test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Interesting theory on what could have been the future of STO post Victory is Life
somtaawkhar
Member Posts: 10,222 Arc User
In my years of playing STO I have regularly listened to many of the Dev's interviews, and livestreams, and have come away with little bits of dev comments that pose a rather interesting picture of how STO could have gone had Age of Discovery not happened. I will start this off by admitting I don't recall the exact interviews/livestreams the devs said most of in, so I wont have links to much of it... but anyways
1. Way back before AoY came out(it had been announced but not released IIRC) Al Rviera gave an interview, I do believe with Priority One Podcast, where he made the comment that Cryptic had high level ideas for all the way out to a possible Expansion 5.
2. Back in November of last year, in another interview with P1 Podcast, Al mentioned that he was glad all these new Trek shows are coming out because they were coming up on the end of story ideas for STO, and that they only had a couple left.
3. Throughout the years Cryptic has repeatedly mentioned wanting to do a new Borg arc, making the Borg scary end-game enemies again
4. In various livestreams done throughout January, we have learned that the original post Victory is Life story was going to involve Mirror Leeta, and finishing up her story
5. In said livestreams its also been mentioned that some of the Devs have been pushing for a TNG expansion for some time now
6. In the latest episode of Priory One, their 400th episode where the crew go to Cryptic studios and interview the devs, Al mentions that before AoD came along, he had about two years worth of story ideas planned.
All of these comments are fairly well consistent with each other, and If we take them all together, we can actually form a somewhat clear picture of how the game was going to go before Age of Discovery threw a wrench in it.
In the typical 18-20 month time gap between the end of Victory is Life, and Expansion 5, we would have gotten another 8-9 mission story arc involving Leeta, whatever alien races she found using the data she stole from the future, and her attempts to overthrow the mysterious and enigmatic Terran Emperor. This would have likely been STO's big "Mirror Universe" arc, unlike past arcs where we just jump over once or twice. This arc would end just before Expansion 5, which would likely be a TNG focused expansion since we already got a Voyager themed one with Delta Rising, a combined Enterprise and Original Series expansion with Agents of Yesterday, and a Deep Space 9 expansion with Victory is Life.(Maybe the Terran Emperor is a TNG character like Riker or something)
The TNG expansion would end up focusing on the great big bad introduced in TNG, the Borg. By whatever means, the Borg come back, stronger then ever, and become STO's final end game enemy. Just as STO began with a Borg invasion, the game ends with a Borg invasion. This TNG/Borg expansion would have likely been the end of major story content for STO. While the likely end of major STO story arc, Cryptic has mentioned cut one off missions/patrol ideas over the years that they could introduce as stand alone missions, patrols, or possible encounters in some hypothetical new exploration system.
This fits with all of the previous information
-5 expansions
-Two years post ViL
-Mirror Leeta story
-Borg story
-TNG expansion
OFC, this is all my speculation based on what the devs have said, but it makes sense.
1. Way back before AoY came out(it had been announced but not released IIRC) Al Rviera gave an interview, I do believe with Priority One Podcast, where he made the comment that Cryptic had high level ideas for all the way out to a possible Expansion 5.
2. Back in November of last year, in another interview with P1 Podcast, Al mentioned that he was glad all these new Trek shows are coming out because they were coming up on the end of story ideas for STO, and that they only had a couple left.
3. Throughout the years Cryptic has repeatedly mentioned wanting to do a new Borg arc, making the Borg scary end-game enemies again
4. In various livestreams done throughout January, we have learned that the original post Victory is Life story was going to involve Mirror Leeta, and finishing up her story
5. In said livestreams its also been mentioned that some of the Devs have been pushing for a TNG expansion for some time now
6. In the latest episode of Priory One, their 400th episode where the crew go to Cryptic studios and interview the devs, Al mentions that before AoD came along, he had about two years worth of story ideas planned.
All of these comments are fairly well consistent with each other, and If we take them all together, we can actually form a somewhat clear picture of how the game was going to go before Age of Discovery threw a wrench in it.
