During the klingon boarding portion of the tutorial, there were two issues. The first was in the cut scene where the two klingons get sucked out of the hole. In the cutscene, the hole was there the entire time, before the explosion happened. So the Klingons ran up to the already existing hole, then an explosion happened where nothing really blew up, and then they got sucked out of the hole.
The second issue was also ont ehKlingon boarding portion where it gives you the option to shoot the EPS conduit. I tried, but nothing I could do could get it below full health. Ended up just shooting the Klingons.
Other than that, everything else seemed to work okay. There might have been an issue with me taking damage when I boarded the starter ship (right after the cutscene that shows it off, and the shuttle docks), but it happened to fast for me to be sure.
OK. I've seen allot of bugs being reported and most of them are the same as mine and all of them have now been at least acknowledged and addressed as a known issue.
so I think my best source of feedback may be on the overall state of the tutorial. i know and realize that it is for new players, and eventually it may be simply skipable when it comes to the live server. so overall most players wont even start the game on the same terms. but, I do feel like it needs to pointed out that this tutorial does something for the game overall. It adds in the feeling of an immersive beginning story for every character in the game.
as you go through this thing you start your story which is now unique to what ever faction you choose to play. it also seems to fit for all the tutorial in general. you start off as a person in each respective faction. you then get your own ship as you would expect in any STAR TREK fantasy. I will not at all argue the basics of the franchise experience is perfectly represented with all of the new tutorials. that much I do have to say is done perfectly.
however, I do have a few things to say about the federation tutorial specifically. in the tutorial right when you beam down to Vega, you acquire a tactical officer and I have no issue with him Personally at all, he has a back story, he is gained in a more personal way, but, I find that if you bother to pick up the other rewards along the way you end up filling all your bridge stations on your starter ship prior to his arrival.
So logically the tutorial is designed to make you prepared for playing the actual game. if i am incorrect in this assumption please explain this to me. but logically this also makes sense, that this final officer should prepare you for your next ship right? so if that is the case why can we not make a choice and pick from a group of officers that suits your choice for your next command. the current situation automatically assumes the player is going to pick an escort while I do understand many do, not all of us do. so why not let us pick what we want?
The above post reminded me of something. Currently, by the end of the tutorial, you get 2 tacs, 1 sci and 1 eng. The next mission after this is still saving that freighter. Which again rewards you with 3 BOFFs, at least it did for me. So, what's up with that? I don't think a new character has enough bridge office slots to hold that many. Is this going to be changed?
Ok, so just retried the fed tutorial. Got all the way through, one visible bug:
..when the cutscene for the hullbreach outside the transporter room plays the hole is there from the start. consider hiding that and it will be perfect i think, maybe add a coupple second delay on the forcefields and a small cutscene where you and your officers get sucked off their feet for a second before the forcefield goes up.
My thoughts: starting at starfleet academy being a cadet on a training cruse is awesome. feels more trek like then the old tutorial that just dumpped you on a ship under attack. I think for the space portion there should be a part explaining how to use your bo powers and maybe a requirement to use it once. The story that flowed with the tutorial was great.
I noticed that when saving the Break Even, the USS Renown that warps in is a Sovereign/Assault Cruiser, but when warping into the Vega combat zone for "Communication Breakdown", the USS Renown is a Typhoon Dreadnaught and the Khitomer is a Majestic/Assault Cruiser.
Methinks the NPC ships were named incorrectly, or did the Renown's captain have time to stop by ESD Shipyard and switch to his "Big Boy" ship before fighting the Borg? Because that would actually be in line with the STO experience
Some observations:
1) The phaser holodeck tutorial only gives an explanation for FPS mode, not RPG mode (which I personally play in). In fact, I don't recall an explanation between the two modes and I believe the old tutorial did cover this.
2) Related, I didn't notice the ground combat info on the side until my second playthrough. It might be useful to make this more prominient, maybe even a console the character must interact with (even if they don't have to read the whole thing)
3) It was a little weird beaming directly to Admiral Quinn's office. There's a transporter pad and big signs, perhaps I should beam in there.
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Completed through to the end of the Vega space section (after beaming up from planet) with no issues (Except the ships doors are stuck open again), great improvement there, BUT after the cube pops, I speak to the fleet, get told to warp to ESD which I do and the mission tracker tells me to go back to Vega and the beam up button is greyed out.
At this point I am now stuck on ESD and can't go back or progress or even get off the station...
Still stuck there with no progression or beam up options...
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Just replayed this again as I'm going to start a new Fed character when it comes out (my Fed played the tutorial at launch and all my others have skipped it since then! ) and want to make it an awesome experience.
Thoughts and bugs/weirdness so far (some of which have already been pointed out):
- I like starting in the cadet uniform. However, it is not consistent. During the shuttle ride from the Academy to your ship, the uniform changed to whatever I'd created during Character Creation, so broke the immersion factor.
- During the cutscene when the ship is boarded by the Klingons, R'raar (the Caitan transporter chief) wasn't visible at all. I got all manner of camera angles suggesting that he should be centre screen, but he wasn't there.
- When I go to secure the transporter room, the corridor shows the hull breach before the hull is breached in the cutscene. All very confusing.
- I managed to kill all the Klingons this time! No longer stuck at 71%.
- During the cutscene when you fire on the KDF ship, the interior of the Klingon bridge shows the Klingon at the console, however, all shots that show the captain's chair have no captain present.
- After repairing the SS Break Even (ungrateful Ferengi!) the ship just fades out, so no warp out animation (which would've been a nice touch). And the plasma cloud remains, which is just weird.
- The USS Renown goes from being a Sovereign-class vessel at the end of the tutorial to a Typhoon-class vessel when you warp into the Pollux system. What is it, a shapeshifter?
- Game crashed just as I'd spoken to the refugee in the 2nd group, just before the gate. Can't remember the Ticket ID off the top of my head... I had gotten the 2 sets of armour and the V/O was telling me to press the 'U' key to open my character screen...
- Intermission
- Resumed tutorial to discover that my position had been saved, but not my progress. Had to go back to the start to get the refugees again. The rest of Vega played out well enough, with the drones proving to be fairly nice cannon fodder whilst the pattern enhancers did their trick. I also liked the small aside from the security officer that joins you once you've spoken to the colony administrator. The 'boss' wasn't too hard at the end either.
- Back into space we go! This series of 'interact + fight' sections wasn't too bad until I got to the cube at the end. Then my shields vanished, despite using the EPtS that the Engineer BOff comes with, and did not regen at all. Plus, before I had control of my ship my hull had dropped to 46% and was falling. Bit of a strange one, as until then probes and spheres hadn't been that bad.
Suggestion: the Sci/Med BOff you get as a reward should have Hazard Emitters, a virtually mandatory skill for the game, not the most useless sci skill in the game as her starting power. That way I might be more inclined to invest in her from the start, not retrain her the moment I get EC, or swap her out for a better BOff.
So, I blew up the cube with the help of the small task force and died when the Cube blew up. Not exactly feeling like an awesome Starfleet officer.
- Respawned and got the prompt to receive the Renown's hail. Went through the dialogue and got beamed to Admiral Quinn's office. Kind of breaks the immersion factor, as we have to beam to the Transporter ROom every subsequent time. So, why not get people used to that from the start?
- Looked at my 'Missions' list to discover that I needed to go to the Vega system to finish 'Dire Warning'. However, there was no option to beam out anywhere. Tutorial fail!
Well just got around to doing this and I have my feedback here: the good, the bad, and the... detailed?
The Good:
- So many fanboy references. Great job on that! There be whales here, number one, and regulations specify thrusters only while in spacedock. Classic. My inner Vulcan approves.
- The tutorial makes more sense than the old one. It feels seemless and more story driven.
- I really liked that everyone starts out the academy uniforms. It's a nice touch.
- I want those ship interiors. They are excellent.
