Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)

To be fair, and going by what Tuvok states at the end, it seems that the larger conflict has ended between the Federation and the Empire, but we're still not technically allies yet like we were under the Khitomer Accords. So, you could still have issues with certain groups of Klingons, like we do with the rogue elements in Tau Dewa sector patrols.

 

Just preface your mission with a note like "This mission takes place prior to the Feature Episode {insert name here}."

 

I still have a hard time believing that essentially all of this cosmic mess from season 1 to season 8 happened in the span of a year, which also means that thousands upon thousands of officers are getting promoted faster and higher than NuKirk

But that's a minor narrative gripe. I had a bunch of fun playing the new material last night, albeit the Undine STFs were a tad confusing at first. Still, a few things I wanted to mention:

Spoiler: S9 story content

-Those organic planet killers are initially creepy as all hell, and almost Lovecraftian, which is something I've wanted strongly to see in Star Trek since Event Horizon.
-The Iconians themselves are a great touch of otherworldly creepy, too. They're possibly the most alien thing that Trek has seen outside the novels/comics in a long time, and would love to see this version as the enemy in the next movie
-Seeing your ship fly within the fleets is a nice touch, though I wish my standard away team could have come with me
-Am I the only one that was hoping that Shon would die? He's so uncharismatic. I was disappointed that he survived.
-Lastly, how neat is it to have Voyager and an Enterprise fight side-by-side?

 

Oddly enough I actually liked Shon in this one. Also, Voyager must have a new AI script, the bloody thing was all over the place owning stuff during the fight at Earth and Qo'noS.

 

How long does the new featured episode take? I have the time to start it tomorrow.

 

I wish, Voyager's bridge would have featured more heavily. So they'd have a reason to build a good bridge set for her.

As it was they had the schematics of an Akira displayed in the background and those huge ugly blue LCARS.

 

Took me an hour - but I was watching all the cinematics and letting the v/o actors do the dialogues, and taking my time on the battles.

 

This. I really savored this FE. It was like an episode of Star Trek, and you could feel the devs poured a lot into it.

 

Actually from the in-game perspective its just one officer, your character. The rest of the captains you see commanding other starships? They're good captains, but they're only ordinary captains.

If you played the remastered Borg/Undine FEs, there's a conversation where your character meets Tuvok for the first time and say, "I've read all about you and your adventures on Voyager". And Tuvok replies, "I too know about you and your meteoric rise through the ranks."

 

So you accept that one starship can be on the Klingon front, Romulan front, Cardassian front, and everything else all in under a year? No.

 

Not me. Its Cryptic that wants you to accept it.

 

FYI if you don't already have it you might want to plan to get the Odyssey uniform from a T3 starbase becuase its not just the ESD NCPS getting them.

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=16548641&postcount=4

 

I'll play through the new/revamped Undine/Borg missions in about an hour. If anyone hasn't done so or want's to replay them as a team he is welcome to join, of course.

 

I just finished the FE. It took me 1 1/2 hours to complete. I thought it was done better than any of the recent ones. It might have made a two part television episode.

 

FYI I demorecorded the "Assimilation" run last night, or at least part of it and took the opportunity to explore the Borg cube with the free moving camera feature.

Damn, that thing is big.

Zooming all the way outside makes it look like they build the outer shell actually to scale.
Though, the parts players can't see are are largly empty low rez and the Borg standing around in their alcoves in the distance are just painted on!

 

No wonder the Borg aren't that hard to beat in STO....

 

You accepted it from Picard.

 

Let's break it down by Fronts. Most missions, with the way they are structured, take less than a day (travel times not counted). Some Mission chains, mostly the FE's formerly known as weeklies take a bit longer.

Tutorial “Graduation Day” • “Training Cruise” • “Field Promotions” • “Communication Breakdown” • “Assimilation of the Innocent”
“Welcome to Earth Spacedock”
This basically happens all within a single day. Day 1 is Graduation, Trainings course, Borg Invasion, Field Promotion to Lt!