In the typical 18-20 month time gap between the end of Victory is Life, and Expansion 5, we would have gotten another 8-9 mission story arc involving Leeta, whatever alien races she found using the data she stole from the future, and her attempts to overthrow the mysterious and enigmatic Terran Emperor. This would have likely been STO's big "Mirror Universe" arc, unlike past arcs where we just jump over once or twice. This arc would end just before Expansion 5, which would likely be a TNG focused expansion since we already got a Voyager themed one with Delta Rising, a combined Enterprise and Original Series expansion with Agents of Yesterday, and a Deep Space 9 expansion with Victory is Life.(Maybe the Terran Emperor is a TNG character like Riker or something)
The TNG expansion would end up focusing on the great big bad introduced in TNG, the Borg. By whatever means, the Borg come back, stronger then ever, and become STO's final end game enemy. Just as STO began with a Borg invasion, the game ends with a Borg invasion. This TNG/Borg expansion would have likely been the end of major story content for STO. While the likely end of major STO story arc, Cryptic has mentioned cut one off missions/patrol ideas over the years that they could introduce as stand alone missions, patrols, or possible encounters in some hypothetical new exploration system.
This fits with all of the previous information
-5 expansions
-Two years post ViL
-Mirror Leeta story
-Borg story
-TNG expansion
OFC, this is all my speculation based on what the devs have said, but it makes sense.
Agents of Yesterday Arc issues, Klingon War Arc issues, Spectres Arc issues, Wasteland Arc issues, Romulan Mystery Arc issues, Cloaked Intentions Arc issues, Cardassian Struggle Arc issues, Lost Dominion Arc issues, Cold War Arc issues, Borg Advance Arc issues, New Romulus Arc issues, Solanae Dyson Sphere Arc issues, Delta Quadrant Arc issues, Iconian War Arc issues, Yesterday's War Arc issues, Future Proof Arc issues, New Frontiers Arc issues, Gamma Quadrant Arc issues, Age Of Discovery Arc issues, J'Ula's Discovery Arc issues, Klingon Civil War Arc issues, Terran Gambit Arc issues
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
That boggles my mind.
Heck, just cleaning up all the loose threads in the existing arcs would take another two years.
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
Given the way our favourite Jem'Hadar (TM) checks on her I'd say her death is questionable. However, similar to the remainders of the RSE she'll probably manage to form a minor nuisance guerilla force at best.
-Sisko talking to the Nerys and Opaka, saying they have much to do. And the "Prophets/Mirror Prophets/Pah-Wraiths" in general. In relation to the "Q" or seperate (although in book canon there was a lot more there)
-The liberated Borg
-The Borg...from the MIRROR universe (the Terrans were too busy being imperial so the Borg prob took over the Delta and Gamm quadrants. We never see on screen reference to the Borg from Mirror Leeta or any of them
-Mirror "Q" (why not? they have mirrors of everything else)
-Section 31 (there were quite a few more missions involving them that have been slowly taken out of the mission journal over the years...why?) ESP seeing them again on Discovery
-Being gated into the Andromeda galaxy, and noting several of the local gates are active AND that's where the Iconian fleet was hiding. What else were they doing in Andromeda?
-First federation (we have there system, and they are mentioned in Lukari logs from rep system)
Loose ends from Star Trek canon (on screen) we still haven't addressed (OR just "baddies" we haven't done yet)
-Whale probe and Vger (who? why? does it come back? Since we have time travel, do we go back to figure out what they are? want? etc)
-Center of the galaxy
-Galactic barrier
-KKKKKAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN and generally the decline of Earth leading up to Cochran. Again with temporal mechanics and the Temporal cold war landing on earth many times, we could have to re-live WWIII or the Eugenics wars
-First Federation
-Tkon Empire
-Delta quadrant "Caretaker" race (the Nacene)
-Organians
-The Traveler (he did say he was from a whole group of people) and we SEE Wes in TNG films briefly, so he is still around (and in uniform again?)
-Sargons species
-Metrons
-Cytherians
-The Edo "God" species
-Nagilum
-Douwd
etc, etc, etc.
Its STAR TREK. They can keep going forever. I mean, if all else fails they have Andromeda. Kelvans, or Andromedans, or whomever. Depending on if Cryptic wants to spend for another license, StarFleet Battles had the ISC to boot.
While it's true that Star Trek could go on forever as long as there are new things coming out (like Discovery, Picard, Section 31 etc), what STO is able to do is actually finite compared to what the TV shows can do.
STO has been about exploring loose threads that Trek has left, such as the following Questions:
- Who are the Iconians?
- Who are the mysterious aliens from Enterprise?
- What was the intentions of the Solanogen-basaed life forms?
- Who were the Hur'q?
