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'DIVIDE et IMPERA' returns
johnnysnowball
Member Posts: 399 Arc User
http://i.imgur.com/nQRY5zY.jpg
That old favorite is back from the Cryptic wastebin. Find out if it's gotten any worse.
1 week to write, 1 week to build. Finally managed to make a mission in good time!
'DIVIDE ET IMPERA -REDUX-'
(View the full HD trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktA48PScuOA)
Post edited by johnnysnowball on
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I will say though, my Tactical Officer is a Klingon, and I like to think she wouldn't have had any problems with what happened on that station, lol.
Thankyou for your review that was awesome, It now has 2 reviews and still under the review tab.
Gonna set aside a few hours where I'm sure everyone in the house either has something to do or is dead asleep for this one.
"it has no populated worlds"
Uh, it does, or it's a different Vendor than in the TV show. Actually the STO map has what appear to be cities on the surface of the planet. So It would seem to be populated in STO too. Or is this a subtle hint that it's an Undine imposter?
BTW: here's the old system description.
Vendor System
"A Romulan colony world near the neutral zone, Vendor II is a M-Class world with a population of approximately 47,000. Many of the residents are family members of Romulan military officers who serve on the space station orbiting the planet.
Access to the station is severely restricted, and several members of Starfleet's Romulan Task Force have expressed an interest in learning more about what is happening there."
Which doesn't mention Vendorians, however 47k isn't enough to account for the size of cities you can see from orbit.
Vendor station:
why are there invisiwalls by the ramp?
One of the objectives that occurs after you start trying to hunt down Shanei relies on an unmarked trigger. (and some later ones) It's not necessarily a bad idea, but it's not a great one.
"collection by the authoroties"
Selok is standing on a table when you first meet her.
for some reason one of my boffs refused to enter the last room
Vendor space 2:
one of the mobs(swarm of fighters) is positioned a long ways from the others.
My character Tsin'xing
Hi Johnny Snowball,
I recently played through the mission and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately it had some flaws in the story logic and environments that detracted from my overall experience. I thought I'd let you know what I saw so you'd have a chance to fix the issues (if you see them as such :P). But overall the mission is much improved over the original. Thanks for making it!
Okay, on to the issues I saw in the order they occured:
You use Admiral Zelle as the initial contact person instead of Admiral T'nae, so she is NOT the focus of the mission - which I thought was a brilliant stroke - making her a 'good guy' (which gives a reason why she is in Admiral T'nae's office on Starbase 39). Unfortunately, this is only a tease, as she 'disappears' at the end of the mission as a bad guy, just like the original (thereby NOT explaining why she is still on SB39).
The modeling for Zelle's face doesn't look like her in-game (maybe intentional given the above??)
The meeting place space station, deep in Romulan space, is not well explained in the intro text. There should be some hint that you will be going to a 'shady' public space station bar incognito to covertly contact the Fed undercover agent there. I think the occupants of the station would take notice of a Federation Starship suddenly arriving out of nowhere and parking just outside. (Perhaps say when the player arrives at the system in Sector Space that they and their away team will take an unmarked shuttle to said station in civilian clothing?) That way the starship remains outside the system but the characters can still get to the station with little attention brought to themselves. Or maybe just put the station in a system along the border with less need for subterfuge. (BTW the bar was REALLY well done - I loved all the little touches and custom work you put into it! The cameo by Daft Punk was way cool! It's too bad you can't include custom music in missions...this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBhQbmPwH8&list=RDFGBhQbmPwH8 would have been perfect considering we're playing Divide et Impera 'one more time' :P (Any one thinkng of doing a full on 'Interstella 5555' mission series because of Daft Punk's Leiji Matsumoto music video movie? Vaadwuar kidnapping Andorian musicians? HippieJohn, a Miranda Mayhem crossover? lol!)
The 'next map' note was unneeded about flying in sector space to the Vendor system. It actually says, 'continue Divide et Impera' which works well. (I think your note may be a left over from when you were playtesting because the defualt was 'next map' for the transistion)
During the attack on Vendor station I found that the 'covertness' of the mission was completely gone. Maybe state this somewhere - that this is now a Federation sanctioned mission says Shidari (sorry if I'm mispelling her name)) so that a Fed starship and people wearing full on Federation uniforms/gear in and near the station during the attack makes sense.
