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Synthbuttrange posted:do they call it the mirror universe in-universe? Huh, I never thought about that. I thinks so? They do in-game, I'm pretty sure. Oh well, the benefit of writing fanfic about fanfic is that you don't have to hew too closely to canon.
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# ? Jun 14, 2024 22:25 |
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They do not. Rom does say "No wonder they call it... the ALTERNATE universe" once, though. "Mirror Universe" is like "Beam me up, Scotty"
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I really like the short story format for the smaller updates.Cythereal posted:Species 8472. I have no idea how I forgot about them.
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It was Voyager.
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I would have thought a Star Trek LP is a place fanfic is not only appropriate, but downright mandatory for the full atmosphere.
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Thread canon is that at some point in the last 30 years, the phrase "Mirror Universe" has come into vogue. Glad people are enjoying the mini-updates. They are a lot of fun to write and give me practice with a more narrative style. "Real" updates will resume this weekend, but I'll try to post some content every day until then. No set time; they'll go up whenever I finish them. Like now, for instance: ![]() Nyroh had only gotten lost twice during her first day on the Oberon, which she considered to be a win since the saucer section of a Galaxy-class ship was larger than the whole Hood. There wasn’t much for a command officer to do on a ship she was a passenger on, so she had filled her day reviewing reports in her quarters and poking around the arboretum. But now it was time for a meeting she had been looking forward to all day. She strode into the Ten Forward lounge. Chief Grey gave her a quick wave from the corner table where she was cheerfully relating the events of her day to an empty chair. Nyroh kept walking to the table by the window where Elisa Flores was sitting. “Hello, Commander Izlim.” “Good evening, Lieutenant Flores.” The two friends grinned at each other. That still hadn’t gotten old. “So, what did you do today?” Nyroh asked. “Spent most of it poking around the phaser banks. Did you know …” Flores started eagerly explaining about the various weapon upgrades the Galaxy class had received in the last decade. Nyroh nodded along, keeping an eye on the door and hoping for the sake of the surprise that Flores hadn’t noticed that the Oberon had rendezvoued with another ship after they had come on board. Finally, the person she was waiting for entered. “Sorry to interrupt, Elisa, but I’d like you to meet our new operations officer.” “What? Who is … oh what. No way, is that T’Vrell?” With a brief nod to both, Lieutenant T’Vrell dropped into the vacant seat. “Elisa. Nyroh. It is agreeable to see both of you again.” “T’Vrell, oh my god, what are you … how are you … are you wearing gold now?” “Indeed.” T’Vrell gestured to the operations insignia on her combadge. “I recently transferred from the science track to the engineering track. It was extremely fortuitous that Commander Izlim was in need of a chief operations officer at the same time.” A huge grin split Fores’ face. “You mean we’re all going to be on the same ship!?” “drat right we are. Come on, we’re celebrating.” Nyroh said. Drinks were ordered and delivered. “But I thought you were going to be science all the way, T’Vrell. What made you want to switch?” Flores asked. “Working as communications officer on the Belfast, I found myself more interested in how the communications array worked and operated than in simply using it. This led me to begin taking some computer courses in my free time. After a while, Captain Shon allowed me to cover the gamma shift as operations officer.” “drat.” Flores took a swig of synthale. “I pretty much just go straight to sleep after my shifts end.” T’Vrell cocked an eyebrow a fraction of a centimeter. “Well, obviously as a human you require more sleep. Fortunately I am not so limited.” “Ooooooohhhhhhhhhh!” Nyroh clapped. “There’s that Vulcan attitude we missed. Come on, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.” “Yeah,” Flores chimed in, “Captain Shon may be Starfleet’s golden boy … er, blue boy ... whatever. He may be hot poo poo but has he ever snuck through a Klingon fortress with nothing but a disruptor, a holographic disguise, and attitude? Because we did, baby, and let me tell you it was awesome.” The three friends settled in for a serious evening of story swapping and catching up.
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Making that first crew vote a binary choice between Flores and T'Vrell is something I've always kind of regretted, so bringing her back was something of a priority for me. Just needed the right time.
