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Does housing need a point?
isthisscience
Member Posts: 863 Arc User
Ship interiors were said to be dead because they couldn't find a purpose for them, but when does housing in an mmo ever have a point? When is it done well and what mmo housing could sto learn from?
TSW recently bought in housing and as far as I can see it is a massive point sink to show off achievements. Seems a little "point"less but still fun. Who has done housing best?
TSW recently bought in housing and as far as I can see it is a massive point sink to show off achievements. Seems a little "point"less but still fun. Who has done housing best?
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I think it would be a waste of developer resources to even bother with it, considering the majority of this game isn't focused around the player but rather the universe itself. There are plenty of available "bases" to get/access everything needed.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
The problem is if they want people to use the bridge packs, the bridges need to have a point. A reason to use it.
Agreed, but yet most "single player" types who avoid fleets will simply say it's out of their reach therefore the game must cater to them specifically.
We probably will never see the end to such proposals until this schism has been addressed in some way.
Personally, I see the major "bases" (ESD, Qu'nos, etc.) address this, but it doesn't add "customization", which the argument of remaining out of a fleet could be indeed made.
Want to "go it alone"? Fine, then you get the default options. This is an MMO, after all.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
The problem is there are too many interiors in the game already to actually do anything with them. Even the smallest amount of function becomes an enormous workload when multiplied by the dozens of different maps it would have to be applied to. And because most of the "unique" interiors are just a one-room bridge, many functions simply couldn't be added to them at all.
That's why it would be far more plausible to implement player housing on planets or stations. An Admiral's office on ESD, a beach house on Risa, the famous Andorian ski lodges...
Well, for me.
For Cryptic, the point of releasing housing items would be to make money with it (directly or indirectly). If they don't, it's not worth doing.
Anyone (especially a game developer) who says that there's no value in putting development time towards housing, or in this case, customizable ship interiors, is seriously under-informed about the proven potential of such a system. For some players, a well developed housing system keeps them playing (and paying for) a game long after they normally would have left due to completing or getting bored with all of the content in an MMO.
But player housing only works if players feel like they truly individualize and decorate their "homes" as much as possible, and Cryptic doesn't do "housing" very well in their MMOs. They tried to do Headquarters in Champions, but they go largely unused because they didn't implement enough customization options for them beyond a few preset templates for each HQ, so players are left feeling that their HQ's aren't unique to them, so there's no reason to invite others in to see them. Of course, as a result, I'm sure that Cryptic feels that putting resources into HQ's in Champions is as worthless as they feel putting resources towards bridge interiors is in STO instead of recognizing that they are missing a huge opportunity for profit.
By giving us the option to fully customize our ship layouts and add in certain decorative elements - unique items to place in our quarters (wall and shelf art, bed types, couches, chairs, desks, etc), or a few blank layouts for crew lounges that could be fully decorated with different props (different bar types, tables, chairs, wall art, etc.) they would be adding in another level of customization that creates a sense of ownership in players, which keeps them coming back. Not only that, but they're losing out on massive profit, given that they could offer premium decorative items in the C-store (or even through lock boxes).
At the very least, they could add a crew deck to Fleet Starbases (which would provide another project that could be used as a useful dilithium sink. Not to mention, it would be be huge draw for players who are traditionally loners to actually join a fleet) which they could decorate (to tools are already there in the Foundry) with various items available for sale in the c-store, or looted in game. I suppose the actual quarters would be instanced in some way, so that everyone in the fleet could have their own, and you could set permissions on who could enter your quarters (or maybe have a "keypad" password that you could give out to friends so that they could enter your instance when they wanted to).
If done well, "housing" breeds interaction, because people want to show off the decorations that they put in their houses. Decorative props can provide a steady source of income via micro-transactions, or even a sink for in game currencies such as dilithium, or they could actually make gold-pressed latinum useful for a change.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading.
Could get those poor Risan's to stop jumping into that elevator, lol.
Want Barbie? There's a game for that already out- it's called "The Sims".
TL;DR: STO doesn't need more "Space Barbie" it already has enough.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
I'd imagine that they'd prefer instancing, given the way that the game is set up. It would be less taxing on the system.
Some do. You can do a search under "Quarters" in the Foundry to find missions that are just set up as player made environments. I've got a few that I've been tinkering with for a long while myself that I haven't finished yet. however, the Foundry as it's set up now requires a lot of extra tinkering that a system set up specifically to deco a "home" would be. That and there aren't any empty room maps, every ship layout that's in the Foundry now is already decorated with the props that the environment artists put into them.
There's always room for more interaction in any MMO, especially one that can be played virtually solo from tutorial to endgame like STO.
And if player housing isn't for you, that's fine, you don't have to use it. But remember, every penny spent on the game through C-Store purchases - like the deco items that could be bought if they did player housing - goes to support the development of the entire game, so you would benefit from this system as well.
Open ground and interior maps can only be created from templates or reuse mission maps
Existing ground and interior maps may be modified by placing props, but the terrain is not editable
So while you can't build the interior walls exactly as you like; you couldn't in SWG or most other MMOs with housing either, but you can place props etc.
