We are in a war, but it is not just use with the Iconians... In fact, just because we are sub-siding with the Klingons and Romulan doesn't mean they can't be a threat till. There can be Tal Shiar space sector alerts, rouge Dominion sector space alerts, Hirogen sector space alerts, Vaadwaar sector space alerts and yes of course - Iconian sector space alerts. I mean we can even have a defecting house of the Klingons or some Mirror Universe alternative Federation ships tossed in the sector space scenarios also... But no.
We just got Borg and Tholians, I mean if you people just try to add some more sector space alerts, life in the game would be grand! All the sector space alerts do not have to give marks from the reputation system, you can make a nice balance, like for example;
Mirror Universe Alternative Federation can rewards just fleet marks. Klingons can reward Dilithium. Hirogen can rewards large sum of Energy Credits (I'm fine getting just 10,000 from one every 30 minutes). Vaadwaar can rewards x2 Experience/Skill points, instead of 2,000 or so we get, they can give 4,000. Tal Shiar can reward a balance of all the above. Iconian can reward Iconian marks.
I mean seriously, where is the innovation of the developers to give us the most action possible in the game, let's go man - up your imagination to work, I don't even work for you all and I can thing of the simplest things that can make a difference, come on now!
You can miss them if you don't spend a lot of time in Sector Space, but the Deep Space Encounters have been revised to be exactly what you are asking for. It's not scripted or anything like that, just a horde mode attack waves, each progressively stronger than the last. But they are there
This storyline is looking like the most rushed, poorly written piece of TRIBBLE I've ever seen honestly.
I know whoever's in charge of writing this is trying,
but please, let someone else write this and do something you're good at.
I have to echo this statement, the writing has been terribad for the most part and it's actually getting worse lately IMHO.
I especially resent their complete obsession with Star Trek actor VO that's been going on for.....wow... ...about 2 years now, just realised it has been that long. I mean, I love the opportunity to have VO work from Trek heroes and interact with their characters as much as the next Star Trek fan, but lately (and that's one hell of a long 'lately') I just don't feel like the star of my own adventure in the story episodes like I used to, more like a sidekick for whatever Star Trek actor they can get to do VO work regardless of the context or the actual plausability of that context. It's just feels like it's one of those Trek heroes' adventure and I'm (my character) just tagging along for the ride.
Just got to love the propaganda. What war? What threat? Your fighting the Vaadwaur to help defeat them, not the heralds or Iconians. There is no troops or ships. Where is the battlezone for ground, or red alert / enemy encounter?
Got to love how they fake the stories. This is no war. Its just a minor enemy to take down and move on to the next.
The quoted is kind of my stance on things. Nothing feels like a war! The only time I actually felt like a major war-like event was going on in STO was back at the end of open beta. The Borg were everywhere and they were massacring everything in their path! This was one of the most frustrating but also epic in conveying that something major was happening. Yes, it was just some fun the dev's were having with us at the time but honestly, that is what war needs to be more like in this game. In comparison to anything canon in Trek, it felt like being a part of Wolf 359 and we were definitely on the losing end! Sectors of space invaded by very tough enemies that are everywhere! Could something be done like that, to really push the war into the faces of every player after completing a particular trigger episode?
To me the Elachi in the Romulan starting story proved to be a threat to be dealt with. Later the Voth was good. I spent a lot of time in space and on the ground. Later the Vaadwuar showed a threat and the ground and their interaction in the patrols was great.
All of these captured the threat of a major enemy. And captivated me in the story and fun of the game. Where the Heralds and Iconians are minor like the Breen.
Granted I don't think a full server invasion is a good thing. As others hadn't got that far. A couple battlezones for ground would be good. Along with some red alerts/ enemy encounters would be perfect. To me if possible. After you hit a certain part of the story. I would have a random ship show up to fight you. From sector space, and even in patrols or doing other content. To "harass" you. To show they are there and we are at war.
