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Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 177: EFFing Mission Feedback!

Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 177: EFFing Mission Feedback! has warped on to Holosuite Media - You can download and stream from: http://holosuitemedia.com/tie177/

This week Captain MidNite Shadow leads the crew of the USS Tribble in discussions about all the news out of Star Trek Online and general Star Trek news. This week's feedback from some of the crew on STO's featured episode includes harsher language than usual - this is why we have a adult rating!

In this week's episode the Tribbles crew discuss:
* Feedback on the new Featured Episode,
* the new Fleet Armada system,
* Star Trek Las Vegas,
* the new Role Playing Blog,
* STO Release Notes,
* STO Forum updates,
* Christine "Kestrel" Thompson, Lead Writer and John "Cryptic Frost" Thompson, QA Tester are leaving STO,
* Star Trek: Anthology,
* Star Trek: Axanar,
* Star Trek Beyond,
* a Foundry Mission Review,
* and more!

Comments

  • alex1geralex1ger Member Posts: 141 Arc User
    This is becoming a habit now, isn't it?
    Okay... First off, Spoiler warnings.
    If you have not played the Iconian war story arc up to and including Broken circle yet, you should probably skip reading this.
    Second disclaimer: I'm gonna give more general feedback later on. So if you don't want to discuss the Iconian war story arc, skip to the bolded feedback part at the bottom.

    Still here? Well, you have been warned...


    - Okay, sunseahl, you are angry/disappointed. Fine. But I think you're being a little too hard on them. (Not by much, but still.) I mean, this facility is in the Kyana system... or Kyana asteroid field... what I'm getting at is, this is where Time in a bottle ended. We know there is the timeshifted Krenim lunar colony Nog discovered and at the end of Time in a bottle the whole planet is revealed to have been timeshifted. So I will just assume the facility is placed within the confines of the timeshifting field around the planet, because that would be logical.

    If they did not want to do that, they probably would/should have used an existing shipyard to save time. (No pun intended.) Like the Utopia Planitia shipyards, which would probably be one of the most defensible locations. Although that would/should also be a priority target for iconian/Herald attacks... Mmh... Maybe we should see some of that. Give us an attack on Utopia Planitia or Jupiter station or something and then let us lose the battle. I mean, let us fight and destroy some ships and then have a lot more enemies warp in and we have to flee because we are completely outnumbered and outgunned... But I digress.

    Now, could that have been shown in a better way?
    Maybe having the actual planet visible on the space map (or through some of the facilities' windows) and maybe even having us cross the border of that field and having the planet and the facility appear in front of our eyes? Although I'm not sure how difficult that would be to implement. I mean I don't know what kind of technical hurdles could arise trying to do what I just suggested.
    But filling in the blanks myself (as long as it can be done by just looking at what we've got and going with the most logical conclusion) is fine by me.


    - What's next? Oh right. Saving the iconian. No. Just no. Play the episode again. The second to last time she appeared, M'Tara was already looking really weak. If you had wanted to talk peace or even just a ceasefire, that would have been the last chance.
    The last time she appeared, she sacrificed the last bit of her energy to summon T'Ket and... that other "thoughtful" Iconian. So, those two were already there when M'Tara died (using her last breaths to ask them to avenge her...) and they did nothing to save her. They should also know a lot more about iconian physiology than us. And even if they consider themselves gods and are therefore unable to comprehend "first aid" or something, would you really just sprint there to do something to M'Tara? Seriously?

    T'Ket lost her arm because of us "mortals" and now she and that third Iconian witness M'Tara being "killed" by us and getting really upset about it. (When she effectively commited suicide.) Now what are they gonna think when you move a muscle to get anywhere near M'Tara? Right, they will think we are trying to make sure she's dead or maybe even trying to "desecrate" her corpse or something. You wanna take that chance? Fine, do it. I'll be over here beaming out, because I still got a sense of self-preservation.


    - Now, where do I agree with you? The Iconians are beyond idiotic. But we kinda knew that already. I mean, T'Ket lost her arm because she wanted to play with clone-Kahless instead of just handwaving him out of existence. And in Time in a bottle the "thoughtful" Iconian said we were more resourceful and dangerous than anticipated. So why the hell M'Tara did, what she did... No clue.
    Now T'Ket on the other hand... I could believe her being blinded by anger/consumed by rage at us because of the loss of her arm. Why M'Tara does this cartoonishly "stupid evil" routine is beyond me. I will give you that. And the fact that the "thoughtful" Iconian was all about being careful and these mortals are more dangerous than they appear and now M'Tara dies and she just starts frothing at her mouth (not as bad as T'Ket but still bad enough)... Sure... T'Ket losing her arm does not faze you that much and just makes you more careful but M'Tara dying makes you all angry and vengeful and stuff. Sure, that makes sense... I guess.
    Now, if nameless Iconian did have any sort of reaction to T'Ket losing her arm, I might be able to believe this, but I did not get that impression at all. So what's the big deal? Was M'Tara your sibling? parent? child? best friend? lover? Or did you just always hate T'Ket and were trying hard not to show your schadenfreude?


    - By the way, I'm just relistening to the podcast and Captain Kagran did not do that kamikaze maneuver. Kagran is one of our debriefing contacts. The klingon who crashed his ship was Guroth (Kagran mentions his name in his debriefing dialogue). Who was Guroth? I'm not entirely sure. Wasn't he the crazy klingon in Tom Paris' task force who was all about bigger explosions and stuff? So, yes, they could have made that a little clearer, too.
    By the way, if my assumption is right, then being a named character on Tom Paris' task force is like wearing a red shirt on TOS... I mean, in... Delta Flight? It was the first mission for that task force and that one guy died (He did get a name beforehand, but I can't remember it... Sue me. :p ) and suddenly Tom was all worried about Miral possibly dying. Yeah, you agree to something akin to a suicide mission and when someone dies you realize that it might be a suicide mission. And they really want us to believe he was Quinn's predecessor? Sure...
    And this time around he wants to abort the mission (again) and then the klingon crashes his ship (klingons like to do that, eh?) and all of a sudden Tom is like "Oh well, I won't mention his sacrifice and I totally don't express any emotions about his death because I'm a vulcan. Let's do this!" Wait, what? Who are you and what have you done to Tom Paris?


    - Oh. And I agree that that whole attack was beyond stupid. Why would D'Tan and Admiral Quinn ever greenlight such a reckless plan? Is the situation that dire? Sure, we got the war blogs that try to sound all dire and stuff, but... "show, don't tell". I think the worst we have seen so far was the battle wreckage at the end of Broken circle...
    You might have noticed that I left out J'mpok when I asked why the other faction leaders would greenlight such a plan... Shots fired. :p


    Feedback:
    Okay, now to some general feedback.

    STLV: I would be disappointed, if all we got out of Cryptic's panel was Season 11 stuff. I mean, this is their big venue to get information out to Star Trek fans. Last time at STLV we had a similarly "high caliber" panel and they announced Delta Rising. Now they even throw that CBS person into the mix. There should be something "cross-promotional" related to the Star Trek anniversary next year. And yes, I expect at least some kind of mention of expansion three. I believe that has been "leaked" on... I think the G&T interviews Mike (Soriedem) did when he visited Cryptic Studios.
    And when I say "leaked", I'm talking about the fact that expansion three was to be expected, but someone admitted it was a thing even though it still has not been announced... Usually it does not happen that way around. Game companies tend to play dumb until they finally announce something.
    Of course I also assume expansion three will NOT be released that soon after STLV. I mean, DR went live shortly after STLV last year. I definitely don't expect such a short ramp up this year. But maybe announce the expansion for... early 2016? first half of 2016?

