What if, instead of procedurally generated star systems, inside a revamped exploration system, we were drawn into randomly selected FOUNDRY missions?
In this exploration system, you would be searching for ONGOING missions: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no ONE has gone before!
All that would be needed is instead of us looking up Foundry missions, the devs link them to "Explore Star System" hot spots in the various exploration zones. This would deepen immersion of the game instead of searching through tables of foundry missions.
What do you guys think?
Is this a good idea? I think so, after all, the main introduction of the show is simply a plot device (ongoing mission-strange new worlds-new life-new civilizations-to boldly go) to get the crew into an ADVENTURE.
Curses. I was afraid of that. Still, maybe if we keep bringing it up, it will happen. Manifest into Reality...Shazam!
Actually, it seems that channeled effords count more than heavy efford.
A few years back, I ran a thread "Fleet leaders - Unite", that focused on getting more development focus on fleets and fleet usefulness. I spend every second I could getting people to post in that thread, and used the first 3 posts on organizing the ideas and suggestions people made.
Most of what was said in that thread is now implemented in what we know as fleet starbase and fleet holdings today.
It's not quite what I imagined, but I would like to think that the particular thread had some influence on making fleet development happen. Especially since so many of the ideas from there actually came into the game.
If you really want to make a difference on this, you need to go all in.
Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
The Foundry needs better and more accessible UI; this is true.
The exploration system needs revamped; this is also true.
The solution is not just throwing the two together.
Firstly, it would mean making a secondary Foundry, designed for the specific purpose of creating exploration missions; so that only appropriate missions get selected (otherwise we'd be getting told to turn around and go somewhere else every time we found a new system). So the Foundry would end up needing a lot of work anyway.
Secondly, the Foundry does not exist to let the devs off the hook. Fixing up the exploration system is their job, not ours. A Foundry hookup would make it even less likely that it will ever receive the attention it requires, since the devs could all too easily (and understandably) view it as 'the players problem' from that point on.
As good as some of the Foundry missions are, they are like really low budget TV shows; endlessly reusing the same props over and over, without even the time and money to significantly modify them between episodes. Only the devs can make actually new stuff; which means that even if the Foundry were to be merged into another system, exploration is the worst place for it.
Having read all of your replies so far, I can see there are a few ways that the dev's could go about giving us a more proper zone to Boldly Go into those places No One Has Gone Before.
So, we're looking at YOU DEVs! It's time to make the whole game AAA+, got it? Not just the things you've done so far. You have to keep working to make a whole game from the IP. You guys are doing pretty good so far, so keep going! Give us Adventure in the exploration zones.
Comments
So good that it has been suggested countless times, by countless people in several varations (recently for example, I posted this: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1069501).
Unfortunally, to my knowlege, cryptic has never replied to this.
Curses. I was afraid of that. Still, maybe if we keep bringing it up, it will happen. Manifest into Reality...Shazam!
Actually, it seems that channeled effords count more than heavy efford.
A few years back, I ran a thread "Fleet leaders - Unite", that focused on getting more development focus on fleets and fleet usefulness. I spend every second I could getting people to post in that thread, and used the first 3 posts on organizing the ideas and suggestions people made.
Most of what was said in that thread is now implemented in what we know as fleet starbase and fleet holdings today.
It's not quite what I imagined, but I would like to think that the particular thread had some influence on making fleet development happen. Especially since so many of the ideas from there actually came into the game.
If you really want to make a difference on this, you need to go all in.
Exploration Reputation....
I think that one was obvious.
The exploration system needs revamped; this is also true.
The solution is not just throwing the two together.
Firstly, it would mean making a secondary Foundry, designed for the specific purpose of creating exploration missions; so that only appropriate missions get selected (otherwise we'd be getting told to turn around and go somewhere else every time we found a new system). So the Foundry would end up needing a lot of work anyway.
Secondly, the Foundry does not exist to let the devs off the hook. Fixing up the exploration system is their job, not ours. A Foundry hookup would make it even less likely that it will ever receive the attention it requires, since the devs could all too easily (and understandably) view it as 'the players problem' from that point on.
As good as some of the Foundry missions are, they are like really low budget TV shows; endlessly reusing the same props over and over, without even the time and money to significantly modify them between episodes. Only the devs can make actually new stuff; which means that even if the Foundry were to be merged into another system, exploration is the worst place for it.
So, we're looking at YOU DEVs! It's time to make the whole game AAA+, got it? Not just the things you've done so far. You have to keep working to make a whole game from the IP. You guys are doing pretty good so far, so keep going! Give us Adventure in the exploration zones.
Yes I agree we need less grindy bits to chew on. A solid hunk of an exploratory / adventure zone would be perfect.