If hovering around Andoria/Vulcan allows access to assignments which may grant Vulcan/Andorian/Aenar Boffs and Doffs... this begs the question:
Where would be have to go to gain Boffs/Doffs from races like the Caitians, Benzites, Betazoids, Ferengi, Tellarites, and so forth? It's not like it's very clear on the map.
Tongue in cheek addition: will we be able to get Deferi Doffs?
Heh. No Deferi duty officers are currently planned, but that's actually not a bad idea.
As for locations of the not-so-obvious species, yeah, I had to spend some time with our Lore Queen to try to figure out the best options for these. Even if you don't run across it naturally in game, I suspect it will be thoroughly wiki'd by someone before it even leaves Tribble.
1. As extensive as you currently have it, with over 6000 duty officers in the system, as well as just shy of 1000 assignments, will you guys also be expanding these numbers as the game evolves? Additional combinations of officers every Seasonal update for example, more assignments on a monthly basis etc.
2. I understand Assignments are given in part by random, in part by your current rank and position in space/ground. What happens when you inevitably "run out" of Assignments to do? Once you've completed the "just shy of 1000 Assignments", what happens then? The system resets and you are randomly assigned the same assignments?
3. What level of persistence will this system entail? If I complete an assignment involving colonizing "Planet XYZ", and later decide to revisit the same planet, will the game recognize that I previously colonized that planet, and treat me accordingly?
1. Yes, we will be expanding as the game evolves. The way the system is set up it is actually remarkably fast to create new assignments compared to new missions, so it is our hope to see them shipped along with featured episodes as well as whenever we make a new content drop of any kind. In the case of duty officers, it will probably mostly be new uniques rather than new species that appear for every specialization and quality, though I wouldn't rule out the latter entirely.
2. Assignments are generally repeatable. We have tried to be as careful as we can in how we phrase them to make this not seem jarring. In other words, we don't generally phrase an assignment as, "Rescue Admiral Quinn from the Clutches of the Orion Queen's Bachorlette Party", but instead as, "Investigate Reports of Corruption on Bajor". This is, however, one of the reasons why we have been so aggressive in making new assignments, because the more there are, the less repetition a player will see save where it is useful. (Where repetition is still useful, for example, is when you see "Experimental Phaser Research" you go, "Oh, wait, I know what 'experimental' means - that means I get a random phaser if I do that assignment.")
3. For the most part, see my answer above to question #2. That being said, increased persistence is something we are investigating to see if we can squeeze in a greater degree of - I would definitely like to see more persistence as the tech and schedule allow.
I am not sure I like this system. That's not to say I don't appreciate the thought and/or work put into it, but there's a few major issues it brings up for me.
Cuts Players Out: One of the other things that bugs me about this is - why would you assign these sorts of tasks that flesh out the world to nameless, faceless crew? Would there not be a value in letting players participate in these sorts of things? I find it very odd that people have been specifically asking for this sort of gameplay but somehow it was turned into what basically amounts to an egg timer. One could make the argument that it's not the most engaging or exciting gameplay in the world but this is one step down from even that.
I think this is overall my primary "concern" with the system - it doesn't invovle much for the player to do.
I am not sure how "buy" it will make players, and how well they will feel immersed in the game. It still is "only" a mini-game, though at least one with enough complexity for replayability.
If hovering around Andoria/Vulcan allows access to assignments which may grant Vulcan/Andorian/Aenar Boffs and Doffs... this begs the question:
Where would be have to go to gain Boffs/Doffs from races like the Caitians, Benzites, Betazoids, Ferengi, Tellarites, and so forth? It's not like it's very clear on the map.
Tongue in cheek addition: will we be able to get Deferi Doffs?
I can say for sure that the portions of the Galaxy that contain Betazed, Ferenginar, and Tellar are not in the game. I would imagine that Caitian and Benzite space is also not withing the current areas.
I have to say, this is probably a fairly unique system. I don't think I've come across anything like this in another MMO.
