I think Season 11 will be a good one. We will do more with the Tholians and the mirror. To look into more on what we saw on Nukura. And like the idea how each story will last about a year at a time. Instead of dragging it out for years. This way you get something new faster.
Best part is, we can finally get Season 10 over with. How they handled the Iconian Fiasco is horrible. Later when my KDF and Romulan goes through it. By then Season 11 will be here. And I can just zip through it just to get it out of my way. Might even skip some too.
This sums up my feelings to the letter. The best thing coming with Season 11 is the end of Season 10, and for that I am thankful. Plus I'm really looking forward to the Admiralty system. It may not be much, but it will allow us to feel like Admirals for the first time in the game, and that's enough for me.
Personally, I think the exploration system that a Star Trek game deserves would be virtually impossible, and pretty boring too. Honestly, I can't imagine there ever being a well done exploration based video game, Star Trek or otherwise.
99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer...
The Admiralty system worries me greatly. My first response upon seeing it was "oh ffs, it's the world of warcraft shipyard in space, minus perhaps the permanent death ships face when they fail naval missions."
Go ahead, ask just about any wow player what they think about the shipyard system.
That interview with massively really lowered my expectations for next season. Also enjoyed the downplay of the t5, t5u, t6 backlash. The admiralty system doesn't sound very appealing for someone that doesn't particularly enjoy the current doff system.
But even given an endless random world of things to scan - at some point you will break. You will tire. It will become a grind only for the reason that anything repeated enough times no matter how entertaining it started off being will eventually become mundane. Your human mind will quickly become accustom to the computer trickery of procedural generation and in everything once unique you will begin to see the technical pattern. The very core of why using a rigid computational system to appeal to the infinite human brain is such a monumental task. Your brain adapts too well.
That is true of anything. If you play the same patrol all day long you'll go crazy too. The system I suggested is *not* intended to be an infinite source of unique content that you will never get tired of, it is simply meant to give people something to do every so often that doesnt involve combat like 99% of the game does.
I'm on your side. There needs to be this element in the game if nothing more than the sake of variation. What I'm saying is if I'm sitting in an office pouring over feedback from my customer base screaming for Trek authentic exploration, knowing I don't have the manpower to develop the kind of content that keeps them engaged and knowing previous attempts have been less than mediocre, and I look over at the Foundry (a tool which has no assigned owner and is years behind in development of the game and its counterpart at Neverwinter) and the over 90,000 user created missions hidden behind an interface that shows only 50 I would want to leverage that somehow.
Without a new game engine and with the tools that are already available (and some investment in a few new mechanics) exploration could be brought to the game that would satisfy both of us.
Maintenance - with new feature episode with major Star Trek voice acting added each month???
Yeah, anyone who thinks STO is in maintenance mode has never played a game that is really in maintenance mode. I would have cited Champs until yesterday:
Yeah, STO would be much more fun if we got that ^^ as Season 11.
Sadly I suspect that ppl (Devs) who have meltdowns over bathing suits and who don't believe in random events in their player hubs are not the crop to embrace the chaos or the fun .
We get to have more fun with Doffs ... weeee ... .
First, "not random" meaning its the same every single time, no different that story missions in that regard.
Second, "plot and character" are not exploration ... they are "plot and character", plus this is one of biggest issues with fanfic were plot and characters are very much miss, one of the reasons I dont touch Foundry missions to begin with they overall verbose in lenght about incredible mundane and their characters as if volume is a substitute for quality, having 20 pages of biography doesnt make me invested in a character, it does makes me invested on pressing the F button.
I know Foundry Authors want more exposure but Exploration should not be a Foundry Mission Select button, if it is we dont get Exploration ... we just get the Foundry shoves into our faces and its been quite clear players have NOT been so invested in the Foundry, shoving in our face until we do it isnt the answer.
Unfortunately I have to agree. The Foundry never ever seemed like a good idea to substitute for "exploration" in my book, regardless of the quality of the missions itself. "Exploration" means not knowing what you get when you step into the mission. Running PUG STFs is more exploration right now than any foundry mission provides.
