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Foundry to be actual mainline missions?
talonxv
Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
I have posted twice on this and this thread is merely to condense this idea into 1 thread. Many I have seen are crying out for more content quicker. I think a great source for this, should be the foundry. But as the foundry stands now, you don't get rewards like you would a normal mission. Now while I get the reason behind this, I think Cryptic is seriously under using the foundry to turn out missions for us to play as a featured episode or in the instance of players putting out a series, a featured series.
Because there are foundry episodes out there that are WELL written, but could use some spit and polish the main seasons have and could be fun for all.
I am sure this has been proposed before, but I think it should be brought up. I think cryptic should start tapping into it's player population to get some content out faster. I think it should be in a form of a contest. Once a week or bi-weekly even, PWE should hold a contest for the new best foundry episode for say X amount of DIL, or X amount of Zen since players are putting in time and effort. And if it's intended to be part of a series, you might get more rewards for putting out a whole series of episodes as a mini arc and it gets featured like the current featured episode ""A step between stars".
Then it gets put into it's season call it whatever season, but it would help a few things.
1. Get more people involved with the foundry and get more people intrested in creating stories that cryptic can hire a small team to do spit and polish and editing on and then put out as more featured content.
2. Gives the players a say on what episodes get aired to be played by all. Plus it gives proper XP and loot for a main season episode.
3. Gets more content and story out there for people to play and enjoy besides just some kind of grind or STF we've all played to death.
Come on cryptic. Other gaming companies are dipping into their player talent to create content. Time you start seriously dipping into yours.
Because there are foundry episodes out there that are WELL written, but could use some spit and polish the main seasons have and could be fun for all.
I am sure this has been proposed before, but I think it should be brought up. I think cryptic should start tapping into it's player population to get some content out faster. I think it should be in a form of a contest. Once a week or bi-weekly even, PWE should hold a contest for the new best foundry episode for say X amount of DIL, or X amount of Zen since players are putting in time and effort. And if it's intended to be part of a series, you might get more rewards for putting out a whole series of episodes as a mini arc and it gets featured like the current featured episode ""A step between stars".
Then it gets put into it's season call it whatever season, but it would help a few things.
1. Get more people involved with the foundry and get more people intrested in creating stories that cryptic can hire a small team to do spit and polish and editing on and then put out as more featured content.
2. Gives the players a say on what episodes get aired to be played by all. Plus it gives proper XP and loot for a main season episode.
3. Gets more content and story out there for people to play and enjoy besides just some kind of grind or STF we've all played to death.
Come on cryptic. Other gaming companies are dipping into their player talent to create content. Time you start seriously dipping into yours.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
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This is why I said cryptic should go into these episodes and just do the editing to get them up to main storyline missions.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
But since Cryptic has fleshed out the KDF, I'm no longer sure it would solve some of the other problems we face. Yes, it creates more content for the game, which is good. But in the Foundry we have an issue right now where we have plenty of people playing spotlight missions, but those numbers drop off significantly for non-spotlight missions. Even spotlight authors do not see a huge bump in plays of their other missions. I have noticed this personally. Purity 6 has thousands of plays in the few months it has been up, but my other missions are pretty much average with those of non-spotlight authors (only 1 has more than 200 plays and its been up since Season 4).
What you propose essentially adds another tier of spotlight, and my concern is that although lots of players will play those missions, few will delve deeper into all the other Foundry missions available.
What I would rather Cryptic do is integrate the Foundry as a whole into the every part of the game better than it is now.
Toward that end, there should be a button at every planet that takes you to a list of missions that begin at that planet. There should be NPCs in every social zone telling you about Foundry missions that begin in that zone. There should be big messages when characters level up telling them exactly what the Foundry is, exactly how to find missions and how to get started building them.
We need to be able to make PvP maps, social maps and STFs.
I've looked into User Generated Content in other MMOS and aside from City of Heroes, which of course is no longer around, the Foundry seems to be unique in that players can create story content for others to play. I think Cryptic should shout this from the rooftops and put it front of every player at every opportunity.
TL;DR
Its not a bad idea, but I think there are better ones
I'm only going to address the last paragraph or so. I think I know where you are going, and with that, I`d say the spotlight missions should have a 1 time main stream mission rewards like you just did divide at imperia or any other main mission. Though I think it would be nice to market the spotlight missions more and give them more value to be played.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
again, I knew it had been suggested, but this is one of those things needs to be brought up from time to time.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
Non-spotlight missions need the marketing.
In a recent episode of the Foundry Roundtable podcast, someone pointed out that UGC makes a good "retirement plan" for an MMO - that is to say, a sufficiently robust library of UGC missions could extend a game's viable lifespan for long after the devs put it into what is euphemistically known as "maintenance mode" (which, mind you, is likely still years away as far as STO is concerned). This applies even if the UGC missions aren't integrated into official content, but doing that could bolster the game's long-term outlook even further.
That said, Foundry Spotlight missions are probably the closest we'll get to having "official" UGC content for the foreseeable future.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
It looks like a cheap way to provide "filler material" for me personally, and a great way to not provide enough professionally generated material.
This system was mostly used to blindly farm resources in City of Heroes, it is a flawed concept when exposed to the reality of gaming. No matter how artistic and adoring the fans might be.
Integration is unacceptable. It should remain optional, and hidden! I don't want fan fiction in my face, no more than commercials for Star Trek merchandise, because it represents another layer altogether.