I'm certainly looking forward to this This can't come quick enough to Tribble!!!
*fingers crossed* you guys can sort out the technical issue holding it back!
Then we can put our grubby hands all over it
I can say for sure that the portions of the Galaxy that contain Betazed, Ferenginar, and Tellar are not in the game. I would imagine that Caitian and Benzite space is also not withing the current areas.
We had to fudge it a bit and get as close as we could. There was less fudging with those than with the Gorn and Nausicaans, however...in a case like this, you just do the best you can and hope people don't crucify you too badly.
*fingers crossed* you guys can sort out the technical issue holding it back!
Then we can put our grubby hands all over it
It's nothing to worry about - it's not a rocket science issue, just a matter of getting the time to schedule the necessary technical expertise for this component of the system.
We had to fudge it a bit and get as close as we could. There was less fudging with those than with the Gorn and Nausicaans, however...in a case like this, you just do the best you can and hope people don't crucify you too badly.
Just something to keep in mind as new Sector Blocks get added
Love the whole DOFF concept, every time I read it. I've mentioned this before but the one thing I can see mildly annoying me is how only Humans are listed as innately common. I really think all founding races should be common. Betazoids and Bolians should be uncommon, Trill and Benzites rare, Aenar and Caitians Very Rare.
I think this is overall my primary "concern" with the system - it doesn't invovle much for the player to do.
I am not sure how "buy" it will make players, and how well they will feel immersed in the game. It still is "only" a mini-game, though at least one with enough complexity for replayability.
I think it's great... do you think Captain Picard is always on the bridge doin whatever, going on away missions despite regulations, or trying to get the girl despite his age? I guess that's why they had Bev...she was about his speed... Anyway, you are in command of a ship, one would think you have to do captain stuff like manage your crew and send them on assignments. I can't wait!
Every episodes starts with them doing some meaningless task and then some TRIBBLE goes nuts or they get trapped somewhere or something else would happen that would make you want to put in for a transfer afterwards.. now we get to manage this aspect of the Trek universe.
Heretic, have you all been watching the episodes for inspiration for these missions? I remember one where a group of doff types were sent to the surface of a planet to re-enforce a shield protecting the colony/base or whatever. There was something wrong with the planet... What carried the episode was that Picard happened to meet one of the duty officers and fell in love with her, he then basically sent her to her death. Obviously you'd leave the love story out of the doff mission, but episodes like these and watching the first 5 minutes of every TNG episode will probably provide a wealth of mission types and ideas.
Only 10 missions at a time though... that seems low, but I don't know anything about the game play and how quickly missions will return once being started. Would we be able to just spend all day roaming around gathering resources and sending doffs to their deaths (evil maniacal laugh) if we didn't pick long missions or at least kept the long missions to a low number?
First off... WOW... Thanks, Heretic, for takin the time to get this info out to us. Theres a lot here to go thru and process!! I know youre a busy guy!!
... which brings me to...
I know you are all doing everything you can to get this live, but dam is it irritating to hear it, like most things in this game, is getting pushed back. I'm not hatin' jes asking you and youre team to pound it out asap lol!!
I was looking forward to this more than anything with Season 4. I know most people want the Ground PvP, and its flipping awesome on Tribble and I cant wait to get a hold of it live too, but I wanna play STAR TREK and that means managing Ship crew and all that fun stuff.
Anyways.... MAKE IT SO!
But seriously, dont make us wait too long please^^ :cool:
Could you clarify the Department Heads eating the Doff skills/passives... I my understanding is that the active roster is broken into the six departments you mentioned... Science, Medical etc. and you can slot 3 Doffs in to each department?
So when you assign a department head that Boff gets the skill and passives etc from thos three Doffs... Ok, so do those Doff disappear or for you to assign new Doff to the roster, or do the DOff stay as your Staff?
I know someone on the STO Team is going to say "Not again??" when they read this... BUT!
