A k-2 species can generate a whole lot of power. True, its not unlimited, but it can be very problematic. After all, that was the big advantage of the jem haddar. Not infinite numbers,but powerful enough and very large number is a pretty scary combo.
Didn't they say it takes two weeks for a Jem'Hadar to go from hatching to combat ready?
In this case, yes it might take power to make them, but we don't know what they are using. For all we know it could be converted energy from a star. If that's the case we have a whole different level or problems on our hands as them creating new soldiers means depleting a star, which makes it go super nova which would constitute as a weapon of mass destruction AND troop creation. They could make an army and wipe out an entire system at the same time.
Another thing I noticed is one of the enemy types is named 'Thrall'. Thralls are historically brain washed slaves of one kind or another. Given that the Elachi are a servitor race of the Iconians it makes sense they would have this kind of capability. So not only can they make their own soliders from pure energy but they can take ours and turn them against us.
That's two major advantages.
"Why all the sales"?
And a merry freaking Christmas to you too, Ebenezer.
-jonsills, 'Cryptic Why the sales..instead of Fixing XP leveling and this game?'
Wonder how it plays if one isn't using an AOE-spam build? After all, most of us in this thread generally know what we're doing and how spamming FAW is basically the I-Win button and makes for lame gameplay, but what about the more normal players who use default-style loadouts or maybe copycat something but don't understand any of the whys, stuff like that? Those assorted chained disables and time limits probably cross the line from 'annoying' to 'ouch' even as is.
Wonder how it plays if one isn't using an AOE-spam build? After all, most of us in this thread generally know what we're doing and how spamming FAW is basically the I-Win button and makes for lame gameplay, but what about the more normal players who use default-style loadouts or maybe copycat something but don't understand any of the whys, stuff like that? Those assorted chained disables and time limits probably cross the line from 'annoying' to 'ouch' even as is.
After a terrible string of luck, which basically translates to 'every time I get hit with a Phaser I loose shields and weapons' I never go anywhere without Sci and Eng team, but even with them it gets a bit annoying at times. They wear you down and then those bloody Solar Flares finish you off pretty quickly if you aren't careful.
If the Harold's weapons did Plasma burn DOT they'd be a much more series threat. Then again that's the Borg's stictk.
"Why all the sales"?
And a merry freaking Christmas to you too, Ebenezer.
-jonsills, 'Cryptic Why the sales..instead of Fixing XP leveling and this game?'
Gateways popping up all over the place, ships that can ram for >25k and cause an effect without taking damage themselves, torpedos that deal 16k+ damage through shields (</3 transphasic) without a debuff and with kinetic resistance, systems being constantly knocked offline, enemies always spawn in groups... S10 was definitely made with FAW spam and tanks in mind. It'll take too much effort to improve the survivability of these paper mache cannon escorts. Might as well grab a cruiser and FAW.
The Heralds being weak wouldn't be a big deal if the NPCs and the plot in general didn't treat them like the frickin' apocalypse the whole time. After all, all the enemies are kinda weak in the story.
But being told the whole time how dangerous they are and how theres too many and how the situation is hopeless, while the enemies are dying around you just like they always have...the dialogue is so far out of line with the reality of the gameplay, you just can't take it seriously.
Even the whole "appear anywhere with gateways" -thing is meaningless in gameplay, because enemies have always warped or beamed in on the spot whereever and whenever they feel like it.
Wonder how it plays if one isn't using an AOE-spam build? After all, most of us in this thread generally know what we're doing and how spamming FAW is basically the I-Win button and makes for lame gameplay, but what about the more normal players who use default-style loadouts or maybe copycat something but don't understand any of the whys, stuff like that? Those assorted chained disables and time limits probably cross the line from 'annoying' to 'ouch' even as is.
Hrmmm, I ran it through on two characters...
60 Fed Klingon Sci Captain in a FT6 Geneva using CRF.
53 Ferasan Tac Captain in a T5 (not T5U, not FT5U) B'rel using CRF and HY.
Both doing the close range, park, and shoot...while trying to stay awake.
* * * * *
Ground was a different matter, with the Sci I made the mistake of ending up in the middle of things outside the temple...flankality...it was trippy and brutal...but that was it, nothing else ever came near more than a tickle.
