What this game really is missing is any form of story and any sense of adventure.
All of the missions in this game are really simplistic and quite boring.. run from point A to point B shooting baddies who are x distance apart.. All the locations look the same.. same blue metal corridors, same planet different colour, same number of deep encounter ships at the same distance apart.. the list of 'sameness' goes on and on and on.
There is no connetion between me at the sto universe. I don't care about it. I don't care about my fellow players. Why should I when I feel alone in a storyless repetitive nightmare. I mean, those unmapped zones.. delta volcanis or whatever it is.. what's that all about ? Blank maps ???? Hellooo?
I am an old git, I'm 39 and I'm not a trekkie, but I do love sci-fi. I used to play text only adventures on my commodore 64 - they were way more fun than STO. They were way more exciting because they gave me a sense of exploration and adventure and discovery, there were puzzles to complete and very few clues - that spawned debate and research and joy when a puzzle was solved and you could move on..
Deus Ex or Half life or single player COD4 or Modern warfare are brilliant because of the story and the adventure and the action.. Deus is almost all story but it is possibly the greatest game ever made imho,
heavy rain is another one.. no gameplay whatsoever but absorbing because of the story..
Now how about going back to some fundamental game design and giving us some stories to participate in and become engrossed in, instead of just reading them and then dropping into the repeat loop again.
Also what's wrong with a 1st person view option on ground missions and a 1st person bridge view for space battles ??? I HATE third person view, I don't want to push around some rubbish moveable dolly... I want to BE my character and see through their eyes, I want to be INSIDE that ship flying it, not watching it fly... it gives me a sense of involvement. I would LOVE to see you make something of this game and make your millions but as it stands, I have a lifetime sub for a game that I no longer play.
On the other hand, I can't wait for battlefield bad company 2.. maybe you could bring in a FPS PVP element.. half a dozen maps, bring your game weapons and a few vehicles.. robert picardo is yer muvva's bruvva lol.
I hope you don't take this the wrong way it's meant with the best intentions.
Then you really need to pay attention to the Episodic missions. Those are what you are looking for. That's are the absolute best parts of of the game. If you like any of the Star Trek TV series or movies, there is something in them for you. The story line not drawing you in?
Just in you want to stop reading there.
********* SPOILERS ****************
I don't spoil things too much. And maybe wet your appetite for the upper levels. Remember the Hobus Suvernova? You know the star that was on the edge of the Romulan Empire that managed to wipe out the Romulan homeworlds? The star that was hundreds of light years away that destroyed two planets weeks after the star exploded? (Recall that stars don't usually do the faster than light thing). A star that went Supernova, an explosion which outshines an entire galaxy: i.e. 100,000,000+ stars). There shouldn't be anything be hot plasma left in the wake of the Hobus Supernova. And yet there are 3 relatively intact planets left in the Hobus system. What the Q is up with that?
Why are the Undine (Species 8472) back in our galaxy near the Federation? Capt. Janeway seemed to have a semi-ceasefire hashed out with the Commander pseuso-Bootheby of the Undine training area.
I am a casual follower of the Star Trek series and I just love the storyline we get to progress through. There are many different stories going on all with a huge impact on the world of Star Trek. I'm not sure if you are just skipping through all the missions just to reach admiral but there is a wealth of story in this game and it is very exciting for those of us who pay attention. Just my opinion I guess.
One of the things that struck me when I started playing STO in open beta was the lack of an overarching narrative. You start the game, get your missions from Adm. Quinn and run them. Between missions or mission arcs the environment is sterile. There's no sense of anything going on. It's not so much that there aren't stories or missions, just that they feel like isolated pockets hovering in a vacuum. Kind of like stars in space.
To illustrate another way, using another Cryptic developed game, in City of Heroes, when you're between missions, in the world, you can look around and see crime happening, you can see enemies everywhere, there is a sense of things happening all around you and the world being alive and danger everywhere. When you do a mission or task force you feel as though you've done something in the world.
