What in game things would you change to make STO more Star Trek like?

onlyslightlybent · December 2012

Things I would love to see happen to make it more Star Trek like;

- Completing goals with less combat

- Real exploration. The ground work is there to reach a place to explore but when you get there, there's nothing to explore. not just the unknown exploration in the exploration sectors, but the exploration of worlds like Earth (Federation council?), Vulcan, Andoria, Ferginar ... again there's really nothing. The historical and cultural background is already there from cannon and non cannon sources, they would just need to flesh it out MORE by not only adding missions but dialog from npc's. Sure there's the foundry but its too limited and to me always felt like reading fan fiction.

- Whenever I'm in space it doesn't feel like I'm captaining it. It feels more like I'm the pilot (or the ship) pressing all the buttons and there's a disconnect between you and the ship. I would change it so that you'd be your ground character on the bridge looking though the main viewer. Your BOFFs can act automatically while you walk around the bridge or can be overidden and flown normally. I'd have a set of commands wherein one command you'd have trained your boffs (in a simulation or holodeck) to execute a predesignated set of actions (abilities + movement) to follow so you can create your own picard or riker manuever or attack pattern. The commands would offer added bonuses as opposed to simply keybinding.

maybe the last bit is a too much of a stretch and too much wishful thinking but I would love to see the game geared more towards the hardcore Star Trek fans since I believe we're the ones keeping STO alive.

shadowwraith77 · December 2012

Some what od a decent idea, course would be better if multiple players working as boffs aboard a single ship achieving those goals together would not only be fun for all, but a great way of creating teamwork style commradery. Take a bunch of work to create such a system, but boyyyy would it be cool.

curs0r · December 2012

shadowwraith77 wrote: »

Some what od a decent idea, course would be better if multiple players working as boffs aboard a single ship achieving those goals together would not only be fun for all, but a great way of creating teamwork style commradery. Take a bunch of work to create such a system, but boyyyy would it be cool.

Prepare yourself for the cries of "I don't want to have to try and assemble a crew". Multiplayer ships would be great, and were great in other games, but it's just not a well received idea around here usually.

vestereng · December 2012

Space travel from your bridge (yes it can be done, easily).

Active role for the tricorder.

On screen communication.
When you pm someone while on your ship you should have the option of putting them on screen like with NPC convos.

Academy revival.
I still have no idea why you don't have to go through it when you level up. I would have build the whole process of leveling up around it myself.
I'd like to see some kind of simulator or test with official ranked scoreboards so the academy would have a history and some prestige around it.
Whatever basically but I'd try to give the place an active role one way or another.

Random disturbances in space maybe tied into...

Alert status.
Red alert button you know it makes sense.

All of that I consider iconic star trek and I have no idea why it wasn't first on everyone's list during developement of the game, go figure

klaitu · December 2012

I would like to see more exploration, and more mechanics that give me "captains decisions" to make, rathern than just be the guy that's doing everything on the ship.

I'd like to see boff AI improvements or "training" that can be purchased reasonably in-game. Maybe even programmable AI (i.e. if health >25% then perform maneuver). Right now that means groundside AI improvements, but if they ever get the boffs captaining starships thing going, it could apply there too.

I agree with more exploration too. I don't mean beaming to a randomly generated surface and pressing the action button on 5 different rocks. I mean ordering my crew to do planetary surveys in a solar system.. taking sensor readings in space to visit undiscovered systems, and possibly the addition of an astrometrics lab to the starship interior.

klaitu · December 2012

vestereng wrote: »

Space travel from your bridge (yes it can be done, easily).

Active role for the tricorder.

I agree entirely! the tricorder should be slottable equipment just like a weapon, and should have a function other than being part of a scanning animation.

diotw · December 2012

The ability to hail any ship in the game and, depending on your Diplomacy level, possibly talk your way out of a fight. Of course, some ships would always fight you, like the mission critical ships. Ambassador B'vat for instance, is not going to just let you leave. But maybe that mob of Klingon Birds of Prey you have to blast through before you get to him would be persuaded to leave peacefully.

sollvax · December 2012

Delete the MK system entirely
and make all weapons the same

So if a RA and a LT both fire hand phasers they do the same damage
And EVERY beam bank disruptor does the same damage

logic of this
Starfleet can make a mkxii hand phaser
so they replicate that as standard issue
OR they replicate weaker versions for lower ranked officers which is 100% stupid

sekritagent · December 2012

Let's start with Starfleet not indiscriminately killing everything you come across and being heavily rewarded for it, while peaceful missions are considered clicky exploits worthy of only a fraction of the rewards if anything.