With the Tac on the other hand, lol, I suck with Tac both in Space and on Ground...but since it made no difference whether I saw one Respawn or one hundred Respawn buttons, I just ran around in circles hitting the Respawn button until it was done. Noticed later that I only had 2 of 5 modules in my kit and some other fun things...I had never planned on leveling my Delta Recruit beyond what was needed for the 44/44 bit.
* * * * *
I honestly feel that based on their experience with previous NPC groups leading to weeks if not months of complaints that they're too hard after release, that Cryptic went overboard with the Heralds making them far too easy. It has that heavy handed feel to it, no little tweaks up or down for things, just taking that oversized inflated hammer to things...meh.
Tell you what, fire up the Foundry and create your own missions, then please post details here for all of us to try. I, for one, look forward to seeing what you come up with, then swiftly mocking and crapping all over it on the forums.
So go ahead, write your own material and allow us to "enjoy" it.
In all fairness, this is a valid problem with the events of Blood of the Ancients :
... where we never asked them anything about Iconians? We took no actions at all to wake up one of these great persons to learn, ask questions, prepare? And then here comes the Iconians ....defending a Preserver while he tries to get us answers we should already have obtained, who is utterly and instantly defeated by a real Iconians in an instant?
The very same problem struck me during the episode... Why are we suddenly rushing off to ask questions about the Iconians only on the very verge of their attack? We should have already discovered as much about the Iconians as we could before all of this transpired...
It really does make little sense and is rather weak writing... Beyond this though, I thought the story was fairly decent...
A revamp of, at the very least, the Cold Storage episode before Season 10 would have been a wise move, just to smooth over plot holes such as this...
I'm surprised I've never seen someone say that before :P
On topic, the Heralds are a joke. Considering the Iconians seem to be happy to take a hand in the fighting here and there and we're meant to be fighting a force large enough to block out a sun, I was hugely disappointed. Space is just HP sponging and that is getting more and more on my nerves with time, simply because it isn't hard, its boring and stupid especially when even story objectives are now timer based, again......
Ground was simply a slaughter. Interesting mechanics from the Heralds but truthfully didn't amount to much seeing as you can slay them pretty effectively without really needing to make an effort. I had more issues with the lag yesterday than the Heralds.
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides
I no longer do any Bug Hunting work for Cryptic. I may resume if a serious attempt to fix the game is made.
I'm not sure if SOME of the reasoning behind the Heralds being, what some consider to be, a little lacklustre is that it makes the Iconians themselves look pretty unstoppable when they show up and get involved themselves.
I tend to lean on the side of them being so 'lacklustre' as, if Cryptic had have actually made them a serious challenge, the forums would be in a meltdown of 'The Heralds are too hard! Make it easier! I want an IWinButton!'... Cryptic merely delivered on this in advance...
I realised a long time ago, you play the episodes for a story, not a challenge... Otherwise, you play on Advanced/Elite, but given this merely blows out the HP/damage inflicted of enemies, without any significant improvement in rewards or experience, it's simply not worth the extra time it takes to run the episodes...
I tend to lean on the side of them being so 'lacklustre' as, if Cryptic had have actually made them a serious challenge, the forums would be in a meltdown of 'The Heralds are too hard! Make it easier! I want an IWinButton!'... Cryptic merely delivered on this in advance...
I realised a long time ago, you play the episodes for a story, not a challenge... Otherwise, you play on Advanced/Elite, but given this merely blows out the HP/damage inflicted of enemies, without any significant improvement in rewards or experience, it's simply not worth the extra time it takes to run the episodes...
The gap/disconnect between the action and the "story" was just too huge for me...ruining even the opportunity to enjoy the story.
It would be like watching an episode of Superman, where Superman apprehends some kid shoplifting a pack of gum, we go to the final commercial break, and come back to the world in flames with the end of life as we know it. Lolwut?
The dialogue windows and cutscenes were just so far off from what was actually going on...it was a brutal /facepalm.
The gap/disconnect between the action and the "story" was just too huge for me...ruining even the opportunity to enjoy the story.
It would be like watching an episode of Superman, where Superman apprehends some kid shoplifting a pack of gum, we go to the final commercial break, and come back to the world in flames with the end of life as we know it. Lolwut?
