It's not a conspiracy theory. Kael's tweet seems to confirm this. For many (myself included) VIL did seemcut short if not prematurely abandoned. Everybody "rode off into the sunset" all to quickly or at least so it seemed. This has been mentioned quite a few times by quite a few people. What was done was done very well though.
Oh please after Legacy of Romulus and Delta Rising ALL the expansions since have been 'lighter' on integrated story content.
There's no conspiracy here - compared to the TOS based expansion "Agents of Yesterday" all the DS9 fans got a fully fleshed out story with a majority of original actors reprising their roles; and not just a revamped tutorial with honestly just 3 real missions (the others in AoY are so short - it's a couple of clicks worth) - and a bunch of VO for other characters lifted off TOS episode dialogue tracks. Plus they tied it to the awful TCW storyline from "Enterprise"
They mad an entire new (smaller) sector map for AoY that looked great to this TOS fan, but barely made ANY use of it for the A0Y expansion.
The ViL story wasn't 'cut short' - it ENDED (with the capture of the Changeling). But hey at least DS9 fans got an actual story with their characters fully involved.
It's interesting that the ONE series that started the 'Star Trek' franchise - and kept interest alive for it pretty much on its own and LEAD to TNG got such a short expansion (IMO). DS9 fans have little to TRIBBLE about in comparison.
I fixed your quote and highlighted a few words I'd said in it. You seemed to have missed my second post which was an attempt in refinement of intent. Just as a recap and final word from me so my intent is clear:
I'm not going to use the C word
I was responding honestly to the Ambassador's tweet as we're both 'genuinely curious'.
In my response it's important to note that I was stating how things felt to me.
I enjoyed VIL and think that Cryptic did a great job with it.
I enjoyed the STO Discovery content and watched the TV show. I'm looking forward to ST: Picard as well.
After a day's reflection and reading BMR's post above I can say for me it was definitely a case of having a lot of fun with VIL and then having the Discovery content come out so quickly due to the way in which it was released resulting in a bit of a jolt for me having things change directions so fast (both involved new toons). Nothing more.
So it may just be it's possible for a player to have the perception of VIL ending too quickly without being malcontent about DSC.
Not disagreeing with some of what you said and I respect your posts and opinion in general, but in this case and at this point would rather focus on what's coming up rather than a past I can't change.
It was a mistake on my part to respond at all to the person who posted the tweet as it just drags things more off topic. LLAP.
There's no conspracy here - compared to the TOS based expansion "Agents of Yesterday"
AoY was never just a TOS expansion, it was always meant to be a combined ENT/TOS expansion since both shows were short(TOS being 3 seasons, ENT being 4 seasons) and had, combined, the same amount of content something like TNG, DS9, or VOY, had.
No it wasn't meant to be a TOS related expansion...that's why it was released on the 50th anniversary year of the first broadcast episode of 'Star Trek' (TOS)....oh, wait...
[The fact they tiied it to ENT as well just added insult to injury WRT how little TOS content it actually had.]
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
The "conspiracy" thing isn't just because of the fact that AoD followed ViL so closely, it is more the fact that it was incredibly over hyped and supposed to be the first new playable faction since 2013. With all the talk people expected something at least within sight distance to LoR but all they got was a single, endgame only niche-race, a single short starting scenario for said race, and a few ships, hardly more than the Cardassian stuff in the game.
There was nothing that really happened from the point of view of the Dominion, it was all outside-looking-in in feel, and there was no Dominion to have that view anyway except for their silly biological answer to Star Wars "roger, roger" droids. All the new scenario and battlezone stuff centers on the Hurq in a strongly Alliance way, and does not really feel like it has much to do with the Dominion as a faction at all beyond a mistake they made in ancient times.
AoD was just a convenient target that some people were predisposed to hate anyway, the real problem was the perceived bait-and-switch feel that ViL had. The fact that the AoD stuff has been well-crafted (despite not always making sense with the "holosim" nonsense) undoubtedly added fuel to the conspiracy theory fires. Hopefully the fungal feature coming up is more focused and does not kick off more of the divisiveness in the game community, and even better would be if they interleaved it or integrated it somehow with bringing out the rest of the Dominion faction (which would put the "conspiracy" stuff to rest once and for all).