- What has happened in the Delta Quadrant since Voyager left?
- Who are the Tzenkethi?
All of these loose ends were actually explored over the years, along with tying up the many story threads that were left such as the Vorgons, the Na'khul and the Sphere Builders all tying into the Temporal Cold War together.
As Somtaakhar has stated, the devs exhausted all the potential loose ends that Trek has left us for the time being. What we have left are what was just introduced from their stories:
- Mirror Leeta is still out there to come back
- MIrror Tilly is definitely coming back in the future
- J'Ula's story is far from over.
Discovery has essentially extended STO's life a bit more as we see now.
There's also nothing to suggest there AREN'T any gateways in Andromeda as well. You do have to consider they would have had to venture out to get resources to build those spheres and their fleet. Fastest way to get the resources back would be via gateway. And we know for a fact that gateways can hide in subspace. Now they are open. ALL of them. And I don't think we've even FOUND them all yet.
Cryptic can EASILY expand into Andromeda this way, allowing for new stories that aren't totally dependant on any series. Yea they may have said that they got about 2 years of stuff PLANNED, but that doesn't mean anything other than they have stuff planned out for that amount of time. There's always room to expand or add plans. And by leaving gateways in Andromeda, Crypic does leave a door open for them to make new stories.
They could borrow an idea from the old Starfleet Battles. Apparently there was an extragalactic power that invaded the Milky Way called the Andromedans. Now Cryptic won't be able to use the EXACT idea, but it could be inspiration for something similar, and with Iconian Gateways in Andromeda, not only would that allow a new enemy to come through to our galaxy, it would allow for Alliance forces to counterattack and set up a beachhead in Andromeda to take the fight to the enemy.
So honestly... brushing off the gateways is a bad idea, because not only does it open the door to regions beyond what we have explored in the Milky Way... it does open up a whole new galaxy free of any content to draw on which in turn allows for creative freedom.
They can still tell stories that have a connection to the shows, but that doesn't mean they can't do original stuff too.
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Moderation Problems/Issues? Please contact the Community Manager
Terms of Service / Community Rules and Policies / FCT
Facebook / Twitter / Twitch
They're still letting us use the ones in the Milky Way though. And again... there's nothing to suggest they didn't leave something behind in Andromeda. All we know for sure is that other than T'Ket the Iconians just want to be left alone now. Also... we didn't even KNOW the Jouret Gate existed until the start of the Solanae Sphere arc. Who's to say that the gates in Andromeda aren't similarly hidden?
My point is that by having gateways in Andromeda means that Cryptic isn't gonna write themselves into a wall where they can no longer make new stories.
Call me an optimist, but I still feel that gates in Andromeda are possible. It would be a nice little thing to keep in the back pocket for a rainy day sort of thing. Also... EXPLORATION like people have been screaming for.
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Moderation Problems/Issues? Please contact the Community Manager
Terms of Service / Community Rules and Policies / FCT
Facebook / Twitter / Twitch
they specifically mention gates in Andromeda when you and worf light up the network. personally i would like to see some goofy/fun episodes along the same vein as the trouble with tribbles and other silly episodes. thats one reason I love Quark's lucky seven.. it's hilarious.
Do they run astride the Temporal Cold War or within it?
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
As for "going to Andromeda": I've heard of SciFi gaming franchises doing that. Dunno how it turned out though. More serious: Andromeda would probably mean all new original content with no connection to the show anymore whatsoever, and devs stated they didn't want to do that, and even if they did, I think there'd be major backlash with every single thing they did. Even if the majority likes it, the minority would be very loud. I wouldn't want to travel that road as Cryptic, regardless of how easy it is to explain the connection to Andromeda.
I also do not believe that they are out of ideas considering how many game characters they have and their own canon they can work from, they can easily build up their own universe. Obisek, D'tan, Kererek, Quinn, Van Zyl, Kurland, Minna, T'nae, J'mpok, Loriss, Koren, Shon, Jarok and others along the way. These characters are ignored, abandoned or playing as a doorman in a narrative sense where it doesn't make any sense.
you got whole zones like the DQ and GQ left unexplored, you even got those temporal agents left standing around tapping on their padds waiting for new missions.
Now you got bad guys left unchecked, the true way, Breen, RSE, Voth and others who mysteriously disappeared off the map after their one or two missions.
There is so much potential there and they claim they are out of ideas? i can't and won't believe that for one moment.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'