test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

ATTN Dan: RP

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
People have been asking me to write this post for months and I keep putting it off. There is no bigger topic in a game than Role Play. If you want a Massive Multiplayer Online player base then you need to pay attention to the Role Playing Game aspect of it. It is my opinion that the future of this game probably revolves around catering to role players. STO is not the best game on the market. But it has a huge built in advantage because of a built in player base that is loyal to the Star Trek franchise. On some basic level everyone role plays to some minor extent though some take it far more seriously than others. There are perhaps 5 levels of role play. There are those that have very mild role play in that they customize their ship name and perhaps appearance and an outfit or two and occasionally take advantage of an emote. Then there are those that are more advanced that might write a profile and try to occasionally interact with the game as their avatars or toons might perceive the world they are in. A third group might come to STO as perhaps a glorified chat room where they can build avatars they like, sit down and chat and express themselves through emotes and actions. There are people that have played and enjoyed this game for months that are not past level 7. They show up, chat with their friends, dress up, and just have fun. Then you start getting into the more hard core role players that take things seriously and join the better rp fleets or rp channels. And finally you have the ultra hard core that exist only in character in the game and will ignore those that exist out of character.

The first page on this post will be an amalgamation of what people have asked me to comment on: Im going to boil this down to 10 ideas then move on to my own ideas in the next posts.

1. Over and over and over people tell me they want tools and abilities to meet and interact with other people. People come to MMORPGs to be with other people. There are hundreds if not thousands of games on the market that people can play alone and be offered quality gameplay challenge. A MMORPG is an exercise in interaction and people crave superior and better interaction with other people. This is sadly lacking and really needs to be improved in this game. Star Trek is an experience and a world of kindness and goodness and every one of those shows had buddies / friends and interaction and even Spock and Kirk were friends. People want enhanced tools to make friends. Various ideas mentioned are many but include more social areas, costumes and accessories for the social areas, games like Poker, or holodeck simulations like Flotters forrest and obviously more emotes, improved communications, working towns with city officials and on and on and on.

2. Every single player brought up crafting and individualization of customization and design.

3. Improved interaction between fleets is mentioned with high frequency.

4. Community / Team Ships - One person might have a screen showing him flying the ship and trying to win the battle while another person might be in engineering quickly trying to maximize the performance of the ship. Another manning tactical consoles and aiming weapons. And yet another person in sick bay maximizing crew. People want to work together to do things rather than fly ships solo like fighter pilots. People want to explore more teamwork.

5. Improved interaction between ship interiors and bridge crew is mentioned by at least 75% of the people when I ask them to make a list of 5 rp improvements in the game. Some mention player housing though I feel this is similar to being able to customize ones quarters on the ship.

6. Defined social interactions gets mentioned by probably half the people I poll. Whether someone wants to be able to marry another character with an added item slot for a ring or to own an Orion slave woman, people want to be able to customize and define relationships between characters and get added benefits from them.

7. Improved builds for recognized areas. Defera is a better build area than Risa though nobody short of an STO dev heard of Defera 2 months ago. People want Risa to look like a Vacation spot and to be able to hold fighting matches on Andoria and sit in a Vulcan monastery and learn lessons about peace, living long, and prospering. If people go to Risa they want to be able to buy a horegon plunk it down as an inventation for single people to mingle, chat, and get to know each other. People want caves to explore where they might not have to fight anything but might find an archealogical treasure.

8. Improved economy is mentioned at least by 1/4th of the people. Im not sure this falls under RP but commerce is a big part of life and perhaps if I dont get buried and killed for making these posts I might write one on the economy someday. Like it or not - exchange of money can be role play.

9. Secondary professions gets some love. People want to be able to cook and buff skills and morale like Neelix or Bartend like Guinan or Quark. There are people that would be perfectly happy showing up and selling drinks that buff a skill or two and just chatting with people about their day IC or OOC. Some would show up for the Buffs and some to just chat. Player stores were mentioned where players could design clothes or furniture and then sell them to other players.

10. Only one person mentioned this but it was good enough to include. People should have the ability to achieve rare and distinct goals or accolades and get a buff/benefit/trophy/title from it. A person that heals 1 million damage on the ground might get an accolade chief of staff and the ability to have a nanite 2 hypospray. If they killed 100,000 Undine ships and took the title Undine Bane then they lose nanite 2 hypospray and instead get a bonus buff whenever fighting the Undine. There should be a 24 hour actual game play cooldown between the time you can change titles / accolades / and get the buffs.

There were many more ideas and Im sorry that I could not list them all but I felt these were the ideas listed most often and that should be included in this post. Others are always free to add more or write another post another day. I will include my own ideas in the next few posts in this thread.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Ok in the past, Ive been criticized heavily for trying to compile other peoples opinions into a post instead of just posting my own. I thought maybe the Devs would pay more attention to them if they held weight of majority of opinion but I doubt the Devs much care. The majority of players dont take the time to read or post on these forums and the fan boys shout over those that actually play and have anything to day and posts have a bad habit of getting lost or ignored. I do understand that every person has an opinion about what Cryptic should do and they have to filter it strongly or it would overwhelm them. Anytime anybody runs a business or achieves a manner of success they attract others in the peanut gallery offering advice. Some of it is unwanted or unneeded and much of it is unrealistic. You can flame me all you want for these ideas because they are my own.