After reading this I'm dreaming of sitting in my captain's chair... on my bridge... while traveling through sector space. A NPC walks up to me and hands me THE DUTY ROSTER which I use to start this mini game!
And the devs don't want to implement bridge travel. *sigh* Oh well... I'll keep dreaming I guess.
Could you clarify the Department Heads eating the Doff skills/passives... I my understanding is that the active roster is broken into the six departments you mentioned... Science, Medical etc. and you can slot 3 Doffs in to each department?
So when you assign a department head that Boff gets the skill and passives etc from thos three Doffs... Ok, so do those Doff disappear or for you to assign new Doff to the roster, or do the DOff stay as your Staff?
Department Heads and First Officers
Subsequent to the duty roster system going live we will be rolling out the next component of the system: Department Heads and your First Officer.
Bridge officers will be able to "eat" duty officers of their own branch to learn those duty officer's passive abilities. (Fictionally, think of it as the duty officers are joining that bridge officer's staff.)
With the appropriate expenditures of Merit/Honor and for bridge officers with adequate training, a player can appoint a bridge officer to head up one of six departments - Tactical, Security, Science, Medical, Engineering, Operations. Once heading up a department, those "eaten" duty officer skills will become active.
(For the record, the term "eaten" is used in this description to make sure it is clear that the duty officer goes away.)
Input from Devs on this issue is basically: "We wanted to do something like that, but although we realized that the first time doing it the cutscene would be neat, the times coming after would have people annoyed at the time-consuming cutscene, or they would simply skip it - and skip it everytime they send Doffs out on assignments, which would be a great many times. So, in light of this, we decided to drop that idea since it would just drive people nuts in the long run."
I can understand not wanting to see a cutscene over and over.
I had hoped they could have had a small shuttle come and go without a cutscene.. Like a Del Taco shuttle pet type thing which would fly away from your ship (and eventually return) as you travel through sector space.
Just to make something absolutely clear; if I have in my list of Commissioned Officers a Science Boff, and I assign that Science Boff as my Chief Medical Officer, then I will recieve whatever bonus abilities would be granted by that post even if they are not slotted ANYWHERE on my ship?
Assuming that my understanding is correct Heretic, are there any plans to have Department Heads interact during normal gameplay? For example, if I'm doing a mission to save a colony from a disease, will my CMO now be the one who hails me and talks it over, rather than the highest-ranking Science Boff assigned on my current ship? While in theory such interaction would be cool, be aware that it rather ruins things for those of us who plan to have a unique Bridge Crew for each of our endgame ships; it's a little immersion breaking to be hailed by the CMO Boff from my Defiant-R when I'm actually flying my Nebula, and am roleplaying that an entirely different Boff is the CMO of that ship.
Final question, only very tangentially related; are we ever going to have the ability to promote one or more of our Boffs to the rank of Captain(note; without turning them into a player character)? It seems a little odd to me that some of the most advanced ships in Starfleet are apparently under the command of Commanders rather than Captains. And failing that, can we at least have the ability to put Captain pips on them in the character editor?
this is the first I've heard of the Klingon Diplomacy equivalent, the system sounds very fun, I like how it can be as simple or as complex as the player wants it to be. Good work breaking the MMO mold with stuff like this and the foundry, this genre has been so saturated with the same old mechanics and systems for too long.
Ive heard DOFFS cant be promoted in rank but they come in all different ranks like crewman up to lt.JG. Will there be any system were we can promote doffs?
a lot to read, for sure... it all sounds complicated, but then again, it always is until you have a little experience, then things start falling into place
so take all the time you need, we want it non-broken when we first try it out
Just to make something absolutely clear; if I have in my list of Commissioned Officers a Science Boff, and I assign that Science Boff as my Chief Medical Officer, then I will recieve whatever bonus abilities would be granted by that post even if they are not slotted ANYWHERE on my ship?