- I also want the bar within a shuttle departure point map for the foundry. It was great. Nice way to make us feel like SFA is bigger. If you could get that in the actual SFA map, it could make for a cool RP area and a cool new addition to the SFA map.
The Bad:
- I felt like I was on a JJ Abrams Enterprise bridge when I got off the turbolift to the tutorial bridge. Lens flares EVERYWHERE! In some places the lighting was so bright and reflective that I looked like a headless body standing in a see of bright white.
- The cutscenes need some work. In one, the transporter chief can't be seen because he is stuck halfway in the ground. In another, there was a hull breach that was visible before the explosion that created the hull breach. In another, the dialogue said "<FederationDoorChimeFX>". Just some little things.
- The interactable objects on Vega need some work. If it's like the foundry, you don't have the "invisible until" commands down quite right. Before I put down the transport inhibitors, they were already on the ground.
Things I noticed and don't know if they are bugs:
- If I equip my standard issue armor, I can keep taking more of them. I'm assuming they are worth 1 EC, but if they aren't then that right there would be an exploit.
- Certain tutorial tips popped up multiple times at different places. I had to use full impulse once for two missions as part of the mission and each time the tutorial tip popped up. Same thing for Skill XP spending.
hmm so just played the tutorial for the first time. Most of the things I noticed have already been said so will try not to repeat as much.
- Overall an improvement on the previous tutorial which I generally disliked. Too much pew pew although this tutorial could use a little less of it as well, meaning less klingon and borg waves.
- new doors needs to be sized down. Turbolifts are way to big as well. Why not use the ones used for all the other bridges?
- The wall blowing up is nice but it has been done a lot. Why not have an exploding eps conduit which means the player has to quickly act and raise a forcefield and if not doing so in time, the other crewmembers on the deck would die. It doesnt affect the mission outcome but gives the player a chance to act quickly and decide the fate of his/her fellow crewmembers.
- New bridge is a nice addition but the lighting needs adressing and the concole lcars when the red alert is on. Liking the warp streaks and the viewscreen.
- Klingon boss should have a less powerful ship, k'tinga perhaps? Negh'var feels a bit out of proportion for such an early mission.
- I chose the science career and the reoute power to shields was a bit repetative and dull (press 3 different consoles, all in the same room). I would have perhaps spread this out so that power needed to be restored to the lab before a shield boost could be given (TRICORDER PUZZLE HELLOOOOO??). Just to add a bit of immersion like having the room dark and reenabling lighting once power was restored.
- How come we never get to see any jefferies tubes? I remember the EF and EF2 games there were several occasions where the path ahead was blocked where you needed to find an alternate route like jefferies tubes, which usually took you to a different floor. In essense, you had to think a little and not just choose the closest door available to you.
- When the borg ships warp in as part of the invasion, one of the federation ships should be destroyed while player warps out. It would make the borg feel more of a threat and add to how dangerous they actually are.
- When warping to the vega colony, why are the borg spread out so thinly so that the player can take them out one at a time? I get that it is a tutorial but for being borg they act very irratic. Combat feels forced and would be more fun if the player avoided the borg in order to approach the colony. This could easily be done with waypoints or a nebula in the system which the player goes through to avoid detection.
I never got any further than beaming down to the colony as the game crashed once I encountered the second group of colonists.
I can however say that the vega colony looks nice.
I really like the cutscenes, especially the one where the captain gets executed. nicely done indeed and very trek!! The officer who got vapourised in front of me was awesome when giving him orders!
Static interfearance on the viewscreen was cool as well!! is this new?
Also, the fact that the gameplay changes depending on race and career (minor additions but still very nice) is impressive.
Storywise I had no problem with it, besides the ferengi freighter captain who could have acted a bit more like a ferengi (perhaps offered the player a GPL bribe for his silence). Again wouldnt change outcome since I understand the limitations of the engine, but it would make the player feel more or less like a starfleet officer depending on whether bribe was accepted or not).
For the borg invasion I would have added a few cubes and not just smaller ships. Just the size of those bad boys emphasise the borg threat. Also they seem to warp in but with the transwarp gate, why arent they appearing out of it instead?
Also, it would have been nice to have a tricorder puzzle added to the mission, considering how big of a part the tricorder plays in star trek. it is currently used when healing crewmembers instead of the hypo picked up... hmm....
Well done and I look forward to re-playing it once its completed with VO etc. I am one of those players who is more interested in paying for a neat ship interior so hope the coridors at least end up in c - store. I like the bridge but without the belfast bridge l cars it looks a bit too.. blue for my taste.
1. the Academy Uniforms are replaced by standard uniforms sometimes during the cut scenes
2. on Vega, my BoFFs didn't beam down with me (not sure if this is intentional or not)
3. Game crashed after talking to the second group of colonists (just after I equiped the armor)
4. GAME BREAKING: After I beamed up from Vega colony, the Renown told me to go to Earth Spacedock, So i clicked go to Earth Spacedock, got the choose bridge officers window, clicked accept, ended up in Quinn's Office. I cannot proceed from this point. Mission journal says "Go to Vega system", but I cannot leave Earth Spacedock. Talking to Quinn does nothing. This is a Game Breaking bug.
Having finally played it through myself I quite like it, it's a great improvement on the old one and feels much more tutorial like. I also liked how the cadets actually felt like people as per the Romulan officers, that was a nice touch.
Having the player wearing the academy uniform is another good immersion touch however the lower uniform parts apparently aren't overridden so my character had an academy jumper with her character creation uniform skirt and boots, I don't know if this can be fixed before season 8 goes live but it should be looked into and solved at some point soon.
The highlight for the doorbell for the captain's office at the academy is a fair way off the wall, this is fine when looking straight at it (though being opaque you can't see the panel :P) but if you look at it from the side it looks horribly out of place.
The holodeck program should mention both first and third person modes and should give the option to practice some more advanced ground combat like using crouch, aim and mention rolling to dodge fire and using cover as well.
I have to agree with previous posters on the subject of the turbolifts, they are a bit out of scale with the ship if you ask me. It is also a bit of a tease to have all those weapon options in the armoury on the ship but to then restrict the player to getting a sniper rifle, maybe you could open up some of these options at the usual mk 1, while still restricting the player to getting one weapon.
I would suggest going through the dialogue again and fix the remaining spelling and grammar errors, I noticed that the EPS conduit the text tells you to blow open is targetable but can't be shot at for some reason, I think I did finally find an angle I could attack it from it sort of blew up and sprayed plasma for a second before reverting to it's original condition.
I know the player is supposed to do most of the combat as it is practice for later but we do get a lot of that during the campaign, it would be nice if the NPC assistant ships had a little more bite to them, give them some basic skills like FAW and EPtS (especially for the cut-scene where one holds off the Borg) it would also give the player an idea of ship power at endgame.
The Borg in space I think are about right, requiring timing and positioning to take down and even doing enough pressure damage to make the player think about what they are doing, my one recommendation would be scaling back the damage from the DoT, with no hull heals or the like the level of damage those did was a bit concerning a new player might full impulse straight from a probe group to the sphere without waiting for their hull to recover.
The Borg on the ground though could use a little more damage or a shield reducing ability or something, they really didn't pose much of a threat at all, I know the events of KAGE are meant to weaken them and tie back but they remain Borg none the less.
I'd like to see the text from the small popups down the side added into the chat box as "NPC" as they are only there for a limited time and are all too easy to miss, I frequently find myself coming back to the chat box to read them.
I don't think the Borg are meant to be weakened remnants of Donatra's forces anymore. They are a non time traveling full blown invasion armada to set up the Omega Force "story" later on.
Which is my biggest gripe with the tutorial.
It doesn't work for me in the bigger context of the game.
First, the Borg in that state would be way to powerful for a single ship. Maybe a T5 super upgraded battleship can deal with them, but not an old Miranda training ship.
And then the mission ends with a major Borg beach head in the heart of Federation space with a throw away line about the Borg being contained... how? There were dozens if not hundreds of cubes surrounding the completely assimilated planet.
