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"Set a Course" Bridge Nav and Sector Space - A Compromise

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Sector space is intended by developers as a social hub. This is one reason they're averse to scrapping it as it is one of the few places you passively see and are thrust into encounters with other players.

Bridge navigation with a timer would require loading less instances. You could only have to load one when warping out of a sector (you load the bridge) and then one when warping into a sector. In the meantime, you'd be on your bridge.

The one thing that's missing to make that work is how to force people to be social and feel like they're part of a persistant world while on their ship in transit.

The best solution I can think of might not entirely cut back on load screens but my idea is:

You warp out.

You're on your bridge.

You tell the helm to set a course for a SECTOR BLOCK.

A travel timer engages. At the end of the travel timer, you get an option to return to tactical view.

You emerge in sector space in the destination block.

This way, you do get enemy signal contacts while en route to a planet and see other players once you arrive at a sector block but you avoid multiple load screens when crossing multiple sector blocks.
Example:

Under the present system, if you want to go from an Exploration System in the Zenas Expanse to Gamma Orionis to run Infected... You go:

Exploration System->Loadscreen->Zenas Expanse->Loadscreen->Zeta Andromedae Sector Space->Loadscreen->Beta Ursae->Load Screen->Sirius Sector->Loadscreen->Gamma Orionis Sector Space->Loadscreen->Infected

Under my proposed system, it would go:

Exploration System->Loadscreen->Bridge (with countdown timer)->Loadscreen->Gamma Orionis Sector Space->Loadscreen->Infected

You still see other players in your destination sector. You still have a chance to encounter enemy signal contacts once you arrive in your destination sector.

The difference is that it cuts out a bunch of signal contacts/areas that would be out of synch with your level anyway and a bunch of superfluous loadscreens where, frankly, the passive socialization you WOULD have wouldn't be all that valuable or important.

It doesn't eliminate sector space as you still have to navigate it once you arrive in the desired sector block. It does effectively cap out the number of loadscreens you'll have to experience getting from point A to point B; it doesn't ELIMINATE them but it does reduce them. Think of this as being like a Warcraft gryphon flightpath or like the tram in City of Heroes.

In the end, I think it makes it more likely that people would cross long distances.

Beyond this, I would suggest putting anomalies in sector space as an incentive for people who take the "slower", more loadscreen-heavy route. Basically akin to Seven of Nine's comment that Voyager would have taken less time getting home if they didn't stop to chart every anomaly they saw along the way.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Hmmmm. This is where I'm torn. Cause I've given the idea a lot of thought. Especially in the context that we're getting ship interiors soon so I want to spend more time in my ship.

    I don't want to lose the face time I get with my ship from the outside.

    Like if we lost that from our travel time ... we'd lose a lot of the time in-game where we see our ship flying. And my ship's so damn pretty.

    I have ... weird luck with mission spawns. I get a LOT of ground combat. Just the way the RNG works for me. So I like your idea here, trying to find a compromise. You've got my interest piqued.

    I want more opportunities to be in my ship. I do. And I definitely understand the "feel" of Trek being on the bridge and telling the helmsman to set a course.

    But like I said, I like looking at my ship in motion too.

    I'm torn.
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