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Pyroi posted:That is the incredibly stupid Enterprise, but from the far future. There is nothing wrong with the Universe class. Now, the Nautilus class (a cross between the Universe, a pizza wheel, and a marital aid) and the Paladin class (a cross between the Universe and an Akira, as designed by somebody who doesn't know what either ship looked like and had to make a hybrid based entirely on a verbal description of both ships)? Those are ugly as sin. (The other two 26c. ships, the Theseus and the Sagittarius, aren't much prettier!) Cythereal posted:(DSC Starfleet tutorial) I greatly dislike the Discovery tutorial's ending (for reasons which will become apparent when/if that's covered) but Mary Wiseman at least did some great voice acting for Tilly. I was kinda surprised she's the DSC Starfleet level-up congratulations voice. (Weirdly enough, the reason I hate the DSC tutorial ending is the reason I love the TOS tutorial ending.) Snorb fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Dec 20, 2018 |
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Dec 20, 2018 22:36
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Snorb posted:There is nothing wrong with the Universe class. The only defense of the Nautilus is that it's based on the Olympic and Daedalus classes, which are canon and incredibly doofy looking. If you don't remember the Olympic class, it's the USS Pasteur from the TNG finale - the ship future Beverly commanded. It's never reappeared elsewhere in the tv shows, probably because it's a silly looking ship, but it's there. The Klingon's Negh'var class appeared in the same episode as well, but then it turned up in DS9 as the the first of its class, Chancellor Gowron's shiny new flagship.
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Dec 20, 2018 22:39
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If y'all are having these kinda STDs you should go to a doctor
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Dec 21, 2018 02:35
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   : Well, Sekah, you’ve well and truly done it now. You got yourself drafted.[One uniform change later …]  [The Romulan Republic uniform is very busy and kind of ugly, to be honest. It also lacks the iconic Murphy Brown shoulder pads and kitten basket holsters of TNG Romulan uniforms, making it objectively inferior. There’s also a belt and harness with a bunch of gizmos on it that clip through arms; I’m making the artistic decision that that’s for away teams and not everyday use.]  [This is the shipyard, where you can buy new ships and mess around with their design and appearance. We’re going to be sticking with the default starter ship, because I think sending a crew out in a hundred-year-old jalopy is a good way to illustrate the state the Republic is in at the start of the game.]   : Are you Lieutenant Nalah? : Yes. You must be Lieutenant Sekah of the RRW Tarlon.: Yes, though the “RRW” part is new.: Well, your ship is officially part of the Republic fleet, now. We’ve beamed over the colonists you rescued and sent over repair crews. Fortunately most of the damage was minor; we swapped out some components and were able to boost the shield strength. It’s an old hull, but it’s been maintained well.: Good to hear.  : D’Tan, right? I was told you wanted to speak with me. : Hello, Sekah. Now that you’re settling in, I wanted to speak with you about what our overall goals will be.: I’ll be honest, I hope “revenge” is near the top of that list.: First and foremost, we are looking for a new planet to call home. Temer and his crews are handling that search. While the search continues, I am working on any possible alliances that we can make with the Federation and the Klingon Empire. We will need allies if we are to proceed. Your task will be the protection and recovery of other Romulans spread throughout this sector.  : Are there many other colonies?: We’re finding more by the day. Some have already joined us, but others do not believe in our cause. It will be up to you and your crew to protect these colonies from the Tal Shiar and to recruit anyone willing to assist us.: Just us in our antique ship?: Well, the humans have a saying: “beggars can’t be choosers.” We were already spread very thin before this latest Tal Shiar assault on your colony. Do you have any questions? If not, I would suggest you return to your ship. Temer will have his orders ready for you.: Has Temer found any suitable planets?: Not yet. He and his crew have been assisting Romulan colonies throughout the region, and he has not been able to focus his efforts on the search. With you here, however, Temer’s mission to find a new homeworld can begin. He will be sending scout ships to analyze nearby planets. We’d prefer to find a suitable world in this sector, but we’ll expand our search if we need to. : Will an alliance with the Federation and Klingons work?: I do not know. Our history of deception with both groups definitely does not help.: That was kind of the defining feature of the Empire, yes.: The Tal Shiar, however, will not attack the fleet for now. Sela would see such a direct action as too great a risk. She much prefers to work in the shadows. Let me worry about our potential allies. While you are away, I will be working with diplomats from both sides to come to an agreement we all can live with.: Well, then. I’d better get to it. I’ll return to my ship.: Good luck, lieutenant. : Tovan, are you there? Get the ship ready; we’ll be heading out as soon as the repairs and upgrades are complete. : Sounds like we’ve got our orders. If you’re ready, I can beam you back to the ship. However, before that, I need to ask a favor. I have a sister. Her name is Rinna Khev. She and I were … seperated a long time ago. I want to try to find her. As we’re doing our missions, could you try to ask about Rinna?: Sure, we’ll do our best to keep an eye out.: Thanks.: I’m on my way back. Meet me on the bridge.    : Psst, Tovan, who are all these people?: Our new crew, apparently. Commander Temer said they’re here to “keep your ship from flying apart.” : Did you put them to work?: Yes.: Then congrats, you’re acting first officer. We’re both lieutenants in the Republic fleet now, too. Still want to handle tactical?: May as well. The crew sent over can handle the basic day-to-day running of the ship, but we still need a chief engineer, doctor, someone to handle operations, helm, …: I’ll see if they can send anyone over, but you saw the flotilla. They’ve got their hands full keeping their other ships together. I think it’s just us for a while. : Going to sit down?: Don’t rush me. I spent a good part of my life deliberately avoiding stuff like this.: Why?: Long story. Well, here goes. : Well? How’s it feel?: …: Uneasy.: ...: Take us out.
