Am I the only one that plays Exploration missions for fun?

rothgarix · November 2012

With the recent news of the B'Tran daily getting axed, I began to wonder if anyone else did these missions just for fun. Now, of course I ran the B'tran for the dilith, but I would have played another sector if there wasn't a reward involved...the extra dilith was just a bonus.

See, sometimes I don't have time to sit down with a good Foundry Mission, or an STF (which I'm bored of now, anyway). I just like to have a good 10 minute Star Trek experience.

Granted, they're generic, but it's the only thing even remotely close to being random in this game. I like the idea of not knowing what I'm getting into (even if it's only from a slim selection of mission types).

What I REALLY would like to see is an expansion of these "random" encounters. Nothing major...but how about instead of the same 6 enemy groups, throw in some missions with only 2...or some with 10! Make it so some of these missions would be damn near impossible to win...and make some crazy easy. You could tie to the difficulty level...Elite difficulty could give you a chance of one of these "impossible" encounters. Just shake it up a little.

I am going to miss the extra reward that comes with B'tran, but I'll still play Exploration missions...I just wish they'd improve them. But considering I see no way that they could profit out of this, I know it will never happen. NEW RANDOM ENCOUNTERS does not make a good sales pitch.

mirai222 · November 2012

I like to play the exploration missions now and then, but I wouldn't bother with them without the "Explore Strange New Worlds" reward, or some reward just as good. Originally we received marks for those missions that we could trade in for nice equipment. That got replaced by the dilithium reward. As long as I get some kind of decent reward, I like doing the missions.

I don't really care about the B'Tran nerf.

pulserazor · December 2012

Everything I do in this game I do for fun. I certainly don't just do things because they reward a pittance in of in game currency. If I get my dilithium cap during the day, all the better.

I want to succeed and have nice things like anyone else, (and I do) but I'm not going to waste my leisure time Working a Program when I could be Playing a Game.

If playing the game isn't fun in and of itself, how can treating it like a job be any more fun?

fovrel · December 2012

I also do them for anomalies. I hope the crafting system will get a revamp one day, but you also need them for starbase projects.

I also think they are fun when you want to play without any goal in your mind, just some random mixture of space and ground combat.

Now here is something cool. The other day I did the Delta Volanis exploration and while scanning an anomaly I got a box with dilithium as a reward.

olivia211 · December 2012

Some of the explorations missions are VERY easy. In one, all I had to do with give a planet some arrays and that was it. I don't do the exploration missions as much as I used to. I am more into ground combat than space so I like to know which I am doing and of course, doing the explores is a dice roll. I was looking over the missions they have for exploring this cluster and that cluster, but they all seem pointless without some reward like marks or dilithium.

twg042370 · December 2012

pulserazor wrote: »

Everything I do in this game I do for fun.

Quoted for wisdom.

kiralyn · December 2012

I've been enjoying/doing the Explore missions, but I'm a relatively new player and that "Strange New Worlds" dilithium is part of my few sources of it.

(The one thing that would improve it for me is if those things would load faster. Is there any way to improve the loading time of Unknown System - and Foundry - missions? Downloading some extra data files? Anything?)

twg042370 · December 2012

kiralyn wrote: »

(The one thing that would improve it for me is if those things would load faster. Is there any way to improve the loading time of Unknown System - and Foundry - missions? Downloading some extra data files? Anything?)

Closing your eyes and pretending time has stopped.

farmallm · December 2012

I do them to collect Dil. And to add more to the game. I really enjoy doing them. I did them a lot on the KDF to level him up. Just so I could story progression. Since the lack of stories didn't give you enough xp just to gain levels. I still do them often.

futurepastnow · December 2012

I used to. It got too old, too repetitive for me, with too many bugged missions (NPCs falling into the ground). Now I just do my explore strange new worlds daily for the dil.

By the way, if you don't have a KDF character, their exploration missions are different. Some of them are really cool the first time you do them.

dwadsdwad · December 2012

I ran a few at launch, realised how poor they were and havn't even bothered taking the missions since. Id rather grind PvP or whatever else than do an exploration mission. They are boring as hell and 9 times out of 10 id fall asleep halfway through.

saboreth · December 2012

I played the B'Tran exploration missions (explore three systems) on elite every day for weeks. The elite level made it a challenge and I liked that it randomized which ones you did. I used to double that up with "explore strange new worlds" to double my dilithium intake and it was extremely profitable. Since the missions scale up with more friends along for the ride, I did them as a team as well. Even got some achivements unlocked for it. So I'd say "yes." Different strokes for different folks.

hypl · December 2012

Well, they'd be more fun if my away team would stop falling through the ground, or go through pathfinding hiccups, or if a group of NPCs I'm supposed to take out actually spawns on the map... :rolleyes:

raj011 · December 2012

they should add more fun exploration missions, I know this is a mmo but its also star trek where exploration is at the heart of it.

saboreth · December 2012

I have to agree there. More variety and more challenge to the exploration missions would be fantastic.

dwadsdwad · December 2012

Best thing they can do with exploration missions is to completely delete them. They are a waste of time and are quite frequently buggy.

Start again and this time have a decent system in-place. Preferably exploration missions should touch on the non-combat side of Trek too. Stahl mentioned the ship combat was STO's strongest point so thats why they stick to it which is fair enough but the explorations as they are, are useless so noone will complain if you just re-make them into a non-combat level alternative for people.

twg042370 · December 2012

raj011 wrote: »

they should add more fun exploration missions, I know this is a mmo but its also star trek where exploration is at the heart of it.

Much agreement from me. There are a number of patrol missions where you beam down and do things that don't involve a phaser to the hull. I'd like to see more of that.

azurianstar · December 2012

Main reason I stopped doing Exploration missions, is because its the same missions over and over and over again.

Because of that, I thought for a long time they should just get rid of them (and regular DSEs) because they really served no purpose than just being an instant action / random mission generator. Right now, it probably be more effective if they tied it to the Foundry and you got a random Foundry mission.

But there was talk that in one of the upcoming seasons (8 or 9) there was going to be an exploration revamp, so be interesting what comes about.

psiameese · December 2012

I definitely can say that I do visit the star clusters for fun. I agree they can be repetitive at times. However, I support the old Genesis system and am hopeful for a more robust Genesis 2.0. New maps. More consistent stories, less pew pew and, hopefully, unlock-able mission chains which indicate our player's effect over time.

stormwraith01 · December 2012

psiameese wrote: »

I definitely can say that I do visit the star clusters for fun. I agree they can be repetitive at times. However, I support the old Genesis system and am hopeful for a more robust Genesis 2.0. New maps. More consistent stories, less pew pew and, hopefully, unlock-able mission chains which indicate our player's effect over time.

I second this. I do enjoy exploration on occasion. I rp a lot with my main character, and the exploration system can be fun when you are writing a lot of the story in your captain's log. But I would definitely love a robust Genesis 2.0 with unlockable mission chains and actual mystery and discovery. Something I could spend long chunks of time in.

stark2k · December 2012

rothgarix wrote: »

With the recent news of the B'Tran daily getting axed, I began to wonder if anyone else did these missions just for fun...

Granted, they're generic, but it's the only thing even remotely close to being random in this game. I like the idea of not knowing what I'm getting into (even if it's only from a slim selection of mission types).

FUN?

That song from that band Dead Or Alive comes into my mind: See link below :P

You spin me right round, baby
right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round

That is they play like a Broken record -

Explorables are boring and they should revamp the entire system or remove them altogther. I rather play the foundry, at least they have some story content.

Am I the only one that plays Exploration missions for fun?

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