Season 9 *SPOILER ALERT*

[Razorwalker]

Captains.....

A new season of STO is upon us in a few weeks and as with the last season and to continue forward as long as I play/am a member of this fleet, I will continue to provide data about the upcoming season, changes, missions, and anything else that I can find for you. As before, I will strive to provide as accurate information as I can, but please note that as with everything in STO, content is subject to change with or without notice. Also, as before, I will refrain from speculation/rumors unless there is significant data to suggest they may be true. I will of course plainly state if an item of information is rumor/speculation. So, if you do not see *Rumor*, then it is not. Please be aware that from this point forward, I will be talking about the new content, so ******SPOILER ALERT!!*****. If you do know wish to know ahead of time, please do not read farther......


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As we all already know from Season 8.5, Season 9 will be about the Undine and the Delta Quadrant. So far, we have seen 3 new areas added to the Tribble Testing grounds. 2 new PVE queues and 1 Space Battlezone. I have had a chance to run each of them once and the 2 PVE queues are just awesome. It's hard to get a 5 man team together on Tribble, so when I can, I will be FRAP'ing these queues so that you can see what is in store. Like with Season 8, I will post a link to my YouTube page where the video is hosted. Please do not search for it, as it is unlisted. You must have the link. Please, feel free to share with whomever you like.

Also, with Season 9, we have a new Earth Space Dock (ESD) that is just a work of art. Gone is the industrial donut that we all know and a new sleek, Starfleet/Federation inspired ESD has taken it's place. There are many levels and now, you can actually go out into the shuttle bay and see Runabouts, Shuttles and Workerbee's fly right past you and into the interior of ESD where the ships are docked. I will be posting some screenshots later, and possibly a vid walkthough, time permitting. Everything is nicely laid out and no more running forever to get somewhere. There are bank locations scattered throughout and the tailor even has changing rooms! Imagine that! There are quite a few different social areas and even a balcony way up that requires a turbolift to reach where you can relax, have meeting and watch all the activity below. ***Rumor*** It was talked about on the Officer Chat in Tribble Fleet (the Dev Fleet) that at some point in the future, ESD will have multiple levels to explore and interact with ***Rumor***. Yes, I got promoted to Senior Officer in the Tribble Fleet last night! There are waterfalls and lots of bonsai trees everywhere. It is really something to behold.

We will also be seeing the much anticipated Kit Revamp in Season 9 also. These new kits are pretty nice. For the Non-Fleet kits, you will have 2 offensive kit powers and 2 defensive kit powers. You choose. Basically, you get a Kit Frame with 4 slots. You then get Modules (Mods) that you will install in these slots that give you the Kit Powers. It is important to note here, as of this post, the idea is that you can swap out Mods whenever you like (Not in combat). So, say you are going to Defara as an Eng. You can slot Phaser Turret, Chronoton Mines, Weapon Malfunction and Shield Repair in the same kit. Then, say you head to go do a story mission, you can remove these Mods and then slot Transphasic Bomb, Medical Generator, Fuse Armor & Cover Shield. When replacing a Mod, you do not lose it, it goes back into your inventory to be used again later. However, slotting a Mod WILL make it Character Bound. Now, I know a lot of you are wondering "But, I just bought an expensive Spire Kit. What will happen to that?" Well, you will be able to trade it in for a new Spire Experimental Kit, which has 5 slots. There are a few different combos to choose from. So, if you just got a new shiney, don't worry, you can trade it in for free. Which brings me to my next point.....

The visuals have been changed for Season 9. Ship visuals as of now are still the same and no word that they will change. HOWEVER, personal visuals got a makeover. You will no longer be able to click on the little eyeball and show/hide your Armor, Weapon or Kits. All these visuals have been moved to the Tailor and are now options for costumes. And, let me tell you, there are ALOT of options . AND YOU CAN COLORIZE THEM!!! Here comes the pink armors, lol. Anyway. Federation, Romulan and KDF personnel all have these options available to them now. So, let your imagination run wild and break out the Zen for more costume slots

The new Reputation system will obviously be Undine. 8472 Counter-Command Reputation is what it will be called. It will be set up much like the Dyson Rep. You will get Undine Marks and Isomorphic Injectors to turn in. The actual Reputation is not yet up on Tribble, so the information is limited right now. Will post more when I get it. Also, according the Patcher Program, this last Tribble Patch loaded Undine Bridge Packs onto my computer, so I would say that it is safe to assume that we will be seeing an Undine Lockbox and Undine Playable ships with the release of Season 9. As many of you all are aware, I have been madly transferring Keys over to Tribble, so when these Lockboxes hit, I will be opening lots of them. Will get the rundown on them for you all as well.

