So, I've been rummaging around on my PC lately, and came upon a folder of old screenshots from when I first started playing. There was some neat stuff there, like my Andorian crew all walking with their guns held up as if aiming (they don't do that anymore), or my crew exploring one of the many random worlds generated by the old exploration system.
It made me very nostalgic, and rather sad. How I miss being able to beam down and just wander on a planet. I mean, I almost never see my crew anymore. Am I the only one that misses the old exploration system, limited as it was?
I also miss open missions. I remember being in a mission and suddenly another player would enter, and we would complete it together. That never happens anymore. I seem to remember it happening in the new patrol missions (limited as THEY are), but it doesn't seem to happen anymore.
How I long for the old days. Anyone else feel this way?
Once, I was simply called Mojo. Now, I'm forced into a new name, but don't be fooled, I'm the original STO Mojo!
This game needs detailed crafting, exploration and interaction systems.
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I do long for the old days when I just played for fun, not because I have to log on to do some boring daily thing because the reward is too good to pass up.
Yet, I understand what you mean...many games have the "Classic" experience these days, I can see STO getting a "Classic" Server appart from Holodeck.
I think STO has gained way more than it has lost and I get their reasoning behind removing these Exploration Randoms...they were content fillers to actually get to max level and keep players engaged until new content was shipped. Once they had a solid base of story missions they were able to remove sub standard content.
But now I only see more money based stuff and more grinds in the future.
The old system of randos joining a mission was interesting but awkward.
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Oh man Mine Trap! I miss Mine Trap -that was a great way to earn Romulan Marks back in the day.
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> Oh man Mine Trap! I miss Mine Trap -that was a great way to earn Romulan Marks back in the day.
You are right mate it was. And even though it took 20 players to start it always had the habit of starting.
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Actually its doing pretty well for its age. We still have at least one confirmed arc after the current one that we the players know about, AND its active at the same time as current running shows. So the potential for new story arcs is still there.
The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
For example, suppose it was one of those supply missions, where a colony was asking for a number of shield generators. I'd provide them, then come up with a more detailed explanation... such as:
"We arrived at Delta Vega (or whatever) in response to a distress call. Their astronomers had detected a stellar core fragment passing through their system. They already had sufficient equipment to handle the tectonic stresses, but their shield generators are 80 years old, and not up to protecting the colony from the radiation. I assigned Chief Engineer Rockford to upgrade their systems before the fragment arrives. He anticipates no trouble, but I have also assigned a medical team to the colony to assist with any problems with exposure. Just in case."
I have a BUNCH of such entries in my logs. Some are pretty simple, some are pretty detailed. It was fun. I really miss it.
This game needs detailed crafting, exploration and interaction systems.
It would have been cool if they could have set it up where you can talk in your mic and have the words type out on the log. It's worth the odd looks you'd probably get from anyone around you.
“There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”
― Hunter S. Thompson
There was also the hidden things. SB24 had that semi hidden Dreadnought at the back of the map to fight which gave you bonus points towards 1st place if you know about it and had the skill to take it on solo. Back then soloing a Dreadnought was a real challenge. Back then Dreadnoughts where real Dreadnought's. SB24 also had that semi hidden area where you fly to the middle of the space map, board the station to fight off ground NPC’s then rejoin the space map.
The original Romulan Imperial Minefield I think it had a different name back then. In the space TFO you could fly to one of the damaged ships leaking plasma, board it, explore the ship and fight though NPC’s to the bridge to save the ship then re enter the space map. It was a little secret few people know about as it wasn't part of the mission. Kind of pointless to do mind you but was fun. Really wish they brought back SB24 as it had so much more depth to it then its replacement.
I do miss the drop in and drop out of SB24 / Romulan Imperial Minefield map. I know we have battlezones but they are not the same. Also we went into the story missions and other random players would join. When and why did they remove that?
The perfect mission for Halloween.
Well back before Delta Rising all Fleet Actions were fairly quick queues, they were fairly popular, but after the mass exodus that happened with so many people leaving the game, most of the Fleet Actions died off, and I think at this point most of the fleet actions have either been converted into a 5 man "TFO" or are just removed from the game.
OMG Yes! I did that too, early on. They really did put some fun tools in this game originally, when it wasn't about grinding everything.
Yes I miss those old fleet actions and those hidden gems. It made the world feel a lot more real in some ways. Just fighting to get close enough to SB24 to beam over was a challenge sometimes. I think it was Klingon scout force that had another little one to beam into a runabout.
It was half-baked from the onset and it never got any better.
What didn't suck about it was the potential it represented. I got the impression that what we got was an early iteration of something that was really intended to be far more functional with a growing assortment of elements the randomization system could have pulled from.
The only part of the exploration system was the Genesis-produced ground maps, but they were not game-ready. They just spit out algorithm-driven maps, but an environment dev had to take it into the design software and edit it so AI pathfinding would work (which was bugged a lot of the time). But there were a ton of maps that were bugged causing characters to fall out of the world. We'd report these, and rather than fix those maps, Cryptic removed them...
Cryptic neglected the system. It became a steaming pile of targ manure. And then they removed it from the game, giving the stupid excuse of "people were getting lost in the exploration sectors... How do you get lost in a freaking square room with one exit? Oh... but don't worry. The same things you could do in an exploration mission can be done in the Foundry. So Foundry could be our alternative to exploration.
