Well to an extent theres an ammount of Suspension of Disbelief thats appropriate in my view.
That Ferengi Cruiser you see, thats just a roving trader, that Xindi ship, I'll assume thats an actual Xindi crew, and that Dominion Dreadnought I'll assume is a visiting Ambassadors vessel.
So I can totally understand trying to rationalise things in the game that are controlled by other players
Wow you really are reaching. Ok fine you can be the hero and get promoted to Fleet Admiral. Enjoy being stuck to fleet movements, or a starbase, never going out again in a single starship, commanding a crew, because if PWE hadn't jacked up the story, that's what we'd be doing as admirals, pushing papers, and basically being administrators on star bases.
Thanks I'll pas and be a nameless captain still out there fighting.
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!
Why wasn't Rank capped at Captain? (except Guild Leaders who could unlock Admiral titles). This 'everyone is a Fleet Admiral' is stupidly ridiculous!
+1 Always thought this as well. Now we are becoming Fleet Admirals... this should allow us to make any ship we want the way we want it. Not unlike what Riker did when he pulled the Enterprise D out of mothballs and made it into a warship - albeit it was a different time line I know....
This would be a great way to finally get a T6 Connie... yes, I went there! :eek:
"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." - Rocky Balboa (2006)
"One of the joys of getting ahead is earning a new title for your rank. Federation and Romulan characters will advance from Admiral to Fleet Admiral. KDF characters will rise through the ranks to become a General and later a Dahar Master.
Al Captain Geko Rivera
Lead Designer
Star Trek Online"
We're all gonna be Fleet Admirals?
Can't wait until the next level increase - "President of the Federation" for everyone! And after that - "King of the Universe"! Woot! Can't wait for that "joy'!
:rolleyes:
Why wasn't Rank capped at Captain? (except Guild Leaders who could unlock Admiral titles). This 'everyone is a Fleet Admiral' is stupidly ridiculous!
Amen, and the blessings of the Space Pope upon you!!!
Too bad we've been telling Cryptic this since DAY 1.....yet, after 4 years and plenty of time to retcon the system, they have STILL manuevered us into the very position we all wanted to avoid!
/superdupermegaepicquintuplefacepalm :rolleyes:
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
While a KDF can rise up through the ranks to become Chancellor, a Starfleet officer must be ELECTED to be President of the Federation, it's not a rank, it's an office that is chosen by the population of the Federation.
Amen, and the blessings of the Space Pope upon you!!!
Too bad we've been telling Cryptic this since DAY 1.....yet, after 4 years and plenty of time to retcon the system, they have STILL manuevered us into the very position we all wanted to avoid!
/superdupermegaepicquintuplefacepalm :rolleyes:
Yeah, no. There was never a consensus that the playerbase wanted the rank hardlined at Captain.
I'll still wear my Captain's pips and use my Captain title. If someone wants to address me as Admiral, I'll tell them to address me as Captain.
This whole "There shouldn't be this many (or any at all) Fleet Admirals!" thing is just an opinion shared by a portion of the playerbase.
If someone wants to be a Fleet Admiral, they should not be railroaded into leading a fleet in order to be one. Players have every right to being a Fleet Admiral as anyone else, if they so choose. Just as it's my right to use my Captain's pips and Captain title, and that nice Captain's variant Thomas Marrone came up with.
I'm not infringing on their right to be a Fleet Admiral by being a Captain, nor are they infringing on my right to be a Captain by being a Fleet Admiral. It's not hurting anybody. If we've sacrificed enough 'immersion', which, of course, varies from person-to-person and has no consensus on what is immersion and what is not...
... then honestly, we can get over having a bunch of Fleet Admirals just as we've gotten over having a bunch of Vice Admirals.
This is just going to be another one of those things where people try to superimpose their personal opinions onto the rest of the playerbase. Whereas players like me prefer a bunch of options to the entire playerbase, even if they are options I would personally not take.
Yeah, no. There was never a consensus that the playerbase wanted the rank hardlined at Captain.
I'll still wear my Captain's pips and use my Captain title. If someone wants to address me as Admiral, I'll tell them to address me as Captain.