You added a new faction since the discovery expansions came out? *Looks high and low, searching the vast deserts and oceans* Could you tell me where you put it? Cause I sure have not seen a new faction. The Discovery toons are not a faction. If anything they're even less of a faction than the TOS toons, who are still just fed toons with a slightly sliiiightly different skin.
people expected something at least within sight distance to LoR
Anyone who expected this only has themselves to blame. Cryptic had said, repeatedly, before ViL came out, that no new factions would ever be the size of the Romulans because it would be impossible to catch them up ship wise.
True enough though it was a mistake to hype it as a faction if they did not intend to actually deliver one, there is a lot of ground between an actual faction and the single-race unlock that they did instead. They could very easily make the Vorta and an "alien" category available as normal leveling races, (and maybe even make Founders available as an LTS perk), to get enough parity with the other factions to be considered a real (if logistically challenged) one. They could even use the current "Dominion" startup with a minimum of changes for the leveling characters to start in or even reskin something else.
And the ship thing is no problem either, they proved that with the T1-T4 leveling Walker and the T6 leveling ships. All they would have to do for the Dominion would be to make that T5u bug the horneytoads start out with leveling from T1 to T5u to be on the same footing as everyone else mechanics wise. It is not like they showed a lot of different Dominion ship classes in the show (there was like what, four in total?) so people would not expect a lot of different ships as they level a Dominion character from a roleplay standpoint.
Then there is the fact that player characters are all considered to be from Odo's subfaction, if they played up the friction between his forces and the traditional ones that could explain why they are stuck on DS9, and later missions could be trickled in that explore parts of the gamma quadrant later (maybe even introducing their equivalent of ESD eventually, though that is not strictly needed for a barebones faction). That would avoid a lot of up-front work and give the devs something to work with over time.
Most people end up getting a T6 at some point anyway, and those who are interested in a Dominion main would probably get a Dominion one which would provide some variety. Then there are all the event ships that level too for that matter, even though they would not be Dominion a lot of people use them instead of faction ships anyway.
True enough though it was a mistake to hype it as a faction if they did not intend to actually deliver one,
A faction is a technical term to describe having a unique start. Anything past that is your own imaginations on what defines a faction, and that is no one's fault but your own.
Even if your definition is true and not the product of your own imagination (like you accuse everyone else of), it is irrelevant. What fuels the conspiracy theory is the perception that the Dominion faction was never completed, and the simple fact is that the inclusion of a trivial starter scenario does not make a single race unlock and a few ships feel like a complete faction no matter how you try to spin it. It has nothing to do with definitions, and it is not even about the devs take on it for that matter, it is all about how the community sees it.
That perception issue is especially true now considering how easily the dev-stated stumbling block of not enough ships to fill out the leveling progression could be fixed with the new leveling ship system.
Ok, I think we've derailed this thread long enough. I suggest we drop the VIL talk and return to the thread topic. Thank you.
Star Trek Online Volunteer Community Moderator and Resident She-Wolf
Community Moderators are Unpaid Volunteers and NOT Employees of Gearbox/Cryptic
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
So does this mean that the Update will just Appear on our computers or will we have to download it?
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
So does this mean that the Update will just Appear on our computers or will we have to download it?
Usually nothing special has to be done (unless the update breaks something which is fairly common) it is just handled as a larger than normal Thursday update.
That was not serious but a pun given the Subject of the Thread.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
They could very easily make the Vorta and an "alien" category available as normal leveling races, (and maybe even make Founders available as an LTS perk), to get enough parity with the other factions to be considered a real (if logistically challenged) one. They could even use the current "Dominion" startup with a minimum of changes for the leveling characters to start in or even reskin something else.
That wouldn't make sense because the Dominion, unlike the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Republic, is highly organized by species, with individual species being designed, or chosen, to fulfill certain tasks. The Jem'Hadar exist to be the boots on the ground fighters. Vorta, Changelings, and other Dominion species, do not do these things, and would never be in the place the player character is in. What you are asking for simply makes no logical sense in the slightest, which is why they didn't do it.