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Moon Slayer posted:
I'm very late responding to this, but I would certainly think that Admiral T'nae was delighted, or as much as a Vulcan can be. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she pushed for Nyroh's promotion for 'maintaining proper skepticism around Romulans' or some such.
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The bridge of a Galaxy-class starship was bigger than Nyroh’s old quarters on the Hood had been. It was also lit more like a living room than a command center. Starfleet had moved away from this lighting scheme, but the Oberon was almost 45 years old at this point and hadn’t had a bridge upgrade. [Now would be a good time to start listening to this track!] “Commander Izlim!” Captain Diallo said. “Thanks for coming up. We’re about to drop out of warp and I thought you might want a look at where you’ll be operating out of.” Nyroh moved to stand beside Diallo. “Thank you, sir. I’ve heard quite a bit about the place, so I’m curious to see it in person.” “You and everyone else in the quadrant,” Diallo laughed. “Ah, perfect timing. We’re here,” he said as the strange, intriguing object appeared on the viewscreen. ![]() Nyroh contemplated the station. “Lots of history here,” she said, half to herself. “Yes there is, commander. Yes there is.” Diallo leaned in and pitched his voice down conspiratorially. “Rumor has it the Momotarou’s entire senior staff was removed?” “I can’t talk about that, I’m afraid, captain.” “Fair enough, fair enough. Rumor also has it that you and your crew have become Starfleet’s troubleshooters for weird happenings.” “Not something we aspired to, but that does seem to be the way things are going.” Nyroh said. “But again, any unusual goings-on in this part of space we may or not be here to keep an eye on are something I can’t talk about.” Captain Diallo gave her a wink. “Works for me. Now, commander,” he said, returning to a normal tone of voice, “I believe you had better start making arrangements to disembark.” Nyroh stepped onto the turbolift and hit her combadge. “Izlim to Malthis.” Nothing. She waited twenty seconds then tried again. This time, her first officer replied. “Ah, yes, ma’am?” A female voice murmured in the background. Nyroh rolled her eyes. The recently promoted Lieutenant Commander Malthis had been set loose among a crew of over a thousand and where none of the women were directly in his chain of command. “Get your clothes on, Scott. We’ll be arriving at Deep Space Nine any minute. Get the gang disembarked and up to our new ship. Tell them the faster we get the Momotarou ready to go, the faster they can have shore leave on the station. I’ve got a meeting with the station’s strategic operations officer, Sarish Minna.” “Yes, ma’am! Um, just so you know, I was just …” She closed the channel. After a few minutes contemplating the turbolift door, she shook her head. “Wait. Why didn’t I cut loose on this trip, too? Jeez, command really has changed me.” ![]() ![]()
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Sorry you can't make/transfer T'Vroh over to bridge crew. Maybe later on? she was fun. I wish to hear of the great thermostat wars.
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Oh hey, STO. Good LP. I played the poo poo out of this game, still pick it up every so often. If you need anyone to group with or any goodies I might be able to scrape something up.
