History StarTrekOnline / TropesAToM

** The 2x EXP bonuses the game sometimes gives out. It warps you too fast through the game and if you've just started, then you've missed out on a lot. This is especially painful with the KDF and Romulans as, unlike the Federation, they have to reach a certain ''mission'' to obtain their new ship and by that time, they'd hit Level ''20''

** Miral Paris is a Starfleet security officer, which according to the game's conventions means she should be wearing a red uniform: red is for security and tactical personnel, as well as commanding officers and admirals. For some reason they have her in yellow, which is for operations and engineering specialties (though it included security personnel in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' timeframe, which was when her mother served as an engineering officer; this is possibly a misplaced use of GenerationXerox). Season 10 makes the same error in the opposite direction by putting Sarish Minna, Deep Space 9's operations officer, in a red security/tactical uniform. Possibly the devs confused the term "operations officer" with the post of "''strategic'' operations officer" held by Worf in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' (for which he wore a red uniform).

** Using rank as a synonym for CharacterLevel (from Lieutenant at level 5 to ''Fleet Admiral'' at level 60) results in a lot of OutrankingYourJob and means the player is frequently taking orders from people they outrank by several grades, as well as resulting in a ludicrous ''Fanfic/MarissaPicard''-like situation where you apparently went from junior officer to 5-star in ''eighteen months''. It also inconveniences the developers in the event they ever want to raise the level cap again: the increase in rank cap to fleet admiral resulted in jokes that the next expansion would make you President of the Federation.

** During ground combat, your engineer boffs will sometimes construct a cover force field with you stuck dead in the middle of it. There's nothing to do then except wait out the duration and hope the enemy can't target the half of you that's stuck on the wrong side of the shield.

** And double ditto on missions where a friendly facility is nearby, especially large ones. 'Counterpoint' and 'Defence of Starbase One' are the main offenders here, as your tactical offers are all too willing to target Deep Space Nine or Starbase One instead of, say, the many enemy ships flying around it. Enough of this will make yo uwant to demote your tactical offer to alternative torpedo.

* AntiRageQuitting: Multiplayer raids (called Special Task Forces, or "[=STFs=]" for short) feature a quitting penalty that bans people who leave early from queuing for another STF for a short time. It isn't meant to kick in if something forces the player to leave, such as a game crash; but circumstances like a power blink can still fool the game into thinking you quit, and imposing the penalty.

* ArtifactTitle: [=STFs=]. A FunWithAcronyms title meaning "Special Task Force", they were meant to describe the Borg PVE missions and were never used again. However, it's totally not uncommon to see players refer to ''any'' PVE mission as an STF.

** Also the case with the Borg transwarp gates in the Infected & Khitomer space [=STF=]'s; the gate cannot be damaged until the nanite generators and transformers (in that order, mind you) on either side of it are destroyed. Or until you are very good and know what to do.

** Certain Bridge Officers you gain through different means avert this. The Breen, Jem'Hadar and Reman [=BOFFs=] you gain from their Featured Episodes, the Borg you gain from the STF "Khitomer in Stasis", the Romulan Borg and Photonic Tactical Officer you buy with Lobi and [[spoiler:the Voth you rescue at the end of the Dyson Sphere Reputation Line]] cannot be modified in any way.

* DemotedToExtra: The Cardassians in, ironically, the revamped "Cardassian Struggle" arc. Whereas previously the True Way had a StoryArc all to themselves, in the redone version they're little more than a sideshow to a plot involving leftover Dominion forces in the Alpha Quadrant, and something to do with the MirrorUniverse that leads into a couple Season 11 [=STFs=].

** In ''Delta Rising'''s "Borg Disconnected" STF, what starts as an effort to rescue Borg drones liberated after "Hive: Onslaught" from re-assimilation turns into a Mêlée à ''Quatre'' between the players and Borg Cooperative, the Borg Collective, the Undine, and the Voth.

*** Completing player-made missions grants a lot of experience points, too and there are a lot of them. They tend to be quite creative and vary radically, too. Like TV episodes.

** The Federation-Klingon War is almost completely forgotten after the "Klingon War" and "Warzone" arcs, and every time the two sides meet after that they're engaged in TeethClenchedTeamwork. Cryptic finally resolved it in "Surface Tension", with mixed results.Some players were irritated about the mission glossing over the Klingons' war crimes committed in the name of expansionism and blaming the whole thing on the Undine. Other Klingon players felt the Federation made a far more worthy adversary, or at least unique one, than all the others they fought. This says much about Klingon player mentality.