When I think about "Exploration" in STO I compare it to open-ended, procedually generated gameplay other also combat heavy games feature. Think about Diablo 2 - essentially the same, but randomly generated maps, random enemies with random resistances so you never know what you get and you may adapt your style of play. Think about X-COM (the original), the metagame is always the same but every UFO landing is a completely random map - with the occasional (albeit very rarely) nonsensical map element, true, but that's part of the fun. It's a videogame, back int he days we had fun spotting funny stuff and errors in games. Make a screenshot, share it and move on. Such a system could pit you against random alien people which get "memorized" in your exploration logs (which optionally you can wipe at some point) and this way you may encounter certain mobs again and again, developing a small rivalry or even creating your own nemesis. Loose plots could tie in, you could invite friends to face your personal exploration stories, explore random maps and maybe most important, wether it's a peaceful or combat mission, collect random loot in the process. Add in special unique sets you can only collect from exploration and yes, make it chance based.
Open-ended, random gameplay should be the complete opposite of the instant-gratification, no-effort window shopping gameplay.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
First, "not random" meaning its the same every single time, no different that story missions in that regard.
Second, "plot and character" are not exploration ... they are "plot and character", plus this is one of biggest issues with fanfic were plot and characters are very much miss, one of the reasons I dont touch Foundry missions to begin with they overall verbose in lenght about incredible mundane and their characters as if volume is a substitute for quality, having 20 pages of biography doesnt make me invested in a character, it does makes me invested on pressing the F button.
I know Foundry Authors want more exposure but Exploration should not be a Foundry Mission Select button, if it is we dont get Exploration ... we just get the Foundry shoves into our faces and its been quite clear players have NOT been so invested in the Foundry, shoving in our face until we do it isnt the answer.
Unfortunately I have to agree. The Foundry never ever seemed like a good idea to substitute for "exploration" in my book, regardless of the quality of the missions itself. "Exploration" means not knowing what you get when you step into the mission. Running PUG STFs is more exploration right now than any foundry mission provides.
When I think about "Exploration" in STO I compare it to open-ended, procedually generated gameplay other also combat heavy games feature.
But what does that have to do with Star Trek?
When you watched a Star Trek episode, every episode was a story. It was pre-defined. There was nothing "open-ended" or "procedural generated" about it! Writers sat down to work out the story and then a film team with actors implemented it. The stories usually had a moral and a central conflict. The exploration concept of Star Trek was set in the background.
Instead of an exploration system, I think Cryptic would be better to focus on telling stories with a moral and ethical conflicts that we have to think about. That's the "exploration" Star Trek was really about - not cataloging stars or taking biological samples, but exploring the human condition.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I don't think we need a full "exploration system."
Just add exploration elements into the episodes. I think that a lot of the people that want exploration the most are those that want a break from combat.
My idea would be to have a exploration themed episode arc. Your ship has been assigned to chart a previously unexplored region of space. This episode arc would be somewhat different than most in that there would not be a set order, and "mission contacts" would basically be the planets, anomalies, or whatever the case may be. Approach a stellar body and trigger the corresponding episode.
Within the episode arc you could have a mini arc. Say after charting two planets you witness a cutscene or receive a distress signal or whatever. What I mean is that the episode arc may have a total of 15 episodes, but only 5 of them have a specific order to be completed.
It would be like a typical season of a Trek show. Cryptic would just have to resist the urge to turn every episode into a pew pew fest.
Edit: For clarification on the makeup of each episode, it does not need to be, and nor should it be, repeatedly scanning things or the like. I agree very much with what mustru above me said.
I imagine one episode could be that you encounter a species that only recently developed warp drive. There is a lot story wise you could do with that. One example could be that their planet is not united, and one nation is at war with another. You need supplies, but they want technology that could be used to make weapons. What do you do? Try to broker peace? Let them sort it out? ...Make the trade?
And actually give us the chance to make decisions. Treat it like a standard Trek episode, give us the option but then nothing happens as a result (I mean there would be no ramifications further down the line)
Another episode would see you encounter a pre-warp society but for reasons you decide to beam down to take a closer look (surgical alteration to study them perhaps?). The episode would be dialogue based with different branches depending on your selections. Maybe its uneventful and you beam back to your ship, maybe you very nearly get discovered, who knows.
When you watched a Star Trek episode, every episode was a story. It was pre-defined. There was nothing "open-ended" or "procedural generated" about it! Writers sat down to work out the story and then a film team with actors implemented it. The stories usually had a moral and a central conflict. The exploration concept of Star Trek was set in the background.
Instead of an exploration system, I think Cryptic would be better to focus on telling stories with a moral and ethical conflicts that we have to think about. That's the "exploration" Star Trek was really about - not cataloging stars or taking biological samples, but exploring the human condition.
