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.
I have to be honest, I kinda hate the new missions. The environment art was phenomenal, and I loved the VAs and setpieces, but story wise the whole thing is one gigantic pile of garbage. There's constantly some new McGuffin pulled out of left field the second we come close to winning, and the player is forced into a position of such powerlessness that they can't even open a door.
Starting off, we find everyone in the great hall acting a fool. J'Ula cries and whines about her honor and how J'mpok is a coward over the Hur'q crisis, even though J'Ula has constantly been running away from every fight she starts. She talks about how Martok is the true chancellor, even though he himself has said he didn't really care; if he did, he would have done something about it. Then J'Ula calls everyone useless for being friends with the Federation, even though that alliance is what saved the entire galaxy. Then we get the random patrols cut and pasted into the mission. Apparently this old Klingon virus is good enough to completely turn Federation ships against us, even though the player interact takes 2 seconds and purges the virus completely. Then the Starbase is destroyed, and J'Ula gloats about how fun it is to kill humans. That Starbase probably had a few hundred civilians onboard, but whatever. Then, she launches an attack on the Quvat civilian shipyards (Specifically stated in the mission to be civilian shipyards). She's basically evil in every regard. Then they blow up an entire city.
Second mission, my ship is in orbit of the Alliance Headquarters, with absolutely no defensive satellites or stations or anything. We beam down and go through no security checks, and find out that J'Ula is suspected to be on the planet. We threaten to torture and murder a random guard with Martok (I'm a starfleet officer, what the heck?!) unless he tells us what we need to know. We find J'Ula and she's shouting at Aakar for blowing up a city of innocents, despite trying to blow up a civilian shipyard and successfully blowing up a starbase, and also trying to use the superweapon to blow up Starbase 1 (by the way, the starbase commander mentions the Klingons are targeting evac ships and the HABITAT RING) and constantly trying to launch a campaign to kill everyone in the Federation. But hey, they just have to use the magic H-word and suddenly they can do no wrong.
Then Aakar joins J'mpok somehow? As if that would help either of them? Also you're locked in a basement, and you can't just override the door controls like you've done millions of times in the past? We hail our ship, but DON'T tell them to stop J'mpok before he uses the weapon? J'mpok has a fleet in orbit now, and beams in a million troops to start murdering everyone there, including Romulan and Federation security teams and even their delegates? But no alarm sounds and the CHAIRMAN OF THE ALLIANCE doesn't know what's happening outside his door? Also he sold out the Alliance to J'Ula (the person who criticized the alliance and hates the Federation) to stop J'mpok from...doing something, even though there is no evidence he had done or would do something heinous. Reminder that 1 week ago in game time J'mpok was in a somewhat stable position with the Alliance backing him and his only threat being an old man who doesn't even want the chancellorship, and a wild terrorist hellbent on destroying the empire's greatest ally. But sure, instead of just waiting for J'Ula to leave the planet surface, or even just sending the same troops down but telling them to not murder their allies is a bad decision, and he instead wants to kill...everyone, including the many people who support him, as if Alliance headquarters is such an easy place to raze (Which it is, what the flying frick?!)
So the player is suddenly great chums with J'Ula (Again, we still hate her, but her character feels like it's someone else entirely). And we go talk to the traitorous Chairman. Then J'mpok blows up the entire HQ. With the weapon on his ship. In orbit of the Alliance Headquarters. With a full fleet of ships alongside him. And my ship. The player character decides now is a good time to grab a vulcan meditation sesh, and just stares at the wall of death as if this was something we hadn't seen before (I've faced down imminent doom plenty of times, why am I just standing here?!) Then we trip walking up a flight of like 2 stairs. And then we keep sitting there, even though standing up takes two seconds and the wall of death is slower than a Pakled's train of thought. But then J'Ula comes to the rescue! "This is no way for a warrior to die." (She tried to use this same weapon against a shipyard and an entire starbase, alongside poisoning the elachi and creating numerous rifts across the galaxy) We stare longingly into each other's eyes, because we have all the time in the world I guess, then finally WE STAND UP AND MOVE! We get to the stupidly tiny transporter room (this is a massive conference hall, right?) and stand around for a few years waiting for the wall of death to approach from the other end of the continent. Why didn't we use the front door? I dunno.
We finally get into our ship, which has just been sitting there for a while at this point, and immediately we have to blast our closest comrades out of the sky. Even though my ship was almost certainly running sensor sweeps and would have obviously tried to investigate the massive buildup of mushroom energy on the chancellor's ship that then hit the planet like some kind of weapon. And there was an entire supposed fleet alongside J'mpok. Nobody saw it? At all?
