I certainly don't have access to their budgets, but the fact that Cryptic hasn't made any more C-Store interiors since the TOS and DS9 bundles (the TOS and Belfast interiors are amazing) suggests that it's not worth their time/effort.
Yeah, that's why I mentioned it can be the STO version of player housing. Basically making several template interior designs per faction and then sell customizable items to the players. Customization could sell, unlike those 2 iconic and yet rigid interior packs you mentioned. I think that people are more likely to purchase stuff they could use to make their ship unique rather than one already set-up interior.
Also, as I mentioned - bringing some kind of interactive elements would be a win element, regardless if they are in the form of dailies that would portray some of the on-board ship activities from the shows or in the form of a social activity like playing Trek social games with friends.
Currently, there's nothing to do in the ship interiors except for RP and you can't even play around with the elements and make them unique to your liking, basically you get what you get and that's it. That's a big reason for them not doing so well - why bother with purchasing interiors when you can't do anything with them and in them?
Does your proposal require the game to track your ship's position on the sector map in any way? It's been repeatedly said that implementing that functionality is a non-trivial task. This doesn't mean impossible; it means it would be difficult and time-consuming.
To be honest, i'm not sure. It all depends on what would be easiest for cryptic to program. Normally when you enter your bridge, you're removed fully from the map, but you leave the bridge, and there you are, back at your previous position. That would indicate some placeholder of sorts, given that you're not warping in at the spawn points. Why not use that existing feature to determine location? Or just a generic sector block, if it made things easier?
As tacofangs has said, what happens when you leave the ship interior or otherwise interrupt the timer before arriving at your destination? Do you end up back where you started?
I did state that this would be an issue with changing course, given the power would act as a transwarp, but again, it all depends on how much time and effort they wanted to put into this. If they wanted, leaving the bridge could transwarp you to a location between points based on time left, giving the effect of dropping out of warp. Or they could just leave it as is, and allow the countdown timer to continue, even if you're in sector space. The countdown would finish, the bridge officer would pop up, giving you the transwarp option even though you're still sitting in your ship outside of ESD. It all depends on How they would want to do it, but they do have options.
And most importantly, what would you do while on your bridge? Doff assignments? Stare at the ceiling? At least in Sector Space, there are other players to look at...
Well this one depends on the players. Some would do rp, more so if they were playing with friends on the bridge. Some people would go to their ready room, others could do doff assignments, but really, it's up to them. What do you do when you're travelling through sector space? Some people just want the option to do so, and this would allow just that.
This is however why I suggested having various missions pop up randomly (one per travel at the most). This would be a fun, yet entirely optional thing that would be a new area of immersion to this game, and upon completing the mini-mission, you would warp out, only to warp back into your destination. It would be a great addition for those who want it, while having zero effect on those who didn't. As a side bonus, the more functionality they add to ship interiors, the more they would add to do inflight. Crafting using your ships replicators, radiation or anomaly scans in astrometrics. Helping the Chief Engineer fix a minor issue, there are a ton of mini game options they could throw in just to add to it all.
For people with the bridge only ships, they would have far less options, but given the stations on the bridge, could still do quite a lot.
Yeah, that's why I mentioned it can be the STO version of player housing. Basically making several template interior designs per faction and then sell customizable items to the players. Customization could sell, unlike those 2 iconic and yet rigid interior packs you mentioned. I think that people are more likely to purchase stuff they could use to make their ship unique rather than one already set-up interior.
Also, as I mentioned - bringing some kind of interactive elements would be a win element, regardless if they are in the form of dailies that would portray some of the on-board ship activities from the shows or in the form of a social activity like playing Trek social games with friends.
Currently, there's nothing to do in the ship interiors except for RP and you can't even play around with the elements and make them unique to your liking, basically you get what you get and that's it. That's a big reason for them not doing so well - why bother with purchasing interiors when you can't do anything with them and in them?
Agreed. Given that a majority of Star Trek happens in the interior of ships, they really did cop out on developing them. There is a lot of wasted potential and space to the interiors, and some of the lobi/lockbox ships only have a bridge, which is an even bigger cop out.
I've suggested elsewhere that they hold a contest, like the "Design The Next Enterprise", only it be for ship interiors. For a limited time, they would add assets to the foundry, allowing people to work together to make better and more accurate interiors, then choose the best in separate categories based on ship size and class. From there, they could take a few of the runners up and reskin the interiors to use as fleshed out themed ships, like the Recluse or the suliban ships. They would get the fans to do the work for them, for free, and the winners would receive a good chunk of zen each, since that wouldn't cost anything. They could even have the fans pick the winners.
