Where no Space Commander has gone before...the Allies arc! As a Fed aligned character since that's what most people will choose starting out the first time around.
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THE PRICE OF NEUTRALITY
Observations: Stopped at the end of the first arc back in closed, so now entering virgin territory.
First set of battles against the Hirogen were fun. Sort of odd though as Tovan is now calling me "Centurion" and generally being less personable. Probably on the off chance that his position is now being filled by a Starfleet/KDF officer and Cryptic can't do personalization so easily after you make your alliance.
Nice snow city. Overall the mission seems a lot more similar to the pre-existing STO content when you start out, but later on it sort of takes on the quality of that jungle Hirogen mission for KDF (Alpha?), except with less getting lost and ambushes.
Plot was a bit odd/mildly nonsensical. Reman guy is supplying arms to the Tal Shiar knowingly but Charva says he is not? Still, the development of problematic factions in the Romulan Republic is rather nice to be honest.
When I ended the mission, I warped out with green warp trail? And it was blue earlier? So is that bug in "Neutrality No More" I mentioned confined for one mission, for some reason?
Issues/Bugs: Whoa, science fail! Description of the Chaltok system star says it's Magnitude (absolute?) is +1, that it's an M-Class (red-colored) star, and that it is 100 times brighter than Earth's sun. This is utterly impossible. M-class stars are actually rather a lot less bright than the Sun, and they are also a lot cooler. Also - to put it simply - if you wanted to indicate the star was brighter, it's *absolute magnitude* should be -1 rather than +1, because "minus magnitudes" mean the star is brighter and "positive magnitudes" indicate that it is dimmer.
Hirogen space battle has a lot of ambient "communication equipment" noise for some reason, rather unlike any other space mission fight in the game.
Injured Yridian colonist does not have a "close up" face designated for dialogue and thus we are treated with some generic blue graphics.
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MEMORY LANE
Observations: So after I made that long observation about generic messages just in case you replace your starting BOFFs with SF/KDF BOFFs, Tovan starts talking again? So why is the previous missions text so generic?
Space start was pretty fun. Really appreciate the power of the Romulan ships, my alpha strikes almost 1-shot large cruisers on Normal difficulty, and I'm still using Mk2 kit for the most part!
Virinat ground is pretty desolate, but still a quite nice looking set, again much more detailed that what we have seen in most Fed and some KDF missions. The plot twist was pretty nice, and handled well. The last space battle was fun but not really much of a challenge even with MK2 equipment. In any event, I enjoyed it.
Issues/Bugs: Tovan's VO plays in its entirety in the first dialogue box that comes up when you warp in. When you hit "Continue", you get the text version of half of what he just said in voiceover, but no spoken dialogue. Looks like the audio file for this starting speech has to be split up and properly assigned.
When you get near the cafe where you begin the Romulan campaign, Tovan mentions in text "Those flowers always remind me of my sister Rinna". His voice actor however talks about the painting, however. Audio file assignment mixup?
On Virinat ground, same muffled communication voice that plays in the first space mission of "Price of Neutrality" plays here as well. Doesn't seem like an appropriate sound effect.
In the Mempa System - Upon completing the fight with the Cardassians and scuttling the ship in the distortion field - subcommander Nabel (?) pops up and says I need to leave the Tweda sector block and head to the Pi Canis sector block to the Mempa system -- of course, I'm already there, having just completed the mission in that system.
Once I exit the Mempa system in the Pi Canis sector block, Nadel tells me to head to Eta Eridani, ok, so I navigate to it and upon arriving in it Nadel appears again telling me to navigate to the Eta Eridani sector block - of which I just arrived in.
After setting the self-destruct on the first Transport and then beaming to the second - my away team disappears. The icons are there and says they are about 156 meters from me ... somewhere ... floating in space ?
On the HUD the mission 'Tradecraft' has an icon to warp/navigate to the starting point - however the starting point is actually your ship's Ready Room -- which of course is impossible to 'warp' to. I pressed the icon just to see what would happen and my ship started flying around in circles.
I chose to ally with the klingons. Then i visited the bridge of my Dhelan warbird. There was a female FED tactical officer sitting in the chair behind and to the left of the captain's chair. Did I mention that I allied with the klingon. Anyway, the problem fixed itself upon my second visit. Other than that everything was awesome.
