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Age of Discovery: First thoughts... (Possible Spoilers)

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  • ktbu#5082 ktbu Member Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    roger562 wrote: »
    Age of discovery was super dissaopinting,.. its completely stupid and pointless.

    Welcome to Star Trek Online. Game has been put in the blender since season 13 and the super creative Tzenkethi battle zone that has been broken since launch and nobody plays.

    Instead of fixing and improving the existing game they continue dumbing it down and releasing sub-standard content.

    My guess is after the 1 good quest that was released in ViL they don't have do try anymore.

    As a Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas modder there are better quality mods on the nexus than this discovery release.

    They really should not have done this. They made a big deal about nothing. I actually feel bad for them.
  • kikskenkiksken Member Posts: 664 Arc User
    bendalek wrote: »
    What I'd "like" to see, is an option for DSC Toons (and perhaps those others, over lvl 65, who completed ALL story missions) is to unlock a Discovery Era Starfleet Academy/HQ and be able to not only "Role Play" with other DSC Toons, but also purchase DSC Weapons/Equipment from vendors. (Oh and for Spocks sake, add Mail/Bank/Exchange to the Discovery Starfleet Academy ... please).

    Also, I could "maybe" see them doing a DSC Klingon tutorial, as the current one has you also fighting the Federation, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch, and it would be kinda cool seeing things from the "other" perspective. They could maybe have you play as an "obscure" Klingon Political/Cultural faction, to explain the appearance differences.
    That could be done, through a Temporal-Reality Gate, a combination of the Fuidic Space Gate and a Temporal Gate. I like the idea, actually.
    However, it will not be done.
    All missions will be in "our reality and timeline" as the lovely J'Ula is right here.
    Unless she manages to make such a portal, of course.
    ktbu#5082 wrote: »
    roger562 wrote: »
    Age of discovery was super dissaopinting,.. its completely stupid and pointless.

    Welcome to Star Trek Online. Game has been put in the blender since season 13 and the super creative Tzenkethi battle zone that has been broken since launch and nobody plays.

    Instead of fixing and improving the existing game they continue dumbing it down and releasing sub-standard content.

    My guess is after the 1 good quest that was released in ViL they don't have do try anymore.

    As a Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas modder there are better quality mods on the nexus than this discovery release.

    They really should not have done this. They made a big deal about nothing. I actually feel bad for them.
    Well it IS merely an introduction.
    Could be the actual Arc might become something really nice, if they keep the ingredients in the right order and amount.
    I for one give them the benefit of the doubt here.

    My reaction was to what is released at this point.

    2 major disappointments are that the enemy never dropped a single thing, SPECIFICALLY their weapons as they looked cool, and the lack of possibility to buy a Discovery Klingon ship.

    I really hope they will still add both.
    Klingons don't get drunk.
    They just get less sober.
  • kikskenkiksken Member Posts: 664 Arc User
    No one on the Gigantic Space Whale card they played in Discovery, btw?
    Now that is sad... aren't there any biologists here?
    Klingons don't get drunk.
    They just get less sober.
  • shpoksshpoks Member Posts: 6,967 Arc User
    Well, I jumped into the new AoD content yesterday and I must say I quite like it.

    Made a new Vulcan AoD character and she instantly clicked with me during the missions, so I'm quite fond of her and going to waltz through the rest of the game with her as well. Makes even more sense since this is supposed to be the so called "start" of the Discovery content in STO, so we're set to get more and more DISCO content in the future and it will be a good thing to play it with an actual AoD character with all the bells and whistles. Got the 'Starter Pack' as well, a title, some nice weapons, few conveniences, an awesome tardigrade pet and hell yeah - an scallable Walker Class starship! Awesome! :)

    The aesthetics and designs are amazing, ships look beautiful and the interiors are gorgeous, plus I'm quite fond of the Discovery ship designs as well. The sounds and new look of the UI just supplements the environment completely and makes for that distinct Discovery feeling I like to have in the game. Weapons, uniforms, everything is well packaged together and achieves the goal of feeling immersed in the era.

