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STO Missing the Shuttle?? || Is ST Timelines Proof that STO "Could" go (Partially) mobile??
vaithh
Member Posts: 29 Arc User
First off, I am not highly active on forums, despite being a player since the tail end of Beta. That said, I am sure this topic has been touched on more than a few times recently (and if it is a overall duplicate I apologize).
As a whole, I only really get to spend a small portion of my winters playing STO, mostly due to my work, travel, and other activities. During this gap, Android and iOS games tend to fill my time, with ST Timelines being one of my main GoTo games.
With regards to STO, I still don't understand why the attention went to first the Mac, then consoles, when Mobile platforms are growing at such great levels, and, the graphics limitations on such systems becoming far less of an issue. While I understand that Mobile wouldn't be ideal for the current ground and space combat methods, the graphics power on these devices are more than enough to handle quite a large chunk of the grind within STO.
For the sake of the game I love, I truly hope the DEV team is taking a serious look at what the folks could accomplish on Timelines, and, hopefully put some attention to pulling some aspects of STO over to Mobile. As a game, I find Timelines relatively Meh, it is too much of a grind, with little actual content, but fills in my ST gaming needs for now. IMO, Just the Mini games, and sub-Projects within STO are far more entertaining than most of Timelines, and makes me wonder why we cant;
- Run Doff Missions
- Advance our Admiralty
- Work on Crafting
- Work on Reputation tasks
- Do inventory / bank / costume work
- Work on Starbase projects
- Fly our ships and do screenshots
- Customize our ships
- Socially interact in chat
- Shuttle battles??
I don't think players would / should expect the full STO experience mobile, however, many of us have been waiting / wondering when we could do "Something" with this franchise during times we can't sit down with our gaming systems. I have seen the term "gateway drug" used in similar / older discussions when Timelines first came out, and I am fine with that, build SOMETHING people can play, and use it to promote the full game / marketplace / C-Store or whatever.
Just my .02
As a whole, I only really get to spend a small portion of my winters playing STO, mostly due to my work, travel, and other activities. During this gap, Android and iOS games tend to fill my time, with ST Timelines being one of my main GoTo games.
With regards to STO, I still don't understand why the attention went to first the Mac, then consoles, when Mobile platforms are growing at such great levels, and, the graphics limitations on such systems becoming far less of an issue. While I understand that Mobile wouldn't be ideal for the current ground and space combat methods, the graphics power on these devices are more than enough to handle quite a large chunk of the grind within STO.
For the sake of the game I love, I truly hope the DEV team is taking a serious look at what the folks could accomplish on Timelines, and, hopefully put some attention to pulling some aspects of STO over to Mobile. As a game, I find Timelines relatively Meh, it is too much of a grind, with little actual content, but fills in my ST gaming needs for now. IMO, Just the Mini games, and sub-Projects within STO are far more entertaining than most of Timelines, and makes me wonder why we cant;
- Run Doff Missions
- Advance our Admiralty
- Work on Crafting
- Work on Reputation tasks
- Do inventory / bank / costume work
- Work on Starbase projects
- Fly our ships and do screenshots
- Customize our ships
- Socially interact in chat
- Shuttle battles??
I don't think players would / should expect the full STO experience mobile, however, many of us have been waiting / wondering when we could do "Something" with this franchise during times we can't sit down with our gaming systems. I have seen the term "gateway drug" used in similar / older discussions when Timelines first came out, and I am fine with that, build SOMETHING people can play, and use it to promote the full game / marketplace / C-Store or whatever.
Just my .02
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Comments
Now assuming they would consider it, your suggestion runs into the wall of, "How do we make money." Putting up a mobile game requires a server, which means daily expense. Development time is also an exepense. Nothing in your suggestion could really be monetized unless you want them to charge you per DOFF mission/A.S.S. Mission etc
As far as the servers, It is likely they would need to add a few to the existing cluster, however the iOS / Android portal would be tapping into existing databases as they would be tied to existing game data. It just depends on how complex such extensions would need to be adapted, for use on another platform. They have spent quite a bit of time developing on the previously mentioned PS4 and Xbox, for a far smaller installed base than the Mobile applications could obtain.
I don't agree with that assessment. The game is Free to play as it stands, and mobile adds a huge potential user base. Players would still have the option to buy Doffs, ships, costumes, and other items that enhance their game experience, just like they can in the standard game. I would also argue, the potential for impulse buying of such items is much higher via In-app purchases, than it would be using the current web based commerce system.
Kinda fell flat on its face.
As for servers its still an additional expense and Cryptic are some cheap a ss TRIBBLE and will want income from it.
If you add in app purchases of those items... sure thats a much better selling point than just a free app. Cryptic doesn't do anything w/o milking for every penny. So a free app is a non-starter.
Web browser portals are not mobile apps... for some reason the mobile crowd is much happier to use those things than web browsers.
Its entirely possible that Cryptic might have expanded it to be accessable through mobile apps if it worked. The STO Gateway is all kinds of broken and abandoned, and whatever they called the Neverwinter one I think was shut off entirely.
That was ridiculous on their part.
Gateway was abandoned at an empty shell phase,
with no real gaming functions,
void of anything to do but to stare at your character/ship equipment page.
They promised we could do DOFFing on it and they did nothing, abandoned the idea first and the project then with no words.
Also, it was more bugged than the game with just accessing being difficult.
Ending, it was not even marketed, so that likely only the tiny minority of usual forum dwellers got to know about it in time.
So it was clearly intentionally let it die.
Saying they are not doing anything like what was promised and never released because it did not get played
(what exaclty should have been played with?)
is pure nonsense.
A clear sign they can't find a decent answers to the protests their policy on the matter had.
Were they serious, they'd resurrect the project and add Doffing at transwarp speed.
Only possible explanation is that amid development a guy entered the conference room with the data showing that if Gateway would be released as promised, complete with Doffing, so much people would not log in into the game daily that they do just to doff that they could not sustain.
So project was killed and they lied to us.
I'll believe otherwise when a more credible answer from the developer than the above nonsense will come.
It's a lost battle, just like that of my sig.
Using simple artwork they already possess and coding from the start linking to the existing DB shouldn't be that difficult. It all depends on how complex / broken the current game DB is. We are talking forks and links to existing tables. If they opt out of doing advanced 3D, we are talking relatively simple HTML5 type coding, structured to work in an app format.
If they simply put some effort into the failed gateway, massage the coding to work with Android and iOS, job done. Based on my personally adapting HTML5 web apps to work on iOS with my limited coding background, I would have to assume that PW / Cryptic would have no problem with it.
I am sure they could come up with some type of workable revenue model for a mobile app. If the devs behind Timelines could do it, I am sure PW / Cryptic could monetize a mobile version of STO.
But at the end of the day, your input and Romulan's advocate viewpoint is appreciated. It is entirely possible that it truly is a non-starter, based on their current business practices. All I can say is, if Timelines adapts better combat structure, space + Ground gameplay, I doubt I would be logging into STO much more at that point.