A full on invasion of all sectors is not really what I had in mind. That was just one good example and pointing out that it can be done, at least at one point in time. But there could be sectors where this war is on-going and entering these sectors for any reason would give you the possibility of being randomly attacked by emeny vessels. There could be a revamp of the old "Red Alerts to have them pop up again but in a new way and in specific sectors. Each would be different in their own ways and successes and failures could contribute to the area where the war is on-going is pushed back out of that sector or the enemy advances to the next sector.
This sounds like another one of those boring missions that's heavy on the combat, light on the story. Fighting Heralds is downright tedious.
Now, personally, I am interested in where they are going with the story. There's a lot of emphasis on doom and gloom, but rather than feel like that's just farfetched, I get the sense the Iconians are holding back a lot and are after something else than what the Alliance has. They could kill us all if they wanted to, so why haven't they?
You want to kill the Iconians? All you need to do is set up a bunch of temporal anomalies all over the place. Then sit back, and watch the Iconians fry! Problem solved!
I'm sorry. One of the biggest things that has broken my sense of disbelief in this mission has been the music.
STO's music is way too upbeat for the theme of 'back against the wall, go all in or go into the annals of history' that is supposed to be the Iconian War.
Something larger than you has just arrived, and you will be fighting a losing battle, just trying to _survive_, let alone achieve something.
There is also the design of the STFs. Maybe, instead of first defeating two waves of Heralds at the shipyard and starbase, then protecting transports for a set time and racking up numerous landings, and then blowing up the Herald Dreadnaught, perhaps we should have a different mission.
You start the mission fighting a desperate flanking maneuver, trying desperately to hold the starbase and shipyard against overwhelming odds. Klingon NPCs die left and right, and the optional (later required) mission at this point isn't to defeat them in 2 minutes. It's to defeat them _before_ they destroy the shipyard and starbase. Make the starbase fight back, as well as steadily deleting numbers of Klingon ships.
In the middle of this, introduce a _real_ escort mission, where you are desperately fighting off wave after wave of attacking Herald starships, hoping beyond hope that one of these freighters full of Klingon warriors will make it to Qo'nos. Have the comms filled with panicked screams of Orions, fatalistic Klingon singing, and even the occasional death scream as yet another starship is killed.
And then, as the final battle is waged, have that DN do something more than just sit like a bump on a log, getting shot at. All that work to defend Qo'nos One (name the damn Starbase!) is for naught...the DN's opening salvo blows the starbase apart. Klingon ships die left and right, and instead of just chasing it around the battlefield, have the final objective be stopping the ship before it can fire on Qo'nos itself.
THAT would give the STF the feel of fighting a losing battle against unwinnable odds, even as you 'win' the STF.
Seriously, Cryptic, watch this video. Even though you win the mission, that gargantuan starship is utterly destroyed...with all 10,000 of its crew. This mission had _far_ more impact to me than anything in STO, even the story missions.
Though even this mission has its problem. The upbeat victory music for completing the mission did not go with the briefing. "You almost died. Yay happy music!"
To me the Elachi in the Romulan starting story proved to be a threat to be dealt with. Later the Voth was good. I spent a lot of time in space and on the ground. Later the Vaadwuar showed a threat and the ground and their interaction in the patrols was great.
All of these captured the threat of a major enemy. And captivated me in the story and fun of the game. Where the Heralds and Iconians are minor like the Breen.
Granted I don't think a full server invasion is a good thing. As others hadn't got that far. A couple battlezones for ground would be good. Along with some red alerts/ enemy encounters would be perfect. To me if possible. After you hit a certain part of the story. I would have a random ship show up to fight you. From sector space, and even in patrols or doing other content. To "harass" you. To show they are there and we are at war.
I agree with you about the Voth and Vaadwaur, and would add Tholians and Undine to the list of conflicts that feel about right for the scale that they're trying to sell to us, but Elachi are like mini-Iconians to me, a lot of build up, where you get to shoot at 1 ship and fight 1 Elachi for your first 25 or so levels, then 5 missions where you actually fight them, and 2 queues most of the time, with another that shows up once in a while for a weekend event. Then you fight a few in space at the end of Sphere of Influence, and a handful of them on the ground in Uneasy Allies. With this next FE, we'll have as many episodes fighting solely Heralds as Romulans do fighting solely Elachi, and we already have more queues available all of the time to fight them than we do with Elachi.
I would also agree that Herald Red Alerts and Deep Space Encounters, as well as a persistent ground battlezone, would really make it feel like a war. I wouldn't mind enemy encounters randomly showing up, so long as they didn't disrupt low-level players.
This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
There are a lot of good critiques here. I was particularly glad to see the references to Freespace 2: that game was masterful in how you had the sense that, even as you heroically won every battle, you kept thinking that things couldn't get any worse -- and then they'd get orders of magnitude worse.
At an absolute, bare minimum, there should be Red Alerts with Heralds, or something similar. It's just totally ridiculous that we're getting loading screens with posters about this all-out hopeless conflict, and then in-game, there's absolutely nothing to suggest the Iconian War is having any effect on anything, except for the featured PvE events. Why not replace the cheerful messages on the ESD PA with grim announcements about worlds being hit by Heralds? Dozens of worlds have just been added, with familiar names but no episodes currently associated with them. Why not talk about them being attacked, and show some wreckage in orbit, maybe some fires on the surface?
I've enjoyed the Lohlunat Festival, and have probably spent at least ten times as much playing time on that as on the Iconian War. So, from what I can tell, has everyone else. So maybe the Iconian events would have been better timed to occur after the Lohlunat Festival wrapped up.
I get what some people are saying about lack of immersion where the war is concerned. We would not be surfing on Risa. Every major social hub would probably be smoking ruins if the Iconian forces were as fearsome as the FE's would have us believe. THEY obviously don't need starbases.
But we're not all playing the same content at the same time. I've spent most of my available time working through all of the mission arcs so I can unlock my Delta Recruit benefits. Should ESD be unavailable for my use during that time because the Iconians have blown it to atoms? Especially since from that character's point of view, the Solanae sphere hasn't even been opened yet and the Undine haven't attacked yet. I'm giving this as an example, not because I think the game revolves around my personal immersion experience.
Everybody's immersion is going to suffer, one way or the other. From Cryptic's point of view, the fewer temporary changes they have to make the better. I'm not saying they shouldn't. But there's no avoiding the "bang for the buck" decisions that means every thing they do is something else they don't have time to do, no matter how much sense it might make to flesh out the plotline.
I don't expect a complete map overhaul and what not.
There is already content in the game that is level-gated or mission-requirement-gated.
Herald Red Alerts could be such a content.
Also, new players can do the Featured Episodes, which are currently Iconian War episodes. That means everyone in the game is made aware of an Iconian threat. If they can see some Herald Red Alerts, too, that doesn't sound bad.
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Ah Freespace 2. Glad to see more people have played that.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
Heck, they just did a revamp of the entire galaxy map. Would it be so hard to copy/paste another, Level 60 only galaxy, into the game?
This Level 60 galaxy would open up after the events in 'Blood of the Ancients' and WOULD include burning worlds, destroyed Starbases, constant Iconian and Herald incursions (both in space and ground locations). Have it include all current Iconian War content (FEs, queues) PLUS Iconian Red Alerts, Deep Space Encounters AND live events, like Individual Iconians (M'Tara, T'ket, etc. - played by the Devs) showing up on ESD, New Romulus, damaged Qo'nos and other worlds and stations (Andoria, Vulcan, Bajor, Drozana, DS9, etc.) at completely random times (basically whenever a Dev or two felt evil - lol), laying waste to anyone, player or NPC there.
