I noticed using a fresh character who hasn't done any story arc referenced by the trials will result in differences in dialogues. Minor differences, but still welcome.
Haven't done the Romulan arc? Obisek will introduce himself and will tell you it's not a simulation, as opposed to wonder why you're talking about Excalbians when it's clearly Iconians.
Haven't done the temporal war arc? You have no clue of where you are and Noye doesn't know who you are either, though Seven knows the basics of the TCW.
Haven't done the Iconian arc? You have no idea of what is going on (Seven does deduce it, though) and wonder why there is another T'Ket showing up.
That said, there are some things that were forgotten or ignored, like your character still recognizing Heralds and Iconian Weaponry and your Jem'Hadar character still willing to kill the Founder without any hesitation (it's a simulation, yes, but you'd expect some concern about shooting her).
Also, it seems the Dominion knows about the USS Discovery even if you haven't done the missions involving the ISS Discovery. And, unless it's another oversight, that has some... disturbing implications about when the Dominion started observing the other quadrants.
Also, it seems the Dominion knows about the USS Discovery even if you haven't done the missions involving the ISS Discovery. And, unless it's another oversight, that has some... disturbing implications about when the Dominion started observing the other quadrants.
One idea that the writers had that was never actively utilized on-screen was that the Dominion knew about the Federation long before the Bajoran wormhole was discovered, and that they were developing a long-term strategy to deal with the inevitable contact. As Wolfe explains, "The Dominion knew the Federation was out there long before the wormhole was opened, and they had plans to deal with the Federation when the Federation was projected to enter their space in two hundred years, and they were building slowly towards that, that's why they sent out Odo in the first place. But then the wormhole opens up and suddenly the Federation is in their backyard today and it just throws everything into question for both the Federation and the Dominion." (The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond, DS9 Season 3 DVD special features)
That is already heavily implied in DS9, so that's not exactly what I was referring to.
What I am referring to is this specific situation where the Dominion knows about the Discovery despite not even encountering its Mirror counterpart (once again, assuming it's not an oversight and the game assuming you played the missions where you learn about the ship and some of its crew). A ship whose existence was supposedly tightly sealed from records for about 150 years, and which the feats are still not fully known when the files were declassified very recently.
I can expect the Klingons to know about it, because "a ship fighting alongside the legendary Enterprise and the Chancellor's flagship against an army of AI-controlled secret vessels before stranding itself in the future to save the galaxy" is way too good of a story not to be praised in songs.
I can expect the Romulans to know via the Tal Shiar, due to Burnham's connection with Spock, who has been meddling with the Romulan Empire's affairs for decades.
But the Dominion? That is... fascinating. Changeling infiltrators in the highest ranks WAAAAAAY before it was suspected and confirmed by the Changelings themselves?
I'm guessing they've been covertly observing since before Kahless was born.
Also... I don't think that the Jem'hadar player can play this until after they've finished the Gamma story. So their reaction to seeing the female changeling will probably not be favorable.
I really, really, really want an Abe Lincoln BOFF. He's pretty much the most famous US president and certainly the most iconic, perhaps one of the most recognizable figures in human history.
While I liked the idea/writing of the mission, there combat portions were dragged out. We probably could have had an abbreviated version of the Noye fight. The end result was that the 1st mission was like 3x the length of an average mission.
This was an epic episode! bossfight bossfight bossfight! I would say the best new episodes since the delta arc. kudos and A+ from me.
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."
I really enjoyed the experience. I found the quality to be of the highest caliber in gameplay as well as duration and really enjoyed the crazy challenging fights on elite. The visuals are fantastic and the voice work is very nice and the atmosphere is moody. It really put me in mind of the TOS episode with a modern twist which was really cool. It is nice to see the borg very difficult again despite moving and adapting a tad too fast methinks.
On the downside, the ax... I was kind of hoping for a Borg related item or even an updated version of Borg set from release or even a spiffy consumable maybe in a stack of 10 or something along those lines but hey I get it. Poetic nostalgia and all that jazz...
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
I was disapointed that my Romulan character helped Burnum stop Hakeev's execution. The only reason she would stop Obisek is to shoot Hakeev herself again but I think she would let Obisek have this one.
Edit: However, the rest of the episode was top notch. Well done Devs!
I was disapointed that my Romulan character helped Burnum stop Hakeev's execution. The only reason she would stop Obisek is to shoot Hakeev herself again but I think she would let Obisek have this one.
Edit: However, the rest of the episode was top notch. Well done Devs!
