Romulan Colony Worlds - Mini Zones?

caltair

So, having full adventure zones would be way too much to ask when it comes to these or any other worlds that have minor side stories. Places like Hfihar, Rhi and others have a lot of playable potential in my opinion. They can build the storyline of the Romulan Republic and provide something that solo players and small teams can do easily. The rewards could be Fleet Marks, Romulan Marks (comparable to Defera) or just leveling up Commendations.

Hfihar is the mining colony moon owned by a Ferengi who pushes the impoverished Romulan refugees to work mining magnesite for him despite the fact that there was a Tal Shiar operation going on underneath. The episode which is avaiable at least to Starfleet and Romulan characters (not sure about KDF) requires the player to do something for the local civilians before you can get the answers you are looking for. The variety is pretty good and is based on your ingame specialty (tac, sci, eng). I'm thinking we can expand on that to help build Hfihar into a real colony for Romulans and Remans in the sector. Players could kill Warriguls, build shelters, help dig a mine, do geological surveys and eventually depose the Ferengi overlord. It would be a small zone with only a few missions, comparable in a way to Nimbus III.

Rhi already has a PvE queue for small craft defending the colony from the Elachi. Perhaps we can expand on this to have a few more missions rooting out Elachi soldiers trying to capture more civilians. Again it would be kinda like Nimbus or Bajor where there are just a few significant missions and a few smaller ones.

I think it would fantastic to go to Brea (Cutting the Cord) and have a small zone to explore the city in more depth. We get to see so few cities, particularly Romulan, that I think it would be fun to capitalize on the Dyson Battleground Zone's success with urban warfare. Missions could fight Tal Shiar remnants, Elachi or scientifically investigate the Gateways on the planet.

I'm not looking for large scale zones that rival the full flung Adventure Zones that feature the newer Reputation Systems. But I am thinking along those same lines. I think that the zones have been a good and successful addition to the game and would like to see a lot more of the same, though not all on the same scale. I think that the more options there are for players to choose from, the better.

adverbero

could work, I wouldn;t mind a few alternative smaller locations that provide a diverse atmosphere of places and people

Personally I'd say the game could use more adventure zones with replayability and less PvE's that are always the same every time

kodachikuno

I like this... it gives cryptic their grind system and gives us some small plot points we can expand on.

as a tweak to this idea we could add new Rom Rep projects to the rom rep that allow us to progress the 'story' in these zones to the next level. So say you start off killing warriguls and bringing in supplies, doing surveys for future mine sites. Then you spend say 200 rom marks(no dil or ec or expertise expense) and you can then access the next set of quests (or keep doing the original ones) and you can start digging those mines, adding food and industrial replicators(setting up some infra), hunting Tal Shiar operatives or corrupt Ferengi side operations. Slot another project and spend the marks and you move to the next tier of quests like buying/kicking the Ferengi out, helping to organize a vote for Maiori, expanding the colony etc.

caltair

I like that idea Kodachikuno! That would the system very reputation friendly! Good thinking.

adverbero

kodachikuno wrote: »

I like this... it gives cryptic their grind system and gives us some small plot points we can expand on.

as a tweak to this idea we could add new Rom Rep projects to the rom rep that allow us to progress the 'story' in these zones to the next level. So say you start off killing warriguls and bringing in supplies, doing surveys for future mine sites. Then you spend say 200 rom marks(no dil or ec or expertise expense) and you can then access the next set of quests (or keep doing the original ones) and you can start digging those mines, adding food and industrial replicators(setting up some infra), hunting Tal Shiar operatives or corrupt Ferengi side operations. Slot another project and spend the marks and you move to the next tier of quests like buying/kicking the Ferengi out, helping to organize a vote for Maiori, expanding the colony etc.

I like this idea, Gives a sense of progression to the area

Perhaps expand on this notion and we could include other zones for the other factions? A colony world for the Federation that needs some assistance with something, and Vassal State world conquered by the Klingon Empire that needs a bit of tough love from the KDF

Have similar progression of tasks

bltrrn

kodachikuno wrote: »

I like this... it gives cryptic their grind system and gives us some small plot points we can expand on.

as a tweak to this idea we could add new Rom Rep projects to the rom rep that allow us to progress the 'story' in these zones to the next level. So say you start off killing warriguls and bringing in supplies, doing surveys for future mine sites. Then you spend say 200 rom marks(no dil or ec or expertise expense) and you can then access the next set of quests (or keep doing the original ones) and you can start digging those mines, adding food and industrial replicators(setting up some infra), hunting Tal Shiar operatives or corrupt Ferengi side operations. Slot another project and spend the marks and you move to the next tier of quests like buying/kicking the Ferengi out, helping to organize a vote for Maiori, expanding the colony etc.

Awesome, perhaps a little RSE co-op as well?

chipg7

So much "yes" to this entire post. There've been so many hints to Romulan colonies that aren't allied with the RSE or are otherwise independent - let's see some development for them!

kodachikuno

now... how do we get at least 1 dev to read this? :P

chipg7

They read the forums a lot. Chances are Cryptic or a mod will see this.

In one of the recent podcasts of Priority One, LaughingTrendy and CaptSmirk were guests. They said that they spend a lot of late nights rolling through the forums looking for these types of ideas. That's dedication right there

bltrrn

chipg7 wrote: »

So much "yes" to this entire post. There've been so many hints to Romulan colonies that aren't allied with the RSE or are otherwise independent - let's see some development for them!

