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Season 8 evaluation
merse
Member Posts: 52 Arc User
So I think it's time to write an evaluation about the current season of Star Trek Online.
First of all, the expectations were very high before the release of the episode. the New Romulus expansion was a huge success, good story, well designed ships, two beautiful planets with full of life and things to see, a brand new faction, the Elachi with really challenging weaponry, various tasks which made the reputation grinding more tolerable... It was maybe the best thing that happened to STO since its release. We got a very nice teaser mission narrated by nobody else but Michael Dorn. It was great! Although the action played a small part only, the scene, the Iconian technology looked awesome. Ok, in the end, when the drones started swarming felt awfully like a scene from Matrix, but that's acceptable.
So obviously, I was very excited about this new season. Then came the news that there will be DINOSAURS WITH LASER GUNS....
So let's see this new event.
1) First of all, let's talk about the STORY, which DOES NOT EXISTS AT ALL! SO far, every season brought us a new story arc, but season 8 gave us nothing. Some dull missions to introudce what can you do in the Dyson sphere, but that's it. It was a huge disappointment because the Voth, or the exploration of the Sphere could have been an awesome source of a great multi-mission story. TOTAL LACK OF CREATIVITY, HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!
By the way, I find it amusing how the writers realized that they wrote themselves into the corner. The "Big Interplaneraty War Between the Federation and the Klingons" is totally forgotten, just like it was when the Borg were introduced, or in New Romulus.
2) But OK, we don't have a story, let's see the scenery. I already praised the Iconian architecture, so I won't repeat myself, let's focus on the maps. We were told that we get a huge playground full of things to do. What we really got? Two HUGE EMPTY MAPS, with some randomly spawning enemy ships, and with the shortest, stupidest and most straightforward missions(?) in the history of MMOs. I mean come on! Clicking three times on a button and killing three ships in between is not a mission! What's even worse that every mission is nothing else than already available missions recycled. Like the "Repair ships/satellites/whatnot" is just a repacked Traelus system daily mission. The other half of the missions is just mindless destruction of everything that comes close. TOTAL LACK OF CREATIVITY. Again, HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!
3) Let's see the new features then. Finally I have some nice things to say here
The Capture&Hold idea is nice, although it would be much more interesting in PVP than in PWE where the only challenge is that the enemies are constantly respanw and you have to run around to kick them out of the safe points. Same goes for the ground battle. This thing has an enormous potential for the future,but again, in PVP and not in PWE. I just can't feel the Battlezone around me, when I can conquer half the map in solo... But the fact that enemies/devices drop things like health packs is great. Conclusion: GREAT IDEAS, BUT THEY MUST WORK ON IT MORE.
4) Enemies... The Voth were OK. Why not? We have Borg, Jem'hadar, Undine, all the clich?s from Star Trek were already introduced, why not the Voth this time? But then in the battlezone I though I would fall off my chair of laughter... THEY REALLY DID HUGE DINOSAURS WITH LASER GUNS ON THEIR HEAD! OMG! I thought they were joking! I mean, mature, responsible people saw this and let it released... Seriously?! Dinos with laser guns! It would fit into a Japanese anime for 5 years olds, but for a serious MMO... Or was the whole season designed for 5 years olds? RIDICULOUS!
This is the point where I'm getting a bit annoyed about the dullness of the whole season... The problem is that I can't say anything positive about the Voth ships either... They are poorly designed, although their weaponry is impressive and interesting. But they don't put up a fight like a Borg or an Elachi ship would do... And they are supposed to be technologically advanced.
5) Ok, Reputation System. I must say, I'm impressed here. No more annoying replicating/buying from the Exchange for energy cells and shield generators. Just perfect! I also like th sponsorship system, it was a great idea! I don't completely agree with the shop system so we can get everything instantly, but it's only a matter of taste. The only thing that a bit annoys me that there are not one, not two, but three stuff to collect if you want to advance. But at least you can get tons of them easily. I wouldn't want spend hours on those dull missions to painfully collect some marks... I also like the new consoles, weapons, whatnot. It will take a while to figure out what they are capable of, but I feel they will fit nicely into the game. Conclusion: AWESOME!
Too bad that this is the only part of the new season I can say this...
6) Fleet Spire. This fits into the real "Meh..." category for me. Ok, the fleet items will be impressive once they become available, we can assign 2 extra DOFFs to ground and space, which is really good, but other than having a few new fleet items to purchase, it doesn't feel like it would give anything to the game, unlike the fleet embassy or the fleet mine.
New Romulus was such a wonderfully created environment, why couldn't they create a Fleet Colony instead? Conclusion: MEH....
