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Livestream with Cryptic QA on Friday.

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  • westx211westx211 Member Posts: 42,205 Arc User
    Should they choose to put T6 Dyson ships in a 9-pack or not is less of an issue than whether they also make them available individually since the free tokens from event campaigns do not apply to multipacks.

    Also they have more than just "kitbashy" canon ships they could do, like the TOS-R Gorn ship, and the McQuarrie Planet of Titans ship that was partially visible in the background in TMP and completely visible in the mothball yard in TNG and so is obviously a different class from the Crossfield. In fact the mothball yard had several candidate versions of the Excelsior including the four-engine "tennis racket" and a considerably different two-engine version from the one seen in the movie that could easily be called a different class.

    Also, some of those kitbashes were actually pretty good, and at least one of them (the Centaur) is actually in the game already and none of them are any worse than some of the DSC ones.

    The Jupp type would work very well as a Saladin equivalent with its old armored TOS style saucer and TMP engines, and the twin engine configuration even negates the "nacelles must be in pairs" objection. For the TOS era fans it would be a welcome addition (especially if it had round engines as an option) since they really have no T6 ships except very rare and hideously expensive Constitution variants or the buy-twice-to-get-one-ship nonsense of having to purchase both the T6 temporal ship and the T5, like the Paladin wearing a Ranger as a skin.

    The Raging Queen/Curry type is ugly and ungainly looking but has some of the so ugly it is cute effect that an Eagle from Space 1999 has.

    The Hutzel... well that one does not make any sense at all, there is no conceivable reason to clamp two different saucer tops together and slap three engines on it and it is probably best forgotten about.

    The Yeager class is another good one, an Intrepid saucer mated to a freighter hull (yes it looks like the Maquis raider, but it isn't, it is a larger freighter glimpsed onscreen (and flipped over) for maybe a whole second or so, a fact of life when they have a limited set of physical models to work with). The idea of using a civilian freighter hull is actually very realistic, they did a lot of that in WWII with things like "jeep" carriers and other mostly second string warships. It would probably be too high-poly for the game though since it uses most of two whole ship models. There were at least two of them built since (possibly because of an error in editing) you can occasionally see two of them around DS9 and it may have turned out to be a better performer than expected, like the Centaur class was.

    The Bradford type containerized cargo pod hauler. Assuming they beefed up pods to use as weapons placements and a place to stick extra reactors it might not make a bad warship, though it could have simply been a front line supply ship. Again, WWII equivalences make it realistic and even desirable for RP purposes though to be fair unless it has some great trait it would probably not be a great seller because I suspect not many play armed freighter/q-ship captains.

    The Elkins type has potential, it looks very good from the top for instance, but the Tomcat model that was used as the secondary hull would need a lot of work to look good from any other angle.

    Not to mention that some very widely desired Ships still haven't got a T6(Nova), and that Jem'hadar have a massive empty space that the devs could fill with ships, they have no true science vessel yet, no full miracle worker/pilot/intelligence ships, no Escort Carrier, no flight deck carrier, there is so much missing from them that they could do.

    Romulans also could use a few more ships too, the last few Fed/KDF bundles included nothing for the Romulans at all

    There's also a couple of TOS KDF designs they made that were viewable and usable in the foundry but weren't released to players.

    While they may have ran out of ideas, it would seem they were more at fault for that failing, as we have both given plenty of evidence of more ships that they could do alone.

    Though I do understand storywise why they could run out of ideas as someone who rps it can get tough sometimes to keep writing more story.
    Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited October 2020
    westx211 wrote: »
    Though I do understand storywise why they could run out of ideas as someone who rps it can get tough sometimes to keep writing more story.
    Well, in STO's nearly 11 years we have done what?
    • The Dominion stuff from DS9
    • The Temporal Cold War from ENT
    • The Borg stuff from TNG/VOY
    • The Klingon War from DSC
    • Numerous smaller arcs like Seska/Kazon(VOY), House of Mogh honor(TNG/DS9), Mirror Universe fall/rise(TOS/DS9)
    • Two parters like Unification(TNG), Time's Arrow(TNG), Year of Hell(VOY)