We could get into not having Starfleet Vice Admirals running around in Jem'Hadar, Cardassian, Ferengi, Tholian, or Breen ships but somehow it feels like we passed that exit quite some time ago :rolleyes:

direphoenix · December 2012

Some of the biggest things I can think of:

Remove Sector Space
- Travel between systems from your ship interior by plotting a course on the galaxy map with a timer based on distance and speed.
- "Obstacles" on galaxy map could include regions of different levels of enemy or pirate activity, which could denote % chance that a random event based on type of region traveling through. This could give Captains reasons to plot courses around areas, or travel at differing speeds (If they want to minimize chances of a hostile random event, they could travel faster through enemy territory, thereby minimizing time in that area, or they could plot a course around the region instead).
- New ship component: [Warp Core]: Issued based on level and ship, these Warp Cores designate maximum warp (or transwarp or slipstream) speed that ships can move across the galaxy map. They also can wear out over time and are affected by speed. Traveling long distances at maximum warp will wear out a warp core faster than traveling at cruising speed. Damage to the warp core will lower maximum warp until repaired at a shipyard.
Remove Ranks from Leveling System
- STO is a game about ship captains. However, we spend very little time holding the rank of Captain, and there is no gameplay that reflects being a Flag Officer (and I doubt many people would actually want to play as Admirals and Generals anyway). I would make all players the rank of Captain from level 1-50 or whatever level they expand out to), with an option for a "Flag Officer" rank if or when actual flag officer style gameplay can be implemented (option available after level 40)
- Tutorials would start the player as a Commander reporting to their first ship as a new XO (or at minimum, Department Head). During the (FED) tutorial, players are sent to familiarize themselves with the different departments (Engineering, Science, Tactical) when their ship receives orders to assist the USS Khitomer per the current FED tutorial. The NPC Captain of the player's ship then orders the player to beam over to the Khitomer and lead the away mission onboard the Khitomer (again, not a stretch from the current tutorial). When the task is done, the player reports back to their ship to find the CO is killed and they must take command themselves. The rest of the tutorial plays out as normal, and the player receives a field promotion from Commander to Captain (less of a stretch of the imagination than promoting a raw Ensign) in charge of their light cruiser.
- This should also fix the wonky nature of the game addressing you by your level rank instead of your title rank.
Fewer But Tougher/Smarter Enemy Ships
- This should be self explanatory. Instead of being single ships that take out thousands of armadas with relative ease, we fight fewer numbers of ships, but those ships are tougher and possibly have more powers than they currently do.
- In addition, and I almost want to make this a separate header: Enemy Ships Rarely Explode on Destruction
- Ships suffering from a warp core breach should be as rare as ground enemies being vaporized by exploiting an expose (yes, I know it's not especially "rare" but it's not every single time).
- The reason we need ships to explode now is to remove them from the battlefield so our machines aren't being bogged down with having to draw extra geometry. However, I think this can still be resolved several ways:
- Upon "destruction", ships (and remember we're still under the context of having fewer tougher ships than fleets of hundreds of ships at a time) can undergo the following actions: 1) Explode (Warp Core breach), 2) Warp Out (Surrender/Retreat), 3) Disabled. "Disabled" ships will sit there inactive with a repair timer. Players will have to send over a boarding party to "secure" or "seize" the ship and warp it out (this is separate from the BOff power Boarding Party, it needs to be available to all players). If the repair timer runs out, the ship will come back online with less than full health and try to attack again. "Secured" or "Seized" ships may offer some sort of CXP reward.

twg042370 · December 2012

diotw wrote: »

The ability to hail any ship in the game and, depending on your Diplomacy level, possibly talk your way out of a fight. Of course, some ships would always fight you, like the mission critical ships. Ambassador B'vat for instance, is not going to just let you leave. But maybe that mob of Klingon Birds of Prey you have to blast through before you get to him would be persuaded to leave peacefully.

