Planets are lacking in purpose

benoit101

I was just thinking the other day, that pretty much all of the planets you can visit are really a big let down.

Andoria for example has nothing of any value to do or collect, other planets are the same such as Risa.

What are your thoughts on this? I feel this is a wasted opportunity with regards to a richer content for gamers

tenkari

risia does have the summer event though, so it has use every now and then. too bad they didnt htink of putting Q's Winter Wonderland on Andoria, it would have given purpose to the planet.

peetapipmac

tenkari wrote: »

risia does have the summer event though, so it has use every now and then. too bad they didnt htink of putting Q's Winter Wonderland on Andoria, it would have given purpose to the planet.

That was indeed a missed opportunity.

starkaos

Considering that it is Q running the show and Andorians have their own customs, it doesn't make sense to add a Winter event that is focused around gingerbread men, snowmen, and Christmas food on an alien planet. If Q wanted to put it on Earth, then it would be fine except for the fact it would be hard to explain too many Klingons invading Earth just to throw snowballs at snowmen. Having duels on Andoria would make more sense than putting a human holiday event there.

Besides there are tons of planets that need to be added even if they are just social zones with nothing to do besides look at the scenery.

lucho80

Yeah, Andoria and Vulcan are both in serious need of some purpose for their existence. I go to them every 48 hours, but only for doffing purposes, and most of the time, I don't even need to beam down for what I'm looking for.

roxbad

benoit101 wrote: »

I was just thinking the other day, that pretty much all of the planets you can visit are really a big let down.

Andoria for example has nothing of any value to do or collect, other planets are the same such as Risa.

What are your thoughts on this? I feel this is a wasted opportunity with regards to a richer content for gamers

Agreed. Earth and the entire Sol system could have been fleshed out to provide a much more diverse and immersive environment for new Federation captains. The same for Klingons and Romulans. Captains shouldn't be commanding ships outside of their home systems before the rank of lt. commander.

daqhegh

benoit101 wrote: »

I was just thinking the other day, that pretty much all of the planets you can visit are really a big let down.

Andoria, Bajor, Risa...pretty much every "scan stuff" mission on a patrol/cluster planet. They went back and made everything prettier, but there isn't a whole lot of use for almost every planet we have.

Look and Vulcan -- How many things can we potentially do? There's the Pon Farr Marriage ritual (either fighting or being the Vulcan getting married), there's Kohlinar and meditation ceremonies, we have temples and sacred places (as in TOS and ENT). But NONE of it exists in game.

Same for Bajor -- they could do a Feature about the orbs and let us have interactive orb experiences...and we'd see the temples and meet the Vedeks and maybe save the Kai at the end of the feature. But again, we don't have any such thing.

The Acedemy (both) should be used as a training ground. We should have holosims to show us how to properly use melee weapons and a practice sim for phasers. I also think it would be nice to use the holodecks there as testing grounds for builds (ground and space). Just use our current stats and let us play around with different ships and weapons. We wouldn't keep any of it since it would only exist in the holosuite And, I assume, the rewards would be minimal (if any).

Neither Andoria or Risa were well developed as planets. We know Andoria was called "Andor" in DS9 (then changed to "Andoria later (probably because it sounds too much like an unrelated planet called "Endor"). It's a cold waste of a planet and the Andorians live underground, implying they aren't fully immune to the cold). There are Aenar there, but we only know a couple of them and there isn't much to base a story on -- peace-loving hippie telepaths. And with Risa, all we have is that the planet has an artificlal weather control net. The natives have a language that only Hoshi Sato understands, and it's a tourist spot. Riker liked the place, and hired hookers there often. Again, very little substance.

BUT the two plants can be used for sidemissions. Say, use the existing battle zones at Andoria for the U'Shan, and have leveled blue laser weapons as rewards. Maybe a purple Andorian Ale with a special ground-based bonus? For Risa, maybe they could host minigames there. Hoverball and Velocity would be perfect for the place. And let's not forget Bashir and O'Brien's version of Tennis. Throw in a few bat'leth matches and melee fights and it's good to go.