They've already mentioned that they want to add the ability to edit ship interiors to the foundry, and this would let them do just that. They could even do a contest out of creating the missions that would be done in flight, as part of it, adding a selection of assets to chose as universal access points, i.e. the Captain's Chair or a science console on the bridge.
There is a lot of possibility if they're just willing to put in the time and effort, or the asset and rewards to let the crowd to it.
I always think it's funny when people say "the game can't Handle it" or "the game wasn't designed with this in mind". There is already a working feature that would allow this very thing to be possible, it just involves a very small work around as well as a little coding to determine distance and velocity into time.
I'm talking about the transwarp functions. As it stands, we have transwarp capabilities that allow us to instantaneously jump from one point in space to another, with a slight cooldown afterward. Thinking outside the box, we throw that logic in reverse, putting the cool down first.
Basically what I'm suggesting is this:
From the Bridge (preferrably while sitting in the captain's chair), you can bring up the map as per usual, with the added feature of double clicking a sector to bring up that sectors map, then double clicking your destination, where your Captain gives the "Engage" emote and the view screen goes to warp. From there, the coding would take how far that destination is as well as how fast your ship goes (minus transwarp drive) and places a countdown timer. At the end of the timer, you get a popup from your first officer saying you're there. Accepting the option will transwarp you to your location, while saying "Not Yet" will place it on the side menu, next to invite to bridge and leave bridge, Fully charged and ready to use.
Once you use it, you load out of your bridge and into the map, just like you had transwarped there. It's a quick and dirty work around, but it allows you to be on your ship while "travelling" to your next stop.
To further enhance this function, you could place a 5% chance for alternate missions to happen. These can be anything from mysterious anomalies, to raider, to a distress call (which might be an ambush. It would happen randomly during the countdown timer, and the player would receive a pop up giving the appropriate dialog, as well as the option to stay on course or divert course to the situation.
It's a great way to add the Bridge travel that people want while adding a little something extra for the roleplayers. Having friends on your bridge would allow them to travel with you, and given that you're "traveling" at the appropriate speed (time based on distance and velocity), you can activate this power when ever you want. Changing course mid flight though, would cause it to restart from your original location though.
This seems like a totally do-able way of getting this feature into game, but making it a little more than just a boring timed transwarp jump. It would also still be entirely valid if they made it all one giant sector space, ot left it instanced as it is now.
What do you guy think?
Pretty much what I said three posts above yours. They can do it if they want to but they'll more than likely make some excuse to not do it like not knowing how long the timers should be therefore it can never happen.
This is however why I suggested having various missions pop up randomly (one per travel at the most). This would be a fun, yet entirely optional thing that would be a new area of immersion to this game, and upon completing the mini-mission, you would warp out, only to warp back into your destination. It would be a great addition for those who want it, while having zero effect on those who didn't. As a side bonus, the more functionality they add to ship interiors, the more they would add to do inflight. Crafting using your ships replicators, radiation or anomaly scans in astrometrics. Helping the Chief Engineer fix a minor issue, there are a ton of mini game options they could throw in just to add to it all.
For people with the bridge only ships, they would have far less options, but given the stations on the bridge, could still do quite a lot.
We just need to spend a season with interiors. Really. If we did that, we could get multiple seasons of content out of it.
If they did this, maybe the (my) dream of a fleet season could come true. An entire fleet within one ship performing episodes much like the shows. The leader choosing the ship and it's interior of course.
The day we get that kind of update is the day pigs evolve, grow wings, and fly away, robbing the world of sweet delicious bacon. Eventually mankind begins to wage savage wars over what bacon is left on the planet.
Like Mad Max, but fighting over bacon instead of petrol!
When will it be possible to do things onboard the ship while the ship is actually traveling through space to its next destination, like DOFF Mission assignments, sitting in the ship lounge or the ready room or the Captains Quarters, without the ship being parked in space until you exit the interior of the ship. You could have your #2 or whoever is in Communications contact you that you have arrived at your next destination.
though I think that what you suggest is beyond the game mechanics as it stands, and personally I quite enjoy the trip through sector space, I feel the method that is employed when visiting the bridge and returning to sector space tactical view could use a little work that should not be too hard to implement.
personally I would like to remove the beam-in beam-out instead of the "leave ship interior" button anywhere to leave bridge view a simple sit in captains chair or stand by a certain console to get "tactical view" button to right of screen and change the "visit starship bridge" to just "starship bridge" and to be placed on the bridge but without the transporter effect.
having said that I am not sure even this is feasible.
maybe keep the transporter effect if necessary but at least change the wording so it sounds more like you are already on the bridge just changing your view.
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.
