Art department certainly was busy, it's a very pretty mission.
For so many big decisions going on etc, there was remarkably few the player got to make. Talking to the Xindi diplomat counts as an optional objective now? It was extremely linear, and this was rather disappointing in the conference section in particular. I can choose which interchangeable ensign guards which of three spots, oh joy.
The whole invasion thing made little sense. The undine enter the spehere, fly through to the portal, into the other sphere, fly to the exit on that sphere, and cross two sector blocks to get to their targets by the time the player beams to their ship, and without getting intercepted at any point along the way? whaaaaat? then they just open rifts when they get there anyways-why'd they need to use the sphere In the first place?
It was *really* combat heavy. I'm kinda indifferent here.
I get to use my own ship in a featured episode again! No C-store/Lobi ship advertising! Whee!
Can't use my away teams at all. Stop doing this in your episodes please Cryptic!
Cooper Undine is a real idiot, it makes Hakeev look bright.
The special visitor at the end was neat, but as far as plans go, hers seemed to be right up there in Cooper-level planning. What was it supposed to accomplish? Now their existence and machinations are 100% undeniable, and the forces are united against them.
Sad to see the KDF/ROM/FED conflict got-it was just starting to get good with the alliance crumbling over the ownership of the second sphere. - they barely even touched on it before the undine showed up!
One tiny nitpick.
Voyager's bridge? Yeah, not canon! It had a Akira schematic in the background!
Hopefully this changes, when the environmentalartists make a true Intrepid class bridge to rival the Sao Paolo and Enterprise bridges.
Whereas they could have just, you know, attacked Qo'nos secretly, while all 3 fleets were standing down, in the Jenolan sphere. Also a long way away from Qo'nos.
The planet killer would have destroyed the planet before anyone knew the Undine were around.
Also, the Undine commander invading Tuvoks mind, and Tuvok getting his whole plan.
Come on, is this a 60's cartoon?
Why didn't they just make the Undine a mustache twirling guy that sprouts his whole plan, then tells tuvok how to STOP this plan, and then let tuvok walk away.
Okay, my guess is something like this:
1) They had no choice but fly through the Sphere ,they can not actually create rifts into our space anywhere they like.
2) They were facing the risk of being intercepted, so they generated a lot of chaos elsewhere first to spread the fleets thing.
3) The Planet Killer can only get from Fluidic Space to our Space with some kind of beacon/signal from the other Undine.
4) The Undine Commander that invaded Tuvok's mind might have been after some additional information (and got it), he didn't realize that Tuvok could at least partially counter it.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Why in the name of god was Shon piloting the Aquarious?! Seriously - he couldn't have sent, I don't know, a helmsman or shuttle pilot?! I don't accept that he was the best choice for that.
Well, he was wearing a red shirt. I'd say that made him qualified.
You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
For one, why the heck was I required to run around telling everyone to sit down etc?? Don't they have loudspeakers in 2410?
The Bajoran arguing with the Cardassian - obsolete argument.
The Ambassador should have had Shon's dialouge. We didn't really need Shon being the big hero, again, here.
Shon annoyed me again toward the end. Why in the name of god was Shon piloting the Aquarious?! Seriously - he couldn't have sent, I don't know, a helmsman or shuttle pilot?! I don't accept that he was the best choice for that.
And again, despite the end dialouge about our character having 'saved the galaxy' we didn't really, did we - nope. That was Shon. Again.
Ummm really?? I don't like Shon, But how many times has Kirk, and Picard put themselves on the line when someone else could of done it...Picard told Riker to stay on the Enterprise, while Pciard piloted a shuttle, despite Riker being the best pilot on the Enterprise, Or Kirk flying into a Planet Killer, when Scotty could have.
i don't like the guy, but I'm not going to just IGNORE all the times Kirk, Picard, Spock or anyone else did something when they could have had someone else do it just for the shake of hating on Shon.
As for interrupting the Ambassador...Do we REALLY want to hear that guy go on and on about TRIBBLE, Shon got to the point and said sorry that's what we needed short and simple.
Didn't have much of a problem with the main portion of the mission, although Shon annoyed me again toward the end. Why in the name of god was Shon piloting the Aquarious?! Seriously - he couldn't have sent, I don't know, a helmsman or shuttle pilot?! I don't accept that he was the best choice for that.
And again, despite the end dialouge about our character having 'saved the galaxy' we didn't really, did we - nope. That was Shon. Again.
What I'm wondering is why they couldn't have just put the ship on autopilot. All we did was fly in a straight line. Shouldn't be that difficult to program, 'specially considering that we (the player) was covering for them.
Formerly known as Echo@Rivyn13
Member since early 2011
Cryptic, I owe you an apology. I've said in the past that you, as a company, don't care for the IP anymore. Well, I'm wrong.