Or Superman catching a kid shoplifting gum, then another kid shows up and Superman says theres too many and flies away. :rolleyes:
We never asked them anything about Iconians? We took no actions at all to wake up one of these great persons to learn, ask questions, prepare?
I daresay my first thought went something along the lines of: "Helm, set course for that [redacted] system we used as a slingshot while fixing the Devidian problem. Then we shall ask questions, get data and return with the knowledge to defeat these Iconians. Problem solved."
Also, my verdict on the Heralds: look amazing, but lacking the oomph to back it up (on foot particularly). They are, in fact, very much like wizards, right down to being squishy. We'll see what happens on higher difficulties and not playing as a sci healer-tank.
In space... those intel skills are annoying and I can imagine my hull will not like advanced or elite queues (I shield-tank so the penetrating attacks could be troublesome). Then again, returning the disable probe to sender via a gravity well was rather amusing.
From playing against the Iconians and their "thralls", makes my mind go straight to Reapers from Mass Effect.
Reasons I think that:
1. They make their own troops.
2. They brain-wash, or indoctrinate other races to be their servents.
3. They wage war to destroy the galaxy
4. Cutscenes make them more powerful than they are in actual gameplay
5. They are older than the other races they are at war against.
Aw, hell.....Let's get the Alliance to build a Crucible and combine it with the Catalyst and the Iconians can either be destroyed, controlled, or everyone becomes a hybrid and the Iconians become friends with everyone....
Wait, am I talking about STO or Mass Effect? Seems like PWE/Cryptic is going to make the end of the war depend on if you send your captain to their death via control/synthesis or take their final breath via the destroy option.
Hey, I just figured the ending to the Iconian war.....YAY!!
After the backlash against the ending in ME3, I doubt anyone is in a hurry to emulate it.
I still think the Iconian War is going to end in a traditional boss battle. The whole "few of them left" is foreshadowing the Player Character beating them all up personally.
From playing against the Iconians and their "thralls", makes my mind go straight to Reapers from Mass Effect.
Reasons I think that:
1. They make their own troops.
2. They brain-wash, or indoctrinate other races to be their servents.
3. They wage war to destroy the galaxy
4. Cutscenes make them more powerful than they are in actual gameplay
5. They are older than the other races they are at war against.
Aw, hell.....Let's get the Alliance to build a Crucible and combine it with the Catalyst and the Iconians can either be destroyed, controlled, or everyone becomes a hybrid and the Iconians become friends with everyone....
Wait, am I talking about STO or Mass Effect? Seems like PWE/Cryptic is going to make the end of the war depend on if you send your captain to their death via control/synthesis or take their final breath via the destroy option.
Hey, I just figured the ending to the Iconian war.....YAY!!
/end sarcasm
I've seen alot of people compare the Iconians to the Reapers, short of both races being almost incomprehensibly ancient and technologically advanced, they are nothing alike...
There is nothing to indicate the Iconians want to annihilate the Alliance, in fact there is no indication that the Iconians mean to wipe out anything, they only mean to crush any and all resistance - at least as far as initial indications go...
The Reapers are ancient sentient machines, the Iconians are merely ancient sentient beings reliant on technology, there's really nothing that makes them even remotely alike physically...
In all truth, there really is not that much similarity between the Reapers and the Iconians, beyond them being some ancient, supposedly all powerful enemy...
I personally see far more similarity in The Shadows, from Babylon 5, with the Iconians when considering both the Iconian backstory, and that of The Shadows...
I've quoted a post of mine outlining just how remarkably similar the two are from about a week ago :
Everything that I have seen is that they are merely a megalomaniacal race, who have it in their heads that the galaxy belongs to them, and that all existing races either bow down and serve, or be destroyed...
I did see someone mention Babylon 5... The entire Iconian back story just smacks of the Shadow War to me...
