Can we put a stop to Space Shooter 3D, and get back to Star Trek?

ironmako · July 2016

Now I know that this won't be the first time that someone has mentioned this, and I'm positive that it won't be the last, but can we get back to Where the game came from?

I've been genuinely mystified recently (in the last year or so) at the ridiculous story arcs. I mean it was always a long running joke that in TOS, nearly every single episode, the Enterprise was being taken over by some form of blinking light display in space, or by 'aliens' who were actually just heavily coated in a tart's make-up, so i'm wondering if Cryptic has adopted the same routine with the recent "episodes". Vaadwaur come along, want to take over the quadrant. Then they are replaced by parasites who want to take over the quadrant. Then they go away, and the Iconians come along and want to take over the Galaxy. Then they go away as quickly as they came. Then the Na'kuhl come along and want to take over. And in between all this, we have the events which feature the Terran Empire, who want to come to our dimension and take over. We also have the Tholians, who.... yup you guessed it, want to take over. Theeeeen There is the crystalline entity event. Shoot or be shot. It goes on and on....

Now the wonderful thing about Star Trek, is that there is oodles of content which can be exploited, lots of retentive storylines that can be played through, so why does Cryptic feel like they have to come up with new/inventive things each time?

Cryptic also need to not fear re-using a species for a storyline. In the series, the Cardassians didn't cause one ruck then disappear forever, they were featured in recurring storylines. Its the same with the Borg, the Klingons, the Dominion the list goes on. it was all negotiations/diplomacy, compromises, off-the-table deals etc. This was present in your earlier Episodes, so why does the new storylines go all mental with the "kill or be killed" direction?

Also, I can appreciate the Kelvin Addition to STO, but why is all Kelvin items all completely out of scale? You have a constitution class which is almost as big as the Jupiter class, and the Kelvin 'intel' vessel much bigger than a Jupiter class! The kelvin Phaser is half the length of the Na'kuhl Assassin Plasma Blade, it's massive!

You have the maps, you have the content, so just exploit it!

duncanidaho11 · July 2016

First off, the easy one: the Kelvin ships are to scale. That's how big they are in the movies. The exact dimensions were provided by paramount (however those were arrived at in the first place) and, unless the length of a foot or meter has changed between timelines, there's really not much else to say about it.

Secondly, the nature of the F2P MMORPG requires new things. It is entirely possible for Cryptic to plonk themselves down in the Alpha Quadrant and cover the internal political struggles of the Cardassian government against the True way. But over the span of multiple seasons (contiguous or no) that's going to lose people's interest. Been there, done that, do we really need to stop another terrorist plot? Ditto any other faction.

We jump around from thing to thing, covering broad swaths of the franchise in just a few months because that keeps us on the knife-edge of emerging content. Something is always on the horizon to look forward to and something's always arriving. We're always anticipating and always reveling in novelty. That's how Cryptic maintains interest. They might cater to a particular niche with a deeper take on one thing but by doing that they're going to lose the drive that's kept STO going since (at least) the Dyson Sphere arc.

Now that still might pay off if really well done, but is it worth risking the future of the game just to do that niche piece? I'd say no, if you want to go into more detail the Foundry is available for you to craft something more to your particular tastes. Really, it is. This is exactly what the Foundry is for.

Consider that the developed content for the game, with all its practical and financial constraints (market to a general audience, fit the "look, new stuff!" release pattern, compliment STO's gameplay systems) isn't able to do some things that someone may want it to do (ex. the Holo-adventures of Captain Proton as a multi-part series). But unlike other games where that might just leave you at a point of "well, just accept it or move on" there's a tool set ready to use to fix these individual problems. No developer coercion necessary, just boot up and build, or head on over to what other people have made (through the top 3 system or careful search).

cheshirecat · July 2016

Ironmako: I've been saying (and thinking) similar things since before Delta Rising went live. There were months before DR of users on the forums whining about "make a nightmare level! elite isn't hard enough!" and "I can get through that STF in one minute ... on my own!" It almost sounded like "I can name that tune in ... one note!" And I kept thinking: "Great. Now you've just ruined it for the casual players, who have been quite happy with the normal setting." Enemies now level up with you; they didn't use to. Normal setting now is like advanced setting used to be. And so on. If I wanted Overkill-Space-3D-Shoot-'Em-Up (or, as I prefer to call it, "Quake in Space" or "Doom in Space"), I would go and play something else. I avoid all the killing parts of STO that I can ... which is getting considerably more and more difficult. And then there are the obligatory boss battles (for which we have to thank "Duke Nukem II" and similar games for). Why do we need to be reminded that a mission is finished? Isn't something like "that's it for this mission -- on to the next one" enough? Do we really need our noses thoroughly rubbed in it and our egos heavily stroked? I'm not a child anymore. I'm 49 years old. My brain is bigger than my fists, and definitely bigger than my ego, and I'm thankful for it. Meh. Waste of breath on my part. Who would bother listening, besides the few folks like you?

(steps off of soapbox)

Unknown · July 2016

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trennan · July 2016

Because the majority of the players do not want this kind of thing? They want spacebar mashing, mind numbing, one shot, one kill pewpew. Then if you go by the C-store, the majority of the players don't care, as long as they keep cranking out new Federation ships.

As far a the diplomacy type missions that happen, Of Bajor comes to mind here, those are the fun ones. There's a puzzle to solve, something to do other than pewpew. The did good with some ground stfs in this manner, Khitomer in Stasis, Brotherhood of the Sword, where there is a non-pewpew objective that three people have to do in order to progress. I don't bother with space stfs much anymore. They've mostly become, spacebar mashers. The two newest ones move away from that some. Dooms Day is a decent one, it's not much for the pewpew. Procyon usually just turns in to a pewpew, with the portals being forgotten. Terok Nor is another good ground STF, since it has a requirement of solving a puzzle to get past a force field to proceed, then the console mechanics of the last boss fight. But, pay attention to those pve ques. You'll notice, anything that requires more than pewpew will be the emptiest ques on the list.