This is a game, not a show. In "Birth of the Federation" I explore and colonize a random galaxy, I like to do the same here. The episodes are my "show experience" with a plot, characters and story. Outside of that I'd like to build the world and do "regular" work the space faring arms of each faction do, perform deep space exploration, oversee colonization efforts, build and defend outposts, protect transports from or perform raids on them, you know, interactive game stuff instead of playing a fixed episode over and over or moving sliders in minigames.
My favourite computer games of all times for the most part do not feature a story or plot but random situations every time I start up the game.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
And here in lies part of the problem. What IS exploration?
The history and background of the Federation was steeped in scientific exploration but only as a backdrop to the story. If you strip away all but the television shows and movies you are left with such a small percentage of episodes (if any actually) that ever dealt with pure, scientific, boring, mundane, data gathering, comparison table building, report writing, experiment driven exploration. It was used only as the setup to a larger story to discuss humanity and global issues and an epic fight scene. In that sense STO is full of "exploration":
we've explored the dyson spheres
the undine realm
new quadrants
new species (albeit only one)
demon class planets
wormwholes
and for better or for worse time travel
What I hear from most people's suggestions is a system part scientific exploration (scan this, research that) and part random story based conflict/diplomacy generator that intersect with each other randomly to create that feel of star trek. That is near impossible to do. Heck, Star Trek as a television show isn't even able to sustain that amount of constant story generation or it would still be on the air, we wouldn't have gotten the last season of DS9, Enterprise would have a better story arc aside from the Xindi, Star Trek Renegades wouldn't be a Youtube release and Spock would have never had his brain removed.
A suggestion I made long ago and still stand by is to combine the genesis engine with Foundry missions. The genesis engine would create your basic "exploration" system (scan this, research that) but at some random point during those missions a random Foundry mission would activate relevant to the system you are in to provide the all important endless story driven content a dev cannot be held accountable to constantly provide.
I think you are failing to understand. If the setup followed as Nagus suggested and something I suggested years ago. The new sector would consist of faction growth based on players making a area per faction. Hell you can throw in Romulans into being able to create independent regions only accessible by Romulans-KDF or Romulans-Fed/
PVE, Queues, and other content can be designed for the sole purpose of attaining territory or regions. You can even setup up a reputation system so fleets can create bases or communities.
If you say, it can't be done. In essence, both combined would hit the very core of Star Trek.
I quite understand...that scanning flora and making reports to starfleet is not everyone's definition of exploration. What nagus suggests is not a bad idea, and very much inline with what the exploration clusters used to be (yes they were more battle heavy but that is what levels ships and generally speaking more fun for a video game but there were the scan this, research that variety). Also the engine required to produce an environment random enough to satisfy gamers, trek fans on top of that, is not just a difficult task but one of the unsolved problems of computer science. There has been progress for sure, most notably in the hopefully upcoming game of No Man's Sky which is exactly the kind of technology Nagus is suggesting. But mind you, No Man's Sky is brand spanking new technology never before seen and as of yet unproven.
But even given an endless random world of things to scan - at some point you will break. You will tire. It will become a grind only for the reason that anything repeated enough times no matter how entertaining it started off being will eventually become mundane. Your human mind will quickly become accustom to the computer trickery of procedural generation and in everything once unique you will begin to see the technical pattern. The very core of why using a rigid computational system to appeal to the infinite human brain is such a monumental task. Your brain adapts too well.
The only answer is to provide you something that is truly unique. Another human telling you stories that are unique to their perspective on life. This is not just some flimsy opinion, it is human nature and why story tellers are such gems in our culture. By the very definition of what a computer is it is incapable of providing that level randomness.
Yeah, the system used in Dragon Quest is analogous to having a map template where all the props are represented by item class names such as "large tree" or "small bush" etc... It does produce a reasonable level of randomness, but it's quite limited.
re-read the email STO sent me about season 11 new dawn and noticed the interesting way the season was described as "a story about hope and exploration."
sneaky, but I expect the word was only used as a description of a specific story line element and not meant to portray any kind of shift towards exploration. That makes more sense now hearing the response to where they were on an exploration system being so nonchalant.
EDIT:
Here's an idea for exploration.
Open up every world. No random maps just a static map for each - worlds don't change much. Perhaps add variation for day and night and weather. Put R&D material nodes on each planet to scan; both space and ground for each. Mix in periodic combat engagements such that if I visit a world 5 times I get some random combat once. Make the enemies indigenous to that sector (just because there is this huge story arc of war going on doesn't mean Nausicans have turned good all of a sudden, or the Orion syndicate stopped looking for slaves or general "low level" bad guys just trying to get over aren't taking advantage of the situation for personal gain). To avoid having to make cities and species for each planet you could pick planets in the system that don't have known canon civilizations on them (e.g. Rigel Prime is a well known planet with canon mentions, but what of the other planets in the system, and moons, just use those).
