In Champs and City Of, there were player run costume contests pretty much constantly going on. It doesn't make a lot of sense in the ST universe where everyone is wearing uniforms, but I'd love to figure out a ST themed equivalent that players could initiate themselves.
Nimbus...not just a character costume contest - but an Away Team costume contest. Various themes - different eras - overall mesh of things, so to speak.
As I type this, I'm running around Nimbus on one of my alts - using the costume guide info from STOwiki for 25th Century Orion and Nausicaan...but wearing the 2012 long black coats. Their weapons are a mess, though, so it totally blows any sort of overall theme they'd otherwise be sporting.
Between the actual species and aliens - with the options available for costumes (both on-duty and off-duty)...well, some folks need more options - but it would start to open that door for something like that, eh?
And speaking of Away Teams...well, Nimbus has the dance competition that's solo-play. What if we could pass emotes to our Away Team, eh? Then there could be dance competitions judged by players of how well somebody gets their Away Team to...shake it.
Well, if the point of putting in chess, is to draw people to social zones, putting chess into people's bridges and fleet bases essentially negates that. The point is that anything we would do, specifically within a social zone to draw people in, would HAVE to be limited to only the social zone, otherwise it's pointless.
I thought you were talking about cheese I love cheese in my bridge with my friends and non-alcoholic wine, I hate hitting one of those asteroids.
Is there some way to encourage people to interact more face to face, or outside of zone chat? Is there some way to set up more/different chat channels, so that players could talk without being in standard zone chat? or would all of those other chats just devolve into the same nonsense, and be trolled to death?
Well, if the point of putting in chess, is to draw people to social zones, putting chess into people's bridges and fleet bases essentially negates that. The point is that anything we would do, specifically within a social zone to draw people in, would HAVE to be limited to only the social zone, otherwise it's pointless.
If the primary problem with social zones is the annoyances people have to deal with when there, how can we lessen those? I'm not sure if/what we could do about Zone Chat. But maybe party poppers/disco balls are only usable within the club. That would eliminate them from the rest of ESD say, but would that also mean that those who might normally be griefing, wouldn't bother staying around? Or would they cluster in the Club?
(edited for relevance)
Some players that have been on ESD more than a few minutes have turned off zone chat if they don't like the trolling there. As for other channels, anyone can (currently) create a new global channel for chatting with friends and set the permissions however they like.
Chess? Seriously? You want to play chess, you're on the wrong game, no matter how canon 3D chess is. From personal experience, what draws folks to a social zone? Devs. Every time one of you logs in, you get swarmed by both fans and trolls. I know BranFlakes usually gets a great response whenever he does an in-game event, so maybe you guys could take time out of your busy schedules to do more gaming with the players.
If the primary problem with social zones is the annoyances people have to deal with when there, how can we lessen those? I'm not sure if/what we could do about Zone Chat. But maybe party poppers/disco balls are only usable within the club. That would eliminate them from the rest of ESD say, but would that also mean that those who might normally be griefing, wouldn't bother staying around? Or would they cluster in the Club?
I love that idea, of restricting certain things in certain areas. It's really no different from the "Anti-Aggression" effect in places like the Winter Wonderland. Or the reverse of that, turning specific powers off unless they are in special areas.
Although, I could see a problem narrowing that down to a specific area on specific maps.
I also think of the main floor at Drozana, where the bar area shares space with Bank/Mail/Exchange services, the Dabo table, and mission contacts -- It might be really hard to limit things in that area.
In answer to your last two questions, I would guess that griefers would congregate in the areas where their toys work and make those areas even less appealing to everyone else.
I think the rule of thumb that Cryptic ought to use is to minimize any potential for griefing in any areas that offer either services (bank, vendors, etc) or mission contacts. The areas that would be left over would be things like connecting hallways, certain common areas like the Academy grounds, and RP-zones like the club.
That puts the griefers and the role-players in direct competition for choice areas, but that conflict isn't ever going away.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
anyways... for other minigames.... This List has quite a few ideas:
Dom-Jot(kinda like billiards)
Chula(the infamous(but awesome) Wadi game)
oh and we can't forget Tongo.
If the primary problem with social zones is the annoyances people have to deal with when there, how can we lessen those? I'm not sure if/what we could do about Zone Chat. But maybe party poppers/disco balls are only usable within the club. That would eliminate them from the rest of ESD say, but would that also mean that those who might normally be griefing, wouldn't bother staying around? Or would they cluster in the Club?
I can't see that as a real issue Taco. Sure, there are peeps who complain.... but.... as far as griefing goes, it's about on par with the old complaint about "SKEV".... IE, a small subset of the population has an issue with it but most people don't care.
For those who don't remember the stupid SKEV thing, it stands for "SKills Effecting Visuals". Allegedly, use/overuse of skills with visible effects can cause some people to have performance issues when playing the game. Some players took this to a silly extreme and considered use of an IDIC tribble a form of griefing.... yes, that really happened....
Anyways, I don't really think there are enough people who actually try to grief with such things to bother worrying about. And I say this as someone who spent a lot of time in Drozana this week while turning in holiday epohhs....