We try to talk our way out of things, considering we're supposed to be trusted companions to these captains, but they don't listen to us. We turn our friends' ships into swiss cheese, and now that there's nobody to stop us, we can send them all the evidence to show we're not guilty, including sensor data, firsthand witnesses, and the very obvious logic of "I'm Starfleet. Not only do I have no interest in Klingon Empire affairs, J'Ula also wouldn't trust me in a million years. Plus, I have a service record longer than the Lord of the Rings from just the last 2 years in the fleet, so it's reasonable to assume I can be trusted over a man who has the mycelial weapon on his ship right now."
And you know what we do? We run away. Despite insurmountable evidence and a ship strong enough to take on 3 fleets and multiple flagships, we run.
We run like honorable Klingons.
This a million times. Please ambassadorkael feed this back.
I'd even forgotten about that awful moment when my max tier around 200 endeavour points tactical officer trips over his own feet after looking stupidly at the cloud death slowly coming towards him. And needs the helping hand of some useless b***h.
Mostly I'm happy to play and don't post but how utterly useless you made the player feel is sadly something special. The only way this could be redeemed at this point is if it turns out my captain has been playing everyone all along and installs Garek as head of the Klingon Empire as they are all useless backstabbing scum. Least when he was about in Victory is Life story arc it was nice to find someone with some agency.
These are people we fought alongside in the Iconian war. A war based on our very extinction. None of them should ever have doubted our innocence and they all should have offered us the chance to speak regardless of our faction.
This bothers me as well. Kagran, in particular - we're the ones who made sure his crazy Iconian War plans worked, but at the word of a guy he doesn't even technically work for anymore, we're enemies of the state? Yeaaaaah.
Also Played Centre Cannot Hold, and after warping out at the end? it claimed I hadn't STARTED it yet. Hated the discovery content except blowing them all up. There is no way J'Ula would not be eliminated once there was no witnesses (even all my Fed toons would have shot her when they got the chance). Opens a bit for more information and story for the Elachi. hopefully we can eliminate all traces of that petaQ and her house. So these two episodes - never play again.
I have to agree that J'mpok's turn seemed to come too soon, granted my justification for it is that J'mpok isn't as smart as he thinks he is and is played by Akaar.
Edit: Regarding J'Ula becoming an ally she is an ally of convinience, our characters even fed ones outright state "this does not make us friends". Such things happen in real life too USA and USSR were allies during ww2 even though they were enemies before and after said conflict.
I could be wrong but there may be a wild card in all this that we may be forgetting. And correct me if I AM wrong. That wild card is I think Daniels. Because you meet him at the end of the Disco tutorial if I remember correctly, I don't recall what he said exactly but you may have to consider the fact that he may be operating under the Temporal Prime directive in that he tells you basicly what you need to hear, or something along those lines. So could he show up at some point to help explain things?
These are people we fought alongside in the Iconian war. A war based on our very extinction. None of them should ever have doubted our innocence and they all should have offered us the chance to speak regardless of our faction.
This bothers me as well. Kagran, in particular - we're the ones who made sure his crazy Iconian War plans worked, but at the word of a guy he doesn't even technically work for anymore, we're enemies of the state? Yeaaaaah.
THIS is another huge thing to me. I mean... what the frell, Cryptic? Seriously? I might not play the new stuff on my alts until another mission or two explains all this giant stinking pile of cow flop to me.
I could be wrong but there may be a wild card in all this that we may be forgetting. And correct me if I AM wrong. That wild card is I think Daniels. Because you meet him at the end of the Disco tutorial if I remember correctly, I don't recall what he said exactly but you may have to consider the fact that he may be operating under the Temporal Prime directive in that he tells you basicly what you need to hear, or something along those lines. So could he show up at some point to help explain things?
Daniels talks to the player in the Downfall Mission (which I think is the second in the Age of Discovery arc).
As for feedback, very pretty. Khitomer was nice, well lit, and open. J'mpok's model is nice, as is Aakar's. Didn't actually mind the missions per se. Have been waiting for J'mpok since day one of playing my KDF pirate captain to turn around, twirl his moustache, laugh maniacally (backed with thunderclap and lightning strike) and do something villainous involving my character and trying to pin it on her.
The plot of the new missions is a bit generic, and I'm shocked that J'Ula didn't realise what Aakar was doing, given how good she is at Machiavellian machinations. I could see Aakar's betrayal before it happens, so J'Ula not seeing it coming is totally out of character for her. She is not a character to sympathize with.
