Long story short, would it be possible to give players a way to unlock additional ship prefixes?
I know you can buy the NX starship registry prefix in the C-Store and unlock other prefixes like I.S.S., C.D.F. etc by buying specific starships (though in case of I.S.S. this is very limited since there are no mirror versions of most ships), but it would be pretty awesome if you could unlock additional prefixes.
One way to accomplish this could be an account-wide unlock you can purchase in the C-Store. Another way to bind these things to a specific reputation; e.g. you get the I.S.S. for completing the Terran Taskforce reputation, I.R.W. for the Romulan reputation, D.V. for Gamma etc.
Either way, the new reputation vanity shields are a damn good step for even more customization and ship prefixes seem to be the next step.
"If you're telling me that this ship can skip across the universe on a highway made of mushrooms, I kind of have to go on faith... Be bold. Be brave. Be courageous. Black alert." - Christopher Pike
Considering that your idea does not involve either fleet-leaders or DPSer exclusively to open their wallet for the wellbeing of this game I actually like your idea.
The more things that address the average Joe to support the game the better!
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Considering that your idea does not involve either fleet-leaders or DPSer exclusively to open their wallet for the wellbeing of this game I actually like your idea.
The more things that address the average Joe to support the game the better!
I have always felt this game needed more cosmetic options, cryptic is really missing a potentially huge revenue stream here.
I think they feel that because costumes don't sell particularly well (mostly due to lack of variety) that cosmetics aren't a big item, but they're wrong. Ship cosmetics especially would sell big and would have no effect on power creep. They're equally desirable to new players and veterans alike.
Things like prefixes, hull materials, paint patterns, shield visuals, things that add extra items to the ship like the Borg stuff.. all that would sell. I know they oppose it, but weapon cosmetics like colors and firing effects would also sell very well. They could just be limited to PVE so that you can't hide your weapon type in PVP.
Prefixes are a good start, I know they already sell the NX prefix, but I am surprised there aren't more options already.
Cosmetics would definitely sell and even better you could open up the design of said items (in a controlled way) to players to create. Many, many games have cosmetic items for sale in a store that have been created by approved player designers. It’s a huge untapped market there. Heck foundry authors could easily make some amazing custom bridges etc.
One can set the default prefix to -none- and then just start the name of the ship with the prifix of your liking.
At least, that is what I do with my ships. I am not sure if it is possible to do on any and all ships.
One can set the default prefix to -none- and then just start the name of the ship with the prifix of your liking.
At least, that is what I do with my ships. I am not sure if it is possible to do on any and all ships.
It isn't. The majority is locked to the standard faction prefixes.
Completely agree with all of you, there are so many more opportunities for Cryptic to add more customization, no matter if it's ship bridges, even more uniform options etc. They did release a lot of that in the early days, but lately it seems the only thing being released are new ships and lockboxes with very little new uniforms etc. in between.
I have always felt this game needed more cosmetic options, cryptic is really missing a potentially huge revenue stream here.
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Things like prefixes, hull materials, paint patterns, shield visuals, things that add extra items to the ship like the Borg stuff.. all that would sell. I know they oppose it, but weapon cosmetics like colors and firing effects would also sell very well. They could just be limited to PVE so that you can't hide your weapon type in PVP.
Prefixes are a good start, I know they already sell the NX prefix, but I am surprised there aren't more options already.
Considering they are adding things like new vanity shield options or different weapon types / colors to the T6 reputation it's possible Cryptic finally realized there's real demand there and are now starting to give us more options...one can hope at least.
At the very least giving us the option to set the default prefix to none for every ship would be a start.
"If you're telling me that this ship can skip across the universe on a highway made of mushrooms, I kind of have to go on faith... Be bold. Be brave. Be courageous. Black alert." - Christopher Pike
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,582Community Moderator
It isn't. The majority is locked to the standard faction prefixes.
Not on faction specific ships though. So you can't call a Jupiter class Carrier TCS Victory. That one is locked as USS.
Now we do know that Fed allied Romulans can use RRW on allied ships, AND we can actually SEE that on the hull. So it IS possible. Also with the Fed side Mirror ships, we can choose, and see, either USS or ISS on the hull.
And I'm sure the Terran Empire RPers would love to be able to slap ISS on any of their ships.
I'm pretty sure the 'General Belgrano' did not use the USS prefix when used by the Argentine Navy.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
The only ship-name related thing I might pay for is unlock long ship names. All other name-able things in the game allow 40 characters, ships being stuck with 16 is a travesty.
And after that, I would indeed much rather have no prefix and type in my own if and only if I happened to want one (as it is, 16 characters is too short to waste 7 on a prefix).
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Maybe the solution to unlocking I.S.S. could be to tie it to one specific ship instead of Cryptic having to make a ton of mirror ships. Or maybe make I.S.S. a lobi unlock. Or a GPL unlock. Honestly, I don't care how we get it into the game. I just want it for a specific character.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
I think this is a great idea. I also agree with warpangel-16 characters is too short for ship names. Give us more room to be creative with ship names too.
Now a LTS and loving it.
Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything.
The 16 character limit is probably to make sure it fits on the ship model. There is plenty of room on something like an Odyssey but low tier ships are much smaller and your ship name wouldn’t fit if they allowed much more.
