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Return of The Dominion: The Speculation Thread
brian334
Member Posts: 2,214 Arc User
At the end of the Lavar Burton teaser we see a Dominion fleet exit the wormhole to pay a visit to DS9.
It looks like DS9 will become a hub for the following season, but exactly what form will it take? I'm hoping that it is more than a one-off episode, and that it leads us into the Gamma Quadrant. I'm hoping it develops DS9 as a resource and social hub for end game content, and I hope it opens up a lot of doors for future expansions.
But all I have is hope and five seconds of teaser. Which is enough to let the speculations begin!
Speculation #1: The Dominion is coming, not to invade, but to ask for help! The Hur'q or someone, (possibly even a one-armed Iconian,) is stirring up trouble over there in the GQ and they require the services of a legendary creative troubleshooter. (You!)
This may even be the next Recruiting event with playable Gamma Quadrant races, BOffs, and DOffs, and possibly even a Vorta PC. Begin your career as a Gamma Quadrant character by being sent to DS9 for training, initially helping to defeat the immediate enemy, but eventually falling prey to the insidious subversion that is Federation training. When it's all over, the GQ becomes open for exploration.
Note: My fan-fic has my Jem Hadar BOff as First of the squad of Jem Hadar DOffs who came, with a Vorta commander, to serve my captain under orders from the Changeling we rescued from Facility 4028. The Vorta, though not in their chain of command on the ship, is the superior officer of the Jem Hadar both because it manufactures the White and because Jem Hadar always serve through a Vorta. PCs require a freedom of choice only shown once in canon by a mutant Jem Hadar. As such, while a Jem Hadar might make an excellent First Officer, it will never command. I know others will have other ideas, but playable Jem Hadar should not be introduced.
It looks like DS9 will become a hub for the following season, but exactly what form will it take? I'm hoping that it is more than a one-off episode, and that it leads us into the Gamma Quadrant. I'm hoping it develops DS9 as a resource and social hub for end game content, and I hope it opens up a lot of doors for future expansions.
But all I have is hope and five seconds of teaser. Which is enough to let the speculations begin!
Speculation #1: The Dominion is coming, not to invade, but to ask for help! The Hur'q or someone, (possibly even a one-armed Iconian,) is stirring up trouble over there in the GQ and they require the services of a legendary creative troubleshooter. (You!)
This may even be the next Recruiting event with playable Gamma Quadrant races, BOffs, and DOffs, and possibly even a Vorta PC. Begin your career as a Gamma Quadrant character by being sent to DS9 for training, initially helping to defeat the immediate enemy, but eventually falling prey to the insidious subversion that is Federation training. When it's all over, the GQ becomes open for exploration.
Note: My fan-fic has my Jem Hadar BOff as First of the squad of Jem Hadar DOffs who came, with a Vorta commander, to serve my captain under orders from the Changeling we rescued from Facility 4028. The Vorta, though not in their chain of command on the ship, is the superior officer of the Jem Hadar both because it manufactures the White and because Jem Hadar always serve through a Vorta. PCs require a freedom of choice only shown once in canon by a mutant Jem Hadar. As such, while a Jem Hadar might make an excellent First Officer, it will never command. I know others will have other ideas, but playable Jem Hadar should not be introduced.
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Anyways... I can't see a playable Dominion faction because almost all their ships are already available as lockbox or R&D Promo. However that doesn't mean we're not going to get a whole new quadrant to explore. Delta Rising didn't give us a new playable faction, but did give us the Delta Quadrant. And... playable Talaxians for Lifers...
Anyways... Definite we're gonna have to deal with the Dominion again in some capacity. Probably get a new Rep that may center around Polaron, maybe better versions of the Jem'Hadar sets or some new Dominion themed sets...
