The Founders are control freaks. They didn't want solids in a position to threaten them. Having Karemma and Dosi in the Dominion Military was a potential threat to the Founders.
Now the Dominion under Odo may evolve to be more inclusive of Dominion member races, but that would take a long time to develop. Not instantly after the Hur'q.
This is true. However, Odo's Vanguard fleet, which is where the Dominion player starts could have included more client races - separate from the main Dominion fleet/species. It would have been feasible to include at least Karemma and Dosi in there (Tosk maybe too).
I agree with the people who say that the Dominion story as presented in game simply does not require a Jem'Hadar character.
also the weird forehead race from Star Trek Resurgence like Jara Rydek, they could even work like Jem'Hadar do with Ketracel White,
The Jem were genetically engineered by the Founders to have that ketracel dependence. Why would anyone else have developed it naturally?
Did anyone even read it properly, I said work like, by that I didn't mean using Ketracel White, but uses the same mechanics as Ketracel White, but this forehead race uses like whatever drug Rydek takes,
The Founders are control freaks. They didn't want solids in a position to threaten them. Having Karemma and Dosi in the Dominion Military was a potential threat to the Founders.
Now the Dominion under Odo may evolve to be more inclusive of Dominion member races, but that would take a long time to develop. Not instantly after the Hur'q.
This is true. However, Odo's Vanguard fleet, which is where the Dominion player starts could have included more client races - separate from the main Dominion fleet/species. It would have been feasible to include at least Karemma and Dosi in there (Tosk maybe too).
I agree with the people who say that the Dominion story as presented in game simply does not require a Jem'Hadar character.
-K
The Dominion story SPECIFICALLY deals with the Jem'Hadar's Ketracel addiction, so of course it requires a Jem'hadar character! No other race in the Dominion is addicted to KW, and no Odo would not have used other races because he was still doing the Founder's bidding, and was being watched by them. As the Dev's have said repeatedly now, it was written specifically for the Jem'hadar.
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
The Dominion story SPECIFICALLY deals with the Jem'Hadar's Ketracel addiction, so of course it requires a Jem'hadar character! No other race in the Dominion is addicted to KW, and no Odo would not have used other races because he was still doing the Founder's bidding, and was being watched by them. As the Dev's have said repeatedly now, it was written specifically for the Jem'hadar.
But you can play through the Gamma quadrant arc as a Federation, Klingon or Romulan character and I don't think it loses any of its impact. It may have been intended to be written specifically for the Jem'Hadar, but (at least to me), that's not how it comes across on screen.
Ok, so here's the deal. The Jem'Hadar Faction thing is already an FCT topic. This is now the second time I've had to warn about this in this thread. If y'all want to hijack this thread and turn it into a Jem'Hadar Faction discussion about including other races, then we can go ahead and close this thread now. Otherwise, move on to something else.
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This is true. However, Odo's Vanguard fleet, which is where the Dominion player starts could have included more client races - separate from the main Dominion fleet/species. It would have been feasible to include at least Karemma and Dosi in there (Tosk maybe too).
Except that he was still operating under the rules set by the Founders. Yea his fleet may have been a bit more progressive, but still had to abide by established rules.
But you can play through the Gamma quadrant arc as a Federation, Klingon or Romulan character and I don't think it loses any of its impact. It may have been intended to be written specifically for the Jem'Hadar, but (at least to me), that's not how it comes across on screen.
K
The Gamma Arc itself yes. HOWEVER there's also the "tutorial" Jem'Hadar arc that Dominion players have just before that which is very much a Jem'Hadar story. Don't forget that the Dominion faction has a unique arc just like the TOS Feds have a unique arc.
Ok, so here's the deal. The Jem'Hadar Faction thing is already an FCT topic. This is now the second time I've had to warn about this in this thread. If y'all want to hijack this thread and turn it into a Jem'Hadar Faction discussion about including other races, then we can go ahead and close this thread now. Otherwise, move on to something else.
Klingon:
Dosi
Hirogen
Pakled (with more helmets)
Kazon
I read this thread and aware of the Jem'Hadar faction issue but I would like to see them get more hair styles and facial options.
Since the developers already mention there is no way to add any species to the Jem'Hadar faction, my thoughts were perhaps after the Jem'Hadar player completes the Gamma Quadrant story line this can open up additional races (Vorta, Dosi, Alien, etc) to participate in the mission simulations for the rest of the available storylines. Get the Loriss voice actor to say a few more lines allowing other Dominion member races to participate in the new Galactic Alliance and supplement Dominion defense until the Jem'Hadar are at full readiness or something.
However, I think the best way to handle this is to allow Federation/Klingon players access to Gamma Quadrant races after they complete the Gamma Quadrant storyline (kind of like Classic era Gorn are available after a TOS Federation player completes the prologue missions).
But I would be satisfied with the Pakled Clumpship and bigger helmets so I can enhance my LD themed Pakled Captain.
The problem with adding any other races to the Dominion faction is the fact that the Dominion is FAR more rigid than the Federation or even KDF. In canon, the ONLY species that was in the military was the Jem'Hadar. Vorta were administrators, and occasionally Intel Officers, but never on the front lines like the Jem'Hadar. Dosi and Karemma were never seen in Dominion fleets or ground forces. And why would you allow more free willed species access to your ships and weapons when you have a perfectly good, genetically engineered species to handle all military matters that is ALSO absolutely loyal to you as well as you having the means to ENSURE their loyalty via Ketracel White?
The Founders are control freaks. They didn't want solids in a position to threaten them. Having Karemma and Dosi in the Dominion Military was a potential threat to the Founders.
Now the Dominion under Odo may evolve to be more inclusive of Dominion member races, but that would take a long time to develop. Not instantly after the Hur'q.
The problem with the assumption that Vorta were not military is that it is shown in the show to be false. Of the nine Vorta named in ds9 six of them were unmistakenly military officers:
Deyos Prison camp commandant
Eris Outpost commander who organized and executed a bold add-hoc infiltration scheme when the opportunity presented
itself, and showed considerable bravery and competence as an officer when the deception was discovered.
Gelnon Attack ship captain
Keevan Ground force officer (and possibly attack ship captain, they never established how many Vorta may have been abord)
Kilana Ground force officer
Luaran Attack ship captain
The other three were presented as "civilians" but had careers that are often considered quasi-military in the real world:
Borath A scientist who had a specialty in exotic interrogation techniques
Weyoun An Intelligence officer specializing in disinformation (ironically a lot of viewers take his disinformation as gospel)
Yelgrun Diplomat/negotiator who has the air of another Intelligence officer
To me that seems pretty conclusive that Vorta were in the Dominion military, in fact they were the only ones ever shown to be Dominion military officers (Founders don't count as career military, they are more like feudal royalty directing armies rather than officers as such), the Jem'Hadar were never anything higher than the equivalent of noncoms. Vorta were shown in the show doing exactly the kind of stuff that STO captains do (except with fewer massacres under their belts).
