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An Avatar System
flash525
Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
Last day of 2015 today, and so this will be my last topic of the year. Best make it a good one.
I'll put the TL:DR bit in first; scrap the current republic, place them into an avatar system alongside the cardassians, add (some) species specific content (inc stories) and ditch universal content.
What I would like to propose for 2016 is a fundamental change with the groundwork of this game. What I'm suggesting is a pure two faction game, all whilst using an Avatar System, or something similar to one. Nobody has to get rid of the Republic, I'll try my best to explain what should happen to them in a minute, but yeah, a two faction based game with equal footing, and that should be two factions, in this case, that are on opposite sides of righteousness.
I believe it's a common belief that Cryptic don't want to do villain factions because they're not a draw (though I'd suggest taking a look at SWTOR for a second), but whether STO were to use the Federation and Klingons, or Federation and someone else is entirely up to the powers that be. I do feel though that we do need two very distinctive factions, each with a very distinctive story; none of this universal rubbish. The only universal content should be some of the queues.
Getting back to the Avatar System though, and the Republic. It's been asked before by players of the KDF to have a mini faction setup for their Gorn, Orion and Nausicaan characters and whilst there's potential in that, there is already enough Republic content to have them as a mini faction within a main faction (similar to what we already have, just I suppose, different).
With an Avatar system, we'd do away with the Romulan Republic. When creating a Federation or Imperial character, we'd be prompted with several options;
In the case of the Federation, we could have:
In the case of the Imperials, we could have:
I personally wouldn't place the Republic anywhere near the Imperials simply because, from what we know of them, they're more suited to aligning with the Federation, but I no doubt there are people out there who would want their playable Imperial Romulan.
Using this method, each Avatar would start off with a unique startup storyline (possibly consisting of 10 - 30 missions) before joining in on the core faction missions. A Republic/Cardassian story (unjoined) would be about their desire to focus on the future rather than their past, the Republic story has already been set up, and would just need tweaking to side them with the Federation/Imperials. A Gorn story could focus on the aftermath of the Klingon invasion, and the Pirate side of things could be more smuggler style.
Each Avatar would offer a unique set of endgame ships that the others couldn't acquire, in addition to maybe some unique weapons, bridge officers, duty officers etc.
I think a setup like this would be more beneficial long-term, and new avatars can be added easier than a new faction. I'm probably overlooking a great deal here, and I wouldn't dare think this be an easy task, but in the long run, I think it would be a better setup, and would go a long way into adding some diversity into the game.
I'll put the TL:DR bit in first; scrap the current republic, place them into an avatar system alongside the cardassians, add (some) species specific content (inc stories) and ditch universal content.
What I would like to propose for 2016 is a fundamental change with the groundwork of this game. What I'm suggesting is a pure two faction game, all whilst using an Avatar System, or something similar to one. Nobody has to get rid of the Republic, I'll try my best to explain what should happen to them in a minute, but yeah, a two faction based game with equal footing, and that should be two factions, in this case, that are on opposite sides of righteousness.
I believe it's a common belief that Cryptic don't want to do villain factions because they're not a draw (though I'd suggest taking a look at SWTOR for a second), but whether STO were to use the Federation and Klingons, or Federation and someone else is entirely up to the powers that be. I do feel though that we do need two very distinctive factions, each with a very distinctive story; none of this universal rubbish. The only universal content should be some of the queues.
Getting back to the Avatar System though, and the Republic. It's been asked before by players of the KDF to have a mini faction setup for their Gorn, Orion and Nausicaan characters and whilst there's potential in that, there is already enough Republic content to have them as a mini faction within a main faction (similar to what we already have, just I suppose, different).
With an Avatar system, we'd do away with the Romulan Republic. When creating a Federation or Imperial character, we'd be prompted with several options;
In the case of the Federation, we could have:
- Starfleet
- Republican
- Cardassian
- Xindi
In the case of the Imperials, we could have:
- Klingons
- Republican (or Orion in their place)
- Gorn
- Pirate (Nausicaan/Lethean/Ferasan)
I personally wouldn't place the Republic anywhere near the Imperials simply because, from what we know of them, they're more suited to aligning with the Federation, but I no doubt there are people out there who would want their playable Imperial Romulan.
Using this method, each Avatar would start off with a unique startup storyline (possibly consisting of 10 - 30 missions) before joining in on the core faction missions. A Republic/Cardassian story (unjoined) would be about their desire to focus on the future rather than their past, the Republic story has already been set up, and would just need tweaking to side them with the Federation/Imperials. A Gorn story could focus on the aftermath of the Klingon invasion, and the Pirate side of things could be more smuggler style.
Each Avatar would offer a unique set of endgame ships that the others couldn't acquire, in addition to maybe some unique weapons, bridge officers, duty officers etc.
I think a setup like this would be more beneficial long-term, and new avatars can be added easier than a new faction. I'm probably overlooking a great deal here, and I wouldn't dare think this be an easy task, but in the long run, I think it would be a better setup, and would go a long way into adding some diversity into the game.
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That would be me. My character's background is written up to have her as a Tal Shiar Spy sent to infiltrate the Federation. She also has Intelligence Officer as her Primary Specialization to fit with that scenario.
Think of how that would work in practice. Cryptic makes this system and they let players respond to it. How do they respond? By playing FED, this is a Star Trek game and you should be mindful of what the show has always been about (Starfleet, just compare the faction screen time.) Cryptic could try maintaining parity but half of their effort is going to be spent on a relatively small user base while the larger group (who wants to play what they recognize as a Star Trek game) sees a noticeable drop in incoming content. Eventually Cryptic won't be able to justify it (because economics) and they'll be forced to put more effort into the separate FED mission series while the "Imperials" are left out in the cold. So while the KDF may get a few angrier mission arcs (thanks to no need for a middle ground) they will also almost inevitably be faced with a lack of a developing end-game story. New missions will be few and far between, and if they want to keep going with the game KDF players be forced to spend more time away from their preferred faction (whereas now they can freely chose how to approach each new mission as they're added for all factions.)
Why is this something cryptic should sacrifice the game, as it is now, for? The people you aim to please lose most of what's keeping them going now (spill over.) It might be a neat setup for a new MMO that's part of a separate, but comparable, franchise. I do like how you divided up the species and the modular approach to new additions. But it's an unfortunately doomed venture for Star Trek Online.
The way to think about it now is that we pretty much just have one faction with some sub-faction things that carry over from their early development (ex. locations). They're not laid out as nicely as the avatar system, but it pretty much functions the same way (only with the above problem of end-game content splitting.) Everything merges into one star trek ethos (let's work together to shoot the bad guys)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
2. HELL No
3. they can't make money with it
4. did i say NO?