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LATEST UPDATE: EPISODE 84: "FLUID DYNAMICS" WHAT’S THIS? Star Trek: Online is not a very good game. Quite frankly, I believe that the only thing that has prevented the game from going belly-up is the affection for the franchise, which has allowed it to survive several things that should have killed it. It was released in 2010 and went Free to Play two years later after being sold by the original publisher, Atari, to a Chinese MMO publisher. The game got grindier and grindier, but enough new features, story, and quality of life were added to keep it chugging along. Also, there was already an LP of this game! It was done by Poptarts Ninja back in 2010, and it was great. Since then, though, there have been at least 3 major expansions, and some of the earlier missions have been re-done with varying degrees of improvement. The game has changed a lot, and I think the world is ready for I’m Moon Slayer. You might remember me from the last time I bit off more than I could chew by LPing an MMO with Star Wars: The Old Republic. There, I was joined by many other LPers who played through the various other stories. This time, I’ll be tackling the game SETTING Star Trek: Online is set 30 years after the end of Star Trek: Nemesis, and takes place mostly in the “prime” universe of the TV shows. Because “peaceful exploration” makes for a boring MMORPG, the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war again. As referenced at the beginning of the first JJ Trek movie, Romulus is gone, destroyed by some mysterious supernova, and the Romulan Empire is shattered. Here’s Spock summing up the events leading up to the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbxXX7-RPuw STORY There are three “factions” in Star Trek: Online with their own unique story missions; you can play as a Starfleet officer, a Klingon, or a Romulan. And a Jem’hadar, but that comes much later. Each has their own unique intro story arc, some of which are longer than others (and Starfleet has 3 different ones). After a unique arc, the three storylines collapse into one “canon” arc. I’ll be making three characters and showing off each of these unique stories, and then alternating who does the “shared” missions where appropriate. Some characters will fit better with different missions; the quest chain where you are meeting a new species and helping them establish themselves doesn’t make much sense for a Klingon to do, for example. The writing in this game tends toward “hey, remember season 1, episode 16 of the original series? How about the planet from that one season 4 episode of TNG? Oh, hey, remember all these one-off aliens from Voyager!?” And when the writers do try to do something new, things go rapidly and exceedingly off the rails into crazy-town. And hoo boy do they love them some time travel. You’ll see. There’s a few legitimately neat ideas, stories, and set pieces, but by and large it’s like someone took teenage me’s fanfic ideas notebook and made a video game out of it, for better and worse. I’ll be piecing together in-game dialogue with a lot of my own in order to get it to make some kind of sense and flow together. In a departure from the LP norm, underlined text is taken from the game, and normal text is my own. I’m doing it this way because otherwise a good ⅔ of every update would be in italics. THREAD RULES -No spoilers at all. -Feel free to discuss the movies and TV shows in here to your heart's content, but slapfights will get the thread closed until the next update. -Star Trek: Discovery is flawed but good. GAMEPLAY The game focuses mainly around space combat, where you fly your ship in circles pew-pewing away, and ground combat, where you and your bridge officers run around with comically oversized weapons and and grind away at enemy mobs. Your bridge officers determine what abilities you can use, both in space and on the ground, and are as customizable as the player character; just like Poptarts Ninja’s LP, I’ll turn a lot of the creation of our bridge officers over to the thread. And so, without further ado, let’s get started with the Romulan story ... Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Oct 16, 2019 |
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 EPISODE 1: "A DAY ON THE FARM" EPISODE 2: "FLIGHT FROM VIRINAT" EPISODE 3: "THE ROMULAN REPUBLIC" EPISODE 4: "THE HELIX" EPISODE 5: "CROSSROADS AT CRATERIS" - PART 1 EPISODE 6: "CROSSROADS AT CRATERIS" - PART 2 EPISODE 7: "GASKO BLUES" EPISODE 8: "THE SEARCH FOR NEW ROMULUS" - PART 1 EPISODE 9: "THE SEARCH FOR NEW ROMULUS" - PART 2 EPISODE 10: "TURNING POINT" - PART 1 EPISODE 11: "TURNING POINT" - PART 2 EPISODE 18: "NEUTRAL NO MORE" EPISODE 20: "THE PRICE OF NEUTRALITY" - PART 1 EPISODE 21: "THE PRICE OF NEUTRALITY" - PART 2 EPISODE 24: "MEMORY LANE" EPISODE 26: "BIGGER PICTURE" EPISODE 28: "SMASH AND GRAB" EPISODE 29: "TRADECRAFT" EPISODE 37: "AN INSIDE JOB" EPISODE 38: "ENEMY ACTION" EPISODE 39: "SLEEPERS" EPISODE 40: "CLOAK AND DAGGER" EPISODE 41: "REVELATION" EPISODE 42: "MIND GAME" - PART 1 EPISODE 43: "MIND GAME" - PART 2 EPISODE 50: "THE LOST CITY OF PARADISE EPISODE 52: "THE UNDYING" EPISODE 54: "INSTALLATION 18 INTERMISSION 4 EPISODE 56: "ABDUCTED" EPISODE 58: "LAST STAND" EPISODE 60: "TARGET ALPHA" EPISODE 62: "DEVIL'S CHOICE" EPISODE 64: "SECOND WAVE" EPISODE 69: "SKIRMISH" EPISODE 75: "THE VAULT' EPISODE 76: "MINE ENEMY" EPISODE 77: "FROZEN" EPISODE 78: "COLISEUM" - PART 1 EPISODE 79: "COLISEUM" - PART 2 EPISODE 80: "CUTTING THE CORD"  Commander Sekah, reluctant captain. Subcommander Sulva, first officer. (Bio) Centurion Satra, science officer. Joined to ensure her people's safety. Centurion Veril, chief engineer. Her family and home were a victim of the Tal Shiar's campaign. Chief Medical Officer Hiven. His brother died in a Tal Shiar ambush of Sekah. Probably wants revenge more than anyone else on the ship. Lieutenant Omun, helmsman. (Bio) Lieutenant Vranseeth, operations officer. (Bio)Current ship:  The Ar'kif-class warbird RRW Deresus. We're actually flying something new. Former ships: The Mogai-class warbird RRW Aethra. Needed a bit more work. The Dhelan-class warbird RRW Anarhai. Reassigned to training new Republic recruits. T'liss-class warbird RRW Tarlon. Age finally caught up to her. Former crew:  Subcommander Tovan Khev. Building a new, peaceful life on New Romulus.