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FE Surface Tension: Holy S$@! (Spoilers)

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  • forthegamerforthegamer Member Posts: 177 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    bluegeek wrote: »
    Second, I think this episode ran too long. Too much time running around as Tuvok's errand boy preparing for the conference, lots of cutscenes, hordes of Undine to fight at ESD, threading through the maze of wreckage to get to Quinn, a boss fight where I died over and over again, another cutscene with Tuvok and Cooper playing mind games, then fighting hordes of Undine all over again at Qo'NoS...
    I preferred looking at it like "oh, I can tell everyone to shut up to listen to Tuvok. Nice". So it depends on the person I think. Didn't feel so much an errand boy as the guy in charge.

    While the first time is long, you can skip every cutscene if you so wish. Cuts my time in playing the episode in about half. So yeah, half of it is cutscene. Half of it is actual gameplay.
    I didn't time it, but it felt overly long. I'm thinking they probably could have turned this into two separate FE's with the Cooper cutscene as the break between the two. I wouldn't have minded doing all of that if it had been broken up with a dramatic cliffhanger. I'm sure they felt they had to blow up ESD so they could explain the new ESD, and that's part of why it's so long.
    I agree here on that they could've probably broken things up.

    I think though it would've been better to split it up into 3 different parts. Part 1 being the Conference and rescuing ESD. Part 2 being about heading to Qo'nos and the Treaty. Part 3 would be the introduction to new ESD and where things stand.

    As for the boss fight itself, it isn't so bad if you make sure to stick near Tuvok. He'll use Overwatch and the buff from it makes the fight a lot easier. It would also be a little easier if you can always see the ground fire from the Undine Boss. Because boy it kills you easily if you aren't able to see it.
  • kestrelliuskestrellius Member Posts: 462 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Yeah the Egg fight was pretty hard. Main trouble was that he heals back to full health if you die, so you can't just whittle him down. I beat him by hitting ALL the buffs, and charging up my sword with that Tholian set 3-piece bonus. And then just going to town on him.
  • oracle54oracle54 Member Posts: 199 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    So. The entire Klingon High Council has been murdered, apart from the Chancellor himself. Can we talk about that for a minute? Surely there will have to be some ramifications inside the Empire, with the leaders of it's most powerful houses all dead?

    Are we looking at another Klingon Civil War?
    I don't think so, the nature of the murder will probably go a long way towards uniting the houses in their desire for vengeance. That being said, there must be some house that's looking at the situation as an opportunity, right?
  • alchevsk1992alchevsk1992 Member Posts: 280 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    lol the Ferengi's pronunciation of the the word "Sphere" is hilarious. Although after the patch he cannot be seen anymore.

    He really thinks that they would let him turn the Sphere into a resort because he is willing to pay Gold Pressed Latinum.

    The sphere is a strategic base of ops against the Undine, not some pleasure vacation spot. :D:D If i was there, i would just drop kick that Ferengi moron out of the sphere. :D:D
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    "Our history, our past, our present and our future is now forever changed. All we can do is preserve what is left and continue onwards. This is not a surrender nor defeat, we will continue the fight. This is our last hope, our last chance... for victory."

    Vlasek D. Lasor - 4.19.3580

    Star Trek Online: Foundry Storyline Series
  • captz1ppcaptz1pp Member Posts: 931 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    How long should it take to put back the missing ferengi?
  • bbushwookiebbushwookie Member Posts: 52 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Yeah the Egg fight was pretty hard. Main trouble was that he heals back to full health if you die, so you can't just whittle him down. I beat him by hitting ALL the buffs, and charging up my sword with that Tholian set 3-piece bonus. And then just going to town on him.

    Yeah same here. Went after all the Undine and the boss with my Tholian sword and made short work of them.
    This was an awesome FE. Loved the space battles and how they tied in the ESD revamp.

    - Awesome cut scenes with my ship next to the Enterprise and Voyager.
    - The Ferengi was hilarious.
    - I kept waiting for the Gorn to rip a piece of the floor up and throw it.
    - Somebody needs to get Koren a Snickers bar. :rolleyes:
    Space chatter is soothing~
  • sampa4sampa4 Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I Thoroughly enjoyed this mission. Glad they did not kill off Shon! That will make things a whole lot easier for my upcoming foundry series (more details will be brought out as time draws near to first official publish on the foundry tabs). Finally I understand the need for the new ESD (aside from the literal reasons, not just in-game reasons). And about the Iconian vaporizing almost all of the High Council? My gut and instincts (which have NEVER driven me wrong, mind you) tell me that he/she/it was going to do that anyway in a failed attempt of preventing the KDF and Starfleet from uniting against the imminent Iconian return.
  • gurluasgurluas Member Posts: 464 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I wouldn't mind part of the sphere (The thing has the surface diameter of thousands of planets, surely a tiny piece can be given to the Ferengi?) as a vacation spot.