I'm quite happy with how everything came together and is comprehensive enough for novice users.
The story is compelling and is about as romulan as one could be. The Drama is something that should be increased by means of Off subject officer opinions.
Another thing I noticed during Bigger Picture, some of your characters speech "bubbles" are hidden by the upper letterbox bar during the Cardasian ship interior animation.
I saw this as well. Was hoping it was just a glitch, but apparently not.
the green text on 'the price of neutrality' mission when you first hail the contact says go to the ajilon system in Eta Eridani sector block, but the waypoint is the chaltok system in tau dewa sector block.
When talking to each person at the work camp -- Hiven is laying down on a cot in the barracks area, when you speak to him he introduces himself as Satra. I guess she's all growed up now ... turned out big .. and changed genders.
Another two missions in the bin.
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BIGGER PICTURE
Observations: Well the space distortion looked nice, and while in-game cutscene could have used more VO work for Tovan it was pretty effective. The music does sort of bring back memories of the Devidian missions though.
Huh, Sela is offering essentially Letters of Marque to the True Way to take down Republic vessels, interesting historical related sub-thread there. "Foolish Cardiassians, no wonder the Dominion abandoned you." Them's fightn' words, boy!
Second space section was pretty similar to the special mission you receive when you get 10 True Way Computer Fragments; not a mission one encounters commonly, but familiar enough to be recognized by veteran players.
Issues/Bugs: Mempa sector space star is invisible with astrometrics disabled.
After destroying the Elachi-ed True Way ship, Subcommander Nadel called me up to tell me to head to Mempa. I thought I was already there?
When warping out of Mempa, I had blue Fed warp effects again.
When I entered Eta Eridani block, Nadel phoned me again to tell me to head to the Eta Eridani sector block. Telling me to head to Donatu is helpful, but I'm already in the Eta Eridani block?
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SMASH AND GRAB
Observations: Surprisingly challenging space battle to start; if it wasn't for the singularity shield I would have been popped by the reinforcement ship. Very entertaining and I am happy to see *armed* transports for a change.
Site-to-side transport boarding was a nice change from the usual flow of ground maps. Nice "Red October" reference, although now I'm thinking about a Connery voiceover...maybe ADM Quinn would work? "The Klignhonshs arhe overwhealming our poshishions in Eta Aridani..."
I could sort of tell were the plot was going as soon as I warp into the system though. Still, this mission didn't feel tedious. Even if the writing isn't as strong in this arc as it is in the first, it's still good fun.
Issues/Bugs: On second transport, lower level, I could see a "Loot Critter" visible on the map. All ships should have one in my opinion.
Tovan whines about Charva on Transport 2 and 3, saying the exact same thing both times.
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OTHER NOTES:
The blue warp trails seem to be a random occurrence, as I left my first visit to the public New Romulus map with green trails and just left again with blue trails.
After leaving New Romulus a second time, heard Denise Crosby give the "sector voiceover" for Tau Dewa for the first time. Nice to hear it, but I think Leonard was a better fit for these kinds of things.
In "Bigger Picture":
- There is background chatter in the Mempa System
- Nadel tells me to go to Mempa after I destroyed the damaged Cardassian ship, even though I'm already there
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them." -Thomas Marrone
Memory Lane: Khev has some dialogue when you start the mission. It's given as one speech, but is written across two panels
Tradecraft: Some of the files you are given by Charva require guesswork to solve. Tal'Mera on Drozana can give you the correct information, but you're not prompted to go there until after you've dealt with all the files.
Wrapping up the arc, now with the May 13th patch inside! Which is somewhat meaningless as I finished the mission about 2 minutes before the shard was pulled down for the next one.
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TRADECRAFT
Observations: I would assume from the name that there's gonna (gorna?) be a lot of spy stuff in this one. Actually making a bridge set relevant to a mission plot is nice, it also gives the players an excuse to tour their ship and see all the DOFF stuff they can do on it.
"These weapons were being aimed at Romulan Militia Targets by Lortrix at D'Tan's personal request." WOAH. Talk about workplace violence. Probably a text oversight though, but that would be a monster development if played straight.
First part of the mission isn't too bad. The intel scavenger hunts are fun occasionally, but once or twice a faction is enough.