This would all make much more sense if it was Klingons invading, not Borg.
After you threw out the last bits of KA story Borg really shouldn't make an entrance in the tutorial anymore.
Them showing up on Defera with their surprise invasion and Sector Red Alerts at the same time would make much more sense while Klingons on Vega would give the Klingon War that is supposedly happening real oomph.
And then the mission ends with a major Borg beach head in the heart of Federation space with a throw away line about the Borg being contained... how? There were dozens if not hundreds of cubes surrounding the completely assimilated planet.
Well if 5 ships can take out an entire Borg unimatrix I'm sure that a couple of the Federation's many, many fleets can keep the Borg contained in home space.
Great tutorial, much better than the old one. Although I'm puzzled by some of the choices for the bridge interior.
-Why oh why did you introduce the JJ Trek "window" on the bridge? The Miranda class never had this! It looks really out of place IMHO.
-The huge interior, still. The Romulan faction showed us how bridge interiors could be done, without 50ft high ceilings. The corridors look fantastic and generally it's done really well. But why continue to use these hugely oversized props like the transporter pad?
- Naff looking chairs, I know a minor nitpick - but when you have the awesome black chairs from the Oddy bridge which is of a similar(ish) style to this why not use the new props?
Actual bugs now:
-During one cutscene just before you take command flores is wearing what I think is the sierra or antares uniform, then magically is back in the academy uniform post cutscene.
-After you have your "target that explosion and fire" moment with the Negh'var I get the dialog popup on the screen but the actual bridge interior is way below me from the cameras perspective, all I can see is empty space and the bridge below me.
-Back at SFA- where Lt Ferra is those doors look hideously out of place the metal is much brighter than the rest of the environment.
-The SS Break Even simply vanishes after you complete repairs, no warp out etc. Oh and the plasma leak remains hanging in space.
A few other niggles and bugs to get rid of but very enjoyable and much more "trek like".
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I don't think the Borg are meant to be weakened remnants of Donatra's forces anymore. They are a non time traveling full blown invasion armada to set up the Omega Force "story" later on.
Which is my biggest gripe with the tutorial.
It doesn't work for me in the bigger context of the game.
First, the Borg in that state would be way to powerful for a single ship. Maybe a T5 super upgraded battleship can deal with them, but not an old Miranda training ship.
And then the mission ends with a major Borg beach head in the heart of Federation space with a throw away line about the Borg being contained... how? There were dozens if not hundreds of cubes surrounding the completely assimilated planet.
This would all make much more sense if it was Klingons invading, not Borg.
After you threw out the last bits of KA story Borg really shouldn't make an entrance in the tutorial anymore.
Them showing up on Defera with their surprise invasion and Sector Red Alerts at the same time would make much more sense while Klingons on Vega would give the Klingon War that is supposedly happening real oomph.
This was my issue with the story as well, even if we assume they're still "recovering" from the virus Voyager infected them with, the whole: "Well, Vega's frakked" element seems wholly unbelievable to me. Especially since it appears unlikely that we ever go back there to recover the planet, since by Vice Admiral rank we're off helping Defera with their own Borg invasion.
Okay, finally got a character all the way through the new tutorial without encountering any major glitches. Though there was some trouble like the Captain's office not triggering when going through the door.
Since I previously commented from the first part of the tutorial up to the space part, I will just leave these comments:
SFA: Disappointed no suggested changes were implemented.
SD Cutscene: Disappointed the script is still the same. With the Vesta and Miranda using STO terms, which is not Star Trek. And the "five point nothing" Just horrible. And of course like previous comments, the uniform glitch.
Bridge - no changes made. Personally still hate the Helm and Conn being in the corner like they are bad, instead of classical trek positions. The doors still not matching at all. And the use of old consoles.
Attack - Hull breach Klingon voice was acceptable and fitting.
Space Tutorial: No glitches, the fights was generic. I don't think it's right for the tutorial.
Pollux: I found the story to be badly done. If I had to put it to words, like it was taking 3 people to TRIBBLE in one lightbulb. Then the Borg appeared.
Oh gawd, that Borg voiceover.........was absolutely horrible! You really do need to redo it.
And I question where that Borg Transwarp Hub Gate came from out of nowhere?
Then I see some lines from the original EMH that Quinto voice overed, and it seems like he was shoehorned in there and felt that was in bad taste.
Vega: I said this in the other thread:
VEGA IS NOT IN THE BETA QUADRANT, IT IS IN THE ALPHA QUADRANT, "NORTHWEST" OF EARTH! :mad:
Seriously guys, you have the Star Trek Star Charts, and you even Google. You guys cannot move a Real Life star to a fictional location like that. It's poor taste!
Stahl said months ago that they were planning on adding the Alpha Quadrant for Season 8, obviously that was put off, but I will say this, it would've been a really good opportunity to add it to the game for the Tutorial. So get Stahl or Geko to okay adding the Alpha Quadrant and move the Tutorial to that area, and change Pollux to Altair or Tellar. At the same time, the Foundry authors would get to play in the new lands.
As for the Vega Mission:
I will say this truthfully, I liked the new Vega Ground map. However, I REALLY DISLIKED the storyline.
I personally LOVED the original Tutorial and how the storyline eventually looped into the Khitomer Accord STF, and I think the vast majority of STO fans loved that. But you took that away from us, and now it no longer makes any sense. These are Borg, not damaged Borg that your future self tried to stop. And from that viewpoint it makes absolutely no sense why the Borg just suddenly appeared and blitzkrieged Vega Colony. And somehow assimilated the planet within a few minutes.
Then nothing was done to them, Vega was left abandoned completely out of STO's storyline, except the Borg took base in Gamma Orionis.......
Just doesn't make any sense from a storyline perspective.
With all due respect, I personally wished you left the old tutorial alone. The storyline was good, just the teaching part of the tutorial which was horrible. And now, you really are making things worse, no offense. You should've just left well enough alone.
If I was Stahl, I would tell you guys to hold off for a few months and work these things out and make the tutorial fun and informative, not as a bad foundry mission (sorry, but that's how I view it).
I figure, this is the feedback thread so I will add this here.
While I love the new mechanics of the new tutorial and the inclusion of Starfleet Academy, the Story Triage with the Borg is not done well.
I know it has been said that story is basically immovable at this point but, is there a possibility to have a choice between this tutorial and say the other? Perhaps I am nostalgic for the old cinamatic, the old excitement, the old drive, the strong lore tie in with endgame... but... this doesn't feel like the rest of the game. The game has changes in the last three years, sure, but... Since this is feedback, I need to give it.
Most of my complaints have been said by others including the lack or logical sense with the Borg invasion, the waste of former assets (which could still have been included).
I mean, there could be a warp off to vega and BAMB! Original cutscene. Some tweaks makes you the Captain rather than Taggart. You can buff up the group portions to not be tutorial but just standard mission. You avoid the whole Vega being three sectors in the wrong place argument.
It's been said story is set in place at this point? I really hope then down the line stone can be worn away. To me this doesn't fit with Klingon or Romulan new story. In fact, parts of Romulan story now conflict with this since they cite the Battle of Vega as the old one.
SD Cutscene: Disappointed the script is still the same. With the Vesta and Miranda using STO terms, which is not Star Trek. And the "five point nothing" Just horrible.
I like to think of it as the character expressing disappointment with the ship speed, just like the enthusiasm about the specs on the Vesta.
Bridge - no changes made. Personally still hate the Helm and Conn being in the corner like they are bad, instead of classical trek positions. The doors still not matching at all. And the use of old consoles.
Think of it this way, the captain needs the best possible view of the viewscreen at all times (some or other episode of one of the series I believe mentioned this as regulation) so moving the foremost consoles to the sides means people's heads wont obscure the view Not to mention consoles parallel to the screen on that bridge would look plain untidy.
Pollux: I found the story to be badly done. If I had to put it to words, like it was taking 3 people to TRIBBLE in one lightbulb. Then the Borg appeared.
