Lots of new stuff this month. A few new extremely useful officers, a new building, a new refit, the Pike’s hair frame, and oh yeah, a huge, huge new game feature that might work.
Infinite Incursions Events
As was announced last week, “Infinite Incursions” are coming to STFC.
The idea of jumping onto another server for a while sounds interesting. The concept itself gives mirror universe vibes, and every fiber of my being wants to jump to the other server, and see mirror versions of the players in my alliance, just with evil mustaches like in Mirror, Mirror. So evil Joe, evil FrenchCatDealer, and maybe a nice Murder1. Or maybe the other way around. I don’t think Joe and French could be trusted with agonizers in any universe.
Now, the title “Infinite Incursions” seems a little misleading, as these are events that will happen once or twice a month going forward, but it’s at least an interesting concept. If they were truly “infinite” they’d be happening all the time. But then again, this movie ended, and there were only two sequels.
I mean, they’re kind of infinite, as they’re happening each month. But nah, they’re events with a clock, which makes them finite. Now I’ve argued enough with myself on this, and I’ve referenced a movie that nobody under 35 will have any idea about. Time to move on.
So, in the incursion events two ostensibly similar servers will be matched up based on the age of the server, and the players on those servers. The geographic location of players will also be a factor so that Asian/Pacific servers probably won’t be matched up with US servers, so as to better match up the times that players will actually be on and active.
Players from one server will be able to invade the other server for the event, and then the other server will have a chance to invade. While on the other server, you’ll work to score points for your server by taking part in events.
Each incursion event session will last for 24 hours, which will break into six-hour slots. You’ll alternate between invading and defending, and in the first month anyway, the main focus will be on bracketed PvP events in certain systems.
And there will be alliance events, solo milestone events, and cross-server leaderboard events that will tie into all of this.
The winning server will get a powerful buff for all the players on their server.
Of course, this all sounds interesting. The $64,000 Question is, Will it Float? Will it actually work? How buggy will this be? There are an awful lot of moving parts here, and a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong. I think I tend to be an optimist on most things like this, so I’m hopeful.
It’s a bit concerning that the art released for this feature so far is a loading screen.
More Incursions Nuggets
- For the duration of the Incursion events, you won’t be able to shield your base in any system higher than level 19. Ten-minute peace shields after an initial base attack will be disabled for the duration of the event.
- Once you’ve jumped to the new server, your alliance chat will still work across servers, but the galaxy chat will be that of the new server.
- Your alliance’s Territory Buffs should still work on the new server.
- You will be able to complete your dailies while on the other server.
Auto Active Consumables
One of the rewards for Infinite Incursions will be a sort of event store for consumables. They’re called “Auto Active” because they become active as soon as you buy them in the Infinite Incursion event store. So don’t buy a second one before the first one expires, as it will cancel out the first one.
There will be new consumable slots for these, so they won’t take up any of your existing slots.
- Increase damage vs. other players by while Invading 175% | 350% | 750% | 30mins
- Increase damage vs. other players by while Defending 175% | 350% | 750% | 30mins
- Increase damage vs. Armadas by while Invading 175% | 350% | 750% 1hr
- Increase Franklin/Franklin-A damage vs. Swarm hostiles by (8000/24000/180000)% while Defending 8000% | 24000% | 180000% | 30mins
- Increase Stella damage vs. Eclipse hostiles while Invading 175% 350% 750% 30mins
- Increase Impulse Speed 30% | 30% | 30% 1hr
- Increase Hostile Loot 75% | 100% | 150% 1hr
- Increase Base Material Mining Speed 200% | 350% 500% | 90mins
- Increase Warp Speed 250% | 400% | 600% 1hr
These last two will go to everyone on the server that wins the Incursion event.
- Increase Build speed by 50% | 150% 250% for the winning server – 7 days
- Increase Research speed by 75% | 150% | 225% for the winning server – 7days
The Subspace Relay Building
So here’s an underrated little feature, available at level 25, the Subspace Relay Building. It gives some pretty nice bonuses, and costs you only parsteel and Subspace Relay Keys that you’ll get from Infinite Incursions Events (or purchase.) The building can be maxed out to level 60, and will never cost any materials at all.
As to what it actually does, for each level you upgrade it, you’ll get bonuses to your defense platform damage of 5%, 2% warp speed, and 8% hull health of all your ships. By level 60, these top out at 300% defense platform, 200% warp speed, and 500% hull health.
Three New Officers
Another month, another set of three new officers for your hostile grinding Strange New Worlds crew: Epic Una, Rare SNW Uhura, and Ortega.
So last month, we got SNW Spock to help grind Interceptors with your explorers, and La’An who was good for synergy and had a good below decks ability. This month the new officers help complete the set. Uhura will grind battleships from interceptors, and Ortegas will grind explorers from battleships.
And Una will give you a boost to your impulse speed.
So once you’ve acquired all the officers, you’ll have SNW Pike as your captain, with Una to give you impulse speed to grind more ships faster, and interchangeable SNW Spock, Uhura, and Ortegas depending on your target. And since all three of the interchangeable officers are science officers, each of these combinations will give you full synergy for Pike.
Now, the rub here is that none of these officers will give you a bonus against survey ships. And if you’re grinding rep, they’re not as useful. But then again, this is your second hostile grinding crew.
That, and there’s no guarantee that they won’t release another SNW officer to specialize against survey ships in the future.
In terms of getting this month’s new officers,
Una shards will be available through Incursions events, much like the way that Quark shards are now available through Latinum Rush. You’ll also be able to get some shards in the Elite Battle Pass.
Ortegas and Uhura will be sourced through events this month. You should be able to unlock both of them this month, just by completing solo milestone events and the free path of the Battle Pass.
Cerritos Refit and Prime Node
The Cerritos Refit will increase the amount of time your Cerritos will be able to support another ship. The new Cerritos Prime Research Node will reduce the amount of cooldown time before you can support another ship.
There’s also a new projectile this month that will give you a 20% damage bonus against armadas.
Unfortunately, these will be available for purchase only. This wouldn’t be the first thing I’d rush out to go buy… but since this month’s Incursions event is PvP focused, and the Cerritos support feature is fantastic for PvP, I can see some players buying it.
Missions
Lots of new missions this month. 10 core missions for all players 34+ to continue the Strange New Worlds arc. 25 new weekly side missions for players ops 25+, and 5 missions for level 25+ players introducing Infinite Incursions.
Avatars and Frames
The Avatars are okay this month. One for each of the new officers, and the captains’ chair.
But the frames, oh, the frames. One of them is a skull with teeth, and then…
There’s a Pike’s Hair frame, that you’ll get for completing the Elite Battle Pass.
