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Official New Episode "Shadow Play" Feedback Thread
coldsnapped
Member Posts: 520 Cryptic Developer
Please use this thread to send feedback and issues found with the new Romulan Mystery episode "Shadow Play".
Romulan Mystery Arc Revamp
Romulan Mystery Arc Revamp
- The Romulan Mystery episode arc has been updated to deliver higher quality of content as well as link this arc to the events which occur within Legacy of Romulus.
- The new Episodes to the Romulan Mystery Arc include:
- Empress Sela: A completely brand new episode.
- Desperate Measures: This is a combination of the previous missions By Any Means and S'harien's Swords
- Shadow Play: A completely brand new episode.
- Taris: This is a combination of story elements of Ground Zero, the original Taris, and takes into account the events in Revelations.
- Episodes which have been removed are:
- Under the Cover of Night
- Minefield
- Divide et Impera
- Saturdays Child
- Preemptive Strike
- Hunting the Hunters
- Project Nightingale
- Ground Zero
- Ghost Ship
- Friend of My Enemy
- Trapped
- The Romulan Featured Series chain starting with The Vault and ending with Darkness Before the Dawn remains unchanged.
- Players who have already completed the original Romulan Mystery Arc will not be required to play the 4 new missions.
- Additionally, players who have already completed this arc will have instant access to play the 4 new missions.
- There will be a blog in the near future with more information on the revamp of the Romulan Mystery series.
Post edited by coldsnapped on
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Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
-Cirini ground map. Dialogue with Councilor Rehu. We can offer her advice on which side to join. However, it's just for show. No matter what we choose, the answer is exactly the same.
Suggestion : Change the first line accordingly. That's not much, but that shows the game reflect our choice, even if it's only a little bit.
-Cirini space map, after we left ground. Dialogue with the Tial Shiar captain. We casually joke about the destruction of the previous ship, and the coming fight. A D'Deridex have a crew of 1500. I wouldn't casually joke about the death of 3000 people. I'm no Klingon, I'm fed.
Suggestion : change the player answer to something like "We had no choice, and we will not surrender" or something like that. Basically we are forced to fight. Not it's fun to blow ships.
-Virinat space, after leaving the ground. The fleet is composed of KDF and fed ships. We are still at war with the klingon when we play the mission. It doesn't makes sense to have the Klingons come to Virinat and assemble a fleet there alongside their enemies.
Suggestion : remove the Klingons over Virinat, and we join them around New Romulus.
-Virinat space, after leaving the ground. Shon is there again. Yet I can't see the Belfast. Or is it a very similar Andorian that was also part of the previous mission fleet ?
-Once we leave Cirini, we don't care about their fate at all. We are supposed to go to Virinat to see what happened, and tell them.
But we don't. We leave them here, even when they seems to have citizens abducted by Elachi in a plot to make them join the Empire.
Suggestion : add some lines in the final dialogue about the colony being warned, and how they joined the Republic. Or stayed neutral.
Bug
-First map, initial BOFF dialogue. "Speaking of which, T'Kela would like a word."->"patch her through". And nothing happen. Seems like there is a dialogue that is missing. Or she became a mute.
-Cirini Prim, ground map. Subcommander T'Manda's bodyguards/aides are clones or twin that look exactly the same. Also, they are both named "Subcommander T'Manda", like the Subcommander.
Kinda scary.
-Virinat space, after leaving the ground and next map. One of the Klingon ship is called "I.KS. Varanus". It's the class, not the name of the ship.
Conclusion
The mission was not bad. It was a bit cheap to do the same mission part we have in the Romulan storyline, like memory lane. However, it was not to bad either, and I had a smile with the "unknown avenues" or whatever that was, as a nod to "memory lane".
I was a bit sad we didn't had more diplomacy on Cirini. And we don't even bother to contact them after we leave, to tell them about the elachi.
P.S. I found the "lovely flower", alongside the other lore things. I don't know who planted it either. I blame Tovan. When in doubt, always blame Tovan.
As I said, I'm not completely sure: maybe they only appear in ROM storyline.