Are features like hot-swappable ships, access to exchanges and banks in personal ships, and other conveniences killing Social Zones? If so, what ideas do YOU have to attract players back to Earth Spacedock, Qu?onos -- anywhere else!
What do you think of the in-game event revamp? Did you make an effort to get in and play through an event? Was it any more worth it than the usual hourly events? What changes, if any, would you like to see from these events to make them more enticing?
Let us know YOUR thoughts by commenting below!
Dont care, i will enjoy less lag in the social zones.
I will have to see just how it works, some events i ignore totally (like Vault), while others i try every time i can (like marks event and dil mining). Others i do, if its convenient.
Loved the episode, thanks for talking with them Captain Gecko.
New home of the Romulan Republic.
I have an idea for what Season 11 should be; Season 11: The Big Bug Fix.
I have not been able to read my bug tickets in over a year, not even the tickets about not being able to see my tickets.
I find the drama of your signature proof of your immaturity, this means you, DR whiners.
Must I tell Cryptic how to run their own game? I guess so. You want answers, you WANT THE TRUTH!? If you build it, they will come.
STOP remastering old episodes.
Social Zones, ESD, DS9, etc need to have a carnival like experience, yet stay fully within canon, and be serious looking. Ive never liked how ESD looked, because its interior sky scrapper high ceiling design never looked like anything Federation we've seen on the show. Make the place look more professional, and real life in its design and functionality.
Ive said this before, and I'll say it again, HOLO SUITES! Its an obvious MONEY MAKING experience Cryptic still foolishly overlooks. If I were EP, Id commission 2-3 HOLO SUITE social zones per primary social zone. Players can NOT queue up these holo programs from their ship, or space, they MUST beam down and walk up to those holo suite doors. Make it feel like the Las Vegas Star Trek experience (Something I never got the chance to go to before it closed ) but NOT campy. The functionality and fun of a carnival and arcade, but the interior design of a serious looking Star Fleet installation. I should feel a bit of reverence walking through ESD. There should be areas of the interior where I want to stand and take a screenshot photo of my captain as he rises the ranks, as I change my outfits. Areas for group photos that mean something to Starfleet officers.
For the holosuites, you walk them through a light gauntlet of other more serious things we need when we visit, sick bay, officer traits, etc, then after walking through all that, you get to the holosuite areas. You walk up to the door, deposit X amount of EC (for a light sink) and then you are transferred to the ground social zone that is entirely holo themed to something OTHER THAN the social zone interior they just beamed down to.
For ESD, Id pick these holosuite social zones:
Wild West city, saloon, shooting range. Players pay their EC, then walk into holo suite, where they MUST change their clothing to match the holo suite theme. There would be a few basic western clothing items to put on. Then you could pay Zen for cooler Western outfits and GUNS. Did you read what I just said Stephen D'Angelo, we might PAY MONEY to have some extra fun outside of the Star Trek theme (yet still being INSIDE the Star Trek theme and ST canon)! These western outfits can ONLY be worn inside that social zone holo interior, and basically works just like Qs Winter Wonderland. Give me a shooting gallery for my western guns (and a shooting gallery inside the ESD theme for my STO guns), a saloon, and potential for a social PvP gunfight at the OK Corral (Where the guns wouldnt be expensive to obtain, and much better balanced than the wide variety available in game). Shooting gallery should keep track of best score, and the player with the best score for that month gets their character's photo taken as an old west wanted poster near the mini game activation point for others to see when they walk up to it. Appeal to our vanity, make us play the minigames and get our toon some social recognition even if we arent actually present in the zone.
Capone era Chicago. Mobster look. Fedoras. Need I say more.
Yosemite National Park. Camping role play. Rocket boots. Fishing and hunting mini games.
The mini games can be the simple look of old Atari games, yet fun and somewhat addictive. A minigame where I manage a fleet of Starfleet vs KDF icons representing ships, something a little Space Invaders like. There are tons of simple Atari style mini games that can have a Star Trek theme to them. Minigames that make it feel like something a real person would do if they visited space docks.
Retune my ships warpcore minigame from the more sophisticated equipment of a starbase. The area should look like the area Geordi worked with Leah Brahms to save the Enterprise, only with more elbow room. Not the campy hologram over a round table base look.
Maybe a minigame of drink mixing in the bars that used a little actual chemistry to solve them.
The look of ESD should be scaled to the humans and others walking around in them. It shouldnt look so far out and video gamey the way it looks now.
When I walk into sickbay, I can take a physical. There could be 3-4 different sickbay staffers that get randomly generated to give you the physical. The voice acting adds to the experience. A hot doctor, an annoying doctor, etc. Make us remember the NPC characters at social zones. Make us love most of them, make us love to hate some. And when I say hate, not actual hate, like the annoying characters you created for the winter wonderland. Im talking IN CHARACTER annoying, like an overly chatty NPC (like the overly chatty guy that annoyed Will and Deanna at that Starfleet conference, then they put Data on him, in that one ep), a Barkley type NPC, a Seven of Nine type NPC. I want to get a chuckle (and maybe a tad turned on ) from my NPC interactions EVERY time I visit somewhere.
