Seventeen things you need to know about Star Trek Online: Agents of Yesterday

If you felt the flames of love for the original Star Trek series stoked by last week’s announcement of Star Trek Online: Agents of Yesterday, then chances are you’ve been hungry for any scrap of information about this summer’s expansion.

Fortunately, Priority One Podcast is there to help. In this week’s show, the ‘cast sat down for a very lengthy interview with Cryptic Lead Designer Al Rivera about Agents of Yesterday. In between pumping him for clarification about the announcement and trying to pry out a few new details about STO’s third expansion, the hosts managed to glean a better picture of what’s to come for the game.

We listened through the podcast and took notes, so hit the jump to read 17 things you need to know about Agents of Yesterday. When you’re done with that, make sure you check out the podcast as well!

1. This is essentially a new faction that’s playable in the original series (TOS) era, although marketing was hesitant to label it as a “faction” due to possible confusion.
2. Rivera explained the difference between a season in Star Trek Online and an expansion, with the latter usually containing something epic, such as a level cap increase, new things to do in the endgame, or a new faction.
3. Cryptic loves expansions since they get new and veteran players to all start together at the same point.
4. The expansion takes place in 2270, after the third season of TOS and three years before the movies. For comparison, the current era of Star Trek Online takes place in 2409.
5. The current Future Proof arc in the game will lead into the expansion’s story.
6. Agents of Yesterday will have its own tutorial, starting experience, and sector block.
7. All players, TOS and modern, will be able to come together at some point, although Cryptic isn’t explaining how that will work yet (Rivera pointed to what they did with the Romulans as a possible path).
8. Modern captains will be able to access at least some of the story arcs of the expansion, although there will be dialogue differences depending on which era you’re from.
9. There are other actors and celebs that Cryptic hasn’t announced yet for the expansion.
10. The team isn’t “shoehorning” Chase Masterson’s Leeta in; her presence will make sense.
11. Expect iconic moments, locations, and characters harkening back to the best of TOS.
12. “This story is going to resonate with TOS fans,” Rivera said.
13. New captains will only be able to pick races that make sense for TOS era, so no Bajoran, Cardassians, etc. Also, Klingons and Romulans will not be playable then because TOS was mostly about the Federation (and Cryptic ain’t got time for that).
14. There will be plenty of blog posts coming out between now and the expansion at the rate of about two per week.
15. Rivera stressed that Agents of Yesterday is not a separate game because they didn’t want to split the community.
16. Cryptic did consider creating a new TOS game but decided that an expansion was a better idea.
17. Cryptic is in talks with CBS about the upcoming 2017 Star Trek series and working with them, but nothing is set in stone yet. They may or may not be doing something together.