|
Cythereal posted:Generally, politics, technology, and economics in Trek work on the "So how does it work?" "Quite well, thank you" principle.  The Federation never struck me as a 'true' post-scarcity society, although at this point, there's no need to peek under that hood. Its just that every time during DS9 when Sisko speaks with his Dad, and they discuss how the 'restaurant' was doing, I kept questioning the TV, "Why would Space-Dad be running a Space-Cajun Restaurant? How does that work?? What does he get paid in? Why would anyone subject themselves to working in a kitchen everyday in a no-money world??? And its 'real' cooking because they keep harping on how its 'real-cooking'!!!" nine-gear crow posted:People out there in the real work making a living like Sisko's dad at his restaurant, or Jake working as a journalist still (probably) made some form of spendable currency through the Earth/Federation economy on top of a UBI system, it's just not that big of an issue because the wealth gap was erased thanks to all the rich assholes dying in the nuclear hellfire of World War III. Exactly my point, thanks! 
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 01:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 02:09 |
|
|
CourValant posted:
Personally, my impression was "Space-Dad runs a Space-Cajun Restaurant because he's excited and passionate about it, he doesn't get paid for it but doesn't need or want to, and all the lesser kitchen staff are either automated technology or are also cooks who do it just because it's fun." The Federation to me always seemed to ideally be about self-motivated people who figure out what excites them in life and do it. There's no need for anyone to do manual labor or retail work or other stuff like that because of modern technology. Humanity being humanity, there's probably billions of Federation citizens who just live small, comfortable lives playing video games or whatever without a care in the world, but if you have a passion and there's something you want to get out there and do just for the experience and the joy of doing that thing, the Federation will let you do it. I figure that's where Starfleet gets most of its recruits from. Sure, it's dangerous as hell and means you might actually suffer deprivation, rigid discipline, and not having absolute freedom to do whatever the hell you want, but there's a lot of people for whom that sounds like a good deal.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 02:02
|
|
|
The Orville's take on the Star Trek economy is a good one. Basically, the "currency" of the day is a person's reputation. Why is why the Enterprise D can be the Federation's flagship even though there are no flag officers onboard.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 02:04
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:Why is why the Enterprise D can be the Federation's flagship even though there are no flag officers onboard. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 02:07
|
|
|
That's because the enterprise is the only ship in the universe, which is a spheroid region, 705 meters in diameter.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 02:10
|
|
|
Star Trek uses "flagship" in a loose context generally unmoored from the actual meaning of the term. The Enterprise is always the nominal flagship of the Federation fleet purely because the prestigious legacy of the ship name and its line of captains (Archer helped found the Federation, Kirk, Picard and Pike were living legends, Garrett laid the groundwork for the Klingon-Federation alliance, and Harriman... captained the Enterprise-B). Actual flagships are seen* in action across Trek when an admiral takes the conn, though they usually meet with terrible ends for the sake of giving the Enterprise the spotlight. For example: the Battle of Sector 001 in First Contact was led by Admiral Hayes on board an actual flagship, but it was blown up midway through the battle so Picard took command of the fleet when the Enterprise-E arrived on the scene.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 03:21
|
|
|
In an age of long-range sensors and instant subspace communication, the concept of an admiral needing to be on scene and able to be blown up seems ... unnecessary. But a lot of Star Trek is "the Navy in space." Maybe the origin of that trope? Either way it always struck me as weird because if I remember correctly Rodenberry was in the Air Force.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 03:25
|
|
|
Come on, everyone knows that admirals exist in Star Trek purely to be this week's Evil Admiral.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 03:28
|
|
|
I always liked to believe that Admiral Nechayev was actually onboard the Enterprise the whole time, Picard just left her locked in her quarters because she was clearly evil and insane.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 06:17
|
|
|
Also, for 'the great thermostat war' is that the joke that Andoria is a near freezing planet perpetually as vs Vulcan which is desert?
