Also, I'm going to suggest that a feature of exploration zones be broad objectives that are meaningful but which are vague as to how or whether you'll accomplish them.
Things like: Feed the villagers. Stop the marauders. The trick is that there are multiple ways of doing things, the methods are not perfectly predictable or repeatable, and failure is not exactly penalized but is encouraged as the player attempts to fulfill broad mandates with ingenuity and luck in a large environment.
This is what I was getting at in branching dialog. And some other examples I gave were: "look a ruin" the fed scientist starts a science doff mission to catalog it, the kdf starts a marauder mission to plunder it.
Also, I love your idea about mapping and travel from a central point.I think that would work nicely within stos engine.
Well I did vote for exploration but that was only do to nothing in the poll for revamped STFs.. I think they need to remove a few of the borg ones, add more like battle of korfez but more pugable.. oh and cross faction grouping.. we are all allies after all.. at least for now. I have not seen a star fleet defense KDF side in almost a year :mad:
You can visit a planet and have a small story arc there. Some of the Romulan ground was like this. You scan water, dirt, animals, etc. This is a start.
Other we can stop a virus/disease from messing up people.
Find a natural event to deal with. Astro Eddies, a rip in space, a space anchor, etc. One of those repeating missions where you do it over and over before you figure it out.
How about an ancient booby trap that someone left behind.
How about exploring the under space? The mutura nebula, the void, or the expanse?
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
I think in Alliances there was a choose which map you go to next, could that be used for something like this?
One thing I would love to see is actually finding things, unique random drops kinda like the old nano tech drops that keep you coming back to look for more.
Something that makes any repetition rewarding in the long run. It wouldn't need to be anything major, costume pieces, unique doffs, just a wide range of little stuff that you can collect by chance rather than grind a rep to get. Even if it was reskins of existing items but using NPC parts that we can't use currently. Something you can show to your friends and say how cool is this?
It could be tied to some of the more obscure trek history and make nice prestige pieces to show off to your friends that can't be got anywhere else.
I think a motivation to actually hunt for things would make a nice contrast to just adding another rep or spec tree.
So, how do you propose we "explore" the universe, without having to make a million custom maps/missions?
What would actually be enjoyable to do, that doesn't involve fighting. Scanning rocks and trees is going to get old.
One alternative to the star clusters is doing something along the same lines as Vulcan with that one mission it has. Take planets like Vulcan, Andoria, Bajor, New Romulus, and toss in some missions, maybe something like mini episodes as well as adding other planets with a similar idea like Ferenginar, Tellar Prime, Betazed, homeworlds of the various species of the game, well, except in cases where the story line somewhere may have destroyed one.
Thanks guys, lots of good ideas. Keep em coming. I guarantee people (besides me) are reading them.
Very cool to know! This is actually kinda what I had recommended in the poll itself. It's so important to do what you do, and look past metrics and dedicate some time to just sitting down and looking at the actual feedback people have.
Edited to add: I think one important thing is to make sure that by doing exploration and not necessarily shooting at things, that we are not ripped off of rewards. If it is implemented without being rewarding--especially with things in their current state, or worse, implemented with a painful grind, it will give the impression of being provided yet either being not worth the time (if not rewarding enough) or forced (if tied to some sort of uber-rep,
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
One thing I think might be neat would be player-interactive versions of the colony chains. So, you'd go through a series of missions, beginning with a system survey, then a planet survey, encounter with random native element, colony site survey, protect colonists from outside threat, chain complete.
This could be chock full of random elements. The planets could vary from Ice Planet to Vasquez Rocks. The native threat could be a virus, a plant, Space Gorillas, or the weather. If you negotiate with the outside threat, the next mission could be peaceful; if you fight it, the next mission would be a bigger battle.
If there are a hundred or more random elements for each mission, and if your interactions set the tone of the next link in the chain, it could be a while before this got old.
*break*
And while I'm having ideas for exploration, I'd also like to see first contact missions that feel real. This could be done as a chain of missions like the colony chain above, with each step in the first contact process (discovery, surveillance, high-level contact, public contact, conflict, resolution) as its own mission full of random elements, with each mission outcome affecting the tone of the following mission.
I really think this is do-able, if Cryptic puts some resources into it.
How about using this system as an excuse to develop mini games?
