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Suggestion, no quest system like (other) MMO

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
One of the worst thing STO could do is imitate WoW's (and many other MMO's) quest-till-you-drop system. (Disclaimer: I am very much excited about STO, and hope to be playing it for years. I believe it has massive potential.)

Quests are like reading Dr. Seuss books. It's a small, fun diversion that takes no brain power or skill. I don't mean this as a slam against STO's missions, I enjoy them. And we all expect a small sugar cube at the end. But, there's not really any risk involved. I might chat with my friends about how much fun quest X was...but I won't brag to them about what a challenge it was. I mean...there is no risk.


Players need a variety of activities in the galaxy that support a higher goal with benefits, that takes some skill, daring, danger, etc. BRAIN POWER. Things like:

Exploration
Mining
PvP
(insert other ideas)


These activities need to carry real risks, need to require real skill, etc. They need to be able to be applied towards things like unique recipes for ships, weapons, etc that you can craft. One concern I have about STO is that currently, it "gives" you pretty much any ship (and gear) you want as long as you can level. There's not much mystery as far as gear, ships, etc. And...this means people will exhaust their possibilities. A very bad thing in a MMO.

With quests, part of the excitement is a new scenario we haven't seen before, or a new reward. But developers are hard pressed to keep this going, especially at the level cap. What people eventually need are activites which, because of skill, risk and yes reward involved, the thrill of excitement itself comes from the risk and possible rewards over time.

RAID content isn't the answer. It's why so many people are sick of WoW. No "everyone step here, now quick kill that patrol, don't use ability X" dances for 4 hours at a time please. That is a dark, sad road. It's just a quest system, with a HUGE time sink which excludes a lot of people.

I realize STO is very, very new. Here's to a long and successful pasttime :) But let's hear it for variety and depth.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I am looking forward to multiple ways to complete missions with rewards that match a style, even peer rewards like fruit salad or plaques on the wall of ready room would be something that could be given for following Federation Standards, or thinking, or even blasting your way out of a problem.

    So the style of solution, real tough mission that requires good skill at flying or blasting, or good skill at thinking, or good skill at having a Federation ideal would have a reward, and some penalty while trying to get it done if one failed, even if a time sink or repair penalty.

    At the end of the thinking ones would have to be some sort of Alfred Hitchcock comment about not spreading the idea easily, although of coarse people could look it up on some web page eventually, such a comment could keep some of the comments about it out of general chat.

    Or slightly changing pieces and versions of same missions makes it tough to make walkthroughs that are expressible other then vague hints on chat. So reward would be for many not real tough thinking missions more then for one real tough one, or one story arc.

    Like having to find a bunch of people put in deep storage million years ago for some archeologist mission, spread over many worlds, with some npcs that step in and give clues yet the actual finding of such things are in other missions. but only matter if you have that story arc also. so while doing one mission, if you notice certain clues that are different each time, you would go to some area and solve a problem, or help a race in the right way and they would give you the hint to find the vault and free another guy, that would give you another step to look for.

    Might be more then engine is designed for though.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Agreed. I am very much hoping that this stuff is on the roadmap and will be along in the next few months, or at least this year.

    Autonomous players need to be able to log in, create their own task list, and head off to perform it without having to report to such and such. That autonomy and freedom within the game to "make a living" is what will keep the MMO crowd here for many years once they've reached the end of the preset content.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Personally I hope they boost up exploration. It would be cool if they allowed the community to create and submit missions to go into the exploration mission pool. No only would the pool get big quick, thus cutting down on the amount of repeating, but they'd get a bunch of content practically free. Also no other MMO has such community input (that I know of), so there's another selling point.

    I'd also like to see something done with BOs to make them more, alive. Look at all the missions we go through, the planets we explore, the races we see, the people we meet. Surely a simple system could be made which keeps track of where the BOs have been, what they've done, etc, and turn that into a simple social system. I mean don't get me wrong, I know it wouldn't be as easy as snapping your fingers, but it seems like it wouldn't be too hard. Also be cool if their 'memories' stayed with them when they are transfered to new ships (players).

    Anyways more polish, that's what I think this game needs. It's good, it's kept me interested. The graphics are sweet when I play on my desktop and not bad on the laptop. Even with all the other uniforms running around it feels enough like startrek to get into it and the missions (I know) are pretty good.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I tend to agree with your thoughts OP, but keep in mind, until there is some kind of Death Penalty there will never be any danger in the game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    mjcrawford wrote: »
    I tend to agree with your thoughts OP, but keep in mind, until there is some kind of Death Penalty there will never be any danger in the game.

    Your right in a way. I wonder if that is why the concept of mortality exist in the real world. Just something to ponder.

    As real world as an example, there can be risk reward, even without DP if there is multi ways to complete a mission, where to many deaths closes bonus sections.

    By having many ways to do a mission, or at least extra content for those aware or that achieve something like fewer losses, or putting something together, the bonus missions could be a no death reward instead of a death penalty. Although that is really just syntax isnt it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I would very much like to be able to just do some good old fashioned grinding, pick a camp, kill the spawn, kill it again, then again, makes it much easier to do other things while i play :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    mjcrawford wrote: »
    I tend to agree with your thoughts OP, but keep in mind, until there is some kind of Death Penalty there will never be any danger in the game.

    I'm coming to the same conclusion. I think there is room for some activities which don't have a death penalty...but the challenging/thinking ones...should. It just adds an extra dynamic to the game.
    Even some sort of ship insurance or component damage system, which requires one to get repairs, would be tolerable.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Personally I hope they boost up exploration. It would be cool if they allowed the community to create and submit missions to go into the exploration mission pool. No only would the pool get big quick, thus cutting down on the amount of repeating, but they'd get a bunch of content practically free. Also no other MMO has such community input (that I know of), so there's another selling point.

    I'd also like to see something done with BOs to make them more, alive. Look at all the missions we go through, the planets we explore, the races we see, the people we meet. Surely a simple system could be made which keeps track of where the BOs have been, what they've done, etc, and turn that into a simple social system. I mean don't get me wrong, I know it wouldn't be as easy as snapping your fingers, but it seems like it wouldn't be too hard. Also be cool if their 'memories' stayed with them when they are transfered to new ships (players).

    Anyways more polish, that's what I think this game needs. It's good, it's kept me interested. The graphics are sweet when I play on my desktop and not bad on the laptop. Even with all the other uniforms running around it feels enough like startrek to get into it and the missions (I know) are pretty good.

    Maybe it is there now and have not seen it but I would like a stats page where I can see how myself and my boffs are performing - what they have accomplished. Kills, heals, buffs. I mean I have these boffs and I hope they are performing well. It isn't always apparent.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Just a thought here.. instead of a death penalty, how about a survival bonus. Say after a certain level, starting at some high captain level or something, every mission that is skilled at your level or higher that you complete you get a +1 or something to add to your ships weapons or shields or engines and a +1 to add to your character in the same way. If you die during the Mission it's a -1 against your + attributes until you get back to baseline and then it creates a debit (but does not lower you base captain 5 or whatever skillset) you have to pay off before you can start +'s up again. That way people don't have to worry about loosing their uber unique items in missions, but there is an additional payoff to not being a "beat mob 1, die, beat mob 2, die" type player. Personally I try to do every mission without dying, sneaking around the backs of enemies on the ground to get some flanking points right off the bat.. luring ships to break formation in space and chase me away from their wingmen type stuff. If there was a serious payoff to not dying then it could also slow down the speedlevelling players as they actually do the missions as if something was at stake.
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