This whole "There shouldn't be this many (or any at all) Fleet Admirals!" thing is just an opinion shared by a portion of the playerbase.
If someone wants to be a Fleet Admiral, they should not be railroaded into leading a fleet in order to be one. Players have every right to being a Fleet Admiral as anyone else, if they so choose. Just as it's my right to use my Captain's pips and Captain title, and that nice Captain's variant Thomas Marrone came up with.
I'm not infringing on their right to be a Fleet Admiral by being a Captain, nor are they infringing on my right to be a Captain by being a Fleet Admiral. It's not hurting anybody. If we've sacrificed enough 'immersion', which, of course, varies from person-to-person and has no consensus on what is immersion and what is not...
... then honestly, we can get over having a bunch of Fleet Admirals just as we've gotten over having a bunch of Vice Admirals.
This is just going to be another one of those things where people try to superimpose their personal opinions onto the rest of the playerbase. Whereas players like me prefer a bunch of options to the entire playerbase, even if they are options I would personally not take.
Actually, regardless if someone WANTS to be Fleet Admiral...they CANT.
Fleet Admiral (denoted by 5 pips in a bar) is reserved for command of Starfleet.
Admiral (denoted by 4 pips in a bar) they can be. But unless Cryptic is ready to hand over the reins to a player and have them issue missions to the rest of the players...then none of us can, nor should, hold the rank of Fleet Admiral.
And that is supported by CANON.
While I think even giving players the Admiral rank is dumb, it is at least possible according to canon.
Fleet Admiral is not.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Actually, regardless if someone WANTS to be Fleet Admiral...they CANT.
Fleet Admiral (denoted by 5 pips in a bar) is reserved for command of Starfleet.
Admiral (denoted by 4 pips in a bar) they can be. But unless Cryptic is ready to hand over the reins to a player and have them issue missions to the rest of the players...then none of us can, nor should, hold the rank of Fleet Admiral.
And that is supported by CANON.
While I think even giving players the Admiral rank is dumb, it is at least possible according to canon.
Fleet Admiral is not.
Actually 5 star admiral is not denoted for command of starfleet.
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!
Actually 5 star admiral is not denoted for command of starfleet.
Tell that to Michael Okuda.
I trust his interpretation of canon more than Cryptic's, given that he actually worked on several of the shows, and was for all intents and purposes the "go to guy" for all questions of Trek canon.
Although, as we never saw a 5-star Admiral beyond 2293, it's hard to say for certain. But, in the canon we do have regarding the rank, it is a rank reserved for Commander, Starfleet.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Yeah I don't get it...they should cut RA LH/UH...make them ten per and then they could still keep us Vice Admiral or whatever at 60
At least the 5 level split between LH/UH makes a smidgen of sense...but why make 50-60 Admiral and Fleet Admiral...I lose faith in Cryptic by the day...
Can't have a honest conversation because of a white knight with power
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,687Community Moderator
edited August 2014
I'm gonna have to side with iconians on this one. It doesn't matter what rank we get "on paper". We can display whatever rank we want to other players. Heck... you can run around in an Academy uniform and be a Cadet if you wanted! If someone wants to strut around with Admiral's Pips, let 'em. I CHOOSE to show Captain on my uniform instead of Admiral.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
There are only two options, leave it as is, or have it set so the NPCs's refer to you as a rank you want. Besides that, demoting the playerbase because a few people can't handle the NPCs calling you Admiral is never gonna happen.
The best solution is to simply allow players to separate levels from ranks, and have NPCs address players using their preferred title. This would cater well to everyone, including players that believe they are the only protagonist in the narrative, and those who prefer to remain as Captains and acknowledge the presence of others. No demotion other than players voluntarily changing their personal titles.
I've heard conflicting accounts from players / devs that changing all the dialogs from [rank] to [title] is not as trivial as a simple find-replace operation in a database. Is this true?
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
Yeah, no. There was never a consensus that the playerbase wanted the rank hardlined at Captain.
I'll still wear my Captain's pips and use my Captain title. If someone wants to address me as Admiral, I'll tell them to address me as Captain.