OK Captains, that is all that I have for you for now. Please keep checking back over the next few days as I will be uploading the first video, Viscous Cycle Elite, in approximately 8 hours. Will also be uploading screenshots and more info in the next 24 - 48 hours along with another video. Everything will be kept here in this thread. I will let everyone know via TPD Chat when new info is posted.


Keep The Phoenix Burning!
Vice Admiral Mara Razorwalker
Crimson Phoenix Squadron
of
The Phoenix Division


UPDATED 3/21/14

I have some more news for everyone! It was released today in the Season 9 Dev Blog #3 that the Reputation System is also being revamped! Good news or not, I will have screenshots in a few hours of the revamped reputation system.

UPDATED 3/22/14

OK, Captains, got some more news for you, although I am not sure if this will release with S9 or after. It appears that we will be getting a lvl cap increase! Yes, that is right, a level cap increase. Judging from what I have seen, I will wager to GUESS (NOT CONFIRMED) that it will be to lvl 60. Today, as some of you already know, I managed to crack open the .hogg files for Holodeck. VERY interesting. Don't worry, scroll down and you will find some screenshots and info. But, it is looking like there will be item increases to Mk XIV gear, both regular, special sets and Fleet gear. So, you are asking "But Mara, what is gonna happen to all this MK XII Fleet gear that I have grinded months and months on???" Well, at this point, I do not have an answer for you. I can only speculate. Seeing as how they are doing "Trade-ins" on the Fleet Kits, I am HOPING that something similar will be implemented. HOWEVER, I do not really see that happening. More likely, to keep the masses happy and at bay, I THINK (AGAIN, Not confirmed or even hinted at.) what will happen is that we will see the current Mk XII Fleet Gear bumped to Mk XIV Fleet gear and new Mk XII gear takes it's place. That would be the logical thing to do. There will be MASSIVE rage if they did anything else since Cryptic has swore for years now that there would be nothing more powerful that Mk XII. However, their own update files have proven those statements as a lie. Again, I have ZERO idea what will happen when these new Mk XIV equipment hits Tribble, then Holodeck. We will just have to hope for the best. So, scroll on down to the post and check out the images I ripped from the .hogg files and I even took a screenshot of the files open on my computer with the date/time at the bottom

UPDATED 3/23/14

Found some more interesting items in the .hogg file.

UPDATED 3/28/14

I have added 2 new videos, one of the new Space PVE Undine Assault Normal and one of the new Ground PVE Undine Infiltration Normal. I hope that you enjoy!

UPDATED 4/13/14

I have added a screenshot of the upcoming Summer Event Swimsuits and Powerboards from the store. I had no Favours to buy any, but at least you can see what is available and for how much

[Razorwalker]

The first video up is the new Viscous Cycle (Elite) Queued PVE event. Your objective in this match is to take out the 3 Planet-Killers in the living shipyards in Fluidic Space. Ship movement is very different than in space or the atmosphere in the spire. It is much like the EVA suits in "A Step Between Stars". In other words, LOTS of inertia, lol. So, you first fly to the first shipyard, engage hostile forces protecting it, beam down commandos to open up the maw where the planet-killer is berthed, destroy said killer while defending against Undine ships attacking you and repeat 3 times. Oh, but here is the catch. The last shipyard, a planet-killer manages to launch and you must stop it before it reaches the rift and heads into normal space. I think this run was bugged, because there was not planet-killer heading for the rift when I got there. It is a bonus objective, so not required to complete the mission, just for bonus marks.

http://youtu.be/2p84H39bJWQ

UPDATED 3/28/14

2 new videos for your enjoyment have been added.

