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My own little rant thread
abyssinain
Member Posts: 98 Arc User
Here is a list of things I think the game should have removed/added/fixed, im not expecting any of this to be actually done, its more of a rant than anything, don't get REALLY MAD because I said something sucks when you like it, for instance.
This was also posted before the forum culling, I'd thought I'd put it back up for some sort of discussion.
1. Wait, this isn't Star Trek!
As hard as the devs had tried, this game simply isn't Star Trek, the only similarities are the visual aspects such as ship designs and uniforms, and the occasional reference to the shows this game thinks it bases itself upon. There are no struggles with the prime directive, presently (if it were part of the game) I can go anywhere I wish, nuke a few planets, then get off worry free because I know the mission NPC will give me my reward regardless of what I do.
Further more, instead of tactical high-stakes submarine style warfare, this game presents me with a more traditional "who has the better shields, and who has the more tailored bridge officer", which is fine in a sense, but completely ruins the entire feel of Star Trek.
In the shows, its painfully obvious that conflict was to be avoided at all costs, crew didn't magically revive themselves from plasma burns and space exposure, and every shot had a chance to kill a friend or maybe even your family on board, risks like that are unacceptable and a captain has to take that into consideration.
In this game, you take no such considerations, you go through a linear line of 'Klingon: stop it wtf ima kill u!11!' and then you fly in and blast away half of the Klingon fleet without your shields even dropping to 50%, and then you warp right on back home wondering "That was easy, why don't just take on their home-world and get this over with, can't be that hard can it? I just magically reappear with all my bridge officers if I die!".
Instead of hiding behind asteroids, using proper evasive patterns, and using all axises of space to outflank your enemy, you just sort of circle each other slowly pecking away until someone pops.
2. Balance causes unbalance, what?
The devs have tried hard to balance the game, but this leaves me in a sort of confused state. This game, as I have observed (before the C-store mega ships mind you) was all about balance, not one ship could really be called 'the best', and it served no real reason to pair a career with a ship, which is great in a sense, but is also fundamentally flawed.
This kind of thinking works wonderful when making an FPS, or maybe a single player RPG, but this doesn't exactly work wonderfully in an MMORPG atmosphere, all you really do is cloud everything up making tweaking and making the game fair a massive hassle, which is why you've had so many problems with balancing and why everyone is always ****ed off all the time.
On top of this, there really isn't a larger sense of progression, you can't get the 'best gear' because there isn't any clearly defined 'best gear', so you find what seems like your niche and then you just find out it sucks a few weeks later because of yet another balancing patch or new c-store item, so you have to shift everything all over again and its just a massive jumbled hassle and mess that noone can help you with. In essence, you're given choice that doesn't really matter in the end, ever.
3. My crew is not just a number!
In Star Trek, there is always a massive sense of loyalty and love to one's ship and crew, in this game you've completely thrown that out. I know this is an RPG and I know that keeping the same ship the entire time would have been terrible, but somehow making your entire crew feel important and vital to your success, along with making each ship feel like more than just a collection of stats, would have greatly contributed to the success and feeling of the game.
Bridge officers also suffer this, despite being given names and a very important role, they're more like little stat cards you can change around to fit what you need, I feel nothing when I discard one and get another, despite this being largely opposite in the shows.
4. Death Sucks, especially if you go down with a whimper.
Death should be something that every captain FEARS, im not talking about EVE style death (where you lose everything), but massive and understandable repercussions for being destroyed should ensue upon, well, being destroyed. Just remember, the bigger the penalty of death the more epic and hard of a battle should be required to 'justify' those punishments without it seeming anti-climatic.
Of course, in PvP death shouldn't be a very large problem, since its just a simulation right? However, instead of constantly making Borg cubes in STFs do more damage with every patch, why don't you make it so death in an STF means that member is properly lost, and he/she cannot come back until the next one starts?
5. My ship doesn't exist until I walk around in it.
Half of the episodes of nearly every Star Trek show is within the ship itself, usually solving some sort of weird virus, alien invasion, ship malfunction, or something else, it isn't always flying around and killing things (except in maybe DS9). You've tried to make the ship interior more important with the duty officer update, but that really didn't, honestly doing those missions are pointless anyways. Not only would you make it easier on your own dev team if you make a significantly larger amount of in-ship missions, it would feel and play more like the authentic Star Trek I know and love.
6. Story matters!
To be honest most of your 'episodes' don't feel like Star Trek at all, in Star Trek most actual episodes include some sort of conflict, easy enough right? Yet it usually also includes the deeper connections between most of the main characters, and it also usually includes some sort of struggle with established principals and morals, whether star-fleet or personal.
Otherwise the episode is usually about some sort of overwhelming odd, which really isn't present either.
In ST:O, some admiral contacts you and says 'go over there and put your entire ship at risk (not really) to get rid of some broadcast station or something, lol'. Thats the extent of the dialogue, besides the occasional Klingon/Cardassian/etc yelling at you to stop interfering in their evil diabolical plans of galactic domination.
Put more story into it, it may not make sense if every player goes through the same one but it'll be WAY better. Have decisions decide what quest lines you can unlock, make epic scenes and equally epic finales, give it a BANG that you'll remember as clearly as any single player story oriented game would.
7. Shrug it off!
Ships in ST:O are INCREDIBLY sturdy when put in comparison to the shows, when ships take the kind of beating we do on a regular basis they start to get straight up holes through multiple sections and whole parts start becoming missing from the ship itself.
ST:O would be incredibly awesome if it had some sort of targeting and destruction system like ST:BC, or at least some more dynamic looking destruction/phaser stains on your hull, to make it seem you've actually just been through a hell of a fight.
