True Colors

pwmiykael · August 2015

I have a major OCD question that's been plaguing me since the uniform update first came out. I've seen so many different answers for it that it's driving me crazy, and I was hoping that I could get an official answer once and for all...maybe with a screen shot as proof. And it's such a tiny thing, too.

Okay, so here it is: All captains wear white shoulders...BUT...do they all wear the red stripe? Or do they keep their original department color underneath the white segment?

I've had just as many people in equal numbers give me completely opposite answers. If you know for an absolute fact that npc captains wear their department color under the white (science or engineering captains), please post! Like I said, a screenshot wouldn't hurt either.

mustrumridcully0 · August 2015

There was a uniform guide on Arc and in the forums. The forum link I got: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums#/discussion/1159711/new-oddy-uniform-color-layouts/p1

The Arc link is here: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005803

A PDF is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji0l9nt7q43r2bx/Starfleet_Uniform_Code_2410_web.pdf

This might be the most important for player characters:
Commanding Officer: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005853
Flag Officer: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005873
Service Uniform for any Rank: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005823

Okay, so here it is: All captains wear white shoulders...BUT...do they all wear the red stripe? Or do they keep their original department color underneath the white segment?

If you notice, the pictures for the regular service uniform has 3 variations, by department/career, but the Captain variant does only have the Red (which also represents Command since TNG).

sunseahl · August 2015

"Commanding Officers"
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005853

happyhappyj0yj0y · August 2015

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

If you notice, the pictures for the regular service uniform has 3 variations, by department/career, but the Captain variant does only have the Red (which also represents Command since TNG).

Of course in TNG security is Gold... yet here they're back to TOS Redshirts. So if they're aiming for TNG they messed up. If they were aiming for TOS, well... no command Gold so... they messed up. If they were aiming to give every "class" their own "official" color to distinguish people's roles, well, by relegating all players to red, and making color schemes optional... they messed up.

But on the bright side... they have some kind of standard now. Except, you know, there's a bunch of NPCs running around breaking that standard, like having colored shoulders. But that's just minor NPCs here and there... except, you know, Tom Freaking Paris is a captain and wearing the long jacket supposedly reserved for senior flag officers... so yeah, they not only messed up the TOS thing, and the TNG, and the class-based thing... they even messed up their own thing.

In short: There is no standard, the guide is a lie and Cryptic is completely and totally physically incapable of picking a motif and sticking with it.

pwmiykael · August 2015

First and foremost, I would like to stress that I am WELL aware of the official uniform guide posted by the devs on the Arc forum. I used this to make my crew as canon to the 25th century as possible.

Now...I am also well aware that the aforementioned "official" guide only shows a captain with a red stripe. However, there's no way of knowing if that is meant for ALL captains, or if they are only showing a picture of a tactical captain.

It is entirely possible that all captains wear red like in TNG and beyond. However, I would argue that the only reason the department colors are what they are now is for the sake of gameplay. For a video game's "class system." Were this not the case, all the colors would have been made canon to the television series.

Since they didn't make them canon, and they have each player initially wearing the color of their class, it would not make sense to break this pattern from a pure gameplay stance. Each player would still need their own color to distinguish their abilities to their fellow players.

Put simply, if they were going to make all captains wear red like in the shows, then they may as well have not used the white shoulders at all. Additionally, they would have kept tactical as gold. Not red.

It should also be noted that the term "redshirts" only applied to the original series, when red and gold positions were reversed. Either way, in all Treks (TOS included), tactical, security, engineering, and ops ALL wore the same color. Command and helmsman shared a different color. The only thing that has remained true and constant is science/medical.

So what I'm saying is, if they're going to make all captains wear red - thus nullifying multiplayer class distinction - then they may as well fix the bridge officers as well.

happyhappyj0yj0y wrote: »

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

If you notice, the pictures for the regular service uniform has 3 variations, by department/career, but the Captain variant does only have the Red (which also represents Command since TNG).

Of course in TNG security is Gold... yet here they're back to TOS Redshirts. So if they're aiming for TNG they messed up. If they were aiming for TOS, well... no command Gold so... they messed up. If they were aiming to give every "class" their own "official" color to distinguish people's roles, well, by relegating all players to red, and making color schemes optional... they messed up.

But on the bright side... they have some kind of standard now. Except, you know, there's a bunch of NPCs running around breaking that standard, like having colored shoulders. But that's just minor NPCs here and there... except, you know, Tom Freaking Paris is a captain and wearing the long jacket supposedly reserved for senior flag officers... so yeah, they not only messed up the TOS thing, and the TNG, and the class-based thing... they even messed up their own thing.

In short: There is no standard, the guide is a lie and Cryptic is completely and totally physically incapable of picking a motif and sticking with it.

I honestly laughed out loud at this. Your post pretty much embodied everything that was driving my nerd rage at this game. As a sci fi geek with OCD, consistency is important above all else!

salazarraze · August 2015

pwmiykael wrote: »

...there's no way of knowing if that is meant for ALL captains, or if they are only showing a picture of a tactical captain.

Sure there's a way to know. It says commanding officers. Meaning all commanding officers. If there were different ones for engineers and science, it would show it. Harry Kim wore yellow/gold when he was an Ensign yet now he wears red as a captain. /thread

gradii · August 2015

I prefer the red to the gold 100% anyway, I think the engineer gold is kinda ugly

therealmaddmatt · August 2015

Since the BOFF guide specifies the individual career colours, and the Captain's guide doesn't, the implication that it's just intended to be red for the player. This isn't to say that one can't have two versions of your costume--one that makes sense in canon, and another for the in-game colour coding (provided your team-mates are that forgetful

).

