Class of the Galaxy

centaurianalpha

I have seen numerous players bemoan the lack of new content development, boredom, and lack of incentive to find something interesting to do on STO. My burning question is:
How many players have mapped the ENTIRE galaxy?

I've played other space sims with expansive universes, but I think STO might be the largest in terms of number of star systems, mission variety and races. I personally am looking forward past the current grind to map the whole thing; how many of you have already done this, and did you enjoy it, or was it just another boring grind for you??

vonriktor

The grind never ends..until the next grind begins

anazonda

Darkstar One
Freelancer

I thought of these two games in the first second or so after I read your post... Both have more and better looking systems than STO.

shevet

Given that the exploration regions like Delta Volanis etc. contain a randomly-generated bunch of new systems every time you enter them, you technically can't map the whole galaxy, ever.

Sadly, you can exhaust the possibilities of the random exploration mission generator... and very quickly.

("More and better random explores" would be on my wish list for STO, if there were any point having a wish list.)

stark2k

centaurianalpha wrote: »

I have seen numerous players bemoan the lack of new content development, boredom, and lack of incentive to find something interesting to do on STO. My burning question is:
How many players have mapped the ENTIRE galaxy?

I've played other space sims with expansive universes, but I think STO might be the largest in terms of number of star systems, mission variety and races. I personally am looking forward past the current grind to map the whole thing; how many of you have already done this, and did you enjoy it, or was it just another boring grind for you??

Map? Largest? You must not have peeked at games like EVE Online, Freelancer, and the upcoming HIT Kickstarter game STAR CITIZEN, where the first player to discover a system will have the opportunity to name it forever.

At least star citizen shows promise as to what to do on each planet etc... STO is a barren wasteland of space and BUGGED filled skies, with a few gems on certain key systems.

There is no purpose in mapping STO, unless you are a diehard accolade finder, and I do not even think there is an accolade for mapping the stars in STO.

Have i done it? Hell to the no - I see no purpose in it, same generic layouts, BETA looking environments that is devoid of any activity or sensible interaction. They blew an opportunity to shine above all other space sims etc... for mediocrity & half hearted implementation of ground gameplay.

Sadly the only thing STO has is the mundane grind, which are now endlessly tied up in their FEs & Rep system. The game is soo "F" up, that they are gradually going back and remastering old missions and redressing the tutorial - It is like a BAD Lemon of a car, trying to rebuild itself from the frame up.

You may ask, why is STO still up and running? Simply because it is the only MMO that carries the license. Fans of Trek want their Star Trek fix, Cryptic knows this, the China men over at PWE knows it, and the cow is ripen for the squeeze. Feed them a bit of Trek along with a bunch of BS, and see the fans eat it up like sharks in a frenzy.

Nuff said

centaurianalpha

Darkstar One
Freelancer

I thought of these two games in the first second or so after I read your post... Both have more and better looking systems than STO.

Actually, I have played Freelancer for many years on the top mods, but STO has a greater variety of gameplay. Most FL mods have a larger universe from the standpoint of how long it takes to actually arrive at the other side of the galaxy, but the number of bases & planets available for interaction is probably smaller. It seems that many of the star systems in the STO sectors do not have native missions; maybe I just need to unlock them by finishing the rest of the storyline missions. Of course, once one has cataloged all the available play options in each sector, there is the potential for falling into the "...been there, done that..." syndrome. I can't personally see that happing in the forseeable future, irrespective of whether the dev's continue to add new material. But then, I have a real job in real life, so I don't have the seat time of many players here...

mirrorchaos

centaurianalpha wrote: »

Actually, I have played Freelancer for many years on the top mods, but STO has a greater variety of gameplay. Most FL mods have a larger universe from the standpoint of how long it takes to actually arrive at the other side of the galaxy, but the number of bases & planets available for interaction is probably smaller. It seems that many of the star systems in the STO sectors do not have native missions; maybe I just need to unlock them by finishing the rest of the storyline missions. Of course, once one has cataloged all the available play options in each sector, there is the potential for falling into the "...been there, done that..." syndrome. I can't personally see that happing in the forseeable future, irrespective of whether the dev's continue to add new material. But then, I have a real job in real life, so I don't have the seat time of many players here...

often the simplest games like freelancer are better. but then again freelancer was not designed to be EvE or star citizen scale, so naturally STO is better in scope because of that. if the source code for freelancer was offered out to an independent for a few thousand dollars, im pretty sure with the right people it could make eve and sto look obselete with a bit of effort.

szerontzur

I once ran around trying to play all the federation system patrols/visit every system and starbase. I cleared all the Federation and Romulan sectors, but got a bit burned out by the time I got into Zeta Andromeda.

