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Build Ups... Let Downs

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
There are a lot of posts out there that express in great emotional details a player's views on the game. In reality, they are just complaining about this, their next game, in a forum where they are confident that everyone wants to know how they feel, and will agree completely with them.

This is NOT one of those posts. I have designed and consulted on many games and many editions. Some you have definitely heard of, and some you have not. My purpose here is to explain where I believe the game builds something up, but only to let you down once you get there. Following through on these expectations, should do wonders for the game and keeping a growing flowing PBASE.

First off, this is Star Trek. If it doesn't "feel" like Star Trek, then the Trekkies are not going to stay.

Build Ups / Problems.

Made Admiral waaaayyyy too fast, and when I got there, there wasn't anything there. We have in-game titles called "Career Officer", but when you can make the highest military career rank in the game in a mater of weeks... . Don't get me wrong, I am proud to be an Admiral, BUT, then so is everyone else... we have NEWBIE Admirals... . Becoming an Admiral should take a lot of dedication and work, mastery of the game, so when you get there, and your buddies have not, it feels like a real accomplishment. Build up... let down.

Making Admiral, very disappointing. This should be a place where all the stops are pulled out. You not only get the Admiral rank insignia, but the Admiral uniform (don't forget the all important -every episode had it- gold braid uniform), and of course a worthy flagship, and a fleet to command (albeit a small one, after all you are the lowest rank of Admiral). These are not just "would be nice" they are expected by anyone who watches Star Trek or has ever served in a "fleet", and as the player levels up, these expectations are built up higher and higher... then when you only get 1 out of 4 (the rank pip)... then what? Build up... let down.

Ships. Something is wrong when the starter ships are more fun. Maybe its just me (and everyone else I've chatted with), but the higher up you go in rank, the more impressive your ships should be. But that is NOT the case in so many different dimensions once you feel the let down. Take the Galaxy Class, I don't know about you, but I looked forward to that ship with GREAT expectations. The largest Federation warship, the focus of great TV episodes. When I finally got there, the ship... was the SMALLEST in its class? Build up... let down.

Okay, so the Galaxy Class ship is not the impressive ship we all expected and had our hopes built up for... we then make Admiral and... the Sovereign has been sabotaged just like the Galaxy, compared to the other classes it doesn't stand out like it should or we were expecting it too. Build up... let down.

Build Ups / Keep Ups (Solutions)

First, make it harder to make Admiral. Make it so that Admirals are something that really have some status, afterall, they represent the highest rank class in the game. Make it a real "career officer" goal.

Make Admirals stand out in the crowd. It took hard work to get there, and they got there and they look cool there. If not in command of a fleet, at least make the Admiral ships look like a larger command. Idea - create crews up to 1200? Change model scaling to let players really feel the impressiveness of their commands. By all means, give the Admiral their own uniform. They earned it.

Ship models? Keep it Star Trek and try to keep the coolest cannon ships, still the coolest. New ships created by the Dev team is fun, but not at the expense of the ships we all hoped for and expected.

Keep Playing or Not?

What all this means to me? I've played the game, I got there. I leveled up fast, my favorite ships were all belittled and my Admiral looks like he is still waiting for his uniform requisition to come in. The game is a great game. I love how they interdeveloped the space missions to the away missions. The exploration missions have fun variety and cool scripting. The PVP action is well done. This game would have me hopelessly attached to my computer if it would just fulfill its promises.

A game with a good end-game, will never end, and will have the player just begging to keep playing in their well-earned open-ended glorified character.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I wish everyone who had issues with the game could present it in this way. I give you kudos for a well thought out and honest post.

    I too thought Admiral was a little easy come easy go. I honestly didn't expect it to be the final level of the game. I thought they should stop at Captain. A majority of Starfleet should be captain's... Admirals... no. Not so much.

    Agreed with the ships too. No offense to the developers, but my defiant should be a top tier ship. I'm flying an advanced escort, and I have to say, it looks like a bad cross between an X-Wing fighter from star wars, and USS Voyager.