Hopefully Dominion Polaron will get some love. Its a good weapon, but limited by only having beam arrays and dual cannons, and ONLY coming from Boldly They Rode, which is a DRAG to grind for a full set of even 6 beam arrays. Worth it for a hybrid Polaron/Tetryon, but not worth it for the fact that they're only Mk XI Blues. >.<
A better way that was hinted at by speculation on the video's thread is T'ket and either the Fek'lhri or Hurq moved against the Dominion. Now they sent a fleet to 'negotiate' assistance from the Alliance with this threat. The signing of the temporal accords showed the Dominion was still around and the vorta worshipping the Founders. Apparently not part of the alliance, but not enemies either. So this could be a step in that direction.
This turns DS9 into the same effect as the gateway is. The jumping off point to the next quadrant. Assuming they do it as a quadrant similar to Delta Rising this could be very interesting indeed.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
The scene in that trailer is very similar to the cutscene right after the DS9 conference. It may well be the announcement of a revamp of that storyline. I know, it's unlikely, but far from impossible given how it seemed to be literally copied from the in-game material.
Whatever it is, I hope it's not just another war. The Dominion War was supposed to be a very real threat to the Federation's existence. In this game the only real threat was the Iconian one - all other fights were won without too much effort or losses. And even the Iconian War was never that believable so if they're going to do another Dominion War in STO, it will likely be disappointing and take away from the DW from the series.
And we know that we end up being allies eventually anyway so that's how I prefer things.
I doubt they want to commit the resources to making another 'fully' playable faction like the Romulans, as it exponentially increases their workload. There's also the issues of the many Jem'Hadar ships and gear that are already available.
If they're on an alternating expansion cycle, then I would expect Victory is Life to be closer to Delta Rising - as Agents of Yesterday was more like Legacy of Romulus. Paraphrasing, it would be focused more on the endgame than the early game.
I've not seen any evidence that we'll actually be going to the Gamma Quadrant. It would certainly make sense to, but there's also plenty of room for The Dominion to get involved in the Alpha Quadrant - either as an enemy or 'benefactor'. We still have to find out what has the Tzenkethi in such a big twist and how it is related to The Dominion.
1. As risian4 already said, that scene at the end of the trailer looks like it could be a possible revamp of the 2800 storyline. Which would make sense since there has been talk of revamping the map for DS9 for years and they've already gone back and 'fixed' other, older content. Add in the fact that next year is the 25th Anniversary of DS9 first airing (25 years already? Geez I'm old) and something special for DS9 is almost a given. They may not actually change up the STORY, just give it a more updated and polished look.
2. There will be a new playable faction, it'll consist of Cardassians and the Dominion. It'll be similar to AoY and to a much lesser extent, the Romulan expansion. We will get the choice of playing as a Vorta, Jem'Hadar or Cardassian. Shapeshifters will not be included as a playable option, unless they are added into the LTS/Vet reward system. (Even then I really doubt it) There will be leveling ships, most likely CStore only, but it wouldn't surprise me to see 1 new free ship per tier for this mini faction. After about level 10, players would need to pick what side to go with, Klingon or Fed. After that, you play that factions missions from then on with occasional returns to do "one off" missions.
3. The Gamma Quadrant will be opened up and new missions will be added there. My guess would be no more than a dozen or so. With system patrols added in as well giving quite a bit of new content. With the Gamma Quad opened up, there could be a confrontation with the Dominion, but I believe it'll be short lived as a new threat will emerge causing the Dominion and the Alliance to team up to defeat it. Others have mentioned the Hurq and even T'Ket as potential threats. My guess is either the Tzenkethi or some new threat that Cryptic creates from scratch, maybe even a combination of Tzenkethi and the "Scratch".
4. Definitely some kind of Gamma Quadrant Pack consisting of ships, BOff's and/or DOff's, uniforms and other filler type items to make it "worth" $125. This isn't even speculation, it WILL happen.
5. A Dominion/Gamma Quad Reputation. Again, it'll happen. But we could also get another Specialization as well. Maybe even an new Admiralty. I also see getting a new Gamma Quad themed Recruitment event.
