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Post-Temporal Ambassador Feedback
ccarmichael07
Member Posts: 755 Arc User
So, I just played through the new mission, and wanted to give some feedback.
1. Azure Nebula - This place is stunning! I had not been inside before, but that rift looks amazing, and this map was a beautiful backdrop for this mission.
2. The mission - I won't go into any spoilers, but this mission was very creative, very well written, and I enjoyed it very much. I especially liked the unique use of my Bridge Officers, it came as quite a surprise for me, as I first recognized the officer, then looking at the name, realized just who it was. Well done!
3. The Ambassador Class, Part 1: Whoever did this ship model, kudos on a job well done! Very nicely polished, it looks very nice. I'd really like to see whoever did this work, get the opportunity to do a cleanup pass on some of the older models in the game, that could use some TLC.
4. The Ambassador Class, Part 2: Ok, this is a bit of a nag, but it cant all be sunshine and rainbow, am I right? So...the bridge. I was disappointed that the bridge is not a unique bridge reflecting the correct time period, but rather, it was decided to use the bridge of the ship which eventually replaced the Ambassador? That seems a bit...low rent. If you plan to put out a C-Store version, might I suggest you invest the time and create a "Lost Era" bridge, which could be used on a bunch of ships in game? (Connie Refit, Excelsior, Miranda, Ambassador, etc.) Maybe make it a self contained bridge, like you did with the Wells Class, with no interior hooked up to break the immersion?
5. "Yesterday's Enterprise" Uniform: I was really hoping this was a Rachel Garrett/Ensign Picard/Jack Crusher version of the TWOK uniform instead of the belt and shoulder strap from the alternate timeline Ent-D. Hopefully, we'll see a revised TWOK uniform in the future, as I suggest in this thread: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=531601
6. Excelsior > Ambassador??: This one makes no sense to me. The Ambassador succeeded the Excelsior, so it's logical to assume the ship was improved. Not only that, but it's a larger ship, so one would guess it has more room for equipment. However, please note the following:
Excelsior has a Science Lieutenant. Ambassador has a Science Ensign.
Excelsior has 2 Tac Consoles. Ambassador has 1 Tac Console.
At the least, in terms of gameplay, this makes the Ambassador weaker than the ship that came before it. Granted, the Excelsior is a C-Store ship, but was it really necessary to go this route? Could you have not made the Ambassador at least EQUAL to the Excelsior, with perhaps 2 Sci consoles instead of the 2 Tac consoles?
If you release a C-Store Ambassador (which I suspect you will) you'll need to give some thought to how you slide the Ambassador into the ship tiers, between the Excelsior and Galaxy, so that the Ambassador is not weaker than it's predecessor, nor stronger than it's successor.
7. Voiceovers: Now, I'll end on a positive note. Thank you for this! I do enjoy the voiced missions, and a big thanks to Denise Crosby for lending her voice to the franchise, one more time.
1. Azure Nebula - This place is stunning! I had not been inside before, but that rift looks amazing, and this map was a beautiful backdrop for this mission.
2. The mission - I won't go into any spoilers, but this mission was very creative, very well written, and I enjoyed it very much. I especially liked the unique use of my Bridge Officers, it came as quite a surprise for me, as I first recognized the officer, then looking at the name, realized just who it was. Well done!
3. The Ambassador Class, Part 1: Whoever did this ship model, kudos on a job well done! Very nicely polished, it looks very nice. I'd really like to see whoever did this work, get the opportunity to do a cleanup pass on some of the older models in the game, that could use some TLC.
4. The Ambassador Class, Part 2: Ok, this is a bit of a nag, but it cant all be sunshine and rainbow, am I right? So...the bridge. I was disappointed that the bridge is not a unique bridge reflecting the correct time period, but rather, it was decided to use the bridge of the ship which eventually replaced the Ambassador? That seems a bit...low rent. If you plan to put out a C-Store version, might I suggest you invest the time and create a "Lost Era" bridge, which could be used on a bunch of ships in game? (Connie Refit, Excelsior, Miranda, Ambassador, etc.) Maybe make it a self contained bridge, like you did with the Wells Class, with no interior hooked up to break the immersion?
5. "Yesterday's Enterprise" Uniform: I was really hoping this was a Rachel Garrett/Ensign Picard/Jack Crusher version of the TWOK uniform instead of the belt and shoulder strap from the alternate timeline Ent-D. Hopefully, we'll see a revised TWOK uniform in the future, as I suggest in this thread: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=531601
6. Excelsior > Ambassador??: This one makes no sense to me. The Ambassador succeeded the Excelsior, so it's logical to assume the ship was improved. Not only that, but it's a larger ship, so one would guess it has more room for equipment. However, please note the following:
Excelsior has a Science Lieutenant. Ambassador has a Science Ensign.
Excelsior has 2 Tac Consoles. Ambassador has 1 Tac Console.
At the least, in terms of gameplay, this makes the Ambassador weaker than the ship that came before it. Granted, the Excelsior is a C-Store ship, but was it really necessary to go this route? Could you have not made the Ambassador at least EQUAL to the Excelsior, with perhaps 2 Sci consoles instead of the 2 Tac consoles?
If you release a C-Store Ambassador (which I suspect you will) you'll need to give some thought to how you slide the Ambassador into the ship tiers, between the Excelsior and Galaxy, so that the Ambassador is not weaker than it's predecessor, nor stronger than it's successor.
