In "turning point" the Tal shiar spy npcs who are there at the conference are dressed in federation diplomatic core outfits as fed diplomats, but they have romulan star empire belts that are clearly shown. seems strange the federation would let people who smack of tal shiar pose as their own diplomats. :P
Skipping Tutorial: Cutscene in Flotilla transporter room shows your character and D?Tan up to the chest in the floor.
Tovan Khev: Still unable to rename/change appearance.
Tailor: Unable to rename Uniform.
Initial BOffS: Able to rename, not able to change appearance.
Gasko Blues: Tobol? Really, ya couldn?t find ?earmuffs? for him?
Singularity Core: No side-by-side comparison on mouse-over.
Turning Point: Unless you have an open BOff slot, i.e. from purchasing BOff slots, the faction specific BOff cannot be made to join your crew or even train one of your officers. This is true for both Fed/KDF. Tested three times, only able to have BOff join crew the third time because I purchased two add'l slots.
My only concern is that I'm aware that T'Nae has a following amongst the STO player base. And she has good voice-over talent attached to her these days. I don't think Zelle was ever voiced. But I don't think that should prevent better storytelling for Turning Point.
I agree, and yes, T'Nae's voice is done by a professional whose work I'm familiar with, and she is quite good. But Zelle is clearly the better choice for the role of the skeptical and borderline-hostile Federation ambassador. T'Nae would be more reasonable.
The prime directive also refers to interference with any internal development of an alien civilization. I think a Romulan civil war would fall under that category (like Kazon sects). So the Prime Directive applies.
That is a good point though, if Starfleet helps the rebels, it gives them an advantage over the Tal Shiar. Seems like a violation there. Of course Starfleet gets something out of it, so I guess it's ok...
Starfleet could interfere if there was already an outside "third party" involved in the internal Romulan conflict. In the latter part of the game the outside force would be the Iconians, who the Tal Shiar are working with, but for the early Romulan Republic stories it would be the Elachi. However this would have to be made clear by D'Tan himself to the player (preferably as an option to ask him about it) before meeting at Khitomer, and reiterated by the Federation delegates once there.
Intro : This tutorial stage was awesome it was what you would expect of a refugee colony rebuilding after a disaster.
Beautifully done this was by far the best tutorial ive ever played you guys did a wonderfull job on it.
Idk if anyone has caught it but D'Vex looks like a older version of nero right down to the forehead tattoo lol
I loved the warbird reveal the space debris parts in dramatic fashion to reveal the warbird nicely done
The Helix : This was a fun stage though it was fun there are way to many loose cell ships floating around and i kept bumping into them when in combat.
Other then the need to take a few cell ships out of that map the mission was great
Crossroads at crateris : This mission was perfect except for 2 things
1 ) When tovan khev says look up there is no elachi ship you can hear it but not see it so makes the exchange between tovan and velari kinda pointless.
2) cannot shoot slamek.....i think everyone wants to shoot him
Gasko Blues : Nice mission badly named i didnt get the blues from this mission what i got was scan this talk to that shoot this the story in this mission was a little thin and at times pointless.
1) You should add something to make this mission have a sorrowful feel to it make it darker as in storyline maybe travel with hivens brother for a while.
Maybe use his death as a murder mystery that reveals the station commander and guards as tal shiar operatives.
If you dont add a something to make this mission more sorrowful then a name change is in order.
New romulus : This was a fun mission being part of the scout and survey team that finds Nomulus was interesting and made for a great story .
The map was big enough to be able to wander around and enjoy the scenery but small enough that the average or new player coukd reach the objectives with realitive ease.
The bad part of this is having to fight a tholian commander this is asking way to much for your average player or newbie.
I think the tholian commander needs to be dropped or nerfed Imo a tholian Lt would be tough enough of a fight without being overly hard.
Just have a couple waves of tholian ensigns then the Lt as the boss.
Turning Point : This was a well done mission except for a few things that stuck out
1) Admiral T'Nae seems to arrogant to be at a diplomatic conference her attitude stinks i get the point about her not trusting roms but does she have to be such a (Moderated).
And jiro is a motor mouth he out talks your character and i personally found that annoying you need to bring his mouth down to a low idle lol
I liked the klingon delegates they were exactly as i would expect them to be including attitude towards the romulans.
2) The tal shiar spies : I figured them out even before they reveled thenselves as spies they stick out like a sore thumb.
They are dressed in white standing by themselves and the fact they are romulan in fed diplomatic attire doesnt help.
You should have those tal shiar spies dressed i RR uniforms this would add to the fact the tal shiar and rse are trying to smear the good name of D'Tan and the RR as terrorists.
3) Sela showing up at the conference just to say its a farce then leave is pointless if anything she should be in the hall of heros trying to do PR damage control after the bomb blast.
This alone would make her being there have a point to it not just "Hi there this conference is a farce were leaving now so you can make new allies toodles".
So either add more for sela or take her out of turning point completley.
Neutral no more : This should be simplified to you choose a side now you report to eta eridani for your first KDF/fed mission.
Not oh yeah lets go here and do something pointless now your not neutral anymore YAAAY!!!.
I mean seriously as soon as you choose a side your no longer neutral and its time to move on to your KDF/RR/Fed responsibilities.
The missions and episodes after "From the ashes" tutorial episode are very good got nothing but high marks on those its the initial episode that needs some polishing.
Othe rthen this i will have to admit this has been a great experiance and look forward to LoR beta test round 2
ok... so got in LoR earlier this evening (23rd april) saw there was a download again so something was "fixed"... but as I went along I noticed right away that BOFF skills had to be reloaded after each screen change... so if i started a mission...re-load Boff's, change zones on map re-load Boff's, fight battle, goto planet and return, re-load Boff's.... see the pattern?
