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Admiralty Uniform "Standard" is Annoying
maladippius1
Member Posts: 2 Arc User
I'm not entirely sure that this is the right place to post this, but I would just like to put out there that it is fairly annoying how the purported "standard" admiralty uniform for Federation characters entails Veteran reward costume pieces. The Odyssey long jacket and Jupiter Veteran belt both require paid subscriptions of 200 days and 700 days, respectively. I very much understand rewarding Veteran players, and in no way mean to detract from that. However, as a FTP player who enjoys what small degree of immersion can still be found in STO, I personally find it highly frustrating that, in order to conform to the Starfleet uniform "standards" in place for officers of my character's rank, I would have to pay hundreds of dollars. As a full-time college student, that simply is not something I am able to do, and even if I could, is certainly not worth doing for the two costume pieces I want to complete my uniform. While there are certainly other uniform types and variants that suit my character, it is simply a matter of personal preference that I be able to have at least one slot in which the standard is realized. I realize that I am both ranting and accomplishing nothing in doing so; just venting, and hoping others share my opinion, I suppose.
Post edited by maladippius1 on
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Handfuls of them, such as the Enlisted Dress Uniform, requires both Veteran and C-store parts...
Since most of the blurbs indicate that the various uniforms that require the Oddy Long Coat & the Jupiter Belt are "dress" uniforms, and the Admiral's Service Dress' blurb itself mentions that it's a "desk" variant, wearing the Commanding Officer's Service Dress with Admiral's pins (with or without the additional metallic piping for the Admiralty rank) seems "intended" to be the "traditional" F2P variant...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
**** what Cryptic shows in their stupid little Uniform Code Book.
Im a 600 day vet but swithced to F2P. Veteran Rewards are for paid subscriptions. Why should you get a free costume piece that others had paid for? Ive bought costumes and ships like many others that played this game as well as exclusive BOFFS. You can too. STO ALLOWED for the Zen/Dilithium exchange. So if you are complaing that you cant afford it I suggest you go grind some dilithium and exchange it for Zen to buy TRIBBLE or just fork of ther the dough. Occasionally, if you play the game enough, you may be lucky to get free TRIBBLE when they give it away every once in awhile for player appreciation week. So stop complaining. STO gives away a lot of stuff they could have put in the ZEN store to players frequently. You want something for nothing and its just not ever going to happen guy!
Go to your T3-5 starbase, buy the Odyssey Dress Uniform (no special fleet rank required), go to the tailor, select the jacket and belt, color the band thingy red, the lining gold, and the rest black, and just gold lining on the belt and gold pips and combadge and there you go! You have a COMPLETELY passable flag officer uniform. Quit whining about veteran uniforms and make do with what you got. I want the veteran Romulan and Klingon outfits as well but I do fine with what I have (Honor Guard uniform on kdfs, Republic jackets spiced with survivor accessories on roms)
Grand Master Thotok, son of Koloth, I.K.S. Sompek==Dahar Master Shanara, I.K.S. Balth'Quv
Admiral R'Tath V'Tirex, R.R.W. Dhael Glohha'enh==Commander Ta'eth Korval, R.R.W Hachae ch'Rhian==Admiral Vranuk, R.R.W Delevhas
Sorry to correct you here but all the parts the others here are on about can not be brought any way other than subbing for ages or getting a LTS.
Yes the dil exchange allows you get get stuff from the store but not the vet rewards.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Think more general.
The question isn't "veteran exclusives shouldn't exist at all."
Its "veteran rewards should restrict items that are canonically what our characters are supposed to be wearing."
For non-vets seeking immersion that puts necessary items outside of their reach. Its not a good situation (ie. its entirely futile).
Solution: new veteran reward (something else thats more suited to "veteran" officers [ie. you], as opposed to just high ranking [which is everyone]), and make existing vet costumes level 60 unlocks. You get to keep your exclusive status (with something newer/shinier) while the rest of us get those things which are very sensible for our characters to have.
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Try playing KDF or Romulan, where the majority of options are pay-walled. And even then, there's only a small handful behind that wall.
"Per lore", with a touch of prior service US Air Force time "tainting" my commentary, the "dress code" book specifies the following "general purpose" uniforms to all flag officers:
Commanding Officer's Service Uniform - due to being the CO of a ship.
Standard Oddessy Departmental colored variant - Stock "uniform" for all members of Starfleet
-note, both of these are free-
Flag Officer's Service Uniform - generally used for increased visibility / identification of Flag status on bases / "peacetime" operations, but not restricted from the field.