In STO, when you are between missions, there is no sense of anything. No danger, no activity, no direction. You do missions that seem isolated from the universe. Battle a faction for a while, then you stop and move off to fight a different faction for a while. You fight the Klingons for a while, then you just stop and move off to fight Romulans and Remans and Hirogen but there's no real closure for moving away from the fight with the Klingons. There's no narrative in the game to progress you from Klingons to Romulans to Terrans to Borg. Some Admiral just shows up in your contact list with new missions in a different part of space.
I think that's what the OP is talking about, the lack of a universal narrative voice in the game. Sure there are stories in the missions (and some very good ones too), but the game is really lacking a universal sense of anything at all. It doesn't really give the player any reason to care, doesn't try to draw the player into the universe (and if you don't already have a strong background in Star Trek, that can be a problem). It feels like starting a trilogy with the third book and the author assumes you've read the first two books and makes no effort to catch you up and fill you in.
One of the things that struck me when I started playing STO in open beta was the lack of an overarching narrative. You start the game, get your missions from Adm. Quinn and run them. Between missions or mission arcs the environment is sterile. There's no sense of anything going on. It's not so much that there aren't stories or missions, just that they feel like isolated pockets hovering in a vacuum. Kind of like stars in space.
They are stars in space, quite literally they are isolated pockets hovering in a vacuum. This isn't a busy city, it's space, the only things that happen in space are bad guys fly up and try to kill you, thus deep space encounters. Systems have planets and life and are busy with all that, but space is just empty.
You could have 10,000 ships in one system and unless they were orbiting the same world the only way you'd know more than a couple were there was from your scanners.
As far as story lines go, the episodes are awesome story lines. Yes the objectives seem like all kill five bad guys to free the planet. But how are you not going to have that in a game? They could choose not to post how many bad guys there are to kill in the objectives window but people like to know how far along they are. Just make sure and read the story parts of the missions, not just the objective window.
It's best to give it time. I doubt things will be this way a year from now. Anyone ever play SWG (Star Wars Galaxies)? In the beginning there were no vehicles to travel around or to planets, everyone had to walk or run. As time went on the vehicles were added and an expansion pack for star ships. Further down the road more missions, features and so on. I have read several game reviews about STO lacking in certain areas of game play content but kept in mind that over time the developers would add more content and work on any bugs. It takes a lot to develop games especially MMO's. I imagine the flow charts for a game like this are immense let alone the programming code and all the objects put in to this game. Take it from someone who used to script missions using C++ 6.0 for Starfleet Command. Hats off and a big thanks to you developers.
Odd. I just got done a few things where I actually stopped and read the text on each mission load... and was sort of intrigued at some of the things I'd frequently taken for granted. And there have been a few story-heavy missions (most of the things Quinn or T'nae give you are longer missions with fairly solid stories to them; I think these do the best job of capturing the feel of the TV series) that I've absolutely loved and felt giddy over going through.
There are even a few patrol missions that make me get a genuine 'Trek' feel out of the series.
I guess everyone has different definitions of what qualifies as 'story', though.
I'd agree that some missions that involve thought would be nice. I've grown tired of the ground game because the fights are entirely too long. I mean seriously, how many waves do I need to defeat to finish this mission? I'm just as displeased with the ones that are super easy and essentially have you run around a room and talk to NPCs. More variability with what is already there would make a world of difference.
I like the game and will continue to play. But the ground missions are painful at times, especially after the 20th group of 5 bad guys. I'd like a happy mix of the ground combat with some good story and puzzle type things. But no more 50 Klingons to plow through kind of missions.
EDIT: This applies mainly to the Ground side of STO for me. The space combat running and gunning is actually fun. I've played space action games since Xwing vs tie and really enjoy the space side of the game the most. I definitely would like to see more depth to these missions in space. I really really liked the template that was used in the tutorial of the game. I'd like to see more of that. (moving through other ships, a constant ongoing "mission")
OP has an acute case of nostalgia. Seriously, text-based games were better? :rolleyes:
They weren't. But being nine years old was a lot of fun.
I think you are misreading causality in your memory.
The game is good. It's not perfect. If you don't read the text, you won't enjoy the story. If you walk through the attic with the lights out, you'll be eaten by a lurking grue. If you play too much you'll be done soon.
I am just glad they fixed the weapon-inventory-swap exploit. :cool:
Then you really need to pay attention to the Episodic missions. Those are what you are looking for. That's are the absolute best parts of of the game. If you like any of the Star Trek TV series or movies, there is something in them for you. The story line not drawing you in?
I played a lot of episodic missions and found them to be for example.. a bit of background story text to read preceeding a session of ground combat followed by somebody escaping then a chase ensues which is actually a set of space battles then disable the mothership, phone home for pat on the back.. and then add or remove elements from the previous mission, shuffle and tack on a different story.. That's pretty much all I have found.
I do remember one thing I liked and got that old familiar star trek feeling when I warped into one sector or another and heard a brief spock narrative.. and now I'm thinking about it, it was the fact that there was a spoken narrative that reminded me that this was Star trek.. I remember from the TV series that the show was punctuated with spoken Kirk submissions to the captain's log.. Maybe turning those text mission statements into verbal log entries at each phase of the mission would make it more ... involving. It doesn't have to be an original trek actor's voice.. it could be anyone.. and maybe the main characters who dish out the missions need their own voices to give them some personality so that you are able to feel something about them and connect with the game at more than a very superficial level.. but i guess there is a language barrier to deal with but surely ot an impossible thing to do.
Also the fleet actions are kinda fun but would still be better with 1st person view (Please).
There that's two things I like.. so I'm not a complete misery..
It is new and I know it will change in time but I just feel that there is such along way to go from a game that I find a bit boring to gam that is REALLY good. I think some really big, fundamental changes are needed and would improve the game immeasurably, small tweaks here and there are not enough. I hope the devs are looking at making big changes because the small tweaks i'm seeing so far are mostly bug fixes - it's like rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic instead of steering away from the iceberg.
"As far as story lines go, the episodes are awesome story lines. Yes the objectives seem like all kill five bad guys to free the planet. But how are you not going to have that in a game?"
Puzzles ?
Collecting items and figure out how to use them to solve a problem?
Investigations where you are not just handed the answer in return for executing five baddies?
Some skill based trials where you accurately fly / shoot / run a course (maybe mini games on the holodeck?)
Vocalised captains log entries or 'captains thoughts' as you go along in each mission ?
Avoid the baddies components to missions that maybe encourage you to scan/explore the planet to find the route through to the goal..choose where to beam down not just at the start of the 'route' ?
Some pre-rendered cut scenes to tie things together ?
Have a look at GTA .. again it's a big onging story that you dip in and out of while exploring.. you always have a bigger story with cut scenes to go back to when you're done shooting people, finding vehicles to mess around with, aircraft to fly, stunts to complete for credit etc etc.. that is a model for how STO could exist.. BIG missions that take weeks to complete because there are smaller fun things to do in between each mission goal that pushes the story along.
OP has an acute case of nostalgia. Seriously, text-based games were better? :rolleyes:
They weren't. But being nine years old was a lot of fun.
I think you are misreading causality in your memory.
The game is good. It's not perfect. If you don't read the text, you won't enjoy the story. If you walk through the attic with the lights out, you'll be eaten by a lurking grue. If you play too much you'll be done soon.
I am just glad they fixed the weapon-inventory-swap exploit. :cool:
hmmm. yeah you're right about the rose tinted specs. apologies. lol.
hmmm. yeah you're right about the rose tinted specs. apologies. lol.
I think a lot of gamers get nostalgic because when you have played a lot of games it's all to easy to see the similarities and get bored.
Playing games should be fun, but nobody can make you have fun. It takes a little effort from the player's side too.
If I am not actually in a mood to have fun, I try not to play. I read forums if I want to think about the game but not actually "play" it.
As far as some of your comments in the above post about how you wish there were more voice-overs, nothing is stopping you from reading the texts out-loud to yourself and using different voices for your different officers. You can even just come to a full halt and do a captain's log yourself.
Unless you are in a team, there's not much stopping you from pausing to take it all in every once in a while. If it's auto-teaming that is preventing you from taking the time you need to get into the mindset where you can enjoy the story, you can turn off auto-teaming and then every mission instance will be private. (not fleet actions or DSEs)
You've also got some good ideas for how they could improve the ground missions. Hopefully the developer's consider them. Maybe you should post them in a suggestion thread. I really liked the mission where you got the fire-extinguisher and used it to put out fires to get all the scientists out. They could do more stuff like that. (Keep my extinguisher with me all the time just in case, maybe they could make it put out plasma grenade fires...)
Yes, you're right.. the opening mission was very good.. more of that stuff please ! The borg invasion, the ship breaking up. beaming the borg out into space and watching them float away.. that was cool. There was a sense of urgency and chaos which I enjoyed. Putting out the fires was an unusual touch which definitely was unique and added to the game.. not just 'shoot to kill'.
you can look around and see crime happening, you can see enemies everywhere, there is a sense of things happening all around you
No danger, no activity,
Then why are so many complaining about suddenly being drawn into fleet actions
I think a lot of the complaint about being drawn into fleet actions is the insta-gank squad waiting to blow you to smithereens before you can even get the stupid dialogue window out of the way.
One of the things that struck me when I started playing STO in open beta was the lack of an overarching narrative. You start the game, get your missions from Adm. Quinn and run them. Between missions or mission arcs the environment is sterile. There's no sense of anything going on. It's not so much that there aren't stories or missions, just that they feel like isolated pockets hovering in a vacuum. Kind of like stars in space.
To illustrate another way, using another Cryptic developed game, in City of Heroes, when you're between missions, in the world, you can look around and see crime happening, you can see enemies everywhere, there is a sense of things happening all around you and the world being alive and danger everywhere. When you do a mission or task force you feel as though you've done something in the world.
In STO, when you are between missions, there is no sense of anything. No danger, no activity, no direction. You do missions that seem isolated from the universe. Battle a faction for a while, then you stop and move off to fight a different faction for a while. You fight the Klingons for a while, then you just stop and move off to fight Romulans and Remans and Hirogen but there's no real closure for moving away from the fight with the Klingons. There's no narrative in the game to progress you from Klingons to Romulans to Terrans to Borg. Some Admiral just shows up in your contact list with new missions in a different part of space.
I think some of the game is left up to you to role play a little bit. When I come back to SOL about once a week in my RA Star Cruiser it is because of Role Play. Admiral's come back to SOL to do paper work, chat with other star fleet heads do banking even though banking can bet done out and about. The presence of the Rear Admiral should be seen at SOL.
Is there a sense of danger as an RA flying home? Some times, I may even stop in at SB K7 and grab some pvp before returning home to SOL. It is only Role Playing something to do while we wait for more content. Starting out people that don't have an RA someplace else like to see the big ship fly in next to them so they can dream about being up there in a few weeks or a month depending on their play style.
Ultimately, you need to use your imagination and creativity to give the game some extra excitement. When I was in HS many years ago. We played AD&D with paper and dice, we would dream up and role play our characters and there were no computers and pictures to see except for books and dice. So even here today we are still Role Playing to make the most of our adventures. This is how I play STO and any other MMO and other games. It really does make it more fun.
I think that's what the OP is talking about, the lack of a universal narrative voice in the game. Sure there are stories in the missions (and some very good ones too), but the game is really lacking a universal sense of anything at all. It doesn't really give the player any reason to care, doesn't try to draw the player into the universe (and if you don't already have a strong background in Star Trek, that can be a problem). It feels like starting a trilogy with the third book and the author assumes you've read the first two books and makes no effort to catch you up and fill you in.
I think a lot of the complaint about being drawn into fleet actions is the insta-gank squad waiting to blow you to smithereens before you can even get the stupid dialogue window out of the way.
Laughs, you have to be on your Toes at all times. Relaxing at any given moment you could be sucked into an enemy encounter definitely means there is danger lurking. Someone has to have the Comm when you are up stairs getting more ice for your drink, flying blindly from location to location can mean death and destruction if you aren't careful.
I'm with you, I would rather they keep the enemy contact signal open to suck you in there to keep you on your toes. If you are there flying your ship then you can avoid those hap-hazards.
Yes, you're right.. the opening mission was very good.. more of that stuff please ! The borg invasion, the ship breaking up. beaming the borg out into space and watching them float away.. that was cool. There was a sense of urgency and chaos which I enjoyed. Putting out the fires was an unusual touch which definitely was unique and added to the game.. not just 'shoot to kill'.
When I first started the game it jumps you in here, you are running around hoping to find what you need because everything is mayhem around you, the ship has a huge whole in it, with borg every where, if you look out the window you see a Star Cruiser in pieces floating by out the window, it also give you the sense just how big the ships really are. At any moment I am thinking the ship is going to blow up with me in here and I can't find what I am looking for holy moly we have a huge mess on our hands!
They are stars in space, quite literally they are isolated pockets hovering in a vacuum. This isn't a busy city, it's space, the only things that happen in space are bad guys fly up and try to kill you, thus deep space encounters. Systems have planets and life and are busy with all that, but space is just empty.
You could have 10,000 ships in one system and unless they were orbiting the same world the only way you'd know more than a couple were there was from your scanners.
As far as story lines go, the episodes are awesome story lines. Yes the objectives seem like all kill five bad guys to free the planet. But how are you not going to have that in a game? They could choose not to post how many bad guys there are to kill in the objectives window but people like to know how far along they are. Just make sure and read the story parts of the missions, not just the objective window.
Yeah, what we see in sector space is a whole lot busier than we would really see.
[
Puzzles ?
Collecting items and figure out how to use them to solve a problem?
Investigations where you are not just handed the answer in return for executing five baddies?
Some skill based trials where you accurately fly / shoot / run a course (maybe mini games on the holodeck?)
Vocalised captains log entries or 'captains thoughts' as you go along in each mission ?
Avoid the baddies components to missions that maybe encourage you to scan/explore the planet to find the route through to the goal..choose where to beam down not just at the start of the 'route' ?
Some pre-rendered cut scenes to tie things together ?
Have a look at GTA .. again it's a big onging story that you dip in and out of while exploring.. you always have a bigger story with cut scenes to go back to when you're done shooting people, finding vehicles to mess around with, aircraft to fly, stunts to complete for credit etc etc.. that is a model for how STO could exist.. BIG missions that take weeks to complete because there are smaller fun things to do in between each mission goal that pushes the story along.
What you are talking/asking about/for is the MMORPG dilemma. Using puzzles an an example, a developer can spend a large amoutn of time/resources to create an idea puzzle. It would be fun for all players to do, Not too hard nor unsolvabe, and play right into the story line. But the probably is that once the puzzle is solved, it's solved. A player playing through it again doesn't find it a challenge as he know the secret. Or they will players who will read the guides about the puzzle that other player will write. Bottom line like is not replayability for a large investment of resources. Not a wise investment for an MMORPG. And similarly for branching mission. Branching missions require 2X or more development time for 1X of playtime. Here the devs are running into the issue of a finite amount of resources.
Unlike a normal game title which has an (eventual) ending time, an MMORPG is an ongoing development effort. It's an ongoing balancing act. Spending too much time on new stuff, means that current players get burnout of the current. Not spending enough development time likely means mediocre, lackluster content. The buld of the mechanics we see in MMORPGs are there because they work in terms of high return (play value) for the time spent on creating them.
I love puzzles but have to admidt that they are a waste of time and effort in MMO's.
Same. DDO has a large number of puzzles incorporated in it, but with the staggering amount of guides out there for the harder ones a lot of the fun and mystery has been removed.
Comments
Just in you want to stop reading there.
********* SPOILERS ****************
I don't spoil things too much. And maybe wet your appetite for the upper levels. Remember the Hobus Suvernova? You know the star that was on the edge of the Romulan Empire that managed to wipe out the Romulan homeworlds? The star that was hundreds of light years away that destroyed two planets weeks after the star exploded? (Recall that stars don't usually do the faster than light thing). A star that went Supernova, an explosion which outshines an entire galaxy: i.e. 100,000,000+ stars). There shouldn't be anything be hot plasma left in the wake of the Hobus Supernova. And yet there are 3 relatively intact planets left in the Hobus system. What the Q is up with that?
Why are the Undine (Species 8472) back in our galaxy near the Federation? Capt. Janeway seemed to have a semi-ceasefire hashed out with the Commander pseuso-Bootheby of the Undine training area.
To illustrate another way, using another Cryptic developed game, in City of Heroes, when you're between missions, in the world, you can look around and see crime happening, you can see enemies everywhere, there is a sense of things happening all around you and the world being alive and danger everywhere. When you do a mission or task force you feel as though you've done something in the world.
In STO, when you are between missions, there is no sense of anything. No danger, no activity, no direction. You do missions that seem isolated from the universe. Battle a faction for a while, then you stop and move off to fight a different faction for a while. You fight the Klingons for a while, then you just stop and move off to fight Romulans and Remans and Hirogen but there's no real closure for moving away from the fight with the Klingons. There's no narrative in the game to progress you from Klingons to Romulans to Terrans to Borg. Some Admiral just shows up in your contact list with new missions in a different part of space.
I think that's what the OP is talking about, the lack of a universal narrative voice in the game. Sure there are stories in the missions (and some very good ones too), but the game is really lacking a universal sense of anything at all. It doesn't really give the player any reason to care, doesn't try to draw the player into the universe (and if you don't already have a strong background in Star Trek, that can be a problem). It feels like starting a trilogy with the third book and the author assumes you've read the first two books and makes no effort to catch you up and fill you in.
No danger, no activity,
Then why are so many complaining about suddenly being drawn into fleet actions
They are stars in space, quite literally they are isolated pockets hovering in a vacuum. This isn't a busy city, it's space, the only things that happen in space are bad guys fly up and try to kill you, thus deep space encounters. Systems have planets and life and are busy with all that, but space is just empty.
You could have 10,000 ships in one system and unless they were orbiting the same world the only way you'd know more than a couple were there was from your scanners.
As far as story lines go, the episodes are awesome story lines. Yes the objectives seem like all kill five bad guys to free the planet. But how are you not going to have that in a game? They could choose not to post how many bad guys there are to kill in the objectives window but people like to know how far along they are. Just make sure and read the story parts of the missions, not just the objective window.
There are even a few patrol missions that make me get a genuine 'Trek' feel out of the series.
I guess everyone has different definitions of what qualifies as 'story', though.
I like the game and will continue to play. But the ground missions are painful at times, especially after the 20th group of 5 bad guys. I'd like a happy mix of the ground combat with some good story and puzzle type things. But no more 50 Klingons to plow through kind of missions.
EDIT: This applies mainly to the Ground side of STO for me. The space combat running and gunning is actually fun. I've played space action games since Xwing vs tie and really enjoy the space side of the game the most. I definitely would like to see more depth to these missions in space. I really really liked the template that was used in the tutorial of the game. I'd like to see more of that. (moving through other ships, a constant ongoing "mission")
They weren't. But being nine years old was a lot of fun.
I think you are misreading causality in your memory.
The game is good. It's not perfect. If you don't read the text, you won't enjoy the story. If you walk through the attic with the lights out, you'll be eaten by a lurking grue. If you play too much you'll be done soon.
I am just glad they fixed the weapon-inventory-swap exploit. :cool:
hmmm. yeah you're right about the rose tinted specs. apologies. lol.
I think a lot of gamers get nostalgic because when you have played a lot of games it's all to easy to see the similarities and get bored.
Playing games should be fun, but nobody can make you have fun. It takes a little effort from the player's side too.
If I am not actually in a mood to have fun, I try not to play. I read forums if I want to think about the game but not actually "play" it.
As far as some of your comments in the above post about how you wish there were more voice-overs, nothing is stopping you from reading the texts out-loud to yourself and using different voices for your different officers. You can even just come to a full halt and do a captain's log yourself.
Unless you are in a team, there's not much stopping you from pausing to take it all in every once in a while. If it's auto-teaming that is preventing you from taking the time you need to get into the mindset where you can enjoy the story, you can turn off auto-teaming and then every mission instance will be private. (not fleet actions or DSEs)
You've also got some good ideas for how they could improve the ground missions. Hopefully the developer's consider them. Maybe you should post them in a suggestion thread. I really liked the mission where you got the fire-extinguisher and used it to put out fires to get all the scientists out. They could do more stuff like that. (Keep my extinguisher with me all the time just in case, maybe they could make it put out plasma grenade fires...)
I think a lot of the complaint about being drawn into fleet actions is the insta-gank squad waiting to blow you to smithereens before you can even get the stupid dialogue window out of the way.
Is there a sense of danger as an RA flying home? Some times, I may even stop in at SB K7 and grab some pvp before returning home to SOL. It is only Role Playing something to do while we wait for more content. Starting out people that don't have an RA someplace else like to see the big ship fly in next to them so they can dream about being up there in a few weeks or a month depending on their play style.
Ultimately, you need to use your imagination and creativity to give the game some extra excitement. When I was in HS many years ago. We played AD&D with paper and dice, we would dream up and role play our characters and there were no computers and pictures to see except for books and dice. So even here today we are still Role Playing to make the most of our adventures. This is how I play STO and any other MMO and other games. It really does make it more fun.
I'm with you, I would rather they keep the enemy contact signal open to suck you in there to keep you on your toes. If you are there flying your ship then you can avoid those hap-hazards.
When I first started the game it jumps you in here, you are running around hoping to find what you need because everything is mayhem around you, the ship has a huge whole in it, with borg every where, if you look out the window you see a Star Cruiser in pieces floating by out the window, it also give you the sense just how big the ships really are. At any moment I am thinking the ship is going to blow up with me in here and I can't find what I am looking for holy moly we have a huge mess on our hands!
Yeah, what we see in sector space is a whole lot busier than we would really see.
What you are talking/asking about/for is the MMORPG dilemma. Using puzzles an an example, a developer can spend a large amoutn of time/resources to create an idea puzzle. It would be fun for all players to do, Not too hard nor unsolvabe, and play right into the story line. But the probably is that once the puzzle is solved, it's solved. A player playing through it again doesn't find it a challenge as he know the secret. Or they will players who will read the guides about the puzzle that other player will write. Bottom line like is not replayability for a large investment of resources. Not a wise investment for an MMORPG. And similarly for branching mission. Branching missions require 2X or more development time for 1X of playtime. Here the devs are running into the issue of a finite amount of resources.
Unlike a normal game title which has an (eventual) ending time, an MMORPG is an ongoing development effort. It's an ongoing balancing act. Spending too much time on new stuff, means that current players get burnout of the current. Not spending enough development time likely means mediocre, lackluster content. The buld of the mechanics we see in MMORPGs are there because they work in terms of high return (play value) for the time spent on creating them.
Same. DDO has a large number of puzzles incorporated in it, but with the staggering amount of guides out there for the harder ones a lot of the fun and mystery has been removed.