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Open Letter to STO Developers
delilahwild
Member Posts: 63 Arc User
Dear Development Team,
Ive been playing and enjoying Star Trek Online for less than a year now. I thought I would write this open letter to you in both appreciation for what you have achieved, as well as a prod to take advantage of an ongoing opportunity.
A bit of background first.
In STO Im Delilah Wild and a member of the Universal Diplomatic Fleet. I came to STO from Eve Online where as Delilah Wild I was the founder of the largest anti-piracy (e.g., anti-griefer) coalition in Eves history the Coalition of Anti-Pirates (COA). PVP against griefers was our passion, and thousands of individuals and scores of alliances (fleets in STO) made our success possible through dedication and hard work.
There was a time when Eve was considering becoming more than a complex console game, but that time has passed. Eve is now unapologetically rigged for the benefit of null security space alliances (to whom many of the Eve developers belong). This is justified through a gaming vision explicitly based on social darwinism. Over time Eve has continually changed the rules of play to favour in-game griefing, nerfed the opportunities for those interested in pve activities like mining and industry, and enabled the exploitation of new players by established players and organizations. As a consequence of this social environment, Eve is beset by racism, sexism, homophobia, and online bullying.
Im sharing this background for a reason. Eve has a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction amongst the majority of its players who do not want to be constantly caught up in griefing or exploitation. One readily reads this on the Eve forums. Yet they believe they have no other options in a space MMO.
This presents an opportunity for STO. I mean no disrespect, but I am sure you know that the mining and industry (e.g., crafting) elements of STO could use further development. Folks attracted to mining and industry want to mine and refine and transport ore, as well as manufacture a profitable product and sell that product for in-game currency. Moreover, they want to do this over time and in spaceships as they can hang out and talk with their friends through a chat or voice channel. STO clearly has the skill and capacity to add this functionality in a way consistent with the STO universe. This would open up a new universe for Eve and other MMO players looking for a more welcoming game.
So I respectfully encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity, and build out a new dimension to STO. I urge you to develop game mechanics and outreach that welcomes miners and industrialists who want to switch from Eve or other MMOs. This would grow STO, drain long-term support from competing games, and create a more vibrant STO community.
Sincerely, Del
Ive been playing and enjoying Star Trek Online for less than a year now. I thought I would write this open letter to you in both appreciation for what you have achieved, as well as a prod to take advantage of an ongoing opportunity.
A bit of background first.
In STO Im Delilah Wild and a member of the Universal Diplomatic Fleet. I came to STO from Eve Online where as Delilah Wild I was the founder of the largest anti-piracy (e.g., anti-griefer) coalition in Eves history the Coalition of Anti-Pirates (COA). PVP against griefers was our passion, and thousands of individuals and scores of alliances (fleets in STO) made our success possible through dedication and hard work.
There was a time when Eve was considering becoming more than a complex console game, but that time has passed. Eve is now unapologetically rigged for the benefit of null security space alliances (to whom many of the Eve developers belong). This is justified through a gaming vision explicitly based on social darwinism. Over time Eve has continually changed the rules of play to favour in-game griefing, nerfed the opportunities for those interested in pve activities like mining and industry, and enabled the exploitation of new players by established players and organizations. As a consequence of this social environment, Eve is beset by racism, sexism, homophobia, and online bullying.
Im sharing this background for a reason. Eve has a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction amongst the majority of its players who do not want to be constantly caught up in griefing or exploitation. One readily reads this on the Eve forums. Yet they believe they have no other options in a space MMO.
This presents an opportunity for STO. I mean no disrespect, but I am sure you know that the mining and industry (e.g., crafting) elements of STO could use further development. Folks attracted to mining and industry want to mine and refine and transport ore, as well as manufacture a profitable product and sell that product for in-game currency. Moreover, they want to do this over time and in spaceships as they can hang out and talk with their friends through a chat or voice channel. STO clearly has the skill and capacity to add this functionality in a way consistent with the STO universe. This would open up a new universe for Eve and other MMO players looking for a more welcoming game.
So I respectfully encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity, and build out a new dimension to STO. I urge you to develop game mechanics and outreach that welcomes miners and industrialists who want to switch from Eve or other MMOs. This would grow STO, drain long-term support from competing games, and create a more vibrant STO community.
Sincerely, Del
Post edited by delilahwild on
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Comments
Honestly, I think that what is more likely to draw the attention of the people you're talking about is Star Citizen.
Mine Trap Supporter
Sounds kind of like the Ferengi led merchant/mercenary faction idea that's been tossed around a few times before.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing while reading the OP. They could tie this in a more complex and engaging crafting system, that would basically function like an industry for miscellaneous resources that can be used in crafting all kinds of items.
An idea thats been floated around before is fleet built colonies.
Many of the ideas suggested around that sound similar to what the OP is talking about.
It would certainly be something that would fit with a new exploration system, as well as provide a new direction for cookie cutter type fleet holdings.
