Hello, Joe and STOers! Welcome back to the blog for FLEET WEEK!
You’re in luck, as we’re just as the height of what all’s available for the week. Tomorrow’s a full afternoon and evening of streams devoted to Star Trek ships and details about things like the design and science of our favorite fantasy starships!
And that’s why I’m here. I asked Ambassador Kael (STO’s Community Manager) about doing something for Fleet Week. It seemed like an awesome idea, and I was seeing other creators get jazzed about their projects, so I figured, “Well, while my knowledge of editing and stuff isn’t as great as others, I do have one thing most of them don’t: ‘Print’ media.”
Being a blog isn’t as flashy as videos with overlays and animations, but it does allow a different kind of venue for ideas: the written word! I love video for how quickly information can be delivered, and you sometimes want to literally hear what other have to say and see in motion what they’re talking about as it happens. But there’s something about writing that lets you have more freedom and time to write what you want and read & absorb information at your own pace.
So, in an unintentional collaboration with AllThingsTrek47, we’re bringing you not one, but two styles of the same topic:
“What’s your favorite ship, and why?”
This seems like such a benign question, but you’ll find here (and perhaps on AllThingsTrek47’s video, but I don’t know their exact plans) that the answers as to “why” are as varied as the ships themselves. For some, it’s performance. For others, it’s design. And in one or two cases, it’s an emotional soft spot that pulls at the heart strings every time they see it.
You know what…enough of the lead-up. I think you’re ready to see some ships!
(And there might be a giveaway at the end WHAT!? That’s right, this small-time blogger got some codes to give away! And it’s not platform-limited! But you’ll have to read on to find out about it.)
STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES’ MOUTHS: CRYPTIC’S EMPLOYEES
One of the ways I’m differentiating from AllThingsTrek47 was actually from my original intent. Whereas AllThingsTrek’s project Is solely based on community/content creator responses, I wanted to know what those who work on STO directly thought about the ships available in the game. Kael sent out a request for responses within a day of me proposing my idea. We got 4 responses…then it grew. I ended up getting ten devs/writers and nearly 15 ships just from within Cryptic! While I wish I could feature every ship I got, time and my knowledge of DemoRecord/video editing didn’t allow that. But I got the vast majority of ships, and I’ll leave in the extras for which I couldn’t do screenshots or videos.
At least one response will likely be predictable, another will be in the same family as what you’re thinking once you read their name, and the rest may actually shock you a bit.
Maybe at least one will give you some ideas of your own? 😉
In no particular order, just in the order I got them in the E-mail from Kael, here are Cryptic’s responses to, “What’s your favorite ship available in STO, and why?”
Ryon Levitt
Title: Senior Content Designer
Favorite Ship:
* Vorgon Xyfius Heavy Escort
* Fek’Ihri S’torr Warship
Why?
“I’d probably say my favorite STO ship is a tie between the Vorgon Xyfius Heavy Escort and the Fek’Ihri S’torr Warship, both for their looks.
“When I first saw concepts for the Xyfius, I fell in love with its cuttlefish-esque design.
“And as for the S’torr, I can’t look at it without singing Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song. Both ships just ooze character, and that makes them hold a special place in my heart.”
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Mauricio (“Mo”) Tejerina
Title: Senior Ship Artist
Favorite Ship:
Cardassian Damar Intel Science Dreadnought
Why?
“The reason I love this ship so much is because I designed it and built it. It was a once in a lifetime that I got to put both of my own creativity, drawing and building skills. I love the weight she has and how she flies, She is imposing and yet sexy.”
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Jo Stringer
Title: Senior UI Artist
Favorite Ship: Kwejian Pilot Frigate (Book’s ship from Star Trek: Discovery)
Why?
“This ship feels so unique, both in terms of its look and the way that it transforms. As a UI Artist, I make a lot of the little icons that you see as powers and consoles on each ship, and I had an especially fun time making the icons for the morph modes on this one. Our art and animation team did an excellent job recreating the look and feel of the ship from the show, too, and it handles just like I expect it to; very light and speedy.”