That was hands-down the *BEST* mission I think I've ever played. And it *felt* like Star Trek.
There are still significant bugs (Klingon uniforms are still screwed). You still can't design balanced systems/powers worth a damn and I still hate what you do with lock boxes....
But, if this is what you can pull off because of those abhorred things, then I'm going to hold my tongue. I'll just continue nerfing my own game play to maintain some illusion of challenge and I'll pretend I don't see any Bioships around ESD.
Please continue to prove me wrong. And, thank you.
Another great mission, really solid and lots of fun. maybe a luttle heavy on the spacecombat at times but it felt very trek. the last 5 or so FE have really begun to tell a great story and i only wish the early game had been like this from the start.
great job and hope to see plenty more story like this in expansion 2.
Well to add ot my original words of "THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!" The mission was truly epic.
Egg being the infiltrator, didn't see that coming. The actual fighting whethere in space or on the ground was just amazing and I actually had to WORK for it.
My ONLY complaint, is the fact that mission could of been broken into atleast 2 episodes instead of 1 long one.
Though I really hope they continue to build with better episodes like that. 9/10 on that mission.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
i only have one complaint on the whole thing after playing it again
where are my boffs? all the recent missions basically have you go solo i want to run around with my crew like back when we where leveling i miss the idiotic pathing issues, takara's hypo adiction, and four's constant dieing
they also would of been real nice to have when facing egg.
i only have one complaint on the whole thing after playing it again
where are my boffs? all the recent missions basically have you go solo i want to run around with my crew like back when we where leveling i miss the idiotic pathing issues, takara's hypo adiction, and four's constant dieing
they also would of been real nice to have when facing egg.
That's why my tac officer has the security team and the shard of possiblities. 4 extra crew at the click of 2 buttons.
Saved my tail against Egg. Gonna suck when I do it when I don't have those buttons to hit on newer characters.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
i only have one complaint on the whole thing after playing it again
where are my boffs? all the recent missions basically have you go solo i want to run around with my crew like back when we where leveling i miss the idiotic pathing issues, takara's hypo adiction, and four's constant dieing
they also would of been real nice to have when facing egg.
I rationalize it that they have been sent to other parts of the station. There are hundreds of decks to liberate and we basically had just 2 crews of 2 ships available.
that's how i rationalized it as well the first time. it was just the second playthrough i started noticing how the last few missions no longer have any of your boffs on the ground
Eldar that stole the voice synthesiser from Mass Effect's reapers.
But but dawn of war/winter assault came out before Mass effect....this can only mean one thing someones been disrupting the time line again!....argh I'm going to have to sit through another hour meeting with Temporal Investigations again aren't I?>.>
But but dawn of war/winter assault came out before Mass effect....this can only mean one thing someones been disrupting the time line again!....argh I'm going to have to sit through another hour meeting with Temporal Investigations again aren't I?>.>
You have fun with that, I got Undine to go shoot.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
Whereas they could have just, you know, attacked Qo'nos secretly, while all 3 fleets were standing down, in the Jenolan sphere. Also a long way away from Qo'nos.
The planet killer would have destroyed the planet before anyone knew the Undine were around.
Also, the Undine commander invading Tuvoks mind, and Tuvok getting his whole plan.
Come on, is this a 60's cartoon?
Why didn't they just make the Undine a mustache twirling guy that sprouts his whole plan, then tells tuvok how to STOP this plan, and then let tuvok walk away.
The problem there is that they still encountered enough resistance at the Klingon homeworld that delayed them long enough for us to arrive just in time traveling all the way from earth. Had they done it when we were all gathered at the sphere, then the full force of our combined fleets would have been all over them like ants at a picnic, since we were considerably closer. Tau Dewa isn't that far from Omega Leonis, once you hop through the Iconian gateways.
Bla bla bla another FE better than the last bla bla bla. :P
But seriously, it was phenomenal, the Undine came across as a genuine threat, a great wrap up to the klingon war arc which has gone one for far too long, and an outstanding proper introduction to the Iconians. Standing ovation guys.
I got told off in game for sucking up when I told one of the devs. haha
the acid horta they gave away in the c store not long ago is amazing against 8472. Saved my TRIBBLE a couple of times in this episode.
I also want to give my thanks for such an increadible episode.
*******************************************
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
I whole heartedly agree...best episode yet. Like some others, I wish I could have used my away team. Jem'Hadar, Naussicans, and a Breen aren't easily intimidated. It was incredibly fun to redo the Borg Undine series with them and watch them demolish everything when equipped with Pulsewaves:D
The problem there is that they still encountered enough resistance at the Klingon homeworld that delayed them long enough for us to arrive just in time traveling all the way from earth. Had they done it when we were all gathered at the sphere, then the full force of our combined fleets would have been all over them like ants at a picnic, since we were considerably closer. Tau Dewa isn't that far from Omega Leonis, once you hop through the Iconian gateways.
