We’re very excited to announce the brand new Intel starships that will launch with Delta Rising. These new ships are sleek, agile, and deadly, and they feature a brand new mechanic not found on any other starship. Intel starships are available to captains that are level 50 or greater.

These all new starships are based upon an existing ship category (i.e.: Cruiser, Escort, Science Vessel, Warbird, etc.) and then heavily modified to make them more stealthy and agile. While all Intel ships are fairly unique, they all have the following in common:

• Faster and more agile than non-intel ships of the same category
• Less hull strength (HP) than non-intel ships of the same category
• Cloaking Device
• Starfleet Intel ships have a standard Cloak
• Klingon Intel ships have Battle Cloak
• Romulan Intel ships have Enhanced Romulan Battle Cloak
• Can equip Dual Cannons
• All Intel ships are Tier 6, so include standard features for this tier
• Scaling HP
• Starship Mastery passive abilities
• Starship Trait
• Have a Commander hybrid Intelligence bridge officer seat
• Have at least one other lower rank hybrid Intelligence bridge officer seat
• Have the Gather Intelligence mechanic

Gather Intelligence

All Intel ships are capable of deploying an Intel sensor drone with the Gather Intelligence ability. Once deployed, this sensor drone will scan your target until you disable it or the target is destroyed. The target of your Gather Intelligence ability will periodically receive a Penetrating Scan debuff that will stack. Once enough Penetrating Scans have stacked on your target they become Vulnerable for a short time.

While the target is Vulnerable, Intel ships can use one of the three Expose Vulnerability abilities on this target. These powerful abilities find a critical weakness in the target starship and then allow you and your teammates to briefly exploit it. This comes in the form of a crippling debuff or control effect. After a target has been afflicted by an Expose Vulnerability effect, the affected foe quickly compensates for its discovered weakness and thus become immune to Penetrating Scan debuffs for a short period of time.
 

Expose Vulnerability: Defense

Your sensor probe discovers a critical weakness in the target's hull and shield systems. This devastating expose effect drastically reduces the target's damage resistance and shield hardness, causing the target to suffer significantly more damage while under this effect. In addition, Expose Vulnerability: Defenses also clears all Engineering buffs on the target.

Expose Vulnerability: Weapon Systems

Your sensor probe unveils a critical weakness in the target's weapons and targeting systems. This crippling effect will significantly reduce the target's accuracy and damage for a short time. In addition, Expose Vulnerability: Weapon Systems also clears all Tactical buffs on the target.

Expose Vulnerability: Critical Systems

Your sensor probe discovers a major flaw in the target's critical systems. This expose effect will apply a Hold effect on the target rendering them helpless for a short period of time. In addition, Expose Vulnerability: Critical Systems will clear all Science buffs on the target.

Hybrid Bridge Officer Seats

Intel ships represent the first of our Tier 6 vessels that will possess hybrid seating options. These seats are defined as being a combination of both a Profession (Tactical, Engineering, or Science) and a Specialization (Intelligence). As of now, Intelligence is the only Bridge Officer Specialization available, and will be explained in far greater detail in a later dev blog.

Hybrid seats can support Bridge Officers of the matching Profession, whether they have the associated Specialization or not. A Tactical/Intel Hybrid Seat, for example, can accept an existing Tactical Officer, and support his/her full range of existing abilities. However, these are the only seats which additionally support Intelligence bridge officer abilities. If a Tactical/Intelligence Bridge Officer is seated into a non-Hybrid Tactical Seat, they will not be able to activate any Intelligence abilities they may possess.

Existing “Universal” Seats refer to Profession only. Abilities which come from a Specialization will not be available to an officer seated in a Universal seat.

Starship Stats

Without further ado, we’d like to give you the first look at these exciting new starships. It’s important to note that all stats are a work in progress. It’s still very early in the development process and details will likely change. This is especially true for the ships’ scaling hit points.

Click here to learn more about Delta Rising, our free-to-play expansion for Star Trek Online. Explore the Delta Quadrant & rediscover the allies & the enemies the Voyager crew made during their exodus from distant space back to Earth & the Federation. Prepare yourself & your crew with an Delta Operations Pack now available for purchase! Click on the logo below to learn more about it.

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