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Jesse Heinig
Title: Senior Content Designer
(I know, some of you are going, “Wait…*looks back up*…isn’t Ryon Levitt the Senior Content Designer?” I asked Kael about this; “Senior” is equivalent to saying they’ve been there a long time. So they’re both Content Designers, and they’ve both been working on STO for a long time.)
Favorite Ship:
“My favorite ship is pretty malleable! I’ll change ships as the mood strikes me. Currently I’m flying a Guardian-class cruiser (Fed) (“Guardian Cruiser“) and a Qib intel cruiser (Klg) (“Qib Intel Battlecruiser“) for the captains that I’ve been playing.”
(NOTE: Both these ships have Fleet versions available.)
Why?
“I like switching up my playstyle from time to time. Trying different power combinations and looking for interesting uses for a variety of consoles and bridge officer abilities keeps the game fresh. Plus sometimes you want to tweak your playstyle based on the content you’re playing: You don’t really want to use a lot of radiation powers against Tholians, for instance! Thus, I’ll switch up ships every once in a while and try doing a shield-penetrating build on a cruiser, or a drain-and-confuse build on a science vessel, or a carrier that just sits back and lets me relax for a while.”
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Thomas Marrone
Title: Associate Art Director
Favorite Ship: Pathfinder (“Pathfinder Long Range Science Vessel“)
Why?
“[I]t was the first Starfleet ship I got to model STO, and it was also the first ship I got to design for Star Trek Online. It was a real joy to remaster the ship recently for our Terran Arc. The Pathfinder was one of the first Tier 6 ships that we did, so it was exciting to navigate what makes an advanced STO ship and take the STO aesthetic as it was so far and amp it up even further by sleeking out the Intrepid profile and, in great Tom Paris tradition, adding fins to make it go faster.”
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Jeremy Randall
Title: Senior Systems Designer
Favorite Ship:
* Son’a Collector Science Dreadnought (featured below)
* Tholian Jorogumo Carrier
Why?
For the Son’a Collector:
“Not only is this ship interesting to fly for a player like me that enjoys ‘Space Magic’ builds, but it was also really interesting to Design and Build from an internal perspective. Its transformation animations of its ‘Consumption Array’ and the unique ‘shockwave’ of its Thermolytic Injector console, were interesting challenges to overcome, and I’m really proud of how they came together.”
For the Jorogumo:
“The Commander-Universal seat, along with the Miracle Worker Spec, make this ship super satisfying to tinker with. There are so many options and possibilities, and all of them still deliver on my Space Wizard fantasy. I have a bit of a soft spot for the Barely Controlled Chaos of the MW ‘Innovation’ Ship Mechanic, so being able to fly a science ship that includes it is a lot of fun.”
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Matthew Wilhelm
Title: QA Test Analyst
Favorite Ship: I got four responses, all dependent on play style. Unfortunately, I could only feature one due to time. 😦
* Fleet Gagarin Miracle Worker (“Fleet Sheppard Miracle Worker Battlecruiser“)
* Terran Adamant Heavy Raider
* Legendary Temp-Op Science Vessel (“Legendary Temporal Operative Science Vessel“)
* Legendary Command Dreadnought Cruiser (featured below)
Why?
* Fleet Gagarin Miracle Worker for beams. It can pull off any weapon DPS build imaginable, and few ships look better.
* Terran Adamant Heavy Raider for cannons. My favorite stat package for the run-and-gun playstyle.
* Legendary Temp-Op Science Vessel for science. I’ve achieved my highest DPS in this ship.
* Legendary Command Dreadnought Cruiser for tanking. In my opinion this is the most versatile ship in the game. Played it the most out of them all, by far.
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Weston Pierce
Title: Staff Animator
Favorite Ship: Aquarius Light Escort (highest version currently available: Fleet Aquarius Light Escort, but the base version is also available in the Fleet Stores)
Why?
“Back in the day, the sleek dart-like design of the ship caught my eye. A tiny ship that could pack a massive punch! I have fond memories of gathering resources on my relatively new account to get one. At the time, most fleets hadn’t been around long enough to be able to purchase the ship, but I was in one of the few that hit tier four first! I remember requisitioning it within seconds of it being available! So while I can’t prove it, I’d like to think I was probably one of the first few to ever officially fly an Aquarius in the whole game back then!”
