Wow - some great ideas posted here, and I am in agreement with most. Elite STF's do become routine after a while, especially with a high dps team (excess of 40K) My choices:
- Random events in existing elite STF's (maybe a random cube comes through the gate?)
- Secondary and tertiary goals (rescue escape pods, rescue ship mid elite)
- Mutual Foes - throw in an attach by a fleet of Tholians (for example) in ANY Elite STF.
or
- more STF's like the fleet actions with completely random attackers (this is neat, BTW)
- Rescue missions (e.g. ship stranded in minefield, Borg Fleet enroute)
- The Kobyashi Maru or simular at the Academy
or
- large ground and space action. 'Station Breakup' - get as many people off the station before it breaks up , and then rescue those in shuttles before the debris and explosion destroys you all. Make the station debris not unlike the large crystal shards
or
- add friendly fire damage to any Elite and call it 'ULTRA ELITE'
I think OPs suggestion of having to duck out and save colonists etc during the middle of a battle is a great suggestion. I would love for battles to have semi complicated non combat maneuvers in them. I am sure I will get extremely frustrated with these things at times, but overall it will add a great deal of depth to the game.
One thing that I think Cryptic should keep in mind is that play time does not necessarily directly equal enjoyment. For example, I have played Infected Space a ton, Khitomer somewhat, and Cure space very little. I played the Hive once.
This does not mean that I like Infected Space more than the others. In fact, it is probably the opposite. However, when I sit down to play I will tend to opt for the easier ones unless I feel mentally up for the challenge. When I do play the other ones I get a much greater sense of tension hoping it goes well and satisfaction when it goes OK.
Staged STFs. By this I mean you start out in space and your first task is to fight through an enemy fleet and disable the prison ship they are gaurds. From there your team beams down and has to come up with a way to free the prisoners via a little bit of combat, character skills and puzzles. Finally you have to make it back to your ships and escape the area before the enemy back up arrives.
This is just an example, but I think you should get my basic idea. Don't just have STFs as space or ground, we need mix and match.
Staged STFs. By this I mean you start out in space and your first task is to fight through an enemy fleet and disable the prison ship they are gaurds. From there your team beams down and has to come up with a way to free the prisoners via a little bit of combat, character skills and puzzles. Finally you have to make it back to your ships and escape the area before the enemy back up arrives.
This is just an example, but I think you should get my basic idea. Don't just have STFs as space or ground, we need mix and match.
I recall that once upon a time, the STFs were both space a ground instead of divided. I would certainly enjoy this, and I think a number of players would as well. I don't know how likely it is though, given that they have gone with the 'keeping them separate' approach.
But the above scenario sounds like a total blast and something I would really enjoy playing! Keep those ideas coming gang, great stuff here.
And I'd also like to see some more faction or maybe class specific rewards.
That would be nice. I do like how Starbase stuff has you fighting random groups of enemies, but their basically the same fleets, with the same number and classes of ships, even if they have different abilities.
I recall that once upon a time, the STFs were both space a ground instead of divided. I would certainly enjoy this, and I think a number of players would as well. I don't know how likely it is though, given that they have gone with the 'keeping them separate' approach.
But the above scenario sounds like a total blast and something I would really enjoy playing! Keep those ideas coming gang, great stuff here.
It was less keeping them separate, and more they could take eight hours to finish. :P
I'd love to see some STF's that have both a space and a ground phase, instead of just one or the other.
For instance, a finale to the borg story where you disable some giant flying geometric shape (I'm holding out for a dodecahedron, myself), then beam aboard to plant bombs on the warp core. Or something.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
what would i like to see a new stf? i would like to see the old system with a few more save point instead of this broken stf missions. those were alot of fun back in the day where it was a challenge to get the right people and the spam flood of requests while traveling between vorn, sibiran and qs. would like to see the storyline.
i would like to see the long reglected 8472 mission be put on the queue system.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
We don't need or want bosses that have nothing but attacks that do stupid amounts of damage, and other attacks that you can't even see and will 1 shot kill you.
