I generally play 1-2 hours per day, sometimes I can play upwards of 4 hours if it is on a day off and its too cold (or hot) to do outdoor stuff. With that being said, since the release of the Sphere, I have achieved T4 with enough command tokens to push it to T5 with time. From the new items I see, nothing really upgrades the Maco or Borg gear and the weapons I cant seem to find a use for on any toon I play.
The only options I see available is simply doing the same things over again in grinding marks -- the same thing I have been doing for the past month now and truth be told I'm getting rather bored.
The winter events this year seems to be a copy and paste of last year's events with a new ship and a new hue for the coats. I did see a few new things such as the eating contest and the new zone. But again, just after the first couple of runs it gets rather boring.
How do you guys stave off this boredom? I thought by playing another MMO and bouncing back and forth would help but that doesn't seem to be the case. I love Star Trek, but this game seems to really take hold after the third or fourth week of new content.
From all the MMO's I've ever played there is something I noticed they do differently that seems to keep my attention longer -- progression. Said MMO's require someone to reach a certain level or certain faction to advance to a new zone with better and more challenging foes. I was actually happy when I saw the Voth Zone -- I thought this was the case, but now sitting at T4, and still being unable to enter the zone I realized that this was merely a piece of the project probably dropped to rush out the content.
I ask again, what does everyone here do in order to stave off this boredom? What recommendations would one have for someone with 9 level 50's (one of each class/faction)?
Said NO to Arc. Gets punished by not being given a free outfit, free lobi, and free shuttle. Now forced to use Arc's site when trying to get to STO site. Still not rewards for beta testing the Arc website by force. Bravo Cryptic.
Usually when I'm getting bored I start a new char. Flying the old ship classes is a lot of fun. Once I've reached lvl 50 again I just play another game for a while only logging in to do some doff assignments once a week.
Sometimes I wonder if you people have even heard of the Foundry. Play a few story missions and then come back and tell me you're bored.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Phase 1: Learning PvP - takes between 2 weeks to 2 months
Phase 2: Teaming with others and learning team oriented strategies and builds - takes about 1-2 months
Phase 3: Learning to compete against other teams and being able to beat them - lasts indefinitely.
This is how you don't get bored in STO.
Nice sentiment but even PvP gets boring after a while. SO much so I have taken to doing PvP in my PvE ship for the thrill, it isnt working !
I hear you OP I just log on to be less bored than if I do nothing ! Got to the point now where I am just waiting for something else to come along so I can jump ship. I have played so many MMO's and this by far kept my interest but now even STO has lost its edge for me. I like to log in to feel relaxed and have fun not log in and feel like I am about to start a days work !
1.)New characters - Try going for a different playstyle. For example, I recently took a break from my engineer, and made a super drain heavy science character. Or you could create a super alpha strike of death cloaky ship build. If you've got plenty of top level guys there's plenty of different playstyles to play around with
2.) Gear ALL the things - On my main, i'm slowly but surely assembling a variety of top quality weapon types to fill my bank with, so i can play anyway i want when i want to.
3.) Dabble with the Pvp/Foundry. I've got almost 1300 hours in the game, and i've not even touched either of those yet (Outside of Kerrat - It's a good training place)
I've got along way to go yet in terms of gear to collect... So i forsee myself hanging around for quite abit longer.
Although, what some people call "Grinding" i actually enjoy playing - Not sure if that's because i grew up playing gameboy-era pokemon games (Try getting to lvl 100 on only wild encounters...) so i'm numb to it, Or because i find the gameplay enjoyable
What recommendations would one have for someone with 9 level 50's (one of each class/faction)?
You played the game to exhaustion and you refuse to go do something else out of some misguided sense of fandom. What sort of miracle advice are you expecting?
I can see your point on some of these things... sorta disappointed there isn't at least a different race path in the winter event. As for the game... have you actually done everything in the game? There's just so much to do that amazes me... for me, I've started a new science character... but even on my main toon I have yet to actually play with everything in this game... have you tired epoh raising yet? Exploration missions to get purple doffsi? Nakura missions? Started a Klingon? Definitely do foundry... if you do it during officer reports you get more dilithium. If all that still makes you bored, take a game break.
Been playing since beta and can say that I am feeling bored as well.
The sphere brought some nice gameplay mechanics but not a lot of need to play anymore sadly.
*Play the foundry if you are looking for more Trekdom. Lots of really good stories and adventures out there. If you need suggestions, ask around, check some of the signature ads, or start from the Foundry Highlights list.