    These ideas of mine revolve around role play ideas easy to program and achieve that I feel will add to the game. Im going to limit them to 3 categories and and 5 suggestions in each category though like many, I have thousands more ideas that I feel would help the game. I honestly would rather play than suggest - esp. since I doubt this gets much attention or read except by the fan boy forum flamers but here they are:

    Category 1 - Game Play Mechanics

    1. Improved Chat Channels

    Ive left areas that I wanted to be in because of conversation I didnt feel I needed to hear. Marina Sirtis has given a lot to the franchise and I dont need to hear about how well she fills out a bra at a restaurant years after she last appeared in a trek film; but if you want to talk about that then do it on an OOC channel where you can discuss anything to your hearts content. Just let me opt out to hear your opinion on the matter, please, in a manner where I can still hear a newbie question, perhaps help them, make a friend, and maybe even add a player to the fleet. We need more channels and the ability to temporarily vote people off them. Id like to see a Role Play channel for Role Players. A newbie / fleet channel where newbies can ask questions and fleets can recruit them. Id like to see a racial channel where Vulcans can speak to other Vulcans. And perhaps a Merchant / EQ channel where people can brag about what they have, talk about which EQ is best and perhaps sell Equipment to those looking to buy or sell privately without need of an exchange. Maybe a hero channel where people can discuss how to fight and win high level missions without overwhelming lower ranked players.

    I think there needs to be a mechanism to temp ban a person from a channel if he is using it inappropriately. If 5 people report misuse of channel a vote pops up and people can vote the player off the channel so that he will need a 10 hour cooldown to use it again. If you have a minimum of 11 votes and 6 vote to kick the player off the channel then hes banned from using it for awhile. Even then there should be an option for vote popups so that if you dont want to vote or report that these popups dont appear. But if you are on a RP channel and somebody shows up and tries over and over again to talk politics then you can vote him off the RP channel and the player wont be able to return until he serves a 10 hour cooldown. With improved channel options RPers can RP, OOC chatters can chat, Merchants can brag, discuss, sell and trade eq, and everybody can interact and use the channels that make them happy.

    2. Special commands.

    I know that if you type /played it will tell you how many hours that character has played but I doubt that I know 10% of the special commands. Id like to be able to see how long characters are played, and when the last time someone on my friends list logged on. Obviously many on my friends list have quit the game but its hard to tell who hasnt shown up in 5 months and who has been playing a different time of day than me. Id like to be able to prune / pare / and customize my friends lists so that I can help them and perhaps at least try to be on when they show up to play. I dont want to mail a gift to an inactive player. Information and resources should be more open to all. I would like better co ntrol over my friends lists. Among other things delete friends that dont log in or play xxxxx amount of days. Or inform me anytime this friend logs on or off but dont inform me when that friend logs on and off. Ive probably had 35-40 friends delete me from their friend lists because it annoys them when I log on and off as much as I do to change to another alt. It annoys people to see constant messages about people logging on and off especially those that have 100s of names on their friend lists. And Id like to be able to make comments about friends - Fought with Dan Stahl - won the match - try and fight with him again if you can. Or Minerva gave me this advice - here is what she said - ask her for advice again on this piece of eq in the future. More commands and customization would help a lot.

    3. Improved emotes.

    Im not just talking about paying extra so you can play air guitar. But honestly a lot of communication is non verbal. This is so easy to add in code its just stupid that its not in game. For instance, if my Klingon friend rock wanted to do an emote he could type in *takes a big long gulp of bloodwine and the game would say Rock takes in a big long gulp of bloodwine. He could then continue *wipes his mouth with his sleeve and the game would say Rock wipes his mouth with his sleeve and then he might use the Q'apla emote. This would allow a lot of body language interaction without Rock says I took in a big long gulp of bloodwine. Additionally, I would like to see the Cryptic emotes improved so that they work as designed. For instance, in the STF infected there is a point where everybody needs to go into a room together. I would like to see the countdown timer give an actual countdown 3 wait a sec 2 wait another sec 1 wait a final second and then go - and everybody rushes in at once. On the paper scissors rock game there should be a delay so that people can play paper scissors rock without seeing what the other guy did first. If there was a countdown to go and then a second or two where the other players were shaking their fists up and down then paper scissors and rock could work as planned or even the other roll the die games to see who gets highest roll etc etc etc..

    Body language emotes should be one keystroke then type in the emote. People should be able to assign a bridge officer another symbol so they can interact with them - something like %Glum says More Latinum is always good - and all of a sudden your brige officer speaks or #frowns and you see Glum Frowns. Designing Keystrokes to be used to enable people to talk through their bridge officers would enhance rp a lot and isnt a difficulty programming challenge.

    4. Library

    I would like to see a library in game where you can go and actually read and learn about everything in game. You can go to this library and pull out a book on consoles and read exactly what every console does. You can pull out a book on Cruisers and read the stats and modifications of every cruiser. There are people who buy Dreadnaughts in the c store and spend a great deal for them that dont put points in the right category because they dont know which skill category buffs the hull of the Dreadnaught. With Cruisers you now have Assault Cruiser, Dreadnaught Cruiser, Refit Cruiser, Star Cruiser, and Advanced Cruiser. Its especially annoying to fleet leaders to log on and then have to log off for an hour so they can go look up the right answers for all the questions they get. And its really easy to spend points putting hull into the wrong class of ship. Additionally, Id like to know what every single accolade is that you can get and what they modify. Id like easy to find information how to breed any kind of tribble. Id like to know what, why, and how sensors does for Photonic Fleet. A library that explains a lot of the mystery of the game so that we could play it better and enjoy it more would be a huge help and this shouldnt be hard to do. Theres got to be some Deferi NPC that would love to distribute balance of knowledge.

