I thought it was a breath of fresh air, considering the last few TFOs were 30 seconds of content and 14 minutes of wave after wave after wave after wave of spam… At least this has clear goals and an end… I’m fine with an occasional TFO that doesn’t require being a dps master or taking 20 minutes to finish…
Watch them TRIBBLE with it and turn it into something no one wants to play when this is done…
CRM
Have you played Guillotine ? A series of goals instead of timed waves, where a high-DPS team gets through it quickly, and less well geared players take longer. Connecting and then defending the anchors feels much more like I'm doing something than Wolf. Just my opinion of course.
Well, I guess these Mirror Borg are supposed to be the most powerful Borg yet, but it is my understanding that Voyager nerfed the Borg as part of the threat-creep that I understand existed.
I did not watch Voyager, that is just a commonly shared opinion that I have heard.
You know...
Writer 1: "We need a new big bad. Some really dangerous enemy."
Writer 2: "Okay. I'll pass the word to our concept artists and see what they can come up with. Hmmm... What should we have them do to make it clear how dangerous they are?"
Writer 1: Let's have them whip the Borg in a decidedly lopsided way!"
Writer 2: "Brilliant!"
Writer 1: "Brilliant!"
And then that happens again. And maybe again. And so it's like the game itself, where the Borg were supposed to be the big bads, but as the game went along, level cap increases made them more and more trivial and other enemies came in to take their place as the big bads.
While this is essentially what happened, the Borg (singular) was already ruined when it became the Borg (plural) with First Contact the movie. For that movie the conept of a hive mind around a cybernetic race that got the short end of a deal fusing with their technology became a very basic story of a Evil Queen and her personal army. A decision, by the way, which was made up out of universe because the movie was supposed to be a casual action film and the original concept of the Borg was deemed too complicated for a blockbuster movie - I'm not making this up, this is what happened. That extended into Voyager and every time the Borg showed up they became less and less interesting. Then the whole seven-of-nine arc deconstructed the mystery further until the Borg were just annoying cannon fodder.
The Wolf 359 TFO is brilliant in so far as it is a call back to the days when the Borg was still threatening. We were never supposed to see more than a single cube in action. The mirror Borg concept could have been the opportunity to bring that back, though so far they're the same just with a red tint instead of green.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
Having played the TFO some more I just realised the only thing that matters is killing the spheres. Once about 24 killed it triggers the next phase of the TFO. 1 person sitting at the top facing killing the spheres is all it takes to complete this TFO.
Yeah, no. Fortunately for you, there were other players in your run actually trying to complete it, or you'd still be there - the Assimilation Probes are just phase 2, and the three Spheres are just the first section of phase 3.
Also, if you vaped the Assimilation Probes the moment they launched, you also didn't get the bonus marks for it - they have to proceed at least 2 km before they count.
So basically, from your description you didn't actually play the TFO - you were too busy being all cool and edgy and above it all.
Ok, let's keep the comments to actually discussing the TFO, and not sniping one another. Thank you.
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Having played the TFO some more I just realised the only thing that matters is killing the spheres. Once about 24 killed it triggers the next phase of the TFO. 1 person sitting at the top facing killing the spheres is all it takes to complete this TFO.
Yeah, no. Fortunately for you, there were other players in your run actually trying to complete it, or you'd still be there - the Assimilation Probes are just phase 2, and the three Spheres are just the first section of phase 3.
Also, if you vaped the Assimilation Probes the moment they launched, you also didn't get the bonus marks for it - they have to proceed at least 2 km before they count.
So basically, from your description you didn't actually play the TFO - you were too busy being all cool and edgy and above it all.
I mostly run the TFO Solo so it was not other players. Understanding the mechanics and how things work is part of what I enjoy about this game. It had nothing to do with being cool and edgy.
Also of note to prove its not about being cool and edgy. I am running some base line MK XI items from mission rewards as my main weapons. Unfortunately the mission reward weapons my current ship is based around cannot be upgraded. I would like to upgrade them but its not possible. I have zero tactical consoles fitted and zero skill points in energy weapons and zero skill points in ACC as I put my points in passive hull and regen.
I have no problems running the TFO solo or in a group with my crippled ship design and I wouldn't still be there as you put it as its a solo TFO at least that's how I choose to run it.
