Star Trek Online....

Since the Winter event(more on it here), the current event, the event in between and casual gameplay; I've continued to plug away with daily character 'maintenance' and event participation. My wife not so much. Event burnout has a lot to do with it. Not that she hasn't played, but only enough to claim the event reward whereas I'm in it for every dilithium ore I can squeeze get out of it. 

Not sure I've ever mentioned her luck in getting an Epic token from the phoenix prize pack before Christmas. With a little time and guidance I've helped her choose and fit out a Bajoran interceptor. Which she's happy with. Good DPS is always welcome but I think she's more happy with a small fast ship that's got her most prized stat, 'turn rate'. 

The new Anniversary 'Jarok Class Alliance Carrier' is like the rest of the Alliance ships, 'interesting'. 

A free ship is a free ship even if you have to do dailies for it. A player with limited options is going to get a lot more out of those ships than those that've been in game a long time(playing free or not). So much gets accumulated over time(game promotions, events, lifetime sub, etc). Benefits stack.

From what I've seen and heard, the community seems to rate this new ship as above par for a Science Carrier. The debate on it's lack of a secondary deflector vs it's having hanger pets is a whole other thing. With all being glad it has Temporal seating. At least it will come with an Alliance variation on hanger pets, so that's a new 'alliance' element to claim and add to the 'alliance' theme as well. 

Not a ship any of my characters will fly(that I know of for now) but I'll do the dailies and claim it for the event. Given it's design cross between Fed and Romulan I expected it to go all Singularity than warp core but the details listed a warp core. Not that I care either way but the meta are happy.

It's a ship that covers a lot of bases. Not the best in the world but not the worst either; one that a player can work with(dare I say get funky with). Which I guess is the design mantra of these Alliance ships. Not a bad thing, bit of everything for everyone.

It's been interesting to watch the meta heads go to work on this ship. Pro's, con's, options and explanations. It's a happy time for them and I'm happy to watch them provide content on their theory-crafting.

As for other players character design, one that caught my eye was(a?) The Duke!

I'd both success and failure in my wait to finally get my latest alt(that Ferasan KDF character) set up.

The overall goals for this character were to level to 65 with only 'normally' claimable ships and items.

Being a lifetime sub kind of skews that; But I wanted to get to 65 and then claim all the things he could in one fell swoop(kind of a windfall experience). Getting him to 65 was fine., leveling up with one of my wife's alts. However I'd put off the claiming of items for a while.... Lots of excuses, like it being too late in a day to do and screenshot etc. These blogs are as much a record for me as a tell all for you the reader.... But after two weeks of not doing it I finally did it. Tired and at 1 in the a.m. A bad idea for one more reason. Anyway. I claimed event rewards before getting a 'clean' screenshot. So lots of grey on items I can claim.... And I can't be bothered to dump all the claimed items(some set on his current ship)... And then get a 'clean' screenshot....At least it's only one screenshot... I can live with the inaccuracy.

Event ship/item reclaim(again not a true list but you get the idea). 

Time to take inventory:

 

The lifetime environment suits and fireworks.

Zen store items/rewards/claimables:

Being a KDF character, not everything is claimable.

While a lot is free from being faction specific, some are cross faction.

With a lot more 'just' being claimable no matter. So many places in game to look for items. Zen store, Dil store, event reclaim, lifetime sub... And some items are in cross store locations...(event /dil).

The Dil store rewards are claimable by all.

And of course the 'recruit' specific account rewards are a big help.

Ultimately the character is to be a cat in a cat carrier. That alone amuses me and 'made' me do it. I had to compromise on a KDF character as that faction version of the race was available to me. Claimed from a free event giveaway... It still works for what I need.

Which all works out as the character is the same colour scheme as the ship.... Happy accidents.

Claiming the ship which I do think looks cool, I've put on the Reman shield. Which I think looks much better than on any other ship I've had it on.

I'd also forgot how big it is in space(carrier duh!)... But with the additional turn rate from a console or two, it handles fairly nimbly for it's size. All work in progress.

For a deflector vanity look I was aiming for the Lukari as it's got a blue hue to it which would match.

A lot or work to be done yet. I need to sort out his bridge officers and a ship fit. For now it's in mid fit with an ad-hoc mashup. Aiming for a Tetryon based weapons system(hear me out!). Which has worked for me on other ships in the past regardless of what the meta says/considers. Plus it'll match as a thematic thing. So I suppose this is a cross between functionality and space barbie.... Each to their own.