STO : The Iconians are a godlike race, with technology that is potentially millions of years ahead of the Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta Quadrants
B5 : The Shadows are a godlike race which possess technology that is millions of years head of all other races, bar one, The Vorlons;
STO : The Iconians are appear to be an almost semi-corporeal race
B5 : The Shadows exist in a different light spectrum making them virtually impossible to see with the naked eye, and giving them an almost semi-corporeal appearance when they can be detected;
STO : The Iconians believe themselves to be the rightful rulers of the galaxy
B5 : The Shadows believe their 'ideology' is the correct path for all sentient races and that it should be The Shadows who are the dominant force in the Galaxy
STO : Iconians defeated in a first war 200,000 years ago by a coalition of races
B5 : Shadows defeated in a first war 10,000 years ago by a coalition of races;
STO : Iconians retreat to another galaxy/subspace leaving remnants of their technology behind, apparently ready for their return;
B5: Shadows retreat to their homeworld, along with Hyperspace, seeding the galaxy with ships and technology awaiting a time when they return;
STO : Iconians use Servitor races, some to test the Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta quadrant species, others to sow distrust and discord, even outright war, to keep the Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta Quadrants divided;
B5 : The Shadows use agents to sow distrust and discord amongst the existing races, even causing outright war to keep the galaxy divided;
STO : The Iconians use the genetically engineered neural parasites to covertly infiltrate and control key figures within the Alpha/Beta/Delta quadrants to sow discord, distrust and war;
B5 : The Shadows use genetically engineered parasitical creatures to covertly manipulate and control key figures within the galaxy to sow discord, distrust and war;
STO : The Iconians demand the complete destruction of the Remans by the Tal Shiar - Why? The Remans are one of the few races with Telekinetic abilities, which sets them apart from almost all others (my theory);
B5 : The Shadows greatest weakness is telepathic abilities, which interfere with the neural links of their vessels, making them vulnerable - The Shadows wiped out all known telepaths of one race during the first war
So far, the similarities in the background for the Iconians and The Shadows are remarkably similar...
So much so, I'm waiting for us to meet remnants of the 'old ones/first ones' who were responsible for destroying the Iconians during the first war, if not directly seeking them out (as was the case in Babylon 5) so that they then provide aid in the new war against the Iconians, as we simply have no chance of matching their technological advantage otherwise...
I finished the new episodes. So how did those much-hyped Iconian magitek super soldiers and their so-many-they're-blotting-out-the-sun fleets of magitek super ships turn out? Cannon fodder.
They are in fact average at best in offensive and defensive ability, and don't appear in larger numbers than usual either. The Elachi put out far larger fleets in their arc. Their only advantage is a few new space magic tricks (and a few old ones they copied from us, the player characters).
Was that really it?
If it was, then it appears the great Iconian threat lives only in cutscenes.
Them being canon fodder is okay.
That they have a huge amount of ships and fail to use them and their teleportation abilities to best effect... less so.
There must be some serious limitations on the Iconian Gateway technology for them to use their forces so ineffeciently.
The Alliance has to distribute its forces across the entire galaxy in case someone attacks. but the Iconians could theoretically teleport their entire fleet to a location and attack that. They should always have a vast numerical superiority at any given location. Even if they had only 1/10th of the ships in total than the Alliance has, they could always choose to focus it all on one spot, while we have to protect hundreds of planets.
So why don't they? Their gateway tech must not be as awesome as it appeared at first. What do they need to do to actually gate large amount of ships or troops?
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
And most people can't hit a target at greater than 20ft, anyway.
And this is why all modern armies rely on bladed weaponry and fire arms are considered an amusement, or specialists weapon, limited to support roles and purchased by only the wealthiest or largest of armies....
I did the first FE last night and I must say I'm less than impressed.
My main problem is that the Heralds in the cutscenes are presented to me as very powerful and dangerous. Then the cutscene ends, combat starts and it's the usual STO slaughterfest.
My ship is not optimized for DPS, my away team has a mix bag of abilities. And I am still able to slaughter the Heralds with no threat to me in space and on the ground to a point where it's a joke.
So Cryptic might want to sell to me that the Iconians are a threat, but the actuality is that the AI still sucks and the powercreep from 2 seasons ago is still able to easily beat it.
Not sure if I'm going to bother to do the second FE. The lack of challenge, a meh storyline and enemies that don't feel like they should be part of the ST universe all contribute to me wanting to play other games.
Yeah I made the mistake of playing on normal. It was about like other story missions on normal. I would say Gaul was tougher than the herald boss. Will try on elite when the new rewards are available. That might be a better choice for immersion.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Yeah I made the mistake of playing on normal. It was about like other story missions on normal. I would say Gaul was tougher than the herald boss. Will try on elite when the new rewards are available. That might be a better choice for immersion.
