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Any chance of fleshing out Away Team personalities and adding NPC biography/data?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
This post discusses two concepts: fleshing out Away Team personalities, as well as fleshing out NPC biographies on missions. Let’s start with the former.

I really appreciate the extra dialogue being spoken by enemy NPCs whenever I’m on a ground mission. It really adds something when I sneak up on a group of, say, Klingons and hear them discussing something related to the plot of the mission. I would like to see this level of detail extended to the members of my Away Team. Nothing super-scripted, just random snippets of mission related chatter like we currently hear from the enemy NPCs. I believe these would go a long way towards giving the bridge officers some personalities. Also, I'm just talking about little chat bubbles that appear above their heads and dialogue in the chat window, not more communication pop-ups in the middle of our screens.

Let’s use the beginner mission “Stranded in Space” aboard the S.S Azura as an example. Some comments you might hear from members of your Away Team could be..

Engineer BO:
- If we can get to the warp core we may be able to prevent it from overloading.
- It looks like plasma leaks are occurring all over the ship. We should be able to shut them down if we can find an active console.
- That’s an interesting design on the impulse manifold. I’d love to look at it more closely, if there’s time later.
- Did you hear that? I don’t she’s going to hold together much longer.
- Ah, the Azura. They don’t build them like this any longer. And for good reason.
- Who’s the chief engineer on this vessel? This setup completely ignores every Starfleet safety regulation.


Science BO:
-The toxins emitting from the plasma leaks are still within acceptable levels, but I wouldn’t recommend prolonged exposure.
-We need to get these people to sickbay.
-Captain, what do you make of this?
-This crewman’s lifesigns are weak, but stable.
-We’re not going to be able to beam the crew to safety until we put an end to the interference being generated by the plasma leaks.
-Fascinating..


Tactical BO:
-Captain, I recommend we proceed with caution.
-All clear, Captain.
-Wait, someone is up ahead. Scans are detecting multiple lifeforms.
-Captain, perhaps you should return to the (ship name) until my security teams can secure the Azura.
-I’m concerned with how vulnerable our position is in this location. We should move on.
-Orions raiding a freighter. This is my surprised face.


Perhaps it can even be set up so that a comment by one officer will trigger a specific response from another officer if they happen to be present, giving us Away Team banter. Or it can be taken even further by allowing us to choose personality types for our bridge officers and having different sets of dialogue tied to each personality. But that’s a lot more work, and honestly I would just be happy with my science bridge officer saying “Fascinating..” whenever we walk into a closet. Generic is better than nothing.


As for fleshing out enemy biographies in missions, I’d like to see a feature you used back in City of Heroes extended to STO. Right now we can select a target ship and hit the “info” button for more details. If it’s another player, we get some basic information and a biography (if they’ve bothered to write one). If it’s an NPC vessel we just get some basic information. Back in City of Heroes you fleshed that information out with a small bio giving details about the NPC's criminal organization and the specific branch that particular NPC belonged to.

I’d like to see the same sort of thing here. If I target a Klingon Bird of Prey and hit the info button, I’d like to see a small blurb of text describing the vessel. Something like:

“The Klingon Bird-of-Prey was a type of warship utilized by the Klingon Empire serving the Klingon Defense Forces from the late 23rd century into the late 24th century. This type of craft, initially descended from its counterpart from a century earlier, was one of the most versatile warships employed by the Empire, serving a variety of mission roles, including that of a scout, raider, patrol ship, and cruiser. This particular Bird-of-Prey has been updated with abnormally powerful shielding and weaponry.”

Or whatever; I swiped a majority of that particular blurb from Memory Alpha and I’m sure it can be done better, but that’s the gist of the request. If nothing else it would provide me with reading material while I closed that last 10km to reach attack range. I’d also like to see this sort of information extended to NPCs on the ground. What makes a Orion Brute different from an Orion Thug? These information boxes are a good place to get that sort of knowledge across.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I would love these things to be added. Very much so.

    Another fun option would be if you could assign 'personality types' to your BO in the same method we used to assign voices. These could flavor the dialogue based on those lines. Such as:

    1. Sarcastic (leans towards the funny)
    2. Analytical (logical vulcan responses)
    3. Aggressive (always sounds angry)
    4. Dim (for the Pakleds, etc)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I have just such a proposal here.

    I'm going to streamline it with clarifications from the thread and images at some point, hopefully.
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