well since only 4 individuals of that species, are left, it doesn't seem feasible... Unless Cryptic creates storylines which allows for the liberation, of their people from those two cubes. But, who is to say that those cubes haven't been destroyed? Unless they create another ST series to show that or even allude to what happened to them, its not a viable chose as a usable species in STO. For the time being you can't call 4 individuals a species.
There's a few avenues to explore. They were after all a spacefaring race, thus they may have had colonies that escaped the Borg. Besides, the one world that they were seen to have had less than a million people on it.... That number seems improbably low.
How utter depressing that the community would overwhelmingly vote to expand on the stories of what is categorically the worst of all the star trek series, the least well thought out, and least well executed branch of Star Trek. Voyager is so bad that in over ten years since leaving the air I have never once gone back to watch any of their episodes, unlike all of the other series. Poor plots, poor character development, poor ideas, poor dialogue, just bad tv. The only upside was the clear talent of acting that was obviously being held back the entirety of the series.
If this is where STO is going in 2014, I will likely have very little to come back in game for.
the federation has maintained contact with Ambassador Nelix and the Talaxian colony, and probably put the Klingons into contact with their colony in the delta quadrant, made up of survivors of the kuavaghma expedition. these factions could construct trans-warp gates, and allow federation and klingon access to the delta quadrant.
i dont know why cryptic/PWE has a hard time thinking this stuff up.
How utter depressing that the community would overwhelmingly vote to expand on the stories of what is categorically the worst of all the star trek series, the least well thought out, and least well executed branch of Star Trek. Voyager is so bad that in over ten years since leaving the air I have never once gone back to watch any of their episodes, unlike all of the other series. Poor plots, poor character development, poor ideas, poor dialogue, just bad tv. The only upside was the clear talent of acting that was obviously being held back the entirety of the series.
If this is where STO is going in 2014, I will likely have very little to come back in game for.
Well each to there own, Voyager was my favourite, but of course not everyone is going to like the same thing.
I never really liked the Original series much myself but I'm not going to turn round and say harsh things about it just because of that.
But it never ceases to amaze me just how rude the general population of the world can be sometimes.
If people really don't like where the game is going you can either:
A. Stop playing and find a new game.
B. Learn how to make games yourself and make a game how you want it to be.
C. Wait and see how it turns out first, before passing judgement on something that hasn't even been made yet.
On a slightly different note dose the general population even have manners or consideration for other people any more or is it just self, self, self, Now.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them." -Thomas Marrone
It has always been my dream to have a Borg Cube on the game to command. I got the lifetime sub so i could have the liberated borg species. A playable Borg faction would be awesome however due to he power that the borg have in all of the movies it would make that faction over powered. Perhaps maybe eliminate a shield slot for borg ships(hint, hint). When the enterprise first met the borg teir weapons damaged the borg ships but the borg could repair the damage at an incredible rate. Maybe if you do make a borg faction you couls do the same. Increased hit points and no shields. Just a fast repair rate and a hefty damage resistance or adaptability like the borg have. Just brain storming here.
Would be nice to see the Kazon again but cant really see them being to much of a threat since they arent the most advanced species.
While the Phage might have been cured there are those that still continued to harvest organs because they got used to it. However I would also like to see the Malon because I'd to see a Vihaar.
"I will make the Orion Syndicate face the light of justice or burn them with it." - Captainl Kyle Nathaniel Locke, U.S.S. Excalibur NCC-98105-C
It'd be interesting to see what's happened in the Delta Quadrant. Neelix has changed a lot in the whole voyager arc, perhaps his encounters with the species-diverse crew of Voyager, and witnessing all their successes when they 'worked together' with differing cultures and species.. I'm sure that Neelix wasn't the only Delta Quadrant inhabitant whose world view wasa changed by encountering Voyager. it would be interesting to see if the seeds planted by Voyager took root, with perhaps some interesting new alliances forming., some good, and some bad too perhaps.
It would also be interesting to see more timeline contamination concerning the Krenim Imperium. I'd really love to see some "feature length" content involving a "return of the year from yell"
Most of you know that voyager is where they are trapped on the other side of the galaxy trying to get home so how would they do that? Would it be after voyager makes it back and all the enemy's they made comes after them (they made a lot). It would solve the problem of having more than one voyager on the way back to earth.