    But yeah, it was an epic FE, and it was GOOD to use my own ship again.
  • shockwave85shockwave85 Member Posts: 1,040 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Hm, I didn't have much trouble with Egg. I've run it on my Fed Tac, KDF Tac, and Fed Sci. The two Tacs are pretty well equipped, the Sci is decent. My Sci is built to tank Armek so he couldn't scratch her, but even on the Tacs I didn't feel like I was taking a lot of damage from him. One thing I can say is you probably want to get out from behind those crates and put some distance on him. I didn't stay huddled back there, since he jumps right over those crates and can easily corner you back there. Spam your Kit powers and whatever else you've got. This is a good time to summon Shard clones if you have that. My Fed Tac has a converted Romulan Fire Team kit (haven't changed any modules yet), KDF has a purple XII Fire Team and the Sci has a purple XII Physicist.
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  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    So what are the odds that Shon got switched?

    Can't they develop some test to check for these shapeshifters like they did for the Founders?
  • jplatimerjplatimer Member Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Only TINY quibble -- it should have been your ship beaming Captain Shon out at the nick of time at end rather than Voyager. I mean your ship is right there anyway.

    Oh, and the flying on rails was a little annoying.

    Other than that, solid episode.
  • royalsovereignroyalsovereign Member Posts: 1,344 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    We do have transwarp drives... slipstream drives... it really doesn't take us long to get places anymore.. I find it amuseing you bring up getting from Earth to Qo'noS but ignore going from the frickin Dyson Sphere in the DELTA quad to EARTH just as fast at the start of that battle as well.
    I rationalized the Dyson-Earth transit by thinking maybe the gateway can be reconfigured to different points. After all, the Undine just used the gate and we were "following" them.

    But yeah the whole Earth-Qo'nos jump took my tenuous hold on suspension of disbelief and shattered it like a cheap mirror.
    Somebody needs to get Koren a Snickers bar. :rolleyes:
    I lol'd. People here at work are looking at me funny. ;)
    jplatimer wrote: »
    Only TINY quibble -- it should have been your ship beaming Captain Shon out at the nick of time at end rather than Voyager. I mean your ship is right there anyway. Oh, and the flying on rails was a little annoying.
    QFT. Why in the world do you let an NPC save another NPC when the player is *right there*? That woulda been so easy to get right.

    Of course then half the players would be all "I hate Shon, I woulda let him die, but you *made* me save him, I hate Cryptic!!!!!!1111!!!" and the other half would be complaining that they wanted to send Tovan Khev on the suicide run, so...

    The rails bit confused the TRIBBLE outta me. Took me about half the time to figure out that my controls weren't working on purpose. It was kinda cool that I had perma-CSV tho.
    "You Iconians just hung a vacancy sign on your asses and my foot's looking for a room!"
    --Red Annorax
  • reginamala78reginamala78 Member Posts: 4,593 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    tigeraries wrote: »
    So what are the odds that Shon got switched?

    Can't they develop some test to check for these shapeshifters like they did for the Founders?

    Undine were kinda busy trying to blow up Qo'nos at the time. In the middle of that swirling melee of a fight, to be able to scan for Shon's transport out, intercept it, swap in a infiltrator prepared for the task and ready to go despite that nobody really expected the Enterprise to be there, all in a split second on a spur of the moment, and without Voyager's sensors or transporter logs picking anything up? They'd have to be more crazy-prepared than Batman to pull that off in that tiny a window of opportunity. Cryptic could always write it in that way, but from a logic point of view it'd be ridiculous.
  • jeffel82jeffel82 Member Posts: 2,075 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    But yeah the whole Earth-Qo'nos jump took my tenuous hold on suspension of disbelief and shattered it like a cheap mirror.

    I really, really hate to point this out, but Qo'noS is only 5 days away from Earth, and that's if you restrict your speed to less than Warp 5.

