Star Trek Online: The Missing Missions
On October 15th 2018, Cryptic released Season 15: Age of Discovery for the MMORPG Star Trek Online. As well as adding new Star Trek: Discovery themeed content to the game, the developers also overhauled the new player experience and as a result made some major changes to existing missions in the game. Several story arcs were taken from the “Episodes” tab of the game’s Journal and relegated them to the status of side-content. As a result, several well written and enjoyable storylines are now buried in the game’s UI and are therefore easily overlooked. Some of them have been further gated behind a level 60 requirement to be eligible to play them. For more details of both these “side-content” story arcs and playing the entire game in narrative order, please see my previous post, Playing the Story Arcs in Order.
The other major change that Cryptic made with the launch of Season 15 was the removal of eight missions. At the time, Cryptic stated that this was to accommodate ongoing revisions and improvements to various content. This was confirmed as five missions were changed to feature revised graphics and the addition of canonical characters to the game, such as Commander La Forge (LeVar Burton). Cryptic initially stated that the eight missions would return at some point in the future. However, after three years this has still not yet happened. Furthermore, having recently played through the games complete content, it is apparent that many of the stories have been tweaked in such a way that they do not require the return of these eight missions. If it is the case that these stories have been permanently removed from STO, it will be a loss to the overall game. The missing missions are as follows.
Hide and Seek. Coded messages by an Undine infiltrator sent you to a distant nebula where enemies lie and wait.
Stop the Signal. The player is ordered to the Bomari System to find and destroy a Klingon listening post in the area.
The Kuvah'Magh. Ambassador Kas invited Miral Paris, who is said to be the Kuvah'Magh, as a mediator to a peace conference on Regulus IV. However, spurred by B'vat's propaganda, the talks are sabotaged by Klingons and their Orion mercenaries who believe Miral to be a false saviour. Although the talks have failed, Kas eventually assists the player in chasing B'vat away before he can abduct Miral Paris.
Treasure Trading Station. Starfleet has received a communication from a servant of one of the Klingon great noble houses. She claims to have vital information about the Klingon's war plans and she is willing to exchange that information for relocation to a planet out of the Empire's grasp.
Task Force Hippocrates. There are more reports than usual about Klingon and Gorn attacks along the border of Federation space. Starfleet has created a task force to patrol the area.
The Ultimate Klingon. After rescuing Julian Bashir from a Gorn ambush on his research lab in the Korvat System, the player has to investigate a genetic research facility on H'atoria and discovers Amar Singh creating genetically modified super warriors for the Klingon Empire.
City on the Edge of Never. After helping Captain Thelin of the U.S.S. Kirk against a Klingon ambush, he reports that Miral Paris, the supposed Kuvah'magh, was kidnapped by B'vat. The player follows him to the Gateway System, where B'vat takes Miral through the Guardian of Forever.
Past Imperfect. In Past Imperfect the player is transported to the past by the Guardian of Forever to defeat B'vat's schemes and preserve the present.