This whole "There shouldn't be this many (or any at all) Fleet Admirals!" thing is just an opinion shared by a portion of the playerbase.
If someone wants to be a Fleet Admiral, they should not be railroaded into leading a fleet in order to be one. Players have every right to being a Fleet Admiral as anyone else, if they so choose. Just as it's my right to use my Captain's pips and Captain title, and that nice Captain's variant Thomas Marrone came up with.
I'm not infringing on their right to be a Fleet Admiral by being a Captain, nor are they infringing on my right to be a Captain by being a Fleet Admiral. It's not hurting anybody. If we've sacrificed enough 'immersion', which, of course, varies from person-to-person and has no consensus on what is immersion and what is not...
... then honestly, we can get over having a bunch of Fleet Admirals just as we've gotten over having a bunch of Vice Admirals.
This is just going to be another one of those things where people try to superimpose their personal opinions onto the rest of the playerbase. Whereas players like me prefer a bunch of options to the entire playerbase, even if they are options I would personally not take.
I agree with you in spirit on this. I love the customization STO has and the freedom we have to make our characters our own.
There are two major problems however:
1. Currently we are FORCED into ranks many of us don't desire - NPCs are constantly addressing me as 'Admiral' despite the fact that I am wearing a Captain's uniform. There should be no 'default' rank in the game (which is currently VA but soon to be FA) - completely divorce rank from level - NPCs should address us by our chosen TITLE, period.
2. Because of the current Rank tied to Level deal (the 'default' mentioned above), every time I turn around, or group with people, all I find are Admirals. And for me this is majorly immersion breaking. I wouldn't mind the occasional Admiral here or there (which if only Guild Leaders unlocked the admiral title - even if they dropped the guild later - would fix this), but there are THOUSANDS of them. It would make way more sense both game-wise and canon-wise for the 'default' to be Captain (but again, the better solution is the TITLE option above).
The best solution is to simply allow players to separate levels from ranks, and have NPCs address players using their preferred title. This would cater well to everyone, including players that believe they are the only protagonist in the narrative, and those who prefer to remain as Captains and acknowledge the presence of others. No demotion other than players voluntarily changing their personal titles.
I've heard conflicting accounts from players / devs that changing all the dialogs from [rank] to [title] is not as trivial as a simple find-replace operation in a database. Is this true?
It should. Captain, not Admiral, should've always been the definitive endgame rank. And it's easier for Cryptic since they don't have to make neutral rank dialogue. Instead it's focused more on you being the Captain of a ship, regardless of rank.
If people want to play Admiral, leave that rank for Fleets. Just limit to 2 or 3 Stars.
If people want to play Admiral, leave that rank for Fleets. Just limit to 2 or 3 Stars.
No.
I'd be fine with the game ceasing it rank progression at Captain, but on one condition: pips and titles continue to unlock as they presently do and are planned to do - the game will call you Captain, but you can still wear your Fleet Admiral pips and set your title to Fleet Admiral at level 60 if you want.
The effect is no different than what we have now. Anyone who wants to be a different rank than the game calls them will have to headcanon it. But it would better preserve that much sought-after "I am the Captain" feeling some people want so bad. There's just no sensible reason to deprive people of what we already have and what Cryptic plans to give us. This is, if you'll pardon the phrase, the best of both worlds.
But there's nothing wrong with the system as it stands so bothering to implement this change would be a waste of time.
I don't know why they just didn't include Ensign and Lt. junior grade into the mix, especially now that Starfleet starts as Cadet.
Think about it. Starfleet/Romulan/KDF
10 levels of Cadet/Civilian/Cadet
10 levels of Ensign/Uhlan/Warrior
10 levels of Lieutenant jg./Sub Lieutenant/Junior Lt
10 levels of Lt/Lt/Lt
10 levels of Lt Commander/Centurion/Lt Cdr
10 levels of Commander/Sub Commander/Commander
10 levels of Captain/Commander/Captain
10 levels of Commodore/Sub Admiral/Brigadier General [Don't get me started on the lower/upper TRIBBLE!]
