[PODCAST + INTERVIEW] Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 190: "Over the Horizon"

midniteshadow7

Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 190: Over the Horizon has been published on Holosuite Media, you can download and stream it from: http://bit.ly/1ORerlk

Joined this week by Star Trek Horizon creator Tommy Kraft, Captain MidNite Shadow along with the rest of the crew of the USS Tribble find out what's going on with the NX-04 Discovery. After the interview the crew discusses all the news from Star Trek Online and Star Trek.

After the interview with Tommy Kraft, we discuss:

• Back to the Future celebration,
• Season 11 Giveaways,
• 15% Key Sale,
• STO Forum's Makeover,
• Lockboxes,
• Developed Details Krenim Fleet Project,
• Dilithium Price Reductions on Ships,
• Dry Dock,
• Season 11,
• the new Role Playing Blog,
• STO Release Notes,
• Internity,
• Star Trek Renegades,
• 5th Passenger,
• Star Trek Anthology,
• and more!

Please help friend of the show, Trekkie, Star Trek Online player and podcaster Mav with donations to support his recovery with his current health situation here: http://www.gofundme.com/tomsrecovery.

alex1ger

Hello again.

So... before I start to play season 11, let me just give you some feedback. (I might do a second part after I had some time to experience some of the new stuff.)



Star Trek Horizon:
I had not heard... well, I might have "heard" about it, but it didn't really peak my interest... anyways, after listening to the interview, I did watch the "new" trailer you mentioned and I have to say, for such a small budget, it didn't look too bad. If the rest of the movie manages to keep that kind of look and feel... let's just say Renegades had a much bigger budget and some of their shots/scenes looked terrible.



Herald lockbox:
Like I said during the show, I think the timing of this lockbox is a bit... awkward. I mean, the Iconian war is supposed to be over and now we manage to get our hands on these ships? Besides, we did not win the war. Are the Iconians really okay with the fact that we are toying around with their stuff? I mean, they might not mind if we just took the ships, but these unending uses of gateway technology, can they really not detect any of that? They had that console in Sphere of Influence that could reset ALL of their gateways, but nothing to track (and interfere with) unauthorized usage? Oh... right... Iconian idiocy. I tried to banish that thought from my brain. -.-
So, since the Iconians were supposedly so powerful that we would have needed about 700 years to get somewhere close to that level... when are we gonna get a borg lockbox with playable (and comparably less powerful) borg spheres, cubes and diamonds? Just to be clear, I don't want a borg lockbox, but this Iconian... uhm... Herald lockbox is just so... silly... *cough* K'Vort *cough*
Oh and who made that comment during the show about how nobody would want to dress up as the loser? Remember, the Iconians did not lose. They chose to not annihilate us. So they did not lose and we definitely did not win. Although the fireworks at the end of "midnight" might have given you that (wrong) impression.



The two RP blogs we talked about during the show:
Okay... let me try to explain this in more detail.

The KDF captain plays the "I'm a klingon, I'm powerful. Bow before my strength!" card. His ship does not power up weapons. Are you trying to tell me that the whole bridge crew does not notice that? Because, if they do and the first officer sneaks away or does not show up on the bridge in a potential combat situation... should that not raise a few questions?
Unless you're trying to tell me that the whole bridge crew consists of drooling idiots. (Yes, I do assume that at least some klingons should/would have this level of intelligence.)

The Orion first officer... Okay, so once again, you seem to assume that klingons are idiots. Because, while I did say a while ago that they are not that scientifically minded, I do assume that they... well, maybe not the average grunt, but the High Council should know about those pheromones. So they should have taken precautions. Like... I don't know, some kind of hypospray to counteract/protect against the effects of the pheromones? Or if the klingons were incapable of that, maybe prohibit female Orion personnel from serving aboard a klingon ship?

So that leaves us with a charade. An obvious one at that because, let me repeat that, not even when the Starfleet ship tries to move into an attack position do the klingons power their weapons. Every klingon's first instinct should be to power up shields AND weapons at that point in time. They deliberately don't. But the bridge crew should/would notice that. Which is why I call it a charade. Why is this honorable? Seriously... If they don't see through it, they are idiots. If they do, why even bother with this nonsense?

