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.
Comments
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.