star trek online change appearance

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• can you recustomize your character?
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After nearly 14 years the STO Academy closed its doors. It has provided information and tools to the players of Star Trek Online for as long as the game has existed. Rest assured, the fleet still exists in game for anyone who wishes to get together with other players who want to have fun playing together.

I know some of you are wondering why I decided to shut down the website. There's a number of reasons, all resulting in one realization. I haven't been able to give the website the attention it requires nor will I be able to do so in the near future.

I hope the day comes when I'll be able to bring the STO Academy website back. It was a passion of mine that I truly enjoyed building over the years.

I want to thank everyone who had a hand in shaping the STO Academy, everyone who has ever used the website, and everyone who supported me.

Live long and prosper.

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Updates to Hair and Skin Textures

By Ambassador Kael | Tue 22 Jan 2019 09:30:00 AM PST

We’re making some changes to the character art in STO, which you might notice in our upcoming Mirror of Discovery update. We spoke with Robert Quinn, one of the FX Artists for STO, about the details of these changes.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do for STO

My name is Robert and I am one of the FX artists on STO. However, I do a bit of technical art and shader work on the side.

What are the changes we’ve made to player characters for this update?

Our graphics team made a new shader for soft alpha that does not use Multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). MSAA is very computationally expensive and it does not work on low-end PCs or consoles.  This made the Hair in STO look bad on low-end PCs or consoles. I updated all of the hair in STO to use the new soft alpha without MSAA. The result of this is that all the hair will now look the same on all platforms and will have better performance.

How did you go about making these changes?

While I was updating all the old hair shaders in STO I spent a little extra time to make the hair look better. I added anisotropic specular and made the hair color affect the specular color. I also adjusted how the fresnel and light bleed affected the hair color. This should make the hair look softer and more natural. After I finished the hair I updated the skin shader to make the characters look more alive. For this, I just added a bit of inverted fresnel to fake some subsurface scatter.

What’s the process like of improving the graphics of a game like STO?

The process is very different when you are making improvements on a game that has been live for several years rather than building something from the ground up. I did not want to break all the old hair in the game so I ended up having to preserve all the old inputs and textures of the old hair shader. I had to figure out how I could work around what was already in the game and add in the new functions I needed without breaking anything. This tends to be much harder than building it from the ground up. We are still looking into more ways we can improve the visual quality of the game and this just one step on our journey. 

Can you show us some examples of the changes?

 Below are some examples of the old hair and the new hair.

So there you have it. Enjoy your new looks, Captains!

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Guide to Ship Customization in Star Trek Online: The Light Cruiser

One of the coolest aspects of Star Trek Online is the ability to customize your ship to your own personal tastes. Players aren’t stuck flying around in identical vessels, the myriad customization options allow for individual expression while still maintaining that signature Star Trek feel.

The first ship most players (those who aren’t getting the Gamestop pre-order Constitution-Class bonus , anyway) find themselves in is the Light Cruiser. This ship, most famously represented by the U.S.S. Reliant, which is captured by Khan in Star Trek II, has a surprisingly large amount of customization options.

How to Customize Your Ship

Players receive one free customization session upon being promoted to Lieutenant , with further customizations incurring a price dependent on the severity of the changes.

To customize your ship, you first need to find Malcom Sissel at Earth Spacedock. He can be found in the shipyard, working on a console opposite the ship selection computer.

Speak to him to open the customization window.

Basic Customization

You can use the pitch and yaw controls to move the view of your ship, or just left click and drag your ship into the optimal viewing position. You can also zoom the view in and out to get a better feel for how your ship looks at various distances.

There are three basic variations of Light Cruiser, the Miranda, Centaur, and ShiKahr designs.

Of these, the Miranda is the most recognizable, as it looks identical to the U.S.S. Reliant.

The Centaur has a sleek-looking design, with a far more modern feel than the Miranda.

The ShiKahr, however, appears to be all business, it is definitely the most imposing of the designs, with a reinforced saucer section and heavy-duty looking nacelles.

The basic editor also gives you the option to configure the window design of your ship, with four options for shapes ranging from standard squares to triangular and an oddly-shaped configuration.

You also have the option to change the material from which your ship is constructed, altering the basic coloration of your vessel.

Below the material selection menu is the option to configure the coloration of your vessel. You can’t change

patterns in the basic editor, but you can adjust the two base colors of your ship to your liking.