Another annoying thing... the chat box... is much the same as the boff problem. I tend to close it during play. I have noticed here (tribble LoR) that after each Screen change it reopens, and its not necessarily on the tab I put it on when i closed it...
"neutral no more" has ran a wall for me. didn't finish. never saw the new ship. tried running mission before it, and it again. tried to drop the ship i had...(mistake!) I'm in a c-store fed boat till I rank up again... maybe it will finish then.
I'm going to try to keep this brief. I am grateful for the opportunity to try this content, and think it is important to provide feedback -- it seems like there is little criticism about the product as is, so kudos to the developers.
Overall, I did enjoy the missions found them engaging and really liked flying the tos bird of prey-- that opportunity is enough to win me over...
That said, I wish you would consider redressing some things:
1) romulan ship voice is the Barette-esque voice actor
2) the introduction jumps your level to 4 -- that doesn't seem consistent with the level 1 to 50 ideal.
3) There are a couple points in the staging area where there were a group of 4 identical romulans sitting at a table. the first cut sceen had people imbedded in the floor boards etc.
4) it has been mentioned that the exchange and tailor have problems. Moreover with the tailer It would change my character's face too easily when i just wanted to change my outfit. I would perfer the old tailer. I can't change my bo's uniforms
5) on bridge officers generally. What does it mean that every romulan will have the same crew? the variety of BOs is a really nice feature of the game that is being lost here. Sure it is nice that you have these characters entering into the story but...
6) The remen bridge officer lady has a old wrinkly head and smooth face. I know the remen depictions in star trek are limited to the one? in Nemisis, but maybe young remens look different and less wrinkly (you're free because there is no cannon regarding this, right)
7) my romluan comander can't have those cool romulan tattoos, doesn't have access to proper romulan uniforms etc.
8) I still wish the kdf and romulan ui was made to look more klingon or romulan and more design was put into making them unique. You can change the color of the ui with the menu, but not the shape of them. i.e. if i want to run klingon ui on my fed it will still have the fed curves just with a red color.
9) The big one--I don't think even with the plot that the alliance mechanic is justified. It creates a lot of really wierd situations. Like my romulan can wear a klingon uniform. you have these dialogue options to appoligize to the tal shiar or whatever but they are only faux options because you have to alley with d'tan. d'tan is suppose to be a supporter of reunification but he would allow you to join the klingons who are at war with the vulcans. the Tal shiar is for unknown reasons exterminating the few romulans that are left (I cannot for all my suspending of disbelief imagine a society that would think that is a good idea). And there are other oddities that arise from this.
Just because you can write a thing, doesn't mean you should or that it will make sense... There are other little points too. Why does the second or third person you talk to say something like "so-and-so said what about my work ethic? That is so old fashion" presumably it is because he was being a backstabbing romulan and that is old-fashioned. But why would the romulans consider themselves backstabing. Maybe opportunistic or cunning, positive ways of expressing similar values...
Theoretically language develops where "good" values are promoted by societies and "evil" is a term for other society's values. So the romulans if "backstabbing" was a value would have a word that means something like the "good practice of betrayal" and in english that is not betrayal, so it doesn't translate properly... Backstabbing makes an odd value generally because like killing members of your own society it doesn't take a genius to realize that that is not sustainable as a societal goal.
Pragmatically the alliance creates problems too because it:
A) creates a senerio where it would be difficult to have a romulan independent faction in the future. How will fed-aligned romulans give back their galaxy ships? How is a kdf-aligned romulan with a t5 starbase going to be convinced to join a romulan fleet in the future?
b) has trading problems (which is probably why they can't use the exchange before they choose an aliance) or else you might have an activated kdf duty officer on a fed-aligned character -- or something.
c) still doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would the Romulan republic have half of its officers fighting the other half of their officers? In this story it isn't a problem, because it is just you -- but for the game it is.
d) probably is not good for the kdf and game balance in the long run, because more people will still join fed...which is bad for development because participation is the reason that we are told the kdf doesn't get new stuff.
So I am sorry it was so long but that's my beat. I had some screen shots with things like the ugly bright green on the kdf doors and such, but i think i hit my big points. Like I said: All the problems are outweighed by how cool it is to have a romulan faction, but I think the aliance is not in the games interest and could have been corrected. It may be too late now.
Playing through a second time.. I noticed a couple things in The Search for new Romulus. I'm not sure if these are bugs or not, so I thought I'd make mentions here instead.
1) Does the tholian Commander have a one hit kill power of some kind? I admitt my personal shields were kionda low, but suddenly me and my away team were all dead. I didn't see what happened exactly, so I'm not sure. If this is a feature not a bug, it seems a bit extreme to put against a level 8 chracter. If it's something like the Romulan Thalaron Generator device, considering this may be the first time someone comes across it, or in my case, hasn't done much in the way of the Tholian stuff, there should be some kind of warning comming from a Boff or something.
2)I may have just missed them before, but this time around, going back into orbit to fight the Tholian ships, there were two tholian ships just sitting there still, and un targetable. These were in addition to the regular interactable ships, and that part of the mission played out smoothly, and exactly the way it should have. I was just wondering if they were supposed to be the ships of the Tholians on the surface you fought, and I just failed to notice them the first time through, or if this was a bug, and they weren't supposed to be there.
2)I may have just missed them before, but this time around, going back into orbit to fight the Tholian ships, there were two tholian ships just sitting there still, and un targetable. These were in addition to the regular interactable ships, and that part of the mission played out smoothly, and exactly the way it should have. I was just wondering if they were supposed to be the ships of the Tholians on the surface you fought, and I just failed to notice them the first time through, or if this was a bug, and they weren't supposed to be there.
could it be that you missed the part where Temer indicates that they've already taken out several Tholian ships?