* MyNameIsNotDurwood: A fairly common misspelling of "Ferasan" is "Ferasian". This may be due to their CaptainErsatz status which causes players to not care about them as much.

* BareYourMidriff: One of the premium uniforms is the TOS Mirror Universe Terran uniform. There's also the various {{Stripperiffic}} outfits worn by Orion women in the game (both players and NPC's) that leave next to nothing to the imagination.
** Mirror Universe versions of modern outfits have been added to the Lobi store (yet another in-game currency), and all of them feature this (on female characters, at least).

** The KDF has a lot of this. One of the Klingon PlayerVersusEnvironment missions is called [[IncrediblyLamePun "Sulfur My Wrath."]] Players collectively groaned upon seeing it.

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: In space combat, 10 kilometers. Some ships can cross that distance in a handful of seconds. Some turret satellites and the fleet starbase in the PVE missions involving it can engage targets slightly beyond this range however.
* ArbitraryMinimumRange: The Starfleet ''Avenger''-class battlecruiser's unique console, the Variable Auto-Targeting Armament, cannot be fired if the ''Avenger'' is within 2 kilometers of its target. Same with the Romulan Hyper-Plasma Torpedo available through the reputation system. In both cases there's a good reason: they're AreaOfEffect weapons, and in the case of VATA, the further from your target you fire it, the more [[RecursiveAmmo submunitions]] it will have time to fire. Similar reasoning prevents the player from using the ability "Call Emergency Artillery" when too close to the target.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: At the end of the Gamma Quadrant mission, ''The Search'', Kira deliverers one of these to Odo when it is revealed that [[spoiler:he was the mastermind behind the Hur'q attack on Bajor]].

* HardLight: The player encounters several walkways made of this in Facility 4028. The various forcefields seen in different missions, as well as the [[DeflectorShields shields]] used by player-characters and ships could also count.

** [[spoiler: Remember how Picard thought that the Iconians had a bad rep due to their frightening teleportation technology? Thanks to season 7 and the revelations about the Dewans, ''he was wrong. [[ManipulativeBastard Very.]] [[DarkIsEvil Very.]] [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans Wrong.]]]]
** [[spoiler: He may not have been as far off the mark as we thought. [[UnreliableExpositor According to the Iconians themselves]] [[DayInTheLimelight in a short story told from the Iconian POV]], they were a peaceful people who tried to help uplift the younger ones... who repaid them with bombing their civilization so thoroughly. Turns out if that happens, you become very VERY pissed off.]] One might be inclined to reject this as self-serving memory [[spoiler: though a Preserver at Lae'nas had already mentioned the Iconians were different, 'brighter' before the first war, albeit his phrasing is ambiguous.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''T'Ket:''' "And they repaid our generosity with destruction! The Whole was shattered. Our world lost. And I will have payment for every drop of blood that has been spilled."]]
** [[spoiler: Even more justified (not in the trope sense but the colloquial meaning) in season 11's final episode in which the player gets to visit pre invasion Iconia 200,000 years ago. Turns out the Iconians weren't as bad as their reputation, but later changed due to the events. Some are willing to get back to a peaceful life - others less so.]]

* AlwaysABiggerFish: The Iconians are fond of this one. Just as you're in a fight for your life with [[spoiler: Empress Sela]], an Iconian ship [[spoiler: shows up, snags her ship and sucks her through a Gateway.]]

* AncientAstronauts: [[spoiler: At the end of the Breen arc, a planet is found with thousands of living Preservers in stasis, with many choosing to awaken and explore the Galaxy created by the various species in the Trek verse whose worlds they seeded billions of years ago.]]
** During the mission to Draconis III in "Echoes of Light" you discover [[spoiler: an alien temple with the Starfleet logo prominently displayed, and several murals depicting [=TOS-era=] uniformed figures. You later learn they were time-displaced survivors of a Federation starbase.]]

* ArcNumber: 47 has always been an in-joke in Trek productions. STO turns it into this with a subtle and easily missed WhamLine in the Romulan Faction mission "Sleepers." [[spoiler: Species 0047 is the Borg Designation for the Iconians]]. There's also the main deck on Earth Spacedock (deck 47), the Borg's Unimatrix 0047 command ships, and the default registry for the Federation's NPC Galaxy-X dreadnought is NCC-170147. And at Earth Spacedock one can drop by for a drink Club 47.