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![]() Every time Sekah returned to New Romulus, it was busier. The planet her crew had discovered was in the process of being transformed into a new administrative capital, cultural center, and military command center. Most colonies took decades to reach the level of development Mol’Rihan had achieved in just a few months. Of course, most colonial efforts weren’t as tinged with desperation as the Republic’s. Despite all the expansion, it wasn’t too difficult to get away. Just an hour’s hike from the new command center and Sekah was in the forest. Currently in between both assignments and ships, her crew was scattered around the colony and in orbit. Veril and Satra had volunteered to do some work in the new shipyards springing up in orbit. Sulva was up there too, supervising and bullying the workers installing singularity cores. Hiven, Omun, and Vranseeth were doing odd jobs around the colony. And Tovan he had asked to meet her out here. For now, though, she was alone with the forest. Just her and the chattering in the back of her head speaking in the voice of an insane empress and urging her to betray her friends. She had gotten fairly adept at pushing the remnants of the Tal Shiar indoctrination back into the deeper parts of her consciousness, but it still popped up to give unsolicited advice. Usually at the most inconvenient moments, urging her to scheme, to betray. Urging her to be a true Romulan, loyal to the state, not this terrorist organization that sought to undermine the unity of the Romulan people at this most critical time .... She shook her head and tried to focus on the forest. Sekah had never liked nature. The abrupt change from living in a mansion to living in a refugee camp tent city had not endeared her to fresh air. The epohhs running around the forest were pretty darn cute, though; too bad every time she saw them now she thought about thalaron radiation. A twig snapped, and she had to consciously prevent herself from going for her weapons. Tovan was hiking up the trail, looking irritatingly chipper. “Hey, Sekah. Glad you could meet me out here.” “Sure, Tovan. What’s up?” She asked, despite having a pretty good idea what was coming next. “So …” he looked off into the distance, not meeting her eyes. “Now that Rinna is back, she’s getting settled in here. She’s been medically cleared and actually just got a job at the shipyards. So ...” he said again. “You’re leaving us,” Sekah finished for him. It wasn’t that big of a deductive leap, after all. “Yes. I’ve requested a transfer to a posting here on New Romulus.” “I figured that you would.” Sekah forced a smile. “T̴̛h̨ì͡s ̶͟i͞͝s ̛á ͟͠p̷̀̕l̴o̢͏̴t ͞o͏͢f͏ ͘͟s̴o̴m͏҉e̴̡̡ ̡̀k͏̢i̷̡ǹd.͘ ̡̛H̨e̶̢’s̶͡ ̢t̵̷͝r͘͠y̷in̛͟g҉ ͠͏t̨́͢o͠ u̴n͢d̛͝e̵r͘͝m̀͢iǹe͘ ̀͘y̢͟o͟͏u,” the voice in her head whispered. She ignored it. “It’s just that, I went out there to find Rinna, and now … I did. So, I guess I just … don’t have it in me to come close to getting killed every week.” “D̴a͠m̢̕n͏ ̕h͏i̴m͡.̵͝ ͝D͏a̡͢m̴̡n҉͘ ̛hi͞m̀͝ ̛̕͡f͢͝o͟r ge͘tt̛͞i̶n͝g͟ ͞a̶̶ ͘͏c̨ha̢n͘͢͜c̨͏e͏ ̸͢t͜͢o ͡҉l̸i̸v̸è̷ ̧͞a҉̢ ̨no͟r̛ma͜l̶̀͞ ̶̢li̷f̧͟e̛͢.̡͘” the voice in her head snarled. Sekah forced a smile. “Tovan, seriously, I’m happy for you. If any of us deserve this, it’s you. You’ve been a huge help, and I know we’ll all miss you. But you’ve gotta do what’s best for you.” “Thank you, comma … Sekah.” “Oh, it’s still ‘commander’ to you, centurion.” She patted him on the shoulder. “That’s both my title and my military rank, now. Nadel promoted me again for reasons beyond my understanding. Now come on, let’s go tell the rest of the crew and have Veril put together a farewell party we’ll all regret in the morning.”
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![]() ![]() With promotions come new bridge officer slots. I need a bio for a male Bajoran pilot on the Starfleet side, and a male Romulan tactical officer to either be our new helmsman or chief tactical officer. And since I’ve got your attention, here’s a tl;dr for the intermissions, in case you skipped them. Nyroh recruited T’Vrell to join the crew as ops officer; the gang has arrived at Deep Space Nine to get their new ship. And Tovan has decided that with his sister rescued, he is going to leave the crew. Game mechanics spoilers regarding Tovan: Tovan is actually the only bridge officer in the entire game that you can’t dismiss. So he’s still in our menu. This really, really pissed players off. However, his part of our story has come to an end. For now(?) Having bridge officers come and go was always something I intended. And so, to that end, I am implimenting a new system: before I record every mission, I will roll a d20 for each bridge officer. If they roll a 1, they will leave after that mission in some way. Yes, I will kill off characters if their number comes up and it works narratively. Nobody is safe!
