A Thread for Missions Involving Mystery & Puzzles!
Throughout the entire
Star Trek phenomenon, throughout every single episode and film, there has been an element of mystery involved and a puzzle to solve. The reason for this is simple, the crew of the various starships and space stations that we have come to know over the years have all been on a mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life forms. So naturally there going to come across a mystery in nearly every episode and of course they can't help but be drawn into the mystery due to the human curiosity factor. Once the crew has been entangled within the mystery, they usually get them selves into a dangerous situation and thats where the puzzle comes in, they then have to piece together a number of different facts from different sources and solve whatever problem they have got them selves into, or solve a problem that does not effect anyone aboard the ship but does effect a planets population, or a problem effecting something much greater than one ship, such as a temporal incursion which has erased an entire species from existence.
Also, I've read that a number of players mention that diplomatic missions are to easy or just don't involve diplomacy, while there is plenty of combat in all areas of the game.
The possibilities are endless, this is Star Trek..... To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before!
I personally am very pleased with everything that Star Trek Online is at the moment, I know it's early days and I appreciate all that the Cryptic Team has done so far, but I do believe it will never be "Star Trek" until it involves the above mentioned "Star Trek Factor" by adding a number of missions that involve a reasonable amount of brain power to solve. Random distress signals, space dwelling aliens, nebula dweling aliens, space anomalies, wormholes, smugglers, hostage negotiations (a Bridge Officer could be kidnapped), could it be posible for transporter to go offline or have interemce, so instead you have to use a shuttle to get to your destination and the list goes on...
Please post a reply here if you would like to have more missions Involving Mystery and puzzles.

Thank you for your time and kind attention.
Comments
I for one, support more varied and better non-combat missions.
A few remarks :
1) I believe Cryptic doesn't want petitions.
2) There was an epic thread about minigames, it is now buried in the archives, I'm not sure you can access it if you weren't in beta though : http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=1547785
The topic will return soon, Thomasthecat told me he is already working on new mockups !
3) Cryptic seems to be working on something : Jack Emmert said in his last chat that Cryptic will implement diplomacy and / or minigames
http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Gaming/Star-Trek-Online-Live-Chat-Transcript/td-p/91426
Zinc said on Storadio that Cryptic will add more non combat in the star clusters
http://www.mmojunkies.tv/2010/01/28/storadio-1-7-presented-by-mmo-junkies/
Direct download : http://mmojunkies.podbean.com/mf/web/8m7hkq/storadioshow8.mp3 (@48mn25)
He said it again in an interview by MMORPG website :
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/352/feature/3977/Star-Trek-Online-Launch-Day-Interview.html
I will change this thread from a "Petition for Missions Involving Mystery & Puzzles" to a simiplie "Thread for Missions Involving Mystery & Puzzles".
Depending on what your responce is to a particular NPC.
Another fantastic idea Mangh, thank you for your feedback.
EVERY episode of star trek had some sort of mystery to solve... and if u ask me, without it, this is not star trek.
I really like STO. I like what it offers now and the potential it shows for the future.
This, for me, is one thing that will be key to my long term life with the game.
I like the non-combat missions. I love the Delta Volanis exploration. I like those systems. But beaming down to get a message to scan 4 pods, and all I have to do is go find and scan 4 pods is just not quite enough. That's just filling time. Give me some NPCs to interact with. Some secrets to discover. There needs to be more meat to the away missions.
The settings are great. They look fantastic. This is Star Trek, for sure. But then in this wonderful environment all you have to do is talk to 4 people and answer a quiz, or scan 4 pods.
One of the problems is that right away on beam down you are given the problem you need to solve.
I'd like to see you beam down and not even know what you have to do until you poke around a bit. Of course, that would require NPCs and text and quest material. I dont think that is too much to ask. LOTRO can do it, so can you.
I think many of us are looking for that TOS/TNG episode feel of beaming down and solving problems. We need more depth of quest content there.
Please.
But they do not have to be either / or, they could have both, some of the puzzle results could lead to combat, but just different or changing based on choices, with differnt level of rewards based on solutions.
So if you do things in the federation way, when reporting for mission completion, the admiral could make a comment about some bonus xp or items, or an offer to repeat or go back and fix something.
So some mission where you have to figure out to trade with a npc in a prewarp society, if you trade a prime directive violaiting item, then you get less xp, and the admiral would explain it, and then you would have option to go back and get the item to get full xp. Could have hints where merchant asked what is that item? Or wow that looks really different, what is that?
Or if you save some colonist on the way, not in mission brief, then maybe you get the bonus award for living up to Federation standards when exploring the world.
Then not only would game be more of Star Trek flavor, but it would also discuss those ideas with players. The admirals would, like the series, expect and in some way show Federation ideas and standards of conduct.
Since most of the Federation ideals shown on the show are the same ones people like in stories, heroic good decisions, helping those in need and such, it seems most would like that flavor. (then klingon missions could do same thing with Honor flavor)
I have previously changed the title of this thread, it is no longer a petition and I never realised that a petition was something that was not allowed. As far as I'm aware, everyone is entitled to freedom of speach, nobody is being forced to act upon the suggestions and ideas within this thread.
It's supposed to be helpful for the Devs and GMs, so they can see for themselves what the players want and again, they don't have to act upon the players requests, ideas, petitions, threads or anything a player asks.