** The Iconians and their Gateway technology were introduced in the Next Generation episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E11Contagion "Contagion"]] as an extinct precursor race.[[spoiler: They end up being the main force behind the events of the game's storyline, with the Iconians themselves being the BigBad and ManBehindTheMan for most major galactic events post-Star Trek Nemesis. Their servitor races include the Elachi (The unnamed alien raiders from the Enterprise episode [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E12SilentEnemy "Silent Enemy"]], the Solanae (the Solanagen-based aliens from the TNG episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E5Schisms "Schisms"]]), the Vaadwaur (from the Voyager episode [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E7DragonsTeeth "Dragon's Teeth"]]), and even the [[PuppeteerParasite neural parasites]] from [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E24Conspiracy "Conspiracy"]]. The Tal Shiar are also allied with the Iconians, tying the destruction of Romulus from ''Film/StarTrek2009'' and the Legacy of Romulus storyline into the larger Iconian conflict.]]
** The Future Proof and Yesterday's War episodes also [[spoiler:tie together the Temporal Cold War and the Xindi story arcs from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' via time travel, and the player is present at several key events like General Vosk's escape to the alternate-1930s from [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E01E02StormFront "Storm Front"]] and the Battle of Procyon V from [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E18AzatiPrime "Azati Prime"]].]] The player's allies during these events include [[spoiler: Temporal Agent Daniels, a 29th century Starfleet Timeship crew, and Scotty and Chekov from The Original Series.]]
** It turns out the entire Temporal Cold War was triggered by the [[spoiler: events of [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E19CaptainsHoliday "Captain's Holiday"]]. Kal Dano, creator of the Tox Uthat, is a 26th century time traveler and the dead time pod pilot from the Enterprise episode [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS02E016FutureTense "Future Tense"]]. The player character is the one helping Kal evade the Tholians and Vorgons trying to steal his device, but they are too late to stop the Tholians from using it to destroy the Na'Kuhl star, triggering their StartOfDarkness. The player eventually recovers the Tox Uthat and buries it on Risa in the 22nd century where Captain Picard will dig it up in 2366.]]

* ArmorPiercingSlap: At the end of the Gamma Quadrant mission, ''The Search'', Kira deliverers one of these to Odo when it is revealed that [[spoiler: he was the mastermind behind the Hur'q attack on Bajor]].

** [[Literature/StarTrekTitan Admiral]] [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Leonard James]] [[Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse Akaar]] used to show up in one mission during the [[spoiler: Romulan]] arc. Said mission was one of the casualties when the arc was revamped, however, and there is no indication it or Admiral Akaar will reappear in some other form.

** DownplayedTrope: The Alliance ''does'' achieve their stated goal at the outset of the war, [[spoiler: and the Iconians don't -- but this is only because the Alliance's goal was 'survive as peoples without surrendering to Iconian servitude' while the Iconians wanted servitude or extermination prior to getting the MacGuffin, so the Alliance victory is something of a technicality to the billions of victims.]]

* BalkanizeMe: The {{Backstory}} of how the Romulan Star Empire breaks up and unites repeatedly, [[JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarStories strikingly resembles]] what happened to [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse a certain other franchise's]] [[TheEmpire Empire]]. The first part is borrowed from the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse post-''Nemesis'', where Senator Tal'aura and Commander Donatra had a falling out and Donatra led part of the military to form the Imperial Romulan State. In the game backstory, the RSE and IRS eventually merged back together ... just in time for Hobus to cut the heart out of the Empire and fragment it beyond belief. Nowadays a large chunk of what's left of the Empire is a military dictatorship under Empress Sela, with the [[StateSec Tal Shiar]] practically a state unto itself, while several breakaway colonies and the Reman Resistance have united under Proconsul D'Tan (Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration: "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E7Unification1 Unification]]" two-parter) to form the Romulan Republic (the player Romulan faction), with Federation and Klingon backing. By the endgame WordOfGod and implications in-game indicates the situation has more-or-less flipped, but is no less balkanized -- [[spoiler: Sela's Empire has been reduced to a few holdout colonies not even able to scrape up a fleet equivalent to that the Republic began with, the Tal Shiar ''is'' a state of their own but has suffered severe losses and desertion after Hakeev's death, the debacle on New Romulus and the conflict with Imperial loyalists, while the Republic (with the Reman Resistance integrated into it) has grown to encompass much of the former Romulan Star Empire.]]

