What's wrong with the borg at Vega?

grifterrik23

I'm nearly certain this will have been asked before but I couldn't find anything through searching, both here and google. So, sorry if i'm rehashing old news.

Is it ever explained why the Borg attacking Vega are so weak and disorganized? Its mentioned a few times in dialogue, both mission dialogue and idle npc chatter, that they aren't behaving like normal borg.

I've played through the stories in all factions but I can't recall this ever being explained. Gameplay wise they were obviously toned down for new players, but whats the story/lore reason for that?

starkaos

Blame it on the changes to STFs causing them having a ground and space section instead of just one large STF. Haven't played Khitomer Accord after the changes to see how far it goes. The Khitomer Accord STF originally had your Vice Admiral character go back in time to cause the Borg to be disorganized and weak. Forgot a lot of the details and only played it once, but basically you save your younger self by destroying some borg and supplying your character with equipment. Of course, you never meet your younger self in the STF.

grifterrik23

Ah interesting. So there was initially an explanation but it got retconned.

Appreciate the info!

anazonda

The story was originally more involved.

First off, you had to do infected, before you could do cure, and cure before KA.

Heres the short version:

Infected was the first stop. You had to go there to investigate the starbase because you've lost contact with it.

Upon arrival, you realized that the borg had taken over the system. Defeating wave after wave of reasonable hard borg, you finally destroyed the transwarp gate and beamed to the starbase.

There you had to fight your way to the queen room, and... Well it's pretty much the same on ground (except for the optional-hostages).
During this mission, you realized that for reasons unknown, the borg are very fast at assimilating people on the station.

In cure, you recived a distress call from a klingon ship, who had engaged the borg in the Vorn system.

You go there, and save the kang, who is in battle with a minor borg squadron.

He tells you that several KDF officers have beamed to the planet, and you beam down to rescue them.
You soon realize that the borg have implemented a weapon that contains a assimilation virus. It assimilates everything in a matter of hours, even plants and dirt.

You now go around collecting samples from downed klingons, and rescuing the ones that are still alive, untill you finally confront Armek, and free Jarod from the planets surface.

Beaming up, a new wave of borg are incoming. You free some of the captured Klingon ships before they are infected and assimilated. Any ship you did'n manage to free, will be fighting against you.

You kill the cube, and then the carrier, that you today fight in the queue version.

In KA, you go to the same system as the "new" version. Here you need to find a way to destroy the two gates, who only drop their shields once every 2 mins, and then only for 30 seconds, while bringing in reinforcements.

You had to kill said reinforcements before 10 of them reached the gate.

Now you use the portal to go back in time. You find yourself above Vega colony, hours before the tutorial, before thoose events.

You take on 6 groups of hard borg, a nasty fight, and then beam down to the Vorn Surface.

You realize, that the Borg have a sub-terrain base under Vega colony, with the "classic" borg in "sleep mode" for a later invasion of federation space.

The Borg that have installed IME's to convert thoose classic borg into the modern variants, and it's your duty to stop them.

The fight was pretty much like the current one, apart from the Optionals, and the fact that there were hordes of borg back then.

You fight the borg, win and go to warn the Vega colonists of the impending invasion by the borg, who then prepare. You beam down supplies for them, and beam back up.

Here, you are confronted by Donatra, who as a borg is spawning all kinds of ships, that you damage and disable them, and they flee from you (they are the ones you "later" fight in the tutorial... it was YOU all along who damaged the ones earlier but later before it became ear... ok... temporal loop right there).

After a fight that would easily last around 45 mins, you defeat Donatra, and travel back to the future.

The end.

grylak

That sounds a pretty awesome story Anazonda.

zombiedeadheaded

Maybe they just assimilated a really TRIBBLE space race, with unfortunate consequences.

baudl

wouldn't harm them to bring back the old stfs atleast as single player missions

questerius

baudl wrote: »

wouldn't harm them to bring back the old stfs atleast as single player missions

I would play them.

hereticknight085

Yeah, those old STFs sounded hella fun compared to the watered down versions you do now. Things like Terradome and the old STF difficulties. Oh wells.

anazonda

questerius wrote: »

I would play them.

hereticknight085 wrote: »

Yeah, those old STFs sounded hella fun compared to the watered down versions you do now. Things like Terradome and the old STF difficulties. Oh wells.

The old missions WERE more fun... Granted, running 5 hours of KA could be tiresome, but I enjoyed it... Especially with my fleet.

I remember the first time we completed each of them.

I wan't them back... Everything has been dumbed down so much that it isn't even challenging anymore.

twoofnine1

anazonda wrote: »

The story was originally more involved.

First off, you had to do infected, before you could do cure, and cure before KA.

Heres the short version:

Infected was the first stop. You had to go there to investigate the starbase because you've lost contact with it.

Upon arrival, you realized that the borg had taken over the system. Defeating wave after wave of reasonable hard borg, you finally destroyed the transwarp gate and beamed to the starbase.

There you had to fight your way to the queen room, and... Well it's pretty much the same on ground (except for the optional-hostages).
During this mission, you realized that for reasons unknown, the borg are very fast at assimilating people on the station.

In cure, you recived a distress call from a klingon ship, who had engaged the borg in the Vorn system.

You go there, and save the kang, who is in battle with a minor borg squadron.

He tells you that several KDF officers have beamed to the planet, and you beam down to rescue them.
You soon realize that the borg have implemented a weapon that contains a assimilation virus. It assimilates everything in a matter of hours, even plants and dirt.

You now go around collecting samples from downed klingons, and rescuing the ones that are still alive, untill you finally confront Armek, and free Jarod from the planets surface.

Beaming up, a new wave of borg are incoming. You free some of the captured Klingon ships before they are infected and assimilated. Any ship you did'n manage to free, will be fighting against you.