When will it be possible to do things onboard the ship while the ship is actually traveling through space to its next destination, like DOFF Mission assignments, sitting in the ship lounge or the ready room or the Captains Quarters, without the ship being parked in space until you exit the interior of the ship. You could have your #2 or whoever is in Communications contact you that you have arrived at your next destination.
We requested this from the day ship interior became for players inportant because we thought most trek series where played onboard ship. Well cryptic had other plans.
Stahl said this : We build an MMORPG not an sims 3 game or whatever
So we put this tread back into the shelves where it belongs after it recieved not posible sticker on it !!!
O wait hold it, maybe if you can come up with a grind system onboard ship that is good enough maybe PWE or Cryptic may consider your request .
But so far it stays a big NO. :P
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
We can transwarp readily enough. Down at Starfleet Academy I can choose to beam right out into Sirius sector space. It can be done. If they make it so you have to, say, talk to your Helm office, select a destination, select a timeframe (five, ten, fifteen minutes) then go on about your business in the ship, boom. You can get a notice "Arrived at destination" and then leave the ship interior whenever to return to the sector space. It would make hanging around inside your ship and getting things done a bit cooler. Even better if you can take some friends with you!
I always supported/advertised to replace sector space entirely with that method of travel. Would be much more immersive, fun, it would finally give the interiors/bridges the part in gameplay they deserve, it would open TONS of possibilities.
And sector space NEVER really worked as "social zones". Sector space is useless, ugly and annoying.
Too bad that Ship interiors are the most pointless thing in the game. they are used in what? 2 or 3 missions and have nothing really all that useful in it. What are you going to even do in there? just walk around doing nothing.
Sector space has, at least, borg alerts, the random patrol missions, and then then are things (like protecting Deferi patrols) that are not in one specific area, and thus that timer thing would not work.
Sorry, not only does it not work well with the game design, but interiors are even more pointless than sector space. IT is never going to happen, not only for those reasons, but there will be literally almost no gain from a customer perspective or a business perspective.
Too bad that Ship interiors are the most pointless thing in the game. they are used in what? 2 or 3 missions and have nothing really all that useful in it. What are you going to even do in there? just walk around doing nothing.
Sector space has, at least, borg alerts, the random patrol missions, and then then are things (like protecting Deferi patrols) that are not in one specific area, and thus that timer thing would not work.
Sorry, not only does it not work well with the game design, but interiors are even more pointless than sector space. IT is never going to happen, not only for those reasons, but there will be literally almost no gain from a customer perspective or a business perspective.
Well if we replace sector space with ship interiors all those things and more can be made available there.
It would mean the bridge as your command center. It would mean it's there were we make the decision what to do. Because this is how it should be.
We could order the helm to patrol certain sectors and get random encounters there. We could order to "intercept enemy forces" or something like that to enter red alerts. Order the science officer to look out for strange new worlds to get random exploration missions Ect ect ect.
The sector space offers NOTHING that could not be addet to the interior, and it would work better there.
That's obviously not done by using a switch from the current state, but it's hardly a half season update of work.
Well if we replace sector space with ship interiors all those things and more can be made available there.
It would mean the bridge as your command center. It would mean it's there were we make the decision what to do. Because this is how it should be.
We could order the helm to patrol certain sectors and get random encounters there. We could order to "intercept enemy forces" or something like that to enter red alerts. Order the science officer to look out for strange new worlds to get random exploration missions Ect ect ect.
The sector space offers NOTHING that could not be addet to the interior, and it would work better there.
That's obviously not done by using a switch from the current state, but it's hardly a half season update of work.
except that changing literally an entire part of the game, AND it is a part of the game many actually like (Despite what some people here obviously think). It is laughable to even THINK that this could EVER happen, and you would have to be in complete denial to think it could happen.
except that changing literally an entire part of the game, AND it is a part of the game many actually like (Despite what some people here obviously think). It is laughable to even THINK that this could EVER happen, and you would have to be in complete denial to think it could happen.
It's laughably because you don't like it?
As a matter of fact we had a discussion about that very subject about 3 years ago with a dev whose response was that they would take it into consideration. It didn't happen, but that shows that it's certainly not "laughable"
And the sector space mechanic a certainly not an "entire part if the game".
As a matter of fact we had a discussion about that very subject about 3 years ago with a dev whose response was that they would take it into consideration. It didn't happen, but that shows that it's certainly not "laughable"
And the sector space mechanic a certainly not an "entire part if the game".
There are a LOT of reasons for the devs not to get rid of the sectpr space map.
Compared to them your dislike of it is insignificant. And let's be realistic. If the devs have been "thinking about it" then they apparently decided NO, since in those 3 years they made it bigger!