Disappointed that Shon who LITERALLY owes the player his life (Mission: Sphere of Influence) which is something an Andorian would never just blow off (grumble about it like Shran does when Archer saved him in Enterprise) just turns on the player. Kagran does turn too but he's a Loyal Klingon to the Empire and J'mpok as Chancellor, so I don't really blame him.
Glad Koran sides with the player, and Jarok doesn't turn on you either.
More enjoyable than most Discovery content, and shows Cryptic can make interesting plots from scraps and dregs. Just wish they'd do it more often and with original material.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,577Community Moderator
I kinda get irritated when people bring up how powerful their character is as an argument against how a story is told.
"My character has x skill points but does y in a cutscene? BLASPHEMY!"
Player strength does NOT factor into storytelling. As far as the story is concerned, the player is no different than any other character taking part in the scene.
And as for people complaining about how it turned out... don't forget that the story arc has only JUST BEGUN. We will get more context as the story progresses.
Disappointed that Shon who LITERALLY owes the player his life (Mission: Sphere of Influence) which is something an Andorian would never just blow off (grumble about it like Shran does when Archer saved him in Enterprise) just turns on the player. Kagran does turn too but he's a Loyal Klingon to the Empire and J'mpok as Chancellor, so I don't really blame him.
Glad Koran sides with the player, and Jarok doesn't turn on you either.
Its faction dependant. Play on a Fed, and Shon will side with you, while Koren will fight you. It does seem like there is faction dependant dialog as well on Kitomer. The Fed ambassador will react differently to a Fed then a KDF. And I have a feeling the same is true of the Dominion and Romulan ambassadors as well.
I don't have a problem with my character tripping (well, I do, but I can accept that tripping happens naturally). It happens. It's an overdone, forced plot device that makes me furious every single time it gets used, but I can accept that tripping does indeed happen.
What I can't accept, however, is my character standing there for a few hours just staring at the cloud, then just not standing up once they trip. J'Ula had time to walk back to me, spout some cheesy line that the writers tried REALLY HARD to make her come off as a good person suddenly, then my character hesitates to accept her hand, then they stare at each other for another couple hours, and finally they stand up. Why couldn't my trained military officer stand themselves back up without help? Why couldn't they move before the death wall was 2 feet away?
Yeah, in the story my character might not be walking around with kit modules and traits and devices that make them survive inside the corona of a star without an EV suit, but in canon they HAVE faced orbital bombardments, fleets of ships that blotted out a star inside a dyson sphere, and run headfirst into a borg command diamond and taken down an Assimilated Iconian, Secundus, and Control-Borg Seven BY HAND. Those things actually happened in the story, but you're telling me that a blue blob of expanding mushroom soup is enough to make them freeze up in fear?
Khitomer Discord is way better than the other mission, centre cant hold... if you ignore all the plot holes and plot devices... folks just dont act like normal but as story dictates. infinitely better than multiple patrols repacked into 1 episode.
I realize this is for the missions, but there doesn't seem to be a topic for the TFO. And I have to say, it's easily one of the worst I have played since STO started.
Firstly, there seem to be no less than three different briefings. Somehow still the least tedious part of the TFO
Secondly, anything that requires you to sit and guard something is not fun.
Skipped through the text(what bits I read seemed lacklustre) just to shorten the episodes and most likely will never replay them. I'll stick to the TFO for my reward getting.
Edit. Just saw a post about the TFO, seems that might be weak to.
I don't have a problem with my character tripping (well, I do, but I can accept that tripping happens naturally). It happens. It's an overdone, forced plot device that makes me furious every single time it gets used, but I can accept that tripping does indeed happen.
What I can't accept, however, is my character standing there for a few hours just staring at the cloud, then just not standing up once they trip. J'Ula had time to walk back to me, spout some cheesy line that the writers tried REALLY HARD to make her come off as a good person suddenly, then my character hesitates to accept her hand, then they stare at each other for another couple hours, and finally they stand up. Why couldn't my trained military officer stand themselves back up without help? Why couldn't they move before the death wall was 2 feet away?
Yeah, in the story my character might not be walking around with kit modules and traits and devices that make them survive inside the corona of a star without an EV suit, but in canon they HAVE faced orbital bombardments, fleets of ships that blotted out a star inside a dyson sphere, and run headfirst into a borg command diamond and taken down an Assimilated Iconian, Secundus, and Control-Borg Seven BY HAND. Those things actually happened in the story, but you're telling me that a blue blob of expanding mushroom soup is enough to make them freeze up in fear?
actually it might actually because you have faced those things, your character essentially had a panic attack due to shell shock, it's not because the thing by itself is that scary but it was the straw that broke the camel's back (or your mind in this case).
