[PODCAST] Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 265: A VorGone Conclusion

midniteshadow7

Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 265: 'A VorGone Conclusion' has warped on to Holosuite Media, you can download and stream it from: http://holosuitemedia.com/tie265/

This week we discuss this week’s news on Star Trek Online, Star Trek Online Consoles (0:39:51), Star Trek Timelines (0:50:23), Star Trek: Bridge Crew (1:22:29) and more.

Community Questions:
1. What are you most looking forward to in this year's Star Trek Online’s Summer event?
2. For anyone playing Star Trek Online on the console, are you happy getting last year’s (PC) ship?
3. In Star Trek Timelines what do you think are the most useful crew and traits for use in the Arena?
4. Will you be playing Star Trek: Bridge Crew?

alex1ger

Hello there, tribbles.



Community questions:


1.) I'm not sure. I mentioned before that I get the event ships anyway, even if I don't like them, just because they (or their trait) might become useful to some alt at some point in the future.

The pets... if we get pet storage (and there was nothing on tribble and no mention of pet storage so far): Yay, pets!
Since it doesn't look like pet storage is coming anytime soon: Dear art team, you are doing an amazing job but I won't acquire what you've been working on because the systems team seems to believe that there is more "bang for the buck" to be had elsewhere. Sorry about that. The metrics might show that I dislike your work but the truth is that you are NOT the problem.

Uhm. The new biathlon... Yeah, let's see what that is all about.

Apart from that I logged into the game to see how many lohlunat favours I got. It's 30 stacks of 999 favours each. And it doesn't look like I get a lot of stuff to burn them on. Oh well.

So I guess my answer is... the biathlon? *shrug*


2.) ...


3.) ...


4.) Like I mentioned before, my PC can't even handle Overwatch and I want to play that game so badly. Even though I really don't like shooters.

So no Bridge Crew for me. But hey, even when I manage to scrape together the money to get myself a new (reasonably powerful) PC, I don't think getting all this VR equipment for a single game is sensible. Maybe in... 10 years when VR equipment becomes more affordable and Bridge Crew 2 or 3 lets us man the stations on the Enterprise E or the Defiant... I might give it a try then.



Feedback:



The cosplay NPC:

Okay, where do I begin... I get it when dev teams put NPCs into their games that are named and/or modeled after themselves or their main characters/avatars. Like how Federation president Okeg is clearly Geko (spelled backwards). You can call that vain but I actually don't have an issue with that. It happens all the time so I won't rain on their parade. I'll save that for the e-mail...

Then we have dev teams that like to put pop culture references into their games because it's "fun". Like when Blizzard put an NPC called Haris Pilton into World of Warcraft and had her sell some sort of "luxury items".

Then you have NPCs who are named after developers and/or family members/friends who have died. Or NPCs who are named/modeled after players (and/or their main chars) who have died. There's a lot of pick and choose involved and not everybody gets an NPC but as long as it's done tastefully, I don't have an issue with that.
Cryptic has refused to memorialize players like that and directed people towards the eternal flame on Starfleet Academy (that reminds me, do klingons and romulans have their own eternal flame somewhere?) that has been put there after Mark Valentine passed away. Although I think his name is not mentioned anywhere, making it an all-purpose memorial so to speak. And until this point I think I might still be on-board.

But now we got this cosplay NPC. And I'm just scratching my head. I mean I'm terribly sorry but what exactly are her accomplishments? Being a cosplayer who just happened to show STO-"inspired" cosplay? What's next? A MidNite NPC? A Terilynn NPC? I'd argue they might be more deserving but hey, I'm probably being weird again. *shrug*

And it's not just an NPC who's named after her, they put in dev time to make that hairstyle happen. So you have money to spend on stroking this person's ego (I don't even know if she wanted that!), but you keep talking about "bang for the buck"? Are you sure your character artists couldn't have made something more... useful instead?
I mean, according to the interview she plays the game. Couldn't you just... I don't know ask her what kind of ship she would like to fly and give her that ship? Show her appreciation, that's fine. I don't have an issue with that. Quite the opposite. What baffles me is the implementation you chose. I still think the interview was overdoing it (especially compared to how little you seem to care about VOICE-acting) but you just had to go one step further. Why? Who thought that was a good idea?
I just don't get it. *shrug*



RP blog "Cold Dishes":

Okay this blog actually ties into something that happened in-game, even though I played through that particular story-arc... uhm... I think when Legacy of Romulus launched... It's well-written and it seems to make sense so far. Let's see where this is going. By the way, punny title.



Summer event ship stats:

Oh look. The first "free" ship featuring a Temporal Operative BOff seat. Better late than never, I guess. *shrug*
And unlike the Breen ships that have a hangar, this one doesn't require the "frigate" event ship to unlock frigate pets because it has frigate pets from the get-go. Interesting.
No mention of a console set bonus? Mmh. Let's see if they forgot to mention that of if this ship is supposed to be the first minor step to decrease some of the issues related to "exclusivity".

