[PC] Streamlining the Mission Journal

ambassadorkael

As part of the launch of #AgeofDiscovery, we're streamlining the main story of Star Trek Online. Take a look at how that's going to work:

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10993953

captaintjp

What's the rationale for removing the foundational season expansion episode arcs - Spectres, Breen Invasion, Wasteland, and The 2800?

questerius

Finally, you’ll notice a few new missions in the journal that are Task Force Operation missions. These missions direct your characters to participate in various Task Force Operations like Romulan Imperial Minefield or Khitomer Accord. When your captain accepts or completes one of these missions, it unlocks that TFO for the captain – so you can play some of the TFOs at lower levels now! Don’t worry if you’re a veteran, though; you still have access to TFOs when you reach level 50, even if you didn’t complete these handoff missions.

Just to get this straight: The unlock occurs when the Task Force operation queue is accepted and NOT when a queue is completed?
Some of the queues have difficulties popping up to run so gaining access could be frustrated by this lack of players.

Edit: fixed quote

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captaintjp

ruinthefun wrote: »

captaintjp wrote: »

What's the rationale for removing the foundational season expansion episode arcs - Spectres, Breen Invasion, Wasteland, and The 2800?

I don't think they're being removed, just bumped to side story arcs.

My question: What happens to Recruitment Character Objectives in the removed missions from the Klingon War arc?

Right, I wasn't clear - I mean removed from the main leveling experience. It's not just about having one unified story, those episodes are part of the game's history.

pork77

I hope I'll still be able to complete all the Delta and Tempural recruit tasks when this goes live.

badgerpants999

My question is, How will this affect leveling? Bumping those story arcs to side missions will mean you char is a good 15-20 levels behind where they would be if they completed those arcs. Will level progression be adjusted to take into account the "Optional" nature of these missions?

lordhavelock

While you're revisiting the mission story arc, please take care of three things:
1. Make sure Temporal and Delta Recruitment objectives are still able to be completed.
2. Make sure all missions are Skippable (at least if you've played them once on the account). I hate that if my Alt needs the House Martok weapon set from Brushfire he has to play through a couple dozen episodes (at least I'm thinking of the Time and Delta arcs) that can't be skipped in order to get to Brushfire.
3. Please revisit/remove the old wrapper missions. It's been a while since I went through the whole story line, so I don't recall specifics, but at one point there were micro-missions that took the player from one area to another to meet a contact. I recall from the Romulan arc these talked about events that no longer even happen since you last revamped those arcs.

Otherwise, this all sounds lovely. I think it's a good idea to keep the game updated and making sense to new players. Good on ya.

where2r1

Um, pardon me, Devs....but I am (sort of) working on finishing a Federation Delta Recruit and a Romulan Delta Recruit, you know.

When is this all going down??? LOL! Should I consider this being "crunch time"? I think I have to finish those all the way through Breen Arc. Now, you are shuffling it all around? This should be interesting.

tobywitczak

Yea? Ok I get the streaming of the arcs, I really do. So it is ok if some missions are “removed” from the flow of the arc, however, and I think most would agree, simply removing the old content is just not cool. From news post it looks like they will keep those missions in game but are no longer “required” to play.

Stuff that should never be broken or retired, Accolades, special items you may receive at the end of the missions, Still waiting for the sector blocks to come back and with the ViL there is now a mechanism to bring those back as well.
Star Trek Online - Fluffy's accolades list

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15yw9kUbVwxpMKjZrnaJWte2fkdBc6kPYhUr_Xda83js/edit#gid=1673793581
Finally, I really hope that from the mission journal we can finally see any un-collected accolade or special items directly from the journal itself. I think more people would be inclined to revisit the older episode especially if they know they missed something.

On a side note: For those missions in the Romulan Mystery/Freedom/ Cardassian Struggle arcs that require ENG, SCI, TAC players it would be nice if we could solo the accolade if we have a ENG, SCI, TAC either at the ships station or in the away team. Finding people who want to replay those missions and are also looking for those accolades is near impossible.

pottsey5g

ambassadorkael#6946 wrote: »

As part of the launch of #AgeofDiscovery, we're streamlining the main story of Star Trek Online. Take a look at how that's going to work:

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10993953

Please tell me you’re joking. This constant streamlining gameplay, making everything over simple and casual is bad for the game and bad for long term player retention. Streamlining is not good in the way the devs have been doing it.

Far too much gameplay content has been over streamlined and made so much worse. If you take the challenge away by streamlining to much you lose the feeling of accomplishment and lose replayability and this is something STO is suffering from badly.

Streamlining has destroy almost all the end game content in game. You need to stop streamlining and fix the lack of real end game content.

psycoticvulcan

My initial reaction was "hell no", but upon thinking about it some more I'm actually really on board with it.

