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What's with the 'fleet owned starbases'-myth?
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
What is it with this 'fleet owned starbases'-myth? I have come across an increasing number of people ingame that are totally convinced such a feature is already in active planning if not even scheduled to be released soon.
I have been following news, announcements, engineering reports etc. fairly closely but have never seen any statement by cryptic other than things along the lines of "we don't have the tech (yet) to give things like fleet owned SBs interesting/meaningful functionality".
Yet there are people around that are already claiming to know how much such a starbase will cost and are totally certain that they will be implemented (soon).
In the first fleet that I joined there was an incident where a member asked if he could have some energy credits from the fleet bank. An officer of the fleet answered with the statement that everyone can/should deposit ECs to the fleet bank but noone was to get any out of it as everything was saved for the upcoming fleet owned SB.
This was about a month or two ago and I didn't buy it either back then.
Since then I have joined a new fleet where the starbase topic came up as well a day or two ago.
People started talking about specific prices for stations and how to best make money for it. Closer questioning from my side regarding an official source/announcement of this stuff just lead to "yeah, erm, well, just talk to this other guy/officer in the fleet at some point...".
So, have there actually been any statements at all from the side of cryptic that I missed? Or are people simply getting ahead of the game, declaring their own wishes as official facts?
Or maybe are we onto the new method of how some fleets/leaders try to scam people for their ECs by dangling the carrot of a never to exist fleet owned starbase in front of them?
Closing disclaimer: this is not meant as a rant at the fact that there are no fleet/player owned starbases ingame or planned (yet). I simply want to know where people are getting the idea from that it is about to be implemented, and/or maybe warn them if this just an upcoming scam method.
I have been following news, announcements, engineering reports etc. fairly closely but have never seen any statement by cryptic other than things along the lines of "we don't have the tech (yet) to give things like fleet owned SBs interesting/meaningful functionality".
Yet there are people around that are already claiming to know how much such a starbase will cost and are totally certain that they will be implemented (soon).
In the first fleet that I joined there was an incident where a member asked if he could have some energy credits from the fleet bank. An officer of the fleet answered with the statement that everyone can/should deposit ECs to the fleet bank but noone was to get any out of it as everything was saved for the upcoming fleet owned SB.
This was about a month or two ago and I didn't buy it either back then.
Since then I have joined a new fleet where the starbase topic came up as well a day or two ago.
People started talking about specific prices for stations and how to best make money for it. Closer questioning from my side regarding an official source/announcement of this stuff just lead to "yeah, erm, well, just talk to this other guy/officer in the fleet at some point...".
So, have there actually been any statements at all from the side of cryptic that I missed? Or are people simply getting ahead of the game, declaring their own wishes as official facts?
Or maybe are we onto the new method of how some fleets/leaders try to scam people for their ECs by dangling the carrot of a never to exist fleet owned starbase in front of them?
Closing disclaimer: this is not meant as a rant at the fact that there are no fleet/player owned starbases ingame or planned (yet). I simply want to know where people are getting the idea from that it is about to be implemented, and/or maybe warn them if this just an upcoming scam method.
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I have no idea. Maybe someone read something about Eve, got confused, and it turned into a massive whisper-down-the-lane? There's barely even been any dev murmurs about the various starbase suggestion threads.
EDIT: though if they do make them, I'm hoping for something akin to AoC Keeps (PvP and PvE), minus the lag, complete with guild vrs guild massive PvP sieges... but no, I don't think its even on the calender.
It would be a really cool feature though. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it. :cool:
Proof/link?
Good luck with that.
LOL maybe someone thinks you're a dev?
Probably just because people want it so much and the devs said they'd "love to do fleet versus fleet PvP at your fleet's starbase."
I actually do remember reading comments about this in early interviews. They said fleets would have to pool their resources to build capital ships, and there was some mention of guild starbases. I'll see if I can find anything, but dont hold your breath; it was a long time ago
Now that would be scary. Mainly because if I had access to Cryptic Studios I'd pin up a copy of the "Saving STO" list in everyone's cubicle and glue the Starbase summary to the inside of the doors of the bathroom stalls where they could read it at their leisure.
On the serious side, Starbases are not a done deal. If you want them, bang the drum for them. If you want them done right, find a thread on them and post your thoughts.
One of the ideas I saw that I liked was "player housing", which was called "office space" on a starbase. It's a nice way to combine a "guild hall" with "player housing".
Grand Nagus is correct, way back in the day I think that it was Jack himself who mentioned it. If memory serves it was at the big unveiling with Leonard Nimoy. He mentioned that fleets would be able to build starbases and pool resources in order to construct fleet-level ships that would only be available -to- fleets because of their resource costs.
I do remember this, they scrapped this content a long time ago...bit of a shame...but id still like to see it sometime in the future.