...And then, after the battle that took long enough for a fleet to travel from Earth to Qo'noS , and when Undine fleet was almost destroyed by Enterprise and Co, I imagine that Undine commander who woke up and said "Hey... I almost forgot... we have this planet killer thing that, you know, tears planets to shreds and has impenetrable shields... why don't we use it right now?"
Surface Tension has set the bar for feature episodes. The immersion and detail that went into it was a cut above what I have come to expect. Excellent use of cinematics, and although the action and fleet engagements were spectacular (especially on Elite), I really enjoyed the summit, it was a platform for character development and showcased the stance of all of the powers.
Very good work. One of the first times I have felt involved in the Trek universe in quite some time.
I am in the minority, well in this topic posting at least.
I hoped they would make a certain planet look like its moon debris.
I was annoyed over the Klingon woman whining about Honor. She is a whiny little TRIBBLE. I wish I could, beyond using the mute button, turn of poor voice acting. The Ferengi was terrible I mean terrible beyond a f'ing doubt too.
The best featured episodes are those told in parts. It allowed a deeper story. I guess the devs disagree and feel that these little featurlings are the in and trendy thing. Such a dam shame.
Today we fight the GAULS......monstrous and HAIRY beyond reason.
That opening scene (no spoilers) .. well I sat back at one point with a ... what is this?! I had goosebumps LOL. Frigging goosebumps.
Awesome. You just poured glycerine on my doubts and set it on fire!!!
If these are what we can expect for updates. Sign me up to the happy camper list.
It's surprising to me, but I actually had some goosebumps as well at a few points.
Especially the part where you actually take charge of the whole thing.
...then I got exploded because all the enemies decided to kill me. That took a lot of wind out of my sails and kicked the immersion in the face. One reason why the 'explode-when-you-lose' graphics ought to be changed. I'm hoping when I redo it on that character (my main, so I'm going to be redoing it 3-4 times) I can get it back on the rematch.
That said! This was a superb job, Cryptic. I'm looking forward to seeing what else is here this season.
Comments
Pretty good episode.
Good rewards, so there's some replay value there.
Art department certainly was busy, it's a very pretty mission.
For so many big decisions going on etc, there was remarkably few the player got to make. Talking to the Xindi diplomat counts as an optional objective now? It was extremely linear, and this was rather disappointing in the conference section in particular. I can choose which interchangeable ensign guards which of three spots, oh joy.
The whole invasion thing made little sense. The undine enter the spehere, fly through to the portal, into the other sphere, fly to the exit on that sphere, and cross two sector blocks to get to their targets by the time the player beams to their ship, and without getting intercepted at any point along the way? whaaaaat? then they just open rifts when they get there anyways-why'd they need to use the sphere In the first place?
It was *really* combat heavy. I'm kinda indifferent here.
I get to use my own ship in a featured episode again! No C-store/Lobi ship advertising! Whee!
Can't use my away teams at all. Stop doing this in your episodes please Cryptic!
Cooper Undine is a real idiot, it makes Hakeev look bright.
The special visitor at the end was neat, but as far as plans go, hers seemed to be right up there in Cooper-level planning. What was it supposed to accomplish? Now their existence and machinations are 100% undeniable, and the forces are united against them.
Sad to see the KDF/ROM/FED conflict got-it was just starting to get good with the alliance crumbling over the ownership of the second sphere. - they barely even touched on it before the undine showed up!
All I have to say is, IT'S ABOUT ****ING TIME!
Wait no, I have ONE more thing.
Is it really Shon?
The scale of it, the art, everything; this was just awesome from the start to the finish.
I think my favourite moment was when the Ferengi started talking about wanting to buy the Sphere. Classic!
Voyager's bridge? Yeah, not canon! It had a Akira schematic in the background!
Hopefully this changes, when the environmentalartists make a true Intrepid class bridge to rival the Sao Paolo and Enterprise bridges.
Okay, my guess is something like this:
1) They had no choice but fly through the Sphere ,they can not actually create rifts into our space anywhere they like.
2) They were facing the risk of being intercepted, so they generated a lot of chaos elsewhere first to spread the fleets thing.
3) The Planet Killer can only get from Fluidic Space to our Space with some kind of beacon/signal from the other Undine.
4) The Undine Commander that invaded Tuvok's mind might have been after some additional information (and got it), he didn't realize that Tuvok could at least partially counter it.
Now, on to a serious question. . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . .
. . . .
. . .