I know it's already been mentioned before, but I feel like this was the biggest drawback to me during the begining of my adventure with Romulans: the dialogues/narration goes waaay too fast - I couldn't read it all in time. Would be nice to have voice-overs and I imagine we will, but still - reading it at this pace is impossible to me.
From technical point of view, when I got to the Romulan Fleet at the begining - the game was getting a bit laggy. Which usually is not an issue for me, as I have a high-end machine and fast internet connection.
These are my major concerns after these first couple hours spent with this awesome expansion!
Skipping Tutorial: Cutscene in Flotilla transporter room shows your character and D?Tan up to the chest in the floor.
Tovan Khev: Still unable to rename/change appearance.
Tailor: Unable to rename Uniform.
Initial BOffS: Able to rename, not able to change appearance.
Gasko Blues: Tobol? Really, ya couldn?t find ?earmuffs? for him?
Singularity Core: No side-by-side comparison on mouse-over.
Turning Point: Unless you have an open BOff slot, i.e. from purchasing BOff slots, the faction specific BOff cannot be made to join your crew or even train one of your officers. This is true for both Fed/KDF. Tested three times, only able to have BOff join crew the third time because I purchased two add'l slots.
Oh, I very much agree with your points - especially the fact that it's impossible to rename/change appearance of Tovan is annoying - feels like I'm stuck with BOff that everybody also has... makes my experience less individual... and kind of like in The Old Republic, where everybody pretty much gets the same companion .
could it be that you missed the part where Temer indicates that they've already taken out several Tholian ships?[/QUOTE
I don't remember seeing the words "Disabled" anywhere in the dialogue. We don't often see hulls of ships everywhere after a batlle, not that they appeard to be damaged or flaming or any such thing. Now maybe that's just what it is.. But the point it I didn't see thos ships my first play through, and I wasn't sure if they were Supposed to be there or not.
Also In Neutral No more on Klingon faction side the Nausicaan pirates show up as friendlies, not enemies.
Some thoughts that I haven't noticed on the skim-through:
1. No mention of shipboard power mechanics. Battle against first D'Deriex would be a great place to apply "all power to weapons" and maxxing engines, going 3/4 impulse for high speed maneuverability would be great for the battle against the Picard-maneuvering Mystery (Echani?) ship.
2. Noticed cloaker-friendly miniboxes everywhere, but also noticed that around 1/2 the space battles all started after a "mandatory" decloak scan/interaction box. Great pains are taken to give Romulans a massive boost to the cloak bonuses, and yet it feels like you barely get to use it.
3. Didn't I get told that the cloak only worked "before battle" yet my T'Liss has a battle cloak that works whenever I want it to? And is it just me, or does the pace of battle almost discourage battle cloak use - I get as much (if not more) overall damage dealt staying "out in the open" instead of cloaking and taking the "big shot"...
4. Are the mobs in space combat severely nerfed in this arc? I have a harder time killing a L50 Mesh Weaver frigate than I did killing the 2 D'Derixes I ran into in this battle. Then I ran into the Mystery ship which took forever (L50 shields on a L7 foe) and it's "devastating forward weapon" actually took me out when I didn't pay enough attention. On this note, never got an indication that HY torps would go down to my fire, and they, too, are nerfed to the point of oblivion (or I just got way too good at keeping shields up so I never got popped by one even though I elected to eat every HY launched at me instead of playing with targetting mechanics...)
Other random thoughts:
1. When offered a "uniform" upon joining the fleet, there is little to no differentiation between the "military" options and the "civilian" options. I'm taking it that the "Republic 1/2" leathers are the military uniform, however, with all the buckles / belts / collars, they sure don't look that "military" / different, especially since the Romulan Navy has always sported form-fitting relatively strapless multi-color-tiled patterns (with helmets in ToS era).
2. When does the BOffs get the option / ability to suit up in the "official ship uniform"? I beam down with my "tag along crew", and they sure look the part - I think I heard the Feds comment that the crew of my bird looked like something out of a pirate/bandit movie more than even a semi-competent bridge crew... :P
The following might be more gameplay / graphically related, but as I noticed these in this arc I'll post them here:
1. Is the little bit of plasma fire coming from the torp launcher the indicator that I've been hit with plasma burn? Whatever happened to having a good chunk of the ship "burning" so the player knows that there's a big horking pile of plasma glued to the hull?
2. Either I wasn't paying attention / bad RNG proc rate / etc., but I never noticed that the baddies were on plasma fire either - assuming they survived the HY I that I lobbed that way or the singularity effect was (IIRC) supposed to pass on...
3. Initial enemies seem way too easy to slap down, even on a default power spread until the last baddie - and nowhere in the whole mess is there even mention of changing power defaults (first D'Deriex, recommend all power to weapons for quick kill. Picard-maneuvering mystery (Echani?) ship - recommend all power to engines along with the "stay out of forward arc" deal.
4. Perhaps it's just me and not really playing with chat channels, but the cloaker-friendly mini-boxes don't leave a "trail" in the logs. Therefore, if you "miss" the box (in the heat of battle, kid calling, etc.), there's no way to "review" what was said - unless it's in the comms section of the journal, which not many people would know of / check. Also, was never a fan of "timed" readings - sometimes I get annoyed that the box stays on too long while my wife would complain she didn't have the chance to get everything - if it's not too late an option to make the dialogs "click to remove" and/or adjust their time-on-screen would be useful.