This times one thousand. Diplomacy right now sees a couple of uses in game dialog trees but as a general rule it's there just for the free transwarps you get eventually.

And it works for KDF as well. High enough of a marauding skill and the enemies turn tail and run due to your fearsome rep.

wunjee · December 2012

Properly scale everything. Especially interiors. Everything about the interiors of both the ships and the starbases is way, way too big. You're talking about starships of limited size with limited internal valume having 10 foot tall, 10 food wide corridors and enough wasted space on the bridge to comfortably house a whale..

sumghai · December 2012

1) Ship interior revamp - properly scaled, canon deck and room layouts, decor swatches, mini-games, PvE/PvP maps, episode mission tie-ins etc.

2) Separate ranks and levels such that ranks are simply titles that are earned as milestones - this would allow an potentially infinite level cap for any future content, whilst resolving the immersion breaking situation of thousands of VA's running around.

darthwoo · December 2012

Speaking of interiors, along with scaling, make some of the displays a bit more dynamic. Why is it that I have a huge MSD of an Akira-class on my Luna? Certainly most of the displays and control panels can just be random Okuda-grams, but there should be some that accurately reflect the ship you're actually aboard.

thisisoverlord · December 2012

I could go on for days with the changes to the game I would make...

someday I will submit a link to a very long googledoc based research paper on how to make this game awesome.

sumghai · December 2012

darthwoo wrote: »

Speaking of interiors, along with scaling, make some of the displays a bit more dynamic. Why is it that I have a huge MSD of an Akira-class on my Luna? Certainly most of the displays and control panels can just be random Okuda-grams, but there should be some that accurately reflect the ship you're actually aboard.

I presume you've read the proposal document? It's been mentioned.

ussweatherlight · December 2012

Get rid of all the non faction ships... I'm looking at you Bugship, Marauder, Chell Gret, and whatever that cardassian ship is!!

sumghai · December 2012

ussweatherlight wrote: »

Get rid of all the non faction ships... I'm looking at you Bugship, Marauder, Chell Gret, and whatever that cardassian ship is!!

Whilst this sentiment may earn you the ire of many players, I agree with you. It heavily breaks immersion when, as a Starfleet captain, you're flying around regularly in a non-Starfleet vessel.

(Okay, so Sisko did it in a Jem'hadar craft, but that was a one-off covert operation)

Unfortunately, like the myriad of uniform choices, STO is more like a toybox/themepark of stuff from every single Trek series rather than a consistent universe.

captainlim · December 2012

Well, cryptic should make the game more 'star trek' so it would more enjoyable. they shouldn't wasting time on lockboxes or other non-canon stuff, instead on things that people said in a few post before this. Those things that said a few posts before looks great and hopefully cryptic excepts it and maybe put it during at least season 8 or 9:)

malek3 · December 2012

direphoenix wrote: »

Some of the biggest things I can think of:
Remove Sector Space
Travel between systems from your ship interior by plotting a course on the galaxy map with a timer based on distance and speed.

"Obstacles" on galaxy map could include regions of different levels of enemy or pirate activity, which could denote % chance that a random event based on type of region traveling through. This could give Captains reasons to plot courses around areas, or travel at differing speeds (If they want to minimize chances of a hostile random event, they could travel faster through enemy territory, thereby minimizing time in that area, or they could plot a course around the region instead).

New ship component: [Warp Core]: Issued based on level and ship, these Warp Cores designate maximum warp (or transwarp or slipstream) speed that ships can move across the galaxy map. They also can wear out over time and are affected by speed. Traveling long distances at maximum warp will wear out a warp core faster than traveling at cruising speed. Damage to the warp core will lower maximum warp until repaired at a shipyard.