Second part has a somewhat truncated ground combat section that follows to a very enjoyable space furball. Although is it just me but isn't it sort of wrong-feeling that Mogai's and D'Deridex's, previously very frustrating ships in Fed and KDF campaigns are here very easy opponents that even T1 & T2 player ships can handle with ease? Let alone the same fate befalling Keldorns.
Resolution was as expected. It does seem like the Romulan Republic, the deeper you get into the story, is not the complex and non-idealistic construct it's made out to be early on, and has a much more cut and dry nature. Not that I didn't expect it would eventually get to that level, given the cutscenes for Fed/KDF characters for the early Season 7 stuff. But post-TMP Klinks or DS9-era in general this isn't!
Issues/Bugs: Tal'Mera, when asked to cross-reference the events of Virinat, refers to Sela as the "empress". Romulans don't need no steekin' Human grammar.
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OTHER NOTES:
The blue warp trails still occurring with May 13th patch. But that patch is an ex-parrot now, isn't it?
I had trouble with "Bigger Picture". After the part where you decide to beam to the Cardassian ship,and Toban says I'm coming with you, my computer crashed. Then it happened again. The third time I went into it, it had skipped the part where I go aboard the Cardassian ship. I couldn't drop the mission, and now I can't replay it.
Comments
---
THE PRICE OF NEUTRALITY
Observations: Stopped at the end of the first arc back in closed, so now entering virgin territory.
First set of battles against the Hirogen were fun. Sort of odd though as Tovan is now calling me "Centurion" and generally being less personable. Probably on the off chance that his position is now being filled by a Starfleet/KDF officer and Cryptic can't do personalization so easily after you make your alliance.
Nice snow city. Overall the mission seems a lot more similar to the pre-existing STO content when you start out, but later on it sort of takes on the quality of that jungle Hirogen mission for KDF (Alpha?), except with less getting lost and ambushes.
Plot was a bit odd/mildly nonsensical. Reman guy is supplying arms to the Tal Shiar knowingly but Charva says he is not? Still, the development of problematic factions in the Romulan Republic is rather nice to be honest.
When I ended the mission, I warped out with green warp trail? And it was blue earlier? So is that bug in "Neutrality No More" I mentioned confined for one mission, for some reason?
Issues/Bugs: Whoa, science fail! Description of the Chaltok system star says it's Magnitude (absolute?) is +1, that it's an M-Class (red-colored) star, and that it is 100 times brighter than Earth's sun. This is utterly impossible. M-class stars are actually rather a lot less bright than the Sun, and they are also a lot cooler. Also - to put it simply - if you wanted to indicate the star was brighter, it's *absolute magnitude* should be -1 rather than +1, because "minus magnitudes" mean the star is brighter and "positive magnitudes" indicate that it is dimmer.
Hirogen space battle has a lot of ambient "communication equipment" noise for some reason, rather unlike any other space mission fight in the game.
Injured Yridian colonist does not have a "close up" face designated for dialogue and thus we are treated with some generic blue graphics.
---
MEMORY LANE
Observations: So after I made that long observation about generic messages just in case you replace your starting BOFFs with SF/KDF BOFFs, Tovan starts talking again? So why is the previous missions text so generic?
Space start was pretty fun. Really appreciate the power of the Romulan ships, my alpha strikes almost 1-shot large cruisers on Normal difficulty, and I'm still using Mk2 kit for the most part!
Virinat ground is pretty desolate, but still a quite nice looking set, again much more detailed that what we have seen in most Fed and some KDF missions. The plot twist was pretty nice, and handled well. The last space battle was fun but not really much of a challenge even with MK2 equipment. In any event, I enjoyed it.
Issues/Bugs: Tovan's VO plays in its entirety in the first dialogue box that comes up when you warp in. When you hit "Continue", you get the text version of half of what he just said in voiceover, but no spoken dialogue. Looks like the audio file for this starting speech has to be split up and properly assigned.
When you get near the cafe where you begin the Romulan campaign, Tovan mentions in text "Those flowers always remind me of my sister Rinna". His voice actor however talks about the painting, however. Audio file assignment mixup?
On Virinat ground, same muffled communication voice that plays in the first space mission of "Price of Neutrality" plays here as well. Doesn't seem like an appropriate sound effect.
The story is compelling and is about as romulan as one could be. The Drama is something that should be increased by means of Off subject officer opinions.