That's about it for my speculation. Will any of it happen? And if it does, how close to the mark did I hit?
Guess we'll see summer of 2018.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
Remember Hugh? A single dissenting voice in the Collective brought down the ship that rescued him. What would Odo, trained by Cardassians and Feds, do to the Dominion? He's been incorporated into the Great Link that controls the Dominion, and I'm certain that ideas alien to their way of thinking, such as Inalienable Rights, Freedom of Choice, and Individual Dignity are topics of discussion. Who knows but that the Dominion tried to offer freedom to their oppressed populations and now it has devolved into power vacuums and power grabs all over the place with the Jem Hadar looking on helplessly as the Founders dither over a choice between massive retaliation and reprisal or allowing the Dominion to fail and founder.
Speculation #2: That fleet might be escorting Rene Aberjonois... err... Odo, to DS9 to beg for a third option!
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
It's pretty much set. *^_^*
STORY
It's going to be about T'Ket and the formation of 'New Khitomer'
-T'Ket, the one armed Iconian, has come to the conclusion the Dominion is responsible for their 'defeat' during the Battle over Earth/Sol III ... with the other ten Iconians refusing to assist her in her campaign to slaughter the galaxy, she lacks sufficient forces to defeat the Dominion, so she finds the Hur'Q, the two then start working together, going blitzkrieg crazy on the Dominion who come running to us for help.
We help them, and the Dominion/Alliance start work on 'New Khitomer.'
LOCKBOX
That Hur'Q battle cruiser looks cool.
I figure it needs to be some kind of enemy that we know already from canon. Maybe it is really the Hur'Q? I mean it seems the Klingons got rid of them centuries ago, but maybe what they really beaten was the shallow remainder of a species that enters long sleep cycles, and now they've awaken...
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
Personally I hope they don't revive Weyoun. It's bad enough that, after all the damage done and people killed, the only Changeling to ever have paid for her crimes was released to solve a problem they caused in the first place and without showing any understanding why she was in prison.
It would be nice if they let Combs do voice overs for another Vorta though. Or Shran of course.
There's a Weyoun IX in several DS9 novels. It never was and will be hard to bring back a char... esp. not in Sci-fi & Fantasy.
Ah see we will find by the second or third mission that T'ket had used a device to brain scan Sela. Now we need Sela out again and leading the charge as she is the only one that can see the chess board the enemy is laying out.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Eraun is his name. How many of you guys remember the Rapier where we first meet him?
One of the best NPCs in STO, second only to T'Nae, is Loriss, the Vorta who takes command of DS9 in the 2800 story arc. At times she is childish, as Vorta are portrayed in canon, but the character is powerful and sympathetic, (something so few STO villains achieve,) and she stands out as an example of a well written NPC opponent. I hope she's still with us when the Dominion Fleet arrives.
It will somehow work out to be your character's idea.
Oh, that's #3
I remember the Rapier, god was he arrogant. When he was speaking to us, I have a slight urge to punch him in his vorta nose
Plus after butchering 400 million Cardassians, I don't see any Cardassians joining the Dominion.
Side the first real world Dominion is...Canada, yes the full name of Canada is The Dominion of Canada.
Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa followed suit, and I think some Carribean nations followed suit later.
So yes, Canada is The Dominion!
Well, suppose a DS9 recruiting event which supported Cardassian and Dominion species in addition to Ferengi and Bajorans, who have a 4-episode altednate T1/T2 quest, with Tier 2 versions of lockbox ships available for recruit characters.
T2 Ferengi Trader = Marauder skin with T2 abilities
T2 Cardassian Patrol Vessel = Galor light
T2 Jem Hadar Attack Ship = Bugship
Even though the race specific lockbox ships exist at higher tiers, there's no reason to exclude them as a T2 Freebie option for lowbie ships intended to support a Gamma Quadrant Recruiting event.