Yes, they are. An intelligent, careful monster is far more threatening than a mustache-twirler who eats babies to show that he's a bad guy. Cryptic IMHO leans far too much on the silly button in this game.
And once again, our characters are completely and utterly cutscene-incompetent. At least give us the option to take a potshot at the Iconian's head, or give her the finger, or something.
Iconian: *you are all doomed spiel* Eleya: *interrupts* Are you finished? Because I've heard it all before. Bring it on, or shut the phekk up!
Agree completely with the OP: The Iconians made a serious strategic error by showing themselves. They gave us hard proof that they're around, and we've trashed their lackeys at every turn with minimal apparent casualties. All she's managed to do is TRIBBLE off everyone in the region and unite them. And so what if she can incinerate six Klingons with her mind? Nothing I haven't seen done with mundane technology. Once you can duplicate an effect it loses its value as a scare tactic.
Eh, I'm just sitting back and treating it like TOS.
When I write a story based on "Surface Tension", I'm having Three and D'trel double-team to kill that thing.
Iconian (who I'll have be SHLIFFG, my recurring Iconian baddie): *you are doomed pathetic servitors mwahahahahaa spiel*
Three: "Hey, Supreme Idiot Lord You-f*ck-the-unclean! Eat unit!" *jumps at SHLIFFG with blades out*
*SHLIFFG freezes Three in midair with telekinesis, laughs maniacally, rants and raves about his inevitable superiority, melts Three's organs again and forces them out through her pores just to show how EVUL he is*
*D'trel calls in an orbital strike, which busts most of the Great Hall but knocks SHLIFFG on his rear*
*Three hauls herself painfully up to the temporarily stunned SHLIFFG, and holds him somehow*
*D'trel steps on SHLIFFG's chest, informs him of her unflinching hatred of everything even vaguely associated with Colonel Hakeev of the Tal Shiar and her utter dedication to annihilating the Iconian empire and exterminating the Iconian species, and calmly and mercilessly shoots him in the head*
*Three gets beamed out for emergency medical treatment. D'trel needs therapy. Jm'pok and Quinn shake and say words to the effect of "on second thought, f*ck this war, let's go kick some Iconian rear together"*
In the original Undine series, didn't a an Iconian appear and HELP you. And they save Sela. So until the denouement on Quonos, there were several indications that the Iconians were not necessarily bad.
Just strange that a race who evidently is living in another galaxy or dimension really cares that much about what goes in only one section of a galaxy they left in the first place.
I enjoyed the purpose of the Iconian's appearance as a nice DUN DUN DUUUUNNN piece (obligatorily youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7Op86ox9g ) rather than something to scare us or the Alpha/Beta Quadrant powers.
Especially since the story is now moving forward and I can put a face to the enemy (as opposed to the holographic silhouettes in previous cutscenes like the Romulan Rep). While we couldn't shoot/kill it outright then, I'm sure we'll get the chance soon enough.
Member since November 2009... I think. (UFP) Ragnar
Which is fine, I mean you have to do something to pass the time. But remember, there's not going to be a big payoff for that cliffhanger any time soon. The next episode/adventure is not around the corner. And that may be a bold new direction and the person we met at the end here may not show up for gosh, years.
So yeah, have fun with the analysis. I'm not being snarky. I get it. It is fun to do. It's just I don't know for me, I just let myself get caught up in the epic ride that the episode was. Getting to see that person after ALL THESE YEARS of wondering what the heck they were going to look like? I'm ok not shooting holes through the plot. I get that others' mileage varies.
If Cryptic didn't want people over-analyzing their story, they should've picked a different franchise to make a game from.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Which is fine, I mean you have to do something to pass the time. But remember, there's not going to be a big payoff for that cliffhanger any time soon. The next episode/adventure is not around the corner. And that may be a bold new direction and the person we met at the end here may not show up for gosh, years.
So yeah, have fun with the analysis. I'm not being snarky. I get it. It is fun to do. It's just I don't know for me, I just let myself get caught up in the epic ride that the episode was. Getting to see that person after ALL THESE YEARS of wondering what the heck they were going to look like? I'm ok not shooting holes through the plot. I get that others' mileage varies.