    I recently went back and read the summaries of all the Trek episodes on Memory Alpha, and theres like.... 4 things I could see Crytpic doing a story arc on at this point(and even some of those are iffy)
    -Kelvan invasion from Andromeda(Wouldn't make much sense as they don't expect their survay group back for another like 150 years)
    -Sheliak up to no good(might be iffy since the Sheliak were the ones who contacted the Federation in the first place, and are unlikely ot just start going around nuking planets or w/e)
    -Prophets vs Pah-Wraiths(given Mirror Leeta's tie to the Pah-Wraiths this will likely get done in the Mirror Leeta arc)
    -The whole synth colony/Artifact/Zhat Vash/Qowat Milat stuff from Picard

    There's about a dozen or so other things I could see them adding into STO, but those are all very one off/ n-game two parter, type stuff, and not story arc material.

    They also have a heavily damaged and destabilized Gamma quadrant that is ripe for all sorts of original stories (though that would probably take making the Dominion more versatile with levelling races instead of just the "meat droids" that start at endgame).

    In the same vein they have the Alpha Great Link which could have been engaged in some kind of intelligence plot, either to fracture and turn the Alliance against itself to erode the power of the Solids (they may have been doing things including whisper campaigns to stack the odds so J'Ula's operations cause the most disruption of the empire possible for instance) or they might be plotting to "cleanse" the Gamma link of the "corruption" caused by Odo and his concern for Solids, or a number of other things.

    There is also a big area of the Alpha quadrant map taken up by the First Federation without doing anything with it. They could use them for all kinds of campaigns, either small scale (pun not intended) or epic. For one thing, a major interstellar civilization does not just get that paranoid bunker mentality for no reason, maybe whatever forced them into that fortified position is on its way back to the area.

    Or for that matter, what if their barriers are not so much to keep people out of their territory per se, but rather to keep something else in. The Iconians are not the only incredibly powerful ancient civilization that got wrecked by something in Trek, maybe there is a dimensional thinning or whatever at the center of the Fesarian territory that they are barely keeping locked shut (perhaps using an artifact they don't completely understand) and they don't want others disturbing it. It could be that the lock is wearing out and the big baddies are starting to leak through. One weird thought is that they might be related to the Fek'iri but meaner.

    Those are just two examples, Star Trek has fifty years of loose ends and ominous hints, all of the different series had at least a few and the devs have not mined all of them by any stretch.

    In fact, they could even run a second round of Temporal Cold War because of disturbances from the Red Angel and/or the quantum fungus explosion from DSC first season, it would make a good justification for a DSC Klingon starter similar to AoY (and even to modify AoY itself to accept Romulan spies and perhaps Orions for a quick Romulan and second KDF tie in) and since it does not necessarily need to directly involve the DSC people themselves it would probably not collide with what CBS is doing.
  • paradox#7391 paradox Member Posts: 1,774 Arc User
    westx211 wrote: »
    Though I do understand storywise why they could run out of ideas as someone who rps it can get tough sometimes to keep writing more story.
    Well, in STO's nearly 11 years we have done what?
    • The Dominion stuff from DS9
    • The Temporal Cold War from ENT
    • The Borg stuff from TNG/VOY
    • The Klingon War from DSC
    • Numerous smaller arcs like Seska/Kazon(VOY), House of Mogh honor(TNG/DS9), Mirror Universe fall/rise(TOS/DS9)
    • Two parters like Unification(TNG), Time's Arrow(TNG), Year of Hell(VOY)

    I recently went back and read the summaries of all the Trek episodes on Memory Alpha, and theres like.... 4 things I could see Crytpic doing a story arc on at this point(and even some of those are iffy)
    -Kelvan invasion from Andromeda(Wouldn't make much sense as they don't expect their survay group back for another like 150 years)
    -Sheliak up to no good(might be iffy since the Sheliak were the ones who contacted the Federation in the first place, and are unlikely ot just start going around nuking planets or w/e)
    -Prophets vs Pah-Wraiths(given Mirror Leeta's tie to the Pah-Wraiths this will likely get done in the Mirror Leeta arc)
    -The whole synth colony/Artifact/Zhat Vash/Qowat Milat stuff from Picard

    There's about a dozen or so other things I could see them adding into STO, but those are all very one off/ n-game two parter, type stuff, and not story arc material.

