Preview: Veteran Abilities

Sunday, 19 April 2009 Written by 

We want to take a closer look at the new veteran vessels and their unique abilities today. Similar to the officer abilities vessels already get when reaching an officer rank, veteran abilities are usually passive and apply all the time, but some units also gain new active abilities. Most veteran abilities will be linked to a model, effect or weapon change, but not all of these optically changes will be included in the 3.0.6 patch, but in future patches. Patch 3.0.6 will feature the complete gameplay aspect of veteran abilities.

So what can you expect from veteran units? Besides a large attribute boost to make them a bit more like the famouse U.S.S. Enterprise - a hero vessel - they gain new features. Here are some examples:

Federation Akira Class: Modified Torpedoes
Torpedoes break through shields and deal direct hull damage
A quite powerful ability, ignoring the opponents shields and directly crushing its hull can blow smaller vessels to bits in seconds, exspecially combined with the highly increased offensive value of a veteran Akira.

Klingon Neghvar Class: Warship Cannon
Fires two ultraheavy pulse disruptors, dealing double damage to battleships
Ever wondered why the Fleet Operations Neghvars are missing the two giant cannons you saw on some of them during the Dominion War in Deep Space 9? Here they are, make sure to stay out of the line of fire!

Romulan Norexan Warbird: Dagger Doctrine
The rate of fire increasment when opening combat is doubled, lasts twice as long and only requires 10 seconds to refresh
As already noted in the last news post, Romulan vessels do now fire faster when opening combat. This effect is greatly improved for Veteran Norexans. They unleash a great volley of disruptor shots in no time, the perfect hit and run vessel.

Dominion S-2 Escort Cruiser: Ammunition Lock-On
Special targeting systems allow Tetrion Torpedoes to lock on the ammunition depots of hostile vessels, dealing twice damage against vessel with torpedoes and disabling their weapons
Akiras assaulting your base, Sang' Class bird of preys harrassing your troops - a Veteran S-2 Escort Cruiser will take care for all those torpedo-vessels out there.


Image

Image