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 08:15
|
|
|
I'm reminded of a couple of books I read years ago about a young Worf at Starfleet Academy. The first one covered his actual study at the Academy, and the second one involved Worf being selected for a diplomatic mission to a colony inhabited by both human and Klingon colonists to mediate disputes.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 09:41
|
|
|
Commander Keene posted:I'm reminded of a couple of books I read years ago about a young Worf at Starfleet Academy. The first one covered his actual study at the Academy, and the second one involved Worf being selected for a diplomatic mission to a colony inhabited by both human and Klingon colonists to mediate disputes. I remember those books (and the other few I read) fondly. The one with LaForge on the underwater research station that is shaken loose from its moorings and begins to sink into the ocean while flooding was probably my favorite (and I kind of want to run a PnP campaign in a futuristic RPG based on that concept). I'll never go back and try to re-read them though, because I'm sure they were absolutely terrible.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 09:46
|
|
|
RickVoid posted:I remember those books (and the other few I read) fondly. The one with LaForge on the underwater research station that is shaken loose from its moorings and begins to sink into the ocean while flooding was probably my favorite (and I kind of want to run a PnP campaign in a futuristic RPG based on that concept). Any given round of Space Station 13 on the new
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 09:50
|
|
|
Moon Slayer posted:In an age of long-range sensors and instant subspace communication, the concept of an admiral needing to be on scene and able to be blown up seems ... unnecessary. But a lot of Star Trek is "the Navy in space." Maybe the origin of that trope? Either way it always struck me as weird because if I remember correctly Rodenberry was in the Air Force.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 11:21
|
|
|
Commander Keene posted:I'm reminded of a couple of books I read years ago about a young Worf at Starfleet Academy. The first one covered his actual study at the Academy, and the second one involved Worf being selected for a diplomatic mission to a colony inhabited by both human and Klingon colonists to mediate disputes. Those books ruled when I was 10. wedgekree posted:Also, for 'the great thermostat war' is that the joke that Andoria is a near freezing planet perpetually as vs Vulcan which is desert? Absolutely. In the end, they compromised and kept their quarters at 70 degrees, with permission to change it if the other was going to be gone longer than 24 hours. Flores always got a kick when she dropped by to find Nyroh in shorts and a tank top and T'Vrell in a parka.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 13:23
|
|
|
And a few bits of Trek trivia: Andor isn't strictly speaking a planet, it's the moon of a gas giant (yes, like Pandora in Avatar). Astrophysicists have concluded this is actually quite plausible. Vulcan wasn't always a desert, it was once a lush and fertile planet. The scorching desert world seen in Star Trek is after a thousand or two years of Mad Max. The air conditioning thing is why it's semi-canon that most ships in Starfleet are crewed primarily by one race. One race is chosen to set the ship's environmental settings around, and other races are only offered the chance to serve on that ship if they can tolerate the different conditions. So primarily Vulcan crewed ships are hot and dry, Andorian ships are bitterly cold, etc. Humans of course are square in the middle and most races find human standard settings to be tolerable. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Jan 10, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 14:41
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Vulcan wasn't always a desert, it was once a lush and fertile planet. The scorching desert world seen in Star Trek is after a thousand or two years of Mad Max. Its wonderful that the space-elves evolved on space-Athas Cythereal posted:Humans of course are square in the middle and most races find human standard settings to be tolerable. The bureaucratic solution working as intended!! wiegieman posted:Come on, everyone knows that admirals exist in Star Trek purely to be this week's Evil Admiral. This man gets it. I still get a kick out of the TNG 'My Betazed is better than Your Betazed' episode.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2019 19:47
|
|
|
You can literally count the number of non-lovely admirals on one hand: Ross, Paris, and Hayes. Kirk, Janeway and Picard don’t count because Kirk never wanted to be an admiral in the first place and his career was marked by disobeying orders repeatedly and getting the Enterprise blown up, Janeway committed time genocide her first time around as a flag officer, and Picard was only an admiral in a Romulan mindfuck simulation on Riker but even then he was kind of a huge rear end in a top hat the whole time.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 03:06
|
|
|
My favourite admiral was the one with a space worm in his brain
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 03:29
|
|
|