Shidari (again sp?) turns into her undine form (nice tranisition effects BTW) and slips into the air duct... Umm, huh? How does a giant undine just slip into an air duct (and you can't follow)? Maybe say she transforms next into something small like an epohh and slips in that way. :P
As Markhawkman has already pointed out, Commander Selok is standing on the table when you meet her. She probably should be next to the table.
Why are the Romulans fighting each other later? And fighting against you if you allied with Selok? There needs to be an explanation somewhere (like conflicting orders from TWO Seloks causing chaos and confusion)
Why is there a Caitian transporter chief in the text window when you beam off the station? I don't have any Caitians in my crew (lol). Why not just use one of my 'ship' personnel as the person used in the text window here?
And finally, back to the first point above, why have Zelle disappear at the end but yet have an option to kill the Undine agent? If anything, the Undine agent should just get away if someone needs to escape. Unless of course, you are planning on a sequel - because if you are trying to leave the 'door open' for Cryptic to follow up with their offical 'Zelle escapes' storyline, I think it's pretty obvious they are NEVER going to do that. (Hence the removal of the original mission! lol)
I hope the above doesn't come across as too negative. It's meant to be quite the opposite...just feedback on some discrepencies that could use some polishing to really make the mission shine!
That said, I really did enjoy the mission, the map work was really cool and, again, the little touches were fantastic! Keep up the great work Johnny!
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
Thank you for the play and comments, Markhawkman, I'll try to cover everything:
1) That's the original text from the mission. I mentioned that I used original material by Kestral in the mission description. I aimed to change just what I felt the need to. What 'needs' changing is more subjective. Your version would be vastly different, I imagine, for example.
Also, there is no text there now that i am seeing, so, I can't say what the story is there anymore.
2) I put invisiwalls beside the ramps just to ensure there was no way to get UNDER the lab and see all the behind-the-scenes buried objects or get through to the other side. I also placed blocks to try to do the same and hide the view. They don't get in the way of the mission. They are always there so Boffs should have pathing, and they are needed at one ramp to ensure you hit your marker. TBH, not sure why this is a big deal, sorry. Well done for noticing, though! You certainly have Columbo's eye. (the good one).
3) You can't miss the markers you need to hit, so, again, don't get the problem there. Until something changes and makes them missable, that is.
4) I'll get on that, thanks. My first typo that I've been told about. Had to happen, I guess.
I'll have to have a word with my Word.
5) Yes, she is. I put her there. Put her there cos that's where i wanted her. Making a stand, dominating. And i wanted you to get up on the table and meet her at her level. Gaffer-to-gaffer. I think she looks cool up there cross-armed. Sorry if others don't. Just down to taste, I suppose.
6) I can't be held accountable for their cowardice, ha. Seriously, though, I can't do anything about that. haven't changed the opening any.
7) Had to move them back cos it was too much for couple people having 3 mobs coming at you at once. Had to tone it down. May even remove the fighters.
You didn't mention any opinion of the actual story at all. I take it your interests are more in the technical aspects of mission building?
Thank you again, and thanks for your work on the Roundtable. Great show.
Thanks, Captain Hunter. I'll try to answer your questions for ya:
8) I can't do anything about her being on SB39 i'm afraid. That was a consistent oddity of the mission.
9) I couldn't bring myself to use that plain old boring face. I updated her design. Couldn't bare to do it any other way. Some of the old characters in mission had the generic faces. I just can't work with it, lol. I would never do that to a high-profile character BTW. She was only in this mission so ...i did it.
10) I had to explain that because, if you exit to sector space from a foundry mission map, you will get that 'next map' pop-up. You can't get rid of it, and you can't alter it. It's there whether you like it or not. i thought explaining to click next map would be better than letting it come out of nowhere like an error.
11) If you mean in space i guess if you kill em they can't talk. If you mean on the ground portion, by the time you reach Selok, she knows you are there. I tried to keep the mission as basic as I could, as basic as the original as I could. I tend to overdo things - put far too much in the missions. This time I tried to keep as close to Cryptic patterns as I could live with.
