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What do you think Star Trek Online needs to most improve on?
knuhteb5
Member Posts: 1,831 Arc User
What Star Trek Online needs to most improve upon, and what are the biggest obstacles it needs to overcome in order to achieve those improvements?
I would appreciate some feedback, as well as your opinion on what are STO's biggest obstacles. All I ask is that you keep it civil and try to stay on the topic of attaining the goal-whatever it may be-of STO improving (think positive thoughts and unicorns).
One of the biggest problems STO has currently is the way it is marketed on steam and on the perfect world web-site. I think the marketing needs to shift from lauding new shinies and systems to showcasing storylines into which those shinies and systems fall into. Remember when the anniversary Bortisqu and Odyssey were released? Remember how they had a very short but cool shakedown mission that you had to play through before you got the ship? Well, that's sort of what I'm talking about, but only partly.
As an example, let's talk about the Vesta. As far as I know, there was no shakedown mission or in-game storyline that was developed to introduce it. It was literally sold to us in the zen store as if it were some cheap hot dog or cracker jacks sold to us at a baseball game. Where was the mystery? Where was the fun? Where was the story? Wouldn't it have been more meaningful if we to play through an ultra-mini mission series before we were able to purchase it in the zen store? I think a lot of people still don't know that it originated from some book series. Heck, I still don't know much about it. But you get my point. Add a little more intrigue and mystery, and the ship takes on a whole new meaning. What I would have liked to have seen is Cryptic not saying anything about the vesta and just saying, "hey, I hear there is this new ship coming out. Why don't you play through this mini mission series to find out more about it? Hint, hint...nudge, nudge."
This one is a bit of a stretch but bear with me. Maybe the same strategy could be applied to duty officer pack releases. Maybe they should also be placed within some sort of storyline to give meaning to their introduction into the game. The problem with each new duty officer pack is that they tend to fill some very specific role by giving slight increases to abilities in ground or space combat, or even bonuses to gathering xp, commendation, and skill points. And that role has nothing to do with integrating them into the any of the storylines. What I mean to say is that primary function isn't to advance a storyline; it is to provide short term cash gains for Cryptic. The question is, though, whether or not that is healthy for STO? Are we just going to release some random doff pack every month that fills some specific niche in terms of a combat need? Man, wouldn't be nice if I could reduce my cool down for this ability by 2 more seconds? I don't see that as healthy for the long-term success of the game. The devs should figure out a better way of integrating doffs into ground and space missions and storylines that gives them more meaning than just .05% more edge in pvp or evoking a reaction like "wow, it's cool that that your heals have a chance to apply a hypo."
Another sort of blunder was the steam Federation starter pack. For starters, where was the matching Klingon starter pack? PWE wants faction parity, so the devs should have released a similar Klingon pack with the same number of ships-one tier 1 and tier 5. However, there are other issues. Since players will spend the majority of their time playing at level 50, why even bother charging for a tier 1 ship in a starter pack or bother charging for Lt. Commander grade weapons? A much more useful kind of starter package would have been 1000 c-points and 100,000 dilithium, along with a tier 5 ship and some mark XI or XIII gear (or possibly 500,000 energy credits in addition to the c-points and dilithium or just easily, by itself). I don't believe in charging for tier 1-4 ships anymore either, unless we are able to upgrade them to tier 5. Frankly, charging for a tier 1 ship is a little misleading since a newcomer may not know that a tier 1 ship can't be upgraded.
Besides that, there is the issue of how the starter pack is advertised. In the first sentence of the start packs description, it reads, "This bundle contains all you need to start battle the Klingon Empire." My question to the devs is what do you mean by battle the Klingon Empire-in PVP or in the storyline? It would have been cool if you could have given a little introductory paragraph about pvp, as well as showcased tidbits of the Klingon storyline that could entice potential trek fans into picking up this starter pack and giving them the game a try. Essentially, the devs need to ask the question: how does the starter pack help newcomer feel like they're part of a Trek experience? Maybe you could also include something in the starter pack description about the path to 2409 or how the Federation experience relates to how current events are unfolding within STO's timeline.