    It just doesn't feel right flying it around like I do my defiant... The defiant is more of a fighter ship, and while the Prometheus was a canon ship, it was based on the weird and gimmicky multi-vector tech that got scrapped. Doesn't feel right flying it around like the defiant. I have a feeling the fleet escorts would be better, but mechanically, I am science based so I get the X-Wing. Heh.

    These are minor grievances, if they could be called that. But I guess what I'm saying is, the OP has a point.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    All very good points. My biggest grievances with this game is that it is still incomplete. STO has great potential and could very well dethrone WOW if the developers weren't trying to make a deadline. Right now, it feels more like it is still in beta stage. The Romulans/Cardassians/Dominion are not playable factions, the Klingons are PVP oriented, the galaxy map (in my opinion) is way too small, and it just seems that in some areas it is not Star Trek. There is way too much emphasis placed on combat. While I am a big fan of combat, I feel that some of the combat missions are more suitable for a Klingon warrior than for a Starfleet officer. This is Star Trek, but some of the missions feel like they have more of a Star Wars feel applied to them. I love STO and especially the potential that it has, but I'm worried that the developers are not going to move quick enough to make the necessary improvements to fix the game and keep the fanbase it has and expand it. I especially like what you were saying about the traditional Federation ships being played down. I like the idea of adding new ships to the fray, but I was looking foward to commanding my own Excelsior Class ship. Being able to customize your starships is a great idea, but not at the expense of what has made Star Trek so popular with many of its fans, the ships. I have nothing against new ships being added to the lineup, but Star Trek already had a ton of ships that could have been used instead of all of these new ship classes. I doubt that Starfleet would have changed that much in 20 years. I will continue to play STO becuase it is a fun game, but I have made RA5 and the missions are quickly running out. I have created a Klingon character, but once I make General, and complete the majority of the Klingon missions, there should be more content added to the game, or there won't be any real reason for me to keep spending my money every month. Hell, even being able to go back and play some of the most notable missions in the game would be enough to keep me playing for a while longer. There are so many things the developers could do to make STO so much more vibrant and welcoming to players if they would only listen more to the fans. We have good ideas if they would only listen.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Build Ups / Problems.

    Made Admiral waaaayyyy too fast, [...]

    Making Admiral, very disappointing. This should be a place where all the stops are pulled out. [...]

    Ships. Something is wrong when the starter ships are more fun. [...]

    I agree about the Admiral part. It was debated heavily. I don't agree you should have a fleet of ships. The rank is just a title. You are still only a captain. That is something we debated for ages and most of the forum wanted at that time the rank to stop at Captain. This probably should have been done this way.

    All the stops were pulled out until the very end of beta. At that time they added an experience cap. They had planned to keep adding skills and keep ahead of the players. This probably wasn't the wisest design choice. So basically the skill system is a bit wonky because it had a different vision and is now locked down. It might change though when they add the next 5 admiral ranks.

    As for the starter ships and ships in general that is mostly opinion. I think the ships being ones that are familiar adds value to them. Also I "believe" the ships they used were modeled based on their actual dimensions so though you may think the Galaxy small it is actually it's proper size.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Made Admiral waaaayyyy too fast, and when I got there, there wasn't anything there.

    I think the basic design tenent of Cryptic sometimes gets overlooked by a lot of MMO vets. The levelling grind here isn't supposed to be drawn out terribly long. Cryptic tends to build replayability into its games, as in level cap-roll an alt, over long drawn out levelling and end-game raiding. A lot of people expect the everquest style model, but you can't find that in any of cryptic's games.

    So ... you know ... just try to keep that in mind when assessing that aspect of the game. It wasn't actually intended to be a huge levelling treadmill.
    Making Admiral, very disappointing. This should be a place where all the stops are pulled out. You not only get the Admiral rank insignia, but the Admiral uniform (don't forget the all important -every episode had it- gold braid uniform), and of course a worthy flagship, and a fleet to command (albeit a small one, after all you are the lowest rank of Admiral).