Maybe a timetravel Mission or 10 Missions onbord of Voyager in the Delta Quatrant you takeover a crewmember or use a personal cloak and save the voyager from whatever.
18 Cpt on the way to 60: 14 of them are already 50 or over 50, one is 60 and 3 almost 43
Subscribed For: 4 years 5 months 20 days at 26.10.2014
Devore. Period. They are the most insidious, mysterious (in the sense that we know little of their culture so it's ripe for expansion), and technologically advanced (from a military standpoint). They are also arrogant, control a large amount of space, and I could definitely see them fighting to keep all the telepaths in the Fed/KDF from polluting their space. They would have the resources, technology, ships, military mindset, strong government and the motivation to really stand up to the Feds/KDF.
No one else really does, for the reasons below.
Malon are boring, non-technologically threatening, ugly, and I didn't get a sense they were all that big a race. not a threat to the Feds/KDF
Kazon are one dimensional generic bad guys, with lackluster technology, no home planet, and impermanent self-government. not a threat to the Feds/KDF
The Vidians, were technologically advanced, and have a compelling story, but as many have mentioned, they have been cured. They would be vastly different, and likely peaceful in nature. Even if you somehow un-did the cure, they were not an expansionist or even a protectionist empire. They were a people content to live work trade exist on their own worlds, and a few rogue elements went and farmed body parts. Again, not a threat to the Feds/KDF
Krenim were, after all the incursions were undone, a moderately powerful, cohesive empire, in the midst of it's own regional conflict. Only one time ship was built and it was destroyed. They are not an aggressive/expansionist people with a fleet of time manipulators. They could be interesting, but I did not get the impression they were particularly antagonistic, or even all that advanced or powerful at teh end of it all. I doubt they'd give the Feds/KDF a run for their money.
The Hierarchy - Seemed a cross between Ferengi and Pakleds to me. While they had the tech to threaten Voyager, it didn't seem overwhelming, and it was established that they only attack when they know they can win. I don't see them voluntarily taking on both the Feds and the KDF. Besides, they fight for booty and spoils, not for conquest or territorialism. They could probably just be paid off.
_________________________________________________
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
I astounds me that Voyager had so much support. That show did so much damage to the Star Trek legacy that we're STILL suffering from it. ABYSMAL writing, bad acting, astonishingly terrible science... And yet for some reason people want all that here.
Astounding.
No. A fan since TOS, I loved Voyager, and it was my favorite of all the series. It was the most like TOS without being as dated. It stayed true to the legacy of Trek in exploring humanity, maintaining optimisim, being gallant and stalwart in the face of aggression, adhering to ideals against overwhelming odds, and presenting compelling drama laced with humor on a regular basis. With the notable exception of a couple of truly terrible episodes (Threshold), it was very well done, extremely creative, kick butt and dramatic, and other than Kes and Tom, had some damn good acting. I'd take Chacotay, 7/9, and the Doctor as actors (to be clear, not necessarily their characters) over Sisko Tasha or Kirk anyday.
_________________________________________________
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
How about a mission that flings your ship across the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant (just like on Voyager), however by the end of the mission a permanent gateway is set up between the two sectors.
This would give us a great new area to explore and seems quite logical in terms of believability and it would set up a permanent link to a new area to explore.
We are then not stuck trying to figure out how to bring Voyager aliens to the Alpha Quadrant. We can just pop over to their house for a cup of tea instead.
Maybe it's not the most popular choice, but I love the Kazon!! (Even if the borg didn't!!)
Love the ship designs, the tribal culture and I would love for there to be a Kazon faction. But I'm also aware that's very very unlikely, they are not the first choice for a lot of people and wouldn't be that much of a money spinner.
Since Quantum Slipstream and Transwarp is available to each of the main Factions (Fed/KDF/RRF), why not utilize a similar idea to what was done at the beginning of thee Romulan faction. What I'm trying to suggest is, say drop a small Fleet into the Delta Quadrant to set up a FoB like an Outpost and a Transwarp gate (like in the Gamma Orionis, a gate going back and forth). The player is a part of the Fleet that was sent and early missions revolve around scouting and securing nearby systems whilst the bulk of the Fleet work on setting up the Outpost and Gate. The player cannot return to the Alpha or Beta Quadrants until the Gate is complete (like in the Romulan storyline, players cannot visit New Romulus Command until the end of the first set of missions).
Another option is the FoB could perhaps double as a Fleet Holding, Fleets set up their own Outposts in the Delta Quadrant to aid in increasing faction influence into new territories.