7) STFs. The Spire Assault or what its name is is nice. Nothing special, just some mindless destruction of anything that comes close, but it's still entertaining.
The Breach however.... I can not categorize it otherwise than a disgustingly shameless copy of the Death Star battles form Star Wars. Well, this game already copied Battlestar Galactica (Carriers and how they work), Stargate (Iconina Gates), Babylon 5 (The Undine, the Devidians etc.), it was obvious that they will steal from Star Wars sooner or later (technically they already did with the lightsabers :P). But the Breach is just wrong. It was virtually copypasted from the two Death Star battles, patched together and introduced as Star Trek. This is just low...
Writers and directors are supposed to work on this game. Moreover, they are supposed to be paid generously for their work! And the best they could come up is a nonexistent story arc and a disgusting copy from another Sci-Fi? This is not disappointing, this is OUTRAGEOUS!
In conclusion, Season 8 of Star Trek Online is an enormous disappointment and likely the worst season so far. The story is non-existent, the enemies are ridiculous, the new features are poorly designed, and it steals from not one but two famous Sci-Fi shows. There are a few good ideas, but they weren't worked on enough, they weren't extended to their full potential.
This is really the best that Cryptic can do? We saw a great Lohlunat event, and the excellent Legacy of Romulus expansion in the last few months. After those, this "season" (can you call something a season if there is no story in it?) is simply unacceptable...
First of all, the expectations were very high before the release of the episode. the New Romulus expansion was a huge success, good story, well designed ships, two beautiful planets with full of life and things to see, a brand new faction, the Elachi with really challenging weaponry, various tasks which made the reputation grinding more tolerable... It was maybe the best thing that happened to STO since its release. We got a very nice teaser mission narrated by nobody else but Michael Dorn. It was great! Although the action played a small part only, the scene, the Iconian technology looked awesome. Ok, in the end, when the drones started swarming felt awfully like a scene from Matrix, but that's acceptable.
So obviously, I was very excited about this new season. Then came the news that there will be DINOSAURS WITH LASER GUNS....
So let's see this new event.
1) First of all, let's talk about the STORY, which DOES NOT EXISTS AT ALL! SO far, every season brought us a new story arc, but season 8 gave us nothing. Some dull missions to introudce what can you do in the Dyson sphere, but that's it. It was a huge disappointment because the Voth, or the exploration of the Sphere could have been an awesome source of a great multi-mission story. TOTAL LACK OF CREATIVITY, HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!
By the way, I find it amusing how the writers realized that they wrote themselves into the corner. The "Big Interplaneraty War Between the Federation and the Klingons" is totally forgotten, just like it was when the Borg were introduced, or in New Romulus.
2) But OK, we don't have a story, let's see the scenery. I already praised the Iconian architecture, so I won't repeat myself, let's focus on the maps. We were told that we get a huge playground full of things to do. What we really got? Two HUGE EMPTY MAPS, with some randomly spawning enemy ships, and with the shortest, stupidest and most straightforward missions(?) in the history of MMOs. I mean come on! Clicking three times on a button and killing three ships in between is not a mission! What's even worse that every mission is nothing else than already available missions recycled. Like the "Repair ships/satellites/whatnot" is just a repacked Traelus system daily mission. The other half of the missions is just mindless destruction of everything that comes close. TOTAL LACK OF CREATIVITY. Again, HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!
3) Let's see the new features then. Finally I have some nice things to say here
The Capture&Hold idea is nice, although it would be much more interesting in PVP than in PWE where the only challenge is that the enemies are constantly respanw and you have to run around to kick them out of the safe points. Same goes for the ground battle. This thing has an enormous potential for the future,but again, in PVP and not in PWE. I just can't feel the Battlezone around me, when I can conquer half the map in solo... But the fact that enemies/devices drop things like health packs is great. Conclusion: GREAT IDEAS, BUT THEY MUST WORK ON IT MORE.4) Enemies... The Voth were OK. Why not? We have Borg, Jem'hadar, Undine, all the clich?s from Star Trek were already introduced, why not the Voth this time? But then in the battlezone I though I would fall off my chair of laughter... THEY REALLY DID HUGE DINOSAURS WITH LASER GUNS ON THEIR HEAD! OMG! I thought they were joking! I mean, mature, responsible people saw this and let it released... Seriously?! Dinos with laser guns! It would fit into a Japanese anime for 5 years olds, but for a serious MMO... Or was the whole season designed for 5 years olds? RIDICULOUS!