Assuming that my understanding is correct Heretic, are there any plans to have Department Heads interact during normal gameplay? For example, if I'm doing a mission to save a colony from a disease, will my CMO now be the one who hails me and talks it over, rather than the highest-ranking Science Boff assigned on my current ship? While in theory such interaction would be cool, be aware that it rather ruins things for those of us who plan to have a unique Bridge Crew for each of our endgame ships; it's a little immersion breaking to be hailed by the CMO Boff from my Defiant-R when I'm actually flying my Nebula, and am roleplaying that an entirely different Boff is the CMO of that ship.
Final question, only very tangentially related; are we ever going to have the ability to promote one or more of our Boffs to the rank of Captain(note; without turning them into a player character)? It seems a little odd to me that some of the most advanced ships in Starfleet are apparently under the command of Commanders rather than Captains. And failing that, can we at least have the ability to put Captain pips on them in the character editor?
The first paragraph sounds close, but not quite. Duty Officers are distinctly different from Department Heads. A DO could be slotted into a position, maybe lead surgeon, and provide the bonus for the entire ship or on ground engagements. The bonus would only be available while the DO is slotted in that position. They could not be used for assignments at the same time they are actively serving in their slot.
Your Department Head is a Bridge Officer. If you wanted to free up the Lead Surgeon slot, you could have your existing Surgeon teach his/her skills to your CMO BOff. The CMO BOff would retain the passive bonus the DO had as Lead Surgeon, but the DO would be lost in the process. This is called "eaten", but consider it more of being reassigned to a ship in the fleet that needs their expertise.
For the second paragraph, I agree mostly. I would love to see Foundry hooks for the various positions available on the ship. This will likely be a ways off though, since technically the Department Head positions do not even exist right now.
Third paragraph: I do not expect to see promoting BOffs to Captain rank for a while. I believe they are trying to slow down the addition of clickable powers to the system and your tray. I had proposed promoting the BOff to a Captain of their own ship, that could be assigned to missions off screen (now seen in the DOff system!!!) and accompany you in space for particularly epic missions. That feature made it on to one Engineering Report, but has since slipped again in favor of making an Alt from one of your BOffs. I know that neither system addresses your concern, but maybe you can appreciate their desire not to add more powers to combat.
This is just awesome, period!! I could go without all the season 4 stuff currently on tribble if this could only be ready by tomorrow
I had to single this out. None of the other changes so far do very much for my interest in the game. This Duty Officer System looks like it will do a lot for me. This is easily the most Trek addition made to this Star Trek game in the last 8 months (or more). STO needs more great ideas and systems like this to truly shine.
Will the Operations sub-department, which is part of engineering, require an Engineering Bridge Officer to promote to Department Head or Science (given that things like Hazard Emitters are more internal, ship-based Operations than science). I have my 'Operations' Science officer wearing engineering gold on his uniform, rather than teal, so I'm hoping he can get the HoD position.
Could you clarify the Department Heads eating the Doff skills/passives... I my understanding is that the active roster is broken into the six departments you mentioned... Science, Medical etc. and you can slot 3 Doffs in to each department?
So when you assign a department head that Boff gets the skill and passives etc from thos three Doffs... Ok, so do those Doff disappear or for you to assign new Doff to the roster, or do the DOff stay as your Staff?
Your active roster could be all Science duty officers, or all Tactical officers, or all Engineering officers, or any mix thereof. There are restrictions on the number of particular specializations; for example, while you might be able to have everyone on your active roster be from the Medical branch, you still could only have three of them be of the Nurse specialization.
Duty officers eaten by bridge officers destined to be a Department Head are gone as soon as they are eaten.
I can understand not wanting to see a cutscene over and over.
I had hoped they could have had a small shuttle come and go without a cutscene.. Like a Del Taco shuttle pet type thing which would fly away from your ship (and eventually return) as you travel through sector space.
The problem is that the duty officer assignment interface takes up a big chunk of the screen, so unless you had a monster monitor, you wouldn't be able to see the shuttle. Geko would really like to do this, though, so we're still looking into something like when you close the window it activates the effect...but that might require tech.