Carry on.
well to be honest, until that "previously on Star Trek Online" intro, the story has made no freaking sense to me at all. I've often wondered where so many people got the "plot" from because I played the same missions (over and over) and never got even half the story
but as i said, this entire thread is based on misconception of explained motives. the iconians want to subjugate, not destroy.
In which case they're still doing a bad job of keeping themselves in a position to achieve their goals. Subjugation is easier when there's no unity among those you're attempting to subjugate; a massive surprise attack at the outset of the FED-KDF war would have been the intelligent thing to do, but they waited and decided to mess around with lackeys incapable of succeeding. They're idiots.
well to be honest, until that "previously on Star Trek Online" intro, the story has made no freaking sense to me at all. I've often wondered where so many people got the "plot" from because I played the same missions (over and over) and never got even half the story
Admittedly it took a lot of rereading and analyzing to make sense of some parts. Especially the Iconian hints. They were really kind of haphazardly dropped into a Romulan mission, a Borg mission, then the Romulan FE, and other odds and ends.
Some folks really dove right into that. I was kind of middle of the road. I would go and seek out the little tidbits, because eh, it's been 4 years of playing the game. Eventually you just get curious. But I gave up trying to "predict" what they'd do next since they always came out of left field to me.
Which isn't a criticism. Just that I was no good at getting a step ahead of Kestrel.
Others were way better at it than me.
But over the past two years they kind of worked backwards and smoothed out the story instead of brining it forward. This is epsecially evident in Legacy of Romulus where you see that they back-fit the story with Hakeev. Which is cool. I felt it was stronger than a retcon because it kept the story we old players already experienced, but filled in details from a different perspective.
But yeah trying to keep that all straight? I get what you're saying. It was a little insane in some parts.
And here we thought they'd researched the species of the alpha quadrant, too.
Telling humans and klingons not to do something just makes them want to do it more.
Or they did do their research. Making the factions even more eager, or wary depending on your POV, could make them a bit wreckless. Then again, Federation and the KDF have proven extremely resourceful and adaptable to multiple challenges. After all, just look at what Sisko and O'Brien did to a beat up Cardassian Space station in preparation for the Dominion.
Star Trek Battles: For those who want to Play Star Trek Online as it WAS MEANT TO BE!!!
Have you not been playing the game and paying attention to the storyline? The Iconians absolutely do care if we ally. They're terrified of it. They worked their asses off to stop it happening. If they were so sure of their power, they would have wiped us out or subjugated us already.
It's history repeating itself. They're not afraid of 'us' so much as they've seen this story before and they know they won't like the ending. The problem is, even with their technological edge, just like before, they CAN'T wipe us out (and they know it, based on the 'Sphere of Influence' consoles) and subjugating us isn't going too well either.
It's a game. These are science-fiction villains. They're not SUPPOSED to be intelligent. :P
This is such tripe. So because it's a game, the writing shouldn't make sense? Everything should be Looney Tunes level because it's a game? Tell you what. You "enjoy" the flimsy premises and subpar villains but some people want better than that.
There's an old adage from pro wrestling that basically amounts to this: if you portray your opponent as a tomato can, if you beat him, you've done nothing (and gain nothing) but if you lose to him, you lose TONS. By contrast, if you portray your opponent as a dangerous and worthy foe, if you lose to him, you don't lose much but if you beat him, you've beaten a dangerous and worthy foe. Heroes aren't made from small, insignificant victories. They're made from overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds. So the mustache twirling idiot villain who loves to monologue, allowing the battered hero to recover, is a punchline, not something that makes people think "Whew, I don't know how, but WE DID IT!". It's one thing for a far superior opponent to be beaten by a momentary burst of creativity (the Picard Maneuver, for example) or a flash of brilliance (Ali-Liston and 'the punch he didn't see'). It's something totally different to be a bumbling idiot, making critical errors, leaving a breadcrumb trail for the hero to follow to an easy victory. They could've done better making the Iconians into an opponent worthy of galactic unification to defeat. Hell, steal Bioware's script from Mass Effect (except the ending!).
