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Comments from a huge Trek dork/MMO virgin

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Shucks howdy and hello! I hope this is the right place for feedback such as this. I've been wanting to do a post like this for a while, so here I go.

I'm a huge Star Trek dork, a huge gamer, and an MMO virgin. I have never played any MMO before STO, primarly because I didn't have an interest in the universe other MMOs were set in and I didn't like some of the trappings of an MMO (I hate the idea of instances, but I recognize their place as a game-design element, among a few other things). When STO was announced I took a keen interest and gleefully checked out the open beta. I played a lot of Star Trek RPing (back when it was still called simming) back in the 90s, and even though the game wasn't exactly as I was hoping it was going to be, gameplay wise, I was still very excited.

What I saw, I liked! It was very Star Trek-y despite it's flaws. I got a lifetime subscription and dove into the game, and I've really enjoyed it. From launch through what of Season 2 is available on Tribble, the game keeps progressing and advancing and being refined. It's not perfect, but it's an enjoyable experience that continues to grow and improve and I believe it will continue to do so for a while. Granted, I'm willing to be more accepting of the game considering I'm a huge Star Trek dork, but I do enjoy it (even the repetitive stuff). I think Cryptic has done a good job continuing to add steadily add content to the game post-launch and I applaud them for being so receptive and generally cool with the players/fanbase. They listen to our suggestions, try to give us what we want..hell, they even bought those cool mini-games from ThomasTheCat! That's just cool.

Anyways..like everyone, I wanna add my two cents worth. Here's a few of my "wish list" items and just some general comments.

Stuff I'd like to see:

Gradual improvements to the Klingon cloaks/Federation sensors: It's been said that in canon, the Federation keeps improving their sensor technology to compete with the advances in cloaking technology, and vice versa. I'd like to see this implemented in game, like say for a week or so, the Klingons see improvements to their cloaks..followed by the Federation upgrading their sensors to compensate for the improvements. I think this would keep the Klingon players interested, as they'd generally have something to look forward to.

More attachment to bridge officers: I love my crew, we've been through some good times together. Even though it means nothing, I know who's my first officers, my chief engineer, etc. I know a lot of people have asked for the ability to set "positions" for boffs and I agree, I think this would be fantastic. I would also like to see other interaction for boffs, like say my Bajoran engineer requesting to go to Bajor for say, a religious ceremony, when we were close to DS9, or my Vulcan science officer requesting to go to a conference when we were close to P'Jem, and actually being without those officers for a period of time.

During an away mission, if one of my officers is wounded and I can't heal them on the ground, I'd like to see them beam back to sickbay and a redshirt take their place. Or if they've been assigned to me for a while, perhaps they have a loyalty bonus and will stay longer while critically injured. I wouldn't even be opposed to having them out of away team comission for a while if they were seriously injured.

Items! Not only new craftable items for Memory Alpha, but also just more items for random drops. It does feel as though there's a rather smallish amount of items available..or maybe it's that they all feel somewhat similar. I would like to see an increase in the amount of over-all items in general, and just..I dunno..something more special/unique about non-common items.

I would love to see live events, like the Klingon..then Borg invasion at the end of open beta. It's stuff like that which makes me super interested in MMOs, being able to play live-relatively dynamic content with other people. I've been utterly shocked that STO hasn't had any live events..and I think that DStahl said there's none currently planned....:(

Some general thoughts of mine:

I fully support the idea of the some Federation ships having a cloaking device so long as some reference is made to the Treaty of Algeron being amended/broken (It's a really one-sided treaty that favors the Romulans).

Someone said in an earlier thread that the uniform packs should be *packs* and include variants (like the horrible 1/2nd season TNG uniforms, short-sleeve jackets, dress uniforms, admiral uniforms, etc). I know it'd be a low priority, but I do agree with whoever raised that point.

Add me to the chorus of people who want to control my ship from the bridge. I mean, it's the bridge! It's the first thing we see in The Cage after the brief opening! It's the #1 single most iconic location in like, all of Star Trek. Even if it's just traveling from one system to another...Ultra yes please for this. Also add me to the throng of people who dislike the super-sized bridge/interiors. :p

And lastly, I think it would be very neat if we saw more NPCs in Sector Space. The merchants are a nice touch, but I think it would be cool to see the occasional "rare" NPC Starfleet ship. Maybe they would only show up occasionally, in certain sectors, or maybe only even in certain instances! Maybe you could get a mission, or a cargo exchange, or you have to provide supplies/aid for them, or they task you with delivering something/someone...there's a lot of possibilities.