    Expansion three: Since we know it is a thing, although it has not been announced yet and since I expect "something" at STLV... What are your wild guesses?
    I got three theories.
    1.) Delta Rising part 2. I mean, there is still a lot of the Delta quadrant untouched (Vidiians, anyone? Even more Kazon. Ugh...)
    2.) Gamma Rising part 1. Cause DS9 is a thing and it is the last quadrant that's still missing.
    3.) Legacy of Cardassia. We have been told that the cardassian story arc would be the next in line for a revamp. For quite a while now, if I might add. And it has even been said that after that either the Fek'ihri arc (Al said he was pushing for that...) or the Breen story arc would get a revamp. So the romulan story arc got revamped to include the tensions between the romulan republic and the remnants of the romulan star empire. Why not do that again? Give us a story arc for playable Cardassians and include their struggles in the cardassian story arc everybody else gets to play. I could even see this theory combined with theory 2. Well, maybe not Gamma Rising part 1, but... Legacy of Cardassia/Gamma Rising part 0.5 Wait... X3: Legacy of Cardassia. Season 12: Gamma Rising part 0.5 (including a Gamma recruitment event...)
    Were those theories wild enough? ;)

    Suggestion: And mentioning that G&T interview series reminds me of something. Mike did go through quite a few interviews. Now I would like to make a suggestion... Sure, Stephen "Salami_Inferno" Ricossa jr. (I think that's his full name) and Al "CaptainGeko" Rivera are your best bets at getting "spoilers" for upcoming content, but how about you try to get someone less-known (if they were even interested in the first place...).
    Like Kate "Shelana" Bankson. You might remember her as the content designer who did... Sphere of influence (the one with Worf and the extending walkways in subspace and the obelisk carrier at the end and all that stuff, was that Sphere of influence?) and I think she mentioned doing one of the DR queues on an interview with... uhm... no idea who did the interview, it was too long ago... anyway, I think she did bug hunt. And she did do a few interviews, so she might be up for this...
    Or one of the other ship artists (there is not just thomasthecat, although I do admit that he is awesome :p ) Ian "JamJamz" Richards or Nick "CrypticQuack" Quackenbush. I just hope I didn't butcher their names... Maybe they could be lured into... uhm... convinced by one of their colleagues that interviews are awesome.
    Sure, you might not get spoilers, because they are too low on the payroll for that, but if they were available, they might have interesting stuff to tell. About the work they've done so far, what they most/least enjoyed about it, what they are working on right now (without giving any/too many spoilers)... I mean, JamJamz tweeted about having done 100 ships (I think...), so there should be something to talk about.

    Okay, that's it for today.
    You got feedbacked! ;)
  • alex1geralex1ger Member Posts: 141 Arc User
    Okay, a few additions, since I discussed Broken circle without actually giving my opinion on the mission as a whole...


    Broken Circle review:

    I kinda liked the mission.

    - Sure, our motivation for doing this all-in move is not that fleshed out. (Show, don't tell.)
    - Sure, the Iconians have been shown to be unable to think their way out of a paper bag. Which makes me really curious who's pulling their strings. They are obviously not the real masterminds in all of this.
    - Sure, Guroth is pulling a typical klingon/"madman" maneuver. "When in doubt, kamikaze!"
    When Commodore Decker did it in TOS he was obviously unstable. I'm no psychiatrist, but if I had to guess, I'd say he was suffering from (at least) a severe case of PTSD. He needed a counselor, not redemption through heroic sacrifice...
    - Sure, I kinda wish I had known Guroth (or even known it was him when that stuff happened instead of just reading his name in the debriefing). Or that guy who died in Delta Flight. Then their deaths might have affected me.

    I went in, shot a couple bad guys in the face, upped my bodycount by... I don't even know how many living beings are supposed to be on those iconian ships... and I had fun. I'm not even sure why. It was cheesy, it was mindless, it was saturday morning cartoony, it was kinda entertaining (to me).


    Krenim weapon morality:

    Oh, and that moral dilemma about whether or not we should use that Krenim thingamajic...
    Yes, that part of the story is severely lacking.
    Yes, Starfleet/the Federation should (!) talk much more thoroughly about the implications before the fact. Well, maybe not the common "grunts" but since we are admirals, we should get involved in those talks.

    We'll probably get into the repercussions when we fire that thing. And we'll be forced to fire it, because the situation gets so dire. I just hope we're actually gonna experience that direness. The way it has been handled up until now... well, the war blogs are a nice touch, but once again: "Show, don't tell".

    What I'm trying to say is... I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and take a "wait and see" approach. Maybe their solution is gonna blow my mind. Maybe. (Yeah, my mind does not get blown that easily...)
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