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Dec 21, 2018 03:20
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I got Moon Slayer's permission to do this. So the Romulan starting ship that Sekah is flying around is the T'Liss, STO's name for the TOS warbird from the classic episode Balance of Terror. However, it's a ship you'll never an NPC fly. The standard frigate of the Romulans is the T'Varo, which is based on the 22nd century warbirds from Enterprise. Probably because in an amusing bit of trivia, the TOS warbird prop was built as a Federation ship that was to have been hijacked by the Romulans in a false flag operation. It was decided that plot was too complicated, so the eagle paint on the bottom was added to reinforce that this is not a Federation ship. The T'Varo is also available to players.   The z-store, also known to longer-time players as the c-store due to its changing name, is Star Trek Online's cash shop. You can pay real money for currency to spend in the store. However, you can also grind out store currency in the game. It's generally a slow process, but some people like me have spent enough time that we can farm this stuff rather efficiency and have lots of toys. What's in the z-store? Lots of things, most significantly ships. There are roughly six tiers of playable starships in STO, and ships the player is freely given by the game cap out at tier 5. Tier 6 ships can be bought from the z-store, earned or given away by in-game events (just such an event is going on right now, doing a quick daily mission a day for twenty days to earn a shiny new boat), or bought on the exchange. Many tier 5 and 6 ships are high-end reskins of low-level ships, so if you really like the look of an early game ship, odds are good there's a high-end refit in the z-store (with some exceptions, grumble Oberth grumble). However, there's also low-level ships in the store. These ships are simply better than those available by the normal leveling process, and here we look at the Romulan tier 1 z-store, the T'Varo. It's a good example of how z-store ships work. Although the T'Varo is available as soon as you reach the Flotilla and occupies the same leveling tier as the T'Liss, the T'Varo is straight up better. The T'Varo passively has more engine power (read: it moves and turns faster), an extra tactical console (an equipment slot generally used to increase the ship's damage), and has a special extra bit of equipment that functions as a special cooldown in space combat. Small bonuses, to be sure, but the T'Varo is cheap in the z-store and this is only a tier 1 ship. Differences will become greater and greater as you move up the tiers. There's not much fluff about the ship, but here's a crack. From the Admiral's Desk The T'Varo class light warbird, now an omnipresent vessel in the remnants of the Romulan Star Empire, is a design from the 24th century that's only recently entered full-scale production. While the Imperial Navy was pleased with their new D'Deridex warbirds as the fleet's capital ships, admirals also expressed a desire for a small, fast warbird to serve as the eyes and ears of the fleet, reconnoitering targets for the admittedly ponderous D'Deridex warbirds and engaging targets of opportunity. Speed, range, and the ability to operate far from home for extended periods of time without resupply were essential, and the result was a ship with a singularity core larger and more sophisticated than warships twice its size - a T'Varo's core wouldn't be out of place on a modern Mogai class heavy warbird. However, fitting a frigate-sized ship around such a powerful singularity core was a significant technical challenge, and the T'Varo finally saw its combat debut during the Dominion War. When introduced, the T'Varo caused a stir in Starfleet and Klingon military leadership. Such a powerful singularity drive on a ship so small in proportion, they felt, was clearly a Romulan answer to the likes of Starfleet's Defiant class: a swift, heavily armed gunship carrying firepower all out of proportion to the ship's diminutive size. Earth and Qo'noS both breathed sighs of relief when the T'Varo turned out to be an unexceptional light warship in combat. It was the technical developments that went into the T'Varo that had the most long-term impact, building the ship's power plant was a famously challenging technological hurdle, but Romulan engineers found an ingenious new way of growing singularities, making the process of building new ships much easier even on limited resources. When the Star Empire fell, T'Varo class warbirds and the means to build more were inherited by every Romulan successor state. T'Varo warbirds can operate with a mere handful of people, are by design long-range vessels easy to maintain, and are inexpensive to build and operate, making them the new light warship of choice throughout Romulan space. Ironically, in its later years the Romulan Republic would prove the original fears of other galactic powers correct, and refit a handful of T'Varo warbirds into just the kind of swift, if fragile, gunship that the ship was capable of. These refitted T'Varo warbirds would be successful enough to inspire a new 'light' warbird built from the keel up as a devastating hit-and-run raider, the Malem class.
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Dec 21, 2018 03:49
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I got to say, tooling around in an old-school War Eagle during a Romulan Civil War brings a warm smile to this cantankerous SFB player's heart.
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Dec 21, 2018 05:04
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Moon Slayer posted: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. Pyroi posted:That is the incredibly stupid Enterprise, but from the far future. The J's design is one that's actually grown on me over time since Azati Prime. Getting to see it from various angles and "in motion" in STO actually helped with that. It was the same thing with the Titan too. I used to think its design was incredibly stupid and fanwanky until I bought the Eaglemoss model of it. Seeing it in three dimensions really changed my opinion of it. Also they gave the design team literally 2 weeks notice to design the Enterprise-J, so it's kind of a case of "you get what you pay for".
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Dec 21, 2018 05:30
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nine-gear crow posted:The J's design is one that's actually grown on me over time since Azati Prime. Getting to see it from various angles and "in motion" in STO actually helped with that. It was the same thing with the Titan too. I used to think its design was incredibly stupid and fanwanky until I bought the Eaglemoss model of it. Seeing it in three dimensions really changed my opinion of it. It was also meant to be seen from very far away - the intent was that the E-J was supposed to be absolutely loving gigantic with a crew in the millions and whole universities and neighborhoods and whatnot on board. That it looked so spindly was supposed to make it obvious that there's some extreme future materials tech involved.