If you could come up with simple but engaging mini games or even rework and return the first contact scenarios from the diplo system that might be fun.
Getting diplomatic xp for the doff system would be cool too.
I would love to see establishing colonies a part of this.
As much as I would love some non-combat content, I don't think we should completely get rid of combat in exploration. Maybe just make it occur less often than on normal episodic missions. Or perhaps have choices to talk yourself out of (or into) a combat situation. After all, exploration is about going out into the unknown. And sometimes the unknown wants to rip your face off.
I think that there have been many good ideas in this thread that others have made. I hope my own suggestions further this discussion.
1. Create missions that require other doff ranks than Diplomacy/Marauder. Say that you are on a mission to plant a new colony and you have a T0 Colony rank. It would take you longer and more resources to create said colony; however, if you are a T4 Colony rank it requires less resources and time to create it. Let us use those ranks that we have earned.
2. Shuttle Content Exploration - Shuttles are one of the least utilized assets available in STO. There are fewer than ten missions that require their use, but we see in Enterprise, TOS, TNG, and VOY that shuttles can be useful. Maybe your ship gets caught randomly in a minefield and you have to use your shuttle to guide it to safety or you take a reinforced shuttle to do scans in a nebula that your ship can not approach. I want an excuse to use my Aeon Shuttle or To'Duj fighter.
3. Random Space Exploration Encounters - I admit; I am a huge TOS fan. It would be awesome to be flying randomly in sector space and get drawn into a zone of darkness or whisked away by some alien entity like Trelane. Star Trek shows that many random things happen in space, even explored space. Add some spice to our lives.
How about using this system as an excuse to develop mini games?
If you could come up with simple but engaging mini games or even rework and return the first contact scenarios from the diplo system that might be fun.
Getting diplomatic xp for the doff system would be cool too.
I would love to see establishing colonies a part of this.
Yes! This would be cool. Having colonies as a form of unique player holding would be cool.
And mini games are good if they are actual games. The omega one is great. Radiation, research node and dil mining kinda suck. Something like a super simple mobile game or old-school arcage game that is actually fun to play by itself.
So, how do you propose we "explore" the universe, without having to make a million custom maps/missions?
What would actually be enjoyable to do, that doesn't involve fighting. Scanning rocks and trees is going to get old.
(Emphasis is mine.)
So much this.
I rarely did the exploration clusters after more content became available for the KDF. Scanning 5 rocks on the same general maps got old real fast.
Remember that what satisfies or pleases one person will annoy another.
So, how do you propose we "explore" the universe, without having to make a million custom maps/missions?
What would actually be enjoyable to do, that doesn't involve fighting. Scanning rocks and trees is going to get old.
everyone who voted exploration didn't even spend 5 seconds thinking it through. why was it even put on the poll? this game doesn't have an exploration bone in its body. every single slot and item to fill it is about enhancing combat potential. exploration consists of scanning, and a mini game or two in STO. the in game galaxy has borders, its not auto generated and technically infinite, it ends were it stops being hand made. exploration was a wasted vote.
everyone who voted exploration didn't even spend 5 seconds thinking it through. why was it even put on the poll? this game doesn't have an exploration bone in its body. every single slot and item to fill it is about enhancing combat potential. exploration consists of scanning, and a mini game or two in STO. the in game galaxy has borders, its not auto generated and technically infinite, it ends were it stops being hand made. exploration was a wasted vote.
We HAD random generated exploration missions until quiet recently.
They just hadn't been touched/improved since season 2 (and here they were only released for the Klingons, the fed versions had not been touched since release).
After all, that very feature was what sto promoted itsself with in the beginning. And it's a good enough concept.
One of the things I love about other MMOs that is completely missing in STO is actual exploration that leads to finding hidden and interesting things that are "off the map". So much time and energy is put into creating such large and detailed maps, yet we are hand-held and led thru a narrow corridor of it, with no reason to go off the beaten path because there is literally nothing there.
How cool would it be to have a zone where you could explore and find NPCs that offer you interesting missions or tasks, and better yet, have them be random so they're not always in the same place or offer the same mission. It gives people a reason to go exploring, to find new and hidden things to do. And it really doesn't take a lot of work to do it, as you're using maps that are already created.