10 levels of Rear Admiral/Rear Admiral/Major General
10 levels of Vice Admiral/Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General
10 levels of Admiral/Admiral/General
10 levels of Fleet Admiral/Fleet Admiral/Marshall General
That's bloody 120 levels right there! More than enough for any future levels. Cryptic frakked things up, by 1.) missing starting ranks in the lower levels and 2.) only allowing for 5 levels in the upper ranks? Why not 10 like normal?
If they just re-vamp the system, we could all just be Commanders, getting ready to be Captains, with this 'update'. Keeps players 'careers' in check, and is a tad more realistic.
Read this. As far as the in-game story goes, it's only you getting promoted. There are no other players. It's not all that difficult to understand.
Accepting gameplay-story segregation isn't what I think MMOs should strive for. It takes willful ignorance in addition to standard imagination to enjoy anything based on gameplay-story segregation.
Accepting gameplay-story segregation isn't what I think MMOs should strive for. It takes willful ignorance in addition to standard imagination to enjoy anything based on gameplay-story segregation.
But what MMO can esacpe this? Doesn't in always end with the fact that there is only one person that can have completed certain quests? How many MMOs come with great villains you eventually get to beat, be it alone or in a raid?
I guess STO makes it worse for itself by having player level affect a special title that tells us something about the character's postiion in the world - e.g., his rank.
But STO isn't the only one. TOR has the same problem - every (dark side?) Sith Inquisitor ends up being Darth Nox. There can be only one of them, can't there?
And I am not sure other MMOs don't have the same problem, I just haven't played them to experience these aspects.
In the end, this seems to be one of the things you just have to overlook, just like you have to overlook characters jumping up and down all the time, disco balls, and all other kinds of behaviour that would not be believable for a Starfleet Officer.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
But what MMO can esacpe this? Doesn't in always end with the fact that there is only one person that can have completed certain quests? How many MMOs come with great villains you eventually get to beat, be it alone or in a raid?
There's a range of different approaches that have been tried. It's not all or nothing, in any case. You need not have a series of "storyline" quests in an MMORPG; you can have series of quests that imply that many people could do them, such as a series of quests to become a member of a guild.
The first MMO I ever played was Asheron's Call, which was pretty much a "sandbox" style of game, and it was only in the highest level content that you tended to get challenges which sounded like unique events. EVE Online, though it ostensibly had a storyline, has been much more well known as a sandbox style of game, with much of the gameplay emergent from interactions between player groups.
STO could have started your character out as an officer assuming your first command, without a specific backstory about how you reached that point. There could have been a mix of procedurally generated missions, like the patrol missions, exploration missions, and so on. I think a mix of that with a choice of different storyline missions might have worked well.
But what MMO can esacpe this? Doesn't in always end with the fact that there is only one person that can have completed certain quests? How many MMOs come with great villains you eventually get to beat, be it alone or in a raid?
It is because of that preconception that is holding MMOs back. It is why MMOs are perceived to be 'all the same'. Not because you can be the hero. But because you're forced to be. AND you're forced to exist in a world with other heroes which you're not supposed to recognize as such. You have no CHOICE in any of this. It's systematic.
Scripted storylines just can't exist simultaneously within a persistent world with hard continuity. Contradictions such as "you're the only one that beat this fiend to get this item" and you actually looking around town seeing other people having the same item ...IMO is not only ridiculous, but objectively crashes any continuity that MMO could potentially have. The only immersion one could have is one that either ignores one side of each of those contradictions or assume that the NPCs don't know what they're talking about.
MMOs don't even go to any lengths to cover those glaring plot holes up. Does fellow Romulans have their own Tovan Khevs on New Romulus when you look around? Yes. But why didn't they at least scramble the names/customization settings of the Tovan Khevs so that the illusion that there's only one Tovan Khev could stick?
You have this idea that you can put players of a game in the same 'persistent world', yet allow players to experience the same events as each other without any in-continuity excuse. Not even so much as an 'each player exists in their own continuity' excuse could fit, as they still exist within one persistent world. Fiction can only work when the subject experiencing said fiction present enough suspension of disbelief, and suspension of disbelief on this scale just doesn't work. That's the problem. Maybe you could ignore it, but I can not.
