Our ships aren't the only one fighting the Iconian's and their Heralds. As for our own captains, some of the recent Episodes didn't end in victories either. Nearly lost New Romulus, and we lost the known Preserver site. We managed to stop the Solanae fleet from entering the war though. In the Time in a Bottle episode our captain and landing party were outnumbered. We survived that at least partly due to the Krenim artifact taking us out of sync with the normal space time continuum. And while one of the Iconian's themselves was injured in a different episode, the primary goal of destroying one of their Omega Particle factories failed on actually destroying it, though we did leave with knowledge they can be injured or worse.
Beyond the episodes covering our part of the war, we also have the stories written up by the dev's telling us more of what's going on. A thought I had: in addition to the promotional image we already get in the Tales of the War dev blogs, maybe a screen shot of in game assets or artwork portraying one of the scenes described in the Tales of the War story. I guess that would depend on available time constraints, but would be nice to see in at least some of the Tales of the War story blogs. I do like the Tales of the War dev blogs by the way.
In addition to that: it might be nice to see something extra in game starting once you hit one the Iconian episodes. Perhaps portraying some of what's going on beyond our own fights against the Iconian forces. Maybe something like more ships then normal in extra dry docks, perhaps some extra NPC's(like a random crew member, or random captain in a factions equivalent to the Space Dock area of ESD) with a bit of info about part of the Iconian war, or something along those lines. Not to much perhaps. And perhaps a random dialog showing some rare victory outside of our own battles to give some hope.
Certainly the Iconian's and their forces aren't going to win every single battle, even with the technological advantage of traveling anywhere they want and leaving just as quickly. They would occasionally run into a very well prepared and informed fleet and be forced to retreat remaining ships using their gateway technology. Or one of our allied fleets got lucky and won the battle anyways, or found a weakness, or a way to block incoming or outgoing gateways, etc.
While our captains are defeating Herald forces left and right in the episodes we still lost at least a few of the battles portrayed during some of the recent featured episodes, and we did learn something along the way that may help us in some fashion from the episode or episodes. They are weak to time traveling for instance, and a sufficient energy blast weakens them enough for batleth's or other weapons to cause additional or serious harm to an Iconian.
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.
But that's just it. If you commit to participating in the war by completing 'Blood of the Ancients' then you ARE at war. There's no hiding. There's no place safe from the Iconians - they can appear anytime. That's what they do. You fight the war to it's conclusion so you can have peace again.
They could put a disclaimer in the 'Blood of the Ancients' mission briefing stating so. That way people who want to participate can, and those that don't can stay in the 'normal' non-war galaxy by not doing that (and therefore, any subsequent Iconain War) mission.
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.
But that's just it. If you commit to participating in the war by completing 'Blood of the Ancients' then you ARE at war. There's no hiding. There's no place safe from the Iconians - they can appear anytime. That's what they do. You fight the war to it's conclusion so you can have peace again.
They could put a disclaimer in the 'Blood of the Ancients' mission briefing stating so. That way people who want to participate can, and those that don't can stay in the 'normal' non-war galaxy by not doing that (and therefore, any subsequent Iconain War) mission.
In that case 90% of server population will just skip this mission.
There was a time, when they used to do that sorta thing... occasionally.... It was really spontaneous... and.... FUN too .
That gif... Now that is what I'm looking for from season 10+; full of drama, action, and the obligatory explosion...oh, and throw in humor to that list.
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.
I'd have no problem with Herald Red Alerts. Signal Contacts, either, though thematically speaking I doubt we'd ever see Iconian signatures before they just gate themselves in.
If they really wanted to make it an event, then some server-wide events would be appropriate. I would expect to see both planetary attacks (like the Undine PvE space queue) and ground invasions by Heralds. That is, if I expected to see anything.
I already said it in another thread, Cryptic needs to implement a good balance and proper use of old techniques: Phasing Technology in particular, and Instance.
LotRO made a mistake in phasing technology, locking it with the character's development/timeline.
Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa did a very good job in using phasing correctly.
WoW started experimenting in phasing in WotLK.
GW1 used instance technology too much.
GW2 used both instance and phasing technology perfectly.
STO already have instances.
STO already have phasing in the game.
We just need these two techs implemented across-the-board.
For example. If you have a particular mission activated, you are phased in to that mission's timeline - especially true for episodic missions.
If you say combine an episodic mission with a sideline mission, the sideline mission might get affected by your episodic mission.