Can I have an Iconian boff now? Better yet, can I BE an Iconian? Please?
Member since early 2011
Eldar that stole the voice synthesiser from Mass Effect's reapers.
Well, he was wearing a red shirt. I'd say that made him qualified.
Ummm really?? I don't like Shon, But how many times has Kirk, and Picard put themselves on the line when someone else could of done it...Picard told Riker to stay on the Enterprise, while Pciard piloted a shuttle, despite Riker being the best pilot on the Enterprise, Or Kirk flying into a Planet Killer, when Scotty could have.
i don't like the guy, but I'm not going to just IGNORE all the times Kirk, Picard, Spock or anyone else did something when they could have had someone else do it just for the shake of hating on Shon.
As for interrupting the Ambassador...Do we REALLY want to hear that guy go on and on about TRIBBLE, Shon got to the point and said sorry that's what we needed short and simple.
What I'm wondering is why they couldn't have just put the ship on autopilot. All we did was fly in a straight line. Shouldn't be that difficult to program, 'specially considering that we (the player) was covering for them.
Member since early 2011
That was hands-down the *BEST* mission I think I've ever played. And it *felt* like Star Trek.
There are still significant bugs (Klingon uniforms are still screwed). You still can't design balanced systems/powers worth a damn and I still hate what you do with lock boxes....
But, if this is what you can pull off because of those abhorred things, then I'm going to hold my tongue. I'll just continue nerfing my own game play to maintain some illusion of challenge and I'll pretend I don't see any Bioships around ESD.
Please continue to prove me wrong. And, thank you.
great job and hope to see plenty more story like this in expansion 2.
Egg being the infiltrator, didn't see that coming. The actual fighting whethere in space or on the ground was just amazing and I actually had to WORK for it.
My ONLY complaint, is the fact that mission could of been broken into atleast 2 episodes instead of 1 long one.
Though I really hope they continue to build with better episodes like that. 9/10 on that mission.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
where are my boffs? all the recent missions basically have you go solo i want to run around with my crew like back when we where leveling i miss the idiotic pathing issues, takara's hypo adiction, and four's constant dieing
they also would of been real nice to have when facing egg.
That's why my tac officer has the security team and the shard of possiblities. 4 extra crew at the click of 2 buttons.
Saved my tail against Egg. Gonna suck when I do it when I don't have those buttons to hit on newer characters.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
I rationalize it that they have been sent to other parts of the station. There are hundreds of decks to liberate and we basically had just 2 crews of 2 ships available.
But but dawn of war/winter assault came out before Mass effect....this can only mean one thing someones been disrupting the time line again!....argh I'm going to have to sit through another hour meeting with Temporal Investigations again aren't I?>.>
You have fun with that, I got Undine to go shoot.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
The problem there is that they still encountered enough resistance at the Klingon homeworld that delayed them long enough for us to arrive just in time traveling all the way from earth. Had they done it when we were all gathered at the sphere, then the full force of our combined fleets would have been all over them like ants at a picnic, since we were considerably closer. Tau Dewa isn't that far from Omega Leonis, once you hop through the Iconian gateways.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
But seriously, it was phenomenal, the Undine came across as a genuine threat, a great wrap up to the klingon war arc which has gone one for far too long, and an outstanding proper introduction to the Iconians. Standing ovation guys.
I got told off in game for sucking up when I told one of the devs. haha
I also want to give my thanks for such an increadible episode.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
It's INCREDIBLE.
Just incredible.
Well done, Cryptic!
...And then, after the battle that took long enough for a fleet to travel from Earth to Qo'noS , and when Undine fleet was almost destroyed by Enterprise and Co, I imagine that Undine commander who woke up and said "Hey... I almost forgot... we have this planet killer thing that, you know, tears planets to shreds and has impenetrable shields... why don't we use it right now?"
Very good work. One of the first times I have felt involved in the Trek universe in quite some time.
Valdus | Charn | Costello | Typhus | Thyran
I hoped they would make a certain planet look like its moon debris.
I was annoyed over the Klingon woman whining about Honor. She is a whiny little TRIBBLE. I wish I could, beyond using the mute button, turn of poor voice acting. The Ferengi was terrible I mean terrible beyond a f'ing doubt too.
The best featured episodes are those told in parts. It allowed a deeper story. I guess the devs disagree and feel that these little featurlings are the in and trendy thing. Such a dam shame.
[SIGPIC]Click here to visit my STO YouTube channel[/SIGPIC]
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
It's surprising to me, but I actually had some goosebumps as well at a few points.
Especially the part where you actually take charge of the whole thing.
...then I got exploded because all the enemies decided to kill me.
That said! This was a superb job, Cryptic. I'm looking forward to seeing what else is here this season.