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Dyson Sphere storyline - (some spolierness)
casbyness
Member Posts: 171 Arc User
I just lost touch with my own character. They are doing/saying things that I don't agree with.
Before I explain and go into spoilers - what I'm discussing is the story that you progress through, via quick cutscene "missions", as you hit Tier I, II and III in the Dyson Sphere rep system. I'm not at Tier IV yet, so have no idea what happens next. So far I've reached Tier III.
SPOILERS...(if you are not at Tier III and don't want to know the content of the next cut scene, look away!)
Okay, so I'm at Tier III. For the past couple of cut scenes, I've made contact with a Voth scientist and we've been discussing the Sphere. He seemed like a nice enough chap at first, wanting to share knowledge and work out a peaceful resolution to the (frankly ridiculous) war going on between the Voth and "Joint Command" forces, but during the Tier III cutscene things suddenly take a new and baffling turn.
The Voth guy says he's afraid of his incompetent colleagues activating the Sphere. This is because he thinks the original inhabitants did something that damaged the star within the Sphere and left a huge cloud of Tetryon particles all over the place, causing mass deaths and who knows what other mischief.
Because of his belief that this accident occurred, he thinks the Voth and/or Joint Command will repeat the mistake and create another long-lasting catastrophe. Apparently, he thinks that if the original inhabitants could cause an accident then there's no way the current Voth/human/Romulan/etc scientists will avoid doing such a thing as well. As a result, he wants to make sure the Sphere is never activated.
My reaction to this: the guy's a paranoid freak. He's being dogmatic and fearing the unknown just because he doesn't understand it. He's not seeing any middle path between running away from the Sphere like primitive apes fleeing an alien monolith, and power-mad idiots turning it on before they understand how to control it. He has no faith in his own people or mine and is against trying to being objective and rational, learning things slowly and properly until the Sphere is fully understood and can therefore be used without causing a disaster.
Well, that's all fine and good. But here's the kicker: my character AGREES with this cowardly, fear-ridden idiot!
At the end of the Tier III cutscene, my character says (roughly) "I agree with you, we need to ensure the Sphere is never activated."
Umm. No. That's not what I'm thinking. That's not what I think my character is thinking. Please can you not put words into my character's mouth, especially when they are the opposite of what I actually believe and the opposite of what any reasonable person would say.
Having the Sphere in the wrong hands? Yes, that's bad. But objecting to it being in ANY hands just because it's so big and scary and magical? No.
This is bad writing. If the Tier IV and V parts of the story involve me having to sabotage work on the Sphere or try to convince people not to activate it, then I'm just not going to progress on to those Tiers. If I'm given a choice, that's fine (I'll choose to switch it on - let the Tetryons commence!) but if I'm rail-roaded down the paranoia line then I'm jumping off this crazy train right now, thanks.
Before I explain and go into spoilers - what I'm discussing is the story that you progress through, via quick cutscene "missions", as you hit Tier I, II and III in the Dyson Sphere rep system. I'm not at Tier IV yet, so have no idea what happens next. So far I've reached Tier III.
SPOILERS...(if you are not at Tier III and don't want to know the content of the next cut scene, look away!)
Okay, so I'm at Tier III. For the past couple of cut scenes, I've made contact with a Voth scientist and we've been discussing the Sphere. He seemed like a nice enough chap at first, wanting to share knowledge and work out a peaceful resolution to the (frankly ridiculous) war going on between the Voth and "Joint Command" forces, but during the Tier III cutscene things suddenly take a new and baffling turn.
The Voth guy says he's afraid of his incompetent colleagues activating the Sphere. This is because he thinks the original inhabitants did something that damaged the star within the Sphere and left a huge cloud of Tetryon particles all over the place, causing mass deaths and who knows what other mischief.
Because of his belief that this accident occurred, he thinks the Voth and/or Joint Command will repeat the mistake and create another long-lasting catastrophe. Apparently, he thinks that if the original inhabitants could cause an accident then there's no way the current Voth/human/Romulan/etc scientists will avoid doing such a thing as well. As a result, he wants to make sure the Sphere is never activated.
My reaction to this: the guy's a paranoid freak. He's being dogmatic and fearing the unknown just because he doesn't understand it. He's not seeing any middle path between running away from the Sphere like primitive apes fleeing an alien monolith, and power-mad idiots turning it on before they understand how to control it. He has no faith in his own people or mine and is against trying to being objective and rational, learning things slowly and properly until the Sphere is fully understood and can therefore be used without causing a disaster.
Well, that's all fine and good. But here's the kicker: my character AGREES with this cowardly, fear-ridden idiot!
At the end of the Tier III cutscene, my character says (roughly) "I agree with you, we need to ensure the Sphere is never activated."
Umm. No. That's not what I'm thinking. That's not what I think my character is thinking. Please can you not put words into my character's mouth, especially when they are the opposite of what I actually believe and the opposite of what any reasonable person would say.
Having the Sphere in the wrong hands? Yes, that's bad. But objecting to it being in ANY hands just because it's so big and scary and magical? No.
This is bad writing. If the Tier IV and V parts of the story involve me having to sabotage work on the Sphere or try to convince people not to activate it, then I'm just not going to progress on to those Tiers. If I'm given a choice, that's fine (I'll choose to switch it on - let the Tetryons commence!) but if I'm rail-roaded down the paranoia line then I'm jumping off this crazy train right now, thanks.
Post edited by casbyness on
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If you find the rest of the message it talks about how they had to leave the Sphere because of the side effects of their experiment. So.... I don't think it's paranoia at all.
My character Tsin'xing
Hang on. Who is to say that the Sphere wasn't built by that century's version of Pakleds? Since when do Humans run away from complicated things because earlier generations caused accidents involving them?
Differences of opinion about the wisdom of the experiments aside, my point is that I DON'T think the Sphere is something we should run away from, but my character has been forced to disagree because of the quest writer.
Not being allowed to blow up D'Tan and join the Tal Shiar is one thing, but forcing a player down irrational fear avenue is something else.
Dude... This is far from the first time...
In the romulan storyline, my char kills Hakeev in cold blood... Cold Copper based blood, and no one even puts a remark on it from there.. everyone is fine with it.
My character Tsin'xing
I stopped playing through the LoR storyline after Mind Games. I disagreed with the ending of that mission. :P
Meh. I guess the Tier rewards aren't tied to the cut scenes. I could just never play the remaining ones if they involve my character doing stupid things.
Canon information.
Game information (and possibly speculation)
Speculation (and reading betwen the lines)
And btw, we might be agreeing him purely as diplomacy, to keep the connection going; it might not actually be the character's thoughts
Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.