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Some Thoughts on Where to Go From Here . . .

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
While I have not capped in the game, I have spent a lot of time playing up my three characters, one Tac/Escort, one Eng/Cruiser, and one Sci/Sci. I have been thinking a lot about where the game is and where it could go. I have read many threads on this topic and thought I might throw a few things in the mix.

Ships:

I think you might have painted yourselves into a bit of a corner here, with one exception: The science ship. I think all ship classes should have their own set of powers, similar to the subsystem set that Sci's get, on top of the usual + and - to speed, hull weapons, etc. This will start to move the ships into unique abilities and interesting grouping possibilities away from the "Tank-Controller-Striker" triad you have going now.

For instance, a Scout ship that has abilities to find cloaked, ships, scan further for enemies and objectives, and be harder to detect might be a unique choice. As might a Dreadnought with abilities to tractor and hold multiple ships, beam aboard strike teams, or have lateral torpedo launchers.

Ranks

Having skipped Commodore, I suppose there are only a few ranks more possible within a naval/star trek canon: Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral, Squadron Admiral and Fleet Admiral. I personally think "Rear Admiral" should be renamed Commodore (as this rank exists in TOS), and the additional ranks of Rear Admiral, etc. should be based around a new concept: building your own starship squadron.

At the (new) rank of Rear Admiral, you should receive a new character slot for a Squadron Captain. This character starts with a Miranda, but can use weapons up to the grade of the Admiral that generated him. (so XI and XII in this case), then you can rank him up as normal, choosing to play him as a single character, or when you play an Admiral, he acts like a crew member from ground combat. This continues with a new ship every Admiral rank, until you reach Fleet Admiral, when you would have a detachment of 4 ships plus your main, or an entire squadron for you to command.

The Squadron Captains could not gain Squadron Captains of their own, but can level themselves up either flying solo, or in the squadron. This would allow an Admiral to make his fleet exactly what he wanted: a makeup of support, strike and tank ships? Sure. A wolf pack of escorts? Sure. Since the weapons and equipment would be at level, even a Miranda or an Excalibur could pull weight flying along side the supercruiser. As they level you can add BOs to them, and rank up their ships as normal, until endgame would be a private squadron of 5 fleet admirals in uberships, all under your control.

The game would treat the space game the same as the ground game. Have someone join your team? pick which squadron ships stay and which sit this one out. Does this sound like a time sink? A bit, but it makes me all giddy inside to think that all the ships I put work into can fight side by side. Besides, with Admiral level equipment, leveling wouldn't be such a grind, and may need some SP rebalancing for the Squadron Captains to make it viable.

Factions:

Obviously Romulan would be my first choice, but Cardassian would be great fun as well. I won't retread the oodles of threads on this here, but I may add one item: Defection. I think it would be enormously fun to add defection as a possibility. Klingon Federation officer defects with his Galaxy-Class ship, or the Romulan Commander switches to the Federation with his Warbird. This should not be easy, and require entire quest chains to do, but nothing adds drama like the seething hatred of a traitor. Once a defector switches, they loose access to further (new) ships of their old faction, but gains access to the costumes, and paint styles of their new faction, so your galaxy-class ship could get a Klingon paint job to show its disdain for its former masters, however that captain could never get a Sovereign-Class ship and would have to opt for the Klingon counterpart.

Boarding Parties

I love the idea of having to leave the bridge to fight off invaders or to beam aboard an enemy ship to disable their reactor, or take control of the ship. Stay in command or leave your first officer in charge? I'll leave it at that.

I have many more thoughts but I figure this is enough for now. Please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts or ideas.

Thanks for playing!
Post edited by Unknown User on

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