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[PC] Designing the Tzenkethi Starships

ambassadorkael#6946 ambassadorkael Member, Administrator Posts: 2,674 Community Manager
The Tzenkethi are a distinctive new enemy for Star Trek Online on PC. Find out how their starships were designed by the people that designed them.

Full details here:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10341023-designing-the-tzenkethi-starships
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Comments

  • thay8472thay8472 Member Posts: 6,100 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    I smell a Tzenkethi Lockbox coming.

    I like the dreadnought design.
    2gdi5w4mrudm.png
    Typhoon Class please!
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    The Hammerhead design is awesome.
    93260eb50deb9de244371038a2bc42c41483490806.jpg


    I am a bit mixed about the Battleship - Kinda wish front and back were reserved, because that would like one sleak mother...ship . The other way around, it's just a beast. ;)
    But it has a nice back.
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  • dariusturaldariustural Member Posts: 94 Arc User
    The ground race models are unlike the race in the novels. Not looking forward to the story line arc, battle ques, or equipment grinds. Personally, I am tired of the constant pew pew pew.
  • seannewboyseannewboy Member Posts: 667 Arc User
    I like the new ship styles.
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  • captaind3captaind3 Member Posts: 2,449 Arc User
    They're beautiful and I concur with Mustumridcully, that Hammerhead Dreadnaught is out of this world awesome.

    I initially thought from the first picture that the Battleship was reversed, but I know why they didn't as not only would it look like a Star Destroyer it would also look like a Voth ship. On the other hand it still reminds me of Ruafo's So'na command ship.

    Love the lighting choices too. Overall while the Tzenkethi look like Shokan, their ships look like fish. Which makes them look super Star Trek, outstanding job. I could easily see that Dreadnought having a face to face stand off with the Enterprise-D.

    I'm curious how the inevitable Tzenkethi skin is gonna look on my ship.
    tumblr_mr1jc2hq2T1rzu2xzo9_r1_400.gif
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  • psycoticvulcanpsycoticvulcan Member Posts: 4,160 Arc User
    edited January 2017
    Interesting... do the Tzenkethi not use frigates and cruisers?

    I kind of like the idea of the battleships and dreadnoughts launching huge waves of drone fighters against us. Would be a neat departure from what we've seen before.

    And I concur with the above posters, the Hammerhead is awesome. The battleship looks cool too, kind of what I would have preferred for the Xindi-Reptilians. Looking forward to seeing them in action.
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    "Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
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  • nikolunusnikolunus Member Posts: 162 Arc User
    I hope they don't put these in Lock Boxes, they are great looking ships and would be nice not have an enemy ships that we dont have the chance to fly.
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  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    thay8472 wrote: »
    I smell a Tzenkethi Lockbox coming.

    I like the dreadnought design.

    Going by the capabilities they describe in the blog, I wonder if one of the inevitable lockbox ships will have 6 fore and 2 aft weapons, with paper shields on the forward arc
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  • shadowfirefly00shadowfirefly00 Member Posts: 1,026 Arc User
    Again, articles like this which delve into the thought process behind a thing (well, things) are always welcome.

    To sum up: the Tzenkethi ships would be among the more agile examples of their classes, make extensive use of traits akin to Wing Man, and use analogues to the PEP torp whose clouds have the added effect of conferring benefits to allied ships (speculation: shield regen and hardness; resistances; hull regen)... it would not be unreasonable to believe this applies to their version of warp plasma ejection as well. I imagine that they will be making more extensive use of (drone) strikecraft than other forces encountered to date.

