Having quite enjoyed New Romulus (still working on T5 Rep), I've always wondered if the currently ghost town-like holiday planet social zone could be remastered in a similar manner.
As I've done with the
ship interior proposal, I will be putting together a proper document - but first, I'd like to gather thoughts and opinions for some preliminary ideas I have.
About Risa
In STO canon, Risa is an M-class planet in the Sirius Sector Block, Beta Quadrant and a member of the UFP. Through the use of Weather Modification Networks and Seismic Stabilizers, the planet has become a popular interstellar holiday destination, known for its pristine beaches, tropical resorts and constant fine weather.
Current State In-Game (at time of writing)
Although ostensibly a RP-oriented social zone, it does not see as much activity as the major player hubs, for the obvious reason that it lacks any of the common conveniences STO players need (bank, exchange, mail, vendors).
Of the few NPC contacts depicted, the only two of note are the Commodity Brokers Ariana and Melangogg.
Proposed Revamp
The social map would be reworked into an adventure zone in the same manner as New Romulus, with various mini-games and activities rewarding reputation marks. These can then be contributed towards a simplified reputation system that unlocks story missions at each Tier.
The overarching storyline could involve a conspiracy of some sort that the player would have to investigate and resolve, possibly involving an
Undine infiltration or a revival of the
New Essentialists movement.
The mini-games the players participate in would be themed around non-combat PvP races or leisure activities - from an in-universe perspective, the player's continued patronage of these activities and facilities would gain them the trust of the locals, and help with the investigation.
Reputation System
The
Risan Reputation System would be a toned-down version of its Omega and New Romulus counterparts, open to
Captain (Level 30) players, with five tiers and a total completion time of around 30 days of continuous gameplay.
The sole input would be
Risan Marks or
Horga'hns on "upgrade projects" - the system would
neither require nor reward dilithium.
In addition to unlocking storyline missions at the completion of each Tier, the player would
gain access to more parts of a tropical resort complex, as well as
off-duty costume unlocks (bikinis, speedos and broad shorts, anyone?
)
Suggested Activities and Mini-Games
These activities would contribute toward's a player's
Risan Marks or
Horga'hns to be used in reputation projects and Risan store purchases
- Rock Climbing at Galartha - the rock face and hand holds change as the player climbs them
- Water-borne races - e.g. swimming, kayaking, hydrosailing, speedboating
- Hoverball - a 25th Century version of volleyball?
- Dabo - located at a Ferengi casino
- Billards
- Tennis
- Water Polo
Ideas? Opinions?
I'd be keen on hearing them from you guys.
Comments
What about making a better Risa Map? The current one sucks.
Unlocking repeatable Duty Officer missions would make make sense as rewards, Risan Bridge Officers, Jovals outfit, Risan lute non-combat device, and a bar that sells mai-tai's is a must. Perhaps a Horga'hn trophy is in order?
Personally, I want a Risan wedding gown very much.
The Starbase Shuttle Bay? I paid a good amount of Dilithium for that, I hope it's going to have more than one use.
Also, a Risan contact on Qo'nos could serve this purpose as well.
I do like the sound of this Risa proposal. Doubt it will ever come to existence, but I still like the sound of it. Risa, and Andoria are very nice looking "social zones". But there is no purpose to them at current, so nobody visits those places.
EDIT: I kinda agree with centersolace. Risa may be better suited for a "Summer Event" adventure zone, which -could- be accessable to both Factions. Although Risa is historically a Federation planet, there are times when Klingons have been given shore-leave access to Federation facilities. Most notably, Deep Space K-7 (Trouble with Tribbles), and Deep Space Nine (multiple times).
As far as the Klingons go, it seems like the mini games could be designed to double down as Federation vacation games and Klingon training games. For example, OP's suggestion of rock climbing could work like this. Water games might be able to be done with two different skin sets, so that Risa seems nice and relaxed, ie kayaking, and the Klingons could be riding some sort of dangerous animal or some other similar thing.
So long as there is an OK balance between content, I dont think it would be necessary for the Klingons to get exact copies of all the activities as well. The Klingons could get some unique mini games of there own, though obviously this is overall less efficient use of developers time.
Another idea is that the more aggressive mini game activities could be placed on Andora, and the Klingon training area, and the more relaxed ones could be placed on Risa and the Klingon area.
Another idea to get more people to hang out at Risa is to have random drops of goodies appear in hidden areas. It would be pretty awesome if, for instance, you could go "swimming" at Risa and discover some dilithium treasure or some unique type of thing. I am not sure if this could feasibly be programmed though. Also, you could have mini diplomacy missions, where you can encounter randomly placed NPC vacationers who you strike up a conversation with and then do something positive for.
