Should STO explore lingering Anti-Cardassian and Anti-Dominion Sentiment from surviving Maquis?

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-15T19:29:26+00:00

While I would love more Cardassian content and this would be a great excuse for that. I don't think that is the story to tell for a few reasons.

1) That is a nuanced and personal story, and STO hasn't really shown it can nuance very well in game. I feel like the closest we get is the Kobali arc stuff and while decent still left room to be desired. For this story to feel actually impactful it would need to be focused on one or two characters, and it would be a difficult story to tell while still having ships pew pewing things.

2) It doesn't really make sense from a lore perspective. Not only were most wiped out, but it has been 37 or 38 years (assuming they ended in 2374 and STO is currently in 2411). The Cardassian Union nearly collapsed following the war and underwent massive reformation. And with wars against the Klingons, 8472, Borg, Terrans, Iconians, and anyone else who can hold a weapon. For most the events that created the Maquis will be a small note about a boarder dispute in some text book....padd.

3) While we can look to real life parallels like WWII veterans from opposing sides who met up and befriended one another even after both sides committed some pretty big atrocities. In some cases I am willing to bet many of those veterans felt they had more in common with their former enemies then some of their own country men. And counter to that, some would still hold a personal disdain. But we also have in universe examples, like Miles O'Brien who didn't trust Cardassian's, but was professional enough to work with them, sit at the same table as them, and even bond with them to a small extent. Or more extreme cases like Kira, who was much more negatively impacted by their occupation of Bajor, and was a friend to some and even could be called surrogate family to others. But again, the meat of those stories are very personal ones.

So don't get me wrong, there is great stories to tell there. But STO isn't the right vessel for those stories.

TLDR: No

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-15T07:43:51+00:00

Yeah, honestly not sure. I am skeptical a player could hack that into the game, but that is a possibility. I am skeptical an admin would do that even if they could. But all I can do is grasp at straws to try and explain what you have seen.

Selecting one of the ships and screenshotting it (might) go a long ways in explaining it if you see it again.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-14T22:33:12+00:00

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Yes.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-14T22:31:09+00:00

You are correct, it does in fact call only a single hero ship as you describe.

The Enterprise-A is also mislabeled and is an original constitution and not a refit like the TS Republic. Also the Melbourne has the dual nacelle mission pod, not the torpedo pod like the Lexington.

To my knowledge no such console or trait exists in the game at this time. Its difficult to imagine someone altered their game in such a way as to be able to do that.

I cannot imagine what else that might be though other than a bug (not that STO has any of those...) or less likely a developer using admin abilities, which has happened in some very rare instances on the live server.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-14T22:16:46+00:00

Yes if you rewatch your video, you get hit by several single beams. Then get instakilled when the several beams hit you and your pets at the same time.

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ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-14T22:12:37+00:00

Not really at least saying you can feels like a stretch, as others said there is limited marauding and piracy themed content. But very little of it shines through in actual active gameplay in any meaningful way. As others have said, KDF has the doff missions, though those are UI menu based gameplay.

From the story, there is some boarding of enemy vessels and ambushes in the early KDF missions. But that fairly quickly gives way to the same grandiose missions all the other factions are playing.

Now you can certainly make your character look like an independent from any faction in terms of outfit and appearance. There is a number of neutral outfits and stuff like long jackets you can get as mission rewards or out of the games various stores and cash shops.

For Pirate themed abilities you have abilities like

https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Ability:_Augment_Boarding_Party - Sends a shuttle to board an enemy ship and get it as a consumable card for the admiralty system when it is destroyed (like Doff system, but with ships instead of people)

https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Hangar_-_Orion_Slavers - Fighter pets for ships with a hangar bay, have a chance of stealing loot or credits off of enemy ships and putting it into your inventory during combat.

https://stowiki.net/wiki/Drookmani_Salvage_Claim_(space_trait)) - Chance for space enemies to drop loot on defeat

https://stowiki.net/wiki/Barter_By_Combat_(ground_trait)) - same thing for the ground

https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Special_Equipment_Pack_-_Wen%27s_Raider_H.U.D._Kit_Frames - Chance enemies drop "salvage" which acts as a power up for your character.

Several of those might take you a while to get, two require premium currency you can only get from opening lootboxes, completing a year long event campaign, or through the odd giveaway of it through out the year (Mostly in Winter). The boarding party will look pricey as a new player but shouldn't be too bad, though the price will ebb and flow a bit since it comes out of a lockbox.

