Story blogs should not be required reading to understand the story IN THE GAME. The Stealth for getting Martok out wasn't stealth. You were ESCORTED RIGHT TO HIM.
Yes they should, just like most video game series have out of game lore blogs, or developer comments, that are used to give more information on things.
And that is stealth you nitwit. Stealth =/= going in totally invisible, stealth means going in in such a manner as that your enemy doesn't know your true intentions until it's too late.
If you want the players to read the fiction blogs and have them part of the game, then it would be easier to just put the blogs IN THE GAME. I have yet to read the fiction blogs in the forums because they are not IN THE GAME. Have them set up so if you want players to read them, give the players a notification to read them at your ready room or something similar.
As for stealth, I can think of many ways to get into the prison to get Martok and get out WITHOUT blasting your way out. Is it the Klingon way? No. But it is stealthier than than going in as a prisoner and coming out with explosions. To be honest, Finding out I was going in to get Martok from a prison, I knew it was going to be a prison break cliche. Hell, it was done in the Dominion Arc as well.
Not bad. The ending was ... 'meh' it felt like "hey we saved Martok and he called me something weird, kk thnx bye" I was expecting to see some kind of interaction between Martok and J'mpok.
+1 for the new species to the game: Son'a
+1 for what I think was a reference to the Tzenkathi building a genesis torpedo.
+1 Martok
-1 Didn't like the ground map (exterior map), it looked bland compared to past maps in this Arc.
-1 Why did our prison outfits have the Tholian Symbol on them?
Yeah, this seems like an oversight that should prob get fixed at some point.
-1 Enemies were 'immortal' for random lengths of time before randomly dying.
Yeah, this was weird. I also noticed it in the surface fight too.
I liked this episode very much. Though I think the people complaining played it on their Feds. I played it on my Klingon and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a very Klingon episode. The very idea of Klingons using stealth is... unconventional? Yes, I'll go with that. It's a actually a good thing there were explosions and general chaos involved.
YES!!!! Sneak inside the enemy stronghold, then RIP IT TO SHREDS!!!! The only thing that would have made the ground part cooler is if we got to break more things.
The space map was beautiful (on max graphics settings), lots of space dust swirling around my ship. I took quite a few screenshots on that first part. The combat on advanced difficulty was adequately challenging and I enjoyed it. I also liked the design of the prison facility itself, very atmospheric.
And THAT scene... The duel between Martok and Torg. That was SO KLINGON! Truly one of the best cut scenes in STO.
The only thing I think that should've been done better is the prison uniforms. I mean, really? Just reusing the uniforms from Temporal Ambassador? Tholian symbol and all?
Yeah, that was screwball.
I wanna know who the Ferengi and Orion were. Apparently we saved them, or something.
It was a fast four accolades and good Klink fun overall but it would have been real nice to have developed the Jem'Hadar's story a lot more so when he died it would have had some emotional appeal or maybe give us a chance to save him but with a lose or honor or something like that after all victory is life - right?
The space combat was pretty intense for me doing it in a pure torp Tvaro ship but I survived with judicious hit and run tactics in the very long fight. Moreover those fighters are supercharged to say the least. They could use a tone down or call them what they are - mini escort frigates. If you are not a DPS focused player dont do it on elite...
On a side note, it would have geeky cool to see Martok say "This is Sparta!" when he gave the Tzenkethi leader the boot! Just sayin'....
Post edited by aspartan1 on
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Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
I for one quite enjoyed the episode. It was quite fitting to the whole theme and my KDF TRIBBLE enjoyed fighting along side Martok.
The poor Jem Hadar dude.... why bro why!?
I only wish it was longer, really was expecting to beam over to help kick Torgs TRIBBLE personally! I wish we could beat Torg to within an inch of his life before Martok steps in and "challenges him". The bat'leth fight was pretty well done, I enjoyed that cut scene, it felt right. Considering that the ground engine isnt the best thing ever it looked ok too.
Overall 8 7.5/10. Would get 9/10 if it was a bit more indepth and longer.
Oh yea the Tholian Prison Uniforms was a big thumbs down, really should change them or just have the characters topless. Marked down to a 7.5/10 for the Tholian uniforms.