Howabout the Shore Leave Planet? Granted, that means the character artist has to do an Alice in Wonderland bunny suit.
I think the deeper problem is that visiting Risa is a T5 Marauding perk.
However...
Maybe they could add a Risa and a Rura Penthe at the same time. Feds need to get max Diplomacy to do Rura Penthe rep. Klingons need max Marauding to start Risa rep.
Then of course the remaining problem is making further lopsided rewards for the most heavily rewarded DOff categories while others have none.
I see no reason most of the activities on Risa couldn't be available all year round, I just think that the costumes would be more suited to a summer event like the winter coats.
Why not? Star Trek had those kinds of episodes all the time.
Yes this would be very nice... Cryptic has repeatedly said that swimming tech is very hard for the game engine, but if they did it, we would never regret it.
YES!!! BLOOMERS AHOY!!!!
And if you do it, there MUST be a targ hunting preserve, with easy/advanced/elite targs for pelts that can be turned in for costume unlocks!
Ahem.
Since the core of this idea is Fed-oriented with no single satisfactory way of working around it that wouldn't seem slapdash, the only other choice I see (beyond just not doing it) is creating a Klingon equivalent.
Imagine, if you will, a world somewhere in Klingon space. It is a rugged world, but not without its places of peace and tranquility. And a Ferengi with a keen eye and a loads of latinum has bought it. There, he builds an arena, fitted with everything the discerning Klingon, Gorn, or Nausicaan warrior might desire. Naturally, there is also an extensive bar, outfitted with facilities for Orions to entertain, and always stocked full of drunk patrons for other Orions or Letheans to pry information out of.
Naturally no race is shoehorned into any activity. But the themes would gravitate towards certain races, making for a slightly better fit.
You'd have a few activities here:
Would use basically the same toned-down Rep system OP proposed using TRIBBLE as input. Rewards at T5 could range from a Vulcan Love Slave photonic BOff to Arena-themed costume unlocks.
I think, to address the problem with the proposed Rise minigames, a similar approach to the Klingon ones suggested needs to be taken. Use as much existing tech as possible.
For example, the Bouncer minigame and "tag enemy" tech could be applied to... a Peeping Tom-stopping minigame. Some women on the north shore are tired of these morons trying to peek into the women's sauna or something, so the player stands outside and roflstomps the NPC's who run up and try to take a peek. If the player can knock them out before the "Peeping" counter fills up, more Horgh'gans! For an extra laugh, tack on an interactable peephole the player can use outside the mini-game (but if you do you take damage and get knocked back with a gag dialog fly-by from your accompanying BOff that says "I don't think that's wise, sir..."!)
Likewise, the Arena minigame could translate to Risa as "the toughest (wo)man on the beach", in which you beat down smug YOLO-ing swag-proclaiming posers to impress the crowd and rid the world of another meat-head.
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
risa is for relaxiation maybe a few more little things added caves look out points rope bridges everything else no. look at new romulus adventure zone dangerous creatures invaders armys of tal shiar tholions digging around and tagging weird dogs there isnt many places to enjoy the views do rp without a cloaking hunter trying to beat you up risa simply isnt like that a new risa bigger more to explore look at but some type of rep system? why not do that with vulcan learn more about spock or logic or something while doing it idk lol (is some what amused)
Actually I like the map. It just needs MOR.
This means Cryptic can't make a penny off of it, therefore the project will never happen because it is unfunded. Moderate Dil costs would be fine (half the current rep system).
Given the non-combat nature of it, open this to level 20+ but add some experience/skill costs to the projects.
Finally, we are talking a leisure planet using various types of booze the way that current rep projects use commodities and consumables should also be considered. Again, having it be marks only I just don't think would be accepted. Marks, experience, and one or two types of alcohol and a bit of dilithium where appropriate. That fits the established pattern, that gives cryptic money, that makes it possible.
This would also tie it in nicely to the bartender doff missions and could give some interesting new bartender and/or entertainer doffs as reputation awards.
Another thing I was thinking is adding a new rare commodity. not unlike the romulan research tokens for their duty officer mission, have something tied to the minigames that gives a unique risian commodity akin to tulaberries or ferasan nepeta, and consume it with a 4-part doff mission chain that parallels the other commodity chains. You could possibly have this commodity be consumed when buying from the reputation store after you have unlocked items.
This gives people who don't want to bother with reputation something to do in orbit (get the location based doff mission) and a way to cash in via the auction house and help those of us who are doing stuff.
Most of the entertainment, gambling, shore leave missions are in development. Finding a way to add more there might be better than diplomacy.
