Would you like to be able to use floaters and powerboards on other places besides Risa?

sovereign47 · July 2015

So, while I was flying with floater I thought it would be very cool to be able to use them on the other planets, public zones and in the missions as well. Just imagine being able to fly over and shoot at enemies at the same time (like in GTA San Andreas with jet pack). It would be awesome I think.
And same goes for powerboard on planets with water surfaces. And powerboarding while shooting at the same time would be also very cool.

mustrumridcully0 · July 2015

No way in hell!

No way in hell! I'd get sick from all the flying!

I assume that you didn't expect a serious answer. It's obvious it wuld be cool if it was available in more spots, or even everywhere. But making maps and missions that take into account flying players requires extra effort. You need to consider the possibility of the flying player bypassing obstacles, and you need to ensure that your map looks good/non-immersion breaking at any angle and from any position.

mirrorchaos · July 2015

i dunno what it would serve having that floater outside of risa anyways because you still got to be within 30-35 meters of your prey on the ground where most of the missions involve mass murder, so on the ground or floating above makes no difference. you play champions, you will understand that there is no real advantage in it at all outside being a sniper or one of those who uses the long bow with metal arrows.

bobbydazlers · July 2015

yes and no, yes if there was special content there that called for it to be used, no for anything else.

the last thing I want to see is floaters zooming around qo`nos or the academy`s or even new rom or anywhere else currently in game for that matter.

its all fine for risa as there is content there that calls for it to be used.

risian4 · July 2015

Agreed with what bobbydazlers said. Perhaps for some solo-content like featured episodes or Foundry content it would work. Allowing floaters to be used in queued missions or battlezones would be too game-breaking though.

And as a player of Caitians I personally wouldn't like seeing everyone being able to reach higher places.

tylermaxwell · July 2015

Hell yeah!

With a caveat. Most of the maps in the game are not built with flying in mind: short ceilings, and a lot of the environmental detail effects are essentially graphical 'tricks' that look good from a very narrow vantage point (say, a small boxed-shape zone) but look awful from any other angle. So either every thing you see while flying will look really crappy, or a LOT of the maps in the game would have to be retrofitted just to allow flying and not look terrible. Which takes loads of dev time that is otherwise devoted to make new storyline missions or other relevant release content. What would you rather have, more missions and game content, or the ability to see the Golden Gate Bridge look disfigured up close?

One positive note: Foundry authors now have the ability to place floater zones in their missions. So there are currently more than a few Foundry missions where it IS possible to fly around and even shoot at enemy groups from the safety of the skies.

I've done this in a few missions that I've played, and the experience is nice. Granted, you can't see your char actually animate/shoot your weapons (apparently my captain can't shoot AND hold the floater controls at the SAME TIME

), but they DO work and hit the enemy NPCs. Plus maneuvering your flying char to stay in range while trying to mash ground powers is a lot trickier than normal combat. And your BOffs don't seem to want to follow you if you fly more than a few meters above the ground. And while your BOffs can equip their own floaters to fly, they don't seem to want to use them at all unless you place a rally point in some place completely inaccessible by running.

So overall the experience is a little half-baked; YOU can FLY, but everything else goes a little wonky. But, you can FLY.

lan451 · July 2015

This is actually covered by the FCT. You can go read it for Taco's answer on this.

markhawkman · July 2015

Hell yeah!

I said yes, but to add to what tyler said, hoverboards are basically a fancy emote that positions your character a specific distance above the ground. It doesn't work well in areas that aren't flat, or nearly flat.

hypl · July 2015

Not interested at all.

No, but I would like to see those mechanics applied to new content, such as more zero-g environments and perhaps the use of hover vehicles.

thatcursedwolf · July 2015

Not interested at all.

Press spacebar to fly up out of aggro range.

Scan for objective.

Point in direction of objective.

Hold w until you reach objective.

Drop down to objective.

If there are other objectives repeat as necessary.