Personally I have no use for extra marks as over the years I built up a large amount of spare marks with nothing left to spend them on. Getting Escape Pods has minimum impact on the marks at the end. It tells you how many mark you can earn its around 30marks or something like that for getting all pods and something like 15marks for half pods or there abouts. (I might be off a little bit)
If other people want to get pods go for it. I have no problem with people playing the TFO how they want to. But personally for me I am not interested in getting pods and don't see why so many people are telling me I am not playing the TFO correctly because I play solo and ignore pods.
I am happy to go into the mechanics of the TFO and how it works along with what's optional and what has to be done as a minimum to complete. But that is not the same as saying this is the only way to play and everyone has to play that way or they are not playing correctly. I am a big believer in allowing players to play how they want to and am completely against all these comments about your not playing it correctly or your doing it wrong.
Like I said before I really like the core concept for this TFO and mostly like the idea behind the boss fight. Its just personally I don't find it works very well for a 5 player team and the lack of threat doesn't feel like TFO does this famous battle justice.
It's good for doing the Destroy Borg ships endeavours
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
It's good for doing the Destroy Borg ships endeavours
It's good for space damage too.
100%
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,597Community Moderator
Its also pretty good for dreadnought kills too.
Also for those who feel its not desperate enough of a fight... try three manning it. Happened to me once, probably because two people had connection issues, but dang was it rough even with a megawell. Resist and Bite was a rather fitting track for me to listen to that day. We got it done, and managed to save a lot of escape pods, but still was very rough trying to wrangle all the probes.
I thought it was a breath of fresh air, considering the last few TFOs were 30 seconds of content and 14 minutes of wave after wave after wave after wave of spam… At least this has clear goals and an end… I’m fine with an occasional TFO that doesn’t require being a dps master or taking 20 minutes to finish…
Watch them TRIBBLE with it and turn it into something no one wants to play when this is done…
CRM
Have you played Guillotine ? A series of goals instead of timed waves, where a high-DPS team gets through it quickly, and less well geared players take longer. Connecting and then defending the anchors feels much more like I'm doing something than Wolf. Just my opinion of course.
Agreed. I thoroughly enjoy Guillotine. There's something to do for everyone (one player is unlikely to finish everything by himself) and it requires some team work to be done quickly.
Being well prepared, co-ordination and being sufficiently powerful or flying a fast ship also pay off - instead of only resulting in more enemies spawning such as in content like Defense of SB1 or other, similar 'wait till the timer stops'-missions.
Combined with the logical progression of events, I certainly find it one of the best missions they've released in a while.
Well, I guess these Mirror Borg are supposed to be the most powerful Borg yet, but it is my understanding that Voyager nerfed the Borg as part of the threat-creep that I understand existed.
I did not watch Voyager, that is just a commonly shared opinion that I have heard.
You know...
Writer 1: "We need a new big bad. Some really dangerous enemy."
Writer 2: "Okay. I'll pass the word to our concept artists and see what they can come up with. Hmmm... What should we have them do to make it clear how dangerous they are?"
Writer 1: Let's have them whip the Borg in a decidedly lopsided way!"
Writer 2: "Brilliant!"
Writer 1: "Brilliant!"
And then that happens again. And maybe again. And so it's like the game itself, where the Borg were supposed to be the big bads, but as the game went along, level cap increases made them more and more trivial and other enemies came in to take their place as the big bads.
While this is essentially what happened, the Borg (singular) was already ruined when it became the Borg (plural) with First Contact the movie. For that movie the conept of a hive mind around a cybernetic race that got the short end of a deal fusing with their technology became a very basic story of a Evil Queen and her personal army. A decision, by the way, which was made up out of universe because the movie was supposed to be a casual action film and the original concept of the Borg was deemed too complicated for a blockbuster movie - I'm not making this up, this is what happened. That extended into Voyager and every time the Borg showed up they became less and less interesting. Then the whole seven-of-nine arc deconstructed the mystery further until the Borg were just annoying cannon fodder.
The Wolf 359 TFO is brilliant in so far as it is a call back to the days when the Borg was still threatening. We were never supposed to see more than a single cube in action. The mirror Borg concept could have been the opportunity to bring that back, though so far they're the same just with a red tint instead of green.
Voyager was my introduction to Star Trek, so I had never seen the Borg before I saw them in that show.
Yet, I think they were presented as sufficiently threatening throughout the series. The crew clearly did not want to travel through Borg space. The fact that it took the even more scary looking Undine (who chopped up many Borg to leave them on a bloody pile for Kes to see) to barr them from even a small region of space, is also telling.