Couldn't that be subjective though? I know they're not in the game (or are they; I haven't played in a long while) but couldn't a species like the Dosi be playable under the various fields (TAC/ENG/SCI)? Why couldn't a Vorta be designed to be better on the ground, even if it did mean they'd need to wear binoculars because of their poor vision.
Granted, having a playable Founder (in my opinion) would simply be impractical, as every player would have too many demands and expectations; the characters in STO are all humanoid and use tech based weapons, unlike what I figure many people would have the Founders play as. Doesn't mean STO couldn't explore other species from within the Dominion; the Dosi, Wadi, Karemma.
There was talk during the development of the Dominion in DS9 to have them very similar to the Federation in the sense that they encompassed many species (conquered rather than a coalition) but due to budgetary reasons they just went with the Jem Hadar, Vorta & Founder. There's no specific reason to think there couldn't be more; maybe different areas of the Dominion (they control a lot of space) could factor in different species, which could/would now come into play? If STO Devs have proven anything over the years, it's that they can be creative. There's no reason the Dominion couldn't be expanded on in such a manner.
They could very easily make the Vorta and an "alien" category available as normal leveling races, (and maybe even make Founders available as an LTS perk), to get enough parity with the other factions to be considered a real (if logistically challenged) one. They could even use the current "Dominion" startup with a minimum of changes for the leveling characters to start in or even reskin something else.
That wouldn't make sense because the Dominion, unlike the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Republic, is highly organized by species, with individual species being designed, or chosen, to fulfill certain tasks. The Jem'Hadar exist to be the boots on the ground fighters. Vorta, Changelings, and other Dominion species, do not do these things, and would never be in the place the player character is in. What you are asking for simply makes no logical sense in the slightest, which is why they didn't do it.
Couldn't that be subjective though? I know they're not in the game (or are they; I haven't played in a long while) but couldn't a species like the Dosi be playable under the various fields (TAC/ENG/SCI)? Why couldn't a Vorta be designed to be better on the ground, even if it did mean they'd need to wear binoculars because of their poor vision.
Granted, having a playable Founder (in my opinion) would simply be impractical, as every player would have too many demands and expectations; the characters in STO are all humanoid and use tech based weapons, unlike what I figure many people would have the Founders play as. Doesn't mean STO couldn't explore other species from within the Dominion; the Dosi, Wadi, Karemma.
There was talk during the development of the Dominion in DS9 to have them very similar to the Federation in the sense that they encompassed many species (conquered rather than a coalition) but due to budgetary reasons they just went with the Jem Hadar, Vorta & Founder. There's no specific reason to think there couldn't be more; maybe different areas of the Dominion (they control a lot of space) could factor in different species, which could/would now come into play? If STO Devs have proven anything over the years, it's that they can be creative. There's no reason the Dominion couldn't be expanded on in such a manner.
That would be the ideal. DS9 showed that a lot of the client races, while not as well rounded as alpha/beta/delta types were still much less rigid and regimented than the core Dominion ones and some could actually make decent player characters.
As for the Vorta, they would not need any genetic modification to be the prime (leveling) player species for the Dominion. Not all species are primarily vision oriented, and the Vorta are one of them, they "see" much better by sound than they let on. In fact, Weyoun would often talk to people who entered the room behind him were he would not be able to see them but he knew exactly who and where they were before they said anything, and sometimes didn't even bother to turn around for the conversation. I can just see a Vorta-only meeting were everyone would be sitting facing random directions looking like they were ignoring each other and just talking to themselves.
but couldn't a species like the Dosi be playable under the various fields (TAC/ENG/SCI)? Why couldn't a Vorta be designed to be better on the ground, even if it did mean they'd need to wear binoculars because of their poor vision.
Because that isn't how the Dominion works.
True to a certain degree, the Dominion operates in a very rigid cast-like system, or at least the central part does (the client "protectorates" have all kinds of different and often crazy-seeming systems as the freak-culture-of-the-week early DS9 format showed). The problem is that the actual structure that the DS9 series showed differed significantly from the carefully crafted myth that Weyoun tried to sell the Federation on.
