I think the story arc was excellent. The missions were interesting and varied.
At Helix, I cloaked during the initial battle and when the cloak engaged the game thought the battle was done and brought up the dialog box to advance the mission. This uncloaked me, so I was getting shot by the remaining enemies while the dialog box blocked my view and I was trying to cancel it. Second once I did finish destroying the enemies and was ready to beam up the refugees it was difficult to find the point in space that brought up the transport option. I had to fly around and over-top of the station for several minutes before the option to transport came up.
On New Romulus the Tholian commander seemed overpowered for the level of character I had at the time. Obviously this could be lack of skill on my part but you might look at the balance of that encounter again, and my team handled the other waves OK, then was getting taken out in one or two shots by the Tholian commander.
At Khitomer - I thought it was a nice touch that the Tal Shiar agents were in place the whole time disguised as Vulcans. It might be cool to let you talk to one of them like the mission allows you to talk with some of the other groups in the hall.
The rewards in the Rom mission intro seem thin compared to Fed and KDF intro missions, I have also seen too many Fed ship weapon drops (quite useless for my Rom, unless I want to mix weapon types).
Intro - shooting the bottles you can see the invisible barrier - black shades. Love the premise, such a feeling of being a survivor indeed.
A few minor spelling and grammar issues with the text throughout but I can deal with those.
With the choice thing of Fed/Klingon, well, whilst I can appreciate the reasons why to fit the game structure setup, it just still doesn't feel or sit right as a Romulan, I was going, no way would I pick a Fed ship...and I most certainly love my Mogai!!! Looks so awesome. Even in Temporal Ambassador, Tasha is going Starfleet needs to be restored to the timeline, now why would a Romulan want that for that matter? Starfleet and the Vulcans failed to help with Hobus, wouldn't they want to not help out?
So perhaps one day when STO gets a reimagining, we can have a true Rommie race, but all in all, I enjoyed the whole 21 levels. Mind games was especially fascinating!
First off, enjoyed the tutorial missions. I loved the fact that we started on a colony. The map was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It felt peaceful, serene. I would have enjoyed getting to know the colonists better. Would be even more compelling during the destruction of the colony later on.
The "smoke trail" on the T'Liss Bird of Prey, did not suit me at all. I would prefer seeing a plasma trail similar to the Dhelan and Mogai, green. But I loved how there were background stories to each of the first Bridge Officers. Makes me want to hold onto them more, develop them more. And I sincerely hope we're able to find Tovan's sister.
Anyway, some gripes I have with this, are the typos. There were quite a few in the text. Spell Check/Grammar Check is your friend ^_^. Other than that, I really enjoyed the tutorial missions and the first story arc. This is how the Klingon and Federation initial missions should be designed.
Played Crossroads at Crateris. Loved the ep, especially the groundmap and the massive ship overhead. Fighting the mysterious ship took FOREVER at the end, though. But I love that my BOFFs have a more meaningful story when they tag along.
This is along the lines of my concern...
I like how you guys gave reasons in the mission for why we picked up certain BOFFs to give them more character. I also like that the first BOFF we got on our ships was a VR, definitely a long-term keeper. What I felt was a little stingy was making the next three BOFFs "throw-away" uncommons. I mean why not be consistent and give VRs as they are obviously not meant to be throw-aways?
Second comment, I did enjoy the story arc but it was at a way to fast leveling pace...Lvl 4 just at the end of the tutorial? It needs a couple of missions at the end to better flesh out why you should choose to ally with the Feds or Klinks. As it stands now as many other have said and I agree with, the poor and ooc dialogue for the Feds makes joining the Klingons the clear choice. Why not end the tutorial at level two and before the Khitomer mission have one mission that is Fed related and one Mission Klingon related.
Third, I really like what has been done with all the custom and new ground maps. However, I feel the time we can or are on them is too short and we need some options to check more things out if we wish. Perhaps a few little optional mini-things to do that will help us gear up better (getting gear through this first set of missions is pretty slim). Perhaps the COH guys sprinkle in a few short optional side missions for a little more gear so people can that want to can enjoy the maps more. Other things like optional dialogue with other contacts would be nice too.
I have to say, I really do love the new Romulan expansion. I have been waiting for it since I first joined STO, and it is more than I expected.
I do have a few quibbles(being a Beta, I expected I would). For one thing, some of the missions are too graphic intensive to run at a good speed on my computer. I have one of the faster Internet connections I have ever used in the US, but on some of the maps it is still a little glitchy. This is a common problem in many of the more graphic intensive maps in STO, but it still bugs me.
Additionally, I think it should be easier for Romulan characters to buy Romulan-styled equipment. We do this for the Fed and KDF forces(Default is phasers and disruptors styled after Starfleet and Klingon weapons). So why can't we do this for Romulans where more credit-based dealers(At least those on New Romulus) sell Romulan equipment to Romulan players? It does not make sense to me why I get a Romulan pistol in the tutorial, but have to quickly switch to Phasers/Disruptors/Non-Romulan weapons to keep up with the leveling.
The difficulty curve seems to be out of whack as well. Some missions are hard and require 30min to an hour+. However some missions are so easy that I can run through them in 20 min.
I should also be able to get any Romulan-reputation equipment for KDF/Fed players as rewards for later missions.
I am still iffy on the Alliance with the KDF/Fed thing.
Colour scheme for loading screens should be green, not blue.
There was one mission(Probably not in the right section, mind you) on the Maiouri(Spelling?) planet where the Reman leader is getting ready to obliterate Tal Shiar forces using a Thalaron bomb. In one dialogue Thalaron was spelled Tharalon.
Played Crossroads at Crateris. Fighting the mysterious ship took FOREVER at the end, though.
Agreed. There should be something that lets you know to defeat the other tal'shiar ships so your allies can help you.
And agree on the subtitles going too fast in the intro.
Some grammar and spelling errors. Not trying to be a grammar TRIBBLE...heaven knows I'm not perfect.:)
And another issue I had...when I was playing the "Search for New Romulas" mission...When I used the "auto-navigate" on the mission journal under the mini-map to travel to the next system it would send me in a random direction. It did this every time I used it...but only in this mission. To get to the next system I had to manually travel or open the system map and click the system to get there. Don't know if anyone else had this problem. Again, it was ONLY with this mission...auto-navigate worked fine on all other missions.
Otherwise very nicely done. Enjoyed every moment. Great story arc all around. On to the next episode!!!
I don't care what the header says, I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, an "ARC user".