    5. Improved Mechanisms to enhance activity and eliminate dead or useless items / fleets / pets.

    There is dead stuff all around the game. One of my personal RP themes is that I dont leave a fleet unless Im kicked out of it. Still, Im in a fleet where the leader quit and its all but dead. I cant promote myself upwards so I can recruit or use the fleet bank or do anything other than just quit and leave and Id probably delete before I quit the fleet. Another pet peeve of mine is expiring listings. I list a lot of things I should put in the replicator to help new players. If I pick up a common mk 2 phaser relay in a drop its not something I need but I try and list it on the exchange for a fair price to help someone new to the game. If it doesnt sell in a week I get it in my mailbox and this is very annoying because I have to go to the mail, retrieve it, log off the game, log into the game, walk back over to the exchange and relist it. Id rather put it in the replicator but this game needs new players and new players like cheap stuff that helps them. I could list it for $1 but then some ferengi wannabee would grab it and try to profit off it which would defeat the purpose. So I usually list 3-4 spots above the lowest price to make sure there is adequate supply. I have so much dead / unsold merchandise in my email that is a huge annoyance and this is something I do for the good of the game. I dont think an exchange tax will help because Id quit listing cheap stuff and the expensive stuff would have the tax added to the tag causing everything to inflate in price. There needs to be mechanisms put into place so we can click on a mail to relist it at the same price or perhaps expand listings to 2 weeks instead of 1. Dead fleets need to be able to vote in a new leader if the flag leader hasnt played in 100 days. Storage needs to be expanded so we can accomodate all those strange anomolies we dont know what to do with but are told will be important in the future. Honestly, there needs to be a second storage tab just for anomolies. Pets such as Targs / Shuttles / Sehlats should have some buff or benefit even if very minor one such as perhaps an aggression tag so people or NPCs target them instead of you.

    Ok I have many more but these are my top 5.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    RP and Equipment

    Great games have unlimited customization potential and flexibility and this starts with equipment and gear. Unfortunately, this is a real problem with STO. The DEVs have been so eager to balance the game that they have scaled back the potential to look, be, and design a different type of character. This needs to change. Here are 5 ideas on how to easily add and code a lot of fun back into designing and building your character so that you dont have the same cookie cutter build that everyone else has.


    1. Treat the preorder bonuses, cstore items, and real world money items with respect.

    One of my absolute hugest pet peeves is that my special preorder bonus items are worthless. I understand the devs not wanting to give me an unfair advantage because I spent real world money for an item but why cannot they give me a usable item thats at least as good as what I could find in game. For instance, its just a huge pet peeve of mine that blue phasers only scale to MK IX. They dont have flags that add crit H or D, ACC, DMG or anything else that boosts their ability. They are phasers and they are blue and to use them on my top tier ship I have to take a 3 MK markdown from a potential MK XII phaser that doesnt have a flag. I spent $50 buying an extra game from Gamestop for those Phasers and there is nothing wrong or unfair about letting me use them at MK XII just like a normal MK XII phaser thats gold/yellow. Everyone of the preorder bonuses should scale upwards. The Dreadnaught is particulary expensive and it needs to be upgraded so that its as good as an Assault Cruiser or Star Cruiser. Im not saying it needs to be better but it should be as good. Also be honest with your players. Amazon advertised that the only way to get a Borg BO was to buy through them so I did even though its a company I usually try to avoid doing business with. A few months go by and its $3 or $4 instead of the $80 I paid with Amazon. The Automated Defense Turret has been nerfed and was a prime reason I bought the DDE. I didnt buy the lifetime to champions but some did just to get Mirror Universe items. They spent $200ish for a costume in game and now its $4 worth of c points in the cstore. This kind of stuff is wrong and its cost Cryptic players. Cryptic needs to address this problem and upgrade the usefulness of items people spent a lot of money to buy. Again, Im not saying give someone an unfair advantage but at least let them use the good stuff they purchased at higher levels. People that feel ripped off leave and there is a lot of bad blood hanging over the head of this company by preorder nerfs and cstore policies that are lacking in integrity. It irks me that I spent hours trying to log enough time to get the Undine Tribble when I could buy it for all characters now for my time value of going in to work a few minutes early. Im probably mistaken but it seems like we were told the only way to get the prize was to play Tribble a lot. Please be honest with me Cryptic or at least try harder. If you are going to sell an Undine tribble for $1.50 worth of c points then tell me thats what you are going to do instead of telling me I have to play for who knows how many hours if I ever want to get it. Ok this is getting gripy rather than helpful but reverse nerf all the preorders and cstore items so they are usable, functioning, and have a purpose and use in game instead of just "looking good". Its not asking too much to make costumes, cstore items, and preorders functionable and usable and it would help RP if we could actually use what we bought without being punished for daring to have what others didnt buy or own.