Which brings me to the starfleet part.
So... you're trying to make the argument that both blogs are supposed to show that starfleet captains might have become too... war minded? Is that even a word? Well, you get the idea...
The problem is, I would have believed that, if the captain was... an andorian. An inexperienced/hotheaded... human, bajoran... basically everything except for a vulcan and a joined trill.

Why do I expect better from vulcans and joined trill?
Well, vulcans are vulcans. They have emotions, but they are much less susceptible to emotional reactions. A vulcan should/would have logically deducted that those unpowered weapons meant something.

And joined trill? Well, the symbiont in this specific case did lose two previous hosts during the Iconian war. But some time before that at least one host must have gone through the rather delicate selection process. So I think the symbiont should have had enough stability/experience to react less aggressively, especially considering the unpowered weapons...

Although... how do symbionts get prepared for a joining? Mmh... I smell an interesting story waiting to be told.



Giveaway:
Okay, so the last giveaway is a surprise.
I mean on that dark day, when the T5 Excelsior found its way into the game (Sorry, Woody.), I saw quite a few of them. So... they can't have sold too poorly.
The klingons get the T5 Marauder Patrol Cruiser... Wait, what? Uhm... I'll have to double check that ingame, but I'm pretty sure that ship has already been given away before. I have to say I would have expected (actually even preferred) a T5 Kamarag giveaway.
And Romulans get the T5 Ar'kif Retrofit. Well, this is the first romulan ship they gave away, isn't it? Now that was definitely unexpected.
And it goes quite well with the T5-U token from the previous day, so... thanks. After a few "meh" giveaways this one definitely ended with a bang.

sunseahl

I too was rather confused when the Marauder was given away... again.... but then i looked up the giveaway stats themselves....


Excelsior - A Level 40 T5 ship
Marauder - A Level 40 T5 ship
Ar'kif - A level 50 T5 Ship


So lets look at the availability of C-store Level 40 T5 ships

Of those purchasable ships

The Federation has:

Advanced Heavy Crusier Retrofit - Excelsior - Given away
Advanced Research Vessel Retrofit - Nebula - Given away
Vulcan D'kyr - Not given away

The Romulans have:

That's right the Romulans have Zero level 40 T5 ships in the C-store


And the Klingons have:

Marauder Patrol Cruiser - Already Given Away x2
Varanus Fleet Support Vessel - Already Given Away


Seems like someone needs to explain why the KDF couldn't get the Lvl 50 B'rel, Ye ole Garumba, or the Kar'Fi Battle Carrier

Those 3 ships had to have undersold the Excelsior or the Ar'kif...

I mean...
​​

sisteric

The Ar'kif was only given away because they did not have a ship in the level 50 T5 already made. They aren't going to devote time and resources to create a ship just for the giveaway.

The Klingons have the 2 T5-Level 40 ships, (more than the Romulans have!) and so they just had to chose one. SInce both had already been given away, they looked at which one was more popular between the Varanus and the Marauder and the Marauder won out. So they gave it away.

Federation have more choices, but they would stick to the Fed design when they can and so the Excelsior was given away.

It makes sense as they are just working with what they have at the moment. It might also make them look at creating more ships to fill the gaps in the future.

The Herald Box is what I have the most problem with. We should not be getting Iconian ships. The cease fire with the Iconians that we have did not grant us access to their tech, or ships. And dressing like the losers, it was a subjective position. (I, Zombee, said that.) We won, in that we did not loose. From a Klingon viewpoint, we faced the enemy and they retreated, so we won. Victory is ours. And that's why I said what I said. All of the major powers will spin this Iconian retreat as a Victory and that we won. SO why would winners start dressing like Iconians? It would be one of the worst possible trends we could do if we are trying to spin this as win. If everyone starts dressing like Iconians, it looks more like that the Iconians won by doing what the Borg couldn't, assimilating our military command structure and forces. So the Herald Box is poorly timed, in my opinion. They would have been better served of holding back this box until the Iconians come back out of their sphere in the spirit of friendship. Once the Iconians would decide to deal with us as equals, and begin properly sharing information then I could see the Herald Box coming out. But not before that.