And yes, the Founders are control freaks, but a big part of their control of client species was a scam that would in theory blow up in their faces after the revelations of the Hur'q war unless they took steps to make amends for it. A good way to do that would be to at least appear to soften the iron fist with gestures like taking in at least a token number of officers from the client species as a gesture of good faith, and it would not be much of a risk considering they would be outnumbered by the Vorta and Jem'Hadar in the crews who would not tolerate any disloyalty on the part of the experimental-program officers.
It even makes sense that they might tend to send the client-nation captains out to the Alpha/Beta quadrants so they are distracted by foreign matters rather than the probably delicate internal political negotiations and conditions.
And they do let those same client states field some armed ships like hunters and armed merchant ships, though they undoubtedly are no match for the Dominion forces that stand between them and the Founders should they decide to get a bit restless (or at least before the Hur'q war slammed the Dominion so hard anyway).
EDIT: Since I was busy IRL this took a while to write between other things and I missed a number of posts between then and when I posted this comment. I won't say anything more on the subject of the faction in question here.
As it stands, 2409 has 18 options, KDF 13, Romulan has Rom Reman Alien and LibBorg, TOS has humand vulcan andorian and tellarite, Disco has human vulcan and alien, and Dominion only had JH and vangard JH
I think that the KDF should have another option, maybe the hazari, the Roms should get the hirogen and suliban.
Disco should get Tellarite and andorian and TOS should get alien
As it stands, 2409 has 18 options, KDF 13, Romulan has Rom Reman Alien and LibBorg, TOS has humand vulcan andorian and tellarite, Disco has human vulcan and alien, and Dominion only had JH and vangard JH
I think that the KDF should have another option, maybe the hazari, the Roms should get the hirogen and suliban.
Disco should get Tellarite and andorian and TOS should get alien
I read that the Species Token might allow TOS and Disco captains to use 2409, imagine replaying TOS exclusive missions with a Caitian...
KEYWORD is MIGHT, it's not 100% Confirmed or Guaranteed but STO themselves did write it, so fingers crossed... If it ends up being possible,
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,576Community Moderator
Yea there is talk they may be able to open up 2409 options for TOS and DSC. And IMO that is awesome if they can. Not just for the possibility of TOS Caitians, but even DSC Caitians and Saurians as well.
The token (when working) could also help justify adding more species to the game. With things like DSC Andorians, your market is players who are in a position to add more characters and haven't already invested a lot into an Alien DSC Andorian. It's the same problem they hit with adding Cardassians to the game and with the prospect of adding FED Orions when you can easily make a humanoid green with Alien-gen.
The first condition (player interest in new characters) could be very significant as investing in a new character in an MMO can be a huge consideration. Newbies are still in the process of building what characters they have and veterans are looking at marginal returns from a nostalgic rerun of the early game experience with a marginally different POV from what they've tried before. But let existing characters swap to new options and you have a bigger market to sell new species too, with direct monetization of the path between old and new species options. Cue more motivation to investing the time into new species options via better options (with the alteration token) for players to capitalize on them.
So yeah, structurally we could be in a much better place soon for new species to become a more frequent occurrence than once in a blue moon.
I think that the KDF should have another option, maybe the hazari, the Roms should get the hirogen and suliban.
Disco should get Tellarite and andorian and TOS should get alien
I'd give Hierarchy before Hirogen to ROM. The Hirogen are a *very* distinct antagonist to the Republic and there's no indication of finding common ground in subsequent episodes. It'd be like giving Nausicaan to the FED. You can imagine a path for a few individuals to transfer over (abandoning prior characterization) but I'm not seeing the faction synergy. It's very much a Star Empire connection, which works against the Republic's arc.
For Hierarchy, I've found their intel focus a good compliment to Romulans and there's something about the characterization (somewhat hapless) that works well in a more protagonist role. So maybe Ocampa for FED, Hazari or Kazon for KDF, and Hierarchy for ROM as a Delta Quadrant themed species bundle. (after more critical items like DSC Andorian and ROM Suliban are covered). One benefit of Ocompa and Hazari is that they have good uniform options available (to NPCs and once to the Foundry) that fell through the cracks in player release. Those uniforms could be easy fodder for added perks of each species option (similar to DSC FED/KDF boffs). The Hierarchy collar could also be included, provided it actually works on smaller character models (untested in the Foundry, so they may need an alternative like a Hierarchy universal console or kit module for parity).
Beyond that, humanoid Xindi for FED and KDF is an easy thing to throw in the suggestion bucket. Also something you could *potentially* bundle between existing Primate and Reptilian customization options (two species pack with Xindi lobi costumes included as account perks). And if someone at Cryptic/DECA wants to take the TRIBBLE, First Federation for KDF/FED/ROM as part of a stated officer exchange program. Tranya for everyone!
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
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Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Honestly, I think the POV needs to be a bit more different before (the release of more) species really become(s) monetisable.
Whether you play an Andorian or a Vulcan, the experience is more or less the same. This is why I've often suggested releasing some species-specific episodes. Just one or two for each major species, so you can have an Andorian starting out on (a revamped) Andoria and do some stuff in a city there, Rigellians could play one or two starter missions on a to-be-added Rigel etc.
It would require a lot of work in terms of world- and map building. But they could try and combine this with new ships and perhaps ground gear. And the cities etc. wouldn't have to be used just for those starter missions. They could become fully developed social zones, that become accessible after levelling (or completing the starter missions with) a toon of the same species. For example: you build a new Andorian map. Players who level an Andorian or complete the Andorian starter missions, can from that moment on visit the new map with all their other toons and buy whatever ships, ground gear etc. is sold through special vendors there.
That way, playing new species would unlock truly new experiences, while also providing for a way to monetise and incentivise the release of new species.
New tokens that allow us to do more with existing toons and new species are great - but I'd really like to see some more unique experiences for them. So that there's more reason to create a new toon (or use a species-alteration token).
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,576Community Moderator
I think the best you can hope for is species specific dialog, because if you start making species specific MISSIONS... how many species do we have available right now? That's a LOT of extra work that needs to be squeezed in somewhere. Not only that, are these new missions somehow integrated into the main story or are they just side fluff? And will they require all new assets and VO work and everything that goes into story missions?