    It's canon! :rolleyes:
    You're right. The work here is very important.
    tacofangs wrote: »
    ...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
  • sirokksirokk Member Posts: 990 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Awesome FE!

    My LOL moment... Admiral Quinn: "Damn. I didn't see that coming."

    Being that E'genn was really a BIG Undine boss, I would expect Quinn to say this next:
    "I wondered why the deck always creaked when Egg walked by."
    Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home'
    SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
  • sirokksirokk Member Posts: 990 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    jeffel82 wrote: »
    I really, really hate to point this out, but Qo'noS is only 5 days away from Earth, and that's if you restrict your speed to less than Warp 5.

    It's canon! :rolleyes:

    You'd think our neighbors would visit more often then wouldn't you? Hmmm...
    Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home'
    SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
  • shockwave85shockwave85 Member Posts: 1,040 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Just looking at some of the sources I have available...

    The recently released Stellar Cartography map collection puts Qo'noS at roughly 115 light years from Earth (it's about 11.5" distant on the map, with a scale of about .1"=1 light year). That's 41,975 light days.

    The TNG Technical Manual gives the following speeds for warp factors:
    Warp 5 = 214c
    Warp 7 = 656c
    Warp 9 = 1516c

    If you do the math you get:
    At Warp 5: 41,975 / 214 = 196.14 days
    At Warp 7: 41,976 / 656 = 63.99 days
    At Warp 9: 41,975 / 1516 = 27.69 days

    Remember, that Warp 5 is from the new scale adopted between TOS and TNG, not the one Enterprise would have used, which would have been slower. The standard cruising speed of a Galaxy-class starship is stated at Warp 5, with the max sustainable cruising speed of Warp 7. That means the U.S.S. Enterprise-D could not have made it from Earth to Qo'noS in anything less than two months without destroying its engines. Warp Factor Plot indeed, that ain't no stroll around the block.

    I can forgive STO somewhat since ships in this time have access to subtranswarp engines, quantum slipstream, and all kinds of other crazy stuff. Makes one wonder why we can't just casually fly ourselves to the Delta Quadrant. Who needs the Iconians? >_>
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  • jeffel82jeffel82 Member Posts: 2,075 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    That means the U.S.S. Enterprise-D could not have made it from Earth to Qo'noS in anything less than two months without destroying its engines. Warp Factor Plot indeed, that ain't no stroll around the block.

    I guess a lot of knowledge about warp technology was lost between the ENT era and TNG era. :rolleyes:
    You're right. The work here is very important.
    tacofangs wrote: »
    ...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
  • maltinpolarmaltinpolar Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    bluegeek wrote: »
    Oh, and that boss fight at ESD... Yeah, I get that the Undine are the new big bad. What do I get to fight the boss with? Tuvok and a bunch of redshirts. Can't bring my BOFFs or a team, I have to practically solo a boss who can wax me in a few seconds of contact and fight his minions too. I respawned five or six times during that one fight. That is not fun.

    This right here is my one and only gripe about the FE, which in every other respect I found absolutely amazing. Pure epicness indeed.

    However, the soloing aspect of this and previous FEs begs the question: what is the freaking point of having a well trained and geared away team, if you can't bring it with you in such important -and potentially deadly- missions like this one?

    They wanna make it a challenge? Fine, let me have just two boffs instead of four, or at least one like in "Facility 4028". Either way, choosing which boffs to take with you is a strategic/tactical decision that adds flavor and immersion to the mission, plus one doesn't get to die so easily.

    Other than that, best FE ever.

    Cheers.
  • royalsovereignroyalsovereign Member Posts: 1,344 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    jeffel82 wrote: »
    I really, really hate to point this out, but Qo'noS is only 5 days away from Earth, and that's if you restrict your speed to less than Warp 5.

    It's canon! :rolleyes:
    Perhaps so, but the FE makes it seem like it was 5 minutes away.

    "The Undine are attacking Qo'nos! Quick Robin, to the Batmobile!" *fires up flame-spitting turbine on the TRIBBLE of the Enterprise*
    "You Iconians just hung a vacancy sign on your asses and my foot's looking for a room!"
    --Red Annorax
  • mvp333mvp333 Member Posts: 509 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    tigeraries wrote: »
    So what are the odds that Shon got switched?

    Can't they develop some test to check for these shapeshifters like they did for the Founders?