Next expand the doff system to provide more chained missions on those planets to gain more R&D mats. Even opening up a system to get very rare mats outside of elite STF's. To keep in the vain of hiding such mats behind elite events (meant, i suspect, to provoke players to spend dil/zen to acquire better gear to compete thus funding the game) create a similar non-combat paywall somehow - you can only get VR mats if you have a special VR doff that can be purchased or earned through some time gated process and would be a percentage less than if your were to acquire those VR mats from an elite STF so the elite STF's are still the go to method for acquiring them. Perhaps tie that in to the crafting system somehow as well - even with the VR doff you need to be at level 10 science to mine for better mats.
Lastly leverage the Foundry to interject missions like with the combat engagement such that every time you visit a system there is a dice roll (say 5:1 or 10:1) that you get a Foundry pop up (one that can be ignored for players who don't want to be bothered), a generic combat engagement or nothing but just collecting mats and taking in the scenery.
There could be events where new mats are presented for newer gear to craft as further incentive to hang out in a newly created section of space.
No new game engine. No extensively complex new game mechanics, some development time (of what I would suspect their are already tons of maps already made and ready to go - heck, could even use the genesis engine just to create the worlds for them) and you have a sturdy exploration system in STO.
Cardassian arc confirmed to be condensed down to 4 episodes:
Currently there are six missions that will center around the Badlands and Deep Space 9, set to be added to the story arc for Season 11 - two for the new season and four for the Cardassian Episode revamp.
They changed the post edit function to allow only an hour of time for editing ones posts.
Kinda-sorta stupid, in my opinion.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
1 thing which could be changed in S11. this game has stopped to be builds friendly since dr. the cost of the upgrades are totally insane. i would like to create a new build for a nandi, but when i see all the resources needed for creating this build, i simply can not start to create this build, because that would be an infernal grind fest, again.
Cardassian arc confirmed to be condensed down to 4 episodes:
Currently there are six missions that will center around the Badlands and Deep Space 9, set to be added to the story arc for Season 11 - two for the new season and four for the Cardassian Episode revamp.
Unfortunate, I had hoped the gutting of the Cardassian Struggle story would not be quite so thorough.
Cardassian arc confirmed to be condensed down to 4 episodes:
Currently there are six missions that will center around the Badlands and Deep Space 9, set to be added to the story arc for Season 11 - two for the new season and four for the Cardassian Episode revamp.
That's a valid reading. I interpreted that to mean:
Four revamped episodes, probably condensing some existing material. An unknown number of tweaked episodes that aren't fully remastered. Two endgame episodes.
I agree, it's not easy. But it's been 5 years now(and that's 5 live, with 2 in development, with a total of 7 years of development). How patient do you think people should be? How long into STO's life do you think it should take to develop an exploration system?
I've been saying it for years and still say it. They could easily implement a decent exploration system with what they got now, but I don't think the energy is there. Which is ashame, because if done right, it actually could turn the game more sandboxy (which is becoming popular again) and fill players with long-term playability with trying to solve mysteries while they actually explore, and encounter new stories to new civilizations.
Thanks for keeping the links to the interviews that are posted everywhere but in the forums. I know they used to have news articles that told you about the interviews but I guess they don't do that anymore.
Gold Sub since March 2010
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
these interviews remind me of a politicians speech, they say a lot without telling you anything and make pledges for things everyone wants without giving firm details about when you will eventually 'if ever' get anything.
All the people upset they arent getting an Exploration System. By all means introduce a point by point plan for implementing one that Cryptic can actually use and addresses the issues of the last Exploration System.
You're assuming this hasn't already been done, on several occasions as a matter of fact.
And youre assuming that any of the ideas thrown around were ever capable of being implemented. I see dozens of ideas thrown around these forums all the time that defy logic and completely ignore the actual hurdles that prevent such ideas from happening.
Every 'My Idea For Exploration' always turns out to be exactly what we happened to have before but this time itll magically be different because X. As if theres just one thing Cryptic has overlooked that would answer ALL of their and our problems with the previous exploration system.