Oddessy Tactical, departmental colors - due to wartime status, allowed as general purpose. This uni is the one from the fleet tailor.
The remaining uniforms (medical, dress, etc.) are "special purpose" uniforms, to be worn for the specified special occasions and not as a general purpose uniform.
Uh, I just pointed out how, per lore, you are not lacking in "lore appropriate" options. You are only lacking one specific option that just happens to be vet-gated. Wait for a LTS sale, drop your $200, enjoy the outfit you want. Or start subbing at $15/month and enjoy the full deal in a year or two.
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
True, I try to refer to the uniform code whenever I can. I think that veteran rewards should be USEFUL, costumes are not useful they just make you look good. Veteran rewards can be the fancy EVs, extra char slots, account bank slots, bank slots, inventory slots, ships, boffs, etc... But I think the veteran uniforms should at least be made C-store oufits
Grand Master Thotok, son of Koloth, I.K.S. Sompek==Dahar Master Shanara, I.K.S. Balth'Quv
Admiral R'Tath V'Tirex, R.R.W. Dhael Glohha'enh==Commander Ta'eth Korval, R.R.W Hachae ch'Rhian==Admiral Vranuk, R.R.W Delevhas
Veteran rewards:
Odyssey Long Jacket
Jupiter Belt
C-Store uniforms
TWOK
Starfleet Academy
Fleet Tailor
Odyssey Dress
Odyssey Excursion
need viable alternatives especially for veteran rewards
The Fleet options are basically free - dilithium and Fleet Credit.
The others... the Feds have so many free options to choose from, having a couple pieces of the Ody uni not be free is hardly a problem.
Dear OP, per your join date, you were in game already when we transitioned from the Sierras / Antares with L50 Admiral's jacket "standard" to the Oddy uniform standard.
So why, all of a sudden, is this becoming such a problem? System's only been out what, over half a year, before you go posting "this system is unfair"...
And if you remember back that far, the Oddy Longcoat was intentionally dumped into the Vet Reward system instead of being earned / C-store component, as a "tweak / reward" to those who have subscribed a minimum of ~7 months (200 days, to be exact) and/or invested in LTS.
Why the Devs elected to use the Jupiter (500 day) belt on these uniforms is another question...
Still, I'll give a touch of benefit of the doubt. I still can't grasp what "lore immersion violation" is occurring here - to the point of making what many might consider an "unreasonable demand" - that is not fixable by the use of "other lore appropriate" options, such as the "standard" Starfleet Officer Uniform or the Commander's Optional Uniform, both with appropriate silver/gold trim for the flag rank? Or the "Fleet Acquisition" Tactical & Standard Dress options? Or the investment of $399 ($299 if your suspension of disbelief can wait out the next LTS sale?
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
That's nonsense either way, I'm not lacking appropriate options but I am missing the one which (even according to your interpretation) is directly associated with my stated rank. Religating that to "veteran" status is inappropriate for what that item of the dress code represents (if it means anything at all.) Therfore, create something new that DOES specifically represent veteran status and open up the current veteran reward to the general population as a vice-admiral coat update (and finally with multi-faction equivalents).
This isn't a contentious issue (except that its somehow translated into "well you just need to spend more money.") The concept of a veteran reward is fine (so too is my willingness not to pay several hundred dollars for largely superficial perks. I don't lay awake at night fearing I'll never have my authentic admiral uniform but when the topic comes up I'll contribute my opinion that this situation is badly concieved.)
Its just that the choice of uniform here is highly questionable based on the fact that this game tries to present a coherant fiction (and rather easily rectifiable with no pain to any party except the cryptic character art team).
I don't believe that but I'll restate the problem anyway. Apart from the pips admirals cannot wear uniform options specifically associated with admirals. Those options instead represent veteran status, which in game is a separate concept than rank. The two may (abstractly and with significant exceptions) be associated with one another but in STO you can most certainly be an admiral without being a subscriber.
"Veterans" should get special options (to justify to them the LTS or monthly subbing) but THESE options aren't suitable to what they explicitly try to represent. Its nice, self-congradulating flippery (which ATM is the only concievable justification for the status quo. Its an overly enthusiastic pat on the back), but there's definitely a way of providing that while maintaining the game's visual setting (and it may be a small part of that [which has glaring inconsistencies in other places, such as what I'm flying ATM] but its a part none-the-less.)