5. When a HY blew up an enemy, there was a great big green or red (can't remember exactly which, I think I noticed both colors) glow around the ship while the black hole formed. Is this supposed to be an indicator of the range that the plasma fire would be applied, or is this just a glitch...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Since the last patch the mission neutral no more seems to have changed. You are told an ally wants to speak to you but none does. Instead you are told to go to the Beta Thoridor systems. There you defeat some pirates and rescue a freighter. Then you speak to the mining facility who mention that the freighter came from the Chaltok system. When you speak to Subcommander Nadel you are told you should take your ship to the Chaltok system in case they need additional investigation done. The mission then abruptly ends there. You are made level 11. And you are left hanging. There is no level 11 mission. The next section starts at level 12. There is no Chaltok system to go to.
1) Does the tholian Commander have a one hit kill power of some kind? I admitt my personal shields were kionda low, but suddenly me and my away team were all dead. I didn't see what happened exactly, so I'm not sure. If this is a feature not a bug, it seems a bit extreme to put against a level 8 chracter. If it's something like the Romulan Thalaron Generator device, considering this may be the first time someone comes across it, or in my case, hasn't done much in the way of the Tholian stuff, there should be some kind of warning comming from a Boff or something.
In short: yes, he can one-shot you.
Long version:
Have you played the New Romulus rep before? The Teir 3 misson is nasty. You basically fight three waves of them, the first two having two commanders (and various Lt/Ensign ones) each, and the third having two of them and a Captain level, all at once (plus Lt/ensign ones). The Tholian captain is worse, because he can one shot you and your entire team all at once if you are close together (even with full health and shields in some cases). They key with the tholians is to spread out, keep moving, and keep reviving your Boffs when they go down.
One thing I wanted to mention with regard to the start of the Romulan tutorial:
The fact that it's mention the events take place "two weeks prior to the Borg attack on the Vega colony..."
WHY is this being mentioned in the Romulan tutorial? Cryptic has now changed the game so that its NO LONGER required to play a Federation character before you start a Romulan character; so why would it matter to a new player who started as a Romulan, and may decide to never play a Federation character would care about this fact?
Also, even after the Vega colony attack, why would the Federation make the attack common knowledge to the other factions?
Again, I think now that your finally doing it - Cryptic needs to embrace the fact they are finally doing separate factions; and NOT relate everything back to the other factions timelines or events. In other words leave those things as a surprise/enticement to play those other factions.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
In short - tt's nice, it makes the disdain of the Tal Shiar clear, and it reasonably presents the necessity behind allying with Fed/KDF.
However, I do think some small things should be added to the end of the Turning Point mission to make it flow better:
D'Tan should explain better the choice that is given to the player. Something along the lines of the republic should stay neutral so both factions will help with the colonization, but on the other hand individual captains should strengthen the bond (for now) with them to fight the Tal Shiar and keep the colonization safe.
I think "Liaison" is a better term than "Ally" - also has established canon with Kira being the Bajorean liaison to Starfleet/DS9. It also makes sense for D'Tan to appoint liaisons to both Starfleet and the KDF to facilitate the cooperation with them (again, similar to Bajor/Starfleet cooperation on DS9).
It should be clearly said by D'Tan as well as the Fed/KDF representatives that for security reasons (due to the war) the Fed/KDF will not allow a captain to have access to both forces, so Romulan officers can serve as a liaison in either one or the other but not both.
The representatives in the Flottila office should reiterate that choosing to be a liaison for the other faction will force them to treat you as hostile (in addition to the commander saying it there).
It would be nice if after the choice is made, the player will have to talk with both representatives so the chosen faction can congratulate him, while the other one "denounces" him by stating that they will cooperate with D'Tan and some other Republic officers but not with ones who pose a security risk (Fed-like phrasing) / cannot be trusted (KDF-like phrasing) like the player. Some racial insults (referring to green blood and lack of trust due to choosing the other side) can be added in these dialogs as well.
I think this suggestions will make the whole choosing-sides event less gaming-technical and more immersive/story-based. Hope this feedback helps
Most of the game is wonderful and progressing nicely. Few bugs Ive encountered are well documented in this and countless other threads.
My only concern/complaint is that from lvl 1-29 we have raptor/escort ships and then at lvl30-39 are forced into a cruiser if we wish to continue using warbirds. Now i feel for engineer and some tac officers that want cruisers sooner..hell give it to them, but please dont force anyone into a cruiser if its not their playstyle...id rather switch to ally faction ships that arent half as fun as battle cloak Romulan ships (thus greatly deminishing the fun of the experience) than fly that cruiser ship at Subcommander rank. Physical design is great but cant stand its mechanics.
So please atleast give us two options by level 30 in 'free' ships and hell 'c-store' ships too. Let players play either style and we will thank you for it.
A few iffy things here.
1. Tovan Khev's exclamation felt out of place. Tal Shiar, yes; Nausicaans, yes. Iconians? A bit too early for that - especially as most people just relegated them to history.
2. This Dev Blog intimated that it was a Federation ship doing the survey mission, not us. Hmmm.
Long version:
Have you played the New Romulus rep before? The Teir 3 misson is nasty. You basically fight three waves of them, the first two having two commanders (and various Lt/Ensign ones) each, and the third having two of them and a Captain level, all at once (plus Lt/ensign ones). The Tholian captain is worse, because he can one shot you and your entire team all at once if you are close together (even with full health and shields in some cases). They key with the tholians is to spread out, keep moving, and keep reviving your Boffs when they go down.
Personally, I think they need a little nerfing.