As for the Andoria example... honestly that map needs a purpose to exist. You don't even visit the surface of Andoria in the story. I think it was originally planned for an open PvP thing, but that was dropped and we now have this massive map that really only sees action during the Anniversary event with the Omega Stabilization.
Foundry was the way to handle that back in the day, creating specialized missions that catered to different species choices (which isn't otherwise justifiable in dev time). But...see constrained dev time. You can try targeting some of these with episode updates but even adding a social zone's going to be a big ask given longstanding general issues (ex. huge effort and limited practical impact, as players gravitate to the faction hubs to the exclusion of newly added zones. Habit is a powerful thing and species making use of an exclusive species map is enshrining limited fractions of population participation. That could still be valuable but I think the scale of investment required is a non-starter that would never reasonably extend to most species.)
One smaller scale thing to alt-starts on different planets is just to make more use of species choices in dialog. Eg. make that part of our identity a more forward facing element of how you interact with other characters. This also requires Cryptic backing away from it's very *functional* use of dialog (getting from A to B in a narrative as efficiently as possible) and indulging in character interactions for their own sake, letting players reflect their character through dialog responses, and providing some branching choices to keep players mechanically engaged (like we did in the foundry, to very popular effect...).
And this could also help buff interest in having more species options to play with as it could make the whole of STO feel a bit more sensitive to that choice (which a single map wouldn't). But it's still a big task, especially in making this a *consistent* facet of the STO experience (ex. going back to old missions and making targeted moments where species matters to available dialog choices.)
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
As it stands, 2409 has 18 options, KDF 13, Romulan has Rom Reman Alien and LibBorg, TOS has humand vulcan andorian and tellarite, Disco has human vulcan and alien, and Dominion only had JH and vangard JH
I think that the KDF should have another option, maybe the hazari, the Roms should get the hirogen and suliban.
Disco should get Tellarite and andorian and TOS should get alien
I read that the Species Token might allow TOS and Disco captains to use 2409, imagine replaying TOS exclusive missions with a Caitian...
KEYWORD is MIGHT, it's not 100% Confirmed or Guaranteed but STO themselves did write it, so fingers crossed... If it ends up being possible,
Meh. Most Caitians I know aren't really that active anymore. They're mostly living legends and old heroes who are enjoying their well-deserved retirement.
They might show up once in a while at some event or visit ESD to give others a chance to be a witness to their awesomeness. When it is needed, which is rare nowadays, they might even provide some guidance to newbies in the Starbase 82 simulation or give a lecture at the Academy.
But with most serious threats over, they're not really that much needed anymore. One of these old legends for example took command of the Universe class Jaresh-Inyo, which is basically just lying near the Federation's borders to serve as a diplomatic venue, its captaincy mostly being a symbolic function meant to honour him.
I know of just one Caitian captain who's still on active duty in the 2480's. He's mostly just known for having fabulous hair though.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,576Community Moderator
And it is made even harder with the addition of VO work, especially if it involves a canon character, and thus needing to ask the Actor to come back and record some new dialog.
I think the best you can hope for is species specific dialog, because if you start making species specific MISSIONS... how many species do we have available right now? That's a LOT of extra work that needs to be squeezed in somewhere. Not only that, are these new missions somehow integrated into the main story or are they just side fluff? And will they require all new assets and VO work and everything that goes into story missions?
As for the Andoria example... honestly that map needs a purpose to exist. You don't even visit the surface of Andoria in the story. I think it was originally planned for an open PvP thing, but that was dropped and we now have this massive map that really only sees action during the Anniversary event with the Omega Stabilization.
Well obviously it wouldn't have to be done overnight. And species like Bolians could wait a while, I mean, how often do you see those?
They did a lot of what I'm suggesting for the Klingon faction, when they rebuild their story arc.
Having one or two episodes in re-build environments (yes, Andoria needs more work than Vulcan) for species that are picked very often, like Vulcans or Andorians, should be do-able. Start with them, work your way down the list as you release new worlds every couple of months or even once a year.
And, as noted: yes, it's a lot of work, but it's also a way to move away from just relying on ship sales and diversify their income sources by focussing more on providing unique experiences - and then tie into that with things like ship sales and other unique types of gear (even if it's just another colour phaser for example - look how many people have requested such features).
this is where I think a pay for expansion could be the path. Hire a couple 3 devs to work on 4 expansion packs, Federation expansion Republic Expansion, Empire expansion and Dominion expansion the expansion would be a rework or creation of starting planets, you can hire in some new voice talent as necessary (you don't need LeVar Burton, because the NPCs would be more of what you see in the rom tutorial. It doesn't have to be 8 episode arcs either. just 2-3. and you don't need 18 starters, one for each of the core Vulcan Tellar Andor for fed Lethean, Orion, Gorn for Klingon. then a catch-all for alien gen and any others that are not Core species. if you don't want to buy the expansion, your toon goes through the set tutorials
this is where I think a pay for expansion could be the path. Hire a couple 3 devs to work on 4 expansion packs, Federation expansion Republic Expansion, Empire expansion and Dominion expansion the expansion would be a rework or creation of starting planets, you can hire in some new voice talent as necessary (you don't need LeVar Burton, because the NPCs would be more of what you see in the rom tutorial. It doesn't have to be 8 episode arcs either. just 2-3. and you don't need 18 starters, one for each of the core Vulcan Tellar Andor for fed Lethean, Orion, Gorn for Klingon. then a catch-all for alien gen and any others that are not Core species. if you don't want to buy the expansion, your toon goes through the set tutorials
This is a magic money glitch. Eg. if you market paid expansion packs enough players will buy them to justify it. This is a massive assumption. Add to that: shifting to paid expansions can easily alienate players who've over the last 14 years developed an expectation that narrative content should be free in STO (it's the implicit trade off made for charging $30-200+ for ships.) Shift to this model and your first paid expansion may fail to bring in enough revenue to justify the team expansion, and then hit general population dynamics negatively as players rebel/feel alienated by the shift in paywalled content. Cue then core pillar monetization channels (ships) being hit as those players check out from a hostile, imposed situation striking out of nowhere after more than a decade of status quo. As much as you may hope this is a positive shift, current population dynamics also position catastrophic outcomes as possible (and arguably likely).