For instance, despite Weyoun playing at being "not fighting material" the Jem'Hadar were nothing but the grunts, simple front-line cheaply cloned soldiers who did little or no thinking and just followed orders (which is just as well, with a lifespan of about five years being long enough for them to brag about they had almost no experience to draw from). And they got those orders from the Vorta, all Dominion ships were shown to be commanded by Vorta or in a few of the more suicide oriented missions they were under the command of a Vorta squadron leader, not some mythical Jem'Hadar officer.
The Dominion war machine actually revolved around intelligence operations (including offensive ones), and the Vorta were the James Bonds, MacGyvers, and Natasha Romanovs of the Dominion. The Jem'Hadar were the ordinary gun monkeys and cheap living mine detectors that the spies could call on when they needed firepower or a distraction, and the very blunt instruments for the occasional though unavoidable shooting war where they had a need for expendable low-investment shock troops and garrisons to sit on captured territory.
Anyway, the Dominion stuff is already on other threads, it really does not need to be here too (though the fungus network could be a way to explore Gamma without using the wormhole I suppose, which could lead to finding out things the Founders may still be keeping secret or something).
Just played the FE. Balancing the radiation and spores takes a bit of getting used to, but overall interesting mission.
Also nice reward although i am sure there will be plenty of haters as well.
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 really liked it, even if some parts were really anvilicious, especially regarding Stamets after his "change" (no spoilers), but it was great to look at, great new lore, nice little touches (that heart icon when you get you-know-who to follow you, dawwwwww).
The VA was great as well, I hope to get more of Mr Rapp's character and the Andorian captain.
And the Elachi twist and reward were very nice (even if it was a bit spoiled by the episode reward list)!
Overall, I had a great time playing it.
However, red card for making the Boff have no distinctive features to make him interesting to have as a space or ground Boff:
-no unique trait
-not a single customization, not even colors or removing adding parts, NOTHING.
His only saving grace is that he's not a reskinned human. That's literally it. No unique equipment, no special armor parts for other characters to use, no unique abilities, nothing.
That pretty much soured my excitement a bit, especially considering what his species can do and the new storyline behind it.
Also, you can't pet the tardigrade babies and have no accolades related to them. Boooooooooooo!
EDIT: AAAAAND the Sentinels patrol soured my excitement even more... Seriously, why is a great mission brought together with at least one patrol that doesn't advance the storyline, has nothing interesting happen and is just a big "kill X waves of enemies" while circling around a moon to trigger the next wave?
However, red card for making the Boff have no distinctive features to make him interesting to have as a space or ground Boff:
-no unique trait
-not a single customization, not even colors or removing adding parts, NOTHING.
*points at Breen Boff*
Also it DOES have a unique trait. Elusive. I know you're like: "Boring my captain has that!" That is true... but ONLY your captain. this is the ONLY BOFF with it.
However, red card for making the Boff have no distinctive features to make him interesting to have as a space or ground Boff:
-no unique trait
-not a single customization, not even colors or removing adding parts, NOTHING.
*points at Breen Boff*
Also it DOES have a unique trait. Elusive. I know you're like: "Boring my captain has that!" That is true... but ONLY your captain. this is the ONLY BOFF with it.
Yes, give me the Breen 10 times over this one.
And sorry, but if you need the +10 defense that comes from ONE BOFF then you've got bigger problems.
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
I am not impressed with the new mission or the new TFO, It just took me over 45 minutes to complete the mission AND a TFO just for progress for a ship, The new mission and the new TFO are both very annoying and are not missions i can enjoy doing for 20 plus days to accomplish the requirements of the event. The puzzle in main engineering is a pain in the neck to finish, NEED 2 PEOPLE to accomplish puzzle game properly. Also note of interest, quicker means bringing a 14 day event down to 7 not increasing it to 20 plus and then some .
