but it would allow anyone who is interested to see where the Alliance has been and where it has yet to go.
The in-game STO map covers the area where like 90-95% of all locations ever visited in the Alpha and Beta quads in the TV shows + movies are.
And the other like <5% of places are so far out in the middle of nowhere that it would take like 10 sections of nothing to reach them.
STO basically already covers where they have already gone and where they have to go.
It doesn't cover the "where it has to go" - most of the milky way remains unexplored. Even the part we see in VOY.
Theoretically there would probably be dozens or hundreds of sector blocks of the current sized sector blocks filled with "fog of war no man has gone here before". (I kinda doubt this is how they would implement it, though.)
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Here's my framework for a new exploration system. Forget about custom planet surfaces and the like. This will be more abstract.
The idea is to set up a system that can randomly generate planetary systems like they exist at the Sector Block level. They would basically based on a seed value and this would create, say, 40 star systems and a bunch of anomalies. The idea here is to have enough variations points to practically have an infinite amount of variations (though some variations could just be that there is one extra anomaly somewhere, or one star system has 3 instead of 4 planets.)
Players can fly through this sector block with their starship and take tasks. These includes:
- Initial Star System Survey. This is really just pressing F and doing a few mini-games.
- Planetary Survey. This is a Duty Officer Task that takes a few hours.
- Establish First Contact (only on planets that seem to have sufficiently advaned civlizations ,requires the survey). A small series of DOFF tasks. Maybe even a small, generic dialog you can click through.
- Survey Fleet Campaign. Admirality Assignments
- Scan Anomaly. Another "Press F and then mini-game". Opens up Analayze Anomaly.
- Analyze Anomaly. DOFF Tasks
- Red Alert: Some hostile faction has entered the sector and is doing something threatening. Borg, Tholians, Na'khul, T'Ket Herald forces. Anything of the nature. Pretty generic space map. Maybe reusing some concepts from NWS/Na'khul Red Alert to add more gameplay details. They might attack a local species.
When player starts exploring, they get assigned to a random instance. I am assuming there will be only a limited number of them available at any given time, so people will share their efforts. There could be a progress track similar (but maybe more elaborate) then the Delta Recruitment system that tracks overall progress per exploration sector block.
Once a certain number of tasks have been accomplished by players, the Sector Block is considered "explored". Any players that participated in the exploration of a block can be found in a special interface available when in the sector block, and there will be a listing of names who helped explore which world.
Once a block is closed, a new one will be generated.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
What I would find fun would be actually flying through the block and flying through different stars and seeing what's there. The Admirality/DOFFing tasks are there to give a mechanical reason to do that, and to have a reward system for it beyond the "look what's there" (because the latter will never attract as many people as having also numerical rewards).
Sure; I would love it if every star system (or every 10th) would also come with a planetary exploration, interaction with natives and having a little adventure. I think something like that could be done, too, with the Foundry - allow people to denote missions as "exploration" for these missions.
I think this idea might be a bit more feasible and more quickly implemented than a full procedural generation system with mission templates. And maybe at some point they can also implement a system that would actually generate a few missions to go with it. But it is useable much sooner than that.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
If memory serves, I think the developers have already said that they're working on something, but that it's far from being done. Hopefully in the next year we'll see some details.
I'm happily exploring the effects of phaser beams and quantum torpedoes on Na'khul hulls. Also, exploring the interactions of Na'khul bodies and trans-sonic ballistic impacts is quite informative, though more "experiments" need to be run.
"So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again."
-Dedication plaque of the Federation Starship U.S.S. Merkava
If memory serves, I think the developers have already said that they're working on something, but that it's far from being done. Hopefully in the next year we'll see some details.
you are correct they have been developing a new system and i believe are prototyping one right now
It would be really nice if they would share what they are planning. If it is not just a bunch of exploration-themed missions that could be spoiled by disclosure, it's one thing. But if it is going to be a collection of exploration-oriented gameplay mechanics, they would stand to benefit from feedback on the concepts.
I'm not expecting to be overwhelmed by anything they produce. but every time some new mechanic gets added, in any MMO, a significant cross-section of its community ends up being underwhelmed. The longer a developer goes without telling an MMO community what a forthcoming system is going to be, the longer that community has to come up with its own awesome ideas that ultimately prove to be wrong to the disappointment of many.
Just my general thoughts on MMO live development secrecy...
I think you got a point.
But i wouldn't expect too much from them BTH. I think we will most likely get a series of missions which can loosely be labled as "exploration" themed (which will include enough carnage and killing to satisfy, a "modern" audience, without any doubt). The chances for a Exploration system that includes varying missions that do not just include more space/ground combat are pretty slim IMHO.
What i miss in STO is a part of the game that offers some kind of replayability and feels like Star Trek. I know i'm probably the only one who doesn't enjoy doing exactly the same missions over and over again (which no variation whatsoever). Especially when i look at the open mission queues, i see that most players even prefer to avoid PUGs and rather play in a even more secure environment.
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
What i miss in STO is a part of the game that offers some kind of replayability and feels like Star Trek. I know i'm probably the only one who doesn't enjoy doing exactly the same missions over and over again (which no variation whatsoever). Especially when i look at the open mission queues, i see that most players even prefer to avoid PUGs and rather play in a even more secure environment.
You are not alone. And you are right on point. And, truthfully, I think the developers are both keenly aware of this and would like to deliver. What I mean by that is, if you sat down with Tacofangs for instance, and just had a nice lunch or whatever and were just chatting and this topic came up, I bet he'd absolutely agree with you that having a replayable aspect that felt like Trek and highlighted the idea of exploration would be something the team would love to deliver.
