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Official Feedback Thread for "Spoils of War" and "Through the Looking Glass"
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Member Posts: 520 Cryptic Developer
Please use this thread to post all feedback and issues found with our new Season 11 episodes: "Spoils of War" and "Through the Looking Glass"
Cardassian Struggle/Dominion Domination Revamp:
Known Issues:
Cardassian Struggle/Dominion Domination Revamp:
- “Lost and Found”
- This is a level 35 episode which brings the player to meet Commander Sarish Minna on Deep Space 9.
- “Spoils of War”
- This is a level 35 episode where Sarish Minna sends the captain to the Badlands to find out what the True Way are up to.
- “Through the Looking Glass”
- This is a level 35 episode where Sarish Minna sends the captain to return the Orb of Possibilities to Bajor.
- These episodes, along with 2 not yet available episodes, replace episodes “Badlands” through “Cage of Fire” in the Cardassian Struggle/Dominion Domination arc.
- Episodes “Second Wave” through “Boldly They Rode” remain unchanged.
- Delta Recruit Changes:
- These changes will not interrupt progress for Delta Recruits who have not completed the Cardassian Arc.
- The Delta Recruit objective that was placed in “Crack in the Mirror” will now be placed in “Spoils of War”.
- The Delta Recruit objective that was placed in “The Long Night” will now be placed in “The Factory”.
- Objectives that require playing the entire arc are now adjusted to not require the episodes which are no longer available.
- For players who have already finished “Crack in the Mirror” or “The Long Night”, credit for completing the Delta Recruit objectives will already be granted for “Spoils of War” and “The Factory”.
- This feature is still a work in progress and not completed.
- Players will see the other 2 new episodes “The Factory” and “The New Link” but they are not available yet.
- For more details, please visit the Cardassian Revamp Blogs at: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9553363-star-trek-online:-cardassian-revamp-episode-1 and http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9555393-star-trek-online:-cardassian-revamp-episode-2
Known Issues:
- "Spoils of War" and "Through the Looking Glass" are still in progress.
- Art, audio, and cutscenes are not finished.
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Comments
Visual Bug with Through the Looking Glass. Bug Report in Bug Basher Forum: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203993/spoilers-powers-visual-bug-in-through-the-looking-glass
... I really hope there's more to those two episodes than what's in there now, they're not very long. That's one thing that made the new Romulan series more acceptable to me, they were a lot longer when they were replacing multiple episodes.
Missing < on a <br> tag in the mission briefing for Romulans.
Gallery: Rendering Issues in the Badlands
The Badlands look great now! I did notice a number of minor rendering issues. The edges of the plasma vortices get cut off in places (locations included) and parts of the bottom of the planet flicker out based on camera angle. Included my graphics settings if those could be affecting things.
When my boff died on these stairs, she fell through to the spot in this screenshot. I was still able to revive her here and she wasn't stuck, just had to fall to the ground.
Unrelated, I feel too many of the groups of Cardassians attack you at once when you walk down these stairs. I ended up fighting 3 of the 6 groups in this cargo bay on these stairs. It felt unusually tough, even though I was only playing on Advanced and had my Commando spec on.
Gallery: Disappearing Wall
I love this view! Parts of the exterior disappear depending on the camera angle, though.
When Gul Kardek appeared in the cutscene, he was stuck in a console jumping up and down. Heh. Couldn't get a screenshot of this, unfortunately.
I'm sure this is known, but the console to lower the forcefield protecting the orb is a Romulan console placed partially inside one of the Cardassian consoles in the office.
Another thing I'm sure that is known, the mission completion dialogue has nothing to do with the mission in its current state.
General Feedback
This is much better than the old Badlands mission. However, it's also very short. I hate missions that feel pointlessly padded, as the original did, so I don't see this as being a bad thing, but I could see others complaining. I'll also miss the Riker character, as dumb (but hilarious) as him punching turrets was. Ah well, it's for the best.
Is there a reason Commander Sarish isn't in the Odyssey uniform? And is she trying to break Kurland's record for "here"s?
I would also agree that pre "Of Bajor" Hathorn should not have Klingons.
Finally, the objective circle for the last stage of "Through the Looking Glass" should be moved more outside of the temple. I stumbled on the trigger for the last battle by wandering outside of the temple.
The only issue I found in this mission is that the props that are supposed to stop you from getting into the unedited parts of Mirror Bajor, well, don't. You can jump over them or just walk around them, and explore those sections.
I really appreciated the Mirror Bajor section, by the way. I mentioned a screenshot of it alone was more interesting than any of the maps in the old Cardassian arc, and I stand by that. Great edits, I just wish there was more to that section. This is another really short mission. Hopefully we get to go inside some of these places in the S11 content!
I have to echo the flickering on the skybox in the badlands map. It's on that star thing above the map and the flickering is impressive.. That star also seems really really blocky too.