Thanks fr breaking that down for me. :^D lol I've been sitting on the bottom of Tier two Roomnie rep for a while, focusing on other things instead, so i had no yet seen that. Still even for something you'd be fighting at VA that is a little harsh, unless you're running at elite difficulty...
One thing I wanted to mention with regard to the start of the Romulan tutorial:
The fact that it's mention the events take place "two weeks prior to the Borg attack on the Vega colony..."
WHY is this being mentioned in the Romulan tutorial? Cryptic has now changed the game so that its NO LONGER required to play a Federation character before you start a Romulan character; so why would it matter to a new player who started as a Romulan, and may decide to never play a Federation character would care about this fact?
Also, even after the Vega colony attack, why would the Federation make the attack common knowledge to the other factions?
Actually I wouldn't mind having the Borg attack on the Vega Colony be mentioned by D'Tan and the Federation delegates at Khitomer, as being part of the reason for a general lack of Starfleet presence in the area of Tau Dewa up until now.
The attack would be used as a reason for an increase in Starfleet ships being in the area, since they're now going to update their Borg early warning satellites in the Jouret System, to prevent future sneak attacks by the Borg.
In the tutorial mission were you fight the Tal Shiar, you are hailed a couple of times by Hakeev. The first hail, he has no eye injury, later he has, but I have seen him after that without his eye injury (not sure if it was the same mission or one that came after it)
I think is the second mission, the one were you get Veril, the Reman Bridge officer.
The buildings on Crateris are partly build in a huge arc like rock. Is that intended? From a contruction point of view it doesn't make much sense and I am asking because there are some maps (I am talking about the normal game on Holodeck) were buildings are placed on hill top terrain in such way that some building are just flaoting in the air.
In the mission The Helix I spotted a text Error. When the tooltip about cloaking pops up it says you CANNOT cloak while in combat. Obviously us Romulans have passed beyond that pesky limitation. It was probably a copy paste error from the Klingon Tutorial. Needs a rewrite
Yeah I'm also having an issue with Neutral no More. KDF ally was chosen and now the Naussican pirate is friendly so I can't destroy him to progress.
[EDIT]
Seems off that my only comment in this thread is a bug report.
The missions have been amazing. I think it's the first time since release I've actually been compelled to stop and enjoy the environment. The effects, the ambient noise, and the feeling of excitement that these missions are able to bring is a first. The details, like the noise and sound of the unknown ship overflying the Reman colony you evacuate, and the Tal Shiar talking about calling down torpedo strikes just moments before one hits the ground in front of you; these things really just make the game for me.
Kudos to the team that worked so hard making all the little details add up to make an incredible overall experience. Thanks for all the hard work
Others have probably already said what I'm about to say, but I'll still give my opinion.
I really loved the beginning of the Romulan Story arc, including the way we earn our BOFFs, they really feel like they are people, and not just random guys. They are part of the crew, and I don't want to dismiss them. It help to feel the Romulan have no others choice than to help each other or die. Your crew is a band of refugee, and yet, they'll do whatever it takes to protect their people.
I would have prefered to have Tovan Khev with a random name, looking for his sister Ranna (or whatever she is called), instead of a full name. Seeing a lot of Tovan running around in New Romulus or when grouping will feel weird.
I also loved the ship we can see above the colony, on the ground map, or the drone capturing screaming people. It was simply awesome.
The Crateris mission was also awesome, with Veril, Slamek, and most importantly, the "war of the worlds" kind of robot destroying the city in the background.
However, I want to change the appearance of my BOFF. Costume and physical appearance. You may want to disable it for Tovan, but not for the others.
Hey Cryptic loved everything about it but i need o have my romulans transporter FX back after the choosing a faction and the ability to put the first four Boff you get into positions in the Doff window
Comments
so this bug needs fixing otherwise good work.
[/SIGPIC]
Tovan Khev: Still unable to rename/change appearance.
Tailor: Unable to rename Uniform.
Initial BOffS: Able to rename, not able to change appearance.
Gasko Blues: Tobol? Really, ya couldn?t find ?earmuffs? for him?
Singularity Core: No side-by-side comparison on mouse-over.
Turning Point: Unless you have an open BOff slot, i.e. from purchasing BOff slots, the faction specific BOff cannot be made to join your crew or even train one of your officers. This is true for both Fed/KDF. Tested three times, only able to have BOff join crew the third time because I purchased two add'l slots.
I agree, and yes, T'Nae's voice is done by a professional whose work I'm familiar with, and she is quite good. But Zelle is clearly the better choice for the role of the skeptical and borderline-hostile Federation ambassador. T'Nae would be more reasonable.
Starfleet could interfere if there was already an outside "third party" involved in the internal Romulan conflict. In the latter part of the game the outside force would be the Iconians, who the Tal Shiar are working with, but for the early Romulan Republic stories it would be the Elachi. However this would have to be made clear by D'Tan himself to the player (preferably as an option to ask him about it) before meeting at Khitomer, and reiterated by the Federation delegates once there.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Intro : This tutorial stage was awesome it was what you would expect of a refugee colony rebuilding after a disaster.
Beautifully done this was by far the best tutorial ive ever played you guys did a wonderfull job on it.
Idk if anyone has caught it but D'Vex looks like a older version of nero right down to the forehead tattoo lol
I loved the warbird reveal the space debris parts in dramatic fashion to reveal the warbird nicely done
The Helix : This was a fun stage though it was fun there are way to many loose cell ships floating around and i kept bumping into them when in combat.
Other then the need to take a few cell ships out of that map the mission was great
Crossroads at crateris : This mission was perfect except for 2 things
1 ) When tovan khev says look up there is no elachi ship you can hear it but not see it so makes the exchange between tovan and velari kinda pointless.
