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A Suggestion to Mr. D'Angelo and his team... Regarding the planned ESD Revamp
leviathan99
Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
Our new EP has indicated:
- That he is a fan of hard sci-fi over zany gimmicks.
- That he takes the IP seriously.
-That he is interested in collecting data on longstanding QoL improvements.
- That he is interesting in making individual parts of social hubs have specific function.
- That a ground up revamp of ESD with brand new maps is a near term addition.
I would like to suggest:
- That party items be designated for use in party areas like a dance floor or holosuite.
- That items like the Gingerbread Men be buffed to function year round... in designated fantasy party areas like holosuites.
- That Holo-Emitters in the Latinum store be buffed into permanent devices... usable in designated party areas.
- "Party Mode" could be enabled in missions that take place on holodecks, in proximity of Q wherever he is present in-game, in Q's Winter Wonderland. Risa and the Klingon Red Light District would be strong candidates as well.
- "Party Mode" would be enabled everywhere during designated Q calendar events, possibly along with other unique gameplay elements to indicate that Q is present for the weekend such as tweaked mission elements, strange enemies, etc.
Function should be tied to location and this is one way to fairly group players in area by interest or activity. This reduces player conflict while making the appeal of certain underutilized areas functional and possessing of a special appeal that makes their gameplay experience distinct while also making it distinct from other areas of the game.
- That he is a fan of hard sci-fi over zany gimmicks.
- That he takes the IP seriously.
-That he is interested in collecting data on longstanding QoL improvements.
- That he is interesting in making individual parts of social hubs have specific function.
- That a ground up revamp of ESD with brand new maps is a near term addition.
I would like to suggest:
- That party items be designated for use in party areas like a dance floor or holosuite.
- That items like the Gingerbread Men be buffed to function year round... in designated fantasy party areas like holosuites.
- That Holo-Emitters in the Latinum store be buffed into permanent devices... usable in designated party areas.
- "Party Mode" could be enabled in missions that take place on holodecks, in proximity of Q wherever he is present in-game, in Q's Winter Wonderland. Risa and the Klingon Red Light District would be strong candidates as well.
- "Party Mode" would be enabled everywhere during designated Q calendar events, possibly along with other unique gameplay elements to indicate that Q is present for the weekend such as tweaked mission elements, strange enemies, etc.
Function should be tied to location and this is one way to fairly group players in area by interest or activity. This reduces player conflict while making the appeal of certain underutilized areas functional and possessing of a special appeal that makes their gameplay experience distinct while also making it distinct from other areas of the game.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
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EPIC!!!!!!!!
(cant be that hard can it????)
- That people disturbed by social items have a special Because Our Roleplay Is Necessary Gaming room or area just for them.
- That items like the Gingerbread Men be buffed to function year round... except in the designated Because Our Roleplay Is Necessary Gaming areas.
- That Holo-Emitters in the Latinum store be buffed into permanent devices... usable anywhere except the designated Because Our Roleplay Is Necessary Gaming areas.
- "Roleplay Mode" could be enabled in missions that take place on a bridge, in proximity of Orion dancers wherever they are present in-game, and Memory Alpha. Andoria and Vulcan would be strong candidates as well.
- "Roleplay Mode" would be never be enabled everywhere because frankly, this is a social game, and this should never break the immersion of people using their social items.
Function should be tied to location and this is one way to fairly group players in area by interest or activity. This reduces player conflict while making the appeal of certain underutilized areas functional and possessing of a special appeal that makes their gameplay experience distinct while also making it distinct from other areas of the game.
+1 to the above quote
Seriously people if you don't like party items just move zones, having a special zone/area for them is stupid people who use them want to chill out and have a bit of fun if you RP use your starbase its big, roomy, usually empty (with the usual doffs just walking about) and it looks more realistic for RPers oh and best of all no one can annoy you there with silly Zone chat!
Anyways mini rant over and back to topic I'd support making certain areas usable again like DS9 used to be for the STF stuff the Omega Rep, and then apply that to dyson land, Romulan land and Nukara land
Considering on the Mohs scale of scifi hardness as shown here Star Trek is closer to fantasy that hard scifi its always been like that.
Doubt it will be any more successful than the others, honestly.
CM
Mine Trap Supporter
But you see. His immersion! We all must suffer Fun Free Zones(tm) for the sake of him and the few who are so incapable of handling a little light and noise that they must purge the joy of others.
I like that idea! It would bring back that old ESD asset and make it used in-game again. The explanation being that Q thought it would be funny to swap Mars Space Dock and ESD. When folks simply continued as if nothing was different, Q got bored and set things back to the way they were(what we have now with the STIII ESD).
Have the First Contact Day map and event accessible via turbolift from the Mars Spacedock map. From Earth Orbit, one could warp directly to Mars, and from Mars orbit, one could Warp to Earth. And of course, both maps would be accessible from Sirius Sector Space. All of the zany Q events could occur on one of the maps, while the other is low-key for those who are not amused by the theatrics. Two Sol system social zones, but with entirely different personalities for the two disparate groups of players.