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  EPISODE 12: "GRADUATION DAY" - PART 1 EPISODE 13: "GRADUATION DAY" - PART 2 EPISODE 14: "GRADUATION DAY" - PART 3 EPISODE 15: "COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN" EPISODE 16: "ASSIMILATION OF THE INNOCENT" - PART 1 EPISODE 17: "ASSIMILATION OF THE INNOCENT" - PART 2 EPISODE 19: "STRANDED IN SPACE" EPISODE 22: "DIPLOMATIC ORDERS" - PART 1 EPISODE 23: "DIPLOMATIC ORDERS" - PART 2 EPISODE 25: "RESEARCHER RESCUE" EPISODE 27: "SECRET ORDERS" EPISODE 30: "THE DOOMSDAY DEVICE" - PART 1 EPISODE 31: "THE DOOMSDAY DEVICE" - PART 2 EPISODE 32: "THE DOOMSDAY DEVICE" - PART 3 EPISODE 33: "I SING OF ARMS" EPISODE 34: "THE TAUREAN AFFAIR" EPISODE 35: "IN THE SHADOW OF CESTUS" EPISODE 36: "PAINFUL OMENS" EPISODE 37: "RETURN TO BABEL" EPISODE 35: "TANGLED WEBS" EPISODE 36: "THE BATTLE OF CALEB IV" EPISODE 44: "HEADING OUT" EPISODE 45: "EMPRESS SELA" EPISODE 46: "DESPERATE MEASURES" EPISODE 47: "SHADOW PLAY" EPISODE 48: "TARIS" - PART 1 EPISODE 49: "TARIS" - PART 2 EPISODE 51: "PARA PACEM" EPISODE 53: "ILLUSION OF COMMUNICATION" INTERMISSION 1 INTERMISSION 2 INTERMISSION 3 EPISODE 55: "SPOILS OF WAR" EPISODE 57: "JABBORWOCKY" - PART 1 EPISODE 59: "JABBORWOCKY" - PART 2 EPISODE 61: "THE FACTORY" EPISODE 63: "THE NEW LINK" EPISODE 65: "OF BAJOR" EPISODE 66: "OPERATION GAMMA" EPISODE 67: "FACILITY 4028" EPISODE 68: "BOLDLY THEY RODE" EPISODE 70: "SPIN THE WHEEL" EPISODE 71: "WHAT LIES BENEATH" EPISODE 72: "EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW" - PART 1 EPISODE 73: "EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW" - PART 2 EPISODE 74: "NIGHT OF THE COMET" INTERMISSION - SHORE LEAVE 1 INTERMISSION - SHORE LEAVE 2 INTERMISSION - SHORE LEAVE 3 EPISODE 81: "WHERE ANGLES FEAR TO TREAD" EPISODE 82: "A GATHERING DARKNESS" EPISODE 83: "ASSIMILATION" EPISODE 84: "FLUID DYNAMICS"  Captain Nyroh Izlim, commanding officer. She just wanted to be a security officer but Starfleet and fate had bigger plans. Commander Scott Malthis, first officer. He's from the past. Lieutenant Commander Elisa Flores, tactical officer and acting first officer. Nyroh's best friend from the Academy.  Lieutenant (j.g.) Gor, chief of security. (Bio) Chief petty officer Marybeth Grey, chief engineer. (Bio) Dr. Mishnerg bim Haush, chief medical officer. (Bio) Lieutenant Commander T'Vrell, operations officer. Nyroh's old roommate and friend from the Academy. Briefly served on the USS Belfast before Nyroh poached her. Lieutenant (j.g.) Frean, science officer. (Bio) Lieutenant Marika Antos, conn officer. (Bio)Current ship:  RickVoid posted:The USS Dwayne Johnson, at first glance, doesn't stand out. It's not famous, it's not even particularly well known. A glance at it's service record, however, might leave one who was expecting to find a quiet listing confused. The Dwayne Johnson has served in almost every major conflict since it rolled off the line, with a tendency to be first into the fray, and the last to leave. The ship has been rebuilt from a battered broken wreck time and again, despite damage that should have long ago consigned it to the scrapyards. Yet crew after crew have insisted on the repairs, Captain after Captain pulling strings to keep it functional. Even more amazing for the amount of damage it's sustained of the years, the list of crewman who have died during its service is... tiny. Former ships: Miranda-class USS Endeavor. Decommissioned after extensive damage. And she was old. Nova-class USS Hood. Returned to spacedock and awaiting a new crew after her old crew was needed elsewhere in a hurry. Akira-class USS Momotaro. Borg nanites: not even once Former crew:  Lieutenant (j.g.) Benson Li Wei. Transferred to a much less stressful and weird posting.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  Updates written by Cythereal KLINGON INTRO: "ENTER THE EMPIRE" EPISODE 2: "END OF WATCH" EPISODE 3: "BACKHAND" EPISODE 4: "THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD" EPISODE 5: "THE BATTLE OF BORETH" EPISODE 6: "BEST SERVED COLD" EPISODE 7: "SHOOT THE MESSENGER" EPISODE 8: "HOUSE ON FIRE" EPISODE 10: "HOUSE RULES" EPISODE 10: "BEFORE THE STORM" EPISODE 11: "TEMPEST" EPISODE 12: "IN THE BALANCE" EPISODE 13: "COME DEVILS, COME DARKNESS" EPISODE 14: "FROM HELL'S HEART" EPISODE 15: "THE HARROWING" EPISODE 16: "LOOSE ENDS" EPISODE 17: "WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE" EPILOGUE: "CHANGING OF THE GUARD" EPISODE 18: "SNOW BOUND" EPISODE 19: "GLACIAL ADVANCE" EPISODE 20: "ICY RECEPTION: EPISODE 21: "AVALANCHE"  Captain T'Kara of Chuch'SuS, half-breed captain Commander Valyra Turan, first officer. Former chief medical officer and ?previously? worked for Imperial Intelligence. Lieutenant Commander Derius Telenth, chief engineer. Married mother of four. Lieutenant Commander Gronth, science officer. Subspace physicist, still a bit green as a military officer. Lieutenant Tila Otek, tactical officer. Former True Way operative. Lieutenant Halstak Chalan, chief medical officer. Liberated Borg Orion, not actually as Borg-like in mind as he likes to pretend.Former Bridge Officers:  Commander K'Gan. Former first officer. Current assignment: Captain of IKS Qu'Thoq. Lieutenant Commander B'Ellera of House Martok. Former tactical officer. Current assignment: Chief of Security at Nukara Prime. Midshipman Ch'Gren. Former chief of operations: Status: Retired.Current Ship:  The Kurak-class IKS Najlu'jaj. Rough translation of name: "may the dream continue on" Former Ships: N.V. Endurance, Daemosh class science vessel. Returned to Na'khul command. IKS Sanqa', Somraw class raptor. In drydock for refit and repair. IKS Qu'ThoQ, B'Rel class bird of prey. Under the command of Lieutenant K'Gan. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  Updates written by Bootcha EPISODE 1: "THE MORE THINGS CHANGE" EPISODE 2: "THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME" EPISODE 3: "FINAL EXAM" EPISODE 4: "THE SHADOWS KNOW" EPISODE 5: "OUT OF THE FRYING PAN" EPISODE 6: "AND INTO THE FIRE" EPISODE 7: "TURN THE TASSEL" EPISODE 8: "OPERATION RIPOSTE" EPISODE 9: "LOGISTICS OF WAR" -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  Classes, by sweet geek swag Ships and space combat, by Snorb Ship types, by Cythereal Energy weapon types, by Snorb Effective space builds, by Coq au Nandos From the Admiral's Desk (Romulan) T'Varo light warbird. Dhelan warbird Mogai heavy warbird Scimitar dreadnought Vastam tactical command warbird D'ridthau warbird Haakona class dreadnought Aelahl class light warbird From the Other Admiral's Desk (Federation) D'Kyr science vessel Shi'kahr frigate Eclipse intel cruiser Atrox carrier Galaxy-X dreadnought From the General's Desk (Klingon) Mogh battlecruiser Dacoit flight deck cruiser K'tanco battlecruiser Qaw'dun bird of prey Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Oct 16, 2019 |