Basically, it doesn't take any creative insight to say that Cryptic could just start charging for episodes. That option has always been on the table, hiring as many supplemental dev teams as they want to churn out expansions at whatever cadence you can possibly consider. One a month, why not? You can hire and charge for that. Cryptic doesn't because there's no salable value attachable to episodes. They are a core driver of player activity, with a wide swath of the STO population logging in JUST for the episode drops. Episodes are the investment made to get players to pay attention to the game and maintain its basic population structure. It's Cryptic's necessary expense to get its foot in the door to player headspace. These dynamics then drive interest in ships releases, which is why every season comes with something new for players to spend their money on (it subsidizes the narrative content). Charging at both ends with the proviso you get more isn't something players are going to engage with, by any reasonable expectation. Because nothing has primed them to making that choice despite wishful thinking on the part of the suggestion. Episodes are free content. They are thus worthless when it comes to price valuation for the STO audience and throwing up a paywall to any of that content is going to be received as a hostile shift by a significant portion of the player base (last thing Cryptic/DECA needs as it rebuilds trust in its development). Adding new charges to old content types is one of the surest-fire approaches to TRIBBLE off gamers.
Other games charge for expansions, but they also baked that model in to the game in the first place and don't have to fight the inertia of their cultivated populations, and their expectations, to continue that model. You may as well be asking for subs to return, because surely if players just spent more money they'd be able to hire more devs. Never mind zero-sum dynamics in player wallets. To get a sizable increase in economic activity for STO, a 14 year old game with its audience appeal or lack there of baked in firmly by now, you need something a lot more systemic to shift than "just add more STO to STO." Ex. radically changing the style and format of episodes, the content types of seasons, and approach to writing and feature support (with inherent risks of losing existing players along the way. As has been oft repeated by the team, game development is hard.)
Eg. don't work out a way of adding more stuff (naturally follows from success...now that STO isn't subsidizing the development of upcoming Cryptic titles...), find ways of changing what stuff we get from development to resonate more with STO's potential audience. See suggestions for changing Cryptic's approach to dialog above (facilitating player role playing choices, like species) as one minor component to that.
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I think the best you can hope for is species specific dialog, because if you start making species specific MISSIONS... how many species do we have available right now? That's a LOT of extra work that needs to be squeezed in somewhere. Not only that, are these new missions somehow integrated into the main story or are they just side fluff? And will they require all new assets and VO work and everything that goes into story missions?
As for the Andoria example... honestly that map needs a purpose to exist. You don't even visit the surface of Andoria in the story. I think it was originally planned for an open PvP thing, but that was dropped and we now have this massive map that really only sees action during the Anniversary event with the Omega Stabilization.
Species specific dialog is what makes some species more interesting than others, Vulcans already get plenty, I think Andorians get at least one in P'Jem, Ferengi get one or two when meeting Nog in the Iconian arc and I think Bajorans get one somewhere in the Delta quadrant arc...
Species specific dialog is what makes some species more interesting than others, Vulcans already get plenty, I think Andorians get at least one in P'Jem, Ferengi get one or two when meeting Nog in the Iconian arc and I think Bajorans get one somewhere in the Delta quadrant arc...
There also may be ways of grouping species thematically to provide more consistent options than single choices provide. Ex. founding federation species, subsequent joiners, and non-members when commenting on the Federation. For KDF you have warriors and mercenary/pirates to provide different outlooks on what blasting someone means. Cardassians, Remans, and Romulans together would tend to have similar views about the consequence of war and hostility while Pakleds and Talaxians may be bright eyed with wonder about the new exploration opportunities ahead of them with the Alliance. Telepathy/Empathy is also something that could be referenced for a swath of species. And at every stage here alien could be given a choice between any presented species dialog option to make the creation of one's own species a defined part of the STO narrative experience.
What I think is critical to making this work is to have these as menu choices, eg. have a stock player captain response and then the option to go with a species choice if you think it better suits your character. As is, species choices are all automated branches in dialog, invisibly presented but for when you notice something has changed in the regular course of the game's dialog (by being more specific or just remembering how a conversation played out on another character).
This downplays the existence of species options and (most critically here) denies players the opportunity to subvert conventional species tropes in defining their character (major problem I have with existing Klingon/KDF dialog). Dialog choices also provide critical moments of reflection on who your character is and how they're engaging with their setting (helping to build immersion). It's also more mechanically engaging for conversations as you have a response to input at moments (finally, I get to do something!), and makes longer conversations more tolerable as you have natural pause points. And to keep hammering, it lets players interpret how closely their character follows species tropes for deeper impact (as across all the binary choices given, you can create a finely calibrated view of your character's relationship to their species through which species-specific paths were cumulatively taken).
Having more species options is good, and letting players pick whether they use it just slathers on more good.
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
I think the best you can hope for is species specific dialog, because if you start making species specific MISSIONS... how many species do we have available right now? That's a LOT of extra work that needs to be squeezed in somewhere. Not only that, are these new missions somehow integrated into the main story or are they just side fluff? And will they require all new assets and VO work and everything that goes into story missions?
We currently have effectively infinite number of species thanks to Alien Gen characters, that's probably one the biggest hurdles for species specific content, what would you do with the Alien gen characters it's a true IDIC option when it comes your captain's species and thus Cryptic has 0 way of predicting how those species would act.
this is where I think a pay for expansion could be the path. Hire a couple 3 devs to work on 4 expansion packs, Federation expansion Republic Expansion, Empire expansion and Dominion expansion the expansion would be a rework or creation of starting planets, you can hire in some new voice talent as necessary (you don't need LeVar Burton, because the NPCs would be more of what you see in the rom tutorial. It doesn't have to be 8 episode arcs either. just 2-3. and you don't need 18 starters, one for each of the core Vulcan Tellar Andor for fed Lethean, Orion, Gorn for Klingon. then a catch-all for alien gen and any others that are not Core species. if you don't want to buy the expansion, your toon goes through the set tutorials
No, no, and no!!!
I've spent a considerable amount (probably over £2k) on this game. I am NOT going to start paying for expansions as well! I've already paid for LTS on PC, so why should I start forking out another couple of hundred pounds, just for story content that has been arriving free for well over a decade. And the nail in the coffin for your idea is 'specialised' tutorial missions for species most people won't ever play. This won't bring in $100k, and will cost way more to make.
If you hadn't noticed, STO is a story-based barbie game. It's FTP players that need targetting with 'shineys', not people that already spend on the game, and no, no subscription-to-play either. Most gamers won't touch subscription-only games, and are getting sick of games being released to then having to pay more expansions because the base game was 'too short'.
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
this is where I think a pay for expansion could be the path. Hire a couple 3 devs to work on 4 expansion packs, Federation expansion Republic Expansion, Empire expansion and Dominion expansion the expansion would be a rework or creation of starting planets, you can hire in some new voice talent as necessary (you don't need LeVar Burton, because the NPCs would be more of what you see in the rom tutorial. It doesn't have to be 8 episode arcs either. just 2-3. and you don't need 18 starters, one for each of the core Vulcan Tellar Andor for fed Lethean, Orion, Gorn for Klingon. then a catch-all for alien gen and any others that are not Core species. if you don't want to buy the expansion, your toon goes through the set tutorials
No, no, and no!!!
