Should mission replays have branching states?

leviathan99

When we initially play through missions, the outcomes are often pre-determined and we are railroaded towards certain outcomes by virtue of the need to have the game's story flow a certain way in terms of social zones and later missions. However, Cryptic has always billed mission REPLAY as simulations and the best alternative to that I can think of is time/dimension travel. Since replay is not part of the game's core storyline, I think it would be a powerful incentive to replay missions either to experience different simulated outcomes or possibly to prune our own "alternate timelines"based on these decisions. I think as we approach the end of remastering story episodes with the DS9/Cardassian front, this becomes an important idea to consider for remastering.

I'm not trying to get into the topic of whether railroading the player into story outcomes in initial playthrough is a good thing. That is pretty much a settled topic with Cryptic and with most conventional MMOs... And minds on either side of that are unlikely to change. Instead, my focus here is on whether replays should get special treatment and unique remastering/tuning that allows them to diverge from the game's normal storyline.

praxi5

Yes! Absolutely! Mission replays should have branching storylines from initial playthroughs.

Yes.

Something. Anything.

It's terribly tedious to do the same 10-15 minute mission over and over again for 3-4 weeks, especially when you're doing it a couple times already on alts.

sirmayday

Yes, with a few limits. (Please elaborate.)

Replays should allow some deviation from the established story (since they are, as you noted, simulations), but I believe these deviations should be stand-alone (that is, affect only the mission they're in), and not something from which one could build alternate, multi-mission story paths. Not only would the latter be much too time-instensive for Cryptic (even the former is probably legitimately asking too much), but strains willing suspension of disbelief given the framing device (just how much can we expect a computer to extrapolate).

asuran14

Yes! Absolutely! Mission replays should have branching storylines from initial playthroughs.

I like this idea even as a way of maybe finding more info on something, seeing alternate events or dialog, and even having a larger area in the missions to allow for alternate routes an progression thru the mission. THis would give more rewards for players seeking to learn more or see other thigns that might have happened with other options take, and even sight-seeing. I think that actually going forwards having your choices in a prior mission in a arc shouldd or could influence how the rest fo the arc proceeds, like dialog, an events, but with the inial play thru being canon to the game an pre-determined.

Maybe having secret objective or routes that change or add addition mission rewards in some way. Like with the "Time in a bottle" you can get a split beam rifle, but what if one of the alternate routes had a gatling-like version or a sniper rifle, pistol, and such. I hate when you have a unique weapon with a good look that is linked to a mission as than you cann't outfit your team with a veriety of that weapon type other than with that specific weapon.

foolishowl

Yes! Absolutely! Mission replays should have branching storylines from initial playthroughs.

It's totally ridiculous that there's a fixed storyline at all.

warmaker001b

The game isn't a sandbox. The game doesn't have some sort of dynamic questing. It's pointless even for the mission to have branching aspects if the end result will always be the same in the end.

In short, we can't carve out our own storylines in this backdrop and system of PVE missions. It's all fixed and I don't see Cryptic doing a massive overhaul in over 5 years after STO has released.

cidjack

If you want something different, try running it with no personal shields, rainbow boat, or standard issue equipment!

leviathan99

warmaker001b wrote: »

The game isn't a sandbox. The game doesn't have some sort of dynamic questing. It's pointless even for the mission to have branching aspects if the end result will always be the same in the end.

In short, we can't carve out our own storylines in this backdrop and system of PVE missions. It's all fixed and I don't see Cryptic doing a massive overhaul in over 5 years after STO has released.

My point is: if replays aren't real, why do they have to be as fixed as the initial playthroughs since detours shouldn't change anything? Branching options for replays but the branches not available on initial playthrough.

angrytarg

Mission replays are intented to pad out playtime with minimal effort - why else would they even offer missions that you have to run numerous times to complete sets of items and even timegate those rewards? Allowing for branching in replay would eat so much resources and effort they could invest elsewhere.

In my opinion STOs future does not lie in story missions at all. Only procedually generated, open-ended gameplay can garant longevity and the more finesse you invest in building such a system the more statisfying the outcome will be. Grinding things again and again for a set reward is not the way to go. Mission rewards are fine but should either be claimable all at once (seriously, why would I ever want to replay the exact same mission again and again just to get the deflector, drive and shields - it's just to pad it out). Your proposal would enrich the replayability of the missions but I think the effort would be better invested in a different kind of gameplay altogether.

shpoks

No, but I'd favor some of this. (Please elaborate.)