In the outpost I had issues with boffs being really triggerhappy, aggroing the whole hangar from the upper corridor(!) resulting in several npcs ending up in the floor where they could hit me but I couldn't hit them. Forced a reload and while my boffs again got triggerhappy, though the npcs thankfully didn't end up in the floor. Though they did manage to get shots through the bottom of the walkway and up into my feet.
I have a question about the layout of props there though. Is that supposed to be a hangar or a warehouse? The layout just seems...illogical to say the least. I think it needs rearranging so that the main floor of it is a lot clearer, with more cover and consoles at the sides.
Another issue I had in there was with the "unlock door" objective. There was a duplicate console near the little shuttle/runabout thing in the hangar which was active with an "unlock door" action prompt, but it did nothing but show another action prompt. When I used the console on the other side, it worked and disable the duplicate next to the shuttle.
Kardek spawned inside a console for me too, as did most of his backup and the romulan console.
Overall, it seems like a sound mission, if a little short. A shame we had to lose the hilarity that was Mr Dupe-Riker Jr and his kung fu turret smashing skills!
EDIT
The mission to return the orb isn't great imo. I didn't encounter any bugs thankfully, though one spawn in the Bajor space segment was a little slow on the uptake after I killed the first wave, leading to a noticable stall in the pacing.
Overall I don't think much of this ep. To me, it screams "we had this really awesome idea that could work for 3 or even 4 episodes, but we really didn't want that kind of work so we just crushed it all into 1 episode". It could be so, so much more.
That mirror Bajor map...WOW. I especially liked the "Blue Antenna" pub at the start, quite fitting that I played it on my andorian toon! The change in atmosphere from the dull old Hathon map to the grimy, rainy, neon sign clad mirror Hathon is enormous, it's really excellent.
As before, the mission was really really short and that location...Man, you guys are wasting that map with only one short segment of one short mission being spent in it. Imo, you could (and should) do several eps on that map alone, making the whole "drop maguffin orb off in alternate universe" seem a lot more difficult than it is portrayed in the mission as it stands. That imo, is the big problem with that episode. It makes the whole task seem trivial, which goes against what characters in that ep say as well as trek lore.
Other than the issues reported above, I experienced a dead end during the Pursuit section. The Cardies attacked me and I defeated Kardek before the chase objective triggered, so I couldn't complete the defeat objective as his ship had already turned passive.
Also, do the Klingon's have any specific text at the start? Because my Romulan is feeling a little confused as to why they have been called in on this.
When I beamed down to Bajor, it seems someone else spoke to the Vedek Krin, as the task completed before I got the chance to. So I didn't get the option to speak to her.
It moved on to Place the Orb on the Altar.
On Mirror Bajor, the Temple Priest outside the temple tells me Vedek Krin is in the office, while she is stood right next to her.
Also on Mirror Bajor, my drones, generators, turrets, mortars and mines from my kit are all disabled for some reason. Likewise for the same powers from my BOFFs.
First play of SoW, STO crashed after killing the first Cardassian ship.
Cardassian Shuttle Bay - Nice. Feels more appropriate from the original Badland Mission. Though personally, don't understand the need for shuttle platforms.
Second STO crash, when fighting the Cardassians in the Shuttlebay. Not sure what's caused the crash. Suspect might be conflicts with NVIDA Drivers.
Gul Kardek stuck in terrain. BOFF pathing terrible, they are not assisting.
Romulan Console under Cardassian Console? Place Holder?
Defiant isn't much help. :P
Spoils of War Feedback: To put it bluntly, I didn't like Spoils of War. I found the plot to be all too obvious. And personally given Cardassian pride, there is no reason why they would be working with the Mirror Universe. As for the base itself, you would think there would be more to it. It would've been more immersive if you transported onto the base and suddenly are attacked by Security teams, and you fight your way to the office, then chase the Gul to the shuttlebay where he escapes. But no.
I honestly seen better foundry missions than this. And so I'll Rate this a D-
Through the Looking Glass
Dialogue to Gul Mutak: This isn't something my Captain / Admiral would say - "Are you insane?" No what's insane is DS9 or Bajor's Sensors not detecting hostile ships in Bajor's Orbit!
Commander Sarish Minna's response - Spoonheads? So it's okay to use racist terms in generalizing a race like that?
And again the Defiant is just sitting there.
Bajor Ground:
STO Crashed when attempting to talk to Bajoran Civilian, by the water.
When talking to Vedek Krin, another player (not in a group btw) finished talking and my dialogue finished before I could read it. This should not be possible.
The Mirror Universe has Profits? Seems the writer of this episode didn't watch DS9. The Wormhole Aliens / Profits are multi-dimensional and so the mirror universe profits should be the same profits in the prime universe.
On Mirror Bajor, my character won't deply Chronoton Mines.
The Mirror Profits can't see through time, knowing you would bring the Orb back? Wha?
"Alpha Dominion"? For new players they have no idea, and would only think of "why is the dominion in the Alpha Quadrant".
Through the Looking Glass Feedback:
Another disappointment.
Content again rushed. Poor storyline flow and content that counters Star Trek canon.
