So this.....is Star Citizen, basically....so yeah... Go play Star Citizen when it's released.
IF...
Word choice is very important when referring to Star Citizen. IF is much more appropriate then WHEN.
Oh the game is coming, just taking a lot longer than promised. I am sure single player will get launched, everything else...well.
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!
As a long time RPer (though I don't RP in STO because it's hard with the time I have - and it's hard to find a good community...they seem to hide themselves well) I can't see why you can't have most of what you want right now without creating a separate server and thus minimizing the population (to say nothing of how the server would be maintained and "patrolled" to prevent non-RP names and such)
If your ship blows up, you wake up in a medical bay on your capital planet
You get a replacement ship of the type you lost with standard equipment.
Any special gear on board is gone, some can be replaced because
it came off of C-store ships and you can reclaim those items. - Each death has meaning.
You can choose to delete your ship and everything in it of you want that sort of gameplay. Forcing hardcore gameplay is never a good thing if people don't want it. RPers that see that as a punishment will not join a server like that, so the number of players on the server would plummet. What about RPers that don't want to lose everything and are fine with using the existing mechanics of the game to RP the lose of a ship and crew - but still want to have that ship in reserve for OOC gameplay?
[i]ALL ships come with standard bridge and interior, this will have a purpose in a bit.
A galaxy has a galaxy bridge and interior...ect. - Captains SERVE on a ship, they don't own them.[/i]
I'm assuming you're talking about "standard bridge and interiors" to allow for the fact that it's impossible for the Developers to justify time to create a more useful ship interior system. They'd still need to find time to create that system if they did it your way of course, so it doesn't really solve the problem we have at the moment. Interiors are unfortunately going to remain the way they are for the time being, if not forever. We can only hope that they find time and reasons to expand the majority of the canon ships like they have done with the TOS Constitution, the Defiant, and Voyager.
That being said, the interiors that haven't been fixed - the generic ones - well, those are pretty much the prime example of serving on a ship without being able to change it because you "own it". (I kid. Those interiors are horrendous).
Any Premium race purchased opens that race as available as an 'alien' for all factions.
You bought Catian, you can be an alien in the Romulan Empire or Klingon Empire. - 73 Rule of acusition, Demand delivery of goods paid for.
Except that this isn't very correct canon. Romulans are known for their xenophobic ways and as such, aren't that trusting of outsiders. They didn't even trust the Remans until recently, and they're genetically related. Sure, the Romulans we have now are different from the Romulans of the past, but some habits are hard for a society to break.
Beyond that, you can RP as a member of any organization or Empire you want now. Sure, you can't visit certain areas because of the factional lock out, but there are imaginative ways to RP around that, and RP is all about using your imagination.
For example: The Klingons very rarely let people who are not Klingon or of the conquered species into the Great Hall. Picard was an exception (as was Quinn when they signed the cease-fire agreement in 2410). Do you think they'd trust beings who's people are members of a "rival" faction (cease-fire or not) into their most sacred building? Do you think they'd ever let a Bajoran captain a ship for the Empire? We're not all Picard's or Kirks. We're not famous captains.
It's much better to RP a spy for the Empire, or a merchant or smuggler. There are numerous ways to support the cause that are more realistic to RP.
Optional Travel - Instead of flying outside view to your destination, you can order your helm to
do it. You basically get out of the Capt. Chair and wander your ship, talk to officers to set up DOFF missions.
WAIT YOU SAID NO BRIDGE FLYING ! - correct. The game switched you to interior, you ship leaves the map.
Based on distance to target, the game starts a timer...flying time... after the timer is done, a bridge
officer will tell the Capt. they have arrived and you pop up there...like they do for trans warp. - Time to remember you are on a ship.
You can do this now. You can either transwarp to or near the system you want to visit before or after you "travel" to you Interior to RP the travel. Take as long as you want while your helm office and crew go about their business, and leave whenever you want. No forced timer, no change to the existing engine.
You can still play the game however you want in this respect. Your ship interior is yours to visit and use however you see fit.
All auto pilot gets you to a SAFE distance to the system - once close, the player must carefully
go AROUND the sun ( or get cooked and blow up) to thier destination. - Your not Q, suns hurt.