A good place to start is by dropping the Borg as an ongoing antagonist.
Of course, then we'll just get Iconian-built Dyson spheres or something similarly absurd.
As much as the quote the OP refers to made a point, there's an equally valid point that some mechanics intended to keep given content appealing past the first or second time through can be even more problematic by the 10th, 20th, 50th or 100th time through than pure pewpew.
On the bright side, at some point I realized that subnuke requires a forward facing arc, and by attacking from certain angles I can avoid eating it from every Breen cruiser I come across in the Defera daily, something that was starting to become very much annoying.
"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society." - Aristotle
I remember when STF's used to be challenging and add to the story of the game.
You actually needed a diverse group. Not just fly in there with 5 tac/escorts and dps it in 10 minutes (yes 10 minutes believe it or not)
Even in my fleet where most of the guys are excellent STF players we still had to coordinate and have mix of tacs/sci/eng to get the mission done. And the best part is you got your gear at the end, not like this Omega rep rubbish that takes months to grind.
Fair enough it makes sense to have the rep system, the building of a new world would be a long ongoing process like on New Rom. But STF's are done in a flash these days. It's ridiculous, if I didn't have a cool social fleet to fly through them with I wouldn't have bothered.
But of course we lost the challenge of STF's because people bitched and complained that they were too hard constantly. Well done, we got the rep system instead whereby you grind for months on end to get your kit.
Like an earlier poster said, most of the player base actually suck at the game, I couldn't agree more. Instead of joining fleets, devising strategy and actually working together they decided to jump up and down like spoiled kids and Cryptic had no choice but to badly nerf STF's.
And don't even get me started on Terradome. I really wish they'd fix that.
STORY!!!!! I want the STFs back to telling a story. Like the way they originally were. I do miss those stories. Sure it was a long drawn out pain in the rump, but the stories they tpld were intriguing. I don't mind the pew pew STFs we have now but, they do lack depth.
Something that tells you a story, like dungeons in GW2. Perhaps something a little dynamic like, to see the entire story you'd have to do well. Maybe there'd be cross-faction elements, like indirect PvP, where you're competing or something, might not work with an STF.
Something good/interesting and not cookie-cutter. Generic response demanding something not generic. :P
STORY!!!!! I want the STFs back to telling a story. Like the way they originally were. I do miss those stories. Sure it was a long drawn out pain in the rump, but the stories they tpld were intriguing. I don't mind the pew pew STFs we have now but, they do lack depth.
STORY!!!!! I want the STFs back to telling a story. Like the way they originally were. I do miss those stories. Sure it was a long drawn out pain in the rump, but the stories they tpld were intriguing. I don't mind the pew pew STFs we have now but, they do lack depth.
Got my vote, I would love for more story content. As my grandmother would say "I need my stories"
More story: I like it! Multi-goal: give it to me! Separate team pathing: awesome!
I was also thinking, we have a brand new Enterprise cruising around the galaxy, why do we not have her involved a bit more in some missions and story? One nice little touch I really enjoy is doing Tau Dewa patrols and she randomly warps in.
How about something (using some of the proposals listed here) like, you have to cover the Enterprise, or she covers you (and it's a choice you can make) to 'flick a switch'/'repair a satellite'/whatever. There would be advantages to doing it yourself or giving the task to Shon and crew.
Tholians or Undine as our next STF big bads sounds fun. I think most of us can agree that Borg is getting repetitive, let's fight something else.
The post about going on board the Tholian stolen Oddy, I can imagine a fun STF built around that idea!
And thank you one and all for the contributions and overall positive attitude displayed in this thread. Keep those ideas pouring in, I'm sure you have more. If the devs take even a small bit of some of the stuff being suggested here, the STF future looks bright to me!
The best boss fight by far in the game is the Snowman Overlord from the winter event.
Really? Isn't that the same DPS thing as before? Sure, you have to use a special gun, and maybe there were a few new mechanics, but every time I did it it was just swarmed and very quickly DPS-ed to death.
