test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Federation Starbase Improvements
lightofthesun1
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Hello!
So I am posting a topic here after a game spokesman suggested I also present my issue to the community for their feedback.
Lounge: The seats along the wall are nearly impossible to sit in. The glass comes down to slow that we players can't sit on them through emotes. Nor can we click on parts of them. This leaves my fleet at gatherings very little options on places to sit or gather. In fact players end up sitting on the floor. We spent 200k in dilithium for seating we can't actually use. I wouldn't mind if the glass was raised a little.
Tables and Chairs: Federation starbases definitely have a lack of seating as stated above. I've recently peeked into the KDF starbase and noticed they had chairs and tables on every deck. With the lack of tables and chairs outside the lounge, it makes it a bit inconvenient for fleet meetings.
Tactical LCARS: This was brought up to me by another player the consoles throughout the station don't remotely look Federation. It's as if the starbase isn't Starfleet in the least bit.
With that said, I'm encouraging others to add their input and hoping the Development team will take this post into consideration.
So I am posting a topic here after a game spokesman suggested I also present my issue to the community for their feedback.
Lounge: The seats along the wall are nearly impossible to sit in. The glass comes down to slow that we players can't sit on them through emotes. Nor can we click on parts of them. This leaves my fleet at gatherings very little options on places to sit or gather. In fact players end up sitting on the floor. We spent 200k in dilithium for seating we can't actually use. I wouldn't mind if the glass was raised a little.
Tables and Chairs: Federation starbases definitely have a lack of seating as stated above. I've recently peeked into the KDF starbase and noticed they had chairs and tables on every deck. With the lack of tables and chairs outside the lounge, it makes it a bit inconvenient for fleet meetings.
Tactical LCARS: This was brought up to me by another player the consoles throughout the station don't remotely look Federation. It's as if the starbase isn't Starfleet in the least bit.
With that said, I'm encouraging others to add their input and hoping the Development team will take this post into consideration.
Post edited by lightofthesun1 on
0
Comments
Devs, can we get a minor code tweak please? Not asking for a whole lot here, just reposition the chairs/tables like you did with the Enterprise History screens.
Personally, I would say the entire OPS deck needs to be redone first, moving the actual starbase OPS into the large area, not some area off the side. Then maybe to update the Tactical deck so it hasn't been lifted out of a Klingon listening post.
I understand that would be a lot of work, but it is needed to make the starbase at least start to look like a starbase.
A thousand times this!
Details like this really affect the immersiveness of the environment.
Ops needs to be more like Ops on Deep Space Nine. consoles and workstations in the actual operations area not on separate levels.
Like the bridge of a starship really. Seperate Engineering deck with a reactor or something... Science labs on another deck and the main weapons room for Tactical.
Long-term rework for sure.
Right now I'd settle for functional chairs and benches.
Also - PLEASE give us a console to open/close the roof windows (the fleets that completed room with a view) as is in the TOS connie bridge.
Also on my personal wishlist - make it so there's ships flying around outside when you are IN the base.. make it feel alive.. have communication chatter in the background .. NPCs that look like theyre having conversations and not just walking around aimlessly.
An overhaul would be great... but for some simple changes: More seats would be great. Even better, a conference area, rather than just places suited to going on a date. Toggled tribbles, rather than temporarily switched off. And simplest and most effective of all, new carpet for eng deck, rather than the current vomit/snot green.
However, I believed the players that wanted them, wanted a place for their characters to feel at home/work. In this regard they lack greatly.
I know it would be alot to have designed and programmed but they could have taken a page from the Champions Online Hideouts/STO Bridges page and have different types to earn/choose from.
Shoot, Federation star bases feel (and are) tiny compared to KDF ones. It's disconcerting.
But I'm off topic. I'm a big advocate of sittable chairs. Please someone with the ability fix the chairs/Ops design.
Thanks.
That said, although the starbases look nice, they don't feel truly... complete, I suppose you could say. Personally I think Ops is fine -- as a lobby.