But what if you have multiple episodic mission activated? Well, I'm not here to throw ideas, they can discuss it.
If you already finished say, the latest episodic mission, then you'll see the rest of the game in that timeline. But you can help players from the "past" if they invite you to their party (they have to create the party and invite you, not the other way around). -- This was LotRO's mistake, there was no way to help your friends/guildies who were still in the "past".
Or, you can do it the RG-TR, GW2, WoW way. If you enter a zone/area that was affected by the missions you already did, you'll phase in to that. But other areas won't, especially if you haven't done the episodic mission related to it.
It's all there. It just needs proper implementation and a good balance. Of course, time and effort, which no doubt the Cryptic devs doesn't have any, as they're concentrating on finishing the "STO 1: Iconian Major Plot", so they can move on to "STO 2: {New Major Plot}".
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.
I'd have no problem with Herald Red Alerts. Signal Contacts, either, though thematically speaking I doubt we'd ever see Iconian signatures before they just gate themselves in.
If they really wanted to make it an event, then some server-wide events would be appropriate. I would expect to see both planetary attacks (like the Undine PvE space queue) and ground invasions by Heralds. That is, if I expected to see anything.
For those they could make it so that it's like NWS and you are fighting off Heralds that attacked a Federation convoy.
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.
Or missions beyond the Big Plot missions that fill in the gaps, add ambiance. Rescuing escape pods, so on. Not every mission and episode needs to be about us watching THE FATE OF THE GALAXY HANG IN PERIL. Could be just us doing our jobs on the front. DS9 did a good job of that with background stuff and showing the day in, day out stuff.
With this... it feels like us going "CHAAAAAAARGE" and getting rofflestomped by the Iconian Power of the Cutscene so we're desperate enough to use the Krenim Weapon and it all gets retconned away.
I'm really hoping it's not that. Using Time Travel Powas to make everything not happen or the Iconians to have never happened is just... obnoxious.
With the changes to sector spece, they added a lot more events on the sector space map. Sure, the Red Alerts themselves are limited to the older ones, but the random enemy encounters on the sector map seem a lot better in general.
I'm talking about adding more variety to the sector space alerts, not this just Borg + Tholian TRIBBLE.
We're excited to announce our latest Featured Episode Broken Circle! Join the Alliance in a desperate battle to save their future from the Iconian menace in Season 10.5!
Maybe it has been mentioned elsewhere, but what are the rewards for this FE?
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
I do have to say that STO has a lot of potential in the aftermath of this season. Adding new species to the three factions, new and old threats taking advantage of the aftermath, and what if the Krenim timeship's power is abused and re-draws the galactic map?
Hmmm, what if Sela got a hold of the Krenim timeship?
FYI, There is one Bug that has cropped up already, There is a Bug Thread Started in the Bug Section. Lets Keep Bug talk out of here to cut down on spoilers.
i thought the new feature episode was called 'broken circle' when did it morph to 'borked server'.. sorry, bad jokes are what happen when impatience takes on an edge of boredom
I'm not going to quote Jhymesba, Shpoks, or Captainhunter1, but I am in agreement with them all. While some of the mission setups have been interesting, the atmosphere is lacking. The hunt for Hakeev in the Romulan conflicts, the fighting with the Borg leading to Defera, those were excellent stories that let you be the star, or part of the ensemble cast once you hit Defera, but all of this stuff with Tuvok, Kim, Paris, and now friggan Nog - it turns into 'C'mon buckaroo, you can be my personal redshirt!' I don't like Tuvok, Paris, or Nog, so I don't want to be put into a position where their clear allowance of my presence is supposed to ingratiate me to them. Secondly, rather than relying on these VO roles, as Shpoks had mentioned, why not put it in a position where you're being tapped to take control, even being led by the nose by Section 31, again, would be more enjoyable, because at the very least Section 31 had all but flat out said 'Look, we need you, but we can't get you into a position to do this normally, so we're bein' sneaky sneaky". It's the ol' Escape From New York ploy and we were Snake Plissken.
I like the idea of the level 60+ war map that you'd be dropped into after Blood of Ancients, or perhaps the devs could elicit a form of Capture and Hold using the current. Have certain areas of space become hostile, make it so we can't do DOFF missions there, make it so those sections that've been taken over now function like the warzone of the Dyson Sphere. Wanna get through? Better work your way through, or take a very long path around.