If the Devs were to focus on a "revision" of the Foundry to better advertise it, perhaps encourage new players to run one or two as part of the tutorials and then allow us to buy a "Social zone" for Dil that opens a mission as a social zone like ESD, I know a lot of players would not only put effort into building something, they would even advertise it to get it used. The fact that players can tip authors Dil even makes it worth the effort to do.
There is no such thing as 'too much space barbie'. When content is the same for all players and all characters, adding different uniforms, locations specifically designed for one character, customisable bridge and ship crews are the only things that allow for an unique player experience and for a way to say 'this is my character, this is my crew and they differ from the million other players in this and this way'. Basically, it's a way to express yourself and your characters and a way to set them apart from the millions of other characters that are all running around and who all saved Vulcan from Sela, Earth and Qu'onos from the Undine and Heralds, Starbase 82 from the Borg and who all are temporal celebrities.
Player experience, of which the abovementioned customisation options as well as an own customisable place are important parts, is the single most important thing in the long run. Like all companies who deal with experienced products, be it a theme park, cinema or video game, catering to such desires is an essential part of the business. Not something you can shrug off.
Which, fortunately, hasn't been done by Cryptic but the indifferent and sometimes even demeaning or sarcastic attitude of some people who always treat these things as minor issues is just incorrect as these issues are as relevant to the game as the latest lock box or the addition of new C-store ships.
Edit: spelling
I've found the Foundry to be very difficult to work with. I created a mission on an older account once, something small, only one or two maps. Basically it was a ship-based STF with some references to First Contact and some jokingly criticism how an ensign, not important in any way nor a major character was lucky to be saved from the Borg as those kind of characters usually just end up as more ... phaser fodder.
Anyway, it was one map - a standard one even where only some devices, enemy groups and that one ensign were placed - average dialogue and only a handful objectives like disabling some tech and shooting drones. Yet it took me a few days and multiple hours each day plus many test runs to complete it. Perhaps it's easier to just create an environment without any objectives, but after this short mission I was not surprised so many people leave the Foundry for what it is. I tried creating another mission, but some things just wouldn't work like NPC's that wouldn't pop up with text even when you reached the objective and such. Perhaps it's just me, but I've found it very difficult to work with.
That could be the point. There are people who will wanna show off there housing because that is what they will work on it will give some a reason to get on and actually play other than stand around.
I mean how much Dil would a would be buyer be willing to spend to buy and furnish a house. If we go back to the GTA example the most expensive housing option is 8 mil basic and 10 mil maxed out, plus you can buy other properties so those players are spending more on different housing options. I will say housing in that game is mostly pointless.
Whether you individually or me individually LIKE Space Barbie or not ... it's easy for the game to monetize and make profit off of a lot of Space Barbie aspects.
So that being the case, suggestions that revolve around space barbie can and do get considered because they can generate profits.
Is housing a potential profit generator? Eh that's a much bigger debate. It's not a strong profit generation tool in other MMOs. With some exceptions.
If cryptic puts any effort into interiors I'd rather it be ship interiors.
Fleet holdings happens to be guild housing.
After playing WoW Garrisons (ugh!), I am happy STO did player/guild housing correctly.
If there are posts here that do not appeal to you, or opinions you disagree with, the best way to deal with that is to resist the urge to add comments. Instead, engage with the content you like! Don't feed the trolls!
Of course it does. This is a corporation, and a fairly small one at that. They don't have the resources to do something just because it might be fun. If it doesn't have a point, a raison d'etre, they'd be foolish to waste resources on it.
This.
Could this generate money for Cryptic/PWE yes. How much? I don't know. But let's say they gave us neutral housing on Risa and the future lock boxes etc had housing decorations. That sounds like more reason to buy keys.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
I kinda agree, but:
I want to look unique and look different from others around me, and I want to fly by and see cool looking designs from others. An interior that I would need to invite people to see in the first place is pretty useless for that, because I am not going to do that, and few would be interested in the first place.
To fix that, we'd need something actively to do on those interiors. I think I can't really make a good scenario that isn't a bit convulated in the end.
The other potential thing that would interest me is doing missions (solo is fine) aboard my ship. And I don't need much customization to do that. I would be fine if most options would be removed, and we had one standard interior with only superficial change options (like colors, control looks and the like), so that Cryptic can actually make missions on these interiors.
Unfortunately, I don't really see the latter happening either, because they already sold interiors, and invalidating them completely seems risky (and unfair).
Tho it is. I just wish Cryptic would dedicate a full expansion to our ship's bridge. Customize it properly, put some missions on it, etc. Bridge is so important in Star Trek that it would worth an expansion.
So a typical American company?
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Each ship has a set number of customizable decks that can provide certain bonuses to the ship.
You could initially just have a few arrangements for each deck and maybe work up to more indepth customization.
Decks could be things like a secondary bridge (we know not all ships have these aka the defiant and voyager.) Which could boost your resistances. Or astro metrics which could boost sector space speed. Or auxiliary reactors to boost power to one system.
This would let your interior have a purpose as you could then improve its effects by actually working and using r and d parts to upgrade it.
Each ship could then have unique boosts depending on the decks it had.
Smoothing out some of the kinks in the Foundry is one way of doing it, but as it currently is, the Foundry can be temperamental and has a learning curve that is pretty intimidating to some people.