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Moon Slayer posted:
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [Hell yeah, we’re flying an escort now!] ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [There’s your ugly-rear end science ship, you monsters.] ![]() [And there it goes.] ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
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Next update will probably come on Tuesday. And don't forget:Moon Slayer posted:
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Here's a Feddie. Marika Antos (Note: for those unfamiliar, Bajoran names are Japanese style and go surname firstname) For a Starfleet officer, Marika Antos is getting on in years. For a mere lieutenant and pilot, he's positively ancient. But Starfleet regulations have always been lax about officers who have found where they fit perfectly, and Lieutenant Marika found his place during the Dominion War as helmsman on one of the early Defiant class ships. Marika is quiet and soft-spoken, and all efforts to encourage him to higher ranks have met with disaster at his utter lack of leadership, and so Starfleet has been content to leave him at his job. Fortunately, he is a truly gifted starship pilot and utterly unflappable in a crisis. Someone at Starfleet Command is clearly hoping the now elderly Bajoran helmsman will prove a steadying influence on Nyroh and the rest of her officers. Oh, and don't talk to him about the Prophets. Marika wears an earring as a display of cultural solidarity, but he long ago lost faith in Bajor's supposed gods.
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Moon Slayer posted:Next update will probably come on Tuesday. And don't forget: Since you suggested it as an option: Mirror Sekah Sekah was born on Romulus under the mirror Romulan Republic, which was at the time allied with the Terran Rebellion under the Galactic Commonwealth. As the Terrans began to shift from victorious rebellion and dream of empire, Sekah’s father quietly made arrangements and fled the Republic. His instincts proved accurate - six months later the reformed Terran Empire all but annexed the Republic. Sekah found herself stateless, but quickly found her niche in piloting and security work. For several years, she flew with a mercenary group of Terran, Romulan, Klingon and even Cardassian expatriots, providing protection to those persecuted by the Empire... for a price. Eventually, Sekah’s luck ran out. Her squadron of small fighters was caught off guard on a routine escort mission by a Terran cruiser. The last survivor of the attack, Sekah took her damaged Scorpion fighter to warp, and promptly blew through the walls of reality, punching a hole into the so-called Prime Universe. After settling into her new reality, Sekah found herself recruited by Starfleet, whose overall mission broadly matched the goals of her former squadron. As a refugee from a hostile universe, she was quickly offered her choice of postings across the Alpha Quadrant. Her final choice was made for her, though, after seeing footage of the USS Hood in action over Pahvo. The Captain wore her hair differently, but the similarities between her and Izlim, the pirate queen Sekah had loved and lost years ago, were unmistakable.
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T'authen Quiet and unassuming, one might think that T'authen would be more suited for the Romulan Star Empire than the nascent Republic. With a suspicious nature and a reserved attitude, he presents the very model of an old style Romulan military officer, though he has not given Republic Intelligence any indication he's a spy or reactionary. One thing that does bring him out of his shell is galactic affairs, and he keeps a eye out for any new developments concerning the major players of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. This is because "T'authen" is actually an advanced scout for the Romulan Star Alliance, an alternate universe confederation of Beta/Delta quadrant species in conflict with a Klingon/Cardassian Alliance and a resurgent Terran Empire. Sent between universes to see if any major galactic powers would be able - and willing - to aid the Alliance in their fight.