And regardless of how often it happened, the idea of your enemy taking your own people, mutilating and transforming them to fight against you in an effort to do the same thing to you - not because of hate, resources or whatever, but simply because it must be done - is still a fearsome concept. Hence why, although I have seen quite a few zombie films over the years, they can still be scary.
I never knew the Borg before Voyager, but in that series, it was clear to me that they were one of the most serious threats. The interiors of the various ships with their spooky, barely-lit greenish hues certainly helped with that, as did slowly seeing Tuvok (by far one of my favourite characters on the show and arguably one of the most resilient characters in all of Starfleet) losing the fight against the Borg's intrusion.
Yes, they were rather easily destroyed later in the show, even with one shot from special torpedoes. But then again, those came from decades into the future and if I'm not mistaken, some of Admiral Janeway's defenses were starting to lose their effectiveness already in an engagement that lasted only a few minutes.
And then there was that one occasion when Voyager even sought them out. But they were more prepared by then, because they had encountered the Borg more often than anyone else at that point. They had Seven's knowledge to work with, and they had also met many other species by then, each with their unique technologies. Some of those likely had developed their own defenses and tactics against the Borg (including Arturis's species, which was described as having done this rather successfully for a long time). Others might not have done that because they never encountered them - but that likely meant that the Borg had never met those species either and thus hadn't adapted to their tech yet. Let alone to a mixture of all these species' innovations and technologies, which is basically Starfleet's way of working and strength anyway.
All in all, I think the Borg were sufficiently threatening. When they weren't, it was only temporary and due to special circumstances.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,597Community Moderator
The Borg are as threatening as the plot demands.
The Borg are not evil for the sake of evil. They just... exist. They spread and take like a virus. They don't care about morality or anything. They do their own thing, and its generally bad for anyone around them. IMO the idea of a Queen doesn't bother me as much as some other people because A: it did give a face in First Contact. A central figure to interact with on the Borg side. And B: Establishing a "central processor" honestly makes sense. There's only so much the Borg Hivemind can process on its own even with all the tech they got. Having someone or something to help process all the data makes sense. Not only that, in a situation like First Contact, you'd need a localized central processor if you want to maintain any sort of operational capability. The Borg that were on the Enterprise were not connected to the 21st Century Collective. They were on their own. They were trying to build a beacon to contact the Borg of that century. Without a Queen, those Borg Drones probably wouldn't have been able to function as well, if at all. We saw what happened to the Drones after the Queen was killed. Insta dead.
We saw that losing a Queen isn't as detrimental to the Collective as some would think. Its a setback, but honestly if it was that devastating than the Queen going back in time should have caused massive damage to the Collective in the present. However in Endgame, there was one variable. Unimatrix 01. The very HEART of the Collective. What I would probably consider the Central Processor of Central Processors. The Central Hub. That's why Admiral Janeway's virus was so effective. Infecting the Queen wasn't enough. It had to infect the central CORE of the Collective itself.
It might well be that the drone we saw in First Contact was only turned into the Queen after they had traveled back in time (which was their plan B anyway) and lost contact with the rest of the Collective, while needing a human form to try and convince Data to join them.
Cause honestly, it makes little sense to have the Queen be that far away from the Borg's core territory if she was really crucial to the functioning of the Collective in its entirety. Her presence wasn't necessary for assimilating Earth, there was no point in her being there.
If they really were separated from the Collective entirely, there would be no conflict by creating a Queen in the 21st century. Had they re-established contact with the rest of the Collective in that time, the Queen we saw would probably have lost her Queen-status and be returned into a regular drone. Or whatever non-active / spare Queens do when they're not needed.
The various shows and movie have shown, together, that the Queen is just a sort of figurehead or personification of the Collective. She's not the irreplacable essence of the Collective itself or something, she's just a way of giving it a face indeed. Even her central processing functions are likely performed by a box-shaped thing or anything not remotely humanly looking under normal circumstances.
In fact, I don't even think the Collective needs a Queen at all for its day-to-day operations *. Getting some milk from the store can be done by any drone, after all. And it certainly didn't need one to negotiate with Janeway about the Undine - and Seven was sufficient as a representative while working together against them, while carrying out a specific task on behalf of the Collective - like trillions of drones do, every day.