The ESD arcade, near the dance floor area or something, should also have high score trackers. Above or near the minigame that my toon has to walk up to and sit down to (like you are sitting down to a Pacman table) is a holographic representation of the current Best score for that month. A 3D representation of what my toon looked like and dressed like the moment I posted my score. It doesnt have to keep track of every costume change my toon makes while I hold the record, just what I looked like THAT moment. Fastest time or high scores get reset weekly or monthly, to give other players a chance to get their toon showcased. Appeal to our vanity to get us to play these minigames.
Have a social zone reputation. Yeah, I hate rep systems, but one that actually has FUN, and doesnt pressure me to play it Id contribute to every few ESD visits. After so many social zone activity visits and minigame play, I get rewarded with a quality end game gear item.
When I go to the tailor, its an actual clothing store looking area, with dummies wearing certain uniforms standing around. A back dressing room where I walk my toon up to a dressing stall and that activates the tailor, where the background is well lit and looks like Im in that dressing stall trying on clothes and picking a uniform look for my crew. Not walking up to some weirdo, standing around him like he's gonna tell a story, and basically strip naked in front of him and others to change clothes. Its about the imagery. Its about immersion. The immersion of these social zones should feel REAL to the player's toon.
When I go to the bank, why are there guards? There isnt physical money in there. Im basically just walking into a safe deposit booth to manage my money. Thats how it should feel.
The exchange floor, a few NPCs walking around serving drinks? An animation where a hot clumsy one spills a tray of drinks and the whole exchange floor hears it. Funny real life immersion. Not wooden unrealistic sci-fi that youd never see on a TV show. A few overhead big screen monitors showing pictures of the newest gun and gear tech out there (Cryptic promoting new tech theyve developed)(instead of static unreadable stock exchange looking graphics), then I sit down to what feels like a slot machine in a casino, and bid on gear of the minute to be sent to my ship. Design should be as if you were designing these spaces in real life, with real actors using the sets. When you create the goofy looking stuff we have now, it makes Cryptic look foolish. If you cant upgrade the graphics engine, you CAN upgrade your interior design style to feel realistic to the Star Trek universe as seen on TV and movies, and less video game campy. When you are designing things,you should be thinking how it will look to have real actors do these actions, film them for a TV series, and then put that show on TV. If it looks too stupid to be seen on TV, then its too stupid to be done in game for a serious sci fi IP like Star Trek. STO is the main source for Star Trek fans to get our fix. If you take the cheap way out and give us cheesy experiences, then thats the profit you will get from us. If you take the IP seriously like we've been begging you for years, you can still have your lockbox junk and make money off it, but present it more seriously, and it comes across better, fans feel like we are living the Star Trek life, and Cryptic's wallets are fatter. Attention to detail. If Cryptic isnt making a windfall from this game with fair gaming and consumer practices, they have only themselves to blame.
Thats enough ideas for now that Im sure Cryptic will completely ignore :rolleyes:
STO: @AGNT009 Since Dec 2010
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
I don't think social zones are dead but they do need to be redefined. When I look at the sucessful social zones they usually have something to offer. SFA has a lot of doff items. Esd has the boff trainer. DS9 was busy until they removed the STF vendor which made sense.
What social zones need is to cross them with adventure zones.
Social Adventure Zones.
New Romulas is kinda like that. It is the only adventure zone that has a full bank exchange and mail but lack a few items of a normal base. It still has more of an adventure zone feel though.
There are things they can to. In the case of Bajor how about taking all those minor missions from "Of Bajor" and turning them into dailies with their own reward. That might liven it up.
At the end of the day if they dont add something unique this will end up more and more like a Captain's Table discussion.
I found quick equip to be annoying since it shows every single item for that slot. Be better if it was just limited to the inventory.
And the Bonus Weekend, I don't see it working. Because people don't want to waste their time "working", by grinding Dilithium or Fleet Marks. And people that have multiple characters, it's going to hurt.
Sitting in chairs, while nice, isn't going to drive anyone to a social zone. If they happen to be there, they might use it, but that's about it. What would actually DRAW people into social spaces? Same with eating animations.
Missions are a good way to get people to a zone, except you can almost always hail the person from space. Making hidden/secret missions isn't really our style, and there would be complaints if we forced people to do something to uncover a mission.
I agree with 3D Chess, I still want to see that. Though if it happened, and we kept it only to social zones, I can already hear the cries to "Let me play 3D Chess on my Ship/Starbase!"
Overall, we don't want to FORCE players to be social. We want to ENCOURAGE them to be social. There's a big difference here.
^^^^Agreed.
Gold Sub since March 2010
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
I'm very disappointed. The Foundry is full of bugs and glitches, while PvP hasn't had any in years. And the majority of the STO playerbase is likely to play the Foundry more than they ever will with PvP.
I'm very disappointed. The Foundry is full of bugs and glitches, while PvP hasn't had any in years. And the majority of the STO playerbase is likely to play the Foundry more than they ever will with PvP.