EXAMPLE:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Nq1s76SXMfY/0.jpg
This was also posted before the forum culling, I'd thought I'd put it back up for some sort of discussion.
1. Wait, this isn't Star Trek!
As hard as the devs had tried, this game simply isn't Star Trek, the only similarities are the visual aspects such as ship designs and uniforms, and the occasional reference to the shows this game thinks it bases itself upon. There are no struggles with the prime directive, presently (if it were part of the game) I can go anywhere I wish, nuke a few planets, then get off worry free because I know the mission NPC will give me my reward regardless of what I do.
Further more, instead of tactical high-stakes submarine style warfare, this game presents me with a more traditional "who has the better shields, and who has the more tailored bridge officer", which is fine in a sense, but completely ruins the entire feel of Star Trek.
In the shows, its painfully obvious that conflict was to be avoided at all costs, crew didn't magically revive themselves from plasma burns and space exposure, and every shot had a chance to kill a friend or maybe even your family on board, risks like that are unacceptable and a captain has to take that into consideration.
In this game, you take no such considerations, you go through a linear line of 'Klingon: stop it wtf ima kill u!11!' and then you fly in and blast away half of the Klingon fleet without your shields even dropping to 50%, and then you warp right on back home wondering "That was easy, why don't just take on their home-world and get this over with, can't be that hard can it? I just magically reappear with all my bridge officers if I die!".
Instead of hiding behind asteroids, using proper evasive patterns, and using all axises of space to outflank your enemy, you just sort of circle each other slowly pecking away until someone pops.
2. Balance causes unbalance, what?
The devs have tried hard to balance the game, but this leaves me in a sort of confused state. This game, as I have observed (before the C-store mega ships mind you) was all about balance, not one ship could really be called 'the best', and it served no real reason to pair a career with a ship, which is great in a sense, but is also fundamentally flawed.
This kind of thinking works wonderful when making an FPS, or maybe a single player RPG, but this doesn't exactly work wonderfully in an MMORPG atmosphere, all you really do is cloud everything up making tweaking and making the game fair a massive hassle, which is why you've had so many problems with balancing and why everyone is always ****ed off all the time.
On top of this, there really isn't a larger sense of progression, you can't get the 'best gear' because there isn't any clearly defined 'best gear', so you find what seems like your niche and then you just find out it sucks a few weeks later because of yet another balancing patch or new c-store item, so you have to shift everything all over again and its just a massive jumbled hassle and mess that noone can help you with. In essence, you're given choice that doesn't really matter in the end, ever.
3. My crew is not just a number!
In Star Trek, there is always a massive sense of loyalty and love to one's ship and crew, in this game you've completely thrown that out. I know this is an RPG and I know that keeping the same ship the entire time would have been terrible, but somehow making your entire crew feel important and vital to your success, along with making each ship feel like more than just a collection of stats, would have greatly contributed to the success and feeling of the game.
Bridge officers also suffer this, despite being given names and a very important role, they're more like little stat cards you can change around to fit what you need, I feel nothing when I discard one and get another, despite this being largely opposite in the shows.
4. Death Sucks, especially if you go down with a whimper.
Death should be something that every captain FEARS, im not talking about EVE style death (where you lose everything), but massive and understandable repercussions for being destroyed should ensue upon, well, being destroyed. Just remember, the bigger the penalty of death the more epic and hard of a battle should be required to 'justify' those punishments without it seeming anti-climatic.
Of course, in PvP death shouldn't be a very large problem, since its just a simulation right? However, instead of constantly making Borg cubes in STFs do more damage with every patch, why don't you make it so death in an STF means that member is properly lost, and he/she cannot come back until the next one starts?
5. My ship doesn't exist until I walk around in it.
Half of the episodes of nearly every Star Trek show is within the ship itself, usually solving some sort of weird virus, alien invasion, ship malfunction, or something else, it isn't always flying around and killing things (except in maybe DS9). You've tried to make the ship interior more important with the duty officer update, but that really didn't, honestly doing those missions are pointless anyways. Not only would you make it easier on your own dev team if you make a significantly larger amount of in-ship missions, it would feel and play more like the authentic Star Trek I know and love.
6. Story matters!
To be honest most of your 'episodes' don't feel like Star Trek at all, in Star Trek most actual episodes include some sort of conflict, easy enough right? Yet it usually also includes the deeper connections between most of the main characters, and it also usually includes some sort of struggle with established principals and morals, whether star-fleet or personal.
Otherwise the episode is usually about some sort of overwhelming odd, which really isn't present either.
In ST:O, some admiral contacts you and says 'go over there and put your entire ship at risk (not really) to get rid of some broadcast station or something, lol'. Thats the extent of the dialogue, besides the occasional Klingon/Cardassian/etc yelling at you to stop interfering in their evil diabolical plans of galactic domination.
Put more story into it, it may not make sense if every player goes through the same one but it'll be WAY better. Have decisions decide what quest lines you can unlock, make epic scenes and equally epic finales, give it a BANG that you'll remember as clearly as any single player story oriented game would.
7. Shrug it off!
Ships in ST:O are INCREDIBLY sturdy when put in comparison to the shows, when ships take the kind of beating we do on a regular basis they start to get straight up holes through multiple sections and whole parts start becoming missing from the ship itself.
ST:O would be incredibly awesome if it had some sort of targeting and destruction system like ST:BC, or at least some more dynamic looking destruction/phaser stains on your hull, to make it seem you've actually just been through a hell of a fight.
EXAMPLE:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Nq1s76SXMfY/0.jpg
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