You can also do the same thing in space, similar to the Borg alerts. You're cruising along on your way to a mission and there is an urgent broadcast calling all Fed or KDF ships in the area, and everyone gets to participate in the battle once you get there. Again, make it random and keep it fresh.
I think that there have been many good ideas in this thread that others have made. I hope my own suggestions further this discussion.
1. Create missions that require other doff ranks than Diplomacy/Marauder. Say that you are on a mission to plant a new colony and you have a T0 Colony rank. It would take you longer and more resources to create said colony; however, if you are a T4 Colony rank it requires less resources and time to create it. Let us use those ranks that we have earned.
I think it would be a good idea to utilize the duty officer system in this way. Use the Duty Officer ranks to unlock different missions. These are things like regular space or ground missions as opposed to duty officer missions.
For example more exploration missions are unlocked with greater degree of difficulty the higher your Exploration rank is. Same goes for the other types. Marauding and military would open up conquest and combat missions for KDF, and defense for Federation. Espionage would open up cloak and dagger type of missions. Engineering could include base repairs or installation fortification.
There is so much that could be done with that.
2. Shuttle Content Exploration - Shuttles are one of the least utilized assets available in STO. There are fewer than ten missions that require their use, but we see in Enterprise, TOS, TNG, and VOY that shuttles can be useful. Maybe your ship gets caught randomly in a minefield and you have to use your shuttle to guide it to safety or you take a reinforced shuttle to do scans in a nebula that your ship can not approach. I want an excuse to use my Aeon Shuttle or To'Duj fighter.
I absolutely LOATHE shuttle missions. I hated the stupid DR shuttle mission where I (a General) had to hop in a freaking shuttle in a warzone for no apparent reason. It was in the middle of a stupid patrol mission chain which was infuriating since I couldn't just drop it by itself.
If there is something that can only be done in a shuttle, then you have hundreds (depending on ship size) of redshirts ready to do this for you. It's what the duty officer missions are. As a General (or Admiral) there are very few good reason why they would have to use a shuttle.
3. Random Space Exploration Encounters - I admit; I am a huge TOS fan. It would be awesome to be flying randomly in sector space and get drawn into a zone of darkness or whisked away by some alien entity like Trelane. Star Trek shows that many random things happen in space, even explored space. Add some spice to our lives.
We used to have this. Sector space enemy encounters could chase you down and force engagement. That should be brought back. Random sector space encounters with the wierd would be good too. This too could be plugged into the duty officer system. The higher your science, the better chance you have of discovering a time/space wedgie thing.
Thanks guys, lots of good ideas. Keep em coming. I guarantee people (besides me) are reading them.
One thought I had as I was pondering things is that doing a long series of minigames is a lot less boring when you do a variety of minigames and not just the same one over and over.
Then there's the minigame from the underground in Pok
I absolutely LOATHE shuttle missions. I hated the stupid DR shuttle mission where I (a General) had to hop in a freaking shuttle in a warzone for no apparent reason. It was in the middle of a stupid patrol mission chain which was infuriating since I couldn't just drop it by itself.
If there is something that can only be done in a shuttle, then you have hundreds (depending on ship size) of redshirts ready to do this for you. It's what the duty officer missions are. As a General (or Admiral) there are very few good reason why they would have to use a shuttle.
I agree that shuttle missions can be very awkward, but I absolutely enjoy Shuttle Fleet Alert when it runs since it is fun and different. I just think that exploration missions could be a great way to involve them more in an optional way. As for why would a general be in a shuttle, are we not warriors of the Empire? Why would we not want to lead an elite strike team of battle hardened warriors in a surprise attack on pirates or infiltrate an enemy base using the zip lines for the glory of the Empire?
I agree that shuttle missions can be very awkward, but I absolutely enjoy Shuttle Fleet Alert when it runs since it is fun and different. I just think that exploration missions could be a great way to involve them more in an optional way. As for why would a general be in a shuttle, are we not warriors of the Empire? Why would we not want to lead an elite strike team of battle hardened warriors in a surprise attack on pirates or infiltrate an enemy base using the zip lines for the glory of the Empire?
If you look at the early missions of the KDF like "Second Star to the right" that involve shuttles, those were fine, because of the context. At the time the mission was opened up I was like a commander or so. It would be entirely appropriate for a commander to lead a small strike team into an enemy stronghold. Those were good missions.