12) Um... big air vents...? ( I WOULD have had you in the vents hunting her if A: the map allowed for that, and B: I hadn't used ALL my asset allowance)
13) There is actually a contact who will explain that the Undine has convinced some of the Romulans ahead that Selok's forces are Fed infiltrators, if you want to talk to him.
14) I tend to use him for consistency if you play my missions. Sorry if you have no Caitians on your ship ( I can't make the missions work for every player type) If you play my missions then your ship interior will have cat folk, i'm afraid.
15) I wanted to use Zella as she was a big part of the original and i needed a high ranker to make you take the mission. She had to be in on it. Her job was to make it possible for Shanei to get where she had to be. There was no way I could justify having an Admiral go there with you, but an intel agent, sure.
So, if Shanei sufficiently P****d you off, you can kill her. Depends if you are a lover or a fighter. Options are there for either player type.
Hope that helps your puzzlements!
(PS: about the not mentioning going undercover on Vendor. I didn't do this for a couple reasons. 1: you don't have to, as many players won't be interested in changing clothes and rallying Boffs. If players just want to go in there and get on with the mission they can.
And 2: As i mentioned, wanted to keep it as simple and basic as i could)
Cheers.
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
Anyway I threw it together quickly now I'm on to other stuffs. I'll mull your suggestions over and if I feel like going back into that mission I may just play with some things like u said.
I'll let it fester in my noggin a bit.
Cheers for the constructive advice and input! :@)
Foundry will be down anyway when I wake up and then it's the darn Xp wkend
7b: The story was fine, IMO. I didn't see anything I thought needed fixed story wise.
9: I'm with Hunter here. If I use a Cryptic character, I will make sure they look like the Cryptic character model. It doesn't really matter whether I like the way the character looks. The point is to make the character recognizable. Your Zelle wasn't recognizable.
14: just use a boff. It's simpler IMO.
My character Tsin'xing
Can't do anything now anyway with game down.
As you pointed out earlier, the system description window does say there is a Romulan colony there with 50,000 inhabitants - mostly family and support for the medical station. Truthfully the wide spread cities on the planet are just an carry-in from the generic Class M planet Cryptic used as a backdrop.
Even so, I've come to two ways of thinking for my 'headcanon' concering this. 1) The Romulans are all about deceit and hiding weakness. They built a bunch of fake cities on the surface to give the appearance of being something more than they really are (because a pop. of 50,000 would only fill a single medium-sized town). Or 2) The majority of the planet is actually populated by Vendorians - the shapeshifters from TAS. This is a major factor in why the Romulans located their Undine research facility here - they had easy access to a race that can shapeshift naturally, giving them a leg up on their Undine recognition research.
I tend to go with #2
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
Oh yeah, I discussed this mission on the roundtable. I forgot to mention that earlier.
My character Tsin'xing
Hey, Mark. So I just listened to that thru gritted teeth... and it was a good review, thank you.
Will look to do a few tweeks.
I wonder why Kestral had that dialogue about uninhabited? Well I did try placing a new planet over that one cos it looks a bit old and low-res-digital-pixally but it was too big.
Just for you i will move one of those ramp invisiwalls down and under to block the lab underside and delete the other but the second ramp needs them for the reacher i have.
Anyway enough blaa blaa gasing about this mission.
Thank you Mark, all in all the review left me feeling very positive. For something that i built in Foundry in about a week it turned out okay.
Well, It MAY be a subtle hint that Zelle is a fake. The system description(A Romulan colony world....) disagrees with what Zelle said after all. The exact quote was "no populated worlds". Maybe Zelle just flipped through a database and wasn't as thorough as she thought? It's a running theme that (Kestral?) uses as a way to signal that characters were replaced. Or maybe "Zelle" was lying? hard to say.
Another odd thing she said is "Admiral Janeway has a theory that Romulan subspace weapons contributed to the destruction of their homeworld." Yeah, that statement seems to be a bald-faced lie. Granted this is set before the player actually finds out the real cause, and thus before the admiralty would know, but it's a giant leap of conjecture with no real supporting data.
So it's possible that the unpopulated statement is primarily there to mislead you. Zelle seems to be concocting a story to convince you that Vendor station is related to the Hobus disaster, and that if you don't do something the Romulans might accidentally set off another one. So I wouldn't take anything she said as the truth.
My character Tsin'xing