You kill the cube, and then the carrier, that you today fight in the queue version.

In KA, you go to the same system as the "new" version. Here you need to find a way to destroy the two gates, who only drop their shields once every 2 mins, and then only for 30 seconds, while bringing in reinforcements.

You had to kill said reinforcements before 10 of them reached the gate.

Now you use the portal to go back in time. You find yourself above Vega colony, hours before the tutorial, before thoose events.

You take on 6 groups of hard borg, a nasty fight, and then beam down to the Vorn Surface.

You realize, that the Borg have a sub-terrain base under Vega colony, with the "classic" borg in "sleep mode" for a later invasion of federation space.

The Borg that have installed IME's to convert thoose classic borg into the modern variants, and it's your duty to stop them.

The fight was pretty much like the current one, apart from the Optionals, and the fact that there were hordes of borg back then.

You fight the borg, win and go to warn the Vega colonists of the impending invasion by the borg, who then prepare. You beam down supplies for them, and beam back up.

Here, you are confronted by Donatra, who as a borg is spawning all kinds of ships, that you damage and disable them, and they flee from you (they are the ones you "later" fight in the tutorial... it was YOU all along who damaged the ones earlier but later before it became ear... ok... temporal loop right there).

After a fight that would easily last around 45 mins, you defeat Donatra, and travel back to the future.

The end.

as i have never played the old one's Ty for that

martin1970giesen

anazonda wrote: »

The old missions WERE more fun... Granted, running 5 hours of KA could be tiresome, but I enjoyed it... Especially with my fleet.

I remember the first time we completed each of them.

I wan't them back... Everything has been dumbed down so much that it isn't even challenging anymore.

Cure ground was fun with the fleet, but a nightmare with pugs.. I t was a ground stf where you needed tactics and we called the 3th gate, gate of tears. If you didn't know precicly what you where doing you would fail.
Realy loved the mission....
Now i can do a Estf while watching tv.. They made all missions to easy (exept NWS).

darkwhite0

you can watch the old stf here

1080P
part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g59tR5FYg08

part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7FqhUYGGt0

part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL3APmghV-s



---
ps
Cryptic... please... bring back the old STF
as they were in 2010, but add the optional as they are today

timezarg

anazonda wrote: »

The old missions WERE more fun... Granted, running 5 hours of KA could be tiresome, but I enjoyed it... Especially with my fleet.

I remember the first time we completed each of them.

I wan't them back... Everything has been dumbed down so much that it isn't even challenging anymore.

That's the problem the old STFs had. They were too long and difficult. They were NOT casual-player friendly. The casual-player crowd is what generates money nowadays, it seems. I personally wouldn't mind them, but a lot of players might.

I wish the current STFs were a little more storyline-rooted, though.

frtoaster

Thank you for the explanation, anazonda. Do you know why the STF "Khitomer Accord" is named that? As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with the Khitomer Accords.

bridgern

I want them back, they were a challenge and can't be compared to this kindergarten nonsense we have to play right now.

I really hope that Cryptic will bring those back and also add challenging endgame content in the future, but I don't have much hope.

johnny111971

anazonda wrote: »

The old missions WERE more fun... Granted, running 5 hours of KA could be tiresome, but I enjoyed it... Especially with my fleet.

I remember the first time we completed each of them.

I wan't them back... Everything has been dumbed down so much that it isn't even challenging anymore.

So much truth.... I truly miss the story, and marathon missions... They really did have that Epic Quest feel to the, didn't they?

I didn't mind the time invested, and when you finally finished... It was a celebration . Not because it was over, but you had survived and triumphed as a team.

One final note; they weren't the DPS pee pew fests they are now either... Diverse teams were needed, and sought after....

God, I miss these missions.

skyranger1414

I did a few STFs when they were still raid level. I can do without the 6 hour marathons, but I definitely want the story back. It had a certain epic feeling to it.

New content can be challenging without having to take as long.

We need an endgame Xpac asap!

bridgern

They could combine the old STF's and the new one in an enjoying and challenging way and restore the story to it's old greatness.

anazonda

frtoaster wrote: »

Thank you for the explanation, anazonda. Do you know why the STF "Khitomer Accord" is named that? As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with the Khitomer Accords.

It's named after the USS Khitomer, the ship you save in the beginning of the tutorial as far as I am aware.

Of cause, that part was left out in the re-vamped variants.

frtoaster

anazonda wrote: »

It's named after the USS Khitomer, the ship you save in the beginning of the tutorial as far as I am aware.

Of cause, that part was left out in the re-vamped variants.

Thank you. I would have never guessed that from the current STFs.

o0kami87

Oh god the memories, I wish they'd bring the old stf ways back. As far as it not being casual player friendly the solution would be to keep the newer style too and just have the older ones there for those of use that would like to revisit founder memories (or the newer gamers that would like to see what they missed)

silverashes1

johnny111971 wrote: »

So much truth.... I truly miss the story, and marathon missions... They really did have that Epic Quest feel to the, didn't they?

I didn't mind the time invested, and when you finally finished... It was a celebration . Not because it was over, but you had survived and triumphed as a team.

One final note; they weren't the DPS pee pew fests they are now either... Diverse teams were needed, and sought after....

God, I miss these missions.

agreed was one of the last played till the servers shut down that day hasnt been the same

jetwtf

They could bring them back just have them each as its own STF and required to do before you can do the next one. an unlock more STF system as you may. Just keep ground and space seperate lines and it would be a good system.

lancemeszaros

I understand why they split up the STFs, and I honesty would prefer the current STFs over the old ones, but it would be incredible if they took the old STFs, the original plan for Into The Hive and Terradome, and converted them into a single-player featured series. Would be easier and cheaper than creating a new featured series from scratch and it would add content.