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I am, finally, recording the next (last?) Klingon update, and if anyone wants to know what recording this is like: imagine a Klingon battlecruiser screaming in terror at a Starfleet science vessel, forever. gently caress those things, even in Mk XIV equipment. Or just a Starfleet Escort doing three times my ship's max health in one hit. Can't deny that the bugged light map in one of these missions makes for some great screenshots, though. ![]() (this mission's light map has been bugged literally for years) Cythereal fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Apr 15, 2019 |
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Coq au Nandos posted:Since you suggested it as an option: ![]()
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Coq au Nandos posted:Since you suggested it as an option: This sounds hilarious ![]() Anyway, you asked for a Bajoran pilot, here's what I've got: Ganet Tukame ( I think it's a unisex name, so I'll stay gender-neutral and leave the choice up to you, Moon Slayer): When people think 'ace pilot', they usually think of some braggadocious hotshot who goes through engines like they go through relationships and shot glasses. Ganet's both an exception and the rule- an utter professional behind the controls, making the ships they flies sing and groan as Ganet alternates between loving care and necessary strain (never more than the ship can take though). Once their shift is over though, they party like there's no tomorrow- and sometimes, no consequences. Ganet's been forced to leave many a scene before broken hearts turned into broken bones. Only their skill keeps them on Starfleet's payroll, which is surprisingly just how they like it. A life not lived on the edge is no life at all, they say ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [This little warp-in scene has that same weird visual bug from “Cloak and Dagger” that puts green lines on the hull.] ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [Yeah, this mission was pretty bad. So bad that it just completely drained my will to write interesting character interactions. That happens sometimes with these. ![]()
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the mission is a lot more tolerable as a STF also elachi are a lot less irritating when you have gear that lets you ignore their gas attacks, and kinetic weapons like the sniper rifle, tommygun, or shotgun, which explode their stupid faces
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I remember liking that mission the first time I played it. It was kind of atmospheric. The second time it was just a slog though.
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Wait, tommy gun? We talking something that just fires/looks like one, a holo-version like the one Picard used to take down a bunch of Borg, or an actual nyah-see-tommy gun?
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CommissarMega posted:Wait, tommy gun? We talking something that just fires/looks like one, a holo-version like the one Picard used to take down a bunch of Borg, or an actual nyah-see-tommy gun? "Archaic weaponry of this type has seen a curious resurgence via the popularity of a number of holonovels that depict ancient periods of Earth's violent history. This particular weapon has something of a cult following among avid fans of the "Dixon Hill" holonovel series which rose to prominence after the publishing of an unauthorized biography of the Starfleet career of a former captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Jean-Luc Picard. Though only a replica, this item has (perhaps unwisely) been fully modified to act as a corollary to modern weaponry, and may be used effectively in modern combat scenarios. It features multiple fully automatic firing modes."
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Tunicate posted:"Archaic weaponry of this type has seen a curious resurgence via the popularity of a number of holonovels that depict ancient periods of Earth's violent history. This particular weapon has something of a cult following among avid fans of the "Dixon Hill" holonovel series which rose to prominence after the publishing of an unauthorized biography of the Starfleet career of a former captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Jean-Luc Picard. And of course the only thing I can find of how this thing looks in action is an STO player with a hotpants klingon as their main character.
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Training Day![]() Captain's Log, N.V. Endurance ![]() ![]() ![]() So T'Kara here is flying a Daemosh class science vessel borrowed from the Na'khul - for those not familiar, see the TOS starting sequence Moon played. Lockboxes make all manner of ships available to players, from the iconic (Ferengi Marauder, JJTrek Enterprise) to the obscure (Husnock warship, APU cruiser) to the Cryptic. Just about anything you can see flying around in the game is available to players... except for Borg ships. So today I'm covering some very old, story-irrelevant Klingon content. First are the Empire Defense missions. These were added (yes, added) to the Klingons not long after launch, to give them something else to grind while leveling and consist of a set of daily missions. First you go to a designated area of space and zone in... ![]() Then you're in a special instanced star map that probably just traumatized a couple of long-time STO veterans out there. Scattered throughout this