I haven't played a foundry mission since they disqualified the single click console missions from the fleet mark reward. I've got too much grinding to do to spare time for the foundry. I can farm for EC while I grind fleet marks/dilithium elsewhere.
Are the "approved" missions still a long-winded exercise in dialogue box pretentiousness? Because that sure got old.
Are features like hot-swappable ships, access to exchanges and banks in personal ships, and other conveniences killing Social Zones? If so, what ideas do YOU have to attract players back to Earth Spacedock, Qu?onos -- anywhere else!
What do you think of the in-game event revamp? Did you make an effort to get in and play through an event? Was it any more worth it than the usual hourly events? What changes, if any, would you like to see from these events to make them more enticing?
Let us know YOUR thoughts by commenting below!
I always enjoy interviews with Al Rivera. I've mentioned it before but I really appreciate that Al shares so much information. Thank you both Priority One and Mr. Rivera.
I load out and swap ships often so I can appreciate the upcoming changes but it is nice having to go a central local to do it for immersion purposes. I see the new ship swapping mechanic as hurting social zones, but it seems that this change could be very convenient for some. I miss going to DS9 to sort through and purchase Borg weapons.
I appreciate that Cryptic introduces new mechanics such as a transforming ship. This is great kudos, I love that Cryptic does things like this. It is also nice that they are introducing a Protonic weapon, and perhaps building the value of cannons.
However, I do not like having Cryptic making a weapons choice in my build. I hope I can remove the 4th weapon and substitute one of my choice. To be clear, I want to be able to remove the 4th weapon. Cryptic, I really appreciate the special abilities and consoles you design for the paid, seasonal and featured episode ships; however for a variety of reasons (long cool downs mainly and situational uses are some reasons why) I almost never use those special consoles. I'd like to have that weapon at my disposal, not forced to use it.
In that vein, since I am grinding for a ship (I disagree that the Destroyer is free, the Horta you gave me today, thank you, was free) I would have appreciated a 10 console ship and being able to choose what I did with the 10th slot. As a Sci who enjoys flying full Aux power boats I'm locked into a partial build with a weapon that does not synergize with my power settings, weapon load out, or ability to run full Aux. I get that you are trying to feed the DPS monster that drives the game, I think a better solution would have been to offer this player the ability to remove given weapons.
Thanks for reading this, I hope this can be forwarded onto the appropriate dev teams.
The systems you're designing for the game aren't encouraging anyone to be social, eg. queue system, rep systems etc. Why start now?
I actually have to argue in favor of those. Why? Forcing people to go to GO to start the mission gives people a reason to NOT do the mission at all. The PvE queues make it easier for people to play the mission in general, thus it means more people playing.
In fact, unless you consider Gamma Orionis a "social zone", then the non-queue STFs were bad for social zones as they forced players to leave them.
Yep, if not for all those anti-social players spamming party amps, party poppers, and generally making any public zone a pita to visit...one might see an increase in social activities from players.
Being a nuisance isn't being social - it's being a nuisance.
Holy TRIBBLE. You're the first person on the internet that I've seen use "anti-social" correctly!
A dance mini mission in the club
Quick one-on-one mini games in a public zone (like tick tac toe or connect four)
Random events (like a tribble outbreak you have to help with)
Private quarters where you can display accolades
Mini mission where you pilot a workbee inside ESD to load containers (fastest player wins)
Sports area, where you can play or just spectate
The ability to have one of your bridge officers with you (like on New Romulus)
Are features like hot-swappable ships, access to exchanges and banks in personal ships, and other conveniences killing Social Zones? If so, what ideas do YOU have to attract players back to Earth Spacedock, Qu?onos -- anywhere else!
I don't think these new features are killing Social Zones; these zones are for people to get together and interact with each other. What is the true death to these zones is peoples anti-social behavoir and just hate people throw at each other most of them time.
Well, if the point of putting in chess, is to draw people to social zones, putting chess into people's bridges and fleet bases essentially negates that. The point is that anything we would do, specifically within a social zone to draw people in, would HAVE to be limited to only the social zone, otherwise it's pointless.
Have some kind of unique DOff missions, given by contacts instead of the DOff menu. Like Contraband (or, Turn In Captured Shapeshifter), that's really the only reason I ever have to go to the homeworld zones.
Maybe allow us to turn in Fleet Commendation Reports (simpler, surely, than creating new stuff), or run something similar to the Starbase Duty Officer mission for a handful of fleet marks. Then at least you're re-using existing stuff, in the former case, and nobody's going to care that now they don't have to run off to the Fleet Starbase to do it.
Honestly.. no matter what service gets moved to my ship I still go to each faction's primary social hub to use them. I like seeing people. I play to be around other players. Sometimes I want to scrub my chat box with soap and water but...
though i like certain things about the changes coming to the game , I feel the changes to the calender might be the wrong direction , while making some of them to be daily is a decent idea , moving them to special weekends only hurts causal players that cant get to WEEKEND events . its bad enough that the anniversary is becoming a grind fest like the winter and summer events , this is a game not a job . we do this for relaxation when we have a free moment . for those that work , have busy family schedules during the weekends wont have the time for doing alot of these special events .
one of the things that made sto great was you could get alot of these "goodies" according to your schedule not the games . i could run the calender events a couple times a week , where as with weekends i will be lucky to maybe get a friday night if that on a weekend event . so instead of maybe 3 times to do a event i might get one , not a fan of the prospect .
how would ppl respond to the idea of the giveaway items to only be avail 4 am your timezone? if you couldnt log in to get it you lose. that how this weekend event thing makes me feel .