    2. Add functioning storage and other abilities to ships

    If I go to my ships cargo bay I should be able to see items that I stored there instead of having to go to a bank at a spacedock. If Im doing a Mission and I pick something up and my inventory is full I should be able to take it to the cargo bay and store it. My cargo bay should have extra storage for anything I want to put in it. If I go in my quarters then my closet should have room to store various types of armor. If I go to sick bay then there should be storage pods for hypos. If I go to the engine room then they should have storage bays for extra engines and / or consoles. Have a maze of Jeffries tubes where you can go through them on occasion to change out conduits and improve your eps transfer rate. Make the EPS conduits randomly fail every 100 - 1000 hours of gameplay time so every 500 hours of gameplay you need to repair or pay someone else to repair your ship and improve your eps transfer time by replacing burned out conduits. This could be done at a repair facility or by yourself to save money or by a friend or repairman you pay out of pocket. In fact there needs to be an aging repair process for most of the equipment on ships and on p.erson. That cool Mk XI impulse engine with turn flags x2 is great but every 400-500 hours it might need an overhaul which you could do yourself or pay someone at ship dock to do. Indeed it would be neat if you could go down to an engine room and deposit 3-4 engines picked up from battle drops so they could be scavanged for parts and upgrade or improve the time needed between overhaul. Why not add weapons lockers?

    Additionally, there needs to be improved functionality on board ships. Ships could and should have exchanges if one purchases a computer that allows one to access the worldwide exchange. It would be so nice to buy an exchange console and put it in the captains ready room or quarters or someplace else on the ship. Ferengi characters should get a free exchange with every ship. Other types of characters would need to pay. There should be a mail box on the ship so the captain and crew members can mail things back and forth without having to visit a spacedock. Even on Voyager they found a way to send mail and communicate even though they were a long way away from earth. The Galley should allow for cooking and creating strange meals like Neelix did. There should be special dishes that can be cooked by mixing and matching dishes that create new ones and perhaps upgrade hitpoints 78% instead of 72%. Guinan and Neelix enhanced crew performance and morale with their special talents. There are a lot of really easy things that can be added to ship interiors that make them fun and useful so people will actually want to spend time in them.

    Everyone wants enhanced customization of ship interiors and more trophies. Cryptic could probably make a weekly series and have the one time final reward be nothing more than a better looking captains bridge seat and people would race to play and win the reward.

    3. Add resistances and Vulnerabilities to equipment.

    There are 6 types of weapons on ships and personal weapons. (Phaser, Disruptor, Plasma, Tetryon, Antiproton, and Polaron). It would add an enormity of interest and design philosophy to add resistance and vulnerability to most equipment and weapons though they would need to match. For instance if you owned a set of Plasma beams that each were flagged Vuln Covariant and Resistant Regen then they might do 10% less damage against Covariant shields and 10% extra damage versus Regen shields. Of course your enemy might have picked a Covariant Shield with a Resistant Plasma flag that allowed him to resist 10% extra damage versus Plasma so the net effect is back to even. But designing and building ships and personal equipment with added bonuses and resistances would add a lot of thought and strategy back into combat.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    4. Allow custom designed crafting with flags and bonuses. This goes along with idea 3.

    Let people craft with blank page items and then build and design their own equipment. The price for adding / removing flags should scale proportionately to their benefit. For instance, allow someone to take a Mk IX blue phaser that came off the connie bought in the C-store. For 100 alien artifacts or something not overly valuable they could upgrade it to a MK X phaser but to upgrade it to MK XI would take 300 and to MK XII 1000. L1et the crafter add a flag or remove a flag. Lets say it was revamped so the connie blue phaser was vuln plasma and resistant disruptors. To remove the Vuln or add a Res Plasma to counter it and get a neutral value would cost one flag of value. The first flag might be 100 anomolies and the second 300 and the third 1000 and the fourth 10000. Different flags could cost different anomolies or indeed other items of value. Removing a vulnerability to plasma might be 100 unknown alloy but removing a vulnerability to polaron might be 100 Photonic Technology. You could add/remove up to 5 flags but with prices scaling upwards so that the 5th flag would be incredibly expensive and hard to do. Other equipment might be designed with a mix/mash of technology that costs varying amounts of resources to build it. For instance a blank console could be upgraded to a rare blue single Mk XI field emitter / Ablative armor hybrid mix with Ablative armor being boosted at 13% and shields 3.5% instead of 26% for Ablative or 7% for Field. You are still getting the same console value but you are getting half value for Ablative + half value for Field rather than the full value for both. This might let people help themselves in 2 areas when they only have room for one console.

    Anyway, people should be allowed blank template items and then be able to craft them however they see fit. You want a purple phaser dual cannon that looks like a Polaron beam and has 3 flags of accuracy, damage, crit H plus its vulnerability against resilient shields removed then buy the Cannons pay XXXX amount of samples to change energy color, another XXXX amount of samples to remove its vulnerability against Res shields, another XXXX amount of samples to add an ACC flag, another XXXX amount of samples to add DMG flag, and finally another XXXX amount of samples for your CRT H flag and voila you have the cannon of your dreams. You probably worked for it but its something you can be proud of and that might give you the edge you need in PVP. Its much cooler and more fun searching for anomolies and special items of treasure hunt variety that you can craft into a wide variety of items than it is to do 30 pvps to earn enough emblems to buy a single cannon.