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Dec 21, 2018 05:32
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My understanding of the Enterprise J (and the Universe class in general) came from some notes Doug Drexler made about it: * The hull plating is organically grown around a metal skeleton frame. * The ship is two miles long. Instead of turbolifts, the Universe class uses site-to-site transporters. * The class is called the Universe class because (like the Galaxy class two centuries prior explored the galaxy) it's intended to explore the universe. The Universe class (and, I presume, the Nautilus, Sagittarius, Theseus, and Paladin) has spatial folding technology that allows it to travel between galaxies. * Universe class ships have universities and museums aboard. * Drexler imagined that the ship is commanded and controlled by the ship's crew neurally linked to it, similar to the Borg hive mind. Instead of a traditional bridge, he imagined that the Universe's bridge is "one Starfleet officer sitting on a toilet on Deck One." But then he decided that that wouldn't make for compelling television, so if we ever see the Universe bridge, it'd probably resemble a typical Starfleet bridge. (On second thought, I'm not gonna post screenshots of my old Defiant parked on top of a Universe. I just noticed that the mission I was on at the time was pretty spoileriffic.) Snorb fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Dec 21, 2018 |
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Dec 21, 2018 05:58
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There's something really enticing about the idea of a Starfleet crew controlling the ship through what basically is a mental Slack chat
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Dec 21, 2018 19:36
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Like I said, some of the notes Drex made about the Universe are what endeared me to it! Anyway, I cropped that mission out of the screenshots, so this is how big my old Defiant is compared to the Universe:  And adding this one in so you can actually see the Defiant:  I mentioned on Reddit when I posted these, "I'd like to think my helm officer's having her Orville Wright moment as she's doing this." The Defiant's only 550' long!
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Dec 21, 2018 23:48
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  : So I said to him, “look, if you lose that part your engines will indeed be less efficient, but if we don’t have that part our ship will probably explode when we use the cloaking device, and if you don’t give it to us I’m going to park right next to your ship and cloak.” : Ha! So did he give it to you?: No. And Temer gave me another talk about “adapting to military decorum” and “proper requisition protocol.”: Oh. So, no cloak then?: Well, I may have been a bit hyperbolic. The technicians say there’s only about a 25% change the ship will blow up if we cloak.: …: We really need a chief engineer.: Yeah, no kidding.: Speaking of Temer, he’s hailing us.: I’ll take it in my office.  : This is Sekah. : Jolan tru, Lieutenant. Is your ship ready to get underway?: ... mostly?: Good. Then I have a mission for you. If we’re going to have a chance at breaking away from Sela and the Tal Shiar, we need allies. There are a lot of little settlements like yours out there. We’re in contact with some of them, but we’re always reaching out to try to make new alliances.: I’ve heard that a group of Romulans has taken up residence in a Suliban helix not too far away. I’d like you to visit them. Feel them out, help them if you can, but most of all, find out if they would be willing to join D’Tan in his search for a new homeworld.: Understood, we’ll depart right away. [Some time later …] : We’re arrived at the Helix, commander.: Take us out of warp and put the helix on screen.  : Whoa. There’s something you don’t see everyday.: Commander, we’ve arrived at the helix but we’re not the only ship here. A Tal Shiar warbird is approaching from the direction of the primary structure. It’s a T’varo light warbird, designation IRW Sharrdar. They haven’t raised shields yet, but their weapons are online. Wait … they’re hailing us. Your orders?: On screen.   : To the person in command of the RRW Tarlon, be advised that you are in violation of Tal Shiar security order 63-R. Your vessel is operating in this area without authorization. Identify yourself immediately or your actions will be considered hostile. You don’t want that kind of trouble.: What authority could you possibly have out here?: The Tal Shiar has the authority to track down terrorists that threaten the Romulan Star Empire, no matter where they try to hide.: Well, there’s no terrorists here, so good job but you can go home now.: And don’t bother with deception. Our records indicate a warbird with your ship’s designation was decommissioned years ago. We’ve already identified you as Sekah. Stealing military property is a serious crime. How far the line of Tellus has fallen. Care to explain, “Commander?”: Well … um … Close channel and raise shields. Battlestations!: Incoming! : Hard to starboard! : Return fire! [You may notice that our energy beams look different than theirs. That’s because they are using disruptors, while we have plasma weapons. I’ll get into the different kinds of ship weapons and energy types in a later, separate post.] : Direct hit! Their shields are buckling.: Torpedoes! : Their singularity core breached![There’s a neat little detail here that I haven’t managed to get a good screenshot of yet; as you may remember from TV, Romulan ships use an artificially generated quantum singularity (like a black hole) instead of matter/antimatter reactor for power and warp. In game, when a Romulan ship is destroyed, instead of just exploding it first implodes, crunching up into a black ball.] : Damage report.: We’re holding together. Shields took a beating but engineering reports no significant damage to structure or systems.: Well, it looks like we survived our first combat. Good work, everybody. Hold it together, Sekah, and freak out later. : The helix is hailing us.: On screen.  : To the RRW Tarlon. We plead for mercy. There are only civilians on the Helix. We don’t have much more than we can scavenge from the cell ships. As we told the other Tal Shiar, there are no terrorists here. The Cabal is long gone. Take whatever scrap you need, but please, stop taking our people!: Whoa, slow down. We’re not here to rob you!: Then why are you here? We don’t have much to trade, and we don’t want any trouble.: We’re looking for Romulan refugees.: There are a few Romulan refugees hiding within the Helix. They said they needed a temporary shelter and would be leaving soon. We meant no harm. How were we to know that they were wanted terrorists? Please, just take them with you and go. : Look, how can we convince you we’re not here to steal your stuff or kill you?: If you help us by repairing the helix arm structures, then we’ll help you to get the refugees to your ship. But hurry. We’re in jeopardy every moment you remain here. : Tovan?: Looks like they’ve just been demagnetized. It should be a simple matter to use the deflector and tractor beams to reattach them.   : Take us to the next arm.: So we’re going to be taking all the Romulans with us now? I thought we were just supposed to make contact with them and ask for volunteers?: The missions changed. The Suliban are eager to dump them on us, and with the Tal Shiar after them, maybe that’s a good idea. Looks like they’re all volunteering, whether they want to or not.    What I Cut Out: There are 3 arms to repair, and every time you repair an arm some enemy ships spawn.: Incoming message.: Now that the arms are restored, we’ve located the refugees. They are being moved to a centralized location so you can get a transporter lock. We’ve explained the situation to them, but a representative for the group is asking to speak with you.   : My name is Satra, and I speak of the other Romulans on the helix. Kaiyan informs me that we’re being transported to your vessel. We realize that we can’t stay on the Helix, but we have no intention of being forced into servitude. The Tal Shiar already destroyed our home. All we want is for you to leave us on an uninhabited world or someplace we can hide and try to rebuild our lives.P: I’m Lieutenant Sekah of the Romulan Republic warbird Tarlon. We’ll do our best to help relocate your people, but that might take some time. But I promise nobody is going to be enslaved. You’ll be safe with D’Tan. You have my word.: We’ve heard of D’Tan. We’ve also heard rumors that he’s plotting a revolt against the Tal Shiar. Going to him sounds more dangerous than staying here. : Would you rather stay and be captured? The way I see it, you’ve got two choices; stay and be guaranteed to be indentured by the Tal Shiar, or come with us and take a chance that I’m telling the truth and we actually are different from them.: I know I’m out of options, Lieutenant. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. I don’t know why the Tal Shiar are abducting our families, but we can’t afford to lose anyone else.: …: How about I make you a deal? You personally guarantee that my friends will be safe at D’Tan’s fleet, and I’ll work for you. I’ve served as a science officer on multiple civilian vessels. I can help you. I just … I can’t run anymore. If I need to fight the Tal Shiar to keep my friends safe, that’s what I’ll do. : Well, we are rather desperately in need of qualified officers. Agreed.: *ahem*: Oh, one more thing.[/i] Is there a woman named Rinna Khev in your group?: Rinna Khev? No, I don’t know anyone by that name.: Thank you. Prepare to beam aboard.: Thanks for trying, Commander.[Some time later …] : All the refugees are aboard, but there’s more trouble. A Tal Shiar battleship, the IRW Koval, has entered the system. They’re hailing us, and they’re asking for you by name. : Aw crap. Plot a course out of the system. Put them onscreen.  : Lieutenant Sekah, you are ordered to stand down. You are wanted for questioning by the Tal Shiar. Lower your shields and surrender your vessel and crew, or prepare to face the consequences. : I think I’ll pass, thanks. We’re not criminals and you have no authority over us.: Your actions speak for themselves. You’ll answer for the destruction you’ve caused today. Remember that you were given a chance to surrender. : Talk to me, Tovan.: That’s a Mogai-class warbird, Commander. They outclass us in every way.: Engage half impulse on a random heading, and activate the cloak.: Uh, the cloak you said had a one in four chance of blowing us up?: Either that or a 100% chance of that warbird blowing us up.: Good point. Activating the cloak.  [Cloaking works like a backstab in every other MMO: sneak up on an enemy and then you get a bonus to damage immediately after you decloak.] : Are we dead?: I don’t think so. Cloaking device is operating at optimal levels.: Then ease us out of the system. Maneuvering thrusters only.: Why are we whispering?: I DON’T KNOW. What I Cut Out: Obviously you have to fight that Mogai, and it’s not a particularly hard fight.[Later …]   : We’ll give the refugees a good home here. They’ll be safe, and we’ll do all we can to help them. This is just a start, Lieutenant. We won’t stop until we’re on a new world; one of our own.: Thank you, sir. Tarlon out.: Incoming message from the helix, Commander.: On screen.: Thank you for taking the refugees, Lieutenant. Tell them we’re sorry. We simply have no way to protect them. Hopefully they’ll find refuge with your fleet. Our best hope now is to cooperate with the Tal Shiar and tell them that you have taken the refugees. We can’t offer much, but I’ll tell other Suliban that D’Tan’s fleet is standing up to the Tal Shiar. I’m also sending you the contact for a friendly local trader in case you need salvage or have goods to sell. But please … keep our involvement discreet. : Thank you. We will.[One of the rewards for this mission is the ability to summon a Suliban ship on the overworld map (sector space) and access your mail, bank, and a merchang.]  : I see they found a uniform for you. Welcome aboard, Satra. : Thank you, Commander. I’ve been reviewing your files and systems. This is an old ship.: Don’t we know it.: And that was a huge risk you took using the cloaking device back there.: Well, I wouldn’t say “huge.” And a 25% chance of exploding vs going toe-to-toe with a Mogai wasn’t a very hard decision.: 25%? Oh goodness no. I’ve been reviewing your power distribution logs and it’s more like an 80% chance of catastrophic failure every time you activate the cloak.:  :  : …: You guys really need a chief engineer.
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Dec 22, 2018 22:14
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Of note, Tovan will be getting a haircut next update so his portrait is easier to distinguish from Satra's.
Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Dec 22, 2018 |
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Dec 22, 2018 22:18
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Moon Slayer posted:Of note, Tovan will be getting a haircut next update so his portrait is easier to distinguish from Satra's. Only if you can give him the doofiest haircut in the game.
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Dec 23, 2018 00:26
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Technowolf posted:Only if you can give him the doofiest haircut in the game. And the Epic Beard (that is literally what it's called in the menu).
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Dec 23, 2018 00:50
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I just logged in to try and give him a ridiculous haircut and beard to make a joke post, and it turns out you can't give Romulans beards. 
