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Have we lost the "magic" of Star Trek ?
avengerkid1993
Member Posts: 323 Arc User
Yo guys
The point is simple: war, war and war ... there too many wars on STO. Of course, that is the main plot, that is interesting.
But Star Trek is not only war and fights: where is the exploration ? You can explore the space, anomalies, yes, of course, but thats always the same.
So that's my proposal:
Daily exploration missions (not like the ones we already have): I'm talking about randomly assigned missions, with very good rewards (like crafting boosters and dilithium).
Something that would make you live the real star trek experience.
The point is simple: war, war and war ... there too many wars on STO. Of course, that is the main plot, that is interesting.
But Star Trek is not only war and fights: where is the exploration ? You can explore the space, anomalies, yes, of course, but thats always the same.
So that's my proposal:
Daily exploration missions (not like the ones we already have): I'm talking about randomly assigned missions, with very good rewards (like crafting boosters and dilithium).
Something that would make you live the real star trek experience.
Post edited by avengerkid1993 on
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- We've been ordered to set course for the Cespul system with four families of colonists and the supplies they will need...
- I want a Level 2 diagnostic on the EPS systems after we stand down from red alert...
- After an extended circuit of the Alpha quadrant, we will be stopping at Deep Space 9 to take on supplies and crew transfers. Mr. Dathan will be looking forward to feeding his Dabo pastime, and while we are docked I have assigned MCPO Mungin to handle delivery of an important shipment of tulaberries...
- Captain's log... while the crew is taking leave on Risa, I have decided to address the backlog of diplomatic correspondence that built up while we were dealing with the latest Borg incursion...
- Mr. LaForge believes that the Choadian technology we recovered from the ruins on Gamma Choad III can be used to construct a prototype that will increase shield regeneration by 2.7%...
- I've ordered the launch of a Class 4 probe to study the gravimetric anomalies in the Zenas Expanse...
Doffing.
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Sounds to me like they just didn't care enough, they're focused on the Iconians and the 'Long War' to the exclusion of everything else.
It wasn't because they were "low-quality," it was because the players complained that they were boring, which is quite realistic IMO. There isn't anything "magical" about sitting in orbit of a planet for days waiting for the computer to parse a buttload of data.
Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.
I dare you to do better.
And before someone tries telling me the devs actually fixed them... no. Usually what they did with a broken one was to toss it in the scrap heap. Most peeps would never notice that it was gone.
My character Tsin'xing
However i was talking about something even better than those cluster exploration missions: i was talking about a set of 200-300 missions per faction, randomly assigned one per day.
And maybe very good rewards, like crafting / upgrade items, dilithium (to be honest, this game is getting very dfficult to play if don't have end-game gears) ...
Captains can accept or decline them of course.
I'd like something that make people say: "I have a reason to play STO today" ...
Even setting normal missions to give good rewards would be something: nowaday, only elite STF gives good rewards, and those stf are playable only by end-game players: but you need those rewards to get end-game gears, but without end-game gears you can't win those stfs.
Looks like a vicios cyrcle, eh ?
The right move would be set exploration / patrol missions to give good rewards: give players something to do, something worth their effort.
Did you mean Adventure instead of Exploration?
Have you played the new Deep Space Encounters?
If what you want is good rewards such as mats and dil, they have you covered. The payout for these is easily comparable to the old patrol missions for about the same investment of time, and they spawn all the time so there's no actual cooldown.
Psst: there are tons of easy doffing assignments for scanning or analyzing stuff in space maps, and they all award crafting mats--rares + 125 dil on a crit. When I get home from work and accept all of my completed assignments, I usually have a minimum of 2k dil and tons of mats waiting for me.
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
And those that complained were a vocal MINORITY. Most players who didn't like them simply didn't player them. Nothing was forcing anyone to do them. Those that were dedicated Star Trek players found them to be useful in their own way. If nothing else, one could grind accolades, gear, or skill points from Lt. 2 all the way to level cap.
Even if it was a set of maps with elements randomly thrown together, they could have dumped ALL of that material into the foundry so that players could make their own missions. Heck, the Devs could have allowed players, using the foundry, to "fix" the missions. In that, they could have "outsourced" the work to enthusiastic players.
But, I DON"T want to delegate it to junior officers. I want to do my own exploring and such. I want to do my own dirty work rather than send out someone else to do it for me.
War is good for business. Seriously. Combat is why people buy ships and lockbox keys. Pay vast amounts of EC and Dilithium for upgrades and gear.
Come up with a way to timegate your exploration experience (and include a way to bypass the timegate with a Dilithium payment) or some other means to monetize "exploration", and maybe someone will look at your proposal.
The entire job of a starship captain is delegation. XD
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
I don't know if the "magic" is gone. The shows themselves turned to more and more action-adventure rather than exploration of sci-fi and humanity - along with a lot of other movies and shows. They kept up with the times, and the young'uns are all for violence and conflict.
I think about trying to repeat similar arcs in STO in the Foundry missions, and I wonder if people would play them. And yet, how to implement them? So many of them are just about the way future technobabble-technology changes the nature of the universe and it's actually a show about one of the characters. Does that mean a mission-creator has to constantly make those annoying Mary Sue characters like Captain Shon?
I don't think there's an easy answer to your question, OP. But, STO is not like any other game on the market - in systems design and play, the Star Trek license aside. It has its own magic.