** 'The Fek'lhri Return', in which TheLegionsOfHell invade Klingon space, turns out to be the under the orders of, surprise surprise, [[{{Satan}} Fek'lhr]]. Maybe -- the Fek'lhri actually ''invading'' Klingon space keep referring Molor's (a legendary tyrant, and another of the bosses you defeat along the way to Fek'lhr) destiny to rule over the Empire and the galaxy, and [[spoiler: sensor readings during your counter-invasion of Gre'thor imply the Fek'lhri might have been artificial proxies of some other power]]

** 'The 2800' are led by First Kar'ukan, a very stubborn time-displaced Jem'Hadar who hasn't heard of ([[spoiler:and isn't much interested in]]) the peace between his people and the Alpha Quadrant. Along with him is his Vorta, Loriss, [[spoiler: but he stops listening to her when she gets convinced the peace is real.]]

** After [[spoiler: the Iconians]] are dealt with, [[spoiler: Noye, a rogue Krenim]] becomes the leading threat of 'Future Proof' (he also shows up in the earlier 'Yesterday's War' mini-arc, although due to the involvement of time-travel for him it happens after the Iconian War despite happening before it for you).
** Once [[spoiler: Noye's Temporal Liberation Front]] is dismantled, the Tzenkethi return to the galactic scene in 'New Frontiers', led by Admiral Tzen-Tarrak and the Tzenkethi Autarch in a ruthless, genocidal crusade wiping all life from dozens of worlds, many of them inhabited. [[spoiler: It turns out they are trying to weaken the Hur'q before they return, but end up fighting a counter-productive war when they refuse to ''explain'' this and commit several unnecessary atrocities in the process.]]
** The [[spoiler: Female Founder]] turns out to be not only the BigBad of 'Gamma Quadrant', but responsible for some of the threats of earlier seasons. [[spoiler: She isn't actually ''controlling'' the Hur'q anymore, but she used to, is directly and willfully responsible for them turning into a galactic threat, and is actively impeding the struggle against the Hur'q when it threatens to reveal her involvement, up to trying to kill Odo and revealing she's done so to several other Founders before. She was ''also'' responsible for creating the Fek'Ihri as a predecessor to the Jem'Hadar, although they went renegade, and was impersonating Tzen-Tarrak.]]

** The [[spoiler: U.S.S. Enterprise-F]] coming to the rescue in Boldly They Rode.
** [[spoiler: '''Sela and the Dominion''' of all people show up to defend the K.I.S. ''Annorax'' ]]in "Midnight".

* BigNo: Happens twice; first when the player escapes from Hakeev on Nopada Prime, then again when [[spoiler: Undine!Cooper gets "repurposed"]] at the climax of "Mindgames".

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Praetor Taris seems to be this. She's pretty much unflinchingly loyal to her "dread masters", and for a Romulan that is ''weird''.]]

** In the ultimate battle for Deep Space 9 in "Boldly They Rode", despite preparing for the battle, the forces to recover Deep Space 9 ''still'' find themselves being pushed back. That is until Captain Shon [[spoiler: of the Odyssey Class U.S.S. Enterprise-F]] arrives to help turn the tide of the battle.

** If [[spoiler: the Kazon]] are called in early enough in "Takedown", another smaller group of them show up later to reinforce you due to disliking the way [[spoiler: Maje Sessen]] had arranged for the official [[spoiler: Kazon]] contribution to [[CavalryBetrayal secretly be on the other side]].
** As things look bleak during the Battle of Earth in the Iconian War, [[spoiler: Sela]] shows up with [[spoiler: a Dominion fleet. Turns out she ''did'' get the Dominion to send aid after all!]].
* CavalryBetrayal: "Takedown" includes a multi-stage space battle where you call in one group of allies at a time. [[spoiler: The Kazon]] join up with the Vaadwaur instead when called in. It doesn't really work out for them, since Captain Kim observes he never really trusted them to begin with, and had worked with Admiral Tuvok on a contingency in case something like this happened ([[spoiler:calling in a group of Hirogen who would be more than happy to hunt Kazon and Vaadwaur for a while]]).

* CivilWar: According to blogs released by the developers leading up to Season 7, it appears the Romulans are falling into this in an attempt to fill the power vacuum left by [[spoiler: Empress Sela's disappearance]] since the mission "Cutting the Cord". As [[AllThereInTheManual 'The Path to 2409']] makes clear, it wouldn't be the first time in recent decades. Or the fifth. Or the sixth. Once Legacy of Romulus was released, it turned out that it had been slightly misleading -- the Romulans already ''were'' falling into this before the spoilered event, with the Romulan Republic (supported by the Federation and the Klingon Empire) on one side and the Tal Shiar and Sela's Star Empire on the other. If anything the spoilered event cut the civil war short, as [[spoiler: Sela's disappearance and Hakeev's death in the same incident]] caused the Star Empire side to disintegrate with the Republic already there to fill the power vacuum.

