One thing I remember about the exploration system that really felt so amazing to me was the actual sector space areas for the clusters. The vast emptiness with nothing but the starfield in all directions really gave it a mood of being out there, exploring the depths of space with an ever-present sense of the unknown.
I've always liked looking at the stars, and as a kid who grew up in the city with too many ground lights to truly see the night sky in all its wonder, I remember going on a camping trip and seeing the sky fully for the first time. The exploration sectors made me think of that experience from my childhood.
"There can be no meeting of the minds between two parties
if both parties are not willing to meet in the middle." -Ambassador Samuel J. Stone
For any new players reading, the old system called "exploration" was not actually "exploration". It was actually just patrols with different enemy types depending on the location. Warp into a system, kill 5 groups of ships, the end. Beam down to a planet, kill 5 groups of NPCs, the end. There were some non combat mission where you would either scan 5 anomalies, though. So, fun stuff!
I mean, it was definitely empty, but vast? You call those soupy shoeboxes vast?
The rose-colored glasses for that terrible old "exploration" system baffles me.
Correct. The little exploration cluster maps were smaller than the regular sector block maps, so all the OP has to do is turn off astrometrics and fly around in sector space and it will pretty much look the same.
Beam down to a planet, kill 5 groups of NPCs, the end.
Or, often as not, beam down to a planet, kill three groups of NPCs, the other two spawned under the map and you can't touch them, no end.
Also, kill them by yourself because your boffs spawned under the map too, or fell into a ravine, or tripped over a boulder, or got distracted by a shiny object.
I don't miss those. Or the other "fun" mission type where a planet needed 5 antigen commodities to repair their stargate.
The old exploration system was awful as pretty much everyone agrees. It's also been gone for more than 60% of the entire lifespan of the game. They clearly don't plan on replacing it in any way. I wouldn't expect to see anything so daring or bold at this point in the game. Patrols and the odd mini game are our exploration and have been for the last 6 years.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
Every now and then a few exploration missions where fun. Also interesting to see what the randomizer came up with in maps and aliens.
It had its faults and probably a lot of people where looking forward to a reworked system. But as with foundry, crews, memory alpha, the STO "armory", the calendar and probably quite some other stuff Cryptic did what I fear is by now their standard reaction when things get a bit rough: delete it and argue that ppl did not used it (while acting oblivious to the reasons why in some cases).
I actually got lost a couple times in those clusters. And it really wasn't exploration. It was randomly generated "kill 5 mobs" or "scan 5 objects".
It is also the source of the ever popular "3rd Borg Dynasty".
And that's when it actually worked. There were many instances of what jonsills described that basically broke ground based exploration missions.
Also... we still have something similar to the old Exploration Clusters. Anyone remember the old Empire Defense stuff KDF side? They still have their clusters.
But, but, we got a whole load of mini-games to assist us in exploring.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
To repeat the point for those who keep using the term, the system in question was not actually "exploration", it was patrols. Warping into a system and killing 5 groups of enemies that are already known species/factions (Klingons, Romulans, Cardassian, etc) has nothing to do with "exploration". Granted, the maps where you are scanning anomalies might quality for that term, but none of the combat missions did.
That said, I actually DO miss the system. No, it wasn't exploration. And yes it was buggy. But I don't mind admitting I enjoyed running the daily to do 3 missions. It was kind of fun, to me, to not know what kind of mission I was about to warp into. And while I know you can get that same "random" experience by queuing for a random TFO, I am honestly getting sick of all these "huge battles" in game. I do actually miss the "small" missions where it's just you fighting 1 or 2 other ships at a time.
I understand why the devs removed it, but I wished they could have just tucked it away in some corner where it wasn't bother new players but people who wanted to do it still could.
Those Exploration Patrols we still have in the non-repeatable System Patrols.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Of course it was an exploration system. How else would we have learned the Borg were searching for artifacts from their 4th dynasty?
3rd Dynasty. Get it right man! Geez. You disrespect the 3rd Borg Dynasty!
Anyways... I would like to see those non repeatable patrols revisited, maybe revamped with some of the new stuff that's come out since, and made repeatable.
Comments
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
I mean, it was definitely empty, but vast? You call those soupy shoeboxes vast?
The rose-colored glasses for that terrible old "exploration" system baffles me.
I Support Disco | Disco is Love | Disco is Life
Correct. The little exploration cluster maps were smaller than the regular sector block maps, so all the OP has to do is turn off astrometrics and fly around in sector space and it will pretty much look the same.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Also, kill them by yourself because your boffs spawned under the map too, or fell into a ravine, or tripped over a boulder, or got distracted by a shiny object.
I don't miss those. Or the other "fun" mission type where a planet needed 5 antigen commodities to repair their stargate.
It had its faults and probably a lot of people where looking forward to a reworked system. But as with foundry, crews, memory alpha, the STO "armory", the calendar and probably quite some other stuff Cryptic did what I fear is by now their standard reaction when things get a bit rough: delete it and argue that ppl did not used it (while acting oblivious to the reasons why in some cases).
It is also the source of the ever popular "3rd Borg Dynasty".
And that's when it actually worked. There were many instances of what jonsills described that basically broke ground based exploration missions.
Also... we still have something similar to the old Exploration Clusters. Anyone remember the old Empire Defense stuff KDF side? They still have their clusters.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
That said, I actually DO miss the system. No, it wasn't exploration. And yes it was buggy. But I don't mind admitting I enjoyed running the daily to do 3 missions. It was kind of fun, to me, to not know what kind of mission I was about to warp into. And while I know you can get that same "random" experience by queuing for a random TFO, I am honestly getting sick of all these "huge battles" in game. I do actually miss the "small" missions where it's just you fighting 1 or 2 other ships at a time.
I understand why the devs removed it, but I wished they could have just tucked it away in some corner where it wasn't bother new players but people who wanted to do it still could.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
3rd Dynasty. Get it right man! Geez. You disrespect the 3rd Borg Dynasty!
Anyways... I would like to see those non repeatable patrols revisited, maybe revamped with some of the new stuff that's come out since, and made repeatable.