Do you think exploration missions would feel more "alive" if:
- You had two simultaneous objectives. (Ie. defeat 5 squadrons, scan 5 anomalies)? (In term, perhaps the trade off would be that instead of getting a blanket mission to do 3 exploration missions every half hour, you got a blanket mission to do 5 instead since you'd be doing 2 at once.)
- A percentage of them had a hidden side objective. This could be a ship in distress outside the normal mission objective area (ala the Break the Planet mission) or unlocked by a dialogue choice (ie. when you ask a planetary rep in a relief effort why they need the items, sometimes you discover that they have another problem or are hiding something).
- Scanning anomalies had the rare chance to reveal a time anomaly (cue fun little themed mission outside STO's normal timeframe such as defending a ship where everyone wears WoK jackets, etc.) or an unstable wormhole (cue episode on the wormhole map we've seen a couple of times with a themed mission on the other side followed by a frantic attempt to get back before the wormhole collapses; this could include some one off Delta or Gamma Quadrant missions, missions deep in enemy space or Mirror Universe missions).
Have unexpected ambushes! Seriously, the 'scan 5 anomalies' space mission is basically "collect x of y while flying around the planet." Weeeeeeee.
Or that ground mission where you scan for x computer, then y of z, then aa of bb, then finally cc computer again. Wow... running around an empty station with the need to press F 4 times.
Why not have an ambush at the 3rd or 4th anomaly? Sir! We've detected several klingon *******s decloaking as we're scanning! At least it'll be more lively.
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Or that ground mission where you scan for x computer, then y of z, then aa of bb, then finally cc computer again. Wow... running around an empty station with the need to press F 4 times.
Why not have an ambush at the 3rd or 4th anomaly? Sir! We've detected several klingon *******s decloaking as we're scanning! At least it'll be more lively.
Leviathon i liked all your ideas especially the last one.
That could be superb.