At this point it's a matter of finding a way to do it, that fits budget, profit, time, technology all at once. I was one of the angriest posters back when they removed exploration. It just made no sense to me to take out a part of the game that while it may not have been used by the most prevalent sector of the playerbase, wasn't broken and was used by some.
That we're here this much time later, still talking about a way to put something back in that is similar shows that my anger wasn't misplaced and shows that there is a desire for that kind of thing. And I am convinced the developers know this.
Now, the real question is, what can be done about it? There's got to be something. The genesis engine is still there. The foundry exists. The tools are there to make something that can work using developers, players who make stuff in the foundry, or a mix of both. Maybe it's just a matter of changing the goals/rewards? Maybe the genesis system, if it incorporated some work done by foundry authors could have been mutated into something that had both custom generated content and procedurally generated content. Maybe that mix could then be tied to achievements and rewards (you explore x, y or z, you open up the potential for new rewards, resources, whatever).
My hope is that there does exist a solution and that exploration and more generally what you just said, "feels like Star Trek" can return to the game in a big and enjoyable way.
There is one thing that really easy to play and entertaining - dyson sphere battlezones, either ground or space. There is no queue, so ppl come and go, And you always get your rewards for time spent. Those may be more taxing for server resources than standard queue instances, but ppl do not afraid joining it, you can join for a single objective or for a whole battle. And it feels like warfare, not a scripted dungeon, and this is a good thing. Mini-quests and secondary objectives is here too. It's awesome, and beats any queue in replayability.
Comments
Theoretically there would probably be dozens or hundreds of sector blocks of the current sized sector blocks filled with "fog of war no man has gone here before". (I kinda doubt this is how they would implement it, though.)
The idea is to set up a system that can randomly generate planetary systems like they exist at the Sector Block level. They would basically based on a seed value and this would create, say, 40 star systems and a bunch of anomalies. The idea here is to have enough variations points to practically have an infinite amount of variations (though some variations could just be that there is one extra anomaly somewhere, or one star system has 3 instead of 4 planets.)
Players can fly through this sector block with their starship and take tasks. These includes:
- Initial Star System Survey. This is really just pressing F and doing a few mini-games.
- Planetary Survey. This is a Duty Officer Task that takes a few hours.
- Establish First Contact (only on planets that seem to have sufficiently advaned civlizations ,requires the survey). A small series of DOFF tasks. Maybe even a small, generic dialog you can click through.
- Survey Fleet Campaign. Admirality Assignments
- Scan Anomaly. Another "Press F and then mini-game". Opens up Analayze Anomaly.
- Analyze Anomaly. DOFF Tasks
- Red Alert: Some hostile faction has entered the sector and is doing something threatening. Borg, Tholians, Na'khul, T'Ket Herald forces. Anything of the nature. Pretty generic space map. Maybe reusing some concepts from NWS/Na'khul Red Alert to add more gameplay details. They might attack a local species.
When player starts exploring, they get assigned to a random instance. I am assuming there will be only a limited number of them available at any given time, so people will share their efforts. There could be a progress track similar (but maybe more elaborate) then the Delta Recruitment system that tracks overall progress per exploration sector block.
Once a certain number of tasks have been accomplished by players, the Sector Block is considered "explored". Any players that participated in the exploration of a block can be found in a special interface available when in the sector block, and there will be a listing of names who helped explore which world.
Once a block is closed, a new one will be generated.
Sure; I would love it if every star system (or every 10th) would also come with a planetary exploration, interaction with natives and having a little adventure. I think something like that could be done, too, with the Foundry - allow people to denote missions as "exploration" for these missions.
I think this idea might be a bit more feasible and more quickly implemented than a full procedural generation system with mission templates. And maybe at some point they can also implement a system that would actually generate a few missions to go with it. But it is useable much sooner than that.
-Dedication plaque of the Federation Starship U.S.S. Merkava
But i wouldn't expect too much from them BTH. I think we will most likely get a series of missions which can loosely be labled as "exploration" themed (which will include enough carnage and killing to satisfy, a "modern" audience, without any doubt). The chances for a Exploration system that includes varying missions that do not just include more space/ground combat are pretty slim IMHO.
What i miss in STO is a part of the game that offers some kind of replayability and feels like Star Trek. I know i'm probably the only one who doesn't enjoy doing exactly the same missions over and over again (which no variation whatsoever). Especially when i look at the open mission queues, i see that most players even prefer to avoid PUGs and rather play in a even more secure environment.
You are not alone. And you are right on point. And, truthfully, I think the developers are both keenly aware of this and would like to deliver. What I mean by that is, if you sat down with Tacofangs for instance, and just had a nice lunch or whatever and were just chatting and this topic came up, I bet he'd absolutely agree with you that having a replayable aspect that felt like Trek and highlighted the idea of exploration would be something the team would love to deliver.
At this point it's a matter of finding a way to do it, that fits budget, profit, time, technology all at once. I was one of the angriest posters back when they removed exploration. It just made no sense to me to take out a part of the game that while it may not have been used by the most prevalent sector of the playerbase, wasn't broken and was used by some.
That we're here this much time later, still talking about a way to put something back in that is similar shows that my anger wasn't misplaced and shows that there is a desire for that kind of thing. And I am convinced the developers know this.
Now, the real question is, what can be done about it? There's got to be something. The genesis engine is still there. The foundry exists. The tools are there to make something that can work using developers, players who make stuff in the foundry, or a mix of both. Maybe it's just a matter of changing the goals/rewards? Maybe the genesis system, if it incorporated some work done by foundry authors could have been mutated into something that had both custom generated content and procedurally generated content. Maybe that mix could then be tied to achievements and rewards (you explore x, y or z, you open up the potential for new rewards, resources, whatever).
My hope is that there does exist a solution and that exploration and more generally what you just said, "feels like Star Trek" can return to the game in a big and enjoyable way.