To sum up, what I hope to see from Cryptic from here on out is more storyline to give meaning to the Fleet system, c-store items, and any sort of STO item that is sold to customers. This principle should also be reflected in how you advertise the game on PWE's STO web-site and on steam. If you don't give it a decent story, the item loses its meaning because it has no context. Star Trek and STO have some very good storylines behind them, and you should be taking advantage of these as much as possible.
I would appreciate some feedback, as well as your opinion on what are STO's biggest obstacles. All I ask is that you keep it civil and try to stay on the topic of attaining the goal-whatever it may be-of STO improving (think positive thoughts and unicorns).
One of the biggest problems STO has currently is the way it is marketed on steam and on the perfect world web-site. I think the marketing needs to shift from lauding new shinies and systems to showcasing storylines into which those shinies and systems fall into. Remember when the anniversary Bortisqu and Odyssey were released? Remember how they had a very short but cool shakedown mission that you had to play through before you got the ship? Well, that's sort of what I'm talking about, but only partly.
As an example, let's talk about the Vesta. As far as I know, there was no shakedown mission or in-game storyline that was developed to introduce it. It was literally sold to us in the zen store as if it were some cheap hot dog or cracker jacks sold to us at a baseball game. Where was the mystery? Where was the fun? Where was the story? Wouldn't it have been more meaningful if we to play through an ultra-mini mission series before we were able to purchase it in the zen store? I think a lot of people still don't know that it originated from some book series. Heck, I still don't know much about it. But you get my point. Add a little more intrigue and mystery, and the ship takes on a whole new meaning. What I would have liked to have seen is Cryptic not saying anything about the vesta and just saying, "hey, I hear there is this new ship coming out. Why don't you play through this mini mission series to find out more about it? Hint, hint...nudge, nudge."
This one is a bit of a stretch but bear with me. Maybe the same strategy could be applied to duty officer pack releases. Maybe they should also be placed within some sort of storyline to give meaning to their introduction into the game. The problem with each new duty officer pack is that they tend to fill some very specific role by giving slight increases to abilities in ground or space combat, or even bonuses to gathering xp, commendation, and skill points. And that role has nothing to do with integrating them into the any of the storylines. What I mean to say is that primary function isn't to advance a storyline; it is to provide short term cash gains for Cryptic. The question is, though, whether or not that is healthy for STO? Are we just going to release some random doff pack every month that fills some specific niche in terms of a combat need? Man, wouldn't be nice if I could reduce my cool down for this ability by 2 more seconds? I don't see that as healthy for the long-term success of the game. The devs should figure out a better way of integrating doffs into ground and space missions and storylines that gives them more meaning than just .05% more edge in pvp or evoking a reaction like "wow, it's cool that that your heals have a chance to apply a hypo."
Another sort of blunder was the steam Federation starter pack. For starters, where was the matching Klingon starter pack? PWE wants faction parity, so the devs should have released a similar Klingon pack with the same number of ships-one tier 1 and tier 5. However, there are other issues. Since players will spend the majority of their time playing at level 50, why even bother charging for a tier 1 ship in a starter pack or bother charging for Lt. Commander grade weapons? A much more useful kind of starter package would have been 1000 c-points and 100,000 dilithium, along with a tier 5 ship and some mark XI or XIII gear (or possibly 500,000 energy credits in addition to the c-points and dilithium or just easily, by itself). I don't believe in charging for tier 1-4 ships anymore either, unless we are able to upgrade them to tier 5. Frankly, charging for a tier 1 ship is a little misleading since a newcomer may not know that a tier 1 ship can't be upgraded.