This is the point where I'm getting a bit annoyed about the dullness of the whole season... The problem is that I can't say anything positive about the Voth ships either... They are poorly designed, although their weaponry is impressive and interesting. But they don't put up a fight like a Borg or an Elachi ship would do... And they are supposed to be technologically advanced.
5) Ok, Reputation System. I must say, I'm impressed here. No more annoying replicating/buying from the Exchange for energy cells and shield generators. Just perfect! I also like th sponsorship system, it was a great idea! I don't completely agree with the shop system so we can get everything instantly, but it's only a matter of taste. The only thing that a bit annoys me that there are not one, not two, but three stuff to collect if you want to advance. But at least you can get tons of them easily. I wouldn't want spend hours on those dull missions to painfully collect some marks... I also like the new consoles, weapons, whatnot. It will take a while to figure out what they are capable of, but I feel they will fit nicely into the game. Conclusion: AWESOME!
Too bad that this is the only part of the new season I can say this...
6) Fleet Spire. This fits into the real "Meh..." category for me. Ok, the fleet items will be impressive once they become available, we can assign 2 extra DOFFs to ground and space, which is really good, but other than having a few new fleet items to purchase, it doesn't feel like it would give anything to the game, unlike the fleet embassy or the fleet mine.
New Romulus was such a wonderfully created environment, why couldn't they create a Fleet Colony instead? Conclusion: MEH....
7) STFs. The Spire Assault or what its name is is nice. Nothing special, just some mindless destruction of anything that comes close, but it's still entertaining.
The Breach however.... I can not categorize it otherwise than a disgustingly shameless copy of the Death Star battles form Star Wars. Well, this game already copied Battlestar Galactica (Carriers and how they work), Stargate (Iconina Gates), Babylon 5 (The Undine, the Devidians etc.), it was obvious that they will steal from Star Wars sooner or later (technically they already did with the lightsabers :P). But the Breach is just wrong. It was virtually copypasted from the two Death Star battles, patched together and introduced as Star Trek. This is just low...
Writers and directors are supposed to work on this game. Moreover, they are supposed to be paid generously for their work! And the best they could come up is a nonexistent story arc and a disgusting copy from another Sci-Fi? This is not disappointing, this is OUTRAGEOUS!
In conclusion, Season 8 of Star Trek Online is an enormous disappointment and likely the worst season so far. The story is non-existent, the enemies are ridiculous, the new features are poorly designed, and it steals from not one but two famous Sci-Fi shows. There are a few good ideas, but they weren't worked on enough, they weren't extended to their full potential.
This is really the best that Cryptic can do? We saw a great Lohlunat event, and the excellent Legacy of Romulus expansion in the last few months. After those, this "season" (can you call something a season if there is no story in it?) is simply unacceptable...
Post edited by merse on
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Considering that (1) TOS had several different episodes featuring duplicate Earths, (2) TOS also had... well, episodes like "The Omega Glory" and "Spock's Brain" with premises too painfully ridiculous to even discuss, and (3) not one, not two, but three different Star Trek TV series had episodes involving space TRIBBLE, a Dyson sphere populated by dinosaurs with laser beams in STO just doesn't seem all that ridiculous in the grand scheme of things.
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4. We already have various enemies that use animals in combats and since Voth would bring their pets and beasts of burden with them when they left Earth, then obviously they would have dinosaurs. If we had personal shields, then lots of nations would be equipping rocket launchers and machine guns on Elephants.
Star Trek had Iconian Gates before Stargate existed. Devidians existed before Babylon 5. If you are talking about the Undine using ships similar to Vorlon ships, then it is Voyager is responsible for that not STO. The whole concept of Carriers existed long before Battlestar Galactica. The Breach is inside a ship while the Death Star is on the surface of a Moon-sized Starship. So your whole idea that STO is blatantly ripping off various Science Fiction TV shows is false. The only evidence of STO ripping off a Science Fiction TV show is a green Ferengi giving away free energy melee weapons.
As far as Season 8 being the worst season ever, you have not been here that long. Season 3 and Season 4 had a lack of actual official content. The advancement of the Iconian plot and being in a Dyson Sphere make it a good season IMO.
"The Borg - party-poopers of the galaxy" ~ The Doctor
2. I thought Legacy of Romulus was an expansion...not a season.
Difference between an expansion and what Cryptic calls a "season" is content...
Expansion adds a ton that will change practically everything
While a season adds some (as in a few) extra features.
To compare season 8 to the expansion "LoR" is to compare adding seat warmers to an old model of a car to next season's model in its complete form.