    They beamed Shon from the Aquarius to Voyager. That qualified well enough as the test, seeing as transporters aare capable of revealing Undine (or something).
  • mli777mli777 Member Posts: 90 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Considering the adoption of Transwarp for quick movement to particular systems like Earth Qo'nos and DS9, perhaps the crisis led to the Federation getting one time access to the transwarp coordinates of Qo'nos. (note, you can't exactly transwarp to Earth from the Jenolan Sphere hence the trip via the Iconian gateway) The Enterprise was busy warping around to rescue a few systems under Undine attack hence its late arrival.
    USS Canada
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  • mli777mli777 Member Posts: 90 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Just looking at some of the sources I have available...

    The recently released Stellar Cartography map collection puts Qo'noS at roughly 115 light years from Earth (it's about 11.5" distant on the map, with a scale of about .1"=1 light year). That's 41,975 light days.

    The TNG Technical Manual gives the following speeds for warp factors:
    Warp 5 = 214c
    Warp 7 = 656c
    Warp 9 = 1516c

    If you do the math you get:
    At Warp 5: 41,975 / 214 = 196.14 days
    At Warp 7: 41,976 / 656 = 63.99 days
    At Warp 9: 41,975 / 1516 = 27.69 days

    Remember, that Warp 5 is from the new scale adopted between TOS and TNG, not the one Enterprise would have used, which would have been slower. The standard cruising speed of a Galaxy-class starship is stated at Warp 5, with the max sustainable cruising speed of Warp 7. That means the U.S.S. Enterprise-D could not have made it from Earth to Qo'noS in anything less than two months without destroying its engines. Warp Factor Plot indeed, that ain't no stroll around the block.

    I can forgive STO somewhat since ships in this time have access to subtranswarp engines, quantum slipstream, and all kinds of other crazy stuff. Makes one wonder why we can't just casually fly ourselves to the Delta Quadrant. Who needs the Iconians? >_>

    One problem with just going straight into the Delta Quadrant is that despite Voyager's journey, there are still quite a few sectors that they didn't explore before endgame. My head canon is that Transwarp needs many advanced calculations to avoid collisions (a lot like hyperdrive in Star Wars), and due to being newly adopted only major systems are used as destination coordinates. The Transwarp to the Solonae sphere is really a Transwarp to the Jouret Gate where your ship immediately moves through the gate to the Sphere
    USS Canada
    N.C.C. 171867
    Sovereign Class
    Saint John Fleet Yard
    "A Mari Usque Ad Mare"
  • captz1ppcaptz1pp Member Posts: 931 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I think the end part should be re-done so your bridge team is there. I also wonder if the scene where the Iconian shows up should look like its being televised?
  • leviathan99#2867 leviathan99 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    Just looking at some of the sources I have available...

    The recently released Stellar Cartography map collection puts Qo'noS at roughly 115 light years from Earth (it's about 11.5" distant on the map, with a scale of about .1"=1 light year). That's 41,975 light days.

    The TNG Technical Manual gives the following speeds for warp factors:
    Warp 5 = 214c
    Warp 7 = 656c
    Warp 9 = 1516c

    If you do the math you get:
    At Warp 5: 41,975 / 214 = 196.14 days
    At Warp 7: 41,976 / 656 = 63.99 days
    At Warp 9: 41,975 / 1516 = 27.69 days

    Remember, that Warp 5 is from the new scale adopted between TOS and TNG, not the one Enterprise would have used, which would have been slower. The standard cruising speed of a Galaxy-class starship is stated at Warp 5, with the max sustainable cruising speed of Warp 7. That means the U.S.S. Enterprise-D could not have made it from Earth to Qo'noS in anything less than two months without destroying its engines. Warp Factor Plot indeed, that ain't no stroll around the block.

    I can forgive STO somewhat since ships in this time have access to subtranswarp engines, quantum slipstream, and all kinds of other crazy stuff. Makes one wonder why we can't just casually fly ourselves to the Delta Quadrant. Who needs the Iconians? >_>


    What about how in The Undiscovered Country, they go from Earth to Qo'noS to Rura Penthe to Khitomer in what is almost certainly under a week?

    I'd avoid trying to use the technical manuals to determine what can happen in a story.