Can MMOs escape this? They have potential to for sure. But it seems that none are brave enough to even try. Would an MMO with consistent continuity be for everyone though? No, some people wish to have their storylines handed to them rather than create the stories themselves. But they're probably the players that, like yourself, can ignore those contradictions. The rest of us though... we want a real person behind that admiral that's giving us missions. We want a real person behind that Jem'Hadar soldier we just killed. We want a real person behind our random new chief petty officer that just joined the crew. Full total immersion, that's the dream.
And yes, a lot of us realize that it's a pretty far fetched dream to have. But in such a game that already encourages a lot of player-based storytelling anyway(The Foundry, the biography field on our captain's/BOFF's stat windows), operating on the assumption that other players out there are in fact what they say they are rather than unimportant rank-and-file players is helping the cause, rather than hindering another.
count me amongst those that think the rank 'power creep' is well and truly out of control. cryptic should just bite the bullet and 'nerf' everyone to captain come x2. the whole admiral thing was a mistake out of the gate; somebody showcasing a total lack of foresight and epic incompetence.
10 levels of Cadet/Technician/Bekk
10 levels of Ensign/Uhlan/Warrior
10 levels of Lieutenant jg./Sub Lieutenant/Junior Lt
10 levels of Lt/Lt/Lt
10 levels of Lt Commander/Centurion/Lt Cdr 20 levels of Commander/Sub Commander/Commander 20 levels of Captain/Commander/Captain 20 levels of Commodore/Sub Admiral/Brigadier (Isn't the rank just Brigadier? I've never heard of a Brigadier General)
10 levels of Rear Admiral/Rear Admiral/Major General
10 levels of Vice Admiral/Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General
10 levels of Admiral/Admiral/General
10 levels of Fleet Admiral/Fleet Admiral/Marshall Commander Starfleet/Proconsul/Supreme Commander (Available only for max level vets)
I made some modifications to this. The lowest Romulan rank ingame is Technician and the KDFs is Bekk.
Spending 60 levels at the only three command ranks in canon (Commander, Captain, and Commodore), would be great, a big chunk of the game.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though. JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Comments
Wow you really are reaching. Ok fine you can be the hero and get promoted to Fleet Admiral. Enjoy being stuck to fleet movements, or a starbase, never going out again in a single starship, commanding a crew, because if PWE hadn't jacked up the story, that's what we'd be doing as admirals, pushing papers, and basically being administrators on star bases.
Thanks I'll pas and be a nameless captain still out there fighting.
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
+1 Always thought this as well. Now we are becoming Fleet Admirals... this should allow us to make any ship we want the way we want it. Not unlike what Riker did when he pulled the Enterprise D out of mothballs and made it into a warship - albeit it was a different time line I know....
This would be a great way to finally get a T6 Connie... yes, I went there! :eek:
Thats right, Its MY game. Its my Story. So GTFO.
Amen, and the blessings of the Space Pope upon you!!!
Too bad we've been telling Cryptic this since DAY 1.....yet, after 4 years and plenty of time to retcon the system, they have STILL manuevered us into the very position we all wanted to avoid!
/superdupermegaepicquintuplefacepalm :rolleyes:
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
That was sarcasm.
Yeah, no. There was never a consensus that the playerbase wanted the rank hardlined at Captain.
I'll still wear my Captain's pips and use my Captain title. If someone wants to address me as Admiral, I'll tell them to address me as Captain.
This whole "There shouldn't be this many (or any at all) Fleet Admirals!" thing is just an opinion shared by a portion of the playerbase.
If someone wants to be a Fleet Admiral, they should not be railroaded into leading a fleet in order to be one. Players have every right to being a Fleet Admiral as anyone else, if they so choose. Just as it's my right to use my Captain's pips and Captain title, and that nice Captain's variant Thomas Marrone came up with.
I'm not infringing on their right to be a Fleet Admiral by being a Captain, nor are they infringing on my right to be a Captain by being a Fleet Admiral. It's not hurting anybody. If we've sacrificed enough 'immersion', which, of course, varies from person-to-person and has no consensus on what is immersion and what is not...