First mission was just a boring slog. As others have said, it was basically patrol gameplay rolled into a storyline mission. The whole thing felt like mindless busywork that could've made exactly the same point with only one space battle instead of 3. Please stop artificially padding missions like this.
The second mission was much better from a gameplay and atmos point of view (very pretty map and all that), but the story was nonsense. Blink at the wrong time and you'll miss J'mpok becoming the bad guy.
Even with your eyes wide open at all times, it's ridiculous. J'Ula and Adet'pa get you back into the main hall, and suddenly you're shooting at KDF forces. For no other reason (at this point) than that J'Ula has told you that Aakar has joined forces with J'mpok, and that makes J'mpok evil. Yes, J'mpok ultimately shows his hand by firing the mycelial weapon, but he hasn't actually done that yet at this point of the story. As far as Martok and the player are concerned, until J'mpok fires the weapon, J'Ula could be lying. But we take her at face value, join with her and don't even try to talk to any of the KDF Officers.
I assume that they're supposed to be mercilessly butchering all Alliance personnel on Khitomer, not just House Mo'kai, but it's not that clearly communicated. I only saw House Mo'kai troops being shot. Which is what we were doing literally 5 minutes previously. The whole change of allegiances happens too quickly without sufficient explanation. At the very least, J'mpok should've fired the weapon before Martok and the player turned. Or the fact that J'mpok was wiping out everyone on Khitomer made more obvious.
Not to mention that wtf is J'mpok doing anyway? Does he think he can do enough damage to the Alliance to cripple both the Romulan Republic Fleet and Starfleet before they realise what he's doing so he can take over the Galaxy? Dubious, since he's now admitted to Shon & Kagran that he has the mycelial weapon, which means he can't use it again and blame it on J'Ula.
And then as the others, particularly disqord, have said, we have extra insult when Kagran and Shon, people we've fought to save the Galaxy alongside, follow orders like mindless bureaucrats and don't even contemplate listening to the player. Shon even automatically assumes that a charge that'll stick in court (nevermind things like extradition if you're non-KDF) can be made and there'll be a trial based on nothing but J'mpok's word.
You have to have more respect for your players and the narrative and characters you've built over 10 years than this.
Finally since presumably the end game here is J'mpok killed or deposed, P-L-E-A-S-E do not have J'Ula or any other House Mo'kai Klingorc become the Chancellor. Give it back to Martok.
Not sure how much sense the story makes but I guess that one is a matter of taste. I appreciate all kind of story content as it adds flavour to the game.
For the technical side:
They are too long. It's a real drag to play them (for the love of god fix the rescue timers in Khitomer....). On the upside the rewards are more or less pointless which means you don't have to play them ever again after playing them once to follow the story. Which is a good thing for story episodes in my opinion, I played some old ones 50+ times for rewards for all my chars.... I don't even wanna think about playing those 2 for getting 1-3 different items per character.
Since there is no feedback thread for "Best served Cold":
This is an absolutely horrible TFO. You took everything people DIDN'T want in a TFO and just mixed it together. Completely pointless timers (for the love of god why would anyone need briefing timers longer than 30 seconds), far too long, no way to shorten phases by active gameplay, confusing gameplay altogether.
Disappointed that Shon who LITERALLY owes the player his life (Mission: Sphere of Influence) which is something an Andorian would never just blow off (grumble about it like Shran does when Archer saved him in Enterprise) just turns on the player. Kagran does turn too but he's a Loyal Klingon to the Empire and J'mpok as Chancellor, so I don't really blame him.
Glad Koran sides with the player, and Jarok doesn't turn on you either.
Its faction dependant. Play on a Fed, and Shon will side with you, while Koren will fight you. It does seem like there is faction dependant dialog as well on Kitomer. The Fed ambassador will react differently to a Fed then a KDF. And I have a feeling the same is true of the Dominion and Romulan ambassadors as well.
Should have realised the person siding with you would have been faction based. Thank you Rattler for clearing that up.
Since there is no feedback thread for "Best served Cold":
This is an absolutely horrible TFO. You took everything people DIDN'T want in a TFO and just mixed it together. Completely pointless timers (for the love of god why would anyone need briefing timers longer than 30 seconds), far too long, no way to shorten phases by active gameplay, confusing gameplay altogether.
Except for the one briefing timer that is like 90 seconds, I love the new TFO and disagree strongly with everything you said. I love that some players can't shorten the phases by what you call "active game play." I detest every TFO that can be nullified by one or 2 people that firehose DPS. I love that Cryptic is creating content that those characters can't suck the fun out of. I love the different phases offering options for different play styles, whether you're fast and good at chasing down the transports or better at defending a set location.