** [[spoiler: The experiments done to Captain Shon and the Romulan who went with him in "Sphere of Influence", inflicted by the solanogen-based race seen in TNG. Shon had his ''left arm and both antennae ripped off, then reattached, as well as being injected with various other painful substances. The Romulan had his entire blood volume replaced with some sort of polymer''... luckily you managed to save Shon.]]

** [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Miral Paris]] is a plot-centric character whose storyline first introduces you to [[spoiler: the Guardian of Forever and the MirrorUniverse.]]

** [[spoiler: And then, who should show up from the mirror universe? Captain James ''O'Brien''. Aboard the [[MeaningfulName ISS ''Molly.'']]]]

** The entrance to the [[spoiler: Preserver archive]] resembles the Asteroid Deflector from the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS episode "The Paradise Syndrome"]]
** "The 2800" story arc is not only a continuity nod but also a ''continuation of a story arc from one of the series''. [[spoiler: A Dominion fleet suddenly emerges from the wormhole, attacking (and taking over) Deep Space 9, and still thinking the Dominion war is still going on despite checking a calendar since then.]] Starfleet is baffled by where they came from. [[spoiler: It's the same fleet that the Prophets had seemingly willed out of existence when Captain Sisko and the ''Defiant'' single-handedly headed into the wormhole to confront. Turns out they just kicked the Jemmies 35 years into the future.]]

* ConvergingStreamWeapon: Just as seen in ''Voyager'', the Undine's original method of destroying a planet or other large target [[spoiler: such as a Borg Unimatrix Command Ship in "Fluid Dynamics"]] is to have several ships arrange themselves in formation and all divert energy to a ship in the middle which then fires a huge beam at the target, annihilating it in one shot. The Undine Planet Killers seen in "Surface Tension" and onward use this as well, but it's not as impressive as the multi-ship formation.

** The last episode of the Iconian War arc, appropriately named "Midnight" is even darker. [[spoiler: The Alpha Quadrant Alliance has all but lost the war with the Iconians, and Earth is under siege by a ''massive'' Herald fleet. Traveling back in time to kill the Iconians 200 000 years ago is the only possible chance for victory.]]

* DiabolusExMachina: Halfway through "Home" [[spoiler: a haggard-looking Weyoun shows up out of nowhere and vaporizes Bashir's Hur'q cure samples, right before he was about to administer them to the core of the Hur'q command ship.]]

* DownerEnding: Several of the Iconian War missions seem to be trying to one-up each other in a bid to get this title; "Blood of Ancients" has the Iconians wiping the floor with the alliance and [[spoiler: exterminating the [[AncientAstronauts Preservers]],]] and then "House Pegh" has an Iconian [[spoiler: killing Emperor Kahless]] and sending the player running with their tail between their legs.
* DragonAscendant: In "The Measure of Morality Part 2"[[spoiler: EvilTwin Seven of Nine kills the Excalbian version of the Borg Queen and takes her place as the ArcVillain.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: K'Valk in the Doomsday Machine due to his part in helping the machine being activated. See Heroic Sacrifice below.]]

* DysonSphere: Season 8 introduces one as a new zone for starships to fly around inside and explore. A related Republic Intelligence debriefing also mentions the Jenolan Dyson Sphere of TNG fame, noting its disappearance as one of the oddities that started happening after you [[spoiler: unlocked the entire Iconian gateway network]]...

** The Undine do this to Kessek IV in "A Gathering Darkness" after the planet has been entirely assimilated by the Borg. They also intend to do this to [[spoiler: Qo'noS]] in "Surface Tension" and several other worlds in the Alpha and Beta quadrants in the "Undine Assault" [=PVE=] mission.

* EverybodysDeadDave: As you escape from the [[spoiler: Iconian Command Sphere in "Broken Circle", you fly through a massive ship graveyard of the combined Federation, Romulan, and Klingon strike fleets, a fleet of hundreds of ships. You pick up a handful of escape pods...and no one else.]]
* EverythingIsTryingToKillYou: Lampshaded. Upon encountering some hostile ice spiders in a cave during the [[spoiler: Reman Uprising]] arc (not too long after fighting off hostile jackals), one of your officers loudly questions why every new species you encounter always wants to kill you.