I have yet to see an idea that addressed the real issue of implementing a system that over comes the issues of lore breaking mission generation and a consistent aspect of new never before seen content. But yet everyone loves to stomp their feet and complain about the lack of exploration. Completely ignoring how limited this game engine is and why true exploration will never happen here.
now that's something I can agree with.
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.
Comments
This sums up my feelings to the letter. The best thing coming with Season 11 is the end of Season 10, and for that I am thankful. Plus I'm really looking forward to the Admiralty system. It may not be much, but it will allow us to feel like Admirals for the first time in the game, and that's enough for me.
Personally, I think the exploration system that a Star Trek game deserves would be virtually impossible, and pretty boring too. Honestly, I can't imagine there ever being a well done exploration based video game, Star Trek or otherwise.
Go ahead, ask just about any wow player what they think about the shipyard system.
I'm on your side. There needs to be this element in the game if nothing more than the sake of variation. What I'm saying is if I'm sitting in an office pouring over feedback from my customer base screaming for Trek authentic exploration, knowing I don't have the manpower to develop the kind of content that keeps them engaged and knowing previous attempts have been less than mediocre, and I look over at the Foundry (a tool which has no assigned owner and is years behind in development of the game and its counterpart at Neverwinter) and the over 90,000 user created missions hidden behind an interface that shows only 50 I would want to leverage that somehow.
Without a new game engine and with the tools that are already available (and some investment in a few new mechanics) exploration could be brought to the game that would satisfy both of us.
Yeah, STO would be much more fun if we got that ^^ as Season 11.
Sadly I suspect that ppl (Devs) who have meltdowns over bathing suits and who don't believe in random events in their player hubs are not the crop to embrace the chaos or the fun .
We get to have more fun with Doffs ... weeee ... .
Unfortunately I have to agree. The Foundry never ever seemed like a good idea to substitute for "exploration" in my book, regardless of the quality of the missions itself. "Exploration" means not knowing what you get when you step into the mission. Running PUG STFs is more exploration right now than any foundry mission provides.
When I think about "Exploration" in STO I compare it to open-ended, procedually generated gameplay other also combat heavy games feature. Think about Diablo 2 - essentially the same, but randomly generated maps, random enemies with random resistances so you never know what you get and you may adapt your style of play. Think about X-COM (the original), the metagame is always the same but every UFO landing is a completely random map - with the occasional (albeit very rarely) nonsensical map element, true, but that's part of the fun. It's a videogame, back int he days we had fun spotting funny stuff and errors in games. Make a screenshot, share it and move on. Such a system could pit you against random alien people which get "memorized" in your exploration logs (which optionally you can wipe at some point) and this way you may encounter certain mobs again and again, developing a small rivalry or even creating your own nemesis. Loose plots could tie in, you could invite friends to face your personal exploration stories, explore random maps and maybe most important, wether it's a peaceful or combat mission, collect random loot in the process. Add in special unique sets you can only collect from exploration and yes, make it chance based.
Open-ended, random gameplay should be the complete opposite of the instant-gratification, no-effort window shopping gameplay.
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But what does that have to do with Star Trek?
When you watched a Star Trek episode, every episode was a story. It was pre-defined. There was nothing "open-ended" or "procedural generated" about it! Writers sat down to work out the story and then a film team with actors implemented it. The stories usually had a moral and a central conflict. The exploration concept of Star Trek was set in the background.
Instead of an exploration system, I think Cryptic would be better to focus on telling stories with a moral and ethical conflicts that we have to think about. That's the "exploration" Star Trek was really about - not cataloging stars or taking biological samples, but exploring the human condition.
Just add exploration elements into the episodes. I think that a lot of the people that want exploration the most are those that want a break from combat.
My idea would be to have a exploration themed episode arc. Your ship has been assigned to chart a previously unexplored region of space. This episode arc would be somewhat different than most in that there would not be a set order, and "mission contacts" would basically be the planets, anomalies, or whatever the case may be. Approach a stellar body and trigger the corresponding episode.
Within the episode arc you could have a mini arc. Say after charting two planets you witness a cutscene or receive a distress signal or whatever. What I mean is that the episode arc may have a total of 15 episodes, but only 5 of them have a specific order to be completed.
It would be like a typical season of a Trek show. Cryptic would just have to resist the urge to turn every episode into a pew pew fest.
Edit: For clarification on the makeup of each episode, it does not need to be, and nor should it be, repeatedly scanning things or the like. I agree very much with what mustru above me said.