I've spent a considerable amount (probably over £2k) on this game. I am NOT going to start paying for expansions as well! I've already paid for LTS on PC, so why should I start forking out another couple of hundred pounds, just for story content that has been arriving free for well over a decade. And the nail in the coffin for your idea is 'specialised' tutorial missions for species most people won't ever play. This won't bring in $100k, and will cost way more to make.
If you hadn't noticed, STO is a story-based barbie game. It's FTP players that need targetting with 'shineys', not people that already spend on the game, and no, no subscription-to-play either. Most gamers won't touch subscription-only games, and are getting sick of games being released to then having to pay more expansions because the base game was 'too short'.
You wouldn't have to pay for them. The game's main storyline would still be accessible to everyone. What's being proposed is adding a few missions for each (or at least some of the key) species so that they also get their own unique starting experience. Which could serve as a platform to make some long-requested changes to basically empty worlds, as well as adding new ones.
Should they also stop releasing lock box ships, just because you may not want to buy the next one? If they had to stop adding paid-for stuff everytime someone doesn't want it, the game would have to shut down. It's fine if you don't want to pay for said type of content, but that by itself is hardly a good reason to shoot down the idea and refuse others the possibility to get their unique experience this way.
As for 'getting sick of having to pay for expansions': for me it's the opposite. I'm tired of having very little extra options to pay for, except for more ships every season. In fact, I used to spend hundreds of euro's every season, but I almost entirely stopped paying for this game precisely because I don't see the point of getting ever more ships.
Not when each new one is getting flown less than the previous ones (or vice versa) because I just have too many to play with them all. And - not that it matters, but anyway - I've spent a lot more than 2000 Pounds.
I'm basically a FTP-player now, precisely because there's nothing interesting to spend on anymore - except for ever more gear, which, as noted, suffers tremendously from decreasing marginal returns at some point. I would welcome paid-for mini-expansions, as long as they're limited to providing small side-experiences and won't be used to block players from the game's main storyline (which I doubt they'd ever do). I'd rather spend money on that, than start spending again on gambling boxes or more C-store ships, as I simply don't see the point of doing that anymore.
If anything, precisely because STO is a story-based Barbie game, they should provide more unique experiences for each Barbie type. There are many different types of species, I think it's time at least some of them got their own worlds, cities, experiences, societies etc.
The Federation especially, a co-operation between hundreds of species, shouldn't be limited to just Starfleet (it's bad enough that most shows were always limited to one ship or station, making the show about a part of a navy while insisting that it wasn't that), with zero options to explore its civil societies.
Monetise that experience of starting a character in a city or academy unique to that species and getting to explore their society a bit more, and I would happily pay for it. If that's what's needed to make it happen.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,576Community Moderator
We currently have effectively infinite number of species thanks to Alien Gen characters, that's probably one the biggest hurdles for species specific content, what would you do with the Alien gen characters it's a true IDIC option when it comes your captain's species and thus Cryptic has 0 way of predicting how those species would act.
Species specific dialog options would mostly apply to existing Star Trek species. Alien would probably get generic responses.
We currently have effectively infinite number of species thanks to Alien Gen characters, that's probably one the biggest hurdles for species specific content, what would you do with the Alien gen characters it's a true IDIC option when it comes your captain's species and thus Cryptic has 0 way of predicting how those species would act.
Species specific dialog options would mostly apply to existing Star Trek species. Alien would probably get generic responses.
That or as mentioned the choice to use any species option that doesn't name or can only possibly apply to one species (eg. something that doesn't name drop the species or homeworld. Ex. things that refer only to a character as being logical or a warrior vs. Vulcan or a Klingon). It depends on how you write the interaction. Basically, treat alien as a wild card that players get the most choice with regarding dialog options (doing in dialog what you do in the tailor). More general species options would also allow, as mentioned, groups of species to be covered by the same dialog, giving more opportunities to invoke options across characters. See. a character getting an empathic read applying to Trill, Betazoids, Lethans, and Aliens. And a character being aggressive could be a choice given to Nausicaan, Andorian, Klingon, Pakled, Gorn, and Aliens vs. just being an automated KDF reaction (or not a choice at all). Have a history of repression? Remans, Bajorans, and Aliens could be in the same boat. Having aliens as the wild card gives an automatic +1 to the applicability of the choice here, helping some of the most underplayed options (ex. Pakled, Lethean, Talaxian) still have a bankable audience.
It's fine to go for 1:1 on occasion, but that's just one approach Cryptic could apply to their dialog to make better use of species choices.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
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While the Star Trek name has its own draw to it, STO attracts a lot of F2P players simply for the reason that they are not treated as second-class-citizens the way most other games do, even if the other games are subtle about it (which not all are, EVE Online is one of the worst in that respect for example). In fact, in chat there are often players who never really watched 'Trek much (if at all) and discussion starts about the best order to watch stuff in and whatnot, so it is not just the name drawing people to the game.
The fact that none of the story content at all is paywalled is a bigger draw than many seem to realize. And contrary to popular opinion, many (maybe even most) F2P players actually do spend money after a while, just not a lot at once and not as often as non-F2P players, but the sheer number of them make them a valid source of revenue.
On the surface the partially paywalled model sounds like it might help finance things, but in practice it does not seem to work as well as the no-paywall one, as Cryptic's own Champions Online shows. On top of that, bringing in paywalled content during the company transition would be an especially risky move since it would come across as a (undeserved) loss of integrity and strengthen the notion that DECA was just asset stripping and planned to ride the game down in flames for all it is worth instead of supporting it for the long run.
It would probably be more of a benefit to update the game's toolchain and other behind the scenes improvements to enable faster and more efficient story content handling to be able to bring out more by meshing the best of Cryptic and DECA tools and methods together during the transition period than it would messing with the business model trying to emulate WoW and whatnot.
Organizing and smoothing things on the development end would eventually give the devs more time to do things like alternate dialog, more support for new races/factions/whatever, though it may take a few years to get there. Another thing that would help tremendously would be developing the lore in such a way as to make doing missions in any of the Treks easier, opening doors to the other 'eras' without paradox problems getting in the way and closing those doors.
Comments
This is true. However, Odo's Vanguard fleet, which is where the Dominion player starts could have included more client races - separate from the main Dominion fleet/species. It would have been feasible to include at least Karemma and Dosi in there (Tosk maybe too).
