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Cryptic, when will you...
stohanson
Member Posts: 106 Arc User
Cryptic,
When will you create large planets for people to get lost on? I want to fall down a hole and discover some hidden lost city, or find myself surrounded by hostile villagers, some viral outbreak or come across a dispute between two waring people that I need to negotiate..
The Space part of the game feels solid, but the ground game (with the exception of the STFs) feels like an after thought, or a side game.
A great example would be the planets from what was Star Wars Galaxies. The Maps were massive and you could come across random encounters. Planetary exploration is missing from Star Trek.
When will you create large planets for people to get lost on? I want to fall down a hole and discover some hidden lost city, or find myself surrounded by hostile villagers, some viral outbreak or come across a dispute between two waring people that I need to negotiate..
The Space part of the game feels solid, but the ground game (with the exception of the STFs) feels like an after thought, or a side game.
A great example would be the planets from what was Star Wars Galaxies. The Maps were massive and you could come across random encounters. Planetary exploration is missing from Star Trek.
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Unfortunately, I feel both of our requests are outside of Cryptic's skills/interest.
It is not out of there skills or interest. They have indeed done work on making the map unified. Ground maps have been getting much larger and better as time goes on.
In what way has the space map been unified? There are still the same number of 'zones', we still get asked for permission to warp when moving between sectors, and we still end up pointing the wrong way when arriving in a new area. There hasn't been a single 'zone wall' removed since launch.
To clarify, I'd like to be able to fly, uninterrupted, from DS9 to New Romulus (for example), without having my ship stop and click 'yes' several times.
A possible suggestion: borders based on a player's level. But how long before we see low level Romulans using exploits to go wherever they please?
That is, after all, what being a (Federation) starship captain is all about.
At high levels in particular, when things get a bit grindy, it would be nice to be able to go search out new planets, lifeforms, etc, that nobody has seen. And I'm sorry, but the current exploration system just doesn't do that. Nobody else can see what I find, and it is very cookie cutter exploration.
How about once a month, or as often as possible, a new planet is put out, with boundaries, but extremely large ones. Cryptic would be (pun intended...) very cryptic about telling us what is there, just letting us know that a probe has found a new planet, and officers are being invited to explore it. What we find when we get there... who knows.
As a side benefit for Cryptic, these maps could be reused later, for STF's, missions, etc, to make the game feel that it is truly evolving.
Or something
This is one post that talked about it.:
This is one of the interesting compromises we've discussed, but there is still no clear easy way to do it. We want to - we just need to do it at the right time.
I too would like to be able to fly uninterrupted in sector space, map transistions are extremely annoying, as for level gating, every under level 50 player can enter the New Romulus system, they just can't beam down except to go to their fleet embassy/New Romulus command as appropriate. So I think it's possible.
weird alien beings like the crystalline entity that you had to fight, regular aliens to fight, space anomalies, space station fights with allies provided by the AI, some missions you would be outnumbered, others you would receive random assistance from allies, fightning enemies near black holes, its amazing thinking back how starfleet command had VERY varied random missions and it was done in 1999, cryptic could take some ideas from it and implement them.
Players tend to ignore large portions of planets, for one simple reason: no incentive. There are no missions, no achievements, and no real reason to go explore the furthest boundaries of a ground map. That makes sense. So, there's no incentive for Cryptic to make large scale very involved ground maps... which also makes sense. This is a self-defeating cycle, and there are a few ways to work around it.
Here is a possibility, a large scale system, that would take some time to work out and develop. Cryptic produces a massive map. A new planet (say, one that the faction wants to colonize.) The planet has no civilization (at first... later planets could perhaps have civilizations on them, but that would have to be worked out later). Now, to encourage players to explore this colony, we need incentive.
This is where things could get fun. The server could pick at random (based on criteria that Cryptic programs) the various characteristics of plants and lifeforms, and generate a population of indigenous plants and creatures for this massive map. Some we will have seen before, some will be new. So where is the incentive? Players could explore the map (mapping out the planet for colonization, which I will get into more later), and "discover" these creatures. If the player is one of the first (say, first ten players?) to find this creature, they get the option to recommend a name for them to Cryptic. Cryptic could devise a system for making these creatures permanent, and the player who discovered it could get an achievement, some currency, and the credit for the discovery, or..? The possibilities there are endless.
