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flash525
Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
Star Trek Online traditionally starts in 2409. That was when the game started. Obviously events have taken place in the game timeline since that date, we've had the Reman Rebellion, the 2800, and more recently, the Tholian Incursion among other things.
We're also in season 6 right now, I figured it might be that each season is 10 years, but I don't know. Wondered if anyone had any knowledge on this, or whether there was actually a specific star date that was being kept hold of here.
Anyone know?
We're also in season 6 right now, I figured it might be that each season is 10 years, but I don't know. Wondered if anyone had any knowledge on this, or whether there was actually a specific star date that was being kept hold of here.
Anyone know?
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Hey... I don't pretend to understand Cryptic logic, but that dosen't change the fact that the game is still 2409.
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/2535/1969zl.jpg
And / or
Remember the words of a very intelligent Doctor ...
"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."
It's 2409.
The.Grand.Nagus
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: NPW Forums
By this logic , because I could sit down and watch the entire run of Next Gen and all it's related movies in less than a month, obviously the entire TNG series takes place in the space of less than a year.
One does not follow the other in storytelling.
The amount of "stuff" stuff that has happened in the storyline of this game could not possibly have happened in less than one year's time. If it has, how many times has Kurland lost DS9 in that year ? Seriously, this is one of those moments where I don't believe you actually can believe what you are saying, Nagus.
And why is it so hard for people to understand this ?
Because even though we can hear the company line about it still being 2409, and believe me , most of us understand that. We're not morons. The issue is one of is this believable ?
In this case , it most certainly is not even a little believable. So while , I think we "understand" this whole concept, it is just fine for us to have a discussion about how plainly ridiculous it is.
I can accept that the year is still 2409, but as nicely stated by hippiejon, it is ludicrous for one to be expected to believe that everything that has happened in the STO universe / timeline since the launch of the game has all taken place within a single year.
The current setup would have any given user / crew believing that they've had fought the Klingons, aided in the Reman rebellion, had close encounters with the Iconian, crippled the Cardassian Resistance movement, lost (and retook) DS9 from the 2800, fought the Borg and Undine, along with the Devidians, Breen and now Tholians... all in under one year?
Need I say more?
Any crew in their right mind would need several months off to recover from all of that if it all went down in a single year. Not to mention the travel between systems ect.
As I said: I don't pretend to understand Cryptics logic... If there is one... But the game is designed to happen in 2409, so thats where we are stuck.
... the storylines themselves would progress the current year of the game.
So that as you are doing the missions in order, you can have character progression of major NPCs (the Admiral Quinn subplot revealed in the Romulan Arc - no spoilers -) , Miral Paris, Captain Shon, etc. They could all grow , we could see them in one mission early on, and revisit them later.
I also (people will hate this) think that you shouldn't be able to "skip" a mission until you have played through it once. The storyline could follow a natural progression of time flow. At any point when you are doing repeatable stuff (dailies, fleet actions, and so on) you can write that off as happening in the time you are in.
They could add little touches tied to completion rewards. I.E. Once you are tagged as having finished the Devidian Arc, for example. The lighting remains normal on Drozana, and you never see the Devidians. Before you are tagged as having completed the final mission, the station could look as it does now.
Two Things
(1) It takes no time at all to burn through the story. Seriously.
(2) They have said that a majority of players are at end game at this point.
This leads me to say.
-The tutorial should be 2409.
-We should see reference through the story that leads us to endgame as to the passage of time, and growth of major npcs.
-New Story and content should be constantly moving time forward, and changes should be reflected in said new content.
-REPEATABLE Content, should continue to be developed (the new S6 stuff rocks). This sort of content should not be tied to any particular time frame.
That's, if it were me making that decision.
Sadly, you're not.
On this, I agree. Why is there still a lighting problem on Drozana Station if you've fixed it?
Obviously we're only doing a quick fix, eh?
Whilst I agree, and think it would be nice to have something that is constantly moving like this, it's not so easy for the developers to progress this way.
There would be nothing worse than having another season with a whole new set of episodes (featuring the Tholian, Breen, Iconian ect) where you're doing the same boring routine again and again, only with different things to shoot at. We've got to give the team time to introduce some new things for us to do.