Besides that, there is the issue of how the starter pack is advertised. In the first sentence of the start packs description, it reads, "This bundle contains all you need to start battle the Klingon Empire." My question to the devs is what do you mean by battle the Klingon Empire-in PVP or in the storyline? It would have been cool if you could have given a little introductory paragraph about pvp, as well as showcased tidbits of the Klingon storyline that could entice potential trek fans into picking up this starter pack and giving them the game a try. Essentially, the devs need to ask the question: how does the starter pack help newcomer feel like they're part of a Trek experience? Maybe you could also include something in the starter pack description about the path to 2409 or how the Federation experience relates to how current events are unfolding within STO's timeline.
To sum up, what I hope to see from Cryptic from here on out is more storyline to give meaning to the Fleet system, c-store items, and any sort of STO item that is sold to customers. This principle should also be reflected in how you advertise the game on PWE's STO web-site and on steam. If you don't give it a decent story, the item loses its meaning because it has no context. Star Trek and STO have some very good storylines behind them, and you should be taking advantage of these as much as possible.
Post edited by knuhteb5 on
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STO's biggest obstacle is its past. Specifically, the KDF. The KDF has been the elephant in the room and the chip on the shoulder of the game since it launched, and it has only been growing larger with time. Until they finally "finish" the KDF, they cant move forward with new factions.
Could you please quantify what you mean by finish the KDF? Do you want the same number of single-player missions as the Feds? Do you want KDF-specific FE's? Do you think Cryptic could do a better job of advertising and encouraging KDF play? If so, how could they go about doing this?
Or just get rid of the KDF as a playable faction entirely and move on. It's hard to imagine it's worth the trouble.
And yes, they need to finish the KDF. By that I mean more episode missions. Once the faction is roughly the same size as the Federation, and once it's marketed really well, people will come in and spend money.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
I put the word "finish" in parenthesis because it is open to interpretation. However by Dan Stahl's own definition, it means enough missions to level from 1-50 without grinding. I highly doubt the KDF will ever have as many episodic missions as the Feds, but they obviously need more to meet that standard.
I think it is likely that the KDF will eventually get a combination of more episodic missions as well as new KDF exclusive adventure zone areas that will allow KDF players to fully level.
And I think it is obvious that Cryptic could do a better job of advertizing KDF play. For example, they could feature ads on gaming sites that show KDF characters and ships, as well as give away KDF uniforms instead of it always being Fed items. But there is really no point in doing that until they have got them ready to start at level 1.
That is never realistically going to happen, and suggesting it is basically just trolling KDF players.
New Romulus was a good change in pace with that regard in moving back towards the Western Style of MMO, but needs more than instant actions. Make classic dungeons we have to fight to, that ultimately rewards us with a powerful boss fight encounter that rewards nice things than just numbers. Get us to live the adventure.
Good idea on the ads with klingon ships and characters. To add to that, have somebody continue spider mitche's ship chart legacy and then buy that from him and use it as an advertisement. I used to just drool over the tier 5 ships in the chart and fantasize about flying in them. Yes, I'm that geeky.
I think adding in more episodic missions is a good idea, as well, but I would add that these missions need alternate endings in order to keep them fresh and interesting. One of my biggest problems with both Fed and Kling missions are that they are too linear. The 2800 missions were a good start to this kind of approach because you would play the mission in different ways which could earn you different accolades.
They already do it with a majority of the DOff System Assignments, why can't They do it with just about all of the other missions?
When I say small I mean like 25 to 150...
The longer the Mission the higher the reward.
In my opinion, that one thing, would make playing many parts of the game more appealing.
They wouldn't have to increase the Conversion Cap and They wouldn't be forcing the players to do things that they (the players) don't want to do.
I'd even settle for a 5 to 100 range... I can't believe that that would 'break the bank'.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
I agree with this. The KDF needs the episode content.
Also, non-spiked boot options for KDF females.
Would you like alternate storylines within each episode? What other costume options would you like to see for the KDF?
Alternate endings would be nice, but are by no means necessary. 5 missions with 1 ending are more needed than 1 mission with 5 endings, since it is quantity that the KDF is lacking. That said, I think alternate endings are a "must" for all future FEs, to allow the different factions to truly "express" themselves, rather than pigeonholing the KDF into a Fed stereotypical ending.
