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Do you like being a Super-Captain in your story?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,018 Arc User
Interesting question,

Due to instancing, every character of Star Trek: Online is basically playing a single-player campaign built around the fact that he gets a Chris Pine Kirk-esque origin. He's promoted to lieutenant and given command of a garbage scow-esque ship - so it's SLIGHTLY more believable but the same basic principle applies.

From there, the PC proceeds to single handedly carve his way through the Klingon race (if he's Federation) before moving onto blowing up a Romulan warbird with a shuttle on your first Romulan story mission and then only goes from there.

Basically, by the end of things, your character is the most action packed heroic superhero of superheroes Starfleet has ever produced.

Do you like this origin for your character or would you have preferred something slightly more lower-key for your Captain?
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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I thought the new tutorial changes that. So your not just foisted into command.

    Is that the one your talking about, or the new one on tribble?

    I don't mind it. We're all the heroes of our own life stories. Plus... I fly a ship that could lay waste to a planet, I don't find the shuttle thing to be too much, especially since at that time, your fighting along side a galaxy class and the warbird isn't shooting at you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    What's the new version like?

    I played til Lieutenant Commander 5 then quit for almost a year.

    Then I resumed.

    I expect I missed a lot.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    new tutorial is not much different to what it was before.

    im fine with the action start. perhaps a little variety would have been nice. perhaps an action tutorial for your kirks and a more low key one for your picards.

    janeway's one was lost and will be here in 7 years.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    What's the new version like?

    I expect I missed a lot.

    It's the old version, but tweaked a little
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I like being a super-captain, personally.

    Honestly, my tweaks would mostly be incorporating that, "World of Warcraft changes" thing they introduced with the Lich King supplement.

    For example, after the Klingon campaign is done, you might get people responding that the Klingons were so impressed with blowing up the Doomsday Machine that peace talks have begun. "Rogue Houses" will continue to attack Federation territory, though.

    That would give the illusion of progress, also imply that you single handedly won the war.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Interesting question,

    ...

    From there, the PC proceeds to single handedly carve his way through the Klingon race (if he's Federation) before moving onto blowing up a Romulan warbird with a shuttle on your first Romulan story mission and then only goes from there.

    Basically, by the end of things, your character is the most action packed heroic superhero of superheroes Starfleet has ever produced.

    Do you like this origin for your character or would you have preferred something slightly more lower-key for your Captain?

    You sir, might want to practice pvp, even at low levels when you can get a pop. I must warn you, that the lower levels don't usually get a lot of pvp participation. Max rank levels that queues still pop fairly often (for fed v fed).

    PvP is the only place in game where you are NOT a super captain, and can't blow anything up with ease. It will teach you how to actually use and stack defensive and offensive capabilities, and give you the feeling that you're really fighting opponents (because... well... you are!).

    I warn you, when I was new to pvp I got blown up a lot. It's like going from watching a sporting event on TV to actually being one of the players.

    You're not all powerful, you're not the center of epicness, and if you don't work with your team you're dead. You'll learn the basics of real actual teamwork and how to support each other with buffs / heals while learning to call targets, focus fire, and what different offensive powers actually do to ships.

    Come join us in PvP, we'd love to have more people who desire a greater challenge in this game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I've had a lot of interesting thoughts about this recently. STO feels very lacking when it comes to how I feel leveling up. I don't really find a lot that keeps me attached to the story or my character. During the slow time I've leveled a character in Champions Online to max, and it still amazes me how different the two games are. As a super hero in Champions I felt like I was in the story, that the actions of my character had an effect on the story. The Nemesis system is totally cool, and would be an interesting idea for Star Trek to say the least. Star Trek had Nemesis type characters in it? (Khan anyone?)

    Having said that however I think the Featured Episodes are a good start to getting more involved in the story. The last one did a nice job of getting me more involved in the story than say the standard missions we all grind though. Also the revamped missions seem to work a lot better in working on that goal. I think over time it will be easier to associate with your crew and your captain as the missions get remastered, and more Featured Series start rolling out the door.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    For example, after the Klingon campaign is done, you might get people responding that the Klingons were so impressed with blowing up the Doomsday Machine that peace talks have begun. "Rogue Houses" will continue to attack Federation territory, though.

