test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Your starship. your base

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
The BioWare staff kicked off the presentation with a review of the recently revealed crew skills system, which lets you use your computer-controlled companion characters to more or less do your dirty work. This includes all the "go run around and do this for a while" activities you'd normally handle yourself in an online game, such as crafting (in this case, using the artifice or biochem skills), gathering crafting materials (in this case, bioanalysis and slicing--the game's term for computer hacking), and lower-level mission tasks (in the case of The Old Republic, this will mean diplomacy missions and treasure hunts). The idea is that your character is a true hero, and like any good hero, you have people who do that stuff for you. Since all characters in The Old Republic can have their own starship, which acts as a base of operations, your companions will hang out on your ship until you deploy them or put them to work on board at a crafting station.

wow SW stealing my idea for STO. Making your starship a base of operations. For STO that would mean putting a chief medical officer in sick bay to heal your injuries and replicate injury stuff.

A chief engineer to work on your damaged ship. Maybe a finite amount of resources could be introduced which are needed for them to replicate the healing kits, and a finite amount of resources needed to repair the ship. That way you would still need to gather/buy/dock to get stuff you could have a cap for how much resources you can have on your ship.

The more you get injured/damaged, the more you have to use your medical and and engineering resources with the respective officers to make new medicine/parts. That means you have to resupply at some point. But gives your ship some way to be 'helpful' to you and more of an incentive to play on advanced/elite. Currently I have WAY more fun playing on higher difficulty, I have to fly better not just circle and shoot.

It can also be made so that your engineer/doctor can only produce a certain amount over a period of time.

well whatever, just make the starship feel more useful.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    We discussed having sick bay and engineering be more meaningful for repairing damage or healing injuries.

    However, the short-sightedness of the anti-death penalty crowd killed any hope of using those areas outside of a mission-specific way.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    I'd be happy to have limited crafting stations (consumables, blue or lower gear, and schematics only) aboard ship. Keep Mem Alpha/Qo'noS for the more intensive (purple) R&D projects.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    We discussed having sick bay and engineering be more meaningful for repairing damage or healing injuries.

    However, the short-sightedness of the anti-death penalty crowd killed any hope of using those areas outside of a mission-specific way.

    Not really. Still plenty they can be used for, and the fact that they're there means the people who DO use the death penalty actually could get use out of the basic services that could be implemented.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    We discussed having sick bay and engineering be more meaningful for repairing damage or healing injuries.

    However, the short-sightedness of the anti-death penalty crowd killed any hope of using those areas outside of a mission-specific way.

    I was apart of the anti-death penalty crowd and it wasnt short sightedness it was making sure something wasnt put on everyone just because those for it wanted it. but theres nothing stopping the devs from turning sickbay and main engineering into a place to repair/heal. infact it would probably pull alot of those on the fence about the difficulty slider over as they wont worry about running back to the starbase to get fixed or carrying a ton of components and regenerators when the ship itself will be stocked with all of that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Cruis.In wrote: »
    wow SW stealing my idea for STO. Making your starship a base of operations. For STO that would mean putting a chief medical officer in sick bay to heal your injuries and replicate injury stuff.
    What's there to steal? This is how Bioware handed it in KOTOR and KOTOR 2.
    well whatever, just make the starship feel more useful.
    Yes, it can easily be done. Of course what it also does is make the social areas in the MMO feel much less useful.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    then you have to find other ways to make social areas useful. Because if you gimping the ship to make a social area useful then bleh. also people who don't hang out in social areas, are much less likely to hang out there just because they have to buy stuff from there.

    they'll come buy and leave.

    and this way it would go with the more star trek theme cryptic says they want.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    so interios are just for show then... great.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Cruis.In wrote: »
    so interios are just for show then... great.
    People who reply to their own last statement in a thread scare me. :)

    And yes, as the Devs have said, for now interiors or simply fluff. Who knows what they'll be 6 months from now. 6 months ago they weren't even fluff. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Cosmic_One wrote: »
    What's there to steal? This is how Bioware handed it in KOTOR and KOTOR 2.

    This is True and also I think people need to remember that Bioware has been working on SW:TOR for 5 all most 6 years.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Cruis.In wrote: »
    then you have to find other ways to make social areas useful. Because if you gimping the ship to make a social area useful then bleh. also people who don't hang out in social areas, are much less likely to hang out there just because they have to buy stuff from there.
    Shouldn't the usefulness of social areas mainly be about ... socializing? ;)

    Forcing people to go to social areas to restock doesn't really help, for - as you already pointed out - they'll just buy their stuff and leave again. Social areas should focus on simply being places to meet. They do not need to fulfill any other function.

    That said, social areas could use some more minigames and activities to do with other players. Stuff that can be implemented on your ship's messhall as well, but being more useful in social areas for you're more likely to, y'know, meet people to play with there.

    Like ... having a poker table on your ship as well as in DS9. So you can play with your friends on your own ship. And if your friends aren't online, well, time to head to DS9 and see if you'll find people to play poker with there!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Dext wrote: »
    This is True and also I think people need to remember that Bioware has been working on SW:TOR for 5 all most 6 years.
    People always have a lot of expectations from games they've never played. It was the same for the year before STO was launched; the same for AoC, Aion, and dozens of other games. The next game is always the "best game ever" until you play it. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Cosmic_One wrote: »
    People always have a lot of expectations from games they've never played. It was the same for the year before STO was launched; the same for AoC, Aion, and dozens of other games. The next game is always the "best game ever" until you play it. :)

    A very true statement unfortunately (for most developers anyway), for reasons we discussed last night (the trend for releasing games in a half-finished state).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Not really. Still plenty they can be used for, and the fact that they're there means the people who DO use the death penalty actually could get use out of the basic services that could be implemented.
    The trick is that the death penalty only applies to a small portion of the game's population - meaning that development costs for it would be harder to justify.

    Granted, being able to heal injuries with our Chief medical officer and repairing the hull with a Chief engineer would be amazing and Trek but it's one of those things where now it only applies to a small portion of the playerbase (and has less likelihood of being implemented now - outside of a story context, which might justify the necessary minigames if cleverly planned). :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    A lot of us who didn't want the death penalty was because all of the bugs in the game when they announced it. The DSE's would pull you in a lot more than they do now and you would be instantly killed by a fleet of ships 40 levels above you . Also players ships would just explode randomly and arriving at Starbase One.

    Even when I played on elite I didn't die much and always had plenty repair kits from drops.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Personally, I found the game to be rather boring after reaching level cap (VA). After the novelty of flying Star Fleet ships wore off, there's not much meat to this game. No depth.

    I like the ideas expressed in the OP. I also prefer some form of damage/injury for which those ideas could be utilized.

    But hey.... If, Cryptic can be successful catering to an audience that prefers style over substance, good for them. New costumes, emotes, and dances seem to make people happy.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2010
    Roxbad wrote:
    But hey.... If, Cryptic can be successful catering to an audience that prefers style over substance, good for them. New costumes, emotes, and dances seem to make people happy.

    Be careful: we'll be getting Flock of Seagulls hair at this point. :p
Sign In or Register to comment.