    I think Mary Wiseman did an amazing job with her voice-overs, Tilly felt really natural and fluid in the dialogues. Great talent! Also, I must say - they even made me like Tilly more than I cared about her in the actual show.

    I have to agree that the tutorial part was kinda' a let down - I mean it looks nice graphically and all, but it's just a reskin of the current Federation tutorial. The only good thing about it is the new 'Discovery' look of the environments, uniforms, weapons and having Tilly instead of Elisa Flores, especially in a different role. But that's about it.
    I have to add that it also makes more sense for Shran and that damaged Europa Class to fend off such a number of Klingon ships instead of the 100 spheres the Renown had to fend off in the original tutorial which never made much sense.

    Other than that, I do miss more content and would have liked if there were more missions to this Discovery arc with this release. I was quite fond of them and the whole experience. I'm eagerly awaiting for more Discovery content in the future that has been announced and I hope some of that starts happening sooner rather than later. Can't wait for more Discovery missions.

    And I'd like to add that if anyone from the dev team is reading this - they should make an effort to combine the interiors we've seen (engineering, transporter room, bridge, hallways) and maybe add a medical bay, lounge and a ready room and sell that as an interior pack in the C-Store. The interior designs are really good and I think many people would like to have them for their AoD characters.
    I also like the AoD Starfleet Academy better and would definitely swap a part of the current one with parts that were made for the AoD one - for example San Francisco looks much better in the background, the non paved pathways in the park look much better in the AoD version, the entire room where we get our Doffs looks much better in the AoD version as well and I really liked that we have hills and flora at the outskirts of the AoD Academy instead of those ugly walls we have on the current one. If nothing more, I would at least swap that part because the environment looks larger and much more open without the big concrete walls.

    That's about it for now, I hope they keep the AoD content coming on a regular basis, more DCS era ships, weapons, effects, tactical vest/uniform, EV suits, but most of all - missions! Very exciting to have this type of content running together with an actual Star Trek show! :)
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  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    (Flaming/Trolling comments moderated out. - BMR)
    Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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  • saber1973asaber1973a Member Posts: 1,224 Arc User
    As of now, the best part of the new content is that scalable ship from starter pack.
    Too bad the weapons looks like they can not be upgraded - the beam arrays boost shield restoration and capacity,
    instead of normal phaser subsystem offline proc - I really like this better than normal phasers.
    Lets hope, that we will get also scalable Discovery ship for starting KDF in near future...
  • kikskenkiksken Member Posts: 664 Arc User
    What does the pack cost, btw?
    Klingons don't get drunk.
    They just get less sober.
  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    saber1973a wrote: »
    As of now, the best part of the new content is that scalable ship from starter pack.
    Too bad the weapons looks like they can not be upgraded - the beam arrays boost shield restoration and capacity,
    instead of normal phaser subsystem offline proc - I really like this better than normal phasers.
    Lets hope, that we will get also scalable Discovery ship for starting KDF in near future...

    Those weapons were in the TRIBBLE lockbox too, so that's probably why they can't be scaled or upgraded.
    Lifetime Subscriber since Beta
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  • saber1973asaber1973a Member Posts: 1,224 Arc User
    kiksken wrote: »
    What does the pack cost, btw?

    750 Zen for now, the info is it will be 1500 Zen after some time...
  • kikskenkiksken Member Posts: 664 Arc User
    Thank you.
    Odd...
    Scalable ship, not bad.
    But not scalable equipment?
    How does this combine? O_O
    Klingons don't get drunk.
    They just get less sober.
  • rlin#9372 rlin Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    I had to reinstall STO because the game kept crashing once I installed AoD.

    Once I finally got AoD working, I was disappointed at how much the Discovery-Era Starfleet tutorial was based on the Federation tutorial. I thought they were done killing off the previous captains when Garrett was promoted to Admiral in TOS Starfleet, but I clearly was wrong.

    The whole tutorial was basically the same as the Federation tutorial except that the planet that was being attacked wasn't taken over (like Vega colony was).

