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New Character Ship Choices
rosvik
Member Posts: 26 Arc User
I don't know if this has been proposed in the past. (I've also edited this several times)
I think it would be great if when starting a new character you have a choice of what kind of ship to start with. For example, a Gorn or Nausicaan character could choose to start out commanding a Gorn or Nausicaan ship vice the Klingon Bird of Prey. A Vulcan may choose a Vulcan-designed ship to start out with vice the standard Miranda. When your new character is assigned as First Officer to the tutorial ship, you get the option of taking the 'standard' Miranda class vessel or a race-appropriate vessel (and it doesn't have to be the race of your character). If your Vulcan character picks a Vulcan vessel, it is still crewed by the same people as the Miranda. It's just a Vulcan designed/built ship that you happened to get assigned as First Officer to.
Or, as another person suggested, instead of choosing the tutorial ship, let the player simply have more ships (Vulcan, Andorian, Bolian, Gorn, Nausicaan, whatever) to pick from when its time to pick Tier 1 and on vessels. It's a great way for people to really customize their character and make them more unique. Also, considering the number of people who have Breen and other ships from lockboxes and events, asking to have ships designed by member worlds of the Federation / KDF makes perfect sense to me.
This doesn't mean a race-appropriate ship has to be manned exclusively by that race. A 'Vulcan' ship is just a ship designed and built by the Vulcans that is commissioned into service as a Starfleet vessel. That ship would have a variety of species as crewmembers, as it is a Starfleet ship. Of course, the player is always free to acquire B/O's of whatever race they want, for whatever reason they want. After all, it's THEIR character and THEIR ship!
I am assuming that the different members of the Federation and KDF design and make their own ships which are subsequently used by their respective factions. The intent is to give players an opportunity to either start with or later on choose a race-specific ship just for variety.
I know there isn't much emphasis put on beginning content, but what about creating a few missions for new characters that are related to their race? So a Vulcan, Human and Andorian would have a few missions tailored to their particular race. Again, just a way to kind of 'spice' things up at the low end so starting a new character isn't always the same thing.
I think it would be great if when starting a new character you have a choice of what kind of ship to start with. For example, a Gorn or Nausicaan character could choose to start out commanding a Gorn or Nausicaan ship vice the Klingon Bird of Prey. A Vulcan may choose a Vulcan-designed ship to start out with vice the standard Miranda. When your new character is assigned as First Officer to the tutorial ship, you get the option of taking the 'standard' Miranda class vessel or a race-appropriate vessel (and it doesn't have to be the race of your character). If your Vulcan character picks a Vulcan vessel, it is still crewed by the same people as the Miranda. It's just a Vulcan designed/built ship that you happened to get assigned as First Officer to.
Or, as another person suggested, instead of choosing the tutorial ship, let the player simply have more ships (Vulcan, Andorian, Bolian, Gorn, Nausicaan, whatever) to pick from when its time to pick Tier 1 and on vessels. It's a great way for people to really customize their character and make them more unique. Also, considering the number of people who have Breen and other ships from lockboxes and events, asking to have ships designed by member worlds of the Federation / KDF makes perfect sense to me.
This doesn't mean a race-appropriate ship has to be manned exclusively by that race. A 'Vulcan' ship is just a ship designed and built by the Vulcans that is commissioned into service as a Starfleet vessel. That ship would have a variety of species as crewmembers, as it is a Starfleet ship. Of course, the player is always free to acquire B/O's of whatever race they want, for whatever reason they want. After all, it's THEIR character and THEIR ship!
I am assuming that the different members of the Federation and KDF design and make their own ships which are subsequently used by their respective factions. The intent is to give players an opportunity to either start with or later on choose a race-specific ship just for variety.
I know there isn't much emphasis put on beginning content, but what about creating a few missions for new characters that are related to their race? So a Vulcan, Human and Andorian would have a few missions tailored to their particular race. Again, just a way to kind of 'spice' things up at the low end so starting a new character isn't always the same thing.
Ancient Vulcan proverb: "If you are what you eat, then 'Jerk' must be a very popular food on Earth"
Post edited by rosvik on
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I'd think they'd be too busy walking into bars.
I do like the idea of more different starter missions though. Maybe they could even create some for various enemy species that are known to have subfactions within them that don't necessarily oppose the Alliance or are even allied with it (Voth, Undine, Cardassians, Cooperative for example). Then it would make sense to offer the option to play a Vulcan, Andorian, Cardassian or Cooperative ship in those new low level episodes and then I think it would be a very fun idea.
Way, way too much work to be honest, and for no gain. Sorry to put it so bluntly. You'd be talking over 40 tutorial and starter missions at least.
However... As so correctly mentioned:
Given the amount of playable races under the Federation banner, having race-specific ships is either going to mean a lot of new ships (and as the devs still haven't given us a T6 Nova, or even a New Orleans at any Tier, so I doubt they would want to have to come up with that many new unique ships (which would be flown for free) or, a lot of generic ships where the only difference is the color of the hull-plating (which would be seriously Weak)
However, if there was going to be more race-centric ships, the after-tutorial dialogue and situation could be modified, to where The Character doesn't retain command of the tutorial ship, but would instead be given command of a race-appropriate ship (although that's not how Starfleet works, and even mono-race ships, such as the Intrepid and the T'Kumbra, are still standard Federation hulls) (equally, I'd rather that after the tutorial, The Character be assigned as helmsman to a new ship, and only officially be given command, once they reach the rank of captain, but of course,mthat would need even more re-writes of the game...)
But purely on the notion of seeing different ships; yes, that would be fantastic
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
First, thank you all for your great feedback. I really appreciate it!