Remove Ranks from Leveling System
STO is a game about ship captains. However, we spend very little time holding the rank of Captain, and there is no gameplay that reflects being a Flag Officer (and I doubt many people would actually want to play as Admirals and Generals anyway). I would make all players the rank of Captain from level 1-50 or whatever level they expand out to), with an option for a "Flag Officer" rank if or when actual flag officer style gameplay can be implemented (option available after level 40)

Tutorials would start the player as a Commander reporting to their first ship as a new XO (or at minimum, Department Head). During the (FED) tutorial, players are sent to familiarize themselves with the different departments (Engineering, Science, Tactical) when their ship receives orders to assist the USS Khitomer per the current FED tutorial. The NPC Captain of the player's ship then orders the player to beam over to the Khitomer and lead the away mission onboard the Khitomer (again, not a stretch from the current tutorial). When the task is done, the player reports back to their ship to find the CO is killed and they must take command themselves. The rest of the tutorial plays out as normal, and the player receives a field promotion from Commander to Captain (less of a stretch of the imagination than promoting a raw Ensign) in charge of their light cruiser.

This should also fix the wonky nature of the game addressing you by your level rank instead of your title rank.

Fewer But Tougher/Smarter Enemy Ships
This should be self explanatory. Instead of being single ships that take out thousands of armadas with relative ease, we fight fewer numbers of ships, but those ships are tougher and possibly have more powers than they currently do.

In addition, and I almost want to make this a separate header: Enemy Ships Rarely Explode on Destruction

Ships suffering from a warp core breach should be as rare as ground enemies being vaporized by exploiting an expose (yes, I know it's not especially "rare" but it's not every single time).

The reason we need ships to explode now is to remove them from the battlefield so our machines aren't being bogged down with having to draw extra geometry. However, I think this can still be resolved several ways:

Upon "destruction", ships (and remember we're still under the context of having fewer tougher ships than fleets of hundreds of ships at a time) can undergo the following actions: 1) Explode (Warp Core breach), 2) Warp Out (Surrender/Retreat), 3) Disabled. "Disabled" ships will sit there inactive with a repair timer. Players will have to send over a boarding party to "secure" or "seize" the ship and warp it out (this is separate from the BOff power Boarding Party, it needs to be available to all players). If the repair timer runs out, the ship will come back online with less than full health and try to attack again. "Secured" or "Seized" ships may offer some sort of CXP reward.

Excellent and well thought out suggestions! I agree wholeheartedly. Especially like your take on changes to space battles. Definitely more "Star Trek" and certainly more realistic in what we have seen in the movies and series.

ussweatherlight · December 2012

sumghai wrote: »

Whilst this sentiment may earn you the ire of many players, I agree with you. It heavily breaks immersion when, as a Starfleet captain, you're flying around regularly in a non-Starfleet vessel.

(Okay, so Sisko did it in a Jem'hadar craft, but that was a one-off covert operation)

Unfortunately, like the myriad of uniform choices, STO is more like a toybox/themepark of stuff from every single Trek series rather than a consistent universe.

Which is really sad. the more they throw in alien ships to the current factions, the less meaningful any addition of other factions could be.

I'd, personally would like the Typhon Pact put in, or something similar. Rommies, Cardassians, Breen. Many of the popular second tier factions were members in the books.

startrek1234567 · December 2012

Im sure everyone here can agree that this game can be improved big time. Some of my ideas
:
1. like you guys better ship interiors. Being on my bridge does not make me feel like im part of Star Trek. I like the idea(who ever said it before me) of interactions with boffs and traveling sectors while in bridge. I would like to add the idea combat from bridge.

2. Like other: more exploration. Exploration is horrible in this game. It NEEDS a big improvement.

3. Non-faction ships: Im mixed about this. I mean i kinda hate it when i go into a 5 person pve mission(stf's) and see im the only one with a fed ship. Makes me feel like im not in the federation. But then again the ships are cool.

4. I know this is a low priority type thing. BUT this would be cool. Flying shuttles around cities(San-Fracisco) and being able to land at a shuttle pad and walk around a city, i mean go to restraunts, starfleet command,etc. I would be a great social hang out.

If this stuff was added i would be satisfied for 2 seasons.

chalpen · December 2012

less combat.
less looting.
more puzzles.
I know it is impossible and will not happen.

You need to fight in MMO's. But this fighting isn't start trek. This is a regular mmo with a star trek skin. If it wasn't a star trek game it would sit better with me. But this isn't star trek.