Agreed. In the story mission your character is like "DIE DIE DIE!!!!!" the only difference is if you let Hakeev take the short.
But the real difference is how the Excalbians are manipulating the simulation.
So.. about the new reward 'Seven's Dual Tetryon rifles". Other than it being a dual rifle what is so special about it?
Sounds like a Tetryon Dual pistol with a different name.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
So.. about the new reward 'Seven's Dual Tetryon rifles". Other than it being a dual rifle what is so special about it?
Sounds like a Tetryon Dual pistol with a different name.
Pretty sure the main idea here is for it to look cool. It's not really designed to be a special weapon type.
Am I the only one who got the Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter reference with the axe? Loved that movie.
I rather enjoyed the missions, loved the new look Seven (can't wait to see her in Picard) having all the hero ships show up at the end was quite fun and nostalgic.
Regarding President Lincoln..... yeah, I've only played this as a Federation character so far so genuine query, but is the dialogue different for KDF characters?
(I mean, I don't see any reason why a Klingon/Orion/Jem'Hadar etc would either know who he is or particuarly care.)
I can just about swallow a Starfleet Officer knowing of him, but the aforementioned races..... not so much.
In the original episode TOS S3 - "The Savage Curtain" Lincoln was there ONLY because he was Kirk's personal hero. It was done for the episode as an Easter Egg and link to the episode and an element a casual Trek fan might have remembered or at least heard about.
I suppose they COULD have gone with making Michael Burnham a 'personal hero' to yours (and my) character (although that wouldn't work for non-Fed races); but can you imagine the s***storm the players who are "TRIBBLE is the DOOOOOOM of the Trek franchise!!!!!" would have raised if the storyline was "Burnham is one of your character's personal heroes..."
So yeah, they went with an Easter Egg for effect.
And yeah, the idea that the Excalbians are still debating "Good vs. Evil" 150 years later is a bit ridiculous because Kirk did explain the difference at the end: http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/77.htm
ROCK: You are the survivors. The others have run off. It would seem that evil retreats when forcibly confronted. However, you have failed to demonstrate to me any other difference between your philosophies. Your good and your evil use the same methods, achieve the same results. Do you have an explanation?
KIRK: You established the methods and the goals.
ROCK: For you to use as you chose.
KIRK: What did you offer the others if they won?
ROCK: What they wanted most. Power.
KIRK: You offered me the lives of my crew.
ROCK: I perceive you have won their lives.
But, Excalbians ARE `living rocks' so who knows if their lifespans are measured in terms of Geologic time - maybe 150 years to them equates to a 15 minute Carbon based lifeform discussion by comparison.
They're still wrestling with good vs. evil 150 years later? Shocking! It's not like we have 2500 years of ethics philosophy on Earth doing the same, and even more when you factor in religious texts.
I like the inclusion of Lincoln because, due to timing of the event, I'll get to fight alongside him on his birthday tomorrow.
First of all... you really ought to have had more explanation - for dsc I'm presuming this is a major event but for those not into it...there was zero context - Unlike the last two trials it had NO content to do with the game world (may I remind you this is supposed to be a review of the game history mind) - there was no past episodes or content to do with it nor control
This basically meant the dsc portion had no meaning in the game sense - only if you knew the lore did it have any context or meaning unlike all other evens in the FEs - The MC has zero stake in the result from a 'relieving past events' angle. Personally I would have retread the dsc content we had, maybe the choice being to save Patel or let her do as she did - which would have had extra poignancy for Burnham
Luckily I could happily follow the commands and so not knowing was not too much of an issue
They gave more explanation, between consoles, Burnham's regular dialogue, and the optional bits, for that than they gave for the TOS episode that served as the framing device for the episodes. Absolutely everything that was important to that scenario was explained.
This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
Over all I liked it. I like Seven and Michael was fine, though I guessing she is a force of good and that is why she is there. *shrug* I loved Seven's one liners and snark. It was fun thought long, it was nice that it has the break option in though. Abe was a great throw back to TOS. i realize that people that hadn't watch discovery would be loss at one point.
"Look Agent Daniels I just don't think I would do well in 1200 years in the future."
And yet here I am.
12th Century Swedish knight turned Star Trek Captain
I did enjoy it, even though the Assimilated Iconian and Borg combat was an exercise in shield-draining frustration. from the looks of various bits of feedback, it does look very marmite (you either facerolled it or got steamrollered repeatedly, and there was no real middle ground.)
Yea I've often wondered how we started in 2409 (past) and moved quickly into 2410, then 10 years goes by and since New Romulus, Solanae, Delta, Iconian, and so much more all happened in 1 year.