2) cannot shoot slamek.....i think everyone wants to shoot him
Gasko Blues : Nice mission badly named i didnt get the blues from this mission what i got was scan this talk to that shoot this the story in this mission was a little thin and at times pointless.
1) You should add something to make this mission have a sorrowful feel to it make it darker as in storyline maybe travel with hivens brother for a while.
Maybe use his death as a murder mystery that reveals the station commander and guards as tal shiar operatives.
If you dont add a something to make this mission more sorrowful then a name change is in order.
New romulus : This was a fun mission being part of the scout and survey team that finds Nomulus was interesting and made for a great story .
The map was big enough to be able to wander around and enjoy the scenery but small enough that the average or new player coukd reach the objectives with realitive ease.
The bad part of this is having to fight a tholian commander this is asking way to much for your average player or newbie.
I think the tholian commander needs to be dropped or nerfed Imo a tholian Lt would be tough enough of a fight without being overly hard.
Just have a couple waves of tholian ensigns then the Lt as the boss.
Turning Point : This was a well done mission except for a few things that stuck out
1) Admiral T'Nae seems to arrogant to be at a diplomatic conference her attitude stinks i get the point about her not trusting roms but does she have to be such a (Moderated).
And jiro is a motor mouth he out talks your character and i personally found that annoying you need to bring his mouth down to a low idle lol
I liked the klingon delegates they were exactly as i would expect them to be including attitude towards the romulans.
2) The tal shiar spies : I figured them out even before they reveled thenselves as spies they stick out like a sore thumb.
They are dressed in white standing by themselves and the fact they are romulan in fed diplomatic attire doesnt help.
You should have those tal shiar spies dressed i RR uniforms this would add to the fact the tal shiar and rse are trying to smear the good name of D'Tan and the RR as terrorists.
3) Sela showing up at the conference just to say its a farce then leave is pointless if anything she should be in the hall of heros trying to do PR damage control after the bomb blast.
This alone would make her being there have a point to it not just "Hi there this conference is a farce were leaving now so you can make new allies toodles".
So either add more for sela or take her out of turning point completley.
Neutral no more : This should be simplified to you choose a side now you report to eta eridani for your first KDF/fed mission.
Not oh yeah lets go here and do something pointless now your not neutral anymore YAAAY!!!.
I mean seriously as soon as you choose a side your no longer neutral and its time to move on to your KDF/RR/Fed responsibilities.
The missions and episodes after "From the ashes" tutorial episode are very good got nothing but high marks on those its the initial episode that needs some polishing.
Othe rthen this i will have to admit this has been a great experiance and look forward to LoR beta test round 2
Great work cryptic
ok... so got in LoR earlier this evening (23rd april) saw there was a download again so something was "fixed"... but as I went along I noticed right away that BOFF skills had to be reloaded after each screen change... so if i started a mission...re-load Boff's, change zones on map re-load Boff's, fight battle, goto planet and return, re-load Boff's.... see the pattern?
Another annoying thing... the chat box... is much the same as the boff problem. I tend to close it during play. I have noticed here (tribble LoR) that after each Screen change it reopens, and its not necessarily on the tab I put it on when i closed it...
"neutral no more" has ran a wall for me. didn't finish. never saw the new ship. tried running mission before it, and it again. tried to drop the ship i had...(mistake!) I'm in a c-store fed boat till I rank up again... maybe it will finish then.
Overall, I did enjoy the missions found them engaging and really liked flying the tos bird of prey-- that opportunity is enough to win me over...
That said, I wish you would consider redressing some things:
1) romulan ship voice is the Barette-esque voice actor
2) the introduction jumps your level to 4 -- that doesn't seem consistent with the level 1 to 50 ideal.
3) There are a couple points in the staging area where there were a group of 4 identical romulans sitting at a table. the first cut sceen had people imbedded in the floor boards etc.
4) it has been mentioned that the exchange and tailor have problems. Moreover with the tailer It would change my character's face too easily when i just wanted to change my outfit. I would perfer the old tailer. I can't change my bo's uniforms
5) on bridge officers generally. What does it mean that every romulan will have the same crew? the variety of BOs is a really nice feature of the game that is being lost here. Sure it is nice that you have these characters entering into the story but...
6) The remen bridge officer lady has a old wrinkly head and smooth face. I know the remen depictions in star trek are limited to the one? in Nemisis, but maybe young remens look different and less wrinkly (you're free because there is no cannon regarding this, right)
7) my romluan comander can't have those cool romulan tattoos, doesn't have access to proper romulan uniforms etc.
8) I still wish the kdf and romulan ui was made to look more klingon or romulan and more design was put into making them unique. You can change the color of the ui with the menu, but not the shape of them. i.e. if i want to run klingon ui on my fed it will still have the fed curves just with a red color.
9) The big one--I don't think even with the plot that the alliance mechanic is justified. It creates a lot of really wierd situations. Like my romulan can wear a klingon uniform. you have these dialogue options to appoligize to the tal shiar or whatever but they are only faux options because you have to alley with d'tan. d'tan is suppose to be a supporter of reunification but he would allow you to join the klingons who are at war with the vulcans. the Tal shiar is for unknown reasons exterminating the few romulans that are left (I cannot for all my suspending of disbelief imagine a society that would think that is a good idea). And there are other oddities that arise from this.
Just because you can write a thing, doesn't mean you should or that it will make sense... There are other little points too. Why does the second or third person you talk to say something like "so-and-so said what about my work ethic? That is so old fashion" presumably it is because he was being a backstabbing romulan and that is old-fashioned. But why would the romulans consider themselves backstabing. Maybe opportunistic or cunning, positive ways of expressing similar values...
