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Idea to increase number of new missions/episodes:

captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User

Hi all,
Firstly let me just say BRAVO on all the new main story missions. Janeway was quite the surprise and instantly this season is one of my top 3 favorite in the game (which says a lot because there's so many great stories.)

I am a player (from beta) who mainly plays for the story/missions. I believe a lot of newcomers really enjoy missions as well.

The rate at which we get new story missions is way too slow... And it SHOULD be slow for these cinematic style missions with actors reprising their beloved characters.
The other thing is that in order to make a proper new mission everything has to be built from the ground up, literally new landscapes, new characters etc. etc.
All totally understood...

So my idea was: "What if Cryptic hired someone specifically to draw out new mini mission/stories to serve the same function that star trek producers and writers called "Bottleneck episodes." - A bottleneck episode was done by reusing sets, and props and keeping the cast very small and using very little special FX (and the ones they used to be practical and cheap.) These episodes would be thrown in to seasons of star trek to save money in the budget for bigger FX and story heavy episodes throughout the season to finale...

Then another aspect of this idea came to me: "What if Cryptic took another Star Trek tool used when the original series and The next generation were on tv... Let fans submit scripts!"
Fans would submit thousands of scripts/stories for trek writers to edit and produce, and just plain use to be inspired/amused around the office.
The playerbase here are DEFINITELY fantasy and science fiction lovers. All Cryptic would have to do is make a submission page and make a cute advertisement in game, and give us a format that includes rules. Rules such as "You can not include main characters from the actual series, unless they've been used in Star trek online before."
And how long and how to flesh out the dimensions to a story/mission. This might even be a pre-made format on your submissions page. People write their story right there and hit submit.

This probably is way more complicated than I make it sound but I think it gets the point across.
I miss the Foundry, as it kind of accomplished what I'm saying fairly well. Especially when high ranked foundry content was placed randomly in sector space. I'm sure the dev's had a good reason to get rid of it, but I wish we had it back to address this exact issue.

Take care all, the game looks great and good job re: getting in Picard! (Get us the new Excelsior II!!!!!)

PS: One tiny thing off topic, can someone make the 32nd century phaser beams brighter/bloomier? They are so faint in game while on the show they are dramatic and have quite a lot of bloom and shine to them. I'd almost imagine 32nd century phasers would be called "Phaser projectors" rather than "Phaser arrays." (my little retcon to explain why we never see weapons ports on 32nd century ships)
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,969 Community Moderator
    Then another aspect of this idea came to me: "What if Cryptic took another Star Trek tool used when the original series and The next generation were on tv... Let fans submit scripts!"
    Fans would submit thousands of scripts/stories for trek writers to edit and produce, and just plain use to be inspired/amused around the office.
    The playerbase here are DEFINITELY fantasy and science fiction lovers. All Cryptic would have to do is make a submission page and make a cute advertisement in game, and give us a format that includes rules. Rules such as "You can not include main characters from the actual series, unless they've been used in Star trek online before."
    And how long and how to flesh out the dimensions to a story/mission. This might even be a pre-made format on your submissions page. People write their story right there and hit submit.

    Legally they can't do that. It was quite the headache when they did the "Design the Next Enterprise" contest years ago over ownership of the designs, and all kinds of other things. Its a can of worms Cryptic most likely doesn't want to revisit.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • orangenee#2931 orangenee Member Posts: 837 Arc User
    The lawyers will love it!
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,248 Arc User
    edited March 2022
    Yeah player made scripts would be a pain legally not mention everything still technically has to be approved by CBS, while currently mainly a formality, with player made scripts it would be different.

    Now the idea of a "bottle episode" using pre-made assets isn't a bad one, it would have to be done with Cryptic's writers, not fan made scripts

    Edit: My idea for "bottle episodes" would low intensity mission, where the fate of the Galaxy was not at stake, but rather they would be generic routine missions, essentially slightly expanded patrols.
    Post edited by spiritborn on
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    edited March 2022
    spiritborn wrote: »
    Yeah player made scripts would be a pain legally not mention everything still technically has to be approved by CBS, while currently mainly a formality, with player made scripts it would be different.

    Now the idea of a "bottle episode" using pre-made assets isn't a bad one, it would have to be done with Cryptic's writers, not fan made scripts

    Edit: My idea for "bottle episodes" would low intensity mission, where the fate of the Galaxy was not at stake, but rather they would be generic routine missions, essentially slightly expanded patrols.

    Good idea. They could be lumped together outside of the main story arcs as a collection of side stories.

    Cryptic could even try having summer interns or new hires do some of the work on them instead of using the more experienced developers. There might be a few rough edges in the writing or balance, but it would be more content and no one would be forced to play them.

  • smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,659 Arc User
    Wish the old quests taken down would come back.
    dvZq2Aj.jpg
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    Yeah I get the legal issue with making actual main stories.

    I didn't really mean that. And something I couldn't articulate because I was tired when I wrote my OP, was "Lets make small inconsequential missions that revisit previously visited locations from main missions, including old characters."

    I'd love to go back to Drozana for a small "bottleneck mission" and during said mission have the bar tender talk about how the place used to be "haunted" with singing mad men in the bowels of the station, and floating soul sucking dividians, and how glad she is that the place is back to "normal" now... whatever that means.

    Or to see Miral Paris again and revisit some Federation worlds and regions from the early missions but with a face lift and little story.

    This way we can maybe get more missions between main story content and see old friends.

    I thought the rewards could also be some original rewards that aren't around as much.
    Cool guns, maybe depending on your performance you get some really cool randomized reward from events past.

    Just stuff like that.

    Look, there's always cynics who shoot down every single idea presented but try to remember: I am coming from a place of loving the game and wanting the best for it. New and old players would enjoy the complexity.

    If this idea is not feasible, does anyone know why they took down the Foundry?
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,969 Community Moderator
    If this idea is not feasible, does anyone know why they took down the Foundry?

    That's in the FCT thread.
    Short version: It broke EVERY time they updated the game, and took longer and longer to fix to the point it was not feasable to maintain.
    And probably a good idea to leave it at that as the subject is still rather touchy with some people despite the official statement from Cryptic, hence why it is in the FCT.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    Ah kay! "BRUNT.... FCT..." :P
  • mithrosnomoremithrosnomore Member Posts: 390 Arc User
    Wish the old quests taken down would come back.

    This.

    I got them wanting to "streamline" the leveling experience (I may not agree, but I understand), but I never understood why so many missions over the course of the game's history just disappeared.

    Move them to "available", minor tweaks to make them holodeck simulations instead of "real" missions if necessary, and we get more missions to play with minimal work from the devs.

    They don't even have to offer great rewards. Just some at-level equipment, ship or personal depending upon the mission focus, and maybe even a few commendation XP (run a diplomatic mission? Have 100 diplomacy points. Run a mission heavy on warfighting stuff? Have 100 military points. Easy).

    Saturday's Child, The Kuvah'Magh, and many more all gone.
    The Borg almost feel like a secondary element in their own arc because of what got cut and trimmed.

    Because they wanted to speed up leveling and "even out" the chapters.



  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    Wish the old quests taken down would come back.

    This.

    I got them wanting to "streamline" the leveling experience (I may not agree, but I understand), but I never understood why so many missions over the course of the game's history just disappeared.

    Move them to "available", minor tweaks to make them holodeck simulations instead of "real" missions if necessary, and we get more missions to play with minimal work from the devs.

    They don't even have to offer great rewards. Just some at-level equipment, ship or personal depending upon the mission focus, and maybe even a few commendation XP (run a diplomatic mission? Have 100 diplomacy points. Run a mission heavy on warfighting stuff? Have 100 military points. Easy).

    Saturday's Child, The Kuvah'Magh, and many more all gone.
    The Borg almost feel like a secondary element in their own arc because of what got cut and trimmed.

    Because they wanted to speed up leveling and "even out" the chapters.

    Agreed. "Perfect is the enemy of good" or in this case, "good is the enemy of pretty good."

    Better to have the episodes available at all for the next X years instead of Cryptic hoping to someday maybe make them better, when someday never seems to arrive.

  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    Wish the old quests taken down would come back.

    This.

    I got them wanting to "streamline" the leveling experience (I may not agree, but I understand), but I never understood why so many missions over the course of the game's history just disappeared.

