Does the technology exist for this in STO?

cabezadetortuga

I apologize ahead of time if this is a bad idea


I was thinking about new kinds of missions that would be fun if they could be implemented, and had the idea of missions which involve simultaneous space and ground actions. One mission that made me think of this is "Storming the Spire", where players fight the Voth in "space" combat for control of a Spire in the Solanae Dyson Sphere.

What if in addition to the five players in starships, there were also five other players who engaged the Voth in the Spire in ground combat?

It would of course require two different instances, one ground and one space. The actions that are taken in the space map would affect what happens in ground and vice versa. There could be all sorts of interactions between the two teams. For example, the actions of the space team could determine the path that the ground team takes towards its goal. The space team could determine where the ground team attacks by doing something like blowing up a blast door or clearing some other entry point for the ground team.

For their part, actions of the ground team could affect the space encounter. For example the ground team could have an optional objective to take control of the sphere's defense system and reprogram the Swarmers to attack only the Voth. Or they could activate artillery batteries which then open fire on the Voth.

There could be a plethora of optional objectives for both teams which determine the course of the mission.

I personally think that such a concept could result in a dynamic type of gameplay, with several paths to mission completion and even different possible outcomes.

Then again, it might not even be possible with current technology to do such a thing.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

ghyudt

This would actually work really well for one of the undine stfs. But there's one problem. Players would have to work a lot closer together and be able to really coordinate with each other. Most of us just don't really wanna get that into it. And this also leads to even more probability that a mission will fail. It just simply isn't a viable thing right now, though in the future it could be very interesting.

rsoblivion

They actually were a part of the game for things like Starbase 24. It didn't work out well and became a lagfest unfortunately, not to mention that the ground portion could make the space portion fail and vice versa.

taylor1701d

Sounds like a really great idea, but would require a lot of programming.

I immediatly thought of the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi..

I pictured a ground team of 5 going to the surface to dismantle a shield generator for example (which is protecting the DeathStar in space)

meanwhile in space the team of 5 would be fighting starships and trying to blowup troop transports heading to the surface (whilst waiting for the ground team to lower the shields on the DeathStar..)

If you dont blow up enough troop transports, your ground team will be overwhelmed and will be unable to dismantle the shield generator. Which in turn would fail the space portion.

Once the ground team takes out the shield generator, the space team can go on to take out the Death Star.

(I know were not playing StarWars Online, but your idea made me think of that particular battle)

So...In short I think this would be an awesome idea. But would require ALOT of work.

questerius

I think simultaneous combat on ground and space runs into the same problem as to why players cannot pilot their star ship in combat from their bridge.

One after another (first space and then onto the ground) is possible, i believe the ancient stf - pre season 4/5, had several of those.

czertik123

great idea, but destined to fail ALL time, unsles designed to be able to finish normaly on solo. Why ?
because from random battles, i can say that 30% of players simply dont use brain at all in mission, another 30% cant get mission idea and goal, even after many reruns. Another 30% simply fail to cordinate with others for succes, despite geting upper hand above mentioned groups.
Only last 10% can succes in mission with resonable time and effort.