By Captain Pyke | August 15, 2010 - 10:32 pm

With the recent release of Star Trek Online: Season 2, Cryptic Studios continues to add new items to it's C-Store. If you're not familiar with the C-store, it's an online store that allows players to buy everything from new costumes to ships to pet tribbles for their STO avatars, or toons, or alts, or... whatever those crazy kids are calling them these days.

Recently Cryptic added several items that were previously only available with special editions of the game. These items include the original Constitution class ship (as seen on the original series) plus several costume variants, including the uniforms seen in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" to "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country". Along with these additions, Cryptic just released a brand new costume pack for players called "Off-Duty Costume Pack: 21st Century Formal Wear". This new pack includes several variations on formal wear that looks very similar to what was worn in the DS9 episodes "Past Tense Part I & II". If that's not what Cryptic was going for, they can surely pass it of as the hottest trends of 2024.

In other STO news, Cryptic recently hosted another round of the ever popular series "Ask Cryptic". In this installment, we learn of a new mini-game in the works that involves tricorders on ground missions, when we'll see new Klingon ships, and a few pointed questions about bugs and the fit-and-finish of the game, which quite honestly need to be answered. Check out an excerpt below.

Q: Captain_Revo: What is the current situation with new Klingon ships? What new ones are planned and when will we see them, please?

A: We recognize that there is a lack of Klingon ships compared to what Starfleet has available. That is why we are shifting the focus of the Ship building team to creating more Klingon Faction ships. This includes high end versions of the Vor’cha, D7, B’rel, and Raptor as well as Orion, Gorn and Nausicaan ships. In addition, when they have time, the ship team will also be adding more customization options to these ships as well.

Q: cookieimp: What are the latest plans for User Generated Content?

A: There is an internal development team working directly with the Star Trek team to launch a Beta of our User Generated Content Tools for Season 3. We aren’t discussing our specific plans just yet, but we do want the tools to be easy to use so that players can begin to create their own missions and episodes. This may or may not be the big secret project we are working on.

Q: cmdrshran: Is there an ETA on when the sector space overhaul is coming?

A: We have several team members working specifically on creating a new Sector Space demo with the realization that Sector Space is one of part of the game that could really use not just a graphical overhaul, but a functional one as well. We are still in the early design and iteration phase, but I’m hopeful that you’ll see a huge improvement in Sector Space in the near future. This could also be the big secret project we are working on. But rest assured that we don’t plan to release this until we think it is awesome. So if that takes it past Season 3, then so be it. We will certainly put it up on the Test Shard before then for feedback.

Q: Armsman: How is the work on re-tooling the 'ship interior' mini-games?

A: We really enjoyed working on developing the scanner mini-game and Dabo and want to incorporate more designs like these into our missions and gameplay. Multiplayer Poker is still in the works to be added to the player ship interior lounges. We are also working on the concepts for a “Tricorder” type of mini-game that could be used in missions for multiple functions. So we expect to see more mini-games work their way to the game over time.

Q: lancemikemack: Will we be able to customize our interiors more?

A: It is a long term goal (aka not Season 3) of the User Generated Content team to allow players to completely customize their interiors and perhaps even allow Fleets to construct their own Starbases that exist in game. All of that will take time and we need to get the tools functional and working first to create very basic missions before we can attempt this.

Q: XA_DeadHorse: When is cryptic going to budget time to polish up some of the game aspects, clean it up and make it feel more like a finished game?

A: Recognizing the issues we’ve had in the last six months with shipping features that aren’t entirely complete or have bugs in them, our entire philosophy for Season 3 is to polish up the game and start addressing existing issues before creating a bunch of new things that will add to the problem. We aren’t giving the team a deadline – and instead we are saying things like improve Sector Space, improve Ground Combat, improve mission variety, improve Exploration without a definite due date. We want the team focused on quality and making it right. When we are happy with how those features are shaping up, we’ll put them on the Test Server and work with you to iterate on the designs. If this means that some features stay on Tribble for months without going to Holodeck – so be it. We are committed to making the game feel more “finished”.

Q: Aeidan: Will players eventually be able to play as a holographic entity (hologram) captain?

A: Photonic Species is on the schedule to be developed sometime between Season 3 and 4. We don’t have a solid release date, but the design team really wants to see this species in game.

Q: TOSLover: The "Sit in Chairs" option was, if I remember right, supposed to be implemented back in May. Have you any idea when we'll be able to actually sit down in our chairs?

A: This is still being developed internally and is currently sitting on the plate of one of our best core programmers who expects to have it tackled within the month. Once we get the tech to do it, we can start retrofitting locations where we want you to be able to click/sit. This will be time consuming but we do want to get it into the game in as many places possible. We are just waiting for the tech and the time to implement it.

Read the entire "Ask Cryptic" transcript here.