I agree with the people who say that the Dominion story as presented in game simply does not require a Jem'Hadar character.
-K
Did anyone even read it properly, I said work like, by that I didn't mean using Ketracel White, but uses the same mechanics as Ketracel White, but this forehead race uses like whatever drug Rydek takes,
The Dominion story SPECIFICALLY deals with the Jem'Hadar's Ketracel addiction, so of course it requires a Jem'hadar character! No other race in the Dominion is addicted to KW, and no Odo would not have used other races because he was still doing the Founder's bidding, and was being watched by them. As the Dev's have said repeatedly now, it was written specifically for the Jem'hadar.
But you can play through the Gamma quadrant arc as a Federation, Klingon or Romulan character and I don't think it loses any of its impact. It may have been intended to be written specifically for the Jem'Hadar, but (at least to me), that's not how it comes across on screen.
K
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Except that he was still operating under the rules set by the Founders. Yea his fleet may have been a bit more progressive, but still had to abide by established rules.
The Gamma Arc itself yes. HOWEVER there's also the "tutorial" Jem'Hadar arc that Dominion players have just before that which is very much a Jem'Hadar story. Don't forget that the Dominion faction has a unique arc just like the TOS Feds have a unique arc.
Heard and understood. Moving on.
-K
Federation:
Discovery Andorian
Karemma
Krenim
Ocampa
Klingon:
Dosi
Hirogen
Pakled (with more helmets)
Kazon
I read this thread and aware of the Jem'Hadar faction issue but I would like to see them get more hair styles and facial options.
Since the developers already mention there is no way to add any species to the Jem'Hadar faction, my thoughts were perhaps after the Jem'Hadar player completes the Gamma Quadrant story line this can open up additional races (Vorta, Dosi, Alien, etc) to participate in the mission simulations for the rest of the available storylines. Get the Loriss voice actor to say a few more lines allowing other Dominion member races to participate in the new Galactic Alliance and supplement Dominion defense until the Jem'Hadar are at full readiness or something.
However, I think the best way to handle this is to allow Federation/Klingon players access to Gamma Quadrant races after they complete the Gamma Quadrant storyline (kind of like Classic era Gorn are available after a TOS Federation player completes the prologue missions).
But I would be satisfied with the Pakled Clumpship and bigger helmets so I can enhance my LD themed Pakled Captain.
The problem with the assumption that Vorta were not military is that it is shown in the show to be false. Of the nine Vorta named in ds9 six of them were unmistakenly military officers:
itself, and showed considerable bravery and competence as an officer when the deception was discovered.
The other three were presented as "civilians" but had careers that are often considered quasi-military in the real world:
To me that seems pretty conclusive that Vorta were in the Dominion military, in fact they were the only ones ever shown to be Dominion military officers (Founders don't count as career military, they are more like feudal royalty directing armies rather than officers as such), the Jem'Hadar were never anything higher than the equivalent of noncoms. Vorta were shown in the show doing exactly the kind of stuff that STO captains do (except with fewer massacres under their belts).
And yes, the Founders are control freaks, but a big part of their control of client species was a scam that would in theory blow up in their faces after the revelations of the Hur'q war unless they took steps to make amends for it. A good way to do that would be to at least appear to soften the iron fist with gestures like taking in at least a token number of officers from the client species as a gesture of good faith, and it would not be much of a risk considering they would be outnumbered by the Vorta and Jem'Hadar in the crews who would not tolerate any disloyalty on the part of the experimental-program officers.
It even makes sense that they might tend to send the client-nation captains out to the Alpha/Beta quadrants so they are distracted by foreign matters rather than the probably delicate internal political negotiations and conditions.
And they do let those same client states field some armed ships like hunters and armed merchant ships, though they undoubtedly are no match for the Dominion forces that stand between them and the Founders should they decide to get a bit restless (or at least before the Hur'q war slammed the Dominion so hard anyway).
EDIT: Since I was busy IRL this took a while to write between other things and I missed a number of posts between then and when I posted this comment. I won't say anything more on the subject of the faction in question here.
Please don't get this thread closed for the sake of your soapbox rants.
Thank you.
I think that the KDF should have another option, maybe the hazari, the Roms should get the hirogen and suliban.
Disco should get Tellarite and andorian and TOS should get alien
I read that the Species Token might allow TOS and Disco captains to use 2409, imagine replaying TOS exclusive missions with a Caitian...
KEYWORD is MIGHT, it's not 100% Confirmed or Guaranteed but STO themselves did write it, so fingers crossed... If it ends up being possible,
The first condition (player interest in new characters) could be very significant as investing in a new character in an MMO can be a huge consideration. Newbies are still in the process of building what characters they have and veterans are looking at marginal returns from a nostalgic rerun of the early game experience with a marginally different POV from what they've tried before. But let existing characters swap to new options and you have a bigger market to sell new species too, with direct monetization of the path between old and new species options. Cue more motivation to investing the time into new species options via better options (with the alteration token) for players to capitalize on them.
So yeah, structurally we could be in a much better place soon for new species to become a more frequent occurrence than once in a blue moon.
I'd give Hierarchy before Hirogen to ROM. The Hirogen are a *very* distinct antagonist to the Republic and there's no indication of finding common ground in subsequent episodes. It'd be like giving Nausicaan to the FED. You can imagine a path for a few individuals to transfer over (abandoning prior characterization) but I'm not seeing the faction synergy. It's very much a Star Empire connection, which works against the Republic's arc.
For Hierarchy, I've found their intel focus a good compliment to Romulans and there's something about the characterization (somewhat hapless) that works well in a more protagonist role. So maybe Ocampa for FED, Hazari or Kazon for KDF, and Hierarchy for ROM as a Delta Quadrant themed species bundle. (after more critical items like DSC Andorian and ROM Suliban are covered). One benefit of Ocompa and Hazari is that they have good uniform options available (to NPCs and once to the Foundry) that fell through the cracks in player release. Those uniforms could be easy fodder for added perks of each species option (similar to DSC FED/KDF boffs). The Hierarchy collar could also be included, provided it actually works on smaller character models (untested in the Foundry, so they may need an alternative like a Hierarchy universal console or kit module for parity).
Beyond that, humanoid Xindi for FED and KDF is an easy thing to throw in the suggestion bucket. Also something you could *potentially* bundle between existing Primate and Reptilian customization options (two species pack with Xindi lobi costumes included as account perks). And if someone at Cryptic/DECA wants to take the TRIBBLE, First Federation for KDF/FED/ROM as part of a stated officer exchange program. Tranya for everyone!
