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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

So, how are things coming on the new exploration system?

thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
edited June 2015 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
A few months ago there was an official poll asking people what they wanted to see more of in STO, and exploration won by far. So, how are things coming on the new exploration system?
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008

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Post edited by thegrandnagus1 on

Comments

  • jellico1jellico1 Member Posts: 2,719
    edited May 2015
    they haven't said one word........................

    come on Trendy give something up already
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  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    Some interesting recent tweets from Geko:
    Al Rivera&#8207 wrote: »

    Been busy all week designing a brand new system for STO with the leads. It's still just in concept, but we are very excited about it.

    https://twitter.com/CaptainGeko/status/599090221515321344
    Completed the first draft of the design doc of our new system the leads and I have been working on. Time for feasibility review.

    https://twitter.com/CaptainGeko/status/599613730771505152

    I wonder if this has anything to do with exploration? He blocked me on twitter so I can't ask him, but if someone else wants to please share any response you get :D
    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • binebanebinebane Member Posts: 557 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    thegrandnagus1 wrote: »
    A few months ago there was an official poll asking people what they wanted to see more of in STO, and exploration won by far. So, how are things coming on the new exploration system?
    they are working on fleets update.
  • foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    That is a pretty big assumption to think they are working on new exploration after they trashed the old exploration stuff. I'd be happy if they just brought back the old exploration.
  • warmaker001bwarmaker001b Member Posts: 9,205 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    I really hope people are not actually holding their breath on this. Once features are removed they never come back.

    Hello Terradome.

    Hello 2-phased Starbase 24 (1st Phase Space with option to continue to 2nd Phase Ground for any player that wanted to go on)

    Hello Exploration Clusters.
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  • aesicaaesica Member Posts: 736 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    foxrockssocks wrote: »
    That is a pretty big assumption to think they are working on new exploration after they trashed the old exploration stuff. I'd be happy if they just brought back the old exploration.
    Please no.

    The old exploration system was so drab. It never actually felt like exploration, but rather, just doing the same few quests with random-featured npc contacts. It was terrible. In order to make something truly decent, the devs will need to spend a lot of time creating many, many different templates, each of which would be capable of connecting to other templates to form what felt like an actual mission. And the result would still feel low-quality because procedurally-created content can only go so far.
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  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    foxrockssocks wrote: »
    That is a pretty big assumption to think they are working on new exploration after they trashed the old exploration stuff. I'd be happy if they just brought back the old exploration.

    It's a big assumption to think they are working on the thing that won the poll they posted?
    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • pigeonofclaypigeonofclay Member Posts: 142 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    "The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe that the best is yet to come."

    The Nagus certainly is optimistic! :D;)
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    thegrandnagus1 wrote: »
    It's a big assumption to think they are working on the thing that won the poll they posted?
    Yes, it kinda is. The STO pipeline is long. Maybe they are already working on it, maybe it's the next project after the current one. Or maybe it isn't really planned at all yet.

    But what it definitely is - too early for us to hear anything about the progress and plans. They have been keeping things close to their chest, probably since dstahl left.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    mustrumridcully0 wrote: »
    Yes, it kinda is. The STO pipeline is long. Maybe they are already working on it, maybe it's the next project after the current one. Or maybe it isn't really planned at all yet.

    But what it definitely is - too early for us to hear anything about the progress and plans. They have been keeping things close to their chest, probably since dstahl left.

    I get your point, but those tweets I posted(which may or may not be about exploration) say they are only in the concept phase, so that would still be extremely early.
    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • ragingloliragingloli Member Posts: 63 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    They could just fill the exploration clusters with user created foundry missions and just do some basic curating. Encourage users to create exploration missions, and reward the inclusion of their missions with a substantial amount of dilithium.
  • foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    aesica wrote: »
    Please no.

    The old exploration system was so drab. It never actually felt like exploration, but rather, just doing the same few quests with random-featured npc contacts. It was terrible. In order to make something truly decent, the devs will need to spend a lot of time creating many, many different templates, each of which would be capable of connecting to other templates to form what felt like an actual mission. And the result would still feel low-quality because procedurally-created content can only go so far.

    It offered something unpredictable, and was no worse quality than the patrols we have right now. Some of the patrols I'd be happy to never see again. Which Delta one is it that blinds you every 30s? Terrible terrible mission that never should have been put into the game.

    The old exploration wasn't good, but it isn't like Star Trek has always been about high budget and high quality. It did however try to imagine. We know virtually nothing about the Borg history from the shows or movies. Who is to say they don't have a third dynasty? The original series had Kirk meeting Greek gods and prohibition era gansters.

    The scanning missions were simple non combat but they were there. How many patrols offer that now?

    The tribble hunting missions were decidedly awesome, and are a sad removal of fun KDF only content.

    thegrandnagus1 wrote: »
    It's a big assumption to think they are working on the thing that won the poll they posted?

    This isn't Amplitude Studios. This is Cryptic. They have yet to even finish the stuff we have now, like crafting of kits. Sector space is still missing most of the NPC ships almost a month later to say nothing of the DOFFing borders.

    I mean, look at that poll. Of 2500 responders over 400 of them wanted more PVP queues most. That will NEVER happen. Do you remember how they kept saying ever since PWE took over how important PVP was to them? Not one thing has happened with PVP whatsoever. Nothing. They have admitted to having no idea how the PVP maps work. Do you honestly think if that won they would try it?