In TNG canon, red is command, teal is sciences/medical, and gold is ops, of which would include security (like Yar and Worf). In the show, tactical itself isn't a department, but rather a bridge position/role, so it's colour would be only be dependent on who is manning the station. For instance, if you have Crusher on tactical, you get rainbow!

"Suck it, Blue!" ~Simmons

hawku001x · August 2015

This was driving me crazy too. I made the same thread in The Academy. So, I just went with two uniforms on hand per Captain... the white top uniform with red across the board, and the grey top with whichever colour division the Captain was. Admirals got black top with red stripe.

pwmiykael · August 2015

So...just to be clear: No one has EVER seen an NPC captain wear white shoulders with a gold or blue stripe?

I can accept that all captains are supposed to wear red. It just bugs me that they would ignore video game class distinctions for players but not for their "pets." It's like...either make it canon or don't. But at least keep it consistent. lol

mustrumridcully0 · August 2015

pwmiykael wrote: »

So...just to be clear: No one has EVER seen an NPC captain wear white shoulders with a gold or blue stripe?

I can accept that all captains are supposed to wear red. It just bugs me that they would ignore video game class distinctions for players but not for their "pets." It's like...either make it canon or don't. But at least keep it consistent. lol

I think it is consistent - you're a commanding officer, you can wear this special uniform. For most of the people that meet you in your capacity as Captain of a ship it doesn't matter whether you have a tactical, scientific or engineering background. You're the authority.

shadowwraith77 · August 2015

pwmiykael wrote: »

First and foremost, I would like to stress that I am WELL aware of the official uniform guide posted by the devs on the Arc forum. I used this to make my crew as canon to the 25th century as possible.

Now...I am also well aware that the aforementioned "official" guide only shows a captain with a red stripe. However, there's no way of knowing if that is meant for ALL captains, or if they are only showing a picture of a tactical captain.

It is entirely possible that all captains wear red like in TNG and beyond. However, I would argue that the only reason the department colors are what they are now is for the sake of gameplay. For a video game's "class system." Were this not the case, all the colors would have been made canon to the television series.

Since they didn't make them canon, and they have each player initially wearing the color of their class, it would not make sense to break this pattern from a pure gameplay stance. Each player would still need their own color to distinguish their abilities to their fellow players.

Put simply, if they were going to make all captains wear red like in the shows, then they may as well have not used the white shoulders at all. Additionally, they would have kept tactical as gold. Not red.

It should also be noted that the term "redshirts" only applied to the original series, when red and gold positions were reversed. Either way, in all Treks (TOS included), tactical, security, engineering, and ops ALL wore the same color. Command and helmsman shared a different color. The only thing that has remained true and constant is science/medical.

So what I'm saying is, if they're going to make all captains wear red - thus nullifying multiplayer class distinction - then they may as well fix the bridge officers as well.

happyhappyj0yj0y wrote: »

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

If you notice, the pictures for the regular service uniform has 3 variations, by department/career, but the Captain variant does only have the Red (which also represents Command since TNG).

Of course in TNG security is Gold... yet here they're back to TOS Redshirts. So if they're aiming for TNG they messed up. If they were aiming for TOS, well... no command Gold so... they messed up. If they were aiming to give every "class" their own "official" color to distinguish people's roles, well, by relegating all players to red, and making color schemes optional... they messed up.

But on the bright side... they have some kind of standard now. Except, you know, there's a bunch of NPCs running around breaking that standard, like having colored shoulders. But that's just minor NPCs here and there... except, you know, Tom Freaking Paris is a captain and wearing the long jacket supposedly reserved for senior flag officers... so yeah, they not only messed up the TOS thing, and the TNG, and the class-based thing... they even messed up their own thing.

In short: There is no standard, the guide is a lie and Cryptic is completely and totally physically incapable of picking a motif and sticking with it.

I honestly laughed out loud at this. Your post pretty much embodied everything that was driving my nerd rage at this game. As a sci fi geek with OCD, consistency is important above all else!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piMRgm9Ga6o

This video, shows a good mix of yellow/red/teal all on the bridge of the enterprise-e, even one of the helm control lt. hawk, was wearing red.

So, position is relevant to some degree but, ultimately canon seemed to be more about field of expertise regarding color significance!

While rank, seemed to only play a vital role color wise, when in either some special field or, above the rank of captain or, in matters of dress protocol calling for otherwise!

hawku001x · August 2015

Nog had a red stripe too, and I'm assuming he was in the Engineer division.

frankieaq · August 2015

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

There was a uniform guide on Arc and in the forums. The forum link I got: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums#/discussion/1159711/new-oddy-uniform-color-layouts/p1

The Arc link is here: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005803

A PDF is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji0l9nt7q43r2bx/Starfleet_Uniform_Code_2410_web.pdf

This might be the most important for player characters:
Commanding Officer: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005853
Flag Officer: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005873
Service Uniform for any Rank: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005823

Okay, so here it is: All captains wear white shoulders...BUT...do they all wear the red stripe? Or do they keep their original department color underneath the white segment?

If you notice, the pictures for the regular service uniform has 3 variations, by department/career, but the Captain variant does only have the Red (which also represents Command since TNG).

Very nice !!!

kodachikuno · August 2015

frankly I threw it all out, got the oddy dress uniform and went back to Wrath of Khan division colors. Once my captain hit Admiral I swapped from branch color to command white.

hard to tell there but there is a difference between tactical and science. I kept the differences from movie era

en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Starfleet_uniform_(late_2270s-2350s)

rattler2 · August 2015

TNG on red was used to represent the Command Division. Its possible that having Captains wearing red is a nod to the Command Division instead of the in game Tactical career.

STO Career colors:

Red = Tactical
Gold = Engineering
Blue = Science

TNG era Departmental colors

Red = Command
Gold = Operations (Security/Engineering)
Blue = Science and Medical

True Colors

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