Next expansion of the Star Trek Map

grendelthewise · November 2018

I was wondering what my fellow players think the next expansion of the star trek map should be. I was hoping to seeing more systems added to current maps and maybe expand into the delta quadrant where the voyager started out.

rattler2 · November 2018

Delta would probably be the easiest to expand. Alpha and Beta I think are about as big as the engine will allow. Gamma is about that size as well.

So realistically we really only have Delta to expand. Unless we somehow get a seperate section of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants that aren't connected to the existing ones.

The other option would probably be the Andromeda Galaxy via Iconian Gateway.

leemwatson · November 2018

The current Alpha/Beta maps are only a small portion of their respective quadrants, so yes, they can expand. Delta would seem to be the next in line, with subsequent quadrants most likely getting map extensions like when they were divided into Sector Block maps.

thay8472 · November 2018

A second Alpha/Beta Block? The Mirror Block?

slifox · November 2018

Since the Federation has conquered or made Peace with everybody and the Borg are cannon fodder, we should expand into the Andromeda galaxy using the Iconian gateway for new enemies that will initiate a massive attack on Earth starbase (sarcasm).

Perhaps the Devs can go back into some of the older arcs and add to and modify for longer, more detailed story telling.

wideningxgyre · November 2018

I'm more inclined to believe that the new Picard series will be the basis of the next major expansion. We'll hum along in the Discoverse for the upcoming second season. Then, by next fall, we'll see a Picard expansion.

grendelthewise · November 2018

Perhaps the Devs can go back into some of the older arcs and add to and modify for longer, more detailed story telling.[/quote]

I like the sound of that idea

Unknown · November 2018

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ilithyn · November 2018

somtaawkhar wrote: »

The current Alpha/Beta maps are only a small portion of their respective quadrants
While this is true, the current Alpha/Beta maps cover the region of space where like 90% of all the planets/systems seen in the Alpha/Beta Quadrants were located. There is very little in terms of places outside the current maps.

Here's a thought for you and the devs, maybe we could boldly go where no one has gone before?

Idk, just a wild idea I had.

alexraptorr · November 2018

I'm more interested in seeing the existing maps fleshed out with more worlds to visit rather than seeing more pointless and empty space added to the game.

Unknown · November 2018

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baddmoonrizin · November 2018

Charted does not necessarily mean explored.

rattler2 · November 2018

alexraptorr wrote: »

I'm more interested in seeing the existing maps fleshed out with more worlds to visit rather than seeing more pointless and empty space added to the game.

So... more places like Andoria and Vulcan that have nothing to do? I mean... what CAN you do on Andoria besides Omega collecting?

alexraptorr · November 2018

rattler2 wrote: »

alexraptorr wrote: »

I'm more interested in seeing the existing maps fleshed out with more worlds to visit rather than seeing more pointless and empty space added to the game.

So... more places like Andoria and Vulcan that have nothing to do? I mean... what CAN you do on Andoria besides Omega collecting?

I did say fleshed out, that includes "things to do".
Like perhaps taking a page from virtually every MMORPG out there and populate worlds with dozens of bottle missions/episodes to liven them up.

baddmoonrizin · November 2018

I wouldn't mind if they just turned the planets we already have into Adventure Zones.

brian334 · November 2018

Go to Vulcan and out-run magnetic storms and le-matya while seeking spiritual fulfillment in The Forge.

Get into a rousing argument in the mud baths on Tellar Prime.

Visit all the sights on Earth, and follow it up with dinner at Sisko's.

Spend the day at the Imperial Arena on Andoria, and maybe pick a fight with a blue dude with a trowel.

Lots of stuff to do on the main four planets. But there is so much grind to STO that nobody roleplays, or at least, not where I can see it. I'd like to see a mechanism for encouraging player interaction on the main planets: stuff that can only be done by multiple players at once, like the hoverboard races on Risa.

postagepaid · November 2018

Given that gamma quadrant is more or less an empty wasteland there's plenty of room for stuff to be added there. the only reason the sector map is so large is the awful waiting zone that needed the grid to work. Mission wise you've a cluster by the worm hole and a couple of outliers, the rest is just dead space, no random encounters, no patrols just tedium and boredom.

brian334 · November 2018

While I'd like to see the unused portions of the various maps 'filled in' with actual stuff to do, (trading on Ferenginar, arena on Andoria, The Forge on Vulcan, etc.) I think it would be nice to reimagine the old Exploration Clusters.

For example, if one goes to Delta Volanis Cluster, in addition to the DOffing you could actually enter the cluster and explore a small random starmap which would present one or more challenges to overcome, including but not limited to:

Red Alerts: Your ship deals with an unexpected emergency, be it a hostile force or a stellar phenomenon.
Distress Calls: Aid a ship in need, or evacuate a planet, deflect an incoming asteroid or supply a station with a vital commodity.
Planetary Survey: Explore a planet to determine its suitability as a colony site.
Discover Ancient Ruins: be they space stations crusted with eons of debris or crumbling cities.
Find Lost Colony: Are they lost or hiding? Can you convince them to rejoin the interstellar community?
Bug-Eyed Monster: What is this thing and why does it want to eat me?
First Contact: Make your presence known to a civilization which has just created its first warp drive.

So, where do all the missions come from? Randomly generated "kill three of these, scan three of these, kill three more of these, and kill the boss dude," missions get old fast. But the developers are hard pressed to create content for the official seasons and expansions, and with even more Trek coming on line in the next few years there will be an ever-increasing amount of official content that needs creation.

The answer is, The Foundry. Authors who work for free submit their work to an 'evaluation board' which would be a group of dedicated playtesters who volunteer to play the submissions and grade them. If the mission receives a positive grade, the mission is submitted to the developers for inclusion, (after any necessary review and maintenance, along with the implementation of treasures, loot, etc.)

This way, one part time developer could incorporate the player-generated missions into the STO Exploration Library which would randomly select from one to three every time a player 'creates' a random exploration cluster instance. With an ever-growing list, the chance of repeats would be low, and the few times it would happen the player could reject the mission or play it again to do better than the last time.

Anyway, it's an idea. A lot of Trek was about things you never see in STO because an MMO has to be about goals and gear. But there's room for so much more.

Unknown · November 2018

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Unknown · November 2018

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centaurianalpha · November 2018

The quadrants don't need to be any bigger, for sure. And making it easier to navigate the rumored 70K+ missions that have been created would be a welcome improvement; some of that content is really remarkable. Keep in mind that space scientists have also determined that only about 30% of a galaxy's stars will be within the "habitable zone", so if anything, we just need a bit more density in some sectors to reflect that fact. I could see filling in the Gamma and Delta quadrants first, then perhaps by then the Foundry will be better integrated into the reward system and more accessible.

warpangel · November 2018

Beta is 6x7 sectors, alpha 5x7, gamma 5x4 and delta 1x6. Even if beta's 6x7 is the absolute limit there is still room to grow alpha a bit and gamma/delta a lot. And then they could always make multiple maps per quadrant again.

But really, why bother? Sector space is an artifact with no purpose. Everything important has a transwarp and all in-sector activities have been broken, removed or turned into queues. The gamma quadrant map which was supposed to be a battlezone is just another queue lobby. They removed the price for mission transwarps so there's no need to even fly through sector space anymore, outside the handful of old missions that have the player manually travel during the mission.

vegeta50024 · November 2018

brian334 wrote: »

While I'd like to see the unused portions of the various maps 'filled in' with actual stuff to do, (trading on Ferenginar, arena on Andoria, The Forge on Vulcan, etc.) I think it would be nice to reimagine the old Exploration Clusters.

For example, if one goes to Delta Volanis Cluster, in addition to the DOffing you could actually enter the cluster and explore a small random starmap which would present one or more challenges to overcome, including but not limited to:

Red Alerts: Your ship deals with an unexpected emergency, be it a hostile force or a stellar phenomenon.
Distress Calls: Aid a ship in need, or evacuate a planet, deflect an incoming asteroid or supply a station with a vital commodity.
Planetary Survey: Explore a planet to determine its suitability as a colony site.
Discover Ancient Ruins: be they space stations crusted with eons of debris or crumbling cities.
Find Lost Colony: Are they lost or hiding? Can you convince them to rejoin the interstellar community?
Bug-Eyed Monster: What is this thing and why does it want to eat me?
First Contact: Make your presence known to a civilization which has just created its first warp drive.

So, where do all the missions come from? Randomly generated "kill three of these, scan three of these, kill three more of these, and kill the boss dude," missions get old fast. But the developers are hard pressed to create content for the official seasons and expansions, and with even more Trek coming on line in the next few years there will be an ever-increasing amount of official content that needs creation.

The answer is, The Foundry. Authors who work for free submit their work to an 'evaluation board' which would be a group of dedicated playtesters who volunteer to play the submissions and grade them. If the mission receives a positive grade, the mission is submitted to the developers for inclusion, (after any necessary review and maintenance, along with the implementation of treasures, loot, etc.)

This way, one part time developer could incorporate the player-generated missions into the STO Exploration Library which would randomly select from one to three every time a player 'creates' a random exploration cluster instance. With an ever-growing list, the chance of repeats would be low, and the few times it would happen the player could reject the mission or play it again to do better than the last time.

Anyway, it's an idea. A lot of Trek was about things you never see in STO because an MMO has to be about goals and gear. But there's room for so much more.

What you have highlighted here, more or less is similar to the exploration system that was removed in the game 4 years ago. While the Foundry could be useful for this, the foundry needs a lot of work in order to facilitate everything that you might want to make out of this.

avoozuul · November 2018

rattler2 wrote: »

Delta would probably be the easiest to expand. Alpha and Beta I think are about as big as the engine will allow. Gamma is about that size as well.

Gamma is about as big as Alpha used to be before the New Frontiers campaign.

brian334 · November 2018

I am always surprised by what Foundry authors create with the limited utility available. All it needs is to be turned on. As for missions that go into the Exploration list, all of those would be vetted and refined by the staff anyway, using the developer's toolkit.

Sure, it would be nice if the foundry authors had better tools, but it's not necessary for this idea to be made functional.

Unknown · November 2018

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lianthelia · November 2018

wideningxgyre wrote: »

I'm more inclined to believe that the new Picard series will be the basis of the next major expansion. We'll hum along in the Discoverse for the upcoming second season. Then, by next fall, we'll see a Picard expansion.

What is there to expand on? He probably will not be a captain anymore, I'm not saying their wont be content but I doubt it will be expansion worthy.

Unknown · November 2018

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Unknown · November 2018

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Unknown · November 2018

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avoozuul · November 2018

somtaawkhar wrote: »

postagepaid wrote: »

Given that gamma quadrant is more or less an empty wasteland there's plenty of room for stuff to be added there. the only reason the sector map is so large is the awful waiting zone that needed the grid to work. Mission wise you've a cluster by the worm hole and a couple of outliers, the rest is just dead space, no random encounters, no patrols just tedium and boredom.

>waiting
>at all
>in the GQ battlezone
It always pops fairly quickly for me.

Also, patrols and random encounters don't make sense for the Gamma Quadrant since the entire area is lorded over by The Dominion, and not a hodgepodge of various galactic powers fight each other over territory like the Alpha and Beta Quadrants are.

Yes, but they could still make them for the Jem'Hadar only.

Next expansion of the Star Trek Map

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