*PvP if you are looking for a challenge. Playing against NPCs gets old fast as you can easily out gear them and have more advance tactics. Not to mention almost all the missions have the same pattern. PvP brings in another human element that challenges you to counter their builds and tighten your own ship and crew. It can also encourage you to experiment with radically different builds, gear, and ships in an attempt to one up someone. That's several hundred hours of game play right there.
*JOIN A FLEET!!! All of my best memories of this game has been fleeting up with my best mates and roll stomping queues and events and in general blowing all the things. We have a great time hanging out together, doing events or even just socializing. It also gives you a MASSIVE goal of trying to grind out all the fleet holdings.
*Roll new toons. I recently started this, and it is a good way to branch out and try different styles of game play. Just make sure you don't overreach yourself and start to get overwhelmed with gearing all of them and getting all 20 toons into a limited time event before it is over.
*Roleplay. It's not as lame as it sounds and can be quite fun if you do it with the right people in the right places. A few months ago, my friends and I ran through the Episodes again as a team and RPed over Teamspeak. It was great fun to try to problem solve situations and try to out Trekno-babble each other.
*Leave the game for a bit... How DARE I say such a thing!?!?111!2 But seriously, sometimes you are just too much too fast into a game and it gets old fast. Sure, you may like pizza, but binging 4 pies down in one sitting will leave you sick and wanting to die. Taking a breather and trying other things for a while; another MMO, a single player game, watching some TV, or even turning off the computer and socializing in meatspace for a bit, can allow you to cool off from STO and get you back to normal. Absolutely no shame in that. Many people have done it. I have done it recently as I went through a 3 week period of no job and binging on STO from dawn to dusk. Now that i have a job again, I've slowed down and took a step back. And now I find the game MORE awesome as I have less time to do it, making ti more special.
Live on Earth. Work in Space. Play with Dragons. Join the best add on to STO, the Neverwinter holodeck program! Only 14 GPL a month.
Done all that.
PVP'd more than most have ever pvp'd.
Did all the KDF story content in the foundry quite a few times.
I am not saying i don't need a break. 4 years is a long time to play anything.
But this season didn't add alot of new stuff to keep a character busy.
I keep thinking I am going to hear that the next season won't be too far off. Unlike the 6 months per season we have been getting.
Neverwinter gets new content often. And even though I hate that game, they get more stuff more often than we do.
I think that is the problem we have done it all and anything new is just the same as before just a different flavour. I only just recently came back to the game from a little break, tried the new content was okay got bored of WW on the first day !
I like the game, the people I know and the people I don't are fun, its just not clicking any more
.
.
I ask again, what does everyone here do in order to stave off this boredom? What recommendations would one have for someone with 9 level 50's (one of each class/faction)?
Now get T5 reputation in everything for each of them... :P
But more seriously, take a little break before the boredom turns into hating the game. And dont do it with another MMO, it wont really help; you'll see yourself rather sooner than later grinding it for stuff and feel dumb because you could have just keept grinding in STO. Play a singleplayer game or two.
Avoid pvp like the plague it is an exercise in frustration and futility.
Joining a fleet helps but unless you have a full roster with everyone contributing it'll be another endless grindfest.
I myself enjoy creating and experimenting with new and different builds but STO only encourages cookie cutter builds so you'll end up resenting the game for it.
Umm you could try building missions in the foundry but you're quite limited in what you can create.
You could try grinding for the latest lockbox ship. It'll give you a goal and it does help keep boredom away but you'll quickly regret it when you finally get that shiney new ship.
You could try levelling crafting but its pointless at the moment.
You could try creating in the foundry. Working in the Foundry editor is... a challenge (it's perpetually in an underdeveloped "held together with duct tape and chewing gum" sort of state), but it is the most logical progression for someone like Chaplan who's exhausted even the foundry missions.
And unlike with consuming premade content, it's pretty much infinitely open ended in how much you can get out of it, despite its often frustrating limitations.
You could try creating in the foundry. Working in the Foundry editor is... a challenge (it's perpetually in an underdeveloped "held together with duct tape and chewing gum" sort of state), but it is the most logical progression for someone like Chaplan who's exhausted even the foundry missions.
And unlike with consuming premade content, it's pretty much infinitely open ended in how much you can get out of it, despite its often frustrating limitations.
