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With wildlife coming, how about a Bestiary?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
One of my favorite pastimes in MMOs has always been attempting to complete the internal bestiaries. For those who don't know, a Bestiary is a catalog of the animals and other creatures, and in the context of a game it typically contains the monsters that you fight.

But, this is star trek, and Federation officers wouldn't just be killing wild animals left and right. However, I think it is VERY Star Trek to be searching out and cataloging alien life. It's ingrained in the organization's mission to do this, "Seek out new life and new civilizations." Well, with diplomacy coming we've got the new civilizations part, so how about this for new life?

Here's what I would recommend:
  • A station in the ship where you can access the database and read about the creatures you've scanned. The data you collect is kept in your ship's computer. As they're discovered, your Science officer will report directly to you on what you've found, and then enter that data into the database so it can be reviewed at any time.
  • For planet surfaces, the wildlife would be spooked if you approach too rapidly, or with the full compliment of bridge officers. After all, 5 people coming at a wild animal on earth would cause it to run away. So, to scan an animal, the best tactic would be to have your bridge officers stand back, while you cautiously approach (perhaps crouching would give a bonus chance of not being noticed), the creature will respond depending on its traits, and react according to some chance of noticing you. If you can get within, say, 3 meters of the creature, you can then use your tricorder to scan it. If the creature notices you sneaking up, it will be come startled. A startled animal might run away (maybe 20-30m), or if it's a large or predatorial animal, it could attack.
  • Killing animals, even in self defense, would have to be strongly discouraged. I would suggest that killing an animal on the planet would render a debuff that causes all the other animals to avoid you wildly, meaning that you couldn't scan any more while on the planet's surface, or under the effect of that debuff. Stun weapons could be best used to put the animal into a stunned state, allowing you to move outside its attack radius, which would cause it to revert back to a neutral state. This way you can avoid killing the animal without being killed yourself.
  • The data collected on the animal could not be gathered completely from scanning just one individual of the species. You would need to find several, across multiple missions to complete it. I'm thinking it should be 5-10, but that's definitely up for discussion. Each scan would provide more information about it.
  • The Bestiary's database could include:
    [LIST=5]
  • The Animal's name, both common and scientific, and an image of it
  • Environmental conditions of its habitat (since odds are they'll appear in multiple planets)
  • Location (Could be as general as the Star Cluster, or for canon species, the specific planet.)
  • The animal's diet, like whether it's carnivorous or herbivorous, or if it's something really out there like Horta
  • The evolutionary history of the species
  • Useful byproducts or other applications for the animal (Ex. "This creature emits a poisonous venom that cannot be easily replicated, but is very useful in the treatment of Andorian Flu.")
  • Titles/Accolades for your level of completion of the Bestiary. There could be titles for each individual star cluster, territory (all Federation-area clusters, romulan area clusters, etc.) for gathering all the available creatures, etc. There could also be some type of exchange like the Marks of Exploration to encourage this.
  • Missions that would involve the animals in a more direct capacity, but not necessarily require scanning them. Following the example above, there could be a colony on the planet that's being ravaged by Andorian flu, and when you arrive they need someone to gather the venom so they can treat the colonists. I'm not sure exactly how to go about that, but it would be a bit more interesting than scanning stationary structures.
There could be a lot more, those are just my initial thoughts.
[*]For space, there are just as many options. We often see large and strange creatures in space in the TV series (Crystalline entity being an example that's already in game, the creature from this episode as another example). they could have similar reactions, such as being startled by a ship approaching at Full Impulse, encouraging the use of lower speed settings as you draw closer to it. Once within 5km or so, the ability to scan it would become available, however it could react in unexpected ways, either attacking directly, or inhibiting the ship in some way if you aren't careful. This might even be used to disable enemy ships, by bringing them in range of a creature that you know will have a violent reaction.
[*]Since space creatures are so big, there shouldn't be more than one or two in any particular mission. This would make it a little harder to gather the complete data on them, but they will be less likely to respond in such a way as to prevent scanning.
[*] Final suggestion is to add pre-existing animals to the database as well; this would include the Crystalline entity, the Targs, and the Attack Saurs, as well as all currently existing (sub)species of Tribble.
[/LIST]

So that's what I've got. What do you think? Suggestions? Does this sound like something you'd like to see? (I wanted to make a poll but I don't see that option)
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I actually think that this would be a really neat idea. I suggested something like this a while back in one of the threads...... can't remember what one it was right now. Anyways, I support this idea, as it would add a great deal of depth to the game and allow those of us that would like to live out the scientific parts of the star trek universe. My vote is yes.

