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dStahl: "Exploration as game inside the game"
elcapitannx01
Member Posts: 5 Arc User
In this interview http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=908891 dStahl says something about STO exploration going to be some sort of game inside the game (or the gateway).
I would like to point out, that I have no problems with thinking STOs Exploration system as some sort of ingame browsergame (just like the doff-system). I also would like to point out that real exploration is and always has been the cause to stay and invest time and money in STO.
Some things which would make exploration fun to me:
- it needs to be done (best) with fleet comrades
- there should also be a way to do it solo.
- it needs the possibility for players to go somewhere, no one has been before!
- it needs to be uncharted space - so it needs to be random generated
- uncharted space needs to be reseted and new generated from time to time (maybe every season).
- it needs to tie in with fleet starbases
- it needs to consume dilithium, so Cryptic can allocate man power to this project.
That`s how it could look like:
- there is a persistend wormhole generated for every player and/or every fleet with an exit in an outer sector of a new quadrant of space.
- from this point on you can send exploration ships into the sectors next to your sector.
- your fleet can claim a sector by building a starbase there
- there can be build (and upgraded) different starbases from different fleets - the sector always belongs to the starbase with highest rank.
- starbases should be open to solo players, so they can refill their ships there.
(- later: enemy starbases can be attacked, resulting in a asynchron defend-starbase scenario. If starbase is defeated it gets a debuff resulting in longer upgrade or build times.)
- moving in this quadrant costs fuel, which is dilithium.
- dilithium can only be refilled on starbases
- every exploration ship has a dilithium cap - cstore ships could have a higher cap
- raw dilithium can be found in this quadrant. dilithium in outer regions are more raw than the dilithium found deeper in this quadrant, so it needs to get refined multiple time until it is (consumable) dilithium
- raw dilithium can be mined by holding the sector, and building a mine. It needs to be refined in a refinery on a starbase.
- dilithium can be transported with cargo ships. So you can send them from your mining outpost to starbases and between starbases. cargo ships from cstore could have a higher cap.
- normal exploration and cargo ships needs to be build on a fleet owned shipyard.
- as a reward to going deeper into the quadrant there could be some rare ressources, which could be used to craft new endgame gear, or some new title, new npcs (like colonists in doff)....etc.
-after one season of exploring the map is shuffled, some new sectors added, players with most sectors explored are going into some hall of fame, and everything starts again.
@thay8472: you can also find new dilithium there.
I would like to point out, that I have no problems with thinking STOs Exploration system as some sort of ingame browsergame (just like the doff-system). I also would like to point out that real exploration is and always has been the cause to stay and invest time and money in STO.
Some things which would make exploration fun to me:
- it needs to be done (best) with fleet comrades
- there should also be a way to do it solo.
- it needs the possibility for players to go somewhere, no one has been before!
- it needs to be uncharted space - so it needs to be random generated
- uncharted space needs to be reseted and new generated from time to time (maybe every season).
- it needs to tie in with fleet starbases
- it needs to consume dilithium, so Cryptic can allocate man power to this project.
That`s how it could look like:
- there is a persistend wormhole generated for every player and/or every fleet with an exit in an outer sector of a new quadrant of space.
- from this point on you can send exploration ships into the sectors next to your sector.
- your fleet can claim a sector by building a starbase there
- there can be build (and upgraded) different starbases from different fleets - the sector always belongs to the starbase with highest rank.
- starbases should be open to solo players, so they can refill their ships there.
(- later: enemy starbases can be attacked, resulting in a asynchron defend-starbase scenario. If starbase is defeated it gets a debuff resulting in longer upgrade or build times.)
- moving in this quadrant costs fuel, which is dilithium.
- dilithium can only be refilled on starbases
- every exploration ship has a dilithium cap - cstore ships could have a higher cap
- raw dilithium can be found in this quadrant. dilithium in outer regions are more raw than the dilithium found deeper in this quadrant, so it needs to get refined multiple time until it is (consumable) dilithium
- raw dilithium can be mined by holding the sector, and building a mine. It needs to be refined in a refinery on a starbase.
- dilithium can be transported with cargo ships. So you can send them from your mining outpost to starbases and between starbases. cargo ships from cstore could have a higher cap.
- normal exploration and cargo ships needs to be build on a fleet owned shipyard.
- as a reward to going deeper into the quadrant there could be some rare ressources, which could be used to craft new endgame gear, or some new title, new npcs (like colonists in doff)....etc.
-after one season of exploring the map is shuffled, some new sectors added, players with most sectors explored are going into some hall of fame, and everything starts again.
@thay8472: you can also find new dilithium there.
Post edited by elcapitannx01 on
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Comments
No.
sounds a lot like wormhole space from eve.
Still, on the face of it it's a damned good idea. Will take a bit of playtesting and work to balance though.
not so sure about the season wipes though, since that's an awful lot of work going away
A complete revamp and expansion of the PvP system should come before 'exploration'.
