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Enough with stupid objectives, please... I'm making a cocktail?!? *spoilers*

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Seriously, Dstahl, Cryptic team... I love you guys. I love what you're doing, but some of these sub-objectives in the missions are really ludicrous, especially this one. We're in the middle of the final Devidian mission, Scotty needs a flux capacitor (well, flux something-or-other), and he sends you to a chick who is in shock and...

...won't give you the flux thingamajig until you give her something to calm her nerves?!? From what I can tell you ARE in her store and Scotty is in *desperate need* if this or everyone in the station is dead... so you should either be able to take said item or... I dunno... ANYTHING other then a trivial objective. Really... making a cocktail at zero hour?

Beginning of mission... awesome. Middle of mission.... until that part - awesome. Ending... awesome. SO close to being a perfect mission.

Cocktails. Really?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    the TOS area was a totally different time...

    the use of alcohol for medicinal purposes is actually canon to the TOS period as evil kirk took a bottle of the doctor's saurian brandy that he was keeping for just such a reason.

    i mean the fact that we had to do that rather than just slamming a hypo into the poor woman's neck actually helped increase the TOS feel for me (if we'd have hypo'd her it'd be more like TNG :P )

    so personally speaking, i have no issue with that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Laddie, ya canna have a Scotty Episode without a little somethin ta wash it down with. :D

    Although shifting gears from fighting Devidians to being a mixologist in order to get Scotty a part was a bit strange.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Laddie, ya canna have a Scotty Episode without a little somethin ta wash it down with. :D

    Although shifting gears from fighting Devidians to being a mixologist in order to get Scotty a part was a bit strange.

    That's my point... I don't mind making a cocktail when it makes sense, but with the Devidians attacking, the comet getting closer, and the radiation levels increasing with Scotty in dire need of that flux-thingie...

    ...you have to learn what kind of drink some chick likes and make it for her. lol
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    As pointed out, this makes pretty much every bit of sense, ever, considering it's a TOS episode. Personally, I had no problem with it. Too bad you can't order custom cocktails in Drozana anymore. It'd be a pretty neat game mechanic. Work yourself a cocktail, different ingredients give you small boosts, or help you recover faster, that kinda thing.
    Stupid cheap Ferengi p'tahks. XD
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I have to agree with the OP. Having an emergency situation interrupted to make someone a cocktail was an immersion breaker, IMO. I'd have had no problem with the encounter if it were in part 1, where I had to make a cocktail for Zamora (?) to get her to open up to me but not in a situtation involving that much danger. And it's not a TOS thing either. I never remember the Enterpise being in danger and Scotty telling Kirk he'd have to wait until he made a cocktail for someone. The cocktail was one badly chosen moment in the series, IMO. Not because it was a puzzle but because it didn't fit the tone of the encounter.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I dunno, I kinda liked it. The quest made my whisky glands tingle.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    STO team's trying to help you guys out. Girl interaction training.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Shingi wrote:
    the TOS area was a totally different time...

    the use of alcohol for medicinal purposes is actually canon to the TOS period as evil kirk took a bottle of the doctor's saurian brandy that he was keeping for just such a reason.

    i mean the fact that we had to do that rather than just slamming a hypo into the poor woman's neck actually helped increase the TOS feel for me (if we'd have hypo'd her it'd be more like TNG :P )

    so personally speaking, i have no issue with that.

    Not to mention several times we saw the application of said "medicine."

    For example, in the original "The Cage" pilot (later cut and pasted into "The Menagerie" we see the Doc pour a drink for Pike, in order to get him to open up.

    Also, there was a Season 1 episode of TOS (Corbomite Manuever I believe) where McCoy pours some medicine for Kirk as well.

    I'm sure there are more instances, but those were the first ones that came to mind.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Not to mention several times we saw the application of said "medicine."

    For example, in the original "The Cage" pilot (later cut and pasted into "The Menagerie" we see the Doc pour a drink for Pike, in order to get him to open up.

    Also, there was a Season 1 episode of TOS (Corbomite Manuever I believe) where McCoy pours some medicine for Kirk as well.