The later shuttle missions like in Operation Gamma, were flat out annoying. Running errands for a backstabbing ferengi was really irritating. I would have rather have boarded the ship and taken it by force. Negotiating with a disruptor in hand face to face, is much better.
The shuttle mission in delta rising was just plain dumb. There was no rhyme or reason for it other than "oh look a race track lol". :mad:
I absolutely LOATHE shuttle missions. I hated the stupid DR shuttle mission where I (a General) had to hop in a freaking shuttle in a warzone for no apparent reason. It was in the middle of a stupid patrol mission chain which was infuriating since I couldn't just drop it by itself.
If there is something that can only be done in a shuttle, then you have hundreds (depending on ship size) of redshirts ready to do this for you. It's what the duty officer missions are. As a General (or Admiral) there are very few good reason why they would have to use a shuttle.
I agree that shuttle missions can be very awkward, but I absolutely enjoy Shuttle Fleet Alert when it runs since it is fun and different. I just think that exploration missions could be a great way to involve them more in an optional way. As for why would a general be in a shuttle, are we not warriors of the Empire? Why would we not want to lead an elite strike team of battle hardened warriors in a surprise attack on pirates or infiltrate an enemy base using the zip lines for the glory of the Empire?
Well said. Also weren't both Picard and Archer the best pilots on their ships?
I always liked the concept of trade runs from games such as EvE Online and ArcheAge, or a design like FTL where you go from point A to point B.
The thing about exploration is to remember it isn't about the destination, it's about the journey. It's about random things happening that you aren't counting on. It's like a train ride through the countryside even though you could have gotten there by plane. You do it to enjoy the scenery.
While the idea of just running around looking at pretty things doesn't make for very engaging content, it does give somebody something to do while they are hauling important cargo to some area.
Maybe they can just enjoy talking to their fleetmates, or roleplay. Maybe they can converse on teamspeak or in team chat while they are working a convoy.
The end destination is the rewarding outcome. If you get to your destination in a timely fashion (like Tour the Galaxy), you get a nice big payout equal to the amount of whatever currency you want to throw in (like marks or dilithium) as you would have paid out if somebody was doing queued PvE content.
While simply running back and forth for X amount of time (you can make trade runs with an approximate timeframe in mind, with longer trade runs taking a longer time to complete in exchange for bigger rewards).
You can set up these missions to generate random events. Some of these events could be really rewarding, or they could be really challenging with little reward. You can either choose to divert from your course to help out or explore something in a side quest, or you can ignore it and move on.
This means you would not need millions of maps, just a few really nice ones that are linked together. Reduce players to impulse power only, and maybe they will simply go full impulse. But if they do that, maybe a random event shows up that severely cripples their ship and leads to them blowing up and losing their cargo.
It's non-combat content in theory, but as in any randomly generated scenario, you will invariably come across aggressive factions, which could be related to where exactly you are taking this journey.
If you blow up too many times, your end payout is small. If you get through it with superior skill and talent, you get a bigger payout.
TL;DR: Exploration should be the Oregon Trail in space, only you have hypos to make sure you don't die of space dysentery.
I think a good start to exploration would be to take already existing missions and copy them as soon as they can be returned to and explore. Take any location on those maps that have potential and expand on them.
A good example is Mine trap. When you go into the mine, there are tunnels that were made by the Horta. An option to climb into and explore those tunnels and to discover a bring something back that's usable could be a good addition as far as exploration
An example of the space zone could be the existing Briarpatch which could bring you into areas of discoveryperhaps one area is blocked by electrical cloud and if you go exploring through you can find another anomaly that when implemented into your ship gives you a resistancethat allows access to that new area. Exploration is about searching discovering solving mysteries. There's Indiana jones style. There's Sherlock Holmes style. There's always a sense of danger or risk in the environment around you.
Taking on a non-corporeal form of life that can't be hurt with phasers but if you have a bridge officer on site that has telepathic abilitiesthat would unlock the option to be able to contact that life form. In doing so we would gain information or new ability
In that episode in the second link, did Janeway fly the shuttle? What purpose was there to fly a shuttle in the mission (in game)? What would an Admiral (or General ), a major military asset by themelves, be doing in a shuttle, in a warzone?