1.)New characters - Try going for a different playstyle. For example, I recently took a break from my engineer, and made a super drain heavy science character. Or you could create a super alpha strike of death cloaky ship build. If you've got plenty of top level guys there's plenty of different playstyles to play around with
2.) Gear ALL the things - On my main, i'm slowly but surely assembling a variety of top quality weapon types to fill my bank with, so i can play anyway i want when i want to.
3.) Dabble with the Pvp/Foundry. I've got almost 1300 hours in the game, and i've not even touched either of those yet (Outside of Kerrat - It's a good training place)
I've got along way to go yet in terms of gear to collect... So i forsee myself hanging around for quite abit longer.
Although, what some people call "Grinding" i actually enjoy playing - Not sure if that's because i grew up playing gameboy-era pokemon games (Try getting to lvl 100 on only wild encounters...) so i'm numb to it, Or because i find the gameplay enjoyable
Perhaps it's both?
well said, its nice to see there is someone out there who knows how to enjoy the game.
sure I have done a little pvp and foundry but there are a lot of things in the game I haven't tried yet.
I've been playing sto for about a 14 months and although I am very careful when I comes to paying money for anything as my wife will tell you it didn't take long for me to decide to upgrade to lifetime.
since then I have never regretted that choice as I think they do a really good job keeping us busy with new content and things to do, I wonder sometimes if I will ever get to do some of the older stuff that I haven't touched on yet.
so the chances on me ever getting bored with sto would be a zero, getting bored just doesn't compute when I just haven't got the time to do all the stuff I want to do, I always find at the point that I have to log out that sto just leaves me hungry for more and looking forward to the time when I can log in again.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Oh, extremely so, yes. But as gimpy as it is, (and it certainly is very), it will still present orders of magnitude more play potential then you can ever get out of consuming premade content alone, simply because you can shape the content yourself. Preexisting content is always going to be very finite, but even a severely limited creative toolset like the Foundry can be used to create nigh endless permutation (not literally endless, but comparatively it might as well be for practical purposes). That's what I meant by "open ended".
Despite being held together with chewing gum, and offering only a fraction of the tools and assets available to Cryptic's devs, the Foundry still represents the single biggest source of more STO possible by orders of magnitude. No suggestion anyone can make on replaying existing content will compare to the volume and variety of play you can get out of content creation, even if only because those suggestions will also apply to the content you create.
The only real question is, do you enjoy creating, or just consuming?
*Play the foundry if you are looking for more Trekdom. Lots of really good stories and adventures out there. If you need suggestions, ask around, check some of the signature ads, or start from the Foundry Highlights list.
*PvP if you are looking for a challenge. Playing against NPCs gets old fast as you can easily out gear them and have more advance tactics. Not to mention almost all the missions have the same pattern. PvP brings in another human element that challenges you to counter their builds and tighten your own ship and crew. It can also encourage you to experiment with radically different builds, gear, and ships in an attempt to one up someone. That's several hundred hours of game play right there.
*JOIN A FLEET!!! All of my best memories of this game has been fleeting up with my best mates and roll stomping queues and events and in general blowing all the things. We have a great time hanging out together, doing events or even just socializing. It also gives you a MASSIVE goal of trying to grind out all the fleet holdings.
*Roll new toons. I recently started this, and it is a good way to branch out and try different styles of game play. Just make sure you don't overreach yourself and start to get overwhelmed with gearing all of them and getting all 20 toons into a limited time event before it is over.
*Roleplay. It's not as lame as it sounds and can be quite fun if you do it with the right people in the right places. A few months ago, my friends and I ran through the Episodes again as a team and RPed over Teamspeak. It was great fun to try to problem solve situations and try to out Trekno-babble each other.
*Leave the game for a bit... How DARE I say such a thing!?!?111!2 But seriously, sometimes you are just too much too fast into a game and it gets old fast. Sure, you may like pizza, but binging 4 pies down in one sitting will leave you sick and wanting to die. Taking a breather and trying other things for a while; another MMO, a single player game, watching some TV, or even turning off the computer and socializing in meatspace for a bit, can allow you to cool off from STO and get you back to normal. Absolutely no shame in that. Many people have done it. I have done it recently as I went through a 3 week period of no job and binging on STO from dawn to dusk. Now that i have a job again, I've slowed down and took a step back. And now I find the game MORE awesome as I have less time to do it, making ti more special.
All of the above is a great strategy...Enjoy the outdoors...at times real life could be interesting as well :D:D
Oh, extremely so, yes. But as gimpy as it is, (and it certainly is very), it will still present orders of magnitude more play potential then you can ever get out of consuming premade content alone, simply because you can shape the content yourself. Preexisting content is always going to be very finite, but even a severely limited creative toolset like the Foundry can be used to create nigh endless permutation (not literally endless, but comparatively it might as well be for practical purposes). That's what I meant by "open ended".
