These are the Voyages of the U.S.S. K'uu-ch'ish. . .

It seems like I was doing this just last week.

Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 92827.72: It seems like I barely even got a chance to pin on my fourth pip, and already my senior staff and I are transferring to a new ship, the Cochise. It's beefier than the Crazy Horse, with a much larger crew and the latest weapon systems available. In addition, I have a new crew member, Cmdr Remei Castell, a liberated Borg who is a wizard at starship engineering. (Ginny isn't exactly happy about it, but that has nothing to do with Cmdr Castell's abilities.) Apparently, the task ahead is more hazardous and important than Starfleet had originally thought. On the other hand, I can't help wondering if the recent business with the Devidians and Section 31 may not also have something to do with my sudden promotion. In any event, after getting outfitted for anticipated contingencies, we'll be leaving Earth Spacedock yet again for Romulan territory, and from there, who knows?

Named after a great chief of the Chiricahua Apache in 19th century Arizona, the U.S.S. K'uu-ch'ish, NCC-93054, is a Patrol Escort, one of two escort variants available to Rear Admirals, Lower Half; this one an extra engineering console and ensign bridge position.

Plaque Dedication: "We will make peace; we will keep it faithfully. But let us go around free. . ."~~Chief K'uu-chi'ish. As with the namesakes of all Locke's Escort ships, K'uu-ch'ish (or Cochise) led his warrior band in hostilities against the encroaching United States.

As always, I spent way too much time with the various combinations before settling on what you see. I almost dumped the center pylon "wings," but kept them so as to display the Federation News Service logo. The Sagittarius/Virgo paint scheme keeps the vaguely warpaint look, while adding some "southwest" motives. As an escort, I felt the ship needed a darker appearance, making it harder to see in open space.

It took me a little over a week to level up through the Captain levels, partly from learning to use the Duty Officer System. Six of those levels were on Saturday, and the last on Sunday. Every time I completed a mission from "Spectres" (the Devidian episode), I got another level. Come to think of it, the only other story stuff I've done on Locke since returning to STO is the "Temporal Ambassador" mission left over from the Third Anniversary event, involving the crew of the Enterprise-C. I'll bet DTI just loves Locke's mission reports. After paupering myself to replace weapons and consoles still on hand from when Locke was a lieutenant commander, I took K'uu-ch'ish on a shakedown cruise into a Borg incursion daily. She handles pretty well, and seems to have plenty of firepower. But I did blow up a few times when I drew too much attention to myself.

~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

These are the Voyages of the U.S.S. Crazy Horse. . .

Captain's Log, 92803.64, Donovan T. Locke recording: After a successful tour of duty on the Klingon Front, I have received a promotion to Captain and a new commission, the Vigilant Class U.S.S. Crazy Horse. Accordingly, I have recommended for promotion and invited all of my senior staff to the new ship. With a total crew of only 50, we have a tighter focus as we head into Romulan territory. The Republic is allied with the Federation, and our mission is to counter the efforts of other factions—most notably Sela's "Empire"—to destabilize New Romulus.

The U.S.S. Crazy Horse, NCC-93330-A, is a Tactical Escort (TE), Vigilant Class, with a Gallant "Saucer," Gallant Refit Nacelles and "Pylons," and a Vigilant Refit Hull with a red and green Virgo paint scheme.

Plaque Dedication: "All we wanted was peace and to be left alone."~~Chief Crazy Horse

I put some of the terms in quotes because the STO customization system designated them thus, but they don't serve the same structural functions as the corresponding parts on other ships. The "saucer" is simply the small forward section that houses the deflector on the Defiant-like TEs (the forward section painted with a chevron in the picture above). The "pylons," rather than holding the nacelles away from the ship, are small weapons modules (shown on either side of the bow of the ship). Unlike most of the TEs, the Gallant "saucer" is a bit stubby, being slightly recessed in the Vigilant refit hull. I like the way this ship looks a bit like scarab beetle. I did not purchase the refit ship in the C-store, but for some reason, I have access to the TE refit skins.

I really like the handling of the Tactical Escort, which apparently has the best turn rate of all "large" ships in the game. Most of the my current loadout consists of hand-me-downs from my last two ships, but I am replacing them as time and credits permit.
~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

POTD: STO's New Crew Screen

Inspired by Syp's post from yesterday, I logged onto STO last night just to get screenies of my Captains and Crews. I wonder how they pick which Bridge Officers get shown. Is that my away team?

Rowan Starblanket. All about the research.

Donovan Locke. Haha, the last time I logged in, I used my first ship to help Sctrz as she tried out the game. Locke and Crew are still stuck on that thing.

W'Low Rial. I think those are still her only Bridge Officers.