Yes, they are. An intelligent, careful monster is far more threatening than a mustache-twirler who eats babies to show that he's a bad guy. Cryptic IMHO leans far too much on the silly button in this game.
And once again, our characters are completely and utterly cutscene-incompetent. At least give us the option to take a potshot at the Iconian's head, or give her the finger, or something.
Iconian: *you are all doomed spiel* Eleya: *interrupts* Are you finished? Because I've heard it all before. Bring it on, or shut the phekk up!
Agree completely with the OP: The Iconians made a serious strategic error by showing themselves. They gave us hard proof that they're around, and we've trashed their lackeys at every turn with minimal apparent casualties. All she's managed to do is TRIBBLE off everyone in the region and unite them.
Yeah, about the only thing they can hope for now is a 'crabs in a bucket' mentality to take hold. It could happen since we've found some of their tech and we find it delicious so we want more. Fights over jurisdiction could arise, though after the Dyson ship thing, it's not likely.
If Cryptic didn't want people over-analyzing their story, they should've picked a different franchise to make a game from.
Moreover, I am pretty sure the entire point of that scene WAS to get people over-analyzing. They wanted the Episode to end on a high-point and get people talking. And it worked. I say: well done, Cryptic-People.
I don't disagree as such; it just seemed that the Iconian's appearance was more a result of them being more than a little pee'ed off at us all.
I actually saw the Iconian appearance and "threat" as the worst one you could possibly make .
"You have made us take notice of you !!! Don't make us notice you again !!! "
How on Earth does that threat make sense in this game's story ???
To me that sounds like :
" You have foiled our plans at every turn !!! Don't foil our plans at every turn !!!
Except that " Don't make us notice you again !!! " makes no sense since it's clear that they have noticed us prior to any engagement with them or their allies and that they have been actively trying to destabilise the Alpha Quadrant for some time now .
In the original Undine series, didn't a an Iconian appear and HELP you. And they save Sela. So until the denouement on Quonos, there were several indications that the Iconians were not necessarily bad.
Just strange that a race who evidently is living in another galaxy or dimension really cares that much about what goes in only one section of a galaxy they left in the first place.
It defeated the Borg, and it did warn you: "We're back". So they had already announced themselves, just this time, a bit more openly hostile. THe whole scenario in the old mission looked like a show of force (which felt a bit pathetic since killing borg cubes is easy in STO. This one felt a bit more impressive, since you saw no visible weapon and they vaporized 6 Klingons at once).
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Remember, powerful =/= intelligent. There are a lot of things in Trek in general, and STO in particular, where the outcome has depended on someone carrying the Idiot Ball for a while (the Klingon infiltrator exposed by a cursory medical exam in "The Trouble With Tribbles", for instance, or the reason this last war between the Federation and Empire back in 2399). This just has the Iconians juggling the ball this time.
So they are being faithful to established star trek canon.
Q
gangster world
cowboy world
TRIBBLE world
giant hands in space
halloween world
the search for spocks brain
time travel episodes that never happened
voyager episodes too numerous to mention
:P
None of which involved an apocalyptic threat to the galaxy, unlike the Borg and Dominion War arcs. Even the ST show writers generally knew when to turn off the silly and get serious. My objection isn't that the silly is there. My objection is that the silly is there even when it's not thematically appropriate for it to be.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,099Community Moderator
edited April 2014
To me, the whole "We saw you" thing came across as the Iconians had been watching us with mild amusement, but when we started throwing a wrench in the plan, they started to pay more attention. The last straw was when the Undine attacked Earth and Quo'nos and the WORST POSSIBLE outcome for the Iconian's "Divide and Conquer" plan came true. The Undine united us against a common enemy. Sure the Borg did too, but there was still mistrust between the Federation and the Empire. What the Undine did was shatter that mistrust, and the Iconians are having flashbacks to their defeat at the hands of their former slave races.
Its kinda like in Babylon 5, where the Vorlons and Shadows were fighting each other indirectly, destroying planets that sided with the opposition. Then all of a sudden... Oh look! The younger races are working together against us and FORCED a confrontation! The Vorlons and Shadows didn't exactly like Sheridan raining on their parade.
