Rule one of the book of mmo's is you need a transit area players travel to get places to give them the sense of depth of game.
Or does it?
First I found this map.
http://www.rigilkent-online.com/images/Star_trek_map2.jpg nice detail map. And I thought. Why not use it? but just have lines you warp to to get to each location. and those be zones.
So on map put boxes like earth quadrant 0 would have Vulcan and local words like that. and do areas with small boxes and warp to lines to connect them together. This give more room for addons even room for player made temp zones. Players would then warp to a area and do a story adventure. some tools like random worlds or a preset style base can be used. like in the neutral base zones you can easily have generic base styles to explore. or even attack.
Example lets say your a klingon and warp to outpost k-9. as players don't have direct input on over all world based on there character actions. you would have it generate a random generic base for them to attack as a ground invasion or space assault. Social areas like Rasa and star bases home worlds. would have same access and let players meet.
A extra bonus is player bases or even home world to there special race. You could sell a star system ((Add one)) to players or lease for a home world race they can make and develop.
This is outside the norm of most mmo set ups not having long travel distances on a map. you can even add a randomized encounter system that can pop up on trips.
Example; You start at Earth dock. you warp out. next scene your on bridge. 2 - 5 minutes max. gives you time to use tools that hopefully will be added to ships. when a crew pop up. "we got a distress call captain" and you opt ether to come out of warp to investigate or keep going. If you stop it can be like all the nebula missions. maybe need to land on a planet rescue a ship or fight off a squadron of attack ships.
But is an idea something to look at from a different point of view.
Comments
You want social areas to become combat areas?
You want the bridge to offer missions?
and yes English is not my strong language. but you could do random missions from the bridge.
Just a WAY out side of box idea.