Just to make something absolutely clear; if I have in my list of Commissioned Officers a Science Boff, and I assign that Science Boff as my Chief Medical Officer, then I will recieve whatever bonus abilities would be granted by that post even if they are not slotted ANYWHERE on my ship?
Assuming that my understanding is correct Heretic, are there any plans to have Department Heads interact during normal gameplay? For example, if I'm doing a mission to save a colony from a disease, will my CMO now be the one who hails me and talks it over, rather than the highest-ranking Science Boff assigned on my current ship? While in theory such interaction would be cool, be aware that it rather ruins things for those of us who plan to have a unique Bridge Crew for each of our endgame ships; it's a little immersion breaking to be hailed by the CMO Boff from my Defiant-R when I'm actually flying my Nebula, and am roleplaying that an entirely different Boff is the CMO of that ship.
Final question, only very tangentially related; are we ever going to have the ability to promote one or more of our Boffs to the rank of Captain(note; without turning them into a player character)? It seems a little odd to me that some of the most advanced ships in Starfleet are apparently under the command of Commanders rather than Captains. And failing that, can we at least have the ability to put Captain pips on them in the character editor?
If your Science bridge officer ate two Doctors and a Nurse, the Doctors and the Nurse would go away. If you slotted your Science bridge officer as your Medical Department Head, those Doctor and Nurse passive abilities would kick in.
Regarding hailing, I would like to see it as you describe it and it's a known issue, but it is actually pretty far out of my area so I cannot really comment intelligibly on the likelihood of it. It's true that Department Heads are not associated with specific ships, though of course you could switch them when you switched ships.
As for promoting bridge officers to Captain, that is also, I am afraid, out of my area, so I can't actually answer that.
Ive heard DOFFS cant be promoted in rank but they come in all different ranks like crewman up to lt.JG. Will there be any system were we can promote doffs?
Duty officers come in various ranks up to lieutenant junior grade, if I recall correctly. You cannot promote them. While I won't categorically rule out that it will never be possible, it actually would cause some issues with other systems, so I doubt it will.
Will the Operations sub-department, which is part of engineering, require an Engineering Bridge Officer to promote to Department Head or Science (given that things like Hazard Emitters are more internal, ship-based Operations than science). I have my 'Operations' Science officer wearing engineering gold on his uniform, rather than teal, so I'm hoping he can get the HoD position.
The different departments will require a bridge officer of the appropriate branch. So, yes, your Operations bridge officer must be an engineer, while your Tactical or Security department heads must be a tactical officer.
Your active roster could be all Science duty officers, or all Tactical officers, or all Engineering officers, or any mix thereof. There are restrictions on the number of particular specializations; for example, while you might be able to have everyone on your active roster be from the Medical branch, you still could only have three of them be of the Nurse specialization.
Duty officers eaten by bridge officers destined to be a Department Head are gone as soon as they are eaten.
The problem is that the duty officer assignment interface takes up a big chunk of the screen, so unless you had a monster monitor, you wouldn't be able to see the shuttle. Geko would really like to do this, though, so we're still looking into something like when you close the window it activates the effect...but that might require tech.
If your Science bridge officer ate two Doctors and a Nurse, the Doctors and the Nurse would go away. If you slotted your Science bridge officer as your Medical Department Head, those Doctor and Nurse passive abilities would kick in.
Regarding hailing, I would like to see it as you describe it and it's a known issue, but it is actually pretty far out of my area so I cannot really comment intelligibly on the likelihood of it. It's true that Department Heads are not associated with specific ships, though of course you could switch them when you switched ships.
As for promoting bridge officers to Captain, that is also, I am afraid, out of my area, so I can't actually answer that.
Duty officers come in various ranks up to lieutenant junior grade, if I recall correctly. You cannot promote them. While I won't categorically rule out that it will never be possible, it actually would cause some issues with other systems, so I doubt it will.