Shame the Dev's don't listen to these suggestions. We have been talking about these possibilities for years. Even games like Tongo and Dom-Jat come up from time to time. Sad truth is, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

smokeybacon90

This game is rapidly becoming the MMO equivalent of a Drive-Through. Most endgame tasks can be performed from any location with a bank and exchange, and via the myriad of reputation, doff, holding and PvE menus. People are becoming lazy and would rather fill sliders then warp to exotic planets in the true spirit of Trek.

If I had my way, all the menu based stuff would be ripped out, along with transwarps. But most people don't want a reason to travel. They just want their uber gear. So I cant blame Cryptic for not adding any real purpose to systems, because there's just so little demand there to begin with.

mcduffie369

All of the major planets should be full of daily missions.

champion1701

smokeybacon90 wrote: »

This game is rapidly becoming the MMO equivalent of a Drive-Through. Most endgame tasks can be performed from any location with a bank and exchange, and via the myriad of reputation, doff, holding and PvE menus. People are becoming lazy and would rather fill sliders then warp to exotic planets in the true spirit of Trek.

If I had my way, all the menu based stuff would be ripped out, along with transwarps. But most people don't want a reason to travel. They just want their uber gear. So I cant blame Cryptic for not adding any real purpose to systems, because there's just so little demand there to begin with.

I agree, the menu based systems have ruined the gameplay of the game. I miss having to travel to a location for a mission. For example, you had to fly to the Transwarp Gate and then to the system to play Infected.

The menu systems provide no story and lack of Star Trek feel. Many of the systems should be integrated into the Bridge of your ship. How abut we get some story line missions, say like 12+ hours of story gameplay?

Also we need more random events, pop up enemies or distress signals. Random system breaks on your ship, small mini mission to repair it, boarding parties. The options are endless. Make it feel like Star Trek. Random **** always happens to the Enterprise...

mcduffie369 wrote: »

All of the major planets should be full of daily missions.

I totally agree! There are a lack of dailies in this game. Let them award 30 or so Dil or something each with a 20 daily limit?

killdozer9211

Decent officer of the watch style space and ground dailies, repeatable doff assignment chains rewarding unique consumables and commodities, personnel officers offering unique, higher quality doffs and boffs, map updates (give us the underground andorian city already), and the introduction of either hub accessability or hub amenities (at least mail, bank, and ship selection) are all any of these places need.

I'm so disappointed there's nothing to do on Andoria. At least Vulcan has like one daily. Bajor was a step in the right direction, but it's still empty somehow, not sure why. it has all this. Ditto for deferra.

It'd also be nice if fleets could choose to open embassies or even position their stations over these planets.

But people have been pushing for this for a while, the devs don't want to put the effort into it, much like the bridge issue.

It's such a shame. It's a game about exploring planets, we already only have about a half dozen planets we can visit regularly, and there's only reason to go to one or two of them.

Sigh, maybe if we ever get that season based around consolidating the existing parts of the game and squashing bugs instead of introducing more buggy content that will be neglected and abandoned within a year's time (looking at you, deferra and nukara!)... maybe one day...

voporak

Random note, the Winter Wonderland is actually a somewhat shrunken down Andoria map with the event stuff put on top of it (I recognize the mountains as being the same ones from Andoria). So it technically is Andoria. :P

akpa

champion1701 wrote: »

I agree, the menu based systems have ruined the gameplay of the game. I miss having to travel to a location for a mission. For example, you had to fly to the Transwarp Gate and then to the system to play Infected.

The menu systems provide no story and lack of Star Trek feel. Many of the systems should be integrated into the Bridge of your ship. How abut we get some story line missions, say like 12+ hours of story gameplay?

Also we need more random events, pop up enemies or distress signals. Random system breaks on your ship, small mini mission to repair it, boarding parties. The options are endless. Make it feel like Star Trek. Random **** always happens to the Enterprise...




I totally agree! There are a lack of dailies in this game. Let them award 30 or so Dil or something each with a 20 daily limit?

menu based systems havent ruined anything. they are there to make it easier for "lazy" players (like me) who are not that deep in RP. if you dont want to use them dont use them! they are not mendatory...

more dailies? why? so we going to be forced to stay a few hours in the game everyday? the game doesnt lack of dailies; the problem is that the curent dailies are too easy. elite mod is not that elite after all.

if you want a purpose for the planets go with RP and you can have any kind of purpose you wish to have.

roxbad

akpa wrote: »

menu based systems havent ruined anything. they are there to make it easier for "lazy" players (like me) who are not that deep in RP. if you dont want to use them dont use them! they are not mendatory...

more dailies? why? so we going to be forced to stay a few hours in the game everyday? the game doesnt lack of dailies; the problem is that the curent dailies are too easy. elite mod is not that elite after all.

if you want a purpose for the planets go with RP and you can have any kind of purpose you wish to have.

