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Spice up the game
paradox
Member Posts: 1,800 Arc User
I have a character in Every Faction, I got every type of recruitment event character, I experimented with alien gen a couple of times , I recreated the entire Enterprise crew from TOS/TAS, I play through most of the tutorials, I think I'm missing is the original 2409 tutorial, you know the one before the Klingons, I 've done most of the tutorials even the revamped ones, on the day when they get released, I even made a member of the opposite sex once, Orion female, I'm not bored however I'm still just wondering what else to do, I'm thinking I'll probably just wait till a new species or something cosmetic like TOS Gorn gets dropped since I already know New Factions and New Recruitment Events aren't coming...
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With the Winter Event coming up, maybe it would be worth trying a theme build character using some Cryo modules? My TOS Sci is what I'd like to call a Cryomancer.
Sometimes just trying out new things can be interesting. Ship types you're not used to, builds you're not used to...
In a way... between content drops we have total freedom on how we make characters. Maybe challenge yourself to use the free level up ship types you're not used to, or try and work a damage type you're not used to. Try and make a Megawell build? Buck the Meta?
I think we all face these kinds of things in any MMO. But at least STO makes it easier to try new things than most.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
Most of the others though are theme/bio based instead of depending on the game's systems (like races and classes) to define what the character is like and thinks like.
To slightly hijack, I'd love to see the cryomancer build
I have 50+ characters. At least one of each playable race. Pretty evenly spread out career-wise. I, too, find it fairly easy to keep things fresh by switching between them, focusing on various ones from time and time.
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@vetteguy904
Currently, Mercury (TOS Sci) is wearing the full 4 piece Breen Cryoshaper set, while using Andorian Summer, Endothermic Induction Field, Cold Fusion Flash, and Parasitic Ice kit modules for cold damage. Also got a Med Tricorder for self heals. Mercury isn't an Elite Captain so I don't have the extra slot.
Every once in a while I have her wear the mockup Scout outfit for added thematic effect.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
I also enjoy helping out newer players. Still makes me smile whenever somebody who started playing last week asks how my ship did that. What makes me smile even more is showing them how to do the exact same thing. Giving away stuff like crafted gear to my Fleetmates is also lots of fun.
If you're bored with the game, I've a suggestion. Pick a random player and then mail them something their character can use. PM them to please go check their mail. You'd be surprised at just how much fun initiating a contact like this can generate.
What I think the game needs is more gameplay optio9ns... Branches of the game we can choose to go down... or not. Things like cargo hauling. Exploring, Colonizing, Industrializing. With gameplay loops that tie into some sort of big epic endgame.
Who wants to run cargo? It sounds boring. It would be if it was self-contained. But if there was real meaning behind what the player is hauling, like if it doesn't get to its destination some sort of setback or otherwise negative event could occur that would require players to step in and deal with, kind of like a red alert event, but activated only when a condition is met... or fails to be met.
To me, spicing up the game means making the game world come alive based on player action or inaction.
Having said that, adding to our choices of playable races wouldn't hurt. But I would rather find it more compelling to keep playing with my existing characters than to replay the game from the start and ultimately just do everything over again.
Cargo hauling was always fun in Star Trek Armada.
Because, indeed, it was a part of the bigger game there. Part of the strategy and choices you had to make.
We already have something like it: Doffing. The only problem is that there are no real consequences. I can try and instigate a defection, but it won't result in Klingons suddenly attacking or at least challenging me if it fails.
I can sell contraband without ever getting in trouble. Recruit Boffs from everywhere without ever having to deal with enemy infiltrators disguised as a Saurian or - like in one of the TOS episodes - an Andorian.
It would be nice if they could expand the existing things a bit more and tie them into the main gameplay. And also add new and similar features indeed.
> Cargo hauling was always fun in Star Trek Armada.
>
> Because, indeed, it was a part of the bigger game there. Part of the strategy and choices you had to make.
>
> We already have something like it: Doffing. The only problem is that there are no real consequences. I can try and instigate a defection, but it won't result in Klingons suddenly attacking or at least challenging me if it fails.
> I can sell contraband without ever getting in trouble. Recruit Boffs from everywhere without ever having to deal with enemy infiltrators disguised as a Saurian or - like in one of the TOS episodes - an Andorian.
>
> It would be nice if they could expand the existing things a bit more and tie them into the main gameplay. And also add new and similar features indeed.
I've always felt that STO does itself a dis-service by making everything players do only have an impact on their own personal experiences, rather than having more far-reaching impact that can be observed by others. I've always felt that the game should be treating everyone like individuals who all participate in heroic events, rather than like they are THE hero of the entire game. The former feels more right for an MMO and the latter feels right for a stand-alone offline game.
As it is, after a while, it doesn't feel like my gameplay experience matters. I cut my MMO teeth with Ultima Online, before the shards were split into Felucca and Trammel. Where everything players did left a mark on the game. If I dumped some junk in the middle of the woods, it stayed there for a good while, and other players might happen upon it and take it as their own. PVP was brutal, as the roads were not safe. Often, player-killers would wait in ambush for lone travelers to come wandering by. To this day, I remember being in a tavern that had a bunch of other players sitting around chatting it up as they waited for their friends to come online or get done with whatever activities they were doing to prepare for a dungeon crawl or whatever cooperative activities they had planned. Suddenly, this ghost enters and speaks. I didn't have Spirit Speak so all I saw was OOOooOOOO!. One of those other players understood it and translated: "He says there are murderers on the road between here and [whatever city it was]." Suddenly, almost every single player got up from their seats and switched from regular clothing to full armor, with weapons ready. The ghost got resurrected by one of them and was asked to lead the way. I just had to follow to see hot this would play out.Let's just say that vigilante justice was served that day :D
+I also remember a time when two guilds were at war with each other, and their leaders had agreed on one attacking the other's settlement. The attacker did something sneaky. They stealthed into the enemy settlement the day before the event and marked recall runes for key locations in the town. Those runes were given to different participants the next day. When the battle began, suddenly, moongates started opening all over the place, and the attackers appeared behind enemy lines as the enemy was expecting them to charge in from somewhere outside the settlement. . So consensual PvP also happened, and it was often very tactical and strategic.
All because the game just allowed players free agency, and their actions were impactful.
Of course, PvP was used for griefing to enough of a degree that splitting the game world into the two facets. But it was the people who didn't want to be subject to non-concentual PvP that had to move to the new facet, literally having to uproot everything they had placed if they wanted to hold onto it. My guild was one such group, and I remember helping to move our settlement. I was a master archer and fletcher, so I was first to engage any hostiles, either player or monster as we re-deeded buildings and transported everything that was stored in them. We almost completely rebuilt the settlement exactly as it originally was, with a few slight adjustments, and it ended up being better than it originally was after the buildings were refurnished and redecorated. Moonstones let those ing the guild who wanted to PvP to teleport back to Felucca and back while those who wanted no part of PvP simply remained in Trammel. PvP griefing problem solved. Everything else remained just as impactful as always.
In STO, with the current "world narrative" being about the Khitomer Alliance, PvP would not enter the equation. But I believe there are many ways to make existing gameplay loops have a real impact on the Gameworld. Doffing and Admiralty would be a good place to start in certain areas of the game, where success or failure can tick one variable or another with which one hitting a specific threshold first resulting in an event triggering... or not triggering... accordingly.
It has also been suggested in the past that the mechanics behind fleet holdings being opened up to EVERYONE and associated with an interim event between seasons, where players get to work together to construct a new social hub, where the mission-givers for the next seasonal story arc would be located. The costs of projects would be reflective of the overall active player population numbers, how many participate on a daily basis and the actual date that the hub needs to be completed so the season cn launch on time with everything working. Algorithms can be written to keep track of that and automatically make adjustments to keep things moving at the needed pace. But player participation would be essential.
The end result for each participant would be actually seeing the facility take shape and become operational around them as key NPC start showing up as progress continues. And they would each be able to look at the new hub and say "I helped build this. The mechanics that drive fleet holding progression are wasted locked behind a fleet membership wall. I mean, fleets can have their holdings as well. But we know that Cryptic has no plans to do any more of them. But an Alliance holding, available to everyone whether in a fleet or not, so everyone can participate in building something big together? There could be a lot of potential player engagement there that would make it seem worth the time and effort to develop. Not to mention that with each project requiring a collectively massive amount of RD to complete, it would result in a dilithium sink that might actually make the Dilithium Exchange start to flow smoothly again. Some players may even trade surplus Zen for RD to use in the construction efforts, rather than holding onto said Zen because RD has no current long-term purpose..
How might that have looked had it been done a lot earlier?
Imagine the first visit to Dyson Command finding the facility to be a gutted, or powerless facility, and together, players from all factions could begin working together to restore it, ultimately resulting in the facility we see in the game now. Fleets could still have their respective spires., but whatever they contribute to dyson command also goes into an escrow for their spire, and Vice-versa,. Of course, if they are not members of a fleet, the contributions would only go to Dyson Command...
And those Dyson Science ships that require Lobi to get? I would have made those projects that could be undertaken at Dyson Command as part of its fabrication facility. The Lobi Consortium would have worked out a deal with the Alliance to manage that facility's production, so anyone wanting to contract the construction of a dyson ship would pay the lobi cost, and it would become a project in the production Queue in order of receipt of contract. This would be an on-going and repeating contribution project involving RD and materials and components obtainable through Dyson Sphere exploration gameplay, salvaging tech from the countless structures all over the inner surface of the sphere.
Had I been creative director of STO back then, that's what I would have done. Everything about the dyson sphere content would be a cooperative story.
There are so many uses for the various existing mechanics that can be applied towards making gameplay mean something. I don't know if Cryptic will ever be in a position to make it so, but it would make continuing to play with pre-existing characters be more compelling than starting a new character just for a brief gimmick that leads to the same old stuff all over again.
STO on the other hand was an amazingly quick adaptation of a superhero game engine to drive a science-fiction game so they did not have the luxury of designing it for exploration and emergent-economic gameplay. Retrofitting that kind of thing would take way more time and money to do than focusing on improving the episode-based format it currently has.
One negative factor in those games with highly emergent player-driven economies that is often overlooked is that they usually end up running at a loss unless they employ some rather extreme (from a F2P standpoint) measures to wring more money out of the player. Things like Buy-to-Play-Free, subscribe-to-win, permaloss mechanics, and often weird restrictions that can be bypassed by throwing realworld money at them, etc., are common in that type of game.
In case you are curious about emergent gameplay, EVE Online has a nice overview of the concept here:
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Unless you're either Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Vulcan or Andorian though Vulcan and Andorian PvP is usually tied to ritual combat, Romulan and Cardassian PvP would mean they are backstabbing and sabotaging the Alliance and Klingon PvP is involves just being a Klingon, they pick fights the moment someone insults their house and honor.
It isn't really going off topic so much as bringing to light something that could be perceived as both a problem and opportunity for Cryptic.
(Derailing comments moderated out. - BMR)
Oh. Oh! So, you say it's not off topic, so it must be so. 😒 Stop derailing the thread.
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I shall say no more in this topic then.
I bid everyone a good day.