I'm in NUB over the Foundry. It's great playing missions written by Star Trek fans. It reminds me of the old D&D days when you would venture into peoples' dungeons. I thought the original game would be like that but alas no, the unpaid Trekkies are the ones who save the day. I just played Drawing Proof and State Secrets. You can tell a Trekkie wrote those missions. There were lots of deep references to racial culture and spin off ideas based on details buried in the Star Trek lore. It had minimal combat, but I felt like I experienced a little more Star Trek after playing them.
I've got some ideas for missions myself and I don't want to play the original game anymore, it's boring. The weeklies are great and the STF's can be fun, but the rest is a chore. Now it's all community authored and waiting for my "weekly" missions.
How can something be called weekly when it doesn't occur every week?
Comments
The tool that players will be using to create missions in this game is called the Foundry.
I disagree with your premise that "The Foundry has saved Star Trek Online." Since the Foundry isn't even on the live server yet we don't know what effect the Foundry will have on the game and its subscriber base.
However, the Foundry might save Star Trek Online. Please notice the use of a conditional and of the future tense. I specifically phrase it this way because I make no claim of being able to foretell the future.
I happen to agree that what you're saying might happen. If Cryptic is smart enough to wait to launch the Foundry to the live server once most of the bugs have been worked out and follow it up with a decent marketing effort.
But since we cannot foresee the future we have no idea if that will happen. Do you?
Of course I can see into the future, can't you?
/I already knew that I would need more characters. Proof indeed!
P.S. Please PM me with next weeks Lottery Numbers. I already saw them of course, but then I forgot what they were.
Thanks!
Why would I give you the lottery numbers, you've done nothing for me? By the way that's exactly what I tell people when they claim to be able to predict the future. I always say, "oh you can see into the future, what are the next lottery numbers?"
Peregrine Took!
Let's not count laurels yet. There's a lot left that can be added to the Foundry to suit all styles of play: from PvP support to branching dialogue, to more options.
I really wanted to explore the effects the war had on various cultures: like how the Vulcans would want no part in the violence once the Undine plot was discovered and how the Cardassians still had hard feelings following their genocide during the Dominion War.
The Galaxy is a living, breathing thing - I just wanted to shine a microscope on some small corners of it.
Do it!
Weeklies run each week during the Season. I suspect the developers wanted more lead in time and quality testing for Season 3 (which is miles more stable than Season 2).
Darren is there a way to search by author because I know you will have some awesome missions! I can't wait to try them out!
Just type in the author's name.
Yes, you can search by author (though forum names are different from in-game names).
You can also consult a huge list of 200+ missions that I maintain:
Honestly, play other peoples' missions! There's some great talent out there and it'd be no fun if I stole all their glory!
Do you think there will be comedy or tribute episodes? If so, how would the general Trek audience handle it?
LOL
Tru dat home slice!
I tend to have a dry or dark sense of humor, so the brief epilogue with the Ship's cook in State Secrets had some wry wordplay.
Other authors are much more clever and have a better knack for comedic writing. Again, some missions won't be everyone's cup of tea but so long as they work as intended and aren't confusing from a gameplay point, people tend to enjoy having something to do during these lulls between Featured Series.
That was you? Awesome dude. Yes I can see your DM chops shown through! I DM'ed as well. It was great creating your own world and the books were essentially an API for the imagination. I still have mine.
I liked the part where the Cardassian quoted some Cardassian poetry. That shows some real NERDERY. The likes of which we have NOT seen from the STO authors, although they are getting better.
I think the Foundry will be a great way to explore all the stuff that was never really flushed out in the shows or was too expensive to Illustrate at the time. There is so much history and lore that was talked about but never seen in the show. A game like this provides an amazing OP OR TOONITY to explore all that. I too want to go deep into the lore and really play around with back stories and the grittier details of the characters. Just like in D&D times!
Are you on the UCG board or Facebook. I'd like to keep in touch.
I was going for a composite of Garek's anger with the mixed survivor guilt many Cardassians probably experienced after the genocide.
I'm actually hoping to work on a third part to that particular series: where the Cardassian you meet isn't quite so on-edge. Recurring characters are woefully underused in MMOs.
Definitely check out the other authors. I know RachelGarrett is quite talented: even having her own trailers for her missions.
Nuff said!
RachelGarrett (aka Lily Garrett) posted this trailer for Cruis.in's mission:
http://vimeo.com/18224170
Looks like I have a mission to play tonight.
the siege is a pretty good mission. i think you will like it.
i also like the trailers garret does. they look the business.
Star Trek geek and D&D geek. That' just GEEK!!!
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║+●●║♫ Know your roots !!!!!
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I never let go of my Advanced D&D copy of Deities and Demigods!I have a ton of Forgotten Realms stuff.
I've been making STO movies for awhile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV-Hdvu-MRY
Wrote the music as well. Bling bling!
Eddie was so crazy!!
Hopefully (for you) its the special C'thulu edition. Yeah I'm an AD&D geek too.
Should I be ashamed that my DND career started with 3.5?
I do not believe Foundry will either save nor hurt STO, it will simply add more content that may or may not be any good, and will most certainly add more problems.
Hopefully, the Foundry plays an important part in some game mechanics (like Exploration - where dstahl mentioned integration with more persistent exploration clusters - rather than revolving doors of random missions).
i believe it will be very possible to play a new foundry mission every single day for the rest of the games life and never have to see the same mission twice. sure, some wont be great but there will be popular missions, good missions, bad mission, hidden gems, missions no other person has played before, new ideas and concepts that even the devs have not used. basically endless adventures.
that sounds like good star trek to me, and adds a good version of endgame. having the stories be the focus and not the repeatable aspect of usual mmo endgame.
i dont think sto needs saving but the foundry should add so much to it.