It will make it easier to get new characters caught up to the main storyline, and the idea that you might stumble upon a major story arc while just bumming around Defera or the Klingon border is pretty captivating.

However, there are some continuity issues that will have to be addressed. "Blood of Ancients" assumes you've completed the Deferi/Breen arc, so what happens if the player hasn't? Will those missions be blocked off afterward? How will that work?

ambassadorkael

Any recruitment objectives that require removed missions will be automatically completed.

duncanidaho11

tobywitczak wrote: »

Yea? Ok I get the streaming of the arcs, I really do. So it is ok if some missions are “removed” from the flow of the arc, however, and I think most would agree, simply removing the old content is just not cool. From news post it looks like they will keep those missions in game but are no longer “required” to play.

In other words, STO's introducing the concept of optional side quests.

I really like this, the current mission arc is bogged down for a linear campaign experience so adopting a somewhat radial RPG structure is a great way of ensuring the main line has compelling flow without cutting that content out altogether. Most of this stuff will be there for folks interested in more of the game (or finished with the main arc and looking for more to play.) It provides a lot of flexibility for new characters while making the game more approachable. Plus some mission updates!

Looking forward to how this plays on my AoD character.

nebfab

I like the thinking behind this, doing same missions in the same order can get tedious on a new alt, especially as you don't really need all of them to get to the max level now.

Tightening up the Klingon War is good too, though I'm not really sure why the missions to be revamped later can't stay as is for now and will be removed. Then again, if it's "Hide and Seek," "Stop The Signal" and "Secret Orders..." I don't know, but those three always felt like a kind of superfluous filler quickly copy-pasted together that STO no longer really needs...

Anyway, would this remove the need to complete/skip all the main arcs before you can do New Romulus ground missions (which you need for the rep reward?)

And yes, please make sure delta/temporal objectives are still there.

frtoaster

The first thing we’ve done is rework the flow of the mission journal. Instead of making every mission part of the story, we’ve decided to focus the story on the principal narrative arcs of the struggles of the various Galactic powers in the four quadrants. Some of our older “side” missions are no longer in the journal proper – you can still find these missions in the galaxy at large, but they’re not part of the directed journal experience. We’ve taken out the “Wasteland,” “Spectres,” “Breen Invasion,” and “2800/Lost Dominon” mission groups in this fashion, so you can still play them, you just won’t be sent directly to them as part of the leveling process.

1. So how do we play these missions now? Do we have to fly to the system where the mission starts? Is that what "find these missions in the galaxy at large" means?

2. Are you also going to add back the old missions you removed now that they no longer have to be part of the mission journal?

We’ve done some light polish work on several of the Klingon War episodes, including “Stranded in Space,” “Diplomatic Orders,” “Researcher Rescue,” “Secret Orders,” and “Doomsday Device.” All of these episode have received some updates, whether in the form of new visual FX, new characters, streamlining of difficult spots, or even just squashing little bugs.

3. Please check the grass.

Holodeck ticket 4,724,452: Flashing grass on Risa

http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/comment/13391230/#Comment_13391230

iamynaught wrote: »

Okay, I'm leveling a new character, a Fed Cardassian, and I'm running the Researcher Rescue mission and I'm at the part where you beam down to the planet and fight the Gorn boss. The grass is doing the same thing here that it's doing on New Romulus. Such a strange bug and difficult to pin down.

Finally, you’ll notice a few new missions in the journal that are Task Force Operation missions. These missions direct your characters to participate in various Task Force Operations like Romulan Imperial Minefield or Khitomer Accord. When your captain accepts or completes one of these missions, it unlocks that TFO for the captain – so you can play some of the TFOs at lower levels now! Don’t worry if you’re a veteran, though; you still have access to TFOs when you reach level 50, even if you didn’t complete these handoff missions.

3. Is completing these Task Force Operations going to be a prerequisite for playing the missions that follow them? Can we skip the TFO missions?

4. Here's a radical idea. Get rid of mission prerequisites entirely. I have many old characters. Between all your mission revamps and mission journal reordering, their mission progress is a mess. You cannot assume that people will play your missions in order, especially if you keep changing the order. Also, there have been bugs in the past with missions becoming locked or even disappearing entirely from the mission journal.

All episodes locked after release of new featured episode "home" (Fixed)
Story Missions, 1% from losing it completely.

Clearly, the system is complex and error-prone. The worst is the "Yesterday's War" arc with missions popping up in the middle of other arcs.

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Yesterday's_War

Just let us play any mission at any time. I don't really care what the flow of the story should be if I have to spend minutes figuring out how to unblock an episode, and in the worst case, discovering that it's a bug rather than a failure on my part to meet some prerequisite.