Maybe Fed and Klink forces can try to claim territory back, try to hold the line as long as they can, maybe even push the Iconians back - give players the opportunity to earn Dil and Rep marks, as if they were doing STFs, you know... Like the events within the warzone (ground and space) of the DYSON SPHERE. Maybe make them a little more enriching than their predecessors, or even put in a daily limit that can be earned, and let the rest be done via the standard run of STFs per usual, but at least then it'd be interesting. Maybe each sector of the new map grid becomes its own battlezone, just to space it out a little. Let planets/systems in there become a sort of Red Alert of their own, maybe even throw in some very simple or basic ground battlezones. The Vaudwaar/Kobali trenches are pretty damn awesome if you ask me. How about some stuff like that?
Maybe this could be an opportunity for Rom Republic to split from the KDF and UFP and be their own faction if they want. Sectors taken back from the Iconians become UFP, KDF, or NRR. I know I'm spitballing ideas, and I don't know the effects they could have on space, server stuff, etc, and I'm not armchair game deving saying, 'I could do better'. I just hope a dev reads this, it gets brought up in a boardroom meeting, and it gets the OK. I don't even want or need any sort of written acknowledgement. I'd just like to see 'Tales of the War' be more than glorified blog posts on the main website. I'd like them be our, the players, 'Tales of The War'.
We're excited to announce our latest Featured Episode Broken Server! Join the Alliance in a desperate battle to save their future from the Iconian menace in Season 10.5!
It would seem more like a war if it were more visible in sector space. if like the red alerts their were iconian red alerts. where if the iconians took a sector....and there was a red alert for it, we would be unable to do quests, missions, or patrol missions in that sector until the alliance took that sector back. and it would be nice to see ground and space red alerts and they would be different for each sector that a battle was being fought in. i.e. different objectives and different maps.
I don't think I've ever facepalmed so hard playing this game. I'm going to have Kagran executed for such an amazingly stupid plan. That son of a ***** is dead to me. In fact, he'd make an excellent test subject for the Krenim to use their time altering technology on. Let's remove Kargran from the timeline and save millions of lives.
I will say that cutscene with the dreadnought was pretty awesome. The ships moved more fluidly and felt really more authentic than having them fly on rigid paths. Well done.
Yep I see what is going to happen after playing that episode. They are going to do a temporal reset of the game where every item is deleted and everyone will be forced to start over from scratch. Anyways will log in again next time there is a new episode to play. Or are they going to start making people grind if people just login then play it and then not return like I've been doing lol.
I don't think I've ever facepalmed so hard playing this game. I'm going to have Kagran executed for such an amazingly stupid plan. That son of a ***** is dead to me. In fact, he'd make an excellent test subject for the Krenim to use their time altering technology on. Let's remove Kargran from the timeline and save millions of lives.
Well actually that's an aspect of the episode that I really, really liked. You sit through that conferencing thinking "there is no way in hell that this ever going to work [and that includes the Timeship]. We are grasping at straws here hoping that by cheating we'll overcome our horrendous tactical disadvantages. We are going to lose."
And from the mission we are validated for thinking "this was a very stupid idea."
We get a little something for it, but at a hugely unsustainable costs that completely undermines the conventional boss fight resolution (no triumph, just a lot of broken ships).
Assassinations aren't the answer, and it'll probably turn out next episode that doomsday devices won't be either. So where does that leave us? Well has anyone tried talking to the less insane iconians? Or if they're out of the question what about the Borg, Tholians, Dominion, Undine, Voth, Vaadwuar, and/or the Tranya Guy? A push towards unconventional reconciliations through definite in game events which portray how self-destructive the alternatives are.
That's a good season.
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Personally, I'd find it interesting to come begging to the Dominion for their help. It would be amusing to see a horde of Bug ships and Dreadnaughts hurling themselves at the Heralds.
I actually felt sad for M'Tara, I was also hoping we'd never kill an Iconian but instead eventually make them see and realize their own mistakes. I still hope that proves the case later on with the rest of the Iconians should they get pushed into a corner. And it's very obvious the deus ex machina of that time weapon isn't going to work. So I'll hold out some hope for a bit of the spirit of Star Trek to survive in the end, that war is not the final answer to problems, and that diplomacy is.
Conclusion, it was interesting, longer than usual, which was good, and invoked some emotions and brings up issues about the ethics of what the alliance is doing.