    Hey I would love it if they made a new exploration system that was better than the old one. But based on experience with Cryptic, you can't even believe what they do promise us, or even that they will fix/finish existing systems. It is far to presumptuous to assume that another exploration system is coming after they removed the old one.
  • aesicaaesica Member Posts: 736 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    foxrockssocks wrote: »
    It offered something unpredictable, and was no worse quality than the patrols we have right now. Some of the patrols I'd be happy to never see again. Which Delta one is it that blinds you every 30s? Terrible terrible mission that never should have been put into the game.

    The old exploration wasn't good, but it isn't like Star Trek has always been about high budget and high quality. It did however try to imagine. We know virtually nothing about the Borg history from the shows or movies. Who is to say they don't have a third dynasty? The original series had Kirk meeting Greek gods and prohibition era gansters.

    The scanning missions were simple non combat but they were there. How many patrols offer that now?

    The tribble hunting missions were decidedly awesome, and are a sad removal of fun KDF only content.
    That's just it though, they were predictable once you've done them a few times. Many, many, many (hundreds) more templates that can interconnect are needed before that predictability goes away.
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  • orion0029orion0029 Member Posts: 1,122 Bug Hunter
    edited May 2015
    I, for one, really miss those old Exploration Cluster missions. Yes, they were buggy, repetitive, and after a while could get annoying. But they had the basic premise of being exploration, you fly out to a random star system and don't know what you'll find until you get there. It provided a simple respite from all the 'saving the galaxy' that seems to be the bulk of STO...

    I truly hope that there will be some form of Exploration missions available in coming updates, probably when this Iconian 'war' is done with, but that would be the perfect time to start exploring the universe again, yes? :)
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,231 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    ragingloli wrote: »
    They could just fill the exploration clusters with user created foundry missions and just do some basic curating. Encourage users to create exploration missions, and reward the inclusion of their missions with a substantial amount of dilithium.
    They kinda did that already. All the old clusters are hooked up as Foundry doors, and work with the top 3 system so that they can give you a random mission just for flying to the cluster and clicking a button.
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  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    f2pdrakron wrote: »
    But its not enough for the Foundry authors it seems, they arent happy until playing Foundry missions becomes mandatory.

    I don't think any foundry author actually wants that. What many *do* want is for the foundry to have some unique reward or reputation that you can only get from playing foundry missions. Not a requirement, but an incentive.
    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • captainhunter1captainhunter1 Member Posts: 1,627 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    orion0029 wrote: »
    I, for one, really miss those old Exploration Cluster missions. Yes, they were buggy, repetitive, and after a while could get annoying. But they had the basic premise of being exploration, you fly out to a random star system and don't know what you'll find until you get there. It provided a simple respite from all the 'saving the galaxy' that seems to be the bulk of STO...

    I truly hope that there will be some form of Exploration missions available in coming updates, probably when this Iconian 'war' is done with, but that would be the perfect time to start exploring the universe again, yes? :)

    It would be nice to say, "Remember when we used to be soldiers?" (instead of, "Remember when we used to be explorers?") :D
    My consolidated list of game improvements for STO:
    arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    f2pdrakron wrote: »
    Yet I keep seeing the harping of "if only Cryptic made Foundry missions official" ...

    Where? What are you talking about?
    There been voiced "complains" about high rank missions not being the 3 hours of verbose nonsense bit quick 15-30 minutes grinds that were popular because people rather play that, the whole "unique" reward is simply one of the many things voiced out from that section of the forum, the argument about putting foundry missions as replacement of exploration been put forth many times, despite how many would actually qualify as such? I mean actual exploration and not 3 hours of text about some Federation-Klingon War story?

    It's pretty simple. If you actually want to play a foundry mission, but don't want to play a really long one, all you have to do is use the search filters. When I search for foundry missions, I set the minimum length at 20 mins to ensure it qualifies for rewards, and the maximum length at 1 hour, because I don't like playing really long missions either.

    Also, I set the filter to include ALL of these: ground, space, combat (because I don't really enjoy missions with no combat, and I like a mix of ground and space)

    You pretty much have complete control to find whatever kind of foundry mission you want.
    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • thutmosis85thutmosis85 Member Posts: 2,358 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    thegrandnagus1 wrote: »
    A few months ago there was an official poll asking people what they wanted to see more of in STO, and exploration won by far. So, how are things coming on the new exploration system?

    Still waiting for "Krenim" (last Poll ~2years ago) ... so good luck with that ...
    markhawkman wrote: »
    They kinda did that already. All the old clusters are hooked up as Foundry doors, and work with the top 3 system so that they can give you a random mission just for flying to the cluster and clicking a button.


    Not really though ... 10/14 Clusters don't even have ONE Foundry Mission ...
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  • aelfwin1aelfwin1 Member Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    Well ...





    ... yeah ...
  • gl2814egl2814e Member Posts: 328 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    thutmosis85 wrote: »
    Still waiting for "Krenim" (last Poll ~2years ago) ... so good luck with that ...

    I was just thinking that.

    Besides, with the way things have been going lately, they'll just make Exploration some kind of horrible grind where you have to use refined Dilithium as fuel to explore the great and yet predictable unknown, all while adding a Zen-Boost which will enable you to go a little bit further...

    On the other hand...

    LONG LIVE THE KING OF THE FOURTH BORG DYNASTY!
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    Any news yet?
    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • mhall85mhall85 Member Posts: 2,852 Arc User1
    edited June 2015
    thegrandnagus1 wrote: »
    Any news yet?

    We've got to be close to another Geko interview on P1.

    Plus, I'd imagine Season 10.5 will hit sometime in July... and that should clear the pipeline a bit (ships releasing, fleet update, and possibly the crafting update/expansion). So, we should hear more on that soon.

    I'd see what he says in his next interview...
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