CourValant posted:Its wonderful that the space-elves evolved on space-Athas Nah, it's space Mad Max. Vulcan used to be a lush and fertile world, then the Vulcans nuked (among other things) themselves back into the stone age in the same conflict that produced the Romulans. One of the things that intrigued and scared the Vulcans about humanity is how quickly we bounced back from blowing ourselves to kingdom come in WW3. It took the Vulcans centuries or even millenia to rebuild to the point of space flight.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 03:32
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:My favourite admiral was the one with a space worm in his brain No glass table or door was safe from his wrath.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 04:15
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/ScarredForLife2/status/956082837421215744 'yeah this is too gross we're going to just murder you now'
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 05:14
|
|
|
Oh God Those effects are so silly
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 05:52
|
|
|
Siegkrow posted:Oh God Yeah, but they were crazy for 1988. (You can tell it's season one because Riker doesn't have his beard.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 06:49
|
|
|
1. Commander Rimmer's head exploding somehow manages to look worse on the Blu-Ray version. 2. I actually forgot that early TNG phasers had that ripple of energy whenever someone got shot with them. (Then again, I probably blocked that out because I hate the TNG phaser pistols and much prefer the TOS/DSC phasers simply because they actually look like weapons and less like mini-vacs.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 07:18
|
|
|
Last time, on Let’s Play Star Trek: Online … posted:
And now, the continuation …   : Captain …  : Let’s hear it, T’Vrell.  : Let them know we’re on our way. Potter, lay in a rendezvous course.  : Altering course, sir. ETA three minutes.: Transporter room, prepare to beam over survivors.  : Sir, sensors can’t read anything in the vicinity of the Break Even.: Communications are out as well. : Keep trying to hail them, T’Vrell. Number One, let’s discuss the situation. You heard the distress call. What do you think we should do? : Is this a test, sir? Part of the training cruise?: Absolutely not. We’re the closest ship to the Break Even, so it’s our duty to assist.: It’s strange that the transmission was audio only. A warp core emergency should affect communications.: Good. What do you advise?: Shields up, sir. Better safe than sorry.: Raising the shields does seem to be a reasonable precaution. Flores, raise shields. Of course, we’ll have to drop them to transport anyone. Number One, get down to the transporter room. You’ll oversee the rescue efforts from there.: Understood, sir.    : I can’t get a solid lock. There may be interference. Trying to compensate.   : Klingons! : R’raak! Come in! What happened? R’raak!: Security is reporting disruptor fire in the transporter room, and Klingon transporter signatures are showing up all over the ship. They’re boarding us.: What can I do to help?: You have the command codes to unlock an armory near your position. Arm yourself and any security team members you find.: What about the enemy ship, sir?: We still have weapons. I’ll do what I can. For now, I need you to concentrate on getting those Klingons off my ship! Taggart out.  : This the armory? Stand back, I’ll get the door opened.  : All right, gentlemen. Let’s get …   : Look out! : No! [So, something I discovered after I played through this; this particular phaser rifle fires bolts instead of beams, which are really hard to get a good screenshot of. So in this mission, where it looks like Nyroh is just pointing her rifle she’s actually hosing the enemy down with machine gun-like phaser fire. Also, hilariously, a lot of the security NPCs are wielding Discovery-era phaser rifles.]   : You ok, Rraak?: I’ll live, thanks.: Stay here and keep your head down. : Izlim to bridge; Klingon boarders have been neutralized.: Number One, we’ve got injured up here and the Klingons could send another boarding party at any time. I need you back on the bridge. : Aye, sir.  What I Cut Out: You clear out a lot of Klingons and then have to access a different console based on your career track.  : Captain! : Everyone ok? : Incoming transmission from the Klingons!: Onscreen!  : This is Captain Kadek of the IKS Chot. You may have forced my boarding parties off your decks, but our ship remains cloaked. You have no hope of finding us … or defeating us. Your choice is simple. Surrender or we will kill your captain and then destroy your ship.: Never, you puffed-up piece of … : Perhaps your captain will change your mind.: Captain? : It’s your choice, Captain. Do you want these children to die?: Very well … Number One …  : Your orders …       : Ms. Flores … To be continued …
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 13:22
|
|
|
Moon Slayer posted:
(it should be timestamped at the right moment)
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 14:03
|
|
|
Ohhh wait I've seen this scene on Yu-gi-oh abridged! Yeah I dunno why it was there either.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 14:49
|
|
|
The next update will be a bit shorter than usual because there isn't too much left in this mission, but the opportunity to rip off Best of Both Worlds was too tempting to resist.
Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Jan 11, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 14:53
|
|
|
He'll receive the Order of Lenin for this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 21:20
|
|
|
Siegkrow posted:Ohhh wait I've seen this scene on Yu-gi-oh abridged! It was a pretty great culmination for the arc he went through the episode and a really good cliffhanger, which is why it tends to be referenced and sometimes parodied by fellow nerds in general. So good in fact that every subsequent season of a Star Trek series basically had to end on a cliffhanger as part of a two-parter episode even when they didn't really know what they were doing. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 22:29
|
|
|
radintorov posted:The tl;dr is that the finale of the third season of TNG ended on a cliffhanger, with captain Picard kidnapped and subverted by another alien race and his first officer, Commander Riker, having spent most of the episode coming to terms with his career and having to step up to the big chair culminating with him ending the episode by coming to terms with the situation and ordering to fire at the ship that has Picard on board. The trick is, they didn't know what they were doing with Best of Both Worlds, either. Stewart's contract was up for renewal and it wasn't clear if he was going to play Picard for another season, so the cliffhanger was specifically written to let Riker become the captain and Shelby his first officer if Stewart didn't come back. He'd be killed off as Locutus, Riker would step up, and the show would go on.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 22:41
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:He'd be killed off as Locutus, Riker would step up, and the show would go on. Ya know, I'm going to come out and say it, I never really liked Riker. Not sure why, he just rubbed me the wrong way I suppose; he's this little perfect Starfleet Officer who's never wrong, and always ends up with the Alien-Female of the week (at the beginning of the series, anyways). The Space-Gypsy Episode comes to mind.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2019 23:38
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:The trick is, they didn't know what they were doing with Best of Both Worlds, either. Stewart's contract was up for renewal and it wasn't clear if he was going to play Picard for another season, so the cliffhanger was specifically written to let Riker become the captain and Shelby his first officer if Stewart didn't come back. He'd be killed off as Locutus, Riker would step up, and the show would go on. CourValant posted:Ya know, I'm going to come out and say it, I never really liked Riker.  Aside from the first season (where everyone was bad), some examples that come to mind are how he treated Barclay in the episode that introduced him, where his holodeck version was a lot closer to reality than Picard's or Geordi's (just look at how he is when Picard accidentally calls Barclay "broccoli"), or how he forced Ro to "adhere to the Starfleet dress code" and remove her Bajoran earrings (something culturally important) and then had her serve on the bridge where Worf is wearing his Klingon bandolier/sash/thing over his uniform.Guy could really be an rear end when he (the writers) wanted to.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2019 04:17
|
|
|
radintorov posted:(Riker forcing Ro to adhere to Starfleet dress code) I think it's more of an implication that the cultural allowances are a privilege; at that point, Worf was a distinguished officer with a nearly-flawless service record, as far as Picard and Riker are concerned Worf's earned the right to wear his baldric as part of his uniform. (Plus, you know, who wants to be the guy to tell Worf he's not allowed to wear the emblem of one of the Great Houses of Qo'noS?) Riker hated Ro when they met, and she even said she's only on the Enterprise because it wasn't prison, so she had to earn her pagh earring. Nog wearing his Ferengi headdress with his uniform? I got nothing; my guess is that Sisko mentioned it in his letter of recommendation. (Fun fact: At least one of Worf's baldrics was made out of bicycle chain.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2019 06:12
|
|
|
Snorb posted:I think it's more of an implication that the cultural allowances are a privilege; at that point, Worf was a distinguished officer with a nearly-flawless service record, as far as Picard and Riker are concerned Worf's earned the right to wear his baldric as part of his uniform. (Plus, you know, who wants to be the guy to tell Worf he's not allowed to wear the emblem of one of the Great Houses of Qo'noS?) It's pretty obviously an example of Riker having a double standard because he hates Ro. Riker could be a huge rear end in a top hat when he felt like it. But then the Frakes sense of humor would shine through and the character would be completely redeemed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2019 07:51
