Exploration, careerpaths and SCIENCE!

yandrey

New Romulus, Mol'Rihan, a planet like no other. The homeworld of the Romulan Republic is a world of beauty, hope and mystery. However, a danger is lurking over Isha forest, where evidence of a new creature has been sighted by a Romulan scientist. You can go over their report here. The biologist believes it is the famed "Alpha Predator" causing trouble. After going extinct, other animals adapted to the absence of an immediate threat and thrived. If it has been reintroduced as an invasive species to the site, it could have dramatic consequences for the fauna, flora and even the New Romulans!

This could be a great opportunity for a mission focusing on individual career paths. An expedition of Rommies, Feds and Klinks could be organized to identify the threat, study it and find a way to save the ecosystem of New Romulus.
Engineers place/repair scanning devices, traps and handle transportation;
Science officers study flora, tracks, TRIBBLE and marks, analyse samples brought to them, and try to figure out what is happening;
Tactical will scout the area, fight off threats and keep the Science and Engineering teams safe.

In the end, scientists will find a way to safe the ecosystem (if that is even necessary ) and the Romulans can be happy again.

A stand-alone mission like this could be refreshing, addressing how humans try to safe species from extinction (even though that's exactly how evolution works) and how a single invasive species could destroy life in so many ways. The enemy here is not an evil character, but an animal doing it's every day thing in the "wrong" place, at the "wrong" time. This is a exploration centered mission that no Starfleet captain would have refused back in the 24th century.

What would you captains think of a mission like this? Would you like to see more career-specific content? And could a mission without a true bad guy work?
Discuss.

isthisscience

Absolutely. Though I would like to see more New Romulus style zones rather than more added to it. Like a distant and mysterious border world that we're investigating, maybe with Natives that we're hiding from a la Insurrection, due to some unknown energy coming from it - maybe the secret it the whole world looks manufactured and the natives appear to be part of an experiment (hang onto your towel!). But the setup would be a hidden survey team scanning geology, flora and fauna, stealth objectives regarding natives and maybe trying to protect the natives from attacks by other interested parties without the natives becoming aware of us.

[Minor Star Trek Beyond spoiler ahead thanks to Simon Pegg]

Another kind of set up could be similar to Yorktown that Pegg has mentioned is in the next film. A border world which is Starfleet's regional outpost and a meeting ground for alien species in the borders who want to learn more about each other and the Federation (Pegg mentions jokingly an early idea was aliens handing out flyers encouraging you to visit their planet). This kind of idea is exactly what the Jenolan sphere should have been - a social hub for players and the characters themselves to mix across and beyond factions. You could get a facinating array of stories from such a settting linking in to dozens of canon and new species. It could be learning about the customers or biology of species directly or for a diplomatic exercise or their joining the Federation. Maybe throw in some trade disputes to settle, recording stories, performing life-saving surgery on a totally new form of life etc...

yandrey

isthisscience wrote: »

Absolutely. Though I would like to see more New Romulus style zones rather than more added to it. Like a distant and mysterious border world that we're investigating, maybe with Natives that we're hiding from a la Insurrection, due to some unknown energy coming from it - maybe the secret it the whole world looks manufactured and the natives appear to be part of an experiment (hang onto your towel!). But the setup would be a hidden survey team scanning geology, flora and fauna, stealth objectives regarding natives and maybe trying to protect the natives from attacks by other interested parties without the natives becoming aware of us.

Yeah, I've actually been thinking about another (probably M-class) planet, a truly clean slate full of opportunities and possibilities, both story and exploration wise. Dark secrets hidden away under an innocent disguise sounds pretty cool and could add new ethical, social and almost philosophical layers to the plot, like the ones I miss from the show.

isthisscience wrote: »

[Minor Star Trek Beyond spoiler ahead thanks to Simon Pegg]

Another kind of set up could be similar to Yorktown that Pegg has mentioned is in the next film. A border world which is Starfleet's regional outpost and a meeting ground for alien species in the borders who want to learn more about each other and the Federation (Pegg mentions jokingly an early idea was aliens handing out flyers encouraging you to visit their planet). This kind of idea is exactly what the Jenolan sphere should have been - a social hub for players and the characters themselves to mix across and beyond factions. You could get a facinating array of stories from such a settting linking in to dozens of canon and new species. It could be learning about the customers or biology of species directly or for a diplomatic exercise or their joining the Federation. Maybe throw in some trade disputes to settle, recording stories, performing life-saving surgery on a totally new form of life etc...