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Dec 18, 2018 02:40
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  : - strong, secretive, warlike. We were feared. We were powerful.  : The resulting explosion travelled through subspace to hit Romulus and Remus, our homeworlds.  : Millions died. Those who survived were scattered across dozens of worlds. One day we were citizens of one of the greatest powers of the galaxy, : Every day was a struggle if you weren’t part of the militant and oppressive Tal Shiar, or ruling everything from on high like Empress Sela. : Life goes on. The Klingons and Starfleet are at one another’s throats, but battles light years away don’t affect us much.  : They’re rebuilding the empire by force, and pressing anyone they think can help into service. But even they don’t seem to know we’re here.  : Today we’ll celebrate what we’ve created. With hard work and some good fortune, true Romulans will once again rise to be a power in the galaxy.   : There you are, Sekah! Late night?  : You know it, Tovan. What’s up?: The security chief was looking for you earlier. She said there’s trouble at the vineyard. Avrak’s been filing reports all night about Khellids chewing at the vines. He’s really worked up!: Khellids in the vines? That doesn’t sound right.: Something must’ve annoyed them. It’s not typical Khellid behavior. With the big celebration tonight, I think everyone’s a little overexcited. Even the bugs. You should listen to one of Avrak’s messages before you head out there.: I turned my communicator off last night. Let’s see what Avrak left for me. : Oh goody. : MESSAGE DELIVERED AT 0800 - Sekah! Please, tell me you’ll help me! The Khellids are in the vineyard chewing through the irrigation pipes, and everyone says they’re too busy getting ready for the big party to come and do something about it! Won’t be any party if everyone’s knee deep in water by nightfall. Get over here and help me fix this.: Play second message.: MESSAGE DELIVERED AT 0805 - When are you coming over here? This is getting ridiculous! Nobody appreciates me around here, no one! They think these crops just GROW, without any help from anyone. Tending these vines is a lot of work! No one says thank you, no one pats me on the back, they just keep asking for more! Pah! Look, just get over here and take care of the Khellids, all right?! And maybe say thank you for all the work I do to keep these vineyards in shape!:  Play third message.: MESSAGE DELIVERED AT 0810 - It’s me again. Ignore the other messages I sent. I lost my temper, I’m sorry. Maybe that’s why you’re not here yet. I could really use your help, though. These Khellids are chewing through everything and they won’t stop. And no one here is even trying to help! They just keep bouncing me to other people: first to Tovan, then to Nevala, then to you! What’s next?! Should I ask one of the kids? … Just please come here soon. Thanks. : The one morning I choose to sleep in … Yeah, Tovan, he sounds pretty wound up.: If the Khellids are chewing up the vineyard, you should probably grab a pistol, just in case. I’d join you, but the chief has me looking into some odd comm chatter we picked up yesterday. We’ll have to catch up later.: I’ll see you later.  : Been a while since I held one of these.[The weapons case is glowing because it’s a quest object. Just … ignore that.]   : Good morning, T’sak. : Sekah! Good morning. Can I interest you in some Khellid nectar?: A bit early for that, D’vex and I were up late making sure the fireworks display tonight won’t blow up the colony.: Did you know D’vex has that warbird of his out in orbit?: Yep. One of these days I’ll convince him to let me take a shuttle up there and poke around. The thing’s a hundred years old and still flying; I’d love to see some genuine 23rd century engineering.  : Hey there! Ready for the big festival? Working hard? Or maybe you have time to listen to a story or two?: Good morning, Lorekeeper. I’m investigating issues with Khellids at Avrak’s farm. : Avrak! You’re in for a fun day. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with him. Anyway, did you want to hear any stories?: Sure, Avrak can’t really get any more annoyed than he already is. : Virinat was a colony world. It used to be a big agricultural planet, growing food for the Empire. After Romulus was destroyed, thousands upon thousands of people flooded the planet. The old cities couldn’t hold them all, and they were scared. They started fighting amongst themselves.: That’s always the nice thing about a societal collapse; the way it brings people together.: One night the cities burned. Most of the survivors left. A few hung on, scrapping old ships and using them as building materials. That’s how the Maiori found them, about ten years ago. The Maiori was the commander of an old warbird. Nevala was his first officer, and D’Vex the chief engineer. They were wandering the sector, trying to find a new home. When they found Virinat, they decided to stay. D’Vex kept the old warbird functional, and he used it to make supply runs and bring back other Romulans who needed a home. Nevala put herself in charge of security, and the Maiori, he runs the whole colony now. D’Vex met Tovan Khev on a mining colony a few years back … I think it was four years ago? But then again, I didn’t come here until two years ago, so this is all just information I’ve heard about secondhand. I actually have a question for you, if you don’t want to hear another story first.: What is it?: When did you arrive here? I know we only have a few hundred people living here, but so many come and go that it’s hard to keep track. I’m recording the stories of all the people that live here, you see, and I would love to start yours off with your arrival. Who knows, it could be something that becomes historical in a few years!: I was picked up by D’Vex a few years ago.