Theoretically language develops where "good" values are promoted by societies and "evil" is a term for other society's values. So the romulans if "backstabbing" was a value would have a word that means something like the "good practice of betrayal" and in english that is not betrayal, so it doesn't translate properly... Backstabbing makes an odd value generally because like killing members of your own society it doesn't take a genius to realize that that is not sustainable as a societal goal.
Pragmatically the alliance creates problems too because it:
A) creates a senerio where it would be difficult to have a romulan independent faction in the future. How will fed-aligned romulans give back their galaxy ships? How is a kdf-aligned romulan with a t5 starbase going to be convinced to join a romulan fleet in the future?
b) has trading problems (which is probably why they can't use the exchange before they choose an aliance) or else you might have an activated kdf duty officer on a fed-aligned character -- or something.
c) still doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would the Romulan republic have half of its officers fighting the other half of their officers? In this story it isn't a problem, because it is just you -- but for the game it is.
d) probably is not good for the kdf and game balance in the long run, because more people will still join fed...which is bad for development because participation is the reason that we are told the kdf doesn't get new stuff.
So I am sorry it was so long but that's my beat. I had some screen shots with things like the ugly bright green on the kdf doors and such, but i think i hit my big points. Like I said: All the problems are outweighed by how cool it is to have a romulan faction, but I think the aliance is not in the games interest and could have been corrected. It may be too late now.
Peace and Love..
1) Does the tholian Commander have a one hit kill power of some kind? I admitt my personal shields were kionda low, but suddenly me and my away team were all dead. I didn't see what happened exactly, so I'm not sure. If this is a feature not a bug, it seems a bit extreme to put against a level 8 chracter. If it's something like the Romulan Thalaron Generator device, considering this may be the first time someone comes across it, or in my case, hasn't done much in the way of the Tholian stuff, there should be some kind of warning comming from a Boff or something.
2)I may have just missed them before, but this time around, going back into orbit to fight the Tholian ships, there were two tholian ships just sitting there still, and un targetable. These were in addition to the regular interactable ships, and that part of the mission played out smoothly, and exactly the way it should have. I was just wondering if they were supposed to be the ships of the Tholians on the surface you fought, and I just failed to notice them the first time through, or if this was a bug, and they weren't supposed to be there.
could it be that you missed the part where Temer indicates that they've already taken out several Tholian ships?
From technical point of view, when I got to the Romulan Fleet at the begining - the game was getting a bit laggy. Which usually is not an issue for me, as I have a high-end machine and fast internet connection.
These are my major concerns after these first couple hours spent with this awesome expansion!
Oh, I very much agree with your points - especially the fact that it's impossible to rename/change appearance of Tovan is annoying - feels like I'm stuck with BOff that everybody also has... makes my experience less individual... and kind of like in The Old Republic, where everybody pretty much gets the same companion
1. No mention of shipboard power mechanics. Battle against first D'Deriex would be a great place to apply "all power to weapons" and maxxing engines, going 3/4 impulse for high speed maneuverability would be great for the battle against the Picard-maneuvering Mystery (Echani?) ship.
2. Noticed cloaker-friendly miniboxes everywhere, but also noticed that around 1/2 the space battles all started after a "mandatory" decloak scan/interaction box. Great pains are taken to give Romulans a massive boost to the cloak bonuses, and yet it feels like you barely get to use it.
3. Didn't I get told that the cloak only worked "before battle" yet my T'Liss has a battle cloak that works whenever I want it to? And is it just me, or does the pace of battle almost discourage battle cloak use - I get as much (if not more) overall damage dealt staying "out in the open" instead of cloaking and taking the "big shot"...
4. Are the mobs in space combat severely nerfed in this arc? I have a harder time killing a L50 Mesh Weaver frigate than I did killing the 2 D'Derixes I ran into in this battle. Then I ran into the Mystery ship which took forever (L50 shields on a L7 foe) and it's "devastating forward weapon" actually took me out when I didn't pay enough attention. On this note, never got an indication that HY torps would go down to my fire, and they, too, are nerfed to the point of oblivion (or I just got way too good at keeping shields up so I never got popped by one even though I elected to eat every HY launched at me instead of playing with targetting mechanics...)
Other random thoughts:
1. When offered a "uniform" upon joining the fleet, there is little to no differentiation between the "military" options and the "civilian" options. I'm taking it that the "Republic 1/2" leathers are the military uniform, however, with all the buckles / belts / collars, they sure don't look that "military" / different, especially since the Romulan Navy has always sported form-fitting relatively strapless multi-color-tiled patterns (with helmets in ToS era).
2. When does the BOffs get the option / ability to suit up in the "official ship uniform"? I beam down with my "tag along crew", and they sure look the part - I think I heard the Feds comment that the crew of my bird looked like something out of a pirate/bandit movie more than even a semi-competent bridge crew... :P
The following might be more gameplay / graphically related, but as I noticed these in this arc I'll post them here:
1. Is the little bit of plasma fire coming from the torp launcher the indicator that I've been hit with plasma burn? Whatever happened to having a good chunk of the ship "burning" so the player knows that there's a big horking pile of plasma glued to the hull?
2. Either I wasn't paying attention / bad RNG proc rate / etc., but I never noticed that the baddies were on plasma fire either - assuming they survived the HY I that I lobbed that way or the singularity effect was (IIRC) supposed to pass on...
3. Initial enemies seem way too easy to slap down, even on a default power spread until the last baddie - and nowhere in the whole mess is there even mention of changing power defaults (first D'Deriex, recommend all power to weapons for quick kill. Picard-maneuvering mystery (Echani?) ship - recommend all power to engines along with the "stay out of forward arc" deal.