However i find myself not happy because after i chose my allies - i went kdf to look - i beamed off of the flotilla and then got a server not responding in loading screen that went on for 1600+s. Now however when i try to log onto my rom captain it gets to 71% loading and then as it hits 72% always server not responding appears with the last time getting to 5000+s.
I am now going to have to start a new toon because of this and i am unsure if it was my siding with the klinks that caused this
At the beginning and some Movies have dialogues in text mode... these text moves very quickly and can?t read at that speed... maybe all text can be slow
Hello all, i play until lvl 22 on tester and i like the story but some mission are to long and boring. In mission when u discover New Romulus u need to run all map to get 100% from fauna and stuff is not fun. The reward need to be change in somethink more substatial at items. There a lot of bugs ex: plasma fire on ship i cant see, one of my ground officer after kill the npc , he shot continues in the wall. In mission when u go trouth iconia portal again u need to run all ship left to right up and down to get all items to escape boring again.
Found some text in Search for New Romulus that doesn't quite sound right:
"The ship isn't detecting any more Tholian ships in orbit, but with our luck that'll change."
The wording seems odd since I don't recall the ship detecting any Tholian ships in orbit at all, so the more seems out of place. (Maybe cut dialog?)
In Turning Point, I think the Fed/KDF diplomats on the Flotilla need a lot more text to describe what exactly the various pros/cons of joining them are. While experienced players will likely have at least some knowledge, new players doing a Romulan as their first char wouldn't know the differences at this point. (And I mean pros/cons in their overall "philosophy" but also what equipment you do and don't get access to, access to faction home worlds/sector space, and other such things.) A choice like that, which cannot be changed, shouldn't be made without all the facts.
Also, as has been noted elsewhere, there is a targetable object (named Object) behind the statue near the third bomb that obviously should be hidden and not targetable.
Edit: Overall, the mission arc was fun and the beginning was quite interesting, and I like it better then the Federation intro.
What If instead of reading all the text they spoke. But the Legacy of Romulus IS GREAT I LOVE IT!!!!!! But if everyone spoke as well as the text it would be even better.
What If instead of reading all the text they spoke. But the Legacy of Romulus IS GREAT I LOVE IT!!!!!! But if everyone spoke as well as the text it would be even better.
There has been several talks from Devs that they are adding Voice Overs. I am not sure what all is getting VO treatment. but the opening cinema at least was explicitly stated as getting voice overs. They just have no been added yet as the audio team is still working on them I believe.
The Mission Journal, PvE queue, skills tab and galaxy map tab are all unnecessary and potentially confusing during the tutorial and should therefore be greyed out. This holds true not only for Romulan, but als Klingon and Federation characters.
Thank you again for the invitation. I really enjoyed Mind Game and the map was gorgeous. I'd like to see an STF (A Tal Shiar themed STF perhaps) using that map.
On that note the ship interiors were all gorgeous and I'd like to see them used in other ways. The opening of Mind Game was very powerful. The choices were frustrating. I would have enjoyed an inverse choice where you choose one believing that you were resisting but were actually doing the Tal Shiar's bidding.
Concerning the mission arc, I would have liked to have seen more dialogue options for more variety of responses. It would add texture for those who are more separatists.
It would have been a nice touch for Klingons to differentiate between Romulans and the Tal Shiar after the attempt at Khitomer. It could help signal a real change of mindset on their part.
The overall story is very enjoyable although questionable sometimes, I would not have had any contact the Tal Shiar except at an end of my plasma cannon. It did make for interesting story telling though.
I was also confused as to if I was from the starting planet or just a visitor. If that was my home planet I would have offered a stronger defense if someone accused it of producing weapons or harboring separatists. It would be nice if you added text indicating your past experience on the planet. E.g. "Look at the vineyard! It used to be so lush."
Questions:
I noticed a Tal Shiar Engine, can we look forward to a set and can we assume that engine is scalable to level if the mission is replayed?
I did not get my Mogai at level 21. In fact, I would have to pay 8K dilithium for it.
I built a Sci and the Romulan ships seems do not seem Sci-friendly with two ensign sci slots (Dhelan). The power source does give sci-like powers but I felt my sci abilities and BOFF's were not being utilized effectively in space combat.
Observation: Oh btw, do not like the second set of upper wings on the Dhelan.
Comments:
I'd like to be able to resize screens.
I would like to dismiss the small text windows myself. Sometimes I missed the dialogue when they closed by themselves. Hopefully the dialog is captured in the journal.
A Bajoran, Ginn, appears on a view screen twice instructing me to do such and so forth. He seems to be on my crew. Who is Ginn?
Graphics issues:
Moving items over the character and BOFF portraits causes the portraits to turn, raise or lower.
The weapon menu pop up's (when you hover the mouse over a weapon) seem much larger than are currently on Holodeck.
The Khitomer Bomb did not appear in any animation.
Lortrix's two cloak tails stand straight up, similar to columns, when he dies.
Head effects (texture/shadows) would wink in and out.
The portrait backgrounds on the screen, when using blown up pictures, do not look great. E.g. Zden's shuttle interior shot after his abduction.
Suggestions:
Showing the name "New Romulus" after it has been declared the new home instead of before, would help continuity.
Typos:
"I'm not the one to be order an evacuation."-Zden
In the Kinkuthaza File-"(I)n a state when (should be WHERE) identification is impossible."
Empress is used with lowercase, even when her subjects refer to her.
Drake-"(O)ur planes" (should be PLANS).
"A person in you (YOUR) situation my (MAY)."
Drake is to (TOO) much spy...
In Cloak and Dagger-
"(T)argetting (TARGETING) their sensor grid." There is a second misspelling of targeting.
Game play issues:
After level 16 my Hazard Emitters I did not work. It remained greyed out even after I moved my BOFF's around and they were removed from my layout twice.
Just created my first Romulan. That's all I got time for tonight. When I created my toon the lighting was way to dark. I couldn't tell what the colors I choose really looked like.
One of the 0.7%ers Markus Urelious 16000+ Accolades [Fed Tac FA] + Several More
Small detail, but during the Khitomer mission, the Tal Shiar undercovers that are dressed as diplomats have romulan forehead ridges and talshiar belts which kinda gives them away
I have, actually, very few notes. The introduction and first campaign were in general very well done. The dialogue needs some proof-reading (look specifically for there/their/they're confusion, which comes up a lot.)