It occured to me that "The Secret World" has 2 types of missions that go out of their way to make you use OTHER methods than combat... while the insane difficulty of their "investigation" missions is a little over the top, and require a web browser in game, I think that there could be a few notes taken from them and the "sabotage" missions too. Sabotage focus on stealth and puzzle solving, and generally if you try combat you will auto die. Neither of these quest types would translate well verbatim to STO but there are little bits and pieces designers can take notes on as ideas for STO, especially if the foundry gets a really massive overhaul to allow players to write missions to supplement Cryptic designed content for "exploration"
So, how do you propose we "explore" the universe, without having to make a million custom maps/missions?
What would actually be enjoyable to do, that doesn't involve fighting. Scanning rocks and trees is going to get old.
This has already been done and should be easy
make 4 or 5 zones or areas around each empire without warp gates , fill it with hundreds of solar systems
, Zones are going away so just more empty area filled with the systems
make or buy a ((( world generator ))) like (civilization ) used to generate random planets fauna lifeforms civilizations resources ( solar systems like ( star control ) used
That way cryptic doesn't have to make it
You don't have to make a single mission.............The players will play the mission
The foundry can help create the fauna lifeforms civilizations ect whatever is needed ( you call the star trek fans will haul )
Random resources like ( SWG ) had
player citys like ( SWG ) had
Colonization..............this should be a easy one like ( SWG ) player citys
use duty officers to colonize with and staff things like your shipyard/factory /schools/Medical bay/Defense structures/Embassy
diplomatic relations or conquer native species
build npc/bridge officer captioned ships to defend your space / feed and supply/equip your people
Watch them work like sim city
The possibilitys are endless........... A lot could be made by foundry authors...many ways to make cash on it too
( SWG ) had planets that took DAYS to explore not 2 minutes
Endless possibilitys for group and Fleet involvement Famine/invasion/ ect.
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Comments
This is what I was getting at in branching dialog. And some other examples I gave were: "look a ruin" the fed scientist starts a science doff mission to catalog it, the kdf starts a marauder mission to plunder it.
Also, I love your idea about mapping and travel from a central point.I think that would work nicely within stos engine.
We come in peace, shoot to kill? (Yes I know I snipped parts of your message to make it look worse than it was, but I couldn't resist).
Other we can stop a virus/disease from messing up people.
Find a natural event to deal with. Astro Eddies, a rip in space, a space anchor, etc. One of those repeating missions where you do it over and over before you figure it out.
How about an ancient booby trap that someone left behind.
How about exploring the under space? The mutura nebula, the void, or the expanse?
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
One thing I would love to see is actually finding things, unique random drops kinda like the old nano tech drops that keep you coming back to look for more.
Something that makes any repetition rewarding in the long run. It wouldn't need to be anything major, costume pieces, unique doffs, just a wide range of little stuff that you can collect by chance rather than grind a rep to get. Even if it was reskins of existing items but using NPC parts that we can't use currently. Something you can show to your friends and say how cool is this?
It could be tied to some of the more obscure trek history and make nice prestige pieces to show off to your friends that can't be got anywhere else.
I think a motivation to actually hunt for things would make a nice contrast to just adding another rep or spec tree.
One alternative to the star clusters is doing something along the same lines as Vulcan with that one mission it has. Take planets like Vulcan, Andoria, Bajor, New Romulus, and toss in some missions, maybe something like mini episodes as well as adding other planets with a similar idea like Ferenginar, Tellar Prime, Betazed, homeworlds of the various species of the game, well, except in cases where the story line somewhere may have destroyed one.
Very cool to know! This is actually kinda what I had recommended in the poll itself. It's so important to do what you do, and look past metrics and dedicate some time to just sitting down and looking at the actual feedback people have.
Edited to add: I think one important thing is to make sure that by doing exploration and not necessarily shooting at things, that we are not ripped off of rewards. If it is implemented without being rewarding--especially with things in their current state, or worse, implemented with a painful grind, it will give the impression of being provided yet either being not worth the time (if not rewarding enough) or forced (if tied to some sort of uber-rep,
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
If you could come up with simple but engaging mini games or even rework and return the first contact scenarios from the diplo system that might be fun.
Getting diplomatic xp for the doff system would be cool too.
