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Making certain parts of open space... dangerous
darramouss1
Member Posts: 1,811 Arc User
Hello all.
I'm not sure how these ideas will be received but here goes anyway.
From all of the episodes I've seen of Trek, regardless of the series, I noticed that space is a pretty dangerous place. Bad stuff happens out there, even when you're in a nice big advanced ship. I'm thinking some of that element should be brought in to the game.
Random missions should occur. Maybe a system you pass by is having a skirmish with its neighbour and you inadvertently get dragged in. Maybe there's a disruption with the space/time continuum. I don't know. Make something up, but there should be random encounters to draw characters in to. Give STO a more Trek feel to it instead of using space as a waste. Those random enemies you see flying about? They should chase you down and attack you!
Now, a lot of people will think that this will be a bad idea as it will take them away from the job they were doing. Well, there has to be a reward for this kind of disruption, doesn't there? This is where new random loot should be obtained. Not from within story missions as they're the domain of the predetermined reward. Pure, random loot drops with the chance to get powerful stuff.
If this path is traveled down then there needs to be HEAPS of new gear created. Think Diablo II volume of sets. (Never played Diablo III so I won't reference it.) The sort of volume that will require trading to complete any given set. Perhaps have sets of 4 or 5 items where having one or two pieces is nice but all pieces together really shines. (Without making it OP, of course.)
Lastly, if PvP is ever fixed, you could have parts of space where if you travel through it you have the risk of being attacked by the other faction/s. You would need a system where you could obtain some form of immunity, like having a set number of immunity travels in a sector per week or completing DOFF missions to obtain them, but I think it's a system that may have merit. Of course it's a system that could NEVER exist anywhere but the outlying regions of space!!
Thoughts, people? Please make it constructive.
I'm not sure how these ideas will be received but here goes anyway.
From all of the episodes I've seen of Trek, regardless of the series, I noticed that space is a pretty dangerous place. Bad stuff happens out there, even when you're in a nice big advanced ship. I'm thinking some of that element should be brought in to the game.
Random missions should occur. Maybe a system you pass by is having a skirmish with its neighbour and you inadvertently get dragged in. Maybe there's a disruption with the space/time continuum. I don't know. Make something up, but there should be random encounters to draw characters in to. Give STO a more Trek feel to it instead of using space as a waste. Those random enemies you see flying about? They should chase you down and attack you!
Now, a lot of people will think that this will be a bad idea as it will take them away from the job they were doing. Well, there has to be a reward for this kind of disruption, doesn't there? This is where new random loot should be obtained. Not from within story missions as they're the domain of the predetermined reward. Pure, random loot drops with the chance to get powerful stuff.
If this path is traveled down then there needs to be HEAPS of new gear created. Think Diablo II volume of sets. (Never played Diablo III so I won't reference it.) The sort of volume that will require trading to complete any given set. Perhaps have sets of 4 or 5 items where having one or two pieces is nice but all pieces together really shines. (Without making it OP, of course.)
Lastly, if PvP is ever fixed, you could have parts of space where if you travel through it you have the risk of being attacked by the other faction/s. You would need a system where you could obtain some form of immunity, like having a set number of immunity travels in a sector per week or completing DOFF missions to obtain them, but I think it's a system that may have merit. Of course it's a system that could NEVER exist anywhere but the outlying regions of space!!
Thoughts, people? Please make it constructive.
Post edited by darramouss1 on
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Overall though, still approve.
This made it problematic that a low ranking character would make it to the location of the new 'Feature Series' (At the time, it was the Reman story arc)
After many complaints, Deep Space encounters were changed to the current state.
Maybe give low level characters X number of Diplomatic Immunities per week? Get them out of that pickle?
there are several mission maps that are like this, and it's probably best if it stays something only in missions.
My character Tsin'xing
It got annoying when you are parked and trying to dump stuff into your bank using the SS Azura. Or if you got up to use the bathroom, only to get back to find out you inadvertently become an "afker" in a Borg encounter.