Yep, you learn about them in the episode "Installation 18", which is the last mission of the "Wasteland" arc right before starting the Romulan arc. So by "Shadowplay" Starfleet characters should already be aware of who and what the Elachi are and how they operate.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
and with them certainly also their unique rewards
1) Cirini Prime on the ground looks great. It looks like a small but robust Romulan colony. Great Job.
2) Crini Prime Space Round 2 - I do believe the dialogue needs to be change. I am a Federation captain who values all life. I would suggest changing the dialogue so that the Romulan initiates the battle or do something new and if you have a Military Doff Rank of 3 or 4 it lets you talk them down without fighting.
3) Virinant Space The Fleet - Another poster brought this up, but at this time the Federation and Klingons are still at war. It makes no sense for a combined Fed/KDF fleet to jump here before entering New Romulus orbit. I suggest having T'Nae saying that a temporary cease fire has been issues for vessels in the area to deal with the threat.
4) Space Fleet Composition - The Fleet that assembles is predominantly Federation with three KDF ships. I recommend balancing it out. I do like the fact that Jarod and the Kang are there, but there model is a Negh'Var, whereas at Khitomer hes in a Vor'cha and The Cure a Tor'kaht. Could we please get a set ship for him?
5) New Romulan Space Battle - Plays out similar to the one from the Romulan storyline. I suggest adding a named Romulan space NPC that is not the Lieset to add some personality to the battle.
Overall, a pretty good mission.
In response to another posters post about the IKS Varanus. It is naval tradition to name the first ship of a class after the class name. So let us leave our friendly Gorn vessel's name there shall we?
1. the jump from cirini to virinat
2. from virinat to the elachi
3. the elachi to the invasion of new romulus
there are large amount of story missing between all this that would be better suited being filled in with a new storyline chain for the romulan mystery.
the cirini romulan colony was negotiating with the star empire and the republic over how the colony was choose, that storyline should be followed up with some tal-shiar sabotage in waiting that convinces the independent romulans to join the republic instead and then a fight on the ground and in space to secure it all off with a final thanks. in this there is a piece of evidence that you learn off that leads to virinat and the elachi, but there has to be a story behind it. jumping from one to the next just like that is not only surprising but its confusing to know at what point in the sto canon timeline you are in and how this information came to you so late after the conflict.
finally as its also been brought up there is nothing to explain the sudden teamwork with the klingons, why it is happening, and what the price is, again no story behind this jump in storylines. and after the invasion of NR, your apparently going to be addressed by d'tan, and yet that didnt happen.
frankly this mission should be canned until its properly addressed as to which direction the storyline is going.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I'm in completely disagreement. While this mission does not present the entire plot of the Republic exclusive mission series it does enough to appropriately reference it for your FED character. He/She's not at the center, events aren't going to conspire to provide you with as complete a view as a romulan captain but enough is certainly there to let your captain relate to the larger story presented by the other faction. Its authentic, while still giving enough background for you to start interacting with the Republic in the next mission (and understand just what they've gone through even if its only in broad terms).
Its a pay-off, or a setup, depending on whether or not you've played through a romulan character yet. And quite frankly its one of my favorite episodes now (not so much for the content in its own right but how it treats existing content in the STO universe (particularly the virnat colony), making it feel more significant to the game than just "what comes before PVE grinding".)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
thats the problem right there, in order to fill in the rest it assumes you did a romulan character up, but put yourself in a starship who has no idea about the elachi and the republic for the most part and that there is a story there, then cut up several segments of story from beginning middle and end, throw em all together in one mission and hope it makes sense without understanding any of its context.
i know what it was trying to be, i dont have the right words for what im thinking, but it should have its own story for the federation to pursue so they can help the romulan republic from another way.
it seems the devs somewhat had a chance on this, but i cant help feel as if they missed out on indepth story telling a little more for their own canon.
it could of involved picking up some random diplomatic visit to a romulan colony and learn sela's plan, you get help along the way from jarok, shon and t'nae and they help you fill out some of the storyline while helping from another angle that can defeat sela and her plans, as well as what her goals were with the iconians.