    They also have a heavily damaged and destabilized Gamma quadrant that is ripe for all sorts of original stories (though that would probably take making the Dominion more versatile with levelling races instead of just the "meat droids" that start at endgame).

    In the same vein they have the Alpha Great Link which could have been engaged in some kind of intelligence plot, either to fracture and turn the Alliance against itself to erode the power of the Solids (they may have been doing things including whisper campaigns to stack the odds so J'Ula's operations cause the most disruption of the empire possible for instance) or they might be plotting to "cleanse" the Gamma link of the "corruption" caused by Odo and his concern for Solids, or a number of other things.

    There is also a big area of the Alpha quadrant map taken up by the First Federation without doing anything with it. They could use them for all kinds of campaigns, either small scale (pun not intended) or epic. For one thing, a major interstellar civilization does not just get that paranoid bunker mentality for no reason, maybe whatever forced them into that fortified position is on its way back to the area.

    Or for that matter, what if their barriers are not so much to keep people out of their territory, but rather to keep something else in. The Iconians are not the only incredibly powerful ancient civilization that got wrecked by something in Trek, maybe there is a dimensional thinning or whatever at the center of the Fesarian territory that they are barely keeping locked shut (perhaps using an artifact they don't completely understand) and they don't want others disturbing it. It could be that the lock is wearing out and the big baddies are starting to leak through.

    Those are just two examples, Star Trek has fifty years of loose ends and ominous hints, all of the different series had at least a few and the devs have not mined all of them by any stretch. In fact, they could even run a second round of Temporal Cold War because of disturbances from the Red Angel and/or the quantum fungus explosion from DSC first season, it would make a good justification for revamping AoY to include a DSC Klingon starter and since it does not need to directly involve the DSC people it would probably not collide with what CBS is doing.

    DSC Klingons would either have to be aboard J'Ula's ship or have their ship be in close proximity to the I.K.S. Lukara when they jump to the 25th century.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,969 Community Moderator
    westx211 wrote: »
    If they make T6 Dyson ships I think they should do just 1 per faction instead of another 9 pack. I think we stopped getting 9 packs of ships because they were growing unpopular. And well they kind of were.

    Its also harder to justify a 9 pack with Playable Dominion as well, which bloats it to a 12 pack because "it would be unfair to leave out the Jem'Hadar". Its extra work for ship designers, which in turn would bloat the price of the pack, and thus most likely get complaints about how expensive the full pack is.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,913 Arc User
    [quote="livinlifejb90#4082;

    It bears repeating. if you are this unhappy with this game, the devs, the company, then as maga trash say, GTFO.[/quote]

    For someone who purportedly doesn't like toxicity and bashing, that's a terrible way to talk about part of the playerbase.

    Looks toxic and bashing of part of the playerbase to me.
    Now a LTS and loving it.
    Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
    I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything. :D
  • shrimphead2015shrimphead2015 Member Posts: 527 Arc User
    edited October 2020
    If what I posted has come up more than once , my apologies . It seems like I can't post what I previously wrote. Here is what I wrote.

    I think the toxicity of some of the community is a direct by-product of the business practices of the company.

    Using other media about the game other than the official forums of the game to me I saw as a big mistake. It either tells me as a customer that they would rather not talk to us or have no real interest of representing their product.

    They excuse seems to be that we are too mean so they are not going to come to the forums and talk with us. They are not going to address the issues their customers are bringing up or just flat out ignore any requests their customers have.

    It tells me that the person or persons that are hired for this particular function do not want to do the job they were hired to do because they don;t want their feeling hurt.

    This is inexcusable, I could parade out C.S.R.'s , Concierges, Front Desk staff, Airline Reps, etc. that get paid peanuts and have to hear it on the phone or to their face for 8 hours or more every work day how much their company or service is terrible and yet they do it and try to maintain a professional attitude because that's the job they signed on for.