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Paul Reed
Title: Writer
Favorite Ship: “the Lukari Ho’kuun Science Vessel!” (Yes, he included the exclamation! 🙂 )
Why?
“When you go out in one of those, you go boldly. Sure, the other ships out there have their nacelles and gun pods and cool bird-themed paint jobs, but do they rock the fine snack food shape? I think not!”
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Mike Fatum
Title: Community Manager
*Yes, that’s Ambassador Kael from Ten Forward Weekly. 🙂
Favorite Ship: “While the M’Chla is the ship I personally fly the most, my favorite ship of all time in any Trek, including STO, is the B’rel Class Bird of Prey.” (one example: Fleet B’Rel Bird-of-Prey)
Why?
“It’s a stunning, stunning ship, that took my breath away the first time I saw it. Others fell in love with their first Enterprise, but the Bird of Prey is the ship that’s always been my first love in this universe.”
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In the Streets: The Content Creators!
When Kael started getting responses, we only had about 3-4 people within Cryptic submit responses by this past weekend, so we’d agreed to expand out to some STO content creators. When AllThingsTrek47 found he and I were doing similar projects, we worked out which community members he’d work with and which ones I could go to so we didn’t overlap completely.
This section will be devoted to the content creators I was able to reach out to and from whom I could get replies.
AllThingsTrek47
(I bet you didn’t see that coming!)
Content Link: YouTube Link
Favorite Ship: USS Voyager, Intrepid Class (one example: Fleet Intrepid Long Range Science Vessel)
Why?
“ The U.S.S. Voyager, NCC-74656. The first vessel in its lineage, an Intrepid Class starship. This ship was the most advanced vessel that Star Fleet had built at the time. It was designed for long-term exploration missions. It had a navigational deflector that ran circles around the established technology of the time, an Emergency Medical Hologram, Bio-neural circuitry and gel packs that allowed for faster response times in computational tasks, and the top-rated speed of any starship in the fleet. It was designed to GO! The ship and its crew were stranded in the Delta quadrant for 7 years. Throughout that time the ship encountered hostile races, dangerous anomalies, and shortages on just about every item needed to survive and keep the ship going. The Intrepid class kept running through all of this. The ship proved to be perfectly suited to the ever-changing conditions that the crew put it through. This ship has become my favorite Star Trek ship because of its resiliency and adaptability. It kept most of its crew safe until they were able to find a way home and carried proudly the flag of the Federation throughout the Delta quadrant.
I’ll end by adding the quote found on the U.S.S. Voyagers starship plaque:
‘For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see; Saw the Vision of the World, and all the wonder it would be…’ – Alfred Tennyson “
(Pictures provided by AllThingsTrek47. I had a difficult time getting good lighting in the sector space system I chose; he lucked up on an Acheron’s Mycelial Sun brightening up that area! The other pic he provided above the planet was in addition to the first one.)
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KD
Content Link: Twitch Link
Favorite Ship: Chimera Class, T6 (“Manticore Heavy Destroyer“)
Why?
“I wanna say the reason why I chose the Chimera Class is its unique design and its Console. The design itself reminds me of an older ship from way back in the days of old. I think it was also cool to see that the first Captain of the class was a Ferangi (Nog himself). The console allows people to build a phaser boat and adds drastic power to the main weapons. I enjoy the ship when I use it in TFO runs and more. (Mostly ISE runs though). “
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EndeavourGameOn
Content Link: Twitch Link
Favorite Ship: Lexington (“Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser“)
Why?
“My favorite ship in STO is the Odyssey Class. It’s a ship that exists in an interesting capacity, as it’s the first ship to bear the name Enterprise without being featured in a Trek show or movie. When it came out, STO was just a game, but in the decade since then, it’s been MY Enterprise, the one I grew up with, the one I think of personally as being the “current” Enterprise. It’s got lore, it’s got refits, it’s got a captain with a backstory, it’s been involved to Star Trek in a way that allows me to be a part of the story, and I’ll never have something else like that. The Enterprise isn’t just the flagship of the Federation, it’s your flagship, the ship that’ll answer your distress call, that’ll lead the charge.”