[You can tell D’ral that you were one of the original colonists, that you were part of the Maiori’s crew, or that you came with Tovan. This doesn’t affect anything in the game, but it’s a neat bit of worldbuilding that didn’t need to be there.] : A D’Vex recruit! Fascinating. We’ve had some interesting characters come here thanks to him. We should definitely talk more about this over drinks tonight. I would love to know where D’Vex found you. : Er, yeah … I’ll see you later. : I take one night off and THIS happens?! : All right, Avrak, I’m here. What’s going on?: Finally! I mean … which message did you hear? Nevermind that either … it’s chaos here! I need some help! Normally we collect nectar from the local Khellid insects, but something has driven them into a frenzy. They’re chewing on our irrigation system and flooding the vineyard! : All right, well first things first, I’ll start repairing the pipes. : Excellent, excellent! The broken pipes are obvious; they’re the ones spraying water everywhere. The Khellids shouldn’t give you too much trouble. A few bursts from your pistol will take care of them.: I’ll handle it. : Well, that’s not good. I guess Avrak wasn’t exaggerating. For once. : Pipes are fixed.: The flooding is stopped, but if those Khellids come back they’ll just break the pipes again! Something’s making the insects go crazy, and with bugs this size that’s a real problem. Nevala might be able to help, if she’s not goofing off again. She knows all about Khellids. She’s normally down by the greenhouse at this time of day. Tell her to stop being lazy and keep those critters contained!: I’ll find out what Nevala knows.: Good idea, talk to Nevala! Bah, I bet she’s just lounging around right now, not even thinking about all the damage being done to my vineyard! No one around here want to put in a good day’s work … well, except for you, Sekah.: … Right, I”ll get going.  : Just in time. Did you talk with Avrak?: Yep. I’m surprised you couldn’t hear him shouting over here. He’s on a real tear about how he’s the only one who works hard around here and everyone else is lazy. He said he bets you’re lounging around down here sipping drinks.: He said that I’m WHAT?! Lazy? That I’ve been … urgh! He’s just trying to make me look bad so he can get a promotion. That’s so old fashioned. Let me tell you what’s actually happening. The Khellids are going crazy. I’ve been working all day to keep them out of the residential areas. This aggressive behavior is new, and we need to figure out what’s causing it. That means gathering samples from some of those creatures.: I’ll see what I can find. : That’s a lot of bugs. Oh great, the big ones are out here, too. : Hello, what’s this?: I found some kind of metal stuck in one of the Khellids.: This metal has some kind of fungus growing on it that is similar to the spores we’ve found on some of the Khellid carapaces. It might explain their behavior, but how are they getting infected in the first place? Also, the flying Khellids have never come out of the cavern before. This is so strange … Something might be happening in the cavern. : I’ll check it out.: You’re right, the source of the infection could be somewhere in the cavern. Head over there and see if you can find what’s aggravating the nest. And be careful!: I’m always careful.  : Oh right, this is why I never come in here: it’s super gross.  : Yikes, what happened here?  : What the hell is that thing!? : Torn apart, and it looks like that robot spider was the culprit. : They’re everywhere. : And what fresh, gross hell is this? What I Cut Out: The spiders will go hostile if you attack them or stand basically on top of them. The machine itself is guarded by a bigger, floating enemy. : It’s putting out a signal. Let’s see if I can access its … : Gah!: …: Good thing nobody saw that. : You’re never going to believe what I found in there …[One recap later ...] : A strange machine and some weird drone things? That is troubling; someone’s been in there. We’ll have to let the Maiori know about this. It’s good you disabled the device, though; maybe now the Khellids will calm down. I took a look at those biological samples while you were gone, but I can’t do much more than a basic tricorder scan. It’s just not my area. D’Vex might be able to help. He was an engineer in the Romulan military before the homeworld was destroyed. Now he’s helping us with our water supply and anything else that takes more specialized knowledge. You should talk to him. : D’vex, do you have a moment? : What do you need with an old spacehound like me, Sekah?: We’ve got something weird going on. The Khellids are spewing out of the cave and they’re carrying some kind of spores. I went in there and found some kind of probe or beacon that’s the source of the spores. Take a look at these readings.: Hmm. I have an idea of what this might be … maybe. I saw something like this once before, when I was out beyond the Eridan Belt. We responded to a distress call from a mining outpost. When we got there, all the people were just gone, vanished without a trace! The only thing we found were a strange beacon and some odd spore samples. These look very similar.: May I use your equipment to break down these biological samples?: Good idea. When we ran into something like this before, we were able to stop the spores from reproducing by bombarding them with tachyons. We have the equipment here to replicate that procedure.: Thanks, I’ll let you know what I find. [This is an example of the (very limited) branching some quests have. Depending on your background - Tactical, Science, or Engineering - you can sometimes do something different to accomplish a goal, or even skip some sections. Sekha has a Tactical background, as will all the LP characters since it is objectively the best class and makes leveling easier. Science or Engineering characters could run a different procedure here that would get the same results.] : Got the results. Does this mean anything to you? Because it might as well be in English to me.: I’ve only seen biotech like this once before. Remember that mining station that I mentioned? Before we arrived, they reported several disappearances. Some thought it was paranoia, but we had reports that said intruders would beam in right through the colony’s magnetic shield, right into someone’s quarters, sedate them, and then vanish without a trace. We didn’t know what to believe. But I don’t think those miners were paranoid. Something did happen to them. And it could happen again.: You thought it was related to this beacon?: That’s what my commander believed. We found a beacon with almost the same configuration as the one you found. We weren’t able to get much from it before we shut it down, but the one thing we learned is that the beacon was made by a race that called themselves the “Elachi.” We stayed in orbit for a few days, but the Elachi never came back. That’s good news for us, seeing that you disabled the beacon you found in the caverns. : What do we do now? Tell the Maiori what we found?: That’s right; he’s the man in charge, so he needs to know. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t want to send someone down there to analyze that beacon. Could be these “Elachi” were interested in our colony for some reason. Lucky for us, you were there to put a stop to whatever they were trying to do. : Excuse me, Maiori, do you have a moment?: Jolan tru, Sekah. I heard Avrak yelling all the way over here. I’m sorry that you had to deal with his problem on our day of celebration.: That’s fine, but we have a bigger problem.[One additional recap later …] : Hrm? That does sound very mysterious. However, you seem to have taken care of the immediate problem disabling this beacon and dispatching the drones. You have my thanks.: No trouble. Just trying to pull my weight around here. : I’ll assign some engineers to examine the device and set up surveillance on the cave as soon as possible. If what D’Vex says is true, we don’t want that beacon turned on again. Now that’s settled, why don’t you try to relax for a while? Enjoy the festival! We’ll talk again tomorrow after the engineers have finished their analysis of the device.: I’ll do that. Thank you, Maiori. *BEEP* : This is Sekah.: Are you done for the day? I’m just finishing up, too. I’ll going to head back to the restaurant. Meet me for a drink when you’re done.: I’ll meet you there. : Absolutely crazy. I fixed the pipes then had to fight a bunch of Khellids and I think I found some kind of alien beacon in the caves? But I think it’s all good now.: I can’t believe how far this colony has come.   : Me, I’m content with what we have here. Let’s go enjoy the festival!Later …       : Well, happy Tapping Day, Tovan. Here’s to another year.: Right back at you. : Wait, what’s th...  To be continued … Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Mar 28, 2019 |
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Dec 18, 2018 02:40
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Well, you certainly picked an interesting time in the game's life cycle to start this. Fingers crossed.
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Dec 18, 2018 02:54
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I'm fully expecting to get maybe 75% through before the servers are disconnected.
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Dec 18, 2018 03:00
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A pity, too. The game was doing so well with the DS9 themed expansion until CBS issued new marching orders and shot STO in the foot. Still, I'll be following with interest. For a free game, STO still does a lot of stuff well.
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Dec 18, 2018 03:07
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I've actually never played the Romulan storyline, so this is gonna be interesting to see as a Starfleet player. (I've never played the Klingon storyline either, but that's just because Starfleet has my favorite ship.)
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Dec 18, 2018 04:00
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Ditto, I've only ever played the Fed opening. But man, it seems that in nearly every iteration of the opening tutorial, they start you off with a heaping serving of the game's weakest elements (exposition-dumps-masquerading-as-dialogue and the ground combat) before they let you get to the good stuff (the space combat) - though I guess I wouldn't appreciate the latter as much than if it had preceded the former.
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Dec 18, 2018 05:54
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Cross-Section posted:Ditto, I've only ever played the Fed opening. I've played all the openings, multiple times for most. Romulans have the slowest opening, I think, but that's more because they have the most story-intensive storyline of the four factions (and two half-factions).
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Dec 18, 2018 05:55
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The thing that really bugs me about this game is how ugly and awful all the starship designs are in it, especially the Enterprise-F. Sweet Jesus, that thing is an ugly bath tub and even after a complete redesign it still looks like rear end. Say what you will about John Eaves and Doug Drexler, those two at least knew how to design starships, often on the quick and dirty. Why couldn’t they have hired Michael Wiley? That dude knows how to design Trek fan ships. Also everything in Discovery except the OG Enterprise’s redesign looks like rear end too. There, I said it.
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Dec 18, 2018 07:05
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nine-gear crow posted:(some really wrong opinions about Federation starship design) There is nothing wrong with the ship behind that spoiler block (besides a technology we've already seen, but I won't get into that until later.) and the legal mess behind it. There are also nothing wrong with the Walker (the USS Shenzhou), Cardenas (the four-nacelled DSC-era ship), and Nimitz (the DSC-era ship that resembles a tougher Miranda).
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Dec 18, 2018 07:55
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Snorb posted:There is nothing wrong with the ship behind that spoiler block (besides a technology we've already seen, but I won't get into that until later.) and the legal mess behind it. It looks like someone captured a belch in three dimensions and then strapped warp nacelles on it 
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Dec 18, 2018 08:10
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I'm gonna bookmark this because the OG SWTOR threads were one of the top reasons I became a goon.
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Dec 18, 2018 14:54
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Snorb posted:There is nothing wrong with the ship behind that spoiler block (besides a technology we've already seen, but I won't get into that until later.) and the legal mess behind it. On the other hand, there is everything wrong with the STD klingons and their ships. Remember that one of STD's writers said they envisioned the klingons as a stand-in for ISIS. STO thinks this monstrosity is a bird of prey. 
