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Bringing back the old STF's
biessman
Member Posts: 14 Arc User
This is something that some of us in the community have said once before but not very often, how ever this is something that I think should be brought up.
Now I don't mind the current STF style that's going on, some times we get good pick up groups some times we don't, the STF's are not bad, how ever, the old STF's I miss.
For those that are Free to Play players, or those that haven't been around Star Trek Online to know what i'm talking about, before they mad the STF queue's the current STF's that we have now were actual missions. They had full on story plot where you started into system, and worked your way through the stf going from space and into the ground instance.
For example, the Cure: You started out in space and had to clear the system of the borg ships before beaming down to the planet. Once on the planet you had to fight your way to Jarod and kill Armek of Borg (just like the current mission.) how ever unlike the current version where you had to get inside the shield area the shield wasn't there, and he had drones around him. Once he was dead, you'd beam back to your ships with Jarod. Once back in space you had to save the birds of prey, raptors, and neg'vars in the shipyards before the Borg could assimilate them. Afterwards you had to destroy the final space boss, AKA the assimilated Carrier.
There was a whole story behind the Cure STF during this time, it felt like an actual mission unlike the small queue like event that we have now.
Infected and Khitamor Accord is the same way, they were 5 man STF missions that were quite longer then they are now and where you had more then just the simple things you had to do now.
I kinda imagined The Hive to be somewhat the same as the STF's were before, but considering how the STF's has been changed so much I can't really say I did or didn't expected it.
I like the current STF's sure, but I loved the old STF's where they were missions, sure they were about 2 hours long each mission, but they were challenging, they had story in it where it felt like you were doing a cooperative mission like many starfleet officers and klingon warriors had to do.
I know that Cryptic's going to be doing the cross-faction team-up when the Legacy of Romulus expansion comes out with romulans cross-faction teaming with either Starfleet or the KDF, but considering that the STF's were in the Gamma Orionis, perhaps it be possible (at least for now till later decided) for KDF and Fed players to team up with-in the sector block so that they can do these missions together as an omega force team, and play through the missions as they were before, while also having the choice of playing through the new style of stf's.
Basically to make things simple, I think we need to have the old style STF's along side the new style STF's, the old style STF's were just as fun, if not more, as the new style STF's, and should return.
Now I don't mind the current STF style that's going on, some times we get good pick up groups some times we don't, the STF's are not bad, how ever, the old STF's I miss.
For those that are Free to Play players, or those that haven't been around Star Trek Online to know what i'm talking about, before they mad the STF queue's the current STF's that we have now were actual missions. They had full on story plot where you started into system, and worked your way through the stf going from space and into the ground instance.
For example, the Cure: You started out in space and had to clear the system of the borg ships before beaming down to the planet. Once on the planet you had to fight your way to Jarod and kill Armek of Borg (just like the current mission.) how ever unlike the current version where you had to get inside the shield area the shield wasn't there, and he had drones around him. Once he was dead, you'd beam back to your ships with Jarod. Once back in space you had to save the birds of prey, raptors, and neg'vars in the shipyards before the Borg could assimilate them. Afterwards you had to destroy the final space boss, AKA the assimilated Carrier.
There was a whole story behind the Cure STF during this time, it felt like an actual mission unlike the small queue like event that we have now.
Infected and Khitamor Accord is the same way, they were 5 man STF missions that were quite longer then they are now and where you had more then just the simple things you had to do now.
I kinda imagined The Hive to be somewhat the same as the STF's were before, but considering how the STF's has been changed so much I can't really say I did or didn't expected it.
I like the current STF's sure, but I loved the old STF's where they were missions, sure they were about 2 hours long each mission, but they were challenging, they had story in it where it felt like you were doing a cooperative mission like many starfleet officers and klingon warriors had to do.