What I am thinking of is giving the player a choice of ship type, or let the game choose one. When I said 'Vulcan' ship I didn't mean a ship crewed exclusively by Vulcans. If a Vulcan player chooses a Vulcan ship for the tutorial, it's just a ship designed and built by Vulcans and commissioned into Starfleet service which the player happens to get assigned to for the tutorial. As a Starfleet vessel, that Vulcan ship can easily have Rigellian, Caitian, and Human officers and be commanded by a Denobulan or Andorian captain. It may have more Vulcan crewmembers assigned to it than other species, or not.
Silverlobes brought up an interesting idea where the character doesn't retain command of the tutorial vessel, but is instead offered command of another race-appropriate vessel. In this scenario, the player would be given the choice of picking a race-appropriate ship (and it doesn't have to be that characters race, either.... a Vulcan player may choose an Andorian vessel).
It is a way of giving characters an expanded choice of ships to command. While I'm sure Starfleet would require all ships built by various worlds for Starfleet conform to certain uniform standards, they could still be different enough to make it interesting.
The same thing would apply to the KDF side. I see no reason why a Gorn, Nausicaan or Lethean ship would not have some Klingon crewmembers, officers or even a captain. They are all serving the Empire, after all. Yet I don't think it would be unrealistic to see the occasional Gorn, Nausicaan or Lethean ship crewed predominantly by that species. The thing is, it would be nice to be able to start a Gorn character who has the opportunity to command a Gorn designed/built vessel, regardless of the species of the crew.
I hope I cleared up my intentions on that.
If they ever made a real 3rd faction, that could be the Independent faction and they could lump all the non-Fed ships into that one. But I don't think the game could handle a real 3rd faction. The KDF already gets less ships than Fed, I can't see another faction getting treated any better.
But having played "the start episodes" 5 times (3 romulans and 2 feds). I certainly DON'T want to begin again another time.
The story is nice, but since it is straightforward i prefer to do other things in game instead of replay again.
It was not funny to replay all the game with the temporal recruit...i did that for the bonus, but not funny (especially because it was fed locked only).
I am going under the assumption (and I may be wrong) that Vulcans, Andorians, etc, design and build their own ships which are subsequently commissioned into Starfleet service, and become Starfleet vessels. So having these other ships available as choices is not giving them ships of a 3rd faction. They are already part of either Fed or KDF. That's how I see it. Thanks for the feedback!
True, I can't say that vulcan/andorian ships can't be 'starfleet' ships. I don't think the shows ever mentioned anything about that, except maybe ENT, but that was pre-Fed so...
I always thought of Vulcans/Andorians/etc. making their own ships but ran them separately as homeworld/ 'national' guard type units while they let the silly humans in Starfleet run around being the galaxy's policemen.
Another thing I thought of right after I made my post (as usual). Look at the number of Starfleet captains in command of vessels designed and built by the Breen, the Cardassians, and other races, from lockboxes and events. ESD is surrounded by them. To me, having players being able to choose ships built by Federation-member worlds makes more sense than allowing Starfleet captains to fly ships from non-Federation worlds! In wartime, captured ships are either studied or used to provide training (today you cadets will engage an actual Klingon vessel! It's manned by us, but will use their tactics, etc). Or they may be used on special ops missions; sneaking into the enemy interior for recon, dropping off and picking up spies, etc. But I seriously doubt they would be given out as ships to command.
In the end, its just giving players the ability to 'role play' more, if they choose, by picking ships besides the 'standard' Starfleet types.
Each race that is a member of UFP/Starfleet generally has their own ships for homeworld affairs, as they only get into the organisation once they have warp capability. However, NONE of those ships are considered Starfleet vessels. Starfleet vessels are designed by members of all the worlds, not just Humans. The fact you can fly some of them at higher Tiers doesn't make an excuse to ignore this fact. The fact as a Human, I can fly a Tal-Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser, which is Romulan, or a Kobali Samsar, doesn't mean that they are Starfleet vessels. These are just 'perks' (not to be confused with an excuse) provided by the Dev's.
The tutorial starts you off in Starfleet, on a Starfleet Vessel, so having you start off in your own species' ship would only be possible if they made dozens and dozens of starter missions, which, as I said earlier, would never happen because of the amount of work involved.
Quinn: You did well out there. You kept you head, remembered your training, and kept your crew safe. The damage sustained from the Borg, will put the ship in dry dock for some time to come, but there are postings available on other ships. In recognition for your outstanding performance, the choice of assignment is yours.
I agree though, the amount of work involved to get that many different level-up ships; that ain't happening
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
Now, getting more late-game craft from the various races? Yes. Feds have, what, a quarter of their races represented? They've got Andorian, Vulcan, Human, and Caitian, right? KDF has all of their member races, as of now (Klingon, Gorn, Nausicaan, Orion, and Ferasan). Romulans (obviously) have all TWO of theirs, as well as a third (Suliban).
So yeah, be interesting to see more variety of ships as far as the Federation races go.
Letheans. *shudder*
Oh, right! Those guys.
While at it, also adding the ability to pick the registry when you choose the ship name.
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Yeah since lower tier ships are only used for a limited time, it may make more sense to focus on end-game ships for different species.
Though perhaps they could make Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite etc. shuttles. A T1 ship is very similar in hull points, boff abilities and console slots etc. compared to shuttles.
By designing more shuttles, they could answer to the requests to get more of those in the game, while also providing people like the OP with the ability to fly the early missions in a species-specific craft. They could base the shuttles off of fighters in the case of the Tellarite flight-deck cruiser, there's already an Andorian one and maybe they can do a combo thing like the Vulcan ship has: combining a shuttle with a T5 or T6 ship.
A large number of T1 ships is unlikely to be profitable. Except for iconic canon ships like the Connie, most people aren't going to pay for a ship they'll fly for maybe half an hour before switching to a T2.