    Also another addition to your list would be inherant traits of the select creatures, such as attitude. The creature may be naturally passive or naturally aggressive or it could be cautious and would try and escape or run from you if you got too close to quick and if you cornered it it would attack. Aggressive would attack once you came with in either it's line of sight or in it's radious or both. Passive would not do anything unless provoked, such as escape or retaliate. Just my suggestion.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I definately would like to see a function like this in game, after all Trek was about exploration and seeking out new species and civilizations.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I like the idea. Anything that adds more diversity to the exploration play and overall play is good. I can see a variation on this idea too, where you would have to get covert scans of different alien settlements (pre-warp), while trying to avoid contact. The scans could then be loaded into some sort of exoanthropoligical database.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    two more things i thought of:
    1. Titles/Accolades for your level of completion of the Bestiary.
    2. Missions that would involve the animals in a more direct capacity, but not necessarily require scanning them.
    More details will be added to the main post about these.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    With the Caitians coming, there will be plenty of bestiality in STO... Oh, I'm sorry, I misread the thread title.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I would love to see this in game. It adds a bit more depth to each mission, and provides an extra challenge for players to accomplish while learning more about some awesome creatures.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    PSIRockin wrote:
    With the Caitians coming, there will be plenty of bestiality in STO... Oh, I'm sorry, I misread the thread title.

    LOL I was thinking exactly the same!

    On a sidenote, I want playable Vorta, too.

    On topic: I think that's a great idea, especially if there are better/other options than 'scan 5 animals' or 'kill 5 animals' involved.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    ArievDhien wrote:
    LOL I was thinking exactly the same!

    On a sidenote, I want playable Vorta, too.

    On topic: I think that's a great idea, especially if there are better/other options than 'scan 5 animals' or 'kill 5 animals' involved.
    In my mind this would be something optional to do in any type of mission. IE, while scanning those 5 boxes on the surface of the planet, you can also explore the area and try to find some new wlidlife you haven't seen yet. They'd also be in the social areas, though those would be easier to approach and likely be used to introduce the player to the concept. It would give you a reason to walk around the landscape and explore, rather than move from dot to dot following your tricorder's beam.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    this thread makes me think of so many sexual innuendos about ***********.... i won't say any though coz i'm nice like that... but what i will say is this

    "the problems with panda pron are #1, everybody looks that same, and #2, everything is in black and white"


    that is all
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Unless there's some feature attached, the devs might not bite.

    Their design philosophy for something so major is to have gameplay attached.

    Completing a zoological or xenological index would nice (though it does scream "Star Trek Online: The Pokedex!"
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I like the idea. Klingons, by contrast, could just kill them and collect trophies for display.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Naevius wrote:
    I like the idea. Klingons, by contrast, could just kill them and collect trophies for display.

    This. Klingon game hunters - mounting wild beasts in their quarters or mess hall would be epic.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Unless there's some feature attached, the devs might not bite.

    Their design philosophy for something so major is to have gameplay attached.

    Completing a zoological or xenological index would nice (though it does scream "Star Trek Online: The Pokedex!"
    There definitely needs to be some sort of gameplay enhancement for completing these scans, but I can't really think of an appropriate reward. It needs to be useful but not gamebreaking, and it should probably be PVE only. Traditional examples would be buffs, drop lists, exp boosts, and damage boosts, but since we're not killing them, none of those make much sense.

    and, as evidenced by the term "Bestiary", the concept of logging animals predates pokemon by several centuries.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    this thread makes me think of so many sexual innuendos about ***********.... i won't say any though coz i'm nice like that... but what i will say is this