I'm having too much fun moving sliders left to right in my Reputation systems ... . :rolleyes:
going to locations, setting up starbases. sending ships into the unknown. collecting resources etc, making diplomatic contact. im kind of thinking a sort of hybrid between the doff system and the old birth of the federation game.
This is a good start, but there are way too many core game play changes in it (add Dil cost for movement, new dil cap for every ship, new 'rare' rewards, new end game gear crafting, new fleet sector claiming, and a new quadrant to boot) - without any new revenue generation. Not bashing on Cryptic or PWE here, it's just a reality check - new code, new content, and player stuff all cost server space and band with - which all equals a cost in money, they need to pay for it.
I have however been kicking an idea around for a while, since I've been planning my first foray into the foundry - - and this is as good of a place as any to let loose with it.
allow players to pay to add content!!!!
*****That's right folks for the low low price of a few $$, you too can create and add in your own created races and content for others to play - - - design their home worlds, design their ship's, write their missions, say who's their friends, and who's their foes.*****
There are many players, such as myself, who enjoy creating content for others to play( there is a link to a mod I worked on for UT2k4 in my sig.) - this is why we have the foundry in the first place. That portion could find their enjoyment by creating those new worlds for everyone else. - the foundry system in fact could be the basis for all of this Idea.
here go the nut's and bolt's of it
- Players can buy a sector to create that would sit as separate instances of their own; found first through the existing exploration system, then later through trans warp. Traveling to the edges of these sectors will give the option to warp back into a level appropriate exploration cluster. - once a player finalizes his sector build, someone on the dev or mod's team can review, test, and approve it before it goes live.
- Use the existing exploration system as is, once a players content has been approved then those who are exploring can come across it instead of one of the random planets that are there now. - after a certain number of players have found the system in this manor, then Fed/Klinks/Rommies will set up a trans warp directly to the players sector.
- This may require a new way of saving trans warp locations, but at the very least a second list of locations when you hit T (both the current list, and one that holds player sectors can just be tabbed.
- Use the existing alien creator for creating species (look's, traits, etc) - players can have more then one species on a planet, or have a couple of different home worlds in their sector. Give full access to all outfit's from all the existing factions in any combination - (of course creators wishing to use Z-store costume parts on their NPC's will have to buy the costume piece.)
- Use the existing resources that create the random world's (planet's, star's, asteroids, moon's, ground, tree's, buildings, etc.) for creating the systems themselves. Home world systems will also give your sector 2-3 "mission" systems to be created in the sector, each. Home worlds and species after the first will cost Zen.
- Using the current ship customizing system - either use mixing the existing ship's part's models, or create new ones, that creators can use to build and skin their ships. - one for each type (shuttle, escort, cruiser, sci ship) - movement, turn rate, skill slot's, etc will have 2-3 template options based on ship type, and the hull/saucer selections made.
- Missions within the players sector are added with the current foundry. Once a players home planet has been visited enough times to have a trans warp, the faction exploration officers can generate diplomacy missions to send more players there.
----
over time this Idea can be expanded to allow creators to have enough missions to level a new character from 1-10 in their sector (without a tutorial), and one of each ship type per tier; So that other players can start a character from their race to access to the ships which the creator has made.
- Again ship's will have a couple of template options for their layouts based on the criteria used above, plus which tier the ship is. - the players will then choose to ally with either fed or klink and start getting the faction missions at level 10, but they will have access to the creators ships as they progress in level.
Me playing UT2k4 (red guy) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz0DnP7wXnU
I was about to say the same thing that it does sound like EvE wormhole exploration. As much I love that idea, I have to say no because the OP seem to have putting fleet players over solo players and its feel like if you want to enjoy exploration you have to join a fleet. Since I don't want to be force into join a fleet I have say NO to this idea. And what is with the dilithium cost, not everyone have time to farm for dilithium.
lol this ^^^^^^^^
system Lord Baal is dead
No. Starbases from every fleet should be open for non-fleet-members. So they can refill their exploration ships there or even transport dilithium between two starbases. Maybe other goods could be traded there as well. If there would be some sort of new crafting materials there, they also or the new products would need to be transported as well...
One thing I think might be neat would be player-interactive versions of the colony chains. So, you'd go through a series of missions, beginning with a system survey, then a planet survey, encounter with random native element, colony site survey, protect colonists from outside threat, chain complete.
This could be chock full of random elements. The planets could vary from Ice Planet to Vasquez Rocks. The native threat could be a virus, a plant, Space Gorillas, or the weather. If you negotiate with the outside threat, the next mission could be peaceful; if you fight it, the next mission would be a bigger battle.
If there are a hundred or more random elements for each mission, and if your interactions set the tone of the next link in the chain, it could be a while before this got old.