There are a LOT of reasons for the devs not to get rid of the sectpr space map.
Compared to them your dislike of it is insignificant. And let's be realistic. If the devs have been "thinking about it" then they apparently decided NO, since in those 3 years they made it bigger!
I don't expect it to happen, but calling it "laughably" is just...well... laughably.
Also they picked up old ideas before. Just look at the current costume and kit revamp, that was in discussion for a future update at the very same time.
And they expanded the old kits since then, too -> fleet kits.
Not until they fix the tremendous lag that plagues the game. It makes the game nearly un-playable at certain points. Not that the Devs give a **** though, this TRIBBLE has been going on since summer of 2013
They could fake it, random stars in the windows and such. But I don't see a point with the ways we have to reduce the cool down on the transwarp drive.
If they did this, maybe the (my) dream of a fleet season could come true. An entire fleet within one ship performing episodes much like the shows. The leader choosing the ship and it's interior of course.
For something like this, I have a great idea, but it would be more in terms of the Fleet actions, with 15-20 people. There would be a ship interior map based on the fleet rank, kind of like how they do fleet bases for the defense mission except your fleet can set a default "flagship" based on rank. In fleet and Private queues, you can designate the Captain and senior staff, but pugs it is a purely random assigning. There are several highly scripted scenarios like ambush, invasion, rescue, and defense, each with a few different paths, picked at random (to keep you from always taking the easiest path).
Think of it like this:
There are three sectors to cover: The Bridge, Main Engineering, and the Armory. The Bridge the captain and first officer have a minigame (which shows their focus) which will bring up a small list of orders based on how they do, things like evasive maneuvers, attack pattern omega, and torp spread, as well as movements like come about, full impulse, and broadside them. The better they do, the more options they have to choose from in one turn. Lower officers on the bridge have the same mini-game to show concentration, but get a list of more specific tasks. the helmsman would get a list based on the movement orders picked, where the better they do, the more options and efficiency% they get in that action. The tac station would get more options and efficiency on the attack orders, and so on. Science and engineering would get options based on those powers as well, and depending on how they did, this would affect the ship's movements, offenses, and defenses.
In main engineering, you would have the main engineer calling out repairs or adjustments based on their concentration game. Instead of having underlings, like the bridge does, you have actual physical consoles. Three on the warp core, three around it, and three on the second floor. The engineer has three as well off to the side (where Geordi and Data usually worked). Depending on the scripted actions, he would need to activate a console for repairs, adjustments, or power to activate that mini game, and the rest of the engineering crew would need to get to the station corresponding to that situation. Depending on how they do, this would affect the ships power levels, repairs, and defenses.
The Armory would handle like Main Engineering, with the major difference being their minigames consisted of loading the torpedoes, cooling and maintaining the energy weapons, and regulating systems for attack patterns.
To make things more interesting (so it's not just a series of mini-games) there will be random events, like fires, boarding parties, exploding consoles, and injured Npc's that need medical attention. Like the new mirror event, class determines what task you get a boost in. Engineers are faster at repairs and regulations, sci is faster with making anomalies (a bridge offensive option) and healing NPCs, tacs get a boost to weapons and boarding parties.
At the end, there will be a scripted cut scene of the ship in space combat, with scripted cuts to the players doing their tasks, playing out like a mini episode to watch. Depending on how the crew does, the scripted events would play out over the different stages, and the over all percentage would decide on how many marks you receive.
Think of it like Mine Trap, where the first stage is the initial encounter with an enemy ship. the second stage is the enemy ship calls in reinforcements, and the third stage would be the final scripted battle scene based on the outcome of the first two. The worse your team does, the more damage your ship takes in combat, the better your crew does, the better you do in the cutscene.
The enemies would be random and determine which scripted events happen. I.E. the klingons or Romulans would initiate an ambush, the Borg would do their scan and "resistance is futile" speech with the Voth on a similar mission to scan and take, and the Undine and Dominion would just outright try to destroy you.
We've seen from the foundry that scripting bridge battles is possible, but now we just need a few mini-games and scenarios to add into the mix, as well as being able to script a few cutscenes, and this could be a very real feature for the PvE queue.
Most of this stuff is already in game and can be done in the foundry, so the hardest parts would be getting the cutscenes to work, as well as programming all of the mini-games to tie into the efficiency % which would dictate which scenes played and how well your team did, granting the end reward. The cut scene could be anywhere from a minute to three, but would need to be skippable for those who can't wait and watch. Also, rewards would all have to be on an individual ending basis, so people that skipped didn't TRIBBLE over people that watched the scene, so there would only be ground drops from boarding parties, the rest would be XP, credits, fleet marks and maybe marks based on the enemy.