Delta quadrant should showcase some key things here:
Starship adaptability. Just like voyager adapted to meet the needs of the Delta quadrant, we should be able to 'adjust' a console slot or perform a doff mission to attempt 1 slot addition to the area of your ship of choice.
Borg transwarp core, let us craft something epic.
What about those strange space stations for trading etc?
back in the Voyager Ep. the 47's there is a thriving human colony in the Delta Quadrant so I would think that Voyager shared Federation tech with them before they left so it is possible to use that as a way to get human in the Delta Quadrant and in ships that are very Unique almost a hybrid between federation and other Ships seen in that area of the Delta Quadrant.
and by now I am sure Starfleet found away to talk to them using the same method they used to contact Voyager back in Session 6 so there could be a Starfleet Delta that started right on that planet.
You know that whatever race gets selected here we are almost certainly going to have a lockbox for....
It is obvious to me that after the S8 release with the Voth we will see a Voth lockbox and a Delta Quadrant reputation system (possibly called Voth reputation) with the tribble reward being that we get 1 mark for it per hour. Or seeing that we will be in a space adventure zone within a Dyson Sphere (I hope it is fairly large inside and exploits the full 3D effect of spaceflight) it might be the equivalent of a tribble for a spaceship with the side power of 1 mark per hour.
i think being a bit of a borg fanboy that they should make a liberated borg faction, taking from what happend in voyager with unimatrix 0 and the drones who got there freewill back they could do a lib borg faction that is reaching out to the federation and klingons for aid, and because have borg techology have set up a transwarp gate between the delta and alpha/beta quadrants to explain how to get there, and also lets the fed/klingon and romulans have reason to send research teams to delta to find out about iconian or other races techology that has been uncoverd in delta quadrant, its a idea and would work and would give reason for the borg faction to pick a side, much like romulans had to
A trip to the Delta Quadrant is really the best opportunity to make the game evolve toward something more well-rounded.
To better understand those new adventures, I'm going to explain my ideas below :
Key words : choice - lenghtly - Effort - exploration - randomness
Those key words are the elements that are the most missing in the great game that is Star Trek Online.
The Delta Quadrant offers the opportunity to use them in a splendid way :
Lenghtly
Once the exploration trip launched, the players (at the account level, so all this player's characters) will not be able to play in any other quadrant. It's a sacrifice, yes, but he will be rewarded with many useful rewards for the fleet but will not be able to farm the usual farming stuff (dilithium, reputation rewards...).
The length of the trip must be long and those who attempt it should be prepared for any eventuallities (how many healers ? How many engineers ? And so on...).
One week should be a good length.
Choices will be even more important that way.
Why a lenghty period ?
So the "price" is important, so we stop having 10 minutes lenght mission that we have been fed since a while, so the Delta Quadrant is a challenge.
War effort
The way to reach the Delta Quadrant as no importance, but it must be a strategic choice at the fleet level. A wormhole or a gateway, it doesn't matter. What matter is this access shouldn't be automatic but that you have to play to get it, that it should be a reward. The access should be something like what was done for New Romulus, but for a fleet (so more by fleet project than by a reputation). A discovery step by step, with levels.
Example :
T1 : missions to gain access to the trip.
T2 : missions during the trip (scanning, fixing...)
T3 : discovery and exploration of the arrival zone.
T4 : difficult missions.
T5 : pinnacle fight.
Exploration and randomness
It would be an adequate moment to remake the exploration mission.
The Delta Quadrant is filled with systems to explore, and the key word should be "Randomness" or "surprise".
If the number of missions are indeed limited (limited ressources to create them), we should never expect them to be exactly what we expect them to be.
For that, I suggest to create modulary missions with random events.
Explanations :
The team start a mission, and get on a map.
The modulary system immediatly start. A first part (as a map with one or more objective) starts.
At the same time, the random system starts, foes, equipment, attitude are selected by the system, randomly.
Once this step is done, other maps will be created and so on...
Every element would be random, like the number of enemy ships the wave will be made of ?
When starting a mission, you'll never know what sort of foes you'll face, the lenght of the mission (1,2,3 or even 10 maps), and what type of action to do ?
Every mission will be unique that way and the final reward will be linked to this (the more difficult, the better reward it'll be).
In addition to the random mission, it would be good to create a type of random loot ultra-rare (like the way youn used to get the borg sets at the start of the STF).