I love the new TFO. I also love both of the missions. I think people who want wham-bam-thank-you-mx missions have the patrols now so missions can be a longer (like they've always been). They're setup so you only need to run them once for the reward. After that you run for fun. The event itself gives you options for different play styles so if you don't like repeating the missions or the TFO daily for your event credit then run two of the patrols.
I still remember repeating that Delta mission for the Samsar so many times I ended up able to complete the maze and get all the consoles and optional by muscle memory and under the achievement time. That was torture after the first few times. The new event format with many options is so great.
Game play:
The constant waves of ships...that got old very quickly.
Story:
Many have already posted in depth breakdowns. I'll just say this...I see your story angle, not everything is black and white. There are no good choices in the world...in fact it's full of bad, and even worse, choices...and you sometimes have to ally with monsters in order to destroy monsters. That said, I do hope we get to a chance to end both J'mpok, AND J'ula...anything less would be...dishonorable. Perhaps the story can end with the elevation of Martok to his former role as Chancellor...or maybe even Worf.
Played the missions last night. The Cutscenes, animations and environments are really awesome and it is always refreshing to see that it continues to be developed forward.
The story is a bit interesting but at the same time confusing. During the the second mission when Adep'ta (spell) shows up felt like a "No one expect the Spanish inqusition" moment. Might have missed something, I dunno who she is and how she just showed up and gave us a backstory on the spot.
However, I agree what J'ula says about J'mpok, mostly. Had no problem with that J'mpok was "evil" and became the villain in the end. But since the story is not over, I won't say to much since the end of the arc is still a mystery for us players.
With everything said and done; I overall liked the missions, kept me good entertained.
oooff, three threads about the same thing and two even official. Ok, first about the story and the twist; coppypasted from the announcement thread:
J'mpok always had a bit of a fishy thing going. This almost seemed to much for him though. What surprises me more is the 180° on J'Ula. Did she finally read the 1,2,3 my little recent KDF History book? Tried to get this T'Ket nobody likes into an alliance and decided to look up "Iconain" afterwards? I only played with my KDF main and it was mildly confusing. I assume playing it with any other faction would... IDK; I think I postpone playing it with other factions for now.
...J'Ula... I guess she will be next Chancellor. I hope there will a bit more background to her sudden change. Its ok to not have her as a "everyone but me is a meany" villain anymore, but to know why would be neat
The other story part with the supervirus was... meh. Sorry. Suddenly they have a supervirus that takes over entire fleets and destroys bases? Yeah... it had almost comedic value in the extend that happened. I loved the first part with the speech in the council though. In general all the in-game cinematics. Great job, was fun watching them in both missions.
Played the missions last night. The Cutscenes, animations and environments are really awesome and it is always refreshing to see that it continues to be developed forward.
The story is a bit interesting but at the same time confusing. During the the second mission when Adep'ta (spell) shows up felt like a "No one expect the Spanish inqusition" moment. Might have missed something, I dunno who she is and how she just showed up and gave us a backstory on the spot.
Think Adep'ta shows up in a story blurb on the site here, as the 'witch of nimbus' or something silly like that. So was seen, just not in game.
However, I agree what J'ula says about J'mpok, mostly. Had no problem with that J'mpok was "evil" and became the villain in the end. But since the story is not over, I won't say to much since the end of the arc is still a mystery for us players.
With everything said and done; I overall liked the missions, kept me good entertained.
It reminds me of something J'mpok said during the Temporal arc, that it was just one side of the circle, and the other side would come around and see hostilities again. Obviously, since he's willing to cause them. Also, again, I think the big thrust of what's going to happen is in the one thing she says about leadership of the Klingons. She's not gonna lead them to 'bring the Federation to its knees' again (especially since oftentimes she's stuck with a fed, and has the decency to rescue them, that's certainly a change from things she's said right in these missions even), but did mention that J'mpok seized the position of Chancellor illegally and dishonorably. a 'fight to the death' where the 'dead' person is quite glaringly, at this point, still alive. One who was almost certainly a better ally over the years, than J'mpok not holding his Empire back from going into a needless war manipulated by B'vat and whomever. I bet a lot of people would rather see Martok back as Chancellor, and since they have the actor now to VA him, well...
Anything but J'Ula becoming chancellor. I'd delete every one of my KDFs if that happened. Granted, there's only 2, but still.
I'm still banking on it being the Female Changeling though. You don't end a mission with a Dukaan scanning the puddle of founder goo (which wasn't ash, like most founders become when they die), and then make a "Hmm..." face unless she isn't dead. It's blatant foreshadowing, and this is what I think it'll be.
