I've been saying since this game was in beta that sector space is too small, and makes it feel like space is a shoebox. Anyway I found this online, and I could not help but imagine what STO could have been...
A proper Galaxy Map:
http://www.chartgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/star-trek-map.jpeg
1. Neutral Zone battles for territory.
2. Supply missions with supply starships.
3. Convoy escourt duty missions.
4. Actual exploration in far reaches.
5. Fleet starbases could actually be useful as outposts for everyone in an area like a safe social and supply hub.
The possibilities are endless. Think of an EVE Online type scale.
Instead....We have to live in shoebox sized space and run the same missions and STF's over and over and over... While we wait on a new ship to be released to do the same stuff over and over and over...
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Which the Dev's do use as a reference/starting point.
I've got two copies of it. One kinda worn from repeated uses and one still like new.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
I think just about everyone wishes sector space travel was more like EVE.
In fact, I've always wished I could (for instance) cloak my ship and carry passengers into Klingon space, and then have them beam down or take a shuttle onto an enemy planet to wreak some havoc. Maybe there are PVP objectives, like a quest to steal enemy intelligence or whatever, so that one faction group can sneak in, complete a quest, and sneak out.
In order for them to escape Klingon space alive, I would need to dodge antiproton sweeps or whatever so I can stay hidden without alerting NPCs and players to my presence. That way, when they've done what they went to do, I can retrieve them and warp back out. If I get detected, NPCs and players could pursue me at warp speeds until I reached Federation space again, and if my engines weren't fast enough...
Anyway, that kind of stuff always sounded exciting to me. I much prefer a more open world where I can make my own fun to something so heavily instanced as STO.
Like said above, that map was taken from the Star Trek Star Charts.
Secondly, STO's locations are based from that same map. Though Cryptic tweeked it for gameplay reasons. Also that map was made before Enterprise was completed, which altered some of that map, like Klacht D'Kel Brakt went from being a planet to the Klingon name for the Briar Patch.
As for a real Neutral Zone, that has always bothered me. That the Neutral Zone wasn't like a seperate type of zone that you entered and risked crossing into Romulan or Klingon Territories. But yet in STO we cross enemy borders like it's nothing.
Supply missions and cargo ships, best left for a Trader / Merchant / Privateer faction.
Convoy Escort, don't think people would enjoy unless the bordom has definite action or somekind of reprocussions if you don't escort. Like supplys to your Starbase, if that convey gets destroyed, you don't get the supplies.
Exploration, said to be in the works. Not sure what they plan, as long as it isn't just another boring random mission generator like we have in existing clusters.
STO is a much smaller version of the overall "trek" universe. In so much as where most of the action of the tv shows/movies takes place. And remember the active star trek represented by that map isn't even all of the alpha and beta quadrants.
My point is Cryptic is adding more sectors to the game all the time, and hopefully given enough time (Like LOTS of time) they will expand it to something like that. but yeah, they are a long way from it at the moment.
Pop on your old < Warp 10 engine and space will feel bigger.
Where back in the day, you'd set course to cross the sector's length and you'd have time to go get a soda, take a wizz and still come back and have time to reslot the finished doff missions before you got to your destination!
As long as the EVE Space Trolls don't come as part of the package, I'm fine with it.
Hey i resemble that remark...
more on topic i agree..when i first came here (start of F2P) i was hoping for a wide expanse of space. Maybe not as big as EVE's galaxy, but massive in its own right. As it is atm its a lot of star and no trek.
A lot of EVE players play this game; there's several on the dev staff even. For all the differences between our games, there are still many similarities as well, and tremendous overlap in the communities. The official IRC channels for both games were on the same IRC network, after all.
The internet spaceship community is small; we should try to stick together.