I know that Cryptic's going to be doing the cross-faction team-up when the Legacy of Romulus expansion comes out with romulans cross-faction teaming with either Starfleet or the KDF, but considering that the STF's were in the Gamma Orionis, perhaps it be possible (at least for now till later decided) for KDF and Fed players to team up with-in the sector block so that they can do these missions together as an omega force team, and play through the missions as they were before, while also having the choice of playing through the new style of stf's.
Basically to make things simple, I think we need to have the old style STF's along side the new style STF's, the old style STF's were just as fun, if not more, as the new style STF's, and should return.
Post edited by biessman on
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***Disenchanted***
Real Join Date: Monday, 17 May 2010
I did them once, and then thought:
-Too long.
-Bad rewards.
I would stop doing them if they were changed back.
I think OP should pay everybody here salary that they can quit their jobs so that they got time for these 2 hour long grindfests. :rolleyes:
see, this is just a perception issue.
because the missions are already seperated into tiny bits. the bits combined could easily take an hour too to complete with a bad team. but you can do it in smaller portions. which, btw you could before too, just had to fidn a team on the same stage of the mission as yourself.
i never quit my job, yet i enjoyed the old stfs immensly and i played them all a couple of times a week with fixed teams. 2 hours is about what i needed for all 3 stfs back to back with breaks in between.
long story short, i'd love to have an option for team-endgame missions back like the old stfs were. just not the old stfs ... since they are old
3 hours ?
What mission was that ?
I can't say I remember any STF lasting that long but I've only been playing a year and have played hundreds under the old reward system.
THATS what I truly miss, the randomness of the mission rewards. The one chance in a dozen to come away from a mission with an epic reward instead of the guarantee of a standardized (and mediocre) reward found in the current system.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
The first incarnation of STFs were 3 hours long or more. At that time they weren't in the queue system. You had to manually form up a party and travel to the planet in Gamma Orionis in order to start the STF. There were only 3 STFs at that time. Infected, Cure, and Khitomer Accord. The STFs you see now are actually the original ones broken up into individual pieces. Before you had to run Infected space and then infected ground in order to win. You also had to clear them in order. So you couldn't run Cure without completely beating Infected first. They were also much, much, much harder than they are now. I once had a 5 hour run and couldn't beat it with the group I had back then. We gave up and left.
So no, I don't ever want to see those come back. Leave them as they are now.
Edit: I should also add that back then there were no Maco or Omega sets. The big reward was the Assimilated set. Also the max level was RA 45. We didn't have any rep passives or powerful C-Store ships. The "endgame" ships were the level RA 40 ships. So it was hard.
Mine Trap Supporter
It would make for a rather interesting fleet event if the rewards were better.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
If they were to put them back in as an option or something I wouldn't be against it. But they better leave the current STFs alone. That's one issue I'll get very loud and vocal about heh.
Mine Trap Supporter
Cure ground for instance is perfect as it is now...the old was simply too long and repetitive.
I want them back not to replace current stfs, just as an alternative to play once or twice a week...maybe as a weekly mission that rewards around 500 omega marks and 2k dilithium.
No public queue, only private (premade)
Mob level 52 and the ground and space parts should be reunited.
The rewards were great at the time. There were no Honor Guard, MACO, or Omega sets in existence. Purple Mk 12s? Forget it. The ships you had were not uberly charged, and redundant. Yes they took a while to complete, but if you had the patience (Which I assume most of you don't) and the stamina (I again will assume most of you do not.), You would get a Borg Piece, Which was, in it's time, worth the effort.
Taking a look now at this reputation system, it would take you far less time from the start to get the Assimilated pieces the old way rather than the current system now, which takes several days just to get the mission to unlock the ability to purchase the parts.
Now, I assume I am a lucky person, as I have completed these events numerous times, my main having about 7 complete old sets minus the console ( as you could only get one at a time on the mission "Assimilation"), The missions, if added back now, would be more than doable. Judge me all you guys would like to, but my vote is that they bring them back as side missions. Not the stuff like what the PVE encounters are, but stuff that would be done outside the realms of the now standard STF.
