Torinth sits down to ask Stephen 'salamiinferno' Ricossa, the Lead Producer of Star Trek Online your questions![PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

Stephen Ricossa, has been with Cryptic Studios since November 2006 working in a multitude of different areas within the company, starting in QA and working all the way up to his current role as the Lead Producer of Star Trek Online. Today, he is answering your questions and letting us know what's on the horizon for Star Trek Online.

First off, thank you for another amazing Summer Event, the improvements made this year have given a lot more to do! Will the winter event get a similar treatment later this year? snowboards maybe? STEPHEN - I’m happy you enjoyed the updates to the Summer Event, the team that worked on it definitely pulled out all the stops to make something really fun. We’re definitely going to be adding some interesting new content to the winter event, but you’ll have to stay tuned to get specific details on what’s coming.

With the updates to the crafting system and the removal of the exploration clusters; will there still be a method of attaining the associated accolades? and will we perhaps in the future see a revamped version of first contact and exploration missions? STEPHEN - The accolades that were part of the star clusters have been folded into the duty officer contacts that still exist for those zones. You can still progress and complete them as you would previously. The team would definitely like to upgrade the exploration experience, but that will require significant planning and development time before we can actually make it happen.

With the welcomed changes to the kit and crafting systems, do you guys have any plans to update the Exchange to account for newer items? STEPHEN - The launch of Season 9.5 included exchange categories for the new kit frames and modules, as well as specific filters for R&D components and materials. The crafting system was designed to involve people freely trading their components and materials to make items and we wanted to make sure that process was as smooth as possible.

A few months ago on the forums, screenshots were posted with new sliders for character customization, can we expect to see those in Season 9.5? STEPHEN - While these aren’t included in Season 9.5, they will be in our next major release. Changes to our costume system can have far-reaching side effects that require thorough testing, so we are leaving them with the QA team for a bit longer.

The loadout system was a huge improvement to quality of life in STO. That being said, Will we see load outs for ground (and space) anytime soon to include the traits? STEPHEN - Those are definitely on our short list of software tasks we’d like to get to soon. Getting one or both of those up and running would be a solid addition to any of our scheduled releases.

A lot of our members are desiring a more difficult level of content. Are there plans to upgrade the old Borg STFs to make them more difficult or add new content on the same difficulty tier as the No Win Scenario? STEPHEN - We do have plans to create some very difficult content that will require good teamwork and quality gear in order to succeed. There will be a ton of details coming soon so keep an eye out.

Will we be getting any more news about the status of secondary deflectors or upgraded comm arrays for cruisers in the near future? STEPHEN - We currently have a plan in place for when the new ship items will be created and make it out to players, and we’re really looking forward to seeing how the community integrates them into their existing builds.

When can we expect to see a new update to the fleet system in form of a new holding and any chance of saying what it will be? STEPHEN - The next fleet holding will be tied to a Season release, and we’re still debating the best fleet holding option. Everyone on the team has an idea for what the coolest new holding location would be, and we’re having discussions now on which options are the best.

Could we get an update on the role-playing tweaks (including things like more than 5 people in certain instances were critical to people being able to roleplay in STO more effectively) since the roundtable discussions back in 2013? STEPHEN - We continue to look over the notes from the various roundtables that were run and look to see how we can implement them. For example, we started going back and adding sit tech to many of our seating areas based on player feedback. It’s a polish point for all of our environments to make sure that anything that looks like you should be able to sit in it actually lets you. We’ll keep an eye on these lists and hopefully bring more of the requested features to the community in the future.

Romulan players have enjoyed the Singularity cores for quite some time, is there any plans to create lockbox/lobi ships that utilize Singularity Cores? STEPHEN - Singularity Cores offer some really interesting gameplay mechanics that we’re really happy the community at large enjoys. While I wouldn’t rule anything out, especially with a tentative peace between the factions, we currently don’t have plans to open up singularity warp cores to non-Romulan players.

With the introduction of the Warp Core slot, is there any chance we could see the older sets upgraded to have warp cores? STEPHEN - We’ve had discussions about upgrading these sets, but adding another item to a set would require us to either make the set more powerful or water it down so the extra set piece doesn’t change the overall power curve of the original design for that set. Our plan for now is to focus on creating new 4 piece sets that really get players excited.

Expansion 2 has been said to be just as expansive, if not more than Legacy of Romulus. Will it feature some sort of comprehensive Zen Store bundle similar to the legacy pack? STEPHEN - The Legacy Pack that was featured in the Legacy of Romulus expansion was popular with the community as well as internally; if we feel that Expansion 2 lends itself to a similar pack then we may pull one together.

With PvP being a big piece of end-game content in any successful MMO, it is fair to say that STO has been lacking in this area for a very long time, when will we see the attention that PvP deserves - will there be a major update or season dedicated to PvP in the next calendar year? STEPHEN - PvP is something we definitely want to dedicate a season to, but it will be a significant undertaking to get done. Everything from maps, to game types, to leader boards, will all take a long time to pull together, but it is an important feature set that we do want to get to in the future.

Are there plans to improve the function of Bridge Officers, such as expanding the recently updated trait system to enable the customization of Bridge Officer traits? STEPHEN - We have a design for an updated bridge officer customization system that we’re pretty proud of, though the actual implementation date is still being discussed. We feel this new system will make it far easier to customize the power setup for your bridge officers, and hope to get it implemented soon.

Will we see more canon melee options in the near future, such as mek'leths, d'k tahgs, or perhaps Sulu’s infamous fencing saber? STEPHEN - These are some weapons we’d love to see in the game, but their introduction would require a fairly large commitment from our animation team. As we schedule our releases we’re always looking for fun projects to squeeze in between required tasks such as new enemy groups or ship animations. Making special melee weapons definitely fits within the category of “fun project” so if we can find the time we’re excited to make something like this happen.

Some of the older lockbox energy weapons are not competing well against the newer fleet and reputation weapons, is there a possibility that upgrades for weapons could be included in the crafting system? STEPHEN - The crafting system currently doesn’t support the ability to upgrade existing weapons and items, but is mainly focused on the creation of new items. That said, some sort of upgrade mechanic sounds like an interesting idea for a feature in the future.

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK MR. RICOSSA FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS,
WHAT FEATURE ARE YOU MOST EXCITED FOR?
BE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!

QUESTIONS BY MEMBERS OF THE UFPLANETS COMMUNITY
EDITED BY TORINTH - STEPHEN.HALL@UFPLANETS.COM