    I'm sure there are more instances, but those were the first ones that came to mind.
    I don't think anyone has a problem with drinking. I'd happily have gotten her a drink to calm her down. The problem stems from the idea that you have to get the exact drink she wants before she gives you the equipment Scotty needs. That's the immersion breaker, IMO. Getting her a drink should have been a Diplomacy XP side mission not blackmail to get the equipment, IMO.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    That's my point... I don't mind making a cocktail when it makes sense, but with the Devidians attacking, the comet getting closer, and the radiation levels increasing with Scotty in dire need of that flux-thingie...

    ...you have to learn what kind of drink some chick likes and make it for her. lol

    As I said in a different thread, I think there should be three different ways to do it depending on your class.

    Tactical: Take the part by force.
    Engineer: Find it yourself.. you know what it looks like!
    Science: Realizing that there's no sickbay nearby, you figure that unfortunately, the cocktail is the next best thing to a synthesized tranquilizer.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Cosmic_One wrote: »
    I have to agree with the OP. Having an emergency situation interrupted to make someone a cocktail was an immersion breaker, IMO. I'd have had no problem with the encounter if it were in part 1, where I had to make a cocktail for Zamora (?) to get her to open up to me but not in a situtation involving that much danger. And it's not a TOS thing either. I never remember the Enterpise being in danger and Scotty telling Kirk he'd have to wait until he made a cocktail for someone. The cocktail was one badly chosen moment in the series, IMO. Not because it was a puzzle but because it didn't fit the tone of the encounter.

    except no one knows what's going on.

    You show up in the middel of a bar fight with ghosts, shoot some people and then ask the shopkeep for some obscure equipment.

    Also you probably don't know enough to just take the equipment yourself (couple hundred year old technology) so you actually need her help rather than being able to do a smash and grab.

    Thus you have to play be her rules, which means getting her a drink that she likes.

    To me that makes a lot more sence than disguising a federation ship as a klingon ship in order to send it to a federation station in the past. or the fact that you can't just drop the emitter when it becomes aparent that it's causing more trouble than it's worth (probably wouldn't have gotten you out of the first fight, but the second one was puerly the fault of pretending to be a house duras ship). Or the coup de gras where 2 difefrent modes of time travel are involved in one miossion (why exactely wasn't one sufficient?)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Turtlewing wrote: »
    Also you probably don't know enough to just take the equipment yourself (couple hundred year old technology) so you actually need her help rather than being able to do a smash and grab.
    But you do know enough to know that Scotty needs that equipment to help with the radiation problem. If your microwave came on with the door open after you were attacked by ghosts would you walk around asking people what exact type of drink they want or would you expect people to realize there's danger? It's not like people get attacked by ghosts every day, not even in the ST universe. :)

    The need to fiddle with an exact type of drink was an immersion breaker for me. YMMV
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I agree with the OP, further, I was not a fan of the episode in its entirety. The idea behind the slingshot was fine but should have been implemented better. (Perhaps a mini-game to “plot” the optimal path and having the maneuver tied to some event to be viable – like, maybe, it’s only viable to attempt the slingshot when the comet is near, thereby linking all the events together and explaining why we don’t try it all the time, etc.)

    Disabling the Starship at the beginning was a little off-putting. Perhaps it should have been B’vat at the beginning, we disable his ship, then reinforcements came later after we “clear” the station (especially since the Starship was gone when we beamed back out).

    Bar brawl? Really? We should have tried sneaking around the brawl and allowing it to work itself out (preserve the timeline) or gone in hand-to-hand (which is quite in keeping with the ToS era, bar fights didn’t include weapons).

    In the previous episode, the guest star ran when he had the information he needed to take care of the station commander. Scotty tells us the station is in danger and saunters (slowly) to a console. He seams to think my clothing is odd (I wear a ToS uniform) and wonders what ship my Klingon toon serves on because he hasn’t seen me around before.

    We get to the consol and he needs a part. He sends us to a vendor who is shaken up and need s a tonic. It may have been better to have the vendor knocked unconscious and we need to come up with a way to revive her or get the part (we could have had a science officer mix a “tonic” to revive the vendor or make some form of smelling salts, a tactical officer could modify a weapon to shock the vendor awake, an engineering officer could find the part or put together a make-shift replacement, etc.). And, would Scotty really take time from the consol and saving the station to discuss what the bonnie lass liked to drink? We could have always gone back afterward and bought them both a drink.