Side Note : If you want a more ancient STF to try out, the mission Terradome is still in the game, Gives you a time roughly to how long the old ones will take now.
That's still only one PvE mission in the game that's actually challenging to a good player with high end gear, though. And its not just STFs either, the Defera Hards originally designed for 5 players can be done by 3 players without difficulty.
They need to completely retool end level PvE in this game, or introduce a lot of new stuff. Old style STFs wouldn't provide the be all and end all in this respect, but I wouldn't mind them back in the game.
And 3 hours? Old STFs only took 3 hours if you made a lot of mistakes, or if your team deliberately took a slow, methodical approach.
They could be done 1:30 to 2 hours. And that's without Omega Sets, Integral Remods, Fleet Weapons, Fleet Ships, Lockbox ships, Fleet & Assignment Buffs etc. etc. that all exist now. Old STFs in under an hour would be achievable with the current gear in the game.
I would not care or mind if they were brought back as a curiosity event, as long as all end game stuff can be acquired by 15 minute missions.
Edit : Fixed the typo.
That is why this game will never flourish as it did. People like you seem to love giving games like STO bad names by your impatience and ignorance. Also, Aquired was wrong for spelling, it is Acquired.
ac-quire
[uh-kwahyuhr] Show IPA
verb (used with object), ac?quired, ac?quir?ing.
1.
to come into possession or ownership of; get as one's own: to acquire property.
2.
to gain for oneself through one's actions or efforts: to acquire learning.
3.
Linguistics . to achieve native or nativelike command of (a language or a linguistic rule or element).
4.
Military . to locate and track (a moving target) with a detector, as radar.
Honestly, it was not that hard with the old system. Should not be hard now.
I am sorry for my mistake.
I am also really sorry I am not as hardcore as you are.
But I do recall that the game did not ... how you put it... flourish back then as much as it does today.
If it did, then Atari would not have sold it.
Ah yes, the medical drones and the Nodes. Those were enjoyable, to say the least. I reckon with the system as it is now, it would be stupid easy to do as well.
There are several possibilities if you still want to re-introduce but allow all players a good chance to complete:
1. Turn this into a story mission set:
This way the story is preserved, but the difficulty factor is relatively low, allowing for this chapter of the story to be told. It would be easy to place them to, since the Borg missions already have a section of their own.
2. Create three different difficulty tiers:
The tiers I would think are today's Normal and Elite difficulties, just the length would be longer and akin to Hive Onslaught sort of. Then we have the Classic difficulty, for those wanting the same experience as before. This way those new to STO can experience the story and still have a challenge, without beating their heads against a "you need to do this in a specific way" type of stf. And those who really loved the old way, or want to experience a hardcore challenge, the classic would be waiting for them.
So they might display (going to use Cure as an example) as "Traditional Cure - Normal | Traditional Cure - Elite | Traditional Cure - Classic" in the PvE events listing.
That's some what was what I was thinking, not to replace the current STF's but an alternate way you can play them. You have the current STF's which are (as said earlier) the old STF's but broken up into pieces, and then you got the missions which are the pieces put all together.
Sure keep some things from the new style STF's the same (As post example Cure ground instance, the old style was 3 times longer then the current.) but put it all together in a mission. The old style's sure were long but they were fun and in the end you had a sense of accomplishment.
Again, I'm not trying to say delete the new STF's, but rather have another way of playing them like you did the old way, with a mission, and being able to have cross faction teams with-in Gamma Orionis so that way getting a group isn't as difficult as it was before.
I like idea 1. Make them into the last of the borg episodes, and give NPCs that give you tooltips how to do it, so that beginning players can run them with away teams and come to the proper STFs knowing at least something about the mission.
Exactly. The game never "flourished" back then, I have no idea what that poster is talking about. It was a mess. STO is in much better shape now than it was back then. If I remember, Dan said it was because Atari didn't understand online gaming and why they needed to keep investing funds into a game that was already released. That lead to the game not getting any decent content for quite some time, AKA "The Year of Fail" as it was dubbed. Or the "No cups in the kitchen" era if you prefer.
