Anyone else bummed?

[Agnithrax]

I wanted to finish out my episodes but New Frontier's Melting Pot is so bad. There's this part where you are an alien and massacre peeps and when that episode came out I was all 'I don't wanna.' Now New Frontiers is sitting there unfinished in my episodes list but being all murder murder isn't how I like to play pretend. I dig being a completionist and this is such a bummer.

[Jaq]

I'd again repeat that the Neth Parr episode is just interactive history. She already did all those things. You aren't given an option to do things differently because she already made her choices. In a sense, this is better than most other episodes where your own character still very rarely gets any choice in the outcome, but fortunately is railroaded into ethically defensible choices most of the time. Also, actually being there and hearing people pleading for their lives puts the deeds of Neth Parr and the Tzenkethi in much more proper perspective than hearing Admiral Quinn tell you, "oh hey, the Tzenkethi genocided a bunch of planets, here's a rare pistol and 480 dilithium crystals if you do something about it." The only other way to avoid treating such a horrific event too flippantly is to put your own ship there in orbit but be unable to stop it, like with the Na'kuhl's sun.

This is an inherent problem with storytelling in MMOs. Your create-a-character can't have a voice or a say, nor even a companion NPC to speak for you like in many single player RPGs, otherwise everyone else around you will be walking around with that same NPC babbling away. Experimenting with swapping your character out for a NPC such as in the Ferengi episode is a way around that, but not something they can do too often without robbing your character of significance.

[The Arkady]

Originally posted by JaQMarius:

Your create-a-character can't have a voice or a say, nor even a companion NPC to speak for you like in many single player RPGs, otherwise everyone else around you will be walking around with that same NPC babbling away.

... and I still can't fire Tovan Khev, because Cryptic actually did try including an NPC like that. That was not the best of decisions, though I 'm pretty sure he'd vastly be more popular if he actually had three good ground traits like Elisa Flores.

[Sandormen]

Originally posted by The Arkady:

Originally posted by JaQMarius:

Your create-a-character can't have a voice or a say, nor even a companion NPC to speak for you like in many single player RPGs, otherwise everyone else around you will be walking around with that same NPC babbling away.

... and I still can't fire Tovan Khev, because Cryptic actually did try including an NPC like that. That was not the best of decisions, though I 'm pretty sure he'd vastly be more popular if he actually had three good ground traits like Elisa Flores.

Hihi. I had to look up 'Tovan Khev memes'... ...-That guy is so unpopular that there is only one meme and its about where someone buried him.
Yeah, I have been hating him for years now. I'd wish Cryptic had gone the length to give the option of dumping him when that peculiar arc was done for.

[The Arkady]

I figure if Tovan had a good trait insterad of Superior Stubborn, he might be more popular.

Of course, given how much STO is Space Barbie, just reversing roles between Tovan and Rhinna probably would've been even better...

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Agnithrax:

I wanted to finish out my episodes but New Frontier's Melting Pot is so bad. There's this part where you are an alien and massacre peeps and when that episode came out I was all 'I don't wanna.' Now New Frontiers is sitting there unfinished in my episodes list but being all murder murder isn't how I like to play pretend. I dig being a completionist and this is such a bummer.

Would you then say that the episode is serving its purpose, which is to show why that character left their faction, and defected to your side.

The whole point of the episode is to show how horrible the admiral was in his execution of his orders.

It's no different than the episode of Voyager, where the crew is forced to live out a massacre. They were upset too, and felt that they should not have to. Janeway was correct though, how can you learn that things like this are bad, if you're not forced to face them.

True it's a game, but the lesson is the same. And if you're feeling bad about the level, then that's the whole point.

[PyroSaphuron]

If you are gonna get this bent out of shape over one freaking episode, you need to get some cannabis and chill the heck out. Good grief, there is no way it's so bad you can't play it. GROW UP.

[Agnithrax]

+Anthony I'm certain the episode is against massacres and that the mission is intended to demonstrate the character development of the NPC involved. The Dev's even went to the extent of having you play as the NPC's memory of the massacre to fully divest the player as well as the player's toon from having any responsibility in the event. There's no argument there. The intention of the Dev's also, to make the players experience the horror of a massacre by making it visceral, I don't have any fault with that per se. I would quibble that when you buy GTA you know what you're in for. The bee in my bonnet is as a player finding yourself all of a sudden conducting a massacre. The care and consideration the Dev's crafted the mission with as well as the thouroughly low stakes and while I don't know what the full gamut of the rewards may be I'm sure they're not going to make or break anyones advancement make it an almost perfect case scenario for what got up my nose with it. Furthermore, although I haven't ever done it, I'm pretty sure I've seen a skip mission option in the episodes before so there's another out the Dev's have provided although I'm not sure if that's available on initial runs or only on replay or that I may be just mis-remembering things. I'm not trying to find fault with any of the Dev's or any of the players either or be some lame ass virtue signaling SJW, it's just a game after all and no one is getting hurt. Hillary against gaming violence and the PMRC can all suck it.

Sitting there controlling the baddie ship under the most considerate of presentations, I was all 'well there's my line,' I don't want to do this even as pretend. My hud listed the mission parameters and there was no stop except to abort, I'll admit though I was pretty quick on the abort being all WTF; no. There were other baddie ships there too and I don't know if you could go turncoat and start shootting them up but also I just didn't want to sit there and watch it all unfold around me which could well be yet another out the Dev's gave us. It was frustrating not the least of which because of it being new content event and I really dig it when there is voice acting by the cast. When I read about the mission changes coming up along with the queue changes I wondered two things. First, did I jump the gun and there was some way to complete the mission while still fighting against the massacre which if there was would have been brought up by now I think. Secondly, I'm not particularly unique nor do I have some special moral stars-on-thars advantage going on with my perspective so I couldn't be the only one who was bugged over this mission and I figured let's find out.