For those looking for a more personalized Star Trek Online ship design, check out our section on advanced customization on page two.

Advanced Customization

Those looking to create the most unique-looking ship possible in Star Trek Online will most likely head straight for the advanced customization options . Press the “Advanced” button at the bottom right corner to open up another window with further, more detailed options.

Those who choose advanced customization are free to mix and match the saucers, nacelles, struts, and pylons of all three designs to their liking. Advanced editing also allows you to customize the pattern on each of your ship’s components.

Feel free to combine the saucer section from the Miranda with the ShiKahr struts and the struts and pylons of the Centaur design, or any other combination that appeals to you. You have total freedom in advanced customization.

The ShiKahr saucer is my personal favorite of the Federation Light Cruiser designs, with its reinforced fore and aft sections and handle-shaped holes through the main decks.

There are also thirteen separate options for paint patterns, each available on individual components. Paint all ship components with the same pattern for a uniform look, or mix and match to find the design which best suits your personal taste.

Don’t forget that you can still change the paint colors by clicking on the boxes on the left side of the screen, just as in the basic configuration.

If this is your first customization, then the price in the bottom middle of the screen will remain at zero. If you have previously customized, however, you can watch the price increase the more options you change. You can always change things back to stay in budget, however, or reset the whole process and start over.

Finalize your Changes

Once you’ve customized your ship to your liking, press the “purchase” button to confirm your changes. You’ll be asked to confirm your changes, press “Ok” to continue.

Afterward, you’ll find yourself once again standing next to Malcom Sissel in spacedock. Beam out and take your newly-customized ship for a spin.

This post is part of the series: Star Trek Online Guide to Ships

Whether you’re looking for information on tier 2, 3, 4, or 5 ships in Star Trek Online, our complete guide has got you covered. Check out full ship stats, and see which ships are available at Lt. Commander, Commander, Captain, and Admiral Ranks.

• Ultimate Guide to Ships in Star Trek Online
• Guide to Ships in Star Trek Online: The Tier 1 Light Cruiser
• Guide to Ships in Star Trek Online: Tier 2 Vessels
• Guide to Ships in Star Trek Online: Tier 3 Vessels
• Guide to Ships in Star Trek Online: Tier 4 Vessels
• Complete Guide to Tier 5 Vessels in Star Trek: Online
• Star Trek Online Ship Customization Guide: Light Cruiser

Star Trek Online

Originally posted by NavFamG : No it isn't.

Originally posted by delta : Wait, so I was looking at the tailor...is it actually possible to change my character's face and name without cost?

Originally posted by delta : Huh, so most of the stuff I did (not that I put in that much effort, I just used a preset) when I created my character is not actually locked in, and I can change most of it at will?

Originally posted by delta : Hrm, so why is there a "Captain Rename Token" in the Zen store if I can change my name at the tailot for free?

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User interface

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The user interface during ground combat

The user interface in sector space

The user interface (often simply referred to as UI ) is the method by which information is presented to the player and the player interacts with the game itself. The design of the UI is now loosely based on the LCARS computer interface seen in the Star Trek shows and originally created by Mike Okuda . Although the general layout remains identical, each faction has its own design with a set of different color schemes available for all players.

• 2 Player abilities
• 3 Bridge Officer abilities
• 4 Moving Controls
• 5 Advanced control setup
• 8 Game menu

Controls [ | ]

This is a very basic guide to the initial controls of the game, both in flight and ground modes, and also a couple of "tricks" to help you along the way.

Please Note The following key mappings are true for the Windows English keyboard layout. Other OSes or language layouts may vary.

The game has two basic playing modes:

This is where your character is in person on the screen either in friendly territory such as a starbase or in enemy territory such as a ship or planet.

This is where you are guiding your ship through either open space or within a star system

Player abilities [ | ]

On the screen in either mode are controls for actions that your character can perform. In ground mode you will be shown your weapon's main action (normal "fire") and other possible actions such as "Exploit attacks". These each have a number to the top left of their control, and can be activated by pressing the corresponding key on your keyboard (1 through 0)

You can have up to four rows of controls on screen at any one time in both ground and space modes, to set these click the icon to the top right of the control module that looks like three stacked playing cards. This brings up a control that allows you to select between one and four rows of controls.

On the left hand end of these rows is a number between 1 and 10 with up and down arrows. These allow you to set up your own configurations and scroll between available controls.

