Time to retire the STF ribbons?

[VADM pRett]

Used to be doing the STFs was a somewhat arduous affair. Though the ground portions may still remain that way, depending on how your experience has gone, the space portions are not nearly as so.

With that in mind, I'd like to open up discussion on whether or not the current STF medals need to be retired. If so, do we replace them with something else?

[Jason32]

Shack and I discussed this recently...he proposed opening up the STF trailblazing medal to first 5 that team and receives the cool uniforms (the Halo looking ones) which I thought was a good idea since you have to them elite.

Since the space STFs are extremely east now, maybe we should limit the STF medals to ground portions only and reserve the STF trailblazing medal to completing all 3 grounds on elite only?

[CAPT Huckabee]

we could leave the medal up, and it can only be awarded when a player can show visual proof that they have gathered either a space or ground set. If they gather a Fed set and a KDF set, then award the red markers. That way it shows the player put dedicated time into STF's.

thats my idea on it.

As for trailblazer I think it should be left closed to the original that ran them 1st. Essentially they are still the same mission, and were probably harder back then for no one who knew what to expect. Let's face it, even with changes we know what we going into.

I'm open for a alternate "Elite" medal device to be awarded on the medal for completing all 3 ground on Elite. Im sure Shack could think of something that could also be integrated graphical for those with the trailblazer already.

[Cleo Mavendorf]

I'm going to go on record in agreement with Huck on this one, leave the trailblazer medal closed and go with awarding the medal upon gaining the gear sets and add a trailblazer gear set medal of some sort for the fist 5 to get the sets

[Anton Mercer]

I'm gonna mash up some ideas and throw in my own. First off, I think the Old ribbons should not be retired, just not used. Why? Because the ribbons represent the STFs that are done and gone, but if retired get removed from the name bar and I'm proud as hell that I have 3 stripes on that ribbon and I want to show it.(but I guess this could be fixed easily but still..)
We should make new ribbons, but just color wise. I think we should just flip the background and stripe color to signify the new STFs, keep the red box for the klingon side, and like Huck said, restrict it to ground because space is hard on elite, but doable. Ground seems just like how the STFs were when they were first released, and award the first 5 people who have done all 3(each gives an accolade and title for the different difficulties if im not mistaken.) Obviously they must be Fleet only groups, that way both everyone is happy

[Morgan Shackelford]

Personally, I dont think anything really needs to be changed other than the award requirements.

We tried to run Infected on Elite the other night, and it is not easy. In fact, and the folks in my group agreed, it reminded me very much of trying to do the STF's when they first came out. There was lots of deaths, borg were incredibly difficult to kill, and we did not finish it. Getting through an elite ground map is going to be very difficult, and will require practice, teamwork, and communication.

So I would say leave the medals as is, and award them for completion of the Elite ground portion of the STF.

As for trailblazing devices, the truth is, the STF's themselves haven't really changed very much. As much as I'd like to have a shot at getting the device, I don't know that anyone is actually 'trailblazing' in the strictest sense. But, as a compromise, I could see awarding it to the first five people to show off a full ground uniform - which would mean the first five people to collect nine ground pieces... since you have to get the mark X, XI, and XII to get the full costume option from the tailor.

And, btw, retiring an award has not always historically meant that its no longer shown on a namebar, it just has meant no new awards would go out.

[Myles Keogh]

sparrow794 wrote:

...since you have to get the mark X, XI, and XII to get the full costume option from the tailor.

I'm not sure that this is entirely accurate, although its really difficult to tell at this point. What I do know is that when I picked up the Mk XI Omega set, it also unlocked the MK X costume pieces, title and achievement. So, one could assume that if you were able to acquire just the MK XII set, it would also unlock lower levels as well. Also, Omega is the only set that offers three levels of unlocks. MACO and Honor Guard both unlock only at levels XI and XII.

Given the absolute unpredictability of anyone being able to ever unlock a complete MK XII set (unless Cryptic changes the drop rate, and significantly lowers the difficulty of elite ground missions) I would recommend that you create something new to mark a member's achievement of unlocking any set at MK X or above. The thing could have a different color or something if you felt compelled to differentiate the levels. The point should be about celebrating fleet members who put significant time in. Imho, celebrating completion of the elite set is going to make for a very lonely award, given that very, very, very few people in the entire population of STO will ever complete that set.

[CAPT Huckabee]

sparrow794 wrote:

... since you have to get the mark X, XI, and XII to get the full costume option from the tailor.

From what I read from Gozer, the faction specific sets (MACO, HG) do not get any costume unlock of any kind for Mk X.

http://www.fleet7.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7721777&gid=84053

[CAPT Huckabee]

I propose, even though I know it will probably get shoot down, a new award for getting a full set, at least MkXI. That grind to me was way worse then any STF I've ever ran with fleet. haha

[CAPT Huckabee]

sparrow794 wrote:

Personally, I dont think anything really needs to be changed other than the award requirements. We tried to run Infected on Elite the other night, and it is not easy. In fact, and the folks in my group agreed, it reminded me very much of trying to do the STF's when they first came out. There was lots of deaths, borg were incredibly difficult to kill, and we did not finish it. Getting through an elite ground map is going to be very difficult, and will require practice, teamwork, and communication. So I would say leave the medals as is, and award them for completion of the Elite ground portion of the STF. As for trailblazing devices, the truth is, the STF's themselves haven't really changed very much. As much as I'd like to have a shot at getting the device, I don't know that anyone is actually 'trailblazing' in the strictest sense. But, as a compromise, I could see awarding it to the first five people to show off a full ground uniform - which would mean the first five people to collect nine ground pieces... since you have to get the mark X, XI, and XII to get the full costume option from the tailor. And, btw, retiring an award has not always historically meant that its no longer shown on a namebar, it just has meant no new awards would go out.

any news on this? i feel like the matter was never officially settled