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KyuuContinuum
Content Link: https://kyuucontinuum.net
Favorite Ship: “Temporal Light Cruiser – Refit Connie 🙂 “
Why?
“The refit Constitution class was actually the very first Star Trek ship I got to see on the screen back in 1982. My mother took me to go see Wrath of Khan in the theater and I was pretty blown away by the Enterprise in the drydock. Little did I know that there was a much longer beauty pass of that ship in the previous movie until a few years later when she bought me the extended edition of The Motion Picture (on VHS [yeah, I’m that old]). I ended up building three different AMT/Ertl models of that class through junior high and high school. I couldn’t get enough of the awesome look of the nacelles and the swept-back pylons, or the aztec-laiden saucer, and the flattened curves of the deflector dish.
“Fast forward to the mid-2010s and Thomas Marrone, with whom I had become friends with the previous year through our mutual love of the Honorverse, was working on a redeux of the refit Constitution as part of his project after-hours for Star Trek Online. He knew that I had a huge thing for that ship and in my honest opinion, the launch version of the refit Connie was not up to par. But, when I saw his work, I instantly saw how much of a labor of love it was for him and I greatly appreciated it. Of course, we all know now how much Thomas loves the TMP-era of ship design because it comes through in other ships like the Georgiou-class (one of my other faves).
“Within the game, the T6 Temporal Light Cruiser is a heck of a utility ship. If you only have one promo box left and you don’t already have it, get it. It’s great for pretty much any kind of build, from beam overload to cannon scatter volley, or even a low-key torp-mine damage build… it’s seating gives you a ton of options to choose from in terms of putting huge numbers up. Not to mention, it’s so beautiful dealing out that kind of damage. I tend to stick with a canon build of pulse phasers, if I can. She’s the best ship in the game!”
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Joe and STO
Content Link: Uh…you’re here. Welcome, or glad to have you back! 🙂
Favorite Ship: Legendary Pilot Warship (“Legendary Defiant Pilot Warship”, if I had to make a more exact name. 😉 )
Why?
You know…I never used to like light Escorts. They didn’t last long enough in battle to do me any good. I preferred Cruisers with a good middle ground of maneuverability and high hull health.
Then, I got into Heavy Escort Carriers (now called Strike Wing Escorts). They had a more Cruiser-like toughness, but you could launch pets from them.
From them, I graduated to full Escort-type ships. The one that best blended the toughness of a Cruiser with the needed agility of the Escort type was the Defiant.
It had speed, firepower, and was truly a “tough little ship!”
As Pilot ships came around, I enjoyed being able to use Pilot maneuvers to make up for my relatively horrible piloting. I never could keep a good attack angle because Escorts move too quickly!
Then, the announcement we’d waited for…a Pilot version was going into the 10th Anniversary Legendary Bundle!
That was all I needed, and I was not disappointed. I got the crutch I personally needed (Pilot Maneuvers), and the ship just looked cool doing its Pilot moves. And it traded off none of its firepower…actually, it may have gained a 5th weapon slot in exchange for the Experimental Weapon, but that’s a gain, IMO.
I’ve even done a blog series about a canon Defiant build!
And it just looks like it can barrel down on you and take you out without any warning. Quantum Torpedoes, Quad Phaser Cannons, Phaser Beams and Photon Torpedoes…it’s truly Over-Powered and Over-Gunned.
(Pictures provided by Maddawg Mikey. Thanks for helping me get my ship so I could get everyone else’s!)
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The Reason You’re Here: THE CONTEST!
I imagine a number of you are legit here to read up on devs’ and others’ favorite ships, and I’m glad you are!
But I also hinted at a Giveaway (okay, I’ll call it what it really is, a Contest), and I know from my own content consumption behavior that giveaways tend to draw me into a stream, video, or Tweet. Every so often, I do like what I see and follow, like, and/or subscribe because I genuinely like the content.