I ran into a weird graphical issue on Khitomer, and I wish I'd screenshotted it, but the blood wine fountain was superimposed on the whole scene in that room. It doesn't sound like this problem was universal, so I'm not sure if it's reproducible.
Agreed. There should be something that lets you know to defeat the other tal'shiar ships so your allies can help you.
Yes, a new player wouldn't know any better, and needs that kind of help. I only figured it out myself after several respawns.
Also, AGREED about the Character Creator. Turn the lighting up in there--PLEASE!
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Continuing the New story arcs, i have been Blown away with the layouts and story Proposing. And Wow!, I start as a Civilian, This really is Immersive and has an Element to make players "Feel" Like The romulans which is Critical in my opinion to immerse the player into the role of being a romulan and to get the gist of how they feel and their Republic viewpoint on the tal Shiar plus the need to be left alone after their home world was Destroyed, the anger,Deception and uncertainties for this Ruined Empire. When that "Strange Ship" Destroy's the Romulan Civilians, i Was completely lost for words and my jaw just Dropped, i mean this is a wow factor.
2: What i want personally in STO
When i play STO, im looking for Emersion and story's that have "Feeling" and purpose "or" Reason to Defend, without those two "Feelings" and "Purpose Reasoning" make the Experience over all not logical and Meaningful,well Cryptic, you are really catching on to what end users want (Balance of Space and ground missions) and this is what makes a difference. Your hard work is quite "Felt" in this new Expansion for STO and i really can see that you had fun Making it and we all know that if your work is fun, so will the end result in the end users. I have been part of quite a lot of Beta's stretching to the Simulation games way back to day's of Sonic the Hedgehog, so i really know whats useful to you in terms of BETA Feedback. The Expectations of this Expansion is soly reliant on what Users want to See and if you cant, find way's to Compromise to the end users. This was not done in the past leaving the Klingon Empire High and dry with Stale Content. If i were you id look at the Klingon side and use that FE's as what not to do Respectively.
3: Critical missing Content
The lack of Voice over is a really bad letdown, Cryptic, it should be done in all missions because the Emotive Gest of Voice acting gives the user a far greater immersive Experience, and it should be regardless of cost, because,Well thats what users want and what makes you money, so Investing in being Evolutionary is the core issue i have with this game of all other issues. If you are "Thinking" about this, just do it, You must take risks to grow your company because this market is held alive only because of Content, Sto needs this Revised for your long term Goals. I can see some of this in Legacy of Romulus and the Federation sides, but is absent in parts of the game.
Another thing i see as being important for Sto is story arc Blending, No Arc Builds on the last and thus making the game Confusing, In Between arcs are one way of moving to the next Storyline Missions. Legacy of Romulus is a very exiting project and you are being bold, but i suggest you plus that, Really Tree off missions for alternate paths by use of Autogen map making and raise the max level from VA 50 to VA 140 Then plus it up non-linear once V.A is reached so that users can level up forever using the Levels after 140, lets say "Ambassidr" from their on giving continuous leveling up via Automaps with milestones every 50 Levels giving rewards of greater power and AI matching the player?
4: BUGS
A: AI are not attacking after Server Disconnects and reloads allowing Easy killing of stationary Romulans on the Helix mission. They can be made to move once you shoot one, otherwise they just stand their and be Killed.
B: Blurry Sky's in Ground maps (Most of them)
C: Unknown invasion Ship near the Helix is too Hard for new players.
Frozen water animation seen During first reman Mission.
E: Ship in space sometimes lags and Strange Camera behaviour seems confused at what the primary ship being fired at in order to focus.
F: Strange ship in space battle causes crash to desktop if the user presses fire during its Teleportation mode (Has occurred 6 Times so far) Its random and so i cannot offer method of causing Bug.
5: "What i really like"
A: Overall, i love the Expansion, its really Engaging and story's are in good Context with other factions.
B: Singularity drive warp core Breach. WOW! when Romulan ships blow, they really do creating a Black hole, this is VERY VERY Creative.
C: Warp Cores- This concept really works and prolongs the entire journey as players look for the fastest Engine.
Finding Civilians to build a crew is outstanding, Critical and reflective of the Bruised Romulan Race offering Emersion and getting to know these officers is just 10/10.
6: "What i Dislike"
This is very hard to criticize this work as its practically Flawless to begin with, however, i will summarize these Dislikes.
A: The initial ship is too weak for the enemy's to be Fought, Lower the hit points for enemies Below level 10, this would Frustrate new users too much.
B: Textures in background are Blurry (Including the sky).
C: Preclude of the Romulan Missions. Now this was a significant let down for me, the Romulan story is out of Timeline with the other factions, lacking the following.
D : Intro does not indicate Clearly at what point in time the Romulan missions start out (Eg, is this a preclude "OR" is it Equal with other faction timeline?) This is critical to be Explained at the beginning to save Confusion and let down of player Experience.
E: If new romulus has already been found, the why do we have to go find whats clearly already Established, it does not Link well with Story reducing Consistency and lowering User satisfaction due to conflicting story's. Try to make it a separate map during the Search for new Romulus mission so the user Feels that they are really the one choosing new Romulus?
7: "More Feedback to come as i progress testing further"
I haven't a lot of time so far to spend on this, but just wanted to through some initial feedback out...
1) Amazing job so far guys, definitely some good story telling. I really enjoyed the aspect of recruiting your bridge officers into your "crew". It added some depth to who they are and why they are there.
2) The tutorial felt very good as both a story introduction and a means of introducing a player to the controls.
3) So far I've been playing on Elite through all the missions and everything seems ok, with the exception that the drop rarity doesn't seem to be any different. Honestly I'm completely cursed when it comes to STOs random number generator however on Holodeck running elite I'll usually get a blue drop at least once in 3-4 missions and so far haven't seen one.
Overall I really hope to see the kind of story telling and character development continued through the game moving forward. It felt like there was a genuine effort made to avoid the simply "Scan 5 things/Kill 5 things" style of gameplay.
As far as bugs I never encountered anything that stood out to me. While I'm not a big fan of the new UI it proved to be functional and working as I would expect. I hate the flat feel which is the new trend (Windows should never be a model to steal designs from) but from a functionality stand point it worked.
I look forward to continuing through the allied missions. Overall excellent job so far!
Intro: as many have said, subtitles go past too fast to read. Beautifully done colony, wish there was a way to explore it again in its full glory.
Explore the Flotilla: Someone (Temer?) tells you that you will receive a stipend of 2000 credits. You don't receive any such credits.