The Collective only seems to choose to create a Queen whenever it needs to interact with humans or other beings it wants to (re-)assimilate or convince to return (Picard, Data, Future Janeway, Seven). It understands the need for humans to see a face to talk to and to interpret its actions when co-operation or co-opting (basically, anything else than the crudest form of assimilation) is required.
As did the directors of the shows, such as in the episode where Janeway, Torres and Tuvok were assimilated - but only partly so, an unique situation which neccesitated a (for the viewer understandable) reaction from the Collective
And of course, she can come in handy when the director of a movie wants to get us nerds enthused with a cyborg kissing scene, lol.
* In one of the novels, it's even made clear that the persona of the Queen is indeed not the Collective's essence - if the Collective's essence can even be captured in the form of a single mind, it's that of a Caeliar by the name Sedín, who only uses the Queen as a tool.
The Queen however is no metaphor. The authors of First contact clearly stated that she is a literal person and she owns the collective. It's evident later as she is irrational, emotional and has personal vendettas. This is when the Borg became a "faction" and held territory and such, that's in my opinion when they became expendable.
The original Borg is what @rattler2 described. A force of nature. Cubes literally flying aimlessly through the universe, assimilating technology, growing, then creating more cubes that split off and fly in different directions. The whole meaning of a hive mind is that it doesn't require a central figure to function. It is a dictatorship of the masses, quelling every individual thought. But being able to speak to them, negotiate, having any kind of relation to the Borg, a face, that defeats the whole purpose for me. The creation of Locutus was a unique situation (because Humans Are Special) - the existence of a Queen negates the whole deal in my opinion but of course, just my opinion.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
The Queen however is no metaphor. The authors of First contact clearly stated that she is a literal person and she owns the collective. It's evident later as she is irrational, emotional and has personal vendettas. This is when the Borg became a "faction" and held territory and such, that's in my opinion when they became expendable.
The original Borg is what @rattler2 described. A force of nature. Cubes literally flying aimlessly through the universe, assimilating technology, growing, then creating more cubes that split off and fly in different directions. The whole meaning of a hive mind is that it doesn't require a central figure to function. It is a dictatorship of the masses, quelling every individual thought. But being able to speak to them, negotiate, having any kind of relation to the Borg, a face, that defeats the whole purpose for me. The creation of Locutus was a unique situation (because Humans Are Special) - the existence of a Queen negates the whole deal in my opinion but of course, just my opinion.
Yeah, I headcanon out a lot of stuff from the later movies, because it doesn't make sense. The Borg Queen as a literal "ownership"-style individual? They sent their singular central consciousness on a risky mission back in time just to subjugate one planet?? Yeah, that's just dumb, so I assume the story is inaccurate in that particular. (Kind of like the idea that Reman slaves built the Scimitar, the biggest ship in the Romulan inventory and by the numbers given more powerful than an entire Starfleet squadron, all by themselves and under the noses of the Tal'Shiar. That makes no sense at all. So I headcanon it as a secret RSE project that was stolen by Shinzon and his people.)
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,597Community Moderator
I don't mind the Borg having territory. After all even they need to come from somewhere and have a region under their absolute control to be able to spread from. And you need resources. Unlike other factions, the Borg Collective doesn't have negotiated borders. They spread and take what they want. And there is no central government to declare war on. Queen as the absloute ruler or just a central processor or not, that behavior has not changed.
The events of Regeneration may feel like a hole poked in the "Queen as a central processor" theory from my previous post, however for those survivors and those assimilated by them, they may be operating on basically a fallback order. Survive and report. Think of it like an overriding directive. They're programmed to follow an emergency order. Assimilating ships and people on the way improved their chances of survival. Fighting Enterprise was deemed a necessary risk because of the fact Enterprise was chasing them. And in the end, the Borg still technically won as it set up the predestination paradox of the Borg coming to the Federation in the 24th Century, thus setting up Wolf 359, which in turn set up Sector 001, which in turn set up First Contact and later Regeneration. Honestly no matter how you look at that... The Borg have history with ships named Enterprise.
I don't mind the Borg having territory. After all even they need to come from somewhere and have a region under their absolute control to be able to spread from. And you need resources. Unlike other factions, the Borg Collective doesn't have negotiated borders. They spread and take what they want. And there is no central government to declare war on. Queen as the absloute ruler or just a central processor or not, that behavior has not changed.