Some of the systems were interesting, some less so. Overall, I'd say it didn't quite awe me in a way some of the systems in games like the Earth and Beyond or the X series. Those games had areas of space that were.. both beautiful and outright terrifying. Fluidic Space was a little underwhelming compared to something like the Maelstrom(s) in Earth and Beyond. (Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find an image of the actual inside of one, but I still get goosebumps thinking about the tension of exploring them.)

alfamega

centaurianalpha wrote: »

I've played other space sims with expansive universes, but I think STO might be the largest in terms of number of star systems, mission variety and races.

lolz. try EVE Online. 5000+ star systems, along of up to 10 planets each, space stations, asteroid belts, hidden locations. countless missions, tho albeit weak story line. meaning full fleets/corporations, politics, alliances. real player driven economy and production.

hevach

If you count every exploration sector mission (including the bugged maps and bizarre products of random scripting like trade disputes with Borg pirates), I still think it won't edge out Eve. I think it was said there's something like 6000 maps in the whole exploration system, and any ground mission in there has a separate space and ground map. And counting all that is... pretty disingenuous I think.

There's not all that many races, in all that, either. Each sector has one or two native nonhostile races, and one or two hostile ones, which all just reuse the same ships and powers.

aloishammer

anazonda wrote: »

Darkstar One
Freelancer

I thought of these two games in the first second or so after I read your post... Both have more and better looking systems than STO.

Pfft...my old Amiga version of Elite kicked STO's hiney around the block 3 or 4 times on number of systems in one galaxy, much less buying jump drives and exploring the other 7.

centaurianalpha

I once ran around trying to play all the federation system patrols/visit every system and starbase. I cleared all the Federation and Romulan sectors, but got a bit burned out by the time I got into Zeta Andromeda.

Hmmm...ok, this is the first reply to really address the thread question; looks like it remains as an unrealized long-term goal.

try EVE Online. 5000+ star systems, along of up to 10 planets each, space stations, asteroid belts, hidden locations. countless missions, tho albeit weak story line. meaning full fleets/corporations, politics, alliances. real player driven economy and production.

Actually, I avoided EO specifically because of this; I already have a life, and EO would take another one to really get one's arms around it, so to speak.

starswordc

centaurianalpha wrote: »

I have seen numerous players bemoan the lack of new content development, boredom, and lack of incentive to find something interesting to do on STO. My burning question is:
How many players have mapped the ENTIRE galaxy?

I've played other space sims with expansive universes, but I think STO might be the largest in terms of number of star systems, mission variety and races. I personally am looking forward past the current grind to map the whole thing; how many of you have already done this, and did you enjoy it, or was it just another boring grind for you??

I'm going to have to agree. As much as I love X3: Terran Conflict, which has a bigger, way more sandboxy game world than STO, STO has X3 beat cold for mission and story variety.

alexmakepeace

For a minute I didn't even know what you were talking about. I hardly ever did anything with the exploration missions.

Also, Spore claims ~500,000 visitable stars, including Sol.

steamwright

szerontzur wrote: »

I once ran around trying to play all the federation system patrols/visit every system and starbase. I cleared all the Federation and Romulan sectors, but got a bit burned out by the time I got into Zeta Andromeda.

are there accolades or other rewards for progressing through the list of locations?

azurianstar

centaurianalpha wrote: »

I have seen numerous players bemoan the lack of new content development, boredom, and lack of incentive to find something interesting to do on STO. My burning question is:
How many players have mapped the ENTIRE galaxy?

I've played other space sims with expansive universes, but I think STO might be the largest in terms of number of star systems, mission variety and races. I personally am looking forward past the current grind to map the whole thing; how many of you have already done this, and did you enjoy it, or was it just another boring grind for you??

Hate to tell you but STO barely covers less than 1% of the Entire Milky Way. (Canonically, the Federation barely mapped out 20% and explored 10% of the Galaxy).



And there are 30 year old PC Games that had more Exploration than STO ever will have.

voporak

alexmakepeace wrote: »

Also, Spore claims ~500,000 visitable stars, including Sol.

That is correct. Spore makes STO's exploration look like a joke. In Spore, you can just fly around to star systems, which have their own planets (multiple per system). Sometimes planets have their own moons. There's other empires and developing species on planets, and it's all randomly generated. If you are ever mad enough to explore them all...

Start a new game and the random generator will have a new galaxy waiting. :rolleyes:


STO? Um, yeah...

centaurianalpha

Spore claims ~500,000 visitable stars, including Sol.

OK, so STO only has one of the larger universes that I have played. The question remains, who has explored all of STO's available galaxy? Apparently most forum denizens are more interested in costumes and grinding...:P

centersolace

shevet wrote: »

Given that the exploration regions like Delta Volanis etc. contain a randomly-generated bunch of new systems every time you enter them, you technically can't map the whole galaxy, ever.

Sadly, you can exhaust the possibilities of the random exploration mission generator... and very quickly.

("More and better random explores" would be on my wish list for STO, if there were any point having a wish list.)

It doesn't work like that. The maps are already generated, but there are a couple thousand of them so you're unlikely to get repeats. (It can happen though I've seen it.)

markhawkman

centersolace wrote: »

It doesn't work like that. The maps are already generated, but there are a couple thousand of them so you're unlikely to get repeats. (It can happen though I've seen it.)

also.... the randomizer can change the way the map looks so that even if you ARE playing the same mission and map it can look different.