1) Unacceptable Racism. For a Commander of Starfleet to be using such terms is unacceptable. And my captain surely would not have tolerated or went along with it. The True Way may be our enemies, but it's no right to use racist terms in calling every Cardassian a "spoonhead", when they are our friends.
2) Alliances. I could believe the True Way working with Lass in the original content, but it was different with Lass, because you knew they were working together from the beginning. But now that history is a blank slate and we don't know who the Alpha Dominion is, and yet the dialogue makes like we already encountered them.
This needs to be clarified.
3) Mirror Leeta becomes the STO equivalent of "Team Rocket". Seriously her dialogue is atypical and cartoonish, and her always running off... should call her Jessie instead.
4) Cryptic countering Star Trek Canon!
In the episode, you suggest that there are "Mirror Prophets". But yet Star Trek canon shown that the Bajoran Prophets exist out of time and space and inter-dimenional. So the technically there should be no such thing as "Mirror Prophets" because they are the same aliens.
Furthermore the "Mirror Prophets" dialogue said "we didn't know it would ever return", and yet the Prophets existed out of time, so they should've known it was going to be returned.
I rate this as an F!
I appologize ahead of time to those involved, but I found the writing as Amaturish and Sophomoric. All due respect, but I've seen better Foundry missions. It pains me that the old content is being replaced with this low quality work.
It shouldn't be getting used now when the Federation has been helping them transition to a free society, however...
might be foreshadowing for stuff not in the episode yet.
That and if you notice the Commander is Bajoran and even after the 7 years of DS9 the Bajoran people never liked the Cardies and so even tho she is a member of Starfleet it is understandable that she would refer to them as "Spoonheads"
I agree. Just because someone is in starfleet doesn't mean they are automatically saints. As I recall, even Miles O Brien called them spoonheads from time to time.
Because she's Bajoran doesn't mean she should be a character that still holds a grudge against the Cardassian people when she very likely never experienced the Occupation. And you think being in Starfleet long enough to obtain the rank of Commander, you would've adopted Starfleet's acceptance.
If you ask me, have the character rewritten to say something along the grounds of, "These True Way were the Cardassian leaders during the days of the Occupation. The memories still haunt my people and we cannot allow those days to ever return."
I say again
I think someone is being a little too sensitive.
Yeah, stupid me who wanted Cryptic to write respectful material. /sarcasm
"speciesist slur" "derogatory" "category: insult" - and the second is in the quote from the writer. Good to read what you cite, mate.
Either way, people are being overly sensitive to this. It's one (fictional) officer saying this to another (fictonal) officer a grand total of once (iirc).
Regardless, there are bigger problems with the missions imo.
--There is some flickering of the star overhead when you first enter the system map.
--If you wait too long to engage the Hidecki attacking the freighter everyone disappears and you have to leave mission and re-enter for the map to reset.
--After defending the freighter it would seem to me we would render aid to get them up an running and then proceed with our mission.
--When you first beam to hideout the BOFF pathing is poor. My BOFFs immediately started attacking people below through the floor and jumped off the upper deck and died in the process. My next run I didn't go look over the edge to the lower area and we ran it fine maybe an invisible wall or something should be added to keep from the suicide jumps.
--The console used to unlock the office seems out of place. It would make more sense that a console near the door would unlock it and not a console on the landing pad area. The landing pad area was also referred to as " the podium" in the dialog and it isn't really a podium.
-- Once in the office during the cutscene and afterword Kardek was stuck in the desk and then on top of the desk with his spawns and turret. During the battle he then became stuck in the doorjam in the doorway you enter the office from.
--In order to deactivate the forcefield that is surrounding the orb, I had to stand on top of the console to activate it.
*Note in the pic the interact isn't there.
The space combat scenes flowed well and story was fine. It might seem more interesting though if you had to hunt around a little scan a few asteroids or something before you found the freighter being attacked instead of warping right in at the spot. I like the updated Cardassians.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
-edit-
Ok, it seems like nothing except her character name has been updated so far.
I'm sorry people think that way, but it's honest feedback. I just feel there is no reason for such dialogue. Star Trek supposed to convey a positive message. And there is nothing positive about it.
I only played through the missions once but one thing I'll comment on is how the Defiant/Saresh doesn't join you in the fight at the end of Spoils of War quickly enough.
I'll also echo what others have commented on, the mission/s do feel a tad short. That's not a huge dealbreaker or anything, but it kinda feels like you go to the Badlands, kill a few cardassians, go back to Bajor and talk to some vedek for five minutes and then hop off to the Mirror Universe and come back just in time for lunch. It feels like there should be more to do, or more people to talk to.
What about some single episodes with various plots? (Rapier , Tribbles , Section 31 episode) ?
Their dead.
Honestly, don't know why they don't keep them as discoverable side-stories. Because the content they deleted with these revamps, could easily enough be 40 missions worth. Enough to keep players busy for a little while as they leveled up.
I don't get Cryptic's logic, at all.
I do feel these are on the short side, and that's in all my feedback. But at the same time, these missions are so much better than the ones they're replacing.