I have actually tried the patrols after those two horridly unrepeatable missions / tfo and found that the patrols will be far more Tolerable to replay for 20 days than the mission / tfo will be. However having to go from event runs of 15 minutes daily to 45 min daily is definitely a BAD thing and will be a grind that will cause me grief and deflates ambition to play anything other than the event. After doing 2 days of the event required mission / tfo / patrols, i can tell you now, 45 minutes of content just for contributions to an event prize is quite stressfull, tedious, and not fun! 20 days of this is gonna be a massive effort to complete and 0 fun at all! I can only hope that the devs realize that not everyone finds this type of event activity enjoyable and considers easing off at some point and accommodate more than just the players who dont mind being run into the ground for 45 minutes of grind to accomplish a goal.
After now doing this for 7 days, every day, 30 min plus per day I can assure you fed up has already been reached, I am going to continue to do this cause I have to get the ship but my stress from the event setup will be EXCESSIVELY HIGH once im done in 20 days. My opinion of the direction the game is going in is quite low.
The mycelial space with the floating islands looks every bit like the Final Dungeon of a japanese fantasy RPG. All that's missing is a Final Boss battle at the end.
Not a bad thing, though. I like japanese fantasy RPGs.
I did the TFO and two Patrols - 'Within the Briars' and 'Sentinal'. I really have no idea what I did in the TFO except run around, kill Elachi, and click on the ground to transport to the next 'Island' until I got to the final area and we had to kill bunches of Elachi. 25 Marks plus Daily. Discovery or Fleet only.
The Patrols were easy enough. 'Briars' you go into a Metron Gas menagerie. Kill Klingons and do three Radiation mini-games and done. Marks Reward is Choice Box, 15 Marks, no Daily Bonus possible.
'Sentinals', deploy four Satellite Gun Platforms, you don't need to interact or do anything to get them going except get to the marked point. Kill Elachi ships as you go and the Flagship group at the end. Same Mark payout (15).
The double XP at the end was about 2917 or so. Did not try to leave mid-flight and reenter to check how or if that worked. Did not note the Cooldown either.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I found the new content to be not so new. Most of the patrols we saw before they "revised" and streamlined the episodes. It isn't really new. At best, what is new is the way they organized it all.
The ONE mission, and subsequent TFO, are good, but not so good that the expansion can be rated a success. I really find it to be dishonest and a bit sketchy when a company kills a bunch of material and then tries to re-introduce it in another way. It is deceptive.
But not all is bad. I do like how they organized it, and hope they add more patrols. It is very cool to be able to be in different places, with a team, and jump into the same patrol. I also look forward to unlocking the new ship. I have been waiting for a decent ENG ship.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a hater, I have played since 2010 and am a Lifer, Ii just am critical of how you polish old material and rebrand it as new. Don't do it.
Fleet Admiral of The Lost boys
"Dreams are born in the deepest of minds, and destroyed in the shallowest of ones."
I did the TFO and two Patrols - 'Within the Briars' and 'Sentinal'. I really have no idea what I did in the TFO except run around, kill Elachi, and click on the ground to transport to the next 'Island' until I got to the final area and we had to kill bunches of Elachi. 25 Marks plus Daily. Discovery or Fleet only.
The Patrols were easy enough. 'Briars' you go into a Metron Gas menagerie. Kill Klingons and do three Radiation mini-games and done. Marks Reward is Choice Box, 15 Marks, no Daily Bonus possible.
'Sentinals', deploy four Satellite Gun Platforms, you don't need to interact or do anything to get them going except get to the marked point. Kill Elachi ships as you go and the Flagship group at the end. Same Mark payout (15).
The double XP at the end was about 2917 or so. Did not try to leave mid-flight and reenter to check how or if that worked. Did not note the Cooldown either.
Since you tried both Briars and Sentinels, what do you think is quicker?
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
However, red card for making the Boff have no distinctive features to make him interesting to have as a space or ground Boff:
-no unique trait
-not a single customization, not even colors or removing adding parts, NOTHING.
*points at Breen Boff*
Comparing something from 2010 to something from 2019, really? Let's no go all new Epic Games Store Vs old Steam, please.