If you raise the difficulty then every enemy will get tougher and the Heralds will still be at the same difficulty.
It really undermines the story when the supposed uber bad guys are as easily (or more so) disposable as every other enemy in the game.
If we ever get to face Iconians in the game, hopefully they will present some sort of challenge. But I doubt it.
im not sure what to think.
it was a bit annoying to be completely owning the heralds while at the same time cowardly feddie npcs are yelling about how we are being overwhelmed and whatnot, then having them force me to retreat while i am moving to 'seek and destroy' mode.
so yeah, a bfaw build annihilates the herald. they had no hope. i am a bit curious to see how an alt in a BoP will fare though. i imagine it could get pretty rough for him as he has no real aoe attacks, due to the number of them on the map.
the herald werent any better on the ground. i used a melee toon and pretty much wiped the floor with them beginning to end. but i do again wonder how an alt will handle them...
i am starting to suspect that cryptic have created a mission that will essentially act as a gatekeeper... trivial for my main with bfaw and sweeping strikes, yet super hard for my alts with crf and whatnot.
Yeah, as I say, their boss should have been tougher than Gaul.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
If it takes power to make them, and power is not unlimited, then there is a limit to how many can actually be made.
Remember the spheres generate those particles that Starfleet doesn't like much. I can't remember the name of them, but perhaps they are the source of energy used to create more Heralds and Iconians?
So why don't they? Their gateway tech must not be as awesome as it appeared at first. What do they need to do to actually gate large amount of ships or troops?
I dont BFAW on mine either, nor do I speedtank, still not having difficulties in mine in elite against them. So maybe you have to change some skills to change. EPtS and Aux2Sif are awesome for robustness
I dont BFAW on mine either, nor do I speedtank, still not having difficulties in mine in elite against them. So maybe you have to change some skills to change. EPtS and Aux2Sif are awesome for robustness
I just responsed as a "not a BFAW" user, not as a "I don't know how to survive".
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Comments
Didn't they say it takes two weeks for a Jem'Hadar to go from hatching to combat ready?
In this case, yes it might take power to make them, but we don't know what they are using. For all we know it could be converted energy from a star. If that's the case we have a whole different level or problems on our hands as them creating new soldiers means depleting a star, which makes it go super nova which would constitute as a weapon of mass destruction AND troop creation. They could make an army and wipe out an entire system at the same time.
Another thing I noticed is one of the enemy types is named 'Thrall'. Thralls are historically brain washed slaves of one kind or another. Given that the Elachi are a servitor race of the Iconians it makes sense they would have this kind of capability. So not only can they make their own soliders from pure energy but they can take ours and turn them against us.
That's two major advantages.
And a merry freaking Christmas to you too, Ebenezer.
-jonsills, 'Cryptic Why the sales..instead of Fixing XP leveling and this game?'
After a terrible string of luck, which basically translates to 'every time I get hit with a Phaser I loose shields and weapons' I never go anywhere without Sci and Eng team, but even with them it gets a bit annoying at times. They wear you down and then those bloody Solar Flares finish you off pretty quickly if you aren't careful.
If the Harold's weapons did Plasma burn DOT they'd be a much more series threat. Then again that's the Borg's stictk.
And a merry freaking Christmas to you too, Ebenezer.
-jonsills, 'Cryptic Why the sales..instead of Fixing XP leveling and this game?'
But being told the whole time how dangerous they are and how theres too many and how the situation is hopeless, while the enemies are dying around you just like they always have...the dialogue is so far out of line with the reality of the gameplay, you just can't take it seriously.
Even the whole "appear anywhere with gateways" -thing is meaningless in gameplay, because enemies have always warped or beamed in on the spot whereever and whenever they feel like it.
You fly an escort build from 2011?
Hrmmm, I ran it through on two characters...
60 Fed Klingon Sci Captain in a FT6 Geneva using CRF.
53 Ferasan Tac Captain in a T5 (not T5U, not FT5U) B'rel using CRF and HY.
Both doing the close range, park, and shoot...while trying to stay awake.