(UFP) Ragnar
It's not to bad having a random pack of orc's or something start chasing you when you're riding across the country side. You can turn and fight or keep running.
But having to be pulled into a instance when I just want to go from ESD to Memory Alpha would be a fairly large pain in the butt.
There could even be a "threat level" that varies due to various reasons, making you more or less likely to be targetted or encounter some deep space peril. This could be raised by perhaps your kill accolades related to local enemies, story progress, or just randomized conditions determined by the server. Maybe it's just a bad day to be in Psi Velorum or something. Things like Diplomatic Immunity, reputation with local species, or low player level would decrease your "threat level" in an area (maybe low level ships aren't worth a marauder's attention). Your current threat level would be displayed near the map, or via system message when you warp in.
This eliminates the issue regarding lower-level players being waylaid in sector space by these "encounters" under the old system, whilst allowing a certain amount of randomness/surprise in a "controlled" environment.
Of course, these "encounters" would be skippable, and then players would simply miss out on the rewards.
Possible ideas for events triggered by entering ship interiors:
- A member of an unaligned species wishes to seek asylum. Once they arrive, mysterious malfunctions begin to happen, cumulating to deliberate sabotage, off-screen dialogue-only injury of a BOff or a death of a redshirt. Suspicions fall on the asylum seeker.
- A alien civilian seeks help in repairing his ship. While this is happening, representatives from two feuding governments appear, claim the alien as a notorious criminal, and demand that he/she be handed over to their respective side(s) (TNG: The Outrageous Okona)
- (Galaxy Class exclusive) One of the children accidentally wandered into sickbay / a medical lab and becomes infected with a pathogen. The crew must contain the infection before it overwhelms everyone and potentially spreads to other ships or planets.
- Security detects a transporter signature in various locations throughout the ship (opens a window to allow players to opt into PvE/PvP Boarding Action STFs)
- All is not all work and no play - two crewmembers getting married to each other ask you as the captain to officiate the wedding. (Very rare mission, rewards very large boost in Development CXP)
- A subspace anomaly / Negative Space Wedgie wreaks havoc with shipboard systems.
- A distress call is received from a Starfleet or KDF vessel (cross-faction available). You lead an away team to the ship, and discover the crew dead / incapacitated / struggling with a serious shipboard malfunction.
- A variant of the First Contact mission Jiro Sugihara gives you: Whilst travelling at warp, your ship encounters a never-seen-before alien vessel. One things leads to another, and next thing you know, both the Federation Diplomatic Corps and the alien government authorize you and your alien counterpart to initiate formal First Contact procedures.
- A crewman in found dead in his/her quarters or at his/her post. Determine the guilt of three or four suspects - possible outcomes include all innocent (terrible accident), all guilty of conspiring to murder this individual, one or more guilty of conspiracy, or merely negligence leading to death of victim.
- (Intrepid Class exclusive) A subspace anomaly / Negative Space Wedgie knocks your ship off-course into uncharted space - find a way back home (outcome is always successful, rewards based on the player's skill in dealing with the situation).
Thoughts? Ideas?
I'd be for almost anything that gives me a reason to visit my ships interior. Same as I said in another thread regarding Starbases.
In every MMO I've played, player/guild housing seldom has any real value, or even a good reason to visit it, other then perhaps as a social hub.
Even in CoH with the transporters, it became little more then a quick way to get to a given zone. If going to the base meant fewer loadings screens you'd go use the porters. Otherwise you didn't.
So having something happen on my ship would be quite welcome.
The rewards giving you a random chance of something highly desirable is what will make this work. In the old days you did STFs in the hope that you get a Proto salvage. you were happy with it, even though it was rather a boring thing. Imagine if you had the chance to get things you'd never ever suspected existed.
I support this idea.
In general any time you force something on someone it never comes out good for the game. People don't like it, and it creates bad feelings all around.
Indeed.
Hence the reason I suggested having such events as only triggered upon entering ship interiors, and even then there is the option to opt out each time.