|
|
|
Snorb posted:I think it's more of an implication that the cultural allowances are a privilege; at that point, Worf was a distinguished officer with a nearly-flawless service record, as far as Picard and Riker are concerned Worf's earned the right to wear his baldric as part of his uniform. (Plus, you know, who wants to be the guy to tell Worf he's not allowed to wear the emblem of one of the Great Houses of Qo'noS?) Troi was allowed to slut it up in a dress and catsuit on duty for six years before Jellico finally told her to put a proper uniform on. Riker’s just kind of an rear end in a top hat... E: seriously, Lower Decks and the final act of Tapestry kinda do a great job at showing what a dick Riker can be out of context and it’s great. nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Jan 12, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2019 12:42
|
|
|
By the way, if anyone who knows the game wants to write up some informative posts regarding game mechanics, I would appreciate it and add them to the table of contents in the second post. Things like ship equipment, weapon types, energy types, ground abilities, etc. I tried to sit down and write some but found it too mind-numbing because I never really cared about all of that. I'm the guy who plays Mass Effect and Dragon Age exclusively on "casual" difficulty so I can get through the combat and see the story.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2019 17:37
|
|
|
All the info people need to know to play the game: All power to weapons Autofire all weapons (ground and space) Dont mix beams and cannons unless you know what you're doing Never, ever, equip mines After that point it's just a question of winning more.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2019 18:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 02:09 |
|
|
As has been said, Star Trek Online has two types of missions. Ground and Space. Space missions are usually really fun, while ground missions range from 'meh' to 'actively annoying.' I'll discuss some of why this is in a later update, but what it really comes down to is that the ship combat is legitimately fun and the ground isn't. So keeping this in mind, there are three classes you can choose tactical, engineering and science. Tactical is the best class. It has the best capability to use weapons, and most of it's powers are oriented around doing more damage. Doing more damage is always the best thing in Star Trek Online, at least in space, because most ships are relatively delicate. In Ground combat things are more complicated, but not necessarily in a good way. Each class has special abilities you get as you level up. The first one you get for tactical (Attack Pattern Alpha) makes your ship do much more damage. This ability right here is what makes tactical officers the best for space combat. On the ground you get grenades and abilities that buff your attacks and even stealth(which is largely useless). These abilities aren't necessarily the most powerful ground abilities, but the most powerful ground abilities are generally the most boring to use. Engineer is supposedly the tanky class. The problem with that? Tanks don't really exist in Star Trek online despite several attempts to make them a thing by Cryptic. Yes an Engineer can survive longer in a ship under fire, but a tactical officer will not be under fire for as long. In space Engineers get abilities that make them tougher. Their first ability in space is Rotate Shield Frequency, which makes shields better. On the ground they can make mines, drones and turrets. This includes healing and shielding turrets. The can also repair tech stuff and fix/cause tech debuffs. Science is the odd duck. They have a lot of neat abilities especially on the ground. But in space while the abilities are interesting, they are very limited. You see most space science abilities require you to move power from weapons to auxiliary power to get the best effect. But the extra damage you will do over the 30 or 45 seconds your ability is on cooldown with all power to weapons is almost certainly better than whatever the science power you activated is going to do for you. The first science ability you get is sensor scan, which decreases a targets damage resistance by a small amount. Not very good. On ground, science officers get direct heals, as well as buffs/debuffs and a handful of crazy direct damage abilities. What it comes down to: Want to do lots of damage and to be the best at the game you can be? Play tactical. Want to bunker up and have a horde or turrets and drones? Play engineer. Want to suck people into wormholes and do other mad science and set people on fire while at the same time healing? Play science.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2019 18:57
|
|