If you need 9 things scanned asap and you have 2 ships assigned to it but the second one has to go rescue a ship full of cadets and brings them back why not use all 3 ships? I mean sure you could use the cadets as errand runners but that wouldn't be very starfleet, nor would it be very efficient. As for the Borg, well it was predictable...
Oh gawd, that Borg voiceover.........was absolutely horrible! You really do need to redo it.
I actually played with sound to run this tutorial (I usually have it muted but I was testing so...) but unless the have changed the STF Borg vioce overs the two are exactly the same...
And I question where that Borg Transwarp Hub Gate came from out of nowhere?
I must agree with this, it's a bit far fetched that the Borg could send a transwarp gate through a transwarp gate, although it is possible that they might be able to transwarp themselves that too is far fetched, I'd like to know the explanation for this.
Then I see some lines from the original EMH that Quinto voice overed, and it seems like he was shoehorned in there and felt that was in bad taste.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who saw this, kinda took me by surprise to see the EMH lines reused like that, though they did work in the overall storyline I'd rather they were replaced.
As for the Vega Mission:
I will say this truthfully, I liked the new Vega Ground map. However, I REALLY DISLIKED the storyline.
I personally LOVED the original Tutorial and how the storyline eventually looped into the Khitomer Accord STF, and I think the vast majority of STO fans loved that. But you took that away from us, and now it no longer makes any sense. These are Borg, not damaged Borg that your future self tried to stop. And from that viewpoint it makes absolutely no sense why the Borg just suddenly appeared and blitzkrieged Vega Colony. And somehow assimilated the planet within a few minutes.
Then nothing was done to them, Vega was left abandoned completely out of STO's storyline, except the Borg took base in Gamma Orionis.......
Just doesn't make any sense from a storyline perspective.
I know I may have to replay KAGE and pay more attention to the dialogue but I'f I'm right then Vega colony was set utop a Borg installation which you go to a lot of effort to weaken but the change of tutorial still mentions how these are not typical Borg and it should be noted that the Borg in the tutorial still don't have adaption capabilities.
While I generally approve of the new tutorial, especially the start at the Academy (I LOVE the additions to the map, please please please put these in the actual social map! The office(s) and hanger both!), I do have one big problem with it that I see others share...
This completely nullifies the old connection between the original tutorial and the old Khitomer Accords STF. While I know the new butchered STF's basically do away with most of the story anyway, it was pretty neat to see how it all connected and came around in a nice clean loop. I had always hoped the original STF's would come back remastered in full as story missions or some such, but this kind of puts a damper on that.
In addition, this also does away with the awesome intro cutscene that featured Leonard Nimoy's voice and brought new players into STO's era, along with Zachary Quinto's extended set of voice work. I feel there's got to be a way to salvage it besides doing away with the whole thing.
On a more minor note, whatever happened to Captain Taggart's uniquely-colored Academy uniform? I thought it was pretty telling that he wasn't Academy stuff, but an actual Starfleet captain on Academy grounds due to that uniform, and I was hoping to sneak another peek at it to alter my own Academy uniform on Holodeck. I know he'd wear his ship-board uniform later on, but at the Academy I'd think he'd wear that Academy uniform color variation that I approved of.
Edit: And Taggart's office on the Academy map, weren't the windows open before? I don't know if they were closed due to an issue, but I prefer the open look, myself. And still feel that the new doors look a little...flat, texture-wise. Not quite matching the Academy map at least. Too washed out.
So, apparently none of our feedback on graphical issues, i.e., the ridiculously oversized doors or the ugly windows in Cpt. Taggart's office, will be considered?... Kinda no surprise :-|
I still do not understand WHY you went back to those ugly and teletubby-style sliding doors from the first days of STO?!?!?! And this is supposed to be among the first artwork new players will see of the game now... what a shame.
I started a fresh character today. And here are my thoughts on the tutorial as I went along.
The ground Academy portion was nice immersion entry. Having a voice over for Elisa Flores in helpful in setting the tone of her dialog and personality.
IMO, we needn't pick up a hand-phaser from the locker in the Academy corridor. Have Flores instruct us to obtain the weapon from the Arch of Holodeck 2 once we both reach the doorway. This hand-phaser should be only a simulation for the test.
How to Draw/Holster the weapon [Press H] should immediately follow having obtained the weapon.
I think the pop-up/audio to interpret where to stand on Holodeck 2 should trigger directly after obtaining the holographic Hand Phaser from the Arch. I so happened to read the next step in the mission journal to the right of my UI because I already knew to look there. Only after meeting the rooms center did the pop-up/audio instruct me to reach the center of the room. A new player needs this information sooner.
Following the simulation, Elisa Flores leads me toward the turbolift the the Shuttle Bay. There is a text bubble announcement for cadets to go the Shuttle Bay for departure. This should have audio as well to complete the excitement prior to seeing the new Shuttle Bay map - which is awesome, by the way.
The celebratory bar in the Shuttle Bay was perfect for the occasion. Though I don't think it should be there if the Shuttle Bay map is permanent to the Academy social map later on.
Eliminate warp streak from cutscene of shuttle interior approaching Space Dock. As we are not traveling at warp yet.
Elisa Flores introducing the newer Vesta-class in contrast to the Miranda-class training vessel was a nice touch. Again, showing her as having a personality. She is disappointed in being on just the training cruise. Using the game terms to explain/introduce differences in starships might prove helpful to new player's learning the games terminology. It serves as a bridge in terms, so I think that is a good thing. For those player's wanting more canon terminology, watch the shows or buy a tech manual from Simon and Schuster. Use them to help write a Foundry mission.
The new bridge is nicely rendered. The doors to the Captain's Ready Room and upper level turbo lift open/close too briskly. However, the turbolift doors on the middle level open/close at just right pace. Make ALL doorways work as smoothly as this one.
The distress signal dialog is missing important information. The ship in distress requests assistance but doesn't say why. Only in our own conversation with Captain Taggart does our own character observes a warp core emergency. Where did I get that detail? It wasn't in the distress call and it should be.
Why is R'raak beaming up survivors over before we are even present? IMO, the Tutorial should move more briskly at this point. With our own character entering the Transporter room in the very next cutscene. No need for the turbolift scene at all. And why is R'raak beaming survivor's over with the shields up? The Captain has placed our character in charge at this point. Wouldn't even a trainee Transporter operator notice Klingon biosigns in the buffer? I thought this was Star Trek? I'll suspend that for the moment as we want the Klingons on our ship. But let us be in the room for the cutscene arrival.
Further on those views, permit our character the initial opportunity to repel the first Klingons upon arrival. Our character could likely kneel down to retrieve a REAL hand phaser from the base of the transporter console. Or from the wall behind R'raak.
In a previous attempt at the tutorial I was stuck at the bridge assault. I will reply further if I can successfully get through that portion.
(/\) Exploring Star Trek Online Since July 2008 (/\)
The training ship bridge assault was alright this time. And I liked the cat and mouse with the Klingon Captain. But while I'm sure Captain Taggart is innovative, I don't see our Miranda-class disabling a Neghvar-class starship. Even if that Miranda were new that week from the shipyard, a Neghvar would disable our ship far sooner, IMO. Make it a Kamarag, instead?
Thumbs-up for making Captain Taggart's passing have more meaning. I'm also liking how our Starfleet Boff's are coming to our crew. With names and personalities. It's nice to see Legacy of Romulus influence in this area.
I like the conversation options between my character and the Captain of the Renown. I enjoyed my contribution toward assisting both the Renown and Khitomer. However, I was befuddled by the limited interaction with the Khitomer's EMH? Is there a reason that our original tutorial boarding of the Khitomer and getting Zachary Quinto's voice portion was scrapped? I thought that was purposeful to set-up the odd behavior of this Borg attack? Is that no longer important?