The joy of an useful loot is missing from STO since a while.
It's really possible, since all what is required already exist in the game (random enemies in incursion or no-win scenario, random creation of exploration missions...)
To support my suggestion, here is an example based on a known STF :
STF Khitomer space (the plan is not to replay old missions at random, but I'll use it to show how much randomness I believe is necessary).
We will suppose that the first mission started exactly like a Khitomar space elite (the random system selected it like that : one map module with borg enemies).
You then move to another mission, and here, the random system will choose another configuration. Even if it draw the same starting map, enemies will have changed, their strength increased many times, this time you have to make sure nothing ever pass the central gate (instead of up to 10 for the first map), the number of spawned foes at been lowered, but there is now 3 gates, a big flagship spawn at the center and time is limited. After many efforts, you get through (after totally rethinking your usual strategy) and then another map is launched with new elements (space or ground).
The result : the pleasure of playing is always renexed, failing will be the most common result of the mission (after all you have to rethink everything for each mission as the enemy or the objective may be too hard or the players will not have the time to adapt quick enough to the changes).
Problem with the size of fleets :
When looking at the others systems of fleet projects that the principal problem will be to adjust to the differences between fleets members roosters.
To take care of this problem, I suggest :
1) To limit the numbers of players that can be sent to explore one week, like 5 or 10. Like this, the number of points and ressources will be limited to the numbers of games played and not to the number of players of the fleet.
A secondary problem is then created : everyone should be able to try to new content, even in the biggest fleets. They could be multiple teams of 5 or 10 sent to explore the same zone, but inside the fleet, only the team with the most ressources will be able to use it in the fleet project. The other teams' ressources will be destroyed.
This way the number of teams sent allows everyone to play the same content but do not increase the ressources, just increase the chances of earning more ressources.
2) Limit to one exploration zone by given period.
The fleet will have to decide with exploration zone of the Delta Quadrant for a given period (like 2 months). That way, a fleet can only have one exploration project at a time that will give it one type of reward. Even if the fleet goes really fast, they'll be rewards that it will not get immediatly, giving something to the small fleets, even if moving slower than big ones, stuff big fleets will not have for a while.
Once the 2 months period will end, every fleet will be able to select a new exploration zone or/and decide to stay in the old one to get new rewards. To avoid the fact to join and leave fleets to get the rewards of every explored zone, the fact of leaving a fleet should lead to a loss of explorations ressources and rewards.
To synthetize :
We would have a quadrant to explore, divided in many zones (and many fleet projects to go through). Fleets will have to make choice, to know who to sent, the others would be buzy with tier 1 missions (on this side of the wormhole or gateway) while others will be isolated on the other side, doing a "trip in the unknown" for a long period of time (1 week). They'll have the chance to bring rewards and ressouces for everyone, through the fleet projects, for which rewards will be available to everyone in the fleet. The exploration and the discorety and the randomness should be the determining factors of the new missions that will reveal themselves step by step as the tiers will be achieved and a common storyline will slowly be highlighted.
I like very much the idea of expanding into the other quadrants. And completely agree on the "problems" that expansion could bring to a multiplayer game as well as to Star Trek "history".
Speaking about races like Undine or Borg, we should note that we already fight them playing a FED or KLI faction. Maybe, a solution could be to create a new storyline for a Borg character (very much like the Romulan's, with an episode that requires the allegiance with one of the two main factions), a sort of "renegade" that becomes free from the collective and tries to find a new home within FED or KLI space.
That would allow great episodes and great story-line, starting from the Delta Quadrant and going toward the Alpha Quadrant (much like the Voyager's trip, but without the non-sense of having those thousands of ships lost in space and striving to get back home :P).
And, besides everything, we already have ships fitted with Borg Tech..a few more renegade Borg Spheres in Alpha Quadrant space, commandeered by FED or KLI captains shouldn't be that bad
So, we're going to have a Voyager themed season. Fine by me. Featurig the Krenim? Logical choice, after all those timetravel ships all over in the game. Beside that, i kina liked the Krenim.
However, I like the idea of having the Vos as the major badies around. The simple extistence of the humans is the proof against their doctrine. This has to be wiped away. ...if you understand the idea.