Yeah...when I travel to a system using auto travel, it always stops me outside the boundary of the system already, and I make a habit of not flying into any suns. It's just common sense right?
When you are on your ship, mission messages come to the Bridge - unless your ship is moving
or in mission already. If your not in a mission, or moving...the game cuts to the bridge
where your officers can talk to you or you can recieve info via communications on your main
viewer. - You do have a communications officer, right?
Well, technically the mission messages we get already come to our bridge. That's why the mission interact window looks like a viewscreen. You can be wherever you want to be when you accept a mission. If you want to be on your ships bridge, go for it!
Beam to the surface, you go to the transporter room to do that unless it is an emergency.
Beaming back...same drill unless ship is in danger..in that case straight to the bridge.
Again...you can do this already. Go do your ships bridge, take the turbolift, go to your transporter and beam out to your destination.
Sure, you usually have to perform a few out-of-character steps at the moment, but honestly there are always going to be moments where you have to do OOC stuff in ANY MMO.
You can always go to outside view by the act of sitting in the Capt. Chair.
If your ship gets attacked, automatic to outside view.
Again, can be done now, using the existing game mechanics and the unlimited power of your imagination!
Will any of this mess with game engine code...doubt it.
Will it require some new code...no doubt. Will this entice more people to play...very likely.
It would require significant alterations and additions to the games code to allow you to do essentially everything that you can do now without any costly or time-consuming development hours that can be used creating more content for the game.
The addition (not to mention cost) of creating and maintaining a new RP server that will be utilized by perhaps a 10th of the current population of the game (fewer if they were to implement your more hard-core ideas) and further divide an already segmented and divided game population seems like it would be offer nothing beneficial to the game as we know it.
How about an alternate proposal:
This game is already instanced to the hilt. I would say that instead of proposing another server, why not have them spend the resources to create RP and PVP-centric instances, with expanded player caps to allow more players into each instance, and then add with the ability to set your preferences as a default in the options menu?
That way you'd always "beam" into your preferred style of instance. The concept is the same really, and if you're proposing segregating the population, than this works the same way.
Of course, the problem of policing these instances remains, but I have yet to see a competent implementation for that in any MMO. Griefers gonna grief.
Comments
Oh the game is coming, just taking a lot longer than promised. I am sure single player will get launched, everything else...well.
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
Your might also not get to see your grandkids able to collect reparations for your funding of it.
If your ship blows up, you wake up in a medical bay on your capital planet
You get a replacement ship of the type you lost with standard equipment.
Any special gear on board is gone, some can be replaced because
it came off of C-store ships and you can reclaim those items. - Each death has meaning.
You can choose to delete your ship and everything in it of you want that sort of gameplay. Forcing hardcore gameplay is never a good thing if people don't want it. RPers that see that as a punishment will not join a server like that, so the number of players on the server would plummet. What about RPers that don't want to lose everything and are fine with using the existing mechanics of the game to RP the lose of a ship and crew - but still want to have that ship in reserve for OOC gameplay?
[i]ALL ships come with standard bridge and interior, this will have a purpose in a bit.
A galaxy has a galaxy bridge and interior...ect. - Captains SERVE on a ship, they don't own them.[/i]
I'm assuming you're talking about "standard bridge and interiors" to allow for the fact that it's impossible for the Developers to justify time to create a more useful ship interior system. They'd still need to find time to create that system if they did it your way of course, so it doesn't really solve the problem we have at the moment. Interiors are unfortunately going to remain the way they are for the time being, if not forever. We can only hope that they find time and reasons to expand the majority of the canon ships like they have done with the TOS Constitution, the Defiant, and Voyager.
That being said, the interiors that haven't been fixed - the generic ones - well, those are pretty much the prime example of serving on a ship without being able to change it because you "own it". (I kid. Those interiors are horrendous).
Any Premium race purchased opens that race as available as an 'alien' for all factions.
You bought Catian, you can be an alien in the Romulan Empire or Klingon Empire. - 73 Rule of acusition, Demand delivery of goods paid for.