A work around to the diplomacy gate for klings would be via the embassy: just have an embassy on Risa, and let klings walk out the front door or use the shuttle bay. They can't get into orbit without diplomacy, but they can get to the embassy and from there walk around the planet.
Swimming, and a whole underwater zone has been part of CO from day 1. I'm not sure how exactly it can be hard to add swimming into STO since it's the same engine...
The basic problem is, based on what we were told and assuming that's still true, the costume models don't support it. Sure, the Orions show skin, but nobody else does. The models weren't designed in a way that the skin is a separate layer, so you can't just slap a bikini on top of it and hit the beach.
Could they fix that? Sure, maybe. But I doubt we'll see that anytime soon, and even if they do I imagine it would be limited to certain races at first.
All that said, I certainly support expanding all of the social areas, including Risa.
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Agreed. Both Risa and Andoria and well even Vulcan are disappointing. This concept would have been much better with actual resort buildings : http://robertdbrown.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3b8f1u. I could see having a bunch of Doffmissions added like archeological digs dance parties etc. I also wish there was more to do on the 3 maps I just mentioned
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
IIRC the problem is not in skin - they can add skin to all avatars at any time as long as it is approved. This was a problem with the Female TOS and MU costumes at launch. They weren't available until the character artists added bare skin for all FED female avatars.
The real problem is with the ESRB Teen Rating. They allowed Orion Females to be half naked under that rating because they are "aliens". But Human females etc were not allowed. It makes no sense but that's how the ESRB rolls sometimes as I remember a dev stating.
I like this. Give it a combined Risa/Andoria purpose and use it for hunting dangerous animals, dualing other klingons in melee tournaments. Maybe a "hunt the prisoner" mission that requires players to speak to locals with varying degrees of honesty.
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Gorn shows skin......well scales. :P
And I thought they did have a skin layer, I recall the glitch in Beta testing of topless Klingon female BOFFs. So surely they could make bikini's available for female players.
Anyhow, don't recall seeing any topless attire on Risa even for men, so they could easily make full-piece swimsuits or go exotic with bikinis.
Well Klingons don't believe in off-duty. :P
But why not simply let them visit Risa? Given Romulus, it appears the war is over. Then again, why give them Risa when they should have their own unique vacation / social zone that gives a reason to play a character in the Klingon Empire?
So instead of Risan sunbathing, give Klingons a more appropriate vacation spot. Maybe give us a social area on Boreth and we get to visit the temple (not just the one on the mission).
Maybe the famous landmarks on Qo'nos, where Kahless stood. Like the Kri'stak Volcano? And players could go Targ Hunting.
Perhaps Forcas and let players have a hunting area, social area, and the ability to have their own Bat'leth tournaments in a FFA (Bat'leth only) arena.
I dunno. I was just repeating what I heard. If it's BS then it's not the first time. :rolleyes:
Picard speedos please thanks
My wish list:
Risa needs to be as big as New Romulus. Go big or dont update it. I want to actually have fun on Risa and be on vacation.
In 2409, I see the Risa cliff face having a tall yet thin hotel that climbs up the face of the cliff. Bottom level is a casino and gift shop, that links to Z store item. Make 4 distinct playable levels. 5th floor is Holosuits, with doors for foundry authors. 10th floor has deluxe suites that are empty rooms that foundry authors can place contacts. 15th floor is a nightclub on roof of hotel that overlooks beach.
If winter event has us iceskating, for summer I want to go boating or kayacking or paddle boating for the race event. Cant you guys make a small kayak form around our toons sitting in it? The water race trail should be long. Race starts and ends at beach, but path goes into narrow river inland that has forks in river for alternate routes. I want to be sitting at a river side bar and see boat racers go by as I sip my drink and type in chatbox.
Subterrainian gardens: The neatest spot on Risa is that cave. Well, go big. Make a labyrnth down there. Midway deep is a garden club to chat at. Have bat creatures to shoot at. Deep in cave is a lava river. Have jumping areas to hop around this area like playing hot lava on the couch as a kid. In the middle is a round arena mat to challenge NPCs to melee combat and try to avoid lava. This deep area caters to KDF.
Fly fishing: If Im going to grind the F key, make it fit. Fed or KDF can fly fish along stream for tropical fish. Make us move around up and down stream for moving hotspots. We try to catch rare fish, and turn them in at resort. By themselves they pay out good consumables, or 5 rare fish with a little zen buys something cool in z store.
Holosuit: For Feds, Old West town. Simulate shootout at OK Corral, 5 players vs NPCs. Buy cooler outfits and better period guns in Z store.
For KDF, simulate The Hunt for targs or something or a big melee only fight against NPC enemies. Klingon vacation is just cooler fighting opportunities.
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