Geting to the Delta Quadrant ain't so hard, after having Slipstream engines and Transwarp Gates. But after the Voyager featured Season, it should be time to flesh out the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. There a tons of great and interesting "old" species, we actually not even met in STO. By the way, what the heck is happened to the rest of the foundig races of the Federation? They are playable, but else? We got a Vulcan storyline and nothig else. Same idea should be fleshed out for the Klingon allies.
Bottom line is, we really don't need to go to the Delta or Gamma Quadrant to find more things to do. Get the two Quadrants as some featured episode lines with some goodies, like uniforms, maybe some playable races and good old special drops. It would keep the storylines interesting. IMHO the FE were one of the greatest ideas in the game. I would even go so far to buy them as a F2P.
And talking about the Borg. Gee, dstahl, what happend to you? It's almost a year or more since your statement, you don't think having borg as playble faction would be such a wise idea. You where right then. The Borg are a force of nature, they shouldn't be seen as simple enemies, and especially not as a playable faction. They are the worst that could happen to any individuum, period. Borg = bad = game over.
I think that we should destroy the borg in delta quadrent, like in the book Star Trek Voyager: Children of the storm. U should make something like that to give it a twist. :cool:
Comments
My character Tsin'xing
If this is where STO is going in 2014, I will likely have very little to come back in game for.
i dont know why cryptic/PWE has a hard time thinking this stuff up.
Well each to there own, Voyager was my favourite, but of course not everyone is going to like the same thing.
I never really liked the Original series much myself but I'm not going to turn round and say harsh things about it just because of that.
But it never ceases to amaze me just how rude the general population of the world can be sometimes.
If people really don't like where the game is going you can either:
A. Stop playing and find a new game.
B. Learn how to make games yourself and make a game how you want it to be.
C. Wait and see how it turns out first, before passing judgement on something that hasn't even been made yet.
On a slightly different note dose the general population even have manners or consideration for other people any more or is it just self, self, self, Now.
It just makes me sad.
Interesting peaceful species, with good intentions.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
Would be nice to see the Kazon again but cant really see them being to much of a threat since they arent the most advanced species.
It would also be interesting to see more timeline contamination concerning the Krenim Imperium. I'd really love to see some "feature length" content involving a "return of the year from yell"
Subscribed For: 4 years 5 months 20 days at 26.10.2014
No one else really does, for the reasons below.
Malon are boring, non-technologically threatening, ugly, and I didn't get a sense they were all that big a race. not a threat to the Feds/KDF
Kazon are one dimensional generic bad guys, with lackluster technology, no home planet, and impermanent self-government. not a threat to the Feds/KDF
The Vidians, were technologically advanced, and have a compelling story, but as many have mentioned, they have been cured. They would be vastly different, and likely peaceful in nature. Even if you somehow un-did the cure, they were not an expansionist or even a protectionist empire. They were a people content to live work trade exist on their own worlds, and a few rogue elements went and farmed body parts. Again, not a threat to the Feds/KDF
Krenim were, after all the incursions were undone, a moderately powerful, cohesive empire, in the midst of it's own regional conflict. Only one time ship was built and it was destroyed. They are not an aggressive/expansionist people with a fleet of time manipulators. They could be interesting, but I did not get the impression they were particularly antagonistic, or even all that advanced or powerful at teh end of it all. I doubt they'd give the Feds/KDF a run for their money.
The Hierarchy - Seemed a cross between Ferengi and Pakleds to me. While they had the tech to threaten Voyager, it didn't seem overwhelming, and it was established that they only attack when they know they can win. I don't see them voluntarily taking on both the Feds and the KDF. Besides, they fight for booty and spoils, not for conquest or territorialism. They could probably just be paid off.
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
No. A fan since TOS, I loved Voyager, and it was my favorite of all the series. It was the most like TOS without being as dated. It stayed true to the legacy of Trek in exploring humanity, maintaining optimisim, being gallant and stalwart in the face of aggression, adhering to ideals against overwhelming odds, and presenting compelling drama laced with humor on a regular basis. With the notable exception of a couple of truly terrible episodes (Threshold), it was very well done, extremely creative, kick butt and dramatic, and other than Kes and Tom, had some damn good acting. I'd take Chacotay, 7/9, and the Doctor as actors (to be clear, not necessarily their characters) over Sisko Tasha or Kirk anyday.
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
This would give us a great new area to explore and seems quite logical in terms of believability and it would set up a permanent link to a new area to explore.
