The end of the Iconian War? Really?

[VADM Wulfric Richter CoS]

<!-- [if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]-->

<!-- [if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!-- [if gte mso 10]>

<![endif]-->

The Iconian War, if you can really call it such, was not really a war at all. After the big reveal at the Klingon High Council, I was expecting a hell of a lot more than we got. A few battles, some dire threats, and then poof! Congratulations! You won! Really? Really? The truth is that I never once felt pressed during the "war."

Grind missions like Brotherhood of the Sword, does not a war make. Where are the rolls of the dead? Where are the ruined planets? Where are the refugees? Where is the desperation that would evoke such a visceral reaction from the Federation? Where was Section 31 and the infamous Franklin Drake? I saw him once disguised as fluff on the last mission, but other than that, not at all. This would have been a perfect time to draw the player deeper into Section 31. Ostensibly he is a Fleet Admiral in game, shouldn't his security clearance allow him to be witness to the inner workings of Starfleet Command? Shouldn't he have been consulted on the situation in the field? I don't remember anyone ever asking for my opinion about the tactical situation.

When Cryptic opened up a new quadrant, we had a series of missions that carried the story forward. But with the Iconians we only get a few missions? Ten times the badass and 10 times less story? What the hell ever happened to immersion? I realize that this is a MMO, but does that mean that the story has to suffer? Is this why the writer quit? Like the KDF side of the game, there were innumerable directions that the story could have taken. They could even have had a mission where the players would be consulted about the war where their choices really would have mattered to the game, but no. Maybe that is a fault of their programming tools, I don't know, but if it is, they need new ones desperately. 

You don't go and create an existential threat and then play a couple of missions and Presto! You won!! On to the next story. I honestly thought that this story line would be continued all the way to the next season. But it's over tonight? The war with the Iconians wasn't even a dust up. When I am told, "you know how bad it is," because I have to make up how bad it is in my own mind, that's just lazy writing. Fact is, I don't know how bad it is because you have never SHOWN me how bad it is. I look around STO and I don't see any changes. You go to Wolf 359 and you can see changes there from the Borg. Where are the hulks of destroyed ships from the Iconian battles? Where are the planets that are nothing more than dead worlds floating in space where billions of inhabitants perished? Where are the destroyed facilities? Where are the tears for such losses? "We'll cry later for the dead and dying," doesn't cut it. That sounds good on paper, I guess, but the truth is that human emotions don't wait for later to engage.

Take Noye's wife for example, she ceased to exist because of what we did. I didn't really care. I only knew her for less than 10 minutes and only had a very brief chat with her. Had I known her for quite a bit of the story, had many interactions with her and gotten to know her, it would have been far different when she ceased to be. But that takes planning. Alternatively, they could have had a battle where I lost a boff. That would have hurt, I like my boffs. They have mostly been with me since the Vega colony got wiped.  They didn't even try, too much effort I suppose. 

My verdict on this entire affair is that it was handled very sloppily. The story arc sucked, the Iconians weren't as big and bad as we were told they were, and it was over far, far, too soon. The missions were good, but few and far between. I had the same problem with BioWare regarding the lack of atmosphere for their grand war. It is almost as if the devs are afraid to show you what such a war would look like. I am not looking for absolute realism, but for the love of God, could you at least set the stage to match the story?

It's one thing when immersion is broken because daily life intrudes, but quite another when the story teller breaks it with such nonsense. In the final analysis, Cryptic bit off a lot more than they could chew.

[Wupteedo]

+1, Sir

My two cents, we have been waiting for five years for this; 3 for me.  Sort of reminds me of "who shot J.R.," and find out it's all a dream.  Other players equate it to the original ending of Mass Effect 3.  At the end of the day, I realize it's just a game, but this was a major disappointment.  STO will go on, with a new head writer I understand, but I can't help but think the last head writer had the rug pulled from under her. 

I hereby nominate the above post for "Most Inspirational Forum Post" Award. 

Qapla'

 

[Fleet Admiral E. Fortin]

Wupteedo wrote:

+1, Sir My two cents, we have been waiting for five years for this; 3 for me.  Sort of reminds me of "who shot J.R.," and find out it's all a dream.  Other players equate it to the original ending of Mass Effect 3.  At the end of the day, I realize it's just a game, but this was a major disappointment.  STO will go on, with a new head writer I understand, but I can't help but think the last head writer had the rug pulled from under her.  I hereby nominate the above post for "Most Inspirational Forum Post" Award.  Qapla'

 

DONE!

[CAPT Preston]

Seriously, give this man a medal.

[BigBob357]

Haven't finished it yet, but I'm not thrilled with it so far. If I may be so bold, the voice acting thus far has been the worst yet.

On a side note, I'm not pleased that they took away the Iconian Marks away from some of the PVE queues, even if it was a limited time thing. I was just starting to make some real headway.   

[VADM Wulfric Richter CoS]

Just finished "Midnight." It was as disappointing as I thought that it would be. Fair warning: SPOILERS AHEAD

First, if you have ever wondered what a deus ex machina ending was like, now you know. When such ending occurred in ancient Greek plays, you knew that you had just wasted your money. While we didn't have the classical Greek chorus, we did have an ending so syrupy that I was very nearly tossed into a diabetic coma. No wonder the writer quit rather than have her name smeared with this.

