Post Server Death Game Mode

richyrich1991

I've just been having a conversation about MMO's in general and an interesting subject popped up that got me thinking how this would go down in Star Trek Online.

Basically, someone had the idea that when an MMO was on on it's way out and the servers were going to come offline would it be doable to patch the game to be playable without a server?

Obviously many of the games features (fleets, PvE/PvP queues, exchange systems etc.) would be disabled in this form but the core gameplay, dynamic events and story would still work; you'd just have to do it all solo. There are obviously some obstacles to this but it would allow the players to keep playing the game long after the devs have moved on.

Is this something that you'd like to see in STO or would you just stop playing when the servers die?

davefenestrator

It would be a little depressing knowing there would never be new story episodes or even new ships and gear, but better than nothing I suppose.

However, CBS/Paramount would never let this happen.

Also, you'd need to be able run a local server to work with the existing client, because that's how the client is written now: it depends on the server to tell it what is happening and what it should render. Getting rid of that would be a massive undertaking. Running the server too is doable on a decent PC that isn't already at its limit from running the client.

silverlobes

I'd be quite happy with a completely solo, no new content version of the game downloaded to the PC. New stuff is good, so obviously it would be a shame, but I could certainly live with it, and everything I have thus far

dracounguis

The parent company would have no reason or desire to spend even 2 seconds making the game playable after they decided to pull the plug.

fleetcaptain5

richyrich1991 wrote: »

Obviously many of the games features (fleets, PvE/PvP queues, exchange systems etc.) would be disabled in this form but the core gameplay, dynamic events and story would still work; you'd just have to do it all solo. There are obviously some obstacles to this but it would allow the players to keep playing the game long after the devs have moved on.

Those are quite important features. The exchange is for some people the only way to get certain ships and weapons, and indeed, it would be the only way of acquiring them. As I imagine that in such a post-apocalypse (I know that my world would be devastated if Star Trek went offline) situation the C-store would be taken offline too. So no more keys to open boxes, no more buying already existing C-store ships. With every lock box item and lobi crystal you use (traits and such) you reduce the remaining pool of items that you'll ever be able to use in the future.

It might seem to be a great way of prolonging the game's existence, but it would be more likely to only serve as a reminder that it's dead, or worse, will forever be dying / in a declining state.

I don't think you'd find many people who would be willing to keep playing in such a disheartening setting. Especially if the exchange would only be one of the many systems that would be unavailable. Cause you mentioned fleets and queues, but what about the character creator to name just one relatively small thing that currently keeps the game interesting to, I imagine, many people?

orangenee

Well Star Wars Galaxy was kind of resurrected so if this game gets the plug yanked it could maybe return in a sense. No idea on the legality of it though.

velqua

One way that Cryptic/PWE could make a final cash grab should they decide to end STO would be to sell to the players a server edition of STO so that those who would like to continue to play the game could do so. Granted it would come "As Is" and with little no support. Regardless, I wouldn't mind having this option since I do enjoy playing the game. I could see this going similar to the Star Trek Armada series.

davefenestrator

velqua wrote: »

One way that Cryptic/PWE could make a final cash grab should they decide to end STO would be to sell to the players a server edition of STO so that those who would like to continue to play the game could do so. Granted it would come "As Is" and with little no support. Regardless, I wouldn't mind having this option since I do enjoy playing the game. I could see this going similar to the Star Trek Armada series.

Cryptic/PWE almost certainly does not have a perpetual license to Trek, and if they do it still requires regular payments to renew it.

It seems unlikely that CBS would let Cryptic make a one-time payment to let us use these servers forever, unless that payment was very large. Probably much larger than what Cryptic could hope to get from selling the servers.

salazarraze

Won't happen. On the plus side, you can sleep safe knowing that Starfleet Command 3 exists. Sure it's a much crummier game but there are similarities and it does have it's charm. Most importantly, it has (had?) very dedicated modders for a long long time.