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Dec 18, 2018 |
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Dec 18, 2018 15:05
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Cythereal posted:On the other hand, there is everything wrong with the STD klingons and their ships. It looks like they’re trying to design ships with the art style of H.R. Giger, but are too afraid to actually just toss penis imagery on the thing. Also it took me like 10 seconds to figure out that you weren’t talking about Klingons with sexually transmitted diseases.
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Dec 18, 2018 15:30
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Cythereal posted:On the other hand, there is everything wrong with the STD klingons and their ships. STO tries to salvage as much as possible when it comes the awful designs of JJtrek and STD. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do. Their post-Nemesis era designs are at least 50% great, which if you consider the new official designs is a better ration than the "real deal".
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Dec 18, 2018 15:39
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There are some really hideous ship designs in this game, no doubt. More than the ones that look good, IMO. Which ones are which is pretty subjective, but feel free to debate it politely! When we reach that point, one of the things the thread will vote on is which ships we fly, so there will be plenty of opportunities to stick us in an ugly ship. Of course, the majority of the game's ships are behind a pay wall, and I am not going to be spending real money on an LP. Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Dec 18, 2018 |
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Dec 18, 2018 16:17
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Moon Slayer posted:Of course, the majority of the game's ships are behind a pay wall, and I am not going to be spending real money on an LP. Or behind lots of grinding. I've never spent a cent on the z-store, but, well, I have a problem with lots of admiralty alts. That's how I got my hands on this palette cleanser, one STO-original ship I really like the looks of.  The Vastam tactical command cruiser, about the size of a D'deridex warbird but much sleeker. And, frankly, a far better ship - the D'deridex in all its incarnations in STO is sadly not very good, much like the Galaxy and Negh'var classes it's generally put in a trio with. 
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Dec 18, 2018 17:55
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Cythereal posted:Or behind lots of grinding. I've never spent a cent on the z-store, but, well, I have a problem with lots of admiralty alts. That's how I got my hands on this palette cleanser, one STO-original ship I really like the looks of. I haven’t seen really any of the Romulan STO ships before, but yeah that’s a drat good looking one. The Romulans tend to have the best and most consistent looking video game canon ships. The stuff from the Armada games (the Shrike, Raptor, Griffin, and Shadow) in particular are really good designs. The Fek’lhr from Armada is also a great Klingon ship design too. It fits in incredibly well between the Vor’cha and the Negh’var.
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Dec 18, 2018 20:51
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Those *do* look nice. Much better than the DSC-era Klingon anything. (And yeah, the Galaxy is ugly as hell and, from what I remember, the slowest-turning Starfleet ship in the game. I will never fly one.)
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Dec 19, 2018 02:28
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 : Ugh … what?: Sekah, focus!  : I’m on it! : Oh good, there’s Vorian, he can ... : Oh no.: Sekah! Sekah come in! Are you all right? What’s happening over there? Did you find Vorian?: It’s too late. He’s gone. Where are you?: I’m at the shipyard with D’Vex and we’re prepping the shuttles for evacuation. I don’t know what’s going on here, but we need to get people out while we can. If you can get a rifle, you could fight your way out. Can you make it?: Um, a rifle? But I …: There’s no time for that, I’ve seen you practicing with it before. Just get here.: I’ll make it. Just get the shuttles ready. Who’s doing this?: It’s the Tal Shiar … we need to call for help! I don’t know who will answer, but we have to do something! I tried to send a distress signal, but they damaged our transceiver array. We still have a change, though. You need to deal with some of the Tal Shiar, and then get a replacement battery!: I’m on it.  : Right. Let’s do this. : Who are you bastards? You aren’t Romulan. [It’s a bit hard to see, but probes will swoop down and grab random civilians on the street.]   : But those are definitely Romulan soldiers!  : They’re beaming colonists out! But why?  : … Please let this just be a nightmare.  : Yeah, I took it out of one of the cameras in the market.: You just need to repair the device and send the signal! : Done! Signal sent!: The signal is strong! Get to the shipyard, we’re getting out of here!   What I Cut Out: You have to fight your way through Romulan soldiers in the town. Some of them are guarding groups of civilians and beaming them out.: The shuttle is ready and I got as many people aboard as will fit! We have to go!: Right behind you!  : How are we doing, Tovan?: We’ve got a chance, as long as they don’t bother to … : No!  : …: …: They … they’re not attacking.: Where are we going?: D’Vex showed me how to fly his Warbird. We’re almost there.  : Tovan, that thing’s an antique. 23rd Century. I remember when D’Vex brought me to Virinat the life support almost failed a half dozen times.: That was a year ago. We’ve been using replacing a bunch of components, put in a new sensor suite, bought the best weapons and shields we could find. I think D’Vex new his ship might have to go into battle again. And we fixed the life support.[One hour later …] What I Cut Out: A lengthy tutorial where you fly around blowing up derelicts.  : Great! All systems are go, and full impulse is back online!: These consoles are covered in dust. How do you even get dust in space?: I’m picking up a distress signal nearby … it must be people from the colony! More colonists managed to escape the surface! : Can we fly this ship with just two people?: We’re going to find out, unless you want to leave all of those colonists to the mercies of the Tal Shiar.: All right, let’s go save the colonists!   : They’re under attack! Looks like some kind of light fighter craft. Can you get a lock?: I think so …  : Nice!: Yeah, but it looks like we blew out some power conduits and I think there’s a fire in Engineering. I’ll go deal with that if you want to get to the transporter and get those colonists aboard.[A little while later …] : Sekah, are you there?: Transport complete. Where are you?: I’m back on the bridge and I’ve figured out how I can improve our torpedos. Just give me the order and I’ll get started.: So ordered. [What Tovan is referencing here is Star Trek: Online’s bridge officer system.Your bridge officers have unique abilities which you can use when they are assigned to stations. Tovan here is our tactical officer and has an ability to upgrade torpedos. I’ll get into game mechanics a lot more in future updates.] : I think it’s safe to say we’re a fully operational ship!: For something a hundred years old, that’s almost a miracle.: I’m getting an alert; there’s another distress signal coming in from one of the colony’s shuttles. We can do a short-range warp jump to get to them.: Is the singularity core up to the task?: Only one way to find out. I sent some of the colonists with mechanical experience down to Engineering. They should keep it from exploding. Probably. What I Cut Out: There are actually 3 different refugee ships getting harrassed by small craft and a few larger ships that you have to rescue.   : Sekah, there aren’t any colonists here … just this strange ship! I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. It’s gigantic! Engineering reports that the ship has scanned us, but they’re not responding to my hails. What should we do?: We’ll scan them. We need to know who, or what, they are.: Moving us into range. Wait, something’s ... : They’ve done something to the ship, nothing is responding! I can’t even warp us out of here!: Internal comms are down, I can’t reach anyone on the ship!: I think I might be able to get a comm channel up to hail them. What do you want me to do?: Open a channel and ask them what they want with our ship. I’ll try and get main power up.: We’re getting a reply.: Already? Let’s hear it.: What the … they seem to be re-arranging our words and sending them back. Listen:: “Want … you. Want … ship.”: Tovan?: They’re moving!  : So the Elachi were right; a handful of pitiful Romulan refugees managed to escape. When will you “colonists” learn that no matter how far you run, you cannot escape your obligations? Allow me to introduce myself. I am Colonel Hakeev of the Tal Shiar. On behalf of the Romulan Star Empire, I hereby lay claim to this colony and all of its inhabitants. Surrender now, and I will ensure that you serve us in the way you are most suited.: Never! We’ll fight you with our last breath!: Well, if that’s really how you feel. Fire weapons at will.: Wait! We … surrender.: What?: We have civilians on board, survivors from the colony. I thought you wanted workers or slaves or something!: Very well. Prepare to be boarded.: Tovan, engine status?: The computer is almost done purging the virus that shut us down. Engines and weapons should be back online any second. But that’s a D'deridex-class Warbird.: As soon as the engines are back online … full speed ahead. Ram us right down their throats.: …: Understood.  : What? Who’s shooting at them?: I’m reading three other Romulan ships! Shields and weapons are back online!: FIRE!  : My eye! So … the insect has managed to sting me. You think you’ve won, but this is NOT the end! Even now, more ships are on their way! And the next time you won’t have anyone to protect you!: They’re warping away.: …: How’d he manage to lose his eye on the bridge of his own ship?: Uh … incoming hail. It’s from the other Romulan ships. : I am Temer, commander of the Romulan Republic. We picked up your distress signal while on a mission in a nearby system. I would say we arrived just in time, given your ship’s condition. Who are you and what happened here?[One final recap later …] : Sekah … I am truly sorry. This is not the first time I’ve heard a story like this, and I fear it will not be the last. And these “Elachi” creatures … they are troubling. We need to know more about them, and why they’re working with a snake like Hakeev. As I said, I’m with the Romulan Republic. You may have heard of us.: Not really, no. Virinat was a bit off the grid.: That’s who I was telling you about before the attack!: We are not the terrorists the Tal Shiar make us out to be. With our leader, D’Tan, we are working to gather survivors of the destruction and fight the tyranny of the Tal Shiar. We have a flotilla nearby. If you’re interested, we would welcome you and your friends to join us there.: I don’t know …: Sekah, we don’t have anywhere else to go.: I understand your hesitation, but you must realize that there’s no running from what’s happening. You saw what the Tal Shiar did to your home. They’re doing the same thing all across the sector. You either serve them, or you die. The only way we’re going to survive is if we fight back. : …: Send us the coordinates.: I appreciate your willingness to do what’s right. I’m transmitting the coordinates of our flotilla to your ship now. When you arrive, we can repair your vessel and work out our next move. Thank you again. I’ll make sure you won’t regret your decision. [Some time later, aboard the flagship of the Romulan Republic ...] I couldn’t get a shot of the exterior of the Republic flotilla that wasn’t too dark to see anything, sorry.    : Are you going to take my rifle, or … no? Ok. : Excellent. I’ll get them up to speed. There is much to do. : I’ll take the tour and then meet you back on the ship when you’re ready. : I’ll see you then. : Sekah, good to see you and Tovan Khev made it to the flotilla of the New Romulan Republic.: We didn’t have much choice. So you guys are, what, wandering do-gooders? Romulan Starfleet?: That’s not too far off.To be brief, we are a group that was founded by D’Tan to combat the tyranny of Empress Sela and her Tal Shiar. Our goal is to unify the shattered Romulan people under a new democracy, instead of Sela’s tyrannical rule.: And you are?: I am the commander of this fleet. No actions happen without my approval. Before this, I worked in intelligence for the Romulan military … : !: … which allowed me to learn more about the Tal Shiar. I couldn’t stomach the thought of working alongside them. D’Tan approached me one day and said he needed someone to organize a defence against the Tal Shiar. I accepted before he could finish his sentence. : Everything I’m hearing about D’Tan makes him seem a bit larger than life.: Hah! What hasn’t D’Tan done? He has quite the long history, Sekah. The short version is that he desires to see the reunification of the Vulcans and Romulans. Before that can happen, though, D’Tan wants us to find a new homeworld, reconcile with the Remans, and end the centuries of oppression beneath the Tal Shiar. We’re Romulan, and after all that’s happened we still have our pride and our cultural heritage.: Whoa, back up. D’Tan is a Reunificationists?: That’s right. He dreams of a day when our two people are united. Well, three, counting the Remans. D’Tan was inspired by Ambassador Spock, who first began the movement. When D’Tan was a child, Spock was working on Romulus with the Reunificationists, and he was D’Tan’s teacher. The Tal Shiar actively opposed reunification, and Spock and his people had to keep their movement hidden, working with allies and meeting in secret.: But that’s enough chatting. We need you, Sekah. We need ships, we need capable crew. We need commanders. You and your ship are all of those things in one convenient package.: Hey now, I’m grateful for all of your help, really, but I just want to …: And if you join us and prove yourself, I won’t have to ask too many questions about what the daughter of Praetor Chulan was doing living on a backwater colony wearing rags.: …: What do I do?: What’s next is that you receive your uniform and get a tour of the flotilla. After that, you’ll receive your first assignment. However, you must understand that by joining us, you mark yourself as an enemy to the Tal Shiar. Hakeev and his people will see you as a threat. And there isn’t anything they won’t do to stop you.: …: I think that warbird has already flown, Temer.: I’m in.
