We have run out of ideas...

commadorebob · July 2012

Well, then try some of these. Some of these proposed episodes would make great STO missions when modified for this universe.

mikewendell · July 2012

I;m eying the old FASA stuff as ideas.

And heck, we still haven't gone back to Sigma Iotia II yet. (That;s the TOS episode with the gangsters)

commadorebob · July 2012

Oh, come on. This teaser would have hooked me!

One was opening with Voyager above Earth, this great homecoming sequence. There are fireworks in the sky, and everybody is going down to their homecomings. Janeway has a wonderful tearful reunion with Mark. She kisses Mark and she then snaps his neck, end of teaser.

thedoctorbluebox · July 2012

Finish the storyline with the ICONIANS, come on, they've been hinted at and now as per the Remen FE told that they are behind the scenes pulling strings. I'm looking forward to the return of the Iconians and their big story.

It is my theory that it will be the Iconians that end the Borg war with everyone, but at a great price to the Federation.

sollvax · July 2012

In the long run it will be US that wipes out the Borg

not the iconians , the ferengi , the breen , the undine or the tribbles

mrj58 · July 2012

commadorebob wrote: »

Well, then try some of these. Some of these proposed episodes would make great STO missions when modified for this universe.

I read most of those, couldn't even bother reading all of the Voyager ones, they were so bad. Some of the DS9 ones could have been kind of alright episodes. But for the most part there is a good reason why none of those episodes were made, they sucked. If they had been made they would have been the worst episodes of their respective series. So... with that said, yeah they could probably be great missions for STO. At least compared to the rest of the god awful storylines in STO.

captrayvenwing · July 2012

mikewendell wrote: »

I;m eying the old FASA stuff as ideas.

And heck, we still haven't gone back to Sigma Iotia II yet. (That;s the TOS episode with the gangsters)

Im already working on this. its called "Another Piece of the Action" wont go into to much detail. but im excited about where its going.

What i would give for Picards tommygun in this game LOL

leviathan99 · July 2012

Has Cryptic really run out of ideas?

I think Christine still has a notebook full.

After testing on Tribble, I'll say that while the dialogue is a bit clunky, it isn't that there is no story. The Tholian Invasion stuff is trying a more standard MMO approach to storytelling as it's a zone with story dialogue laced through.

I'd say the issue is one of priorities. Cryptic is trying to figure out the best way to deliver story. They still don't have a firm grasp on the theory of how to deliver it.

FEs are generally quite good but my guess is that they probably have a cost of more than $250k a series to produce. That's probably, for example, more than it costs IDW to produce two years worth of comics. That's also about a quarter of the budget of an episode of Enterprise.

I'm sure that at a certain point, they look at the result and say, "If we want to be making movies, we should just be making movies. We'd get more bang for the buck. If we're making a game, let's make a game."

I imagine it has to be a source of internal tension for the leads, what form content should take.

I have some thoughts on this but I think, at the end of the day, Cryptic has volumes of master plots. I can't see where they'd be out of ideas there.

I think the form and shape the content should take is a big deal, particularly when a lot of the team's interest is in making social games, not films. At the same time, I think most of them recognize that iconic stories and visuals are why many people play.

I think there's a lot of valuable input to be given on the shape content takes... HOWEVER, I think that's a touchy subject because some of what people want is NOT what some of the folks at Cryptic dreamed of making, what they invested tens of thousands into education for, etc.

Frankly, I think the cost of gaming products gets inflated by the job turnover. And the job turnover gets inflated by the interdisciplinary nature of the job. Some people go into games because they want to make interactive films. Some people go into it because they want to make the next Q*Bert or Pong. Some people want to make fantasy RPG dungeons. Add to that the problem that what people want to make isn't necessarily what they're fans of.

If somebody could sort all of that out, they'd get under control budgets and an exceptionally well defined product with low turnover. That is HARD.

commadorebob · July 2012

stoleviathan99 wrote: »

Has Cryptic really run out of ideas?

