TOS ships, time ships, PVP and shuttles: a solution?

leviathan99

So I'm on borrowed Internet at the moment so I can't engage fully...

But I'd thought before how the solution for T5 TOS ships might be to make them T1 ships but have TOS maps where you must be flying a TOS ship, a sort of undercover temporal ops.

The tie in novel indicates that the Undine war has a temporal front so regular undercover missions to other eras could be a major part of play, with a sector block, hubs, 5 man missions, etc.

This bypasses a lot of CBS' concerns because it means we'd be using TOS ships in a TOS context.

Then I was thinking about shuttles having such limited use... And also how Geko wants to use time ships.

Then it struck me: what if these time ships were undercover time ships? As in, they always look era appropriate. Take me to TOS zone and they look TOS. take me to a Dominion War zone and they look TNG/DS9 appropriate. Take me forward and they have a new design.

Furthermore, by gating people to a small variety of ships for this (say, two cruisers, two escorts, two science, a carrier), you accomplish a goal I'd imagine is central to PvP revamps: putting PvPers into a small variety of separate ships that can be balanced separately and whose layout positions th unskilled not TOO far behind the skilled when it comes to theorycrafting.

Which goes back to a PvP territory control idea I had a long time ago, which is -- rather than have SPACE be the territory being fought over, have regions of time be the points that are controlled. This keeps the default world from being dominated by PvPers, which can be off putting, but gives PvPers one or more open worlds they can fight over in the form of, say, the 27th century. If PvP happens THERE, it can allow for a crazy dynamic world including things like destroying Earth or Qo'noS... But since it's a possible future, it can all be reversed or reset.

leviathan99

To be clear, the idea NOW that I'm suggesting is that you have T5 PvP balanced ships.

These ships also have some PvE utility.

You can take them to a variety of maps. Their costume changes based on where you take them. (In a public zone, they're always era appropriate to that zone.)

And maybe have some kinda of crazy zone or private queues where they can take on any look you choose.

bluegeek

So you're proposing to open up a new Temporal War where PvP has an impact on the timeline?

I like the theory... the trick is how to reflect timeline changes in a believable way?

My feeling is that Cryptic would have enough trouble just setting up the four major time periods of ENT, TOS, TNG, and 2409 statically, let alone make them seem dynamic in the sense of temporal manipulation.

How would that part work?

daveyny

I know it's a pipe-dream, but I would love for Cryptic/PWE to create a seperate server that's totally geared toward the TOS to ST:VI time period.

captpeacemaker

This project seems like that would be way to complex to create in an existing game.

jgp1975

You do realize that the Foundry allows players (thats us) to make things like this if we so choose. Now the Foundry is currently locked down, and is an untamed beast one must master to properly use. There are a few "fix the past" missions in game already, but Cryptic has limited time to meet all the communities wants and needs. So I think when the Foundry is working properly the answer will be to use this resource. You can craft an actual Temporal Travel mission, or the Holodeck "What If?" scenario. That is why Cryptic put the Foundry in game. It allows players to have the Trek experience they want.

Yes it is nice to have official missions/episodes made, but some times we need to use what is availible.

captpeacemaker

jgp1975 wrote: »

You do realize that the Foundry allows players (thats us) to make things like this if we so choose. Now the Foundry is currently locked down, and is an untamed beast one must master to properly use. There are a few "fix the past" missions in game already, but Cryptic has limited time to meet all the communities wants and needs. So I think when the Foundry is working properly the answer will be to use this resource. You can craft an actual Temporal Travel mission, or the Holodeck "What If?" scenario. That is why Cryptic put the Foundry in game. It allows players to have the Trek experience they want.

Yes it is nice to have official missions/episodes made, but some times we need to use what is availible.

Im not talking about creating a mission that allows us to travel in time (they have already done that)

But missions in 4 different eras that affect the timeline of the universe and in each time period as a whole? Changes in one affect the others?

Id really rather that they spend their time creating new game content that ADVANCES THE GAME PLOT and challenges high level players while moving forward in the current era.

There is a lot of future to explore, why do we have to be stuck on the past?