7. Voiceovers: Now, I'll end on a positive note. Thank you for this! I do enjoy the voiced missions, and a big thanks to Denise Crosby for lending her voice to the franchise, one more time.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Post edited by ccarmichael07 on
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Comments
About #7 though, and nothing against Denise Crosby, but Tasha got pretty damn annoying during that last part. "Do you want me to do that? I know a few things about forcefields." no, go away. "Having trouble? You do know we could have Tholians swarming us any minute, right?" shut up! "I thought we took care of everything. Starfleet protocol 547c clearly states that..." Where the hell is Armus when you need him?
I didn't ask to be President of the Balloon Enterprises! The Balloon Enterprises demanded it!
But I'm very pleased with the T5 Ambassador. If this ship was around when STO launched, I might've chosen it over the Sovereign. And the model itself is probably the most accurate of all ships we have in-game.
Only concern I have is that its layout is en par with the Sovereign and Excelsior, which really makes the Galaxy less of an attractive playable ship. Even the Odyssey has long outclassed her, and even has saucer seperation. So hope Cryptic is going to revise the Galaxy in some fashion.
That being said, those were nice weapons and I tried (in vain) to remove them from the Enterprise C and put them in my inventory. Of course, no luck.
My level 22 Commander wishes he had a Lt. Sci officer slot instead of the Ensign slot, though, as he's currently fighting in the Romulans missions and needs that Tractor Beam Repulsor. Otherwise, its perfect.
W.B. Yeats
Lifer since beta its never been so good! So now can everyone chill this game is going in the right direction :P
One can assume from design lineage, that the Ambassador should be closer in strength and power to the Galaxy, than it is to the Excelsior. The Ambassador was obviously meant to succeed the Excelsior, so it stands to reason the designers and engineers wouldn't build the ship to merely equal the Excelsior, much less be less powerful. That would be a waste, given the size increase from the Excelsior lineage to the Ambassador lineage.
So, in terms of STO, the Ambassador should have had BOff slots, weapons, and consoles, somewhere between that of the Cmdr. Excelsior and the Capt. Galaxy. Instead, it's BOff slots and consoles are less than that of the Excelsior, thereby making the ship weaker in gameplay terms than the ship which proceeded it.
I certainly hope the Devs will tackle a 2290s-2330s era interior for a C-Store version. At the very least, a bridge, which could then be useable on Mirandas, Excelsiors, Oberth and even Connie Refit ships. It's been asked for, for a long time and this would be a good way to deliver on it.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Unfortunately, you hit right on the big issue surrounding the Ambassador.
Anything we assume or surmise about the ship, is entirely assumption because there are no canonical stats to draw a concrete conclusion.
If we look at the progression of "Enterprise" class ships, we know this:
NX<Constitution<Constitution Refit<Excelsior
This is completely verifiable with canon stats. There were significant progressions in weapon strength, hull plating and general survivability in the progression of these 4 ships.
Galaxy<Sovereign
This particular progression is debatable, because one ship (Galaxy) had a scientific and diplomatic mission profile, while the other (Sovereign) had a much more militaristic mission profile. Certainly the armaments of the Sovereign outclassed the Galaxy by lightyears, but the Sovereign gave up some of it's other benefits in the scientific / operations realm as a result. So it's hard to say that one is truly superior to the other, except from a combat standpoint. They were simply diffferent ships, built for different purposes.
So, it's entirely possible that the Ambassador falls into this loophole category, that while it might have been stronger in some areas than Excelsior, it was weaker in others.
But, from an STO gameplay standpoint, that doesn't really matter, because the only thing a ship is judged on in STO, is it's combat effectiveness, because there are no alternate gameplay styles to make use of a ship's other qualities, be they scientific or operational.
What Im getting at is that Cryptic has a problem with their ship tiers. And it's far from being an easy problem to fix, and this is why sliding the Ambassador in, without having a gap between the Excelsior and the Galaxy (Tier 3 & 4) has resulted in a ship, which is chronologically and possibly technologically more advanced than the Excelsior, actually being portrayed as weaker.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
That's the crux of the matter, personally I feel Cryptic should get rid of the entire tier system, in favor of a upgrade token.
An upgrade token can be sold or earned in game and will allow a player to upgrade any vessel in game.
The upgrade is only limited by a tech tier that each vessel can be achieved:
Basis for a Tech tier:
A) Must be within the confines of canon or documented ship specs.
for example:
Connie cannot exceed the 1701 Refit or A, excelsior cannot exceed the Enterprise C etc...
The current tier not viable - for example you have the Nova Class inferior to the Excelsior - The Nova Class, despite it being a short range science vessel, is a far more advance vessel than the old Excelsior - same with the Centaur Class.
Special Upgrades (Via Lobi Store)
- Many will hate me for saying this, but the store is NOT going anywhere - Truth is I see choices as a flavor of life - The more choices we have the more flavor there is in the game.
In the Lobi Store - Cryptic should sell a special upgrade package for around 800 Lobi - This special package will upgrade any ship in the game at Tier 5 / any non-cstore bought or lobi earned ship.
The tier 5 package must not exceed Fleet versions, CStore versions, and the special Lock Box ships.
I've very enjoyed the mission. Good story, and it's has voice. Very good.
Can't tell anything about the ships - I'm a tactician anyway.
The bad thing is that I've thought that we'll receive this yellow/blue worker outfit as a reward, i liked this too...
I would reason that since we saw so many more Excelsiors in TNG and DS9, that the Ambassador actually wasn't as successful of a design than the Excelsior. It was probably more like the "DeLorean" of starships: designed to be iconic, but the actual ship is a dismal failure despite having a fancy name attached to it. Also it's fame is largely due to one instance of time travel.
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