Well now we're at the end of another Feature Series and I wanted to throw my thoughts on it out there. On the whole I enjoyed it, I've enjoyed the previous FS's but this one was certainly the best of the bunch.
Positives:-
Environments - Simply Beautiful, each episode had moments that made you slow down and takein the scenery. They projected an atmosphere, the Vault felt vast and creepy, you got a sense of the desperate lifestyle of the romulan miners at the mining town, The city on Brea looked and felt lie a real city, with an actual sense of te conflict raging throughout it, etc etc. Seriously the guy responsible for these deserves to put his feet up, go get him some tea and a biccy Mr, Stahl! (a nice one too, like those little round ones with the colourful icing on them)
Voice Overs/Cutscenes - They really fleshed out the characters and storyline, Obisek was spot on but after Hakeev's first appearance I was left wondering where his fluffy white cat was and why he hadn't said "No Captain! I expect you to die!", though his previous appearances were better, more of this please.
Accolades - Always nice to find an accolade, I especially liked that I went to explore the Romulan Base in Mine Enemy, found and helped a horta and then got an accolade for the trouble. The best were the career accolades, it's nice to see a little variety n how sme parts of a mission can be approached (incuding the diplo option) andit's great that by teaming up with others you can get all of them too.
Romulan Overhaul - Now they really look like Romulan's. The addition of their Thalaron weapons sets them a bit further apart from other species in combat and it's nice to see these changes weren't confined the the episodes.
The Coliseum - I said before how much I liked being rewarded with an accolade for exploring an area but finding items that you'd actually want and use is as good if not better. I am, of course, reffering to the hidden weapon racks, and semi-hiding the Nausicaan sword in there was cool too. As for the music, well that point needs no explanation

.
Making Shuttles useful - Fantastic to be able to actually need them now and the fact tha twe got a fee ship slot to ensure no one had to decommission a ship to get it was a very thoughtful touch.
Storyline - This one is probably a very subjective area but pesonally I liked it. It really felt like a Star Trek plot, much more so than previous series. A sign that the series are getting better each time.
What could have been better:-
Cutscenes - Now I liked these but this series was so good I played each mission several times, what slightly annoyed me here was hw I couldn't skip most of the cutscenes on subseqeun runs. A very minor complaint, I know but still.
No Shuttle Bay - Now its been that way forever and the complaints only really popped up during this series. It'd be nice to get these but I do appreciate that this wasn't easy to anticipate and it'll take some work to get functional shuttle bays in, just reminding you :P
Launch of the first episode - Maybe you couldn't have anticipated how popular it would have been and I do appreciate the quick response to the issue, in retrospect you we're right on top of it. Yet at the risk of sounding like a grumpy little so and so, should it really have happened in the first place? Also, I NEVER want to see that qeue again >:(
On the whole, a rousing success, everyone that worked on it should be very proud of this series and a personal thank you from me for making it so enjoyable. Room for imporvement, indeed, then again there always is but things definately went in the right direction this series.
Now chaps and chapettes, respond away! How was Cloaked Intentions for you?
(Apologies for typo's and gramatical mistakes, mrs is bugging me to get off so she can ebay some stuff)
Comments
more of the same please.
As positive, I'd see the evolution of the game engine, a lot of new stuff being added and a lot of creativity being shown, with some truly beautiful sceneries.
As negative - some bugs, the story-telling was odd (which is weird - it worked perfectly fine for the Devidian series). I think the issue is that I played the Devidian and Breen series altogether, while here, I wait for a new episode whole week and thus I cannot see the whole series as a whole (I will replay it once again, just to make sure it's not this issue).
To each their own, I found the "Bar is Tasty" segment in the Devidian series to be disjointed while I liked the Romulan series much more.
True, to each their own - but during Devidian series (especially that Drozana underground mission) I felt tension, surprise, pleasant surprise to meet Scotty and McCoy. Here I felt pretty much nothing at all in best cases and confusion in worst cases.
This is one of my arguments for turning on the rating system for Cryptic made episodes as well. While we haven't decided whether to do it or not, I think it would certainly be interesting to at least read other player's comments prior to playing an episode or individual mission.
As a whole, these featured episodes seem to open a lot of doors for things I'm not used to in MMO (the RPG elements are especially strong in these missions, something I don't usually see in an MMORPG).
It would... but would the result be any good? I mean - no offense to anyone, but there are people here, who'd praise you even if you made a mission with one room and one mob in it...
There would also be people that criticize it too.
When looking at reviews, I tend to read the worst reviews to get a feel for the flaws.
Totally agreed. I'll replay the whole serie a bit later together, maybe it'll "sit" with me.