    I'm no expert on how this particular business is run or what goes in the job description and my intent is not to bash Cryptic over this but it is a concern for me as a customer how things have devolved with the communication and feedback aspects of it.
    "There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death. It shall be life." - Ten Bears (Will Sampson)
  • foppotee#4552 foppotee Member Posts: 1,704 Arc User
    edited October 2020
    Not sure if true or not but I still don't like the idea of that ViL story arc being cut-short for Discovery material. I understand the possible "business" reasons why it was done, again if true, but the ViL felt compelling, rich, & imo deserved to be explored more!

    I could easily see the older 9/12 ship packs of old being condensed & rehashed down to 3/4 ship packs for today's STO & still be just as viable.

    It is telling though the amount of ships released in STO via the gambling versus the C-Store & I also think these single ship Legend bundles stuffed with fluff will continue as long as players buy the big-ticket items/services.

    STO is still a very generous F2P sci-fi mmo. It is the best Star Trek mmo after all :-) It may not be as fun as it once was, but one has to roll with the punches as the saying goes & try to enjoy the aspects of the game that are still entertaining even if it seems gradually that is less & less.

    Also, where's the video of this Q&A? I thought it was a livestream? Since I missed it live it would be great to be able to watch it. Nevermind lol found the link, I thought & kept looking at the official CrypticStudios Twitch channel for it lol.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    Not sure if true or not but I still don't like the idea of that ViL story arc being cut-short for Discovery material.

    It's not true, ViL concluded it's full planned story before the Discovery content began. Cryptic has stated on numerous occasions that they were never asked or forced to cut ViL short in any way.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • foxman00foxman00 Member Posts: 1,478 Arc User
    edited October 2020
    Not sure if true or not but I still don't like the idea of that ViL story arc being cut-short for Discovery material.

    It's not true, ViL concluded it's full planned story before the Discovery content began. Cryptic has stated on numerous occasions that they were never asked or forced to cut ViL short in any way.

    Sigh. I seriously don't understand why we need to keep repeating what Cryptic said. As well as the need to keep dismissing that silly myth some in the community seem to want to populate as truth when its not.
    pjxgwS8.jpg
  • westx211westx211 Member Posts: 42,205 Arc User
    foxman00 wrote: »
    Not sure if true or not but I still don't like the idea of that ViL story arc being cut-short for Discovery material.

    It's not true, ViL concluded it's full planned story before the Discovery content began. Cryptic has stated on numerous occasions that they were never asked or forced to cut ViL short in any way.

    Sigh. I seriously don't understand why we need to keep repeating what Cryptic said. As well as the need to keep dismissing that silly myth some in the community seem to want to populate as truth when its not.

    To be fair Fox, if it isn't true, its not something cryptic would admit. They would not say "CBS forced us to cancel our expansion and do something else"
    Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
  • foppotee#4552 foppotee Member Posts: 1,704 Arc User
    westx211 wrote: »
    foxman00 wrote: »
    Not sure if true or not but I still don't like the idea of that ViL story arc being cut-short for Discovery material.

    It's not true, ViL concluded it's full planned story before the Discovery content began. Cryptic has stated on numerous occasions that they were never asked or forced to cut ViL short in any way.

    Sigh. I seriously don't understand why we need to keep repeating what Cryptic said. As well as the need to keep dismissing that silly myth some in the community seem to want to populate as truth when its not.

    To be fair Fox, if it isn't true, its not something cryptic would admit. They would not say "CBS forced us to cancel our expansion and do something else"

    True, they wouldn't admit it, I think the timing of the ViL content ending so quickly in time to the Discovery content beginning, & it seemed like a lot, helped the questioning too. It is possible with the ViL content feeling more original compared to the tied-in Discovery content aided too. I just hope maybe Cryptic will add more ViL content, down the road, it was really well done. I'm sure we'll get more Discovery content, we still are, & since Discovery just got approved for a 4th season there'll be more to come.
  • lordmerc22lordmerc22 Member Posts: 776 Arc User
    edited October 2020
    I told the guy during his stream that ingame bug reports do not give back an ID so may be broken and he said they would check it but also someone said he had contacted cryptic support and they told him tickets just no longer give number but work. Thought you would want to know that.

