Top notch episode! These featured episode arcs are getting btter and better. The math puzzle was very unique and I did NOT see that coming at all. With the rate you guys are going, I'm half expecting you guys to come up with a puzzle which involves the player being completely in the dark and requiring us to use scent to find our way out.
"You want the player to use... their sense of smell?"
"Yes."
"How? With dialogue boxes or..."
"No, no. The mission will present several distinct scents that will eminate from the player's speakers."
"Uh... speakers don't work that way.."
"Find a way."
"I'ts impossible!"
"FIND A WAY!"
I love the mission. All of the things you have to do. It was trigger-ific! But, getting lost in the desert for two hours looking for the rocks to duck behind was ridiculous. Those circles on the map really should be visible no matter what zoom level you use. Please make them larger!
I really like the mission. It is up to date the longest and most creative missions in the game.
- The art design is really, really awesome. Looking at the nightsky and the moon was just stunning.
- The cutscenes are getting better and better and now I am eager to find out how the story turns out.
- Arena fight was very enjoying and sth. new. No pew pew, but use your melee skills!
- Sword fight-animation is awesome!
Nevertheless there are some parts of the mission which were just meh.
- Puzzles...well, love them or hate them. I think they are a waste of my time, but this is something personal I guess.
- Landscape. Now, it is wonderfull that you guys got the engine for making maps huge as whole sectors, but there is a major flaw in design. It takes just ages to get from A-> B. Even with full run speed. I stopped my watch and needed about plain 5 minutes just to run up to the cave. This is a major game issue in STO overall. You see it in Exploration maps a lot, but this time you topped yourself. Either speed up the runspeed/ non-combat run/flight or do not strech maps so much. It is just plain annoying.
Overall I give this episode a B+ . This majorly because the after arena part is just too boring. Even if it is to make it more dramatic.
It seems with each episode you're making better and better missions. I can't wait until almost all missions in the game are along this level of quality.
Keep up the excellent work everyone!
Looking forward to the next episode.
*This post kinda contains spoilers, you have been warned*
I loved the mission, although I have to say the puzzle I could've done without. But that's just me. All in all I loved the complexity this mission has, and I loved the ending scene. It's like the prison escape from Undiscovered Country meets Darth Vaders "NOOOOOO!" from SW:ep 3 (I know, kinda blasphemy but it's the only analogy I could think of.)
Alright the shield looks great have to give them that BUT for us at VA its a joke because the best covariant shield is still the mk x valor one from k7. Can u please make this shield identical in stats to the valor so there is some motivation outside of looks? Really there is no reason not to, keeping the stats the same will not alter the game in any way and i would have to imagine a large population of people already have the k7 one.
Also on another note i happen to know Q gave out a couple MK XI CAPX3 shield which trump even the K7 Ones
Alright the shield looks great have to give them that BUT for us at VA its a joke because the best covariant shield is still the mk x valor one from k7. Can u please make this shield identical in stats to the valor so there is some motivation outside of looks? Really there is no reason not to, keeping the stats the same will not alter the game in any way and i would have to imagine a large population of people already have the k7 one.
Also on another note i happen to know Q gave out a couple MK XI CAPX3 shield which trump even the K7 Ones
Umm not sure what you talking about the only Difference in theses in the CAP3 Corviant shilds is about 1000 shild strength which the Remain shilds make up in Regen rate i belive. Personaly these are better shilds then the Ageis set (and i can compare all three since i do have them)
I really wish shields were redone across the board.
There should be a reason to take covariant, resilient, regenerative and the stock shields. Sadly, the only ones worth taking at RA+ are either the Aegis Covariant or the K7 PvP Covariant.
Even while leveling, the other ones don't serve as much of a role.
I used a piece of paper; no calculator. It wasn't any more immersion breaking than similar puzzles in Baldur's Gate.
I did love those BG puzzles!
I brought out a piece of paper too, really did show up how poor my maths has become in recent years. It broke the immersion factor because it showed how terrible I am at maths! A science officer like myself would never have such trouble.
Thankyou cryptic, I will now spend the next few hours doing basic arithmetic exercises so that this self inflicted break in immersion will not occur again.
I brought out a piece of paper too, really did show up how poor my maths has become in recent years. It broke the immersion factor because it showed how terrible I am at maths! A science officer like myself would never have such trouble.