The different departments will require a bridge officer of the appropriate branch. So, yes, your Operations bridge officer must be an engineer, while your Tactical or Security department heads must be a tactical officer.
What about the helmsman? I always find my second tac officer usually ends up sitting at the pilot's seat on most of my bridges, are you going to designate a helmsman?
Sounds awesome. My brain hurts trying to wrap my head around quality vs rarity.. and the last few lines of your 3rd post seem to conflict with each other.
For purposes of sending duty officers on assignments or on your active roster, just ignore rarity. Rarity is only really relevant for collectors or if you want to figure, for example, how hard it might be to randomly pick up, say, a Blue Saurian as opposed to a Blue Vulcan.
For assignment, rarity/quality does matter, insofar if you see a Purple assignment you know it may be a long time before you see it again, and you also know it will be very well worth doing if you can complete it successfully.
When considering what duty officer to put on an assignment, first consider the mandatory requirements, then see if you have some of the preferred requirements - for example, Ferengi have the Trader trait, so while it isn't mandatory for a Trade assignment, it will be much more likely to succeed on it. Then put the highest quality (color) duty officer that you can afford to put on it if you want to increase your chances of success.
It seems like it would be less confusing if RARITY was based on color, and Quality was based on rank.
Since all humans are common, even a purple quality will be "common" - and how does rank relate to that?
Are ensigns white, Lieutenants green, LtCmdrs blue, etc?
Rarity being color-based is pretty much the standard - and its just co-indicence that rarity and quality are usually linked (in items in MMOs, in cards in CCGs, etc) - So seeing "common" purples or rare white items is going to be troublesome.
Comments
Heh. No Deferi duty officers are currently planned, but that's actually not a bad idea.
As for locations of the not-so-obvious species, yeah, I had to spend some time with our Lore Queen to try to figure out the best options for these. Even if you don't run across it naturally in game, I suspect it will be thoroughly wiki'd by someone before it even leaves Tribble.
1. Yes, we will be expanding as the game evolves. The way the system is set up it is actually remarkably fast to create new assignments compared to new missions, so it is our hope to see them shipped along with featured episodes as well as whenever we make a new content drop of any kind. In the case of duty officers, it will probably mostly be new uniques rather than new species that appear for every specialization and quality, though I wouldn't rule out the latter entirely.
2. Assignments are generally repeatable. We have tried to be as careful as we can in how we phrase them to make this not seem jarring. In other words, we don't generally phrase an assignment as, "Rescue Admiral Quinn from the Clutches of the Orion Queen's Bachorlette Party", but instead as, "Investigate Reports of Corruption on Bajor". This is, however, one of the reasons why we have been so aggressive in making new assignments, because the more there are, the less repetition a player will see save where it is useful. (Where repetition is still useful, for example, is when you see "Experimental Phaser Research" you go, "Oh, wait, I know what 'experimental' means - that means I get a random phaser if I do that assignment.")
3. For the most part, see my answer above to question #2. That being said, increased persistence is something we are investigating to see if we can squeeze in a greater degree of - I would definitely like to see more persistence as the tech and schedule allow.
I think this is overall my primary "concern" with the system - it doesn't invovle much for the player to do.
I am not sure how "buy" it will make players, and how well they will feel immersed in the game. It still is "only" a mini-game, though at least one with enough complexity for replayability.
This needs to be a featured episode! Right now!
I can say for sure that the portions of the Galaxy that contain Betazed, Ferenginar, and Tellar are not in the game. I would imagine that Caitian and Benzite space is also not withing the current areas.
I'm certainly looking forward to this
*fingers crossed* you guys can sort out the technical issue holding it back!
Then we can put our grubby hands all over it
We had to fudge it a bit and get as close as we could. There was less fudging with those than with the Gorn and Nausicaans, however...in a case like this, you just do the best you can and hope people don't crucify you too badly.
It's nothing to worry about - it's not a rocket science issue, just a matter of getting the time to schedule the necessary technical expertise for this component of the system.
