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Is it time to divorce the New Romulus missions from Romulan Reputation?
timelord79
Member Posts: 1,852 Arc User
I don't think that model to unlock one episode with each rep tier is working anymore.
They have never done it again in that manner, but the episodes are worth being played.
By all means add some nice story cutscenes as a reward for unlocking a tier or even some small tasks that further the narrative.
But the New Romulus story leads up to the dyson sphere discovery and should not be gated behind weeks of grind.
Sure, I can skip them and go straight to Dyson, but a new player would be mildly confued by that jump in the narrative and possibly doesn't even realize that there is a narrative on the planet because he is moving on to Dyson Sphere and Delta quadrant so fast now.
I would suggest to add another chapter tab with those 5 missions between the Breen and Dyson Chapter.
It would add a bit more XP to the table, too, which is probably welcome by everyone.
They have never done it again in that manner, but the episodes are worth being played.
By all means add some nice story cutscenes as a reward for unlocking a tier or even some small tasks that further the narrative.
But the New Romulus story leads up to the dyson sphere discovery and should not be gated behind weeks of grind.
Sure, I can skip them and go straight to Dyson, but a new player would be mildly confued by that jump in the narrative and possibly doesn't even realize that there is a narrative on the planet because he is moving on to Dyson Sphere and Delta quadrant so fast now.
I would suggest to add another chapter tab with those 5 missions between the Breen and Dyson Chapter.
It would add a bit more XP to the table, too, which is probably welcome by everyone.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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so all those delta rep missions were just in my imagination and didn't really happen.
ok so I know most of them were in the form watch this video outtake but still..
you can watch a youtube video of them all here to refresh your memory. >
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6ZkTrcMBxM
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Same with the Dyson rep. I didn't think it was a good idea to attach story to rep progress back then and I still don't think it's a good idea now.
Mine Trap Supporter
Those are just cutscenes and a single space battle at the end and not part of the main story line, they are best classed as a side story.
Which is ok for me.
It doesn't stop the main mission progression if you want to play it in chronological order.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I think the idea is to progress in the story as you progress in your rep, it works but its way to much of a grind..I hate to say it but they seem like they wouldnt be as "significant" if they were removed from the rep.
That said, the romulan rep mini-episodes seem to tie in more with the main story than with the delta ones, so im in the middle on this...while I dont think important stories to the game lore being locked behind a grind wall is a good thing...seeing as we've had it like this for so long it kinda feels like it would devalue them to do it..
ah I dont know id like them to be seperate but then yeah.. well ^ already been there.
50/50 for me.
I could totally go along with mirrorchaos's idea though (the post above mine), thats actually not a bad idea at all.
I say keep putting it in there. Just like the new Iconian Rep. No story progression. I won't do it.
The only exception was the Delta. As I got marks just doing patrols and playing on the action zone. Trying to level. So why not use the points on it. They just handed me the points to use.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Either you miss story parts (where did that Iconian gateway come from and who is this Romulan Rebublic anyway?) or you have to wait weeks till you unlocked everything to progress.
Hence unlocking the missions right away when arriving on New Romulus with a tab on the episode journal would be appreciated.
Tying the mini missions to your level of reputation regardless of how far you are in the main quest does usually lead to experiencing things out-of-sequence and thus to a bit of confusion.
Personally I had done the mission to the Solonae Sphere with Worf before I even reached T2 on my Romulan reputation. I was a bit confused for awhile until I realised I was watching things out of sequence.
Don't get me wrong it was fun to do each piece of the puzzle bit by bit and see how I wound up being present at the attempted Gate Activation on New Romulus. I'd love to see many more similar mini-arcs like that written into things.
Its just that it has to be tied to some kind of logical progression that actually makes sense from the get-go.
Those are Dyson Rep cut scenes, not Delta Rep.
That's not a bad idea. Would have to open new Romulus access a bit earlier than 50 for it to matter.
I look at it like I do the TV shows. They get filmed in one order, released in another, and not everyone watches them in the intended sequence anyway. I saw TNG and several of the tos movies side by side as my introduction to star trek.
We expect people viewing a series to figure out what order it goes regardless of how the network handles reruns. Why is this significantly different? So long as the devs give guidance where in the story things fit its all good to me.