Thankyou cryptic, I will now spend the next few hours doing basic arithmetic exercises so that this self inflicted break in immersion will not occur again.
It could be worse: the computers could rise up against us and then you'd have to compute pi as a human battery.
What I didn't get was why their computers in the first part were getting screwed up by maths problems I could do in my head. How s**t are Romulan computers
I really wish shields were redone across the board.
There should be a reason to take covariant, resilient, regenerative and the stock shields. Sadly, the only ones worth taking at RA+ are either the Aegis Covariant or the K7 PvP Covariant.
Even while leveling, the other ones don't serve as much of a role.
Active heals need to scale with the type of shield (lower on Covariant, higher on Regenerative) since that's what everyone relies on as opposed to passive regeneration.
I really wish shields were redone across the board.
There should be a reason to take covariant, resilient, regenerative and the stock shields. Sadly, the only ones worth taking at RA+ are either the Aegis Covariant or the K7 PvP Covariant.
Even while leveling, the other ones don't serve as much of a role.
Well, I *think* shields were originally supposed to be ship/class specific; something like so:
Cruisers - Covariant: Lots of power to keep regeneration high, and a big capacity to tank.
Escorts - Regenerative: High regeneration to regen shields between attack runs
Science Vessels - Resilient: High resistance to keep the ship's hull from cracking like an egg
But it never really worked out that way. I don't know if they never got around to tweaking the game to make it work more like this, or if they just decided to let captains pick what they want. Since I have the AEGIS shields this doesn't really effect me (Even though I'd love an AEGIS Resilient!!!), but if I were a lower level player I'd want the choice of shield type.
Maybe they should make all three rewards Reman shields, but have three versions of them (Covariant, Regenerative & Resilient)? I mean, the Reman shields are the obvious choice anyway, instead of tossing some decent Resilient shields and an engine in there to throw people off, make them all Reman shields.
Well, I *think* shields were originally supposed to be ship/class specific; something like so:
Cruisers - Covariant: Lots of power to keep regeneration high, and a big capacity to tank.
Escorts - Regenerative: High regeneration to regen shields between attack runs
Science Vessels - Resilient: High resistance to keep the ship's hull from cracking like an egg
But it never really worked out that way. I don't know if they never got around to tweaking the game to make it work more like this, or if they just decided to let captains pick what they want. Since I have the AEGIS shields this doesn't really effect me (Even though I'd love an AEGIS Resilient!!!), but if I were a lower level player I'd want the choice of shield type.
Maybe they should make all three rewards Reman shields, but have three versions of them (Covariant, Regenerative & Resilient)? I mean, the Reman shields are the obvious choice anyway, instead of tossing some decent Resilient shields and an engine in there to throw people off, make them all Reman shields.
It's sort of like engine power levels but as an engineer with an efficient boff, there's no reason to fly a combat engine (especially if you use EPtE or batteries).
Systems design is all over the place: in terms of what they went for and how it actually works.
What I didn't get was why their computers in the first part were getting screwed up by maths problems I could do in my head. How s**t are Romulan computers
Active heals need to scale with the type of shield (lower on Covariant, higher on Regenerative) since that's what everyone relies on as opposed to passive regeneration.
In theory, it already does that but the scaling is way off. The difference between regen on a regeneratuve versus a covariant isn't much.
What I didn't get was why their computers in the first part were getting screwed up by maths problems I could do in my head. How s**t are Romulan computers
You would be suprised how much even just a single number can totally TRIBBLE up an entire computer system.
Computers operate by logic and logic alone.
If there is an error or something that does not add up, even if it seems to us as a simple mathematical problem, the computer cannot correct for that if its on the processor level as the fault defies the computers logic.
It's sort of like engine power levels but as an engineer with an efficient boff, there's no reason to fly a combat engine (especially if you use EPtE or batteries).
Systems design is all over the place: in terms of what they went for and how it actually works.
I'd say the power systems need to be looked at again, since that's what everything is *supposed* to work off of. Just as my weapons fire drains my weapons subsystem of power, using subsystem specific abilities should drain power from those subsystems.
I think there should be a Emergency Power bar that, once depleted, takes a long time to recharge. All of your engineer's Emergency Power abilities would tap from that. Then get rid of the several types of subsystem batteries and have one that dumps into Emergency Power on a relatively longish cooldown.