Out of the hundreds of STFs I've run with PUGs, I can count on one hand the amount of times another player tried conversing with the team via team chat. The public queues in no way encourage socialization of any kind in my experience. Before the queue system, you actually did have to socialize to find groups to help do the STFs.
Agreed, here is an idea, bring back the old non-q stfs, you can be anti social, run with 4 other people that may as well be ncps for 30 minutes for your 75 marks and 500 dilithium, or you can assemble a real team and work to complete a 2 hour mission for 5 times the reward!
A day late to the conversation, but I want to put my two cents in.
First, I think the Social Zones do need to have some controls to prevent trolling. Maybe some moderators as well.
I also do think we're losing reasons to go to them with more functions being moved to our menus. But that just means we need to ADD reasons to the zones. I would make it two step process.
First: Add more mini games.Sidetracked By The Gold Saucer isn't a trope for a reason. Some games have famously addictive minigames that some people log in just to play. Just look at that page! I can give a list of good games for this:
Dabo (already in)
Tongo: (DS9 & Drozana exclusive [With Ferenginar added later]), also since its a 4 player game this could be used for Dev-run tourneys
Poker: (Starship Interiors only) This one is to give interiors a purpose. The game would be limited to 4 players for GPL.
Chula: (DS9 Exclusive) Yes it's infamous, but it would actually work well in STO's setting. NWO's "Sword Coast Adventure" is pretty similar. Chula is basically Dungeons and Dragons mixed with a Board Game. The Player's avatar is rolling the dice and then playing as their Boff Team through the maps. This game could reward special drops for currently running events and give out Marks. Plus Accolades:
- [Allama-what?] (KDF only) You killed the Allamaraine Girl to move to the next chap.
- [Meme Along Home] You took so long getting to the next chap the game had to troll you to get you to move on. (Entering a locked Chap Door causes a Wadi to show up and say "Move Along Home" but doing it 5 or more times at the same door causes either Captain Kurland to show up "Kurland Here", S'taass show up and make a Gorn pun or Sulu show up and ask where he is.)
- [Cheerio Good Chaps] Cleared the game with no deaths.
Bat'leth Tournament: (Qo'Nos - The Warrior's Hall) KDF or KDF-Allied Only. Rewards a Mark Box dependant on your rank in the tournament.
Ushaan: (Andoria) FED or FED-Allied only. Rewards a Mark Box dependant on your rank in the tournament.
Kal-Toh: (Vulcan, Ganalda) Very difficult, can give several vulcan themed rewards from Sci Power Boosts to unique gear.
But of course, none of that matters with out good rewards. And as Dabo has proved: GPL is worthless thanks to its purpose being supplanted by Lobi so that brings me to point 2:
(2) Another Currency Merge: This time, Energy Credits and GPL. Essentially GPL as it currently is goes away, and Energy Credits are renamed and reformatted to be Gold Pressed Latinum proper (see DnD and NWO's Gold System) with Slips, Strips, Bars and Bricks being Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. In fairness I would make this conversion over the course of a full season (ie. Season 10 would start with BOTH systems in place and when Season 11 starts all the old EC would need to be converted) so that a proper 1:1 conversion actually happens (as opposed to what happened with Dil).
(3) Daily Missions: Yes. Al mentioned it. Other posters have mentioned it. These also need decent rewards (100 Marks of Choice OR 960 Dil) otherwise most players wont bother.
(4) Special localized events. Bajor could have the Pelor Festival once a month for instance. Look at NWO's Call to Arms events that reward special items for participating. Do that for the social zones and people will come.
Comments
Nimbus...not just a character costume contest - but an Away Team costume contest. Various themes - different eras - overall mesh of things, so to speak.
As I type this, I'm running around Nimbus on one of my alts - using the costume guide info from STOwiki for 25th Century Orion and Nausicaan...but wearing the 2012 long black coats. Their weapons are a mess, though, so it totally blows any sort of overall theme they'd otherwise be sporting.
Between the actual species and aliens - with the options available for costumes (both on-duty and off-duty)...well, some folks need more options - but it would start to open that door for something like that, eh?
And speaking of Away Teams...well, Nimbus has the dance competition that's solo-play. What if we could pass emotes to our Away Team, eh? Then there could be dance competitions judged by players of how well somebody gets their Away Team to...shake it.
Dress 'em up - get 'em to dance...
I thought you were talking about cheese
Some players that have been on ESD more than a few minutes have turned off zone chat if they don't like the trolling there. As for other channels, anyone can (currently) create a new global channel for chatting with friends and set the permissions however they like.
