Please give us back control over BOffs!

pweistheworst · May 2013

I understand that the devs wanted to create a more "robust" story that involved more interaction with the bridge crew, but it's REALLY annoying when we choose not to include Tovan in an away team and he pops up anyway as if he was part of the away team ... or WORSE, Tovan's voice comes out of the mouth of another BOff who is on the away team.

This is the PLAYER'S story and not Tovan's story.

If the player doesn't select Tovan then Tovan shouldn't be popping up.

psycoticvulcan · May 2013

I like Tovan, personally, but I can see why others wouldn't.

Perhaps in a future update we could get to choose from a variety of different characters on Virinat to be our "buddy" boff. That would be cool.

itsthebishop · May 2013

I'm not a big fan of Tovan. His dialogue is written so that it seems like he's the one in charge and not the player character.

shpoks · May 2013

When I first heard of Tovan through the dev.blog I must admit I was kinda' against it. It seemed to me like taking away some of my customization. Therefore I can certainly understand players that don't prefer it this way.

But now, after I played a while as a Romulan I have really grown fond of him. When the blog came out I heard comments like "he's ordering you arround", "he's in charge instead of you", but I'm really not getting that vibe on Holodeck.
Ever since our first encounter at Virinat it's very clear that Tovan and your char. are friends and colleagues, so during the game his comments didn't come out to me as being bossy, but rather like two friends completely confused by what happened in such short amount of time, working together cheering each other and watching each other's backs.
The feeling I got from the story is that my char., a security guard on Virinat finds herself commanding a Republic warbird out of a sudden and she never had command experience before. So her friend is always by her side for boosting morale and supporting her through the tough decisions she has to make while being inexperienced.

I must admit, it hasn't happened to me other Boffs/NPCs to have Tovan's voice.
And Cryptic did provide the possibilty to change his appearence, which was by far the most improtant thing to me, if he's here to stay he's going to have to get rid of that stupid tattoo. And why for Star Trek sake wouldn't I take a purple Boff on an away mission with me, especially at low levels when he's the only purple I can have? So, I'm fine with Tovan.

I completely understand people's desires to have their customization preferences, but I don't feel this is so bad. (as oposed to my former opinion of it)

rtk142 · May 2013

shpoks wrote: »

When I first heard of Tovan through the dev.blog I must admit I was kinda' against it. It seemed to me like taking away some of my customization. Therefore I can certainly understand players that don't prefer it this way.

That's exactly my issue with it. I don't like we're all being forced to take this boff I don't care how good his skills may be. Once I get enough other boffs I'm not using him.

cthulhufhtagn666 · May 2013

I completely agree. We should NOT be forced to have any bridge officer we don't want.

stevefin1 · May 2013

No one is really forcing you to keep them (expect Tovan for story reasons) and if your really that angry by it, Buy some new BO's, your mains probably have dozens collecting dust anyway

merkhet · May 2013

The game has always had the boffs telling you what to do most of the time.

pweistheworst · May 2013

stevefin1 wrote: »

No one is really forcing you to keep them (expect Tovan for story reasons)

That's essentially the nature of the problem ... we ARE forced to keep Tovan, and even when you have other BOffs and specifically choose NOT to include him in your away team Tovan shows up anyway!

As the player, LOR is supposed to be MY story but the way the new LOR missions are setup at the moment it is as if I'm playing Tovan's story and not my own.

I don't care about Tovan and I don't want him popping up in my story. Tovan should be OPTIONAL like all the other BOffs.

diotw · May 2013

I'll use Tovan at the beginning, because he's a purple quality BOFF, and it makes sense to use him early on when most of your crew and gear is common quality. However, once I get enough BOFFs of my own to fill my away team, and have a BOFF for each ship slot, Tovan will have his military uniform and equipment taken from him, be discharged from the Imperial fleet, and be given some civilian rags to wear in his new role as the ship's Sanitation Technician.

rtk142 · May 2013

diotw wrote: »

once I get enough BOFFs of my own to fill my away team, and have a BOFF for each ship slot, Tovan will have his military uniform and equipment taken from him, be discharged from the Imperial fleet, and be given some civilian rags to wear in his new role as the ship's Sanitation Technician.

