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Sol System solo instance.

I was curious if anyone else shares my views of the current map zoning in to Sol system. Let me explain a bit...

First, it is only a zone used to entering either Earth Space Dock or entering Starfleet Academy and/or The Captains Lounge.

When I see Earth Spacedock, it always reminds me of Star Trek III, The Search for Spock, when they return home at the beginning of the film. You don't see twenty other ships around just hanging out, you don't warp in right next to twenty other ships and it doesn't look crowded. So when I zone in the zone in this game, it just feels...wrong. Now this is from an RP view point of course.

From a technical view point, what is the point of all of those people zoning in to the exact same area unless it were some sort of event taking place in that specific area?

Would it not make more sense all the way around to just make it a solo instance, much like that of a bridge of your ship? The game would have a better feel to it, it would make more sense from an RP perspective and if you did in fact want more players in that zone with you, well, it would work much like a mission does...whoever is on your team, zones in with you.

So back to my question, am I the only one who feels Sol System is far too crowded and that it would make more sense if it were more like a mission map than an actual zone?

Thanks for lending an ear...or in this case, an eye? ;)

Comments

  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    Um.. it's the busiest fleet hub in the Federation. the devs actually went and ADDED NPC ships to make it look even busier than it is otherwise.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
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  • navar#3536 navar Member Posts: 198 Arc User
    Um.. it's the busiest fleet hub in the Federation. the devs actually went and ADDED NPC ships to make it look even busier than it is otherwise.

    Which is a bit confusing, considering there is already extreme amounts of traffic with just us players. It may very well be a busy hub, however...in the movie it is very clear that it is not so busy as to have 20 or more ships all warping in to the same pinpointed location and bumping in to each other.
  • anazondaanazonda Member Posts: 8,399 Arc User
    Making it a solo instance would not make sense at all.

    In the movies, the reason you did not see any other ships around, was because it was rather expensive to create full detailed models, much like the reasoning behind why the Klingons did not have their iconic foreheads before they made it to the big screen... It's simply to costly for it's rewards.

    Also, remember, by the time of TNG, Starfleet felt it was a significant loss to lose 39 ships to the borg... During the dominion wars, less than 10 years later, they lost hundreds of ships, and were still relatively strong when the war ended.

    Basically: Devoting resources to something that did'n even make sense in the movies is a waste of time and money.

    They could spread out the spawn area, but that's it.
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    Let me put the rumors to rest: it's definitely still the C-Store (Cryptic Store) It just takes ZEN.
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  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    Realistically, you could fit the entire STO playerbase into Earth orbit at once (not to even mention the whole solar system) and still have them be far enough away from eachother they couldn't see eachother. Space is big. But of course the game can't represent maps in that scale so its a non-issue. And since Earth orbit apparently has exactly one interesting destination in the game (ESD), it makes sense there would be more traffic at that location.

    Gameplay-wise, the system map already exist purely for eyecandy. There's nothing you can actually do there but fly around aimlessly. So it would make absolutely no sense to have it be an empty map with nothing to see.
  • azurianstarazurianstar Member Posts: 6,985 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    This is one of those things that you sacrifice gameplay for realism.
    Would it not make more sense all the way around to just make it a solo instance, much like that of a bridge of your ship? The game would have a better feel to it, it would make more sense from an RP perspective and if you did in fact want more players in that zone with you, well, it would work much like a mission does...whoever is on your team, zones in with you.

    So back to my question, am I the only one who feels Sol System is far too crowded and that it would make more sense if it were more like a mission map than an actual zone?

    Not for an MMO. Because it wouldn't be efficient for the game to have thousands of solo-player instances. Besides, solo-player instances defeats the idea of an Multi-player online game.
    From a technical view point, what is the point of all of those people zoning in to the exact same area unless it were some sort of event taking place in that specific area?

    Those who have played MMOs know this is something that's commonly done, having similar entry points. The only exception from my experience was with the original Everquest, where instead of a singular point, it was spread out throughout a zone wall.
  • woodwhitywoodwhity Member Posts: 2,636 Arc User
    Um.. it's the busiest fleet hub in the Federation. the devs actually went and ADDED NPC ships to make it look even busier than it is otherwise.

    Which is a bit confusing, considering there is already extreme amounts of traffic with just us players. It may very well be a busy hub, however...in the movie it is very clear that it is not so busy as to have 20 or more ships all warping in to the same pinpointed location and bumping in to each other.

    Would have been nice to see it after CGI was the thing to do. After all, with the real models, multiple ships where always kind of hard to do in one shot. Not to mention budget.

    That being said, I would say that canon is a bit wrong here, I mean it should be one of the busiest hubs in canon, and one of the most fortified ones. So having virtually nothing there doesnt sound right. Its justified when the borg attacked, since they already mowed down everything Starfleet threw at them before, but otherwise (in a business as usual scene) its just not right.
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    This is one of those things that you sacrifice gameplay for realism.
    Would it not make more sense all the way around to just make it a solo instance, much like that of a bridge of your ship? The game would have a better feel to it, it would make more sense from an RP perspective and if you did in fact want more players in that zone with you, well, it would work much like a mission does...whoever is on your team, zones in with you.

    So back to my question, am I the only one who feels Sol System is far too crowded and that it would make more sense if it were more like a mission map than an actual zone?
    Not for an MMO. Because it wouldn't be efficient for the game to have thousands of solo-player instances. Besides, solo-player instances defeats the idea of an Multi-player online game.
    From a technical view point, what is the point of all of those people zoning in to the exact same area unless it were some sort of event taking place in that specific area?
    Those who have played MMOs know this is something that's commonly done, having similar entry points. The only exception from my experience was with the original Everquest, where instead of a singular point, it was spread out throughout a zone wall.
    Well, SFA has several spawn points not just one.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • kyrrokkyrrok Member Posts: 1,352 Arc User
    I like to stick to canon for the most part in this game. As it was in the shows, so shall it be here and all that jazz. But I don't mistake canon for realism. There is currently no ESD above Earth, no warp capable ships, and thankfully, no Borg. But there's a certain point where the whole as it was in the shows thing needs to actually be sacrificed for gameplay. I think this is one of those times.
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