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SUggestion: How to make STO a good Star Trek game? BETTER EXPLORATION.

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Well i'm playing STO for a while and since Cryptic keeps asking for Feedback they will get it now.

Like my signature says, my English is not very good so I hope youll understand what im trying to say.

Well for the first: many people complain about STO not beeing an open World game. They are right in some part, but open world wouldnt fit to Star Trek. The instance system is okey, but STO does not use the advanteges of that instance system very well.

In my Opinion the heart of the game are the exploration missions. If you now say "You are kidding, exploration is boring", you are right. Thats because its not done very well.

The story missions are good, but they are done fast. Cryptic should fucus VERY HARD on exploration content.

They repeat saying "There are more then 100 exploartion missions", in my Opinion this is wrong. There are 3 or 4 exploration missions with 1 or 2 variables. But thats still just 4 missions not hundrets.

Instead of let us making 3 exploration missions to finish one quest, we should get 1 exploration mission with 3 parts for the start.

This parts should vary, so it could be 1 space part and 2 ground parts or the other way arround in every chronological Order you can think of, but focussed on one "Subject" like "Fighting Romulans"

Lets think how that could work out with the missions we already have:
1st part: You arrive at the system and hear "Romulans are Attacking a colony"
You beam down, fight Romulans.

2nd part: You hear "The Romulan ships have returned" you beam up, fight Romulans in Space.

3rd part: There are a lot of injured. Beam down, scan 5 injured.

Misson done.

The same with another order?

1st part: You enter the system and hear "Romulans are attacking the colony".
So you fight the invasion Fleet in orbit [(5/5) ships] first

2nd part: Beam down, fight ground Troups

3rd part: Beam up, find escape pod... or you can even give the player choices like if he stays down and cares for injured OR gets up and searches for escape pods of the colonys deffense ships.

I thing thats would make the exploration more interesting basiclly, since you cant get an "Aproach planet" 3 times in a row.

But its just the basic. Instead of putting efford in more and more PVE missions wich you can do just once, put efford in more and more "parts" for exploration missione. Thats a very EASY way to add content again and again wich is intresting.
If you have 100 space parts combined with 100 diffrent ground parts, each with a couple of variables, you REALLY get unique missions.
May be you should even give out some kind of editor so players can build missions themselfes, wich, after quality contol, get into the game.

I mean in know it is kind of difficult to find missions beside "shoot stuff" and "scan stuff", but it is possible, it has been done very well in the story missions.

You should also focus more on the dialog system, for example: A Federation ship enters a system, two diffrent races have a conflict.
So with the dialog you can either get a peacefull resolution, can pick one side and fight, stay out of it or **** of both and fight both. (<---- thats what people expect from STAR TREK i think)

The genesis system should be improved, too, (or just build enough diffrent maps yourself, I mean with 200 maps nobody remembers THAT EXACTLY special ones, especially since the random maps look like each other anyway)
I mean if I enter another ship i want to see more then just hallways, i want to see an engineering or a bridge once in a while.

There could be even rare "Special encounters" like the Scimitar with rare drops.

There could be mission parts wich just work come if you are in Group. To get the "open world-feeling" so many people are missing, you could meet once in a while other fed ships with other missions on the same map. Or even (this should of course be a feature you can turn of, many people do not like pvp) opposing missions with the other fraction; like the fed had to escort, the Klingon has to destroy a ship.

If the ships interior is implementet it could be used, your ship can be boardet once in a while, or diplomatic meeting could happen there.

Many people (including me) want to see Shutle missions, Exploration is the best location for it; what would be the use of a "Shutle feature" if it just happens in 2 non-repeatable mission? (and even if they are repeatable, they are the same and get boring). It could be a cool option if the player can decide if he beams down or use the shutle, or if there is something to scan in an asteroid field, if he could choose if he takes the shutles or the complete ship into that.

There could be so much done with that exploration. If they really would get unique and intresting, we would have something to play beyond beeing General oder Admiral, just for the fun. And even i have tons of Ideas for those missions (didnt say good ones^^).
But, by the way: There could be SOME excliusives for both fractions but the majority of those mission parts should be the same for both; less work for you, more fun for us.

So I think this is the direction the game should take concerning PVE content. It would be much better then pve missions you just can do once, they would be available for all levels (no "questholes") and they would make STO unique twards the hundrets of other mmo wich at last on the ground part work the exact same way.

And again, i hope anybody reads that and undertsands what i'm trying to say, me english inst good so it was a bunch of work to get that text together.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Your English is fine. I would also like to see more variety with the exploration arm of this game as well. That would be fun to play, I think.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Some very good ideas in here. I'd rather see and PvP content be a choice but that's not saying there couldn't be such a thing as an Escort match where healing is a vital factor to keep the VIP ship alive.

    The engine that the game uses is fully capable of flight on ground maps so shuttles shouldn't be much of an issue. Including them could even lead to missions along the lines of land, scan the object that disabled your shuttle, defend the shuttle against waves while repair clicking in between and take off at the end.

    I really like that idea for rolling three separate explore unknown system missions into one big multi-part like the story content. It would really make each explore sector quest feel like a full episode of a show.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I assure you, the Devs are not planning to add exploration anytime soon. Especially not in Season 2. They have specifically said that the Federation Diplomatic Corps will never be implemented, and that the idea of non-combat play is ludicrous. In fact, the very thought of a progression system for diplomacy and exploration outside of the combat skill system is blasphemic and will never happen.

    It's all in the Dev tracker and Engineering Reports. Read em.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I can't think of one good Star Trek game that really involved lots of exploration.

    Starfleet Command series? Nope.
    Klingon Academy? Nope.
    Starfleet Academy? Nope.
    Bridge Commander? Nope.
    Armada 1/2? Nope. Unless you consider looking for the bad guy's base or disabled ships exploration.

    So if Star Trek games were judges as "Good" or "Bad" based on the amount of exploration they had in them, all of the "Good" ones would be horrible.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    @ the last 2 Posters

    Did you even TRY to read the text or are you just commenting headlines? Because both posts have hardly anything to do with it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I agree, more exploration would be good.

    An easy quick fix would be Klingon objectives for Feds and Vise versa.

    If my Gorn is looking for plants or technology, he's going to destroy it. If my Feds look for the same, they are going to study it....let both sides do both.

    Not a total solution, but one that could be done fairly quickly I'd think.

    We also need more strange non-biped creatures to see, when I'm exploring I want to see new and strange things.

    More models of flora/ technology would be great....maybe half a dozen or so plants and probes to find?


    It's a good start as is, just add a few goodies every major patch. One or two added every time....in a year you have a dozen new things hopefully.
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