Also, they've removed the countdown for the FTFO. I understand that there's more than one piece of "content" you can do to get the points, but still. Would've been nice to keep something similar.
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Also, they've removed the countdown for the FTFO. I understand that there's more than one piece of "content" you can do to get the points, but still. Would've been nice to keep something similar.
Hopefully, it's just an oversite and they'll add a countdown timer back. Even under the old Reputation based system, whenever they added a totally new TFO (and weren't repeating one they had done previously); they had to create a new countdown timer for it to add it to the list. We'll see.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
However, red card for making the Boff have no distinctive features to make him interesting to have as a space or ground Boff:
-no unique trait
-not a single customization, not even colors or removing adding parts, NOTHING.
*points at Breen Boff*
Comparing something from 2010 to something from 2019, really? Let's no go all new Epic Games Store Vs old Steam, please.
Pretty much every boff that doesn't use the standard character model is uncustomizable.
Comments
- I'm not going to use the C word
- I was responding honestly to the Ambassador's tweet as we're both 'genuinely curious'.
- In my response it's important to note that I was stating how things felt to me.
- I enjoyed VIL and think that Cryptic did a great job with it.
- I enjoyed the STO Discovery content and watched the TV show. I'm looking forward to ST: Picard as well.
- After a day's reflection and reading BMR's post above I can say for me it was definitely a case of having a lot of fun with VIL and then having the Discovery content come out so quickly due to the way in which it was released resulting in a bit of a jolt for me having things change directions so fast (both involved new toons). Nothing more.
- So it may just be it's possible for a player to have the perception of VIL ending too quickly without being malcontent about DSC.
Not disagreeing with some of what you said and I respect your posts and opinion in general, but in this case and at this point would rather focus on what's coming up rather than a past I can't change.It was a mistake on my part to respond at all to the person who posted the tweet as it just drags things more off topic. LLAP.
No it wasn't meant to be a TOS related expansion...that's why it was released on the 50th anniversary year of the first broadcast episode of 'Star Trek' (TOS)....oh, wait...
[The fact they tiied it to ENT as well just added insult to injury WRT how little TOS content it actually had.]
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
There was nothing that really happened from the point of view of the Dominion, it was all outside-looking-in in feel, and there was no Dominion to have that view anyway except for their silly biological answer to Star Wars "roger, roger" droids. All the new scenario and battlezone stuff centers on the Hurq in a strongly Alliance way, and does not really feel like it has much to do with the Dominion as a faction at all beyond a mistake they made in ancient times.
AoD was just a convenient target that some people were predisposed to hate anyway, the real problem was the perceived bait-and-switch feel that ViL had. The fact that the AoD stuff has been well-crafted (despite not always making sense with the "holosim" nonsense) undoubtedly added fuel to the conspiracy theory fires. Hopefully the fungal feature coming up is more focused and does not kick off more of the divisiveness in the game community, and even better would be if they interleaved it or integrated it somehow with bringing out the rest of the Dominion faction (which would put the "conspiracy" stuff to rest once and for all).
True enough though it was a mistake to hype it as a faction if they did not intend to actually deliver one, there is a lot of ground between an actual faction and the single-race unlock that they did instead. They could very easily make the Vorta and an "alien" category available as normal leveling races, (and maybe even make Founders available as an LTS perk), to get enough parity with the other factions to be considered a real (if logistically challenged) one. They could even use the current "Dominion" startup with a minimum of changes for the leveling characters to start in or even reskin something else.
And the ship thing is no problem either, they proved that with the T1-T4 leveling Walker and the T6 leveling ships. All they would have to do for the Dominion would be to make that T5u bug the horneytoads start out with leveling from T1 to T5u to be on the same footing as everyone else mechanics wise. It is not like they showed a lot of different Dominion ship classes in the show (there was like what, four in total?) so people would not expect a lot of different ships as they level a Dominion character from a roleplay standpoint.
Then there is the fact that player characters are all considered to be from Odo's subfaction, if they played up the friction between his forces and the traditional ones that could explain why they are stuck on DS9, and later missions could be trickled in that explore parts of the gamma quadrant later (maybe even introducing their equivalent of ESD eventually, though that is not strictly needed for a barebones faction). That would avoid a lot of up-front work and give the devs something to work with over time.