But that only gives incentive to a small number of people to explore a new, massive planet. Which is where more of the system comes in. Once the planet is mapped, the ability to contribute (think: Fleet starbase system) becomes available, where players from the entire faction could contribute resources to build a colony here.
This process would be expensive, as it is every player in the faction contributing, and time consuming, so that the devs have time to work up the buildings and how they fit in. As the colony grows, perhaps some unique items, available only from that colony, become available for purchase, and some missions (IE, support colonization on *planet name*) become available to all players of the faction.
This allows players to contribute in a meaningful way to something bigger than just themselves or their fleet, in a way that helps the entire faction that they belong to. It gives players a chance to explore, find new things, contribute to the game, and, in my opinion most importantly, see the game grow and evolve as a direct result of their actions, if they invest the time to do so.
This would be a considerable investment, but one that, I feel, would enrich the game in numerous ways. But needs more fleshing out and working out to make it a possibility.
Cryptic, in return, benefits from the dilithium purchase, perhaps some zen items that contribute in different ways, etc, to the growth of the planet, that players would purchase, and, I think, a renewed interest in aspects of the game that are not widely utilized currently.
Sorry for the novel, but I hope I explained the idea well
What if Cryptic used their Genesis system to generate a few hundred random maps for players to colonize. Then we could discover these systems in a huge open sector of space.
Maybe a successful colony could produce dilithium or some other valuable items. Say building a colony requires resources. Each planet has a few resources to build basic buildings with. But for the more advanced buildings they would need additional resources from other planets.
Think Settlers of Catan. In Space. (Yes I know there is a Star Trek Settlers of Catan already)
As for the trade amongst colonies... also a good idea. It opens up more than just the trade, as well. Trade routes have to be protected against raiders, as the freighters carry valuable things. So, for example, Klingons could raid the trade route from planet A to B, while Federation captains would fight to protect it... both PVP (mission oriented, this time around
The only drawback I see to using Genesis to generate any number of planets beyond 2-3 would be the players trying to help the faction grow... it would spread resources fairly widly. But a combination of ideas could work here. For instance, Genesis generates 10 planets. 6 are unsuitable for colonization, (enter pirate basis, alien life forms, etc), 2 are already inhabited by pre-warp civilizations, and 1 or 2 are uninhabited and suitable for colonization. This keeps the amount of work Cryptic has to do for adding buildings, content, etc, lower, while maximizing the impact of exploration.
Or, again, on the note of faction-wide cooperation, exploration missions that are succcessfully completed could generate a certain number of points. When a threshold is crossed, another planet is added to the queue of planets to be created, which is executed monthly, again, decreasing workload, but building some anticipation to see the expansion of the game with each cycle.
On another note, I didn't know there was a ST SoC... I shall find it, and it shall be mine.
So in Theory
Yeah, thats a nice broken down list. Each portion of the system should open up more things for everyone, such as the trade routes.
Perhaps the addition of career specific missions, like clearing out pirates (tac) constructing a subspace receiver satellite (eng) and altering local weather patterns (sci). Just as a few examples.
The ultimate objective, in my mind, is to give everyone more to do, as a break from STF's, grinding, etc, that,in the end, benefits the game as a whole.
That said, the idea of exploration-based gameplay is not particularly realistic, even if we did have a vast open game world, at least as far as going "where no one has gone before." If that kind of content ever did exist, it would be completely mapped by intrepid players within a week, at which point everyone will have gone everywhere (insert sad trombone).
In my opinion, instancing is actually a decent compromise, if it could be made more dynamic and varied than it is now. In the current game, instances are like little "episodes," but the problem is that there are only a handful of templates for them, and none are particularly sophisticated. Just beefing up that aspect of the current game would go a long way towards improving the feeling of exploring fresh content.