I haven't actually logged into the game itself. Queues are crazy unless you're subbed. I can wait a few days till it dies down.

Two Years Out of Spacedock

STO, Old Friend, only a little younger than my blogging career. You opened up a wider community to me, people I still count as friends. You've changed, matured. You have a new sugar daddy. I hope this one treats you better the last one did.

To all those who have played and play now, congratulations on being part of something wonderful. To the team at Cryptic, thank you. Thank you for working so hard to keep this great game afloat.

I jumped in today to grab a screenshot or two for this post, and it was like slipping on a favorite pair jeans. I caught the old bug, went on a mission to get the new Odyssey class ship for Locke. Good times. :D I look forward to new adventures.

QOTD: SWTOR's Legacy System

The discussion is heating up over at BioBreak regarding SWTOR's Legacy System. Syp brings up some excellent points. For example:

Because surnames are unique on a server, it’s going to be a race to get to them first (and if you come late to the game?  Good luck!).

Warsyde commented on Syp's post:

Whether the name is reserved at character creation or reserved at level 20 (or whenever) doesn’t make much difference, either way it’s a race to get there first, the only difference is the length of the race. They need to make them non-unique.

I think the difference between someone beating you to a name at character creation and the same thing happening 30 levels later is significant. In the first case, you'd lost before you even started running. The second affects gameplay style and possibly enjoyment, if you feel you need to rush through the story to snag that name.

Scarybooster thinks BioWare should stop calling it a surname and just refer to it as a Legacy name:

Everybody can be Skywalker if they want. If you want to be original BW should make a check system that says, “Skywalker”- taken are you sure you want to proceed? Yes/no. “Skywalker” -Name has not been used on this server. Do you want to proceed, Yes/No

I like STO's approach to names and roleplaying. Along with @handles that only appear in chat (I don't count chat when thinking about immersion, it's part of the UI.), STO has "short names" and "full names" along with an in-game RP backstory section as part of the character window. This allowed me to roleplay Donovan Locke as Locke, a militaristic character, and Rowan Starblanket as Rowan, a much more informal character. It also meant that there could be many players with the same character name (Just like my meatspace name is hardly unique) because our @handles were unique. The printed mission dialogue sometimes used the designated surname and sometimes the short name, depending on the context of the conversation. It worked great, and made me feel part of the story.

Scary's suggestion that being original could be optional is great for the first user of the name, until there are two hundred other "Skywalkers" running around. Then they are not so unique. On the other hand, meatspace couples and families could share the surname as they play together. Of course, if it's not a surname, then the option to make it a surname should be removed. I agree the surnames should be either non-unique and/or not part of the Legacy system at all. We could still have the Legacy title and it wouldn't have to be a surname at all, could be an object (i.e., The Frostmourne Legacy, to borrow from WoW). Of course, now that I think about it, there's nothing stopping people from doing that now. Also, if I understand correctly, the players automatically enter the Legacy sytem and start earning Legacy points, regardless of whether they choose a Legacy name immediately or not. So no worries about missing out on whatever rewards are in store.

[EDIT]Another quote from Syp's comments, this time from Buhallin:

While I agree with the concerns over how Bioware implemented this, I’m continually amazed at the MMO community’s ability to take even the most minor things and turn it into an epic catastrophe if they don’t get exactly what they want.

In short, the Legacy system as currently explained is flawed, but I believe there are work-arounds. BioWare could maybe heed some of the suggestions, but people shouldn't sweat it so much. It's just a game . . .

Adieu, Admiral Starblanket. Commander Locke

So I canceled my subscription to Star Trek Online today. I just have not been playing it enough, between Rift and the dungeon runs I'm doing in WoW with RL friends. Much as I am going to miss the idea of having adventures with Rowan and Locke, the truth is I haven't been playing very much. I may still write some stories starring one or other STO crew, but for now they're on hiatus.

StC3: Pyrrhic Victory

The deck heaved again.

A power surge ripped along the starboard side of the bridge shorting out Sera's weapons console and frying the ship systems engineering console, which exploded in Ensign Jackson's face. Ginny bolted across the bridge to the unconsious officer, even as the ship's fire suppression system activated, flooding that side of the bridge in halon gas.

The doctor hit her commbadge, "Medical team to the bridge. Bring burn kits and a stretcher."

The voice of the ship's computer rang out, "WARNING: Hull integrity is below sixty percent."

Sera had moved to an auxiliary console on port side of the bridge. "Captain, firing control reports severe damage to the rear disruptor banks. Forward banks at eighty-four percent. Cannons and torpedoes nominal."

"See if you can jam their targeting sensors. Witko, move us out of the immediate battle zone. Open a channel to the Laibok." The comms telltale chimed. "Locke to Mullins."

"Mullins here."

"Can you take some of the heat for us while we get into position?"