4. Perhaps it's just me and not really playing with chat channels, but the cloaker-friendly mini-boxes don't leave a "trail" in the logs. Therefore, if you "miss" the box (in the heat of battle, kid calling, etc.), there's no way to "review" what was said - unless it's in the comms section of the journal, which not many people would know of / check. Also, was never a fan of "timed" readings - sometimes I get annoyed that the box stays on too long while my wife would complain she didn't have the chance to get everything - if it's not too late an option to make the dialogs "click to remove" and/or adjust their time-on-screen would be useful.
5. When a HY blew up an enemy, there was a great big green or red (can't remember exactly which, I think I noticed both colors) glow around the ship while the black hole formed. Is this supposed to be an indicator of the range that the plasma fire would be applied, or is this just a glitch...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
In short: yes, he can one-shot you.
Long version:
Have you played the New Romulus rep before? The Teir 3 misson is nasty. You basically fight three waves of them, the first two having two commanders (and various Lt/Ensign ones) each, and the third having two of them and a Captain level, all at once (plus Lt/ensign ones). The Tholian captain is worse, because he can one shot you and your entire team all at once if you are close together (even with full health and shields in some cases). They key with the tholians is to spread out, keep moving, and keep reviving your Boffs when they go down.
Personally, I think they need a little nerfing.
The fact that it's mention the events take place "two weeks prior to the Borg attack on the Vega colony..."
WHY is this being mentioned in the Romulan tutorial? Cryptic has now changed the game so that its NO LONGER required to play a Federation character before you start a Romulan character; so why would it matter to a new player who started as a Romulan, and may decide to never play a Federation character would care about this fact?
Also, even after the Vega colony attack, why would the Federation make the attack common knowledge to the other factions?
Again, I think now that your finally doing it - Cryptic needs to embrace the fact they are finally doing separate factions; and NOT relate everything back to the other factions timelines or events. In other words leave those things as a surprise/enticement to play those other factions.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
In short - tt's nice, it makes the disdain of the Tal Shiar clear, and it reasonably presents the necessity behind allying with Fed/KDF.
However, I do think some small things should be added to the end of the Turning Point mission to make it flow better:
I think this suggestions will make the whole choosing-sides event less gaming-technical and more immersive/story-based. Hope this feedback helps
My only concern/complaint is that from lvl 1-29 we have raptor/escort ships and then at lvl30-39 are forced into a cruiser if we wish to continue using warbirds. Now i feel for engineer and some tac officers that want cruisers sooner..hell give it to them, but please dont force anyone into a cruiser if its not their playstyle...id rather switch to ally faction ships that arent half as fun as battle cloak Romulan ships (thus greatly deminishing the fun of the experience) than fly that cruiser ship at Subcommander rank. Physical design is great but cant stand its mechanics.
So please atleast give us two options by level 30 in 'free' ships and hell 'c-store' ships too. Let players play either style and we will thank you for it.
1. Tovan Khev's exclamation felt out of place. Tal Shiar, yes; Nausicaans, yes. Iconians? A bit too early for that - especially as most people just relegated them to history.
2. This Dev Blog intimated that it was a Federation ship doing the survey mission, not us. Hmmm.
Other than that, a top class mission!
Apologize if I already posted this.
Thanks fr breaking that down for me. :^D lol I've been sitting on the bottom of Tier two Roomnie rep for a while, focusing on other things instead, so i had no yet seen that. Still even for something you'd be fighting at VA that is a little harsh, unless you're running at elite difficulty...
Actually I wouldn't mind having the Borg attack on the Vega Colony be mentioned by D'Tan and the Federation delegates at Khitomer, as being part of the reason for a general lack of Starfleet presence in the area of Tau Dewa up until now.
The attack would be used as a reason for an increase in Starfleet ships being in the area, since they're now going to update their Borg early warning satellites in the Jouret System, to prevent future sneak attacks by the Borg.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
The buildings on Crateris are partly build in a huge arc like rock. Is that intended? From a contruction point of view it doesn't make much sense and I am asking because there are some maps (I am talking about the normal game on Holodeck) were buildings are placed on hill top terrain in such way that some building are just flaoting in the air.
it directs me to the Beta Toridar system, but when I enter nothing happens, it stops there...
[EDIT]
Seems off that my only comment in this thread is a bug report.
The missions have been amazing. I think it's the first time since release I've actually been compelled to stop and enjoy the environment. The effects, the ambient noise, and the feeling of excitement that these missions are able to bring is a first. The details, like the noise and sound of the unknown ship overflying the Reman colony you evacuate, and the Tal Shiar talking about calling down torpedo strikes just moments before one hits the ground in front of you; these things really just make the game for me.
Kudos to the team that worked so hard making all the little details add up to make an incredible overall experience. Thanks for all the hard work
I really loved the beginning of the Romulan Story arc, including the way we earn our BOFFs, they really feel like they are people, and not just random guys. They are part of the crew, and I don't want to dismiss them. It help to feel the Romulan have no others choice than to help each other or die. Your crew is a band of refugee, and yet, they'll do whatever it takes to protect their people.
I would have prefered to have Tovan Khev with a random name, looking for his sister Ranna (or whatever she is called), instead of a full name. Seeing a lot of Tovan running around in New Romulus or when grouping will feel weird.
I also loved the ship we can see above the colony, on the ground map, or the drone capturing screaming people. It was simply awesome.
The Crateris mission was also awesome, with Veril, Slamek, and most importantly, the "war of the worlds" kind of robot destroying the city in the background.
However, I want to change the appearance of my BOFF. Costume and physical appearance. You may want to disable it for Tovan, but not for the others.