Interested in Star Trek Online Playthroughs?

[Eishtmo]

Yeah, the Discovery stuff is just boring for the most part. The Iconian War ENDED STO's primary storyline, and they've been grasping at straws for a new hook to keep the action going. They've had some good ones, like all of Victory is Life, but for the most part I'm uninterested in it.

Though why you write out all that, it explains why they pulled the Binary Stars queue. The sheer slaughter that happened in every queue kind of made it hard to take the Disco Klinks as a serious threat.

[Nealithi]

Regarding complaints about the Summer Event in the middle of the Iconian War, only thing I can say is, try to think of it in terms of episodes being shown out of order. Either you went to Risa before the war broke out, or were relaxing on the beach after winning the war. This didn't really happen for me, because I play on Xbox One, and by the time we got the game at all, the Iconian War arc was already complete, so it only gets interrupted for me by turning off the Xbox, or switching to another game.

On a similar note, though, this year the Summer Event did pop up in the middle of Age of Discovery missions being released. Most of the missions are presented as 'historical simulations' to try to give your Captain an understanding of J'Ula, who is supposedly this really great enemy out of the past. I have a hard time taking anything from Discovery seriously, and I can't see any way for this woman who is 150 years out of time to be a serious threat to modern fleets, especially given the things I've had to deal with over the past few years. So my head canon for the Summer Event during this time goes something like this.

My Captain is wearing her bikini on the beach of Risa, when Admiral Quinn calls up about another historic simulation. My Captain answers, "Let me stop you right there, Admiral. Do you have any actionable intel on where this J'Ula actually is? Because there is nothing more I'm going to learn about her from another war game. I've won how many wars for you at this point? B'Vat had access to time travel and a Doomsday Machine, and I stopped him. Empress Sela and her Tal Shiar. The Devidians. True Way Terrorists and Alpha Jem'Hadar. That temporally displaced Dominion Fleet. The Breen. The Borg. The Undine. The Voth. The Vaudwaar. The Iconians. The Tzenkathi. The Hur'q. Did I miss any? Find out where this J'Ula that people keep mistaking for a Klingon is, I'll run over there, take her out, or bring her in. In the meantime, war games can wait. I've got beach games to play."

I don't mind your head canon for skipping the simulations. I mean there is a heck of a point there. By now you are the hero of your faction and really should be getting a bit more respect. . . I miss the briefing room where everyone jumps up to salute you when you enter. . .

But the meta reason for the 'historical programs' Is they are the Disco character missions. No one but AoY could play the AoY missions. So they did the 'recreation' to let folks play some more. And I can get behind that. Personally I thought the Disco missions were better acted than anything before them.

[CharlesPhipps]

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/StarTrekOnline

I updated the Star Trek Online characters lists and re-organized them for ease of use on TVtropes.org. I'm having a lot of fun with my return to the setting but I do think they need to set up another "years-long arc" since the Temporal Cold War is kind of a shit solution to it. Maybe we can do one about a Klingon Civil War with J'mpok versus Martok.

The Borg are also an untapped resource.

[tyrteg]

Honestly I can't wait until you reach the Gamma Quadrant Story-Arc CharlesPhipps. Then you'll get to see how good has STO really gotten.

Concerning Disco Story Arc - I created a new Vulcan captain for the appropriate era and I'm playing the story with her - so there is no real story/gameplay disconnect for me. She hasn't faced the Iconians in battle, she didn't fight the Hur'Q and I don't think she even knows who the Borg are. I think that's why STO doesn't treat your character like a war-hero in general - you have characters that "canonically" join the story at so many different points - I don't think it would be right to assume all of them are galaxy-wide war-heroes. Vanguard Jems, TOS captains and Discovery captains are all relative newbies to the story.

Also I have to say the voice-acting and the cutscenes of Disco storyline are really top-notch. As I mentioned previously - I was really surprised how good and fleshed-out the Discovery characters can be when given decent writing, decent lightning that doesn't try to convince us that a star-ship bridge should be covered in darkness and seen at a weird angle at all times. I'm even enjoying myself in the current shroom missions. Mushroom drive seems still silly but at least they are trying to incorporate it to the main canon in a smart way.

[Eishtmo]

Oh, the production and story stuff for Disco is fine in the game. I'm just not interested.

Not the least of which because I can't have an Andorian for some stupid reason. Don't have the costume parts my ass.

[CharlesPhipps]

Just finished Future's Past.