Crossroads at Crateris: The explody shuttle is REALLY out of place; 99% of the environment isn't destructible, but the one shuttle blows up without warning from a stray shot? Very unpleasant surprise. We either need warning that this ONE piece of scenery is fragile, or it needs to be not fragile. If you insist on making it damagable by weapons, make the penalty for damaging mean you have to spend a bit of time repairing it. Otherwise, it serves no purpose.
The Search for New Romulus: I LOVED that when fighting animals on the surface, you drove them off rather than killed them. Final battle with the Tholian Commander was quite difficult, considering the resources we had available. I don't think it should need to be nerfed, but keep an eye out for those one-shot kills, guys.
Turning Point: My first and strongest impression is...you really want the Romulans to side with the Klingons, don't you? I HATE playing a Klingon, and planned for this character to go Fed all along, but the mission severely tempted me to go Klingon anyways. Why? The Federation offers you NOTHING but diplomatic banalities and distrust. The Klingons at the end, though, consider you strong, honorable warriors that they respect. Why would anyone whose first character was a Romulan pick the Federation? My suggestion to fix this would be to have your character work with someone from the Federation briefly on a scientific, repair, or exploring issue. The Federation offers rebuilding and protection, with peaceful (well, they try) exploration on the side, while the Klingons offer glory, conquest, and aid in striking back at a mutual enemy...but again, all we see from the conference is the Feds offering diplomatic banalities from Jiro and distrust from T'nae.
Still Turning Point: Also, when you're patrolling with Ja'rod in space, the Anomalies you're investigating should count as anomalies for your V scan; I found it amusing to be told "there are 0 anomalies in the system" when there's an anomaly RIGHT in front of me.
First off, WOW, insanely awesome playing so far, and thank you for letting me test.
The only things I can think of that bugged me was frequently I had to re-slot my bridge officers. Also during round combat some of the rifles would get stuck and just keep firing, had to un-equip them to make it stop.
Other than that BRAVO! Can't wait to play the finished product! Love how you meet your bridge officers along the way, makes me more fond and attached to them.
Turning point: I agree with above, I was dead set on Allying with the Federation, but it defiantly feels like you really want us to go with KDF, to the point I actually felt bad picking the Federation LOL
Fantastic idea with the bridge officers, gives the feeling of assembling a rag tag crew which is a nice concept. (I understand the Fed/KDF format of a Captain choosing their crew from a pool of officers though)
I'm really impressed with the new expansion and I'm not easily impressed (wow a blue car!!):P
The Continuing Voyages of Bridge Commander Captain Lee Drake - USS Sovereign Captain Draxon - IKS RanKuf Commander Torenn - IRW Soryak Captain Gregory MacCray - USS Geronimo
So far, I absolutely love the story. It's a massive improvement over the previous story lines. It's not as painfully obvious, and the writing is much, much better.
The drop tables are a little off (Tholians dropped food, seriously?), but that's a "mechanical" issue that can be worked on later.
I'd say give the Federation more reason to WANT the character, they're just annoying, kinda like an overly attached girlfriend, where was the Klingons are like the awesome female friend with the motorcycle and a sense of danger and adventure.
Kind of an interesting direction having you acquire your BOFFs along the way similar to old Baldur's Gate or similar.
BOFFs came with non-terrible powers choices for space, although giving Tovan Lunge for his Lt skill on ground is pretty questionable...
Going from the junky old school Rom warbird to the newer Warbird (Dhael) almost feels like you hit the jackpot.
Could we get an RCS console available somewhere, shipyard vendor even?
The arc itself has good pacing, the VO stuff I'll check out once it's in place.
The space enemies feel really weak, although they might be challenging for newer players.
On the one hand, they kind of need to be weak because you barely have any abilities available to you, on the other hand I've gone beyond this arc and by L16 I can't say I've been realistically threatened more than once (I decided to see if I could die by plasma shockwaving the entire Tal Shiar fleet - you can.)
Visually it looks fantastic, and while unrelated the new UI feels lighter and the whole gameplay feels crisper as a result.
Enjoying it so far, not much but minor nitpicks on spelling and some slightly too Americanized slang choices for the Roms from time to time.
Crossroads at Crateris: The explody shuttle is REALLY out of place; 99% of the environment isn't destructible, but the one shuttle blows up without warning from a stray shot? Very unpleasant surprise. We either need warning that this ONE piece of scenery is fragile, or it needs to be not fragile. If you insist on making it damagable by weapons, make the penalty for damaging mean you have to spend a bit of time repairing it. Otherwise, it serves no purpose.
The Search for New Romulus: I LOVED that when fighting animals on the surface, you drove them off rather than killed them. Final battle with the Tholian Commander was quite difficult, considering the resources we had available. I don't think it should need to be nerfed, but keep an eye out for those one-shot kills, guys.
About the shuttle at Crossroads, I got the feeling that it was supposed to explode no matter what you did, so that it was the oh frak but what else could we do moment. But that was just my feeling.
And about the Tholian Commander, I didn't have that hard a time with him, but I've played ground before, and I know the tricks with it. I remember I did get killed, but my bridge officers got me right back up and they also managed to finish him mostly. Maybe a tip about using focus fire or someone saying something about picking them off one at a time.
I did feel that this arc seemed to go by way too fast, its like, oh we lost our old home, and all these other people have lost their old home. But wait, here's our new home, handy no? I felt that it would have been more telling to have the foltilla be our base for a while longer, and stretch out finding New Romulus.
Also, I know anyone already in the game will know, but its kinda telling when the sector map has Dewa III/New Romulas on it while you're looking for New Romulas.
And finally, not really specific to this arc, but it starts here. You can go get a new ship at New Romulas when you rank up, but you can't customize it there, only at the foltilla. Also, unless I missed it, you can't train bridge officers, or changes costumes at New Romulas either. Will this be added in later?
EDIT:
Also echoing all the cries about the Feds not wanting you enough. It would be nice if you protected the planet with both a KDF and a Fed ship, and that you could run errands for the Feds like you do with the KDF ambasadors.
Thanks for the invite to closed beta testing! I have to say I've really enjoyed the story line all the way through (what is available so far). Great Job !!! I especially enjoyed how we got our first Bridge Officers, though I must admit it makes me not want to replace them. So with so few BO slots per ship any others I've got are pretty much a waste. The art work is awesome.
Other than a few spelling errors, and some serious lag in the Virinat System (space) I haven't had any problems so far.