Chess? Seriously? You want to play chess, you're on the wrong game, no matter how canon 3D chess is. From personal experience, what draws folks to a social zone? Devs. Every time one of you logs in, you get swarmed by both fans and trolls. I know BranFlakes usually gets a great response whenever he does an in-game event, so maybe you guys could take time out of your busy schedules to do more gaming with the players.
Just my 2 EC worth.
I love that idea, of restricting certain things in certain areas. It's really no different from the "Anti-Aggression" effect in places like the Winter Wonderland. Or the reverse of that, turning specific powers off unless they are in special areas.
Although, I could see a problem narrowing that down to a specific area on specific maps.
I also think of the main floor at Drozana, where the bar area shares space with Bank/Mail/Exchange services, the Dabo table, and mission contacts -- It might be really hard to limit things in that area.
In answer to your last two questions, I would guess that griefers would congregate in the areas where their toys work and make those areas even less appealing to everyone else.
I think the rule of thumb that Cryptic ought to use is to minimize any potential for griefing in any areas that offer either services (bank, vendors, etc) or mission contacts. The areas that would be left over would be things like connecting hallways, certain common areas like the Academy grounds, and RP-zones like the club.
That puts the griefers and the role-players in direct competition for choice areas, but that conflict isn't ever going away.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
That's another spark of hope for the PVP community I guess...
anyways... for other minigames.... This List has quite a few ideas:
Dom-Jot(kinda like billiards)
Chula(the infamous(but awesome) Wadi game)
oh and we can't forget Tongo.
My character Tsin'xing
For those who don't remember the stupid SKEV thing, it stands for "SKills Effecting Visuals". Allegedly, use/overuse of skills with visible effects can cause some people to have performance issues when playing the game. Some players took this to a silly extreme and considered use of an IDIC tribble a form of griefing.... yes, that really happened....
Anyways, I don't really think there are enough people who actually try to grief with such things to bother worrying about. And I say this as someone who spent a lot of time in Drozana this week while turning in holiday epohhs....
My character Tsin'xing
Dont care, i will enjoy less lag in the social zones.
I will have to see just how it works, some events i ignore totally (like Vault), while others i try every time i can (like marks event and dil mining). Others i do, if its convenient.
Loved the episode, thanks for talking with them Captain Gecko.
I have an idea for what Season 11 should be; Season 11: The Big Bug Fix.
I have not been able to read my bug tickets in over a year, not even the tickets about not being able to see my tickets.
I find the drama of your signature proof of your immaturity, this means you, DR whiners.
STOP remastering old episodes.
Social Zones, ESD, DS9, etc need to have a carnival like experience, yet stay fully within canon, and be serious looking. Ive never liked how ESD looked, because its interior sky scrapper high ceiling design never looked like anything Federation we've seen on the show. Make the place look more professional, and real life in its design and functionality.
Ive said this before, and I'll say it again, HOLO SUITES! Its an obvious MONEY MAKING experience Cryptic still foolishly overlooks. If I were EP, Id commission 2-3 HOLO SUITE social zones per primary social zone. Players can NOT queue up these holo programs from their ship, or space, they MUST beam down and walk up to those holo suite doors. Make it feel like the Las Vegas Star Trek experience (Something I never got the chance to go to before it closed
For the holosuites, you walk them through a light gauntlet of other more serious things we need when we visit, sick bay, officer traits, etc, then after walking through all that, you get to the holosuite areas. You walk up to the door, deposit X amount of EC (for a light sink) and then you are transferred to the ground social zone that is entirely holo themed to something OTHER THAN the social zone interior they just beamed down to.
For ESD, Id pick these holosuite social zones:
Wild West city, saloon, shooting range. Players pay their EC, then walk into holo suite, where they MUST change their clothing to match the holo suite theme. There would be a few basic western clothing items to put on. Then you could pay Zen for cooler Western outfits and GUNS. Did you read what I just said Stephen D'Angelo, we might PAY MONEY to have some extra fun outside of the Star Trek theme (yet still being INSIDE the Star Trek theme and ST canon)! These western outfits can ONLY be worn inside that social zone holo interior, and basically works just like Qs Winter Wonderland. Give me a shooting gallery for my western guns (and a shooting gallery inside the ESD theme for my STO guns), a saloon, and potential for a social PvP gunfight at the OK Corral (Where the guns wouldnt be expensive to obtain, and much better balanced than the wide variety available in game). Shooting gallery should keep track of best score, and the player with the best score for that month gets their character's photo taken as an old west wanted poster near the mini game activation point for others to see when they walk up to it. Appeal to our vanity, make us play the minigames and get our toon some social recognition even if we arent actually present in the zone.
Capone era Chicago. Mobster look. Fedoras. Need I say more.
Yosemite National Park. Camping role play. Rocket boots. Fishing and hunting mini games.
The mini games can be the simple look of old Atari games, yet fun and somewhat addictive. A minigame where I manage a fleet of Starfleet vs KDF icons representing ships, something a little Space Invaders like. There are tons of simple Atari style mini games that can have a Star Trek theme to them. Minigames that make it feel like something a real person would do if they visited space docks.