These are the methods of using that control on the keyboard

A = ALT, C = CTRL, Sh = Shift.

Bridge Officer abilities [ | ]

Each Bridge officer has training in different capabilities allowing them to vastly change the basic setup of your ship, be it by adding extra power to your next phaser shot or healing your shields mid-combat.

The initial play setup gives you a row of icons below your main ability section, showing the face and abilities of each of your bridge officers. When you start the game each officer will only have one ability, but as you progress through the game the number and class of abilities increase (you can also train your officers either through your own abilities, additional bridge officers or at certain starbases).

These action icons will generally have "A" and a number in their action boxes. To control with the keyboard hold the ALT key and press the appropriate number.

Remember, when purchasing a new ship, set the bridge officers! Also you might try to remember to keep them as trained and as promoted as possible to increase their additional abilities.

Moving Controls [ | ]

The game has a funny habit of moving your controls around, especially when you gain new abilities, even as far as new weapons!

To stop your firing actions, heals, buffs and debuffs being all over the place you can move the controls around as you wish them to be. Just do this when not in a combat area to avoid some blushes and much muttering of "Where did my phasers go!?"

To move a control, drag it with the right mouse button from where it currently resides to your required location. This can be within or across action bar rows (see above). After you have your actions set up the way you want them, you can click a checkbox that locks your action bars to prevent your abilities from being moved around or from accidental removal altogether.

Advanced control setup [ | ]

All of the key mappings and controls can be adjusted and moved around the screen using the controls in the option menu. To manually adjust the placement of monitor panels and controls, click the game options icon to the right of the minimap and select the top HUD option, then drag the corresponding green boxes to your convenience.

Luckily, they also have a reset function!

Minimap [ | ]

The Minimap on PC

The Minimap on Consoles

The Minimap provides a top-down view of the players immediate environment, showing the location of team members, enemies , and the players direction and camera angle.

The player's bridge officers and constructions such as turrets show as green circles. Other friendly or neutral NPCs are shown as white dots, hostile NPCs as red dots. Objectives are highlighted as large white or yellow tinted areas with a dashed circle around them.

Pressing M gives access to area and galaxy maps , as well as the systems list .

A variety of buttons and displays surround the map on all sides. Starting on the top left corner and going clockwise they are

• clock - dislaying the time of your set time zone
• current location - the name of your current map and its instance number (click to switch instances)
• Display Big Map
• Character Status
• Access In-Game Mail
• Social - displays friends list, blocked users etc.
• Game Menu - access game option, change character, log out etc.
• Help and Support
• Dilithium Exchange (trading refined dilithium for Zen and vice versa)
• View R&D Progress
• PvP Task Force Operations
• Visit Starship Bridge
• Visit Shuttle Bridge
• Notification Settings
• Music Player
• Game Credits
• PvE Task Force Operations
• Duty Officers
• Visit the Dilithium Store
• Visit the Zen Store
• Hail Starfleet / KDF
• Scan Area - scan the area to be pointed to the closest areas of interest (e.g., mission objectives or anomalies)
• Abort Mission / Beam To Ship / Depart System (depending on where you are).

Game menu [ | ]

The Game Menu can be accessed by clicking the icon that resembles a cog, next to the mini-map. From here you can access several in-game options on the left. On the right major events and sales are highlighted under the header "Around the Galaxy".

• Basic: This tab shows options to change various basic settings, such as camera X/Y inversion, non-instant tooltip delay, and interface scaling.
• Audio: This tab shows options to change various audio settings, such as volume, output device, and media player.
• Video: This tab shows options to change various video settings, such as display mode, antialiasing, lighting quality, refresh rate, and texture quality.
• Control: This tab shows options to change various control settings, such as camera follow type, maximum targeting distance, and auto attack settings.
• Key Binds: This tab shows the default game key bindings and allows you to change them and add your own.
• HUD: This tab shows various HUD options, such as reticle appearance, how names are shown for players and NPCs, and damage floater settings.
• Tabs: Here you can change settings for the various tabs used in the Chat window, as well as create custom tabs for separating chat content into groups.
• Channels: This allows you to join or create custom channels for chat.
• Options: This shows various settings for chat such as font size, opacity, fade-out delay, and profanity filtering.

See also [ | ]

• Player character
• List of console commands
• 2 Playable starship
• 3 List of canon starships