The FED is the example but the issue (and suggestion I've provided) applies to the KDF and RR as well.
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!
Sure, Cryptic went ahead and said "if you have X part, use it to make Y uniform variant." But nowhere are you required to do so. Most of these things, like the TWOK pants or Jupiter Belt, were already around, so they figured it would be effective to work them into the new uniforms. But really, you have 3 full variants, and your admiralty pips. Having a few of the specialized options be paid content is completely acceptable. No lore violations / immersion breaking is present - you still have 3 uniforms to choose from, as well as the correct pips.
Sorry, but Feds get tons of stuff for free. Having some options being restricted to paid-content isn't a horrifying wrong that needs to be righted. It's like anything else - buy something, and get to use it.
So let me get this straight: You can go from Year 4, Graduating Cadet to FLEET ADMIRAL in less than a years time in game story, and your immersion problem stems from the fact that you can't use a particular belt in your uniform? How many commands did any of the "Canon" characters have in their career? Picard had 3, Janeway had 1. Kirk had 2. How many of those commands were of Dominion, or Ferenghi, or Cardassian, or Vaudwar ships? Oh yeah, I'm sure the belt is the immersion problem...
The OP wants something that he can not have.
Statement:
Other people want other things that they can not have.
Statement:
Vets want things that other people can not have.
Question:
How can Vets have things that others can not have, and Non-Vets have the things that Vets have?
Let's not be prejudiced here. Any "enlisted person", most likely a BOff taking the "Chief O'Brien" role, cannot wear their dress uniform, as it requires the Veterans long coat.
And, that poor doctor cannot wear their "medical whites" as it, too, requires the long coat.
See, Veterans program uniform segregation is not just affecting rank(s), but professions as well. Your argument applies equally to all three conditions, and my counter applies to all three outfits as well. To be specific - doctor? Use "medical coloration" on the available uniforms. Enlisted? Stuck in "enlisted service colors" of stock uniform.
How is it "self congratulating"? Ahem, if I ever meet you, groundside, in game, I'd be so tempted to swap out of my "biker leathers" uniform on my main and right into the Admirals Service Dress just to rub it in your face that I have it and you don't.
Snobbery aside... no wait. That is the entire purpose of instilling cosmetic items into the veterans reward system (or behind any sort of a paywall, to be honest). It's the payer's way of visually saying "I support this game so much they have my hard earned money, and I can prove it with this".
And, whenever someone challenges that exclusivity of "we paid", the snobbery comes out in full force (as the >50% of posts in this thread attest to) in defense of "our" payments and ability to show off. Full disclosure, I'm on the 3 months for $30 deal and have accumulated at this point ~860 days of such.
Therefore, I'll actually put this out into the open. Tell me (us) your proposals that are A-100% cosmetic and B-100% fully lore appropriate to replace the subscriber's ability to show off their 200/500 days subscribed (or LTS owning) status, and we'll start to talk. Otherwise, expect more and more snobbery, and escalations thereof...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
1. Yes, veterans deserve rewards, and I don't disagree with that, as I believe I mentioned in the original post.
2. The immersion of this game is broken in SO MANY WAYS, and the uniform is far from the most severe or consequential. This, I acknowledge fully.
3. I actually have made my own substitute uniform that I am reasonably happy with; actually, I did so before making this thread, and have retained it. I actually have all of the Odyssey costume variants available from the Fleet Tailor/Store. I purchased the original, basic Odyssey uniform from said Tailor before it was implemented as the standard, and was thus given the other variants upon their release. So, admittedly, I was one of those spoiled, and have no real basis for whining in the way I have.
4. My complaint is not that paid subscriptions unlock costume pieces, but rather that those costume pieces are "canonically" (note the quotes: I am aware that canon is pretty sketchy with this game) the standard uniform for the Admiralty of Starfleet.
5. I admit that my original post, and the complaint therein, is rather petty. It was created out of frustration. Personally, I am partial to the aesthetics of the uniforms in the game. I have both a Romulan and Klingon character, and yes, I am well aware of how favored Federation characters are in the way of uniform options. In my (near-obsessive) wish to adhere to the purported "standard" of the in-game uniforms, I was irritated at my inability to do so without spending substantial sums of money.
Having said all of this, I am thankful for all of your input and opinions, and apologize for coming across as a whiner in my original post. It is my intention to purchase a lifetime subscription upon accruing the funds with which to do so.