Tongue-in-cheek. I just wanted to share the link. Most of them are duds, I agree. But a few of them could be workable.

nynik · July 2012

Great post lev.

Some of the stories on that wiki are duds, but others would have been fun to see. A Voyager musical would have been great (not that I'm huge into musicals). As for the game, its all down to money, mechanics and man-hours.

leviathan99 · July 2012

commadorebob wrote: »

Tongue-in-cheek. I just wanted to share the link. Most of them are duds, I agree. But a few of them could be workable.

I think most of the ideas show some promise.

I really like the "Voyager War" idea of a race of shapeshifters based on Voyager invading Earth. My biggest problem is that it would work better as more than a two parter.

I said in another thread once that I can see ways to break that story, beats to hit. Things like a ready room full of Janeways plotting invasion strategy.

Breaking story in an MMO is different. The beats are different.

That said, I did my Foundry mission "Yesterday is Tomorrow" awhile back and was amazed how similar it was to Gerrold's "Tomorrow Was Yesterday." I'd never read anything on Gerrold's pitch when I did my Foundry mission.

"Tomorrow Was Yesterday" was a sixty page outline written by David Gerrold in 1966, intended to be a two-part episode. Gerrold stated that he wrote the story as a two-parter for two reasons: a) "for more money" for him, and b) "it would have meant a greater spread of money in the budget for sets, costumes and actors."
According to Gene Coon, "Mr. Gerrold's outline was by no means inadequate. It is, as a matter of fact, very adequate." He further stated despite this, "to film the two-part story outlined here would probably cost $6-700,000" and that it was "too elaborate for television. What he has written is a good motion picture treatment for ideally a $2-3,000,000 picture."

Gerrold attempted to turn the outline in to a novel during the late 1960s, but he took the story into a different direction, retitling the manuscript as "Yesterday's Children," which was later published by Dell Books in July 1972, and later renamed "Starhunt." In 1980 he revisited his original story in the novel The Galactic Whirlpool. This story was completely unrelated to TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday".

The Enterprise comes upon a relic, a generation ship launched from Earth and long forgotten; the people on the ship have forgotten why they are aboard or that there is anything outside the ship's walls. There are two factions aboard fighting each other.

My mission was about a cryogenic stasis ship launched from earth after World War III and how the ship, launched by Chronowerx Industries, had gathered all of the technology on Earth left by time travelers and made plans to leave Earth behind. It's chock full of references to episodes and ultimately has the crew divided, with one of them being very upset at the Vulcans that they let Earth suffer until they saw Earth develop warp technology. The guy is crazy but ultimately registers a point that the Prime Directive looks like turning a blind eye towards genocide.

captainbmoney · July 2012

It is my belief that Christine Thompson has a whole thing full of KDF content ready. though due to development it may never see the light of day.

ikenstein1 · July 2012

Ideas are easy. It is implementing them that's hard. I'll bet Cryptic have no shortage of ideas at all.

Personally what I'd like to see is the duty officer idea expanded. Maybe being able to set a rota of who's on duty and having fatigue and moral included. Plus some missions inside your ship. If you think about it most of Star Trek's shows take place on the ship.

twg042370 · July 2012

In all honesty, think the episode they came up with to replace the Voyager invaders was a better idea.

bitemepwe · July 2012

So all the existing loose ends are not worth finishing? Borg iconian hurq the Romulan involvement........??

woril · July 2012

You can also use randomy generated story ideas: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickstory

And randomly generated titles: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=bmovie

commadorebob · July 2012

woril wrote: »

You can also use randomy generated story ideas: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickstory

And randomly generated titles: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=bmovie

Oh, so I guess this is what the creative staff of Family Guy uses after PETA confiscated the manatees?

bitemepwe · July 2012

captainbmoney wrote: »

It is my belief that Christine Thompson has a whole thing full of KDF content ready. though due to development it may never see the light of day.

It is sad, if true, that such content has not been put into it place in STO.
It causes STO to have bland taste like a meal with no spice.

We have run out of ideas...

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