Despite being held together with chewing gum, and offering only a fraction of the tools and assets available to Cryptic's devs, the Foundry still represents the single biggest source of more STO possible by orders of magnitude. No suggestion anyone can make on replaying existing content will compare to the volume and variety of play you can get out of content creation, even if only because those suggestions will also apply to the content you create.
The only real question is, do you enjoy creating, or just consuming?
I keep trying to finish my Foundry missions but the lack of options is just too much. You can't even start the mission with a decent-looking guy. There is a super hot female Trill from Risa NPC but virtually nothing on the male side of things. There is a TOS ensign or something who isn't mirror-breakingly ugly but that's about it.
There are no beachwear outfits for the Risa map. The dancer's outfits from Wasteland are not available.
There is no NPC creator to make non-faction characters or faction characters in disguise (who can wear anything and look like anything).
There is no ground positioning tool so you can pose your people (like having them sit in chairs and lie back on sand or in a lounge) from what I can see.
There is no way I've seen to place vendors and bartenders in order to create faux social areas. I don't mind if the vendors only offer common junk.
Then there are the various transition tools, such as making an NPC into an enemy after interacting with them, fluidly -- or stopping a fight with diplomacy in a realistic way (e.g. if your contact dies during the fight or if his/her ship is blown up you can't resolve it peacefully). These problems go to the Cryptic content, too. If you're supposed to protect a ship it shouldn't get infinite health. There is no challenge.
I don't see any way to make a mission that only lets you beam down (without your away team or with just a certain number of people). Maybe the option is there somewhere. My current Fed project is only for an away team of one. None of the dialog or plot works very well with a full complement.
Timers would be very useful, so there could be some challenge instead of the "NPCs stand around forever waiting to be slaughtered or interacted with" mechanic. Also... is there a way to set a wait timer for dialogue so that they don't pop up right after the next?
With the limitations the missions seem to be relegated to the sort of quality of the fetch missions when you go to random systems in nebulas.
I want my mission to automatically start when you reach the place you're supposed to be. After all, you accepted the mission and traveled there. There are just so many mechanical elements that are exposed that it makes everything feel mechanized and fake. I'd also like to be able to transition from one place to the next without having to have the player physically travel in their ship -- just elide the travel or use a special portal.
I really want to create a good immersive mission. I don't want to create a cookie-cutter thing that feels clunky, linear, and "been there, done that."
Now get T5 reputation in everything for each of them... :P
But more seriously, take a little break before the boredom turns into hating the game. And dont do it with another MMO, it wont really help; you'll see yourself rather sooner than later grinding it for stuff and feel dumb because you could have just keept grinding in STO. Play a singleplayer game or two.
It depends. I find other MMOs do the trick, but that's because I like variety. My favorite genres are fantasy (LOTRO), science fiction (STO), and superheroes (formerly CoH, now CO).
Bouncing between them based on what I am in the mood for helps keep all of them fun. I'll usually focus on one for a while, dabbling in the others for a change of pace, then switch to one of the others as my main game for a while. Or I may play the others because that is what my family wants to do that night (it's nice having a family that games with me ).
It all comes down to what you get from the game. I personally like to work on being a empire builder. I am working on amassing in game wealth to help outfit my fleet. I am working on expanding my fleet by obtaining some satellite fleets. I also enjoy being a fleet leader and helping my fleet mates and socializing.
I am not a fan of grind so I have myself setup to avoid as much of it as possible.
If you are grinding like crazy you either haven't been playing long enough or haven't made wise choices with the resources you have earned.
There is alot more to do then just run STFs. Set yourself little goals such as I will gather this much EC/Dil, I plan to do this and what not and take enjoyment from completing your goals.
Comments
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Phase 1: Learning PvP - takes between 2 weeks to 2 months
Phase 2: Teaming with others and learning team oriented strategies and builds - takes about 1-2 months
Phase 3: Learning to compete against other teams and being able to beat them - lasts indefinitely.
This is how you don't get bored in STO.
@DevolvedOne
Nice sentiment but even PvP gets boring after a while. SO much so I have taken to doing PvP in my PvE ship for the thrill, it isnt working !