It's always the same with you Republicans.

seazombie64

I like this idea a lot. I want to rebuild Virinat personally but the other planets would be fun too..

caedicius

I think it could be thought about if there should be different worlds (perhaps up to three or so altogether) for different typs of captains - one for those under level 50, and perhaps one or two for those above, either for reasons of difficulty and for questions of background (for example could one only be possible or at least in full length after the char has a high Romulos reputation or so).

kodachikuno

seazombie64 wrote: »

I like this idea a lot. I want to rebuild Virinat personally but the other planets would be fun too..

Why not just add Virinat to the list of options? Lets face it your character would have a vested interest in seeing it rebuilt. The Republic probably would love to have a "bread basket" planet. Replicator food throughout the series has always been labelled "close but not as good as real". Plus, as we know from Romulan history, that area isn't exactly over flowing with habitable worlds. The one character we pick up at Hfihar, the purple biochem doff, tells us there were other settlements on the planet that weren't quite as obliterated as the one we were in. So we have plenty of options and reasons to restore it.

caltair

Great comments from everyone! Thanks!

So we should probably have an organized list if we ever want a Dev to take this seriously...
I do like the idea of having tier based worlds, a few for 50- and a few for 50+ and now we could even have one for 60.

Here's a possible list, please feel free to add or take away:

50-
Hfihar: Colony building efforts, morale improvement, extradite the Ferengi to set up Romulan provisional government

Rhi: expand on Elachi invasion/diversion storyline, include ground combat as well as atmospheric

50+
Brea: Urban warfare zone similar to Deferi Invasion Zone, 3 way combat scenario - Tal Shiar, Imperial and Republican - each has home base and is fighting for control of key sections of the city (similar to Dyson Battleground), access iconian data in controled zones (mapping gateway locations?)

Rator: strike mission zone to find Imperial Borg research materials(not all of it was destroyed in the episodes), Empress Sela still missing but security remains, covert ops missions, possible Hirogen influence

60
Virinat: colony restoration efforts, mutant bugs (like in tutorial), remove hazardous materials (left over bombs or power cores that could expload), medical treatments, Elachi return?, destroy Elachi observation equipment underground, unlocked after T5 Romulan Reputation, crafting or tech upgrade support zone? (could grant access to crafting supplies or basic tech materials as rewards)

If we go with these basic ideas, what would the rewards be? It's pretty easy to get reputation marks in the game already. It would just seem tedious and uninspirational to make these mini-zones give those marks too. Should we suggest dilithium, energy credits, crafting supplies, tech upgrade packets, fleet marks, or something else?

kodachikuno

caltair wrote: »

Great comments from everyone! Thanks!

So we should probably have an organized list if we ever want a Dev to take this seriously...
I do like the idea of having tier based worlds, a few for 50- and a few for 50+ and now we could even have one for 60.

Here's a possible list, please feel free to add or take away:

50-
Hfihar: Colony building efforts, morale improvement, extradite the Ferengi to set up Romulan provisional government

Rhi: expand on Elachi invasion/diversion storyline, include ground combat as well as atmospheric

50+
Brea: Urban warfare zone similar to Deferi Invasion Zone, 3 way combat scenario - Tal Shiar, Imperial and Republican - each has home base and is fighting for control of key sections of the city (similar to Dyson Battleground), access iconian data in controled zones (mapping gateway locations?)

Rator: strike mission zone to find Imperial Borg research materials(not all of it was destroyed in the episodes), Empress Sela still missing but security remains, covert ops missions, possible Hirogen influence

60
Virinat: colony restoration efforts, mutant bugs (like in tutorial), remove hazardous materials (left over bombs or power cores that could expload), medical treatments, Elachi return?, destroy Elachi observation equipment underground, unlocked after T5 Romulan Reputation, crafting or tech upgrade support zone? (could grant access to crafting supplies or basic tech materials as rewards)

If we go with these basic ideas, what would the rewards be? It's pretty easy to get reputation marks in the game already. It would just seem tedious and uninspirational to make these mini-zones give those marks too. Should we suggest dilithium, energy credits, crafting supplies, tech upgrade packets, fleet marks, or something else?

The khelids dont seem to be mutants, but the Virinat version of bees. And khelid nectar seems to make the equivalent of honey mead.

Id add a Hirogen hunt somewhere in there, they have to have a base of operations or two if they're here to hunt. We could do a few space missions to soften up defenses before beaming down to take out various supply cache's, logistic and C&C buildings, and commanders

As for rewards, honestly Id be happy with normal loot drop and the opportunity to do these zones. Maybe once you complete all the quests in a single arc you get an accolade and title? Maybe some gear normally only available from the Rom Rep store? Like Virinat gives the option for a Romulan Plasma Beam/Cannon for your ship, and Hfihar gives Romulan Plasma ground weapons.

caedicius

I would highly opt for the possibility to "buy" duty-officers (like you could do if you get further with the omega-reputation). Members of the colony in Hfihar, Tal-Shiar/Imperial or Republican officers on Brea and Rator, rare or very rare, on Rator perhaps free Romulan-Borg (if the experiements gone so far)...

icsairguns

i didnt bother reading all the responses so ill just say it and move on. all they have to do is allow Foundry missions and or maps the ability to have more than 5 people on the map. then players could make all the zones they wanted and or needed. even if it worked like the starbase invite maps. not a great solution but it could work.


and maybe tie it to a fleet starbase where you could not place any vendors on the map that your fleet had not unlocked. or something along those lines. or maybe if yuou own a freighter or cell ship you use it to break down and build a colony on a foundry map giving the needed vendors even .