So I was secretly hoping that CaptainGeko would reverse the decision about the Universal Ensign BO slot at the last minute. So the time cam e and I started the Odessey shakedown cruise, and low and behold I look at the BO layout and see this:
My hopes are suddenly raised. Could it be that we get both a universal ensign slot AND a science ensign slot? That must be to good to be true, but then again, having six stations would require any silver player to buy an additional BO slot to take advantage of it. Brilliant!
I finish up the mission and get my Odyssey box and notice a wall of text in the description. So I pull up the Info and at the end is this:
At this point I'm ecstatic and mentally prepping a "Thank you so much for listening" post. I quickly unpack my new ship rush over to the Ship Selection and get half way through re-assigning my Boffs and notice, oh wait, it didn't change. It's still missing the universal Ensign slot. They didn't listen. I put my stuff back on my 2-year-old Sovereign, decide I don't really feel like going to look for Q and log off.
I know the feeling. The ship I tested I would've used. The ship I got is going to sit in the dock on all my characters, completely unused.
It's a star cruiser that's set up to be tougher. I have a star cruiser which has never left the dock.
Waste of time doing the shakedown.
So what's the result? I'm dissappointed in the ship I got, upset about the blatancy of the pay to win scenario, and will never ever buy it from the c-store as I'm not THAT interested in it from the start.
So I end up feeling like I've been used, and really down about the state of the game. Good job, cryptic!
Edit:
And going back to my year-old sovereign, I might add. Probably get rid of my star cruiser I got laying around and put its gear on the odyssey. which will not get used, I'm pretty sure.
Edit2:
I probably still would've used it anyway had it been the ensign sci that'd gotten chopped instead of the ensign universal. The extra sci power would've been a nice bonus, but not essential. The ensign tac power, however, is essential to my playstyle.
"the most versatile cruiser ever designed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers"
... assuming that you want to fly a Sci/Eng "Star Cruiser Refit." Anything else, you're out of luck.
Or is that statement referring to the fact that it has a universal BO slot at all? I'm reminded of the feature an old TV show ("Real People") did on McDonalds' "Cherry Pie" - they determined that despite the implications of the packaging, the actual pies contained (on average) about half a dozen cherries and some sugary jelly. But, as they acknowledged at the end, it was truth in advertising: one pie, one cherry!
WOW. phaser arrays on the aft dorsal end of the warp nacelles. boy does that look retarded when it fires. what the hell were you thinking whoever does hard pointing?
same on the bortas, only its the lateral aft end of its warp nacelles. that's not all, there are windows and escape pods all over its warp nacelles too! WHAT THE HELL. the +1 ktinga also had warp nacelles mounted arrays too, this is a TERRIBLE TREND THAT NEEDS TO STOP RIGHT NOW, AND BE FIXED.
for the odyssey, put an array on the underside of the pylon near the nacell, it can still fire upward from there. or put the aft hardpoints on the rear of the dorsal array, so the forward firing beams are fired near the front, and the aft beams are fired near the back. anything would look better
Wow what can I say, another starship not worth a damn to take into a fight because it can't turn any better than a fridge stuck in a swamp. Yes it looks good, yes it's BO and Weaps loadout is good, but handling and performance much like the Galaxy and it's varients is sub standard and unacceptable.
I really don't think too much attention ever gets paid to flight dynamics in this game because as we have seen with the galaxy it never handled that bad on the screen and now the Odessy is continuing that fine tradition of not being able to have a decent turn rate (Yeah and the Bortas is worse too btw)
Keep the Ensign Universal slot off.
Make the Ensign Science a Ensign Engineering.
That at least returns it to a more versatile without the extra Universal BO slot. Right now despite the universal slot, this build strongly favors science over tactical.
Plus if you switch the Consoles to 3/3/3 and it becomes a true hybrid cruiser, and something I would consider more worthy of the title of Flagship.
I disagree with the 3/3/3 console idea, end of the day she is a Cruiser/Science hybrid I can just about live with 2 tac console but the 4 engineering consoles are vital, and if I could have the bridge officer lay out from the mission I would be very, very happy.
As it is I am going to fly the vessel and look forward to working her our despite her kinks.
Well with the release version out now, I did put it through its pacing and took it to some STFs with a DPS centric build, using a tac LTC.
The turn rate is really limiting on this ship. I mean there is a reason that cruisers had their turn rates increased after launch, even the Vo'Quv got a turn rate increase. I ran 3 RCS consoles on this thing and still strugged to turn to use torpedoes regularly in this thing. It is stuck as a beam boat, and little else, but I suppose that is not news.
Its close enough to the other Fed cruisers that it makes a solid alternative to any of them, a bit slower for noticeably more toughness. Its DPS capability using a tac LTC is quite good, as is its survivability. I'm still not sure why it has a 1.15 shield modifer, but its definitely a tough ship for it.
Well, for my part, seeing the ship in-game... made me agree some more as to why the Devs made her the way they had. I've 4 RCS consoles on her right now, and I actually feel it turns a little too well as far as look and feel is concerned. I mean, I ranted about that before, but seeing the Odyssey's size, I understand what CaptainGeko meant. I may actually remove one or two once I get more used to the ship and get a better idea of what else I want from her.
The thing I really need to get used to right now is her inertia. God, it can make things confusing. I do wish that one was higher, as the skidding is back and I could do with seeing it mitigated. Maybe I'll get used to it; I've been able to pull off a few fancy maneuvers taking it into account.
Also, the Odyssey ends up being a thing of beauty (to me) when she's firing out fire at will broadside attacks; I like how the hardpoints were organized for multiple beam attacks. I also, contrary to my friend above, find the dorsal nacelle mounted phaser strips to be an interesting, inspired addition.
I also love the external shape of the bridge. Less so for the interior, but I can live with it (I'm still hopeful to see better).
Linear Mode