    As for video of the QA stream it is viewable on Twitch

  • garaffegaraffe Member Posts: 1,353 Arc User
    coldnapalm wrote: »
    Oh trust me, EVERY Romulan player knows how you feel. And we so far has not been shafted NEARLY as hard as fans of the Nova have been. After it won a bloody poll no less. It's why it is the ONLY fed ship I would be okay with...hell even support getting released. Even as a solo release, I am okay with that. The Luna on the other hand better come with all the other factions...or rage from me will be forthcoming. If it doesn't come with at least the KDF side ship...yeah they can just scrape this whole year of the Klingon as utter BS at that point and I am gonna push the nuclear option.

    Jolan tru, Centurion
    westx211 wrote: »
    If they make T6 Dyson ships I think they should do just 1 per faction instead of another 9 pack. I think we stopped getting 9 packs of ships because they were growing unpopular. And well they kind of were.

    As long as I get the option to buy just one or to buy just a Romulan Dyson Bundle, I don't care if the 9 pack exists. It is just dumb that Cryptic has been taking away purchase options from the players by only releasing single ships bundled with a bunch of junk or huge mega bundles.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    True, they wouldn't admit it, I think the timing of the ViL content ending so quickly in time to the Discovery content beginning, & it seemed like a lot, helped the questioning too.

    The only thing the timing did was fuel rampant and completely unfounded conspiracy theory. The ViL arc was fantastic, but it's a full arc that concluded. Not sure why that's so hard for some people to understand, it came to a natural conclusion and didn't feel 'rushed' or 'hurried' at all.

    It's just people seeing problems where none exist. Nothing more.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,248 Arc User
    edited October 2020
    > @seaofsorrows said:
    > (Quote)
    >
    > The only thing the timing did was fuel rampant and completely unfounded conspiracy theory. The ViL arc was fantastic, but it's a full arc that concluded. Not sure why that's so hard for some people to understand, it came to a natural conclusion and didn't feel 'rushed' or 'hurried' at all.
    >
    > It's just people seeing problems where none exist. Nothing more.

    From what I gathered from discussion about it in Foundry Rountable streams was that there was some plans to add additional steps before the final mission in ViL but it was always suppose to conclude where it did and we didn't miss the planned finale.

    Edit: We however don't at what stage those additional steps were left out so to assume the DSC arc was the reason and that Cryptic was forced to add arc against their wishes is at best jumping to conclutions
  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,385 Arc User
    spiritborn wrote: »
    From what I gathered from discussion about it in Foundry Rountable streams was that there was some plans to add additional steps before the final mission in ViL but it was always suppose to conclude where it did and we didn't miss the planned finale.

    Edit: We however don't at what stage those additional steps were left out so to assume the DSC arc was the reason and that Cryptic was forced to add arc against their wishes is at best jumping to conclutions
    Just the fact Home has a "last time on Star Trek Online" recap cutscene when it's only the 7th mission of the arc and the previous mission was released only 23 days before makes me think it was indeed rushed in a way, because who needs a recap for such a short time in a MMO where it's expected?

    Last time this happened in the game IIRC was with Surface Tension because it came THREE months after A Step Between Stars and it referenced everything that happened in the game, instead of just their current arc (though, it was because the Undine were behind the whole game plots, before the Iconians showed up and took more direct actions).

    Though, the whole Home recap was pretty useless in the first place, even if you exclude the timing, anyway, because the female Changeling does recap everything at the end of TT since she was behind the whole mess in the first place.
    #TASforSTO
    Iconian_Trio_sign.jpg?raw=1
  • foppotee#4552 foppotee Member Posts: 1,704 Arc User
    spiritborn wrote: »
    From what I gathered from discussion about it in Foundry Rountable streams was that there was some plans to add additional steps before the final mission in ViL but it was always suppose to conclude where it did and we didn't miss the planned finale.

    Edit: We however don't at what stage those additional steps were left out so to assume the DSC arc was the reason and that Cryptic was forced to add arc against their wishes is at best jumping to conclutions
    Just the fact Home has a "last time on Star Trek Online" recap cutscene when it's only the 7th mission of the arc and the previous mission was released only 23 days before makes me think it was indeed rushed in a way, because who needs a recap for such a short time in a MMO where it's expected?