I'm beginning to think that J'mpoc did not survive when he was poisoned by the Nakhul posing as a Romulan a few years ago. An Undine? Unlikely. Changeling? Also unlikely. Nakhul? Tal Shiar? Something does not add up. I started being suspicious when he refused to fight against the H'urq.
Dahar Master Qor'aS
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,577Community Moderator
Should have realised the person siding with you would have been faction based. Thank you Rattler for clearing that up.
You're welcome. I don't know who will side with you as a Romulan or Dominion, could be Kagran and the Kitomer, or it could just default to which you allied with.
Should have realised the person siding with you would have been faction based. Thank you Rattler for clearing that up.
You're welcome. I don't know who will side with you as a Romulan or Dominion, could be Kagran and the Kitomer, or it could just default to which you allied with.
I think it defaults to who you're allied with, played it on a Rom and that's how it went. My Fedrom had Shon side with her, same as my fed.
<soapbox>
On another rant note, I have to agree with those who questioned Kagran's actions in the new missions. So much for "true honor being to do what is right, regardless of the cost". Hope he remembers that sometime soon, rather than blindly following J'mpok into firing on the one who ended the Iconian war with him. He should never have forgot it in the first place.
Should have realised the person siding with you would have been faction based. Thank you Rattler for clearing that up.
You're welcome. I don't know who will side with you as a Romulan or Dominion, could be Kagran and the Khitomer, or it could just default to which you allied with.
Played it on a fedrom, it defaults to whoever you allied with.
Sidenote, I agree with all the people who complained about Kagran. so much for "True honor means doing what is right regardless of potential cost". I can only hope he remembers that sometime later, when he remembers what your char did to stop the Iconian war. Rather than blindly supporting the chancellor and not caring for proof. Totally dips his character into the septic tank for what he comes out covered with.
Comments
#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!"
This a million times. Please ambassadorkael feed this back.
I'd even forgotten about that awful moment when my max tier around 200 endeavour points tactical officer trips over his own feet after looking stupidly at the cloud death slowly coming towards him. And needs the helping hand of some useless b***h.
Mostly I'm happy to play and don't post but how utterly useless you made the player feel is sadly something special. The only way this could be redeemed at this point is if it turns out my captain has been playing everyone all along and installs Garek as head of the Klingon Empire as they are all useless backstabbing scum. Least when he was about in Victory is Life story arc it was nice to find someone with some agency.
This bothers me as well. Kagran, in particular - we're the ones who made sure his crazy Iconian War plans worked, but at the word of a guy he doesn't even technically work for anymore, we're enemies of the state? Yeaaaaah.
"There's No Way Like Poway!"
Real Join Date: October 2010
I could be wrong but there may be a wild card in all this that we may be forgetting. And correct me if I AM wrong. That wild card is I think Daniels. Because you meet him at the end of the Disco tutorial if I remember correctly, I don't recall what he said exactly but you may have to consider the fact that he may be operating under the Temporal Prime directive in that he tells you basicly what you need to hear, or something along those lines. So could he show up at some point to help explain things?
THIS is another huge thing to me. I mean... what the frell, Cryptic? Seriously? I might not play the new stuff on my alts until another mission or two explains all this giant stinking pile of cow flop to me.
Daniels talks to the player in the Downfall Mission (which I think is the second in the Age of Discovery arc).
As for feedback, very pretty. Khitomer was nice, well lit, and open. J'mpok's model is nice, as is Aakar's. Didn't actually mind the missions per se. Have been waiting for J'mpok since day one of playing my KDF pirate captain to turn around, twirl his moustache, laugh maniacally (backed with thunderclap and lightning strike) and do something villainous involving my character and trying to pin it on her.
The plot of the new missions is a bit generic, and I'm shocked that J'Ula didn't realise what Aakar was doing, given how good she is at Machiavellian machinations.
I could see Aakar's betrayal before it happens, so J'Ula not seeing it coming is totally out of character for her. She is not a character to sympathize with.
Disappointed that Shon who LITERALLY owes the player his life (Mission: Sphere of Influence) which is something an Andorian would never just blow off (grumble about it like Shran does when Archer saved him in Enterprise) just turns on the player. Kagran does turn too but he's a Loyal Klingon to the Empire and J'mpok as Chancellor, so I don't really blame him.
Glad Koran sides with the player, and Jarok doesn't turn on you either.
More enjoyable than most Discovery content, and shows Cryptic can make interesting plots from scraps and dregs. Just wish they'd do it more often and with original material.
"My character has x skill points but does y in a cutscene? BLASPHEMY!"