The Science officer, Federation diplomat and Trekkie in me are drooling right now...

cidjack

Psst...exploration is dead in this game.

yandrey

cidjack wrote: »

Psst...exploration is dead in this game.

Well, lets pump it full of Borg nano bites and get it alive again. It won't get to Stovokor that easily.

yandrey

darthmeow504 wrote: »

I like the ideas posted here so far and I would love to see things like that implemented. I'd also love to see more scattered side missions all throughout the starmap akin to how we have featured Foundry missions now but actually official Cryptic missions. They wouldn't tie to big storylines, nor need extensive new art assets (though any new goodies would be nice when the team has time, of course!), and they wouldn't have big stakes. They'd just be things that need done or explored or discovered or problems to be solved on a purely local level.

I've long had a vision of an MMO with a more sandbox / GTA sort of structure where there's a vast map to explore and all sorts of discoverable side quests and minigames and short-term missions and mission strings. The way you can drive around Vice City and just find TRIBBLE to do, you know? Hey, this looks neat let's look around --oh cool, an optional mission just popped up! This is neat, let's try it out!​​

This, so much. I want to find a sneaky trader at Drozana station, telling me he can give some shady information on a shady device and where I can find it (maybe keep it afterwards, only for the people who really care). I want to stroll onto a holodeck, start a novel, and something goes wrong. I want to access a random computer at Quarks and see some information I shouldn't have seen about a True Way terrorist wanting to blow up this night's concert.

The galaxy feels kinda empty now. Once you have finished the story, there is no good reason for you to visit two thirds of the sectorblocks. For side missions, you'd have to go out of your way, and you'll be rewarded for your patience and exploration skills.
These missions wouldn't necessarily need a "bad guy"; it could be about an outbreak or strange disappearances on a colony world.

commanderkassy

darthmeow504 wrote: »

I like the ideas posted here so far and I would love to see things like that implemented. I'd also love to see more scattered side missions all throughout the starmap akin to how we have featured Foundry missions now but actually official Cryptic missions. They wouldn't tie to big storylines, nor need extensive new art assets (though any new goodies would be nice when the team has time, of course!), and they wouldn't have big stakes. They'd just be things that need done or explored or discovered or problems to be solved on a purely local level.

I've long had a vision of an MMO with a more sandbox / GTA sort of structure where there's a vast map to explore and all sorts of discoverable side quests and minigames and short-term missions and mission strings. The way you can drive around Vice City and just find TRIBBLE to do, you know? Hey, this looks neat let's look around --oh cool, an optional mission just popped up! This is neat, let's try it out!

The game galaxy as it is seems awfully small, and the problem has only gotten worse since the mission arc revamps that have stripped out so much content. Yes, the new missions are beautiful but we've traded away a lot of quantity to get that level of quality. We need a lot more filler in between the big fancy stuff, I think. It's a shame people reacted so badly to the concept of patrol missions in DR, I thought that was exactly the right direction and it was both misunderstood and underappreciated by many of the vocal complainers. I didn't even mind the pauses enforced by the mission level requirements, though they really needed to have more to do to full that time. ONe of the main complaints about the Iconian War arc was that it felt too small and too brief --well what the hell did people expect when so many of them screamed at being slowed down! Sure, it needed work and to be filled out more, but that structure with the battlezone (needed more than one, though really) and lots of patrols and smaller missions in between the larger story missions really made the campaign against the Vaadwuar feel real. That was a war! We didn't just go from point A to B to C and accomplish the steps along the way, we proceeded as we could and accomplished larger strategic goals and witnessed major events and developments as they happened with a lot of waiting and yes grinding in between. That's how war works! There's a lot of preparation and logistics, a lot of hurry up and wait, a lot of mostly useless but necessary grind fighting to keep the enemy busy and at bay while you try to figure out ways to make breakthroughs, and a lot of patience waiting for openings and opportunities to develop. It's not for the gung ho wanting to get everything done yesterday. Because of the way it was structured, the Vaadwuar campaign had the most immersive and realistic feel of any other of the major storylines except for the Romulan arc which also had you do a lot of smaller things and side questing in between the big important moments. I wish Cryptic had stuck to their guns.​​

Complete agreement.

gradii

cidjack wrote: »

Psst...exploration is dead in this game.

Psst... Ever head of the Kobali?