    Last time this happened in the game IIRC was with Surface Tension because it came THREE months after A Step Between Stars and it referenced everything that happened in the game, instead of just their current arc (though, it was because the Undine were behind the whole game plots, before the Iconians showed up and took more direct actions).

    Though, the whole Home recap was pretty useless in the first place, even if you exclude the timing, anyway, because the female Changeling does recap everything at the end of TT since she was behind the whole mess in the first place.

    Sort of like for television series there are recaps at the beginning of seasons but usually not between normal running episodes.
  • westx211westx211 Member Posts: 42,205 Arc User
    spiritborn wrote: »
    From what I gathered from discussion about it in Foundry Rountable streams was that there was some plans to add additional steps before the final mission in ViL but it was always suppose to conclude where it did and we didn't miss the planned finale.

    Edit: We however don't at what stage those additional steps were left out so to assume the DSC arc was the reason and that Cryptic was forced to add arc against their wishes is at best jumping to conclutions
    Just the fact Home has a "last time on Star Trek Online" recap cutscene when it's only the 7th mission of the arc and the previous mission was released only 23 days before makes me think it was indeed rushed in a way, because who needs a recap for such a short time in a MMO where it's expected?

    Last time this happened in the game IIRC was with Surface Tension because it came THREE months after A Step Between Stars and it referenced everything that happened in the game, instead of just their current arc (though, it was because the Undine were behind the whole game plots, before the Iconians showed up and took more direct actions).

    Though, the whole Home recap was pretty useless in the first place, even if you exclude the timing, anyway, because the female Changeling does recap everything at the end of TT since she was behind the whole mess in the first place.

    Cryptic might not have cut ViL short for Disco content, but its possible (Especially considering the insane delay on the Jem'hadar Lifer ship), that ViL had content cut or left unfished as they rushed to put it out, so they could work on discovery content instead.

    (Its also just possible they left content cut or unfinished because they didn't really care)

    And again to the people who say "But cryptic said..." this isn't something that Cryptic themselves would admit to if it were true. It would be bad PR for them, its very rare for companies to admit something like that themselves, that sort of thing usually leaks from ex employees in the industry when they're out of the company.
    Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,331 Arc User
    spiritborn wrote: »
    From what I gathered from discussion about it in Foundry Rountable streams was that there was some plans to add additional steps before the final mission in ViL but it was always suppose to conclude where it did and we didn't miss the planned finale.

    Edit: We however don't at what stage those additional steps were left out so to assume the DSC arc was the reason and that Cryptic was forced to add arc against their wishes is at best jumping to conclutions
    Just the fact Home has a "last time on Star Trek Online" recap cutscene when it's only the 7th mission of the arc and the previous mission was released only 23 days before makes me think it was indeed rushed in a way, because who needs a recap for such a short time in a MMO where it's expected?

    Last time this happened in the game IIRC was with Surface Tension because it came THREE months after A Step Between Stars and it referenced everything that happened in the game, instead of just their current arc (though, it was because the Undine were behind the whole game plots, before the Iconians showed up and took more direct actions).

    Though, the whole Home recap was pretty useless in the first place, even if you exclude the timing, anyway, because the female Changeling does recap everything at the end of TT since she was behind the whole mess in the first place.

    Sort of like for television series there are recaps at the beginning of seasons but usually not between normal running episodes.

    DS9 had ALOT of these during the latter seasons. I have to say, that I found nothing 'out of sorts' for that recap, no matter the timing of the release.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited October 2020
    All the evidence, including the name itself, point to ViL being a very limited arc with the focus on Odo's expeditionary force mixed with a few other DS9 (and Klingon) odds and ends. The devs took the limited concept as far as it would reasonably go. People thinking it was cut short are thinking of it as an actual Dominion faction-expansion when it really isn't, it was only a minimal framework for the Jem'Hadar as STO's endgame-start character class (similar to other games like Tera with their Reaper class). Why would they do that? The reasons are actually quite understandable.

    Making an endgame start character (which was looking like it would be the next big thing in gaming back then) in STO has the problem that a lot of players are fans and the Star Trek fanbase is (or at least was) very much sticklers for continuity. All it takes is to look in these forums for the Cardassians to see how much grief and trouble there is bringing out what was a significant faction in the shows as just an bare race and some their ships (even with the fact that Cardassians are a Federation protectorate). And the best race for the endgame-starting fad is the three-day-to-combat-ready, pre-programed with combat skills meat droids of the Dominion, the Jem'Hadar, which comes with the baggage of not belonging to one of the other three factions in any way.