Crafting could use a revamp, but I wouldn't want the economy to become more complex like EVE, like with more resources and mining and such.
I intentionally avoid games with a economy like EVE that lets players control it far too much, thats why I am not there and am here instead, I don't want STO to become EVE.
Eve economy is far to easy for players to scam and manipulate. I don't think a complex player economy really works in MMOs without some form of regulating and a central bank that can inflate/deflate the economy as needed. Even STO's economy is far to easy for players to manipulate and could use some form of regulating, if I was a dev I would be stabilizing the exchange by creating and putting up items for sale that it looks like players are trying to monopolize and drive the price up on.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments.
It may help to clarify that I'm not proposing STO become another version of Eve, or that it turn into a full scale space simulator. Rather I'm suggesting the adaptation of certain mining and industrial functions of Eve to work within the STO universe.
Like many of you I too like the casual individual/coop model of play. It works for my busy life.
At the same time, a more extended kind of coop play would be appreciated by the miners and industrialists I have mentioned.
Star Citizen came up often in your comments and is an interesting topic.
It is entirely unclear what social norms Star Citizen will optimize throughout the mechanics, so it may or may not become another version of Eve. Yet it is intentionally scalable through individual/coop/MMO levels, which may put an interesting twist on who and how players interact, and the opportunities for griefing, exploitation and manipulation.
Even so, the scalability combined with the trade functions will lend themselves to what I'm proposing for STO. I'd like to see STO take advantage of this opportunity now.
Cheers, Del
Your writing a letter to a old guy setting on his million dollor boat. Fishing for tuna. Asking his grandchildren what is STO. The children reply, Grandpa "its that video game that pays your bills"
The old man just replys "well" . End of story.
Since STOs release there have been thousands of these letters. Not once have they been replyed to by a dev (devs have replyed before but NOT on improvements that could be made to the game). I truly wish some multi-millionair that loved star trek would step in and do something. They don't even have to play games. Anything is better than what we've been getting. Did everyone who worked on seasons 1-6 just die off. Would someone please give some insight as to wth has happened to sto.
Yeah, but that would be a bore of epic proportions and it's not what the players of STO are asking for in the slightest.
You will probably win out, though. The "I wants" always do in this game.
Why would Vice Admiral be a civilian rank? Why would civilians have rank at all?
You come up with the silliest arguments sometimes
You want Cryptic to implement a Civilian Class so you can play an Admiral of Industry. Doing so means that Cryptic needs to not work on something else. What if the choice is Civilian Class or new STFs? What percentage of the player-base is going to want to drop everything and play a guy who mines and ships ore all day long compared to those who want new Mission Content for their existing characters?
What you are wanting here is something that is going to take a lot of manpower to implement. The Class system needs to be made. The ships need to be made. Minor missions need to be made, etc. All of that is going to come at the expense of things all the other Classes wanted. And even then there is no way of knowing if more then a fraction of the fan-base would find mining and transporting ore to be fun to do 2-3 hours per day.
That is why I am opposed to the idea.
Which doesn't mean that the future of the game wouldn't in fact lie in adding more complex concepts of gameplay instead of trying to turn it into a FB arcade game. Having Doffs do the activities we're discussing here reminds me terribly of browser games like O-Game for example, and I'd vagure that is not the reason most of us play MMORPGs like STO.
Besides, I already mentioned it can be tied with an improved and more complex crafting system. The way I see crafting in games is like the salad on the side of a meal. It's not the main course, so you don't have to have it, but if you happen to like salads you can eat it.
That way all the Kirks can enjoy Kirking around as much as they want, while people that enjoy more complex activities or building something by themselves would have an inovative and fun crafting system to explore.
Yeah this.
If you want to be Starfleet captain and go explore new worlds and civiliations, you should be able to do it. If you want to be a Klingon and embrace that RP, then go for it. If you want to be Harry Mudd, or be Quark's cousin on Ferengar, or any other role in the Star Trek UNIVERSE, then those are equally viable and contributory.
Having 20,000 James T. Kirk is boring
DOFFing for adventure is boring
I also have a really big feeling that the new Crafting system Borticus is working on will also be Doff-based.
Of course not- there are no easy strawmen he can prop up to knock over heroically, so he's having to take the "Howls of derisive laughter, Bruce" approach.
No, I know. You're not the first one I've seen mention it.
I'm just stating that I feel it's the wrongest of wrong ways to go about it in some mildly insane hope that a dev might trip, stumble over the tread and see that we don't like it.
If true, this would royally suck and kill any hope I have left of this game turning into something more engaging than sliders and spacebar mashing.
Your Doffs are already going out and getting Particles and bring back new gear. I can easily see that turned into a Rep System. T1 Crafting you can only make small things until you earn enough "Crafting Marks" to advance to T2 and so on.
And yeah, the character will be involved with gathering some of the resources but for the most part I expect it to look very much like the existing Doff and Rep Systems.