Yukaphile wrote: ↑Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:40 pm
And what about the cure?
Violence would already be well underway by the time the notion we need the cure from the planet gets brought up. There would be no several hours of waiting patiently to learn that detail.
Besides, they didn't seem to be in any great hurry to deliver it at the end of the episode anyway. It's been a while, but didn't they leave the system at Warp 3? It didn't seem to be all that great a priority.
That still ignores the fact though that all Lutan would have to do is hold the cure in his hand and threaten to destroy it. We can all laugh at how slow they warped out, and how it only appears to be a mild flu, but sooner or later it is lethal. And what do you mean ''by the time we need a cure is brought up?'' they WENT THERE for the cure. Your psycho captain would be doing all of this knowing that she would potentially be sacrificing thousands for one person, breaking the Prime Directive which is a court martial offence, and potentially causing untold damage to a WHOLE society when it is really only a handful of men who are the problem.
There is middle ground between ''Not The Face, Not The Face Picard'' and ''Parody Janeway.''
They thought they'd be able to replicate it, till Crusher brought up that it can't be replicated hours after Tasha had been kidnapped. So, by the time that detail came up, the fight would be over. Also, my Captain would not be starting the fight. That started with the kidnapping. But she would finish it, and quickly.
Why is STO just an action romp? True, Trek has had great action before, but that's the least compelling aspect of the series, tbh, unless the action flows organically from the story like in the Dominion War or Wrath of Khan. The times Trek has failed was when it's mindless action pandering to the lowest common denominator, like Voyager, and Nemesis, and that's really what killed it in the end.
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Yukaphile wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:16 am
Why is STO just an action romp? True, Trek has had great action before, but that's the least compelling aspect of the series, tbh, unless the action flows organically from the story like in the Dominion War or Wrath of Khan. The times Trek has failed was when it's mindless action pandering to the lowest common denominator, like Voyager, and Nemesis, and that's really what killed it in the end.
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgment Rites got this right, 26 years ago.
Yukaphile wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:16 am
Why is STO just an action romp?
Because licensed MMOs are rarely built to utilize the license, but instead use existing design elements or outright use existing MMO engines and slap the license on top. In this case, they used Champions Online and tossed a very thin veneer of Star Trek on top. This was painfully apparent at release. It's gotten "better" over the years, but that foundation is still ultimately flawed. They've even removed the exploration missions, because making compelling content that isn't just a combat grind is (A) hard and (B) not what World of Warcraft has trained players and designers alike to expect from the genre. Also, it's run by Ferengi, making the parts which might have been fun in a world where the company had ethics just a cash-grab instead.
It has a wonderful character customization system, thanks to its pre-WoW heritage from City of Heroes by way of Champions Online, but that's about it. The writing for most missions makes Voyager look sophisticated, and despite their constant stunt-casting of Trek veterans, their voice director is so awful that they can make anyone sound like they're reading a script on a first pass.
Durandal_1707 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 3:36 amStar Trek: 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgment Rites got this right, 26 years ago.
Durandal_1707 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 3:36 amStar Trek: 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgment Rites got this right, 26 years ago.
A Final Unity was really good, too.
It was okay. The story was kind of predictable, the navigation and battle system were way too byzantine and complicated, and it didn't feel like it had anywhere near the attention to detail that 25th and Rites had, particularly all the unique dialogue from each character in each room. The TOS games had humorous banter, philosophical reflections, and the sort of thing that made you feel like you were really in an episode. In Final Unity, the characters mostly only gave hints as to what to do next, and usually all the different crew members would just say variations on the same thing. The game, weirdly enough, simultaneously felt like it was trying way too hard while also not trying hard enough.
If I hadn't played the Interplay games to compare it against, though, FU would have been amazing.
Deledrius wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:34 am
Because licensed MMOs are rarely built to utilize the license, but instead use existing design elements or outright use existing MMO engines and slap the license on top. In this case, they used Champions Online and tossed a very thin veneer of Star Trek on top. This was painfully apparent at release. It's gotten "better" over the years, but that foundation is still ultimately flawed. They've even removed the exploration missions, because making compelling content that isn't just a combat grind is (A) hard and (B) not what World of Warcraft has trained players and designers alike to expect from the genre. Also, it's run by Ferengi, making the parts which might have been fun in a world where the company had ethics just a cash-grab instead.
It has a wonderful character customization system, thanks to its pre-WoW heritage from City of Heroes by way of Champions Online, but that's about it. The writing for most missions makes Voyager look sophisticated, and despite their constant stunt-casting of Trek veterans, their voice director is so awful that they can make anyone sound like they're reading a script on a first pass.
To be fair, Cryptic had like a year to build the game after the previous developer fumbled it completely. The fact that it functioned at all after launch is a damn miracle.
Those "exploration" missions were random bits tied together that rarely made sense (31st Borg Dynasty, for example) and weren't fun, like at all. At least shooting things is interesting. Exploration missions never were.
Their voice direction is pretty bad some days, but they have gotten better. And it's not nearly as bad as it could be for the money grabbing, you can play the entire game without ever spending a dime, they don't lock content behind a paywall, just ships and costumes really.
Deledrius wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:34 am
Because licensed MMOs are rarely built to utilize the license, but instead use existing design elements or outright use existing MMO engines and slap the license on top. In this case, they used Champions Online and tossed a very thin veneer of Star Trek on top. This was painfully apparent at release. It's gotten "better" over the years, but that foundation is still ultimately flawed. They've even removed the exploration missions, because making compelling content that isn't just a combat grind is (A) hard and (B) not what World of Warcraft has trained players and designers alike to expect from the genre. Also, it's run by Ferengi, making the parts which might have been fun in a world where the company had ethics just a cash-grab instead.
It has a wonderful character customization system, thanks to its pre-WoW heritage from City of Heroes by way of Champions Online, but that's about it. The writing for most missions makes Voyager look sophisticated, and despite their constant stunt-casting of Trek veterans, their voice director is so awful that they can make anyone sound like they're reading a script on a first pass.
To be fair, Cryptic had like a year to build the game after the previous developer fumbled it completely. The fact that it functioned at all after launch is a damn miracle.
Those "exploration" missions were random bits tied together that rarely made sense (31st Borg Dynasty, for example) and weren't fun, like at all. At least shooting things is interesting. Exploration missions never were.
Their voice direction is pretty bad some days, but they have gotten better. And it's not nearly as bad as it could be for the money grabbing, you can play the entire game without ever spending a dime, they don't lock content behind a paywall, just ships and costumes really.
Agreed that they did not have time to build a proper independent game. And they have been struggling with the engine ever since. Hardware upgrades being the parts that have smoothed out some of the edges. And while there is combat. Play What lies beneath. That is an older mission that kept me going on jump scares the first time I played it. Newer writing is improving, the drawback at this point is that it is a licensed IP. So doing more going forward they still need to tie in to things in the past instead of just one smooth arc.
Are there any Star Trek RPGs on the same level of KOTOR for Star Wars?
"A culture's teachings - and more importantly, the nature of its people - achieve definition in conflict. They find themselves, or find themselves lacking."
— Kreia, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
What Lies Beneath, isn't that the third of the Devidian featured series from the first year? If so I love that one, I always play it with the Ghostbusters theme playing on my playlist.
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
Administrator of SFD, Former Spacebattles Super-Mod, Veteran Chatnik. And multiverse crossover-loving writer, of course!