Yay for flying in MMOs not designed around having flying available to circumvent content!

sennahcherib · July 2015

No way in hell!

no, just no

markhawkman · July 2015

Hell yeah!

thatcursedwolf wrote: »

Press spacebar to fly up out of aggro range.

Scan for objective.

Point in direction of objective.

Hold w until you reach objective.

Drop down to objective.

If there are other objectives repeat as necessary.

Yay for flying in MMOs not designed around having flying available to circumvent content!

Would you like to know how often that gets done in Champions?

kristaswift · July 2015

Hell yeah!

Wishful thinking but can always say "yeah"

thatcursedwolf · July 2015

Not interested at all.

markhawkman wrote: »

thatcursedwolf wrote: »

Press spacebar to fly up out of aggro range.

Scan for objective.

Point in direction of objective.

Hold w until you reach objective.

Drop down to objective.

If there are other objectives repeat as necessary.

Yay for flying in MMOs not designed around having flying available to circumvent content!

Would you like to know how often that gets done in Champions?

Champions was built with flight in mind. If taking down mobs is part of the mission they will be required to be dealt with by the mission.

STO has a lot of outdoor missions that are go scan this and oh by the way fight through all these mobs to get there on the one route you can take even though it's not part of the mission objectives.

markhawkman · July 2015

Hell yeah!

thatcursedwolf wrote: »

markhawkman wrote: »

thatcursedwolf wrote: »

Press spacebar to fly up out of aggro range.

Scan for objective.

Point in direction of objective.

Hold w until you reach objective.

Drop down to objective.

If there are other objectives repeat as necessary.

Yay for flying in MMOs not designed around having flying available to circumvent content!

Would you like to know how often that gets done in Champions?

Champions was built with flight in mind. If taking down mobs is part of the mission they will be required to be dealt with by the mission.

STO has a lot of outdoor missions that are go scan this and oh by the way fight through all these mobs to get there on the one route you can take even though it's not part of the mission objectives.

In Champions, the mobs are often the objective itself. That or standing on top of the objective so that bypassing them is pointless.

castsbugc · July 2015

Hell yeah!

The only downside is that it will require work on all the other maps, because its a volume that has to be added, and thats assuming the maps have a high enough 'ceiling' to begin with. I would like it, but I also understand the amount of work involved in doing it.

sovereign47 · July 2015

Hell yeah!

Ok, I wasn't actually talking about being able to use floaters/powerboards in battlezones, qued missions or confined zones like ESD. I was talking about using them on bigger open maps and single player missions where those would be helpful. So I agree we shouldn't be able to use them anywhere and anytime. Besides, you could still play without necessarily using them (unless mission specifically requires their use).

kodachikuno · July 2015

Hell yeah!

I thought it was nice when we saw floaters return in that episode with tuvok... not that I really wanted to eva on top of a sun but hey...

monkeybone13 · July 2015

No way in hell!

#1 there is no need for it

#2 tacofangs had explained a long time ago that they would have to devote dev time to fixing up old maps to make floaters useable since other maps were never designed for it. It isn't worth their time and resources to bother with it. Future maps built for floater use are possible but not likely.

#3 You can use powerboards on the classic Risa map but there isn't anything to do there. There are a couple commodity vendors and a bunch of NPCs and that's pretty much it. Aside from Risa there isn't any other social zones in the game with water to use our boards on anyway.

arliekkos · July 2015

Hell yeah!

Option to make them into trophies.

gradii · July 2015

No way in hell!

Most definitely no. This is Star Trek Online, not Surfer Nation Jetpack Commando Online.

Would be nice if we could earn something which made ground travel a little faster which makes SENSE for the more formal military like setting of STO though. No floaters, Dust to Dust is poor design,
not "its ok but only if you cheat with a floater"

bernatk · July 2015

Hell yeah!

Of course! And if we're at GTA, please put in ARGO.

kittyflofy · July 2015

Not interested at all.