The Iconians fear history repeating itself, and by proving that we can set asside our differences in the face of overwhelming odds... we reinforced that fear. They may be an older race, but we just proved that we can fight, and win. They're worried.
To me, the whole "We saw you" thing came across as the Iconians had been watching us with mild amusement, but when we started throwing a wrench in the plan, they started to pay more attention. The last straw was when the Undine attacked Earth and Quo'nos and the WORST POSSIBLE outcome for the Iconian's "Divide and Conquer" plan came true. The Undine united us against a common enemy. Sure the Borg did too, but there was still mistrust between the Federation and the Empire. What the Undine did was shatter that mistrust, and the Iconians are having flashbacks to their defeat at the hands of their former slave races.
Its kinda like in Babylon 5, where the Vorlons and Shadows were fighting each other indirectly, destroying planets that sided with the opposition. Then all of a sudden... Oh look! The younger races are working together against us and FORCED a confrontation! The Vorlons and Shadows didn't exactly like Sheridan raining on their parade.
The Iconians fear history repeating itself, and by proving that we can set asside our differences in the face of overwhelming odds... we reinforced that fear. They may be an older race, but we just proved that we can fight, and win. They're worried.
They made a stupid error really that they should of seen coming had they researched the Federation and Klingons a bit more by attacking Qo'nos when they did, (while the Feds and KDF are talking for once) the Federation did their usual thing and went to help regardless of the war. The Klingons see this as a hugely honourable thing to do and so the war ends as a result of it.
Just like what happened at Khitomer the first time with the Ent-C
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,099Community Moderator
edited April 2014
I think the real mistake the Iconians made was pissing off the Undine, a species that was NOT under their control. Unlike the Elachi, the Undine were a wildcard, and it backfired spectacularly.
I think the real mistake the Iconians made was pissing off the Undine, a species that was NOT under their control. Unlike the Elachi, the Undine were a wildcard, and it backfired spectacularly.
Not really sure about this. Undine respect strength, order, and obedience to their rule. They may see the Iconians as an equal or superior race given their abilities. Either way, the Undine won't attack until they can be sure of their victory. If their overconfidence can be curbed.
Star Trek Battles: For those who want to Play Star Trek Online as it WAS MEANT TO BE!!!
Not really sure about this. Undine respect strength, order, and obedience to their rule. They may see the Iconians as an equal or superior race given their abilities. Either way, the Undine won't attack until they can be sure of their victory. If their overconfidence can be curbed.
Well the TRIBBLE kicking they got at Earth and Qo'nos should curb their confidence for awhile.
To me, the whole "We saw you" thing came across as the Iconians had been watching us with mild amusement, but when we started throwing a wrench in the plan, they started to pay more attention. The last straw was when the Undine attacked Earth and Quo'nos and the WORST POSSIBLE outcome for the Iconian's "Divide and Conquer" plan came true. The Undine united us against a common enemy. Sure the Borg did too, but there was still mistrust between the Federation and the Empire. What the Undine did was shatter that mistrust, and the Iconians are having flashbacks to their defeat at the hands of their former slave races.
Its kinda like in Babylon 5, where the Vorlons and Shadows were fighting each other indirectly, destroying planets that sided with the opposition. Then all of a sudden... Oh look! The younger races are working together against us and FORCED a confrontation! The Vorlons and Shadows didn't exactly like Sheridan raining on their parade.
The Iconians fear history repeating itself, and by proving that we can set asside our differences in the face of overwhelming odds... we reinforced that fear. They may be an older race, but we just proved that we can fight, and win. They're worried.
That's the problem with any plan that relies on your ability to manipulate the enemy: Sapient beings have free will, and unless you have enough critical thinking skills to either plan for every possible permutation or modify your plans as needed, heroism, greed, or even stupidity will send the plan off the rails.
Huh. By the thread title, I thought this thread was gonna be another thread whining about a certain Federation Cruiser again.