You know (a bit offtopic now), this is why I complained a bit about the great klink content feud (to put it mildly) - while Cryptic is busy catering to 5 percent of players, such great storylines will lie in the dust, waiting to be "discovered" in Season 5 or 6...
Aye, but there is this thing I heard in the latest UGC podcast, that I totally agree with: most player missions in the Foundry have 4-5 stars. The Longing which is supposed to be like the hottest **** ever, is a truly mediocre and predictable mission with copied storyline, yet it's the best rated mission ever. I am afraid same thing would happen to Cryptic stuff.
Jumja Stick quest is getting one.
I completely agree with this. My favorite parts are the cut scenes. I say "outstanding job Cryptic" You all are making this game better every week!:D
But it's a valid issue. People are not objective - which is predictable after all, people wouldn't be playing this game if they weren't fans and didn't have faith in Cryptic after all. I am not saying I am more objective than others - ofc I am not, but for this very reason I think ANY rating system will fail. But that's pure speculation.
It's a valid issue but I hope we can trust something as democratic as voting on whether you thought the content was good.
Also, missions that are still bugged will get both low ratings and also have reviews that specifically detailed what "went wrong."
Then explain to me (no offense meant, seriously I am asking), how come The Longing gets all the 4-5 star ratings - the mission story is blatantly stolen from ST Generations! And don't get me even started on that other mission on Drozana station...
I don't like it though.
I wish the ratings system worked like Netflix so that missions you rate highly will then be looked up to see what other players who liked that mission also rated highly too.
Netflix does this with movies you'll love and they've had mathematics contests for several years to develop great algorithms to sort out what people will like.
There are some gripes of course. I don't really understand why everyone is so excited about the shuttle edition. To me, it just felt like my normal ship with a honed and refined systems and crew was replaced with an inferior one with not even a quarter of the abilities. Perhaps if , when flying a shuttle, there was some new type of gameplay available that you don't do in a large starship however there was no such compensation. Flying a shuttle feels flat and boring and 'The Vault' episode is the only one I have not repeated. It's beautiful but not particularly fun (not to mention the faff of having to get in and out of a shuttle and shuffle equipment around).
The rest of the missions were very engaging. I think the pacing was excellent, no more shoving 6 ground squads down your throat (which even the previous featured series did let alone the rest of sto content). I loved how in the last mission you could beam in security teams to deal with the Romulans and carry on your own mission uninterrupted. Sure, you could stay and fight but you were given that option. I think this is a highly successful way to go.
There are many other things I could comment on but I'll finish with a feature I have not seen mentioned much on the forums; the addition of weird effects inside nebula in the first and third mission. It seems to me of all the new gameplay additions this has the most potential. I can see pvp maps with different types of nebula affecting your ship in different ways. Perhaps some drop your shields and others scramble your sensors.
How many trek battles have we seen where a nebula has saved the day? The finale of 'The Wrath of Khan' kirk evens the odds in a nebula. In 'Insurrection' Riker pulls off some slick moves in the briar patch disabling enemy ships with exploding pcokets of gas. In 'The Best of Both Worlds' the Enterprise hides from the borg cube in a nebula. You name your problem there is a flavour of nebula out there that can solve it.
Lets see nebulae in sto more often and in a freeform way rather than the scripted 'go to the nebula to do X' as seen in 'Frozen' (although I can see why scripting works too when telling a story).
Thanks for the new content cryptic, look forward to your next story.
Oh come on. That's like saying every copycat is "homage". Have you seen the movie Skyline? There is so much stolen stuff in it it's crazy, noone would call that "homage" - it's the same here. Unoriginal stolen story.
Ye Netflix system works, but it works on principle that a crowd is "objective" - too many people with too many different ideas. Here you have a "crowd" of people, who rate everything high, as long as it moves and shoots.
Too bad they have stated several times that the next featured series won't be out until AFTER Season 4, and Season 4 won't come out until late June. Means the next featured series will probably start in late July, early August.
Still TBD as to exactly when Series 4 starts.
Netflix system works because it acknowledges the crowd is subjective. The "Movies You'll Love" System is entirely subjective.
My likelihood you'll enjoy this ratings are different from my sister.
Well I stand corrected then thank you DStahl. Hopefully you guys can get it out before then. I know the community would GREATLY appreciate it, even if it doesn't follow directly from this story. I feel that we need more between now and Season 4 than just Foundry updates lol
That's the point. Lots of people didn't. Noone in my fleet did and I asked 20+ people. Yet 95 percent of it's ratings are 4-5. Which means rating system doesn't work.
Okay sorry for that. I'll make another post about this.