    The thing is, after the Romulan demi-faction the devs said on numerous occasions that they were not going to make another faction because it was just too much effort for the return, and that probably did not change even though they needed to in order for their endgame-starter race to work.

    So their solution was to make a number of Hur'q episodes with the focus switched to Gamma instead of Beta (they are traditionally a Klingon enemy in Trek and may even have been ideas for a YotK-like season originally), and with supporting threads like the Kahless one (like the excellently plotted and written Quark's Lucky Seven), and slap together the minimum subset of the Dominion possible (Quark's Expeditionary Force) on a stripped to the bone subset of the Romulan framework code.

    The Dominion and Gamma quadrant are just a backdrop, even the Jem'Hadar PCs are based in Alpha, not Gamma. Even the "Gamma Quadrant" map is nothing but a weird battlezone combining Gon'cra style minigames with TFO style instancing (essentially the worst of both).

    That worked well enough to get the endgame-starting character class in but it turns out it also amplified the problem of players wanting to actually explore the STO setting with Dominion characters set up as they are shown in DS9 and not just Odo's private army.

    As for the First Federation, if Balok is anything to go by they are too naturally gregarious and curious to be as fortified as they are shown without something external driving that behavior. Even a 30th century Starfleet is unlikely to seize ships at their border with automated defenses that default to deadly force if escape is attempted and hold them for days until a ship meanders out to check on them and subject the captives to mind games to determine their "real" intentions. They are more likely to just block their path and let them go if they turn around and leave or even if they just peacefully back up and wait outside the line.

    The fact that the First Federation defenses are so extreme implies a reaction to a great threat, especially with their higher technology, and that can make for interesting episodes or even a full seasonal arc should the devs run out of ideas for other parts of the game.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    So their solution was to make a number of Hur'q episodes with the focus switched to Gamma instead of Beta (they are traditionally a Klingon enemy in Trek and may even have been ideas for a YotK-like season originally), and with supporting threads like the Kahless one (like the excellently plotted and written Quark's Lucky Seven), and slap together the minimum subset of the Dominion possible (Quark's Expeditionary Force) on a stripped to the bone subset of the Romulan framework code.
    The whole point of the "Sword of Kahless" episode of DS9 was that the Hur'q were from the Gamma Quadrant, and took their stolen goods back there.

    StarTrek.com even speculates the Hur'q knew about, and used, the Bajoran wormhole. The wormhole was apparently open back then, which is something Voyager also suggested with the CHAH-mooz-ee symbol used by the "Sky Spirits" that visited Chakotay's people in the past. The designer of said symbol pointed out its supposed to be a map of the galaxy, with the path the Sky Spirits took from the Delta Quadrant to Earth, as well as the Bajoran Wormhole's path from the Alpha quadrant to the Gamma Quadrant, being shown. Showing the Sky Spirits knew about its existence back then as well.

    They didn't switch the focus of the Hur'q from the Beta Quadrant to the Gamma Quadrant. The Hur'q were canonally a Gamma Quadrant species as per DS9.

    They come from Gamma but the focus was always intertwined with the Klingons in the 14th century conflict before, even in the DS9 episode where the sword was found. It was STO who took the logical step and tied them with the Dominion.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,969 Community Moderator
    I've also seen people say, not just in STO but in other games, that they skip all the dialog... but then turn around and complain about not knowing whats going on.

    I actually KNOW someone like that who tried FF14. He's actually convinced that the Garlean Empire, the primary antagonist of the game, is actually the good guys and the player is a Terrorist fighting against Law and Order. He even wanted to JOIN the Garleans, but can't because story reasons. He doesn't know all the bad things the Garleans had done, or... well... anything. He always skipped the cutscenes and probably skipped the dialog to get to the action, and then wondered why we're so against the Garleans and trying to convince him that the Garleans are actually evil.
    Oh... well... if you had WATCHED THE CUTSCENES and read the dialog you would know.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
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