Big thumbs down to the idea that what STF's need is more blocks of text that have nothing to do with playing the game. If anything the designers should be praised for realizing just how dated and bad that stuff really is.
The story missions in this game are probably the single weakest element of the entire game. The concept of making the rest of the game more like that would turn the experience of playing into a giant funeral dirge.
On the bright side, it would give me an excuse to finally install Path of Exile, I guess.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
No pages of dialogue in STFs, they did it right with the vault and after missions, with timer and confirmation dialogues to advance parts of the mission. There is nothing worse than a pop up page of dialogue in the middle of an STF, I haven't read it ever, you can't read it and be responsible to the group you are in. If you want to bring a story through the STF, you include fly by messages from your Boffs, etc updating you through a mission.
Really? Isn't that the same DPS thing as before? Sure, you have to use a special gun, and maybe there were a few new mechanics, but every time I did it it was just swarmed and very quickly DPS-ed to death.
It was a giant freaking snowman, who cares if it was a simple dps battle. Giant....freaking....snowman.
I don't think anyone is advocating large blocks of text in the middle of the mission when asking for story. A good setup and some fun twists while doing the mission. Fly in text from Boffs could serve the purpose well.
A definite tell to tale in other words. It doesn't need to be a novel, and should be balanced as to not slow the pace of gameplay, but I feel this is easily achievable if they approach it with a solid goal in mind. Action always feels more dramatic when it has a proper setup.
Also why I suggested the new Enterprise somehow involved. They have a new crew and ship set up, I would like to see the team actually do something with that. A STF or Fleet Alert would seem a good opportunity.
The kind of STF I want to play is one where we are not numbly rehearsing tried and true patterns over and over again. I'd rather have something more dynamic where anything can happen.
Missions that are based in the same area, but have different starting locations, different objectives and different levels of resistance depending on the random number gods.
For example, ISE - the easiest STF and one where everyone knows how it plays out. But what if...
1) You warp in but are ordered to protect the gate, so that a friendly fleet can use it as passage into Borg territory for a surprise counter offensive?
2) You are busy taking the gate down when Tholian's show up with intent to take the gate for themselves?
3) Starbase 182 is untouched for now, and you are to protect it as the inhabitants evacuate?
I realise that even if you had a dozen scanarios occur for each STF players will figure out the strategies eventually, but would offer some more flavour. It would probably be impossible to implement, but it's my 2 pennies.
Big thumbs down to the idea that what STF's need is more blocks of text that have nothing to do with playing the game. If anything the designers should be praised for realizing just how dated and bad that stuff really is.
The story missions in this game are probably the single weakest element of the entire game. The concept of making the rest of the game more like that would turn the experience of playing into a giant funeral dirge.
On the bright side, it would give me an excuse to finally install Path of Exile, I guess.
I agree. There's no way Cryptic can account for everyone's tastes and backstories. So there's very little they can do in terms of characterizations, particularly for bridge officers and captains.
Hmm.. one interesting idea I just had was a multistage STF where how well you did in the first part influenced how easy the second part was.
Oooo, that's a good addition to the list. Like say if you take to long in the first stage of busting out the prisoners it give time for reinforcements to arrive in the third stage, thus making it more difficult.
Hmm.. one interesting idea I just had was a multistage STF where how well you did in the first part influenced how easy the second part was.
So... Mine Trap, but harder? I do like the concept, and more mechanics like it should be added. I just wonder how the balance between making the second part too hard to complete if you fail the first part, or too easy if you blow the first one out of the water, would work.
The story missions in this game are probably the single weakest element of the entire game. The concept of making the rest of the game more like that would turn the experience of playing into a giant funeral dirge.
So you prefer something like the Crystalline Entity - nothing but shooting?
Are you saying that the mechanics of the boss fight doesn't matter, as long as it provides lols or has a cool look?
Hardly, I would love to see more strategic boss fights. But it was just a fun little....big? snowball fight against a giant animated snowman.
I mean it would have been fun to be able to make temporary snow forts and things like that where you have to hold off waves of his minions before he even bothers to show up, but for what is was it was good fun. Seeing Frosties evil, steroid using cousin always brought me a smile.
Comments
- Random events in existing elite STF's (maybe a random cube comes through the gate?)
- Secondary and tertiary goals (rescue escape pods, rescue ship mid elite)
- Mutual Foes - throw in an attach by a fleet of Tholians (for example) in ANY Elite STF.
or
- more STF's like the fleet actions with completely random attackers (this is neat, BTW)
- Rescue missions (e.g. ship stranded in minefield, Borg Fleet enroute)
- The Kobyashi Maru or simular at the Academy
or
- large ground and space action. 'Station Breakup' - get as many people off the station before it breaks up , and then rescue those in shuttles before the debris and explosion destroys you all. Make the station debris not unlike the large crystal shards
or
- add friendly fire damage to any Elite and call it 'ULTRA ELITE'
My Two Bits
Admiral Thrax
And I'd also like to see some more faction or maybe class specific rewards.
Previously known as MGDawson.
Lifer since April 2010, and open beta tester.
Say "NO" to the Tier 5 Constitution!
Maybe we need to board that mirror ship? :O
One thing that I think Cryptic should keep in mind is that play time does not necessarily directly equal enjoyment. For example, I have played Infected Space a ton, Khitomer somewhat, and Cure space very little. I played the Hive once.
This does not mean that I like Infected Space more than the others. In fact, it is probably the opposite. However, when I sit down to play I will tend to opt for the easier ones unless I feel mentally up for the challenge. When I do play the other ones I get a much greater sense of tension hoping it goes well and satisfaction when it goes OK.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
This is just an example, but I think you should get my basic idea. Don't just have STFs as space or ground, we need mix and match.
I recall that once upon a time, the STFs were both space a ground instead of divided. I would certainly enjoy this, and I think a number of players would as well. I don't know how likely it is though, given that they have gone with the 'keeping them separate' approach.
But the above scenario sounds like a total blast and something I would really enjoy playing! Keep those ideas coming gang, great stuff here.
Ha! True that! We need more of that sort of thing. Ground bosses currently are only regular enemies with absurd health and damage.
That would be nice. I do like how Starbase stuff has you fighting random groups of enemies, but their basically the same fleets, with the same number and classes of ships, even if they have different abilities.
That would be A-Mazing.
It was less keeping them separate, and more they could take eight hours to finish. :P
For instance, a finale to the borg story where you disable some giant flying geometric shape (I'm holding out for a dodecahedron, myself), then beam aboard to plant bombs on the warp core. Or something.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
i would like to see the long reglected 8472 mission be put on the queue system.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Of course, then we'll just get Iconian-built Dyson spheres or something similarly absurd.
As much as the quote the OP refers to made a point, there's an equally valid point that some mechanics intended to keep given content appealing past the first or second time through can be even more problematic by the 10th, 20th, 50th or 100th time through than pure pewpew.
On the bright side, at some point I realized that subnuke requires a forward facing arc, and by attacking from certain angles I can avoid eating it from every Breen cruiser I come across in the Defera daily, something that was starting to become very much annoying.
You actually needed a diverse group. Not just fly in there with 5 tac/escorts and dps it in 10 minutes (yes 10 minutes believe it or not)
Even in my fleet where most of the guys are excellent STF players we still had to coordinate and have mix of tacs/sci/eng to get the mission done. And the best part is you got your gear at the end, not like this Omega rep rubbish that takes months to grind.
Fair enough it makes sense to have the rep system, the building of a new world would be a long ongoing process like on New Rom. But STF's are done in a flash these days. It's ridiculous, if I didn't have a cool social fleet to fly through them with I wouldn't have bothered.
But of course we lost the challenge of STF's because people bitched and complained that they were too hard constantly. Well done, we got the rep system instead whereby you grind for months on end to get your kit.
Like an earlier poster said, most of the player base actually suck at the game, I couldn't agree more. Instead of joining fleets, devising strategy and actually working together they decided to jump up and down like spoiled kids and Cryptic had no choice but to badly nerf STF's.