Most people end up getting a T6 at some point anyway, and those who are interested in a Dominion main would probably get a Dominion one which would provide some variety. Then there are all the event ships that level too for that matter, even though they would not be Dominion a lot of people use them instead of faction ships anyway.
Even if your definition is true and not the product of your own imagination (like you accuse everyone else of), it is irrelevant. What fuels the conspiracy theory is the perception that the Dominion faction was never completed, and the simple fact is that the inclusion of a trivial starter scenario does not make a single race unlock and a few ships feel like a complete faction no matter how you try to spin it. It has nothing to do with definitions, and it is not even about the devs take on it for that matter, it is all about how the community sees it.
That perception issue is especially true now considering how easily the dev-stated stumbling block of not enough ships to fill out the leveling progression could be fixed with the new leveling ship system.
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l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Usually nothing special has to be done (unless the update breaks something which is fairly common) it is just handled as a larger than normal Thursday update.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Granted, having a playable Founder (in my opinion) would simply be impractical, as every player would have too many demands and expectations; the characters in STO are all humanoid and use tech based weapons, unlike what I figure many people would have the Founders play as. Doesn't mean STO couldn't explore other species from within the Dominion; the Dosi, Wadi, Karemma.
There was talk during the development of the Dominion in DS9 to have them very similar to the Federation in the sense that they encompassed many species (conquered rather than a coalition) but due to budgetary reasons they just went with the Jem Hadar, Vorta & Founder. There's no specific reason to think there couldn't be more; maybe different areas of the Dominion (they control a lot of space) could factor in different species, which could/would now come into play? If STO Devs have proven anything over the years, it's that they can be creative. There's no reason the Dominion couldn't be expanded on in such a manner.
That would be the ideal. DS9 showed that a lot of the client races, while not as well rounded as alpha/beta/delta types were still much less rigid and regimented than the core Dominion ones and some could actually make decent player characters.
As for the Vorta, they would not need any genetic modification to be the prime (leveling) player species for the Dominion. Not all species are primarily vision oriented, and the Vorta are one of them, they "see" much better by sound than they let on. In fact, Weyoun would often talk to people who entered the room behind him were he would not be able to see them but he knew exactly who and where they were before they said anything, and sometimes didn't even bother to turn around for the conversation. I can just see a Vorta-only meeting were everyone would be sitting facing random directions looking like they were ignoring each other and just talking to themselves.
True to a certain degree, the Dominion operates in a very rigid cast-like system, or at least the central part does (the client "protectorates" have all kinds of different and often crazy-seeming systems as the freak-culture-of-the-week early DS9 format showed). The problem is that the actual structure that the DS9 series showed differed significantly from the carefully crafted myth that Weyoun tried to sell the Federation on.
For instance, despite Weyoun playing at being "not fighting material" the Jem'Hadar were nothing but the grunts, simple front-line cheaply cloned soldiers who did little or no thinking and just followed orders (which is just as well, with a lifespan of about five years being long enough for them to brag about they had almost no experience to draw from). And they got those orders from the Vorta, all Dominion ships were shown to be commanded by Vorta or in a few of the more suicide oriented missions they were under the command of a Vorta squadron leader, not some mythical Jem'Hadar officer.
The Dominion war machine actually revolved around intelligence operations (including offensive ones), and the Vorta were the James Bonds, MacGyvers, and Natasha Romanovs of the Dominion. The Jem'Hadar were the ordinary gun monkeys and cheap living mine detectors that the spies could call on when they needed firepower or a distraction, and the very blunt instruments for the occasional though unavoidable shooting war where they had a need for expendable low-investment shock troops and garrisons to sit on captured territory.
Anyway, the Dominion stuff is already on other threads, it really does not need to be here too (though the fungus network could be a way to explore Gamma without using the wormhole I suppose, which could lead to finding out things the Founders may still be keeping secret or something).
If nothing else, would be nice to have Captain Sulu of The Undiscovered Country get a few STO episodes
Also nice reward although i am sure there will be plenty of haters as well.