I would love to see establishing colonies a part of this.
Mine Trap Supporter
1. Create missions that require other doff ranks than Diplomacy/Marauder. Say that you are on a mission to plant a new colony and you have a T0 Colony rank. It would take you longer and more resources to create said colony; however, if you are a T4 Colony rank it requires less resources and time to create it. Let us use those ranks that we have earned.
2. Shuttle Content Exploration - Shuttles are one of the least utilized assets available in STO. There are fewer than ten missions that require their use, but we see in Enterprise, TOS, TNG, and VOY that shuttles can be useful. Maybe your ship gets caught randomly in a minefield and you have to use your shuttle to guide it to safety or you take a reinforced shuttle to do scans in a nebula that your ship can not approach. I want an excuse to use my Aeon Shuttle or To'Duj fighter.
3. Random Space Exploration Encounters - I admit; I am a huge TOS fan. It would be awesome to be flying randomly in sector space and get drawn into a zone of darkness or whisked away by some alien entity like Trelane. Star Trek shows that many random things happen in space, even explored space. Add some spice to our lives.
Yes! This would be cool. Having colonies as a form of unique player holding would be cool.
And mini games are good if they are actual games. The omega one is great. Radiation, research node and dil mining kinda suck. Something like a super simple mobile game or old-school arcage game that is actually fun to play by itself.
(Emphasis is mine.)
So much this.
I rarely did the exploration clusters after more content became available for the KDF. Scanning 5 rocks on the same general maps got old real fast.
Remember that what satisfies or pleases one person will annoy another.
everyone who voted exploration didn't even spend 5 seconds thinking it through. why was it even put on the poll? this game doesn't have an exploration bone in its body. every single slot and item to fill it is about enhancing combat potential. exploration consists of scanning, and a mini game or two in STO. the in game galaxy has borders, its not auto generated and technically infinite, it ends were it stops being hand made. exploration was a wasted vote.
We HAD random generated exploration missions until quiet recently.
They just hadn't been touched/improved since season 2 (and here they were only released for the Klingons, the fed versions had not been touched since release).
After all, that very feature was what sto promoted itsself with in the beginning. And it's a good enough concept.
How cool would it be to have a zone where you could explore and find NPCs that offer you interesting missions or tasks, and better yet, have them be random so they're not always in the same place or offer the same mission. It gives people a reason to go exploring, to find new and hidden things to do. And it really doesn't take a lot of work to do it, as you're using maps that are already created.
You can also do the same thing in space, similar to the Borg alerts. You're cruising along on your way to a mission and there is an urgent broadcast calling all Fed or KDF ships in the area, and everyone gets to participate in the battle once you get there. Again, make it random and keep it fresh.
I think it would be a good idea to utilize the duty officer system in this way. Use the Duty Officer ranks to unlock different missions. These are things like regular space or ground missions as opposed to duty officer missions.
For example more exploration missions are unlocked with greater degree of difficulty the higher your Exploration rank is. Same goes for the other types. Marauding and military would open up conquest and combat missions for KDF, and defense for Federation. Espionage would open up cloak and dagger type of missions. Engineering could include base repairs or installation fortification.
There is so much that could be done with that.
I absolutely LOATHE shuttle missions. I hated the stupid DR shuttle mission where I (a General) had to hop in a freaking shuttle in a warzone for no apparent reason. It was in the middle of a stupid patrol mission chain which was infuriating since I couldn't just drop it by itself.
If there is something that can only be done in a shuttle, then you have hundreds (depending on ship size) of redshirts ready to do this for you. It's what the duty officer missions are. As a General (or Admiral) there are very few good reason why they would have to use a shuttle.
We used to have this. Sector space enemy encounters could chase you down and force engagement. That should be brought back. Random sector space encounters with the wierd would be good too. This too could be plugged into the duty officer system. The higher your science, the better chance you have of discovering a time/space wedgie thing.
Then there's the minigame from the underground in Pok
My character Tsin'xing
If you look at the early missions of the KDF like "Second Star to the right" that involve shuttles, those were fine, because of the context. At the time the mission was opened up I was like a commander or so. It would be entirely appropriate for a commander to lead a small strike team into an enemy stronghold. Those were good missions.