    I also think it was abad move whenevr Trek writers based plot on their own tech standards, including Voyager being 40 years from home. STV had Kirk and co. travel from Earth to the center of the galaxy in one movie. It's not the first or only time those kinds of distances were covered. DS9 didn't spend weeks in transit to Qo'noS when they went there either. I think Voyager really erred by making the speed of a ship a central plot point. By necessity, it should be inconsistent so hinging a plot on the consistency of warp speed travel was entirely too self-referential.

    If they'd wanted to have Voyager be lost? They actually could have had them not know where they are. Damaged systems/records. Unfamiliar stars. I think that would have been much better than trying to claim that a quadrant took 40 years to cross or trying to hinge on the idea of benchmark speeds. Would have fixed a lot of what was wrong with the tone of the show and really created better dramatic conditions for the actors.

    "I don't know where we are" is full of dramatic potential.

    "We're at these coordinates and 40 years from home at warp 9.7" was a technobabble approach and part of what made Voyager flawed. Still a fun cast and a show I like to watch now and then but it needed fewer technical benchmarks to hang its stories on (which invariable hamstring or contradict other shows) and more dramatic benchmarks (ie. maybe the journey could have been about assembling a working map and figuring out when and where they were).
  • centersolacecentersolace Member Posts: 11,178 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I kind of wish there was some kind of "preparation" thing where you went about preparing your ship for the upcoming battle. That would have given it the illusion of time passage.
  • reginamala78reginamala78 Member Posts: 4,593 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I kind of wish there was some kind of "preparation" thing where you went about preparing your ship for the upcoming battle. That would have given it the illusion of time passage.

    Spend some time calibrating your the main guns, then invite your romance-option to the Captain's quarters?
  • shockwave85shockwave85 Member Posts: 1,040 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    What about how in The Undiscovered Country, they go from Earth to Qo'noS to Rura Penthe to Khitomer in what is almost certainly under a week?

    I'd avoid trying to use the technical manuals to determine what can happen in a story.

    I also think it was abad move whenevr Trek writers based plot on their own tech standards, including Voyager being 40 years from home. STV had Kirk and co. travel from Earth to the center of the galaxy in one movie. It's not the first or only time those kinds of distances were covered. DS9 didn't spend weeks in transit to Qo'noS when they went there either. I think Voyager really erred by making the speed of a ship a central plot point. By necessity, it should be inconsistent so hinging a plot on the consistency of warp speed travel was entirely too self-referential.

    The problem is, if we accept the speeds as stated on screen, the whole concept of the show falls apart. If Enterprise NX-01 could reach Qo'noS in 5 days, let's say the Enterprise-D can do it in 3 (and that's probably being generous). That means Geordi got that ship up to a sustained cruising speed of 13,991c to cover 115 ly in three days. At that speed, you could traverse the diameter of the galaxy (about 100,000 ly) in about 7.15 years. That makes Voyager's trip home in a mere 7 years fairly unremarkable, especially considering Voyager was supposed to be a lot faster than Enterprise. ST:ID has the AU Enterprise making it there and back inside a day. Those must be some ample nacelles!

    Qo'noS is traditionally placed near Omega Leonis, roughly 112 LY from Earth, so the ~115 LY measure I was using from Nemecek's map seems reasonable. While various dialogue sometimes confuses its location, such as it often being referred to as an Alpha Quadrant location when in fact it's in Beta, this is the most likely place for it. On screen maps have held up this approximate location.

    So, we're kind of screwed. Either the ships are too slow for the plots of the stories to work, or the ships are so fast that the galaxy winds up too small for the premise. It's something I wish they'd either paid more attention to, or simply remained vague about where our ships were in relation to their destinations so we'd never have exact numbers to worry about. In the case of this particular STO FE, a brief view of our ships entering transwarp would've sidestepped this entire debate.
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  • captz1ppcaptz1pp Member Posts: 931 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    They should have had an "at warp zone" so you wouldn't have to banter so much before aiding the Qo'nos fleet, also where was Kahless, and the guards when the council members were getting blown up?
  • shockwave85shockwave85 Member Posts: 1,040 Arc User
    edited April 2014
    I remember STO's writer talking about having the ability to alter dialogue trees based on the character's species when she was on Priority One or something. As I recall, it was new tech added in LoR, and she was quite excited about it. With enough time spent on it, you could make sure Vulcans always respond with utmost logic, or Tellarites are always belligerent a-holes. Going to that extent across all dialogue in all episodes is probably way too much work to be practical, but it does allow for nice little touches like your Bajoran variant there.
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