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Space, the final frontier...
colonelmarik
Member Posts: 2,218 Arc User
There's a nifty video posted of the Enterprise F, with Captain Shon doing the classic voiceover. However, I found it left a bad taste in my mouth.
I know, I come across very negative all the time, but bear with me.
First of all, it lacked the music. The Enterprise fanfare was really needed for this. I understand the licensing issue, but come on... they HAVE the license to make the Star Trek game, how hard would it have been to get access to the fanfare, at least?
Then there's the feeling of its hypocrisy. The dialog doesn't represent STO in any way. Trivially, the game really doesn't depict the voyages of the Enterprise, but that's small potatoes. What leaves me with a bad taste is the reference to seeking out new life. Star Trek Online doesn't DO that, at all... and stubbornly refuses to implement even the simplest of ideas to do so. MANY of us have offered suggestions over the years, all ignored. What little exploring we DID have access to was removed, then when we found an alternative, that was removed as well.
So, let me try to be positive by once again suggesting a way to do exploration in the game.
Take a look at the Sphere zones. As you fly around those zones, there are enemy ships about, there are DO missions and regular missions the player can do. I might have to fight a ship, or render assistance to someone. I might find a DO mission where they are assigned to repair something, or deliver supplies. These things are scattered all over the zone.
Now, consider the emptiness of Sector Space. There's NOTHING there, it serves NO purpose. Most people just queue for things, or transwarp directly to their missions, so having Sector Space is meaningless. My suggestion is to borrow from the design of Sphere space, and put encounters in Sector Space. As an example, look at the Abandoned Ships that ARE there. Right now, you fly over and press F to get resources. Now, imagine if instead, you could BOARD the ship and do a salvage mission, or an investigation to find out what happened to the crew. Suppose it instead started a mission, the ship having been bait for a pirate attack. There are lots of possibilities.
So, I envision this:
Your ship is travelling in Sector Space, perhaps en route to a mission. While travelling, you might spot a sensor contact at some distance (the distance would depend on the ship type... Science ships would have longer detection ranges, for example). You wouldn't know what it was until you got closer. This is important, because some contacts might engage YOU, putting you in a mission without giving you a choice (eg. a storm, or a pirate ambush). Once you get in range, the specifics of the encounter would become clear, and in most cases, you would choose whether to engage the encounter.
It might be something like a star system survey, or a ship in distress. It might be a convoy in need of escort, or any number of other possibilities. It might be a DO mission, allowing you to assign crew to do the task while you carry on to your destination. Again, there are SO many possibilities.
These encounters would appear at random, in random locations (we don't want them in the same places all the time, there's no sense of discovery in such cases). The actual encounter would also be random. These would be OPEN missions, which means OTHER players might join in, even part way through.
The specifics of the missions would be random as well. That is, in the old exploration system, very little was actually randomized. They were pretty well always the same. For this new system, the base mission would be always the same, but the details would be randomized.
For example, if the mission is a system survey, the basic objectives would always be the same... map the system by visiting waypoints, and scan all the phenomena there; beam down and take samples of all the minerals, plants, animals and so on. The number, type and positions of all these objectives would be random. In addition, these missions would have COMPLICATIONS. These are non-objective elements that complicate the mission. The number and type would also be random. There might be none, there might be many. They could take any number of forms, from threatening aliens, to stellar phenomena causing time limits, or ship damage, or what have you. In addition to this, some objectives and complications would be HAZARDS. These are elements that can cause some kind of "permanent" damage to your ship or crew. For example, a poisonous plant might incapacitate an away team officer until a regenerator is used to heal him... or until the REMEDY for the hazard is found. For each hazard, a remedy would also appear, but you wouldn't know what or where to find it. For instance, in the case of the poisonous plant, there would be some kind of antidote... perhaps a mineral, or another plant. Using that would relieve the hazard effect.
We see this sort of thing in Star Trek all the time. Enterprise was en route somewhere when they stumbled on the Dyson Sphere and found Scotty. The complications included the star within going nova, and the door becoming jammed. In the Galileo Seven, Enterprise was going to meet another ship, but stopped to explore a quasar. The complication turned out to be radiation disabling the shuttle, and hostile aliens attacking them. More, there was a time limit based on the initial rendezvous mission.
Part of the idea here is that these are things our ships would be doing routinely. Not everything the Enterprise did would have become a full episode. Sometimes they just did a survey and nothing unexpected happened.
Now, the details would need to be worked out, of course, but many ideas have been suggested over the years, and I could throw a few out there if anyone is interested... but I think the outline is clear enough.