I would have thought we'd be 2413-2414 at least...
Just finished both parts, for the first time, and I just have two things to say:
1) God damn that was hard! I died numerous times, especially on the ground. Refreshing to have a challenge.
2) As hard as it was to get there, the final minutes of Part 2 make it all worth it! I really wish we could just replay that part, so I can soak it all in. So awesome.
Kudos to both the script author and the voice actor for Abe Lincoln. He absolutely sounded presidential, with the elder statesman manner and precise but warm speech, as the true orator he was. He will be an exemplary diplomat for the Excalbians. The topper: as I think of this, it is Presidents' Day.
Kudos to the sound effects team on the Yarnek's voice. Pretty perfect match to the original.
Great episodes, probably the best since AoY. It might even replace Spectres as my favorite of the game. Like others have said, it is a long mission overall but I like the long intricate focused missions like this the best anyway.
For instance I am not a fan of Wasteland but that is not because of the length, it is because Wasteland is almost a battlezone in that it has a lot of mostly unrelated stuff in it so it does not play as much like a TV episode or novel.
LMoM even scaled perfectly, I took a brand new character (literally, it was her first mission since arriving at ESD) and it went just as smoothly as it does for a more experienced character. The big space battle had a few annoying one-shot-kills from the big fuzzy Borg torpedoes and the Iconian capital ship's main gun but that is no different from the TFOs that feature those ships and it is not a big problem.
Seven and Burnham were a great mix, contrasting Burnham's almost naïve angel view and Seven's snarky devil's advocate approach and the often grim humor that interaction generates.
The big finish battle was great, with a clever use of audio bytes from the various shows.
On the other hand, the TFO from this event is pretty much a lagged out dud. Too many turrets along with mass waves of ships are bad enough, and skimming the ground pulling up from strafing runs makes the camera go crazy (not just the focus effect which is probably supposed to be there, but the fact that the camera tends to jump underground or to inside the ship model) is very annoying to say the least.
Quite often half the player ships or more are dead at any given time, and that probably has more to do with the fact that controls do not respond in a timely manner because of all the combat spam as anything else. There are just too many ships and too many projectiles in the air at once for the engine to handle it all well.
just wondering if the assault squad phaser rifle will ever be offered as a reward again? It was the reward I received my first play thru of Morality episode.
just wondering if the assault squad phaser rifle will ever be offered as a reward again? It was the reward I received my first play thru of Morality episode.
it is already being offered in the lobi store for 50 lobi - that was never supposed to be offered as a mission prize, and that's why it was removed...so if you got one, DON'T get rid of it
especially since it's one of the strongest weapons in the game currently
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
well, since the patch part2, is no longer funny; t'ket borg doesn't move and her attacks are really weak, and hakeev borg killed in a couple of seconds; the borg queen wasn't a problem before the patch, I have a trick to avoid all the traps etc, but now she seems underpowered. i used a new fed tac toon with MK XII gear from missions, and MK XII, MK XIII kit modules.
Comments
With MB, I fast forward the speech boxes, cause I did not want to hear that character and felt she had no business in the STO timeline.
Yes I know, mandate by the IP owner of said persona had to be there. But it soured the experience for me.
It was great to see Old Abe and the rock entity, damn the voice was on point.
The TFO moon map was great, but slows up in the fights.
If we can get more different environments TFOs down the road....it can make more things lively,
That hurts my head....
Haven't done the Romulan arc? Obisek will introduce himself and will tell you it's not a simulation, as opposed to wonder why you're talking about Excalbians when it's clearly Iconians.
Haven't done the temporal war arc? You have no clue of where you are and Noye doesn't know who you are either, though Seven knows the basics of the TCW.
Haven't done the Iconian arc? You have no idea of what is going on (Seven does deduce it, though) and wonder why there is another T'Ket showing up.
That said, there are some things that were forgotten or ignored, like your character still recognizing Heralds and Iconian Weaponry and your Jem'Hadar character still willing to kill the Founder without any hesitation (it's a simulation, yes, but you'd expect some concern about shooting her).
Also, it seems the Dominion knows about the USS Discovery even if you haven't done the missions involving the ISS Discovery. And, unless it's another oversight, that has some... disturbing implications about when the Dominion started observing the other quadrants.
What I am referring to is this specific situation where the Dominion knows about the Discovery despite not even encountering its Mirror counterpart (once again, assuming it's not an oversight and the game assuming you played the missions where you learn about the ship and some of its crew). A ship whose existence was supposedly tightly sealed from records for about 150 years, and which the feats are still not fully known when the files were declassified very recently.