    I haven't gotten the chance to play the rest of the AoD missions, so I do not know what to expect, except that I get thrown into the 25th century like the captain in TOS Starfleet was.
  • kikskenkiksken Member Posts: 664 Arc User
    HOLA, that gear IS scalable...
    DAYUM...
    How bloody damn nice!!!!

    Well, Cryptic, this was a MAJOR good move.
    Thank you so much.
    Klingons don't get drunk.
    They just get less sober.
  • w00qw00q Member Posts: 121 Arc User
    I'm beginning to think that AoD in Startrekonline does not adhere to Star Trek Canon.

    In the AoD Tutorial, major inconsistencies that stick out like a sore thumb:

    1) Holodeck in AoD tutorial (Holodeck technology came out during TNG)

    2) Star Wars-style holographic communication in AoD ??
    I think Star Trek Canon never featured any of this holographic communication?
  • saber1973asaber1973a Member Posts: 1,224 Arc User
    Just gone to level 10 - it's looks like the Beam Arrays from scalable ship are scalable too… very good :)
  • trygvar13trygvar13 Member Posts: 697 Arc User
    I am not a fan of Discovery and was extremely when the AOD content was announced. Having spent most of the play time on the KDF side I am always unhappy when Fed only content is being released. However I have to admit that I do like what Cryptic did here. Granted the tutorial is just a rehash of the old one but it fits it in well with the new Discovery canon. We now know what happened to Starbase One. It's location in space still doesn't make sense but still I thought I was a great touch. I also enjoyed the Klingon dialogue. I don't like the Season One Discovery Klingons (I love the Season 2 version however) but now that I've played the game I want the look for my characters. I hated the Discovery Klingon ships on TV but now I want them for the KDF characters. In fact I think the tutorial could be adapted to the KDF as well. We could see the other side of the story.

    I still do not like Discovery but I believe it fits the STO playstyle much more than the other series. Well done Cryptic! I apologize for all the criticism I had about this new "expansion". I am enjoying my time and will probably keep playing my new AOD character even if it means grinding my way through reputations and Fleet projects. I loved VIL and I love AOD. Keep up the good work!
    Dahar Master Qor'aS
  • psycoticvulcanpsycoticvulcan Member Posts: 4,160 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    w00q wrote: »
    I'm beginning to think that AoD in Startrekonline does not adhere to Star Trek Canon.

    In the AoD Tutorial, major inconsistencies that stick out like a sore thumb:

    1) Holodeck in AoD tutorial (Holodeck technology came out during TNG)

    2) Star Wars-style holographic communication in AoD ??
    I think Star Trek Canon never featured any of this holographic communication?

    Both of those were used in the show. The holodeck was more like a big VR game instead of the "hard light" holograms of TNG, and the holo-communicators were also used occasionally in DS9, such as in "For the Uniform".

    And @jonsills I really hope that doesn't mean STO will become canon. I'd rather the writers be free to write their own stories instead of being stuck with the game story.
    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
  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    > @w00q said:
    > I'm beginning to think that AoD in Startrekonline does not adhere to Star Trek Canon.
    >
    > In the AoD Tutorial, major inconsistencies that stick out like a sore thumb:
    >
    > 1) Holodeck in AoD tutorial (Holodeck technology came out during TNG)
    >
    > 2) Star Wars-style holographic communication in AoD ??
    > I think Star Trek Canon never featured any of this holographic communication?

    As to number 2, it did in DS9. But was very short ranged and even the captain of the Machebe said it was a bit too newfangled for his taste.

    And as far as #1, you are indeed correct.
    afMSv4g.jpg
    Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!

    http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    jonsills wrote: »
    So, how do they voice the captain when you can be any gender, any appearance, and one of a number of species? What accent should they use, and what if they go with, say, a Received English accent but my captain hails from Canton?

    Relax, and remember that this is early days for Starfleet yet. There aren't that many species in it (Spock was one of the first Vulcans to serve on a mixed-species crew; the Valiant was the Vulcan ship in the fleet in TOS). The only reason we get a choice at all is because there are several species aboard Discovery.