[ImperatorPavel]

STO's story can be pretty much summed up as "stuff that happens around your player captain" over "choices your captain makes."

It's primarily due to Cryptic not being able/competent enough to have the game's story be a frame but you able to make your own story within that frame. Also, is the episode you're referring to "Renegade's Regret" (asking cause "Melting Pot" is just the reveal of Drantzuli).

[Agnithrax]

+ =(eGO)= ImperatorPavel I'll defer to you. Melting Pot was the last unfinished one I noticed in the list I think and I dropped the massacre then and there out of my in progress queue so I can't really say. I could just as likely be flat out wrong and have misread which was the one I was all angsty over so it's the Renegade's Regret where you're doing the massacre run that's got me all bent out of shape then.




Edit: I believe The Arkady pointed that discrepancy out too, so apologies and thanks for clearing that up. I recently logged in and I have the one after Melting Pot finished but not Melting Pot, weird. My guess is it might have been released in two parts or something and I picked up on a current event without finishing up the previous event missions or some such, I dunno. Sorry for the confusion.

[The Arkady]

No worries about the confusion. It was quite obvious which mission you meant even despite the mix-up.

I don't find the "have to massacre stuff" style particularly enjoyable, either, mind; I do, however, prefer it over Midnight for being honest about what tale it actually tells.

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Agnithrax:

Sitting there controlling the baddie ship under the most considerate of presentations, I was all 'well there's my line,' I don't want to do this even as pretend. My hud listed the mission parameters and there was no stop except to abort, I'll admit though I was pretty quick on the abort being all WTF; no. There were other baddie ships there too and I don't know if you could go turncoat and start shootting them up but also I just didn't want to sit there and watch it all unfold around me which could well be yet another out the Dev's gave us. It was frustrating not the least of which because of it being new content event and I really dig it when there is voice acting by the cast. When I read about the mission changes coming up along with the queue changes I wondered two things. First, did I jump the gun and there was some way to complete the mission while still fighting against the massacre which if there was would have been brought up by now I think. Secondly, I'm not particularly unique nor do I have some special moral stars-on-thars advantage going on with my perspective so I couldn't be the only one who was bugged over this mission and I figured let's find out.

Well I don't know what to tell you...

It's okay for them to massacre people, as long as it's not depicted on your screen?

Your movie library must be quite sparse...

[Centisteed]

Originally posted by Khrystal Thorne | gamekit.com:

If you are gonna get this bent out of shape over one freaking episode, you need to get some cannabis and chill the heck out. Good grief, there is no way it's so bad you can't play it. GROW UP.

This. LOL.

[Agnithrax]

I dunno man, maybe I tried too hard to not be trollbait and avoid all that sorry ass bush league ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that I became confusing or something. I don't think anyone is unaware that horrific ♥♥♥♥ like this happens every day, that Pollyanna head in the sand motivation for me you've got going on is far from the mark. There's just some ♥♥♥♥ I'm not going to do in my life even as pretend. If they did it as a cutscene or something then fine, but you're not going to get me to pull the trigger on it. The whole deal being a non-issue for you is perfectly reasonable; I feel differently.

[Centisteed]

Originally posted by Agnithrax:

I dunno man, maybe I tried too hard to not be trollbait and avoid all that sorry ass bush league ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that I became confusing or something. I don't think anyone is unaware that horrific ♥♥♥♥ like this happens every day, that Pollyanna head in the sand motivation for me you've got going on is far from the mark. There's just some ♥♥♥♥ I'm not going to do in my life even as pretend. If they did it as a cutscene or something then fine, but you're not going to get me to pull the trigger on it. The whole deal being a non-issue for you is perfectly reasonable; I feel differently.

I don't even know why you're playing this game. You see how many dead people there are in Star Trek TV & movies? I bet you never read the books. Do you remember Harlan Ellison's Guardians of Forever or something like that...Return to the Edge of Forever...I can't recall. Kirk's love interest gets killed off....for the greater good.

I'd suggest not watching or reading Star Trek. Or you just might. destroy. your. sanity.

[ImperatorPavel]

Originally posted by Centisteed:

Originally posted by Agnithrax:

I dunno man, maybe I tried too hard to not be trollbait and avoid all that sorry ass bush league ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that I became confusing or something. I don't think anyone is unaware that horrific ♥♥♥♥ like this happens every day, that Pollyanna head in the sand motivation for me you've got going on is far from the mark. There's just some ♥♥♥♥ I'm not going to do in my life even as pretend. If they did it as a cutscene or something then fine, but you're not going to get me to pull the trigger on it. The whole deal being a non-issue for you is perfectly reasonable; I feel differently.

I don't even know why you're playing this game. You see how many dead people there are in Star Trek TV & movies? I bet you never read the books. Do you remember Harlan Ellison's Guardians of Forever or something like that...Return to the Edge of Forever...I can't recall. Kirk's love interest gets killed off....for the greater good.

I'd suggest not watching or reading Star Trek. Or you just might. destroy. your. sanity.

OP doesn't take issue to killing (otherwise there'd be many other STO episodes to complain about). OP's complaining about the game having them commit genocide against a bunch of planets as part of the telling of the story of Neth Parr in "Renegade's Regret."

Ultimately, the episode is about how what Neth Parr did/was forced to do is unjustifiable in terms of morality. Especially when that one race puts all the Drantzuli/Hur'q crystals on their moon, but the Tzenkethi admiral nukes them anyway.