I hear you OP I just log on to be less bored than if I do nothing ! Got to the point now where I am just waiting for something else to come along so I can jump ship. I have played so many MMO's and this by far kept my interest but now even STO has lost its edge for me. I like to log in to feel relaxed and have fun not log in and feel like I am about to start a days work !
They have I'm sure. They'll say it's not content though. It's no different than a Cryptic mission besides a few things.
2.) Gear ALL the things - On my main, i'm slowly but surely assembling a variety of top quality weapon types to fill my bank with, so i can play anyway i want when i want to.
3.) Dabble with the Pvp/Foundry. I've got almost 1300 hours in the game, and i've not even touched either of those yet (Outside of Kerrat - It's a good training place)
I've got along way to go yet in terms of gear to collect... So i forsee myself hanging around for quite abit longer.
Although, what some people call "Grinding" i actually enjoy playing - Not sure if that's because i grew up playing gameboy-era pokemon games (Try getting to lvl 100 on only wild encounters...) so i'm numb to it, Or because i find the gameplay enjoyable
Perhaps it's both?
You played the game to exhaustion and you refuse to go do something else out of some misguided sense of fandom. What sort of miracle advice are you expecting?
The sphere brought some nice gameplay mechanics but not a lot of need to play anymore sadly.
*Play the foundry if you are looking for more Trekdom. Lots of really good stories and adventures out there. If you need suggestions, ask around, check some of the signature ads, or start from the Foundry Highlights list.
*PvP if you are looking for a challenge. Playing against NPCs gets old fast as you can easily out gear them and have more advance tactics. Not to mention almost all the missions have the same pattern. PvP brings in another human element that challenges you to counter their builds and tighten your own ship and crew. It can also encourage you to experiment with radically different builds, gear, and ships in an attempt to one up someone. That's several hundred hours of game play right there.
*JOIN A FLEET!!! All of my best memories of this game has been fleeting up with my best mates and roll stomping queues and events and in general blowing all the things. We have a great time hanging out together, doing events or even just socializing. It also gives you a MASSIVE goal of trying to grind out all the fleet holdings.
*Roll new toons. I recently started this, and it is a good way to branch out and try different styles of game play. Just make sure you don't overreach yourself and start to get overwhelmed with gearing all of them and getting all 20 toons into a limited time event before it is over.
*Roleplay. It's not as lame as it sounds and can be quite fun if you do it with the right people in the right places. A few months ago, my friends and I ran through the Episodes again as a team and RPed over Teamspeak. It was great fun to try to problem solve situations and try to out Trekno-babble each other.
*Leave the game for a bit... How DARE I say such a thing!?!?111!2 But seriously, sometimes you are just too much too fast into a game and it gets old fast. Sure, you may like pizza, but binging 4 pies down in one sitting will leave you sick and wanting to die. Taking a breather and trying other things for a while; another MMO, a single player game, watching some TV, or even turning off the computer and socializing in meatspace for a bit, can allow you to cool off from STO and get you back to normal. Absolutely no shame in that. Many people have done it. I have done it recently as I went through a 3 week period of no job and binging on STO from dawn to dusk. Now that i have a job again, I've slowed down and took a step back. And now I find the game MORE awesome as I have less time to do it, making ti more special.
PVP'd more than most have ever pvp'd.
Did all the KDF story content in the foundry quite a few times.
I am not saying i don't need a break. 4 years is a long time to play anything.
But this season didn't add alot of new stuff to keep a character busy.
I keep thinking I am going to hear that the next season won't be too far off. Unlike the 6 months per season we have been getting.
Neverwinter gets new content often. And even though I hate that game, they get more stuff more often than we do.
I like the game, the people I know and the people I don't are fun, its just not clicking any more
Now get T5 reputation in everything for each of them... :P
But more seriously, take a little break before the boredom turns into hating the game. And dont do it with another MMO, it wont really help; you'll see yourself rather sooner than later grinding it for stuff and feel dumb because you could have just keept grinding in STO. Play a singleplayer game or two.
Joining a fleet helps but unless you have a full roster with everyone contributing it'll be another endless grindfest.
I myself enjoy creating and experimenting with new and different builds but STO only encourages cookie cutter builds so you'll end up resenting the game for it.
Umm you could try building missions in the foundry but you're quite limited in what you can create.
You could try grinding for the latest lockbox ship. It'll give you a goal and it does help keep boredom away but you'll quickly regret it when you finally get that shiney new ship.
You could try levelling crafting but its pointless at the moment.
That's all ive got at the moment.
Geez why do I play STO again?