I saw this as well. Was hoping it was just a glitch, but apparently not.
---
BIGGER PICTURE
Observations: Well the space distortion looked nice, and while in-game cutscene could have used more VO work for Tovan it was pretty effective. The music does sort of bring back memories of the Devidian missions though.
Huh, Sela is offering essentially Letters of Marque to the True Way to take down Republic vessels, interesting historical related sub-thread there. "Foolish Cardiassians, no wonder the Dominion abandoned you." Them's fightn' words, boy!
Second space section was pretty similar to the special mission you receive when you get 10 True Way Computer Fragments; not a mission one encounters commonly, but familiar enough to be recognized by veteran players.
Issues/Bugs: Mempa sector space star is invisible with astrometrics disabled.
After destroying the Elachi-ed True Way ship, Subcommander Nadel called me up to tell me to head to Mempa. I thought I was already there?
When warping out of Mempa, I had blue Fed warp effects again.
When I entered Eta Eridani block, Nadel phoned me again to tell me to head to the Eta Eridani sector block. Telling me to head to Donatu is helpful, but I'm already in the Eta Eridani block?
---
SMASH AND GRAB
Observations: Surprisingly challenging space battle to start; if it wasn't for the singularity shield I would have been popped by the reinforcement ship. Very entertaining and I am happy to see *armed* transports for a change.
Site-to-side transport boarding was a nice change from the usual flow of ground maps. Nice "Red October" reference, although now I'm thinking about a Connery voiceover...maybe ADM Quinn would work? "The Klignhonshs arhe overwhealming our poshishions in Eta Aridani..."
I could sort of tell were the plot was going as soon as I warp into the system though. Still, this mission didn't feel tedious. Even if the writing isn't as strong in this arc as it is in the first, it's still good fun.
Issues/Bugs: On second transport, lower level, I could see a "Loot Critter" visible on the map. All ships should have one in my opinion.
Tovan whines about Charva on Transport 2 and 3, saying the exact same thing both times.
---
OTHER NOTES:
The blue warp trails seem to be a random occurrence, as I left my first visit to the public New Romulus map with green trails and just left again with blue trails.
After leaving New Romulus a second time, heard Denise Crosby give the "sector voiceover" for Tau Dewa for the first time. Nice to hear it, but I think Leonard was a better fit for these kinds of things.
- Tovan Khev is a woman during a space dialogue
- Map on Chaltok doesn't display most buildings correctly
In "Memory Lane":
- There is background chatter on Virinat, the same from ESD
- Talem's bridge officers are wearing Romulan Republic uniforms
In "Bigger Picture":
- There is background chatter in the Mempa System
- Nadel tells me to go to Mempa after I destroyed the damaged Cardassian ship, even though I'm already there
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
---
TRADECRAFT
Observations: I would assume from the name that there's gonna (gorna?) be a lot of spy stuff in this one. Actually making a bridge set relevant to a mission plot is nice, it also gives the players an excuse to tour their ship and see all the DOFF stuff they can do on it.
"These weapons were being aimed at Romulan Militia Targets by Lortrix at D'Tan's personal request." WOAH. Talk about workplace violence. Probably a text oversight though, but that would be a monster development if played straight.
First part of the mission isn't too bad. The intel scavenger hunts are fun occasionally, but once or twice a faction is enough.
Second part has a somewhat truncated ground combat section that follows to a very enjoyable space furball. Although is it just me but isn't it sort of wrong-feeling that Mogai's and D'Deridex's, previously very frustrating ships in Fed and KDF campaigns are here very easy opponents that even T1 & T2 player ships can handle with ease? Let alone the same fate befalling Keldorns.
Resolution was as expected. It does seem like the Romulan Republic, the deeper you get into the story, is not the complex and non-idealistic construct it's made out to be early on, and has a much more cut and dry nature. Not that I didn't expect it would eventually get to that level, given the cutscenes for Fed/KDF characters for the early Season 7 stuff. But post-TMP Klinks or DS9-era in general this isn't!
Issues/Bugs: Tal'Mera, when asked to cross-reference the events of Virinat, refers to Sela as the "empress". Romulans don't need no steekin' Human grammar.
---
OTHER NOTES:
The blue warp trails still occurring with May 13th patch. But that patch is an ex-parrot now, isn't it?