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Sectors, sector blocks going away at Season 10
paxfederatica
Member Posts: 1,496 Arc User
So says STO's new Executive Producer in his first statement to the community. Instead, each quadrant of the galaxy will be consolidated into one ginormous map each.
I do have a few observations about this from a Foundry perspective:
I do have a few observations about this from a Foundry perspective:
- Doors: It is possible that the transition to quadrant maps might break the sector-space doors we have now, or force us to re-map them to their counterparts on the new quadrant maps. On the other hand, this transition would also make a great opportunity for the devs to add new doors at the systems now located in Tau Dewa block (which would presumably become part of the Beta Quadrant map) or the Delta Quadrant. Those of us looking to start our missions in those areas may finally get our chance.
- Location updates: Needless to say, this will change the way Foundry authors have to indicate the starting points for their missions. Currently we must point players not only to the right system, but the sector block it's located in. With Season 10, we just have to indicate which quadrant the mission door is in.
- Spotlight missions: These will have to be unlocked in order to allow their authors to update mission starting-point information as described above.
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The major thing I think will be in how we direct players to out doors. It'll be easier for them to get their, though.
I hope they at least keep the individual sectors in place, to keep doors reasonably easy for players to find. (That goes for Cryptic missions too, of course.)
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
I will say that Sectors will remain, but Sector Blocks will evaporate.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
My character Tsin'xing
That's what I'm thinking too - the sectors will stay arranged, relative to each other, more or less as they are now; they just won't be grouped into blocks anymore.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
Yellow dialog... "Use your map"
Will this mean we'll have more systems to play with? For example the gap between the DS9 and Sirius sector blocks, Isn;t that where Betazed (sp?) and Trill are? Could we get these systems added, even if for awhile there only purpose is to serve as an Foundry door?
We're still working on it, but the goal would be that the only thing you'd need to change in your missions is any text you specifically wrote, telling the player to goto X Sector or Y Sector Block. Anything handled by the door should update automagically.
We've actually put in a fairly substantial effort to bring our map in line with the soft canon Star Trek Star Charts map. So there's actually a fair bit of shuffling going on.
I'll be writing up a Dev Blog about the whole thing, and will detail all of the system/sector movements if I can.
My character Tsin'xing
And then...
So if we tickle you will you tell us more?
But in all seriousness, adding fast travel capability to foundry missions could be one solution and the layout of the maps would be irrelevant at that point. I'm interested to see how the Alpha quadrant is portrayed as most canon maps have this is a vastly unexplored region of space.
Thanks for keeping us up to date, Taco. :cool:
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Thanks for the heads-up, Taco - this is good for authors to know. Depending on how drastic this reshuffling is, it might be appropriate to move some of our mission doors to new systems. For example, a mission that's supposed to take place behind, say, Romulan enemy lines would have its immersion factor hurt by its door getting moved somewhere that's nowhere near Imperial Romulan space. (For that matter, even some Cryptic missions could end up with out-of-place doors too.)
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
Oh cool! I'm really curious to see how things get shifted now, and how Gamma Orionis is going to be handled.
I'll start noting actual sectors in my directions rather than just sector blocks. I've always found the blocks a much simpler point of reference and don't even mention the actual sector at all, since it never really mattered.
As it is, i doubt many people use that list tab to navigate the sector blocks, but if the list stays, and was expanded to list every POI in the quadrant, it will make things very simple. Foundry mission says "Start at X system in Y Quadrant" then the player goes and looks it up in the list, click, and then sit back and be taken right there.
Betazed, Ferenginar, Trill, Tellar Prime, etc. Seems like they should've finished Federation space at least before moving to the Delta Quadrant.
They could've made stories that go there, just like the winter event could be on Andoria. Instead they build a planet for a species that appeared in one episode that has no relevance to the rest of star trek. Besides, they didn't have to build space or ground maps for them, just put them in the sector map and link a foundry door.
My character Tsin'xing
Imagine if it's unclaimed space... Season 10 contest, design a system, then get said system named X :O
I can dream :P
2) Other Devs could learn from him as far as interacting with the player base. Communication, not just mass blast announcements, is a good thing.
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Thanks for the info. Sounds interesting.
Everyone always says the Winter Event should be on Andoria. Remember, Andoria is a Federation world. The Winter event needs to be open to the KDF and Romulans. While we not be at war anymore, we were when the winter event was conceived, and initially built. In addition, having it be Q's winter wonderland lets us do a lot more crazy/fun things.
Building off of areas of ST that haven't been shown a lot gives us a lot of freedom to invent and tell stories that we couldn't with existing races/planets. As much as we like ST, sometimes all of that canon can be a big weight. It's nice sometimes to get to work on something that offers us more room to be creative.
Quite true.
Hey Taco, any chance we could get a link to this? (A site which hosts the Star Trek Star Charts you are using as a template). There are about a dozen different unofficial 'official' soft canon maps out there right now. :P Thanks!
https://arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1275673/my-improvement-polish-wish-list-for-sto
I wasn't trying to come off as an TRIBBLE first off. Anyway, as for Andoria being open to KDF and Roms, it could be a different map that's supposed to be Andoria but you don't actually have to fly to the planet to get there. Just get there like we do now. And since it's Q, he could still do crazy things on Andoria. Also, I was more giving an example of something that could be done with Andoria.
As far as showing Kobali Prime over say Tellar Prime, it would be the same thing. We've never seen the surface of Tellar Prime.
Of course, I may just be a little biased when it comes to things Voyager. lol I'd just rather see all the core Trek stuff make it into the game before anything else. DS9 is my favorite series, but I'd still rather see Tellar Prime than the Gamma Quadrant.
I'm betting they're using http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Charts-Complete-Atlas/dp/0743437705 as their primary source. You can find images of all the maps from the book online.
http://www.startrekmap.com/ufpmain.html this site takes a few liberties with some of the Federation's neighbors, but has a built in search feature to find locations.
Just ask JJ Abrams
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
See? This is what I'm talking about - lol. Even in a single reply there are already two conflicting maps. :P
I'd just like to see the 'unofficial soft canon' source that the team will "officially" be using as a basis.
https://arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1275673/my-improvement-polish-wish-list-for-sto
I believe both sources have the same locations for the star systems, but they differ in the size and borders of the non UFP states. The Star Trek Star Charts book is the primary reference used by non canon authors. I only noted the second link because it had a way to search for what you're looking for.
Many years ago, I spent time looking that second map system over. I actually find it unlikely that a territory such as the Federation would not overlap or wrap over and under another territory in a three-dimensional world. Which the maker cleverly interprets in a 2D map. And as much as I really enjoy the Star Charts book, it isn't without its flaws. But only here and there. if that is all Cryptic references, I'm comfortable with that.
Taco posted this in another thread: