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Suggestion; Sol system planets and moons to explore..
deusexpw
Member Posts: 3 Arc User
We hear much in the Trek lore about Mars and yet we cannot visit it's surface. It would be rather nice to visit Mars, Venus, Titan or the Earth Moon, involving terrain walks in environmental suits and the habitation structures that may exist there. Even fictional demon-class worlds similar to Nukara Prime could be interesting.
For anyone concerned that there would be no aliens to fight there, I'm sure NPC's in EV suits could be inserted as a potential action component.
Why was development effort put into tropical paradise Risa and Winter Wonderland ? As a quick comparison check; which movies do the STO community prefer; 'Couple's Retreat' or 'The Martian' ? 'Into the Blue' or 'Interstellar' ? STO folk are fans of Sci-Fi !
For anyone concerned that there would be no aliens to fight there, I'm sure NPC's in EV suits could be inserted as a potential action component.
Why was development effort put into tropical paradise Risa and Winter Wonderland ? As a quick comparison check; which movies do the STO community prefer; 'Couple's Retreat' or 'The Martian' ? 'Into the Blue' or 'Interstellar' ? STO folk are fans of Sci-Fi !
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Well, doing a map which featured multiple planets, usually very small has been done, but they couldn't really do so for a system like, unless they made the planets even smaller in scale (which people WILL complain about). At the moment, just as with Bridges, they will only make something like this if the general story took you there. Unfortunately, this is a case of time, effort and cost to player participation and income ratio. Part of which explains why they still have yet to re-introduce an actual 'exploration' aspect. Risa and QWW get development because they are extremely popular yearly events that players will revisit repeatedly, and they have some great events. You can't say the same for your idea.
I accept the fairness of opportunity for opinions but, respectfully, yours makes no sense. Planet scaling and sizing is irrelevant. The planets are *already* rendered as orbs in sector space, it would merely require extra 'beam down' options in the box other than 'Enter Sol System'. As for planet surface size: geological features can, and do, provide excellent exploration boundaries. Other than 'Stormbound', the 'general story' does not include Risa or most ship bridges, there is no inference that a story is required to take you to a newly developed area, the Foundry contributors would pick up new areas soon enough anyway.
As for the yearly events being 'extremely popular' .. that's simply untrue but you're welcome to a subjective opinion.
While official development time has to go toward development of the next episode/season, there is ample room for this idea in Trek. You can make it a Foundry Mission.
Tholian spy station on Venus: Ack! You need your Nukara/Solanae Environmental Suit!
Heinlein Crater Creature: Is that a tripodal alien wandering around Heinlein Arcology? Let's find out! (Nope, just a scientist with some Elachi Walker tech whose experiment went wrong. Maybe...)
Jupiter Test Range: What's going on here? It seems someone's setting the test-range targets to return fire at full power levels! (Is this a case of an AI 'defending itself'? Or is there something more nefarious going on here?
Rings of Truth: Some ecoterrorists are sabotaging the stations in orbit of Saturn, claiming that 'environmental damage' is being done to the rings.
A swarm of interstellar creatures arrive in the outer Kuiper Belts intending to snack on ice before moving in to the inner system where tasty carbonaceous and ferrous asteroids are waiting like a well prepared buffet. Do you exterminate the parasites? Move them on to greener pastures? Fight for their inalienable rights as free creatures to snack on whatever base station or starship they happen upon? (And what do you do with the millions of eggs they just laid?)
Sol system is a prime location for Foundry missions. Why wait for someone else to tell you what Mars looks like? Make it yourself in Foundry.
What I'm hoping to get is a reasonably simulated Martian/Venus/lunar landscape and atmosphere, I'll bet we've all seen the photos taken by Curiosity and other probes.
If you're implying that this is exactly possible within the Foundry then you've provided a great response on something that I was not previously aware of, and thank you.
Nothing is exactly possible in Foundry. You have to make do.
The general idea is that IF they were to make ground maps for additional Sol planets, they would have to have a reason to do so. The typical espoused "reason for actually developing" hypothetical new maps is a new featured episode. Otherwise, there's no reason to make yet another useless social zone. Ever been to Vulcan or Andoria? I want a fun Mars exploration zone too with actual stuff to do. However if it's just going to end up like Vulcan or Andoria, then no I don't want it. And the devs will never waste time making it.
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