We are then not stuck trying to figure out how to bring Voyager aliens to the Alpha Quadrant. We can just pop over to their house for a cup of tea instead.
Love the ship designs, the tribal culture and I would love for there to be a Kazon faction. But I'm also aware that's very very unlikely, they are not the first choice for a lot of people and wouldn't be that much of a money spinner.
Another option is the FoB could perhaps double as a Fleet Holding, Fleets set up their own Outposts in the Delta Quadrant to aid in increasing faction influence into new territories.
Just food for thought really. Thanks.
Starship adaptability. Just like voyager adapted to meet the needs of the Delta quadrant, we should be able to 'adjust' a console slot or perform a doff mission to attempt 1 slot addition to the area of your ship of choice.
Borg transwarp core, let us craft something epic.
What about those strange space stations for trading etc?
I hope STO get's better ...
and by now I am sure Starfleet found away to talk to them using the same method they used to contact Voyager back in Session 6 so there could be a Starfleet Delta that started right on that planet.
Captain Keith A Carr
It is obvious to me that after the S8 release with the Voth we will see a Voth lockbox and a Delta Quadrant reputation system (possibly called Voth reputation) with the tribble reward being that we get 1 mark for it per hour. Or seeing that we will be in a space adventure zone within a Dyson Sphere (I hope it is fairly large inside and exploits the full 3D effect of spaceflight) it might be the equivalent of a tribble for a spaceship with the side power of 1 mark per hour.
To better understand those new adventures, I'm going to explain my ideas below :
Key words : choice - lenghtly - Effort - exploration - randomness
Those key words are the elements that are the most missing in the great game that is Star Trek Online.
The Delta Quadrant offers the opportunity to use them in a splendid way :
Lenghtly
Once the exploration trip launched, the players (at the account level, so all this player's characters) will not be able to play in any other quadrant. It's a sacrifice, yes, but he will be rewarded with many useful rewards for the fleet but will not be able to farm the usual farming stuff (dilithium, reputation rewards...).
The length of the trip must be long and those who attempt it should be prepared for any eventuallities (how many healers ? How many engineers ? And so on...).
One week should be a good length.
Choices will be even more important that way.
Why a lenghty period ?
So the "price" is important, so we stop having 10 minutes lenght mission that we have been fed since a while, so the Delta Quadrant is a challenge.
War effort
The way to reach the Delta Quadrant as no importance, but it must be a strategic choice at the fleet level. A wormhole or a gateway, it doesn't matter. What matter is this access shouldn't be automatic but that you have to play to get it, that it should be a reward. The access should be something like what was done for New Romulus, but for a fleet (so more by fleet project than by a reputation). A discovery step by step, with levels.
Example :
T1 : missions to gain access to the trip.
T2 : missions during the trip (scanning, fixing...)
T3 : discovery and exploration of the arrival zone.
T4 : difficult missions.
T5 : pinnacle fight.
Exploration and randomness
It would be an adequate moment to remake the exploration mission.
The Delta Quadrant is filled with systems to explore, and the key word should be "Randomness" or "surprise".
If the number of missions are indeed limited (limited ressources to create them), we should never expect them to be exactly what we expect them to be.
For that, I suggest to create modulary missions with random events.
Explanations :
The team start a mission, and get on a map.
The modulary system immediatly start. A first part (as a map with one or more objective) starts.
At the same time, the random system starts, foes, equipment, attitude are selected by the system, randomly.
Once this step is done, other maps will be created and so on...
Every element would be random, like the number of enemy ships the wave will be made of ?
When starting a mission, you'll never know what sort of foes you'll face, the lenght of the mission (1,2,3 or even 10 maps), and what type of action to do ?
Every mission will be unique that way and the final reward will be linked to this (the more difficult, the better reward it'll be).
In addition to the random mission, it would be good to create a type of random loot ultra-rare (like the way youn used to get the borg sets at the start of the STF).
The joy of an useful loot is missing from STO since a while.
It's really possible, since all what is required already exist in the game (random enemies in incursion or no-win scenario, random creation of exploration missions...)
To support my suggestion, here is an example based on a known STF :
STF Khitomer space (the plan is not to replay old missions at random, but I'll use it to show how much randomness I believe is necessary).
We will suppose that the first mission started exactly like a Khitomar space elite (the random system selected it like that : one map module with borg enemies).