Let's not have Captain Shon telling lies. Let us boldly go, at long last.
I know, I come across very negative all the time, but bear with me.
First of all, it lacked the music. The Enterprise fanfare was really needed for this. I understand the licensing issue, but come on... they HAVE the license to make the Star Trek game, how hard would it have been to get access to the fanfare, at least?
Then there's the feeling of its hypocrisy. The dialog doesn't represent STO in any way. Trivially, the game really doesn't depict the voyages of the Enterprise, but that's small potatoes. What leaves me with a bad taste is the reference to seeking out new life. Star Trek Online doesn't DO that, at all... and stubbornly refuses to implement even the simplest of ideas to do so. MANY of us have offered suggestions over the years, all ignored. What little exploring we DID have access to was removed, then when we found an alternative, that was removed as well.
So, let me try to be positive by once again suggesting a way to do exploration in the game.
Take a look at the Sphere zones. As you fly around those zones, there are enemy ships about, there are DO missions and regular missions the player can do. I might have to fight a ship, or render assistance to someone. I might find a DO mission where they are assigned to repair something, or deliver supplies. These things are scattered all over the zone.
Now, consider the emptiness of Sector Space. There's NOTHING there, it serves NO purpose. Most people just queue for things, or transwarp directly to their missions, so having Sector Space is meaningless. My suggestion is to borrow from the design of Sphere space, and put encounters in Sector Space. As an example, look at the Abandoned Ships that ARE there. Right now, you fly over and press F to get resources. Now, imagine if instead, you could BOARD the ship and do a salvage mission, or an investigation to find out what happened to the crew. Suppose it instead started a mission, the ship having been bait for a pirate attack. There are lots of possibilities.
So, I envision this:
Your ship is travelling in Sector Space, perhaps en route to a mission. While travelling, you might spot a sensor contact at some distance (the distance would depend on the ship type... Science ships would have longer detection ranges, for example). You wouldn't know what it was until you got closer. This is important, because some contacts might engage YOU, putting you in a mission without giving you a choice (eg. a storm, or a pirate ambush). Once you get in range, the specifics of the encounter would become clear, and in most cases, you would choose whether to engage the encounter.
It might be something like a star system survey, or a ship in distress. It might be a convoy in need of escort, or any number of other possibilities. It might be a DO mission, allowing you to assign crew to do the task while you carry on to your destination. Again, there are SO many possibilities.
These encounters would appear at random, in random locations (we don't want them in the same places all the time, there's no sense of discovery in such cases). The actual encounter would also be random. These would be OPEN missions, which means OTHER players might join in, even part way through.
The specifics of the missions would be random as well. That is, in the old exploration system, very little was actually randomized. They were pretty well always the same. For this new system, the base mission would be always the same, but the details would be randomized.
For example, if the mission is a system survey, the basic objectives would always be the same... map the system by visiting waypoints, and scan all the phenomena there; beam down and take samples of all the minerals, plants, animals and so on. The number, type and positions of all these objectives would be random. In addition, these missions would have COMPLICATIONS. These are non-objective elements that complicate the mission. The number and type would also be random. There might be none, there might be many. They could take any number of forms, from threatening aliens, to stellar phenomena causing time limits, or ship damage, or what have you. In addition to this, some objectives and complications would be HAZARDS. These are elements that can cause some kind of "permanent" damage to your ship or crew. For example, a poisonous plant might incapacitate an away team officer until a regenerator is used to heal him... or until the REMEDY for the hazard is found. For each hazard, a remedy would also appear, but you wouldn't know what or where to find it. For instance, in the case of the poisonous plant, there would be some kind of antidote... perhaps a mineral, or another plant. Using that would relieve the hazard effect.
We see this sort of thing in Star Trek all the time. Enterprise was en route somewhere when they stumbled on the Dyson Sphere and found Scotty. The complications included the star within going nova, and the door becoming jammed. In the Galileo Seven, Enterprise was going to meet another ship, but stopped to explore a quasar. The complication turned out to be radiation disabling the shuttle, and hostile aliens attacking them. More, there was a time limit based on the initial rendezvous mission.
Part of the idea here is that these are things our ships would be doing routinely. Not everything the Enterprise did would have become a full episode. Sometimes they just did a survey and nothing unexpected happened.
Now, the details would need to be worked out, of course, but many ideas have been suggested over the years, and I could throw a few out there if anyone is interested... but I think the outline is clear enough.
Let's not have Captain Shon telling lies. Let us boldly go, at long last.
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.
