So far in the episode missions I have found one mission that was really good for both story and game play. That mission was "Suspect". The one where you have to go onto a starship that was attacked by Cardassians and save the crew from themselves because they had gone mad or something. All the while working under the direction of Drake a Section 31 officer (shady group of Starfleet or whoever they are).

Firstly, even though you have to shoot and beat the crap out of the crew to within inches of their life--you don't really kill them. They just become weak enough so you can administer the "antidote". This was a nice change from the usual "Kill 10 Klingons formula". I was glad that I didn't have to be the butcher of Starfleet and kill everything that moves, which is the usual combat task.

Secondly, since the enemy was Federation good guys gone bad I found myself actually being challenged. It was like facing off against my Bridge Officers doppelgangers. The evil engineers were tough tanks to bring down, the sick science guys were healing their comrades, and the tacky tactical officers even tried to flank me (at least it seemed like they tried flanking me). I didn't need a difficulty slider just AI that tried to save themselves while fending off me and my BOs was more fun and challenging then previous ground missions.

Spoiler Ahead!

At the end when you get to the bridge was the best part. And this is what I really want us as a community to push onto the developers. At the end I had to MAKE A CHOICE! This was awesome. I had to choose to help the seedy Section 31 guy or side with the rogue captain. I made the wrong choice, but that didn't matter as I was able to finish it. The thing is the mission made me feel as though I was part of a larger narrative, because I had the option to choose an outcome for myself. Something that is irritatingly missing from all other missions.

And then they pulled the carpet from beneath me with the twist ending (ie end program on the Holodeck). This was very, very Star Trekkie. Kudos to the dev that wrote this mission. But it came so late in the game (level 31) and that there are not more missions like this is very disappointing in the rest of the game.

Am I off in my critique? Have you found better missions? Or does anyone else think there should be more missions like this?

I'd vote for it as the best one.

When I did this mission last night I went "YES!" A choice to make! According to dialog I made the wrong one, though... and it leaves me wondering what the outcome of the other choice would be. It sounds like that particular subplot will continue regardless, but I'm curious as to what I would have been told otherwise. However, I hope no one posts it here as that would be a spoiler, and I'm sure I will have to do it again in the future (either with a holodeck or an alt) and then I'll know what to do. I love this game but we definitely need more like this! ;-)

Fully agreed this is probably the best mission out there. Followed closely by the Q mission in Gamma Orionis.

I ended up siding with the section 31 guy heh, turns out it was the correct choice. I look forward to more section 31 contacts!

Exactly what I was getting at. Having more branching stories would give people reasons to replay a mission. Or give you something to look forward to when you re-roll with an alt.

I think it's amusing that people think they made the wrong choice because the scummy section 31 who was playing head games with them told them they made the wrong choice. I shot Drake on general principles longed for an option to punch his smug git face well he was lecturing me. Considering when I turned the quest the ds9 captain made a point of asking how does it profit the federation to abandon their morals in the name of security it seems the point is not to the "right" or "wrong" choice but to think about the issue and make a choice.


All though how any could not chose to shoot the stupid git who followed you around and never lifted a finger to help even when those damn engineers were dropping shield regen turrets. I mean seriously Joshua Riker didn't even have a gun and he would run up and punch and kick all those turrets the true way had in their base.

I'd like to point out a mission that was the opposite of the one the OP mentioned:

It's the mission where the last part has you trying to destroy an asteroid before the Klingons do. Either that or before they destroy you, I don't remember. What I do remember is being excited because for the first time a mission had given me a couple of problems and said "complete your objective".

Unfortunately, as I found out after getting the asteroid to half health, there was nothing freeform about the mission. You HAD to kill the 3 BoPs, then you HAD to kill the I.K.S. Whateva, and only then could you destroy the asteroid.

Wouldn't have been half as disappointing if it had been presented differently. Would have been awesome if it had actually been up to the player to complete the objectives as they saw fit.

It's a little different than the OPs point, in that the outcomes of that mission are exclusive, which I think is awesome and should definately be far more prevelant. I'm just mentioning this one because all they had to do was let me destroy the asteroid or any of the Klingon ships in whatever order I wanted and the mission would have been way better, in my opinion.

It also would have been better if they would have deleted the sound emitter for the asteroid when it blew up.

I finished this last night as well, which is fortuitous since it was the mission that also promoted me to captain. While I supposedly did not make the right choice (according to Section 31), I made one based on my morals (and I'd like to think those of the Federation). I agree, yes there is a calling for Section 31, but when and where do you draw the line? Yes battle is inevitable in the current war setting STO has, but more choices in the mission and and such choices affecting further missions makes for in-depth gameplay.

Yeah I liked this mission. I also made the "wrong" choice, but it didn't seem to matter much.

I like having choices, but I also want the choices to have some consequence.

Frankly, I enjoyed giving Section 31 the finger.