I didn't. I quite enjoyed killing a "god"! As she died, I said aloud, "That's for the Preservers, *****!" I only wish I had gotten to slaughter T'Ket for dessert. Ah, well. Next episode, perhaps.
where do i even start on where i am at with this story line? i'm kind of hoping that
this is actually just 1 of the holodeck simulations, although i think that would maybe be a bit weak on top of the fact that the war itself doesnt feel like a war
as for the final dialogue..
is with the single response options? there should be blame.. i dont think we did.. it really isnt
as always, great environment to run around in.. art team is totally kickass!!
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 heartedly agree...and it pains me to say that. The biggest thing is this episode has no inherent story logic whatsoever.
Im sorry Dev's -but unless I missed something during the current feature episode, then WTF! Major plot holes....frikking really major blood bad plot holes!
We just found out during the episode that the Iconians are energy beings and that we were able to make M'Tara vulnerable to damage by killing the power to the Herald's EPS grid by turning those power conduits off (now keep in mind, this is also forgetting the fact that we found out in 'House Peng' that Iconians are vulnerable to Omega Radiation- um why simply not Omega weapons then anyone??? One Omega bomb and BOOOM...no more Iconians??? Ahem). So where was I...yes so pull the power plugs and Iconians will drain their own small batteries...
Why the heck then did we only kill M'tara?!
She was SO incompetent and again proved how utterly moronic the Iconians are... she called her family to come to her as she was dying-um hey stupid M'Tara, I know you are dying and all but...remember you are stuck on a booby trapped Herald now that ultimately killed you. Why the heck would you expose your family to that and make them vulnerable by calling them to your location too?
Im sorry but totally FAIL in the writing. We had them right where we wanted them on the powered down ship and having them to rely on their own internal power. If we could easily kill her, then why not the other Iconian fools who showed up!?
This story logic that was written makes totally no sense... I guess neither does the Omega vulnerability from 'House Peng' now either. Knowing that they are energy beings that readily syphon external power sources, shouldn't Omega then have made em more powerful instead of damaging them? Omega is the ultimate particle powerhouse, it should have made em like SUPER Iconians instead??? Anyway...
I am not impressed with this writing fail. Just isolating them in an environment with no power outlets for them to suck power from... we should just muck up their power bills and have their electricity cut. Fed's win easy :P
I don't hold my breath for the next feature episode. That one stunk in my opinion. Wasn't challenging and not compelling. I would consider getting some of the better Foundry writers to help out the Dev's writing team- they obviously need the help. I know that I have been harsh, but the writers should be made accountable for this failing standard in the writing. Star Trek has always held their episode writing in high regard for the most part of the last 49 years. This episode failed on so many levels. I am just so sorry to say that, but it did
brings up issues about the ethics of what the alliance is doing.
yep thats where im standing on this too.
200000years is a long time to be thinking about the destruction of your home.. M'Tara is the queen, and very much duty and responsibility.. T'Ket bears the most pain, so has been carrying the most anger.. the savant, she's the peace keeper, the voice of reason, the most likely iconian we could open a dialogue with, well was! maybe this is just 1 of nogs simulations
She was SO incompetent and again proved how utterly moronic the Iconians are... she called her family to come to her as she was dying-um hey stupid M'Tara, I know you are dying and all but...remember you are stuck on a booby trapped Herald now that ultimately killed you. Why the heck would you expose your family to that and make them vulnerable by calling them to your location too?
all i can think is
maybe they are each connected directly to their own ships.. weak concept, unlikely but a possibility i guess.. or maybe its all simulations and the plot holes are result of our lack of knowledge about them.. or maybe this is all a test by the temporal agent, to see if we are suitable for opening up negotiations with the iconians? straws clutching i think, but yeah
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Captain of the venerable I.K.S. Y'Kun.
#MaybeALittleFluffy
Our ships aren't the only one fighting the Iconian's and their Heralds. As for our own captains, some of the recent Episodes didn't end in victories either. Nearly lost New Romulus, and we lost the known Preserver site. We managed to stop the Solanae fleet from entering the war though. In the Time in a Bottle episode our captain and landing party were outnumbered. We survived that at least partly due to the Krenim artifact taking us out of sync with the normal space time continuum. And while one of the Iconian's themselves was injured in a different episode, the primary goal of destroying one of their Omega Particle factories failed on actually destroying it, though we did leave with knowledge they can be injured or worse.