The Klingon not being controlled by the Orion female officer is what I was trying to say on the show. Someone in the ship or the KDF leadership would have already thought about this and planned for it. So I don't see this as being a manipulation by the 1st Officer. No this was planned by the Klingon Captain. But the Captain made sure the weapons were not powered up because all Klingons know that the Federation will never fire on a ship with no weapons powered. So the Captain was making use of the stereotype, or racial profiling, of the Federation to his advantage to make the situation happen. And with him posturing in front of the crew and keeping everybody focused on what the Federation is doing. The 1st officer carried out the real mission and made name for the Klingon Captain and his crew. To me, this Klingon is very shrewd and a great actor. He has a great understanding of Klingon psychology and Klingon politicking. I hope that this guy gets more presence in STO.

The whole pushing of the officer through for the war is not unexpected. You always up your manpower output during war. But once they get there and the war ends, those officers will be targeted for additional training to deal with peacetime operations, that was cut from the wartime training regimen. Even so. most of those officer will be serving on ships with more experienced "properly trained" commanding officers so should not be a real issue. So the concerns or really just being nervous and not really warranted concerns. Makes me think that Admiral Quinn is more of a worry wart.

As for Vulcan's and Joined Trill being better...bollox. They are capable of misreading a situation and making the wrong choice.

midniteshadow7

So much feedback to read through, keep it coming!

alex1ger

Some more feedback:



Post War blog #2:
I'm not sure I can talk about this without going into "Sunrise" spoiler territory, so I'll be vague. I really enjoyed this blog but part of me would have liked to read about this stuff before "Sunrise".
Basically it's a no win scenario here. Publishing it before "Sunrise" would have been a spoiler, publishing it after does not have quite the punch anymore, because we already know what happens. Unless you have not played "Sunrise" yet, in which case this blog might be a bit of a spoiler...



Ship giveaway:
Well, shouldn't the Galaxy-R (saucer sep), Intrepid-R (armor) and Defiant-R (cloak) technically also count as level 40 T5 ships? I mean, you can use your veteran token to get them (once per character), but apart from that they cost 2k Zen just like the Excelsior-R, the Nebula-R and the D'Kyr.
(Wait, I think that might be the common thread here. Not level 40 T5, but 2k Zen.)
I'm not saying they should have been given away, because they are basically the "big three" when it comes to "recent" canon which means they probably sold decent amounts. But the Excelsior-R still surprises me. I mean, I have seen so many more Excelsior-Rs compared to the few D'Kyrs...

KDF-side... they gave away the Marauder and the Varanus. So, how many 2k Zen ships are left? The B'Rel-R and the Kar'fi.
Now, if only I could remember which of these were available via the veteran token...
Either way options for a 2k Zen ship to give away were limited. I think the only other option might have been to turn the T5 Kamarag into a promo ship. Like they did with the T5 Ambassador before.

Romulan... Okay, let's take a look at the 2k Zen ships here.
T'Varo-R, Dhelan-R, Mogai-R, D'Deridex-R and the Ar'kif. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Ar'kif is the only one that cannot be bought using the veteran token. And except for the Dhelan, the other ships are all "canon"? And the T'Varo-R got the advanced battlecloak on top. So... yeah.



Vulcans/joined trill being "better":
That's not what I said. I said in this specific situation I would have expected them to be less likely to show such an aggressive reaction/to be more patient. That does not make them "better", it just makes them different. And if a joined trill reacts like this, what would a young, inexperienced, hotheaded andorian, human, whatever have done?

Now, for the klingon captain, if this was his plan all along then he shows more insight into the inner workings of the federation (and much more patience considering the fact that the fed ship tried to move into an attack position...) than captain Kagran and basically every klingon captain we have met before.
Yet he seems to believe that his crew consists of idiots who are unable to see through this obvious ruse. So... that would mean a somewhat well written klingon captain and orion first officer on a ship of badly written klingons?

sisteric

I read the blog before playing "Sunrise". I don't think it spoiled anything for me. There are visual cues in the mission that did more to spoil the surprises than that story ever did.

