The Foundry


 * ''This article refers to the UGC content generation tool implemented by Cryptic. You may instead be looking for our Foundry portal page.

 was a way for players of Star Trek Online on the PC to add their own missions to the game, released in open beta with Season Three: Genesis, and removed from the game on PC with maintenance on April 11, 2019. The Foundry was not available to console players.

History
The Foundry was a major feature of Season 3, released to the Tribble test server on December 2, 2010 and was released on Holodeck March 28, 2011. The One Year Anniversary (February 2, 2011) saw the live release of three Federation and one Klingon episodes that were among the highest rated by users on the test server: "The Longing," "Crouching Ty’Gokor Hidden Demon," "The Syndicate Extraction," and "Unholy Alliances, Part I." The Foundry remained at Beta 0.8 until its retirement in 2019, having never left open beta status.

On January 26 2012, a tip jar was added that allows giving 25, 50, or 100 anonymously to a Foundry author a maximum of three times per day to different authors. One may tip the same author again each day. Additional features added included a tag function, for reviewers to tag player-missions as being story-driven, quarters-based, etc. A Foundry Top 3 system was added to the game with the 5 Year Anniversary Event. Maps and assets were added by developers at an irregular basis, assets such as greenscreen walls or Empty Ground Maps for building out interiors were also included.

Access

 * Missions were started from the Foundry tab on the Mission Journal. The Foundry EULA needed to be accepted first.
 * For missions which begin at systems in sector space, a rotating list of the Top 3 Rated foundry missions were shown to passing players.
 * Some missions were been "spotlighted" by devs on their own tab.
 * Unless the player enables it, brand new missions with few reviews are hidden. Players needed to become Foundry Reviewers to curate content by pressing the "Become Reviewer" button on the Foundry UI element.
 * To create foundry missions, a player needs an empty character slot and dilithium to purchase project slots. Up to 40 additional project slots can be obtained at a cost of 7,000 for 2 slots or 10,000  for 4 slots.
 * Players who subscribed were given 8 free project slots.

Features

 * Space maps could be created from scratch.
 * Open ground and interior maps can only be created from templates or reuse mission maps.
 * An "Empty Ground Map" was later added for players to create environments from scratch.
 * Existing ground and interior maps may be modified by placing props
 * Missions can be rated by other players, and a small tip of 25, 50, or 100 given.
 * Missions can interact with objects in live social maps, as well as within custom maps.

Limitations

 * Ground maps could not be created from scratch, no terrain on existing maps could be edited.
 * There is no facility to remember player choices, thus branching storylines are impossible, or greatly limited.
 * It is not possible to add any form of voice over or custom music.
 * There is no way that players may create new assets, textures, or other "mods"

Sunset
On April 11 2019, The Foundry was shut down. Though the published missions were saved on a separate server, they cannot be accessed by players or authors. As of now there are no official plans to resurrect the Foundry but many of Cryptic's staff expressed their desire to see it return.

To commemorate the Foundry, a set of sunset rewards were given out:
 * Players who played a Foundry mission before the date of March 4, 2019 were given 2 Genesis badges as well as a Genesis Holographic arm attachment, claimable on all player characters.
 * Players who authored a Foundry mission before the date of March 4, 2019 were given a, claimable on all player characters.
 * Additionally, this reward was given to anyone who used the editor and created a project, published or unpublished, before the cut off date.
 * Players who were selected for a Spotlit Mission received a, and a Ground Vanity Device, claimable on all player characters.