And unlike with consuming premade content, it's pretty much infinitely open ended in how much you can get out of it, despite its often frustrating limitations.
I decided to go for accolades. Gives you goals and I have met some
great people in the Accolades channel.
The people who complain will probably outlast the people who post "can I has your stuff" comments.
You are probably right.
Up to around 2 hours mainly due to my liking the winter (it is my favourite of the year) event....
What about the people who complain AND post can has stuff?
Play a different Game its simple
well said, its nice to see there is someone out there who knows how to enjoy the game.
sure I have done a little pvp and foundry but there are a lot of things in the game I haven't tried yet.
I've been playing sto for about a 14 months and although I am very careful when I comes to paying money for anything as my wife will tell you it didn't take long for me to decide to upgrade to lifetime.
since then I have never regretted that choice as I think they do a really good job keeping us busy with new content and things to do, I wonder sometimes if I will ever get to do some of the older stuff that I haven't touched on yet.
so the chances on me ever getting bored with sto would be a zero, getting bored just doesn't compute when I just haven't got the time to do all the stuff I want to do, I always find at the point that I have to log out that sto just leaves me hungry for more and looking forward to the time when I can log in again.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Oh, extremely so, yes. But as gimpy as it is, (and it certainly is very), it will still present orders of magnitude more play potential then you can ever get out of consuming premade content alone, simply because you can shape the content yourself. Preexisting content is always going to be very finite, but even a severely limited creative toolset like the Foundry can be used to create nigh endless permutation (not literally endless, but comparatively it might as well be for practical purposes). That's what I meant by "open ended".
Despite being held together with chewing gum, and offering only a fraction of the tools and assets available to Cryptic's devs, the Foundry still represents the single biggest source of more STO possible by orders of magnitude. No suggestion anyone can make on replaying existing content will compare to the volume and variety of play you can get out of content creation, even if only because those suggestions will also apply to the content you create.
The only real question is, do you enjoy creating, or just consuming?
All of the above is a great strategy...Enjoy the outdoors...at times real life could be interesting as well :D:D
There are no beachwear outfits for the Risa map. The dancer's outfits from Wasteland are not available.
There is no NPC creator to make non-faction characters or faction characters in disguise (who can wear anything and look like anything).
There is no ground positioning tool so you can pose your people (like having them sit in chairs and lie back on sand or in a lounge) from what I can see.
There is no way I've seen to place vendors and bartenders in order to create faux social areas. I don't mind if the vendors only offer common junk.
Then there are the various transition tools, such as making an NPC into an enemy after interacting with them, fluidly -- or stopping a fight with diplomacy in a realistic way (e.g. if your contact dies during the fight or if his/her ship is blown up you can't resolve it peacefully). These problems go to the Cryptic content, too. If you're supposed to protect a ship it shouldn't get infinite health. There is no challenge.
I don't see any way to make a mission that only lets you beam down (without your away team or with just a certain number of people). Maybe the option is there somewhere. My current Fed project is only for an away team of one. None of the dialog or plot works very well with a full complement.
Timers would be very useful, so there could be some challenge instead of the "NPCs stand around forever waiting to be slaughtered or interacted with" mechanic. Also... is there a way to set a wait timer for dialogue so that they don't pop up right after the next?
With the limitations the missions seem to be relegated to the sort of quality of the fetch missions when you go to random systems in nebulas.
I want my mission to automatically start when you reach the place you're supposed to be. After all, you accepted the mission and traveled there. There are just so many mechanical elements that are exposed that it makes everything feel mechanized and fake. I'd also like to be able to transition from one place to the next without having to have the player physically travel in their ship -- just elide the travel or use a special portal.
I really want to create a good immersive mission. I don't want to create a cookie-cutter thing that feels clunky, linear, and "been there, done that."
It depends. I find other MMOs do the trick, but that's because I like variety. My favorite genres are fantasy (LOTRO), science fiction (STO), and superheroes (formerly CoH, now CO).
Bouncing between them based on what I am in the mood for helps keep all of them fun. I'll usually focus on one for a while, dabbling in the others for a change of pace, then switch to one of the others as my main game for a while. Or I may play the others because that is what my family wants to do that night (it's nice having a family that games with me ).
I am not a fan of grind so I have myself setup to avoid as much of it as possible.
If you are grinding like crazy you either haven't been playing long enough or haven't made wise choices with the resources you have earned.
There is alot more to do then just run STFs. Set yourself little goals such as I will gather this much EC/Dil, I plan to do this and what not and take enjoyment from completing your goals.