* EvilTwin: In addition to running into various Mirror Universe counterparts of heroic characters like Leeta, Sylvia Tilly, and Admirals Janeway and Quinn, the ''Terran Gambit'' arc introduces [[spoiler: the Inquisitor, the Terran Empire counterpart of the player character, who acts as TheDragon for the mysterious Terran Emperor.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: Expository text in the loading screens reveal [[spoiler: that Worf had severed all ties to the Federation after they declined assisting the Klingons in fighting the Undine/Species 8472.]] [[spoiler:Of course, given that he was worried about Starfleet Command and the Federal Parliament being shot through with Undine infiltrators and was rebuffed after being told it couldn't happen, exactly who ended up the face and who ended up the heel [[GreyAndGreyMorality is a matter of perspective]].]]

** [[spoiler: The Undine's attack on the Alpha and Beta Quadrant is because of ''someone'' using Iconian tech to mimic Starfleet spaceships and attack Fluidic Space]].

* FakeDefector: [[spoiler: In the mission "Under the Cover of Night", T'Par is actually a member of Section 31, and capturing her is just part of a ruse to feed the Romulans false information.]]

* FutureMeScaresMe: [[spoiler: Past-B'Vat, complete with TOS Klingon style smooth forehead, is terrified at what he will become in the future, and helps the player in taking down his future self]]

** The New Romulus story introduced in Season 7 has what one can call Story And Story Segregation: continuity-wise it explicitly takes place after and relies on events in the Romulan arc in the Federation story (for instance, [[spoiler: the disappearance of Sela is the reason for the civil war that is the reason for the New Romulus exodus, while the Tal Shiar's actions are influenced by the loss of Hakeev]]), but there's no restriction on doing the New Romulus missions before even ''beginning'' the Romulan arc.

** More Story and Story Segregation in the Third Anniversary mission, "Temporal Ambassador". Given that the mission guest-stars Tholians and [[spoiler: 29th Century Starfleet timeships]], the mission ''should'' be set somewhere near the Endgame and post-Endgame content. However, the level restriction for "Temporal Ambassador" is level 6 - Lieutenant rank, a far cry from Endgame. When the mission was shuffled into the post-early-game missions, it's at Level 20 and yet you're still dealing with things that you won't deal with for another 30 levels.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GladiatorGames: [[spoiler: Prominently featured in the Cloaked Intentions episode series.]]
** [[spoiler: In one mission on Nimbus III, Hassan throws you and your party into one.]]

** This has been cleaned up a lot in the new tutorial, introduced in Season 8. The new tutorial has you [[spoiler: on your first assignment as a freshly graduated cadet from the Academy acting as First Officer. After the Captain is killed in a Klingon ambush, you receive a field promotion to Lieutenant from another Starfleet Captain. You then get caught up in the initial stages of the Borg invasion. Your actions in evacuating the survivors of the Vega Colony prompt Admiral Quinn to make the promotion official.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The Remans, and particularly Obisek, who starts off stealing thalaron weapons and siccing fighters on you.]]

** [[spoiler: K'Valk does a suicide run into the core of the Doomsday Machine to at least try to disable it. And he does it while singing the Klingon War Song.]]
** [[spoiler: Admiral D'Vak nearly does one too; sacrificing his ship to draw fire from insanely powerful Borg weapons. [[SuicidalGotcha He survives, though]].]]
** [[spoiler: Guroth]], the weapons expert of Delta Flight, does this in "Broken Circle", flying his ship head-on into the Iconian flagship and causing enough damage that it's forced to leave the front lines and the Alliance & the player are able send over boarding parties.
** [[spoiler: Temer]] sacrifices himself on the final mission of the Romulan introduction to save the attendees of the conference and single-handedly improve the standing of the republic.

** ''The Tribble With Klingons'', Which gives us such gems as: [[spoiler: Whack-A-Tribble, Tribble Savior, Tribble Topia, etc.]] Be warned, this has undergone ''rapid'' MemeticMutation in the player base.

** The Republic prisoner on Hakeev's ship says this as [[spoiler: the brainwashed player]] is about to [[MalevolentMutilation forcibly install Borg implants into them]] without anesthesia. It doesn't do them any good.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Poor Miral Paris. She hates the fact that she is considered the Klingon Messiah. She just wants to be the head of security on the U.S.S. Kirk. [[spoiler: Even worse is that the Guardian of Forever confirms the fact that she is the Kuvah'magh.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While rescuing a Federation ship from a Borg sphere, Q, for seemingly no reason than his own amusement, will get involved and start resetting time, forcing you to rescue the ship against increasingly desperate odds. [[spoiler: However, after the third go, he'll then send you and your away team back in time to the battle of Wolf 359, on board the Saratoga, where he reveals the Iconians have opened a small rift, letting a handful of Borg on board, where they will proceed to kill or assimilate Ben Sisko, and throw the entire future into chaos, unless you stop them. After clearing the ship, Q will admit he's moderately impressed, and will helpfully stop time, giving you a chance to get ready for the boss fight (which you ''will'' need).]] He can be an epic jerk about it, but Q seems to be looking out for the human race, and at least giving them a fighting chance against the Iconians' more cosmic level shenanigans.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Most of the Vorta, as you would expect. Neman, for instance, is utterly full of himself, especially since [[spoiler: you have to take him to the Founders' homeworld, where no other Vorta has visited.]] He frequently drops snide comments like it's a waste that the PC has to kill off so many Jem'Hadar, but "you can always grow more..."

