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Merchant/Miner Civilian Class

gorillachopsgorillachops Member Posts: 206 Arc User
Just a quick idea for a Lifetime-Subs-Exclusive Civilian Class . By no means finished yet (TBC):

Merchant/Miner
Merchants/Miners replicate many of the functions of the more commonly encountered NPCs found throughout the game.

Trade
• In addition to being able to trade Energy Credits and Latinum (as in common with other players), Merchants can also unlock the ability to trade in a new 'Trader currency' and if members of a Fleet, Fleet Marks and Fleet Credits.
• Merchants can also unlock the ability to trade items with other players that are normally 'bound to account', even some 'bound to character'. Amongst these are Reputation sponsorship tokens.

Commodities
• Merchants can buy commodities cheaper than all other players (in most circumstances).
• Commodities are now cheaper in some areas than others. The price of commodities from any given source is always based on the 'market value', which is influenced by your allegiance and the allegiance of the Zone you are in.

Ships
• Merchant ships are very recognisable. They have very poor turn rates, impulse and warp engines (rarely do they ever exceed Warp 4).
• They have poor hull strength and a low shield modifier.
• All Merchant-class ships have built in bank slots. These are accessible only when the player is on bridge of that ship or has that ship selected. Their number is fixed for each ship, but varies according to ship Rank and cannot be increased. If the ship is dismissed, anything left in the ship bank slots will be lost.
• As ship Rank increases, armour improves slightly and ships become less vulnerable to subsystem targeting and sensor debuffs.
• All Merchants can use lockbox ships as normal.

Space and Space Combat
• Merchants great strength in space combat is their ability to call on support craft. These are grouped into three types:
• Distress Call. (Examples include the 'Nimbus Pirate Distress Call', 'Romulan/ Reman Distress Call', etc. There could also be exclusive new ones, such as 'Federation and Klingon, but also Borg and Undine. These last two work by your ship mimicking a Borg/Undine Distress signature (however, unlike other Distress Call ship, these ships will attack both 'friend' and enemy vessels).
• Support Vessel. (These are special vessels that are NPC exclusive ships; they are not normally found elsewhere: Tractor-beam Tug, Xindi craft, etc).
• Fleet members. (In specially circumstances, these can be called into the mission from sector space and social areas, even if the mission has already begun, but only for a brief period.

Fleets
• Merchants can join fleets as normal. (Time to use the upper floor of the Fleet Mine for something!) :rolleyes:

Race Abilities
• Certain races have the ability to unlock special reputation projects for access to additional abilities
• Cardassians can unlock 'Tailor' ability (you are now a tailor. also further options to unlock unique reputation costumes).
• Ferengi can unlock 'Lobes-for-business' (TBC)
• Yridians (and their Horta pets) can unlock 'Prospector' ability (chance for 'trace-sample' mini-game to 'be replaced with 'dilithium-mining' mini game when running most missions).

I'd love to hear some feedback. Thank you.
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Post edited by gorillachops on

Comments

  • gorillachopsgorillachops Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Rogue
    Playboys, pirates, soldiers-of-fortune, junkies, dropouts, hippies, cage-fighters, thieves, mutineers, refugees; they are all examples of this class.

    Ground combat
    • Rogues weapons are usually customised, much loved by their owners, and rarely found anywhere else. In ground warfare, Rogues greatest strength is not in numbers or firepower; they are specialists in exotic damage, illegal.
    • Have access to illegal/dangerous weapon/device types (eg: 'What's this? Well it's sort of four grenades - plasma, anesthizine and shock - all rolled into one... but with an AoE affecting both friend and foe).
    • Has a larger variety of kit options than any other type of character, but fewer kit 'points'.
    • Weapons are more powerful, but less reliable (eg: want to fabricate a phaser turret? Great, no problem. You can replicate three, or even a GIANT one... but there's a ten percent chance it will blow up in your face, causing damage to you and all around you!)

    Ships
    • Typically, Rogue's ships are small, highly manoeuvrable and very fast.
    • They have fewer weapon slots compared to other ships (three at the front, one at the back), but the ships themselves have a built in high [CrtH].
    • What marks them out from all other ships however, is their 'universal console slots'. (The typical Rogue ship might have: 2 eng, 2 sci, 2 tac and 5 universal console slots). These are only used for Universal Consoles.
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  • aloishammeraloishammer Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Just a quick idea for a Lifetime-Subs-Exclusive Civilian Class .

    I'd love to hear some feedback. Thank you.

    Feedback: LTS Exclusive Class = Epic Fail
  • abaddon653abaddon653 Member Posts: 1,144 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    I really, really like this idea! It needs some refinement but I can see some potential.

    I have always been fascinated by the non aligned groups in the Trek universe, the random mercs, merchants and such that appear in different episodes. People forget that the Trek universe is MUCH bigger then is depicted on screen.

    I know people want a civilian/merc type fraction but that is not something that may ever be done. However this special "class" is entirely within the realms of possibility. Work on the design, get it to the point where Cryptic doesn't really need to do much work with the initial design and you never know.