There could even be effects added like shaking when hit by a Torpedo, the lights flickering when power is low, console explosions, Fog or jets from pipes that need to be closed, There is a LOT of potential for this kind of mission.
Someone said earlier that the people who like or support this idea< should get some knowledge about programming.
Fine i have knowledge of programming also about game programming.
So why you think the engine cant support it? Please tell me FACTS not things you think that are facts.
True is ship is the player nothing more or less then a simple avatar .
True is bridge is a map a normal map like any other ground map in the game too.
Wrong is its im possible to make travelling from bridge possible.
And now somethign that posible shock you , you are just moving on a map in sector space nothing more nothing less, you reach a trigger point and get option to enter a system or move to next map nothing more nothign less.
And now wheres the problem? Sure you cant let the ship move around if the player is on the map itself , or no you cant without much much coding.
But you can easily change the spawn position of the player.
Tell me how yyou think the current Transwarp works? Its the same mechanic you could use for bridge travelling.
If you transwarp you set a new location and the server simply spawn you at the new location, nothing more nothing less. Same can be used for bridge travel.
Player sits on the bridge set a course for lets say Bajor , client know your current position and server too so its not a problem to calculate the distance and calcualte from distance and warpspeed the time it woudl take. After timer reach 0 you can leave beam out of the bridge and get placed on the new spawn location with your ship.
And the question what happens if someone beam out during travel? Make it impossible , block leaving bridge if you startet to travel until timer reach 0 , make a option to chance destination during flight so people can react if somethign happens and thats it.
Each map ground and also space maps have a startpoint this point is fixed so its easy to change the player spawnpoint to the new one, ist just a database change normally.
Would it take some coding and testing? Sure it would
Would it be impossible to do ? Nope it wont.
Will cryptic or PWE do it? i dont think so, cause for that they first need to fix all this broken bridge layouts, add options to the bridges , add workign consoles for different things, so yep it would take some time to do it and i dont think cryptic or PWE will invest the time and money into this cause it would be a nice to have but it wont be somethign they can make money .
I too would like this feature most of the time I transwarp and do very little travel its not really that necessary anymore with the PvE queue. Cptviper78 glad to hear you say that about the programming. I too know about programming and nothing is impossible. The only limitation a programmer has most times is lack of knowledge or bad tools. The lock idea is actually the best solution to the timer thus far. Another idea is just give it to us as another transwarp access that idea is even cheaper and easier.
As far as there being no money in it I just don't think that it has been figured how to properly monetize it. I agree with the person that said that the reason some of the old bridges didn't sell is because they were just crappy work but that has been a very badly needed quality of life upgrade in my eyes. Interiors failed because of how badly implemented they were that's why they are mostly useless still.
The DS9 bundle was sold quite a while ago (Q1 2012, LOR was Q2 2013) when the game had very different priorities and a lot less for the players to do. Cryptic would need to assess the metric they based that decision on. Basing your marketing decisions on outdated metrics IS bad business.
The focus of STO has shifted from needing to have something to do at 50, to having a more varied experience than the rep grinds.
Its kind of like this one podcast long long ago... It was stated that they didn't have the ah ahem ability to take something on the magnitude of the Star Trek franchise into the mmo world.
Looking at the whole of Starships themselves most of them do not have game mechanics to function anything like they did in canon. On top of that explore strange new worlds... You can't even visit 10% of the ones that are well known in the Star Trek franchise lol.
In all you can't blame them they have overlords who only know that punch the money makes money so thats what it will always be.
Its kind of like this one podcast long long ago... It was stated that they didn't have the ah ahem ability to take something on the magnitude of the Star Trek franchise into the mmo world.
Looking at the whole of Starships themselves most of them do not have game mechanics to function anything like they did in canon. On top of that explore strange new worlds... You can't even visit 10% of the ones that are well known in the Star Trek franchise lol.
In all you can't blame them they have overlords who only know that punch the money makes money so thats what it will always be.
I would call this a donkey punch. Although I haven't bought anything from the C-Store since LOR came out so those overlords can go hungry till they sell something I want.
I would call this a donkey punch. Although I haven't bought anything from the C-Store since LOR came out so those overlords can go hungry till they sell something I want.
Been over two years since I've paid real money for anything lol. That part I can't complain about although I wish they would put more emphasis on Star Trek rather than made up stuff. Especially when there is a lot of iconic ships out there that are nothing more than gimmicks or collectors items.
Comments
Yeah, that's why I mentioned it can be the STO version of player housing. Basically making several template interior designs per faction and then sell customizable items to the players. Customization could sell, unlike those 2 iconic and yet rigid interior packs you mentioned. I think that people are more likely to purchase stuff they could use to make their ship unique rather than one already set-up interior.