Every single episode of star trek has people trying to avoid a fight.
There are always alternatives to fighting.

This game has us killing things to loot there corpses to get a better item for our ship.

And that is why I play KDF. In the star trek universe a federation characters wouldn't behave the way they do.
I have been a star trek fan for, i guess i first saw star trek about 35 years ago. This isn't star trek.

Cryptic has done what it could.

thestargaze · December 2012

direphoenix wrote: »

Some of the biggest things I can think of:
Remove Sector Space
Travel between systems from your ship interior by plotting a course on the galaxy map with a timer based on distance and speed.

"Obstacles" on galaxy map could include regions of different levels of enemy or pirate activity, which could denote % chance that a random event based on type of region traveling through. This could give Captains reasons to plot courses around areas, or travel at differing speeds (If they want to minimize chances of a hostile random event, they could travel faster through enemy territory, thereby minimizing time in that area, or they could plot a course around the region instead).

New ship component: [Warp Core]: Issued based on level and ship, these Warp Cores designate maximum warp (or transwarp or slipstream) speed that ships can move across the galaxy map. They also can wear out over time and are affected by speed. Traveling long distances at maximum warp will wear out a warp core faster than traveling at cruising speed. Damage to the warp core will lower maximum warp until repaired at a shipyard.

Remove Ranks from Leveling System
STO is a game about ship captains. However, we spend very little time holding the rank of Captain, and there is no gameplay that reflects being a Flag Officer (and I doubt many people would actually want to play as Admirals and Generals anyway). I would make all players the rank of Captain from level 1-50 or whatever level they expand out to), with an option for a "Flag Officer" rank if or when actual flag officer style gameplay can be implemented (option available after level 40)

Tutorials would start the player as a Commander reporting to their first ship as a new XO (or at minimum, Department Head). During the (FED) tutorial, players are sent to familiarize themselves with the different departments (Engineering, Science, Tactical) when their ship receives orders to assist the USS Khitomer per the current FED tutorial. The NPC Captain of the player's ship then orders the player to beam over to the Khitomer and lead the away mission onboard the Khitomer (again, not a stretch from the current tutorial). When the task is done, the player reports back to their ship to find the CO is killed and they must take command themselves. The rest of the tutorial plays out as normal, and the player receives a field promotion from Commander to Captain (less of a stretch of the imagination than promoting a raw Ensign) in charge of their light cruiser.

This should also fix the wonky nature of the game addressing you by your level rank instead of your title rank.

Fewer But Tougher/Smarter Enemy Ships
This should be self explanatory. Instead of being single ships that take out thousands of armadas with relative ease, we fight fewer numbers of ships, but those ships are tougher and possibly have more powers than they currently do.

In addition, and I almost want to make this a separate header: Enemy Ships Rarely Explode on Destruction

Ships suffering from a warp core breach should be as rare as ground enemies being vaporized by exploiting an expose (yes, I know it's not especially "rare" but it's not every single time).

The reason we need ships to explode now is to remove them from the battlefield so our machines aren't being bogged down with having to draw extra geometry. However, I think this can still be resolved several ways:

Upon "destruction", ships (and remember we're still under the context of having fewer tougher ships than fleets of hundreds of ships at a time) can undergo the following actions: 1) Explode (Warp Core breach), 2) Warp Out (Surrender/Retreat), 3) Disabled. "Disabled" ships will sit there inactive with a repair timer. Players will have to send over a boarding party to "secure" or "seize" the ship and warp it out (this is separate from the BOff power Boarding Party, it needs to be available to all players). If the repair timer runs out, the ship will come back online with less than full health and try to attack again. "Secured" or "Seized" ships may offer some sort of CXP reward.

Nr. 2 makes much more sense.. THANK YOU!
Please devs. listen to this. I really do not want to become admiral.. you would stil level not with rank simply your level rank.
Being Ensign - Lt. does not make sense being a CO.. much better to actually be a low ranking officer with a NPC Captain instead.