Make the Level 60 galaxy one big Battlezone that is automatically entered after completing 'Blood of the Ancients' and can't be left (you can't run away from THIS war). Your character stays there until the bitter end. (racking up Iconian Resistance points for everything they participate in)
THAT would give this conflict a true sense of real war, Iconian power, decimation, and desperation it truly needs.
i was expecting this, considering when when a lockbox ends it usually means a change in direction in not just the lock box stuff but design choices. i suspect that we are finally coming to the end of the iconian war and the start of another chapter elsewhere.
what this server needed was full scale war in another instance of sector space, one post qo'nos invasion. the heralds actually hunt you down in sector space and territory control is the way to go in much the same way the dyson sphere had it with zone 3 with 8472 and voth at the end.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I'm sorry. One of the biggest things that has broken my sense of disbelief in this mission has been the music.
STO's music is way too upbeat for the theme of 'back against the wall, go all in or go into the annals of history' that is supposed to be the Iconian War.
Something larger than you has just arrived, and you will be fighting a losing battle, just trying to _survive_, let alone achieve something.
There is also the design of the STFs. Maybe, instead of first defeating two waves of Heralds at the shipyard and starbase, then protecting transports for a set time and racking up numerous landings, and then blowing up the Herald Dreadnaught, perhaps we should have a different mission.
You start the mission fighting a desperate flanking maneuver, trying desperately to hold the starbase and shipyard against overwhelming odds. Klingon NPCs die left and right, and the optional (later required) mission at this point isn't to defeat them in 2 minutes. It's to defeat them _before_ they destroy the shipyard and starbase. Make the starbase fight back, as well as steadily deleting numbers of Klingon ships.
In the middle of this, introduce a _real_ escort mission, where you are desperately fighting off wave after wave of attacking Herald starships, hoping beyond hope that one of these freighters full of Klingon warriors will make it to Qo'nos. Have the comms filled with panicked screams of Orions, fatalistic Klingon singing, and even the occasional death scream as yet another starship is killed.
And then, as the final battle is waged, have that DN do something more than just sit like a bump on a log, getting shot at. All that work to defend Qo'nos One (name the damn Starbase!) is for naught...the DN's opening salvo blows the starbase apart. Klingon ships die left and right, and instead of just chasing it around the battlefield, have the final objective be stopping the ship before it can fire on Qo'nos itself.
THAT would give the STF the feel of fighting a losing battle against unwinnable odds, even as you 'win' the STF.
Seriously, Cryptic, watch this video. Even though you win the mission, that gargantuan starship is utterly destroyed...with all 10,000 of its crew. This mission had _far_ more impact to me than anything in STO, even the story missions.
Though even this mission has its problem. The upbeat victory music for completing the mission did not go with the briefing. "You almost died. Yay happy music!"
hard-light does freespace these days, so look em up if your that keen on the game. as for something larger and more powerful?
Sathanas vs Reaper xD
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I posted back on the old forums how if the Devs were to change the game so that the only thing you could do for six months was fight the Iconians, fight the Iconians, and lose to the Iconians, a lot of people would probably just log out. And many of them wouldn't come back. It might be more realistic, but it's just not practical. An MMO doesn't and can't work that way.
As to Broken Circle itself: I'm sure that throwing ships and bodies directly at the enemy will work out just as well as it did at Wolf 359, and we'll end up having to pull some sort of 11th-hour timey-wimey deus ex machina to save the day.
In other words, classic Star Trek.
Sathanas. Mass Effect barriers don't stop energy weapons and the Sath is nothing but 5 very large, very angry energy weapons. And a metric TRIBBLE ton of HP. I should bust out my FS2 disks...
if the Devs were to change the game so that the only thing you could do for six months was fight the Iconians, fight the Iconians, and lose to the Iconians, a lot of people would probably just log out. And many of them wouldn't come back.
I agree with this. If devs made Iconians randomly attack players everywhere, like many people suggest here, the game would be frustrating beyond measure.
There are days when I log in for only 30 minutes or so to do DOffing. There is NOTHING I would hate more than to be forced to fight some random Herald patrol.