Due to previous dev input on this and smilar topics, I highly doubt this would be in fact possible to do in STO, but I voted with "No, but I'd favor some of this" because it's something that I'd personaly like to see in the original playthrough on missions and new story content.
Having the first/original playthrough locked as it is at the moment only to have branching on mission replays would be a colossal waste of dev time IMHO, especially given the scarcity of new story content. I'd much rather have them produce something new and fresh for players to do instead of implementing branching on replays of missions that most of the players probably went through a bazillion times already.

If they're able to implement branching on missions during the original playthrough on new story content they will be bringing in the future - I'm all for it, but wasting more time in adition to the remastering of all arcs that's already happening in order to implement branching on the replays of those old missions is just a waste of time that could be better spent for me.

mustrumridcully0

Yes, with a few limits. (Please elaborate.)

I think they should add some more alternative choices during the game, but I think they still can't avoid every way to play the mission to end with the same final results for the greater storyline. And it would be wasteful to add "replay-only" options, e.g.. options you can't even take on your first time through.

kristaswift

No strong opinion.

Honestly...could care less

stobg2015

No, but I'd favor some of this. (Please elaborate.)

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

I think they should add some more alternative choices during the game, but I think they still can't avoid every way to play the mission to end with the same final results for the greater storyline. And it would be wasteful to add "replay-only" options, e.g.. options you can't even take on your first time through.

I'm not in favor of retrofitting every mission for branching outcomes. This would be for certain new missions only.

I think it might be cool if the first play unlocked a specific follow-on side mission based on the way you ended it, and if you could end a different way on replay and unlock a different one.

But ultimately the overall plot needs to remain the same.

storules

No, absolutely not. This would be a waste.

stoleviathan99 wrote: »

When we initially play through missions, the outcomes are often pre-determined and we are railroaded towards certain outcomes by virtue of the need to have the game's story flow a certain way in terms of social zones and later missions. However, Cryptic has always billed mission REPLAY as simulations and the best alternative to that I can think of is time/dimension travel. Since replay is not part of the game's core storyline, I think it would be a powerful incentive to replay missions either to experience different simulated outcomes or possibly to prune our own "alternate timelines"based on these decisions. I think as we approach the end of remastering story episodes with the DS9/Cardassian front, this becomes an important idea to consider for remastering.

I'm not trying to get into the topic of whether railroading the player into story outcomes in initial playthrough is a good thing. That is pretty much a settled topic with Cryptic and with most conventional MMOs... And minds on either side of that are unlikely to change. Instead, my focus here is on whether replays should get special treatment and unique remastering/tuning that allows them to diverge from the game's normal storyline.

No, absolutely not. This would be a waste.

ltminns

Problem now is that Cryptic has released all new FE's with a time-gate to get all the regular mission rewards, thus ensuring increased 'played' metrics. They sweetened the deal by providing one character per account an extra special reward to also increase the chance that you will want to play it during the FE period even if you may not care for the regular reward that week.

As was stated by other posters they need to get you to the same ending regardless of what may have actually happened in the Mission. Case in point in 'Blood of the Ancients'; I and the NPCs could have handed the Heralds behinds to them at Starbase 234, but regardless we turn tail and run. We could have defeated the Dreadnought at Laenas but off to the Flotilla we go.

My first play through of 'House Pegh', after we left the complex and had to get the information out, I cloaked, went by the Herald Patrol, made it to the Communications Array and tried to send it out; no luck. I then noticed that the next Task was to defeat the Patrol. So now I have to go back within firing range of the Patrol, kill them and THEN start the transmission. Of course now that the skirmish was reported I have more stuff to kill before I can complete the transmission. Some covert mission.

However, they did provide some variation with 'Step Between the Stars'. You may or may not be with the Captain when he/she is gunned down. You can select Swarmers/Defense System/Nothing, which leads you to three different variation of the EV Suit. And some of the paths before and after the EV portion may be slightly different as well. End result is still the same, you have to pilot the Dyson Science Destroyer and defeat the Voth/Undine. Though for this case most may have been provided to get you to get the three EV suit variations to allow for a Lobi Store Upgrade. The other variations were inconsequential.