Beyond the episodes covering our part of the war, we also have the stories written up by the dev's telling us more of what's going on. A thought I had: in addition to the promotional image we already get in the Tales of the War dev blogs, maybe a screen shot of in game assets or artwork portraying one of the scenes described in the Tales of the War story. I guess that would depend on available time constraints, but would be nice to see in at least some of the Tales of the War story blogs. I do like the Tales of the War dev blogs by the way.
In addition to that: it might be nice to see something extra in game starting once you hit one the Iconian episodes. Perhaps portraying some of what's going on beyond our own fights against the Iconian forces. Maybe something like more ships then normal in extra dry docks, perhaps some extra NPC's(like a random crew member, or random captain in a factions equivalent to the Space Dock area of ESD) with a bit of info about part of the Iconian war, or something along those lines. Not to much perhaps. And perhaps a random dialog showing some rare victory outside of our own battles to give some hope.
Certainly the Iconian's and their forces aren't going to win every single battle, even with the technological advantage of traveling anywhere they want and leaving just as quickly. They would occasionally run into a very well prepared and informed fleet and be forced to retreat remaining ships using their gateway technology. Or one of our allied fleets got lucky and won the battle anyways, or found a weakness, or a way to block incoming or outgoing gateways, etc.
While our captains are defeating Herald forces left and right in the episodes we still lost at least a few of the battles portrayed during some of the recent featured episodes, and we did learn something along the way that may help us in some fashion from the episode or episodes. They are weak to time traveling for instance, and a sufficient energy blast weakens them enough for batleth's or other weapons to cause additional or serious harm to an Iconian.
But that's just it. If you commit to participating in the war by completing 'Blood of the Ancients' then you ARE at war. There's no hiding. There's no place safe from the Iconians - they can appear anytime. That's what they do. You fight the war to it's conclusion so you can have peace again.
They could put a disclaimer in the 'Blood of the Ancients' mission briefing stating so. That way people who want to participate can, and those that don't can stay in the 'normal' non-war galaxy by not doing that (and therefore, any subsequent Iconain War) mission.
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
In that case 90% of server population will just skip this mission.
That gif...
I'd have no problem with Herald Red Alerts. Signal Contacts, either, though thematically speaking I doubt we'd ever see Iconian signatures before they just gate themselves in.
If they really wanted to make it an event, then some server-wide events would be appropriate. I would expect to see both planetary attacks (like the Undine PvE space queue) and ground invasions by Heralds. That is, if I expected to see anything.
LotRO made a mistake in phasing technology, locking it with the character's development/timeline.
Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa did a very good job in using phasing correctly.
WoW started experimenting in phasing in WotLK.
GW1 used instance technology too much.
GW2 used both instance and phasing technology perfectly.
STO already have instances.
STO already have phasing in the game.
We just need these two techs implemented across-the-board.
For example. If you have a particular mission activated, you are phased in to that mission's timeline - especially true for episodic missions.
If you say combine an episodic mission with a sideline mission, the sideline mission might get affected by your episodic mission.
But what if you have multiple episodic mission activated? Well, I'm not here to throw ideas, they can discuss it.
If you already finished say, the latest episodic mission, then you'll see the rest of the game in that timeline. But you can help players from the "past" if they invite you to their party (they have to create the party and invite you, not the other way around). -- This was LotRO's mistake, there was no way to help your friends/guildies who were still in the "past".
Or, you can do it the RG-TR, GW2, WoW way. If you enter a zone/area that was affected by the missions you already did, you'll phase in to that. But other areas won't, especially if you haven't done the episodic mission related to it.
It's all there. It just needs proper implementation and a good balance. Of course, time and effort, which no doubt the Cryptic devs doesn't have any, as they're concentrating on finishing the "STO 1: Iconian Major Plot", so they can move on to "STO 2: {New Major Plot}".
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Or missions beyond the Big Plot missions that fill in the gaps, add ambiance. Rescuing escape pods, so on. Not every mission and episode needs to be about us watching THE FATE OF THE GALAXY HANG IN PERIL. Could be just us doing our jobs on the front. DS9 did a good job of that with background stuff and showing the day in, day out stuff.
With this... it feels like us going "CHAAAAAAARGE" and getting rofflestomped by the Iconian Power of the Cutscene so we're desperate enough to use the Krenim Weapon and it all gets retconned away.
I'm really hoping it's not that. Using Time Travel Powas to make everything not happen or the Iconians to have never happened is just... obnoxious.
Maybe it has been mentioned elsewhere, but what are the rewards for this FE?
Hmmm, what if Sela got a hold of the Krenim timeship?