Klingon War “Stranded In Space” • “Diplomatic Orders” • “Hide and Seek” • “Stop the Signal” • “Researcher Rescue” • “The Kuvah'Magh” • “Treasure Trading Station” • “Secret Orders” • “Task Force Hippocrates” Let's be generous and call the Klingon Front so far 2 weeks. These are basically us patrolling the Klingon frontlines with back2back missions •

“Skirmish” • “Spin the Wheel” • “What Lies Beneath” • “Everything Old is New” • “Night of the Comet”
This basically covers about a month, though time travel shenanigans muddle it a bit.

• “The Ultimate Klingon” • “The Doomsday Device” • “City on the Edge of Never” • “Past Imperfect” • “Temporal Ambassador” The rest of the Klingon Front might be another 2 weeks at the most.
So we are up to about 2 months total.

Wasteland “Secrets of Nimbus” • “The Lost City of Paradise” • “Blind Men Tell All Tales” • “The Undying” • “A Fistful of Gorn” • “Installation 18”
If every mission on Nimbus takes about a day, this would be another week.

Romulan Mystery “Heading Out” • “Under the Cover of Night” • “Minefield” • “Divide et Impera” • “Saturday's Child” • “Preemptive Strike” • “Hunting the Hunters” • “Project Nightingale” • “By Any Means” • “Ground Zero” • “Ghost Ship” • “Friend of My Enemy” • “Taris” • “Trapped” • “S'harien's Swords”
Starfleet sends us to the Romulan front after the Tal Shiar Incident on Nimbus where we go back to patrolling with back2back missions. A month at the most.
We are at a bit over 3 months now in total.

• “The Vault” • “Mine Enemy” • “Frozen” • “Coliseum” • “Cutting the Cord” • “Darkness Before the Dawn” These were also weeklies, so let's say another month for this series. 4 months in total.

Cardassian Struggle “Venture into Deep Space” • “Badlands” • “Suspect” • “War Games” • “Shutdown” • “Rapier” • “Forging Bonds” • “The Long Night” • “The Tribble with Klingons” • “Tear of the Prophets” • “Crack in the Mirror” • “The New Link” • “Seeds of Dissent” • “The Other Side” • “Cage of Fire” • “Second Wave” • “Of Bajor” • “Operation Gamma” • “Facility 4028” • “Boldly They Rode”
Including the Dominion FE, which is probably the most drawn out conflict of them all I would give the Cardassian Front 3 months at the most. Now we are at 7 months all in all.

Borg Advance “Report to Gamma Orionis” • “Where Angels Fear to Tread” • “A Gathering Darkness” • “Assimilation” • “Fluid Dynamics”
The newly revamped Borg/Undine Arc doesn't take more than a week.

Breen Invasion “Cold Call” • “Out in the Cold” • “Cold Comfort” • “Cold Case” • “Cold Storage” Another weekly series, so add another month. We are at 8.5 months roughly.

Solanae Dyson Sphere “Sphere of Influence” • “Circles within Circles” • “Supply Woes” • “The Contested Zone” • “The Omega Standoff” • “Tower Control” • “A Step Between Stars” • “Fluidic Destruction”
These missions probably happen over a couple of months, since there is a lot of research and backstory happening with the 3 factions establishing a beach head in the sphere and all.
So at this point we need about 10-11 months for all major missions.

That leaves a couple of weeks for a Risa vacation and the short skirmishes and rescue operations we see in the queues. Basically the stuff that happens in between plus travel times which don't take that long with transwarp capabilities.

They couldn't have put much more into 2409 but it fits.


The only thing that strechtes credibility of course is the rise to admirality in that single year.

 

I have to let off a little steam after the 5th Undine Assault went wrong.

 

Agree with the above. Hell, in the final TNG episode :All Good Things" Picard (in the 1st season 'past' Q reality) was told to abandon his mission the Far Point Station (named that because it was the farthest station at the edge of Fed space) - but went anyway; made it to the point where he encountered Q previously (just an hour or so out from Far Point - and that's from the fact that in the original pilot episode the separated saucer section would rejoin in 55 minutes at FP); and when Q didn't show warped all the way from there to Romulan space (into the Neutral Zone); and made it to the Devron system to encounter the anomaly.
^^^
SAo, yeah, if the TNG series writers can have them do that in just a couple days, I can buy the STO mission designers putting my character at the various 'war' fronts over the course of a year.