I still miss the Exploration clusters.

rothgarix · March 2015

Can we please have them back. I really liked being able to run just a short, quasi-random encounter. I know it's not exploration, but I found them fun. Take out the rewards if you have to. And yes, I know about the Foundry...just isn't the same. Maybe make them PART of the Foundry. Sorry, just my annual post about this.

frontline2042 · March 2015

I leveled my first guy mainly off of explore missions because it was more fun than the storyline. I miss those clusters, 3rd coolest thing cryptic put in the game behind foundry and duty officers.

roadghost · March 2015

I miss them as well.

captaingalaxy1 · March 2015

Me too, bring them back, a core part of STO now gone. with nothing to replace it.

ddplatt · March 2015

Be great when the sector walls come down to have large areas with randomly generated star system in to explore, at Edge of maps, to replace the old clusters.

bcwhguderian1941 · March 2015

Another captain who bemoans the loss of our Exploration Clusters. They may have been "buggy",
and not very difficult. But they were fun, and a great place to make use of low tier ships and
equipment.

I truly miss them.

BCW.

baudl · March 2015

Those missions were as repetitive as working at an assembly belt. Gameplay wise they actually were the lowest form of scripted events ever to be actually implemented in a game. The sector space pockets felt as if they were not part of the galaxy or even the game. Glad they are gone.
I'm not saying nobody could ever possibly find them enjoyable, but doing more than 3 in a row means the player has some serious mental issues.

bcwhguderian1941 · March 2015

baudl wrote: »

Those missions were as repetitive as working at an assembly belt. Gameplay wise they actually were the lowest form of scripted events ever to be actually implemented in a game. The sector space pockets felt as if they were not part of the galaxy or even the game. Glad they are gone.
I'm not saying nobody could ever possibly find them enjoyable, but doing more than 3 in a row means the player has some serious mental issues.

Thanks for the caring support. :rolleyes:

The Clusters weren't hurting anyone, and while you found them a waste, us brain damaged types
liked them. :P

BCW.

kerfo · March 2015

baudl wrote: »

Those missions were as repetitive as working at an assembly belt. Gameplay wise they actually were the lowest form of scripted events ever to be actually implemented in a game. The sector space pockets felt as if they were not part of the galaxy or even the game. Glad they are gone.
I'm not saying nobody could ever possibly find them enjoyable, but doing more than 3 in a row means the player has some serious mental issues.

You're totally right. Even though they had some slight variation to every time you played it, they were still worse than the other things going on in this game that people get a rise out of playing thousands upon thousands of time. You know, patrols, the 100% predictability of all those lovely STFs and various other things. Who wouldn't want to play those things thousands of times and never be bored of doing precisely the exact same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and act like they're a major league gamer and totally boss? I know I would! :P

More on topic though. I did find them nice. Perhaps (and I emphasis "perhaps" here) after the whole sector space revamp thing they may actually bring it back and make it better. Basically what ddplatt said though. Would be nice in general. For now, seems like just playing random foundry missions is one of the few ways to get away from the monotonous stuff even though foundry can be a bit limited itself.

bobbydazlers · March 2015

running around empty & deserted installations accessing computer terminals, scanning items on deserted planets, fighting the same enemy you can in any of the regular story missions, playing the same missions over and over and over and over and over and over.

yeah I miss it to, like I miss the last bout of diarrhea I suffered.

mind you I still think they should have left them in, so newer players could see how awful some missions could be so they will appreciate the thought that's gone into the regular story missions a bit more.

I would like to know how many of the players who say they miss them can truthfully say they actually got all the top accolades for playing them before cryptic removed them.
that's 30 accolades for 700 missions over 10 clusters, at 3 missions per cluster visit that should be easy for someone who enjoyed these clusters so much.

bbqfatal · March 2015

I enjoyed the exploration and spend a lot of time there just wondering around in the pretty environment and hunting anomalies. It was a pleasant change from blowing things up.

I would like them back in some updated form.

coupaholic · March 2015

That voting poll they did a few months back had exploration as the top thing everyone wanted to see in game so you never know.

Of course now with this Iconian war on the horizon the universe needs to burn some more first.

captaingalaxy1 · March 2015

ddplatt wrote: »

Be great when the sector walls come down to have large areas with randomly generated star system in to explore, at Edge of maps, to replace the old clusters.

I do like this idea, How much effort would it take to alter the previous scripting to included different mission paths and less of the generic boring feel, yet still create something new to explore and more area's to "farm" R&D materials.

baudl · March 2015

to add to my previous post, I want to add that cryptic rightfully took them out, to show they actually had a sense of dignity as a game developer left. Those missions were a design abomination and I hope they deleted every last copy of it in their office.

They were not just bad game design, they were making the rest of the game look bad, really bad.
The concept was so bad, that the only actual explanation I can come up with to why it was even in the game, is that the game itself was released in an early alpha stage and those missions were the generic testing ground developers normaly use for testing unfinished game mechanics. When the release deadline came closer, they simply had to scrap every little bit of playable content together no matter the quality.

The reason why we still have repetitive patrol missions is probably because there are actually people who think this is good game design. So the developers thought: " Hey, if the players like those repetitive, unpolished kind of "filler" content, we should give it to them! It can't be worse than exploration cluster missions"

Whatever the future may bring in terms of exploration, I truly hope cryptic does not listen to anybody who thought those missions were good content.

angrytarg · March 2015

I also miss them. They were a major selling point for the game and the only thing that came close to open-ended gameplay.

captaingalaxy1 · March 2015

angrytarg wrote: »

I also miss them. They were a major selling point for the game and the only thing that came close to open-ended gameplay.