The discovery of the Borg Transwarp Gate really should be made more smooth. It was there all of a sudden. Larger than most of the subspace disruptions we had been assisting the Renown and Khitomer with.
Assimilation of the Innocent
Tagging the civilians for beam out didn't trigger correctly as I defeated the initial groups of Borg. I ran through the complex to see the Administrator and one Starfleet officer. Who responded to my presence. But offered no dialogue or mission. Minutes later, the journal updated to tell me to tag the civilians. Only after going back over the civilian groups to tag them was I then directed to seek out the Administrator. Which triggers the next mission step to locate further survivors.
Upon returning to my starship, I'm now on the Vega system map. Seeing the assimilated planet and the armada of Borg Cubes was highly effective. However, the tutorial stopped here for me. Not one trigger of dialogue. No tutorial prompts whatsoever. I logged all the way out. Then logged back in. This seemed to do the trick.
After reconfiguring the local satellites and battling a few Borg, the Calvary arrives to help finish off a cube. The Renown's Captain orders me to depart - with the Khitomer - and report to Admiral Quinn. However, no trigger is presented to complete this step. The four Starfleet vessels just fly around one another. So I logged out. Logging back in didn't help this time.
Regarding the four Starfleet vessels who arrive? One is the USS Defiant. I suggest changing that to the USS Belfast. As a tip of the hat toward our future meeting of Captain Shon later for the Dominion featured episodes.
(/\) Exploring Star Trek Online Since July 2008 (/\)
Regarding the four Starfleet vessels who arrive? One is the USS Defiant. I suggest changing that to the USS Belfast. As a tip of the hat toward our future meeting of Captain Shon later for the Dominion featured episodes.
We considered the Belfast but that would have prompted deeper investigation into Shon's wife (who is lost on Vega) and a longer denouement to the tutorial section of the Federation experience than we were happy with.
Glad you liked what you played, sad you encountered some bugs that lead to hiccups.
We considered the Belfast but that would have prompted deeper investigation into Shon's wife (who is lost on Vega) and a longer denouement to the tutorial section of the Federation experience than we were happy with.
Glad you liked what you played, sad you encountered some bugs that lead to hiccups.
...you really need to find some way to get the expanded universe stuff into the game for players. I had no idea Shon was even married, much less that his wife was (apparently) lost at Vega.
Having come to the game after the original Borg STFs were replaced with the current queued ones I never got the chance to actually see it with my own eyes, but I did go hunting and found the original story sequence and events so the lack of damaged Borg vessels and such was kinda jarring there.
Finally - I know they did it in First Contact, but having the Defiant go from DS9 to Vega seems a bit...excessive doesn't it? Would it really be so bad to replace it with say...the Sao Paulo, complete with using the Sao Paulo model?
The Defiant and Armitage just happened to be in the area on missions completely unrelated to the events at Pollux IV and Vega. Their aid is what kept the Renown alive in Pollux.
Comments
If you click on the x on the upper right corner of that box it will crash the client.
http://youtu.be/3U3fanxJnZo
The second issue was also ont ehKlingon boarding portion where it gives you the option to shoot the EPS conduit. I tried, but nothing I could do could get it below full health. Ended up just shooting the Klingons.
Other than that, everything else seemed to work okay. There might have been an issue with me taking damage when I boarded the starter ship (right after the cutscene that shows it off, and the shuttle docks), but it happened to fast for me to be sure.
Nouveau riche LTS member
so I think my best source of feedback may be on the overall state of the tutorial. i know and realize that it is for new players, and eventually it may be simply skipable when it comes to the live server. so overall most players wont even start the game on the same terms. but, I do feel like it needs to pointed out that this tutorial does something for the game overall. It adds in the feeling of an immersive beginning story for every character in the game.
as you go through this thing you start your story which is now unique to what ever faction you choose to play. it also seems to fit for all the tutorial in general. you start off as a person in each respective faction. you then get your own ship as you would expect in any STAR TREK fantasy. I will not at all argue the basics of the franchise experience is perfectly represented with all of the new tutorials. that much I do have to say is done perfectly.
however, I do have a few things to say about the federation tutorial specifically. in the tutorial right when you beam down to Vega, you acquire a tactical officer and I have no issue with him Personally at all, he has a back story, he is gained in a more personal way, but, I find that if you bother to pick up the other rewards along the way you end up filling all your bridge stations on your starter ship prior to his arrival.
So logically the tutorial is designed to make you prepared for playing the actual game. if i am incorrect in this assumption please explain this to me. but logically this also makes sense, that this final officer should prepare you for your next ship right? so if that is the case why can we not make a choice and pick from a group of officers that suits your choice for your next command. the current situation automatically assumes the player is going to pick an escort while I do understand many do, not all of us do. so why not let us pick what we want?
Nouveau riche LTS member
..when the cutscene for the hullbreach outside the transporter room plays the hole is there from the start. consider hiding that and it will be perfect i think, maybe add a coupple second delay on the forcefields and a small cutscene where you and your officers get sucked off their feet for a second before the forcefield goes up.
My thoughts: starting at starfleet academy being a cadet on a training cruse is awesome. feels more trek like then the old tutorial that just dumpped you on a ship under attack. I think for the space portion there should be a part explaining how to use your bo powers and maybe a requirement to use it once. The story that flowed with the tutorial was great.
Methinks the NPC ships were named incorrectly, or did the Renown's captain have time to stop by ESD Shipyard and switch to his "Big Boy" ship before fighting the Borg? Because that would actually be in line with the STO experience
Some observations:
1) The phaser holodeck tutorial only gives an explanation for FPS mode, not RPG mode (which I personally play in). In fact, I don't recall an explanation between the two modes and I believe the old tutorial did cover this.
2) Related, I didn't notice the ground combat info on the side until my second playthrough. It might be useful to make this more prominient, maybe even a console the character must interact with (even if they don't have to read the whole thing)
3) It was a little weird beaming directly to Admiral Quinn's office. There's a transporter pad and big signs, perhaps I should beam in there.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Want cheap commodities? Yeah you do. Commodity Cheat Sheet (includes food and data samples)
Want to make the game better? Might I suggest this form
1) The Renown transforms from a Sovereign to a Typhoon
2) A couple of times the mission forgot to give me the cadet uniform visual
Still stuck there with no progression or beam up options...
***Disenchanted***
Real Join Date: Monday, 17 May 2010
Thoughts and bugs/weirdness so far (some of which have already been pointed out):
- I like starting in the cadet uniform. However, it is not consistent. During the shuttle ride from the Academy to your ship, the uniform changed to whatever I'd created during Character Creation, so broke the immersion factor.
- During the cutscene when the ship is boarded by the Klingons, R'raar (the Caitan transporter chief) wasn't visible at all. I got all manner of camera angles suggesting that he should be centre screen, but he wasn't there.
- When I go to secure the transporter room, the corridor shows the hull breach before the hull is breached in the cutscene. All very confusing.
- I managed to kill all the Klingons this time! No longer stuck at 71%.
- During the cutscene when you fire on the KDF ship, the interior of the Klingon bridge shows the Klingon at the console, however, all shots that show the captain's chair have no captain present.
- After repairing the SS Break Even (ungrateful Ferengi!) the ship just fades out, so no warp out animation (which would've been a nice touch). And the plasma cloud remains, which is just weird.
- The USS Renown goes from being a Sovereign-class vessel at the end of the tutorial to a Typhoon-class vessel when you warp into the Pollux system. What is it, a shapeshifter?
- Game crashed just as I'd spoken to the refugee in the 2nd group, just before the gate. Can't remember the Ticket ID off the top of my head... I had gotten the 2 sets of armour and the V/O was telling me to press the 'U' key to open my character screen...
- Intermission
- Resumed tutorial to discover that my position had been saved, but not my progress. Had to go back to the start to get the refugees again. The rest of Vega played out well enough, with the drones proving to be fairly nice cannon fodder whilst the pattern enhancers did their trick. I also liked the small aside from the security officer that joins you once you've spoken to the colony administrator. The 'boss' wasn't too hard at the end either.