    Back in space, Starship gone. Here come the Klingons. (Really, House of Duras? Who in Starfleet/KDF came up with that idea?) I like the idea of reinforcements being called in but it could have been implemented a little better. Perhaps the reinforcements could come in on a timer (like Rescue the Deferi), allowing the escorts an opportunity to destroy the comet before overwhelmed by reinforcements and cruisers to soak the damage while whittling the comet down (something in the middle for science, holding the enemy at bay with a Tyken’s rift or decoying with a photonic fleet?).

    I don’t think I’ll even get into the secret, hidden tech that no one on my ship could find.

    Not to mention several times we saw the application of said "medicine."

    For example, in the original "The Cage" pilot (later cut and pasted into "The Menagerie" we see the Doc pour a drink for Pike, in order to get him to open up.

    Also, there was a Season 1 episode of TOS (Corbomite Manuever I believe) where McCoy pours some medicine for Kirk as well.

    I'm sure there are more instances, but those were the first ones that came to mind.

    Yes, but when did they need a drink when in an emergency situation? (In the Corbomite Maneuver they were all waiting to be destroyed but unable to do anything.) I don’t remember Scotty needing to restart the warp engines but needing to get Mr. Kyle drunk to get some dithium crystals (or the like).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I should have appended my log:

    "Captain's log. I had to get this impossible woman drink after drink after drink until I found the right combination of what she wanted before she would let me save her life and that of everyone else on the station. In my attempts to do this, everything seemed to return to normal on the station and they seemed to forget they were in a crisis... I suppose that is for the best, considering the damage that could have been done to the timeline.

    Fortuantely for me, the Ferengi were still selling Comet Cocktails when I got back to the future where the comet had been destroyed, so I was able to unwind after saving the Federation yet again.

    Like Captain Kirk, I'm smiling right now and thinking about how awesome I am."
    /end log
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Klingons should, at least, get the option to pistol-whip persons in similar situations.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    LOL

    I was sort of frustrated about it too.

    Here I am trying to save the Universe and this person needs a drink, Couldn't we just have stunned her and taken the device?

    We could have knocked out the other person on Everything's Old...but here we had to make her a drink.

    Wasn't too bad..just annoying.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Here I am trying to save the Universe and this person needs a drink, Couldn't we just have stunned her and taken the device?

    You heartless barsteward.



    ....




    .....


    boom-tish.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I was more miffed at the fact that she originally asked for a "nerve tonic." I mean, what is this, the 19th century? Does she want a bicarbonate of soda to chase that down afterwards, or some birch beer mayhaps?

    Seriously though, I liked the puzzle, mostly because it was a nice break from getting my soul stolen by the Devidian final boss or getting my TRIBBLE handed to me by century-old D7s. My own flimsy rationalization for the puzzle was to just accept TOS as the Mad Men days of Trek: the women wear skirts, three-martini lunches are in vogue, and all the alien crewmembers have to stay at their own damn drinking fountain. I mean, did anyone find it weird that there were no alien Starfleet personnel on Drozana in 2265? Talk about "OMG STO iz teh racist" moments...

    Ahem. I'm rambling. Pay no mind.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    SeaCadt07 wrote: »
    STO team's trying to help you guys out. Girl interaction training.
    If it had been true to life, you would've had to buy her dinner too...and NOT be able to complete your objective until after running an additional 3 missions. Then she gives you what you want...

    :D











    ...maybe.

    :rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    people spend 5 days complaining about a part of a mission that takes 5 minutes.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Norbu_STO wrote:
    people spend 5 days complaining about a part of a mission that takes 5 minutes.
    If you don't want to see complaints don't go into threads that are clearly about complaints. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I should have appended my log:

    "Captain's log. I had to get this impossible woman drink after drink after drink until I found the right combination of what she wanted before she would let me save her life and that of everyone else on the station. In my attempts to do this, everything seemed to return to normal on the station and they seemed to forget they were in a crisis... I suppose that is for the best, considering the damage that could have been done to the timeline.