Besides which the more characters you give some of these knuckleheads the stupider the ship names will be.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
The 16 character limit is probably to make sure it fits on the ship model. There is plenty of room on something like an Odyssey but low tier ships are much smaller and your ship name wouldn’t fit if they allowed much more.
False. There are no technical reasons for the name limit. In fact the character creator lets you name your starting ship 53 chars* long and it works just fine everywhere. The 16 char limit in the rename dialog is entirely arbitrary.
Names that wouldn't fit into fields, on the UI, on ship models, etc, are automatically rendered with a smaller font so that they do fit.
* If you try to type in too long a name, the error message says the limit is 50, but the actual limit is 53.
I'd be up for this. Or making it so that you can spend zen to allow yourself to do a 3 letter prefix in a combination that isn't profane. I'd drop zen to get the T.A.W. prefix for the ships of my characters. Likewise gives something to the roleplaying crowd if they have their fleets styled after business enterprises or mini-empires.
How do you know some of these Alien species only use three-letter prefixes?
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
How do you know some of these Alien species only use three-letter prefixes?
I don't remember that many non-Federation ships using prefixes at all in canon. The klingon "IKS" showed up in DS9, and according to Memory-Alpha there were two episodes also of DS9 that tagged romulan ships with "PWB" on written casualty reports.
But Cryptic has invented 3-letter prefixes for almost everyone in STO, so that it is.
Missed opportunity to a add mirror vanity space set to T6 rep. The one they have is ok... yet I would have thought they do something with the MU seeing as we have all this content from the comics and Discovery shows.
The ones the NPCs have would be fine as well. Or as the OP said. All the prefixes in Rep/C-store.
PS. Although I like the Mirror red/yellow patterns Cryptic made I feel they went overboard with plastering the entire ship with it. I noticed the comics/show just have the ant pincers pattern strip on the hull (above/below) & have the Terran logo on either side of the hull or big one in the middle. It may be too much work in making that for all the ship hulls. Probably not doable. Just putting it out there.
Cryptic^
&
Normal pincer pattern^
Honestly though Just getting all the I.S.S. I.R.W. etc would do me fine. Hopefully one day we will get it in some form or another.
"Great men are not peacemakers, Great men are conquerors!" - Captain Archer" "When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative - violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way." - Captain Janeway #Support Mirror Universe I.S.S. Prefixes
Comments
The more things that address the average Joe to support the game the better!
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I have always felt this game needed more cosmetic options, cryptic is really missing a potentially huge revenue stream here.
I think they feel that because costumes don't sell particularly well (mostly due to lack of variety) that cosmetics aren't a big item, but they're wrong. Ship cosmetics especially would sell big and would have no effect on power creep. They're equally desirable to new players and veterans alike.
Things like prefixes, hull materials, paint patterns, shield visuals, things that add extra items to the ship like the Borg stuff.. all that would sell. I know they oppose it, but weapon cosmetics like colors and firing effects would also sell very well. They could just be limited to PVE so that you can't hide your weapon type in PVP.
Prefixes are a good start, I know they already sell the NX prefix, but I am surprised there aren't more options already.
Many, many games have cosmetic items for sale in a store that have been created by approved player designers. It’s a huge untapped market there.
Heck foundry authors could easily make some amazing custom bridges etc.
One can set the default prefix to -none- and then just start the name of the ship with the prifix of your liking.
At least, that is what I do with my ships. I am not sure if it is possible to do on any and all ships.
It isn't. The majority is locked to the standard faction prefixes.
Considering they are adding things like new vanity shield options or different weapon types / colors to the T6 reputation it's possible Cryptic finally realized there's real demand there and are now starting to give us more options...one can hope at least.
At the very least giving us the option to set the default prefix to none for every ship would be a start.
Not on faction specific ships though. So you can't call a Jupiter class Carrier TCS Victory. That one is locked as USS.
Now we do know that Fed allied Romulans can use RRW on allied ships, AND we can actually SEE that on the hull. So it IS possible. Also with the Fed side Mirror ships, we can choose, and see, either USS or ISS on the hull.
And I'm sure the Terran Empire RPers would love to be able to slap ISS on any of their ships.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
And after that, I would indeed much rather have no prefix and type in my own if and only if I happened to want one (as it is, 16 characters is too short to waste 7 on a prefix).
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Or to make the intent absolutely clear, 16 characters is too short, period.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Names that wouldn't fit into fields, on the UI, on ship models, etc, are automatically rendered with a smaller font so that they do fit.
* If you try to type in too long a name, the error message says the limit is 50, but the actual limit is 53.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Of course they do, they all also speak English.
We come in peace, SHOOT TO KILL!
But Cryptic has invented 3-letter prefixes for almost everyone in STO, so that it is.
The ones the NPCs have would be fine as well. Or as the OP said. All the prefixes in Rep/C-store.
PS. Although I like the Mirror red/yellow patterns Cryptic made I feel they went overboard with plastering the entire ship with it. I noticed the comics/show just have the ant pincers pattern strip on the hull (above/below) & have the Terran logo on either side of the hull or big one in the middle. It may be too much work in making that for all the ship hulls. Probably not doable. Just putting it out there.
Cryptic^
&
Normal pincer pattern^
Honestly though Just getting all the I.S.S. I.R.W. etc would do me fine. Hopefully one day we will get it in some form or another.
"When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative - violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way." - Captain Janeway
#Support Mirror Universe I.S.S. Prefixes