"You got it. Prepare your attack run."

"Witko, bring us about. Sera, do you have the torpedoes ready?"

"Aye, sir. Target locked. High yield ready for your mark."

"Soften them up. Fire rapid cannons."

Red Cloud screamed at the Borg scout, whose shields finally buckled. "Fire torpedoes!"

The scout disintegrated, throwing debris in Red Cloud's path. Her captain called out, "Brace for impact!" And the little ship rocked again.

"Report."

Lieutenant Murphy, who had taken over for Ginny at the science console, responded, "Ajax has destroyed the other probe, sir. However, a partially active cube is now approaching the Bonaventure and T'Pol."

"Thank you, lieutenant." Locke hit his commbadge, "Locke to Blish, We've lost the engineering console up here, and one of your engineers is injured. How're you holding up down there?"

Blish answered, "We have partial impulse, but the warp engines were pretty beat up. We're venting plasma. I have a repair team on it."

"We aren't through this yet. More hostiles are incoming. I need to be able to move."

"Understood, I'll do what I can."

StC2: Battle of Ker'rat

(continued)


Captain's Log, Stardate 87830.12: On orders from Starfleet Command, we have arrived in Ker'rat System near the Klingon Neutral Zone.

The Red Cloud came out of warp, the swirling non-colors of subspace giving way to the familiar stars of the galaxy.  Donovan Locke was in sitting at the Helm, personally guiding the ship as was his wont.  A hailing chime rang out across the bridge.

"Sir, the Bonaventure is hailing us. Captain Thrax."

Thank you, Mister Sera."  Locke responded to his Tactical Officer, as he arose from the flight control station. His second officer, Lieutenant Witko, moved quickly to replace him.  "Put him onscreen."

The screen flickered from the starfield to the bridge of the task force flagship, and the face of her Captain.

"Commander Locke, Welcome to the Ker'rat system.  You were the most distant ship, so we are ready to begin the operation.  You will have noted the presence of the Borg vessels in the asteroid belt.  We are to investigate their activity and shut it down before any Klingons arrive in the system.  As soon as your ship reaches escort position we'll move closer to the Borg."

"Acknowledged, sir. Red Cloud out."

Locke sighed as he took his proper place in the Captain's chair.  "Mister Witko, take us in."

"Aye, sir."

The turbolift doors swooshed open and the ship's surgeon, Dr. Ginevra Locke, emerged.  Locke looked over his shoulder and winked at his wife.

"Sickbay is ready.  Dr. Kijembe has it covered for now."

"Great. Thanks, Hon.  Locke to Engineering. Status, Jimmy."

Chief Engineer Blish's voice crackled over the intercom.  "All systems are nominal, Captain."

"Thank you, Chief.  All hands: yellow alert."

The Red Cloud slipped into formation with the rest of the task force, on the port flank.  A total of seven starships now faced the Borg facility.

Locke turned to his tactical officer.  "Sera, inform the Bonaventure we are in position and ready."

"Aye, sir."  She paused, then said, "Captain Thrax is hailing the fleet."

"Onscreen."

Bonaventure's Saurian commander reappeared.  "Wayfarer, move in to ascertain the Borg's purpose in this system.  Ajax and Red Cloud, you will provide escort coverage to Wayfarer, while the Bonaventure, T'Pol, Occitan , and Laibok maintain perimeter security."

Locke joined his "Acknowledged" to the chorus and terminated the transmission.

"Witko," Locke addressed his first officer and helmsman.  "Move in slightly ahead of the Wayfarer and prepare to draw fire if needed."

"Aye, sir."

"Ahead one quarter impulse."  The Jem'Hadar officer moved to comply.  Locke sat back in the command chair and fidgeted.

The three starships approached the closest, typically large, Borg structure.  It dwarfed the cube that hovered nearby.  The Wayfarer increased its speed to one-half impulse and maneuvered into a flyby scan of the structure.

Lieutenant Commander Starblanket's voice came over the open channel.

"Wayfarer to Bonaventure.  Captain Thrax, the structure appears to be a repair facility.  There is a cube on the opposite side that is non functional and moderately damaged.  We are also detecting possible Klingon contacts in the system, but the Borg emissions are making it difficult to be sure."

"This is Thrax.  We need to disable that repair facility, and destroy the Borg technology before the Klingons can exploit it. Ascertain the shield frequencies around the Borg hubs."

"Acknowledged."  The Wayfarer scanned the hub again.

Sera piped up from the tactical console.  "Captain, I have detected several Borg signatures coming this way.  They appear to be scout spheres."

"Relay your data to the Bonaventure and open a channel to Wayfarer."  The telltale chimed.  "Locke to Starblanket, we have incoming hostiles."