You guys always forget the problem is, floaters are designed to work ONLY in Risa because of the engine limitations and how the rest of the maps are designed. This is never going to happen lol. Its funny some of you probably have been playing since beta and still you dont understand how this game/company works... unbelievable xD.

zobovor · July 2015

Hell yeah!

H-ell yeah is an understatement , and while I get that some folks are a little burned out from the summer event, I do feel just a smidge sorry for the folks who voted 'no' on this one .

Floaters & surf boards are teh fun !

Seschat · July 2015

Hell yeah!

We also have to remember that due to the constraints on the Star Trek genre put in place by Paramount to better pander to the average television viewer, this is what is described as a "safe-tech" environment. Which translates to no meaningful technological changes what would alter society too far from what The Public would recognize.

Anti-gravity: anything smaller than a car is a one-off device.
Nanotechnology: marginalized, or presented as scary/evil (Borg).
Genetically Modified People: bad, dangerous, powers man was not meant to know.
Cyberwear/man-machine blending: bad, inadequate, or evil (Borg)

Would I love to use floaters on other outdoor, non mission instance maps? Sure! Would MACO instantly adopt militarized versions of the packs in a heartbeat? Without a doubt. Are we going to see it any time soon? Not very likely.

markhawkman · July 2015

Hell yeah!

gradii wrote: »

Most definitely no. This is Star Trek Online, not Surfer Nation Jetpack Commando Online.

Would be nice if we could earn something which made ground travel a little faster which makes SENSE for the more formal military like setting of STO though. No floaters, Dust to Dust is poor design,
not "its ok but only if you cheat with a floater"

Yeah, having a floater would make the jumping puzzle a bit too easy wouldn't it?

cidjack · July 2015

No way in hell!

It would take the fun of ground maps, just sitting in the air shooting at an enemy that can't shoot back. Where is the skill on trying to kill all three dinos if you can just shoot, zip to the next one, shoot, zip to the next one. Take Kobali prime, where the whole point is to fight the Vadd all the way up the hill to get to the top and earn the top rewards for making it that far, wouldn't matter anymore where you can just fly up there from the city and just farm the top mission over and over again.

Lastly, Borg adapt new technology, you show up in Deferra with a floater, get killed, Borg assimilate the floater, and now we got fraking Borg flying all over the place.

markhawkman · July 2015

Hell yeah!

cidjack wrote: »

It would take the fun of ground maps, just sitting in the air shooting at an enemy that can't shoot back. Where is the skill on trying to kill all three dinos if you can just shoot, zip to the next one, shoot, zip to the next one. Take Kobali prime, where the whole point is to fight the Vadd all the way up the hill to get to the top and earn the top rewards for making it that far, wouldn't matter anymore where you can just fly up there from the city and just farm the top mission over and over again.

Lastly, Borg adapt new technology, you show up in Deferra with a floater, get killed, Borg assimilate the floater, and now we got fraking Borg flying all over the place.

Remember Becky? The Borg already have the tech to make themselves float.

apparently they don't use it often though.

zobovor · July 2015

Hell yeah!

markhawkman wrote:

Remember Becky? The Borg already have the tech to make themselves float. apparently they don't use it often though.

Well why should they when often enough they can perform GIANT LEAPS for Borg kind ... .

mikoto8472 · July 2015

Whatever.

In social zones, yes boards and floaters would be welcome additions.

But not in mission zones though as that just leaves a lot of work to go modify every single map by the devs and probably a lot of so-called clever 'exploits' for players to use by flying or boarding to some shortcut.

All that being said of course I would insist absolutely on floaters being available in every map in "Dust to Dust."

jaguarskx · July 2015

Sure... as long as I can take potshots at these players.

Turn it into something like a Skeet Shooting Event where the purpose is to shoot down players flying around with their floaters and powerboards.

Would you like to be able to use floaters and powerboards on other places besides Risa?

Would you like to be able to use floaters and powerboards on other places besides Risa? 84 votes

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