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Why is the horse dead and not Tovan?
sophlogimo
Member Posts: 6,507 Arc User
Many peope don't like Tovan, or more specifically, the fact that he is forced upon our characters as a bridge officer.
It has been proposed many times to turn him into an NPC entirely (so that the missions involving him remain playable), and make the bridge officer just renameable and dismissable. Apparently, the development team has decided not to do that. So, this horse seems to be dead.
But why? Oh why? Such a small change... that would have been so enjoyable for so many... why not make him an NPC.
It is just such a pity.
It has been proposed many times to turn him into an NPC entirely (so that the missions involving him remain playable), and make the bridge officer just renameable and dismissable. Apparently, the development team has decided not to do that. So, this horse seems to be dead.
But why? Oh why? Such a small change... that would have been so enjoyable for so many... why not make him an NPC.
It is just such a pity.
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I agree. The only thing we can do is wield our 2x4s with conviction, in hopes that one of those strikes at the decaying, maggot-infested carcass will drive Cryptic into action.
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1) you have to have him
2) no useful space traits
3) Does more commanding your ship than you do
4) useless for all SRO/all female/all reman etc. Boff crews
5) Fed and KDF have no fixed Boffs, why can't Roms?
Plenty of other reasons, but those are the main ones.
Fact is, Tovan being fixed puts lots of people off playing Romulan characters, and most of those who do play want to get rid of him, or only have one Republic character to avoid having to put up with him on a second character.
That plus make him interchangeable with his sister, for the "Bridge Bunny-aholics"
If You could choose at the end of the Tutorial to have either Tovan or Rinna (male or female) and they both had Superior Romulan Operative plus Superior Soldier.
That would pretty much completely silence the Tovan hate ... Though some would still deplore his tendency to butt in all the time. Then too, those that want to create an all Reman crew, might also still complain.
Why not give those players the option of getting the invisible Reman BoFF that supposedly wants to join your crew when you have your last meeting with Obisek? Personally I've never received this "Phantom BoFF' and I've leveled up about 15 Rom characters.
On a slight tangent, The other annoying thing about the Romulan BoFF's you get, is that many of them have totally unique costume parts and worse, totally unique traits!!! So you can't even "recreate" or "clone" them with a more suitable Purple version.
#LegalizeAwoo
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An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
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"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
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In-game handle @Janetza
Edit - Nevermind, I got it: Superior Romulan Operative.
:rolleyes:
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Cutting the cord
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I was actually considering doing the above at some point, even thinking of going as far as getting the Andorian ships which I otherwise dislike so I could unlock the fleet versions of it's weapons and use blue weapons like in the movie. I decided not to in part because of the inability to get rid of Tovan.
To say nothing of how I find him a constant reminder of how clashing the Romulan storyline is in regards to the shows and movies. Whenever he oozes his mug onto the screen to whine about the big mean Tal Shiar and ask you if you have seen his sister yet I am reminded of how lacking in Romulan character I find the storyline and faction in general.
Tovan and the dead horse he rode in on can take a hike. A nice long walk off a short pier. A spacewalk without a space suit. I don't care, I just want him off my ship someday.
The fact is his presence undermines the RP aspect of what is ostensibly an MMORPG.
This is the problem with Tovan.
For Feds and KDFs, you can have any Doffs and any Boffs you like, and it's immersive, feels like its your crew, on your ship, doing adventures you want to do. Well, stuff you want to do...
For Roms, Tovan totally ruins this feeling, because no matter what you do, everyone has exactly the same Boff.
See:
The dot is Tovan - and the dot is what ruins the nice white sheet. (Or bluey dark sheet by the time you read this)
---
It's bad enough that I'm stuck with a BOff that I can't get rid of ... but to add insult to injury the devs have seen fit to make sure Tovan ALWAYS shows up in the first officer's chair despite the fact that I never promoted/trained him and all my other BOffs are Commander rank and fully trained.
Don't believe the lies in this forum. I am NOT an ARC user. I play STO on Steam or not at all.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2x92pg1wb5xyac/khev.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gvwfwnzd7kayk8f/khev1.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9lk040d9goyat7/khev2.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k70uxbyjhq12rts/khev3.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/srt0n69mukfi1gf/khev4.png
Mostly these 2 under...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9r9karkro2cmmn2/khev5.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gh7p6rgdhql8cwf/khev6.png
CUUCUUMBEER! "-With slight partigen with it."
Proud member or DPS-800 "-We kill dem mines with our scitter turrets."
Background: I recently started a new FED toon. I hadn't experienced the revamped beginning levels of the game; my last exposure was beaming onto the U.S.S. Khitomer and battling the Borg there.