    Crafting flags, upgrades, vulns and res's is fairly simple and a good dev/programmer could outline it in a day and program it in a day. There should be maybe 20 flags on eq including the 6 potential weapon type vulns / 6 potential weapon type resistances / Damage bonus / Accuracy Bonus / Crit H bonus / Crit D bonus / Angle Bonus to widen Firing Arc / Speed bonus to improve fire and recharge rate / energy-efficient flag to reduce energy use of the ship / proc bonus to increase chance of process to hit ie for instance chance of plasma weapons causing a plasma fire on the hull / Life bonus to increase lifespan and reduce damage target weapons subsystems etc ... and perhaps extend the lifespan between needed repairs of the weapons in ship dock.

    5. Every NPC store or Vendor and area should have that one custom item you cant get anyplace else.

    Maybe have the BTran cluster the only place you can get Methagenic particles. And have the clothing Vendor on DS9 be the only place you can get a Mk VIII blank PolyAlloy weave armor you can craft. Have the Qonos Bartender sell a special Klingon dish that can be mixed and cooked with a Deferian Spice only available on Defera to get a superfood that can be fed and bred to give a Targ a damage resistant boost similar to a Zinc Tribble.

    Additionally it would be nice to hire some voice talent for the NPCs and add more voice to the game. I know its expensive to add name actors such as Chase Masterson or Leonard Nimoy but there are voice actors on STO radio that would or should work for reasonable cost and more voices would add more spice to the game and it shouldnt cost very much.

    There are dozens of stores that could sell dozens of useful items in game and most of them sell garbage that nobody wants or needs or that they can buy on the exchange for cheap. It would be nice if every store had that one unique item that was only available in that one place and people actually had to visit and use stores to maximize their equipment in game. Even if it was nothing but a unique costume piece like Kinneas and his Bermuda shorts - it would be a nice touch if you had to trade self sealing stem bolts on DS9 for Hawaiin Shirts that you could trade for off duty Bermuda Shorts on Risa.

    I could go on forever about eq but these are the 5 ideas that I feel would be the easiest to code and put in game so thats what gets published.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Ideas to enhance rp Interaction

    1. Toggle flags for play intent.

    There needs to be a screen where one can toggle flags for player intent. Then a mechanism can be developed to see what a player wants to do at any given time. Whether it be to give a player an Aura or perhaps an Icon over their head or even a a flag next to their name when you mouse over them - you can see what they want to do. If a player has toggled the LvL flag on the intent menu then perhaps when you mouse over their character you see that they want to make levels. If they have toggled an RP flag then you can see and know at a moments notice that they want to RP. There should be a chat toggle, an OOC toggle, a STF toggle for those that want to do special task force missions and a PVP toggle for those that want to PVP. You could even have an AFK toggle. At any rate you should be able to walk into a restaurant or social area and with reasonable ease of effort tell who wants to chat, who wants to pvp, who wants to level, who wants to rp etc. etc. etc....

    It really bothers me when I read a great profile and comment on it in character and ther person immediately adds me to their ignore list because RP was never their intent or desire. I feel like why do you write a great RP profile if you dont want to RP?

    Perhaps toggles need to be earned. For instance, you only get an RP option added if you have a profile or a PvP option added if you have won 25 PvP matches. One way or another it would be incredibly helpful if there was a mechanism to see what players were interested in before you intereact with them. Whether it be icons over their heads like the Sims or (RP) type motifs after a title it would help interactivity if players could announce their play desire and intent.

    2. Expanded Class Choice.

    STO needs more classes and subclasses to play. These should be pretty easy to code.

    For instance, it would be quite easy to add Hunter class to the game. Hunters should be allowed more Hull, more shields, and faster engines than any other class. However there should be a penalty on crew, consoles, and bridge officer spots. Pretend that a Hunter could take a Miranda by maximizing points at each tier have 20% more shields and hull than any T1 ship at that level and scale up until T5 where if 9 points were added to Hull and Shields they would still have 20% more shields, hull and speed than any other T5 ship. They would however be limited to say 50 crew and perhaps 3 universal bridge officer slots of say commander LC and Ensign level so they only get 3 skills. A Hunter should be allowed to fly any ship in the game whether Klingon or Fed so there wouldnt be a need to make new ships. Regardless of ship choice, the Hunter would only get say 5 universal consoles choices and 3 bridge officer slots and perhaps 50 crew though they would have the fastest ship, best hull, and best shields regardless of ship choice. For players that love the Miranda and want to fly it at T5 level this would be an ideal class. It would instantly make the Dreadnaught usable again though I do think Hunters should be banned from using refit ships. Ground is easy as well, Hunters should get an attack and defense bonus but be banned from using Kits. It would totally be awesome to have a class that could fly any ship in the game at a T5 level and be competitive and the framework for the ship builds is already in game. Also Hunters could change alliances and toggle between Fed / Klingon based upon who pays them the most or what they feel like doing. A bounty hunters loyalty would be based on rate of pay with changeable rp.

    Another easy to do option would be to sublcass engineers into regular engineers and design engineers. If someone chooses to be a design engineer then perhaps they give up a console slot or two and maybe even a bridge officer slot but get 2-4 device slots added. Design engineers would have bonus benefits of reduced cooldown times for bridge officer skills and especially for devices and they could craft single use devices that would enhance ship performance like special capacitors, batteries, or pulse generators. When you hear Kirk yelling "more power" to Scotty you can imagine him flipping a switch on a reserve capacitor he designed and installed in the morning. Cryptic wouldnt need to code more ships but would only need to add a crafting section to ships where Design engineers could make devices for device slots in their ship and on the ground that would give added value to their ship to replace the console and bridge officer slots they might lose. Add a box here and remove a box there and perhaps add a slew of 10-20 new creatable devices an entire new class of character creation could come into the game.

