test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Unable to Access "Galaxy at Large" Side Quest/Old Featured Episode Arcs on Characters Under Level 65
captan2er0
Member Posts: 837 Arc User
Short, Sweet, and to the Point (TL;DR Version):
Per the discussion title, I am unable to access the "Galaxy at Large"/old Featured Episode arcs that are not a part of the main storyline (Specters, Cold War, and the 2800/Lost Dominion on characters that are below level 65. To my understanding, after reading through the old blog posts from when this change was made and going through the wiki articles for those arcs, the only restriction that is potentially present is finishing the short "Galaxy at Large" mission on Federation characters to unlock these. There is no mention of a level restriction anywhere on unlocking these.
Long, Detailed Version:
Background Information & Origin of Finding Problem:
Having been around Star Trek Online in some shape or form since mid-2009, I've developed a person list of items over the years that I like to obtain on newer characters as soon as possible to help in making the leveling process a little less cumbersome. Even though this isn't as important now as it used to be years ago with all of the underlying changes, I still like to grab a small subset of items out of the gate to have on hand. This includes item rewards from the old Featured Episode arcs. Since I was out of the loop for a while due to things beyond my control and to also take part in the new Klingon Recruit event, I've rolled a couple of newer characters in the last year to have on hand to play through all of the newly added, modified, and updated content from the ground up to see how much things have changed. Historically (i.e. before the side mission changes in 2018), I would go through and play most of the older Featured Episode arcs out of the gate to pick up ship devices, ground equipment, etc. that I liked to run with on lower level characters. Seeing that I did not have these missions prompted a bug report and a back and forth exchange with a GM that lead me to review the the blog article outlining the changes that were made almost three years ago and the wiki articles for those missions.
Digging Things a Little More
Upon clearing "Galaxy at Large" on a new Discovery Starfleet Vulcan ( screenshot #1), I still did not have access to these missions (screenshot #2). As a sanity check, I decided to check on another Discovery Starfleet Character that I noticed I also didn't have these missions on at a lower level a few months ago and with "Galaxy at Large" (screenshot #3) cleared, and I notice that I now have access to those arcs on the Level 65 character (screenshot #4).
Scratching my head and thinking that's odd, I checked my Klingon Recruit for those missions, and I didn't have access to them. I then checked a newer Level 65 character and I had those missions. Not really having the time to power level either the newer Discovery Starfleet character or any of my Klingon recruit characters to 65 due to work and life commitments to verify if level is a restriction on accessing these missions, I rolled a Jem'Hadar character instead since going from 60 to 65 isn't as time consuming as going 1-65. For each level after choosing a faction, I checked to see if I had access to those missions. For levels 60-64, I did not have access to those missions. I soon as I hit 65, I had access to those missions. Since I have not had time to get other characters up to that point to check for myself, I asked a few fellow fleet mates if they could check things for me as they play through their newer characters. For the ones that are sub-65, they also do not have access to those missions. Once I get additional information from them, and/or I get characters up to higher levels to be able to check things myself, I will add follow-up information as I get it. It's also worth noting that these missions are referenced in the dialog in the revamped KDF missions, and it seems really out of place to be referencing something on newer characters that the player may not ever see if they're new(ish) to the game and not aware of those episode arcs.
Suggestions for Mitigation/Correction
Reading into the response I got on the second follow-up in regards to these missions and what I found, I get the impression that these weren't supposed to be locked out to Level 65 since it isn't mentioned or documented anywhere, at least that I've seen. If these are, in fact, supposed to be locked to Level 65, it's probably a smart move to actually document this somewhere officially and either mention that in the "Galaxy at Large" mission or not have that mission available to players until they hit Level 65. If these are not supposed to locked to Level 65, then that needs to be remedied.
Not knowing how the internal workings of things are or how hard it would be to resolve this as game development isn't my background, I have few ideas that could possibly help in mitigating confusion regarding these arcs while also making them a little easier for the player to get to.
Screenshots
Screenshot #1 - Level 17 Discovery Starfleet Engineer with "Galaxy at Large" Cleared
Screenshot #2 - Level 17 Discovery Starfleet Engineer with No Access to Side Quests
Screenshot #3 - Level 65 Discovery Starfleet Scientist with "Galaxy at Large" Cleared
Screenshot #4 - Level 65 Discovery Starfleet Scientist with Access to Side Quests
Per the discussion title, I am unable to access the "Galaxy at Large"/old Featured Episode arcs that are not a part of the main storyline (Specters, Cold War, and the 2800/Lost Dominion on characters that are below level 65. To my understanding, after reading through the old blog posts from when this change was made and going through the wiki articles for those arcs, the only restriction that is potentially present is finishing the short "Galaxy at Large" mission on Federation characters to unlock these. There is no mention of a level restriction anywhere on unlocking these.