To find that I am the "other" was a let down, not a surprise. And the voice of reason is a Klingon? Seriously? I have seen quite a few episodes of Star Trek in it's various iterations, and I have never seen anybody like Kagren. Frankly, I was expecting him to break in in a rousing rendition of the Barney song (if you have small children, you know who that is).

Honestly, I was expecting that I would have to kill Sela to save the Iconians, but Cryptic even took that from me. And Sela! As if it couldn't get any worse, Sela has a change of heart and decides to become a better person after it is revealed that she's the one who started all of this in the first place. I was going to say that they phoned it in, but frankly, I don't think that they even got to that level of professionalism.

I suppose that I could compose a letter citing my objections to Cryptic for this travesty, but what would be the point? They could always counter with, "you get what you pay for."

Seriously, a six year old could have written a better ending. Let's see, we have a 200,000 year old war, races played like a cheap kazoo, billions of dead, the Alliance brass running around like their hair is on fire and their backsides are catching, and presto! Happy ending.

You know, I remember when their used to be stories in games. Real stories with plot lines that made sense. What an embarrassment, that is assuming that they have any shame left.

[you-kick-my-dog]

I'm so freaking glad I'm not the only one dissapointed in the ending. Worst part is they break their own logic...so youre the "other" but tket dosent seem to give a shit...she's totally content to keep fucking with you....but not to worry the floating blue crayon iconian won't mess with you anymore...

I was expecting the "other" to be some type of time traveler outside of the characters we now have.....

The whole premises that made new dawn exciting was that we changed time and everything could have been new....they might have had a really good story with showing us what would have happened ( by their own account) if we lost in their mirror story but they have already told us the mirror universe won their iconian war too....

And why why why why bring back the dominion I get they want to get a cardi faction going but they were mentioned once in a holo program besides the iconian war really didn't effect them ..... I have foundry missions that make more sense holy hell man.

And after all that ESD  burning in space...at the very very end they apparently had time to stop helping what should have been the mass casualties for fire works...makes total sense ....

[VADM Wulfric Richter CoS]

You hit the nail on the head, Kick. Especially when you mention the fireworks. I was taken aback by it as well. Billions dead, worlds in ruins, ESD is in flames, hulks and the bodies of their crews are floating in space, and you have fireworks? I have to admit, that was surreal.

Given the backlash over ME3's ending disaster, you would have thought that they would have gotten the message.

[VADM JT Kerry]

you-kick-my-dog wrote:

I was expecting the "other" to be some type of time traveler outside of the characters we now have.....

 

You nailed it here! If they wanted to end the war in a lack luster way, instead of the pathetic apparition they constituted as a "Season Finally" (of which stupid 70's sitcoms did a better job), they could have pulled the "traveler" race that said Wesley Crusher was special in TNG.  At least there would be some continuity to the timeline and story, to quickly end a story-line they were not prepared to complete.

Cryptic and  Perfect World must think we are all a bunch of mindless drones, sitting in front of our computers with credit cards in hand, driveling to plop down a wad of crash on any sort of crap they can think up.  Give me a break!

[you-kick-my-dog]

They could have done so much with this story arc...they could have had us change the time line so now there is actually something to explore.....but im guessing its going to be a season of grind mission as "Exploration"

[Morgan Shackelford]

Well, I certainly feel inspired.

[Fleet Admiral E. Fortin]

 

 

 

Star Citizen! 

 

 

[VADM Wulfric Richter CoS]

you-kick-my-dog wrote:

They could have done so much with this story arc...they could have had us change the time line so now there is actually something to explore.....but im guessing its going to be a season of grind mission as "Exploration"

 

This! +1, sir. The Iconian War had a wealth of possible stories to tell. We could have explored the morality of changing the time line, we could have developed the character of our Captains, we could have opened new vistas to explore, and in the final analysis, we did none of those things.

I know that I am not the only one who was drawn to the Trek universe because of it's promise. A promise forged in integrity, hope, and pride. Where has "to boldly go where no man has gone before" gone? To go boldly means to dare. To challenge the unknown and ourselves. The Iconian War had the ability to take us to that place, but it was wasted.

Let us hope that we shall not see this again.

[BigBob357]

I probably shouldn't have read this thread since I haven't finished the Iconian missions yet. But it is going to have to be a very bad ending to compare it to the ME3 ending. I sat there for at least 10 minutes in complete shock. To be honest I haven't been impressed by any of the storylines thus far, for any of the missions so maybe it was good I read this thread so I won't get my hopes up.  

[Morgan Shackelford]

Solomon_Cain wrote:

I probably shouldn't have read this thread since I haven't finished the Iconian missions yet. But it is going to have to be a very bad ending to compare it to the ME3 ending. I sat there for at least 10 minutes in complete shock. To be honest I haven't been impressed by any of the storylines thus far, for any of the missions so maybe it was good I read this thread so I won't get my hopes up.

 Don't sweat it.  The mission isn't half as bad as this thread makes it out to be.  It is certainly not anything like the debacle of ME3.