    I did like the Rush easter egg in the tutorial, and am wondering who the fan is in the dev community.

    The Constitution class ship crewed by Vulcans in TOS was USS Intrepid, not Valliant.

    I missed the Rush Easter egg, I will look for it next time.

    kiralyn wrote: »
    My first thoughts is that the tutorial mission bugged out at the "Breach Engineering" step, and I haven't been able to get past it. Whee.

    (and since it's a tutorial, not a mission accessed from your ship/sector, I can't beam out of the mission to reset progress)

    Are you talking about the missing action button at the central engineering console? If so there is a very annoying workaround of jumping and hitting the button while the character is in mid air. You have to time it just right so it can take a while.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    A Holodeck in the new tutorial? There were no holodecks until TNG.
    Force fields in shuttle bays? Not until TNG.
    Kirk used both of those.
    What the heck happened to Shran? We KNOW what he looks like. We've SEEN him before... THAT EXACT CHARACTER.
    HAH! Silly pinkskin! You're thinking of Thy'lek Sharan.
    latest?cb=20120403024913&path-prefix=en
    This is Thy'KIR Shran.
    Thy%27kir_Shran.png?version=c3ca7b1093f62ce1145ed07e4689172f
    Thy'lek Shran was his grandfather. Part of why he looks so different is that one of his grandmothers was an Aenar.
    latest?cb=20060305100408&path-prefix=en
    His mother was an Aenar/Andorian hybrid.
    latest?cb=20081026052527&path-prefix=en

    Ah, I didn't get that. I have to admit, I did wonder at Shran being alive after all that time... but then, we don't really know the life expectancy of Andorians (though the Starfleet Medical Manual suggests it's around 130 years - but then, it also suggests Klingons live about 80 years).

    Oh, and TAS isn't considered canon (except for Yesteryear).

    The official wording of that says TAS is quasi-canon and is considered canon where it does not directly contradict the live action shows. The holodeck does not contradict anything as long as it is the old style holodeck that was holographic illusions, cleverly disguised tractors, and gravity and atmospheric tricks. You may be thinking of "holomatter" which probably didn't exist at that point or the weaponized photonic Losira would not have been such a surprise in "That Which Survives".


    The Yesteryear thing is just one of Roddenberry's rants that he later retracted.

    w00q wrote: »
    I'm beginning to think that AoD in Startrekonline does not adhere to Star Trek Canon.

    In the AoD Tutorial, major inconsistencies that stick out like a sore thumb:

    1) Holodeck in AoD tutorial (Holodeck technology came out during TNG)

    2) Star Wars-style holographic communication in AoD ??
    I think Star Trek Canon never featured any of this holographic communication?

    There are a lot of Star Wars things in DSC, the idiotic and useless windows instead of screens, the hilariously rotten gunnery, and yes, the horribly low quality holographic communications.





    Post edited by phoenixc#0738 on
  • danaleedanalee Member Posts: 73 Arc User
    Chiming in as I got some reviews. Will first reply to some criticisms...

    1. Holodecks make sense. Enterprise (show) had species with holodecks, it'd make sense that if that species joined the Federation, they'd bring that technology. It was located on a planet and not in a starship so it could be totally reasonable to have. For something like basic marksmanship, should be a fine tool, perhaps not so much for a full bridge simulation requiring data collection etc. (I actually work in a field where a simulator is fine in some instances and others I require physical machine time).

    2. Holo-emitter communication is fine. I attribute the change back to view screens as a 'taste' factor in the future. Such as "why do I need to see the admirals legs? Just give me a screen." Not to mention the Defiant used the tech and it seemed so... odd to me.

    3. The tutorial... reskin is totally fine. Meant to teach the game, got to see it with different flavor. I'd rather they spent time on the mission arc than the tutorial. Really shouldn't be 9214327136498 different tutorials. As many of you already mentioned... you skip the tutorial anyway. Given Tilly's addition, maybe they just felt you simply must experience her and thus couldn't skip it the first time.