A slight delay, then, "Understood.  We need a few more minutes to assess the frequency pattern from the encryption nodes."

"We may not have a few minutes, hurry.  Locke out.  Witko, put us between Wayfarer and those spheres.  Red Alert!"


The Ajax and the Red Cloud moved to intercept, joined by the cruiser, Laibok.  The spheres accelerated toward the formation and opened fire.

"Evasive. Open fire!"

Sera let fly destruction at the Borg spheres, as Witko took action to avoid the response.  Not entirely successful, as the tremors which rocked the Red Cloud indicated.

"Report."

"A glancing shot on our starboard shields, sir.  They are down to 90 percent and holding."

Locke looked at Sera incredulously.  "That was a glancing blow?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"Attack pattern Alpha.  Prepare the quantum torpedoes."

The bridge rocked again.  "Shields at 78 percent.  The lead sphere's facing shield has collapsed."

"Fire torpedoes!"

The Red Cloud delivered its deadly payload at the Borg sphere as the Ajax followed suit.  The sphere broke apart, no longer a threat, but there were two more to contend with.

"Wayfarer to fleet.  Transmitting shield algorithms now."

"Thrax to fleet.  We and the T'Pol will destroy the repair hulks.  Keep those spheres off us."

"Occitan to Bonaventure.  Some of those cubes are not as defunct as we thought."

Another blow to the Red Cloud sent Lock an inch off his chair.

"Evasive pattern Delta-Five, Mister Witko."

The Red Cloud's port shield buckled, and the Borg cutting beam ripped into her side.

"Report!"

Ensign Jackson, the bridge engineer, replied, "Hull breech on decks nine though thirteen, starboard, forcefields holding. Structural integrity at 70 percent."

"Dammit, keep us out of their fire!"  Locke shouted.  "Sera, ready another photon spread.  Witko, bring us around."

The deck heaved again.

New Ships for Locke

Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 87882.64: Admiral Quinn has given myself and my crew an unusual assignment. Along with my promotion to Commander, I have been given command of the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Massasoit. During the mission brief we received during the transition, the admiral informed me that we would be receiving a secondary assignment aboard the U.S.S. Black Hawk for occasional missions requiring dedicated firepower and a more agile profile. The escort will be pre-positioned at Starbase 39 in the Sierra Sector and maintained by a skeleton crew. The current shortage of qualified starship commanders has necessitated the unusual dual assignment. I am interested to see how the two ships perform in the shakedown cruises later this week.

The U.S.S. Massasoit (NCC-91632) is named after the great chief of the Wampanoag Confederacy that befriended the Pilgrims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 17th century.

Dedication: "Ense petit placidam sub libertate qvietem" The official motto of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Latin phrase which means, "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." 

The Massasoit is a Heavy Cruiser, Dakota Class, with a Stargazer secondary hull and Cheyenne style pylons, and a mixed paint scheme in red and black. I have unintentionally given both my cruisers name-titles of Native American chiefs who were at least somewhat friendly with the British colonists, while the escorts were named after warchiefs who fought against the U.S. expansion.


The U.S.S. Black Hawk (NCC-91767) was named for a Warchief of the Sauk who fought on the side of the British in the War of 1812 and again opposed the Americans in what history remembers as the Black Hawk War.

Dedication: "In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind." Napoleon Bonaparte

The Black Hawk is a Heavy Escort, Akira class, with an Oslo catamaran hull and Zephyr nacelles, painted with the Sagittarius scheme in red and black.

I have actually played with both ships and understand a little more about having many Boffs. A lot of players use dedicated away teams, which I never got other than perhaps an RP reason, because the space abilities have no influence on the ground abilities, and vice versa. Suddenly, with two ships, the extra Boffs make sense. Witko has cannon skills that are great on the escort, but useless on the cruiser. So I use Sera in the ensign spot on the escort for her high-yield torp skill and the only tactical spot (lewey) on the cruiser, where her fire-at-will beam skill is of more value. Interestingly, as you may know if you play STO, all the Boffs are present on every bridge, regardless of their roll in the bridge assignments tab.


The Massasoit turns like the Titanic with a broken rudder, but I don't mind because the extra weapons and durability of the cruiser make it more than a match for the encounters I have had so far. The Black Hawk seemed a little squishy at first, but I think I got overzealous, and so she does much better now. I have two consoles on the Massasoit dedicated to turning ability and one on the Black Hawk, which leads to interesting effects. The escort seems to skid around a bit in battle. The issue I had with keeping weapons on target in the Red Cloud is not a problem on the Black Hawk, helped of course by the extra weapon slot in back.

That's Commander Lo-- What? She beat me to it?

So Sunday was spent getting Locke to Commander:

And in front of the UFP banner.

Ship pics to come.