Sam on Maui

Yesterday I went ahead and got Serif's PagePlus X6 desktop publishing software for Windows. Serif's DTP software has come highly recommended to me as a good, competent, low-end program. As such, its direct competition would be the Open-source program Scribus , and the rather reviled Microsoft Publisher . Comparing it to programs like QuarkXpress and InDesign would likely be useless, as their target market has very different needs, desires and workflows. That said, I'm coming from QuarkXpress (even if its several years after the fact), and thus I'm having to make sure I keep my expectations in check. Moreover, I'm coming over to this from OSX to Windows, so that's even more adjustment. What I primarily want is a competent desktop publishing program for my own, personal use. Given how many smaller RPG/game shops use Serif, I think it'll be quite functional for me. Moreover, I really want to start getting into creating ePub eBooks; my old Adobe CS2 coul...

Dan Stahl announced that Fleet Actions were going to see increased rewards , as following: Gold = Purple + 1920 Dilithium Silver = Purple + 960 Dilithium Bronze = Blue + 960 Dilithium All others = Green + 960 Dilithium One of the posters politely pointed out they were concerned that this could be damaging to the social atmosphere of Star Trek Online. Dan acknowledged this , had already spoken to the other developers, and said he was bringing the feedback from the thread to the rest of the team. Today? Dan posted a followup : In addition, we have decided to nix the X2 Dilithium bonus for Gold and instead provide a x2 Purple gear and keep the Dilithium consistent across all players. Its still a good reward, but not nearly as overbearing as the double Dilithium in my opinion. Will it get tweaked further? Its entirely possible. But the economics of double Dilithium was too good; some people immediately quit STFs if the team misses secondary objectives, after all....

If you're active in Star Trek Online's end-game, you owe it to yourself to read up on their changes to Task Force Omega . In addition, its really a great time to use the official forums and the Dev Tracker  or simply dive into the discussion concerning the blog . Go over the Dev Blog on TF Omega first, as that will provide some background for everything else. You might also want to use STOwiki.org to reference current values and rewards.

Well, its been an interesting week in STO land. A lot of it centers around the Task Force Omega Reputation system ; they’re streamlining rewards, expanding them in some cases, lowering them in others, and more. As such, its making me wonder if the current Z:D prices are more from people keeping more Dilithium to themselves, “just in case.” Dan Stahl has been a very busy bee, so its really worth your time to go looking through what he and the other devs have posted . I’ll get some highlights up later, though. Again, knowing what’s coming will help you decide how you want to progress. Overall, I like the changes, but that’s my opinion based on how I play; your mileage may vary.

At the moment, Season 7 has plans to increase the costs associated with Reassigning Under-performing Officers. This is an area of concern for some players. Those who are looking for improved Duty Officers for the DOFF system are understandably upset, as are those who are actively working on starbase projects (higher tier projects sometimes require Uncommon Duty Officers in large quantities). So, are there any other options? Enter the Recruitment Duty Officer Missions.

At the moment, there seems to be a change on Tribble/Public Test Server that Cryptic/PWE is planning for Season 7. In short, there's going to be a Dilithium charge for certain Duty Officer functions . General Recruitment (the basic DOFF pack) - 1,000 Reassign Underperforming Officers (crunch 5 into 1 of the next higher quality) Common - 500 (600 at race specific vendor) Uncommon - 2500 (3000 at race specific vendor) Rare - 5000 (6000 at race specific vendor) Now, one thing I'll have to say is that these numbers are not final. Season 7 is not live yet for one, but on top of that? Its possible they'll be adjusted in the future. Whether it'll be higher or lower, its hard to say, but I'd be surprised if they stay the same. Now, looking at this, I can really sympathize with casual players. As a result, Dilithium-earning activities should become more popular.

Let me present the USS Messing!