- Back into space we go! This series of 'interact + fight' sections wasn't too bad until I got to the cube at the end. Then my shields vanished, despite using the EPtS that the Engineer BOff comes with, and did not regen at all. Plus, before I had control of my ship my hull had dropped to 46% and was falling. Bit of a strange one, as until then probes and spheres hadn't been that bad.
Suggestion: the Sci/Med BOff you get as a reward should have Hazard Emitters, a virtually mandatory skill for the game, not the most useless sci skill in the game as her starting power. That way I might be more inclined to invest in her from the start, not retrain her the moment I get EC, or swap her out for a better BOff.
So, I blew up the cube with the help of the small task force and died when the Cube blew up. Not exactly feeling like an awesome Starfleet officer.
- Respawned and got the prompt to receive the Renown's hail. Went through the dialogue and got beamed to Admiral Quinn's office. Kind of breaks the immersion factor, as we have to beam to the Transporter ROom every subsequent time. So, why not get people used to that from the start?
- Looked at my 'Missions' list to discover that I needed to go to the Vega system to finish 'Dire Warning'. However, there was no option to beam out anywhere. Tutorial fail!
That's just my thoughts so far...
Tim
The Good:
- So many fanboy references. Great job on that! There be whales here, number one, and regulations specify thrusters only while in spacedock. Classic. My inner Vulcan approves.
- The tutorial makes more sense than the old one. It feels seemless and more story driven.
- I really liked that everyone starts out the academy uniforms. It's a nice touch.
- I want those ship interiors. They are excellent.
- I also want the bar within a shuttle departure point map for the foundry. It was great. Nice way to make us feel like SFA is bigger. If you could get that in the actual SFA map, it could make for a cool RP area and a cool new addition to the SFA map.
The Bad:
- I felt like I was on a JJ Abrams Enterprise bridge when I got off the turbolift to the tutorial bridge. Lens flares EVERYWHERE! In some places the lighting was so bright and reflective that I looked like a headless body standing in a see of bright white.
- The cutscenes need some work. In one, the transporter chief can't be seen because he is stuck halfway in the ground. In another, there was a hull breach that was visible before the explosion that created the hull breach. In another, the dialogue said "<FederationDoorChimeFX>". Just some little things.
- The interactable objects on Vega need some work. If it's like the foundry, you don't have the "invisible until" commands down quite right. Before I put down the transport inhibitors, they were already on the ground.
Things I noticed and don't know if they are bugs:
- If I equip my standard issue armor, I can keep taking more of them. I'm assuming they are worth 1 EC, but if they aren't then that right there would be an exploit.
- Certain tutorial tips popped up multiple times at different places. I had to use full impulse once for two missions as part of the mission and each time the tutorial tip popped up. Same thing for Skill XP spending.
Overall, great work. Now give me that new bridge.
- Overall an improvement on the previous tutorial which I generally disliked. Too much pew pew although this tutorial could use a little less of it as well, meaning less klingon and borg waves.
- new doors needs to be sized down. Turbolifts are way to big as well. Why not use the ones used for all the other bridges?
- The wall blowing up is nice but it has been done a lot. Why not have an exploding eps conduit which means the player has to quickly act and raise a forcefield and if not doing so in time, the other crewmembers on the deck would die. It doesnt affect the mission outcome but gives the player a chance to act quickly and decide the fate of his/her fellow crewmembers.
- New bridge is a nice addition but the lighting needs adressing and the concole lcars when the red alert is on. Liking the warp streaks and the viewscreen.
- Klingon boss should have a less powerful ship, k'tinga perhaps? Negh'var feels a bit out of proportion for such an early mission.
- I chose the science career and the reoute power to shields was a bit repetative and dull (press 3 different consoles, all in the same room). I would have perhaps spread this out so that power needed to be restored to the lab before a shield boost could be given (TRICORDER PUZZLE HELLOOOOO??). Just to add a bit of immersion like having the room dark and reenabling lighting once power was restored.
- How come we never get to see any jefferies tubes? I remember the EF and EF2 games there were several occasions where the path ahead was blocked where you needed to find an alternate route like jefferies tubes, which usually took you to a different floor. In essense, you had to think a little and not just choose the closest door available to you.
- When the borg ships warp in as part of the invasion, one of the federation ships should be destroyed while player warps out. It would make the borg feel more of a threat and add to how dangerous they actually are.
- When warping to the vega colony, why are the borg spread out so thinly so that the player can take them out one at a time? I get that it is a tutorial but for being borg they act very irratic. Combat feels forced and would be more fun if the player avoided the borg in order to approach the colony. This could easily be done with waypoints or a nebula in the system which the player goes through to avoid detection.
I never got any further than beaming down to the colony as the game crashed once I encountered the second group of colonists.
I can however say that the vega colony looks nice.
I really like the cutscenes, especially the one where the captain gets executed. nicely done indeed and very trek!! The officer who got vapourised in front of me was awesome when giving him orders!
Static interfearance on the viewscreen was cool as well!! is this new?
Also, the fact that the gameplay changes depending on race and career (minor additions but still very nice) is impressive.
Storywise I had no problem with it, besides the ferengi freighter captain who could have acted a bit more like a ferengi (perhaps offered the player a GPL bribe for his silence). Again wouldnt change outcome since I understand the limitations of the engine, but it would make the player feel more or less like a starfleet officer depending on whether bribe was accepted or not).
For the borg invasion I would have added a few cubes and not just smaller ships. Just the size of those bad boys emphasise the borg threat. Also they seem to warp in but with the transwarp gate, why arent they appearing out of it instead?
Also, it would have been nice to have a tricorder puzzle added to the mission, considering how big of a part the tricorder plays in star trek. it is currently used when healing crewmembers instead of the hypo picked up... hmm....
Well done and I look forward to re-playing it once its completed with VO etc. I am one of those players who is more interested in paying for a neat ship interior so hope the coridors at least end up in c - store. I like the bridge but without the belfast bridge l cars it looks a bit too.. blue for my taste.
1. the Academy Uniforms are replaced by standard uniforms sometimes during the cut scenes
2. on Vega, my BoFFs didn't beam down with me (not sure if this is intentional or not)
3. Game crashed after talking to the second group of colonists (just after I equiped the armor)
4. GAME BREAKING: After I beamed up from Vega colony, the Renown told me to go to Earth Spacedock, So i clicked go to Earth Spacedock, got the choose bridge officers window, clicked accept, ended up in Quinn's Office. I cannot proceed from this point. Mission journal says "Go to Vega system", but I cannot leave Earth Spacedock. Talking to Quinn does nothing. This is a Game Breaking bug.
Having the player wearing the academy uniform is another good immersion touch however the lower uniform parts apparently aren't overridden so my character had an academy jumper with her character creation uniform skirt and boots, I don't know if this can be fixed before season 8 goes live but it should be looked into and solved at some point soon.
The highlight for the doorbell for the captain's office at the academy is a fair way off the wall, this is fine when looking straight at it (though being opaque you can't see the panel :P) but if you look at it from the side it looks horribly out of place.
The holodeck program should mention both first and third person modes and should give the option to practice some more advanced ground combat like using crouch, aim and mention rolling to dodge fire and using cover as well.
I have to agree with previous posters on the subject of the turbolifts, they are a bit out of scale with the ship if you ask me. It is also a bit of a tease to have all those weapon options in the armoury on the ship but to then restrict the player to getting a sniper rifle, maybe you could open up some of these options at the usual mk 1, while still restricting the player to getting one weapon.
I would suggest going through the dialogue again and fix the remaining spelling and grammar errors, I noticed that the EPS conduit the text tells you to blow open is targetable but can't be shot at for some reason, I think I did finally find an angle I could attack it from it sort of blew up and sprayed plasma for a second before reverting to it's original condition.