place are energy signatures, you fly out to them and scan... ![]() And if you're lucky, you zone into a map filled with enemy ships. If you're not lucky, you get nothing and have to fly to another. During one of these, I had five duds before I landed a live one. ![]() When you do get a live instance filled with enemies, the objective is simple: destroy six enemy squadrons. A squadron, in the game's parlance, is a single enemy spawn. This can be: 6-8 fighters 4-6 fighters and 1 frigate 2-3 frigates 1 cruiser 1 battleship Once you've destroyed six squadrons, you count as defeating this fleet and can warp out. If you want, you can stick around in the instance and kill everything, but you don't get extra mission credit. And once you've won one instance, you... find another one and do it again! You have to defeat three fleets to win the mission. Yes, it's all very tedious. The first Empire Defense you unlock, at level 10, is the Federation. ![]() The arrow above the Endurance here is the Sensor Analysis ability available to science vessels, which applies a stacking series of debuffs to the target enemy. The ship's engine is glowing red because of a trait unlocked by T'Kara becoming an ace pilot in addition to her engineering skills. As long as T'Kara is flying her ship at full throttle, she gets a damage bonus. ![]() The purple blob here is Gravity Well, the iconic high-level science ability. Gravity Well creates a point at the target enemy ship that pulls in nearby enemy ships and deals constant kinetic damage to enemy ships in the area of effect. Even nerfed into oblivion from its glory days, gravity well is a powerful damage and crowd control ability that pretty much every ship with a ltcom science seat is going to pack. ![]() The orange blob here is Tyken's Rift, another anomaly skill that deals damage to every ship in the area of effect. Unlike gravity well, tyken's rift doesn't hold enemies, instead it deals much more damage and drains power from enemy ships, weakening their shields, weapons, and engines. Not coincidentally, the Endurance has a tractor beam. ![]() ![]() At level 20, you unlock a new Empire Defense: the Romulans. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() At level 30, the Cardassians attack. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And at level 40, the Borg. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() So, why would anyone do Empire Defense missions these days? Two reasons. One, especially with the Foundry getting taken behind the woodshed there's no better place to grind these four races' ships for achievements. This is in fact exactly what I did to get T'Kara her Order of the Bat'leth title a long time ago. 200 destroyed warbirds gets you the Praetor title, 200 Cardassian kills gets you Savior of the Alpha Quadrant, and 200 wrecked Borg gets you Immune. The other reason is that these missions are actually pretty lucrative! If you don't have an admiralty farm like mine, each Empire Defense awards 1.5k dilithium, which isn't a bad haul for 10-15 minutes of work. Plus of course the loot that drops in the missions themselves. And finally, I'm going to break character once to say... gently caress. The. Federation. The Endurance is, ironically, about as durable as a pane of glass, and Starfleet comes armed to the goddamn teeth. Escorts sometimes hit you for six digits of damage, and science vessels in all their many varieties (there are regular science vessels, Nebula classes, Rhode Island classes, Intrepid classes, and the battleship tier Vesta class) are just brutal at mowing through your shields and hull. Prometheus battleships aren't remarkable... until they split in three and each modular ship hits as hard as a regular Escort. Recording this episode was kinda miserable as a result. Federation players, be glad you don't see the Mirror Universe much. (Two weeks later) ![]() ![]() So, these are the Pi Canis Sortie missions. Two missions, each on a half-hour cooldown, featuring you attacking three systems each. Tied into both is the Way of the Warrior mission, putting a bonus objective in each system. Get all six bonus objectives and get the rather substantial prize of dilithium. These missions were added post-launch to give Klingons more variety, and an easy source of dilithium. Individually they're quite short, but I felt they were worth showing for completion. ![]() ![]() ![]() Pretty simple mission, four starships hiding in the ring around this planet. Bonus objective is to prevent any Starfleet distress calls, which is as simple as clicking a button within a few seconds of engaging. ![]() ![]() ![]() I did the bonus objective here first, which is to reduce four freighters to half health and steal their supplies before too many escape. The main objective is to destroy two shield generators on the station, then steal the station's medical supplies. ![]() ![]() ![]() The goal here is just to destroy every Starfleet ship in the system. Bonus is to destroy all four docked ships before they can launch, but the timer is pretty generous. ![]() ![]() ![]() It's mostly a retread of the Ceron system, with the same bonus objective. Only this time your objective is technically some sensor satellites, but they happen to be protected by Federation ships anyhow. Except for one lonely, unprotected satellite. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Buggy light map aside, this is exactly the same as Ceron. Just follow the ring around the planet to find the Starfleet. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This one's deceptively hard if you're going for the bonus. The idea is to bring freighters down to half health and steal their supplies, but this time there's a twist: you only have a brief window to grab the goods before the freighter decides to fight to the bitter end. Plundering two freighters for the mission is easy, pulling the hat trick of grabbing all five is quite difficult... unless you have a lot of crowd control abilities like the Endurance does. That covers the gameplay content I had, so how did T'Kara get her fancy suit of powered armor? The reputation system, which becomes available at level 50. ![]() Reputation factions are either neutral third parties that both the Federation and Klingons are supporting like the Romulan Republic, or represent informal cease-fires between Starfleet and KDF forces to instead gang up on someone they hate more than they hate each other - seen here, the Terran Empire. The main way to gain rep is through a daily project you can do for the faction: you spend a pittance (by high level standards) of energy credits and expertise, and then more importantly some marks of the relevant faction. Marks are a type of currency that come in a different flavor for every rep faction, and are spent on the daily rep gain projects in small amounts, or in huge amounts for gear. Some single-player missions award marks for a relevant faction, but the main way to get marks is by running Task Force Operations - STO's equivalent of dungeons in other MMOs, five-man group content that comes in both space and ground flavors. Most TFOs have a particular reputation associated with them and award marks for that faction, but if you hit the random queue button, you get a token at the end you can turn into marks for your choice of any rep faction in the game. When you complete one of these daily rep projects, you also get some dilithium and a mystery box filled with loot. These are most commonly Mk12 ground or space weapons, and every rep faction has specific types of gear associated with it. If nothing else, these typically vendor for about as much credits as the credits you spent on the project to begin with. So, what's the point of gaining reputation? Passively, at each tier of reputation until the last, each new tier unlocks new ground and space traits you can slot. Inevitably some are useless, but some traits are astoundingly good, and unlocking them is very, very useful. In this screenshot, you can see that T'Kara is currently at tier 2 with Terran Task Force, unlocking the Diburnium Impact Lattice and Torpedo Pre-Fire Sequence space traits. Hitting tier 6 with a rep is different, and improves all the traits from that faction. More actively, each tier adds new projects you can do for various goodies. Most significantly, almost every rep has both a set of ground equipment and a set of space equipment available. Some of these unlock new cosmetic appearances when you complete the whole set. T'Kara's suit of power armor is from completing the 8472 Counter-Command ground set, for example, but her space equipment features gear from Task Force Omega and two rep factions I'm not going to mention. Reputation gear is generally some of the best in the game, and is worth the investment if you want to spend that much time and resources. Some reps also have elite tokens, the Terran Gravimetric Inducer you see in this screenshot. These can, rarely, be in the daily project boxes, but more commonly are earned by doing TFOs on harder difficulties or via a daily project to turn in a hundred marks for an elite token. Many high-end gear projects require elite tokens in addition to marks. In addition, some rep factions have unusual rewards available: consumable buffs, new bridge officers, and more. Finally, once you hit tier 5 with a rep faction, you get a huge shipment of dilithium and a new title on top of everything else. ![]() I'll close this out by saying that STO can be really pretty sometimes, and this space map in particular gave me Homeworld vibes. STO's color palette is normally very cold and dark, and I loved doing this bit. ![]() 'I did what I had to do.' I've never heard more poisonous words. No one can force you to do anything, bar outright mind control. You never 'have' to do anything, you choose to do it. The alternative might be horrific. It might be death, or dishonor, or even extinction. And yet... If commanding a starship has taught me anything, it's to not blame others for what you alone choose to do. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Mar 3, 2020 |
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Oooh, this is good stuff. Back when you didn’t level up after every mission, I used to play those system patrol missions a lot. It’s kind of nostalgic, even if most of it was just grinding. It’s also really interesting to see how the gameplay develops as you approach endgame. Power creep is real and Cryptic haven’t done much to address it, outside of squishing a couple of game-breaking power interactions and doing a balance pass a couple of years ago. By endgame, you’ll be routinely activating dozens of combat powers every 30 seconds or so. This would be annoying but the game has a really strong macro system, so you can put most of these bread and butter skills on one or two trays and fire them all off by mashing the spacebar. ![]()
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Trek IS one of the few settings where a robust macro system is firmly in-character.