    It will be interesting to see what other tricks they have up their proverbial sleeves.
    captaind3 wrote: »
    I'm curious how the inevitable Tzenkethi skin is gonna look on my ship.
    Agreed; that pattern would be quite interesting to see on other ships. Sort of related: why isn't there a 'spook' vanity item we can buy for the shield-visual slot that gives Federation ships, for example, the pattern usually associated with their intel ships...?
  • calexisrexcalexisrex Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    Strike two!!! Once again, artists not reading books as source material for the Tzenkethi: ship descriptions are provided in several of the Typhon Pact novels (and descriptions of the Tzenkethi themselves!) What gives?!
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    calexisrex wrote: »
    Strike two!!! Once again, artists not reading books as source material for the Tzenkethi: ship descriptions are provided in several of the Typhon Pact novels (and descriptions of the Tzenkethi themselves!) What gives?!
    Why would the need to feel beholden to some obscure novels, and particularly why would you expect them to ignore the physical description of such a novel for the species but then adhere to the physical description of the species' ship?
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • ash352ash352 Member Posts: 235 Arc User
    nikolunus wrote: »
    I hope they don't put these in Lock Boxes, they are great looking ships and would be nice not have an enemy ships that we dont have the chance to fly.

    When have ships like this not been put into a lockbox? Yeah it'd be nice to have them in the C-store but what do you think will actually happen?
  • angrybobhangrybobh Member Posts: 420 Arc User
    "We believe that the Star Trek Online community of captains will show adaptability and cleverness that even the Tzenkethi will not be ready for."

    So, FAW? I'm sure whatever they got can be FAW'd down.

    They are all nice looking ships. The battleship is nearly exactly what I pictured they would fly after seeing the blog on the ground units.
  • toivatoiva Member Posts: 3,276 Arc User
    Kind of like a combination of Nausicaan and Orion designs.

    The hammerhead is nice, but it appears to have less texture details than the battleship. Hopefully that's just an appearance issue due to the size difference.
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  • nimbullnimbull Member Posts: 1,564 Arc User
    And I thought it was bad enough when my Romulan's scimitar wing gets caught on another scimitar's wing over New Romulus. Dear god the congestion in space when people start flying these ships is going to be massive.
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  • dariusturaldariustural Member Posts: 94 Arc User
    calexisrex wrote: »
    Strike two!!! Once again, artists not reading books as source material for the Tzenkethi: ship descriptions are provided in several of the Typhon Pact novels (and descriptions of the Tzenkethi themselves!) What gives?!
    Why would the need to feel beholden to some obscure novels, and particularly why would you expect them to ignore the physical description of such a novel for the species but then adhere to the physical description of the species' ship?

    I would guess the Typhon Pact novels were deemed "non-canonical" by the devs and decided to use their own "cannon" interpretation of the Tzenkethi for this story arc. It is what it is, and we are once again forced to accept it. Nice modeling, but it was probably picked as it was going to require less coding and skinning than what the novel's renditions would have required. In fact, why even need to be beholden to the game name Star Trek Online, if they are going to change race descriptions on the fly?
  • stobg2015stobg2015 Member Posts: 800 Arc User
    I like them. The ships look a whole lot better than the aliens themselves do.

    And Cryptic's storyline departed from the Typhon Pact material a long time ago.
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  • psycoticvulcanpsycoticvulcan Member Posts: 4,160 Arc User
    Guys, can we please not re-hash the game-Tzenkethi versus novel-Tzenkethi argument? There's enough of that in the other thread. Let's keep this one about the ships. :)
    NJ9oXSO.png
    "Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
    -Thomas Marrone
  • tousseautousseau Member Posts: 1,484 Arc User
    As I had commented on Facebook...

    That dread... *swoons*

    I must have.
  • angarus1angarus1 Member Posts: 684 Arc User
    I like these ships, they're exciting.
    reyan01 wrote: »
    Sounds like using Gravity well on them isn't a great idea

    That was my first thought as well. :p
  • potasssiumpotasssium Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    Inverted TBR will be a bad tactic as well.

    But damn one of my KDF Space Pirares needs some new command ships, I love them both, but especially that dread.