    Cryptic could easily add more classes than the standard 3 without a huge amount of work involved and I think it would help the game.


    3. Earth and Starfleet Academy

    Ok this is the one idea thats not easy to code. Still, a good portion of Star Trek either happens on earth or revolves around earth. We especially need a Starfleet academy where officers can craft, train BOs, etc. In particular I think BO's need to have skills developed and molded by combat or experience rather than using Merits at some random trainer or having one officer train another. If before the awful nerf you wanted RSP 3 rather than pay 5 million on the exchange you should have been able to do a mission where the reward was to have an option to have a BO trained in this rare skill at the end of the mission. Starfleet academy missions could be used to change or adapt BO skills or enhance their usefulness from say normal to superior. Even traits should be altered. If a Vulcan wants superior mind meld he should go to Vulcan and complete a mission with a Vulcan Monk who teaches it to him. Skills and traits should be earned rather than randomly distributed and purchased by Merits.

    There is a wealth of things that could be done on Earth and perhaps even the other home planets of members of the Federation. To have Star Fleet Federation but not earth is just silly. Earth should almost by itself be as big and as usable as a sector block.

    4. Enhanced Fleet Abilities

    Many fleets are small and exist in a bit of a niche area. I have found that members of a RP fleet do not really want to join or interact with members of a PvP fleet though honestly I like being in both kinds of fleets for various reasons. It would be so very nice if fleets could establish formal alliances with 8-10 other fleets and perhaps have an alliance chat channel so that a member from one fleet could ask for help on a mission from a member of another fleet. Fleet tabs could be shared with options being coded to allow alliance fleets to access fleet bank or not. Right now there are really only 3 advantages to being in a fleet. 1. Social Interaction 2. Fleet Bank 3. Fleet Unis and Logos. More needs to be done

    Fleets should have their own fleet hall or even star base where they can choose the colors of the wall, tables chairs, etc.. They might have a logo or mission statement on the wall. Fleet members really need a place to relax where they can be with friends without having others intrude and start yammering about seeing Marina Sirtis at a restaurant and what she looked like in graphic detail.

    Additionally, each fleet should be able to custom design one item for use as fleet equipment item for their ship, one item for fleet equipment for personal use, and have two skills as trainable bridge officer abilities, one for ground and one for space. For instance it wouldnt be hard to allow a fleet to perhaps train a hybrid skill of level 1 hybrid 50% polarize Hull + 50% level one Hazard emitters. Choose a process like pick between immune tractor and cure plasma fire and then give 50% of each benefit and voila you have a fleet skill that you can learn only in your fleet hall. A bridge officer that learns this skill should be stamped as unique and non tradable. Its a mild benefit for fleets but kind of cool and interesting and it gives fleets a hint of unique flavor. Almost every game Ive played has had unique clan halls, clan equipment and clan spells and STO needs to code this in for fleets to give them a hint of unique flavor. Charge energy credits or starfleet merits or whatever but let fleets expand and differentiate themselves in some manner shape or form other than Unis and perhaps a logo.

    5. This really isnt a favorite idea of mine but there needs to be rewards and abilities to interact in a formalized social manner. For instance, most every game you play has an ability in one shape manner or form to allow marriage. You look at a game like the Sims and its appeal and Im absolutely conviced that a lot of its appeal revolves around relationship processing and trying to get relationship scores high so you can marry other Sims in the game. If Cryptic were to add a Marriage process to the game the player base would explode. We would particulary see an increase of players in the fairer sex who would enjoy being pursued with personalized attention. Cryptic probably should add another item slot for a jewelry clothing item and perhaps allow a +2 defense bonus to those that wear a wedding ring and have returning home safely on their mind or a +2 attack bonus for those poor single people still on the prowl who wear a traditional item such as an IDIC or Bajoran earring. STO is a much better game than the Sims but the Sims has its loyal players and a lot of the reason is that they simulate relationships and allow greater interaction between formalizing social structure. I dont know that relationship scores are cannon star trek but we need players and it works for the Sims. Marriage and at least Buddy relationships are cannon as you have Worf and Jadzia and Tom Paris and B'elanna Torres on the Marriage side and multiple buddies in each series on the friend side. Like it or not adding formal relationships into the mix will increase the player base as it gives players other things to think about and explore in the role play universe besides the pew pew.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Ok, we have now listed a small sampling of ideas to improve rp in the game and enhance player enjoyment and playability. Since we have given a Cryptic a fair amount of new ideas and work to think about lets offer some ideas where Cryptic can scale back. In my opinion these are 5 things that Cryptic can scale back on doing to save time and money and free talent and resources for new ideas.

    1. We currently have enough player races and do not need more of them.

    I currently play over 20 characters and most of the races and intend to "eventually" play them all. Honestly, I dont have time to play 20 plus races and level them all to VA so why add more? It annoys people who want to play a Caitan and a Rigellian to have to choose between them because they dont have time for both. Its cool to have multiple player race options but we are almost to the point where you rarely see the less popular ones like Pakleds, Tellarites, Rigelians, and Saurians. Furthermore, many of the races are pay to play and we dont need more races until other issues are addressed. Sure, in the future add another 2-4 races next year. But we dont need 2 per month like has happened over the past year. Its virtually impossible to play them all and annoying to try. I dont need more races that I dont have time to play.