Kinda contradicting yourself in that post, no? Using the menus is not mandatory, but adding new dailies will force you to stay in game longer? Lazy players (like you) find the elite mode too easy?

Devs have made some errors in judgement with regard to this game. The kind of thing that comes from looking at test group data, without looking at how it effects the overall gaming experience. That is not to distract from some good work, but making so much available through a menu system brings the overall game to something like a playskool level.

captainhunter1

There is a solution proposed here: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=943411. Look about halfway through post #2.

This would not only give the major planets plenty of content, but ALL planets/systems throughout the galaxy.

akpa

roxbad wrote: »

Kinda contradicting yourself in that post, no? Using the menus is not mandatory, but adding new dailies will force you to stay in game longer? Lazy players (like you) find the elite mode too easy?

Devs have made some errors in judgement with regard to this game. The kind of thing that comes from looking at test group data, without looking at how it effects the overall gaming experience. That is not to distract from some good work, but making so much available through a menu system brings the overall game to something like a playskool level.

yeah you are right... the part of the dailies is garbiesh. when i saw the term of dailies and daily limit my mind went straight to WoW and the dailies there - where it was a pain to be a little more casual with that game.
but the part of the menus is right for my point of view. i don't like flying around for 10-15min just to do an STF of 3-5min. im not saying that is wrong to do it, its just not my style.
yes lazy me finds the elite mode too easy... i think this is a huge problem. im playing this game a casual player and i ve done all the content in the game with no effort at all. except for the no win scenario you can do all the content (elite and normal) with white gear mk x. for the no win scenario you just have to know what you suppose to do and have some decent dps.

duncanidaho11

smokeybacon90 wrote: »

If I had my way, all the menu based stuff would be ripped out, along with transwarps. But most people don't want a reason to travel. They just want their uber gear. So I cant blame Cryptic for not adding any real purpose to systems, because there's just so little demand there to begin with.

True but I think the lack of demand stems from an original lack of content. Don't provide immersive planetary environments to begin with and people won't expect it to be there as the game develops.

Personally, what I'd do is simply add a few missions to each planet with special item rewards (ground weapons, devices, customization bits) to motivate people to break from their routines. If you do more you approach the scale of the Summer Event which is expecting a lot of work to improve an area of the game which is quite evidently not in demand. It also risks fragmenting the population of the game considerably if you multiply a permanent event equivalent across 4 or 5 worlds (to the detriment of the adventure zones perhaps most of all.) What you still get however is a fair amount more time spent in "iconic" Star Trek environments that you can use as an opportunity to work in more lore/dialog than you might be able to fit into an adventure zone or STF (which I think is the best use we can make of these other planets.)

davidwford

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

True but I think the lack of demand stems from an original lack of content. Don't provide immersive planetary environments to begin with and people won't expect it to be there as the game develops.

Personally, what I'd do is simply add a few missions to each planet with special item rewards (ground weapons, devices, customization bits) to motivate people to break from their routines.

They originally had that with some of the non-repeatable patrol missions. Unfortunately, they removed them before F2P on account of some players complaining that they were too boring. Content should NEVER be pulled from the game, even if it is considered sub-par. If players don't like it, then don't freaking play it!

shpoks

The planets need to be modified to have dailies and repetitive missions that give a modest amount of dilithium (or some type of marks) similar to the ones on Nimbus III. Add an unique element to each planet like ushaan or iceskating in Andoria, relic scavenger hunt on Vulcan etc. Also it's good incorporate some story arc that would require players to go through that social zone at a point in time for some missions.
Make some special doff misions that are unique to each planet and make a center hub where players will have access to mail, bank, exchange, tailor, vendors and ship modification/customization.

Voila, ready to go. Those zones will be very much allive.