People who love to cite Picard's First Contact dialogue with Lilly just looooove to forget all the other times in the past few decades in the franchise where money has been confirmed to exist in canon, in Starfleet, and in the Federation.
It's very easy to understand, actually. Earth did away with currencies, not the entire Federation. Remember, in Roddenberry's vision the 24-th century Earth has evolved into an utopia - a situation that other member worlds don't share.
Remember DS9 and how Morn's gang cleaned out the bank of Bollarus?
It's very easy to understand, actually. Earth did away with currencies, not the entire Federation. Remember, in Roddenberry's vision the 24-th century Earth has evolved into an utopia - a situation that other member worlds don't share.
Remember DS9 and how Morn's gang cleaned out the bank of Bollarus?
Earth may have done away with internal currencies. Currencies that are only legal tender on Earth itself. But I'd speculate that's the case for any Federation member world. Like the EU, you can either carry numerous currencies if you go country to country, go to a currency exchange business every time you go to a new country, or you can use the Euro which would be legal tender in every country in the EU.
So, any currency Earth uses is presumably the same currencies used elsewhere in the Federation. Whether it be Federation Credits, Energy Credits, Quatloos, Gold-Pressed Latinum, or whatever.
While I could make some criticisms of space missions, in general, when I'm flying around, I feel like I'm in the Star Trek universe. Part of this, I think, is that my player avatar is my ship, which I've chosen and customized to a fair extent, to suit my preferences and style.
Ground missions, on the other hand, have a lot of room for improvement. Some are, in themselves, good stories, and fit the Star Trek universe as I imagine it, and there's a reasonable amount of variation in the environments. But what I've found astonishing is that all of them are linear, without any branching paths or alternate solutions. Where is the opportunity to make a decision that defines my character?
There are a few missions where I can recall slightly more complicated puzzles, and one in which my character had to make a decision between two alternative courses of action. So it's not some bizarre engine limitation. There should be more decision-making and puzzle-solving.
Earlier in this thread, some have suggested that there should be more interaction between the captain and the bridge officers. Bioware's style of RPG design offers a good model: much of the content of their games was built around developing the relationship between the player-character and her companions. The pattern was that there would be an initial quest to recruit a companion, and later, a second quest in which the player-character would go out of her way to assist the companion, deepening their relationship (and enhancing the abilities of the companion). The fans of such games often go on at length about how they chose which companions and which companion quests they most enjoyed.
There's a lot that could be done with such a model.
In passing, I'll mention one other thing that bugs me: that the levelling system is tied to ranks, in which we all quickly rise to the rank of admiral. Not only is "captain" the rank and role for the central character in every Star Trek series and movie, but an important aspect of the narrative arc for Kirk was that he regretted accepting the promotion to admiral -- he advised Picard to never do that, advice that Picards seems to have heeded. It would have been better if our characters simply started as "captain" and their ranks never changed.
Would you prefer to sit in your ship's Ready Room filling out duty rosters and reading engineering reports? How about crawling through jeffries tubes looking to fix conduits? Oh I know, what about waiting an hour to warp from ESD to DS9? If any of those came to pass people would bail on this game even though it would be more realistic. So I ask again what do have in mind to replace grinding?
...
Actually, this would be awesome. I would love to see a mini-game of some kind that involved crawling through a Jefferies tube to fix some kind of something before the shield collapse, or the core breaches, or something. Just my two bits.
And my two cents makes four cents! Anyone remember "The Naked Time"?
(There was a discussion a while back on how to build a good Jefferies tube in the Foundry. Somebody, I forget who, succeeded triumphantly so I expect we have at least one Foundry mission featuring them by now.)
And my two cents makes four cents! Anyone remember "The Naked Time"?
(There was a discussion a while back on how to build a good Jefferies tube in the Foundry. Somebody, I forget who, succeeded triumphantly so I expect we have at least one Foundry mission featuring them by now.)
I have some good looking ones in my mission "Cold Winds" that I have the player crawl through. However, they were actually designed by another author, Greendragoon, who then taught me how to make them. His mission featuring the jeffries tube design "Shadows of Midas Part 2" is on the verge of being released.