The events of Regeneration may feel like a hole poked in the "Queen as a central processor" theory from my previous post, however for those survivors and those assimilated by them, they may be operating on basically a fallback order. Survive and report. Think of it like an overriding directive. They're programmed to follow an emergency order. Assimilating ships and people on the way improved their chances of survival. Fighting Enterprise was deemed a necessary risk because of the fact Enterprise was chasing them. And in the end, the Borg still technically won as it set up the predestination paradox of the Borg coming to the Federation in the 24th Century, thus setting up Wolf 359, which in turn set up Sector 001, which in turn set up First Contact and later Regeneration. Honestly no matter how you look at that... The Borg have history with ships named Enterprise.
Regeneration could easily explained by that mini hive there not needing a queen yet, there being enough processing power in the individual drones to filter out the chatter, while the main collective has enough voices that they need a specialized drone/program that sorts out the relevant info from the not relevant and keeps the hivemind from breaking down into chaos.
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.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,597Community Moderator
The Kushan managed that just fine with a purely mobile force before reaching Hiigara.
They had a colony fleet with the ability to process resources. They didn't build space stations or take planets like the Borg, who spread like a virus, but also establish themselves a bit like a Cancer. They infect, and unless driven out, are there to stay with the intent to spread from there.
We have not seen them just strip a planet and move on like the Harvesters from Independence Day. They set up full on Unimatrix facilities and infrastructure in their territory.
I may not have played the original Homeworld yet, but I have played Deserts of Kharak.
I imagined that when the original concept Borg would assimilate ships, stations and the like, technology of any kind, they'd break that down and slap a new cube together from the material. There is massive storage and processing capabilities within a cube and a hive mind doesn't care how long it takes to build a new one. All the while new drones are raised (original Borg had children after all) to crew that new ship.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
Also for those who feel its not desperate enough of a fight... try three manning it. Happened to me once, probably because two people had connection issues, but dang was it rough even with a megawell. Resist and Bite was a rather fitting track for me to listen to that day. We got it done, and managed to save a lot of escape pods, but still was very rough trying to wrangle all the probes.
I had Attack of the Dead Men, Blaze of Glory and It's My Life playing
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Comments
Have you played Guillotine ? A series of goals instead of timed waves, where a high-DPS team gets through it quickly, and less well geared players take longer. Connecting and then defending the anchors feels much more like I'm doing something than Wolf. Just my opinion of course.
While this is essentially what happened, the Borg (singular) was already ruined when it became the Borg (plural) with First Contact the movie. For that movie the conept of a hive mind around a cybernetic race that got the short end of a deal fusing with their technology became a very basic story of a Evil Queen and her personal army. A decision, by the way, which was made up out of universe because the movie was supposed to be a casual action film and the original concept of the Borg was deemed too complicated for a blockbuster movie - I'm not making this up, this is what happened. That extended into Voyager and every time the Borg showed up they became less and less interesting. Then the whole seven-of-nine arc deconstructed the mystery further until the Borg were just annoying cannon fodder.
The Wolf 359 TFO is brilliant in so far as it is a call back to the days when the Borg was still threatening. We were never supposed to see more than a single cube in action. The mirror Borg concept could have been the opportunity to bring that back, though so far they're the same just with a red tint instead of green.
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Also, if you vaped the Assimilation Probes the moment they launched, you also didn't get the bonus marks for it - they have to proceed at least 2 km before they count.
So basically, from your description you didn't actually play the TFO - you were too busy being all cool and edgy and above it all.
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Also of note to prove its not about being cool and edgy. I am running some base line MK XI items from mission rewards as my main weapons. Unfortunately the mission reward weapons my current ship is based around cannot be upgraded. I would like to upgrade them but its not possible. I have zero tactical consoles fitted and zero skill points in energy weapons and zero skill points in ACC as I put my points in passive hull and regen.
I have no problems running the TFO solo or in a group with my crippled ship design and I wouldn't still be there as you put it as its a solo TFO at least that's how I choose to run it.
Personally I have no use for extra marks as over the years I built up a large amount of spare marks with nothing left to spend them on. Getting Escape Pods has minimum impact on the marks at the end. It tells you how many mark you can earn its around 30marks or something like that for getting all pods and something like 15marks for half pods or there abouts. (I might be off a little bit)
If other people want to get pods go for it. I have no problem with people playing the TFO how they want to. But personally for me I am not interested in getting pods and don't see why so many people are telling me I am not playing the TFO correctly because I play solo and ignore pods.