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Dec 23, 2018 01:19
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Because they are space elves, only Spock is allowed to have a beard.
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Dec 23, 2018 01:36
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So, postscript on the Suliban in STO. Unless Moon Slayer changes something, we're not going to see them again in the story. Perhaps strangely, not even in a later story arc that draws heavily on Enterprise. There are no Suliban bridge officers, and you never fight them. However, there are indications that the Romulan Republic absorbs the Suliban remnant, or at least closely allies with them. There's a handful of side content available exclusively to Romulans about continuing to work with the Suliban helix, and personnel exchanges between the Suliban and the Republic. There's also a Suliban warship available in the z-store exclusively to Romulan players:  This ship hails from Enterprise where it was a Suliban warship in the episode Shockwave, and in STO is offered as a Romulan flight deck cruiser - in the cross-faction bundle, it's matched with a Tellarite flight deck cruiser for the Federation (itself based on the one Tellarite ship seen in Enterprise) and an Orion flight deck cruiser for the Klingons (this one seems to be a game original, though). More commonly seen, or at least it used to be - they're both white whales now - is the cell ship available to everyone.  The cell ship is one of two non-combat ships introduced to the game, and has no combat value. Instead, it offers a huge range of amenities to players who just want a mobile hangout. Strangely, some other bad guys from the Enterprise era get much more play in STO while the Suliban are little more than a footnote.
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Dec 23, 2018 03:59
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Weird opinion: On the one hand, hey, I'm glad Cryptic/Perfect Worlds is offering (or offered, at one point?) ships from what's probably the bastard child of the Star Trek franchise (no, not Discovery!!!) On the other hand, I'm really weirded out that a Starfleet captain (of any era) like I play can tell the admiralty board "Screw the Sovereign and the Odyssey, you said I could command any ship in Earth Spacedock, I want that one," point at a Suliban Helix Cruiser, and command that ship.
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Dec 23, 2018 04:42
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My friend, you have seen only the tip of the loving iceberg. Starfleet, the Klingon Defense Force, the Romulan Republic, and the Dominion rival the Borg when it comes to taking anything of interest to them. A very few ships are specifically noted to have been purchased by the Ferengi Alliance and then given to their allies, or loaned to the galactic powers by a friendly minor race, but most of them are stated to be from capturing these ships, stripping out any interesting goodies the faction's intelligence agency wants, and handing them over to captains. This includes ships from the far future, like the Universe class already seen. Wait, scratch that. They pull poo poo the Borg can't.  Both of those Suliban ships are available still - the cell ship is hilariously expensive on the auction house, but if you have 3k zen coins to burn you can get the Silik class cruiser for all Romulan characters on your account anytime you wish.
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Dec 23, 2018 04:56
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You say all these words and they don't mean anything to me. Anyone mind dropping some Lore Dumps?
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Dec 23, 2018 05:11
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Starfleet or Romulan captains buying Suliban ships and flying around in them for funsies is officially Not Thread Canon.
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Dec 23, 2018 05:16
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Siegkrow posted:You say all these words and they don't mean anything to me. Anyone mind dropping some Lore Dumps? The Suliban are a group of aliens with kinda grainy-looking skin from Enterprise, and some of them (ENT spoilers) are part of a cabal or cult that takes marching orders from mysterious figures in the future, and gets paid in gene mods. A key point the series makes is that not all the Suliban do this, and there's direct parallels made to the Japanese internment camps.. Anyway they tend to live in a bunch of modular ships that clamp together and I don't think they are ever really aligned with anyone after Enterprise, so it's a bit odd to see a weird setpiece that only shows up a few times in the series be used as a space clubhouse I guess.
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Dec 23, 2018 05:24
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Edit: On second thought, possibly a spoiler.
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Dec 23, 2018 |
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Dec 23, 2018 05:35
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Siegkrow posted:You say all these words and they don't mean anything to me. Anyone mind dropping some Lore Dumps? The ship in the picture is from Species 8472, an alien species from another dimension that the Borg and Voyager ran into in VOY's season3/4 two-parter. The Borg can't assimilate 8472 because ~reasons~, but PCs can gleefully fly around in their ships if they have enough spacebux.
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Dec 23, 2018 06:25
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Technowolf posted:The ship in the picture is from Species 8472, an alien species from another dimension that the Borg and Voyager ran into in VOY's season3/4 two-parter. The Borg can't assimilate 8472 because ~reasons~, but PCs can gleefully fly around in their ships if they have enough spacebux. STO gives them the canon* name of the Undine, which is actually pretty drat cool and I wish would be adopted officially because it makes me think of Undyne from Undertale and Species 8472 is unwieldy as poo poo to say and write all the time. Their DNA is trihelical instead of bihelical like literally every other species in the universe so Borg nanoprobes have a BSOD in their bloodstream and just short circuit, because they can't latch on to anything. They showed up as a playable race in Star Trek: Armada II and also appeared as a one-off monster of the week later in Voyager where it's revealed they can shapeshift and were preparing an infiltration of the Federation led by Boothby because Janeway scared the poo poo out of them that much, but it was postponed indefinitely thanks to Chakotay banging Ellen Tigh.
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Dec 23, 2018 07:19
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The Undine are like these ultra-aggressive peak predators right down to the cellular level. Usually when borg nanites try to assimilate them, they get eaten.
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Dec 23, 2018 07:36
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wiegieman posted:The Undine are like these ultra-aggressive peak predators right down to the cellular level. Usually when borg nanites try to assimilate them, they get eaten. Yeah, like didn't one of them just like spit on Harry Kim and he was laid up in sickbay for a week because the spit metastasized and started to eat him whole from the inside out? Because Harry Kim is Space's Bitch.