So if you’re here for the Contest but like the Content, I hope you stick around! I’m not a regular publisher by any means, but I try to make what I post matter.
*Hears a voice from the crowd* “Get on with the giveaway, already!”
Dude/person in my head, it’s a contest! I wish I could give everyone who reads this something. I’m just not that well off.
But Cryptic…yes, Ambassador Kael was nice enough to give me 1 code per platform for a Federation Responder Bundle! This bundle includes, among other things ships and things, the Bozeman (which has a decent replacement for Bio-Neural Infusion Circuits if you’re unable to grab many from the Lobi store for multiple characters), a T6 Z-Store Ship Coupon so you can get a 4th Z-Store ship (Bound to Account so you can’t sell the coupon, and not usable on Mudd’s Market), and it’s the only way to get the Terran skins of the 3 main ships in this Bundle.
As I’m new to giveaways, and I can’t fairly judge anything that’s a freeform writing assignment, I’m just going to let Gleam do the work for me!
HOW TO ENTER
Below are 3 links to Gleam.io contests. One link is for a PC code; the 2nd link is for a PlayStation code; the 3rd is for an XBox code.
Click the link(s) that apply to your playing methods. You’ll need to sign in with a valid E-mail address or other accepted social media platform.
Next, you’ll need to follow my Twitter account, @CardGameNut. I post much more there than I do on the blog, but blog posts are set up to automatically update to Twitter when I post here, so you won’t miss the occasional post here by following there. Whether you win or not, I hope you like the content you find there enough to continue following. 🙂
Then just wait for the end of the contest (1 week from the time of this post) to see if you won! If you did, I’ll E-mail your code within 24 hours of the end of the contest. Be sure to stay following my Twitter account!
THE ENTRY LINKS!
PC: Federation Responders Bundle: PC Code
PlayStation (PS4*/PS5): Federation Responders Bundle: PlayStation Code
XBox (XBox One*/XBox Series X|S*): Federation Responders Bundle: XBox Code
* I don’t know all the various versions of these systems, so I’ll just say this applies to all versions of the asterisked consoles.
The winner will be E-mailed their code, so be sure you’re signed up to/into Gleam with a valid E-mail that you still check regularly.
REDEMPTION
I will say I’m unfamiliar with how XBox does their account linking and code entry, so hopefully someone can say in the comments how you redeem codes on XBox.
For PlayStation and PC, you have to have your game account linked to Arc, and you’ll enter the code into Arc’s Code Redemption page. If your PlayStation account isn’t linked to Arc yet, there should be a link on that page that says, “» Playing on console? Link your account now.”
If you are a PC player, and even if you have your STO PlayStation account linked to your PC Arc account, you can also enter the code on the Arc launcher, as seen below (screenshot taken night of October 13th, 2022).
As for in-game redemption, I’m unsure how it’s done on PC and XBox, but on PlayStation it’ll be listed in the “Promotions” tab of the C-Store. Just be sure to have enough Inventory space to claim all the items (should need 9 spots minimum).
These Moments are So Fleeting
Ah, see what I did there? “Fleet Week”, “Fleet”ing?
…
I thought it was clever. :p
I do hope you enjoyed reading a different perspective on favorite ships available to play in Star Trek Online! If you’d like to check out the remaining Fleet Week streams, head to Twitch.tv/CrypticStudios or look at the schedule (last updated October 8th) on Star Trek Online’s official Twitter page.
Before I’m done, I want to thank Kael for allowing me to do this, for collecting and sending dev/employee responses, and for the Federation Responder Bundle codes; AllThingsTrek47 for working with me to ensure we offered different works on the same topic; Cryptic’s devs and employees and the content creators I’ve asked for taking time out of their days to contribute to this project; and to everyone who’s offered advice, screenshots, answers to my relatively dumb questions, and support for getting all this put together in a semi-cohesive manner. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been a blast!
Until later, enjoy Star Trek Online!
PS: THE WINNERS!
I’m posting this after the contest is over, and I wanted to publicly acknowledge the winners.
Congrats to those players!
Joe and STO 