I am happy to go into the mechanics of the TFO and how it works along with what's optional and what has to be done as a minimum to complete. But that is not the same as saying this is the only way to play and everyone has to play that way or they are not playing correctly. I am a big believer in allowing players to play how they want to and am completely against all these comments about your not playing it correctly or your doing it wrong.
Like I said before I really like the core concept for this TFO and mostly like the idea behind the boss fight. Its just personally I don't find it works very well for a 5 player team and the lack of threat doesn't feel like TFO does this famous battle justice.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
It's good for space damage too.
100%
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Also for those who feel its not desperate enough of a fight... try three manning it. Happened to me once, probably because two people had connection issues, but dang was it rough even with a megawell. Resist and Bite was a rather fitting track for me to listen to that day. We got it done, and managed to save a lot of escape pods, but still was very rough trying to wrangle all the probes.
Agreed. I thoroughly enjoy Guillotine. There's something to do for everyone (one player is unlikely to finish everything by himself) and it requires some team work to be done quickly.
Being well prepared, co-ordination and being sufficiently powerful or flying a fast ship also pay off - instead of only resulting in more enemies spawning such as in content like Defense of SB1 or other, similar 'wait till the timer stops'-missions.
Combined with the logical progression of events, I certainly find it one of the best missions they've released in a while.
Voyager was my introduction to Star Trek, so I had never seen the Borg before I saw them in that show.
Yet, I think they were presented as sufficiently threatening throughout the series. The crew clearly did not want to travel through Borg space. The fact that it took the even more scary looking Undine (who chopped up many Borg to leave them on a bloody pile for Kes to see) to barr them from even a small region of space, is also telling.
And regardless of how often it happened, the idea of your enemy taking your own people, mutilating and transforming them to fight against you in an effort to do the same thing to you - not because of hate, resources or whatever, but simply because it must be done - is still a fearsome concept. Hence why, although I have seen quite a few zombie films over the years, they can still be scary.
I never knew the Borg before Voyager, but in that series, it was clear to me that they were one of the most serious threats. The interiors of the various ships with their spooky, barely-lit greenish hues certainly helped with that, as did slowly seeing Tuvok (by far one of my favourite characters on the show and arguably one of the most resilient characters in all of Starfleet) losing the fight against the Borg's intrusion.
Yes, they were rather easily destroyed later in the show, even with one shot from special torpedoes. But then again, those came from decades into the future and if I'm not mistaken, some of Admiral Janeway's defenses were starting to lose their effectiveness already in an engagement that lasted only a few minutes.
And then there was that one occasion when Voyager even sought them out. But they were more prepared by then, because they had encountered the Borg more often than anyone else at that point. They had Seven's knowledge to work with, and they had also met many other species by then, each with their unique technologies. Some of those likely had developed their own defenses and tactics against the Borg (including Arturis's species, which was described as having done this rather successfully for a long time). Others might not have done that because they never encountered them - but that likely meant that the Borg had never met those species either and thus hadn't adapted to their tech yet. Let alone to a mixture of all these species' innovations and technologies, which is basically Starfleet's way of working and strength anyway.
All in all, I think the Borg were sufficiently threatening. When they weren't, it was only temporary and due to special circumstances.
The Borg are not evil for the sake of evil. They just... exist. They spread and take like a virus. They don't care about morality or anything. They do their own thing, and its generally bad for anyone around them. IMO the idea of a Queen doesn't bother me as much as some other people because A: it did give a face in First Contact. A central figure to interact with on the Borg side. And B: Establishing a "central processor" honestly makes sense. There's only so much the Borg Hivemind can process on its own even with all the tech they got. Having someone or something to help process all the data makes sense. Not only that, in a situation like First Contact, you'd need a localized central processor if you want to maintain any sort of operational capability. The Borg that were on the Enterprise were not connected to the 21st Century Collective. They were on their own. They were trying to build a beacon to contact the Borg of that century. Without a Queen, those Borg Drones probably wouldn't have been able to function as well, if at all. We saw what happened to the Drones after the Queen was killed. Insta dead.