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![]() Lieutenant Marika Antos Written by Cythereal For a Starfleet officer, Marika Antos is getting on in years. For a mere lieutenant and pilot, he's positively ancient. But Starfleet regulations have always been lax about officers who have found where they fit perfectly, and Lieutenant Marika found his place during the Dominion War as helmsman on one of the early Defiant class ships. Marika is quiet and soft-spoken, and all efforts to encourage him to higher ranks have met with disaster at his utter lack of leadership, and so Starfleet has been content to leave him at his job. Fortunately, he is a truly gifted starship pilot and utterly unflappable in a crisis. Someone at Starfleet Command is clearly hoping the now elderly Bajoran helmsman will prove a steadying influence on Nyroh and the rest of her officers. Oh, and don't talk to him about the Prophets. Marika wears an earring as a display of cultural solidarity, but he long ago lost faith in Bajor's supposed gods. Yes, he's a lieutenant and I fixed his rank pips after I got that screenshot.
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This page has a lot on it, let's try to get to the next one. If we do I'll post the next update early. Who had these as a child: ![]() Because I did and they ruled. I sat on the Reliant one and one of the nacelles broke off -- the same one that got exploded in Wrath of Khan, which made it cool and not a tragedy. Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Apr 18, 2019 |
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![]() From the General's Desk: Qaw'Dun class bird of prey In the Klingon Defense Force, the Qaw'Dun class is better known as a technical testbed than as a proper warship. The Qaw'Dun was born from knowledge-sharing agreements between the Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, and the Federation during the Dominion War, and represented an experiment in adapting mainly Federation technical designs and construction methods. While innocuous enough from the outside and even the inside to a casual observer, the Qaw'Dun is built like no other bird of prey in the fleet. This has been both a source of pride and frustration for the Empire's engineers. The Qaw'Dun is an outright better performing ship than the Qul'Dun class that was used as a basis for this ship, mainly owing to Federation power architecture for the ship's EPS system being much more efficient than Klingon standards, but engineers and shipwrights hate the Qaw'Dun due to being built like no other class in the fleet. Extensive field training is required for all engineers assigned to Qaw'Dun class ships as a result, and the assignment is often considered a punishment detail. Fortunately for the engineering corps, only a few Qaw'Dun class ships were built. The KDF analyzed their performance, studied where the Qaw'Dun outperformed standard Klingon designs, and incorporated improvements into subsequent warships.
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Moon Slayer posted:This page has a lot on it, let's try to get to the next one. If we do I'll post the next update early. I had a bunch of them. Most of that pack in fact. I know I've still got the Runabout and Galor sitting around somewhere. I was never able to get a hold of the Defiant though.
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I had that exact pack growing up. They're still in my attic! (Never could find the Defiant or the Voyager runs, which I didn't even know existed until a year or two ago.)
Snorb fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Apr 18, 2019 |
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Anyone collect the Eaglemoss starships? I tried the first two issues and while the quality of the build was good I found the paint jobs really lacking. The paint of Enterprise D was misaligned with the moulded-in detail and the refit Enterprise was just lacking in panel detail that was present on screen. Weirdly I did end up ordering the special issues for the USS Kelvin and the USS Franklin. I don't care much for the JJ Designs but I do rather like those. This totally isn't a post about the first Star Trek related thing that popped into my head to try to push us to the next page
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Snorb posted:I had that exact pack growing up. They're still in my attic! (Never could find the Defiant or the Voyager runs, which I didn't even know existed until a year or two ago.) Weird, I definitely had the Defiant, and I guess I always assumed it came with that pack, but looking closer, yeah, it's not there. Wonder where I got it from?
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# ? Jun 14, 2024 22:25 |
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My Ferengi Marauder had an ignoble end after I threw it at my sister and she chucked it into the wooded ravine off our yard. Never could find it despite hours of searching. It's probably still out there.
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