I already switched out the Kobali Console with a Mk XIV UR Martok as it is all Passives.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Reasonable enough fun.... I hit the same bug someone else described (you are supposed to follow Rodek, but Rodek has wandered off somewhere to get a cup of coffee, so you just find yourself waiting forever by a locked door) and decided to see if getting killed and respawning was good enough to reset the mission and jar things loose. Turns out it isn't... also, it turns out those disruptor turrets, though plentiful, are incredibly feeble, it took ages to get me down to zero health, half the time I was healing faster than they were dishing out the damage. I could have wandered off somewhere to get a cup of coffee myself.
I enjoyed it a great deal more than other recent events. That may be because I play as a Klingon main, but nevertheless the story was great (spoilers from news items aside) and the combat was tough, but not overly so. Speaking of combat, when you're playing in narrow corridors it's often hard to see the enemies for the visual effects. Something to bear in mind.
*spoilers ahead*
Martok's dialogue was great and I loved Sirella's sarcastic little cameo, as well as the other one. Martok dealing with the Tzenkethi commander was the best story work I've seen in Trek in a long time and it was good to finally draw a line under the House of Torg.
If I have one criticism it's this: weaponising the Sona collector was lazy, but forgivable. Don't put this ship into yet another damned R&D promo box.
I enjoyed it - ties back to early Klingon missions, the voice acting is good, nicely Klingon action, shades in the Tzenkethi a little more, hints there's a Genesis torpedo out there....
Fate - protects fools, small children, and ships named Enterprise Will Riker
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
I for one quite enjoyed the episode. It was quite fitting to the whole theme and my KDF **** enjoyed fighting along side Martok.
The poor Jem Hadar dude.... why bro why!?
I only wish it was longer, really was expecting to beam over to help kick Torgs **** personally! I wish we could beat Torg to within an inch of his life before Martok steps in and "challenges him". The batleth fight was pretty well done considering the ground engine isnt the best thing ever.
Overall 8/10. Would get 9/10 if it was a bit more indepth and longer.
Oh yea the Tholian Prison Uniforms was a big thumbs down, really should change them or just have the characters topless.
I think the game will have to be a bit more desperate for cash and players before they start letting our characters be topless.
What?
My Gorn was topless half the time on risa and I dont mean female characters naked, just the usual underwear garb. I.E not putting us in Tholian jumpsuits.
I agree with everyone that reusing the tholian jumpsuits without at least editing them was lazy and distracting. Other than that I really, really liked this one. Finally bringing the Son'a into the game (with some fun space powers to tackle). Wrapping up the Torg story. The honor duel that kept actually kept me guessing on how it would end. The final space battle which is now up there with the space battles for Earth and Qo'noS from Surface Tension as my favorites in the game. And an ending that wasn't what the fanboy in me wanted but was still narratively satisficing.
For those complaining about the inconsistency over Martok's stopping Rodek from saving the Jem'Hadar but then being pissed off when he died, I personally think it was perfectly within Martok's character. Both in not wanting to steal the Jem'Hadar's chance at honor especially considering how Martok ended up in the prison to begin with and the outrage at the honorless brutality of his death.
Now hopefully down the road they'll bring Michael Dorn back so we can get a proper in game resolution to Rodek's story.
+ Martok seems like a real character, someone who actually gets TRIBBLE done, in this episode. Not as NPC-ish, if You know what I mean. This carried the whole episode and actually was a lot of fun.
+ It was an interesting set-up; Klingon intelligence seems to be an oxymoron, but there You have it. Deception to get in (so no
hostage situation), then bam boom bang killing and mayhem.
0 The episode was clearly Klingon-centric, my Romulan toon did not mind, but I guess it would be a little off for a Fed Captain to just go in weapons hot like this, even if borrowed by Klingon intelligence.
0 The fights were rather easy. Maybe it's just my playstyle, but neither ground nor space had me on edge as much as the friggin' Na'Kuhl... dunno why people say the fighters are OP, the main defense for a fighter - being too fidgety to be targeted and hit, did not seem to work very well here, they died before becoming an issue, and that's with a HDC-escort...
- How does Martok know more about the prison than Klingon intelligence? I know he's Mr. Star Trek 2017, but huh?