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Dec 23, 2018 07:44
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It’s really cool to see a new STO LP! I keep meaning to play more of it, but the bad writing and lootbox bullshittery put me off. Also:Moon Slayer posted:
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Dec 23, 2018 15:45
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Inferior posted:When I play a Romulan, I want to be a Space Bastard. Stabbing people in the back and stealing secrets, that’s the Romulan way. Not running around helping colonies like some Starfleet nerd. It’s weird that STO contrives this whole new faction of Nice Romulans to play as, when both Feds and Klingons are basically the same as their TV versions. The Klingons stop being that way eventually, as does the Dominion. According to Cryptic, something like 80% of all max level characters in STO are Federation, so they consciously do write the story with Federation players in mind.
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Dec 23, 2018 16:07
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Two factions barely have (or had, when I last played) a story arc (the Klingons were PVP only for what, three years? and the Romulans weren't playable until something like five years after launch?), of course they write everything so that the one faction that does have a complete story won't get jealous of anyone else also getting to do something cool.
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Dec 23, 2018 18:14
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PoptartsNinja posted:Two factions barely have (or had, when I last played) a story arc (the Klingons were PVP only for what, three years? and the Romulans weren't playable until something like five years after launch?), of course they write everything so that the one faction that does have a complete story won't get jealous of anyone else also getting to do something cool. Kind of, the Klingons were never PvP only - they did have some unique story content, and the DS9 expansion remarkably enough did follow up on what was previously a very strange Klingon-only storyline. No defending the now playable Dominion, though, they get about three missions to themselves before being dumped into the faction-neutral story. As a palette cleanser, here's another ship from Enterprise available in the z-store, and one that actually makes some sense for Federation players to fly!  The VSS (Vulcan Science Ship) D'Kyr was the flagship of the Vulcan fleet during Enterprise. Its class was never named, but of the three pre-Federation ships the Vulcans had in Enterprise, this type was the biggest. STO has therefore dubbed this a modern variant, the D'Kyr class. It's a fairly common sight as an NPC in Star Trek Online, particularly in the Federation storyline where it's usually said to be a Vulcan ship that's not a part of Starfleet. Federation (and Romulan, and Dominion) players can pick it up in the z-store, though liking the ship's unique appearance is the main reason why you might do so. Mechanically speaking, there's no two ways about it: the D'Kyr is bad. Not just outdated, but even when it was new, it was bad. If you want an endgame science vessel, the free Recon Science Vessel isn't a bad pick, or grab a cheap Orb Weaver or N'Kaam off the exchange. Still, style counts for everything in this game. From the Admiral's Desk The D'Kyr class is a modern update of a venerable Vulcan design dating back to the 22nd century before the founding of the Federation. At the time, this class was the largest warship in the Vulcan fleet and one of the most powerful combat vessels in the Alpha Quadrant. When the Federation was founded, many of the series were folded into the new Starfleet until they were eventually phased out over the decades in favor of new construction like the Constitution class. However, the ship never entirely disappeared from the galaxy and many were refitted for service with the Vulcan Science Academy as dedicated research and medical vessels. The modern D'Kyr class was built in the mid-24th century as a much needed overhaul of the type, and these ships have continued to serve the Vulcan Science Academy ever since under the prefix VSS. Like its predecessor, the D'Kyr has a distinctive movable ring structure amidships, which on the original ship compensated for a distinctly underpowered warp core by a sophisticated computer system constantly moving the ring in flight to adjust the ship's warp envelope for greater efficiency. Starfleet would later adopt this variable warp geometry design for a line of high-speed long-range science vessels, and the Klingons followed suit for their birds of prey. A few D'Kyr ships have found their way into less peaceful duties in modern times. Some of these research ships have been transferred to active Starfleet duty under the USS prefix and receive extensive refits to upgrade their shields and weapons in order to continue research in contested regions of space. A very few have even been gifted to the Romulan Republic for their much-needed scientific and medical support facilities. Invariably in these cases, someone gets cheeky and edits the ship's IFF transponder to designate the ship RRW. Don't even get me started on the Dominion ones. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Dec 24, 2018 |
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Dec 23, 2018 18:28
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Cythereal posted:Kind of, the Klingons were never PvP only Klingons didn't get any significant story content until the 1st expansion in May 2013 gave them their level 1-20 story. The story content they did have was essentially a short tutorial on how to pew pew with a ship that got them to level... 6-ish? It wasn't significant enough to be considered story content.
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Dec 23, 2018 18:54
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Way back at the beginning you needed to have like a level 20 Starfleet character to even make a Klingon character.