    On that note, making it only for lifers is not a good idea at all. Maybe make it vet reward, or a store unlock and I say this as both a vet and a lifer.
  • azurianstarazurianstar Member Posts: 6,985 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Just a quick idea for a Lifetime-Subs-Exclusive Civilian Class . By no means finished yet (TBC):

    Merchant/Miner
    Merchants/Miners replicate many of the functions of the more commonly encountered NPCs found throughout the game.

    Something like this, I wouldn't exclude to Lifetime subscribers. This would be something that has potential to draw in players.
    Trade
    • In addition to being able to trade Energy Credits and Latinum (as in common with other players), Merchants can also unlock the ability to trade in a new 'Trader currency' and if members of a Fleet, Fleet Marks and Fleet Credits.
    • Merchants can also unlock the ability to trade items with other players that are normally 'bound to account', even some 'bound to character'. Amongst these are Reputation sponsorship tokens.

    I'm sorry but a new currency should never be added, especially since in canon GPL is the currency of choice, and it's greatly underutilized in STO. And trading of bound items is a bad mistake, they are bound for a reason.

    Traders / Privateers/ Freelancers should have their own content. I can easily see their missions being to go from world to world, delivering cargo, bartering, and earning a profit. There is a 30 year old PC game based off Star Trek that does that very well and it can be fun.

    Commodities
    • Merchants can buy commodities cheaper than all other players (in most circumstances).
    • Commodities are now cheaper in some areas than others. The price of commodities from any given source is always based on the 'market value', which is influenced by your allegiance and the allegiance of the Zone you are in.

    Allowing any of a Trader faction to buy cheaper would undermine those who unlocked Ferengi characters, and Ferengi characters pretty much already buy things cheap.

    However, as part of Trader missions, I could easily see Traders earning commodities more effectively than players with Doffing. Could be tied into the Fleet system, where instead of earning Fleet Marks, they earn Commodities for current projects.

    And I wouldn't have it cheaper in faction space either. Even if its in the heart of the Federation, there are criminal elements that should be considered as dangers.
    Ships
    • Merchant ships are very recognisable. They have very poor turn rates, impulse and warp engines (rarely do they ever exceed Warp 4).
    • They have poor hull strength and a low shield modifier.
    • All Merchant-class ships have built in bank slots. These are accessible only when the player is on bridge of that ship or has that ship selected. Their number is fixed for each ship, but varies according to ship Rank and cannot be increased. If the ship is dismissed, anything left in the ship bank slots will be lost.
    • As ship Rank increases, armour improves slightly and ships become less vulnerable to subsystem targeting and sensor debuffs.
    • All Merchants can use lockbox ships as normal.

    Trader ships should not be involved in space combat. Only exception is in content that involves them, like having to protect themselves from danger. But to see them performing storyline missions or getting in queued events is just absurd.

    And if all Merchant ships have bank access, it undermines existing Lockbox Trader ships.

    Space and Space Combat
    • Merchants great strength in space combat is their ability to call on support craft. These are grouped into three types:
    • Distress Call. (Examples include the 'Nimbus Pirate Distress Call', 'Romulan/ Reman Distress Call', etc. There could also be exclusive new ones, such as 'Federation and Klingon, but also Borg and Undine. These last two work by your ship mimicking a Borg/Undine Distress signature (however, unlike other Distress Call ship, these ships will attack both 'friend' and enemy vessels).
    • Support Vessel. (These are special vessels that are NPC exclusive ships; they are not normally found elsewhere: Tractor-beam Tug, Xindi craft, etc).
    • Fleet members. (In specially circumstances, these can be called into the mission from sector space and social areas, even if the mission has already begun, but only for a brief period.

    Using Distress signals is acceptable, but should come at a cost. Klingons normally do not care about saving unless it's important cargo. And up until endgame, its war out there and ships do not come as easily as they once did.

    Hired Escorts is a possibility.
  • abaddon653abaddon653 Member Posts: 1,144 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Trader ships should not be involved in space combat. Only exception is in content that involves them, like having to protect themselves from danger. But to see them performing storyline missions or getting in queued events is just absurd.

    I agree with this, however what if the civilian class ships were Q-Ships?
  • aloishammeraloishammer Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    abaddon653 wrote: »
    I agree with this, however what if the civilian class ships were Q-Ships?

    Then any faction that loses so much as one soldier to a Q-ship stops taking chances and sends battle cruisers after freighters with orders to shoot first and give the debris a cursory glance later, making the use of them counter-productive and suicidal. :rolleyes:
  • daqheghdaqhegh Member Posts: 1,490 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    You mean like bartenders and bounty hunters?

    I'd be down.

    :cool:
    My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
  • azurianstarazurianstar Member Posts: 6,985 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    abaddon653 wrote: »
    I agree with this, however what if the civilian class ships were Q-Ships?