- the bugs. Gosh those bugs. Probably too little time to test properly with the release of all the other content, but really? Invincible enemies, cut-scenes restarting after they end (the free martok scene - funny, because now there already was shooting in the background...), dialog pop-up during space battle, (...) - this will probably get fixed, but...
- That Son'a dreadnought is just silly. These guys have a very distinct and interesting style for their ships, and the clonky rig is not a warship, and if I understand correctly, not even entirely their own design. Meh.
- That poor Jem Hadar sod. I get why there is a "let him die with honor"-scene, but still. Introducing a character just to kill him off like this? This guy could have become an interesting figure for the episode, then maybe die at the end, but this was just sad, and felt really off.
- What's it with the friggin' beams? This is a Klingon Skirmisher set for Targ's sake. Why is there no cannon option in there? The heavy cannon is >the< Klingon signature weapon. Again, escorts get no love. Sad. Sad sad Romulan here.
All in all the episode was nice, smooth sailing gameplay-wise, but apart from the bugs it really felt fun to play, a lot more so than most episodes I went through. Did not expect much, I usually don't like Klingon content much, but this was really good in spite of some of the issues mentioned above.
0 The episode was clearly Klingon-centric, my Romulan toon did not mind, but I guess it would be a little off for a Fed Captain to just go in weapons hot like this, even if borrowed by Klingon intelligence.
Welcome to KDF playerbases' main problem with STO: Having to play a mission like you're a Fed captain. It's actually nice to have a mission that for once turns the problem upside down, as it helps making Feds understand why KDF players are complaining so much about the forced "Starfleetness" of most missions. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind shared stories, but you just know that NPCs like Qwen or Madran would have been killed by a KDF captain the very first time they tried to trick them, Qwen for putting a bounty on you and trying to TRIBBLE over the Alliance in regards of that Krenim artifact, and Madran for the stunt in the New Romulan warehouse and attacking you over K-13.
I enjoyed Brushfire. It was everything "House Pegh" should have been in the first place and finally restores some credibility to the KDF's ability to do a covered operation. I also agree though that the last space portion can be unnecessary hard if the NPC AI makes your allies spread out to far, attacking anything at will instead on focussing on the dreads.
but you just know that NPCs like Qwen or Madran would have been killed by a KDF captain the very first time they tried to trick them,
I can think of no honorable Klingon captain that would kill a Ferengi over something so trivial.
Attacking a Ferengi in general wouldn't be seen as worthy of a Klingon's time.
Trivial? Qwen first had you attacked by placing a bounty on your head which was so high that an entire fleet of those mercenaries from the Delta quadrant attacked you, and then almost doomed the entire Alpha Quadrant by selling the Krenim Artifact again even though he already had a deal with the Alliance. And Madran had you ambushed by Hirogen on New Romulus and openly attacked you at K-13. That's certainly not "trivial".
Not my favourite mission ever, although that's mainly because of my personal dislike for ground stuff so I can hardly criticise the devs for that! The mission itself was well executed, and it's always great to have more Trek actors in the game, it just wasn't massively enjoyable for me personally.
As others have pointed out there are a few bugs lurking in the episode, such as Rodek just wandering off when you're supposed to be following him and staying between the lines - it was no big deal, beam up and start the section again solved it for me. Still, an annoyance which will hopefully be fixed somewhere in today's patch.
I enjoyed the Son'a space battles and thought they were at just the right level of challenge/difficulty (at least for my limited abilities), although the interspersed cutscenes during the final battle were slightly irritating, as was the Son'a ship opening fire while the dialogue box was open. I'm looking forward to seeing the development of the Son'a and Tzenkethi's roles in the galactic jigsaw puzzle going forward.
Unless there is to be some future callback to his role here, the Jem'Hadar character's "arc" seemed a bit pointless to me.
Oh, and the Tholian logo on the prison uniforms - sorry to say it in such blunt terms, but that's either sheer laziness or very poor QA work on someone's part.
The reward console was nice, plenty of passive survivability boosts which are always nice, paired with the Trellium-D it certainly helps if tankiness is something you're looking for. The promise of "Explosive Shearing Torpedo Modifications" as a 3-pc bonus is certainly intriguing - looking forward to finding out more about that, as I think it could suit my build nicely.