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Whether you play an Andorian or a Vulcan, the experience is more or less the same. This is why I've often suggested releasing some species-specific episodes. Just one or two for each major species, so you can have an Andorian starting out on (a revamped) Andoria and do some stuff in a city there, Rigellians could play one or two starter missions on a to-be-added Rigel etc.
It would require a lot of work in terms of world- and map building. But they could try and combine this with new ships and perhaps ground gear. And the cities etc. wouldn't have to be used just for those starter missions. They could become fully developed social zones, that become accessible after levelling (or completing the starter missions with) a toon of the same species. For example: you build a new Andorian map. Players who level an Andorian or complete the Andorian starter missions, can from that moment on visit the new map with all their other toons and buy whatever ships, ground gear etc. is sold through special vendors there.
That way, playing new species would unlock truly new experiences, while also providing for a way to monetise and incentivise the release of new species.
New tokens that allow us to do more with existing toons and new species are great - but I'd really like to see some more unique experiences for them. So that there's more reason to create a new toon (or use a species-alteration token).
As for the Andoria example... honestly that map needs a purpose to exist. You don't even visit the surface of Andoria in the story. I think it was originally planned for an open PvP thing, but that was dropped and we now have this massive map that really only sees action during the Anniversary event with the Omega Stabilization.
One smaller scale thing to alt-starts on different planets is just to make more use of species choices in dialog. Eg. make that part of our identity a more forward facing element of how you interact with other characters. This also requires Cryptic backing away from it's very *functional* use of dialog (getting from A to B in a narrative as efficiently as possible) and indulging in character interactions for their own sake, letting players reflect their character through dialog responses, and providing some branching choices to keep players mechanically engaged (like we did in the foundry, to very popular effect...).
And this could also help buff interest in having more species options to play with as it could make the whole of STO feel a bit more sensitive to that choice (which a single map wouldn't). But it's still a big task, especially in making this a *consistent* facet of the STO experience (ex. going back to old missions and making targeted moments where species matters to available dialog choices.)
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Meh. Most Caitians I know aren't really that active anymore. They're mostly living legends and old heroes who are enjoying their well-deserved retirement.
They might show up once in a while at some event or visit ESD to give others a chance to be a witness to their awesomeness. When it is needed, which is rare nowadays, they might even provide some guidance to newbies in the Starbase 82 simulation or give a lecture at the Academy.
But with most serious threats over, they're not really that much needed anymore. One of these old legends for example took command of the Universe class Jaresh-Inyo, which is basically just lying near the Federation's borders to serve as a diplomatic venue, its captaincy mostly being a symbolic function meant to honour him.
I know of just one Caitian captain who's still on active duty in the 2480's. He's mostly just known for having fabulous hair though.
Well obviously it wouldn't have to be done overnight. And species like Bolians could wait a while, I mean, how often do you see those?
They did a lot of what I'm suggesting for the Klingon faction, when they rebuild their story arc.
Having one or two episodes in re-build environments (yes, Andoria needs more work than Vulcan) for species that are picked very often, like Vulcans or Andorians, should be do-able. Start with them, work your way down the list as you release new worlds every couple of months or even once a year.
And, as noted: yes, it's a lot of work, but it's also a way to move away from just relying on ship sales and diversify their income sources by focussing more on providing unique experiences - and then tie into that with things like ship sales and other unique types of gear (even if it's just another colour phaser for example - look how many people have requested such features).
This is a magic money glitch. Eg. if you market paid expansion packs enough players will buy them to justify it. This is a massive assumption. Add to that: shifting to paid expansions can easily alienate players who've over the last 14 years developed an expectation that narrative content should be free in STO (it's the implicit trade off made for charging $30-200+ for ships.) Shift to this model and your first paid expansion may fail to bring in enough revenue to justify the team expansion, and then hit general population dynamics negatively as players rebel/feel alienated by the shift in paywalled content. Cue then core pillar monetization channels (ships) being hit as those players check out from a hostile, imposed situation striking out of nowhere after more than a decade of status quo. As much as you may hope this is a positive shift, current population dynamics also position catastrophic outcomes as possible (and arguably likely).
Basically, it doesn't take any creative insight to say that Cryptic could just start charging for episodes. That option has always been on the table, hiring as many supplemental dev teams as they want to churn out expansions at whatever cadence you can possibly consider. One a month, why not? You can hire and charge for that. Cryptic doesn't because there's no salable value attachable to episodes. They are a core driver of player activity, with a wide swath of the STO population logging in JUST for the episode drops. Episodes are the investment made to get players to pay attention to the game and maintain its basic population structure. It's Cryptic's necessary expense to get its foot in the door to player headspace. These dynamics then drive interest in ships releases, which is why every season comes with something new for players to spend their money on (it subsidizes the narrative content). Charging at both ends with the proviso you get more isn't something players are going to engage with, by any reasonable expectation. Because nothing has primed them to making that choice despite wishful thinking on the part of the suggestion. Episodes are free content. They are thus worthless when it comes to price valuation for the STO audience and throwing up a paywall to any of that content is going to be received as a hostile shift by a significant portion of the player base (last thing Cryptic/DECA needs as it rebuilds trust in its development). Adding new charges to old content types is one of the surest-fire approaches to TRIBBLE off gamers.
Other games charge for expansions, but they also baked that model in to the game in the first place and don't have to fight the inertia of their cultivated populations, and their expectations, to continue that model. You may as well be asking for subs to return, because surely if players just spent more money they'd be able to hire more devs. Never mind zero-sum dynamics in player wallets. To get a sizable increase in economic activity for STO, a 14 year old game with its audience appeal or lack there of baked in firmly by now, you need something a lot more systemic to shift than "just add more STO to STO." Ex. radically changing the style and format of episodes, the content types of seasons, and approach to writing and feature support (with inherent risks of losing existing players along the way. As has been oft repeated by the team, game development is hard.)
Eg. don't work out a way of adding more stuff (naturally follows from success...now that STO isn't subsidizing the development of upcoming Cryptic titles...), find ways of changing what stuff we get from development to resonate more with STO's potential audience. See suggestions for changing Cryptic's approach to dialog above (facilitating player role playing choices, like species) as one minor component to that.
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There also may be ways of grouping species thematically to provide more consistent options than single choices provide. Ex. founding federation species, subsequent joiners, and non-members when commenting on the Federation. For KDF you have warriors and mercenary/pirates to provide different outlooks on what blasting someone means. Cardassians, Remans, and Romulans together would tend to have similar views about the consequence of war and hostility while Pakleds and Talaxians may be bright eyed with wonder about the new exploration opportunities ahead of them with the Alliance. Telepathy/Empathy is also something that could be referenced for a swath of species. And at every stage here alien could be given a choice between any presented species dialog option to make the creation of one's own species a defined part of the STO narrative experience.