... then honestly, we can get over having a bunch of Fleet Admirals just as we've gotten over having a bunch of Vice Admirals.
This is just going to be another one of those things where people try to superimpose their personal opinions onto the rest of the playerbase. Whereas players like me prefer a bunch of options to the entire playerbase, even if they are options I would personally not take.
Actually, regardless if someone WANTS to be Fleet Admiral...they CANT.
Fleet Admiral (denoted by 5 pips in a bar) is reserved for command of Starfleet.
Admiral (denoted by 4 pips in a bar) they can be. But unless Cryptic is ready to hand over the reins to a player and have them issue missions to the rest of the players...then none of us can, nor should, hold the rank of Fleet Admiral.
And that is supported by CANON.
While I think even giving players the Admiral rank is dumb, it is at least possible according to canon.
Fleet Admiral is not.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Actually 5 star admiral is not denoted for command of starfleet.
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
Tell that to Michael Okuda.
I trust his interpretation of canon more than Cryptic's, given that he actually worked on several of the shows, and was for all intents and purposes the "go to guy" for all questions of Trek canon.
Although, as we never saw a 5-star Admiral beyond 2293, it's hard to say for certain. But, in the canon we do have regarding the rank, it is a rank reserved for Commander, Starfleet.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
At least the 5 level split between LH/UH makes a smidgen of sense...but why make 50-60 Admiral and Fleet Admiral...I lose faith in Cryptic by the day...
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
I've heard conflicting accounts from players / devs that changing all the dialogs from [rank] to [title] is not as trivial as a simple find-replace operation in a database. Is this true?
I agree with you in spirit on this. I love the customization STO has and the freedom we have to make our characters our own.
There are two major problems however:
1. Currently we are FORCED into ranks many of us don't desire - NPCs are constantly addressing me as 'Admiral' despite the fact that I am wearing a Captain's uniform. There should be no 'default' rank in the game (which is currently VA but soon to be FA) - completely divorce rank from level - NPCs should address us by our chosen TITLE, period.
2. Because of the current Rank tied to Level deal (the 'default' mentioned above), every time I turn around, or group with people, all I find are Admirals. And for me this is majorly immersion breaking. I wouldn't mind the occasional Admiral here or there (which if only Guild Leaders unlocked the admiral title - even if they dropped the guild later - would fix this), but there are THOUSANDS of them. It would make way more sense both game-wise and canon-wise for the 'default' to be Captain (but again, the better solution is the TITLE option above).
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
It should. Captain, not Admiral, should've always been the definitive endgame rank. And it's easier for Cryptic since they don't have to make neutral rank dialogue. Instead it's focused more on you being the Captain of a ship, regardless of rank.
If people want to play Admiral, leave that rank for Fleets. Just limit to 2 or 3 Stars.
No.
I'd be fine with the game ceasing it rank progression at Captain, but on one condition: pips and titles continue to unlock as they presently do and are planned to do - the game will call you Captain, but you can still wear your Fleet Admiral pips and set your title to Fleet Admiral at level 60 if you want.
The effect is no different than what we have now. Anyone who wants to be a different rank than the game calls them will have to headcanon it. But it would better preserve that much sought-after "I am the Captain" feeling some people want so bad. There's just no sensible reason to deprive people of what we already have and what Cryptic plans to give us. This is, if you'll pardon the phrase, the best of both worlds.
But there's nothing wrong with the system as it stands so bothering to implement this change would be a waste of time.
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
Think about it. Starfleet/Romulan/KDF
10 levels of Cadet/Civilian/Cadet
10 levels of Ensign/Uhlan/Warrior
10 levels of Lieutenant jg./Sub Lieutenant/Junior Lt
10 levels of Lt/Lt/Lt
10 levels of Lt Commander/Centurion/Lt Cdr
10 levels of Commander/Sub Commander/Commander
10 levels of Captain/Commander/Captain
10 levels of Commodore/Sub Admiral/Brigadier General [Don't get me started on the lower/upper TRIBBLE!]