EDIT: Well, I see the Edit Monster is well and alive. I'd better type some more text here to propitiate it. Edit Monster, please don't eat this post. All hail the Edit Monster. All hail the Edit Monster.

dracounguis

(Trolling comments moderated out. - BMR)

garaks31

new rewards and unique drops would be nice ,would like to see low level epic items even if they stay at the level !!

kodachikuno

@ambassadorkael#6946 any chance the KDF missions in the early levels get an update too?
and while Im bugging you, will my KDF-hadar ever get access to the mission so I can get the vov'wyl doodad?

psiameese

Much of the blog suggests present tense. I assume that these changes are internal for the time being? And being pushed out at a later date? What is the ETA at this point?

nebfab

ambassadorkael#6946 wrote: »

Any recruitment objectives that require removed missions will be automatically completed.

Thanks for the clarification.

rattler2

I actually enjoy the Spectres arc. Its a good one for Halloween with the spookyness caused by the Dividians, and getting my Ghostbuster on with the Proton Pack... I mean Proton Distortion Rifle (even though its not even held like a rifle).

While the old Feature Series missions, and thankfully Nimbus, are being shuffled to side stories, we're still gonna be able to see them in some form right? The Gamma arc does reference events in the 2800 arc in a minor capacity.

Well... I guess we'll find out. I mean we generally get real overleveled by the time we hit Nimbus. lol

Quick question though... any idea if the Agents of Yesterday arc for TOS characters are gonna get looked at? Replaying them on a max level character seems to have a few level scalling issues, specifically in space. It still drops you down to first run level, yet the space mobs match your actual level. I don't know if this is just a visual thing or not, as last time I played one my Crossfield didn't feel weaker than the enemy, but still seeing that red 65 on their level is unnerving.

where2r1

Thanks for checking, Kael!

Now, I am feeling lazy and thinking about waiting till after the revamps in hopes of doing less. LOL!
Yeah, that is bad.

where2r1

pssssttt...as long as you are revamping: I would not be unhappy if "Of Bajor" suddenly disappears.

duncanidaho11

psiameese wrote: »

Much of the blog suggests present tense. I assume that these changes are internal for the time being? And being pushed out at a later date? What is the ETA at this point?

Kael said up top:

"As part of the launch of #AgeofDiscovery,"

captaincelestial

Talking about streamlining the story arcs....

I remember when there were a lot of 'filler' espisodes that were dropped out from the mission journal that were left as extra missions. I hope this older missions can get some updating/polishing too, esp. in terms of fleshing them out more/make them more interesting to go out and explore planets/star systems that would have been ignored if people just followed the Point A to Point B nature of the Story Arcs.

Maybe those planets could offer different missions/experiences depending on the characters faction. Such as the Klingons working on expanding their empire to the Rolmulans trying to resources and allies to help with the building of the Romulan Republic. It's a matter of tweaking the missions to suit the relavant factions (i.e. expanding content without major rewrites).

nebfab

where2r1 wrote: »

pssssttt...as long as you are revamping: I would not be unhappy if "Of Bajor" suddenly disappears.

Motion seconded.

Branching sub-missions are a neat mechanics, but it suffers too heavily from "Admiral Errandboy" syndrome. Personally lighting every Bateret altar in town? Arguing with rowdy Klingons? Don't we have, a ship with, I don't know, a crew, who could do that better and faster?

anodynes

kodachikuno wrote: »

@ambassadorkael#6946 any chance the KDF missions in the early levels get an update too?
and while Im bugging you, will my KDF-hadar ever get access to the mission so I can get the vov'wyl doodad?

KDF-allied Jem'Hadar have had access to all of the missions, except for Terminal Expanse, for weeks now.

fleetcaptain5

Finally, you’ll notice a few new missions in the journal that are Task Force Operation missions. These missions direct your characters to participate in various Task Force Operations like Romulan Imperial Minefield or Khitomer Accord.

This really is a great change! Thank you!

After years of playing and levelling dozens of characters across multiple accounts, levelling has become pretty tedious and pointless.

This change and the possibility to combine levelling with working on the reputations, rather than just collecting XP and then having to do all the rest, is definitely a step in the right direction.

christopherhill

"We’ve taken out the 'Wasteland', 'Spectres', 'Breen Invasion', and '2800/Lost Dominon' mission groups in this fashion, so you can still play them, you just won’t be sent directly to them as part of the leveling process."

Cryptic is doing a beautiful job of the hard-work and continuous development of this game, and this is yet another great improvement to see. These arcs are, in my opinion, the most grindy and boring arcs in the game (The 2800 was actually pretty descent out of these four arcs, though).

fleetcaptain5

I'm also glad that some of the older missions are slightly adapted. I hope, for instance, that some of the cutscenes from Diplomatic Orders are either removed or made skippable.