    But decided not to "peace out" after their own weapon design was turned upon them in skirmish after skirmish for weeks on end.:p

    The Player as the center of attention in even MMOs is a long standing tradition.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I rather like being the star of my own show.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Jexsam wrote: »
    I rather like being the star of my own show.

    Same here, I should be the next Captain of the Enterprise!

    Though I don't like the backstory the game gives you, on the occasion I do RP, I use quite a different story for my character and he's a super-captain in that he's given decades of service to Starfleet and has been around the quadrant a few times.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I have less trouble with it.

    Given, by the time I'm a Captain, I've had literally HUNDREDS of missions.

    I like to think I've been in Starfleet for years since the first mission.

    :-)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I too like being the star of my own show. But like with every MMO that god-mods your backstory, I completely ignore it and make up my own.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Same here, I should be the next Captain of the Enterprise!

    The game already seems to be full of sons and daughters of famous starship captains who aced the Kobayashi Maru test and completed his/her 6th doctorate at the age of 15. And dated the Borg Queen.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I have less trouble with it.

    Given, by the time I'm a Captain, I've had literally HUNDREDS of missions.

    I like to think I've been in Starfleet for years since the first mission.

    :-)

    I always imagined that my character was still Captaining in the time I'm logged off.
    So I assume even a Cdr. character of mine is a veteran of hundreds of missions and several years of command.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I thought the new tutorial changes that. So your not just foisted into command.

    There is no "new tutorial". They just slightly changed the existing tutorial. You can see for yourself on Tribble.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Aisling wrote:
    I too like being the star of my own show. But like with every MMO that god-mods your backstory, I completely ignore it and make up my own.

    ^this. Each of my characters has their own story which, whilst in the games setting, isn't the actual missions i play through.

    If i were to stick with the games story with all my characters it'd remind me of the skit in blackadder too much, where he lies about who he killed in battle, after one of the names his brother responds 'i killed him myself at one stage...'
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Nah.

    I actually think it's better to work with the backstory. Imagine your poor ensign who has been forced into the role of being, essentially, the Klingon Red Baron. You've been forced into mission after mission and now you probably have a reputation as the Great Exterminator (to quote another franchise)

    poor BoshTarg.

    "I just wanted to scan comets! I didn't want this!"

    Okay, I'm just kidding but I'm imagining poor Reginald Barclay as the character now.

    Edit:

    Actually I have a few mental tricks I do.

    + I assume that all of the Warp Core breeches are mostly the enemy ejecting them.

    + I assume my weapons are always on "Stun."

    (Starfleet picks up the crews and prisoners I take for holding until after the war)

    + I assume the majority of Klingon and Romulan vessels I face are actually them just throwing badly trained conscripts into the war as much as regular trained crews.

    + I assume that Starfleet has an exaggerated opinion of me.

    + Also, a lot of those accolades are actually FROM the enemy who think I'm some sort of weird messianic worthy opponent.

    (works best for the klingons)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    There is no "new tutorial". They just slightly changed the existing tutorial. You can see for yourself on Tribble.

    I thought the plan was that the tutorial was being replaced and the current one was gonna be a precursor to the Khitomer Accord STF. I call BS on this, lol.


    Wasn't a new tutorial supposed to come in S4?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Interesting question,

    Due to instancing, every character of Star Trek: Online is basically playing a single-player campaign built around the fact that he gets a Chris Pine Kirk-esque origin. He's promoted to lieutenant and given command of a garbage scow-esque ship - so it's SLIGHTLY more believable but the same basic principle applies.

    From there, the PC proceeds to single handedly carve his way through the Klingon race (if he's Federation) before moving onto blowing up a Romulan warbird with a shuttle on your first Romulan story mission and then only goes from there.

    Basically, by the end of things, your character is the most action packed heroic superhero of superheroes Starfleet has ever produced.