What I think would be really neat, is if they could create larger, more dynamic instances that were randomly generated and temporary. I think this would fit well within the Star Trek theme too. How many TNG episodes began with "some kind of spatial anomaly half a light year away". If these sorts of things could randomly pop up, giving you an opportunity to enter them and experience a significant piece of dynamic, generated content, that would be pretty cool. Particularly if you had an option to "send a distress signal" that would allow some number of other players to join you in the instance if they received it. This would make it feel like you are doing something unique, but still fit within the technical framework of the game. If these instances had the potential for interesting/unique loot, etc., all the better. Even better still if the instance could persist for some number of days, and was big enough to support several days of exploration.
Guild Wars 2 has a large map that gives you experience for exploring it. This is a more modern MMO that strongly encourages the exploration of its map.
This idea: Smart idea: dynamic events that encourage group participation. Whether we play STO solo, in teams or fleets: it wouldn't matter. All would be welcome.
The Snowman event in Q's Wonderland as an example
While the idea was somewhat static (always the same snowmen, always on the hour and half-hour) the basic idea is feasible. The final snowman boss scaled up the more players came to bring it down. This may sound crazy, but I truly enjoyed that event! Even went back to play it when I didn't need its rewards.
STO could use fun, dynamic events that could allow a Lv10 to fight side-by-side with a Lv50 until all are victorious. Individuals get their rewards like we did in the Winter Festival, so there's no chance of "the first one to kill the boss gets all the loot/XP" kind of nonsense to spoil it all.
If what you're asking for is Everquest 1 style uninstanced "camp check" content, no way. I'll pass, thanks. I don't need some guild of leet doods farming and pushing outsiders away.
The key factors that I find to be lacking in the game are:
1. The game is static. (It's still 2409... 3 years later. Make it 2410, and give us the Nexus! ^_^)
2. There is no real incentive to explore. The only reason to explore space is to get data samples... which you can buy.
3. Endgame is grinding. The guides you can find on the net lay it out nicely, and thus, there is no reason to try to do something new.
4. While we may (or may not) contribute to fleets and events, there is no feeling of accomplishment, other than unlocking another piece of gear.
The system I outlined would, indeed, require a large rework, but, it would address these factors.
The 4th piece would be the most heavily addressed, as players that invested time and effort into this system would be rewarded later, when the colony they supported grew to a prosperous, contributing member of their faction. The 1st and 2nd are also heavily addressed, as there is now incentive to do something new, find a new planet, or maybe a new cave on an old planet.
I would like to see STO become something epic, which it could do, without too many issues, and grow and expand.
I had a thought, though. We have an Kerrat for space. Why not have a planet that is a battle ground between KDF and Feds?
Member since early 2011
HOW about: EXPLORING SPACE SHIPS
Give the player the option of where to beam into an enemy ship/space station:
1. Into a low-populated tech area where consoles could be tampered with; players go from console to console choosing the most effective solution to disable/redirect/confuse troops/officers--a bad choice means resorting to firepower until the next console is found.
=> You can see a bit of this in "Stranded In Space". But I'm not talking about Sci doing THIS, Eng doing THAT and Tac doing THESE, though that's not unwelcome. Examples: cutting into a wall to expose a panel that could be rewired to set off a distant fire-alarm. The mobs rush off distracted, clearing the path. The team moves from sneaky tactic to sneaky tactic, then uses elevators or Jeffries tubes to switch floors.
2. Into a high-risk area, where getting out alive is a true challenge, best done when teamed up (a warning given to captains before they select it)
3. On the same floor as the problem (a rescue or reconnaissance mission), using the tried-and-true pew pew pew method we all know
4. On the enemy's bridge or a guarded location with a high level officer: causing a verbal stand off with the lead NPC. A higher diplomatic level means a greater chance of talking our way into a peaceful solution, examples:
=> The successful negotiation with Obisek in "The Vault"
==> Quieting the rioters in "Of Bajor" when we counter the lead rioter's arguments
More specifically, for the last point: players with Lv4 Diplomacy skills would have the highest number of helps in a discussion with the captain or the person/officer closest to the solution. But even then there would be choices where a Lv4 Diplomacy would not get assistance, ensuring some difficulty.
From the outside a ship/space-station can be quite large, but once aboard, it's smaller than a Wal-Mart. Giving the player a choice of beam-in locations would help reduce that impression.
Going back to the original topic of exploration, What would be the most feasible way to make a fun exploration system?