Player strength does NOT factor into storytelling. As far as the story is concerned, the player is no different than any other character taking part in the scene.
And as for people complaining about how it turned out... don't forget that the story arc has only JUST BEGUN. We will get more context as the story progresses.
Its faction dependant. Play on a Fed, and Shon will side with you, while Koren will fight you. It does seem like there is faction dependant dialog as well on Kitomer. The Fed ambassador will react differently to a Fed then a KDF. And I have a feeling the same is true of the Dominion and Romulan ambassadors as well.
What I can't accept, however, is my character standing there for a few hours just staring at the cloud, then just not standing up once they trip. J'Ula had time to walk back to me, spout some cheesy line that the writers tried REALLY HARD to make her come off as a good person suddenly, then my character hesitates to accept her hand, then they stare at each other for another couple hours, and finally they stand up. Why couldn't my trained military officer stand themselves back up without help? Why couldn't they move before the death wall was 2 feet away?
Yeah, in the story my character might not be walking around with kit modules and traits and devices that make them survive inside the corona of a star without an EV suit, but in canon they HAVE faced orbital bombardments, fleets of ships that blotted out a star inside a dyson sphere, and run headfirst into a borg command diamond and taken down an Assimilated Iconian, Secundus, and Control-Borg Seven BY HAND. Those things actually happened in the story, but you're telling me that a blue blob of expanding mushroom soup is enough to make them freeze up in fear?
Firstly, there seem to be no less than three different briefings. Somehow still the least tedious part of the TFO
Secondly, anything that requires you to sit and guard something is not fun.
Edit. Just saw a post about the TFO, seems that might be weak to.
actually it might actually because you have faced those things, your character essentially had a panic attack due to shell shock, it's not because the thing by itself is that scary but it was the straw that broke the camel's back (or your mind in this case).
The second mission was much better from a gameplay and atmos point of view (very pretty map and all that), but the story was nonsense. Blink at the wrong time and you'll miss J'mpok becoming the bad guy.
Even with your eyes wide open at all times, it's ridiculous. J'Ula and Adet'pa get you back into the main hall, and suddenly you're shooting at KDF forces. For no other reason (at this point) than that J'Ula has told you that Aakar has joined forces with J'mpok, and that makes J'mpok evil. Yes, J'mpok ultimately shows his hand by firing the mycelial weapon, but he hasn't actually done that yet at this point of the story. As far as Martok and the player are concerned, until J'mpok fires the weapon, J'Ula could be lying. But we take her at face value, join with her and don't even try to talk to any of the KDF Officers.
I assume that they're supposed to be mercilessly butchering all Alliance personnel on Khitomer, not just House Mo'kai, but it's not that clearly communicated. I only saw House Mo'kai troops being shot. Which is what we were doing literally 5 minutes previously. The whole change of allegiances happens too quickly without sufficient explanation. At the very least, J'mpok should've fired the weapon before Martok and the player turned. Or the fact that J'mpok was wiping out everyone on Khitomer made more obvious.
Not to mention that wtf is J'mpok doing anyway? Does he think he can do enough damage to the Alliance to cripple both the Romulan Republic Fleet and Starfleet before they realise what he's doing so he can take over the Galaxy? Dubious, since he's now admitted to Shon & Kagran that he has the mycelial weapon, which means he can't use it again and blame it on J'Ula.
And then as the others, particularly disqord, have said, we have extra insult when Kagran and Shon, people we've fought to save the Galaxy alongside, follow orders like mindless bureaucrats and don't even contemplate listening to the player. Shon even automatically assumes that a charge that'll stick in court (nevermind things like extradition if you're non-KDF) can be made and there'll be a trial based on nothing but J'mpok's word.
You have to have more respect for your players and the narrative and characters you've built over 10 years than this.
Finally since presumably the end game here is J'mpok killed or deposed, P-L-E-A-S-E do not have J'Ula or any other House Mo'kai Klingorc become the Chancellor. Give it back to Martok.
For the technical side:
They are too long. It's a real drag to play them (for the love of god fix the rescue timers in Khitomer....). On the upside the rewards are more or less pointless which means you don't have to play them ever again after playing them once to follow the story. Which is a good thing for story episodes in my opinion, I played some old ones 50+ times for rewards for all my chars.... I don't even wanna think about playing those 2 for getting 1-3 different items per character.
Since there is no feedback thread for "Best served Cold":
This is an absolutely horrible TFO. You took everything people DIDN'T want in a TFO and just mixed it together. Completely pointless timers (for the love of god why would anyone need briefing timers longer than 30 seconds), far too long, no way to shorten phases by active gameplay, confusing gameplay altogether.
