"Agents of Yesterday" - September 2021 Updates

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AGENTS OF YESTERDAY :: STORYLINE FEEDBACK

TUTORIAL

• New cutscene or two added that I'm sure weren't there before.
• Tarsi & Mears have had a bit of a visual update, which is nice to see.
  The update to Mears is nicely done but Tarsi looks a bit plastic-like, probably because of her blue skin.
• A minor quibble here is that the engineering systems displays still show the ship as a Constitution class instead of a Pioneer Utility Cruiser.
• After re-taking Engineering, Captain Garrett doesn't have the correct audio VA.
• New character poses and talking animations work well at ESD and mingling with the crew. However, a Scotsman will generally not use the phrase "to be sure" at the end of a sentence.
  Additionally, said Scotsman, and the Russian, both look hungover in their new poses.
• Whilst the closeup of [redacted] in Admiral Garrett's office is a welcome new take on the scene, it only serves to highlight the difficulty in capturing the likeness of the actor in question for the shot. We know who it's supposed to be, and it almost looks like them, yet doesn't. (This isn't new to the 'polish' this era of STO has been given, but I wanted to mention it here anyway.)
• It was disappointing we had to lose the original VA for Captain/Admiral Garrett, but it was understandable. Whoever replaced him did a fine job - I'm only experiencing it now for the first time and I'm definitely enjoying the work put in by the new voice actor.

IN THE SHADOW OF CESTUS

• Good use of the newer character poses and animations. New indicators for the walk through the canyon really stand out much better.
• A few of Skavrin's lines are lacking VA, yet they used to play audio just fine:
  - "Now that Ensign Hunter and I did the hard work..."
  - "Back in the academy..."
  - "Absolutely! We should be able to climb..."
• It's a little disappointig that Tarsi no longer speaks but that's not new & is likely intentional for mission replays where she might not even be the Bridge Officer used.

PAINFUL OMENS

• As with the previous, good use of the new poses and character animations, but [redacted] still looks as if he's drunk. What happened to his eyes?

RETURN TO BABEL

• Good to see the new indicators used to help identify which of the conference guests need scanned - this was not so easy originally.

TANGLED WEBS

• T'Met is narrated here, but Skavrin & Tarsi aren't???

THE BATTLE OF CALEB IV

• More good use of newer poses and animations.
• Kor looks fantastic - has he also had some minor updating?

OTHER OPINIONS

• Bridge Officer Requisitions:
  I like Tarsi as a Bridge Officer but Skavrin and T'Met are a little more lacklustre - probably because it'd be too easy to give us a full set of purple-quality bridge officers and then we wouldn't need to put any effort into getting better ones.
  I have access to the Jem'Hadar Vanguard and Delta Quadrant Intelligence bridge officers but cannot use them until I get to the 25th century. I know the 'lore' reason behind this, but that means I'm stuck with Skavrin, T'Met and 1 other bridge officer I'd rather not discharge because I cannot get them again.
  I'd prefer to get 3 rubbish TOS-era bridge officers to fill my Away Team and have Skavrin and T'Met languish forever amongst my bridge officer candidates. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible as I cannot transfer Dilithium or EC to my TOS-era character via the Dilithium Exchange or Account Bank. I understand why access to these has been removed, but it's perhaps time to reconsider how stuff works in 23rd century ESD to accomodate the change.
• Andorian Antenna:
  Animated antenna were introduced to STO quite some time ago - with a little bit of fanfare to boot!
  This was *after* the TOS faction had been introduced to STO, yet the TOS-era antenna attached to the back of the head have not yet had any animations added to them. Is this intended?