Your artistic and creative abilities was never in doubt. It is the model and method itself, that I'm addressing. It does not belong in the game proper. It is by nature a by-product, a secondary consideration. A hobby within a hobby. And as such, it should be sought for, not be slapped in your face. For it is quite simply not for everyone to enjoy.
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While I understand what you're getting at, and in a perfect world it might be fun. However there are some things to consider.
First, the licensing from CBS would come into play, if it becomes any sort of 'official' story line in the game, rather than the present environment. Some player vision may not line up with CBS and their vision, and CBS will win.
Secondly, in line with the first item, I don't think CBS wants to pay a staff to run through each and every player generated mission in the Foundry to check for license validity or not. That is a large cost associated with something that is very little return.
Third, how would the judging for such a 'contest' go? I've seen such contests in the past, that resulted in nothing but constant "vote for me" spam all over the place. Which in turn, really never mattered, as the biggest Guild/Clan/Fleet will win. Making such contests pretty pointless. They can even have a reverse effect when such contests are rigged out by the big guilds, and players see the garbage that was voted for as 'best'.
I've always liked the idea of Dev sponsored 'spotlights' instead. Rather than contests, something to bring the light up on good player created content, without any of the competition that always brings out the worse in the player base.
I would either say a good amount of Dilithium like 20k or something like 1k zen, something to really make it worth while.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
i take it that means they currently get nothing?
IIRC you can leave a small tip up to 50 dilithium, but outside of that, I don't think they get squat for it.
Again it's just what I recall, I don't know for sure.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
If cryptic want my stiff, i'll trade for the ent maco outfits :rolleyes:
well i would have to say that just isn't good enough. that a player needs to see a good reward for playing a foundry mission. I'd also say an author needs to be greatly rewarded. furthermore I'd say if an author has a mission that's good enough to be spotlighted they should be given an enormous reward. 5k zen 800 lobi 100k dilithium 10 master keys. lets face it being spotlighted for a tremendous mission should have it's rewards.
Just like Neverwinter has missions which have been "Approved" by Cryptic to pay out the hourly (daily) Foundry Mission Event, which rewards Neverwinter's equivalent of EC ...
If an author creates a map that has appropriate content, for instance a Borg Map, then the Author can choose to have his map tested to allow the player to receive Omega Marks for running it. Or if it's got Tholians in it Romulan Marks and so on ...
The rewards need not be anything more than they are for the current crop of STF's, but many players issue with STO at the moment is the boring grind for marks of all stripes.
And realistically the Foundry is aimed primarily at level 50 players. I know that you could do missions earlier, but most players are happy enough, and busy enough, doing the campaign whilst leveling, it's only when they finish the main campaign and/or reach lvl 50 that they have time on their hands, but at lvl 50, Foundry Maps offer no real incentive to lvl 50 players who are "doin' the grind" for Marks.
If players could run Foundry Maps for Rep Marks instead the same repetitive missions currently available, it would increase Foundry usage considerably ...
Which I think has already been inferred, Foundry maps don't offer the same level of reward, so they aren't worth doing except for die hard fans.
I sort of agree, in that they shouldn't be used as part of the main story/campaign arc of the game (although you perhaps could have worded your post better or more diplomatically?)
They could easily be incorporated into or made compatible with, the Rep System and end level grind ...
Realistically how much ability or talent went into a map like The Conduit? It's laughably, pathetically, woefully, simplistic yet it constitutes one of a very small number of maps they give Omega Marks ....
I've played several Foundry Maps, and yes some are ... less than engrossing ... Others are as good, if not better, than anything Cryptic has ever created (IMHO)
While this is correct in its current state, I can't help but figure that it is likely that they could have some kind of relatively accurate automated converter, and then tweak any bits that didn't come through the conversion process until it was fully operational.
There are a variety of potential holes with this, though. Some players flat-out refuse to play Foundry missions, dismissing them all as junk (which reeks of snobbery to me, frankly). Others don't want to play any mission that was not crafted by Cryptic outright, even if it receives their "stamp of approval," so to speak. Other holes include issues such as IP rights - a waiver/disclaimer may fix a lot of problems, but it won't fix all of them. And any number of other potential problems.
Long story short, I think the technical issues can be overcome if the will is there, but other hurdles may be difficult and inefficient to overcome, if it can even be done in a satisfactory manner.
One of the things I kind of like is that their episodic nature mirrors that of the shows. Cryptic's missions are all in long, overarching arcs which, while satisfying, in some ways don't reflect the Trek experience. After all, the Enterprise didn't spend 6 consecutive episodes dealing with Klingons and then immediately go into dealing with 6 episodes of Romulans. The Klingons and Romulans were mixed in along with other things.
Mixing in foundry missions with the campaign might help with the lack of Trek feeling I've seen a lot of people complain about. Instead of going from warfront to warfront, you could spend some time doing foundry missions--a little bit of exploration, a smidge of first contact, a big ol' mystery.
Perhaps this could be as simple as adding a "see other local missions" button to the campaign mission contacts, which would bring up a list of foundry missions in the area. These would be optional--you don't have to do them to progress the campaign.
Please, Cryptic. If you're going to make us grind, give us something fun to Grind. Any given mission is fun--once. Maybe a few times. But by the time you're running your tenth ESTF, it's kind of lost its charm. Foundry missions have a significant advantage over your missions, in that there are a lot of them. It's just a matter of making them findable.