    2. We do not need more ships.

    Everybody gets all excited when a new ship design arrives but there needs to be a holdback for new ships in the future. I have over 20 characters and I could put each one of them in a different T5 ship as their main boat and I still wouldnt be able to own 1 of each kind of ship. There are 9 types of Federation Cruisers not to mention additional purchasable cstore skins for the 9 and thats before you start custom mixing and matching different hulls and nacelles etc..... I could make 15-20 characters that fly federation engy ships before Id have 2 that flew a ship that looked even remotely alike. I DONT NEED MORE. Its almost upsetting to try and get one of everything and not have enough characters to even use them. And I dont know anybody that actively plays more characters than me. Im sure there are some out there but I dont know them. Rygar is close but hes a premier role player and is more interested in RP than levelling up to VA. Please finish the ships you are working on and promised to the player base but then when you are done go build Earth rather than trying to improve the game by having a (guestimate) amount of 125 ships instead of a 120 and claiming the game is improved.

    3. Im tired of new cstore stuff appearing that does not enhance the playability of the game. Yes the Cstore Sehlat looks good and I will probably buy one if they go on sale and give it to my Vulcan character. Id rather Cryptic be designing a new single use item that goes in a device slot and can neutralize rsp rather than nerf the skill. Players replace RSP with something that actually helps them and it gets removed from the game and goes the way of tractor beam repulsers and the game becomes poorer as diversity declines. Id much rather buy or earn a RSP counter than a Sehlat and thereby keep RSP as a usable skill. And if people that worked hard to do a build around RSP could still use it to lesser effect then maybe people wouldnt quit the game over nerfs. Yes I know Blizzard has made a fortune selling pets and its high profit but please put something in the cstore that is actually usable at a VA level.

    4. More changes to the exchange. There needs to be an active commerce in the game and everytime Cryptic changes the exchange the prices rise. Being able to list prices low to high didnt help lower prices. It helped create more Ferengi that stalked the exchange to buy the cheap stuff and relist it higher in terms of profits. It became easier to buy low and sell high if you camped the exchange for hours but that didnt help the player base. Taxing use of the exchange will only inspire players to throw more stuff in the replicator and profiteers to see less supply so they raise their prices to cover added listing costs. Let the market be free and leave it alone. Maybe go back to 2 week listings or charge a small $10 fee for a 2 week listing or a $50 fee for a 4 week listing. Making the exchange less usable and more taxable hurts everyone.

    5. We do not need an Admiral rank anytime soon. I was probably the only person that supported Cryptic when they exited beta and installed a skill cap. We need more and more diversity in player skills so that players HAVE TO INTERACT with others to get things done. I like that you NEED 4 other players to finish infected though its annoying sometimes to find them. If STO becomes a game where you dont need to interact with others then its a fail. Honestly it was a better game when you needed to find that rare ground sci doctor to get through an STF. Right now we are suffering from cookie cutter build syndrome. People have started to figure out what the best build combos are and with minor variations they are building clone builds with their friends. There are enough skill points available to be good at both ground and space and pretty close to being good at both offense and defense with a ship. Yes you can maximize for minor advantages and maybe build slightly better than another player but the days of needing to find a tank boat for defense and an attack ship for offense are about gone from the game. People dont have to cooperate as much to cover up sins of deficiencies from lack of skill points. You dont have defense engy tanks running missions with hunter killer tacs anymore. Pretty much everyone has enough skill points to build good defense, build good offense, and have enough points to do well at ground. Its a bad trend. The space specialist should need to make friends with ground specialists so they can both finish a mixed mission that has both. If you want game interaction between players then give them flaws that a friend can cover up. Every single succesful fantasy MMORPG has a warrior that can fight, a cleric that can heal, and a mage that can buff and improve and missions that need all 3 if you want to win. STO needs more cooperative missions. Also if you move to Admiral too fast and by too fast I mean before Christmas 2011 then you destroy all the builds people have worked hard for as MK XIV equipment would make every great MK XII build obsolete. Its very hard to get 220 + emblems for a Mk XI shield that costs 100 + emblems + 4 more weapons that cost 30 emblems each. Destroying these builds as common MK XIV gear picked up on drops outperforms the hard to get emblem gear on a Vice Admiral will cause more people to quit. People that have spent months gaining 250 emblems for their outstanding builds will be upset if they wake up and their boats are mediocre or bad. Emblem prices probably need to come down and/or there be alternate ways to purchase or craft the best gear.

    I would much much much rather see new an more interesting content be provided for Vice Admirals rather than adding another 10 levels to grind and new Mk XIV gear for Admirals. I know that someday we will move into the world of Admirals and after that Fleet Admirals but I dont see a need to rush into it for a year or two or more. Blizzard doesnt rush out expansion packs for WoW more than once every 2 years and we shouldnt have major upgrades any more frequent than they do and if and when it happens it should be well thought out instead of just throwing a lot more levels to grind and some improved gear.

    My final thoughts are that Cryptic has improved the game in the last 3 months. The new weekly episodes are the best new feature in the game and are helping it a lot. We need more differentiation both in equipment, builds, rp, and interactivity. You cannot build a game with a million people and expect them all to want to play the same. Talking about RP is a huge topic that needs far more attention than these few pages I have just posted but for the most part these ideas are easy to code and do. Im pretty shocked actually that some of them have not actually found their way into the game. A star emote command in the chat box is so easy to do and would add so much to the game and I doubt it would take 10 lines of code to write it in. This alone would cause me to go to my chat box and type in *thanks the Cryptic Dev team so the world would see Bugshu thanks the Cryptic dev team.