    Onto my review so far!

    I have found the 'production' value has gone up quite a bit. I really enjoy the extra cut scenes that aren't simply 'watch me walk over here', facial animations are new to me and I find myself enjoying them (maybe for all the wrong reasons). Maps seem to be better made to me, more detailed with character to them. Glad they used the new Klingon look as it'd just be weird otherwise. Wouldn't mind some explanations of what in the world Klingons are doing to themselves in the future.... took until Enterprise for us to have the whole story on TOS vs Movie+TNG Klingons.

    I love the starter ship... didn't even use the walker class because I like this little baby so much. Eventually though I will switch. The shield graphics are great, the weapons, the whole thing. Well done. Love the ground weapons as well. I was very happy to notice ship hull texture options too!

    I actually read up on what to expect, so I wasn't surprised by anything really. I know the missions will be rolling out rather than dropped all at once, and I am fine with that. So the DSC content is an A+ for me. I didn't have any buggy behavior at all. If you asked me to pay 59.99 for the released content so far, I'd die laughing... but its FREE so I take that into consideration.

    Non-DSC content, the changes in the Reputation UI and Queue UI will take getting used to but I am indifferent on that. I like the Red Alerts going weekend only, never really did them much at all before, but this last weekend I did 10X more than I ever did combined. Tier 6 reputation is fun too. I finally have reason to queue up for certain TOFs again.

    Someone above noted the fact so many time related events converging at this moment... I hope Devs take note of that as I would absolutely love a story arc about that.
  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,385 Arc User
    patrickngo wrote: »
    that's without the 'storyline' somehow getting my Klingon confused for a human Starfleet officer in the story missions. Why the F*CK did they make this cross-faction??
    To be fair with this one, they make it clear it's a simulation for any non-DSC character. So I guess the program is set to consider you a Starfleet officer so the virtual recreation doesn't go haywire by having all virtual officers shoot at you.

    #TASforSTO
    Iconian_Trio_sign.jpg?raw=1
  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,354 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    patrickngo wrote: »
    that's without the 'storyline' somehow getting my Klingon confused for a human Starfleet officer in the story missions. Why the F*CK did they make this cross-faction??
    To be fair with this one, they make it clear it's a simulation for any non-DSC character. So I guess the program is set to consider you a Starfleet officer so the virtual recreation doesn't go haywire by having all virtual officers shoot at you.
    Same reason why, when I was running my Jem'Hadar through some missions to reach that magical "twenty hours played" mark, the NPCs kept talking to him as though he were Starfleet, and bound by their ethics. (His solution to the P'jem situation was very different from the one in the "simulation", after all, but he wasn't allowed to carpet-bomb the planet in order to wipe out the Undine threat, so...)
    Lorna-Wing-sig.png
  • torchwood1968torchwood1968 Member Posts: 18 Arc User
    I enjoyed it very much, until it turned into another Temporal Agent story. Really wondering whats the point. If it ended with "To be continued...:" I actually would have been ok with that. Keep it in DSC time don't push it up to the 25th century. As of now I'm keeping that DSC character right were it is, too many other toons to feed.....
  • torchwood1968torchwood1968 Member Posts: 18 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    Ok for new players that is not good, but for others we have played 99% of the content, over and over again. They should have stated exactly what DSC episodes were for. Don't make it sound like its a "new chapter", then end up at the very same place. And also make it non re playable? I would have enjoyed a look around some more
  • neoakiraiineoakiraii Member Posts: 7,468 Arc User
    edited October 2018
    How did we lose to the Federation? Star Fleet fell for the Same Klingon trap twice ? did you not read your history?

    Is it a spoiler if you already did it in another life

    but clearly this was rush no true bundle ship one ship the levels with you instead of one ship for each tier and all of them at tier 6 the ships are in the game and a re skin of the tutorial to the point i thought Borg were gonna show up

    Also the loot like at least give me some DISCO gear for the TWO missions at least some Link phasers or whatever
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