One question though, are these closed beta characters going to be wiped clean at the end of this round of testing?
Few more things I was thinking about:
New Romulus Command Center:
Where did that come from? One mission I'm scouting out the planet, then a couple of missions later I'm told to go to the Command Center (which looks nearly completed), with no explanation of how it got there. I expected at least a popup from Nabel (Nebal?) or D'Tan saying "We've recently completed construction of a Command Center on New Romulus, when you get a chance I'd like you to head over there for a tour."
It was just odd to me that it appeared with no explanation.
Mind Game:
First off, I love this mission premise. The one thing I could think of to improve it would be to add some penalty for resisting, like an electric shock from an implant or something. Something more than just Sela saying, "No, try again." Oh, and I'm VERY happy I got a Tal Shiar uniform. I was hoping for one of those! Which leads me to...
More costume options:
The costumes look great but I wish there were more, particularly more than one skirt, and shoes. We're civilians, and the best we can get are short boots?
And finally, not really specific to this arc, but it starts here. You can go get a new ship at New Romulas when you rank up, but you can't customize it there, only at the foltilla. Also, unless I missed it, you can't train bridge officers, or changes costumes at New Romulas either. Will this be added in later?
I was able to, but you have to go up the ramp on the right side from where you come in. The ship tailor is at the end of that platform. On FED allied at least.
The BOFF trainer I think was in the larger room across from the Admiral. Not sure about the tailor.
All the more reason we should have an optional 'Tour the Command Center' mission, like you get for ESD.
I've only played the first few missions so far, just hit level 7.
I haven't encountered any bugs, that I've noticed. Nothing has a voice over yet (which I'm assuming is coming later?), and that makes them kinda weird.
I didn't like the introduction at all. Running from one end of the colony to another over and over to talk to a bunch of npc's isn't fun. And being sent into fields of crops to play exterminator to a bunch of overgrown bugs is just stupid.
During the evacuation, when talking with the tal'shiar, I wanted there to be a conversation option along the lines of "can I join you and help you exterminate this entire bloody colony?" because I really hated everyone and everything on that world. Also, I'd much rather join the romulan star empire than the lameass republic.
The next two missions were short and pretty bland. Nothing much to say on them, just struck me as rushed out filler.
The crossroads mission is as far as I've gotten so far, and is the first time I was really having any fun. It seemed to be more developed than the first two 'real' missions with a variety of things going on. And it was way better than the craptacular intro.
Comments
At Helix, I cloaked during the initial battle and when the cloak engaged the game thought the battle was done and brought up the dialog box to advance the mission. This uncloaked me, so I was getting shot by the remaining enemies while the dialog box blocked my view and I was trying to cancel it. Second once I did finish destroying the enemies and was ready to beam up the refugees it was difficult to find the point in space that brought up the transport option. I had to fly around and over-top of the station for several minutes before the option to transport came up.
On New Romulus the Tholian commander seemed overpowered for the level of character I had at the time. Obviously this could be lack of skill on my part but you might look at the balance of that encounter again, and my team handled the other waves OK, then was getting taken out in one or two shots by the Tholian commander.
At Khitomer - I thought it was a nice touch that the Tal Shiar agents were in place the whole time disguised as Vulcans. It might be cool to let you talk to one of them like the mission allows you to talk with some of the other groups in the hall.
A few minor spelling and grammar issues with the text throughout but I can deal with those.
With the choice thing of Fed/Klingon, well, whilst I can appreciate the reasons why to fit the game structure setup, it just still doesn't feel or sit right as a Romulan, I was going, no way would I pick a Fed ship...and I most certainly love my Mogai!!! Looks so awesome. Even in Temporal Ambassador, Tasha is going Starfleet needs to be restored to the timeline, now why would a Romulan want that for that matter? Starfleet and the Vulcans failed to help with Hobus, wouldn't they want to not help out?
So perhaps one day when STO gets a reimagining, we can have a true Rommie race, but all in all, I enjoyed the whole 21 levels. Mind games was especially fascinating!
The "smoke trail" on the T'Liss Bird of Prey, did not suit me at all. I would prefer seeing a plasma trail similar to the Dhelan and Mogai, green. But I loved how there were background stories to each of the first Bridge Officers. Makes me want to hold onto them more, develop them more. And I sincerely hope we're able to find Tovan's sister.
Anyway, some gripes I have with this, are the typos. There were quite a few in the text. Spell Check/Grammar Check is your friend ^_^. Other than that, I really enjoyed the tutorial missions and the first story arc. This is how the Klingon and Federation initial missions should be designed.
This is along the lines of my concern...
I like how you guys gave reasons in the mission for why we picked up certain BOFFs to give them more character. I also like that the first BOFF we got on our ships was a VR, definitely a long-term keeper. What I felt was a little stingy was making the next three BOFFs "throw-away" uncommons. I mean why not be consistent and give VRs as they are obviously not meant to be throw-aways?
Second comment, I did enjoy the story arc but it was at a way to fast leveling pace...Lvl 4 just at the end of the tutorial? It needs a couple of missions at the end to better flesh out why you should choose to ally with the Feds or Klinks. As it stands now as many other have said and I agree with, the poor and ooc dialogue for the Feds makes joining the Klingons the clear choice. Why not end the tutorial at level two and before the Khitomer mission have one mission that is Fed related and one Mission Klingon related.
Third, I really like what has been done with all the custom and new ground maps. However, I feel the time we can or are on them is too short and we need some options to check more things out if we wish. Perhaps a few little optional mini-things to do that will help us gear up better (getting gear through this first set of missions is pretty slim). Perhaps the COH guys sprinkle in a few short optional side missions for a little more gear so people can that want to can enjoy the maps more. Other things like optional dialogue with other contacts would be nice too.
I do have a few quibbles(being a Beta, I expected I would). For one thing, some of the missions are too graphic intensive to run at a good speed on my computer. I have one of the faster Internet connections I have ever used in the US, but on some of the maps it is still a little glitchy. This is a common problem in many of the more graphic intensive maps in STO, but it still bugs me.
Additionally, I think it should be easier for Romulan characters to buy Romulan-styled equipment. We do this for the Fed and KDF forces(Default is phasers and disruptors styled after Starfleet and Klingon weapons). So why can't we do this for Romulans where more credit-based dealers(At least those on New Romulus) sell Romulan equipment to Romulan players? It does not make sense to me why I get a Romulan pistol in the tutorial, but have to quickly switch to Phasers/Disruptors/Non-Romulan weapons to keep up with the leveling.