It is not good for a command center for an entire starbase.
I think two arguments could be made for the reason why ops is the way it is:
1) Operations in a starbase are much more diffuse. DS9, our ONLY really in-depth look at how a space station runs in the Star Trek universe, had Ops as its bridge analog, but was radically different from most starbases (and in fact, if I recall correctly, did not, in fact, have starbase-grade facilities, at least for most of its run). Therefore such centralized command is not really as necessary - or feasible - as with a starship.
2) We have never seen just how a starbase runs. What little non-canon information we do have, however, suggests starbases are truly enormous undertakings with hundreds of levels and tens to hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. And... not much else, really. So who's to say it doesn't work like that?
There are also arguments that some of the vital functions (e.g. Officer of the Watch) are best placed in Ops so that people don't have to run around the whole base to get to him.
These are all good points. But I think that, while the internal environment is good, it can be improved upon, particularly without throwing away the work that's already been put into it.
My personal thoughts are these:
1) The "concourse" feel is definitely appropriate for an entrance area. I could see that as a VIP welcoming area in the starbase command complex. So the current look and feel for Ops does not need to be removed, although it does need to be repurposed.
2) Ops - as in the function of ops (that is to say the command center) - DOES need to have it's own separate level. Thus far I think the central room of the military level is probably the most appropriate for this, although I'd like to see something more unique - we've seen this base room in probably a half-dozen FE's, and while it's perfectly fine as a base command center for several generic Klingon bases, I would like to think that a Fed starbase - "your" starbase - would warrant something a bit different.
It might actually be better to redivide the starbase's level functions along these lines:
- Reception - current ops. You have the bar, small command areas, etc.
- Research and Development - Replaces/augments the "science" level.
- Command level - military level replacement. Features a large command center that would have primary strategic command and likely operational command in a large joint command center. I think the best way to pattern this would be to hybridize the Star Cruiser and/or Sovereign bridge sets with the Odyssey class.
- Operations - replacement for the current engineering level. I would imagine that it might be best to have a different central "engineering" room, as I can't see a central warp core as being the primary source of a starbase's power (likely several of them in concert with numerous fusion generators). However, I could also see an argument that engineering functions, unlike a ship, would be VERY diffuse (generators scattered all over the starbase), so just showing us the "biggest" one might be a good idea.
3) As a note about LCARS - as I recall, most controls simply do not follow the standard LCARS interface. So while I'd like to see it, I'm pretty sure that we're not going to, because a lot of the rest of the game doesn't have it.
4) Officer of the Watch and other functions can somehow be accessible from the command center as well, although the precise form it would take (perhaps a situation room connected to the central command center?) is not something that I can think of right this second.
In any case these are mostly just my thoughts. I am aware that some of these (most?) are unrealistic, perhaps, but I thought I ought to toss it out there in case any wandering environmental designers might think it worth looking at.
Disclaimer: Very tired right now, thought I ought to just toss out my thoughts on this.
However one would assume that the paramount function of the Starbase interior is to facilitate fleet gatherings.
I've just started an RP fleet, as it grows I would definitely be wanting to use the Starbase for the primary function of meetings, inductions etc.
As it stands on my starship the ready room has 3 seats which can be clicked on to get your character to sit on them. Now why can this simple already implemented function not be replicated in a conference room with say 20 - 40 seats and a table?
#2311#2700#2316#2500
Look for the special projects, "Room Without a View," "Sit in a High Chair," "Function Follows Form," and "The Great Starfleet Tribble Hunt," in the coming weeks. 200k dilithium per, limited time only.
Ha,
With the chairs, That really is functionality that requires no development at all as they have it implemented in the Captains ready room already.
I'm not really getting why they failed to do it for Starbases.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
I would have no problem with that.
I'd have a problem with them charging dilithium for a feature request that requires no development time, i.e. having sitable chairs.
#2311#2700#2316#2500