*break*
And while I'm having ideas for exploration, I'd also like to see first contact missions that feel real. This could be done as a chain of missions like the colony chain above, with each step in the first contact process (discovery, surveillance, high-level contact, public contact, conflict, resolution) as its own mission full of random elements, with each mission outcome affecting the tone of the following mission.
I really think this is do-able, if Cryptic puts some resources into it.
I would like to see a private sector. A portion of space that your ship is assigned to. Each player's sector would be "unique". The sector would be large and house at least two populated words, with different species, and a neutral starbase or planet.
The sector would start out with a story seed. Maybe one race is on the brink of extinction. Maybe both races are at war. The story does not have to be complex. It just needs to provide a framework for the missions.
Once the sector is set, you would then set about doing missions in the sector. These could even be essentially the same as the current Exploration missions (to decrease Cryptic's work and give us a chance of seeing anything new). Each mission would progress the overall story in the sector. If you scan anomalies on behalf of one race, that might give them the advantage in a war. If you interdict pirates, that may allow trade to flourish and one race gets out of an economic depression.
The best part of this system, to me, is that you get something unique to your character, that you have some control over. You can invite friends to your sector to help in missions, or just to meet at the neutral starbase.
Lock Boxes: The true value - (thread link)
Jem'Hadar Bug Odds - (thread link)
Galor Creation Rate - (thread link)
Find me in TSW - TSW Chronicle Profile
We would be able to collect and collate information on everything we come across in the game from planets, to animals and plants, and access that info from an astrometrics console onboard our ship, or even through Gateway once we've unlocked it (which would be mostly through discovering it). Maybe with regards to lifeforms, doff missions could be brought in, sending out doff teams on duckblinds to monitor or raise them similarly to the epohh raising mission.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
That is brilliant. I would love to see something like that.
...I hope you mean deuterium. Dilithium is not a fuel. It's a component of a starship's warp drive system that regulates the matter-antimatter reaction. Deuterium and antideuterium is the fuel used in this reaction. A starship's bussard collectors are used to gather this "heavy hydrogen" in deep space.
With this in mind, you could also add deuterium collection into your proposed system.
It makes you feel alone without prohibiting teaming. There is no ship in a box or ships in boxes. Just you aboard your ship, ideally with warp effects visible outside while exploration is in progress.
I'd like it if this also meant expanding out all interiors to three proper decks and exploration missions that used the interiors for things like first contacts, staff meetings, and maybe the odd hostile ground encounter.
Dilithium breaks down over time but isn't, in and of itself, fuel.
If the Patrol 3 Systems were like those IE mostly Space missions I would love it.
As of now I get sick of having to do 3 ground missions in a row.
After all this is STAR Trek not ground Trek.
I took dilithium as fuel so Cryptic can earn money with it. I would like to see the initial fuel costs relativ low, so even solo player can participate. And if they find a raw dilithium ressource they might get VERY rich. But I can also image that the last 1% of your journey could be very extensive and that big fleets are competing about those 1% investing much dilithium - so Cryptic can earn money with it.
I have read most of the suggestions here - the fact, that there are that many suggestions, and that people took their time to post them, makes it clear to me, that there needs to be real exploration in STO.
Nevertheless, most of those suggestions need massiv investment from Cryptic - so there has to be an outcome for Cryptic as well, otherwise its just unrealistic. I also do like some suggestions made in this thread more, than my own, but I think mine is a good compromisse between what we get, and what Cryptic has to invest.
I would also like to point out, that my suggestion don`t bring us consumable content but neverending fun. (sorry I had to write this.) I mean, all exploration content, which can not been reseted, or expanded indefinitly will be consumed very quick. So making something "turn/season-based", which generates a complete new adventure with not much investment costs (some new elements per season would do it), is preferable.
More dilithium requiring stuff is a stupid idea. We already pay too much dilithium for good gear.
Good memories
A game like Birth of the Federation within STO would be absolutely incredible.
A 4X Strategy game within an mmo - I can't really ask for more.
Unfortunately I don't know how possible that is, even as a mini-game. But hope dies last.
"The quest for the Book of Ignum"
"I have seen your future. I have seen your end"
Once you designed a ship, you could send it out on a variety of missions.. and depending on how well you equipped it, you will succeed or fail certain stages of the mission. If you didn't have certain kinds of probes, you couldn't properly scan certain anomalies and whatnot. It was kind of similar to the doff system in that once you actually started the mission, it was out of your hands and entirely up to how well you prepared the ship.
I could easily see the mission side of this being something you could do on the Gateway and it could certainly be adopted into an 'exploration' theme.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Starship_Creator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7f5jFIUJeA
No one said anything about porting the game into STO.
But rather how a 4X mini-game can be implemented in the future exploration system. It can be very easily both a single and a multiplayer component, even part of the PvP revamp they've been hinting at.
"The quest for the Book of Ignum"
"I have seen your future. I have seen your end"