If I was to score the episode overall, I'd say 7.5/10.
Within the first 5 minutes of the mission I was already creeped out. Fighting the Son'a was fine. Then after beaming in. I almost dropped the mission all together. But forced myself to continue to play it. Then do to a bug it wanted me to start the mission at the beam in point. Forget it. I am not doing it. I dropped the mission. The first time a mission in this game has creeped me out completely. I can handle a lot from games. But some things I just won't do.
I'm intrigued by this - thinking back I can't recall anything in there that I would personally class as creepy. What exactly was it that caused you to feel that way?
I was enjoying the episode until it said Defeat Jail Guards and there were no prison guards to defeat in the green circle, leaving me stuck. Would have liked to finish the mission. Oh well. There goes my only reason for playing.
Comments
If you want the players to read the fiction blogs and have them part of the game, then it would be easier to just put the blogs IN THE GAME. I have yet to read the fiction blogs in the forums because they are not IN THE GAME. Have them set up so if you want players to read them, give the players a notification to read them at your ready room or something similar.
As for stealth, I can think of many ways to get into the prison to get Martok and get out WITHOUT blasting your way out. Is it the Klingon way? No. But it is stealthier than than going in as a prisoner and coming out with explosions. To be honest, Finding out I was going in to get Martok from a prison, I knew it was going to be a prison break cliche. Hell, it was done in the Dominion Arc as well.
I wanna know who the Ferengi and Orion were. Apparently we saved them, or something.
My character Tsin'xing
The space combat was pretty intense for me doing it in a pure torp Tvaro ship but I survived with judicious hit and run tactics in the very long fight. Moreover those fighters are supercharged to say the least. They could use a tone down or call them what they are - mini escort frigates. If you are not a DPS focused player dont do it on elite...
On a side note, it would have geeky cool to see Martok say "This is Sparta!" when he gave the Tzenkethi leader the boot! Just sayin'....
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
The poor Jem Hadar dude.... why bro why!?
I only wish it was longer, really was expecting to beam over to help kick Torgs TRIBBLE personally! I wish we could beat Torg to within an inch of his life before Martok steps in and "challenges him". The bat'leth fight was pretty well done, I enjoyed that cut scene, it felt right. Considering that the ground engine isnt the best thing ever it looked ok too.
Overall 8 7.5/10. Would get 9/10 if it was a bit more indepth and longer.
Oh yea the Tholian Prison Uniforms was a big thumbs down, really should change them or just have the characters topless. Marked down to a 7.5/10 for the Tholian uniforms.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
*spoilers ahead*
Martok's dialogue was great and I loved Sirella's sarcastic little cameo, as well as the other one. Martok dealing with the Tzenkethi commander was the best story work I've seen in Trek in a long time and it was good to finally draw a line under the House of Torg.
If I have one criticism it's this: weaponising the Sona collector was lazy, but forgivable. Don't put this ship into yet another damned R&D promo box.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
What?
My Gorn was topless half the time on risa and I dont mean female characters naked, just the usual underwear garb. I.E not putting us in Tholian jumpsuits.
For those complaining about the inconsistency over Martok's stopping Rodek from saving the Jem'Hadar but then being pissed off when he died, I personally think it was perfectly within Martok's character. Both in not wanting to steal the Jem'Hadar's chance at honor especially considering how Martok ended up in the prison to begin with and the outrage at the honorless brutality of his death.
Now hopefully down the road they'll bring Michael Dorn back so we can get a proper in game resolution to Rodek's story.
+ Martok seems like a real character, someone who actually gets TRIBBLE done, in this episode. Not as NPC-ish, if You know what I mean. This carried the whole episode and actually was a lot of fun.
+ It was an interesting set-up; Klingon intelligence seems to be an oxymoron, but there You have it. Deception to get in (so no
hostage situation), then bam boom bang killing and mayhem.
0 The episode was clearly Klingon-centric, my Romulan toon did not mind, but I guess it would be a little off for a Fed Captain to just go in weapons hot like this, even if borrowed by Klingon intelligence.
