I was knee-deep in the middle of an RP-related entry into my log when a thought struck me.
We're getting a crew upgrade come S4, right? From what I gathered from interviews with the mighty dstahl, we're getting essentially another roster of NPC's to keep an eye on, which boost certain stats. BOffs become department heads, and the crew become their staff.
Well, regarding the crew, why not, on advanced and more especially Elite, every time you die in space, you have a chance of losing a crew NPC, randomly, at least in space.
This would add the vaulted "death penalty" that people wanted on top of the chance for ship injuries, and become a very good RP-related instigator. And, even based on what kind of ship injury, it can be connected to what department that crewman is going to be in. Damage to more engineering-like areas, an engineering staff crewman is likely to die, etc.
The death of a crewman is taken as a serious event by the canon captains of Star Trek, even spawning whole episodes dedicated to the death of one. Lets make it something that we, players, also have to take seriously the risks involved in upping the difficulty besides having to spend some extra creds on that regenerator or components for the starship.
Seriously, as it stands, dying even in Elite is a minor inconvenience. Lets make it mean something more than just that. Lets make it mean that you will lose valuable crew.
Of course the entire beauty of this idea is that it is based around increased difficulty, Advanced and Elite. You wont lose crew on Normal since you dont get ship injuries. And for those who are on Advanced/Elite, if they dont want to lose crew, they can opt not to use crew, because as I understand it, crew is just a buff/debuff equipment-like mechanic.
There's my 2 GPL slips in. Discuss
Comments
So here is my recommendation to you: since you want this for RP reasons, any time you feel the urge, delete one of your crew members. You already have the ability to do it. If you are unable to force yourself to do so, then that is a problem of self control. But dont ask that my game be changed to suit your preferences when you already have the ability to do what you want. Thanks!
But then again, that's what you're looking for. Actual high stakes...
I'd still have to say no. I just love a couple of my NPC BO's too much to part with them.
if ya wanna feel great loss then roll onto that other space mmo where you get podded and have to re-buy your whole ship when you die.....if you are into that high-stake-death-penalty.
There are few MMOs that impose substantial penalties on players who die. Penalties that impose a lasting or significant hardship tend to cause players to ragequit or lose interest in the game. Naturally, there are some players who enjoy that sort of thing, but they're likely in the minority at this point.
Look at death penalties in major MMOs today. EvE is one of the few I can think of with a significant death penalty. Most MMO death penalties are a minor debuff or some other temporary inconvenience which can be cured via in-game means.
The reason for this is relatively simple: Most paying customers only find dying and having to grind back experience, skill points, or crew to be entertaining once or twice. It's far better to have a minor debuff that's annoying enough to require a trip to a social center to cure than a significant penalty.
In STO's case I don't think many of the social centers are really social enough for the return to a social center requirement to work, but hey.
I must respectfully decline to support this idea.