Season 8 is fine as a season...if I paid for an expansion and I'll ingot was this...then yes...huge disappointment. but again, as is, perfectly fine. It's rather awesome compared to past seasons
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
If we had that uniform, then it would be the greatest season ever. :P
There is a HUGE gap in the story between where the Feature episode with Worf left off and the Sphere content begins. If this was a novel and any writer had submitted this as the 2nd book in the series I am certain that their editor would be calling them and asking if they were still working on the "in between" stuff. And if that author said, no that's that story as it stands the editor, if they had any credibility what so ever, would then explain to the author that this is simply NOT GOOD FICTION and there is a HUGE gap in the story that needs to be filled or we can NOT publish.
The other complaint I have is that there is no challenge in any of the new content and this is a trend in the MMO industry now days and for that matter games in general. Where developers have become afraid to put any real challenge into their games because they might discourage someone from playing it. That is the worst mistake they made with Season 8, it is way to freakin' easy, period.
Also, there is story. You should play all of the content before you try to make a review of something.
As for why the Voth want Omega, they need it for something.
They are lucky General Order 24 is not in effect.
My character Tsin'xing
as far as the story line being hidden in the dysons sphere, well that is ballocks.. honestly, the story line should never be hidden, buried, or take to much work to play out.. the games story line should be honestly accessable by all types of players. (even dads and moms who only have an hour here or there to play).. you burry things like achievments and side stories...
I also very much agree with the dinos with lazer beams being childish.. that was my first thought.. and I have argued this.. watching the forums, there is a significantly larger number of people who were against it than for it.. and that usually will translate into the general feel of the entire playerbase.. (not exact, but a good idea).. yes, I know we have had space nazzis and what not, but so what.. my last girlfriend was ocd, does that mean I should go find another ocd girl... honestly, sto is not a tv show, that we watch once a week, and can easily forget about the previous one if we didn't like it.. this is something that players have to live with.. the caliber of the new season is very childish, and that is a shame.. my own fleet since the launch of season 8 has lost nearly half its members, those commenting on why they were leaving said they were fed up with the lack of story, the grind, and dinos with lazers was just the icing on the lackluster cake...
I want to know how adults (the dev team) can honestly sit in the boardroom, and think that dinosaurs was a good, and the best idea for the game at this time.. it is a shame.. it really is.. unfortunately, we seem to be playing out a devs childhood dreams.. uuggg... I myself have also slowed my playing down to once a week..
to those who think its awesome.. good for you, you get something you like.. for those of you who think its dumb, well maybe someday we will get a real star trek game..
Your second point is valid at least for the space/atmosphere zone. The missions are dull, uncreative and very easy. Even the dreadnoughts are no challenge at all. The space zone needs some significant update in mission design and difficulty.
The ground map on the other hand is really amazing. The scenery, the light, it's without any doubt the best map they have ever created for STO. The fact that you can solo a capture point is very much intended. The strength of the enemies scales with the number of human players at a capture point. In my opinion this is a very good mechanic. You don't have to team up but you still play as a team. For the first time I actually enjoy ground combat. And that's coming form a person who - untill this point - really hated and avoided ground combat in STO. Though just as the space zone, ground could need some difficulty upgrade.
I wasn't really thrilled when they announced dinosaurs as enemies in a Star Trek game. But it wouldn't be entirely impossible and once you get used to it fighting them is really fun.
The new reputation system is indeed great. You have to play ONE daily mission or ONE STF to fill in a project. And the reputation sponsorships are great for leveling up your alts. Fantastic job there.
The fleet spire is exactly what I expected. The map looks good. The gear we will be able to purchase once all tiers are completed is promising. But it's still a ressource sink like the previous fleet holdings.
You didn't like "The Breach" because you think it's a copy of Star Wars? Really? It would be a great experience but since there once was a movie that showed similar scenes you are determined to hate it? Big surprise: hardly anything that is done today be it on TV in books, games, music or movies is a true original. Everything created today is a copy of a copy of a copy. That alone is really no reason to hate it.
I disagree with you conclusion. You brought up some valid critisim but I think you valuation of the different points is unfair. Keep in mind that LoR was a full blown EXPANISION while this is just a "simple" new season. With a little bit of polish they could still make this - in my opinion - good season a great one.
Greek gos on the other hand Great.. Star Trek online GOD OF WAR!!
From my understand, Omega Particles are used to create the Omega Molecule which is an extremely powerful source of energy. Unfortunately, creating an Omega Molecule is very risky. For any highly advanced race, the most important thing is Energy. So this would explain the Voth's reason for obtaining Omega Particles and it could be the Iconian's reason as well.