Trye^ With the sector space revamp, and the support for them. Cryptic have good reason to devote some resources to a revamp of exploration cluster bring back a much improved version to give players and open ended zone to explore.

captaingalaxy1 · March 2015

crashdragon wrote: »

Relax, Cryptic doesn't listen to anyone. :P

I believe this more than I ever have done before

vifarc · March 2015

captaingalaxy1 wrote: »

With the sector space revamp, and the support for them. Cryptic have good reason to devote some resources to a revamp of exploration cluster bring back a much improved version to give players and open ended zone to explore.

Exploration feeling is lacking, mainly for a Fed player. I liked the exploration in Mako vehicle in Mass Effect (I know many don't like this for they know how to drive the Mako).
I hope for randomized space zones and planets to be (re)discovered.
Don't this game be called Star Trek??

litchy74 · March 2015

The main thing I miss about the exploration mission was strangely there throw awayness (?), while waiting for a the daily PvE to queue up or just a random SFT they filled the time. If you had to quit the mission 10 seconds before you new it was going to be completed I didn't care. They where perfect throw away fillers while waiting for the main course.

Now most just sit in space looking at the queue timer and moan about the wait. Most episodes and foundary missions being to involved just to quit half way through. I know we have patrols but please how many times can you do the same thing over and over again.

The old exploration missions where, poor, buggy, sometimes strange, sometimes funny, sometimes great but always a little different from each other and once removed no other system that served the same purpose was introduced. Which ever way you look at it, it was a net loss for the players.

Rambling wall of text I'll stop.....

architect13 · March 2015

They were removed so you could no longer farm for free crafting materials. As someone with several alts, I miss the ability of bridge invites for the exploration cluster doff missions . . . This also nerfed my Cell ship.

shevet · March 2015

While they were (to put it mildly) not very good, they were the only nod to the concept of "seeking out new life and new civilizations" that we got. Now, the basic theme of the game seems to be "there are nasty aliens! Go shoot them!"

They were also friendly to casual play - didn't take long, useful source of low-level materials. Overall, I think their removal was a bad thing. (To those who didn't like them... nobody's suggesting you should be made to play them.)

An improved exploration system would enthuse me much more than yet more claptrap about "ooh, Iconians, scary!"

thutmosis85 · March 2015

baudl wrote: »

to add to my previous post, I want to add that cryptic rightfully took them out, to show they actually had a sense of dignity as a game developer left. Those missions were a design abomination and I hope they deleted every last copy of it in their office.

They were not just bad game design, they were making the rest of the game look bad, really bad.
The concept was so bad, that the only actual explanation I can come up with to why it was even in the game, is that the game itself was released in an early alpha stage and those missions were the generic testing ground developers normaly use for testing unfinished game mechanics. When the release deadline came closer, they simply had to scrap every little bit of playable content together no matter the quality.

The reason why we still have repetitive patrol missions is probably because there are actually people who think this is good game design. So the developers thought: " Hey, if the players like those repetitive, unpolished kind of "filler" content, we should give it to them! It can't be worse than exploration cluster missions"

Whatever the future may bring in terms of exploration, I truly hope cryptic does not listen to anybody who thought those missions were good content.

Too bad they reintroduced them 3 months later with DR Patrols ... except with less Variety ...

Yeah sure DR Patrols are the players "fault" ... because they liked them so much, if they're so good why remove them in the first place (doesn't make any sense) ... seriously stop sniffing glue ... the only reason we got Patrols is that Cryptic wasn't able (anymore) to release an Expansion with more than 8 Story Episodes ...

PS : Nobody ever said they were GOOD content ... but they're better than nothing ...

gulberat · March 2015

They bored the living daylights out of me, and I only did them for leveling purposes. I realize I am in a minority here but I think Cryptic was in the right to pull them, and did so for the right reason. IMO the Foundry is a far better substitute for an "exploration"-like feel, if you choose the right mission.

damainx · March 2015

Cryptic's answer to all complaints 'Here, have a cookie!' (xp weekend, dil weekend, etc0

architect13 · March 2015

damainx wrote: »

Cryptic's answer to all complaints 'Here, have a cookie!' (xp weekend, dil weekend, etc0

You meant "oops, here's half a cookie. If we have you a whole cookie, you would not appreciate when you have half a cookie."

angrytarg · March 2015

gulberat wrote: »

They bored the living daylights out of me, and I only did them for leveling purposes. I realize I am in a minority here but I think Cryptic was in the right to pull them, and did so for the right reason. IMO the Foundry is a far better substitute for an "exploration"-like feel, if you choose the right mission.

The foundry is not and can never be a substitute for exploration. This is by design - foundry missions are set missions without replayability. It is the complete opposite of exploration.

markhawkman · March 2015

architect13 wrote: »

They were removed so you could no longer farm for free crafting materials. As someone with several alts, I miss the ability of bridge invites for the exploration cluster doff missions . . . This also nerfed my Cell ship.

you have a weird definition of free..... I still farm crafting mats constantly, I don't buy them from the Z-store.... that aspect fo the clusters was redundant... to say the least.

I still miss the Exploration clusters.

Comments

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.