Except that this isn't very correct canon. Romulans are known for their xenophobic ways and as such, aren't that trusting of outsiders. They didn't even trust the Remans until recently, and they're genetically related. Sure, the Romulans we have now are different from the Romulans of the past, but some habits are hard for a society to break.
Beyond that, you can RP as a member of any organization or Empire you want now. Sure, you can't visit certain areas because of the factional lock out, but there are imaginative ways to RP around that, and RP is all about using your imagination.
For example: The Klingons very rarely let people who are not Klingon or of the conquered species into the Great Hall. Picard was an exception (as was Quinn when they signed the cease-fire agreement in 2410). Do you think they'd trust beings who's people are members of a "rival" faction (cease-fire or not) into their most sacred building? Do you think they'd ever let a Bajoran captain a ship for the Empire? We're not all Picard's or Kirks. We're not famous captains.
It's much better to RP a spy for the Empire, or a merchant or smuggler. There are numerous ways to support the cause that are more realistic to RP.
Optional Travel - Instead of flying outside view to your destination, you can order your helm to
do it. You basically get out of the Capt. Chair and wander your ship, talk to officers to set up DOFF missions.
WAIT YOU SAID NO BRIDGE FLYING ! - correct. The game switched you to interior, you ship leaves the map.
Based on distance to target, the game starts a timer...flying time... after the timer is done, a bridge
officer will tell the Capt. they have arrived and you pop up there...like they do for trans warp. - Time to remember you are on a ship.
You can do this now. You can either transwarp to or near the system you want to visit before or after you "travel" to you Interior to RP the travel. Take as long as you want while your helm office and crew go about their business, and leave whenever you want. No forced timer, no change to the existing engine.
You can still play the game however you want in this respect. Your ship interior is yours to visit and use however you see fit.
All auto pilot gets you to a SAFE distance to the system - once close, the player must carefully
go AROUND the sun ( or get cooked and blow up) to thier destination. - Your not Q, suns hurt.
Yeah...when I travel to a system using auto travel, it always stops me outside the boundary of the system already, and I make a habit of not flying into any suns. It's just common sense right?
When you are on your ship, mission messages come to the Bridge - unless your ship is moving
or in mission already. If your not in a mission, or moving...the game cuts to the bridge
where your officers can talk to you or you can recieve info via communications on your main
viewer. - You do have a communications officer, right?
Well, technically the mission messages we get already come to our bridge. That's why the mission interact window looks like a viewscreen. You can be wherever you want to be when you accept a mission. If you want to be on your ships bridge, go for it!
Beam to the surface, you go to the transporter room to do that unless it is an emergency.
Beaming back...same drill unless ship is in danger..in that case straight to the bridge.
Again...you can do this already. Go do your ships bridge, take the turbolift, go to your transporter and beam out to your destination.
Sure, you usually have to perform a few out-of-character steps at the moment, but honestly there are always going to be moments where you have to do OOC stuff in ANY MMO.
You can always go to outside view by the act of sitting in the Capt. Chair.
If your ship gets attacked, automatic to outside view.
Again, can be done now, using the existing game mechanics and the unlimited power of your imagination!
Will any of this mess with game engine code...doubt it.
Will it require some new code...no doubt. Will this entice more people to play...very likely.
It would require significant alterations and additions to the games code to allow you to do essentially everything that you can do now without any costly or time-consuming development hours that can be used creating more content for the game.
The addition (not to mention cost) of creating and maintaining a new RP server that will be utilized by perhaps a 10th of the current population of the game (fewer if they were to implement your more hard-core ideas) and further divide an already segmented and divided game population seems like it would be offer nothing beneficial to the game as we know it.
How about an alternate proposal:
This game is already instanced to the hilt. I would say that instead of proposing another server, why not have them spend the resources to create RP and PVP-centric instances, with expanded player caps to allow more players into each instance, and then add with the ability to set your preferences as a default in the options menu?
That way you'd always "beam" into your preferred style of instance. The concept is the same really, and if you're proposing segregating the population, than this works the same way.
Of course, the problem of policing these instances remains, but I have yet to see a competent implementation for that in any MMO. Griefers gonna grief.
Live long and prosper.
Peace and long life.
And thanks for reading.