Here is my proposal. I would like to see Fleet Actions function differently and be balanced differently using the Difficulty system that currently does not apply to Fleet Actions. Eventually, Id like the see a higher degree of difficulty aimed at fleets who want to work together in larger groups to complete and get new rewards.
Weaknesses of the current system:
- There is no penalty for dying. Ive been in Deep Space 9 encounters where I spawn, kill 1 thing and get killed, then spawn and do it again until the room is clear. This would be fixed by tying the difficulty slider feature to the Fleet Action because it comes with a death penalty.
- There is no UI. I know you are all busy and this is fairly low priority, but I think youve already confirmed you are working on a way to display more than 5 team members, which would make coordination much easier. How do you tell if someone is a Medic or a Doctor or an exposer just by looking at them? Currently, you cant. Id like to know (without asking) what kit a Science Officer is wearing, perhaps by the name of the kit somewhere in the player frame.
- There is no reward. I got a small shield charge last time I did Deep Space 9. No data, no merit, just Bridge Officer points I dont need (Im RA5). It would be cool if the top 5 players were rewarded a bunch of shield charges, hypos and batteries to encourage people to use them.
- There is no beginning. I had no idea there was a space portion of Deep Space 9 Fleet Action until I saw the video. Can I start at the beginning? Dont get me wrong, I love that I can jump in and fill a spot if someone leaves, but I dont have the option of starting at the beginning so despite doing this multiple times I never saw it.
- There is no organization. Id like to gather a group or a fleet, open the map from the start, make assignments (socially or through the UI, since I carry multiple kits Id like to know what people want me to use), and finally pace through the mission without just holding down my space bar (actually I bound R to fire all weapons and I just roll my face over that key). Give me trash that slows me down, and give me a boss I have to coordinate strategies to defeat. The end of Gorn Minefield was SO AWESOME, but nobody wipes there.
- There is no choice. Id like secondary objectives like healing NPCs or rescuing them or something that adds to my score instead of just killing things. This gives me something to do when Im stuck in my Medic kit and everyones at full health. Engineers could fix computers for a chance at locking the next trash group in a forcefield or beaming them to the brig, Tactical Officers can question wounded badguys that pops a buff for the next minute.
- There is no incentive. Once youve done a Fleet Action once, you usually dont go back; and if you do, you get an even crappier reward than the first time. That would change if there was a single rare drop that happened at the end and only 1 person wins it.
You really have a wonderful idea in place, it just needs a bit more work to really attract fleets and give people a reason to meet, talk, and cooperate. This doesnt overlap the concept of Special Task Forces because that focuses on small groups, dialog with interesting badguys, interesting story, and linked progression (you dont have to save Starbase 24 to do the Big Dig, but you have to complete Infected before Cure).
Let me know what you think about what needs to be fixed, what you don't like, or my thoughts and comments about a solution. Please QQ in the other thread.
Comments
As far as having no UI and no reall incentives to complete the fleet actions, I agree. As a lt. commander, I like the rewards at the end of it. But the item drops from the ships are of little use to me. Since your an RA5, I can't imagine there being ANY incentive to play except the desire to play with friends. I agree, I think there should be more rewards. Someone else said this about exploration missions "I want the "stick" for a reward. Meaning, they wanted trophies or artifacts pertaining to that mission that they could "win" as a reward. Dsahtl has already said this will be implemented... but I hope the same is done for fleet