    Move them to "available", minor tweaks to make them holodeck simulations instead of "real" missions if necessary, and we get more missions to play with minimal work from the devs.

    They don't even have to offer great rewards. Just some at-level equipment, ship or personal depending upon the mission focus, and maybe even a few commendation XP (run a diplomatic mission? Have 100 diplomacy points. Run a mission heavy on warfighting stuff? Have 100 military points. Easy).

    Saturday's Child, The Kuvah'Magh, and many more all gone.
    The Borg almost feel like a secondary element in their own arc because of what got cut and trimmed.

    Because they wanted to speed up leveling and "even out" the chapters.

    & davefenestrator;
    "
    Agreed. "Perfect is the enemy of good" or in this case, "good is the enemy of pretty good."

    Better to have the episodes available at all for the next X years instead of Cryptic hoping to someday maybe make them better, when someday never seems to arrive."

    WHOLLY agree my friends!!!
    I MISS those missions dearly. Like you both, I understand (and agree) with the dev's streamlining the mission story arch..
    But give us "Captain's Elective" missions where we have all those beautiful old original mission stories!

    I was never a gamer before this game.. Something that I wasn't prepared for was the sentimental attachment to it...
    I got this game about two months before my mother passed away suddenly and tragically.
    Through my trauma I had Star Trek Online.
    I lived alone in the big city with a bed, a table and a lamp and a computer. I filled my apartment and my life slowly over the decade that I grew with this game.

    I really hope we can see those old missions again.

    At least that would be a step.

    Dev's were wise enough to know that this would be an issue for the feel of the game a long time ago and so they tried implementing the deep space random mission generator but it really wasn't sophisticated enough.. The "rando missions" were basically 3 different missions dressed slightly differently. They got boring pretty quick. No one's fault.

    There's a game called Pulsar: Lost Colony on Steam. I bring it up as it's an open galaxy with missions everywhere. Each mission is pre-programmed by the devs of that game. Pulsar has a lot of missions (maybe something like 300) and is a bit older than STO (I think.)

    Maybe the way around all of this is to bring back all the original game missions in an elective tab. (this suggestion is also being pushed by my friend Captain_bmoney)
  • paradox#7391 paradox Member Posts: 1,774 Arc User
    My Idea for an episode or an arc Involves the Romulans being the bad guys again, make it more espionage based rather than combat heavy, just a rule NO SPACE COMBAT WHATSOEVER, just James Bond your way to victory by out smarting and out spying the Romulans.

    As you can tell from my comment above, I hate space combat and have a personal preference towarda ground combat.
  • captainperkinscaptainperkins Member Posts: 379 Arc User
    My Idea for an episode or an arc Involves the Romulans being the bad guys again, make it more espionage based rather than combat heavy, just a rule NO SPACE COMBAT WHATSOEVER, just James Bond your way to victory by out smarting and out spying the Romulans.

    As you can tell from my comment above, I hate space combat and have a personal preference towarda ground combat.

    Love it! I agree we should see iconic races play their original antagonistic selves, and I love space combat but I'd be willing to play out a ground based mission if it were well written and totally Romulan! Maybe your character undergoes surgeryr to "become romulan" in this mission XD
  • garaffegaraffe Member Posts: 1,353 Arc User
    Let it be someone other than Sela causing trouble this time.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,969 Community Moderator
    Love it! I agree we should see iconic races play their original antagonistic selves, and I love space combat but I'd be willing to play out a ground based mission if it were well written and totally Romulan! Maybe your character undergoes surgeryr to "become romulan" in this mission XD

    We already have a couple missions like that, but with Holoemitters. One we pose as Klingons, the other as Vaadwaur.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • captainbrian11captainbrian11 Member Posts: 733 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    Love it! I agree we should see iconic races play their original antagonistic selves, and I love space combat but I'd be willing to play out a ground based mission if it were well written and totally Romulan! Maybe your character undergoes surgeryr to "become romulan" in this mission XD

    We already have a couple missions like that, but with Holoemitters. One we pose as Klingons, the other as Vaadwaur.