* JustOneSecondOutOfSync: In the mission "Time in a Bottle", the player character and Captain Nog investigate a Krenim artifact. [[spoiler: They discover a Krenim outpost that managed to evade the Vaadwaur's genocide by hiding half a second away out of the "regular" timestream. They also have plans for a great Timeship but need Alliance aid to build it.]]

** Actually {{Subverted}} despite first appearances with the Iconians. [[spoiler: The Iconians look like they get away with massive destruction of the galaxy but they ended up with the same situation as Sela. It turns out their actions caused all of the pain and distress which drove them to all that murder in the first place.]]
* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Gaul]] does this by [[spoiler:shooting a Talaxian cook]]. In fact he had a complex plan to make certain there would be that dog to kick, that the player would be there to see the kick and that it would be the most senseless kick manageable in the whole Quadrant. When it fails to cause the right reaction from [[spoiler: Neelix]], he proceeds to stomp on the whole litter just to drive home that he is Evil.

** [[spoiler: Thot Trel During the Breen arc.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Thot Trel''': "...But... I'm... Thot... Tr..."]]

** Noye. After his [[spoiler: FaceHeelTurn and vendetta against the player character, he brings the hamminess up to eleven]]. Like Hakeev, [[spoiler: Supervillain!]]Noye serves as some necessary comic relief.

* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: The Dominion, true to their PragmaticVillainy roots. In [[spoiler: "Victory Is Life" we learn that after turning the ancient Hur'q into mindless monsters and accidentally unleashing them on the Galaxy, the Dominion used special lure devices to draw the swarm to worlds of their choosing, worlds that they wanted to add to the Dominion. The Founders would offer the targets a choice: join the Dominion and be saved by the Jem'Hadar, or refuse and watch their world and everyone on it be eaten alive by the swarm. It worked for millennia, until the Hur'q swarms became too large and too powerful for the Jem'Hadar to contain.]]

* LockedRoomMystery: In "What Lies Beneath," the party hears a cry for help coming from the intercom outside a locked room. After breaking in, they find the body of someone who'd just been shot with a phaser, with no sign of the shooter. [[spoiler: It was done by a malfunctioning maintenance hologram and its mobile emitter probably just flew through an air duct or something.]]

** On a smaller scale, this trope applies to the Romulan Empire. While Empress Sela does in her own right hold a great deal of authority and power, [[spoiler: The Tal Shiar have always had their own agenda and goals of operation. They work under their own masters, and don't recognize Sela as the true ruler of the empire.]]
** In ''Victory is Life'', we learn that [[spoiler: the Dominion created both the Fek'Ihri and the Hur'q as predecessors to the Jem'Hadar.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: This is the [[spoiler: Iconians']] [[PlanetOfHats Hat.]] They're responsible for starting ''everything'' that has happened in the first 10 seasons.

** [[spoiler: And then "Leap of Faith" muddies things even further by actually having the player ''retrieve a Klingon's soul'' from Gre'thor, so she can be placed into a clone body, after which the Fek'Ihri come through various portals over the Monastary at Boreth, leaving it dubious as to what is magic and what is mundane.]]

** Upon arrival at the [[spoiler: Preserver]] outpost world, the player finds several Breen and Jem'Hadar ships fighting for control of whatever's on the surface. The player's crewmates encourage them to attack while both are distracted.

** [[spoiler: The "Red Angel" trial: Saving Future!Burnham prevents her from taking the Sphere data to the future, and wiping the data ends up killing her. In either case, Control merges with Seven of Nine's Borg nanoprobes and spawns an EvilTwin Seven of Nine, then escapes.]]