Long, Detailed Version:
Background Information & Origin of Finding Problem:
Having been around Star Trek Online in some shape or form since mid-2009, I've developed a person list of items over the years that I like to obtain on newer characters as soon as possible to help in making the leveling process a little less cumbersome. Even though this isn't as important now as it used to be years ago with all of the underlying changes, I still like to grab a small subset of items out of the gate to have on hand. This includes item rewards from the old Featured Episode arcs. Since I was out of the loop for a while due to things beyond my control and to also take part in the new Klingon Recruit event, I've rolled a couple of newer characters in the last year to have on hand to play through all of the newly added, modified, and updated content from the ground up to see how much things have changed. Historically (i.e. before the side mission changes in 2018), I would go through and play most of the older Featured Episode arcs out of the gate to pick up ship devices, ground equipment, etc. that I liked to run with on lower level characters. Seeing that I did not have these missions prompted a bug report and a back and forth exchange with a GM that lead me to review the the blog article outlining the changes that were made almost three years ago and the wiki articles for those missions.
Digging Things a Little More
Upon clearing "Galaxy at Large" on a new Discovery Starfleet Vulcan ( screenshot #1), I still did not have access to these missions (screenshot #2). As a sanity check, I decided to check on another Discovery Starfleet Character that I noticed I also didn't have these missions on at a lower level a few months ago and with "Galaxy at Large" (screenshot #3) cleared, and I notice that I now have access to those arcs on the Level 65 character (screenshot #4).
Scratching my head and thinking that's odd, I checked my Klingon Recruit for those missions, and I didn't have access to them. I then checked a newer Level 65 character and I had those missions. Not really having the time to power level either the newer Discovery Starfleet character or any of my Klingon recruit characters to 65 due to work and life commitments to verify if level is a restriction on accessing these missions, I rolled a Jem'Hadar character instead since going from 60 to 65 isn't as time consuming as going 1-65. For each level after choosing a faction, I checked to see if I had access to those missions. For levels 60-64, I did not have access to those missions. I soon as I hit 65, I had access to those missions. Since I have not had time to get other characters up to that point to check for myself, I asked a few fellow fleet mates if they could check things for me as they play through their newer characters. For the ones that are sub-65, they also do not have access to those missions. Once I get additional information from them, and/or I get characters up to higher levels to be able to check things myself, I will add follow-up information as I get it. It's also worth noting that these missions are referenced in the dialog in the revamped KDF missions, and it seems really out of place to be referencing something on newer characters that the player may not ever see if they're new(ish) to the game and not aware of those episode arcs.
Suggestions for Mitigation/Correction
Reading into the response I got on the second follow-up in regards to these missions and what I found, I get the impression that these weren't supposed to be locked out to Level 65 since it isn't mentioned or documented anywhere, at least that I've seen. If these are, in fact, supposed to be locked to Level 65, it's probably a smart move to actually document this somewhere officially and either mention that in the "Galaxy at Large" mission or not have that mission available to players until they hit Level 65. If these are not supposed to locked to Level 65, then that needs to be remedied.
Not knowing how the internal workings of things are or how hard it would be to resolve this as game development isn't my background, I have few ideas that could possibly help in mitigating confusion regarding these arcs while also making them a little easier for the player to get to.
- Under the Available Tab, on the side menu with "Starfleet Missions" and "Starfleet Info" (screenshots #2 & #4), maybe add another one that is "Galaxy at Large" or something to that effect
- I get it, these aren't supposed to be part of the main story anymore and were split off for a reason, but having these thrown into the "Available" list with no actual sorting doesn't really help with anything other than leaving people confused with there's a boat load of stuff to sort through. Actually moving these off into a side sub menu like how the "Starfleet Missions" and "Starfleet Info" tabs are could help with reducing the amount of clutter under available while also making them a little easier to access.
- Put a "Galaxy at Large" mission tab back under episodes.
- Same as the first point, I get that these were removed to not be in the main story line, but is it really that bad to have an easily accessible side quest tab under episodes? We have the new featured episodes tab whenever new missions are added, so why not have an old featured episodes tab for the missions that are not written into the main story anymore?
- In the case that the Level 65 lock out is intentional or will become intentional, move the existing "Galaxy at Large" mission to a pop-up that the player receives when they ding Level 65 instead of having it available to skip it and available as soon as the player clears the tutorial. Or even add big, bright, bold text saying you can't do this until you're Level 65 to the completion dialog.
- My honest opinion, what's really the point of telling the player they can go do X, Y, and Z at, let's say, Level 5 when they can't for another 60 levels? Doesn't really make sense here to have access to that. I think the easiest way to avoid any confusion there with that would be to call attention to the level restriction, or just not have access to that prompt until a later level.
Screenshots
Screenshot #1 - Level 17 Discovery Starfleet Engineer with "Galaxy at Large" Cleared
Screenshot #2 - Level 17 Discovery Starfleet Engineer with No Access to Side Quests
Screenshot #3 - Level 65 Discovery Starfleet Scientist with "Galaxy at Large" Cleared
Screenshot #4 - Level 65 Discovery Starfleet Scientist with Access to Side Quests
0