I know the player is supposed to do most of the combat as it is practice for later but we do get a lot of that during the campaign, it would be nice if the NPC assistant ships had a little more bite to them, give them some basic skills like FAW and EPtS (especially for the cut-scene where one holds off the Borg) it would also give the player an idea of ship power at endgame.
The Borg in space I think are about right, requiring timing and positioning to take down and even doing enough pressure damage to make the player think about what they are doing, my one recommendation would be scaling back the damage from the DoT, with no hull heals or the like the level of damage those did was a bit concerning a new player might full impulse straight from a probe group to the sphere without waiting for their hull to recover.
The Borg on the ground though could use a little more damage or a shield reducing ability or something, they really didn't pose much of a threat at all, I know the events of KAGE are meant to weaken them and tie back but they remain Borg none the less.
I'd like to see the text from the small popups down the side added into the chat box as "NPC" as they are only there for a limited time and are all too easy to miss, I frequently find myself coming back to the chat box to read them.
Which is my biggest gripe with the tutorial.
It doesn't work for me in the bigger context of the game.
First, the Borg in that state would be way to powerful for a single ship. Maybe a T5 super upgraded battleship can deal with them, but not an old Miranda training ship.
And then the mission ends with a major Borg beach head in the heart of Federation space with a throw away line about the Borg being contained... how? There were dozens if not hundreds of cubes surrounding the completely assimilated planet.
This would all make much more sense if it was Klingons invading, not Borg.
After you threw out the last bits of KA story Borg really shouldn't make an entrance in the tutorial anymore.
Them showing up on Defera with their surprise invasion and Sector Red Alerts at the same time would make much more sense while Klingons on Vega would give the Klingon War that is supposedly happening real oomph.
Well if 5 ships can take out an entire Borg unimatrix I'm sure that a couple of the Federation's many, many fleets can keep the Borg contained in home space.
-Why oh why did you introduce the JJ Trek "window" on the bridge? The Miranda class never had this! It looks really out of place IMHO.
-The huge interior, still. The Romulan faction showed us how bridge interiors could be done, without 50ft high ceilings. The corridors look fantastic and generally it's done really well. But why continue to use these hugely oversized props like the transporter pad?
- Naff looking chairs, I know a minor nitpick - but when you have the awesome black chairs from the Oddy bridge which is of a similar(ish) style to this why not use the new props?
Actual bugs now:
-During one cutscene just before you take command flores is wearing what I think is the sierra or antares uniform, then magically is back in the academy uniform post cutscene.
-After you have your "target that explosion and fire" moment with the Negh'var I get the dialog popup on the screen but the actual bridge interior is way below me from the cameras perspective, all I can see is empty space and the bridge below me.
-Back at SFA- where Lt Ferra is those doors look hideously out of place the metal is much brighter than the rest of the environment.
-The SS Break Even simply vanishes after you complete repairs, no warp out etc. Oh and the plasma leak remains hanging in space.
A few other niggles and bugs to get rid of but very enjoyable and much more "trek like".
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This was my issue with the story as well, even if we assume they're still "recovering" from the virus Voyager infected them with, the whole: "Well, Vega's frakked" element seems wholly unbelievable to me. Especially since it appears unlikely that we ever go back there to recover the planet, since by Vice Admiral rank we're off helping Defera with their own Borg invasion.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Since I previously commented from the first part of the tutorial up to the space part, I will just leave these comments:
SFA: Disappointed no suggested changes were implemented.
SD Cutscene: Disappointed the script is still the same. With the Vesta and Miranda using STO terms, which is not Star Trek. And the "five point nothing" Just horrible. And of course like previous comments, the uniform glitch.
Bridge - no changes made. Personally still hate the Helm and Conn being in the corner like they are bad, instead of classical trek positions. The doors still not matching at all. And the use of old consoles.
Attack - Hull breach Klingon voice was acceptable and fitting.
Space Tutorial: No glitches, the fights was generic. I don't think it's right for the tutorial.
Pollux: I found the story to be badly done. If I had to put it to words, like it was taking 3 people to TRIBBLE in one lightbulb. Then the Borg appeared.
Oh gawd, that Borg voiceover.........was absolutely horrible! You really do need to redo it.
And I question where that Borg Transwarp Hub Gate came from out of nowhere?
Then I see some lines from the original EMH that Quinto voice overed, and it seems like he was shoehorned in there and felt that was in bad taste.
Vega: I said this in the other thread:
VEGA IS NOT IN THE BETA QUADRANT, IT IS IN THE ALPHA QUADRANT, "NORTHWEST" OF EARTH! :mad:
Seriously guys, you have the Star Trek Star Charts, and you even Google. You guys cannot move a Real Life star to a fictional location like that. It's poor taste!
Stahl said months ago that they were planning on adding the Alpha Quadrant for Season 8, obviously that was put off, but I will say this, it would've been a really good opportunity to add it to the game for the Tutorial. So get Stahl or Geko to okay adding the Alpha Quadrant and move the Tutorial to that area, and change Pollux to Altair or Tellar. At the same time, the Foundry authors would get to play in the new lands.
As for the Vega Mission:
I will say this truthfully, I liked the new Vega Ground map. However, I REALLY DISLIKED the storyline.
I personally LOVED the original Tutorial and how the storyline eventually looped into the Khitomer Accord STF, and I think the vast majority of STO fans loved that. But you took that away from us, and now it no longer makes any sense. These are Borg, not damaged Borg that your future self tried to stop. And from that viewpoint it makes absolutely no sense why the Borg just suddenly appeared and blitzkrieged Vega Colony. And somehow assimilated the planet within a few minutes.
Then nothing was done to them, Vega was left abandoned completely out of STO's storyline, except the Borg took base in Gamma Orionis.......
Just doesn't make any sense from a storyline perspective.
With all due respect, I personally wished you left the old tutorial alone. The storyline was good, just the teaching part of the tutorial which was horrible. And now, you really are making things worse, no offense. You should've just left well enough alone.
If I was Stahl, I would tell you guys to hold off for a few months and work these things out and make the tutorial fun and informative, not as a bad foundry mission (sorry, but that's how I view it).
So please don't launch this with Season 8.
While I love the new mechanics of the new tutorial and the inclusion of Starfleet Academy, the Story Triage with the Borg is not done well.
I know it has been said that story is basically immovable at this point but, is there a possibility to have a choice between this tutorial and say the other? Perhaps I am nostalgic for the old cinamatic, the old excitement, the old drive, the strong lore tie in with endgame... but... this doesn't feel like the rest of the game. The game has changes in the last three years, sure, but... Since this is feedback, I need to give it.
Most of my complaints have been said by others including the lack or logical sense with the Borg invasion, the waste of former assets (which could still have been included).
I mean, there could be a warp off to vega and BAMB! Original cutscene. Some tweaks makes you the Captain rather than Taggart. You can buff up the group portions to not be tutorial but just standard mission. You avoid the whole Vega being three sectors in the wrong place argument.
It's been said story is set in place at this point? I really hope then down the line stone can be worn away. To me this doesn't fit with Klingon or Romulan new story. In fact, parts of Romulan story now conflict with this since they cite the Battle of Vega as the old one.
I like to think of it as the character expressing disappointment with the ship speed, just like the enthusiasm about the specs on the Vesta.
Think of it this way, the captain needs the best possible view of the viewscreen at all times (some or other episode of one of the series I believe mentioned this as regulation) so moving the foremost consoles to the sides means people's heads wont obscure the view
If you need 9 things scanned asap and you have 2 ships assigned to it but the second one has to go rescue a ship full of cadets and brings them back why not use all 3 ships? I mean sure you could use the cadets as errand runners but that wouldn't be very starfleet, nor would it be very efficient. As for the Borg, well it was predictable...
I actually played with sound to run this tutorial (I usually have it muted but I was testing so...) but unless the have changed the STF Borg vioce overs the two are exactly the same...