0 The fights were rather easy. Maybe it's just my playstyle, but neither ground nor space had me on edge as much as the friggin' Na'Kuhl... dunno why people say the fighters are OP, the main defense for a fighter - being too fidgety to be targeted and hit, did not seem to work very well here, they died before becoming an issue, and that's with a HDC-escort...
- How does Martok know more about the prison than Klingon intelligence? I know he's Mr. Star Trek 2017, but huh?
- the bugs. Gosh those bugs. Probably too little time to test properly with the release of all the other content, but really? Invincible enemies, cut-scenes restarting after they end (the free martok scene - funny, because now there already was shooting in the background...), dialog pop-up during space battle, (...) - this will probably get fixed, but...
- That Son'a dreadnought is just silly. These guys have a very distinct and interesting style for their ships, and the clonky rig is not a warship, and if I understand correctly, not even entirely their own design. Meh.
- That poor Jem Hadar sod. I get why there is a "let him die with honor"-scene, but still. Introducing a character just to kill him off like this? This guy could have become an interesting figure for the episode, then maybe die at the end, but this was just sad, and felt really off.
- What's it with the friggin' beams? This is a Klingon Skirmisher set for Targ's sake. Why is there no cannon option in there? The heavy cannon is >the< Klingon signature weapon. Again, escorts get no love. Sad. Sad sad Romulan here.
All in all the episode was nice, smooth sailing gameplay-wise, but apart from the bugs it really felt fun to play, a lot more so than most episodes I went through. Did not expect much, I usually don't like Klingon content much, but this was really good in spite of some of the issues mentioned above.
YES!!! For the win! Victory is life!
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
Welcome to KDF playerbases' main problem with STO: Having to play a mission like you're a Fed captain. It's actually nice to have a mission that for once turns the problem upside down, as it helps making Feds understand why KDF players are complaining so much about the forced "Starfleetness" of most missions. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind shared stories, but you just know that NPCs like Qwen or Madran would have been killed by a KDF captain the very first time they tried to trick them, Qwen for putting a bounty on you and trying to TRIBBLE over the Alliance in regards of that Krenim artifact, and Madran for the stunt in the New Romulan warehouse and attacking you over K-13.
@topic:
I enjoyed Brushfire. It was everything "House Pegh" should have been in the first place and finally restores some credibility to the KDF's ability to do a covered operation. I also agree though that the last space portion can be unnecessary hard if the NPC AI makes your allies spread out to far, attacking anything at will instead on focussing on the dreads.
Trivial? Qwen first had you attacked by placing a bounty on your head which was so high that an entire fleet of those mercenaries from the Delta quadrant attacked you, and then almost doomed the entire Alpha Quadrant by selling the Krenim Artifact again even though he already had a deal with the Alliance. And Madran had you ambushed by Hirogen on New Romulus and openly attacked you at K-13. That's certainly not "trivial".
As others have pointed out there are a few bugs lurking in the episode, such as Rodek just wandering off when you're supposed to be following him and staying between the lines - it was no big deal, beam up and start the section again solved it for me. Still, an annoyance which will hopefully be fixed somewhere in today's patch.
I enjoyed the Son'a space battles and thought they were at just the right level of challenge/difficulty (at least for my limited abilities), although the interspersed cutscenes during the final battle were slightly irritating, as was the Son'a ship opening fire while the dialogue box was open. I'm looking forward to seeing the development of the Son'a and Tzenkethi's roles in the galactic jigsaw puzzle going forward.
Unless there is to be some future callback to his role here, the Jem'Hadar character's "arc" seemed a bit pointless to me.
Oh, and the Tholian logo on the prison uniforms - sorry to say it in such blunt terms, but that's either sheer laziness or very poor QA work on someone's part.
The reward console was nice, plenty of passive survivability boosts which are always nice, paired with the Trellium-D it certainly helps if tankiness is something you're looking for. The promise of "Explosive Shearing Torpedo Modifications" as a 3-pc bonus is certainly intriguing - looking forward to finding out more about that, as I think it could suit my build nicely.
If I was to score the episode overall, I'd say 7.5/10.
I'm intrigued by this - thinking back I can't recall anything in there that I would personally class as creepy. What exactly was it that caused you to feel that way?
Bonnie-kins...now that was creepy.