That works for EVE, but... I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and say that would go over with this playerbase about as well as a mugato with rabies.
But it's so cute and bitey!
Yeah, i really don't want that either. Especially when placed Starbases would logically be out on frontier areas and the high-end shipbuilding for the Federation happens in core areas.
The devs have a lot of wishes for things they'd like to add - but that's no guarantee.
With that said, someone might interpret one of the many threads suggesting how Fleet Starbses could work as verification.
For example, the link in my signature points to a community driven idea on improving starbases (lots of input from StarbasePrime, for example).
There's no certainty but having enough people contribute to an idea gives developers a sense of what some small fraction of the playerbase would like to see.
The good news is, if we say we want it and show how it can be done that's in canon, fun, will retain players, and not cost a zillion dev-dollars, we might get it.
That's the nice thing about Transwarp gates, it allows the starbases to be pretty much where you imagine them to be. BTW, put up a new summary, starts at #122, and was able to work in your idea as:
On the good side though, this feature has a lot of potential to add to the game-/fleet-/social experience of the game, if cryptic was to look into the possiblity of adding it at some point. And looking at how cryptic has indeed been listening to suggestions/wishes chances aren't bad at all that it will become real in the future (the rather distant future though) if enough people express a desire for it.
Who knows, maybe they will reevaluate it once they are done with ship interiors in a couple of months/seasons. The functionality (and maybe customizability, although it is unlikely they are adding that to normal interiors) could be used to make starbases worthwhile/meaningful as well.
Either way, if this topic comes up again in a (fleet) chat i can now at least tell people with reasonable confidence that it won't happen anywhere within 2010 or thereabouts.
This. I rewatched that unveiling speech that Leonard and Jack gave back in Vegas 2008 and he does indeed mention this there, along with the ability for fleets to build ships, mining platforms, etc.
What I've seen LATELY, is a dev replying to another request for player-owned SBs, in which they said that at this point, the technology does not exist in-game to handle that kind of thing, that it was something they had at least discussed, but that there are NO TIMETABLES for their addition in-game.
I wish I had time to search for that post but I don't. Apologies...
But But But, I just bought curtains and throw pillows..............
Indeed, we have to remember that they made a -lot- of promises back in the early days after they got Star Trek Online before they likely had anything ironed out yet. I have a feeling that when they decided to use the Champions Online engine for their game a lot of the early promises went out the window as the system isn't designed for all of that.
Add to that Atari breathing down their necks to release the game ASAP and you have the current state of the game. Granted, Cryptic actually -released- the game, unlike the previous owners of the license and they're working hard to add as much as they can with what resources they have so I can't fault them too much.
So we should expect an announcement from Marketing just about the time the Galaxy-X fires die down?
The most common reasons people don't think they want Starbases are:
Not in Canon
This argument goes "Did you ever see Kirk commanding a Starbase?" Not that I know of, but he always had a Starbase to limp back to to get patched up. They are forward operating HQs to operate out of. They're also in Canon. Captain Sisko commanded DS-9 and the Defiant during a time war.
Structural Ownership goes against the Grain
Who say's you own them? Sisko could blow up the DS-9, but he didn't own it. Your fleet would just be in command of the Starbase and empowered to make structural changes to gear it up during time of war.
I don't see Mining as Federation/KDF activites for a Captain
Of course not, that's a different paygrade. But, miners do operate out of your Starbase and they will need protection. That is a mining mission could be an Escort mission protecting NPCs.
Are these just rationalizations? Yes and No, the real trick is to figure out how to implement it within the game where it not only makes sense, but is both fun to play and promotes positive MMO aspects such as socialization and team building.
Click here to see a summary on Starbases and join the revolution!
Am I as fleet Leader taking/using money from the Fleet Bank? No... (that would be scamming myself as I have put in about 95% of the cash we have ATM.)
Do we know it is coming? No...
Do my people know that it is uncertain if this feature will ever exist? Yes.
So why do I encourage people to channel credits into the Bank for this? Quite simple really: IF the bases ever become an option, my fleeties will want that. And since most of us play on Elite, people also spend a fair amount of EC on Spareparts, so if the time comes, it is not a certainty that people have the credits to get it anytime soon... So instead ATM they channel small amounts into the bank every week. No big deal.
It is a "Rather have somthing and don't need it, than need somthing and don't have it" policy.
If the announcement ever comes out that we can or cannot have a base or Office, then of cause the EC will be channeled to wherever it will be needed at the time. By then it will be my fleet mates making that desicion...
Thinking that ALL the fleet leaders who are doing this, are doing it to scam fleetmembers of EC is quite paranoid I think...
I can't of cause not say that this is not the case for some, but generalizing like that is just wrong.
Call us optimists, but we're stockpiling cash too...
Optimism is just a way of indicating that you're satisfied the way things go, and that you hope they will get even better