Klingons flying Federation ships? Romulans tooling around in a Section 31 Battlecruiser? What sort of madness is this? It’s Star Trek Online shrugging at the IP’s canon and letting players have fun, or more specifically, it’s the end of factional restrictions on starships that will let characters that play the MMO on PC fly any ol’ ship they want, regardless of their allegiance, with the game’s 11th anniversary update.
Regrettably, this sort of feature isn’t just handed out to everyone: Players must first have a character that reaches level 65 as a member of the Klingon Defense Force and is retroactively provided to accounts that have achieved this milestone when they log in to the game. Species is unimportant, but characters that are merely allies with the Empire do not qualify. For players who would rather not go through that rigmarole, they have the option to purchase this unlock from the Zen Store for the cost of 2,000 Zen, which will be on sale at half-off between January 26th and February 25th.
The announcement does point out that there are a couple of restrictions to this feature, namely that Experimental Weapons will still only be usable on starships that have an Experimental Weapon Slot and ship class restrictions that may exist on certain Hangar Pets will remain in place.
Word on when this feature will be available to console players hasn’t been outlined in the announcement, but for PC players of STO that have met the requisites, their starship options are opening up significantly.