Romulan, tholian rep should start earlier.. and the cut scenes that get unlocked could use a different way of that happening. The Romulan unlocks all lead up to the discovery of a iconian gate on new romulas.. and for most player by the time they get them unlocked thay are all ready at or near level cap and you end up with a big discontinuity. The Dyson sphere cut scene unlocks aren't as central to the over all story.. and reward a Voth BOFF when your done.. so dyson rep unlock s have this nice bonus what is a side story. Where as the new romulas unlocks are actuall missions that must be done.
It just doesn't flow right, and players are experiencing this content well after they are past the story content its tied to.
Yea, It needs a work over to fit back in... and yea, I think it would be an excellent story arc to have player touch on at a lower level. And personally New Rom content would fit into the game story arc much better if it was started around level 40.
For instance, three out of the five Romulan reputation missions deal with exposing and eliminating Tal Shiar presence on New Romulus. That's perfectly fine! It doesn't really affect anything, other than learning that Hakeev had some backup plans. The last two missions, involving Tholians and finding the Iconian gate, are important, though, and should be added into the main story progression between the Breen arc and Sphere of Influence.
Or all five missions could just be converted into a New Romulus chapter, of course.
The Dyson "missions" are interesting because they're not really necessary to the plot, except that one bit at the end where he reveals what the spheres can do and why it's abandoned. Pretty sure Step Between Stars fills players in on that though, which is fine.
Back to my first idea though, to use the new Iconian rep as an example, if it had tier missions, maybe they could be about investigating Iconia for clues on what the Iconians or Heralds were like millennia ago, doing some archaeological Indiana Jones stuff while Heralds arrive to stop you. Unrelated to the actual war plotline, but something extra to do.
My other idea, and this one is more of a juryrig to specifically fix the New Romulus story gap, is to make the Romulan reputation into a kind of Fisher Price My First Reputation system. When you think about it, there's not much must-have in the Romulan rep. The engines are pretty good for tactical characters, and the flamethrower is neat, but its gear doesn't quite hold up against the others - well, besides Romulan Plasma weapons, which used to be close to the best damage type before crafting. So this idea is to turn the Romulan rep into a sort of practice run for new players to get used to the system, rather than hitting 50 and realizing they suddenly have six reps to grind out. Romulan rep could become available at 40, earlier than any of the others, and could have permanent doubled exp (though maybe it would be unaffected by sponsorship tokens for future characters).
As a benefit to Cryptic, new players would likely end up "wasting" dilithium on Romulan rep gear, forcing them to gain more dil for when they get to the better reputation stuff. It would also give new players easier access to competitive, still-very-good space weapons, so they could be useful in STFs right out of the gate. Plus, it would make sense from a story standpoint: the Romulan Republic are allies to the Federation/Empire, so it does make sense that it would be easier to gain reputation with them, and that's not even taking into account actual Republic characters.
So I was totally shocked to see what we find when I first did SoI. I'm pretty sure most of my characters still have yet to do the final rep mission and have some little pile of dilithium waiting for completing it.
But definitely it doesn't work now when you can do SoI immediately before you even get rank 1 Romulan Reputation.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Don't lock them behind the rep tiers, though. Use them to introduce the player to the different areas of the adventure zone instead of just that simple meet and greet mission you get on arrival.
Give each mission a big first time played reward. Instead of gear, make it a lump of rep marks and tell the players that those missions can be done as dailies to earn more (with more than 10 marks for replay at least attach the daily bonus to them if that is not already the case!),
The cutscenes can stay tied to the reputation I think. Though I would prefer if they added 2 more dealing with the Tal Shiar infiltration instead of the Tholian/Iconian stuff.
Maybe even add one more mission at the end where you have to go extract a republic intelligence agent and add him to your bridge crew at the end.
There is a thread about it here: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1428891
The mechanic they were originally designed for as New Romulus was the 'end game' content at the time is no longer needed - - in fact, the way they are 'locked away' now is actually a negative aspect on the game as they are a HUGE portion of the lead in to the Iconian story.
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
Hope ROM Rep doesn't take it too hard, you know how sensitive it can be.:P
^^ By all means remove the last two missions (The two Tholian missions) and put them into a new chapter.
Then replace the Tholian mission unlocks with something to do with the Hirogen and / or "Alpha Predator."
And while we're at it.
Cutscenes and or missions for the other reps?
Omega
Nukara
8472 Counter Command
Delta Alliance
Pretty please!