I would love to eventually see an entire sector block full of such random dangers plus true open PvP. Imagine a crisis compounded by the sudden arrival of an enemy Bird of Prey...
Agreed. If the more unsafe, the greater the reward!!
My character Tsin'xing
The ever present feeling of danger is definately something STO needs. I like it.
R.I.P
Nice idea...hopefully one day it can come to light.
Or, in Gamma Orionis (I think that's the place with all the Borg.) it would be nice if all of those random Borg cubes actually went after you.
But yeah, random hails asking for help from time to time would be nice. It doesn't even have to be a "pew pew" mission but maybe some of those classic Star Trek Diplomacy or mystery missions.
I think that we need some emotional attachments to our ship and crew too. For example, the boff can get injured and need to be hospitalized for a week. The ship doesn't need to be destroyed so that we can be defeated; if all the crew were disabled then we lost. Also, if we encountered event that exceeded our abilities to handle it, we could "hail for help." Rewards for the "hail-helpers" who came to assist us are something like xp from areas such as exploration, tactical, security, science, etc.
But...
Random optional episodes? All for them. They could roam around sector space just like the enemy encounters do currently but they would be invisible and stop you with a dialogue box. They could be anything from distress calls, to go the bar to have a 'talk' with your first officer about his/her personal problems, whatever, doesn't matter, just lots of variety. To begin with, a simple cut and paste from the nebula exploration missions would go some way to making me happy - as long as it progressed from there - perhaps the various missions could give doff system department experience (like the diplomatic corps ones do) or could even be incorporated into some kind of lower than level 50 type rep thing (home faction rep?) that would give small bonuses to non combat stuff upon tier completion like '+5% chance for critical success on doff missions' or other such things. Something like that would certainly make ranking up a bit more interesting than just Mirror+Doffs until level 50
All in all +1 from me
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But I would at least like to see some space environmental hazards that actually pose a threat to you. Either as mission locations, perhaps for random exploration encounters, or at least as Foundry assets.
As examples, I'm thinking of a few of things we've seen specifically: the Nexus ribbon and the subspace shockwave the Excelsior encountered at the beginning of ST:VI. And the Badlands.
The Badlands are in the game, but what's in the game isn't the Badlands. The Badlands are currents and eddies that push you around and require maximum engine power to overcome. The Badlands are plasma storms that randomly form right on top of you and will kill you if you don't GTFO.
Ion Storms are similar; fast currents and pressures that cause hull damage. How about a map where you can take the long way around a huge ion storm; or try to go through it? And if you go through, you'd better have hull heals ready, because it will crush you if you don't stay on top of the damage.
As long as there is an opted out, kind of like what starbase 24 currently has. you get close to the starbase, you get a pop-up dialog that they are under attack, then you can either go for it, or say no thanks and continue on your merry way, i don't have a probably with more random encounters.
Though I think we would have to expand the Neutral zones. My understanding is the Neutral zones (and the Card/Fed Demilitarize zone) are large areas, several thousand light-years thick, not just the borderline of the respective factions.
My only concern here is if you are on auto-pilot in sector space. Currently in sector space you can select your next location and you effectively auto-pilot there. The problem is, you go in basically a straight line. depending on where you want to go, it is totally possible to get up and leave for a while, but under such a system you would come back to find you ship destroyed cause a straight line went though the badlands (or an ion storm) and the computer didn't go around it.
I'd love to see loads of well thought out random events that you can engage in. But enemies forcing you to fight... maybe in hostile territory but even then I'd prefer a way to avoid it if I run into one by accident.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
But as long as I can ignore it and continue without interruption, I can fully support mission prompts or whatever popping up.
Having the enemy encounters chase you would just be a pain in the neck. The enemies are not challenging, the mission is not interesting just ships scattered about waiting to be shot, and there is no reward. I haven't touched one since I finished the related accolades and if forced into one I would warp out ASAP. It would just be a huge annoyance watching loading screens back and forth.