Lol. My first thought, too.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Agree completely with the OP: The Iconians made a serious strategic error by showing themselves. They gave us hard proof that they're around, and we've trashed their lackeys at every turn with minimal apparent casualties. All she's managed to do is TRIBBLE off everyone in the region and unite them. And so what if she can incinerate six Klingons with her mind? Nothing I haven't seen done with mundane technology. Once you can duplicate an effect it loses its value as a scare tactic.
Reality: I would disagreee that the they made a "serious strategic error by showing themselves."..You are Assuming they've given something away or lost something tactically. Beware of Deception and Misdirection. Were the Iconians feigning incompetence? Really?
Yes, Sun Tzu would agree with me...when you are Far away, you want to appear near...when weak appear Strong. If your subordinate flubs the task you've assigned, what is the correct response? You cant really know unless you know your enemy, can you? Maybe the Iconians wanted them all to unite? A single common enemy you are prepared to confront in a single campaigh might be easier to deal with than several unpredictable enemies sequentially...You risk having your tactics discovered by the next adversary, the weather may change....Tomorrow. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete."
Fiction: They were successful, It moved the story along....
I'm not sure that it's so easy to say that the Iconian strategy wasn't working up until this point.
The manipulation of the Undine and the Fed-Klink war, the Romulan Civil War, the Voth and Tholian conflicts, etc, have done irreparable damage in terms of lost ships and loss of life.
I mean, yes. [The Vice Admiral] is apparently immortal and infallible, but [he/she/it] is just one [creature] being played by thousands of different people. The percentage of personnel and holdings lost in the conflicts of 2409 hasn't been published. My gut is telling me that those losses were probably significant.
One thing is certain: Iconian losses over the course of 2409 were approximately 0%.
The Iconians announcing that their previous tactic has run its course may not be a tactical blunder,either. They could be manipulating the heads of the Alphabeta factions into meeting in a summit. Heads meet, heads get cut off, Iconians reap the chaos, and set up their next scheme to keep the weakened factions from going on the offensive.
Although the posturing at the end of the FE being the precursor to a full-scale invasion force would be more consistent from a gameplay standpoint.
Comments
Eh, I'm just sitting back and treating it like TOS.
When I write a story based on "Surface Tension", I'm having Three and D'trel double-team to kill that thing.
Iconian (who I'll have be SHLIFFG, my recurring Iconian baddie): *you are doomed pathetic servitors mwahahahahaa spiel*
Three: "Hey, Supreme Idiot Lord You-f*ck-the-unclean! Eat unit!" *jumps at SHLIFFG with blades out*
*SHLIFFG freezes Three in midair with telekinesis, laughs maniacally, rants and raves about his inevitable superiority, melts Three's organs again and forces them out through her pores just to show how EVUL he is*
*D'trel calls in an orbital strike, which busts most of the Great Hall but knocks SHLIFFG on his rear*
*Three hauls herself painfully up to the temporarily stunned SHLIFFG, and holds him somehow*
*D'trel steps on SHLIFFG's chest, informs him of her unflinching hatred of everything even vaguely associated with Colonel Hakeev of the Tal Shiar and her utter dedication to annihilating the Iconian empire and exterminating the Iconian species, and calmly and mercilessly shoots him in the head*
*Three gets beamed out for emergency medical treatment. D'trel needs therapy. Jm'pok and Quinn shake and say words to the effect of "on second thought, f*ck this war, let's go kick some Iconian rear together"*
That'd be a fun story, TBH.
Just strange that a race who evidently is living in another galaxy or dimension really cares that much about what goes in only one section of a galaxy they left in the first place.
Especially since the story is now moving forward and I can put a face to the enemy (as opposed to the holographic silhouettes in previous cutscenes like the Romulan Rep). While we couldn't shoot/kill it outright then, I'm sure we'll get the chance soon enough.
(UFP) Ragnar
I think that between Cutting The Cord, Fluid Dynamics and Sphere Of Influence, we already had hard proof that they were still around.
Which is fine, I mean you have to do something to pass the time. But remember, there's not going to be a big payoff for that cliffhanger any time soon. The next episode/adventure is not around the corner. And that may be a bold new direction and the person we met at the end here may not show up for gosh, years.