We saw that losing a Queen isn't as detrimental to the Collective as some would think. Its a setback, but honestly if it was that devastating than the Queen going back in time should have caused massive damage to the Collective in the present. However in Endgame, there was one variable. Unimatrix 01. The very HEART of the Collective. What I would probably consider the Central Processor of Central Processors. The Central Hub. That's why Admiral Janeway's virus was so effective. Infecting the Queen wasn't enough. It had to infect the central CORE of the Collective itself.
Cause honestly, it makes little sense to have the Queen be that far away from the Borg's core territory if she was really crucial to the functioning of the Collective in its entirety. Her presence wasn't necessary for assimilating Earth, there was no point in her being there.
If they really were separated from the Collective entirely, there would be no conflict by creating a Queen in the 21st century. Had they re-established contact with the rest of the Collective in that time, the Queen we saw would probably have lost her Queen-status and be returned into a regular drone. Or whatever non-active / spare Queens do when they're not needed.
The various shows and movie have shown, together, that the Queen is just a sort of figurehead or personification of the Collective. She's not the irreplacable essence of the Collective itself or something, she's just a way of giving it a face indeed. Even her central processing functions are likely performed by a box-shaped thing or anything not remotely humanly looking under normal circumstances.
In fact, I don't even think the Collective needs a Queen at all for its day-to-day operations *. Getting some milk from the store can be done by any drone, after all. And it certainly didn't need one to negotiate with Janeway about the Undine - and Seven was sufficient as a representative while working together against them, while carrying out a specific task on behalf of the Collective - like trillions of drones do, every day.
The Collective only seems to choose to create a Queen whenever it needs to interact with humans or other beings it wants to (re-)assimilate or convince to return (Picard, Data, Future Janeway, Seven). It understands the need for humans to see a face to talk to and to interpret its actions when co-operation or co-opting (basically, anything else than the crudest form of assimilation) is required.
As did the directors of the shows, such as in the episode where Janeway, Torres and Tuvok were assimilated - but only partly so, an unique situation which neccesitated a (for the viewer understandable) reaction from the Collective
And of course, she can come in handy when the director of a movie wants to get us nerds enthused with a cyborg kissing scene, lol.
* In one of the novels, it's even made clear that the persona of the Queen is indeed not the Collective's essence - if the Collective's essence can even be captured in the form of a single mind, it's that of a Caeliar by the name Sedín, who only uses the Queen as a tool.
The original Borg is what @rattler2 described. A force of nature. Cubes literally flying aimlessly through the universe, assimilating technology, growing, then creating more cubes that split off and fly in different directions. The whole meaning of a hive mind is that it doesn't require a central figure to function. It is a dictatorship of the masses, quelling every individual thought. But being able to speak to them, negotiate, having any kind of relation to the Borg, a face, that defeats the whole purpose for me. The creation of Locutus was a unique situation (because Humans Are Special) - the existence of a Queen negates the whole deal in my opinion but of course, just my opinion.
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The events of Regeneration may feel like a hole poked in the "Queen as a central processor" theory from my previous post, however for those survivors and those assimilated by them, they may be operating on basically a fallback order. Survive and report. Think of it like an overriding directive. They're programmed to follow an emergency order. Assimilating ships and people on the way improved their chances of survival. Fighting Enterprise was deemed a necessary risk because of the fact Enterprise was chasing them. And in the end, the Borg still technically won as it set up the predestination paradox of the Borg coming to the Federation in the 24th Century, thus setting up Wolf 359, which in turn set up Sector 001, which in turn set up First Contact and later Regeneration. Honestly no matter how you look at that... The Borg have history with ships named Enterprise.
Regeneration could easily explained by that mini hive there not needing a queen yet, there being enough processing power in the individual drones to filter out the chatter, while the main collective has enough voices that they need a specialized drone/program that sorts out the relevant info from the not relevant and keeps the hivemind from breaking down into chaos.
The Kushan managed that just fine with a purely mobile force before reaching Hiigara.
#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!"
They had a colony fleet with the ability to process resources. They didn't build space stations or take planets like the Borg, who spread like a virus, but also establish themselves a bit like a Cancer. They infect, and unless driven out, are there to stay with the intent to spread from there.
We have not seen them just strip a planet and move on like the Harvesters from Independence Day. They set up full on Unimatrix facilities and infrastructure in their territory.
I may not have played the original Homeworld yet, but I have played Deserts of Kharak.
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I had Attack of the Dead Men, Blaze of Glory and It's My Life playing
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius