Some may argue that STO is already a success and in a way, it has been moderately successful, but I want to see this game thrive. I want to see the number of subscribers go up considerably. But most importantly, I want to improve this game and bring out it's full potential. That is why I have come up with this plan for improving STO.
Stage 1: Bringing the game up to Launch Quality Estimated Completion: Season 2 (July)
This stage is all about maintaining subscribers, due to the steady decline of subscribers
As many of you know, the devs had to meet a deadline that was imposed on them by either Atari or CBS. This deadline caused the game to lack at least a year's worth of extra development. Because of this, the game suffered at launch, having far less content than most MMOs and a Virtually Non-existent Crafting system, among other things. That being said, the devs did an excellent job making a strong foundation for building future additions upon. Here are the steps within Stage 1:
- Bringing the Klingons closer to the Federation in terms of content and customization- Achieved in Season 1.
- Respecs- Achieved in Season 1.
- New Raids and Fleet Actions- Are being released/have been released throughout Season 1 and will continue to be released.
- Death Penalty- Coming in Season 1.1 (late April)
- Difficulty Slider- Coming in Season 1.1 (Late April)
- Crafting Updates- (foundation improvements coming in Season 1.1, more Crafting Content will need to be added as time goes on)
- Episode Replay- Coming in Season 1.2 (late May)
- Accolade system- Coming in Season 1.2 (late May)
- Minigames- Dabo coming in Season 1.3 (June), another unannounced minigame in Season 2 (July). More will need to be released as time goes on.
- New Federation and Klingon storyline content- Season 2 (July)
- Level Cap Raise- Season 2 (July)
Stage 2: Adding missing key Star Trek elements Goal for completion: Season 4 (February 2011)
This Stage will hopefully see the end of subscription rates dropping. We may even being to see numbers go back up in this stage.
Star Trek is many different things to many different people, but so far STO has mostly only showed the Combat side of Star Trek. However, there are many key elements to Star Trek including Diplomacy, First Contact, and Ship Interiors. That is what Stage 2 is all about.
Announced
- Non-combat Missions System- Coming in Season 2 (July) At launch, it will contain First Contact, Search and Rescue, and Anthropology game types, on top of current non-combat missions, including Exploration and Relief Aid. Other missions types, such as Investigation and Archaeology missions will need to be added as time goes on.
- Ship Interiors and Ship Interior Functionality- Season 2 (July). At launch, the system is likely to contain: 1 Fed and one Klg layout; customizable floor plans, customizable textures, lighting, and color schemes; Ready Room, Lounge, Captain's Quarters, Engineering, Sickbay, Transporter Room, and a meeting room for fleets. More rooms types such as Shuttlebays, Astrometrics, and Holodecks will need to be added as time goes on. Also, the system is likely to contain increased functionality for the bridge.
- First Officers- Coming in Season 2 (July) or Season 2.1 (August)
- Missions you receive through hails while traveling- Expected to be in Season 2 (July) This contains distress calls, first contact, etc.
- Diplomacy System- Expected to be in Season 3 (October or November) Is likely to contain dialogue options and a grading system based on how well you follow Starfleet Regulations, other species customs, etc.
Unannounced but Needed
- Shuttle Functionality- An idea of mine that has received considerable support. Shuttles were an important part of the shows and movies, yet it STO they exist only as aesthetic pets and a single flyable shuttle with no purpose. In the shows, shuttles were used for Survey missions, collecting fuel, areas inaccessible by larger craft, and of course as landing craft. All of these things need to be represented in STO.
- Options for Controlling your ship from the Bridge- A very popular idea that was tied for a majority vote within the first Cryptic poll. The link goes to my ideas on how it could work. Once again, this is another key element from the shows and movies that is not represented within STO. The idea has been commented upon by the devs, but only to say that they needed to work out a way to keep it from taking away from the online component.
- Sector Space Improvements- Travel at warp speed needs some severe work. Sector Space Travel just doesn't feel right for some reason. Instead of felling like you're flying faster-than-light, you instead feel like your crawling at a snail's pace. For starters, an option to turn off the grid and trade routes needs to be added. This would likely tide people over while more extensive work is done. From their, I see two options:
- The ability to travel through space while on your ship. In order for this to work, ship interiors would need to be made one big instance. This would allow players to go anywhere on their ship while they are on route to a system. At the very least, the bridge and ready room need to be made one instance, so players can go into their ready room during travel. A notification could be given when players arrive at their destination. A new autopilot system would need to be added, which would allow ships to autopilot through multiple sectors to get to a system in another sector. This system would make players feel much more immersed, as this is the way an actual Captain would be experiencing warp travel.
- Greatly expanding the sizes of sector blocks. Speeds could then be turned up, which would make ships look like they are actually traveling at warp speed. A particle blurring effect would need to be added to better simulate warp travel.
Stage 3: Persistent and Sandbox Content Goal for Completion: Season 5 (May 2011)
This Stage should start to see new subscribers coming in. New blood within STO can only mean good things.
Many players want Persistent Sandbox content. They want some kind of open world they can explore and have an impact on. They want to feel like their choices have an effect on others around them and the world itself.
Announced
- Multi-faction Persistent PvE Missions- Coming in Season 2- These new missions will be for all current and future factions and will contain choices throughout the missions that can lead players to different outcomes. Players will have an effect on the outcome of the mission, and as such, they are persistent.
Mentioned
- Persistent Open PvP Zones- Believed to be coming later this year- This would be a front line of sorts, like the Neutral Zones within Star Trek canon. These zones would contain Open PvP, PvP where you can be attacked at any time. They would be persistent, which means factions would be able to fight for bases and worlds to take control over them. In other words, players would have an effect on these zones.
Not mentioned but needed
- Persistent Exploration Zones- An excellent idea for new Exploration Zones. They would open all new realms of possibilities when it comes to new content. The idea has been commented on several time by Developer Daniel Stahl, who likes the idea, but believes the idea first needs a way to work while in groups.
Stage 4: Making STO more like one of the shows Goal for Completion: Season 6 (September 2011?)
The game will hopefully have a steady stream of new subscribers by this point.
Many players want STO to be more like the shows. They want to feel like their crew within the game is the cast of a Stra Trek show. Several steps towards this have been mentioned by the devs.
Announced
- User-generated Content System- May come as soon as Season 3- Will essentially allow players to create their own Star Trek episodes.
Mentioned
- Weekly Episodic content players can "tune" into- The devs have mentioned that one of their main goals for STO is weekly episodic content players can play. This would make the game have a similar format to the tv shows, with your crews being the cast of a new episode each week.
- Boff Voices- The devs previously had a voiced boff system in place during beta, but took it out for extensive improvements. This is a step in the right direction when it comes to making your crew more like the cast of one of the shows.
Needed
- Boff Immersion/Relationships- Many players have wanted a more immersive system for bridge officers. They want their boffs to feel like more than just heavily customizable pets. They want to have an effect on the lives of their boffs, and even to be able to have relationships with them. Bridge Officers were such an integral part of STO. The relationships between characters was one of the main driving forces in Star Trek. This needs to be represented within STO. That is why several systems have been proposed for making a more immersive experience for boffs. You can find several good ideas within the comments in this thread, as well as here and here.
Comments
The goal of the previous Stages was pull in new subscribers. By this point, there will hopefully be enough for the devs to afford some of the more expensive features players want.
Many players want expensive features, but the devs don't currently have enough money for them.
Needed
Interspersed throughout the Stages
Special Thanks
All those whose threads I linked to
Though it's a little presumptuous (honestly, every wishlist post I've made is too) - I'd love to see claims linked to engineering reports, like adding ( - see here - ). afterwards.
Thank you, thank you. *takes a bow* Haha, just kidding.
I'm glad to see my work is appreciated.
I think the biggest problem is you get no options for talking to NPC's, it's too linear, there's no "RPG" in the game, you should get dialogue options when talking to people, and they respond based on what you say.
We lost alot of the Star Trek fans who saw these as vital in STO.
Very true
/10 chars
Agreed. With any luck, those will bring back what we have lost, and will hopefully start to bring in all new subscribers.
Keep the thread alive while I'm gone, and don't forget, I'm always open to adding new suggestions that fall into these stages.
As for me I think they pretty much have to revamp sector space it's ugly and pretty nonfunctional. By all rights we should travel through sector space from our Bridge viewpoint, this could add so much immersion to the game especially if they voiced the Bridge chatter, and put those who Hail us and those we hail on the viewscreen. This really is non negotiable it isn't Trek without it
And yeah this thread really needs a sticky.
Unfortunately however, I think the time frames for development might need a bit more work. Given what they have churned out recently, I would venture to say that they do not have the resources to complete your suggestions within a timely manner (or within a given expectation of meeting a certain standard of quality).
All of your ideas seem (at least to me) to require at least 2 years in development time. (abouts). So, I guess if STO had gotten a normal MMO development cycle to begin with, then this game truly would have had a chance at being competitive with the market and a lot of whiners (including myself) wouldn't have much to say.
Ship Interiors
Ship interiors for example. That is a monumental undertaking... espescially given the fact that a large majority of the player base doesn't want them to follow the status quo (i.e. interiors that look like they were built for GIANT PEOPLE). They have camera angle issues to work out, not to mention the vastness of making differing and varying ship interiors. They COULD do the short cut, and use the genesis system (but it sucks in my opinion, and does a poor job of masking variability).
Persistent Sandbox Elements
I am over here cheering you on heartily. But again... I think it is nearly impossible to come up with a well thought out, in depth system of persistence and Sandbox elements by next year. (PLEASE correct me if I am wrong). EVE was built around this whole notion, and that game has been 7 years in development with still massive amounts of untapped potential at its fingertips. This alone should be a year - two year project. I'm not sure their game engine can handle persistence very well either.
Look at CoX. The maps are virtually identical in size in CO and STO. They haven't progressed much in 6 years, what know? Addigng persistence would also require a major overhaul to the game's core mechanics (at least in my opinion for it to work well), such as chpping down the walls of the overly instanced nature of this game. ThAT is a project in an off itself.
Persistent Exploration Zones
I would think that the persistent exploration zones would serve to replace the lame sauce shoebox exploration clusters. This would however, (i hope) require an entire re-iteration of the exploration system (I honestly don't know anyone who likes it as it is now).
Making STO more like the shows
Again. FANTASTIC idea. But realistically speaking... can Cryptic do this? Blizzard has experience in releasing single player games that are quality, as does BioWare. Cryptic has only made generic themed MMO's. They don't have the experience in making viable, replayable, dynamic gaming systems that made even games in the 1990's so popular (25th Anniversary anyone?). BioWare has SO much under their belt in terms of experience. For Cryptic... they would need a decent amount of time to figure how to implement such innovative gameplay systems into their MMO.
Step 5 Expensive Features:
Would love to have this. I'm tempted to flat out say: never going to happen with Cryptic/Atari at the helm, but many things are possible. I will say however that the probability of this happening is extremely low. It would have been better if the IP had been given to a studio that DOES have the resources to pull such great ideas off.
Overall, I think they caught themselves in a vicious circle. They released a barebones MMO, and now they are racing to add stuff with only a few hours worth of gameplay value in order to retain people's interest, and even so, they are bleeding in between content releases with more and more people saying "I'm outta here, but I'll check it out when the next release comes". If this trend continues, then STO will have a grey subscriber base that only forks over their $15 every once in a blue moon when Cryptic makes their next release.
If they can pull off miracles, then STO may indeed be salvageable. If not... then STO will become a byword in the gaming industry.
By all means, correct me if I am wrong!
However, I think you might be putting the cart before the horse so to speak. Functionality of the bridges and ship interiors aside, one of the things that needs to be done soon at the very least is a sector space revamp. People spend a lot of time going from place to place in sector space. The feel needs to change so that it feels more expansive and more space like.
Even if you could look through your viewscreen at present you will still be looking at lollipop sticks and grid lines.
I agree with this also. Sector space is an unattractive timesink. Bridge view ftw! They also could have done travelling similar to how EVE did it but expanded a bit on it. Instead of travelling solar system to solar system, it could be more open. You could either choose to warp to another location and crawl across space with the option of shooting off into any direction and exploring the open reaches... or take a transwarp hub to immediately jump to another solar system/starbase/population hub.
Additionally, each system should be fully fleshed out and explorable. But as I said before, its likely wayyyy too much work for them to pull of given their resources.
The "open space" could have been hidden instances the same way EVE does it also... with no loading screen.
Personally I think the instancing is where the problem lies. I think the reason it is instanced the way it is, is due to the fact that they wanted to port it to the consoles. Since that is nolonger going to happen then need to either expand the instances, at least for sector space or adjust it in some way to make space more expansive.
The devs have recently announced they they will be working on improving sector space. They've also mentioned that they are looking into sector space travel while on our ships, but they need to work out a way to not destroy the online component first. I actually have a fix for that problem in my Bridge Control thread, which is a proximity sensor and list that shows all in-range players. Hopefully the devs will see it.
As far as improving sector space goes, I'd be happy with an option to turn of the grids and trade routes and an addition of a space particle blurring effect to better simulate warp speed from the shows. It would have been nice to see a system that looked more like space, but that will have to do I guess.
I'm not quite so sure it would take them that long. Cryptic has shown a knack for releasing pretty decent content in a relatively short time. For instance, all of the missions that were in at launch were developed in a year. The rest of the 2 year development cycle was spent making the Cryptic engine work for STO. I don't see the timescale as being that unrealistic. Maybe add a month or two to each Stage.
Also, many of the ideas on the list have been commented on by the devs as "coming later this year". If they think they can get them out that fast, I hope they will try. It's not like every system has to be perfect when it's launched. They can always add to each idea as time goes on. Look at ship interiors, they've announced that there will only be one layout at launch do to them lacking the time to make more and still have them out anytime soon. They did however mention that they may go back and add more in the future.
But CAN much of the second half happen? Persistent zones for example. The game engine is designed around instances. Although people are always playing around with engines and squeezing more out of them, I can't see them clicking their fingers and this appearing any time soon?
You've given them a lot to work on there which is frankly what I WANT to be playing, but I dont really think we can expect to BE playing.
interiors, diplomacy / exploration and more episodes are what we are likely to see in the furture?
Still fingers crossed. Trouble is Cryptic aren't going to go through this and tick/ cross things!
They've mentioned a possibility of persistent zones for later this year. Much of this timeline is based off things they've said.
I agree with you. The game was instanced to a point of detriment. This should be changed for sure, but even the simplest solutions I'm afraid would require a lot of dev time. I could be wrong of course tho.
I think this is probably a good idea because I'm actually a little worried with how fast the devs are trying to rush things out. Player interiors? Leave it until September if you have to. Diplomacy? December if that's what it takes to give us a deep and involved system.
At the same time, I'm worried about how many more will leave if they take too long. A good balance needs to be struck between development time and quality. The good thing about shorter development times is that they can go back later and improve things, though it has the disadvantage of not having the same "awe" effect as it would if it came out all at once.
Really?
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=150604
Most people who commented said a lot of the released content wasn't particularly noteworthy.
In anycase, what with the dev's have planned for the future... we'll we see. I can (and rightly should) hope that ti will get better since I'm a lifer. blah.
But anyway, I have to reiterate that I think your suggestions would take a lot longer than you anticipate. The things they've released "quickly" were more bug fixes, and slightly generic zerg fest raid content (which isn't all that inspired). You're suggestions involved revamping entire systems, and developing entirely new game mechanics. This is MUCh different than quickly mass producing cookie cutter content.
A knack for putting out decent content? What did they give to the klingons? Nothing but copy and paste my friend (fleet actions and BOOOOORING clusters.). T
You're ideas are fantastic, and would make for a much more interesting game. But I'm just afraid it may take much longer than what you're shooting for. I'd hate to put them under that timeline... they'll have no time to spend with their babies and/or puppies!
I've expanded the timeline out by a little bit. It still mostly corresponds with the devs own timescale. As I said, if they think they can do it, I'll sure as heck let them try. If they can't , no worries, it can always be postponed. My main concern is getting something into the game for everyone before too many of them quit. That's the main reason the timeline is kind of strict.
I hear you. And actually I feel the same way. I don't dislike the dev's in the slightest. I actually think they like what they are doing, just bad at business. My ultimate hope would be for them to get to a point where the game is solid and they no longer have to rush to get things out in order to keep people's interest and jury rig prevent the subs from bleeding out too much.
Blizzard should buy out Atari. hah.
Well that and make the universe feel alive. Just about everyone will call it fluff but adding in ambiant creatures, strange floating air jellyfish, dabbo to play at Quark's, a minigame to hack into the computer system. I think that stuff will go a lot farther than most people think with regards to making the universe feel less dead.