    Lockbox when.
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  • jaturnleyjaturnley Member Posts: 1,218 Arc User
    potasssium wrote: »
    Inverted TBR will be a bad tactic as well.

    But damn one of my KDF Space Pirares needs some new command ships, I love them both, but especially that dread.

    Lockbox when.

    Probably the one after the next one, which is due with the Anniversary update. They have to get the FEs with these ships out before they can do a lockbox.
  • potasssiumpotasssium Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    If they have lance weapons, hope they are compatible with the trait from the Yamato/Kolasi/Haakona.

    Time to start saving EC
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    T6 updates for the Kamarag & Vor'Cha
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  • captaind3captaind3 Member Posts: 2,449 Arc User
    reyan01 wrote: »
    Sounds like using Gravity well on them isn't a great idea

    Tyken's Rift it is.
    nikolunus wrote: »
    I hope they don't put these in Lock Boxes, they are great looking ships and would be nice not have an enemy ships that we dont have the chance to fly.

    If they have Lockboxes I want a storyline where they go after the Lobi Crystal Consortium for stealing their stuff.
    Again, articles like this which delve into the thought process behind a thing (well, things) are always welcome.

    To sum up: the Tzenkethi ships would be among the more agile examples of their classes, make extensive use of traits akin to Wing Man, and use analogues to the PEP torp whose clouds have the added effect of conferring benefits to allied ships (speculation: shield regen and hardness; resistances; hull regen)... it would not be unreasonable to believe this applies to their version of warp plasma ejection as well. I imagine that they will be making more extensive use of (drone) strikecraft than other forces encountered to date.

    It will be interesting to see what other tricks they have up their proverbial sleeves.
    captaind3 wrote: »
    I'm curious how the inevitable Tzenkethi skin is gonna look on my ship.
    Agreed; that pattern would be quite interesting to see on other ships. Sort of related: why isn't there a 'spook' vanity item we can buy for the shield-visual slot that gives Federation ships, for example, the pattern usually associated with their intel ships...?

    Oh that would be nice...actually too nice. Because that's what my Assault Cruiser would look like.

    tumblr_mr1jc2hq2T1rzu2xzo9_r1_400.gif
    "Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many — they are few"
  • lordsteve1lordsteve1 Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    That hammerhead dreadnought.....drool!

    That is an impressive design and properly alien looking which nice for a change.
    Be nice for them to have some fancy tricks up their sleeves and I'm speaking as a scibship pilot who relies heavily on aoe attacks. I'd just love something a bit more challenging, maybe not so many Zerg rushes of npcs so we dont have to resort to aoe in the first place?
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  • chozoelder2ndchozoelder2nd Member Posts: 440 Arc User
    Those are pretty slick designs. I especially like the fore and side views of the battleship.
    SP9Pu.gif
  • I am a bit mixed about the Battleship - Kinda wish front and back were reserved, because that would like one sleak mother...ship . The other way around, it's just a beast. ;)

    Thanks for pointing that one out and I agree with you, I prefer myself a pointy-forward ship.

    kgwcNMHqvWPLO.gif
  • shadowfirefly00shadowfirefly00 Member Posts: 1,026 Arc User
    captaind3 wrote: »
    nikolunus wrote: »
    I hope they don't put these in Lock Boxes, they are great looking ships and would be nice not have an enemy ships that we dont have the chance to fly.

    If they have Lockboxes I want a storyline where they go after the Lobi Crystal Consortium for stealing their stuff.
    Which brings up another issue: the in-universe rationale for the Consortium when most of what's in those boxes would be logically available from various rep stores (for example, Vaadwaur weaponry and drones from Delta Alliance), but that's a discussion for elsewhere. Back on track, though...

    Imagine this story twist: there is a cause for the Tzenkethi coming out to 'play', as it were; however, 20 Draconis can't be blamed on them because they suffered an Empty Quiver incident. Which would leave the questions of 'who' and 'why' for the use of that weapon on 20 Draconis up in the air...
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