Make the Level 60 galaxy one big Battlezone that is automatically entered after completing 'Blood of the Ancients' and can't be left (you can't run away from THIS war). Your character stays there until the bitter end. (racking up Iconian Resistance points for everything they participate in)
[sarcasm] I have even better idea! Upon reaching LvL 60 you character gets deleted! Because he/she died in the war! Now THAT would be immersive! [/sarcasm]
I posted back on the old forums how if the Devs were to change the game so that the only thing you could do for six months was fight the Iconians, fight the Iconians, and lose to the Iconians, a lot of people would probably just log out. And many of them wouldn't come back. It might be more realistic, but it's just not practical. An MMO doesn't and can't work that way.
Most of us hadn't said this. We want some interaction with the enemy's forces. Like battlezones for grounds, red alerts / enemy contacts, random encounters. I play solo, what I saw of this skirmish? Only FEs nothing more. So its very hard to sell a "war" when you have nothing. For the Iconian Resistance Rep. That was a total joke. You want marks, and you play solo. Here do the same mission on Kobali 50,000 times for your Iconian Rep stuff. Which has nothing to do with the Iconian Skirmish. Instead we get crappy blogs to fill it in.
This whole story arc is a joke.
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if the Devs were to change the game so that the only thing you could do for six months was fight the Iconians, fight the Iconians, and lose to the Iconians, a lot of people would probably just log out. And many of them wouldn't come back.
I agree with this. If devs made Iconians randomly attack players everywhere, like many people suggest here, the game would be frustrating beyond measure.
But that is not the only suggestion players have.
I don't think random forced attacks are a good idea ever in STO. But that doesn't mean we couldn't have Herald Signal Contact and Herald Red Alerts.
The key is making somethnig that is actually visible in the game even if you don't go out of your way to do particular content.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
if the Devs were to change the game so that the only thing you could do for six months was fight the Iconians, fight the Iconians, and lose to the Iconians, a lot of people would probably just log out. And many of them wouldn't come back.
I agree with this. If devs made Iconians randomly attack players everywhere, like many people suggest here, the game would be frustrating beyond measure.
But that is not the only suggestion players have.
I don't think random forced attacks are a good idea ever in STO. But that doesn't mean we couldn't have Herald Signal Contact and Herald Red Alerts.
The key is making somethnig that is actually visible in the game even if you don't go out of your way to do particular content.
wars tend to be unpredictable places, so controlling what you should and should not put in doesnt make a warzone and warzones are even more chaotic then a war by itself.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Why not replace the cheerful messages on the ESD PA with grim announcements about worlds being hit by Heralds? Dozens of worlds have just been added, with familiar names but no episodes currently associated with them. Why not talk about them being attacked, and show some wreckage in orbit, maybe some fires on the surface?
I've enjoyed the Lohlunat Festival, and have probably spent at least ten times as much playing time on that as on the Iconian War. So, from what I can tell, has everyone else. So maybe the Iconian events would have been better timed to occur after the Lohlunat Festival wrapped up.
Both of these, for sure. And you know what, after Surface Tension, there *were* (and are) announcements about attacks on core systems, presumably the Undine. There is only one that I've noticed, but there is an incursion in the Andoria system. The first time I heard it right after Surface Tension, it put a chill down my spine. There should be more for higher-level players, though. This has NOT been as well executed as the Undine threat.
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Why not replace the cheerful messages on the ESD PA with grim announcements about worlds being hit by Heralds? Dozens of worlds have just been added, with familiar names but no episodes currently associated with them. Why not talk about them being attacked, and show some wreckage in orbit, maybe some fires on the surface?
I've enjoyed the Lohlunat Festival, and have probably spent at least ten times as much playing time on that as on the Iconian War. So, from what I can tell, has everyone else. So maybe the Iconian events would have been better timed to occur after the Lohlunat Festival wrapped up.
Both of these, for sure. And you know what, after Surface Tension, there *were* (and are) announcements about attacks on core systems, presumably the Undine. There is only one that I've noticed, but there is an incursion in the Andoria system. The first time I heard it right after Surface Tension, it put a chill down my spine. There should be more for higher-level players, though. This has NOT been as well executed as the Undine threat.