* * * * *
Ground was a different matter, with the Sci I made the mistake of ending up in the middle of things outside the temple...flankality...it was trippy and brutal...but that was it, nothing else ever came near more than a tickle.
With the Tac on the other hand, lol, I suck with Tac both in Space and on Ground...but since it made no difference whether I saw one Respawn or one hundred Respawn buttons, I just ran around in circles hitting the Respawn button until it was done. Noticed later that I only had 2 of 5 modules in my kit and some other fun things...I had never planned on leveling my Delta Recruit beyond what was needed for the 44/44 bit.
* * * * *
I honestly feel that based on their experience with previous NPC groups leading to weeks if not months of complaints that they're too hard after release, that Cryptic went overboard with the Heralds making them far too easy. It has that heavy handed feel to it, no little tweaks up or down for things, just taking that oversized inflated hammer to things...meh.
In all fairness, this is a valid problem with the events of Blood of the Ancients :
The very same problem struck me during the episode... Why are we suddenly rushing off to ask questions about the Iconians only on the very verge of their attack? We should have already discovered as much about the Iconians as we could before all of this transpired...
It really does make little sense and is rather weak writing... Beyond this though, I thought the story was fairly decent...
A revamp of, at the very least, the Cold Storage episode before Season 10 would have been a wise move, just to smooth over plot holes such as this...
I'm surprised I've never seen someone say that before :P
On topic, the Heralds are a joke. Considering the Iconians seem to be happy to take a hand in the fighting here and there and we're meant to be fighting a force large enough to block out a sun, I was hugely disappointed. Space is just HP sponging and that is getting more and more on my nerves with time, simply because it isn't hard, its boring and stupid especially when even story objectives are now timer based, again......
Ground was simply a slaughter. Interesting mechanics from the Heralds but truthfully didn't amount to much seeing as you can slay them pretty effectively without really needing to make an effort. I had more issues with the lag yesterday than the Heralds.
I tend to lean on the side of them being so 'lacklustre' as, if Cryptic had have actually made them a serious challenge, the forums would be in a meltdown of 'The Heralds are too hard! Make it easier! I want an IWinButton!'... Cryptic merely delivered on this in advance...
I realised a long time ago, you play the episodes for a story, not a challenge... Otherwise, you play on Advanced/Elite, but given this merely blows out the HP/damage inflicted of enemies, without any significant improvement in rewards or experience, it's simply not worth the extra time it takes to run the episodes...
The gap/disconnect between the action and the "story" was just too huge for me...ruining even the opportunity to enjoy the story.
It would be like watching an episode of Superman, where Superman apprehends some kid shoplifting a pack of gum, we go to the final commercial break, and come back to the world in flames with the end of life as we know it. Lolwut?
The dialogue windows and cutscenes were just so far off from what was actually going on...it was a brutal /facepalm.
Or Superman catching a kid shoplifting gum, then another kid shows up and Superman says theres too many and flies away. :rolleyes:
I daresay my first thought went something along the lines of: "Helm, set course for that [redacted] system we used as a slingshot while fixing the Devidian problem. Then we shall ask questions, get data and return with the knowledge to defeat these Iconians. Problem solved."
Also, my verdict on the Heralds: look amazing, but lacking the oomph to back it up (on foot particularly). They are, in fact, very much like wizards, right down to being squishy. We'll see what happens on higher difficulties and not playing as a sci healer-tank.
In space... those intel skills are annoying and I can imagine my hull will not like advanced or elite queues (I shield-tank so the penetrating attacks could be troublesome). Then again, returning the disable probe to sender via a gravity well was rather amusing.
Reasons I think that:
1. They make their own troops.
2. They brain-wash, or indoctrinate other races to be their servents.
3. They wage war to destroy the galaxy
4. Cutscenes make them more powerful than they are in actual gameplay
5. They are older than the other races they are at war against.
Aw, hell.....Let's get the Alliance to build a Crucible and combine it with the Catalyst and the Iconians can either be destroyed, controlled, or everyone becomes a hybrid and the Iconians become friends with everyone....
Wait, am I talking about STO or Mass Effect? Seems like PWE/Cryptic is going to make the end of the war depend on if you send your captain to their death via control/synthesis or take their final breath via the destroy option.
Hey, I just figured the ending to the Iconian war.....YAY!!
