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When are you giving exploration back?
commanderkassy
Member Posts: 1,005 Arc User
I would like to know. Hopefully the answer isn't "when we figure out how to heavily monetize it".
I miss exploration, I miss the sandbox elements, even if they weren't very good. This game has devolved into a paper thin max level grind game, and 90% of it doesn't feel like Trek at all.
You go through this epic storyline, you get to the end and then, time to grind.
I was sorely disappointed in A New Dawn, because you implied exploration would be back as a system. Silly me for ever taking anything at face value.
You know I used to be one of the few people around here who wasn't jaded, but I guess I'm joining the ranks. This game becomes less desriable to play at every major release (except LoR which was done mostly right).
I want to explore.
I miss exploration, I miss the sandbox elements, even if they weren't very good. This game has devolved into a paper thin max level grind game, and 90% of it doesn't feel like Trek at all.
You go through this epic storyline, you get to the end and then, time to grind.
I was sorely disappointed in A New Dawn, because you implied exploration would be back as a system. Silly me for ever taking anything at face value.
You know I used to be one of the few people around here who wasn't jaded, but I guess I'm joining the ranks. This game becomes less desriable to play at every major release (except LoR which was done mostly right).
I want to explore.
♪ I'm going around not in circles but in spirographs.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
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If you want to explore you really need to have something worth exploring. Randomly assembled patrols aren't the answer there (see. why you're not satisfied with random encounters in the sector block now.) What you need is that human factor (which most great explorers, Star Trek episodes were on about]), and that requires someone making the content. A content driven exploration system is out of the question for Cryptic (they've got enough on their plate with normal releases), but there's a pretty huge staple of user-generated missions with (once you get to the top 3 system) good odds of finding something that's worth your time.
It may take some scaling back of expectations (these are user generated missions after all, you aren't guaranteed a thorough development process from trained game developers) but then again I've yet to find something less playable (except where technically broken) than the old exploration system's 5 scan/kill micro grind and I've also found a lot more depth and human personality (see. that lack of a mainstream dev process.)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
Most unexpectedly, this turned into a flame-fest! Closed it goes!. /sigh What flamefestery is this? pwlaughingtrendy
Explore the expansive Star Trek universe via drop down menus, clicking, waiting, and then more even more clicking.
My hope as well. If they pulled up the old code, made some minor improvements and then reintegrated it to the existing game, that would be great. But, how difficult that would be I have no idea.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
they could sell the new star systems, and the right for the owner to name this new system with his own name. 2 sales: the system, and the name token
Does a new reputation automatically create sales? Do story missions?
No. There is content in the game that is there so that players play the game in the first place, so they are engaged by the game constantly. People that don't have something to do in the game don't need to purchase anything from Cryptic.
So there is always a mix of content. Stuff that you can directly purchase, and stuff that makes you play the game so that there is sense to purchasing something for the game.
But there is no point for Cryptic to put something in the game that players do not use anyway. Which is what the old exploration system suffered from - only a small minority of the population still bothered with exploration content. Everyone else had already seen all the mission variations and there wasn't anything to keep doing it - most other stuff to do also had better rewards attached to it.
Why would you want the old Exploration...they're universally generic and identical.
Hell there is a bunch of things they could do that wouldn't require TOO much work. I'd like to see exploration come back.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
Not entirely accurate. While there are some made just for grinding out kill accolades and some made just to make ECs, and some stinkers, there are some that are story driven. We used to have a Foundry Spotlight thing that would highlight the Foundry missions that were of excelent quality.
It kinda got abandonded when CaptainSmirk left, just like we lost our video news thing with Branflakes and CaptainKiki when Branflakes moved on.
The main issue now with Foundry missions is that generally no one pays attention unless you already know about it. The old Foundry Spotlight provided that. They may not be Legacy of Romulus/Delta Rising/New Dawn quality with voice acting, but they were well done. I remember running a Fed side one that dealt with the Fek'lhri. Someone even went through the trouble of closing an actual plot hole in the old Romulan arc caused by the mission, now thankfully eliminated, Divide et Impera. Even after Admiral Zelle was revealed to be an Undine, and players got to hold the Idiot Ball even with mounting evidence because Zelle said so, we go back to SB 39 and see... Admiral Zelle as if nothing happened. Someone actually closed that plot hole by making a foundry mission to go and capture her again that involved time travel.
So no. They aren't "universally bad". We just don't have the spotlight on the well done missions like we used to.
I'll never understand the need to remove that system outright. Please consider adding some more sandbox type content. Not everyone likes being lead around by the nose or needs a carrot dangled in front of them to move forward.
When the entire galaxy is played out for storyline, maybe we'll see that sort of thing.
There's still the Gamma quadrant and Dominion to deal with, somehow.
It has to be something they can monetize...
No but alternatively the high-quality missions just behind the spotlight group are easier to find now thanks to the sector top 3. You're not going to see the top most bestest mission of all time the moment it's released, but there's a better chance now that the second or third bestest mission of all time won't be totally forgotten because it doesn't fall on a particular list (it'll have its place somewhere around the galaxy).
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Cryptic#2 "oh look, someone is on the forums demanding it again."
Cryptic" Well, in that case, push it back to 2020."
Despite the pessimistic morons in this thread Cryptic is not just about making money anymore than a musician or artist. They must keep the lights on but that isn't the only reason for doing it, they truly enjoy their work.
The technology to make what people want in an exploration system doesn't really even exist.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
personally i think there is some confusion on what exploration means.
and I gotta ask how many of the people who keep asking for that terrible excuse for a system back. go into new FEs and just look around to see whats there. I'm betting few and I'm a TRIBBLE and an idiot for even suggesting such a thing.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Better than the bad jokes every foundry author (bad amateur writers) thinks are actually stories.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
No there isn't. I'm sorry that I have taste and you do not.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
what are the chances of getting exploration back? about the same as a snowballs chance in hell
New Dawn when we went back to being explorers...via the admiralty system yur ships boldy go where cryptic wont let us
Totally accurate.
I have ONLY ever played STORY foundry missions. I have ONLY ever played the ones that are featured on the front page as something special.
They. Sucked.
One of them is just downright misogynistic.
And we should all be happy about that too. Branflakes was the creepiest guy in the universe and Cpt Smirk was a yawn.
No, I've played the majority of the ones you mentioned. I was unable to keep myself from laughing at how poorly written and realized they were.
Leave the writing to the professionals guys.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
For me the missions were never the point. Yes, they were rubbish, I put a lot of effort into trying to persude Cryptic to improve them; but what really mattered was the clusters themselves. You don't 'explore' by browsing through a list and picking what you want to do next: you explore by going out there and just seeing what you find. That is what seperated the clusters from all the other content in this game; and that is what made them exploration.