    Do you like this origin for your character or would you have preferred something slightly more lower-key for your Captain?
    Just because that's your ingame origin doesn't mean it has to be part of your characters biography. None of my characters fought at Vega Colony. They trained at Starfleet Academy, served on some ships and worked their way up to Captain.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Kirk was promoted so quickly, mainly due to the fact they lost so many ships due to the attacks, and the same is pretty much true in STO. I saw it as my character being given command due to necessity, they needed more captains and she proved she could do it.

    But I think the game should have been made much more focused around your ship and crew, not just your captain, so you would have designed several officers at the beginning of the game that would be used for different situations (since Star Trek is never about one character). Your captain could still be used as your main avatar, but your security officer could be used for away missions and so forth.

    This way you could have just been promoted to a first officer position under some randomly generated NPC, who wouldn't have been that important, aside from being on your ship to give you missions, at least until you reach Commander.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I thought the plan was that the tutorial was being replaced and the current one was gonna be a precursor to the Khitomer Accord STF. I call BS on this, lol.


    Wasn't a new tutorial supposed to come in S4?

    Well, I played the tutorial on Tribble last night, and it was the same as the first tutorial I played a couple months after launch, with the exception of details like division based starting rooms, and some stuff that explains shooter mode.

    So either there is another new turotial in the works or, "the borg are in our base killing our officers" is still the plot in the new tutorial.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I like being the star of the show, but I wouldn't mind if the supporting cast could carry an episode here and there. My biggest disappointment with the game has been my Bridge Officers and what I consider their lack of depth.

    As for my "RP" background, I had my main serve for nearly twenty years in the Andorian local fleet before transitioning over to Starfleet. Although he took the Starfleet rank of ensign for the switch, Vega Colony was not his first rodeo, and thus he was able to slide into the big chair without too much difficulty when the time came. Faster than normal promotions are explained by his previous experience. Works for me.

    I know that if I was a crew member aboard a ship whose commanding officer was a recent academy graduate and who had barely 22 years (if human) life experience, I'd be looking for a transfer - regardless of how whiz bang he is at whipping gimped Borg around Vega Colony. I just wouldn't be able to trust his judgement or emotional maturity.

    Of course - it is just a game...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    spidey1980 wrote: »
    Just because that's your ingame origin doesn't mean it has to be part of your characters biography. None of my characters fought at Vega Colony. They trained at Starfleet Academy, served on some ships and worked their way up to Captain.

    It's sort of what I'm asking. Whether you prefer the superheroic origin of the game and how you've worked your way up to being the best Captain in Starfleet by virtue of your virtuoso daring do or whether you would have preferred starting as an Ensign in Starfleet Academy and working your way up through the ranks in a more typical way.

    Or what.

    My opinion was I like the game attempting to make me exceptional amongst Stafleet's people. A guy who getss his first command very early and pretty much performs miracles in a terrible time when the Federation is dying.

    I do confess, I like the biographies.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I am always at odds. On the one hand I hate being forced to team. On the other hand I understand that STO is an MMO not a SPG and that doing things with others should be expected. But I have always seen Trek as a one crew, one journey type of experience so I think that single-player game that allows teaming is probably a good fit for the IP even if it is not a good fit for the MMO community in general.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Cosmic_One wrote: »
    ... I think that single-player game that allows teaming is probably a good fit for the IP even if it is not a good fit for the MMO community in general.

    I agree with this 100%. If there was some sort of mechanic that had multiple players serving on the same ship, then I think the IP could be a better MMO fit.

    I have the impression, though, that I am in a minority in my thinking that it's a good thing to have multiple players serving on one ship . Still, some of my fondest gaming moments are from another IP where we could fly POB ships, man multiple stations, and walk around inside a semi-functional (and highly customizable) interior. I think that model could have worked for Star Trek.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Sagison wrote: »
    I agree with this 100%. If there was some sort of mechanic that had multiple players serving on the same ship, then I think the IP could be a better MMO fit.