You then move to another mission, and here, the random system will choose another configuration. Even if it draw the same starting map, enemies will have changed, their strength increased many times, this time you have to make sure nothing ever pass the central gate (instead of up to 10 for the first map), the number of spawned foes at been lowered, but there is now 3 gates, a big flagship spawn at the center and time is limited. After many efforts, you get through (after totally rethinking your usual strategy) and then another map is launched with new elements (space or ground).
The result : the pleasure of playing is always renexed, failing will be the most common result of the mission (after all you have to rethink everything for each mission as the enemy or the objective may be too hard or the players will not have the time to adapt quick enough to the changes).
Problem with the size of fleets :
When looking at the others systems of fleet projects that the principal problem will be to adjust to the differences between fleets members roosters.
To take care of this problem, I suggest :
1) To limit the numbers of players that can be sent to explore one week, like 5 or 10. Like this, the number of points and ressources will be limited to the numbers of games played and not to the number of players of the fleet.
A secondary problem is then created : everyone should be able to try to new content, even in the biggest fleets. They could be multiple teams of 5 or 10 sent to explore the same zone, but inside the fleet, only the team with the most ressources will be able to use it in the fleet project. The other teams' ressources will be destroyed.
This way the number of teams sent allows everyone to play the same content but do not increase the ressources, just increase the chances of earning more ressources.
2) Limit to one exploration zone by given period.
The fleet will have to decide with exploration zone of the Delta Quadrant for a given period (like 2 months). That way, a fleet can only have one exploration project at a time that will give it one type of reward. Even if the fleet goes really fast, they'll be rewards that it will not get immediatly, giving something to the small fleets, even if moving slower than big ones, stuff big fleets will not have for a while.
Once the 2 months period will end, every fleet will be able to select a new exploration zone or/and decide to stay in the old one to get new rewards. To avoid the fact to join and leave fleets to get the rewards of every explored zone, the fact of leaving a fleet should lead to a loss of explorations ressources and rewards.
To synthetize :
We would have a quadrant to explore, divided in many zones (and many fleet projects to go through). Fleets will have to make choice, to know who to sent, the others would be buzy with tier 1 missions (on this side of the wormhole or gateway) while others will be isolated on the other side, doing a "trip in the unknown" for a long period of time (1 week). They'll have the chance to bring rewards and ressouces for everyone, through the fleet projects, for which rewards will be available to everyone in the fleet. The exploration and the discorety and the randomness should be the determining factors of the new missions that will reveal themselves step by step as the tiers will be achieved and a common storyline will slowly be highlighted.
Speaking about races like Undine or Borg, we should note that we already fight them playing a FED or KLI faction. Maybe, a solution could be to create a new storyline for a Borg character (very much like the Romulan's, with an episode that requires the allegiance with one of the two main factions), a sort of "renegade" that becomes free from the collective and tries to find a new home within FED or KLI space.
That would allow great episodes and great story-line, starting from the Delta Quadrant and going toward the Alpha Quadrant (much like the Voyager's trip, but without the non-sense of having those thousands of ships lost in space and striving to get back home :P).
And, besides everything, we already have ships fitted with Borg Tech..a few more renegade Borg Spheres in Alpha Quadrant space, commandeered by FED or KLI captains shouldn't be that bad
However, I like the idea of having the Vos as the major badies around. The simple extistence of the humans is the proof against their doctrine. This has to be wiped away. ...if you understand the idea.
Geting to the Delta Quadrant ain't so hard, after having Slipstream engines and Transwarp Gates. But after the Voyager featured Season, it should be time to flesh out the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. There a tons of great and interesting "old" species, we actually not even met in STO. By the way, what the heck is happened to the rest of the foundig races of the Federation? They are playable, but else? We got a Vulcan storyline and nothig else. Same idea should be fleshed out for the Klingon allies.
Bottom line is, we really don't need to go to the Delta or Gamma Quadrant to find more things to do. Get the two Quadrants as some featured episode lines with some goodies, like uniforms, maybe some playable races and good old special drops. It would keep the storylines interesting. IMHO the FE were one of the greatest ideas in the game. I would even go so far to buy them as a F2P.
And talking about the Borg. Gee, dstahl, what happend to you? It's almost a year or more since your statement, you don't think having borg as playble faction would be such a wise idea. You where right then. The Borg are a force of nature, they shouldn't be seen as simple enemies, and especially not as a playable faction. They are the worst that could happen to any individuum, period. Borg = bad = game over.