I can expect the Klingons to know about it, because "a ship fighting alongside the legendary Enterprise and the Chancellor's flagship against an army of AI-controlled secret vessels before stranding itself in the future to save the galaxy" is way too good of a story not to be praised in songs.
I can expect the Romulans to know via the Tal Shiar, due to Burnham's connection with Spock, who has been meddling with the Romulan Empire's affairs for decades.
But the Dominion? That is... fascinating. Changeling infiltrators in the highest ranks WAAAAAAY before it was suspected and confirmed by the Changelings themselves?
Also... I don't think that the Jem'hadar player can play this until after they've finished the Gamma story. So their reaction to seeing the female changeling will probably not be favorable.
My character Tsin'xing
While I liked the idea/writing of the mission, there combat portions were dragged out. We probably could have had an abbreviated version of the Noye fight. The end result was that the 1st mission was like 3x the length of an average mission.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
On the downside, the ax... I was kind of hoping for a Borg related item or even an updated version of Borg set from release or even a spiffy consumable maybe in a stack of 10 or something along those lines but hey I get it. Poetic nostalgia and all that jazz...
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
Edit: However, the rest of the episode was top notch. Well done Devs!
But the real difference is how the Excalbians are manipulating the simulation.
My character Tsin'xing
Sounds like a Tetryon Dual pistol with a different name.
My character Tsin'xing
I rather enjoyed the missions, loved the new look Seven (can't wait to see her in Picard) having all the hero ships show up at the end was quite fun and nostalgic.
All in all, I'm more than happy with it.
My character Tsin'xing
Meh, ask me about Disraeli, Gladstone or Churchill. All I know about colonial presidents is from movies to be honest.
They're still wrestling with good vs. evil 150 years later? Shocking! It's not like we have 2500 years of ethics philosophy on Earth doing the same, and even more when you factor in religious texts.
I like the inclusion of Lincoln because, due to timing of the event, I'll get to fight alongside him on his birthday tomorrow.
They gave more explanation, between consoles, Burnham's regular dialogue, and the optional bits, for that than they gave for the TOS episode that served as the framing device for the episodes. Absolutely everything that was important to that scenario was explained.
And yet here I am.
12th Century Swedish knight turned Star Trek Captain
Yea I've often wondered how we started in 2409 (past) and moved quickly into 2410, then 10 years goes by and since New Romulus, Solanae, Delta, Iconian, and so much more all happened in 1 year.
I would have thought we'd be 2413-2414 at least...
1) God damn that was hard! I died numerous times, especially on the ground. Refreshing to have a challenge.
2) As hard as it was to get there, the final minutes of Part 2 make it all worth it! I really wish we could just replay that part, so I can soak it all in. So awesome.
Kudos to both the script author and the voice actor for Abe Lincoln. He absolutely sounded presidential, with the elder statesman manner and precise but warm speech, as the true orator he was. He will be an exemplary diplomat for the Excalbians. The topper: as I think of this, it is Presidents' Day.
Kudos to the sound effects team on the Yarnek's voice. Pretty perfect match to the original.
Thanks Cryptic team!
For instance I am not a fan of Wasteland but that is not because of the length, it is because Wasteland is almost a battlezone in that it has a lot of mostly unrelated stuff in it so it does not play as much like a TV episode or novel.
LMoM even scaled perfectly, I took a brand new character (literally, it was her first mission since arriving at ESD) and it went just as smoothly as it does for a more experienced character. The big space battle had a few annoying one-shot-kills from the big fuzzy Borg torpedoes and the Iconian capital ship's main gun but that is no different from the TFOs that feature those ships and it is not a big problem.
Seven and Burnham were a great mix, contrasting Burnham's almost naïve angel view and Seven's snarky devil's advocate approach and the often grim humor that interaction generates.
The big finish battle was great, with a clever use of audio bytes from the various shows.
On the other hand, the TFO from this event is pretty much a lagged out dud. Too many turrets along with mass waves of ships are bad enough, and skimming the ground pulling up from strafing runs makes the camera go crazy (not just the focus effect which is probably supposed to be there, but the fact that the camera tends to jump underground or to inside the ship model) is very annoying to say the least.
Quite often half the player ships or more are dead at any given time, and that probably has more to do with the fact that controls do not respond in a timely manner because of all the combat spam as anything else. There are just too many ships and too many projectiles in the air at once for the engine to handle it all well.
My character Tsin'xing
especially since it's one of the strongest weapons in the game currently
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"