** "House Pegh" has the eponymous Klingon [[InformedAttribute black-ops team]] in possession of a wide-area cloaking device capable of hiding ships in formation with the equipped vessel from Iconian sensors. [[SarcasmMode Surely this is a brilliant technological advance that will change the course of the war!]] Nope, never mentioned again, which amazingly is one of the ''lesser'' reasons the mission is considered an IdiotPlot. However, we learn soon enough that being able to hide half or two-thirds of the Alliance fleet would not make much of a difference in the war.

*** Then there's "House Pegh". Emperor Kahless breaks away from a covert infiltration mission that is going surprisingly well because he sees an Iconian on a security camera and wants to challenge it to honorable combat. T'Ket at first ignores the idiot, then basically toys with Kahless for a while until [[spoiler:B'Eler {{technobabble}}s away T'Ket's NighInvulnerability. Instead of pressing his unearned advantage home, Kahless cuts off T'Ket's arm then starts monologuing about honor, giving T'Ket time to recover and vape Kahless.]] To hear Captain Kagran and Cryptic's blog tell it, the game views this as a HeroicSacrifice; [[IdiotPlot the players had a much different opinion]].

** Your away team members can set one up for you to take cover behind. And then you've got ones ''[[UpToEleven on a planetary scale.]]''

* {{Flanderization}}: One of the few things we learned about the Breen in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is that they wear refrigeration suits because they prefer cold temperatures. The game takes this UpToEleven by making everything about them relate somehow to cold: they use cryonic grenades, encase their prisoners in ice, and somehow scatter snow across the corridors of enemy ships they're boarding. And then there's the IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming of their story missions, all of which have something to do with cold.

* FourStarBadass: The current maximum rank a player can achieve is Fleet Admiral (Federation & Romulan Republic, allowing them to become ''[[UpToEleven five]]''-star badasses) and General (KDF)[[note]]the final KDF promotion is Dahar Master, but that technically is a title rather than a rank[[/note]]. Per ''Delta Rising'', there are ''eighteen months'' between the low-ranked game start and flag rank. The Romulan PC at least has the minor justification that the Romulan Republic is new and [[ClosestThingWeGot short on manpower]], but the Federation PC (in the post-season 8 tutorial) starts as a fourth-year cadet on his/her senior midshipman cruise and is given a battlefield commission as a lieutenant.

** And taken UpToEleven with the Klingon "House United" expansion, [[spoiler:in the climax of which J'Ula actually kills J'mpok, and L'Rell is installed as Chancellor; yet J'mpok congratulates you on your promotions! L'Rell and J'Ula do, however, become the ruling duumvirate in the hub world.]] It's also rather difficult to know how some of the new task force missions fit in, since at least one pits you against J'Ula's forces, yet in the new storyline she is your ally.

** That said, in the mission "Afterlife", where the Klingon player and their crew join up with Kahless to raid Gre'thor (Quite literally the Klingon version of Hell), the Spectre of Cowardice takes this UpToEleven while making it perfectly in-character. He flees into an underground maze, and the player has to search the maze for him, fighting him until he runs away again.

** The un-remastered Cardassian story arc. Untouched since game launch, almost every mission in it is a MarathonLevel with LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading between space and ground maps multiple times per mission, and usually involves a MassMonsterSlaughterSidequest full of GoddamnBats. And then there are missions with the simple goal to interact with a few objects, except there are usually hordes of RespawningEnemies you have to chew through, and you are forced into BackTracking through them most times. All the loot including the mission rewards are little better than VendorTrash. Word has it though that the Cardassian missions will be overhauled with the release of Season 11 in October 2015.

** And now, STO itself has become AscendedFanon, with several ships from STO appearing in '[[Series/StarTrekPicard]]'!

** Your Captain character is seemingly versed in every operating system in the galaxy, hacking an alien computer is just a matter of pushing some buttons. The few times you actively have to hack a computer yourself, you're required to solve some ''incredibly'' simple math puzzles. The only one of any complexity can also be solved by brute force, i.e. rotating through the solutions until you get the right one.

* HollywoodHacking: Your Captain character is seemingly versed in every operating system in the galaxy, hacking an alien computer is just a matter of pushing some buttons. The few times you actively have to hack a computer yourself, you're required to solve some ''incredibly'' simple math puzzles. The only one of any complexity can also be solved by brute force, i.e. rotating through the solutions until you get the right one.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: The Tzenkethi feature two sets of arms; one huge pair that would make the Franchise/IncredibleHulk jealous, and a smaller pair used for more precise interactions.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: The Gorn equivalent of the [[DemonicSpiders Klingon Swordmaster]] likes to grab a chunk of the ground and throw it at you. Yes, even on a space ship/space station.