test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Options
The removal of exploration clusters.
joedoctor
Member Posts: 9 Arc User
The removal of the exploration clusters and their apparent lack of return diminishes what star trek fans expect and request of a star trek game.
Exploration is a crucial part of the star trek universe. The new encounters of the various crews is a crucial part of the shows and their character's development. The opening words of the two most popular series mention exploration as a mission of the ships. Without exploration the show couldn't explore morality, old ideas from new perspectives or new ideas themselves. This would leave the star trek shows depleted of substance and without the feeling we all love. Being the exploration is a vital part of the star trek experience many fans will come expecting that in the game. People who viewed the shows will be disappointed and discouraged from playing. Those new to star trek will see it as another general space war game with a lot unsubstantiated words about a commitment to peace and exploration. With a lack of the exploration substance we expect from a star trek experience; we cheapen what is expected and should be offered.
Combat is a vital part of an MMO. Star treks mission of peace and exploration alone could not make a successful MMO. MMO's require repeatable content and the unique story driven content with decision making that impacts the game (Ex. Mass Effect , Fable ect. ) wouldn't work solely for an mmo. I'm not suggesting the game chase an impossible goal. What I'm asking for is a place to perform exploration tasks with a theme consistent with star trek's theme. A more advanced exploration cluster system is what is required. By denying us this you have and continue to limit the star trek experience.
The foundry and its player generated content doesn't fulfill the need of exploration. In addition the game its self should offer the star trek feel. It is unacceptable that we players must dig through the variety of foundry missions looking for exploration. We shouldn't have to deal with the inadequacy of this new system or inconsistency in quality or availability. New players won't do this and so they will not get the star trek experience. Its unlikely old players will as-well. This lack of star trek experience isn't what is suggested by the games title and should be rectified.
Star trek is a place were ideas are explored. Where alternate forms of life and new experiences are shown. The previous and now current system doesn't satisfy this. I would personally pay for access to this experience ($20 to $30) considering this is a free to play game. It isn't an unfair assumption that others would too and generate a source of profit for the game. Incorporating a small series of missions to the leveling process that expose players to this new system of exploration would satisfy the feeling of star trek and encourage players to remain.
Please, give us what we expect from star trek.
Exploration is a crucial part of the star trek universe. The new encounters of the various crews is a crucial part of the shows and their character's development. The opening words of the two most popular series mention exploration as a mission of the ships. Without exploration the show couldn't explore morality, old ideas from new perspectives or new ideas themselves. This would leave the star trek shows depleted of substance and without the feeling we all love. Being the exploration is a vital part of the star trek experience many fans will come expecting that in the game. People who viewed the shows will be disappointed and discouraged from playing. Those new to star trek will see it as another general space war game with a lot unsubstantiated words about a commitment to peace and exploration. With a lack of the exploration substance we expect from a star trek experience; we cheapen what is expected and should be offered.
Combat is a vital part of an MMO. Star treks mission of peace and exploration alone could not make a successful MMO. MMO's require repeatable content and the unique story driven content with decision making that impacts the game (Ex. Mass Effect , Fable ect. ) wouldn't work solely for an mmo. I'm not suggesting the game chase an impossible goal. What I'm asking for is a place to perform exploration tasks with a theme consistent with star trek's theme. A more advanced exploration cluster system is what is required. By denying us this you have and continue to limit the star trek experience.
The foundry and its player generated content doesn't fulfill the need of exploration. In addition the game its self should offer the star trek feel. It is unacceptable that we players must dig through the variety of foundry missions looking for exploration. We shouldn't have to deal with the inadequacy of this new system or inconsistency in quality or availability. New players won't do this and so they will not get the star trek experience. Its unlikely old players will as-well. This lack of star trek experience isn't what is suggested by the games title and should be rectified.
Star trek is a place were ideas are explored. Where alternate forms of life and new experiences are shown. The previous and now current system doesn't satisfy this. I would personally pay for access to this experience ($20 to $30) considering this is a free to play game. It isn't an unfair assumption that others would too and generate a source of profit for the game. Incorporating a small series of missions to the leveling process that expose players to this new system of exploration would satisfy the feeling of star trek and encourage players to remain.
Please, give us what we expect from star trek.
Post edited by joedoctor on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
1. Scan five space anomalies
2. Kill five space mobs
3. Scan five ground consoles
4. Kill five ground mobs
Repeat ad nauseum. Even if you read the mission text and dialog that explains why you're scanning/killing things, you realize you're repeating the same things over and over with different nouns subbed in. The dev blog post pretty much sums it up:
If you want real exploration, if you want to feel like a real Starfleet officer, head over to the Foundry tab. There are missions in there which manage to use the game's limited UGC tools to make missions that feel more like Star Trek than anything Cryptic themselves has ever done. And there's TONS of it. The only thing that would make it better is if the Foundry doors they install at the old exploration clusters would pull up a list of Foundry missions that start from that point. But really, it doesn't matter where the mission starts from. Find yourself something tagged "Story" with at least a 1 hour play time, and 4-5 stars, and go nuts.
(You get a lot of dil doing it if you use the "Investigate Officer Reports" wrapper too)
My character Tsin'xing
WOW, you must have digged deep to pull that statement out of your behind, because it is utter BS.
I respect that this is your opinion, but it is so far from the truth, literaly lightyears. "ture to Roddenberry's vision"?? srsly, you believe that? i mean really??
You see TOS and TNG episodes as generic klick 5 consoles or shoot 5 waves of alien ships?