/end sarcasm
I still think the Iconian War is going to end in a traditional boss battle. The whole "few of them left" is foreshadowing the Player Character beating them all up personally.
I've seen alot of people compare the Iconians to the Reapers, short of both races being almost incomprehensibly ancient and technologically advanced, they are nothing alike...
There is nothing to indicate the Iconians want to annihilate the Alliance, in fact there is no indication that the Iconians mean to wipe out anything, they only mean to crush any and all resistance - at least as far as initial indications go...
The Reapers are ancient sentient machines, the Iconians are merely ancient sentient beings reliant on technology, there's really nothing that makes them even remotely alike physically...
In all truth, there really is not that much similarity between the Reapers and the Iconians, beyond them being some ancient, supposedly all powerful enemy...
I personally see far more similarity in The Shadows, from Babylon 5, with the Iconians when considering both the Iconian backstory, and that of The Shadows...
I've quoted a post of mine outlining just how remarkably similar the two are from about a week ago :
That they have a huge amount of ships and fail to use them and their teleportation abilities to best effect... less so.
There must be some serious limitations on the Iconian Gateway technology for them to use their forces so ineffeciently.
The Alliance has to distribute its forces across the entire galaxy in case someone attacks. but the Iconians could theoretically teleport their entire fleet to a location and attack that. They should always have a vast numerical superiority at any given location. Even if they had only 1/10th of the ships in total than the Alliance has, they could always choose to focus it all on one spot, while we have to protect hundreds of planets.
So why don't they? Their gateway tech must not be as awesome as it appeared at first. What do they need to do to actually gate large amount of ships or troops?
Yes, it's the most fun!
No BFAW on my Escort!
And this is why all modern armies rely on bladed weaponry and fire arms are considered an amusement, or specialists weapon, limited to support roles and purchased by only the wealthiest or largest of armies....
My main problem is that the Heralds in the cutscenes are presented to me as very powerful and dangerous. Then the cutscene ends, combat starts and it's the usual STO slaughterfest.
My ship is not optimized for DPS, my away team has a mix bag of abilities. And I am still able to slaughter the Heralds with no threat to me in space and on the ground to a point where it's a joke.
So Cryptic might want to sell to me that the Iconians are a threat, but the actuality is that the AI still sucks and the powercreep from 2 seasons ago is still able to easily beat it.
Not sure if I'm going to bother to do the second FE. The lack of challenge, a meh storyline and enemies that don't feel like they should be part of the ST universe all contribute to me wanting to play other games.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
If you raise the difficulty then every enemy will get tougher and the Heralds will still be at the same difficulty.
It really undermines the story when the supposed uber bad guys are as easily (or more so) disposable as every other enemy in the game.
If we ever get to face Iconians in the game, hopefully they will present some sort of challenge. But I doubt it.
it was a bit annoying to be completely owning the heralds while at the same time cowardly feddie npcs are yelling about how we are being overwhelmed and whatnot, then having them force me to retreat while i am moving to 'seek and destroy' mode.
so yeah, a bfaw build annihilates the herald. they had no hope. i am a bit curious to see how an alt in a BoP will fare though. i imagine it could get pretty rough for him as he has no real aoe attacks, due to the number of them on the map.
the herald werent any better on the ground. i used a melee toon and pretty much wiped the floor with them beginning to end. but i do again wonder how an alt will handle them...
i am starting to suspect that cryptic have created a mission that will essentially act as a gatekeeper... trivial for my main with bfaw and sweeping strikes, yet super hard for my alts with crf and whatnot.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
- You know how this game works and you use the appropriate abilities = super easy win.
- You either don't know how to play this game or you deliberately use the wrong abilities = moderate challenge.
It's like Cryptic is telling me to disregard everything I know about the mechanics of this game for me to have some level of fun.
Remember the spheres generate those particles that Starfleet doesn't like much. I can't remember the name of them, but perhaps they are the source of energy used to create more Heralds and Iconians?
Granted didn't win, but it was doable against fighting the Herald ships
A ZPM
I dont BFAW on mine either, nor do I speedtank, still not having difficulties in mine in elite against them. So maybe you have to change some skills to change. EPtS and Aux2Sif are awesome for robustness
I just responsed as a "not a BFAW" user, not as a "I don't know how to survive".