Retune my ships warpcore minigame from the more sophisticated equipment of a starbase. The area should look like the area Geordi worked with Leah Brahms to save the Enterprise, only with more elbow room. Not the campy hologram over a round table base look.
Maybe a minigame of drink mixing in the bars that used a little actual chemistry to solve them.
The look of ESD should be scaled to the humans and others walking around in them. It shouldnt look so far out and video gamey the way it looks now.
When I walk into sickbay, I can take a physical. There could be 3-4 different sickbay staffers that get randomly generated to give you the physical. The voice acting adds to the experience. A hot doctor, an annoying doctor, etc. Make us remember the NPC characters at social zones. Make us love most of them, make us love to hate some. And when I say hate, not actual hate, like the annoying characters you created for the winter wonderland. Im talking IN CHARACTER annoying, like an overly chatty NPC (like the overly chatty guy that annoyed Will and Deanna at that Starfleet conference, then they put Data on him, in that one ep), a Barkley type NPC, a Seven of Nine type NPC. I want to get a chuckle (and maybe a tad turned on
The ESD arcade, near the dance floor area or something, should also have high score trackers. Above or near the minigame that my toon has to walk up to and sit down to (like you are sitting down to a Pacman table) is a holographic representation of the current Best score for that month. A 3D representation of what my toon looked like and dressed like the moment I posted my score. It doesnt have to keep track of every costume change my toon makes while I hold the record, just what I looked like THAT moment. Fastest time or high scores get reset weekly or monthly, to give other players a chance to get their toon showcased. Appeal to our vanity to get us to play these minigames.
Have a social zone reputation. Yeah, I hate rep systems, but one that actually has FUN, and doesnt pressure me to play it Id contribute to every few ESD visits. After so many social zone activity visits and minigame play, I get rewarded with a quality end game gear item.
When I go to the tailor, its an actual clothing store looking area, with dummies wearing certain uniforms standing around. A back dressing room where I walk my toon up to a dressing stall and that activates the tailor, where the background is well lit and looks like Im in that dressing stall trying on clothes and picking a uniform look for my crew. Not walking up to some weirdo, standing around him like he's gonna tell a story, and basically strip naked in front of him and others to change clothes. Its about the imagery. Its about immersion. The immersion of these social zones should feel REAL to the player's toon.
When I go to the bank, why are there guards? There isnt physical money in there. Im basically just walking into a safe deposit booth to manage my money. Thats how it should feel.
The exchange floor, a few NPCs walking around serving drinks? An animation where a hot clumsy one spills a tray of drinks and the whole exchange floor hears it. Funny real life immersion. Not wooden unrealistic sci-fi that youd never see on a TV show. A few overhead big screen monitors showing pictures of the newest gun and gear tech out there (Cryptic promoting new tech theyve developed)(instead of static unreadable stock exchange looking graphics), then I sit down to what feels like a slot machine in a casino, and bid on gear of the minute to be sent to my ship. Design should be as if you were designing these spaces in real life, with real actors using the sets. When you create the goofy looking stuff we have now, it makes Cryptic look foolish. If you cant upgrade the graphics engine, you CAN upgrade your interior design style to feel realistic to the Star Trek universe as seen on TV and movies, and less video game campy. When you are designing things,you should be thinking how it will look to have real actors do these actions, film them for a TV series, and then put that show on TV. If it looks too stupid to be seen on TV, then its too stupid to be done in game for a serious sci fi IP like Star Trek. STO is the main source for Star Trek fans to get our fix. If you take the cheap way out and give us cheesy experiences, then thats the profit you will get from us. If you take the IP seriously like we've been begging you for years, you can still have your lockbox junk and make money off it, but present it more seriously, and it comes across better, fans feel like we are living the Star Trek life, and Cryptic's wallets are fatter. Attention to detail. If Cryptic isnt making a windfall from this game with fair gaming and consumer practices, they have only themselves to blame.
Thats enough ideas for now that Im sure Cryptic will completely ignore :rolleyes:
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
What social zones need is to cross them with adventure zones.
Social Adventure Zones.
New Romulas is kinda like that. It is the only adventure zone that has a full bank exchange and mail but lack a few items of a normal base. It still has more of an adventure zone feel though.
There are things they can to. In the case of Bajor how about taking all those minor missions from "Of Bajor" and turning them into dailies with their own reward. That might liven it up.
At the end of the day if they dont add something unique this will end up more and more like a Captain's Table discussion.
And the Bonus Weekend, I don't see it working. Because people don't want to waste their time "working", by grinding Dilithium or Fleet Marks. And people that have multiple characters, it's going to hurt.
^^^^Agreed.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
I'm very disappointed. The Foundry is full of bugs and glitches, while PvP hasn't had any in years. And the majority of the STO playerbase is likely to play the Foundry more than they ever will with PvP.
I haven't played a foundry mission since they disqualified the single click console missions from the fleet mark reward. I've got too much grinding to do to spare time for the foundry. I can farm for EC while I grind fleet marks/dilithium elsewhere.
Are the "approved" missions still a long-winded exercise in dialogue box pretentiousness? Because that sure got old.