Now that sparks an interesting idea. Have some casualty reports coming in and systems that have been decimated that we can travel to to further report on the destruction. Nothing really difficult but something like a daily count of going to a system, scanning wreckage, finding ship transponders, and reporting back to Quinn with a casualty report for ships and crew lost. Perhaps even rescue the odd escape pod that was missed in the attack also. A handful of these to complete would go a long way for adding to the situation.
I agree with the music change as well. Something that conveys more urgency than what we have now that makes me think I should be sleeping in my quarters or goofing off on the Holodeck.
if the Devs were to change the game so that the only thing you could do for six months was fight the Iconians, fight the Iconians, and lose to the Iconians, a lot of people would probably just log out. And many of them wouldn't come back.
I agree with this. If devs made Iconians randomly attack players everywhere, like many people suggest here, the game would be frustrating beyond measure.
But that is not the only suggestion players have.
I don't think random forced attacks are a good idea ever in STO. But that doesn't mean we couldn't have Herald Signal Contact and Herald Red Alerts.
The key is making somethnig that is actually visible in the game even if you don't go out of your way to do particular content.
wars tend to be unpredictable places, so controlling what you should and should not put in doesnt make a warzone and warzones are even more chaotic then a war by itself.
That does not matter. It's still a game. Compromises have to be made for the sake of gameplay.
The point is the visibility of the war isn't there, because it's tucked away behind queued events and featured episodes. Visiblity is not the same as "you get randomly sneak attack by a bunch of Heralds."
Red Alerts are very low-key, as are enemy signal contacts but they are still visible. Unless you sit around on a planet or station all day, you'll encounter them.
A different background music could also help. Maybe some regular speaker announcements on ESD about casualties...
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You can miss them if you don't spend a lot of time in Sector Space, but the Deep Space Encounters have been revised to be exactly what you are asking for. It's not scripted or anything like that, just a horde mode attack waves, each progressively stronger than the last. But they are there
Sure was nice to see the staff enjoy their war at least...next time can we all play too?
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I have to echo this statement, the writing has been terribad for the most part and it's actually getting worse lately IMHO.
I especially resent their complete obsession with Star Trek actor VO that's been going on for.....wow...
That's why we call it "The Dev. blog war".
A full on invasion of all sectors is not really what I had in mind. That was just one good example and pointing out that it can be done, at least at one point in time. But there could be sectors where this war is on-going and entering these sectors for any reason would give you the possibility of being randomly attacked by emeny vessels. There could be a revamp of the old "Red Alerts to have them pop up again but in a new way and in specific sectors. Each would be different in their own ways and successes and failures could contribute to the area where the war is on-going is pushed back out of that sector or the enemy advances to the next sector.
Now, personally, I am interested in where they are going with the story. There's a lot of emphasis on doom and gloom, but rather than feel like that's just farfetched, I get the sense the Iconians are holding back a lot and are after something else than what the Alliance has. They could kill us all if they wanted to, so why haven't they?
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I laughed at that more than I should have...
Yep this sums it right up. The Devs. are playing a different "war" compared to the actual players.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
STO's music is way too upbeat for the theme of 'back against the wall, go all in or go into the annals of history' that is supposed to be the Iconian War.
For a moment, take the briefing you get when you first engage the Iconians. I remember it had one of the upbeat STO battle themes. Now. Go replay that mission, but cut the music out, and instead play this:
A much different environment. That is the 'OH SHI...' music this story is looking for.
Imagine you are jumped by a squadron of Heralds, and instead of the existing themes (including especially the one that plays in the Delta Quadrant), THIS starts playing instead:
Something larger than you has just arrived, and you will be fighting a losing battle, just trying to _survive_, let alone achieve something.
There is also the design of the STFs. Maybe, instead of first defeating two waves of Heralds at the shipyard and starbase, then protecting transports for a set time and racking up numerous landings, and then blowing up the Herald Dreadnaught, perhaps we should have a different mission.