Man, I wonder if I just have a poor build or something because I think that campaign just about killed me. Maybe I need to spend some real money to go buy myself upgrade material (can you do that?). On the other hand, I've got to say that I think it nicely wrapped up the Temporal Cold War plotline that was a complete nonstarter in Enterprise and did it with suitable epicness. It makes no sense as to Future Guy being Noye but maybe Daniels was in order to get the Suliban to move against them (Temporal agents are always shady).

I also was genuinely happy to see Admiral Leeta return.

----

Also, this is mentioning something sad but seeing Nog and Scotty in the game (as well as Mr. Checov for different reasons) made me really sad.

[BunBun299]

Maybe it's just me, but I really thought the voice acting took a nose dive going from the Gamma Quadrant missions to the Disco ones. Though I will admit it picked up a bit when Captain Killy showed up. But, she came after a Vulcan so stiff I think they'd have been better off just making us read the text. Seriously, that guy was awful. Jason Isaacs was all right, though I thought his security officer was just over the top.

I suppose I might have formed a different opinion about the Disco missions overall if they'd all been there when I created my Disco Captain. But at the time, I had only 2 missions (maybe 3?), one of which was a reskinned version of the standard Starfleet graduate from the academy and end up in command tutorial mission, with the only novel part being having Tilly along as an annoying side kick. The other mission being the one where you end up in the 25th century. So it felt like an inferior version of the normal Starfleet intro, and the TOS intro. The rest of the missions got presented to me as historical reenactments for my war veteran Captains. Didn't play my Disco Captain again for months.

So, factor in, I've not made my feelings about STD in general a secret, and that this immediately followed what I considered to be the vastly superior Victory Is Life, and the simulations just felt unwelcome. This may or may not be just my personal feelings, but I'd have liked to see them do more with the Gamma Quadrant, and squeezing in the Disco missions felt like that were standing in the way of content I think I'd have enjoyed more.

But, if you enjoy the STD material, don't let me stop you. I enjoy both Nemesis and Into Darkness, which I know aren't exactly popular around here.

On a more pleasant note, I have 10 Captains total. Which I thought was a lot, but not compared to some around here. In order that I created them;

Serena Blake, Human Tactical, flies a Defiant
Zaslu, Orion Engineer, flies a Kor Bird of Prey, which I've turned into a Fire While Cloaked Torpboat
Heila, Reman Science, KDF aligned, flies a Khopesh Dreadnought
Araal, Vulcan Science, TOS era, Temporal Agent, flies an Intrepid Class (though with TOS Bridge)
Five of Fourteen, Human Borg Engineer, Delta Recruit, flies a Sovereign Class
Ala'kzhezh, Gorn Science, Delta Recruit, flies a Khaimas Multi Mission Recon
Nanira Cron, Joined Trill Tactical (KDF), Delta Recruit, flies a Durgath Dreadnough
Kenala, Romulan Tactical, Starfleet aligned, Delta Recuit, flies a D'Khellra Warbird
BunBun'Tuninine, Jem'Hadar Vanguard, Gamma Recruit, Flies a Jem'Hadar Strike Ship
Amano Sakura, Human Engineer (Disco Era), flies a Vonph Dreadnought Carrier


No two builds are quite the same in that lot.

[tyrteg]

CharlesPhipps - please read https://sto.gamepedia.com/Gear_Upgrade_System
You'll see that upgrading gear can be completely Free-to-Play. You just craft or buy on Exchange(for around 60K credits for the best ones) Tech Upgrades and then use them to upgrade your gear. If you want to spend money on the game go buy some awesome T6 ships. Odyssey refits are good ships that need little help to be awesome and imho are one of the best looking ships in STO.

[CharlesPhipps]

Thanks, I just started the next campaign and enjoyed hanging around the Lukari. Captain Kuumaarke is incredibly endearing and makes me wish this game was a full-blown RPG we could add her to our crew on.

[Eishtmo]

Just finished Future's Past.

Man, I wonder if I just have a poor build or something because I think that campaign just about killed me. Maybe I need to spend some real money to go buy myself upgrade material (can you do that?).

Most of the issue is the enemies you're fighting and how best to deal with them. I got through Future Proof with a Tier 1 MIranda (yes, the tutorial ship) and this was one of the hardest areas because of what the enemies throw at you. The Nakhul are especially dickish with their temporal clones. Spam that fleet support power when they show, it's the best bet in most cases.

Basics: use the same energy type for weapons and use the associated tactical consoles to get more out of your weapons. Set weapon energy high, so you're pounding away harder. Tactical Team, Science Team and Engineering team should be your very basic boff powers (at least until more advanced play). All three are heals and defensive powers that will help you a great deal.

And if you've got the R&D levels for it, build hull patch batteries, they are so useful.