I can uderstand the starbase but what about just donating Omega and Romlas marks.I would like to see STO get back to missions and to the storyline.
To me the Kdf seem fine except they lack free specialty ships eg science.They do have ship with more univsal boffs slots.
USS WARRIOR NCC 1720 Commanding Officer
Star Trek Gamers
Alternate storylines? No, I don't care about that. Just a good selection of episodes that show how the KDF conflict with other factions has been developing. A decent tutorial would be nice too, one that has the character establishing some warrior credentials.
As far as costume options go, I just want some options that don't look big and clunky for female aliens and joined Trills.
Do you feel like you're focusing on building up starbases because their isn't much else to do? Is your goal to get the fleet weapons and ships? Would you like regular single-player missions to give dilithium and mark rewards?
(or even One Every-Other Month)
Much of the current and on-going Klingon Wrath could have been avoided.
Same holds true for the PvP Gang.
They didn't even have to be new Maps, most players would have settled for old maps with just a bit of tweeking to make it a bit different.
Hell, PvP'ers would have settled for ANY map, with open conflict.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Well, it does seem that Cryptic has put a lot of focus and resources into developing new systems for season 6 and season 7. In the future as Cryptic hires more STO devs, I hope that dev resources can be evenly divided between systems and mission making.
Addressing your pvp concerns, it would be cool it if the devs figured out a way to integrate the entire pvp system into the Fleet system. However, pvp would still be optional. I know that a large percentage of players never even touches pvp, so they should never be forced to have to play pvp if it did get integrated.
Basically, move the Klingon faction into the Reputation system and unlock its features when you hit various Klingon reputation tiers. Hit Klingon Reputation T1? Unlock Lt. Cmdr level ships and the KDF red style interface. Hit T2, unlock Cmdr level ships and certain disruptor weapons or whatever, all the way up to T5 and Klingon fleet participation and access to top-tier Klingon ships.
No need to make Klingon-specific missions (other than as reputation related), KDF players can queue with UFP ones...basically solves the entire Klingon faction issue. Stop worrying about independent Klingon content when most players won't use it and it wastes developer time.
More usefully, it can then be expanded to other groups as required, such as opening up a Romulan 'minifaction' the same way.
They've fell into this nasty cause and effect cycle of "We don't develop for KDF because they're low pop, but they are low pop because we don't develop for them". That needs to stop somewhere, whether it means merging everything up or making an active effort to equalize both factions...
and no, adding a couple missions from 1-20 isn't even close to doing that. We need to be treated near to the same at 50, that means more ships, lots of cross faction stuff, costume options, etc. I'm not a fan of wasting time on episodic content either. Its way too much work for something that's one and done. Put the time and energy into long term stuff.
1. Ship Customization a more unique look to your starship!
Now we have many ships to choose from and have limited ways to customize to say ''this is my ship'', but the one thing i see is a lot of players with very similar looks, especially when a new ship arrives on market and suddenly we have an outbreak of same same same. Now what i suggest is the ability to change the ship customization to scale to scale. This meaning you can change the height, width and depth of certain parts of the ship, by doing so many forms and shapes and sizes will arrive, giving more players pride in there best ship, also i suggest that we have the ability to use parts of our ships to mix and match, ie galaxy nacelles, akira saucer and the hull of a star cruiser. That was just a random mix i just thought of, but you get the idea.
2. Choose your visuals!
One thing i am getting bored of is the way i warp out or the way i beam out. Now i would love to be able to have my liberated borg toon to beam out as a borg does, so what i am saying is the ability to choose how you beam, how you warp out. I for one would love my borg ship to warp out using transwarp, green and all or perhaps a quantum slipstream warp out. Now how cool would that be? I also would suggest to choose the colour of your beam out, even the animation your toon pulls before you beam out. I think your getting the picture here.