klingons could of had theirs as well, that leads to the same point, it would also explain the alliance between the feds and klingons to defend new romulus.
even from the RR pov, your storyline is limited to the main arc, not the rest of it.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Here's the issue I have with that approach: while you could try to explain the state of the RR through some other kind of exposition the events that most strongly shaped players experiences with the romulans (in that faction) could do it better. With an independent approach you have to hope that you find some other way of creating resonance between gameplay events and intended plot, but if you use existing events in RR history told through the perspective of someone else, someone who wasn't as much involved, then you can be sure that the result will much more closely match the intended view of the RR that cryptic setup through those places and events we experience in this mission (Virrnet and the Battle of New Romulus).
They don't have to be complete though, that's the point I think I most strongly want to stress here. not every story told has to go through a complete arc. Foundation, Dune, Hitchiker's Guide, you look to any good sci-fi series and you have plenty of tangents expanding the universe, and some that matter a lot to the current setting and plot, that are only vaugely referenced. That ambiguity you experience for yourself all the time in life by learning about and otherwise experiencing things that are only parts of much greater events in history. Those fragments, similar to what parts of the RR mission series we're exposed to here, exist in a narrative simply to fill a gap in the universe that the plot uses for some purpose or another, which is what this series tries to do. Later you can experience the complete story, much like Dune has spent most of the Post-Frank books doing, but for now these are the events the player should be aware of in dealing with the RR and the old Empire.
I think that they hold up well in their own right, making the STO universe feel much bigger and interconnected than the previous Romulan series did, and apart from some the in-space banter between the player and Warbird commanders I don't think that this mission needs much changing. Its abiding by a much better set of literary conventions (a view that not everything needs a comprehensive explanation before moving along, references will do just fine) than you see even in most games (let alone those that were once written much more closely to a saturday morning cartoon. Ie. STO.)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
The nimbus story doesn't explain the elachii though. You just find one of their commanders in a Tal Shiar facility with, I don't think, any idea what species he's belong to (based on what you're told in-mission, or even may have seen in Enterprise). Prior to this one I don't think a FED would have ever seen their ships or ground drones, or have gotten more than hints that they're working very closely with Hakeev.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Mission dialogue mentions that the Romulan Republic has given Starfleet and the KDF information on the Elachi though, and Hakeev states that they're his allies. We even rescue abducted Romulans in the installation, so Romulans being abducted from other colonies should be ringing alarm bells when we hear it later on here.
EDIT:
I just replayed "Installation 18" again just to be sure. Here is what is mentioned and seen in the episode:
You rescue a number of Romulans/Remans who say they were abducted from various locations; one describes them coming for him at night while he was asleep.
When you go to examine the "Communications Mainframe" in one of the last rooms of the installation there is direct written evidence naming the Elachi and their indoctrination techniques. It even notes that several of them are present at the base.
When you send the altered message near the end, one you your own officers states: "Our Romulan allies have shared some data on a species known as the "Elachi" that have been attacking Republic settlements. These liefesigns match - and they're working for the Tal Shiar."
Then at the end when you beam up in orbit to confront the Tal Shiar fleet, you see an Elachi Monbosh Battleship alongside Hakeev's vessels, this is where he blatantly identifies the Elachi as his new allies.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
As I ran the episode on the dead colony the dialogue only seemed to drive the reader to one conclusion; that the Star Empire had attacked the colony. The exercise seemed very Cardassian; a judgement was made and then evidence supporting the judgement was found. The Starfleet of the first two episodes of the Purity foundry series had more reserve when investigating claims. The first and third clues were damning evidence. The second clue seemed to be more open ended as to what its cause would be but the dialogue only drove the Star Empire's guilt.
I remember thinking if all my speculation (dialogue) could hold up when I made an accusation and presented my evidence and findings. I reasoned it, especially the evidence from the second clue, would not.
All this makes me think what exactly is the Star Empire doing while the Alliance is romping around Dyson and the Delta Quadrant?
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"