Boring ground missions

noroblad

Fairly new to the game, and its pretty awesome all around. The one thing that is getting to me are the empty planets and empty bases where you have to find 3-5 objects to interact with. You can easily spend 15 min looking for the last one in some of the worst setups, like the broomstick sized sensor in the bases. Once in a while, this is fine (klingon side, these missions seem to be very rare) but fed side, its 3/4 of the "explore new world" content.

I am not asking for combat, mind you. I would be happy to find out that the aliens on this rock need replicators or medicine or something. I would be happy playing "avoid the aliens" in some sort of mission, complete it without breaking the prime directive. Would not take much to improve the situation.

As a new player, I need dil, so I am stuck doing the daily stuff, but I now cancel these missions and scan a new spot to get something else, that is how boring they are.

unangbangkay

noroblad wrote: »

Fairly new to the game, and its pretty awesome all around. The one thing that is getting to me are the empty planets and empty bases where you have to find 3-5 objects to interact with. You can easily spend 15 min looking for the last one in some of the worst setups, like the broomstick sized sensor in the bases. Once in a while, this is fine (klingon side, these missions seem to be very rare) but fed side, its 3/4 of the "explore new world" content.

I am not asking for combat, mind you. I would be happy to find out that the aliens on this rock need replicators or medicine or something. I would be happy playing "avoid the aliens" in some sort of mission, complete it without breaking the prime directive. Would not take much to improve the situation.

As a new player, I need dil, so I am stuck doing the daily stuff, but I now cancel these missions and scan a new spot to get something else, that is how boring they are.

Exploration needs a revamp. In the words of Stan Lee, "'nuff said!"

But to say more, you're damned lucky that you're only seeing this type of content in the "exploration" procedurally generated missions these days.

Back when STO was young and there weren't enough scripted missions, quest lines, Doff systems and queued events to get you to lv. 50 on their own, this kind of randomly generated "Scan 5 items/kill 5 enemy groups" junk made up about half of the regular content.

Thank the gods (Iconians?) that the "Patrol Sector Block" missions are now entirely optional, and practically invisible these days.

And if you're looking for ways to farm dilithium without touching the exploration dailies, you could always make up the shortfall with queues, certain other dailies (like the Foundry, Sector Defense, Traelus Repair, Deferi zone), New Romulus, and other more engaging missions to get your daily 8k.

mikoto8472

Having recently started two new Starfleet characters from the beginning, yes the early missions do suck. They're long, boring with thin plots that barely mean anything.

Hang in there, they *do* get better eventually.

I personally found that once I got to lvl 10/ Lieutenant Commander, the missions weren't quite as mind numbingly boring. But your tolerance may vary.

I'd say once you get to "Spin the Wheel" things pick up more and a coherent storyline forms.

chroma01

noroblad wrote: »

Fairly new to the game, and its pretty awesome all around. The one thing that is getting to me are the empty planets and empty bases where you have to find 3-5 objects to interact with. You can easily spend 15 min looking for the last one in some of the worst setups, like the broomstick sized sensor in the bases.

Do you know about the "Scan Area" button on your Mini-Map?

Click it and it gives you a directional scan to where the nearest interesting or needed objects are.

cookiecrook

One of the major issues with ground missions is the lack of variety. Scanning for items or shooting enemies are both done in such an generic way on the most basic of maps. Everything ends up being so linear, it makes them feel unchallenging. A maze of caves would be more interesting instead of the 5 room with connecting tunnels and the same for bases and the open maps. Having to climb up or down ladders to get to different areas and having dead ends with the odd piece of decent loot for finding something optional really could add some variety. The same applies to combat locations. A few more maps in each setting with more than just the linear path to each group of enemies would help STO feel a lot less repetitive.

pet1e86

Sure there was talk of ground revamp when i left 2 years ago, come back and still the same to me, - utter rubbish

farmallm

Last few times I started a new character. I don't do the "explore clusters/area" missions. I do the duty officers to get some Dil. Do the mining game at Deep Space 9. That offers some Dil and fast/easy to do. However for most part. I usually don't start farming Dil until I hit Lv50 and get the Deferi daily opened up by doing the story line. By then the stuff I'm using Dil is for the Lv50 level. Since leveling up you won't be using your gear for long.

As for the regular ground missions from the stories. I usually love doing those. Some are very fun to do.

dorlos2

I still hope, some day one could chose to do ground missions in 1st person. This would make it more attractive for a bunch of players.

I'm aware of, what a drastic change in gameplay this would be and I'm not asking to completely replace the ground combat system as it is now.
I just would like to have the option to do it 1st person.


Greetings

Dorlos