So now that I had time to fully explore my ship interior, I'd like the dev's to think of something that might motivate me to visit it a second time. Here are some ideas I came up with (and which probably other people already thought of as well and I'm just too lazy to go look)...
#1: Let's customize our fish!
Yes, this is #1 because it should be a priority.

I've got a big o'l fish tank in my ready room. They're pretty boring, but not in the same way real fish are boring. Perhaps it'd be an option in the future to add a little exotic variety for entertainment's sake...maybe even some carnivorous species with some docile ones and watch the fun!
#2: Working replicators.
But not for the same stuff you can replicate in your inventory tab. Stuff that you'd actually have to go into the ship interior to get and might need, maybe to accomplish a specific goal for a mission.
#3: Chief Medical Officers?
Sick bay just isn't sick bay without a CMO tending to the patients. Okay, there weren't any patients in my sick bay. Either it was a good healthy day for my crew or this hasn't been worked in. Figured there's at least be one poor sod in there with a broken arm from annoying my Klingon TO.
#4: Assigning our BOs to more than just bridge posts.
One of my engineering officers could be my chief engineer, or manning the transporter console. Heck, this might even develop into specialized skills for those BO's...for example, if I could assign someone as chief engineer, their skills could be a little beefier, or they could add an extra skill slot or somethng.
#5: Episodes set in our ships?
Lots of series episodes never leave the interior of the ship; it'd show a lot of creativity to get to play an episode where we fend off a boarding party, or try to make contact with an alien presence that's taken interest in my ship, or try to figure out why everyone's gone crazy and wants to make love to the warp core...lots of possibilities there, I think.
#6 Could a holodeck be next?
I'm thinking this would be quite a bit of work, especially if people wanted to create custimized holodeck programs. Maybe start it off with some canned holodeck settings, maybe even from the series. Maybe I'd like to visit Fair Haven, or try Worf's battle training program...see the possibilities?
What do people think?
Comments
No issues with any of these. But I'm willing to forgive the devs for now. They did just intro the interiors. But I too would like to see some fleshing out in future seasons.
Personally I can't believe that something as significant as an interior was not in the game from day 1. Watch any Star Trek episode or movie, at least half of the time will be spent inside the ship.
Interiors are necessary to STO. There is so much room for expansion there. We need better scale and layouts.
It's a Star Trek MMO. "Fan Boys" make up virtually the entire customer base.
Dunnlang:
You're right, ship interiors very integral to what people think of as Star Trek, a huge amount of time was spent on them in every incarnation of Trek - most of it, in fact. Enjoying the diplomatic missions so far and look forward to them - a great change of pace, very much in the style of Trek on TV (and would make sense to see more of them on board your ship).
I really think they need to be fleshed out in terms of layout and polish - as well as functionality (and ultimately, missions). Tying existing rooms in - like docking / cargo bays and the lounge in should be on the list to make them feel really part of your ship (if they were, their value might be more obvious to those who don't see it currently).
I couldnt care less about interiors as long as my bridge looks like I want it to.
To do what? Look at?
I'd perfer something that actually added to the game.
If I had to break my upcoming super-thread on interiors down to two points.....
...those would be the points.
Stay tuned....
So we can have missions on board - both combat and diplomatic, as a social hub, as an obvious place for extended gameplay mechanics (mini games, crafting, additional replication / purchasing), and because it's immersive.
Did you watch much Trek on TV? With the exception of DS9, obviously set on board the station, every incarnation of Trek on TV spent the majority of it's time on drama set on board the ship (not least because it was cheaper and easier to film, but never the less, it's absolutely core to what people think of as being Star Trek).
If you will recall, the original published rendering tests and mockups by Perpetual were virtually all interior shots. Cryptic not having ship interiors at launch (except in combat missions) was very odd IMO. Particularly as the ship based maps in early combat missions are pretty good.
It's absolutely true to suggest interiors seem pointless and currently add little to nothing, however. They are limited in scope and customization, unpolished and completely without purpose (other than the most minimal of social hubs) - but it's obviously a starting point because Cryptic have, clearly, been working on others things too for Season 2 (even if I think a little more focus to bring ground / ship combat up to the same level of polish as PvE space combat would be welcome).
I would say - in their current state - they could have left them out till later in Season 2 (or even 3) and I wouldn't have been hugely unhappy, because I'd rather see new content meet a minimum level of completion / polish, which interiors don't quite reach at the moment IMO.
I'm enthusiastic about the doors and the interior modeling of the rooms, but not the layout and corridor scale - which I don't think is an issue that is going to go away until some some remodeling is done. We've seen that Cryptic can do it well, it just feels rushed and that it wasn't given much of priority (or maybe it was just done late in the schedule).
Probably fair to say more people were moaning louder about being able to refit ships, new content - in particular Klingon PvE content - and while I personally wasn't as fussed about that, it seems they made some reasonable calls regarding what people were asking for and responded to demand accordingly.
I've been trumpeting those two ideas for the last week and a half on the forums. For RP, form = function. Get it close and feeling like a ship and that will appease a great deal of the player base. It can be used for RP as they fill in the mini games, bonuses and missions. Interiors can add a ton to the game beyond RP.
I have been posting the following the last week or so:
Proposed Adjustment:
Without resizing anything, I came up with an alternate layout for Small. I feel this makes much more sense, since it allows for more rooms to be added around the outside, where there are windows, and protects the Sick Bay in an accessible, central, location. This feels much less sprawling and haphazard.
Proposed Small Layout (picture)
I think there is potential so that we can have missions on our ships among other things.