You start the mission fighting a desperate flanking maneuver, trying desperately to hold the starbase and shipyard against overwhelming odds. Klingon NPCs die left and right, and the optional (later required) mission at this point isn't to defeat them in 2 minutes. It's to defeat them _before_ they destroy the shipyard and starbase. Make the starbase fight back, as well as steadily deleting numbers of Klingon ships.
In the middle of this, introduce a _real_ escort mission, where you are desperately fighting off wave after wave of attacking Herald starships, hoping beyond hope that one of these freighters full of Klingon warriors will make it to Qo'nos. Have the comms filled with panicked screams of Orions, fatalistic Klingon singing, and even the occasional death scream as yet another starship is killed.
And then, as the final battle is waged, have that DN do something more than just sit like a bump on a log, getting shot at. All that work to defend Qo'nos One (name the damn Starbase!) is for naught...the DN's opening salvo blows the starbase apart. Klingon ships die left and right, and instead of just chasing it around the battlefield, have the final objective be stopping the ship before it can fire on Qo'nos itself.
THAT would give the STF the feel of fighting a losing battle against unwinnable odds, even as you 'win' the STF.
Seriously, Cryptic, watch this video. Even though you win the mission, that gargantuan starship is utterly destroyed...with all 10,000 of its crew. This mission had _far_ more impact to me than anything in STO, even the story missions.
Though even this mission has its problem. The upbeat victory music for completing the mission did not go with the briefing. "You almost died. Yay happy music!"
I defended Qonos several times, earth or new romulus haven't even been threatend.
I agree with you about the Voth and Vaadwaur, and would add Tholians and Undine to the list of conflicts that feel about right for the scale that they're trying to sell to us, but Elachi are like mini-Iconians to me, a lot of build up, where you get to shoot at 1 ship and fight 1 Elachi for your first 25 or so levels, then 5 missions where you actually fight them, and 2 queues most of the time, with another that shows up once in a while for a weekend event. Then you fight a few in space at the end of Sphere of Influence, and a handful of them on the ground in Uneasy Allies. With this next FE, we'll have as many episodes fighting solely Heralds as Romulans do fighting solely Elachi, and we already have more queues available all of the time to fight them than we do with Elachi.
I would also agree that Herald Red Alerts and Deep Space Encounters, as well as a persistent ground battlezone, would really make it feel like a war. I wouldn't mind enemy encounters randomly showing up, so long as they didn't disrupt low-level players.
At an absolute, bare minimum, there should be Red Alerts with Heralds, or something similar. It's just totally ridiculous that we're getting loading screens with posters about this all-out hopeless conflict, and then in-game, there's absolutely nothing to suggest the Iconian War is having any effect on anything, except for the featured PvE events. Why not replace the cheerful messages on the ESD PA with grim announcements about worlds being hit by Heralds? Dozens of worlds have just been added, with familiar names but no episodes currently associated with them. Why not talk about them being attacked, and show some wreckage in orbit, maybe some fires on the surface?
I've enjoyed the Lohlunat Festival, and have probably spent at least ten times as much playing time on that as on the Iconian War. So, from what I can tell, has everyone else. So maybe the Iconian events would have been better timed to occur after the Lohlunat Festival wrapped up.
I don't expect a complete map overhaul and what not.
There is already content in the game that is level-gated or mission-requirement-gated.
Herald Red Alerts could be such a content.
Also, new players can do the Featured Episodes, which are currently Iconian War episodes. That means everyone in the game is made aware of an Iconian threat. If they can see some Herald Red Alerts, too, that doesn't sound bad.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
This Level 60 galaxy would open up after the events in 'Blood of the Ancients' and WOULD include burning worlds, destroyed Starbases, constant Iconian and Herald incursions (both in space and ground locations). Have it include all current Iconian War content (FEs, queues) PLUS Iconian Red Alerts, Deep Space Encounters AND live events, like Individual Iconians (M'Tara, T'ket, etc. - played by the Devs) showing up on ESD, New Romulus, damaged Qo'nos and other worlds and stations (Andoria, Vulcan, Bajor, Drozana, DS9, etc.) at completely random times (basically whenever a Dev or two felt evil - lol), laying waste to anyone, player or NPC there.