So on this, we can't place all the blame on Cryptic. Most of it is the players fault for just caring about whatever new ship they come out with and nothing else.

Unknown · July 2016

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kitsunesnout · July 2016

I would certainly appreciate a greater emphasis on story and stories that don't just get forgotten about in the grand scheme of things. I miss the Iconian plot already... Even if that still left a slight bit to be desired, at least it ended very trek-like.

hanover2 · July 2016

What if I like Space Shooter 3D with Trek ships?

angrytarg · July 2016

What you propose is admirable, but it's another game. You should play the Interplay and Spectrum Holobyte point and click adventures 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites (expansion) as well as A Final Unity. The first two are TOS, the second one is TNG featuring full voice over by the original cast and completely original story lines that fit perfectly into the world of Star Trek with only little to moderate arcade action.

Star Trek Online is a MMOG, which means you knock mobs and collect gear for it to get better to knock stronger mobs. Admittedly, somehow Cryptic got that formula wrong and removed the item collection from a game about item collection, but other than that it's enter map, shoot bad guys, exit map rinse and repeat. To keep the balance you get some social aspect and you can read the story if you want, but the very nature of the game and engine used doesn't allow for much more complex things.

duncanidaho11 · July 2016

somtaawkhar wrote: »

The Vaadwaur, Bluegill, Elachi Solonae, Iconians, the Temporal Cold War, ALL of it is based on stuff from the TV shows.

Where you get this idea that Cryptic is making up new stuff is beyond me, its all direct continuations of TV show episodes.

I believe ironmako was using new in the context of STO. However they relate to the franchise, a plot about Na'kulh agents (for example) is new to this specific video game. It wasn't featured (until ret-conned by the temporal artifacts) in any previous arc.

Unknown · July 2016

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gradii · July 2016

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

somtaawkhar wrote: »

The Vaadwaur, Bluegill, Elachi Solonae, Iconians, the Temporal Cold War, ALL of it is based on stuff from the TV shows.

Where you get this idea that Cryptic is making up new stuff is beyond me, its all direct continuations of TV show episodes.

I believe ironmako was using new in the context of STO. However they relate to the franchise, a plot about Na'kulh agents (for example) is new to this specific video game. It wasn't featured (until ret-conned by the temporal artifacts) in any previous arc.

Cough.. Enterprise.. Cough.. General Vosk.. Stormfront..

duncanidaho11 · July 2016

gradii wrote: »

Cough.. Enterprise.. Cough.. General Vosk.. Stormfront..

There was a before time, a mythical era that pre-dated Stormfront. Few believe it really happened, but listen close my child when I say there was a time when STO didn't have the Na'Kuhl.

kontarnus · July 2016

ironmako wrote: »

Now I know that this won't be the first time that someone has mentioned this, and I'm positive that it won't be the last, but can we get back to Where the game came from?

I've been genuinely mystified recently (in the last year or so) at the ridiculous story arcs. I mean it was always a long running joke that in TOS, nearly every single episode, the Enterprise was being taken over by some form of blinking light display in space, or by 'aliens' who were actually just heavily coated in a tart's make-up, so i'm wondering if Cryptic has adopted the same routine with the recent "episodes". Vaadwaur come along, want to take over the quadrant. Then they are replaced by parasites who want to take over the quadrant. Then they go away, and the Iconians come along and want to take over the Galaxy. Then they go away as quickly as they came. Then the Na'kuhl come along and want to take over. And in between all this, we have the events which feature the Terran Empire, who want to come to our dimension and take over. We also have the Tholians, who.... yup you guessed it, want to take over. Theeeeen There is the crystalline entity event. Shoot or be shot. It goes on and on....

Now the wonderful thing about Star Trek, is that there is oodles of content which can be exploited, lots of retentive storylines that can be played through, so why does Cryptic feel like they have to come up with new/inventive things each time?

Cryptic also need to not fear re-using a species for a storyline. In the series, the Cardassians didn't cause one ruck then disappear forever, they were featured in recurring storylines. Its the same with the Borg, the Klingons, the Dominion the list goes on. it was all negotiations/diplomacy, compromises, off-the-table deals etc. This was present in your earlier Episodes, so why does the new storylines go all mental with the "kill or be killed" direction?

Also, I can appreciate the Kelvin Addition to STO, but why is all Kelvin items all completely out of scale? You have a constitution class which is almost as big as the Jupiter class, and the Kelvin 'intel' vessel much bigger than a Jupiter class! The kelvin Phaser is half the length of the Na'kuhl Assassin Plasma Blade, it's massive!

You have the maps, you have the content, so just exploit it!

I appreciate, and, from a certain point of view, agree with your sentiments.
Unfortunately, this game would not be as successful as it is if it was not focussed on "Space shooter 3D".
This is an MMORPG, an MMORPG thrives financially when it provides relatively easy moments of victory, through 'acts of personal power' to feed the power fantasies of its players. People play computer and console games, primarily, to have their egos stroked; that's why so many on this forum have tantrums when they don't get their way or what they want.

Even those of us who play just because it's cool to be able to play 'Star Trek', still appreciate the gentle stroking of our egos... it's only human... even if it isn't as intellectually satisfying as a 'true' Trek experience in the TOS/TNG exploratory-scientific-diplomatic mode.

Can we put a stop to Space Shooter 3D, and get back to Star Trek?

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