    "the problems with panda pron are #1, everybody looks that same, and #2, everything is in black and white"


    that is all

    First of all, @Homsikpanda; Rofl! Ya, that's a pretty good point, lol :D

    Secondly, I agree with the Op's Proposal; an interesting beastiary would make this game that much more immersive, and provide me with something to do on my kling char while waiting for ques, or on my fed healer while waiting for more people to join a fleet action. plus, it could include things not in STO, but that are still part of the Trek Universe, so as to provide a source for non-trekkies or new trekkies wishing to learn random info about the universe or who are curious about creatures or events that are mentioned in-game but never really explained in detail. Mass Effect had one of these (although theirs may have been more justified due to mass effect being a relatively new sci-fi IP), and I think that STO could benefit with something similar.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Pets. Complete your bestiary and get an in-game pet, or something like that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Terral wrote:
    There definitely needs to be some sort of gameplay enhancement for completing these scans, but I can't really think of an appropriate reward. It needs to be useful but not gamebreaking, and it should probably be PVE only. Traditional examples would be buffs, drop lists, exp boosts, and damage boosts, but since we're not killing them, none of those make much sense.

    and, as evidenced by the term "Bestiary", the concept of logging animals predates pokemon by several centuries.
    I know - but when a game adds a gameplay bestiary (as opposed to a fluff one with no game to it), many gamers immediately jump to a similar game analogy (i.e. pokemon).
    n00b says wrote:
    Entymologists and Zoologists are the original pokemon catches - Charles Darwin was one of the pokemasters!

    Oh course, somewhere a scientist is crying a little when agamer thinks such things.

    As for pets, we already know how Spot turned out.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Naevius wrote:
    Pets. Complete your bestiary and get an in-game pet, or something like that.

    Maybe....have to be something relatively tame and manageable though, not just anything from the Beastiary that you choose. Now, don't get me wrong; you should definitely be able to choose from a limited selection from your beastiary. However, some options should be off-limits for obvious reasons, the Horta for example; I mean, they're sentient, for starters, not to mention that they eat metal.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Klingons should be able to hunt animals and use whatever they get from them for crafting or unlocking outfit parts.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    neat idea, but really, I think the devs have enough on their plate already, maybe slate this for season 6.0?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Yes. We need somewhere to lock up all the caitian yiffers. Wait, what? Bestiary is not a prison for filthy beasts? ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I like this idea!! Would be a great addition!

    /signed!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    The devs always have a lot on their plate. Its not like they make a new ship skin and then lean back for a few weeks with nothing to do. :p

    Wildlife is something that can work totally different for the factions, that is the part I like about it. Humans scan or catalog, Klingons hunt and craft (and if they get Calnoth as a species one day - they could even eat the animals and use them as a replacement for hypos or something).

    And really, why stop at animals? You can also scan and catalog plants on Fed side to study them; a Romulan assassin could use the plants to extract poison and upgrade a dagger with it via crafting. Ancient ruins - the Fed archaeologist studies it and gains knowledge/unlocks some skill maybe, while a Nausicaan pirate takes everything of value and sells it to a shady artifacts dealer.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    ArievDhien wrote:
    The devs always have a lot on their plate. Its not like they make a new ship skin and then lean back for a few weeks with nothing to do. :p

    Wildlife is something that can work totally different for the factions, that is the part I like about it. Humans scan or catalog, Klingons hunt and craft (and if they get Calnoth as a species one day - they could even eat the animals and use them as a replacement for hypos or something).

    And really, why stop at animals? You can also scan and catalog plants on Fed side to study them; a Romulan assassin could use the plants to extract poison and upgrade a dagger with it via crafting. Ancient ruins - the Fed archaeologist studies it and gains knowledge/unlocks some skill maybe, while a Nausicaan pirate takes everything of value and sells it to a shady artifacts dealer.
    Yeah, I was thinking about plants as well, and that seems to be the area where the most reward could come in. There are already a few exploration missions dealing with scanning plants to see if they might be useful, why not take it a step further and actually start using them? That's where a lot of those things i described earlier could come in: Sell it as a delicacy to another species, use it to add venom to the tip of a bat'leth, synthesize medicines with it to remove biological debuffs, or even to generate buff items.