    that is a good point though, we don't have many ground missions like that. just "core of the problem"
  • captainbmoneycaptainbmoney Member Posts: 1,323 Arc User
    Oh Hai. I was mentioned. I figured I should mention the reason I really want Past Imperfect back is because Federation Characters doe not have access to the rewards. Past Imperfect was one of the first old missions to have Unique style type rewards. Efficient Engines, Plasmatic-Disruptors, The huge cap shield, Type 1 ground phaser. and years before it was taken away they even put in voice lines from the actress who played Miral Paris on Endgame. Speaking of Miral Paris. ALL of the missions that had her are put behind a lock. they should be in the Available Section like the Dividian Missions and the Breen Missions.

    Cryptic. Some of your devs know I been asking for these for years. Just make them apart of the game. Catagorize them in something like "Classic Pre-F2P" or something. but make it usable and able to be played. by all characters. yeah.

    Have a nice day.

    Like my fanpage!
    https://www.facebook.com/CaptainBMoney913
    Join Date: August 29th 2010
  • smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,659 Arc User
    Oh Hai. I was mentioned. I figured I should mention the reason I really want Past Imperfect back is because Federation Characters doe not have access to the rewards. Past Imperfect was one of the first old missions to have Unique style type rewards. Efficient Engines, Plasmatic-Disruptors, The huge cap shield, Type 1 ground phaser. and years before it was taken away they even put in voice lines from the actress who played Miral Paris on Endgame. Speaking of Miral Paris. ALL of the missions that had her are put behind a lock. they should be in the Available Section like the Dividian Missions and the Breen Missions.

    Cryptic. Some of your devs know I been asking for these for years. Just make them apart of the game. Catagorize them in something like "Classic Pre-F2P" or something. but make it usable and able to be played. by all characters. yeah.

    Have a nice day.

    Yep. Lots of nice stuffs to play again....I wanna see that stuff come back.
    dvZq2Aj.jpg
  • paradox#7391 paradox Member Posts: 1,774 Arc User
    Oh Hai. I was mentioned. I figured I should mention the reason I really want Past Imperfect back is because Federation Characters doe not have access to the rewards. Past Imperfect was one of the first old missions to have Unique style type rewards. Efficient Engines, Plasmatic-Disruptors, The huge cap shield, Type 1 ground phaser. and years before it was taken away they even put in voice lines from the actress who played Miral Paris on Endgame. Speaking of Miral Paris. ALL of the missions that had her are put behind a lock. they should be in the Available Section like the Dividian Missions and the Breen Missions.

    Cryptic. Some of your devs know I been asking for these for years. Just make them apart of the game. Catagorize them in something like "Classic Pre-F2P" or something. but make it usable and able to be played. by all characters. yeah.

    Have a nice day.

    I loved the Mirel Paris mission where you travel back in time to find out that she was the cure to the augmentation virus and giving Klingons their ridges back, my only Issue is DSC Klingons since they contradict that storyline, I guess that DSC Klingons could be explained as a result of Klingons overdoing their genetic modification, they got their ridges back, but as result ended up more alien looking due to an overcalculation on their part.
  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    Then another aspect of this idea came to me: "What if Cryptic took another Star Trek tool used when the original series and The next generation were on tv... Let fans submit scripts!"
    Fans would submit thousands of scripts/stories for trek writers to edit and produce, and just plain use to be inspired/amused around the office.
    The playerbase here are DEFINITELY fantasy and science fiction lovers. All Cryptic would have to do is make a submission page and make a cute advertisement in game, and give us a format that includes rules. Rules such as "You can not include main characters from the actual series, unless they've been used in Star trek online before."
    And how long and how to flesh out the dimensions to a story/mission. This might even be a pre-made format on your submissions page. People write their story right there and hit submit.

    Legally they can't do that. It was quite the headache when they did the "Design the Next Enterprise" contest years ago over ownership of the designs, and all kinds of other things. Its a can of worms Cryptic most likely doesn't want to revisit.

    Even if they DID allow us to submit scripts or story treatments it wouldn't speed anything up, it's the actual implementation of the scripts (level design, asset creation, enemy placement, objective creation, bug testing, etc) that makes missions take so long to develop.
    Lifetime Subscriber since Beta
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