Edit: I think the way the Roms and the threat of the Iconians has united the Fed, KDF, and Republic IS Trek-like. I know there are plenty of threads arguing otherwise, but I thought it was a great move, very fitting to show and movie -canon.
My character Tsin'xing
Exploration was given as the reason why they were out there...but we didn't turn in week to week to watch Captain Cousteau on PBS.
To get STO more like Star Trek, wouldn't be a case of having us running around scanning things and nothing happening...wouldn't be straight exploration.
It would be more missions like Cold Comfort, Mind Game, and the like.
It's like I've pointed to: http://unfair.co/tsw-guides/ :in how it discusses the missions in The Secret World. Right there on that page, it lists the mission types...
I really think that the old, now gone, Exploration Clusters would have provided that Non-100% Combat aspect to STO. They generated different missions for the player to engage in and they all did not require combat. Sometimes shooting here and there but it's not a guarantee.
Where the old Exploration Clusters fell flat though were several things. It was a Launch Day element. STO at launch was woefully incomplete, putting it kindly. And the Exploration Clusters, though working, were very buggy and had weird things in them. NPCs spawning inside buildings you couldn't enter but were required for mission progression. Mission text that has us looking for ancient artifacts from the Third Borg Dynasty (WTFmate?). Cryptic never fixed, improved Exploration Clusters. They just pulled the plug on it. Because "players were lost in them and didn't know how to get out."
Recently I tried the new Deep Space Encounter Missions, and they are very nice.
Not too long and with good rewards.
I hve to say it: very good work devs.
But they can do even better: think about a daily, randomly assigned, exploration mission, something no too long, but not too short either ... something that rewards dil, crafting boxes and maybe special tech/research boosters.
Something for the players who can't do elite stfs, something that could make people think "ehi, I got a reason to play STO today".
I bet you all noticed the lack of players ... people are not satisfied of how Cryptic managed the game.
The point is that a game based only on payment and real money is boring, stressful and hateful to many players.
I think it could be a good move to give something good for free sometimes.
Also there is the exploration part: I think that giving players good exploration missions with good rewards would solve both problems.
Think about it: free players need something to gain good rewards, many players (including me) want something about exploration ... Devs have the chance to satisfy everyone.
^^^^
When you get a majority of Star Trek fans to actually agree on what that experience is, let me know. As a Star Trek fan since 1969, I can tell you each and evry fan will have a different definition for a valid 'Star Trek Experience' :eek::D
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Well, maybe you're right, but is doubtless that star trek isn't just "pew pew" ...
I mean: space battles are good, funny ... maybe the best reason to play STO, but they shouldn't be the ONLY reason.
And they shouldn't be the only way
I played them and didnt enjoy them because they were extremely dull and mindnumbing and didnt find them useful at all, are you suggesting that I am not a dedicated Star Trek fan/player?
Or finishing the Romulan Republics capitol city?
And how many times did Picard, Sisko, and Janeway decide to mix it up and join the crew in the "trenches"? Kirk is an unusual exception, but then again, our characters are more like him rather than the others.
Nearly every Star Trek based game I've ever played is based in a large part upon combat. I'd like a little more explore and a little less pew-pew myself. But I strongly suspect most players are here for the combat aspect of STO. This game has to turn a profit, or at least break even, to survive. Since combat sells, this is the direction the game goes.
Further, the old exploration cluster missions were not all that good. "Go here and scan five things." "Beam down and scan five things." "Go here and remove five things." "Beam down and remove five things." That's it. They were buggy as all get out as well. Nothing was located where it was supposed to be. Sometimes the things materialized in places on the map where players could not reach. Or they were odd objects. I clearly remember scanning five unknown anomalies on a planet which were columns from the Romulan building set. How immersive was that, hunh?
As to the 'magic' being lost: I don't think it has. STO starts at 2409. Which is significantly further along the timeline than TNG, DS9, and VOY. It probably should not be a TNG clone with faster ships. I prefer playing the STO I have. Instead of comparing it to the STO which might be. It will always come up short in this comparison. And I will always be disappointed.
I would like to take as much enjoyment from DOFFing as you do, but without player character missions at the end of a long chain of DOFF missions, it just feels hollow to me.
But to be honest, i don't think the devs are really interested in creating a good trek game, they want to make a game that makes them rich. And the sad truth is, for most players War and killing is much more "entertaining" than some new game concept the devs don't have a plan for or are even interested in. (sorry bad english, i hope you get my point)
Why do you think they made the the game so combat and DSP centric?
Because it's a simple concept and its what MMO players expect. This is what generates $$$.
I wish things where different, but i think this says a LOT about us humans in general...
This always makes me giggle.
Well, I understand their point: war creates competition and competition creates money (war is good for business). Nothing wrong with that, they have all the right to earn money.
In fact I never suggested to stop all the war fronts etc (but I think they are a bit too much nowaday xD)
I just proposed to give some place to a exploration: of course its not something that make you earn money (not directly instead), but it would be good to keep players ... many of whom left the game, angry for the game being excessively DPS-centric.
Making something not DPS-centered, maybe one of the most important traits of Star Trek Universe, part of the game, will only encourage players to keep playing STO.
Also, to be honest, i know many people left cause they seen it was getting too hard to get good rewards: fine, elite STFs are too hard, set exploration missions to give those reward.
Was that too much ? Fine, make exploration missions daily (and maybe randomly assigned - it would be really nice).
I think it would be the most wonderful addition to this game
A pure Star Trek game isn't very profitable. A game obsessed with DPS and shiny new ships is very appealing.