    I also like the idea of collecting some stuffed trophy versions for a Klingon ship. It would fit for Hirogen as well, assuming they're part of the Romulan faction.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I like the idea of collecting and/or gathering plants. You could also add gathering plant samples for scientific research to the list of "things to do with plants." Perhaps with ship interiors on the Klingon side you could chose which trophies to mount and where. Interior decorating... with dead animals!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Yeah, the trophy and display on bridges idea is great. Fed players could display scientific achievements instead of medals, models of ships like Picard or a personal talisman like Sisko's baseball. Klingons, Hirogen, other aggressive species can display pieces of an enemy's armor (like sash of a rival house).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Personally, I'd rather see it as something like WoW Pets, Champions Actions figures, STO Klingon Targs...

    You can show off one pet ala Porthos or Spot.

    What would be really awesome is if they designed animals with the customization tools humanoids have and then made them tameable on exploration planets and canon animals tamable on IP planets. But you don't actually get to customize them. You take what you can find.

    The point being that pet collectors would keep their eyes open more on exploration missions. If you saw one animal you liked, you'd claim one as a pet. And it would be uniquely yours since someone else would need to encounter the same random species you did to get one.

    I actually really like exploration environments but I think the random environments also need souvenirs that are just as random. You can't do that with functional loot because of balance issues but cosmetic items that are all one in a thousand and reflect your strange travels would really hammer home the feeling of exploring.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    And not limited to animals you can tame. You could collect rare plants for your hydroponic garden - I like a lot of the plants on random planets and would like to pluck them. Oh, how I want that singing plant, what mission is that? Where you aid the Romulan civilans. I tried to communicate with the plants with sonic pulse, but it didn't understand me. :(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Personally, I'd rather see it as something like WoW Pets, Champions Actions figures, STO Klingon Targs...

    You can show off one pet ala Porthos or Spot.

    What would be really awesome is if they designed animals with the customization tools humanoids have and then made them tameable on exploration planets and canon animals tamable on IP planets. But you don't actually get to customize them. You take what you can find.

    The point being that pet collectors would keep their eyes open more on exploration missions. If you saw one animal you liked, you'd claim one as a pet. And it would be uniquely yours since someone else would need to encounter the same random species you did to get one.

    I actually really like exploration environments but I think the random environments also need souvenirs that are just as random. You can't do that with functional loot because of balance issues but cosmetic items that are all one in a thousand and reflect your strange travels would really hammer home the feeling of exploring.
    I like this to some extent, but I also don't really want a bunch of wild animals roaming around DS9 or Sol Starbase. They also would be a little crowding in ground missions since you've already got a pack of BOs following you. Only spots it seems really ok would be on social planet surfaces, or possibly non-combat missions. Of course, that means you'd need to know in advance that it was noncombat, which at this point is not always clear until after you've landed.
    ArievDhien wrote:
    And not limited to animals you can tame. You could collect rare plants for your hydroponic garden - I like a lot of the plants on random planets and would like to pluck them. Oh, how I want that singing plant, what mission is that? Where you aid the Romulan civilans. I tried to communicate with the plants with sonic pulse, but it didn't understand me. :(
    Never really thought about a Hydroponics bay, but it would be a neat thing for the interior of some ships. Could end up with a menagerie like Dr. Phlox. (A bit overkill though, hahaha)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    ArievDhien wrote:
    The devs always have a lot on their plate. Its not like they make a new ship skin and then lean back for a few weeks with nothing to do. :p

    Wildlife is something that can work totally different for the factions, that is the part I like about it. Humans scan or catalog, Klingons hunt and craft (and if they get Calnoth as a species one day - they could even eat the animals and use them as a replacement for hypos or something).

    And really, why stop at animals? You can also scan and catalog plants on Fed side to study them; a Romulan assassin could use the plants to extract poison and upgrade a dagger with it via crafting. Ancient ruins - the Fed archaeologist studies it and gains knowledge/unlocks some skill maybe, while a Nausicaan pirate takes everything of value and sells it to a shady artifacts dealer.

    Totally, this would add to the fun of playing the different factions. You catalog for a while, then you kill, later you exploit...Good times. :rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    You could even add maybe a science center for Feds and Hunting room for Klings for your ship to show off what beasts you found. I would love the idea for cataloging animals for Feds. I dont think it would take till Season 6 though. If the Devs like the idea, we could possibly see something like this in Season 3 or 4 ,just dont hold me to that,.
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