[edit]
Borticus said in the ship stat thread that there will be a console set bonus but they haven't finalized it yet and it will be added in a future patch.

I got nothing to add to that.
[/edit]

chozoelder2nd

1.) Besides the ship, not a whole lot to be honest. The pets are more or less the same, the new outfits are boring, and this Biathlon is simply a combination of two things we've had for so long. After the Klingon ice fishing from last winter, I was expecting something new and refreshing. Perhaps there just wasn't enough time. I'm fully expecting they're putting a lot of effort into TNG's anniversary... right, Cryptic? Please?


4.) I don't own VR or a PS4 (or have an uber powerful PC), and I tend not to buy entire consoles plus their peripherals just for one or two games.

I will save up slowly for that PS4 eventually whenever the FF7 remake comes out, unless it comes out for the Switch, in which case I'll most likely save up for that instead. However, I will most likely pass on the VR. I'm not going to pay for VR just to play one game that I have only a slight interest in, because yeah, as of right now there's nothing VR related that I'm gushing for. That Star Wars: Battlefront X-Wing thing came quite close, but that wasn't a full game. I spent plenty of hours playing the Rouge Squadron games on N64 and Gamecube, so Star Wars dogfighting is the first thing that entered my mind when I heard VR was coming. Despite that, I'm still patient enough to wait decades for VR to stop being this hot new premium item.

Buy a PS4 for FF7 remake along with other games I've had my eye on? Sure.
Pay the price of two game consoles (or more) for Bridge Crew? No thanks.

Now, this isn't an issue with online multiplayer, but if you want to play locally with friends or family, you need to have more headsets. That's like buying an extra console for each person who wants to join in. The cash starts to really pile up if you want others to join in on the fun. Local couch play appeals to me much more than online, but I'm not someone who can be dropping thousands of dollars on a game, so... yeah, I'll pass.

alex1ger

I'm so sorry, tribbles, and I promise I won't send the e-mail before the show, since I'm burying you in feedback already, but I have a few things to add.



More feedback:



Weekly livestream:


There was one interesting tidbit that "technically" had nothing to do with the livestream itself. Well, it was interesting to me, your mileage may vary.

See, someone asked whether the person at the end of "Survivor" was who we think it was. And the answer was, if we based our assumption on a specific item, that particular assumption would probably be correct. And the content designer who made that episode (Kate Bankson) presumably confirmed on her facebook page that the assumption was correct. But she has since moved on to another company and they can neither officially confirm nor deny anything.

So I did some research, wait that sounds ominous, I simply used google and the first or second link answered my question. Yay social media? But back to topic, she seems to be working for Blizzard now. And then I saw another familiar name. A guy called Dan Stahl who formerly worked for Cryptic seems to be working for Blizzard, too.
I will admit that I may not have expected that but it makes sense to me and I wish both of them good luck.


Summer event:


So... uhm... I started getting my characters to Risa to play the event.
First of all, no pet storage, so no new pets for me. Sorry, art team. Like I said before, not your fault, you guys are awesome!

Second, I am not sure what I expected but the biathlon delivered what it promised and it was... not quite as "fresh" as I hoped it would be. The transition from powerboard to floater feels a little clunky but I can't put my finger on the "why?" or how to improve it.
Furthermore the fact that the floater part is the second part... uhm... the powerboard part is so quick-paced, especially since the speed boosts (and ramps) are still cranked up to ludicrous speed and then you transition over to the floaters and it just takes all the excitement and adrenaline out of the race. It's like: "Don't mind me, I'm just taking the scenic route!". The contrast feels rather jarring to me.
And it certainly doesn't help that the powerboard part uses the same style of track boundaries and ramps as the regular race but the floater part uses the new "stargates" while "Flying High" still uses those holographic thingies. I kinda wish they had gone back and replaced them with the "stargates" to make it feel more consistent.
Again, it's not "bad", it's just... I don't know, it's not really pushing the right buttons for me. *shrug*

Last but not least, the new gold, silver and bronze powerboards and floaters.
I ran the new biathlon three times now. I managed to win one of them (even though I'm not entirely sure how that was even possible...) and when I went to the powerboard vendor I noticed that these new powerboards cost 1000 favors each and have the appropriate stats. That would be fine if the 1500 favor powerboards (the faction-specific ones and the Targ H.O.G.) and the future flyer didn't exist, but they do exist which makes these new boards inferior.
It's the same issue I had with the Live Long and Prosper board. I would like to use that one but it's just not good enough if you want to be competitive.
Yes, you kinda have to be competitive (or get lucky) to unlock these new powerboards which in turn are actually NOT among the most competitive boards out there, making them rather pointless in my opinion.
There are no ultra-rare (1500 favor) floaters so the respective gold, silver and bronze floaters are fine but with the powerboards it's a different story.
Maybe I'm missing something. What's your opinion on this one?

chozoelder2nd

My poster that was signed by the devs arrived today. It looks great! I still haven't received the Paradox yet. I'll let you know when I do. Thanks again Tribbles and Cryptic!