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums#/discussion/1195549/unable-to-complete-featured-episode-broken-circle
I like the idea of the level 60+ war map that you'd be dropped into after Blood of Ancients, or perhaps the devs could elicit a form of Capture and Hold using the current. Have certain areas of space become hostile, make it so we can't do DOFF missions there, make it so those sections that've been taken over now function like the warzone of the Dyson Sphere. Wanna get through? Better work your way through, or take a very long path around.
Maybe Fed and Klink forces can try to claim territory back, try to hold the line as long as they can, maybe even push the Iconians back - give players the opportunity to earn Dil and Rep marks, as if they were doing STFs, you know... Like the events within the warzone (ground and space) of the DYSON SPHERE. Maybe make them a little more enriching than their predecessors, or even put in a daily limit that can be earned, and let the rest be done via the standard run of STFs per usual, but at least then it'd be interesting. Maybe each sector of the new map grid becomes its own battlezone, just to space it out a little. Let planets/systems in there become a sort of Red Alert of their own, maybe even throw in some very simple or basic ground battlezones. The Vaudwaar/Kobali trenches are pretty damn awesome if you ask me. How about some stuff like that?
Maybe this could be an opportunity for Rom Republic to split from the KDF and UFP and be their own faction if they want. Sectors taken back from the Iconians become UFP, KDF, or NRR. I know I'm spitballing ideas, and I don't know the effects they could have on space, server stuff, etc, and I'm not armchair game deving saying, 'I could do better'. I just hope a dev reads this, it gets brought up in a boardroom meeting, and it gets the OK. I don't even want or need any sort of written acknowledgement. I'd just like to see 'Tales of the War' be more than glorified blog posts on the main website. I'd like them be our, the players, 'Tales of The War'.
I fixed that for you, @pwlaughingtrendy! :P
I will say that cutscene with the dreadnought was pretty awesome. The ships moved more fluidly and felt really more authentic than having them fly on rigid paths. Well done.
M'Tara's death scene in a nut shell.
But at least we finally get to fight an Iconian in this Iconian War.
I'm still trying to figure out these things.
You know... we have spoiler tags now. :P
Yeah, sorry about that.
And from the mission we are validated for thinking "this was a very stupid idea."
Assassinations aren't the answer, and it'll probably turn out next episode that doomsday devices won't be either. So where does that leave us? Well has anyone tried talking to the less insane iconians? Or if they're out of the question what about the Borg, Tholians, Dominion, Undine, Voth, Vaadwuar, and/or the Tranya Guy? A push towards unconventional reconciliations through definite in game events which portray how self-destructive the alternatives are.
That's a good season.
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Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Conclusion, it was interesting, longer than usual, which was good, and invoked some emotions and brings up issues about the ethics of what the alliance is doing.
I heartedly agree...and it pains me to say that. The biggest thing is this episode has no inherent story logic whatsoever.
Im sorry Dev's -but unless I missed something during the current feature episode, then WTF! Major plot holes....frikking really major blood bad plot holes!
Why the heck then did we only kill M'tara?!
She was SO incompetent and again proved how utterly moronic the Iconians are... she called her family to come to her as she was dying-um hey stupid M'Tara, I know you are dying and all but...remember you are stuck on a booby trapped Herald now that ultimately killed you. Why the heck would you expose your family to that and make them vulnerable by calling them to your location too?
Im sorry but totally FAIL in the writing. We had them right where we wanted them on the powered down ship and having them to rely on their own internal power. If we could easily kill her, then why not the other Iconian fools who showed up!?
This story logic that was written makes totally no sense... I guess neither does the Omega vulnerability from 'House Peng' now either. Knowing that they are energy beings that readily syphon external power sources, shouldn't Omega then have made em more powerful instead of damaging them? Omega is the ultimate particle powerhouse, it should have made em like SUPER Iconians instead??? Anyway...
I am not impressed with this writing fail. Just isolating them in an environment with no power outlets for them to suck power from... we should just muck up their power bills and have their electricity cut. Fed's win easy :P
I don't hold my breath for the next feature episode. That one stunk in my opinion. Wasn't challenging and not compelling. I would consider getting some of the better Foundry writers to help out the Dev's writing team- they obviously need the help. I know that I have been harsh, but the writers should be made accountable for this failing standard in the writing. Star Trek has always held their episode writing in high regard for the most part of the last 49 years. This episode failed on so many levels. I am just so sorry to say that, but it did