3. Whats inside my ship!
Now i have to say one of the things i did find a bit disappointing when i started playing STO was the choice of bridges and the size of some things. For example when i got my Intrepid class, i was hoping to have the choice to have the original voyager bridge, i just love it, although there is one or two that are similar, but its way to big and my LCARS does not display the correct ship. I would suggest more original bridge packs, i know we have the original series and belfast ones, but i want more and am sure others do. Also a bigger update would be the ability to decide what engine room i have, or my sick bay. Also i would like a shuttle bay where the shuttles i have are displayed there, though i have read and heard that idea could be a possible update. I want to write more, but this will be far too long, and by now you are getting the idea, so heres my pitch to the devs.
I understand that STO is and will be going through major changes with this new Season 7, but for myself and other players, i think soon the devs should concentrate on making STO a more fun and unique game, by adding some of these ideas and others ideas, as i am not alone on this. For a lot of players STO offers us to live the virtual dream to command a starship and to be a part of a massive online community. That everyone from free to play to lifetimers not only enjoy STO, but take pride it what they have achieved and well show off a bit. Am asking a lot, this i know and i am thankful for such a cool game, even though it can be a bit buggy lol, but what i enjoy more is that i am apart of a friendly community and i have a starship. Quite simple really for me. STO has struggled and faced massive negative feedback, but i have faith that STO can be more and better for its players, which i feel is important. Thats all i have to say, i can only hope i see at least one of my many ideas out there and be used by the players, lets hope.
Take care and all have a good game
Honestly, I think KDF 'needs' a Ferasan ship and at LEAST one more small craft(perhaps of Ferasan or Orion design). Their wardrobe options.. are in quite a dire state as well.
By now, I'm fine with the KDF being the 'little brother' to the Federation side (I play both about equally), but there is a SINGLE c-store uniform and small craft for them.. compared to about a dozen and half-dozen, respectively, for the federation side.
Actual gameplay/content-wise, I feel more needs to be done with the 'exploration' system - it's at the heart of what "Star Trek" is about. I've made suggestion of this in another thread, but I would really like to see them add a colony and local faction system to the exploration clusters. Befriend one faction and you(r colony) gets the benefits, but you'd end up making enemies with the rival faction(s) in the process and might have to fend of raids and such.
In essence, expand the duty officer assignments in those frontiers into a full-fledged game mode. I've often thought of making a foundry mission like this, but found the scripting required to pull it off to be far too daunting. (a mission where 'finishing' is optional, but still allows the player to progress/develop their colony)
"There is no problem in the universe that can't be solved with a bribe, a paid assassin, or an overpowered fighter." - Chubain from Jumpgate Evolution
100 % this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
but if i was to say something i say story
system Lord Baal is dead
I realize that. Thus I wasn't going to say what they need to improve on since it's no hope.
"There is no problem in the universe that can't be solved with a bribe, a paid assassin, or an overpowered fighter." - Chubain from Jumpgate Evolution
there is always Star Wars A New Hope :P
sorry could help it
system Lord Baal is dead
1. Revamp the lockbox system. If they have to do lockboxes, just do it where they put them in the store and people buy the box and open it (like TOR) or don't put P2W better items in the boxes without putting keys inside and have keys as rare drops (like GW2). This box drop, inventory space taking, screen spamming, idiotic lockbox system in STO is a joke.
2. Release story content at a faster pace instead of wasting time on those inventory space taking, screen spamming, idiotic lockboxes.
3. Get away from doing worthless things for the starbases which reduced them to being a laughing matter. Those special adds like the interior design one that gave us so many plants that turned our futuristic space stations into rain forests.
4. Bring back sales in the store. Not sales on buying zen. Actual sales in the stores.
5. Do away with dilithium entirely. Hell, they already did this one half-assed and half-brained. So may as well just go for broke and take it out. Thus also taking it out of our needing it for anything. They made it worthless and meaningless halfway. And if you want to do something right, don't do it half-assed like they did.
And there's more but stopping now.
"There is no problem in the universe that can't be solved with a bribe, a paid assassin, or an overpowered fighter." - Chubain from Jumpgate Evolution