I'm sure the only outcome for this would be an epic disaster, as Fleet Admiral Quinn would probably court-martial you for interrupting his fun.
This is probably why they made me a systems designer rather than a content designer, now that I think about it...
Please find a way to schedule whatever technical expertise you need to get this onto Tribble.
EDIT: Sticky?
Just something to keep in mind as new Sector Blocks get added
HA! I was having a stressful day, this definitely brightened it up!
I think it's great... do you think Captain Picard is always on the bridge doin whatever, going on away missions despite regulations, or trying to get the girl despite his age? I guess that's why they had Bev...she was about his speed... Anyway, you are in command of a ship, one would think you have to do captain stuff like manage your crew and send them on assignments. I can't wait!
Every episodes starts with them doing some meaningless task and then some TRIBBLE goes nuts or they get trapped somewhere or something else would happen that would make you want to put in for a transfer afterwards.. now we get to manage this aspect of the Trek universe.
Heretic, have you all been watching the episodes for inspiration for these missions? I remember one where a group of doff types were sent to the surface of a planet to re-enforce a shield protecting the colony/base or whatever. There was something wrong with the planet... What carried the episode was that Picard happened to meet one of the duty officers and fell in love with her, he then basically sent her to her death. Obviously you'd leave the love story out of the doff mission, but episodes like these and watching the first 5 minutes of every TNG episode will probably provide a wealth of mission types and ideas.
Only 10 missions at a time though... that seems low, but I don't know anything about the game play and how quickly missions will return once being started. Would we be able to just spend all day roaming around gathering resources and sending doffs to their deaths (evil maniacal laugh) if we didn't pick long missions or at least kept the long missions to a low number?
... which brings me to...
I know you are all doing everything you can to get this live, but dam is it irritating to hear it, like most things in this game, is getting pushed back. I'm not hatin' jes asking you and youre team to pound it out asap lol!!
I was looking forward to this more than anything with Season 4. I know most people want the Ground PvP, and its flipping awesome on Tribble and I cant wait to get a hold of it live too, but I wanna play STAR TREK and that means managing Ship crew and all that fun stuff.
Anyways.... MAKE IT SO!
But seriously, dont make us wait too long please^^ :cool:
Could you clarify the Department Heads eating the Doff skills/passives... I my understanding is that the active roster is broken into the six departments you mentioned... Science, Medical etc. and you can slot 3 Doffs in to each department?
So when you assign a department head that Boff gets the skill and passives etc from thos three Doffs... Ok, so do those Doff disappear or for you to assign new Doff to the roster, or do the DOff stay as your Staff?
After reading this I'm dreaming of sitting in my captain's chair... on my bridge... while traveling through sector space. A NPC walks up to me and hands me THE DUTY ROSTER which I use to start this mini game!
And the devs don't want to implement bridge travel. *sigh* Oh well... I'll keep dreaming I guess.
There ya go
I can understand not wanting to see a cutscene over and over.
I had hoped they could have had a small shuttle come and go without a cutscene.. Like a Del Taco shuttle pet type thing which would fly away from your ship (and eventually return) as you travel through sector space.
Assuming that my understanding is correct Heretic, are there any plans to have Department Heads interact during normal gameplay? For example, if I'm doing a mission to save a colony from a disease, will my CMO now be the one who hails me and talks it over, rather than the highest-ranking Science Boff assigned on my current ship? While in theory such interaction would be cool, be aware that it rather ruins things for those of us who plan to have a unique Bridge Crew for each of our endgame ships; it's a little immersion breaking to be hailed by the CMO Boff from my Defiant-R when I'm actually flying my Nebula, and am roleplaying that an entirely different Boff is the CMO of that ship.
