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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Using old mechanics in new ways

latentredlatentred Member Posts: 34 Arc User
edited August 2023 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
I occasionally think about ways to use existing systems in games to create new gameplay options without putting in a lot of work, and I thought we could have a thread to throw out ideas.

We could use the duty officer system to sponsor starfleet cadets. One at a time, we could pick a cadet from a randomly generated roster and give them a series of assignments from a large list to complete between classes. They'd earn traits for success, good traits for a critical success, or drop their grade point average for a failure. If they pass, we get some resources. Get a high grade and maybe we could offer them a space on our ship as a bridge officer. Maybe have a few rare, exclusive traits to incentivize using the system.

Some missions have us take control of another character or ship. Put that in place for task force missions or PvP. Sure, we can steamroll any opposition in our own builds. But can we do that with legendary characters and ships? We already have historical task force missions. Let's go to Earth at the start of first contact and survive in under powered ships until the Enterprise-E shows up. Make one of us Kirk, another Khan, and drop us in the Mutara nebula. Or just pick a premade build from a list and beat the other team. We have decades of options here.

We already have a racing mechanic. Let's race some shuttles! Voyager had a whole episode we can steal from.

What minimum effort, maximum gameplay ideas can you come up with?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • UnknownUnknown
    This content has been removed.
  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,918 Arc User
    What som said. Very few people like being put into another body or ship.
    Now a LTS and loving it.
    Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
    I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything. :D
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc
    phoenixc#0738
         Member Posts: 5,890 Arc User
    The protégé thing sounds like it could be OK if they handled the implementation right, either as a boff thing or possibly as a one time (or occasional) part of admiralty to get a sort of hero unit similar to the named gold ones already in the game.

    On the other hand, the only scenario where players take control of an NPC to play it that is popular (at least the first time around) Quark's Lucky Seven since it is such a screwy off the wall romp, but that kind of thing is only good for a one-off because the novelty wears off and people want to play the characters they made instead of pre-made ones in an MMORPG like STO.
  • flatulencius#6400 flatulencius
    flatulencius#6400
         Member Posts: 13 Arc User
    Sounds like good ideas to me. There's only so many times I can replay the same content, so anything that gives a bit more optional variation would be welcome.

    Personally, I'd like to see the 'Go to deep-space' button give access to an exploration zone containing random encounters, new planets or facilities to explore, perhaps a new alien race or two. Could be done with tweaked versions of existing maps and models, and perhaps linked to a progression bar similar to endeavours.

    Also, would it be too much to ask that my ship be boarded by invaders form time to time?
  • UnknownUnknown
    edited September 2021
    This content has been removed.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 58,691 Community Moderator
    somtaawkhar wrote: »
    The game had soothing like this years ago. The various nebulas around sector space contained a large number of "exploration" missions using various maps and alien races(including several Cryptic made ones). It was removed because most people didn't like it, and the content wasn't very good because randomly generated content like that is never very complex(think Skyrim/Fo4 radiant quests)

    Not only that, the ones on the ground tended to be somewhat buggy because it had a good chance of spawning enemies underground.
    And 9 times out of 10 it was just a generic "kill 5 enemy groups" mission. And oh yea... we got the fan favorite 3rd Borg Dynasty out of it too!
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  • latentredlatentred Member Posts: 34 Arc User
    Remember the theme is repurposing as much as possible. You have to explain how to create the new stuff using mostly old stuff. Invasion style attacks on your ship would take a massive amount of new resources. How would you do it with what we already have?

    Like, let's take shooter mode. There's a scene where I think Worf and someone else used the holodeck for some target practice in a void. They shot at some moving lights. Making a mini-game based on that would only need a room that tells you to go into shooter mode, and some 1 hp moving items that increase your score when destroyed. It wouldn't be used a whole lot, but neither are the dance competitions.
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