I really liked it, even if some parts were really anvilicious, especially regarding Stamets after his "change" (no spoilers), but it was great to look at, great new lore, nice little touches (that heart icon when you get you-know-who to follow you, dawwwwww).
The VA was great as well, I hope to get more of Mr Rapp's character and the Andorian captain.
And the Elachi twist and reward were very nice (even if it was a bit spoiled by the episode reward list)!
Overall, I had a great time playing it.
However, red card for making the Boff have no distinctive features to make him interesting to have as a space or ground Boff:
-no unique trait
-not a single customization, not even colors or removing adding parts, NOTHING.
His only saving grace is that he's not a reskinned human. That's literally it. No unique equipment, no special armor parts for other characters to use, no unique abilities, nothing.
That pretty much soured my excitement a bit, especially considering what his species can do and the new storyline behind it.
EDIT: AAAAAND the Sentinels patrol soured my excitement even more... Seriously, why is a great mission brought together with at least one patrol that doesn't advance the storyline, has nothing interesting happen and is just a big "kill X waves of enemies" while circling around a moon to trigger the next wave?
Also it DOES have a unique trait. Elusive. I know you're like: "Boring my captain has that!" That is true... but ONLY your captain. this is the ONLY BOFF with it.
My character Tsin'xing
Yes, give me the Breen 10 times over this one.
And sorry, but if you need the +10 defense that comes from ONE BOFF then you've got bigger problems.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
I have actually tried the patrols after those two horridly unrepeatable missions / tfo and found that the patrols will be far more Tolerable to replay for 20 days than the mission / tfo will be. However having to go from event runs of 15 minutes daily to 45 min daily is definitely a BAD thing and will be a grind that will cause me grief and deflates ambition to play anything other than the event. After doing 2 days of the event required mission / tfo / patrols, i can tell you now, 45 minutes of content just for contributions to an event prize is quite stressfull, tedious, and not fun! 20 days of this is gonna be a massive effort to complete and 0 fun at all! I can only hope that the devs realize that not everyone finds this type of event activity enjoyable and considers easing off at some point and accommodate more than just the players who dont mind being run into the ground for 45 minutes of grind to accomplish a goal.
After now doing this for 7 days, every day, 30 min plus per day I can assure you fed up has already been reached, I am going to continue to do this cause I have to get the ship but my stress from the event setup will be EXCESSIVELY HIGH once im done in 20 days. My opinion of the direction the game is going in is quite low.
Not a bad thing, though. I like japanese fantasy RPGs.
The Patrols were easy enough. 'Briars' you go into a Metron Gas menagerie. Kill Klingons and do three Radiation mini-games and done. Marks Reward is Choice Box, 15 Marks, no Daily Bonus possible.
'Sentinals', deploy four Satellite Gun Platforms, you don't need to interact or do anything to get them going except get to the marked point. Kill Elachi ships as you go and the Flagship group at the end. Same Mark payout (15).
The double XP at the end was about 2917 or so. Did not try to leave mid-flight and reenter to check how or if that worked. Did not note the Cooldown either.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
The ONE mission, and subsequent TFO, are good, but not so good that the expansion can be rated a success. I really find it to be dishonest and a bit sketchy when a company kills a bunch of material and then tries to re-introduce it in another way. It is deceptive.
But not all is bad. I do like how they organized it, and hope they add more patrols. It is very cool to be able to be in different places, with a team, and jump into the same patrol. I also look forward to unlocking the new ship. I have been waiting for a decent ENG ship.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a hater, I have played since 2010 and am a Lifer, Ii just am critical of how you polish old material and rebrand it as new. Don't do it.
"Dreams are born in the deepest of minds, and destroyed in the shallowest of ones."
Since you tried both Briars and Sentinels, what do you think is quicker?
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Hopefully, it's just an oversite and they'll add a countdown timer back. Even under the old Reputation based system, whenever they added a totally new TFO (and weren't repeating one they had done previously); they had to create a new countdown timer for it to add it to the list. We'll see.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
My character Tsin'xing