This game needs detailed crafting, exploration and interaction systems.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Fun without reward is a filthy parasite :P , but fun with reward is life :P ! I do wish this was how in fact KDF marauding would have been done as a whole, find a freighter etc at warp, have to chase it down in sector before it reaches destination, then disable it and board, there could be a lot of randomization! But I digress, merely a further example of how sector could have been much more engaging still and I'm not addressing the issue of exploration which I honestly don't have as many ideas for at the moment.
I absolutely wish they did expand upon the Dyson maps formula for sure, this is how a lot of future content SHOULD still be done and with much greater depth emulating a lot of what they do with Neverwinter, huge open zones with a story to follow where players have goals and encounters of greatly varying difficulty and reward gear + currency you can only get via those encounters, Neverwinter does a pretty good job of having content that doesn't demand only playing queues or singleplayer missions, learn this STO! Probably should implement adventure campaigns too like they have and tie it to this!
Space, The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: To seek more combat and even more destruction. To boldly go where everyone has been before! *Whooosh* *Phaser and Torpedo fire*
Star Trek:
Space, The final frontier. These are the voyagers of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission to explore strange new worlds and new civilisations. To boldly go where no one has gone before! *Whoosh*
I fell off my chair laughing hard when i saw the trailer because it was such a joke! xD
When Cryptic decide to put exploration sectors back into the game and actually bring peaceful exploration to the fore i might just take it seriously. April fools was a month ago and this joke is a month too late.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
The great disappointment of the piece is in the "Just Close Enough to Star Trek" music choice when Star Trek: Online has an incredibly good theme tune that could have been used in its place and then filled out with an adventurous "opening sequence" using established footage of Captain Shon, Admiral Quinn, Captain Kurland, and the rest of the STO original charaters as the "cast."
Then it would have made for a great advertisement for STO as well as a bit of a tribute to the Enterprise-F.
I'm sorry, I really don't want to poo-poo anyone's efforts, I'm just tired of "Just Close Enough to Star Trek" apparently being an acceptable standard.
Just close enough to Star Trek music!? Sorry, but you're making little sense here. Every iteration of Star Trek has it's own theme....it's ALL Star Trek music. There's absolutely nothing wrong with STO's music and it matches the audio aesthetic of Star Trek intros and background music.
Our continuing mission is combat against well known enemies. Who've been nerfed enough where they present none of the threat depicted in the films or the series. We cannot seek out new life and new civilizations. Unless we get to use our Mk XXV Mega Epic weapons on them. Which are mounted on that new Infinity Box-only ship which very few of us can afford to buy. There are also very few unexpected encounters in Sector Space which are not tied to combat. "Boldly going" exactly where? The same TFO I've played thousands of times already over the last twelve years? That brand new Episode which I have to play four or five times in a row to acquire yet another lackluster Space or Ground Set? Which has enough bugs in it to make it unplayable until after a second or third patch is applied. With said patches breaking something else in the game. USS InvalidEntityName, anyone? Anyone?
I was hoping when STO was acquired by GearBox, some things would change for the better. Yet more of the same seems to be what's on the menu.
Let's examine your misrepresentation of what I wrote.
I wrote: "Just Close Enough to Star Trek" music...
You quoted: Just close enough to Star Trek music...
These convey different ideas, even if you don't want that to be the case.
Meanwhile, the video titled, "Star Trek Online: Unraveled, Coming May 9th!," is not the Star Trek: Online Theme. Why you seem to have conflated the two is best left to those more suited to such examinations.
I never wrote that there was anything "wrong with STO's music..." Indeed, I wrote, "Star Trek: Online has an incredibly good theme tune..."
I have criticized ONE piece of music here (TWO if you count the theme to Enterprise, but that's another story). Why in the world are you projecting that ONE (TWO) criticism as far and wide as the whole musical score of Star Trek: Online?
FOR REFERENCE:
The Actual Star Trek: Online Main Theme:
Ah! Sorry for the misunderstanding!
I have a very on-off relationship with STO. After doing the latest content and maybe doing a TFO I hadn't done for a while, I have a really hard time with consistently playing the game. For me a big issue with the game is that new content is very 'flash in the pan', which is partly because it's so narrative-heavy. Regardless of how high-quality they are, having to repeat the same narrative content - episodes, TFOs, patrols - really takes the charm out of it. It's why adventure zones are best at keeping me in the game for longer periods. Compare that to another MMORPG like OSRS/RS3 where even doing mundane things like skilling or exploring and interacting with the world is immersive because it feels like a more natural thing for your character to be doing.