And don't even get me started on Terradome. I really wish they'd fix that.
Something good/interesting and not cookie-cutter. Generic response demanding something not generic. :P
EDIT: Exactly.
Got my vote, I would love for more story content. As my grandmother would say "I need my stories"
I was also thinking, we have a brand new Enterprise cruising around the galaxy, why do we not have her involved a bit more in some missions and story? One nice little touch I really enjoy is doing Tau Dewa patrols and she randomly warps in.
How about something (using some of the proposals listed here) like, you have to cover the Enterprise, or she covers you (and it's a choice you can make) to 'flick a switch'/'repair a satellite'/whatever. There would be advantages to doing it yourself or giving the task to Shon and crew.
Tholians or Undine as our next STF big bads sounds fun. I think most of us can agree that Borg is getting repetitive, let's fight something else.
The post about going on board the Tholian stolen Oddy, I can imagine a fun STF built around that idea!
And thank you one and all for the contributions and overall positive attitude displayed in this thread. Keep those ideas pouring in, I'm sure you have more. If the devs take even a small bit of some of the stuff being suggested here, the STF future looks bright to me!
Really? Isn't that the same DPS thing as before? Sure, you have to use a special gun, and maybe there were a few new mechanics, but every time I did it it was just swarmed and very quickly DPS-ed to death.
The story missions in this game are probably the single weakest element of the entire game. The concept of making the rest of the game more like that would turn the experience of playing into a giant funeral dirge.
On the bright side, it would give me an excuse to finally install Path of Exile, I guess.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
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Visit our Youtube channel
It was a giant freaking snowman, who cares if it was a simple dps battle. Giant....freaking....snowman.
My character Tsin'xing
A definite tell to tale in other words. It doesn't need to be a novel, and should be balanced as to not slow the pace of gameplay, but I feel this is easily achievable if they approach it with a solid goal in mind. Action always feels more dramatic when it has a proper setup.
Also why I suggested the new Enterprise somehow involved. They have a new crew and ship set up, I would like to see the team actually do something with that. A STF or Fleet Alert would seem a good opportunity.
The kind of STF I want to play is one where we are not numbly rehearsing tried and true patterns over and over again. I'd rather have something more dynamic where anything can happen.
Missions that are based in the same area, but have different starting locations, different objectives and different levels of resistance depending on the random number gods.
For example, ISE - the easiest STF and one where everyone knows how it plays out. But what if...
1) You warp in but are ordered to protect the gate, so that a friendly fleet can use it as passage into Borg territory for a surprise counter offensive?
2) You are busy taking the gate down when Tholian's show up with intent to take the gate for themselves?
3) Starbase 182 is untouched for now, and you are to protect it as the inhabitants evacuate?
I realise that even if you had a dozen scanarios occur for each STF players will figure out the strategies eventually, but would offer some more flavour. It would probably be impossible to implement, but it's my 2 pennies.
I agree. There's no way Cryptic can account for everyone's tastes and backstories. So there's very little they can do in terms of characterizations, particularly for bridge officers and captains.
When they try to do that, hospitals get blown up.
Oooo, that's a good addition to the list. Like say if you take to long in the first stage of busting out the prisoners it give time for reinforcements to arrive in the third stage, thus making it more difficult.
Kinda like that?
So... Mine Trap, but harder? I do like the concept, and more mechanics like it should be added. I just wonder how the balance between making the second part too hard to complete if you fail the first part, or too easy if you blow the first one out of the water, would work.
So you prefer something like the Crystalline Entity - nothing but shooting?
Are you saying that the mechanics of the boss fight doesn't matter, as long as it provides lols or has a cool look?
Hardly, I would love to see more strategic boss fights. But it was just a fun little....big? snowball fight against a giant animated snowman.
I mean it would have been fun to be able to make temporary snow forts and things like that where you have to hold off waves of his minions before he even bothers to show up, but for what is was it was good fun. Seeing Frosties evil, steroid using cousin always brought me a smile.