That's enough for now I suppose. Sorry for the wall-o-text everyone, but I tend to ramble. Thanks for reading!
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Consider yourself seconded, in both the recommandations and position. STO is my first too.

    And regarding crafting, I haven't bothered with it - more to the point, I don't see any benefits from it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    First time in an MMO?

    Well, like all things sharing that moniker: you'll remember it forever - even if you suck at it at first. :p

    Anyways, welcome to the boards and glad to see another Star Trek enthusiast. :D Luckily, Star Trek is fairly easy (if it's too easy, you can adjust the difficulty later).

    Here's a primer on all the changes since the TV shows ended to the present date (it's 2409):
    http://www.startrekonline.com/node/1771

    Some cool stuff and it'll help you know how all the factions from the shows are faring. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I don't think the gradual cloak/sensor esclalation would work, to be honest, but it does point out a good idea for a territory control PVP map. It'd be a sensor relay in the system, where if the feds controlled it, it would boost their sensor abilities, while if the klingons held it, then they'd get a boost to their cloaking technology.

    Just an idea anyway.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    RevRaven wrote: »
    .....

    I would love to see live events, like the Klingon..then Borg invasion at the end of open beta.....

    this is a "tumbleweed moment" issue.

    Hevent heard hide-or-hair about any events.... minus the couple times the devs play with the unpaid Q&A' team on Tribble... and the dropping of a bunch of borg on the last day of beta ( not really an event in my eyes...more of "lets drop all kinds of mobs in Sol station" ).


    no events... voiceovers, cutscenes, "trekkie" designs like lcars (minues our blue period), ui, dialog windows, npc,s nothin.... silence.

    ..and we have all this room in our interior hallways for social activities too..... like a truck-pull.....

    it's pretty sterile and quiet in STO unfortunately... you probably wont hear much talk from people either... or see much activity, since everyone is in thier own instance. It has a long way to go to break out of it's 5.5 rating ( and I think it deserves ever point of it ).


    ..but, have fun .... welcome ..... have a seat ( if you can figure the whole stand/turn/emote/try-again thing ).

    we are here, we have a lot invested....we have a love/hate thing going on.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I don't think the gradual cloak/sensor esclalation would work, to be honest, but it does point out a good idea for a territory control PVP map. It'd be a sensor relay in the system, where if the feds controlled it, it would boost their sensor abilities, while if the klingons held it, then they'd get a boost to their cloaking technology.

    Just an idea anyway.

    There is something to this idea, though. There should be a cloak system that klingon players can put on their ships. Different versions/rarities would be better/worse at cloaking. On the flip side the feds could install better/worse sensor suites on their ships.

    All of these could affect the detection radius.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    First time in an MMO?

    Well, like all things sharing that moniker: you'll remember it forever - even if you suck at it at first. :p

    Anyways, welcome to the boards and glad to see another Star Trek enthusiast. :D Luckily, Star Trek is fairly easy (if it's too easy, you can adjust the difficulty later).

    Here's a primer on all the changes since the TV shows ended to the present date (it's 2409):
    http://www.startrekonline.com/node/1771

    Some cool stuff and it'll help you know how all the factions from the shows are faring. :)

    Thanks for the welcome Darren. I've been lurking around since launch (even posted a few times)..I'm just not a fan of forums at all. I really don't like a lot of the trappings of forums, but there's lots of good info here (and some really neat ideas, like some of yours!) so I try to read some stuff from time to time (when it's not filled with whining about x, y or z). It took me about a week to write my original post up, with my hectic schedule...I was kinda wanting to do a big post like that when I first his RA5...but life got in the way. I figure we're roughly seven months out from open beta/launch, so I might as well rant about what I've enjoyed/would like to see. I had a long time to think of some of this TRIBBLE! ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    That's trek virgin, mmo dork. Lots of mmo players have significant others. I've never seen a trekkie bred anywhere but in captivity :p
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