I don't buy into the belief that the Iconians are creating Omega Particles so they can flood the Galaxy with them. Sure minor races use warp travel and Iconians use more advanced methods, but they seem to use subspace too much and warp travel seems to require subspace to work. So if Omega Particles destroy subspace, then it would cause problems for the Iconians.
What's "'aspolding"?
"The Borg - party-poopers of the galaxy" ~ The Doctor
I see a difference. Millions of ancient humans worshiped the Greek gods as Q like beings that messed with humans, often for petty or jealous reasons.
Star Trek is full of those gods who aren't really gods, but pretend to be gods.
It's the same premise as Stargate, really, only long before Stargate.
It's a lot more sophisticated and thought-provoking than Dinos with laser head gear.
Foundry plug: "Helna of Troy" - The continuation of "Who Mourns for Adonais."
I've played your Greek gods foundry...it's not that sophisticated
Maybe not for you, but I tend to think it's more believable than reskinning Fekiri as axe-swinging rodents of doom!
Maybe if I were making a Foundry cartoon, it would work, since it's a cartoon.
It's Star Trek anything is possible....IDIC
2)enemy's? they are good as far as defence. (can take a good min to take out the citadel dreadnought) and there tycan riifts, ect are effective, but i agree i can take out any area in the battlezone solo so not much difficulty there. they should add an option of mybe an elite adventure zone within the BZ. even the deferi zone or nakura prime is more difficult solo then the dyson BZ. i also agree the space adven zone would be nice in pvp style following the fed/kdf war.
3)rep i like with the sponsorship system. and yes its hard to start but walking through the BZ for an hour or so can rack up some major marks, command points, and dillithum. dont see much cons in that.
4)new fleet holding...first of all the consoles. the dil mine gave us engineer cons. and now we have tac consoles....anyone else see a con in that? those fleet consoles work alot better then most(besides rep/universal's). and im looking forward to those new ground kits. also there are alot more discount projects that can be accomplished and therefor help incase you want to make anouther toon, help new comers, and members haveing trouble getting up in ranks or fleet donations.
5) weapons seem to be usefull (mainly the omnidirectional beam array) but in my opinion anti-protons weapons are a good type to have for CritD/CritC.
conclusion: i like it alot. ill admit i wasnt playing before season 7. started little after last new years(but always been a star trek fan). LoR was a great addition and brought alot more great features to the game. im a proud Rom, like the warbird mechanic's(singularity powers). im a f2p player atm(soon to be lifer). and the BZ area allows me to make great dillithum. so i give this season(as my first to be playing when released) great, two thumbs up
P.S. Cryptic....we need more story to this though. been wondering about the iconions sense i started and would like to see more about them in the future. and like i said we need an elite adventure zone for us advanced players/vets.
Would you have a problem with Care Bears who throw black hearts of sadness? They must be defeated by throwing lollipops to distract them, before rushing in to rub their bellies and make their hearts glow red.
How about sharks with lasers and a sharknado machine? You have to defeat them by jumping them in a surfboard, like the Fonz.
How about a race of wizards who have tamed dragon-like creatures on their world? Their glowing staffs are fueled by (insert treknobabble).
C'mon Neo. At some point, something is just silly and dumb.
That's nice and dandy, but no one is adding any of that, and dinosaurs in science fiction is an old concept, and Trek has done far more silly things than a T Rex with weapons on it's back.
No kidding. There seems to be as many clueless apologists as there are disturbed players. I'm so shocked with the disregard for theme in this release that my outlook for this game became warped.
Killing V-Rexes is just not fun at all. It's like going to a ritual sacrifice after the silo's are up for capture. The voth just seem like space hippies who are at that main console trying to save the poor thing while kdf/rom/feds shoot them in the back.
And the dinos are bald.. I mean they have absolutely no parallels that support what they actually looked like. They went all jurassic park/dinosaucer with it.
With someone like Q around and Star Trek being an advocate of the Many Worlds Theory, then all of this is possible in Star Trek. Of course, any Star Trek writer that did something like this would be laughed out of town, but the possibility of it happening exist.
Anyways, the Voth dislike the idea of not being the most powerful race in the universe and they don't care who they have to kill to get there.
My character Tsin'xing
The Voth were created in the late 90s so obviously Season 8 would have to go with the classic dinosaur design. Also, that theory is not ingrained in culture's psyche so having feathered dinosaurs in Star Trek Online while it might be correct would look weird.
My character Tsin'xing
I don't think that acronym means what you think it means.
- Judge Aaron Satie
It stands for Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made
Yogurt! I hate Yogurt!:D