The difficulty curve seems to be out of whack as well. Some missions are hard and require 30min to an hour+. However some missions are so easy that I can run through them in 20 min.
I should also be able to get any Romulan-reputation equipment for KDF/Fed players as rewards for later missions.
I am still iffy on the Alliance with the KDF/Fed thing.
Colour scheme for loading screens should be green, not blue.
There was one mission(Probably not in the right section, mind you) on the Maiouri(Spelling?) planet where the Reman leader is getting ready to obliterate Tal Shiar forces using a Thalaron bomb. In one dialogue Thalaron was spelled Tharalon.
I want to know more about the ELACHI!
Agreed. There should be something that lets you know to defeat the other tal'shiar ships so your allies can help you.
And agree on the subtitles going too fast in the intro.
Some grammar and spelling errors. Not trying to be a grammar TRIBBLE...heaven knows I'm not perfect.:)
And another issue I had...when I was playing the "Search for New Romulas" mission...When I used the "auto-navigate" on the mission journal under the mini-map to travel to the next system it would send me in a random direction. It did this every time I used it...but only in this mission. To get to the next system I had to manually travel or open the system map and click the system to get there. Don't know if anyone else had this problem. Again, it was ONLY with this mission...auto-navigate worked fine on all other missions.
Otherwise very nicely done. Enjoyed every moment. Great story arc all around. On to the next episode!!!
However i find myself not happy because after i chose my allies - i went kdf to look - i beamed off of the flotilla and then got a server not responding in loading screen that went on for 1600+s. Now however when i try to log onto my rom captain it gets to 71% loading and then as it hits 72% always server not responding appears with the last time getting to 5000+s.
I am now going to have to start a new toon because of this and i am unsure if it was my siding with the klinks that caused this
In rest good job and put more ships to chose.
"The ship isn't detecting any more Tholian ships in orbit, but with our luck that'll change."
The wording seems odd since I don't recall the ship detecting any Tholian ships in orbit at all, so the more seems out of place. (Maybe cut dialog?)
In Turning Point, I think the Fed/KDF diplomats on the Flotilla need a lot more text to describe what exactly the various pros/cons of joining them are. While experienced players will likely have at least some knowledge, new players doing a Romulan as their first char wouldn't know the differences at this point. (And I mean pros/cons in their overall "philosophy" but also what equipment you do and don't get access to, access to faction home worlds/sector space, and other such things.) A choice like that, which cannot be changed, shouldn't be made without all the facts.
Also, as has been noted elsewhere, there is a targetable object (named Object) behind the statue near the third bomb that obviously should be hidden and not targetable.
Edit: Overall, the mission arc was fun and the beginning was quite interesting, and I like it better then the Federation intro.
There has been several talks from Devs that they are adding Voice Overs. I am not sure what all is getting VO treatment. but the opening cinema at least was explicitly stated as getting voice overs. They just have no been added yet as the audio team is still working on them I believe.
STOWiki admin.
Thank you again for the invitation. I really enjoyed Mind Game and the map was gorgeous. I'd like to see an STF (A Tal Shiar themed STF perhaps) using that map.
On that note the ship interiors were all gorgeous and I'd like to see them used in other ways. The opening of Mind Game was very powerful. The choices were frustrating. I would have enjoyed an inverse choice where you choose one believing that you were resisting but were actually doing the Tal Shiar's bidding.
Concerning the mission arc, I would have liked to have seen more dialogue options for more variety of responses. It would add texture for those who are more separatists.
It would have been a nice touch for Klingons to differentiate between Romulans and the Tal Shiar after the attempt at Khitomer. It could help signal a real change of mindset on their part.
The overall story is very enjoyable although questionable sometimes, I would not have had any contact the Tal Shiar except at an end of my plasma cannon. It did make for interesting story telling though.
I was also confused as to if I was from the starting planet or just a visitor. If that was my home planet I would have offered a stronger defense if someone accused it of producing weapons or harboring separatists. It would be nice if you added text indicating your past experience on the planet. E.g. "Look at the vineyard! It used to be so lush."
Questions:
I noticed a Tal Shiar Engine, can we look forward to a set and can we assume that engine is scalable to level if the mission is replayed?
I did not get my Mogai at level 21. In fact, I would have to pay 8K dilithium for it.
I built a Sci and the Romulan ships seems do not seem Sci-friendly with two ensign sci slots (Dhelan). The power source does give sci-like powers but I felt my sci abilities and BOFF's were not being utilized effectively in space combat.
Observation: Oh btw, do not like the second set of upper wings on the Dhelan.
Comments:
Graphics issues:
Moving items over the character and BOFF portraits causes the portraits to turn, raise or lower.
The weapon menu pop up's (when you hover the mouse over a weapon) seem much larger than are currently on Holodeck.
The Khitomer Bomb did not appear in any animation.
Lortrix's two cloak tails stand straight up, similar to columns, when he dies.
Head effects (texture/shadows) would wink in and out.
The portrait backgrounds on the screen, when using blown up pictures, do not look great. E.g. Zden's shuttle interior shot after his abduction.
Suggestions:
Showing the name "New Romulus" after it has been declared the new home instead of before, would help continuity.
Typos:
"I'm not the one to be order an evacuation."-Zden
In the Kinkuthaza File-"(I)n a state when (should be WHERE) identification is impossible."
Empress is used with lowercase, even when her subjects refer to her.
Drake-"(O)ur planes" (should be PLANS).
"A person in you (YOUR) situation my (MAY)."
Drake is to (TOO) much spy...
In Cloak and Dagger-
"(T)argetting (TARGETING) their sensor grid." There is a second misspelling of targeting.
Game play issues:
After level 16 my Hazard Emitters I did not work. It remained greyed out even after I moved my BOFF's around and they were removed from my layout twice.
Thanks again, hope this is helpful.
I ran into a weird graphical issue on Khitomer, and I wish I'd screenshotted it, but the blood wine fountain was superimposed on the whole scene in that room. It doesn't sound like this problem was universal, so I'm not sure if it's reproducible.
Yes, a new player wouldn't know any better, and needs that kind of help. I only figured it out myself after several respawns.
Also, AGREED about the Character Creator. Turn the lighting up in there--PLEASE!
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1: Feedback overview.