The later shuttle missions like in Operation Gamma, were flat out annoying. Running errands for a backstabbing ferengi was really irritating. I would have rather have boarded the ship and taken it by force. Negotiating with a disruptor in hand face to face, is much better.
The shuttle mission in delta rising was just plain dumb. There was no rhyme or reason for it other than "oh look a race track lol". :mad:
The thing about exploration is to remember it isn't about the destination, it's about the journey. It's about random things happening that you aren't counting on. It's like a train ride through the countryside even though you could have gotten there by plane. You do it to enjoy the scenery.
While the idea of just running around looking at pretty things doesn't make for very engaging content, it does give somebody something to do while they are hauling important cargo to some area.
Maybe they can just enjoy talking to their fleetmates, or roleplay. Maybe they can converse on teamspeak or in team chat while they are working a convoy.
The end destination is the rewarding outcome. If you get to your destination in a timely fashion (like Tour the Galaxy), you get a nice big payout equal to the amount of whatever currency you want to throw in (like marks or dilithium) as you would have paid out if somebody was doing queued PvE content.
While simply running back and forth for X amount of time (you can make trade runs with an approximate timeframe in mind, with longer trade runs taking a longer time to complete in exchange for bigger rewards).
You can set up these missions to generate random events. Some of these events could be really rewarding, or they could be really challenging with little reward. You can either choose to divert from your course to help out or explore something in a side quest, or you can ignore it and move on.
This means you would not need millions of maps, just a few really nice ones that are linked together. Reduce players to impulse power only, and maybe they will simply go full impulse. But if they do that, maybe a random event shows up that severely cripples their ship and leads to them blowing up and losing their cargo.
It's non-combat content in theory, but as in any randomly generated scenario, you will invariably come across aggressive factions, which could be related to where exactly you are taking this journey.
If you blow up too many times, your end payout is small. If you get through it with superior skill and talent, you get a bigger payout.
TL;DR: Exploration should be the Oregon Trail in space, only you have hypos to make sure you don't die of space dysentery.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Drive_(episode)
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Antarian_Trans-stellar_Rally
A good example is Mine trap. When you go into the mine, there are tunnels that were made by the Horta. An option to climb into and explore those tunnels and to discover a bring something back that's usable could be a good addition as far as exploration
An example of the space zone could be the existing Briarpatch which could bring you into areas of discoveryperhaps one area is blocked by electrical cloud and if you go exploring through you can find another anomaly that when implemented into your ship gives you a resistancethat allows access to that new area. Exploration is about searching discovering solving mysteries. There's Indiana jones style. There's Sherlock Holmes style. There's always a sense of danger or risk in the environment around you.
Taking on a non-corporeal form of life that can't be hurt with phasers but if you have a bridge officer on site that has telepathic abilitiesthat would unlock the option to be able to contact that life form. In doing so we would gain information or new ability
First link is a dud.
In that episode in the second link, did Janeway fly the shuttle? What purpose was there to fly a shuttle in the mission (in game)? What would an Admiral (or General ), a major military asset by themelves, be doing in a shuttle, in a warzone?
Decent show but I always preferred Crystal Maze.
This has already been done and should be easy
make 4 or 5 zones or areas around each empire without warp gates , fill it with hundreds of solar systems
, Zones are going away so just more empty area filled with the systems
make or buy a ((( world generator ))) like (civilization ) used to generate random planets fauna lifeforms civilizations resources ( solar systems like ( star control ) used
That way cryptic doesn't have to make it
You don't have to make a single mission.............The players will play the mission
The foundry can help create the fauna lifeforms civilizations ect whatever is needed ( you call the star trek fans will haul )
Random resources like ( SWG ) had
player citys like ( SWG ) had
Colonization..............this should be a easy one like ( SWG ) player citys
use duty officers to colonize with and staff things like your shipyard/factory /schools/Medical bay/Defense structures/Embassy
diplomatic relations or conquer native species
build npc/bridge officer captioned ships to defend your space / feed and supply/equip your people
Watch them work like sim city
The possibilitys are endless........... A lot could be made by foundry authors...many ways to make cash on it too
( SWG ) had planets that took DAYS to explore not 2 minutes
Endless possibilitys for group and Fleet involvement Famine/invasion/ ect.
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
My character Tsin'xing