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Dec 19, 2018 03:42
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A few housekeeping notes; I know those space shots are pretty dark, and it's an issue I'll address in future updates, either by doing a better job of positioning or by messing with my graphics settings. Second, sorry about the big ol' walls of text; as was mentioned the tutorial is a big exposition dump. I'll be better able to break them up now that we're out of the tutorial.
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Dec 19, 2018 03:44
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A note from a veteran player: there are no good external screenshots of the Romulan Flotilla, you only see it from the outside in sector space. However, the ship at the center of the flotilla appears to be one of these: A Ha'apax class warbird, likely the first ever built by the Romulan Republic - or perhaps a prototype built by the Empire in its last days. Interesting bit of trivia, the Romulan Republic actually uses different ships as an NPC faction than the Romulan Empire. The Republic uses Ha'apax warbirds as their battleship rather than the classic D'deridex warbird, most prominently. Their cruiser ship is also different, though we haven't seen either ship yet.
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Dec 19, 2018 04:19
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You actually do see the flotilla very, very briefly in a cut scene in the tutorial. This is the screen shot I grabbed but couldn't use for obvious reasons:
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Dec 19, 2018 04:28
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I stand corrected, my apologies trying to be helpful.
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Dec 19, 2018 04:48
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It's nice to see you start this up!
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Dec 19, 2018 04:54
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Cythereal posted:A note from a veteran player: there are no good external screenshots of the Romulan Flotilla, you only see it from the outside in sector space. However, the ship at the center of the flotilla appears to be one of these: Kinda bummed that there doesn't appear to be a "saucer sep" sort of thing going on with that lower set of wings there
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Dec 19, 2018 04:58
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Cythereal posted:I stand corrected, my apologies trying to be helpful. No worries, please keep chiming in with interesting game stuff. This LP is going to be fairly light on actual game mechanics because my reasons for doing it are 30% "let's show off this weird, broken-rear end game" and 70% an excuse to write Star Trek fan fiction at work. PoptartsNinja posted:It's nice to see you start this up! Thanks!
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Dec 19, 2018 04:59
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Cross-Section posted:Kinda bummed that there doesn't appear to be a "saucer sep" sort of thing going on with that lower set of wings there There is with the Haakona, a further refinement of that particular design that you never see in NPC hands:  I think it's the only non-Federation ship in the entire game to have saucer separation, and the feature is ditched on the tier 6 iteration of the design in favor of a traditional flight deck. Star Trek Online runs with the idea of fighters as introduced in Deep Space Nine. It was originally an exclusively Klingon thing, but now has spread to everyone and most high-end ships have a hangar or two, including the Vastam in one of my previous posts. Moon Slayer posted:No worries, please keep chiming in with interesting game stuff. This LP is going to be fairly light on actual game mechanics because my reasons for doing it are 30% "let's show off this weird, broken-rear end game" and 70% an excuse to write Star Trek fan fiction at work. Can do! I've spent way too much time on this silly game over the years and have learned far too much about it. And have lots and lots of ships that I've never spent a dime on.
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Dec 19, 2018 05:04
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Odd question: Does the Romulan PC have any voice acting? My Starfleet characters have dialogue in cutscenes but no voice acting-- their mouth just moves when their (subtitled) dialogue comes up.
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Dec 19, 2018 05:19
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Snorb posted:Odd question: Does the Romulan PC have any voice acting? My Starfleet characters have dialogue in cutscenes but no voice acting-- their mouth just moves when their (subtitled) dialogue comes up. It's the same for Romulans.
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Dec 19, 2018 05:23
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PoptartsNinja posted:It's nice to see you start this up! Yo PTN, managed to get a mouse that helps with the wrist?
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Dec 19, 2018 14:25
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Even with this being fanfiction the video game, I still prefer it over Discovery and its grimdarkness. Space combat is still the better half of the game, right?
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Dec 20, 2018 18:36
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Space combat is unquestionably the most enjoyable part of the game, yes.
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Dec 20, 2018 19:07
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Pyroi posted:I still prefer it over Discovery and its grimdarkness. I've got bad news for you, I'm afraid... https://i.imgur.com/UI61xuh.mp4
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Dec 20, 2018 20:30
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Space combat is awesome in STO; I just haven't played it in so long I forgot what most of my crew's bridge abilities actually do and I'm afraid the next time I play I'm just gonna get into a "fire phasers and Tachyon Beam that target, fire torpedoes when their shields buckle; other abilities? What are those???" mood.
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Dec 20, 2018 20:31
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Cythereal posted:I've got bad news for you, I'm afraid... Now show the bug where you could take the Discovery's super special warp and cram it onto anything for a few weeks before they locked it to the Disco only. Or is that what that is? I don't recognize the Discovery on sight (all I know is, it has speed holes. Any design with speed holes is poo poo).
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Dec 20, 2018 22:12
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Yeah, that's the Enterprise J (as seen as a wall display for one scene in an episode of Enterprise (the show)) with the spore drive.
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Dec 20, 2018 22:19
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PoptartsNinja posted:Now show the bug where you could take the Discovery's super special warp and cram it onto anything for a few weeks before they locked it to the Disco only. That is the incredibly stupid Enterprise, but from the far future.
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Dec 20, 2018 22:19
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| # ? May 3, 2024 18:33 |
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STO in fact recently added an all-new Discovery era starting sequence for the Federation, which consists of a reskinned Fed tutorial narrated by the autistic cadet girl and introduced the first of the hilariously overpowered level scaling ships. But what do Disco players start in? Surely a Miranda class like the normal Feds, or perhaps the Pioneer class that the TOS Feds start with. Nope. Meet one of the lowest-effort new ships in the game, the Malachowski class.  Sorry for the bad lighting, the one Disco alt I have is still at too low a level to get into the area with the better lighting I used for the Vastam. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Dec 20, 2018 |
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Dec 20, 2018 22:30
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