This is somewhat irrelevant. The Daily Events; Deferi & Tholian Events don't specifically need to be set in a specific year. They're events that you come across if you're in a specific sector at the right time.
one of the reasons that its not changed, is because it would not make since for a new player to start and the year be 2412.
the missions could be attached to specific years, but what if someone advanced their career all the way to Level 50 only running DOFF missions and never completed a single plot mission? (a friend of mine did this)
would they be stuck in 2409 until they completed them?
Legendary Starfleet Captain
STO Forum Member since December 2010
This also explains why there are older ships like connies flying about as well as the wide variation in uniforms.
Edit: Not a deliberate plot by the way... I figure it is a side effect of all the other time related plots
Yeah lol
All these people that are time travelling and changing the past and then it being corrected have broken time itself and stopped the advancement of the present day.
Legendary Starfleet Captain
STO Forum Member since December 2010
Now when I role play with others if they say 2409 I just ignore my personal preference and go with it. That being said.
I would love for the devs to up date the game by adding dates to older missions and just have them push forward the time line. like if I am a new player the borg invasion is set in feb of 2409. the Klingon front could be dated for like march, and each group of mission could last 6 months, or something like that, and just have them spread out the dates to fill in the gaps. then every new mission pushes forward the store based on the time line. But that might be to complicated in the end.
If a season in STO refers to the Earth's seasons, then 1.5 years would be assumed. However I would not call them seasons, they should call them chapters. Because they don't really state the passage of time but more the addition of content.
It is 2409 so says the high and mighty programmers.
10 years per season? How did you come up with that? That's like an entire series!
By the OP, the year would be 2469 right now. Season 6. 10 years per season.
The in-game Stardate as recorded in our logs keeps the present real-world time pace +400 years, with the clock starting in 2409 while IRL this game was in beta in 2009... which would mean the Stardate would indicate that the year is 2412 now.
However, the devs (I think the latest on to mention this was Zero) have said that technically the year is still 2409 and there has been no actual progression in the "year" despite the fact that our stardates keep progressing.
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But having all these events happen in 1 year is the dumbest thing I've seen...hell Cryptic stopped mention '2409' awhile ago to give a BS excuse to out of era ships.....we need to get back to having a real timeframe that makes sense in STO.
-The Milkshake Song: Vulcan Edition
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Makes sense, they've already acknowledged we've been here for a little over two years. Why not? 2411 sounds about right if you use this argument.
How come the Hardy Boys are still 17 and 18 after all these decades?
For new players, 2409 is still valid. All of the original stories, from rescuing the Azura to the Undine events are still there. The age of the "game" does not really apply with regard to "real" time. It doesn't for any MMO. If "time marches one" then old content should go away and be replaced with new, otherwise the early content no longer makes sense either.
I suppose they could go the path of LOTRO and let the player see that as they progress through the Epic storyline, time is passing. However, if high level players go back to lower level areas, they'll see that it is still "an earlier time" there. They can't "age" the lower levels and still keep all of the gameplay for new players and lower level characters.
It's even tougher for a game like STO where the main hub (ESD) is there from the beginning, used regularly by both old and new players, high and low levels.
It's called "suspension of disbelief" and is commonplace in the MMO industry by necessity.
-Q
This! This is really how I see it too. IMO, it would be a pointless waste of (real-world development) time for Cryptic to try to impose a specific timeline on the game. Why? Because we all progress through the content at our own rate. Because there are new people starting to play, people creating alts and such all the time.
Some seem to think it would create better 'immersion' for them to have such a set timeline, but then I have to wonder if they're thinking everything through. What happens when your max-level character from 2412 (or whenever) goes and interacts with some newer players who are essentially back in 2409-10? Isn't "seeing all these people around me in different timelines" going to be more immersion-breaking than less? Surely for some, I expect it will be so.
The bottom line is there is no -one single- time-frame that will really work for all players of the game simultaneously. So IMO, it's just as well that the devs set the 'starting point,' which they have done with the 2409 reference, and leave us to imagine time as we will. Why spend actual real-life dev-time trying to answer a question for which there is no correct answer? It's not like they aren't already hard-pressed to get content out or anything. <Yes, sarcasm.>
In short, I think the best 'answer' is -- use your own imagination. Time is best defined as whenever we need it to be, for the given group of people and interactions we're currently involved with.