You defend a boring grind fest, which the exploration missions are, by calling the rest of the PVE content "boring grindfest"?? really?
now everybody is entitled to an opinion, but at least try to have one that isn't without any logic, because your statement is just senseless nerd rage.
I never asked you to speak for me, i'd much appreciate it if you didn't. Thank you.
Also, don't mistake YOUR opinion with what YOU think others do or want.
Your interpreting my words too literally. I assume you have been speaking English for a long time and know that people do what I did. Your attempt at a literal interpretation isn't powerful nor does it add to the conversation.
We both know where this conversation is going lets instead skip it. You are not apart of my statement.
To your second statement:
"Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. [ ] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.
-Gene Roddenberry
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/43942.Gene_Roddenberry
The primary means through which we are shown these "small differences" is while exploring they encounter different races and are exposed to different ideas/new experiences.
Gene Roddenberry
"The essence of the STAR TREK missions are to discover, to learn more about our universe and to apply the knowledge to the benefit of man kind."
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/05/links-between-science-fiction-science.html
I think its safe to say this discovery was facilitated by exploration.
I think considering these two quotes we can conclude exploration is critical to star trek.
A friend just got a lifetime subscription and hadn't heard about the exploration clusters going. She is disappointed. Are there refunds? Fortunately I knew about it before I got mine. I would pay to play Star Trek. "Generic Space Shoot-em-up" I don't want to pay for.
As for the foundry missions? Which are exploration missions? How much Exploration commendation do I got for grinding through 10 foundry missions in one day?
Also: The foundry missions are created by talented, dedicated and creative people for free and given for PWE for the game. PWE just told us: "Want to explore, we won't drop a dime on what you want, but here is a bunch of content we got for free. See if that works for ya!"
The foundry missions that I have run have all been really great. I always give maximum tip in appreciation. I'll be running more of them now, but I really feel the the game producers should be supporting the exploration side of the Star Trek philosophy, not handing it off to the foundry guys.
Do an Advanced search in the Foundry. Click the tag for Story. Set a minimum play time of 1 hour, and a minimum star rating of 4. That should give you what you're looking for. Read the individual mission descriptions for a better idea of what they're about. If they feature heavy combat, or are mostly dialog based, the author will usually point that out.
You will get no Exploration CXP, but you get more CXP for far less time running Doff assignments anyway. The Foundry WILL give you a heap of dilithium and a certain amount of random item drops.
While I'd agree in a broad sense that it's Cryptic's job to provide content, true exploration requires a vast amount of content. Enough that players are unlikely to ever feel like they are repeating themselves. That would either require an incredible automated content generation system the likes of which the world has never seen, or a ton of manpower to script and construct a vast amount of it by hand. Cryptic can't hire hundreds of content designers, but they CAN make tools available so thousands of dedicated players can make whatever content THEY want to see. That's the real magic of the Foundry. Don't like how Cryptic writes episodes? Think it's too militaristic? Good news! There are Foundry authors who agree with you, and have written missions you will like better. Let Cryptic do the big set pieces, the giant world altering events. We, the players, are more than capable of supplying missions more appropriate to the day to day business of being a starship captain.
I know that "exploration missions" are mostly boring and repetitive, like Cardassian epics, but there are pearls of mostly unintended hilarity.
Exterminating Tribble colonies is a good example.
I agree, quantity-generated missions are sub-par compared to forced third-tier Voyager washouts. But this fact alone should not be a reason to cut working content from game.
"Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations"? Does this one ring a bell?
Oh yes, this one.
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
entire planets need to be made to explore with cultures on them new races ect
exploration was never really in the game
it needs to be done though on the scale it deserve's
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
I agree. Changing something is less drastic that removing it altogether. I also agree with the earlier post about sometimes unintentional hilarity. When the game randomly makes a combination that is funny, it is like when Data unintentionally said something funny while being totally serious.
1- What the heck is Star Trek without exploration?
2- Where does one go to grind mass amounts of R&D mats?
I had always wished they would use an open universe model for exploration, but what they had was better than nothing!
Squadron 238
I liked those missions.
But cryptic seems to love removing content recently.
Still don't get how turning 10 long missions into 3 short ones, aka romulan mission revamp, is an improvement either...
It was still more interesting then most of the other stuff, simply because it had some variety in what you do.
As davidwford said.... Who doesn't like it does not need to play it.
And yes, I didn't have to play them, but now that they're gone I can get the associated accolades from duty officer assignments (and I can imagine my doffs beaming down on those planets to press F on some pieces of junk instead of having to do it myself...you know Picard wouldn't have done it himself, why should we) so in my book its still an improvement.
On TV, the closest thing those object-scanning missions where nothing at all happens would get to an on-screen mention would be a nameless ensign quietly handing a report to his supervisor in the background while the main characters do/talk about something the audience cares about. I don't want to play a nameless ensign in the background. Give me exploration worthy of a captain.
Gonna love that attitude. For you to get accolades it's good to remove actual content we like. What a nice person.
And for "the only content beeing scan x and shoot y".... Ever played Star Trek online.... Or any online game for that matter?
The thing is simple.... With every content you know exactly where you are going to and almost exactly who you run into.
Infected is shooting Borg in space or ground in the other q.
The war zones are either undine in space or voth on ground. Every patrol mission you know what happens the second time you jump in.
With the exploration there was at least some surprise. Would it be ground or space? Would there be enemies or just scan stuff? What planet? What map?
That made it literally the most interesting thing outside of foundry missions to me.
And yes it was not great, those missions needet some polishing and some new missions, but the easy way of removing them was just cheap.
My character Tsin'xing