    I dont really want to recap but I feel that Cryptic really needs to give players reasons to play and enjoy their characters instead of nerfing them down so they enjoy them less. The 800 pound Gorilla of Cataclysm is 6 weeks away and it will be interesting to see how many players stay with the game when that bad boy comes out. In some respects Cryptic needs to branch off and start building its own unique game instead of copying what workds for Blizzard. Id like to talk about more interesting ideas in the future but the easy to program ones listed above would seem to help the game more right now.

    Right now Differentiation is key. Cryptic has been communistic in making everyone dance around the similar equipment, performance, builds, and abilities in the name of balance but people dont play games to be balanced and average. People want games where they can succeed and feel great. They want to say I have the best shield or Im the best PvPer or I have the prettiest ship. The game needs to unlock so that it allows people to succeed at play.

    Indeed, I can already feel a thousand flames being pointed my way for daring to suggest ways to improve when the fan boys feel the game is perfect as is. But friends ask me to post thoughts about rp so.......

    Im now to the point where Id rather play in game than post more so..........

    Happy Star Trek All,

    :)

    Bugshu
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    That's a great post and contains a lot of things I would like in STO. However some of it is simply not feasible. Player crews have been talked to death on these forums ever since I signed up in 08. IMO the only way it could be done right would be a major PAID expansion, which is something I don't really want and Cryptic doesn't really want.

    some of more the minor points (poker, emotes, sitting in chairs for example) are being worked on.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    even i am no RPer i agree with anything that improves the RP-experience...
    on the one hand i know enough RPers so i understand "their needs"
    and on the other hand some improvements simply would affect anyone...
    me personally would appreciate everything related to customization options for example...
    more minigames or social interactions in form of games or places where you might act together as well...

    but some parts i cant agree, f.e. accolades giving active buffs...
    or adding additional benefits to items... that is all a bit more difficult i think...

    sry, but i dont wanna take part on c-store discussions, they are annoying me meanwhile...
    especially if its about putting "usable"-things in there... i completely disagree...

    all over more points to agree than to disagree,
    very interesting post and many things to think about!

    PS: check your chat-options, you may deactivate friends been shown logging on/off there ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Amazing post. Really hoping Dan gives this one a good look!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Good for you to stand up. But a little less acid in the tone would probably help, and I can't but think that every time someone writes "that something is easy to code" it probably isn't. Games take a ton of work, and I am sorry to say it, but RP'ers are sadly outnumbered in the gaming industry, by large margin.
    I am not saying that your ideas don't have merit, but if Cryptic wants their game to succeed and generate money then they have to make content for the majority of the players. Pure and simple.

    Sure I would like to see added functionality on the ship, but I bet that there are very few players - out of the whole consumer basis - that would like to push a few buttons down at the engine core during combat, while missing all the fun. It sure doesn't sound like fun to me, and probably most will agree with me.

    A proper use for interior functionality, would be the total and utter elimination of the sectors. I don't see why it couldn't be possible to navigate to other systems while being inside your ship and the destination loading in the background. It would also make a certain sense, that the distance would take some time, but probably even less than the sector flying.

    Oh please kill sector space entirely Dstahl. I am begging you *grins mischivously*

    It all comes down to the number of developers the game can support and stay a cohesive unit (an interesting reference here is that World of Warcraft has around 150 developers, despite their earnings. Beyond that point, it gets impossible to for them to have everyone working in the same direction effectively). I don't know how many STO have, but I am betting they are working their butts off. So, even if I do agree that many of your ideas are interesting, don't expect them any time soon. I doubt they have the manpower to cater to such a gaming minority.

    Best regards



    Arachne
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I'm gonna need to print this oune out to read it wow OP that is a lot to take in GJ!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Wow, thats alot to think about, and I agree with the OP on most of it. I will say that I have put off buying a Connie because of the blue phasers only going to Mk IX. Love the blue phasers and the sound they make.

    ncc71877:)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I agree with a lot of what's written here.

    There are a few areas that might help clarify:
    • You can create a channel, server-wide, and dedicated to roleplaying on your own. There's no need to wait for Cryptic's consent. In fact, thanks to XMPP, you can hop into chat clients while away from STO and find those RP channels, if you wish.
    • Emotes are getting improved and tweaked but the biggest tweak is having emotes that work within chairs (instead of the emote forcing you to stand). Dstahl has mentioned this before.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    I agree with a lot of what's written here.

    There are a few areas that might help clarify:
    • You can create a channel, server-wide, and dedicated to roleplaying on your own. There's no need to wait for Cryptic's consent. In fact, thanks to XMPP, you can hop into chat clients while away from STO and find those RP channels, if you wish.
    • Emotes are getting improved and tweaked but the biggest tweak is having emotes that work within chairs (instead of the emote forcing you to stand). Dstahl has mentioned this before.

    Indeed. A bunch of these channels already exist (STORP and SubspaceRP are the best public ones that I know of).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited November 2010
    Indeed. A bunch of these channels already exist (STORP and SubspaceRP are the best public ones that I know of).

    It would be nice if there were dedicated, centralized RP channels that operated on a local (instead of global level). Think of zone chat: instead you'd have a special RP channel that would be just for RP in the location you're at.
Sign In or Register to comment.