    I have the impression, though, that I am in a minority in my thinking that it's a good thing to have multiple players serving on one ship . Still, some of my fondest gaming moments are from another IP where we could fly POB ships, man multiple stations, and walk around inside a semi-functional (and highly customizable) interior. I think that model could have worked for Star Trek.

    You're in a SIZABLE minority. It's just the fact that literally YEARS were spent trying to make something like this work and honestly, people didn't really have any luck at it. I think the major issue boils down to the fact that space travel is a sizable portion of the game and unlike in WOW, it's not like a Griffon. You would have one player determining where you go and that's not good marketing sense.

    I do love being able to walk around our ship, though, and thank Cryptic for adding it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    You're in a SIZABLE minority. It's just the fact that literally YEARS were spent trying to make something like this work and honestly, people didn't really have any luck at it. I think the major issue boils down to the fact that space travel is a sizable portion of the game and unlike in WOW, it's not like a Griffon. You would have one player determining where you go and that's not good marketing sense.

    I do love being able to walk around our ship, though, and thank Cryptic for adding it.

    I think Cryptic has a bad habit of undervaluing ship interiors. They didn't plan for them. They don't know what to do with them. And one of their major functions (mission replay) is getting pulled to become available from anywhere as a result of people not even knowing that mission replay existed because it was on ship interiors.

    I think the interiors are the most powerful untapped content and socialization tool in the game and that about 60% of this game's problems would be fixed almost overnight with a full season and manpower being pumped into the interiors.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    You're in a SIZABLE minority...

    I was batting around an idea with friends a few nights ago...up until LCDR, you could have a ship of players with an NPC Captain who "tells you where to go", also known as gives you your missions / quests. Especially with the F2P model forcing a single line of mission progression (at least in its current build), it's not like you'd have much of a choice on where to go or what to do whether you were the designated commanding officer or not.

    Perhaps once you made LCDR, you could have the option of moving on to the game play as it exists now. Various permutations of the above could also occur. I realize that it would likely be cumbersome to support two such disparate game modes, but I'm just tossing out ideas.

    Perhaps, too, the option could be there for fleets...maybe fleetmates wouldn't mind to volunteer to serve on a ship together? Just thinking aloud.

    I get that a big issue is tech, or at least that's what everyone seems to say when the idea of multiple players on a ship is brought up, but we've seen another game get the crew of a player run starship down pretty well, so I know it's at least possible, although maybe not with STO's particular engine. Dunno...not a techie by any stretch of the imagination.

    Now returning to my sizeable minority buddies... :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I thought the plan was that the tutorial was being replaced and the current one was gonna be a precursor to the Khitomer Accord STF. I call BS on this, lol

    Wasn't a new tutorial supposed to come in S4?
    They did say that didn't they.:)

    It was releasing in S4, but the Klingon tut was being held up for more work. How does a Klingon tut work after FTP? You start way past lvl one. They kept promoting the work on the Klingon tut too. Where is it? How does it work at lvl 23? Is there really a Klingon tut being worked on or was that more misquotes?

    I guess ALL of that falls under "plans could change". Yet, we were told repeatedly that "things are moving along nicely and the new tuts will be released any day now.

    Yet, there is no new tut, just a couple of additions to the old one. That isn't "plans may change", that's just plain misleading. And this continued right up until we could do the tut on another server. NOW, we know it was all BS. That is VERY different than the direction promoted.

    It leads to the inevitable question, "Why make SFA at all then? If you aren't using it for the tut you promoted, what is it for? It is just another dead social zone with little to nothing to do. Why does everything in this game turn out like this? Why does everything feel half baked and poorly planned?

    This is the basic problem here. Huge updates are promoted, yet what we get is a tweak or two to the existing missions. SFA and Quenos Capital City are created, promoted as the sites for "new tutorials", and then........................nothing like they hyped and advertized.

    It's been this way since launch and I don't see that changing at all. It is actually getting worse.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    new tutorial is not much different to what it was before.

    im fine with the action start. perhaps a little variety would have been nice. perhaps an action tutorial for your kirks and a more low key one for your picards.

    janeway's one was lost and will be here in 7 years.

    Heh, except Picard gained his first command the exact same way :)
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