A power system overhaul would help bring a lot more underused abilities into play, like Aux 2 Battery, All of the power siphon abilities, and might improve game play.
It seems relevant somewhat - complaints about gear wouldn't be as numerous if some of the choices weren't clearly better (i.e. covariant anything: whether the K7 or the Aegis one).
I think there should be a Emergency Power bar that, once depleted, takes a long time to recharge. All of your engineer's Emergency Power abilities would tap from that. Then get rid of the several types of subsystem batteries and have one that dumps into Emergency Power on a relatively longish cooldown.
Well, that would instantly destroy Engineers.
No other class is similarly limited, and no Weapon Energy doesn't count for Tactical as it instantly restores after a cycle and serves to limit multiple energy weapon use, and effects all Classes.
Excellent work on the mission. I have been really impressed with this entire FE series, and the storyline is proving to be a true "Trek" experience. The addition of actual Star Trek music was absolutely wonderful and I hope to see more themes from all shows, and perhaps even some new music composed in the style of TNG/DS9/VOY.
I would have enjoyed it a little more if I hadn't missed "hiding in the rocks" and had to redo "Marooned', but still it was a great episode. Couple points though:
1. Kudos for the dev team for turning off "ship assisted powers". I half expected Orbital Strike to still be usable... and boy, would I have had a field day with that. (I accept the being able to beam out as a necessary evil due to the way STO handles missions)
2. Wait, I was a prisoner in an arena, my weapons were disabled yet not taken from me, and they let my captain keep her tricorder?
3. Cryptic, I would recommend you make the circle for the "rock formation" much bigger and much more obvious before the next engineering captain
gets to the cave and kills the warriguls
prematurely, forcing them to restart the mission. Or at least make them respawn.
4. Loved the ending... but I might recommend you make the beam out happen a half second sooner... on my end, the beam out didn't happen until half a second after my captain was fired upon.
5. Love the look of the Reman shields, but would hate to lose my Aegis set bonuses.
6. I'm kinda glad I have a calculator on my desk... I just knew, from the first moment of the puzzle, that someone would complain about the math problems.
Comments
"You want the player to use... their sense of smell?"
"Yes."
"How? With dialogue boxes or..."
"No, no. The mission will present several distinct scents that will eminate from the player's speakers."
"Uh... speakers don't work that way.."
"Find a way."
"I'ts impossible!"
"FIND A WAY!"
- The art design is really, really awesome. Looking at the nightsky and the moon was just stunning.
- The cutscenes are getting better and better and now I am eager to find out how the story turns out.
- Arena fight was very enjoying and sth. new. No pew pew, but use your melee skills!
- Sword fight-animation is awesome!
Nevertheless there are some parts of the mission which were just meh.
- Puzzles...well, love them or hate them. I think they are a waste of my time, but this is something personal I guess.
- Landscape. Now, it is wonderfull that you guys got the engine for making maps huge as whole sectors, but there is a major flaw in design. It takes just ages to get from A-> B. Even with full run speed. I stopped my watch and needed about plain 5 minutes just to run up to the cave. This is a major game issue in STO overall. You see it in Exploration maps a lot, but this time you topped yourself. Either speed up the runspeed/ non-combat run/flight or do not strech maps so much. It is just plain annoying.
Overall I give this episode a B+ . This majorly because the after arena part is just too boring. Even if it is to make it more dramatic.
PS: Can I have Hakeev's Uniform or what?
And THANKS for using Trek music!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxkaoDTU9hI
That was a pleasant surprise!!
It seems with each episode you're making better and better missions. I can't wait until almost all missions in the game are along this level of quality.
Keep up the excellent work everyone!
Looking forward to the next episode.
This is by far my favorite episode yet, and the fact that you locked the ship assisted powers(i.e. tactical team ) made it that much better.
I loved the mission, although I have to say the puzzle I could've done without. But that's just me. All in all I loved the complexity this mission has, and I loved the ending scene. It's like the prison escape from Undiscovered Country meets Darth Vaders "NOOOOOO!" from SW:ep 3 (I know, kinda blasphemy but it's the only analogy I could think of.)
I really appreciate all the work that went into this! Good job.....no, GREAT JOB!
And for anyone who thought this mission "sucked"......