I imagine one episode could be that you encounter a species that only recently developed warp drive. There is a lot story wise you could do with that. One example could be that their planet is not united, and one nation is at war with another. You need supplies, but they want technology that could be used to make weapons. What do you do? Try to broker peace? Let them sort it out? ...Make the trade?
And actually give us the chance to make decisions. Treat it like a standard Trek episode, give us the option but then nothing happens as a result (I mean there would be no ramifications further down the line)
Another episode would see you encounter a pre-warp society but for reasons you decide to beam down to take a closer look (surgical alteration to study them perhaps?). The episode would be dialogue based with different branches depending on your selections. Maybe its uneventful and you beam back to your ship, maybe you very nearly get discovered, who knows.
This is a game, not a show. In "Birth of the Federation" I explore and colonize a random galaxy, I like to do the same here. The episodes are my "show experience" with a plot, characters and story. Outside of that I'd like to build the world and do "regular" work the space faring arms of each faction do, perform deep space exploration, oversee colonization efforts, build and defend outposts, protect transports from or perform raids on them, you know, interactive game stuff instead of playing a fixed episode over and over or moving sliders in minigames.
My favourite computer games of all times for the most part do not feature a story or plot but random situations every time I start up the game.
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My character Tsin'xing
sneaky, but I expect the word was only used as a description of a specific story line element and not meant to portray any kind of shift towards exploration. That makes more sense now hearing the response to where they were on an exploration system being so nonchalant.
EDIT:
Here's an idea for exploration.
Open up every world. No random maps just a static map for each - worlds don't change much. Perhaps add variation for day and night and weather. Put R&D material nodes on each planet to scan; both space and ground for each. Mix in periodic combat engagements such that if I visit a world 5 times I get some random combat once. Make the enemies indigenous to that sector (just because there is this huge story arc of war going on doesn't mean Nausicans have turned good all of a sudden, or the Orion syndicate stopped looking for slaves or general "low level" bad guys just trying to get over aren't taking advantage of the situation for personal gain). To avoid having to make cities and species for each planet you could pick planets in the system that don't have known canon civilizations on them (e.g. Rigel Prime is a well known planet with canon mentions, but what of the other planets in the system, and moons, just use those).
Next expand the doff system to provide more chained missions on those planets to gain more R&D mats. Even opening up a system to get very rare mats outside of elite STF's. To keep in the vain of hiding such mats behind elite events (meant, i suspect, to provoke players to spend dil/zen to acquire better gear to compete thus funding the game) create a similar non-combat paywall somehow - you can only get VR mats if you have a special VR doff that can be purchased or earned through some time gated process and would be a percentage less than if your were to acquire those VR mats from an elite STF so the elite STF's are still the go to method for acquiring them. Perhaps tie that in to the crafting system somehow as well - even with the VR doff you need to be at level 10 science to mine for better mats.
Lastly leverage the Foundry to interject missions like with the combat engagement such that every time you visit a system there is a dice roll (say 5:1 or 10:1) that you get a Foundry pop up (one that can be ignored for players who don't want to be bothered), a generic combat engagement or nothing but just collecting mats and taking in the scenery.
There could be events where new mats are presented for newer gear to craft as further incentive to hang out in a newly created section of space.
No new game engine. No extensively complex new game mechanics, some development time (of what I would suspect their are already tons of maps already made and ready to go - heck, could even use the genesis engine just to create the worlds for them) and you have a sturdy exploration system in STO.
http://massivelyop.com/2015/08/27/star-trek-online-heading-for-a-new-dawn/
https://ufplanets.com/content.php?677-Interview-with-STO-Executive-Producer-Steve-Ricossa
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Cardassian arc confirmed to be condensed down to 4 episodes:
I guess we really need a consolidated "Forum Changes Feedback" thread to catch all the changes (and critique them).
They changed the post edit function to allow only an hour of time for editing ones posts.
Kinda-sorta stupid, in my opinion.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
this updrade system is the queen of the bad idea
My thoughts exactly.
That's a valid reading. I interpreted that to mean:
Four revamped episodes, probably condensing some existing material. An unknown number of tweaked episodes that aren't fully remastered. Two endgame episodes.
I've been saying it for years and still say it. They could easily implement a decent exploration system with what they got now, but I don't think the energy is there. Which is ashame, because if done right, it actually could turn the game more sandboxy (which is becoming popular again) and fill players with long-term playability with trying to solve mysteries while they actually explore, and encounter new stories to new civilizations.
Well they know my number if they wanted to talk.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
now that's something I can agree with.
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.
These were the words I planned to use in my reply.