With that new FED toon, a BOff (Elisa Flores) was automatically added to the bridge crew.
Previously, I was given the option with my Level 50 FED toons to add her as a BOff. (Per STO Wiki: "Federation characters created before Season Eight: The Sphere can obtain Elisa Flores by speaking with the contact at Starfleet Academy in the same kiosk Lt. Ferra and Personnel Officer are located in.") And with my Level 50 KDF, I had an option of adding K'Gan.
I haven't dismissed Elisa Flores, Tovan Khev or K'Gan. I don't mind utilizing their skills from time to time.
Having played a new toon, I understand how/why Cryptic chose to embed a dedicated character into the beginning portion of the game. I've only experienced Tovan and Elisa's voice-overs; I presume K'Gan has one, too.
One of the main messages of Star Trek is the Vulcan IDIC: Infinity Diversity in Infinite Combinations.
I think many of the player base would like more diversity options with their BOffs.
To the Devs:
Could you consider adding a console on ESD, the Romulan Flotilla and Qo'Nos (or elsewhere) that allows players to remove the Elisa/Tovan/K'Gan BOff, once a particular level is reached?
(That way, the voice-over storyline isn't interfered with. Players must carry these BOffs until their storyline involvement is completed.)
Players would have an option to reinstate the BOff by purchase, if desired.
Maybe there's an issue with releasing a BOff designed like Elisa/Tovan/K'Gan... and preventing them from cross-training other BOffs with their skill when reinstated. I dunno. I look at BOffs, like the Voth Nelen Exil, as an example where Cryptic can lock the traits/prevent them from cross-training to other BOffs (so that shouldn't be an issue).
Thank you for the consideration!
Go take a bunch of classes on programming and you might understand why its not a small or easy change. Also, a visit to New Romulus seems to show that Tovan isn't as unpopular as you think, since pretty much every Romulan seems to be running around with him.
Pretty much. Good idea.
Until then my Reman ships are named, Shut Up Tovan, Tovan Must Die, Airlock Tovan, and Tovan Sucks. I've dressed him according to his status on my ships:
Tovan
STO Forum member since before February 2010.
STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link
I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
Reximuz - he is also the only Boff an entire faction HAS to have - all other Boffs are player decided, so of course Tovan will be more represented. Its a bit like like Muhammad and variations being amongst the most common boy's name worldwide due to Islam.
ETA - also add in how hard it is to get a set of Boffs as a Romulan or Reman, as the only reliable and cheap way to get more Rom Boffs requires making more Rom chars, levelling them, and swapping any useful Boffs over as and when you get any.
2.) Good observation about Tovan Khev running around with other Romulan Captains. However, I don't think that's a true indicator about whether Captains want Tovan as their BOff or not. Tovan is a default away team BOff and default first officer.
Adding an option to remove Tovan should be added to the game. Keep him if you want, or transfer/remove (or re-add) if the player likes.
My opinion, anyways...
I am not a professional programmer, and I have no access to the STO game engine, however, I have done quite a lot of Modding for other games, and I've done a fair amount of "amateur" 3D modelling and Animations.
None of the cutscenes in STO are "Cinematics" i.e. they are all rendered in game, using in game assets, so in reality, you could substitute Donald Duck (if they had the rights) instead of Tovan for all "visual" purposes quite easily.
To swap Tovan for Rinna, They would need to record some new Dialogues, but many of them could easily use the same script just with a few different words ... "You grew up with/spent time with Tovan on Virinat" ... "You grew up with/spent time with my Brother Tovan, on Virinat" ... "Charva and I were so close" ... Charva and my Brother were so close".
Again not difficult and not a massive download for a patch.
The only, slightly, complex part would be adding the choice option, and then making sure the game "remembered" that choice for all future dialogues, but again, that's a fairly straight forward scripting and/or "flag" function.
Making him dismissible and reclaimable, might be a bit more problematic, but they do manage it with other BoFF's, although none of the others ply such a central role in the story arc as Tovan.
Alas, I still think that Tovan was voiced by, or at least conceived by, someone very high up in Cryptic, so he has become someones "baby" within STO, and that's why he's always "in yo face" and why we can't get rid of him.
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Everybody but Tovan.
[Combat (Self)] You lose 6549 (7572) Cold from the torment of the underworld.
In-game handle @Janetza
For my extremist Reman toon, Tovan is bald, shriveled, and starved - which gives him an almost Reman appearance.
For my brute Reman toon, Tovan has over-sized facial features, a massive scar across his bulbous nose, and a terrible haircut (Khaaaannn!).
Every time a DOFF mission pops up with his face attached, I giggle to myself, "I win, Tovan. I win."