    Fortuantely for me, the Ferengi were still selling Comet Cocktails when I got back to the future where the comet had been destroyed, so I was able to unwind after saving the Federation yet again.

    Like Captain Kirk, I'm smiling right now and thinking about how awesome I am."
    /end log

    I thought it was actually a neat character trait, puzzle to solve, and added an element of comedy. I do know people IRL that might do something like that.

    Kim is not someone that has a lot of patience with people, but will do what she can to accomplish the mission, even if it is getting someone a drink...repeatedly. So, while she's going back and forth to accomplish this objective, she would be getting irritated, but isn't really able to do anything about it because she still needs to accomplish the mission. It makes for a pretty silly scene to me, and made me lol

    From Kim's personal log:

    Personal Log: For the love of Surak, I will never understand some people. Here we were trapped in the 23rd Century, on Drozana diligently tried to restore the station's systems so we could save the future and get back to our timeline.

    We needed this component from a girl in the weapons hold. So, we went there to get it. She was a bit shaken, and asked that I get her a drink from the bar to calm her nerves. I will admit there have been times where I've gotten a bit shaken myself, and gone into my ready room for a drink, but I at least had the presence of mind to do it myself and not while we were in the middle of an emergency.

    Trying to feel kindly, I got her a drink, but apparently, that drink was insufficient. So back to the bar I went with my away team.

    She didn't like the next drink I got her, or the one after. Back and forth four freaking times to get her flipping drink right. I am a starship Captain, not a waitress.

    Meanwhile, Commander Kala, Thol and Doctor Zoymu are leaned against the bulkhead laughing at me. I think Falor or Soral took a picture of me as I was getting angry.

    I was half tempted to march over to Mr. Scott and tell him to run like the wind from this girl, but Falor, sensing my irritation told me to hold my tongue.

    I finally got it right, and now feel much better about my skills in mixing nerve tonics. Commander Kala has suggested that I start serving the next time we're at Drozana Station. I told her to shove it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    At first I thought that this thread might be a complaint about puzzles being in the weeklies and I was ready to tear someone a new hole...thankfully, it was only about one particular puzzle. From the viewpoint of a 25th-century Starfleet officer, it made little sense to have to run around trying to find the correct cocktail to mix...and even less sense to have a battle-hardened Klingon warrior do it, too. Why couldn't I just beat her up and take the damn thing?

    It was a cute little puzzle, but just slightly immersion breaking. Not to the point where I would complain about it. After all, it seems like half of the episodes had SOMEONE drinking, even on duty.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    If it had been true to life, you would've had to buy her dinner too...and NOT be able to complete your objective until after running an additional 3 missions. Then she gives you what you want...

    :D

    ...maybe.

    :rolleyes:

    *Snicker.*

    In all seriousness, if this were a part of an episode of the Original Series, Kirk would have grabbed the hysterical woman by the shoulders and shook her while yelling "you...'ve....GOT to....calm...DOWN and help me! ALL...of our....livesareatstake!" After a second of her not calming down, he would have punched her out and taken the part.

    I'm not condoning it, but seriously, that's what would have happened.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Turtlewing wrote: »
    except no one knows what's going on.

    You show up in the middel of a bar fight with ghosts, shoot some people and then ask the shopkeep for some obscure equipment.

    Also you probably don't know enough to just take the equipment yourself (couple hundred year old technology) so you actually need her help rather than being able to do a smash and grab.

    Thus you have to play be her rules, which means getting her a drink that she likes.

    To me that makes a lot more sence than disguising a federation ship as a klingon ship in order to send it to a federation station in the past. or the fact that you can't just drop the emitter when it becomes aparent that it's causing more trouble than it's worth (probably wouldn't have gotten you out of the first fight, but the second one was puerly the fault of pretending to be a house duras ship). Or the coup de gras where 2 difefrent modes of time travel are involved in one miossion (why exactely wasn't one sufficient?)

    Coup de grace.

    Sorry. Pet Peeve. I reallllly try not to correct people on spelling and/or grammar, and on the rare occasion that I do, I make sure that I do it without flaming the person or calling their intelligence into question like some of the spelling and grammar police out there.
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