Continuing the New story arcs, i have been Blown away with the layouts and story Proposing. And Wow!, I start as a Civilian, This really is Immersive and has an Element to make players "Feel" Like The romulans which is Critical in my opinion to immerse the player into the role of being a romulan and to get the gist of how they feel and their Republic viewpoint on the tal Shiar plus the need to be left alone after their home world was Destroyed, the anger,Deception and uncertainties for this Ruined Empire. When that "Strange Ship" Destroy's the Romulan Civilians, i Was completely lost for words and my jaw just Dropped, i mean this is a wow factor.
2: What i want personally in STO
When i play STO, im looking for Emersion and story's that have "Feeling" and purpose "or" Reason to Defend, without those two "Feelings" and "Purpose Reasoning" make the Experience over all not logical and Meaningful,well Cryptic, you are really catching on to what end users want (Balance of Space and ground missions) and this is what makes a difference. Your hard work is quite "Felt" in this new Expansion for STO and i really can see that you had fun Making it and we all know that if your work is fun, so will the end result in the end users. I have been part of quite a lot of Beta's stretching to the Simulation games way back to day's of Sonic the Hedgehog, so i really know whats useful to you in terms of BETA Feedback. The Expectations of this Expansion is soly reliant on what Users want to See and if you cant, find way's to Compromise to the end users. This was not done in the past leaving the Klingon Empire High and dry with Stale Content. If i were you id look at the Klingon side and use that FE's as what not to do Respectively.
3: Critical missing Content
The lack of Voice over is a really bad letdown, Cryptic, it should be done in all missions because the Emotive Gest of Voice acting gives the user a far greater immersive Experience, and it should be regardless of cost, because,Well thats what users want and what makes you money, so Investing in being Evolutionary is the core issue i have with this game of all other issues. If you are "Thinking" about this, just do it, You must take risks to grow your company because this market is held alive only because of Content, Sto needs this Revised for your long term Goals. I can see some of this in Legacy of Romulus and the Federation sides, but is absent in parts of the game.
Another thing i see as being important for Sto is story arc Blending, No Arc Builds on the last and thus making the game Confusing, In Between arcs are one way of moving to the next Storyline Missions. Legacy of Romulus is a very exiting project and you are being bold, but i suggest you plus that, Really Tree off missions for alternate paths by use of Autogen map making and raise the max level from VA 50 to VA 140 Then plus it up non-linear once V.A is reached so that users can level up forever using the Levels after 140, lets say "Ambassidr" from their on giving continuous leveling up via Automaps with milestones every 50 Levels giving rewards of greater power and AI matching the player?
4: BUGS
A: AI are not attacking after Server Disconnects and reloads allowing Easy killing of stationary Romulans on the Helix mission. They can be made to move once you shoot one, otherwise they just stand their and be Killed.
B: Blurry Sky's in Ground maps (Most of them)
C: Unknown invasion Ship near the Helix is too Hard for new players.
E: Ship in space sometimes lags and Strange Camera behaviour seems confused at what the primary ship being fired at in order to focus.
F: Strange ship in space battle causes crash to desktop if the user presses fire during its Teleportation mode (Has occurred 6 Times so far) Its random and so i cannot offer method of causing Bug.
5: "What i really like"
A: Overall, i love the Expansion, its really Engaging and story's are in good Context with other factions.
B: Singularity drive warp core Breach. WOW! when Romulan ships blow, they really do creating a Black hole, this is VERY VERY Creative.
C: Warp Cores- This concept really works and prolongs the entire journey as players look for the fastest Engine.
6: "What i Dislike"
This is very hard to criticize this work as its practically Flawless to begin with, however, i will summarize these Dislikes.
A: The initial ship is too weak for the enemy's to be Fought, Lower the hit points for enemies Below level 10, this would Frustrate new users too much.
B: Textures in background are Blurry (Including the sky).
C: Preclude of the Romulan Missions. Now this was a significant let down for me, the Romulan story is out of Timeline with the other factions, lacking the following.
D : Intro does not indicate Clearly at what point in time the Romulan missions start out (Eg, is this a preclude "OR" is it Equal with other faction timeline?) This is critical to be Explained at the beginning to save Confusion and let down of player Experience.
E: If new romulus has already been found, the why do we have to go find whats clearly already Established, it does not Link well with Story reducing Consistency and lowering User satisfaction due to conflicting story's. Try to make it a separate map during the Search for new Romulus mission so the user Feels that they are really the one choosing new Romulus?
7: "More Feedback to come as i progress testing further"
Best Regards: Jared AKA Azurerail1.
1) Amazing job so far guys, definitely some good story telling. I really enjoyed the aspect of recruiting your bridge officers into your "crew". It added some depth to who they are and why they are there.
2) The tutorial felt very good as both a story introduction and a means of introducing a player to the controls.
3) So far I've been playing on Elite through all the missions and everything seems ok, with the exception that the drop rarity doesn't seem to be any different. Honestly I'm completely cursed when it comes to STOs random number generator however on Holodeck running elite I'll usually get a blue drop at least once in 3-4 missions and so far haven't seen one.
Overall I really hope to see the kind of story telling and character development continued through the game moving forward. It felt like there was a genuine effort made to avoid the simply "Scan 5 things/Kill 5 things" style of gameplay.
As far as bugs I never encountered anything that stood out to me. While I'm not a big fan of the new UI it proved to be functional and working as I would expect. I hate the flat feel which is the new trend (Windows should never be a model to steal designs from) but from a functionality stand point it worked.
I look forward to continuing through the allied missions. Overall excellent job so far!
Captain Ariel Trueheart Department of Temporal Investigations
U.S.S. Valkyrie - NCC 991701
=/\= ================================= =/\=
Explore the Flotilla: Someone (Temer?) tells you that you will receive a stipend of 2000 credits. You don't receive any such credits.
Crossroads at Crateris: The explody shuttle is REALLY out of place; 99% of the environment isn't destructible, but the one shuttle blows up without warning from a stray shot? Very unpleasant surprise. We either need warning that this ONE piece of scenery is fragile, or it needs to be not fragile. If you insist on making it damagable by weapons, make the penalty for damaging mean you have to spend a bit of time repairing it. Otherwise, it serves no purpose.
The Search for New Romulus: I LOVED that when fighting animals on the surface, you drove them off rather than killed them. Final battle with the Tholian Commander was quite difficult, considering the resources we had available. I don't think it should need to be nerfed, but keep an eye out for those one-shot kills, guys.
