’t simply disappear when the event ends. This means if you have to quit an event early you don’t completely lose your progress and you can purchase a discounted reward in the Zen Store. If you complete the event we will also offer daily bonuses of Dilithium that increase the more you play.

UI is one of those things that can always be improved and implemented upon. I was excited and grateful for all the love and feedback we got with Character Creation overhaul previously and I can’t wait to see the new Event UI go live. I am always excited to improve this game that we all love so much and now with the Events system we are taking one more step towards this goal.

Joanna Gianulis

UI Artist

Star Trek Online