Also, as I mentioned - bringing some kind of interactive elements would be a win element, regardless if they are in the form of dailies that would portray some of the on-board ship activities from the shows or in the form of a social activity like playing Trek social games with friends.
Currently, there's nothing to do in the ship interiors except for RP and you can't even play around with the elements and make them unique to your liking, basically you get what you get and that's it. That's a big reason for them not doing so well - why bother with purchasing interiors when you can't do anything with them and in them?
To be honest, i'm not sure. It all depends on what would be easiest for cryptic to program. Normally when you enter your bridge, you're removed fully from the map, but you leave the bridge, and there you are, back at your previous position. That would indicate some placeholder of sorts, given that you're not warping in at the spawn points. Why not use that existing feature to determine location? Or just a generic sector block, if it made things easier?
I did state that this would be an issue with changing course, given the power would act as a transwarp, but again, it all depends on how much time and effort they wanted to put into this. If they wanted, leaving the bridge could transwarp you to a location between points based on time left, giving the effect of dropping out of warp. Or they could just leave it as is, and allow the countdown timer to continue, even if you're in sector space. The countdown would finish, the bridge officer would pop up, giving you the transwarp option even though you're still sitting in your ship outside of ESD. It all depends on How they would want to do it, but they do have options.
Well this one depends on the players. Some would do rp, more so if they were playing with friends on the bridge. Some people would go to their ready room, others could do doff assignments, but really, it's up to them. What do you do when you're travelling through sector space? Some people just want the option to do so, and this would allow just that.
This is however why I suggested having various missions pop up randomly (one per travel at the most). This would be a fun, yet entirely optional thing that would be a new area of immersion to this game, and upon completing the mini-mission, you would warp out, only to warp back into your destination. It would be a great addition for those who want it, while having zero effect on those who didn't. As a side bonus, the more functionality they add to ship interiors, the more they would add to do inflight. Crafting using your ships replicators, radiation or anomaly scans in astrometrics. Helping the Chief Engineer fix a minor issue, there are a ton of mini game options they could throw in just to add to it all.
For people with the bridge only ships, they would have far less options, but given the stations on the bridge, could still do quite a lot.
Agreed. Given that a majority of Star Trek happens in the interior of ships, they really did cop out on developing them. There is a lot of wasted potential and space to the interiors, and some of the lobi/lockbox ships only have a bridge, which is an even bigger cop out.
I've suggested elsewhere that they hold a contest, like the "Design The Next Enterprise", only it be for ship interiors. For a limited time, they would add assets to the foundry, allowing people to work together to make better and more accurate interiors, then choose the best in separate categories based on ship size and class. From there, they could take a few of the runners up and reskin the interiors to use as fleshed out themed ships, like the Recluse or the suliban ships. They would get the fans to do the work for them, for free, and the winners would receive a good chunk of zen each, since that wouldn't cost anything. They could even have the fans pick the winners.
They've already mentioned that they want to add the ability to edit ship interiors to the foundry, and this would let them do just that. They could even do a contest out of creating the missions that would be done in flight, as part of it, adding a selection of assets to chose as universal access points, i.e. the Captain's Chair or a science console on the bridge.
There is a lot of possibility if they're just willing to put in the time and effort, or the asset and rewards to let the crowd to it.
Pretty much what I said three posts above yours. They can do it if they want to but they'll more than likely make some excuse to not do it like not knowing how long the timers should be therefore it can never happen.
If they did this, maybe the (my) dream of a fleet season could come true. An entire fleet within one ship performing episodes much like the shows. The leader choosing the ship and it's interior of course.
Like Mad Max, but fighting over bacon instead of petrol!
It would be a harsh world.....
though I think that what you suggest is beyond the game mechanics as it stands, and personally I quite enjoy the trip through sector space, I feel the method that is employed when visiting the bridge and returning to sector space tactical view could use a little work that should not be too hard to implement.
personally I would like to remove the beam-in beam-out instead of the "leave ship interior" button anywhere to leave bridge view a simple sit in captains chair or stand by a certain console to get "tactical view" button to right of screen and change the "visit starship bridge" to just "starship bridge" and to be placed on the bridge but without the transporter effect.
having said that I am not sure even this is feasible.
maybe keep the transporter effect if necessary but at least change the wording so it sounds more like you are already on the bridge just changing your view.
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.
We requested this from the day ship interior became for players inportant because we thought most trek series where played onboard ship. Well cryptic had other plans.
Stahl said this : We build an MMORPG not an sims 3 game or whatever
So we put this tread back into the shelves where it belongs after it recieved not posible sticker on it !!!