....go play Tic-Tac-Toe with yourself, because you will never be satisfied with anything.....ANYTHING.
Again, great job guys!
Also on another note i happen to know Q gave out a couple MK XI CAPX3 shield which trump even the K7 Ones
Umm not sure what you talking about the only Difference in theses in the CAP3 Corviant shilds is about 1000 shild strength which the Remain shilds make up in Regen rate i belive. Personaly these are better shilds then the Ageis set (and i can compare all three since i do have them)
I don't like puzzles either...but...come on it was simple math that takes seconds to do with a calculator
oh and don't forget your order of operations! Please Excuse My Drunk Aunt Sally
There should be a reason to take covariant, resilient, regenerative and the stock shields. Sadly, the only ones worth taking at RA+ are either the Aegis Covariant or the K7 PvP Covariant.
Even while leveling, the other ones don't serve as much of a role.
I did love those BG puzzles!
I brought out a piece of paper too, really did show up how poor my maths has become in recent years. It broke the immersion factor because it showed how terrible I am at maths! A science officer like myself would never have such trouble.
Thankyou cryptic, I will now spend the next few hours doing basic arithmetic exercises so that this self inflicted break in immersion will not occur again.
It could be worse: the computers could rise up against us and then you'd have to compute pi as a human battery.
Active heals need to scale with the type of shield (lower on Covariant, higher on Regenerative) since that's what everyone relies on as opposed to passive regeneration.
Cruisers - Covariant: Lots of power to keep regeneration high, and a big capacity to tank.
Escorts - Regenerative: High regeneration to regen shields between attack runs
Science Vessels - Resilient: High resistance to keep the ship's hull from cracking like an egg
But it never really worked out that way. I don't know if they never got around to tweaking the game to make it work more like this, or if they just decided to let captains pick what they want. Since I have the AEGIS shields this doesn't really effect me (Even though I'd love an AEGIS Resilient!!!), but if I were a lower level player I'd want the choice of shield type.
Maybe they should make all three rewards Reman shields, but have three versions of them (Covariant, Regenerative & Resilient)? I mean, the Reman shields are the obvious choice anyway, instead of tossing some decent Resilient shields and an engine in there to throw people off, make them all Reman shields.
It's sort of like engine power levels but as an engineer with an efficient boff, there's no reason to fly a combat engine (especially if you use EPtE or batteries).
Systems design is all over the place: in terms of what they went for and how it actually works.
You would be suprised how much even just a single number can totally TRIBBLE up an entire computer system.
Computers operate by logic and logic alone.
If there is an error or something that does not add up, even if it seems to us as a simple mathematical problem, the computer cannot correct for that if its on the processor level as the fault defies the computers logic.
I think there should be a Emergency Power bar that, once depleted, takes a long time to recharge. All of your engineer's Emergency Power abilities would tap from that. Then get rid of the several types of subsystem batteries and have one that dumps into Emergency Power on a relatively longish cooldown.
A power system overhaul would help bring a lot more underused abilities into play, like Aux 2 Battery, All of the power siphon abilities, and might improve game play.
But then there are all the instant heals...
Sorry for the derail.
It seems relevant somewhat - complaints about gear wouldn't be as numerous if some of the choices weren't clearly better (i.e. covariant anything: whether the K7 or the Aegis one).
Well, that would instantly destroy Engineers.
No other class is similarly limited, and no Weapon Energy doesn't count for Tactical as it instantly restores after a cycle and serves to limit multiple energy weapon use, and effects all Classes.
1. Kudos for the dev team for turning off "ship assisted powers". I half expected Orbital Strike to still be usable... and boy, would I have had a field day with that. (I accept the being able to beam out as a necessary evil due to the way STO handles missions)
2. Wait, I was a prisoner in an arena, my weapons were disabled yet not taken from me, and they let my captain keep her tricorder?
3. Cryptic, I would recommend you make the circle for the "rock formation" much bigger and much more obvious before the next engineering captain
4. Loved the ending... but I might recommend you make the beam out happen a half second sooner... on my end, the beam out didn't happen until half a second after my captain was fired upon.
5. Love the look of the Reman shields, but would hate to lose my Aegis set bonuses.
6. I'm kinda glad I have a calculator on my desk... I just knew, from the first moment of the puzzle, that someone would complain about the math problems.
Can't wait to see the finale, though.