So, you're essentially making him Dave Lister?

diotw · May 2013

rtk142 wrote: »

So, you're essentially making him Dave Lister?

Pretty much! :P Except chicken soup machine repair is too good for Tovan, so he gets toothbrush toilet bowl cleaning duty for taking over my character's story, and daring to order his superior officer around. Personally, I think that's lenient treatment. If my character was still serving on his Dominion War era warbird (he's the oldest character I have), Tovan would probably have been shot by now.

rowga · May 2013

rtk142 wrote: »

So, you're essentially making him Dave Lister?

But not with any cool heroic alternate reality versions of himself either!

rtk142 · May 2013

diotw wrote: »

Pretty much! :P Except chicken soup machine repair is too good for Tovan, so he gets toothbrush toilet bowl cleaning duty for taking over my character's story, and daring to order his superior officer around. Personally, I think that's lenient treatment. If my character was still serving on his Dominion War era warbird (he's the oldest character I have), Tovan would probably have been shot by now.

I mean Tovan does seem like an ok guy and all, but can't we just reassign him to somebody who wants him around?

Unknown · May 2013

This content has been removed.

f9thaceshigh · May 2013

I understand the complaints that he acts like he's more in charge, I've seen the same type of thing in other games, like bridge commander, it's just the cost of having a silent protagonist. It's just the way that this type of story has to work. I don't mind if he takes charge, the tutorial kinda gave me the impression that he outranked the player character in the colony's militia anyway.

diotw · May 2013

The biggest problem I have with Tovan is that, by the time you've started getting in to the Romulan storyline, it feels less like you're playing your character's story, and more like you're playing 'Legacy of Romulus; The Tovan Khev story! With special guest star, the Player Character!'

The fact that they've locked so much about him is also annoying. As a personal thing, I name all my BOFFs as their rank, and then their last name. So my Federation character's First Officer is named Marya Nubia Dye in her long name, but her displayed name is Commander Dye. I can't do that with Tovan, so on Tribble I had an away team of Subcommander Satra, Centurion Nevel, Uhlan Havraha, and Tovan Khev. If he's too good to wear the rank I give him, then I don't have to give him rank.

vimzul · May 2013

I stuffed him into my torpedo tube and fired him at an enemy.

nyxadrill · May 2013

pweistheworst wrote: »

away team and he pops up anyway as if he was part of the away team ... or WORSE, Tovan's voice comes out of the mouth of another BOff who is on the away team.

I had to have a chuckle when I saw this happen last night. Up popped my Liberated Borg Boff and out came Torvans voice.... I thought "Cool! This ex-Borg does impressions as well!!" :P

jawz786 · May 2013

nyxadrill wrote: »

I had to have a chuckle when I saw this happen last night. Up popped my Liberated Borg Boff and out came Torvans voice.... I thought "Cool! This ex-Borg does impressions as well!!" :P

Exact same happened to me. I was confused at first thinking, wow they have put in generic voice for any officer until I swiftly realised my Borg Boff had committed identify fraud and stolen Tovan's identity.

Having generic male and female voices could solve a-lot of this Tovan rage quite easily I think. So you can select who plays 'your Tovan'.

voicesdark · May 2013

I really don't mind him, but there have been a few times where:

Tovan = SHUT UP WESLEY!!!

But hey at least we can get rid of the Liaison Boff they give us.

shpoks · May 2013

f9thaceshigh wrote: »

I understand the complaints that he acts like he's more in charge, I've seen the same type of thing in other games, like bridge commander, it's just the cost of having a silent protagonist.

Oh, you just brought up memories!

Your 1st officer in bridge commander is far far worse than Tovan, at least for me. I can't count the number of times I wanted to throw her in the brig.

stealthrider · May 2013

Somewhere along the line Cryptic decided it no longer wanted to be Cryptic, the customization-first developer, and instead wanted to be Bioware's 'special' cousin.

We got along just fine for years without having boff stories thrown at us. I can't understand why people think this is actually better.

ggg247 · May 2013

I wouldn't mind Tovan as long as I could change his name so he more closely matches the "theme" crew I'm going for on my character (in this case, Roman emperors). His sister could keep her name, whatever it is;I just want Tovan's name changeable.

Please give us back control over BOffs!

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