So, one of the things I was thinking about after looking at Risa and Vulcan was that more open and explorable ground based locations. The big thing is to have a level of interactivity and a reason to attract players to those locations even beyond immersion and exploration. Currently, Vulcan is more or less a set of stairs, a temple entrance and the desert. My thoughts to expand this is add some of Vulcan's notable features like:
Mount Seleya
Vulcan's Forge
T'Karath Sanctuary
Vulcan High Command
Vulcan Science Academy
As you approach the planet you will beam down to the High Command and from there you can access the Transporter pads to go to any of the locations on the planet. Aside from exploration, Science Officers can go to the Vulcan Science Academy to do special Class only quests for unique items or skills.
On Earth, have the central location for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers that will have the same options as the Science Academy on Vulcan. Other locations on Earth:
Starfleet Command
Starfleet Academy
United Federation of Planets Capital
Also use Andoria, at this location have a facility for Tactical Officers. The location has the following locations that can be used (Taken from Memory Alpha:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Andoria):
Andorian Academy
Wall of Heroes
Mountains of Andoria
Northern Wastes
Similar for the Klingon Empire you can do the same by expanding on Qo'noS and adding similar locations of importance to the Empire.
The thought due to resource limitation, keep it to just a few locations so not to tax the servers and Dev resources and it can be expanded on later as the game expands to allow for more locations.
Comments
I can't tell you how dry it is to run 2k on Vulcan to discover the quest giver needed to be picked up back at Sol.
It would also give a greater sense of habitation versus seeing all of Vulcan and only two players wandering around aimlessly in an instance.
I added this thread to the Ultimate Suggestions Thread:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=122694
One more thing i really would enjoy. On Earth also should be the Daystrom Institute. It could be some sort of Museum for Federation History with an Database Events, Persons, Races, Planets and Ships. It could be places were we can read all the background information on Star trek.