Mine Trap Supporter
I think how the idea was presented earlier with turning them into story missions is a great idea, sure they were hard but they had story behind them, now-in-day's not many people knows all the full story behind the STF's, KA for example played a major part since it tied the tutorial mission when you first start in STO along with the mission from the time traveling, now-in-day's how ever most people don't know that because it is all separated into small pieces and the queues.
Plus, how would people feel if there was a Hive mission along side the others, as fun as Hive is, it would be nice if there was a story behind it.
I find it so uncomfortable when people are rude to posters like yourself, it greatly detracts from the usefulness of the forums.
I do wish they would give the option to have both the old and new style of STF, but i GREATLY prefer the system now. I recall the pain in the rear running the old one, the bugs that showed up at the end of infected or dome ruining hours game play. Running the STF was one thing, but there was a performance getting the team together, flying to the system, making sure everyone was properly equipped, etc... Not Fun... and yet i do sometimes look back fondly.
Its a simple case bringing back the Rear Admiral versions and toning them down so they can be played solo with bridge officers. This would allow people to actually get the story behind the missions and practice some of the mechanics before going into the Elite versions.
This would also allow Terradome to be re-added to the mix since it is woefully missed. It is beyond sad to listen to players that dont even know Terradome exists or what the STFs are trying to accomplish.
The major fact was that STFs were originally designed to be feature length episodes like Best of Both Worlds with a very intense story going from beginning to end.
The current versions are glorified fleet actions, shreding the connecting elements to the point its just a generic killing of Borg with a few gimick game mechanics.
If your going to bring back the old STFs, some of the older mechanics would have to be re-attached for it to remain consistant.
Case in point: You dont save the Kang until AFTER you have done the ground potion of Cure or intermissions between Khitomer Present and Khitomer Past.
Some of the co-operative elements are well beyond BOffs. The three console inputs in Infected Ground for example. The shield generators in Khitomer Accord ground too, how would you be able to direct a BOff to disable the shields around generator? Or direct them to attack a generator that you've disabled when you're in another room and can't see the target to assign it to them? I wouldn't even trust them to defend generators in the Cure, even with waypoints.
They'd have to be made so easy or changed so much to account for this that they'd be useless as training tools, imo. So you'd really only have them for the story element.
MUST is keeping the newer short mini-missions. a) A lot of work went in to revamping them; b) they're crucial to the omega rep
But aside from that it seems a shame to miss out on the story in which case, bring back maybe a toned down version of the classic ones, or, completely streamlined ones which are soloable, purely for the mission journal. Personally, toned down group ones which were the full mission would be the best way for story, and would require less work I imagine than completely changing them to a solo version.
(Also, bring back DS9 fleet event)
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
fully agree...
and to put a little more challenging, requiring the player has the accolades:
Tier 5 Omega Reputation
Complete all Objectives optional on all Special Task Forces on the Elite / Normal setting
Complete 300 Special Task Forces on the Normal or Elite setting.
Collect all three pieces of the Mark XI or XII Ground Gear.
that way you eliminate 90% of the players newbies or who have mental problems
A foundry mission already exists to train people in Infected and it uses Boffs. Kinda sad if Cryptic cannot manage the same thing with the full game tools at their disposal.
The easiest way to do it would be to introduce the solo versions as holodeck training exercises which gives teaches folks the basics.
I.E TNG Chain of Command with Picard and Co. training on the mission they were about to do
Then you can have the team version which is the actual mission and thus uses the full mechanics and elements.
How would they make a holodeck recreation of things before they happen ?
- Khitomer Accord has already established the time travel element so throw in a certain Section 31 agent that mysteriously gives you the STF holodeck training routine using knowledge gained from the future.
- Thus it becomes even more of a self-fufilling timeline.