On the larger issue I have to agree with Iconians. I have never felt a lack of a Star Trek feel in this game. And that "feel" is so nebulous and subjective a concept as to be nearly meaningless anyway. Star Trek means so many different things to so many people. Personally, I bring my imagination to the game to fill in any blanks. And really, if there are storylines or story styles you want to see in game, we have a tool for that! Try out the Foundry. We've done just about any style of story you could name, and if by some chance it isn't there, build it!
I can tell you that having met some of the devs personally and interviewed several others for my podcast, they watch Star Trek, they know Star Trek, they love Star Trek. I'm sure like in any business there's going to be some folks there just for the paycheck, but not the one's I've met. If their definition of a "proper Star Trek game" differs from yours, well, too bad.
They obviously watch Star Trek and there is never going to be a star trek game that everyone will say "That's my version of star trek" as everyones is different.
/closed
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Comments
It's very easy to understand, actually. Earth did away with currencies, not the entire Federation. Remember, in Roddenberry's vision the 24-th century Earth has evolved into an utopia - a situation that other member worlds don't share.
Remember DS9 and how Morn's gang cleaned out the bank of Bollarus?
Earth may have done away with internal currencies. Currencies that are only legal tender on Earth itself. But I'd speculate that's the case for any Federation member world. Like the EU, you can either carry numerous currencies if you go country to country, go to a currency exchange business every time you go to a new country, or you can use the Euro which would be legal tender in every country in the EU.
So, any currency Earth uses is presumably the same currencies used elsewhere in the Federation. Whether it be Federation Credits, Energy Credits, Quatloos, Gold-Pressed Latinum, or whatever.
Ground missions, on the other hand, have a lot of room for improvement. Some are, in themselves, good stories, and fit the Star Trek universe as I imagine it, and there's a reasonable amount of variation in the environments. But what I've found astonishing is that all of them are linear, without any branching paths or alternate solutions. Where is the opportunity to make a decision that defines my character?
There are a few missions where I can recall slightly more complicated puzzles, and one in which my character had to make a decision between two alternative courses of action. So it's not some bizarre engine limitation. There should be more decision-making and puzzle-solving.
Earlier in this thread, some have suggested that there should be more interaction between the captain and the bridge officers. Bioware's style of RPG design offers a good model: much of the content of their games was built around developing the relationship between the player-character and her companions. The pattern was that there would be an initial quest to recruit a companion, and later, a second quest in which the player-character would go out of her way to assist the companion, deepening their relationship (and enhancing the abilities of the companion). The fans of such games often go on at length about how they chose which companions and which companion quests they most enjoyed.
There's a lot that could be done with such a model.
In passing, I'll mention one other thing that bugs me: that the levelling system is tied to ranks, in which we all quickly rise to the rank of admiral. Not only is "captain" the rank and role for the central character in every Star Trek series and movie, but an important aspect of the narrative arc for Kirk was that he regretted accepting the promotion to admiral -- he advised Picard to never do that, advice that Picards seems to have heeded. It would have been better if our characters simply started as "captain" and their ranks never changed.
Actually, this would be awesome. I would love to see a mini-game of some kind that involved crawling through a Jefferies tube to fix some kind of something before the shield collapse, or the core breaches, or something. Just my two bits.
(There was a discussion a while back on how to build a good Jefferies tube in the Foundry. Somebody, I forget who, succeeded triumphantly so I expect we have at least one Foundry mission featuring them by now.)
I have some good looking ones in my mission "Cold Winds" that I have the player crawl through. However, they were actually designed by another author, Greendragoon, who then taught me how to make them. His mission featuring the jeffries tube design "Shadows of Midas Part 2" is on the verge of being released.
On the larger issue I have to agree with Iconians. I have never felt a lack of a Star Trek feel in this game. And that "feel" is so nebulous and subjective a concept as to be nearly meaningless anyway. Star Trek means so many different things to so many people. Personally, I bring my imagination to the game to fill in any blanks. And really, if there are storylines or story styles you want to see in game, we have a tool for that! Try out the Foundry. We've done just about any style of story you could name, and if by some chance it isn't there, build it!
I can tell you that having met some of the devs personally and interviewed several others for my podcast, they watch Star Trek, they know Star Trek, they love Star Trek. I'm sure like in any business there's going to be some folks there just for the paycheck, but not the one's I've met. If their definition of a "proper Star Trek game" differs from yours, well, too bad.
They obviously watch Star Trek and there is never going to be a star trek game that everyone will say "That's my version of star trek" as everyones is different.
/closed
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113