This is the new PVE Space queued event Undine Assault. The goal of this mission is a 5 man queued event, with 3 lanes of attack. Each lane has 2 points where Rifts spawn. You must fight your way there, taking out Undine ships and protecting the command ship. Upon reaching the Rift's, you must destroy the Rift to prevent more ships from coming thru. After taking out all 6 Rift's, everyone will meet at the end and attack the Planet Killer waiting there. You can ONLY do damage to the Planet Killer by firing into the Firing Opening of the Planet Killer which also is in it's firing arc. More Undine ships will appear and you must defend against them while trying to take out the Planet Killer. Also, as an added twist, random Rift's will appear from the beginning of the runs to the end. NOTE: This is the NORMAL queue, not the ELITE......

http://youtu.be/X4EkI1BmU1k


This video shows the new PVE Ground queued event, Undine Infiltration. This is also a 5 man ground mission which takes place on Bajor. The goal of this mission is to interrogate 10 Bajoran's to see which ones are actually Undine. There are clues (Information NPC/Consoles) which will help you determine if the Bajorian is an Undine or not. During this mission, you will also have to defend the Temple against an Undine assault where they try to steal the Orb and also against angry Bajorians who are VERY upset that you are there interrogating them. Midway thru the mission, after interrogating the 10th (Last) suspect, you will uncover the Undine and you will have a running firefight thru the streets of Bajor, ending up at the entrance to the Fire Caves. This begins the final phase of the mission. The Undine have set up HQ inside the Fire Caves since they have been closed off to all visitors. Upon traversing the caves and enduring several ambushes, you will end up in the final cave with a boss Undine. This was a pretty fun mission to do and requires in the first part your team split up to interrogate people. NOTE: This is the NORMAL queue, not the ELITE.....

http://youtu.be/AWVuDwNAof8

[Razorwalker]

OK, here we will be discussing the Kit Revamps.

This first screenshot shows how the kit will appear when equipped and the Mods in your inventory. It is very simple, just like equipping your ship. Drag the desired Mod into the appropriate slot on the kit and you are good to go

The next screenshot, you can see the bonuses that you get on this particular kit. This one is the Spire Experimental Engineering Kit Mk XI. I will get more data on other kits further on down this post.

Here is a nice comparison view of the different Mk Versions of the same Mod.

I have a list of all the Kit Mods that I have found to date. This SHOULD be a complete list for the immediate future. I have shown the Mk XIV Mods, but they appear to be available from Mk I thru Mk XIV.

Engineer Kit Modules

Science Kit Modules

Tactical Kit Modules

These are all the Kit Mods that I have found so far. If I find more, I will of course update these lists. It is interesting to note however, that ALL Captain Abilities are now showing up as Kit Powers....... Not sure what this means, but as soon as I find out something, I will be sure to let everyone know.

[Vorlok]

Thanks, Mara! My burning question: are the Undine planet killers in any way related to the Doomsday Machine, or are they a totally different kind of enemy?

Also, will there be any advantage to having a Spire Mk XII kit as opposed to Mk XI for trade-in? I have two Mk XI's now that I swap between, do I need to save up for a new Mk XII kit frame?

[Razorwalker]

Vorlok,

The Planet-killers are completely different than the Doomsday Machine.

As for the Kits, I have not been able to purchase one on Tribble yet, but will be getting one tonight and will let you know.

Here goes you a SS of the 2 Kits side by side so that you may see the differences in the Spire Mk XI & Mk XII

[Razorwalker]

And, here we go Captains! The brand new Undine Rep System!

[Razorwalker]

Here it is.....See some good and bad changes here. You will notice that ALL Mk X & Mk XII gear is GONE from all the reps. Costume Unlock Projects will take 5 Marks now (Supposedly).

[daBelgrave]

http://www.iqfleet.org/leaks

[Razorwalker]

Ok, here is a smattering sample of Icon Images that I ripped from the Holodeck .hogg files. There are hundreds, if not thousands, but just got a few so that you can get the general idea. Now, please remember that the colored borders around items are a separate layer and do not show up on these. These are the base (Stock) images that the game uses before determining rarity level. I hope they are big enough. I didn't want to blow them up too much, then they get too pixelated to see clearly. The last 3 are the new Mirror Ships coming in the Undine Lockbox. They are: Mirror Intrepid, Mirror Mogai & Mirror Varanus.

Here is the screenshot of the files before being converted and rendered into a .dss file that can be opened to be viewed. Please note the R14. Those are the Mk XIV consoles/weaps.

[Razorwalker]

Found this little preview in the .hogg file. The new Undine Armor, I am assuming from the Undine Rep. Enjoy

Undine armor.jpg (12.52 KiB) Viewed 8283 times