Should have realised the person siding with you would have been faction based. Thank you Rattler for clearing that up.
Except for the one briefing timer that is like 90 seconds, I love the new TFO and disagree strongly with everything you said. I love that some players can't shorten the phases by what you call "active game play." I detest every TFO that can be nullified by one or 2 people that firehose DPS. I love that Cryptic is creating content that those characters can't suck the fun out of. I love the different phases offering options for different play styles, whether you're fast and good at chasing down the transports or better at defending a set location.
I love the new TFO. I also love both of the missions. I think people who want wham-bam-thank-you-mx missions have the patrols now so missions can be a longer (like they've always been). They're setup so you only need to run them once for the reward. After that you run for fun. The event itself gives you options for different play styles so if you don't like repeating the missions or the TFO daily for your event credit then run two of the patrols.
I still remember repeating that Delta mission for the Samsar so many times I ended up able to complete the maze and get all the consoles and optional by muscle memory and under the achievement time. That was torture after the first few times. The new event format with many options is so great.
The constant waves of ships...that got old very quickly.
Story:
Many have already posted in depth breakdowns. I'll just say this...I see your story angle, not everything is black and white. There are no good choices in the world...in fact it's full of bad, and even worse, choices...and you sometimes have to ally with monsters in order to destroy monsters. That said, I do hope we get to a chance to end both J'mpok, AND J'ula...anything less would be...dishonorable. Perhaps the story can end with the elevation of Martok to his former role as Chancellor...or maybe even Worf.
The story is a bit interesting but at the same time confusing. During the the second mission when Adep'ta (spell) shows up felt like a "No one expect the Spanish inqusition" moment. Might have missed something, I dunno who she is and how she just showed up and gave us a backstory on the spot.
However, I agree what J'ula says about J'mpok, mostly. Had no problem with that J'mpok was "evil" and became the villain in the end. But since the story is not over, I won't say to much since the end of the arc is still a mystery for us players.
With everything said and done; I overall liked the missions, kept me good entertained.
...J'Ula... I guess she will be next Chancellor. I hope there will a bit more background to her sudden change. Its ok to not have her as a "everyone but me is a meany" villain anymore, but to know why would be neat
The other story part with the supervirus was... meh. Sorry. Suddenly they have a supervirus that takes over entire fleets and destroys bases? Yeah... it had almost comedic value in the extend that happened. I loved the first part with the speech in the council though. In general all the in-game cinematics. Great job, was fun watching them in both missions.
Think Adep'ta shows up in a story blurb on the site here, as the 'witch of nimbus' or something silly like that. So was seen, just not in game.
It reminds me of something J'mpok said during the Temporal arc, that it was just one side of the circle, and the other side would come around and see hostilities again. Obviously, since he's willing to cause them. Also, again, I think the big thrust of what's going to happen is in the one thing she says about leadership of the Klingons. She's not gonna lead them to 'bring the Federation to its knees' again (especially since oftentimes she's stuck with a fed, and has the decency to rescue them, that's certainly a change from things she's said right in these missions even), but did mention that J'mpok seized the position of Chancellor illegally and dishonorably. a 'fight to the death' where the 'dead' person is quite glaringly, at this point, still alive. One who was almost certainly a better ally over the years, than J'mpok not holding his Empire back from going into a needless war manipulated by B'vat and whomever. I bet a lot of people would rather see Martok back as Chancellor, and since they have the actor now to VA him, well...
I'm still banking on it being the Female Changeling though. You don't end a mission with a Dukaan scanning the puddle of founder goo (which wasn't ash, like most founders become when they die), and then make a "Hmm..." face unless she isn't dead. It's blatant foreshadowing, and this is what I think it'll be.
You're welcome. I don't know who will side with you as a Romulan or Dominion, could be Kagran and the Kitomer, or it could just default to which you allied with.
I think it defaults to who you're allied with, played it on a Rom and that's how it went. My Fedrom had Shon side with her, same as my fed.
<soapbox>
On another rant note, I have to agree with those who questioned Kagran's actions in the new missions. So much for "true honor being to do what is right, regardless of the cost". Hope he remembers that sometime soon, rather than blindly following J'mpok into firing on the one who ended the Iconian war with him. He should never have forgot it in the first place.
Played it on a fedrom, it defaults to whoever you allied with.
Sidenote, I agree with all the people who complained about Kagran. so much for "True honor means doing what is right regardless of potential cost". I can only hope he remembers that sometime later, when he remembers what your char did to stop the Iconian war. Rather than blindly supporting the chancellor and not caring for proof. Totally dips his character into the septic tank for what he comes out covered with.