So yeah, have fun with the analysis. I'm not being snarky. I get it. It is fun to do. It's just I don't know for me, I just let myself get caught up in the epic ride that the episode was. Getting to see that person after ALL THESE YEARS of wondering what the heck they were going to look like? I'm ok not shooting holes through the plot. I get that others' mileage varies.
Carry on.
If Cryptic didn't want people over-analyzing their story, they should've picked a different franchise to make a game from.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
well to be honest, until that "previously on Star Trek Online" intro, the story has made no freaking sense to me at all. I've often wondered where so many people got the "plot" from because I played the same missions (over and over) and never got even half the story
Point, that.
And here we thought they'd researched the species of the alpha quadrant, too.
Telling humans and klingons not to do something just makes them want to do it more.
In which case they're still doing a bad job of keeping themselves in a position to achieve their goals. Subjugation is easier when there's no unity among those you're attempting to subjugate; a massive surprise attack at the outset of the FED-KDF war would have been the intelligent thing to do, but they waited and decided to mess around with lackeys incapable of succeeding. They're idiots.
Admittedly it took a lot of rereading and analyzing to make sense of some parts. Especially the Iconian hints. They were really kind of haphazardly dropped into a Romulan mission, a Borg mission, then the Romulan FE, and other odds and ends.
Some folks really dove right into that. I was kind of middle of the road. I would go and seek out the little tidbits, because eh, it's been 4 years of playing the game. Eventually you just get curious. But I gave up trying to "predict" what they'd do next since they always came out of left field to me.
Which isn't a criticism. Just that I was no good at getting a step ahead of Kestrel.
Others were way better at it than me.
But over the past two years they kind of worked backwards and smoothed out the story instead of brining it forward. This is epsecially evident in Legacy of Romulus where you see that they back-fit the story with Hakeev. Which is cool. I felt it was stronger than a retcon because it kept the story we old players already experienced, but filled in details from a different perspective.
But yeah trying to keep that all straight? I get what you're saying. It was a little insane in some parts.
The intro part is a nice touch.
Or they did do their research. Making the factions even more eager, or wary depending on your POV, could make them a bit wreckless. Then again, Federation and the KDF have proven extremely resourceful and adaptable to multiple challenges. After all, just look at what Sisko and O'Brien did to a beat up Cardassian Space station in preparation for the Dominion.
Our Battles
It's history repeating itself. They're not afraid of 'us' so much as they've seen this story before and they know they won't like the ending. The problem is, even with their technological edge, just like before, they CAN'T wipe us out (and they know it, based on the 'Sphere of Influence' consoles) and subjugating us isn't going too well either.
This is such tripe. So because it's a game, the writing shouldn't make sense? Everything should be Looney Tunes level because it's a game? Tell you what. You "enjoy" the flimsy premises and subpar villains but some people want better than that.
There's an old adage from pro wrestling that basically amounts to this: if you portray your opponent as a tomato can, if you beat him, you've done nothing (and gain nothing) but if you lose to him, you lose TONS. By contrast, if you portray your opponent as a dangerous and worthy foe, if you lose to him, you don't lose much but if you beat him, you've beaten a dangerous and worthy foe. Heroes aren't made from small, insignificant victories. They're made from overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds. So the mustache twirling idiot villain who loves to monologue, allowing the battered hero to recover, is a punchline, not something that makes people think "Whew, I don't know how, but WE DID IT!". It's one thing for a far superior opponent to be beaten by a momentary burst of creativity (the Picard Maneuver, for example) or a flash of brilliance (Ali-Liston and 'the punch he didn't see'). It's something totally different to be a bumbling idiot, making critical errors, leaving a breadcrumb trail for the hero to follow to an easy victory. They could've done better making the Iconians into an opponent worthy of galactic unification to defeat. Hell, steal Bioware's script from Mass Effect (except the ending!).
Yeah, about the only thing they can hope for now is a 'crabs in a bucket' mentality to take hold. It could happen since we've found some of their tech and we find it delicious so we want more. Fights over jurisdiction could arise, though after the Dyson ship thing, it's not likely.
Moreover, I am pretty sure the entire point of that scene WAS to get people over-analyzing. They wanted the Episode to end on a high-point and get people talking. And it worked. I say: well done, Cryptic-People.