Turning Point: My first and strongest impression is...you really want the Romulans to side with the Klingons, don't you? I HATE playing a Klingon, and planned for this character to go Fed all along, but the mission severely tempted me to go Klingon anyways. Why? The Federation offers you NOTHING but diplomatic banalities and distrust. The Klingons at the end, though, consider you strong, honorable warriors that they respect. Why would anyone whose first character was a Romulan pick the Federation? My suggestion to fix this would be to have your character work with someone from the Federation briefly on a scientific, repair, or exploring issue. The Federation offers rebuilding and protection, with peaceful (well, they try) exploration on the side, while the Klingons offer glory, conquest, and aid in striking back at a mutual enemy...but again, all we see from the conference is the Feds offering diplomatic banalities from Jiro and distrust from T'nae.
Still Turning Point: Also, when you're patrolling with Ja'rod in space, the Anomalies you're investigating should count as anomalies for your V scan; I found it amusing to be told "there are 0 anomalies in the system" when there's an anomaly RIGHT in front of me.
That's all I can think of for this arc.
The only things I can think of that bugged me was frequently I had to re-slot my bridge officers. Also during round combat some of the rifles would get stuck and just keep firing, had to un-equip them to make it stop.
Other than that BRAVO! Can't wait to play the finished product! Love how you meet your bridge officers along the way, makes me more fond and attached to them.
Turning point: I agree with above, I was dead set on Allying with the Federation, but it defiantly feels like you really want us to go with KDF, to the point I actually felt bad picking the Federation LOL
Well done, so excited!
I'm really impressed with the new expansion and I'm not easily impressed (wow a blue car!!):P
Captain Lee Drake - USS Sovereign
Captain Draxon - IKS RanKuf
Commander Torenn - IRW Soryak
Captain Gregory MacCray - USS Geronimo
The drop tables are a little off (Tholians dropped food, seriously?), but that's a "mechanical" issue that can be worked on later.
I'd say give the Federation more reason to WANT the character, they're just annoying, kinda like an overly attached girlfriend, where was the Klingons are like the awesome female friend with the motorcycle and a sense of danger and adventure.
Kind of an interesting direction having you acquire your BOFFs along the way similar to old Baldur's Gate or similar.
BOFFs came with non-terrible powers choices for space, although giving Tovan Lunge for his Lt skill on ground is pretty questionable...
Going from the junky old school Rom warbird to the newer Warbird (Dhael) almost feels like you hit the jackpot.
Could we get an RCS console available somewhere, shipyard vendor even?
The arc itself has good pacing, the VO stuff I'll check out once it's in place.
The space enemies feel really weak, although they might be challenging for newer players.
On the one hand, they kind of need to be weak because you barely have any abilities available to you, on the other hand I've gone beyond this arc and by L16 I can't say I've been realistically threatened more than once (I decided to see if I could die by plasma shockwaving the entire Tal Shiar fleet - you can.)
Visually it looks fantastic, and while unrelated the new UI feels lighter and the whole gameplay feels crisper as a result.
Enjoying it so far, not much but minor nitpicks on spelling and some slightly too Americanized slang choices for the Roms from time to time.
About the shuttle at Crossroads, I got the feeling that it was supposed to explode no matter what you did, so that it was the oh frak but what else could we do moment. But that was just my feeling.
And about the Tholian Commander, I didn't have that hard a time with him, but I've played ground before, and I know the tricks with it. I remember I did get killed, but my bridge officers got me right back up and they also managed to finish him mostly. Maybe a tip about using focus fire or someone saying something about picking them off one at a time.
I did feel that this arc seemed to go by way too fast, its like, oh we lost our old home, and all these other people have lost their old home. But wait, here's our new home, handy no? I felt that it would have been more telling to have the foltilla be our base for a while longer, and stretch out finding New Romulus.
Also, I know anyone already in the game will know, but its kinda telling when the sector map has Dewa III/New Romulas on it while you're looking for New Romulas.
And finally, not really specific to this arc, but it starts here. You can go get a new ship at New Romulas when you rank up, but you can't customize it there, only at the foltilla. Also, unless I missed it, you can't train bridge officers, or changes costumes at New Romulas either. Will this be added in later?
EDIT:
Also echoing all the cries about the Feds not wanting you enough. It would be nice if you protected the planet with both a KDF and a Fed ship, and that you could run errands for the Feds like you do with the KDF ambasadors.
Nouveau riche LTS member
Other than a few spelling errors, and some serious lag in the Virinat System (space) I haven't had any problems so far.
One question though, are these closed beta characters going to be wiped clean at the end of this round of testing?
New Romulus Command Center:
Where did that come from? One mission I'm scouting out the planet, then a couple of missions later I'm told to go to the Command Center (which looks nearly completed), with no explanation of how it got there. I expected at least a popup from Nabel (Nebal?) or D'Tan saying "We've recently completed construction of a Command Center on New Romulus, when you get a chance I'd like you to head over there for a tour."
It was just odd to me that it appeared with no explanation.
Mind Game:
First off, I love this mission premise. The one thing I could think of to improve it would be to add some penalty for resisting, like an electric shock from an implant or something. Something more than just Sela saying, "No, try again." Oh, and I'm VERY happy I got a Tal Shiar uniform. I was hoping for one of those! Which leads me to...
More costume options:
The costumes look great but I wish there were more, particularly more than one skirt, and shoes. We're civilians, and the best we can get are short boots?
I was able to, but you have to go up the ramp on the right side from where you come in. The ship tailor is at the end of that platform. On FED allied at least.
The BOFF trainer I think was in the larger room across from the Admiral. Not sure about the tailor.
All the more reason we should have an optional 'Tour the Command Center' mission, like you get for ESD.
I haven't encountered any bugs, that I've noticed. Nothing has a voice over yet (which I'm assuming is coming later?), and that makes them kinda weird.
I didn't like the introduction at all. Running from one end of the colony to another over and over to talk to a bunch of npc's isn't fun. And being sent into fields of crops to play exterminator to a bunch of overgrown bugs is just stupid.
During the evacuation, when talking with the tal'shiar, I wanted there to be a conversation option along the lines of "can I join you and help you exterminate this entire bloody colony?" because I really hated everyone and everything on that world. Also, I'd much rather join the romulan star empire than the lameass republic.
The next two missions were short and pretty bland. Nothing much to say on them, just struck me as rushed out filler.
The crossroads mission is as far as I've gotten so far, and is the first time I was really having any fun. It seemed to be more developed than the first two 'real' missions with a variety of things going on. And it was way better than the craptacular intro.