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Dec 23, 2018 19:53
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  : … : … : …: …: Tovan, did …: Yes, I shaved my head because the commander kept pointing out that we had the same haircut but she also told me I couldn’t order you to change yours.: … you get those new power distribution figures I sent you. You did what?: Nothing. Forget I said anything.: But …: Hey, look at that. Toven to Sekah. You’ve, uh, got an incoming communique from the flotilla.: OK, I’ll take it in here. : Commander Temer. What can I do for you?: How much do you know about the Remans?: I mean, just what I learned in history class. The Empire used them as either laborers or cannon fodder for most of our history.: Seems like you had a much more comprehensive history class than I did.: I was homeschooled.: Many Remans settled on Crateris after the fallout from Shinzon’s rebellion. While they were safe from the destruction of Romulus and Remus, Crateris is a bleak world with little in the way of habitable land. There are ample mineral deposits, which the Remans mine and sell for food and other necessities, but their lives there are harsh and unforgiving. : Anyone who could survive on Crateris for as long as the Remans have has strength. We could use that strength in our search for a homeworld. And I know the Remans have no love for the Tal Shiar. Go to Crateris. Talk to the Remans. Show them we are sincere and that we need their support.: Understood. We’ll head there immediately.  : Commander, I’m picking up multiple ships and weapon fire around the planet. T’varo light warbirds, some Romulan make and some Reman.: We’re too late. The Tal Shiar are already here.: The Tal Shiar are approaching Crateris, and they’ve already engaged a group of Reman vessels in orbit. The Remans are sending out a general distress call.: On screen.   : … Commander Khiy … Decimus … To any … vessels … there has been an unprovoked assault on our colony by …[pshhh]... Shiar agents. They’ve attacked ou…[pshh]...nd we are suffering heavy …[pshhh] … Please [pshh] ...ed your [psh]tence.: Can we get a message to them?: The Decimus is too heavily damaged. They can’t respond to our hails. They won’t last much longer if we don’t help them.: Battlestations. Target the nearest Tal Shiar ship and open fire.   [That’s what a singularity core looks like when it breaches.] : Good shooting, Tovan.: They never even knew we were here.: Satra, signal the other Reman ships that we’re here to help and request that they form up on us.: Commander, the Decimus is nearby and they need our help. They’re losing structural integrity. : What can we do?: I can use the deflector array and tractor beams to shore up their structural integrity and give them time to make repairs.: Good. Helm, get us close enough.  [Remans (mostly) fly Romulan ships with a slightly darker paint job. The exception is the new kind of ship you can see in these images: the Decimus and one of the Reman ships in formation are Dhael-class warbirds, which is a Reman variant of the Romulan Dhelan-class warbirds. In contemporary terms, if T’Varro warbirds are frigates and Mogai warbirds are cruisers, the Dhael/Dhelan is a destroyer. Interestingly, according to the in-game description they were originally designed in the 23rd century but never entered production. They are only used by the Reman fleet and the Romulan Republic, so you won’t be fighting them.] : I’ve stabilized their structural integrity, and Commander Khiy are hailing us.: On screen. : Thank you for your assistance, Tarlon. We’re continuing emergency repairs, but most of our major systems are offline. The Tal Shiar sent detachments to the surface and our colony is not responding to hails. With our transporters down and shuttlebay damaged, I cannot send a security team to investigate. The Tal Shiar have never been so bold.: They plan to destroy your colony.: How can you be so certain? It doesn’t make sense. They’ve left us alone for years. What would they gain by destroying our home? We keep to ourselves and we do not challenge the Tal Shiar.: Commander, if I may?: Go ahead.: Commander Khiy, with all due respect, we’ve seen this before. The Tal Shiar destroyed our colony on Virinat without warning. If we don’t get your people off Crateris immediately, they will be defenseless when the invasion force arrives. : He’s telling the truth. It was … bad on Virinat.: Invasion force? We aren’t in any position to begin an evacuation! The head of our fleet, Obisek, and most of our ships are on maneuvers out of the system! They can’t possibly return in time! Until we re-establish communications with the colony, our priority must be to protect the people on the surface. You’ll need to go.: What can we do to help?: Find Zden. He will help you. He resides near the communication tower on the outskirts of the colony. If we re-establish communication, then we can formulate a plan. [Away team time! Right now we only have 2 bridge officers who can accompany us, but in the future we’ll get many, many more we can bring along.]   : This is Sekah. We’re down. Where do we go from here?: Zden is to the northwest near a force field. If planetary communications are disabled, you’ll need his help to bring the transmitter back online. We’ll do our best to keep more Tal Shiar from beaming down, but I can’t promise we’ll be able to stop them. : What is that?: Looks like some kind of forcefield.: Heads up, we’ve got company! : It’s those same things from Virinat!: Take them out! : What were those things? They don’t look Romulan to me?: We don’t know. They were part of the attack on Virinat, too. : Tal Shiar!  : Shot in the back by a Romulan plasma pistol.: Monsters. : I still can’t wrap my head around this. I know you told me what happened to you on Virinat, but to see it … It just doesn’t make sense. What are they doing with the colonists they take?: Slave labor, cannon fodder, medical experiments, take your pick. It could be anything.: Quiet, you two. I see someone. : More Tal Shiar! [That distortion is Satra’s ground abilities, a root and interrupt. Bridge officers can have 4 different ground abilities depending on their rank.]    : Thank you, stranger. I don’t understand why this is happening. You’re obviously not with the Tal Shiar. Why are you here and what do you want?: We’re looking for Zden.: That’s me.: Well that’s convenient. Commander Khiy sent us to help you. I’m Lieutenant Sekah of the Romulan Republic.: Commander Khiy? Good. Follow me and then explain what’s going on. We should get inside the security field before more Tal Shiar arrive.: Right behind you.   : Veril! There you are. : Father!: I’m glad you’re safe. Now, tell us what’s happened. It’s clear that our colony is under attack, but why are the Tal Shiar doing this? Why attack Crateris? What are they after?: It’s an invasion. They’re taking Crateris.: There’s no reason for the Tal Shiar to attack Crateris. We’ve been an established colony for over 23 years! We were given permission to settle here by Donatra! Why would the Tal Shiar attack a colony of their own people?: They didn’t give a reason when they destroyed our colony on Virinat. : So the rumors are true. I told you, father, the Tal Shiar have declared war on our people! They’re going to kill us!: They seem more interested in abducting people. : It doesn’t make any sense. We aren’t a threat to the Tal Shiar. What do they have to gain? They can’t do this without anyone noticing.: Worry about that later. We need to evacuate now!: Evacuate? We must inform the council. Who is going to listen to my order to evacuate? Obisek isn’t here. He left Khiy in charge. Why doesn’t he give the order to evacuate?: The Tal Shiar knocked out communications. And he referred us to you.: That explains a lot. When we couldn’t reach anyone, Slamek said he was going to check on the transmitter. He hasn’t come back yet. We should find him and see if we can’t get communications back online.: Is there any other way to warn the rest of the colony?: Without the transmitter we’ll have to start contacting colonists individually. The word will spread, but it will take some time. Obviously something is going on, but I’m not the one to order an evacuation. The fleet or the council should make that determination.: Maybe, but they aren’t here and you are. Start contacting everyone you can. We’ll check on the transmitter.: You’ll need help. If you’re going out to the transmitter, I’m going with you. Maybe we can find Slamek there. : We appreciate the help.: Veril, you should stay here. Let these people handle this. We don’t know the whole story yet. We need more information. We need to know what the Tal Shiar want! At least stay behind the security field until we hear from the council.: Father, you can see what the Tal Shiar have done! They’ll need my help to get the transmitter working again. We’ll take some weapons and armor before we leave. Don’t worry, I can handle myself.  : OK, let’s go.[Those boxes have some basic armor and weapons.]  : That’s the comm tower up there. : Look out, it’s one of those probes!: I’ve got it. : Look out!  : Oops.: Watch where you’re shooting. We’re going to need those shuttles!  : Slamek, you’re alive! What happened to you? : Veril, you found me before those … things did. I tried to repair the transmitter, but it was pointless. As you can see, the controls are completely destroyed. But it looks like you found some new friends.: Yes, hi, hello, we’re with the Romulan Republic, and we’re really running short on time here. We need this thing up and running yesterday. Can we bypass the transmitter controls?: Didn’t you hear me? The controls are destroyed. The transmitter is worthless. : Yes, I heard you, but …: Slamek, you’re not helping. What if we set up a bypass relay? If it works, we might be able to control the transmitter dish from Zden’s shuttle or even our secondary console at home. : We could try my tricorder.: It’s possible, but I don’t think it would work.: Slamek!: Look, I’m freaking out here, OK!?: Try to set up a bypass relay for the controls. If you can get it working, then we’ll head back to my father and see if we can access the transmitter from there.: We’ll cover you.: Commander, we’ve got incoming! What I Cut Out: There are three waves, each a mixture of probes and spiders. : Get it off me!: Look out! : I told you it probably wouldn’t work.: gently caress’s sake, Slamek. I can’t believe we used to date.:  : Let me try and contact Khiy. Maybe we can use his ships communication array to tap into the colony’s. Sekah to Commander Khiy, do you read? … Commander Khiy, come in.: [pshhhhhhh]: That’s not a good sign.: We should go back to my father and see if he’s heard any news.: Uh, commander? You should probably see this.: poo poo. : We just ran out of time.To be continued …
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Dec 26, 2018 14:55
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An interesting bit of trivia for this mission: Romulans aren't the only race you can play as in the Republic, Remans are also an option. If you do play as a Reman, mission dialogue changes a little in this and other missions (or a lot in one particular case) to reflect your kinship with Reman NPCs and your character's belief that the Republic is the Remans' best hope as Romulans and Remans work to build a better future together. From the Admiral's Desk The Dhelan warbird was, until quite recently, a byword for costly boondoggles in the Imperial Navy. After a certain incident along the Federation Neutral Zone, it had become clear to the Navy that the T'Liss class was outclassed by the latest Starfleet battleships. Fearing a looming war with the Federation where the mainstay of the fleet was outgunned and outmatched, doubly so against new designs entering prototyping like the Excelsior, Ambassador, and Constellation, the Imperial Design Bureau set out to create a true next-generation warbird. To spare the reader a long and unfortunate history of changing design requirements, bureaucratic incompetence, and ideas far too advanced for their time, the IRW Dhelan only entered service in the closing years of the 23rd century and was considered an embarrassment. The Dhelan was technically innovative, refining an unusual double-wing design only previously seen on the very rare Thrai dreadnought, and was the first warbird designed and built around a singularity drive. However, most of the Dhelan's systems failed to work as promised, and for the expense that had gone into the warbird many in the Navy questioned whether the Dhelan could take a Constitution class battleship in a fight. Then tensions eased between the Star Empire and the Federation, and the Dhelan was mothballed after less than a year in service. Only with the fall of the Star Empire did the Dhelan gain a new lease on life. What had been an overdesigned mess of a would-be super ship in the 23rd century had become a perfectly adequate destroyer in the 25th, and it is perhaps to the credit of the Dhelan's designers that the Republic had to adjust very little to add the Dhelan as a compact, well armed addition to the nascent Republic fleet. Nor was the Republic the only successor state to resurrect the Dhelan. The Dhael is a particularly Reman redesign of the Dhelan, sacrificing creature comforts for the crew in exchange for superior performance, and a few have since found their way into the Republic fleet. The Remans would continue to refine the Dhelan as time went on, first producing a true modern refit of the design, then finally the Hathos class warbird, the alpha predator of deep space that the Dhelan was born to become. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Dec 27, 2018 |
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Dec 26, 2018 15:53
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Cythereal posted:Thrai dreadnought I'd just like to appreciate the sheer density of obscure geeky references in these two words.
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Dec 26, 2018 19:25
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Loxbourne posted:I'd just like to appreciate the sheer density of obscure geeky references in these two words. Not obscure at all, the Thrai dreadnought warbird is a ship available in STO and looks like the odd little lovechild of a D'Deridex and T'Liss.
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Dec 26, 2018 21:16
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So, let me preface this by saying I was not the right age to watch star trek and that it was never big in my country. Nerds my age all either are into games, anime, or if they are sci do fans, the big one is Star Wars. Outside the internet, I have never once met a Trekkie or anyone Trekkie adjacent. So with that in mind: Can anyone explain the basics of this? Like they do in the Shadowrun LP thread?
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Dec 27, 2018 17:43
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| # ? May 3, 2024 20:10 |
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The basics of Star Trek the show or the basics of the game? Because I'm going to be putting up game mechanics posts in the near future.
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Dec 27, 2018 17:53
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