I actually saw the Iconian appearance and "threat" as the worst one you could possibly make .
"You have made us take notice of you !!! Don't make us notice you again !!! "
How on Earth does that threat make sense in this game's story ???
To me that sounds like :
" You have foiled our plans at every turn !!! Don't foil our plans at every turn !!!
Except that " Don't make us notice you again !!! " makes no sense since it's clear that they have noticed us prior to any engagement with them or their allies and that they have been actively trying to destabilise the Alpha Quadrant for some time now .
In short their threat makes no sense .
It defeated the Borg, and it did warn you: "We're back". So they had already announced themselves, just this time, a bit more openly hostile. THe whole scenario in the old mission looked like a show of force (which felt a bit pathetic since killing borg cubes is easy in STO. This one felt a bit more impressive, since you saw no visible weapon and they vaporized 6 Klingons at once).
None of which involved an apocalyptic threat to the galaxy, unlike the Borg and Dominion War arcs. Even the ST show writers generally knew when to turn off the silly and get serious. My objection isn't that the silly is there. My objection is that the silly is there even when it's not thematically appropriate for it to be.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Its kinda like in Babylon 5, where the Vorlons and Shadows were fighting each other indirectly, destroying planets that sided with the opposition. Then all of a sudden... Oh look! The younger races are working together against us and FORCED a confrontation! The Vorlons and Shadows didn't exactly like Sheridan raining on their parade.
The Iconians fear history repeating itself, and by proving that we can set asside our differences in the face of overwhelming odds... we reinforced that fear. They may be an older race, but we just proved that we can fight, and win. They're worried.
They made a stupid error really that they should of seen coming had they researched the Federation and Klingons a bit more by attacking Qo'nos when they did, (while the Feds and KDF are talking for once) the Federation did their usual thing and went to help regardless of the war. The Klingons see this as a hugely honourable thing to do and so the war ends as a result of it.
Just like what happened at Khitomer the first time with the Ent-C
We KNOW the Iconians also live in Andromeda.... Thus it seems plausible that they're responsible.
My character Tsin'xing
Not really sure about this. Undine respect strength, order, and obedience to their rule. They may see the Iconians as an equal or superior race given their abilities. Either way, the Undine won't attack until they can be sure of their victory. If their overconfidence can be curbed.
Our Battles
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Well the TRIBBLE kicking they got at Earth and Qo'nos should curb their confidence for awhile.
Lol. My first thought, too.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
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Reality: I would disagreee that the they made a "serious strategic error by showing themselves."..You are Assuming they've given something away or lost something tactically. Beware of Deception and Misdirection. Were the Iconians feigning incompetence? Really?
Yes, Sun Tzu would agree with me...when you are Far away, you want to appear near...when weak appear Strong. If your subordinate flubs the task you've assigned, what is the correct response? You cant really know unless you know your enemy, can you? Maybe the Iconians wanted them all to unite? A single common enemy you are prepared to confront in a single campaigh might be easier to deal with than several unpredictable enemies sequentially...You risk having your tactics discovered by the next adversary, the weather may change....Tomorrow. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete."
Fiction: They were successful, It moved the story along....
The manipulation of the Undine and the Fed-Klink war, the Romulan Civil War, the Voth and Tholian conflicts, etc, have done irreparable damage in terms of lost ships and loss of life.
I mean, yes. [The Vice Admiral] is apparently immortal and infallible, but [he/she/it] is just one [creature] being played by thousands of different people. The percentage of personnel and holdings lost in the conflicts of 2409 hasn't been published. My gut is telling me that those losses were probably significant.
One thing is certain: Iconian losses over the course of 2409 were approximately 0%.
The Iconians announcing that their previous tactic has run its course may not be a tactical blunder,either. They could be manipulating the heads of the Alphabeta factions into meeting in a summit. Heads meet, heads get cut off, Iconians reap the chaos, and set up their next scheme to keep the weakened factions from going on the offensive.
Although the posturing at the end of the FE being the precursor to a full-scale invasion force would be more consistent from a gameplay standpoint.