I must agree with this, it's a bit far fetched that the Borg could send a transwarp gate through a transwarp gate, although it is possible that they might be able to transwarp themselves that too is far fetched, I'd like to know the explanation for this.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who saw this, kinda took me by surprise to see the EMH lines reused like that, though they did work in the overall storyline I'd rather they were replaced.
I know I may have to replay KAGE and pay more attention to the dialogue but I'f I'm right then Vega colony was set utop a Borg installation which you go to a lot of effort to weaken but the change of tutorial still mentions how these are not typical Borg and it should be noted that the Borg in the tutorial still don't have adaption capabilities.
This completely nullifies the old connection between the original tutorial and the old Khitomer Accords STF. While I know the new butchered STF's basically do away with most of the story anyway, it was pretty neat to see how it all connected and came around in a nice clean loop. I had always hoped the original STF's would come back remastered in full as story missions or some such, but this kind of puts a damper on that.
In addition, this also does away with the awesome intro cutscene that featured Leonard Nimoy's voice and brought new players into STO's era, along with Zachary Quinto's extended set of voice work. I feel there's got to be a way to salvage it besides doing away with the whole thing.
On a more minor note, whatever happened to Captain Taggart's uniquely-colored Academy uniform? I thought it was pretty telling that he wasn't Academy stuff, but an actual Starfleet captain on Academy grounds due to that uniform, and I was hoping to sneak another peek at it to alter my own Academy uniform on Holodeck. I know he'd wear his ship-board uniform later on, but at the Academy I'd think he'd wear that Academy uniform color variation that I approved of.
Edit: And Taggart's office on the Academy map, weren't the windows open before? I don't know if they were closed due to an issue, but I prefer the open look, myself. And still feel that the new doors look a little...flat, texture-wise. Not quite matching the Academy map at least. Too washed out.
I still do not understand WHY you went back to those ugly and teletubby-style sliding doors from the first days of STO?!?!?! And this is supposed to be among the first artwork new players will see of the game now... what a shame.
STOWiki admin.
The ground Academy portion was nice immersion entry. Having a voice over for Elisa Flores in helpful in setting the tone of her dialog and personality.
IMO, we needn't pick up a hand-phaser from the locker in the Academy corridor. Have Flores instruct us to obtain the weapon from the Arch of Holodeck 2 once we both reach the doorway. This hand-phaser should be only a simulation for the test.
How to Draw/Holster the weapon [Press H] should immediately follow having obtained the weapon.
I think the pop-up/audio to interpret where to stand on Holodeck 2 should trigger directly after obtaining the holographic Hand Phaser from the Arch. I so happened to read the next step in the mission journal to the right of my UI because I already knew to look there. Only after meeting the rooms center did the pop-up/audio instruct me to reach the center of the room. A new player needs this information sooner.
Following the simulation, Elisa Flores leads me toward the turbolift the the Shuttle Bay. There is a text bubble announcement for cadets to go the Shuttle Bay for departure. This should have audio as well to complete the excitement prior to seeing the new Shuttle Bay map - which is awesome, by the way.
The celebratory bar in the Shuttle Bay was perfect for the occasion. Though I don't think it should be there if the Shuttle Bay map is permanent to the Academy social map later on.
Eliminate warp streak from cutscene of shuttle interior approaching Space Dock. As we are not traveling at warp yet.
Elisa Flores introducing the newer Vesta-class in contrast to the Miranda-class training vessel was a nice touch. Again, showing her as having a personality. She is disappointed in being on just the training cruise. Using the game terms to explain/introduce differences in starships might prove helpful to new player's learning the games terminology. It serves as a bridge in terms, so I think that is a good thing. For those player's wanting more canon terminology, watch the shows or buy a tech manual from Simon and Schuster. Use them to help write a Foundry mission.
The new bridge is nicely rendered. The doors to the Captain's Ready Room and upper level turbo lift open/close too briskly. However, the turbolift doors on the middle level open/close at just right pace. Make ALL doorways work as smoothly as this one.
The distress signal dialog is missing important information. The ship in distress requests assistance but doesn't say why. Only in our own conversation with Captain Taggart does our own character observes a warp core emergency. Where did I get that detail? It wasn't in the distress call and it should be.
Why is R'raak beaming up survivors over before we are even present? IMO, the Tutorial should move more briskly at this point. With our own character entering the Transporter room in the very next cutscene. No need for the turbolift scene at all. And why is R'raak beaming survivor's over with the shields up? The Captain has placed our character in charge at this point. Wouldn't even a trainee Transporter operator notice Klingon biosigns in the buffer? I thought this was Star Trek? I'll suspend that for the moment as we want the Klingons on our ship. But let us be in the room for the cutscene arrival.
Further on those views, permit our character the initial opportunity to repel the first Klingons upon arrival. Our character could likely kneel down to retrieve a REAL hand phaser from the base of the transporter console. Or from the wall behind R'raak.
In a previous attempt at the tutorial I was stuck at the bridge assault. I will reply further if I can successfully get through that portion.
Thumbs-up for making Captain Taggart's passing have more meaning. I'm also liking how our Starfleet Boff's are coming to our crew. With names and personalities. It's nice to see Legacy of Romulus influence in this area.
I like the conversation options between my character and the Captain of the Renown. I enjoyed my contribution toward assisting both the Renown and Khitomer. However, I was befuddled by the limited interaction with the Khitomer's EMH? Is there a reason that our original tutorial boarding of the Khitomer and getting Zachary Quinto's voice portion was scrapped? I thought that was purposeful to set-up the odd behavior of this Borg attack? Is that no longer important?
The discovery of the Borg Transwarp Gate really should be made more smooth. It was there all of a sudden. Larger than most of the subspace disruptions we had been assisting the Renown and Khitomer with.
Assimilation of the Innocent
Tagging the civilians for beam out didn't trigger correctly as I defeated the initial groups of Borg. I ran through the complex to see the Administrator and one Starfleet officer. Who responded to my presence. But offered no dialogue or mission. Minutes later, the journal updated to tell me to tag the civilians. Only after going back over the civilian groups to tag them was I then directed to seek out the Administrator. Which triggers the next mission step to locate further survivors.
Upon returning to my starship, I'm now on the Vega system map. Seeing the assimilated planet and the armada of Borg Cubes was highly effective. However, the tutorial stopped here for me. Not one trigger of dialogue. No tutorial prompts whatsoever. I logged all the way out. Then logged back in. This seemed to do the trick.
After reconfiguring the local satellites and battling a few Borg, the Calvary arrives to help finish off a cube. The Renown's Captain orders me to depart - with the Khitomer - and report to Admiral Quinn. However, no trigger is presented to complete this step. The four Starfleet vessels just fly around one another. So I logged out. Logging back in didn't help this time.
Regarding the four Starfleet vessels who arrive? One is the USS Defiant. I suggest changing that to the USS Belfast. As a tip of the hat toward our future meeting of Captain Shon later for the Dominion featured episodes.
We considered the Belfast but that would have prompted deeper investigation into Shon's wife (who is lost on Vega) and a longer denouement to the tutorial section of the Federation experience than we were happy with.
Glad you liked what you played, sad you encountered some bugs that lead to hiccups.
...you really need to find some way to get the expanded universe stuff into the game for players. I had no idea Shon was even married, much less that his wife was (apparently) lost at Vega.
Having come to the game after the original Borg STFs were replaced with the current queued ones I never got the chance to actually see it with my own eyes, but I did go hunting and found the original story sequence and events so the lack of damaged Borg vessels and such was kinda jarring there.
Finally - I know they did it in First Contact, but having the Defiant go from DS9 to Vega seems a bit...excessive doesn't it? Would it really be so bad to replace it with say...the Sao Paulo, complete with using the Sao Paulo model?
In the Field Promotions Mission of the Tutorial the Voice Lines for Acting Cheif Zarva about the Plasma Injectors and the next one both are wrong.
As Well the Line for after you find the Plasma Injectors from the naccelles.
Voice over for the Mini Cut scene where Full Impulse is introduced is Missing.