    Well the uniform thing may take awhile but will probably be put into the game eventually. The rank pip is there. I'm not sure I follow you on worthy flagship. T5 ships are the best. You should have a worthy flagship at admiral level. And I know a lot of folks don't realize this yet, but the final Admiral ability you unlock is akin to your fleet. It's a pretty rare proc, but 2.5% of the time, you will cause a ship ... from your fleet since you are now an admiral ... to appear that will aid you in combat. Not a lot of people know this yet I'm guessing. I've had it happen only twice that I can recall. But that is the admiral ability. An the basis for it is that you are in command of a fleet.
    Ships. Something is wrong when the starter ships are more fun. Maybe its just me (and everyone else I've chatted with), but the higher up you go in rank, the more impressive your ships should be. But that is NOT the case in so many different dimensions once you feel the let down. Take the Galaxy Class, I don't know about you, but I looked forward to that ship with GREAT expectations. The largest Federation warship, the focus of great TV episodes. When I finally got there, the ship... was the SMALLEST in its class? Build up... let down.

    It's still better than the ships in the lower tiers. And the Admiral tier ships are better than it. I'm not sure I follow your let down. As a cruiser captain, the Assault Cruiser and the Star Cruiser are excellent ships that outclass anything that come before it. And the Enterprise-E is an Assault Cruiser.
    Okay, so the Galaxy Class ship is not the impressive ship we all expected and had our hopes built up for... we then make Admiral and... the Sovereign has been sabotaged just like the Galaxy, compared to the other classes it doesn't stand out like it should or we were expecting it too. Build up... let down.

    I guess you're talking about overall size/geometry of the model. That's odd. Aesthetically speaking, the Galaxy and the Sovereign tend to be extremely popular choices because they look the prettiest among most captains. I don't really buy into the fact that an Envoy's a smidge bigger that it's a more powerful ship than the Galaxy. Mechanically they're exact same.
    First, make it harder to make Admiral. Make it so that Admirals are something that really have some status, afterall, they represent the highest rank class in the game. Make it a real "career officer" goal.

    I think you're missing the point here. You're ascribing a game design philosophy to Cryptic that this company had never practiced. The feeling of being special is part of their goal. But not in the way you think it is. They want their players to have their fluff. Their customization. Their accolades and titles and achievements. They aren't forcing their players onto the level grind hamster wheel and making them work for pellets in the way Everquest did. You can feel special as an Admiral. You can have status. But you don't achieve this in the exact same way you might have in some other MMORPG. That's not how Cryptic went about designing this game. Or any of their games.

    What one of their biggest strengths is ... is the level of customization lets you feel special BEFORE you hit the end of the game. That gets lost in a lot of this.

    If all you ever wanted was to pilot the original enterprise, in the original uniforms. If THAT was your biggest dream and biggest goal ... you can realize this at Lieutenant level, if you got the right version of the game.

    That is part of Cryptic's design. They want you to feel you've won or can win the game every step of the way.
    Make Admirals stand out in the crowd. It took hard work to get there, and they got there and they look cool there. If not in command of a fleet, at least make the Admiral ships look like a larger command.

    T5 ships do stand out in a crowd. You can easily notice which are which. Trust me, you know a Klingon T5 Carrier when you see it.
    Idea - create crews up to 1200?

    Crew size dosn't affect ship model size. The Galaxy has a bigger crew than the Sovereign.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    " I have designed and consulted on many games and many editions."

    lol

    and the result of this superior background?

    level slower and make ships more trekkie and more end game content

    lol

    wow- a 10 year old with in 1st grade that designed a macoroni face and consulted Mrs Elbert came up with these as well

    lol
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I agree that leveling is too fast in STO, but in order to fix this the Dev's are going to have to add a lot more content to keep players busy. An "XP" reduction is not a answer.
    I also think STO could benefit from a class structured storyline as well as variuos random missions. I'm loving the war setting and the action, but more is needed to keep my attention.
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