Star Trek Online Release Date Announced.

Today, the official release and beta test dates were announced for Atari's long-awaited Star Trek Online game. Preorders for the game will begin on January 11, and each customer who preorders will get a beta download code for the beta run which will run from January 11 until January 26. The official ship date will be February 2, for those who don't preorder. The $79.99 collectors edition includes the following:

•Deluxe Packaging: Futuristic 3dX holography set in a high quality brushed aluminum finish. Heavy duty construction with magnetic closures and nested compartments for all components.
•Deluxe Manual: High end, hardbound, art book, manual, and disc case in a single, elegant package. “HD Printing” on over 40 glossy pages of exclusive art from the Star Trek Online Universe.
•Communicator Badge: High quality cast metal design based on the in-game badge model. Fully 3d Sculpted with recessed burst and curved contours.
•Guest Passes: Credit card style buddy passes to invite three of your friends for a three day trial of Star Trek Online.
•Red Matter Capacitor: A unique item that charges up and delivers extra energy to all of your ship’s equipment for a short time. A device that, when used, gives you a small bump in energy, has a long recharge.
•Next Generation Uniform: Uniform Options from and the Next Generation. The timeless look worn by Picard, Data and Riker.
•“Deep Space Nine” Uniform: Uniform Options from the “Deep Space Nine” Series. Grey shoulders, on a black uniform, just like Sisko, Worf and Dax.

Also, making this more tempting, those that preorder the game through Gamestop will receive a special downloadable code to unlock an exclusive in-game Starfleet Constitution Class Starship. This unique, upgradable starship comes equipped with blue phasers and an extra engineering station mod slot.

I've been waiting for this game for a LONG time, and it's going to be a tough choice between STO, and WoW. I guess I'll put a preorder through for STO with Gamestop, and at least give the game a try. "Scotty, Beam me up!"

Enter #5

Well, last night, after trying to complete as many of the barrens quests and quest chains as I could, I went hunting for my fifth pet on my hunter. I went first to the Petopia site to see what I could get as a pet in the Tenacity tree, since I didn't have one in that tree yet, and figured that I might as well get one to train as well. To my disappointment, there weren't too many lower level rares that appealed to me (I'm not much of a turtle, bear, boar or croc person, so that left crabs or scorpions. The next available rare in the crab family is a nice vermillion colored one named Crusty that crawls around off the northwestern shore of Desolace, but my hunter isn't high enough level to tame that one yet, so I settled on a nice rare scorpion in Durotar by the name of Death Flayer. He isn't so special except for the fact that 1) he is rare, and 2) he's got the nice mottled black color. I named him "Viahra" which is Rihannsu for "Sting" or "Stinger" (not to be confused with "Viagra" which is a medication used for erectile dysfunction). Here he is, pictured below:

Viahra

I will probably replace him with Crusty eventually, since I like the color, but he'll do for now.

Just rambling

Lately, it seems like a lot of my friends are experiencing what I term "WoW burnout". It has been mentioned in Tank for the Light, The Tree Healer, and in The Savage Coast where he spoke about retiring the main character that he'd been playing for at least a year. What is the reason for the burnout? Monotony. People are doing the same things, repetitively, day after day, and it's getting old. There is a lack of new content, and the long-awaited patch 3.3 is taking longer than most people expected to be released, so there is no new content to experience that will alleviate the monotony. I was beginning to feel the drain and the lack of excitement myself before I transferred Llaihr over to the Kael'Thas server, and had hoped that the change of scenery would relieve that to some extent. It didn't. Therefore, when I have been playing (game time has been limited due to school and preparation for final exams and projects in a couple of weeks, as well as general over-all tiredness) I have been playing on my "lowbies" that I created when I first started playing on that server back in early October. I have a blood elf Paladin, Sylverylle, that I've leveled into the 40s, and recently, I've started levelling my blood elf hunter, Amerylle, and have gotten her almost to 30. I have had a lot of fun playing her, and getting the pets I want (so far, one summoned pet, Liorae (Echeyakee), and three rares; Tehhr (Humar the Pridelord), Aehallh (Ressan the Needler), and AenRhien (Azzere the Skyblade).

Aehallh (Rihannsu for "Nightmare")

Liorae (Rihannsu for "Light")

Terrh (Rihannsu for "Darkness")

AenRhien (Rihannsu for "Bloodwing")

As you might have guessed, I like using Rihannsu (or for those who are not complete Trekker nerds like myself, Romulan) names for my pets. Most of them were easy to obtain. Echeyakee, of course was the easiest, as he is summoned via the Horde quest of the same name. I just happened across Ressan the Needler while running through Tirisfal Glades on my way to catch a dirigible to Orgrimmar the other day, and happened to stumble upon Humar the Pridelord the same evening, only a couple of hours later. The hardest one to get was Azzere the Skyblade, as he required a 4.5 hour camp just south of Camp Taurajo (I got tired of waiting and took a 45 minute break to finish up a couple of quests, and returned to find him waiting for me). I still haven't figured out what #5 will be for now. I know that eventually, I will replace most of them (I'd like to get at least one of either Loque'Nahak or Gondria, and possibly Skoll, and Aetona, but those are all a long way down the road yet. At least I'm happy with what I have, but if anyone has any suggestions for rare (lower level) Tenacity pets, feel free to let me know.

That's all for the (huge) WoW portion of this post. Before I close, however, I want to share my two WoW buddies, Dalamar "Poopins" (the main inspiration for the title of this blog) and Raistlin, with you. Either one of the two is usually in my lap while I'm playing (Dalamar likes to help, while Raistlin usually just curls up and sleeps). This picture was taken on one of the rare occasions when BOTH decided to share my lap.

Me with Dalamar (facing the camera) and Raistlin
in my lap "helping" me play WoW