Now Foundry's gone.
And hey... Cryptic cannot even be bothered to make an in-game event calendar work, so I have no confidence in their ability to ever add an exploration system that is even as half-baked as the original one, let alone one that goes above and beyond.
They cannot even figure out a way to integrate our ship interiors into standard gameplay loops. They stopped making bridge packs because people stopped buying them. But they stopped buying them because there are no meaningful activities to do in our ship interiors...
Star Trek Online is based on a TV show where 90% of the time, the characters are doing things and interacting with each other on board the ship or station.
Maybe if we get some decision makers who give a damn about exploration and the sense of personal ownership of game space that Interiors represent (like housing in many MMOs), then maybe they can find a way to tie an exploration system in with ship interiors, thus turning a session of "Interior play" into a procedurally generated virtual star trek series starring us and our crew, in effect, killing two birds with one stone...
Cryptic Studios previously maintained a web-based server that permitted the Captain's Logs written inside to be shared outside of the game. We wrote from the perspective that we were the star of our own series. The fandom side of our playing was extremely infectious. The writing being shared served to inspire one another.
I also miss other player's appearing on the mission maps and sharing in the completion of pretty much any mission.
The game we share today is an almost entirely different experience. I imagine it would be a culture shock to anyone who played the first couple of years. Departed for greener gaming pastures. And then returned after the game hit ten years old.
So. Now that we are in 2020. The newer player's can't miss what they never had. And can't understand why any of us could possibly miss such experiences.
#TASinSTO
#LDinSTO
#TrekkiesTogether
I remember that happening. I had a few people comment on my logs over the years, and I always took a little pride in that.
I know, the old system was very limited, but it was better than nothing... which is what we have now.
This game needs detailed crafting, exploration and interaction systems.
> What I think some veteran player's miss are the means of sharing the Star Trek Online experience more intimately than the game presents after ten years. It's changed. A lot.
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> Cryptic Studios previously maintained a web-based server that permitted the Captain's Logs written inside to be shared outside of the game. We wrote from the perspective that we were the star of our own series. The fandom side of our playing was extremely infectious. The writing being shared served to inspire one another.
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> I also miss other player's appearing on the mission maps and sharing in the completion of pretty much any mission.
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> The game we share today is an almost entirely different experience. I imagine it would be a culture shock to anyone who played the first couple of years. Departed for greener gaming pastures. And then returned after the game hit ten years old.
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> So. Now that we are in 2020. The newer player's can't miss what they never had. And can't understand why any of us could possibly miss such experiences.
Exactly. I did the same, writing logs and making up stories as I did exploration cluster chains. Even saved some of the unique aliens you encounter, made up rough outlines of their society during first contact
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- Borg Red Alerts which were actually a real challenge. Heck, the B'Ger (unimatrix ship) appearing was NOT a given to appear back then - the cubes were sufficently challenging that the instance could 'time out' if the team wasn't strong enough to despatch the cubes.
- ISA actually being worthy of being called an 'Advanced' mission. It was difficult, challenging, had fail conditions and we used to need the LONG-forgotten 10% rule to make it all work. The other Borg STFs were just as challenging too.
- Mine trap in general. As has already been said, that was a surprisingly enjoyable mission
- No win scenario - the older one, which was (in my opinion) better than the garbage we now have with the Kobiashi Maru/Leeroy Jenkins
I could say more - but as @westx211 said:
Same. Wall-to-wall events, with rewards that players don't really want to miss, are clearly Cryptics modus operandi now and they obviously think this is necessary in order to keep players logging in. Not sure who is really responsible for that, but I do find it tiresome.
Yes they overdone it with the events to the point we cannot pick our own activities for fun cause if we dont do the events we will miss X one time reward and then its only possible to get on Mudds at stupidly high prices. I miss the time when I was picking what I would do today and that next event was actually something anticipated since it wasnt so often as today. My most fun days are the 1 to 5 days we get free between events nowadays
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Back when
I realize covid is inhibiting deeper level changes for security reasons, but it also kind of feels like development has been plodding along a treadmill of the same things for a bit too long now. I do find it commendable that the team has been able to keep the content pace still rolling, but the lack of new long-term goals(Reputations, Specializations, Fleet Holdings, Endeavors, etc.) for the players to master does concern me. Furthermore, with the continuous gutting of existing systems(without adding new ones), it's creating a stagnant environment that lacks juxtaposition(each new addition just feels like 'more of the same').
I also miss the old exploration missions, hell.. I even miss the basic patrol missions. That they decided to not make replayable, I don't know why it it makes our huge map feel so much smaller. Because you can only visit most planets, once.
And most episodes are just in the same places over and over again. STO has gotten a lot better but sometimes I miss the "good old days", heh'.
For one I really miss Starbase 24 and it's interior rescue mission, we lost the interior mission then we lost the Starbase all together.
I miss the big dig.. And yeah, these places are still in the game. Just not accessable, it makes the huge map feel so much smaller than it really is.
Star Trek Online right now is a huge game of set-dressing, the actual places you can visit and explore are small. And most of them are a one time per character exploration.