I would like to suggest this thread closed as it is not relevant to Mr. D'Angelo's title or what he does, and this post does not represent what ESD should be for a social area. If they want 'parties', that is what your ship is for OR your Starbase the OP is asking for something they already have in-game.
ESD should be true to what Star Trek is about, not some 'party' center. It should be functional like K-7 or better.
I'd rather they focused those efforts in imroving some of the "dead" social maps like Andoria or Vulcan, or adding something new to the game that will broaden the experience.
I'd appreciate a "dead zone" revamp as well but I do have to admit that between a new ESD and a new Vulcan/Andoria I'd get much more out of the former than the later because of ESD's place (given how the game is structured) as the primary federation hub (which in any case doesn't compare favorably to the KDF or Romulan alternatives, it is a bit of an eye sore.)
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Well that's your problem, you've got gravity in the hard sci-fi section.
IMO though the "hard/soft" scale isn't terribly useful because it simply depends on where the extremes of your scale are set (which often strictly depends on how "hard" your sci-fi exposure has been, and in the popular culture there's not much to demonstrate the full spread of the genre. Off the top of my head "Moon" is probably as hard as it gets and that still falls far short of literary science fiction.)
There is, however, a better and a much more classic model (best argued by Asimov) sci-fi versus Science Fiction. The former is simply entertainment using concepts borrowed from Science Fiction (see. Aliens, Godzilla, Gravity, Star Wars, ect.) whereas science fiction is more of a thought experiment, examining the nature of human existence in conditions that are plausible for our species in order to say something about our evolution (which is how you define Science Fiction from fantasy. The hard/soft scale doesn't allow for that besides having a "not" category which is damn hard to define considering some of what passes both in Sci-Fi and S.F. See. the grand old wizard Q.)
That said, THIS MEANS NOTHING. Star Trek is Science Fiction however fluffy the mechanisms it employs are and so long as we get an ESD that reflects the franchise (ie. federation aesthetics and design principles) then we will be fine.
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Remember this is the show with space gods (Gary Mitchell, Q, Bajoran Prophets), space ghosts (entities), space zombies (borg) and casual time travel.
Just saying.
So really disco balls and vuvuzelas should be the least of your immersion concerns if you want hard sci-fi.'
Edit - actually disco balls and party poppers are one of the more REALISTIC things in star trek. That's not even a joke.
There's nothing wrong with ESD. Seriously.
Working on the same venue over and over and over again is just a unnecessary waste of dev. time and resources, time and effort that would be better spent on something that really needs them.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Agreed.
/10 chars.
Everyone who works for the game says that.
He's personally calling for an ESD revamp with areas that are more centrally thematiucally planned.
Why should the thread be closed when this relates to a major initiative he's pushing?
Well, speaking as a fan of Ray Bradbury and some soft sci-fi, I think D'Angelo has gone a bit further than that. When most of the devs indicate that they like sci-fi, it's generally a preference for geek sci-fi as opposed to nerd sci-fi. They like sci-fi CULTURE. Kirk doing ridiculous/fabulous things. Dinosaurs in space. Lasers!
D'Angelo has said he has a general distaste for Ray Bradbury. He likes tech and idea focused sci-fi. Is not a fan of overly visually flashy stuff or emotional/irrational/zany stuff. I also think he indicated he's not personally big on the original series (too colorful/wacky) and is generally a fan of the dryer aspects of TNG.
Zero, Geko, Taco, and Stahl seem to fall on the geeky side of sci-fi as a culture of affiliations. Cosplay. Filk. Socialization. Emotion. FUN COMES THROUGH FREEDOM TO EXPRESS!
D'Angelo is more on the nerdy side. Building computers. He has a comment about how he didn't think of himself as a Trekkie when Cryptic started working on STO and he was at a design meeting about STO having thousands of captains and went into a nerd rage about that because the loss of a few dozen ships was devestating at Wolf 359. This is sci-fi as rigid and well engineered thought experiments and activities. Bug fixes! Quality assurance! Deft code! MATH! FUN IS A WELL ENGINEERED RULESET!
It's a different philosophy. I like Stahl. I think it's time for a more left brained managerial philosophy though and I consistently get the impression that this is what D'Angelo brings to STO and that this factors into his desire for a better ESD, which is already in the works.
There was also nothing wrong about the early FED missions before the revamp. That said they still benefited from updated level design and mission structure.
IMO ESD has similar issues. As it is, we have a big donut with some boxes and computer terminals scattered haphazardly around which fulfills the basic function of "MMO hub" just fine but apart from the windows it falls far short from achieving the potential for a more immersive FED starbase (which we know cryptic is capable of looking at their recent work, in particular the fleet bases.)
And this is where we can spend a LOT of time, throwing us into an armpit of a social area that, while perhaps comparing favorably in visuals to K-7 (which is simply feasting on the dregs left over from the ESD interior components, so in updating the latter the former could be improved as well), still falls short of the First City or New Romulus. Though there are other pieces of content that are in much greater "need" (Andoria, Vulcan, ship interiors, ect.) there is far less of a payoff in their case than renovating one of the most populous areas in the game which, on whatever scale you care to use (absolute or relative) is lacking.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!