10 levels of Rear Admiral/Rear Admiral/Major General
10 levels of Vice Admiral/Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General
10 levels of Admiral/Admiral/General
10 levels of Fleet Admiral/Fleet Admiral/Marshall General
That's bloody 120 levels right there! More than enough for any future levels. Cryptic frakked things up, by 1.) missing starting ranks in the lower levels and 2.) only allowing for 5 levels in the upper ranks? Why not 10 like normal?
If they just re-vamp the system, we could all just be Commanders, getting ready to be Captains, with this 'update'. Keeps players 'careers' in check, and is a tad more realistic.
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I guess STO makes it worse for itself by having player level affect a special title that tells us something about the character's postiion in the world - e.g., his rank.
But STO isn't the only one. TOR has the same problem - every (dark side?) Sith Inquisitor ends up being Darth Nox. There can be only one of them, can't there?
And I am not sure other MMOs don't have the same problem, I just haven't played them to experience these aspects.
In the end, this seems to be one of the things you just have to overlook, just like you have to overlook characters jumping up and down all the time, disco balls, and all other kinds of behaviour that would not be believable for a Starfleet Officer.
The first MMO I ever played was Asheron's Call, which was pretty much a "sandbox" style of game, and it was only in the highest level content that you tended to get challenges which sounded like unique events. EVE Online, though it ostensibly had a storyline, has been much more well known as a sandbox style of game, with much of the gameplay emergent from interactions between player groups.
STO could have started your character out as an officer assuming your first command, without a specific backstory about how you reached that point. There could have been a mix of procedurally generated missions, like the patrol missions, exploration missions, and so on. I think a mix of that with a choice of different storyline missions might have worked well.
Scripted storylines just can't exist simultaneously within a persistent world with hard continuity. Contradictions such as "you're the only one that beat this fiend to get this item" and you actually looking around town seeing other people having the same item ...IMO is not only ridiculous, but objectively crashes any continuity that MMO could potentially have. The only immersion one could have is one that either ignores one side of each of those contradictions or assume that the NPCs don't know what they're talking about.
MMOs don't even go to any lengths to cover those glaring plot holes up. Does fellow Romulans have their own Tovan Khevs on New Romulus when you look around? Yes. But why didn't they at least scramble the names/customization settings of the Tovan Khevs so that the illusion that there's only one Tovan Khev could stick?
You have this idea that you can put players of a game in the same 'persistent world', yet allow players to experience the same events as each other without any in-continuity excuse. Not even so much as an 'each player exists in their own continuity' excuse could fit, as they still exist within one persistent world. Fiction can only work when the subject experiencing said fiction present enough suspension of disbelief, and suspension of disbelief on this scale just doesn't work. That's the problem. Maybe you could ignore it, but I can not.
Can MMOs escape this? They have potential to for sure. But it seems that none are brave enough to even try. Would an MMO with consistent continuity be for everyone though? No, some people wish to have their storylines handed to them rather than create the stories themselves. But they're probably the players that, like yourself, can ignore those contradictions. The rest of us though... we want a real person behind that admiral that's giving us missions. We want a real person behind that Jem'Hadar soldier we just killed. We want a real person behind our random new chief petty officer that just joined the crew. Full total immersion, that's the dream.
And yes, a lot of us realize that it's a pretty far fetched dream to have. But in such a game that already encourages a lot of player-based storytelling anyway(The Foundry, the biography field on our captain's/BOFF's stat windows), operating on the assumption that other players out there are in fact what they say they are rather than unimportant rank-and-file players is helping the cause, rather than hindering another.
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yes indeed; in my mind i'm just captain of my ship; i don't care to be fleet admiral or more. these ranks don't change the game
Fleet Admiral? Would an Ensign do this?
This doesn't seem like a task Starfleet would spend much resources on. There are civilian miners and scientists that could do this type of tasks.
fix it.
free jkname
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I made some modifications to this. The lowest Romulan rank ingame is Technician and the KDFs is Bekk.
Spending 60 levels at the only three command ranks in canon (Commander, Captain, and Commodore), would be great, a big chunk of the game.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
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