Final question, only very tangentially related; are we ever going to have the ability to promote one or more of our Boffs to the rank of Captain(note; without turning them into a player character)? It seems a little odd to me that some of the most advanced ships in Starfleet are apparently under the command of Commanders rather than Captains. And failing that, can we at least have the ability to put Captain pips on them in the character editor?
so take all the time you need, we want it non-broken when we first try it out
The first paragraph sounds close, but not quite. Duty Officers are distinctly different from Department Heads. A DO could be slotted into a position, maybe lead surgeon, and provide the bonus for the entire ship or on ground engagements. The bonus would only be available while the DO is slotted in that position. They could not be used for assignments at the same time they are actively serving in their slot.
Your Department Head is a Bridge Officer. If you wanted to free up the Lead Surgeon slot, you could have your existing Surgeon teach his/her skills to your CMO BOff. The CMO BOff would retain the passive bonus the DO had as Lead Surgeon, but the DO would be lost in the process. This is called "eaten", but consider it more of being reassigned to a ship in the fleet that needs their expertise.
For the second paragraph, I agree mostly. I would love to see Foundry hooks for the various positions available on the ship. This will likely be a ways off though, since technically the Department Head positions do not even exist right now.
Third paragraph: I do not expect to see promoting BOffs to Captain rank for a while. I believe they are trying to slow down the addition of clickable powers to the system and your tray. I had proposed promoting the BOff to a Captain of their own ship, that could be assigned to missions off screen (now seen in the DOff system!!!) and accompany you in space for particularly epic missions. That feature made it on to one Engineering Report, but has since slipped again in favor of making an Alt from one of your BOffs. I know that neither system addresses your concern, but maybe you can appreciate their desire not to add more powers to combat.
I had to single this out. None of the other changes so far do very much for my interest in the game. This Duty Officer System looks like it will do a lot for me. This is easily the most Trek addition made to this Star Trek game in the last 8 months (or more). STO needs more great ideas and systems like this to truly shine.
Oh yeah, awesome guide!!
Your active roster could be all Science duty officers, or all Tactical officers, or all Engineering officers, or any mix thereof. There are restrictions on the number of particular specializations; for example, while you might be able to have everyone on your active roster be from the Medical branch, you still could only have three of them be of the Nurse specialization.
Duty officers eaten by bridge officers destined to be a Department Head are gone as soon as they are eaten.
The problem is that the duty officer assignment interface takes up a big chunk of the screen, so unless you had a monster monitor, you wouldn't be able to see the shuttle. Geko would really like to do this, though, so we're still looking into something like when you close the window it activates the effect...but that might require tech.
If your Science bridge officer ate two Doctors and a Nurse, the Doctors and the Nurse would go away. If you slotted your Science bridge officer as your Medical Department Head, those Doctor and Nurse passive abilities would kick in.
Regarding hailing, I would like to see it as you describe it and it's a known issue, but it is actually pretty far out of my area so I cannot really comment intelligibly on the likelihood of it. It's true that Department Heads are not associated with specific ships, though of course you could switch them when you switched ships.
As for promoting bridge officers to Captain, that is also, I am afraid, out of my area, so I can't actually answer that.
Duty officers come in various ranks up to lieutenant junior grade, if I recall correctly. You cannot promote them. While I won't categorically rule out that it will never be possible, it actually would cause some issues with other systems, so I doubt it will.
The different departments will require a bridge officer of the appropriate branch. So, yes, your Operations bridge officer must be an engineer, while your Tactical or Security department heads must be a tactical officer.
What about the helmsman? I always find my second tac officer usually ends up sitting at the pilot's seat on most of my bridges, are you going to designate a helmsman?
It seems like it would be less confusing if RARITY was based on color, and Quality was based on rank.
Since all humans are common, even a purple quality will be "common" - and how does rank relate to that?
Are ensigns white, Lieutenants green, LtCmdrs blue, etc?
Rarity being color-based is pretty much the standard - and its just co-indicence that rarity and quality are usually linked (in items in MMOs, in cards in CCGs, etc) - So seeing "common" purples or rare white items is going to be troublesome.
Or I'm confused.