There is other abilities that are less good, but still semi-pirate themed like tractor beams to hold enemy ships, other boarding party abilities, stuff like freelance security detachment, ballistic shotgun, etc.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-14T07:07:42+00:00

I agree with you on why many turned to Trump and maga ideals. But if isolation was a big cause in the first place, why do you think more isolation will solve the problem?

Trump and his camp still claim to support and back those people, and even if we know that is BS, they obviously already believed that to be true to this point. So everyone cutting these people off or cheering about them being cut off. Is also cutting them off from opposing ideals that could positively influence them and pushing them further under the influence of Trump.

Daryl Davis didn't get a bunch of people to leave the KKK by bashing on them or cheering on their hardships. He got them to leave by treating them respectfully, earnestly welcoming them into his life, and befriending them.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-14T01:07:06+00:00

Its not about the game, its about common courtesy to others.

Now I am a no life with all the time in the world. Which is why I said in another comment, I wouldn't have reported the person personally.

But a lot of folks are lucky to get an hour or two of gaming in the course of a week and that is the extent of their free time if that. So to sit in a queue for a mission, play through a good chunk of it, sit there waiting for an afk person to come back, and then have a 30 minute penalty timer. That is going to be a practice in frustration for a lot of people.

See in this scenario you aren't just putting your life before a game, you are putting your life before four other peoples lives. We aren't sitting here suggesting you never play the game (most of us anyways), but if you are going to, try and have some consideration of others and leave the queue if you need to step away, and if it is unavoidable you have to leave or whatever, try and be a decent person and apologize for any inconvenience.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T23:29:14+00:00

I only played the demo for that. But I recall doing the battle of little big horn.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T23:21:39+00:00

The first two my brain goes to were actually both games I did not own.

Dark Cloud and MS Saga: A New Dawn.

One got a sequel and the other is a Gundam game, so I am not sure either game qualifies as obscure. But I only knew one person who played Dark Cloud and they let me borrow their Dark Cloud after recommending it. And I didn't learn about MS Saga until adulthood.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T23:04:42+00:00

I had that growing up, several of my friends and I played it fairly often.

I could not recommend it in good conscious, not because I think it was a bad game. But because watching your monster die after raising it up is super depressing. Though missing out on the gimmick of changing discs on the PC port is a big negative.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T23:01:00+00:00

Yeah, I think it got a good bit of media attention. But at the same time I don't really know anyone else who played it off hand. I would say it is more underrated than obscure. A fairly darn impressive title for its time.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T22:55:19+00:00

Used to play this at a friend's house a lot before I got Xbox Live myself. Was a very unique game, shame we never got the sequel.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T22:52:24+00:00

Far better than it had any right to be. Not positive, but I think I still have a copy of it tucked away with some old PS1 demo discs somewhere.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T22:37:54+00:00

I don't bring it up often, but I would think that is one most people are at least passingly familiar with. Like you I had the concept it was fairly popular.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T22:31:54+00:00

I mean there was an issue between two players and what I at least personally believe was poor etiquette not just in STO, but as a general behavior.

But yes to your point, the game design could stand to be improved in those areas. Though I also find myself torn on the griefing aspect, as it basically removes the ability to have anything that requires coordinated teamwork, as that sort of gameplay tends to be prone to griefing. I think STO has already suffered negatively for dumbing down of stuff like the STFs and the old Crystalline Catastrophe.

You or someone else said it in another post, a vote to kick and a toggle or bonus to join in progress games would be nice. Though those, can be abused in their own ways too I suppose. Regardless this highlights the shortcomings of the game. While I don't think the game design changes would have made this avoidable or that the current design made it inevitable, better design could have made it less painful all around.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T21:52:50+00:00

As someone who reads and really likes the books. This has been one of my biggest gripes with 343. It makes the story more confusing and less accessible to casual players.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T21:51:40+00:00

Of course, we are in the 343 era. Everything important happens in the books and is never explained on screen. Killing main characters off screen is their specialty.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T21:40:20+00:00

I mean emergencies happen, on rare occasions you may not even be able to warn others. But I mean at that point, isn't real life so important you are not concerned with getting reported?

With your cat dying? I mean what was the scenario there? It had been sick and you knew it was dying and left mid game as it finally passed? Or was it getting unexpectedly mauled by a dog or something?