Also I think the ship given to the lower rank is kind of a bad idea .. all players usually want to level fast since your ship is so slow at lower ranks and your are so limited of what you can do. I think this should change..

luxchristian · December 2012

onlyslightlybent wrote: »

- Completing goals with less combat

Yep, having missions with different dialoque options would be nice. Something like morality system in Mass Effect. You really have to shed a lot of blood as a Federation character. In STO Feds are more barbaric than klingons :-P

onlyslightlybent wrote: »

- Real exploration. The ground work is there to reach a place to explore but when you get there, there's nothing to explore. not just the unknown exploration in the exploration sectors, but the exploration of worlds like Earth (Federation council?), Vulcan, Andoria, Ferginar ... again there's really nothing. The historical and cultural background is already there from cannon and non cannon sources, they would just need to flesh it out MORE by not only adding missions but dialog from npc's. Sure there's the foundry but its too limited and to me always felt like reading fan fiction.

Yeah, more exploration would be cool. Be it in space or ground. More like other traditional MMO's where you waste hours exploring the world(s).

onlyslightlybent wrote: »

- Whenever I'm in space it doesn't feel like I'm captaining it. It feels more like I'm the pilot (or the ship) pressing all the buttons and there's a disconnect between you and the ship. I would change it so that you'd be your ground character on the bridge looking though the main viewer. Your BOFFs can act automatically while you walk around the bridge or can be overidden and flown normally. I'd have a set of commands wherein one command you'd have trained your boffs (in a simulation or holodeck) to execute a predesignated set of actions (abilities + movement) to follow so you can create your own picard or riker manuever or attack pattern. The commands would offer added bonuses as opposed to simply keybinding.

No, that just boring and useless. I want to fly my ship and not give commands from the bridge and hope that the Boffs are doing their job. The current implementation of space combat is ok.
A better 3D environment would be nice.

Unknown · December 2012

This content has been removed.

thestargaze · December 2012

sumghai wrote: »

1) Ship interior revamp - properly scaled, canon deck and room layouts, decor swatches, mini-games, PvE/PvP maps, episode mission tie-ins etc.

2) Separate ranks and levels such that ranks are simply titles that are earned as milestones - this would allow an potentially infinite level cap for any future content, whilst resolving the immersion breaking situation of thousands of VA's running around.

I so agree with this.
This feels silly to become VA without having been Captain for a good while. Besides FED usually contains captains..
VA should be optional.. or at least earned after fulfilling all rank titles AND done all accolades etc.

Besides the VA does become a problem when new content comes.

thestargaze · December 2012

sumghai wrote: »

Whilst this sentiment may earn you the ire of many players, I agree with you. It heavily breaks immersion when, as a Starfleet captain, you're flying around regularly in a non-Starfleet vessel.

(Okay, so Sisko did it in a Jem'hadar craft, but that was a one-off covert operation)

Unfortunately, like the myriad of uniform choices, STO is more like a toybox/themepark of stuff from every single Trek series rather than a consistent universe.

What they should do is to create different timelines one as a player choses to play in and wear the appropriate costume to the time and following missions that fist that time era.. but is never going to happen.

rikwessels · December 2012

diotw wrote: »

The ability to hail any ship in the game and, depending on your Diplomacy level, possibly talk your way out of a fight. Of course, some ships would always fight you, like the mission critical ships. Ambassador B'vat for instance, is not going to just let you leave. But maybe that mob of Klingon Birds of Prey you have to blast through before you get to him would be persuaded to leave peacefully.

this. When I first started to play and got into first fight I was literally waiting for the "hail ship" button to appear - which it never did - to be able to demand surrender . In the shows it was very rare for any captain - klingon or fed - to actually destroy a vessel .It was always " prepare to be boarded "after a few shots .

squidheadjax · December 2012

sophlogimo wrote: »

Also, ships of players and important NPC#s should not explode when defeated, at least not without choice. Instead, let them be disabled and be "revivable" by allies or, after a certain timer (say two minutes) expires, re-vive on the spot, heavily damaged.

Yes, removing obvious sources of cognitive dissonance is always a good thing.

kirksplat · December 2012

If I could spend my time only playing foundry and get adequately rewarded by doing so, this game would feel more like Trek. Instead, I've been spending hours just standing over a snow pile and pressing f.

I want to invest in one of those perpetual birdie toys that rock back and forth hitting f on my keyboard.

What in game things would you change to make STO more Star Trek like?

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