Capture and Hold

Overview
 is a commonly known style of Player versus Player team based game play, and is used in quite a few MMORPGs and first person shooters. In Star Trek Online players must capture influence points located around the instance, and attempt to hold them for their side to reduce the enemy's influence. When one sides influence has reached zero, they have lost the game.

Capture and Hold currently only has one map which is called Salvage Operation in the Ajilon System, and is available in a large size (20 players, 10 versus 10) or a small size (10 players, 5 versus 5) map. It is playable by using the queue system attached to the minimap.

Influence
Capture and Hold games in Star Trek Online revolve around "influence". Each team starts with 1,200 influence and must attempt to capture points around the map to reduce the opposing teams influence. This influence can never increase and can only deplete.

When one team has at least three influence points on the map fully in their control, the opposing team will start lose influence. The rate that opposing team loses influence depends on how much influence they currently have and how many influence points around the map the players team has.

Icons
Each influence point around the map has an icon present on top of it to represent its current state. There are a few forms of each icon to further indicate the state of the point which are explained below. The icons also have different sizes, although the size of the icon is nothing more than a visual aid for players and when the player is far away from a point it will be large; when they are close-up the icon will be small.

Point Status Icons
As well as icons representing Starfleet, Klingon and Neutral control, there are also icons which represent the state that the point is in. These icons are seen for both Klingon and Starfleet. The "In Control" icon is a deep/rich color. The "Being Captured" icon has an average tone to the color of the icon. The "Under Assault" icon is near white in color.

Capturing
When players want to capture a point they will have to move very close to the point in question to start capturing it. Klingon Empire players are unable to capture a point whilst under the effects of their (or ) and will have to drop it to start the capture. If the Klingon player is alone and was attempting to capture a point and cloaks mid-way through the capture process, the progress is lost and they will have to restart the attempt.

If players of both teams are in the immediate area of the influence point, then any change that was currently in progress will be halted until only one faction remains.

The process of capturing a point is sometimes shortened to: cap/capping (capturing the point) or de-cap/de-capping (removing control of the point from the opposing faction).

Capturing an Enemy Point
When a player attempts to capture an enemy point, it will start as a rich colored icon as shown above. It will then turn into a white colored icon when the player moves close enough. After a small period of time this icon will turn to a neutral state, then immediately turn into an average color tone of the players faction. After another period of time, this icon will turn rich in color and will be under the players factions control.

Capturing a Neutral Point
Neutral points are much easier to capture in terms of how long it takes and should be focused on. The icon will start as the default X surrounded by a circle white icon. When the player comes close, it will turn into the players faction icon with an average color tone. After the player(s) spent a short period of time in the immediate area the icon will turn rich in color and be fully under their control and the player(s) can move on to another objective.

Cancelling a Capture Attempt
Cancelling a capture attempt, whether it be on purpose or by accident, is done in a few ways: If the player was attempting to capture the point from a neutral state and aborts the process, the point will return to a neutral state. If the player was trying to capture it from the opposing faction then it will return to a state dependant on how far the player was into the capture process. If the player reached the point where he/she switched the icon past the neutral point and into his/her teams faction but didn't get it all the way to a rich color it will return to neutral. If the state was changed only from the opposing factions rich color to an average color tone, it will return to a rich color state.
 * Entering a cloaked state whilst capturing
 * Straying to far from the point
 * Being destroyed while at the point

Time to Capture
The time it takes to capture a point depends on how many friendly players are in the immediate area, and the more players that are there, the less time it will take although the current times for how long it takes per person added is unknown.

General

 * There are many areas of the Salvage Operation map where players can use the environment to their advantage, given that opposing players require a line of sight to fire at you.

Klingon

 * Cloaking allows players to get to areas in the map that would otherwise be hard to get to due to enemy interference. This allows Klingon ships to covertly de-cap or cap points.

Notes and Bugs

 * The time is takes to capture a point can depend on server lag due the server taking extra time to recognize the player as being in the area.