    Go back to what I said, in their own content, have at it. But nobody would want to see one in an STF or poping up in some PvP PUG.
  • jtmarshjtmarsh Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    I have and continue to ask for that once a year just about. Was a huge fan of Wing Commander privateer. I want to take it one step further so you were actually able to build up your ship. Then you could be almost a mercenary. Join the enemy or join the Federation by the way you act. If you played clean then you could be able to run missions between Klingon and Federation. A go-between! I would throw away my Fed uniform to be something like Wing Commander privateer type merchant.
  • baelogventurebaelogventure Member Posts: 1,002 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1124921

    Not LTS, but an entirely new faction.
  • gorillachopsgorillachops Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    abaddon653 wrote: »
    On that note, making it only for lifers is not a good idea at all. Maybe make it vet reward, or a store unlock and I say this as both a vet and a lifer.

    Thanks for your reply. I write this a being a F2Per.
    I've been thinking about the issue of balance for a while when it comes to this. When I think about what i'd like to see in terms on the ratio of civilian class to FED/ROM/KDF, I think somewhere between 1-in-5 and 1-in-10 would be about right. It should still be an online community dominated by the three existing factions, maybe all in equal amounts.

    The issue of when you unlock the ability to create a civilian is an interesting one. I think everyone would like their civilian to have no alligiance to begin with, and then perhaps choose a side or not, so it's probably going to have it's own faction slot, and not be a class that's part of all existing factions. There might be all sorts of ways you could use in deciding when you 'unlock' the faction, ranging from having a lifetime sub right down to being available to F2P creating one as their first character, but I think you're right; lifetimers only would restrict too many people.

    If Cryptic went to all the effort of creating a civilian faction, yet not wanting the ingame world to be over populated by it, I would think that most players should only be able to unlock the faction only after they have at least one level 50 toon. At the time of writing, all F2Pers have the three slots to begin with; note that this means they might use them all for FED, *gasp*, but the option is theirs. So in much the same way as players unlock the Reman speicies once they have level 50 Romulan character, players could unlock the civilian faction and an additional character slot.

    In terms of players with more than one civilian character i'd proceed with caution. Make additional slots a C-store unlock worth at least 1000 zen. This would be good for Cryptic, because it would maximise end game content by not allowing players to skip over all the currently existing game content and story arcs; 'at least appreciate the current content before demanding more'. :D
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  • aloishammeraloishammer Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    The issue of when you unlock the ability to create a civilian is an interesting one. I think everyone would like their civilian to have no alligiance to begin with, and then perhaps choose a side or not, so it's probably going to have it's own faction slot, and not be a class that's part of all existing factions.

    Here's the thing- if Cryptic couldn't be bothered to make the Romulans their own faction, what are the odds of the Freighter Pilots getting one?
  • mjarbarmjarbar Member Posts: 2,084 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    On first reading this I had the classic reaction, "if wishes were horses,,," etc. but thinking about it I would like to propose a tweak

    Instead of making it a fourth faction as proposed, allow it once you hit level 50. Before starting the rep you are given the choice of "Retire with honour" or carry on in the current form. If you carry on you get to access the rep systems and let's face it start an endless grind. If you retire you are given a new ship where you are given a basic load out and you start over. The main difference being you can load out what you like but you have to trade for it. As you level up you just add to the specs of the ship rather than getting a whole new ship and having to reload it all over again, as well as the financial return you could be given a skill and xp return that can be used to further upgrade the ship.

    For instance use EC to buy consoles for the ship but after say 15000 xp allows you to add a console slot, the rest of the EC could be used to buy consumables to sell on or allow the ship to be used to just buy from as trade ship are currently used.

    But the age old question would be how can this be implemented into the game, something like this takes a awful lot of programming and as I have said in other posts would take more servers to handle the information load which has to be paid for, how to do this? Impose a tax? That would be massively unpopular which leaves going back to a sub based game which would be equally unpopular as well, if you made it so that only people who follow this trade route pay for it then no one will bother with it as no one will want to start paying for something they have had for free already.

    So in theory it is a great idea, I fear it is a non starter from a practical point of view.
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  • dabelgravedabelgrave Member Posts: 979 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    If Cryptic went to all the effort of creating a civilian faction, yet not wanting the ingame world to be over populated by it, I would think that most players should only be able to unlock the faction only after they have at least one level 50 toon. At the time of writing, all F2Pers have the three slots to begin with; note that this means they might use them all for FED, *gasp*, but the option is theirs. So in much the same way as players unlock the Reman speicies once they have level 50 Romulan character, players could unlock the civilian faction and an additional character slot.

    In terms of players with more than one civilian character i'd proceed with caution. Make additional slots a C-store unlock worth at least 1000 zen. This would be good for Cryptic, because it would maximise end game content by not allowing players to skip over all the currently existing game content and story arcs; 'at least appreciate the current content before demanding more'. :D
    I cannot see them adding a faction and not wanting it heavily populated. Something new and shiny, like a new faction, is what they use to drive their sales. They give everyone the basic stuff, and add lots of special goodies for it in the c-store. Also, make this a c-store-only thing for everyone if you want it limited.

    While I do like the idea of a civilian faction, I think it should be based on crafting, smuggling, and basically moving goods and commerce throughout the quadrants, not the politics and wars between factions. I'd also like the ability to do black-market ship trading to move some ships between characters, but that affects lockbox key sales. Not a full faction like Fed/Rom/KDF, but a sort of side-game for when we grow tired of grinding rep and stuff.
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