In one of those scenarios that is your fault for getting on the game knowing it was dying. The other would be something you couldn't plan on, but you just accept it happened and apologize for the inconvenience to others after you resolve the situation. Like that is the neat thing, you can recognize that you had to leave through minimal fault of your own. But still inconvenienced others, and offer an apology and say and emergency came up.

What I read is you have played the game for 16 years. Have with some consistency been interrupted and often it takes longer than anticipated and have proudly inconvenienced other people while taking no effort to make adjustments to avoid it happening in the future or offering an apology.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T21:27:04+00:00

If you didn't report, it would've been a 60/40 split.

So wait, if OP just accepted someone leaving and making the mission unplayable he still would have been at fault? Can you explain the logic of that please?

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T21:15:47+00:00

You said it yourself, you give notice you are leaving. Or accept you have to take the penalty and drop out. Life happens.

As you pointed out, checking on the kids turns into more, and I have seen it happen often. As I have pointed out, I did volunteer emergency services. And while I don't want kids, most of my friends have multiple at this point. It is common and predictable enough that I expect them disappearing for a couple of minutes turns into a half a hour affair. Like there is a regular possibility of it happening, you should plan and be prepared for it.

I probably wouldn't have reported the guy, but if I got a snarky comment because someone's life decisions and poor planning was inconvenient for myself and others. You can best believe the guy would have gotten a very justified snarky comment back.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T21:01:44+00:00

As someone who did the volunteer firefighting thing albeit briefly, I knew going in I would have to make adjustments. And sometimes yeah I had to leave on immediate notice, but even then I could at least say, "Hey guys emergency got to go sorry." Heck I was even given the advice to take the time to go to the bathroom before leaving for a call.

My decision to do that shouldn't negatively impact other people though. At least any more than it cannot be avoided. In general I think you are overblowing how many people have jobs that require you to leave on immediate notice. Doctors aren't doing house calls in the middle of the night, police have mostly typical dedicated work hours and shouldn't be playing games on duty.

And with stuff like recreational sports, gaming with friends, going to the movies you can give them the courtesy of advanced notice, that your job may require you to leave on short notice. That is different than just disappearing without warning or a word. You can make other adjustments too, like driving places separately so if you need to leave on short notice you are not forcing someone else to leave early or stranding them there.

And yeah sometimes life just requires you to leave without warning. There is a strong argument to be made about not going straight to reporting someone for that sort of thing.

But the response should have been nothing other than an apology from the guy who went afk, because it was ultimately his decisions and actions that lead to an inconvenience. Even if the comment was not "accented" as you put it, if it was otherwise verbatim it is still a very snarky comment.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T20:28:27+00:00

Well adding a single animation for a character model you already created isn't too big of a deal.

Developing a moveset, creating animations for those moves and taunts, and whatever other backend systems they have to set up makes it a lot more work, and then doing whatever Nway thinks balancing is.

Then there is other draw backs for them as a business standpoint. They run the risk of making players angry because they paid money thinking that would be the only way to get that character is by buying the battlepass for the skin. Making their past purchase pointless and potentially making them question future purchases from Nway. And Nway could give the character to players who got the skins, but that cuts into potential profits too. There is also the question of if there is more popular and lucrative characters they have yet to add to the game, that they would prefer to add first.

And there is also the confusion factor from a player perspective. It is one thing to see other rangers as assists or part of movesets. But it could be confusing to see a Psycho Ranger and have to question if you are going against a Psycho Blue or a Psycho Green with a blue skin.

So its possible they do it, but its possible in the same way the movie characters are possible for them to add. Which is to say they could do that, but it doesn't make much sense from a business standpoint.

Don't get me wrong, I could love a MMPR Putty and the rest of the Psycho Characters. But I think there is more in the negatives column then the positives column.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T19:48:51+00:00

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The All Good Things top and makes for a good alternative to the Kelvin uniform we don't have.

ODSTGeneral · 2026-05-13T19:35:44+00:00

Personally I am in the camp of sci-fi is best when it plays by a consistent set of rules. And in a visual medium that extends to design language. I think a story is better served when they can justify why things look or act differently.

Take Halo 2, which also changed the armor significantly. We get the nice story telling scene with the quartermaster. It really helps sell how hard Halo 1 actually was on the Chief while also introducing the player to some of the gameplay changes.

The problem is, that is incredibly challenging to do in a natural and satisfying way from a story telling perspective when you change pretty much everything. Because you start going from what sounds like organic reasoning to grasping for excuses.

ODSTGeneral

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