In fact, unless you consider Gamma Orionis a "social zone", then the non-queue STFs were bad for social zones as they forced players to leave them.
My character Tsin'xing
Holy TRIBBLE. You're the first person on the internet that I've seen use "anti-social" correctly!
Quick one-on-one mini games in a public zone (like tick tac toe or connect four)
Random events (like a tribble outbreak you have to help with)
Private quarters where you can display accolades
Mini mission where you pilot a workbee inside ESD to load containers (fastest player wins)
Sports area, where you can play or just spectate
The ability to have one of your bridge officers with you (like on New Romulus)
I don't think these new features are killing Social Zones; these zones are for people to get together and interact with each other. What is the true death to these zones is peoples anti-social behavoir and just hate people throw at each other most of them time.
@Rellimtime82 - Foundry Author
Have some kind of unique DOff missions, given by contacts instead of the DOff menu. Like Contraband (or, Turn In Captured Shapeshifter), that's really the only reason I ever have to go to the homeworld zones.
Maybe allow us to turn in Fleet Commendation Reports (simpler, surely, than creating new stuff), or run something similar to the Starbase Duty Officer mission for a handful of fleet marks. Then at least you're re-using existing stuff, in the former case, and nobody's going to care that now they don't have to run off to the Fleet Starbase to do it.
one of the things that made sto great was you could get alot of these "goodies" according to your schedule not the games . i could run the calender events a couple times a week , where as with weekends i will be lucky to maybe get a friday night if that on a weekend event . so instead of maybe 3 times to do a event i might get one , not a fan of the prospect .
how would ppl respond to the idea of the giveaway items to only be avail 4 am your timezone? if you couldnt log in to get it you lose. that how this weekend event thing makes me feel .
Whatever your going to do needs to have nice rewards, like the lore mission at Klingon Academy, otherwise most people will not particapate.
Agreed, here is an idea, bring back the old non-q stfs, you can be anti social, run with 4 other people that may as well be ncps for 30 minutes for your 75 marks and 500 dilithium, or you can assemble a real team and work to complete a 2 hour mission for 5 times the reward!
First, I think the Social Zones do need to have some controls to prevent trolling. Maybe some moderators as well.
I also do think we're losing reasons to go to them with more functions being moved to our menus. But that just means we need to ADD reasons to the zones. I would make it two step process.
First: Add more mini games. Sidetracked By The Gold Saucer isn't a trope for a reason. Some games have famously addictive minigames that some people log in just to play. Just look at that page! I can give a list of good games for this:
Dabo (already in)
Tongo: (DS9 & Drozana exclusive [With Ferenginar added later]), also since its a 4 player game this could be used for Dev-run tourneys
Poker: (Starship Interiors only) This one is to give interiors a purpose. The game would be limited to 4 players for GPL.
Chula: (DS9 Exclusive) Yes it's infamous, but it would actually work well in STO's setting. NWO's "Sword Coast Adventure" is pretty similar. Chula is basically Dungeons and Dragons mixed with a Board Game. The Player's avatar is rolling the dice and then playing as their Boff Team through the maps. This game could reward special drops for currently running events and give out Marks. Plus Accolades:
- [Allama-what?] (KDF only) You killed the Allamaraine Girl to move to the next chap.
- [Meme Along Home] You took so long getting to the next chap the game had to troll you to get you to move on. (Entering a locked Chap Door causes a Wadi to show up and say "Move Along Home" but doing it 5 or more times at the same door causes either Captain Kurland to show up "Kurland Here", S'taass show up and make a Gorn pun or Sulu show up and ask where he is.)
- [Cheerio Good Chaps] Cleared the game with no deaths.
Bat'leth Tournament: (Qo'Nos - The Warrior's Hall) KDF or KDF-Allied Only. Rewards a Mark Box dependant on your rank in the tournament.
Ushaan: (Andoria) FED or FED-Allied only. Rewards a Mark Box dependant on your rank in the tournament.
Kal-Toh: (Vulcan, Ganalda) Very difficult, can give several vulcan themed rewards from Sci Power Boosts to unique gear.
But of course, none of that matters with out good rewards. And as Dabo has proved: GPL is worthless thanks to its purpose being supplanted by Lobi so that brings me to point 2:
(2) Another Currency Merge: This time, Energy Credits and GPL. Essentially GPL as it currently is goes away, and Energy Credits are renamed and reformatted to be Gold Pressed Latinum proper (see DnD and NWO's Gold System) with Slips, Strips, Bars and Bricks being Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. In fairness I would make this conversion over the course of a full season (ie. Season 10 would start with BOTH systems in place and when Season 11 starts all the old EC would need to be converted) so that a proper 1:1 conversion actually happens (as opposed to what happened with Dil).
(3) Daily Missions: Yes. Al mentioned it. Other posters have mentioned it. These also need decent rewards (100 Marks of Choice OR 960 Dil) otherwise most players wont bother.
(4) Special localized events. Bajor could have the Pelor Festival once a month for instance. Look at NWO's Call to Arms events that reward special items for participating. Do that for the social zones and people will come.
TRIBBLE Hydra! Hail Janeway!