I want preface the ship discussion with my acquisition process do far. I have gotten them all for free. That means that I, personally, have never spent any dilithium, EC, Zen or Lobi on a ship. All ships I have I have gotten from in game events, leveling, veteran status, gifts, lockboxes or out of game contests. Take that info with you when you read the rest...

As for the D'Kyr, I don't think it's a popular enough design that they felt it was a good option over the Excelsior. And I agree that I don't think the Galaxy, Intrepid or Defiant will probably never be part of a free give away. They are to Iconic and sought after to be considered.

You may be on to that 2K Zen tie-in. I hadn't considered that.

For the KDF, I got the Kar'fi and the B'Rel both for free. In fact I have all four of these ships. So while the promotion was nice, it was a wash for me in the KDF. The Kamarag they did give away for free when they gave away the Ambassador. Even so, I know that the Kamarag has been given away a couple of times already, so that left giving away one of the other three. The Marauder is the better tactical ship of the three left over, I think. And that is one thing I did notice, all three ships were more tactically oriented than not.

As for the Romulan ships, I thought the Ar'kif was a good tactical choice, and one that I did not have. The T'varo, Dhelan and D'Deridex I already have. I am not sure on the Mogai if I have it. The battle cloak is not that great of an advantage as it's made out to be. So even handing that out is not a bad thing.

Sorry, the "better" was my summation on my impression. Even if the Vulcan is not prone to outburst, it's also known that they don't deal well with "illogical" posturing and provocation. Trills on a separate issue in that they have all those memories, but the experience may lead them down the wrong path because it worked before. Same goes for Vulcan's. I think that because they are so reliant on logical and experience that they tend to be less flexible in these types of situations.

As for the Klingon ship crew, first off we don't know if this crew is mixed or not. But based on the fact that we have a non-Klingon first officer, I will make the assumption that the crew is of mixed races. With that said, the non-Klingon portion of the crew would be viewing the Captains actions as being a stereotypical Klingon. They would be viewing his actions through that lens and preparing themselves for what they think is the inevitable battle. They also know that the Federation won't fire first so they see this posturing from the Captain as exactly what it is, blustering to gain an advantage. While they know that the Captain is not talking directly to the Fed ship, most of them would be making the assumption that he has "someone" making the deal. They also know that if they saying anything about their suspicion publically, that the Captain would be honor-bound to clear his name of this accusations and kill them. SO they remain quiet. Especially since that means they don't die in battle and still gain respect. The Klingon crew see this an the Captain trying to create the situation where the Fed to break the alliance and start a war, but he is doing in such a way as to not be blamed for starting it. They would not fire the first shot, and would even look like they are in weaker position by not powering there weapons, at least in Klingon eyes. The fact that he kept his ground in this weaken position and then by pure posturing forced the Feds to give up valuable resources to them, means that the Captains 'prowess and reputation in battle" is great enough in the Federation to force them to back down and surrender without a fight makes him even more impressive in Klingon eyes. And the KDF High Command would even be impressed by the clear victory he reached in this situation. So the Klingon crew is not being stupid, but judging all the actions through their cultural lens. Either the Captain will bring them glory in battle by this posturing, or his great reputation will bring them victory and a portion of the spoils. Either way, they have no cause to question his orders, and clearly makes sense to them.

I think the biggest thing that has to be done when reading these kinds of blogs is that we have to remember to view the actions of the aliens from the known factors of their culture. It's why I had no trouble with the Trill powering weapons and such because his wealth of experience tells him that the Klingon moving around like that means to shoot you, And the crew see's the captain as trying to either start a battle or gain the spoils without being blamed for attacking an ally. And the Orion female acted the way she did, because cultural that is always how they get their way. It's ingrained in there very DNA to be that way.

Now I am getting a bit wordy, lol. Sorry about that.