What I think is critical to making this work is to have these as menu choices, eg. have a stock player captain response and then the option to go with a species choice if you think it better suits your character. As is, species choices are all automated branches in dialog, invisibly presented but for when you notice something has changed in the regular course of the game's dialog (by being more specific or just remembering how a conversation played out on another character).
This downplays the existence of species options and (most critically here) denies players the opportunity to subvert conventional species tropes in defining their character (major problem I have with existing Klingon/KDF dialog). Dialog choices also provide critical moments of reflection on who your character is and how they're engaging with their setting (helping to build immersion). It's also more mechanically engaging for conversations as you have a response to input at moments (finally, I get to do something!), and makes longer conversations more tolerable as you have natural pause points. And to keep hammering, it lets players interpret how closely their character follows species tropes for deeper impact (as across all the binary choices given, you can create a finely calibrated view of your character's relationship to their species through which species-specific paths were cumulatively taken).
Having more species options is good, and letting players pick whether they use it just slathers on more good.
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We currently have effectively infinite number of species thanks to Alien Gen characters, that's probably one the biggest hurdles for species specific content, what would you do with the Alien gen characters it's a true IDIC option when it comes your captain's species and thus Cryptic has 0 way of predicting how those species would act.
No, no, and no!!!
I've spent a considerable amount (probably over £2k) on this game. I am NOT going to start paying for expansions as well! I've already paid for LTS on PC, so why should I start forking out another couple of hundred pounds, just for story content that has been arriving free for well over a decade. And the nail in the coffin for your idea is 'specialised' tutorial missions for species most people won't ever play. This won't bring in $100k, and will cost way more to make.
If you hadn't noticed, STO is a story-based barbie game. It's FTP players that need targetting with 'shineys', not people that already spend on the game, and no, no subscription-to-play either. Most gamers won't touch subscription-only games, and are getting sick of games being released to then having to pay more expansions because the base game was 'too short'.
You wouldn't have to pay for them. The game's main storyline would still be accessible to everyone. What's being proposed is adding a few missions for each (or at least some of the key) species so that they also get their own unique starting experience. Which could serve as a platform to make some long-requested changes to basically empty worlds, as well as adding new ones.
Should they also stop releasing lock box ships, just because you may not want to buy the next one? If they had to stop adding paid-for stuff everytime someone doesn't want it, the game would have to shut down. It's fine if you don't want to pay for said type of content, but that by itself is hardly a good reason to shoot down the idea and refuse others the possibility to get their unique experience this way.
As for 'getting sick of having to pay for expansions': for me it's the opposite. I'm tired of having very little extra options to pay for, except for more ships every season. In fact, I used to spend hundreds of euro's every season, but I almost entirely stopped paying for this game precisely because I don't see the point of getting ever more ships.
Not when each new one is getting flown less than the previous ones (or vice versa) because I just have too many to play with them all. And - not that it matters, but anyway - I've spent a lot more than 2000 Pounds.
I'm basically a FTP-player now, precisely because there's nothing interesting to spend on anymore - except for ever more gear, which, as noted, suffers tremendously from decreasing marginal returns at some point. I would welcome paid-for mini-expansions, as long as they're limited to providing small side-experiences and won't be used to block players from the game's main storyline (which I doubt they'd ever do). I'd rather spend money on that, than start spending again on gambling boxes or more C-store ships, as I simply don't see the point of doing that anymore.
If anything, precisely because STO is a story-based Barbie game, they should provide more unique experiences for each Barbie type. There are many different types of species, I think it's time at least some of them got their own worlds, cities, experiences, societies etc.
The Federation especially, a co-operation between hundreds of species, shouldn't be limited to just Starfleet (it's bad enough that most shows were always limited to one ship or station, making the show about a part of a navy while insisting that it wasn't that), with zero options to explore its civil societies.
Monetise that experience of starting a character in a city or academy unique to that species and getting to explore their society a bit more, and I would happily pay for it. If that's what's needed to make it happen.
Species specific dialog options would mostly apply to existing Star Trek species. Alien would probably get generic responses.
That or as mentioned the choice to use any species option that doesn't name or can only possibly apply to one species (eg. something that doesn't name drop the species or homeworld. Ex. things that refer only to a character as being logical or a warrior vs. Vulcan or a Klingon). It depends on how you write the interaction. Basically, treat alien as a wild card that players get the most choice with regarding dialog options (doing in dialog what you do in the tailor). More general species options would also allow, as mentioned, groups of species to be covered by the same dialog, giving more opportunities to invoke options across characters. See. a character getting an empathic read applying to Trill, Betazoids, Lethans, and Aliens. And a character being aggressive could be a choice given to Nausicaan, Andorian, Klingon, Pakled, Gorn, and Aliens vs. just being an automated KDF reaction (or not a choice at all). Have a history of repression? Remans, Bajorans, and Aliens could be in the same boat. Having aliens as the wild card gives an automatic +1 to the applicability of the choice here, helping some of the most underplayed options (ex. Pakled, Lethean, Talaxian) still have a bankable audience.
It's fine to go for 1:1 on occasion, but that's just one approach Cryptic could apply to their dialog to make better use of species choices.
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Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
The fact that none of the story content at all is paywalled is a bigger draw than many seem to realize. And contrary to popular opinion, many (maybe even most) F2P players actually do spend money after a while, just not a lot at once and not as often as non-F2P players, but the sheer number of them make them a valid source of revenue.
On the surface the partially paywalled model sounds like it might help finance things, but in practice it does not seem to work as well as the no-paywall one, as Cryptic's own Champions Online shows. On top of that, bringing in paywalled content during the company transition would be an especially risky move since it would come across as a (undeserved) loss of integrity and strengthen the notion that DECA was just asset stripping and planned to ride the game down in flames for all it is worth instead of supporting it for the long run.
It would probably be more of a benefit to update the game's toolchain and other behind the scenes improvements to enable faster and more efficient story content handling to be able to bring out more by meshing the best of Cryptic and DECA tools and methods together during the transition period than it would messing with the business model trying to emulate WoW and whatnot.
Organizing and smoothing things on the development end would eventually give the devs more time to do things like alternate dialog, more support for new races/factions/whatever, though it may take a few years to get there. Another thing that would help tremendously would be developing the lore in such a way as to make doing missions in any of the Treks easier, opening doors to the other 'eras' without paradox problems getting in the way and closing those doors.