Make the Level 60 galaxy one big Battlezone that is automatically entered after completing 'Blood of the Ancients' and can't be left (you can't run away from THIS war). Your character stays there until the bitter end. (racking up Iconian Resistance points for everything they participate in)
THAT would give this conflict a true sense of real war, Iconian power, decimation, and desperation it truly needs.
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
what this server needed was full scale war in another instance of sector space, one post qo'nos invasion. the heralds actually hunt you down in sector space and territory control is the way to go in much the same way the dyson sphere had it with zone 3 with 8472 and voth at the end.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
hard-light does freespace these days, so look em up if your that keen on the game. as for something larger and more powerful?
Sathanas vs Reaper xD
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
As to Broken Circle itself: I'm sure that throwing ships and bodies directly at the enemy will work out just as well as it did at Wolf 359, and we'll end up having to pull some sort of 11th-hour timey-wimey deus ex machina to save the day.
In other words, classic Star Trek.
I remember running about the ruins on New Romulus, killing the Heralds. That was not a threat? The Harbinger in the gate room was not a threat?
I agree with this. If devs made Iconians randomly attack players everywhere, like many people suggest here, the game would be frustrating beyond measure.
There are days when I log in for only 30 minutes or so to do DOffing. There is NOTHING I would hate more than to be forced to fight some random Herald patrol.
[sarcasm] I have even better idea! Upon reaching LvL 60 you character gets deleted! Because he/she died in the war! Now THAT would be immersive! [/sarcasm]
Most of us hadn't said this. We want some interaction with the enemy's forces. Like battlezones for grounds, red alerts / enemy contacts, random encounters. I play solo, what I saw of this skirmish? Only FEs nothing more. So its very hard to sell a "war" when you have nothing. For the Iconian Resistance Rep. That was a total joke. You want marks, and you play solo. Here do the same mission on Kobali 50,000 times for your Iconian Rep stuff. Which has nothing to do with the Iconian Skirmish. Instead we get crappy blogs to fill it in.
This whole story arc is a joke.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
I don't think random forced attacks are a good idea ever in STO. But that doesn't mean we couldn't have Herald Signal Contact and Herald Red Alerts.
The key is making somethnig that is actually visible in the game even if you don't go out of your way to do particular content.
wars tend to be unpredictable places, so controlling what you should and should not put in doesnt make a warzone and warzones are even more chaotic then a war by itself.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Both of these, for sure. And you know what, after Surface Tension, there *were* (and are) announcements about attacks on core systems, presumably the Undine. There is only one that I've noticed, but there is an incursion in the Andoria system. The first time I heard it right after Surface Tension, it put a chill down my spine. There should be more for higher-level players, though. This has NOT been as well executed as the Undine threat.
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Now that sparks an interesting idea. Have some casualty reports coming in and systems that have been decimated that we can travel to to further report on the destruction. Nothing really difficult but something like a daily count of going to a system, scanning wreckage, finding ship transponders, and reporting back to Quinn with a casualty report for ships and crew lost. Perhaps even rescue the odd escape pod that was missed in the attack also. A handful of these to complete would go a long way for adding to the situation.
I agree with the music change as well. Something that conveys more urgency than what we have now that makes me think I should be sleeping in my quarters or goofing off on the Holodeck.
The point is the visibility of the war isn't there, because it's tucked away behind queued events and featured episodes. Visiblity is not the same as "you get randomly sneak attack by a bunch of Heralds."
Red Alerts are very low-key, as are enemy signal contacts but they are still visible. Unless you sit around on a planet or station all day, you'll encounter them.
A different background music could also help. Maybe some regular speaker announcements on ESD about casualties...