O wait hold it, maybe if you can come up with a grind system onboard ship that is good enough maybe PWE or Cryptic may consider your request .
But so far it stays a big NO. :P
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
Please no. I beg you! Good god, please, have mercy on my sould!
I always supported/advertised to replace sector space entirely with that method of travel. Would be much more immersive, fun, it would finally give the interiors/bridges the part in gameplay they deserve, it would open TONS of possibilities.
And sector space NEVER really worked as "social zones". Sector space is useless, ugly and annoying.
Sector space has, at least, borg alerts, the random patrol missions, and then then are things (like protecting Deferi patrols) that are not in one specific area, and thus that timer thing would not work.
Sorry, not only does it not work well with the game design, but interiors are even more pointless than sector space. IT is never going to happen, not only for those reasons, but there will be literally almost no gain from a customer perspective or a business perspective.
Well if we replace sector space with ship interiors all those things and more can be made available there.
It would mean the bridge as your command center. It would mean it's there were we make the decision what to do. Because this is how it should be.
We could order the helm to patrol certain sectors and get random encounters there. We could order to "intercept enemy forces" or something like that to enter red alerts. Order the science officer to look out for strange new worlds to get random exploration missions Ect ect ect.
The sector space offers NOTHING that could not be addet to the interior, and it would work better there.
That's obviously not done by using a switch from the current state, but it's hardly a half season update of work.
except that changing literally an entire part of the game, AND it is a part of the game many actually like (Despite what some people here obviously think). It is laughable to even THINK that this could EVER happen, and you would have to be in complete denial to think it could happen.
It's laughably because you don't like it?
As a matter of fact we had a discussion about that very subject about 3 years ago with a dev whose response was that they would take it into consideration. It didn't happen, but that shows that it's certainly not "laughable"
And the sector space mechanic a certainly not an "entire part if the game".
Compared to them your dislike of it is insignificant. And let's be realistic. If the devs have been "thinking about it" then they apparently decided NO, since in those 3 years they made it bigger!
My character Tsin'xing
I don't expect it to happen, but calling it "laughably" is just...well... laughably.
Also they picked up old ideas before. Just look at the current costume and kit revamp, that was in discussion for a future update at the very same time.
And they expanded the old kits since then, too -> fleet kits.
For something like this, I have a great idea, but it would be more in terms of the Fleet actions, with 15-20 people. There would be a ship interior map based on the fleet rank, kind of like how they do fleet bases for the defense mission except your fleet can set a default "flagship" based on rank. In fleet and Private queues, you can designate the Captain and senior staff, but pugs it is a purely random assigning. There are several highly scripted scenarios like ambush, invasion, rescue, and defense, each with a few different paths, picked at random (to keep you from always taking the easiest path).
Think of it like this:
There are three sectors to cover: The Bridge, Main Engineering, and the Armory. The Bridge the captain and first officer have a minigame (which shows their focus) which will bring up a small list of orders based on how they do, things like evasive maneuvers, attack pattern omega, and torp spread, as well as movements like come about, full impulse, and broadside them. The better they do, the more options they have to choose from in one turn. Lower officers on the bridge have the same mini-game to show concentration, but get a list of more specific tasks. the helmsman would get a list based on the movement orders picked, where the better they do, the more options and efficiency% they get in that action. The tac station would get more options and efficiency on the attack orders, and so on. Science and engineering would get options based on those powers as well, and depending on how they did, this would affect the ship's movements, offenses, and defenses.
In main engineering, you would have the main engineer calling out repairs or adjustments based on their concentration game. Instead of having underlings, like the bridge does, you have actual physical consoles. Three on the warp core, three around it, and three on the second floor. The engineer has three as well off to the side (where Geordi and Data usually worked). Depending on the scripted actions, he would need to activate a console for repairs, adjustments, or power to activate that mini game, and the rest of the engineering crew would need to get to the station corresponding to that situation. Depending on how they do, this would affect the ships power levels, repairs, and defenses.
The Armory would handle like Main Engineering, with the major difference being their minigames consisted of loading the torpedoes, cooling and maintaining the energy weapons, and regulating systems for attack patterns.
To make things more interesting (so it's not just a series of mini-games) there will be random events, like fires, boarding parties, exploding consoles, and injured Npc's that need medical attention. Like the new mirror event, class determines what task you get a boost in. Engineers are faster at repairs and regulations, sci is faster with making anomalies (a bridge offensive option) and healing NPCs, tacs get a boost to weapons and boarding parties.
At the end, there will be a scripted cut scene of the ship in space combat, with scripted cuts to the players doing their tasks, playing out like a mini episode to watch. Depending on how the crew does, the scripted events would play out over the different stages, and the over all percentage would decide on how many marks you receive.
Think of it like Mine Trap, where the first stage is the initial encounter with an enemy ship. the second stage is the enemy ship calls in reinforcements, and the third stage would be the final scripted battle scene based on the outcome of the first two. The worse your team does, the more damage your ship takes in combat, the better your crew does, the better you do in the cutscene.
The enemies would be random and determine which scripted events happen. I.E. the klingons or Romulans would initiate an ambush, the Borg would do their scan and "resistance is futile" speech with the Voth on a similar mission to scan and take, and the Undine and Dominion would just outright try to destroy you.
We've seen from the foundry that scripting bridge battles is possible, but now we just need a few mini-games and scenarios to add into the mix, as well as being able to script a few cutscenes, and this could be a very real feature for the PvE queue.
Most of this stuff is already in game and can be done in the foundry, so the hardest parts would be getting the cutscenes to work, as well as programming all of the mini-games to tie into the efficiency % which would dictate which scenes played and how well your team did, granting the end reward. The cut scene could be anywhere from a minute to three, but would need to be skippable for those who can't wait and watch. Also, rewards would all have to be on an individual ending basis, so people that skipped didn't TRIBBLE over people that watched the scene, so there would only be ground drops from boarding parties, the rest would be XP, credits, fleet marks and maybe marks based on the enemy.
There could even be effects added like shaking when hit by a Torpedo, the lights flickering when power is low, console explosions, Fog or jets from pipes that need to be closed, There is a LOT of potential for this kind of mission.
Unless it was so stupid, that it broke the thread...
Fine i have knowledge of programming also about game programming.
So why you think the engine cant support it? Please tell me FACTS not things you think that are facts.
True is ship is the player nothing more or less then a simple avatar .
True is bridge is a map a normal map like any other ground map in the game too.
Wrong is its im possible to make travelling from bridge possible.
And now somethign that posible shock you , you are just moving on a map in sector space nothing more nothing less, you reach a trigger point and get option to enter a system or move to next map nothing more nothign less.
And now wheres the problem? Sure you cant let the ship move around if the player is on the map itself , or no you cant without much much coding.
But you can easily change the spawn position of the player.
Tell me how yyou think the current Transwarp works? Its the same mechanic you could use for bridge travelling.
If you transwarp you set a new location and the server simply spawn you at the new location, nothing more nothing less. Same can be used for bridge travel.
Player sits on the bridge set a course for lets say Bajor , client know your current position and server too so its not a problem to calculate the distance and calcualte from distance and warpspeed the time it woudl take. After timer reach 0 you can leave beam out of the bridge and get placed on the new spawn location with your ship.
And the question what happens if someone beam out during travel? Make it impossible , block leaving bridge if you startet to travel until timer reach 0 , make a option to chance destination during flight so people can react if somethign happens and thats it.
Each map ground and also space maps have a startpoint this point is fixed so its easy to change the player spawnpoint to the new one, ist just a database change normally.
Would it take some coding and testing? Sure it would
Would it be impossible to do ? Nope it wont.
Will cryptic or PWE do it? i dont think so, cause for that they first need to fix all this broken bridge layouts, add options to the bridges , add workign consoles for different things, so yep it would take some time to do it and i dont think cryptic or PWE will invest the time and money into this cause it would be a nice to have but it wont be somethign they can make money .
As far as there being no money in it I just don't think that it has been figured how to properly monetize it. I agree with the person that said that the reason some of the old bridges didn't sell is because they were just crappy work but that has been a very badly needed quality of life upgrade in my eyes. Interiors failed because of how badly implemented they were that's why they are mostly useless still.
The DS9 bundle was sold quite a while ago (Q1 2012, LOR was Q2 2013) when the game had very different priorities and a lot less for the players to do. Cryptic would need to assess the metric they based that decision on. Basing your marketing decisions on outdated metrics IS bad business.
The focus of STO has shifted from needing to have something to do at 50, to having a more varied experience than the rep grinds.
Looking at the whole of Starships themselves most of them do not have game mechanics to function anything like they did in canon. On top of that explore strange new worlds... You can't even visit 10% of the ones that are well known in the Star Trek franchise lol.
In all you can't blame them they have overlords who only know that punch the money makes money so thats what it will always be.
I would call this a donkey punch. Although I haven't bought anything from the C-Store since LOR came out so those overlords can go hungry till they sell something I want.
Been over two years since I've paid real money for anything lol. That part I can't complain about although I wish they would put more emphasis on Star Trek rather than made up stuff. Especially when there is a lot of iconic ships out there that are nothing more than gimmicks or collectors items.